Again, Dangerous Visions Part 83

The door to the vault gaped open, leading into blackness. Lasten called for torches, and two of the robbers came forward and lit them. "Okay, now we go in," Lasten said, and sullenly the torchbearers followed him through the wide doorway, Sooleyrah and Kreech right behind them.

Inside was a high-ceilinged room littered with dust and stones and broken pieces of once-complete artifacts; one wall of the room was dark and misshapen, its plastoid seared by some long-forgotten fire-explosion. A hole in the ceiling, so far above them it was barely discernible in the flickering torchlight, showed where once there had been lighting fixtures, long since ripped out by the robbers. The sounds of footsteps were flat and harsh in the bare room, and the faint smell of old torchsmoke seemed to come from the shadows. Sooleyrah moved closer to Lasten, saying with dangerous softness, "Don't see nothing in here, thinker."

Lasten nodded, looking carefully around the vault.

"You see anything in here, Kreech? Looks empty to me, just empty as d.a.m.n, yeah?" see anything in here, Kreech? Looks empty to me, just empty as d.a.m.n, yeah?"

Kreech grinned. "Oh no, not empty. Can't be; fat thinker brought us here. That right, fat thinker? Something hidden in here?"

Lasten got down on hands and knees in the middle of the floor, picking through the rubble. Here and there he brushed aside dust and stones to look closely at the floor.

"Yeah hey, he got something hidden all right," Sooleyrah said. "Hey, move in with the torches there, move closer." The torchbearers edged suspiciously forward; Sooleyrah grabbed one, swung him around and placed him where he wanted him, standing right over Lasten. "You too," he told the other man, and that one too held his torch close over the fat boy.

Lasten giggled.

"You find it, hey?" Sooleyrah said. "What is it, fat boy? Better be good and you know it, now don't you? What is it?"

Lasten knew Sooleyrah and the others were more frightened than they acted. The robbers had always been afraid of these vaults, no matter how often they'd pillaged them, and despite the lower and lower frequency of maimings or killings by the defense systems. Robbers think this is all demon-stuff, something like that. h.e.l.l, no demons, not even lousy magic. Just stuff we forgot, even the thinkers forgot Robbers think this is all demon-stuff, something like that. h.e.l.l, no demons, not even lousy magic. Just stuff we forgot, even the thinkers forgot.

But yeah, I know one more thing about vaults that Sooleyrah don't know.

Lasten rose to his feet, puffing, then looked around and picked out the south wall. In the center of it was a metal plaque with writing on it-devil marks, the robbers called it: another kind of magic to fear.

Lasten couldn't read it, but he knew what it must be. He motioned Sooleyrah over to him and pointed at the plaque. "Take that off the wall," he said.

Sooleyrah stared at him; so did Kreech, and so did the rest, the torch-bearers and the ones crowded around the doorway.

"Take it off the wall!" Lasten said sharply, a little shrilly. "Pry it, use your knives-but be careful."

Sooleyrah hesitated only a moment more; then he turned and picked out one of the men in the doorway. "Takker-you. Bring your knife, do what thinker says. Rest of you, you keep door blocked so thinker can't run out."

Takker came into the vault reluctantly, drawing his knife. It was crude but strong; once it had been just a slim bar of metal, but Takker had filed it sharp. He worked the edge under the plaque and pried; the plaque began to loosen.

"Secret place in there?" Sooleyrah asked, and Lasten didn't have to feel the suppressed fear from his mind; it was apparent in his voice.

"Yeah, secret place," he said. "Surprise for you."

The plaque came off and dropped to the floor with a sharp metallic ring. Lasten stepped forward, motioned for the light and looked into the small hole opened in the wall.

There was a round dial, with markings and writing-the short writing they'd used for numbers. A time-lock, set for sometime in the future, after the wars. But the time could be changed, no reason it couldn't be changed.

Lasten twisted the dial, heard its faint sc.r.a.ping clearly in the suddenly silent vault. Turn, turn, and seasons flowed by, more and more time was marked off. Years, years. He kept turning the dial, waiting for the time-lock to release. (Maybe he was turning it the wrong direction? But no; it wouldn't turn at all the other way.) All around him he tasted fear. He stood in semidarkness as the torch-bearers edged away; shadows sprang up to claim more of the vault. Even Sooleyrah and Kreech had moved away, toward the door.

Then the floor of the vault began to rise.

There was a section of the flooring, twice as long as the height of a man and half as wide, that was separate from the rest; Lasten had searched for and found the edges of that section when he'd been on hands and knees earlier. Now the section was rising out of the floor, accompanied by a low subterranean hum of machinery. It was a block of heavy plastoid, and as Lasten and the others stared in wonder and terror it raised itself steadily to a height almost up to their shoulders.

It was a compartment, transparent-sided; inside it lay the body of an Immortal-or a demon, a G.o.d, a monster. He was huge, twice the size of Lasten or Sooleyrah or any of the rest of them; they could see that even while he was lying down, in the moving shadows of torchlight.

The mechanisms of the compartment were whirring to life; Lasten saw the top of the case lifting off, smelled stale air as it was released from the case, saw a needle-thin marker on the side of the compartment leap to the end of its dial, and at the same time the giant's body convulsed, back arching, muscles quivering. It settled back, but again the dial-marker leaped, and the huge body with it.

This time there came a moan, low and weak, and the monster's head rolled onto its side. Its mouth was open, slack; the eyes fluttered; the hands shook and moved.

Needles and tubes withdrew from the body, sinking back into their seats within the case. The dials settled to rest.

The Immortal's eyes opened and stared emptily at them.

h.e.l.l h.e.l.l h.e.l.l h.e.l.l h.e.l.l big monstrous inhuman devil h.e.l.l h.e.l.l kill us all kill us no no!

The eyes opened wider, and the creature moaned again, louder now. It was a deep growl, half-choked, and it echoed from the walls.

Hate us hate us all kill us kill me me me me no!

And the giant tried to sit up.

Its hands scratched at the sides of the case, lacking coordination, lacking strength. The creature grunted and fell back; it breathed in pain-wracked gobbets of air, making harsh gasping sounds deep in its throat.

Kreech screamed. He threw himself at the men standing frozen in the doorway and fought his way through them, still screaming. He sent others reeling backward as he burst through, and several followed him, adding their screams to his. Sooleyrah yelled after him, started to run too but hesitated.

Lasten stood rooted in fright, his whole being filled with terror, both from himself and from the flood of panic in the minds around him. Red, bursting fear, splas.h.i.+ng white-hot into his stomach, his chest...

Kill me kill me kill me me me me kill- The giant sat up, and it was monstrous. Twice the height of a man, it swayed and moaned above them in the dark vault. Its fingers scrabbled spasmodically; it slipped back onto one elbow; its eyes rolled as it stared down at them. And it spoke.

"G.o.d...oh G.o.d...what are you? What are are you?" you?"

A weak, thin voice. Frightened.

"Help me...please, help-"

Suddenly it tumbled over, falling off the side of its mount, headfirst onto the floor at Lasten's feet. It crashed heavily and noisily, sending Lasten staggering back in fright. The monster writhed there on the floor, hands clutching air, legs jerking, spittle falling from its mouth. And then it slumped, and sobbed weakly, hopelessly. "Oh G.o.d, please..."

Kill me kill me me me kill kill and Lasten suddenly had a large stone in his hands and he ran forward and brought it down with all his strength on the monster's face. It smashed in one eye, a side of the head, and thin red blood spurted. The giant thrashed about wildly, arms flung up and feet kicking spasmodically, and faint little sobs came from its gaping mouth. Lasten hit it again, and again, and again, and he was screaming now, screaming to drown out the cries of the monster, and he hit it again, and again, and and Lasten suddenly had a large stone in his hands and he ran forward and brought it down with all his strength on the monster's face. It smashed in one eye, a side of the head, and thin red blood spurted. The giant thrashed about wildly, arms flung up and feet kicking spasmodically, and faint little sobs came from its gaping mouth. Lasten hit it again, and again, and again, and he was screaming now, screaming to drown out the cries of the monster, and he hit it again, and again, and harder... harder...

And at last there were only his own screams in the vault. The monster, the Immortal, the inhuman giant lay silent and destroyed at his feet. Sooleyrah and the rest had fled. Lasten choked off his cries and dropped the slippery red stone. He fell against the case, hardly noticing the blood that covered his legs and hands.

I'm alive I'm alive, alive...I'm alive...

It was more than an hour later when Sooleyrah and Kreech crept back up to the vault. There had been silence for all that time, and the monster had not come out after them.

Kreech carried a torch; he thrust it before him through the doorway. He saw the demon-monster, and he recoiled; but then he realized that it lay completely still and there was blood all around its smashed head.

Sooleyrah pushed past him and entered the vault. He saw Lasten standing beside the monster's case, a dark stone in his hands. Lasten brought the stone down once, twice, and the molding broke; pieces showered to his blood-caked feet. He reached into the recesses of the case, yanked, and brought forth a handful of wires, red, yellow, blue, green.

He looked up and saw Sooleyrah, and smiled.

And giggled.

And said, "Come on, Sooleyrah. Come on, little dancer leader. No demon left to hurt you now, oh no, no demon, no monster. Devil scared you? But I killed him-me. Don't be scared, dancer, don't be scared; come inside. Plenty of stuff here, oh plenty. And in other vaults too."

He held up the fistful of many-colored wires.

"Pretty?"

Afterword.

I'm strictly a spare-time writer these days, and not at all a prolific one; I write a couple of short stories a year, that's all. Not much of an output, but it does give me one advantage: before I actually sit down to write a story, I've usually been mulling it over in my head for months or sometimes years, with the result that my original story idea may have been carried much further out than I'd expected, and a lot of undertones may have crept into the story.

"Ozymandias" happened like that. Originally it was just a notion that came when I'd been reading about cryogenics: Where would they store all the bodies? Maintenance would be prohibitive over the long haul, unless it were automated. And if it were automated, then you'd have a self-contained unit, a modern tomb sufficient unto itself, a scientific version of the elaborate tombs of ancient Egypt.

Well, why not? Those Egyptian tombs were designed to insure the immortality of pharaohs, n.o.bles and anyone else with enough money and power; today the criteria are the same, and so is the purpose. So...put a bunch of cryogenics tombs together and you've got a new Valley of the Kings.

It was an eerie image, and I carried it around in the back of my head for several months. Then an apparently different story idea came to me: Cryogenics is, in a sense, a method of time travel, so mightn't it one day come to be used specifically for that purpose? Rich men and women shut themselves in their tombs and set the mechanism to awaken them in time for, say, the turn of the millennium, or a century later, and another century, traveling forward in these time-leaps.

But if the future of the world should turn out to be as grim as some trends are warning us, then those cryogenic time-tombs could be used not just to travel forward but to escape from something-armageddon, maybe. For the rich, even an atomic war might be just something else to sleep through.

And there I had another a.n.a.logy to the tomb: a retreat designed to carry a person through death for a reawakening on the other side. And I was back again in the Valley of the Kings, for now it was even reasonable to a.s.sume that these people might store in their tombs quant.i.ties of tools, weapons, power sources, food...whatever they felt they might need on the other side of the catastrophe. Like the pharaohs, who stored food, possessions and wealth for use in the afterlife.

For the pharaohs this inevitably meant that their tombs would be violated by tomb-robbers, because it's the way of the world that those who need will take from those who have, if they can. And after an atomic war, anyone left alive would probably be very desperately in need, so those cryogenic tombs would become natural prey for robbers, or scavengers.

That was the background I had in mind when I began to put the actual story together; the rest is elaboration in terms of story, character, imagery and even symbolism. The symbolism, frankly, just happened as the story took form; it was an unconscious thing on my part, and I was surprised when I read over the final ma.n.u.script to see how many details had a little touch of extra referents...nothing major, nothing crucial to the story, but they're there if you have that turn of mind.

I'd almost finished the story before I realized that it should be t.i.tled "Ozymandias." This story is a comment on modern achievements in much the same way that Sh.e.l.ley's poem was a refutation of the vainglorious boasts of pharaohs: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair."

This time a new Ozymandias awakes to look on his own works, but the reaction is the same.

Introduction to THE MILK OF PARADISE.

This is the last introduction in the book. I have been at it, more off than on, for three months. It looks to be about 60,000 words of copy. That's a novel. For those of you who hate my introductions, you'll have decided to forego them all to this point, and you'll have no carp because you're paying for about 250,000 words of stories and the extra sixty grand of words is thrown in as a bonus. But for those of you who like to sense the people behind the fictions, I hope it has been as stimulating and pleasant an experience for you as it has for me. But in no way as exhausting.

Keep watch, there'll be a final volume in this trilogy, as I've noted elsewhere herein. It'll be t.i.tled The Last Dangerous Visions The Last Dangerous Visions and the name is intended to be taken literally. and the name is intended to be taken literally.

But for now, the best has been saved for the last.

In an earlier introduction I made sport of the concept of holding an anthology's strongest entry for the closeout spot. I did it in that introduction for the humorous effect. (What's that? Well, you're not so hot, yourself, smarta.s.s.) In Dangerous Visions Dangerous Visions I knew my best pick was Samuel R. Delany's award-winning "...Aye, and Gomorrah." When I bought it, Chip Delany hadn't published many short stories, though his novels were already coming to prominence. So it wasn't an award-winner then. But it was quite clearly the eye-opener of the book-though Phil Farmer's "Riders of the Purple Wage" was so close there wasn't air between them. It just howled award-winner. And so it was. I knew my best pick was Samuel R. Delany's award-winning "...Aye, and Gomorrah." When I bought it, Chip Delany hadn't published many short stories, though his novels were already coming to prominence. So it wasn't an award-winner then. But it was quite clearly the eye-opener of the book-though Phil Farmer's "Riders of the Purple Wage" was so close there wasn't air between them. It just howled award-winner. And so it was.

I kept hoping, as I a.s.sembled A,DV, for another smasher like the Delany, for the rideout position here. For many months good stories came in, some even breath-catchers-the Lupoff, the Vonnegut, the Filer, others-but not one that propelled itself, shoving aside all other contenders, into this slot. Then James Tiptree's story came to my desk.

I had been reading Tiptree for some time. He's a fairly recent addition to the corps of sf writers, and he hadn't had all that that much published-not even a novel as of this writing-but what I'd seen had impressed me considerably, and so I wrote asking for a submission. much published-not even a novel as of this writing-but what I'd seen had impressed me considerably, and so I wrote asking for a submission.

In came "The Milk of Paradise."

I simply could not believe I had been given the chance to buy a story that stunning. That kind of thing always winds up in some other guy's hands, and he becomes known as the editor who published such-and-such by so-and-so. But here it was, and it was mine, all mine, and without a glance at any of the other stories it went past go, collected all the marbles, avoided jail, and nestled here in signoff country. It was the big winner, the grand finale, the "Saints Go Marching In" with all horns blaring and emotional and intellectual pinwheels and luck had held. As I predicted earlier in this collection that Lupoff's novella would cop the mid-length awards, so I now stake what little rep I have left that this Tiptree story will cop the short story awards. And the sf world at large will realize what those who've read this story in ma.n.u.script and galley have come to realize: we have a new Giant in the genre.

Tiptree is the man to beat this year.

Wilhelm is the woman to beat, but Tiptree is the man.

All of this ferocity of flack is offered not merely because I am so high on this story, but because it is the favored spot, as said, and because, ironically, James Tiptree refuses to provide any personal data on himself.

That he lives in the state of Virginia and does a good deal of traveling (for a purpose I don't know) is all I have on him.

His reasons for remaining private seem to me deeply and sincerely motivated, so I won't defy them. But as a mark of a writer who may not even suspect how good he is-and for that reason may be be that good-here is an excerpt from the letter that accompanied return of the signed contracts for this marvelous, memorable, goodbye-to-A,DV story. Here is Tiptree: that good-here is an excerpt from the letter that accompanied return of the signed contracts for this marvelous, memorable, goodbye-to-A,DV story. Here is Tiptree:

"...You have given me to think about the value, to an editor, of an author with no personal data, no desire to be quotes 'showcased,' and every intention of impersonating a Doppler s.h.i.+ft if threatened with anything like awards. And who kicks over displays with his name on the cover. It had never, you see, occurred to me that such would happen. I had planned on several years of quietly collecting rejection slips. And then came Fred Pohl who understood and never made a fuss. Now he has gone and probes are coming in all around the horizon and for reasons which I trust are quite unclear they cannot get answered. What to do? A pseudonym and a P.O. box and start over?"

THE MILK OF PARADISE.

James Tiptree, Jr.

She was flowing hot and naked and she straddled his belly in the cuddle-cube and fed him her hard little t.i.ts. And he convulsed up under her and then was headlong on the waster, vomiting.

"Timor! Timor!"

It was not his name.

"Sorry." He retched up more U4. "I warned you, Seoul."

She sat up where he'd thrown her, purely astonished.

"You mean you don't want want me? But everyone in this station-" me? But everyone in this station-"

"I'm sorry. I did warn you." He began to struggle into his gray singlet, long-sleeved, puffed at elbows. "It's no good. It's never any good."

"But you're Human, Timor. Like me. Aren't you glad you were rescued?"

"Human." He spat in the waster. "That's all you can think of."

She gasped. He was pulling on long gray tights, pleated at knee and ankle.

"What did they do do to you, Timor?" She rocked on her bottom. "How did they love you I can't?" she wailed. to you, Timor?" She rocked on her bottom. "How did they love you I can't?" she wailed.