Keith Laumer

“ Beyond it, the Niss technicians, seen now in sharp detail, worked busily, silently, their faces like masks of ridged red-brown leather. Directly opposite Bram's Repellor, an apparatus like an immense camera with a foot-wide silvered lens stood aimed, a black-clad Niss perched in a saddle atop it. The white light flooded the cave, threw black shadows across the floor. Bram hunched over the Repellor, face tensed in strain. A glow built in the air around the Niss machine. The alien technicians stood now, staring with tiny bright-red eyes. ”

“ Tremaine said. "I'll pass the Great World and the continua ... but what's an Aperture?"
"A point of material contact between the Niss world and this plane of space-time. Through it they can pump this rich planet dry of oxygen, killing it—then emerge to feed on the corpse."
"What's a Portal?"
"The Great World lies in a different harmonic series than do Earth and the Niss World. Only at vast intervals can we set up a Portal of temporary identity as the cycles mesh. We monitor the Niss emanations, and forestall them when we can, now in this plane, now in that." ”

“ It went straight for twenty feet and ended at an old-fashioned five-panel wooden door. Tremaine tried the brass knob. The door opened on a room shaped from a natural cave, with waterworn walls of yellow stone, a low uneven ceiling, and a packed-earth floor. On a squat tripod in the center of the chamber rested an apparatus of black metal and glass, vaguely gunlike, aimed at the blank wall. Beside it, in an ancient wooden rocker, a man lay slumped, his shirt blood-caked, a black puddle on the floor beneath him.
"Bram!" Miss Carroll gasped. She went to him, took his hand, staring into his face. ”

“ Tremaine locked eyes with the old man. He drew a deep breath at last, let it out shudderingly. "All right," he said "I guess the God complex got me." He looked back once more at the devastated landscape. "The Niss will remember this encounter, I think. They won't try Earth again."
"You've fought valiantly, James, and won," Miss Carroll said. "Now let the power go."
Tremaine turned again to look at her. "You deserve better than this, Miss Carroll," he said. "Bram, you said time is mutable. Suppose—"
"Let well enough alone," Bram said. "Let it go!" ”

“ Tremaine said. "I always liked him. One time he tried to teach me something I've forgotten. Wanted me to come out to his place and he'd teach me. I never did go. We kids used to play in the caves near his place, and sometimes he gave us apples."
"I've never seen any harm in Bram," said Jess. "But you know how this town is about foreigners, especially when they're a mite addled. Bram has blue eyes and blond hair—or did before it turned white—and he talks just like everybody else. From a distance he seems just like an ordinary American. But up close, you feel it. He's foreign, all right. ”

“ Bram slumped back, eyes shut, breathing hoarsely.
"Near were they then," he muttered, "I grow weak...."
"Let me take over," Tremaine said. "Tell me how."
"How can I tell you? You will not understand."
"Maybe I'll understand enough to get us through the night."
Bram seemed to gather himself. "Very well. This must you know....
"I am an agent in the service of the Great World. For centuries we have waged war against the Niss, evil beings who loot the continua. They established an Aperture here, on your Earth. ”

“ Bram talked for half an hour, while Tremaine listened. "If I should fail," he concluded, "take my place at the Repellor. Place the circlet on your neck. When the wall clears, grip the handles and pit your mind against the Niss. Will that they do not come through. When the thunder rolls, you will know that you have failed."
"All right. I'll be ready. But let me get one thing straight: this Repellor of yours responds to thoughts, is that right? It amplifies them—"
"It serves to focus the power of the mind. ”

“ Tremaine whispered. "When they turn and I see them edge-on, they're thin...."
"An effect of dimensional attenuation. They strive now to match matrices with this plane. If they succeed, this earth you know will lie at their feet."
"What are they? Where are they? That's solid rock—"
"What you see is the Niss Command Center. It lies in another world than this, but here is the multihedron of intersection. They bring their harmonic generators to bear here in the hope of establishing an aperture of focus."
"I don't understand half of what you're saying, Bram. And the rest I don't believe. ”

“ Bram said. "Only a protoplasmic brain is known to produce a null-lag excitation state."
Tremaine frowned. "Bram, this Repellor focuses what I'll call thought waves for want of a better term. It uses an interference effect to damp out the Niss harmonic generator. What if we poured more power to the Repellor?"
"No. The power of the mind cannot be amplified—"
"I don't mean amplification; I mean an additional source. I have a hyperwave receiver here. With a little rewiring, it'll act as a transmitter. Can we tie it in?" ”

“ Bram said. "The resonance effects are unpredictable. When one seeks to channel the power of thought—"
"Wait a minute!" Tremaine burst out.
"What is it?" Miss Carroll said, alarmed.
"Hyperwave," Tremaine said. "Instantaneous transmission. And thought. No wonder people had headaches—and nightmares! We've been broadcasting on the same band as the human mind!"
"This 'hyperwave'," Bram said. "You say it is instantaneous?" ”

“ Somewhere a cricket set up a strident chirrup, suddenly cut off. Jess leaned down, picked up an empty shotgun shell. He looked at Tremaine. "This don't look good," he said. "You suppose those fool boys...?"
He tried the door. It opened. A broken hasp dangled. He turned to Tremaine. "Maybe this is more than kid stuff," he said. "You carry a gun?"
"In the car."
"Better get it."
Tremaine went to the car, dropped the pistol in his coat pocket, rejoined Jess inside the house. It was silent, deserted. In the kitchen Jess flicked the beam of his flashlight around the room. ”

“ There is no future here for a young man."
"I often wondered why you didn't leave, Miss Carroll. I thought, even as a boy, that you were a woman of great ability."
"Why did you come today, James?" asked Miss Carroll.
"I...." Tremaine started. He looked at the old lady. "I want some information. This is an important matter. May I rely on your discretion?"
"Of course."
"How long has Mr. Bram lived in Elsby?"
Miss Carroll looked at him for a long moment. "Will what I tell you be used against him?"
"There'll be nothing done against him, Miss Carroll ... ”

“ After a moment Tremaine and Jess left the cell.
"He must have gotten clear, Jimmy," said Jess. "Maybe he got scared and left town."
"Bram doesn't strike me as the kind to panic." Tremaine looked at his watch. "I've got to get on my way, Jess. I'll check with you in the morning."
Tremaine crossed the street to the Paradise Bar and Grill, pushed into the jukebox-lit interior, took a stool and ordered a Scotch and water. He sipped the drink, then sat staring into the dark reflection in the glass. The idea of a careful reconnoitre of the Elsby area was gone, now, with police swarming everywhere. ”

“ It was too bad about Bram. It would be interesting to know where the old man was ... and if he was still alive. He'd always seemed normal enough in the old days: a big solid-looking man, middle-aged, always pleasant enough, though he didn't say much. He'd tried hard, that time, to interest Tremaine in learning whatever it was....
Tremaine put a hand in his jacket pocket, took out Miss Carroll's locket. ”

“ Tremaine turned to Bram. "Look—" he started.
"What man are you?" Bram cut in in heavily accented English. "How do you come to this place?"
"Listen to me, Bram!" Tremaine snapped. "Time is mutable. You stayed here, to protect Linda Carroll—and Linda Carroll's world. You've just made that decision, right?" Tremaine went on, not waiting for a reply. "You were stuck here ... for sixty years. Earth technology developed fast. One day a man stumbled in here, tracing down the signal from your Repellor; that was me. You showed me how to use the device ... and with it I wiped out the Niss. ”

“ The century has just turned. Somewhere a young fellow named Ford is getting ready to put the nation on wheels, and two boys named Wright are about to give it wings. No one ever heard of a World War, or the roaring Twenties, or Prohibition, or FDR, or the Dust Bowl, or Pearl Harbor. ”

“ Gaskin got to his feet, wiped a smear of blood across his cheek, then lunged past the cop and swung a wild right. Tremaine stepped aside, landed a solid punch on Gaskin's ear. The cop stepped back against the bar. Soup whirled, slammed out with lefts and rights. Tremaine lashed back with a straight left; Gaskin slammed against the bar, rebounded, threw a knockout right ... and Tremaine ducked, landed a right upper-cut that sent Gaskin reeling back, bowled over a table, sent glasses flying. Tremaine stood over him.
"On your feet, jailbird," he said. "A workout is exactly what I needed." ”

“ He reached into the glove compartment for a flashlight.
"We haven't got a second to waste," he said. "That other car's not more than a minute behind us." He reached into the back of the car, hauled out the heavy suitcase. "I hope you remember how Bram worked that panel."
On the porch Tremaine's flashlight illuminated the broken hasp. Inside, he led the way along a dark hall, pushed into the kitchen.
"It was there," Miss Carroll said, pointing. Outside, an engine sounded on the highway, slowing, turning in. Headlights pushed a square of cold light across the kitchen wall. ”

“ Mr. Bram will occupy the home and will continue to graze a few head of stock. Mr. Bram, who is a newcomer to the county, has been a resident of Mrs. Stoate's Guest Home in Elsby for the past months.
"May I see some earlier issues; from about the first of the year?"
The librarian produced the papers. Tremaine turned the pages, read the heads, skimmed an article here and there. The librarian went back to her desk. An hour later, in the issue for July 7, 1900, an item caught his eye:
A Severe Thunderstorm. ”

“ You ought to hold onto your temper with those boys. I think maybe you ought to think about getting over the state line. I can run you to the bus station, and send your car along...."
"I can't leave now, Jess. I haven't even started."
IV
In his room, Tremaine doctored the cut on his jaw, then opened his trunk, checked over the detector gear. The telephone rang.
"Tremaine? I've been on the telephone with Grammond. Are you out of your mind? I'm—"
"Fred," Tremaine cut in, "I thought you were going to get those state cops off my neck."
"Listen to me, Tremaine. You're called off this job as of now. ”

“ He took a locket from his neck and put it into my hand. He told me to keep it and, if ever I should need him, to press it between my fingers in a secret way ... and he would come. I told him that until he would consent to see a doctor, I did not wish him to call. ”