William Tenn - The Deserter

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The Deserter

William Tenn

November 10,2039—

Terran Supreme Command communique No. 18-673 for the twenty-four hours ending 0900

Monday, Terran capital time:

...whereupon sector HQ on Fortress Satellite Five ordered a strategic withdrawal of all interceptor

units. The withdrawal was accomplished without difficulty and with minimal loss.

The only other incident of interest in this period was the surrender of an enemy soldier of

undetermined rank, the first of these creatures from Jupiter to be taken alive by our forces. The capture

was made in the course of defending Cochabamba, Bolivia, from an enemy commando raid. Four

Jovians were killed in this unsuc-cessful assault upon a vital tin-supplying area after which the fifth laid

down his arms and begged that his life be spared. Upon capture by our forces, the Jovian claimed to be a

deserter and requested a safe-conduct to...

Mardin had been briefed on what to expect by the MP officer who'd escorted him into the cave.

Inevitably, though, his first view of the tank in which the alien floated brought out a long, whimpering grunt

of disbelief and remembered fear. It was at least sixty feet long by forty wide, and it reared off the rocky

floor to twice the height of a man. Whatever incredible material its sides had been composed of had

hours ago been covered by thick white layers of ice.

Cold air currents bouncing the foul, damp smell of methane back from the tank tweaked his nose

and pricked at his ears. Well, after all, Mardin thought, those things have a body temperature

somewhere in the neighborhood of minus 2000 Fahrenheit!

And he had felt this cold once before...

He shivered violently in response to the memory and zipped shut the fur-lined coveralls he'd been

issued at the entrance. "Must have been quite a job getting that thing in here." The casualness of his voice

surprised him and made him feel better.

"Oh, a special engineer task force did it in—let me see, now—" The MP lieuten-ant, a Chinese girl

in her late teens, pursed soft, coral lips at his graying hair. "Less than five hours, figuring from the moment

they arrived. The biggest problem was finding a cell in the neighborhood that was big enough to hold the

prisoner. This cave was perfect."

Mardin looked up at the ledge above their heads. Every ten feet, a squad of three men, highly

polished weapons ready for instant action. Atomic cannon squads alternating with men bent down under

the weight of dem-dem grenades. Grim-faced young subalterns, very conscious of the bigness of the

brass that occupied the plat-form at the far end of the cave, stamped back and forth along the ledge from

squad to squad, deadly little Royster pistolettos tinkling and naked in their sweating hands. Those kids,

he thought angrily, so well adjusted to it all!

The ledge ran along three sides of the cave; on the fourth, the low entrance from which Mardin had

just come, he had seen five steel Caesars implanted, long, pointed snouts throbbingly eager to throw

tremendous gusts of nuclear energy at the Jovian's rear. And amid the immense rock folds of the roof, a

labyrinth of slender, pencil-like bombs had been laid, held in place by clamps that would all open

simultaneously the moment a certain colonel's finger pressed a certain green button...

"If our friend in the tank makes one wrong move," Mardin muttered, "half of South America goes

down the drain."

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William Tenn - The Deserter

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