The Fourth Time Travel MEGAPACK®

by Fritz Leiber

  “Wear what you have and go,” the man pleaded, and moaned softly when Sophia released his numb arm and strode through the portal, still drawing whistles and leers from the other men, who missed the by-play completely.

  * * * *

  “So we’re on Mars!”

  “It ain’t Nowhere after all, it’s Mars.”

  “Wait and see, buster. Wait and see.”

  “Kind of cold, isn’t it? Well, if this was Venus and some of them beautiful one-armed dames was waiting for us—”

  “That’s just a statue, stupid.”

  “Lookit all them people down there, will you?”

  “You think they’re Martians?”

  “Stupid! We ain’t the first ones went on the Nowhere Journey.”

  “What are we waiting for? It sure will feel good to stretch your legs.”

  “Let’s go!”

  “Look out, Mars, here I come!”

  It would have been just right for a Hollywood epic, Temple thought. The rusty ochre emptiness spreading out toward the horizon in all directions, spotted occasionally with pale green and frosty white, the sky gray with but a shade of blue in it, distant gusts of Martian wind swirling ochre clouds across the desert, the spaceship poised on its ungainly bottom, a great silver bowling ball with rocket tubes for finger holes, and the Martians from Earth who had been here on this alien world for seven-hundred-eighty days or twice seven-eighty or three times, and who fought in frenzied eagerness, like savages, to reach the descending gangplank first.

  Earth chorus: Hey, Martians, any of you guys speak English? Hah-ha, I said, any of you guys.…

  Where are all them canals I heard so much about?

  You think maybe they’re dangerous? (Laughter)

  No dames. Hey, no dames.…

  Who were you expecting, Donna Daunley?

  What kind of place is Mars with no women?

  What do they do here, anyway, just sit around and wait for the next rocket?

  I’m cold.

  Get used to it, brother, get used to it.

  Look out, Mars, here I come!

  Martian chorus: Who won the Series last year, Detroit?

  Hey, bud, tell me, are dames still wearing those one piece things, all colors, so you see their legs up to about here and their chests down to about here? (Gestures lewdly)

  Which one of you guys can tell me what it’s like to take a bath? I mean a real bath in a real bath tub.

  Hey, we licked Russia yet?

  We heard they were gonna send some dames!

  Dames—ha-ha, you’re breaking my heart.

  Tell me what a steak tastes like. So thick.

  Me? Gimme a bowl of steamed oysters. And a dame.

  Dames. Girls. Women. Females. Chicks. Tomatoes. Frails. Dames. Dames. Dames.…

  They did not seem to mind the cold, these Earth-Martians. Temple guessed they never spent much time out of doors (above ground, for there were no buildings?) because all seemed pale and white. While the sun was weaker, so was the protection offered by a thinner atmosphere. The sun’s actinic rays could burn, and so could the sand-driving wind. But pale skins could not be the result of staying indoors, for Temple noted the lack of man-made structures at once. Underground, then. The Earth-Martians lived underground like moles. Doing what? And for what reason? With what ultimate goal, if any? And where did those men who did not remain on Mars go? Temple’s head whirled with countless questions—and no answers.

  Shoulder to shoulder with Arkalion, he made his way down the gangplank, turning up the collar of his jumper against the stinging wind.

  “You got any newspapers, pal?”

  “Magazines?”

  “Phonograph records?”

  “Gossip?”

  “Newsfilm?”

  “Who’s the heavyweight champ?”

  “We lick those Commies in Burma yet?”

  “Step back! Watch that man. Maybe he’s your replacement.”

  “Replacement. Ha-ha. That’s good.”

  All types of men. All ages. In torn, tattered clothing, mostly. In rags. Even if a man seemed more well-groomed than the rest, on closer examination Temple could see the careful stitching, the patches, the fades and stains. No one seemed to mind.

  “Hey, bud. What do you hear about rotation? They passed any laws yet?”

  “I been here ten years. When do I get rotated?”

  “Ain’t that something? Dad Jenks came here with the first ship. Don’t you talk about rotation. Ask Dad.”

  “Better not mention that word to Dad Jenks. He sees red.”

  “This whole damn planet is red.”

  “Want a guided tour of Nowhere, men? Step right up.”

  Arkalion grinned. “They seem so well-adjusted,” he said, then shuddered against the cold and followed Temple, with the others, through the crowd.

  They were inoculated against nameless diseases. (Watch for the needle with the hook)

  They were told again they had arrived on the planet Mars. (No kidding?)

  Led to a drab underground city, dimly lit, dank, noisome with mold and mildew. (Quick, the chlorophyll)

  Assigned bunks in a dormitory, with four men to a room. (Be it ever so humble—bah!)

  Told to keep things clean and assigned temporarily to a garbage pickup detail. (For this I left Sheboygan?)

  Read to from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Public Law 1182 (concerned with the Nowhere Journey, it told them nothing they did not already know).

  Given as complete a battery of tests, mental, emotional and physical, as Temple ever knew existed. (Cripes, man! How the hell should I know what the cube root of -5 is? I never finished high school!)

  Subjected to an exhaustive, overlong, and at times meaningless personal interview. (No doc, honest. I never knew I had a—uh—anxiety neurosis. Is it dangerous?)

  “How do you do, Temple? Sit down.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Thought you’d like to know that while your overall test score is not uncanny, it’s decidedly high.”

  “So what?”

  “So nothing—not necessarily. Except that with it you have a very well balanced personality. We can use you, Temple.”

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  “I mean—elsewhere. Mars is only a way station, a training center for a select few. It takes an awful lot of administrative work to keep this place going, which explains the need for all the station personnel.”

  “Listen. The last few weeks I had everything thrown at me. Everything, the works. Mind answering one question?”

  “Shoot.”

  “What’s this all about?”

  “Temple, I don’t know!”

  “You what?”

  “I know you find it hard to believe, but I don’t. There isn’t a man here on Mars who knows the whole story, either—and certainly not on Earth. We know enough to keep everything in operation. And we know it’s important, all of it, everything we do.”

  “You mentioned a need for some men elsewhere. Where?”

  The psychiatrist shrugged. “I don’t know. Somewhere. Anywhere.” He spread his hands out eloquently. “That’s where the Nowhere Journey comes in.”

  “Surely you can tell me something more than—”

  “Absolutely not. It isn’t that I don’t want to. I can’t. I don’t know.”

  “Well, one more question I’d like you to answer.”

  The psychiatrist lit a cigarette, grinned. “Say, who is interviewing whom?”

  “This one I think you can tackle. I have a brother, Jason Temple. Embarked on the Nowhere Journey five years ago. I wonder—”

  “So that’s the one factor in yo
ur psychograph we couldn’t figure out—anxiety over your brother.”

  “I doubt it,” shrugged Temple. “More likely my fiancee.”

  “Umm, common enough. You were to be married?”

  “Yes.” Stephanie, what are you doing now? Right now?

  “That’s what hurts the most.… Well, yes, I can find out about your brother.” The psychiatrist flicked a toggle on his desk. “Jamison, find what you can on Temple, Jason, year of—”

  “1987,” Temple supplied.

  “1987. We’ll wait.”

  After a moment or two, the voice came through, faintly metallic: “Temple, Jason. Arrival: 1987. Psychograph, 115-bl2. Mental aggregate, 98. Physcom, good to excellent. Training: two years, space perception concentrate, others. Shipped out: 1989.”

  So Jase had shipped out for—Nowhere.

  “Someday you’ll follow in your brother’s footsteps, Temple. Now, though, I have a few hundred questions I’d like you to answer.”

  The psychiatrist hadn’t exaggerated. Several hours of questioning followed. Once reminded of her, Temple found it hard to keep his thought off Stephanie.

  He left the psychiatrist’s office more confused than ever.

  * * * *

  “Good morning, child. You are Stephanie Andrews?” Stephanie hadn’t felt up to working that first morning after Kit’s final goodbye. She answered the door in her bathrobe, saw a small, middle-aged woman with graying hair and a kind face. “That’s right. Won’t you come in?”

  “Thank you. I represent the Complete Emancipation League, Miss Andrews.”

  “Complete Emancipation League? Oh, something to do with politics. Really, I’m not much interested in—”

  “That’s entirely the trouble,” declared the older woman. “Too many of us are not interested in politics. I’d like to discuss the C.E.L. with you, my dear, if you will bear with me a few minutes.”

  “All right,” said Stephanie. “Would you like a glass of sherry?”

  “In the morning?” the older woman smiled.

  “I’m sorry. Don’t mind me. My fiance left yesterday, took his final goodbye. He—he embarked on the Nowhere Journey.”

  “I realize that. It is precisely why I am here. My dear, the C.E.L. does not want to fight the government. If the government decides that the Nowhere Journey is vital for the welfare of the country—even if the government won’t or can’t explain what the Nowhere Journey is—that’s all right with us. But if the government says there is a rotation system but does absolutely nothing about it, we’re interested in that. Do you follow me?”

  “Yes!” cried Stephanie. “Oh, yes. Go on.”

  “The C.E.L. has sixty-eight people in Congress for the current term. We hope to raise that number to seventy-five for next election. It’s a long fight, a slow uphill fight, and frankly, my dear, we need all the help we can get. People—young women like yourself, my dear—are entirely too lethargic, if you’ll forgive me.”

  “You ought to forgive me,” said Stephanie, “if you will. You know, it’s funny. I had vague ideas about helping Kit, about finding some way to get him back. Only to tackle something like that alone.… I’m only twenty-one, just a girl, and I don’t know anyone important. No one ever comes back, that’s what you hear. But there’s a rotation system, you also hear that. If I can be of any help.…”

  “You certainly can, my dear. We’d be delighted to have you.”

  “Then, eventually, maybe, just maybe, we’ll start getting them rotated home?”

  “We can’t promise a thing. We can only try. And I never did say we’d try to get the boys rotated, my dear. There is a rotation system in the law, right there in Public Law 1182. But if no men have ever been rotated, there must be a reason for it.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “But we’ll see. If for some reason rotation simply is not practicable, we’ll find another way. Which is why we call ourselves the C.E.L.—Complete Emancipation League—for women. If men must embark on the Nowhere Journey—the least they can do is let their women volunteer to go along with them if they want to—since it may be forever. Let a bunch of women get to this Nowhere place and you’ll never know what might happen, that’s what I say.”

  Something about the gray haired woman’s earthly confidence imbued Stephanie with an optimism she never expected. “Well,” she said, smiling, “if we can’t bring ourselves to Mohammed.… No, that’s all wrong!…to the mountain…?”

  “Yes, there’s an old saying. But it isn’t important. You get the idea. My dear, how would you like to go to Nowhere?”

  “I—to Kit, anywhere, anywhere!” I’ll never forget yesterday, Kit darling. Never!

  “I make no promises, Stephanie, but it may be sooner than you think. Morning be hanged, perhaps I will have some sherry after all. Umm, you wouldn’t by any chance have some Canadian instead?”

  Humming, Stephanie dashed into the kitchen for some glasses.

  * * * *

  There were times when the real Alaric Arkalion III wished his father would mind his own business. Like that thing about the Nowhere Journey, for instance. Maybe Alaric Sr. didn’t realize it, but being the spoiled son of a billionaire wasn’t all fun. “I’m a dilettante,” Alaric would tell himself often, gazing in the mirror, “a bored dilettante at the age of twenty-one.”

  Which in itself, he had to admit, wasn’t too bad. But having reneged on the Nowhere Journey in favor of a stranger twice his age who now carried his, Alaric’s face, had engendered some annoying complications. “You’ll either have to hide or change your own appearance and identity, Alaric.”

  “Hide? For how long, father?”

  “I can’t be sure. Years, probably.”

  “That’s crazy. I’m not going to hide for years.”

  “Then change your appearance. Your way of life. Your occupation.”

  “I have no occupation.”

  “Get one. Change your face, too. Your fingerprints. It can be done. Become a new man, live a new life.”

  In hiding there was boredom, impossible boredom. In the other alternative there was adventure, intrigue—but uncertainty. One part of young Alaric craved that uncertainty, the rest of him shunned it. In a way it was like the Nowhere Journey all over again.

  “Maybe Nowhere wouldn’t have been so bad,” said Alaric to his father, choosing as a temporary alternative and retreat what he knew couldn’t possibly happen.

  Couldn’t it?

  “If I choose another identity, I’d be eligible again for the Nowhere Journey.”

  “By George, I hadn’t considered that. No, wait. You could be older than twenty-six.”

  “I like it the way I am,” Alaric said, pouting.

  “Then you’ll have to hide. I spent ten million dollars to secure your future, Alaric. I don’t want you to throw it away.”

  Alaric pouted some more. “Let me think about it.”

  “Fair enough, but I’ll want your answer tomorrow. Meanwhile, you are not to leave the house.”

  Alaric agreed verbally, but took the first opportunity which presented itself—that very night—to sneak out the servants’ door, go downtown, and get stewed to the gills.

  At two in the morning he was picked up by the police for disorderly conduct (it had happened before) after losing a fistfight to a much poorer, much meaner drunk in a downtown bar. They questioned Alaric at the police station, examined his belongings, went through his wallet, notified his home.

  Fuming, Alaric Sr. rushed to the police station to get his son. He was met by the desk sergeant, a fat, balding man who wore his uniform in a slovenly fashion.

  “Mr. Arkalion?” demanded the sergeant, picking at his teeth with a toothpick.

  “Yes. I have come for Alaric, my son.”

  “Su
re. Sure. But your son’s in trouble, Mr. Arkalion. Serious trouble.”

  “What are you talking about? If there are any damages, I’ll pay. He didn’t—hurt, anyone, did he?”

  The sergeant broke the toothpick between his teeth, laughed. “Him? Naw. He got the hell beat out of him by a drunk half his size. It ain’t that kind of trouble, Mr. Arkalion. You know what an 1182 card is, mister?”

  Arkalion’s face drained white. “Why—yes.”

  “Alaric’s got one.”

  “Naturally.”

  “According to the card, he should have shipped out on the Nowhere Journey, mister. He didn’t. He’s in serious trouble.”

  “I’ll see the district attorney.”

  “More’n likely, you’ll see the attorney general. Serious trouble.”

  CHAPTER V

  The trouble with the Stalintrek, Sophia thought, was that it took months to get absolutely nowhere. There had been the painful pressure, the loss of consciousness, the confinement in this tight little world of dormitories and gleaming metal walls, the uncanny feeling of no weight, the ability—boring after a while, but interesting at first—to float about in air almost at will.

  Then, how many months of sameness? Sophia had lost all track of time through ennui. But for the first brief period of adjustment on the part of her fellows to the fact that although she was a woman and shared their man’s life she was still to be inviolate, the routine had been anything but exciting. The period of adjustment had had its adventures, its uncertainties, its challenge, and to Sophia it had been stimulating. Why was it, she wondered, that the men who carried their sex with strength and dignity, the hard-muscled men who could have their way with her if they resorted to force were the men who did not violate her privacy, while the weaklings, the softer, smaller men, or the average men whom Sophia considered her physical equals were the ones who gave her trouble?

  She had always accepted her beauty, the obvious attraction men found in her, with an objective unconcern. She had been endowed with sex appeal; there was not much room in her life to exploit it, even had she wanted to. Now, now when she wanted anything but that, it gave her trouble.