DEFENCE MECHANISM

By Vincent King

New Writer Vincent King produces so many problems and surprises in this suspenseful story that it seems strange not to have seen his work before. Here, indeed, is a different “sense of wonder” story.

* * * *

I was in the smithy working on Peter’s new gun. I’d built up the metal round the breech, that meant it would take a bigger charge now—and a heavier slug. I’d cut down the barrel length so the gun didn’t weigh any more over all. My own is like that. You don’t want a great long thing in the City, not in the Corridors. You got to be quick, and you quite likely only get one chance.

I had the gun in the press putting in the liners on the fire wheel bearings. I bush them with bronze when I can get it, it makes for a lasting job. Not all smiths know how, but I do. I make double barrel guns too, over and under, but they cost you more. I drive the drill and my lathe from one of the vent fans—fast and loose belts. My smithy is only a few hundred floors down, a lot of the lights work, there’s plenty of water too. If the vent fans stop we’ll have to go up. They say the Camerons are really established there now, it’ll mean war if we try to move in. They say there are many more floors below us; you can’t go down so I don’t know how many. I’ve been down four, through the Farm Lands gathering metal and chemicals, but much farther than that you don’t go. There are Things down there, dwarfs, demons and the Aliens, but the Aliens are the worst and deepest. I’m not sure I believe in the others either, really. I knew a man once who went down seven Levels. A real good man, he was, and well armed. Lost an eye down there, he did. Said the farther down you go the more Aliens there are.

We know how they got there, the Aliens I mean. My father took me up to the Top, as soon as I was strong enough; mind, it was a lot safer then. We’d only just heard of the Camerons and we’d finally broken the Johnson’s power a bit before that. Killed seventy of them we did, in the Half-Dark. You can still see the shot scars over there; it was a famous victory.

Up there on the Top you can see for ever. Right out across the Green to the other City. Over the “horizon” that is, you can just see the Top. The Top of this City is pretty big too. It took us a couple of days to get to the Edge, Father said it was the nearest one too. The other way, east-west, the City goes on infinitely, on and on till it meets itself coming back, they say. It’s been there for ever too, they say it made itself. Or perhaps the Old Men made it, they were gods.

If you look down off the Edge you can see to the Wall bottom. It’s a long way, several thousand feet. Misty down there it is, and hot. Even if you could get down you couldn’t live there, there are poisonous vapours after dark. Down there, sticking up out of the Green, you can see the tail fins of the Ships.

The Old Men saw them coming, descending on great pillars of fire and smoke, out of the Sky, from the Stars. I’ve seen the Sky and the Sun—but the Moon and the Stars are the best. It’s worth going up just to see them.

In those days, when the Ships came, some of the defence Machines were still working—and the Old Men knew how to work them. Even as the ports opened they blasted the Aliens. The Old Men thought all the Aliens were dead for a while, but then they started to come through, gaining ground all the time. They say that was the real end of the Mayorality, things broke down after that. The Clan Wars really got going then. It was the end of the Great Old Days.

There is still a lot of the Power on. Solar Engines make it, that’s what my father went up to see, that and the Water Catchment. That was very impressive. Great sloping surfaces over to the west, and again to the east—but farther away there, just about unbroken too. The rain fell on them and ran down to the great tanks on the highest Level. My father explained all that to me up there on the Top, but he couldn’t fathom the Solar Engine. Great semi-circular dishes they were. Father thought they were to catch the warmth from the sun, but what happened then he couldn’t make out. I can see him now, hunkered down staring at the great structures, scratching himself, out there in the too brilliant light. After a bit he said, “Come on, son,” and we went back on down. He didn’t speak all the way.

So you see how it is. The Camerons are above us and the Aliens are below. As they come up so we will be forced into the Camerons. My grandfather told me that one time, when he was a boy, the Farm Lands were above the living Chambers. That means we’ve been forced up maybe four Levels in fifty years. If the water or the vent fans fail we’ll be in real trouble. That’s why I’m trying to make a breech loader. They say the Aliens are active again, pushing over to the east.

That’s where I was when it all started; when the shout went up. In the smithy, pressing in the bearings on Peter’s gun, thinking about my breech loader.

“Alien! Alien! Alien on the Level!” Peter’s daughter came scampering in and hid behind the water trough. All you could see were her big dark eyes and the muzzle of her gun.

I said: “You stay there. Shoot if it shows here. But make sure of it. I’ll tell your dad if I see him.” She was a pretty little girl, was young Pete. I hoped the Alien wouldn’t find her.

I grabbed my over and under, the shot pouch and the food pack I had ready. I went out to the Assembly Chamber. I was on the Duty that week.

Occasionally, once in a while, an Alien gets up into our Levels. They come up to steal food, or just to raid; you can’t fathom their minds, they aren’t like us. Somehow they get past the Patrols, then get spotted in the Farm Lands; you can’t shoot among the algae tanks so they make it up to the next Levels. The Patrols are below them so all they can do is go on up and try to get through the women and children before we can get organized. They’re pretty savage when you corner them. Tough and fast too. We get as many as we can; that’s the idea of the Duty men, always ready to drop everything and go after any that get through.

As I went into the Assembly Chamber there was a hoarse scream and a crashing of shots out to the west. I ignored the messenger waiting for me and ran in the direction of the shots.

When I smelled the powder smoke I unslung my gun and set the firing wheels. I was running in an easy controlled lope, I had to save myself, I might have miles to go. These Hunts could go on for days.

When I got to where the firing had been I could smell the Alien’s sweet reek over the acrid powder smoke. It was a shambles.

Old Henry had got his. His head was practically off his shoulders. There was blood everywhere. One of his sons was lying in the blood waiting for someone to straighten his broken leg. His gun was over against the Corridor wall. The Alien had taken time to break the stock against the wall before it went on. Down at the end of the Corridor I could see shot marks on the wall. There was a pool of something and the light down there was broken. I thought they might have hit the Alien when I saw the pool but it turned out to be water from a holed pipe.

I looked to Henry’s son.

“Jumped us,” he said. “We were a bit ahead of the rest. Got the old man before I knew it.”

“Did you get a shot in?”

“Naw. It had me and threw me against the wall before ... It scrammed before it could finish me ... heard the rest coming.”

“How far ahead?”

“Ten minutes.”

“Did you see it properly?”

“Yeah. It’s a big one, good condition too. Plenty fast.”

“The others after it?”

“Yeah. Five minutes ago.... They got a shot in.”

“You hang on,” I told him. “They’ll pick you up on the way back.” I gave him old Henry’s unfired gun and ran on.

I didn’t think the Alien would be back that way, but you never really knew anything about what they might do— except you had to stop them before they did.

As I padded on down the Corridors I tried to work out the best thing to do. As Senior Duty man I had to give the orders and organize the Hunt. You might think we would be certain of getting the Alien only by taking as many men as possible on the Hunt. That’s as may be, but you can’t spare as many as all that from the Levels, from the Perimeter. Say we went out with nine or a dozen men and boys. It wouldn’t be long before the Camerons found out all that, and it wouldn’t be much longer before they mounted an attack. It isn’t that twelve or so men is such a big number, we’ve got maybe ninety men on the Perimeter at any time, it’s that they would leave gaps. Each Perimeter man has to keep the next in sight the whole time. Or else someone filters in and gets at our food or women. You got to guard every vent, every stair and every shaft. It could be terrible, the Aliens might get through in strength; and you know what they are like.

I think three are plenty on a Hunt anyway, if they are good men. My idea is that if one man goes a bit ahead then the other two can get a shot if the Alien jumps him—more often than not before he gets it. It’s better than huddling about in a great crowd. You don’t have room to move then, you drown any noise the Alien might make and with more than a few men you can’t smell them. Anyway you’re just as likely to shoot each other as the Alien.

I got a special team. Me, Sim and the Boy Peter, that’s old Peter’s youngest son. We work together well. The Boy goes in front, then me about fifteen feet back with Sim a few paces behind, guarding the rear. We’ve been on about eight Hunts like that. The Alien only got the Boy once and then it was dead before it could do him much harm. Sim got that one, I had a miss-fire. Mostly it’s us that jump the Aliens though. They’ve got a tendency to go west, into the Dark Areas, hide up there for a few days, then try to find a way down through the Levels to their own regions. If the Hunt gets more than about three Levels below ours it’s very dangerous, you can’t go too low.

I caught up with the rest in the Big Chamber to the west of our Levels. The Lights begin to get a bit sparse out that way. The Chamber is big. Thousands of yards long and wide, the lit places edging off into the long distances.

The men were standing in a loose group under one of the lights. They weren’t talking, just peering into the half light around them, their guns in their hands. You didn’t want to look too ready, someone might think you were scared. You tried to hold your gun as if you didn’t know it was there, but so that it was ready just the same. Now the first anger of the chase was over they were beginning to feel a bit uneasy. They would be glad to get back to the Levels now, back to the Perimeter; and leave the Hunt to us.

As I came into the Chamber the white faces and dark gun barrels swung towards me. Sim and the Boy stepped forward.

“All right men.” Sim raised his gun in salute. “It’s him. Senior Duty Man.” The men relaxed.

“Which way and how long?” I was in a hurry. An Alien could make maybe ten miles in an hour and their endurance and strength were legendary.

The Boy gave me the facts. He thought that there were two Aliens. He hadn’t told the men, they were jumpy enough as it was. So was the Boy, two to three is long odds. The Aliens were about fifteen minutes ahead and still going west. The men had glimpsed an Alien in a far light, well out of range, as they entered the Chamber. So they had waited for me, rather than plunge into the uncertainty of the near dark.

Sim had dismissed the men by now. I could hear their low talk as they hurried home. I released the wheel springs on my gun. The Alien, or Aliens, were far on now, there was no immediate hurry; it would be a long Hunt.

Sim wanted to catch my eye. Good old Sim. He was unusually tall, nearly six feet, cool calm face, leaning his bulk on his gun. He whispered to me: “There are two of ‘em. Don’t speak loud, the Boy doesn’t know yet.”

“It’s O.K., Sim. He knows very well.... He’s getting good.”

The Boy had a look of suppressed triumph on his face. Sim grinned at him and turned to scan the darkness. You don’t turn your back for too long on a Hunt.

I gave them their Hunt Badges. White disks they are, you can turn them round to show the dark face when you didn’t want to reveal yourself. The other Clans recognized them, if you showed the Badge they wouldn’t shoot so quick; they might even help you. They would give you an escort through their Levels anyway, partly to help and partly to watch you. On the Hunt the Old Hospitality still applied, they would most likely feed you too.

We checked our food and shot pouches. We went on then, in our Hunt formation; the Boy ahead, Sim and I behind—keeping in the shadows while the Boy crossed the broad islands of light. The Hall was the best part of three miles long and almost as wide. It was tall too. Far up on the walls we could see tiered balconies, picked out by the occasional pattern of still functioning lights. Every so often we came to the Great Columns set solid on the floor. Occasionally there was a stream coming from some shattered, forgotten pipe, running in shallow beds cut through the dust into the plastic. We saw the muddy marks where the Aliens stopped to drink—they foul everything they touch—and drank upstream of that place. Sim gathered some of the yellow-white stringy plants for use later. They make a good soup if you add some algae block.

We followed the soft pad marks in the dust out of the Great Chamber and into the Corridors. We camped that night ten miles on from there in a small room we picked because it had only one door and vent. We blocked them with the old furniture we found in the room. The Boy broke some shards of plastic from the walls and lit a small fire. We boiled our water and made the soup. Sim had a flask of the wood spirit from Food Plant. We sat and drank.

I took the first watch. I sat in a dark corner near the door. The lights dimmed for the Night hours. Our fire cast a flickering glow on the wall opposite me. I didn’t have a lot of trouble keeping awake. The Aliens were too close ahead for easy sleep. Of course it took us longer to trail them than for them to go on. If they had been going at fullstretch they would be half a day ahead already. They were still going west. All day we had been seeing the marks of their passage. The disturbed dust where they rested, their excrement and sometimes, in the damp areas, the fresh cut white fungi where they had stopped to eat.

We would come up on them slowly, by taking less and less rest. We would aim to catch them in about three days. We wouldn’t talk now, and in future would light no fires. With any luck they would think we had abandoned the Hunt. We would get them by surprise.

Two hours later I woke Sim and he took over the watch. I took my two hours’ sleep and we moved on again. The Boy was lucky that night, he got four hours.

A few hours later and we were in the Dark Areas. It took us three days to get through there. We had to be sure the Aliens weren’t lying up somewhere in the Darks, like they usually do. But they weren’t, not this time. The trail ran straight on, still going west. It was more dangerous in the Dark. The Boy went ahead with an asphalt torch. Sim and I followed in the shadows watching and waiting. We came to the end, out into the lights again much quicker than I expected, I know we weren’t the first to penetrate the Darks but we were the first since my father’s time.

It was wonderful. The other side was just like our own. The walls were the same colour, the dimensions and lay-out identical. The stairs had the same number of steps. It was wonderful how the Order, the Logic goes on through the City. The City is eternal Logic, home, Uniformity; a safe place for man in the Chaos outside....

Soon after we got into the Light the trail went up a Level. We went on to the next stairs and went up there instead. The Aliens had probably waited back along the track ready to take us as we laboured up the first stairs. Sure enough, when we backtracked, we found a disturbed area in the dust, scattered with fungus rinds, and reeking of Alien. They had been there quite a while waiting for us. We figured they were no more than an hour ahead of us now. . After we had rested we went after them, very cautiously and in total silence.

We had a hold-up then. Suddenly, out of the walls it seemed, a party of armed men materialized. They were very small, on average smaller than the Boy. Very hairy too. They had guns, but they held them one-handed and fingered in their other hands wicked looking hatchets. Sim dropped on his belly and swung up his gun. The Boy was down there too. Mostly because I was still standing, the thought came that I was getting slow. I spread my legs, held up the Hunt Badge and shouted the formal Hunt Greeting.

“Peace. All Men are Brothers. We hunt the Foul Alien!”

The Dwarfs, I’m sure that’s what they were, but they called themselves men, were spreadeagled about the Corridor, their guns centred in on our little group. You couldn’t have got more than one with a shot. We faced each other, frozen. I repeated the Greeting. Sim saw how hopeless it was to fight and slowly stood up, leaving his gun on the floor. I carefully leaned mine against the wall.

One of the men stepped forward. He lowered his gun and spoke. He had a soft deep voice.

“All men are Brothers. We acknowledge the Hunt. Come and be welcome to us.” This was the formal reply to my Greeting. It could mean anything, almost. It might mean a fine feast or an armed escort to the other, side of their Levels. All we could be certain of was that they would not kill us—yet, and that we must not refuse what they offered.

“Pick up your weapons, Hunt Men.” The first one spoke again. “Come to our Levels and we will rest and feed you.”

“We Hunt Aliens. We are close behind them.” I picked up my gun. There was an involuntary rustle of movement among our new friends. I ostentatiously unset the firing wheels and blew out the primer charges. Sim and the Boy did the same. Our captors relaxed. They made show of slinging their guns but they still kept their hatchets ready in their right hands.

“Your Aliens are gone on. Three hours.” He held up three fingers to make sure I got the point. “We have watched them from our Levels. A Hunt party pursues them.”

I could figure that. Who wanted a bloody fight, with stranger’s slugs breaking your Algae tanks, killing your people, when you could settle it quietly outside your own Levels, with your own men? Much better keep the strangers in your own Chambers, feed and guard them while your own Hunters finished the Aliens.

* * * *

We got to know the Dwarf Men pretty well in the next few days. The first day was spent in one long feast. We had real meat. Dog it was. You don’t see much of that in our Area. Some of the food was green leaves. I wondered about that. It tasted very strong.

The women came to us in the firelight. They had good willing women. Sim did really well. He had three that first night and two in the morning. The Boy was doing all right too. I made do with one at first. I had another later on. It wasn’t just that I was feeling tired, old, after the long Hunt. I wasn’t too sure of the way some of the young men were looking at us. No one likes to see strangers using their women. I edged over to the Elder, the one who had spoken to us first.

“A good night, Elder.” I tried to keep my eyes off the young men over there, across the fire, the light glinting on the hatchets.

“Warm.” The Elder grinned at me. “What’s wrong with the woman?” I’d left her lying there, her thighs spread white in the fire light. She looked a bit disgruntled. When I looked back to the Elder he was watching me out of the corners of his eyes. I saw the fire glint in them, under his bushy brows.

“You going to refuse our Hospitality?” He nodded his head sideways at the girl. I couldn’t see if he was grinning or not. I wished I could.

“I was wondering if it might not be healthier not to.” I indicated the young men over the fire.

“No disease here.” He knew what I meant though. I caught Sim’s eye, he released his girl and felt about for his gun. The girl put her arms back round his neck and hung there, her face buried in his chest. He waited, watching over her shoulder, the long pale hair was plastered down her glistening back. The Boy was out, dead drunk across a couple of girls. I turned back to the Elder. He took a swig from his jug.

“It’s not that,” I said, watching him closely.

“I know. Don’t worry about them. I’m the Elder ... and they know it.” He grinned goatishly. “Go on man ... there’s no risk.”

“You sure?”

“I can handle it. They know it’s necessary. And the women are enjoying themselves ... not complaining ... are they?”

“Necessary? What does ‘necessary’ mean Elder?”

“O.K., Hunt man. You win.” He paused, took a pull from his jug and went on. “Have you noticed the children here?” I shook my head and waited. “We’re degenerating. We had six albinos born this year so far. You know, the ones with pink eyes. There are more idiots now, every year. There’s some who if they cut themselves take a week to stop bleeding. We’ve bred too close. My father had two children by his own sister. There wasn’t anyone else. That’s why we give you our women. We want your blood.”

I believed him at once. Thinking back I could see the same trouble coming in our Clan. We needed fresh blood too. Perhaps we could get some women from the Camerons. I realized with a sudden shock that young Pete, the Boy’s sister, was my cousin.

“We don’t like it, especially the young men.” The Elder was quite sober now. “But we understand we must.”

I nodded to Sim and we got back to our women.

Later we all went to sleep on the spread rugs. I watched the fire die down. Except for the odd sigh, a stirring in the darkness, there was silence.

Much later we woke. The fire was a pile of black curled plastic. I had a bad head from the wood alcohol. No one moved for a bit. The women stretched their naked limbs, they pulled their rags to themselves. Now the lights were on you could see their pure white skins. The young men, silent at first, stirred themselves and re-kindled the fire. They brought food and more of the drink. Fresh women came in. The Boy hadn’t moved yet. Pretty soon we were off again. Drinking, eating and making love. The lights dimmed again soon after that.

The second night was even better than the first, if a little slower. When the sleep came again I kept awake. I lay still until there was silence, except for the breathing. I moved gently over to the Elder. I woke him and whispered close in his ear.

“Time to go. We’ll be off now ... we’ll go quietly while your men are asleep.” The young men were getting restless. The hangover was not improving their tempers. The Elder was a bit unwilling at first, but he saw what I meant in the end. He said he would guide us out.

I woke Sim and the Boy. It took a bit of time to find the Boy’s gun. I had mine tied to my waist, the Boy would know better next time. We crept out over the tumbled bodies. I hoped we were not too far from the Aliens.

The Elder guided us out past the Perimeter guards. We went on to the west. When we were a few yards clear of the last guard the Elder whispered a few words to me in the darkness.

“The Aliens camped a few hours on from here. We watched them. All the time you were on our Levels. They moved on an hour or two ago.”

“You watched them?” I was horrified. Watching Aliens! I didn’t see how you could do a thing like that. I mean ... watching Aliens.

“Don’t think we enjoyed it. We don’t have the men to fight Aliens...not now.”

I grunted, I suddenly didn’t like these people any more. Sure they would miss even one man bad. But just sitting there, watching Aliens!

“Sure . . . sure, Hunt Man ... I know how you feel... I feel it too. Anyway ... you’ll get them, Hunter man, you’ll get them....”

I said: “Come on, Sim.” We moved off down the Corridor. We didn’t look back.

We went on in silence. We soon picked up the Aliens’ trail. Sim reckoned they were about four hours on. From the careless trail we knew they were confident that we had abandoned the Hunt. They were still going west. We would move with care and silence to take them in about three days. We were far out now, no one had been this far west.

About the end of the second day after leaving the Dwarfs I began to feel a bit ill at ease. Something was not quite right. It was a bit like being in the Big Chamber where you can’t see the ceiling. There was something wrong. I tried to figure out what it was. After a bit I paused for Sim to catch up and signalled the Boy to stop. When Sim was close he slowly shook his head, he watched me from under his brows. After a bit he spoke, very softly, the way you do in the Corridors.

“There’s something,” he said. “Something’s wrong, Leader man....”

We hunkered down in the dust and sat silent, trying to figure out what it was that was out. In the end it was Sim that spotted it. He jerked his thumb up the Corridor.

“Look at the floor edges.”

I looked and after a while I saw what it was. The edges should run in perfect perspective to the Corridor end. These didn’t. Very slightly they moved to the south and up. One side ended slightly higher. The Corridor was warped, twisted. I looked back the way we had come; the Corridor ran as straight as an arrow, the way it should.

After a while it seemed safe enough. So we moved on.

When we got to the Corridor end, to the corner, we stopped again. The next Corridor was even more bent and twisted. As we moved up it I actually had the sensation of walking up hill. Sim didn’t like it too much. I’d never seen him so worried. I don’t blame him ... I was pretty worried myself. The Place wasn’t natural ..,. you’ve no idea. At the end of the Corridor the cracks began.

The next Corridor was actually broken. It went down at first, quite steeply. About half a mile down there was a crumpled sort of gap and then the rest of the Corridor went up. It was twisted more, too, we were soon leaning on the wall as we pushed on. I wondered how soon we’d be walking on it.

When we got to the break Sim grounded his gun and halted. He was silent for a while, then he looked away.

“It’s far enough. I don’t like this Place. I think we should go back.” He spoke very softly, I could hardly believe my ears.

“What about the Aliens, Sim? Remember who’s in charge here.... We should go on. We must get them.” Whatever the risk and cost we had to get those Aliens. We must never let them get away with coming up to our Levels; if they ever thought they could do that, then it was all over, we were as good as lost.

“Damn this place...” Sim, old brave Sim, was in a bad way. I realized suddenly that he was fighting to control himself; he was on the verge of breaking down. As he spoke his voice trembled. “This Place ... it’s not right.... It’s Alien. All the Order—the Structure’s gone. It’s Limbo ... Chaos. Let’s get out... please let’s get out! It’s dirty.”

“But, Sim, we must get them—we have to go on and get them.” I was pretty shaken myself by now, what with this twisted, perverted Place and old Sim’s breakdown. But we had to go on. Sim didn’t say a thing. He turned his head away, I thought I heard him sob. I turned to the Boy. He was watching us wide-eyed. I could see his knuckles white round the stock of his gun. He was as far gone as Sim.

“Boy,” I said, “you go back with Mr. Sim. Wait for me a day or so back, this side of the Dwarf Men. If I’m not back in a week go on home if you like ... you can tell them what happened—if you want to.” By rights I should have killed them both. But I couldn’t do that, not to old Sim. He was crying. I could see the wet on his cheeks. They turned and went back down the Corridor.

I went on. I was the Leader. I couldn’t go back, not yet. Someone had to get those filthy Aliens.

* * * *

Large sections of ceiling were down. The floor was splintered too. Later the walls were blackened, like with a fire, but all over; the plastic was bubbled and cracked.

The Place got worse and worse. A few hours later I came to a point where the roof came down until it nearly reached the floor. I struggled through the gap and found myself sitting in a few inches of very cold water. I was in a very big Great Chamber indeed. There were no lights to speak of. Far over across the water I could see a few glinting over the oily surface. I started to splash towards them. After about ten paces the water was up to my waist. I’d never met water more than ankle deep before, except in my trough at the forge, so I turned back and set out round the edge of the lake. If it hadn’t been for the lights over there— and if I could have found where I came in, I think I would have gone home then.

As I went on round the shore my eyes got a bit better in the dark. I began to see the sort of place I was in. The Roof was far off, very high. There were only one or two lights in it and they were dimming as the night came on. The lake itself must have been a couple of miles across. The roof got lower farther on, all the way it sloped down in a great sagging arc. About a mile ahead I came to a point where it was within a few feet of the water. I crouched and stepped in and on. I got ten paces before I looked up and saw the Stars.

The roof ended suddenly, jagged. The water went on. Far away I could hear a whisper of falling water. Above were the Stars. I hadn’t seen them for twenty years, then only once. I’d remembered them as beautiful, but they weren’t, they were terrible. Awful—millions of them—and so far ... all that volume. Empty ... the absence of a ceiling. Infinity above you is a terrible thing. You feel so naked ... unprotected ... small. Over across the calm dark water I could see the black mass of the City reaching on and up, looming up into the sky. The lights ran in stratified layers into the distance on the left. Opposite me the Order broke down. The Levels were twisted and scattered. There were many fewer lights in that part. To the right the Chaos continued. It didn’t go as far, the broken Order ended and the Stars began again.

I was afraid to go out in the Open just then. I searched about and found a broken Corridor. I found a well enclosed room with the dimmed light still working and settled down to wait for day to come. I didn’t light a fire. I ate the last of the scorched rat meat the Dwarf Elder had given us. I still had some of the algae block, but not much now.

I woke with a jerk in the blinding Sun Light. There was a crack about two inches wide in the roof. The Sun was getting in through there. It was hell for a few minutes. Then I found I was getting used to it. I had a headache all the time I was out of the City though, even though I kept in the shadows all I eould. Even now the City lights look dim to me, I’m sure that Sun outside spoiled my sight. I fixed up a sort of shade for my eyes and moved outside. I found a place out of the Sun and looked the Place over.

The lake was even wider than I thought. It was brilliantly light now and blue. In the shallow parts I could make out the dim shapes of the flooded Corridors. A few yards out I could see the edge of what I took to be a flooded Great Chamber. It was the biggest I’d ever seen. The water was very deep and dark there. Dotted about it ragged masonry or plastic broke the surface. On the far shore the wall of the Great Chamber formed the edge of the lake. Farther to the right it dipped and the water overflowed it. That was where the noise of the falling water came from. Behind the fall a plume of white vapour pushed up into the Sky. Far beyond that again was the Green. I could see the misty luxuriance of the Forest stretching away for ever and ever, on and on until it met the Sky. To the west and behind me lay the bulk of the City. Broken here, it was a vast layered honeycomb of Corridor ends, more and more broken as they neared the Lake Place.

As I looked back towards the waterfall a movement caught my eye.

It was the Aliens. As I watched they moved to the right and dropped out of sight. At last they were going down, following the water to their own Levels. I grabbed my pack, checked the loads in my gun and set off into the Sun.

It took me the rest of the day to reach the far side of the water. It was rough going. There was a sort of path some of the way, but there were long stretches over great tumbled slabs of floor and roof. There were plants too, growing wild, with thorns. There was water everywhere. I fell in twice and had to stop to reload my gun. The Sun was very hot. While it was high I stopped and tried to sleep in a fairly good fragment of Corridor I found. My legs were scratched and my feet bleeding, there was no soft dust here.

When the Night came I was on the very edge of the path down. Mostly it was a chain of steep mossy slopes, but there were some stretches of stair. It plunged down and down, a great vee cut in the side of the City, right to the Forest of the floor below. The thunder of the falling water was terrible.

A mile or so down I could see the red glow of the Aliens’ fire. A day’s march and they would reach the floor. I decided to catch a few hours’ sleep and get on down after them. The Moon had just come up and I could see there would be plenty of light.

I woke an hour later in agony. My whole skin was on fire. It was so stiff I could hardly move. It felt swollen—it was as if it was going to lift off. Later when the light came I found that instead of the natural white I was bright red. The straps over my shoulders had left white painless paths on my skin. I had the Sun Burn. My father had warned me about that, but I hadn’t thought it could be as bad. Later blisters came up. I rubbed in all I had left of the rat fat and that seemed to ease it a bit. My skin never got to be its right colour again—it’s still a bit off-white. I started off at once, to take my mind off the pain. In a way I was glad the Bum had woken me—I would get to the Aliens all the quicker.

As I went down it got wetter and wetter. The roar of the waterfall filled my head now, everything was soaked from the drifting spray. There were many more plants now, the whole ground surface was covered with the moss.

My ankle turned, I fell. A stone lifted out of the moss bed and rolled, bounding down the steep slope. I watched it with horror. That was all I needed. A warning to tell the Aliens I was coming. The stone gave a final leap in the air and disappeared over the lip into the depths. I crawled down to the edge and peered over.

It was terrible. Straight down for thousands of feet to the Green top below. Clouds of vapour from the fall, layer upon layer, moved slowly across the space below. My mind reeled. All that infinity of space above was nothing to the drop in front of me. I rolled back from the edge. I lay on my back and watched the Sky. I tried to shut my eyes but couldn’t. I didn’t dare move for an hour after that.

In the end I pulled myself together and went on down. I wondered if the Aliens could have noticed the falling rock, I didn’t think they would have heard it in the water noise, but you never know with an Alien.

* * * *

When the Sun came up I was quite well on. The Sun didn’t seem so strong down here. Perhaps because it had to come through the banks of spray. The dark mass of the Green gained texture and colour. The mist down there cleared, the air warmed.

About half way through the afternoon I came to a flatter area—mossy and almost level. As I stepped out on to the springy surface a movement behind and to my right caught the tail of my eye.

It was one of the Aliens. I tore the wrapping from the breech of my gun, set the wheels and swung the weapon to my shoulder. There was another entrance to the glade and that was where the Alien was waiting. It had guessed wrong. As I completed my aim it charged.

The wheel spun, rasping on the flint. The primer charge took in a splash of sparks and smoke. The Alien was flying at me. It seemed to run a few inches off the ground.

At last the gun fired. The thud of the recoil was a message from Heaven.

The slug tore into the Alien. Its run broke. It all seemed to happen very slowly. The Alien swung to the side. It tottered on the edge of the water chasm. A stone shifted and it disappeared over the lip.

I dropped on one knee and reloaded the fired barrel. That other Alien was about somewhere. When I had the gun ready I moved across the glade and made sure the first Alien was gone.

It was.

As I turned from the fall I saw the second Alien standing in the bushes down the slope. The range was long but I fired anyway.

I hit it—I saw a spurt of flesh. The brute went down, but it didn’t do a lot of damage. It was one of the times I wished I still had a long barrel on my gun.

I ran down to the edge of the bushes. The plants were thrashing about down there. I waited, when I caught a glimpse of the Alien I fired again. The thrashing stopped.

I carefully reloaded my gun. It took a bit of time. My fingers were nervous and I dropped one of the flints. It took me a time to find it again and then I had to fit it. Altogether it was about ten minutes before I was ready.

I went down very cautiously but I might as well have saved my time. The Alien was gone. Later I caught a glimpse of it far ahead going swiftly down to the Green. I knew I had hit it once. I thought I had hit it twice, but it didn’t seem to have slowed up at all. They just don’t feel pain ... they’re different.

And that’s how it went. I followed the thing down in the thunder of the falling water, through the drifting spray. At length I was on the last approach to the Green.

The last three hundred feet of the path was a great channelled path of rubble jutting out of the City into the Green. To the right was the huge round pool of the waterfall.

The water came cascading down in steps from the Lake on top. The last bit fell a straight thousand feet, touching nothing. The water fell down into this great pool, it was very deep. A stream ran away to the east, along the City wall.

From the top of the rubble I could see the fins of the Aliens’ Ships sticking up out of the Green. The plants in the Green were much bigger than they looked from the Top, two or three hundred feet high, some of them. I looked back up at the great safe bulk of the City. The great vee gouge ran back into it. The Top was lost in clouds.

The Alien’s trail was easy to follow now. It ran east along the sandy shore of the waterfall Lake and then north, towards the first of the wrecked Ships. I cut straight through the Green, direct to the Ship.

That Green is a funny place. The plants, “Trees”, I suppose they are, come straight up out of the ground, like the columns in one of the Great Chambers. Round the bottoms the ground is broken up in great slabs, like it was floor once. The slabs have a sort of thick, moist brown dust over them, made up of the rotten leaves off the tree things. In this there are smaller plants, they aren’t white like the City ones either, none of them are Outside, it’s very strange till you get used to it. There’s no Order either, the trees are sort of random, not like the City at all. There are animals too. A bit like the dogs, except they’re bigger and some have horns. They’re not mangy either. They run in packs though, like the dogs.

When I started to get near the Ship the Place seemed to change. The Ship lay on its side in the centre of a rough circle. The floor was better here. There weren’t so many of the trees and where it was broken the floor was much thicker. It was all covered with grass. The Ship lay on its side about a mile from me, it was a very big Place.

The Ship was big too. I doubt it would have fitted into one of the small Great Chambers. In the Green around the circle were one or two Machines. I couldn’t see what they were for, they were very old and falling to bits with rust. The plants were growing right through them. In one of them were some man-bones. Rotten they were, the plants were growing right through them too.

I started out towards the Ship. It was shining silver in the Sun Light. -From the City it looked pretty perfect, new, but as I got near I could see the metal was buckled and torn. In places whole plates were torn off. Towards the far end was a particularly big hole, the Ship was especially buckled there. The edges were soft and gobbed, like they had been melted. Bits of bright metal were scattered all about the ship. It wasn’t quite straight either, its back was broken. I kept low, below the level of the plants as far as I could. They got fewer and fewer as I moved towards the centre.

I was right about the Alien going for the Ship. When I was about a hundred yards off the centre the Alien broke cover on my right. As it saw me it began to move real fast. I broke into a run and we raced for the blasted port.

The Alien was going to get there first. I was about thirty yards away, well within range. I fired both barrels from the hip, one after the other. The Alien went over like a nine pin. It flung against the side of the Ship and rolled, falling into the Ship. It ended half in and half out of the entrance. You don’t go far with two .75 slugs in you.

I stepped in through the coils of powder smoke and looked down at the Alien. It wasn’t quite dead.

It’s funny how they bleed red like us. It spoke to me. Very calm it was, but very weak too. It had a soft, gentle sort of voice. It’s funny how like us they are. Apart from being black that is.

“Wait! You don’t have to kill me ... I’ll soon be dead. This is the truth. I’ve no reason to lie.”

The Alien lay sprawled. The first shot had broken one arm, the second had gone in just below the breasts, it was a young female. I didn’t have a load left in my gun so I let it talk. You don’t touch Aliens or I would have finished it with my knife. It would soon be dead. Meantime it went on talking.

“Look in the Ship ... On the second bulkhead ... look ... and tell me what you find.”

I went into the Ship, I didn’t turn my back on the Alien, you don’t do that, ever.

The floor of the Ship was gently curved and deeply ribbed. There was some sort of second skin but most of that was gone. The deep spaces between the floor ribs were filled with fine sand. There were hardly any plants here. I stubbed my foot on something in the sand. I dug it out, it was a half skull. There were other bones too, most of them were broken or charred. The part of the Ship I was in was open to the weather. The distorted metal was washed clean, eroded. I searched and found the bulkhead the Alien had told me about.

It was sheltered so there was still some paint on it. After a bit I made out some letters on it. My father had taught me how to cypher, it’s handy if you’re going to be a smith. I traced it out. It said “EXPLORATION CORPS” then underneath and bigger “MAIN LOCK”. Farther down a rusty lever was labelled “EXHAUST”.

I turned away and began reloading my gun. I was just spitting in the last slug when it dawned on me. If I could read a cypher on the Ship, there as it was when the Ship came, then it couldn’t be Alien. The Ship was ours ... of the City ... Human.

If the Ship wasn’t Alien then who had I just shot? If there were no Alien Ships then there were no Aliens. And the bones too—they were Human enough.

My mind was in an uproar. I thought and thought. The cabin swam. In the end I thought of the Alien. She would know something.

She was still lying where I’d left her. She had a sort of white cloth thing and was holding it against her body wound. There was a piece of dark blue paper with a white and red cross on it near by on the ground. She didn’t seem a lot weaker, but she was pretty badly hit.

“Pull my boots off,” she said. After a bit I found out how they worked. I undid the lace things and pulled them off. She had me tie the white cloth thing behind her back. It took me a while to understand her clothes but I managed it in the end. Then she made me get a tube thing from her haversack and press the contents into her arm. She seemed a lot easier after that. I moistened her lips from my water bottle and she started to talk.

“You’ve worked out there are no Aliens?” I nodded. After a bit she gathered her strength and went on. “The Ships are Human—yours and mine. They are the Star Ships ... Exploration Corps.... Do you know how far the Stars are? ... Millions upon millions of miles. The Sun is a Star ... ninety-four million away ... near. The others are much, much farther. It took the Ships a hundred years to get to the nearest—and another hundred to get back ... When they did, conditions had changed. The City cultures began centuries ago ... by the time the Ships got back they had reached their full development and begun to decline—break down. Did you know a billion people lived in that one—in yours ? They never went out, no one ever left the City. Self contained. The machines and power lasted quite well for a century or two ... some still work. Then the breakdown started ... the disease ... the riots ... the end of order. There aren’t more than ten thousand people in the whole City now and less and less every year ... a lot you’d hardly call human. It hadn’t gone as far when the Ships came back, but Exploration Corps was long forgotten ... your ancesters blasted them when they came to land ... they thought it was an invasion ... or missiles from another City. They didn’t bother to find out—and they didn’t care. The Mayorality may have known ... or guessed ... but they were only politicians. One of the Ships crashed into the City ... the power unit exploded ... it did that....” She meant the great rift in the blank side of the City, the way we had come down.

There was a long pause then. She was a lot weaker—I think she slept for a bit. When she woke I said: “Why are your people different?”

“Segregation. We always had the worst of it. The machines and power went first where we were. We were on the lowest Levels ... we went outside when the power went. We have a good community now.”

“Why do you bother? Why invade us?”

“To look for the machines ... we want to study them ... and to find books. We try to contact your people ... we would treat you with our medicines ... educate ... we are missionaries. We want you to come outside ... it’s better out here ... if you will let us bring you out.”

“Where’s this community?”

“North of here. By the river. We have a university there ... it’s not like the old ones ... not yet... but we work.”

I checked up as well as I could, of course. You don’t believe an Alien, not as easy as all that. I wondered how many I could get if I went to the Community. But even then I more than half believed her.

She died a little after that. I was away at the time, poking about in the other Ships. They were all the same. In them all I found the forms and order of the City. I had seen it all before, it was familiar, the proportions of the stairs, the writing on the walls, the rooms were all of the City. I found one door that was unbroken, the cabin behind hadn’t been opened since the Ships came. I blew it open with the spare gun-powder from my pack. The corroded metal gave a lot easier than I thought it would. I had to wait for the smoke to clear. It was a small room, more of a cupboard really. There were a lot of papers there. Among them I found a diary and some old pictures. I could read and understand most of what was written in the little book. It was full of references to “the City”, “Earth” and “Home”. It had belonged to a man called James Cameron, I wondered if it was the same Cameron. I knew then that all the Alien had told me was true for sure. One of the pictures was of a woman in clothes like the Alien’s, nearly. She was white, but not as white as we are. I wonder if we can ever be like the Aliens.

I went back and stood near her corpse. The tall grass moved gently in a warm breeze; the air was dusty with pollen in the Sun Light; the trees were green-blue over on the edge of the forest, butterflies made staggering patterns of brilliant colour against them. I could hear the bees humming and some birds were singing. My feet were crushing small bright flowers in the short mossy grass. I brushed the insects from the cuts on her legs and from her eyes.

It was then I found out why the Aliens smell so. In her pack was a packet of something labelled “Lilac Soap”. It smelled like her. They wash in it. She didn’t have any of the ring-worm and I never saw an Alien with the itch. I think the soap did that.

I buried the body in one of the gaps between the cracked floor slabs. I raised a pile of stones and yellow sand to mark the place. I turned my back on the City and headed north into the Green.

On the edge of the Green I turned and looked back. Dust and floating seeds followed my path, where it was flattened the grass shone back at me. Some were slowly springing back into place. The City Top was mostly hidden in clouds. Through a gap I could see the water catchments my father had shown me. Then they had been to the west, now they were far to the east. I had come a long way.

One of the deer creatures came out of the Green and began nosing about a few yards away. My gun came up. But I didn’t kill her.

I left my gun against the first tree and went to the north.