E. E. Doc Smith - Lensman 2 - First Lensman.pdf

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FIRST LENSMAN
FIRST PUBLISHED - Fantasy Press hardbound, 1950
BY E. E. "DOC" SMITH
CHAPTER 1
The visitor, making his way unobserved through the crowded main laboratory of
The Hill,
stepped up to within six feet of the back of a big Norwegian seated at an
eleotrono-
optical bench. Drawing an automatic pistol, he shot the apparently unsuspecting
scientist
seven times, as fast as he could pull the trigger; twice through the brain, five
times,
closely spaced, through the spine.
"Ah, Gharlane of Eddore, I have been expecting you to look me up. Sit
down."
Blonde, blue-eyed Dr. Nels Bergenholm, completely undisturbed by the passage of
the
stream of bullets through his head and body, turned and waved one huge hand at a
stool
beside his own.
"But those were not ordinary projectiles!" the visitor protested. Neither
person --
or rather, entity -- was in the least surprised that no one else had paid any
attention to
what had happened, but it was clear that the one was taken aback by the failure
of his
murderous attack. "They should have volatilized that form of flesh -- should at
least have
blown you back to Arisia, where you belong."
"Ordinary or extraordinary, what matter? As you, in the guise of Gray
Roger, told
Conway Costigan a short time since, 'I permitted that, as a demonstration of
futility.'
Know, Gharlane, once and for all, that you will no longer be allowed to act
directly
against any adherent of Civilization, wherever situate. We of Arisia will not
interfere in
person with your proposed conquest of the two galaxies as you have planned it;
since
the stresses and conflicts involved are necessary -- and, I may add, sufficient
-- to
produce the Civilization which must and shall come into being. Therefore,
neither will you,
or any other Eddorian, so interfere. You will go back to Eddore and you will
stay there."
"Think you so?" Gharlane sneered. "You, who have been so afraid of us for
over
two thousand million Tellurian years that you dared not let us even learn of
you? So
afraid of us that you dared not take any action to avert the destruction of any
one of your
budding Civilizations upon any one of the worlds of either galaxy? So afraid
that you dare
not, even now, meet me mind to mind, but insist upon the use of this slow and
unsatisfactory oral communication between us?"
"Either your thinking is loose, confused, and turbid, which I do not
believe to be
the case, or you are trying to lull me into believing that you are stupid."
Bergenholm's
voice was calm, unmoved. "I do not think that you will go back to Eddore; I know
it. You,
too, as soon as you have become informed upon certain matters, will know it. You
protest against the use of spoken language because it is, as you know, the
easiest,
simplest, and surest way of preventing you from securing any iota of the
knowledge for
which you are so desperately searching. As to a meeting of our two minds, they
met fully
just before you, operating as Gray Roger, remembered that which your entire race
forgot long ago. As a consequence of that meeting I so learned every line and
vibration
of your life pattern as to be able to greet you by your symbol, GharIane of
Eddore,
whereas you know nothing of me save that I am an Arisian, a fact which has been
obvious from the first."
In an attempt to create a diversion, Gharlane released the zone of
compulsion
which he had been holding; but the Arisian took it over so smoothly that no
human being
within range was conscious of any change.
"It is true that for many cycles of time we concealed our existence from
you,"
Bergenholm went on without a break. "Since the reason for that concealment will
still
further confuse you, I will tell you what it was. Had you Eddorians learned of
us sooner
you might have been able to forge a weapon of power sufficient to prevent the
accomplishment of an end which is now certain.
"It is true that your operations as Lo Sang of Uighar were not constrained.
As
Mithridates of Pontus -- as Sulla, Marius, and Nero of Rome -- as Hannibal of
Carthage -
- as those self-effacing wights Alcixerxes of Greece and Menocoptes of Egypt --
as
Genghis Khan and Attila and the Kaiser and Mussolini and Hitler and the Tyrant
of Asia
you were allowed to do as you pleased. Similar activities upon Rigel Four,
Velantia,
Palain Seven, and elsewhere were also allowed to proceed without effective
opposition.
With the appearance of Virgil Samms, however, the time arrived to put an end to
your
customary pernicious, obstructive, and destructive activities. I therefore
interposed a
barrier between you and those who would otherwise be completely defenseless
against
you."
"But why now? Why not thousands of cycles ago? And why Virgil Samms?"
"To answer those questions would be to give you valuable data. You may --
too
late -- be able to answer them yourself. But to continue: you accuse me, and all
Arisia, of
cowardice; an evidently muddy and inept thought. Reflect, please, upon the
completeness of your failure in the affair of Roger's planetoid; upon the fact
that you
have accomplished nothing whatever since that time; upon the situation in which
you now
find yourself.
"Even though the trend of thought of your race is basically materialistic
and
mechanistic, and you belittle' ours as being 'philosophic' and 'impractical',
you found --
much to your surprise -- that your most destructive physical agencies are not
able to
affect even this form of flesh which I am now energizing, to say nothing of
affecting the
reality which is I.
"If this episode is the result of the customary thinking of the second-in-
command
of Eddore's Innermost Circle . . . but no, my visualization cannot be that badly
at fault.
Overconfidence -- the tyrant's innate proclivity to underestimate an opponent --
these
things have put you into a false position; but I greatly fear that they will not
operate to do
so in any really important future affair."
"Rest assured that they will not!" Gharlane snarled. "It may not be --
exactly --
cowardice. It is, however, something closely akin. If you could have acted
effectively
against us at any time in the past, you would have done so. If you could act
effectively
against us now, you would be acting, not talking. That is elementary -- self-
evidently true.
So true that you have not tried to deny it -- nor would you expect me to believe
you if you
did." Cold black eyes stared level into icy eyes of Norwegian blue.
"Deny it? No. I am glad, however, that you used the word 'effectively'
instead of
'openly'; for we have been acting effectively against you ever since these
newly-formed
planets cooled sufficiently to permit of the development of, intelligent life."
"What? You have? How?"
"That, too, you may learn -- too late. I have now said all I intend to say.
I will give
you no more information. Since you already know that there are more adult
Arisians than
there are Eddorians, so that at least one of us can devote his full attention to
blocking the
direct effort of any one of you, it is clear to you that it makes no difference
to me
whether you elect to go or to stay. I can and I will remain here as long as you
do; I can
and I will accompany you whenever you venture out of the volume of space
protected by
Eddorian screen, wherever you go. The election is yours."
Gharlane disappeared. So did the Arisian -- instantaneously. Dr. Nels
Bergenholm,
however, remained. Turning, he resumed his work where he had left off, knowing
exactly
what he had been doing and exactly what he was going to do to finish it. He
released the
zone of compulsion, which he had been holding upon every human being within
sight or
bearing, so dextrously that no one suspected, then or ever, that anything out of
the
ordinary had happened. 'He knew these things and did these things in spite of
the fact
that the form of flesh which his fellows of the Triplanetary Service knew as
Nels
Bergenholm was then being energized, not by the stupendously powerful mind of
Drounli
the Molder, but by an Arisian child too young to be of any use in that which was
about to
occur.
Arisia was ready. Every Arisian mind capable' of adult, or of even near-
adult
thinking was poised to act when the moment of action should come. They were not,
however, tense. While not in any sense routine, that which they were about to do
had
been foreseen for many cycles of time. They knew exactly what they were going to
do,
and exactly how to do it. They waited.
"My visualization is not entirely clear concerning the succession of events
stemming from the fact that the fusion of which Drounli is a part did not
destroy Gharlane
of Eddore while he was energizing Gray Roger," a young Watchman, Eukonidor by
symbol, thought into the assembled mind. "May I take a moment of this idle time
in which
to spread my visualization, for enlargement and instruction?"
"You may, youth." The Elders of Arisia -- the mightiest intellects of that
tremendously powerful race -- fused their several minds into one mind and gave
approval. "That will be time well spent. Think on."
"Separated from the other Eddorians by inter-galactic distance as he then was,
Gharlane
could have been isolated and could have been destroyed," the youth pointed out,
as he
somewhat diffidently spread his visualization in the public mind. "Since it is
axiomatic that
his destruction would have weakened Eddore somewhat and to that extent would
have
helped us, it is evident that some greater advantage will accrue from allowing
him to live.
Some points are clear enough: that Gharlane and his fellows will believe that
the Arisian
fusion could not kill him, since it did not; that the Eddorians, contemptuous
of our powers
and thinking us vastly their inferiors, will not be driven to develop such
things as atomic-
energy-powered mechanical screens against third-level thought until such a time
as it will
be too late for even those devices to save their race from extinction; that they
will, in all
probability, never even suspect that the Galactic Patrol which is so soon to
come into
being will in fact be the prime operator in that extinction. It is not clear,
however, in view
of the above facts, why it has now become necessary for us to slay one Eddorian
upon
Eddore. Nor can I formulate or visualize with any clarity the techniques to be
employed in
the final wiping out of the race; I lack certain fundamental data concerning
events which
occurred and conditions which obtained many, many cycles before my birth. I am
unable
to believe that my perception and memory could have been so imperfect -- can it
be that
none of that basic data is, or ever has been available?"
"That, youth, is the fact. While your visualization of the future is of
course not as
detailed nor as accurate as it will be after more cycles of labor, your
background of
knowledge is as complete as that of any other of our number."
"I see." Eukonidor gave the mental equivalent of a nod of complete
understanding.
"It is necessary, and the death of a lesser Eddorian -- a Watchman -- will be
sufficient.
Nor will it be either surprising or alarming to Eddore's Innermost Circle that
the integrated
total mind of Arisia should be able to kill such a relatively feeble entity. I
see."
Then silence; and waiting. Minutes? Or days? Or weeks? Who can tell? What
does time mean to any Arisian?
Then Drounli arrived; arrived in the instant of his leaving The Hill --
what matters
even intergalactic distance to the speed of thought? He fused his mind with
those of the
three other Molders of Civilization. The massed and united mind of Arisia,
poised and
ready, awaiting only his coming, launched itself through space. That tremendous,
that
theretofore unknown concentration of mental force arrived at Eddore's outer
screen in
practically the same instant as did the entity that was Gharlane. The Eddorian,
however,
went through without opposition; the Arisians did not.
* * *
Some two thousand million years ago, when the Coalescence occurred -- the event
which was to make each of the two interpassing galaxies teem with planets -- the
Arisians were already an ancient race; so ancient that they were even then
independent
of the chance formation of planets. The Eddorians, it is believed, were older
still. The
Arisians were native to this, our normal space-time continuum; the Eddorians
were not.

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