me to reason withyou, Slave Jacob!"
"Godamighty, forgive me!" prayed Jacob, in horrified defeat.
* * * * *
The Weapon seemed to know how to find the Hovan planets from themarkings of the cruiser's star charts. Jacob could not read the chartsand saw no hope of getting back to earth and Suzy and the kids withoutthe Weapon's help. Dully, he went about the tasks the Weapon orderedhim to do.
Several weeks passed as one world after another was left a smokingruin.
Finally the job was done.
"_Now_, can I go home?" begged Jacob.
"To Terra? No, Slave. I still need a pilot."
"But if you take me home," Jacob continued desperately, "you can get abetter pilot than me. I'm just a dirt farmer. There's all kinds ofairplane pilots on Earth, youngsters without families who would givetheir right arms to fly this thing, I bet!"
"Ah?" The Weapon considered. "A willing slave is, of course, alwaysdesirable. On the other hand, Terra is up in arms against the empireof Hova, not realizing it is dead. They would destroy this craft onsight, and I would be obliged to wait around until they couldconstruct another for me. No, I have decided we will not go to Terra."
"But, damn it, where else is there to go?"
"In search of my masters of Zoz," replied the Weapon. "Naturally, Iwish to return myself to their services as soon as possible."
"But they might be anywhere!"
"True," the Weapon agreed. "But even after a billion years, I know ofseveral places in the Universe they may be near. Their great cleansingsweeps tend to circle and turn in a pattern established long inadvance. Thus we will go to those places where they may now be engagedin their consecrated task of universal purification."
"But--"
"No more, Slave! We go!"
Out of the Milky Way, the cruiser hurtled at a speed which a sentientlightwave would find meaningless. On and on they journeyed in quest ofthe long-dead Zoz Horde.
They may still be going.
--HOWARD L. MYERS
* * * * *
The Reluctant Weapon Page 5
