by Zach Hughes
intelligence to use the material he gathered. He very carefully recorded the basic patterns—you think of them, I believe, as the dna chains, which form each of your individual cells. Had he cared to, he could have duplicated millions of you, but he was too shortsighted for that. However, you will be made as you were.» She laughed. «This should remove any lingering doubts that you are, for a fact, merely a more advanced form of food creature.» «And the others?» Hara asked. «Matt Webb? All the men who were taken from their ships between Earth and the Centauri systems?» «We could recreate their bodies,» the woman said. «They were measured before they were, ah, enjoyed. But apparently the human brain is a tasty morsel.» She smiled and Plank saw, or imagined he saw, a hint of the death's head she had shown them. «He described the taste so well it raised an atavistic appetite. He saved only the brains, and thus the personalities, of just three. You three.» Hara suppressed a shudder. Plank started to speak, angered, but there was a blackness. He was aboard the Pride. He knew it, could remember how he had been a part of it, but he was no longer. Once he had flowed in that ship, had known each intricate system. Now, as he looked at it from the interior, from the lounge, he was blocked out. His mind could not extend beyond the smoothness of the panels that hid the workings of the ship. He pinched the flesh of his arm between thumb and forefinger, twisting until he felt pain. Beside him Hara looked up, her eyes wet. A glow of life was in her cheeks. Heath stood as if dazed, hands hanging at his side. The voice was in their minds and in their ears. «Here is your final instruction. Remember it well. Do your best to impress it upon your
leaders. See to it that it is recorded well. You have your place. We leave it to you. Stay in your place. It is large, large enough to accommodate even your animal-breeding habits. Do not ever expect more. We give you your galaxy, and we will not hinder your development in any way. We will not intrude upon your privacy as long as you remain in your place. It is your nature, however, to want more than you have. You will never need more,
but you will want it. Admittedly, this warning is academic, for you lack the capacity to threaten us in any way, but we have had enough of you. We
will not interfere with your actions inside your place, but we will be here,
on the far side of the barrier, in the unlikely event that you develop to the point of threatening our privacy.» The Pride was moving, up and out, positioning itself for the first blink. «When you arrive near your satellite, you will be given time to leave this
ship. Do so at the first opportunity. Do not try to take it to the surface. I will be monitoring until the ship is empty.» «I've grown rather fond of it,» Plank said. «I'd like to keep it.» «I have already explained,» the voice said. «We will not contribute. Some of us were opposed to allowing a continuation of what is obviously
an artificial species. Feel fortunate that we allow you to exist in your own state.» Plank felt the generator building, felt the jump. It must have one heck of a jump, he was thinking, as he looked out the viewers and saw the familiar landmarks of the Orion Arm spread across the space before them. Walker Heath was rumbling around the ship. As the ship prepared for another blink, he returned to the lounge. «I don't know what makes this baby go,» he said, «but it must be something very much like our blink generator.» «She wiped it out of my mind,» Plank said. «I knew this ship.» «Yes, I remember,» Heath said. «She couldn't believe that we had developed the same principle.» He grinned excitedly. «Yes. It will work now. There's no one to stop us, no one to interfere. The blink drive will
work. It's all here.» He tapped his forehead. «She didn't touch it. She didn't believe it was there.» «So they are not all powerful; they are not infallible,» Plank said. «Plank, we have the galaxy. She left us with it. Let's not start wanting more right now,» Hara said. «No,» Plank said. «She did not leave us with the galaxy. It was ours, more so than it was the creature's. It was introduced into it. We are a product of it.» «Are you sure?» she asked. «Somewhere, someplace, back in the dawn of time, an apelike animal stood on his hind legs and pounded his chest,» Plank said. «That was my ancestry. She is not infallible. She depended upon the Eater's information to form her opinion of us. That was false data, for the Eater, himself, thought we were merely more advanced food creatures. But we are man. We grew in this galaxy. We grew from simple one-celled animals, which had formed from the soup of life on a young planet. And, by God, no animated force field is going to make me believe anything different.» As the Pride entered the Orion Arm, blinks became shorter. Out of boredom, Plank tried the manual controls he had once rigged. They had no effect. The tools from the old Pride were no longer in the cargo hold. They had no choice but to be mere passengers during the ship's huge leaps toward home. Plank had one consolation. He was alive, a man, and with him was the woman he loved. There was time for talk, for planning. They would be married immediately. With Hara in his arms, John Plank was happy. He would not have changed places with anyone in the universe, not even a being who could manipulate the whole works at will. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN When the Pride blinked out into normal space in close orbit around the moon, she registered on scanners. Hastily prepared defenses went into effect. A general alarm sent the moon's population into action. When the ship's contours proved to be those of an alien, two patrolling ships made course for her and, without preliminary, ten atomic warheads were launched from pads on the moon. Earth had found her external enemy
and all her warlike feelings told her to strike first and strike hard. She had seen one alien. Aboard the Pride, having no access to the ship's systems, Plank's first knowledge of the attack was the blossoming of ten small stars in the space surrounding the ship. Viewports darkened to protect their human eyes. Plank had been engaged in donning his lsg, because, denied access to the ship's communications, the radio in his suit offered the only chance to contact the moon. «You can't really blame them,» he said, as two ships closed in on the Pride, rockets making misty trails across empty space as the ships fired. «They saw the Eater.» He began to place his call in a steady voice, identifying himself. The attacking rockets exploded prematurely, detonated by the ship's systems or by an overseeing presence. Plank didn't know which and he didn't care. He just wanted out of the ship. He had work to do. The two attacking Earth ships were joined by a third, and the three were hard to convince. The attack continued while Plank patiently called. After shooting up an area of space around the Pride and nothing more, the ships withdrew a distance, orbiting the stationary Pride. Now both Heath and Hara were using the radio in Plank's lsg, adding their own identification to Plank's. Finally, a reply. «We order you to surrender,» the call came. «Yes,» Plank said. «We surrender.» «Stand by for boarding.» «I don't think that's possible,» Plank replied. «Open a lock and stand by for boarding, or we'll blast you out of space,» the voice said. It was tense. Plank pictured a young captain on one of the nearby ships. «You've tried that,» Plank said. «Look, we're Earthmen. We've given you
our identification numbers. We are not in control of this ship. That will all be explained.» «Stand by for boarding,» the voice said. One of the ships blasted, moving closer. «Go easy,» Plank yelled. The ship smashed into the field surrounding the Pride. Only the fact that it was just getting underway saved it from total destruction. As it was, it was damaged, its hull ruptured. One by one figures in lsg left the damaged ship and were picked up by a second ship. During that period, Plank's calls went unanswered. When radio contact was made again, the voice was different. «Again, we ask you, if your intentions are not hostile, to surrender.» Plank muttered an oath. «That's what we want to do.» «Then allow us to board you.» «We have no control over the ship's defenses. We are merely passengers. We are being delivered home. We want to come home.» «Then exit the ship one at a time and you will be picked up,» the voice ordered. It was an older sounding voice, perhaps, Plank thought, a senior commander. «And be blasted in space?» «Not if you surrender.» «We surrender,» Plank yelled, rolling his eyes at Hara and Heath.
«Come out one at a time.» «There are three of us and we have only one lsg,» Plank said. «I will come out. Then I'll have to borrow two lsgs and bring them back over.» «If you will allow us to board you we will bring LSGS.» «I have no control over the ship's defense. It will not allow boarding.» «Hold one,» the voice said. When the radio sputtered again, the message was, «All right. One at a time. Come out.» «They're nervous,» Heath said. «I don't know if I want to go out or not.» «We have to go out sometime,» Plank said. He went into the cargo hold. As he expected, the lock operated itself. When the outside port opened and the air was exhausted, he stuck his head out cautiously. The second ship was near, and he could see missile launchers pointed his way. «I'm coming out,» he said. He attached a line and pushed himself away. The line allowed him to travel about three meters before jerking him to a stop. He
saw the missiles fire and they detonated on the ship's field in front of him. He pulled himself back and the lock accepted, allowed him entry to the ship. That had been a big question in his mind, whether or not, once he had left the ship, he would be allowed reentry to bring lsgs to Hara and Heath. He rejoined them in the lounge and peeled out of lsg. «I think we're just going to have to wait for a while, until they cool down a bit.» «Let me use the radio,» Hara said. She activated the instrument and said, «This is Commander Sahara.» She gave her serial number. «I want to speak with Secretary Maxwell Seagle.» «That is not possible,» the tense voice informed them. «It is possible,» Hara said. «First you patch through to Moon Control, and then you ask them to patch you through to Earth and the secretary's office.» «Hold one,» the voice said. A moment later, it returned, «Your request is impossible.» «All right, then,» Hara said. «We'll wait until it is possible.» Another attack was tried. A huge laser cruiser almost burned itself while blasting away at the Pride's shield from close range. Plank was having a cup of coffee from the galley. He was beginning to be slightly put out. He did not begrudge them their caution, but he was fed up with their
stupidity. In irritation, following the laser attack, he turned on the radio
and, affecting a weird accent, he said, «All right, this has gone far enough. Now you will connect me with your leader.» There was a long pause. «Identify yourself,» the voice on the radio said. «I am the Creature Who Ate Central Africa,» Plank said. «I will eat you unless you take me to your leader.» He looked at Hara and grinned. «It's no joking matter,» she hissed at him. «Which leader?» the voice asked. Hara took the switch. «Space Secretary Maxwell Seagle,» she said. «Hold one.» She recognized Seagle's voice. He sounded tired. «This is Secretary Seagle,» he said. «Why did you ask to speak with me specifically?» «Because you should remember me,» Hara said. «I came aboard your ship to ask that Commander Heath be allowed to use the last blink test vehicle.» «Yes, I remember the visit,» Seagle said. «But you're not sure that I'm the same woman who paid that visit?» Hara asked. «We have reason for caution,» Seagle said. «Yes, of course,» Hara agreed. «But, sir, we want to come out. We'll come out one at a time. Then we can explain everything.» «Try to explain it now,» Seagle said. So she talked. There were many questions. In the end, Plank was in lsg again and standing in the lock. But he, himself, insisted on precautions. Between him and the nearest ship were men in lsg. They were directly in line of the ship's fire. He used his steering jets to push his lsg toward them, joined them, used their lines to draw himself into the ship. There he was seized, his lsg peeled off him. He did not resist. A doctor examined him. «He's a man, all right,» the doctor said. «Now give me two extra suits and let me get the others,» he said. «Not a chance, buddy,» said a stern senior commander. «One of my boys will go.» «He won't be able to get in,» Plank said. «The port is still open.» «It won't admit him.» «We'll see.» The man couldn't even get past the shield. «Look,» Plank argued, «You're worried about the ship, not about three people in lsg. The ship has proven itself to be impregnable. Get the other two off, get them here, safe, and the ship's defenses go down. They're geared to protect life. Remove the life and you can blast her or board her as you please.» «I think you're lying,» the senior commander said. «Get me Secretary Seagle,» Plank requested wearily. «Not a chance,» the commander said. «I'm authorized to make field decisions.» «All right, then,» said Plank, «it's your funeral.» «What do you mean by that?» the commander asked nervously. «Our only radio is in the lsg,» Plank said. «My friends are now out of communication.» «Or they don't choose to communicate,» the commander said. «We don't want to have to do it, but we arranged before I came out to send a missile down to the base if you held me.» The commander's head jerked. «Send word. Tell them immediate evacuation.» «All you have to do is let me go over, with two lsgs for the others. Then it's over.» «I'd like a mind scan,» the doctor who had examined Plank said. «Perhaps he's telling the truth.» «No mind scan,» Plank said. «I've had enough of people fooling around in my mind.» It was stalemate, a stalemate broken only when Maxwell Seagle boarded and talked personally with Plank, asking many of the same questions, going over and over the story until Plank's temper was worn thin. Then and only then was Plank allowed to return. Hara and Heath donned lsg, and finally the three of them were aboard the cruiser, closely guarded, facing Seagle, the doctor, the ship's commander. «You said we could board after you were off,» the commander said. «I said it, but it's not true. The ship won't allow you to board,» Plank said. «We can try,» the commander said. A cry of alarm came over the communications system. The commander ran for the control room. When he returned, his face was grim.
«Sir,» he said to Seagle, «it broke up. It turned all colors, disintegrated, and disappeared.» «Now it is over,» Hara said. «No,» Plank said, «it's just beginning.» And it was. He had something different in mind when he said it was just beginning. What began were the mind scans and the questioning and the endless repetitions. They were separated. For days Plank did not see Hara. For days he submitted to their examinations and their questions; the three were a closely guarded secret, kept hidden away at moon base. The moon and Earth were on full alert. As the days passed, the tenseness died. When he was allowed to see her she looked haggard. She came into his arms with a little cry of gladness, and he kissed her. Within a week, they were Earthbound. They were married in a quiet ceremony and rented a suite in a hotel in the Amazon Natural Forest. After two weeks there, they visited Plank's mother and Hara's parents. Then they reported in to work. Plank requested transfer from free enterprise back to service to be allowed to work with Walker Heath. When they arrived on the moon, Heath was already in construction. Using an existing hull, he was installing surplus parts left over from the blink experiments. On the day of the first test, a battery of Earth dignitaries clustered in the control room. The test vehicle blinked out a few thousand kilometers and blinked back. It blinked out a light-year and blinked back. Heath insisted on riding the third test. He returned safely. Some months later, Commander Sahara led her ship into a dense starfield toward the core of the galaxy. A diligent search produced not a single scrap of the tinker-toy planet. The search was made more interesting by the persistent attentions of her first officer, one Commander John Plank. EPILOGUE On his ninety-fifth birthday, John Sahara Plank III walked through an early-morning fog to stand atop a hill looking down on the campus. It was May, and the Virginia hills were dressed in spring togs; the temperature indicated a warm day that, at that sunrise hour, was invigorating. Plank had chosen to wear uniform. The choice seemed to be in keeping with the
day. He was alone on the hill. Below him, as the fog began to shred and lift
in the first heat of the early sun, he could see a few students beginning to move in the plaza, some of them walking toward the cafeteria for breakfast, some just strolling to enjoy the beautiful morning. The university filled the small valley, climbed the hill on the far side
toward the towers of the blink-stat station. To the left, the parking lot was packed and, as he watched, two atmoflyers came in, bearing, perhaps, off-cam
pus students, workers or visitors. In an hour the campus would be a hive of activity. To John Sahara Plank III, the perfect morning seemed to be a good omen. With the sun over his shoulder, he walked down the trail, a tall, well-built man in his prime, his ash blond hair medium long, his eyes alert beneath bushy blond eyebrows. By the time he reached the plaza it was filling with students hurrying to class. Many of them recognized him, nodded, spoke to him by name. He walked with his hands behind his back, his head lowered, giving the impression that he was deep in thought. He was a familiar figure on the campus. He still had time before meeting his morning class, a seminar of graduate students in engineering, so he bypassed the classic lines of the Walker Heath Building and walked through the arboretum. He cast only a casual glance on the exotics from the populated planets of the galaxy. Emerging into sunlight again, he turned left, pressed his palm on the identifier at the door of his laboratory and entered. Musing, he stood in the main lab, hands still clasped behind him. The lab was empty, the work done. The equipment would be preserved. Unless he were wrong, it would be there when he came back. His desk at the end of the lab was neat, straightened and emptied the previous day. He walked to it, sat down, threw his long legs up and leaned back. Unbidden, the equations began to march through his mind and he let them flow, feeling the satisfaction of a job well done. Right or wrong the work would be a milestone in physics. Already it was paying dividends. Applied to gravitational field equations it had increased the comfort of every ship going out from Earth, every ship that blinked its way through the galaxy between Earth's far-flung settlements. A mining company out beyond Antares was using the equations, applying them to a gas giant mining drone, to allow the drone to dive deeply into the tremendous pressures of a gas giant's atmosphere. Royalties went, of course, to the university. Plank had no need for more money. John Sahara Plank III was a product of the free enterprise system, an extremely wealthy man. He did not scorn money. It was Plank family money that paid for the lab and the fantastically expensive equipment. He enjoyed money and the freedom it gave him. He used it wisely, bought himself all the comforts he wanted and felt no guilt. There were those who thought his long service as a mere teacher at the university founded by his grandfather and grandmother was, somehow, a show of guilt, a penance for possessing one of the galaxy's great fortunes. Those who knew him best, and they were few, knew better. Old John Plank's grandson was a solitary man, still single although well past the age for marriage. Not that he was a woman hater. At social functions he chose to attend, he always escorted one of the most beautiful women—the chief of his research team, Ellen Walters, a woman of dark-haired beauty who caused heads to turn when she walked across the campus. It was rumored that more than work was between them, but then Plank was a favorite subject for talk. It was well known that his brother, Matt Plank, scorned John's scholarly career and often spoke in public about the black sheep of the Plank family, the one who retreated from life and holed up in a quiet university, neglecting his responsibility. Plank Enterprises reached outward from the Earth and secondary headquarters on Plank's World to put a web of commerce and scientific development around the galaxy. And Matt needed help. He had Frank, the second brother, but Frank was only good as a front man, a glad-hander with no
