 Part 2, Chapter 8 of Masters of Space. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by R.J. Davis. Masters of Space by Edward Elmer Smith, a.k.a. E. E. Dock Smith and Edward Everett Evans. Translated by Robert Sicconelli, Stephen Blundell, and the online distributed proofreading team. Part 2. They were the masters and they had only to choose eternal life as inhuman monsters or death. Masters of Space by Edward E. Smith and E. Everett Evans. What had gone before? The crew of the Starship Orion found themselves in the middle of a great space war between the creatures called Stretch and the lost android servants of their own human ancestors. Helped by the android, the earth men formed themselves into the powerful telepathic linkage called Payondex, it who invade the Stretch planet itself. As their minds joined, they heard the android truly cry out, Good! And then their minds were out in interstellar space. Chapter 8. Hilton did not have to drive the Payondex beam to the planet Stretch. It was already there. And there was a monstrous First Lord thinker, Zoyar, into that mind his multi-mind flashed. His every member as responsive to his will as his own fingers. Almost infinitely more so, in fact. Because of the tremendous lengths of time required to send messages along nerves. That horrid mind was scanned cell by cell. Then, after what seemed like a few hours, when a shield began sluggishly to form, Hilton transferred his probe to the mind of the second thinker, One Lord Gynos, and absorbed everything she knew. Then the minds of all the other thinkers being screened. He studied the whole Stretch planet foot by foot and everything that was on him. Then, mission accomplished, Hilton snapped his attention back to his office and the multi-mind fell apart. As he opened his eyes, he heard Tully scream, Look! Oh, you still hear Tully? How long have we been gone? Approximately one and one-tenth seconds, sir. What? Beverly Bell in the haven of Franklin Pointer's arms fainted quietly. Sondra shrieked piercingly. The four men stared goggled-eyed. Temple and teddy, as though by common thought, burrowed their faces into brawny shoulders. Hilton recovered first. So that's what PM Dax is. Yes, sir. I mean, no, sir. No, I mean yes, but... Tully paused, licking her lips in that peculiarly human female gesture of uncertainty. Well, what do you mean? It either is or isn't. Or is that necessarily so? Not exactly, sir. That is, it started its pay on Dax, but it became something else. Not even the most powerful of the old masters, nobody ever did or ever could possibly generate such a force as that, or handle it so fast. Well, with seven of the best minds of Terra and a... chick-chop-the-kit-chat, Karn said harshly, what I want to know is whether I was having a nightmare. Can there possibly be a race such as I thought I saw? So utterly savage, ruthless, merciless, so devoid of every human trace, and so hell-bent determined on the extermination of every other race in the galaxy? God damn it, it simply doesn't make sense. Eyes went from eyes to eyes to eyes. All had seen the same indescribably horrible, absently atrocious things. Qualities and quantities and grudges and drives that no words in any language could even begin to portray. It doesn't seem to, but there it is, Teddy Blake shook her head hopelessly. Big Bill Karn's hand still shaking lit a cigarette before he spoke again. Well, I've never been a proponent of genocide, but it's my considered opinion that the stretch or one race the galaxy can get along without. A hell of a lot better without, pointer said, and all agreed. The point is, what can we do about it, can K-dash? The first thing I would say is to see whether we can do this, whatever it is, without Tooley's help. Shall we try it? Although I, for one, don't feel like doing it right away. Not I either. Beverly Bell held up her right hand, which was shaking uncontrollably. I feel as though I've been bucking waves, wind, and tide for forty-eight straight hours without food, water, or touch. Maybe in about a week I'll be ready for another try at it. But today, not a chance. Okay, scat all of you, take the rest of the day off and rest up. Put on your thought screens and don't take them off for a second from now on. Those strats are tough homeries. Sandra was the last to leave. And you boss, she asked pointedly. I've got some thinking to do. I'll stay and help you think. Not yet. He shook his head frowned and then grimped. You see, Chick, I don't even know yet what it is I'm going to have to think about. Hey, bit unclear, but I know what you mean. I think. Luck, Chief, and their subterranean sanctan turn on distant strats. Two of the deepest thinkers of that horribly unhuman race were in coldly intent conference by a thought. My mind had been plundered, Ginos. First Lord thinkers, Zyros, radiated harshly. Despite the extremely high reactivity of my shield, some information, I do not know how much was taken. The operator was one of the humans of that ship. I too felt a plucking at my mind, but those humans could not pay on their first Lord. Me logical fool, at that contact in the matter of which you aired and not following up continuously, they succeeded in concealing the real abilities from you. That could be the truth. Our ancestors aired in, in recording that all those weak and timid humans had been slain. These offenders are probably their descendants, returning to reclaim their former world. The probability must be evaluated and considered. Was it or was it not through human aid that the omens destroyed most of our task force? Highly probable, but impossible of evaluation with the data now available. Obtain more data at once. That point must be and shall be fully evaluated and fully considered. This entire situation is intolerable. It must be abated. True, first Lord, but every operator in operation is now tightly screened. Oh, if I could only go out there myself. Oh, fool, your thought is completely disloyal and unstraightly. True, oh, first Lord thinker, Joyar, I will forfeit remove my unworthy self from this plane of existence. You will not. I hereby abolish that custom. Our numbers are too few by far. Too many have failed to adapt. Also, as second thinker, your death at this time would be slightly detrimental to certain matters now in work. I will myself, however, slay the unfit. To that end, repeat the words under my pay-on daring. I am a strapped. I will devote my every iota of mental and physical strength to forwarding the great plan. I am and will remain a strapped. You do believe in the words. Of course I believe in them. I know that in a few more hundreds of thousands of years we will be rid of material bodies and will become invincible and invulnerable. Then come to conquest of the galaxy and then the conquest of the universe. No more then on your life of this week and cowardly repenting. Now what of your constructive thinking? Programming must be set as to obliviate time lag. We must evaluate the factors already mentioned and many others, such as the reactivation of the spacecraft which was thought to have been destroyed so long ago. After having considered all these evaluations I will construct a minor plan to destroy these omens whom we have permitted to exist on sufferance and with them that shipload of deceptively interloping humans. That is well. Doier's mind ceased with a malavent ferocity starkly impossible for any human mind to grasp. And to that end we must intensify still more our program of procuring data. We must revise our max in the light of our every technological advance during the many thousands of cycles since the last six revision was made. Our every instrument of power of offense and of defense must be brought up to the theoretical ultimate of capacity. And as to the great brain I have been able to think of nothing first Lord to add to the undertakings you have already set forth. It was not expected that you would. Now is it your final thought that these interlopers are in fact the descendants of those despised humans of so long ago? It is. It is also mine. I return then to my work upon the brain. You will take whatever measures are necessary. Use every artifice of intelligent and of ingenuity and our every resource. But abate this intolerable nuisance and soon. It shall be done first Lord. The second thinker issued orders. Printed round the clock activity ensued. Hundreds of mechs operated upon the brain of hundreds of others who in turn operated upon the operators. Then all those brains charged with the technological advances of many thousands of years the combined hundreds went unrestingly to work. Thousands of work mechs were built and put to work at the construction of larger and more powerful spacecraft. As has been implied those battle skeletons of the Stretz were controlled by their own built-in mechanical brains which were programmed for only the simplest of battle maneuvers. Anything at all out of the ordinary had to be handled by remote control by the spaceless mechs at their two miles long control board. This was now to be changed. Programming was to be made so complete that almost any situation could be handled by the warship or the missile itself instantly. The Stretz knew that they were the most powerful the most highly advanced race in the universe. Their science was the highest in the universe hence with every operating unit brought up to the full possibilities of that science that would be more than enough period. This work well required much time was very much simpler than the task which the first thinker had laid out for himself on the giant computer plus which the Stretz called the Great Brain. In stating his project first Lord Zauer had said I assignment to construct a machine that will have the following abilities one to contain and retain all knowledge and information fed into it however great the amount two to feed itself additional information by pay-on-diring all planets wherever situate bearing intelligent life three to call up instantly any and all items of information pertaining to any problem we may give in four to combine and recombine any number of items required to form new concepts five to formulate theories test them and draw conclusions helpful to us in any manner in work it will have been noticed that these specifications vary in one important respect from those of the NACS and Univax of Earth since we of Earth cannot pay-on-dire we do not expect that ability from our computers the Stretz could and did when Sondra came back into the office at five o'clock she found Hilton still sitting there in almost exactly the same position come out a bit jarve she snapped a finger that much of that is just simply too damn much you're so right child he got up Stretz and by main strength shrugged off his foul mood but we're up against something that is really a something and I don't mean perchance how well I know it she put an arm around him gave him a quick hard hug but after all you don't have to solve it this evening you know no, thank God so why don't you and Temple have suffered with me or better yet why don't all eight of us have suffered together in that bachelor's paradise of yours and bills that'd be fun and it was nor did it take a week for Beverly Bell to recover from the ordeal of eight on the following evening see yourself suggested that the team should take another shot at that utterly fantastic terror incognita of the multiple minds jolting though it had been but are you sure you can take it again so soon Hilton asked sure I'm like that famous ganker small you know who bruised easy but healed quick and I want to know about it as much as anyone else does they could do it this time without any help from too late the linkage barely snapped together and shrank instantaneously to a point Hilton thought of terror and there it was full size yet occupying only one infiniscible section of a dimensionless point the multi-mind visited relatives of all eight but could not make intelligible contact if asleep it caused pleasant dreams if awake pleasant thoughts of the loved one so far away in space but that was all it visited mediums in trance and otherwise many of whom not surprisingly now were genuine with whom it held lucid conversations even in linkage however the multi-mind knew that none of the mediums would be believed even if they all told simultaneously exactly the same story the multi-mind weakened suddenly and Hilton snapped it back to Audrey Beverly was almost in collapse the other girls were white shaken and trembling Hilton himself strong and rugged as he was felt as though he had done two weeks of hard labor on a rock pile he glanced questioningly at Larry point six three eight second sir the omen said holding up a millisecond timer how do you explain that? Carnes demanded I'm afraid it means that without omen backing we're out of luck Hilton had other ideas but he did not voice any of them until the following day when he was rested and had Larry alone so carbon-based brains can't take it one second of that stuff would have killed all eight of us why? the masters had the same kind of brains we have I don't know sir if something completely new no master or group of masters ever generated such a force as that I can scarcely believe such power possible even though I have felt it twice it may be that over the generations your individual powers never united or controlled have developed so strength that no human can handle them in fusion and none of us ever knew anything about any of them I've been doing a lot of thinking the masters had qualities and abilities now unknown to any of us how come? you omens and the stretch too think we're descendants of the masters maybe we are you think they came originally from Earth Earth or Terra to Ardu let it account for our legends of Mu, Atlantis and so on since Ardu was within pay-on-decks range of stretch the stretch attacked it they killed all the masters they thought and made the planet uninhabitable for any kind of life even their own but one shipload of masters escaped and came here to Ardu far beyond pay-on-decks range they stayed here for a long time then for some reason or other which may be some place in their records they left here fully intending to come back do any of you omens know why they left why they went? no sir we can read only the simplest of the masters records they arranged our brains that way sir I know they're the type however I suspect now that your thinking is reversed let's turn it around say the masters didn't come from Terra but from some other planet say that they left here because they were dying out they were weren't they? yes sir their numbers became fewer and fewer each century I was sure of it they were committing race suicide by letting you omens do everything they themselves should have been doing finally they saw the truth in a desperate effort to save their race they pulled out leaving you here probably they intended to come back when they had bred enough guts back into themselves to set you omens down where you belong but they were always the masters sir they were not they were hopelessly enslaved think it over anyway say they went to Terra from here that still accounts for the legends and so on however they were too far gone to make a recovery and yet they had an efficiency of purpose not to manufacture any of you omens there so their descendants went a long way down the scale before they began to work back up does that make sense to you? it explains many things sir it can very well be the truth okay however it was we're here and facing a condition that isn't funny while we were teamed up I learned a lot but not nearly enough am I right in thinking that I now don't need the other seven at all that my cells are fully charged and I can go in alone? probably sir but I'm coming to that every time I do it up to maximum performance of course it comes easier and faster and hits harder so next time or maybe the fourth or fifth time they'll kill me and the other seven too if they're alone I'm not sure sir but I think so nice very very nice Hilton got up shoved both hands into his pockets and prowled about the room but can't the damn stuff be controlled choked, throttled down, damped, muzzled some way or other I do not know of any way sir the masters were always working toward more power not less that makes sense the more power the better as long as you can handle it but I can't handle this and neither can the team so how about organizing another team one that hasn't got quite as much wimble enough punch to do the job but not enough to backfire that way it is highly improbable that such a team is possible sir if an omen could be acutely embarrassed Larry was that is sir I should tell you sir you certainly should you've been stalling all along and now you're stalled spill it yes sir they truly beg me not to mention it but I must when it organized your team it had no idea of what it was really going to do let's talk the same language shall we say he and she not yet she thought she was setting up the pay index the same as all of us omen have but after she formed in your mind the pay index matrix your mind went on of itself to form a something else a thing we cannot understand that is why she was so extremely I think frightened might be your term I knew something was biting her why because it very nearly killed you you perhaps have not considered the effect upon us all if any omen however unintentionally should kill a master no I hadn't I see so she won't play with fire anymore and none of the rest of you can yes sir nothing could force her to if she could be so core we would destroy her brain before she could act that brain as you know is imperfect or she could not have done what she did it should have been destroyed long since don't ever act on that assumption Larry Hilton thought for a minute simple pay index that you're yours is not enough to read the master's records if I had three brain cells working I'd have tried them them I wonder if I could read them you have all the old master's powers and more but you must not as simple them again sir it would mean death but I've got to know anyway a thousandth of a second would be enough I don't think that hurt me very much he concentrated read a few feet of top secret braided wire and came back to consciousness in the sixth bay of the Perseus with two doctors working on him Hastings the top navy medico and Flanders the surgeon what the hell happened to you Flanders demanded were you trying to kill yourself and if so how Hastings wanted to know no I was not trying to Hilton said weekly and I guess I didn't much more than succeed that was just about the closest shave I ever saw a man come through whatever it was don't do it again I won't he promised feelingly when they let him out of the hospital four days later he called in Larry and Tulip the next time would be the last time so there won't be any he told him but just how sure are you that some other of our boys or girls may not have just enough of whatever it takes to do the job enough oompa but not too much since we too are on strange ground the probability is vanishingly small we have been making inquiries however and scanning you are selected from all the minds of Terra as the one having the widest vision the greatest scope the most comprehensive grasp the ableist at synthesis and correlation and so on that's printing it in big letters but that was more or less what they were after hence the probability approaches unity that any more such eager meddling as this obnoxious Tulip did will result almost certainly in failure and death therefore we cannot and will not meddle again you've got a point there so what I am is some kind of a freak maybe a kind of supermaster that may be something altogether different maybe duplicable in a less lethal fashion and maybe not very helpful I don't think but I don't want to kill anybody either especially if it wouldn't do any good but we've got to do something Hilton scowled and thought for a minute but an omen brain could take it as you told us Tulip the brain of the Larry is very very tough in a way sir except that the masters were very careful to make it physically impossible for any omen to go very far along that line it was only their oversight of my one imperfect brain that enabled me alone of us all to do that wrong stop thinking it was wrong Tulip I'm mighty glad you did but I wasn't thinking of any regular omen brain Hilton's voice petered out I see sir yes we can by using your brain as guide reproduce it in an omen body you would then have the powers and most of the qualities of both no you don't see because I've got my screen on which I will now take off he suited action to work since the whole planet screened and I have nothing to hide from you Teddy Blake and I both thought of that but we'll consider it only as the ultimately last resort we don't want to live a million years and we want our race to keep on developing but you folks can replace carbon-based molecules with silicon-based ones just as easily asked and a hell of a lot faster than mineral water petrified woods what can you do along the line of rebuilding me that way and if you can do any such conversion what would happen would I live at all and if so how long how would I live what would I live on all that kind of stuff shortly before they left two of the masters did some work on that very thing Tudley and I converted them sir fine or is it how did it work out perfectly sir except that they destroyed themselves it was thought that they worried of existence I don't wonder well if it comes to that I can do the same you can convert me then yes sir but before we do it we must do enough preliminary work to be sure that you will not be harmed in any way also there will be many more masters involved than simple substitution of course I realize that just see what you can do please and let me know we will serve and thank you very much end of chapter 8 chapter 9 of masters of space this is a lever box recording all lever box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit leverbox.org recording by R.J. Davis masters of space by Edward Elmer Smith a.k.a. E.E. Doc Smith and Edward Everett Evans translated by Robert Sicconetti Stephen Blundell and the online distributed proofreading team chapter 9 as has been intimidated no Taren can know what researchers Larry and Tuli and the other Omen specialists perform or how they arrived at the conclusions they reached however in less than a week Larry reported to Hilton it can be done sir with complete safety and you will live even more comfortably than you do now how long the mean will be about 5,000 Omen years you don't know that an Omen year is equal to 1.293 plus Taren years I didn't know thanks the maximum a little less than 6,000 the minimum a little over 4,000 I'm very sorry we had no data upon which to base a closer estimate close enough he stared at the Omen you could also convert my wife of course sir well we might be able to stand in after we get used to the idea minimum over 5,000 Taren years barring accidents of course no sir no accidents nothing will be able to cure you except by total destruction of the brain and even then sir there will be the pattern I'll be damned Hilton gulp twice okay go ahead your skins will be like ours energy absorbers your blood will carry charges of energy instead of oxygen thus you may breathe or not as you please unless you wish otherwise we will continue the breathing function it would scarcely be worthwhile to alter the automatic mechanisms that now control it and you will wish at times to speak you will still enjoy eating and drinking although everything ingested will be eliminated as at present as waste we'd add urine excite to our food I suppose or drink radioactive or sleep under cobalt 60 lamps yes sir your family life will be normal your sexual urges and satisfactions the same fertilization and period of gestation unchanged your children will mature at the same ages as they do now how do you oh I see you wouldn't change any molecular linkages or configurations in the genes or chromosomes we could not sir even if we wish such substitutions can be made only in exact one-for-one replacements in the near future you will of course have to control birth quite rigorously we sure would love to see say we want a stationary population of a hundred million on our planet each couple to have two children a boy and a girl born when the parents are about 50 hmm the gals can have all the children they want then until our population is about a million then slap on the limit of two kids per couple right approximately so sir and after conversion you alone will be able to operate with the full power of your eight without tiring you will also of course be able to absorb almost instantaneously all the knowledges and abilities of the old masters he'll engulf twice before you could speak you wouldn't be holding anything else back would you nothing important sir everything else is minor and probably known to you I doubt it how long will the job take and how much notice will you need two days sir no notice everything is ready Hilton face somber thought for minutes the more I think of it the less I like it but it seems to be a force put and temple will blow sky high and have I got the guts to go it alone even if she had let me he shrugs himself out of the black mood I'll look her up and let you know Larry he looked her up and told her everything told her bluntly drawing the full picture in jet black with very little white there it is sweetheart the works he concluded we are not going to have ten years we may not have ten months so if such a brain as that can be had do we or do we not have to have it I'm putting it squarely up to you temple space which had been getting paler and paler was now as nearly colorless as it could become the sickly yellow of her skin's light tan unbacked by any flush of red blood her whole body was tense and strained there's a terrible snapper on that question can't I do it or anybody else except you no whose job is it sweetheart I know but I know just how close Tully came to killing you and that wasn't anything compared to such a radical transformation as this I'm afraid it'll kill you darling and I just simply couldn't stand it she threw herself into his arms and he comforted her in the age-old fashion of man with mate he said as soon as he could lift her tear-streaked face from his shoulder I'll live through it I thought you were getting the howling helpers about having to live for 6,000 years and never getting back to Tara except for a Q Strictly T visit now and then she pulled away from him plunged back her wheaten moth and glared so that's what you thought I don't care how long I live or how or where as long as it's with you but what makes you think we can possibly live through such a horrible conversion as that Larry wouldn't do it if there was any question whatever he didn't say it would be painless but he did say I'd live well he knows I guess I hope Temple's natural fine color but it's understood that just a second you come out of the vat I go right in I had not to let you of course but I don't think I could take it alone that statement required a special type of conference which consumed some little time eventually however Temple answered it in words of course you couldn't sweetheart and I wouldn't let you if you could there were a few things that had to be done before those two secret conversions could be made there was a matter of the wedding which was now to be in quadruplicate arrangements had to be made so that eight big wheels of the project could all be away on honeymoon and watch all these things were done of the conversion operations themselves nothing more need be said the honeymooners having left ship and town on a Friday afternoon came back one week from the following Monday morning the eight met joyously in bachelors hall the girls kissing each other and the men indiscriminately and enthusiastically the men cooperating zestfully while it took some time to recompute the exact Ardean calendar Taren day names and Taren weeks were used from the first the omens manufactured watches clocks and chronemeters which divided the Ardean day into 24 Ardean hours with minutes and seconds as usual Temple scarcely blushed at all she was so engrossed in trying to find out whether or not anyone was noticing any change no one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary so finally she asked don't any of you really see anything different? the six others all held at that and some drew between giggles and snorts said no precious it doesn't show a bit did you really think it would? Temple blushed furiously and Hilton came instantly to his bride's rescue chip chomp the comedy gang she and I aren't human anymore a good jump toward being omens I couldn't make her believe it doesn't show that stopped the levity cold but none of the six could really believe it however after Hilton had coiled a 20 penny spike into a perfect helix between his fingers and especially after he and Temple had each chewed up and swallowed a piece of urinexite there were no grounds left for doubt it settles it it tears it start all over again Jarve we listen this time Hilton told the long story again and at it I had to rework a couple of cells of Temple's brain but now she can read and understand the records as well as I can so I thought I'd take her place on team one and let her boss the job on all the other teams so you don't want to let the rest of us in on it Carnes' level stare was a far cry from the way he had looked at his chiefs a moment before if there's any one thing in the universe I never had you figured for it's a dog in the manger huh you mean you actually want to be a a hell we don't even know what we are I do want it Jarvis we all do this was of all people no one in all history has had more than about 50 years of really productive thinking and just the idea of having enough time hold it Teddy use your brain the masters couldn't take it they committed suicide how do you figure we can do any better because we'll use our brains to do it and do you think you'll be able to raise your children and grand children and so on to do the same to have guts enough to resist the full of such an ungodly habit forming drug as this omen service is I'm sure of it she nodded positively and we'll run all applicants through a fine enough screen too that is if we ever consider anybody except our on-view side people and there's another reason she grim got up we go out of her cover all and poised in bra and panics look I can keep most of this for 5 years quite a lot of it for 10 then comes the struggle what do you think I'd do for the ability whenever it begins to get wrinkly or flabby to peel the whole thing off and put on a brand spanking new smooth one you name it I'll do it besides Bill and I will boast just simply and cold bloodedly murder you if you try to keep us out okay Hilton looked at Temple she looked at him both looked at all the others there is no revulsion at all nothing but eagerness Temple took over I'm surprised we're both surprised you see Jarve didn't want to do it at all but he had to I not only didn't want to I was scared green and yellow had just the idea of it but I had to to of course we didn't think anybody would really want to we thought we'd be left here alone we still will be I think when you thought it clear through Teddy you just haven't realized yet that we aren't even human anymore we're simply nothing but monsters Temple's voice became a whale I've said my piece Teddy said you tell them Bill let me say something first King Cade said Temple I'm ashamed of you this line isn't it all your usual straight thinking what you actually are is homo superior Bill I can add one bit to that I don't wonder that you were scared silly Temple utterly new concept and you went into it stone cold but now we see the finished product and we like it in fact we drool I'll say we're drooling said I could do handstands and pinwheels with joy let's see you Hilton said that we'd all get a kick out of not now don't want to hold this up but sometime I just will if I'm for it and how and won't Bernadine be amazed Beverly laughed briefly at her wisecrack about the race and all human races coming true I'm in favor of it too 100% pointer said has it occurred to you Jarve that this opens up intergalactic exploration no supplies to carry and plenty of time and fuel no it hadn't you got a point there Frank that might take a little of the curse off of it at that when some of our kids get to be 20 years old or so and get married I'm going to take a crew of them to Andromeda we'll arrange then to extend our honeymoon to another week Hilton said what will our policy be keep it dark for a while with just us eight or spread it to the rest spread it I'd say Kincaid said we can't keep it secret anyway Teddy argued since Larry and Tully were in on the whole deal every open on the planet knows all about it somebody is going to ask questions and omens always answer questions and always tell the truth questions have already been asked and answered Larry said going to the door and opening it Stella rushed in we've been hearing the dammitus thanks she kissed everybody ending with Hilton whom she seized by both shoulders is it actually true boss that you can fix me up so I'll live practically forever and can eat more than 11 calories a day without getting fat as a pig candy, ice cream, cake, pie eclairs, cream puffs french pastries, sugar and gobs of thick cream in my coffee half a dozen others including the van der moen trends came in Beverly emitted a shriek of joy Bernadine the mother of the race to end all human races you whistled it Bernie Bernadine Carroll I'm going to have 10 or 12 each one weirder than all the others I told you I was a prophet I'm going to hang out my single wholesale and retail prophecy special race for large parties special race for large parties her voice was drowned out in a general clamour hold it everybody Hilton yelled chip chop it quit it then as the noise subsided if you think I'm going to tell this tall tale over and over again for the next two weeks you're all crazy so shut down the plant and get everybody out here not everybody jar we don't want scum and there's some of that even in view sigh you're so right who then the rest of the heads and assistants of course and all the lab girls and their husbands and boyfriends I know they are all okay that will be enough for now don't you think I do think and the indicated others were sent for and in a few minutes arrived the omens brought chairs and Hilton stood on a table he spoke for ten minutes then before you decide whether you want to or not think it over very carefully because it's a one way street flooring cannot be displaced once in you're stuck for life there is no way back I've told you all the drawbacks and disadvantages I know of about more that I haven't thought of yet so think it over for a few days and when each of you has definitely made up his or her mind let me know he jumped down off the table his listeners however did not need days or even seconds to decide before Hilton's speech hit the floor there was a yell of unanimous approval he looked at his wife do you suppose were nuts haha not a bit Alex was right I'm going to just love it she hugged his elbow ecstatically so are you darling as soon as you stop looking at only the black side you know you could be right for the first time since the ghostly transformation Hilton saw that there really was a bright side and began to study it with most of you sigh and part of the navy and selectees from terror it will be slightly terrific at that and that habit forming drug ejection isn't insuperable darling Campbell said if the younger generation start weakening we'll fix the omens I wouldn't want to wipe them out entirely but but how do we settle priority Dr. Hilton a girl called out a tall striking brunette laboratory technician whose name Hilton needed a second to recall by pulling straws or hair or by shooting dice for each other or what thanks Betty you've got a point Sandy Cummings and department heads first then assistants then you girls in alphabetical order each with their own husband or fiance and my name is Ames oh goody Larry please tell them to I already have sir we are set up to handle four at once good boy so scat all of you and get back to work except Sandy Bill Alex and Teddy you four go with Larry since the new sense was not pay index Hilton had started calling it perception and the others adopted the term as a matter of course Hilton could use that sense for what seemed like years and actually was whole minutes at a time without fatigue or strength he could not however nor could the omens give his tremendous power to anyone else as he had said he could do a certain amount of reworking but the amount of improvement possible to make depended entirely upon what there was to work on thus Temple could cover about 600 light years it developed later that the others of the big eight could cover from 100 up to 400 or so the other department heads and assistants turned out to be still weaker and not one of the rank and file ever became able to cover more than a single plant this sense was not exactly telepathy at least not what Hilton had always thought telepathy would be if anything however it was more it was a lumping together of all five known human senses and half a dozen unknown one called collectively intuition into one super sense that was all inclusive and all informative never could learn exactly what it was and exactly what it did and how it did it but he had better chip chop the wool gathering and get back on to the job the stretch had licked the old masters very easily and intended to wipe out the omens and the humans they had no doubt at all as to their ability to do it maybe they could if the masters hadn't made some progress that the omens didn't know about they could that was the first thing to find out as soon as they had been converted he'd call in all the experts and they'd go through the masters records like a dose of salt through a hillbilly school mall at that point in Hilton's cognition Sawtale came in he had come down in his gig to confer with Hilton as to the newly beefed up fleet instead of being glum pessimistic and foreboding he was chipper and enthusiastic they had rebuilt a thousand omen ships by combining omen and terran science and adding everything the first team had been able to reduce to practice they had hyped up the power by a good 15% 700 of those ships and all his men were now arrayed in defense around Audrey 300 men by omens were around Fulben why? Hilton asked it's Fulben they've been attacking minor objective the captain demerit positively a real attack will be here at you the headquarters and the branch then Fulben will be ducked soon but the thing that pleased me most is the control and he never imagined such control no admiral in history ever had such control of 10 ships as I have of 700 those omen spread orders so fast that I don't even finish thinking one and it's being executed and no misunderstanding no slips for instance this last match 15 skeletons far out they're getting cagey I just thought box them in and slug them and in across out ships just like that and just that fast none of them had time to buy the beat nobody before ever even dreamed of such control that's great and I like it and you're only a captain how many ships can 5 get Admiral Gordon put into space that depends on what you call ships super dreadnoughts Perseus class 6 Perse line battleships 29 second line smaller and some pretty old 73 counting everything armed that will hold air something over 200 I thought it was something like that how would you like to be 5 get Admiral Sawtell of the Ardrian Navy I wouldn't I'm Terran Navy but you knew that and you know me so what's on your mind Hilton told him I ought to put this on a tape he thought to himself and broadcast it every hour on the hour they took the old masters like dynamiting fish in a barrel he concluded and I'm damned afraid they're going to lick us unless we take a lot of big fast steps it is that I can't tell you anything not one single thing about any part of it there's simply no way at all of getting through to you without making you over into the same kind of a thing I am is that bad Sawtell was used to making important decisions fast let's get at it huh skipper do you realize just what that means if you think they'll let you resign, forget it they'll crucify you brand you as a traitor and God only knows what else right how about you and your people well, as civilians it won't be as bad the hell it won't every man and woman that stays here will be posted forever as a blackest traitor's old terror ever disgraced yourself by spawning you've got a point there at that we'll all have to bring our relatives the ones we think much of at least out here with us definitely now see what you can do about getting me run through your mill by exerting his authority Hilton got Sawtell put through the preservatory in the second batch processed then, licking mind with the captain he placed their joint attention to the hall of records into the right room into the right chest along miles and miles of rated wire carrying some of the profoundest military secrets of the ancient masters then now you know a little of it Hilton said maybe a thousandth of what we'll have to have before we can take the stretch as they will have to be taken Sawtell could not speak then my god I see what you mean you're right no omen can ever go to terror and no terrens can ever come here except to stay forever the two of them went out into space to the flagship which had been christened the orath and called in the six commanders what is all this senseless idiocy we've been getting to her Elliot demanded Hilton eyed all six with pretended disfavor you six guys are the hardest headed bunch of skeptics that ever went unhung he remarked dispassionately so it wouldn't do any good to tell you anything the skipper and I will show you a thing first take her away skip the Orion shot away in a planetary drive and for several hours Hilton and Sawtell worked at rewiring and practically rebuilding two devices that no one omen or human had touched since the Perseus had landed on Audrey what are you I don't understand what you are doing sir Larry said for the first time since Hilton had known him the omen's mind was confused and unsure you don't this is a bit of top secret master stuff maybe someday we'll be able to rework your brain to take it but it won't be for some time end of chapter 9 chapter 10 of masters of space this is a leverbox recording all leverbox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit leverbox.org recording by R.J. Davis masters of space by Edward Elmer Smith aka e.smith and Edward Everett Evans translated by Robert Sickenetti, Stephen Blondel and the online distributed proofreading team chapter 10 the Orion hung in space a couple of thousand miles away from an asteroid which was perhaps a mile in average diameter Hilton straightened up put triple X black filters on your plates and watch that asteroid the commander did so ready he asked ready sir Hilton didn't move a muscle nothing actually moved nevertheless there was emotionally rithing and crawling distortion of the ship and everything in it that simply cannot be described it was not like going into or emerging from the sub ether it was not even remotely like space sickness or sea sickness for freefall or anything else that any Terran had ever before experienced and the asteroid vanished it disappeared into an outrageously incandescent, furiously pyrotechnically defending atomic fireball that in second seemed to fill half of space after ages long minutes of the most horrifying lead, evasitating fury any man there had ever seen the frightful thing expired and Hilton said that was just a kind of a firecracker just a feeble imitation of the first stage detonator for what we'll have to have crack the stretch ground based screens if the skipper and I had taken time to take the ship down to the shops and really work it over we could have put on a show was this enough so you iron heads are ready to listen with your ears open and your mouth shut they were so much so that not even Elliot opened his mouth to say yes they merely nodded then again for the last time he hoped Hilton spoke his piece the response was prompt and veerish only Sam Bryant one of Hilton's staunchest allies showed any uncertainty at all I've been married only a year and a half and the baby was due about a month ago how sure are you that you can make old Gordon set steel for us skinning the cream off of terror now here Doris Bryant the cream of terror Elliot jibbed how modest our Samuel has become well damn it she is Bryant insisted okay she is Hilton agreed but either we get our people or terror doesn't get us here in XA that'll work in the remote contingency that it doesn't there are still tighter screws we can put on but you missed the main snapper Sam suppose Doris doesn't want to live for five thousand years and is allergic to becoming a monster huh you don't need to worry about that Sam brushed that argument aside with a wave of his hand show me a girl who doesn't want to stay young and beautiful forever and I'll square you the circle come on it's holding us up the Orion hurdle through space back towards Audrey and Hilton struck by a sudden thought turned to the captain skipper why wouldn't it be a smart idea to clamp a blockade on the fuel vent cut the stress fuel supply I thought better of you than that son Fautel shook his head sadly that was the first thing I did out maybe your way ahead of me to then on the one that we should move to fuel bin lock stock and barrel never thought of it no maybe you're worth saving after all after conversion of course yes there'd be three big advantages for Fautel raised his eyebrows one only one planet to defend two it's self-defending against landings nothing remotely human can land on it except in heavy lead armor and even in that can stay healthy only for only a few minutes except in the city that's the weak point that would be the point of attack cut off the decontaminators and in five hours it would be as hot as the rest of the planet three there'd be no interstellar supply line for the stretch to cut four the environment matches our new physique a lot better than any normal planet could that's someone I didn't think about I think I'll take a quick peek at the stretch oh oh they screened their whole planet well we can do that too of course how are you going to select and reject personnel it looks as though everybody wants to stay even a man who's made objects in life if they go aground and get drunk they all want to do altogether too good a job on them and there's no such thing as a hangover I'm glad I'm not in your boots you may be in it up to your eyeball skipper so don't quarter too soon Hilton had already devoted much time to the problems of selection and he thought a little else all the way back to Audrey and for several days afterwards he held conferences with small groups and conducted certain investigations Bud Carroll of sociology and his assistant Sylvia Bannister had been married for weeks Hilton called him together with Sautel and Bryant naming into conference with the Big Eight the more I studied this thing the less I like it Hilton said with a civilization having no government, no police, no laws no medium of exchange now money Bryant exclaimed how's old Gordon going to pay for his urinex attempt he gets it free Hilton replied flatly when anyone can have anything he wants merely by wanting it what good is money now remember how long we're going to have to live what we'll be up against that the masters failed and so on it is clear that the prime basic we have to select for is stability we 12 have by psychodynamic measurement the highest stability ratings available are you sure I belong here? Bryant asked yes here are three lists Hilton passed papers around the list labeled OK names those I'm sure of the ones we're converting now and their wives and whatever on Terra list NG names of ones I know we don't want list X over 30% are in betweeners we have to make a decision on the X list so what I want to know is who's going to play God I'm not Sandy are you good heavens no Sandra Shutter but I'm afraid I know who will have to I'm sorry Alex but it'll have to be you for psychology and sociology six heads nodded and there was a flashing interchange of thought among the four temple licked her lips and nodded and Kincaid spoke yes I'm afraid it's our baby by leaning very heavily on temple we can do it remember Jarve what you said about the irresistible force we'll need it as I said once before Mrs. Hilton I'm very glad you're alone Hilton said but just how sure are you to stand up under the alone alone I couldn't but don't underestimate Mrs. Carol and the Missouri together and with such a go I'm sure we can thus after four fifths of his own group and 41 Navy men had been converted Hilton called an evening meeting of all the convert you all knew of course that we were going to move to fuel band sometime Hilton began I can tell you now that we who are here are all there are going to be of us we are all leaving for fuel band immediately after this meeting everything of any importance including all of your personal effects has already been moved all omens accept these three and all omenships accept the Orion have already gone he paused to let the news sink in thoughts flew everywhere the irrefutable stellar wing now Mrs. Osbert F. Harkins was the first to give tone what a wonderful job why everybody's here that I really like it all that settlement was of course unanimous it could not have been otherwise Betty the ex angel called out how did you get your female omens away from Cecil Colthorpe and the rest of that chasing booze fighting bunt without them blowing the whole show some suasion was necessary Hilton admitted with a grin everyone who isn't here is time locked into the purchase for at least time 8 hours tomorrow and they'll wake up tomorrow morning with no omens Bernadine tossed back her silver remain and left nor anything else except the Perseus in a way I'm sorry but maybe I've got too much thinker blood in me but I'm very glad none of them are here but I'd like to ask Jarvis or rather I suppose you have already set up a new advisory board we have yes Hilton read off 12 names oh nice I don't know of any people I'd rather have on it but what I want to grieve about is calling our new home such a horrible name as fuelbill as though it were a wood box or a coal shuttle or something and just think of the complexes it was set up in those super children were going to have so many of what do you suggest Hilton asked our boarder of course for her sister could answer we've got ours and our do and Audrey and you or somebody started calling us Arden to distinguish us converts from the Terence so let's keep up the same line there was general laughter at that but the name was approved about midnight the meeting ended and the Orion set out for our board it reached it and landed sharply downward the whole view size staff was in the lounge watching the big try die hey that isn't on Lou jelly explained it isn't a city at all and it isn't even in the same place no man Larry said most of you wanted the ocean but many wanted a river or the mountains therefore we raved Tom Lou and built your new city Arden as a place for the ocean to rivers and a range of mountains meet strictly speaking it is not a city but a place of pleasant and reward for living the spaceship was coming in low and fast from the south to the left the west there stretched the limitless expanse of ocean to the right after Mal were rough rugged jagged partially timbered mountains mass piled upon mass immediately below the speeding vessel was a wide white sand beach all of 10 miles long slowing rapidly now the Orion flew along due north look look a nice tutorial Beverly Street I knew I wanted a nice big place to swim in besides my backyard pool and the ocean but I didn't tell anybody to build that I swear I didn't you didn't have to pet point to put his arm around her curvious waist and squeeze they knew and I did a little thinking along that line myself there's our house on top of the cliff over the natural terrain you can almost dive into it so oh wonderful immediately north of the natural a tremendous river named at first sight the white water rushed through its gorge into the ocean a river engorged strangely reminiscent of the color and its grand canyon on the south bank of that river at its very mouth looking straight up that tremendous canyon on a rocky promontory demanding ocean and beach and mountains there was a house at sight of it Temple hugged Hilton's arm in ecstasy yes that's ours just about everything either of us has ever wanted the climber was now so great everyone was recognizing his and her house and was explaining about it that both Temple and Hilton fell silent and simply watched the scenery unroll across the turbulent white water and a mile farther north the mountains ended as a roughly as though they had been cut off with a cleaver and an apparently limitless expanse of treeless grassy prairie began and through that prairie meandering sluggishly to the ocean from the northeast came the wide deep riverplacid the Orion halted it began to descend vertically and only then did Hilton see the spaceport it was so vast and there were so many spaceships on it that from any great distance it was actually invisible each six acre bit of the whole immense expanse of level prairie between the Placid and the mountains held an omen super dreadnought the staff peered off and headed for the airlock Hilton said Temple have you any reservations at all however slight having dark lady as a permanent picture in your home why of course not I like her as much as you do and besides she giggles like a schoolgirl even if she is a lot more beautiful than I am I've got a few things she never will have but there's something else I got just a flash of it before you bought fill it please you'll see in a minute and she did Larry dark lady and temples omen made Motley were standing beside the Hilton's car and so was another omen like none ever before seen six feet forward shoulders that would just barely go through a door muscled like Atlas and Hercules combined skin a gleaming satin hair a rippling master flamboyant flame temple came to a full stop and caught her breath the prince she breathed in all DiLormy's Prince of Teebies the ultimate bronze of all the ages you did this jar how did you ever dig him up out of my school real precious all six got into the car which was equally at home on land or water or in the air in less than a minute they were at Hilton house the house itself was circular this living room was an immense anise of glass from which by merely moving along his circular length any desired view could be had the pair walked around at once then she took him by the arm and steered him firmly toward one of the bedrooms this house is just too much to take in all at once she declared besides let's put our swimsuits and get over to the mat in the room she closed the door firmly in the faces of the almonds and grits maybe sometime I'll get used to having somebody beside you in my bedroom but I haven't yet oh do you X2 Hilton had peeled to the waist and was scratching vigorously all around his waistline under his belt like the very devil he admitted and stared at her for she three-quarter strip was scratching too it started the minute we left the Orion he said thoughtfully I see these new skins of ours like hard radiation but don't like to be smothered while they're enjoying it my about tomorrow will be a nudist colony I think I could stand if I suppose what makes you think so just what I know about radiation Frank would be the one to ask my hunch is though that we're going to be nudist whether we want to or not let's go they went in a two-seater even the almond at home three-quarters of the staff were lolling on the sand or were seated on benches beside the immense pool as they watched barely ran out along the line of springboards testing each one and selecting the stiffest she then climbed up to the top platform a good 12 feet above the board and plummeted down upon the board's heavily padded takeoff legs and back bending stubbornly to take the strain she and the board reached low point together and still in sync with it she put every muscle she had into the effort to hurl herself upwards she had intended to go up 30 feet but she had no idea whatever as to her present strength or of what that almond board in perfect synchronization with that tremendous strength would do thus instead of 30 feet she went up nearly 200 with her course spoiled completely her proposed grateful two and a half in mid-air she struggled madly to get into some acceptable position failing she curled up into a tight ball just before she struck water water splashed it won't hurt her you couldn't hurt her with a club Hilton snapped he seized Temple's hands everyone else rusted the pool's ends look Bernadette, that's what I was thinking about Temple stopped and looked the platinum-haired twins had been basking on the sand and wherever sand had touched fabric fabric had disappeared their suits had of course to approach the minimum to start with now, Bernadine wore only a wisp of nylon perched precariously on one breast and part of a ribbon that had once been a belt discovering the catastrophe she shrieked once and leaped into the pool any which way covering her breasts with her hands and hiding in water up to her neck meanwhile the involuntarily high diver had come to the surface laughing apologetically surprised by the hair dangling down over her eyes she felt for her calf it was gone so was her suit naked as a feast she swam a couple of easy strokes then stopped Frank, oh Frank, she called over here Bev her husband did not quite know whether to laugh or not it's just the radiation or the water or boats radiation I think those new skins of ours are covered up but it probably makes the water a pretty good imitation of a universal solvent goodbye clothes Beverly rolled over onto her back banned water carefully with her hands and gazed approvingly at herself I don't itch anymore anyway so I'm very much in favor of it thus the ardents came to their new home world and to a life that was to be more comfortable by far and happier by far than any of them had known on earth there were many other surprises that day of course of which only two will be mentioned here when they finally left the pool at about 17 hours GMT during its mean time everybody was ravenously hungry harder was always and everywhere full daylight tearing time and calendar were adapted as a matter of course but why should we be Stella demanded I've been eating everything inside just for fun but now I'm actually hungry enough to eat a horse and wagon and chase the driver swimming makes everybody hungry Beverly said and I'm awfully glad that hasn't changed why I wouldn't feel human if I didn't Hilton and Temple went home and had a long drawn out and very wonderful supper Prince waited on Temple dark lady on Hilton Larry and Motley ran the synthesizers in the kitchen all four omens radiated happiness another surprise came when they went to bed for the bed was a raised platform of something that looked like concrete and except for an uncanny of molding itself somewhat to the contours of their bodies was almost as hard as rock nevertheless it was the most comfortable bed either of them had ever had when they were ready to go to sleep Temple said granted those omens still want to come in and sleep with us in the room I mean and they suffer so they're simply radiating silent suffering oh so submissive reproach shall we let them come in that's strictly up to you sweetheart it always has been I know I thought they'd quit it sometime but I guess they never filled I still want an illusion of privacy at times even though they know all about everything that goes on but we might let them in now just while we sleep let them out again as soon as we wake up in the morning you're the boss without additional invitation the four omens came in and arranged themselves neatly on the floor on all four sides of the bed Temple had barely time to cuddle up against Hilton and he to put his arm closely around her before they both dropped into profound and dreamless sleep at eight hours next morning a ruthless mess at the new Hall of Records this building an exact duplicate of the old one was located on a mesa in the foothills southwest of the natural torrent in a luxuriant grove at sight of which carns stopped and began to laugh I thought I'd seen everything he remarked but yellow pine spruce, tamarack, apples oak, ponds, oranges, cedars joshua trees and cactus just to name a few all growing on the same quarter section of land just everything anybody wants is all Hilton said but are they really growing or just straight synthetics Lane, Kathy this is your dish not so fast Darve give us a chance please Catherine now Mrs. Lane Saunders she shook her spectacular head we don't see how any stable indigenous life can have developed at all unless unless what natural shielding Hilton asked and Kathy Eider husband right Saunders said the earliest life forms must have developed a field before they could evolve and stabilize hence whatever it is that is in our skins was not a triumph of master's science they took it from nature oh oh those were two of Saunders most expressive monossembles followed by a third oh could be at that but how could no cancel them you'd better cancel it Sandy give us a couple of months and maybe we can answer a few comments or questions but inside the hall all the teams from a astronomy to duosology went officially to work everyone now knew what to look for how to find it and how to study it the first team doesn't need you now too much does it Darve Saunders asked not particularly in fact I was just going to get back on to my own job yeah I want to talk to you and the two went into a long discussion of naval affairs end of chapter 10