Latest / The Gods of Mars / Victory (Version 2) - Lester del Rey

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Victory (Version 2) - Lester del Rey · The Gods of Mars

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  Speaker 1: Parts one, two, and three of Victory. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Phil Shinever. This story was first published in
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  Speaker 1: Astounding Science Fiction August nineteen fifty five. Victory by Lester
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  Speaker 1: del Rey. Part one. From above came the sound of
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  Speaker 1: men singing. Captain Duke O'Neill stopped clipping his heavy black
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  Speaker 1: beard to listen. It had been a long time since
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  Speaker 1: he'd heard such a sound, longer than the time since
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  Speaker 1: he'd last had a bath or seen a woman. It
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  Speaker 1: had never been the singing type of war. Yet now
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  Speaker 1: even the high tenor of old Taroume, who lay on
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  Speaker 1: a pad with neither legs nor arms, was mixed into
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  Speaker 1: the chorus. It could mean only one thing. As if
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  Speaker 1: to confirm his thoughts, Burke Thompson hobbled past the Captain,
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  Speaker 1: stopping just long enough to shout, Duke.
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  Speaker 2: We're home. They've sighted Meloa.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks, Duke called after him, but the man was hobbling
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  Speaker 1: out of sight, eager to carry the good news to others.
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  Speaker 1: Fourteen years, Duke thought as he dragged out his hoarded
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  Speaker 1: bottle of water and began shaving, five since he'd seen
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  Speaker 1: Ronda on his last leave. Now, the battered old wreck
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  Speaker 1: that was left of the flagship was less than an
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  Speaker 1: hour from home base, and the two other survivors of
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  Speaker 1: the original fleet of eight hundred were limping along behind.
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  Speaker 1: Three out of eight hundred, but they'd one. Meloa had
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  Speaker 1: her victory, and far away Earth could rest in unearned
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  Speaker 1: safety for a while. Duke grimaced bitterly. It was no
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  Speaker 1: time to think of Earth now. He shucked off his
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  Speaker 1: patched and filthy clothes and reached for the dress graze
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  Speaker 1: he had laid out in advance. At least they were
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  Speaker 1: still in good condition, almost unused. He dressed slowly, savoring
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  Speaker 1: the luxury of clean clothes. The buttons gave him trouble.
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  Speaker 1: His left hand looked and behaved almost like the real one,
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  Speaker 1: but in the three years since he got it there
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  Speaker 1: had been no chance to handle buttons. Then he mastered
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  Speaker 1: the trick and stepped back to study the final results.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't look bad, maybe a little gaunt and in
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  Speaker 1: need of a good haircut, but his face hadn't aged
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  Speaker 1: as much as he had thought. The worst part was
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  Speaker 1: the pasty white where his beard had covered his face.
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  Speaker 1: But a few days under malois Son would fix that.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe he could spend a month with Ronda at a beach.
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  Speaker 1: He still had most of his share of his salary,
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  Speaker 1: nearly a quarter million below in credits. Even if the
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  Speaker 1: rumors of inflation were true, that should be enough. He
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  Speaker 1: stared at his few possessions, then shrugged and left them.
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  Speaker 1: He headed up the officer's lift toward the control room,
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  Speaker 1: where he could see Meloa swim into view, and later
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  Speaker 1: see the homeport of Cordule as they landed. The pilot
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  Speaker 1: and navigator were replacements, sent out to bring the old
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  Speaker 1: ship home, and their faces showed none.
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  Speaker 2: Of the jubilation of the crew.
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  Speaker 1: They nodded at him as he entered, staring toward the
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  Speaker 1: screens without expression. Aside from the blueness of their skins
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  Speaker 1: and the complete absence of hair, they looked almost human,
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  Speaker 1: and Duke had long since stopped thinking of them as
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  Speaker 1: anything else. How long he asked the pilot shrugged half
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  Speaker 1: an hour, Captain, we're too low on fuel to wait
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  Speaker 1: for clearance even if control is working. Don't worry. There'll
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  Speaker 1: be plenty of time to catch the next ship to Earth.
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  Speaker 1: Earth Duke glowered at him, suspecting a joke, but there
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  Speaker 1: was no humor on the blue face. I'm not going back, then,
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  Speaker 1: he frowned. What's an earthship doing on Meloa? The navigator
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  Speaker 1: exchanged a surprised look with the pilot and nodded, as
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  Speaker 1: if some signal had passed between them. His voice was
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  Speaker 1: as devoid of expression as his face. Earth resumed communication
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  Speaker 1: with us today the truce was signed, he answered. He paused, studying, Duke.
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  Speaker 1: They're giving free passage back to Earth to all Terran veterans.
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  Speaker 1: Captain nice of them, Duke thought they were willing to
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  Speaker 1: let the men who survived come back, just as they
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  Speaker 1: hadn't forbidden anyone to go. Very nice, they could keep
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  Speaker 1: their worlds and all the upper Coward planets like them.
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  Speaker 1: When the humanoid world of Meloa had been attacked by
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  Speaker 1: the insectile mant from Throm, Earth could have ended the
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  Speaker 1: invasion in a year, as those with eyes to see
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  Speaker 1: had urged her, but she hadn't chosen to do so. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: she had stepped back on her high retreat of neutrality
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  Speaker 1: and let the throm aliens do as they light it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't the first time she'd acted like that either. With
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  Speaker 1: more than half of the inhabited planets occupied by various monsters,
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  Speaker 1: it seemed obvious that the humanoid planets had to make
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  Speaker 1: a common stand. If Meloa fell, it would be an
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  Speaker 1: alien stepping stone that could lead back eventually to Earth itself,
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  Speaker 1: And once the monsters realized that Earth was unwilling to fight,
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  Speaker 1: her vast resources would no longer scare them. She'd be
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  Speaker 1: only a rich plum ripe for the plucking. When Duke
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  Speaker 1: had been one of the first volunteer for Meloa, he
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  Speaker 1: had never realized his home world would refuse to join
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  Speaker 1: the battle. He believed in Earth and humanity. Then he'd
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  Speaker 1: waded through all the grim days when it seemed throng, mushed,
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  Speaker 1: when when the absence of replacements proved the communications from
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  Speaker 1: Moloa to be nothing but hopeful lies. But there had
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  Speaker 1: been no help. Earth's neutrality remained unshaken, and now, after
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  Speaker 1: fourteen years in battle Hell helping to fight off a
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  Speaker 1: three planet system of monsters that might have swarmed against
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  Speaker 1: all the humanoid races, Earth was willing to forgive him
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  Speaker 1: and take him back to the shame of his birthright.
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  Speaker 1: I'm staying, he said flatly, unless you Muloans want to
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  Speaker 1: kick me out now. The pilot swung around, dropping a
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  Speaker 1: quick hand on his shoulder. Captain, he said, that isn't
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  Speaker 1: something to joke about. We won't forget that. There would
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  Speaker 1: be no Meloa today without men like you, but we
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  Speaker 1: can't ask you to stay. Things have changed insanely. The
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  Speaker 1: news we sent to the fleet was pure propaganda.
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  Speaker 2: We guess that.
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  Speaker 1: Duke told him we knew the throm ships, And when
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  Speaker 1: the dispatches reported all those raids without any getting through,
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  Speaker 1: we stopped reading them. How many did penetrate anyhow? Thirty
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  Speaker 1: one full raids, the navigator said, woodenly. Thirty one in
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  Speaker 1: the last four months. Thirty one. What happened to the
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  Speaker 1: Home Fleet? We broke it up and sent it out
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  Speaker 1: for your replacements, the pilot answered, dully, it was the
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  Speaker 1: only chance we had to win. Duke swallowed the idea slowly.
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  Speaker 1: He couldn't picture a planet giving up its last protection
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  Speaker 1: for a desperate effort to end the war on purely
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  Speaker 1: offensive drive. Three billion people watching the Home Fleet take off,
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  Speaker 1: knowing the skies were open for all the hell that
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  Speaker 1: a savage enemy could send on Earth. The world Senate
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  Speaker 1: hadn't permitted the building of one battleship for fear of reprisal.
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  Speaker 1: He swung to face the ports, avoiding the expression of
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  Speaker 1: the faces of the two Mulowans. He felt something of
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  Speaker 1: the same on his own face when he'd first inspected
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  Speaker 1: throm but it couldn't be that bad. On Meloa, she'd
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  Speaker 1: won her hard earned victory. They were entering the atmosphere, now,
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  Speaker 1: staggering down on misfiring jets. The whole planet seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be covered with a gray yellow haze that spoke of
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  Speaker 1: countless tons of blast dust in the air. From below,
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  Speaker 1: Duke heard the men beginning to move toward the big
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  Speaker 1: entrance lock, unable to wait for the landing, but they
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  Speaker 1: were no longer his responsibility. He'd given up his command
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  Speaker 1: before embarking. The ship came down, threatening to tilt every second,
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  Speaker 1: and the pilot was sweating and swearing. The haze began
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  Speaker 1: to clear as they neared the ground, but the ports
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  Speaker 1: were too high for Duke to see anything but the
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  Speaker 1: underside of the thick clouds. He stood up and headed
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  Speaker 1: for the lift, bracing himself as the ship pitched. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: there was a sickening.
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  Speaker 2: Jar, and the blast cut off.
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  Speaker 1: The ship groaned and seemed to twist, then it was still.
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  Speaker 1: It was the worst landing Duke had known, but they
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  Speaker 1: were obviously down. A second later he heard the port
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  Speaker 1: screech open and the thump of the landing ramp. The
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  Speaker 1: singing of the men had picked up into a rough,
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  Speaker 1: marching beat, now abruptly it wavered for a moment. A
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  Speaker 1: few voices continued and then died away, like a record.
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  Speaker 1: Running down there was a mutter of voices, followed by
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  Speaker 1: shouts that must have been the relief officers taking over.
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  Speaker 1: Duke was nearly to the port before he heard the slow,
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  Speaker 1: doubtful sound of steps moving down the ramp. The time
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  Speaker 1: he reached it, the last of the men was just leaving.
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  Speaker 1: He stopped, staring at the great port city of Cordule.
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  Speaker 1: Most of the port was gone, where hangars and repair
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  Speaker 1: docks had been. A crater bored into the earth, still
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  Speaker 1: smoking faintly. A lone girder projected above it to mark
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  Speaker 1: the former great control building, and a maloan skeleton was
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  Speaker 1: transfixed on it near the top. It shattered to pieces
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  Speaker 1: as he looked, and began dropping probably from the delayed
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  Speaker 1: tremor of their landing. Even the section their ship stood
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  Speaker 1: on was part of the crater he saw with an
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  Speaker 1: earth bulldozer working on it. There was room for no
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  Speaker 1: more than ten ships.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: Two of the berths were occupied by fat earth ships,
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  Speaker 1: sleek and well kept. Three others held the pitted, warped
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  Speaker 1: hulks of Maloan battleships. There were no native freighters and
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  Speaker 1: no sign of ten equipment or hangers. The pilot had
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  Speaker 1: come up behind him, following his gaze. Now, the man nodded,
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  Speaker 1: that's it, captain, most cities are worse. Cordule escaped the
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  Speaker 1: blasts until our rocket cannon failed. Got any script on you?
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  Speaker 1: At Duke's nod, he pointed, better exchange it at the
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  Speaker 1: booth before the rate gets worse. Take earth dollars. Our
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  Speaker 1: silver's no good. He held out a hand and Duke
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  Speaker 1: shook it. Good luck, captain, he said, and swung back
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  Speaker 1: into the ship. Mercifully, most of Cordule was blanketed by
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  Speaker 1: the dust fog. There was the beginning of a series
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  Speaker 1: of monstrous craters where men had begun rebuilding underground. The
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  Speaker 1: ruined landing field and a section of what had been
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  Speaker 1: the great business district. Now it was only a field
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  Speaker 1: of rubble, with bits of windowless walls leading up to
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  Speaker 1: a crazy tangle of twisted girders. Only memory could locate
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  Speaker 1: where the major streets had been. Over everything lay the
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  Speaker 1: green wash of incandite, and the wind carried the smell
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  Speaker 1: of a charnel house. There was no sign of the
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  Speaker 1: apartment where he and Ronda had lived. He started down
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  Speaker 1: the ramp at last, seeing for the first time the
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  Speaker 1: motley crew that had come out to meet the heroes
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  Speaker 1: of the Battle of Throm. They had spotted him already, however,
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  Speaker 1: and some were deserting the men at the sight of
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  Speaker 1: the officer's uniform. Their cries mingled into an insane whining
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  Speaker 1: babble in his ears, just a scrap for an old
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  Speaker 1: man general. Three children at home, starving fought under Jones
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  Speaker 1: captain a cigarette. It was a sea of clutching hands,
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  Speaker 1: ragged bodies with scrawny arms and bloated stomachs, trembling and
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  Speaker 1: writhing in its eagerness to get to him first. Then
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: as one of the temporary officers swung back with a
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  Speaker 1: couple of field attendants, it broke apart. To let him pass.
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  Speaker 1: Its gaze riveted on him. As he stumbled between the lines,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: he spotted a billboard one man was wearing, and his
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: eyes focused sharply on it. Honest faroea. It announced credit
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  Speaker 1: exchange best straight in all cordile. Below that, chalked into
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  Speaker 1: a black square was the important part, two thousand, three
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  Speaker 1: hundred forty five credits the dollar. Duke shook his head,
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  Speaker 1: but the sign did not change a quarter million credits
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  Speaker 1: for a hundred dollars, and he thought, help a poor
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  Speaker 1: old widow. A trembling hand plucked at his sleeve, and
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  Speaker 1: he swung to face a woman in worse rags than
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  Speaker 1: the others. Her eyes dull and unfocussed, her lips mouthing
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  Speaker 1: the words only by habit, Help the widow of General Deole.
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  Speaker 1: He gasped as he recognized five years before he danced
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  Speaker 1: with her at a party given by Deole. Danced and
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  Speaker 1: agreed that the war was ruining them and that it
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  Speaker 1: couldn't get worse. He reached into his pocket before remembering
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  Speaker 1: the worthlessness of his bills, but there was half a
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  Speaker 1: pack of wretched cigarettes issued the men. He tossed them
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  Speaker 1: to her and fled while the other beggars scrambled toward her.
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  Speaker 1: He walked woodenly across the leprous field, skirting away from
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  Speaker 1: the earth ships, toward a collection of tents and tin
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  Speaker 1: huts that had swallowed the other veterans. Then he stopped
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  Speaker 1: and cursed to himself, as a motorcycle sprang into life
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: near the Earth freighters and came toward him. Naturally, they
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: spotted his hair and skin color. The well fed, smooth
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: faced young man swung the machine beside him. Captain O'Neill,
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  Speaker 1: he asked, but his voice indicated that he was already certain.
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  Speaker 1: Hop In, Sir, Director Flannery has been looking forward to
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  Speaker 1: meeting you. Duke went steadily on, not ferrying his steps.
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  Speaker 1: The machine paced him uncertainly, Director Flannery of Earth Foreign Office,
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  Speaker 1: Captain O'Neill, he requests your presence, he shouted over the
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  Speaker 1: purr of his machine. He started to swing ahead of
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  Speaker 1: the marching man. Duke kept his eyes on his gold.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: When his steady steps almost brought him against the cycle,
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  Speaker 1: it roared out of his way. He could hear it
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  Speaker 1: behind him as he walked, but it faded. There was
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: only the sight and smell of cordial ahead of him.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Part two senators were already filing through the Presidium as
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Edmunds of South Africa came out of his office with
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Dougherty of the Foreign Office. The youngest senator stopped beside
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: the great bronze doors, studying the situation. Then he eyed
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: with relief. It's all right, he told Dowdy. Premier Lesseur's presiding.
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  Speaker 1: He hadn't been sure the Premier's words or a full
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: promise before, and while he hadn't been too worried, it
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: was good to see that the doubtful Vice Premier wouldn't
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: be presiding. It's better be all right, the diplomat said.
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  Speaker 1: Otherwise it's my neck. Cathay's counting on Earth to help
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: against the Clomerians, and if Director Flannery ever finds, I
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: committed us. Edmunds studied the seats that were filling and
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: nodded with more confidence as he saw that most of
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the senators on whom he counted were there. I've got
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  Speaker 1: enough votes, as I told you, and with Lesieur presiding,
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  Speaker 1: the opposition won't get far with parliamentary tricks against me.
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  Speaker 1: This time, Earth's going to act. Dorothy grunted, obviously, still worried,
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  Speaker 1: and headed up the steps to the reserved visitor's gallery.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: While Edmunds moved to his seat in the assembly room
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  Speaker 1: to day, he didn't even mind the fact that it
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: was back in the section reserved for the newest members,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the unknowns, and unimportant from the way the press treated them.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: He would be neither unknown nor unimportant once his bill
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: was passed, and his brief experience would only add to
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the miracle he was working. Looking back on his efforts,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: he found the results something of a miracle to himself.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: It had taken two years of vote swapping, of careful propaganda,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: and of compromise with his principles. That business of voting
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: for the combined throm Mulo and AID bill had been
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: a bitter thing. But old Harding was scared, sick of
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: antagonizing the aliens by seeming partiality, and Edmunds's switch was
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: the step needed to start the softening up. At that
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: He'd been lucky in spite of what he learned of
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: the manipulation of sociological relationships, in spite of the long
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: preparation in advertising dynamics and effective psychology. He couldn't have
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: made it if Kathay hadn't been a human colony now,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: though Lyssir was calling the chamber to order. The Senator
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: is quieted quickly, and there was almost complete silence as
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: the old man picked up the paper before him. The
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Senate will consider Resolution eighteen forty three to day, Lyssir said, quietly,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: a resolution that Earth shall grant assistance to the Colony
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: of Cathay in the event of any aggressive alien act
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: proposed by Sir Alfred Edmunds. Since the required time for
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: deliberation has elapsed, the Chair will admit discussion on this resolution,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Senator Edmunds. Edmunds was on his feet, and every face
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: turned to him. The spotlight came down on him, blinding
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: him to the others. He picked up the microphone, polishing
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the words in his mind. The vote might already be decided,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: but the papers would still print what he said now,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: and those words could mean his chance to work his
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: way up through the Committee of Foreign Affairs and perhaps
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: on to become Earth's youngest premier. It might even mean more.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Once Earth shook off her lethargy and moved to her
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: rightful position of power and strength among the human art worlds,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: anything could happen. There was the outer federation being formed
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: among the frontier worlds and the nucleus of close relations
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: with hundreds of planets. Some day there might even be
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the position of premiere of a true interstellar congress. Edmunds
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: began quietly listening to his voice roll smoothly from the speakers,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: giving the long history of Earth and her rise to
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: a position as the richest and most respected of planets.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: He retold the story of how she had been the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: first to discover the interstellar drive and how it had
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: inevitably spread. He touched on the envy of the alien
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: worlds and the friendship of the humanoid planets that had
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: enabled Earth to found her dozen distant colonies. He couldn't
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: wisely discuss her cowardice and timidity in avoiding her responsibilities
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: to help her friends. But there was another approach. In
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the forefront of every battle against Ilien aggression, he declared,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: proudly have been men from Earth. Millions of our young
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: men have fought gloriously and died gladly to protect the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: human and humanoid civilizations from whatever forms of life have
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: menaced them. The Jambullah led the forces of Hera against Clovis,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: just as Captain O'Neill so recently directed the final battle
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: that saved Meloa from the hordes of throm. In our
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: own ranks, we have a man who spent eight long
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: and perilous years in such a gallant struggle to save
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: a whirl for humanoid decency, Senator Harding, from the darkened
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: sea of faces. A voice suddenly sounded, Well, the Senator yield.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: It was the deep baritone of Harding. Edmunds frowned in irritation,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: but nodded a few words of confirmation on his point.
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  Speaker 1: From Harding, couldn't hurt I yield to the Senator from Dixie,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: he answered. The spotlight shifted as Harding got slowly to
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: his feet, making a white halo of his hair. He
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: did not look at Edmunds, but turned to face Lesieur,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: mister Chairman. He said, I moved that Resolution one eight
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: four three be tabled. Second. The light shifted to another man,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: but Edmunds had no time to see who it was,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: as he stood staring open mudw at Hording. He shouted
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: for the chair's attention, but Lachieur brought the gavel down
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: sharply once and his voice rang over the speakers. It
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: has been moved and seconded that Resolution one eight four
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: three be tabled. The senators will now vote. Edmund stood
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: frozen as the voting began. Then he dropped back hastily
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: to press the button that would turn the square bearing
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: his number a negative red. He saw his light flash
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: on while other squares were lighting. When the voting was finished,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: there were three such red squares in a nearly solid
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: panel of green. The resolution is tabled, Lesser announced needlessly.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Harding stood up and began moving toward the rear where
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Edmunds sat. The junior senator was too stunned for thought. Dimly,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: he heard something about regrets and explanations, but the words
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: had no meaning. He felt Harding help him to his
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: feet and began to guide him toward the door, where
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: someone had already brought a shocked, white faced Doughty. It
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: was then he thought of Cathay and what his ambition
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: and Earth's ultimate deceit and cowardice would mean to the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: millions there.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Part three.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: A week of the dust filled air of Meloa had
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: left its mark on Captain Duke O'Neill. It had spread
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: filth over his uniform, added another year to his face,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and made waking each morning a dry throated torture. Now
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: he stopped at the entrance to the ship, where he
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: had been reassigned a berth for the night shift. An
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: attendant handed him a small bottle, three biscuits, and a magazine.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: He tasted the mcley purified water sickly, stuffed the three
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: urzat biscuits into his pocket and moved down the ramps,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: staring at the magazine. It was from Earth, of course,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: since no printing had been done yet on Belowa. It
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: must have come in on one of the three big
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Earth freighters he'd heard land during the night. Tucked into
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: it with another of the brief notes he'd been receiving.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Director Flannery will be pleased to call on Captain O'Neill
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: at the captain's convenience. He shredded the note as he
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: went across the field.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: He started to do the.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Same with the news magazine until the headlines caught his attention.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Most of the news meant nothing to him, but he
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: skimmed the article on the eleve planet to join the
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Outer Federation. The writer was obviously biased against the organization,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: but Duke nodded approvingly. At least someone was doing something.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: He saw that Cathay was in for trouble. Earth was
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: living up to her old form. Then he shoved the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: magazine into his pocket and trudged on toward the veteran's
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: reassignment headquarters. Machinery was being moved from the Earth freighters,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: and Duke swore again five billion earthmen would read of
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: their generosity to Meloa, and any guilt they felt for
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: their desertion would vanish in a smug satisfaction at their charity.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Smugness was easy in a whirl without dust or carrion smell,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: or craters that had been factories. There were only a
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: few Meloans in the crude tent that served as their headquarters.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Duke went back toward the cubbyhole, where a thin, haggard
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: man sat on a broken block behind a makeshift desk.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: The hairless blue head shook slowly while the man's eyes
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: dropped hungrily to the paper in Duke's pocket, and away
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: again guiltily. No work, Captain O'Neill, unless you can operate
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: one of those earth machines were getting Duke grimaced, passing
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the magazine over to hands that trembled as they took it.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: His education was an ultra literary creative writing his experience
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: in war and here, where there was the whole task
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: of rebuilding a planet to be done, the ruins of
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: tools and power made what could be done too little
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: for even the few who were left. There was no
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: grain to reap or wood to cut after the killing
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: gas from throm had ruined vegetation. There were no workable
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: mines where all had been blast they closed. Transportation was gone,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: and the economy had passed beyond hand tools, leaving too
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: few of those. Even whole men were idle, and his
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: artificial hand could never replace a real one for carrying rubble.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Director Flannery has been asking for you again, the man
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: told him.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Duke ignored it.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: What about my wife, The Malowin frowned, reaching for a
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: soiled scrap of paper. We may have something. One of
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: her former friends thinks she was near this address. We'll
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: send someone out to investigate if you wish, Captain, but
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: it's still pretty uncertain. I'll go myself, Duke said hoarsely.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: He picked up the paper, recognizing the location as one
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: that had been in the outskirts. The man behind the
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: desk shook his head doubtfully. Then he shrugged and reached
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: behind him for a small automatic. Better take this and
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: watch your step. There are two bullets left. Duke nodded
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: his thanks and turned away, dropping the gun into his pocket.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Behind him, he heard a long sigh and the rustle
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: of magazine being opened quickly. It was a long walk
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: at first. He traced his way through streets that had
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: been partially blasted clear. After the first mile, however, he
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: was forced to hunt around or over the litter and wreckage,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: picking the way from high spot to high spot. There
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: were people about, rooting through the debris or patrolling in groups.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: He drew the automatic and carried it in his hand
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: in plain sight. Some stared at him and some ignored him,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: but none came too close. Once he heard shouting and
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: a group ran across his path chasing a small rotent.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: He heard a wild tumult begin minutes later when he
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: passed a spot where they had stopped. A fight was
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: going on, apparently over the kill. At noon, he stopped
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: to drink sparingly of his water and eat one of
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the incredibly bad biscuits. What food there was available, or
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: which could be received from the earth freighters was being
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: mixed into them, but it wasn't enough. The workers got
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: a little more, and occasionally someone found a few cans
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: under the rubble. The penalty for not turning such food
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: in was revocation of all food allotment. But there was
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: a small black market where unidentified cans could be bought
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: for five earth dollars, and some found its way there.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: The same black market sold the few remaining cigarettes at
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: twice that amount each. It was beginning to thunder to
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: the north as he stood up and went wearily on,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: and the haze was thickening. He tried to hurry, uncertain
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: of how dark it would get. If he got caught now,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: he'd never be able to return before night. He stumbled
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: on a broken street sign, decoding what was left of it,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: and considered. Then he sighed in relief as he remembered it.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: He was almost there. The buildings had been lower here,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: and the rubble was thinner. There seemed to be more
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: people about, judging by the traces of smoke that drifted
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: up out of poles or through glassless windows. He saw
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: none outside, however, He was considering trying one of the
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: places from which smoke was coming when he saw a
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: little boy five hundred feet ahead. He started forward, but
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: the kid popped into what must have been a cellar.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Once Duke stopped calling quietly. This time it was a
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: girl of about sixteen who appeared. She sidled closer, her
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: eyes fixed on his hair. Her voice piped out, suddenly
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: scared and desperate, you lonesome earth men under the fright.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: It was a grotesque attempt at coquetry, she edged nearer,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: staring at him. I won't roll you, honest. All I
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: want is information, he told her thickly. I'm looking for
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: a woman named Ronda. Ronda O'Neill.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: She was my wife.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: The girl considered, shaking her head. Her eyes grew wider
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: as he pulled out a green earth bill, but she
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: didn't move. Then he added the two remaining biscuits. She nodded, quickly,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: motioning him forward. Mom might know, she said. She ran ahead,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: and soon an older woman shuffled up the broken steps
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: in her arms was a baby dead or in a coma,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and she rocked it slowly, moaning softly as she listened
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: to his questions. She grunted finally and reached out for
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: the reward. Shuffling ahead of him, she went up the
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: rubble littered street and around a corner to point go in.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: She said, Ronde will be back. Duke shoved the crude
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: door back and stepped into what was left of a
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: foire in a cheap apartment house. The back had been
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: blasted away, but the falling building had sealed over one corner,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: covering it for most.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Of the weather.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Light came from the shattered window, showing a scrap of
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: blanket laid out on the floor near a few possessions. First,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: nothing identified the resident in any way, and he wondered
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: if it were a trap. Then he bent over a
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: broken bracelet and his breath caught sharply. The catch still worked,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: and a faded miniature of him was inside the little holder, Ronda's.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Duke dropped on to the blanket, trying to imagine what
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Ronda would be like and to picture the reunion. But
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the present circumstances wouldn't fit into anything he could imagine.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: He could only remember the bravely smiling girl who had
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: seen him off five years before. He heard a babble
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: of voices outside, but he didn't look out. The walk
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: had exhausted him hard. As the bed was, it was
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: better than standing up. Anyhow, if Ronda came back, he
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: was pretty sure she would be warned of his presence.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: He slept fitfully, awakened by the smells and sounds from outside.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Once he thought some one looked in, but he couldn't
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: be sure. He turned over, almost decided to investigate, and
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: dozed off again.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: It was the.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Hoarse sound of breathing and a soft shuffle that wakened
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: him that time. His senses jarred out of slumber with
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: a feeling of wrongness that reacted in instant caution. He
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: let his eyes slit open, relieved to find there was
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: still light between him and the door. A figure was
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: creeping up on hands and knees. The rags of clothes
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: indicated it was a woman, and the knife in one
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: hand spelled murder. Duke snapped himself upright to a sitting position,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: his hand darting for the gun in his pocket. A
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: low shriek came from the woman, and she lunged forward,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: the knife rising. There was no time for the gun.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: He caught her wrists twisting savagely. She scratched and writhed,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: but the knife spun from her grasp with a moan.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: She collapsed across his knees. He turned her face up,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: staring at it unbelievingly. Ronda bloated and stained lined with fear,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: It still bore a faint resemblance to the girl he
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: had known. Now, A fleeting look of cunning crossed her
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: face briefly, to be replaced with an attempt at dawning recognition. Duke.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: She gasped it, then made a sound that might have
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: been meant for joy. She stumbled to her knees, reaching
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: out to him, but her eyes swiveled briefly toward the knife. Duke,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: it's you. He pushed her back and reached for the knife.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: He was sure she'd known who it was, had probably
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: been the one who awakened him by looking in through
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: the broken window. Why'd you try to kill me? Ronda?
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: You saw who it was.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: If you needed money, you know I'd give you anything
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: I had.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Why not money?
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: She twisted from him and slumped limply against broken wall.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Tears came into her eyes this time. The catch in
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: her voice was real. I know, I know, Duke, and
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: I wanted to see you, to talk to you too.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: She shook her head slowly.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: What can I do with money? I wanted to wake
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: you up like old times. But missus Khalufa, she led
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: you here, she said. He waited, but she didn't finish.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: She traced the pattern on the dust of the floor
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: before looking up again. You've never been really hungry, not
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: that hungry. You wouldn't understand. Even with the dole, you
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: can't starve that in the time since Cardule was bombed,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: he protested. He gagged as he thought of the meaning
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: he guessed from her words, expecting her to deny it.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: She shrugged.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: In ten years, you can do anything. Oh sure, you
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: came back on leave and we lived high. Everything was
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: fine here, wasn't it. Sure it was for you. They
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: briefed me on where I should take you so they'd
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: be good food ready. They kept a few places going
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: for the men who came back on leave. We couldn't
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: ruin you a morale, She laughed weakly, and let the
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: sound die away slowly. How do you think we sent
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: out the food and supplies for the fleet the last
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: three years after the blockade on our supplies from friendly worlds?
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Why do you think there was no more leave for you?
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Because they didn't think you brave soldiers could stand just
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: seeing how the rest of us lived, and you think
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: you had it tough. Watch the skies for the enemy
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: while your stomach coached for the sound that might be
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: a rat. Hide three cans of food. You'll be shot
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: for hoarding because there is nothing else important.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: In the world.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: And then have a man stealed him from you when
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: the raids come. What does a soldier know of war?
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: The sickness inside him grew into a knot, but he
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: still couldn't fully believe what she was saying. But cannibalism, no,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: she shook her head with a faint trace of his
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: own disgust. No, Duke, missus Khaloofa told me, you're not
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: really the same race, not as close as you are
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: to an earth animal. And you don't call that cannibalism.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Nobody on Meloa has ever been a cannibal. Yet. How
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: much money do you have, duke? He took it out
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: and handed it to her. She counted it mechanically and
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: handed it back. Not enough. You can't take me away
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: when you leave here. I'm not leaving, he told her,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: dropped the money back on the blanket beside her. She
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: stared at him for a moment, and then pulled herself
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: up to her feet, moving toward the door. Goodbye, duke,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: and get off Meloa. You can't help us anymore, and
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: I don't want you here. When I get desperate enough
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: to remember, you might take me back. I like you
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: too much for that even now. He took a step
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: toward her, and she ducked.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: Get out, She screamed at him.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Do you think I could stand looking at you without
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: drooling any longer? Do you want me to call missus
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Khaluphah for help? Through the open door, he saw Missus
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Khalufa across the street, still cradling the child. As the
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: door slammed shut behind him. The woman screamed, either as
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: a summons or from fear that he'd seek revenge on her.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: He saw other heads appear with frantic eyes that stared
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: sullenly at the gun he carried. He stumbled down the street,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: where rain was beginning to fall, conscious that it would
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: be night before he got back to the port. He
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: no longer cared there was no place for him here.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: He now saw he was still an earthman, and earthmen
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: were always treated as a race apart. Somehow, he didn't belong,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: nor could he go back to a life on Earth,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: but there were still the recruiting stations there. So long
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: as war existed there had to be such stations. He
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: headed for the fat ships of Earth that squatted complacently
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: on the wrecked port into Part three, Parts four through
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: sevens of Victory by Lester Delray.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: This leere vox recording is.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: In the public domain. Prince Quith of Sugforth had left
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: the royal belt behind, and only a plane band encircled
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: his round little body as he trotted along, his fore
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: legs making almost no sound. His double pair of thin
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: arms and the bird like head on his long neck
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: bobbled excitedly in time to his steps. Once he stopped
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: a glance across the blackstone buildings of the city as
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: they shone in the dull red of the sun. Toward
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: the hill where his father's palace was lighted brightly for
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: the benefit of his Earth guests, Quith touched his ears
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: together ceremoniously, and then trotted on until he came to
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: the back door of his group's gymnasium. He whistled the
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: code word, and the door opened automatically. The whole group
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: was assembled, though it was past sleep week.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: For most of them.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Their ears clicked together, but they waited as silently as
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: he curled himself up in the official box. Then Krral,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: the merchant viskers out whistled questioningly, this will have to
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: be important, quiths. The Prince popped his ears emphatically. It
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: is my father's guests have all the news, and I
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: learned everything. It won't be as long as we thought.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: He paused before delivering the big news. The Bipeds of
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Clumyria are going to attack Cathay. There will be official
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: war there within two weeks. He saw them exchanging hasty signals.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: But again it was Karl who voiced their question. And
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: you think that is important, Quiths? What does it offer us?
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Cathay is a human colony. Earth will have to declare
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: war with her, and with Earth's wealth. It will be
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: over before we could arrive. Earth has already passed a
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: resolution that neutrality will apply to colonies as well as
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: to other planets. This time the whistles were sharper. Karl
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: had difficulty believing it at first. So Earth really is
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: afraid to fight. That must mean those rumors that she
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: has no fleet or true. Our ancestor thought so, and
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: even planned to attack her before the humanoids defeated us.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: The ancestor king believed that even a single ship, fully
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: armed might conquer her. It could be, Quith admitted, but
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: do you agree that this is the news for which
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: we've waited so long? There was a quick flutter of ears.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: It's our duty, Karl agreed. In a war between Cathay
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: and Clumeria. We can't remain neutral if we're ever to
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: serve our friends. Well, the ship is ready. That came
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: as a surprise to Quith. He knew the plans were
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: well long, but not that they were completed. As merchant,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: viscount and second degree adult, Corral was entitled to a
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: tenth of his father's interests. He chosen the biggest freighter
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: and the balance in fluid assets, to the pleasure of
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: his father, who believed he was planning an honorable career
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: of exploring. The conversion completed, Quith asked, but the planet
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: bombs Earth supplied them on the last ship, But I
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: explained on the order that I was going to search
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: uninhabited planets for Mineralsquith counted the group again and was
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: satisfied there were enough with a ship of that size
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: fully staffed and armed, they would be a welcome addition
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: to any fleet. They might be enough to tip the
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: balance for victory. In fact, and while Cathay and Clumiria
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: lay a long way on the other side of Earth's system,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: the drives were fast enough to cover it in two weeks.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: Does your father know, Karl, asked Queith Smirt, Would you
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: tell him? He still believes, along with the Earth ambassador,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: that the warriors strain was ruined among our people when
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: we lost the war with the humanoids. Maybe it was,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: Corral said, doubtfully. In four generations it could evolve again,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: And there are the books and traditions from which we trained.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: If even a timid race such as those of Earth
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: can produce warriors like O'Neill, a mere poet, why can't
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: the suck Forth do better? Particularly when Earth rebuilt factories
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: for us to start our shipbuilding anew then we joined
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: the war. The Prince decided there was a series of
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: ascent signals from the group. Tonight, he suggested, and again
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: there was only ascent. Carl stood up, setting the course
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: for the others. When the last had risen, Queith uncurled
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: himself and rose from the box we'll have to pass
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: near Earth, he suggested, as they filed out toward the
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: hangars where Korl kept his ship. Maybe we should show
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: our intentions there. There was a sudden whistle of surprise.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: Then the ascent was mounting wildly. Queath trotted head toward
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: the warship, making his attack plans over again, as he
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: realized he was a born leader who could command such enthusiasm.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: He had been doubtful before, in spite of his study
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: of elementary statistical treatment of relationships. The lights in the
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: palace showed that the Earth guests were still celebrating as
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: the great, heavily laden warship blasted up and headed toward Earth.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Part five. Duke O'Neill found a corner of the lounge
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: where no Earthman was near, and dropped down with the
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: magazine and papers, trying to catch up on the currents
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: of the universe as they affected the six hundred connected worlds.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Most of the articles related to Earth alone, and he
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: skipped them. He found one on the set up of
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: the Outer Federation. Finally, the human eye planets there were
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: in a pocket of alien worlds, and union had been
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: almost automatic. It was still loose, but it seemed to
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: have sound enough a basis. If Earth had been willing
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: to come out of its shell and risk some of
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: its fat trading prophets, there could have been an even
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: stronger union that would have driven warlike thoughts out of
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: the minds of all the aliens. Instead, she seemed to
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: be equally interested in building up her potential enemies and
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: ruining her friends. Duke had watched a showing of new
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: films on the work being done on Throm the night before,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: and he was still sick from it. Throm had lost
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: the war, but by a military defeat, not by thirty
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: one unprotected raids. On all her surface, she still had
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: landing fields equipped for Earth ships, and the big freighters
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: were dropping down regularly, spewing out foods, equipment, and even
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: heavy machinery for her rebuilding. Throm was already on the
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: road back, Meloa had to wait until she could pull
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: herself up enough to build fields. Duke turned his eyes
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: to the port the ship had stopped at Clovis on
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: the way back to Earth. From where he sat, he
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: could see almost earthlike skyscrapers stretching up in a great city.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: The landing field was huge, and there were rows on
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: rows of factories building more of the freighters that stubbed
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: the field. It seemed impossible when he remembered that only
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: forty years had passed since de Jambula's suicide raid had
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: finally defeated the fungoid creatures of the planet, and since
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: the survivor's vows to repay all Earthmen for their defeat.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: They were a pearl race, of course, but without help
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: from Earth, the factories would be shacks and the rockets
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: in high drive ships would be only memories. He wondered
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: how many were cursing their ancestors for making the mistake
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: of attacking a neighboring humanoid planet instead of Earth, only
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: two days away on high Drive. By now, they knew
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: that Earth was defenseless, and yet they seemed content to
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: go on with their vows forgotten. Douke couldn't believe it.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: Down underground, be on Earth's inspection, they could have vast
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: stockpiles of weapons ready to install in their ships within days.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: How could Earth risk it unless she had her own
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: stock of hidden ships and weapons. Yet if she did,
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: he was sure it would have been impossible not to
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: use them in defense of the colony.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: Of Cathay.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: He stared out, watching the crewmen mixing with her repulsive
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: alien natives, laughing as they worked side by side. There
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: must be some factor he didn't understand, but he never
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: found it, nor did he know any one who had
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: guessed it. He stirred, uncomfortable with his own thoughts. But
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: it wasn't fear for Earth that bothered him. It was
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: simply that sooner or later some alien race would risk
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: whatever unknown power the others feared. If the aliens won,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: the vast potential power of Earth would then be turned
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: against all the human art races of the universe. Humanity
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: could be driven from the galaxy. He turned the pages idly,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: glancing at the headlines. It was hard to realize that
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: the paper wasn't right off the press of Earth. It
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: must have been brought out to Clovis on the latest ship.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: He checked the date and frowned in surprise. According to
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: the rough calendar he kept, it was the current date.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: Somewhere he must have lost track of two days. How
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: much else had he lost sight of during the long
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: years of war. A diagram caught his attention almost at
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: once as he turned to another magazine.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: It was of a.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: Behemoth ship, bigger than any he had ever seen, and
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: built like the dream of a battleship. Though it was
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: listed as a freighter, he scanned it mentally, converting it
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: with a few like that Meloa could have won during
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: the first year. Then he swore as he saw it
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: was part of an article on the progress of some
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: alien world known as suck forth by the article a
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: world of former warriors once dedicated to the complete elimination
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: of humanoids. He saw Flannery coming along the deck at
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: that moment, and he picked up the magazine, heading for
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: his cabin. He'd ignored previous summons on the thin excuse
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: of not feeling well. He had no desire to talk
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: with Earthmen. It was bad enough to take their charity
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: back to Earth and to have to stay on the
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: planet until he could sign on with the Outer Federation.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: His memories were ugly enough without having them refreshed. But
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Flanner recaught him as he was opening the door to
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: his cabin. The director was huge, with heavy, strong features
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: and a body that looked too robust for the white
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: hair and the age that showed around his eyes. His
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: voice was tired, however, showing his years more plainly than
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: his looks. Captain O'Neill, he said, quickly, stop jousting with windmills.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: It's time you grew up.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: Besides, I've got a job for you.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Does my charity passage demand an interview, director, Duke asked.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: The other showed no offense. Unfortunately, he smiled, wiley, if
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: I choose it does I'm in command of this ship
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: as well as head of the Foreign Office. May I
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: come in? Can't keep you out, Duke admitted. He dropped
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: onto the couch, sprawling out, while the other found a
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: single chair. Flannery picked up the magazine and glanced through it.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: So you're interested in the Outer Federation, he asked, don't be.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have a chance. In a week or so
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: you'll see it shot. Then, I don't mean we'll wreck it.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: They picked their own doom, against all the advice we
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: could give. Him here to have a drink sent down
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: while we talk, Duke shook his head. I'd rather cut
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: it short, hot heads, Flammery told the walls thoughtfully, make
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: the best men obtainable. Once they're tamed. Nothing beats an
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: idealist took in face facts, and the intelligent ones usually
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: grow up, Captain. I've studied your strategy against throm On
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: that last drive after they all was killed.
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: Brilliant.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: I need a good man, and I can pay for one.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: If you give me a chance. I'll also show you
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: why you should take it. Know anything about how Earth
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: got started on its present course dumb, luck and cowardice
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: as far as I can see, Duke answered. When Earth
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: discovered the first inefficient version of the high Drive, she
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: had found herself in a deserted section of the universe,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: with the nearest inhabitat Star System months away. The secret
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: of the drive couldn't be kept, of course, but the
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: races who used it to build war fleets found it
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: easier to fight with each other than with distant Earth. Later,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: when faster drives were developed, Earth was protected by the
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: buffer worlds she had rebuilt. Flannery grinned luck and experience.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: We learned something from our early nuclear technological wars. We
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: learn more from the interstellar wars of others. We decided
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: that any planet ruined by such war wouldn't fight again.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: The women and children who lived through that hell would
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: see to it unless new hatreds grew up during this
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: struggle back So we practically poularized ourselves at first to
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: see that they recovered too quickly for hate and fear.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: We also began digging into the science of how to
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: manipulate relationships, Earth's greatest discovery to set up a system
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: that would work. It paid off for us in the
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: long run. So what's all that got to.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: Do with me? Duke asked.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: He'd heard of the great science of Earth and her
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: ability to manipulate all kinds of relationships before, spoken of
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: it hush hush terms when he was still in college,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: but he quit believing in fairy tales even before then.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: Now he was even sicker of Earth's self justification. Flannery
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: frowned and then shrugged. It's no secret I need a
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: good man on throm and you're the logical candidate if
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: I can pound some facts into your head. I found
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: that sending an earthman they know as a co but
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: an enemy works wonders not at first. There's hostility for
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: a while, but in the long run it gives them
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: a new slant on us. Then you'd better get an earthman,
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Duke snapped, you're talking to a citizen of Meloa by choice.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: I hadn't finished my explanation, Flammery reminded. Duke snorted, huh,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: I was brought up on explanations. I heard men spouting
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: about taming the aliens when I first learned to talk
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: as if they were wild animals. I read articles on
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: how the clovism and those things from suck forth need kindness.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: It's the same guff I heard about how to handle lions.
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: But the men doing the talking weren't in the ring.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: And I noticed the ringmaster carried a whip and gun.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: He knew the beasts. I know the aliens of throm
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: from fighting them, from hating them, or from being more
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: afraid of them than you figure this, Captain. I've talked
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: to more aliens than you've ever seen. And the Roman
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: diplomats laughed at the soldiers who told them the Goths
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: were getting ready to sack Rome. Flantnery stared at him
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: in sudden amusement. We aren't in an empire period, O'Neil,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: but you might look up what the Romans did to
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: conquered people during the Republic when Rome was still growing. Captain,
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not underrating the aliens. Tame aliens are once faking tameness.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: You've seen them smiling. Maybe I saw the other side.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: The old man sighed heavily and reached for his shirt.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: He began unbuttoning it and pulling it over his head.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: You've got a nice prosthetic hand, he said. Now take
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: a look at some real handiwork. There was a strap
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: affair around his shoulders, with a set of complicated electronic
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: controls slipped into the muscle fibers from them, both arms
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: hung loose, unattached at the shoulder blades. Further down, another
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: affair webbing went around his waist. Only one leg is false,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: he explained, But the decorations are real. They came from
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: a highly skilled torturer. I've had my experience with aliens
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: clovisome if you're curious. I was the second in command
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: on the Jambullah's Volunteer raid forty years ago. Duke dropped
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: his eyes from the scars for a second. He groped
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: for words of apology. Then the coal frozen section of
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: his brain swallowed the emotions. I've seen a woman with
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: a prosthetic soul, he said bitterly, Only she didn't turn
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: yellow because of what the aliens did. Red spots shot
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: onto Flammery's cheeks, and one of the artificial arms jerked
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: back as savagely as a real one. He hesitated, then
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: reached for his shirt. Okay, squaw man. The word had
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: no meaning for Duke, though he knew it was an insult,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: but he couldn't respond to it. He fumbled through his memories,
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: trying to place it. Something about Indians. Flannery began buttoning
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: his pants over the shirt. I'm out of bounds, Captain,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: he said, more quietly. I hope you don't know the
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: prejudices behind that crack.
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: What you win?
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: If you ever want the rest of the explanation, look
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: me up. He closed the door behind him softly and
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: went striding evenly up the passage. Duke frowned after him.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: The talk had gotten under his skin. If there were
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: things he didn't know, then he swore at himself, and
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: there was plenty he didn't know. But the carefully developed
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: indoctrination propaganda of the top Earth psychologist wasn't the answer
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: he wanted. He'd have to make it stay on Earth
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: shorter than he planned. If they could get to a
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: man who had served under the jambula and convinced him
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: that Clovisom were nice house pets. It was little wonder
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: that they could wrap the rest of Earth around their
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: psychological fingers. Too bad their psychology wasn't adjusted to aliens.
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: Part six.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: Barth Nevesh was nearly seven feet tall, and his cat
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: shaped ears stuck up another four inches above his head.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: Even among the people of Kel he was a big man,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: But to the representatives of the other humanoid worlds of
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: the Federation, he seemed a giant. The thick fur as
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: he wore against the heavy chill of the room added
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: to his apparent size, and the horns growing from his
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: shoulders lifted his robes until he seemed to have no neck.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: Now he stood up, driving his heavy fist down against
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: the big wooden table. The question is do we have
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: the answer or not?
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: He roared. You say we do. Logic says we do.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: Then let's act on it.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: The elfin figure of Lemellulot straightened up at the other
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: end of the table. Not so fast, commander, Nobody questions
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: the power of your fleet. Nobody doubts that we have
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: the only possible answer to the Aliens. That Earth is
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: helping to take over our universe strength through unity. But
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: is it as good as it can be?
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: How better? Borth roared again.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: Every world in this alien pocket has been building its
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: strength since the Earthman's ships first reached here and showed
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: us space travel was possible. We've seen the stinking Aliens
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: get the same ships. But now we've got something they
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: can't resist. A federation, in spite of all Earth could
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: do to stop us. If all our fleets strike at once,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: no alien world can resist, and we can stop merely
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: holding them back.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: Wipe them out one by one. I say, the only good.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: Alien is a dead alien. There was a lot of talk,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: more than Barth usually heard or contributed in a month.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: Lemellulot was the focus of most of it. The little
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: Man would never be satisfied. He wanted all the humanoid
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: worlds organized, and by now it was plain that Earth's
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: influence would be too strong outside of their own section.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Their accomplishments were already enough. United as they were, the
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: Federation was clearly invincible, their fleets were at full size,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: and the crews were thoroughly trained. No other time.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: Would be better.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: There had already been a stir of chipbuilding on the
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: alien worlds since the first word of the Federation is
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: somehow leaked out. The Federation position was as good as
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: it would ever be, and with eleven fleets working together,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: nothing better was needed.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: Knock them down with the long.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: Shells, haze them to base with interceptors, and then rip
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: their worlds with planet bombs. Barth repeated his plans. We
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: can do it in six hours.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: For a planet.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: We can start with the strongest Necklace and work down
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: through the weakest to make up for our losses. And
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: if the Earth forces start moving in to rebuild them, well,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: I've been thinking the Federation could use a little more
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: wealth and power. Humanoids don't attack humanoids, Lamellolot protested. The
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: snarling dog face of SRaw from Chumped opened in a grin,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: and his sly voice held a hint of a chuckle.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: Are so Earth keeps preaching? But Earthmen aren't humanoids, They're humans,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: He laughed softly at his own wit. There were rumbles
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: of uncertainty, but both saw that the seed had taken root.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: If they kept working together, he and Sra could force
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: it to ripen soon enough.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: That can't waite.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: Borth decided, the question is do we attack Necklace? And
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: when I say now, He took an hour more for
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: the decision, but there would be only one answer, and
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: the final vote was unanimous. The fleets would take off
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: from their home worlds and rendezvous near the Baron's Sun.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: From there they would proceed in a group under the
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: control of Barth, toward the alien world of Ness. The
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: commander checked his chronometer as the delegates went to send
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: their coated reports to their home worlds. He had the
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: longest distance to lead his fleet, and there was no
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: time for delay. Outside the harsh snow crackled under his feet,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: and a layer of storm clouds cut off the wan
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: heat of Kel's Sun. He drew in a deep breath,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: watching the swirl of white as he exhaled. It was
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: a good world, a world to build men. It was
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: the world from which a leader should come. The fleet
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: would be all his within a day, and for a
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: time it would be busy at the work of wiping
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: out the nearby aliens. After that, while there were other
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: aliens further out toward the last frontiers of exploration. With care,
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: the fleet could be kept busy for years. Barth was
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: remembering his histories and the armies that had been swept
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: together in a few years fighting, men began to think
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: of themselves as that people apart, and loyalty to their
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: birthplace gave way to loyalty to their leader. Five years
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: should be enough. Then there would be more than a federation.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: There could be the empire among the worlds that had
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: been his life long dream. But first there was Earth,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: he snorted to himself as he reached the ships of
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: his fleet, missionaries spreading their soft fear through the universe.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: In five years, his fleet should be ready for ten
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: times the power of any single planet, including Earth. SRaw
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: would be the only problem in his way, but that
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: could be met later. For the moment, the man from
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: Chumpsk was useful. Barth strolled up the ramp of his flagship,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: shouting out to his men as he went. There was
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: no need of signals. They had been primed and waiting
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: for days, ready.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: To follow him up.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: He dropped to the control seat, staring at the little
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: lights that would tell him of their progress up ship.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: He shouted, and from the metal halls and caverns of
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: the ship, other voices echoed his cry. The wind Dragon
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: leaped upwards, sharply behind as the red lights showed four
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: hundred others charged into the sky and the open space beyond.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: Barth sat at the great screen, watching as they drew
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: on steadily toward the rendezvous, mulling over his plans. They
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: were three hours out from kel when he turned the
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: control over to his lieutenant and went below, where his
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: table was laden with the smoking cheer of good, green
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: meat and ale. With a sigh of contentment, he threw
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: back his outer robe and prepared to forget everything until
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: he had dined. He was humming hoarsely to himself as
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: he a piece of the meat and stuck it on
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: his left shoulder horn within reach of his teeth. Maybe
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: a little of the baked fish would blend well. The
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: emergency drum blasted through the ship. As he lifted the knife,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: swearing and tearing at the flesh near his mouth. He
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: leaped up and forward toward the control room. He heard
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: voices shouting something about a fleet. Then he was at
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: the screens, where he could see for himself, five million
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: miles ahead, another fleet was assembled where none should be
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: from any of the Federation worlds. His eyes swept sideways
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: across the screen, estimating the number. It was impossible. There
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: warn't a quarter of that number in the fleet of
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: any world, humanoid or alien. Barth flipped on the microresolver,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: twisting the wheel that sent it racing across the path
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: of the fleet ahead. His eyes confirmed what his mind
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: had already recognized. The Aliens had their own federation. There
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: were ships of every type there.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: Grouped in units.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: Thirteen alien worlds were combined against the outer Federation. For
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: a breath, he hesitated, ready to turn back and defend
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: Kel while there was time, but it would never work.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: One fleet would never be enough to defend the planet
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: against the combined aliens. Clouster, he barked into the communicator,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: outrams and upspeed, prepare for breakthrough. If they could hit
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: the Aliens at full drive and cut through the weaker center,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: they could steal rendezvous with the other fleets. The combined
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: strength might be enough, and the gods helped Kell. If
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: the Aliens refused to follow him Earth, he thought Earth
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: again coddling and protecting aliens, forming them into a conspiracy
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: against the humanoid worlds. If Kel or any part of
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: the federation survived, that debt would be paid. End of
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: Part six, Parts seven to eight of Victory by Lester Delray.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: This lie Revox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: Part seven.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: Earth lay fat and smug under the sun, seemingly unchanged
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: since Duke had left it for generations. The populace had
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: complained that they were draining themselves dry to rebuild other worlds,
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: but they had grown rich on the investment. It was
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: the only planet where men worked shorter and shorter hours
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: to give them more leisure in which to continue a
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: frantic effort to escape boredom. It was also the only
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: world where the mention of aliens made men think of
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: their arder books in instead of their weapons. Duke walked
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: steadily away from the grotesquely elaborate landing field. He had
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: less than thirty cents in his pocket, but his breakfast
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: aboard had left him satisfying for the moment. He turned
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: on to a wider street, heading the long distance across
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: the city toward the more probable location of the recruiting stations.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: The outer Federation station would be off the main section,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: since the official line was disapproving of such a union,
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: but he was sure there would be one. The system
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: of recruiting was a tradition too hard to break. Earth
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: used it as an escape vow for her troublemakers, and
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: since such volunteers made some of the best of all fighters,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: they had already decided the outcome of.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: More than one war.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: By carefully juggling the attention given the stations, Earth could
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: influence the battles without seeming to do so. The air
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: was thick with the smell of late summer, and there
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: was pleasure in them that until Duke remembered the odor
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: of Meloa and its cause. Later, the cloying perfume of
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: women mixed with the normal industrial odors of the city,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: until his nose was overdriven to the point of cutoff.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: He saw things in the shop windows that he had forgotten,
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: but he had no desire for them. And over everything
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: came the incessant yammer of voices saying nothing, radios blaring,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: television babbling, and vending machines shouting. He gave up at
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: last and invested half his small fund in a subway.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: It was equally noisy, but it took less time. Beside him,
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: a fungoid creature from Clovis was busy practicing silently on
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: a speaking machine, but nobody else seemed to notice. Duke's
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: head was spinny when he reached the surface again. He
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: stopped to let it clear, wondering if he'd ever found
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: this world home. It wouldn't matter soon, though, once he
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: was signed up at the recruiting station, there would be.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: No time to think.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: He saw the sign only a few blocks from where
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: the recruiting posters for Meloa had been so long ago.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: It was faded, but he could read the lettering, and
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: he headed for it. As he had expected. It was
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: on a dirty back street where the buildings were a
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: confusion of shipping concerns and cheaper apartment houses. He knew
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: something was wrong when he was a block away. There
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: was no pitch being delivered by a barking machine, and
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: no idle group watching the recruiting efforts on the street.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: In fact, nobody was in front of the vacant store
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: that had been used, and the big posters were ripped down.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: He reached the entrance and stopped. The door was half open,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: but it carried a notice that the place had been
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: closed by order of the World Foreign Office. Through the
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: dirty glass, Duke could see a young man of about
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: twenty sitting slumped behind a battered desk. He stepped in
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: and the boy looked up apathetically, you're too late, Captain.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: Neutrality went on hours ago. When the first word came through,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: caught me, just ready to ship out after two lousy
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: months recruiting. Here, I have to be the one stranded.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: You're lucky, Duke told him mechanically, not sure whether he
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: meant it or not. Oddly, the idea of a kid
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: like this mixed up in an interplanetary war bothered him.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: He turned to go, then hesitated. Got a newspaper or
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: a directory around that I could borrow. The boy fished
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: a paper out of a waste basket. It's all yours, Captain,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: the whole place is yours, slammed the door. When you
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: go out, I'm going over to the Cathay office. I'll
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: go along, Duke offered. The address of that place was
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: all he'd wanted from the paper. He'd have preferre the
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: Federation to turning up with Earth colonists, but beggars never
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: made good choosers.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: The kid shook his head.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: He dragged open a drawer, found a slip of paper,
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: and handed it over. It was a notice that the
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: legal maximum age for recruiting had been reduced to thirty.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: You'd never make it captain, he said. Duke looked at
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: the paper in his hands and at the dim reflection
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: of his face in a window. No, he agreed, I
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: didn't make it. He followed the boy to the door,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: staring out at the street, thick with its noises and smells.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: He dropped to the door sill and looked briefly up
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: at the sky, where two ships were cutting out to space.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: Flannery had known the regulation and hadn't told him yet.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: It was his own fault. The age limit was lower now,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: but there had always been a limit. He had simply
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: forgotten that he'd grown older. He found it hard to
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: realize he'd been no older than the kid when he
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: signed up for the war with Throm. For a while,
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: he sat looking at the street, trying to realize what
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: had happened to him. It took time to.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: Face the facts.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: He listened with half his attention as a small group
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: of teenage boys came from one of the buildings and
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: began exchanging angry insults with another group apparently waiting for
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: them on the corner. From their attitudes, some of them
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: were carrying weapons and were half eager, half afraid to
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: use them. It was hard to remember back to the
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: time when such things had seemed.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: Important to him.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: He considered putting a stop to the argument before he
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: got out of hand, since no police were near, but
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: adults had no business in kid fights. He watched them
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: retreat slowly back to an alley, still shouting to work
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: up their courage. Maybe he should be glad that there
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: was even this much fire left under the smug placidity
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: of Earth. Finally, he picked up the newspaper from where
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: he dropped it and began turning back to the want ads.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: His needs were few, and there should be dish washing
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: jobs at least somewhere in the city. He still had
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: to eat and find some place to sleep. A headline
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: glared up at him, catching his attention. He started to
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: skim the story and then read it thoroughly. Things weren't
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: going at all as he had expected. In the outer worlds.
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: If the account were true, and usually such battle reports
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: weren't altered much. The aliens had developed a union of
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: their own, if anything, a stronger one than the humanoids had. Apparently,
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: they chased the Federation ships into some kind of a trap.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: Losses on both sides were huge, and raids had begun
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: on all the alien and humanoid planets. He scowled as
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: he came to the latest developments. One section of the
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: Federation fleet under Sra of Chumped, had pulled out, accusing
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: the faction, headed by Barth Nevish of leading the Aliens
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: to the human Eard rendezvous. Carous leaders had gone after
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: the deserters, fought it out with them in the middle
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: of a larger battle, killed Sra and declared himself the
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: head of the whole federation. It was madness that should
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: have led to complete annihilation. Only the fumbling, uncoordinated leadership
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: of the Aliens had saved the human Eard fleets, and
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: now the Federation was coming apart at the seams, with
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: Barth Nevish frantically scurrying around to catch.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: Up the pieces.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: Duke read it through again, but with no added information.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: It was a shock to know that the Aliens had
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: combined against the Humanoid Federation. Still, looking back on that,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: he could begin to see that they would have to
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: whence they knew of the Federation. But the rest of
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: the account, Flannery's words came back to him. The director
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: had been right. His prediction was already come out true.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: After only three days, unless he had either had prior
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: knowledge or juggle things to make it come true. Duke
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: considered it, but he could see no way Flannery could
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: either learn or act in advance of the arrival of
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: the ship on Earth. The federation was farther from Maloa
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: than from this planet. He'd been forced to depend on
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: the same accounts Duke had read in the papers on
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: board the ship. Then Duke glanced at the date on
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: the current paper idly, and his thoughts jolted completely out
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: of focus. It was dated only three days later than
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: the paper he had seen when they were docked in Clovis.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: Without instantaneous communication, it was impossible he might have been
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: mistaken about the date before. But nothing fitted. The feeling
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: of uncertainty came back, crowding out the minor matter of
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: his memory of the date. He stared at the richness
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: of even this poor section of an Earth that huddled
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: here as if afraid of its own shadows, yet reeked
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: with self satisfaction. He thought of Meloa and Throm and
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: the gallant try at federation that had been made on
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: the outer worlds. Strength had to lie in union and action.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: Yet all the evidence seemed to say that it lay
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: in timidity and sloth. Reluctantly, he turned the page away
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: from the news to seek for the job sections from
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: the alley, there came the sound of a police whistle
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: and shouts that faded into the distance. It was probably
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: the breaking up of the teenage argument. A few people
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: ran by, headed for the excitement, but Duke had lost
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: all interest. A taxi stopped nearby, and he heard a
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: patter that might have been that of children's feet, but
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: he didn't look up. Then a sharper whistle shrilled almost
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: in his ear, and he twisted around to stare at
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: a creature who was gazing at him for spind The
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: li legs led up to a globular body encased in
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: a harness like contraption. Above the body, two pairs of
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: thin arms were waving about, while a long neck ended
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: in a bird like head topped by.
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 2: Two large ears.
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: The ears suddenly seemed to shimmer in the air, and
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: a surprisingly human voice sounded, you're Captain Duke O'Neill. Before
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: Duke could answer, a small hand came out quickly to
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: find his and began shaking it, while the ears twittered
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: on in excitement. I am honored to meet you, Captain O'Neill.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: I've been studying your work against throm amazingly clever strategy.
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 2: Permit me.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: I'm queath Lately, a prince of Suckforth. Perhaps you noticed
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: our ship, No, of course not. You must have landed
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: at the government field. My crew and I are on
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: the way to the war about to begin between Clomeria
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: and Kathay. Why tell me about it, Duke asked, roughly
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: sug Forth. The ship he'd seen diagrammed had come from there.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: If one of those titans was to be used against Cathay,
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: Earth's colony was doomed, and the impertinent little monster the
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: creature tried to imitate a shrug with his upper set
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: of arms. Why not, Captain, We're registered here as a
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: recruiting ship for Cathay, so it's no secret. We thought
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: we might as well carry along some of the men
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: going out to help, since we had to pass near
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: Earth anyhow, and I dropped by here in the hope
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: that there might be a few who had failed to
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: join the Federation and who would like to switch to Cathay.
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, Duke said, He studied the alien trying
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: to rake what he'd learned from the article out of
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: his memory. But no record of subtlety or deceit had
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: been listed there. The sug Foth were supposed.
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 2: To be honest.
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: In fact, they'd been one of the rare races to
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: declare their.
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 2: War in advance.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: Somehow, too, the words had a ring of truth in them.
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: For Cathay certainly captain, for whom else? These civilized earth
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: races naturally have to stick together against the barbarians. Duke
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: stared at the almost comic figure, juggling the words he
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: had heard with the obvious facts. What Earth Races, do
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: you mean that Earth is now giving citizenship to your people?
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: Not on this planet, of course. A pair of beady
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: black eyes stared back, as if trying to understand a
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: ridiculous question. But we're citizens of Earth's economic, cultural, diplomatic system.
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 2: Naturally.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: Duke felt something nibble at his mind, but he couldn't
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: grasp it, and he wasn't accustomed to carrying on long
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: chit chat with aliens. He shoved the thoughts away and
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: reached for the paper again. You won't find recruits here, quith,
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: only me, and I'm too old for the recruiting law. Besides,
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: I've got to find a job. He turned the pages,
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: locating the column he wanted. What had Flannery meant about
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: Republican Rome. Duke could remember dimly something about Rome's granting
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: citizenship to her conquered neighbors. It had been the basis
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: of the city's growth in later power. Now if Earth
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: could inspire citizenship from conquered aliens. Quith made a sound
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: like sigh and shuffled his forefeet on the sidewalk. Uncertainly,
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: if you came aboard on a visit, who could stop
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: our taking off at once? He suggested, we have room
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: for another officer, and we need men like you, Captain O'Neil,
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: to help us against the aliens out there. Duke looked
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: down at the small face, and even the alien features
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: couldn't disguise the obvious sincerity behind the words. It should
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: have made his decision automatic. He come here to be recruited,
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: and he was being accepted. There was a ship waiting
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: for him where his skills could be used. With such
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: a ship, things would be different from the war he
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: had known. He had a picture of Clomeria under attack
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: from it. Abruptly, he was seeing again the exploding ships
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: of Throm and the chartle smell of Cordile on victorious
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: Moloa was thick in his nose. He stood up, shaking
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: his head and held out his hand, groping for the
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: phrases that had been all important once among the recruits
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: he had joined. Thanks Quith, he said, finally, but I've
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: got something to catch up on here. Good luck on
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: to victory and give the aliens hell. He stood watching
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: Quith patter off toward the waiting cab and saw it
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: drive away. Then he turned to the want ads in earnest.
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: Nothing was clear in his mind yet, but he needed
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: job first, then a room.
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 2: Near the library.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: He had a lot of current history to catch up on.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: Whatever Earth was up to had to be recorded somewhere,
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: if he could find it. Part eight through half his reign,
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: Var of Columeria had nursed his hatred of the humans
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: into a holy mission. It was eighty years since his
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: visit to Cathay, when the colonist's children had run screaming
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: from him, shouting that he was a monster, But time
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: had only sharpened the memory. He had covered his two
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: human body under a multitude of robes and had gloried
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: in the alieness of his head, with its fringe of
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: breathing tentacles and the two lobster like claws that concealed
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: his tiny mouth. Year after long year he had built
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: and prayed for the war of vengeance that must come.
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: Almost it had passed him by. With the threat of
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: help from Earth for Cathay, he had been forced to
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: delay while larger fleets were built. His reign had been
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: drawing to a close, and he had almost resigned himself
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: to the law that would turn his rulership over to
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: his eldest son. Then the boy had died in an
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: explosion less than a week from the change of rule,
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: and almost simultaneously, Earth's timidity had won again and the
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: protection had been denied her colony. Now Var's waiting was finished.
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: He stood in the cabin of his flagship, heading back
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: to Clameria after the opening raid of the war, savoring
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: the sweetness of the damage he had done. Cathay life
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: was sweet. Behind him, the door dilated softly, and his
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: aid came in carrying a roll of paper, a message
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: from Cathay. Magnificence, he announced. V opened the message and
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: studied it. Then he read it again uncertainly. He was
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: sure of his knowledge of English, but the note was
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: senseless gibberish. Again, he read it, this time aloud. Yours
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: of the fourteenth Ultimo received, and contents noted. We are
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: pleased to inform you that we are in a position
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: to fill your entire order, and that hipment is going
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: out at once by special messenger. We trust that you
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: will find our products superior in every way. We believe
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: that you will find our terms completely reasonable. It made
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: no more sense, allowed the ade side apologetically deliberately misapplied
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: archaeism is sometimes regarded as humorous by earthmen magnificence. I
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: suspect this is a warning that they are retaliating bluff
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: for read the words again, but he could make no
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: other meaning from them. Did the fools expect him to
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: believe their flippancy spelled confidence or were they deceiving themselves?
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: And the hint of surrender terms was sheer stupidity?
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 2: It must be.
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: An offer, though the wording seemed to indicate he should surrender.
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: He threw the message into a waste receptacle in disgust
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: and went over to look at the screens where Colmeria
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: was showing the humans of Kathay might try a return raid,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: but he was unworried. Kathay's fleet was pitiful, and she
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: had no heavy ships from which the launched planet bombs.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: Of course, there were spy reports of vast numbers of
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: what seemed to be guided missiles, but they could never
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: get through the confusion signals that blanketed Columyria. As he
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: watched a signal blinked, he opened the circuit and the
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: face of his admiral looked out. We received indications of
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: a form of small ships, magnificence. The man reported high
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: speed and piloted. It may be a suicide squadron.
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 2: Suicide.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: Vor spat the word out, whoever heard of human cowards
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: risking their necks? The eight touched his shoulder apologetically. They
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: are mentioned in Earth books magnificence and there was the Jamboula.
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: Var stared at the screen as the flight was relayed
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: to him, snarling. Definitely, they were one man ships, not
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: guided missiles. His defenses had never been built to handle
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: suicide squadrons up surround them, blast them, he ordered, if
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: you might get through to the ships or to the
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: planet below, but quick action would wreak havoc among them
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: and discourage further attempts. Theclamerian fleet opened into a circle
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: and began rising. Now the swarm of little ships began
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: breaking apart, fanning out, and attempting to turn. Var hissed,
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: not even the courage to go through with it. After
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: they were discovered they he leaped to the screen, cursing
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: at what he saw. Where the little ships had opened
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: a hole, A monstrous bulk was hurtling through with fantastic speed.
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: The tiny ships had screened it, but now it out
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: ran them, boring straight toward the opening. In the Clamerian fleet,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: atomic cannon began running out of enormous hatches, like the
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: bristles jutting from a tindril brush blast out. Var screamed
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: into his engine phone. His flagship leaped away at full
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: drive while the enemy seemed to grow on the screen.
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: Then it diminished as they began drawing away from the fleet.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: There was nothing war could do about the horror that followed.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: The great vessel bored through the fleet, with cannons spitting out.
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: Hello shots were fired, they had no effect. Sug Forth,
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: the aide, screamed in his ears.
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 2: A ship from Sugforth Var.
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: Remembered the pictures he had seen, and they matched. Though
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: none had suggested such a size, it was impossible. The
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: races sucked forth were aliens, warriors who had fought humanoids,
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: as few races had done. They would have fought with him,
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: not against him. The ship drove down toward the planet,
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: breaking fiercely now from it. Two bulky objects fell while
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: the planet bombs dropped. The behemoth began to rise again.
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: It came through the shattered ranks of Colomerius fleet, blasting again,
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: and headed toward the tiny ships that had screened it,
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: new hatches opening to receive them. Half of Var's fleet
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: was in total ruin on the planet below.
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 2: Two horrible gouts.
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: Of flame leaped up through the atmosphere and beyond it,
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: while all of Columbia seemed to tremble as half a
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: continent was ruined. Vor stared down at the destruction, unmoving.
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: The aid coughed, holding out another roll of paper. Kathay
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: is broadcasting an appeal for us to surrender without reprisals.
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: Magnificence and the estate governors are demanding fleet protection. Vor
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: crushed the paper in his hands without reading it. It
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: would take half the remaining part of the fleet to
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: give even token projection to Columbia. His plans had never
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: been based on holding back the seemingly weak forces of Cathay.
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: No answer, he said. His hand reached for the communicator switch,
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: and he began issuing orders. The fleet will regroup and
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: return to base for immediate repairs and rearming. Commanders of
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: all ships were prepare to take off against Cathay within
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: six hours. Somehow, the humans had to be crushed completely
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: before they could destroy Clomeria. After that, if any of
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: his race survived, there would be a mission for all
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: future generations. Only the power of Earth could have set
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: the alien ship from suck forth, loaded with cannon and
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: bombs to fight against fellow aliens. Earth had declared neutrality
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: and then struck for such a villainy. A million years
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: was not too long to seek vengeance. End of Part eight,
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: Parts nine and ten of Victory by Lester Delray. This
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part nine. Night
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: had fallen in the park beyond the huge Foreign Office building,
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: and the air was damp and cool. Duke shivered in
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: the shadows that covered his bench. He should head back
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: to his room, but He had no desire to listen
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: again to the meaningless chatter that came through the thin walls.
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: Tom didn't matter to him now anyhow, He swore and
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: reached for a cigarette, rushing the crumpled newspaper from his lap.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: He'd been a fool to think Flannery would bother with him,
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: just as he'd been a fool to turn down Queith's offer.
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: He'd wasted his day off from the messenger job. Footsteps
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: sounded down the walk that led past his bench, and
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: he drew deeper into the shadows. The steps slowed, and
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: a man moved to the other end of the bench.
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: Duke drew heavily on his cigarette, tossed it away, and
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: started to get up drank. There was a hand holding
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: a flask in front of him. He hesitated, then took
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: it and let a long slug run down his throat.
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: In the faint light, he could make out the face
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: of Director Flannery. The man nodded, sorry, I was out
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: when you came, O'Neill. One of the guards saw you
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: out here, so I came over. One of Flannery's prosthetic
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: hands rested on Duke's shoulder and the pressure was surprisingly heavy.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: When a man takes a drink with me, Captain, he
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: waits until I finished mine. He tipped up the flask
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: and drank slowly before putting it away. I suppose you
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: mean the Cathay Columeria mess.
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 2: What else?
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: Mess was a mild word. The sug Forth ship had
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: seemed to make victory for Cathay certain the first few days,
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: but the war had entered a new phase. Now Kathay
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: couldn't maintain the big ship, and it was practically useless.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: It had simply served to reduce Clumia to a position
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: where both sides were equal. The war showed signs of
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: settling down to another prolonged, exhausting affair. Yeah, I read
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: the editorial. Flannery sighed, we did let a couple of
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: foods make Cathay think we'd bail her out. At the time,
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: it seemed wise. The son of old Var was due
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: to assume rule in a little while, and he was
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: strongly pro human. We wanted to hold things off until
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: he took over and scrapped the war plans.
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 2: When he was.
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: Killed, well, we pulled out before Var was any stronger,
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: and sent Queith's crowd in to do your blood letting
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: for you, Duke sneered. That was their own idea, Flannery denied.
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: He lighted a cigarette and sat staring at the end
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: of it, blowing out a slow stream of smoke. All right,
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: we made a mess of Cathay, we'll know better next time.
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 2: Here to walk back with me.
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: Why so one of your trained psychopropagandists can indoctrinate me
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: or to get drunk and cry over your confession, to
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: keep me from sinking to your level and pushing your
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: nose down your throat, Flannery told him, But there was
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: no real anger in his voice. He stood up, shrugging.
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: Nobody's forcing you, O'Neil. Say the word and I'll drive
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: you home. But if you want that explanation, my working
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: office seems like a good place to talk. For a moment,
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: Duke wavered. But he'd reached the end of his own
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: research and he'd come here to find answers. Leaving now
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: would only make him more of a fool. Okay, he decided,
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: I'll stay for the big unveiling flattery grimaced. There's no
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: great secret, though. We don't broadcast the facts for people
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: and races not ready for them. We figure those who
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: finished growing up here will soak up most of it automatically.
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: Did you get around to the film file on Interstellar
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: Wars at the library? Duke nodded, wondering how much they
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: knew about his activities. He'd spent a lot of time
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: going over the film for clues. It was so old
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: that the color was faded in places. The rest would
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: have been easier to take without color. Most wasn't good photography,
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: but all was vivid. It was the record of all
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: the wars since Earth's invention of the high Drive, nearly
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: two hundred of them, Gimsul, Hathor, Patteck, suck Forth, Clovis,
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: and even Meloa. The part he hadn't seen beyond Cordule,
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: where the real damage lay Ronda had been wrong and
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: cannibalism had been discovered, and along with much that was worse.
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: Two hundred wars in which victor and vanquished alike had
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: been ruined, in which the supreme effort needed to win
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: had left most of the victors worse than the defeated Systems.
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 2: War.
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: The word was bitter on Flannery Slips. Someone starts building
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: war power power to ensure peace, as they always say,
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: then other systems must have power to protect them. Strength
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: begets force and fear and hatred. Sooner or later the
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: strain is too great, and you have a war so
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: horrible that it's very horror makes surrender impossible. You saw
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: it on Meloa. I've seen it fifty times. They reached
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: the Foreign Office building and began crossing its lobby. Flannery
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: glanced up at the big seal on the wall with
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: its motto and twisted Latin per Ostra odd Aspera, and
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: his eyes turned back to Duke's, but he made no comment.
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: He led the way to a private elevator that dropped
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: them a dozen levels below the street to a small
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: room littered with things from every conceivable planet. One wall
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: was covered with what seemed to be the control panel
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: of a spaceship, apparently.
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 2: Now used for a desk.
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: The director dropped into a chair and motioned to Duke
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: to another. He looked tired and his voice seemed older
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: as he bent to pull a small projector and screen
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: from a drawer.
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 2: And set them up.
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: The latest chapter of the film, he said, bitterly, throwing
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: the switch. It was a picture of the breakup of
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: the Outer Federation, and in some ways worse than the
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: other wars. Chumped rebelled against Kel's leadership and joined the Aliens,
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: while a civil war sprang up on her surface. Two
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: alien planets went over to Kel. The original war was
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: forgotten in a struggle for new combinations, and a thousand
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: smaller wars replaced it. The Federation was dead and the
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: two dozen races were dying. When everything else fails, the
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: fools try federation, Flannery said as the film ended. We
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: tried it on Earth. Another race discovered the interstellar drive
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: before we did and used it to build an empire.
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: We found the dead and sterwle remains of their civilization.
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: It's always the same. When one group unites its power,
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: those nearby must ally for protection. Then there's a scrabble
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: for more power, while jealousies and fears breed new hatreds
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: internally and externally, and finally there's ruin. Because at the
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: technological level of interstellar travel, victory in war is absolutely
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: totally impossible. He sat back, and Duke waited for him
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: to resume until it was obvious he had finished. At last,
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: the younger man gave up waiting.
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 2: All right, He.
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: Said, Earth won't fight, am I supposed to turn handsprings.
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: I figured that much out myself, and I learned a
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: long time ago about the blessed meek who were to
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: inherit the Earth. But I can't remember anything being said
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: about the stars. You think peace won't work, Flannery asked mildly.
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: I know it won't, Duke fumble for a cigarette trying
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: to organize his thoughts. You've been lucky so far. You've
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: counted on the fact that war powers have to attack
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: other powers nearby before they can safely strike against Earth,
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: and you've buffered yourself with a jury rigged economic trading system.
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: But what happens when some really bright overlord decides to
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: bypass his local enemies. He'll drop fifty planet bombs out
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: of your peaceful skies and collect your vassal worlds before
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: they can rearm. You won't know about that, though you'll
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: be wiped out. I wouldn't call our friends vassals or
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: say the system was jury rigged, Flannery objected. Ever, hear
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: of paradynamics. The papers call it the ability to manipulate
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: relationships when we let them write a speculative article. It's
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: what lets us rebuild worlds in less than half a
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: century and formed the first completely peaceful political economic culture
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: we've ever known. Besides, I never said we had no
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: weapons for our defense. Do considered it trying to keep
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: a firm footing on the shifting quicksand of the other's arguments.
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: He knew a little of paradynamics, of course, but only
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: as something supposed to remake the world in all science,
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: in some abstract future. It had been originated as a
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: complex mathematical analysis of nuclear relationships, and had been seized
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: on for some reason by the sociologists. It had no bearing,
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: he could see on the main argument. It won't wash
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: Flannery without a fleet. It won't matter if you have
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: the plans of every weapon ever invented. The first time
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: a smart power takes the chance you'll run out of time,
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: we didn't. Flannery swung to the control board that served
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: as his desk, and his fingers seemed to play idly
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: with the dials. From somewhere below them, there was a
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: heavy vibration, as if great engines had sprung into life.
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: He pressed another switch. Abruptly the room was gone. There
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: was a night sky above them, almost scarless, and with
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: a great glaring moon shining down to show a rough,
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: mossy terrain that seemed covered endlessly with row after row
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: of rusting, crumbling spaceships. Atomic cannon spilled from their hatches,
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: and broken ramps led down to the ground. Down one
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: clearer lane among the countless ships that surrounded him, Duke
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: saw what might be a distant fire, with a few
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: bent figures around it, giving the impression of age. Beside him,
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: Flannery sat in his chair holding a small control. There
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: was nothing else of the office visible. The director shook
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: his head. It's no illusion, O'Neil. You're here fifty odd
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: thousand light years from Earth where we transferred the attacking fleet.
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 2: You never heard of that.
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: Of course, the dictator ruler naturally didn't make our report
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: when his fleet simply vanished without a trace.
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 2: Here.
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: The liquor burned in Duke's throat, but it steadied him.
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: He bent down to feel the mossy turf under his hand.
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: It's real, Flannery repeated. Paradynamics handles all relationships, Captain, and
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: the position of a body is simply a statement of
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: its geometrical relationships. What happens if we change those relationships
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: with power enough that is, there is no motion in
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: any classic sense. But newspapers appear two high drive days away.
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: Minutes after they're printed. We arrive here, and fleets sent
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: against Earth just aren't there anymore. He pressed a button,
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: and abruptly the walls of his office were around them again,
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: the office that was suddenly the control room of a
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: building that was more of a battleship than any Duke
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: had ever seen. He found himself clutching the chair and
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: forced himself to relax, soaking up the shocks as he
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: had soaked up so many others. His mind faced the facts,
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: accepted them, and then sickly extended them. All right, you've
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: got weapons, he admitted, and disgust was heavy in his voice.
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: You can defend yourself, but can the galaxy defend itself
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: when somebody decides that the fine offensive weapon? Or are
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: all Earthmen supposed to be automatically pure? So this will
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: never be turned to offensive?
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 2: Use?
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: Prove that to me, and maybe I'll change my mind
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: about this planet and take that job of yours. Flannery
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: leaned back, nodding soberly. I intend to, he answered, Duke.
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: We tried making peaceful citizens of our youngsters. Zeo a
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: century ago. But it wouldn't work. Kids have to have
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: their little gang wars and their physticofs to grow up naturally.
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: We can't force them. Their interests aren't.
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 2: Those of adults.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: In fact, they think adults are pretty dull no adventure.
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: They can't see that juggling a twenty million gamble or
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: tooling up for a new competitive product is exciting. They
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: can't understand working in a dull laboratory to dig something
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: new out of nature's files can be exciting and dangerous.
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: Above all, they can't see that the greatest adventure is
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: the job of bringing kids up to be other adults.
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: They regret the passing of dueling and affairs of honor,
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: but an adult civilization knows better, because the passing of
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: such things is the first step toward a race becoming adult,
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: because it is adopting a new type of thinking where
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: such things have no value. You didn't hit me when
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: I called you names because it made no sense from
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: an adult point of view. Earth doesn't go to war
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: for the same reason. Thank god, we grew up just
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: before we got into space where adult thinking is necessary
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: to survival. There had been the kids and their seemingly
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: pointless argument on the street. There had been the curiously
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: distant respect the Maloins had shown him, as if they
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: guessed that only his exterior was similar. There were a
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: lot of things could use to justify believing the director.
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: It made a fine picture as it was intended to.
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: It must be wonderful to sit here safely while agents
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: do your dangerous work, feeling superior to any one who
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: shows any courage, He said bitterly. I suppose every clerk
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: in dusk jockey out there feeds himself the same type
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: of rationalization. But words don't prove anything. How do you
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: prove the difference between maturity and timidity or symodness? You
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: asked for it, Flannery said, simply. The button went down
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: on the control again. The air was suddenly thin and
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: bitingly cold, as they looked down on a world torn
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: with war, where a hundred ships shaped like half disks
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: and unlike anything Duke had seen, were mixed up in
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: some maneuver. The button was pushed again, and this time
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: there was a world below that had a port busy
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: with similar ships not fighting. Now a third press brought
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: them onto the surface of a heavy world that seemed
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: to be composed of solid buildings and factories where ships
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: were being outfitted with incomprehensible goods. A thing like a
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: pipestem man looked up from a series of operations, made
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: a waving motion to them, and abruptly disappeared. Did you
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: really think we could be the only adult race in
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: the universe, Flannery asked. You're looking at the Alleer, the
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: closest cultural guest to us, and somewhere near our level now.
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: Something squamous perched on a rock on what seemed to
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: be a barren world.
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 2: Before it floated.
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: Bright points of light that were obviously replicas of planets,
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: with tiny lines of light between them, and a shuttling
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: of glints along the lines. The thing seemed to look
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: at them briefly. A tentacle whipped up and touched Flannery,
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: who sat with his hands off the control box without
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: its use. They were abruptly back in their office. Flannery
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: shivered and there was a strain on his face, while
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: Duke felt his mind freeze slowly, as if with physical cold.
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: The director cleared his throat. Or maybe we should look
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: at more routine things, though you might consider that we
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: have to get ready for the day when our advancing
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: culture touches on other cultures, because we can't put it
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: off forever. This time they were in a building like
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: a crude shed, and there were men there standing in
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: front of a creature that seemed like a human in armor,
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: but chitten'us armor that was part of him. The aliens
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: suddenly turned, though Duke could now see they were in
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: a section behind one way glass. Nevertheless, it seemed to
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: sense them. Abruptly something began pulling at his mind, as
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: if his thoughts were being drained. Flowery hit the button again.
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: Telepathic race and very immature, he said, and that was
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: worry in his voice, Thank god, the only one we
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: found in out of our immediate line of advance. There
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: were other scenes. A human being who walked endlessly three
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: feet off the floor, fighting against some barrier that wasn't there,
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: with his face frozen in fear, while creatures that seemed
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: to be metallic moved about. He found something while working
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: on one of our paradynamic problems, Flannery said. He transported
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: himself there and has been exactly like that ever since.
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: Three years now. So far, our desk jockeys haven't been
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: able to discover exactly what line he was working on,
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: but they're trying. They were back in the office and
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: the director laid the control bock on the big panel
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: and cut off the power. He swung back to face Duke,
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: his face tired. You'll find a ship waiting to take
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: you to Throm and a man on board who'll used
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: the trip to brief you if you decide to take
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: the job, Duke, as I said, it's up to you.
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: If you still prefer your wars, come on and see
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: me next week, and maybe I can get the recruiting
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: loss at a side in your case, since you're really
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: a citizen of Meloa. Otherwise, the ship takes off a
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: Throm in exactly three hours. He led the way back
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: to the elevator and rode up to the lobby. Duke
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: moved out wooden'tly, but Flannery was obviously going no farther.
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: The old man handed over what was left of the flask,
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: shook Duke's hand quickly, and closed the elevator door. Duke
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: down the liquor slowly, without thinking. Finally, a flicker of
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: thought seemed to stir in his frozen mind. He shook
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: himself and headed down the lobby toward the earth outside.
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: A faint vibration seemed to quiver in the air from below,
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: and he quickened his steps. Outside, he shook himself again,
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: signaled a cab, and climbed in. The first liquor store
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: you come to, he told the driver, And then take
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: me to the government spaceport, no matter what I say.
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 2: Part ten.
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: It was quiet in the underground office of the Director,
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: except for the faint sound of Flannery's arms sliding across
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: each other in an unconscious massaging motion. He caught himself
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: at it and leaned back, his tired facial muscles twitching
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: into a faint smile. Strange things happened to a man
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: when he grows old. His hair turned gray, He thought
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: more of the past, and prosthetic limbs began to feel tired,
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: as if the nerves were remembering also, and the work
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: that had once seemed vitally important in every detail winnowed
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: itself down to a few things, with the rest only
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: bothersome routine. He pulled a thermos of coffee from under
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: the desk and turned back to the confusion of red
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: coated memoranda on his desk. Then the sound of the
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: elevator coming down caught his attention, and he waited until
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: the door opened. Hello, Harding, he said, without turning around.
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: Only one man beside him had the key to the
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: private entrance.
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 2: Coffee.
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: Harding took a seat beside him and accepted the plastic cup.
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 2: Thanks.
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: I tried to call you, but your phone was shut off.
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: Heard the good word. Flannery shook his head. With the
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: matter of the strange ship that had been reported and
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: the problem of what to do with the telepaths both
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: coming to a head. He'd had no time for casual calls.
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: There was no question now that the Telepaths had plucked
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: the knowledge of how to build an interstellar drive from
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 1: the observer's mines in spite of all precautions, and once
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: they broke out into the rest of the galaxy, Varr
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: died of a heart attack in the middle of a battle.
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: Harding announced, and Cathay and Clymeria sent each other surrender notices.
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: The minute word was official, the damnedest thing I ever
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: heard of. Edmunds came with me and he's upstairs now
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: planning a big victory celebration. As soon as we can.
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: Let the word out. It should finish his reorientation. I'll
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: probably get word on it by the time someone has
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: it all organized into a nice official memo, Flannery said.
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: Back him up on that celebration. It's worth the celebration
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: to find out both worlds are that close to maturity.
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: Coming over for a bridge tonight. Harding shook his head.
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: I'll be up to my elbows and bills for the
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: relief of Cathay and Columeria. It's a mess, even if
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: it could be worse. Maybe tomorrow. He dropped the cup
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: onto the desk and turned to the elevator while Fannery
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 1: hunted through the memorandum. As he expected, he found a
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: recent one announcing Varr's death. He rubbed his arms together
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: as he read it, but there was no new information
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: in it. Then, reluctantly, he picked up his phone and
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: started to call Scanning for information, just as another bundle
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: of memos came through a small door in the panel
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 1: at the side of the top photo. He put the
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: phone back on its cradle, his face tautened and his
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: arms lay limp as he read it. The picture was
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: that of one of the half disc alleyerships. The rumors
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: of the strange ship were true enough, one of the
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: Eller races had crossed the gulf between the two expanding
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: cultures and had touched several worlds briefly to land in
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: the biggest city on Ptec, the trading center for a
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: whole sector. It had been there two days already before
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: being reported to Earth. To make matters worse, it had
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: come because its home world had been visited by a
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: foreign ship. From the description, apparently from suckforth, there was
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: no longer any chance of cutting off the news, since
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: it would be circulating busily through both cultures, and with
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: it must be going a thousand wild schemes by trading
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: adventurers for exploration. He'd expected it to happen someday, maybe
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: in fifty years after he was out of the office.
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 2: By then enough of the.
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: Worlds should have reached maturity to offer some hope of
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: peaceful interpenetration. But now.
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 2: Victory, he thought bitterly.
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: A small victory, and then this, or maybe two small victories.
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: If O'Neill worked out as well on Throm as he
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: seemed to be doing, and if he realized he'd never
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: be satisfied until he could return to Earth to face
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: the problems he now knew existed. Flannery had almost hoped
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: that it would be O'Neill who would handle the problem
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: of cultural interpenetration. The man had ability, But all that
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: was in the past now, along with all the other victories,
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: and in the present, as always, there were larger and
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 1: larger problems, while full maturity lay forever a little farther on.
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: Then he smiled slowly at himself. There were problems behind
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: him too, once whose solutions made these problems possible, and
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: there would always be victory enough. What was victory, after all,
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 1: but the chance to face bigger and bigger problems without fear.
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: Flannery picked up the phone, and his arms were no
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: longer tired. End of Part ten. End of Victory by
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: Lester Delray, This book recorded by Phil Schinever back in Rouge, Louisiana,
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: November twenty twenty two,