by Tubb, E. C.
“Why else do you imagine the Cyclan value it so highly? The Cyber Prime must be old and growing frail. Soon they will take him, remove his brain from his skull and immerse it in nutrient fluids in a sealed box. The homochon elements will enable him to communicate. Become a unit in Central Control as all cybers do. But how much better would it be for them to be given new, young, active bodies? How much better would it be for you? Potential immortality, my Lord. Immortality!”
The lure impossible to resist. Dumarest eased himself on the chair as Shandaha lost himself in contemplation of it. To rule! To order! To be obeyed! To be a virtual God, feared and revered! Worshipped on every inhabited world!
A moment in which he was vulnerable.
Dumarest rose, hand lifting with the knife from his boot, throwing himself clear of the chair, the area around it. Too late Shandaha recognised the danger, saw the glint of the blade, rose, hands lifting as it buried itself in the flesh.
Fell, dying as the lasers cut loose.
Dumarest rolled, feeling heat on his thigh where one of the beams had seared the plastic of his clothing to reveal the protective mesh. His only injury, luck had been with him and he rose to his feet as Chagal called from outside the chamber.
“Earl! What’s happening?”
He came stumbling into the compartment, almost falling over the dead man, grabbing at the table to regain his balance. It was half destroyed; the chair on which Dumarest had sat a total ruin. The lasers were dead now, their work done, but more than the chair had been destroyed.
The compartment was just that, a box of metal and smooth alloys, of sombre colours and Spartan furnishings. The fabrics and cushions and luxurious items had vanished. As had the other spacious chambers, the wending passages, the glint of transparent windows. The entire habitation had disappeared to be replaced by the functional compactness of a large raft. One with a canopy, small living quarters, a shower and engine room.
“How? How did this happen?” Chagal was bewildered. “I was asleep,” he said. “Dreaming. Delise was with me – or so I thought. But I was alone when I woke and everything had changed.” He looked at the dead man. “Is that Shandaha?”
The man had changed. The skin was still dark, but the pigment was swirled to give a peculiar, almost clownish appearance, one bolstered by the irregular contours of his face. The ornate clothing had gone, instead he wore a plain robe of grey and there was no ornamentation. No rings, crowns or gleaming touches.
Dumarest walked to the body, stooped and retrieved his knife. The blade was stained with blood and he wiped it clean before slipping it back into its sheath. The dead man stared with sightless eyes.
“He was a minion of the Cyclan,” he explained. “Sent to perform a simple task, but he was ambitious and saw his opportunity and tried to better himself. His motive was greed. His means were more than clever. He was a freak, a mutated genius, an illusionist of the highest order. Everything was a projection of his mind. He had delusions of grandeur, which is why he projected himself as he did. As his supposed habitation was so luxurious. None of it was real.”
“None of it? Delise?”
“She and Nada—both projections of his mind. Succubi to entertain us and divert any suspicions we might have had. I’d better tell you what kind of a mess you are in.”
Chagal drew in his breath as he listened. “Trapped by the Cyclan! I know of them, of course, but all this about cranial symbiotes which enable you to have instant communication with anyone anywhere as long as they have the same. And the proscription? That makes sense, I guess, no one wants contamination. But if all the others had been killed because they were not children of Earth then why wasn’t I one of them?”
“For insurance. You are a physician. Shandaha wanted to keep me alive.”
“And now?”
Dumarest said, “We have a functional raft. We have supplies. We can fly away from here and do what we need to do.”
“To do what, Earl?”
“There have to be others out there. Maybe some are rebels. Most must resent being treated as cattle. Others will be greedy for wealth and power. All will be potential allies.”
And he had the means to make them so. The affinity twin nestled in the hollow hilt of his knife, the empty space in the buckle of his belt. Dumarest smiled, feeling good. He was a child of Earth and he was home.
THE END
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Also by E.C. Tubb
The Dumarest Saga:
1: The Winds of Gath (1967)
2: Derai (1968)
3: Toyman (1969)
4: Kalin (1969)
5: The Jester at Scar (1970)
6: Lallia (1971)
7: Technos (1972)
8: Veruchia (1973)
9: Mayenne (1973)
10: Jondelle (1973)
11: Zenya (1974)
12: Eloise (1975)
13: Eye of the Zodiac (1975)
14: Jack of Swords (1976)
15: Spectrum of a Forgotten Sun (1976)
16: Haven of Darkness (1977)
17: Prison of Night (1977)
18: Incident on Ath (1978)
19: The Quillian Sector (1978)
20: Web of Sand (1979)
21: Iduna’s Universe (1979)
22: The Terra Data (1980)
23: World of Promise (1980)
24: Nectar of Heaven (1981)
25: The Terridae (1981)
26: The Coming Event (1982)
27: Earth is Heaven (1982)
28: Melome (1983)
29: Angado (1984)
30: Symbol of Terra (1984)
31: The Temple of Truth (1985)
32: The Return (1997)
33: Child of Earth (2008)
The Cap Kennedy (F.A.T.E.) Series (E.C. Tubb writing as Gregory Kern)
1: Galaxy of the Lost (1973)
2: Slave Ship from Sergan (1973)
3: Monster of Metelaze (1973)
4: Enemy Within the Skull (1974)
5: Jewel of Jarhen (1974)
6: Seetee Alert! (1974)
7: The Gholan Gate (1974)
8: The Eater of Worlds (1974)
9: Earth Enslaved (1974)
10: Planet of Dread (1974)
11: Spawn of Laban (1974)
12: The Genetic Buccaneer (1974)
13: A World Aflame (1974)
14: The Ghosts of Epidoris (1975)
15: Mimics of Dephene (1975)
16: Beyond the Galactic Lens (1975)
17: The Galactiad (1983)
Alien Dust (1955)
Alien Impact (1952)
Journey Into Terror (originally published as Alien Life (1954, rev 1998))
Atom War on Mars (1952)
Fear of Strangers (first published as C.O.D. – Mars (1968))
Century of the Manikin (1972)
City of No Return (1954)
Death God’s Doom (1999)
Death is a Dream (1967)
Dead Weight (first published as Death Wears a White Face (1979))
Escape into Space (1969)
Footsteps of Angels (2004) (previously unpublished work written c.1988)
Hell Planet (1954)
Journey to Mars (1954)
Moon Base (1964)
Pandora’s Box (1996) (previously unpublished work written 1954)
Pawn of the Omphalos (1980)
S.T.A.R. Flight (1969)
Stardeath (1983)
Starslave (2010) (previously unpublished work written 1984)
Stellar Assignment (1979)
Temple of Death (1996) (previously unpublished work written 1954)
F
ifty Days to Doom (first published as The Extra Man (1954))
The Life-Buyer (1965, 2008)
The Luck Machine (1980)
World in Torment (originally published as The Mutants Rebel (1953))
The Primitive (1977)
The Resurrected Man (1954)
The Sleeping City (1999)
The Space-Born (1956)
The Stellar Legion (1954)
To Dream Again (2011)
Venusian Adventure (1953)
Tide of Death (first published as World at Bay (1954))
E. C. Tubb (writing as Arthur MacLean)
The Possessed (revised version of Touch of Evil (1957))
E. C. Tubb (writing as Brian Shaw)
Argentis (1952)
E. C. Tubb (writing as Carl Maddox)
Menace from the Past (1954)
The Living World (1954)
E. C. Tubb (writing as Charles Grey)
Dynasty of Doom (1953)
The Extra Man (first published as Enterprise 2115 (1954) & then as The Mechanical Monarch (1958))
I Fight for Mars (1953)
Space Hunger (1953)
The Hand of Havoc (1954)
Secret of the Towers (originally published as The TormentedCity(1953))
The Wall (1953)
E. C. Tubb (writing as Gill Hunt)
Planetfall (1951)
E. C. Tubb (writing as King Lang)
Saturn Patrol (1951)
E. C. Tubb (writing as Roy Sheldon)
The Metal Eater (1954)
E. C. Tubb (writing as Volsted Gridban)
The Green Helix (originally published as Alien Universe (1952))
Reverse Universe (1952)
Planetoid Disposals Ltd. (1953)
The Freedom Army (originally published as De Bracy’s Drug (1953))
Fugitive of Time (1953)
E.C. Tubb (1919 – 2010)
Edwin Charles Tubb was born in London in 1919, and was a prolific author of SF, fantasy and western novels, under his own name and a number of pseudonyms. He wrote hundreds of short stories and novellas for the SF magazines of the 50’s, including the long-running Galaxy Science Fiction, and was a founding member of the British Science Fiction Association. He died in 2010.
Copyright
A Gollancz eBook
Copyright © E.C. Tubb 2008
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The right of E.C. Tubb to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This eBook first published in Great Britain in 2011 by
Gollancz
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A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 0 575 10713 7
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