Astounding British Edition, Volume 8, No. 11 — page 55: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BLOOD BANK 53 One would ever see again? Who wanted to make a twenty thousand year investment that would impoverish the world? Sol’s atomic resources were never plentiful.” “How did it come about then?” - “Through a small group of men who didn’t care about the cost. They seized power during a ‘population rebellion’—- when the sterilizers were fighting the euthanasiasts and the do-nothings. The small clique came into power by the fan- tastic promise of draining off the popula- tion-surplus into space. Enough of the stupid believed it to furnish them with a strong backing. They clamped censorship on - the news agencies and imprisoned everyone who said it couldn’t be done. They put the planet to work building ships. Their fanatic personal philosophy was: ‘We are giving the galaxy to Man. What does it matter if he perishes on Earth?’ They put about twelve hundred ships into space before their slave-structure collapsed. Man never developed another technology on Sol IIL. He was sick of it.” “And your people?” Hulgruv smiled. “A natural outgrowth of the situation. If a planet were glutted with rabbits who ate all the grass, a species of rabbits who learned to exploit other rabbits would have the best chance of sur- vival. We are predators, Cophian. Nature raised us up to be a check on your race.” - “You pompous fool!” Roki snapped. “Predators are specialists What abilities do you have—besides the ability to prey on =.man?” “lll show you in a few minutes,” the commander muttered darkly. Daleth had lost color slowly as she lis- tened to the Solarian’s roundabout admis- sion of Roki’s charge. She suddenly moaned and slumped in a sick heap, Hulgruv spoke to the guard in the soundless facial language. _ The guard carried her away quickly. “If you were an advanced species, Hul- gruv—you would not have let yourself be tricked so easily, by me. And a highly intelligent race would discover the warp locks for themselves.” Hulgruv flushed. “We underestimated you, manthing. It was a natural mistake. Your race has sunk to the level of cattle on Earth. As for the warp locks, we know their principles. We ‘have experimental models. But we could short-circuit needless research by using your design. We are a new race, new to space. Naturally we can- not do in a few years what you needed centuries to accomplish.” “You'll have to look for help elsewhere. In ten minutes, I’m quitting the key—unless you change your mind.” Hulgruv shrugged. While Roki answered the signals, he listened for sounds of activity throughout the ship. He heard nothing ex- cept the occasional clump of boots, the brief mutter of a voice in the corridor, the intermittent rattling of small tools. There seemed to be no excitement or anxiety. The Solarians conducted themselves with quiet self-assurance. “Is your crew aware of what is hap- pening?” “Certainly.” As the deadline approached, his fingers grew nervous on the key. He steeled him- self,-and waited, clutching at each second as it marched past. What good would it do to sacrifice Daleth and himself? He would succeed only in destroying one ship and one crew. But it was a good trade—two pawns for several knights and a rook. And, when the Solarians began their march across space, there would be many such sacrifices. For the last time, he answered a signal, then leaned back to stare at Hulgruv. “Two minutes, Solarian. There’s still time to change your mind.” Hulgruv only smiled. Roki shrugged and stood up. A pistol flashed into the com- mander’s hand, warning him back. Roki laughed contemptuously. “Afraid I'll try to take your last two minutes away?” He strolled away from the table toward the door. “Stop!” Hulgruv barked. “Why? I want to see the girl.” “Very touching. But she’s busy at the moment.” “What?” he turned slowly, and glanced at his watch. “You don’t seem to realize that in fifty seconds—” “We'll see. Stay where you are.” The Cophian felt a sudden coldness in his face. Could they have found a flaw in his net of death?—a way to circumvent the sudden application of the Jdiot’s C-drive, with its consequent ruinous stresses to both ships? Or had they truly memorized the Cophian symbols to a one second re- action time? He shrugged agreeably and moved in the general direction of the transmitter tuning units. There was one way to test the possibility. He stopped ‘several feet away Eomichooksnco