Charles A. Stearns

“ Down the path from the ridge, a small, white-robed figure came running, far ahead of the others, bent upon her own schemes of evolution.
Abdul crouched lower in the shadows. "That one makes even the heart of a man swell within his breast," he whispered, "for she does not ever give up."
"That no man may touch," Dr. Stefanik repeated, and nodded his shaggy head wisely. "As an idealist, I may have given them shoes and enlightenment, but I did not give them this, and so they are not altogether mine. ”

“ On Ophir I was not happy, but at least it was home. Out there they may laugh at me. It is exciting and wonderful, but terrifying."
"They will not laugh at you. You will be allowed to live on any approved planet that you wish, and choose your own profession. You will be trained at the expense of the Empire. And in a few years you may be allowed to visit your father and brother on Ophir. Only visit, I mean. Does that sound so bad?"
"But if they laugh—"
"I am not laughing," said Wellesley, with a strange lump in his throat. ”

“ He slumped on the table, wracked with sobs. "That man's stomach should bring shame upon his entire nation!" he blubbered.
"Don't you understand," Chris shouted in his ear, "We thought it was a bomb. Everybody thought it was a bomb; that Saturn had determined to blow up Friendship Tower just to spite Earth!"
Gor Jeetl looked up at him through small, bleary eyes. Uncomprehending eyes. "Oh, my dear young man!" he said.
Chris turned away with Camilla. He could no longer trust himself to speak.
"Poor fat man," said Camilla softly, and she could not suppress a giggle.
"It's lunch time," said Chris. ”

“ The powerful floodlight that shone in his face did nothing to sooth his raw temper. Someone entered the tent and he strained in his bonds to see who it was. Stephen came and stood over him.
Turpan licked his dry lips. "What time is it?" he asked.
"It is almost midnight. They have destroyed your rifle, but it has been decided that, in view of your predatory nature, it would be dangerous to release you again upon this colony. Are you prepared to meet your fate?"
Turpan sneered. "Destroy me, fool—eunuch! It will not change your lot here. You will remain an untouchable—an odd man out. ”

“ To Wellesley, yellow-cheeked from too many years in space, cynical from the paucity of human values in his life, Aidennsport was the despised prototype of colonial stagnation about the galactic rim. For he was a dour, lanky pessimist among that immense, invaluable, but nondescript order of men, the Rift constabulary, whose beat is the emptiness between the stars, and which enforces the name of law throughout the vast reaches of the firmament beyond Sol's sprawling civilization. ”

“ Abdul said. "If we go out now, they will not only chase us; they will catch us, for they are able to see very well in the dark."
"Who will catch us?"
"These people. They are worse than Tuaregs. For all I know, they may be descended from the Tuaregs, and everyone knows that a Tuareg would as soon cut a man's throat as kiss the hem of his burnoose."
"So now they are Tuaregs." Colonel Glinka nodded, with a slow, ferocious smile. "Yet you have hinted that they are the spawn of Comrade Stefanik's genius, the children of genetical science, stamped with 'Made in the Seychelles' upon their bottoms. ”

“ He fired, and part of the plateau beneath the titan's feet fell away in a sparkling shower. The creature vanished.
DeCastros was red-faced and wheezing. "That was Malmsworth," he said. "Now how the devil do you suppose he managed to stick it out all these years!"
"If that was Malmsworth," Mr. Wordsley said, "he must be a very tall man."
"That was merely dimensional mirage. Come along. We'll have to hurry if we catch him."
"Why do we want to catch him?" Mr. Wordsley said.
Captain DeCastros made a sound of sober surprise. Even of pious wonder. "Malmsworth is my only brother," he said. ”

“ Wellesley cursed him.
"It's the fastest ship in the universe," Joseph said. "Where you going?"
Black anger possessed him, but the keen instinct of orientation common to men who have lived in interstellar space worked for his salvation. He might have blundered into the swamp, but he did not. Instead he came up, after a terrible half-hour, against the wall of a building which, by its immense extent, could only have been the warehouse. He moved along its sheer, featureless side until he came to a door, which reoriented him, then struck out in the direction that he guessed the daub-hut to be. ”

“ Jon Rogeson came to my rescue. “On Phobos,” he explained to Langley, “we don’t use that word ‘robot.’ These folk have been free a long time. They’ve quite a culture of their own nowadays, and they like to be called ‘metal people.’ As a return courtesy, they refer to us humans as ‘builders.’ Just a custom, Senator, but if you want to get along with them—”
“Can they vote?” said Langley, grinning at his own sour humor. ”

“ If I should simply choose a woman, there would be no zest to it. Therefore I shall wait until they are all taken, and then I shall steal one—each week. Now go out and enjoy yourself."
Stephen, steeped in gloom, left the tent. No one paid any attention to him. There was a good deal of screaming and laughing. Too much screaming.
He walked along the avenue of tents. Beyond the temporary floodlights of the atomic generators it was quite dark. Yet around the horizon played the flickering lights of the aurora, higher now that the sun was beyond the sea. ”

“ DeCastros exclaimed with sudden ice frozen around the rim of his voice. "What have we here?"
"A new nova," Mr. Wordsley answered sullenly.
"It is common knowledge that no engineer can tell a nova from the D.R. blast of an Iphonian freighter. Let me see it." He shoved Mr. Wordsley out of the way and examined the screen intently.
"You fool," he said at last, "that's a planet. It is Avis Solis."
Now the name of Avis Solis tingled in Mr. Wordsley's unreliable memory, but it would not advance to be recognized. What planet so bright, and yet so remote from any star by angular measurement? ”

“ It had been an anonymous tip that had brought Wellesley to Ophir, but in all the inhabited universe, he knew, the Bureau was the sole guardian of the classic blood strain, and it took no chances.
"What's 'inbreeding,' pa?" said Joseph, tugging solemnly at his father's sleeve.
"A naughty word of the middle ages," said Sealilly thickly. "A bugaboo of the mighty sky-chiefs. If we do not co-operate we bring their lightning upon our heads. Yet, what must we do?" ”

“ The Captain of the Friendship Tower Guards was a fearless, red-faced man. Captains of the Guard are always red-faced and fearless. He spitted the Assistant Commissioner of Foreign Relations of Saturn with his gimlet eye, an impressive man who knew the overwhelming weight of his own personality. ”

“ Langley said. “Droll fellows, these discarded robots. Really nothing but mechanical dolls, you know, but I think the old scientists made a mistake, giving them such human appearance, and such obstinate traits.”
Oh, it was true enough, from his point of view. We had been mechanical dolls at first, I suppose, but fifty years can change one. All I know is this: we are people; we think and feel, and are happy and sad, and quite often we are bored stiff with this dreary moon of Phobos. ”

“ Colonel Glinka growled. "A little jumpy in my business is good, but too much is bad for the health." And he went, straightway, and closed the back door of the conservatory and dragged a heavy rack of trailing orchids in front of it, humming a furious little march from The Guardsman as he worked.
"You must know," he said loudly, "that I do not altogether believe you, Stefanik, when you imply that you have abandoned this research. Nor will they. For who, then, are these degenerate wretches who stand upon the hills and gawk at us, and why must you feed them? ”

“ The henna-haired young man turned off the receiver.
In an instant there were skimmers in hot pursuit, but the cloud bank loomed close, towering and opaque. Now the wisps of white were about them, and a curious, acrid smell filtered in through the aerating system. The odor of ozone. The skimmer began to shudder violently, tossing them about in their seats.
"I have never experienced such turbulence," Stephen exclaimed. "I believe this is no ordinary cloud!"
"You are right," the henna-haired young man said. "This is sanctuary."
"Who are you?" Stephen said. "Why are you running from the police?" ”

“ Mr. Wordsley wanted to say, "Yes, but you shot at him." He did not, because there was no time. He had to hurry to catch up with DeCastros, who was even now scrambling up the steep slope.
From the rim they could see Malmsworth out there on the flat. He was making good time, but Captain DeCastros proceeded to demonstrate that he was no mean hiker, himself. Mr. Wordsley's side began to hurt, and his breath came with difficulty. He might have died, if he had not feared to incur DeCastros' anger.
At times the naked man was a broad, flat monster upon that shimmering tableland. ”

“ Some of the most important men on Earth were there. Observation wings cautiously shied around the area, taking last pictures, waiting for the grandest shot of all.
Some felt sorry for Chris Berthold, the man who had spent five years designing the Friendship Tower. But Berthold was not there. He had other things on his mind.
He had been a third of the way around the blockaded area when he discovered his first clue. He tried to run the barricade. The guard had his job to do. He saw only a hatless, wild-eyed young man with a sandy crew-cut, trying to commit suicide. ”

“ The Earthman, Wellesley, came to Ophir in the season of aphelion, when the binary suns of that remote planet were cold serpent's eyes, dimly seen above the chill mists that shrouded its fern forests and craggy, young mountains, its silent oceans and magnificent organ pipe cities of legend. ”

“ We are all young, after all, and unmarried. Each of us is a theoretical scientist in his or her own right, with a high hereditary intelligence factor. We hope to propagate a superior race of limited numbers for our purpose—ultimate knowledge. Naturally a freedom in the choice of a mate will be allowed, whenever possible, but both of you, as outsiders, must agree to live out the rest of your natural lives—as celibates."
Turpan turned to Stephen with a glint of humor in his spectacular eyes. ”

“ We metal people are the children of the Builders of Earth, and later of Mars and Venus. We were not born of two parents, as they are. That is a function far too complex to explain here; in fact I do not even understand it myself. No, we were born of the hands and intellects of the greatest of their scientists, and for this reason it might be natural to suppose that we, and not they, would be considered a superior race. ”

“ Colonel Glinka sighed prodigiously. "I am afraid that our country is going to be dogs-in-the-manger in this matter," he said. "You see, we are a jealous people by nature, and if we cannot have you, no one shall." And, deliberately, he laid the Malacca cane across his left arm, so that its tip was pointed squarely at Dr. Stefanik and the sinister round hole there clearly revealed to him. ”

“ DeCastros said, "If I am not mistaken, old Malmsworth has holed up in that very same rift where we caught him at his dirty business seventeen years ago. He's as mad as a Martian; you can lay to that. He'd have to be." ”

“ He laughed. "Perhaps I may revise my opinion of Ophir," he said.
"No light!" she whispered. Her voice was low and vibrant.
"Why not?"
"I must not be seen here. But I had to warn you. It would not have been right not to warn you about Aidennsport."
"What of Aidennsport?"
"It is a dreadful—an evil place. There are forces here which you would not understand. Leave at once while you are still able to go!"
"You forget that I am a policeman. To leave without completing the census would be dereliction. I remind you that the Empire is inexorable in these things. And who are you, anyway?" ”

“ I am B-12, a metal person. If you read Day and the other progressive journals you will know that in some quarters of the galaxy there is considerable prejudice directed against us. It is ever so with minority races, and I do not complain. I merely make this statement so that you will understand about the alarm clock.
An alarm clock is a simple mechanism used by the Builders to shock themselves into consciousness after the periodic comas to which they are subject. It is obsolescent, but still used in such out of the way places as Phobos. ”

“ The world is full of madness today."
"Listen," Chris said, "the contrivance is supposed to go off in three minutes. Isn't there any way you can delay it until this girl is in the clear. Surely you have nothing against her."
Gor Jeetl turned disillusioned eyes upon Camilla. "She is a lovely, innocent girl," he said. "Almost a child, I can see that. I am sorry—truly sorry that she must be here to witness my degradation. But there is nothing I can do." There was a tear in his eye. "It will go off at precisely twelve o'clock. I regret to say that the scientists of Saturn build well." ”

“ Turpan said. "That we arrived just in time, however, was merely a circumstance. And even you, my stolid friend, must admit the beauty of the aurora of a Molein Field."
"We are lost," Stephen said, feeling stricken. "A distortion barrier endures forever."
"Fah!" the Bedchamber Assassin replied. "We have a green island for ourselves, which is much better, you'll agree, than being executed. And let me tell you, there are many security officials who ache to pump my twitching body full of the official, but deadly, muscarine. Besides, there is a colony here. Men and women. I intend to thrive." ”

“ He was playing with a furry animal not unlike a Martian ferrax, which sprang up, scarlet-eyed and bristling, at the sight of Wellesley.
"Here, boy," said Wellesley, who neither liked nor trusted children. "Is this the house of Amos Sealilly, the factor of Aidennsport?"
"Sure. That's my pa. Say, are you a spaceman?"
"Never mind that. Where is your father?"
"In the warehouse," the boy said. "I'll show you how to get inside. My name's Joseph, and I have a spaceship in the back yard. I call it the Stygia, after the pirate ship of the twenty-eighth century. Do you want to see my crew?" ”

“ Many of us were fashioned in those days, a metal person for every kind of task that they could devise, and some, like myself, who could do almost anything. We were contented enough, for the greater part, but the scientists kept creating, always striving to better their former efforts.
And one day the situation which the Builders had always regarded as inevitable, but we, somehow, had supposed would never come, was upon us. The first generation of the metal people—more than fifty thousand of us—were obsolete. ”

“ And it helped the desolation of his mood not at all that upon these same arid ridges scores of silent, burnoosed figures watched him as he stood there, allowing the water to drain from his perforated white oxfords and all unaware that his vast pith helmet, curiously heavy malacca cane and formidable fundament cast a centaur's shadow upon the rocks in the later afternoon sun. ”