“But try it my way for a while. And remember what I said about your own contributions. Two people can change a world, if they wish.”
“But what—” Wuju started to ask, but was cut off in midsentence.
The two bodies didn’t vanish, they just collapsed, like a suit of clothes with the owner gone. They lay there in a heap on the floor.
Brazil went over and carefully rearranged them so they looked as if they were sleeping.
“Well, now what, Brazil?” he asked himself, his voice echoing in the empty hall.
You go back, and you wait, his mind told him.
What about the bodies? he wondered. Somehow he couldn’t just vaporize them. Though their owners were gone, they lived on as empty vegetables.
But there was nothing else to do, of course. They were just memories for him now, one a strange mixture of love and anguish. He was prolonging the inevitable.
There was a crackle, and the bodies were gone, back to primal energy.
“Oh, the hell with it,” said Nathan Brazil, and he, too, vanished.
The control room was empty. The Markovian brain noted the fact and then dutifully turned off the lights.
ON “EARTH,” A PLANET CIRCLING A STAR NEAR THEOUTERMOST EDGE OF THE GALAXY ANDROMEDA
One moment Elkinos Skander had been perched atop Hain’s back, looking at the control room and those in it. Then, suddenly, he wasn’t.
He looked around. Things looked funny and distorted. He was color-blind except for a sepia tone that lent itself to everything.
He looked around, confused. I’ve gone through another change, he realized. My last one.
A rather pleasant-looking place, he thought, once he got used to the distorted vision. Forests over there, some high mountains, odd-looking grass, and strange sort of trees, but that was to be expected.
There were a lot of animals around, mostly grazing. They look a lot like deer, he noted, surprised. A few differences, but they would not look out of place on a pastoral human world.
He looked down at himself, and saw the shadow of his head on the grass.
I’m one of them, he suddenly realized with a shock. I’m a deer. No antlers like those big males over there, so I must be a doe.
A deer? he thought quizzically.
Why a deer?
He was still meditating on this, when suddenly the grass seemed to explode with yells and strange shapes; great, rectangular bodies with their facial features in their chest, and big, big teeth.
He watched as the Murnies singled out a large doe not far from him and surrounded it. Suddenly they speared it several times, and it went down in wordless agony and lay twitching on the ground, blood running, but still alive.
The Murnies pounced on it, tearing at it, eating it alive.
To be eaten alive! he thought, stunned, and suddenly blind panic overtook him. He started running, running away from the scene.
Up ahead another band of Murnies leaped out of nowhere and cornered another deer, started to devour it.
They’re all over! he realized. This is their world! I’m just food to them!
He ran narrowly avoiding entrapment several times. There were thousands of them here, and they all were hungry.
And even as he ran in exhausted, dizzy circles, he knew that even if he avoided them today he would have to avoid them tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and wherever he ran on this planet there would be more of them.
Sooner or later they’ll get me! he thought in panic. By god! I’ll not be eaten alive! I’ll cheat Brazil of his revenge!
He reached the highlands by carefully pulling himself together.
Now that he had decided on a course of action, he felt calm.
There! Up ahead! his mind said joyfully. He stopped and looked over the edge of the cliff.
Over a kilometer straight down to the rocks, he saw with satisfaction. He ran back a long ways, then turned toward the cliff. With strong resolve, he ran with all his might toward the cliff and hurled himself over it.
He saw the rocks coming up to meet him, but felt only the slight shock of pain.
Skander awoke. The very fact that he awoke was a shock, and he looked around.
He was back on that plain at the edge of the forest. His shadow told him.
He was a deer again.
No! his mind screamed in horror. I’ll cheat the bastard yet! Somehow I’ll cheat him!
But there were a lot of deer and a lot of Murnies on that world, and Skander still had six more times to die.
PARADISE, ONCE CALLED DEDALUS, A PLANET NEAR SIRIUS
Varnett groaned, then opened his eyes. He felt cold. He looked around him and saw a number of people peering at him anxiously.
They all looked exactly alike. They didn’t even look particularly male or female. Slight breasts and nipples, but nothing really female. Their bodies were lithe and muscular, sort of a blend of masculine and feminine.
All of them had small male genitals where they should be, but, from his vantage point, he could see a small cavity beneath them.
None of them had any body hair.
If you did it upside down and the other was right side up, he thought, you could give and receive at the same time.
“Are you all right?” one asked in a voice that sounded like a man’s voice but with a feminine lilt.
“Do you feel all right?” another asked in the identical voice.
“I—I think so,” he replied hesitantly, and sat up. “A little dizzy, that’s all.”
“That will pass,” the other said. “How’s your memory?”
“Shaky,” he replied carefully. “I’m going to need a refresher.”
“Easily done,” the other replied.
He started to ask them their names, then suddenly remembered. They didn’t use names on his planet.
His planet! His!
“I’d like to get right to work,” he told them.
“Of course,” another replied, and they led him from the sterile-looking infirmary down an equally sterile corridor. He followed them, got into an elevator, and they rode up to the top floor.
The top floor, it seemed, was an office complex. Workers were everywhere, filing things, typing things, using computer terminals.
Everybody else was slightly smaller than he was, he realized. Not much, but in a world where everyone was absolutely identical such a slight difference was as noticeable as if Cousin Bat had entered the room.
His office was huge and well-appointed. White wall-to-wall carpeting, so thick and soft his bare feet practically bounced off it. There was a huge desk, and great high-backed chair. No other furnishings, he noted, although their lack made the place look barren.
“Bring me a summary of the status of the major areas of the planet,” he ordered. “And then leave me for a while to study them.”