Ed Earl Repp

“ Such reasoning is fantastic!
"Time exists. Not as an ever-growing chain of links, because such a chain would have to have a tail end, if it has a front end; and who can imagine the period when time did not exist? So I think time is like a circular train-track. Unending. We who live and die merely travel around on it. The future exists simultaneously with the past, for one instant when they meet."
Miller's brain was humming. Erickson shot the words at him staccato-fashion, as if they were things known from Great Primer days. ”

“ Deeply and sadistically satisfied, Commander Arzt turned and departed.
For the first ten minutes after his captors had left him, Lolan sat on the edge of a hard, filthy cot with his head buried in his hands. The cell was low-ceilinged, with eroded sandstone walls studded with sharp metal crystals. Through the barred door drifted stringy tendrils of gas—sulphur smoke, belching up from the planet's bowels. ”

“ Now that Sands and Allie Lane were together again, how were they to escape from the underground outpost of Jupiter? If we did succeed in finding our way out of the maze of tunnels, how did we expect to traverse Death Valley without water? It was impossible! Better had we all remain hidden far below Death Valley's burning surface than to expose ourselves to the sinister power of Abaris or the terrible fatal heat of the surface! ”

“ Tired eyes sparkled.
"Revolution!" Lolan's word was a harsh, incredulous gasp. "But you have no weapons! No—no chance, against Arzt's legions of trained murderers!"
"We have weapons," Atarkus grunted. "But I wanted more time. Now, word has come that since your escape that butcher is running wild. Men and women are being shot down in their homes while soldiers search for you. The slightest word of reproach is sufficient to condemn a man to the Holes, or to instant death. We can wait no longer. In a few days my people will be so cowed even I cannot lead them to the battle." ”

“ A groan of despair came from the lips of Johann Adam. Lo sank to the ground and waited for the clubs to end her life with that of Rog. But Rog was too stupefied to do or say anything. His club hung from nerveless fingers. The sight of twelve men rushing upon him seemed not to register in his mind.
Then he moved. The club swung up over one shoulder, and he stepped forward one pace. His words carried strongly across the intervening distance.
"Wait!" he shouted. "I would do battle with Sarak alone. One so weak and stupid as he has no right to rule!" ”

“ At times I looked fearfully to the right and left, but saw nothing but blackness. The glowing remains of the light had long since died out and the cave was once again in total darkness. There was no life, no sound, no motion except for the movements of Sands and me. Allie Lane at that time was very remote from my thoughts. I was thinking of personal safety and although I had some assurance in the feel of my gun in my hand and its effectiveness on the dangerous lights, I was nevertheless fearful. I felt the panic of utter isolation from humanity. ”

“ And old Atarkus willingly fell away to make room for younger, more dynamic blood.
When all were quiet, Prince Lolan stood up. It came to him strongly, the feeling that everything, the fate of every soul on Venus, hinged on what happened in this little room tonight. His voice came gravely, freighted with importance.
"I won't try to deceive you for one instant that our battle is going to be easy," he told them sternly. "It isn't. The odds are a hundred to one against us. But I will tell you this: The game is worth it! If we win Areeba, all Venus is ours. ”

“ Steckel shook his head eagerly, handed a cigar to the scientist and lit one himself. Immersed in a cloud of blue, fragrant smoke, Mortenson explained the principle of his invention, its use to science and, unfortunately, to crime. He told what lay behind the veil of the Fifth Dimension, that invisible world beyond the vision of man, yet which existed on every human hand; there in the office, up on the roof and out on the streets. He went further to say that even within the world of the Fifth Dimension others existed—the Sixth, the Seventh and so on probably without limit! ”

“ Erickson ground out. "By three inches! Three inches from the present ... and yet it might as well be a million miles!"
Miller's body felt as though it were in a vise. His muscles ached with strain. So taut were his nerves that he leaped as though stung when Major nuzzled a cool nose into his hand again. Automatically, he began to stroke the dog's neck.
"Well, that licks us," he muttered. "There isn't another piece of movable metal in the world." ”

“ Perhaps man had struggled up from the bottom of evolution's ladder again; perhaps a tribe of high-type apes had been left after the catastrophe, and were now Rog's people, developed by a few thousand years. At any rate, the world was again stumbling through the dark shadows of the Stone Age. And from that murky period civilization was slowly crawling back to its former golden age.
And Rog knew who would take the lead in the advance. He himself, under the guidance of Johann Adam, would be the Old Man of all Old Men! ”

“ Crystals that ranged in color from deep, unfathomable red to emerald green danced before me. As though fighting for some control of a color-world the reds began to seep through into the blues and the greens.
They suddenly merged into one solid color—the deep, unfathomable infra-red of the spectrum. The suddenness of the change caused my whole system to react in a terrific shudder. Remembering the scientist's words, I clenched my teeth for control over myself. Now I leaned forward tensely. Objects were slowly shaping themselves from the masses. It was the Red World! ”

“ Miller said hoarsely.
Erickson pursed his lips. "We are somewhere partway across the space between present and past. We are living in an instant that can move neither forward nor back. You and I, Dave, and Major—and the Lord knows how many others the world over—have been thrust by my time impulsor onto a timeless beach of eternity. We have been caught in time's backwash. ”

“ In Lolan's breast, a cold, dead thing had taken the place of his heart.
The ex-emperor stood fierce and tall, a shaggy-headed man of sixty-five. He was a living skeleton dressed in hanging garments. Most of the life in him seemed to be concentrated in his blazing eyes. There was force in his countenance, but his voice came in the cracked accents of an old man.
"What's the meaning of this? Can't a man and his daughter call on their friends without being watched like criminals?"
Arzt swaggered close, his stubby legs moving stiffly. "Not when they'd like to see a revolution as much as you two!" ”

“ Their bodies, blue in color, were short and thick, like the fat belly of a great ape. Their eyes protruded from their faces and waved like the feelers of a snail. And they were equally as loathsome.
"Good God, Mortenson!" Steckel groaned. "We're out-numbered fifteen to one!"
The scientist shuddered, his eyes bulging with terror. "We can't lie here and let them run us down!" he mumbled tensely. "Order your men to shoot their mounts! That'll stop them for the present!"
Steckel stood up impulsively. His head and shoulders rose above the lush. ”

“ Rog was as delighted as a child with his bow and arrow, and spent many hours practicing with it.
There were other things in the museum that brought deep lines to his forehead. He was already beginning to comprehend the principle of the water-wheel and the pulley, but when he saw a man hanging from a great bag high in the air, or a hunter killing a bear by pointing a smoking stick at it, he was stupefied.
Just six weeks after his discovery of the ball, he found something that froze him with sheer terror, that sent him running away, vowing never to return. ”