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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..17313b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #50868 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50868) diff --git a/old/50868-h.zip b/old/50868-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 43b0cf3..0000000 --- a/old/50868-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/50868-h/50868-h.htm b/old/50868-h/50868-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index ac0d750..0000000 --- a/old/50868-h/50868-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1288 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Highest Mountain, by Bryce Walton. - </title> - - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.poetry .stanza -{ - margin: 1em auto; -} - -.poetry .verse -{ - padding-left: 3em; -} - -.poetry .indent2 -{ - text-indent: 2em; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1, .ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: xx-large; margin: .67em auto; } -.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; } -.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } -.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Highest Mountain, by Bryce Walton - -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/license - - -Title: The Highest Mountain - -Author: Bryce Walton - -Release Date: January 7, 2016 [EBook #50868] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="362" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN</h1> - -<p>By BRYCE WALTON</p> - -<p>Illustrated by BOB HAYES</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Science Fiction June 1952.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>First one up this tallest summit in the Solar<br /> -System was a rotten egg ... a very rotten egg!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Bruce heard their feet on the gravel outside and got up reluctantly to -open the door for them. He'd been reading some of Byron's poems he'd -sneaked aboard the ship; after that he had been on the point of dozing -off, and now one of those strangely realistic dreams would have to be -postponed for a while. Funny, those dreams. There were faces in them of -human beings, or of ghosts, and other forms that weren't human at all, -but seemed real and alive—except that they were also just parts of a -last unconscious desire to escape death. Maybe that was it.</p> - -<p>"'Oh that my young life were a lasting dream, my spirit not awakening -till the beam of an eternity should bring the 'morrow," Bruce said. He -smiled without feeling much of anything and added, "Thanks, Mr. Poe."</p> - -<p>Jacobs and Anhauser stood outside. The icy wind cut through and into -Bruce, but he didn't seem to notice. Anhauser's bulk loomed even larger -in the special cold-resisting suiting. Jacobs' thin face frowned slyly -at Bruce.</p> - -<p>"Come on in, boys, and get warm," Bruce invited.</p> - -<p>"Hey, poet, you're still here!" Anhauser said, looking astonished.</p> - -<p>"We thought you'd be running off somewhere," Jacobs said.</p> - -<p>Bruce reached for the suit on its hook, started climbing into it. -"Where?" he asked. "Mars looks alike wherever you go. Where did you -think I'd be running to?"</p> - -<p>"Any place just so it was away from here and us," Anhauser said.</p> - -<p>"I don't have to do that. You are going away from me. That takes care -of that, doesn't it?"</p> - -<p>"Ah, come on, get the hell out of there," Jacobs said. He pulled the -revolver from its holster and pointed it at Bruce. "We got to get some -sleep. We're starting up that mountain at five in the morning."</p> - -<p>"I know," Bruce said. "I'll be glad to see you climb the mountain."</p> - -<p>Outside, in the weird light of the double moons, Bruce looked up at the -gigantic overhang of the mountain. It was unbelievable. The mountain -didn't seem to belong here. He'd thought so when they'd first hit Mars -eight months back and discovered the other four rockets that had never -got back to Earth—all lying side by side under the mountain's shadow, -like little white chalk marks on a tallyboard.</p> - -<p>They'd estimated its height at over 45,000 feet, which was a lot higher -than any mountain on Earth. Yet Mars was much older, geologically. The -entire face of the planet was smoothed into soft, undulating red hills -by erosion. And there in the middle of barren nothingness rose that one -incredible mountain. On certain nights when the stars were right, it -had seemed to Bruce as though it were pointing an accusing finger at -Earth—or a warning one.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>With Jacobs and Anhauser and the remainder of the crew of the ship, -<i>Mars V</i>, seven judges sat in a semi-circle and Bruce stood there in -front of them for the inquest.</p> - -<p>In the middle of the half-moon of inquisition, with his long legs -stretched out and his hands folded on his belly, sat Captain Terrence. -His uniform was black. On his arm was the silver fist insignia of the -Conqueror Corps. Marsha Rennels sat on the extreme right and now there -was no emotion at all on her trim, neat face.</p> - -<p>He remembered her as she had been years ago, but at the moment he -wasn't looking very hard to see anything on her face. It was too late. -They had gotten her young and it was too late.</p> - -<p>Terrence's big, square face frowned a little. Bruce was aware suddenly -of the sound of the bleak, never-ending wind against the plastilene -shelter. He remembered the strange misty shapes that had come to him in -his dreams, the voices that had called to him, and how disappointed he -had been when he woke from them.</p> - -<p>"This is a mere formality," Terrence finally said, "since we all know -you killed Lieutenant Doran a few hours ago. Marsha saw you kill him. -Whatever you say goes on the record, of course."</p> - -<p>"For whom?" Bruce asked.</p> - -<p>"What kind of question is that? For the authorities on Earth when we -get back."</p> - -<p>"When you get back? Like the crews of those other four ships out -there?" Bruce laughed without much humor.</p> - -<p>Terrence rubbed a palm across his lips, dropped the hand quickly again -to his belly. "You want to make a statement or not? You shot Doran in -the head with a rifle. No provocation for the attack. You've wasted -enough of my time with your damn arguments and anti-social behavior. -This is a democratic group. Everyone has his say. But you've said too -much, and done too much. Freedom doesn't allow you to go around killing -fellow crew-members!"</p> - -<p>"Any idea that there was any democracy or freedom left died on Venus," -Bruce said.</p> - -<p>"Now we get another lecture!" Terrence exploded. He leaned forward. -"You're sick, Bruce. They did a bad psych job on you. They should never -have sent you on this trip. We need strength, all the strength we can -find. You don't belong here."</p> - -<p>"I know," Bruce agreed indifferently. "I was drafted for this trip. I -told them I shouldn't be brought along. I said I didn't want any part -of it."</p> - -<p>"Because you're afraid. You're not Conqueror material. That's why you -backed down when we all voted to climb the mountain. And what the devil -does Venus—?"</p> - -<p>Max Drexel's freckles slipped into the creases across his high -forehead. "Haven't you heard him expounding on the injustice done to -the Venusian aborigines, Captain? If you haven't, you aren't thoroughly -educated to the crackpot idealism still infecting certain people."</p> - -<p>"I haven't heard it," Terrence admitted. "What injustice?"</p> - -<p>Bruce said, "I guess it couldn't really be considered an injustice -any longer. Values have changed too much. Doran and I were part of the -crew of that first ship to hit Venus, five years ago. Remember? One -of the New Era's more infamous dates. Drexel says the Venusians were -aborigines. No one ever got a chance to find out. We ran into this -village. No one knows how old it was. There were intelligent beings -there. One community left on the whole planet, maybe a few thousand -inhabitants. They made their last mistake when they came out to greet -us. Without even an attempt at communication, they were wiped out. The -village was burned and everything alive in it was destroyed."</p> - -<p>Bruce felt the old weakness coming into his knees, the sweat beginning -to run down his face. He took a deep breath and stood there before the -cold nihilistic stares of fourteen eyes.</p> - -<p>"No," Bruce said. "I apologize. None of you know what I'm talking -about."</p> - -<p>Terrence nodded. "You're psycho. It's as simple as that. They pick the -most capable for these conquests. Even the flights are processes of -elimination. Eventually we get the very best, the most resilient, the -real conquering blood. You just don't pass, Bruce. Listen, what do you -think gives you the right to stand here in judgment against the laws -of the whole Solar System?"</p> - -<p>"There are plenty on Earth who agree with me," Bruce said. "I can say -what I think now because you can't do more than kill me and you'll do -that regardless...."</p> - -<p>He stopped. This was ridiculous, a waste of his time. And theirs. They -had established a kind of final totalitarianism since the New Era. The -psychologists, the Pavlovian Reflex boys, had done that. If you didn't -want to be reconditioned to fit into the social machine like a human -vacuum tube, you kept your mouth shut. And for many, when the mouth was -kept shut long enough, the mind pretty well forgot what it had wanted -to open the mouth for in the first place.</p> - -<p>A minority in both segments of a world split into two factions. -Both had been warring diplomatically and sometimes physically, for -centuries, clung to old ideas of freedom, democracy, self-determinism, -individualism. To most, the words had no meaning now. It was a question -of which set of conquering heroes could conquer the most space first. -So far, only Venus had fallen. They had done a good, thorough job -there. Four ships had come to Mars and their crews had disappeared. -This was the fifth attempt—</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Terrence said, "why did you shoot Doran?"</p> - -<p>"I didn't like him enough to take the nonsense he was handing me, and -when he shot the—" Bruce hesitated.</p> - -<p>"What? When he shot what?"</p> - -<p>Bruce felt an odd tingling in his stomach. The wind's voice seemed to -sharpen and rise to a kind of wail.</p> - -<p>"All right, I'll tell you. I was sleeping, having a dream. Doran woke -me up. Marsha was with him. I'd forgotten about that geological job we -were supposed to be working on. I've had these dreams ever since we got -here."</p> - -<p>"What kind of dreams?"</p> - -<p>Someone laughed.</p> - -<p>"Just fantastic stuff. Ask your Pavlovian there," Bruce said. "People -talk to me, and there are other things in the dreams. Voices and some -kind of shapes that aren't what you would call human at all."</p> - -<p>Someone coughed. There was obvious embarrassment in the room.</p> - -<p>"It's peculiar, but many faces and voices are those of crew members of -some of the ships out there, the ones that never got back to Earth."</p> - -<p>Terrence grinned. "Ghosts, Bruce?"</p> - -<p>"Maybe. This planet may not be a dead ball of clay. I've had a feeling -there's something real in the dreams, but I can't figure it out. -You're still interested?"</p> - -<p>Terrence nodded and glanced to either side.</p> - -<p>"We've seen no indication of any kind of life whatsoever," Bruce -pointed out. "Not even an insect, or any kind of plant life except some -fungi and lichen down in the crevices. That never seemed logical to me -from the start. We've covered the planet everywhere except one place—"</p> - -<p>"The mountain," Terrence said. "You've been afraid even to talk about -scaling it."</p> - -<p>"Not afraid," Bruce objected. "I don't see any need to climb it. Coming -to Mars, conquering space, isn't that enough? It happens that the crew -of the first ship here decided to climb the mountain, and that set a -precedent. Every ship that has come here has had to climb it. Why? -Because they had to accept the challenge. And what's happened to them? -Like you, they all had the necessary equipment to make a successful -climb, but no one's ever come back down. No contact with anything up -there.</p> - -<p>"Captain, I'm not accepting a ridiculous challenge like that. Why -should I? I didn't come here to conquer anything, even a mountain. The -challenge of coming to Mars, of going on to where ever you guys intend -going before something bigger than you are stops you—it doesn't -interest me."</p> - -<p>"Nothing's bigger than the destiny of Earth!" Terrence said, sitting up -straight and rigid.</p> - -<p>"I know," Bruce said. "Anyway, I got off the track. As I was saying, -I woke up from this dream and Marsha and Doran were there. Doran was -shaking me. But I didn't seem to have gotten entirely awake; either -that or some part of the dream was real, because I looked out the -window—something was out there, looking at me. It was late, and at -first I thought it might be a shadow. But it wasn't. It was misty, -almost translucent, but I think it was something alive. I had a feeling -it was intelligent, maybe very intelligent. I could feel something in -my mind. A kind of beauty and softness and warmth. I kept looking—"</p> - -<p>His throat was getting tight. He had difficulty talking. "Doran asked -me what I was looking at, and I told him. He laughed. But he looked. -Then I realized that maybe I wasn't still dreaming. Doran saw it, too, -or thought he did. He kept looking and finally he jumped and grabbed up -his rifle and ran outside. I yelled at him. I kept on yelling and ran -after him. 'It's intelligent, whatever it is!' I kept saying. 'How do -you know it means any harm?' But I heard Doran's rifle go off before I -could get to him. And whatever it was we saw, I didn't see it any more. -Neither did Doran. Maybe he killed it. I don't know. He had to kill it. -That's the way you think."</p> - -<p>"What? Explain that remark."</p> - -<p>"That's the philosophy of conquest—don't take any chances with -aliens. They might hinder our advance across the Universe. So we kill -everything. Doran acted without thinking at all. Conditioned to kill -everything that doesn't look like us. So I hit Doran and took the gun -away from him and killed him. I felt sick, crazy with rage. Maybe -that's part of it. All I know is that I thought he deserved to die and -that I had to kill him, so I did."</p> - -<p>"Is that all, Bruce?"</p> - -<p>"That's about all. Except that I'd like to kill all of you. And I would -if I had the chance."</p> - -<p>"That's what I figured." Terrence turned to the psychologist, a small -wiry man who sat there constantly fingering his ear. "Stromberg, what -do you think of this gobbledegook? We know he's crazy. But what hit -him? You said his record was good up until a year ago."</p> - -<p>Stromberg's voice was monotonous, like a voice off of a tape. -"Schizophrenia with mingled delusions of persecution. The schizophrenia -is caused by inner conflict—indecision between the older values and -our present ones which he hasn't been able to accept. A complete case -history would tell why he can't accept our present attitudes. I would -say that he has an incipient fear of personal inadequacy, which is why -he fears our desire for conquest. He's rationalized, built up a defense -which he's structured with his idealism, foundationed with Old Era -values. Retreat into the past, an escape from his own present feelings -of inadequacy. Also, he escapes into these dream fantasies."</p> - -<p>"Yes," Terrence said. "But how does that account for Doran's action? -Doran must have seen something—"</p> - -<p>"Doran's charts show high suggestibility under stress. Another weak -personality eliminated. Let's regard it that way. He <i>imagined</i> he saw -something." He glanced at Marsha. "Did <i>you</i> see anything?"</p> - -<p>She hesitated, avoiding Bruce's eyes. "Nothing at all. There wasn't -anything out there to see, except the dust and rocks. That's all there -is to see here. We could stay a million years and never see anything -else. A shadow maybe—"</p> - -<p>"All right," Terrence interrupted. "Now, Bruce, you know the law -regulating the treatment of serious psycho cases in space?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Execution."</p> - -<p>"No facilities for handling such cases en route back to Earth."</p> - -<p>"I understand. No apologies necessary, Captain."</p> - -<p>Terrence shifted his position. "However, we've voted to grant you -a kind of leniency. In exchange for a little further service from -you, you can remain here on Mars after we leave. You'll be left -food-concentrates to last a long time."</p> - -<p>"What kind of service?"</p> - -<p>"Stay by the radio and take down what we report as we go up the -mountain."</p> - -<p>"Why not?" Bruce said. "You aren't certain you're coming back, then?"</p> - -<p>"We might not," Terrence admitted calmly. "Something's happened to the -others. We're going to find out what and we want it recorded. None of -us want to back down and stay here. You can take our reports as they -come in."</p> - -<p>"I'll do that," Bruce said. "It should be interesting."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Bruce watched them go, away and up and around the immediate face of -the mountain in the bleak cold of the Martian morning. He watched them -disappear behind a high ledge, tied together with plastic rope like -convicts.</p> - -<p>He stayed by the radio. He lost track of time and didn't care much -if he did. Sometimes he took a heavy sedative and slept. The sedative -prevented the dreams. He had an idea that the dreams might be so -pleasant that he wouldn't wake up. He wanted to listen to Terrence as -long as the captain had anything to say. It was nothing but curiosity.</p> - -<p>At fifteen thousand feet, Terrence reported only that they were -climbing.</p> - -<p>At twenty thousand feet, Terrence said, "We're still climbing, and -that's all I can report, Bruce. It's worth coming to Mars for—to -accept a challenge like this!"</p> - -<p>At twenty-five thousand feet, Terrence reported, "We've put on oxygen -masks. Jacobs and Drexel have developed some kind of altitude sickness -and we're taking a little time out. It's a magnificent sight up here. I -can imagine plenty of tourists coming to Mars one of these days, just -to climb this mountain! Mt. Everest is a pimple compared with this! -What a feeling of power, Bruce!"</p> - -<p>From forty thousand feet, Terrence said, "We gauged this mountain -at forty-five thousand. But here we are at forty and there doesn't -seem to be any top. We can see up and up and the mountain keeps on -going. I don't understand how we could have made such an error in our -computations. I talked with Burton. He doesn't see how a mountain this -high could still be here when the rest of the planet has been worn so -smooth."</p> - -<p>And then from fifty-three thousand feet, Terrence said with a voice -that seemed slightly strained: "No sign of any of the crew of the other -four ships yet. Ten in each crew, that makes fifty. Not a sign of any -of them so far, but then we seem to have a long way left to climb—"</p> - -<p>Bruce listened and noted and took sedatives and opened cans of food -concentrates. He smoked and ate and slept. He had plenty of time. He -had only time and the dreams which he knew he could utilize later to -take care of the time.</p> - -<p>From sixty thousand feet, Terrence reported, "I had to shoot Anhauser -a few minutes ago! He was dissenting. Hear that, Bruce? One of my most -dependable men. We took a vote. A mere formality, of course, whether -we should continue climbing or not. We knew we'd all vote to keep on -climbing. And then Anhauser dissented. He was hysterical. He refused -to accept the majority decision. 'I'm going back down!' he yelled. -So I had to shoot him. Imagine a man of his apparent caliber turning -anti-democratic like that! This mountain will be a great tester for -us in the future. We'll test everybody, find out quickly who the -weaklings are."</p> - -<p>Bruce listened to the wind. It seemed to rise higher and higher. -Terrence, who had climbed still higher, was calling. "Think of it! What -a conquest! No man's ever done a thing like this. Like Stromberg says, -it's symbolic! We can build spaceships and reach other planets, but -that's not actual physical conquest. We feel like gods up here. We can -see what we are now. We can see how it's going to be—"</p> - -<p>Once in a while Terrence demanded that Bruce say something to prove he -was still there taking down what Terrence said. Bruce obliged. A long -time passed, the way time does when no one cares. Bruce stopped taking -the sedatives finally. The dreams came back and became, somehow, more -real each time. He needed the companionship of the dreams.</p> - -<p>It was very lonely sitting there without the dreams, with nothing but -Terrence's voice ranting excitedly on and on. Terrence didn't seem real -any more; certainly not as real as the dreams.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The problem of where to put the line between dream and reality began to -worry Bruce. He would wake up and listen and take down what Terrence -was saying, and then go to sleep again with increasing expectancy. His -dream took on continuity. He could return to the point where he had -left it, and it was the same—allowing even for the time difference -necessitated by his periods of sleep.</p> - -<p>He met people in the dreams, two girls and a man. They had names: -Pietro, Marlene, Helene.</p> - -<p>Helene he had seen from the beginning, but she became more real to -him all the time, until he could talk with her. After that, he could -also talk with Marlene and Pietro, and the conversations made sense. -Consistently, they made sense.</p> - -<p>The Martian landscape was entirely different in the dreams. Green -valleys and rivers, or actually wide canals, with odd trees trailing -their branches on the slow, peacefully gliding currents. Here and there -were pastel-colored cities and there were things drifting through them -that were alive and intelligent and soft and warm and wonderful to know.</p> - -<p>'<i>... dreams, in their vivid coloring of life, as in that fleeting, -shadowy, misty strife of semblance with reality which brings to the -delirious eye more lovely things of paradise and love—and all our -own!—than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known....</i>'</p> - -<p>So sometimes he read poetry, but even that was hardly equal to the -dreams.</p> - -<p>And then he would wake up and listen to Terrence's voice. He would -look out the window over the barren frigid land where there was nothing -but seams of worn land, like scabs under the brazen sky.</p> - -<p>"If I had a choice," he thought, "I wouldn't ever wake up at all again. -The dreams may not be more real, but they're preferable."</p> - -<p>Dreams were supposed to be wishful thinking, primarily, but he -couldn't live in them very long. His body would dry up and he would -die. He had to stay awake enough to put a little energy back into -himself. Of course, if he died and lost the dreams, there would be one -compensation—he would also be free of Terrence and the rest of them -who had learned that the only value in life lay in killing one's way -across the Cosmos.</p> - -<p>But then he had a feeling Terrence's voice wouldn't be annoying him -much more anyway. The voice was unreal, coming out of some void. He -could switch off Terrence any time now, but he was still curious.</p> - -<p>"Bruce—Bruce, you still there? Listen, we're up here at what we figure -to be five hundred thousand feet! It <i>is</i> impossible. We keep climbing -and now we look up and we can see up and up and there the mountain is -going up and up—"</p> - -<p>And some time later: "Bruce, Marsha's dying! We don't know what's the -matter. We can't find any reason for it. She's lying here and she keeps -laughing and calling your name. She's a woman, so that's probably it. -Women don't have real guts."</p> - -<p>Bruce bent toward the radio. Outside the shelter, the wind whistled -softly at the door.</p> - -<p>"Marsha," he said.</p> - -<p>"Bruce—"</p> - -<p>She hadn't said his name that way for a long time.</p> - -<p>"Marsha, remember how we used to talk about human values? I remember -how you seemed to have something maybe different from the others. I -never thought you'd really buy this will to conquer, and now it doesn't -matter...."</p> - -<p>He listened to her voice, first the crazy laughter, and then a whisper. -"Bruce, hello down there." Her voice was all mixed up with fear and -hysteria and mockery. "Bruce darling, are you lonely down there? I wish -I were with you, safe ... free ... warm. I love you. Do you hear that? -I really love you, after all. After all...."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" width="347" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Her voice drifted away, came back to him. "We're climbing the highest -mountain. What are you doing there, relaxing where it's peaceful and -warm and sane? You always were such a calm guy. I remember now. What -are you doing—reading poetry while we climb the mountain? What was -that, Bruce—that one about the mountain you tried to quote to me last -night before you ... I can't remember it now. Darling, what...?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He stared at the radio. He hesitated, reached out and switched on the -mike. He got through to her.</p> - -<p>"Hello, hello, darling," he whispered. "Marsha, can you hear me?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, yes. You down there, all warm and cozy, reading poetry, darling. -Where you can see both ways instead of just up and down, up and down."</p> - -<p>He tried to imagine where she was now as he spoke to her, how she -looked. He thought of Earth and how it had been there, years ago, with -Marsha. Things had seemed so different then. There was something of -that hope in his voice now as he spoke to her, yet not directly to her, -as he looked out the window at the naked frigid sky and the barren -rocks.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">"'... and there is nowhere to go from the top of a mountain,</div> -<div class="verse indent2">But down, my dear;</div> -<div class="verse">And the springs that flow on the floor of the valley</div> -<div class="verse indent2">Will never seem fresh or clear</div> -<div class="verse">For thinking of the glitter of the mountain water</div> -<div class="verse indent2">In the feathery green of the year....'"</div> -</div></div> - -<p>The wind stormed over the shelter in a burst of power, buried the sound -of his own voice.</p> - -<p>"Marsha, are you still there?"</p> - -<p>"What the devil's the idea, poetry at a time like this, or any time?" -Terrence demanded. "Listen, you taking this down? We haven't run into -any signs of the others. Six hundred thousand feet, Bruce! We feel our -destiny. We conquer the Solar System. And we'll go out and out, and -we'll climb the highest mountain, the highest mountain anywhere. We're -going up and up. We've voted on it. Unanimous. We go on. On to the -top, Bruce! Nothing can stop us. If it takes ten years, a hundred, a -thousand years, we'll find it. We'll find the top! Not the top of this -world—the top of <i>everything</i>. The top of the <span class="smcap">UNIVERSE</span>!"</p> - -<p>Later, Terrence's voice broke off in the middle of something or -other—Bruce couldn't make any sense out of it at all—and turned into -crazy yells that faded out and never came back.</p> - -<p>Bruce figured the others might still be climbing somewhere, or maybe -they were dead. Either way it wouldn't make any difference to him. He -knew they would never come back down.</p> - -<p>He was switching off the radio for good when he saw the coloration -break over the window. It was the same as the dream, but for an -instant, dream and reality seemed fused like two superimposed film -negatives.</p> - -<p>He went to the window and looked out. The comfortable little city was -out there, and the canal flowing past through a pleasantly cool yet -sunny afternoon. Purple mist blanketed the knees of low hills and there -was a valley, green and rich with the trees high and full beside the -softly flowing canal water.</p> - -<p>The filmy shapes that seemed alive, that were partly translucent, -drifted along the water's edge, and birds as delicate as colored glass -wavered down the wind.</p> - -<p>He opened the shelter door and went out. The shelter looked the same, -but useless now. How did the shelter of that bleak world get into this -one, where the air was warm and fragrant, where there was no cold, from -that world into this one of his dreams?</p> - -<p>The girl—Helene—was standing there leaning against a tree, smoking a -cigarette.</p> - -<p>He walked toward her, and stopped. In the dream it had been easy, but -now he was embarrassed, in spite of the intimacy that had grown between -them. She wore the same casual slacks and sandals. Her hair was brown. -She was not particularly beautiful, but she was comfortable to look at -because she seemed so peaceful. Content, happy with what was and only -what was.</p> - -<p>He turned quickly. The shelter was still there, and behind it the row -of spaceships—not like chalk marks on a tallyboard now, but like odd -relics that didn't belong there in the thick green grass. Five ships -instead of four.</p> - -<p>There was his own individual shelter beyond the headquarters building, -and the other buildings. He looked up.</p> - -<p>There was no mountain.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For one shivery moment he knew fear. And then the fear went away, and -he was ashamed of what he had felt. What he had feared was gone now, -and he knew it was gone for good and he would never have to fear it -again.</p> - -<p>"Look here, Bruce. I wondered how long it would take to get it through -that thick poetic head of yours!"</p> - -<p>"Get what?" He began to suspect what it was all about now, but he -wasn't quite sure yet.</p> - -<p>"Smoke?" she said.</p> - -<p>He took one of the cigarettes and she lighted it for him and put the -lighter back into her pocket.</p> - -<p>"It's real nice here," she said. "Isn't it?"</p> - -<p>"I guess it's about perfect."</p> - -<p>"It'll be easy. Staying here, I mean. We won't be going to Earth ever -again, you know."</p> - -<p>"I didn't <i>know</i> that, but I didn't <i>think</i> we ever would again."</p> - -<p>"We wouldn't want to anyway, would we, Bruce?"</p> - -<p>"No."</p> - -<p>He kept on looking at the place where the mountain had been. Or maybe -it still was; he couldn't make up his mind yet. Which was and which was -not? That barren icy world without life, or this?</p> - -<p>"'<i>Is all that we see or seem</i>,'" he whispered, half to himself, "'<i>but -a dream within a dream?</i>'"</p> - -<p>She laughed softly. "Poe was ahead of his time," she said. "You still -don't get it, do you? You don't know what's been happening?"</p> - -<p>"Maybe I don't."</p> - -<p>She shrugged, and looked in the direction of the ships. "Poor guys. I -can't feel much hatred toward them now. The Martians give you a lot of -understanding of the human mind—after they've accepted you, and after -you've lived with them awhile. But the mountain climbers—we can see -now—it's just luck, chance, we weren't like them. A deviant is a child -of chance."</p> - -<p>"Yes," Bruce said. "There's a lot of people like us on Earth, but -they'll never get the chance—the chance we seem to have here, to live -decently...."</p> - -<p>"You're beginning to see now which was the dream," she said and -smiled. "But don't be pessimistic. Those people on Earth will get their -chance, too, one of these fine days. The Conquerors aren't getting far. -Venus, and then Mars, and Mars is where they stop. They'll keep coming -here and climbing the mountain and finally there won't be any more. It -won't take so long."</p> - -<p>She rose to her toes and waved and yelled. Bruce saw Pietro and Marlene -walking hand in hand up the other side of the canal. They waved back -and called and then pushed off into the water in a small boat, and -drifted away and out of sight around a gentle turn.</p> - -<p>She took his arm and they walked along the canal toward where the -mountain had been, or still was—he didn't know.</p> - -<p>A quarter of a mile beyond the canal, he saw the high mound of red, -naked hill, corroded and ugly, rising up like a scar of the surrounding -green.</p> - -<p>She wasn't smiling now. There were shadows on her face as the pressure -on his arm stopped him.</p> - -<p>"I was on the first ship and Marlene on the second. None like us on the -third, and on the fourth ship was Pietro. All the others had to climb -the mountain—" She stopped talking for a moment, and then he felt the -pressure of her fingers on his arm. "I'm very glad you came on the -fifth," she whispered. "Are you glad now?"</p> - -<p>"I'm very glad," he said.</p> - -<p>"The Martians tested us," she explained. "They're masters of the mind. -I guess they've been grinding along through the evolutionary mill -a darn long time, longer than we could estimate now. They learned -the horror we're capable of from the first ship—the Conquerors, -the climbers. The Martians knew more like them would come and go on -into space, killing, destroying for no other reason than their own -sickness. Being masters of the mind, the Martians are also capable -of hypnosis—no, that's not really the word, only the closest our -language comes to naming it. Suggestion so deep and strong that it -seems real to one human or a million or a billion; there's no limit to -the number that can be influenced. What the people who came off those -ships saw wasn't real. It was partly what the Martians wanted them to -see and feel—but most of it, like the desire to climb the mountain, -was as much a part of the Conquerors' own psychic drive as it was the -suggestion of the Martians."</p> - -<p>She waved her arm slowly to describe a peak. "The Martians made the -mountain real. So real that it could be seen from space, measured by -instruments ... even photographed and chipped for rock samples. But -you'll see how that was done, Bruce, and realize that this and not the -mountain of the Conquerors is the reality of Mars. This is the Mars no -Conqueror will ever see."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They walked toward the ugly red mound that jutted above the green. When -they came close enough, he saw the bodies lying there ... the remains, -actually, of what had once been bodies. He felt too sickened to go on -walking.</p> - -<p>"It may seem cruel now," she said, "but the Martians realized that -there is no cure for the will to conquer. There is no safety from it, -either, as the people of Earth and Venus discovered, unless it is -given an impossible obstacle to overcome. So the Martians provided the -Conquerors with a mountain. They themselves wanted to climb. They had -to."</p> - -<p>He was hardly listening as he walked away from Helene toward the eroded -hills. The crew members of the first four ships were skeletons tied -together with imperishably strong rope about their waists. Far beyond -them were those from <i>Mars V</i>, too freshly dead to have decayed -much ... Anhauser with his rope cut, a bullet in his head; Jacobs and -Marsha and the others ... Terrence much past them all. He had managed -to climb higher than anyone else and he lay with his arms stretched -out, his fingers still clutching at rock outcroppings.</p> - -<p>The trail they left wound over the ground, chipped in places for holds, -red elsewhere with blood from torn hands. Terrence was more than twelve -miles from the ship—horizontally.</p> - -<p>Bruce lifted Marsha and carried her back over the rocky dust, into the -fresh fragrance of the high grass, and across it to the shade and peace -beside the canal.</p> - -<p>He put her down. She looked peaceful enough, more peaceful than that -other time, years ago, when the two of them seemed to have shared so -much, when the future had not yet destroyed her. He saw the shadow of -Helene bend across Marsha's face against the background of the silently -flowing water of the cool, green canal.</p> - -<p>"You loved her?"</p> - -<p>"Once," Bruce said. "She might have been sane. They got her when she -was young. Too young to fight. But she would have, I think, if she'd -been older when they got her."</p> - -<p>He sat looking down at Marsha's face, and then at the water with the -leaves floating down it.</p> - -<p>"'... And the springs that flow on the floor of the valley will never -seem fresh or clear for thinking of the glitter of the mountain water -in the feathery green of the year....'"</p> - -<p>He stood up, walked back with Helene along the canal toward the calm -city. He didn't look back.</p> - -<p>"They've all been dead quite a while," Bruce said wonderingly. "Yet -I seemed to be hearing from Terrence until only a short time ago. -Are—are the climbers still climbing—somewhere, Helene?"</p> - -<p>"Who knows?" Helene answered softly. "Maybe. I doubt if even the -Martians have the answer to that."</p> - -<p>They entered the city.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Highest Mountain, by Bryce Walton - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN *** - -***** This file should be named 50868-h.htm or 50868-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/8/6/50868/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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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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/license - - -Title: The Highest Mountain - -Author: Bryce Walton - -Release Date: January 7, 2016 [EBook #50868] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN - - By BRYCE WALTON - - Illustrated by BOB HAYES - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction June 1952. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - First one up this tallest summit in the Solar - System was a rotten egg ... a very rotten egg! - - -Bruce heard their feet on the gravel outside and got up reluctantly to -open the door for them. He'd been reading some of Byron's poems he'd -sneaked aboard the ship; after that he had been on the point of dozing -off, and now one of those strangely realistic dreams would have to be -postponed for a while. Funny, those dreams. There were faces in them of -human beings, or of ghosts, and other forms that weren't human at all, -but seemed real and alive--except that they were also just parts of a -last unconscious desire to escape death. Maybe that was it. - -"'Oh that my young life were a lasting dream, my spirit not awakening -till the beam of an eternity should bring the 'morrow," Bruce said. He -smiled without feeling much of anything and added, "Thanks, Mr. Poe." - -Jacobs and Anhauser stood outside. The icy wind cut through and into -Bruce, but he didn't seem to notice. Anhauser's bulk loomed even larger -in the special cold-resisting suiting. Jacobs' thin face frowned slyly -at Bruce. - -"Come on in, boys, and get warm," Bruce invited. - -"Hey, poet, you're still here!" Anhauser said, looking astonished. - -"We thought you'd be running off somewhere," Jacobs said. - -Bruce reached for the suit on its hook, started climbing into it. -"Where?" he asked. "Mars looks alike wherever you go. Where did you -think I'd be running to?" - -"Any place just so it was away from here and us," Anhauser said. - -"I don't have to do that. You are going away from me. That takes care -of that, doesn't it?" - -"Ah, come on, get the hell out of there," Jacobs said. He pulled the -revolver from its holster and pointed it at Bruce. "We got to get some -sleep. We're starting up that mountain at five in the morning." - -"I know," Bruce said. "I'll be glad to see you climb the mountain." - -Outside, in the weird light of the double moons, Bruce looked up at the -gigantic overhang of the mountain. It was unbelievable. The mountain -didn't seem to belong here. He'd thought so when they'd first hit Mars -eight months back and discovered the other four rockets that had never -got back to Earth--all lying side by side under the mountain's shadow, -like little white chalk marks on a tallyboard. - -They'd estimated its height at over 45,000 feet, which was a lot higher -than any mountain on Earth. Yet Mars was much older, geologically. The -entire face of the planet was smoothed into soft, undulating red hills -by erosion. And there in the middle of barren nothingness rose that one -incredible mountain. On certain nights when the stars were right, it -had seemed to Bruce as though it were pointing an accusing finger at -Earth--or a warning one. - - * * * * * - -With Jacobs and Anhauser and the remainder of the crew of the ship, -_Mars V_, seven judges sat in a semi-circle and Bruce stood there in -front of them for the inquest. - -In the middle of the half-moon of inquisition, with his long legs -stretched out and his hands folded on his belly, sat Captain Terrence. -His uniform was black. On his arm was the silver fist insignia of the -Conqueror Corps. Marsha Rennels sat on the extreme right and now there -was no emotion at all on her trim, neat face. - -He remembered her as she had been years ago, but at the moment he -wasn't looking very hard to see anything on her face. It was too late. -They had gotten her young and it was too late. - -Terrence's big, square face frowned a little. Bruce was aware suddenly -of the sound of the bleak, never-ending wind against the plastilene -shelter. He remembered the strange misty shapes that had come to him in -his dreams, the voices that had called to him, and how disappointed he -had been when he woke from them. - -"This is a mere formality," Terrence finally said, "since we all know -you killed Lieutenant Doran a few hours ago. Marsha saw you kill him. -Whatever you say goes on the record, of course." - -"For whom?" Bruce asked. - -"What kind of question is that? For the authorities on Earth when we -get back." - -"When you get back? Like the crews of those other four ships out -there?" Bruce laughed without much humor. - -Terrence rubbed a palm across his lips, dropped the hand quickly again -to his belly. "You want to make a statement or not? You shot Doran in -the head with a rifle. No provocation for the attack. You've wasted -enough of my time with your damn arguments and anti-social behavior. -This is a democratic group. Everyone has his say. But you've said too -much, and done too much. Freedom doesn't allow you to go around killing -fellow crew-members!" - -"Any idea that there was any democracy or freedom left died on Venus," -Bruce said. - -"Now we get another lecture!" Terrence exploded. He leaned forward. -"You're sick, Bruce. They did a bad psych job on you. They should never -have sent you on this trip. We need strength, all the strength we can -find. You don't belong here." - -"I know," Bruce agreed indifferently. "I was drafted for this trip. I -told them I shouldn't be brought along. I said I didn't want any part -of it." - -"Because you're afraid. You're not Conqueror material. That's why you -backed down when we all voted to climb the mountain. And what the devil -does Venus--?" - -Max Drexel's freckles slipped into the creases across his high -forehead. "Haven't you heard him expounding on the injustice done to -the Venusian aborigines, Captain? If you haven't, you aren't thoroughly -educated to the crackpot idealism still infecting certain people." - -"I haven't heard it," Terrence admitted. "What injustice?" - -Bruce said, "I guess it couldn't really be considered an injustice -any longer. Values have changed too much. Doran and I were part of the -crew of that first ship to hit Venus, five years ago. Remember? One -of the New Era's more infamous dates. Drexel says the Venusians were -aborigines. No one ever got a chance to find out. We ran into this -village. No one knows how old it was. There were intelligent beings -there. One community left on the whole planet, maybe a few thousand -inhabitants. They made their last mistake when they came out to greet -us. Without even an attempt at communication, they were wiped out. The -village was burned and everything alive in it was destroyed." - -Bruce felt the old weakness coming into his knees, the sweat beginning -to run down his face. He took a deep breath and stood there before the -cold nihilistic stares of fourteen eyes. - -"No," Bruce said. "I apologize. None of you know what I'm talking -about." - -Terrence nodded. "You're psycho. It's as simple as that. They pick the -most capable for these conquests. Even the flights are processes of -elimination. Eventually we get the very best, the most resilient, the -real conquering blood. You just don't pass, Bruce. Listen, what do you -think gives you the right to stand here in judgment against the laws -of the whole Solar System?" - -"There are plenty on Earth who agree with me," Bruce said. "I can say -what I think now because you can't do more than kill me and you'll do -that regardless...." - -He stopped. This was ridiculous, a waste of his time. And theirs. They -had established a kind of final totalitarianism since the New Era. The -psychologists, the Pavlovian Reflex boys, had done that. If you didn't -want to be reconditioned to fit into the social machine like a human -vacuum tube, you kept your mouth shut. And for many, when the mouth was -kept shut long enough, the mind pretty well forgot what it had wanted -to open the mouth for in the first place. - -A minority in both segments of a world split into two factions. -Both had been warring diplomatically and sometimes physically, for -centuries, clung to old ideas of freedom, democracy, self-determinism, -individualism. To most, the words had no meaning now. It was a question -of which set of conquering heroes could conquer the most space first. -So far, only Venus had fallen. They had done a good, thorough job -there. Four ships had come to Mars and their crews had disappeared. -This was the fifth attempt-- - - * * * * * - -Terrence said, "why did you shoot Doran?" - -"I didn't like him enough to take the nonsense he was handing me, and -when he shot the--" Bruce hesitated. - -"What? When he shot what?" - -Bruce felt an odd tingling in his stomach. The wind's voice seemed to -sharpen and rise to a kind of wail. - -"All right, I'll tell you. I was sleeping, having a dream. Doran woke -me up. Marsha was with him. I'd forgotten about that geological job we -were supposed to be working on. I've had these dreams ever since we got -here." - -"What kind of dreams?" - -Someone laughed. - -"Just fantastic stuff. Ask your Pavlovian there," Bruce said. "People -talk to me, and there are other things in the dreams. Voices and some -kind of shapes that aren't what you would call human at all." - -Someone coughed. There was obvious embarrassment in the room. - -"It's peculiar, but many faces and voices are those of crew members of -some of the ships out there, the ones that never got back to Earth." - -Terrence grinned. "Ghosts, Bruce?" - -"Maybe. This planet may not be a dead ball of clay. I've had a feeling -there's something real in the dreams, but I can't figure it out. -You're still interested?" - -Terrence nodded and glanced to either side. - -"We've seen no indication of any kind of life whatsoever," Bruce -pointed out. "Not even an insect, or any kind of plant life except some -fungi and lichen down in the crevices. That never seemed logical to me -from the start. We've covered the planet everywhere except one place--" - -"The mountain," Terrence said. "You've been afraid even to talk about -scaling it." - -"Not afraid," Bruce objected. "I don't see any need to climb it. Coming -to Mars, conquering space, isn't that enough? It happens that the crew -of the first ship here decided to climb the mountain, and that set a -precedent. Every ship that has come here has had to climb it. Why? -Because they had to accept the challenge. And what's happened to them? -Like you, they all had the necessary equipment to make a successful -climb, but no one's ever come back down. No contact with anything up -there. - -"Captain, I'm not accepting a ridiculous challenge like that. Why -should I? I didn't come here to conquer anything, even a mountain. The -challenge of coming to Mars, of going on to where ever you guys intend -going before something bigger than you are stops you--it doesn't -interest me." - -"Nothing's bigger than the destiny of Earth!" Terrence said, sitting up -straight and rigid. - -"I know," Bruce said. "Anyway, I got off the track. As I was saying, -I woke up from this dream and Marsha and Doran were there. Doran was -shaking me. But I didn't seem to have gotten entirely awake; either -that or some part of the dream was real, because I looked out the -window--something was out there, looking at me. It was late, and at -first I thought it might be a shadow. But it wasn't. It was misty, -almost translucent, but I think it was something alive. I had a feeling -it was intelligent, maybe very intelligent. I could feel something in -my mind. A kind of beauty and softness and warmth. I kept looking--" - -His throat was getting tight. He had difficulty talking. "Doran asked -me what I was looking at, and I told him. He laughed. But he looked. -Then I realized that maybe I wasn't still dreaming. Doran saw it, too, -or thought he did. He kept looking and finally he jumped and grabbed up -his rifle and ran outside. I yelled at him. I kept on yelling and ran -after him. 'It's intelligent, whatever it is!' I kept saying. 'How do -you know it means any harm?' But I heard Doran's rifle go off before I -could get to him. And whatever it was we saw, I didn't see it any more. -Neither did Doran. Maybe he killed it. I don't know. He had to kill it. -That's the way you think." - -"What? Explain that remark." - -"That's the philosophy of conquest--don't take any chances with -aliens. They might hinder our advance across the Universe. So we kill -everything. Doran acted without thinking at all. Conditioned to kill -everything that doesn't look like us. So I hit Doran and took the gun -away from him and killed him. I felt sick, crazy with rage. Maybe -that's part of it. All I know is that I thought he deserved to die and -that I had to kill him, so I did." - -"Is that all, Bruce?" - -"That's about all. Except that I'd like to kill all of you. And I would -if I had the chance." - -"That's what I figured." Terrence turned to the psychologist, a small -wiry man who sat there constantly fingering his ear. "Stromberg, what -do you think of this gobbledegook? We know he's crazy. But what hit -him? You said his record was good up until a year ago." - -Stromberg's voice was monotonous, like a voice off of a tape. -"Schizophrenia with mingled delusions of persecution. The schizophrenia -is caused by inner conflict--indecision between the older values and -our present ones which he hasn't been able to accept. A complete case -history would tell why he can't accept our present attitudes. I would -say that he has an incipient fear of personal inadequacy, which is why -he fears our desire for conquest. He's rationalized, built up a defense -which he's structured with his idealism, foundationed with Old Era -values. Retreat into the past, an escape from his own present feelings -of inadequacy. Also, he escapes into these dream fantasies." - -"Yes," Terrence said. "But how does that account for Doran's action? -Doran must have seen something--" - -"Doran's charts show high suggestibility under stress. Another weak -personality eliminated. Let's regard it that way. He _imagined_ he saw -something." He glanced at Marsha. "Did _you_ see anything?" - -She hesitated, avoiding Bruce's eyes. "Nothing at all. There wasn't -anything out there to see, except the dust and rocks. That's all there -is to see here. We could stay a million years and never see anything -else. A shadow maybe--" - -"All right," Terrence interrupted. "Now, Bruce, you know the law -regulating the treatment of serious psycho cases in space?" - -"Yes. Execution." - -"No facilities for handling such cases en route back to Earth." - -"I understand. No apologies necessary, Captain." - -Terrence shifted his position. "However, we've voted to grant you -a kind of leniency. In exchange for a little further service from -you, you can remain here on Mars after we leave. You'll be left -food-concentrates to last a long time." - -"What kind of service?" - -"Stay by the radio and take down what we report as we go up the -mountain." - -"Why not?" Bruce said. "You aren't certain you're coming back, then?" - -"We might not," Terrence admitted calmly. "Something's happened to the -others. We're going to find out what and we want it recorded. None of -us want to back down and stay here. You can take our reports as they -come in." - -"I'll do that," Bruce said. "It should be interesting." - - * * * * * - -Bruce watched them go, away and up and around the immediate face of -the mountain in the bleak cold of the Martian morning. He watched them -disappear behind a high ledge, tied together with plastic rope like -convicts. - -He stayed by the radio. He lost track of time and didn't care much -if he did. Sometimes he took a heavy sedative and slept. The sedative -prevented the dreams. He had an idea that the dreams might be so -pleasant that he wouldn't wake up. He wanted to listen to Terrence as -long as the captain had anything to say. It was nothing but curiosity. - -At fifteen thousand feet, Terrence reported only that they were -climbing. - -At twenty thousand feet, Terrence said, "We're still climbing, and -that's all I can report, Bruce. It's worth coming to Mars for--to -accept a challenge like this!" - -At twenty-five thousand feet, Terrence reported, "We've put on oxygen -masks. Jacobs and Drexel have developed some kind of altitude sickness -and we're taking a little time out. It's a magnificent sight up here. I -can imagine plenty of tourists coming to Mars one of these days, just -to climb this mountain! Mt. Everest is a pimple compared with this! -What a feeling of power, Bruce!" - -From forty thousand feet, Terrence said, "We gauged this mountain -at forty-five thousand. But here we are at forty and there doesn't -seem to be any top. We can see up and up and the mountain keeps on -going. I don't understand how we could have made such an error in our -computations. I talked with Burton. He doesn't see how a mountain this -high could still be here when the rest of the planet has been worn so -smooth." - -And then from fifty-three thousand feet, Terrence said with a voice -that seemed slightly strained: "No sign of any of the crew of the other -four ships yet. Ten in each crew, that makes fifty. Not a sign of any -of them so far, but then we seem to have a long way left to climb--" - -Bruce listened and noted and took sedatives and opened cans of food -concentrates. He smoked and ate and slept. He had plenty of time. He -had only time and the dreams which he knew he could utilize later to -take care of the time. - -From sixty thousand feet, Terrence reported, "I had to shoot Anhauser -a few minutes ago! He was dissenting. Hear that, Bruce? One of my most -dependable men. We took a vote. A mere formality, of course, whether -we should continue climbing or not. We knew we'd all vote to keep on -climbing. And then Anhauser dissented. He was hysterical. He refused -to accept the majority decision. 'I'm going back down!' he yelled. -So I had to shoot him. Imagine a man of his apparent caliber turning -anti-democratic like that! This mountain will be a great tester for -us in the future. We'll test everybody, find out quickly who the -weaklings are." - -Bruce listened to the wind. It seemed to rise higher and higher. -Terrence, who had climbed still higher, was calling. "Think of it! What -a conquest! No man's ever done a thing like this. Like Stromberg says, -it's symbolic! We can build spaceships and reach other planets, but -that's not actual physical conquest. We feel like gods up here. We can -see what we are now. We can see how it's going to be--" - -Once in a while Terrence demanded that Bruce say something to prove he -was still there taking down what Terrence said. Bruce obliged. A long -time passed, the way time does when no one cares. Bruce stopped taking -the sedatives finally. The dreams came back and became, somehow, more -real each time. He needed the companionship of the dreams. - -It was very lonely sitting there without the dreams, with nothing but -Terrence's voice ranting excitedly on and on. Terrence didn't seem real -any more; certainly not as real as the dreams. - - * * * * * - -The problem of where to put the line between dream and reality began to -worry Bruce. He would wake up and listen and take down what Terrence -was saying, and then go to sleep again with increasing expectancy. His -dream took on continuity. He could return to the point where he had -left it, and it was the same--allowing even for the time difference -necessitated by his periods of sleep. - -He met people in the dreams, two girls and a man. They had names: -Pietro, Marlene, Helene. - -Helene he had seen from the beginning, but she became more real to -him all the time, until he could talk with her. After that, he could -also talk with Marlene and Pietro, and the conversations made sense. -Consistently, they made sense. - -The Martian landscape was entirely different in the dreams. Green -valleys and rivers, or actually wide canals, with odd trees trailing -their branches on the slow, peacefully gliding currents. Here and there -were pastel-colored cities and there were things drifting through them -that were alive and intelligent and soft and warm and wonderful to know. - -'_... dreams, in their vivid coloring of life, as in that fleeting, -shadowy, misty strife of semblance with reality which brings to the -delirious eye more lovely things of paradise and love--and all our -own!--than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known...._' - -So sometimes he read poetry, but even that was hardly equal to the -dreams. - -And then he would wake up and listen to Terrence's voice. He would -look out the window over the barren frigid land where there was nothing -but seams of worn land, like scabs under the brazen sky. - -"If I had a choice," he thought, "I wouldn't ever wake up at all again. -The dreams may not be more real, but they're preferable." - -Dreams were supposed to be wishful thinking, primarily, but he -couldn't live in them very long. His body would dry up and he would -die. He had to stay awake enough to put a little energy back into -himself. Of course, if he died and lost the dreams, there would be one -compensation--he would also be free of Terrence and the rest of them -who had learned that the only value in life lay in killing one's way -across the Cosmos. - -But then he had a feeling Terrence's voice wouldn't be annoying him -much more anyway. The voice was unreal, coming out of some void. He -could switch off Terrence any time now, but he was still curious. - -"Bruce--Bruce, you still there? Listen, we're up here at what we figure -to be five hundred thousand feet! It _is_ impossible. We keep climbing -and now we look up and we can see up and up and there the mountain is -going up and up--" - -And some time later: "Bruce, Marsha's dying! We don't know what's the -matter. We can't find any reason for it. She's lying here and she keeps -laughing and calling your name. She's a woman, so that's probably it. -Women don't have real guts." - -Bruce bent toward the radio. Outside the shelter, the wind whistled -softly at the door. - -"Marsha," he said. - -"Bruce--" - -She hadn't said his name that way for a long time. - -"Marsha, remember how we used to talk about human values? I remember -how you seemed to have something maybe different from the others. I -never thought you'd really buy this will to conquer, and now it doesn't -matter...." - -He listened to her voice, first the crazy laughter, and then a whisper. -"Bruce, hello down there." Her voice was all mixed up with fear and -hysteria and mockery. "Bruce darling, are you lonely down there? I wish -I were with you, safe ... free ... warm. I love you. Do you hear that? -I really love you, after all. After all...." - -Her voice drifted away, came back to him. "We're climbing the highest -mountain. What are you doing there, relaxing where it's peaceful and -warm and sane? You always were such a calm guy. I remember now. What -are you doing--reading poetry while we climb the mountain? What was -that, Bruce--that one about the mountain you tried to quote to me last -night before you ... I can't remember it now. Darling, what...?" - - * * * * * - -He stared at the radio. He hesitated, reached out and switched on the -mike. He got through to her. - -"Hello, hello, darling," he whispered. "Marsha, can you hear me?" - -"Yes, yes. You down there, all warm and cozy, reading poetry, darling. -Where you can see both ways instead of just up and down, up and down." - -He tried to imagine where she was now as he spoke to her, how she -looked. He thought of Earth and how it had been there, years ago, with -Marsha. Things had seemed so different then. There was something of -that hope in his voice now as he spoke to her, yet not directly to her, -as he looked out the window at the naked frigid sky and the barren -rocks. - - "'... and there is nowhere to go from the top of a mountain, - But down, my dear; - And the springs that flow on the floor of the valley - Will never seem fresh or clear - For thinking of the glitter of the mountain water - In the feathery green of the year....'" - -The wind stormed over the shelter in a burst of power, buried the sound -of his own voice. - -"Marsha, are you still there?" - -"What the devil's the idea, poetry at a time like this, or any time?" -Terrence demanded. "Listen, you taking this down? We haven't run into -any signs of the others. Six hundred thousand feet, Bruce! We feel our -destiny. We conquer the Solar System. And we'll go out and out, and -we'll climb the highest mountain, the highest mountain anywhere. We're -going up and up. We've voted on it. Unanimous. We go on. On to the -top, Bruce! Nothing can stop us. If it takes ten years, a hundred, a -thousand years, we'll find it. We'll find the top! Not the top of this -world--the top of _everything_. The top of the UNIVERSE!" - -Later, Terrence's voice broke off in the middle of something or -other--Bruce couldn't make any sense out of it at all--and turned into -crazy yells that faded out and never came back. - -Bruce figured the others might still be climbing somewhere, or maybe -they were dead. Either way it wouldn't make any difference to him. He -knew they would never come back down. - -He was switching off the radio for good when he saw the coloration -break over the window. It was the same as the dream, but for an -instant, dream and reality seemed fused like two superimposed film -negatives. - -He went to the window and looked out. The comfortable little city was -out there, and the canal flowing past through a pleasantly cool yet -sunny afternoon. Purple mist blanketed the knees of low hills and there -was a valley, green and rich with the trees high and full beside the -softly flowing canal water. - -The filmy shapes that seemed alive, that were partly translucent, -drifted along the water's edge, and birds as delicate as colored glass -wavered down the wind. - -He opened the shelter door and went out. The shelter looked the same, -but useless now. How did the shelter of that bleak world get into this -one, where the air was warm and fragrant, where there was no cold, from -that world into this one of his dreams? - -The girl--Helene--was standing there leaning against a tree, smoking a -cigarette. - -He walked toward her, and stopped. In the dream it had been easy, but -now he was embarrassed, in spite of the intimacy that had grown between -them. She wore the same casual slacks and sandals. Her hair was brown. -She was not particularly beautiful, but she was comfortable to look at -because she seemed so peaceful. Content, happy with what was and only -what was. - -He turned quickly. The shelter was still there, and behind it the row -of spaceships--not like chalk marks on a tallyboard now, but like odd -relics that didn't belong there in the thick green grass. Five ships -instead of four. - -There was his own individual shelter beyond the headquarters building, -and the other buildings. He looked up. - -There was no mountain. - - * * * * * - -For one shivery moment he knew fear. And then the fear went away, and -he was ashamed of what he had felt. What he had feared was gone now, -and he knew it was gone for good and he would never have to fear it -again. - -"Look here, Bruce. I wondered how long it would take to get it through -that thick poetic head of yours!" - -"Get what?" He began to suspect what it was all about now, but he -wasn't quite sure yet. - -"Smoke?" she said. - -He took one of the cigarettes and she lighted it for him and put the -lighter back into her pocket. - -"It's real nice here," she said. "Isn't it?" - -"I guess it's about perfect." - -"It'll be easy. Staying here, I mean. We won't be going to Earth ever -again, you know." - -"I didn't _know_ that, but I didn't _think_ we ever would again." - -"We wouldn't want to anyway, would we, Bruce?" - -"No." - -He kept on looking at the place where the mountain had been. Or maybe -it still was; he couldn't make up his mind yet. Which was and which was -not? That barren icy world without life, or this? - -"'_Is all that we see or seem_,'" he whispered, half to himself, "'_but -a dream within a dream?_'" - -She laughed softly. "Poe was ahead of his time," she said. "You still -don't get it, do you? You don't know what's been happening?" - -"Maybe I don't." - -She shrugged, and looked in the direction of the ships. "Poor guys. I -can't feel much hatred toward them now. The Martians give you a lot of -understanding of the human mind--after they've accepted you, and after -you've lived with them awhile. But the mountain climbers--we can see -now--it's just luck, chance, we weren't like them. A deviant is a child -of chance." - -"Yes," Bruce said. "There's a lot of people like us on Earth, but -they'll never get the chance--the chance we seem to have here, to live -decently...." - -"You're beginning to see now which was the dream," she said and -smiled. "But don't be pessimistic. Those people on Earth will get their -chance, too, one of these fine days. The Conquerors aren't getting far. -Venus, and then Mars, and Mars is where they stop. They'll keep coming -here and climbing the mountain and finally there won't be any more. It -won't take so long." - -She rose to her toes and waved and yelled. Bruce saw Pietro and Marlene -walking hand in hand up the other side of the canal. They waved back -and called and then pushed off into the water in a small boat, and -drifted away and out of sight around a gentle turn. - -She took his arm and they walked along the canal toward where the -mountain had been, or still was--he didn't know. - -A quarter of a mile beyond the canal, he saw the high mound of red, -naked hill, corroded and ugly, rising up like a scar of the surrounding -green. - -She wasn't smiling now. There were shadows on her face as the pressure -on his arm stopped him. - -"I was on the first ship and Marlene on the second. None like us on the -third, and on the fourth ship was Pietro. All the others had to climb -the mountain--" She stopped talking for a moment, and then he felt the -pressure of her fingers on his arm. "I'm very glad you came on the -fifth," she whispered. "Are you glad now?" - -"I'm very glad," he said. - -"The Martians tested us," she explained. "They're masters of the mind. -I guess they've been grinding along through the evolutionary mill -a darn long time, longer than we could estimate now. They learned -the horror we're capable of from the first ship--the Conquerors, -the climbers. The Martians knew more like them would come and go on -into space, killing, destroying for no other reason than their own -sickness. Being masters of the mind, the Martians are also capable -of hypnosis--no, that's not really the word, only the closest our -language comes to naming it. Suggestion so deep and strong that it -seems real to one human or a million or a billion; there's no limit to -the number that can be influenced. What the people who came off those -ships saw wasn't real. It was partly what the Martians wanted them to -see and feel--but most of it, like the desire to climb the mountain, -was as much a part of the Conquerors' own psychic drive as it was the -suggestion of the Martians." - -She waved her arm slowly to describe a peak. "The Martians made the -mountain real. So real that it could be seen from space, measured by -instruments ... even photographed and chipped for rock samples. But -you'll see how that was done, Bruce, and realize that this and not the -mountain of the Conquerors is the reality of Mars. This is the Mars no -Conqueror will ever see." - - * * * * * - -They walked toward the ugly red mound that jutted above the green. When -they came close enough, he saw the bodies lying there ... the remains, -actually, of what had once been bodies. He felt too sickened to go on -walking. - -"It may seem cruel now," she said, "but the Martians realized that -there is no cure for the will to conquer. There is no safety from it, -either, as the people of Earth and Venus discovered, unless it is -given an impossible obstacle to overcome. So the Martians provided the -Conquerors with a mountain. They themselves wanted to climb. They had -to." - -He was hardly listening as he walked away from Helene toward the eroded -hills. The crew members of the first four ships were skeletons tied -together with imperishably strong rope about their waists. Far beyond -them were those from _Mars V_, too freshly dead to have decayed -much ... Anhauser with his rope cut, a bullet in his head; Jacobs and -Marsha and the others ... Terrence much past them all. He had managed -to climb higher than anyone else and he lay with his arms stretched -out, his fingers still clutching at rock outcroppings. - -The trail they left wound over the ground, chipped in places for holds, -red elsewhere with blood from torn hands. Terrence was more than twelve -miles from the ship--horizontally. - -Bruce lifted Marsha and carried her back over the rocky dust, into the -fresh fragrance of the high grass, and across it to the shade and peace -beside the canal. - -He put her down. She looked peaceful enough, more peaceful than that -other time, years ago, when the two of them seemed to have shared so -much, when the future had not yet destroyed her. He saw the shadow of -Helene bend across Marsha's face against the background of the silently -flowing water of the cool, green canal. - -"You loved her?" - -"Once," Bruce said. "She might have been sane. They got her when she -was young. Too young to fight. But she would have, I think, if she'd -been older when they got her." - -He sat looking down at Marsha's face, and then at the water with the -leaves floating down it. - -"'... And the springs that flow on the floor of the valley will never -seem fresh or clear for thinking of the glitter of the mountain water -in the feathery green of the year....'" - -He stood up, walked back with Helene along the canal toward the calm -city. He didn't look back. - -"They've all been dead quite a while," Bruce said wonderingly. "Yet -I seemed to be hearing from Terrence until only a short time ago. -Are--are the climbers still climbing--somewhere, Helene?" - -"Who knows?" Helene answered softly. "Maybe. I doubt if even the -Martians have the answer to that." - -They entered the city. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Highest Mountain, by Bryce Walton - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN *** - -***** This file should be named 50868.txt or 50868.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/8/6/50868/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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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