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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..e01faf9 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64630 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64630) diff --git a/old/64630-0.txt b/old/64630-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a6bae9f..0000000 --- a/old/64630-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1674 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Against the Stone Beasts, by James Blish - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Against the Stone Beasts - -Author: James Blish - -Release Date: February 25, 2021 [eBook #64630] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AGAINST THE STONE BEASTS *** - - - - - Against the Stone Beasts - - By JAMES BLISH - - Down the time-track tumbled Andreson, to land in a - continuum of ghastly matter-and-space reversal--and - find a love that shattered the very laws of life! - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Fall 1948. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -The letters on the fly-specked glass were simple, almost dogmatic. -Andreson eyed them with some amusement. Art agents seldom have any -taste, he thought; can't afford to. - -The sign repeated, _Special Showing of Surrealist Paintings_, and -declined to offer further information. Andreson started to walk on, -then hovered indecisively. Modern arts of all kinds were his province -in preparation for a doctorate thesis. It wouldn't do to let the -smallest example go by without inspection. He went in. - -The improvised gallery was musty with the odor of departed vegetables, -and very cold. Like the sign, the show had been set up with a braggart -simplicity. No programs, no furniture, no eager guides--there were -not even any guards. Andreson wondered what was to stop a thief from -stooping under the heavy rayon rope, which kept the frames out of reach -of curious or greedy fingers, and making off with the whole collection. - -With his first look at the paintings themselves, Andreson was blessing -his good daemon fervently for having guided his footsteps. He could not -place the works in any specific category; they certainly were _not_ -surrealistic, unless the word had been used in its original meaning of -"super-realistic." The artist had used fantasy for his sources, true -enough, but the results were not the usual shapelessness. - -He angled his long body over the rope and inspected the nearest one. -It was a huge canvas, reaching almost to the floor, and it depicted a -building or similar structure like a glistening glass rod, rising from -a forest of lesser rods toward a red sun of almost tangible hotness. -A single figure, man-like, but borne aloft on taut, delicate wings -which suggested a bat rather than a human, floated over the nearest -of the towers. A quick glance revealed that all the paintings but one -contained several of these shapes; the one exception was a field of -stars with a torpedo streaking across it. - -His quick glance confirmed another suspicion. The scenes were in -deliberate order, as if attempting a pictorial history of the flying -people. He felt vaguely disappointed. This stuff was garden-variety -fantasy, verging on the conceptions of science-fiction. Still, there -was a magnificent technique behind it all--a blending and effacing -of brush-strokes which made the Dutch look like billboard-splashers, -and a mastery of glaze which made each scene glow like an illuminated -transparency. - -This last painting by the door, for instance. It showed the -translucent city again, with approximately the same details--but with -a barely-perceptible dimming of the red sunlight, a single tower -jaggedly shattered, a few other tiny touches, the artist had given it -an atmosphere of almost unbearable desolation. It was the same fabulous -metropolis--but it was tragic, deserted, lost. Peering hopelessly from -the summit of the broken tower was a tiny face, looking directly -upward at Andreson. - -He allowed himself an appreciative shudder, and methodically went -around the gallery, following the history the pictures built up. It -seemed commonplace enough: a race of space-travellers who had colonized -the Earth, perhaps some time in the dim past, had built a civilization, -and had finally succumbed to some undepicted doom. What was amazing -was the utterly convincing way the well-worn story was told. It was -real--super-real, indeed, for it commanded more belief and sympathy -than the everyday human tragedies. - -Andreson took out his fountain pen and an unopened letter and walked -toward the door. He must get the address of this place and attempt to -locate the artist. John Kimball's inscription on the envelope reminded -him that Johnny, though a scientist, dabbled in the arts and would be -interested. He ripped open the flap, then stopped in mid-stride, ducked -under the rayon cord to look at the spaceship scene. - -In many ways this was the most wonderful of the lot. Even a night -sky or a telescope field has no depth; it is merely a black surface -containing spots of light; but the picture surpassed nature. It had a -stereoscopic quality, all the more startling because it was impossible -to ascertain how it was done. Andreson noted with a chuckle that the -agent had placed the paintings in such order that there was a strong -draft blowing toward the picture, as if being drained away into that -awesome vacuum. A strictly phony trick, but clever nonetheless. Curious -in spite of his better instincts, he put out a tentative finger to the -surface of the scene-- - -The fountain pen clattered to the floor. - -He gaped idiotically, and stirred with his finger at the nothingness -where the picture still seemed to be. In his shock-numbed mind two -words burned fiercely: - -_It's real._ - -Ridiculous. Tensely he forced himself to move his hand in deeper, -against the yelling of his nerves. It struck a slight, tingling -resistance, like a curtain of static electricity--and then the blood -was pounding in each finger as if trying to burst through the skin. He -snatched the hand back. There _was_ a vacuum there; cut off from the -room by some unseen force through which the air was leaking rapidly. - -Teetering on the edge of panic, he struggled to make better sense -of the facts. The prickly pounding he had felt in his fingers might -well have been electrical and only that, and Johnny Kimball had once -demonstrated for him the "static jet" which might explain the draft of -air. Three-dimensional television, perhaps-- - -He shook his head. No inventor would set up a demonstration like this, -in an abandoned grocery, without any announcement or literature; nor -would there be likely to be eighteen screens, each one showing a -motionless and quite impossible scene. No; it was insane, but these -garish things were-- - -Windows. - -Into what? Clutching at his frayed emotions, he took a step toward the -next frame. His foot crunched on the forgotten fountain pen. For a -second he flailed in terror at nothing, and then pitched head foremost -over the low ledge. - - * * * * * - -After a moment the sweet piping spoke again. "You are not hurt. The -mental shock will pass shortly." - -Andreson said nothing and stared fixedly at the crimson glow underneath -his eyelids. Physically he was unhurt, but his sanity was precarious. -In his mind, behind the closed lids, it happened over and over again: -the long twisting fall, with the great city spinning and growing -beneath him in a riot of color, and damp hot air gushing past him, the -sudden swooping of the dark figure and the thrum of wings. He tried to -pass out again and awaken on the floor of the gallery, but the cold, -chiming voice jabbed him awake again. - -"This is quite real. You are intelligent enough to accept it--stop -thinking like an infant." - -The motherly reprimand under such circumstances planted a small germ -of amusement somewhere in his mind, and he grasped it frantically and -began to laugh, still keeping his eyes clenched shut. Even without -seeing its face, he could feel the creature's alarm at his hysteria, -but he allowed the shaking to exhaust him into a sort of calmness. Only -when his breathing had become controlled and even did he allow himself -a second look. - -Red sunlight played harshly in upon him through the translucent walls -of the small room, and burned sullenly within the crystal bar which -crossed above his head. One wall was recessed with what seemed to be -bookshelves, and odd articles of furniture stood here and there; but -evidently none of them had been designed for humans, for he was lying -on the smooth floor, his jacket bunched under his head. The cowled -shape still arched over him with Satanic solicitude, black against the -glare, and somehow smaller than he had expected it to be. He hoped that -that cape would not expand into wings--not yet--for his new calm still -stood at the shimmering verge of madness. - -"Thank you," he said carefully. "I owe you my life." - -The silhouetted head moved as if to dismiss the matter. "Your sudden -appearance in mid-air was startling. We were fortunate that I happened -to be in flight at the time." - -With a whispering sound, like the rustling of heavy cloth, the figure -moved out of the direct rays of the sun and settled gracefully against -one of the furniture-like things. The light struck it full, and -Andreson gasped and sat bolt upright. - -She was winged, no doubt about that. But the bat-like impression those -wings had given him seemed to have been only a product of distance. -Seen in closeup, the wings were tawny and delicate, and traced with -intricate veins, their ribs were close-set, the webbing like the -sheerest silk. They rose from the girl's back where her shoulderblades -should have been, and at rest curved around her sides and made a -backdrop for her legs and feet. - -Except for those gorgeous pinions, which set her off like two great -Japanese fans, she might have been human, or close to it. She no more -suggested the rodent than the goddess Diana would have suggested -a female gorilla. The wings, something about the bony structure -underlying her face, a vague _otherness_ about her proportions--except -for these minute differences she could have passed anywhere for a -strikingly lovely human girl. Her clothing was brief and simple, and -not weighted with ornaments, for she needed free limbs and no useless -baggage for flight. - -Andreson realized that he was goggling and rearranged his face as best -he could. She did not seem to take his amazed inspection as anything -but normal, however. "Are you a time-traveller?" she asked, tilted her -head curiously. "We could think of no other explanation. Are you from -our track?" - -"I don't know," Andreson confessed. "My trip was accidental, and the -mechanism is a mystery to me." He considered asking about the gallery, -but the girl's questions had already told him it would be fruitless. - -He masked his emotions in the mechanism of locating and lighting a -cigarette, while the girl waited with polite patience. It was hard to -forget that there was an obscure doom prophesied--or had it been merely -narrated, as historical fact?--for this exquisite creature and her -whole civilization, and he was determined to say nothing about it until -he knew what he was talking about. - -"I discovered in my time a sort of gateway to your time, and to -seventeen other nearly synchronous moments, set up by a scientist -unknown to me. Each of the gates seems to open upon one single specific -instant. For instance: before I fell into the one which brought me -here, I saw a figure I'm sure was yours. And it was motionless above -the city, all the time that I was watching it." - -He broke off suddenly. "Wait a minute. If this is another time--well, -suppose you tell me: am I speaking your language, or do you know mine? -Or are you a telepath?" - - * * * * * - -She laughed, each sound a clear, musical tone, as if she had been -struck by a desire to sing the _Bell Song_. "Don't you know your own -language when you hear it? No, the Varese are not telepathic--few -races are. But a truly telepathic race allied with us has provided our -culture with a good stock of equipment for tapping various parts of the -mind. We use it for education. We simply tapped your language centers -while you were unconscious." - -A shadow passed across the glowing wall, and he heard the -already-familiar hum of wings. A moment later a newcomer was outlined -in the sunlight in a low doorway which seemed to open on empty space. -It was a man, this time, a figure almost exactly Andreson's height, -and perhaps a little older, though it was hard to judge. He smiled -unpleasantly at the human, revealing two upper incisors which were -slightly larger than the rest of his teeth, and demanded, "Well, what -time is he?" - -"What time are you?" Andreson countered. "We've no record of you in our -history. You could have flourished, died, or moved on a dozen times -without our knowing it--our records go back only three thousand years." - -"Well taken," the Varan said, making himself comfortable on one of the -odd "chairs." "We're not native, here, of course. But so far we've -found no mammals on this planet, except a few egg-laying ones that -aren't even entirely warm-blooded yet; so you _must_ be a considerable -distance in our future. Furthermore, you're a time-traveller, which -means that you know more than we do, for time is a problem we have -never broken." - -The girl shook her head slowly, all traces of her former laughter -vanished. "It's no use, Atel. He's here by accident, and isn't a -scientist." - -"What's the matter?" Andreson said. Both faces looked so somber that he -nearly forgot his own problem. "Are you in trouble?" - -"We're at war," the girl said softly. "And we shall probably be -exterminated, all of us, before the year is over." - -Andreson remembered again the picture of the deserted city, and despite -the hot sun he felt the same chill. - -"This planet you call Earth," Atel said, "has no life on its surface -now with enough intelligence to count up to three. But after we had -been here fifty-three of its years, we discovered that Earth has a -civilization of its own all the same--_inside_." - -A dozen legends chased through Andreson's mind at once. "Cave-dwellers -of some sort? It hardly seems credible." - -"No, not cave-dwellers. These aren't even solid, and they couldn't live -in caves. They live _in_ the Earth--in the rock itself, and all the -way down to the core. They are--space-beasts. They move through solid -matter just as you and I move through space, and are stopped by space -as we are stopped by a solid wall. In the air, for instance, we're safe -from them, for what is to us a thin gas is for them a viscous, almost -rigid medium. In the oceans, we meet on equal terms; but true solids -are their natural medium." - -"How did you discover them?" - -"They discovered us," the girl said. "They have besieged the city ever -since the fifty-third year after our landing. They're invisible, of -course, but we can see them as openings in the earth. The openings -change shape as they move, and of course no natural pit does that. In -their own universe, the hollow Earth bounded by its solid atmosphere, -they are flying creatures, and their sense of gravity is the reverse of -ours." - -Her clear, fluting voice became steadily duller, losing its inflection -as the tale went on. "Before we came here," she said, "we had -encountered what our scientists call counter-matter--matter of opposite -electrical nature to ours. But this complete inversion of space-matter -relationships was unknown to us. The space-beasts knew about it. They -are bent on driving us from the Earth...." - - * * * * * - -Andreson felt his mind reeling into hysteria again. It was difficult -enough to accept the spotless, shining glass chamber and the two winged -Varese--but this story of an inside-out universe and its air-treading -masters--if only John Kimball had been the one to hear it-- - -"Sometimes," Atel said reflectively, "I think the Varese have earned -their defeat. There was a time when we were carrying the fight into the -enemy's own cosmos. But it was their cosmos, not ours, and they knew it -very well! Our change of state, while it enabled us to see our foes, -could not change our mental orientation. We were lost in that hollow -darkness. We could not forget that each great gulf was actually a -mountain, the sudden chasms were buildings we ourselves had built,--and -the things like tiny burrows which kept opening and closing all about -our feet were the footfalls of our brothers. And the space-beasts -swooped upon us, each of them with six tiers of wings muttering -against the solid magma of the Earth, and our weapons were crude and -worthless...." - -Andreson's mind tasted the concept and rejected it with a shudder. -"But surely," he said as steadily as he could, "you must have better -weapons, now." - -"Oh, yes, we have the weapons. But we are decadent, and have lost the -initiative to be the aggressors. The machines that accomplished the -reversal of state for our ancestors have lain idle for a century in the -bowels of our city. We no longer understand them. We are dying, first -of all, of old age--the space-beasts are the accident that speeds us -along the way. Shall I tell you what we use against them now?" - -The girl stirred protestingly. Andreson looked at her, but she would -not return the glance. Atel went on relentlessly. - -"Look." From under his tunic he produced a heavy, long metal rod. - -"A club? But--I don't see how--" - -"It's hollow," Atel said succinctly. "The metal, of course, is useless, -but the vacuum inside is steel-hard to them. Space crushing into space, -and gouts of hard radiation bursting like blood from the contact. -That's all we have now, that and a feeble energising process which -sometimes seals off the foundations of the city. Walls, and clubs! Our -last miserable recourses--and then-- - -"Then the space-beasts will own the Earth again." - - - II - -By the time John Kimball had finished disconnecting the leads to the -multiple screen and rewiring the master converter he was nearly blind -with fatigue and his fingertips jerked and danced uncontrollably on the -verniers. The sleepless nights of the previous week, and the emotional -strain under which he had been working throughout was taking its toll -now. After the wave-splitting effect had first suggested it to him, -he had spent most of the week erecting the demonstration, and quite -probably the triumphant letter he had mailed to Andreson afterwards had -been a little crazy. - -As soon as he had posted the letter he had managed to get in about -twenty hours of deathlike slumber. It was hardly enough, but there was -no help for that now. Except for the first, sickening shock--for the -discarded, empty envelope on the floor, the splintered fountain pen, -and the one screen featureless and flickeringly gray, had told him what -had happened in instant detail--he had wasted no time cursing himself -for his grandiose "gallery" stunt. The Colossus in the cellar would -need many hours of weary, desperate work before the cauterized scars of -Andreson's cannoning fall through the tissues of Time would open enough -to permit Kimball to follow. - -A tumbler clicked in the pre-dawn silence, and a flood of magnetons -sped through the primary coils. The ensuing process was quiet and -invisible, but Kimball could feel it--the familiar, nauseating strain -which had first led him to the basic principle. It meant that tiny -lacunae were being born in the fabric of Time, spreading and merging -as the spinning magnetic field tore at them. He slumped on his stool -and waited. He was not sure that the last hour's work had been even -approximately right, but his gibbering nerves would no longer permit -calculation or delicate mechanical correction. The die was cast, and -wherever the nascent achronic gateway led, he would have to follow. - -After a moment he discovered that the climbing dial needles were -hypnotizing him. Getting up from the stool, he proceeded to collect his -equipment, moving like a zombie. It was futile to wish he had studied -the period more closely, but at least it was clear that the age of the -winged colonists had been warfare; best to be armed, though there was -a good chance that his pistol would be far outclassed. A flashlight -clipped to his belt, and an alcohol compass tuned to the machine's -field rather than the Earth's, and he was ready. - -He stepped into the heavy torus coil which terminated the series--there -had been no time to set up a new frame--and turned out the cellar light. - -The machine made no sound, and in the blackness no one could have seen -that after a few moments it was alone. - - * * * * * - -The light of the red sun ran back and forth along the catwalk in -quivering lines, and all around it the city glistened in faery-like -beauty. Andreson regarded the bridge dubiously; it was little more than -a thread of crystal. - -"It will bear your weight," the girl said, mistaking his trepidation. -Masking his thoughts, he set out across it. - -"They have come through several times, just recently," Atel continued -evenly. "In a sort of borer--I suppose they thought of it as -that--whose walls were invisible, its machinery a contorted group of -vacancies in a solid interior. But we destroyed the solid part, and -they were crushed. It is hard to imagine how empty space could crush. -But we have the law that two objects may not exist in the same space at -the same time, and this seems to be its converse." - -Andreson tried it out: two spaces cannot exist in the same--in the same -what? Abruptly his head was whirling and in the vast distance the earth -reeled and shuddered; the glassy thread under his feet seemed to swivel -back and forth like a tightrope. He was going over-- - -Behind him, powerful vanes cracked open, and lean hands grappled his -shoulders firmly. "Thanks," he gasped, flailing with his feet at the -landing of the next building. Atel grinned contemptuously and leaned -him against the wall like a manikin. - -"Nevertheless," the winged man proceeded as imperturbably as ever, -"they learn rapidly. If they ever find out the secret of reversing -their condition, we can close the book on Varan history." He jerked -open the door to which the platform led, and Andreson and the girl -followed him through. - -From the level upon which they were standing all the way up to the -summit of this new tower there was a vast chamber, domed with a clear -roof. Around the base of the dome proper a ledge or platform ran, -upon which was more of the furniture-like stuff--evidently a sort -of solarium. Extending outside the walls as well as inside, it gave -the building the look of a giant in a plastic helmet. At the apex of -the dome a gem, like a giant's diamond, was fixed, rotating slowly, -catching the sunlight and sending a parade of rainbow hues over the -seats banked far below. - -"Starstone Chamber," the girl said. "Our council hall." - -"It's beautiful. Not a place for stuffy-minded men, I'd say." - -They walked down through the tiers of seats toward the bottom of the -arena, where what appeared to be the head of a spiral staircase was -visible. - -"Where are we bound?" - -"To Goseq, one of our senior psychologists," Atel said. "We want to see -what we can dredge up about the sciences of your period. Doubtless -your observation, being untrained, missed most of the essentials, but -there ought to be _some_ kind of residuum in your subconscious." - -"Why don't you fly me back to where I fell out of?" Andreson suggested -stiffly. "I realize that you can't expect to remember the exact spot, -but those 'windows' must look both ways, and should be findable. I -could send you a more suitable specimen--a friend of mine who's a -scientist--" - -"We do know the exact spot," Atel interrupted. "We have detectors in -operation at all times--naturally! But a thorough search of that area -revealed nothing." - -Andreson sighed. "I was afraid of that. The apparatus evidently wasn't -intended to be used for an airplane; I suppose I blew it out." - -The girl, who had been preceding them, stopped at the top of the -stairwell and levelled a dainty finger at Atel. "Why don't you stop -tormenting him because he's not a scientist?" she demanded angrily. "It -isn't his fault! He's doing his best for us!" - -Atel's eyebrows would have shot up, had he had any. "Certainly," he -purred, with an ironical gesture. "I'm sure you understand my attitude, -Mr. Andreson. As a non-scientist, you are more of a curiosity than a -gift, and that is a disappointment to us. We shall try to make your -stay here as comfortable--_and as short_--as possible." - -Andreson, taken aback at the girl's sudden outburst, hardly knew what -to say. He was spared the task of replying, however-- - -The sun went out! - - * * * * * - -The girl gave a smothered little cry, and the human clumsily tried to -make his way through the blackness toward where he had last seen her. A -powerful four-fingered hand grasped his elbow roughly. - -"Stand still," Atel growled. "Jina! It may be another attack. Wait for -the tower lights." - -Andreson was uncertain as to whether "Jina!" was an expletive or the -girl's name, which he had never heard before, but he stood still, -resisting an impulse to shake Atel off. After a moment an eerie sound -drifted to his ears: a distant, musical keening. - -"Ah. It is a raid--there's the alarm." - -As he spoke, a dim radiance filtered down over them, bringing the -ranked seats of the council chamber into ghostly relief. It was coming -down from the dome, but the great jewel no longer scattered rainbows. -The light did not seem to have any single source. - -"Aloft with him," Atel ordered. - -Reluctantly the girl gripped the Earthman's other arm, and two pairs -of wings thrummed together in the echoing chamber. He felt himself -arrowing dizzily skyward, and tried to hold his body stiff. - -A second later they were standing on the high ledge among the deserted -couches. Below them, the city, seen here from its highest tower, was -presenting a heart stopping new facet of its beauty. Every one of the -crystalline shafts were gleaming with blue-white flame along its entire -length; though no single one was too bright to be looked at directly, -their total effect was of a sea of light almost as brilliant as high -noon. Tiny motes drifted back and forth across the pillars of radiance: -Varans in flight, evidently going to their posts in answer to the alarm. - - * * * * * - -But when Andreson looked up to see what had happened to the sun, what -he saw wiped the miracle of the city from his mind. - -The sky had turned to rock. The whole metropolis was trapped in a -tremendous hemisphere of some strange substance, a stony bowl, smooth -and polished, and veined with dark red lines like bad marble. Here and -there the glow of the city struck sullen fire against the lava-like -surface. - -When Atel finally spoke, his voice had none of its previous arrogance. -"They have us now," he husked. "Our sky is granite to them--and they've -destroyed cubic miles of it, instantaneously! Our power, our air ... -cut off!" - -"They've worked a miracle," the girl said with unwilling respect. "The -beasts are scientists--we knew that in the beginning. Don't you see, -Atel? They'll use that dome to get above the city! And their borers, -too--" - -Indecisively Atel spread his wings half-way. "We can't carry this -Earthman about the city now," he said. "Jina, go to your post. I'll -take him back to my rooms." - -"But--" Andreson and the girl protested simultaneously. - -"Need I remind you that I command this sector during emergencies, by -Council order?" the Varan snapped. "He'll be no safer with us than -alone in the apartments. Take him down again." - -Mutely Jina took the human's arm, and the two picked him up again--he -was becoming a little tired of being catapulted through the air once -every hour--and plunged back to the catwalk door. - -"All right," the Varan told the girl, his voice edged with impatience. -"You're needed elsewhere, Jina." - -She disappeared silently into the cavern of Starstone Chamber. Atel -slid the door back and cocked his head, a grotesque silhouette against -the faintly hazed oval opening. After a moment, Andreson heard the -sound too: a weird, intermittent buzzing noise. It set his teeth on -edge, and sent little waves of sheer hatred coursing through his body. -The stocky Varan drew him out onto the platform and pointed upward. - -"Borers," he grunted. "You can see one from here." - -It was quite high, about half-way between the summit of the tower -and the surface of the rock sky, and moving very slowly. It reminded -Andreson of a legless centipede--a long, joined cylinder, with the -same stony, red-veined texture that the great bowl presented. In the -feeble light he thought he saw small openings appearing and vanishing: -the space-beasts, moving about inside their mechanism! The brief -glimpse was somehow the most horrible thing he had ever seen. He could -distinguish at least two other tones in the gruesome buzzing, and he -knew that the borer was not alone above the city. - -"They've learned that hollow things are deadly--learned from us," -Atel spat out bitterly. "See the column of light inching out from -the borer's nose? They are disintegrating a tunnel for their vacuum -torpedoes. It's a slow-motion kind of warfare--but when one side wins -constantly, it can't last forever. Feel the radiation?" - -Andreson discovered that he was scratching. His skin felt as if he had -a mild sunburn. "The boring mechanism?" he suggested. - -"Right," Atel admitted, his tone grudging. "Matter-against-matter -generates radiant heat. Space-against-space generates X-rays and worse. -Deadly stuff! If our gunners can only--" - -Andreson never heard the end of the sentence. Without the slightest -warning he was again sprawling through the hot dark air-- - -Alone! - - - III - -Kimball's right shoe caught in a burrow and he fell again. This time -the expected shock came late; evidently he had been on the brink of a -pit of some sort, for his shoulders slammed against the hard ground -with an unexpected impact, and he slewed down a long decline. He lay at -the bottom for an indefinite period--neither time nor distance had any -meaning in this blackness--and then got up again. - -Through the steady, muted roaring which had been in his ears ever -since he had dropped from the torus coil, a roaring like the sound in -a seashell, multiplied to the point of madness, a leathery muttering -sound began to grow. He yanked his flashlight from the belt-clip and -shot a cone of light upward. - -He was rewarded with a ululating, deafening scream, and something -winged and huge sheared off from the beam. The muttering of the wings -faded again, and with it went a sticky blubbering, like the crying of -an idiot child. Sick at his stomach, he pumped a shot after it, and was -surprised to hear it scream again. - -That would hold them for a while. They weren't very cautious about the -automatic, for they seemed to expect that he would score a hit with it -only by rare chance; but they hated the flashlight. They'd not try that -dive-bombing stunt on him soon again. - -He could hear them settling around the rim of the pit. Deliberately he -lit a cigarette. For a second he could see the bulky, pasty bodies and -the blinded heads arching above him; then they all whispered with agony -and drew away out of sight. Even the dim coal of the burning fag was -too much for them. - -But before long the batteries of the flashlight would be drained, the -cigarettes gone, the matches exhausted. When that time came, Kimball -knew, he would be torn to tatters, but it didn't bother him much now. -He had been almost unconscious with fatigue when the badly-adjusted -master machine had dumped him into this nightmare; but the beasts, -savage though they were, had been curious. For a while they had -questioned him with very little hostility, and had aroused his interest -enough to give him second--or had it been twenty-second?--wind. Their -upsetting version of telepathy, which projected subtly different -emotional states instead of ideas, had awakened him thoroughly. - -He had just realized that he had arrived _inside_ the Earth, probably -in a space-negative state to boot, when he had felt the urge for a -cigarette.... - -He sighed and stood up. There was no way to tell how long he had been -in this midnight universe, but if he could only stick it out until a -full twenty-four hours were up, the master machine would act on him -again. The faulty windings of its coils would prevent it from returning -him to the abandoned grocery as it was supposed to do--but at least it -would throw him out of _this_ black, demon-haunted universe. - -At his movement, the beasts rustled eagerly back to the rim of the -pit, scarcely audible in the mass echo which was as natural to the -hollow world as air. He turned on the flashlight, pointing it at the -ground--he did not care to hear them all scream at once. There was a -thundering flurry of wings above him; then silence. - -Doggedly, he began to climb. _Keep moving_, he thought, _you can sleep -in your next universe--wherever that'll be_. - -The beasts wheeled patiently. - - * * * * * - -Andreson lay tasting the sensation of being dead for several minutes -before he realized that he was hardly even jarred. His eyes were open, -but nothing he could see made sense to him. There was no sign of Atel. -Lying flat on his back, he looked stupidly upward at a column of soft -light that seemed to reach miles into the air, ending in glowing -haze. The rock dome had vanished, and in its place was a pattern of -gigantic, garish stalactites. - -Wait a minute. There _was_ something familiar here-- - -He rolled over cautiously and found an edge to the mysterious surface -he had fallen to. He thrust his head over it and peered downward. - -The rock dome was below him, not above! The space-beasts, who reacted -to gravity in reverse, had imposed their environment upon the city. -Only the solarium platform, which had been directly above where he had -been standing on the catwalk, had saved him from mashing against the -dome. He wondered if the Varan gunners had been able to hit any of the -borers under these conditions. He couldn't hear the buzzing sound--no, -wait, there was a single buzzing tone, seemingly far away. Well, two -down, anyhow. - -A winged figure sailed by below him, its pinions tensely outspread, -gulling the air. He shouted at it, but there was no response. He -wondered what had happened to Atel. He must have fallen from the -catwalk, too, but certainly he couldn't have been hurt--he didn't -look like the type to pass out in mid-air. Andreson called again. -After a pause, an infinitely remote response came back to him: -_Atelatelteltellelellll_.... - -The echo of his first shout! The Varan must have forgotten about him -in the shock of the reversal, and flown off to his post, leaving the -Earthman stranded. Andreson knew it was quite possible that he had been -deliberately abandoned, but he forced himself not to think about it. - -Right now, he had to get off this ledge, and back inside a building. A -preferable spot would be Atel's rooms; they were close, and there would -be only a short, harmless distance to fall either way, no matter what -the warring factions did with the city's gravity. Yet Atel's doorway, -so mockingly close, was in reality as good as miles away unless he -could figure out something nearly as good as flying! - -Suppose he should wait where he was, and fall back to the catwalk when -the Varans succeeded in neutralizing the effect? He shuddered. The -catwalk was narrow and he might easily miss it. In any case, it might -take a long time--the space-beasts seemed to have the edge on the -Varans so far, and if they won, he'd starve here. He eyed the wall of -the building above him. It was about twenty feet "up" to the catwalk, -and no handholds were visible. The top side--now the "under" side--of -the solarium platform was no better; all the furniture had long since -fallen away, and even had it been still there, bolted to the surface, -he'd have thought twice before trying to crawl from couch to couch -toward Starstone Chamber's roof. It was a long way to the rock sky. - -He risked standing up, hoping that the Varese would not choose this -instant to change things around again--if they did, he'd be dumped on -his head. The illusion of _downness_ was quite perfect, but it was hard -to forget that it was an illusion. His knees wobbled as if he were -standing on a pile of telephone books. - -After steadying himself against the wall, he made a slow circuit of the -tower, stepping over the structural members of the platform cautiously. -No doorways here--even a flying people usually enter floors from the -top side. Returning, he eyed the upper edge of the catwalk doorway. It -was an eight-foot opening, and he was exactly six feet tall; that left -a margin of about six feet, which he might be able to jump. He wasn't -in very good shape, and the platform didn't offer much of a starting -run, but he'd have to chance it. - -He backed gingerly to the edge of the platform, hunched, ran, leaped. -He struck the glassy wall at full length, and clawed frantically at it-- - -Missed. The drop back to the deck knocked the wind out of him again, -but he got up stubbornly. Crouch ... run ... leap-- - - * * * * * - -His hands latched over the edge of the lintel and closed on it. Drawing -his knees up into his waist, he planted his toes and heaved. The first -push got his elbows over the edge, and after a long struggle he managed -to bend his body over it at the belt. Suspended, he looked dizzily -"down" at the inside of the Chamber, his feet dangling in thin air. - -It was only an equivalent distance to the bottom side of the inner -solarium platform, but he didn't want to go that way. There'd be no -sense in rattling aimlessly about the roof of the hall, waiting for his -back to be broken across the seats. Somehow, he had to work himself -down to the catwalk. - -There was no other way but to shinny along the side of the lintel. -He swapped ends, so that his legs were now in the Chamber, and took -off his shoes and socks with a good deal of difficulty. His feet were -sweating--indeed, he was wet all over--so he wiped them with the tops -of the socks; then he began precariously to inch himself upward. - -By the time he made the bottom side of the catwalk, he was weak with -fear, and his clothes were soaked; but he couldn't allow himself any -time to recover, for there was now nothing "above" him but the chasm of -the city street. He worked his way across on his hands and knees--no -matter which way "down" was, this was a thin bridge for an earthbound -man, a bridge much more decorative than it was useful--and lowered -himself over the edge until he could curl his body around Atel's -doorway. - -A moment later he was sprawled on Atel's ceiling, amid a litter of the -surly Varan's personal effects. He had hardly come to rest when he -fainted with a small sigh. - - * * * * * - -The second flipover of the city's gravity barely jounced him, but it -seemed to cause a lot of damage elsewhere. He had just gotten to his -feet when a terrific crash rang from the street below, and was followed -at once by others in other parts of the metropolis. He went to the -catwalk and looked over it--very tentatively, for he was warier than -ever of open spaces--but the distance was too great. He guessed that -something which hadn't been fastened down when the original reversal -took place had just made the return trip. - -As he peered, four or five of the winged people stepped from a platform -far below his eyrie, and began to mount. Since they were between him -and the glowing side of the next building, he did not recognize Atel -and Jina among them until they were almost upon him. - -As they settled gracefully on the catwalk, he noted with some surprise -that they were all armed with a glass-muzzled, pistol-like weapon -instead of the usual metal bar; and judging from their expressions, -they anticipated trouble. - -"I see you weren't killed," Atel said grimly. He seemed a bit -disappointed. - -"No. But I did a lot of dropping back and forth," Andreson returned -acidly. "Why the artillery?" - -"These men are members of the Council Guard. They think you're a spy of -some sort. They suspect me, too, for forgetting about you during the -fighting." - -"That's ridiculous!" Jina burst in, her breast pulsing hotly. "They -never thought of it until you suggested it!" - -"We can't afford to run any risks." - -"Who am I spying for?" Andreson demanded. "The beasts? Jina's right--it -is ridiculous." - -"Yes, the beasts," one of the Guardsmen said flatly. "You're a native -of Earth, no matter what your Time, and so are they. You could easily -be the vanguard of a raid." - -Andreson's temper was already short from the buffeting he had taken. -"There's not a shred of evidence for such a theory," he snapped. - -"Unfortunately, there is," Atel purred. "We noticed a beast travelling -through the foundations of the city, just below the energy barrier, and -managed to trap it. We let it get up into a pillar and then energized -both ends. We were just about to kill it with hollow slugs when it -materialized--the first time the beasts have ever succeeded in doing -it, and it's an evil augury." - -"Well? I still don't see...." - -"_It was an Earthman._" - -Andreson's mind nibbled around the edges of the fact. It was startling -enough in itself, but he could make little sense of it. How would an -Earthman have gotten into the reverse universe? And how at this Time in -the dim past? - -"Perhaps it's another victim of the gallery," he suggested, frowning. -"It never occured to me before, but that infernal place might have been -set up deliberately as a time-trap--perhaps by the beasts!" - -"Perhaps," the Guardsman said. "But we can see no purpose behind such -time-trapping, and Atel's interpretation makes better sense. Come along -with us." - -Andreson shrugged. "Where to?" - -"Starstone Chamber. The Council has been called to vote on what -dispensation to make of both of you. Atel--hold his other arm. If the -beasts wear down our shield we will all be thrown on our heads again." - -The Earthman allowed the Varans to take his elbows without any protest. -He had a very vivid picture of himself buttered crimsonly over the -inner surface of the rock arching above. _Save the heroics for later_, -he thought. - -He had imagined a Council meeting as a huge affair, with all the banked -chairs filled; but actually there were only about twenty of the Varese -present, plus the lone, mysterious Earthman. Andreson scanned the -stranger's features eagerly as they approached. - -"Well, I'll be damned!" he shouted. "What are you doing here?" - -"Hello, Ken," Kimball said calmly. "I hardly know myself. Read my -letter yet?" - -"No. Say--are _you_ responsible for that Surrealist trickery back in -our own time? I should have guessed it. I ought to push your face in." - -"I wouldn't blame you," the scientist agreed. "But I never dreamed -you'd hit upon it by accident, before you'd read my note explaining -what it was. In the letter I made a date to meet you there, and I -arrived a little early. I went out to pick up some supplies, and while -I was gone--well--" - -"I'll have to let you off this time. You already look a bit damaged, -Johnny." - - * * * * * - -Damaged was hardly the word. Kimball looked as if he had been caught -in a cement mixer. His clothes were filthy and cut to ribbons; bloody -knees showed through holes in his trousers, he had a long, raw cut -across his forehead, and his voice was husky with weariness. - -The Varans had listened to the conversation with polite impatience, -mixed with suspicion. The Councilman who wore the gem on his -forehead, a replica of the giant diamond above them, broke in with an -authoritative gesture, waving the group to seats. - -"Mr. Kimball has offered us certain explanations," he said. "They -seem adequate; it appears that he is the agency of Mr. Andreson's -misfortune. But we are losing one battle, and can't afford to take on -another. Our major question must be--How can we believe you?" - -"One problem at a time," Kimball said. "About your present battle. -I've watched your whole history, and I know you're doomed to lose -it. This city will be deserted in another century. But it will be an -orderly retreat, and will result in the complete extermination of the -space-beasts." - -Atel's mouth drew down at the corners. "Obviously a fabrication. If we -wiped out the beasts, why should we leave?" - -"Because you'll wipe them out with matter-bombs, set to fall into their -universe in their state, and then explode into yours. The process -will cause violent earthquakes on Earth's surface--it'll change the -whole climate of the planet, wipe out the giant reptiles, start the -tiny mammals on their long upward climb toward the species Ken and I -represent. Your civilization wouldn't survive such an upheaval. By the -time things have quieted down, you'll be more comfortable on Venus." - -There was a small stir of surprise among the Varans. "We already have -a small colony on Venus," the Council head admitted in a somewhat -friendly voice. "But as things stand now, I cannot see how we can hold -them off for the rest of a century!" - -"I can help you there. You work on sun-power, right?" - -"Yes. The mining of atomic fuels on this savage planet would not be -fruitful. But that rock dome over our heads has cut us off, and our -stored power will give out shortly. We've already had to cut down on -the city's lighting, and we're trying to drill the dome." - -"You'll never drill that dome in a thousand years. It's maintained by -atomics--it might just as well be pure neutronium for all the dent -you'll make in it. I can show you how to build a time-coil. We'll just -open a window onto Tomorrow Noon and let the sunlight stream in on your -main converter. It's really quite simple once you know the principle." - -"By the Jewel! Have you repealed the law of the conservation of energy?" - -"Not at all. Just doesn't apply. Energy taken from one Time doesn't -alter the total available in the continuum. Here, I'll show you." He -pulled out a pencil. "Got any paper? No? Ken, do you still have that -letter on you?" - -"Here you are," said Andreson, handing it over. "I'm glad it's going to -be good for _something_, anyhow." - - * * * * * - -The besieged city was dark, except for a few furtive gleams far below. -On the solarium platform they could see little but the dim shapes of -the nearby pinnacles, and the tiny rivers of light quivering on the -glassy flanks. Above, the stone cap pressed down heavily. Despite -Kimball's time-window into Tomorrow Noon, the confined air was hot, -motionless, enervating. - -"It's a bad age, Jina," Andreson said. "Full of warfare and misery. I -don't think you'd like it." - -Jina stirred protestingly beside him. "You paint it in very dark -colors, Ken. We have our own war here, and the jungle, the storms, the -great reptiles...." - -She broke off as a dark figure swooped silently from the depths, passed -them, and began to rise more slowly toward the dome. A tiny glow at its -head made a red trail in the dimness, and it did not seem to have any -wings. - -"That must be your friend," the girl murmured, pointing. "See--he has -one of those things called cigarettes, that he smokes all the time." - -"Yes," said Andreson, not much interested. Since Kimball had arrived, -he had been the center of interest among most of the Varans, and -Andreson had been allowed to shift for himself. It had taken some -persuasion on Johnny's part to get Andreson a copy of the anti-gravity -"wings" with which they had equipped the Earth physicist. For a while -the neglect had nettled Andreson, and at the moment he definitely did -not want to talk to Kimball. Jina interested him a good deal more. - -But Jina was still dreaming of her picture of Earth, as it would be -millions of years hence. Before Andreson could protest, she leapt into -the air and soared after the trailing cigarette glow. He watched, -grousing, while the little red spark halted in mid-air and did a -short minuet. Finally he stood up, picked up the heavy torpedo of his -own levitator, clipped the control box to his belt, climbed into the -parachute-harness. A touch of his finger sent him skyward. - -"Hello, Ken," Kimball said cheerfully. - -"Hello." - -"I was just on my way to test the apex of the dome. Seems like we might -make a break-through there." - -"Soon, I hope." - -Kimball dropped his cigarette and watched it fall regretfully toward -the distant, almost invisible city. "Not many of those left--I'll -be glad to get out of here myself." He lit another. In the brief -match-flare, Jina's graceful, wheeling figure became visible like some -angelic dream. "Why don't you go back now, Ken? I've already built -a gate back to our own time. The Varese don't use much radioactive -material, so I had to go back for supplies. You could go through just -as simply." - -"Yes," said Jina's voice from the blackness. "Why not, Ken?" - -"This guy Atel seems to be after your pelt, and you're no match for -him in his own environment," Johnny Kimball added. "It isn't as if the -Varese needed you. I know the technical aspects of the situation, and I -can hold my end up. But you could leave any time." - -"Why are you staying?" - -"Two reasons. First, I'm not inhuman, and I got handled roughly by -the beasts. I'd like to see them smashed. Second, I can't market my -time-coil--you can imagine what chaos it'd cause in our world!--but -the Varese have promised me this anti-gravity-pack, and that's worth -a lot." He waited for an answer, but Andreson didn't see any sense in -making one. After a moment his friend sighed. "Well, got to get aloft." -The glowing cigarette arced upwards dimming gradually. - -Wings pulsed softly past Andreson's cheek. "Why _are_ you staying?" -Jina whispered. - -He tried to answer, but the moment's hesitation was fatal. The girl -arrowed downward, a slim, lovely shadow in the artificial dusk. Her -sweet, chiming voice drifted back tauntingly. - -"Explain to the beasts!" - -For a moment Andreson hung motionless in his harness, keenly aware that -he was perhaps the loneliest man since Adam. The city looked like a -tinsel toy below him, and all around him was darkness and silence; the -nearest human being was the only one within millenia of him, and among -the Varese he had just one friend--_maybe_. - -Out of the murk a voice called mockingly. "What are you dreaming, -Earthman? Or should we say--plotting?" - -Andreson recognized the voice for Atel's, but could not place its -direction. "I'm on my way to join my friend at the apex of the dome," -he said shortly. "I'm not plotting anything, except getting home as -soon as possible." - -"Oh? That's odd." The Varan's voice roughened, then regained its first -silkiness with obvious effort. "I passed Jina on the way up. I thought -you two might have been having a talk." - -"Suppose we were?" Andreson demanded. "What's that to you?" - -The voice was closer now, and its tone was cold and hard. Andreson -rested his fingers lightly on the levitator controls, still looking -about him in the blackness. - -"A great deal to me. When the Council voted to let your scientist -accomplice have a free hand, I had to go along. But I still think -you're both spies, and up to something dangerous." He paused, and at -the same moment Andreson spotted him--circling with silent, outspread -wings, about twenty-five feet up from where the Earthman hung. He went -right on looking, as if he had seen nothing, turning his head from side -to side in apparent bewilderment. - -"Follow us around, then, if you have the time to waste," he said. "Two -men against a city--you can afford to be brave. The odds are all on -your side." - -"You ground-grubber," the Varan gritted. "Follow you around--while you -corrupt a Varan girl with your lies about the future, and plot to let -the beasts in! Do you think I'm such a fool? The Council is blind with -sitting so long under the Starstone--but there are still a few of us -who can see!" - -"What with?" Andreson taunted. "You seem to be all mouth." - -With a low snarl of rage, Atel plunged. His powerful wings furled -tightly around his body, he dropped straight for the Earthman. In -the dim light, Andreson saw his massive right arm reach back to his -belt--he was drawing his vacuum club-- - - * * * * * - -Andreson jammed the button home and shot skyward. Inexperience told -against him almost at once, for he had drawn the line too fine. His -shoulder slammed hard against Atel's, and the bat-winged creature -tumbled away from him. - -The harness continued to haul Andreson blindly upwards. His collar-bone -sent out sharp pains with every movement. It seemed to be broken, or -cracked at least. Was Atel--no--there he was, wings thrashing the air -as he arrested his fall. The Earthman poked the belt-control again, -hovered over his fluttering opponent--two could play at this power-dive -game-- - -Feet first, he arrowed downward, the hot air roaring in his ears. -Somehow Atel saw him coming, furled his wings again-- - -For what seemed an eternity the two fell, the city swelling beneath -them from a hazy splotch to a bright quilt, and from that to a glowing -cloudy mass. A jabbing finger reversed Andreson's belt, and slowly he -began to gain. In the growing light he could see Atel's face, turned up -toward him, smiling sardonically. - -Then the bat-wings boomed out and Atel was gone, sailing easily around -the nearest tower. Andreson saw the thin, transparent thread of a -bridge almost upon him, and tried to brake, but it was too late--if he -stopped at this speed he'd black out-- - -The bridge burst under his plummeting feet with the sound of a -waterfall of plate glass, and something snapped in his left foot, -sending fresh waves of pain through his body. The harness cut into him, -yanking against his momentum, and he tried to pull out. At the bottom -of his immense plunge he could clearly see figures in the once-distant -streets. Then he began to rise again-- - -Instantly sharp-ribbed wings battered at him, an open hand struck him -a terrific blow behind the ear, and a second later something long and -steel-hard thudded into his ribs. He was flung forcibly against the -side of the nearby building. Only the mechanical obedience of the -levitator saved him--it had been set for "up," and it dragged him on -up, willy-nilly. A hot liquid oozed down his side from the blow of -the vacuum-rod. In a fog of pain he saw Atel banking purposefully for -another assault, and clutched at the "Up" control again. - -[Illustration: _Wings battered him, and Atel's club thudded against his -ribs._] - -The levitator could climb faster than the Varan could, and Andreson had -a moment's respite. Grimly he kept on going, until a growing sense of -pressure and heat warned him that the rock dome was near. Should he try -to lose himself among the city towers, or yell to Johnny Kimball for -help? - -His whole heart turned from the thought. His earthly life had not -kept him in very good physical shape, but he'd always fought his own -battles. It made no difference that his life was the stake of this one. -_I'll get him yet_, he thought intensely. _Get him without help--if it -kills me._ - -"Well, Earthman," Atel's voice rang out below. The rock dome sent back -a huge echo. "Running already? If Jina could see her hero now!" - -For a moment Andreson was about to dive furiously after the Varan -again, but he thought better of it. He remembered Johnny's words: -"You're no match for him in his own environment." But-- - -Atel was not fighting another winged man. He was fighting an Earthman -with a levitator. That scrap between the buildings--had Atel given -such a buffeting to a Varan he would have knocked him and that would -have been the end of it. But the levitator couldn't be knocked out, no -matter what happened to the man operating it. It wouldn't fall unless -it was set to fall. - -There was something else, too. Birds fly because they're built for -it--among other things they have a huge keel-like breastbone to which -their flying muscles are anchored. But bats don't, and Andreson bet -that the Varans didn't either. Rodents are ancestrally ground-animals, -just like Earthmen, and have to adapt for flying in some other way.... - -Andreson smiled crookedly. There was only one way to test the idea. He -touched the belt again, and the city began to swell beneath him-- - -Atel glided cautiously out of the way of his fall, then closed in. The -Earthman shot off laterally, turned, began a tail-chase. For a few -seconds the absurd circling continued, each combatant trying to gain on -the other. Then Atel realized that the levitator could drive Andreson -faster than he could fly, and spun to face him with a single sweep of -his wings. - -Andreson made no attempt to stop. He shot directly into the Varan's -arms. The vacuum-rod crashed into his injured side again. Gritting his -teeth, he grasped Atel around the chest, trying for a half-Nelson. The -wings fluttered--the bar thudded home once more-- - -Then Atel broke free. "Monster!" he gasped. - -"What's the matter, Atel?" Andreson shouted raggedly. "Met your match?" - -For an answer the Varan shot at him head first, like a gull-winged -rocket. Andreson flung himself lengthwise and grappled once more. -Atel's body, as he had suspected, was remarkably light, probably hollow -boned--and his arms were not nearly as strong as his wings. They simply -couldn't be! - -This was the death struggle. Fiercely the two strove against each -other. Andreson locked one of the flailing legs, steadily forced the -great body back. He had one hand free for a split second, and he -grasped the belt-control-- - -The garish glow of the city began to brighten at an alarming rate. -Atel's hands fastened upon the Earthman's throat; Andreson pried weakly -at them, but he had already lost too much blood to be able to free -himself with one hand. He clung doggedly to the belt-control with the -other. The city grew and grew--the blood pounded in his head, and his -lungs burned like twin sacs of acid--the pillars of cold fire that were -the city's towers flowed past him, blurring rapidly-- - -At the last instant Atel realized what was happening. A scream of -terror was whipped from his mouth into the slip-stream, and he released -Andreson's throat to claw frantically at the hand on the belt-control-- - -But it had been too late seconds ago. Andreson let go of him entirely, -kicked himself free, began to brake. The Varan spread his wings--and -lost his life. The right pinion snapped back and broke at once. The -vanes on the left somehow withstood the blast, but the membrane between -them could not--in a split second the living fabric was bloody tatters. -Atel's body slammed itself to jelly against the bright Earth. - -Dizzy and sick, Andreson concentrated on cutting down the terrific -velocity the levitator had built up. He succeeded fairly well, though -he broke the other foot when he struck. - -The levitator held him upright, swaying. A cloud of winged creatures -gathered around him. One of them he thought he recognized. - -"Jina--" - -"Yes--Ken--we saw most of the fighting--how--" - -"I outflew him," he said proudly, and then passed out for the third -time. - - * * * * * - -Johnny Kimball peered out the door of the chamber the Varans had -assigned as his laboratory, and grinned. "Quite a formal farewell -committee coming across the bridge," he said. "Looks like the whole -Council's in it." - -He looked Andreson over critically. "For a while I was afraid they'd -turn out to be Indian-givers on the levitator deal," he added, "but I -must say you threw yourself into the job of protecting our interests. -Look at you! Both feet bandaged, chest bound, right shoulder strapped -up--if ever a man needed a levitator, you do!" - -"Ah, dry up," Andreson growled. "How near through are you?" - -"Almost. I'm not trying to hit the gallery, though it might be easier -that way." Suddenly he became serious. "I'll tell you what, Ken. It's a -new life we're going back to--a life where you and I can look back into -the past whenever we want, and visit it, too, if we keep quiet about -it. And it's a new world we're going back to, a world which is going -to be given the levitator. That means free flight--not just flight in -machines, but real flight, where one man can fly whenever, wherever he -wants, without having to board a plane or pay a fare. And space-travel, -and no heavy lifting for the housewife, and--" - -"Get to the point." - -Kimball looked a bit crestfallen. "I thought you'd understand how I -felt. Well, I couldn't see going back to the old world at the same -spot we left it. I had a new apartment rented when I left, that I'd -never been in--hasn't even got any furniture in it. I want to put the -Time-window through into there. A fresh start." - -Andreson nodded. "A good idea, Johnny. But--make it quick." - -Along the sunlit bridge the delegation of Varans walked ceremoniously. -In the vanguard was a lovely shape, like an exquisite butterfly. -Kimball looked out the door again and saw her. With a slight smile he -left the room; Andreson didn't notice. - -"Farewell, Ken." - -"Farewell, Jina, I'm sorry to go." - -There was a brief, stiff silence, and then she was in his arms, sobbing -bitterly. - -"Ken--why, why?" - -He swallowed. "Do you remember, up there on the solarium ledge before -the rock dome was destroyed--remember I said I had a question I had to -answer?" - -"Yes ... what--was it?" - -"Just this: _Can Earth and Air mix?_ There's a legend in my time that -few people understand, but I think I understand it. It's the story -of Lilith, queen of Air and Darkness. She fought with Satan and God -alike for the Earth, but she lost, because she was not part of their -universe. It's the same with me. What part could I play in a time not -my own, among people who live in the air?" - -The girl did not move or answer. Steadily he went on: "Besides--there's -a gap between us greater than parsecs or centuries. Look." He took her -hand in his, held it up. The delicate, four-fingered limb made his -own five stubby fingers look lumpy and misshapen. "We have no future -together, Jina. We seem alike, but we're not. The apes are my cousins; -the bats are yours. You should stay with your own race, and have the -children I could never give you. We have no real happiness to give each -other." - -She drew back and squared her shoulders proudly, though her eyes still -brimmed with tears. "You are right," she said. "Go back, then! But I -extract one promise before you go." - -He inclined his head. "Whatever I can do." - -"You have the time-coil, and can visit any age you wish. Promise -me--that you'll never come to this one again." - -He said softly, "I promise, Jina." - -Her first soft kiss was her last. The next instant, it was as if she -had never been. - -"Ready, Ken?" - -The time-coil throbbed once, and then the glass-walled chamber was -empty in the red sunlight. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AGAINST THE STONE BEASTS *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Against the Stone Beasts</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: James Blish</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 25, 2021 [eBook #64630]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AGAINST THE STONE BEASTS ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>Against the Stone Beasts</h1> - -<h2>By JAMES BLISH</h2> - -<p>Down the time-track tumbled Andreson, to land in a<br /> -continuum of ghastly matter-and-space reversal—and<br /> -find a love that shattered the very laws of life!</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Fall 1948.<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>The letters on the fly-specked glass were simple, almost dogmatic. -Andreson eyed them with some amusement. Art agents seldom have any -taste, he thought; can't afford to.</p> - -<p>The sign repeated, <i>Special Showing of Surrealist Paintings</i>, and -declined to offer further information. Andreson started to walk on, -then hovered indecisively. Modern arts of all kinds were his province -in preparation for a doctorate thesis. It wouldn't do to let the -smallest example go by without inspection. He went in.</p> - -<p>The improvised gallery was musty with the odor of departed vegetables, -and very cold. Like the sign, the show had been set up with a braggart -simplicity. No programs, no furniture, no eager guides—there were -not even any guards. Andreson wondered what was to stop a thief from -stooping under the heavy rayon rope, which kept the frames out of reach -of curious or greedy fingers, and making off with the whole collection.</p> - -<p>With his first look at the paintings themselves, Andreson was blessing -his good daemon fervently for having guided his footsteps. He could not -place the works in any specific category; they certainly were <i>not</i> -surrealistic, unless the word had been used in its original meaning of -"super-realistic." The artist had used fantasy for his sources, true -enough, but the results were not the usual shapelessness.</p> - -<p>He angled his long body over the rope and inspected the nearest one. -It was a huge canvas, reaching almost to the floor, and it depicted a -building or similar structure like a glistening glass rod, rising from -a forest of lesser rods toward a red sun of almost tangible hotness. -A single figure, man-like, but borne aloft on taut, delicate wings -which suggested a bat rather than a human, floated over the nearest -of the towers. A quick glance revealed that all the paintings but one -contained several of these shapes; the one exception was a field of -stars with a torpedo streaking across it.</p> - -<p>His quick glance confirmed another suspicion. The scenes were in -deliberate order, as if attempting a pictorial history of the flying -people. He felt vaguely disappointed. This stuff was garden-variety -fantasy, verging on the conceptions of science-fiction. Still, there -was a magnificent technique behind it all—a blending and effacing -of brush-strokes which made the Dutch look like billboard-splashers, -and a mastery of glaze which made each scene glow like an illuminated -transparency.</p> - -<p>This last painting by the door, for instance. It showed the -translucent city again, with approximately the same details—but with -a barely-perceptible dimming of the red sunlight, a single tower -jaggedly shattered, a few other tiny touches, the artist had given it -an atmosphere of almost unbearable desolation. It was the same fabulous -metropolis—but it was tragic, deserted, lost. Peering hopelessly from -the summit of the broken tower was a tiny face, looking directly -upward at Andreson.</p> - -<p>He allowed himself an appreciative shudder, and methodically went -around the gallery, following the history the pictures built up. It -seemed commonplace enough: a race of space-travellers who had colonized -the Earth, perhaps some time in the dim past, had built a civilization, -and had finally succumbed to some undepicted doom. What was amazing -was the utterly convincing way the well-worn story was told. It was -real—super-real, indeed, for it commanded more belief and sympathy -than the everyday human tragedies.</p> - -<p>Andreson took out his fountain pen and an unopened letter and walked -toward the door. He must get the address of this place and attempt to -locate the artist. John Kimball's inscription on the envelope reminded -him that Johnny, though a scientist, dabbled in the arts and would be -interested. He ripped open the flap, then stopped in mid-stride, ducked -under the rayon cord to look at the spaceship scene.</p> - -<p>In many ways this was the most wonderful of the lot. Even a night -sky or a telescope field has no depth; it is merely a black surface -containing spots of light; but the picture surpassed nature. It had a -stereoscopic quality, all the more startling because it was impossible -to ascertain how it was done. Andreson noted with a chuckle that the -agent had placed the paintings in such order that there was a strong -draft blowing toward the picture, as if being drained away into that -awesome vacuum. A strictly phony trick, but clever nonetheless. Curious -in spite of his better instincts, he put out a tentative finger to the -surface of the scene—</p> - -<p>The fountain pen clattered to the floor.</p> - -<p>He gaped idiotically, and stirred with his finger at the nothingness -where the picture still seemed to be. In his shock-numbed mind two -words burned fiercely:</p> - -<p><i>It's real.</i></p> - -<p>Ridiculous. Tensely he forced himself to move his hand in deeper, -against the yelling of his nerves. It struck a slight, tingling -resistance, like a curtain of static electricity—and then the blood -was pounding in each finger as if trying to burst through the skin. He -snatched the hand back. There <i>was</i> a vacuum there; cut off from the -room by some unseen force through which the air was leaking rapidly.</p> - -<p>Teetering on the edge of panic, he struggled to make better sense -of the facts. The prickly pounding he had felt in his fingers might -well have been electrical and only that, and Johnny Kimball had once -demonstrated for him the "static jet" which might explain the draft of -air. Three-dimensional television, perhaps—</p> - -<p>He shook his head. No inventor would set up a demonstration like this, -in an abandoned grocery, without any announcement or literature; nor -would there be likely to be eighteen screens, each one showing a -motionless and quite impossible scene. No; it was insane, but these -garish things were—</p> - -<p>Windows.</p> - -<p>Into what? Clutching at his frayed emotions, he took a step toward the -next frame. His foot crunched on the forgotten fountain pen. For a -second he flailed in terror at nothing, and then pitched head foremost -over the low ledge.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>After a moment the sweet piping spoke again. "You are not hurt. The -mental shock will pass shortly."</p> - -<p>Andreson said nothing and stared fixedly at the crimson glow underneath -his eyelids. Physically he was unhurt, but his sanity was precarious. -In his mind, behind the closed lids, it happened over and over again: -the long twisting fall, with the great city spinning and growing -beneath him in a riot of color, and damp hot air gushing past him, the -sudden swooping of the dark figure and the thrum of wings. He tried to -pass out again and awaken on the floor of the gallery, but the cold, -chiming voice jabbed him awake again.</p> - -<p>"This is quite real. You are intelligent enough to accept it—stop -thinking like an infant."</p> - -<p>The motherly reprimand under such circumstances planted a small germ -of amusement somewhere in his mind, and he grasped it frantically and -began to laugh, still keeping his eyes clenched shut. Even without -seeing its face, he could feel the creature's alarm at his hysteria, -but he allowed the shaking to exhaust him into a sort of calmness. Only -when his breathing had become controlled and even did he allow himself -a second look.</p> - -<p>Red sunlight played harshly in upon him through the translucent walls -of the small room, and burned sullenly within the crystal bar which -crossed above his head. One wall was recessed with what seemed to be -bookshelves, and odd articles of furniture stood here and there; but -evidently none of them had been designed for humans, for he was lying -on the smooth floor, his jacket bunched under his head. The cowled -shape still arched over him with Satanic solicitude, black against the -glare, and somehow smaller than he had expected it to be. He hoped that -that cape would not expand into wings—not yet—for his new calm still -stood at the shimmering verge of madness.</p> - -<p>"Thank you," he said carefully. "I owe you my life."</p> - -<p>The silhouetted head moved as if to dismiss the matter. "Your sudden -appearance in mid-air was startling. We were fortunate that I happened -to be in flight at the time."</p> - -<p>With a whispering sound, like the rustling of heavy cloth, the figure -moved out of the direct rays of the sun and settled gracefully against -one of the furniture-like things. The light struck it full, and -Andreson gasped and sat bolt upright.</p> - -<p>She was winged, no doubt about that. But the bat-like impression those -wings had given him seemed to have been only a product of distance. -Seen in closeup, the wings were tawny and delicate, and traced with -intricate veins, their ribs were close-set, the webbing like the -sheerest silk. They rose from the girl's back where her shoulderblades -should have been, and at rest curved around her sides and made a -backdrop for her legs and feet.</p> - -<p>Except for those gorgeous pinions, which set her off like two great -Japanese fans, she might have been human, or close to it. She no more -suggested the rodent than the goddess Diana would have suggested -a female gorilla. The wings, something about the bony structure -underlying her face, a vague <i>otherness</i> about her proportions—except -for these minute differences she could have passed anywhere for a -strikingly lovely human girl. Her clothing was brief and simple, and -not weighted with ornaments, for she needed free limbs and no useless -baggage for flight.</p> - -<p>Andreson realized that he was goggling and rearranged his face as best -he could. She did not seem to take his amazed inspection as anything -but normal, however. "Are you a time-traveller?" she asked, tilted her -head curiously. "We could think of no other explanation. Are you from -our track?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know," Andreson confessed. "My trip was accidental, and the -mechanism is a mystery to me." He considered asking about the gallery, -but the girl's questions had already told him it would be fruitless.</p> - -<p>He masked his emotions in the mechanism of locating and lighting a -cigarette, while the girl waited with polite patience. It was hard to -forget that there was an obscure doom prophesied—or had it been merely -narrated, as historical fact?—for this exquisite creature and her -whole civilization, and he was determined to say nothing about it until -he knew what he was talking about.</p> - -<p>"I discovered in my time a sort of gateway to your time, and to -seventeen other nearly synchronous moments, set up by a scientist -unknown to me. Each of the gates seems to open upon one single specific -instant. For instance: before I fell into the one which brought me -here, I saw a figure I'm sure was yours. And it was motionless above -the city, all the time that I was watching it."</p> - -<p>He broke off suddenly. "Wait a minute. If this is another time—well, -suppose you tell me: am I speaking your language, or do you know mine? -Or are you a telepath?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She laughed, each sound a clear, musical tone, as if she had been -struck by a desire to sing the <i>Bell Song</i>. "Don't you know your own -language when you hear it? No, the Varese are not telepathic—few -races are. But a truly telepathic race allied with us has provided our -culture with a good stock of equipment for tapping various parts of the -mind. We use it for education. We simply tapped your language centers -while you were unconscious."</p> - -<p>A shadow passed across the glowing wall, and he heard the -already-familiar hum of wings. A moment later a newcomer was outlined -in the sunlight in a low doorway which seemed to open on empty space. -It was a man, this time, a figure almost exactly Andreson's height, -and perhaps a little older, though it was hard to judge. He smiled -unpleasantly at the human, revealing two upper incisors which were -slightly larger than the rest of his teeth, and demanded, "Well, what -time is he?"</p> - -<p>"What time are you?" Andreson countered. "We've no record of you in our -history. You could have flourished, died, or moved on a dozen times -without our knowing it—our records go back only three thousand years."</p> - -<p>"Well taken," the Varan said, making himself comfortable on one of the -odd "chairs." "We're not native, here, of course. But so far we've -found no mammals on this planet, except a few egg-laying ones that -aren't even entirely warm-blooded yet; so you <i>must</i> be a considerable -distance in our future. Furthermore, you're a time-traveller, which -means that you know more than we do, for time is a problem we have -never broken."</p> - -<p>The girl shook her head slowly, all traces of her former laughter -vanished. "It's no use, Atel. He's here by accident, and isn't a -scientist."</p> - -<p>"What's the matter?" Andreson said. Both faces looked so somber that he -nearly forgot his own problem. "Are you in trouble?"</p> - -<p>"We're at war," the girl said softly. "And we shall probably be -exterminated, all of us, before the year is over."</p> - -<p>Andreson remembered again the picture of the deserted city, and despite -the hot sun he felt the same chill.</p> - -<p>"This planet you call Earth," Atel said, "has no life on its surface -now with enough intelligence to count up to three. But after we had -been here fifty-three of its years, we discovered that Earth has a -civilization of its own all the same—<i>inside</i>."</p> - -<p>A dozen legends chased through Andreson's mind at once. "Cave-dwellers -of some sort? It hardly seems credible."</p> - -<p>"No, not cave-dwellers. These aren't even solid, and they couldn't live -in caves. They live <i>in</i> the Earth—in the rock itself, and all the -way down to the core. They are—space-beasts. They move through solid -matter just as you and I move through space, and are stopped by space -as we are stopped by a solid wall. In the air, for instance, we're safe -from them, for what is to us a thin gas is for them a viscous, almost -rigid medium. In the oceans, we meet on equal terms; but true solids -are their natural medium."</p> - -<p>"How did you discover them?"</p> - -<p>"They discovered us," the girl said. "They have besieged the city ever -since the fifty-third year after our landing. They're invisible, of -course, but we can see them as openings in the earth. The openings -change shape as they move, and of course no natural pit does that. In -their own universe, the hollow Earth bounded by its solid atmosphere, -they are flying creatures, and their sense of gravity is the reverse of -ours."</p> - -<p>Her clear, fluting voice became steadily duller, losing its inflection -as the tale went on. "Before we came here," she said, "we had -encountered what our scientists call counter-matter—matter of opposite -electrical nature to ours. But this complete inversion of space-matter -relationships was unknown to us. The space-beasts knew about it. They -are bent on driving us from the Earth...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Andreson felt his mind reeling into hysteria again. It was difficult -enough to accept the spotless, shining glass chamber and the two winged -Varese—but this story of an inside-out universe and its air-treading -masters—if only John Kimball had been the one to hear it—</p> - -<p>"Sometimes," Atel said reflectively, "I think the Varese have earned -their defeat. There was a time when we were carrying the fight into the -enemy's own cosmos. But it was their cosmos, not ours, and they knew it -very well! Our change of state, while it enabled us to see our foes, -could not change our mental orientation. We were lost in that hollow -darkness. We could not forget that each great gulf was actually a -mountain, the sudden chasms were buildings we ourselves had built,—and -the things like tiny burrows which kept opening and closing all about -our feet were the footfalls of our brothers. And the space-beasts -swooped upon us, each of them with six tiers of wings muttering -against the solid magma of the Earth, and our weapons were crude and -worthless...."</p> - -<p>Andreson's mind tasted the concept and rejected it with a shudder. -"But surely," he said as steadily as he could, "you must have better -weapons, now."</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes, we have the weapons. But we are decadent, and have lost the -initiative to be the aggressors. The machines that accomplished the -reversal of state for our ancestors have lain idle for a century in the -bowels of our city. We no longer understand them. We are dying, first -of all, of old age—the space-beasts are the accident that speeds us -along the way. Shall I tell you what we use against them now?"</p> - -<p>The girl stirred protestingly. Andreson looked at her, but she would -not return the glance. Atel went on relentlessly.</p> - -<p>"Look." From under his tunic he produced a heavy, long metal rod.</p> - -<p>"A club? But—I don't see how—"</p> - -<p>"It's hollow," Atel said succinctly. "The metal, of course, is useless, -but the vacuum inside is steel-hard to them. Space crushing into space, -and gouts of hard radiation bursting like blood from the contact. -That's all we have now, that and a feeble energising process which -sometimes seals off the foundations of the city. Walls, and clubs! Our -last miserable recourses—and then—</p> - -<p>"Then the space-beasts will own the Earth again."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>By the time John Kimball had finished disconnecting the leads to the -multiple screen and rewiring the master converter he was nearly blind -with fatigue and his fingertips jerked and danced uncontrollably on the -verniers. The sleepless nights of the previous week, and the emotional -strain under which he had been working throughout was taking its toll -now. After the wave-splitting effect had first suggested it to him, -he had spent most of the week erecting the demonstration, and quite -probably the triumphant letter he had mailed to Andreson afterwards had -been a little crazy.</p> - -<p>As soon as he had posted the letter he had managed to get in about -twenty hours of deathlike slumber. It was hardly enough, but there was -no help for that now. Except for the first, sickening shock—for the -discarded, empty envelope on the floor, the splintered fountain pen, -and the one screen featureless and flickeringly gray, had told him what -had happened in instant detail—he had wasted no time cursing himself -for his grandiose "gallery" stunt. The Colossus in the cellar would -need many hours of weary, desperate work before the cauterized scars of -Andreson's cannoning fall through the tissues of Time would open enough -to permit Kimball to follow.</p> - -<p>A tumbler clicked in the pre-dawn silence, and a flood of magnetons -sped through the primary coils. The ensuing process was quiet and -invisible, but Kimball could feel it—the familiar, nauseating strain -which had first led him to the basic principle. It meant that tiny -lacunae were being born in the fabric of Time, spreading and merging -as the spinning magnetic field tore at them. He slumped on his stool -and waited. He was not sure that the last hour's work had been even -approximately right, but his gibbering nerves would no longer permit -calculation or delicate mechanical correction. The die was cast, and -wherever the nascent achronic gateway led, he would have to follow.</p> - -<p>After a moment he discovered that the climbing dial needles were -hypnotizing him. Getting up from the stool, he proceeded to collect his -equipment, moving like a zombie. It was futile to wish he had studied -the period more closely, but at least it was clear that the age of the -winged colonists had been warfare; best to be armed, though there was -a good chance that his pistol would be far outclassed. A flashlight -clipped to his belt, and an alcohol compass tuned to the machine's -field rather than the Earth's, and he was ready.</p> - -<p>He stepped into the heavy torus coil which terminated the series—there -had been no time to set up a new frame—and turned out the cellar light.</p> - -<p>The machine made no sound, and in the blackness no one could have seen -that after a few moments it was alone.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The light of the red sun ran back and forth along the catwalk in -quivering lines, and all around it the city glistened in faery-like -beauty. Andreson regarded the bridge dubiously; it was little more than -a thread of crystal.</p> - -<p>"It will bear your weight," the girl said, mistaking his trepidation. -Masking his thoughts, he set out across it.</p> - -<p>"They have come through several times, just recently," Atel continued -evenly. "In a sort of borer—I suppose they thought of it as -that—whose walls were invisible, its machinery a contorted group of -vacancies in a solid interior. But we destroyed the solid part, and -they were crushed. It is hard to imagine how empty space could crush. -But we have the law that two objects may not exist in the same space at -the same time, and this seems to be its converse."</p> - -<p>Andreson tried it out: two spaces cannot exist in the same—in the same -what? Abruptly his head was whirling and in the vast distance the earth -reeled and shuddered; the glassy thread under his feet seemed to swivel -back and forth like a tightrope. He was going over—</p> - -<p>Behind him, powerful vanes cracked open, and lean hands grappled his -shoulders firmly. "Thanks," he gasped, flailing with his feet at the -landing of the next building. Atel grinned contemptuously and leaned -him against the wall like a manikin.</p> - -<p>"Nevertheless," the winged man proceeded as imperturbably as ever, -"they learn rapidly. If they ever find out the secret of reversing -their condition, we can close the book on Varan history." He jerked -open the door to which the platform led, and Andreson and the girl -followed him through.</p> - -<p>From the level upon which they were standing all the way up to the -summit of this new tower there was a vast chamber, domed with a clear -roof. Around the base of the dome proper a ledge or platform ran, -upon which was more of the furniture-like stuff—evidently a sort -of solarium. Extending outside the walls as well as inside, it gave -the building the look of a giant in a plastic helmet. At the apex of -the dome a gem, like a giant's diamond, was fixed, rotating slowly, -catching the sunlight and sending a parade of rainbow hues over the -seats banked far below.</p> - -<p>"Starstone Chamber," the girl said. "Our council hall."</p> - -<p>"It's beautiful. Not a place for stuffy-minded men, I'd say."</p> - -<p>They walked down through the tiers of seats toward the bottom of the -arena, where what appeared to be the head of a spiral staircase was -visible.</p> - -<p>"Where are we bound?"</p> - -<p>"To Goseq, one of our senior psychologists," Atel said. "We want to see -what we can dredge up about the sciences of your period. Doubtless -your observation, being untrained, missed most of the essentials, but -there ought to be <i>some</i> kind of residuum in your subconscious."</p> - -<p>"Why don't you fly me back to where I fell out of?" Andreson suggested -stiffly. "I realize that you can't expect to remember the exact spot, -but those 'windows' must look both ways, and should be findable. I -could send you a more suitable specimen—a friend of mine who's a -scientist—"</p> - -<p>"We do know the exact spot," Atel interrupted. "We have detectors in -operation at all times—naturally! But a thorough search of that area -revealed nothing."</p> - -<p>Andreson sighed. "I was afraid of that. The apparatus evidently wasn't -intended to be used for an airplane; I suppose I blew it out."</p> - -<p>The girl, who had been preceding them, stopped at the top of the -stairwell and levelled a dainty finger at Atel. "Why don't you stop -tormenting him because he's not a scientist?" she demanded angrily. "It -isn't his fault! He's doing his best for us!"</p> - -<p>Atel's eyebrows would have shot up, had he had any. "Certainly," he -purred, with an ironical gesture. "I'm sure you understand my attitude, -Mr. Andreson. As a non-scientist, you are more of a curiosity than a -gift, and that is a disappointment to us. We shall try to make your -stay here as comfortable—<i>and as short</i>—as possible."</p> - -<p>Andreson, taken aback at the girl's sudden outburst, hardly knew what -to say. He was spared the task of replying, however—</p> - -<p>The sun went out!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The girl gave a smothered little cry, and the human clumsily tried to -make his way through the blackness toward where he had last seen her. A -powerful four-fingered hand grasped his elbow roughly.</p> - -<p>"Stand still," Atel growled. "Jina! It may be another attack. Wait for -the tower lights."</p> - -<p>Andreson was uncertain as to whether "Jina!" was an expletive or the -girl's name, which he had never heard before, but he stood still, -resisting an impulse to shake Atel off. After a moment an eerie sound -drifted to his ears: a distant, musical keening.</p> - -<p>"Ah. It is a raid—there's the alarm."</p> - -<p>As he spoke, a dim radiance filtered down over them, bringing the -ranked seats of the council chamber into ghostly relief. It was coming -down from the dome, but the great jewel no longer scattered rainbows. -The light did not seem to have any single source.</p> - -<p>"Aloft with him," Atel ordered.</p> - -<p>Reluctantly the girl gripped the Earthman's other arm, and two pairs -of wings thrummed together in the echoing chamber. He felt himself -arrowing dizzily skyward, and tried to hold his body stiff.</p> - -<p>A second later they were standing on the high ledge among the deserted -couches. Below them, the city, seen here from its highest tower, was -presenting a heart stopping new facet of its beauty. Every one of the -crystalline shafts were gleaming with blue-white flame along its entire -length; though no single one was too bright to be looked at directly, -their total effect was of a sea of light almost as brilliant as high -noon. Tiny motes drifted back and forth across the pillars of radiance: -Varans in flight, evidently going to their posts in answer to the alarm.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>But when Andreson looked up to see what had happened to the sun, what -he saw wiped the miracle of the city from his mind.</p> - -<p>The sky had turned to rock. The whole metropolis was trapped in a -tremendous hemisphere of some strange substance, a stony bowl, smooth -and polished, and veined with dark red lines like bad marble. Here and -there the glow of the city struck sullen fire against the lava-like -surface.</p> - -<p>When Atel finally spoke, his voice had none of its previous arrogance. -"They have us now," he husked. "Our sky is granite to them—and they've -destroyed cubic miles of it, instantaneously! Our power, our air ... -cut off!"</p> - -<p>"They've worked a miracle," the girl said with unwilling respect. "The -beasts are scientists—we knew that in the beginning. Don't you see, -Atel? They'll use that dome to get above the city! And their borers, -too—"</p> - -<p>Indecisively Atel spread his wings half-way. "We can't carry this -Earthman about the city now," he said. "Jina, go to your post. I'll -take him back to my rooms."</p> - -<p>"But—" Andreson and the girl protested simultaneously.</p> - -<p>"Need I remind you that I command this sector during emergencies, by -Council order?" the Varan snapped. "He'll be no safer with us than -alone in the apartments. Take him down again."</p> - -<p>Mutely Jina took the human's arm, and the two picked him up again—he -was becoming a little tired of being catapulted through the air once -every hour—and plunged back to the catwalk door.</p> - -<p>"All right," the Varan told the girl, his voice edged with impatience. -"You're needed elsewhere, Jina."</p> - -<p>She disappeared silently into the cavern of Starstone Chamber. Atel -slid the door back and cocked his head, a grotesque silhouette against -the faintly hazed oval opening. After a moment, Andreson heard the -sound too: a weird, intermittent buzzing noise. It set his teeth on -edge, and sent little waves of sheer hatred coursing through his body. -The stocky Varan drew him out onto the platform and pointed upward.</p> - -<p>"Borers," he grunted. "You can see one from here."</p> - -<p>It was quite high, about half-way between the summit of the tower -and the surface of the rock sky, and moving very slowly. It reminded -Andreson of a legless centipede—a long, joined cylinder, with the -same stony, red-veined texture that the great bowl presented. In the -feeble light he thought he saw small openings appearing and vanishing: -the space-beasts, moving about inside their mechanism! The brief -glimpse was somehow the most horrible thing he had ever seen. He could -distinguish at least two other tones in the gruesome buzzing, and he -knew that the borer was not alone above the city.</p> - -<p>"They've learned that hollow things are deadly—learned from us," -Atel spat out bitterly. "See the column of light inching out from -the borer's nose? They are disintegrating a tunnel for their vacuum -torpedoes. It's a slow-motion kind of warfare—but when one side wins -constantly, it can't last forever. Feel the radiation?"</p> - -<p>Andreson discovered that he was scratching. His skin felt as if he had -a mild sunburn. "The boring mechanism?" he suggested.</p> - -<p>"Right," Atel admitted, his tone grudging. "Matter-against-matter -generates radiant heat. Space-against-space generates X-rays and worse. -Deadly stuff! If our gunners can only—"</p> - -<p>Andreson never heard the end of the sentence. Without the slightest -warning he was again sprawling through the hot dark air—</p> - -<p>Alone!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>Kimball's right shoe caught in a burrow and he fell again. This time -the expected shock came late; evidently he had been on the brink of a -pit of some sort, for his shoulders slammed against the hard ground -with an unexpected impact, and he slewed down a long decline. He lay at -the bottom for an indefinite period—neither time nor distance had any -meaning in this blackness—and then got up again.</p> - -<p>Through the steady, muted roaring which had been in his ears ever -since he had dropped from the torus coil, a roaring like the sound in -a seashell, multiplied to the point of madness, a leathery muttering -sound began to grow. He yanked his flashlight from the belt-clip and -shot a cone of light upward.</p> - -<p>He was rewarded with a ululating, deafening scream, and something -winged and huge sheared off from the beam. The muttering of the wings -faded again, and with it went a sticky blubbering, like the crying of -an idiot child. Sick at his stomach, he pumped a shot after it, and was -surprised to hear it scream again.</p> - -<p>That would hold them for a while. They weren't very cautious about the -automatic, for they seemed to expect that he would score a hit with it -only by rare chance; but they hated the flashlight. They'd not try that -dive-bombing stunt on him soon again.</p> - -<p>He could hear them settling around the rim of the pit. Deliberately he -lit a cigarette. For a second he could see the bulky, pasty bodies and -the blinded heads arching above him; then they all whispered with agony -and drew away out of sight. Even the dim coal of the burning fag was -too much for them.</p> - -<p>But before long the batteries of the flashlight would be drained, the -cigarettes gone, the matches exhausted. When that time came, Kimball -knew, he would be torn to tatters, but it didn't bother him much now. -He had been almost unconscious with fatigue when the badly-adjusted -master machine had dumped him into this nightmare; but the beasts, -savage though they were, had been curious. For a while they had -questioned him with very little hostility, and had aroused his interest -enough to give him second—or had it been twenty-second?—wind. Their -upsetting version of telepathy, which projected subtly different -emotional states instead of ideas, had awakened him thoroughly.</p> - -<p>He had just realized that he had arrived <i>inside</i> the Earth, probably -in a space-negative state to boot, when he had felt the urge for a -cigarette....</p> - -<p>He sighed and stood up. There was no way to tell how long he had been -in this midnight universe, but if he could only stick it out until a -full twenty-four hours were up, the master machine would act on him -again. The faulty windings of its coils would prevent it from returning -him to the abandoned grocery as it was supposed to do—but at least it -would throw him out of <i>this</i> black, demon-haunted universe.</p> - -<p>At his movement, the beasts rustled eagerly back to the rim of the -pit, scarcely audible in the mass echo which was as natural to the -hollow world as air. He turned on the flashlight, pointing it at the -ground—he did not care to hear them all scream at once. There was a -thundering flurry of wings above him; then silence.</p> - -<p>Doggedly, he began to climb. <i>Keep moving</i>, he thought, <i>you can sleep -in your next universe—wherever that'll be</i>.</p> - -<p>The beasts wheeled patiently.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Andreson lay tasting the sensation of being dead for several minutes -before he realized that he was hardly even jarred. His eyes were open, -but nothing he could see made sense to him. There was no sign of Atel. -Lying flat on his back, he looked stupidly upward at a column of soft -light that seemed to reach miles into the air, ending in glowing -haze. The rock dome had vanished, and in its place was a pattern of -gigantic, garish stalactites.</p> - -<p>Wait a minute. There <i>was</i> something familiar here—</p> - -<p>He rolled over cautiously and found an edge to the mysterious surface -he had fallen to. He thrust his head over it and peered downward.</p> - -<p>The rock dome was below him, not above! The space-beasts, who reacted -to gravity in reverse, had imposed their environment upon the city. -Only the solarium platform, which had been directly above where he had -been standing on the catwalk, had saved him from mashing against the -dome. He wondered if the Varan gunners had been able to hit any of the -borers under these conditions. He couldn't hear the buzzing sound—no, -wait, there was a single buzzing tone, seemingly far away. Well, two -down, anyhow.</p> - -<p>A winged figure sailed by below him, its pinions tensely outspread, -gulling the air. He shouted at it, but there was no response. He -wondered what had happened to Atel. He must have fallen from the -catwalk, too, but certainly he couldn't have been hurt—he didn't -look like the type to pass out in mid-air. Andreson called again. -After a pause, an infinitely remote response came back to him: -<i>Atelatelteltellelellll</i>....</p> - -<p>The echo of his first shout! The Varan must have forgotten about him -in the shock of the reversal, and flown off to his post, leaving the -Earthman stranded. Andreson knew it was quite possible that he had been -deliberately abandoned, but he forced himself not to think about it.</p> - -<p>Right now, he had to get off this ledge, and back inside a building. A -preferable spot would be Atel's rooms; they were close, and there would -be only a short, harmless distance to fall either way, no matter what -the warring factions did with the city's gravity. Yet Atel's doorway, -so mockingly close, was in reality as good as miles away unless he -could figure out something nearly as good as flying!</p> - -<p>Suppose he should wait where he was, and fall back to the catwalk when -the Varans succeeded in neutralizing the effect? He shuddered. The -catwalk was narrow and he might easily miss it. In any case, it might -take a long time—the space-beasts seemed to have the edge on the -Varans so far, and if they won, he'd starve here. He eyed the wall of -the building above him. It was about twenty feet "up" to the catwalk, -and no handholds were visible. The top side—now the "under" side—of -the solarium platform was no better; all the furniture had long since -fallen away, and even had it been still there, bolted to the surface, -he'd have thought twice before trying to crawl from couch to couch -toward Starstone Chamber's roof. It was a long way to the rock sky.</p> - -<p>He risked standing up, hoping that the Varese would not choose this -instant to change things around again—if they did, he'd be dumped on -his head. The illusion of <i>downness</i> was quite perfect, but it was hard -to forget that it was an illusion. His knees wobbled as if he were -standing on a pile of telephone books.</p> - -<p>After steadying himself against the wall, he made a slow circuit of the -tower, stepping over the structural members of the platform cautiously. -No doorways here—even a flying people usually enter floors from the -top side. Returning, he eyed the upper edge of the catwalk doorway. It -was an eight-foot opening, and he was exactly six feet tall; that left -a margin of about six feet, which he might be able to jump. He wasn't -in very good shape, and the platform didn't offer much of a starting -run, but he'd have to chance it.</p> - -<p>He backed gingerly to the edge of the platform, hunched, ran, leaped. -He struck the glassy wall at full length, and clawed frantically at it—</p> - -<p>Missed. The drop back to the deck knocked the wind out of him again, -but he got up stubbornly. Crouch ... run ... leap—</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>His hands latched over the edge of the lintel and closed on it. Drawing -his knees up into his waist, he planted his toes and heaved. The first -push got his elbows over the edge, and after a long struggle he managed -to bend his body over it at the belt. Suspended, he looked dizzily -"down" at the inside of the Chamber, his feet dangling in thin air.</p> - -<p>It was only an equivalent distance to the bottom side of the inner -solarium platform, but he didn't want to go that way. There'd be no -sense in rattling aimlessly about the roof of the hall, waiting for his -back to be broken across the seats. Somehow, he had to work himself -down to the catwalk.</p> - -<p>There was no other way but to shinny along the side of the lintel. -He swapped ends, so that his legs were now in the Chamber, and took -off his shoes and socks with a good deal of difficulty. His feet were -sweating—indeed, he was wet all over—so he wiped them with the tops -of the socks; then he began precariously to inch himself upward.</p> - -<p>By the time he made the bottom side of the catwalk, he was weak with -fear, and his clothes were soaked; but he couldn't allow himself any -time to recover, for there was now nothing "above" him but the chasm of -the city street. He worked his way across on his hands and knees—no -matter which way "down" was, this was a thin bridge for an earthbound -man, a bridge much more decorative than it was useful—and lowered -himself over the edge until he could curl his body around Atel's -doorway.</p> - -<p>A moment later he was sprawled on Atel's ceiling, amid a litter of the -surly Varan's personal effects. He had hardly come to rest when he -fainted with a small sigh.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The second flipover of the city's gravity barely jounced him, but it -seemed to cause a lot of damage elsewhere. He had just gotten to his -feet when a terrific crash rang from the street below, and was followed -at once by others in other parts of the metropolis. He went to the -catwalk and looked over it—very tentatively, for he was warier than -ever of open spaces—but the distance was too great. He guessed that -something which hadn't been fastened down when the original reversal -took place had just made the return trip.</p> - -<p>As he peered, four or five of the winged people stepped from a platform -far below his eyrie, and began to mount. Since they were between him -and the glowing side of the next building, he did not recognize Atel -and Jina among them until they were almost upon him.</p> - -<p>As they settled gracefully on the catwalk, he noted with some surprise -that they were all armed with a glass-muzzled, pistol-like weapon -instead of the usual metal bar; and judging from their expressions, -they anticipated trouble.</p> - -<p>"I see you weren't killed," Atel said grimly. He seemed a bit -disappointed.</p> - -<p>"No. But I did a lot of dropping back and forth," Andreson returned -acidly. "Why the artillery?"</p> - -<p>"These men are members of the Council Guard. They think you're a spy of -some sort. They suspect me, too, for forgetting about you during the -fighting."</p> - -<p>"That's ridiculous!" Jina burst in, her breast pulsing hotly. "They -never thought of it until you suggested it!"</p> - -<p>"We can't afford to run any risks."</p> - -<p>"Who am I spying for?" Andreson demanded. "The beasts? Jina's right—it -is ridiculous."</p> - -<p>"Yes, the beasts," one of the Guardsmen said flatly. "You're a native -of Earth, no matter what your Time, and so are they. You could easily -be the vanguard of a raid."</p> - -<p>Andreson's temper was already short from the buffeting he had taken. -"There's not a shred of evidence for such a theory," he snapped.</p> - -<p>"Unfortunately, there is," Atel purred. "We noticed a beast travelling -through the foundations of the city, just below the energy barrier, and -managed to trap it. We let it get up into a pillar and then energized -both ends. We were just about to kill it with hollow slugs when it -materialized—the first time the beasts have ever succeeded in doing -it, and it's an evil augury."</p> - -<p>"Well? I still don't see...."</p> - -<p>"<i>It was an Earthman.</i>"</p> - -<p>Andreson's mind nibbled around the edges of the fact. It was startling -enough in itself, but he could make little sense of it. How would an -Earthman have gotten into the reverse universe? And how at this Time in -the dim past?</p> - -<p>"Perhaps it's another victim of the gallery," he suggested, frowning. -"It never occured to me before, but that infernal place might have been -set up deliberately as a time-trap—perhaps by the beasts!"</p> - -<p>"Perhaps," the Guardsman said. "But we can see no purpose behind such -time-trapping, and Atel's interpretation makes better sense. Come along -with us."</p> - -<p>Andreson shrugged. "Where to?"</p> - -<p>"Starstone Chamber. The Council has been called to vote on what -dispensation to make of both of you. Atel—hold his other arm. If the -beasts wear down our shield we will all be thrown on our heads again."</p> - -<p>The Earthman allowed the Varans to take his elbows without any protest. -He had a very vivid picture of himself buttered crimsonly over the -inner surface of the rock arching above. <i>Save the heroics for later</i>, -he thought.</p> - -<p>He had imagined a Council meeting as a huge affair, with all the banked -chairs filled; but actually there were only about twenty of the Varese -present, plus the lone, mysterious Earthman. Andreson scanned the -stranger's features eagerly as they approached.</p> - -<p>"Well, I'll be damned!" he shouted. "What are you doing here?"</p> - -<p>"Hello, Ken," Kimball said calmly. "I hardly know myself. Read my -letter yet?"</p> - -<p>"No. Say—are <i>you</i> responsible for that Surrealist trickery back in -our own time? I should have guessed it. I ought to push your face in."</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't blame you," the scientist agreed. "But I never dreamed -you'd hit upon it by accident, before you'd read my note explaining -what it was. In the letter I made a date to meet you there, and I -arrived a little early. I went out to pick up some supplies, and while -I was gone—well—"</p> - -<p>"I'll have to let you off this time. You already look a bit damaged, -Johnny."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Damaged was hardly the word. Kimball looked as if he had been caught -in a cement mixer. His clothes were filthy and cut to ribbons; bloody -knees showed through holes in his trousers, he had a long, raw cut -across his forehead, and his voice was husky with weariness.</p> - -<p>The Varans had listened to the conversation with polite impatience, -mixed with suspicion. The Councilman who wore the gem on his -forehead, a replica of the giant diamond above them, broke in with an -authoritative gesture, waving the group to seats.</p> - -<p>"Mr. Kimball has offered us certain explanations," he said. "They -seem adequate; it appears that he is the agency of Mr. Andreson's -misfortune. But we are losing one battle, and can't afford to take on -another. Our major question must be—How can we believe you?"</p> - -<p>"One problem at a time," Kimball said. "About your present battle. -I've watched your whole history, and I know you're doomed to lose -it. This city will be deserted in another century. But it will be an -orderly retreat, and will result in the complete extermination of the -space-beasts."</p> - -<p>Atel's mouth drew down at the corners. "Obviously a fabrication. If we -wiped out the beasts, why should we leave?"</p> - -<p>"Because you'll wipe them out with matter-bombs, set to fall into their -universe in their state, and then explode into yours. The process -will cause violent earthquakes on Earth's surface—it'll change the -whole climate of the planet, wipe out the giant reptiles, start the -tiny mammals on their long upward climb toward the species Ken and I -represent. Your civilization wouldn't survive such an upheaval. By the -time things have quieted down, you'll be more comfortable on Venus."</p> - -<p>There was a small stir of surprise among the Varans. "We already have -a small colony on Venus," the Council head admitted in a somewhat -friendly voice. "But as things stand now, I cannot see how we can hold -them off for the rest of a century!"</p> - -<p>"I can help you there. You work on sun-power, right?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. The mining of atomic fuels on this savage planet would not be -fruitful. But that rock dome over our heads has cut us off, and our -stored power will give out shortly. We've already had to cut down on -the city's lighting, and we're trying to drill the dome."</p> - -<p>"You'll never drill that dome in a thousand years. It's maintained by -atomics—it might just as well be pure neutronium for all the dent -you'll make in it. I can show you how to build a time-coil. We'll just -open a window onto Tomorrow Noon and let the sunlight stream in on your -main converter. It's really quite simple once you know the principle."</p> - -<p>"By the Jewel! Have you repealed the law of the conservation of energy?"</p> - -<p>"Not at all. Just doesn't apply. Energy taken from one Time doesn't -alter the total available in the continuum. Here, I'll show you." He -pulled out a pencil. "Got any paper? No? Ken, do you still have that -letter on you?"</p> - -<p>"Here you are," said Andreson, handing it over. "I'm glad it's going to -be good for <i>something</i>, anyhow."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The besieged city was dark, except for a few furtive gleams far below. -On the solarium platform they could see little but the dim shapes of -the nearby pinnacles, and the tiny rivers of light quivering on the -glassy flanks. Above, the stone cap pressed down heavily. Despite -Kimball's time-window into Tomorrow Noon, the confined air was hot, -motionless, enervating.</p> - -<p>"It's a bad age, Jina," Andreson said. "Full of warfare and misery. I -don't think you'd like it."</p> - -<p>Jina stirred protestingly beside him. "You paint it in very dark -colors, Ken. We have our own war here, and the jungle, the storms, the -great reptiles...."</p> - -<p>She broke off as a dark figure swooped silently from the depths, passed -them, and began to rise more slowly toward the dome. A tiny glow at its -head made a red trail in the dimness, and it did not seem to have any -wings.</p> - -<p>"That must be your friend," the girl murmured, pointing. "See—he has -one of those things called cigarettes, that he smokes all the time."</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Andreson, not much interested. Since Kimball had arrived, -he had been the center of interest among most of the Varans, and -Andreson had been allowed to shift for himself. It had taken some -persuasion on Johnny's part to get Andreson a copy of the anti-gravity -"wings" with which they had equipped the Earth physicist. For a while -the neglect had nettled Andreson, and at the moment he definitely did -not want to talk to Kimball. Jina interested him a good deal more.</p> - -<p>But Jina was still dreaming of her picture of Earth, as it would be -millions of years hence. Before Andreson could protest, she leapt into -the air and soared after the trailing cigarette glow. He watched, -grousing, while the little red spark halted in mid-air and did a -short minuet. Finally he stood up, picked up the heavy torpedo of his -own levitator, clipped the control box to his belt, climbed into the -parachute-harness. A touch of his finger sent him skyward.</p> - -<p>"Hello, Ken," Kimball said cheerfully.</p> - -<p>"Hello."</p> - -<p>"I was just on my way to test the apex of the dome. Seems like we might -make a break-through there."</p> - -<p>"Soon, I hope."</p> - -<p>Kimball dropped his cigarette and watched it fall regretfully toward -the distant, almost invisible city. "Not many of those left—I'll -be glad to get out of here myself." He lit another. In the brief -match-flare, Jina's graceful, wheeling figure became visible like some -angelic dream. "Why don't you go back now, Ken? I've already built -a gate back to our own time. The Varese don't use much radioactive -material, so I had to go back for supplies. You could go through just -as simply."</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Jina's voice from the blackness. "Why not, Ken?"</p> - -<p>"This guy Atel seems to be after your pelt, and you're no match for -him in his own environment," Johnny Kimball added. "It isn't as if the -Varese needed you. I know the technical aspects of the situation, and I -can hold my end up. But you could leave any time."</p> - -<p>"Why are you staying?"</p> - -<p>"Two reasons. First, I'm not inhuman, and I got handled roughly by -the beasts. I'd like to see them smashed. Second, I can't market my -time-coil—you can imagine what chaos it'd cause in our world!—but -the Varese have promised me this anti-gravity-pack, and that's worth -a lot." He waited for an answer, but Andreson didn't see any sense in -making one. After a moment his friend sighed. "Well, got to get aloft." -The glowing cigarette arced upwards dimming gradually.</p> - -<p>Wings pulsed softly past Andreson's cheek. "Why <i>are</i> you staying?" -Jina whispered.</p> - -<p>He tried to answer, but the moment's hesitation was fatal. The girl -arrowed downward, a slim, lovely shadow in the artificial dusk. Her -sweet, chiming voice drifted back tauntingly.</p> - -<p>"Explain to the beasts!"</p> - -<p>For a moment Andreson hung motionless in his harness, keenly aware that -he was perhaps the loneliest man since Adam. The city looked like a -tinsel toy below him, and all around him was darkness and silence; the -nearest human being was the only one within millenia of him, and among -the Varese he had just one friend—<i>maybe</i>.</p> - -<p>Out of the murk a voice called mockingly. "What are you dreaming, -Earthman? Or should we say—plotting?"</p> - -<p>Andreson recognized the voice for Atel's, but could not place its -direction. "I'm on my way to join my friend at the apex of the dome," -he said shortly. "I'm not plotting anything, except getting home as -soon as possible."</p> - -<p>"Oh? That's odd." The Varan's voice roughened, then regained its first -silkiness with obvious effort. "I passed Jina on the way up. I thought -you two might have been having a talk."</p> - -<p>"Suppose we were?" Andreson demanded. "What's that to you?"</p> - -<p>The voice was closer now, and its tone was cold and hard. Andreson -rested his fingers lightly on the levitator controls, still looking -about him in the blackness.</p> - -<p>"A great deal to me. When the Council voted to let your scientist -accomplice have a free hand, I had to go along. But I still think -you're both spies, and up to something dangerous." He paused, and at -the same moment Andreson spotted him—circling with silent, outspread -wings, about twenty-five feet up from where the Earthman hung. He went -right on looking, as if he had seen nothing, turning his head from side -to side in apparent bewilderment.</p> - -<p>"Follow us around, then, if you have the time to waste," he said. "Two -men against a city—you can afford to be brave. The odds are all on -your side."</p> - -<p>"You ground-grubber," the Varan gritted. "Follow you around—while you -corrupt a Varan girl with your lies about the future, and plot to let -the beasts in! Do you think I'm such a fool? The Council is blind with -sitting so long under the Starstone—but there are still a few of us -who can see!"</p> - -<p>"What with?" Andreson taunted. "You seem to be all mouth."</p> - -<p>With a low snarl of rage, Atel plunged. His powerful wings furled -tightly around his body, he dropped straight for the Earthman. In -the dim light, Andreson saw his massive right arm reach back to his -belt—he was drawing his vacuum club—</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Andreson jammed the button home and shot skyward. Inexperience told -against him almost at once, for he had drawn the line too fine. His -shoulder slammed hard against Atel's, and the bat-winged creature -tumbled away from him.</p> - -<p>The harness continued to haul Andreson blindly upwards. His collar-bone -sent out sharp pains with every movement. It seemed to be broken, or -cracked at least. Was Atel—no—there he was, wings thrashing the air -as he arrested his fall. The Earthman poked the belt-control again, -hovered over his fluttering opponent—two could play at this power-dive -game—</p> - -<p>Feet first, he arrowed downward, the hot air roaring in his ears. -Somehow Atel saw him coming, furled his wings again—</p> - -<p>For what seemed an eternity the two fell, the city swelling beneath -them from a hazy splotch to a bright quilt, and from that to a glowing -cloudy mass. A jabbing finger reversed Andreson's belt, and slowly he -began to gain. In the growing light he could see Atel's face, turned up -toward him, smiling sardonically.</p> - -<p>Then the bat-wings boomed out and Atel was gone, sailing easily around -the nearest tower. Andreson saw the thin, transparent thread of a -bridge almost upon him, and tried to brake, but it was too late—if he -stopped at this speed he'd black out—</p> - -<p>The bridge burst under his plummeting feet with the sound of a -waterfall of plate glass, and something snapped in his left foot, -sending fresh waves of pain through his body. The harness cut into him, -yanking against his momentum, and he tried to pull out. At the bottom -of his immense plunge he could clearly see figures in the once-distant -streets. Then he began to rise again—</p> - -<p>Instantly sharp-ribbed wings battered at him, an open hand struck him -a terrific blow behind the ear, and a second later something long and -steel-hard thudded into his ribs. He was flung forcibly against the -side of the nearby building. Only the mechanical obedience of the -levitator saved him—it had been set for "up," and it dragged him on -up, willy-nilly. A hot liquid oozed down his side from the blow of -the vacuum-rod. In a fog of pain he saw Atel banking purposefully for -another assault, and clutched at the "Up" control again.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>Wings battered him, and Atel's club thudded against his ribs.</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The levitator could climb faster than the Varan could, and Andreson had -a moment's respite. Grimly he kept on going, until a growing sense of -pressure and heat warned him that the rock dome was near. Should he try -to lose himself among the city towers, or yell to Johnny Kimball for -help?</p> - -<p>His whole heart turned from the thought. His earthly life had not -kept him in very good physical shape, but he'd always fought his own -battles. It made no difference that his life was the stake of this one. -<i>I'll get him yet</i>, he thought intensely. <i>Get him without help—if it -kills me.</i></p> - -<p>"Well, Earthman," Atel's voice rang out below. The rock dome sent back -a huge echo. "Running already? If Jina could see her hero now!"</p> - -<p>For a moment Andreson was about to dive furiously after the Varan -again, but he thought better of it. He remembered Johnny's words: -"You're no match for him in his own environment." But—</p> - -<p>Atel was not fighting another winged man. He was fighting an Earthman -with a levitator. That scrap between the buildings—had Atel given -such a buffeting to a Varan he would have knocked him and that would -have been the end of it. But the levitator couldn't be knocked out, no -matter what happened to the man operating it. It wouldn't fall unless -it was set to fall.</p> - -<p>There was something else, too. Birds fly because they're built for -it—among other things they have a huge keel-like breastbone to which -their flying muscles are anchored. But bats don't, and Andreson bet -that the Varans didn't either. Rodents are ancestrally ground-animals, -just like Earthmen, and have to adapt for flying in some other way....</p> - -<p>Andreson smiled crookedly. There was only one way to test the idea. He -touched the belt again, and the city began to swell beneath him—</p> - -<p>Atel glided cautiously out of the way of his fall, then closed in. The -Earthman shot off laterally, turned, began a tail-chase. For a few -seconds the absurd circling continued, each combatant trying to gain on -the other. Then Atel realized that the levitator could drive Andreson -faster than he could fly, and spun to face him with a single sweep of -his wings.</p> - -<p>Andreson made no attempt to stop. He shot directly into the Varan's -arms. The vacuum-rod crashed into his injured side again. Gritting his -teeth, he grasped Atel around the chest, trying for a half-Nelson. The -wings fluttered—the bar thudded home once more—</p> - -<p>Then Atel broke free. "Monster!" he gasped.</p> - -<p>"What's the matter, Atel?" Andreson shouted raggedly. "Met your match?"</p> - -<p>For an answer the Varan shot at him head first, like a gull-winged -rocket. Andreson flung himself lengthwise and grappled once more. -Atel's body, as he had suspected, was remarkably light, probably hollow -boned—and his arms were not nearly as strong as his wings. They simply -couldn't be!</p> - -<p>This was the death struggle. Fiercely the two strove against each -other. Andreson locked one of the flailing legs, steadily forced the -great body back. He had one hand free for a split second, and he -grasped the belt-control—</p> - -<p>The garish glow of the city began to brighten at an alarming rate. -Atel's hands fastened upon the Earthman's throat; Andreson pried weakly -at them, but he had already lost too much blood to be able to free -himself with one hand. He clung doggedly to the belt-control with the -other. The city grew and grew—the blood pounded in his head, and his -lungs burned like twin sacs of acid—the pillars of cold fire that were -the city's towers flowed past him, blurring rapidly—</p> - -<p>At the last instant Atel realized what was happening. A scream of -terror was whipped from his mouth into the slip-stream, and he released -Andreson's throat to claw frantically at the hand on the belt-control—</p> - -<p>But it had been too late seconds ago. Andreson let go of him entirely, -kicked himself free, began to brake. The Varan spread his wings—and -lost his life. The right pinion snapped back and broke at once. The -vanes on the left somehow withstood the blast, but the membrane between -them could not—in a split second the living fabric was bloody tatters. -Atel's body slammed itself to jelly against the bright Earth.</p> - -<p>Dizzy and sick, Andreson concentrated on cutting down the terrific -velocity the levitator had built up. He succeeded fairly well, though -he broke the other foot when he struck.</p> - -<p>The levitator held him upright, swaying. A cloud of winged creatures -gathered around him. One of them he thought he recognized.</p> - -<p>"Jina—"</p> - -<p>"Yes—Ken—we saw most of the fighting—how—"</p> - -<p>"I outflew him," he said proudly, and then passed out for the third -time.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Johnny Kimball peered out the door of the chamber the Varans had -assigned as his laboratory, and grinned. "Quite a formal farewell -committee coming across the bridge," he said. "Looks like the whole -Council's in it."</p> - -<p>He looked Andreson over critically. "For a while I was afraid they'd -turn out to be Indian-givers on the levitator deal," he added, "but I -must say you threw yourself into the job of protecting our interests. -Look at you! Both feet bandaged, chest bound, right shoulder strapped -up—if ever a man needed a levitator, you do!"</p> - -<p>"Ah, dry up," Andreson growled. "How near through are you?"</p> - -<p>"Almost. I'm not trying to hit the gallery, though it might be easier -that way." Suddenly he became serious. "I'll tell you what, Ken. It's a -new life we're going back to—a life where you and I can look back into -the past whenever we want, and visit it, too, if we keep quiet about -it. And it's a new world we're going back to, a world which is going -to be given the levitator. That means free flight—not just flight in -machines, but real flight, where one man can fly whenever, wherever he -wants, without having to board a plane or pay a fare. And space-travel, -and no heavy lifting for the housewife, and—"</p> - -<p>"Get to the point."</p> - -<p>Kimball looked a bit crestfallen. "I thought you'd understand how I -felt. Well, I couldn't see going back to the old world at the same -spot we left it. I had a new apartment rented when I left, that I'd -never been in—hasn't even got any furniture in it. I want to put the -Time-window through into there. A fresh start."</p> - -<p>Andreson nodded. "A good idea, Johnny. But—make it quick."</p> - -<p>Along the sunlit bridge the delegation of Varans walked ceremoniously. -In the vanguard was a lovely shape, like an exquisite butterfly. -Kimball looked out the door again and saw her. With a slight smile he -left the room; Andreson didn't notice.</p> - -<p>"Farewell, Ken."</p> - -<p>"Farewell, Jina, I'm sorry to go."</p> - -<p>There was a brief, stiff silence, and then she was in his arms, sobbing -bitterly.</p> - -<p>"Ken—why, why?"</p> - -<p>He swallowed. "Do you remember, up there on the solarium ledge before -the rock dome was destroyed—remember I said I had a question I had to -answer?"</p> - -<p>"Yes ... what—was it?"</p> - -<p>"Just this: <i>Can Earth and Air mix?</i> There's a legend in my time that -few people understand, but I think I understand it. It's the story -of Lilith, queen of Air and Darkness. She fought with Satan and God -alike for the Earth, but she lost, because she was not part of their -universe. It's the same with me. What part could I play in a time not -my own, among people who live in the air?"</p> - -<p>The girl did not move or answer. Steadily he went on: "Besides—there's -a gap between us greater than parsecs or centuries. Look." He took her -hand in his, held it up. The delicate, four-fingered limb made his -own five stubby fingers look lumpy and misshapen. "We have no future -together, Jina. We seem alike, but we're not. The apes are my cousins; -the bats are yours. You should stay with your own race, and have the -children I could never give you. We have no real happiness to give each -other."</p> - -<p>She drew back and squared her shoulders proudly, though her eyes still -brimmed with tears. "You are right," she said. "Go back, then! But I -extract one promise before you go."</p> - -<p>He inclined his head. "Whatever I can do."</p> - -<p>"You have the time-coil, and can visit any age you wish. Promise -me—that you'll never come to this one again."</p> - -<p>He said softly, "I promise, Jina."</p> - -<p>Her first soft kiss was her last. The next instant, it was as if she -had never been.</p> - -<p>"Ready, Ken?"</p> - -<p>The time-coil throbbed once, and then the glass-walled chamber was -empty in the red sunlight.</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AGAINST THE STONE BEASTS ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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