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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..f059e23 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64637 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64637) diff --git a/old/64637-0.txt b/old/64637-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d7fb163..0000000 --- a/old/64637-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1634 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Doomsday 257 A.G.!, by Bryce Walton - -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: Doomsday 257 A.G.! - -Author: Bryce Walton - -Release Date: February 26, 2021 [eBook #64637] - -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 DOOMSDAY 257 A.G.! *** - - - - - Prince Cadmus slew the Dragon and sowed - its teeth. Could this latter-day Cadmus - smash Akal-jor's atomic monster? Could - he halt the devouring Gray God before-- - - Doomsday 257 A.G.! - - _Novelet by_ BRYCE WALTON - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories May 1952. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Cadmus trembled now as he waited. He had been waiting too long. Sweat -was heavy on his clean-muscled body. A bright eagerness blazed from -his gray eyes. And beyond the small pressure dome of the combination -lab and living quarters, the frigid night pounded at the translucent -teflonite--gnawed hungrily at that small dot of life and warmth on the -barren asteroid. - -Now that he was almost ready to step into the matter transmitter, each -moment had become an eternity as he waited to be transported almost -instantly to Mars. To the city of Akal-jor. To his final destiny. - -He cursed softly at the cloud of amnesia aching in his skull. Johlan -the Venusian scientist had had him in various states of hypnosis for -some time, educating him for this task, and had placed a protective -veneering of amnesia across his mind to protect his purpose from the -Silver Guard's mental probers in case he were captured. - -Since birth, Johlan had raised Zaleel and Cadmus on the asteroid. The -three of them were unconditionally dedicated to the great "plan." -Because of his fogged memory, Cadmus now knew but little concerning -the details of the plan. He only knew that he would die to carry it -through. That if he failed, Tri-Planet civilization would go on down to -final decay and ruin. - -The three of them, three frail motes of intelligent life, must save -the vast System. Old Johlan the Venusian. Zaleel of the golden hair -and generous red lips. And Cadmus the fighter. To fight the Silver -Guards, and the gigantic mechanical intelligence of the Great Gray God, -Cadmus had only the sword at his side and the crude energy gun Johlan -had made. The energy gun was too small for efficiency but it had to be -small in order to be carried unnoticed beneath his tunic. - -Zaleel was gone. She had stepped into the transmat months before to -carry out her part of the plan. Cadmus remembered only the shiny -richness of her hair, the warm promise of her lips. - -A signal light blinked. A glow crackled round the electronic power rim -of the transmat. Cadmus shot one last glance through the pressure dome -where he had spent most of his lifetime in preparation. - -A thin hard smile parted his space-burned face as he stepped into the -transmat and melted into a blurred vortex of coloration. - -Pain beyond thought shattered his consciousness to shreds. The -blackness was absolute. The cold was ineffable. - - * * * * * - -It was the year of the Gray God, 257 A.G. - -Tomorrow was the day of Worship at the Gray God's shrine. Beyond the -city of Akal-jor was the vast valley where the Gray God was born, and -where it lived on, eternally, beneath its impregnable gray metal dome, -five miles in diameter, and a mile high. Shielded by half a mile of -deadly radioactive field, a teeming moat of gamma rays through which no -living thing could pass. - -On three worlds, hopeless, futile, static beings of a dying -civilization prepared for the big exodus to Mars and to the Gray God's -altars. Then they would return to their dull cycle of meaningless -existence to dream in some drugged escapeasy, or to die horribly in -one of Consar III's atomic power plants, mine shafts, or his isotope -factories. - -Consar III had arrived in Akal-jor for the worship. With him were five -thousand slaves. Bathing in countless hedonistic luxuries, he awaited -the worship to begin at tomorrow's dawn. Meanwhile he looked for new -and interesting female slaves. - -Next to sensual pleasure, Consar enjoyed most the contemplation of his -great power over the masses of three worlds. He could never lose that -power. Unless the Gray God died, and that was impossible of course. -Or unless he died. He would die certainly, sometime. Then he wouldn't -worry about pleasures or power. - -From the windows of his Martian mansion, the Palace of Pearl, he looked -to the east into the valley of the Gray God. It towered, a massive gray -metal skull. Consar III laughed. The Gray God was a machine. Therefore -its position as governmental dictator of the System remained absolutely -stable. Nothing could ever change again. His position as sole exploiter -of the resources of the System, under the title of Consar Exploitations -Interplanetary, was to remain unchanged forever. It was a perfect setup. - -The System was Consar's really, despite the fact that the Gray God -ruled through mechanical dictates. All the dictates favored Consar. -Consar and his hedonistic rituals, sycophants, courtiers and concubines. - -There was always the rumor of an underground seeking to overthrow the -status quo. The Cadmeans, who had tried once before to destroy the -Great Machine, had been wiped out of existence. Or at least most of -them. If any did remain alive, they were ineffectual. They would be -discovered and killed or enslaved by the Silver Guards. The Guards -didn't really work for Consar, not directly. They were conditioned in -the council tower to obey the dictates of the Great Machine. But those -dictates all favored Consar's position of royalty, so it amounted to -the same thing. - -He moved the animated throne across the room to the edge of his roseate -pleasure pool that shimmered in the middle of the jeweled floor. Above -him, joylamps spun their songs of colored sensuality. His three hundred -pounds of white flabby flesh settled into depths of luxuriance. - -A small spidery man entered and bowed. "There is a girl here in -Akal-jor, Illustrious Consar." - -"Ah. Go on, Gaston." Consar's voice bubbled with soft power like lava. -"You have acted rapidly and with customary clarity." - -"She is a dancer in an escapeasy called the Maenad on the Street of -Shadows. She is alive and vital and desirable as no woman among your -women, My Ruler. She--" - -"Bring her, Gaston, before dawn. After the worship, I'll take her back -to Terra. Is she Martian?" - -"Terro. Her name is Zaleel." - -"Good. You can obtain the services of Silver Guards, as usual, under -the Gray God's labor conscription edict fifty-seven." - -The spidery little man bowed out. Consar III pressed a button. Soft -durolite arms lowered him into the swirling waters of his pleasure -pool. He sank slowly as the crystaline waters washed him gently in its -bath of a thousand dreams. - - * * * * * - -Spiraling patterns fused, disassociated atomic rejoined. Cadmus -stumbled from the transmat receiver. As he lurched through dusty damp -shadows, a familiar, non-terrestrial voice called. The Venusian padded -toward him on webbed feet, green scales shining in the cold luciferin -light of a trunjbug lamp. - -Cadmus' voice was still shaky, rattling through the subterranean gloom -somewhere below Akal-jor. He couldn't remember where. He could remember -very little. "I've got to know more about the plan," he said quickly. -"More about myself. This fog is driving me crazy!" - -The ancient Venusian said, "You'll know more, a lot more, if you -succeed in destroying the Great Machine. It wouldn't be safe to know -very much--at least until just before you're ready to strike. And you -must strike the final blow at dawn." - -"Was it necessary to wipe practically everything out of my mind," -growled Cadmus. "I seem to be desperately groping for some memory, some -facts that I should remember now! Do you--?" - -"Forget everything but the immediate task before you," said Johlan -tensely. "You strike just as dawn strikes. Just as millions of -worshippers emerge from those transmats in the valley, the Great Gray -God which they worship will die--before their eyes. They must see it -die so they can carry eyewitness accounts back to their own worlds. -We must succeed this time. Another solar year and the System will be -too sunken in the disease of unchange and futility and defeat ever to -change." - -Cadmus breathed hoarsely. "Let me get on with it. Give me the necessary -information!" - -"Very well," sighed Johlan. "You have only one advantage. You realize -what it is. Having been born in the asteroids, you don't have the -disciplinary band in your head. The Guards, by using their coercion -rays, can slay or paralyze any living inhabitant of the three worlds -through the disciplinary band. That will allow you great advantage. -Now--first you go to the Maenad on the Street of Shadows. Zaleel is -a dancing girl there. She'll give you the equipment to destroy the -Machine." - -Cadmus gripped Johlan's boneless cold fingers. "I'll get the job done," -said Cadmus with a certainty he was far from feeling. - -Johlan nodded. "Straight ahead and up the first stairway. It will lead -you directly onto the Street of Shadows." - -Later, Cadmus gripped the sword hilt as he hugged the mouldy green -wall of aged dhroon-stone. His eyes shifted up and down the crooked -alley through filthy pools of splashing light from Phobos. Down its -scrofulous length were a number of nameless dens and dives where -defeated hopeless beings found solace in deadly drugs and deadlier -dreams. He sucked in his breath. Yes--he had heard the jackboots on -the stone street. Coming toward him from the direction of the Maenad, -cutting off his advance. Part of a labor recruiting drive no doubt. -Phobos' pale light glowed on silver uniforms and an array of deadly -weapons. They were fine looking soldiers though they were nothing -really but slaves. - -He slid the sword free. The energy weapon beneath his tunic must be -saved for an extreme emergency. Swords had been in use when the Machine -had been constructed. Anyone could still carry one. Few bothered. Few -cared. They were past the hope of fighting. - -Cadmus turned. He had to run away, away from the Maenad as well as the -Guards. He might not get back and time was getting too precious. The -city swarmed everywhere with Guards because of the great worship at -dawn. - -He snarled like a trapped animal as hunched shapes spilled from -the dark before him. Huge shaggy Bluemarts from the desert caves. -Anthropoid mutations of a savage intelligence at the end of an -evolutionary blind alley. They mimicked the Guards, killed for them, -captured labor conscripts for them. Sometimes they died, too, thought -Cadmus as he ran among them, striking desperately in an attempt to cut -his way through to escape the Guards. - -Blood ran black. Bluemarts bellowed pain. Two sprawled out to writhe -and die on the ancient stones. Long heavy leather whips studded with -brass spikes crashed around Cadmus as he dodged and fought and danced -away. - -He saw the Guards, close now. They were confused. Their coercion -rays were being used, Cadmus knew, but he had no disciplinary band. -A policejet came down and hovered overhead. A brilliant search beam -slithered over the walls. A whiplash crashed against his shoulder, -stunning him. Another scraped cloth and flesh from his side. - -Dazed, he reached for his energy gun. But that whiplash had ripped away -his harness, holster, gun and all. He staggered along the wall. A dull -roaring pounded in his temples. Then he heard the unreal, whining voice -of the old woman from the thick shadows of the wall. He heard but he -could see nothing of her. - -There was a dismal creaking of stone on stone. - -"This way, my dear boy. Quickly, or you're a dead one!" - - - II - -Her hand was hard and dry, running down his torn arm like a deadly -scorpion. The aperture in the wall opened further and a hot, stinking -wind belched out. He dropped as paws gripped his booted ankles from -behind. He twisted, thrust his sword into a shaggy throat. His hand -felt the harness he had lost. He dragged it inside with him, into a -black, forgotten hole. - -The opening closed. There was an invisible stench of stale bodies and -drug vapor. He could hear the old woman's hoarse breathing. He hooked -the broken harness about his waist. - -"Light," he gasped. "What's this, a tomb?" - -"It will be, dear boy," she said. "We must move quickly down into the -catacombs. I wear the receiver band. I feel them groping, but it's you -they want. They don't know I'm helping you, and they don't want an old -bag of bones like me. But hurry. They'll blast in the wall." - -Flame glowed. She lighted a smoky taper. He saw a bent ragged packet of -animated bones, a mop of gray hair and a narrow hawked beak. In niches -along the winding cavern, shapes stirred. Moisture dripped. Turgid -Lethean vapors from escapist drugs curled sluggishly. Skeletal faces -stared, glazed and unseeing, dying. - -Cadmus swore. Three worlds were dying like this. A vast social system -that had stopped moving, evolving, so it was dying. Fast! A yellow -Martian girl's luminous eyes stared vacantly into shadows, buried in -some dream far from the hopeless, meaningless reality. - -Cadmus studied the old woman with growing suspicion. The amnesia was a -throbbing ache of unknowing. If he only knew more. There was so much -he felt he had to know, right now, but he couldn't remember! Who was -this sudden benefactress? Not from the Asteroids, for she wore the -disciplinary band. Yet she had saved him, preserved him a little longer -to carry out an impossible task. - -She turned, anticipating his suspicion. "Zaleel sent me. You can trust -me, Cadmus. I know these catacombs. I'm old Pirri who sells her Lethean -drugs along the forgotten places of Akal-jor. You Cadmeans have a few -sympathizers. Some still have hope. The Cadmean society is that hope." - -A wave of fear blew through Cadmus' fogged brain. "Cadmeans. -My--memory! Johlan erased almost everything. I remember -nothing--yet--there's something--something I've got to remember!" - -She didn't answer. They walked on. A Martian half-breed ogled them -from a niche in the stone, jaws chewing the mind-shattering pulp of -the Venusian thiln-flower. Wrecks of three worlds. They believed in -nothing but their dreams--and the Gray God in the valley. The former -they believed in as an only escape from a hopeless reality. The latter, -because they had been conditioned to regard it as a god, as omnipotent. - -You may fear a god, and hate a god, Cadmus mused, but you cannot desert -a faith with impunity. - -"You know a lot of Cadmus and the Cadmeans," he said as they walked -deeper into the gloom. "I know nothing. Nothing! Listen, who is -Cadmus?" He frowned. A ridiculous question. - -"You are he," said Old Pirri. "Gods and heroes will never die." - -"Who am I?" - -"Cadmus." - -He swore. His head ached more with doubts and hidden fears. A desperate -yearning to _know_ clawed frantically in his skull. - -Old Pirri said, "There is a myth, centuries old, dear boy." Her voice -softened. "But myths repeat themselves. They're rooted in the soul. In -this myth, that was born on Terra when it was young and fresh and when -blood was hot with early flames, there was a prince. He was tall and -strong, and his skin was gold over muscles of steel." - -She peered over her shoulder. "His name was Cadmus." - -"Yes." - -"Prince Cadmus slew a dragon and sowed its teeth. From these sprang -armed men who fought and founded a great city--" - -"Teeth--dragon--armed men, what are the symbols here?" A strange thrill -trembled in him as the words took hold. - -"You are the son of a much more recent Cadmus who was named from that -ancient myth. Only he knew why he called himself Cadmus. He kept that -secret to himself. But you are his son. If anyone knows your father's -great secret of why he called himself Cadmus, it is you. You are -Cadmus, now." - -"But Johlan--he stifled my brain so the Guards couldn't probe my -secrets--" - -Old Pirri's eyes glowed, became red pools. "Zaleel told me. She, too, -is ignorant of many things other than her assigned duties. Beware, -lovely boy. Beware of friends and patriots who are out to achieve -selfish ends. Beware even Zaleel, and Johlan, and Old Pirri. Remember -history, and recall that when the Great Machine God was spawned and -stopped all progress, wars were brewing between the worlds. Remember -that was the reason the Machine was made--to halt progress and social -evolution that might lead to another atom war. If the Machine is -destroyed, remember that the old hates will return. For the ancient -hates between peoples and planets and ideas still smolder." - -Cadmus shivered. The sword hilt was ice in his grasp. - - * * * * * - -They turned. Several corridors branched into black mouths. Bats darted -from hollows. Nothing must deter him from his objective. Yet--Old Pirri -spoke wisdom. When the Machine quit, the three worlds would be plunged -into chaotic anarchy. No government would exist until some kind of -governmental agency was established. Who, then, or what group, would -aspire to power? Consar III of course, if he lived. Others if there -were others who still knew how to think. - -They came into a subterranean street illuminated with cold luciferin -light. Escapeasies lined its length. A forgotten river flowing from -ennui to forgetfulness, and death. Archways crumbled overhead. Purple -spider webs shimmered. - -"We're directly under the Street of Shadows," said Old Pirri. -Sense-drunkening music floated from dark maws. "Just inside that -escapeasy, Cadmus. A door just inside leads up into the Street of -Shadows, and into the Maenad." She gripped his arm. Tears shone in her -eyes. - -She took a chain from about her neck. A square of metal dangled heavily -from the chain as she put it over Cadmus' head. - -"Dear boy," she said, "this is a small force-shield device. I got it -from a Cadmean who was killed in the last revolt. Press this small -lever." She demonstrated. The unit hummed with power. It glowed with a -strong effulgence. "This will nullify the vibro-guns of the Guards, for -a while anyway." - -Footsteps pounded. Old Pirri screeched, horribly, then went down on her -knees. "Run--dear boy. Guards--" her voice shattered with pain. Her -flesh jerked with the agony of a vibro-beam. - -But he was safe, thought Cadmus quickly, while a sad rage wrenched his -heart. She had sacrificed herself for him. She had given him the little -force-shield unit. - -He dropped down behind a crumbling column near the old woman as three -Guards edged along the street. "Back--into the wall--find Maenad." -Red froth specked her lips. "Beware all who might get power--when you -slay--the Gray God--dear boy--" - -She died. A blind rage burned up, flamed in Cadmus' brain. He yelled -wildly as he raked the energy gun from his tunic and fired point blank -at the approaching Guards. - -Part of the street, with the Guards in it, erupted in a sheet of white -flame. Shattered bodies, bits of uniform spread out through blazing -columns like an unfolding flower. He dropped the burned-out gun and -leaped backward, into the wall. - -He ran blindly. Many-legged rats spilled out into the dark, ran with -glowing eyes beside him. Pink, fleshy scorpions scurried before -the vibrations of the blast. Later he found a wandering Venusian -drug-peddlar who guided him to the trap-door leading up into the -Maenad. It was only a few minutes now, until dawn. - -There were no Guards in the escapeasy. Dancing girls from three worlds -danced with a bored lifelessness. All except one. Zaleel. A flood of -red-gold hair, flashing rust-flecked eyes, and smooth agile limbs. Her -vitality failed to stir the sluggish futility clouding the Maenad. Her -eyes flashed recognition as Cadmus edged along the wall and sat down in -a shadowed booth. As the climax of her dance ended she walked to his -booth and sat across from him. There was no applause. Apathetic eyes -failed to follow the lithe swing of her gleaming body. - -He held her hands, felt the animal warmth sparkle and tingle in his -arms. "You made it, Cadmus," she breathed, eyes glowing. "I knew you -would. I've got the microtape here. It's all you need to destroy the -Machine--if you can reach it." - -She handed him a small role of microtape. "Listen, Zaleel," he said, -"I'm going crazy because of this amnesia Johlan threw over my brain. I -tell you there's something vital to the plan I should know." - -"You've got to keep blind faith. We can't hesitate now." - -He told her about Old Pirri. She blinked at tears. - -"Poor Old Pirri. She was in the first revolt. She was captured, had -a disciplinary band put in her head, and slaved five years in one of -Consar's mines. She lived only to see the Machine's end." - -"She died too soon," said Cadmus. - -"Your memory will return if you succeed, Cadmus. Johlan planted a -threshold-response word in your subconscious mind. When you hear that -word your full memory will come back. I heard him make the posthypnotic -suggestion. But I can't tell you what it is. If you were captured--" - -"I know. How and when will I receive this word?" - -"It will be on millions of lips--if you succeed." - - * * * * * - -Cadmus said quickly, "All right. Give me the details, and let me get at -it! Now what's the microtape for?" - -She leaned forward. The fragrance of her hair was a promise. - -"You know how the Machine's mechanical brain operates. But because of -your amnesia, maybe I'd better refresh your memory. Now--any question, -social, economic, individual, is submitted to the supreme council in -the council tower. On the top of the tower is the question submission -chamber. There are big digital panel-boards with facilities to receive -the questions and problems which are submitted on microtapes. - -"These microtapes are placed before the photoelectric analyzing eyes of -the digital panels. From there, the problems or questions are carried -by electron beam tubes directly into the Machine for solving. The -Machine's answer comes back through the electron beam tubes and is -recorded on answer tapes. Audio tapes are recorded and broadcast from -the tower. Also the broadcast is received in every Martian city and is -conveyed to Venus and Earth by ethero-magnum. You remember all this?" - -"Some of it," said Cadmus, frowning. "Go on." - -"The Machine's doom is in that microtape I've given you, Cadmus. It -contains a highly complex problem which Johlan has worked out during -all these years of isolation on our asteroid. You have only to get -inside that question submission chamber in the council tower. Get that -tape in front of those analyzing eyes. That's all. Get the problem on -that tape into the brain of the Machine." - -He looked at her steadily. "And then--is that the end of the plan?" - -Her hand trembled. "There's you and I, after that." - -"I remember that, Zaleel. If I succeed, it's you and me together, in a -new System of progress and change and hope. If I fail--" - -"If we fail, Cadmus, there'll be nothing for you and me. Nothing for -anyone, ever again." - -He got to his feet quickly. "Zaleel, what's your part in it? Why are -you dancing here?" - -Red flushed her face. "I knew that one of Consar's scouts would find me -during the worship. One has already found me. They'll be here to pick -me up before dawn." - -He gripped her shoulders, hard. His face worked with unvoiced emotion. - -"I've got to do it, Cadmus. My father died in one of Consar's Lunarian -mines. He died--horribly. I'll settle with Consar myself. I have an -explosive lithium capsule which...." It would be easier to do it than -to talk about it. - -She finished. "Everything will be dead then that threatens our System. -The Machine, Consar, the Guards--they'll die when the Machine goes. The -council tower will be the next center of governmental operations, no -matter who handles it. The people have grown accustomed to receiving -all their commands from the Tower." - -"I'll see you then," said Cadmus. "If we succeed." He went quickly out -into the Street of Shadows. - - * * * * * - -He flattened against the wall as the five Guards came past and turned -into the Maenad. A civilian was among them, a grotesque little man, -like a spider. His garments were studded with jewels and precious -stones which could only signify that he was one of Consar III's -personal slaves. - -Which, in turn, signified that they had come for Zaleel. - -A bitter hate burned in Cadmus as he edged past the Maenad's entrance -toward the policejet the Guards and the civilian had parked in the -street. He unsheathed his sword. He turned the little force-field unit -to full power. This was it. Dawn was about to break. - -He had the advantage of surprise and here was a way. He knew he could -never get into that council tower from the ground levels. It was too -heavily guarded. He might manage it from the air. - -He ran straight out of the shadows, taking advantage of the surprise -that froze the two Guards standing outside the entrance panel of the -policejet. Deimos blinked as Cadmus' sword struck. Its light was red. -The slain Guard sank wordlessly in a fresh warm pool that was redder -still on the worn stones. - -Cadmus laughed tonelessly as he struck again. - - - III - -The second Guard's face lost its sharply disciplined mask for an -instant, then he, too, died in the shadow of his glistening plane. -Cadmus was retrieving their weapons as two more Guards ran out of the -Maenad toward him, evidently called by one of the two slain Guards -before they died. - -Cadmus shot the policejet straight up beneath a blast of fire. Through -the pre-dawn chill, he angled it toward the council tower. He had only -minutes now to get inside the Tower and get that microtape before the -Machine's analyzing eyes. - -Below him sprawled the spires and sharp minarets of the ancient capital -city. To the east beyond the fifth cut-off from the Low Canal, was the -newer modernistic plastic council tower, rearing up into the sky for a -mile, directly in the valley's mouth. - -Beyond the council tower was the gigantic rounded dome of the Great -Machine, gleaming dully in the mists. To the right was Consar III's -pleasure palace, glittering like a monstrous and evil jewel. - -Zaleel would be there soon, groveling among his slaves. - -Now, from various roofports all over the city, silver policejets began -to dot the sky. Cadmus unhooked an antigrav belt from beneath the seat. -He pressed a stud and the cowling above him slid open. He belted the -antigrav belt about his waist and stood up. - -The council tower was a mile distant. A parabola would allow him to -reach it, if he could avoid being spotted by the Guards while falling. - -About twenty policejets, in formation as usual, were coming in from his -right. He raised both neutron guns, fired, simultaneously. He used both -weapons' full charge. - -An incredible blast ripped out, leaving paths of condensation in -its wake. Radiant energy spread forth in its basest and most deadly -form, heating intolerably by sudden kinetic interchange. There was a -devastating fire, a supernal electronic flash. Radiant energy blinded -and burned. - -The pre-dawn grayness became searing light. For an instant the area was -bombarded with fragments of molten metal. But Cadmus had sent his plane -in a sudden leap high above the disaster even as he fired. His plane -trembled, then began to burn. Its metal hull became unbearable. - -Cadmus leaped out into the darkness and began floating down, utilizing -the antigrav belt's angle facets to control the direction of his fall. -He looked about him. A mile behind, a hundred or so policejets were -converging on that spot where he had created the sudden holocaust. By -lifting his own plane and bailing out, he had put himself half a mile -away, a small dark speck, falling in a slow curve directly at the top -of the council tower. - -The policejets were swinging away in large, ever-increasing circles, -searching. Far away, he saw his own jetplane burst suddenly into white -flame and crash into the sluggish red waters of the canal. Most of the -policejets headed for it. Apparently there was no suspicion that he -had been able to escape the ship. - -Cadmus struck the top of the Tower. The mile-high dome was cold and -smooth as ice as he slid down its side onto a narrow ramp. He lay flat -for a moment in order to get back his strength. The city was moving -from its somnolence. Beings shuffling from drugged states to worship -the Gray God of stability. It was eternal slavery or death to neglect -the worship. - -Far below he could see a balcony opening into what would be the -question submission chamber. Utilizing the antigrav belt, Cadmus slid -from the ramp, down the shadowed side of the Tower. He attained the -balcony and crouched behind the colonnade. The sun peered over the -mountains. It reached into the valley, lapping the Machine's towering -skull with crimson tongues. - -Streaming from the city's main avenues, a solid river of Akal-jor's -inhabitants were marching to worship at the shrine of the Gray God. - -Cadmus stared at the fantastic and horrible scene. Worshipping a -machine that had chained them to its unchanging pattern and was killing -them. A thunderous chorus of wailing and chanting rose in a moan of -suppliancy. - -From every city on Mars, via transmat, other rivers of worshippers -were debouching into the valley. For a brief time they would gaze with -trembling awe at the monstrous metal dome that ruled them inexorably, -then return to their hopeless patterns. - -Via huge transmats on Terra and Venus, other rivers of worshippers -numbering millions were flowing across the void. They, too, would gaze -upon the Gray God's face, then return by transmat sender to their own -worlds. Cadmus stared in sudden shocked fear. One abruptly obvious and -terrible fact left him stunned. - -The great transmats on the right side of the valley were not disgorging -any worshippers. Nothing was emerging from the Venusian transmats. - - * * * * * - -NO VENUSIANS WERE COMING TO WORSHIP THE GRAY GOD. - - * * * * * - -Bewildered, stunned, Cadmus ran through the panels into the vaulted -height of the question submission chamber. He would worry about this -other fearful emergency once he got the microtape installed. - -Across the chamber were panels containing many eyes of the -photoelectric analyzers--lenses which must focus his microtape. -Receptacles in front of the eyes waited for the microtape to be -inserted. A red light indicated that none of the eyes were being used -at that moment to analyze a problem for the Machine. - -A problem scanned by these eyes was carried into the Machine by -electron beam tube. The Machine, a colossal mechanical brain, was the -result of the final achievements of the finest scientific minds in the -System. - -It could think. It could think, but its answers could never vary. The -Gray God. - -Cadmus ran across the chamber, inserted the microtape on its spindle -shaft and moved a small switch. The eyes glowed. The red light dimmed -into green, signifying that the Machine was now handling a problem. - -Cadmus stumbled back toward the windows. There was no feeling of -triumphant release for having fulfilled his destiny. Now that the -problem Johlan had devised was submitted to the Machine's vast -mechanical mind, the Machine was supposed to destroy itself. - -But the big problem now was why weren't those transmats bringing -Venusians to worship the Gray God? Why should only streams of screaming -psychopaths from Terra and Mars march out of transmats to their -pathetic worship? - -What had Old Pirri said? - -"Beware of friends and patriots who are such only to achieve selfish -ends. Remember history, and recall that when the Great Machine God was -spawned and stopped all progress, wars were brewing between the worlds. -Remember that was the reason the Machine was made--to halt progress and -social evolution that might lead to another atom war. If the Machine is -destroyed, remember that the old hates will return...." - -Cadmus shivered as he hesitated before the panels leading onto the -balcony. The sun was higher now. The area about the valley was a sea of -surging humanity marching out of transmat receivers. - -And the Machine lay there in its vaulted silence. That mass of -thinking apparatus was preparing now to solve the problem which Johlan -had prepared and which Cadmus had succeeded in injecting into its -mechanical brain. It would take a few minutes at least before any -results appeared. - -But Cadmus knew something was terribly wrong. No Venusians were yet -emerging from those transmats! - -A number of policejets were circling the areas about the -non-functioning Venusian transmats. A greater number had landed and -Cadmus could see Guards running in and out of the powerhouses. - -He turned quickly as he heard the panels of the doors opening behind -him. He dropped to his side, dragged frantically at the neutron gun in -his belt. He caught a smearing glimpse of many faces and acted too late -to save himself. - -He tried to activate the force-shield unit Old Pirri had given him. But -paralysis beams reached out like the fingers of a hand, gripped him, -held him rigid in a slowly-fading consciousness. He thought of Zaleel. -He tried to understand how their plan had seemed to succeed, but had -failed. - - - IV - -The voice penetrated through layers of pain. Cadmus lay outstretched, -his eyes remained closed. - -"The probers won't find anything more. I know his name. I know a little -about him. But very little. He is Cadmus, the son of the first Cadmus -who started the first revolt against our great System. The revolt -failed of course." - -A whining voice answered. "I've revived him, my ruler. He feigns -unconsciousness." - -"Open your eyes, Cadmus," said the heavy thick voice ironically. "Open -them and look at the destruction you have brought upon our nice stable -order." - -Cadmus sat up, blinked back nauseous fog. An unbelievably fat man sat -before him on a golden throne, studded with precious stones. A cloud -of metallic birds piped a strange subdued song. Cadmus' eyes shifted -to the spidery little man standing beside the throne. But Consar III -gestured, and the spidery little man bowed out. - -The room was bare except for several mind-probing machines, and -wire mesh cages with graph screens. There was little on the screens. -Johlan's amnesia injection had been very effective, thought Cadmus. Too -effective. He was helpless now unless he got his memory back. He knew -part of the answer. His father was the first Cadmus. And there had been -a reason for calling himself that. It was of vast importance. But that -threshold response word. The key word--it might never be heard now. - -He was fully clothed but he was without weapons. The force-field -generator was gone. His antigrav belt had been taken from him. - -Cadmus said, "I never expected to meet you alive, Consar." - -Consar's mountain of flesh trembled in a rumbling laugh. "So many -unpredictable games the jester Chance plays, eh. It doesn't matter now -what you did or didn't expect." - -Cadmus started. He knew that Consar was mad with power. He knew nothing -else about Consar III, except that Zaleel was to have killed him with a -lithium capsule, and that she had failed. - -"We tapped your mind, Cadmus. I know a great deal about you, but so -little, too. You submitted a problem to the Machine--we shall refer -to it as a Machine as neither of us are quite convinced that it's -a god--and your purpose was that the Machine was to have destroyed -itself." - -Consar laughed. "It was a ridiculous purpose. You rebels with your -high ideals of progress and change! Progress and change are the great -errors of entropy, Cadmus. But it's too late to discuss that now. You -submitted the problem but the Machine still functions." - -Consar smiled. "You have driven the Machine insane!" - -Cadmus' throat was dry, thick. He didn't understand. - -"Come, I'll show you." Consar III pressed a button. The throne carried -his bulk across the marble floor to the wide windows overlooking the -council tower and the valley of the Machine. - -"You see, Cadmus. The Machine is insane. You submitted a problem to -it. I don't know what the nature of the problem was, its details, but -it was planned to be unsolvable to the Machine. Although the Machine -isn't organic, it functions much like an organic brain. Faced with an -unsolvable problem that nevertheless must be solved, a human mind goes -insane. Our Machine did the same thing. Insanity is a decision of a -sort. Sometimes it's the only logical answer to a dilemma. That seems -to be the case this time." - -Cadmus stared, but he still found it difficult to grasp the scene -below. What he saw and heard through the opened windows was horrible -beyond the maddest nightmare. The Venusian transmats were still dead. -No Venusians were emerging into the valley. But vast rivers of humans -from Terra, and Martians from all the cities, were spilling in great -masses into the valley-- - -And to their death! - -Wailing, crying in sobbing ecstasy, these rivers were pouring directly -into that half-mile deep area of deadly radioactivity surrounding the -Machine. - -Cadmus murmured in sheer horror. Millions were dying. Millions more -would die. The valley was a gigantic pit of carnage. Unless it were -stopped every living person on Terra would march out of those transmats -and die. So would every living Martian. - -"Like the lemmings," said Consar III absently. "A suicide drive. See -what you Cadmeans have done with your foolish revolt. Listen to the -voice from the council tower." - -Cadmus was listening. A decision from the Machine was automatically -transcribed and broadcast from the Tower. - -"Listen to what the Tower is saying. The voice of the god. It couldn't -solve the answer it was forced to answer in any other way except by -this extreme and apparently insane way. Yet if this is the only way it -could answer the question, then it's logical isn't it? Logical that its -answer should be one of defeat, futility, abandonment of all hope." - -From the Tower the public address system thundered out over the wailing -shambles of destruction in the valley. Its waves of sound bludgeoned -the helpless, milling hordes into an ecstatic suicidal rush. - -"_Life has no meaning. All is futility. There is no hope. The only way -out of this problem is death. Death is the final and complete escape._" - - * * * * * - -Consar said, "Few are ignoring the Machine's voice. That's natural. -They have long since abandoned hope. Without progress, with no goal, -the Machine's answer is logical to them. It's very interesting, this -end of System life, isn't it, Cadmus? Look at the rabble. Look at the -bawling cattle you dedicated your life to save. What have you done but -pushed them on down into the slime where they belong?" - -Cadmus hardly heard Consar's cynical humor. His head throbbed. Blood -rushed his temples as he tried to break that web of amnesia. It was -there, the answer, the solution. - -Johlan! He was Venusian. And no Venusians were dying in the valley. The -sudden clarity of the monstrous truth hit him like an explosion. Johlan -had formulated a problem to submit to the Machine. True. But not to -destroy it. Only to cause its reaction to be analogous to those of an -insane brain. - -Now it was directing the suicide of its worshippers. But not of -Venusians. The old hates still smoldering.... - -A few inhabitants of Terra and Mars might remain alive when this -ghastly massacre ended. But Venus would be untouched. Johlan had -brought about a monstrous suicidal drive that would decimate the Terran -and Martian population. And leave Venus the unchallenged ruler of the -System. - -And Consar III laughed. Cadmus lunged at his throat. His hands struck -an invisible barrier. From behind the shield surrounding his throne, -Consar smiled. - -"You're helpless now, Cadmus. I see you've noticed that the Venusian -transmats are dead. The Guards have investigated. The power generators -have been destroyed so they won't work anymore without being repaired. -You've taken the rule of the System from the unchanging Machine, and -have given it back to the people. Therefore you've destroyed the -System. Already the Venusians are trying to wipe out Terra and Mars." - -Cadmus pounded against the invisible barrier. - -"You can't touch me, Cadmus. And what would it gain for you if you did? -We probed your girl comrade's brain, too. She came here to kill me, but -she had hidden the explosion somewhere and the Guards couldn't locate -it. She's gone now. She was taken to the slave quarters. But none of -the slaves are in their quarters now. They have all gone into the -valley to march into the Machine. - -"You see, Cadmus, everyone is conditioned to carry out the Machine's -dictates. Those who do not follow the commands of the Machine will be -driven into the valley and to death anyway by the Guards. The Guards, -too, will walk into the Machine to their deaths when everyone else is -dead. Including me. The Guards will force me to my death, too, Cadmus. -I have utilized the Guards only within the limitations of the Machine's -laws, you understand. Everyone will die except the Venusians. Let them -have it! I've enjoyed myself. I'm ready to make my exit." - -Cadmus ran back to the window. - - * * * * * - -Policejets were circling above the marching hordes of suicidals, raying -those who fell out of the surging river. Thousands of Guards were -circulating at the edges of the human tide, keeping the lines solid, -threatening stragglers with neutron charges. There were few stragglers. -In that hopeless, un-evolving system, the majority had wanted to die. -The Machine was sanctioning their psychotic desires. - -And somewhere, perhaps in that horde, Zaleel was trapped. Or she might -already be dead. - -Regardless of the amnesia, his hopeless position, Cadmus saw one -thing he could do if he could escape. Try to destroy as many of those -transmats as possible and stop the flow of doomed Terrans and Martians. -Johlan had stopped the Venusian transmats by destroying the generators. -He could do the same. - -From the Tower the thunderous voice of the mad Machine still called: - -_Life has no meaning. All is futility. There is no hope._ - -Cadmus tried to shut out the sound. He knew that if he had to listen to -it very long, its suggestion would overpower him. - -His own voice buried the voice of the mad Machine momentarily. - -"It isn't over yet, Consar. You're a victim of unchange like every -other poor suicidal out there. The blood of millions who have died in -your enslavement is on your hands. Your only excuse is that there never -was hope for humanity anyway. But there is, Consar. And I'll prove it -to you. You'll die, but I'll prove the truth to you before I kill you." - -Consar laughingly waved a flabby white hand. "The magic shadow show -still goes on. Join it. I'm not holding you here. See--the doors are -opening for you. Without the rigid discipline of the Machine, System -life will destroy itself. Every institution contains the seeds of its -own destruction. Even the Machine. Blind tropisms, rabble, robots, -cattle. Those are the stupid dolts you Cadmeans dedicated your lives to -save, to set free. Freedom! Hah!" Consar broke into a rumbling laugh. -But Cadmus didn't hear it. - -Freedom. - -FREEDOM! - -Cadmus leaned against the coruscating wall. A thrill of returning -memory flooded him. - -Freedom! That was the key word. Zaleel had said that if the Machine -were destroyed the word would be on millions of lips. - -Ironic that Consar should have spoken the word unwittingly and set -Cadmus' mental fountain of memory free. Behind closed eyes, in a brief -flash of recollection, Cadmus' memory, his destiny, his potentiality, -returned. - -He knew why he was called Cadmus. - - * * * * * - -His father, the first Cadmus of the newer myth. The greatest hero of -the System. For years, since the Machine had been placed in power, his -father had worked toward its destruction. A shadow, a mystery in the -starways. He had gotten scientists and had constructed secret arsenals. -He had constructed small matter transmatters and installed a secret -transmat underground between the three worlds and the asteroids. - -In the asteroid belt had been thousands of free men who hadn't had the -disciplinary bands installed in their skulls because they had been -born there in the belt, away from all legislative control, of mucker -parents. Men and women and children who were inaccessible in the -thousands of uncharted little worlds between Terra and Mars. - -Led by his father, they had attacked through the transmats and had -marched on the council tower and the Machine. But they had been -defeated, slain and taken into slavery. Only a few escaped. Only three. -Two children, Cadmus and Zaleel. And Johlan. They returned to the -asteroids to plan the second revolt. - -But they had marched on the Machine, knowing it was surrounded by half -a mile of deadly radioactivity. And now Cadmus knew how his father had -expected to overthrow the Machine in spite of this barrier. His father -had planned the direct assault on the Machine--alone. His father had -trusted no one. He had lain the groundwork, had accomplished the whole -preparation himself. He had been intending to launch the direct attack -on the Machine by releasing the armed men. - -... _slew a dragon and sowed its teeth. From these sprang armed men_ ... - -Young as he had been then, Cadmus still remembered starkly. His father -had given him the information and directions. No one else knew. Johlan -had suspected. That was why he had blanked out Cadmus' mind until his -own terrible plan had been achieved. - -Cadmus could hear his father's words now, plainly, after the many -years. As his father lay dying in a hidden cavern after having failed -to reach the other great cave on the side of the valley facing the -Machine. - -"I've worked it for almost a century, son--the armed men--transported -them one by one from Terra by transmat ... an underground filled with -armed men ... ready to march into the Machine ... ready to blast its -accursed heart ... the lever is under the roots of the komble-plant at -the mouth of the cavern ... when the doors are opened...." - -His father had given him the directions, how to reach that secret -cavern where the armed men waited. Then he had died. The three -survivors had been waiting for Cadmus, and they escaped, returned to -the asteroids via transmat. Johlan, the leading scientist, had raised -and educated Zaleel and Cadmus. - -Cadmus was running across the room. He heard Consar's laughter fading -behind him as he ran into the hall. But the pattern was clear in -Cadmus' mind. - - - V - -Cadmus dodged into a doorway as Guards came down the hall pursuing -three Martians. Behind him he caught a glimpse of a huge pleasure pool -in a lethean garden. Vacant now, its hedonistic lovers caught up in a -grisly destiny. - -The two Guards were chasing three Martians who hadn't digested the idea -of suicide, evidently. As the Guards raised vibro-guns, Cadmus hurled -himself through the doorway. His leap carried one of the Guards to the -floor. One desperate blow knocked that Guard senseless. Cadmus raised -the Guard's vibro-gun and brought the other man to the floor in a -paralyzed sprawl. - -The Machine's voice still thundered from the Tower as Cadmus ran from -the palace, into the street toward the valley's mouth. The city was -almost deserted now, except for a few Guards and policejets circling, -hunting out deserters from the suicidal march. - -Cadmus ran frantically, straining, along the street, keeping next the -shadowed wall. But no Guards bothered him now. To them he was another -suicidal lemming who had gotten the call belatedly. - -His breath came harshly, burning fire. His muscles groaned as he forced -himself up the steep rocky slope leading up and along the valley's rim. - -His father's directions were vivid in his mind now as he staggered -along the wind-whipped trail. Higher and higher until the mid-afternoon -winds were a thousand icy lances driving through his sweating body. - -He finally dropped in a gasping heap at the base of the flowering -komble-plant. To his right was the high flat wall of granite. Huge -doors were behind the red clay and dust, waiting to open. A high wide -door. - -His hands clawed at the red clay. His fingers bled as the hard cracked -stuff came away in reluctant layers. His fingers grated on metal. -Frantically he tore at the clay binding the small lever. - -Below him in the vast valley, the carnage continued. The radioactive -field was piled with uncountable bodies. Only deep within the -radioactive field did the gamma rays have the intensity to kill -quickly. But much further out, thousands were dying as the -radioactivity spread through the bodies of comrades. Masses behind kept -moving, surging, pressing forward, hurling walls of humanity into the -deadly field. - -Cadmus shoved the lever. The massive doors broke through the years of -clay camouflage behind him. A grinding roar shattered the thin air. -Startled, Cadmus cried out, and leaped away. He was running desperately -out of the field of the armed men who came darting in deadly ferocity -from the silence of their ancient crypt. - -Huge, glistening, streamlined metal monsters. They shot from the dark -opening. A line of twenty, they glowed with a deadly field of gamma -radiation and death-spray. And Cadmus kept running away from them. His -heart pounded with a deathly fear and awe as he hurled himself down the -steep trail. He glanced back a few times. That was enough. - -Those great metal tanks were deadly to any living thing near them. They -sped from the cavern, headed in a grim straight line directly for the -Machine. Once set as his father had set their automatic robot controls -long ago, nothing could divert them from their objective. Straight down -the slope they plunged in silent, ferocious intent. - -Cadmus remembered other things now. Of how his father had installed -secretly a transmat sender in a Terran museum where such curious -mementos as giant robot tanks were no longer of interest to Terrans. -One by one, via transmat, the tanks had been transported to this hidden -cavern on the edge of the valley. - -In that last ghastly war, robot tanks and drone planes had been -employed almost entirely in place of human beings. Atomic engines were -built and used to drive these drone planes, tanks, ships. But no living -thing could pilot them, nor come within a quarter of a mile of them, -and survive. - -They were robot controlled. Man's final contribution to annihilative -warfare. Equipped with raw, unshielded atomic engines, the tanks were -deadly beyond imagination, with atomic bombs as warheads, and giving -off a sheet of robot death-spray. They were impervious to any kind of -atomic weapons for they were the ultimate in robot-controlled atomic -weapons. Silent, implacable, they rushed down the slope, over rock and -through brush, and finally over mounds of dead and dying. The human -lemmings rushing to their death didn't notice the tanks. They did not -notice anything. - -Up and up over mounds of clawing bodies and hills of dead the terrible -robot weapons climbed. Over heaps of human lemmings, red and yellow and -black Terrans, and yellow Martians. And then they struck the smooth -gleaming side of the Machine. - -The machine exploded! - -The valley was suddenly a seething boiling cloud of chaos. Bits of Gray -God rained for miles over the desert, mountains and ruins of Akal-jor. -Boiling dust clouds rose blackly, flung by a tremendous flash like -a ball of fire the size of the setting sun. Churning debris climbed -thousands of feet in the air, while smoke climbed higher. The dying -day was relighted by a searing light, golden, purple, violet, gray and -blue. Then came the first of a series of air-blasts, to be followed -almost immediately by the sustained and awesome roar. - -Cadmus stumbled to his knees. He crawled, managed to regain his feet, -lurched blindly through clouds of choking dust. His clothing hung in -strips. Blood seeped from his ears and nose. Somehow he managed to -deactivate the rest of the transmats. For although the Machine was now -utterly destroyed the great crater that remained was even more deadly -in its neutron and gamma radiation than before. - -The last of the matter transmatters stopped working. The rivers of -desperate beings were dammed. On Terra and in the Martian cities, -waiting worshippers were wondering what had happened as their own -transmat senders stopped functioning. - -They waited for a long time. They waited until it finally occurred to -them that the transmats might never function again. They wondered, -and kept on waiting. But three quarters of the Terran and Martian -population had been saved from suicide. - - * * * * * - -Cadmus dragged himself up the sweeping steps of the council tower. It -was dark now. And silent. On three worlds, people waited, not yet aware -of the full significance of what had happened. - -Phobos was a hurtling curse in the sky. Deimos was edging up into the -night like an afterthought. Cadmus stumbled. He staggered to the -elevator and inside. He watched the lights blinking as he climbed to -the Tower's top. He went into a hall leading to the large audi-chamber. - -A massive bulk lay sprawled in the shadows. Consar III. His flesh -was charred. Even the brilliant jewels that had bedecked him seemed -exhausted of their luster. - -Cadmus paused. Consar hadn't wanted to die, not really. He, too, had -come to the Tower. He hadn't given up his position of power and wealth -easily. He had come to the Tower to attempt to assume the direct power -that the Machine had once controlled. Someone had prevented him. Johlan? - -He peered through the opening into a large, gloomy chamber. It -contained the transcription and audiocasting facilities of the council -tower. Somewhere, the ten council members, aged children conditioned to -voice the dictates of the Machine, were crouched in blank fear. - -A large audiocasting set was humming in the far corner of the room, a -strip of tape running beneath its electronic needle. - -Cadmus stopped in the shadows. He had made his way to the Tower fast. -He had heard that voice from the Tower, and it had changed. He knew -whose voice had replaced the voice of the Machine. Johlan. - -Cadmus' eyes adjusted to the gloom. The Venusians preferred gloom. -Then, beside a recorder across the large chamber, Cadmus saw the -greenly iridescent body of the Venusian crouched over a microphone, -recording more tape for the audiocaster. - -Cadmus listened to Johlan's voice coming from the loudspeaker atop the -Tower. - -"The Great Gray God of stability was only a Machine. It has been -destroyed. The Venusians destroyed it to save the System from disaster -through the Machine's static pattern of unchange. But a tri-planetary -government of organic agency must replace the Machine. There cannot -be a return of old inter-world antagonisms. There must be a united -System. A tri-planetary government will be established here on Mars. -Directives will soon follow from the council tower that once voiced the -machine-dictates of the Gray God. The Ven--" - -Cadmus fired. Not at Johlan. The Venusian's recorded message stopped as -the blast from Cadmus' gun melted the audio unit. The thundering voice -from the Tower's summit died. Johlan turned quickly. - -"That was enough of that speech," said Cadmus. "So far, you spoke very -well. There'll be a new tri-planetary government, but the Venusians -aren't dictating terms from this Tower. No one world will dictate any -terms from anywhere." - -"Wait," interrupted Johlan. "Don't fire, Cadmus. We can rule together." - -Cadmus' voice was brittle as steel. "You're worse than Consar, worse -than the Machine. Millions have died today because of you. Because -of old greeds and ambitions you couldn't bury--dreams of Venusian -imperialism." - -"The Venusians never got fair representation from the System," cried -Johlan. "They never will. Fishmen! That's what you call us!" - -His lidless eyes gleamed as his hand flashed. Cadmus yelled once, then -fell to his knees as a ray of neuron-shattering force from a paralysis -gun swept across his knees. His legs crumbled him to his side. Another -stream soaked into his arm. His neutron gun toppled from nerveless -fingers. - -The fingers of his other hand crawled toward it. That arm went dead. -Only his torso was still capable of sensation. Cadmus turned fevered -eyes on Johlan. He waited, his heart pounding. The little Venusian's -scales glinted with triumph as he padded forward on webbed feet. - - * * * * * - -"You did a fine job, Cadmus," he said, looking down. "No one else but -you could have accomplished it. No one else had the will, the courage, -or the strength and audacity. Nor the human gullibility. That's why I -used you." - -Johlan paused. He looked away from the window. A splash of white -moonlight flooded down, rippled over the mosaic floor. It glinted from -Johlan's scales and danced in his lidless eyes. His voice was dreamy -with power. "My question to the Machine was simple. I merely devised -a series of opposed questions, requiring one answer for all of them. -In other words, the Machine was forced to make a compromise. But the -Machine was fixed. It couldn't make a compromise. It had to go insane." - -He looked back down at Cadmus. "That was a magnificent idea of your -father's--those ancient tanks from the atom war. He was a great man. -Maybe the greatest Terran who ever lived. But I'm a Venusian. I am -greater, because I used him. And I used you, his son. So Cadmus slew -the dragon and sowed its teeth, and from these sprang armed men!" - -Johlan smiled gently. "But the dragon was never really slain, Cadmus. I -was the dragon." - -Cadmus heard the door open. He heard her voice, sharp and clear. It -was beautiful, he thought, like music. Though music could never be so -deadly. - -"But dragons always die, Johlan." - -The Venusian gasped as he turned. He started to die as he faced her. -The death ray glowed on his green-scaled chest for a while, then faded -as the Venusian stumbled across the room, the neutron gun hanging -limply and forgotten in his webbed hand. He finished dying with his -face pressed hard against the window. - -Far away, Venus shimmered brightly in the sky. - -She knelt beside Cadmus. Her kisses were wet on his face. He could feel -her hands and her lips. - -"You'll be all right, Cadmus," she said as her hands caressed his face. -"As long as it didn't get your heart." - -Cadmus looked at her hungrily. - -"I managed to hide for a while," she said, "when we fled from Consar's -palace. I heard that terrible explosion. Later I heard Johlan's voice -from the Tower and I came here. I didn't know, until I overheard him -talking to you, what had really happened." Her voice broke. "How could -he have been--so fiendish--so--" - -"Forget it," he murmured. "Or try to anyway. We did it. The Machine's -gone." - -"Yes." A glitter of faith shone in her eyes. "The System's free again. -Free to evolve and grow, and reach greatness or ruin. But at least to -be free." - -"Zaleel--Where do we go--from here?" - -"We're going again, and that's what really matters," she said. "It's us -now, Cadmus. It'll be just you and me now for a while. Remember?" - -Cadmus remembered. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOOMSDAY 257 A.G.! *** - -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: Doomsday 257 A.G.!</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Bryce Walton</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 26, 2021 [eBook #64637]</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 DOOMSDAY 257 A.G.! ***</div> - - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<p>Prince Cadmus slew the Dragon and sowed<br /> -its teeth. Could this latter-day Cadmus<br /> -smash Akal-jor's atomic monster? Could<br /> -he halt the devouring Gray God before—</p> - -<h1>Doomsday 257 A.G.!</h1> - -<h2><i>Novelet by</i> BRYCE WALTON</h2> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories May 1952.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Cadmus trembled now as he waited. He had been waiting too long. Sweat -was heavy on his clean-muscled body. A bright eagerness blazed from -his gray eyes. And beyond the small pressure dome of the combination -lab and living quarters, the frigid night pounded at the translucent -teflonite—gnawed hungrily at that small dot of life and warmth on the -barren asteroid.</p> - -<p>Now that he was almost ready to step into the matter transmitter, each -moment had become an eternity as he waited to be transported almost -instantly to Mars. To the city of Akal-jor. To his final destiny.</p> - -<p>He cursed softly at the cloud of amnesia aching in his skull. Johlan -the Venusian scientist had had him in various states of hypnosis for -some time, educating him for this task, and had placed a protective -veneering of amnesia across his mind to protect his purpose from the -Silver Guard's mental probers in case he were captured.</p> - -<p>Since birth, Johlan had raised Zaleel and Cadmus on the asteroid. The -three of them were unconditionally dedicated to the great "plan." -Because of his fogged memory, Cadmus now knew but little concerning -the details of the plan. He only knew that he would die to carry it -through. That if he failed, Tri-Planet civilization would go on down to -final decay and ruin.</p> - -<p>The three of them, three frail motes of intelligent life, must save -the vast System. Old Johlan the Venusian. Zaleel of the golden hair -and generous red lips. And Cadmus the fighter. To fight the Silver -Guards, and the gigantic mechanical intelligence of the Great Gray God, -Cadmus had only the sword at his side and the crude energy gun Johlan -had made. The energy gun was too small for efficiency but it had to be -small in order to be carried unnoticed beneath his tunic.</p> - -<p>Zaleel was gone. She had stepped into the transmat months before to -carry out her part of the plan. Cadmus remembered only the shiny -richness of her hair, the warm promise of her lips.</p> - -<p>A signal light blinked. A glow crackled round the electronic power rim -of the transmat. Cadmus shot one last glance through the pressure dome -where he had spent most of his lifetime in preparation.</p> - -<p>A thin hard smile parted his space-burned face as he stepped into the -transmat and melted into a blurred vortex of coloration.</p> - -<p>Pain beyond thought shattered his consciousness to shreds. The -blackness was absolute. The cold was ineffable.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was the year of the Gray God, 257 A.G.</p> - -<p>Tomorrow was the day of Worship at the Gray God's shrine. Beyond the -city of Akal-jor was the vast valley where the Gray God was born, and -where it lived on, eternally, beneath its impregnable gray metal dome, -five miles in diameter, and a mile high. Shielded by half a mile of -deadly radioactive field, a teeming moat of gamma rays through which no -living thing could pass.</p> - -<p>On three worlds, hopeless, futile, static beings of a dying -civilization prepared for the big exodus to Mars and to the Gray God's -altars. Then they would return to their dull cycle of meaningless -existence to dream in some drugged escapeasy, or to die horribly in -one of Consar III's atomic power plants, mine shafts, or his isotope -factories.</p> - -<p>Consar III had arrived in Akal-jor for the worship. With him were five -thousand slaves. Bathing in countless hedonistic luxuries, he awaited -the worship to begin at tomorrow's dawn. Meanwhile he looked for new -and interesting female slaves.</p> - -<p>Next to sensual pleasure, Consar enjoyed most the contemplation of his -great power over the masses of three worlds. He could never lose that -power. Unless the Gray God died, and that was impossible of course. -Or unless he died. He would die certainly, sometime. Then he wouldn't -worry about pleasures or power.</p> - -<p>From the windows of his Martian mansion, the Palace of Pearl, he looked -to the east into the valley of the Gray God. It towered, a massive gray -metal skull. Consar III laughed. The Gray God was a machine. Therefore -its position as governmental dictator of the System remained absolutely -stable. Nothing could ever change again. His position as sole exploiter -of the resources of the System, under the title of Consar Exploitations -Interplanetary, was to remain unchanged forever. It was a perfect setup.</p> - -<p>The System was Consar's really, despite the fact that the Gray God -ruled through mechanical dictates. All the dictates favored Consar. -Consar and his hedonistic rituals, sycophants, courtiers and concubines.</p> - -<p>There was always the rumor of an underground seeking to overthrow the -status quo. The Cadmeans, who had tried once before to destroy the -Great Machine, had been wiped out of existence. Or at least most of -them. If any did remain alive, they were ineffectual. They would be -discovered and killed or enslaved by the Silver Guards. The Guards -didn't really work for Consar, not directly. They were conditioned in -the council tower to obey the dictates of the Great Machine. But those -dictates all favored Consar's position of royalty, so it amounted to -the same thing.</p> - -<p>He moved the animated throne across the room to the edge of his roseate -pleasure pool that shimmered in the middle of the jeweled floor. Above -him, joylamps spun their songs of colored sensuality. His three hundred -pounds of white flabby flesh settled into depths of luxuriance.</p> - -<p>A small spidery man entered and bowed. "There is a girl here in -Akal-jor, Illustrious Consar."</p> - -<p>"Ah. Go on, Gaston." Consar's voice bubbled with soft power like lava. -"You have acted rapidly and with customary clarity."</p> - -<p>"She is a dancer in an escapeasy called the Maenad on the Street of -Shadows. She is alive and vital and desirable as no woman among your -women, My Ruler. She—"</p> - -<p>"Bring her, Gaston, before dawn. After the worship, I'll take her back -to Terra. Is she Martian?"</p> - -<p>"Terro. Her name is Zaleel."</p> - -<p>"Good. You can obtain the services of Silver Guards, as usual, under -the Gray God's labor conscription edict fifty-seven."</p> - -<p>The spidery little man bowed out. Consar III pressed a button. Soft -durolite arms lowered him into the swirling waters of his pleasure -pool. He sank slowly as the crystaline waters washed him gently in its -bath of a thousand dreams.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Spiraling patterns fused, disassociated atomic rejoined. Cadmus -stumbled from the transmat receiver. As he lurched through dusty damp -shadows, a familiar, non-terrestrial voice called. The Venusian padded -toward him on webbed feet, green scales shining in the cold luciferin -light of a trunjbug lamp.</p> - -<p>Cadmus' voice was still shaky, rattling through the subterranean gloom -somewhere below Akal-jor. He couldn't remember where. He could remember -very little. "I've got to know more about the plan," he said quickly. -"More about myself. This fog is driving me crazy!"</p> - -<p>The ancient Venusian said, "You'll know more, a lot more, if you -succeed in destroying the Great Machine. It wouldn't be safe to know -very much—at least until just before you're ready to strike. And you -must strike the final blow at dawn."</p> - -<p>"Was it necessary to wipe practically everything out of my mind," -growled Cadmus. "I seem to be desperately groping for some memory, some -facts that I should remember now! Do you—?"</p> - -<p>"Forget everything but the immediate task before you," said Johlan -tensely. "You strike just as dawn strikes. Just as millions of -worshippers emerge from those transmats in the valley, the Great Gray -God which they worship will die—before their eyes. They must see it -die so they can carry eyewitness accounts back to their own worlds. -We must succeed this time. Another solar year and the System will be -too sunken in the disease of unchange and futility and defeat ever to -change."</p> - -<p>Cadmus breathed hoarsely. "Let me get on with it. Give me the necessary -information!"</p> - -<p>"Very well," sighed Johlan. "You have only one advantage. You realize -what it is. Having been born in the asteroids, you don't have the -disciplinary band in your head. The Guards, by using their coercion -rays, can slay or paralyze any living inhabitant of the three worlds -through the disciplinary band. That will allow you great advantage. -Now—first you go to the Maenad on the Street of Shadows. Zaleel is -a dancing girl there. She'll give you the equipment to destroy the -Machine."</p> - -<p>Cadmus gripped Johlan's boneless cold fingers. "I'll get the job done," -said Cadmus with a certainty he was far from feeling.</p> - -<p>Johlan nodded. "Straight ahead and up the first stairway. It will lead -you directly onto the Street of Shadows."</p> - -<p>Later, Cadmus gripped the sword hilt as he hugged the mouldy green -wall of aged dhroon-stone. His eyes shifted up and down the crooked -alley through filthy pools of splashing light from Phobos. Down its -scrofulous length were a number of nameless dens and dives where -defeated hopeless beings found solace in deadly drugs and deadlier -dreams. He sucked in his breath. Yes—he had heard the jackboots on -the stone street. Coming toward him from the direction of the Maenad, -cutting off his advance. Part of a labor recruiting drive no doubt. -Phobos' pale light glowed on silver uniforms and an array of deadly -weapons. They were fine looking soldiers though they were nothing -really but slaves.</p> - -<p>He slid the sword free. The energy weapon beneath his tunic must be -saved for an extreme emergency. Swords had been in use when the Machine -had been constructed. Anyone could still carry one. Few bothered. Few -cared. They were past the hope of fighting.</p> - -<p>Cadmus turned. He had to run away, away from the Maenad as well as the -Guards. He might not get back and time was getting too precious. The -city swarmed everywhere with Guards because of the great worship at -dawn.</p> - -<p>He snarled like a trapped animal as hunched shapes spilled from -the dark before him. Huge shaggy Bluemarts from the desert caves. -Anthropoid mutations of a savage intelligence at the end of an -evolutionary blind alley. They mimicked the Guards, killed for them, -captured labor conscripts for them. Sometimes they died, too, thought -Cadmus as he ran among them, striking desperately in an attempt to cut -his way through to escape the Guards.</p> - -<p>Blood ran black. Bluemarts bellowed pain. Two sprawled out to writhe -and die on the ancient stones. Long heavy leather whips studded with -brass spikes crashed around Cadmus as he dodged and fought and danced -away.</p> - -<p>He saw the Guards, close now. They were confused. Their coercion -rays were being used, Cadmus knew, but he had no disciplinary band. -A policejet came down and hovered overhead. A brilliant search beam -slithered over the walls. A whiplash crashed against his shoulder, -stunning him. Another scraped cloth and flesh from his side.</p> - -<p>Dazed, he reached for his energy gun. But that whiplash had ripped away -his harness, holster, gun and all. He staggered along the wall. A dull -roaring pounded in his temples. Then he heard the unreal, whining voice -of the old woman from the thick shadows of the wall. He heard but he -could see nothing of her.</p> - -<p>There was a dismal creaking of stone on stone.</p> - -<p>"This way, my dear boy. Quickly, or you're a dead one!"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>Her hand was hard and dry, running down his torn arm like a deadly -scorpion. The aperture in the wall opened further and a hot, stinking -wind belched out. He dropped as paws gripped his booted ankles from -behind. He twisted, thrust his sword into a shaggy throat. His hand -felt the harness he had lost. He dragged it inside with him, into a -black, forgotten hole.</p> - -<p>The opening closed. There was an invisible stench of stale bodies and -drug vapor. He could hear the old woman's hoarse breathing. He hooked -the broken harness about his waist.</p> - -<p>"Light," he gasped. "What's this, a tomb?"</p> - -<p>"It will be, dear boy," she said. "We must move quickly down into the -catacombs. I wear the receiver band. I feel them groping, but it's you -they want. They don't know I'm helping you, and they don't want an old -bag of bones like me. But hurry. They'll blast in the wall."</p> - -<p>Flame glowed. She lighted a smoky taper. He saw a bent ragged packet of -animated bones, a mop of gray hair and a narrow hawked beak. In niches -along the winding cavern, shapes stirred. Moisture dripped. Turgid -Lethean vapors from escapist drugs curled sluggishly. Skeletal faces -stared, glazed and unseeing, dying.</p> - -<p>Cadmus swore. Three worlds were dying like this. A vast social system -that had stopped moving, evolving, so it was dying. Fast! A yellow -Martian girl's luminous eyes stared vacantly into shadows, buried in -some dream far from the hopeless, meaningless reality.</p> - -<p>Cadmus studied the old woman with growing suspicion. The amnesia was a -throbbing ache of unknowing. If he only knew more. There was so much -he felt he had to know, right now, but he couldn't remember! Who was -this sudden benefactress? Not from the Asteroids, for she wore the -disciplinary band. Yet she had saved him, preserved him a little longer -to carry out an impossible task.</p> - -<p>She turned, anticipating his suspicion. "Zaleel sent me. You can trust -me, Cadmus. I know these catacombs. I'm old Pirri who sells her Lethean -drugs along the forgotten places of Akal-jor. You Cadmeans have a few -sympathizers. Some still have hope. The Cadmean society is that hope."</p> - -<p>A wave of fear blew through Cadmus' fogged brain. "Cadmeans. -My—memory! Johlan erased almost everything. I remember -nothing—yet—there's something—something I've got to remember!"</p> - -<p>She didn't answer. They walked on. A Martian half-breed ogled them -from a niche in the stone, jaws chewing the mind-shattering pulp of -the Venusian thiln-flower. Wrecks of three worlds. They believed in -nothing but their dreams—and the Gray God in the valley. The former -they believed in as an only escape from a hopeless reality. The latter, -because they had been conditioned to regard it as a god, as omnipotent.</p> - -<p>You may fear a god, and hate a god, Cadmus mused, but you cannot desert -a faith with impunity.</p> - -<p>"You know a lot of Cadmus and the Cadmeans," he said as they walked -deeper into the gloom. "I know nothing. Nothing! Listen, who is -Cadmus?" He frowned. A ridiculous question.</p> - -<p>"You are he," said Old Pirri. "Gods and heroes will never die."</p> - -<p>"Who am I?"</p> - -<p>"Cadmus."</p> - -<p>He swore. His head ached more with doubts and hidden fears. A desperate -yearning to <i>know</i> clawed frantically in his skull.</p> - -<p>Old Pirri said, "There is a myth, centuries old, dear boy." Her voice -softened. "But myths repeat themselves. They're rooted in the soul. In -this myth, that was born on Terra when it was young and fresh and when -blood was hot with early flames, there was a prince. He was tall and -strong, and his skin was gold over muscles of steel."</p> - -<p>She peered over her shoulder. "His name was Cadmus."</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"Prince Cadmus slew a dragon and sowed its teeth. From these sprang -armed men who fought and founded a great city—"</p> - -<p>"Teeth—dragon—armed men, what are the symbols here?" A strange thrill -trembled in him as the words took hold.</p> - -<p>"You are the son of a much more recent Cadmus who was named from that -ancient myth. Only he knew why he called himself Cadmus. He kept that -secret to himself. But you are his son. If anyone knows your father's -great secret of why he called himself Cadmus, it is you. You are -Cadmus, now."</p> - -<p>"But Johlan—he stifled my brain so the Guards couldn't probe my -secrets—"</p> - -<p>Old Pirri's eyes glowed, became red pools. "Zaleel told me. She, too, -is ignorant of many things other than her assigned duties. Beware, -lovely boy. Beware of friends and patriots who are out to achieve -selfish ends. Beware even Zaleel, and Johlan, and Old Pirri. Remember -history, and recall that when the Great Machine God was spawned and -stopped all progress, wars were brewing between the worlds. Remember -that was the reason the Machine was made—to halt progress and social -evolution that might lead to another atom war. If the Machine is -destroyed, remember that the old hates will return. For the ancient -hates between peoples and planets and ideas still smolder."</p> - -<p>Cadmus shivered. The sword hilt was ice in his grasp.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They turned. Several corridors branched into black mouths. Bats darted -from hollows. Nothing must deter him from his objective. Yet—Old Pirri -spoke wisdom. When the Machine quit, the three worlds would be plunged -into chaotic anarchy. No government would exist until some kind of -governmental agency was established. Who, then, or what group, would -aspire to power? Consar III of course, if he lived. Others if there -were others who still knew how to think.</p> - -<p>They came into a subterranean street illuminated with cold luciferin -light. Escapeasies lined its length. A forgotten river flowing from -ennui to forgetfulness, and death. Archways crumbled overhead. Purple -spider webs shimmered.</p> - -<p>"We're directly under the Street of Shadows," said Old Pirri. -Sense-drunkening music floated from dark maws. "Just inside that -escapeasy, Cadmus. A door just inside leads up into the Street of -Shadows, and into the Maenad." She gripped his arm. Tears shone in her -eyes.</p> - -<p>She took a chain from about her neck. A square of metal dangled heavily -from the chain as she put it over Cadmus' head.</p> - -<p>"Dear boy," she said, "this is a small force-shield device. I got it -from a Cadmean who was killed in the last revolt. Press this small -lever." She demonstrated. The unit hummed with power. It glowed with a -strong effulgence. "This will nullify the vibro-guns of the Guards, for -a while anyway."</p> - -<p>Footsteps pounded. Old Pirri screeched, horribly, then went down on her -knees. "Run—dear boy. Guards—" her voice shattered with pain. Her -flesh jerked with the agony of a vibro-beam.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>But he was safe, thought Cadmus quickly, while a sad rage wrenched his -heart. She had sacrificed herself for him. She had given him the little -force-shield unit.</p> - -<p>He dropped down behind a crumbling column near the old woman as three -Guards edged along the street. "Back—into the wall—find Maenad." -Red froth specked her lips. "Beware all who might get power—when you -slay—the Gray God—dear boy—"</p> - -<p>She died. A blind rage burned up, flamed in Cadmus' brain. He yelled -wildly as he raked the energy gun from his tunic and fired point blank -at the approaching Guards.</p> - -<p>Part of the street, with the Guards in it, erupted in a sheet of white -flame. Shattered bodies, bits of uniform spread out through blazing -columns like an unfolding flower. He dropped the burned-out gun and -leaped backward, into the wall.</p> - -<p>He ran blindly. Many-legged rats spilled out into the dark, ran with -glowing eyes beside him. Pink, fleshy scorpions scurried before -the vibrations of the blast. Later he found a wandering Venusian -drug-peddlar who guided him to the trap-door leading up into the -Maenad. It was only a few minutes now, until dawn.</p> - -<p>There were no Guards in the escapeasy. Dancing girls from three worlds -danced with a bored lifelessness. All except one. Zaleel. A flood of -red-gold hair, flashing rust-flecked eyes, and smooth agile limbs. Her -vitality failed to stir the sluggish futility clouding the Maenad. Her -eyes flashed recognition as Cadmus edged along the wall and sat down in -a shadowed booth. As the climax of her dance ended she walked to his -booth and sat across from him. There was no applause. Apathetic eyes -failed to follow the lithe swing of her gleaming body.</p> - -<p>He held her hands, felt the animal warmth sparkle and tingle in his -arms. "You made it, Cadmus," she breathed, eyes glowing. "I knew you -would. I've got the microtape here. It's all you need to destroy the -Machine—if you can reach it."</p> - -<p>She handed him a small role of microtape. "Listen, Zaleel," he said, -"I'm going crazy because of this amnesia Johlan threw over my brain. I -tell you there's something vital to the plan I should know."</p> - -<p>"You've got to keep blind faith. We can't hesitate now."</p> - -<p>He told her about Old Pirri. She blinked at tears.</p> - -<p>"Poor Old Pirri. She was in the first revolt. She was captured, had -a disciplinary band put in her head, and slaved five years in one of -Consar's mines. She lived only to see the Machine's end."</p> - -<p>"She died too soon," said Cadmus.</p> - -<p>"Your memory will return if you succeed, Cadmus. Johlan planted a -threshold-response word in your subconscious mind. When you hear that -word your full memory will come back. I heard him make the posthypnotic -suggestion. But I can't tell you what it is. If you were captured—"</p> - -<p>"I know. How and when will I receive this word?"</p> - -<p>"It will be on millions of lips—if you succeed."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Cadmus said quickly, "All right. Give me the details, and let me get at -it! Now what's the microtape for?"</p> - -<p>She leaned forward. The fragrance of her hair was a promise.</p> - -<p>"You know how the Machine's mechanical brain operates. But because of -your amnesia, maybe I'd better refresh your memory. Now—any question, -social, economic, individual, is submitted to the supreme council in -the council tower. On the top of the tower is the question submission -chamber. There are big digital panel-boards with facilities to receive -the questions and problems which are submitted on microtapes.</p> - -<p>"These microtapes are placed before the photoelectric analyzing eyes of -the digital panels. From there, the problems or questions are carried -by electron beam tubes directly into the Machine for solving. The -Machine's answer comes back through the electron beam tubes and is -recorded on answer tapes. Audio tapes are recorded and broadcast from -the tower. Also the broadcast is received in every Martian city and is -conveyed to Venus and Earth by ethero-magnum. You remember all this?"</p> - -<p>"Some of it," said Cadmus, frowning. "Go on."</p> - -<p>"The Machine's doom is in that microtape I've given you, Cadmus. It -contains a highly complex problem which Johlan has worked out during -all these years of isolation on our asteroid. You have only to get -inside that question submission chamber in the council tower. Get that -tape in front of those analyzing eyes. That's all. Get the problem on -that tape into the brain of the Machine."</p> - -<p>He looked at her steadily. "And then—is that the end of the plan?"</p> - -<p>Her hand trembled. "There's you and I, after that."</p> - -<p>"I remember that, Zaleel. If I succeed, it's you and me together, in a -new System of progress and change and hope. If I fail—"</p> - -<p>"If we fail, Cadmus, there'll be nothing for you and me. Nothing for -anyone, ever again."</p> - -<p>He got to his feet quickly. "Zaleel, what's your part in it? Why are -you dancing here?"</p> - -<p>Red flushed her face. "I knew that one of Consar's scouts would find me -during the worship. One has already found me. They'll be here to pick -me up before dawn."</p> - -<p>He gripped her shoulders, hard. His face worked with unvoiced emotion.</p> - -<p>"I've got to do it, Cadmus. My father died in one of Consar's Lunarian -mines. He died—horribly. I'll settle with Consar myself. I have an -explosive lithium capsule which...." It would be easier to do it than -to talk about it.</p> - -<p>She finished. "Everything will be dead then that threatens our System. -The Machine, Consar, the Guards—they'll die when the Machine goes. The -council tower will be the next center of governmental operations, no -matter who handles it. The people have grown accustomed to receiving -all their commands from the Tower."</p> - -<p>"I'll see you then," said Cadmus. "If we succeed." He went quickly out -into the Street of Shadows.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He flattened against the wall as the five Guards came past and turned -into the Maenad. A civilian was among them, a grotesque little man, -like a spider. His garments were studded with jewels and precious -stones which could only signify that he was one of Consar III's -personal slaves.</p> - -<p>Which, in turn, signified that they had come for Zaleel.</p> - -<p>A bitter hate burned in Cadmus as he edged past the Maenad's entrance -toward the policejet the Guards and the civilian had parked in the -street. He unsheathed his sword. He turned the little force-field unit -to full power. This was it. Dawn was about to break.</p> - -<p>He had the advantage of surprise and here was a way. He knew he could -never get into that council tower from the ground levels. It was too -heavily guarded. He might manage it from the air.</p> - -<p>He ran straight out of the shadows, taking advantage of the surprise -that froze the two Guards standing outside the entrance panel of the -policejet. Deimos blinked as Cadmus' sword struck. Its light was red. -The slain Guard sank wordlessly in a fresh warm pool that was redder -still on the worn stones.</p> - -<p>Cadmus laughed tonelessly as he struck again.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>The second Guard's face lost its sharply disciplined mask for an -instant, then he, too, died in the shadow of his glistening plane. -Cadmus was retrieving their weapons as two more Guards ran out of the -Maenad toward him, evidently called by one of the two slain Guards -before they died.</p> - -<p>Cadmus shot the policejet straight up beneath a blast of fire. Through -the pre-dawn chill, he angled it toward the council tower. He had only -minutes now to get inside the Tower and get that microtape before the -Machine's analyzing eyes.</p> - -<p>Below him sprawled the spires and sharp minarets of the ancient capital -city. To the east beyond the fifth cut-off from the Low Canal, was the -newer modernistic plastic council tower, rearing up into the sky for a -mile, directly in the valley's mouth.</p> - -<p>Beyond the council tower was the gigantic rounded dome of the Great -Machine, gleaming dully in the mists. To the right was Consar III's -pleasure palace, glittering like a monstrous and evil jewel.</p> - -<p>Zaleel would be there soon, groveling among his slaves.</p> - -<p>Now, from various roofports all over the city, silver policejets began -to dot the sky. Cadmus unhooked an antigrav belt from beneath the seat. -He pressed a stud and the cowling above him slid open. He belted the -antigrav belt about his waist and stood up.</p> - -<p>The council tower was a mile distant. A parabola would allow him to -reach it, if he could avoid being spotted by the Guards while falling.</p> - -<p>About twenty policejets, in formation as usual, were coming in from his -right. He raised both neutron guns, fired, simultaneously. He used both -weapons' full charge.</p> - -<p>An incredible blast ripped out, leaving paths of condensation in -its wake. Radiant energy spread forth in its basest and most deadly -form, heating intolerably by sudden kinetic interchange. There was a -devastating fire, a supernal electronic flash. Radiant energy blinded -and burned.</p> - -<p>The pre-dawn grayness became searing light. For an instant the area was -bombarded with fragments of molten metal. But Cadmus had sent his plane -in a sudden leap high above the disaster even as he fired. His plane -trembled, then began to burn. Its metal hull became unbearable.</p> - -<p>Cadmus leaped out into the darkness and began floating down, utilizing -the antigrav belt's angle facets to control the direction of his fall. -He looked about him. A mile behind, a hundred or so policejets were -converging on that spot where he had created the sudden holocaust. By -lifting his own plane and bailing out, he had put himself half a mile -away, a small dark speck, falling in a slow curve directly at the top -of the council tower.</p> - -<p>The policejets were swinging away in large, ever-increasing circles, -searching. Far away, he saw his own jetplane burst suddenly into white -flame and crash into the sluggish red waters of the canal. Most of the -policejets headed for it. Apparently there was no suspicion that he -had been able to escape the ship.</p> - -<p>Cadmus struck the top of the Tower. The mile-high dome was cold and -smooth as ice as he slid down its side onto a narrow ramp. He lay flat -for a moment in order to get back his strength. The city was moving -from its somnolence. Beings shuffling from drugged states to worship -the Gray God of stability. It was eternal slavery or death to neglect -the worship.</p> - -<p>Far below he could see a balcony opening into what would be the -question submission chamber. Utilizing the antigrav belt, Cadmus slid -from the ramp, down the shadowed side of the Tower. He attained the -balcony and crouched behind the colonnade. The sun peered over the -mountains. It reached into the valley, lapping the Machine's towering -skull with crimson tongues.</p> - -<p>Streaming from the city's main avenues, a solid river of Akal-jor's -inhabitants were marching to worship at the shrine of the Gray God.</p> - -<p>Cadmus stared at the fantastic and horrible scene. Worshipping a -machine that had chained them to its unchanging pattern and was killing -them. A thunderous chorus of wailing and chanting rose in a moan of -suppliancy.</p> - -<p>From every city on Mars, via transmat, other rivers of worshippers -were debouching into the valley. For a brief time they would gaze with -trembling awe at the monstrous metal dome that ruled them inexorably, -then return to their hopeless patterns.</p> - -<p>Via huge transmats on Terra and Venus, other rivers of worshippers -numbering millions were flowing across the void. They, too, would gaze -upon the Gray God's face, then return by transmat sender to their own -worlds. Cadmus stared in sudden shocked fear. One abruptly obvious and -terrible fact left him stunned.</p> - -<p>The great transmats on the right side of the valley were not disgorging -any worshippers. Nothing was emerging from the Venusian transmats.</p> - -<p>NO VENUSIANS WERE COMING TO WORSHIP THE GRAY GOD.</p> - -<p>Bewildered, stunned, Cadmus ran through the panels into the vaulted -height of the question submission chamber. He would worry about this -other fearful emergency once he got the microtape installed.</p> - -<p>Across the chamber were panels containing many eyes of the -photoelectric analyzers—lenses which must focus his microtape. -Receptacles in front of the eyes waited for the microtape to be -inserted. A red light indicated that none of the eyes were being used -at that moment to analyze a problem for the Machine.</p> - -<p>A problem scanned by these eyes was carried into the Machine by -electron beam tube. The Machine, a colossal mechanical brain, was the -result of the final achievements of the finest scientific minds in the -System.</p> - -<p>It could think. It could think, but its answers could never vary. The -Gray God.</p> - -<p>Cadmus ran across the chamber, inserted the microtape on its spindle -shaft and moved a small switch. The eyes glowed. The red light dimmed -into green, signifying that the Machine was now handling a problem.</p> - -<p>Cadmus stumbled back toward the windows. There was no feeling of -triumphant release for having fulfilled his destiny. Now that the -problem Johlan had devised was submitted to the Machine's vast -mechanical mind, the Machine was supposed to destroy itself.</p> - -<p>But the big problem now was why weren't those transmats bringing -Venusians to worship the Gray God? Why should only streams of screaming -psychopaths from Terra and Mars march out of transmats to their -pathetic worship?</p> - -<p>What had Old Pirri said?</p> - -<p>"Beware of friends and patriots who are such only to achieve selfish -ends. Remember history, and recall that when the Great Machine God was -spawned and stopped all progress, wars were brewing between the worlds. -Remember that was the reason the Machine was made—to halt progress and -social evolution that might lead to another atom war. If the Machine is -destroyed, remember that the old hates will return...."</p> - -<p>Cadmus shivered as he hesitated before the panels leading onto the -balcony. The sun was higher now. The area about the valley was a sea of -surging humanity marching out of transmat receivers.</p> - -<p>And the Machine lay there in its vaulted silence. That mass of -thinking apparatus was preparing now to solve the problem which Johlan -had prepared and which Cadmus had succeeded in injecting into its -mechanical brain. It would take a few minutes at least before any -results appeared.</p> - -<p>But Cadmus knew something was terribly wrong. No Venusians were yet -emerging from those transmats!</p> - -<p>A number of policejets were circling the areas about the -non-functioning Venusian transmats. A greater number had landed and -Cadmus could see Guards running in and out of the powerhouses.</p> - -<p>He turned quickly as he heard the panels of the doors opening behind -him. He dropped to his side, dragged frantically at the neutron gun in -his belt. He caught a smearing glimpse of many faces and acted too late -to save himself.</p> - -<p>He tried to activate the force-shield unit Old Pirri had given him. But -paralysis beams reached out like the fingers of a hand, gripped him, -held him rigid in a slowly-fading consciousness. He thought of Zaleel. -He tried to understand how their plan had seemed to succeed, but had -failed.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>The voice penetrated through layers of pain. Cadmus lay outstretched, -his eyes remained closed.</p> - -<p>"The probers won't find anything more. I know his name. I know a little -about him. But very little. He is Cadmus, the son of the first Cadmus -who started the first revolt against our great System. The revolt -failed of course."</p> - -<p>A whining voice answered. "I've revived him, my ruler. He feigns -unconsciousness."</p> - -<p>"Open your eyes, Cadmus," said the heavy thick voice ironically. "Open -them and look at the destruction you have brought upon our nice stable -order."</p> - -<p>Cadmus sat up, blinked back nauseous fog. An unbelievably fat man sat -before him on a golden throne, studded with precious stones. A cloud -of metallic birds piped a strange subdued song. Cadmus' eyes shifted -to the spidery little man standing beside the throne. But Consar III -gestured, and the spidery little man bowed out.</p> - -<p>The room was bare except for several mind-probing machines, and -wire mesh cages with graph screens. There was little on the screens. -Johlan's amnesia injection had been very effective, thought Cadmus. Too -effective. He was helpless now unless he got his memory back. He knew -part of the answer. His father was the first Cadmus. And there had been -a reason for calling himself that. It was of vast importance. But that -threshold response word. The key word—it might never be heard now.</p> - -<p>He was fully clothed but he was without weapons. The force-field -generator was gone. His antigrav belt had been taken from him.</p> - -<p>Cadmus said, "I never expected to meet you alive, Consar."</p> - -<p>Consar's mountain of flesh trembled in a rumbling laugh. "So many -unpredictable games the jester Chance plays, eh. It doesn't matter now -what you did or didn't expect."</p> - -<p>Cadmus started. He knew that Consar was mad with power. He knew nothing -else about Consar III, except that Zaleel was to have killed him with a -lithium capsule, and that she had failed.</p> - -<p>"We tapped your mind, Cadmus. I know a great deal about you, but so -little, too. You submitted a problem to the Machine—we shall refer -to it as a Machine as neither of us are quite convinced that it's -a god—and your purpose was that the Machine was to have destroyed -itself."</p> - -<p>Consar laughed. "It was a ridiculous purpose. You rebels with your -high ideals of progress and change! Progress and change are the great -errors of entropy, Cadmus. But it's too late to discuss that now. You -submitted the problem but the Machine still functions."</p> - -<p>Consar smiled. "You have driven the Machine insane!"</p> - -<p>Cadmus' throat was dry, thick. He didn't understand.</p> - -<p>"Come, I'll show you." Consar III pressed a button. The throne carried -his bulk across the marble floor to the wide windows overlooking the -council tower and the valley of the Machine.</p> - -<p>"You see, Cadmus. The Machine is insane. You submitted a problem to -it. I don't know what the nature of the problem was, its details, but -it was planned to be unsolvable to the Machine. Although the Machine -isn't organic, it functions much like an organic brain. Faced with an -unsolvable problem that nevertheless must be solved, a human mind goes -insane. Our Machine did the same thing. Insanity is a decision of a -sort. Sometimes it's the only logical answer to a dilemma. That seems -to be the case this time."</p> - -<p>Cadmus stared, but he still found it difficult to grasp the scene -below. What he saw and heard through the opened windows was horrible -beyond the maddest nightmare. The Venusian transmats were still dead. -No Venusians were emerging into the valley. But vast rivers of humans -from Terra, and Martians from all the cities, were spilling in great -masses into the valley—</p> - -<p>And to their death!</p> - -<p>Wailing, crying in sobbing ecstasy, these rivers were pouring directly -into that half-mile deep area of deadly radioactivity surrounding the -Machine.</p> - -<p>Cadmus murmured in sheer horror. Millions were dying. Millions more -would die. The valley was a gigantic pit of carnage. Unless it were -stopped every living person on Terra would march out of those transmats -and die. So would every living Martian.</p> - -<p>"Like the lemmings," said Consar III absently. "A suicide drive. See -what you Cadmeans have done with your foolish revolt. Listen to the -voice from the council tower."</p> - -<p>Cadmus was listening. A decision from the Machine was automatically -transcribed and broadcast from the Tower.</p> - -<p>"Listen to what the Tower is saying. The voice of the god. It couldn't -solve the answer it was forced to answer in any other way except by -this extreme and apparently insane way. Yet if this is the only way it -could answer the question, then it's logical isn't it? Logical that its -answer should be one of defeat, futility, abandonment of all hope."</p> - -<p>From the Tower the public address system thundered out over the wailing -shambles of destruction in the valley. Its waves of sound bludgeoned -the helpless, milling hordes into an ecstatic suicidal rush.</p> - -<p>"<i>Life has no meaning. All is futility. There is no hope. The only way -out of this problem is death. Death is the final and complete escape.</i>"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Consar said, "Few are ignoring the Machine's voice. That's natural. -They have long since abandoned hope. Without progress, with no goal, -the Machine's answer is logical to them. It's very interesting, this -end of System life, isn't it, Cadmus? Look at the rabble. Look at the -bawling cattle you dedicated your life to save. What have you done but -pushed them on down into the slime where they belong?"</p> - -<p>Cadmus hardly heard Consar's cynical humor. His head throbbed. Blood -rushed his temples as he tried to break that web of amnesia. It was -there, the answer, the solution.</p> - -<p>Johlan! He was Venusian. And no Venusians were dying in the valley. The -sudden clarity of the monstrous truth hit him like an explosion. Johlan -had formulated a problem to submit to the Machine. True. But not to -destroy it. Only to cause its reaction to be analogous to those of an -insane brain.</p> - -<p>Now it was directing the suicide of its worshippers. But not of -Venusians. The old hates still smoldering....</p> - -<p>A few inhabitants of Terra and Mars might remain alive when this -ghastly massacre ended. But Venus would be untouched. Johlan had -brought about a monstrous suicidal drive that would decimate the Terran -and Martian population. And leave Venus the unchallenged ruler of the -System.</p> - -<p>And Consar III laughed. Cadmus lunged at his throat. His hands struck -an invisible barrier. From behind the shield surrounding his throne, -Consar smiled.</p> - -<p>"You're helpless now, Cadmus. I see you've noticed that the Venusian -transmats are dead. The Guards have investigated. The power generators -have been destroyed so they won't work anymore without being repaired. -You've taken the rule of the System from the unchanging Machine, and -have given it back to the people. Therefore you've destroyed the -System. Already the Venusians are trying to wipe out Terra and Mars."</p> - -<p>Cadmus pounded against the invisible barrier.</p> - -<p>"You can't touch me, Cadmus. And what would it gain for you if you did? -We probed your girl comrade's brain, too. She came here to kill me, but -she had hidden the explosion somewhere and the Guards couldn't locate -it. She's gone now. She was taken to the slave quarters. But none of -the slaves are in their quarters now. They have all gone into the -valley to march into the Machine.</p> - -<p>"You see, Cadmus, everyone is conditioned to carry out the Machine's -dictates. Those who do not follow the commands of the Machine will be -driven into the valley and to death anyway by the Guards. The Guards, -too, will walk into the Machine to their deaths when everyone else is -dead. Including me. The Guards will force me to my death, too, Cadmus. -I have utilized the Guards only within the limitations of the Machine's -laws, you understand. Everyone will die except the Venusians. Let them -have it! I've enjoyed myself. I'm ready to make my exit."</p> - -<p>Cadmus ran back to the window.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Policejets were circling above the marching hordes of suicidals, raying -those who fell out of the surging river. Thousands of Guards were -circulating at the edges of the human tide, keeping the lines solid, -threatening stragglers with neutron charges. There were few stragglers. -In that hopeless, un-evolving system, the majority had wanted to die. -The Machine was sanctioning their psychotic desires.</p> - -<p>And somewhere, perhaps in that horde, Zaleel was trapped. Or she might -already be dead.</p> - -<p>Regardless of the amnesia, his hopeless position, Cadmus saw one -thing he could do if he could escape. Try to destroy as many of those -transmats as possible and stop the flow of doomed Terrans and Martians. -Johlan had stopped the Venusian transmats by destroying the generators. -He could do the same.</p> - -<p>From the Tower the thunderous voice of the mad Machine still called:</p> - -<p><i>Life has no meaning. All is futility. There is no hope.</i></p> - -<p>Cadmus tried to shut out the sound. He knew that if he had to listen to -it very long, its suggestion would overpower him.</p> - -<p>His own voice buried the voice of the mad Machine momentarily.</p> - -<p>"It isn't over yet, Consar. You're a victim of unchange like every -other poor suicidal out there. The blood of millions who have died in -your enslavement is on your hands. Your only excuse is that there never -was hope for humanity anyway. But there is, Consar. And I'll prove it -to you. You'll die, but I'll prove the truth to you before I kill you."</p> - -<p>Consar laughingly waved a flabby white hand. "The magic shadow show -still goes on. Join it. I'm not holding you here. See—the doors are -opening for you. Without the rigid discipline of the Machine, System -life will destroy itself. Every institution contains the seeds of its -own destruction. Even the Machine. Blind tropisms, rabble, robots, -cattle. Those are the stupid dolts you Cadmeans dedicated your lives to -save, to set free. Freedom! Hah!" Consar broke into a rumbling laugh. -But Cadmus didn't hear it.</p> - -<p>Freedom.</p> - -<p>FREEDOM!</p> - -<p>Cadmus leaned against the coruscating wall. A thrill of returning -memory flooded him.</p> - -<p>Freedom! That was the key word. Zaleel had said that if the Machine -were destroyed the word would be on millions of lips.</p> - -<p>Ironic that Consar should have spoken the word unwittingly and set -Cadmus' mental fountain of memory free. Behind closed eyes, in a brief -flash of recollection, Cadmus' memory, his destiny, his potentiality, -returned.</p> - -<p>He knew why he was called Cadmus.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>His father, the first Cadmus of the newer myth. The greatest hero of -the System. For years, since the Machine had been placed in power, his -father had worked toward its destruction. A shadow, a mystery in the -starways. He had gotten scientists and had constructed secret arsenals. -He had constructed small matter transmatters and installed a secret -transmat underground between the three worlds and the asteroids.</p> - -<p>In the asteroid belt had been thousands of free men who hadn't had the -disciplinary bands installed in their skulls because they had been -born there in the belt, away from all legislative control, of mucker -parents. Men and women and children who were inaccessible in the -thousands of uncharted little worlds between Terra and Mars.</p> - -<p>Led by his father, they had attacked through the transmats and had -marched on the council tower and the Machine. But they had been -defeated, slain and taken into slavery. Only a few escaped. Only three. -Two children, Cadmus and Zaleel. And Johlan. They returned to the -asteroids to plan the second revolt.</p> - -<p>But they had marched on the Machine, knowing it was surrounded by half -a mile of deadly radioactivity. And now Cadmus knew how his father had -expected to overthrow the Machine in spite of this barrier. His father -had planned the direct assault on the Machine—alone. His father had -trusted no one. He had lain the groundwork, had accomplished the whole -preparation himself. He had been intending to launch the direct attack -on the Machine by releasing the armed men.</p> - -<p>... <i>slew a dragon and sowed its teeth. From these sprang armed men</i> ...</p> - -<p>Young as he had been then, Cadmus still remembered starkly. His father -had given him the information and directions. No one else knew. Johlan -had suspected. That was why he had blanked out Cadmus' mind until his -own terrible plan had been achieved.</p> - -<p>Cadmus could hear his father's words now, plainly, after the many -years. As his father lay dying in a hidden cavern after having failed -to reach the other great cave on the side of the valley facing the -Machine.</p> - -<p>"I've worked it for almost a century, son—the armed men—transported -them one by one from Terra by transmat ... an underground filled with -armed men ... ready to march into the Machine ... ready to blast its -accursed heart ... the lever is under the roots of the komble-plant at -the mouth of the cavern ... when the doors are opened...."</p> - -<p>His father had given him the directions, how to reach that secret -cavern where the armed men waited. Then he had died. The three -survivors had been waiting for Cadmus, and they escaped, returned to -the asteroids via transmat. Johlan, the leading scientist, had raised -and educated Zaleel and Cadmus.</p> - -<p>Cadmus was running across the room. He heard Consar's laughter fading -behind him as he ran into the hall. But the pattern was clear in -Cadmus' mind.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">V</p> - -<p>Cadmus dodged into a doorway as Guards came down the hall pursuing -three Martians. Behind him he caught a glimpse of a huge pleasure pool -in a lethean garden. Vacant now, its hedonistic lovers caught up in a -grisly destiny.</p> - -<p>The two Guards were chasing three Martians who hadn't digested the idea -of suicide, evidently. As the Guards raised vibro-guns, Cadmus hurled -himself through the doorway. His leap carried one of the Guards to the -floor. One desperate blow knocked that Guard senseless. Cadmus raised -the Guard's vibro-gun and brought the other man to the floor in a -paralyzed sprawl.</p> - -<p>The Machine's voice still thundered from the Tower as Cadmus ran from -the palace, into the street toward the valley's mouth. The city was -almost deserted now, except for a few Guards and policejets circling, -hunting out deserters from the suicidal march.</p> - -<p>Cadmus ran frantically, straining, along the street, keeping next the -shadowed wall. But no Guards bothered him now. To them he was another -suicidal lemming who had gotten the call belatedly.</p> - -<p>His breath came harshly, burning fire. His muscles groaned as he forced -himself up the steep rocky slope leading up and along the valley's rim.</p> - -<p>His father's directions were vivid in his mind now as he staggered -along the wind-whipped trail. Higher and higher until the mid-afternoon -winds were a thousand icy lances driving through his sweating body.</p> - -<p>He finally dropped in a gasping heap at the base of the flowering -komble-plant. To his right was the high flat wall of granite. Huge -doors were behind the red clay and dust, waiting to open. A high wide -door.</p> - -<p>His hands clawed at the red clay. His fingers bled as the hard cracked -stuff came away in reluctant layers. His fingers grated on metal. -Frantically he tore at the clay binding the small lever.</p> - -<p>Below him in the vast valley, the carnage continued. The radioactive -field was piled with uncountable bodies. Only deep within the -radioactive field did the gamma rays have the intensity to kill -quickly. But much further out, thousands were dying as the -radioactivity spread through the bodies of comrades. Masses behind kept -moving, surging, pressing forward, hurling walls of humanity into the -deadly field.</p> - -<p>Cadmus shoved the lever. The massive doors broke through the years of -clay camouflage behind him. A grinding roar shattered the thin air. -Startled, Cadmus cried out, and leaped away. He was running desperately -out of the field of the armed men who came darting in deadly ferocity -from the silence of their ancient crypt.</p> - -<p>Huge, glistening, streamlined metal monsters. They shot from the dark -opening. A line of twenty, they glowed with a deadly field of gamma -radiation and death-spray. And Cadmus kept running away from them. His -heart pounded with a deathly fear and awe as he hurled himself down the -steep trail. He glanced back a few times. That was enough.</p> - -<p>Those great metal tanks were deadly to any living thing near them. They -sped from the cavern, headed in a grim straight line directly for the -Machine. Once set as his father had set their automatic robot controls -long ago, nothing could divert them from their objective. Straight down -the slope they plunged in silent, ferocious intent.</p> - -<p>Cadmus remembered other things now. Of how his father had installed -secretly a transmat sender in a Terran museum where such curious -mementos as giant robot tanks were no longer of interest to Terrans. -One by one, via transmat, the tanks had been transported to this hidden -cavern on the edge of the valley.</p> - -<p>In that last ghastly war, robot tanks and drone planes had been -employed almost entirely in place of human beings. Atomic engines were -built and used to drive these drone planes, tanks, ships. But no living -thing could pilot them, nor come within a quarter of a mile of them, -and survive.</p> - -<p>They were robot controlled. Man's final contribution to annihilative -warfare. Equipped with raw, unshielded atomic engines, the tanks were -deadly beyond imagination, with atomic bombs as warheads, and giving -off a sheet of robot death-spray. They were impervious to any kind of -atomic weapons for they were the ultimate in robot-controlled atomic -weapons. Silent, implacable, they rushed down the slope, over rock and -through brush, and finally over mounds of dead and dying. The human -lemmings rushing to their death didn't notice the tanks. They did not -notice anything.</p> - -<p>Up and up over mounds of clawing bodies and hills of dead the terrible -robot weapons climbed. Over heaps of human lemmings, red and yellow and -black Terrans, and yellow Martians. And then they struck the smooth -gleaming side of the Machine.</p> - -<p>The machine exploded!</p> - -<p>The valley was suddenly a seething boiling cloud of chaos. Bits of Gray -God rained for miles over the desert, mountains and ruins of Akal-jor. -Boiling dust clouds rose blackly, flung by a tremendous flash like -a ball of fire the size of the setting sun. Churning debris climbed -thousands of feet in the air, while smoke climbed higher. The dying -day was relighted by a searing light, golden, purple, violet, gray and -blue. Then came the first of a series of air-blasts, to be followed -almost immediately by the sustained and awesome roar.</p> - -<p>Cadmus stumbled to his knees. He crawled, managed to regain his feet, -lurched blindly through clouds of choking dust. His clothing hung in -strips. Blood seeped from his ears and nose. Somehow he managed to -deactivate the rest of the transmats. For although the Machine was now -utterly destroyed the great crater that remained was even more deadly -in its neutron and gamma radiation than before.</p> - -<p>The last of the matter transmatters stopped working. The rivers of -desperate beings were dammed. On Terra and in the Martian cities, -waiting worshippers were wondering what had happened as their own -transmat senders stopped functioning.</p> - -<p>They waited for a long time. They waited until it finally occurred to -them that the transmats might never function again. They wondered, -and kept on waiting. But three quarters of the Terran and Martian -population had been saved from suicide.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Cadmus dragged himself up the sweeping steps of the council tower. It -was dark now. And silent. On three worlds, people waited, not yet aware -of the full significance of what had happened.</p> - -<p>Phobos was a hurtling curse in the sky. Deimos was edging up into the -night like an afterthought. Cadmus stumbled. He staggered to the -elevator and inside. He watched the lights blinking as he climbed to -the Tower's top. He went into a hall leading to the large audi-chamber.</p> - -<p>A massive bulk lay sprawled in the shadows. Consar III. His flesh -was charred. Even the brilliant jewels that had bedecked him seemed -exhausted of their luster.</p> - -<p>Cadmus paused. Consar hadn't wanted to die, not really. He, too, had -come to the Tower. He hadn't given up his position of power and wealth -easily. He had come to the Tower to attempt to assume the direct power -that the Machine had once controlled. Someone had prevented him. Johlan?</p> - -<p>He peered through the opening into a large, gloomy chamber. It -contained the transcription and audiocasting facilities of the council -tower. Somewhere, the ten council members, aged children conditioned to -voice the dictates of the Machine, were crouched in blank fear.</p> - -<p>A large audiocasting set was humming in the far corner of the room, a -strip of tape running beneath its electronic needle.</p> - -<p>Cadmus stopped in the shadows. He had made his way to the Tower fast. -He had heard that voice from the Tower, and it had changed. He knew -whose voice had replaced the voice of the Machine. Johlan.</p> - -<p>Cadmus' eyes adjusted to the gloom. The Venusians preferred gloom. -Then, beside a recorder across the large chamber, Cadmus saw the -greenly iridescent body of the Venusian crouched over a microphone, -recording more tape for the audiocaster.</p> - -<p>Cadmus listened to Johlan's voice coming from the loudspeaker atop the -Tower.</p> - -<p>"The Great Gray God of stability was only a Machine. It has been -destroyed. The Venusians destroyed it to save the System from disaster -through the Machine's static pattern of unchange. But a tri-planetary -government of organic agency must replace the Machine. There cannot -be a return of old inter-world antagonisms. There must be a united -System. A tri-planetary government will be established here on Mars. -Directives will soon follow from the council tower that once voiced the -machine-dictates of the Gray God. The Ven—"</p> - -<p>Cadmus fired. Not at Johlan. The Venusian's recorded message stopped as -the blast from Cadmus' gun melted the audio unit. The thundering voice -from the Tower's summit died. Johlan turned quickly.</p> - -<p>"That was enough of that speech," said Cadmus. "So far, you spoke very -well. There'll be a new tri-planetary government, but the Venusians -aren't dictating terms from this Tower. No one world will dictate any -terms from anywhere."</p> - -<p>"Wait," interrupted Johlan. "Don't fire, Cadmus. We can rule together."</p> - -<p>Cadmus' voice was brittle as steel. "You're worse than Consar, worse -than the Machine. Millions have died today because of you. Because -of old greeds and ambitions you couldn't bury—dreams of Venusian -imperialism."</p> - -<p>"The Venusians never got fair representation from the System," cried -Johlan. "They never will. Fishmen! That's what you call us!"</p> - -<p>His lidless eyes gleamed as his hand flashed. Cadmus yelled once, then -fell to his knees as a ray of neuron-shattering force from a paralysis -gun swept across his knees. His legs crumbled him to his side. Another -stream soaked into his arm. His neutron gun toppled from nerveless -fingers.</p> - -<p>The fingers of his other hand crawled toward it. That arm went dead. -Only his torso was still capable of sensation. Cadmus turned fevered -eyes on Johlan. He waited, his heart pounding. The little Venusian's -scales glinted with triumph as he padded forward on webbed feet.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"You did a fine job, Cadmus," he said, looking down. "No one else but -you could have accomplished it. No one else had the will, the courage, -or the strength and audacity. Nor the human gullibility. That's why I -used you."</p> - -<p>Johlan paused. He looked away from the window. A splash of white -moonlight flooded down, rippled over the mosaic floor. It glinted from -Johlan's scales and danced in his lidless eyes. His voice was dreamy -with power. "My question to the Machine was simple. I merely devised -a series of opposed questions, requiring one answer for all of them. -In other words, the Machine was forced to make a compromise. But the -Machine was fixed. It couldn't make a compromise. It had to go insane."</p> - -<p>He looked back down at Cadmus. "That was a magnificent idea of your -father's—those ancient tanks from the atom war. He was a great man. -Maybe the greatest Terran who ever lived. But I'm a Venusian. I am -greater, because I used him. And I used you, his son. So Cadmus slew -the dragon and sowed its teeth, and from these sprang armed men!"</p> - -<p>Johlan smiled gently. "But the dragon was never really slain, Cadmus. I -was the dragon."</p> - -<p>Cadmus heard the door open. He heard her voice, sharp and clear. It -was beautiful, he thought, like music. Though music could never be so -deadly.</p> - -<p>"But dragons always die, Johlan."</p> - -<p>The Venusian gasped as he turned. He started to die as he faced her. -The death ray glowed on his green-scaled chest for a while, then faded -as the Venusian stumbled across the room, the neutron gun hanging -limply and forgotten in his webbed hand. He finished dying with his -face pressed hard against the window.</p> - -<p>Far away, Venus shimmered brightly in the sky.</p> - -<p>She knelt beside Cadmus. Her kisses were wet on his face. He could feel -her hands and her lips.</p> - -<p>"You'll be all right, Cadmus," she said as her hands caressed his face. -"As long as it didn't get your heart."</p> - -<p>Cadmus looked at her hungrily.</p> - -<p>"I managed to hide for a while," she said, "when we fled from Consar's -palace. I heard that terrible explosion. Later I heard Johlan's voice -from the Tower and I came here. I didn't know, until I overheard him -talking to you, what had really happened." Her voice broke. "How could -he have been—so fiendish—so—"</p> - -<p>"Forget it," he murmured. "Or try to anyway. We did it. The Machine's -gone."</p> - -<p>"Yes." A glitter of faith shone in her eyes. "The System's free again. -Free to evolve and grow, and reach greatness or ruin. But at least to -be free."</p> - -<p>"Zaleel—Where do we go—from here?"</p> - -<p>"We're going again, and that's what really matters," she said. "It's us -now, Cadmus. It'll be just you and me now for a while. 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