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diff --git a/24152.txt b/24152.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6079aae --- /dev/null +++ b/24152.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1133 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Guardians, by Irving Cox + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Guardians + +Author: Irving Cox + +Release Date: January 3, 2008 [EBook #24152] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GUARDIANS *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, David Wilson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | Transcriber's note: | + | | + | This story was published in _Astounding Science Fiction_, June | + | 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the | + | U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. | + | | + +------------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +THE GUARDIANS + +BY IRVING COX, JR. + + +_It's not always "The Truth shall set you free!" +Sometimes it's "Want of the Truth shall drive +you to escape!" And that can be dangerous!_ + +Illustrated by van Dongen + + + + +Mryna Brill intended to ride the god-car above the rain mist. For a long +time she had not believed in the taboos or the Earth-god. She no longer +believed she lived on Earth. This paradise of green-floored forests and +running brooks was something called Rythar. + +Six years ago, when Mryna was fourteen, she first discovered the truth. +She asked a question and the Earth-god ignored it. A simple question, +really: What is above the rain mist? God could have told her. Every day +he answered technical questions that were far more difficult. Instead, +he repeated the familiar taboo about avoiding the Old Village because of +the Sickness. + +And consequently Mryna, being female, went to the Old Village. There was +nothing really unusual about that. All the kids went through the ruins +from time to time. They had worked out a sort of charm that made it all +right. They ran past the burned out shells of the old houses and they +kept their eyes shaded to ward off the Sickness. + +But even at fourteen Mryna had outgrown charms and she didn't believe in +the Sickness. She had once asked the Earth-god what sickness meant, and +the screen in the answer house had given her a very detailed answer. +Mryna knew that none of the hundred girls and thirty boys inhabiting +Rythar had ever been sick. That, like the taboo of the Old Village, she +considered a childish superstition. + +The Old Village wasn't large--three parallel roads, a mile long, lined +with the charred ruins of prefabs, which were exactly like the cottages +where the kids lived. It was nothing to inspire either fear or legend. +The village had burned a long time ago; the grass from the forest had +grown a green mantle over the skeletal walls. + +For weeks Mryna poked through the ruins before she found anything of +significance--a few, scorched pages of a printed pamphlet buried deep in +the black earth. The paper excited her tremendously. It was different +from the film books photographed in the answer house. She had never +touched anything like it; and it seemed wonderful stuff. + +She read the pamphlet eagerly. It was part of a promotional +advertisement of a world called Rythar, "the jewel of the Sirian Solar +System." + +The description made it obvious that Rythar was the green paradise where +Mryna lived--the place she had been taught to call Earth. And the +pamphlet had been addressed to "Earthmen everywhere." + + +Mryna made her second find when she was fifteen, a textbook in +astronomy. For the first time in her life she read about the spinning +dust of the universe lying beyond the eternal rain mist that hid her +world. + +The solid, stable Earth of her childhood was solid and stable no longer, +but a sphere turning through a black void. Nor was it properly called +Earth, but a planet named Rythar. The adjustment Mryna had to make was +shattering; she lost faith in everything she believed. + +Yet the clock-work logic of astronomy appealed to her orderly mind. It +explained why the rain mist glowed with light during the day and turned +dark at night. Mryna had never seen a clear sky. She had no visual data +to tie her new concept to. + +For six years she kept the secret. She hid the papers and the astronomy +text which she found in the Old Village. Later, after the metal men +came, she destroyed everything so none of the other women would know the +Earth-god was a man. + +At first she kept the secret because she was afraid. For some reason the +man who played at being god wanted the kids to believe Rythar was Earth, +the totality of the universe enveloped in a cloud of mist. She knew that +because she once asked god what a planet was. The face on the screen in +the answer house became frigid with anger--or was it fear?--and the +Earth-god said: + +"The word means nothing." + +But late that night a very large god-car brought six metal men down +through the rain mist. They were huge, jointed things that clanked when +they walked. Four of them used weapons to herd the kids together in +their small settlement. The two others went to the Old Village and +blasted the ruins with high explosives. + +Vaguely Mryna remembered that the metal men had been there before, when +the kids were still very small. They had built the new settlement and +they had brought food. They lived with the children for a long time, she +thought--but the memory was hazy. + +As the years passed, Mryna's fear retreated and only one thing became +important: she knew the Earth-god was a man. On the fertile soil of +Rythar there were one hundred women and thirty men. All the boys had +taken mates before they reached seventeen. Seventy girls were left +unmarried, with no prospect of ever having husbands. A score or more +became second wives in polygamous homes, but plural marriage had no +appeal for Mryna. She was firmly determined to possess a man of her own. +And why shouldn't it be the Earth-god? + +As her first step toward escape, Mryna volunteered for duty in the +answer house. For as long as she could remember, the answer house had +stood on a knoll some distance beyond the new settlement. It was a +square, one-room building, housing a speaking box, a glass screen and a +console of transmission machinery. Anyone in the settlement could +contact god and request information or special equipment. + +God went out of his way to deluge them with information. The simplest +question produced voluminous data, transmitted over the screen and +photographed on reels of film. Someone had to be in the answer house to +handle the photography. The work was not hard, but it was monotonous. +Most of the kids preferred to farm the fields or dig the sacrificial +ore. + +A request for equipment was granted just as promptly. Tools, machines, +seeds, fertilizers, packaged buildings, games, clothing--everything came +in a god-car. It was a large cylinder which hissed down from the rain +mist on a pillar of fire. The landing site was a flat, charred field +near the answer house. Unless the equipment was unusually heavy, the +attendant stationed in the house was expected to unload the god-car and +pile aboard the sacrifice ores mined on Rythar. + +God asked two things from the settlement: the pieces of unusually heavy +metal which they dug from the hills, and tiny vials of soil. In an +hour's time they could mine enough ore to fill the compartment of a +god-car, and god never complained if they sometimes sent the cylinder +back empty. But he fussed mightily over the small vials of Earth. He +gave very explicit directions as to where they were to take the samples, +and the place was never the same. Sometimes they had to travel miles +from the settlement to satisfy that inexplicable whim. + + +For two weeks Mryna patiently ran off the endless films of new books and +unloaded the god-car when it came. She examined the interior of the +cylinder carefully and she weighed every possible risk. The compartment +was very small, but she concluded that she would be safe. + +And so she made her decision. Tense and tight-lipped Mryna Brill slipped +aboard the god-car. She sealed the lock door, which automatically fired +the launching tubes. After that there was no turning back. + +The dark compartment shook in a thunder of sound. The weight of the +escape speed tore at her body, pulling her tight against the confining +walls. She lost consciousness until the pressure lessened. + +The metal walls became hot but the space was too confining for her to +avoid contact entirely. Four narrow light tubes came on, with a dull, +red glow, and suddenly a gelatinous liquid emptied out of ceiling vents. +The fluid sprayed every exposed surface in the cubicle, draining through +the shipment of sacrifice ores at Mryna's feet. It had a choking, +antiseptic odor; it stung Mryna's face and inflamed her eyes. + +Worse still, as the liquid soaked into her clothing, it disintegrated +the fiber, tearing away the cloth in long strips which slowly dissolved +in the liquid on the floor. Before the antiseptic spray ceased, Mryna +was helplessly naked. Even her black boots had not survived. + +The red lights went out and Mryna was imprisoned again in the crushing +darkness. A terror of the taboos she had defied swept her mind. She +began to scream, but the sound was lost in the roar of the motors. + +Suddenly it was over. The god-car lurched into something hard. Mryna was +thrown against the ceiling--and she hung there, weightless. The pieces +of sacrifice ore were floating in the darkness just as she was. The +motors cut out and the lock door swung open. + +Mryna saw a circular room, brightly lighted with a glaring, blue light. +The nature of her fear changed. This was the house of the Earth-god, but +she could not let him find her naked. + +She tried to run into the circular room. She found that the slightest +exertion of her muscles sent her spinning through the air. She could not +get her feet on the floor. There was no down and no up in that room. She +collided painfully with the metal wall and she snatched at a light +bracket to keep herself from bouncing free in the empty air again. + +The god-car had landed against what was either the ceiling or the floor +of the circular room. Mryna had no way of making a differentiation. +Eight brightly lighted corridors opened into the side walls. Mryna heard +footsteps moving toward her down one of the corridors; she pulled +herself blindly into another. As she went farther from the circular +room, a vague sense of gravity returned. At the end of the corridor she +was able to stand on her feet again, although she still had to walk very +carefully. Any sudden movement sent her soaring in a graceful leap that +banged her head against the ceiling. + + +Cautiously she opened a thick, metal door into another hall--and she +stood transfixed, looking through a mica wall at the emptiness of space +pinpointed with its billions of stars. This was the reality of the +charts she had seen in the astronomy text: that knowledge alone saved +her sanity. She had believed it when the proof lay hidden above the rain +mist; she must believe it now. + +From where she stood, she was able to see the place where the god-car +had brought her--like a vast cartwheel spinning in the void. The god-car +was clamped against the hub, from which eight corridors radiated outward +like wheel spokes toward the rim. Far below the gigantic wheel Mryna saw +the sphere of Rythar, invisible behind its shroud of glowing mist. + +She moved along the rim corridor, past the mica wall, until she came to +a door that stood open. The room beyond was a sleeping compartment and +it was empty. She searched it for clothing, and found nothing. She went +through four more dormitory rooms before she came upon anything she +could use--brief shorts, clearly made for a man, and a loose, white +tunic. It wasn't suitable; it wasn't the way she wanted to be dressed +when she faced him. But it had to do. + +Mryna was pawing through a footlocker looking for boots when she heard a +hesitant step behind her. She whirled and saw a small, stooped, +white-haired man, naked except for trunks like the ones she was wearing. +The wrinkled skin on his wasted chest was burned brown by the hot glare +of the sun. Thick-lensed glasses hung from a chain around his neck. + +"My dear young lady," he said in a tired voice, "this is a men's ward!" + +"I'm sorry. I didn't know--" + +"You must be a new patient." He fumbled for his glasses. Instinctively +she knew she shouldn't let him see her clearly enough to identify her as +a stranger. She shoved past him, knocking the glasses from his hand. + +"I'd better find my own--ward." Mryna didn't know the word, but she +supposed it meant some sort of sleeping chamber. + +The old man said chattily, "I hadn't heard they were bringing in any new +patients today." + +She was in the corridor by that time. He reached for her hand. "I'll see +you in the sunroom?" It was a timid, hopeful question. "And you'll tell +me all the news--everything they're doing back on Earth. I haven't been +home for almost a year." + +She fled down the hall. When she heard voices ahead of her, she pulled +back a door and slid into another room--a storeroom piled with cases of +medicines. Behind the cartons she thought she would be safe. + +This wasn't what she had expected. Mryna thought there might be one man +living in a kind of prefab somehow suspended above the rain mist. But +there were obviously others up here; she didn't know how many. And the +old man frightened her--more than the dazzling sight of the heavens +visible through the mica wall. Mryna had never seen physical age before. +No one on Rythar was older than she was herself--a sturdy, healthy, +lusty twenty. The old man's infirmity disgusted her; for the first time +in her life she was conscious of the slow decay of death. + + +The door of the supply room slid open. Mryna crouched low behind the +cartons, but she was able to see the man and the woman who had entered +the room. A woman--here? Mryna hadn't considered that possibility. +Perhaps the Earth-god already had a mate. + +The newcomers were dressed in crisp, white uniforms; the woman wore a +starched, white hat. They carried a tray of small, glass cylinders from +which metal needles projected. While the woman held the tray, the man +drove the needles through the caps of small bottles and filled the +cylinders with a bright-colored liquid. + +"When are you leaving, Dick?" the woman asked. + +"In about forty minutes. They're sending an auto-pickup." + +"Oh, no!" + +"Now don't start worrying. They have got the bugs out of it by this +time. The auto-pickups are entirely trustworthy." + +"Sure, that's what the army says." + +"In theory they should be even more reliable than--" + +"I wish you'd wait for the hospital shuttle." + +"And miss the chance to address Congress this year? We've worked too +long for this; I don't want to muff it now. We've all the statistical +proof we need, even to convince those pinchpenny halfwits. During the +past eight years we've handled more than a thousand cases up here. On +Earth they were pronounced incurable; we've sent better than eighty per +cent back in good health after an average stay of fourteen months." + +"No medical man has ever questioned the efficiency of cosmic radiation +and a reduced atmospheric gravity, Dick." + +"It's just our so-called statesmen, always yapping about the budget. But +this time we have the cost problem licked, too. For a year and a half +the ore they send up from Rythar has paid for our entire operation." + +"I didn't know that." + +"We've kept it under wraps, so the politicians wouldn't cut our +appropriations." + +Their glass tubes were full, and they turned toward the door. "It isn't +right," the woman persisted, "for them not to send a piloted shuttle +after you, Dick. It isn't dignified. You're our assistant medical +director and--" + +Her words were cut off as the door slid shut behind them. Mryna tried to +fit this new information into what she already knew--or thought she +knew--about the Earth-god. It didn't add up to a pretty picture. She had +once asked for a definition of illness, and it was apparent to her that +this place which they called the Guardian Wheel was an expensive +hospital for Earthmen. It was paid for by the sacrificial ores mined on +Rythar. In a sense, Rythar was being enslaved and exploited by Earth. +True, it was not difficult to dig out the ore, but Mryna resented the +fact that the kids on Rythar had not been told the truth. She had long +ago lost her awe of the man called god; now she lost her respect as +well. + +Mryna was glad she had not seen him, glad no one knew she was aboard the +Guardian Wheel. She would return to Rythar. After she told the others +what she knew, Rythar would send up no more sacrifice ores. Let the +Earthmen come down and mine it for themselves! + + +Very cautiously she pulled the door open. The rim corridor was empty. +She moved toward one of the intersecting corridors. When she heard +footsteps, she hid in another dormitory room. + +This was different from the others. It showed more evidence of permanent +occupation. She guessed it was a dormitory for the people who took care +of the sick. Pictures were fastened to the curved, metal walls. Personal +articles cluttered the shelves hung beside the bunks. On a writing desk +she saw a number of typed reports. Five freshly laundered uniforms, +identical to the one she had lost in the antiseptic wash, hung on a rack +behind the door. Mryna stripped off the makeshift she was wearing and +put on one of the uniforms; she found boots under the desk. When she was +dressed, she stood admiring herself in the polished surface of the metal +door. + +She was a handsome woman, and she was very conscious of that. Her face +was tanned by the mist-filtered sunlight of Rythar; her lips were red +and sensuous; her long, platinum-colored hair fell to her shoulders. She +compared herself to the small, hard-faced female she had seen in the +supply room. Was that a typical Earthwoman? Mryna's lips curled in a +scornful smile. Let the gods come down to Rythar, then, and discover +what a real female was like in the lush, green, Rytharian paradise. + +Mryna went to the desk and glanced at the typed reports. They had been +written by a man who signed himself "Commander in Charge, Guardian +Wheel," and they were addressed to the Congress of the world government. +One typed document was a supply inventory; a second, still unfinished, +was a budget report. (_You won't show a profit next time_, Mryna thought +vindictively, _when we stop sending you the sacrifice ore_.) Another +report dealt with Rythar, and Mryna read it with more interest. + +One paragraph caught her attention, + +"We have asked for soil samples to be taken from an area covering ten +thousand square miles. Our chemical analysis has been thorough, and we +find nothing that could be remotely harmful to human life. Atmospheric +samples produce the same negative results. On the other hand, we have +direct evidence that no animal life has ever evolved on Rythar; the life +cycle is exclusively botanical." + +The soil samples, Mryna realized, would be the vials of Earth which the +Earth-god had requested so often. Were the Earthmen planning to move +their hospital down to Rythar? That idea disturbed her. Mryna did not +want her garden world cluttered up with a lot of sick, old men discarded +by Earth. + +She turned to the second page of the report. "The original colony +survived for a year. The Sickness in the Old Village developed only +after the first harvest of Rytharian-grown food. It is more and more +evident that the botanical cycle of Rythar must be examined before we +find the answer. To do that adequately, we shall have to send survey +teams to the surface; that requires much larger appropriations for +research than we have had in the past. The metal immunization suits, +which must, of course, be destroyed after each expedition--" + +"And what, may I ask, is the meaning of this?" + + +Mryna dropped the report and swung toward the door. She saw a woman +standing there--another hard-faced Earthwoman, with a starched, white +cap perched on her graying hair. + +"I must have come to the wrong room," Mryna said in a small voice. + +"Indeed! Everyone knows this is command headquarters. Who are you?" The +woman put her hand on Mryna's arm, and the fingers bit through the +uniform into Mryna's flesh. + +Mryna pulled away, drawing her shoulders back proudly. Why should she +feel afraid? She stood a head taller than this dried up stranger; she +knew the Earthwoman's strength would be no match for hers. + +"My name is Mryna Brill," she said quietly. "I came up in a god-car from +Rythar." + +"Rythar?" The woman's mouth fell open. She whispered the word as if it +were profanity. Suddenly she turned and ran down the rim corridor, +screaming in terror. + +_She's afraid of me_! Mryna thought. And that made no sense at all. + +Mryna knew she had to get back to the god-car quickly. Since the +Earthmen had built up the taboos in order to get their sacrifice ores +from Rythar, they would do everything they could to prevent her return. +She ran toward an intersecting spoke corridor. An alarm bell began to +clang, and the sound vibrated against the metal walls. An armed man +sprang from a side room and fired his weapon at Mryna. The discharge +burned a deep groove in the wall. + +So they would even kill her--these men who pretended to be gods! + +Before the man could fire again, Mryna swung down a side corridor, and +at once the sensation of weightlessness overtook her. She could not move +quickly. She saw the armed man at the mouth of the corridor. Frantically +she pushed open the door of a room, which was crowded with consoles of +transmission machines. Three men were seated in front of the speakers. +They jumped and came toward her, clumsily fighting the weightlessness. + +Mryna caught at the door jamb and swung herself toward the ceiling. At +the same time the armed man fired. The discharge missed her and washed +against the transmission machinery. Blue fire exploded from the room. +The three men screamed in agony. Concussion threw Mryna helplessly +toward the rim again. + +And the Guardian Wheel was plunged into darkness. Mryna's head swam; her +shoulder seethed with pain where she had banged into the wall. She tried +to creep toward the circular room, but she had lost her sense of +direction and she found herself back on the rim. + +The clanging bell had stopped when the lights went out, but Mryna heard +the panic of frightened voices. Far away someone was screaming. Running +feet clattered toward her. Mryna flattened herself against the outer +wall. An indistinct body of men shot past her. + +"From Rythar," one of them was saying. "A woman from Rythar!" + +"And we've blasted the communication center. We've no way of sending the +warning back to Earth--" + +They were gone. + + +Mryna moved back into the spoke corridor. She felt her way silently +toward the circular hub room and the god-car. Suddenly very close she +heard voices which she recognized--the man and the woman who had been +talking in the supply room. + +"You're still all right, Dick," the woman said. "She hasn't been here +long enough to--" + +"We don't know that. We don't know how it spreads or how quickly. We +can't take the chance." + +"Then ... then we've no choice?" Her voice was a small whisper, choked +with terror. + +"None. These have been standing emergency orders for twenty years. We +always faced the possibility that one of them would escape. If we'd been +allowed to use a different policy of education--but the politicians +wouldn't permit that. The Wheel has to be destroyed, and we must die +with it." + +"Couldn't we wait and make sure?" + +"It works too fast. None of us would be able to do the job--afterward." + + +The voices moved away. Mryna floated toward the hub room. She found the +air lock and pulled herself into the god-car. The metal lock hissed +closed and light came on. Then she knew she had made a mistake. This +ship was not the one she had used when she came up from Rythar. The tiny +cabin was fitted with a sleeping lounge, a food cabinet and a file of +reading films. Above the lounge a mica viewplate gave her a broad view +of the sky. + +Mryna remembered that the man in the supply room had said he was waiting +for an auto-pickup; he was on his way back to Earth. Mryna had taken his +ship instead of her own. In panic she tried to open the door again, but +she found no way to do it. Machinery beneath her feet began to hum. She +felt a slight lurch as the pickup left the hub of the Guardian Wheel. + +It swung in a wide arc. Through the viewplate she saw the enormous Wheel +growing small behind her, silhouetted against the mist of Rythar. +Suddenly the wheel glowed red with a soundless explosion. Its flaming +fragments died in the void. + +Mryna dropped weakly on the lounge. Nausea spun through her mind. The +man had said they would destroy themselves. Because Mryna had come +aboard? But why were they afraid of her? What possible harm could she do +them? Mryna had left Rythar to discover the truth, and the truth was +insanity. Was truth always like this--a bitter disillusionment, an empty +horror? + +She had something else to say to the people of Rythar now: not that the +gods were men, but that men were mad. Believe in the taboos; send up the +sacrificial ores. It was a small price to pay to keep that madness away +from Rythar. + +And Mryna knew she could not go back. With the Wheel gone, she could +never return to Rythar; the auto-pickup was carrying her inexorably +toward Earth. The scream of the machinery slowly turned shrill, +hammering against her eardrums. The stars visible in the viewplate +blurred and winked out. Mryna felt a twist of vertigo as the shuttle +shifted from conventional speed into a time warp. And then the sound +was gone. The ship was floating in an impenetrable blackness. + +Mryna had no idea how much time passed subjectively. When she became +hungry, she took food from the cabinet. She slept when she was tired. To +pass the time, she turned the reading films through the projector. + +Most of the film stored in the shuttle covered material Mryna already +knew. The Earthmen, clearly, had not denied any information to Rythar. +Only one thing had been restricted--astronomy. And that would have made +no difference, if Mryna had not found the text in the ruins of the Old +Village. The people on Rythar never saw the stars; they had no way of +knowing--or caring--what lay above the rain mist. + +Mryna was more interested in the history of Earth, which she had never +known before. She studied the pictures of the great industrial centers +and the crowded countryside. She was awed by the mobs in the city +streets and the towering buildings. Yet she liked her own world +more--the forests and the clear-running brooks; the vast, uncrowded, +open spaces. + +It puzzled her that the people of Earth would give the Rytharian +paradise to a handful of children, when their own world was so +overcrowded. Was this another form of the madness that had driven the +people in the Wheel to destroy themselves? That made a convenient +explanation, yet Mryna's mind was too logical to accept it. + +One film referred to the founding of the original colony on Rythar, a +planet in the Sirian System which had been named for its discoverer. +Rythar, according to the film, was one of a score of colonies +established by Earth. It was unbelievably rich in deposits of uranium. + +That, Mryna surmised, was the name of the sacrificial ore they sent up +in the god-cars. + +The atmosphere and gravity of Rythar duplicated that of Earth; Rythar +should have become the largest colony in the system. The government of +Earth had originally planned a migration of ten million persons. + +"But after twelve months the survey colony was destroyed by an +infection," Mryna read on the projection screen, "which has never been +identified. It is called simply the Sickness. The origin of this plague +is unknown. No adult in the survey colony survived; children born on +Rythar are themselves immune, but are carriers of the Sickness. The +first rescue team sent to save them died within eight hours. No human +being, aside from these native-born children, has ever survived the +Sickness." + + +Now Mryna had the whole truth. She knew the motivation for their madness +of self-destruction. It was not insanity, but the sublime courage of a +few human beings sacrificing themselves to save the rest of their +civilization. They smashed the Guardian Wheel to keep the Sickness +there. And Mryna had already escaped before that happened! She was +being hurled through space toward Earth and she would destroy that, too. + +If she killed herself, that would in no way alter the situation. The +ship would still move in its appointed course. Her body would be aboard; +perhaps the very furnishings in the cabin were now infected with the +germ of the Sickness. When the ship touched Earth, the fatal poison +would escape. + +Dully Mryna turned up another frame on the film, and she read what the +Earthmen had done to help Rythar. They built the Guardian Wheel to +isolate the Sickness. Sealed in metal immunization suits, volunteers had +descended to the plague world and reared the surviving children of the +colonists until they were old enough to look out for themselves. The +answer house had been set up as an instructional device. + +"As nearly as possible, the scientists in charge attempted to create a +normal social situation for the plague carriers. They could never be +allowed to leave Rythar, but when they matured enough to know the truth, +Rythar could be integrated into the colonial system. Rytharian uranium +is already a significant trade factor in the colonial market. An +incidental by-product of the Guardian Wheel is the hospital facility, +where advanced cases of certain cancers and lung diseases have been +cured in a reduced gravity or by exposure to cosmic radiation." + +Mryna shut off the projection. The words made sense, but the results did +not. And she knew precisely why Earth had failed. When they matured--in +those three words she had her answer. + +And now it didn't matter. There was nothing she could do. Her ship was a +poisoned arrow aimed directly at the heart of man's civilization. + + +Mryna had slept twice when the auto-pickup lurched out of the time drive +and she was able to see the stars again. Directly ahead of her she saw +an emerald planet, bright in the sun. And she knew instinctively that it +was Earth. + +A speaker under the viewport throbbed with the sound of a human voice. + +"Auto-shuttle SC 539, attention. You are assigned landing slot +seven-three-one, Port Chicago. I repeat, seven-three-one. Dial that +destination. Do you read me?" + +Three times the message was repeated before Mryna concluded that it was +meant for her. She found three small knobs close to the speaker and a +plastic toggle labeled "voice reply." She snapped it shut and found that +she could speak to the Chicago spaceport. + +Her problem was easily solved, then. She could say she came from Rythar. +Without hesitation, Earth ships would be sent to blast her ship out of +the sky before she would be able to land. But she knew she had to +accomplish more than that; the same mistake must not be repeated again. + +"How much time do I have?" she asked. + +"Thirty-four minutes." + +"Can you keep this shuttle up here any longer than that?" + +"Lady, the auto-pickups are on tape-pilot. Come hell or high water, they +land exactly on schedule." + +"What happens if I don't dial the slot destination?" + +"We bring you in on emergency--and you fork over a thousand buck fine." + +Mryna asked to be allowed to speak to someone in authority in the +government. The Chicago port manager told her the request was absurd. +For nine minutes Mryna argued, with a mounting sense of urgency, before +he gave his grudging consent. Her trouble was that she had to skate +close to the truth without admitting it directly. She could not--except +as a last resort--let them kill her until they knew why the isolation of +Rythar had failed. + +It was thirteen minutes before landing when Mryna finally heard an +older, more dignified voice on the speaker. By then the green globe of +Earth filled the sky; Mryna could make out the shapes of the continents +turning below her. The older man identified himself as a senator elected +to the planetary Congress. She didn't know how much authority he +represented, but she couldn't afford to wait any longer. + +She told him frankly who she was. She knew she was pronouncing her own +death sentence, yet she spoke quietly. She must show the same courage +that the Earthmen had when they sacrificed themselves in the Guardian +Wheel. + + +"Listen to me for two minutes more before you blast my ship," she asked. +"I rode the god-car up from Rythar--I am coming now to spread the +Sickness on Earth--because I wanted to know the truth about something +that puzzled me. I had to know what was above the rain mist. In the +answer house you would not tell us that. Now I understand why. We were +children. You were waiting for us to mature. And that is the mistake you +made; that blindness nearly destroyed your civilization. + +"You will have to build another Guardian Wheel. This time don't hide +anything from us because we're children. The truth makes us mature, not +illusions or taboos. Never forget that. It is easier to face a fact than +to have to give up a dream we've been taught to believe. Tell your +children the truth when they ask for it. Tell us, please. We can adjust +to it. We're just as human as you are." + +Mryna drew a long breath. Her lips were trembling. Did this man +understand what she had tried to say? She would never know. If she +failed, Earth--in spite of its generosity and its courage--would one day +be destroyed by children bred on too many delusions. "I'm ready," Mryna +said steadily. "Send up your warships and destroy me." + +She waited. Less than ten minutes were left. Her shuttle began to move +more slowly. She was no more than a mile above Earth. She saw the +soaring cities and the white highways twisting through green fields. + +Seven minutes left. Where were the warships? She looked anxiously +through the viewport and the sky was empty. + +Desperately she closed the voice toggle again. "Send them quickly!" she +cried. "You must not let me land!" + +No reply came from the speaker. Her auto-shuttle began to circle a large +city which lay at the southern tip of an inland lake. Three minutes +more. The ship nosed toward the spaceport. + +"Why don't you do something?" Mryna screamed. "What are you waiting +for?" + + +The shuttle settled into a metal rack. The lock hissed open. Mryna +shrank back against the wall, looking out at what she would +destroy--what she had already destroyed. A dignified, portly man came +panting up the ramp toward her. + +"No!" she whispered. "Don't come in here." + +"I am Senator Brieson," he said shortly. "For ten years Dr. Jameson has +been telling us from the Guardian Wheel that we should adopt a different +educational policy toward Rythar. Your scare broadcast was clever, but +we're used to Jameson's tricks. He'll be removed from office for this, +and if I have anything to say about it--" + +"You didn't believe me?" Mryna gasped. + +"Of course not. If a plague carrier escaped from Rythar, we would have +heard about it long before this. The trouble with you scientists is you +don't grant the rest of us any common sense. And Jameson's the worst of +the lot. He's always contended that the sociologists should determine +our Rytharian policy, not the elected representatives of the people." + +Mryna broke down and began to cry hysterically. The senator put his hand +under her arm--none too gently. "Let's have no more dramatics, please. +You don't know how fortunate you are, young lady. If the politicians +were as addle-witted as you scientists claim we are, we might have +believed that nonsense and blasted your ship out of the sky. You +scientists have to give up the notion that you're our guardians; we're +quite able to look out for ourselves." + +[Illustration: FIN] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Guardians, by Irving Cox + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GUARDIANS *** + +***** This file should be named 24152.txt or 24152.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/1/5/24152/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, David Wilson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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