Astounding Science Fiction Stories: An Anthology of 350 Scifi Stories Volume 2 (Halcyon Classics)

by Various

  Other animals were brought to the Whitney home. Cats. Dogs. A lion from the city zoo, starved for two days and brought in a special mobile cage by its keeper. Black Eyes was thrust into the cage and the lion gave forth with a hideous yowling. Soon it stopped, rolled over, and slept.

  * * * * *

  The scientists correlated their reports, returned with them to the Whitney house. The leader, whose name was Jamison, said: "As closely as we can tell, Black Eyes is the culprit."

  "What?" Lindy demanded.

  "Yes, Mrs. Whitney. Your pet, Black Eyes."

  "Oh, I don't believe it!"

  But Judd said, "Go ahead, Dr. Jamison. I'm listening."

  "Well, how does an animal--any animal--protect itself?"

  "Why, in any number of ways. If it has claws or a strong jaw and long teeth, it can fight. If it is fleet of foot, it can run. If it is big and has a tough hide, most other animals can't hurt it anyway. Umm-mm, doesn't that about cover it?"

  "You left out protective coloration, defensive odors, and things like that. Actually, those are most important from our point of view, for Black Eyes' ability is a further ramification of that sort of thing. Your pet is not fast. It isn't strong. It can't change color and it has no offensive odor to chase off predatory enemies. It has no armor. In short, can you think of a more helpless creature to put down in those Venusian swamps?"

  After Judd had shaken his head, Dr. Jamison continued: "Very well, Black Eyes should not be able to survive on Venus--and yet, obviously the creature did. We can assume there are more of the breed, too. Anyway, Black Eyes survives. And I'll tell you why.

  "Black Eyes has a very uncommon ability to sense danger when it approaches. And sensing danger, Black Eyes can thwart it. Your creature sends out certain emanations--I won't pretend to know what they are--which stamp aggression out of any predatory creatures. Neither of you could fire upon it--right?"

  "Umm-mm, that's true," Judd said.

  Lindy nodded.

  "Well, that's one half of it. There's so much about life we don't understand. Black Eyes uses energy of an unknown intensity, and the result maintains Black Eyes' life. Now, although that is the case, your animal did not live a comfortable life in the Venusian swamp. Because no animal would attack it, it could not be harmed. Still, from what you tell me about that swamp ...

  "Anyhow, Black Eyes was glad to come away with you, and everything went well until you landed in New York. The noises, the clattering, the continual bustle of a great city--all this frightened the creature. It was being attacked--or, at least that's what it must have figured. Result: it struck back the only way it knew how. Have you ever heard about sub-sonic sound-waves, Mr. Whitney, waves of sound so low that our ears cannot pick them up--waves of sound which can nevertheless stir our emotions? Such things exist, and, as a working hypothesis, I would say Black Eyes' strange powers rest along those lines. The whole city is idle because Black Eyes is afraid!"

  In his exploration of Mars, of Venus, of the Jovian moons, Judd Whitney had seen enough of extra-terrestrial life to know that virtually anything was possible, and Black Eyes would be no exception to that rule.

  "What do you propose to do?" Judd demanded.

  "Do? Why, we'll have to kill your creature, naturally. You can set a value on it and we will meet it, but Black Eyes must die."

  "No!" Lindy cried. "You can't be sure, you're only guessing, and it isn't fair!"

  "My dear woman, don't you realize this is a serious situation? The city's people will starve in time. No one can even bring food in because the trucks make too much noise! As an alternative, we could evacuate, but is your pet more valuable than the life of a great city?"

  "N-no...."

  "Then, please! Listen to reason!"

  "Kill it," Judd said. "Go ahead."

  Dr. Jamison withdrew from his pocket a small blasting pistol used by the Department of Domestic Animals for elimination of injured creatures. He advanced on Black Eyes, who sat on its haunches in the center of the room, surveying the scientist.

  Dr. Jamison put his blaster away. "I can't," he said. "I don't want to."

  Judd smiled. "I know it. No one--no thing--can kill Black Eyes. You said so yourself. It was a waste of time to try it. In that case--"

  "In that case," Dr. Jamison finished for him, "we're helpless. There isn't a man--or an animal--on Earth that will destroy this thing. Wait a minute--does it sleep, Mr. Whitney?"

  "I don't think so. At least, I never saw it sleep. And your team of scientists, did they report anything?"

  "No. As far as they could see, the creature never slept. We can't catch it unawares."

  "Could you anesthetize it?"

  "How? It can sense danger, and long before you could do that, it would stop you. It's only made one mistake, Mr. Whitney: it believes the noises of the city represent a danger. And that's only a negative mistake. Noise won't hurt Black Eyes, of course. It simply makes the animal unnecessarily cautious. But we cannot anesthetize it any more than we can kill it."

  "I could take it back to Venus."

  "Could you? Could you? I hadn't thought of that."

  Judd shook his head. "I can't."

  "What do you mean you can't?"

  "It won't let me. Somehow it can sense our thoughts when we think something it doesn't want. I can't take it to Venus! No man could, because it doesn't want to go."

  "My dear Mr. Whitney--do you mean to say you believe it can think?"

  "Uh-uh. Didn't say that. It can sense our thoughts, and that's something else again."

  Dr. Jamison threw his hands up over his head in a dramatic gesture. "It's hopeless," he said.

  * * * * *

  Things grew worse. New York crawled along to a standstill. People began to move from the city. In trickles, at first, but the trickles became torrents, as New York's ten million people began to depart for saner places. It might take months--it might even take years, but the exodus had begun. Nothing could stop it. Because of a harmless little beast with the eyes of a tarsier, the life of a great city was coming to an end.

  Word spread. Scientists all over the world studied reports on Black Eyes. No one had any ideas. Everyone was stumped. Black Eyes had no particular desire to go outside. Black Eyes merely remained in the Whitney house, contemplating nothing in particular, and stopping everything.

  Dr. Jamison, however, was a persistent man. Judd got a letter from him one day, and the following afternoon he kept his appointment with the scientist.

  "It's good to get out," Judd said, after a three hour walk to the Department of Science Building. "I can go crazy just staring at that thing."

  "I have it, Whitney."

  "You have what? Not the way to destroy Black Eyes? I don't believe it!"

  "It's true. Consider. Everyone in the world does not yet know of your pet, correct?"

  "I suppose there are a few people who don't--"

  "There are many. Among them, are the crew of a jet-bomber which has been on maneuvers in Egypt. We have arranged everything."

  "Yes? How?"

  "At noon tomorrow, the bomber will appear over your home with one of the ancient, high-explosive missiles. Your neighbors will be removed from the vicinity, and, precisely at twelve-o-three in the afternoon, the bomb will be dropped. Your home will be destroyed. Black Eyes will be destroyed with it."

  Judd looked uncomfortable. "I dunno," he said. "Sounds too easy."

  "Too easy? I doubt if the animal will ever sense what is going on--not when the crew of the bomber doesn't know, either. They'll consider it a mighty peculiar order, to destroy one harmless, rather large and rather elaborate suburban home. But they'll do it. See you tomorrow, Whitney, after this mess is behind us."

  "Yeah," Judd said. "Yeah." But somehow, the scientist had failed to instill any of his confidence in Judd.

  * * * * *

  With Lindy, he left home at eleven the following morning, after making a thorough list of all their properties which the City had promised t
o duplicate. Judd did not look at Black Eyes as he left, and the animal remained where it was, seated on its haunches under the dining room table, nibbling crumbs. Judd could almost feel the big round eyes boring a pair of twin holes in his back, and he dared not turn around to face them....

  They were a mile away at eleven forty-five, making their way through the nearly deserted streets. Judd stopped walking. He looked at Lindy. Lindy looked at him.

  "They're going to destroy it," he said.

  "I know."

  "Do you want them to?"

  "I--I--"

  Judd knew that something had to be done with Black Eyes. He didn't like the little beast, and, anyway, that had nothing to do with it. Black Eyes was a menace. And yet, something whispered in Judd's ear, Don't let them, don't let them ... It wasn't Judd and it wasn't Judd's subconscious. It was Black Eyes, and he knew it. But he couldn't do a thing about it--

  "I'm going to stay right here and let them bomb the place," he said aloud. But as he spoke, he was running back the way he had come.

  Fifteen minutes.

  He sprinted part of the time, then rested, then sprinted again. He was somewhat on the beefy side and he could not run fast, but he made it. Just.

  He heard the jet streaking through the sky overhead, looked up once and saw it circling. Two blocks from his house he was met by a policeman. The entire area had been roped off, and the officer shook his head when Judd tried to get through.

  "But I live there!"

  "Can't help it, Mister. Orders is orders."

  Judd hit him. Judd didn't want to, but nevertheless, he grunted with satisfaction when he felt the blow to be a good one, catching the stocky officer on the point of his chin and tumbling him over backwards. Then Judd was ducking under the rope and running.

  He reached his house, plummeted in through the front door. He found Black Eyes under the kitchen table, squatting on its haunches. He scooped the animal up, ran outside. Then he was running again, and before he reached the barrier, something rocked him. A loud series of explosions ripped through his brain, and instinctively--Black Eyes' instincts, not his--he folded his arms over the animal, protecting it. Something shuddered and began to fall behind him, and debris scattered in all directions. Something struck Judd's head and he felt the ground slapping up crazily at his face--

  He was as good as new a few days later.

  And so was Black Eyes.

  "I have it," Judd said to his nurse.

  "You have what, sir?"

  "It's so simple, so ridiculously simple, maybe that's why no one ever thought of it. Get me Dr. Jamison!"

  Jamison came a few moments later, breathless. "Well?"

  "I have the solution."

  "You ... do?" Not much hope in the answer. Dr. Jamison was a tired, defeated man.

  "Sure. Black Eyes doesn't like the city. Fine. Take him out. I can't take him to Venus. He doesn't like Venus and he won't go. No one can take him anyplace he doesn't want to go, just as no one can hurt him in any way. But he doesn't like the city. It's too noisy. All right: have someone take him far from the city, far far away--where there's no noise at all. Someplace out in the sticks where it won't matter much if Black Eyes puts a stop to any disturbing noises."

  "Who will take him? You, Mr. Whitney?"

  Judd shook his head. "That's your job, not mine. I've given you the answer. Now use it."

  Lindy had arrived, and Lindy said: "Judd, you're right. That is the answer. And you're wonderful--"

  No one volunteered to spend his life in exile with Black Eyes, but then Dr. Jamison pointed out that while no one knew the creature's life-span, it certainly couldn't be expected to match man's. Just a few years and the beast would die, and ... Dr. Jamison's arguments were so logical that he convinced himself. He took Black Eyes with him into the Canadian Northwoods, and there they live.

  * * * * *

  Judd was right--almost.

  This was the obvious answer which escaped everyone.

  But scientists continued their examinations of Black Eyes, and they discovered something. Black Eyes' fears had not been for herself alone. She is going to have babies. The estimate is for thirty-five little tarsier-eyed creatures. No doctor in the world will be able to do anything but deliver the litter.

  * * *

  Contents

  EARTHSMITH

  By Stephen Marlowe

  Nobody at the Interstellar Space School had ever heard of Earth so naturally they treated Smith with contempt--or was it an innate fear?...

  Someone in the crowd tittered when the big ungainly creature reached the head of the line.

  "Name?"

  The creature swayed back and forth foolishly, supporting the bulk of his weight first on one extremity and then on the other. His face which had a slight rosy tint anyway got redder.

  "Come, come. Planet? Name?" The registrar was only a machine, but the registrar could assume an air of feminine petulance. "We want to keep the line moving, so if you will please--"

  The creature drew a deep breath and let the two words come out in a rush. "Earth, Smith," he said. Being nervous, he could not modulate his voice. Unable to modulate his voice, he heard the words come out too deep, too loud.

  "Did you hear that voice?" demanded the man who had tittered. "On a cold wet night they say the karami of Caulo boom like that. And look at Earthsmith. Just look at him. I ask you, what can they accept at the school and still call it a school? Hey you, Earthsmith, what courses will you take?"

  "I don't know," the creature confessed. "That's what I'm here for. I don't even know what they teach at the school."

  "He doesn't know." More tittering.

  The registrar took all this in impassively, said: "What planet, Earthsmith?"

  The creature was still uncomfortable. "Earth. Only my name is not Earthsmith. Smith--"

  The titterer broke into a loud guffaw. "Earthsmith doesn't even know what planet he's from. Good old Earthsmith." He was a small thin man, this titterer, with too-bright eyes, vaguely purple skin, and a well-greased shock of stiff green hair.

  Smith squared his wide shoulders and looked into the colored lights of the registrar. "It's a mistake. My name is Smith."

  "What planet, Smith?"

  "Earth. The planet Earth." Smith had a rosy, glistening bald head and a hairless face. A little bead of sweat rolled into his left eye and made him blink. He rubbed his eye.

  "Age?" The machine had a way of asking questions suddenly, and Smith just stared.

  "Tell me your age. Age. How old are you?"

  Smith wanted to sit down, only there were no chairs. Just the room with its long line of people behind him, and the machine up front. The registrar.

  "I'm twenty-seven."

  "Twenty-seven what?"

  "You asked me my age. I'm twenty-seven years old, and three months."

  Except for the clicking of the machine, there was a silence. The voice of the machine, feminine again, seemed confused when it spoke. "I cannot correlate years, Smith of Earth. How old are you?"

  It wasn't an ordeal, really, but Smith felt more uncomfortable every moment. Was the machine making fun of him? If it were, then it had an ally in the crowd, because the man who had tittered was laughing again, the green shock of hair on his head bobbing up and down.

  "Earthsmith doesn't even know how old he is. Imagine."

  The machine, which was more feminine than not, asked Smith how far the planet Earth was from its primary, and what the orbital speed of the planet was. Smith told her, but again the terminology was not capable of correlation.

  "Unclassified as to age, Smith. It's not important. I wonder, are you dominant or receptive?"

  "I'm a man. Male. Dom--"

  "That doesn't matter. Smith, tell me, how long has it been since anyone from the planet Earth has attended the school?"

  Smith said he didn't know, but, to his knowledge, no one from Earth had ever been here. "We don't get around much any more. It's not that we can't. We just go an
d then we don't like it, so we come back to Earth."

  "Well, from the looks of you I would say you are a receptive. Very definitely receptive, Smith." Given sufficient data, the registrar could not be wrong. Given sufficient data the registrar could tell you anything you wanted to know, provided the answer could be arrived at from the data itself. "The male and female distinction no longer holds, of course. On some planets the female is dominant, on some she's not. It's generally according to the time of colonization, Smith. When was Earth colonized?"

  "It wasn't."

  "What do you mean, it wasn't?"

  "We were always there. We colonized the rest of the galaxy. Long ago."

  The registrar clicked furiously, expressed itself still more femininely this time. "Oh, that planet! You certainly are the first, Smith. The very first here at the school. Room 4027, dominant companion." Neuter voice again. "That's all, Smith of Earth. Next."

  The vaguely purple-skinned man stood before the registrar, winked at the flashing lights. "You know, now I can see what they mean when we're told of a missing link in the chain between man and animal. Old Earthsmith...."

  "Name?" said the machine.

  The man pointed at Smith, shook with silent laughter. The back of Smith's head, which could not properly be called bald because he had never had any hair on it, was very red.

  "Name's Jorak."

  "Planet?" demanded the fully neuter machine.

  * * * * *

  There was the red star, a monstrous blotch of crimson swollen and brooding on the horizon and filling a quarter of the sky. There was the fleck of white high up near the top of the red giant, its white-dwarf companion in transit. These were the high jagged crags, falling off suddenly to the sundered, frothy sea with its blood-red sun-track fading to pink and finally to gray far away on either side.

  Smith watched the waves break far below him, and he almost stumbled when someone tapped his shoulder.

  "That was mean of the man named Jorak." She might have been a woman of Earth, except that she was too thin, cast in a too-delicate mould. Yet beautiful.