The 13th Science Fiction MEGAPACK®: 26 Great SF Stories!

by Lake, Jay

  * * * *

  Everyone on Earth who reads popular magazines or watches TV knows the story of Martin Devere, “The Hermit of Mars.” Over the years, now that he is dead, he has become a sort of culture hero, as Dr. Livingston or Albert Schweitzer once were. Though Martin Devere could not be called a humanitarian in any sense of the word. After his divorce from his first and only wife, at the age of 45, he never gave much thought again either to women or any other kind of people—except for his long-dead Martians.

  But everyone should know by now how Martin Devere first came to Mars at the age of 50. Even then he was the oldest man on the planet, and Mars sustained quite a large research colony at the time. Only Martin Devere’s unchallenged scientific reputation, together with his apparent good health, enabled him to leave Earth as head of a five-man archeological team. This turned up the first fossil ruins far beneath the desert sand.

  Then there came a day when the Space Institute of the United Governments decided to abandon Project Mars. It was getting too expensive to maintain. Everything of value to space research had already been learned about the planet, and the archeological site, though yet barely scratched, did not properly come under space research. Closing Project Mars would mean more funds for solar research, on Mercury, for the Lunar colony and for work on the interstellar drive.

  So the hundred-odd inhabitants of the Project received orders to leave the igloos and other equipment behind and come back to Earth.

  Martin Devere, however, had been on Mars for three years now. When the Project physician gave him his routine exam, it was discovered that a valve in Martin Devere’s aorta had developed a faint flutter. Nothing too serious, really. But enough to greatly reduce his chances of surviving another rocket lift-off.

  Martin Devere smiled at the news and volunteered to remain behind, alone on Mars. Under the circumstances, the Institute was forced to agree.

  On the day that the strange rocket came down behind the desert hills, Martin Devere had been on Mars for a total of 38 years. For the past 35 of them he had been The Hermit—and quite happy about it.…

  The little sandcat was getting closer. Martin Devere smiled to himself, watching the two men in their clumsy space gear. It was high noon, and a nice comfortable ten degrees centigrade outside. If the two newcomers thought they needed full spacesuits to get around out there, Martin Devere wasn’t going to tell them any different. Actually, though the atmospheric pressure was about the same as at the top of Mount Everest, on a beautiful day like this a man could get along easily outdoors with nothing more than an oxygen mask. But let them clomp around in their rubberized long-johns if they wanted to.

  In a few minutes they would be coming in through the igloo’s airlock. Martin Devere turned away, scowling now. He hoped the Institute hadn’t decided to reopen Mars Project. There was plenty of room in all these igloos and connecting tunnels that had been left behind, but with a new expedition here it might get pretty crowded. Mainly, Devere didn’t want a bunch of amateurs poking around his diggings, breaking things.

  His thumb rubbed slowly across the long stubble on his chin. He wondered if he had made some slip in that last report, or in some of the pictures of the ruins he’d sent back. He’d rather the Institute didn’t find out about those fossilized machines he’d dug up. He didn’t understand the gadgets himself, but some of the people at the Institute just might decide they were interesting enough to be worth sending up an expert.

  The Institute, Devere knew, was interested in machinery, not art objects.

  * * * *

  One of the men held an automatic pistol pointed at Martin Devere while the other was stripping off his space gear. Then the pistol changed hands while the first man removed his own suit. Martin Devere could have told them that he wasn’t afraid of the gun. He didn’t actually care much, one way or the other: let them point it if it made them happy. Martin Devere figured that he had already lived a lot longer, here in this feeble gravity and germ-free, oxygen-rich air, than his tricky heart would have allowed him on Earth. Let them point the gun if they wanted to.

  “If you make one move toward the radio transmitter I’ll blow your head off,” the taller man said. He had black wavy hair that hung over his brow. The other man was completely bald.

  “I don’t even know if the radio works,” Martin Devere answered. “I haven’t turned it on in years. I should warn you, though, that if you shoot that thing inside the igloo here, it will puncture the plastic wall and let all the air out. I always keep the pressure up high indoors so I can boil water for coffee.”

  The tall man frowned in confusion and blinked at the weapon in his hand. Then he stared at the transparent dome above him, as if realizing for the first time that only a thin bubble of plastic separated him from near-vacuum, now that he had removed his suit.

  “I was just making some coffee when you showed up,” Martin Devere said, turning away. “Have some? I’m afraid it’s instant. I’ve given up trying to get the Institute to send me a can of real coffee in the rocket. They think I need canned TV shows more.”

  “He’s harmless,” the bald man said. “You can see he’s just an old senile nut. Leave him be, we’ve work to do.”

  The tall man lowered his weapon, then let it fall into the holster at his hip.

  “No big hurry. I think I’d like some of that coffee first. Say, Pop, how about cooking us a meal in a couple of hours?”

  Martin Devere was spooning brown powder into three cups.

  “Sure thing. What would you like—beans and franks, or franks and beans?”

  * * * *

  “I suppose you wonder what we’re doing, Pop?” The tall man held the disassembled pieces of his gun in his lap. He was carefully polishing each part with a chemically treated cloth.

  It was three days since they had landed, and the tall metal skeleton was beginning to take shape out in the desert. At the moment, the bald man was out alone, testing circuits. Usually the two went out together—they had apparently decided it was safe to leave Martin Devere unguarded, though they had smashed his radio transmitter just in case.

  The two men worked steadily during the daylight hours, came back at sunset to eat and sleep, then went out again at dawn. The towering lacework of steel was growing like an ugly flower.

  The tall man held the trigger assembly of his gun up to the light. He turned it slowly between his thumb and forefinger. It cast an odd crescent-shaped shadow over the muscles of his jaw.

  “No, I don’t wonder what you’re doing,” Martin Devere answered. He was sitting at his workbench, crouched over an ancient metal plate as thin as paper.

  The tall man began to put his weapon back together again. He snapped the trigger assembly into the receiver. He pulled the hammer back and then released it; it made a sharp, hard click.

  “Not even curious, Pop? Okay, then tell me what you’re doing. What’s that piece of tinfoil you’ve been staring at the past two hours?”

  Martin Devere straightened and turned to look at the other.

  “It’s an ancient Martian scroll. It’s nearly a million years old. I found it in a new pit I’ve been digging, five hundred meters down. It’s the longest and perhaps most important bit of Martian writing I’ve found so far.”

  “Yeah? What’s it have to say?”

  Martin Devere shook his head. “Their language, their whole frame of reference, was fundamentally different from ours. It’s something like higher mathematics, you’d have to learn the language to understand it. But I suppose you might say that this is a poem.… Yes, an epic poem.”

  The tall man laughed. He shoved an ammunition clip into his weapon, pumped a round into the chamber, slipped the gun back into its holster. He got up and began pacing the floor of the igloo. The floor was cluttered with dozens of artifacts.

  He stopped and nudged one specim
en with his toe.

  “What’s this thing, Pop? An ancient Martian meatgrinder?”

  “I hardly think so. They were vegetarians.” He squinted at the object. “I’m afraid I have no idea what it is. It’s some sort of machine, but I’m no engineer, I can’t imagine what its function was. They—don’t build many machines, you know.”

  The man with the gun turned to stare at Martin Devere.

  “You mean didn’t build, don’t you?”

  “Yes, of course.… Past tense.” And Devere turned again to peer at the million-year-old poem before him.

  * * * *

  “Damn it to hell. This might hold us up a week.” The bald man flung the shatterproof helmet of his suit against the igloo wall. His tone of voice was matter-of-fact emotionless. Even the way he threw the helmet betrayed no real emotion. Still wearing the rest of his suit he sat down at Martin Devere’s work bench and clenched his fists. His face was smooth, blank.

  “What’s the matter?” His partner put down some drawings and came over.

  “The modulator circuit doesn’t check out. I’ll have to take the whole works apart and start over again.” The bald man spoke—when he did speak—with a faint accent that Martin Devere could not identify.

  “It doesn’t matter.” The other rubbed at his chin. “We’re still ahead of our schedule.”

  “Hey. Old man.” The bald man pointed at Devere. “You have anything to drink in this cave of yours?”

  Martin Devere frowned, thinking. He remembered a bottle he’d been saving for some special occasion—he couldn’t recall what, just now.

  “I think I have some bourbon,” he said at last. “If I can find it.”

  “Find it. Mine straight, on the rocks.”

  When Martin Devere returned awhile later, the bald man was still wearing his helmetless space suit. He and his friend were studying a complex wiring diagram spread out on the work bench.

  Martin Devere put two plastic cups down on the bench and poured them full. Neither of the men looked up from their diagram until he had set the bottle down.

  “Pour one for yourself, Pop,” the tall man said.

  “Thanks. Don’t mind if I do.” Devere went to get another cup. Over his shoulder he said, “Hope you boys don’t mind crushed ice instead of cubes. I just set a bucket of water in one of the unheated tunnels for a couple minutes. Then I hit it with a hammer.”

  It was four hours past sunset, the temperature outside was far below freezing.

  “One thing you don’t need on Mars is a refrigerator!” Pouring himself a drink, the old man suddenly laughed. It was a brief, senile giggle, that made the tall man turn to stare at him.

  “Could be uncomfortable, though, if you were ever stuck out there at night.” Martin Devere’s face was sober once more as he lifted his cup and looked deeply into it. All trace of senility had vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. “Like, say, if you were out there long enough for your suit power to go dead. You’d freeze to a hunk of ice in a few minutes.… Me, I never go outside at night.”

  “Shut up,” the bald man said.

  * * * *

  All day the bald man had been out alone, working on his electronic circuits. Evidently this left his partner nothing to do except study schematics.

  Now Martin Devere was aware that his guest had been staring at him for several minutes without speaking. Martin Devere went on polishing the green crystal vase he held in his hand. The vase looked ordinary at first glance, until you noticed that it wasn’t quite symmetrical. There was a studied and careful asymmetry about its form, barely discernible, that would disturb you the more you looked at it—until you knew suddenly that no human brain could have created that shape.

  The polishing cloth moved rhythmically across the vase’s curving surfaces. The green crystal reflected light in a way that made you begin to think about boundless seas of water.

  “I’ll be glad when this job is over with,” the tall man said, half aloud.

  “When it is, will you go away?” Martin Devere turned the vase slowly in his hands.

  “Not for a while yet, Pop.” The man with the gun on his hip got to his feet and stretched.

  “I don’t mind telling you what it’s all about, Pop. You’re all right. It’s simple. My partner and I were sent here by a certain national power that doesn’t like being told how to run its own affairs by the United Governments. We’re striking the first blow for Freedom. That thing we’re putting together out there is a bomb. It could—disable—most of Earth. It has a new kind of nuclear rocket engine behind it that could carry it across 200 million miles in a few hours.

  “You get the idea, Pop? Here on Mars, they won’t even find it. And if they did, we could deliver the bomb before they got a missile halfway across.… So I hope you won’t mind if my partner and I stay a while, Pop.”

  It was several seconds before Martin Devere answered. He set the crystal vase carefully inside a case and regarded it a moment.

  “As long as you don’t go messing up my diggings or break any of the artifacts, it’s no business of mine.”

  “And what if I did, Pop?” The tall man walked closer to Martin Devere. He stood over the old man, his shadow on him. His hand rested lightly on the butt of his gun. “What if I were to take all your vases and statues and pots and tablets and smash them to bits, one by one? What would you do then?”

  Martin Devere’s eyes slowly closed and opened, he made no other move for a minute. Then he got to his feet without looking at the other man. He turned and began to move away, toward a tunnel door that led to the diggings.

  Probably the tall man thought that he had finally put the fear of God into Martin Devere. But as he turned back to his pile of schematics he heard the old man’s whisper:

  “You might regret it.”

  The man with the gun did not answer.

  * * * *

  “Tell us about it, Pop.”

  “Yes, why don’t you tell us about it.”

  They meant Martin Devere’s work. The two men had finished their own job. The assembled bomb rested in the desert, silent but alive, like some abnormal growth.

  Because of sunspot activity they hadn’t yet been able to radio their employers on Earth. The bald man expected conditions to clear in two or three days. When they did clear, he would signal, “The bird is nesting.” Then the nation he had mentioned would be ready to deliver its ultimatum to the United Governments.

  For the first time since landing on Mars, the two men were idle. They were waiting. They looked as if they were willing to wait a long time if necessary.

  Meanwhile, Martin Devere’s artifacts were the only amusements available.

  Perhaps the old man knew they were making fun of him. But he seemed to take their question seriously. When he began to speak, they found themselves listening.

  “We don’t know exactly what happened.” Martin Devere faced the two men across the cluttered workbench like a lecturer addressing his students. He held in his hand a small bronze statue that might have been a portrayal of one of the old Martian people or, just as likely, some long-extinct animal. In the diffuse sunlight that came through the igloo wall, it cast a shadow on the work bench that was even more disturbingly alien in shape.

  “No, we don’t know what happened to them,” the old man said. “The last of them died nearly a million years ago, before the first Homo Sapiens walked the Earth. From what we—I—have found we know a little about what they were like. But we don’t know why they died.

  “We do know, for instance, that they never had much interest in technology. Not that they lacked intelligence. They could build a machine when it suited their purposes, whatever those may have been. And I don’t say they weren’t interested in science. They had a highly developed theoretical science, as sophistic
ated as their art. You might say they were theoreticians. They were concerned with pure art and pure science—but not with applied technology, or commercialized art.

  “My own theory is that they had no need for technology. In the first place, they were vegetarians, not carnivorous. So that their earliest men had no need for hunting weapons—or other gadgets. Probably they never developed the aggressive instincts which in humanity led to warfare with its subsequent impetus to applied technology. The Martians never got around to making cars or airplanes or bombs. They dedicated themselves, gentlemen, to the contemplation of beauty.

  “Then, nearly a million years ago, something happened to them. Perhaps Mars began to lose her atmosphere then. Her oceans evaporated, the air could no longer retain her heat at night, the farmlands parched and froze. A few of the plant types were able to adapt and survive. But within a few years, all animal life died out. One day, there were suddenly no more Martians left.”

  Martin Devere’s dry, withered hand caressed the small statue he held.

  “Who knows? If they’d had time to develop space travel they might have saved themselves. Then again, with a technology like yours, they might have blown themselves up long before the natural catastrophe…”

  “What do you mean like yours?” the tall man said. “You mean like ours, don’t you?”

  But Martin Devere turned away without answering.

  * * * *

  “Do you have another bottle of bourbon, old man?”

  “No, I’m afraid not,” Devere said. “There was only that one bottle.”

  “Too bad. We should have a little celebration.” The bald man began sealing himself into his spacesuit.

  “I’ll wait for you here,” his partner said. “I’d better start burning those plans.”

  Martin Devere looked up from the fragment of ceramic he was cleaning.