On Angado's planet, there was a man who knew the whereabouts of the lost Earth. Earl Dumarest, born on Earth, longed to find the way home. Because they were comrades in arms, Angado would help Earl find that man - for a price. For Angado was returning to a complex of high-tech cunning and high-wealth power . . . the prodigal son against whom all would plot. The Cyclan, who had put a fabulous price on Dumarest's head, were also closing in. But Dumarest was willing to stay to the bitter end - for the priceless reward of forgotten Terra. (First published 1984)
Release date:
September 29, 2011
Publisher:
Gateway
Print pages:
157
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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Footsteps of Angels (2004) (previously unpublished work written c.1988)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Pandora’s Box (1996) (previously unpublished work written 1954)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Starslave (2010) (previously unpublished work written 1984)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Temple of Death (1996) (previously unpublished work written 1954)
Fifty 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 Tormented City (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)
Once, the place had been bright with the froth of make-believe; domes, minarets, spires, towers, soaring arches and sweeping
promenades all blazing with variegated colors—a skillful illusion created with paint and plastic, lying like a jewel in the
cup of rounded hills. The circus of Chen Wei was gone now, leaving only an expanse of torn and barren ground, a scatter of
debris, the crusted surface of a fetid lagoon.
A monument to emotional waste, which Avro pondered as his raft circled the area. How many work-hours had been poured into
its construction, operation and maintenance? How many more had been squandered by those visiting the circus for the sake of
transient thrills? Time, effort, resources, skills all dissipated to the wind. Leaving nothing but a raw devastation. Time
would heal the wound and soon the hills would seem as if they had never been touched. More waste. Under correct guidance things
of lasting worth could have been constructed for the benefit of humanity. Testimonials to the efficiency of the Cyclan.
Instead the place was evidence as to its failure.
“Master?” The acolyte was deferential, the title more than an acknowledgment of Avro’s superiority. “Would you care to go
lower?”
“No.” Avro had seen enough. “When did they leave?”
“Five days ago.” Cardor added, “A week after the accident.”
When Tron had died, and Valaban, and most important of all, Dumarest. Avro looked again at the place where it had happened,
assessing, extrapolating, knowing the mental bitterness of defeat. Too late. He had arrived too late. A matter of days and his search would have been over, his mission accomplished.
Dumarest, taken and helpless in his charge. Dumarest—and the precious secret he owned. One which had made Avro into an angel.
The cyber leaned back as the raft headed toward town. High above, a winged shape glided, others wheeling close. Small birds
feeding on airborne seeds, mindless creatures operating on a plane of sheer instinct but, for a moment, he envied them. Remembering
the freedom of the skies, the rush of wind, the thrum of pinions, the surging impact of alien emotions. Then he had known
hate and fear and anger and, yes, even concern. He had known the burning flame of passion and, at the end, he had experienced
death.
Watching him, Cardor felt a mounting unease. He was young, taken and trained by the Cyclan, yet still to don the scarlet robe
which was the mark of a cyber. He might never wear it. Not all acolytes made the grade. Some continued to work in subordinate
capacities but the majority quietly vanished from sight, erased by the touch of oblivion.
He said, “I did what I could, master. As I was ordered to do.”
By Tron who had demonstrated his inefficiency. Who had escaped his punishment by extinction.
“Tell me again what happened.”
Unnecessary repetition, every detail was clear in Avro’s mind as the acolyte knew. As he also knew that, in making the demand,
the cyber had put him on trial. The next few minutes would decide his fate.
“I arrived with Cyber Tron on Baatz fifteen days ago. We stayed at the Dubedat Hotel. He was in contact with an agent in the
circus of Chen Wei. The man had reported that Dumarest was attached to the circus and could be captured. Cyber Tron visited
the circus but neither Dumarest nor the agent was present. He made a second visit later. That is when he died.”
“And you?”
“Obeying orders, I stayed in town. To meet you should you arrive and report on what was happening. When Cyber Tron failed
to return I made inquiries at the circus. There I learned of the accident.” Cardor paused, reliving the incident, recognizing
its importance. “The owner, Tayu Shakira, explained what had happened. An animal had gone berserk, broken free of its cage and had run amok. A klachen. It—”
“I know what it is. Continue.”
“Its keeper, Valaban, had been killed. Cyber Tron and Dumarest also. There were witnesses.”
“Did you see the bodies?”
“No. But with Shakira’s permission I tested the witnesses with lie-detectors. All responses were positive. They were not lying.”
“But you did not see the bodies.”
“They had been disposed of before I arrived. A matter of necessity, so it was explained. The scent of blood needed to be eradicated
in order to prevent further upset among the beasts. And the bodies themselves were terribly mangled. But some things had been
saved. Cyber Tron’s bracelet and a gun he carried. I recognized them both.”
Proof the cyber had died—but the others? Avro stared at distant, wheeling shapes. Valaban, certainly, the man must have died
if Dumarest had escaped but, from the evidence, he had joined the others in death. A fact Avro found hard to accept; he did
not want to accept. Yet to refute the evidence was to be illogical.
“How many witnesses did you examine?”
“Eight. Three actually saw the incident. The others all saw the bodies and three helped to dispose of them.”
“And the owner?”
“He actually saw nothing. Cyber Tron must have contacted the agent direct.”
“But you tested him?”
“I did. With his permission after I pointed out how ill-advised he would be to make an enemy of the Cyclan. The findings confirmed
what he claimed.”
Which meant that he had not lied. And yet … And yet …
“Relate the evidence of those who saw the incident,” said Avro. “Individually and in detail.”
He sat immobile as he listened to the acolyte. The raft headed toward the sun and warm hues painted his face with red and
gold and amber. Colors which accentuated the scarlet of his robe, reflecting brilliantly from the sigil adorning his breast.
The Seal of the Cyclan, the symbol of his power. Yet despite the sunlight and the warm tint of his robe a chill rested about him. An aura emphasized by the skull-like contours
of his face. One thin to the point of emaciation, the scalp shaven, the deep-set eyes meshed by lines. The visage of a living
machine devoid of the capacity of emotion. A flesh and blood robot who could only know the pleasure of mental achievement.
Behind him the site of the circus fell away. The barren ground, the litter, the crusted lagoon. The pool in which the dead
had been buried and, with them, the ending of a dream.
At night Baatz became a world of gaiety with bright lanterns illuminating the tiered buildings and the market itself turned
into a playground. Here the venders, traders, merchants and entrepreneurs put aside business and joined with stallholders,
farmers, shopkeepers, housewives, workers and the restless tide of transients that made up the population.
A time of drinking and dancing and merriment but one free of violence. The air saw to that, the invisible spores it carried
from the vegetation clothing the surrounding hills. Exudations which calmed and reduced tension so that men laughed instead
of quarreling and sought peaceful solutions instead of bloody settlements.
Like a scarlet ghost Avro moved through the town.
Cardor could have accomplished the task, as could others of his own acolytes, but he needed to do it himself. The woman who
answered his knock frowned as she saw his face, became respectful as she recognized his robe. Even on Baatz the Cyclan was
known.
“My lord!” Her head dipped in a bow. “This is an honor. How may I serve you?”
“A man stayed here.” Avro’s tone was the even modulation of his kind, devoid of all irritating factors. “Dumarest. Earl Dumarest.
I have the correct address?”
“You have, my lord. He hired a room upstairs. In the back.” She blinked sorrowful eyes. “Such a pity he died.”
“You heard?”
“From the circus. They told me to sell his things and to let the room if anyone wanted it. Not that he’d used it much.”
“Let me see it.”
It was a box containing a narrow bed, a cabinet, a small table, two chairs. A rug half-covered the bare wood of the floor. A jug held scummed water and a bowl had a chipped rim. Avro
assessed this at a glance then he was at the cabinet, searching, the table, the drawers. They yielded nothing and he dropped
to his knees and checked the underside of the bed, the chairs, finally stripping the cot and examining the bare, wooden structure.
Nothing aside from a few crumpled papers, some packets of dried fruit, a book, a folder of bright pictures, a deck of cards.
These things he checked with minute attention, holding each of the pasteboards to the light, running his fingers over their
edges. Finally he turned his attention to the room itself, scanning each wall, the ceiling, the floor bared when he moved
aside the rug.
Again he found nothing and stood, thoughtful, trying to put a man into the chamber, trying to guess what that man would do.
Guessing, for he lacked data on which to base an extrapolation. The essential ingredient to promote his honed talent. Given
a handful of facts he could predict the logical outcome of any event; without them he could only make assumptions. A man,
alone on a strange world—how would he have safe-guarded his secret?
Again Avro checked the room, looking for the fifteen symbols which would tell him all he needed to know: the sequence in which
the biomolecular units of the affinity twin had to be assembled. The secret which would give the Cyclan galactic domination.
But he looked for it without success.
A failure he had expected, yet to have ignored the possibility of success would have been insane stupidity. An error equal
in magnitude to that made by Tron. To have had Dumarest in his grasp and then to have lost him. Death had been a merciful
punishment.
Avro looked once more at the room. A small, bare place, cold, featureless. One Dumarest had known as he must have known so
many others. Moving on to leave nothing of himself behind. And yet there had to be more.
He found it at a local bank, the manager reluctant to cooperate, finally yielding to logical persuasion. To refuse Avro’s
demand was to ruin all hope of promotion.
“Yes,” he admitted. “Dumarest did have money on deposit here. Quite a large sum as a matter of fact.”
“Withdrawals?”
“None after the initial deposit.”
“How was the credit registered?”
“The usual way.” The manager added an explanation. “This is a transient world and we get all types. This bank is affiliated
with others and we use the common system. When a deposit is made—” He broke off as Avro lifted a hand. “I see you understand.”
“Give me the number of the account.”
The deposit Dumarest had made had been registered in a pattern of metallic inks set invisibly beneath the skin of his left
arm. Special machines could read the code and adjust the credit as necessary. A blast of flame would incinerate the limb had
there been any tampering or forgery.
“Here.” The manager handed over the desired information. “But no withdrawals have been made to date.”
With Dumarest dead none ever would. More proof as to his extinction—would a man in need refuse to use the money that was his?
From the bank Avro went to the field where Cardor waited. The acolyte shook his head in a gesture of defeat.
“Nothing, master. The traffic is too great. It is impossible to gain detailed records of who traveled where and on what vessel.”
“The circus?”
“Bound for Lopakhin.”
Traveling in assorted ships, some members going their own way, others ready to disperse. All could be followed but nothing
new would. . .
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