The gods have looked upon the Mink,
And felt his mighty hand;
They've sought him through the mines and towns,
And in the forest land.
All-wise, all-powerful though they be,
The Mink they cannot find;
Afar he's wandering o'er the earth,
At war for all mankind.
--Ruck's Ballad of the Mink
"Read it again," said Revel, bending his scarred face beside the girl's
sleek one, staring hard at the printing as if by concentration on it he
could learn to read right there, and drag the hidden meaning from the
words. "Read slowly. Rack, you're no slouch at thought, even though you
have been in the toils of the false gods. Give this your best brainwork.
Jerran, concentrate! You three men, try to cull the sense from these
words. Begin!"
In the light of half a dozen lanterns she began to read. The Mink
strained all his brains.
"_Man of the 21st century: John R. Klapham, atomic physicist and leader
of the Ninth Expedition against the Tartarian Forces in the year 2054.
Held in suspended animation._"
"Ha! I thought that's where you got the phrase," said Revel. "I believe
it means that in this chest, and thank Orbs it was too heavy for the
gentry to move today, in this very chest lies a man of the Ancient
Kingdom, who still lives, though he sleeps!"
The woman looked up excitedly, then began to read again. Most of the
words were strange. "Placed here 10-5-2084, aged 64 years; this done
voluntarily and as a public service to the men of the future, as part of
the program of living interments inaugurated in 2067."
"Living interments," repeated Rack heavily. "Buried alive. But you think
he still lives?"
"I think so. Don't ask me why I simply do. The words burn my brain."
"What are the numbers?" asked a miner. "2067, the year 2054--what are
they?"
"I don't know. Go on, Nirea."
"Instructions for opening the casket: spring back the locks along each
bottom edge." She felt the chest where it rested on six legs on the
floor. "Here are odd-shaped things--ooh!" She jerked her hand away.
"They leap at me!"
Revel felt impatiently, said, "Those are the locks." He unsnapped
fourteen altogether. "What next?"
"Run a knife along the seal two inches below the top."
"Here's the seal," said Rack. He took his pick, and thrusting the point
of it into a soft metal strip that ran around the chest, tore it away
with one long hard tug. The Mink finished the job on sides and back;
"Read!" he said.
"Lift off the top." She glanced at Revel. "This is almost exactly like
Orbish," she said. "Only those queer words--"
"Philosophize in the corner," he said, pushing her aside. "Rack, lend me
your brawn." Together they lifted the top, which was about the weight of
a woods lion, and with much groaning and puffing, hurled it clear.
* * * * *
Below them, within the chest and under a sheet of the transparent stuff
they had seen in other parts of the cave, lay a man. He was
young-looking, though if Revel understood the words on the chest, he had
been sixty-four when he was hidden away here. His skin was brown,
smooth, and his closed eyes were unwrinkled. A short oddly-cut beard of
brindled gray and black fringed his chin. His hands, folded on the
chest, were big and sinewy, fighter's hands.
"What now?" panted Revel.
"Provided that the atmosphere is still a mixture of 21 parts oxygen to
78 parts nitrogen, with 1% made of small amounts of the gases neon,
helium, krypton--none of these words make sense."
"Skip them, then. Find something that does."
"Let's see ... swing the front of the casket up, and unhinge it so that
it comes off." They figured out what was meant, and did it. The front of
the metal case, very light compared with the top, fell with a clang.
"Insert a crowbar under the glass that covers the man and lift it
carefully away."
"Crowbar? Glass?"
"This almost invisible stuff covers him, it must be the 'glass'," said
Jerran. "Let's try to lift it off."
It took Revel and Rack and two miners, but in a matter of five minutes,
they had removed the plate of glass, the thin curved sheet that had
protected this man of the Ancient Kingdom. "Next?"
"Provided that it is no later than the year 3284, Doctor Klapham should
revive within an hour. If not, take the hypodermic from the white case
below him and inject 2cc.... Do you understand this at all?" she asked.
"Only that the man, whose name is evidently Doctor Klapham, ought to
wake up shortly." The Mink shook his great brown head. "If only we'd
found this cave in a quiet time! If only the gods and the gentry weren't
to be dealt with! Have we the time?"
"Your work is going on above-ground," said Jerran, rubbing his chin. "We
can't be of more use anywhere else, it seems to me, than we may be right
here."
They sat and watched the inert form of Doctorklapham, while two of their
rebels went out into the mine to round up anyone who would join them. In
something over half an hour they were back. "The mine's been cleared;
nothing anywhere except this man, who was on the lowest level and hasn't
heard a thing."
"They missed me, I guess," said the newcomer. "I was off in an abandoned
tunnel sleeping."
"We're eight, then." The Mink scratched his head reflectively. "Not a
bad fighting force. Provided they don't smear this whole valley, I think
we can win clear--after we see what this fellow is going to do."
"I think I see him breathing," said the girl breathlessly. She was
sitting with a book on her lap, trying to decipher the meaning of its
words. "Look at his throat."
* * * * *
Doctorklapham made a strange sound in his chest, a clicking, quite
audible noise, and unfolding his strong hands, sat up.
"Well," he said clearly, "didn't it work?" Then he took a closer look at
the eight people standing beside him. "Oh, my Lord," he said, "it _did_
work!"
"He speaks Orbish," said Rack, "but with a different accent. Could he be
from the far towns?"
"No, you idiot, from the Ancient Kingdom," said Revel. "Your name is
Doctorklapham, isn't it?"
"Roughly, yes." The sleeper worked his jaws and massaged his hands.
"Wonderful stuff, that preservative ... what year is this, my friend?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"What's the date?"
"Date?"
"God, this I wasn't prepared for." He hoisted himself over and jumped
down with boyish energy. "Tell me about the world," he said. "I guess
I've been asleep a long time."
"Yes, if you were put here in the time of the Ancient Kingdom." Revel
was trembling with excitement. "Why are you still alive?"
"Friend, judging from your clothes and those picks, and the primitive
look of those lanterns, which must date from about 2015, I'd say it'd be
pretty useless to tell you how come I'm alive. Just call it science."
"What's that?"
"Science? Electronics, atomic research, mechanics, what have you--mean
anything?"
"I'm sorry," said the Mink, "no."
"You speak quite decent English, you know. It's funny it hasn't changed
much, unless I've been asleep a lot shorter a period than I figure."
"My language is Orbish."
"It's English to me. What's the name of your country, son?"
"It has no name. Towns are named, not countries."
"Who are you, then?"
"I am Revel, the Mink," he said proudly. "I am the leader of the rebels,
who are even now spreading through the land sending the word that the
gods can die, and that the gentry's day is done. I am the Mink."
He half-expected the man to know the old ballads, but Doctorklapham
said, "Mink? That was an animal when I was around last.... Call me
John."
"John. That sounds like a name." Rack nodded. "Yes, this is better than
Doctorklapham."
"Anybody have a cigarette?" asked John.
"What's that?"
"A fag, boy--tobacco, something to smoke. You drag it in and puff it
out."
"Your words make no sense," said Revel. "Drag in smoke?"
"This is going to be worse than I anticipated," said John. "Look, can't
we go somewhere and get comfortable? I have a lot to find out before I
can start getting across to you what I was sent into the future for."
"We are besieged by the gods. We dare not leave this place."
"By the gods. Hmm. Let's sit down, boy. I want to know all about things
here. Miss, after you." He waited till Nirea had squatted on the floor,
then folded himself down. "Okay," he said, whatever that meant. "Shoot.
Begin. What are the gods, first?"
Lady Nirea listened with half an ear to Revel's speeches, but with all
her intellect she tried to follow John's remarks. They were sometimes
fragmentary, sometimes short explanations of things that puzzled Revel,
and sometimes merely grunts and slappings of his thighs. Many words she
did not know....
* * * * *
_My God, that sounds like extraterrestrial beings ... globes,
golden aura of energy or force, sure, that's possible; and
tentacles ... zanphs? describe 'em ... they aren't from Earth either;
I'll bet you these god-globes of yours, which must be Martian or
Venusian or Lord-knows-what, brought along those pretty pets when they
hit for Earth...._
_Listen, Mink, those are not gods! They're things from the stars, from
out there beyond the world! You understand that? They came here in those
"buttons" of yours--what we used to call flying saucers--and took over
after ... after whatever happened. Your civilization must have been in a
hell of a decline to accept 'em as gods, because in my day ... oh, well,
go ahead._
_Priests, sure, there'd be a class of sycophants, bastards who'd sell
out to the extraterrestrials for glory and profit ... yeah, your gentry
sound like another type of sell-out, traitors to their race and their
world ... describe those squires' costumes again, will you?... Holy
cats, eighteenth century to a T! Not a thread changed, from the sound of
it! And a lower class, you call it the ruck, which is downtrodden and
lives in what might as well be hell...._
_Yep, it sure sounds like hell and ashes. The globes; then, as is
natural to a conquered country, the top dogs, priests in your case, who
run things but are run by the globes; then the privileged gentry--I'll
have a look at those books of yours in a minute, honey--who pay some
kind of tax, in money or sweat or produce or_ something, _for being what
they are; then the ruck (I know the word, son, you've just enlarged its
meaning) who have been serfs and peasants and vassals and thralls and
churls and hoi polloi and slaves since the Egyptians crawled out of the
Nile. The great unwashed, the people. Let 'em eat cake. I'm sorry, Mink,
go on._
_Your gentry sound about as lousy a pack of hellions as the eighteenth
century squires! Too bad you don't know about tobacco, they could carry
snuffboxes and_ really _act the part...._
_My God! Even the fox hunts--with people hunted. Anyone but miners? Open
days, eh? Ho-oly...._
_Glad to know you, Rack. Don't know as I'd care to have you on the other
side, you look like Goliath. So you just saw the light when the gods
started to die? You are lucky you saw it, big man; brother against
brother is the nastiest form of war, especially if mankind's fighting an
alien power...._
_Your rebels sound familiar, Mink. They had 'em about like you in
Ireland, a hundred or so years ago--I mean before I went bye-bye....
Always romantic, unbelievable, unfindable, foxes with fangs...._
_I wonder what your globes wanted? Power, sure, if they're that humanoid
in concept, but it must have been more. Maybe their own planet blew up.
Maybe they ran out of something. Tell me, do you have to give them
anything? Any metal, say?_
_Diamonds? Are those small hard chunks of--yes, I guess diamond still
means what it did. By gravy, I'll bet I know! They were just starting to
discover the terrific potential of energy of the diamond when I went to
sleep in 2084. I_ wonder _how long ago that was? Anyway, I'll wager these
globes of yours run their damned saucers--buttons--on diamond energy.
Maybe their planet ran out of diamonds. By god! what a yarn!_
_You'll have your hands full, but maybe I can help. There's a way to
bring those saucers down out of the sky in a hurry.... They won't give
up easily. They obviously have atomic bombs, and the lush intoxication
of power won't be a cinch to give up, not for anything that sounds as
egotistic as the globes...._
_Dolfya? We called it Philadelphia. Kamden, Camden, yeah.... Woods
lions, wow! They must be mutants from zoo or circus lions that escaped
during the atom wars; or maybe someone brought 'em to the U.S. The
Tartarians had tame lions, I remember._
_Six or eight brains? Well, Mink, I wouldn't argue, but I think you are
confusing certain functions of one brain with--oh, do go on!_
_Let me see that gun. My Lord, what a concoction! Blunderbuss muzzle,
shells, yet no breech-loading; ramrods to shove in shells! My sainted
aunt! A fantastic combination...._
_He eats dandelions, parsley, grass, eh ... chlorophyll, obviously. And
the globe rests on his chest and puts tentacles into his mouth and
nostrils. It's feeding, sure; look at the title of this book you've got
here. This is a bastard English but close enough. Certainly your father
wrote it, Miss. Some of your gentry must have preserved the art as a
secret._
_Look here: I'll make it as plain as I can. The globes are from another
world. They came here for diamonds to run their buttons with. Got that?_
_Now here's what I deduce from the little I've read here. Talk about
Pepy's Diary! Hadn't anything on this chronicle. Your father and the
other gentry have to feed the globes periodically. Evidently they draw
nourishment out of the human bodies--all that chlorophyll makes me think
it's a definitely physical nourishment, rather than a psychic one.
That's what your people pay for being privileged powers in the land.
They stand the disgrace and the pain, if there is any, the draining of
their energies, in return for plain old magnetic_ power.
_So that's the source of life, strength, what-have-you, of the aliens!
They must have gotten pretty frantic out in the space wastes, looking
for a planet that could afford them a life form that was tap-able._
_Evidently it has to be voluntary, from these books. I guess the
ancestors of the ruck had their crack at the honor and declined, thus
dooming themselves and their offspring to servitude; while those that
assented became the gentry. What a--Judas Priest! What a sordid state of
affairs for poor old Earth!_
_Let me have that line from the Globate Credo again:_ They came from the
sky before our grandfathers were born, to a world torn by war; they
settled our differences and raised us from the slime_--there's a bitter
laugh, gentlemen_--giving us freedom. All we have we owe to the globes.
_There's the whole tale in a nutshell. God!_
_Orbish language, Orbuary, Orbsday--nice job they did of infiltrating. I
wonder what books they left you. I'd like a look at your father's
library. Alice in Wonderland, I suppose, or Black Beauty, or something
equally advanced._
_Now listen, lads, and you, Lady Nirea. I came from a world that may
have had its rugged spots, but it was heaven and Utopia compared with
this one. You disinterred me at the damndest most vital moment of your
history, and probably of Earth's as well--we've had conquerors aplenty,
but always of this world, not from out of it. It seems to me that if
your rebellion fails, you're due for worse treatment than ever. You've
got to win, and win fast. Any entity that has atomic weapons is going to
be no easy mark, and the gentry have guns. How about you people? Ten?
Ten guns altogether? Oohh...._
_See here. That big machine over there is a--well, that's hopeless. I'll
try to break this down in one-syllable words. Orbish words, I hope._
_That big thing sends up rays like beams of sunlight but of different
intensity, color, wave length, et cetera--it sends up beams that
counteract, I mean work against, destroy, other beams. Now the buttons
are held up there by forces in diamonds, taken out by these globes of
yours and used to hold up their homes, ships, saucers, buttons. The
beams from that big thing will destroy the diamond beams and make the
buttons fall._
_There's just one thing. We have to get the machine, the thing, out of
this cave and onto the surface of the earth. You catch my meaning? It
has to have sky above it before it can work against the button-beams.
Yes, much like your globes' telepathy (what a word to survive, when
"glass" and "electricity" didn't) and hypnosis fails when rock gets in
the way._
_Can you get it to the surface? Talk it over, Mink. It can give you
plenty of help ... if you can get it up there. I'll just sit here, if
it's okay with you, and let my imagination boggle at what you've told
me._
_I have the most confounded urgent feeling that this is a visit I'm
making in a time machine, and that tomorrow I'll go back to good old
2084. Johnnie, Johnnie, wake up! You're here!_
_God!_