Sam Merwin

“ The Barkutburg leader was almost physically sick at Revere's departure. Her thoughts of love, of desolation, were so strong that Lynne found herself sharing them, even though she had seen her twin but a scant few minutes since attaining an age of reason.
Yet there were strength and determination and a strong sense of duty holding Lao Mei-O'Connell to her important tasks of seeing that her share of reclaiming a planet continued. The frail-looking Martian woman was, Lynne realised, a person of vast character. ”

“ Tony Willis asked politely.
"Nothing—my clout slipped," she replied, embarrassed.
Lynne was taken to a gaunt office whose chief piece of furniture was an immense Martian globe, upon which all the chief Martian cities, all the human settlements, all the communications posts were marked. She began to understand, from looking at it, how very different conditions upon the red planet were from the Earth norm.
The home planet, heavily over-populated, was skilfully disguised to appear roomy. Virtually every inch of its land surface was devoted to giving crowded humanity the illusion of privacy. ”

“ Janet regarded her narrowly, shook her head. "Hasn't anything ever touched you, Lynne?" she asked. "Haven't you ever wanted Ray or anyone as I want him? Haven't you ever hated anyone as I'm beginning to hate you? Haven't you ever been human?"
"Jan!" Lynne was shocked, then vaguely frightened. "I don't know—I guess maybe not," she said. "But Jan, I can't help it. That's the way I am."
Janet sighed and said, "In that case I'm sorry for you." She changed the subject quickly as Ray came wandering in, gave Lynne an unhappy look, then crossed the room and turned on the vidarscreen. ”

“ But she had to get her message through. Without her knowledge of the nature of the aliens Rolf would use faulty weapons against them, would lose precious time, time that might prove decisive for the survival of Earthmen on Mars.
Despairing, knowing she could not hold out much longer against the attack with her mind open, Lynne summoned reserve powers she did not know she possessed and swept the planet's surface with her thoughts, seeking Rolf. Her love for him, her fear for Revere's ultimate fate, her affection for her new comrades—all combined to help her make a final superhuman effort. ”

“ Earthfolk on Mars were becoming increasingly telepathic and telepaths were the prey of the invisible foes. Lynne knew somehow, from the thoughts of the aliens, that they had been growing steadily in strength since the arrival of the Earthmen on their planet, that after a creepingly slow revival for decades they had finally snow-balled to sufficient power to make open attacks upon human brains laid bare for telepathic communication. They longed to renew the lost pleasures of the flesh through possession of human bodies. ”

“ Rolf shook his head, replied, his voice low, "Not yet—not until you replace him. That's how short-handed we are. We've lost too many the last few months. And there simply aren't any replacements. That's why I rushed to Earth when I heard about you, why perhaps I used unscrupulous methods to get you to come. There are less than a million people on all of Mars."
She understood his unspoken analogy. Less than a million people—less than a hundred telepaths, to maintain communications over the entire planet. ”

“ Lynne's entire twenty-four years had been passed for the purpose of integration into and work for the improvement of humanity on her native planet. The very idea of Mars was terrifying, as was the idea of traveling there through space. She simply couldn't endure the wrench of the trip, the separation from all that mattered.
Rolf stood there quietly, letting her thoughts flow without interruption. Then he said, "I see—but it's not as bad as all that, darling. After all, I made the trip in reverse."
"But that's different—you're a man!" she protested. ”

“ No convicts, no misfits, no refugee cultists were to be sent out to settle the newly-opened red planet—instead, the cream of Earth's best trained, most gifted and strongest young men and women were to do the preliminary settling. For it would still be many years before the arid world would be able to support much humanity. ”

“ Lynne inquired.
"It's a Martian device—supposed to get impressions from the minds of dying men. It was used in the early days when we had more crime." There was sudden listlessness in her manner.
Lynne read her thoughts all too plainly. Lao Mei-O'Connell was stunned with grief. No one, it seemed, had ever survived treatment with this machine—survived to sanity at any rate. So Revere was dead—or as good as dead.
Lynne looked blankly at the Eurasian woman, utterly unable to think under the sudden shock of her words. ”

“ And it seems to be affecting our telepaths rather than others. Maybe our telepathic minds are more open to whatever the influence is. I don't know." His expression turned grim. "I've never allowed them—it—to affect me."
All at once she remembered the nightmare, the being alone in the crystal tower, the crowding in upon her of unseen things that whispered dreadful alluring suggestions, the sense of panic. She began to understand it with growing certainty.
Lynne said, "My brother—Revere—he's one of those who's been affected, isn't he?" ”

“ She said, "Are the other towers of Mars like this?"
"In general," replied the Eurasian girl. "The aborigines seem to have been mostly a philosophic sort. Perhaps they became so when their planet began to die. All that have survived are such low life-orders as the czanworm and sand-lurtonk. Unless, of course, the invisible ones are natives. I for one am inclined to believe they are."
"So does Rolf Marcein," said Lynne.
"You love him, don't you?" Lao asked matter-of-factly.
"I'm beginning to be afraid so," said Lynne as frankly.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of," replied the other. ”

“ Despite Rolf's assurance that there were fewer than a hundred telepaths on Mars, subconsciously she had been expecting to land on a planet where her innermost thoughts were open to everyone. She was almost pathetically grateful that it was not so.
"Old Rolf must be losing his touch," said Willis, grinning. "He's our ace-in-the-hole when it comes to—personal management. Has a thousand lovely ladies eating right out of his hand."
"Shut up, you czanworm!" Rolf's thoughts revealed acute distress and Lynne felt a little glow of triumph. ”

“ Lao took from a table, on which tools and other instruments had been laid, an odd-looking stereoptical device, handed it to Lynne, adding, "Adjust it and you'll get the full effect. A lot of their work was done below the human color-scale, in the infra-red."
Lynne gasped when she studied the hitherto drab patches in the murals through the double-eye-piece of the viewer. She saw strange beings, hauntingly near-human, engaged in fantastic gambols. Multi-faceted eyes leered out at her from the Capuchin heads of twin-bodied smaller creatures of a boldness that almost made her flinch. ”

“ We're building the biggest thing Man has ever accomplished on Mars—making a barren ruined planet live again, making it fit for men and women and babies to inhabit.
"Right now we're up against the greatest danger we've faced since the first few desperate years—maybe an even greater threat. We can't see it, we don't even know what it is. But men and women on Mars are going mad. Only a few of us can reach them—and thanks to a condition of the planet we're all too overloaded to do the psychiatric work we should do. We need telepaths." ”

“ Lynne, who was as casually aware of her own blond loveliness as any well-conditioned and comely young woman, had not considered Janet seriously as a rival when she had fallen in love with Ray Cornell. Now, rubbed almost raw by the discomfort of her headache, Lynne decided she had underrated Janet. She was either going to have to get Ray back in line or turn him over to the other third of their team. ”

“ Work hard, play hard, rest hard—that's the rule of Mars."
"It sounds good," said Lynne sincerely. "Tell me, Lao, just what is the status of electricity on Mars? I was a little worried when you wanted the chemilamps so urgently. But we have the communicator phones and electric cooking...."
"It's a strange problem," said the other woman. "Everything works as long as we can use a closed circuit on this planet. But the minute we open one up—for lateral broadcasting, say—it is dissipated—like that!" ”

“ Two aluminum-coveralled figures were awaiting her at the rim of the airport. One was tiny, feminine, despite the bulk of her costume, her exotically delicate Eurasian features roughened by wind and sunburn. She was Lao Mei-O'Connell, qualified and elected leader of the pioneer settlement. The other was—Revere Fenlay.
It was add to see oneself mirrored in the features of another human for the first time in one's life, Lynne decided. She noted her brother looked unexpectedly healthy, that his handclasp was firm, his eyes probably clearer than her own sleep-puffed ones. ”

“ One of each set of such induced identical twins was early selected to go to Mars, the other to remain on Earth. Thus Earth lost nothing, yet had its potential Martians, ready for conditioning and training in special seminaries for lifetime work on the red planet. When one of a pair of twins was a girl, the other a boy, the boy was the one sent out—since life on Mars was still a rugged affair. Thus it was that Lynne had been reared for an Earth-career while her brother, Revere, had been educated and coached for a Mars-life. ”

“ From what little your brother was able to tell me, the odd little games those creatures are playing are very like those his invaders hinted at."
"You mean," said Lynne with a shudder, "that the zombies or whatever they are looked like that before they lost their bodies?"
"Or before they became invisible," said Lao quietly. "The near-humans seem to have been the dominant species. These others—the twin-bodied monkeylike things—seem to have been their pets." ”

“ You'll have some trouble, of course—you're bound to on an alien planet. I hate to think of what I'd have to go through to adjust to Earth."
"Fair enough," Lynne said gratefully. She wanted to ask Lao about Revere, what sort of man he was, some of his little habits. She also began to understand better why Earth-Mars twins were kept so rigorously apart as a rule. The relationship was a complex and deep one and she found herself almost as homesick for her twin as was Lao.
"Life is hard here," Lao said, "but not unhappy. It isn't even particularly earnest, save for necessary jobs. ”

“ The thought ran, They think they know what the creatures are now but they don't. Even I don't. My images were mixed. They are not the dominant near-human species we thought but something else....
Slowly his thoughts faded once more, unable to hold out against the fatigue that was plaguing him. But his hopeless message of defeat had sprung a fresh thought-train in Lynne's mind, one that so occupied her attention she was able to hold the invaders at bay almost without effort. ”

“ There may still be life-forms on Mars of which we know nothing—or perhaps manifestations of those we thought safe that are dangerous. But something apart from atmosphere or weather or diet or drink is creating insanity. ”

“ He hesitated, evidently felt the probe of her questing brain, nodded reluctantly. He said, "Your brother is one of them. The purt of it is we don't dare send him back to Earth."
"I understand." She shuddered, felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder, added, "He's mad, isn't he." It was statement, not query.
"I'm afraid so—at least part of the time," he replied. "But don't worry. We have marvelous clinics on Mars. Once we get him to one of them there's a good chance of a cure." ”

“ She watched a vidarcast with Mother Weedon, an unreal historical romance of love and adventure in one of the vast sprawling industrial empires of the mid-twentieth century. There was, for twenty-second-century folk, a vast emotional appeal in the job-competition, the hard compulsory physical toil, the dangers of that exciting era. ”