The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack

by Arthur C. Clarke

  “Suns, maybe, yes, but not planets. We’ve looked, and there aren’t any more.”

  “Then let Ron go exploring, after you’ve settled. Promise me you’ll do at least that!”

  Sargon laughed. “That coward! What could he do but shake to pieces with fright at the mere thought of being left alone in a space ship!”

  Yiddir was too weak to argue further. But as the ship drew nearer to the small planet and he lay helplessly in his bunk, he was not at a loss for subjects upon which to meditate through the long hours.

  * * * *

  When the planet acquired a visible disk, Ron and even Lylwani became interested, although the latter was merely attracted to it because of its beautiful color and changing aspect. To Ron, however, it was fascinating because he knew how rare this planet was. He knew that it was on such a world that his ancestors had been born. As he observed its atmosphere, glowing like a silvery halo in the telescope, and as he saw its green jungles and smouldering young mountains and steaming oceans—he would often think of Yldra, who might have been there at his side, looking at all this for the first time. And then he would rescue his mind from vertigo by thinking of something outside the sphere of his personal emotions. The Government Fleet…he strove to keep his mind on that. The fleet, with its hundreds of thousands of people, moving outward, ever outward into vastness, searching vainly for a new home, for a natural way of life, for a means of survival…

  Sargon effected a safe landing on a wild stretch of beach beside a primitive sea. Towering carboniferous forests loomed above them, and the bright sun shone hotly through a humid atmosphere. Gravitation was light, however, and it was a tremendous relief to everyone to be freed from the oppressive burden of deceleration. Even Yiddir felt well enough to give Sargon some assistance with the scientific problems connected with their emergence into this primitive world.

  Air, water, solar radiations, samples of soil, fauna and flora—all had to be analyzed carefully. If Yiddir had not been able to help Sargon, certain mistakes might have been made which would have resulted in an early death for all of them. Very fortunately for them, the space ship’s cosmic energy converters were in good working condition, and they lived by synthesis as usual.

  Inasmuch as the ship, designed to house a hundred Passengers, was roomy, self-sufficient, and impervious to the influences of their surroundings, Sargon could see no reason for building permanently on the ground. This was disappointing to Yiddir, because as long as Sargon and Lylwani and the child, Dirno, required the ship for a home, the possibilities of using it for further explorations were reduced proportionately. He had no hope of being able to make the exploratory trips himself, because he was virtually an invalid now. He tried occasionally to prevail upon Sargon to make an attempt to find the better solar system he knew existed in that region, but as Sargon procrastinated and time passed, the old man was finally forced to give up all hope of finding reasons for contacting either portion of the fleet. Here he would certainly die, and the little generation of brothers and sisters to be produced by Sargon and Lylwani would have to establish a new humanity here. In the meantime, Ron waited in silence—for what, no one knew, but he gave everybody the impression of patient waiting…?

  CHAPTER XIII

  A year passed, not without some progress. They explored and mapped most of the planet by air. They also found a new base, on a plateau overlooking a broad inland sea of fresh water. Here the jungle was less aggressive and the forms of animal life were less carnivorous and destructive. They could go about without spacesuits at last, and the change and outdoor exercise worked a great improvement on all of them except Yiddir, who was the victim of recurrent hemorrhages as a result of his old injuries.

  Sargon had even begun to take interest in establishing a permanent base on the ground. He learned how to use lumber. When he needed other materials, such as metal, he had only to synthesize it in the converters. Base metallic stock could be melted, cast, forged, machined. In time, the foundations of a large building began to take shape, with Ron’s willing assistance. Lylwani busied herself quite happily with her small son, Dirno, while Yiddir sat often in the mild sunlight of late afternoons and watched her in unhappy reflection. He thought of another man whose companionship might have enriched her life a hundredfold. And then he would sigh and wish for death to overtake him…

  * * * *

  One day when all of them were eating together in the ship, Lylwani made a statement so startling that no one took another bite after she spoke. As she had done during her previous period of recovery from the M-Ray, she had also progressed this time to the point where she could think independently, at least as a child, and hold a simple conversation. As they sat discussing the small events of the day, some mention was made of Yiddir’s long white beard and Sargon’s bushy black one.

  “But I like gold colored beards best,” she said, without preamble. She continued eating as though she had made the most casual remark in the world.

  Sargon reacted first, perhaps ten seconds sooner than Yiddir or Ron. He lowered his fork and spoke to her.

  “Where did you ever see such a beard?” he asked.

  She looked up and smiled sweetly at him. “The man in the forest has one,” she said, innocently.

  Sargon looked at Yiddir and saw his own thoughts reflected in the other’s faded eyes. He got to his feet.

  “What man in the forest?”

  Lylwani looked up, raising her eyebrows in surprise. “Oh, he’s a very wonderful man,” she said. “He is so kind to me and Dirno. He has such strange eyes, and his hair and beard are all made of gold.”

  Sargon walked around the table and grasped her by the arm. “Where did you see this man?” he demanded.

  Lylwani began to cry. She disliked and could never understand Sargon’s toughness.

  “Just a minute!” Yiddir interrupted. “If you want any information, leave her to me. You’ll get nothing out of her by frightening her.”

  Sargon knew that Lylwani was very fond of Yiddir. In any other circumstance he would have bullied her, jealously asserting his assumed prerogatives as father of her child, but now he gave in and stepped aside. He sat down at the table again and watched her intently as Yiddir questioned her and Ron watched the proceedings and listened with a pale, tense look of desperation.

  “Lylwani,” said Yiddir, gently, “please help us. We want to know your man with the golden beard, too. It must be a very wonderful sight. Won’t you tell us more about him?

  Finally, Lylwani complied. She related how he had first contacted her several weeks before. Ron had built a little summer-house for her and the child, where she could rest and enjoy the fresh air and be shielded from the hot sunlight. It was some distance removed from the ship, but in plain view, except that it blocked from view a patch of jungle immediately behind it.

  One day, she told them, the golden bearded man had come to her from the jungle. He had called her by her name and spoken very nicely to her and played with Dirno. Then, when Sargon had approached the place, he had seemed angry and had gone back into the jungle. Three times he had come to see her. Yes, she confirmed, he had worn clothing, but it was very ragged, and he carried no weapons with him.

  “He shouldn’t be afraid of us, should he?” she asked. “Why can’t we invite him to stay with us?”

  “Man! Man!” gurgled Dirno, happily.

  “You see!” Lylwani smiled. “Dirno knows who we mean. He wants him, too. Why don’t you bring him here?”

  “Yes,” said Sargon, with a mirthless grin, “I think we should bring the man here…”

  * * * *

  That afternoon and all the next day Sargon roamed the jungle with two Disruptors, but he did not go too far astray. Frequently he would seek out a place where he could look back at the plateau where the ship was. Then he would stalk his intended quarry again.

  Finally, hunger drove him back to the ship that night. He was surprised to find that Ron was absent, because Ron had evidenced a marked f
ear of the forest with its mysterious denizens. When Ron finally returned, he gave every evidence, by his extreme exhaustion and torn clothing, of having been on the same quest all day.

  In his hand he carried a Stun Ray. Sargon’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. There was no necessity for anyone to say anything. It was tacitly understood that a simple sort of primordial law had set in, and the outcome of each individual’s efforts now was in the hands of fate. The stakes were grimly vital.

  The next morning, however, Ron could not find the Stun Ray. In the whole ship neither he nor Yiddir could find a single hand weapon.

  “Sargon must have concealed them last night,” said Yiddir at last.

  For answer, Ron started off empty handed toward the jungle.

  “Ron!” Yiddir called, helpless to follow. “Come back!”

  But Ron did not stop, and soon his limping figure was lost to view in the deep shadow of the towering trees.

  “Are they looking for the golden man?” asked Lylwani, innocently.

  Yiddir put his arm around her, affectionately. “Yes, Lylwani,” he answered.

  “Oh I hope they find him. I hope he comes back again!” she said.

  “Yes. I hope he comes back…

  CHAPTER XIV

  By noon that day, Sargon discovered the other ship. There was every sign that its pilot had taken great pains to conceal it. It lay in a deep gulley, half covered with fallen vines and trees that had been burned down with the ship’s Disruptor cannons.

  Without the slightest hesitation, Sargon set his Disruptors to maximum and fired at the ship. Time after time he fired, while explosions rocked the ground and the ship became a white inferno of dissolution.

  Then he ran, fearing that he might have failed to destroy one or more of the reactors. Disrupted by the heat and explosions, unbalanced reaction might set in and they would blow, which was what he really wanted. A full atomic blast would clean out the last vestige of this thing he hated and perhaps its pilot as well, if he were lurking somewhere within half a mile.

  Eyes wide with the excitement of mingled triumph and awareness of mortal danger, he ran through the jungle like a madman. Once he dropped a Disruptor and it fell between mighty tree roots into some recess that he could not reach. There was no time to look for it. He ran onward, never daring to stop.

  When he had traversed a good mile and a half of the jungle, the reactors blew. In one brief instant everything stood out in blinding contrast, illuminated by a flash of intense light that came near to blinding him. Then came a sound that he felt more than heard because he was momentarily deafened by it. He groveled under a great fallen tree as the shock wave followed.

  Giant trees crashed all about him and debris flew with the velocity of a hurricane. The jungle life set up one huge din, a roar and shrieking and bleating of abject terror.

  He got to his feet and ran again, stumbling and picking himself up and running again, to get out of the area which he knew would soon be blighted by radioactive dust.

  Close to the clearing where his own ship lay, he stumbled again, momentarily losing his grip on his one remaining Disruptor. As he lay there, panting, looking at the deadly weapon just three feet from him, he heard a crashing in the underbrush ahead. Then there stepped into his view, not twenty feet away, a man with golden blond hair and a year’s growth of blond beard. A pair of gray eyes looked at him out of shadows that had never been there before—shadows of terror and near madness, filled with haunting memories of secret things that no other man had ever seen. It seemed to Sargon in that moment that this unarmed, half naked mortal enemy of his was looking at him from out of the grave. His body was full and hardened, in apparently excellent condition, but it was the look in his eyes that made Sargon lunge toward his Disruptor.

  Just then a body hurtled over his head and Ron fell flat on the Disruptor, clutching it so tightly in his arms that Sargon could not dislodge him in time. He sprang to his feet just in time to receive a blow from the bearded one that sent him staggering off balance into the bushes.

  When he could see clearly again, he saw Ron hand the Disruptor to Nad. Nad only stood there looking at Sargon with his death-haunted eyes, while Sargon’s flesh crept and he sweated.

  “You left me without weapons,” said Nad, in a toneless voice. “Even if I had chosen suicide—which I did not!” His gray eyes blazed. “I could only have chosen the Abyss. That’s the way you wanted it, wasn’t it? There are no weapons at your ship, either. You seem to enjoy holding all the cards, don’t you, Sargon?”

  A deathly stillness ensued, while Nad just stood there looking at him.

  “How—how did you—” Sargon stammered.

  “How did I survive?” Nad finished the sentence for him. “How did I repair the ship? Thanks to Yiddir’s patient instructions, I know more about what was wrong than you did. But a lot has happened since then. Before emerging from the nebula I was drawn to its center, where I made an amazing discovery, thanks to you. I found…” He paused, looking at Sargon with cold deliberation. “But you’re never going to see it, so why should I tell you? Get on your feet!”

  Sargon scrambled to his feet. “All right, you’ve won!” he shouted, white with fear. “Take everything! Take the ship! Take Lylwani and Dirno, but don’t shoot me in cold blood!”

  Suddenly, Nad looked down at the Disruptor as though he had forgotten it was in his hands. Then, to Ron’s amazement, he threw it away with all his might, and it became lost in impenetrable undergrowth.

  “This is what I have waited for—and dreamed of—during all the time I spent—out there.” He started toward Sargon. “I’ve got to do it with my bare hands!” he yelled, and he charged.

  Sargon’s confidence returned when he saw the Disruptor fly over the bushes, and in the same instant he knew this was what he wanted, too. With a fierce shout of triumph, he met Nad’s charge…

  Ron stood motionlessly to one side, watching them. He knew that this was inevitable. He also knew, somehow, that Nad preferred to die rather than accept outside help, even if Ron had been able to give it. Nor was it a matter of principle, it was a life-consuming hate that could only be expended in one way. Ron knew he had to leave both of them alone. He knew that if Sargon killed Nad he would have to stand there and watch him die.

  As he watched, what he witnessed sickened him so that he felt faint. His legs failed him and he sat down. He did not know how two human bodies could take such punishment and still keep on struggling. The towering, pristine jungle held them as though in its lap, like some primitive god, understanding its children who obeyed the earliest law ever written—that which rules all the forces of construction and destruction, of love and hate, of survival and death…

  It lasted about fifteen minutes. Nad dragged himself, somehow, off of Sargon’s prostrate body and stood up. He groped, as one blind, took two steps, and then fell on his face. Ron struggled with him and finally got him on his feet again. As he left the small clearing, he looked back at Sargon and shuddered. There was no doubt that Sargon was absolutely dead…

  * * * *

  So it was that Nad returned out of virtual limbo. He and Ron and Yiddir, with Lylwani and the small son of Sargon, left the small planet behind them—a planet that was still too young to receive them and too small to support the potential expansion of a new human race.

  Nad piloted the ship back to the nebula and plunged directly into its weird darkness. He refused to tell even Yiddir what he had found, except to say that it was definitely the end of their search. There was a tense time of waiting, during which they struggled with the freak gravitational fields and ether warps within the nebula.

  Then, suddenly, they burst into the tremendous interior, and Yiddir’s heart leapt in exultation. For there it was, the solar system he had detected—a more spectacular and beautiful system than he could have imagined in his most optimistic dreams. Ron and Lylwani joined him in wonderment and awe.

  Four white suns filled that tremendous chamber with a l
ight that was sheer heavenly splendor. They formed the center of a system which possessed at least eight major planets, five minor ones and a decorative host of thousands of planetoids and satellites. None of them showed distinct phases, because the sunlight seemed to be everywhere. On the “night side” of the various planets there was only a silvery twilight.

  The world Nad had chosen was the fourth minor planet. It was roughly nine thousand miles in diameter and possessed about one-sixth land area and five-sixths water area. Yiddir knew even before he analyzed it that the atmosphere was healthful.

  They landed by a broad river, just above a great waterfall, on a plateau that overlooked green jungle and a broad, blue ocean. At that altitude, the jungle had given way to mighty forests of coniferous trees, interspersed with great, rolling green prairie-lands that swept gently away and upward to snow-capped mountains.

  “This is Paradise,” said Yiddir. “Thank God I’ve lived to see it!”

  Two years passed, during which Yiddir’s life faded slowly away and new life took his place, for to Lylwani was born a baby girl, whom they named Yldra. The boy, Dirno, and his step-sister, Yldra, throve in their healthful environment as though their race had been indigenous to it. Lylwani made rapid recovery and happily accepted Nad as her man, forever.

  Ron seemed to be the only one who was not content to adjust himself. He worked harder than anyone else to establish a permanent base on the ground. A sturdy house of wood and steel took shape. Storehouses, workshops and sheds followed. Out of the ship’s converters came metal, which was processed, forged and machined—under Yiddir’s occasional supervision. New hand weapons were made, and the Disruptor cannons were transferred to permanent installations on the ground, as a source of nuclear energy. And at last certain plants and animals were domesticated. The foundation for a natural adjustment to the new world was finally set.