August 16, 2025 • 34 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
History repeats by George O. Smith. There are and very
probably will always be some terrestrials who can't, and for
that matter, don't want to call their souls their own.
Zanobar lays across the spiral arm, a sprawling sphere of influence, vast,
(00:25):
mighty solid. At the core. Only the far flung boundary
shows the slight ebb and flow of contingent cultures that
may win a system or two to day and lose
them back tomorrow or a hundred years from now. Zanobar
is the trading post of the galaxy. For only Xanobar
(00:46):
is strong enough to stand over the trading table when
belliterents meet and offer to take them both at once.
If they do not sheathe their swords for this service,
Xanobar assesses her person. Therefore, Xanibar is rich, her riches
by her mercenaries to enforce her doctrines. Therefore, Xanobar is
(01:10):
rotten at the under core, for mercenaries have no god
but gold. The clatter of a hundred tongues, mingled with
a clink of glasses and floated through strata of smoke
from the burning weeds of a hundred planets from one
of the tables. Voices rise in mild disagreement. There is
(01:33):
a jeering laugh from one side and a roar of
anger from the other. Two men rise and face one another,
ready to follow their insults with violence. Before the eruption
can start, a mercenary steps forward on lithe feet and
lightly catches the back swung arm. A quick hand removes
the poised glass before it can be thrown into the
(01:56):
adversary's face. Set says the mercenary in a cold voice,
and they sit still, glaring at one another. Now, says
the mercenary, settle your differences by talk or depart in
opposite directions. This is Zanibar. He lies, he brags. I
(02:21):
do not lie. They are barbarians. I do not brag.
I can bring you one. You a wager, said the mercenary.
A wager. Zanibar can take no tax in blood. He
faces one. You claim you can do that, which he
says you cannot. Then, not waiting for a reply, he
(02:45):
faces the other. And if he does, how much are
you willing to pay? How much is his life worth?
How much are you willing to pay? Demands the merciy coldly.
Five hundredweight in crystal cut an honorable sum. Do you agree?
(03:09):
Not enough for a task as easy as you claim
it to be, said the mercenary. Five hundredweight of crystal
cut seems honorable, but it means we and Zanibar are
not interested in the details, only in the tax, an
(03:30):
honest wager contract Outlanders. Otherwise, I rule that your eruption
here disturbed the peace. The two Outlanders look at one
another schoolboys caught fighting in the alley by a monitor
who demands a bite of their apple in lieu of
(03:50):
a visit to the principle. As if loath to touch
one another, they reach forward hesitantly and handshake in a
quick light grip good closed the mercenary. He waves a hand,
and his fellows converge with contract, playton and etching stylus. Now, gentlemen,
(04:13):
please state the terms for Zanobar. Peter Hawley strolled down
a side street with a dog at his heel. It
was a dog of many breeds, but not a mixture
of careless parentage. Peter paused at a cross street and
looked uncertainly to left and right. What do you make Beauregard,
(04:40):
the noble dog, says right, replied Beauregard, Right, said Peter
turning up the street, and stop this noble dog routine.
Man is dog's best friend, said Beauregard. If you'd called
me something sensible, I wouldn't have looked it up. There's
(05:00):
a statue to me in the Okefinocchi's back on earth.
I am the noble dog, Pogo says, so I ah easy, Peter,
said the dog, in a near whisper. All right, do
we play down the chatter. Beauregard sat, lifted his nose
(05:22):
and sniffed his natural voice, gave a faint whine of discontent.
I'm supposed to have a nose, he complained. This is
like trying to smell at a lone mouse in a
zoological garden in midsummer. Why the warning, asked Peter. All
(05:43):
races smell the same when they are poised for violence,
said the dog. Trouble is that man smell isn't pointed
the way it's going, only where it's coming from. Peter grunted,
Catch any woman smell just the usual whiff stale scent.
(06:04):
She was here, she passed this way, But which way
we can guess They made it away from the spaceport, unless,
said the dog, taking another sniff of the air. They're
taking her back to some other spacecraft. Beauregard looked up
(06:25):
at Peter. Do you catch anything? Just the usual mingled
fright and danger, frantic despair directional. Peter shook his head. No,
he said, the sores is too close. Let's stroll up
this street to the end and come back on the
(06:45):
other side, said the dog, quietly, innocent her. They went
alert and poised. A man and his dog. From all appearances,
but in Zanibar, the principal city of z Xanabar the Empire,
they were huntsmen and companion. Like all cities of more
(07:05):
than ten million souls, Xanabar had its glistening and lofty
area and its slums and what would have been a
waterfront region in a seafaring city. The conditions were the
same as they'd been everywhere for a few decades of
thousands of years, only the technology changes. Man's cave is
(07:27):
stainless steel and synthetic plastic. The cave's man is swinging
a better axe, and his hide is protected from the
weather by stuff far more durable than his own skin.
But he's the same man with the same hackles. They
just rise for a few more thousand reasons than the
hackles of his ancestors got it, said Beauregard, coming to
(07:52):
a brief point at a closed door. Let's go in.
Beauregard's reply was half snarl and half look out. Peter
world to catch a glimpse of a man upon him
with pencil ray. Coming to point. He faded down and
toward the other, almost in a fall out of the
(08:13):
path of the pencil ray that flicked on and began
to sweep upward and in. Peter caught his balance at
the same time he clutched the wrist in his right hand.
Then he went on down, around and over, rising on
his knees to flip the other man heels high in
an arc that ended with a full length spine thudding
(08:34):
body smash on the pavement. Beauregard leaped in and slashed
at the hand clutching the pencil ray, snapped his head
back and forth thrice and sent the weapon flying. Then,
with a savage growl, he set a soft mouth against
the other's throat and let the man feel the pressure
of his fangs. Easy, said Peter. Beauregard backed away a
(09:01):
few inches. Easy, nothing, He snapped this man is the
noble dog's worst enemy. He wanted your blood. Take it easy,
I want his information. The man looked up Barbarian terrestrial,
he snarled. Peter sneered. And this is the capital city
(09:26):
of the glorious civilization called Xanabar, marble palaces with nobles
of the blood and slinking alleys with human rats. Where
is she? The stranger spat Beauregard? Want some red meat?
He'd make me up chuck Only rodents e't their own kind.
(09:50):
Just a bite? Do I have to swallow? No? Just slash? Wait,
barbarian barbarian terrestrial? Am I? You were maybe going to
invite me for tea and cakes with that pencil ray?
I talk, snapped Peter. Where is she? Who Beauregard? Yes, boss,
(10:18):
the throat or the other hand? All right, for the
good it'll do you. She's in there. Go on in
and we'll have two of you, Beauregard growled, three of us,
and we might be hard to handle. Peter stood up
and hauled the stranger to his feet. His right hand
(10:40):
dripped blood from the dog's teeth. Peter looked for and
found the pencil ray smashed against the stone front of
the building. He cuffed the stranger across the face, turned
him around, and pointed him toward the far corner. I
count three, he said. If you're not out of sight
by three, it'll be a pleasure, Peter said, Beauregard. The
(11:05):
stranger loped away on a crazy run. As he turned
the corner, he ran face on to one of the
uniformed mercenaries of Zanobar. The mercenary collared the stranger and
took a quick inventory of the slashed right hand, the
ripped clothing, and adding those to the frightened gallop. He
came back with the stranger's left arm held in a backlock. Haughtily,
(11:29):
he demanded, what goes on in Zanibar? Peter eyed the
mercenary sourly kidnapping an attempted murder, who says such lawlessness
runs rife in Xanobar. I say so, Peter Hawley of
(11:49):
the Extra Terrestrial Service, I say so, you are mistaken, Barbarian,
I say so, said boro guard. You're an animal, I am,
and so are you. I'll not be insulted by an animal.
I am. Take it easy, Beauregard, take it easy. Nothing
(12:15):
this mercenary foot soldier forgets one thing, or maybe he
doesn't know about it. Don't call his excellencies peacekeepers mercenaries
snapped the mercenary peacekeeper. He chuckled the dog, well, listen
and become wise. Dog and man. Man and dog have
(12:36):
been together for about a half million years. Once dog
helped man and war and peace, and man gave dog
food and shelter. Dog helped man rise above the level
of the savage, and man has helped dog rise to
the level of intelligence. But dog has one advantage. None
(12:57):
of us has been intelligent long enough to really believe
that dog has a soul, and those of us who
do believe that also know that dog's soul is devoted
to man. Do you know about dog, Zanavian peacekeeper? No,
(13:19):
then don't force me to show you what kind of
adversary intelligent dog can be. Mere man is a pushover
bah Beauregard loped in a mad circle around the mercenary.
His Excellency's peacekeeper turned to stay facing the dog, but
(13:40):
found himself turning his back on Peter. He stepped back
and to one side and reached for his heavy duty pencil.
The dog gave a low growl of warning and crouched
for a leap. He means it, Peacekeeper, said Peter Hawley.
Quietly draw that pencil and he'll have your hand and
(14:01):
ribbons before you can level it. The Mercenary drew in
his breath. Whistle for help, and he'll have your throat.
I shall not permit this high handed. Then stop sounding
off and listen to us, snapped Peter. I charge the
Empire of Xanobar with the crime of being indifferent to
(14:24):
the welfare of the stranger within her gait. I charge
kidnapping an attempted murder, and I charge the latter against
the specimen you hold in your hand. An outlander. Does
he bring his own law to Zanobar? If he does,
then so do I. I arrest you all for breaking
(14:45):
the peace of Zanobar, me too, asked Beauregard. The Mercenary
ignored the dog's eager sally. You are armed, terrestrial, So
is he, so am, I snarled Beauregard, showing a fine
set of white fangs in the most effective gesture. This
(15:10):
must cease, thundered the Mercenary. You cannot threaten his Excellency's peacekeepers.
Beauregard growled. Slip the mercenary a crystal cut, boss. We've
got a girl of fine, a girl, a terrestrial girl,
asked the mercenary, with his eyes opening, the daughter of
(15:33):
our envoy to Lonafyte, Miss Vanessa Lewis, last reported in
her stateroom aboard the terrestrial spacecraft Polaris during landing pattern
at Xanibori's Citadel spaceport. The mercenary said, the work of
outlanders riff raff such as this well, snapped Peter Hawley.
(15:58):
Do his excellencies peacemakers condone such goings on? We keep
the peace of Xanobar. Your charge is your word terrestrial
terrestrial barbarian, isn't it? I arrest you. I'll stop it
for five weight a crystal cut? Can you be bribed
(16:21):
to haul that specimen off to jail and let me
go about making my own peace with Xanobar? You accuse
me of accepting bribes. You're a mercenary, aren't you? Seven
weight of crystal cut? Ten? Seven said Peter, ten, said
(16:41):
the mercenary. And you have one more caper coming, ten,
agreed Peter Prawley. And you look the other way when
I take the lid off. Still got it, said Bearegard,
sniff at the closed door, but keeping one eye on
(17:03):
the disappearing mercenary and his prisoner. I've got it too,
still fright and concern, fear of harm, concern over what
happens next. Strong, definitely, said Peter, closing his eyes and
holding his breath. Nothing measurable, asked the dog after a
(17:25):
full minute. No, too bad. I was never introduced to her.
I have no idea of her strength of mind. Wait
another minute went by in personal silence. Peter Hawley's concentration
far too deep to be disturbed by the sounds of
the city's spaceport slum by night. The dog backed away
(17:47):
from the door and took an alert position to guard
Peter while the man was immersed in his own mind. Finally,
Peter alerted and shook his head sadly. I thought for
a moment that she caught me a fleeting thought of
rescue or escape, concept of freedom, flight, safety, but wish
(18:09):
thinking not communication. Let's go in barge or slink, asked
the dog. Slink, habit your way, said Beauregard. Outside the
place looked closed. The door was solid, a plastic and
(18:29):
imitation of bronze through which neither light nor sound passed.
The windows were dark, but once the door was cracked,
the wave of sound came pouring out along the slit
of light and filled the street with echo and re echo. Slink. No,
said the dog, So everybody makes mistakes. Inside, a woman
(18:55):
leaned over a low counter. Check your whip. Say you
can't bring that animal in here, Beauregard said, he isn't
bringing me. I'm here because I like it. The woman's
eyes bugged, What kind eh? I am man's best friend,
(19:17):
the noble dog of Barbarian terra. Yes. But oh, said
Peter airily. We're looking for a friend friend. Who is he?
It's a she and her name is Vanessa Lewis. She
ain't here. The dame's a liaress, Peter I sent her strong.
(19:42):
We'll just take a look around, said Peter to the
check girl. You'll have to check your weapons. I'd rather
go in naked. Sorry not to day. Weapons happen to
be my business to day. Come on, Beauregard, man and dog,
he ordered along the hallway. Warily, Beauregard said, and he
(20:05):
touched got a faint impression of alarm. Danger. Call out
the guards isn'd violence, said the dog, and the door
at the end of the hallway opened and a big
man stepped out. What's going on here, he demanded flatly.
(20:27):
The check girl said he wouldn't check. The big man
reached for his hip pocket. Peter said, take him high,
and they plunged. Peter dove for the man's knees. Beauregard
went in a three striped lope like an accordion, folding
and unfolding, and then arched in a long leap with
(20:50):
his snarling fangs aimed at the man's throat. Man and
dog hit him low and high before he could open
his mouth, before he could free the snub pencil ray.
There was a short scrabble that ended when Beauregard lifted
the man's head and whammed it down hard against the floor. Weakly.
(21:11):
The check girl finished her statement his weapons and killed
over and a dead faint Beauregard shook himself violently and
worked his jaws, licking blood from his chops. Peter looked
in through the open wall door opposite the check counter.
The racket had not been noticed by the room full
(21:33):
of spacemen and riff raff. The babble of a hundred
tongues still went on amid the clink of glasses and
the disturbing strains of Zanabian music. Smoke from a hundred
semi noxious weeds lay in strata across the room, and
at a table in the far corner, two men faced
(21:54):
one another, their expressions a mixed pair. One held heavily
begrudged admirs as he paid off five hundredweight of crystal
cut in the legal tender of Zanibor to the other,
whose expression was greedy self confidence. One of his Excellency's
peacekeepers presided over the exchange coldly. He extracted a fifty
(22:17):
weight from the pile and folded it into the signed
and completed wager contract. For his own coffer, he extracted
a five weight and slipped it into his boot top.
Peter Hawley and Beauregard passed on went through the far door,
dragging their late adversary ignominiously by the heels amid the
(22:41):
lessened publicity of the distant hall. Peter checked the man
and shrugged. He may live, he said, coldly, if he
doesn't bleed to death. You really ought to take him
on the high side, said Beauregard plaintively. All I've got
is my teeth to grab with. They don't bleed so
(23:03):
bad from the ankle. They don't stay stop that way either,
said Peter harshly. You'd not be getting any praise from
the chief for that sort of brutality. If Zanibar weren't
rotten to the core, we wouldn't be plowing through it
in the first place. Now, let's get going. Shouldn't you
(23:23):
call for the rest of the crew. Not until I'm
certain the girl's here. I'd hate to cut the steady
wide search for cold evidence. She's here, I sent her.
Maybe it's past tense Beauregard, or maybe it's another woman.
Could be, but one thing, it is definitely terrestrial woman.
(23:47):
The dog sniffed again. You get anything, no more than before.
It's close, and they're the same sort of impressions. Yet
any woman would be frantic with fear and concern. I
sh Beauregard's sharp ears lifted instinctively at a distant sound
(24:11):
not heard by the man. With a toss of his head,
the dog folded one ear back, uncovering the inner shell
like a sonic direction finder. Beauregard turned his head and listened. Man.
He finally said, with a low growling voice, Peter, there'll
(24:32):
be hell to pay around here directly, he stumbled over
our recent conquest. Let's get cutting. Peter started trying doors
and peering in. The dog raced on ahead of the man,
sniffing deep at the bottom of each It was the
dog that found the room. He called here, and Peter
(24:54):
raced forward, just as the fellow on the stairs yelled
something in his native tongue. Peter hit the door with
the heel of his foot and slammed it open by
splintering the door frame. The dog crouched low and poised.
Peter slipped in and around, feeling for a light switch.
From inside, there was a voiceless whimper of fright, and
(25:17):
from outside and below there came the pounding of several
sets of heavy feet. Peter found the switch and flitted
the room with light. The girl, whether she was Miss
Vanessa Lewis or some one else and kidnapped, wise it
was still a terrestrial girl, lay trussed on the bed,
(25:38):
a patch of surgical tape over her mouth. Sorry, said Peter,
in a voice that he hoped was soothing. He reached
freed a corner of the tape and ripped it off
in a single swipe. The girl howled. Peter slapped her lightly.
Stop it, he commanded sharply the nutsa Lewis, Yes, but
(26:06):
call out the marines. Peter snarled the dog, no bo back. Reluctantly.
The dog backed into the room. He crouched low, poised
to spring with his nose just beyond the door frame.
Four of them, he whimpered, pleadingly. I can get two. Well,
(26:26):
I can't get the other two unless I'm lucky, snapped Peter.
Don't be so eager to die for nothing, Beauregard. All
this calculation, grumbled the dog sourly. I don't call it
a loss if I get two for one. I call
it a loss if I don't get four for nothing,
(26:48):
or the whole damn Empire of Xanabar for nothing. For
that matter, We've a job to do, and it ain't
dying until miss Lewis is out of this glorious citadel.
The girl looked from one to the other. They did
not need any identification. They were their own bonafides. Only
(27:08):
man terrestrial man had intelligent dogs to work beside him.
Period question closed. Beauregard snarled at the door warningly, while
Peter stripped surgical tape from wrists and ankles. Outside, someone
called come out, are we blast? Beauregard snarled, come in
(27:34):
and we'll cut you to bits. The quick flash of
a pencil ray flicked in a lance above the dog's nose.
Beauregard snapped back as the lancet of light cut downward,
then snapped forward for a quick look outside as the
little pencil of danger flickered dark. Careful, bou you call
(27:55):
the boys, snapped the dog. I'll something came to twist,
sting forward to hit the door frame. It dropped just
inside the door jam. Beauregard leaped, snapped at the thing
and caught it in mid air, snapped his head in
a vicious shake, and sent it whirling back outside again
Before it could be identified. The dog sunfished and landed
(28:18):
on all floor. Then the thing went off with a
dull poof Outside, there was a gentle flash of quick
light that was smothered by a billow of smoke. Beauregard
leaped into the cloud and disappeared. There was a hoarse
shriek and the mad scrapple of dog claws on the
hard floor, the sound of a heavy thud, and the
(28:41):
angry snarl of a dog with its teeth fastened into
something soft. Then there was the fast patter of dog feet,
and Beauregard came around the door on a dead run,
sliding sideways to karam off the open door into safety,
just as a pencil ray flicked to follow him. Got him,
(29:03):
said the dog, in a satisfied tone. That's one. He
took his post by the door, fram again the tip
of his nose just outside. There was a consultation out
there in the hallway, at which Beauregard called, make a
wild rush for us. Miss Lewis said, what are we
(29:24):
going to do? Fight it out, said Peter. They can't
win so long as we're alive. Now, I've got my
crew on its way and a dead run, and if
we make enough noise, some of his Excellency's peacemakers will
step in and demand their cut of the finances. He grinned.
How much are you worth, miss Lewis? She shuddered, I
(29:49):
don't know how much my father would pay. Hit um
allow Peter came beauregard snarl. Three of them came in
a slant, bound shoulders against the open door, caught their
bearings and hell was out for noon. Beauregard caught the
first with a slash at the throat. They went down
in a mad whirl of dog and thug paws, tail arms, legs,
(30:14):
and a spurt of blood. The second flicked his pencil
ray at Peter. Its capsule charge faded to a mere
sting before it cut into him. The third aimed to
kick at the struggling dog. Vanessa Lewis snatched a box
from the bureau and hurled it at the second. Peter
thumbed his pencil ray and winged the third man in
(30:36):
the biceps. Beauregard leaped for the second man's gun hand
and closed on it. As the hurled box opened and
scattershoted his face with bric a brac. The man with
a bloody throat flailed out and caught Peter by the ankle.
Peter stopped his face with his other heel. Miss Lewis
(30:59):
picked up the table lamp and with a single motion
turned off the light and finished felling the one with
the rayburn shoulder. Beauregard dropped from the second man's wrist
and crouched to spring. The man cowered back, his good arm,
covering his throat and his other arm hanging limp, he
(31:20):
mouthed fright noises in some tongue native to some star
a thousand light years across the galaxy. Coldly, Peter stepped
forward and belded him in the plexus. Now, he said, calmly,
we shall vacate the premises. They went side by side,
(31:43):
facing slightly outward. Beauregard between them, and slightly ahead. We're
coming out, called the dog. Three barbarians from Terra down
on the dark street. They met their mercenary again. He
eyed them sourly. I see you were in a sense successful,
(32:08):
Peter Hawley faced the mercenary. We were successful, and would
you like to make something of it. I'm going to
have to arrest you. You know you'll lose an arm
trying snapped the dog. There's murder been committed tonight, said
his Excellency's peacemaker. The piece of Zanobar has been disturbed.
(32:33):
Why you chiseling cruk. There's been kidnapping tonight, and I'm
afraid that I shall have to ask that the young
lady produced her passport, said the mercenary. Otherwise she's in
Xanobar's citadel illegally, Beauregard said, hit him low, Peter, here
(32:54):
come the boys now just for once for fan No.
I want our money grubbing peacekeeper to carry a message
to his excellency. I want his excellency to read some
terrestrial history. Once upon a time there was a place
called the Byzantine Empire that laid across the trade routes.
(33:18):
The upper crust of people used to serve the presence
of God in a golden throne, whilst their underlings dealt
in human slaves and procured comely concubines for the emperor.
Their policemen took bribes, and human life was cheap. And
when Byzantium fell, all the world was forced to seek
(33:39):
a new trade route. So tell his excellency that he'd
better clean up his own foul mess, or some barbarians
will clean it up for him. And that said Beauregard
goes for your dad. Ratted cat End of History repeats
(34:03):
by Georgia Smith.
History repeats by George O. Smith. There are and very
probably will always be some terrestrials who can't, and for
that matter, don't want to call their souls their own.
Zanobar lays across the spiral arm, a sprawling sphere of influence, vast,
(00:25):
mighty solid. At the core. Only the far flung boundary
shows the slight ebb and flow of contingent cultures that
may win a system or two to day and lose
them back tomorrow or a hundred years from now. Zanobar
is the trading post of the galaxy. For only Xanobar
(00:46):
is strong enough to stand over the trading table when
belliterents meet and offer to take them both at once.
If they do not sheathe their swords for this service,
Xanobar assesses her person. Therefore, Xanibar is rich, her riches
by her mercenaries to enforce her doctrines. Therefore, Xanobar is
(01:10):
rotten at the under core, for mercenaries have no god
but gold. The clatter of a hundred tongues, mingled with
a clink of glasses and floated through strata of smoke
from the burning weeds of a hundred planets from one
of the tables. Voices rise in mild disagreement. There is
(01:33):
a jeering laugh from one side and a roar of
anger from the other. Two men rise and face one another,
ready to follow their insults with violence. Before the eruption
can start, a mercenary steps forward on lithe feet and
lightly catches the back swung arm. A quick hand removes
the poised glass before it can be thrown into the
(01:56):
adversary's face. Set says the mercenary in a cold voice,
and they sit still, glaring at one another. Now, says
the mercenary, settle your differences by talk or depart in
opposite directions. This is Zanibar. He lies, he brags. I
(02:21):
do not lie. They are barbarians. I do not brag.
I can bring you one. You a wager, said the mercenary.
A wager. Zanibar can take no tax in blood. He
faces one. You claim you can do that, which he
says you cannot. Then, not waiting for a reply, he
(02:45):
faces the other. And if he does, how much are
you willing to pay? How much is his life worth?
How much are you willing to pay? Demands the merciy coldly.
Five hundredweight in crystal cut an honorable sum. Do you agree?
(03:09):
Not enough for a task as easy as you claim
it to be, said the mercenary. Five hundredweight of crystal
cut seems honorable, but it means we and Zanibar are
not interested in the details, only in the tax, an
(03:30):
honest wager contract Outlanders. Otherwise, I rule that your eruption
here disturbed the peace. The two Outlanders look at one
another schoolboys caught fighting in the alley by a monitor
who demands a bite of their apple in lieu of
(03:50):
a visit to the principle. As if loath to touch
one another, they reach forward hesitantly and handshake in a
quick light grip good closed the mercenary. He waves a hand,
and his fellows converge with contract, playton and etching stylus. Now, gentlemen,
(04:13):
please state the terms for Zanobar. Peter Hawley strolled down
a side street with a dog at his heel. It
was a dog of many breeds, but not a mixture
of careless parentage. Peter paused at a cross street and
looked uncertainly to left and right. What do you make Beauregard,
(04:40):
the noble dog, says right, replied Beauregard, Right, said Peter
turning up the street, and stop this noble dog routine.
Man is dog's best friend, said Beauregard. If you'd called
me something sensible, I wouldn't have looked it up. There's
(05:00):
a statue to me in the Okefinocchi's back on earth.
I am the noble dog, Pogo says, so I ah easy, Peter,
said the dog, in a near whisper. All right, do
we play down the chatter. Beauregard sat, lifted his nose
(05:22):
and sniffed his natural voice, gave a faint whine of discontent.
I'm supposed to have a nose, he complained. This is
like trying to smell at a lone mouse in a
zoological garden in midsummer. Why the warning, asked Peter. All
(05:43):
races smell the same when they are poised for violence,
said the dog. Trouble is that man smell isn't pointed
the way it's going, only where it's coming from. Peter grunted,
Catch any woman smell just the usual whiff stale scent.
(06:04):
She was here, she passed this way, But which way
we can guess They made it away from the spaceport, unless,
said the dog, taking another sniff of the air. They're
taking her back to some other spacecraft. Beauregard looked up
(06:25):
at Peter. Do you catch anything? Just the usual mingled
fright and danger, frantic despair directional. Peter shook his head. No,
he said, the sores is too close. Let's stroll up
this street to the end and come back on the
(06:45):
other side, said the dog, quietly, innocent her. They went
alert and poised. A man and his dog. From all appearances,
but in Zanibar, the principal city of z Xanabar the Empire,
they were huntsmen and companion. Like all cities of more
(07:05):
than ten million souls, Xanabar had its glistening and lofty
area and its slums and what would have been a
waterfront region in a seafaring city. The conditions were the
same as they'd been everywhere for a few decades of
thousands of years, only the technology changes. Man's cave is
(07:27):
stainless steel and synthetic plastic. The cave's man is swinging
a better axe, and his hide is protected from the
weather by stuff far more durable than his own skin.
But he's the same man with the same hackles. They
just rise for a few more thousand reasons than the
hackles of his ancestors got it, said Beauregard, coming to
(07:52):
a brief point at a closed door. Let's go in.
Beauregard's reply was half snarl and half look out. Peter
world to catch a glimpse of a man upon him
with pencil ray. Coming to point. He faded down and
toward the other, almost in a fall out of the
(08:13):
path of the pencil ray that flicked on and began
to sweep upward and in. Peter caught his balance at
the same time he clutched the wrist in his right hand.
Then he went on down, around and over, rising on
his knees to flip the other man heels high in
an arc that ended with a full length spine thudding
(08:34):
body smash on the pavement. Beauregard leaped in and slashed
at the hand clutching the pencil ray, snapped his head
back and forth thrice and sent the weapon flying. Then,
with a savage growl, he set a soft mouth against
the other's throat and let the man feel the pressure
of his fangs. Easy, said Peter. Beauregard backed away a
(09:01):
few inches. Easy, nothing, He snapped this man is the
noble dog's worst enemy. He wanted your blood. Take it easy,
I want his information. The man looked up Barbarian terrestrial,
he snarled. Peter sneered. And this is the capital city
(09:26):
of the glorious civilization called Xanabar, marble palaces with nobles
of the blood and slinking alleys with human rats. Where
is she? The stranger spat Beauregard? Want some red meat?
He'd make me up chuck Only rodents e't their own kind.
(09:50):
Just a bite? Do I have to swallow? No? Just slash? Wait,
barbarian barbarian terrestrial? Am I? You were maybe going to
invite me for tea and cakes with that pencil ray?
I talk, snapped Peter. Where is she? Who Beauregard? Yes, boss,
(10:18):
the throat or the other hand? All right, for the
good it'll do you. She's in there. Go on in
and we'll have two of you, Beauregard growled, three of us,
and we might be hard to handle. Peter stood up
and hauled the stranger to his feet. His right hand
(10:40):
dripped blood from the dog's teeth. Peter looked for and
found the pencil ray smashed against the stone front of
the building. He cuffed the stranger across the face, turned
him around, and pointed him toward the far corner. I
count three, he said. If you're not out of sight
by three, it'll be a pleasure, Peter said, Beauregard. The
(11:05):
stranger loped away on a crazy run. As he turned
the corner, he ran face on to one of the
uniformed mercenaries of Zanobar. The mercenary collared the stranger and
took a quick inventory of the slashed right hand, the
ripped clothing, and adding those to the frightened gallop. He
came back with the stranger's left arm held in a backlock. Haughtily,
(11:29):
he demanded, what goes on in Zanibar? Peter eyed the
mercenary sourly kidnapping an attempted murder, who says such lawlessness
runs rife in Xanobar. I say so, Peter Hawley of
(11:49):
the Extra Terrestrial Service, I say so, you are mistaken, Barbarian,
I say so, said boro guard. You're an animal, I am,
and so are you. I'll not be insulted by an animal.
I am. Take it easy, Beauregard, take it easy. Nothing
(12:15):
this mercenary foot soldier forgets one thing, or maybe he
doesn't know about it. Don't call his excellencies peacekeepers mercenaries
snapped the mercenary peacekeeper. He chuckled the dog, well, listen
and become wise. Dog and man. Man and dog have
(12:36):
been together for about a half million years. Once dog
helped man and war and peace, and man gave dog
food and shelter. Dog helped man rise above the level
of the savage, and man has helped dog rise to
the level of intelligence. But dog has one advantage. None
(12:57):
of us has been intelligent long enough to really believe
that dog has a soul, and those of us who
do believe that also know that dog's soul is devoted
to man. Do you know about dog, Zanavian peacekeeper? No,
(13:19):
then don't force me to show you what kind of
adversary intelligent dog can be. Mere man is a pushover
bah Beauregard loped in a mad circle around the mercenary.
His Excellency's peacekeeper turned to stay facing the dog, but
(13:40):
found himself turning his back on Peter. He stepped back
and to one side and reached for his heavy duty pencil.
The dog gave a low growl of warning and crouched
for a leap. He means it, Peacekeeper, said Peter Hawley.
Quietly draw that pencil and he'll have your hand and
(14:01):
ribbons before you can level it. The Mercenary drew in
his breath. Whistle for help, and he'll have your throat.
I shall not permit this high handed. Then stop sounding
off and listen to us, snapped Peter. I charge the
Empire of Xanobar with the crime of being indifferent to
(14:24):
the welfare of the stranger within her gait. I charge
kidnapping an attempted murder, and I charge the latter against
the specimen you hold in your hand. An outlander. Does
he bring his own law to Zanobar? If he does,
then so do I. I arrest you all for breaking
(14:45):
the peace of Zanobar, me too, asked Beauregard. The Mercenary
ignored the dog's eager sally. You are armed, terrestrial, So
is he, so am, I snarled Beauregard, showing a fine
set of white fangs in the most effective gesture. This
(15:10):
must cease, thundered the Mercenary. You cannot threaten his Excellency's peacekeepers.
Beauregard growled. Slip the mercenary a crystal cut, boss. We've
got a girl of fine, a girl, a terrestrial girl,
asked the mercenary, with his eyes opening, the daughter of
(15:33):
our envoy to Lonafyte, Miss Vanessa Lewis, last reported in
her stateroom aboard the terrestrial spacecraft Polaris during landing pattern
at Xanibori's Citadel spaceport. The mercenary said, the work of
outlanders riff raff such as this well, snapped Peter Hawley.
(15:58):
Do his excellencies peacemakers condone such goings on? We keep
the peace of Xanobar. Your charge is your word terrestrial
terrestrial barbarian, isn't it? I arrest you. I'll stop it
for five weight a crystal cut? Can you be bribed
(16:21):
to haul that specimen off to jail and let me
go about making my own peace with Xanobar? You accuse
me of accepting bribes. You're a mercenary, aren't you? Seven
weight of crystal cut? Ten? Seven said Peter, ten, said
(16:41):
the mercenary. And you have one more caper coming, ten,
agreed Peter Prawley. And you look the other way when
I take the lid off. Still got it, said Bearegard,
sniff at the closed door, but keeping one eye on
(17:03):
the disappearing mercenary and his prisoner. I've got it too,
still fright and concern, fear of harm, concern over what
happens next. Strong, definitely, said Peter, closing his eyes and
holding his breath. Nothing measurable, asked the dog after a
(17:25):
full minute. No, too bad. I was never introduced to her.
I have no idea of her strength of mind. Wait
another minute went by in personal silence. Peter Hawley's concentration
far too deep to be disturbed by the sounds of
the city's spaceport slum by night. The dog backed away
(17:47):
from the door and took an alert position to guard
Peter while the man was immersed in his own mind. Finally,
Peter alerted and shook his head sadly. I thought for
a moment that she caught me a fleeting thought of
rescue or escape, concept of freedom, flight, safety, but wish
(18:09):
thinking not communication. Let's go in barge or slink, asked
the dog. Slink, habit your way, said Beauregard. Outside the
place looked closed. The door was solid, a plastic and
(18:29):
imitation of bronze through which neither light nor sound passed.
The windows were dark, but once the door was cracked,
the wave of sound came pouring out along the slit
of light and filled the street with echo and re echo. Slink. No,
said the dog, So everybody makes mistakes. Inside, a woman
(18:55):
leaned over a low counter. Check your whip. Say you
can't bring that animal in here, Beauregard said, he isn't
bringing me. I'm here because I like it. The woman's
eyes bugged, What kind eh? I am man's best friend,
(19:17):
the noble dog of Barbarian terra. Yes. But oh, said
Peter airily. We're looking for a friend friend. Who is he?
It's a she and her name is Vanessa Lewis. She
ain't here. The dame's a liaress, Peter I sent her strong.
(19:42):
We'll just take a look around, said Peter to the
check girl. You'll have to check your weapons. I'd rather
go in naked. Sorry not to day. Weapons happen to
be my business to day. Come on, Beauregard, man and dog,
he ordered along the hallway. Warily, Beauregard said, and he
(20:05):
touched got a faint impression of alarm. Danger. Call out
the guards isn'd violence, said the dog, and the door
at the end of the hallway opened and a big
man stepped out. What's going on here, he demanded flatly.
(20:27):
The check girl said he wouldn't check. The big man
reached for his hip pocket. Peter said, take him high,
and they plunged. Peter dove for the man's knees. Beauregard
went in a three striped lope like an accordion, folding
and unfolding, and then arched in a long leap with
(20:50):
his snarling fangs aimed at the man's throat. Man and
dog hit him low and high before he could open
his mouth, before he could free the snub pencil ray.
There was a short scrabble that ended when Beauregard lifted
the man's head and whammed it down hard against the floor. Weakly.
(21:11):
The check girl finished her statement his weapons and killed
over and a dead faint Beauregard shook himself violently and
worked his jaws, licking blood from his chops. Peter looked
in through the open wall door opposite the check counter.
The racket had not been noticed by the room full
(21:33):
of spacemen and riff raff. The babble of a hundred
tongues still went on amid the clink of glasses and
the disturbing strains of Zanabian music. Smoke from a hundred
semi noxious weeds lay in strata across the room, and
at a table in the far corner, two men faced
(21:54):
one another, their expressions a mixed pair. One held heavily
begrudged admirs as he paid off five hundredweight of crystal
cut in the legal tender of Zanibor to the other,
whose expression was greedy self confidence. One of his Excellency's
peacekeepers presided over the exchange coldly. He extracted a fifty
(22:17):
weight from the pile and folded it into the signed
and completed wager contract. For his own coffer, he extracted
a five weight and slipped it into his boot top.
Peter Hawley and Beauregard passed on went through the far door,
dragging their late adversary ignominiously by the heels amid the
(22:41):
lessened publicity of the distant hall. Peter checked the man
and shrugged. He may live, he said, coldly, if he
doesn't bleed to death. You really ought to take him
on the high side, said Beauregard plaintively. All I've got
is my teeth to grab with. They don't bleed so
(23:03):
bad from the ankle. They don't stay stop that way either,
said Peter harshly. You'd not be getting any praise from
the chief for that sort of brutality. If Zanibar weren't
rotten to the core, we wouldn't be plowing through it
in the first place. Now, let's get going. Shouldn't you
(23:23):
call for the rest of the crew. Not until I'm
certain the girl's here. I'd hate to cut the steady
wide search for cold evidence. She's here, I sent her.
Maybe it's past tense Beauregard, or maybe it's another woman.
Could be, but one thing, it is definitely terrestrial woman.
(23:47):
The dog sniffed again. You get anything, no more than before.
It's close, and they're the same sort of impressions. Yet
any woman would be frantic with fear and concern. I
sh Beauregard's sharp ears lifted instinctively at a distant sound
(24:11):
not heard by the man. With a toss of his head,
the dog folded one ear back, uncovering the inner shell
like a sonic direction finder. Beauregard turned his head and listened. Man.
He finally said, with a low growling voice, Peter, there'll
(24:32):
be hell to pay around here directly, he stumbled over
our recent conquest. Let's get cutting. Peter started trying doors
and peering in. The dog raced on ahead of the man,
sniffing deep at the bottom of each It was the
dog that found the room. He called here, and Peter
(24:54):
raced forward, just as the fellow on the stairs yelled
something in his native tongue. Peter hit the door with
the heel of his foot and slammed it open by
splintering the door frame. The dog crouched low and poised.
Peter slipped in and around, feeling for a light switch.
From inside, there was a voiceless whimper of fright, and
(25:17):
from outside and below there came the pounding of several
sets of heavy feet. Peter found the switch and flitted
the room with light. The girl, whether she was Miss
Vanessa Lewis or some one else and kidnapped, wise it
was still a terrestrial girl, lay trussed on the bed,
(25:38):
a patch of surgical tape over her mouth. Sorry, said Peter,
in a voice that he hoped was soothing. He reached
freed a corner of the tape and ripped it off
in a single swipe. The girl howled. Peter slapped her lightly.
Stop it, he commanded sharply the nutsa Lewis, Yes, but
(26:06):
call out the marines. Peter snarled the dog, no bo back. Reluctantly.
The dog backed into the room. He crouched low, poised
to spring with his nose just beyond the door frame.
Four of them, he whimpered, pleadingly. I can get two. Well,
(26:26):
I can't get the other two unless I'm lucky, snapped Peter.
Don't be so eager to die for nothing, Beauregard. All
this calculation, grumbled the dog sourly. I don't call it
a loss if I get two for one. I call
it a loss if I don't get four for nothing,
(26:48):
or the whole damn Empire of Xanabar for nothing. For
that matter, We've a job to do, and it ain't
dying until miss Lewis is out of this glorious citadel.
The girl looked from one to the other. They did
not need any identification. They were their own bonafides. Only
(27:08):
man terrestrial man had intelligent dogs to work beside him.
Period question closed. Beauregard snarled at the door warningly, while
Peter stripped surgical tape from wrists and ankles. Outside, someone
called come out, are we blast? Beauregard snarled, come in
(27:34):
and we'll cut you to bits. The quick flash of
a pencil ray flicked in a lance above the dog's nose.
Beauregard snapped back as the lancet of light cut downward,
then snapped forward for a quick look outside as the
little pencil of danger flickered dark. Careful, bou you call
(27:55):
the boys, snapped the dog. I'll something came to twist,
sting forward to hit the door frame. It dropped just
inside the door jam. Beauregard leaped, snapped at the thing
and caught it in mid air, snapped his head in
a vicious shake, and sent it whirling back outside again
Before it could be identified. The dog sunfished and landed
(28:18):
on all floor. Then the thing went off with a
dull poof Outside, there was a gentle flash of quick
light that was smothered by a billow of smoke. Beauregard
leaped into the cloud and disappeared. There was a hoarse
shriek and the mad scrapple of dog claws on the
hard floor, the sound of a heavy thud, and the
(28:41):
angry snarl of a dog with its teeth fastened into
something soft. Then there was the fast patter of dog feet,
and Beauregard came around the door on a dead run,
sliding sideways to karam off the open door into safety,
just as a pencil ray flicked to follow him. Got him,
(29:03):
said the dog, in a satisfied tone. That's one. He
took his post by the door, fram again the tip
of his nose just outside. There was a consultation out
there in the hallway, at which Beauregard called, make a
wild rush for us. Miss Lewis said, what are we
(29:24):
going to do? Fight it out, said Peter. They can't
win so long as we're alive. Now, I've got my
crew on its way and a dead run, and if
we make enough noise, some of his Excellency's peacemakers will
step in and demand their cut of the finances. He grinned.
How much are you worth, miss Lewis? She shuddered, I
(29:49):
don't know how much my father would pay. Hit um
allow Peter came beauregard snarl. Three of them came in
a slant, bound shoulders against the open door, caught their
bearings and hell was out for noon. Beauregard caught the
first with a slash at the throat. They went down
in a mad whirl of dog and thug paws, tail arms, legs,
(30:14):
and a spurt of blood. The second flicked his pencil
ray at Peter. Its capsule charge faded to a mere
sting before it cut into him. The third aimed to
kick at the struggling dog. Vanessa Lewis snatched a box
from the bureau and hurled it at the second. Peter
thumbed his pencil ray and winged the third man in
(30:36):
the biceps. Beauregard leaped for the second man's gun hand
and closed on it. As the hurled box opened and
scattershoted his face with bric a brac. The man with
a bloody throat flailed out and caught Peter by the ankle.
Peter stopped his face with his other heel. Miss Lewis
(30:59):
picked up the table lamp and with a single motion
turned off the light and finished felling the one with
the rayburn shoulder. Beauregard dropped from the second man's wrist
and crouched to spring. The man cowered back, his good arm,
covering his throat and his other arm hanging limp, he
(31:20):
mouthed fright noises in some tongue native to some star
a thousand light years across the galaxy. Coldly, Peter stepped
forward and belded him in the plexus. Now, he said, calmly,
we shall vacate the premises. They went side by side,
(31:43):
facing slightly outward. Beauregard between them, and slightly ahead. We're
coming out, called the dog. Three barbarians from Terra down
on the dark street. They met their mercenary again. He
eyed them sourly. I see you were in a sense successful,
(32:08):
Peter Hawley faced the mercenary. We were successful, and would
you like to make something of it. I'm going to
have to arrest you. You know you'll lose an arm
trying snapped the dog. There's murder been committed tonight, said
his Excellency's peacemaker. The piece of Zanobar has been disturbed.
(32:33):
Why you chiseling cruk. There's been kidnapping tonight, and I'm
afraid that I shall have to ask that the young
lady produced her passport, said the mercenary. Otherwise she's in
Xanobar's citadel illegally, Beauregard said, hit him low, Peter, here
(32:54):
come the boys now just for once for fan No.
I want our money grubbing peacekeeper to carry a message
to his excellency. I want his excellency to read some
terrestrial history. Once upon a time there was a place
called the Byzantine Empire that laid across the trade routes.
(33:18):
The upper crust of people used to serve the presence
of God in a golden throne, whilst their underlings dealt
in human slaves and procured comely concubines for the emperor.
Their policemen took bribes, and human life was cheap. And
when Byzantium fell, all the world was forced to seek
(33:39):
a new trade route. So tell his excellency that he'd
better clean up his own foul mess, or some barbarians
will clean it up for him. And that said Beauregard
goes for your dad. Ratted cat End of History repeats
(34:03):
by Georgia Smith.
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