Speaker 1: Flight from Tomorrow. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Jerome Mawson,
Speaker 1: July two thousand eight, Flight from Tomorrow by h Beam Piper.
Speaker 1: Hunted and hated in two worlds, Harotzky dreamed of a
Speaker 1: monomaniac's glory strained in the past with his knowledge of
Speaker 1: the future. But he didn't know the past quite well enough.
Speaker 1: One but yesterday a whole planet had shouted, Hail Horotzka,
Speaker 1: Hail the Leader. To day they were screaming death to Harotzka,
Speaker 1: Kill the Tyrant. The palace where Horotzka, surrounded by his
Speaker 1: silkaphans and guards, had lorded it over a solar system,
Speaker 1: was now an inferno. Those who had been too closely
Speaker 1: identified with the dictator's rule to hope for forgiveness were
Speaker 1: fighting to the last, seeking only a quick death in combat.
Speaker 1: One by one, their isolated points of resistance were being
Speaker 1: wiped out. The corridors and chambers of the huge palace
Speaker 1: were thronged with rebels, loud with their shouts and with
Speaker 1: the rasping hiss of heat beams and the crash of blasters,
Speaker 1: reeking with the stench of scorched plastic and burned flesh,
Speaker 1: of hot metal and charred fabric. The living quarters were overrun.
Speaker 1: The mob smashed down walls and tore up floors in
Speaker 1: search of secret hiding places. They found strange things, the
Speaker 1: spaceship that had been built under one of the domes
Speaker 1: in readiness for flight to the still loyal colonies of
Speaker 1: Mars or the asteroid belt, for instance, but Frotzka himself
Speaker 1: they could not find. At last, the search reached the
Speaker 1: new Tower, which reared its head five thousand feet above
Speaker 1: the palace, the highest thing in the city. They blasted
Speaker 1: down the huge steel doors, cut the power from the
Speaker 1: energy screens. They landed from antigraph cars on the upper levels,
Speaker 1: but except for barriers, the metal and concrete and energy
Speaker 1: they met with no opposition. Finally they came to a
Speaker 1: spiral stairway which led up to the great metal sphere,
Speaker 1: which capped the whole structure. General Jarvis, the army commander
Speaker 1: who had placed himself at the head of the revolt,
Speaker 1: stood with his foot on the lowest step, his followers
Speaker 1: behind him. There was Prince Burvanni, the leader of the
Speaker 1: old nobility, and gorzesko Orm the merchant, and between them
Speaker 1: stood tob the chieftain of the mutinous slaves. There were clerks, laborers,
Speaker 1: poor but haughty nobles, and wealthy merchants who had long
Speaker 1: been forced to hide the riches from the dictator's tax gatherers,
Speaker 1: and soldiers and spacemen. You'd better let one of us
Speaker 1: go first, Sir. General zarvas orderly, a blood stained bandage
Speaker 1: about his head, his uniform in rags, suggested, you don't
Speaker 1: know what might be up there. The General shook his head.
Speaker 1: I'll go first. Jarvispole was not the man to sense
Speaker 1: subordinates into danger ahead of himself. To tell the truth,
Speaker 1: I'm afraid we won't find anything at all there, you mean,
Speaker 1: gorzesko Orm began the time machine. Servaspole replied, if he's
Speaker 1: managed to get it finished, the great mind only knows
Speaker 1: where he may be now or When he loosened the
Speaker 1: blaster in his holster and started up the long spiral,
Speaker 1: his followers spread out below. Sharpshooters took position to cover
Speaker 1: his ascent. Prince Bervanni and toabed the slave started to
Speaker 1: follow him. They hesitated as each motioned the other to
Speaker 1: precede him. Then the nobleman followed the general, his blaster drawn,
Speaker 1: and the brawny slave behind him. The door of the
Speaker 1: top was open, and zarvas Pole stepped through. But there
Speaker 1: was nothing in the great spherical room except a raised
Speaker 1: dais some fifty feet in diameter, its polished metal top,
Speaker 1: strangely clean and empty, and a crumpled heap of burned
Speaker 1: cloth and charred flesh that had been not long ago.
Speaker 1: A man, an old man with a white beard and
Speaker 1: the seven pointed star of the Learned Brothers on his breast,
Speaker 1: advanced to meet the armed intruders. So he is gone.
Speaker 1: Krotzyzago servas Pol said, holstering his weapon, got in the
Speaker 1: time machine to hide in yesterday or tomorrow, and you
Speaker 1: let him go. The old one nodded. He had a
Speaker 1: blaster and I had none. He indicated the body on
Speaker 1: the floor solely. Jarv had no blaster either, but he
Speaker 1: tried to stop Ratzka. See, he squandered his life as
Speaker 1: a fool, squanders his money getting nothing for it. And
Speaker 1: a man's life is not money. Jarvis Paul, I do
Speaker 1: not blame you protzy Zago. General Zarvis said, but now
Speaker 1: you must get to work and build us another time
Speaker 1: machine so that we can hunt him down. Does revenge
Speaker 1: mean so much to you? Then the soldier made an
Speaker 1: impatient gesture. Revenge is for fools, like a screaming pack
Speaker 1: of beasts below. I did not kill for revenge. I
Speaker 1: killed because dead men do no harm. Rajito will do
Speaker 1: us no more harm. The old scientist replied, he is
Speaker 1: a thing of yesterday, have a time long past and
Speaker 1: half lost in the mists of legend. No matter, as
Speaker 1: long as he exists at any point in space time,
Speaker 1: Rodzka is still a threat. Revenge means much to Rotzky.
Speaker 1: He will return for it when we least expect him.
Speaker 1: The old man shook his head. No, tsarvespol Rodzsky will
Speaker 1: not return. Rodzky holdered his plaster through this witch that
Speaker 1: sealed the time machine, put on the antigrav unit, and
Speaker 1: started the time shift unit. He reached out and set
Speaker 1: the destination dial for the mid fifty second century of
Speaker 1: the atomic era that would land him in the ninth
Speaker 1: Age of Chaos following the Two Century War and the
Speaker 1: collapse of the world theocracy. A good time for his purpose.
Speaker 1: The world would be slipping back into barbarism and yet
Speaker 1: possessed the technology of former civilization. A hundred little national
Speaker 1: states would be trying to gain social stability, competing and
Speaker 1: warring with each other. Rodzka glanced back over his shoulder
Speaker 1: at the cases of books, record spools, try dimensional pictures,
Speaker 1: and scale models. These people of the past would welcome
Speaker 1: him in his science of the future, would make him
Speaker 1: their leader. He would start in a small way by
Speaker 1: taking over the local feudal or tribal government, would arm
Speaker 1: his followers with weapons of the future. Then he would
Speaker 1: impose his rule upon neighboring tribes or princetoms or communes
Speaker 1: or whatever, and build a strong sovereignty. From that, he
Speaker 1: envisioned a world empire, a solar system empire. Then he
Speaker 1: would build time machines, many time machines. He would recruit
Speaker 1: an army such as the universe had never seen, a
Speaker 1: swarm of men from every age in the past. At
Speaker 1: that point he would return to the hundredth century of
Speaker 1: the atomic era to wreak vengeance upon those who had
Speaker 1: risen against him. A thin smile grew on Vrotzky's thin
Speaker 1: lips as he thought of the tortures with which he
Speaker 1: would put Tsarva's pole to death. He glanced up at
Speaker 1: the great disk of the indicator and frowned. Already he
Speaker 1: was back to the year seventy five hundred a E.
Speaker 1: And the temporal displacement had begun to slow. The disc
Speaker 1: was turning even more rapidly. Seven thousand, six thousand, fifty
Speaker 1: five hundred. He gasped slightly. Then he had passed his destination.
Speaker 1: He was now in the fortieth century, but the indicator
Speaker 1: was slowing. The hairline crossed the thirtieth century, the twentieth,
Speaker 1: the fifteenth, the tenth. He wondered what had gone wrong,
Speaker 1: but he had recovered from his fright by this time.
Speaker 1: When the insane machine stopped, as it must around the
Speaker 1: first century of the atomic era, he would investigate, make repairs,
Speaker 1: then shift forward to his target point. Horonska was determined
Speaker 1: upon the fifty second century. He had made a special
Speaker 1: study of the history of that period, had learned the
Speaker 1: language spoken then, and he understood the methods necessary to
Speaker 1: gain power over the natives of that time. The indicator
Speaker 1: disc came to a stop in the first century, he
Speaker 1: switched on the magnifier and leaned forward to look. He
Speaker 1: had emerged into normal time in the year ten of
Speaker 1: the atomic era, a decade after the first geranium pile
Speaker 1: had gone into operation and seven years after the first
Speaker 1: atomic bombs had been exploded in warfare. The ultimeter showed
Speaker 1: that he was hovering at eight thousand feet above ground level. Slowly,
Speaker 1: he cut out the antigraph, letting the time machine down easily.
Speaker 1: He knew that there had been no danger of materializing
Speaker 1: inside anything. The new tower had been built to put
Speaker 1: it above anything that had occupied that space point at
Speaker 1: any moment within history or legend, or even the geological
Speaker 1: knowledge of man. What lay below, however, was uncertain. It
Speaker 1: was night. The visi screen showed only as star dusted
Speaker 1: moonless sky and dark shadows below. He snapped another switch.
Speaker 1: For a few microseconds, a beam of intense light was
Speaker 1: turned on, automatically photographing the landscape under him. A second later,
Speaker 1: the developed picture was projected upon another screen. It showed
Speaker 1: only wooded mountains and a barren, brush grown valley. The
Speaker 1: time machine came to rest with a soft jar and
Speaker 1: a crashing of broken bushes that was audible through the
Speaker 1: sound pickup Harotzka pulled the main switch. There was a
Speaker 1: click as the shielding went out and the door opened.
Speaker 1: A breath of cool night air drew into the hollow sphere.
Speaker 1: Then there was a loud bang inside the mechanism and
Speaker 1: a flash of blue white light which turned pinkish flame
Speaker 1: with a nasty crackling. Curls of smoke began to rise
Speaker 1: from the square block box that housed the time shift
Speaker 1: mechanism and from behind the instrument board. In a moment,
Speaker 1: everything was glowing hot. Driblets of aluminum and silver were
Speaker 1: running down the instruments. Then the whole interior of the
Speaker 1: time machine was afire. It was barely time for Rotskad.
Speaker 1: It leaped through the open door. The brush outside impeded him,
Speaker 1: and he used his blaster to clear a path for
Speaker 1: himself away from the big sphere, which was now glowing
Speaker 1: faintly on the outside. The heat drew in intensity and
Speaker 1: the brush outside was taking fire. It was not until
Speaker 1: he had gotten two hundred yards from the machine that
Speaker 1: he stopped realizing what had happened. The machine, of course,
Speaker 1: had been sabotaged. That would have been young Zoldi, whom
Speaker 1: he had killed, or that old Billygoat croadzy Zago, the
Speaker 1: latter most likely, he cursed both of them for having
Speaker 1: marooned him in this savage age at the very beginning
Speaker 1: of atomic civilization. With all his printed and recorded knowledge destroyed, Oh,
Speaker 1: we could still gain mastery over these barbarians. He knew
Speaker 1: enough to fashion a crude blaster, or a heat being gun,
Speaker 1: or an atomic electric conversion unit. But without his books
Speaker 1: and records, he could never build an anti grav unit,
Speaker 1: and the secret of the temporal shift was lost. For
Speaker 1: time is not an object or a medium which can
Speaker 1: be traveled along. The time machine was not a vehicle.
Speaker 1: It was a mechanical process for displacement within the space
Speaker 1: time continuum, and those who constructed it knew that it
Speaker 1: could not be used with the sort of accuracy that
Speaker 1: the dials indicated. Rotzka had ordered his scientists to produce
Speaker 1: a time machine, and they had combined the possible displacement
Speaker 1: within the space time continuum with the sort of fiction
Speaker 1: the dictator demanded for their own well being. Even had
Speaker 1: there been no sabotage, his return to his own time
Speaker 1: was nearly of zero probability. The fire spreading from the
Speaker 1: time machine was blowing toward him. He observed the wind
Speaker 1: direction and hurried around out of the path of the flames.
Speaker 1: The light enabled him to pick his way through the brush,
Speaker 1: and after crossing a small stream, he found a rutted
Speaker 1: road and followed it up the mountain side until he
Speaker 1: came to a place where he could rest concealed until
Speaker 1: morning two. It was broad daylight when he woke, and
Speaker 1: there was a strange throbbing sound. Horodsky lay motionless under
Speaker 1: the brush where he had slept his blaster ready. In
Speaker 1: a few minutes, a vehicle came into sight, following the
Speaker 1: road down the mountain side. It was a large thing,
Speaker 1: four wheeled, with a projection in front, which probably housed
Speaker 1: the engine and a cab for the operator. The body
Speaker 1: of the vehicle was simply an open rectangular box. There
Speaker 1: were two men in the cab and about twenty or
Speaker 1: thirty more crowded into the box body. These were dressed
Speaker 1: in faded and nondescript garments of blue and gray and brown.
Speaker 1: All were armed with crude weapons axes, bill hooks, long
Speaker 1: handed instruments with serrated edges, and what looked like broad
Speaker 1: bladed spears. The vehicle itself which seemed to have been
Speaker 1: propelled by some sort of chemical explosion engine, was dingy
Speaker 1: and mud splattered. The men in it were ragged and unshaven.
Speaker 1: Hartzka snorted in contempt. They were probably warriors of the
Speaker 1: local tribe. Going to the fire in the belief that
Speaker 1: it had been started by raiding enemies. I found the
Speaker 1: wreckage of the time machine, they would no doubt believe
Speaker 1: that it was the chariot of some god and drag
Speaker 1: it home to be venerated. A plan of action was
Speaker 1: taking shape in his mind. First he must get clothing
Speaker 1: of the sort worn by these people and find a
Speaker 1: safe hiding place for his own things. Then, pretending to
Speaker 1: be a deaf mute, he would go among them to
Speaker 1: learn something of their customs and pick up the language.
Speaker 1: When he had done that, he would move to another
Speaker 1: tribe or village able to tell a credible story for himself.
Speaker 1: For a while, it would be necessary for him to
Speaker 1: do menial work, but in the end he would establish
Speaker 1: himself among these people. Then he could gather around him
Speaker 1: a faction of those who were dissatisfied with whatever conditions existed,
Speaker 1: organize a conspiracy, make arms for his followers, and start
Speaker 1: his program at power seizure. The matter of clothing was
Speaker 1: attended too shortly after he had crossed the mountain and
Speaker 1: descended into the valley on the other side. Hearing a
Speaker 1: clinking sound some distance from the road as of metal
Speaker 1: striking stone, Rotzka, he stole cautiously through the woods until
Speaker 1: he came within sight of a man who was digging
Speaker 1: with a mattock, uprooding small bushes of a particular sort
Speaker 1: with rough gray bark and three pointed leaves. When he
Speaker 1: had dug one up, he would cut off the roots
Speaker 1: and then slice away the root bark with a knife,
Speaker 1: putting it into a sack. Rozka's lip curled contemptuously. The
Speaker 1: fellow was gathering the stuff for medical use. He had
Speaker 1: heard of the use of roots and herbs for such
Speaker 1: purposes by the ancient savages. The blaster would be no
Speaker 1: use here. It was too powerful and would destroy the
Speaker 1: clothing that the man was wearing. He unfastened his strap
Speaker 1: from his belt and attached it to his stone to
Speaker 1: form a hand loop, then inched forward behind the lone
Speaker 1: herb gatherer. When he was close enough, he straightened and
Speaker 1: rushed forward, swinging his improvised weapon. The man heard him
Speaker 1: and turned too late. After addressing his victim, Vrozsky used
Speaker 1: the mattock to finish him, and then to dig a grave.
Speaker 1: The fugitive buried his own clothes with the murdered man
Speaker 1: and donned the faded blue shirt, rough shoes, worn trousers,
Speaker 1: and jacket. The blaster he concealed under the jacket, and
Speaker 1: he kept a few other hundredth century gadgets. These he
Speaker 1: would hide somewhere closer to his center of operations. He
Speaker 1: had kept, among other things, a small box of food
Speaker 1: concentrate capsules, and in one pocket of the newly acquired
Speaker 1: jacket he found a package containing food. It was rough
Speaker 1: and unappetizing, fare slices of cold cooked meat between slices
Speaker 1: of some cereal substance. He ate these before filling in
Speaker 1: the grave, and put the paper wrappings in with the
Speaker 1: dead man. Then, his work finished, he threw the mattock
Speaker 1: into the brush and set out again, grimacing disgustedly, and
Speaker 1: scratching himself. The clothing he had appropriated was verminous. Crossing
Speaker 1: another mountain, he descended into a second valley and for
Speaker 1: a time lost his way among a tangle of narrow ravines.
Speaker 1: It was dark by the time he mounted a hill
Speaker 1: and found himself looking down in another valley in which
Speaker 1: a few scattered lights gave evidence of human habitations. Not
Speaker 1: wishing to arouse suspicion by approaching these in the night time,
Speaker 1: he found a place among some young evergreens where he
Speaker 1: could sleep. The next morning, having breakfasted on a concentray capsule,
Speaker 1: he found the hiding place for his blaster in a
Speaker 1: hollow tree. It was in a sufficiently prominent position so
Speaker 1: that he could easily find it again, and at the
Speaker 1: same time unlikely to be discovered by some native. Then
Speaker 1: he went down into the inhabited valley. He was surprised
Speaker 1: at the ease with which he established contact with the natives.
Speaker 1: The first dwelling which he approached, a cluster of farm
Speaker 1: buildings at the upper end of the valley, gave him shelter.
Speaker 1: There was a man clad in the same sort of
Speaker 1: rough garments Sarrotzka had taken from the body of the
Speaker 1: herb gatherer, and a woman in a faded and shaveless dress.
Speaker 1: The man was thin and work bent, the woman short
Speaker 1: and heavy. Both were past middle age. He made inarticulate
Speaker 1: sounds to attract their attention, then gestured to his mouth
Speaker 1: and ears to indicate it assumed affliction. He rubbed his
Speaker 1: stomach to portray hunger. Looking about, he saw an axe
Speaker 1: sticking in a chopping block and a pile of wood
Speaker 1: near it, probably the fuel used by these people. He
Speaker 1: took the axe, split up some of the wood, then
Speaker 1: repeated the hunger signs. The man and the woman both nodded, laughing.
Speaker 1: He was shown a pile of tree limbs, and the
Speaker 1: man picked up a short billet of wood and used
Speaker 1: it like a measuring rule to indicate that all the
Speaker 1: wood was to be cut at that length. Harotzka fell
Speaker 1: to work, and by mid morning he had all the
Speaker 1: wood cut. He had seen a circular stone mounted on
Speaker 1: a trustle with a metal axle through it, and judged
Speaker 1: it to be some sort of grinding wheel, since it
Speaker 1: was fitted with a foot pedal and a rusty metal
Speaker 1: can was set above it to spill water onto the
Speaker 1: grinding edge. After dropping the wood, he carefully sharpened the axe,
Speaker 1: handing it to the man for inspection. This seemed to
Speaker 1: please the man. He clapped Hartzka on the back, making
Speaker 1: commendatory sound. It required considerable time and ingenuity to make
Speaker 1: himself more or less a permanent member of the household.
Speaker 1: Rotzka had made a survey of the farmyard, noting the
Speaker 1: sorts of work that would normally be performed on the farm,
Speaker 1: and he pantomimed this work in its simpler operations. He
Speaker 1: pointed to the east, where the sun would rise, and
Speaker 1: to the zenith, and to the west. He made signs
Speaker 1: indicative of eating and of sleeping, and of rising and
Speaker 1: of working. At length, he succeeded in conveying his meaning.
Speaker 1: There was considerable argument between the man and the woman,
Speaker 1: but his proposal was accepted as he expected that it
Speaker 1: would be. It was easy to see that the work
Speaker 1: of the farm was hard for this aging couple. Now
Speaker 1: for a place to sleep in a little food, they
Speaker 1: were able to acquire a strong and intelligent slave. It
Speaker 1: was not long before he picked up a few words
Speaker 1: which he had heard his employers using, and related them
Speaker 1: to the things or acts spoken of, And he began
Speaker 1: to notice that these people, in spite of the crudities
Speaker 1: of their own life, enjoyed some of the advantages of
Speaker 1: a fairly complex civilization. Their implements were not hand craft
Speaker 1: products but showed machine workmanship. There were two objects hanging
Speaker 1: on hooks on the kitchen wall which he was sure
Speaker 1: were weapons. Both had wooden shoulder stalks and wooden four pieces.
Speaker 1: They had long tubes extending to the front and triggers
Speaker 1: like blasters. One had double tubes mounted side by side
Speaker 1: and double triggers. The other had an octagonal tube mounted
Speaker 1: over a round tube and a loop extension on the
Speaker 1: trigger guard. Then there was a box on the kitchen
Speaker 1: wall with a mouthpiece and a cylindrical tube on a cord.
Speaker 1: Sometimes a bell would ring out of the box, and
Speaker 1: the woman would go to this instrument, take down the
Speaker 1: tube and hold it to her ear and talk into
Speaker 1: the mouthpiece. There was another box from which voices would
Speaker 1: issue of people conversing, or of orators, or of singing,
Speaker 1: and sometimes instrumental music. None of these objects were made
Speaker 1: by savages. These people probably traded with some fairly high civilization.
Speaker 1: They were not illiterate, for he found printed matter indicating
Speaker 1: the use of some phonetic alphabet and paper pamphlets containing
Speaker 1: reproductions of photographs as well as verbal text. There was
Speaker 1: also a vehicle on the farm powered like the one
Speaker 1: he had seen on the road, by an engine in
Speaker 1: which a hydrocarbon liquid fuel was exploded. He made it
Speaker 1: his business to examine this minutely, and to study its
Speaker 1: construction and operation until he was thoroughly familiar with it.
Speaker 1: It was not until the third day after his arrival
Speaker 1: that the chickens began to die. In the morning, Rotzkift
Speaker 1: found three of them dead when he went to feed them,
Speaker 1: the rest drooping unhealthily. He summoned the man and showed
Speaker 1: him what he had found. The next morning, they were
Speaker 1: all dead and the cow was sick. She gave bloody
Speaker 1: milk that evening, and the next morning she lay in
Speaker 1: her stall and would knock get up. The man and
Speaker 1: the woman were also beginning to sicken, although both of
Speaker 1: them tried to continue their work. It was the woman
Speaker 1: who first noticed that the plants around the farmhouse were
Speaker 1: withering and turning yellow. The farmer went to the stable
Speaker 1: with Rotzka and looked at the cow. Shaking his head.
Speaker 1: He limped back to the house and returned carrying one
Speaker 1: of the weapons from the kitchen, the one with the
Speaker 1: single trigger and the octagonal tube. As he entered the stable,
Speaker 1: he jerked down and up on the loop extension of
Speaker 1: the trigger guard. Then put the weapon to his shoulder
Speaker 1: and pointed it at the cow. It made a flash
Speaker 1: and roared louder even than a hand blaster, and the
Speaker 1: cow jerked convulsively and was dead. The man then indicated
Speaker 1: by signs that Harotzka was to drag the dead cow
Speaker 1: out of the stable, dig a hole, and bury it.
Speaker 1: This Rotzka did, carefully, examining the wound in the cow's head.
Speaker 1: The weapon, he decided was not an energy weapon, but
Speaker 1: a simple solid missile projector. By evening, neither the man
Speaker 1: nor the woman were able to eat, and both seemed
Speaker 1: to be suffering intensely. The man used the communicating instrument
Speaker 1: on the wall, probably calling on his friends for help.
Speaker 1: Harotzka did what he could to make them comfortable, cooked
Speaker 1: his own meal, washed the dishes as he had seen
Speaker 1: the woman doing, and tidied up the kitchen. It was
Speaker 1: not long before people, men and women whom he had
Speaker 1: seen on the road who had stopped at the farmhouse
Speaker 1: while he had been there, began arriving, some carrying baskets
Speaker 1: of food, and shortly after Rotska had eaten a vehicle
Speaker 1: like the farmers, but in better condition and a better quality, arrived,
Speaker 1: and a young man got out of it and entered
Speaker 1: the house carrying a leather bag. He was apparently some
Speaker 1: sort of scientist. He examined the man and his wife,
Speaker 1: asked many questions, and administered drugs. He also took samples
Speaker 1: for blood tests and your analysis. This, Rotzka considered was
Speaker 1: another of the many contradictions he had encountered among these people.
Speaker 1: This man behaved like an educated scientist and seemingly had
Speaker 1: nothing in common with the peasant herb gatherer on the
Speaker 1: mountain side. The fact was that Rotzka was worried. The
Speaker 1: strange death of the animals, the blight which had smitten
Speaker 1: the trees and vegetables around the farm, and the sickness
Speaker 1: of the farmer and his woman all mystified him. He
Speaker 1: did not know of any disease which would effect plants
Speaker 1: and animals and humans. He wondered if some poisonous gas
Speaker 1: might not be escaping from the earth near the farmhouse. However,
Speaker 1: he had not himself been affected. He also disliked the
Speaker 1: way in which the doctor and the neighbors seemed to
Speaker 1: be talking about him. While he had come to a
Speaker 1: considerable revision of his original opinion about the culture level
Speaker 1: of these people. It was possible that they might suspect
Speaker 1: him of having caused the whole thing by witchcraft. At
Speaker 1: any moment, they might fall upon him and put him
Speaker 1: to death. In any case, there was no longer any
Speaker 1: use in his staying here, and it might be wise
Speaker 1: if he left at once. Accordingly, he filled his pockets
Speaker 1: with food from the pantry and slipped out of the farmhouse.
Speaker 1: Before his absence was discovered. He was well on his
Speaker 1: way down the road. Three that night, Kronzka slept under
Speaker 1: a bridge across a fairly wide stream. The next morning,
Speaker 1: he followed the road until he came to a town.
Speaker 1: It was not a large place. There were perhaps four
Speaker 1: or five hundred houses and other buildings in it. Most
Speaker 1: of these were dwellings, like the farmhouse where he had
Speaker 1: been staying, but some were much larger and seemed to
Speaker 1: be places of business. One of these latter was a
Speaker 1: concrete structure with wide doors at the front. Inside he
Speaker 1: could see men working on the internal combustion vehicles, which
Speaker 1: seemed to be in almost universal use. Rotzka decided to
Speaker 1: obtain employment there it would be best, He decided to
Speaker 1: continue his pretense of being a deaf mute. He did
Speaker 1: not know whether a world language were in use at
Speaker 1: this time or not, and even if not, the pretense
Speaker 1: of being a foreigner unable to speak the local dialect
Speaker 1: might be dangerous. So he entered the vehicle repair shop
Speaker 1: and accosted a man in a clean shirt who seemed
Speaker 1: to be issuing instructions to the workers, going into his
Speaker 1: pantomime of the homeless mute seeking employment. The master of
Speaker 1: the repair shop merely laughed at him. However, Rotzka became
Speaker 1: more insistent in his manner, making signs to indicate his
Speaker 1: hon younger and willingness to work. The other men in
Speaker 1: the shop left their tasks and gathered round. There was
Speaker 1: much laughter and unmistakably rbal than derogatory remarks. Rotzka was
Speaker 1: beginning to give up hope of getting employment here when
Speaker 1: one of the workmen approached the master and whispered something
Speaker 1: to him. The two of them walked away, conversing in
Speaker 1: low voices. Harotzka thought he understood the situation, no doubt.
Speaker 1: The workman, thinking to light in his own labor, was
Speaker 1: urging that the vagrant be employed for no other pay
Speaker 1: than food and lodging. At length, the master assented to
Speaker 1: his employee's urgings. He returned, showing Rotzka a hose and
Speaker 1: a bucket and sponges and cloths, and set him to
Speaker 1: work cleaning the mud from one of the vehicles. Then,
Speaker 1: after seeing that the work was being done properly, he
Speaker 1: went away, entering a room at one side of the shop.
Speaker 1: About twenty minutes later, another man entered the shop. He
Speaker 1: was not dressed like any of the other people whom
Speaker 1: Rotzka had seen. He wore a great tunic and breeches,
Speaker 1: black polished boots, and a cap with a visor and
Speaker 1: a metal insignia on it. On a belt, he carried
Speaker 1: a whole stored weapon like a blaster. After speaking to
Speaker 1: one of the workers, who pointed Rotzky out to him,
Speaker 1: he approached the fugitive and said something Harotzka made gestures
Speaker 1: at his mouth and ears and made gargling sounds. The
Speaker 1: newcomer shrugged and motioned him to come with him, at
Speaker 1: the same time producing a pair of handcuffs from his
Speaker 1: belt and jingling them suggestively. In a few seconds, Rotzka
Speaker 1: tried to analyze the situation and estimate its possibilities. The
Speaker 1: newcomer was a soldier, or, more likely a policeman, since
Speaker 1: manacles were a part of his equipment. Evidently, since the
Speaker 1: evening before, a warning had been made public by means
Speaker 1: of communication devices such as he had seen at the farm,
Speaker 1: advising people that a man of his description pretending to
Speaker 1: be a deaf mute should be detained in the police notified.
Speaker 1: It had been for that reason that the workman had
Speaker 1: persuaded his master to employ Rotzka. No doubt he would
Speaker 1: be accused of causing the conditions at the farm by sorcery.
Speaker 1: Haronska shrugged and nodded, then went to the water tap
Speaker 1: to turn off the hose he had been using. He
Speaker 1: disconnected it, coiled it and hung it up, and then
Speaker 1: picked up the water bucket. Then, without warning, he hurled
Speaker 1: the water into the policeman's face, sprang forward, swinging the
Speaker 1: bucket by the bail, and hit the man on the head.
Speaker 1: Releasing his grip on the bucket, he tore the blaster
Speaker 1: or whatever it was, from the holster. One of the
Speaker 1: workers swung a hammer as though to throw it. Trotzka
Speaker 1: aimed the weapon at him and pulled the trigger. The
Speaker 1: thing belched fire and kicked back painfully in his hand,
Speaker 1: and the man fell. He used it again to drop
Speaker 1: the policeman, then thrust it into the waistband of his
Speaker 1: trousers and ran outside. The thing was not a blaster
Speaker 1: at all, he realized, only a missile projector, like the
Speaker 1: big weapons at the farm, using the force of some
Speaker 1: chemical explosive. The policeman's vehicle standing outside it was a
Speaker 1: small single seat to wheel a fair Having become familiar
Speaker 1: with the principles of these high drocarbon engines from examination
Speaker 1: of the vehicle of the farm, and accustomed as he was,
Speaker 1: to far more complex mechanisms than this crude affair, Rotzka
Speaker 1: could see at a glance how to operate it. Springing
Speaker 1: onto the saddle, he kicked away the folding support and
Speaker 1: started the engine. Just as he did, the master of
Speaker 1: the repair shop ran outside, one of the small hand
Speaker 1: weapons in his hand and fired several shots. They all missed,
Speaker 1: but Rotzka heard the whiting sound of the missiles passing
Speaker 1: uncomfortably close to him. It was imperative that he recovered
Speaker 1: the blaster he had hidden in the hollow tree at
Speaker 1: the head of the valley. By this time there would
Speaker 1: be a concerted search under way for him, and he
Speaker 1: needed a better weapon than the solid missile projectory he
Speaker 1: had taken from the policeman. He did not know how
Speaker 1: many shots the things contained, but if it propelled solid
Speaker 1: missiles by chemical explosion, there could not have been more
Speaker 1: than five or six such cartridges in the cylindrical part
Speaker 1: of the weapon, which he had soon to be the
Speaker 1: charge holder. On the other hand, his blaster, a weapon
Speaker 1: of much greater power, contained enough energy for five hundred blasts,
Speaker 1: and with it were eight extra energy capsules, giving him
Speaker 1: a total of four thousand, five hundred blasts. Handling the
Speaker 1: two wheeled vehicle was no particular problem, although he had
Speaker 1: never ridden on anything of the sort before. It was
Speaker 1: child's play compared to controlling a hundred century strato rocket,
Speaker 1: and Rotzka was a skilled rocket pilot. Several times he
Speaker 1: passed vehicles on the road, the passenger vehicles with enclosed
Speaker 1: cabins and cargo vehicles piled high with farm produce. Once
Speaker 1: he encountered a large number of children gathered in front
Speaker 1: of a big red building with a flag staff in front,
Speaker 1: from which a queer flag with horizontal red and white
Speaker 1: stripes and a white spotted blue device in the corner flew.
Speaker 1: They scattered off the road in terror at his approach.
Speaker 1: Fortunately he hit none of them, for at the speed
Speaker 1: at which he was traveling, such a collision would have
Speaker 1: wrecked his light vehicle. As he approached the farm where
Speaker 1: he had spent the past few days, he saw two
Speaker 1: passenger vehicles standing by the road. One was a black one,
Speaker 1: similar to the one in which the physician had come
Speaker 1: to the farm, and the other was white with black
Speaker 1: trimmings and bore the same device he had seen on
Speaker 1: the cap of the policeman. A policeman was sitting in
Speaker 1: the driver's seat of his vehicle, and another policeman was
Speaker 1: standing beside it, breathing smoke with one of the white
Speaker 1: pepper cylinders these people used. In the farm yard, two
Speaker 1: men were going about with a square block box. To
Speaker 1: this box, a tube was connected by a wire, and
Speaker 1: they were passing the tube about over the ground. The policeman,
Speaker 1: who was standing beside the vehicle, saw him approach and
Speaker 1: blew his whistle, then drew the weapon from his belt. Rotzka,
Speaker 1: who had been expecting some attempt to halt him. Had
Speaker 1: leto the right hand steering handle and drawn his own weapon.
Speaker 1: As the policeman fired, he fired at him without observing
Speaker 1: the effect of the shot. He sped on. Before he
Speaker 1: had rounded the bend above the farm, several shots were
Speaker 1: fired after him. A mile beyond, he came to the
Speaker 1: place where he had hidden the blaster. He stopped the
Speaker 1: vehicle and jumped off, plunging into the brush and racing
Speaker 1: toward the hollow tree. Just as he reached it, he
Speaker 1: heard a vehicle approach and stop, and the door of
Speaker 1: the police vehicle slam. Rotzka's fingers found the belt of
Speaker 1: his blaster. He dragged it out and buckled it on,
Speaker 1: tossing away the missile weapon he had been carrying. Then
Speaker 1: crouching behind the tree, he waited. A few moments later,
Speaker 1: he caught a movement in the brush toward the road.
Speaker 1: He brought up the blaster, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.
Speaker 1: There was a faint bluish glow with the muzzle, and
Speaker 1: a blast of energy tore through the brush, smashing the
Speaker 1: molecular structure of everything that stood in the way. There
Speaker 1: was an involuntary shout of alarm from the direction of
Speaker 1: the road. At least one of the policemen had escaped
Speaker 1: the blast. Rodzka holstered his weapon and crept away for
Speaker 1: some distance, keeping under cover, then turned and waited for
Speaker 1: some sign of the presence of his enemies. For some
Speaker 1: time nothing happened. He decided to turn hunter against the
Speaker 1: men who were hunting him. He started back in the
Speaker 1: direction of the road, making a wide circle, flooding silently
Speaker 1: from rock to bush and from bush to tree, stopping
Speaker 1: often to look and listen. This finally brought him upon
Speaker 1: one of the policemen and almost terminated his flight. At
Speaker 1: the same time, he must have grown over confident and careless.
Speaker 1: Suddenly a weapon roared, and a missile smashed through the brush,
Speaker 1: enters from his face. The shot had come from his
Speaker 1: left and a little to the rear. Whirling, he blasted
Speaker 1: four times in rapid succession, then turned and fled for
Speaker 1: a few yards, dropping and crawling behind a rock. When
Speaker 1: he looked back, he could see wisps of smoke rising
Speaker 1: from the shattered trees and bushes, which had absorbed the
Speaker 1: energy output of his weapon, and he caught a faint
Speaker 1: odor of burned flesh. One of his pursuers, at least,
Speaker 1: would pursue him no longer. He slipped away down into
Speaker 1: the tangle of ravines and hollows in which he had
Speaker 1: wandered the day before his arrival on the farm. For
Speaker 1: the time being, he felt safe and finally confident that
Speaker 1: he was not being pursued. He stopped to rest. The
Speaker 1: place where he had stopped seemed familiar, and he looked about.
Speaker 1: In a moment. He recognized the little stream, the pool
Speaker 1: where he had bathed his feet, the clump of sealing
Speaker 1: vines under which he had slept. He even found the
Speaker 1: silver foil wrapping from the food concentry capsule. But there
Speaker 1: had been a change since the night when he had
Speaker 1: slept there. Then the young pines had been green and alive.
Speaker 1: Now they were blighted, and their needles had turned brown.
Speaker 1: Ronzka stood for a long time looking at them. It
Speaker 1: was the same light that had touched the plants around
Speaker 1: the farmhouse, and here among the pine needles on the
Speaker 1: ground lay a dead bird. It took some time for
Speaker 1: him to admit to himself the implications the vegetation. The chickens,
Speaker 1: the cow, the farmer and his wife had all sickened
Speaker 1: and died. He had been in this place, and now,
Speaker 1: when he had returned, he found that death had followed
Speaker 1: him here too. During the early centuries of the atomic era,
Speaker 1: he knew there had been great wars, the stories of
Speaker 1: which had survived even to the hundredth century. Among the
Speaker 1: weapons that had been used, there had been artificial plagues
Speaker 1: and epidemics caused by new types of bacteria developed in
Speaker 1: laboratories against which the victims had possessed no protection. Those
Speaker 1: germs and viruses had persisted for centuries and gradually had
Speaker 1: lost their power to harm mankind. Suppose now that he
Speaker 1: had brought some of them back with him to a
Speaker 1: century before they had been developed. Suppose that he were
Speaker 1: now a human plague carrier. He thought of the vermin
Speaker 1: that had infested the clothing he had taken from the
Speaker 1: man he had killed on the other side of the mountain.
Speaker 1: They had not troubled him. After the first day, there
Speaker 1: was a throbbing, mechanical sound somewhere in the air. He
Speaker 1: looked about and finally identified its source. A small aircraft
Speaker 1: had come over the valley from the other side of
Speaker 1: the mountain and was circling lazily overhead. He froze, shrinking
Speaker 1: back under a pine tree. As long as he remained motionless,
Speaker 1: he would not be seen, and soon the thing would
Speaker 1: go away. He was beginning to understand why the search
Speaker 1: for him was being pressed so relentlessly. As long as
Speaker 1: he remained alive, he was a menace to everybody in
Speaker 1: this first century world. He got out his supply of
Speaker 1: food concentrates, saw that he only had three capsules left,
Speaker 1: and put them away again. For a long time, he
Speaker 1: sat under the dying tree, chewing on a twig, and
Speaker 1: thinking there must be some way in which he could overcome,
Speaker 1: or even utilize his inherent deadliness to these people. He
Speaker 1: might find some isolated community, conceal himself near it, invaded
Speaker 1: at night, and infect it, and then, when everybody was dead,
Speaker 1: move in and take it for himself. But was there
Speaker 1: any such isolated community. The farmhouse where he had worked
Speaker 1: had been fairly remote, yet its inhabitants had been in
Speaker 1: communication with the outside world, and the physician had come
Speaker 1: immediately in response to their call for help. The little
Speaker 1: aircraft had been circling overhead, directly above the place where
Speaker 1: he lay hidden. For a while. Vrotzka was afraid it
Speaker 1: had spotted him, and was debating the advisability of using
Speaker 1: his blaster on it. Then it banked, turned and went away.
Speaker 1: He watched it circle over the valley on the other
Speaker 1: side of the mountain and got to his feet. Four
Speaker 1: Almost at once, there was a new sound, a multiple
Speaker 1: throbbing at a quick, snarling tempo that hinted an enormous power,
Speaker 1: growing louder each second. Rozka stiffened and drew his blaster.
Speaker 1: As he did, five more aircrafts swooped over the crest
Speaker 1: of the mountain and came rushing down toward him, not aimlessly,
Speaker 1: but as though they knew exactly where he was. As
Speaker 1: they approached, the leading edges of the wings sparkled with light.
Speaker 1: Branches began flying from the trees about him, and there
Speaker 1: was a loud, hammering noise. He aimed a little in
Speaker 1: front of them and began blasting. A wing flew from
Speaker 1: one of the aircraft and it plunged downward. Another came
Speaker 1: apart in the air. A third burst into flames. The
Speaker 1: other two zoomed upward quickly. Rotzky swung his blaster after them,
Speaker 1: blasting again and again. He hit a fourth with a
Speaker 1: blast of energy, knocking it to pieces, and then the
Speaker 1: fifth was out of range. He blasted at it twice,
Speaker 1: but without effect. A hand blaster was only good for
Speaker 1: a thousand yards at the most. Holstering his weapon, he
Speaker 1: hurried away, following the stream and keeping under cover of trees.
Speaker 1: The last of the attacking aircraft had gone away, but
Speaker 1: the little scoup plane was still circling about, well out
Speaker 1: of blaster range. Once or twice, Rotsky was compelled to
Speaker 1: stay hidden for some time, not knowing the nature of
Speaker 1: the pilot's ability to detect him. He was during one
Speaker 1: of those weights that the next days of the attack developed.
Speaker 1: It began like the last one, with a distant roar
Speaker 1: that swelled in volume until it seemed to fill the
Speaker 1: whole world. Then, fifteen or twenty thousand feet out of
Speaker 1: blaster range, the new attackers swept into sight. There must
Speaker 1: have been fifty of them, huge tapering things with wide
Speaker 1: spread wings, flying in close formation wave after v shaped wave.
Speaker 1: He stood and stared at them, amazed. He had never
Speaker 1: imagined that such aircraft existed in the first century. Then
Speaker 1: a high pitched screaming sound cut through the roar of
Speaker 1: the propellers, and for an instant he saw countless small
Speaker 1: specks in the sky falling downward. The first bomb salvo
Speaker 1: landed in the young pines where he had fought against
Speaker 1: the first air attack. Great gouts of flames shot upward,
Speaker 1: and smoke and flying earth and debris. Trotzka turned and
Speaker 1: started to run. Another salvo fell in front of him.
Speaker 1: He veered to the left and plunged on through the undergrowth.
Speaker 1: Now the bombs were falling all about him, deafening him
Speaker 1: with their thunder, shaking him with concussion. He dodged, frightened
Speaker 1: as the trunk of a tree came crashing down beside him.
Speaker 1: Then something hit him across the back, knocking him flat.
Speaker 1: For a moment, he lay stunned, then tried to rise.
Speaker 1: As he did, a searing light filled his eyes, and
Speaker 1: a wave of intolerable heats wept over him. Then darkness.
Speaker 1: No savaspol kradzy Zago repeated, Rozko will not return. The
Speaker 1: time machine was sabotaged. So by you, the soldier asked.
Speaker 1: The scientist nodded, I knew the purpose for which he
Speaker 1: intended it. Razko was not content with having enslaved a
Speaker 1: whole solar system. He hungered to bring tyranny and serfdom
Speaker 1: to all the past and all the future as well.
Speaker 1: He wanted to be master not only of the present,
Speaker 1: but at the sentries that were and were to be
Speaker 1: as well. I never took part in politics, savas Pole.
Speaker 1: I had no hand in this revolt, but I could
Speaker 1: not be a party to such a crime, as Rozka contemplated,
Speaker 1: when it lay within my power to prevent it. The
Speaker 1: machine will take him out of our space time continuum,
Speaker 1: or back to a time when this planet was a
Speaker 1: swirling cloud of flaming as sarvas Pol asked. Kradzy Zago
Speaker 1: shook his head. No, the unit is not powerful enough
Speaker 1: for that. It will only take him about ten thousand
Speaker 1: years into the past. But then when it stops, the
Speaker 1: machine will destroy itself. It may destroy her otz go
Speaker 1: with it, or he may escape, but if he does,
Speaker 1: he will be left stranded ten thousand years ago, where
Speaker 1: he can do us no harm. Actually, it did not
Speaker 1: operate as he imagined, and there is an infinitely small
Speaker 1: chance that he could have returned to our time in
Speaker 1: any event, but I wanted to insure against even so
Speaker 1: small a chance. We can't be sure of that, Tsarvespol objected,
Speaker 1: he may know more about the machine than you think,
Speaker 1: enough more to build another like it. So you must
Speaker 1: build me a machine, and I'll take back a party
Speaker 1: of volunteers and hunt him down. That will not be necessary,
Speaker 1: and you would only share his fate. Then, apparently changing
Speaker 1: the subject, Crasizago asked, tell me, jarves Pol, have you
Speaker 1: never heard the legends of the deadly radiations? General Zarvas smiled,
Speaker 1: who is not. Every cadet at the Officer's College dreams
Speaker 1: of rediscovering them, the users a weapon, But nobody ever
Speaker 1: has we heard these tales of how in the early days,
Speaker 1: atomic engines and piles and fission bombs emitted particles which
Speaker 1: were utterly deadly, which would make anything in which they
Speaker 1: came in contact deadly, which would bring a horrible death
Speaker 1: to any human being. But these are only myths. All
Speaker 1: the ancient experiments have been duplicated time and time again,
Speaker 1: and the deadly radiation effect has never been observed. Some
Speaker 1: say that it's a mere old wife's terror tale. Some
Speaker 1: say that the deaths were caused by fear of atomic
Speaker 1: energy when it was still unfamiliar. Others contend that the
Speaker 1: fundamental nature of atomic energy is altered, but the degeneration
Speaker 1: of the fissionable matter. For my own part, I'm not
Speaker 1: enough of a scientist to have an opinion. The old
Speaker 1: one smiled wanly. None of these theories are correct. In
Speaker 1: the beginning of the atomic era, the deadly radiations existed.
Speaker 1: They still exist, but they are no longer deadly because
Speaker 1: all life on this planet has adapted itself to such radiations,
Speaker 1: and all living things are now immune to them. And
Speaker 1: Rodskow has returned to a time when such immunity did
Speaker 1: not exist. But would that not be to his advantage?
Speaker 1: Remember general, that man has been using atomic energy for
Speaker 1: ten thousand years. Our whole world has become drenched with radioactivity.
Speaker 1: The planet, the seas, the atmosphere, and every living thing
Speaker 1: are all radioactive. Now radioactivity is as natural to us
Speaker 1: as the air we breathe. Now, you remember hearing of
Speaker 1: the great wars of the first centuries of the atomic era,
Speaker 1: and which whole nations were wiped out, leaving only hundreds
Speaker 1: of survivors out of millions. You no doubt think that
Speaker 1: such tales are products of ignorant and barbe imaginations. But
Speaker 1: I assure you they are literally true. There was not
Speaker 1: the blast effect of who bombs which created such holocausts,
Speaker 1: but the radiations released by the bombs, and those who
Speaker 1: survived to carry on the race were men and women
Speaker 1: whose systems resisted the radiations, and they transmitted to their
Speaker 1: progeny that power of resistance. In many cases, the children
Speaker 1: were mutants, not monsters, although there were many of them
Speaker 1: too which did not survive, but humans who were immune
Speaker 1: to radioactivity. An interesting theory, Krazisago, the soldier commented, and
Speaker 1: one which conforms both to what we know of atomic
Speaker 1: energy and the ancient legends. Then would you say that
Speaker 1: those radiations are still deadly? Did the non immune exactly?
Speaker 1: And Radzka, his body emitting those radiations, has returned to
Speaker 1: the first century of the atomic era, to a world
Speaker 1: without immunity. General Zarvis smile vanished man, he cried in horror,
Speaker 1: you have lustic carrier of death among those innocent people
Speaker 1: of the past. Karzizago nodded, that is true. I estimate
Speaker 1: that Haratzko will probably cause the death of a hundred
Speaker 1: people or so before he has dealt with. But dealt
Speaker 1: with he will be. Tell me, General, if a man
Speaker 1: should appear now out of nowhere, spreading a strange and
Speaker 1: horrible plague wherever he went. What would you do? Why
Speaker 1: I'd hunt him down to kill him. General Zarfice replied,
Speaker 1: not for anything he did, but for the menace he was.
Speaker 1: And then I'd cover his body with a mass of
Speaker 1: concrete bigger than this palace. Precise, say Kratzizago smiled. And
Speaker 1: the military commanders and political leaders in the first century
Speaker 1: were no less ruthless or efficient than you. You know
Speaker 1: how atomic energy was first used. There was an ancient nation,
Speaker 1: upon the ruins of whose cities we have built our own,
Speaker 1: which was fame for its idealistic humanitarianism. At that nation
Speaker 1: treacherously attacked, created the first atomic bombs and self defense,
Speaker 1: and used them. There is among the people of that
Speaker 1: nation that Rodzka has emerged, But would they recognize him
Speaker 1: as the cause of the calamity he brings among them?
Speaker 1: Of course, he will emerge at the time when atomic
Speaker 1: energy is first being used. They will have detectors for
Speaker 1: the deadly radiations, detectors we know nothing of to day.
Speaker 1: For a detection instrument must be free from the thing
Speaker 1: it is intended to detect, and to day everything is radioactive.
Speaker 1: It will be a day or so before they discover
Speaker 1: what is happening to them, and not a few will
Speaker 1: die in that time, I fear. But once they have
Speaker 1: found out what is killing their people, Rodska's days, no,
Speaker 1: his hours will be numbered. A mass of concrete bigger
Speaker 1: than this place, told the slave, repeated General Zarvas's words.
Speaker 1: The ancient spaceport. Prince Ravni clapped him on the shoulder,
Speaker 1: told man, you've hit it. You mean Croudzizago began, Yes,
Speaker 1: you all know of it. It stood for nobody knows
Speaker 1: how many millennia, and nobody's ever decided what it was
Speaker 1: to begin with, except that somebody once filled the valley
Speaker 1: with concrete level from mountain top to mountain top. The
Speaker 1: accepted theory is that it was done for a firing
Speaker 1: stand for the first moon rocket. But gentlemen, our friend
Speaker 1: Tobes explained it. It is the tomb of Rotzka, and
Speaker 1: it has been the tomb of Vrozka for ten thousand
Speaker 1: years before Rotzka was born. End of flight from Tomorrow
Speaker 1: by h Beam Piper