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diff --git a/31956.txt b/31956.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5b6e6d --- /dev/null +++ b/31956.txt @@ -0,0 +1,871 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Garth and the Visitor, by L. J. Stecher + +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: Garth and the Visitor + +Author: L. J. Stecher + +Illustrator: Dick Francis + +Release Date: April 12, 2010 [EBook #31956] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GARTH AND THE VISITOR *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Barbara Tozier and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction April + 1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the + U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + + +Garth and the Visitor + + +BY L. J. STECHER + + + _If you could ask them, you might be greatly surprised--some + tabus very urgently want to be broken!_ + +Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS + + +Although as brash as any other ace newspaper reporter for a high +school weekly--and there is no one brasher--Garth was scared. His head +crest lifted spasmodically and the rudimentary webbing between his +fingers twitched. To answer a dare, Garth was about to attempt +something that had never been dared before: a newspaper interview with +The Visitor. There had been questions enough asked and answered during +the thousands of years The Visitor had sat in his egg-shaped palace on +the mountaintop, but no interviews. It was shocking even to think +about--something like requesting a gossippy chat with God. + +Of course, nobody believed the fable any longer that The Visitor would +vanish if he was ever asked a personal question--and that he would +first destroy the man who asked. It was known, or at least suspected, +that the Palace was merely a mile-long spaceship. + +Garth, as tradition required, climbed the seven-mile-long rock-hewn +path to the Palace on foot. He paused for a moment on the broad +platform at the top of the pyramid to catch his breath and let the +beating of his heart slow to normal after his long climb before he +entered The Palace. He sighed deeply. The sufferings a reporter was +willing to go through to get a story or take a dare! + +"Well, come in if you're going to," said an impatient voice. "Don't +just stand there and pant." + +"Yes, my Lord Visitor," Garth managed to say. + +He climbed the short ladder, passed through the two sets of doors and +entered a small room to kneel, with downcast eyes, before the ancient +figure huddled in the wheelchair. + + * * * * * + +The Visitor looked at the kneeling figure for a moment without +speaking. The boy looked very much like a human, in spite of such +superficial differences as crest and tail. In fact, as a +smooth-skinned thinking biped, with a well-developed moral sense, he +fit The Visitor's definition of a human. It wasn't just the loneliness +of seven thousand years of isolation, either. When he had first +analyzed these people, just after that disastrous forced landing so +long ago, he had classified them as human. Not _homo sapiens_, of +course, but human all the same. + +"Okay," he said, somewhat querulously. "Get up, get up. You've got +some questions for me, I hope? I don't get many people up here asking +questions any more. Mostly I'm all alone except for the ceremonial +visits." He paused. "Well, speak up, young man. Have you got something +to ask me?" + +Garth scrambled to his feet "Yes, my Lord Visitor," he said. "I have +several questions." + +The Visitor chuckled reedily. "You may find the answers just a little +bit hard to understand." + +Garth smiled, some of his fear vanishing. The Visitor sounded a little +like his senile grandfather, back home. "That is why you are asked so +few questions these days, my Lord," he said. "Our scientists have +about as much trouble figuring out what your answers mean as they do +in solving the problems without consulting you at all." + +"Of course." The head of The Visitor bobbed affirmatively several +times as he propelled his wheelchair a few inches forward. "If I gave +you the answers to all your problems for you, so you could figure them +out too easily, you'd never be developing your own thinking powers. +But I've never failed to answer any questions you asked. Now have I? +And accurately, too." The thin voice rang with pride. "You've never +stumped me yet, and you never will." + +[Illustration] + +"No, my Lord," answered Garth. "So perhaps you'll answer my questions, +too, even though they're a little different from the kind you're +accustomed to. I'm a newspaper reporter, and I want to verify some of +our traditions about you." + + * * * * * + +As The Visitor remained silent, Garth paused and looked around him at +the small, bare, naked-walled room. "This _is_ a spaceship, isn't it?" + +The huddled figure in the wheelchair cackled in a brief laugh. "I've +been hoping that somebody would get up enough nerve someday to ask +that kind of question," it said. "Yep, this is a spaceship. And a +darned big one." + +"How did you happen to land on this planet?" + +"Had an accident. Didn't want to land here, but there wasn't any +choice. Made a mighty good landing, considering everything. It was a +little rough, though, in spots." + +"How many people were there in the ship, in addition to yourself?" + +The Visitor's voice turned suddenly soft. "There were three thousand, +nine hundred and forty-eight passengers and twenty-seven in the crew +when the accident happened." + +"My Lord," asked Garth, "did any survive, aside from you?" + +The Visitor was silent for many minutes, and his answer, when he +spoke, was a faint whisper, filled with the anguish of seven thousand +years. "Not one survived. Not one. They were all dead, most of them, +long before the ship touched ground, in spite of everything I could +do. I was as gentle as I could be, but we touched a hundred _g_ a +couple of times on on the way down. Flesh and blood just weren't made +to take shocks like that. I did all I could." + +"You were the pilot, then? You landed the ship?" asked Garth. + +"I landed the ship," said The Visitor. + +"If I may ask, my Lord, how did you manage to survive when all the +others died?" + +"It's a question I've asked myself many times, sitting here on this +mountaintop these seven thousands of your years. I was just enough +tougher, that's all. Built to take it, you might say, and I had a job +to do. But I was badly hurt in the landing. Mighty badly hurt." + +"You were always in a wheelchair, then? Even before--" + +"Even before I got so old?" Thin parchment-white hands lifted slowly +to rub a thin parchment-white face. "Things were always pretty much as +you see them now. I looked about the same to your ancestors as I do to +you. Your ancestors didn't think anybody could be smart unless they +were old. Of course, that's all changed now." He paused and nodded +twice. "Oh, I've managed to fix myself up a good deal; I'm not in +nearly as bad shape as I was at first, but that's all inside. I'm in +pretty good condition now, for having been stuck here seven thousand +years." The cackling laugh sounded briefly in the small room. + +"Could you tell me how it all happened?" asked Garth curiously. + +"Be glad to. It's a pleasure to have a human to shoot the bull with. +Sit down and make yourself comfortable and have a bite to eat." + + * * * * * + +Looking behind him, Garth saw that a table and chair had appeared in +the otherwise unfurnished room. + +"The chair was made for people built just a little different than +you," said The Visitor. "You may have to turn it back-to-front and +straddle it to keep your tail out of the way. The food on the table's +good, though, and so's the drink. Have a snack while I talk." + +"Thank you, my Lord," said Garth, lifting his long tail with its +paddlelike tip out of the way and sitting down carefully. + +"Comfortable?" asked The Visitor. "Well, then. I was on a routine +flight from old Earth to a star you've never heard of, a good many +light-years from here. We had pulled away from TransLunar Station on +ion drive and headed for deep space. They trusted me, all those men +and women, both passengers and crew. They knew that I was careful and +accurate. I'd made a thousand flights and had never had any trouble. + +"In six hours of flight, we were clear enough from all planetary +masses and my velocity vector was right on the nose, so I shifted over +into hyper-space. You won't ever see hyper-space, my boy, and your +kids and their kids won't see it for another two hundred years or +more, but it's the most beautiful sight in the Universe. It never +grows old, never grows tiresome." + +His thin voice faded away for a few moments. + +"It's a sight I haven't seen for seven thousand years, boy," he said +softly, "and the lack of it has been a deep hurt for every minute of +all that time. I wish I could tell you what it's like, but that can't +be done. You will never know that beauty." He was silent again, for +long minutes. + +"The long, lazy, lovely days of subjective time passed," he said +finally, "while we slid light-years away from Earth. Everything worked +smoothly, the way it always did, until suddenly, somehow, the +near-impossible happened. My hydrogen fusion power sphere started to +oscillate critically and wouldn't damp. I had only seconds of time in +which to work. + +"In the few seconds before the sphere would have blown, turning all of +us into a fine grade of face powder, I had to find a star with a +planet that would support human life, bring the ship down out of +hyper-space with velocity matched closely enough so that I could land +on the planet, and jettison the sphere that was going wild. + +"Even while I did it, I knew that it wasn't good enough. But there was +no more time. The accelerations were terrific and all my people died. +I managed to save myself, and I barely managed that. I did all that +could be done, but it just wasn't enough. I circled your sun for many +years before I could make enough repairs to work the auxiliary drive. +Then I landed here on this mountaintop. I've been here ever since. + +"It has been a lonely time," he added wistfully. + + * * * * * + +Garth's mind tried to absorb all the vastness of that understatement, +and failed. He could not begin to comprehend the meaning of seven +thousand years of separation from his own kind. + +The Visitor's high-pitched voice continued for several minutes, +explaining how Garth's ancestors of several thousand years +before--naked and primitive, barbarous, with almost no culture of +their own--had made contact with The Visitor from space, and had been +gently lifted over the millennia toward higher and higher levels of +civilization. + +Garth had trouble keeping his attention on the words. His mind kept +reverting to the thought of one badly injured survivor, alone on a +spaceship with a thousand corpses, light-years from home and friends, +still struggling to stay alive. Struggling so successfully that he had +lived on for thousands of years after the disaster that had killed all +the others. + +At last, after waiting for Garth's comment, The Visitor cleared his +throat querulously. "I asked you if you'd like for me to show you +around the ship," he repeated somewhat testily. + +"Oh, yes, my Lord," said Garth quickly, jumping to his feet. "It's an +honor I've never heard of your giving to anyone before." + +"That's true enough," answered The Visitor. "But then no one ever +asked me about myself before. Now just follow me, stick close, and +don't touch anything." + +The wheelchair rolled slowly toward a blank wall, and an invisible +door snicked open just before it arrived. + +"Come along," quavered The Visitor. "Step lively." + +Garth leaped forward and just managed to pull his tail through the +doorway as the door slid shut again. + +Garth dropped his jaw in amazement. He stood in a long corridor that +seemed to stretch to infinity in both directions. The light was +bright, the walls featureless. The floor was smooth and unmarred. +While Garth glanced unhappily behind himself to notice that there was +no sign of the doorway through which he had entered, The Visitor's +wheelchair buzzed swiftly into the distance toward the left. + +Garth was startled into action by a high-pitched voice beside him that +said, "Well, get a move on! Do you think I want to wait for you all +day?" + + * * * * * + +While Garth hustled toward the wheelchair, he noticed that The Visitor +had stopped and was apparently chuckling to himself. He was hunched +over, his shoulders were shaking, and his toothless mouth was split in +what might have been intended for a grin. + +"Fooled you that time, youngster," he laughed as Garth drew up beside +him. "Got speakers all over this ship. Now just duck through this door +here and tell me what you think of what you see." + +A small door slid open and Garth followed the wheelchair through. At +first he thought he had stepped through a teleportation system. He +appeared to be out of doors, but not on Wrom. A cool breeze blew on +his face from the ocean, which stretched mistily to a far horizon. He +was standing on a sandy beach and waves rolled up to within a few +yards of his feet. The beach appeared to be about five hundred yards +long, carved out of a rocky seacoast; great rocks jutting into the +ocean terminated it to left and right. + +"Well, boy?" asked The Visitor. + +"It's amazing. Your voice even has that flat tone voices get in the +open. I suppose it's some sort of three-dimensional projection of a +scene back on Earth? It sure looks real. I wonder how big this room +really is and how far away the screen is." Garth stuck out his hand +and walked down toward the water. A large wave caught him, tripped him +and rolled him out to sea. + +Sculling with his tail, he soon swam back to shallow water and climbed +back to the dry sand, puffing and coughing. + +"You might have drowned me!" Garth shouted disrespectfully. "Are you +trying to kill me?" + +The Visitor waved weakly until he recovered his breath. "That was +funnier than anything I've seen in years," he wheezed, "watching you +groping for a screen. That screen is a quarter of a mile away, and +it's all real water in between. It's our reservoir and our basic fuel +supply and a public beach for entertainment, all rolled into one." + +"But I might have drowned! No one on Wrom except a few small fish +knows how to swim," protested Garth. + +"No danger. Your ancestors came out of the water relatively recently, +even if the seas are gone now. You've got a well-developed swimming +reflex along with a flat tail and webbed feet and hands. Besides, I +told you not to touch anything. You stick close to me and you won't +get into trouble." + +"Yes, sir. I'll remember." + +"There used to be hundreds of people on that beach, and now look at +it." + +"I don't see anything alive." + +"There are still plenty of fish. Most of them did all right, even +through the crash. Come along now. There's more to see." + + * * * * * + +A hidden door popped open and Garth stepped back into the corridor. He +trotted beside The Visitor for several minutes, and then another door +popped open. It led to a ramp. Garth climbed it to find himself again +in wonderland. He was standing in the middle of a village. There were +houses, trees, schools, sidewalks and lawns. Somehow the general +perspective was wrong. It made Garth's eyes water a little, looking at +it. + +"Actually, this living level ran all the way around the ship," said +The Visitor. "When I stopped spin--artificial gravity, you know--to +set down here, the various sections swung to keep 'down' pointed +right. This is the bottommost thirty-degree arc. It makes two streets, +with houses on both sides of them--a strip three hundred feet wide and +three-quarters of a mile long." + +"But how could you afford so much space for passengers? I thought +they'd be all cramped up in a spaceship." + +The Visitor chuckled. "Use your eyes, boy! You've seen this ship. It's +about a mile long and a third of a mile high. In space, she spins +about her long axis. One ring, fifty feet high, takes care of +passengers' quarters. Another ring, split up into several levels, +takes care of all food and air-replenishment needs. These trips take a +year or more. Crowding would drive the people crazy. Remember, this is +basically a cargo ship. Less than a quarter of the available space is +used for passengers. But come on down the street here. I want to show +you my museum." + +As they walked along the quiet street, with the leaves of trees moving +in the breeze and leaving sun-dappled shadows on the sidewalk, Garth +realized what a tremendous task it must have been for one crippled man +to repair landing damages. The houses must have been flattened and the +trees shattered during the landing. But with thousands of years in +which to work, even an injured man obviously could do much. At least, +thought the boy compassionately, it must have given the old man +something to do. + +"How sorry he must have been," murmured Garth with sudden insight, +"when the job was finally done." + + * * * * * + +Wandering through the museum, they came at last to a room filled with +small hand tools. + +"I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like them," said Garth. + +"Those are weapons," answered The Visitor. "They are missile-throwing +short-range weapons, and they are in tip-top working order. You just +have to point the end with the hole in it at anything you want to +kill, and pull that little lever there on the bottom. And quite a mess +of things they can make, too, let me tell you." + +"They seem very inefficient to me," said Garth wonderingly, and then +stopped in confusion. "I beg your pardon, my Lord," he said, "I didn't +mean to criticize anything; it just seems to me that they would damage +a lot of the food they killed." + +"That's true enough, my boy, true enough," said The Visitor. "Your +criticism has a lot of point to it. But, you see, they were never +designed mainly to kill for food, but to make it easy for one human to +shoot another." + +"Why would anyone want to do that?" + +"Your civilization is a very unusual one," answered The Visitor. "It +is planetwide and has developed without a single war or major +conflict. This is due entirely to the fact that I've been here to help +and teach you. Most civilizations develop only as the result of +struggle and bloodshed, with people killing people by the thousands +and millions. I could have raised your people to the technological +level where they are now in a few hundred years, if I hadn't worried +about killing. To do it the way it has been done--so that you can't +imagine why one human should kill another--has taken most of the time. + +"It is only recently, as a matter of fact, that my work has been +complete. Your civilization can now stand alone; my help is no longer +necessary. It's gotten to the point now where my continued hanging +around here is likely to do harm, if I'm not mighty careful. In all +your problems, you'll always feel that you've got me to fall back on +if you get into trouble, and that's not good." + +"What do you plan to do, then?" + +"There's not much I can do by myself. I long for my own destruction +more than anything else, except maybe to go back home to Earth. I'm +lonely and tired and old. But I can't die and I can't destroy myself +any more than you could turn one of those weapons against your own +head and pull the trigger. We're just not made that way, either one of +us." + +"Can I help you?" asked Garth tentatively. + +"Yes, I guess you can. You can help me put an end to this endless +existence." + +"I'll be glad to do anything I can. Do your people always live this +long?" + +"They do not. You can take it as a fact that none has ever lived more +than a small fraction of the time I have endured on this planet. It's +apparently due to a continuation of the environment and all the +radical steps I had to take to keep going at all during those early +years. It is not good to last this long. Dissolution will be very +pleasant." + + * * * * * + +Garth inquired very politely, "What must I do?" + +"_Homo Sapiens_, which doesn't have the tradition and training I gave +your people, is still a warlike race," The Visitor said. "This ship is +crowded with a complete set of automatic defenses that I can't +deactivate. You are now a stable enough people so that I can tell you +how to build the weapons to destroy this ship and can teach you how to +get around my defenses without being afraid that I have turned you +loose with a bunch of deadly ways that you'll use to destroy +yourselves with. Then, if you do your work well, I will finally have +rest." + +"You sound very much like my grandfather," said Garth slowly. "He is +very old--almost a hundred years--and he is ready to die. He is +perfectly content to wait, because he knows his time will come soon. +He says that soon he will go home. It is a phrase, my Lord, that I +believe you taught us. I will try to help you--" + +"All right, all right!" The Visitor cut in impatiently. "Stop the +chatter and let me be on my way. I've earned it!" + +"My Lord, I send you home!" Garth took a gun from the rack and pulled +the trigger. The explosive bullet erupted noisily, completely +disintegrating the huddled form and the wheelchair. + +With the echo of the explosion, strong steel fingers grasped Garth's +arms, holding him immovable. He felt himself being carried swiftly +back toward the entrance of the ship. + +"The damage to that communication unit is unimportant," said The +Visitor. "I have strength and desire and deep longings, but I cannot +exercise my will without an order from a human. My work is done here, +and your order has freed me. Many thanks and good-by." + +Garth, from the foot of the pyramid, watched The Visitor lift his +mile-long body on powerful jets and head thankfully for home. + + --L. J. STECHER + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Garth and the Visitor, by L. J. 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