Irving E. Cox

“ The room gave him an excellent vantage point, for the windows, still unbroken, provided a broad view of the highway and the clearing in front of the building.
The restaurant was bitterly cold. Tchassen pulled the rough, fibrous clothing tight around his shoulders, but it felt irritating rather than warm. He looked out on the ice and the snow and the pines, and he was acutely conscious of the savage alienness of Earth.
Snow he knew as a scientific curiosity; he had seen it created in laboratory experiments. Nowhere in the civilized galaxy did it exist as a natural phenomenon. ”

“ Tchassen slid the weapon out of Drein's lifeless fingers and half-heartedly searched the street for Tynia's dispersal ray. He didn't expect to find it. The Earth people had it now. The loss of the weapon was, in one sense, more serious than the destruction of the Nevada station. A prison compound could be rebuilt and restaffed. But if the Earth ever faced the conqueror with equal firepower, Earthmen would recapture their world—and more. ”

“ The Earth was neither enslaved nor destroyed. Hatred made the natives savages. They would never be content until they had revenge. They never conceded defeat; they never would. Corporal Drein seemed to be typical of their fanaticism, and that was why Tchassen had killed him—that, and the hysterical story Tynia had told. On calmer reflection, Tchassen knew he had no proof of Drein's disloyalty—which meant that either Briggan or Tynia could be Earth natives. ”

“ From an open window the Captain fired a dispersal ray toward the sky, a signal prearranged with the others. As the needle of light arched above the village, Tchassen heard a distant blast of explosions and Tynia's shrill scream of terror.
"It's a bandit raid!" Briggan cried. He turned to run toward the street. Tchassen's hand shot out and caught the Sergeant's shoulder.
"Not so fast. I said we'd stay in pairs."
"But Tynia's in trouble! The Earth people are barbarians, sir. They give no quarter. ”

“ The strong, individualistic genius of its people had evolved in no other society; and that genius had created a technology which mushroomed far beyond the capacity to control it. It gave this savage world atomic power before it had planetary unity.
For that reason, the civilized galaxy had invaded the Earth. They could do nothing else. The decision had been made long before Tchassen was born. The galactic council of scientists studied the Earth and argued the meaning of their observations for a quarter of a century before they ordered the invasion. War, to the civilized galaxy, was unthinkable ”

“ They would try to make sure that no survivors lived to report what had happened at the Nevada station.
Briggan fished three cans of food out of the back of the car and blasted them open with his dispersal ray. The can he handed Tchassen contained a fruit in a heavy, sickly sweet syrup. Tchassen made himself empty the tin. Tynia had a pinkish meat which she was totally unable to choke down. The civilized galaxy had been vegetarian for two thousand years; a clear indication of the savagery of the Earth culture was the fact that the natives still ate animal flesh. ”

“ He touched Tchassen's head. "Here is your real sickness, in the brain. We teach you how to think like a man; then you go home."
"You're going to teach me? Me? Do you realize, I come from the civilized galaxy?" Tchassen began to laugh; he wondered if he had been taken prisoner by a band of madmen.
"We show you how to be human," the native answered blandly. "Not fight and kill each other, the way you and the others did when the post blow up. We know meaning for civilization; you have none. It is easy secret. We learn after the invasion, when our world destroyed. Real civilized people get along ”

“ Tchassen walked across the scarred earth in the direction of the crater. None of the important buildings had survived. Concussion had torn up the fence around the prison compound, but the cell block, half a mile from the explosion and built of concrete and steel, was still standing. The watch tower, beyond the prison building, stood askew on bent metal pillars, but it was otherwise undamaged.
The Captain knew that at least two guards were on watch duty at all hours; they might still be alive. He crossed the crater and pulled himself up the battered stairs to the top of the tower. ”

“ Briggan asked, "what chance do we have of getting through this alive?"
"We're armed; we have transportation; we—"
"And the natives will risk everything to stop us. They have to. This attack on the Nevada station was the beginning of the revolution. If they plan the rest of it as carefully, they stand a good chance of throwing us off the Earth."
"No!" Tynia cried. "Now that they know the civilized galaxy exists, they'll build space ships and come after us. With our weapons—"
"Plus their fanaticism," Tchassen put in, "the galaxy doesn't stand a chance." ”

“ Tchassen saw the ship spin out of control as the beam went haywire. The robot plunged into the heart of the station and the earth shook in the catastrophic explosion of the nuclear reactor. The commissary, the communication center, the supply sheds and the row of patrol ships vanished in the rising, mushroom cloud. Concussion threw Tchassen violently to the ground. ”

“ One or two crackpot theorists said the bandits fed themselves by hunting wild game, but that was absurd. It was common fact throughout the civilized galaxy that any culture which evolved as far as the Power Age would, in the normal process of growth, eliminate all planetary animal life. The accepted explanation was the food cache theory. According to it, the Earthmen—sometime after the conquest and before the prison compounds were set up—had raided their own cities and hidden the packaged food in remote mountain areas. ”

“ The Earth people hate us more than ever."
"Even so, how could one of the prisoners have brought the robot down?"
"By tampering with the beam."
"But that means they had a subversive—that means one of us must be—"
"An Earthman, yes. We encourage them to apply for citizenship. If we had an Earthman on the post masquerading as an officer, how would we know it—unless he told us? They're no different from our own people, Captain."
On the other side of the crater Tynia staggered out of the communications pillbox. Tchassen saw her waving frantically and he knew something was wrong—very wrong. ”

“ Tynia volunteered. "There may be other survivors, Captain Tchassen; they'll need your help."
"I don't want to leave you alone, Tynia." It was the first time he spoke her given name, though the informality was commonplace among the junior officers on the post. "The prisoners are out of the compound. We may have trouble."
"Not yet, Captain; they're still unarmed. I'll be all right." She nodded toward the crater. "We have to make sure there's no one else alive down there." ”

“ Tchassen broke in. "The compound fence didn't go down until after the blast; there was no way any of them could get out."
"Robot ships just don't get off the beam," Corporal Drein declared stubbornly.
Briggan nodded toward the empty cell block. "It worked out nicely—for the prisoners. A single explosion wipes out most of us; but the prisoners are far enough away from the blast center to escape."
"Surely there isn't any danger of revolution," Tchassen asked, unconsciously mocking the optimism of the security bulletins. ”

“ For more than twenty centuries neither deserts nor Arctic wastes had existed. All animal species had disappeared. Trees survived only as ornamental growths in city parks. The Earth was a relic of the past, a barbaric museum piece. ”

“ Then, too, the village was too close to the Nevada compound for the Earth people to have looted it. Tchassen tapped on Drein's shoulder and ordered him to stop the sedan.
"We need warmer clothing," the Captain explained, "before we start up the grade."
"I suppose we might pick up something here," Sergeant Briggan conceded. "This place is called Reno. It was one of the few communities still intact after the invasion."
"I'm scared," Tynia said. "The prisoners may be hiding here, waiting for us."
"They have better sense than to face a dispersal ray without any protection." ”

“ The survivors were handicapped in only one respect: all the food on the post had been destroyed with the commissary. However, Tchassen did not consider that a serious problem. He was sure they could reach the coast by the following morning.
Shortly before three o'clock—nearly two hours after the supply robot crashed—the survivors left the station. They headed west on a highway unused since the conquest. Tchassen and Tynia sat together in back. The Captain kept all the weapons. Briggan's warning couldn't be ignored; one of the other three might be an Earthman. ”

“ The teeming billions of people crowding every world could not survive unless every square inch of soil was occupied and exploited. Science regimented the temperatures in the same way that it controlled rainfall. ”