Gardner F. Fox

“ It was a metal spire ending in a globe of interlaced wires and metal ribbons.
"Looks like an energy broadcaster," he muttered. Then he turned toward the girl. "Where can I see this Kohonnes of yours? What's he like?"
"He is All. He guides his people and shows them the way to a better, easier life. But some of his people do not want to wait—they want to be as powerful as Kohonnes before they are ready. And Althaya—the Red One—she is worse than any of them. Even now she is in special favor with the All. She knows somehow before the breath-storms come. She can walk freely across Stormland. ”

“ A woman only gets as mad as that when a man turns her down because she isn't intriguing enough—not because he won't go spacebad with her."
Althaya laughed harshly. Her green eyes approved him. Her bare shoulders lifted casually.
Grim said, "But while we're on the subject, what is the force that makes the change?"
"Kohonnes does it. He is the god of all this world."
"Is he a man? A beast? What?"
She shook her red head. "Kohonnes is made of metal. He has a thousand eyes that glow. He—"
"A machine," mused Grim. "But what kind of a machine does what this one will? ”

“ He was smart and he was crazy and his brother Commanders loved him. They said to each other, "If anybody can do it, Grim will. He'll find out what grabs the Caravans and the cruisers."
Well, now he knew. Tortured and strained, bent in a thousand positions in a matter of minutes, he was sobbing out the thought that he wished he hadn't. There wasn't anything you could do to a force that turned your ship into a fantastic nightmare and cut you in two with lancets of agony.
The planet loomed in the forward window. A faint light hazed its outlines, as though a private sun of its own shone beyond it. ”

“ Even human bodies vibrate at a certain impulse.
"I studied for years on that theory. Then when I found this planet, I fitted it out during my vacations. When I retired and brought the spaceshock cases here—I was ready to follow and prove those theories."
A deep, sullen roar grew into a thundering volcano of sound, beyond the Temple gateway. Grim cried, "Althaya and her people. They've come to learn your secret, Jones. Quick, man—some weapons! We can hold them off easily enough if—"
Jasper Jones smiled and shook his head. "Outside of the vibration machine, I have no weapon. ”

“ She said, "You like Althaya?"
Grim chuckled, "Any man would like you, gorgeous. But why the buildup? You're too pretty to need a sop for your vanity."
She looked around her, came even closer so that Grim was assailed by her perfume and smooth white arms. She said, "There is a man living in my castle, a man called Black Randolph—ah, you know him?"
"He is a pirate. I've followed him for eight years and never caught up with him." ”

“ He grinned, "Maybe we can stop them at that, Jasper."
"Sound is no weapon. Oh, it's been used against frogs and the lower vertebrate forms, but—"
A shower of arrows made a clanking noise against the face of the machine. Grim could hear Althaya screaming, "It is only a man inside it. I heard his voice. He knew the golden-hair. Break the god, my people." Something thumped into the machine; shook it wildly.
Jasper Jones screamed. "They will smash the bulbs if they keep that up!"
Grim grabbed him, shook him. "Listen to me! I don't want to hurt your people ... but we have to stop them. ”

“ Then Althaya will have power unimaginable. Black Randolph—"
"—is dead," said Grim. "He fell into the gorge."
Grim stared upward. A black machine bulked huge and dark in the shadows. From a hundred facets, green bulb-lights glowed. Grim heard the machinery moving, saw the bulbs grow brighter as power poured into the thing.
"Who are you, Kohonnes?" he cried out in space patois.
"Eh? What's that? Who's out there?... It isn't—can't be! Grim Thorssen?"
Grim laughed. He knew that voice anywhere.
"You old spacedog! What're you trying to do—ruin the Unions Council?" ”

“ Fury and hate seethed in the man's face. He brought his hard palm flat against Grim's cheek. "For eight years you've hounded me, Thorssen. You never caught me, but you smashed my empire. One by one—from Antares to Betelgeuse—you got my best men. But you'll suffer for it. Oh Lord, how you'll suffer!"
Black Randolph's eyes flickered when they brought Tlokine in. He grinned at her, running his eyes over her lissome body. He chuckled, "Too bad she has to go on your altar, Red. I could use that myself."
Althaya went white. ”

“ Grim bit his lip until it bled, fighting the nausea and the throbbing in him. He had to land his ship. He had to find out what the force was, and what it wanted. He had to fight the tough luck that had hounded the Trader Unions ever since old Jasper Jones had retired. He had to—
The spacer grated on a ledge of rocks, its keel cracking and folding back and ripping off on the underside of the hull. A gigantic thin needle rising from a boulder towered before him. Grim yanked back on the power-brakes, but it was no use.
The blunt rock cliff loomed up. ”

“ Tlokine looked back along the path they had come. She said, "Althaya and her men will soon be here. You are wasting time, Grim Thorssen."
He shook his yellow-thatched head. "Not the way I figure it. Soldiers marching in rhythmic steps across a bridge have been known to smash it. That's why they break step all the time. It changes the pulse of the vibration on the bridge. It jars—but does not destroy.
"Same way here. Ultrasonic vibrations can't be heard, but they can do plenty of damage. They can kill frogs and tiny fishes. They can cause heat and put out a flame—oh, and a hundred other things. ”

“ Althaya shuddered. "I am afraid of him. He is hard. Ruthless. I have watched you. You can be a hard man, too. If you and I were to learn the secret of the Force—instead of Black Randolph—"
The Viking throwback laughed. "What you mean to say, beautiful, is that you think I'd be easier to manage than Black Randolph—once we got to be kings."
She slapped him hard across the face, and her face writhed in passion. She whispered, "For that you'll go to my torture-knives, you passat!"
Grim laughed, "Don't play it so thick, Red. ”

“ Speech centers sound. Body normal. Perfect specimens to populate a new planet.
"Who brought 'em here, Thorssen? Not a god!"
The pirate laughed huskily. "Althaya and I—we're making them into our people. People to attack Kohonnes and get his secret. It's really too bad for you. You might join us instead of spending a week on her altar under the best torture-knives she owns. You'll be begging for death before the first day is over. And there'll be seven more of 'em, Thorssen—a day of agony for each of the years you've hounded me. ”

“ If Tlokine hadn't been a good distance from that speaker, she'd be as Althaya and Black Randolph are. And speaking of Althaya—how did she know when the Change would come?"
Jones said, "I operated on her while she was in the amnesiac hospital. She was a violent case. Brain surgery helped her. I put in a thin slip of metal foil. Later I discovered that the foil caught the subsonic rhythm of the machine as it warmed. Its vibrations told her what was coming."
"Good enough. Give half the planet to the amnesiac men and women. Let Tlokine rule them. Keep half the planet for your own experiments." ”

“ Tiny animals with seven horns and eight legs loped past. A gigantic beast with the hairy head of a mastodon, but with three long trunks, stared at him over the top of a blue bush; trumpeted, and was gone. And high above, a great yellow orb blazed heat and light.
Grim pulled himself up onto a gnarled rock. He squinted upward under a shading hand. He grunted, "Looks synthetic. Something about it—"
Leather rasped on rock, above him. Grim whirled, right hand going for the orris-nut handles of his disintegrator. ”

“ It bends the Caravans and the Fleet cruisers. It smashes them—sends them flying on into the void like so many wrecked planets. They'll go on and on—until they find a planet to crash on or make an orbit around."
There was a pause. Althaya cried out harshly; whirled and fled toward the mouthlike door where light filtered in in grey beams.
The machine stopped humming. A door opened in it. A man with white hair and a smooth, shaven face stepped onto the floor of the temple. He grinned at the Viking, threw both arms high into the air.
Grim said, "Jasper Jones! ”

“ Using his belt-buckle as a screwdriver, he unthreaded the bolts, found that the globe came away easily from the tower. It was composed of thin alumisteel ribbons and wires of spiderweb thinness. He tucked it under an arm and went backwards down the tower.
Tlokine said, "What are you doing?" when he knelt and fumbled at the wiring setup.
He grinned, "This thing must broadcast vibrations of some sort. In some manner, they cause the Change. If I could jam those vibrations in the same way that a radio broadcast can be jammed—maybe there wouldn't be any Change to slow us down." ”

“ I rescued him from the storm. He stays here, seeking the secret of what causes the Change to come across my world. With it he says he can go out into his own land and be a king. He wants me to help him. ”