A. E. Van Vogt - Transgalactic.pdf - A. E. Van Vogt - borsukomiks

Transgalactic

Table of Contents

PREFACE

CLANE OF LINN

Child of the Gods

Hand of the Gods

Home of the Gods

The Barbarian

Part II: The Wizard of Linn

THE EZWAL

The Second Solution

MISSION TO THE STARS

The Storm

The Mixed Men

TRANSGALACTIC

A. E. Van Vogt

Edited by

Eric Flint

and

David Drake

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any

resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

A Baen Book Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises

P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale,

NY 10471

www.baen.com

ISBN 10: 1-4165-2089-9

ISBN 13: 0-978-4165-2089-4

Cover art by Bob Eggleton

First Baen printing, October 2006

Distributed by Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: t/k

Printed in the United States of America

A note on the edition:

The text of the stories included in this volume is that of the original magazine editions first

published in Astounding Science Fiction , not the later versions which

A. E. van Vogt reworked for various novelizations.

The editors

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

"A Son is Born" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in May, 1946.

"Child of the Gods" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in August, 1946.

"Hand of the Gods" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in December, 1946.

"Home of the Gods" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in April, 1947.

"The Barbarian" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in December, 1947.

"The Wizard of Linn" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in a three-part serial,

April-June, 1950.

"Co-Operate—Or Else!" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in April, 1942.

"The Second Solution" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in October, 1942.

"Concealment" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in September, 1943.

"The Storm" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in October, 1943.

"The Mixed Men" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in January, 1945.

PREFACE

The Golden Age of SF is universally dated from the July 1939, issue of Astounding because that's when

"Black Destroyer," A. E. van Vogt's first SF story, appeared. Isaac Asimov's first story also appeared in

the same month but nobody—as Asimov himself admits—noticed it.

People noticed "Black Destroyer," though, and they continued to notice the many other stories that van

Vogt wrote over the following decade. With the encouragement and occasionally the direction of John

W. Campbell, Heinlein, deCamp, Hubbard, Asimov, and van Vogt together created the Golden Age of

SF.

Each of those great writers was unique. What as much as anything set van Vogt off from other SF

writers (of his day and later) was the ability to suggest vastness beyond comprehension. He worked with

not only in space and time, but with the mind.

Van Vogt knew that to describe the indescribable would have been to make it ludicrous, and that at best

description turns the inconceivable into the pedestrian. More than any other SF writer, van Vogt

succeeded in creating a sense of wonder in his readers by hinting at the shadowed immensities beyond

the walls of human perception. What we've tried to do in our selections for Transgalactic is show some

of van Vogt's skill and range; but we too can only hint at the wonders of the unglimpsed whole.

Eric Flint and Dave Drake 2005

CLANE OF LINN

Part I: Empire of the Atom

A Son is Born

Junior scientists stood at the bell ropes all day, ready to sound forth the tidings of an important birth. By

night time, they were exchanging coarse jests at to the possible reason for the delay. They took care,

however, not to be overheard by seniors or initiates.

The expected child had actually been born a few hours after dawn. He was a weak and sickly fellow,

and he showed certain characteristics that brought immediate dismay to the Leader household. His

mother, Lady Tania, when she wakened, listened for a while to his piteous crying, then commented

acidly:

"Who frightened the little wretch? He seems already afraid of life."

Scientist Joquin, in charge of the delivery, considered her words an ill-omen. He had not intended to let

her see the monstrosity until the following day, but now it seemed to him that he must act swiftly to avert

calamity. He hurriedly sent a dozen slave women to wheel in the carriage, ordering them to group around

it in close formation to ward of any malignant radiation that might be in the bedroom.

Lady Tania was lying, her slim body propped up in bed, when the astonishing procession started to

squeeze through the door. She watched it with a frown of amazement and then the beginning of alarm.

She had patiently borne her husband three other children, and so she knew that what she was seeing was

not part of any normal observance. She was not a soft spoken creature, and even the presence of a

Scientist in the room did not restrain her. She said violently:

"What is going on here, Joquin?"

Joquin fluttered his head at her in distress. Did she not realize that every ill-tempered word spoken at this

period only doomed the handicapped child to further disasters? He noted, startled, that she was parting

her lips to speak again—and, with a silent prayer to the atom gods, he took his life in his hands.

Three swift strides he made towards the bed, and clapped his palm over her mouth. As he had

expected, the woman was too astounded by the action to utter a sound. By the time she recovered, and

began to struggle weakly, the carriage was being tilted. And over his arm, she had her first glimpse of the

baby.

The gathering storm faded from her blue eyes. After a moment, Joquin gently removed his hand from her

mouth, and slowly retreated beyond the carriage. He stood there, quailing with the thought of what he

had done, but gradually as no verbal lightning struck at him from the bed, his sense of righteousness

reasserted. He began to glow inwardly and ever afterwards claimed that what he had done saved the

situation as far as it could be saved. In the warmth of that self-congratulatory feeling, he almost forgot the

child.

He was recalled by the Lady Tania saying in a dangerously quiet tone:

"How did it happen?"

Joquin nearly made the mistake of shrugging. He caught himself in time, but before he could say anything,

the woman said, more sharply:

"Of course, I know it'd due to the atom gods. But when do you think it happened?"

* * *

Joquin was cautious. The scientists of the temples had had much experience with atomic mutation,

enough to know that the controlling gods were erratic and not easily pinned down by dates.

Nevertheless, mutation did not occur after an embryo baby was past the fish stage, and therefore a time

limit could be estimated. Not after January, 470 A.B., and not before— He paused, recalling the

approximate birth date of the Lady Tania's third child. He completed his figuring aloud— "Not before

467 A.B."

The woman was looking at the child now, more intently. What she saw made her swallow visibly.

Joquin, watching her, thought he knew what she was thinking. She had made the mistake a few days

before her confinement of boasting in a small company that four children would give her an advantage

over her sister, Chrosone, who only had two children, and over her stepbrother, Lord Tews, whose

acid-tongued wife had borne him three children. Now, the advantage would be theirs, for, obviously, she

could have no more normal children, and they could overtake or surpass her at their leisure.

There would also be many witty exchanges at her expense. The potentialities for personal

embarrassment were actually almost endless.

All that, Joquin read in her face, as she stared with hardening eyes at the child. He said hurriedly:

"This is the worst stage, Lady. Frequently, the result after a few months or years is

reasonably—satisfactory."

He had almost said "human." He was aware of her gaze swinging towards him. He waited uneasily, but

all she said finally was:

"Has the Lord Leader, the child's grandfather, been in?"

Joquin inclined his head. "The Lord Leader saw the baby a few minutes after it was born. His only

comment was to the effect that I should ascertain from you, if possible, when you were affected."

She did not reply immediately, but her eyes narrowed even more. Her thin face grew hard, then harsh.

She looked up at the scientist at last.

"I suppose you know," she said, "that only negligence at one of the temples could be responsible."

Joquin had already thought of that, but now he looked at her uneasily. Nothing had ever been done

about previous "children of the gods," but it had been growing on him that the Linns at least regarded this

as a special case. He said slowly:

"The atom gods are inscrutable."

A. E. Van Vogt - Transgalactic.pdf

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