The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack

by Arthur C. Clarke

  “Cert’ny looks like it,” Ivo was forced to concede. “But watcha gonna do? Y’can’t prove it. ’Sides, the curtain’s gonna gwup in a li’l over a nour—”

  Paul gripped Ivo’s sinewy wrist. “Ivo, you’ve got to go on for me!”

  “Y’got rocks in y’head or somepin?” Ivo demanded, trying not to look pleased. “I ain’t gotta Nequity card, and even if I did, he’s y’unnastudy.”

  “No, you don’t understand. I don’t want you to go on as Ivo Darcy playing Eric Everard. I want you to go on as Paul Lambrequin playing Eric Everard. You can do it, Ivo!”

  “Good Lord, so I can!” Ivo whispered, temporarily neglecting to mumble. “I’d almost forgotten.”

  “You know my lines, too. You’ve cued me in my part often enough.”

  Ivo rubbed his hand over his forehead. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

  “Ivo,” Paul beseeched him, “I thought we were—pals. I don’t want to ask any favors, but I helped you out when you were in trouble. I always figured I could rely on you. I never thought you’d let me down.”

  “An’ I won’t.” Ivo gripped Paul’s hand. “I’ll go on t’night ’n play ’at part like it ain’t never been played before! I’ll—”

  “No! No! Play it the way I played it. You’re supposed to be me, Ivo! Forget Strasberg; go back to Stanislavsky.”

  “Okay, pal,” Ivo said. “Will do.”

  “And promise me one thing, Ivo. Promise me you won’t mumble.”

  Ivo winced. “Okay, but you’re the on’y one I’d do ’at for.”

  Slowly, he began to shimmer. Paul held his breath. Maybe Ivo had forgotten how to transmute himself. But technique triumphed over method. Ivo Darcy gradually coalesced into the semblance of Paul Lambrequin. The show would go on!

  “Well, how was everything?” Paul asked anxiously when Ivo came into his room shortly after midnight.

  “Pretty good,” Ivo said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “Gregory was extremely surprised to see me—asked me half a dozen times how I was feeling.” Ivo was not only articulating, Paul was gratified to notice; he was enunciating.

  “But the show—how did that go? Did anyone suspect you were a ringer?”

  “No,” Ivo said slowly. “No, I don’t think so. I got twelve curtain calls,” he added, staring straight ahead of him with a dreamy smile. “Twelve.”

  “Friday nights, the audience is always enthusiastic.” Then Paul swallowed hard and said, “Besides, I’m sure you were great in the role.”

  But Ivo didn’t seem to hear him. Ivo was still wrapped in his golden daze. “Just before the curtain went up, I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it. I began to feel all quivery inside, the way I do before I—I change.”

  “Butterflies in the stomach is the professional term.” Paul nodded wisely. “A really good actor gets them before every performance. No matter how many times I play a role, there’s that minute when the house lights start to dim when I’m in an absolute panic—”

  “—And then the curtain went up and I was all right. I was fine. I was Paul Lambrequin. I was Eric Everard. I was—everything.”

  “Ivo,” Paul said, clapping him on the shoulder, “you’re a born trouper.”

  “Yes,” Ivo murmured, “I’m beginning to think so myself.”

  For the next four weeks, Paul Lambrequin lurked in his room while Ivo Darcy played Paul Lambrequin playing Eric Everard.

  “It’s terrific of you to take all this time away from your duties, old chap,” Paul said to Ivo one day between the matinee and the evening performances. “I really do appreciate it. Although I suppose you’ve managed to squeeze some of them in. I never see you on non-matinee afternoons.”

  “Duties?” Ivo repeated vacantly. “Yes, of course—my duties.”

  “Let me give you some professional advice, though. Be more careful when you take off your makeup. There’s still some grease paint in the roots of your hair.”

  “Sloppy of me,” Ivo agreed, getting to work with a towel.

  “I can’t understand why you bother to put on the stuff at all,” Paul grinned, “when all you need to do is just change a little more.”

  “I know.” Ivo rubbed his temples vigorously. “I suppose I just like the—smell of the stuff.”

  “Ivo,” Paul laughed, “there’s no use trying to kid me; you are stagestruck. I’m sure I have enough pull now to get you a bit part somewhere, when I’m up and around again, and then you can get yourself an Equity card. Maybe,” he added amusedly, “I can even have you replace Gregory as my understudy.”

  Later, in retrospect, Paul thought perhaps there had been a curious expression in Ivo’s eyes, but right then he’d had no inkling that anything untoward was up. He did not find out what had been at the back of Ivo’s mind until the Sunday before the Tuesday on which he was planning to resume his role.

  “Lord, it’s going to be good to feel that stage under my feet again,” he said as he went through a series of complicated limbering-up exercises of his own devisement, which he had sometimes thought of publishing as The Lambrequin Time and Motion Studies. It seemed unfair to keep them from other actors.

  Ivo turned around from the mirror in which he had been contemplating their mutual beauty, “Paul,” he said quietly, “you’re never going to feel that stage under your feet again.”

  Paul sat on the floor and stared at him.

  “You see, Paul,” Ivo said, “I am Paul Lambrequin now. I am more Paul Lambrequin than I was—whoever I was on my native planet. I am more Paul Lambrequin than you ever were. You learned the part superficially, Paul, but I really feel it.”

  “It’s not a part,” Paul said querulously. “It’s me. I’ve always been Paul Lambrequin.”

  “How can you be sure of that? You’ve had so many identities, why should this be the true one? No, you only think you’re Paul Lambrequin. I know I am.”

  “Dammit,” Paul said, “that’s the identity in which I’ve taken out Equity membership. And be reasonable, Ivo—there can’t be two Paul Lambrequins.”

  Ivo smiled sadly. “No, Paul, you’re right. There can’t.”

  Of course Paul had known all along that Ivo was not a human being. It was only now, however, that full realization came to him of what a ruthless alien monster the other was, existing only to gratify his own purposes, unaware that others had a right to exist.

  “Are—are you going to—dispose of me, then?” Paul asked faintly.

  “To dispose of you, yes, Paul. But not to kill you. My kind has killed enough, conquered enough. We have no real population problem; that was just an excuse we made to salve our own consciences.”

  “You have consciences, do you?” Paul’s face twisted in a sneer that he himself sensed right away was overly melodramatic and utterly unconvincing. Somehow, he could never be really genuine offstage.

  Ivo made a sweeping gesture. “Don’t be bitter, Paul. Of course we do. All intelligent life-forms do. It’s one of the penalties of sentience!”

  For a moment, Paul forgot himself. “Watch it, Ivo. You’re beginning to ham up your lines.”

  “We can institute birth control,” Ivo went on, his manner subdued. “We can build taller buildings. Oh, there are many ways we can cope with the population increase. That’s not the problem. The problem is how to divert our creative energies from destruction to construction. And I think I have solved it.”

  “How will your people know you have,” Paul asked cunningly, “since you say you’re not going back?”

  “I am not going back to Sirius, Paul—you are. It is you who are going to teach my people the art of peace to replace the art of war.”

  Paul felt himself turn what was probably a very effective white. “But—but I can’t even speak the language! I—”

  “You will learn the language during the journey. I spent those afternoons I was away making a set of Sirian-in-a-Jiffy records for you. Sirian’s a beautiful language, Paul, much more expressive than any of your Earth la
nguages. You’ll like it.”

  “I’m sure I shall, but—”

  “Paul, you are going to bring my people the outlet for self-expression they have always needed. You see, I lied to you. The theater on Sirius is not in its infancy; it has never been conceived. If it had been, we would never have become what we are today. Can you imagine—a race like mine, so superbly fitted to practice the dramatic art, remaining in blind ignorance that such an art exists!”

  “It does seem a terrible waste,” Paul had to agree, although he could not be truly sympathetic just then. “But I am hardly equipped—”

  “Who is better equipped than you to meet this mighty challenge? Can’t you see that at long last you will be able to achieve your great synthesis of the theatrical arts—as producer, teacher, director, actor, playwright, whatever you will, working with a cast of individuals who can assume any shape or form, who have no preconceived notions of what can be done and what cannot. Oh, Paul, what a glorious opportunity awaits you on Sirius V. How I envy you!”

  “Then why don’t you do it yourself?” Paul asked.

  Ivo smiled sadly again. “Unfortunately, I do not have your manifold abilities. All I can do is act. Superbly, of course, but that’s all. I don’t have the capacity to build a living theater from scratch. You do. I have talent, Paul, but you have genius.”

  “It is a temptation,” Paul admitted. “But to leave my own world.…”

  “Paul, Earth isn’t your world. You carry yours along with you wherever you go. Your world exists in the mind and heart, not in reality. In any real situation, you’re just as uncomfortable on Earth as you would be on Sirius.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Think of it this way, Paul. You’re not leaving your world. You’re just leaving Earth to go on the road. It’s a longer road, but look at what’s waiting for you at the end of it.”

  “Yes, look,” Paul said, reality very much to the fore in his mind and heart at that moment, “death or vivisection.”

  “Paul, do you believe I’d do that to you?” There were tears in Ivo’s eyes. If he was acting, he was a great performer. I really am one hell of a good teacher, Paul thought, and with lots of raw material like Ivo to work with, I could.… Could he really mean what he’s saying?

  “They won’t harm you, Paul, because you will come to Sirius bearing a message from me. You will tell my people that Earth has a powerful defensive weapon and you have come to teach them its secret. And it’s true, Paul. The theater is your world’s most powerful weapon, its best defense against the universal enemy—reality.”

  “Ivo,” Paul said, “you really must check that tendency toward bombast. Especially with a purple speech like that; you’ve simply got to learn to underplay. You’ll watch out for that when I’m gone, won’t you?”

  “I will!” Ivo’s face lighted up. “Oh, I will, Paul. I promise never to chew the scenery again. I won’t so much as nibble on a prop!”

  The next day, the two of them went up to Bear Mountain where Ivo’s ship had been cached all those months. Ivo explained to Paul how the controls worked and showed him where the clean towels were.

  Pausing in the airlock, Paul looked back toward Manhattan. “I’d dreamed so many years of seeing my name up in lights on Broadway,” he murmured, “and now, just when I made it—”

  “I’ll keep it up there,” Ivo vowed. “I promise. And, meanwhile, you’ll be building a new Broadway up there in the stars!”

  “Yes,” Paul said dreamily, “that is something to look forward to, isn’t it?” Fresh, enthusiastic audiences, performers untrammeled by tradition, a cooperative government, unlimited funds—why, there was a whole wonderful new world opening up before him.

  “—In another ten years or so,” Ivo was saying, “Sirian actors will be coming to Earth in droves, making the native performers look sick—”

  Paul smiled wisely. “Now, Ivo, you know Equity would never stand for that.”

  “Equity won’t be able to help itself. Public pressure will surge upward in a mounting wave and—” Ivo stopped. “Sorry. I was ranting again, wasn’t I? It’s being out in the open air that does it. I need to be bounded by the four walls of a theater.”

  “That’s a fallacy,” Paul began. “On the Greek stage—”

  “Save that for the stars, fella,” Ivo smiled. “You’ve got to leave before it gets light.” Then he wrung Paul’s hand. “Good-by, kid,” he said. “You’ll knock ’em dead on Sirius.”

  “Good-by, Ivo.” Paul returned the grip. Then he got inside and closed the airlock door behind him. He did hope Ivo would correct that tendency toward declamation; on the other hand, it was certainly better than mumbling.

  Paul put a Sirian-in-a-jiffy record on the turntable, because he might as well start learning the language right away. Of course he’d have no one to talk to but himself for many months, but then, when all was said and done, he was his own favorite audience. He strapped himself into the acceleration couch and prepared for take-off.

  “Next week, East Lynne,” he said to himself.

  BEFORE EDEN, by Arthur C. Clarke

  “I guess,” said Jerry Garfield, cutting the engines, “that this is the end of the line.” With a gentle sigh, the underjets faded out; deprived of its air cushion, the scout car Rambling Wreck settled down upon the twisted rocks of the Hesperian Plateau.

  There was no way forward; neither on its jets nor its tractors could S.5—to give the Wreck its official name—scale the escarpment that lay ahead. The South Pole of Venus was only thirty miles away, but it might have been on another planet. They would have to turn back, and retrace their four-hundred-mile journey through this nightmare landscape.

  The weather was fantastically clear, with visibility of almost a thousand yards. There was no need of radar to show the cliffs ahead; for once, the naked eye was good enough. The green auroral light, filtering down through clouds that had rolled unbroken for a million years, gave the scene an underwater appearance, and the way in which all distant objects blurred into the haze added to the impression. Sometimes it was easy to believe that they were driving across a shallow sea bed, and more than once Jerry had imagined that he had seen fish floating overhead.

  “Shall I call the ship, and say we’re turning back?” he asked.

  “Not yet,” said Dr. Hutchins. “I want to think.”

  Jerry shot an appealing glance at the third member of the crew, but found no moral support there. Coleman was just as bad; although the two men argued furiously half the time, they were both scientists and therefore, in the opinion of a hard-headed engineer-navigator, not wholly responsible citizens. If Cole and Hutch had bright ideas about going forward, there was nothing he could do except register a protest.

  Hutchins was pacing back and forth in the tiny cabin, studying charts and instruments. Presently he swung the car’s searchlight toward the cliffs, and began to examine them carefully with binoculars. Surely, thought Jerry, he doesn’t expect me to drive up there! S.5 was a hover-track, not a mountain goat…

  Abruptly, Hutchins found something. He released his breath in a sudden explosive gasp, then turned to Coleman.

  “Look!” he said, his voice full of excitement. “Just to the left of that black mark! Tell me what you see.” He handed over the glasses, and it was Coleman’s turn to stare.

  “Well I’m damned,” he said at length. “You were right. There are rivers on Venus. That’s a dried-up waterfall.”

  “So you owe me one dinner at the Bel Gourmet when we get back to Cambridge. With champagne.”

  “No need to remind me. Anyway, it’s cheap at the price. But this still leaves your other theories strictly on the crackpot level.”

  “Just a minute,” interjected Jerry. “What’s all this about rivers and waterfalls? Everyone knows they can’t exist on Venus. It never gets cold enough on this steam bath of a planet for the clouds to condense.”

  “Have you looked at the thermometer lately?” asked Hutchins with deceptive mildn
ess.

  “I’ve been slightly too busy driving.”

  “Then I’ve news for you. It’s down to two hundred and thirty, and still falling. Don’t forget—we’re almost at the Pole, it’s wintertime, and we’re sixty thousand feet above the lowlands. All this adds up to a distinct nip in the air. If the temperature drops a few more degrees, we’ll have rain. The water will be boiling, of course—but it will be water. And though George won’t admit it yet, this puts Venus in a completely different light”

  “Why?” asked Jerry, though he had already guessed.

  “Where there’s water, there may be life. We’ve been in too much of a hurry to assume that Venus is sterile, merely because the average temperature’s over five hundred degrees. It’s a lot colder here, and that’s why I’ve been so anxious to get to the Pole. There are lakes up here in the highlands, and I want to look at them.”

  “But boiling water!” protested Coleman. “Nothing could live in that!”

  “There are algae that manage it on Earth. And if we’ve learned one thing since we started exploring the planets, it’s this: wherever life has the slightest chance of surviving, you’ll find it. This is the only chance it’s ever had on Venus.”

  “I wish we could test your theory. But you can see for yourself—we can’t go up that cliff.”

  “Perhaps not in the car. But it won’t be too difficult to climb those rocks, even wearing thermosuits. All we need do is walk a few miles toward the Pole; according to the radar maps, it’s fairly level once you’re over the rim. We could manage in—oh, twelve hours at the most. Each of us has been out for longer than that, in much worse conditions.”

  That was perfectly true. Protective clothing that had been designed to keep men alive in the Venusian lowlands would have an easy job here, where it was only a hundred degrees hotter than Death Valley in midsummer.

  “Well,” said Coleman, “you know the regulations. You can’t go by yourself, and someone has to stay here to keep contact with the ship. How do we settle it this time—chess or cards?”