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Chapter Ends - Poul William Anderson · 3 Science Fiction Stories by Frank Herbert

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  Speaker 1: Part one of the chapter ends. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information nor to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Phil Schinevert. The chapter ends by Paul Anderson. Part one, No,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: said the old man, But you don't realize what it means,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: said Joron. You don't know what you're saying. The old
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  Speaker 1: man karmpt of houerdar Gerlog's son and speaker for Solis township,
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  Speaker 1: shook his head till the long gristled locks swirled around
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  Speaker 1: his wide shoulders. I have thought it through, he said.
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  Speaker 1: His voice was deep and slow and implacable. You gave
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  Speaker 1: me five years to think about it, and my answer
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  Speaker 1: is no. Jorn I felt a weariness rise within him.
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  Speaker 1: It had been like this for days, now weeks, and
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  Speaker 1: it was still like trying to knock down a mountain.
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  Speaker 1: You beat on its rocky flanks till your hands were bloody,
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  Speaker 1: and still the mountain stood there, sunlight on its high
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  Speaker 1: snowfields and in the forests that rustled up its slopes,
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  Speaker 1: and it did not really notice you. You were a
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  Speaker 1: thin brief buzz between two long nights, but the mountain
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  Speaker 1: was forever. You haven't thought at all, he said, with
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  Speaker 1: a rudeness born of exhaustion. You only reacted unthinkingly to
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  Speaker 1: a dead symbol. It's not a human reaction, even it's
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  Speaker 1: a verbal reflex. Corp's eyes, meshed in crow feet, were
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  Speaker 1: serene and steady under the thick gray brows. He smiled
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  Speaker 1: a little in his long beard, but made no other reply.
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  Speaker 1: Had he simply let the insult glide off him, or
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  Speaker 1: had he not understood it at all? There was no
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  Speaker 1: real talking to these peasants. Too many millennia lay between,
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  Speaker 1: and you couldn't shout across that gulf, well, said Joron.
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  Speaker 1: The ships will be here tomorrow or the next day,
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  Speaker 1: and it'll take another day or so to get your
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  Speaker 1: people aboard. You'll have that long to decide, but after
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  Speaker 1: that it'll be too late. Think about it. I beg
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  Speaker 1: of you. As for me, I'll be too busy to
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  Speaker 1: argue further. You are a good man, said Carmpt, and
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  Speaker 1: a wise one in your fashion, but you are blind.
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  Speaker 1: There is something dead inside you. He waved one huge
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  Speaker 1: gnarled hand. Look around you, jorn of Pholchus, this is Earth.
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  Speaker 1: This is the old home of all human kind. You
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  Speaker 1: cannot go off and forget it. Man cannot do so.
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  Speaker 1: It is in him, in his blood and bones, and
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  Speaker 1: bones and soul. He will carry Earth within him forever.
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  Speaker 1: Jarran's eyes traveled across the arc of the hand. He
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  Speaker 1: stood on the edge of the town. Beneath him or
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  Speaker 1: its houses, low white, half timbered roofed with thatch or
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  Speaker 1: red tile, smoke rising from the chimneys. Carved galleries overhung
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  Speaker 1: the narrow, cobbled, crazily twisting streets. He heard the noise
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  Speaker 1: of wheels and wooden clogs, the shouts of children at play.
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  Speaker 1: Beyond that were trees and the incredible ruined walls of
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  Speaker 1: sall city. In front of him, the wooded hills were cleared,
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  Speaker 1: and a gentle landscape of neat fields and orchards rolled
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  Speaker 1: down toward the distant glitter of the sea. Scattered farm buildings,
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  Speaker 1: strousy cattle, winding gravel roads, fence walls of ancient marble
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  Speaker 1: and granite, all dreaming under the sun. He drew a
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  Speaker 1: deep breath. It was pungent in his nostrils. It smelled
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  Speaker 1: of leaf, mold, plowed earth, baking in the warmth, summery,
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  Speaker 1: trees and gardens, a remote ocean odor of salt and
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  Speaker 1: kelp and fish. He thought that no two planets ever
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  Speaker 1: had quite the same smell, and that none was as
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  Speaker 1: rich as Terra's. This is a fair world, he said slowly.
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  Speaker 1: It is the only one, said Cormt. Man came from
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  Speaker 1: here and to this. In the end he must return,
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  Speaker 1: I wonder, Jarren sighed, Take me, not one atom of
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  Speaker 1: my body was from this soil before I landed. My
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  Speaker 1: people lived on Phocis for ages and changed to meet
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  Speaker 1: its conditions. They would not be happy on Terra. The
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  Speaker 1: atoms are nothing, said Carmped. It is the form which matters,
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  Speaker 1: and that was given to you by Earth. Jorran studied
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  Speaker 1: him for a moment. Cormped was, like most of this
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  Speaker 1: planet's ten million or so people, a dark, stocky folk,
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  Speaker 1: though there were more blond and red haired throwbacks here
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  Speaker 1: than in the rest of the galaxy. He was old,
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  Speaker 1: for a primitive, untreated by medical science. He must be
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  Speaker 1: almost two hundred years old. But his back was straight
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  Speaker 1: and his stride firm. The coarse, jut nosed face held
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  Speaker 1: an odd strength. Joran was nearing his thousandth birthday, but
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  Speaker 1: couldn't help feeling like a child in karmpsed presence. That
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  Speaker 1: didn't make sense. These few dwellers on Terra were a
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  Speaker 1: backward and impoverished race of peasants and hand craftsmen. They
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  Speaker 1: were ignorant and unadventurous. They had been static for more
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  Speaker 1: thousands of years than anyone knew. What could they have
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  Speaker 1: to say to the ancient and mighty civilization which had
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  Speaker 1: almost forgotten their little planet. Krimp looked at the declining sun.
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  Speaker 1: I must go now, he said. There are evening choors
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  Speaker 1: to do. I will be in town to night. If
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  Speaker 1: you should wish to see me, I probably will, said Juron.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot to do readying the evacuation. You're a
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  Speaker 1: big help. The old man bowed with grave courtesy, turned
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  Speaker 1: and walked off down the road. He wore the common
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  Speaker 1: costume of Terran men, as archaic in style, as in
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  Speaker 1: its woven fabric material, hat, jacket, loose trousers, a long
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  Speaker 1: staff in his hand. Contrasting the drab blue of Karp's dress,
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  Speaker 1: Jaron's vivid tunic of shifting rainbow hues was like a flame.
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  Speaker 1: The psychotechnician sighed, again watching him go. He liked the
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  Speaker 1: old fellow. It would be criminal to leave him here alone,
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  Speaker 1: but the law arbade force physical or mental, and the
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  Speaker 1: integrator of Carrazuno wasn't going to care whether or not
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  Speaker 1: one aged man stayed behind. Their job was to get
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  Speaker 1: the race off terror. A lovely world. Jaron's thin mobile features,
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  Speaker 1: pale skinned and large eyed, turned around the horizon. A
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  Speaker 1: fair world we came from. There were more beautiful planets
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  Speaker 1: in the galaxy, swarming myriads, the Indigo world, ocean of Loa,
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  Speaker 1: jeweled with islands, the heaven dividing mountains of shrined, the
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  Speaker 1: sky of Jareb that seemed to drip light. Oh many
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  Speaker 1: and many, but there was only one Earth. Jaron remembered
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  Speaker 1: his first sight of this world, hanging free in space
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  Speaker 1: to watch it after the Gruelington day run thirty thousand
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  Speaker 1: light years Carrazuno. It was blue as it turned before
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  Speaker 1: his eyes, a burnished turquoise shield blazoned with the living
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  Speaker 1: green and brown of its lands, and the poles were
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  Speaker 1: crowned with a flammering haze of aurora. The belts that
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  Speaker 1: streaked its face and blurred the continents were cloud, wind
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  Speaker 1: and water. And the gray rush of rain like a
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  Speaker 1: benediction from Heaven Beyond. The planet hung its moon, a
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  Speaker 1: scarred golden crescent, and he had wondered how many generations
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  Speaker 1: of men had looked up to it, or watched its
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  Speaker 1: light like a broken bridge across moving waters against the
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  Speaker 1: enormous cold of the sky, utter black out to the
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  Speaker 1: distant coils of the nebula thronging with a million frosty
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  Speaker 1: points of diamond hard blaze that were the stars. Earth
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  Speaker 1: had stood as a sign of haven. Two Jarrin, who
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  Speaker 1: came from galactic center and its uncountable hostless sons, Heaven
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  Speaker 1: was bare. This was the outer fringe, where the stars
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  Speaker 1: thinned away toward hideous immensity. He had shivered a little,
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  Speaker 1: drawn the envelope of air and warmth closer about him
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  Speaker 1: with a convulsive movement. The silence drummed in his head.
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  Speaker 1: Then he streaked for the North Pole rendezvous of his group. Well,
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  Speaker 1: he thought, now, we have a pretty routine job. The
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  Speaker 1: first expedition here five years ago prepared the natives for
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  Speaker 1: the fact they'd have to go. Our party simply has
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  Speaker 1: to organize these docile peasants in time for the ships.
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  Speaker 1: But It had meant a lot of hard work, and
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  Speaker 1: he was tired. It would be good to finish the
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  Speaker 1: job and get back home, or would it. He thought
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  Speaker 1: of flying with Zarek, his team mate, from the rendezvous,
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  Speaker 1: to this area assigned as theirs. Planes like oceans of grass,
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  Speaker 1: wind rippled, darkened, with the herds of wild cattle, whose
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  Speaker 1: hoof beats were a thunder in the earth forests, hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of kilometers of old and mighty trees, rivers piercing them
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  Speaker 1: in a long, steel gleam. Lakes were fish leaped, spilling
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  Speaker 1: sunshine like warm rain, radiance so bright it hurt his eyes.
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  Speaker 1: Cloud shadows swift across the land. It had all been
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  Speaker 1: empty of men, but still there was a vitality here
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  Speaker 1: which was almost frightening to Joran. His own grim world
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  Speaker 1: of moors and crags and spindrift seas was a niggard
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  Speaker 1: beside this. Here, life covered the earth, filled the oceans,
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  Speaker 1: and made the heavens clangorous around him. He wondered if
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  Speaker 1: the driving energy within man, the force which had raised
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  Speaker 1: him to the stars, made him half god and half demon.
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  Speaker 1: If that was the legacy of terror well man had
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  Speaker 1: changed over the thousands of years. Natural and controlled adaptation
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  Speaker 1: had fitted him to the worlds he had colonized, and
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  Speaker 1: most of his many races could not now feel at
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  Speaker 1: home here. Jarren thought of his own party, round amber
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  Speaker 1: skinned Chuli from a tropic world, complaining bitterly about the
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  Speaker 1: cold and dryness. Gay, young, clothe gangling and bold chested,
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  Speaker 1: sophisticated Tuleuvana, of the flowing, dark hair and the lustrous eyes. No,
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  Speaker 1: to them, Earth was only one more planet out of
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  Speaker 1: thousands they had seen in their long lives. And I
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  Speaker 1: am a sentimental fool. End of Part one. Part two
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  Speaker 1: of the chapter ends by Paul, and he could have
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  Speaker 1: willed the vague regret out of his trained nervous system,
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  Speaker 1: but he didn't want to. This was the last time
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  Speaker 1: human eyes would ever look on Earth, and somehow Joran
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  Speaker 1: felt that it should be more to him than just
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  Speaker 1: another psychotechnic job. Hello, good sir, He turned at the
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  Speaker 1: voice and forced his tired lips into a friendly smile.
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  Speaker 1: Hello Julith, He said, it was a wise policy to
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  Speaker 1: learn the names of the townspeople at least, and she
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  Speaker 1: was a great great granddaughter of the speaker. She was
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  Speaker 1: some thirteen or fourteen years old, a freckle faced child
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  Speaker 1: with a shy smile and steady green eyes. There was
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  Speaker 1: a certain awkward grace about her, and she seemed more
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  Speaker 1: imaginative than most of her stolid race. She curtsied quaintly
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  Speaker 1: for him, her bare foot reaching out under the long
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  Speaker 1: smock which was daily female dress. Here are you busy,
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  Speaker 1: good sir? She asked? Well, not too much, said Joron.
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  Speaker 1: He was glad of a chance to talk. It silenced
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  Speaker 1: his thoughts. What can I do for you, I wondered?
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  Speaker 1: She hesitated, then breathlessly, I wondered if you could give
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  Speaker 1: me a lift down to the beach for only an
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  Speaker 1: hour or two. It's too far to walk there before
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  Speaker 1: I have to go home, and I can't borrow a
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  Speaker 1: car or even a horse. If it won't be any trouble, sir, Hm,
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't you be at home now? Isn't there milking or
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  Speaker 1: so on to do? Oh? I don't live on a farm,
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  Speaker 1: good sir. My father is a baker. Yes, yes, so
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  Speaker 1: he is, I should have remembered. Jorin considered for an instant.
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  Speaker 1: There was enough to do in town, and it wasn't
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  Speaker 1: fair for him to play hooky while Tzarek worked alone.
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  Speaker 1: Why do you want to go to the beach, Julith,
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  Speaker 1: We'll be busy packing up, she said, guarding tomorrow. I
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  Speaker 1: guess this is my last chance to see it. Jaron's
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  Speaker 1: mouth twisted a little, all right, he said, I'll take you.
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  Speaker 1: You are very kind, good sir, she said gravely. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't reply, but held out his arm, and she clasped
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  Speaker 1: it with one hand while her other arm gripped his waist.
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  Speaker 1: The generator inside his skull responded to his will, reaching
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  Speaker 1: out and cloying itself to the fabric of forces and energies,
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  Speaker 1: which was physical space. They rose quietly and went so
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  Speaker 1: slowly seaward that he didn't have to raise a windscreen.
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  Speaker 1: Will we be able to fly like this when we
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  Speaker 1: get to the stars, she asked, I'm afraid not, Julith,
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  Speaker 1: He said, you see, the people of my civilization are
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  Speaker 1: born this way. Thousands of years ago, men learned how
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  Speaker 1: to control the great basic forces of the cosmos with
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  Speaker 1: only a small of energy. Finally, they used artificial mutation.
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  Speaker 1: That is, they changed themselves slowly over many generations, until
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  Speaker 1: their brains grew a new part that could generate this
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  Speaker 1: controlling force. We can now even fly between the stars
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  Speaker 1: by this power. But your people don't have that brain,
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  Speaker 1: so we had to build spaceships to take you away.
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  Speaker 1: I see, she said, Your great great great grandchildren can
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  Speaker 1: be like us if your people want to be changed. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: he said, they didn't want to change before she answered,
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  Speaker 1: I don't think they'll do it now, even in their
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  Speaker 1: new home. Her voice held no bitterness. It was an acceptance. Privately,
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  Speaker 1: Jaron doubted it. The psychic shock of this uprooting would
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  Speaker 1: be bound to destroy the old traditions of the Terrans.
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  Speaker 1: It would not take many centuries before they were culturally
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  Speaker 1: assimilated by galactic civilization. Assimilated. Nice euphemism, why not just
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  Speaker 1: say eaten? They landed on the beach. It was broad
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  Speaker 1: and white, running in dunes, from the thin, harsh, salt
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  Speaker 1: streaked grass to the roar and tumble of the surf.
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  Speaker 1: The sun was low over the watery horizon, filling the damp,
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  Speaker 1: blowing air with gold. Jarren could almost look directly at
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  Speaker 1: its huge disk. He sat down. The sand gritted tentely
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  Speaker 1: under him, and the wind rumpled his hair and filled
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  Speaker 1: his nostrils with its sharp, wet smell. He picked up
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: a conch and turned it over in his fingers, wondering
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: at the intricate architecture of it. If you hold it
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: to your ear, said Julith, you can hear the sea.
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  Speaker 1: Her childish voice was curiously tender around the rough syllables
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  Speaker 1: of Earth's language. He nodded and obeyed her hint. It
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  Speaker 1: was only the small pulse of blood within him. You
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: heard the same thing out in the great hollow silence
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  Speaker 1: of space, But it did sing of restless immensities, wind
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  Speaker 1: and foam, and the long waves marching under the moon.
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  Speaker 1: I have two of them myself, said Julith. I want
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  Speaker 1: them so I can always remember this beach, and my
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: children and their children will hold them to and hear
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  Speaker 1: our sea talking. She folded his hands around the shell.
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  Speaker 1: You keep this one for yourself, Thank you, he said,
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  Speaker 1: I will. The combers rolled in, booming and sprouting against
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  Speaker 1: the land. The Terrans call them the horses of God.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: A thin cloud in the west was turning rose and gold.
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  Speaker 1: Are there oceans on our new planet, asked Julith, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: he said. It's the most earthlike world we could find
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  Speaker 1: that wasn't already inhabited. You'll be happy there, but the
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  Speaker 1: trees and grasses, the soil and the fruits thereof the
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: beasts of the field, and the birds of the air,
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  Speaker 1: and the fish of the waters beneath farm and color,
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  Speaker 1: smell and sound, taste and texture. Everything is different, is alien.
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  Speaker 1: The difference is small, subtle, but it is the abyss
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  Speaker 1: of two billion years of separate evolution, and no other
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: world can ever quite be Earth. Judith looked straight at
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: him with solemn eyes. Are you, folks afraid of Holdubians?
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: She asked? Why? No, he said, of course not. Then
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: why are you giving Earth to them? It was a
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: soft question, but it trembled just a little. I thought
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: all your people understood the reason. By now, said Juran. Civilization,
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  Speaker 1: the civilization of man and his non human ally us
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: has moved inward toward the great star clusters of galactic center.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: This part of space means nothing to us anymore. It's
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: almost a desert. You haven't seen starlight till you've seen
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: by Sagittarius. Now. The Holduvians are another civilization. They're not
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: the least bit like us. They live on big, poisonous
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: worlds like Jupiter and Saturn. I think they would seem
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: like pretty nice monsters, if they weren't so alien to
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: us that neither side can really understand the other. They
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: use the cosmic energies too, but in a different way,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: and their way interferes with ours, just as ours interferes
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: with theirs. A different brains, you see. Anyway, it was
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: decided that the two civilizations would get along best by
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: just staying away from each other. If they divided up
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: the galaxy between them, there would be no interference. It
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: would be too far from one civilization to the other.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: The Huldubians were really very nice about it. They were
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: willing to take the outer rim, even if there are
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: fewer stars, and let us have the center. So by
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the agreement, we've got to have all men and men
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: like beings out of their territory before they come to
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: settle in, just as they'll move out of ours. Their
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: colonists won't be coming to Jupiter and Saturn for centuries yet.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: But even so, we have to clear the Serious Sector now,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: because there'll be a lot of work to do elsewhere. Fortunately,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: there are only a few people living in this whole
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: part of space. The Serious Sector has been an isolated,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: prem quiet region since the First Empire fell fifty thousand
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  Speaker 1: years ago. Julius's voice rose a little. But those people
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  Speaker 1: are us, and the folks of Alpha Centauri and Proxyon
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: and Serious and oh hundreds of other stars. Yet all
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  Speaker 1: of you together are only one tiny drop in the
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  Speaker 1: quadrillions of the galaxy. Don't you see, Julith, you have
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: to move for the good of all of us. Yes,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: she said, yes, I know all that. She got up,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: shaking herself. Let's go swimming. Jaron smiled and shook his head. No,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: I'll wait for you if you want to go. She
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: nodded and ran off down the beach, sheltering behind a
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: dune to put on a bathing suit. The Terrans had
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: a nudity taboo in spite of the mild intergalact climate.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Typical primitive irrationality. Jarren lay back, folding his arms behind
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: his head and looked up at the darkening sky. The
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: evening star twinkled forth low and white on the dusk
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: blue horizon. Venus or was it Mercury? He wasn't sure.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: He wished he knew more about the early history of
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the Solar System. The first men to ride their thunderous
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: rockets out to die on unknown Hell worlds, the first
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: clumsy steps toward the stars. He could look it up
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: in the archives of Corazuno, but he knew he never would,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: too much else to do, too much to remember. Probably
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: less than one percent of mankind's throngs even knew where
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Earth was today, though for a while it had been
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: quite a tourist center. But that was perhaps thirty thousand
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: years ago. Because this world, out of all the billions,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: has certain physical characteristics, he thought, my race has made
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: them into standards, our basic units of length and time
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: and acceleration, our comparisons by which we classify the swarming
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: planets of the galaxy. They all go back ultimately to Earth.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: We bear that unspoken memorial to our birthplace, within our
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: whole civilization, and we bear it forever. But has she
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: given us more than that? Are our own cells, body
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: and minds and dreams? Are they also the children of Earth?
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Now he was thinking like Cormped, stubborn old Cormped, who
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: clung with such a blind strength to this land simply
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: because it was his. When you considered all the races
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: of this wonderfooted species, how many of them there were,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: how many kinds of man between the stars, And yet
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: They all walked upright. They all had two eyes, and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: a nose between, and a mouth below. They were all
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: cells of that great and ancient culture which had begun
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: here eons passed with the first hairy half man who
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: kindled a fire against night. If Earth had not had
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: darkness and cold and prowling beasts, oxygen and cellulose and flint,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: that culture might never have gestated. I'm getting unlogical, too tarred,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: nerves worn too thin, psychosomatic control slipping. Now Earth is
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: becoming some obscure mother symbol for me? Or has she
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: always been one for the whole race of us? A
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: seagull cried harshly overhead, and sword from view. The sunset
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: was smoldering away, and dusk rose like fog out of
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the ground. Julip came running back to him, her face
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: indistinct in the gloom. She was breathing hard, and he
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: couldn't tell if the catch in her voice was laughter
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: or weeping. I'd better be getting home, she said, end
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: of Part two. Part three of the chapter ends by
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Paul Anderson. This LibriVox recording is in the public. Part three.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: They flew slowly back. The town was a yellow twinkle
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: of lights, warmth gleaming from windows across many empty kilometers.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Joron set the girl down outside her home. Thank you,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: good sir, she said, curtseying, won't you come in to dinner? Well?
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: The door opened, etching the girl black against the ruddiness inside.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Jaron's luminous tunic made him like a torch in the dark.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Why it's the star man, said a woman's voice. I
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: took your daughter for a swim, he explained. I hope
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: you don't mind. And if we did, what would it matter?
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Grumbled a bass tone. Jaron recognized cormpt The old man
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: must have come as a guest from his form on
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: the outskirts. What could we do about it? Now, gran'ther?
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: That's no way to talk to the gentleman, said the woman.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: He's been very kind. Won't you come eat with us?
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Good Sir? Jarren refused twice in case they were only
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: being polite, then accepted gladly enough. He was tired of cookery.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: At the inn, where he and Zark boarded, thank you,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: He entered, ducking under the low door a single, long,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: smoky raptor room was kitchen, dining room, and parlor. Doris
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: led off to the sleeping quarters. It was furnished with
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: a clumsy elegance, skin rugs, oak wainscoating, carved pillars, glowing
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: ornaments of hammered copper. A radium clock which must be
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: incredibly old, stood on the stone mantle above a snapping fire.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: A chemical powered gun, obviously of local manufacture, hung over it.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Julius's parents, a plain, quiet peasant couple, conducted him to
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: the end of the wooden table, while half a dozen
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: children watched him with large eyes. The younger children were
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the only Terrans who seemed to find this removal and adventure.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: The meal was good and plentiful, meat, vegetables, bread, beer, milk,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: ice cream, coffee, all of it from the forms hereabouts.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: There wasn't much trade between the few thousand communities on Earth.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: They were practically self sufficient. The company ate in silence,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: as was the custom here. When they were finished, Joron
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: wanted to go, but it would have been rude to
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: leave immediately. He went over to a chair by the fireplace,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: across from the one in which Carmped sprawled. The old
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: man took out a big bold pipe and began stuffing it.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Shadows wove across his seamed brown face. His eyes were
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: a gleam out of darkness. I'll go down to city
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Hall with you soon, he said. I imagine that's where
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: the work is going on. Yes, said Jurran, I can
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: relieve zac at it. I'd appreciate it if you did. Come.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Good sir. Your influence is very steadying on these people,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: it should be, said compt I've been their speaker for
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: almost a hundred years. And my father, Girlog was before me,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and his father, Compte was before him. He took a
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: brand from the fire and held it over his pipe,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: puffing hard, looking up Adjurrnd through tangled brows. Who was
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: your great grandfather? Why? I don't know. I imagine he's
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: still alive somewhere, but I thought so. No marriage, no family,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: no home, no tradition. Carp shook his massive head slowly. Hi,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: pity you galactics now, please, good sir. Damn it all
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the old clodhopper could get as irritating as a faulty computer.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: We have records that go back to before man left
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: this planet, records of everything. It is you who have forgotten.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Carmped smiled and puffed blue clouds at him, That's not
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: what I meant. Do you mean you think it is
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: good for men to live a life that is unchanging,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: that is just the same from century to century. No
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: new dreams, no new triumphs, Always the same grubbing rounds
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: of days. I cannot agree. Jarn's mind flickered over history,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: trying to evaluate the basic motivations of his opponent. Partly cultural,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: partly biological. That must be it. Once Tara had been
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the center of the civilized universe, but the long migration starward,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: especially after the fall of the First Empire, drained off
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: the most venturesome elements of the population. That drain went
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: on for thousands of years. Saul was backward, ruined and
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: impoverished by the remorseless price of empire, helpless before the
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: storms of barbarian conquests that swept back and forth between
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the stars. Even after peace was restored, there was nothing
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: to hold a young man or woman of vitality and
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: imagination here, not when you could go to our galactic
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: center and join the new civilization building out there. Space
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: traffic came ever less frequently to solve. Old machines rusted
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: away and were not replaced. Best to get out there
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: while there was still time. Eventually there was a fixed
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: psychosomatic type, one which lived close to the land in primitive,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: changeless communities and isolated formsteads, a type content to gain
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: its simple needs by the labor of hand horse or
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: an occasional battered engine. A culture grew up which increased
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: that rigidity. So few had visited Earth in the past
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: several thousand years, perhaps one outsider a century, stopping briefly
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: on his way to somewhere else, that there was no
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: challenge or encouragement to alter. The Terrans didn't want more people,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: more machines, more anything. They wished only to remain as
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: they were. You couldn't call them stagnant. Their life was
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: too healthy, their civilization too rich in its own way,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: folk art, folk music, ceremony, religion, the intimacy of family life,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: which the Galactics had lost for that term. But to
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: one who flew between the streaming suns, it was a
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: small existence. Carp's voice broke in on his reverie dreams, triumphs, work, deeds,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: love and life, and finally death and the long sleep
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: in the Earth. He said, why should we want to
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: change them? They never grow old, They are he knew
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: for each child that is born, Well, said Jaron and stopped.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: You couldn't really answer that kind of logic. It wasn't
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: logic at all, but something deeper. Well, he started over
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: after a while. As you know, this evacuation was forced
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: on us too. We don't want to move you, but
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: we must. Oh, yes, said Carmpt. You have been very
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: nice about it. It would have been easier in a
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: way if you come with fire and gun and chains
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: for us, like the barbarians did long ago. We could
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: have understood you better then. At best, it will be
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: hard for your people, said Juron. It will be a
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: shock and they'll need leaders to guide them through it.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: You have a duty to help them out there, Good sir,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Maybe Carmp blew a series of smoke rings at his
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: youngest descendant, three years old, who crowed with laughter and
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: climbed up on his knee. But they'll manage. You can't
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: seem to realize, said Durran, that you are the last
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: man on earth who refuses to go. You will be
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: alone far the rest of your life. We couldn't come
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: back for you later under any circumstances, because there'll be
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: whole dubbying colonies between soul and sagittarius, which we would
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: disturb in passage. You'll be alone, I say, Cormp shrugged.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: I'm too old to change my ways. There can't be
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: many years left me anyway. I can live well, just
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: off the food stores that'll be left here. He ruffled
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the child's hair, but his face drew into a scowl.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Now no more of that, good sir, if you please,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I'm tired of this argument. Durran nodded and fell into
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: the silence that held the rest. Terence would sometimes sit
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: for hours without talking, content to be in each other's nearness.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: He thought of Carmped Girlog's son, last man on earth,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: all together alone, living alone, and dying alone. And yet,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: he reflected, was that solitude any greater than the one
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: in which all men dwelt all their days? Presently, the
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: speaker sat the child down, knocked out his pipe, and rose,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Come good, sir, he said, reaching for his staff. Let
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: us go. They walked side by side down the street
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: under the dim lamps and pasted the yellow windows. The
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: cobbles gave back their footfalls in a dull clatter. Once
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: in a while they passed some one else, a vague
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: figure which bowed to Carmpt. Only one did not notice them,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: an old woman who walked crying between the high walls.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: They say it is never night on your whorlds, said Carmpt,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: jarring through him a sidelong glance. His face was a
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: strong jutting of highlights from sliding shadow. Some planets have
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: been given luminous skies, said the technician, and a few
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: still have cities too, where there is always light. But
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: when every man can control the cosmic energies, there is
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: no reason for us to live together. Most of us
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: dwell far apart. There are very dark nights on my
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: own world, and I cannot see any other home from
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: my own, just the moors. It must be a strange life,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: said Carmpt, belonging to no one. They came out on
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: the Market Square, a broad paved space walled in by houses.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: There was a fountain in the middle, and a statue
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: dug out of the ruins, had been placed there. It
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: was broken, one arm gone, but still the white, slim
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: figure of the dancing girls stood with youth and laughter
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: forever under the sky of earth. Jarn knew that lovers
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: were wont to meet here, and briefly, irrationally, he wondered
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: how lonely the girl would be in all the millions
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: of years to come. The City Hall lay at the
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: farther end of the square, big and dark, its ease
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: carved with dragons, and the gables topped with wings spreading birds.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: It was an old building. Nobody knew how many generations
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: of men had gathered here. A long, patient line of
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: folk stood outside it, shuffling in one by one to
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the registry desk. Emerging, they went off quietly into the darkness,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: toward the temporary shelters erected for them. Walking by the line,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Jarren picked faces out of the shadows. There was a
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: young mother holding a crying child, her head bent over
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: it in a timeless pose, murmuring to soothe it. There
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: was a mechanic, still sooty from his work, smiling wearily
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: at some tired joke of the man behind him. There
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: was a scowling, black browed peasant who muttered a curse
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: as Jorn went by. The rest seemed to accept their
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: fate meekly enough. There was a priest, his head bowed
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: alone with his god. There was a younger man, his
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: hands clenching and unclenching, big helpless hands, and Jarn heard
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: him saying to someone else, if they could have waited
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: to laughter the harvest. I hate to let good grains
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: stand in the field. Jarn went into the main room
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: toward the desks. At the head of the line, hulking, hairless,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Zarek was patiently questioning each of the hundreds who came
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: hat in hand before him, name, age, sex, occupation, dependents,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: special needs, or desires. He punches the answers out on
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: the recorder machine. Half famillion lives were held in its
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: electronic memory. Oh there you are, his bass rumbled, Where
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: have you been? I had to do some CONCIA work,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: said Jorn. That was a private code term among many
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: others conseil conciliation, anything to make the evacuation go smoothly.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Sorry to be so late. I'll take over now, all right.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: I think we can wind the whole thing up by midnight.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Sarah smiled at Carmpt Glad you came. Good sir. There
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: are a few people I'd like you to talk to.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: He gestured at half a dozen seated in the rear
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: of the room. Certain complaints were best handled by Native leaders,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Carmp nodded and strode over to the folk. Darn heard
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: a man begin some long winded explanation. He wanted to
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: take his own plow along, he'd made it himself, and
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: there was no better plow in the universe. But the
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: star man said there wouldn't be room. They'll furnish us
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: with all the stuff we need, son, said Carmpt. But
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: it's my plow, said the man, his fingers twisted his cap.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Carmp sat down and began soothing him. The head of
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: the line waited a few meters off while Jarn took
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: Zarek's place. Been a long grind, said the latter. About
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: done now, though, And will I be glad to see
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: the last of this planet? I don't know, said Jaron.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: It's a lovely world. I don't think I've ever seen
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: a more beautiful one. Zak snorted me for Thunbar, I
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: can't wait to sit on the terrace of the scarlet Sea,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: fern trees and red grass all around, a glass of
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: oil in my hand, and the crystalgeisers in front of me.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: He you're a funny one, Jarn. The pholkission shrugged slender shoulders.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Zarek clapped him on the back and went out for
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: supper and sleep. Jarren beckoned to the next Terran and
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: settled down to the long, almost mindless routine of registration.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: He was interrupted once by carmpt who yawned mightily and
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: bade him good night. Otherwise it was a steady, half
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: conscious interval in which one anonymous face after another passed by.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: He was dimly surprised when the last one came up.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: This was a plump, cheerful, middle aged fellow with small
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: shrewd eyes, a little more colorfully dressed than the others.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: He gave his occupation as merchant, a minor tradesman, he explained,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: dealing in the little things that it was more convenient
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: for the peasants to buy than to manufacture themselves. I
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: hope you haven't been waiting too long, said Jaron Conci's statement.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Oh no, the merchant grinned. I knew those dumb farmers
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: would be here for hours, so I just went to
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: bed and got up half an hour ago. When it
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: was about over. Clever Jarren Rose sighed and stretched. The
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: big room was cavernously empty, its lights a harsh glare.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: It was very quiet here. Well sir, I'm a middle
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: in smart chap. If I say it as shouldn't, and
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: you know, I'd like to express my appreciation of all
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: you're doing for us. An't say we're doing much. Jar
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: unlocked the machine. Oh, the apple knockers may not like it,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: but really good, sir, this hasn't been any place for
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: a man of enterprise. It's dead. I'd have got out
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: long ago if there'd been any transportation. Now, when we're
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: getting back into civilization, there will be some real opportunities.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: I'll make my pile inside of five years, you bet.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Jaron smiled, but there was a bleakness in him. What
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: chance would this barbarian have even to get near the
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: galactic work of civilization, let alone comprehend it or take
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: part in it? He hoped the little fellow wouldn't break
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: his heart. Trying well, he said, good night, and good
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: luck to you. Good night, sir, we'll meet again, I trust.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: Jarn switched off the light and went out into the square.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: It was completely deserted. The moon was up, now almost full,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: and its cold radiance dimmed the lamps. He heard a
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: dog howling far off. The dogs of Earth such as
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: weren't taken along would be lonely too well. He thought
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: the job's over tomorrow or the next day. The ships come.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: End of Part three. Part four of the chapter ends
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: by Paul Anderson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Part four. He felt very tired, but didn't want to sleep,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: and willed himself back to alertness. There hadn't been much
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: chance to inspect the ruins, and he felt that it
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: would be appropriate to see them by moonlight. Rising into
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: the air, he ghosted over roofs and trees until he
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: came to the dead city. For a while, he hovered
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: in the sky like dark velvet. A faint breeze murmured
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: around him, and he heard the remote noise of crickets
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: and the sea, but stillness enveloped at all, there was
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: no real sound. Saul City, capital of the legendary First Empire,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: had been enormous. It must have sprawled over forty or
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand square kilometers when it was in its prime,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: when it was the gay and wicked heart of human civilization,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: and swollen with the life blood of the stars. And
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: yet those who built it had been men of taste.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: They had sought out genius to create it for them.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: The city was not a collection of buildings. It was
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: a balanced hole, radiating from the mighty peaks of the
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: central Palace, through colonnades and parks, and leaping skyways out
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: to the temple like villa of the rulers. For all
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: its monstracize, it had been a fairy sight, a woven
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: lace of polished metal and white black red stone, colored plastic,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: music and light everywhere, light bombarded from space, sacked again
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: and again by the barbarian hordes who swarmed maggot like
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: through the bones of the slain Empire, weathered, shaken by
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the slow sliding of Earth's crust, pried apart by patient,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: delicate roots, dug over by hundreds of generations of archaeologists,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: treasure seekers, the idly curious, made a quarry of metal
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: and stone for the ignorant peasants who finally huddled about it. Still,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: its empty walls, in blind windows, crumbling arches and topple
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: pillars held a ghost of beauty and magnificence, which was
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: like a half remembered dream, a dream the whole race
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: had once had, and now we're waking up. Darrin moved
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: silently over the ruins. Trees growing between tumble blocks dappled
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: them with moonlight and shadow. The marble was very white
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: and fair against darkness. He hovered by a broken caryatid,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: marveling at its exquisite, leaping lightness. That girl had borne
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: tons of stone, like a flower in her hair. Further
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: on across the street, that was a lane of woods,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: Beyond a park that was thick with forest lay the
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: nearly complete outline of a house. Only its rain blurred
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: walls stood, but he could trace the separate rooms. Here
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: a noble had entertained his friends robes that were fluid rainbows, jewels,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: dripping fire, swift, cynical interplay of wits like sharpened swords
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: rising above music, and the clear, sweet laughter of dancing girls. Here,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: people whose flesh was now dust had slept and made love,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: and laying side by side in darkness to watch the
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: moving pageant of the city. Here the slaves had lived
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: and worked and sometimes wept. Here the children had played
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: their ageless games under willows between banks of roses. Oh,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: it had been a hard and cruel time. It was
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: well gone, but it had lived, It had embodied man.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: All that was noble and splendid and evil and merely
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: wistful in the race, and now its late children had forgotten.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: A cat sprang up on one of the walls and
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: flowed noiselessly along it, hunting. Jorring shook himself and flew
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: toward the center of the city, the Imperial Palace. An
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: owl hooted somewhere, and a bat fluttered out of his way,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Like a small, damned soul blackened by hell fire. He
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: didn't raise a windscreen, but let the air blow around him,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: the air of earth. The palace was almost completely wrecked,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: a mountain of heaped rocks, bare bones of eternal metal,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: gnawed thin by steady ages of wind and rain and frost.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: But once it must have been gigantic. Men rarely build
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: that big. Nowadays they don't need to. And the whole
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: human spirit had changed, become ever more abstract, finding its
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: treasures within itself. But there had been an elemental magnificence
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: about early man and the works he raised to challenge
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: the sky. One tower still stood, a gutted shell, white
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: under the stars, rising in a filigree of columns and
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: arches which seemed impossibly airy, as if it were built
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: of moonlight. Jarren settled on its broken upper balcony, dizzily
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: high above the black and white fantasy of the Ruins.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: A hawk flew, shrieking from its nest. Then there was silence.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: No wait, another yell ringing down the starways, a dark
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: streak across the moon's face. Hey yah. Jarn recognized the
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: joyful shout of young Klothy rushing through heaven like a
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: demon on a broomstick, and scowled in annoyance. He didn't
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: want to be bothered now, well, they had as much
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: right here as he. He repressed the emotion and even
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: managed a smile. After all, he would have liked to
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: feel gay and reckless at times, but he had never
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: been able to. Jarn was a little older than Clothy,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: a few centuries at most, but he came of a
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: melancholy folk. He had been born old. Another form pursued
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: the first. As they neared, Jarn recognized Teleavena's supple outline.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Those two had been tamed up for one of the
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: African districts. But they sensed him and came wildly out
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: of the sky to perch on the balcony railing and
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: swing their legs above the heights, are you, said Clothie.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: His lean face laughed in the moonlight. Oohoo, what a flight.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: I'm all right, said Joron. You threw in your sector.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: Uh huh, So we thought we'd just duck over and
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: look in here. Last chance anyone will ever have to
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: do some sight seeing on Earth. Telliavna's full lips drooped
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: a bit as she looked over the ruins. She came
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: from Unith, one of the few planets where they still
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: kept cities, and was as much a child of their
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: soaring arrogance as Jurin of his hills and thunders in
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: great empty seas. I thought it would be bigger, she said. Well,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: they were building this fifty or sixty thousand years ago,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: said Clothie. Can't expect too much. There is good art
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: left here, said Joron, which, for one reason or another
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: weren't carried off. But you have to look around for it.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of it already in museums, said
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: tell Yuvena. Not bad. Come on, tally, cried Cluthie. He
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: touched her shoulder and sprang into the air. Tag you're it,
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: she screamed with laughter, and shot off after him. They
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: rushed across the wilderness, weaving in and out of empty
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: windows and broken colonnades, and their shouts woke a clamor
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: of echoes. Joran sighed, I'd better go to bed. He thought,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: it's late. The spaceship was a steely pillar against the
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: low gray sky now and then a fine rain would
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: dristle down, blurrying it from sight. Then that would end,
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: and the ship's flanks would glisten as if they were polished.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: Clouds scudded overhead like flying smoke, and the wind was
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: loud in the trees. The line of terrens moving slowly
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: into the vessel seemed to go on forever. A couple
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: of the ship's crew flew above them, throwing out a
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: shield against the rain. They shuffled without much talk or expression,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: pushing carts fill with their little possessions. Jaron stood to
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: one side, watching them go by, one face after another,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: scored and darkened by the sun of Earth, the winds
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: of Earth, hands still grimy with the soil of Earth. Well,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: he thought, there they go. They aren't being as emotional
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: about it as I thought they would. I wonder if
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: they really do care. Julith went past with her parents
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: She saw him and darted from the line and curtsied
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: before him. Goodbye, good sir, she said. Looking up, she
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: showed him a small and serious face. Will I ever
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: see you again? Well, he lied, I might look in
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: on you sometime. Please do in a few years, maybe
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: when you can. It takes many generations to raise the
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: people like this to our standard. In a few years,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: to me, she'll be in her grave. I'm sure you'll
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: be very happy, he said. She gulped. Yes, she said,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: so low he could barely hear her. Yes, I know
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: I will. She turned and ran back to her mother.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: The raindrops glistened in her hair. Zaak came up behind Jaron.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: I made a last minute sweep of the whole area,
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: he said, detected no sign of human life. So it's
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: all taken care of. Except your old man. Good, said
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: Jaron tonelessly. I wish you could do something about him,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: So do I. Zaak strolled off again. A young man
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: and woman walking hand in hand turned out of the
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: line not far away and stood for a little while.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: A spaceman zoomed over to them. Better get back, he warn't,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: you'll get rained on. That's what we wanted, said the
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: young man. The spaceman shrugged and resumed his hovering. Presently,
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: the couple re entered the line. The tail of the
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: procession went by Jarn, and the ship swallowed it fast.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: The rain fell harder, bouncing off his force field like
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: silver spears. Lightning winked in the west that he heard
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: the distant exuberance of thunder. Carmped came walking slowly toward him.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Rain streamed off his clothes and matted his long gray
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: hair and beard. His wooden shoes made a wet sound
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: in the mud. Jarn extended the force field to cover him.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: I hope you've changed your mind, said the phoulchission. No
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: I haven't, said Carmpt. I just stayed away till everybody
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: was aboard. Don't like goodbyes. You don't know what you're doing,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: said Jarrn, for the thousandth time. It's plain madness to
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: stay here alone. I told you I don't like goodbyes,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: said Carmped harshly. I have to go advise the captain
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: of the ship, said Jaron. You have maybe half an
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: hour before she lifts. Nobody will laugh at you for
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: changing your mind. I won't. Carmped smiled without warmth. You
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: people are the future. I guess why can't you leave
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: the past alone? I'm the past. He looked toward the
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: four hills hidden by the noise. He rained, I like
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: it here, galactic. That should be enough for you. Well.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: Then Jarn held out his hand in the archaic gesture
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: of earth. Goodbye, goodbye. Carmp took the hand with a brief,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: indifferent clasp. Then he turned and walked off toward the village.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Jarn watched him till he was out of sight. The
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: technician paused in the air locked door, looking over the
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: gray landscape and the village, from whose chimneys no smoke rose. Farewell,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: my mother, he thought, and then, surprising himself, maybe Carmped
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: is doing the right thing after all, he entered the
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: ship at the door closed behind him. Toward evening, the
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: clouds lifted and the sky showed a clear, pale blue,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: as if it had been washed clean, and the grass
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: and leaves glistened. Carmped came out of the house to
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: watch the sunset. It was a good one, all flame
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: and gold. A pity little Julith wasn't there to see it.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: She'd always liked sunsets, but Julith was so far away
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: now that if she set a call to him, calling
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: with the speed of light, it would not come. Before
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: he was dead. Nothing would come to him, not ever again.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: He tamped his pipe with a horny thumb and lit it,
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: and drew a deep cloud into his lungs. Hands in pockets,
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: he strolled down the wet streets. The sound of his
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: clogs was unexpectedly loud. Well sun, he thought, Now you've
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: got a whole world all to yourself to do with,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: just as you like. You're the richest man who ever lived.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: There was no problem in keeping alive. Enough food of
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: all kinds was stored in the town's freeze vault to
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: support a hundred men for the ten or twenty years
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: remaining to him. But he'd want to stay busy. He
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: could maybe keep three forms from going to seed, watch
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: over fields and orchards, and livestock dust, and wash and
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: light up in the evening. A man ought to keep busy.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: He came to the end of the street where it
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: turned into a gravel road, winding up toward a high hill,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: and followed that dusk was creeping over the fields. The
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: sea was of metal streak, very far away, and a
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: few early stars blinked forth. A wind was springing up,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: a soft, murmurous wind that talked in the trees. But
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: how quiet things were. On top of the hill stood
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: the chapel, a small, steepled building of ancient stone. He
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: let himself in the gate and walked around to the graveyard. Behind.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: There were many of the demure white tombstones, thousands of
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: years of Sola's township, men and women who had lived
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: and worked and begotten, laughed and wept and died. Some
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: one had put a wreath on one grave. Only this
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: morning it brushed against his leg as he went by.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow it would be withered, and weeds would start to grow.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: He'd half to tend the chapel yard too. Only fitting
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: he found his family plot and stood with feet spread apart,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: fists on hips, smoking and looking down at the markers.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: Girlog Karmit's son, Barna, Howat's daughter. These hundred years had
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: they lain in the earth. Hello Dad, Hello mother. His
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: fingers reached out and broke the headstone of his wife,
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: and so many of his children were here too. Sometimes
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: he found it hard to believe that tall Girlog and laughing,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: starm and shy gentle Huan were gone, had outlived too
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: many people. I had to stay, he thought. This is
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: my land. I am of it, and I couldn't go.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: Someone had to stay and keep the land, if only
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: for a little while. I can give it ten more
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: years before the forest comes and takes it. Darkness grew
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: around him. Woods beyond the hill loomed like a wall.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: Once he started violently, he thought he heard a child crying. No,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: only a bird. He cursed himself for the senseless pounding
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: of his heart. Gloomy place here, he thought, better get
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: back to the house. He groped slowly out of the
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: yard toward the road. The stars were out now. Carmped
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: looked up and thought he had never seen them so bright.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: Too right. He didn't like it. Go away, stars, he thought,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: you took my people, but I'm staying here. This is
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: my land. He reached down to touch it, but the
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: grass was cold and wet under his palm. The gravel
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: scretched loudly as he walked, and the wind mumbled in
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: the hedges. But there was no other sound. Not a
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: voice called, not an engine turned, not a dog barked. No.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: He hadn't thought it would be so quiet and dark,
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: no lights, half to tend the street lamps himself. It
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: was no fun, not being able to see the town
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: from here, not being able to see anything except the stars.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: Should have remembered to bring a flashlight, but he was
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: old and absent minded, and there was no one to
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: remind him. When he died, there would be no one
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: to hold his hands, no one to close his eyes
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: and lay him in the earth, and the forests would
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: grow in over the land, and wild beasts would nuzzle
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: his bones. But I knew that, what of it. I'm
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: tough enough to take it. The stars flashed and flashed
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: above him. Looking up against his own will, Harmed saw
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: how bright they were, a bright and quiet, and how
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: very far away he was, seeing light that had left
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: his home before he was born. He stopped, sucking in
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: his breath between his teeth. No, he whispered, This was
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: his land, This was Earth, the home of man. It
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: was his, and he was it's. This was the land,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: and not a single dust boat, crazily reeling and spinning
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: through an endlessness of darkened silence, cold in immensity. Earth
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: could not be so alone, The last man alive, the
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: last man in all the world. He screamed then, and
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: began to run. His feet clattered aloud on the road.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: The small sound was quickly swallowed by silence, and he
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: covered his face against the relentless blaze of the stars.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: But there was no place to run to, no place
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: at all. End of Part four, end of the chapter
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: ends by Paul Anderson. The story read by Phil Schinevert
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: October two thousand twelve in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.