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