Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 7 — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

clifflike rooms where the Agonians ate and slept, dimly lighted, poorly furnished dens. The walls were blank and stained. The food was sparse and unattractive. No- where was there anything which his Earth- trained eye would have identified as beautiful. In the next series of frames, Brad saw the gigantic capital of Agon at night. Even then the sluggish millions swarmed in the streets. And throughout the night the machines ground and clattered in the vast, dirty factories. Signs flashed in the smoky sky from towering buildings. Several were single-word admonitions to “Work!” Others became more specific, “Work for the Glory of Agon.” Over the factory workbenches Brad saw the same monotonous slogans endlessly repeated. On the outskirts of the bleak city were the vast military establishments, the bar- racks of the planetary police- crowded close to the training fields of the space school. Squads of men were drilling smartly, wearily, without relief and with- out repose. “Apparently, they have no robot in- fantry, either,” Ran said. The picture slid together in a whirling montage, as identical scenes were re-. peated on all the other planets of the Agonian Empire. Then Brad saw thou- sands of Centaurians toiling in the under- ground mines torn in the earth, others grubbing in the bleak fields. All the mineral resources, all the physical re- sources, all the mental resources of a complex planetary Empire—all the rich potential of a solar world—were channeled finally into a single creative outlet, the great industrial plant which made up the city. And the end product was armament. The final series of pictures portrayed the rulers of the Empire, the High Council of the Agon Class. Even among the aristocracy Brad saw no evidence of an advanced consumer technology. The wealth and the genius of Agon flowed only into its military machine; nothing _ remained to satisfy even a minimum of creature comforts. As the pictures flashed out, Brad said, | “So much military strength! Are they FOR THE GLORY OF AGON > afraid of an attack? Some unknown | enemy more terrible than the Agonians themselves?” “T found no evidence in my interviews.” “Then this High Council of theirs uses the enormous police power to keep the people enslaved!” “No, Brad. There is no sort of opposi- | tion on Agon to the rule of the Council. The people accept it because they always have. They know nothing else. Agon has always been an aggressor; they’ve never lost a war. The Empire began on the’ planet called Agon. They gradually con- quered the other habitable planets in their system and wiped out the native species before planting Agonian colonies. That seems to be what they mean to do here. We're their closest star neighbor and, after they had discovered time-power, I suppose they began to look around for new worlds to conquer.” “Why, Ran?” “I’m not absolutely sure; but I think I can make a good guess. Once, long ago, aggression solved a problem for them. It worked. They’ve never tried anything else. Aggression has become a mass psychosis with them. The act of violence is its own reason and its own end.” “You admit that, and still tell me the. Federation doesn’t have to arm itself? Ran, we’ve got to make the Assembly understand! If they vote immediate emer- gency measures to create a military defense—” “You saw the Agonian arms, Brad. We couldn’t duplicate them in a decade.” “We have to try, Ran!” “We can never defeat them, if we fight on their terms, Brad, But if we can engineer them into fighting on ours—” . “Are you going to show this recon- struction to the Assembly?” “Ves.” “T thought you disagreed with me!” “T do. Military action won’t save us.” “But if anything can stir the Assembly into facing the facts, this is it.” The Martian laughed. “Oh, yes; the conclusion is self-evident. I didn’t think you’d see it so quickly, Brad. Your fear of another invasion has seemed to blind you to the obvious facts. Congratulations.” Eomichbooks (E(0) ‘ . wy Pt a