William Campbell Gault

“ Deering rose, and went to the window, to look out. "Who will win this war that's shaping up among the huddlers, Fred?"
"I don't know. I'm not sure I give a damn."
Deering continued to look out the window. "The gray nation, the mixed nation, this America; they have some promise of the light, have they not?"
"Some."
"But this black nation, this nation of robots, there is no chance of of light there?"
"Not under their present leaders. If they should win the war the planet would be set back five hundred years."
Deering shook his head, and turned to face me sadly. "It would be worse than that. ”

“ The country that could have been a cultural and industrial center of the world was a robot-land of nine million square miles, getting ready for war, getting ready to take over the dreams of Hitler and make them come true. ”

“ Showering, I was thinking of Akers for some reason and his directed theory and what was that other theory he'd had? Oh, yes, the twin planets. Senile, he was, by that time and not much listened to, but a mind like that? And who had he been associated with at that time? It was before my birth, but I'd read about it, long ago. The Visitor, Akers had called this man. The Earth man who had come to Venus. And what had his name been?
Beer—? Beers—? No, but like that—and it came.
Ambrose Bierce.
Jean wore a light green robe, for breakfast, and it was difficult for me to take my eyes away from her. ”

“ There were two smells in that pretty car with the canvas top. One smell was of gasoline, the other was of alcohol.
"There's obviously alcohol in the gasoline," I said, "though that shouldn't prevent it from igniting."
"A funny, funny man," she said. "Keep the dialogue to a minimum, will you, Bogart? I'm not exactly sharp, right now."
I depressed the starter button, and the motor caught. I swung left onto Sunset, and started up the hill.
The car was clearly a recent model, but Jars had been wrong about the mechanical excellence of these huddlers. The machine simply had no life, no zest. ”

“ Deering said quietly, "and I have been trying a long time to forget what we did to that planetoid."
"It was necessary for survival," Jars said simply. "I think, by any standards, we would be the ones chosen to survive."
Deering's smile was cynical. "At least, by our standards. We had a closer communication with them. About the huddlers, we know only what we convert from their stronger video broadcasts. It is a device they seem to use more for entertainment than for information."
Jars nodded, and stood up. "And love is their major entertainment, perhaps. Love and war. ”

“ In what way, ready?"
"The only way they know, the only thing they seem to have time for—ready for war."
"War—," Deering said, and sighed. "Oh, Jars, they will be beyond war, certainly, before they are cognizant of us. They are no tribe of incompetents; they grow each day." ”

“ In Switzerland, Jean said, "Well—?"
"I'm ready to go home," I told her.
"America, you mean?"
"Where else?"
"I've been alone," she said, "and thinking. I've gone back to Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway and traced it all forward from there. And I don't think America's your home."
Very cool her voice, very tense her face. I smiled at her.
She didn't smile in return. "Fred—we're married."
"I'm glad," I said. "Aren't you?"
"It's no time for the light touch." Tears in her eyes. "Fred, are you a—a Russian spy?" ”

“ He smiled. "If you knew what a mess it's been. We've got men all over the planet. Does your wife—know?"
"She thinks I'm crazy," I said. "Look, I—"
"I'm not going to argue," he said. "Just make your report, and I'll pick it up, tonight."
Five minutes after he was gone, I was packing. I knew he wasn't coming back for any report. He was coming back for me, and it didn't much matter to him if I wanted to come, or not. I was coming, or staying here—dead.
What I didn't realize is that they wanted me to run, to get out where I could be taken with a minimum of interference. ”

“ They were careful, they don't even trust themselves. I told Nilenoff the formula came from America, and there were more, but I needed money. I didn't tell him the fallacy in the formula; it had taken us three years to realize what it was.
My trips were limited, directed, and avoided the seamier side. I saw the modern humming factories, and the mammoth farms. No unemployment, no waste, no "capitalistic blood sucking"—and the lowest standard of living in the industrialized world. A vast, bleak land peopled with stringless puppets, with walking cadavers. ”

“ Jars talked and the assembly listened. They always do, when Jars talks.
And I was their boy, and went into a concentrated and complete briefing. They put me under the lucidate and poured it to me, night and day, all the information we had on the huddlers and all the theories based on that information.
They put me into a space sphere, and said "good luck" and do our people proud, young man. Oh, yes. And don't fall in love. Oh, no. They'd pick me up, again, when they got a signal. They didn't expect to wait too long for that, I guess, at the time. ”

“ Jars said, "and with this particular planet we're discussing, it can be a dangerous attitude."
"So?" Deering said, nudging me. "And could I ask why?"
"Ask it."
"I ask."
"You've recorded the state of their development. They have, among other things, achieved nuclear fission."
"So? In the fourth grade we are teaching nuclear fission."
"We are a scientific people. They haven't been, until very, very recently. You have noted, I hope, their first extensive use of this new discovery?"
"Hero—Helo—" Deering shrugged. "My memory."
"Hiroshima," Jars supplied. "Love—, my friend?" ”

“ All our attention since Akers' first penetration into space had been directed another way in the galaxy, and though I'll grant you unified and universal concentration may be considered unwise in some areas, it's been our greatest strength. ”

“ Deering said. "We spoke, a while ago, of surface manifestations."
"We shall continue to. You have witnessed the mechanical excellence of their machines, in some ways beyond ours, because of their greater element wealth. You have noted the increased concentration of their better minds, their scientific minds. ”

“ Evidently the huddlers didn't swim naked, and I wondered at a moral code that sanctioned drinking alcohol but was ashamed of the human body.
I was glad the house had been cold when I answered the maid's summons, for I had worn a robe I'd found there.
Fruit juice and wheat cakes and sausage and toast and jelly and eggs and milk. We ate in a small room, off a larger dining room, a small room whose walls were glass on two sides.
"It's too old a house to modernize completely," Jean told me. "I grew up in this house."
"You don't—work, Jean?" ”

“ It's brought us rather rapidly to the front, I'm sure you'll agree, and we're not the oldest planet, by a damned sight.
Well, by the time we got to the huddlers, Akers was dead and Murten was just an old man with vacant eyes. Jars was handling the Department, though you might say Deering ran it, being closer to most of the gang. Jars was always so cold; nobody ever got to know him really well. ”