David Drake - The World Turned Upside Down

The World Turned Upside

Down

Table of Contents

Preface

Rescue Party

The Menace from Earth

Code Three

Hunting Problem

Black Destroyer

A Pail of Air

Thy Rocks and Rills

A Gun for Dinosaur

Goblin Night

The Only Thing We Learn

Trigger Tide

The Aliens

All the Way Back

The Last Command

Who Goes There?

Quietus

Answer

The Last Question

The Cold Equations

Shambleau

Turning Point

Heavy Planet

Omnilingual

The Gentle Earth

Environment

Liane the Wayfarer

Spawn

St. Dragon and the George

Thunder and Roses

The World Turned Upside Down

Edited by

David Drake

Eric Flint

Jim Baen

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any

resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises

P.O. Box 1403

Riverdale, NY 10471

www.baen.com

ISBN: 0-7434-9874-7

Cover art by Thomas Kidd

First printing, January 2005

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The world turned upside down / edited by David Drake, Eric Flint, and Jim Baen.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-7434-9874-7

1. Science fiction, American. 2. Science fiction, English. I. Drake, David.

II. Flint, Eric. III. Baen, Jim.

PS648.S3W647 2005

813'.0876208--dc22

2004021812

Distributed by Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH

Printed in the United States of America

BAEN BOOKS by DAVID DRAKE & ERIC FLINT

The Tyrant

The Belisarius Series

An Oblique Approach

In the Heart of Darkness

Destiny's Shield

Fortune's Stroke

The Tide of Victory

For a complete list of Baen Books

by these authors, please go to

http://www.baen.com

Copyright information forThe World Turned Upside Down

Stories are listed in order of -publication date:

C.L. Moore, "Shambleau" was first published inWeird Tales in November, 1933. Reprinted by

1961 by C.L. Moore.

John W. Campbell, Jr. (writing as Don A. Stuart), "Who Goes There?" was first published in

Astounding Science Fiction in August, 1938.

A.E. Van Vogt, "Black Destroyer" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in July, 1939.

Lee Gregor, "Heavy Planet" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in August, 1939.

P. Schuyler Miller, "Spawn" was first published inWeird Tales in August, 1939.

Ross Rocklynne, "Quietus" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in September, 1940.

Chester S. Geier, "Environment" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in May, 1944.

Arthur C. Clarke, "Rescue Party" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in May, 1946.

Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agents, Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency,

Inc.

Theodore Sturgeon, "Thunder and Roses" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in

November, 1947.

C.M. Kornbluth, "The Only Thing We Learn" was first published inStartling Stories in July, 1949.

Wyman Guin (writing as Norman Menasco), "Trigger Tide" was first published inAstounding Science

Fiction in October, 1950.

Jack Vance, "Liane the Wayfarer" first appeared as part of Jack Vance,The Dying Earth , published by

Hillman in 1950.

Fritz Leiber, "A Pail of Air" was first published inGalaxy in December, 1951.

Michael Shaara, "All the Way Back" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in July, 1952.

Poul Anderson, "Turning Point" was first published inIf in May, 1953.

Robert Ernest Gilbert, "Thy Rocks and Rills" was first published inIf in September, 1953.

Tom Godwin, "The Cold Equations" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in August, 1954.

Fredric Brown, "Answer" first appeared in Fredric Brown's anthologyAngels and Spaceships,

published by E.P. Dutton in 1954.

Robert Sheckley, "Hunting Problem" was first published inGalaxy in September, 1955.

L. Sprague de Camp, "A Gun For Dinosaur" was first published inGalaxy in March, 1956.

Asimov: The Complete Stories of Vol I by Isaac Asimov. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division

of Random House, Inc.

H. Beam Piper, "Omnilingual" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in February, 1957.

Robert A. Heinlein, "The Menace From Earth" was first published inThe Magazine of Fantasy and

Science Fiction in August, 1957.

Gordon R. Dickson, "St. Dragon and the George" was first published inThe Magazine of Fantasy and

Science Fiction in September, 1957.

Christopher Anvil, "The Gentle Earth" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in November,

1957.

Murray Leinster, "The Aliens" was first published inAstounding Science Fiction in August, 1959.

Rick Raphael, "Code Three" was first published inAnalog in February, 1963.

James H. Schmitz, "Goblin Night" was first published inAnalog in April, 1965.

Keith Laumer, "The Last Command" was first published inAnalog in January, 1967.

Preface

This anthology started in the course of a conversation I had with Jim Baen regarding possible future

prospects for reissuing old science fiction authors. In the course of advancing this or that idea, Jim

interrupted me and said what he'd like to see immediately would be for Dave Drake and myself to select

those stories which had the most impact on us as teenagers and got us interested in science fiction in the

first place. "Call itThe World Turned Upside Down," he said.

I liked the idea, and so did Dave when Jim and I raised it with him. The one change Dave proposed,

however, was that Jim serve as one of the editors of the volume, not simply as the publisher. That

seemed eminently rational, given that by then Jim had already advanced half a dozen stories he wanted

included in it because of the effect they'd had on him as a teenager.

So. This does not purport to be an anthology that contains "the best stories of science fiction"—although

all of us think this volume contains a superb collection of stories. But that was not the fundamental

criterion by which we made our selection. The stories were selected because of the impact they had on

us several decades ago, as we were growing up in the '50s and '60s.

Some authors are missing, unfortunately. In some cases—Andre Norton being the major example,

here—because the stories the author wrote which had such an effect on us were novels, and there just

wasn't room in such an anthology for novel-length works. In other cases, because we were unable to

obtain the rights for the stories we wanted from the agencies representing some of the estates.

We got most of what we wanted, though. And . . . here it is.

The World Turned Upside Down.

—Eric Flint

March 2004

Rescue Party

by Arthur C. Clarke

Preface by Eric Flint

I'm certain this wasn't the first science fiction story I ever read, because I still remember those vividly.

Three novels, all read when I was twelve years old and living in the small town of Shaver Lake (pop.

500) in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California: Robert Heinlein'sCitizen of the Galaxy, Tom

Godwin'sThe Survivors and Andre Norton'sStar Rangers.

I must have started reading Arthur C. Clarke soon thereafter, though. The two stories that introduced me

to him—as I remember, anyway—were this one and "Jupiter V," and those two stories fixed Clarke

permanently as one of the central triad in my own personal pantheon of SF's great writers. (The other

two being Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton.)

We chose this one, rather than "Jupiter V," at my request. I wanted this one because, of all the stories

ever written in science fiction, this is the one which first demonstrated to me that science fiction could be

inspirational as well as fascinating. So I thought at the age of twelve or possibly thirteen. More than four

decades have now gone by, and I haven't changed my mind at all.

Who was to blame? For three days Alveron's thoughts had come back to that question, and still he had

found no answer. A creature of a less civilized or a less sensitive race would never have let it torture his

mind, and would have satisfied himself with the assurance that no one could be responsible for the

working of fate. But Alveron and his kind had been lords of the Universe since the dawn of history, since

that far distant age when the Time Barrier had been folded round the cosmos by the unknown powers

that lay beyond the Beginning. To them had been given all knowledge—and with infinite knowledge went

infinite responsibility. If there were mistakes and errors in the administration of the galaxy, the fault lay on

the heads of Alveron and his people. And this was no mere mistake: it was one of the greatest tragedies

in history.

The crew still knew nothing. Even Rugon, his closest friend and the ship's deputy captain, had been told

only part of the truth. But now the doomed worlds lay less than a billion miles ahead. In a few hours, they

would be landing on the third planet.

Once again Alveron read the message from Base; then, with a flick of a tentacle that no human eye could

have followed, he pressed the "General Attention" button. Throughout the mile-long cylinder that was the

Galactic Survey Ship S9000, creatures of many races laid down their work to listen to the words of their

captain.

"I know you have all been wondering," began Alveron, "why we were ordered to abandon our survey

and to proceed at such an acceleration to this region of space. Some of you may realize what this

acceleration means. Our ship is on its last voyage: the generators have already been running for sixty

hours at Ultimate Overload. We will be very lucky if we return to Base under our own power.

"We are approaching a sun which is about to become a Nova. Detonation will occur in seven hours,

with an uncertainty of one hour, leaving us a maximum of only four hours for exploration. There are ten

planets in the system about to be destroyed—and there is a civilization on the third. That fact was

discovered only a few days ago. It is our tragic mission to contact that doomed race and if possible to

save some of its members. I know that there is little we can do in so short a time with this single ship. No

other machine can possibly reach the system before detonation occurs."

There was a long pause during which there could have been no sound or movement in the whole of the

mighty ship as it sped silently toward the worlds ahead. Alveron knew what his companions were

thinking and he tried to answer their unspoken question.

"You will wonder how such a disaster, the greatest of which we have any record, has been allowed to

occur. On one point I can reassure you. The fault does not lie with the Survey.

"As you know, with our present fleet of under twelve thousand ships, it is possible to re-examine each of

the eight thousand million solar systems in the Galaxy at intervals of about a million years. Most worlds

change very little in so short a time as that.

"Less than four hundred thousand years ago, the survey ship S5060 examined the planets of the system

we are approaching. It found intelligence on none of them, though the third planet was teeming with

animal life and two other worlds had once been inhabited. The usual report was submitted and the system

is due for its next examination in six hundred thousand years.

"It now appears that in the incredibly short period since the last survey, intelligent life has appeared in the

system. The first intimation of this occurred when unknown radio signals were detected on the planet

Kulath in the system X29.35, Y34.76, Z27.93. Bearings were taken on them; they were coming from the

system ahead.

"Kulath is two hundred light-years from here, so those radio waves had been on their way for two

centuries. Thus for at least that period of time a civilization has existed on one of these worlds—a

civilization that can generate electromagnetic waves and all that that implies.

"An immediate telescopic examination of the system was made and it was then found that the sun was in

the unstable pre-nova stage. Detonation might occur at any moment, and indeed might have done so

while the light waves were on their way to Kulath.

"There was a slight delay while the supervelocity scanners on Kulath II were focused on to the system.

They showed that the explosion had not yet occurred but was only a few hours away. If Kulath had been

a fraction of a light-year further from this sun, we should never have known of its civilization until it had

ceased to exist.

"The Administrator of Kulath contacted the Sector Base immediately, and I was ordered to proceed to

the system at once. Our object is to save what members we can of the doomed race, if indeed there are

any left. But we have assumed that a civilization possessing radio could have protected itself against any

rise of temperature that may have already occurred.

"This ship and the two tenders will each explore a section of the planet. Commander Torkalee will take

Number One, Commander Orostron Number Two. They will have just under four hours in which to

explore this world. At the end of that time, they must be back in the ship. It will be leaving then, with or

without them. I will give the two commanders detailed instructions in the control room immediately.

"That is all. We enter atmosphere in two hours."

* * *

On the world once known as Earth the fires were dying out: there was nothing left to burn. The great

forests that had swept across the planet like a tidal wave with the passing of the cities were now no more

than glowing charcoal and the smoke of their funeral pyres still stained the sky. But the last hours were

still to come, for the surface rocks had not yet begun to flow. The continents were dimly visible through

the haze, but their outlines meant nothing to the watchers in the approaching ship. The charts they

possessed were out of date by a dozen Ice Ages and more deluges than one.

The S9000 had driven past Jupiter and seen at once that no life could exist in those half-gaseous oceans

of compressed hydrocarbons, now erupting furiously under the sun's abnormal heat. Mars and the outer

planets they had missed, and Alveron realized that the worlds nearer the sun than Earth would be already

melting. It was more than likely, he thought sadly, that the tragedy of this unknown race was already

finished. Deep in his heart, he thought it might be better so. The ship could only have carried a few

hundred survivors, and the problem of selection had been haunting his mind.

Rugon, Chief of Communications and Deputy Captain, came into the control room. For the last hour he

had been striving to detect radiation from Earth, but in vain.

"We're too late," he announced gloomily. "I've monitored the whole spectrum and the ether's dead

except for our own stations and some two-hundred-year-old programs from Kulath. Nothing in this

system is radiating any more."

He moved toward the giant vision screen with a graceful flowing motion that no mere biped could ever

hope to imitate. Alveron said nothing; he had been expecting this news.

One entire wall of the control room was taken up by the screen, a great black rectangle that gave an

impression of almost infinite depth. Three of Rugon's slender control tentacles, useless for heavy work

but incredibly swift at all manipulation, flickered over the selector dials and the screen lit up with a

thousand points of light. The star field flowed swiftly past as Rugon adjusted the controls, bringing the

projector to bear upon the sun itself.

No man of Earth would have recognized the monstrous shape that filled the screen. The sun's light was

white no longer: great violet-blue clouds covered half its surface and from them long streamers of flame

were erupting into space. At one point an enormous prominence had reared itself out of the photosphere,

far out even into the flickering veils of the corona. It was as though a tree of fire had taken root in the

surface of the sun—a tree that stood half a million miles high and whose branches were rivers of flame

sweeping through space at hundreds of miles a second.

"I suppose," said Rugon presently, "that you are quite satisfied about the astronomers' calculations. After

all—"

"Oh, we're perfectly safe," said Alveron confidently. "I've spoken to Kulath Observatory and they have

been making some additional checks through our own instruments. That uncertainty of an hour includes a

private safety margin which they won't tell me in case I feel tempted to stay any longer."

He glanced at the instrument board.

"The pilot should have brought us to the atmosphere now. Switch the screen back to the planet, please.

Ah, there they go!"

There was a sudden tremor underfoot and a raucous clanging of alarms, instantly stilled. Across the

vision screen two slim projectiles dived toward the looming mass of Earth. For a few miles they traveled

together, then they separated, one vanishing abruptly as it entered the shadow of the planet.

Slowly the huge mother ship, with its thousand times greater mass, descended after them into the raging

storms that already were tearing down the deserted cities of Man.

* * *

It was night in the hemisphere over which Orostron drove his tiny command. Like Torkalee, his mission

was to photograph and record, and to report progress to the mother ship. The little scout had no room

for specimens or passengers. If contact was made with the inhabitants of this world, the S9000 would

come at once. There would be no time for parleying. If there was any trouble the rescue would be by

force and the explanations could come later.

The ruined land beneath was bathed with an eerie, flickering light, for a great auroral display was raging

over half the world. But the image on the vision screen was independent of external light, and it showed

clearly a waste of barren rock that seemed never to have known any form of life. Presumably this desert

land must come to an end somewhere. Orostron increased his speed to the highest value he dared risk in

so dense an atmosphere.

The machine fled on through the storm, and presently the desert of rock began to climb toward the sky.

A great mountain range lay ahead, its peaks lost in the smoke-laden clouds. Orostron directed the

scanners toward the horizon, and on the vision screen the line of mountains seemed suddenly very close

and menacing. He started to climb rapidly. It was difficult to imagine a more unpromising land in which to

find civilization and he wondered if it would be wise to change course. He decided against it. Five

minutes later, he had his reward.

Miles below lay a decapitated mountain, the whole of its summit sheared away by some tremendous feat

of engineering. Rising out of the rock and straddling the artificial plateau was an intricate structure of

metal girders, supporting masses of machinery. Orostron brought his ship to a halt and spiraled down

toward the mountain.

The slight Doppler blur had now vanished, and the picture on the screen was clear-cut. The latticework

was supporting some scores of great metal mirrors, pointing skyward at an angle of forty-five degrees to

the horizontal. They were slightly concave, and each had some complicated mechanism at its focus.

There seemed something impressive and purposeful about the great array; every mirror was aimed at

precisely the same spot in the sky—or beyond.

Orostron turned to his colleagues.

"It looks like some kind of observatory to me," he said. "Have you ever seen anything like it before?"

Klarten, a multitentacled, tripedal creature from a globular cluster at the edge of the Milky Way, had a

different theory.

"That's communication equipment. Those reflectors are for focusing electromagnetic beams. I've seen the

same kind of installation on a hundred worlds before. It may even be the station that Kulath picked

up—though that's rather unlikely, for the beams would be very narrow from mirrors that size."

"That would explain why Rugon could detect no radiation before we landed," added Hansur II, one of

the twin beings from the planet Thargon.

Orostron did not agree at all.

"If that is a radio station, it must be built for interplanetary communication. Look at the way the mirrors

are pointed. I don't believe that a race which has only had radio for two centuries can have crossed

space. It took my people six thousand years to do it."

"We managed it in three," said Hansur II mildly, speaking a few seconds ahead of his twin. Before the

inevitable argument could develop, Klarten began to wave his tentacles with excitement. While the others

had been talking, he had started the automatic monitor.

"Here it is! Listen!"

He threw a switch, and the little room was filled with a raucous whining sound, continually changing in

pitch but nevertheless retaining certain characteristics that were difficult to define.

The four explorers listened intently for a minute; then Orostron said, "Surely that can't be any form of

speech! No creature could produce sounds as quickly as that!"

Hansur I had come to the same conclusion. "That's a television program. Don't you think so, Klarten?"

The other agreed.

"Yes, and each of those mirrors seems to be radiating a different program. I wonder where they're

going? If I'm correct, one of the other planets in the system must lie along those beams. We can soon

check that."

Orostron called the S9000 and reported the discovery. Both Rugon and Alveron were greatly excited,

and made a quick check of the astronomical records.

The result was surprising—and disappointing. None of the other nine planets lay anywhere near the line

of transmission. The great mirrors appeared to be pointing blindly into space.

There seemed only one conclusion to be drawn, and Klarten was the first to voice it.

"They had interplanetary communication," he said. "But the station must be deserted now, and the

transmitters no longer controlled. They haven't been switched off, and are just pointing where they were

left."

"Well, we'll soon find out," said Orostron. "I'm going to land."

He brought the machine slowly down to the level of the great metal mirrors, and past them until it came

to rest on the mountain rock. A hundred yards away, a white stone building crouched beneath the maze

of steel girders. It was windowless, but there were several doors in the wall facing them.

Orostron watched his companions climb into their protective suits and wished he could follow. But

someone had to stay in the machine to keep in touch with the mother ship. Those were Alveron's

instructions, and they were very wise. One never knew what would happen on a world that was being

explored for the first time, especially under conditions such as these.

David Drake - The World Turned Upside Down

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