Edmond Hamilton

“ Earth air and Earth smells in Carlin's nostrils, sleepy Earth sounds in his ears; the shine of the old spaceport's beacons, and the soaring loom of the distant tower that marked the spot where a man of long ago had first dared space. This world, this little Earth, was worth risking death for, even for a stranger from far stars! ”

“ Carlin found himself buffeted by eager hands, assailed by joyful faces and voices, as he followed.
A grizzled, excited man clapped his shoulder. "We Earthmen showed 'em we could still conquer space, didn't we?"
We Earthmen? Somehow, for the first time in all these days, Carlin's dulled mind felt a stir of pride as though at an accolade.
He didn't like to meet Marn's pale face. But she spoke steadily.
"It's all right, Laird, about Jonny. Women of Earth for two thousand years have seen their men go out into space—and not all come back."
Floring had followed them. ”

“ Blinding, eye-dazing even through the filter of the heat-screens, the brilliance of Sol stunned them.
"They couldn't follow us this close to the photosphere!" Harb cried exultantly. "We've shaken them and we're almost in orbit."
"You can't orbit the Sun!" Floring pleaded. "And even if you could, the cruisers will lay to outside the heat and range you by locator and fire till they destroy us! Put about!"
The man Vito, choking and gasping for breath, came into the pilot room from the engine rooms astern.
"Heat-screens won't take another dyne! If we go closer, we're done for." ”

“ And a fleet of ships equipped with dredges can suck enough copper from the Sun to give Earth all the power it needs hereafter.
"You've seen the dredge and you know our plans. You've seen enough of Earth to know how much our success would mean to this world. Carlin, do you still want to tell Floring about this?"
"You couldn't!" exclaimed Harb Land harshly. "You couldn't destroy all the hope that's left for our world's people. You—all you star-world people—you owe this chance to Earth!" ”

“ The woods on either side was deplorably unkempt to Carlin's eyes. Big and small trees jumbled together, saplings choking each other out, dead brush and thorns and vines everywhere. There was even wild life in the woods, furry rodents scuttling away, hosts of birds.
This sort of thing was what you expected on some unpeopled planet that hadn't yet been pioneered and civilized. But Earth was the oldest human-peopled world in the whole galaxy. ”

“ The suck of magnetic dredges swiftly creating a whirl in the star's surface gases, a Sun-spot maelstrom that had expanded with disastrous swiftness. And then the engulfing of the mining ships in the sudden outpour of increased heat, the scorching of inner planets that wreaked ruin before the spots subsided.
It had been the same later at Polaris, and at Delta Gemini. No wonder that such a popular wrath against Sun-mining had arisen that Control Council had strictly forbidden further attempts! Man's science, great as it was, was not yet great enough to dare tampering with stars. ”

“ For the moment, none of them paid any attention to the fact that precious copper was solidifying in the cooler coils into granules of metal that were being blown into the bunkers. The real test was what their beam of magnetic force was doing to the surface of the Sun.
Did it seem incredible, as it almost did to Carlin, that such a fragile finger of force could in the least disturb the mighty orb below? He knew better. He knew the unnaturally delicate balance of a star's surface, which a slight change of pressure artificially induced could stir into a whirl that would expand in giant Sun-spots. ”

“ Carlin said, exasperated. "After all, it's your own fault if you foolishly squandered the copper resources of your planet and now lack power."
Harb Land's craggy face darkened. "Yes, we squandered our copper foolishly. We did it twenty centuries ago, when Earth was opening up the whole galaxy to travel. We spent our copper establishing the galactic civilization that's forgotten all about our power-starved world." ”

“ Those old, pathetically flimsy ships, the enormous courage of those men to whom space was all one unknown abyss. He began to understand why tourists came from all the galaxy to see these mementoes.
"They and their little ships started it all, the whole galactic civilization, the vast human empire," he said musingly.
Marn was looking up at the spire towering in the dusk.
"People criticize us Earthmen for our pride. But this is why we're proud. We're the people who opened up the frontiers of the Universe."
Carlin nodded thoughtfully. "You've a great heritage. ”

“ Carlin nodded. "But if this world is as outworn as it looks, there's no field here for a CE. You ought to be out at Algol."
"You star-world people are all the same—always advising us to leave Earth!" Harb Land interrupted with suppressed passion. "That's what Control Council keeps harping on as a solution to all our poverty and problems. They keep asking, 'Why don't you emigrate to other stars?'"
Gramp Land shook his head. "We don't leave our planet as lightly as some folks do. No matter how far an Earthman goes, he always comes home." ”

“ And that word is 'power.' We just don't have power enough here on Earth to smooth it out into a garden-planet like your star-worlds, to come and go around it any distance at will."
"Atomic power is about the easiest thing to produce there is," Carlin commented skeptically.
"Yes, if you have copper fuel," Jonny Land replied. "If we had enough copper we could make a garden of this world too, could spread all around its loveliest spots and come and go by fast flier, could give up the old hydroponic farming and synthesize our food, and produce the luxuries you people have on the star-worlds. ”

“ Jonny shrugged. "I told you why. Control Council contains the finest statesmen in the galaxy. Statesmen, not engineers. They admitted their experts' reports on this showed it theoretically workable. But they said it was too dangerous to take a chance on theory when it comes to tampering with suns. We don't need copper that badly, they said."
His fists clenched in sudden passion. "We don't need copper! The galaxy as a whole doesn't need it, they meant. And what does it matter if one little world called Earth is fading and dying for lack of the copper it squandered to open up the galaxy? ”

“ To get the power that will revive our world, we've got to have copper. And the copper in our planets was exhausted long ago. But there's still billions of tons of copper in our System, in one place. The Sun. It's there in hot gases, more copper than Earth and our sister-planets will need for millenniums to come. It's our only possible source of copper and we intend to tap it."
"You and the others have brooded so long over your need for copper that you've gone crazy!" Carlin said, his voice whipped with anger.
"What's crazy about our using the copper of the Sun for our planet?" ”

“ Another salvo of shells went off in space somewhere close by and rocked the ship with its wave of force. But next instant came a heavier impact, as the fiery column of gas reached the nozzles below the ship.
They heard a deafening roar. That up-sucked stream of vaporized elements was being drawn through the heat-proof nozzles and intakes, through the Markheim filters that screened out its copper atoms, and was then being shot downward again by the kickback's negative field.
"The kickback's working!" Jonny Land yelled. "If the effect of it is what we calculated, we've done it!" ”

“ Mystery Machine
Laird Carlin was child of a galactic civilization in which violence between men was rare. There was plenty of danger yet, in pioneering new star-worlds, but over the civilized worlds themselves the unchallenged law of the Control Council maintained unbroken order. A man could go a lifetime without ever seeing violence.
The atom-pistol in Loesser's hand and the obvious murderous intention in the man's face stupefied Carlin. ”

“ Marn asked him, her eyes very bright.
"Do we have to get emotional?" Carlin asked roughly. "I'm an engineer, and this is the biggest engineering experiment to be tried for centuries. Don't you think I want to be in on it?" He added crushingly, "And as for my getting mixed up in the blame, I'm already blasted well mixed in it. When I denied to Floring that this was a magnetic dredge, I implicated myself right there in the whole business. I've got to make it succeed, now." ”

“ And I'm afraid Loesser thought you were spying on us. People here are always a little suspicious of strangers."
"So I've noticed," Carlin answered dryly. "This is the first world in the galaxy where I've ever felt completely unwelcome."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," replied the other. "But put yourself in our place, Carlin. Figure how you would feel if you were an Earthman, your world starved for power because its copper was spent to establish a galactic civilization that now neglects it."
Jonny's thin brown face was earnest, his blue eyes watching Carlin as though eager to convince him. ”

“ Carlin shook his head.
"I can see your problem in lacking copper," he said. "But the remedy for it is so simple. Nine-tenths of you should emigrate to other, better worlds as the Control Council advised."
Jonny smiled. "There you come up against the obstinacy of my people. We've an older planetary tradition, a deeper, more ancient love for our world, than any other people in the galaxy."
"I think you people live too much in the past," Carlin answered frankly. "But it's none of my business. Anyway, I hope your expedition brings home copper." ”

“ It wasn't the fine-edged, shimmering beauty that Nila had, but it had appeal.
"Yes, I must be getting more accustomed to it," he answered her question. "And it's not as provincial as I thought. Nearly every man you meet here has been to space some time or other."
"Every Earth boy runs away to space sooner or later," she said, and smiled. "Following space is in our blood. And our planet's so poor now that it's the only way most of our men can make a living." She added, "Some of our men never come back. ”

“ It was a new experience to Carlin to sit chatting in a sunny old kitchen while a girl in faded slacks prepared his breakfast on an electrode stove. Instead of punching the refreshment-button for it.
"Jonny and Harb have gone down to the spaceport," she said over her shoulder. "They and a few friends have an old planet-ship there that they're fixing up for a trip to Mercury."
"Mercury?" he said. "Oh, that's the innermost of these planets, isn't it?"
"Yes. Men here on Earth are always going prospecting for copper on its Hot Side. Jonny got up this prospecting expedition." ”

“ And he would have more time here with Nila.
But the psychotherapist shook his head quite decisively at that.
"No, Mr. Carlin. Your case is too dangerous for that. Your subconscious is twisted into a knot that is going to be hard to untie." He hesitated a moment as though he knew what reaction his next words would provoke. "In fact, there's only one way in which you can be normalized. That's the Earth-treatment."
"Earth-treatment?" Carlin didn't even know what it meant. "You mean, some treatment that has reference to the old planet over on the other side of the galaxy?" ”

“ Solar Struggle
Oxygenators started throbbing, doors clanged, as the others tumbled aboard. Harb Land, smeared with dirt and oil, his shock of hair wild, climbed into the pilot seat and expertly touched controls.
"Generators coming on!" sang Loesser's breathless voice from the interphone, as the low, deep hum began.
"Stasis on," said Harb rapidly, his fingers busy. The blue cushion of force was around them as Carlin slumped drunkenly into a seat. "Zero, two and five acceleration schedule. Here we go!" ”

“ The tourists were already being shepherded by their tour-conductors toward some old monuments at the far end of the spaceport. But he had no desire to follow them.
The psychotherapist had told him, "Live as nearly an ordinary Earth life as you can. Your cure will be quicker if you do. Best thing would be to lodge in some typical Earth home, if you can."
Carlin wondered where he could find such a lodging. There were a few Earthmen about, spacemen, port officials and the like. He could ask one of them.
He had met Earthmen before throughout the galaxy, for many of them followed space as a trade. ”

“ If we can install it in the 'Phoenix' and take off tonight, we'll have our chance to prove to the galaxy that Sun-mining can be safe."
"Install the dredge tonight?" cried Harb Land. The gangling giant's face was sick with anxiety. "Jonny, we can't do it! Not that soon."
"We've got to!" Jonny's voice cut like a steel rapier. "Harb, you go get Loesser and Vito and the other boys. Have them bring the big truck with them. If we work hard enough, we should be able to have the dredge ready to roll by dark. Once we get it into the 'Phoenix', we can take off and complete installation in space." ”