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5 SF stories by Mack Reynolds-Mack Reynolds · 4 Science Fiction Stories by Mack Reynolds

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Story number one of five science fiction stories by mac Renolds.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Five science fiction stories by mac
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  Speaker 1: Renold's story number one, Mercy Flight. The story was first
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: published in Planet Stories July nineteen fifty one. The phone
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  Speaker 1: rang and ed carry wasn't doing anything, so he picked
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: it up and said yeah. He said yeah a few
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: more times, his eyes widening infinitesimally each time, and finally
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: wound up with okay, Bunny. He hung up and said
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: that was Bunny. Up In oneontum, she says a guy
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: is coming in from Luna with a kid for emergency hospitalization,
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  Speaker 1: radiation burns or something. Jake was sitting back in his
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: swivel chair, his feet on the desk and his hands
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  Speaker 1: clasped behind his head. He growled, that's the trouble with
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: women in this game. They've gotten no story since she
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  Speaker 1: pH owns all the way from Modeanta on a story
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  Speaker 1: that's been run a hundred times. Every time somebody gets
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: good and sick up on Luna, they bring them to
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  Speaker 1: Earth for treatment. He shrugged. Okay, so it's a kid
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  Speaker 1: this time. Do up about a stick of it, carry
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  Speaker 1: and we'll put it on page three if you can
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  Speaker 1: work it into a tear jerker. Ed Carrie said, you
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: didn't let me finish. Jake, something's wrong with this guy's radio.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Somebody on the rewrite desk said, something wrong with his radio.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: He's got to have his radio or he can't come in.
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  Speaker 1: Jake took his feet from the desk and sat up.
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  Speaker 1: What do you mean something's wrong with his radio? Monny said,
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  Speaker 1: he's calling for his landing instructions, but they can't get
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: anything back to him. He's just reached Springschlish and he's
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: free fall. Now. There'll be four days before he gets here.
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  Speaker 1: That's the way they work it. He's supposed to get
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  Speaker 1: in touch with this spaceport he wants to land at,
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  Speaker 1: and I know how they work it. Jake growled, see
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: if there's anything on the last newswire from Luna about him.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Phil Mooney flicked his set on again and repeated carefully
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: calling Oneonta Spaceport. Phil Mooney outbound Luna calling Oneonta's spaceport,
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  Speaker 1: Come in, Oneonta calling Phil Mooney calling Phil Mooney, Oneonta, spaceport,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: calling Phil Mooney, Come in, Mooney. He cast a quick
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  Speaker 1: glance back at the child, strapped carefully in the middle punk.
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  Speaker 1: She was unconscious now, possibly as a result of the acceleration.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: In leaving Luna. He had to reach a speed of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: approximately two miles per second to escape Earth's satellite, and
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: that had called for more g's acceleration than Lillian's sick
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: body could bear. His lips thinned back over his teeth.
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  Speaker 1: It would be even worse when they came in for
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  Speaker 1: landing and he'd have to break against Earth's gravity. He
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: switched on the set again to give it another try.
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  Speaker 1: Instructions were to contact the spaceport at which you planned
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  Speaker 1: to land as soon as possible. There was plenty of time,
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  Speaker 1: of course, but the sooner the better, he said, calling
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: on Eon to spaceport. This is Phil Mooney, Luna calling
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  Speaker 1: onionta come in Oneonta, calling Phil Mooney, Calling Phil Mooney,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: oneon to spaceport, calling Phil Mooney, Come in, Mooney. Ed
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Carrie came back to the city room with a sheet
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  Speaker 1: of yellow paper that he'd torn off the radiotype. He said,
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  Speaker 1: here it is Jake. This kid. Her name is Lilian Marshall,
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  Speaker 1: is the only survivor of an explosion at that nuclear
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  Speaker 1: efficient laboratory they had on the dark side. Her ole
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  Speaker 1: man and her mother were working under this professor Demes,
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  Speaker 1: both of them killed. His eyes went on scanning the story.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Evidently this Phil Mooney runs an unscheduled space liner. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: he blasted off to rush the kid to an Earth hospital.
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  Speaker 1: Jake took the dispatch and scowled at it. Berry He growled,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: see what we got on this Phil Mooney in the morgue.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: He rubbed the end of his nose thoughtfully. They'll probably
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  Speaker 1: pick him up all right when he gets nearer. Somebody
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: on Rewrite said, it doesn't make any difference how far
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  Speaker 1: he is. They should be able to reach him even
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: if he was halfway to Mars. Something's wrong with his set.
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  Speaker 1: He decided to try one of the other spaceports. As
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  Speaker 1: a matter of fact, it made very little difference at
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  Speaker 1: which of them he landed. There'd be suitable hospital facilities
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  Speaker 1: within reasonable distance of any spaceport. He was three days
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  Speaker 1: out now, and according to spaceways custom, had to let
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  Speaker 1: them know he was coming in. It wasn't like landing
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  Speaker 1: an airplane. They want plenty of time to prepare for
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  Speaker 1: a spacecraft's arrival, he said, calling New Albuquerque Spaceport, Calling
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  Speaker 1: New Albuquerque Spaceport, Phil Mooney, Luna, calling New Albuquerque, Please
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  Speaker 1: come in New Albuquerque, Calling Phil Mooney, Calling Phil Mooney,
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  Speaker 1: New Albuquerque Spaceport, Calling Phil Mooney. We are receiving you perfectly.
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  Speaker 1: Come in, Mooney, he tried once more, calling New Albuquerque Spaceport,
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  Speaker 1: Calling New Albuquerque Spaceport, Please come in New Albuquerque. Emergency,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: repeat emergency, Please come in New Albuquerque. Calling Phil Mooney,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Calling Phil Mooney, We are receiving you perfectly, Mooney, Come in, Mooney.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Kitty Kildare took up her notes and prepared to make
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  Speaker 1: her way back to her own tiny office. I've got it, Jake,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: she said, breathlessly. Kitty was always breathless over any story,
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  Speaker 1: carrying more pathos than a basketball score. My column tomorrow
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  Speaker 1: have them melting, Actually, I mean, Jake shuddered inwardly. After
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: she left, ed Carey came up and drooped on the
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  Speaker 1: edge of the desk. Here's the dope on this, fill Mooney, Jake.
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  Speaker 1: He said, He's about thirty, was in the last war
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  Speaker 1: and saw action when we had our space forces storming
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  Speaker 1: New Petrogrod, did some fighting around the satellites too, piled
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  Speaker 1: it at a one seater, got a couple of medals,
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  Speaker 1: but never really made big news. Got any picks of him.
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  Speaker 1: Ed Kelly shook his head like I said, he never
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: really made the big news. Just one more of these
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  Speaker 1: young fellows that saw plenty of action and when the
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  Speaker 1: war was over, was too keyed up to settle down
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: to everyday life. Jake picked up the thin folder and
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: riffled through the few clippings. There. What's he doing now,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: he growled. Evidently, when the war ended he got one
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: of the surplus freighters and converted it. Name of his
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  Speaker 1: company is Mooney's Space Service. Sounds impressive, but he's the
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  Speaker 1: only one in it. Probably going broke. Most of these
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: guys are can't make the grade against the competition of Terror,
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  Speaker 1: Luna Spaceways and the other big boys with the scheduled flights.
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  Speaker 1: The city editor scratched the end of his nose speculatively,
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  Speaker 1: maybe we ought to have Jim do up an editorial
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  Speaker 1: on these unscheduled space lines, something along the line of
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: how heroic some of these guys, are that sort of stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Do up the idea they're always ready fair weather or
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: foul to make an emergency trip. Kerry said, there isn't
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  Speaker 1: any weather, fair or foul in space. Jake scowled at him.
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  Speaker 1: You know what I mean, wise guy. Meanwhile, get some
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: statements from some authorities. Ed Carrie said, painfully, What statements
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: from what authorities? The city editor glared at him. So
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: help me, Ed, I'm going to stick you on obituaries.
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  Speaker 1: Any statements from any authorities, you know damn well what
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  Speaker 1: I mean. Get some doctor de beef about the fact
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  Speaker 1: there aren't suitable hospitalization facilities on Luna. Get some president
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  Speaker 1: of one of the unscheduled spacelines sound off about what
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  Speaker 1: a hero Mooy is and how much good these unscheduled
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: spacelines are. And that reminds me of something, he yelled
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: to a tall, lanky reporter at the fore end of
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  Speaker 1: the city room. Hey, Ted, get Bunny on the line
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: up in Oneonta and tell her I set the look
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  Speaker 1: up some of these unscheduled spacelines guys, and see if
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  Speaker 1: she could get a photograph of Phil Mooney from them.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Maybe he's got some buddies in Oneonta. There was one
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  Speaker 1: thing about being in free fall. You had lots of
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: time to sit and think, too much time, perhaps you
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  Speaker 1: had time to think it all over and over and
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  Speaker 1: over again. There was the war which had torn you
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  Speaker 1: from the routine into which life had settled, from friends
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  Speaker 1: and relations and sweethearts, and thrown you into a one
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  Speaker 1: man's space fighter, in which you sometimes stayed for weeks
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  Speaker 1: on end without communication with anyone friend or foe. There
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: had probably been no equivalent situation in the history of
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  Speaker 1: past warfare to the one man's space scouts. The nearest
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  Speaker 1: thing to them might have been the flyers of nineteen
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  Speaker 1: fourteen in the First World War, but of course they
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  Speaker 1: were up there alone only for hours at a time,
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  Speaker 1: not weeks. You developed self reliance, men, was the way
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  Speaker 1: the colonel had put it. You developed self reliance, or
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  Speaker 1: you're sunk space by yourself alone. You can't use your
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: radio or they can locate you. If something happens, some
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  Speaker 1: emergency or some contact with the enemy, You're on your own.
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  Speaker 1: You have to figure it out. There's no superior officer
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  Speaker 1: to do your thinking. You're the whole works. And the
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  Speaker 1: colonel had been right, of course, it was a matter
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  Speaker 1: of using your own wits, your own ability. Fighting at
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: a space scout was the work of an individual, not
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  Speaker 1: of a team. Perhaps it would be different someday in
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  Speaker 1: the future when machines and instruments had been developed further,
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  Speaker 1: But now it was an individualistic game, each man for himself.
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  Speaker 1: And probably it was because of this training that he
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  Speaker 1: Phil Mooney was unable to get back into the crowd
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  Speaker 1: after the war had ended. He was an individualist who
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  Speaker 1: rebelled against working not only four, but even with someone else.
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  Speaker 1: He should have known better. Industry had reached beyond the
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  Speaker 1: point where one man goes out by himself and makes
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  Speaker 1: a fortune or even a living, he thought, ryly. It's
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  Speaker 1: the day of the big concerns, of tremendous trusts in cartels,
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  Speaker 1: who didn't even have to bother with the task of
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  Speaker 1: squeezing out tiny competitors like himself. He was out before
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  Speaker 1: he started the moony space service, he snorted in self depreciation.
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  Speaker 1: Oh well, He pulled himself erect and made his way
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  Speaker 1: to the bunk. The kid was awake. He grinned down
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  Speaker 1: at her and said, how's it going, Lilian? Her eyes
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: seemed glazed even worse than they'd been yesterday, But she
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: tried to smile back at him. All right, she whispered,
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  Speaker 1: her child's voice so low he could hardly make it out.
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  Speaker 1: Where's mother? Phil Mooney held a finger to his lips.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Maybe you'd better not talk too much, Lilian. Your mother
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  Speaker 1: and father are They're all right. The thing right now
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: is to get you to the hospital and make you
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: well again. Understand. Kitty killed Air was saying, indignantly, what's
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: this about? No insurance on Luna? Use your head, Kitty,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Jake grunted. What company'd be crazy enough to ensure anybody
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: working on Luna. By the way, that was a good
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: piece on Mooney and the marshl kid. Did you read it?
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Kitty killed Air was pleased. He shuddered, boh no, but
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: the letters have been pouring in. Maybe you ought to
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: do another take it from some other angle this time.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: That's why I wanted to know about the insurance. Do
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: you realize that this child, this poor, sick, defenseless child,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: is penniless? Actually, I mean bad enough that her parents
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: have left her an orphan but shake that child is penniless,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: all right? All right? He told her work on that
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: for tomorrow's column Ed came up with another radio type
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: report just as Kitty was leaving. This guy's Mooney's calling
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: all the other spaceports now, Jake, Evidently he is getting desperate.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: He's only two days out. And by the way, here's
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: a new angle. This guy, Harry Marshall, the kid's father,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: was a wartime buddy of Phil Mooney. They went to
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: cadet school or something together. Jake growled, thoughtfully, He hasn't
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  Speaker 1: got a chance, but it makes a tremendous story. Get
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  Speaker 1: somebody to rig up a set in the radio type room, ed,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll see if we can listen in. There was
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: a desperate, tense, taut inflection in his voice. Now calling
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: New Albuquerque Spaceport or only onto Spaceport, Phil Mooney calling
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: any Earth spaceport, Phil Mooney calling Onionta, New Albuquerque, Casablanca,
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  Speaker 1: mooked in any Earth spaceport. Emergency emergency requests landing instructions
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  Speaker 1: have Lilian Marshall, eight years old, needing immediate medical care aboard.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Please come in any Earth spaceport calling Phil Mooney, New Albuquerque,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Calling Phil Mooney, ambulance waiting on grounds, receiving you perfectly
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: come in calling Phil Mooney, Casablanca, Spaceport, calling Phil calling
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Phil Mooney, mooked in spaceport calling calling Phil Mooney, Oneonta,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: spaceport calling Phil Mooney ed. Carrie looked up over the
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: set in the radio type room at the City Editor.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: He went his lips carefully and said, he's only got
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: one day now. They've got to pick him up in
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  Speaker 1: ours or he's sunk. Jake said, I never did understand
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: how that works. Why can't he land himself? I know
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: he can't, but why the reporter shrugged. I don't quite
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: get it either, But evidently the whole operation is pretty
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: delicate stuff. They bring him down with radar somehow or other.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: It's not like landing an airplane. Landing a spacecraft is
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: done from the ground up, not from the spacecraft down.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: The pilot has comparatively little to do about it. At
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: least that's the way it is with nine ships out
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  Speaker 1: of ten. The set began to blare again, and they
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: both listened tensely. It was Phil Mooney, listen, you guys
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  Speaker 1: down there, if you're sitting around playing craps or something,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: I'm going to have a few necks to break when
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I get down. The two newspapermens stared at each other
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: over the set. Ed Carrie ran his tongue over his
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: lips again. The strange tone had gone from the voice
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: of the space pilot now and had been replaced by
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: one of hopelessness. He said, I don't know who I
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: think I'm kidding. I know, dorn Well, there's something wrong
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  Speaker 1: with my receiver, and I can't find out what it is.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Maybe the sender is off to For all I know.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: All I can pick up is some girl singing something
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: about white roses, white roses. Yet I want landing instructions
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that I get white roses. Ed Carrie jerked his head
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: up and snapped, Holy jumping hell, he's able to pick
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: some commercial station. Jake came to his feet, stuck his
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: neck out of the door, and yelled at the top
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: of his voice. Phil Mooney is receiving some commercial station
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: some name singing something about white roses. Check every station
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: in the city, find out if any of them are
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: broadcasting some dame singing about white roses. Ladies and gentlemen,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: we interrupt this program for an emergency situation. Undoubtedly you
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: have heard on your newscasts and have read in your
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: papers of the tragic case of Lilian Marshall, child victim
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: of an atomic explosion on Luna which oftened her and
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: necessitated her immediate flight to an Earth hospital. For the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: past three days, the spacecraft carrying her, piloted by war
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: hero Philip Mooney, has been having trouble with his radio
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: due to circumstances surrounding landing of spacecraft. The two have
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: been given up as lost in spite of the fact
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: that almost hourly it has been possible to receive messages
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: from Mooney. It is now revealed that he is able
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: to pick up this program on the Interplanetary Broadcasting System network.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: We are not sure which of the nearly two thousand
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: stations of our system he is receiving, but we will
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: now attempt to reach Phil Mooney with relayed messages from
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: the Oneonta spaceport where expert medical care is awaiting Little
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Lilian Marshall. Come in Oneonta calling Phil Mooney, Calling Phil Mooney.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Come in, Phil. This is Oneonta Spaceport relaying through the
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Interplanetary Broadcasting System. Come in, Phil, Phil Mooney calling Onionta.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: I'm getting you Oniata. Come in Onionta over. Okay, Phil,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Now this is it. We should have had you two
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: hours ago, but we'll make out all right. Your velocity
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: is a little too high. Give us six more units
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: on your Kingston valves. Get that over, got it? Six
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: more units on the Kingstons. Over all right, Switch on
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: your remote control. Phil, we'll take it from here. Stand
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: by the coordinators. It was night, but a blaze of
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: lights illuminated the Oneonta spaceport. Hundreds of land cars stood
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: on the parking lots. Thousands of persons crowded the wire fence,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: which kept all but port personnel from the field itself.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: The old space freighter sank easily to the apron, and
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: in seconds the rocket flames died. A surge of humanity
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: ebbed over the field toward the craft. Phil Mooney opened
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: the pilot compartments hatch and stuck his head out, blinking
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: in surprise at the mob beneath him. I don't know
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: what this is all about, he began, but I've got
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: a sick kid aboard. They're supposed to be an ambulance.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Police wedged through the crowd, conveying a white haired, white
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: jacketed man. He called up to the space pilot, we
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: won't need an ambulance. Mister Mooney, I've already made arrangements
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: for facilities here at the airport for immediate treatment. Phil
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Mooney made his way to the ground and scowled, still
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: obviously startled by the swelling crowd. Who in Kurt are you,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: he asked. The other motioned for two assistants to enter
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: the ship and bring out the child. I'm doctor Kern,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: he said, I'll see doctor Adrian Kern, the radiation expert.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: The pilot frowned worriedly. See here, doctor. The Marshalls were
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: friends of mine, and I've taken over the care of
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: little Lillian. But I'm well, I'm afraid I couldn't afford
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to pay you, I mean, the famous doctor smiled at him.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I've been retained by the interplanetary Golden Heart. Phil, you
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: needn't worry about my fee. Besides, he smiled easily, I'm
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: not going to accept any fee for this case. You see,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I was listening to Marsha Malloy singing Love of White
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Roses when your call came through. I believe it was
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: the most poignant experience I have ever been through. A
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: girl next to the doctor gushed, I'm Bunny Davis, mister Mooney,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: the managing editor of our newspaper chain, has authorized me
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to buy your story for five thousand, if you'll just
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Phil Mooney blint I, a heavyset man in a business suit,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: grasped his hand and shook it with fervor while flashbulbs
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: went off. Blindingly, Bill, he said huskily, as though moved
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: by deep emotion. As president of the board of directors
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: of Terror Luna Spaceways, I wish to take this opportunity
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: to offer you a fool. Hey, give us a smile. Phil.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: A man on top of a television truck yelled he
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: was headed back for Luna the next day. They'd been indignant.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Of course, there was Hollywood and the television networks and
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: that Terror Luna Spaceways guy who wanted to get in
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: on all the publicity by offering him a vice presidency,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: and the newspaper editors and the magazine editors and all
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the rest of them. Approximately a billion persons had been
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: tuned in to the interplanetary network when the emergency landing
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: instructions had been broadcast to him through that system. A
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: billion persons had sat on the edge of their chairs
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: tensely as his ship had been brought in. He and
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: little Lillian had received more publicity in the past twenty
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: four hours than anyone since Lindbergh. And the child would
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: be all right now. Before he left, checks totaling over
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: a quarter of a million had come in for her.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Donations from all over the Earth, and from Mars and Venus,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and even some from the Jupiter satellites, and offerers of adoption,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: thousands of them from rich and poor, even including Marcia Malloy,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the video star who had been singing that song Love
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: of White Roses. Yes, Lilian would be all right. He
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have been able to pay for the medical care
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: she'd needed, but now she had the most capable experts
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: on Earth at her disposal. They had been indignant when
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: he blasted off again for Luna Bide wanted to make
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: a hero of him. This leaving on his part they
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: interpreted as modesty, which, come to think of it, would
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: make him all the more of a hero. Phil Mooney
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: slipped the hand down to his inflicted on. He dialed
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: over a dozen different stations. The news programs were all
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: full of him and of Lilian. You think to hear
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: them that he was the noblest the most daring, the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: greatest man since Alexander the Great. He grinned Riley. One
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of the reasons he'd been so anxious to leave was
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: to get away before somebody thought to check his set
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: to see what was wrong with it. Why if anybody
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: had found that it was actually in perfect shape, they'd
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: probably have lynched him. Yeah, the Colonel had been right
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: in the Space Forces. You learned to be self reliant.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: When you got in a bad spot, you figured it
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: out yourself. You're on your own. It's you against everything
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: and everybody. Anything goes. His grin broadened. Maybe he wasn't
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: a hero the way they were all painting him, But
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: at least Lilian was all right now and no longer
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: penniless the way her parents death had left her, And
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: he wasn't doing so badly himself. End of Mercy Flight
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: by mack Reynolds, story number two of five SF stories
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: by mac Reynolds. This libri vox recording is in the
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: public domain Summit. This story was first published in Astounding
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Science Fiction February nineteen sixty two. King sized bands blared
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: martial music, The Internationale and the Star Spangled Banner, each
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: seemingly trying to drown the other in a goddard dummerung
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: of acoustics. Two lines of troops, surfacely differing in uniforms
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and did weapons, but basically so very the same, so
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: eveningly matched, came to attention. A thousand hands slapped a
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: thousand submachine gun stocks. Marshal Vladimir Ignatov strode stiff kneed
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: down the long march, the stride of a man for
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: years used to cavalry boots. He was flanked by frozen
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: visaged submardinates, but none so cold a face as he himself.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: At the entrance to the conference hall, he stopped, turned
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: and waited. At the end of the corridor of troops,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: a car stopped, and several figures emerged, most of them
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: in civilian dress, several bearing briefcases. They, in their turn
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: ran the gauntlet. At therefore walked James Warren don Levy, sprightly,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: his eyes darting here there politician, like a half smile
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: on his face, as though afraid he might forget to
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: greet a voter he knew, or was supposed to know.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: His hand was out before that of Vladimir Ignatov's, Your excellency,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: he said, Ignatov shook his hands stiffly dropped that of
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the others. As soon as protocol would permit, the Field
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Marshal indicated the door of the conference hall. There is
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: little reason to waste time, mister president, exactly. Don Levy
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: snapped the door closed behind them, and the two men,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: one uniformed and be meddled, the other, Natalie, attired in
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: his business suit, turned to each other. Nice to see
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: you again, Vovo. How are Olga and the baby? The
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: soldier grinned back in response, HM, hmmm, two babies. Now,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: you don't keep up on the real news, Jim. How's Martha?
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: They shook hands. Not so good, Jim said, scowling. I'm
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: worried it's that new cancer. As soon as we conquer
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: one type two more rear up? How are you people
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: doing on cancer research? Vovo was stripping off his two
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: He hung it over the back of one of the chairs,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: began to unbutton his high tight military collar. I'm not
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: really up on it, Jim, but I think that's one
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: feel where you can trust anything we know to be
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: in the regular scientific journals. Are people exchanged with yours?
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I'll make some inquiries when I get back home, though,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: you never know this new strain I guess you'd call
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: it might be one that we're up on and you weren't. Yeah,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: said Jim. Thanks a lot. He crossed to the small
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: portable bar. How about a drink? Whiskey vodka rum de ice.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Vovo slumped into one of the heavy chairs that were
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: arranged around the table. He grimaced, No vodka, I don't
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: feel patriotic today. How about one of those long coal
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: drinks with the cold stuff kuba libra, Jim said, coming up, Look,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: would you rather speak Russian? No? Vovo said, My English
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: is getting rusty. I need the practice. Jim brought the
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: glasses over and put them on the table. He began
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: stripping off his own coat, loosening his tie. God, I'm tired,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: he said, this sort of thing wears me down. Vovo
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: sipped his drink. Now there is as good a thing
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: to discuss as any in the way of killing time.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: The truth. Now, Jim, do you really believe in a god?
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: After all that's happened to this human race of ours?
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Do you really believe in divine guidance? He twisted his
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: mouth sarcastically. The other relaxed, I don't know, he said,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I suppose so I was raised in a family that
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: believed in God, just as I suppose you were raised
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: in one that didn't. He lifted his shoulders slightly in
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: a shrug. Neither of us seems to be particularly brilliant
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: and establishing a position of our own. Vovo snorted. Never
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: thought of it that way, he admitted. Were you usually
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: contemptuous of anyone still holding to the old beliefs? There
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: aren't many left more than you, people admit, I understand.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Vovo shook his heavy head. No, not really, mostly crackpots.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Have you ever noticed how it is that the non
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: conformists in any society are usually crackpots. The people on
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: your side that admit belonging to our organizations are usually
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: on the wild eyed and uncombed hair side, I admit it.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, the people in our citizenry who
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: subscribe to your system, your religion, that sort of thing,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: are crackpots. Two applies to religion as well as politics.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: An atheist in your country is a nonconformist in mine.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: A Christian is both crackpots. Jim laughed and took a
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: sip of his drink. Bovo yawned and said, ah, how
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: long are we going to be in here? I don't
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: know up to us? I suppose, yes, how about another drink?
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I'll make it. How much of that cold of stuff
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: do you put in? Jim told him, and while the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: other was on his feet mixing the drinks, said, you
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: figure on sticking on the same line this year? Have to?
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Vovo said, over his shoulder, what's the alternative? I don't know.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: We're building up to a whale of a depression as
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: it is, even with half the economy running full blast
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: producing defense materials. Vovo chuckled, defense materials. I wonder if ever,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: in the history of the human race any one ever
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: admitted to producing offensive materials. Well, you call it the
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: same thing. All your military equipments for defense, and of course,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: according to your press, all ours is for offense. Of course,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Vovo said. He brought the glasses back and handed one
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: to the other. He slumped back into his chair again,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: loosen two buttons of his trousers. Jim Fofo said, why
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: don't you divert more of your economy to public works,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: better roads, reforestation? Damn that sort of thing, Jim said, wearily.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: You're a better economist than that didn't your boy Mark
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Sorrow was an ingles write a small book on the subject.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: We're already overproducing, turning out more products than we can sell.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: I wasn't talking about your government building new steel mills,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: but dams, roads, that sort of thing. You could plow
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: billions into such items and get some real use out
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: of them. We both know that our weapons will never
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: be used. They can't be. Jim chicked them off on
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: his fingers. We're already producing more farm products than we
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: know what to do with. If we build more dams,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: it'll open up new farmlands, increase the glut. If we
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: build more in better roads, it will improve transportation, which
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: will mean fewer men will be able to move greater
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: tonnage and throw transportation employees into the unemployed. If we
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: go all out for reforestation, it will eventually bring down
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: the price of lumber, and the lumber people are howling already. No,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: he shook his head. There's just one really full proof
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: way of disposing of surplices and using up labor power,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: and that's war, hot or cold. Vovo shrugged. I suppose
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: so it amounts to building pyramids. Of course, Jim twisted
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: his mouth sourly. And since we're asking questions about each
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: other's way of life, when is your state going to
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: begin to wither away? How is that? Vovo asked, According
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: to your saincted founder, once you people came to power,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the state was going to wither a way, class rule
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: would be over and utopia. Beyon hand, that was a
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: long time ago, and your state is stronger than ours,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Vovo snorted, How can we wither away the state as
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: long as we are threatened by capitalist aggression, Jim said,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: ha Vovo went on, you know better than that, Jim.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: The only way my organization can keep in power is
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: by continually beating the drums, keeping our people stirred up
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: to greater and greater sacrifices, by using you as a threat.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Didn't the old Romans have some sort of maxim to
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: the effect that when you're threatened with unease at home
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: stir up trouble abroad, you're being even more frank than usual,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Jim said, But that's one of the pleasures of these
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: get togethers. Neither of us resorts to hypocrisy. But you
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: can't keep up these tensions forever. You mean, we can't
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: keep up these tensions forever, Jim, and when they end well, personally,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: I can't see my organization going out without a bloodbath.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: He grimaced sourly. And since I'd probably be one of
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the first to be bathed, I'd like to postpone the time.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: It's like having a tiger by the tail, Jim. We
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: can't let go happily. I don't feel in the same spot,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Jim said. He got up and went to the picture
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: window that took up one entire wall. It faced out
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: over a mountain vista. He looked soberly into the sky.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Vovo joined him, glass in hand. Possibly your position isn't
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: exactly the same as ours, but there'll be some awfully
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: great changes. If that military based economy of yours suddenly
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: at peace thrust upon it, you'd have an oppression such
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: as you've never dreamed of. Let's face reality, Jim, neither
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: of us can afford peace well. Both known that for
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: a long time they both considered sombrely the planet Earth
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: blazing away a small sun there in the sky. Jim said,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: I sometimes think that the race would have been better
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: off when Man was colonizing Venus and Mars, if it
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: had been a joint enterprise. Rather than you people doing
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: one and we the other. If it had all been
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: in the hands of that organization, the United Nations, Vovo supplied, then,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: when bomb Day hit, perhaps these new worlds could have
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: gone on to well better things. Perhaps, Vovo shrugged. I've
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: often wondered how bomb Day started. Who struck the spark?
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Happily there were enough colonists on both planets to start
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: the race all over again. Jim said, what difference does
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: it make who struck the spark? None? I suppose Vovo
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: began to button his collar, readjust his clothes. Well, shall
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: we emerge and let the quaking multitude know that once
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: again we have made a shaky agreement, one that will
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: last until the next summit meeting. End of Summit, story
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: number three of five SF stories by mc reynolds. This
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: livery vox recording is in the public domain gun for Higher.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: This story was first published in Analog December nineteen sixty.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Joe Prantera called softly al the pleasurable, comfortable, warm feeling
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: began spreading over him, the way it always did. The
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: older man stopped and squinted, but not suspiciously. Even now
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: the evening was dark. It was unlikely that the other
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: even saw the circle of steel that was the mouth
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: of the shotgun barrel now resting on the car's window. Ledge,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Who's it, he growled, Joe Prantera said softly. Big Lewis
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: sent me owl. Then he pressed the trigger, and at
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: that moment the universe caved inward upon Joseph Marie Prantera.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: There was nausea, and nausea upon nausea. There was a
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: falling through all space and through all time. There was
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: doubling and twisting and twitching of every muscle and nerve.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: There was pain, horror, and tumultuous fear. And he came
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: out of it as quickly and completely as he'd gone in.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: He was in, he thought a hospital, and his first
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: reaction was to think, this here, California, everything's different. Then
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: his second thought was somethinging went wrong. Big Lewis, he
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: ain't like this. He brought his thinking to the present.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: So far as he could remember, he hadn't completely pulled
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: a trigger. That at least meant that whatever the rap was,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be too tough. With luck, the Syndicate would
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: get him off with a couple of years. At Quentin,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: a door slid open in the wall in a way
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: that Joe had never seen a door operate before this
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: here California. The clothes of the newcomer were wrong too.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: For the first time, Joe Prantera began to sense an alieness,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: a something that was awfully wrong. The other spoke precisely
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: and slowly, the way a highly educated man speaks the
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: language which he reads and writes fluently, but has little
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: location to practice vocally, you have recovered, Joe Prantera looked
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: at the other expressionlessly. Maybe the old duck was one
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: of these foreign doctors, Like the newcomer said, you have
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: undoubtedly been through a most harrowing experience. If you have
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: any untoward symptoms, possibly I could be of assistance. Joe
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: couldn't figure out how we stood. For one thing, there
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: should have been some kind of police guard, the other said,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: perhaps a bit of a stimulant. Joe said flatly, I
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: want a lawyer. The newcomer frowned him. A lawyer. I
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: ain't saying nothing, not until I get a mouthpiece. The
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: newcomer started off on another tack. My name is Lawrence
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Ruston Ferrell. If I am not mistaken, you are Joseph
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Salviati Pronteran Salviati happened to be Joe's mother's maiden name,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: but it was unlikely this character could have known that
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Joe had been born in Naples and his mother had
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: died in childbirth. His father hadn't brought him to the
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: States until the age of five, and by that time
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: he had a stepmother. I want a mouthpiece, Joe said, flatly,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: or let me out of here, Lawrence Reston Farrell said,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: you are not being constrained. There are clothes for you
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: in the closet there. Joe gingerly tried swinging his feet
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: to the floor and sitting up, while the others stood
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: watching him. Strangely, he came to his feet with the
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: exception of a faint nausea, which brought back memories of
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: that extreme condition he suffered during during what he hadn't
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: the vaguest idea what had happened. He was dressed in
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: a hospital type nightgown. He looked down at it and snorted,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: and made his way over to the closet. It opened
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: on his approach, the door sliding back into the wall
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: in much the same manner as the room's door had
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: opened for Reston Farrell. Joe Prantera scowled and said, these
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: ain't mocked clothes. No, I am afraid not. You think
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: I'd be seen dead wearing this stuff? What is this
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: some religious crackpot hospital. Reston Farrell said, I am afraid,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: mister Salviati Prantera, that these are the only garments available.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: I suggest you look out the window there. Joe gave
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: him a long, chill look, and then stepped to the window.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: He couldn't figure the other unless it was a fruitcake.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Maybe he was in some kind of pressure cooker and
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: this was one of the fruitcakes. He looked out, however,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: not on the lawns and walks of a sanitarium, but
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: upon a wide boulevard of what was obviously a populous city,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: and for a moment again Joe Prantera felt the depths
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: of nausea. This was not his world. He stared for
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: a long, long moment. The cars didn't even have wheels,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: he noted dully. He turned slowly and faced the older man.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Ruston Ferrell said, compassionately, try this. It's excellent cognac. Joe
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: pranteras stared at him, said finally, flatly, what's said, all
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: about the other put down the unaccepted glass. We were
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: afraid first realization would be a shock to you. He said.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: My colleague is in the adjoining room. We will be
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: glad to explain to you if you will join us there.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: I want to get out o here, Joe said, Where
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: would you go? The fear of police, of al Rossy's vengeance,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: of the measures that might be taken by Big Lewis
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: on his failure, were now far away. Ruston Ferrell had
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: approached the door by which he had entered, and it
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: reopened for him. He went through it without looking back.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: There was nothing else to do. Joe dressed, then followed him.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: In the adjoining room was a circular table that would
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: have accommodated a dozen persons. Two were seated there, now papers, books,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: and soiled coffee cups before them. There had evidently been
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: a long wait. Ruston Farrell, the one Joe had already met,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: was tall and drawn of face, and with a chained
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: smoker's nervousness. The other was heavier and more at ease.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: They were both, Joe estimated, somewhere in their middle fifties.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: They both looked like docs. He wondered, all over again
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: if this was some kind of pressure cooker, but that
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: didn't explain the view from the window. Ruston Farrell said,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: May I present my colleague, Citizen Warren Brett, James Warren.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: This is our guest from yesteryear, mister Joseph Salviati prontera Brett.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: James nodded to him friendly so far as Joe could see.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: He said gently, I think it would be mister Joseph prantera,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: wouldn't it. The maternal lineage was almost universally ignored. His voice, too,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: gave the impression he was speaking a language not usually
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: on his tongue. Joe took an empty chair, hardly bothering
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: to note its alien qualities. His body seemed to fit
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: into the piece of furniture, as though it had been
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: molded to his order. Joe said, I think maybe I'll
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: take that there drink. Doc Reston Ferrell said, of course,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: and then something else. Joe didn't get whatever the something
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: else was a slot opened in the middle of the table,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: and a glass so clear of texture as to be
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: all but invisible, was elevated. It contained possibly three ounces
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: of golden fluid. Joe didn't allow himself to think of
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: its means of delivery. He took up the drink and
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: bolted it. He put the glass down and said, carefully,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: what said all huh? Warren Brett James said, soothingly, prepare
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: yourself for somewhat of a shock. Mister Prantera, you are
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: no longer in Los Angeles. You think I'm stupid. I
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: can see that I was about to say Los Angeles
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty. Mister Prantera, we welcome you to Nuevo
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Howware to Nuevo Los Angeles and to the year.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Brett James looked at his companion. What is the date,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: old calendar, twenty one thirty three? Restern Ferrell said, twenty
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: one thirty three A d they would say. Joe Prantera
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: looked from one of them to the other, scowling. What
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: are you guys talking about? Warren Brett James said softly,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: mister Prantera, you are no longer in the year nineteen sixty.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: You are now in the year twenty one thirty three.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: He said, uncomprehendingly. You mean I've been like unconscious for
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: He let the sentence fall away as he realized the impossibility.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Brett James said gently, hardly for one hundred and seventy years,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: mister Prontera. Western Farrell said, I am afraid we are
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: confusing you. Briefly, we have transported you, I suppose one
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: might say, from your own era to ours. Joe Prantera
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: had never been exposed to the concept of time travel.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: He had simply never associated with anyone who had ever
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: even remotely considered such an idea. Now, he said, you
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: mean like I've been asleep all that time? Not exactly,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: Brett James said, frowning, rest And Farrell said, suffice to say,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: you are now one hundred and seventy three years after
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: the last memory you have. Joe Prantera's mind suddenly reverted
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: to those last memories, and his eyes narrowed dangerously. He
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: felt suddenly at bay. He said, maybe you guys better
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: let me in on what's this all about. Reston Farrell said,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: mister Prantera, we have brought you from your era to
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: perform a task for us. Joe stared at him, and
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: then at the other He couldn't believe he was getting
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: through to them, or at least that they were to him. Finally,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: he said, if I get this, you want me to
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: do a job for you that is correct, Joe said,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: you guys know the kind of jobs I do that
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: is correct? Like hell, you do? You think I'm stupid.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: I've never even seen you before. Joe Prantera came abruptly
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: to his feet. I'm getting out of here for the
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: second time. Reston Farrell said, where would you go, mister Prantera.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Joe glared at him, Then he sat down again, as
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: abruptly as he'd arisen. Let's start all over again. I
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: got this straight. You brought me some screwy way all
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: the way here. Okay, I'll buy that. I seen what
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: it looks like out that window. The real comprehension was
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: seeping through to him even as he talked. Everybody I know, Jesse, Tony,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: the kid, big Lewis, everybody, They're dead, even big Lewis. Yes,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Brett James said, his voice soft. They are all dead,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: mister Prantera. Their children are all dead, and their grandchildren.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: The two men of the future said nothing more for
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: long minutes, while Joe Prantera's mind whirled its confusion. Finally,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: he said, what's this bit about you wanting me to
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: give it to some guy? That is why we brought
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: you here, mister Prantera, you were you are a professional assassin. Hey,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: wait a minute now, rest and Pharrell went on, ignoring
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: the interruption. There is a small point in denying your calling, prey.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Remember that at the point where we transported you, you
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: were about to dispose of a contemporary named Alfonso a
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Nunciata Rossi, a citizen, I might say, whose demise would
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: probably have caused a small dismay to society. They had impact,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: all right, Joe said, But why me, Why don't you
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: get some heavy from now? Somebody knows the ropes these days,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: Brett James said, mister Prantera, there are no professional assassins
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: in this age, nor have there been for over a
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: century and a half. Well, then do it yourself. Joe
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Prantera's irritation over this whole complicated mess was growing, and
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: already he was beginning to long for the things he knew,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: for Jesse and Tony and the others, for his favorite bar,
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: for the lasagna down at Papa Giovanni's. Right now, he
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: could have welcomed a calling down at the hands of
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Big Lewis. Reston Farrell had come to his feet and
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: walked to one of the large room's windows. He looked
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: out as though unseeing, then his back turned. He said,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: we have tried, but it is simply not in us.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Mister pantera, you mean you are yellow? No, if by
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: that you mean afraid, it is simply not within us
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: to take the life of a fellow creature, not to
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: speak of a fellow man. Joe snapped, everything you guys
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: say sounds crazy. Let's start all over again. Brett James said,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: let me do it, Lawrence. He turned his eyes to Joe.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Mister Prantera, in your own era, did you ever consider
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: the future? Joe looked at him blankly. In your day,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: you were confronted with national and international problems, just as
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: we are today, and just as nations were a century
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: or a millennium ago. Sure, okay, so we had problems,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: I know what you mean, like wars and depressions and
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: dictators and like that. Yes, like that, Brett James nodded.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: The heavy set man paused a moment. Yes like that,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: he repeated. That we confront you now indicates that the
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: problems of your day were solved. Hadn't they been, the
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: world most surely would have destroyed itself. Wars our pedagogues
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: are hard put to convince their students that such ever
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: existed more than a century and a half ago. Our
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: society eliminated the reasons for international conflict. For that matter,
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: he added, musingly, we eliminated most international boundary is depressions.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Shortly after your own period, Man awoke to the fact
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: that he had achieved to the point where it was
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: possible to produce an abundance of all with a minimum
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: of toil overnight for all practical purposes. The whole world
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: was industrialized automated. The Second Industrial Revolution was accompanied by
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: revolutionary changes in almost every field, certainly in every science.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Dictators your ancestors found, mister Prantera, that it is difficult
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: for a man to be free so long as others
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: are still enslaved. Today, the democratic ethic has reached a
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: pinnacle never dreamed of in your own era. Okay, okay, Joe,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: Prantera growled, So everybody's got it made. What I want
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: to know is what's all this about me giving it
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: to somebody? If everything's so great to outcome, you want
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: me to knock this guy off. Rest and Pharaoh bent
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: forward and thumped his right index finger twice on the table.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: The bacterium of hate, a new strain has found the
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: human race unprotected from its disease. We have thought our
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: vaccine immunized us. What's that supposed to mean? Brett James
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: took up the ball again, mister Pratterum, have you ever
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: heard of Genghis Khan of Tamerlane, Alexander Caesar? Joe Prantera
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: scowled at him emptily. Are more likely of Napoleon Hitler? Stalin?
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: Sure I heard of Hitler and Stalin? Joe growled, I
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: ain't stupid. The other nodded. Such men are unique. They
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: have a drive, a drive to power which exceeds by
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: far the ambitions of the average man. They are Jeni
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: in their way, mister Prantera, Jeni of evil. Such a
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: genius of evil has appeared on the current scene. Now
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: we're getting somewhere, Joe snarted. So you got a guy
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: what's a little ambitious like eh, and you guys ain't
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: got the guts to give it to him. Okay, what's
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: in it for me? The two of them frowned, exchanged glances.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: Rest and Ferrell said, you know, that is one aspect
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: we had not considered. Brett James said to Joe Prantera,
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: had we not taken you at the time we did,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: do you realize what would have happened? Sure, Joe grunted.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: I would let old Al Rossi have it right in
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: the gut five times. Then I would have took the
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: plane back to Chai. Brett James was shaking his head. No.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: You see, by coincidence, a police squad car was coming
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: down the street just at that moment to arrest mister Rossi.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: You would have been apprehend as I understand California law
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: of the period, your life would have been forfeit, mister Prantera.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: Joe winced it did not occur to him to doubt
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: their word. Reston Farrell said, as to reward, mister Prantera,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: we have already told you there is ultra abundance in
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: this age. Once this task has been performed, we will
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: sponsor your entry into present day society. Competent psychiatric therapy
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: will soon remove your present Wait a minute, now, you
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: figure on getting me candled by some headshrinker. Eh? No, thanks, Buster,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: I'm going back to my own. Brett James was shaking
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: his head again. I am afraid there is no return
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: mister Prantera, time travel works in one direction. With the
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: flow of the time stream, there can be no return
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: to your own era. Joe Prantera had been rocking with
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: the mental blows he had been assimilating, but this was
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: the final haymaker. He was stuck in this squaresville of
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: a world. Joe Prantera on a job was thorough, careful,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: painstaking competent. He spent the first three days of his
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: life in the year twenty one thirty three getting the
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: feel of things. Brett James and Ruston Farrell had been
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: appointed to work with him. Joe didn't meet any of
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: the others who belonged to the group which had taken
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: the measures to bring him from the past. He didn't
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: want to meet them. The fewer persons involved, the better
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: he stayed in the apartment of Reston Ferrell. Joe had
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: been right. Reston Ferrell was a medical doctor. Brett James
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: evidently had something to do with the process that had
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: enabled them to bring Joe from the past. Joe didn't
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: know how they'd done it, and he didn't care. Joe
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: was a realist. He was here. The thing was to adapt.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: There didn't seem to be any hurry. Once the deal
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: was made, they left it up to him to make
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: the decisions. They drove him around the town when he
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: wished to check the traffic arteries. They flew him about
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: the whole vicinity. From the air, Southern California looked much
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: the same as it had in its own time. Oceans, mountains,
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: and to a lesser extent, deserts are fairly permanent, even
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: against man's corroding efforts. It was while he was flying
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: with Brett James on the second day that Joe said,
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: how about Mexico? Could I make the get to Mexico.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: The physician looked at him questioningly. Get he said, Joe
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: Prantera said, impatiently. But getaway after I give it to
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: this Howard Tipple, Tracy Guy. I gotta go on the run,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: don't I. I see, Brett James cleared his throat. Uh,
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Mexico is no longer a separate nation, mister pran Terror
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: All North America has been united into one unit. Today
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: there are only eight nations in the world. Where's the nearest,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: South America. That's a hell of a long way to
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: go on, I get we hadn't thought of the matter
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: being handled in that manner. Joe eyed him in scorn.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Oh you did not what happens after I give it
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: to this guy? I just sit around and wait for
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: the cops to put the arm on me. Brett James
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: grimaced a amusement. Mister prantera, this will probably be difficult
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: for you to comprehend. But there are no police in
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: this era, Joe gaped at him. No police, What happens
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: if you got to throw some guy in stir If
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: I understand your idiom correctly, you mean prison. There are
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: no prisons in this era, mister prantera. Joe stared, No cops,
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: no jails. What stops anybody? What stops anybody from just
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: going into some bank like and collecting up all the bread.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: Brett James cleared his throat, mister printerra, there are no banks,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: no banks. You gotta have banks and no money to
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: put in them. We found it a rather antiquated method
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: of distribution, well over a century ago. Joe had given up.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: Now he merely stared. Brett James said, reasonably. We found
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: we were devoting as much time to financial matters in
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: all their endless ramifications, including bank robberies, as we were
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: to productive efforts, so we turned to more efficient methods
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: of distribution. On the fourth day, Joe said, okay, let's
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: get down the facts. Some of the things you guys
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: say don't stick together. So good Now, first place, where's
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: this guy, Temple Tracy you want knocked off? Reston Ferrell
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: and Brett James were both present. The three of them
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: sat in the living room of the latter's apartment, sipping
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: a sparkling wine, which seemed to be the prevailing beverage
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: of the day. For Joe's taste, it was insip of stuff. Happily,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: Rye was available to those who wanted it. Reston Farrell said,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: you mean where does he reside? Why here in this city?
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: Well that's handy, eh, Joe scratched himself thoughtfully. You got
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: somebody can finger him for me? Finger him. Look, before
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: I can give it to this guy, I gotta know
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: someplace where he'll be it sometime. Get it Like Al
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: Rossi my finger. He works in Rossie's house. See he
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: lets me know. Every Wednesday night eight o'clock Al leaves
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: the house all by hisself. Okay, so I can make
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: plans like to give it to him. Joe Pantero wound
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: it up reasonably. You gotta have a finger, James said,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: why not just go to Temple Tracy's apartment and dispose
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: of him? Just walk in, Eh, you think I'm stupid?
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: How do I know how many witnesses hang around? How
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: do I know if the guys carrying heat? Heat, a gun?
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: A gun? You think I'm stupid. I came to give
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: it to him, and he gives it to me instead.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: Doctor rust and Ferrell said, Howard temple Tracy lives alone.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: He customarily receives visitors every afternoon, largely potential followers. He
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: is attempting to recruit members to an organization he is forming.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: It would be quite simple for you to enter his
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: establishment and dispose of him. I assure you he does
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: not possess weapons. Joe was indignant. Just like that, eh,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: he said sarcastically. Then what happens? How do I get
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: out of the building? Where's my get car parked? Where
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: do I hide out? Where do I dump the heat?
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: Dump the heat, get rid of the gun. You and
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: I should get caught with the gun on me. I'd
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: wind up in the gas chamber. So quick, see here,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: mister prantera, bet James said, softly. We no longer have
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: capital punishment. You must realize, Okay, I still don't want
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: to get caught. What is the rap these days? Huh?
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: Joe scowled. You said they didn't have no jails anymore.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: This is difficult for you to understand, I imagine, Reston
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: Farrell told him. But you see, we no longer punish
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: people in this era. That took a long, unbelieving moment
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: to sink in. You mean, like, no matter what they do,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: that's crazy. Everybody'd be running around giving it to everybody else.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: The motivation for crime has been removed, mister Prantera. Farrell
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: attempted to explain, a person who commits a violence against
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: another is obviously in need of medical care and consequently
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: receives it. You mean, like if I steal a car
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: or something, they just take me to a doctor. Joe
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: Prantera was unbelieving. Why would anyone wish to steal a car?
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: Reston Farrell said, easily, But if I give it to somebody,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: you will be turned over to a medical institution. Citizen
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: Howard Temple Tracy is the last man you will ever kill,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: mister Prantera. A chilliness was in the belly of Joe Prantera,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: he said, very slowly, very dangerously. You guys figure on
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: me getting caught, don't you, yes, Brett James said evenly, Well,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: then figure something else. You think I'm stupid, mister Prantera,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: Doctor Reston Farrell said, there has been as much progress
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: in the field of psychiatry in the past two centuries
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: as there has in any other Your treatment would be
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: brief and painless. Believe me, Joe said, coldly, And what
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: happens to you guys? How do you know I won't
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: rat on you? Brett James said gently the moment after
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: you have accomplished your mission, we plan to turn ourselves
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: over to the nearest institution to have determined whether or
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: not we also need therapy. Now I'm beginning to wonder
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: about you, guys, Joe said, Look all over again. What
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: do you want to give it to this guy for?
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: The doctor said, we explained the other day, mister Prantera,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: Citizen Howard Temple Tracy is a dangerous, atavistic, evil genius.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: We are afraid for our institutions if his plans are
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: allowed to mature. Well, if you've got things so good,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: everybody's got it. Like, who listen to him? The doctor
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: nodded at the validity of the question. Mister prantera, Homo
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: sapiens is a unique animal physically, he matures at approximately
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: the age of thirteen. However, mental maturity and adjustment is
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: often not fully realized until thirty or even more indeed,
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: it is sometimes never achieved before such maturity is reached.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Our youth are susceptible to romantic appeal. Nationalism, chauvinism, racism,
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: the supposed glory of the military all seem romantic to
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: the immature. They rebel at the orderliness of present society.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: They seek entertainment and excitement. Citizen Temple Tracy is aware
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: of this and finds his recruits among the young. Okay,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: so this guy is dangerous. You want him knocked off
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: before he screws everything up. The way things are, there's
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: no way of making a get so you'll have to
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: get some other patsy, not me. I am afraid you
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: have no alternative, Brett James said gently, Without us, what
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: will you do, mister pranterra, You do not even speak
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: the language. What do you mean? I don't understand some
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: of the big words you has used, but I get by, okay,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: Brett James said, Amber English is no longer the language
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: spoken by the man in the street, mister pranteron only
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: students of such subjects any longer speak such tongues as
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: amer English, French, Russian. Are the many others that once
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: confuse the race with their limitations as a means of communication.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: You mean there's no place in the whole world where
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: they talk American. Joe demanded a guest. Doctor. Rust and
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: Ferrell controlled the car. Joe Prantera sat in the seat
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: next to him, and Warren Brett James sat in the back.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: Joe had tucked in his belt a forty five caliber
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: automatic once displayed in a museum. It had been more
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: easily procured than the ammunition to fit it, but that problem, too,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: had been solved. The others were nervous, obviously repelled by
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: the very conception of what they had planned. Inwardly, Joe
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: was amused now that they had got in the clutch.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: The others were on the verge of checkin' it out.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: He knew it wouldn't have taken much for them to
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: cancel the project. It wasn't any answer, though, if they
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: allowed him to call it off to day. They'd talked
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: themselves into it again before the week was through. Besides,
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: already Joe was beginning to feel the comfortable, pleasurable, warm
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: feeling that came to him on occasions like this. He said,
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: you sure this guy talks American? Eh? Warren Brett James said,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: quite sure. He is a student of history, and he
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: won't think it's funny. I'd talk him American to him
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: may he'll undoubtedly be intrigued. They pulled up before a
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: large apartment building that overlooked the area once known as Wilmington.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: Joe was coolly efficient now. He pulled out the automatic,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: held it down below his knees, and threw a shell
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: into the barrel. He used the hammer down, thumbed on
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: the safety, stuck the weapon back in his belt and
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: beneath the jacket like garment he wore. He said, Okay,
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: see you guys later. He left them and entered the
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: building an elevator. He still wasn't used to their speed
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: in this era, wooshed him to the Penthouse duplex occupied
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: by citizen Howard Temple Tracy. There were two persons in
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: the reception room, but they left on Joe's arrival, without
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: bothering to look at him more than glancingly. He spotted
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: the screen immediately and went over and stood before it.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: The screen lit and revealed a heavy set dower of
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: countenance man seated at a He looked ato Joe Prantera's face,
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: scowled and said something. Joe said, Joseph Salviati Prantera to
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: interview Citizen Howard temple Tracy. The other, shaggy eyebrows rose. Indeed,
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: he said in emmer English. Joe nodded. Enter. The other said.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: The door had slid open on the other side of
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: the room. Joe walked through it and into what was
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: obviously in office. Citizen temple Tracy sat at a desk.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: There was only one other chair in the room. Joe
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Pranterry ignored it and remained standing. Citizen temple Tracy said,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: what can I do for you? Joe looked at him
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: for a long, long moment. Then he reached down to
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: his belt and brought forth the forty five automatic. He
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: moistened his lips. Joe said, softly, you know what this
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: here is. Temple Tracy stared at the weapon. It's a handgun. Chika,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: I would say about nineteen twenty five old calendar. What
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: in the world are you doing with it, Joe said,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: very slowly, Chief, In the line you're in these days,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: you need a heavy round with one of these. Otherwise, Chief,
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: you're going to wind up in some gutta with a
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: lot of holes in you. What I'm doing, I'm asking
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: for a job. You need a good man knows how
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: to handle one of these, Chief, Citizen Howard Temple Tracy
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: eyed him appraisingly. Perhaps, he said, you are right at that.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: In the near future, I may well need an assistant
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: knowledgeable in the field of violence. Tell me more about yourself.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: You surprise me considerably. Sure, Chief, It's kind of a
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: long story though. First off, I better tell you you
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: got some bad enemy, Chief, two guys special named Brett
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: James and Doc Reston farry. Well. I think one of
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: the first jobs I'm going to have to do for you, Chief,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: is to give it to those two. End of Gun
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: for Hire, story number four of five SF stories by
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: mac Reynolds. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: Story number four, Half Tripper. This story was first published
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: in Planet Stories November nineteen fifty one. This section of
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: New Saint fe was off my beaten track. I'd been
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: on Mars a long time, and in more than usually
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: familiar with the various centers where we terrans do our congregating. However,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: it had been years since I'd come through here. I
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: was sitting in an obscure tavern called with commendable restraints
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: simply Sam's Bar, lapping up Martian brandy, and facing the
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: prospect of returning to the spaceport in a few hours
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: with no particular enthusiasm. I only half noticed the old
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: man who got up on the stool next to me.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: Sam came over and asked him what he'd have. The
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: oldster carefully counted out some coins on the bar and said, wine, Sam,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: a glass of Martian wine. You know I don't want
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: your money, Joseph, Sam told him. The old man answered, reproachfully,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: the wine would taste that much the less, my friend,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: if I had not earned it by the sweat of
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: my Okay, Sam sighed. He poured the wine and rang
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: up the money and went off to wait on someone else.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: A half tripper sidled up to me. How about a drink, Spaceman,
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: he whined, I'm a graduate of the Academy, myself a
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: class of seventy two. He must have noted my United
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: Space Line's uniform. Sorry, I said, gruffly, keeping my back
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: to him. Any spaceman can tell you that if you
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: talk to a half tripper for long, you will soon
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: be showing symptoms of space Caffard yourself, the underlying terror
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: in him, the mind shattering fear of space, the way
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: he stares at you, thinking that you can go home
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: while he is afraid to risk the trip. There are
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: few of them that can hide their disease. I need
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: a shot bad, he whispered urgently. He probably did too.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: Few half trippers are able to secure jobs or the
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: planets of their exile. Most of them become beech combers
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: of space. Of course, there are some exceptions, especially if
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: they have money and connections. I shuddered. Beat it, I grated,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: hating myself and him. The fear of space, Caffard must
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: be somewhat similar to that of seasickness. Every new sailor
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: head back in ancient days when man sail the oceans
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: of terror. He never knew until he made his first
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: voyage if he was going to be susceptible, and if
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: he turned out to be admit, the sea wasn't for him.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: Of course, space Keffard goes tragically further, A new man
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: usually succumbs his first few hours in space. If he
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: is going to get it at all, he probably makes
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: it to the next planet. Sometimes not. Sometimes he goes
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: incurably mad right off the bat. But even if he
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: does make it, wild horses could never get him on
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: another rocket ship. He becomes a half tripper marooned on
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: an alien world. Usually, although I have known several exceptions,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: if you don't get it on your first trip, it
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: seldom bothers you. You're immune for the rest of your life.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: He repeated, how about it. Spaceman Sam began to approach threateningly.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: He couldn't afford to have half trippers hang out in
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: his place. For one thing, the shipping lions would soon
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: declare him out of bounds for their cruise. You just
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: can't let good men come in contact with obvious victims
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: of space Cafard. The old timer Sam had called Joseph
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: was distressed. You know not what you say, he told
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: me gently. I managed to sneer. Am I supposed to
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: buy a drink for every space bum that comes along
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: the half Tripper's eyes lit up and came closer to
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: the old man. How about it, Pop, could you loan
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: be the price of a nip of woji. Joseph's face
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: was compassionate. I am sorry, brother, I myself have nothing,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: but I commend you to the generosity of the tavern keeper.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: I snorched at that. I can imagine how much generosity
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: the space leper would get from the bartender. That's where
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: the surprise came. Sam sighed, Okay, half tripper, what'll it be?
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: The space bumb ordered a double Wogi got it down quickly,
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: though he was afraid Sam might change his mind and
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: then beat it to find a place to have his dreams.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: When the full force of the also narcotic drink hit him,
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: I finished my brandy, ardered another, and grinned wryly at
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: the old timer. You gave me kurt for telling him
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: to beat it, but you gave Sam the high sign
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: to let him have woji with which to rot out
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: his brains. I think I was being the kinder of
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: the two of us. Each man's salvation is within himself,
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: Joseph said softly. You won't redeem him by attempting to
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: keep him from his weaknesses. You talk like a saint,
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: but I notice you are sitting here at a bar.
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: He looked at me penetratingly, and there was vast emptiness
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: behind his eyes. There is little to enjoy in life,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: he said softly, But I have had ample time to
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: investigate all of the supposed pleasures. At one time, I
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: drank greatly and kept myself in a state of continual
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: intoxication for a period longer than you could believe. Then
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: I went through a state when I let nothing pass
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: my lips but water. Now I see the mistake of
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: both extremes, and can enjoy an occasional glass without feeling
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: the need of swilling it down until intoxication dulls me.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: He had me interested. Now, I said, you sound as
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: though you found the way in which to get the
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: greatest satisfaction from everything in life. But I noticed that
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: you don't appear particularly happy. He was silent for a
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: long time. Finally he sighed and answered, Happiness is not
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: to be found in wine, nor in food, nor in
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: beautiful women, nor even in wealth and power. It is
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: from within what you have done, what you are in
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: the eyes of your fellow man. He looked as though
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: he was about to say, but he fell silent, his
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: eyes on something far away, although he seemed to be
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: looking directly into my face. Then a light returned to
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: them and he came back to our conversation. I am sorry,
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: he said. For a moment, you reminded me of some
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: one I knew long and long ago. But now I
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: must be on my way. He left his drink half
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: finished on the bar and walked wearily to the door.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: Sam took his glass away and wiped the bar reflectively.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: Whenever he's here, I can't turn down any half trippers
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: or other space bumps, he complained. I tried at once,
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: and the old boar looked so pathetic that I damn
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: near cried myself. He seems to be quite a character,
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: I said, only half interested. Sure, Sam said, haven't you
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: heard about Joseph. He's immortal. What I said startled immortal.
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: You know he lives forever. He poured me another brandy
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: and leaned on the bar. His other customers had left,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: and he was obviously in the mood for talking. I
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: thought everybody knew about Joseph, he went on. He was
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: one of the first space barons, a real big shot
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: controlled the whole of Calypso. Him and his brother, they
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: not only personally owned all of the satellite, but even
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: all of the space lines that served it. When it
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: came to law there he was Judge Jewry and owner
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: of the courthouse in jail. Brother, that was one monopoly.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: You mean that old man that was just here I
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: sent in amazement. That's right, Joseph, we call him now.
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: He probably had a longer name then. It was a
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: long time ago. Anyway, to get back to the story.
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: One day a SpaceLiner radios in that it wants to
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: make an emergency landing on Calypso for medical assistance. They
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: had some virulent disease on board, and the passengers and
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: crew were dying like flies. Well, this brother of Joseph,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: Michael or something like that his name was, advises Joseph
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: not to give them permission to land. The captain of
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: the liner pleads with him, but Joseph tells him to
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: move on. He doesn't want to take any chances. The
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: ship tried to make the next port. I forget just
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: what it was, but anyway to cut a chart, they
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: all died. That's what started things churning. In Joseph's Billywick
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: a full scale revolution. No less you miss something there,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: I said. The people wouldn't have been expected to be
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: so upset, after all, no matter how mistaken he must
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: have thought, he was acting in the interest of everyone
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: on Calypso yeah, Sam pointed out, But the thing is
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: that among the passengers was Joseph's own boy, the most
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: popular person on the satellite and the apple of his
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: old man's eye. Nobody had known it, but the kid
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: was playing hooky from his school on Terra and was
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: making a cruise of the Jupiter moons. Joseph himself had
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: never been very popular with his people, neither had this
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: younger brother of his, Michael too strict, you see. But
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: everybody liked the boy, and we're looking forward to the
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: day when he'd take over the reins of government. When
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: it came out what happened, they went berserk. They cornered
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: Joseph and Michael and a dozen or so of their
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: close associates in the palace, which was actually more of
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: a fortress than anything else. Sam wiped the bar again
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: without need and said reflectively, it must have been quite
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: a fight. Not that Joseph himself participated. The boy had
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: been his whole life, and he just moved around like
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: he was in a trance. They threw everything at that palace,
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: every weapon, every device that had been thought up for centuries,
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: but it didn't crack. Finally, the fight was ended by
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: a fleet of battle cruisers from Terra. Joseph and Michael
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: and the rest were removed and brought here to Marris.
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: None of them dared to remain on Calypso I poured
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: myself another brandy from the bottle that Sam had left
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: on the bar. You made quite a story of it,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: I told him, But you didn't tell me what you
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: started to about the immortality. Yeah, he said, that's right. Well,
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: it seems that in the atomic bombardment of the palace
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: something happened that wound up with Joseph and his friends
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: all immortal. Don't ask me what. I don't know when.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: Neither did these scientists guys, when they tried to figure
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: it out. Of course, it didn't become known for years,
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: not until it became obvious that they weren't dying or
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: even aging. They continued to appear as they had at
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: the time of the fight. I don't mean they couldn't
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: die at all. One by one they dropped away, Two
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: were lost in space, one was blown up in an
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: explosion on terra, another was burned to death. But the
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: only way they could die was through accident or suicide.
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: After a few hundred years, they were all gone but Joseph.
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: And of course he's gone, Battie, I interrupted, You mean
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: he's insane. The bartender grinned, crazy as a macron, I
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: said slowly. He seemed normal enough to me. Oh, perhaps
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: a bit eccentric, Sam said, Brother, he's as far around
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: the corner as you can get. You know what he thinks.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: He thinks that he's wandering through space, going from planet
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: to planet, trying to find a situation similar to that
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: in which he sent away the person he loved most
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: to his death. He thinks that if he ever finds
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: that similar situation, he'll be able to make the opposite
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: decision from the one he made before, and that will
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: redeem him. I frowned. Where does he get the money
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: for his wandering round the planets? He don't need no money.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: He's good luck. There's not a captain in the system
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: that would refuse free passage to old Joseph. Sam shrugged
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: his beefy shoulders, and who am I to say otherwise?
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: That's why I give the bums free drinks when he's around,
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: So does every other bartender. Two customers had entered, and
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: Sam made his way down to them, leaving me alone.
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: A half tripper scurried through the door and cringed up
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: to me. He whimpered, how want a drink, Spaceman I
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: I flipped him a coin, Sure, buddy, I said, repressing
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: my usual nausea at the sight of him. I got
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: down from my stool and made my way out. It
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: was time for me to return to the spaceport and
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: my job. I suppose that I forgot to tell the
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: cabby to take me to the Administration building entrance, the
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: first time I'd made that mistake in years. I was
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: preoccupied with thoughts of Joseph and the story Sam had
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: told me. The guards at the main gate must have
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: led us through without question when they saw my United
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: Spaceline's uniform. At any rate, when I looked up, it
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: was too late. Not only was I on the landing
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: field and in full view of the concrete takeoff aprons,
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: but one gigantic freighter was in the process of blasting off.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: All the horror of it flowed over me with a rush.
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: The careful training of years, the work of doctors who
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: had treated me, all my own self discipline were gone.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: I shook with terrified frenzy, the depths of space, the
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: free fall, the black emptiness, the utter, uncontrollable terror. I
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: screamed shrilly, and the cabby turned white eyed to stare
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: at me. He knew the symptoms space cavart, a half tripper.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: He gasped and spun the cab about to get me
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: to a hospital. He must have realized then that my
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: uniform didn't necessarily mean that I worked on the liners themselves,
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: but that I could be an office employee who only
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: on rare occasions went near the ships. He knew too,
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: that the very sight of a spaceship lasting off was
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: enough to put me in bed for a week, and
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: that I was uncommonly lucky to have the funds for
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: the hospitalization. Mars was strewn with the human wrecks of
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: half trippers who hadn't. As we whirled from the yard,
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: we passed the bent figure of Joseph, walking unhurriedly toward
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: a liner which was loading for the Venus run, my
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: heart cried out, even through my terror, my sickness. Joseph, Joseph,
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: so you too are alive and still seeking forgiveness. I
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: had thought I was the last, but you were by
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: far the better off of we two. To Joseph, for
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: at least you have been free to wander well. I
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: have stayed on this one hated spot since all those
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: centuries ago, when we fled from Calypso and the wrath
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: of the people who had loved the boy so as
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: though we hadn't loved him ourselves. Joseph. Yes, you are
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: the better off. You can seek throughout the stores for
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: forgiveness than to Your mind is forever dulled with your madness,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: while mine is horribly aware, always of what we've been
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: through and of the centuries ahead. It is only blurred
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: when the space caffard comes. Joseph, Joseph, you didn't even
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: recognize your brother Michael, nor I you when we met.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: End of Half Tripper, story number five of five SF
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: stories by mac Reynolds. This librevok This recording is in
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: the public domain. The Galactic Ghost. This story was first
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: published in Planets Stories of March nineteen fifty four. Despite
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: the widely publicized to radar posts encircling our nation and
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: the continuously alerted jet squadrons at its borders, the spaceship
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: was about to land before it was detected. It settled gracefully,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: quietly onto an empty field in northern New Jersey. And
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: so unexpected was the event, so unbelievable the fact that
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: man was being visited by aliens from space, that it
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: was a full half hour before the first extra was
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: on the streets in New York and forty minutes before
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: the news buzzed through the Grimlin. It might have taken
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: considerably longer for man in Earth's more isolated areas to
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: hear of the event, had not the alien taken a
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: hand at this point. Approximately an hour after the landing,
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: into the mind of every human on Earth, irrespective of nation, language, age,
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: or intellect, came the thought telepathically, we come in peace.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: Prepare to receive our message. It was a month before
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: the message came. During that period, more than nineteen nine
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: percent of the Earth's population became aware of the visitor
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: from space. Radio, television, newsreel, telegraph, and newspapers reached the
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: greatest number, but word of mouth and even throbbing drums
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: played their part. In four weeks, Savages along the Amazon
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: and shepherds in Singyang knew that visitors of the stars
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: had arrived with a message for Man, and all awaited
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: the message. Scientists and soldier, politician and revolutionists, millionaire and vagrant,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: bishop and whirling dervish, baker and pickpocket, society matron and
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: street walker, and each was hoping for one thing, and
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: afraid he'd hear another. All efforts at communication with the
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: alien ship had failed. The various welcoming delegations from the
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: state of New Jersey, from the United States, and even
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: from the United Nations were ignored. No sign of life
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: aboard was evident, and there seemed no means of entrance
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: to the spacecraft. It sat there impassively. Its tremendous, saucer
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: like shape seemed almost like a beautiful monument. At the
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: end of a month, when worldwide interest in the Visitor
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: from Space was at its height, the message came, and
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: once again it was impressed upon the mind of every
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: human being on Earth. Man, know this, your world is
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: fated to complete destruction. Ordinarily, we of the Galactic Union
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: would not have contacted Man until he had progressed much
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: further and was ready to take his place among us.
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: But this emergency makes necessary that we take immediate steps
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: if your kind is to be saved from complete obliteration.
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: In order to preserve your race, we are making efforts
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: to prepare another planet, an uninhabited one, to receive your colonists. Unfortunately,
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: our means of transporting you to your new world are limited,
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: and only a handful can be taken. You are safe
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: for another five of your Earth years. At the end
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: of that period we will return have a thousand of
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: your people ready for their escape. The President of the
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: United States lifted an eyebrow wearily and wrapped again for order. Gentlemen,
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: please let us get back to the fundamental question. Summed up,
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: it amounts to this, only one thousand persons out of
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: a world population of approximately two billions, are going to
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: be able to escape the Earth's destruction. In other words,
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: one out of every two million. It is going to
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: be most difficult to choose. How Ernest Oberfeld tapped his
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: glasses fretfully on the conference table. Mister President, it need
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: not be quite as bad as all that. After all,
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: we must choose the Earth's best specimens to carry on
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: our race. I believe we will find that the combined
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: populations of Europe and North America total somewhat less than
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: a billion if we go still further and eliminate all
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: inferior Monsieur Pierre Duclos flushed hell Oberfeld should keep in
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: mind that his presence at this meeting at all was
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: opposed vigorously by some of the delegates. Isn't it somewhat
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: too soon after his country's debucle to again broadcast its
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: super raced theories. The British representatives spoke up, my dear Duclos,
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: Although I agree with you completely in essence, still it
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: must be pointed out that if we were to handle
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: this allocation on a strictly numerical basis, that our Chinese
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: friends would be allotted something like two hundred colonists, while
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: Great Britain would have perhaps twenty. Maxim Grigorov grunted hardly
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: enough for the royal family. A Lord Harriman was on
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: his feet, Sir, I might echo what Monsieur Duclos has
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: said to Hara Oberfeld. It was in spite of the
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: protests from a considerable number of delegates to this conference
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: that your nation is represented at all. Gregorov's fist thumped
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: on the table and his face went beat red. It
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: is as expected. You plan to monopolize the escape ship
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: for the imperialistic nations. The atom bomb will probably be
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: used to destroy all other countries. The President of the
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: United States held up his hand. This whole thing was
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: getting more chaotic by the minute. As a matter of fact,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: instructions from Congress were that he explained that the United
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: States expected to have at least one third of the total.
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: This in view of the fact that the aliens had
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: landed in New Jersey, obviously seeing that the United States
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: was the foremost nation of the world, and further in
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: view of the fact that this country was a melting
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: pot of all nations and consequently produced what might be
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: called the average member of the human race. However, that
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: would have to wait. Arder had to be brought to
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: this conference if anything was to be accomplished. Gentlemen, gentlemen, please,
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: he called, these accusations we are getting nowhere. I have
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: taken the liberty to make arrangements to have the representative
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: of the newly formed Congress of American Sciences address you.
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: Are you agreeable, he raised his eyebrows, inquiringly, and meeting
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: no objection, pressed the button on the table before him.
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: Professor Mecklethorpe was ushered in, bobbed his head to the
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: assembled delegates, and came to the point immediately. The problem
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: which you are discussing has many ramifications. I would like
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: to bring to your attention a few which should be
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: examined with care. First, the choice of colonists must not
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: be on a national basis, nor on one based upon
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: political or monetary prominence. If it is, we as a
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: race are doomed. This new planet, no matter how well
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: prepared for us by the Galactic Union, is going to
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: be a challenge such as man has never faced before.
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: This challenge cannot be met by politicians, no matter how glib,
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: nor by wealthy men, no matter how many dollars they possess,
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: nor by titled ones, no matter how old and honored
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: their names. We must pick trained specialists who will be
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: able to meet the problems that arise in the new world.
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: Our Congress recommends that all persons of all nations who
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: have college degrees be given thorough tests both for IQ
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: and for accumulated knowledge, and that the highest thousand be
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: chosen irrespective of nation or race. Hyndi triko, and I
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: smile quietly. May I ask the learned professor a question?
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: Of course, that is why I am here. We want
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: only to have this matter decided on a strictly scientific basis.
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: My poverty stricken country has a population of possibly one
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: fifth of the world total, but fewer university men than
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: one of your large cities. Might boast your desire to
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: choose men by their IQ has its merits, But I
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: have no doubt that in my country we have men
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: of tremendous intelligence who cannot even read and write aside
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: from having a university degree. Must my widely illiterate people
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: go unrepresented in the New World? A muscle twitched in
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: the professor's face. Needless to say, the Congress of American
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: Sciences has considered that, however, we must view this matter
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: in a spirit of sacrifice. The best of the world's
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: population must go to the New World. Possibly whole nations
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: will go without representation. It is too bad, but unfortunately necessary.
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: Sven Carlson put up his finger for recognition. It seems
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: to me that there is another serious loophole in the
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: Professor's recommendation. He wants the thousand to be made up
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: of university graduates of high IQ and considerable accumulated knowledge.
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: I am afraid I foresee the new world being populated
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: with elderly scholars. He smiled, like the professor himself, who
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: I understand has a phenomenal IQ. Monsieur Duclaus nodded, he
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: is right. We must consider the need to send perfect
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: physical specimens. He looked down at his own small and
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: bent body. Gentlemen, he said, wrily, has it occurred to
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: you that none of us here at this conference are
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: suitable to be represented among the thousand? They ignored him.
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: A pale faced delicate in black, who had thus foresaid nothing,
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: spoke up softly. I have been instructed to inform you
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: that our organization demands that all of the colonists be
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: of the true faith. His words were drowned by the
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: shouting of half a dozen of the conference delegates. Loud
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: above them, all could be heard the bellow of Maxim Gregorov.
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: Our union now includes the population of approximately half the world.
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: Our allotment kant sequently will be five hundred colonists of
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: the one thousand. We will choose them by our own methods,
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: Lord Harriman murmured undoubtedly. By starting at the top of
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: the party membership list and taking the first five hundred names,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: beginning with your leader. The President of the United States
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: ran his hand through his hair and then roughly down
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: the side of his face. A messenger handed him a
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: slip of paper. He read it and intensified his pounding
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: on the table. Gentlemen, he shouted, if Professor Monclethorpe is through,
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: we have here a request from the International Physical Culture
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: Society to have their representative heard. I know Sven Carlson
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: said he wants all of the colonists to be able
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: to chin themselves twenty five times as the first requisite.
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: At the end of the five year period, the spaceship
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: came again, settling into the ident field where it had
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: first landed. This time a delegation awaited it and a
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: multitude that stretched as far as the eye could see.
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: A telepathic message came from the visitor from space almost
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: immediately choose from your number three representatives to discuss the
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: situation with us. Within ten minutes, three advanced and entered
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: the ship by way of a port that opened before them.
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: As they approached among their number was Pierre Duclaus. A
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: passage stretched before them, and seeing no one, they hesitated
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: a moment before following it to its further end. Monsieur
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: Duclaus led the way, depending only slightly on his cane
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: to aid his bent body. A door opened and they
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: were confronted by the figure of a man seated at
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: a desk. It was several moments before they realized that
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: the entity before them was masked so cleverly that they
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: had been let to believe him human. He said, in
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: faultless English, I note that you have penetrated my disguise.
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: I thought it would be easier for you if I
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: hid my true appearance. Until your people are used to
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: alien life forms, I must use this measure. Monsieur Duclaus bowed.
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: We appreciate your consideration, but I assure you that our
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: the alien waved the gloved hand. Please no argument. My
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: appearance would probably nauseate you, but it is of no importance.
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: Pray be seated. He noted the cane and nodded to
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: the little frenchman. You, sir, must be highly thought of
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: to rate being chosen one of the thousand, in view
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: of your age and health. Although he was not at
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: ease in the presence of the representative of the Galactic Union.
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Duclaous allowed himself a wry smile. You misunderstand. I
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: am not one of the colonists. My presence here at
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: this meeting is an honor that has been awarded me
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: in return for some small services and aiding in the
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: selection of the favored ones. And what were these services?
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: Of no real importance? I suppose you might say that
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: the most important was that I was the first to
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: refuse to be a colonist. Bentley, one of the other
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: Earthmens spoke up. Had it not been for Pierre Duclos,
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: it is doubtful that the thousand would have been chosen,
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: and even possible that there would be no Earth to
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: which to return for your colonists. Behind the mask, the
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: eyes of the alien gleamed enlighten me further, please, Duclos demurred,
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: you honor me over much, mister Bentley. Let us approach
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: the problem of the colonists and their transportation. But John
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: Bentley went on for more than two two years after
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: your ship's departure, complete confusion reigned in regard to selection
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: of a thousand. Happily all out warfare between nations had
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: been avoided, although conditions were rapidly coming to a point
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: where it was momentarily expected. Each race, each nation, each religion,
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: even each sex, thought they should have the greater representation,
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: and each of these groups, in turn were divided into
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: subgroups by wealth, age, class, education, and others. Almost everybody
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: on earth knew of some reason why he should be
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: one of the colonists, and most of us were willing
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: to take any steps to make our desire come true.
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: The alien said that was to be expected. And then,
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: and then, Pierre Duclos formed his Society of Racial Preservation,
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: whose first requisite for membership was a refusal to become
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: one of the colonists. The purpose of the organization was
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: to find the thousand most suitable colonists, without regard to race, nationality, creed, color, education, class, wealth,
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: or any other grouping. At first, the growth of membership
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: was slow, but after a time man saw that his
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: chance of survival as an individual was practically nil, that
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: his chance of being chosen was at best less than
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: one in two million. When he realized this, his next
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: desire was to make sure that even though he as
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: an individual, was doomed. The race survived. Membership in the
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: Society grew rapidly and internationally. The members, you might say,
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: were fanatical. Why not They knew that they had less
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: than five years to live. Why not sacrifice those last
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: years of life in such a noble cause. As the
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: Society grew in strength, nothing could stand before it. Governments
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: that stood in the way were overthrown, social systems abolished,
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: Prejudices and institutions that had stood for centuries were wiped out.
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: It became necessary to institute world government to guarantee to
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: all equal opportunity. Step by step, the Society took the
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: measures necessary to ensure the selection of the best specimens
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: Earth had to offer, and scientific development was pushed to
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: the utmost. We wished to send our colonists off with
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: as much as Earth could possibly give them. We eliminated
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: a dozen diseases that have plagued us for centuries. We
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: devised a thousand new tools and techniques. In short, said
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: the alien. Because of this stimulus, man has progressed as
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: much in this past five years as he could have
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: expected in the next fifty. That is correct, Pierre Duclaus said,
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: it is unfortunate that now we have on our threshold
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: a whirl really worth living in that it is fated
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: to be destroyed. I see, said the alien. What would
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: have been a smile on a human face flickered on
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: his I am glad to report that the danger which
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: confronted the Earth has been removed, and the need to
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: populate the new planet with colonists in order to preserve
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: your race is now eliminated. Gentlemen, the Earth is safe.
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: Man may go on with his plans without fear of destruction.
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Duclos fingered his cane thoughtfully, while the other two
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: Earthmen jumped to their feet, thumped each other's backs, shouted,
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: and otherwise demonstrated their joy. They finally dashed from the
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: room and from the spacecraft to give the news to
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: the world. The alien eyed the little Frenchman, and why
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: have you remained? I do not believe the world face
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: with destruction, monsieur. I have come to the conclusion that
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: you have perpetrated a force upon mankind. The alien sat
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: himself down at the desk again. I see you will
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: need an explanation, but you are wrong. You know, faced
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: with destruction, you were the destruction, however, was not a
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: matter of collision with some other body or whatever you
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: might have imagined, the destruction would have come from within.
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: Man was on the verge of destroying himself. One more conflict,
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: or at most two, would have done it. The Galactic
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: Union has long been aware of man who has developed
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: mechanically in a phenomenal manner, but has not been able
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: to develop socially to the point where his science is
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: less than a danger. This ship was sent to you
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: in hopes of accomplishing exactly what has been accomplished. We
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: believed your racial instinct would be strong enough to unite you.
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: When the race as a whole thought it was threatened
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: with extinction. The alien got to his feet. I am
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: afraid we must leave now. Let me say that I
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: hope that man will soon be able to take his
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: place in the Galactic Union. Monsieur Duclaus winced the Galactic Union.
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: He said the League of Nations and the United Nations
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: were bad enough. He smiled wildly, and I thought that
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: with the establishment of a world government, we had abolished
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: such conferences forever. I can just see myself as the
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: first delicate from Earth Heaven forbid. End of the Galactic Ghost.
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: End of five science fiction stories by Macrenold's These Stories
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: read by Phil Cheevert Baton Rouge, Louisiana, June twenty twenty one,