* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes:

This etext was produced from "Future combinedwith Science Fiction Stories" September 1951. Extensive research did notuncover any evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed. 

A number of typographical errors found in theoriginal text have been corrected in this version. A list of theseerrors is provided at the end of the book. 

 * * * * *

 GENESIS

 By H. Beam Piper

 FEATURE NOVELET OF LOST WORLDS

 Was this ill-fated expedition the end of a proud, old race--or the beginning of a new one?

 There are strange gaps in our records of the past. We find traces of man-like things--but, suddenly, man appears, far too much developed to be the "next step" in a well-linked chain of evolutionary evidence. Perhaps something like the events of this story furnishes the answer to the riddle. 

Aboard the ship, there was neither day nor night; the hours slippedgently by, as vistas of star-gemmed blackness slid across thevisiscreens. For the crew, time had some meaning--one watch on duty andtwo off. But for the thousand-odd colonists, the men and women who wereto be the spearhead of migration to a new and friendlier planet, it hadnone. They slept, and played, worked at such tasks as they could invent, and slept again, while the huge ship followed her plotted trajectory. 

Kalvar Dard, the army officer who would lead them in their new home, hadas little to do as any of his followers. The ship's officers had all theresponsibility for the voyage, and, for the first time in over fiveyears, he had none at all. He was finding the unaccustomed idleness morewearying than the hectic work of loading the ship before the blastofffrom Doorsha. He went over his landing and security plans again, andfound no probable emergency unprepared for. Dard wandered about theship, talking to groups of his colonists, and found morale even betterthan he had hoped. He spent hours staring into the forward visiscreens, watching the disc of Tareesh, the planet of his destination, grow largerand plainer ahead. 

Now, with the voyage almost over, he was in the cargo-hold just aft ofthe Number Seven bulkhead, with six girls to help him, checkingconstruction material which would be needed immediately after landing. The stuff had all been checked two or three times before, but there wasno harm in going over it again. It furnished an occupation to fill inthe time; it gave Kalvar Dard an excuse for surrounding himself withhalf a dozen charming girls, and the girls seemed to enjoy being withhim. There was tall blonde Olva, the electromagnetician; pert littleVarnis, the machinist's helper; Kyna, the surgeon's-aide; dark-hairedAnalea; Dorita, the accountant; plump little Eldra, the armamenttechnician. At the moment, they were all sitting on or around the deskin the corner of the store-room, going over the inventory when they werenot just gabbling. 

"Well, how about the rock-drill bitts?" Dorita was asking earnestly, trying to stick to business. "Won't we need them almost as soon as we'reoff?"

"Yes, we'll have to dig temporary magazines for our explosives, small-arms and artillery ammunition, and storage-pits for ourfissionables and radioactives, " Kalvar Dard replied. "We'll have to havesafe places for that stuff ready before it can be unloaded; and if werun into hard rock near the surface, we'll have to drill holes forblasting-shots. "

"The drilling machinery goes into one of those prefabricated sheds, "Eldra considered. "Will there be room in it for all the bitts, too?"

Kalvar Dard shrugged. "Maybe. If not, we'll cut poles and build racksfor them outside. The bitts are nono-steel; they can be stored in theopen. "

"If there are poles to cut, " Olva added. 

"I'm not worrying about that, " Kalvar Dard replied. "We have a prettyfair idea of conditions on Tareesh; our astronomers have been makingtelescopic observations for the past fifteen centuries. There's a prettybig Arctic ice-cap, but it's been receding slowly, with a wide belt ofwhat's believed to be open grassland to the south of it, and a belt ofwhat's assumed to be evergreen forest south of that. We plan to landsomewhere in the northern hemisphere, about the grassland-forest line. And since Tareesh is richer in water that Doorsha, you mustn't think ofgrassland in terms of our wire-grass plains, or forests in terms of ourbrush thickets. The vegetation should be much more luxuriant. "

"If there's such a large polar ice-cap, the summers ought to be fairlycool, and the winters cold, " Varnis reasoned. "I'd think that would meanfur-bearing animals. Colonel, you'll have to shoot me something with anice soft fur; I like furs. "

Kalvar Dard chuckled. "Shoot you nothing, you can shoot your own furs. I've seen your carbine and pistol scores, " he began. 

 * * * * *

There was a sudden suck of air, disturbing the papers on the desk. Theyall turned to see one of the ship's rocket-boat bays open; a young AirForce lieutenant named Seldar Glav, who would be staying on Tareesh withthem to pilot their aircraft, emerged from an open airlock. 

"Don't tell me you've been to Tareesh and back in that thing, " Olvagreeted him. 

Seldar Glav grinned at her. "I could have been, at that; we're onlytwenty or thirty planetary calibers away, now. We ought to be enteringTareeshan atmosphere by the middle of the next watch. I was onlychecking the boats, to make sure they'll be ready to launch. .. . ColonelKalvar, would you mind stepping over here? There's something I think youshould look at, sir. "

Kalvar Dard took one arm from around Analea's waist and lifted the otherfrom Varnis' shoulder, sliding off the desk. He followed Glav into theboat-bay; as they went through the airlock, the cheerfulness left theyoung lieutenant's face. 

"I didn't want to say anything in front of the girls, sir, " he began, "but I've been checking boats to make sure we can make a quick getaway. Our meteor-security's gone out. The detectors are deader then the FourthDynasty, and the blasters won't synchronize. .. . Did you hear a bigthump, about a half an hour ago, Colonel?"

"Yes, I thought the ship's labor-crew was shifting heavy equipment inthe hold aft of us. What was it, a meteor-hit?"

"It was. Just aft of Number Ten bulkhead. A meteor about the size of thenose of that rocket-boat. "

Kalvar Dard whistled softly. "Great Gods of Power! The detectors must bedead, to pass up anything like that. .. . Why wasn't a boat-stations callsent out?"

"Captain Vlazil was unwilling to risk starting a panic, sir, " the AirForce officer replied. "Really, I'm exceeding my orders in mentioning itto you, but I thought you should know. .. . "

Kalvar Dard swore. "It's a blasted pity Captain Vlazil didn't trythinking! Gold-braided quarter-wit! Maybe his crew might panic, but mypeople wouldn't. .. . I'm going to call the control-room and have it outwith him. By the Ten Gods. .. !"

 * * * * *

He ran through the airlock and back into the hold, starting toward theintercom-phone beside the desk. Before he could reach it, there wasanother heavy jar, rocking the entire ship. He, and Seldar Glav, who hadfollowed him out of the boat-bay, and the six girls, who had risen onhearing their commander's angry voice, were all tumbled into a heap. Dard surged to his feet, dragging Kyna up along with him; together, theyhelped the others to rise. The ship was suddenly filled with janglingbells, and the red danger-lights on the ceiling were flashing on andoff. 

"Attention! Attention!" the voice of some officer in the control-roomblared out of the intercom-speaker. "The ship has just been hit by alarge meteor! All compartments between bulkheads Twelve and Thirteen aresealed off. All persons between bulkheads Twelve and Thirteen, put onoxygen helmets and plug in at the nearest phone connection. Your air isleaking, and you can't get out, but if you put on oxygen equipmentimmediately, you'll be all right. We'll get you out as soon as we can, and in any case, we are only a few hours out of Tareeshan atmosphere. All persons in Compartment Twelve, put on. .. . "

Kalvar Dard was swearing evilly. "That does it! That does it forgood!. .. Anybody else in this compartment, below the living quarterlevel?"

"No, we're the only ones, " Analea told him. 

"The people above have their own boats; they can look after themselves. You girls, get in that boat, in there. Glav, you and I'll try to warnthe people above. .. . "

There was another jar, heavier than the one which had preceded it, throwing them all down again. As they rose, a new voice was shoutingover the public-address system:

"_Abandon ship! Abandon ship!_ The converters are backfiring, androcket-fuel is leaking back toward the engine-rooms! An explosion isimminent! Abandon ship, all hands!"

Kalvar Dard and Seldar Glav grabbed the girls and literally threw themthrough the hatch, into the rocket-boat. Dard pushed Glav in ahead ofhim, then jumped in. Before he had picked himself up, two or three ofthe girls were at the hatch, dogging the cover down. 

"All right, Glav, blast off!" Dard ordered. "We've got to be at least ahundred miles from this ship when she blows, or we'll blow with her!"

"Don't I know!" Seldar Glav retorted over his shoulder, racing for thecontrols. "Grab hold of something, everybody; I'm going to fire all jetsat once!"

An instant later, while Kalvar Dard and the girls clung to stanchionsand pieces of fixed furniture, the boat shot forward out of its housing. When Dard's head had cleared, it was in free flight. 

"How was that?" Glav yelled. "Everybody all right?" He hesitated for amoment. "I think I blacked out for about ten seconds. "

Kalvar Dard looked the girls over. Eldra was using a corner of her smockto stanch a nosebleed, and Olva had a bruise over one eye. Otherwise, everybody was in good shape. 

"Wonder we didn't all black out, permanently, " he said. "Well, put onthe visiscreens, and let's see what's going on outside. Olva, get on theradio and try to see if anybody else got away. "

"Set course for Tareesh?" Glav asked. "We haven't fuel enough to make itback to Doorsha. "

"I was afraid of that, " Dard nodded. "Tareesh it is; northernhemisphere, daylight side. Try to get about the edge of the temperatezone, as near water as you can. .. . "

2

They were flung off their feet again, this time backward along the boat. As they picked themselves up, Seldar Glav was shaking his head, sadly. "That was the ship going up, " he said; "the blast must have caught usdead astern. "

"All right. " Kalvar Dard rubbed a bruised forehead. "Set course forTareesh, then cut out the jets till we're ready to land. And get thescreens on, somebody; I want to see what's happened. "

The screens glowed; then full vision came on. The planet on which theywould land loomed huge before them, its north pole toward them, and itssingle satellite on the port side. There was no sign of any rocket-boatin either side screen, and the rear-view screen was a blur of yellowflame from the jets. 

"Cut the jets, Glav, " Dard repeated. "Didn't you hear me?"

"But I did, sir!" Seldar Glav indicated the firing-panel. Then heglanced at the rear-view screen. "The gods help us! It's yellow flame;the jets are burning out!"

Kalvar Dard had not boasted idly when he had said that his people wouldnot panic. All the girls went white, and one or two gave low cries ofconsternation, but that was all. 

"What happens next?" Analea wanted to know. "Do we blow, too?"

"Yes, as soon as the fuel-line burns up to the tanks. "

"Can you land on Tareesh before then?" Dard asked. 

"I can try. How about the satellite? It's closer. "

"It's also airless. Look at it and see for yourself, " Kalvar Dardadvised. "Not enough mass to hold an atmosphere. "

Glav looked at the army officer with new respect. He had always beeninclined to think of the Frontier Guards as a gang of scientificallyilliterate dirk-and-pistol bravos. He fiddled for a while withinstruments on the panel; an automatic computer figured the distance tothe planet, the boat's velocity, and the time needed for a landing. 

"We have a chance, sir, " he said. "I think I can set down in aboutthirty minutes; that should give us about ten minutes to get clear ofthe boat, before she blows up. "

"All right; get busy, girls, " Kalvar Dard said. "Grab everything we'llneed. Arms and ammunition first; all of them you can find. After that, warm clothing, bedding, tools and food. "

With that, he jerked open one of the lockers and began pulling outweapons. He buckled on a pistol and dagger, and handed otherweapon-belts to the girls behind him. He found two of the heavybig-game rifles, and several bandoliers of ammunition for them. Hetossed out carbines, and boxes of carbine and pistol cartridges. Hefound two bomb-bags, each containing six light anti-personnel grenadesand a big demolition-bomb. Glancing, now and then, at the forwardscreen, he caught glimpses of blue sky and green-tinted plains below. 

"All right!" the pilot yelled. "We're coming in for a landing! A coupleof you stand by to get the hatch open. "

There was a jolt, and all sense of movement stopped. A cloud of whitesmoke drifted past the screens. The girls got the hatch open; snatchingup weapons and bedding-wrapped bundles they all scrambled up out of theboat. 

There was fire outside. The boat had come down upon a grassy plain; nowthe grass was burning from the heat of the jets. One by one, they ranforward along the top of the rocket-boat, jumping down to the groundclear of the blaze. Then, with every atom of strength they possessedthey ran away from the doomed boat. 

 * * * * *

The ground was rough, and the grass high, impeding them. One of thegirls tripped and fell; without pausing, two others pulled her to herfeet, while another snatched up and slung the carbine she had dropped. Then, ahead, Kalvar Dard saw a deep gully, through which a little streamtrickled. 

They huddled together at the bottom of it, waiting, for what seemed likea long while. Then a gentle tremor ran through the ground, and swelledto a sickening, heaving shock. A roar of almost palpable sound sweptover them, and a flash of blue-white light dimmed the sun above. Thesound, the shock, and the searing light did not pass away at once; theycontinued for seconds that seemed like an eternity. Earth and stonespelted down around them; choking dust rose. Then the thunder and theearth-shock were over; above, incandescent vapors swirled, and darkenedinto an overhanging pall of smoke and dust. 

For a while, they crouched motionless, too stunned to speak. Then shakennerves steadied and jarred brains cleared. They all rose weakly. Trickles of earth were still coming down from the sides of the gully, and the little stream, which had been clear and sparkling, was roiledwith mud. Mechanically, Kalvar Dard brushed the dust from his clothesand looked to his weapons. 

"That was just the fuel-tank of a little Class-3 rocket-boat, " he said. "I wonder what the explosion of the ship was like. " He thought for amoment before continuing. "Glav, I think I know why our jets burned out. We were stern-on to the ship when she blew; the blast drove our flameright back through the jets. "

"Do you think the explosion was observed from Doorsha?" Dorita inquired, more concerned about the practical aspects of the situation. "The ship, I mean. After all, we have no means of communication, of our own. "

"Oh, I shouldn't doubt it; there were observatories all around theplanet watching our ship, " Kalvar Dard said. "They probably know allabout it, by now. But if any of you are thinking about the chances ofrescue, forget it. We're stuck here. "

"That's right. There isn't another human being within fifty millionmiles, " Seldar Glav said. "And that was the first and only space-shipever built. It took fifty years to build her, and even allowing twentyfor research that wouldn't have to be duplicated, you can figure when wecan expect another one. "

"The answer to that one is, never. The ship blew up in space; fiftyyears' effort and fifteen hundred people gone, like that. " Kalvar Dardsnapped his fingers. "So now, they'll try to keep Doorsha habitable fora few more thousand years by irrigation, and forget about immigrating toTareesh. "

"Well, maybe, in a hundred thousand years, our descendants will build aship and go to Doorsha, then, " Olva considered. 

"Our descendants?" Eldra looked at her in surprize. "You mean, then. .. ?"

 * * * * *

Kyna chuckled. "Eldra, you are an awful innocent, about anything thatdoesn't have a breech-action or a recoil-mechanism, " she said. "Why doyou think the women on this expedition outnumbered the men seven tofive, and why do you think there were so many obstetricians andpediatricians in the med. Staff? We were sent out to put a humanpopulation on Tareesh, weren't we? Well, here we are. "

"But. .. . Aren't we ever going to. .. ?" Varnis began. "Won't we ever seeanybody else, or do anything but just live here, like animals, withoutmachines or ground-cars or aircraft or houses or anything?" Then shebegan to sob bitterly. 

Analea, who had been cleaning a carbine that had gotten covered withloose earth during the explosion, laid it down and went to Varnis, putting her arm around the other girl and comforting her. Kalvar Dardpicked up the carbine she had laid down. 

"Now, let's see, " he began. "We have two heavy rifles, six carbines, andeight pistols, and these two bags of bombs. How much ammunition, counting what's in our belts, do we have?"

They took stock of their slender resources, even Varnis joining in thetask, as he had hoped she would. There were over two thousand rounds forthe pistols, better than fifteen hundred for the carbines, and fourhundred for the two big-game guns. They had some spare clothing, mostlyspace-suit undergarments, enough bed-robes, one hand-axe, twoflashlights, a first-aid kit, and three atomic lighters. Each one had acombat-dagger. There was enough tinned food for about a week. 

"We'll have to begin looking for game and edible plants, right away, "Glav considered. "I suppose there is game, of some sort; but ourammunition won't last forever. "

"We'll have to make it last as long as we can; and we'll have to beginimprovising weapons, " Dard told him. "Throwing-spears, andthrowing-axes. If we can find metal, or any recognizable ore that we cansmelt, we'll use that; if not, we'll use chipped stone. Also, we canlearn to make snares and traps, after we learn the habits of the animalson this planet. By the time the ammunition's gone, we ought to havelearned to do without firearms. "

"Think we ought to camp here?"

Kalvar Dard shook his head. "No wood here for fuel, and the blast willhave scared away all the game. We'd better go upstream; if we go down, we'll find the water roiled with mud and unfit to drink. And if the gameon this planet behave like the game-herds on the wastelands of Doorsha, they'll run for high ground when frightened. "

Varnis rose from where she had been sitting. Having mastered heremotions, she was making a deliberate effort to show it. 

"Let's make up packs out of this stuff, " she suggested. "We can use thebedding and spare clothing to bundle up the food and ammunition. "

They made up packs and slung them, then climbed out of the gully. Off tothe left, the grass was burning in a wide circle around the crater leftby the explosion of the rocket-boat. Kalvar Dard, carrying one of theheavy rifles, took the lead. Beside and a little behind him, Analeawalked, her carbine ready. Glav, with the other heavy rifle, brought upin the rear, with Olva covering for him, and between, the other girlswalked, two and two. 

Ahead, on the far horizon, was a distance-blue line of mountains. Thelittle company turned their faces toward them and moved slowly away, across the empty sea of grass. 

3

They had been walking, now, for five years. Kalvar Dard still led, theheavy rifle cradled in the crook of his left arm and a sack of bombsslung from his shoulder, his eyes forever shifting to right and leftsearching for hidden danger. The clothes in which he had jumped from therocket-boat were patched and ragged; his shoes had been replaced by highlaced buskins of smoke-tanned hide. He was bearded, now, and his hairhad been roughly trimmed with the edge of his dagger. 

Analea still walked beside him, but her carbine was slung, and shecarried three spears with chipped flint heads; one heavy weapon, to bethrown by hand or used for stabbing, and two light javelins to be thrownwith the aid of the hooked throwing-stick Glav had invented. Beside hertrudged a four-year old boy, hers and Dard's, and on her back, in afur-lined net bag, she carried their six-month-old baby. 

In the rear, Glav still kept his place with the other big-game gun, andOlva walked beside him with carbine and spears; in front of them, theirthree-year-old daughter toddled. Between vanguard and rearguard, therest of the party walked: Varnis, carrying her baby on her back, andDorita, carrying a baby and leading two other children. The baby on herback had cost the life of Kyna in childbirth; one of the others had beenleft motherless when Eldra had been killed by the Hairy People. 

 * * * * *

That had been two years ago, in the winter when they had used one oftheir two demolition-bombs to blast open a cavern in the mountains. Ithad been a hard winter; two children had died, then--Kyna's firstborn, and the little son of Kalvar Dard and Dorita. It had been their firstencounter with the Hairy People, too. 

Eldra had gone outside the cave with one of the skin water-bags, to fillit at the spring. It had been after sunset, but she had carried herpistol, and no one had thought of danger until they heard the two quickshots, and the scream. They had all rushed out, to find four shaggy, manlike things tearing at Eldra with hands and teeth, another lyingdead, and a sixth huddled at one side, clutching its abdomen andwhimpering. There had been a quick flurry of shots that had felled allfour of the assailants, and Seldar Glav had finished the woundedcreature with his dagger, but Eldra was dead. They had built a cairn ofstones over her body, as they had done over the bodies of the twochildren killed by the cold. But, after an examination to see what sortof things they were, they had tumbled the bodies of the Hairy Peopleover the cliff. These had been too bestial to bury as befitted humandead, but too manlike to skin and eat as game. 

Since then, they had often found traces of the Hairy People, and whenthey met with them, they killed them without mercy. These were greatshambling parodies of humanity, long-armed, short-legged, twice as heavyas men, with close-set reddish eyes and heavy bone-crushing jaws. Theymay have been incredibly debased humans, or perhaps beasts on the verythreshold of manhood. From what he had seen of conditions on thisplanet, Kalvar Dard suspected the latter to be the case. In a million orso years, they might evolve into something like humanity. Already, theHairy ones had learned the use of fire, and of chipped crude stoneimplements--mostly heavy triangular choppers to be used in the hand, without helves. 

Twice, after that night, the Hairy People had attacked them--once whilethey were on the march, and once in camp. Both assaults had been beatenoff without loss to themselves, but at cost of precious ammunition. Oncethey had caught a band of ten of them swimming a river on logs; they hadpicked them all off from the bank with their carbines. Once, when KalvarDard and Analea had been scouting alone, they had come upon a dozen ofthem huddled around a fire and had wiped them out with a single grenade. Once, a large band of Hairy People hunted them for two days, but onlytwice had they come close, and both times, a single shot had sent themall scampering. That had been after the bombing of the group around thefire. Dard was convinced that the beings possessed the rudiments of alanguage, enough to communicate a few simple ideas, such as the factthat this little tribe of aliens were dangerous in the extreme. 

 * * * * *

There were Hairy People about now; for the past five days, movingnorthward through the forest to the open grasslands, the people ofKalvar Dard had found traces of them. Now, as they came out among theseedling growth at the edge of the open plains, everybody was on thealert. 

They emerged from the big trees and stopped among the young growth, looking out into the open country. About a mile away, a herd of game wasgrazing slowly westward. In the distance, they looked like the littlehorse-like things, no higher than a man's waist and heavily maned andbearded, that had been one of their most important sources of meat. Forthe ten thousandth time, Dard wished, as he strained his eyes, thatsomebody had thought to secure a pair of binoculars when they hadabandoned the rocket-boat. He studied the grazing herd for a long time. 

The seedling pines extended almost to the game-herd and would offerconcealment for the approach, but the animals were grazing into thewind, and their scent was much keener than their vision. This wouldprelude one of their favorite hunting techniques, that of lurking in thehigh grass ahead of the quarry. It had rained heavily in the past fewdays, and the undermat of dead grass was soaked, making a fire-huntimpossible. Kalvar Dard knew that he could stalk to within easycarbine-shot, but he was unwilling to use cartridges on game; and inview of the proximity of Hairy People, he did not want to divide hisband for a drive hunt. 

"What's the scheme?" Analea asked him, realizing the problem as well ashe did. "Do we try to take them from behind?"

"We'll take them from an angle, " he decided. "We'll start from here andwork in, closing on them at the rear of the herd. Unless the wind shiftson us, we ought to get within spear-cast. You and I will use the spears;Varnis can come along and cover for us with a carbine. Glav, you andOlva and Dorita stay here with the children and the packs. Keep a sharplookout; Hairy People around, somewhere. " He unslung his rifle andexchanged it for Olva's spears. "We can only eat about two of thembefore the meat begins to spoil, but kill all you can, " he told Analea;"we need the skins. "

Then he and the two girls began their slow, cautious, stalk. As long asthe grassland was dotted with young trees, they walked upright, makinggood time, but the last five hundred yards they had to crawl, stoppingoften to check the wind, while the horse-herd drifted slowly by. Thenthey were directly behind the herd, with the wind in their faces, andthey advanced more rapidly. 

"Close enough?" Dard whispered to Analea. 

"Yes; I'm taking the one that's lagging a little behind. "

"I'm taking the one on the left of it. " Kalvar Dard fitted a javelin tothe hook of his throwing-stick. "Ready? Now!"

He leaped to his feet, drawing back his right arm and hurling, thethrowing-stick giving added velocity to the spear. Beside him, he wasconscious of Analea rising and propelling her spear. His missile caughtthe little bearded pony in the chest; it stumbled and fell forward toits front knees. He snatched another light spear, set it on the hook ofthe stick and darted it at another horse, which reared, biting at thespear with its teeth. Grabbing the heavy stabbing-spear, he ran forward, finishing it off with a heart-thrust. As he did, Varnis slung hercarbine, snatched a stone-headed throwing axe from her belt, and knockeddown another horse, then ran forward with her dagger to finish it. 

By this time, the herd, alarmed, had stampeded and was galloping away, leaving the dead and dying behind. He and Analea had each killed two;with the one Varnis had knocked down, that made five. Using his dagger, he finished off one that was still kicking on the ground, and then beganpulling out the throwing-spears. The girls, shouting in unison, wereannouncing the successful completion of the hunt; Glav, Olva, and Doritawere coming forward with the children. 

 * * * * *

It was sunset by the time they had finished the work of skinning andcutting up the horses and had carried the hide-wrapped bundles of meatto the little brook where they had intended camping. There was firewoodto be gathered, and the meal to be cooked, and they were all tired. 

"We can't do this very often, any more, " Kalvar Dard told them, "but wemight as well, tonight. Don't bother rubbing sticks for fire; I'll usethe lighter. "

He got it from a pouch on his belt--a small, gold-plated, atomiclighter, bearing the crest of his old regiment of the Frontier Guards. It was the last one they had, in working order. Piling a handful of drysplinters under the firewood, he held the lighter to it, pressed theactivator, and watched the fire eat into the wood. 

The greatest achievement of man's civilization, the mastery of thebasic, cosmic, power of the atom--being used to kindle a fire of naturalfuel, to cook unseasoned meat killed with stone-tipped spears. Dardlooked sadly at the twinkling little gadget, then slipped it back intoits pouch. Soon it would be worn out, like the other two, and then theywould gain fire only by rubbing dry sticks, or hacking sparks from bitsof flint or pyrites. Soon, too, the last cartridge would be fired, andthen they would perforce depend for protection, as they were alreadydoing for food, upon their spears. 

And they were so helpless. Six adults, burdened with seven littlechildren, all of them requiring momently care and watchfulness. If thecartridges could be made to last until they were old enough to fend forthemselves. .. . If they could avoid collisions with the Hairy People. .. . Some day, they would be numerous enough for effective mutual protectionand support; some day, the ratio of helpless children to able adultswould redress itself. Until then, all that they could do would be tosurvive; day after day, they must follow the game-herds. 

4

For twenty years, now, they had been following the game. Winters hadcome, with driving snow, forcing horses and deer into the woods, and thelittle band of humans to the protection of mountain caves. Springtimefollowed, with fresh grass on the plains and plenty of meat for thepeople of Kalvar Dard. Autumns followed summers, with fire-hunts, andthe smoking and curing of meat and hides. Winters followed autumns, andspringtimes came again, and thus until the twentieth year after thelanding of the rocket-boat. 

Kalvar Dard still walked in the lead, his hair and beard flecked withgray, but he no longer carried the heavy rifle; the last cartridge forthat had been fired long ago. He carried the hand-axe, fitted with along helve, and a spear with a steel head that had been worked painfullyfrom the receiver of a useless carbine. He still had his pistol, witheight cartridges in the magazine, and his dagger, and the bomb-bag, containing the big demolition-bomb and one grenade. The last shred ofclothing from the ship was gone, now; he was clad in a sleeveless tunicof skin and horsehide buskins. 

Analea no longer walked beside him; eight years before, she had brokenher back in a fall. It had been impossible to move her, and she stabbedherself with her dagger to save a cartridge. Seldar Glav had brokenthrough the ice while crossing a river, and had lost his rifle; the nextday he died of the chill he had taken. Olva had been killed by the HairyPeople, the night they had attacked the camp, when Varnis' child hadbeen killed. 

They had beaten off that attack, shot or speared ten of the hugesub-men, and the next morning they buried their dead after their custom, under cairns of stone. Varnis had watched the burial of her child withblank, uncomprehending eyes, then she had turned to Kalvar Dard and saidsomething that had horrified him more than any wild outburst of griefcould have. 

"Come on, Dard; what are we doing this for? You promised you'd take usto Tareesh, where we'd have good houses, and machines, and all sorts oflovely things to eat and wear. I don't like this place, Dard; I want togo to Tareesh. "

From that day on, she had wandered in merciful darkness. She had notbeen idiotic, or raving mad; she had just escaped from a reality thatshe could no longer bear. 

Varnis, lost in her dream-world, and Dorita, hard-faced and haggard, were the only ones left, beside Kalvar Dard, of the original eight. Butthe band had grown, meanwhile, to more than fifteen. In the rear, inSeldar Glav's old place, the son of Kalvar Dard and Analea walked. Likehis father, he wore a pistol, for which he had six rounds, and a dagger, and in his hand he carried a stone-headed killing-maul with a three-foothandle which he had made for himself. The woman who walked beside himand carried his spears was the daughter of Glav and Olva; in a net-bagon her back she carried their infant child. The first Tareeshan born ofTareeshan parents; Kalvar Dard often looked at his little grandchildduring nights in camp and days on the trail, seeing, in that tinyfur-swaddled morsel of humanity, the meaning and purpose of all that hedid. Of the older girls, one or two were already pregnant, now; thistiny threatened beachhead of humanity was expanding, gaining strength. Long after man had died out on Doorsha and the dying planet itself hadbecome an arid waste, the progeny of this little band would continue togrow and to dominate the younger planet, nearer the sun. Some day, aneven mightier civilization than the one he had left would rise here. .. . 

 * * * * *

All day the trail had wound upward into the mountains. Great cliffsloomed above them, and little streams spumed and dashed in rocky gorgesbelow. All day, the Hairy People had followed, fearful to approach tooclose, unwilling to allow their enemies to escape. It had started whenthey had rushed the camp, at daybreak; they had been beaten off, at costof almost all the ammunition, and the death of one child. No sooner hadthe tribe of Kalvar Dard taken the trail, however, than they had beenpressing after them. Dard had determined to cross the mountains, and hadled his people up a game-trail, leading toward the notch of a pass highagainst the skyline. 

The shaggy ape-things seemed to have divined his purpose. Once ortwice, he had seen hairy brown shapes dodging among the rocks andstunted trees to the left. They were trying to reach the pass ahead ofhim. Well, if they did. .. . He made a quick mental survey of hisresources. His pistol, and his son's, and Dorita's, with eight, and six, and seven rounds. One grenade, and the big demolition bomb, too powerfulto be thrown by hand, but which could be set for delayed explosion anddropped over a cliff or left behind to explode among pursuers. Fivesteel daggers, and plenty of spears and slings and axes. Himself, hisson and his son's woman, Dorita, and four or five of the older boys andgirls, who would make effective front-line fighters. And Varnis, whomight come out of her private dream-world long enough to give accountfor herself, and even the tiniest of the walking children could throwstones or light spears. Yes, they could force the pass, if the HairyPeople reached it ahead of them, and then seal it shut with the heavybomb. What lay on the other side, he did not know; he wondered how muchgame there would be, and if there were Hairy People on that side, too. 

Two shots slammed quickly behind him. He dropped his axe and took atwo-hand grip on his stabbing-spear as he turned. His son was hurryingforward, his pistol drawn, glancing behind as he came. 

"Hairy People. Four, " he reported. "I shot two; she threw a spear andkilled another. The other ran. "

The daughter of Seldar Glav and Olva nodded in agreement. 

"I had no time to throw again, " she said, "and Bo-Bo would not shoot theone that ran. "

Kalvar Dard's son, who had no other name than the one his mother hadcalled him as a child, defended himself. "He was running away. It is therule: _use bullets only to save life, where a spear will not serve_. "

Kalvar Dard nodded. "You did right, son, " he said, taking out his ownpistol and removing the magazine, from which he extracted twocartridges. "Load these into your pistol; four rounds aren't enough. Nowwe each have six. Go back to the rear, keep the little ones moving, anddon't let Varnis get behind. "

"That is right. _We must all look out for Varnis, and take care ofher_, " the boy recited obediently. "That is the rule. "

He dropped to the rear. Kalvar Dard holstered his pistol and picked uphis axe, and the column moved forward again. They were following aledge, now; on the left, there was a sheer drop of several hundred feet, and on the right a cliff rose above them, growing higher and steeper asthe trail slanted upward. Dard was worried about the ledge; if it cameto an end, they would all be trapped. No one would escape. He suddenlyfelt old and unutterably weary. It was a frightful weight that hebore--responsibility for an entire race. 

 * * * * *

Suddenly, behind him, Dorita fired her pistol upward. Dard sprangforward--there was no room for him to jump aside--and drew his pistol. The boy, Bo-Bo, was trying to find a target from his position in therear. Then Dard saw the two Hairy People; the boy fired, and the stonefell, all at once. 

It was a heavy stone, half as big as a man's torso, and it almost missedKalvar Dard. If it had hit him directly, it would have killed himinstantly, mashing him to a bloody pulp; as it was, he was knocked flat, the stone pinning his legs. 

At Bo-Bo's shot, a hairy body plummeted down, to hit the ledge. Bo-Bo'swoman instantly ran it through with one of her spears. The otherape-thing, the one Dorita had shot, was still clinging to a rock above. Two of the children scampered up to it and speared it repeatedly, screaming like little furies. Dorita and one of the older girls got therock off Kalvar Dard's legs and tried to help him to his feet, but hecollapsed, unable to stand. Both his legs were broken. 

This was it, he thought, sinking back. "Dorita, I want you to run aheadand see what the trail's like, " he said. "See if the ledge is passable. And find a place, not too far ahead, where we can block the trail byexploding that demolition-bomb. It has to be close enough for a coupleof you to carry or drag me and get me there in one piece. "

"What are you going to do?"

"What do you think?" he retorted. "I have both legs broken. You can'tcarry me with you; if you try it, they'll catch us and kill us all. I'llhave to stay behind; I'll block the trail behind you, and get as many ofthem as I can, while I'm at it. Now, run along and do as I said. "

She nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I can, " she agreed. 

The others were crowding around Dard. Bo-Bo bent over him, perplexed andworried. "What are you going to do, father?" he asked. "You are hurt. Are you going to go away and leave us, as mother did when she was hurt?"

"Yes, son; I'll have to. You carry me on ahead a little, when Doritagets back, and leave me where she shows you to. I'm going to stay behindand block the trail, and kill a few Hairy People. I'll use the bigbomb. "

"The _big_ bomb? The one nobody dares throw?" The boy looked at hisfather in wonder. 

"That's right. Now, when you leave me, take the others and get away asfast as you can. Don't stop till you're up to the pass. Take my pistoland dagger, and the axe and the big spear, and take the little bomb, too. Take everything I have, only leave the big bomb with me. I'll needthat. "

Dorita rejoined them. "There's a waterfall ahead. We can get around it, and up to the pass. The way's clear and easy; if you put off the bombjust this side of it, you'll start a rock-slide that'll blockeverything. "

"All right. Pick me up, a couple of you. Don't take hold of me below theknees. And hurry. "

 * * * * *

A hairy shape appeared on the ledge below them; one of the older boysused his throwing-stick to drive a javelin into it. Two of the girlspicked up Dard; Bo-Bo and his woman gathered up the big spear and theaxe and the bomb-bag. 

They hurried forward, picking their way along the top of a talus ofrubble at the foot of the cliff, and came to where the stream gushed outof a narrow gorge. The air was wet with spray there, and loud with theroar of the waterfall. Kalvar Dard looked around; Dorita had chosen thespot well. Not even a sure-footed mountain-goat could make the ascent, once that gorge was blocked. 

"All right; put me down here, " he directed. "Bo-Bo, take my belt, andgive me the big bomb. You have one light grenade; know how to use it?"

"Of course, you have often showed me. I turn the top, and then press inthe little thing on the side, and hold it in till I throw. I throw it atleast a spear-cast, and drop to the ground or behind something. "

"That's right. And use it only in greatest danger, to save everybody. Spare your cartridges; use them only to save life. And save everythingof metal, no matter how small. "

"Yes. Those are the rules. I will follow them, and so will the others. And we will always take care of Varnis. "

"Well, goodbye, son. " He gripped the boy's hand. "Now get everybody outof here; don't stop till you're at the pass. "

"You're not staying behind!" Varnis cried. "Dard, you promised us! Iremember, when we were all in the ship together--you and I and Analeaand Olva and Dorita and Eldra and, oh, what was that other girl's name, Kyna! And we were all having such a nice time, and you were telling ushow we'd all come to Tareesh, and we were having such fun talking aboutit. .. . "

"That's right, Varnis, " he agreed. "And so I will. I have something todo, here, but I'll meet you on top of the mountain, after I'm through, and in the morning we'll all go to Tareesh. "

She smiled--the gentle, childlike smile of the harmlessly mad--andturned away. The son of Kalvar Dard made sure that she and all thechildren were on the way, and then he, too, turned and followed them, leaving Dard alone. 

Alone, with a bomb and a task. He'd borne that task for twenty years, now; in a few minutes, it would be ended, with an instant's searingheat. He tried not to be too glad; there were so many things he mighthave done, if he had tried harder. Metals, for instance. Somewhere theresurely must be ores which they could have smelted, but he had neverfound them. And he might have tried catching some of the little horsesthey hunted for food, to break and train to bear burdens. And thealphabet--why hadn't he taught it to Bo-Bo and the daughter of SeldarGlav, and laid on them an obligation to teach the others? And thegrass-seeds they used for making flour sometimes; they should haveplanted fields of the better kinds, and patches of edible roots, andreturned at the proper time to harvest them. There were so many things, things that none of those young savages or their children would think ofin ten thousand years. .. . 

Something was moving among the rocks, a hundred yards away. Hestraightened, as much as his broken legs would permit, and watched. Yes, there was one of them, and there was another, and another. One rose frombehind a rock and came forward at a shambling run, making bestialsounds. Then two more lumbered into sight, and in a moment the ravinewas alive with them. They were almost upon him when Kalvar Dard pressedin the thumbpiece of the bomb; they were clutching at him when hereleased it. He felt a slight jar. .. . 

 * * * * *

When they reached the pass, they all stopped as the son of Kalvar Dardturned and looked back. Dorita stood beside him, looking toward thewaterfall too; she also knew what was about to happen. The others merelygaped in blank incomprehension, or grasped their weapons, thinking thatthe enemy was pressing close behind and that they were making a standhere. A few of the smaller boys and girls began picking up stones. 

Then a tiny pin-point of brilliance winked, just below where thesnow-fed stream vanished into the gorge. That was all, for an instant, and then a great fire-shot cloud swirled upward, hundreds of feet intothe air; there was a crash, louder than any sound any of them exceptDorita and Varnis had ever heard before. 

"He did it!" Dorita said softly. 

"Yes, he did it. My father was a brave man, " Bo-Bo replied. "We aresafe, now. "

Varnis, shocked by the explosion, turned and stared at him, and then shelaughed happily. "Why, there you are, Dard!" she exclaimed. "I waswondering where you'd gone. What did you do, after we left?"

"What do you mean?" The boy was puzzled, not knowing how much he lookedlike his father, when his father had been an officer of the FrontierGuards, twenty years before. 

His puzzlement worried Varnis vaguely. "You. .. . You are Dard, aren'tyou?" she asked. "But that's silly; of course you're Dard! Who elsecould you be?"

"Yes. I am Dard, " the boy said, remembering that it was the rule foreverybody to be kind to Varnis and to pretend to agree with her. Thenanother thought struck him. His shoulders straightened. "Yes. I am Dard, son of Dard, " he told them all. "I lead, now. Does anybody say no?"

He shifted his axe and spear to his left hand and laid his right hand onthe butt of his pistol, looking sternly at Dorita. If any of them triedto dispute his claim, it would be she. But instead, she gave him thenearest thing to a real smile that had crossed her face in years. 

"You are Dard, " she told him; "you lead us, now. "

"But of course Dard leads! Hasn't he always led us?" Varnis wanted toknow. "Then what's all the argument about? And tomorrow he's going totake us to Tareesh, and we'll have houses and ground-cars and aircraftand gardens and lights, and all the lovely things we want. Aren't you, Dard?"

"Yes, Varnis; I will take you all to Tareesh, to all the wonderfulthings, " Dard, son of Dard, promised, for such was the rule aboutVarnis. 

Then he looked down from the pass into the country beyond. There werelower mountains, below, and foothills, and a wide blue valley, and, beyond that, distant peaks reared jaggedly against the sky. He pointedwith his father's axe. 

"We go down that way, " he said. 

 * * * * *

So they went, down, and on, and on, and on. The last cartridge wasfired; the last sliver of Doorshan metal wore out or rusted away. Bythen, however, they had learned to make chipped stone, and bone, andreindeer-horn, serve their needs. Century after century, millenniumafter millennium, they followed the game-herds from birth to death, andbirth replenished their numbers faster than death depleted. Bands grewin numbers and split; young men rebelled against the rule of the old andtook their women and children elsewhere. 

They hunted down the hairy Neanderthalers, and exterminated themruthlessly, the origin of their implacable hatred lost in legend. Allthat they remembered, in the misty, confused, way that one remembers adream, was that there had once been a time of happiness and plenty, andthat there was a goal to which they would some day attain. They left themountains--were they the Caucasus? The Alps? The Pamirs?--and spreadoutward, conquering as they went. 

We find their bones, and their stone weapons, and their crude paintings, in the caves of Cro-Magnon and Grimaldi and Altimira and Mas-d'Azil; thedeep layers of horse and reindeer and mammoth bones at theirfeasting-place at Solutre. We wonder how and whence a race so like ourown came into a world of brutish sub-humans. 

Just as we wonder, too, at the network of canals which radiate from thepolar caps of our sister planet, and speculate on the possibility thatthey were the work of hands like our own. And we concoct elaborate jokesabout the "Men From Mars"--_ourselves_. 

The End

 * * * * *

TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS CORRECTED

The following typographical errors in the text were corrected asdetailed here. 

In the text: ". .. An automatic computer figured the distance to theplanet, . .. " the word "computor" was corrected to "computer. "

In the text: "Then, with every atom of strength they possessed they ranaway . .. , " the word "posessed" was corrected to "possessed. "

In two places in the text "Anelea" was corrected to "Analea. "

In the text: "If they could avoid collisions with the Hairy People. .. "the word "collisons" was corrected to "collisions. "

In the text: "Some day, an even mightier civilization than the one hehad left would rise here . .. " the word "that" was corrected to "than. "

In the text: "There had been a quick flurry of shots that had felled allfour of the assailants, and Seldar Glav had finished. .. " the word "Klav"was corrected to "Glav. "