Hunter's mind rocked. He felt himself falling down the long spiral into unconsciousness. The blaster slipped from his hand and his knees buckled1. But he clawed blindly, with animal instinct, at the hands closing on his throat.
His head cleared. He saw Eric Young's dark face close to his. Hunter swung his fist into Young's stomach, and the hands slid away from his throat. Captain Hunter sprang to his feet, crouching3 low to meet Young's next attack. Young's swing went wild. Hunter's fist struck at the flabby jaw4. Eric Young backed away, reeling under the hammer blows, until he came up against the laboratory table.
Suddenly he slashed5 at Hunter with a scalpel. The blade nicked Max's shoulder and cut across his jacket. The cloth parted, sliding down his arms and pinning his hands together. In the split-second it took Hunter to free himself from the torn jacket, Young swung the scalpel again. Hunter dodged6. Miscalculating his aim, Eric Young tripped over Hunter's outstretched leg and fell, screaming, upon the point of his own weapon.
Hunter stood for an instant with his legs spread wide, looking down at Young. Then he dropped to his knees and rolled the grievously wounded man over on his back. The hand grasping the scalpel slowly pulled the blade from the abdominal7 wound. Blood pulsed out upon the white tile. Young was still barely alive.
Hunter walked toward the transmitter, where Ann stood, saying nothing, her eyes wide and staring. A tremendous conflict was raging within him. Running away was no solution, but what if he could destroy the system itself? Break the mold and start anew.
He had the instrument that would do it, the hundreds of obedient slaves Young had already turned loose on the streets. With Ann's transmitter he could transform the disciplined strike of human automatons8 into a civic9 disaster. Terror and violence uprooting10 the foundations of the city.
But a moment's madness could not overthrow11 the enduring rationality of Hunter's adjustment index. To loose that horror was to set himself in judgment12 upon the dreams and hopes, the perversion13 and the sublimity14, of his fellow men. To play at God—a delusion15 no different from Eric Young's.
Savagely16 Hunter lifted a chair and started to swing it at the transmitter. Instantly, Ann Saymer turned to face him, the blaster clasped tightly in her hand.
"No, Max."
"But, Ann, those people outside are in desperate danger—"
"I've gone this far. I won't turn back." In her voice was the familiar drive, the ambition he knew so well. But now it seemed different, a twisted distortion of something he had once admired.
"We don't need Eric Young," she said. "He's bungled17 everything. You and I, Max—" She caressed18 the transmitter affectionately. "With this, we'll possess unlimited19 power."
"You mean, Ann—" He choked on the words. "You came here of your own free will? You deliberately20 planned Mrs. Ames' murder?"
"She was dangerous, Max. She guessed too much. We knew that when we monitored the call you made from the spaceport. But in the beginning we weren't going to make you responsible. We thought the strangers in the house—your attempt to expose the other woman who called herself Mrs. Ames—would be enough to get you committed to a clinic. I didn't want you to be hurt, Max."
"Why, Ann?" His voice was dead, emotionless. "Because you loved me? Or because you wanted me to be your ace2 in the hole, if you failed to manage Eric Young the way you thought you could?"
"That doesn't matter now, Max, dear. I thought Eric had what I needed. But I was misjudging you all along."
"You're still misjudging me, Ann. I'm going to smash this machine and afterward—"
"No you aren't, Max," she said coldly. "I'll kill you first."
Calmly she turned the dial on the blaster. He lifted the chair again, watching her face, still unable to accept what he knew was true. This was Ann Saymer, the woman he had loved. It was the same Ann whose ambition had driven her from the general school to a First in Psychiatry21.
With a fighting man's instinct, Hunter calculated his chances as he held the chair high above his head. It was Ann who had to die. He would accomplish nothing if he smashed her transmitter. She knew how to build another. If he threw the chair at her rather than the Exorciser and if he threw it hard enough—
From the door a fan of flame blazed out, gently touching22 Ann. She stood rigid23 in the first muscular tension of paralysis24. Hunter dropped the chair, shattering the transmitter. He turned and saw Dawn in the doorway25. Somewhere deep in his subconscious26 mind he had expected her. He was glad she was there.
"We've known for a long time we would have to break up their little partnership," Dawn explained. "After I talked to you this morning, Captain, I persuaded the others to hold off for another day or so. A clinical experiment of my own.
"It was unkind of me, I suppose, to make you the guinea pig. But I wanted to watch your reactions while you fought your way to the truth. Now you know it all—more than you bargained for. And you know what we're trying to do. Are you willing to join us?"
He looked at her.
"In your third alternative—the cautious, rational rebuilding?"
"After men understand themselves. When we're able to answer one question: why did you and Ann Saymer, with identical backgrounds, and intelligence, and an identical socio-economic incentive27, become such different personalities28? What gives you a zero-zero adjustment index that nothing can shake? Not the psychiatric shock of war, Captain. Not physical pain alone or the treachery of the girl you love. We need you, Captain. We need to know what makes you tick."
"That 'we' of yours. Just what does that embrace?"
"A cross-section of us all," she told him. "Psychiatrists29, executives in both cartels, union officials. We've been working at this for a good many years. We want to make our world over, yes. But this time with reason and without violence—without sacrificing the good we already have."
"And you yourself, Dawn. Who are you?"
"I represent that nonentity30 called the government, Captain."
"A nonentity wouldn't make you what you are, Dawn."
"My name, Captain—" She drew a long breath. "My name is Dawn Farren. The rest of my family is dying out as the Von Rausches are. Unlimited power has a way of poisoning the human mind. If wealth is our only ethical31 goal, what do we really have when we possess it all? Madness. Both cartels are shams33, Captain Hunter, just as your frontier wars are shams.
"Yes, you may as well know that, too. Neither fleet has actually fought the other for a good many years. The planets you blast are hulks already long dead. It's all a sham32, but we have to keep it alive. We have to make it seem real—until we're sure we've found something better and more workable for all of us."
The tension in Ann Saymer's muscles started to relax. Very slowly her body began to slump34, in the secondary stage of paralysis.
"What about her?" Hunter asked. "She can still make another Exorciser—"
"The dream of enslaving mankind is always insanity35. We'll put her in a public clinic, of course. We may have to use her own machine once more to erase36 the memory of its structure from her mind. After that the patent drawings will be destroyed. It's not a superficial cure for maladjustment that we're after, Captain Hunter, but the cause. All of Ann's research was up a blind alley—a brilliant waste."
Suddenly Dawn screamed a warning and leveled her blaster at Eric Young. Hunter sprang back as Dawn fired. But her timing37 was a second too late. In a last, blazing agony of life-before-death Young had regained38 consciousness long enough to hurl39 the scalpel at Hunter's back. Ebbing40 strength distorted his aim. The blade plunged41 into Ann's heart as she slumped42 against the wall.
After a long pause, Max Hunter moved toward Dawn and took her arm. He clenched43 his jaw tight and drew her quickly into the hall. "I want out, Dawn. There's no healing here. I won't feel free again until I can look up at the stars."
"The stars. Then you're going back to the service, Captain? You're running away?"
He didn't answer her until they stood in Eric Young's garden.
"Sham battles for shadow cartels," he said. "That's a child's subterfuge44 for the Tri-D space heroes. No, Dawn, the real war is here in the struggle for information about ourselves so that we can build a new world of freedom and human dignity. You say you need me. All right, Dawn, you've enrolled45 a recruit."
"It will be a long, slow war, Captain," she said, her eyes shining. "We may never see a victory, and—we can never make a truce46. But at least we've learned how to go about solving the problem—after ten millennia47 of trial and error."
The End
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1
buckled
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| a. 有带扣的 | |
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ace
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| n.A牌；发球得分；佼佼者；adj.杰出的 | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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5
slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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6
dodged
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| v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避 | |
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abdominal
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| adj.腹（部）的，下腹的；n.腹肌 | |
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automatons
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| n.自动机，机器人( automaton的名词复数 ) | |
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civic
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| adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的 | |
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uprooting
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| n.倒根，挖除伐根v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的现在分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园 | |
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overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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12
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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perversion
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| n.曲解；堕落；反常 | |
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sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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bungled
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| v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的过去式和过去分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
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caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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psychiatry
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| n.精神病学，精神病疗法 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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paralysis
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| n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症) | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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subconscious
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| n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的) | |
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incentive
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| n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机 | |
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personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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psychiatrists
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| n.精神病专家，精神病医生( psychiatrist的名词复数 ) | |
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nonentity
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| n.无足轻重的人 | |
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ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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32
sham
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| n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的) | |
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shams
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| 假象( sham的名词复数 )； 假货； 虚假的行为（或感情、言语等）； 假装…的人 | |
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34
slump
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| n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌 | |
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insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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erase
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| v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹 | |
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timing
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| n.时间安排，时间选择 | |
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regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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39
hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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40
ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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41
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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42
slumped
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| 大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
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43
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
subterfuge
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| n.诡计；藉口 | |
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45
enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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46
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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47
millennia
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| n.一千年，千禧年 | |
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