TSPC a_dick

Top a_dick_1952

title	The Gun
author	Philip K. Dick
date	1952
source	Planet Stories September 1952 edition
taken from	Project Gutenberg, June 15, 2009. Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29132)
genre	fiction
terms of use	Creative Commons license

1	THE GUN By PHILIP K. DICK
2	Nothing moved or stirred.
3	Everything was silent, dead.
4	Only the gun showed signs of life... and the trespassers had wrecked that for all time.
5	The return journey to pick up the treasure would be a cinch...
6	they smiled.
7	The Captain peered into the eyepiece of the telescope.
8	He adjusted the focus quickly.
9	“It was an atomic fission we saw, all right,” he said presently.
10	He sighed and pushed the eyepiece away.
11	“Any of you who wants to look may do so.
12	But it's not a pretty sight.”
13	“Let me look,” Tance the archeologist said.
14	He bent down to look, squinting.
15	“Good Lord!”
16	He leaped violently back, knocking against Dorle, the Chief Navigator.
17	“Why did we come all this way, then?” Dorle asked, looking around at the other men.
18	“There's no point even in landing.
19	Let's go back at once.”
20	“Perhaps he's right,” the biologist murmured.
21	“But I'd like to look for myself, if I may.”
22	He pushed past Tance and peered into the sight.
23	He saw a vast expanse, an endless surface of gray, stretching to the edge of the planet.
24	At first he thought it was water but after a moment he realized that it was slag, pitted, fused slag, broken only by hills of rock jutting up at intervals.
25	Nothing moved or stirred.
26	Everything was silent, dead.
27	“I see,” Fomar said, backing away from the eyepiece.
28	“Well, I won't find any legumes there.”
29	He tried to smile, but his lips stayed unmoved.
30	He stepped away and stood by himself, staring past the others.
31	“I wonder what the atmospheric sample will show,” Tance said.
32	“I think I can guess,” the Captain answered.
33	“Most of the atmosphere is poisoned.
34	But didn't we expect all this?
35	I don't see why we're so surprised.
36	A fission visible as far away as our system must be a terrible thing.”
37	He strode off down the corridor, dignified and expressionless.
38	They watched him disappear into the control room.
39	As the Captain closed the door the young woman turned.
40	“What did the telescope show?
41	Good or bad?”
42	“Bad.
43	No life could possibly exist.
44	Atmosphere poisoned, water vaporized, all the land fused.”
45	“Could they have gone underground?”
46	The Captain slid back the port window so that the surface of the planet under them was visible.
47	The two of them stared down, silent and disturbed.
48	Mile after mile of unbroken ruin stretched out, blackened slag, pitted and scarred, and occasional heaps of rock.
49	Suddenly Nasha jumped.
50	“Look!
51	Over there, at the edge.
52	Do you see it?”
53	They stared.
54	Something rose up, not rock, not an accidental formation.
55	It was round, a circle of dots, white pellets on the dead skin of the planet.
56	A city?
57	Buildings of some kind?
58	“Please turn the ship,” Nasha said excitedly.
59	She pushed her dark hair from her face.
60	“Turn the ship and let's see what it is!”
61	The ship turned, changing its course.
62	As they came over the white dots the Captain lowered the ship, dropping it down as much as he dared.
63	“Piers,” he said.
64	“Piers of some sort of stone.
65	Perhaps poured artificial stone.
66	The remains of a city.”
67	“Oh , dear,” Nasha murmured.
68	“How awful.”
69	She watched the ruins disappear behind them.
70	In a half - circle the white squares jutted from the slag, chipped and cracked, like broken teeth.
71	“There's nothing alive,” the Captain said at last.
72	“I think we'll go right back; I know most of the crew want to.
73	Get the Government Receiving Station on the sender and tell them what we found, and that we —
74	He staggered.
75	The first atomic shell had struck the ship, spinning it around.
76	The Captain fell to the floor, crashing into the control table.
77	Papers and instruments rained down on him.
78	As he started to his feet the second shell struck.
79	The ceiling cracked open, struts and girders twisted and bent.
80	The ship shuddered, falling suddenly down, then righting itself as automatic controls took over.
81	The Captain lay on the floor by the smashed control board.
82	In the corner Nasha struggled to free herself from the debris.
83	Outside the men were already sealing the gaping leaks in the side of the ship, through which the precious air was rushing, dissipating into the void beyond.
84	“Help me!” Dorle was shouting.
85	“Fire over here, wiring ignited.”
86	Two men came running.
87	Tance watched helplessly, his eyeglasses broken and bent.
88	“So there is life here, after all,” he said, half to himself.
89	“But how could —”
90	“Give us a hand,” Fomar said, hurrying past.
91	“Give us a hand, we've got to land the ship!”
92	It was night.
93	A few stars glinted above them, winking through the drifting silt that blew across the surface of the planet.
94	Dorle peered out, frowning.
95	“What a place to be stuck in.”
96	He resumed his work, hammering the bent metal hull of the ship back into place.
97	He was wearing a pressure suit; there were still many small leaks, and radioactive particles from the atmosphere had already found their way into the ship.
98	Nasha and Fomar were sitting at the table in the control room, pale and solemn, studying the inventory lists.
99	“Low on carbohydrates,” Fomar said.
100	“We can break down the stored fats if we want to, but —”
101	“I wonder if we could find anything outside.”
102	Nasha went to the window.
103	“How uninviting it looks.”
104	She paced back and forth, very slender and small, her face dark with fatigue.
105	“What do you suppose an exploring party would find?”
106	Fomar shrugged.
107	“Not much.
108	Maybe a few weeds growing in cracks here and there.
109	Nothing we could use.
110	Anything that would adapt to this environment would be toxic, lethal.”
111	Nasha paused, rubbing her cheek.
112	There was a deep scratch there, still red and swollen.
113	“Then how do you explain it?
114	According to your theory the inhabitants must have died in their skins, fried like yams.
115	But who fired on us?
116	Somebody detected us, made a decision, aimed a gun.”
117	“And gauged distance,” the Captain said feebly from the cot in the corner.
118	He turned toward them.
119	“That's the part that worries me.
120	The first shell put us out of commission, the second almost destroyed us.
121	They were well aimed, perfectly aimed.
122	We're not such an easy target.”
123	“True.”
124	Fomar nodded.
125	“Well, perhaps we'll know the answer before we leave here.
126	What a strange situation!
127	All our reasoning tells us that no life could exist; the whole planet burned dry, the atmosphere itself gone, completely poisoned.”
128	“The gun that fired the projectiles survived,” Nasha said.
129	“Why not people?”
130	“It's not the same.
131	Metal doesn't need air to breathe.
132	Metal doesn't get leukemia from radioactive particles.
133	Metal doesn't need food and water.”
134	There was silence.
135	“A paradox,” Nasha said.
136	“Anyhow, in the morning I think we should send out a search party.
137	And meanwhile we should keep on trying to get the ship in condition for the trip back.”
138	“It'll be days before we can take off,” Fomar said.
139	“We should keep every man working here.
140	We can't afford to send out a party.”
141	Nasha smiled a little.
142	“We'll send you in the first party.
143	Maybe you can discover — what was it you were so interested in?”
144	“Legumes.
145	Edible legumes.”
146	“Maybe you can find some of them.
147	Only —”
148	“Only what?”
149	“Only watch out.
150	They fired on us once without even knowing who we were or what we came for.
151	Do you suppose that they fought with each other?
152	Perhaps they couldn't imagine anyone being friendly, under any circumstances.
153	What a strange evolutionary trait, inter-species warfare.
154	Fighting within the race!”
155	“We'll know in the morning,” Fomar said.
156	“Let's get some sleep.”
157	The sun came up chill and austere.
158	The three people, two men and a woman, stepped through the port, dropping down on the hard ground below.
159	“What a day,” Dorle said grumpily.
160	“I said how glad I'd be to walk on firm ground again, but —”
161	“Come on,” Nasha said.
162	“Up beside me.
163	I want to say something to you.
164	Will you excuse us, Tance?”
165	Tance nodded gloomily.
166	Dorle caught up with Nasha.
167	They walked together, their metal shoes crunching the ground underfoot.
168	Nasha glanced at him.
169	“Listen.
170	The Captain is dying.
171	No one knows except the two of us.
172	By the end of the day - period of this planet he'll be dead.
173	The shock did something to his heart.
174	He was almost sixty, you know.”
175	Dorle nodded.
176	“That's bad.
177	I have a great deal of respect for him.
178	You will be captain in his place, of course. Since you're vice-captain now —”
179	“No . I prefer to see someone else lead, perhaps you or Fomar.
180	I've been thinking over the situation and it seems to me that I should declare myself mated to one of you, whichever of you wants to be captain.
181	Then I could devolve the responsibility.”
182	“Well, I don't want to be captain.
183	Let Fomar do it.”
184	Nasha studied him, tall and blond, striding along beside her in his pressure suit.
185	“I'm rather partial to you,” she said.
186	“We might try it for a time, at least.
187	But do as you like.
188	Look, we're coming to something.”
189	They stopped walking, letting Tance catch up.
190	In front of them was some sort of a ruined building.
191	Dorle stared around thoughtfully.
192	“Do you see?
193	This whole place is a natural bowl, a huge valley.
194	See how the rock formations rise up on all sides, protecting the floor.
195	Maybe some of the great blast was deflected here.”
196	They wandered around the ruins, picking up rocks and fragments.
197	“I think this was a farm,” Tance said, examining a piece of wood.
198	“This was part of a tower windmill.”
199	“Really?”
200	Nasha took the stick and turned it over.
201	Interesting . But let's go; we don't have much time.”
202	“Look,” Dorle said suddenly. Off there, a long way off.
203	Isn't that something?”
204	He pointed.
205	Nasha sucked in her breath.
206	“The white stones.”
207	“What?”
208	Nasha looked up at Dorle.
209	“The white stones, the great broken teeth.
210	We saw them, the Captain and I, from the control room.”
211	She touched Dorle's arm gently.
212	“That's where they fired from.
213	I didn't think we had landed so close.”
214	“What is it?” Tance said, coming up to them.
215	“I'm almost blind without my glasses.
216	What do you see?”
217	“The city.
218	Where they fired from.”
219	“Oh.”
220	All three of them stood together.
221	“Well, let's go,” Tance said.
222	“There's no telling what we'll find there.”
223	Dorle frowned at him.
224	“Wait.
225	We don't know what we would be getting into.
226	They must have patrols.
227	They probably have seen us already, for that matter.”
228	“They probably have seen the ship itself,” Tance said.
229	“They probably know right now where they can find it, where they can blow it up.
230	So what difference does it make whether we go closer or not?”
231	“That's true,” Nasha said.
232	“If they really want to get us we haven't a chance.
233	We have no armaments at all; you know that.”
234	“I have a hand weapon.”
235	Dorle nodded.
236	“Well, let's go on, then.
237	I suppose you're right, Tance.”
238	“But let's stay together,” Tance said nervously.
239	“Nasha, you're going too fast.”
240	Nasha looked back.
241	She laughed.
242	“If we expect to get there by nightfall we must go fast.”
243	They reached the outskirts of the city at about the middle of the afternoon.
244	The sun, cold and yellow, hung above them in the colorless sky.
245	Dorle stopped at the top of a ridge overlooking the city.
246	“Well, there it is.
247	What's left of it.”
248	There was not much left.
249	The huge concrete piers which they had noticed were not piers at all, but the ruined foundations of buildings.
250	They had been baked by the searing heat, baked and charred almost to the ground.
251	Nothing else remained, only this irregular circle of white squares, perhaps four miles in diameter.
252	Dorle spat in disgust.
253	“More wasted time.
254	A dead skeleton of a city, that's all.”
255	“But it was from here that the firing came,” Tance murmured.
256	“Don't forget that.”
257	“And by someone with a good eye and a great deal of experience,” Nasha added.
258	“Let's go.”
259	They walked into the city between the ruined buildings.
260	No one spoke.
261	They walked in silence, listening to the echo of their footsteps.
262	“It's macabre,” Dorle muttered.
263	“I've seen ruined cities before but they died of old age, old age and fatigue.
264	This was killed, seared to death.
265	This city didn't die — it was murdered.”
266	“I wonder what the city was called,” Nasha said.
267	She turned aside, going up the remains of a stairway from one of the foundations.
268	“Do you think we might find a signpost?
269	Some kind of plaque?”
270	She peered into the ruins.
271	“There's nothing there,” Dorle said impatiently.
272	“Come on.”
273	“Wait.”
274	Nasha bent down, touching a concrete stone.
275	“There's something inscribed on this.”
276	“What is it?”
277	Tance hurried up.
278	He squatted in the dust, running his gloved fingers over the surface of the stone.
279	“Letters, all right.”
280	He took a writing stick from the pocket of his pressure suit and copied the inscription on a bit of paper.
281	Dorle glanced over his shoulder.
282	The inscription was: FRANKLIN APARTMENTS
283	“That's this city,” Nasha said softly.
284	“That was its name.”
285	Tance put the paper in his pocket and they went on.
286	After a time Dorle said, “Nasha, you know, I think we're being watched. But don't look around.”
287	The woman stiffened.
288	“Oh?
289	Why do you say that?
290	Did you see something?”
291	“No.
292	I can feel it, though.
293	Don't you?”
294	Nasha smiled a little.
295	“I feel nothing, but perhaps I'm more used to being stared at.”
296	She turned her head slightly.
297	“Oh!”
298	Dorle reached for his hand weapon.
299	“What is it?
300	What do you see?”
301	Tance had stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth half open.
302	“The gun,” Nasha said.
303	“It's the gun.”
304	“Look at the size of it.
305	The size of the thing.”
306	Dorle unfastened his hand weapon slowly.
307	“That's it, all right.”
308	The gun was huge.
309	Stark and immense it pointed up at the sky, a mass of steel and glass, set in a huge slab of concrete.
310	Even as they watched the gun moved on its swivel base, whirring underneath.
311	A slim vane turned with the wind, a network of rods atop a high pole.
312	“It's alive,” Nasha whispered.
313	“It's listening to us, watching us.”
314	The gun moved again, this time clockwise.
315	It was mounted so that it could make a full circle.
316	The barrel lowered a trifle, then resumed its original position.
317	“But who fires it?” Tance said.
318	Dorle laughed.
319	“No one.
320	No one fires it.”
321	They stared at him.
322	“What do you mean?”
323	“It fires itself.”
324	They couldn't believe him.
325	Nasha came close to him, frowning, looking up at him.
326	“I don't understand.
327	What do you mean, it fires itself?”
328	“Watch, I'll show you.
329	Don't move.”
330	Dorle picked up a rock from the ground.
331	He hesitated a moment and then tossed the rock high in the air.
332	The rock passed in front of the gun.
333	Instantly the great barrel moved, the vanes contracted.
334	The rock fell to the ground.
335	The gun paused, then resumed its calm swivel, its slow circling.
336	“You see,” Dorle said, “it noticed the rock, as soon as I threw it up in the air.
337	It's alert to anything that flies or moves above the ground level.
338	Probably it detected us as soon as we entered the gravitational field of the planet.
339	It probably had a bead on us from the start.
340	We don't have a chance.
341	It knows all about the ship.
342	It's just waiting for us to take off again.”
343	“I understand about the rock,” Nasha said, nodding.
344	“The gun noticed it, but not us, since we're on the ground, not above.
345	It's only designed to combat objects in the sky.
346	The ship is safe until it takes off again, then the end will come.”
347	“But what's this gun for?” Tance put in.
348	“There's no one alive here.
349	Everyone is dead.”
350	“It's a machine,” Dorle said.
351	“A machine that was made to do a job.
352	And it's doing the job.
353	How it survived the blast I don't know.
354	On it goes, waiting for the enemy.
355	Probably they came by air in some sort of projectiles.”
356	“The enemy,” Nasha said.
357	“Their own race.
358	It is hard to believe that they really bombed themselves, fired at themselves.”
359	“Well, it's over with.
360	Except right here, where we're standing.
361	This one gun, still alert, ready to kill.
362	It'll go on until it wears out.”
363	“And by that time we'll be dead,” Nasha said bitterly.
364	“There must have been hundreds of guns like this,” Dorle murmured.
365	“They must have been used to the sight, guns, weapons, uniforms.
366	Probably they accepted it as a natural thing, part of their lives, like eating and sleeping.
367	An institution, like the church and the state.
368	Men trained to fight, to lead armies, a regular profession.
369	Honored, respected.”
370	Tance was walking slowly toward the gun, peering nearsightedly up at it.
371	“Quite complex, isn't it?
372	All those vanes and tubes.
373	I suppose this is some sort of a telescopic sight.”
374	His gloved hand touched the end of a long tube.
375	Instantly the gun shifted, the barrel retracting.
376	It swung —
377	“Don't move!” Dorle cried.
378	The barrel swung past them as they stood, rigid and still.
379	For one terrible moment it hesitated over their heads, clicking and whirring, settling into position.
380	Then the sounds died out and the gun became silent.
381	Tance smiled foolishly inside his helmet.
382	“I must have put my finger over the lens.
383	I'll be more careful.”
384	He made his way up onto the circular slab, stepping gingerly behind the body of the gun.
385	He disappeared from view.
386	“Where did he go?” Nasha said irritably.
387	“He'll get us all killed.”
388	“Tance, come back!” Dorle shouted.
389	“What's the matter with you?”
390	“In a minute.”
391	There was a long silence.
392	At last the archeologist appeared.
393	“I think I've found something.
394	Come up and I'll show you.”
395	“What is it?”
396	“Dorle, you said the gun was here to keep the enemy off.
397	I think I know why they wanted to keep the enemy off.”
398	They were puzzled.
399	“I think I've found what the gun is supposed to guard.
400	Come and give me a hand.”
401	“All right,” Dorle said abruptly.
402	“Let's go.”
403	He seized Nasha's hand.
404	“Come on.
405	Let's see what he's found.
406	I thought something like this might happen when I saw that the gun was —”
407	“Like what?”
408	Nasha pulled her hand away.
409	“What are you talking about?
410	You act as if you knew what he's found.”
411	“I do.”
412	Dorle smiled down at her.
413	“Do you remember the legend that all races have the myth of the buried treasure, and the dragon, the serpent that watches it, guards it, keeping everyone away?”
414	She nodded.
415	“Well?”
416	Dorle pointed up at the gun.
417	“That,” he said, “is the dragon.
418	Come on.”
419	Between the three of them they managed to pull up the steel cover and lay it to one side.
420	Dorle was wet with perspiration when they finished.
421	“It isn't worth it,” he grunted.
422	He stared into the dark yawning hole.
423	“Or is it?”
424	Nasha clicked on her hand lamp, shining the beam down the stairs.
425	The steps were thick with dust and rubble.
426	At the bottom was a steel door.
427	“Come on,” Tance said excitedly.
428	He started down the stairs.
429	They watched him reach the door and pull hopefully on it without success.
430	“Give a hand!”
431	“All right.”
432	They came gingerly after him.
433	Dorle examined the door.
434	It was bolted shut, locked.
435	There was an inscription on the door
436	but he could not read it.
437	“Now what?” Nasha said.
438	Dorle took out his hand weapon.
439	“Stand back.
440	I can't think of any other way.”
441	He pressed the switch.
442	The bottom of the door glowed red.
443	Presently it began to crumble.
444	Dorle clicked the weapon off.
445	“I think we can get through.
446	Let's try.”
447	The door came apart easily.
448	In a few minutes they had carried it away in pieces and stacked the pieces on the first step.
449	Then they went on, flashing the light ahead of them.
450	They were in a vault.
451	Dust lay everywhere, on everything, inches thick.
452	Wood crates lined the walls, huge boxes and crates, packages and containers.
453	Tance looked around curiously, his eyes bright.
454	“What exactly are all these?” he murmured.
455	“Something valuable, I would think.”
456	He picked up a round drum and opened it.
457	A spool fell to the floor, unwinding a black ribbon.
458	He examined it, holding it up to the light.
459	“Look at this!”
460	They came around him.
461	“Pictures,” Nasha said.
462	“Tiny pictures.”
463	“Records of some kind.”
464	Tance closed the spool up in the drum again.
465	“Look, hundreds of drums.”
466	He flashed the light around.
467	“And those crates.
468	Let's open one.”
469	Dorle was already prying at the wood.
470	The wood had turned brittle and dry.
471	He managed to pull a section away.
472	It was a picture.
473	A boy in a blue garment, smiling pleasantly, staring ahead, young and handsome.
474	He seemed almost alive, ready to move toward them in the light of the hand lamp.
475	It was one of them, one of the ruined race, the race that had perished.
476	For a long time they stared at the picture.
477	At last Dorle replaced the board.
478	“All these other crates,” Nasha said.
479	“More pictures.
480	And these drums.
481	What are in the boxes?”
482	“This is their treasure,” Tance said, almost to himself.
483	“Here are their pictures, their records.
484	Probably all their literature is here, their stories, their myths, their ideas about the universe.”
485	“And their history,” Nasha said.
486	“We'll be able to trace their development and find out what it was that made them become what they were.”
487	Dorle was wandering around the vault.
488	“Odd,” he murmured.
489	“Even at the end, even after they had begun to fight they still knew, someplace down inside them, that their real treasure was this, their books and pictures, their myths.
490	Even after their big cities and buildings and industries were destroyed they probably hoped to come back and find this.
491	After everything else was gone.”
492	“When we get back home we can agitate for a mission to come here,” Tance said.
493	“All this can be loaded up and taken back.
494	We'll be leaving about —”
495	He stopped.
496	“Yes,” Dorle said dryly.
497	We'll be leaving about three day - periods from now.
498	We'll fix the ship, then take off.
499	Soon we'll be home, that is, if nothing happens.
500	Like being shot down by that —”
501	“Oh, stop it!” Nasha said impatiently.
502	“Leave him alone.
503	He's right: all this must be taken back home, sooner or later.
504	We'll have to solve the problem of the gun.
505	We have no choice.”
506	Dorle nodded.
507	“What's your solution, then?
508	As soon as we leave the ground we'll be shot down.”
509	His face twisted bitterly.
510	“They've guarded their treasure too well.
511	Instead of being preserved it will lie here until it rots.
512	It serves them right.”
513	“How?”
514	“Don't you see?
515	This was the only way they knew, building a gun and setting it up to shoot anything that came along.
516	They were so certain that everything was hostile, the enemy, coming to take their possessions away from them.
517	Well, they can keep them.”
518	Nasha was deep in thought, her mind far away.
519	Suddenly she gasped.
520	“Dorle,” she said.
521	What's the matter with us?
522	We have no problem.
523	The gun is no menace at all.”
524	The two men stared at her.
525	“No menace?” Dorle said.
526	“It's already shot us down once.
527	And as soon as we take off again —”
528	“Don't you see?”
529	Nasha began to laugh.
530	“The poor foolish gun, it's completely harmless.
531	Even I could deal with it alone.”
532	“You?”
533	Her eyes were flashing.
534	“With a crowbar.
535	With a hammer or a stick of wood.
536	Let's go back to the ship and load up.
537	Of course we're at its mercy in the air: that's the way it was made.
538	It can fire into the sky, shoot down anything that flies.
539	But that's all!
540	Against something on the ground it has no defenses.
541	Isn't that right?”
542	Dorle nodded slowly.
543	“The soft underbelly of the dragon.
544	In the legend, the dragon's armor doesn't cover its stomach.”
545	He began to laugh.
546	“That's right.
547	That's perfectly right.”
548	“Let's go, then,” Nasha said.
549	“Let's get back to the ship.
550	We have work to do here.”
551	It was early the next morning when they reached the ship.
552	During the night the Captain had died, and the crew had ignited his body, according to custom.
553	They had stood solemnly around it until the last ember died.
554	As they were going back to their work the woman and the two men appeared, dirty and tired, still excited.
555	And presently, from the ship, a line of people came, each carrying something in his hands.
556	The line marched across the gray slag, the eternal expanse of fused metal.
557	When they reached the weapon they all fell on the gun at once, with crowbars, hammers, anything that was heavy and hard.
558	The telescopic sights shattered into bits.
559	The wiring was pulled out, torn to shreds.
560	The delicate gears were smashed, dented.
561	Finally the warheads themselves were carried off and the firing pins removed.
562	The gun was smashed, the great weapon destroyed.
563	The people went down into the vault and examined the treasure.
564	With its metal - armored guardian dead there was no danger any longer.
565	They studied the pictures, the films, the crates of books, the jeweled crowns, the cups, the statues.
566	At last, as the sun was dipping into the gray mists that drifted across the planet they came back up the stairs again.
567	For a moment they stood around the wrecked gun looking at the unmoving outline of it.
568	Then they started back to the ship.
569	There was still much work to be done.
570	The ship had been badly hurt, much had been damaged and lost.
571	The important thing was to repair it as quickly as possible, to get it into the air.
572	With all of them working together it took just five more days to make it spaceworthy.
573	Nasha stood in the control room, watching the planet fall away behind them.
574	She folded her arms, sitting down on the edge of the table.
575	“What are you thinking?” Dorle.
576	“I?
577	Nothing.”
578	“Are you sure?”
579	“I was thinking that there must have been a time when this planet was quite different, when there was life on it.”
580	“I suppose there was.
581	It's unfortunate that no ships from our system came this far, but then we had no reason to suspect intelligent life until we saw the fission glow in the sky.”
582	“And then it was too late.”
583	“Not quite too late.
584	After all, their possessions, their music, books, their pictures, all of that will survive.
585	We'll take them home and study them, and they'll change us.
586	We won't be the same afterwards.
587	Their sculpturing, especially.
588	Did you see the one of the great winged creature, without a head or arms?
589	Broken off, I suppose.
590	But those wings —
591	It looked very old.
592	It will change us a great deal.”
593	“When we come back we won't find the gun waiting for us,” Nasha said.
594	“Next time it won't be there to shoot us down.
595	We can land and take the treasure, as you call it.”
596	She smiled up at Dorle.
597	“You'll lead us back there, as a good captain should.”
598	“Captain?”
599	Dorle grinned.
600	“Then you've decided.”
601	Nasha shrugged.
602	“Fomar argues with me too much.
603	I think, all in all, I really prefer you.”
604	“Then let's go,” Dorle said.
605	“Let's go back home.”
606	The ship roared up, flying over the ruins of the city.
607	It turned in a huge arc and then shot off beyond the horizon, heading into outer space.
608	Down below, in the center of the ruined city, a single half - broken detector vane moved slightly, catching the roar of the ship.
609	The base of the great gun throbbed painfully, straining to turn.
610	After a moment a red warning light flashed on down inside its destroyed works.
611	And a long way off, a hundred miles from the city, another warning light flashed on, far underground.
612	Automatic relays flew into action.
613	Gears turned, belts whined.
614	On the ground above a section of metal slag slipped back.
615	A ramp appeared.
616	A moment later a small cart rushed to the surface.
617	The cart turned toward the city.
618	A second cart appeared behind it.
619	It was loaded with wiring cables.
620	Behind it a third cart came, loaded with telescopic tube sights.
621	And behind came more carts, some with relays, some with firing controls, some with tools and parts, screws and bolts, pins and nuts.
622	The final one contained atomic warheads.
623	The carts lined up behind the first one, the lead cart.
624	The lead cart started off, across the frozen ground, bumping calmly along, followed by the others. Moving toward the city. To the damaged gun.