 arm of the law by Harry Harrison This is a LibriVox recording. Oh, LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Brian Dirks arm of the law by Harry Harrison It was a big coffin shaped plywood box that looked like it weighed a ton This brawny type just dumped it through the door of the police station and started away I looked up from the blotter and shouted at the truckers vanishing back What the hell is that? How should I know he said as he swung up into the cab? I just deliver. I don't x-ray him He came on the morning rocket from Earth is all I know He gunned the truck more than he had to and threw up a billowing cloud of red dust Jokers I growled to myself Mars is full of jokers When I went over to look at the box, I could feel the dust great between my teeth Chief Craig must have heard the racket because he came out of his office and helped me stand and look at the box Think it's a bomb. He asked in a bored voice. Why would anyone bother? Particularly with a thing this size and all the way from Earth He nodded agreement and walked around to look at the other end There was no sender's address anywhere on the outside Finally, we had to dig out the crowbar and I went to work on the top After some prying it pulled free and fell off That was when we had our first look at Ned We all would have been a lot happier if it had been our last look as well If we had just put the lid back on and shipped the thing back to Earth I now know what they mean about Pandora's box But we just stood there and stared like a couple of rubes Natalie motionless and stared back at us a Robot the chief said fairy observant. It's easy to see you went to the police Academy Ha ha now find out what he's doing here. I hadn't gone to the Academy But this was no handicap to my finding the letter it was sticking up out of a thick book in a pocket in the box The chief took the letter and read it with a little enthusiasm Well, well United Robotics have the brainstorm that Robots correctly used will tend to provide invaluable in police work They want us to cooperate in a field test Robot enclosed is the latest experimental model valued at 120,000 credits We both looked back at the robot Sharing the wish that the credits had been in the box instead of of it The chief frowned and moved his lips through the rest of the letter I wondered how we got the robot out of its plywood coffin Experimental model or not. This was a nice looking hunk of machinery a Uniform navy blue all over though the outlet cases hooks and such were a metallic gold Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to get that effect This was as close as a robot could look to a cop in uniform without being a joke All that seemed to be missing was the badge and gun Then I noticed the tiny glow of light in the robots eye lenses It had never occurred to me before that the thing might be turned on It was nothing to lose by finding out Get out of that box. I said The robot came up smooth and fast as a rocket landing two feet in front of me and whipping out a snappy salute police experimental robot serial number xpo 456 934 b reporting for duty sir His voice quivered with alertness and I could almost hear the humming of those taut cable muscles He may have had a stainless steel hide and a bunch of wires for a brain But he spelled rookie cop to me just the same the fact that he was man height with two arms two legs And that painted on uniform helped all I had to do is squint my eyes a bit and there stood Ned the rookie cop Fresh out of school and raring to go. I shook my head to get rid of the illusion This was just six feet of machine that boffins and brain boys had turned out for their own amusement Relax Ned. I said he was still holding the salute at ease You'll get a hernia of your exhaust pipe if you stay so tense Anyways, I'm just the sergeant here. That's the chief of police over there Ned did an about face and slid over to the chief with that same grease lightning motion The chief just looked at him like something that sprang out from under the hood of a car While Ned went through the same report routine. I Wonder if it does anything else besides salute and report the chief said while he walked around the robot Looking it over like a dog with a hydrant the functions operations and responsible courses of action open to the police Experimental robots are outlined on pages 184 to 213 of the manual Ned's voice was muffled for a second while he half-dive back into his case and came up with the volume mentioned a Detailed breakdown of these will also be found on pages 1035 to 1267 inclusive The chief who has trouble reading an entire comic page at one sitting turned the six inch thick book over in his hands Like it would maybe bite him When he had a rough idea of how much it weighed and a good feel of the binding he threw it on my desk Take care of this. He said to me as he headed towards his office and the robot to do something with it The chief span of attention never was great and it had been strained to the limit this time. I Flipped through the book wondering One thing I never have had much to do with his robots So I know just as much about them as any Joe in the street Probably less The book was filled with pages of fine print Fancy mathematics wiring diagrams and charts in nine colors and that kind of thing It needed close attention Which attention I was not prepared to give at the time the books lid shut and I had the newest employee of the city of Nineport There's a broom behind the door. Do you know how to use it? Yes, sir In that case you will sweep out this room raising as small a cloud of dust as possible at the same time He did a very neat job of it I watched 120,000 credits worth of machinery making a tidy pile of butts and sand and Wondered why it had been sent to Nineport Probably because there wasn't another police force in the solar system that was smaller or more unimportant than ours The engineers must have figured this would be a good spot for a field test Even if the thing blew up, nobody would really mind There would probably be someone along someday to get a report on it. Well, they had picked the right spot All right Nineport was just a little bit beyond nowhere Which of course was why I was there. I was the only real cop on the force They needed at least one to give an illusion of the wheels going round the chief Alonso Craig Had just enough sense to take graft without dropping the money There were two patrolmen one old and drunk most of the time the other so young the only scar He had was the mark of the atram. I had ten years on a metropolitan force earthside Why I left is nobody's damn business. I have long since paid for any mistakes I made there by ending up in Nineport Nineport is not a city. It's just a place where people stop The only permanent citizens are the ones who cater to those on the way through Hotel keepers restaurant owners gamblers bar keeps and the rest There is a spaceport But only some freighters come there to pick up the metal from some of the mines that are still working Some of the settlers still came in for supplies You might say that Nineport was a town that just missed the boat in a hundred years I doubt if there will be enough left sticking out of the sand to tell where it used to be I won't be there either. So I couldn't care less. I went back to the blotter Five drunks in the tank and average night's haul while I wrote them up fats dragged in the sixth one Locked himself in the ladies John at the spaceport and resisting arrest he reported D&D throw him in with arrest Fat steered his limp victim across the floor matching him step for dragging step I always marveled at the way fats took care of drunks since he usually had more under his belt than they had I Have never seen him falling down drunk or completely sober About all he was good for was keeping a blurred eye on the lock up and running in drunks He did well at that No matter what they crawled under or on top of he found them no doubt due to the same shared natural instinct Fats clang the door behind number six and weaved his way back in What's that he asked peering at the robot along the purple beauty of his nose That is a robot. I have forgotten the number his mother gave him at the factory. So we will call him Ned He works here now Good for him. He can clean up the tank after we throw the bums out That's my job Billy said coming in through the front door He clutched his night stick and scowled out from under the brim of his uniform cap It is not that Billy is stupid just that most of his strength has gone into his back instead of his mind That's Ned's job now because you have a promotion. You are going to help me with some of my work Billy came in very handy at times and I was anxious that the force shouldn't lose him My explanation cheered him because he sat down by fats and watched Ned do the floor That's the way things went for about a week We watched Ned sweep and polish until the station began to take on a positively antiseptic look The chief who always has an eye out for that type of thing found out that Ned could file the odd tongue of reports and paperwork That cluttered his office All this kept the robot busy and we got so used to him. We were hardly aware. He was around. I Knew he had moved the packing case into the storeroom and fixed himself up a cozy sort of robot dormitory coffin Other than that I didn't know or care The operation manual was buried in my desk and I never looked at it If I had I might have had some idea of the big changes that were in store None of us knew the littlest bit about what a robot can or cannot do Ned was working nicely as a combination janitor file clerk and should have stayed that way He would have to if the chief hadn't been so lazy. That's what started it all It was around nine at night and the chief was just going home when the call came in he took it Listen for a moment then hung up Greenback slicker store. He got held up again says to come at once That's a change Usually we don't hear about it until a month later. What's he paying protection money for if China Joey protecting? What's the rush now? The chief chewed his loose lip for a while Finally and painfully reached a decision You better go around and see what the trouble is Sure, I said reaching for my cap, but no one else is around. You'll have to watch the desk until I get back That's no good. He moaned. I'm dying from hunger and sitting here isn't going to help me any I Will go take the report and said stepping forward and snapping his usual well-greased salute At first the chief wasn't buying you would think the water cooler came to life and offered to take over his job How could you take a report he growled putting the wise guy water cooler at its place? But he had phrased his little insult as a question so he had only himself to blame In exactly three minutes Ned gave the chief a summary of the routine necessary for a police officer to make a report on An armed robbery or other reported theft from the glaze-looking chief's protruding eyes I could tell Ned had quickly passed the boundaries of the chief's meager knowledge Enough the harried man finally gasped if you know so much. Why don't you make a report? Which to me sounded like another version of if you're so damn smart Why ain't you rich which we used to snarl that the brainy kids in grammar school? Ned took such things literally though and turned towards the door Do you mean you wish me to make a report on this robbery? Yes, the chief said just to get rid of him and we watched his blue shape vanish through the door He must be brighter than he looks I said he never stopped to ask where Greenback's store is The chief nodded and the phone rang again His hand was still resting on it. So he picked it up by reflex He listened for a second and you would have thought someone was pumping blood out of his heel from the way his face turned white The hold-up still on he finally gasped Greenback's delivery boy is on the line calling back to see where we are Says he's under a table in the back room I never heard the rest of it because I was out the door and into the car There were a hundred things that could happen if Ned got there before me Guns could go off people hurt lots of things and the police would be to blame for it all Sending a tin robot to do a cop's job Maybe the chief had ordered Ned there But clearly as if the words were painted on the windshield of the car I knew I would be dragged into it. It never gets very warm on mars, but I was sweating Nineport has 14 traffic regulations and I broke all of them before I had gone a block Fast as I was Ned was faster As I turned the corner I saw him open the door of Greenback's store and walk in I screamed breaks in behind him and arrived just in time to have a gallery seat A shooting gallery at that There were two hold-up punks One behind the counter making like a clerk and the other lounging off to the side Their guns were out of sight But blue-coated Ned busting through the door like that was too much for their keyed up nerves Up came both guns like they were on strings and Ned stopped dead I grabbed for my own gun and waited for pieces of busted robot to come flying through the window Ned's reflexes were great, which I suppose is what you should expect of a robot Drop your guns. You are under arrest He must have had on full power or something his voice blasted slow loud my ears hurt The result was just what you might expect Both torpedoes let go at once and the air was filled with flying slugs The show windows went out with a crash and I went down on my stomach From the amount of noise. I knew they both had recoilless 50 calibers You can't stop one of those slugs They go right through you and anything else that happens to be in the way Except they didn't seem to be bothering Ned The only notice he seemed to take was to cover his eyes a little shield with a thin slit pop down over his eye lenses Then he moved in on the first thug I knew he was fast, but not that fast A couple of slugs jarred him as he came across the room But before the punk could change his aim Ned had the gun in his hand That was the end of that he put on one of the sweetest hammer locks I have ever seen and neatly grabbed the gun when it dropped from the limp fingers With the same motion that slipped the gun into a pouch He whipped out a pair of handcuffs and snapped them on the punk's wrists Hold up nick number two was heading for the door by then and I was waiting to give him a warm reception There was never any need He hadn't gone halfway before Ned slid in front of him There was a thud when they hit that didn't even shake Ned, but gave the other a glazed look He never even knew it when Ned slipped the cuffs on him and dropped him down next to his partner I went in took their guns from Ned and made the arrest official That was all Greenback saw when he crawled out from behind the counter and it was all I wanted him to see The place was a foot deep in broken glass and smelled like the inside of a jack daniels bottle Greenback began to howl like a wolf over his lost stock He didn't seem to know any more about the phone call than I did So I grabbed ahold of a pimply-looking kid who staggered out of the storeroom He was the one who had made the calls It turned out to be a matter of sheer stupidity He had worked for Greenback only a few days and didn't have enough brains to realize that all hold-ups should be reported to the protection boys instead of the police I told Greenback to wise up his boy as to look at the trouble that got caused Then pushed the two ex-hold-up men out to the car Ned climbed in back with them and they clung together like two waves in a storm The robot's only response was to pull a first aid kit from his hip And fix up a ricochet hole in one of the thugs that no one else had noticed in the excitement The chief was still sitting there with that bloodless look when we marched in I didn't believe it could be done, but he went two shades wider You made the pinch he whispered before I could straighten him out a second and more awful idea hit him He grabbed a handful of shirt on the first torpedo and poked his face down You with china joe he snarled the punk made the error of trying to be cute So the chief let him have one on the head with the open hand that set his eyes rolling like marbles When the question got asked again, he found the right answer I never heard from no china joe We just hit town today and Freelance by god the chief sighed and collapsed into his chair Lock him up and quickly tell me what in hell happened I slammed the gate on them and pointed a none too steady finger at ned There's the hero I said Took them on single-handed rastled them for a fall and made the capture He is one robot tornado a power for good in this otherwise evil community and he's bulletproof too I ran a finger over Ned's broad chest the paint was chipped by the slugs But the metal was hardly scratched This is going to cause me trouble Big trouble the chief wailed. I knew he meant with the protection boys They did not like punks getting arrested and guns going off without their okay But ned thought the chief had other worries and rushed in to put them right There will be no trouble at no time Did I violate any of the robotic restriction laws? They are part of my control circuits and therefore fully automatic the men who drew their guns Violated both robotic and human law when they threatened violence. I did not injure the men merely restrained them It was all over the chief's head But I like to think I could follow it And I had been wondering how a robot a machine could be involved in something like law application and violence Ned had the answer to that one too Robots have been assuming these functions for years Don't recording radar meters past judgment on human violation of automobile regulations A robot alcohol detector is better qualified to assess the sobriety of a prisoner than the arresting officer At one time robots were even allowed to make their own decisions about killing Before the robotic restriction laws automatic gun pointers were in general use Their final development was a self-contained battery of large anti-aircraft guns Automatic scan radar detected all aircraft in the vicinity Those that could not return the correct identifying signal had their courses tracked and computed Automatic fuse cutters and loaders readied the computer aimed guns which were fired by the robot mechanism There was little I could argue about with Ned except maybe his college professor vocabulary So I switched the attack But a robot can't take the place of a cop. It's a complex human job Of course it is but taking a human policeman's place is not the function of a police robot Primarily, I combine the functions of numerous pieces of police equipment Integrating their operations and making them instantly available In addition, I can aid in the mechanical processes of law enforcement If you arrest a man you handcuff him, but if you order me to do it I have made no moral decision. I am just a machine for attaching handcuffs at that point My raised hand cut off the flow of robotic argument Ned was hip to his ears with facts and figures and I had a good idea who would come off second best in any continued discussion No laws had been broken when Ned made the pinch. That was for sure But there are other laws than those that appear on the books China Joe is not going to like this not at all the chief said speaking my own thoughts The law of tooth and claw That's one that wasn't in the law books and that was what ran nine port The place was just big enough to have a good population of gambling joints body houses and drunk rollers They were all run by china joe As was the police department. We were all in his pocket and you might say he was the one who paid our wages This is not the kind of thing though that you explained to a robot Yeah, china joe I thought it was an echo at first and realized that someone had eased in the door behind me Something called alex Six feet of bone muscle and trouble china joe's right-hand man He imitated a smile at the chief who sank a bit lower in his chair China joe wants you should tell him why you got smart cops going around and putting the arm on people And letting them shoot up good liquor He's mostly angry about the hooch He says that you have enough guff and after this you should I am putting you under robot arrest pursuant to article 46 paragraph 19 of the revised statutes Ned had done it before we realized he had even moved right in front of our eyes He was arresting alex and signing our death wards alex was not slow As he turned to see who had grabbed him he had already dragged out his cannon He got one shot in square against ned's chest before the robot plucked the gun away and slipped on the cuffs While we all gaped like dead fish ned recited the charge in what i swear was a satisfied tone The prisoner is peter rack jomsky alias alex the x wanted in canal city for armed robbery and attempted murder Also wanted by local police of detroit new york and manchester on charges of Get it off me alex howled We might have too and everything might have still been straightened out if benny bug hadn't heard the shot He popped his head in the front door just long enough to roll his eyes over our little scene alex they're putting the arm on alex Then he was gone and when i hit the door he was nowhere in sight china joe's boys always went around in pairs and in 10 minutes he would know all about it Book him i told ned it wouldn't make any difference if we let him go now the world has already come to an end Fats came in then mumbling to himself. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder when he saw me. What's up? I see little benny bug come out here like the place was on fire and almost get killed driving away Then fat saw alex with the bracelets on and turned sober in one second He just took a moment to gape then his mind was made up Without a trace of a stagger he walked over to the chief and threw his badge on the desk in front of him I am an old man and i drink too much to be a cop Therefore i am resigning from the force because if that is whom i think it is over there with the cuffs on I will not live to be a day older as long as i am around here Rat the chief growled in pain through his clenched teeth Deserting the sinking ship rat Squeak fat said and left the chief was beyond caring at this point He didn't blink an eye when I took fat's badge off the desk. I don't know why I did it Perhaps I thought it was only fair Ned had started all the trouble and I was just angry enough to want him on the spot when it was finished There were two rings on his chest plate And I was not surprised when the badge pin fitted them neatly There Now you look like a real cop Sarcasm dripped from the words. I should have realized that robots are immune to sarcasm Ned took my statement at face value This is a very great honor not only for me, but for all robots I will do my best to fulfill all the obligations of the office Jack Armstrong and tin underwear I could hear the little motors in his guts humming with joy as he booked alex If everything else hadn't been so bad, I would have enjoyed that Ned had more police equipment built into him than nine port had ever owned There was an ink pad that snapped out of one hip and he efficiently rolled alex's fingertips across it and stamped them on a card Then he held the prisoner at arm's length while something clicked in his abdomen One more sideways and two instant photographs dropped out of a slot The mug shots were stuck on the card arrest details and such inserted There was more like this, but I forced myself away There were more important things to think about like staying alive Any ideas chief A groan was my only answer. So I let it go at that Billy the balance of the police force came in then I gave him a quick rundown either through stupidity or guts. He elected to stay and I was proud of the boy Ned locked away the latest prisoner and began sweeping up That was the way we were when china joe walked in Even though we were expecting it. It was still a shock He had a bunch of his toughest hoods with him and they crowded through the door like an overweight baseball team China joe was in front hands buried in the sleeves of his long mandarin gown No expression at all on his aesthetic features. He didn't waste time talking to us. Just gave the word to his own boys Clean this place up The new police chief will be here in a while and I don't want him to see any bums hanging around It made me angry even with the graft. I'd like to feel him still a cop Not on a cheap punk's payroll I was also curious about china joe Had been ever since I tried to get a line on him and never found a thing. I still wanted to know Ned take a good look at that chinese guy in the round bathroom and let me know who he is My but those electronic circuits work fast Ned shot the answer back like a straight man who had been rehearsing his lines for weeks He is a pseudo oriental utilizing a natural salinus of the skin heightened with dye He is not chinese There has also been an operation on his eyes scars of which are still visible This has been undoubtedly done in an attempt to conceal his real identity But burtilian measurements of his ears and other features make identity positive He is on the very wanted list of interpaw and his real name is China joe was angry and with a reason That's the thing That big mouth tin radio set over there. We heard about it and we're taking care of it The mob jumped aside then or hit the deck and I saw there was a guy kneeling in the door with a rocket launcher Shaped anti-tank chargers no doubt. That was my last thought as the thing let go with a whoosh Maybe you can hit a tank with one of those but not a robot At least not a police robot. Ned was sliding across the floor on his face when the back wall blew up There was no second shot Ned closed his hand on the tube of the bazooka and it was so much old drain pipe Billy decided that anyone who fired a rocket in a police station was breaking the law So he moved in with his club. I was right behind him since I didn't want to miss any of the fun Ned was at the bottom somewhere, but he didn't doubt he could take care of himself There were a couple of muffled shots and someone screamed No one fired after that because we were too tangled up A punk named brooklyn eddie hit me on the side of the head with his gun butt And I broke his nose all over his face with my fist There is a kind of fog over everything after that but I do remember it was very busy for a while When the fog lifted a bit. I realized I was the only one still standing or leaning rather It was a good thing. The wall was there Ned came in through the street door carrying a very bashed looking brooklyn eddie I hoped I had done all that eddie's wrists were fastened together with cuffs Ned laid him gently next to the heap of thugs who I suddenly realized all were the same kind of handcuffs I wondered vaguely if Ned made them as he needed them or had a supply tucked away in a hollow leg or something There was a chair a few feet away and sitting down helped Blood was all over everything and if a couple of the hoods hadn't grown I would have thought they were corpses One was I noticed suddenly a bullet had caught him in the chest. Most of the blood was probably his Ned burrowed in the bodies for a moment and dragged billy out He was unconscious a big smile on his face and the splintered remains of his night stick still stuck in his fist It takes very little to make some people happy A bullet had gone through his leg and he never moved while Ned ripped the pants leg off and put on a bandage The spurious china joe and one other man escaped in a car. Ned reported. Don't let it worry you I managed to croak your batting average still leads the league It was then I realized the chief was still sitting in his chair where he had been when the brujaja started It was then I realized the chief was still sitting in his chair where he had been when the brujaja started Still slumped down with that glazed look Only after I started to talk to him did I realized that Alonso Craig Chief of police of nineport was now dead a single shot small caliber gun Maybe a 22 right through the heart and what blood there was had been soaked up by his clothes I had a good idea where the gun would be that fired that shot a small gun The kind that would fit in a wide chinese sleeve. I wasn't tired or groggy anymore Just angry. Maybe he hadn't been the brightest or most honest guy in the world But he deserved a better end than that knocked off by a two-bit racket boss who thought he was being crossed Right about then I realized I had a big decision to make With billy out of the fight and fats gone. I was the nineport police force All I had to do to be clear of this mess was to walk out the door and keep going I would be safe enough Ned buzzed by picked up two of the thugs and hauled them off to the cells Maybe it was the sight of his blue back or maybe I was tired of running Either way my mind was made up before I realized it I carefully took off the chief's gold badge and put it on in place of my old one The new chief of police of nineport I said to no one in particular Yes, sir. Ned said as he passed He put one of the prisoners down long enough to salute then went on with his work. I returned the salute The hospital meat wagon hauled away the dead and wounded I took an evil pleasure in ignoring the questioning stairs of the attendants After the dock fixed the side of my head everyone cleared out Ned mopped up the floor I ate ten aspirin and waited for the hammering to stop so I could think of what to do next When I pulled my thoughts together the answer was obvious too obvious I made as long a job as I could of reloading my gun Refill your handcuff box Ned. We're going out Like a good cop he asked no questions. I locked the outside door when we left and gave him the key Here there's a good chance you will be the only one left to use this before the day is over I stretched the drive over to china joe's place just as much as I could Trying to figure if there was another way of doing it. There wasn't murder had been done And joe was the boy I was going to pin it on so I had to get him The best I could do is stop around the corner and give Ned a briefing This combination bar and dice room is the sole property of he whom we shall still call china joe Until there is time for you to give me a rundown on him Right now I got enough distractions What we have to do is go in there find joe and bring him to justice simple Simple Ned answered in his sharp joe college voice But wouldn't it be simpler to make the arrest now when he is leaving in that car instead of waiting until he returns The car in mention was doing 60 as it came out of the alley ahead of us I only had a glimpse of joe in the back seat as it tore by us Stop them I shouted mostly for my own benefit since I was driving I tried to shift gears and start the engine at the same time and succeeded in doing exactly nothing So Ned stopped them it had been phrased as an order He leaned his head out of the window and I saw it once why most of his equipment was located in his torso Probably his brain as well There sure wasn't much room left in his head when that cannon was tucked away in there A 75 caliber recoilless a plate swivelled back right where his nose should have been if he had one And the big muzzle pointed out It's a neat idea when you think about it right between the eyes for good aiming Up high always ready The boom boom almost took my head off. Of course Ned was a perfect shot So would I be with a computer for a brain? He had hold one rear tire with each slug and the car flap flap to a stop a little ways down the road I climbed out slowly while Ned sprinted there in seconds flat They didn't even try to run this time What little nerve they had left must have been shattered by the smoking muzzle of that 75 caliber poking out from between Ned's eyes Robots are neat about things like that. So he must have left it sticking out deliberate Probably had a course in psychology back in robot school Three of them in the car all waving their hands in the air like the last reel of a western And the rear floor covered with interesting little suitcases Everyone came along quietly China Joe only snarled while Ned told me that his name really was stanton And the almyra hot seat was kept warm all the time and hopes he would be back I promised Joe stanton. I would be happy to arrange it that same day There by not worrying about any slip-ups with the local authorities The rest of the mob would stand trial in canal city It was a very busy day Things have quieted down a good deal since then Billy is out of the hospital and wearing my old sergeant stripes Even fats is back though. He is sober once in a while now and has trouble looking me in the eye We don't have much to do because in addition to being a quiet town. This is now an honest one Ned is on foot patrol nights and in charge of the lab in files days Maybe the policeman's benevolent wouldn't like that, but Ned doesn't seem to mind He touched up all the bullet scratches and keeps his badge polished I know a robot can't be happy or sad, but Ned seems to be happy Sometimes I would swear I can hear him humming to himself But of course that is only the motors and things going around When you start thinking about it, I suppose we set some kind of precedent here What with putting on a robot as a full-fledged police officer? And whenever came around from the factory yet, so I have never found out if we're the first or not And I'll tell you something else I'm not going to stay in this broken downtown forever. I have some letters out now looking for a new job So some people are going to be very surprised when they see who their new chief of police is after I leave End of arm of the law by Harry Harrison A matter of order by Fox B Holden This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org A matter of order by Fox B Holden Balance is a fundamental law of order How then can integrity cancel such a principle even though the future of mankind demands it? I don't like it at all, the tall thin man said His name was Tharn and he was known throughout the sprawling colony for the high strung nervousness that was understandable enough in a youth of 50 But hardly normal for a man of his years You had to be careful how you talk to Tharn Even if you are Angelo, deed of masters himself I don't like it Tharn reiterated with another dramatic sweep of his long bony arm One bit Angelo look at them circling up there The thin lined face turned squarely to Angelo's own And the large almost protruding black eyes snapped with all the vibrant fire of the fine artistic mind that boiled constantly behind them Angelo turned his own eyes upward momentarily following Tharn's still upthrust arm Although he did not need to look again It was as the second eldest of the colony said of course The slender stylus-shaped object that reflected the golden midday sunlight and splintering shards against the almost cloudless cobalt of the sky still circled It would land at the edge of the great colony Angelo knew this Tharn knew it the colony knew it Angelo turned his old black eyes upon Tharn And the ghost of a smile plucked at his white bearded lips Tharn colored suddenly aware of the incongruous picture he presented Poised with all the drama of a Mark Antony pleading to the populace to sorrow for a Caesar While rather mundanely bedecked in his paint-spattered working smock The high color in his seemed face remained but he pursued his point as though Angelo had never smiled at all They won't be satisfied Angelo got up from the canvas stool before his easel and the motion itself was enough to halt Tharn in mid-sentence There was going to be some sort of action anyway Now look Angelo said slowly His voice carried the measured deliberation that its rich deep timbre complemented so harmoniously First of all Tharn if we begin showing signs of undue alarm You know what it will do to our younger men and women They'll be upset for weeks and we'll have another one of those terrible realist periods Angelo grimaced with these incredibly bushy eyebrows Besides that If you'd take a really careful look at that ship You'll see in a moment that it's certainly of a type none of us have ever seen We certainly cannot prevent its landing. We certainly do not have the means to present a hostile front when it does Therefore we shall go to the dell and greet it. I would estimate Angelo turned his massive whitehead slowly for another glance above the low alabaster walls of a mosaic tiled courtyard That they will affect a landing within another 10 minutes or so If you'll send an apprentice to go fetch Mahler the philosopher and Genzi the semanticist and And I think oh jar the orator With word to meet us by the lesser amphitheater there We can be on our way directly Oh, and Tharn Tharn followed the first elder's glance to his paint smeared smock colored once more and immediately erupted into a volcano of action as though rounding up a young jack and apes apprentice And locating and donning a suitable street toga with things that could be simultaneously accomplished He exited mumbling Heatedly between cries of boy boy And angelo smiled again and prepared his own person for the meeting He news that Mahler the philosopher commented often in his evening wine That to run was never to escape Only to change the pattern of pursuit And of course you couldn't argue much with Mahler Not and win But then nobody on st. Catherine very often argued to win Where was the pleasure in that? There was a great scorched spot in the soft greenness of the gently rolling earth And it widened like an undammed muddy pool as the thundering cylinder of steel lowered itself in a pillar of flame They kept a respectable distance Angelo, Tharn, Mahler, Gesie, Oja And the several hundred curious and apprehensive of the colony who had followed Angelo had decided the closest possible spot for waiting Stop there and then made no move save to shield his eyes from the terrible glare of the ship's landing jets As it made its cautious descent As he had predicted the chosen landing spot was at the extreme northern edge of the dell Near the Lesser Amphitheatre and they all had just arrived in time The ship settled its thunder ceased Masters students and apprentices alike unshielded their eyes and then all were turned in Unbroken silence toward Angelo himself He was dean He could deal with this Angelo hesitated for perhaps a full minute In that time he ordered the scene in his mind the ship from space Thrust upward toward the heavens like some weapon of challenge Surrounded by the gentle undulations of the low Renoir range to the far west The rugged ice capped Alps of Cezanne to the south and further distant still the low wind tossed and wild van Gogh plane That stretched endlessly to the east and finally to the north The fertile richness of the valleys of Rembrandt Which reached as far as the eye could see All this and the warmth of the clear atmosphere that embraced it all was seen and felt in that minute By Angelo and by the rest as he intended they should This The minute seemed to say Is yours Do not betray it And then he was walking with the dignified deliberation of his office toward the ship The pure white of his full toga bellowing gently in the soft breezes of the dell There was a clanging sound around section of the ship near the wide fins of its stern swung open Men came through it started down a series of metal rungs to the ground As he walked Angelo countered them one two three three men Three men from earth, of course And he knew what they wanted They met halfway Three men from earth in their blue and silver uniforms their heads close shaven their boots Polished as the fashion of metal And Angelo inches shorter than they far greater in girth than they With his feet in hide sandals and his long white hair falling free to merge with the rolling folds of his single garment The man in the middle of the uniform trio spoke the obvious leader This is the the colony of artists planet of st. Catherine The heavy sound of his voice seemed to balk at the words ever so slightly You are their leader I am Angelo dean of masters here angelo replied I do not lead but guide instead i am at your service gentlemen of earth You seem Certain of where we are from But of course do I not immediately recognize and speak your tongue You would of course the leader said and angelo did not miss the hint of grudging acknowledgement in his voice as he said it In face he was little different from the other two although perhaps a year or two older But for all practical purposes They were the same the high foreheads the too closely spaced blue eyes The sharp disciplined features the lack of any genuine character at all They were as much of the same bolt of cloth as the uniforms they wore Of course angelo smiled Our memories here on st. Catherine are fortunately long and our libraries are Well filled and well used And of course we have been expecting you Expecting us Naturally And again angelo smiled it is a philosophical truth after all Man is a social creature by nature And as such must continually seek the company of his own kind And of course And there was a hint of a repressed glitter in the old man's eyes The people of earth have always known and have Have never forgotten where we of st. Catherine were to be found The leader reddened and seemed on the point of explosive speech The muscles of his jaw hardened as he controlled his impulse Angelo waited You are of course Correct He said after a moment's pause And it will perhaps be best for all that we understand each other clearly from the beginning We come to you in some embarrassment We come to you asking a Favour The last word the leader uttered with a distaste that the best of his self-discipline could not control An angelo chuckled inwardly A favour was it embarrassed were they He could quite imagine Perhaps angelo said It would be more comfortable to discuss your mission in my studio Will you gentlemen follow me please He turned and began walking back to where the others waited And the three men from earth followed him At first they balked for the briefest moment But they followed him The studio of angelo Dean of masters was open to the sky like his courtyard For this was the fair season on st. Catherine in this latitude And not yet time to draw the transparent torpel and skylight across the tops of his studio walls Angelo had seated himself near the centre of the superbly muraled room On one of the low colourful cushions so widely preferred in the colony To the more formal furniture that was still to be found To some extent in the shops and homes of the artisans Artists in their own way of course and some practical work had to be put up with To satisfy the more mundane requirements of existence As long as they took true pride in the beauty of their work The artisans would always be very welcome members of the colony As well to be sure as necessary And seated in a semi-circle behind Angelo were the other elders And two or three advanced students to cater to whatever needs might arise during the conference There would be no apprentices here Before Angelo taking to their cushions rather awkwardly His beard fortunately was of sufficient luxuriance to cloak the tiny smile of satisfaction at his lips Were the three earthmen their leader of course in the centre and facing Angelo directly We may begin at any time Angelo said in his most courtly fashion Though it was behind him nodded, tharn for once a little absently Because he had become involved in a rather difficult line sketch On the tablet supplied him for note-taking He didn't approve of these strangers But they were more important things in interstellar visitors Especially since they were only earthmen And Angelo was insistent on taking full charge He, tharn, was through arguing walking multiplication tables Angelo could have them then It is possible you are not aware here on St Catherine The leader began with the slightest tinge of sarcasm That on earth there is at present a rather regrettable difference of thinking on policy Another political slaughter that is Angelo countered not too lightly for the obvious allusion to St Catherine's complete lack of any kind of electrical or electronic communications A major war in other words The leader flushed slightly Well, yes, as a matter of fact it has gotten somewhat out of control His teeth were almost clenched as he made the admission And Angelo easily sensed the pain in the man And having to make it to the artists of St Catherine Of all people in the universe Out of control the leader was continuing To the point where in fact and according to the Unimpeachable findings of our actuarial computers Human life on earth is threatened with complete extinction The leader hesitated interpreted the looks in the eyes of the man whom he faced And found himself not quite able to meet them with his own But he continued best to get it said once and for all We are now of course well aware that the predictions which were once thought to be the mere rantings of alarmists religious and philosophical cranks Were tragically accurate Both sides are perfectly matched from the technological aspect of course The so-called secrets of science cannot be kept secret at all at least not by men They exist everywhere in the universe for any man to seek and to exploit as he sees fit He paused at last found the temerity to meet the gazes of the others Go on Angelo said Both sides have come to an absolute stalemate But not regrettably the kind of stalemate that means cessation of activity In a conflict to the death stalemate simply means battle without victory Battle until the nearer side has a living man left to fight So in short we are desperate there must be a victor or earth is lost entirely One more mass strato attack with air bombs and Well at any rate there must as you can readily understand be a victor And soon obviously the others must be defeated Yes, of course thought Mala the philosopher It is the others always who must be defeated And so we have the leader was saying Come to you for help He stopped speaking then for a moment waiting for Angelo's reply Waiting simply for him to ask What kind of help could we artists possibly give you Waiting for and prepared to take unflinchingly the searing taunt that could not help but be in question You who can fly ships through space who have at your computer tips the hard-wired miracles of science and engineering But wordlessly the leader waited And in the brief moment before he spoke the history of it all flashed through Angelo's mind The history that began with the revolt Three centuries ago with the ancestors of them all on st. Catherine The artists the philosophers the writers the orators the dramatists the poets all of them Who had when at last they could no longer stomach their civilizations arrested adolescents and its refusal to be weaned from its electronic and atomic toys Remembered the first fundamental law of order in art And put it to devastating use Unity In unity They rebelled They warned first in fairness They took pains to point out carefully that it is a healthy sign for the developing child to become intrigued with movement sound and color That it was normal for a child to spend hours observing examining operating even building a new mechanical toy But when his new books gathered dust and fell into disuse When he could quote all of Faraday and none of Swinburne When this happened his development as a human being of full depth and breadth was at an end When he became hypnotized by his toys When motion and force became an obsession When the means became an end in itself when the tool became the raison d'être Rather than the structure it had been fashioned only to help build Then the point of civilization had been hopelessly lost And thinking men had but one alternative Leave and start over And so they banded together They had left It had not been so difficult For to the ancestors a tool was always that and nothing more They could not build spaceships But they could buy them and so they had They could not navigate space nor pilot their craft so they hired the technicians and engineers who could And when the ancestors had arrived at a planet of their choice The scientists had been duly proud of their superior accomplishment in being able to find just such a planet And of course were paid more than the engineers and technicians The ancestors gave them all sizable bonuses and sent them packing back to earth Where there were so many fine things to spend their money on The ancestors had of course been called dreamers Ivory towerists alarmists fools They had been called madmen who lived in the unenlightened past Believers in some foolishness called artistic integrity Schizoids who were afraid to face reality Posh polish and good riddance Mutted the sane ones over their charts and oscilloscopes as the last of the ancestors ships blasted free of earth Mutted of course because there was Somehow a vague awareness That the culture vultures hadn't left in fear of the bright quick machines But in well they said In disgust Good riddance to the childish rubbish But now apparently the men of earth had gotten themselves into something so peculiarly impossible That they were desperate enough to face the cutting wit of the fat bottomed artists on st. Catherine Who wouldn't be able to say i told you so in a straightforward matter of fact way and let it go at that Oh No, but it would be better to have their damned Articular tongues tear you apart Than an s-field The moment of reflection was spent and angelo asked the question And how can we help you was all he said The leader took a deep breath One moment angelo said as he was about to speak Just a word of warning if you please If you want anything of us at all simply state your case in plain language Don't try to sell us anything We can beat you roundly at that and if we agree to your request you will accept exactly What we give you Beggars no matter how expert in some things are still not in the position of choosers a matter after all of Shall we say artistic integrity The leader's eyes flashed damn you and your infernal artistic integrity But it was his mouth which fortunately for him under the circumstances Did the talking Very well As I said both sides are in perfect technological and therefore military balance Balance is so important interrupted angelo behind him Arjar the orator was having a difficult time repressing a yelp of pure mirth It was unfair of course to bait these stumble-witted fellows like this But it was amusing Especially when angelo did it Who though a painter was well up on his wordplay Perhaps you have already noticed Angelo was going on quite oblivious to the perspiration on the leader's high forehead and exactly as arjar has expected How well we of st. Catherine observed the fundamental laws of order the rhythm of our very way of life for example But excuse me you were outlining your request The leader had reddened helplessly and his subordinates had both stolen quick glances at him It was as though images of the man himself reflected from mirrors at either side had suddenly taken on a Volition of movement of their own But quite quickly they became well behaved images again Both sides have equally effective weapons and defenses the leader went on and saw it has become a disastrous war of attrition To win we must have something they do not have obviously To bring your side into dominance, of course Said angelo sagesly To prevent your subordinations Ogre had a sudden violent fit of coughing Yes, the leader said there was a momentary Blankness in his eyes and angelo decided that enough was enough Unfairness was unfairness after all They must hear the man out We have looked back over history the leader said It was an unprecedented step to be sure, but but we were desperate At any rate we we we discovered that one time it was possible to make an enemy believe he was wrong And that you his enemy were right Throw a rather obscure verbal art called. I believe it was a propaganda Yes, said angelo The province in art of writers and orators As a painter or sculptor will create illusion with paints or stone Just so did the writer create Illusion with letters So we came to understand The leader said trying a little note of sarcasm of his own Our prayers and difficulty is this we of course have no such a pied Artists at our disposal. We of course tried our own hand at it But nobody ever seemed quite able to agree on just what it was we were trying to talk about So well, we have come to you Will you do this for us say a few words for the sake of humanity? Clever thought mala at that And intended appeal to the philosophical side of the artistic mind Maybe the poor rich rarely meant it even if he wasn't aware that humanity meant both sides To answer you angelo was replying I'll of course have to summon our master of letters It may not be easy to win. He's a scent. I warn you He can trace his own ancestry all the way back to newspaper reporters In copywriters and trade journal writers And so has naturally inherited their bitterness toward all such prostitutions of the art of writing And artistic integrity in general And you will admit that hacking out propaganda to order is of course just that To say nothing of the moral aspects involved However Magnanimously angelo lifted his right arm and beckoned and a student was at once at his side Furch master foresight at once and tell him I said to leave his new quarto behind This is urgent The young woman left and they waited A cigarette angelo proffered the leader There was surprise in the man's face You mean you can make just crude paper and tobacco grown in the soil? angelo said apologetically Untouched by any rays, but the suns I'm afraid and our few medicine men We have all kinds of hobbies here, of course, just won't comment Here and a light The leader had almost finished his cigarette when the master of letters arrived Angelo, you sure sir? Do you know how long I've been working on that line? You know how difficult it is for me to get a decent trokey when I'm Ew company capital capital come feel the company in the fire of spring Please foresight these men are here on business They want you to do them a favor Resignedly foresight kept quiet and listened for good measure He listened for 10 minutes And then the leader was finished and foresight said Epoxant Please foresight. He's right came thern's voice. I told you I didn't like it and I don't and he Doesn't like it bellowed foresight then by heaven I'll do it teach you sire to make charcoal caricatures of me on a day when I'm not lampooning you Very well, but I don't think I've got too many apprentices that aren't engaged right at the moment Nonetheless if the leader was beyond control Apprentices did you say? He croaked hoarsely Why you? What don't I did you think man child shot back foresight? You didn't suppose I'd give you finished creative writers for the job of the trade ape, do you? Some apprentices I've got and some apprentices you'll get And only because Dean Angelo here says so The three men from earth strode with military precision back toward their ship The leader was in the center and he subordinates each with bulging briefcases in both hands were on either side A large group from the colony walked at a slower pace behind Angelo as usual was at their head and flanking him with tharn and foresight Another whole week wasted lamented foresight Not that the time means anything, but those sensitive young boys and girls might never be the same Oh, one of them just this morning told me she was thinking of taking a politics as a hobby The tortures I go through for you actually I still don't like it tharn cut him off And I don't like them and foresight I saw what you had your precious little apprentices doing You had them writing exactly the same tribe they wrote for the other crowd that landed two weeks ago Tharn who certainly aren't the only one who has made use for that barbaric breed So long as they remain equally matched they'll eventually, but that means a fundamental law of order of course my dear tharn Balance as I think I may already have pointed out Forsyth quoted something from an obscure source about the importance of artistic integrity And then they watched together as the ship from earth blasted homeward End of a matter of order by fox b. Holden Recording by leon borgstrom Cully by jack egan This is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit libra vox.org Recording by cammy vaavitz Cully by jack egan By all the laws of nature he should have been dead But if he were alive then there was something he had to find Above him 80 feet of torpid black water hung like a shroud of death And still he heard his ragged breathing And something else Cully concentrated on that sound and the rhythmic pulsing of his heart Somehow he had to retain a hold on his sanity or his soul After an hour of careful breathing and exploring of body sensations. Cully realized he could move He flexed an arm a mote of gold sand sifted upward in the dark water It had a pleasant color in contrast with the ominous shades of the sea In a few moments he had struggled to a sitting position Delighting in the curtain of glittering metal grains whirling around him as he moved And the other sound A humming in his mind A distant bubble of tiny voices of other minds Words swirling in giddy patterns he couldn't understand Shortly thereafter Cully discovered why he still lived, breathed A suit a yellow plastic watertight suit with an orange on a black shield on the left breast pocket And a clear bubble helmet He felt weight on his back and examined it two air tanks and their regulator a radio and the box Suit tanks regulator radio black water box Sand sea stillness Cully considered his world. It was small. It was conceivable. It was incomplete Where is it? Where is what? He knew he had a voice a means of communication between others of his kind Using low-frequency heat waves caused by agitation of air molecules Why couldn't he make it work? Words Thousands of them at his beck and call. What were they? What did they mean? He shifted uncomfortably in the tight yellow suit searching the near horizon for Where is it? A vague calling came from beyond the black sea curtain Objectively because he could do nothing to stop them. He watched his feet pick up move forward put down Pick up move forward put down Funny he had the feeling the concept that this action held meaning It was supposed to cause some reaction Accomplish and act He wondered at the regular movement of his legs one of them hurt A hurt is a sensation of pain caused by overloading sensory units in the body A hurt is bad because it indicates something is wrong Something certainly was wrong something stirred in culley's mind He stopped and sat down on the sandy sea bottom gracefully like a ballet dancer He examined his foot There was a tiny hole in the yellow plastic fabric and a thin string of red black was oozing out Blood he knew he was bleeding He could do nothing about it He got up and resumed walking Where is it? Cully lifted his head in annoyance at the sharp thought Go away He said in a low pleading voice The sound made him feel better. He began muttering to himself water black sand hurt pain radio tanks It didn't sound right After a few minutes he was quiet the many thoughts were calling him He must go to the many thoughts If his foot was bleeding then something had happened if something had happened then his foot was bleeding No, if something had happened then maybe other things had happened before that But how could something happen in a world of flat gold sand and flaccid sea? Surely there was something wrong Wrong the state of being not right Something had happened that was not right Cully stared at the edges of the unmoving curtain before him Where is it? It was a driving promise filled concept No words just to the sense that something wonderful lay just beyond reach But this voice was different from the many thoughts It was directing his body his mind was along for the ride The sameness of the sea and sand became unbearable. It was too right somehow Cully felt anger and kicked up eddies of dust. It changed the sameness a little He kicked more up until it swirled around him in a thick gold haze blotting out the terrible emptiness of the sea He felt another weight at his side. He found a holster and gun He recognized neither again. He watched objectively as his hand pulled the black object out and handled it His body was evidently familiar with it though. It was strange to his eyes His finger slipped automatically into the trigger sheaf. His legs were still working under two drives The many thoughts as urging and something else varied in him a longing up and down back and forth Where is it? Anger frustration flared in him his hand shot out gun it ready. He turned around slowly Through the settling trail of suspended sand nothing was visible Again, he was moving something made his legs move He walked on through the shrouds of death until he felt a taut singeing in his nerves In a rational fear spraying out in him cascading down his spine and cully shuttered Ahead there was some thing Two motives get there because it They calls Get there because you must Where is it? The mind voice was excited demanding something was out there besides the sameness Cully walked on trailing gold the death curtain parted An undulating garden of blue and gold streamers suddenly drifted toward him on an unfelt current Cully was held entranced. They flowed before him their colors dazzling hypnotic Come closer earthling the many thoughts spoke inside his head soothingly Here it is cully's mind shouted Cully's mind was held hypnotized, but his body moved of its own volition He moved again his mind and the many thoughts's spoke Fulfillment almost there was one action left that must be completed Cully's arms moved they detached the small black box from his pack He moved on into the midst of the weaving gold laced plants Little spicules licked out from their flexing stalks and jabbed Uncensed into cully's body to draw nourishment From the many thoughts came the sense of complete fulfillment From cully's mind came further orders Lie down it was a collective concept Lie still we are friends He could not understand they were speaking words Words were beyond him his head shook in despair The voices were implanting an emotion of horror at what his hands were doing But he had no control over his body it was as if it were not his The black box was now lying in the sand among the streaming plants Cully's fingers reached out and caressed a small panel A soundless click ran through the murkiness The strangely beautiful gold laced blue plants began arriving dance Their spicules withdrew and jabbed withdrew and jabbed A rending silent scream tore through the quiet waters No! they cried It was a negative command mixed in with the terrible screaming Turn it off Stop it stop it Cully tried to say but there were no words He tried to cover his ears within the helmet but the cries went on Emotions roiled the water pain hurt reproach Cully sobbed something was wrong here Something was killing the plants the beautiful blue things The plants were withering dying He looked up at them stupefied not understanding tears streaming down his face What did they want from him? What had he done? Where is it? A different direction materialized a new concept of desire Cully's body turned and crawled away from the wonderful dying garden Oblivious to the pleadings floating now weakly in the torpid water He scuffed up little motes of golden sand leaving a low lying scud along the bottom Back to the little black box in the garden The plants the box all were forgotten by now Cully crawled on not knowing why A rise appeared surprise caught Cully unaware a change in the sameness Where is it? Again the voice was insistent his desire was close ahead He did not look back at the black churning on the sea bottom His legs worked his chest heaved words swirled in his mind He topped the rise Below him in the center of a shallow golden bowl floated a long shiny cylinder Even from here he knew it was huge He knew other things about it How heavy it was How it was That it carried others of his kind He had been in it before And they were waiting for him He lurched on Captain, here comes Cully The midshipman shouted from the airlock Look what they've done to him The old man's gray eyes took in the spectacle without visible emotion He watched the pathetic bleeding yellow plastic sack Crawl up to the ship and look up His hands reached down and lifted Cully up into the lock They took his suit off and stared with loathing at what had once been a man A white scar zigzagged across his forehead The captain bent close in range of the dim blue eyes It was a brave thing you did, Cully The whole system will be grateful Venus could never be colonized as long as those cannibals were there to eat men and drive men mad Cully fingered the scar on his forehead And looked unseeing into the old man's compassionate eyes I'm sorry, Cully We all are But there was no other way Prefrontal lobotomy Destruction of your speech-center It was the only way you could get past the telepaths and destroy them I'm sorry, Cully The race of man shall long remember your name Cully smiled at the old man The words churning in his brain But he did not understand Where is it? The emptiness was still there End of Cully by Jack Egan Recording by Kami Vavitz You can find me at callmekami.blogspot.com Recording by John McLeod Earthmen bearing gifts by Frederick Brown Mars had gifts to offer And Earth had much in return If delivery could be arranged Earthmen bearing gifts by Frederick Brown Dar Rye sat alone in his room meditating From outside the door He caught a thought-wave equivalent to a knock And glancing at the door He wilted to slide open It opened Enter, my dear friend He said He could have projected the idea telepathically But with only two persons present Speech was more polite E. John Key entered You're up late tonight, my leader He said Yes, Key Within an hour the Earth rocket is due to land And I wish to see it Yes, I know it will land a thousand miles away If their calculations are correct Beyond the horizon But if it lands even twice that far The flash of the atomic explosion should be visible And I have waited long for first contact For even though no Earthmen will be on that rocket It will still be first contact for them Of course our telepath teams have been reading their thoughts for many centuries But this will be the first physical contact between Mars and Earth Key made himself comfortable on one of the low chairs True, he said I have not followed recent reports too closely though Why are they using an atomic warhead? I know they suppose our planet is uninhabited but still They will watch the flash through their lunar telescopes And get a, what do they call it? A spectroscopic analysis That will tell them more than they know Or think they know Much of it is erroneous About the atmosphere of our planet And the composition of its surface It is Call it a sighting shot, Key They'll be here in person within a few oppositions And then Mars was holding out Waiting for Earth to come What was left of Mars, that is This one small city of about 900 beings The civilization of Mars was older than that of Earth But it was a dying one This was what remained of it One city, 900 people They were waiting for Earth to make contact For a selfish reason And for an unselfish one Martian civilization had developed in a Quite different direction from that of Earth It had developed no important knowledge of the physical sciences No technology But it had developed social sciences to the point Where there had not been a single crime Let alone a war on Mars for 50,000 years And it had developed fully The parapsychological sciences of the mind Which Earth was just beginning to discover Mars could teach Earth much How to avoid crime and war to begin with Beyond those simple things lay Telepathy, telekinesis, empathy And Earth would, Mars hoped Teach them something even more valuable to Mars How, by science and technology Which it was too late for Mars to develop now Even if they had the type of minds Which would enable them to develop these things To restore and rehabilitate a dying planet So that an otherwise dying race might live And multiply again Each planet would gain greatly Neither would lose And it would be a great success And tonight was the night when Earth would make its first sighting shot Its next shot, a rocket containing Earthmen Or at least an Earthman Would be at the next opposition Two Earth years Or roughly four Martian years hence The Martians knew this Because their teams of telepaths Were able to catch at least some of the thoughts of Earthmen Enough to know their plans Unfortunately, at that distance the connection was one way Mars could not ask Earth to hurry its program Or tell Earth scientists the facts about Mars' composition An atmosphere which would have made this preliminary shot unnecessary Tonight, Rai, the leader As nearly as the Martian word can be translated And Ki, his administrative assistant And closest friend Sat and meditated together Until the time was near Then they drank a toast to the future And a beverage based on menthol Which had the same effect on Martians as alcohol on Earthmen And climbed to the roof of the building In which they had been sitting They watched toward the north Where the rocket should land The stars shone brightly And unwinkingly through the atmosphere In observatory number one on Earth's moon Roger Everett, his eye at the eyepiece of the spotterscope Said triumphantly There she blew, Willie And now, as soon as the films are developed We'll know the score on that old planet Mars He straightened up There'd be no more to see now And he and Willie Sanger shook hands solemnly It was an historical occasion Hope he didn't kill anybody Any Martians, that is Roger did it hit dead center, insertus major There is matters I'd say it was maybe a thousand miles off to the south And that's damn close on a 50 million mile shot Willie, do you really think there are any Martians? Willie thought for a second and then said No, he was right End of Earthmen Bearing Gifts by Frederick Brown Recording by John McLeod The Eternal Wall by Raymond Z. Gallin 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 Leknarf The Eternal Wall by Raymond Z. Gallin A scream of breaks The splash into icy waters A long descent into alkaline depths It was death But Ned Vince lived again A million years later See you in half an hour, Betty Said Ned Vince over the party telephone Will be out at the silver basket before 1030 Ned Vince was eager for the company of the girl he loved That was why he was in a hurry to get back to the neighboring town of Hurley where she lived His old car rattled and roared as he swung it recklessly around Pit Bend There was where death tapped him on the shoulder Another car leaped suddenly into view Its lights glaring blindingly passed a high up jutting massive Jurassic Rock at the turn of the road Dazzled and befuddled by his own rash speed Ned Vince had only swift young reflexes to rely on To avoid a fearful telescoping collision He flicked his wheel smoothly to the right But the county highway commission hadn't yet tarred the traffic loosened gravel at the bend Ned could scarcely have chosen a worse place to start sliding and spinning His car hit the white painted wooden rail sideways Crash through, tumbled down a steep slope, struck a huge boulder, bounced up a little, and art outward Falling as gracefully as a swan diver toward the inky waters of the pit, 50 feet beneath Ned Vince was still dimly conscious when that black, quiet pool geysered around him in a mighty splash He had only a daising welt on his forehead and a gag of terror in his throat Movement was slower now as he began to sink, trapped inside his wrecked car Nothing that he could imagine could meet doom more certainly than this The pit was a tremendously deep pocket in the ground, spring fed The edges of that almost bottomless pool were caked with a rim of white For the water, on which dead birds so often floated, was surcharged with alkali As that heavy, natronous liquid rushed up through the openings and cracks beneath his feet Ned Vince knew that his family and his friends would never see his body again Lost beyond recovery in this abyss The car was deeply submerged The light had blinked out on the dash panel, leaving Ned in absolute darkness A flood rushed in at the shattered window He clawed at the door trying to open it, but it was jammed in the crash-bent frame And he couldn't fight against the force of that incoming water The welt left by the blow he had received on his forehead Put a thickening mist over his brain so that he could not think clearly Presently, when he could no longer hold his breath, bitter liquid was sucked into his lungs His last thoughts were those of a drowning man The machine shop he and his dad had had in Harwich Betty Moore, with the smiling Irish eyes, like in the song Betty and he had planned to go to the State University this fall They'd planned to be married sometime Goodbye, Betty The ripples that had ruffled the surface waters in the pit quiet again to glassy smoothness The eternal stars shone calmly The geologic Dakota Hills, which might have seen the dinosaurs Still bolt along the highway Time, the brother of death, and the father of change Seemed to wait Kalee, tic, tic, tic, tic, kalee The excited cry which no human throat could quite have duplicated accurately Arrows thinly from the depths of a powder dry gulch Water scarred from an inconceivable antiquity The noonday sun was red and huge The air was tenuous, dehydrated, chill Kalee, tic, tic, tic At first there was only one voice uttering those weird triumphant sounds Then other vocal organs took up that trilling wail and those short sharp chuckles of eagerness Other questioning, wandering notes mixed with the cadence Lacking qualities identifiable as human The disturbance was still like the babble of a group of workmen who have discovered something remarkable The desolate expanse around the gulch was all but without motion The icy breeze tore tiny puffs of dust from grotesque Angling drifts of soil, nearly waterless for eons Patches of drab lichen grew here and there on the up-dreading rocks But in the desert itself, no other life was visible Even the hills had sagged away, flattened by incalculable ages of erosion At a mile distance, a crumbling heap of rubble arose Once it had been a building, a gigantic, jagged, massive detritus slanted upward from its crest Red debris that had once been steel A launching catapult for the last spaceships built by the gods in Exodus Perhaps it was half a million years ago Man was gone from the earth Glacial ages, war, decadence, disease And a final scattering of those ultimate superhumans To newer worlds in other solar systems had done that Kalee! The sounds were not human They were more like the chatter and wail of small desert animals But there was a seeming paradox here in the depths of that gulch too The glint of metal, sharp and burnished The flat, streamlined bulk of a flying machine, shiny and new The bell-like muzzle of a strange excavator apparatus Which seemed to depend on a blast of atoms to clear away rock and soil Thus the gulch had been cleared of the accumulated rubbish of antiquity Man, it seemed, had a successor as ruler of the earth Loy Chuk had flown his geological expedition out from the far low lands to the east Out from the city of Khar Ra And he was very happy now, flushed with a vast and unlooked for success He crouched there on his haunches at the dry bottom of the pit The breeze rumbled his long brown fur He wasn't very different in appearance from his ancestors A foot tall perhaps as he squatted there in that antique stance of his kind His tail was short and furred, his undersides creamy White whiskers spread around his inquisitive pink-tipped snout But his cranium bulged up and forward between shrewd beady eyes Betraying the slow heritage of time of survival of the fittest of evolution He could think and dream and invent and the civilization of his kind Was already far beyond that of the ancient 20th century Loy Chuk and his fellow workers were gathered, tense and gleeful Around the things their digging had exposed to the daylight There was a gob of junk scarcely more than an irregular formation of flaky rust But embedded in it was a huddled form, brown and hard as old wood The dry mud that had encased it like an airtight coffin Had by now been chipped away by the tiny investigators But soiled clothing still clung to it after perhaps a million years Metal had gone into decay, yes, but not this body The answer to this was simple Alkali, a mineral saturation that had held time and change in stasis A perfect preservative for organic tissue aided probably during most of those passing eras By desert dryness The Dakotas had turned arid very swiftly This body was not a mere fossil, it was a mummy Kaliiii Man, that meant Not the star-conquering demigods But the ancestral stock that had built the first machines on earth And in the early 21st century, the first interplanetary rockets No wonder Loy Chuk and his co-workers were happy in their paleontological enthusiasm A strange accident happening in a legendary antiquity Had aided them in their quest for knowledge At last, Loy Chuk gave a soft chirping signal The chant of triumph ended while instruments flicked in his tiny hands The final instrument he used to test the mummy Looked like a miniature stereoscope with complicated details He held it over his eyes On the tiny screen within, through the agency of focused x-rays He saw magnified images of the internal organs of this ancient human corpse What his probing gaze revealed to him Made his pleasure even greater than before In twittering, chattering sounds, he communicated his further knowledge to his henchmen Though devoid of moisture, the mummy was perfectly preserved Even to its brain cells Medical and biological sciences were far advanced among Loy Chuk's kind Perhaps by the application of principles long known to them This long dead body could be made to live again It might move, speak, remember its past What a marvelous subject for study it would make Back there in the museums of Khar Ra But Loy silenced this fresh eager chattering with a command Work was always more substantial than cheering With infinite care, small, sharp hand tools were used Now the mummy of Ned Vince was disengaged from the worthless rust of his primitive automobile With infinite care, it was crated in a metal case and hauled into the flying machine Flashing flame, the latter rose, bearing the entire hundred members of the expedition The craft shot eastward at bullet-like speed The spreading continental plateau of North America seemed to crawl backward beneath A tremendous sand desert marked with low, washed-down mountains And the vague, angular geometric mounds of human cities that were gone forever Beyond the eastern rim of the continent, the plane dripped downward steeply The white of dried salt was on the hills, but there was a little green growth here too The dead sea bottom of the vanished Atlantic was not as dead as the highlands Far out in the deep valley, Khar Ra, the city of the rodents, came into view A crystalline maze of low, bubble-like structures glinting in the red sunshine But this was only its surface aspect Loy Chuk's people had built their homes mostly underground since the beginning of their foggy evolution Besides, in this latter day, the nights were very cold The shelter of subterranean passages and rooms was welcome The mummy was taken to Loy Chuk's laboratory a short distance below the surface Here at once the scientist began his work The body of the ancient man was put in a large vat Fluids submerged it, slowly soaking from that hardened flesh the alkali that had preserved it for so long The fluid was changed often until woody muscles and other tissues became pliable once more Then the more delicate processes began Still submerged in liquid, the corpse was submitted to a flow of restorative energy Passing between complicated electrodes The cells of antique flesh and brain gradually took on a chemical composition Nearer to that of the life they had once known At last the final liquid was drained away and the mummy lay there, a mummy no more But a pale, silent figure in its tatters of clothing Loy Chuk put an odd metal fabric helmet on its head And a second, much smaller helmet on his own Connected with this arrangement was a black box of many uses For hours he worked with his apparatus, studying and guiding the recording instruments The time passed swiftly At last, eager and ready for whatever might happen now, Loy Chuk pushed another switch With a cold, rosy flare energy blazed around that moveless form For Ned Vintz, timeless eternity ended like a gradual fading mist When he could see clearly again, he experienced that inevitable shock of vast change around him Though it had been dehydrated, his brain had been kept perfectly intact through the ages And now it was restored, so his memories were as vivid as yesterday Yet, through that crystal and vat in which he lay, he could see a broad, low room in which he could barely have stood erect He saw instruments and equipment whose weird shapes suggested alienness And knowledge beyond the era he had known The walls were lavender and phosphorescent Fossil bone fragments were mounted in shallow cases Dinosaur bones, some of them seemed, from their size But there was a complete skeleton of a dog, too, and the skeleton of a man And a second man skeleton that was not quite human Its neck vertebrae were very thick and solid, its shoulders were wide, and its skull was gigantic All this weirdness had a violent effect on Ned Vintz A sudden, nostalgic panic Something was fearfully wrong, the nervous terror of the unknown was on him Feeble and dizzy after his weird resurrection, which you could not understand Remembering as he did that moment of sinking to certain death In the pool at Pitt Bend, he caught the edge of the transparent vat And pulled himself to a seating posture There was a muffled murmur around him as some vast, unearthly metropolis Take it easy, Ned Vintz The words themselves and the way they were assembled were old, familiar friends But the tone was wrong It was high, shrill, parrot-like and mechanical Ned's gaze searched for the source of the noise Located the black box just outside his crystal vat From that box the voice seemed to have originated Before it crouched a small, brownish animal with a bulging head The animal's tiny fingered paws, hands they were really, were touching rows of keys To Ned Vintz, it was all utterly insane and incomprehensible A rodent, looking like a prairie dog a little But plainly possessing a higher order of intelligence And a voice whose soothingly familiar words were more repugnant somehow Simply because they could never belong in a place as eerie as this Ned Vintz did not know how Lloyd Chook had probed his brain With the aid of a pair of helmets and the black box apparatus He did not know that in the latter His language, taken from his own revitalized mind, was recorded And that Lloyd Chook had only to press certain buttons To make the instrument express his thoughts in common, long-dead English Lloyd, whose vocal organs were not human Would have had great difficulty speaking English words anyway Ned's dark hair was wildly awry His gaunt, young face held befuddled terror He gasped in the thin atmosphere I've gone nuts, he pronounced with a curious calm Stark, starin' nuts Lloyd's box with its recorded English words and its sonic detectors Could translate for its master, too As the man spoke, Lloyd read the illuminated symbols in his own language Flashed on a frosted plate before him Thus he knew what Ned Vintz was saying Lloyd Chook pressed more keys and the box reproduced his answer No, Ned, not nuts, not a bit of it There are just a lot of things that you've got to get used to, that's all You drowned about a million years ago I discovered your body I brought you back to life We have science that can do that I'm Lloyd Chook It took only a moment for the box to tell the full story In clear, bold, friendly terms Thus Lloyd sought, with calm, human logic To make his charge feel at home Probably though he was a fool to suppose that he could succeed thus Vintz started to mutter, struggling desperately to reason it out A prairie dog, he said, speaking to me One million years, evolution The scientists say that people grew up from fishes in the sea Prairie dogs are smart So maybe super prairie dogs could come from them A lot easier than men from fish It was all sound logic Even Ned Vintz knew that Still, his mind, tuned to the ordinary, simple things, couldn't quite realize all the vast things that have happened to him and to the world The scope of it all was too staggeringly big One million years, God Ned Vintz made a last effort to control himself His knuckles tightened on the edge of the vat I don't know what you've been talking about, he graded wildly But I want to get out of here I want to go back to where I came from Do you understand whoever or whatever you are? Leuchuk pressed more keys But you can't go back to the 20th century, said the box Nor is there any better place for you to be now than Kara You are the only man left on earth Those men that exist in other star systems are not really your kind anymore Though their forefathers originated on this planet They have gone far beyond you in evolution To them, you would be only a senseless curiosity You are much better off with my people Our minds are much more like yours We will take care of you and make you comfortable But Ned Vintz wasn't listening now You are the only man left on earth That had been enough for him to hear He didn't more than half believe it His mind was too confused for conviction about anything Everything he saw and felt and heard might be some kind of nightmare But then it might all be real instead And that was abysmal horror Ned was no coward Death and danger of any ordinary earthly kind He could have faced bravely But the loneliness here and the utter strangeness Were hideous like being stranded alone on another world His heart was pounding heavily and his eyes were wide He looked across this eerie room There was a ramp there at the other side leading upward instead of a stairway Fierce impulse to escape this nameless lair To try to learn the facts for himself possessed him He bounded out of the vat and with head down dashed for the ramp He had to go most of the way on his hands and knees For the upslanting passage was low Excited animal chucklings around him and the occasional touch of a furry body Hurried his feverish scrambling But he emerged at last at the surface He stood there panting in that frigid rarefied air It was night The moon was a gigantic pockmark bulk The constellations were unrecognizable The rodent city was a glowing expanse of shallow, crystalline domes Set among odd scrub trees and bushes The crags loomed on all sides All of their jaggedness lost after a million years of erosion Under an ocean that was gone In that ghastly moonlight the ground glistened with dry salt Well, I guess it's all true, huh? Ned Vince muttered in a flat tone Behind him he heard an excited, squeaky chattering Rodents in pursuit Looking back he saw the pinpoint gleams of countless little eyes Yes, he might as well be in exile on another planet So changed had the earth become A wave of intolerable homesickness came over him As he sensed the distances of time that had passed Those inconceivable eons separating himself from his friends From Betty From almost everything that was familiar He started to run Away from those glittering rodent eyes He sensed death in that cold sea bottom But what of it? What reason did he have left to live? He'd be only a museum piece here A thing to be caged and studied Prison, or a madhouse, would be far better He tried to get a hold of his courage But what was there to inspire it? Nothing He laughed harshly as he ran Welcoming that bitter killing cold Nostalgia had him in its clutch And there was no answer in this hell world Beyond the lost barrier of the years Lloyd Chook and his followers Presently came upon Ned Vince's unconscious form A mile from the city of Cara In a flying machine they took him back And applied stimulants He came to, in the same laboratory room as before But he was firmly strapped to low platform this time So that he could not escape again There he lay, helpless Until presently an idea occurred to him It gave him a few crumbs of hope Hey, somebody, he called You'd better get some rest, Ned Vince Came the answer from the black box It was Lloyd Chook speaking again But listen, Ned protested You know a lot more than we did in the 20th century And, well, there's that thing called time travel That I used to read about Maybe you know how to make it work Maybe you could send me back to my own time after all Little Lloyd Chook was in a black, discouraged mood himself He could understand the utter, sick dejection of this giant from the past Lost from his own kind Probably insanity looming In far less extreme circumstances than this Death from homesickness had come Lloyd Chook was a scientist In common with all real scientists Regardless of the species from which they spring He loved the subjects of his researches He wanted this ancient man to live and to be happy Where this creature would be of scant value for study So Lloyd considered carefully what Ned Vince had suggested Time travel Almost a legend An assault upon an intangible wall That had baffled far keener wits than Lloyd's But he was bent now on the well-being of this anachronism He had so miraculously resurrected This human This Kali Lloyd jabbed buttons on the black box Yes, Ned Vince, said the Sonic apparatus Time travel Perhaps that is the only thing to do To send you back to your own period of history For I see that you will never be yourself here It will be hard to accomplish, but we'll try Now I shall put you under an anesthetic Ned felt better immediately For there was real hope now Where there had been none before Maybe he'd be back in his hometown of Harwich again Maybe he'd see the old machine shop there And the trees greening out in spring Maybe he'd be seeing Betty Moore in Hurley soon Ned relaxed as the tiny hypo-needle bit into his arm As soon as Ned Vince passed into unconsciousness Lloyd took went to work once more Using that pair of brain helmets again Exploring carefully the man's mind After hours of research, he proceeded to prepare his plans The government of Kar-Ra was a scientific oligarchy Of which Lloyd was a prime member It would be easy to get the help he needed A horde of small, gray, furred beings And their machines toiled for many days Ned Vince's mind swam gradually out of the blur That had enveloped it He was wandering aimlessly about in a familiar room The girders of the roof above were of red painted steel His tool benches were there Greasy and littered with metal filings Just as they had always been He had a tractor to repair and a seed drill Outside of the machine shop The old familiar yellow sun was shining Across the street was the small brown house Where he lived With a sudden startlement He saw Betty Moore in the doorway She wore a blue dress And a mischievous smile curved her lips As though she had succeeded in creeping up on him For a surprise Why Ned, she chuckled You look as though you've been dreaming And just woke up He grimaced ruefully as she approached With a kind of fierce gratitude He took her up in his arms Yes, she was just like always I guess I was dreaming, Betty He whispered, feeling that mighty sense of relief I must have fallen asleep at the bench Here and had a nightmare I thought I had had an accident at Pitt Bend And that a lot of worse things happened But it wasn't true Ned vins his mind Over which there was still an elusive fog That he did not try to shake off Excepted apparent facts simply He did not know anything About the invisible radiations beating down upon him Soothing and dimming his brain So that it would never question or doubt Or observe too closely The incongruous circumstances that must often appear The lack of traffic in the street without, for instance And the lack of people besides himself and Betty He didn't know that this machine shop Was built from his own memories of the original He didn't know that this Betty was of the same origin A miraculous fabrication of metal And energy units and soft plastic The trees outside were only lantern-slide illusions It was all built inside a great opaque dome But there were hidden television systems too Thus Loy Chuk's kind could study this ancient man This Kali Thus their motives were mostly selfish Loy, though, was not observing now He had wandered far out into cold, sad sea-bottom to ponder He squeaked and chatted to himself Contemplating the magnificent inexorable march of the ages He remembered the ancient ruins left by the final supermen The Kali believes himself home, Loy was thinking He will survive and be happy But there was no other way Time is an eternal wall Our archaeological researches among the cities of the supermen Show the truth Even they who once ruled earth Never escaped from the present by so much as an instant The end End of The Eternal Wall by Raymond Z