[Illustration] DEAD WORLD By JACK DOUGLAS Illustrated by BARR _Out on the ice-buried planet, Commander Red Stone led his Free Companions to almost certain death. They died for a dangerous dream that had only one chance in a thousand trillion to come true. Is there a better reason for dying?_ _. .. Although the most recent star to die, RNAC 89778 in the distantMenelaus galaxy (common name, Menelaus XII), had eight inhabitedplanets, only some one thousand people of the fifth planet escaped andsurvived as a result of a computer error which miscalculated the exacttime by two years. Due to basic psycho-philo maladjustments the refugeesof Menelaus XII-5 are classified as anti-social-types-B-6 and must beconsidered unstable. All anti-social-types-B-6 are barred fromresponsible positions in United Galaxies by order of the Inter-GalacticCouncil. _ --Short History of The United Galaxies * * * * * Yuan Saltario started it. He was serving in my Company and he was one ofthem. A Menelaus XII-5 "unstable, " and don't ever call that damnedlittle planet by its number if you meet one of them. They call itNova-Maurania. But you won't meet one of them. Or maybe you will, maybethey did make it. I like to think they did. There were a lot of them in the Companies in 3078. Restless men. TheCompanies were the logical place for them. We're still classifiedanti-social-B-6, too. Every year it's harder to get recruits, but westill have to be careful who we take in. We took Yuan Saltario. Therewas something about him from the very start. "Why do you want to join a Free Company?" He was a short, humanoid typewith deep black eyes and a thin, lipless mouth that never smiled. "I'm an anti-social. I like to fight. I want to fight. " "A misfit joining the misfits? A grudge against the Council? It's notgood enough, mister, we live on the Council. Try again. " Saltario's black eyes stared without a flicker. "You're Red Stone, Commander of the Red Company. You hate the Council and I hate theCouncil. You're the . .. " Saltario stopped. I said, "The Traitor of the Glorious War of Survival. You can say it, Saltario. " The lipless mouth was rigid. "I don't think of it that way. I think of aman with personal integrity, " Saltario said. I suppose I should have seen it then, the rock he carried deep insidehim. It might have saved thirty thousand good men. But I was thinking ofmyself. Commander Red Stone of the Red Company, Earthmen. Only we're notall Earthmen now, every year there are fewer recruits, and it won't belong before we die out and the Council will have the last laugh. Old RedStone, the Traitor of the War of Survival, the little finger of my lefthand still missing and telling the Universe I was a very old soldier ofthe outlawed Free Companies hanging onto life on a rocky planet of thedistant Salaman galaxy. Back at the old stand because United Galaxiesstill need us. In a way it's a big joke. Two years after Rajay-Ben and Ihad a bellyfull of the Glorious War of Survival and they chased us allthe way out here, they turned right around and made the peace. A joke onme, but sometimes I like to think that our runout was the thing thatmade them think and make peace. When you've been a soldier forthirty-five years you like to win battles, but you like to feel youhelped bring peace, too. * * * * * I said, "Personal integrity. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? So youlike personal integrity? All right, Saltario, are you sure you know whatyou're getting into? We're 60 million light years from Galaxy Center, 10million from the nearest United Galaxy city. We've got no comforts, nofuture, nothing to do but fight. A woman in her right mind won't look atus, if they see you in uniform they'll spit on you, if they catch youout of uniform they'll kill you. " Saltario shrugged. "I like to eat. I've got nowhere to go. All I've gotis myself and a big piece of ice I called home. " I nodded. "Okay. We fight small wars for good profits. It's not Earthout here, but we've got four nice suns, plenty of Lukanian whiskyRajay-Ben taught the locals to make, and we're our own masters. TheUnited Galaxies leaves us pretty much alone unless they need us. You doyour job, and your job is what I tell you to do, period. You got thatstraight?" Saltario very nearly smiled. "It sounds good to me, sir. " "I hope it'll sound good in a year, Saltario, because once you're in youdon't get out except feet first. Is that clear? I have life and deathrights over you. You owe allegiance to the Red Company and me and to noone else. Got that? Today your best friends are the men of Rajay-Ben'sLukanian Fourth Free Patrol, and your worst enemies are the men ofMandasiva's Sirian O Company. Tomorrow Rajay-Ben's boys may be yourworst enemies, and Mandasiva's troops your best friends. It all dependson the contract. A Company on the same contract is a friend, a Companyagainst the contract is an enemy. You'll drink with a man today, andkill him tomorrow. Got it? If you kill a Free Companion without acontract you go to court-martial. If you kill a citizen of the UnitedGalaxies except in a battle under contract I throw you to the wolves andthat means you're finished. That's the way it is. " "Yes, sir. " Saltario never moved a muscle. He was rigid. "Right, " I said, "get your gear, see the Adjutant and sign theagreement. I think you'll do. " Saltario left. I sat back in my chair and thought about how manynon-Earthmen I was taking into the Company. Maybe I should have beenthinking about this one single non-Earthman and the something he wascarrying inside him, but I didn't, and it cost the Companies thirtythousand men we couldn't afford to lose. We can't afford to lose oneman. There are only a hundred Companies now, twenty thousand men each, give or take a few thousand depending on how the last contract went. Life is good in the United Galaxies now that they've disarmed andoutlawed all war again, and our breed is dying out faster than it did inthe 500 years of peace before the War of Survival. Too many of the oldCompanions like me went west in the War of Survival. The GalacticCouncil know they need us, know that you can't change all livingcreatures into good Galactic citizens overnight, so they let us go onfighting for anyone in the Universe who wants to take something fromsomeone else, or who thinks someone else wants to take something fromhim. And even the mighty United Galaxies needs guards for expeditions tothe unexplored galaxies. But they don't like us and they don't want us. They don't cut off our little fingers anymore, but we have to wear ourspecial black uniforms when we go into United territory under penalty ofa quick death. Humane, of course, they just put us to sleep gently andfor keeps. And they've got a stockpile of ionic bombs ready at all timesin case we get out of hand. We don't have ionic weapons, that's part ofthe agreement and they watch us. They came close to using them downthere in the frozen waste of Menelaus XII, but thirty thousand of usdied without ionics. We killed each other. They liked that, even if theydidn't like what happened. * * * * * Do you know what it means to be lost? Really lost? I'm lost, if thatmeans I know I'll never go back to live on Earth. But I know that Earthis still there to go back to, and I can dream of going home. YuanSaltario and the other refugees have no home to go back to. They can'teven dream. They sat in that one ship that escaped and watched theirplanet turn into a lifeless ball of ice that would circle dead andfrozen forever around its burned-out star. A giant tomb that carriedunder its thick ice their homes and their fields and their loves. Andthey could not even hope and dream. Or I did not think they could. Saltario had been with us a year when we got the contract to escort thesurvey mission to Nova-Maurania. A private Earth commercial mining firmlooking for minerals under the frozen wastes of the dead planet. Rajay-Ben was in on the contract. We took two battalions, one from myRed Company, and one from Rajay-Ben's Lukanian Patrol. My Sub-Commanderwas Pete Colenso, old Mike Colenso's boy. It all went fine for a week orso, routine guard and patrol. The survey team wouldn't associate withus, of course, but we were used to that. We kept our eyes open and ourmouths shut. That's our job, and we give value for money received. So wewere alert and ready. But it wasn't the attack that nearly got us thistime. It was the cold of the dead planet lost in absolute zero andabsolute darkness. Nova-Maurania was nearly 40 percent uranium, and who could resist that?A Centaurian trading unit did not resist the lure. The attack was quickand hard. A typical Lukanian Patrol attack. My Company was pinned downat the first volley from those damned smoky blasters of the Lukanians. All I could see was the same shimmering lights I had learned to know sowell in the War of Survival against Lukania. Someday maybe I'll find outhow to see a Lukan, Rajay-Ben has worked with me a long time to help, but when the attack came this time all I could do was eat ice and beam ahelp call to Rajay-Ben. That Centaurian trading unit was a cheap outfit, they had hired only one battalion of Arjay-Ben's Ninth Lukanian FreePatrol, and Rajay-Ben flanked them right off that planet. I got my boyson their feet and we chased Arjay's men half way back to Salaman withRajay-Ben laughing like a hyena the whole way. "Dip me in mud, Red boy, I'd give a prime contract for one gander at oldArjay-Ben's face. He's blowing a gasket!" I said, "Nice flank job. " Rajay-Ben laughed so hard I could see his pattern of colored lightshaking like a dancing rainbow. "I took two Sub-Commanders, wait'll Ihit that bullet-head for ransom!" * * * * * Then we stopped laughing. We had won the battle, but Arjay-Ben was acrafty old soldier and his sabotage squad had wrecked our engines andour heating units. We were stuck on a frozen planet without heat. Young Colenso turned white. "What do we do?" I said, "Beam for help and pray we don't freeze first. " They had missed our small communications reactor unit. We sent out ourcall, and we all huddled around the small reactor. There might be enoughheat out of it to let us live five hours. If we were lucky. It was thethird hour when Yuan Saltario began to talk. Maybe it was the nearnessof death. "I was twenty-two. Portario was the leader on our planet. He found theerror when we had one ship ready. We had three days. No time to get theother ships ready. He said we were lucky, the other planets didn't haveeven one ship ready. Not even time for United Galaxies to help. Portariochose a thousand of us to go. I was one. At first I felt very good, youknow? I was really happy. Until I found out that my wife couldn't go. Not fit enough. United Galaxies had beamed the standards to us. Funnyhow you don't think about other people until something hurts you. I'dbeen married a year. I told them it was both of us or neither of us. Itold Portario to tell United Galaxies they couldn't break up a familyand to hell with their standards. They laughed at me. Not Portario, theCouncil. What did they care, they would just take another man. My wifebegged me to go. She cried so much I had to agree to go. I loved her toomuch to be able to stay and see the look on her face as we both diedwhen she knew I could have gone. On the ship before we took off I stoodat a port and looked down at her. A small girl trying to smile at me. She waved once before they led her away from the rocket. All hell wasshaking the planet already, had been for months, but all I saw was asmall girl waving once, just once. She's still here, somewhere downthere under the ice. " The cold was slowly creeping into us. It was hard to move my mouth, butI said, "She loved you, she wanted you to live. " "Without her, without my home, I'm as dead as the planet. I feel frozen. She's like that dead sun out there, and I'll circle around her untilsomeone gets me and ends it. " Saltario seemed to be seeing something. "I'm beginning to forget what she looked like. I don't want to forget! Ican't forget her on this planet. The way it was! It was a beautifulplace, perfect! I don't want to forget her!" Colenso said, "You won't have long to remember. " * * * * * But Colenso was wrong. My Third Battalion showed up when we had justless than an hour to live. They took us off. The Earth mining outfithaggled over the contract because the job had not been finished and Ihad to settle for two-third contract price. Rajay-Ben did better when heransomed Arjay-Ben's two Sub-Commanders. It wasn't a bad deal and Iwould have been satisfied, except that something had happened to YuanSaltario. Maybe it made him realize that he did not want to die after all. Ormaybe it turned him space-happy and he began to dream. A dream of hisown born up there in the cold of his dead planet. A dream that nearlycost me my Company. I did not know what that dream was until Saltario came into my office ayear later. He had a job for the Company. "How many men?" I asked. "Our Company and Rajay-Ben's Patrol, " Saltario said. "Full strength?" "Yes, sir. " "Price?" "Standard, sir, " Saltario said. "The party will pay. " "Just a trip to your old planet?" "That's all, " Saltario said. "A guard contract. The hiring party justdon't want any interference with their project. " "Two full Companies? Forty thousand men? They must expect to need a lotof protecting. " "United Galaxies opposes the project. Or they will if they get wind ofit. " I said, "United opposes a lot of things, what's special about thisscheme?" Saltario hesitated, then looked at me with those flat black eyes. "Ionics. " It's not a word you say, or hear, without a chill somewhere deepinside. Not even me and I know a man can survive ionic weapons. I knowbecause I did once. Weapons so powerful I'm one of the last men alivewho saw them in action. Mathematically the big ones could wipe out aGalaxy. I saw a small one destroy a star in ten seconds. I watchedSaltario for a long time. It seemed a long time, anyway. It was probablytwenty seconds. I was wondering if he had gone space-crazy for keeps. And I was thinking of how I could find out what it was all about in timeto stop it. I said, "A hundred Companies won't be enough. Saltario, have you everseen or heard what an ionic bomb can . .. " Saltario said, "Not weapons, peaceful power. " "Even that's out and you know it, " I said. "United Galaxies won't eventouch peaceful ionics, too dangerous to even use. " "You can take a look first. " "A good look, " I said. I alerted Rajay-Ben and we took two squads and a small ship and Saltariodirected us to a tall mountain that jutted a hundred feet above the iceof Nova-Maurania. I was not surprised. In a way I think I knew from themoment Saltario walked into my office. Whatever it was Saltario was partof it. And I had a pretty good idea what it was. The only question washow. But I didn't have time to think it out any farther. In theCompanies you learn to feel danger. The first fire caught four of my men. Then I was down on the ice. Theywere easy to see. Black uniforms with white wedges. Pete O'Hara's WhiteWedge Company, Earthmen. I don't like fighting other Earthmen, but ajob's a job and you don't ask questions in the Companies. It looked likea full battalion against our two squads. On the smooth ice surface therewas no cover except the jutting mountain top off to the right. And nolight in the absolute darkness of a dead star. But we could see throughour viewers, and so could they. They outnumbered us ten to one. Rajay-Ben's voice came through the closed circuit. "Bad show, Red, they got our pants down!" "You call it, " I answered. "Break silence!" Surrender. When a Company breaks silence in a battle it means surrender. There was no other way. And I had a pretty good idea that the Councilitself was behind O'Hara on this job. If it was ionics involved, theywouldn't ransom us. The Council had waited a long time to catch RedStone in an execution offense. They wouldn't miss. But forty of our men were down already. "Okay, " I beamed over the circuit, "break silence. We've had it Rajay. " "Council offense, Red. " "Yeah. " * * * * * Well, I'd had a lot of good years. Maybe I'd been a soldier too long. Iwas thinking just like that when the sudden flank attack started. Fromthe right. Heavy fire from the cover of the solitary mountain top. O'Hara's men were dropping. I stared through my viewer. On that mountainI counted the uniforms of twenty-two different Companies. That was verywrong. Whoever Saltario was fronting for could not have the power or thegold to hire twenty-four Companies including mine and Rajay-Ben's. Andthe fire was heavy but not that heavy. But whoever they were they werevery welcome. We had a chance now. And I was making my plans when thetall old man stood up on the small, jutting top of that mountain. Thetall old man stood up and a translating machine boomed out. "All of you! O'Hara's men! Look at this!" I saw it. In a beam of light on the top of that mountain it looked likea small neutron-source machine. But it wasn't. It was an ionic beamprojector. The old man said, "Go home. " They went. They went fast and silent. And I knew where they were going. Not to Salaman. O'Hara would have taken one look at that machine and behalf way to United Galaxy Center before he had stopped seeing it. I feltlike taking that trip myself. But I had agreed to look and I would look. If we were lucky we would have forty-eight hours to look and run. I fell in what was left of my Company behind the men that had saved us. More Company uniforms than I had ever seen in one place. They saidnothing. Just walked into a hole in that mountain. Into a cave. And inthe cave, at the far end, a door opened. An elevator. We followed thetall old man into the elevator and it began to descend. The elevator carwent down for a long time. At last I could see a faint glow far below. The glow grew brighter and the car stopped. Far below the glow was stillbrighter. We all stepped out into a long corridor cut from solid rock. Iestimated that we were at least two hundred miles down and the glow washundreds of miles deeper. We went through three sealed doors and emergedinto a vast room. A room bright with light and filled with more men inCompany uniforms, civilians, even women. At least a thousand. And I sawit. The thousand refugees, all of them. Gathered from all the Companies, from wherever they had been in the Galaxies. Gathered here in a roomtwo hundred miles into the heart of their dead planet. A room filledwith giant machines. Ionic machines. Highly advanced ionic powerreactors. The old man stood in front of his people and spoke. "I am JasonPortario, I thank you for coming. " I broke in, "Ionic power is an execution offense. You know that. How thehell did you get all this . .. " "I know the offense, Commander, " Portario said, "and I know you. You'rea fair man. You're a brave man. It doesn't matter where we got thepower, many men are dead to get it, but we have it, and we will keep it. We have a job to do. " I said, "After that stunt out there you've about as much chance as asnowball in hell. O'Hara's half way to Galaxy Center. Look, with alittle luck we get you out to Salaman. If you leave all this equipment Imight be able to hide you until it blows over. " * * * * * The old man shrugged. "I would have preferred not to show our hand, butwe had to save you. I was aware that the Council would find us outsooner or later, they missed the ionic material a month ago. But that isunimportant. The important matter is will you take our job? All we needis another two days, perhaps three. Can you hold off an attack for thatlong?" "Why?" I asked. Portario smiled. "All right, Commander, you should know all we plan. Sitdown, and let me finish before you speak. " I sat. Rajay-Ben sat. The agitation of his colored lights showed that hewas as disturbed as I was. The thousand Nova-Mauranians stood there inthe room and watched us. Yuan Saltario stood with his friends. I couldfeel his eyes on me. Hot eyes. As if something inside that lost man wasburning again. Portario lighted a pipe. I had not seen a pipe since Iwas a child. The habit was classified as ancient usage in the UnitedGalaxies. Portario saw me staring. He held his pipe and looked at it. "In a way, Commander, " the old man said, "this pipe is my story. OnNova-Maurania we liked a pipe. We liked a lot of the old habits. Maybewe should have died with all the others. You know, I was the one whofound the error. Sometimes I'm not at all sure my friends here thank mefor it. Our planet is dead, Commander, and so are we. We're dead inside. But we have a dream. We want to live again. And to live again our planetmust live again. " The old man paused as if trying to be sure of tellingit right. "We mean no harm to anyone. All we want is our life back. Wedon't want to live forever like lumps of ice circling around a deadheart. What we plan may kill us all, but we feel it is worth the risk. We have thousands of ionic power reactors. We have blasted out Venturitubes. We found life still deep in the center of this planet. It is allready now. With all the power we have we will break the hold of our deadsun and send this planet off into space! We . .. " I said, "You're insane! It can't . .. " "But it can, Commander. It's a great risk, yes, but it can be done, mycalculations are perfect! We want to leave this dead system, go off intospace and find a new star that will bring life back to our planet! Agreen, live, warm Nova-Maurania once again!" Rajay-Ben was laughing. "That's the craziest damned dream I ever satstill for. You know what your chances of being picked up by another starare? Picked up just right? Why . .. " Portario said, "We have calculated the exact initial thrust, the exacttangential velocity, the precise orbital path we need. If all goesexactly, I emphasize, _exactly_, to the last detail as we have plannedit we can do it! Our chances of being caught by the correct star in theabsolutely correct position are one in a thousand trillion, but we cando it!" It was so impossible I began to believe he was right. "If you aren'tcaught just right?" Portario's black eyes watched me. "We could burn up or stay frozen andlifeless. We could drift in space forever as cold and dead as we are nowand our ionic power won't last forever. The forces we will use couldblow the planet apart. But we are going to try. We would rather die thanlive as walking dead men in this perfect United Galaxies we do notwant. " The silence in the room was like a Salaman fog. Thick silence brokenonly by the steady hum of the machines deep beneath us in the deadplanet. A wild, impossible dream of one thousand lost souls. A dreamthat would destroy them, and they did not care. There was somethingabout it all that I liked. I said, "Why not get Council approval?" Portario smiled. "Council has little liking for wild dreams, Commander. It would not be considered as advancing the future of United Galaxies'destiny. Then there are the ionics. " And Portario hesitated. "And thereis the danger of imbalance, Galactic imbalance. I have calculatedcarefully, the danger is remote, but Council is not going to take even aremote chance. " Yuan Saltario broke in. "All they care about is their damned steriledestiny! They don't care about people. Well we do! We care aboutsomething to live for. The hell with the destiny of the Galaxies! Theydon't know, and we'll be gone before they do know. " "They know plenty now. O'Hara's beamed them in. " "So we must hurry, " Portario said. "Three days, Commander, will youprotect us for three days?" A Council offense punishable by instant destruction with United Galaxiesreserve ionic weapons in the hands of the super-secret police anddisaster teams. And three days is a long time. I would be risking mywhole Company. I heard Rajay-Ben laugh. "Blast me, Red, it's so damned crazy I'm for it. Let's give it a shot. " I did not know then how much it would really cost us. If I had I mightnot have agreed. Or maybe I would have, it was good to know people couldstill have such dreams in our computer age. "Okay, " I said, "beam the full Companies and try to get one more. Mandasiva's Sirian boys would be good. We'll split the fee three ways. " Yuan Saltario said, "Thanks, Red. " I said, "Thank me later, if we're still around. " We beamed the Companies and in twenty minutes they were on their way. Straight into the biggest trouble we had had since the War of Survival. I expected trouble, but I didn't know how much. Pete Colenso tipped meoff. Pete spoke across the light years on our beam. "Mandasiva says okay ifwe guarantee the payment. I've deposited the bond with him and we're onour way. But, Red, something's funny. " "What?" "This place is empty. The whole damned galaxy out here is like a desert. Every Company has moved out somewhere. " "Okay, " I beamed, "get rolling fast. " There was only one client who could hire all the Companies at one time. United Galaxies itself. We were in for it. I had expected perhaps tenCompanies, not three against 97, give or take a few out on other jobs. It gave me a chill. Not the odds, but if Council was that worried maybethere was bad danger. But I'd given my word and a Companion keeps hisword. We had one ace in the hole, a small one. If the other Companieswere not here in Menelaus yet, they must have rendezvoused at GalaxyCenter. It was the kind of "follow-the-book" mistake United would make. It gave us a day and a half. We would need it. They came at dawn on the second day. We were deployed across five ofthe dead planets of Menelaus XII in a ring around Nova-Maurania. Theycame fast and hard, and Portario and his men had at least ten hours workleft before they could fire their reactors and pray. Until then we didthe praying. It didn't help. Mandasiva's command ship went at the third hour. A Lukan blaster got it. By the fourth hour I had watched three of my sub-command ships go. ASirian force beam got one, an Earth fusion gun got another, and thethird went out of action and rammed O'Hara's command ship that had beenleading their attack against us. That third ship of mine was PeteColenso's. Old Mike would have been proud of his boy. I was sick. Petehad been a good boy. So had O'Hara. Not a boy, O'Hara, but the next tothe last of old Free Companion from Earth. I'm the last, and I said asilent good-bye to O'Hara. By the sixth hour Rajay-Ben had only tenships left. I had twelve. Five thousand of my men were gone. Eightthousand of Rajay-Ben's Lukans. The Sirians of Mandasiva's O Companywere getting the worst of it, and in the eighth hour Mandasiva's secondin command surrendered. It would be over soon, too soon. And the dreamwould be over with the battle. I broke silence. "Red Stone calling. Do you read me? Commander Stone calling. Requestconference. Repeat, request conference. " A face appeared on the inter-Company beam screen. The cold, blank, hard-bitten face of the only Free Company Commander senior to me nowthat O'Hara was gone, Jake Campesino of the Cygne Black Company. "Areyou surrendering, Stone?" "No. I want to speak to my fellow Companions. " Campesino's voice was like ice. "Violation! You know the rules, Stone. Silence cannot be broken in battle. I will bring charges. You'rethrough, Stone. " I said, "Okay, crucify me later. But hear me now. " Campesino said, "Close silence or surrender. " It was no good. We'd had it. And across the distance of battleRajay-Ben's face appeared on the screen. The colored lights that were aLukan's face and I knew enough to know that the shimmering lights weremad. "The hell with them, Red, let's go all the damned way!" And a new face appeared on the screen. A face I knew too well. FirstCouncillor Roark. "Stone! You've done a lot in your day but this is theend, you hear me? You're defending a madman in a Council crime. Do yourealize the risk? Universal imbalance! The whole pattern of galaxiescould be destroyed! We'll destroy you for this, Stone. An ionic projectwithout Council authorization. " I said to Campesino, "Five minutes, Commander. That's all. " * * * * * There was a long blank on the screen, then Campesino's cold faceappeared. "Okay, Red, talk. I don't like civilian threats. You've gotyour five minutes, make it good. " I made it good. I told them of a handful of people who had a dream. Ahandful of people who wanted their home back. A few lost souls who wouldrather die trying to live the way they wanted to live than go on livingin a world they did not want. And I told them of the great UnitedGalaxies, that had been created to protect the dreams of everyone in itand had forgotten why it had been created. I told them that it did notmatter who was right or wrong, because when a man can no longer dreamsomething has gone wrong in the Universe. When I finished, Campesino'sface was impassive. Campesino said, "You heard Commander Stone, men. Close off, Stone, giveme a minute to get the vote. " I waited. It was the longest minute of my life. "You win, Red, " Campesino said. He was smiling at me. "Go home, Councillor, battle's over. " The Councillor went. He said there would be hell to pay, and maybe therewill be, but I don't think so, they still need us. We lost thirtythousand good men in all the Companies. But when the next dawn cameNova-Maurania was gone. I don't know where they went, or what happenedto them. Here in my stronghold I sometimes imagine them safe andrebuilding a green world where they can smoke pipes and live their ownlives. And sometimes I imagine them all dead and drifting out there inthe infinity of space. I don't think they would mind too much, eitherway. THE END [Illustration] Transcriber's Note: This etext was first published in _Amazing Stories_ May 1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.