Kris Neville

“ Walt said. "Forential told us there was."
"There isn't. Not now." Forential? A non-human? An alien?
"He told us," Walt said.
"He lied," Julia said.
"He doesn't lie."
Julia shrugged. Walt is a loyal follower, she thought. "There's no war. Maybe he meant there would be one shortly; maybe it was a premature announcement." Lord! do these aliens have some way of prodding the Russian bear? she thought. Or how the devil are they—Forentials, wherever they are—thinking of starting a war?
Walt refused to consider her denial. He did not look her in the face. "I like you," he said. ”

“ In the tool compartment of the wreck she located a tire iron. She brought it back.
Her hand was slippery around the icy metal.
He's dying anyway, she thought. It doesn't have to be my hand that kills him. Tears formed in her eyes.
Walt moaned.
Julia's hand tightened on the tire iron.
But the risk ... she thought: if he should wake up and heal himself ... he'll kill me. The world will never be warned of the invasion, then. It's his life against the world; his life against a billion lives. ”

“ Calvin said, "... it must be wonderful to be afraid."
"He is more advanced than we are."
"We can kill earthmen, though," Calvin said. "He's too afraid to; so we get to kill them for him."
"You got it wrong; you always get things wrong. We are killing earthmen for ourselves."
"Oh, yes," Calvin nodded. "I forget."
"Forential is a friend," Walt said. "He helps the Lyrians from the goodness of his heart."
"Earthmen are very bad."
"That's right."
"They are a great evil," Calvin said excitedly.
"They must be killed."
"Yes, yes, yes!" Calvin agreed. "I will kill them with my hands." ”

“ Some such was her thought. It washed over her, the vision, and vanished in the acute reality of the moment. Such a dream was athwart the invasion plan of the aliens.
She was out of the car. She was opening the rear door. She stood at Walt's head. He'll have to help me, she thought, he has information I want.
She felt for the pattern of his body. She experienced it. Concentrating with the full force of the human brain, she began to mend the breaks and ruptures and wounds.
It took time.
Don't reheal his mutant bridge, she thought. Leave him defanged. ”

“ Out in space, beyond the orbit of the moon, Fierut detected the Washington Monument on his warning device. It was coming too fast to deflect. He tried.
A heartbeat later, it ripped into the steel of the space station. It crumbled and shattered and sprayed marble, and huge fragments erupted from the opposite side. The space station became visible. There was a great, ragged, tunneling hole from rim to rim. Escaping air spewed wreckage into space. Parts of demolished machinery whirled away. In a yet-sealed compartment, a power system exploded with a great, blinding, soundless flash. ”

“ Then hopelessly, she let the arm holding the tire iron fall limply to her side. He wouldn't believe me if I told him, she thought.
Nobody will believe me; not a person on the planet. It's too fantastic: an invasion of earth. I've got to have some sort of proof to make them believe me.
No proof.
I can't let Walt die! she thought. He's the only proof I have. He's the only one who can convince anyone of the invasion.
He's got to live! she thought. I've got to get him to a hospital.
Walt's face was bloodless.
"... he's dying," the farmer said.
"But he can't die!" Julia cried desperately. ”

“ He could not think clearly.
"You're a mutant," Julia said. "Like I am. Our parents were earthlings. The aliens are using mutants. The aliens changed our parents' genes—"
"I don't understand that word."
Julia smiled twistedly. "Think how ignorant they kept you, Walt. Isn't that proof enough for you?" ”

“ I've been an instrument, Walt thought, a piece of metal, to be used as Forential saw fit: if she were not lying. My parents are somewhere down here on this planet, the third from the sun. They are not on Lyria. I might have killed them during the invasion. That would be worse than killing Forential, even. If Julia weren't lying to me. Forential has been raising me to fight my own people!
Forential. Saucer eyed. Tentacled. Moist and slippery. Breathing in labored gasps under high gravity. ”

“ Forential was far away in space; every second he was growing farther away in time. I've lost him, Walt thought. So much has happened, so much, so fast, since last I saw him, that I'm changing away from him every minute.
Earthlings aren't so bad. They're—they're not too much different from Lyrians, from ... mutants.
I'm a mutant?
I'm not a Lyrian?
FORENTIAL!
But Forential could not hear him.
I'll have to think for myself, Walt decided. Julia said I couldn't be fooled if I just looked at the facts.
Earthlings aren't like Forential always told us they were. They're pleasant enough. In their way. ”

“ She settled the car into a traffic slot on the north-bound coast super-highway. She switched the car on automatic and tried to relax.
The road curved gently toward the west to pick up the coast line. Soon the moonlit breakers hissed on white sand beaches. The ocean lay dark and mysterious toward the far horizon.
She prayed that Walt would not guess for long minutes that she had left the city; that he would lose more precious minutes locating the super-highway.
San Francisco was six hours ahead of her.
Walt was continually losing himself in a maze of Los Angeles streets. ”

“ How can I ever get away from Walt! Julia thought. He can run me down whenever he wants to!
"Nobody hears of producers," the driver said. "That's all right with me. Let other people take the credit. I don't like to call attention to myself." He brought out a monogrammed cigarette case and flicked it open. "Cigarette?"
"No, no, thank you." Julia twisted at the strap of her handbag.
"Who can you talk to, I mean really? All they're after is your money.... I'll tell you what I really want. I want a farm—no, don't laugh: it's the truth—a little piece of land. I want to settle down, you know. ”

“ Julia's location on the planet. The aliens had promised to land him in an unpopulated area on the same part of the continent. The aliens' thoughts did not come through the shielding around their space station; nor did the thoughts of his compartment-mates. For the first time in his life, he was terribly alone.
Earth grew in the viewplate; expanding majestically to obliterate the surrounding space, it grew shimmery along its almost regular circumference. The orbit of his saucer-shaped ship flattened into a great spiral. ”

“ Forential came to make a special announcement. He spoke English with an accent that the mutants (who had learned the language from him) could not even imitate. As he surveyed them, his eyes shone with pride: they were a good, sturdy, healthy lot. "Children," he said. "Earth is now in the middle of a war. There will be little work left for us within another two months."
Calvin cried and waved his arms wildly and bounced the ball viciously around the room. Every earthman who killed an earthman was depriving him personally, of a victim. ”

“ Search planes of the Air Force began to drone over the area; searching for the saucer the radar had tracked to earth.
Walt walked for hours across the desert. His feet, unaccustomed to the tight fitting shoes, pained him. He grew weary. Occasionally, lights from the highway to his left winked by in the night. On he trudged. Sand crept into his shoes.
Dawn came. He looked toward the mountains, blue with distance. He would not be able to make them. Soon the sun would be overhead. The heat (it was already promised) would be intense. He would have to have water. ”

“ Below, white and massive with afternoon sunlight, the Washington Monument, the tallest piece of masonry on the planet, loomed up between The Ellipse and the Tidal Basin, towering 555 feet into the air: standing rooted and solid and defiant.
Walt felt them.
"Mutants from my compartment!" he cried.
Instantly all activity in the laboratory ceased. It resumed almost immediately, pointless and frantic, now.
"They've been sent to destroy our signal generator," Dr. Norvel said matter of factly.
Technicians glanced anxiously at the suddenly unsubstantial walls. There was no protection. ”

“ He's got to live, Julia thought. If the doctors can just bring him to consciousness, he can heal himself. When he realizes I've saved his life, maybe he'll listen to me. He's got to listen. I'll convince him, I'll reason with him. He'll be able to prove to everybody that there will be an invasion. When they see all the things he can do, they'll have to believe him....
They put Walt in the car. ”

“ Perhaps because her mind was so fatigued that it was almost functioning on the automatic level of sleep, she realized at last why the two compartments in the space station had been kept separate. After the second wave of mutants destroyed the first—under the impression they were the Earth survivors of a war—the aliens would silence the second frequency transmitter. Earth would be populated by less than thirty male mutants. The race of man would not breed back. In a few years, the planet would be ready for its conquerors. ”

“ Walt knew Willy wouldn't risk a sudden motion.
But Walt was wrong. As he bent down, the lever snapped in place. The saucer shuddered.
And Walt, using the focus rod for power, fuzed the control panel in an instant beyond all use. Before the other mutants could strike, his extended shielding was back around himself and the laboratory.
You're going to listen, Walt told him calmly. All of you. You're an earthling. Every one of you. You were born here of Earth parents. ”

“ Walt said nothing.
"... Genes are the substances which transmit characteristics from generation to generation. If you wish to change hereditary characteristics, you must change the genes. The aliens changed our genes so we would be able to use all of our brains. The normal earthling is just like you are right now: unable to use more than one sixth of his brain. The aliens collected all the mutants; all of them but me. They overlooked me."
Walt twisted uncomfortably.
"But they still control us," Julia said. "There is a bridge that is held closed by a special frequency. ”

“ People can be convinced of anything as long as they have no way of checking beliefs against facts. Remember that. Forential had complete control over you. You believed what he told you to. Now you've had a chance to see for yourself. You're just like an earthling. There is no war. Things like that. Think for yourself, Walt."
"How long will you be gone?"
Julia gathered up her handbag. She folded the birth certificates and stored them in it. "I don't know. I've got to convince someone of some facts that are going to be very hard to believe." She paused at the door. "I won't forget you, Walt. ”

“ He jerked his right hand savagely.
"You have been deprived of your power," Julia said.
Stunned, he lay back. "I, I don't understand."
"You thought you were a Lyrian," Julia said. "You were wrong. You're an earthman. I am an earthwoman."
"That's a lie! I'm not an earthman!"
"You are now. How are you different?"
"That's a lie. I'm, I'm...." He fought against the tentacle-like strips of sheet.
"Is it a lie, Walt?" ”

“ Forential knows. He said to kill her.
Julia, studying him with faint amusement, said "Have you looked at your brain? I have a picture of a human brain here. I want to show you how alike they are."
"Lyrians have a superficial resemblance to earthlings."
"Look at this. Very similar. The same, almost."
Walt shifted uneasily. Her eyes did not move from his face. What was she getting at?
"I wonder," she said, "why we ... Lyrians ... have had certain powers given to us just recently? Why, before, we were no different than earthlings?" ”

“ Julia said dully.
Dr. Norvel collapsed, crying quietly. "It's too late; it's too late; it's too late."
"We worked too fast—"
Walt stood up. The book fell with a sharp, explosive sound now that he had stopped concentrating on it. "We'll have to find my frequency on the other generator."
"Not until we get all the first wave of mutants under control," Julia said. "We can't shut off their interference before."
"Suppose it takes as long on your frequency as it did on Julia's?" Dr. Norvel said. "... I don't think we've got that kind of time. As soon as they realize something's wrong...." ”