September 25, 2025 • 13 mins
In a world where extraordinary individuals emerge only once in a generation, Brion Brandd possesses a remarkable gift an enhanced sense of empathy. This unique ability propels him to victory in the Twenties, a prestigious competition showcasing the most brilliant minds on Anvhar. However, his triumph is short-lived as he is thrust into the chaotic realm of Dis, a planet on the brink of nuclear devastation. To save both worlds, Brandd must navigate treacherous negotiations with a menacing blockade, delve into the dark underbelly of Dis, and unravel the enigma of the merciless magter. Summary by Great Plains
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Chapter eighteen of Planet of the Damned. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Planet of the Damned by Harry Harrison, Chapter eighteen. One
(00:27):
of the technicians was running and screaming. The magter knocked
him down and beat him into silence. Seeing this, the
other two men returned to work with shaking hands. Even
if all life on the surface of the planet was dead,
this would have no effect on the magter. They would
go ahead as planned, without emotion or imagination enough to
(00:49):
alter their set course. As the technicians worked, their attitude
changed from shock numbness to anger. Right and wrong were forgotten.
They had been killed. The invisible death of radiation must
already be penetrating into the caves, but they also had
the chance for vengeance. Swiftly they brought their work to
(01:10):
completion with the speed and precision they had concealed before.
What are those off worlders doing, ulv asked Brion stirred
from his lethargy of defeat and looked across the cavern floor.
The men had a wheeled hand truck and were rolling
one of the atomic warheads onto it. They pushed it
over to the latticework of the jump field. They're going
(01:33):
to bomb Nyjord now, just as Nyjord bomb diss that
machine will hurl the bombs in a special way to
the other planet. Will you stop them? Alv asked. He
had his deadly blow gun in his hand, and his
face was an expressionless mask. Brion almost smiled at the
irony of the situation. In spite of everything he had
(01:54):
done to prevent it, Nyjord had dropped the bombs, and
this act alone may have destroyed their own planet. Brion
had it within his power now to stop the launching
in the cavern. Should he Should he save the lives
of his killers? Or should he practice the ancient blood
oath that had echoed and destroyed down through the ages.
(02:15):
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
It would be so simple. He literally had to do nothing.
The score would be even, and his and the Disan's
death avenged. Did Ulv have his blowgun ready to kill
Brion with if he should try to stop the launchings?
Or had he misread the Disan entirely? Will you stop them? Ulv.
(02:38):
He asked how large was mankind's sense of obligation? The
caveman first had this feeling for his mate, then for
his family. It grew until men fought and died for
the abstract ideas of cities and nations, then for whole planets.
Would the time ever come when men might realize that
(02:58):
the obligation should be to the largest and most encompassing
reality of all mankind, and beyond that, to life of
all kinds. Brion saw this idea not in words, but
as a reality. When he posed the question to himself
in this way, he found that it stated clearly its
inherent answer. He pulled his gun out, and as he did,
(03:21):
he wondered what Ulf's answer might be. Nyjord is, medvirk
Ulf said, raising his blowgun and sending the dart across
the cavern. It struck one of the technicians, who gasped
and fell to the floor. Brion's shots crashed into the
control board, shorting and destroying it, removing the menace to
Nyjord for all time. Medvirk Ulf had said, a life
(03:46):
form that co operates and aids other life forms. It
may kill in self defense, but it is essentially not
a killer or destroyer. Ulf had a lifetime of knowledge
about the interdependency of life. He grasped the essence of
the idea and ignored all verbal complications and confusions. He
had killed the Magter, who were his own people, because
(04:09):
they were Umedvirk against life, and he had saved his
enemies because they were Medvirk. With this realization came the
painful knowledge that the planet and the people that had
produced this understanding were dead. In the cavern, the Magter
saw the destruction of their plans and the cave mouth
from which the bullets had come. Silently, they rushed to
(04:32):
kill their enemy. A concerted effort of emotionless fury. Brion
and Ull fought back. Even the knowledge that he was
doomed no matter what happened could not resign Brion to
death at the hands of the Magter. To Ul, the
decision was much easier. He was simply killing Umedvirk. A
believer in life, he destroyed the anti life. They retreated
(04:55):
into the darkness, still firing. The Magter had lights and
eyes rifles and were right behind them, knowing the caverns
better than the men they chased. The pursuers circled Brion
saw lights ahead and dragged Ulf to a stop. They
know their way through these caves and we don't, he said.
If we try to run, they'll just shoot us down.
(05:17):
Let's find a spot we can defend and settle into it.
Back here, Ulf gave a tug in the right direction.
There is a cave with only one entrance, and that
is very narrow. Let's go, running as silently as they
could in the darkness. They reached the deadened cavern without
being seen. What noise they made was lost in other
(05:38):
footsteps that sounded and echoed through the connecting caves. Once inside,
they found cover behind a ridge and waited. The end
was certain. The Magter ran swiftly into their cave, flashing
his light into all the places of concealment. The beam
passed over the two hidden men, and at the same
instant Brion fired. The shot boomed loudly as the magter fell,
(06:03):
a shot that would surely have been heard by others.
Before anyone else came into the cave, Brion ran over
and grabbed the still functioning light, propping it on the
rock so it shone on the entrance. He hurried back
to shelter behind Ulf, they waited for the attack. It
was not long in coming. Two magter rushed in and died.
(06:24):
More were outside. Brion knew, and he wondered how long
it would be before they remembered the grenades and rolled
one into their shelter. An indistinct murmur sounded outside in
sharp explosions in their hiding place. Brion and Ulf crouched
low and wondered why the attack didn't come. Then one
of the magter came in the entrance, but Brion hesitated
(06:45):
before shooting. The man had backed in, firing behind him
as he came. Ulf had no compunctions, but killing only
his darts couldn't penetrate the magter's thick clothing. As the
magter turned, Ulf's breath pulled whist once, and death stung
the back of the other man's hand. He collapsed into
a crumpled heap. Don't shoot, a voice called from outside
(07:09):
the cave, and a man stepped through the swirling dust
and smoke to stand in the beam from the light.
Brion clutched wildly at Ulf's arm, dragging the blowgun from
the disan's mouth. The man in the light wore a
protective helmet thick boots and a pouch hung uniform. He
was a Nyjorder. The realization was almost impossible to accept.
(07:31):
Brion had heard the bombs fall, yet the Nyjord's soldier
was here. The two facts couldn't be accepted together. Would
you keep a hold on his arm, sir, just in case,
the soldier said, glancing warily at Ulf's blowpipe. I know
what those darts can do. He pulled a microphone from
one of his pockets and spoke into it. More soldiers
(07:54):
crowded into the cave, and Professor Commander Kraft came in
behind them. He looked strangely out of keeping in the
dusty combat uniform. The gun was even more incongruous in
his blue veined hand. After giving the pistol to the
nearest soldier with an air of relief, he stumbled quickly
over to Brion and took his hand. It is a
(08:16):
profound and sincere pleasure to meet you in person, he said,
and your friend all of his well, would you kindly
explain what is going on? Brion said thickly. He was
obsessed by the strange feeling that none of this could
possibly be happening. We will always remember you as the
man who saved us from ourselves. Krafft said, once again
(08:38):
the professor instead of the commander. What Brion wants are facts,
Grandpa nuts speeches, I said. The bent form of the
leader of the rebel nyjord Army, pushed through the crowd
of taller men until he stood next to Kraft, simply stated, Brion,
your plan succeeded. Kraft relayed your message to me, and
as soon as I heard it, I turned back and
(08:59):
met him on a ship. I'm sorry that tells death,
but he found what we were looking for. I couldn't
ignore his report of radioactive traces. Your girl friend arrived
with the hacked up corpse at the same time I did,
and we all took a long look at the green
leech in its skull. Her explanation of what it is
made significant sense. We were already carrying out landings when
(09:22):
we had your call about something having been stored in
the Magter tower. After that, it was just a matter
of following tracks and the transmitter you planted. But the
explosions at midnight, Brion broke in. I heard them. You
were supposed to hyes, laughed, not only you, but the
Magter in this cave. We figured they would be armed
(09:43):
and the cave strongly defended, so at midnight we dropped
a few large chemical explosive bombs at the entrance, enough
to kill the guards without bringing the roof down. We
also hoped that the magter deeper in would leave their
posts or retreat from imagined radiation, and they did. It
worked like a charm. We came in quietly and took
(10:04):
them by surprise, made a clean sweep, killed the ones
we couldn't capture. One of the renegade jump space technicians
was still alive, Kraft said. He told us about your
stopping the bombs aimed at Nyjord. The two of you.
None of the Nyjorders there could add anything to his words,
not even the cynical highs. But Brion could empathize their feelings,
(10:27):
the warmth of their intense relief and happiness. It was
a sensation he would never forget. There is no more war,
Brion translated for Ulv. Knowing that the Disan had understood
nothing of the explanation as he said it, he realized
there was one glaring error in the story. You couldn't
have done it, Brion said. You landed on this planet
(10:49):
before you had my message about the tower. That means
you still expected the Magter to be sending their bombs
to Nyjord, and you made the landings in spite of
this knowledge. Of course, Professor Kraft said, astonished at Brion's
lack of understanding, what else could we do? The Magter
are sick? Hyes, laughed aloud at Brion's baffled expression. You
(11:12):
have to understand Nyjord's psychology, he said, When it was
a matter of war and killing, my planet could never
agree on an intelligent course. War is so alien to
our philosophy that it couldn't even be considered correctly. That's
the trouble with being a vegetable eater in a galaxy
of carnivores. You're easy prey for the first one that
(11:32):
lands on your back. Any other planet would have jumped
on the Magter with both feet and shaken the bombs
out of them. We fumbled it so long it almost
got both worlds killed. Your mind parasite drew us back
from the brink. I don't understand, Brion said, a simple
matter of definition. Before you came, we had no way
(11:54):
to deal with the Magter here on diss they really
were alien to us. Nothing they did made sense, and
nothing we did seem to have the slightest effect on them.
But you discovered that they were sick, and that's something
we know how to handle. We're united again. My rebel
army was instantly absorbed into the rest of the Nyjord
(12:15):
forces by mutual agreement. Doctors and nurses are on the
way here now. Plans were put under way to evacuate
what part of the population we could until the bombs
were found. The planet is united again and working hard
because the Magter are sick, infected by a destructive life form.
Brion asked, exactly so, Professor Kraft said, We are civilized,
(12:40):
after all. You can't expect us to fight a war,
and you surely can't expect us to ignore the plight
of sick neighbors. No, you surely can't, Brion said, Sitting
down heavily. He looked at ul to whom the speech
had been incomprehensible. Beyond him, highs War's most cynical expression.
Has he considered the frailties of his people Hi's Brian
(13:02):
called out, you translate all that into Dissan and explained
to Ulv I wouldn't dare. End of Chapter eighteen,
Chapter eighteen of Planet of the Damned. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Planet of the Damned by Harry Harrison, Chapter eighteen. One
(00:27):
of the technicians was running and screaming. The magter knocked
him down and beat him into silence. Seeing this, the
other two men returned to work with shaking hands. Even
if all life on the surface of the planet was dead,
this would have no effect on the magter. They would
go ahead as planned, without emotion or imagination enough to
(00:49):
alter their set course. As the technicians worked, their attitude
changed from shock numbness to anger. Right and wrong were forgotten.
They had been killed. The invisible death of radiation must
already be penetrating into the caves, but they also had
the chance for vengeance. Swiftly they brought their work to
(01:10):
completion with the speed and precision they had concealed before.
What are those off worlders doing, ulv asked Brion stirred
from his lethargy of defeat and looked across the cavern floor.
The men had a wheeled hand truck and were rolling
one of the atomic warheads onto it. They pushed it
over to the latticework of the jump field. They're going
(01:33):
to bomb Nyjord now, just as Nyjord bomb diss that
machine will hurl the bombs in a special way to
the other planet. Will you stop them? Alv asked. He
had his deadly blow gun in his hand, and his
face was an expressionless mask. Brion almost smiled at the
irony of the situation. In spite of everything he had
(01:54):
done to prevent it, Nyjord had dropped the bombs, and
this act alone may have destroyed their own planet. Brion
had it within his power now to stop the launching
in the cavern. Should he Should he save the lives
of his killers? Or should he practice the ancient blood
oath that had echoed and destroyed down through the ages.
(02:15):
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
It would be so simple. He literally had to do nothing.
The score would be even, and his and the Disan's
death avenged. Did Ulv have his blowgun ready to kill
Brion with if he should try to stop the launchings?
Or had he misread the Disan entirely? Will you stop them? Ulv.
(02:38):
He asked how large was mankind's sense of obligation? The
caveman first had this feeling for his mate, then for
his family. It grew until men fought and died for
the abstract ideas of cities and nations, then for whole planets.
Would the time ever come when men might realize that
(02:58):
the obligation should be to the largest and most encompassing
reality of all mankind, and beyond that, to life of
all kinds. Brion saw this idea not in words, but
as a reality. When he posed the question to himself
in this way, he found that it stated clearly its
inherent answer. He pulled his gun out, and as he did,
(03:21):
he wondered what Ulf's answer might be. Nyjord is, medvirk
Ulf said, raising his blowgun and sending the dart across
the cavern. It struck one of the technicians, who gasped
and fell to the floor. Brion's shots crashed into the
control board, shorting and destroying it, removing the menace to
Nyjord for all time. Medvirk Ulf had said, a life
(03:46):
form that co operates and aids other life forms. It
may kill in self defense, but it is essentially not
a killer or destroyer. Ulf had a lifetime of knowledge
about the interdependency of life. He grasped the essence of
the idea and ignored all verbal complications and confusions. He
had killed the Magter, who were his own people, because
(04:09):
they were Umedvirk against life, and he had saved his
enemies because they were Medvirk. With this realization came the
painful knowledge that the planet and the people that had
produced this understanding were dead. In the cavern, the Magter
saw the destruction of their plans and the cave mouth
from which the bullets had come. Silently, they rushed to
(04:32):
kill their enemy. A concerted effort of emotionless fury. Brion
and Ull fought back. Even the knowledge that he was
doomed no matter what happened could not resign Brion to
death at the hands of the Magter. To Ul, the
decision was much easier. He was simply killing Umedvirk. A
believer in life, he destroyed the anti life. They retreated
(04:55):
into the darkness, still firing. The Magter had lights and
eyes rifles and were right behind them, knowing the caverns
better than the men they chased. The pursuers circled Brion
saw lights ahead and dragged Ulf to a stop. They
know their way through these caves and we don't, he said.
If we try to run, they'll just shoot us down.
(05:17):
Let's find a spot we can defend and settle into it.
Back here, Ulf gave a tug in the right direction.
There is a cave with only one entrance, and that
is very narrow. Let's go, running as silently as they
could in the darkness. They reached the deadened cavern without
being seen. What noise they made was lost in other
(05:38):
footsteps that sounded and echoed through the connecting caves. Once inside,
they found cover behind a ridge and waited. The end
was certain. The Magter ran swiftly into their cave, flashing
his light into all the places of concealment. The beam
passed over the two hidden men, and at the same
instant Brion fired. The shot boomed loudly as the magter fell,
(06:03):
a shot that would surely have been heard by others.
Before anyone else came into the cave, Brion ran over
and grabbed the still functioning light, propping it on the
rock so it shone on the entrance. He hurried back
to shelter behind Ulf, they waited for the attack. It
was not long in coming. Two magter rushed in and died.
(06:24):
More were outside. Brion knew, and he wondered how long
it would be before they remembered the grenades and rolled
one into their shelter. An indistinct murmur sounded outside in
sharp explosions in their hiding place. Brion and Ulf crouched
low and wondered why the attack didn't come. Then one
of the magter came in the entrance, but Brion hesitated
(06:45):
before shooting. The man had backed in, firing behind him
as he came. Ulf had no compunctions, but killing only
his darts couldn't penetrate the magter's thick clothing. As the
magter turned, Ulf's breath pulled whist once, and death stung
the back of the other man's hand. He collapsed into
a crumpled heap. Don't shoot, a voice called from outside
(07:09):
the cave, and a man stepped through the swirling dust
and smoke to stand in the beam from the light.
Brion clutched wildly at Ulf's arm, dragging the blowgun from
the disan's mouth. The man in the light wore a
protective helmet thick boots and a pouch hung uniform. He
was a Nyjorder. The realization was almost impossible to accept.
(07:31):
Brion had heard the bombs fall, yet the Nyjord's soldier
was here. The two facts couldn't be accepted together. Would
you keep a hold on his arm, sir, just in case,
the soldier said, glancing warily at Ulf's blowpipe. I know
what those darts can do. He pulled a microphone from
one of his pockets and spoke into it. More soldiers
(07:54):
crowded into the cave, and Professor Commander Kraft came in
behind them. He looked strangely out of keeping in the
dusty combat uniform. The gun was even more incongruous in
his blue veined hand. After giving the pistol to the
nearest soldier with an air of relief, he stumbled quickly
over to Brion and took his hand. It is a
(08:16):
profound and sincere pleasure to meet you in person, he said,
and your friend all of his well, would you kindly
explain what is going on? Brion said thickly. He was
obsessed by the strange feeling that none of this could
possibly be happening. We will always remember you as the
man who saved us from ourselves. Krafft said, once again
(08:38):
the professor instead of the commander. What Brion wants are facts,
Grandpa nuts speeches, I said. The bent form of the
leader of the rebel nyjord Army, pushed through the crowd
of taller men until he stood next to Kraft, simply stated, Brion,
your plan succeeded. Kraft relayed your message to me, and
as soon as I heard it, I turned back and
(08:59):
met him on a ship. I'm sorry that tells death,
but he found what we were looking for. I couldn't
ignore his report of radioactive traces. Your girl friend arrived
with the hacked up corpse at the same time I did,
and we all took a long look at the green
leech in its skull. Her explanation of what it is
made significant sense. We were already carrying out landings when
(09:22):
we had your call about something having been stored in
the Magter tower. After that, it was just a matter
of following tracks and the transmitter you planted. But the
explosions at midnight, Brion broke in. I heard them. You
were supposed to hyes, laughed, not only you, but the
Magter in this cave. We figured they would be armed
(09:43):
and the cave strongly defended, so at midnight we dropped
a few large chemical explosive bombs at the entrance, enough
to kill the guards without bringing the roof down. We
also hoped that the magter deeper in would leave their
posts or retreat from imagined radiation, and they did. It
worked like a charm. We came in quietly and took
(10:04):
them by surprise, made a clean sweep, killed the ones
we couldn't capture. One of the renegade jump space technicians
was still alive, Kraft said. He told us about your
stopping the bombs aimed at Nyjord. The two of you.
None of the Nyjorders there could add anything to his words,
not even the cynical highs. But Brion could empathize their feelings,
(10:27):
the warmth of their intense relief and happiness. It was
a sensation he would never forget. There is no more war,
Brion translated for Ulv. Knowing that the Disan had understood
nothing of the explanation as he said it, he realized
there was one glaring error in the story. You couldn't
have done it, Brion said. You landed on this planet
(10:49):
before you had my message about the tower. That means
you still expected the Magter to be sending their bombs
to Nyjord, and you made the landings in spite of
this knowledge. Of course, Professor Kraft said, astonished at Brion's
lack of understanding, what else could we do? The Magter
are sick? Hyes, laughed aloud at Brion's baffled expression. You
(11:12):
have to understand Nyjord's psychology, he said, When it was
a matter of war and killing, my planet could never
agree on an intelligent course. War is so alien to
our philosophy that it couldn't even be considered correctly. That's
the trouble with being a vegetable eater in a galaxy
of carnivores. You're easy prey for the first one that
(11:32):
lands on your back. Any other planet would have jumped
on the Magter with both feet and shaken the bombs
out of them. We fumbled it so long it almost
got both worlds killed. Your mind parasite drew us back
from the brink. I don't understand, Brion said, a simple
matter of definition. Before you came, we had no way
(11:54):
to deal with the Magter here on diss they really
were alien to us. Nothing they did made sense, and
nothing we did seem to have the slightest effect on them.
But you discovered that they were sick, and that's something
we know how to handle. We're united again. My rebel
army was instantly absorbed into the rest of the Nyjord
(12:15):
forces by mutual agreement. Doctors and nurses are on the
way here now. Plans were put under way to evacuate
what part of the population we could until the bombs
were found. The planet is united again and working hard
because the Magter are sick, infected by a destructive life form.
Brion asked, exactly so, Professor Kraft said, We are civilized,
(12:40):
after all. You can't expect us to fight a war,
and you surely can't expect us to ignore the plight
of sick neighbors. No, you surely can't, Brion said, Sitting
down heavily. He looked at ul to whom the speech
had been incomprehensible. Beyond him, highs War's most cynical expression.
Has he considered the frailties of his people Hi's Brian
(13:02):
called out, you translate all that into Dissan and explained
to Ulv I wouldn't dare. End of Chapter eighteen,
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