The Jupiter Weapon - Charles L Fontenay

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Jupiter Weapon by Charles L. Fontenay. He was a
living weapon of destruction, immeasurably powerful, utterly invulnerable. There was
only one question. Was he human? Trella feared she was
in for trouble even before Motwick's head dropped forward on
his arms in a drunken stoopor The two evil looking

(00:21):
men at the table near by had been watching her surreptitiously,
and now they shifted restlessly in their chairs. Trella had
not wanted to come to the Golden Satellite. It was
a squalid saloon in the rougher section of Jupiter's view,
the terrestrial dome colony on Ganymaede. Motwick, already drunk, had
insisted a woman could not possibly make her way through

(00:45):
these streets alone to the better section of town, especially
one clad in a silvery evening dress. Her only hope
was that this place had a telephone. Perhaps she could
call one of Motwick's friends. She had no one on
Ganymat she could call a real friend herself. Tentatively, she
pushed her chair back from the table and arose. She

(01:06):
had to brush close by the other table to get
to the bar. As she did, the dark, slick haired
man reached out and grabbed her around the waist with
a steely arm. Trella swung with her whole body and
slapped him so hard he nearly fell from his chair.
As she walked swiftly toward the bar, he leaped up
to follow her. There were only two other people in

(01:28):
the Golden Satellite, the fat mustached bar tender and a short,
square built man at the bar. The latter swung around
at the pistol like report of her slap, and she
saw that, though no more than four and a half
feet tall, he was as heavily muscled as a lion.
His face was clean and open, with close cropped blonde

(01:48):
hair and honest blue eyes. She ran to him. Help me,
she cried, Please help me. He began to back away
from her. I can't, he muttered in a deep voice.
I can't help you. I can't do anything. The dark
man was at her heels. In desperation, she dodged around

(02:09):
the short man and took refuge behind him. Her protector
was obviously unwilling, but the dark man, faced with his massiveness,
took no chances. He stopped and shouted Craig. The other
man at the table arose ponderously and lumbered toward them.
He was immense, at least six and a half feet tall,

(02:31):
with a brutal, vacant face, evading her attempts to stay
behind him. The squat man began to move down the
bar away from the approaching Craig. The dark man moved
in on Trella again as Craig overtook his quarry and
swung a huge fist like a sledge hammer. Exactly what happened,
Trella wasn't sure. She had the impression that Craig's fist

(02:53):
connected squarely with the short man's chin before he dodged
to one side in a movement so fast it was
a blur, But that couldn't have been because the short
man wasn't moved by that blow. That would have fell
a steer and Craig roared in pain, grabbing his injured fist.
The bar yelled, Craig, I hit the damn bar. At

(03:14):
this juncture, the bartender took a hand. Leaning far over
the bar, he swung a full bottle in a complete arc.
It smashed on Craig's head, splashing the floor with the liquor,
and Craig sank, stunned to his knees. The dark man
who had grabbed Trella's arm released her and ran for
the door, Moving agilely around the end of the bar,

(03:36):
The bartender stood over Craig, holding the jagged edged bottle
neck in his hand. Menacingly get out, rumbled the bartender.
I'll have no coppers raiding my place for the likes
of you. Craig stumbled to his feet and staggered out.
Trella ran to the unconscious Motwick's side. That means you too, lady,

(03:57):
said the bartender beside her. You and your boyfriend get
out of here. You oughtn't have come here in the
first place. May I help you, miss, asked a deep,
resonant voice behind her. She straightened from her anxious examination
of Motwick. The squat man was standing there, an apologetic
look on his face. She looked contemptuously at the massive

(04:20):
muscles whose help had been denied her. Her arm ached
where the dark man had grasped it. The broad face
before her was not unhandsome, and the blue eyes were
disconcertingly direct, but she despised him for a coward. I'm
sorry I couldn't fight those men for you, miss, but
I just couldn't, he said, miserably, as though reading her thoughts.

(04:42):
But no one will bother you on the street if
I'm with you. A lot of protection you'd be if
they did, she snapped. But I'm desperate. You can carry
him to the stellar hotel for me. The gravity of
guiney need was hardly more than that of Earth's moon,
but the way the man picked up the limp Motwick
with one hand and tossed him over his shoulder was startling,

(05:04):
as though he lifted a feather pillow. He followed Trella
out the door of the Golden satellite and fell in
step beside her. Immediately, she was grateful for his presence.
The dimly lighted street was not crowded, but she didn't
like the looks of the men she saw. The transparent
dome of Jupiter's view was faintly visible in the reflected
night lights of the colonial city, but the lights were

(05:26):
overwhelmed by the giant, very colored disc of Jupiter itself
riding high in the sky. I'm quest Mansart, miss, said
her companion. I'm just in from Jupiter. I'm Trella Nuspar,
she said, favoring him with a green eyed glance. You
mean I, oh, don't you or Moon five? No, he said,

(05:48):
grinning at her. He had an engaging grin with even
white teeth. I meant Jupiter. You're lying, she said flatly.
No one has ever landed on Jupiter. It would be
impossible to blast off again. My parents landed on Jupiter,
and I blasted off from it, he said soberly. I

(06:09):
was born there. Have you ever heard of doctor Erckland Mansard.
I certainly have, she said, her interest, taking a sudden
upward turn. He developed the sergiscope, didn't he But his
ship was drawn into Jupiter and lost. It was drawn
into Jupiter, but he landed it successfully, said quest. He

(06:30):
and my mother lived on Jupiter until the oxygen equipment
wore out at last. I was born and brought up there,
and I was finally able to build a small rocket
with a powerful enough drive to clear the planet. She
looked at him. He was short, half a head shorter
than she, but broad and powerful as a man might
be who had grown up in heavy gravity. He trod

(06:51):
the street with a light controlled step, seeming to deliberately
hold himself down. If doctor Mansard succeeded in landing on Jupiter,
why didn't anyone ever hear from him again, she demanded, because,
said Quest, his radio was sabotaged, just as his ship's
drive was Jupiter's strength. She murmured, looking him over coolly.

(07:15):
You wear Motwick on your shoulder like a scarf, but
you couldn't bring yourself to help a woman against two thugs.
He flushed. I'm sorry, he said, that's something I couldn't help.
Why not? I don't know. It's not that I'm afraid,
but there's something in me that makes me back away
from the prospect of fighting anyone. Trella sighed. Cowardice was

(07:40):
a state of mind. It was particularly inappropriate, but not
unbelievable that the strongest and most agile man on gany
Meat should be a coward. Well, she thought, with a
rush of sympathy. He couldn't help being what he was.
They had reached the more brightly lighted section of the city.
Now Trella could get a cab from here, but the

(08:00):
Stellar Hotel wasn't far They walked on. Trella had the
desk clerk call a cab to deliver the unconscious Motwick
to his home. She and Quest had a late sandwich
in the coffee shop. I landed here only a week ago,
he told her his eyes frankly, admiring her honey colored
hair and comely face. I'm headed for Earth on the

(08:22):
next spaceship. We'll be traveling companions. Then she said, I'm
going back on that ship too. For some reason, she
decided against telling him that the assignment on which she
had come to the Jupiter system was to gather his
own father's notebooks and take them back to Earth. Motwick
was an irresponsible playboy whom Trella had known briefly on Earth,

(08:45):
and Trella was glad to dispense with his company. For
the remaining three weeks before the spaceship blasted off, she
found herself enjoying the steadier companionship of quest. As a
matter of fact, she found herself enjoying his companionship more
than she intended to. She found herself falling in love
with him. Now this did not suit her at all.

(09:07):
Trella had always liked her men tall and dark. She
had determined that when she married, it would be to
a curly haired six footer. She was not at all
happy about being so strongly attracted to a man several
inches shorter than she. She was particularly unhappy about being
drawn to a man who was a coward. The ship

(09:27):
that they boarded on Moon nine was one of the
newer ships that could attain a hundred mile per second
velocity and take a hyperbolic path to Earth, but it
would still require fifty four days to make the trip.
So Trella was delighted to find that the ship was
the Comet Fire and its skipper was her old friend,
dark eyed, curly haired Jack Dane Gill Jack Dane, she said,

(09:50):
flirting with him with her eyes as in days gone by.
I need a chaperone this trip, and you're ideal for
the job. I never thought of myself in quite that light,
but maybe I'm getting old, he answered, laughing. What's your trouble, Trella.
I'm in love with that huge chunk of men who
came aboard with me, and I'm not sure I ought

(10:11):
to be, She confessed. I may need protection against myself
till we get to Earth. If it's to keep you
out of another feller's clutches, I'm your man, agreed Jack Dane. Heartily,
I always had a mind to save you for myself.
I'll guarantee you won't have a moment alone with him
the whole trip. You don't have to be that thorough
about it, she protested hastily. I want to get a

(10:34):
little enjoyment out of being in love. But if I
feel myself weakening too much, I'll holler for help. The
comet fire swung around Great Jupiter in an opening arc,
and plummeted ever more swiftly toward the tight circles of
the inner planets. There were four crew members and three
passengers aboard the ship's tiny personnel sphere, and Trella was
thrown with quest almost constantly. She enjoyed every minute of it.

(11:00):
She told him only that she was a messenger sent
out to Ganymede to pick up some important papers and
take them back to Earth. She was tempted to tell
him what the papers were. Her employer had impressed upon
her that her mission was confidential. But surely dom Blessing
could not object to doctor Mansart's son knowing about it.
All these things had happened before she was born, and

(11:22):
she did not know what Don Blessing's relation to doctor
Mansart had been, but it must have been very close.
She knew that doctor Mansart had invented the sergiscope. This
was an instrument with a three dimensional screen as its heart.
The screen was a cubical frame in which an apparently
solid image was built up of an object under an
electron microscope. The actual cutting instrument of the sergiscope was

(11:46):
an ion stream. By operating a tool in the three
dimensional screen, corresponding movements were made by the ion stream
on the object under the microscope. The principle was the
same as that used in the operation of remote con
troll hands in atomic laboratories to handle hot material, and
with the sergiscope very delicate operations could be performed at

(12:07):
the cellular level. Doctor Mansart and his wife had disappeared
into the turbulent atmosphere of Jupiter just after his invention
of the sergiscope, and it had been developed by Dawn Blessing.
Its success had built Spaceway Instruments Incorporated, which Blessing headed through.
All the years since doctor Mansard's disappearance, Blessing had been

(12:28):
searching the Jovian moons for a second hidden laboratory of
doctor Mansart. When it was found at last, he sent Trella,
his most trusted secretary, to Gany Meat, to bring back
to him the note books found there. Blessing would of
course be happy to learn that the son of doctor
Mansart lived and would see that he received his rightful

(12:49):
share of the inheritance. Because of this, Trella was tempted
to tell Quest the good news herself, but she decided
against it. It was Blessing's privilege to do this his
own way, and he might not appreciate her meddling. At
mid trip, Trella made a rueful confession to Jack Dane.
It seems I was taking unnecessary precautions when I asked

(13:11):
you to be a chaperone, She said. I kept waiting
for Quest to do something, and when he didn't, I
told him I loved him. What did he say? It
was very peculiar, she said, unhappily. He said he can't
love me. He says he wants to love me, and
he feels that he should, but there's something in him

(13:32):
that refuses to permit it. She expected Jack Dane to
save her wounded feelings with a sympathetic pleasantry, but he
did not. Instead, he just looked at her very thoughtfully
and said no more about the matter. He explained his
attitude after Asrange ran amok Osrange was the third passenger.

(13:53):
He was a lean saturnine individual who said little and
kept to himself as much as possible. He was distantly
polite in his relations with both crew and other passengers,
and never showed the slightest spark of emotion until the
day Quest squirted coffee on him. It was one of
those accidents that can occur easily in space. The passengers

(14:15):
and the two crewmen on that particular waking shift, including
Jack Dane, were eating lunch on the center deck. Quest
picked up his bulb of coffee, but inadvertently pressed it
before he got it to his lips. The coffee squirted
all over the front of Osrange's clean white tunic. I'm sorry,
exclaimed Quest in distress. The man's eyes went wide, and

(14:38):
he snarled so quickly it seemed impossible. He had unbuckled
himself from his seat and hurled himself backward from the
table With an incoherent cry. He seized the first object
his hand touched. It happened to be a heavy wooden
cane leaning against Jack Dane's bunk, propelled himself like a projectile.
At Quest guest rose from the table in a sudden

(15:01):
uncoiling of movement. He did not unbuckle his safety belt.
He rose in its snap like a string. For a moment,
Trella thought he was going to meet Asrange's assault, but
he fled in a long leap toward the companionway leading
to the astrogation deck above, landing feet first in the
middle of the table and rebounding Osrange pursued with the

(15:23):
stick upraised in his haste, Quest missed the companionway in
his leap and was cornered against one of the bunks
Asrange descended on him like an avenging angel and holding
onto the bunk with one hand. Rained savage blows on
his head and shoulders with the heavy stick. Quest made
no effort to retaliate. He towered under the attack, holding

(15:46):
his hands in front of him as if to ward
it off. In a moment, Jack Dane and the other
crewman had reached Asrange and pulled him off. When they
had Asrange in irons, Jack Dane turned to Quest, who
was now sitting unhappily at the table. Take it easy,
he advised, I'll wake the psychosurgeon and have him look

(16:07):
you over. Just stay there. Quest shook his head. Don't
bother him, he said, it's nothing but a few bruises. Bruises, man,
that club could have broken your skull or a couple
of ribs at the very least. I'm all right, insisted Quest,
and when the skeptical Jack Dane insisted on examining him carefully,

(16:29):
he had to admit it. There was hardly a mark
on him from the blows. If it didn't hurt you
any more than that, Why didn't you take that stick
away from him? Demanded Jack Dane. You could have easily,
I couldn't, said Quest miserably, and turned his face away. Later,
alone with Trella on the control deck, Jack Dane gave

(16:52):
her some sober advice. If you think you're in love
with Quest, forget it, He said, Why because he's a coward.
I know that ought to make me despise him, but
it doesn't anymore. Not because he's a coward, because he's
an android. What, Jack Dane, You can't be serious, I am.

(17:15):
I say he's an android, an artificial imitation of a man.
It all figures, look, Trella. He said, he was born
on Jupiter. A human could stand the gravity of Jupiter
inside a dome or a ship, but what human could
stand the rocket acceleration necessary to break free of Jupiter.
Here's a man strong enough to break a spaceship's safety

(17:38):
belt just by getting up out of his chair against it,
tough enough to take a beating with a heavy stick
without being injured. How can you believe he's really human?
Trella remembered the thug Craig striking Quest in the face
and then crying that he had injured his hand on
the bar. But he said doctor Mansard was his father,
protested Trella. Robots and androids frequently look on their makers

(18:02):
as their parents, said Jack Dane. Quest may not even
know he's artificial. Do you know how Mansar died? The
oxygen equipment failed? Quest said yes? Do you know when? No?
Quest never did tell me that. I remember he told
me a year before Quest made his rocket flight to Ganymede.

(18:26):
If the oxygen equipment failed, how do you think Quest
lived in the poisonous atmosphere of Jupiter if he's human?
Trella was silent for the protection of humans. There are
two psychological traits built into every robot and android, said
Jack Dane gently. The first is that they can never,

(18:46):
under any circumstances attack a human being, even in self defense.
The second is that while they may understand sexual desire objectively,
they can never experience it themselves. Those characteristics fit your
man Quest to a t Trella. There was no other
explanation for him. He must be an android. Trella did

(19:09):
not want to believe Jack Daye was right, but his
reasoning was unassailable. Looking upon Quest as an android, many
things were explained. His great strength, his short broad build,
his immunity to injury, his refusal to defend himself against
a human, his inability to return Trella's love for him.

(19:29):
It was not inconceivable that she should have unknowingly fallen
in love with an android. Humans could love androids with
real affection, even knowing that they were artificial. There were
instances of android nursemates who were virtually members of the
families owning them. She was glad now that she had
not told Quest of her mission to Gany Meat. He

(19:49):
thought he was doctor Mansart's son, but an android had
no legal right of inheritance from his owner. She would
leave it to Dawn Blessing to decide what to do
about Quest. Thus, she did not, as she had intended originally,
speak to Quest about seeing him again after she had
completed her assignment. Even if Jack Daane was wrong and

(20:11):
Quest was human, as now seemed unlikely, Quest had told
her that he could not love her. Her best course
was to try to forget him. Nor did Quest try
to arrange with her for a later meeting. It has
been pleasant knowing you, Trella, he said. When they left
the g boat at White Sands. A far away look
came into his blue eyes, and he added, I'm sorry

(20:34):
things couldn't have been different somehow. Let's don't be sorry
for what we can't help, she said, gently, taking his
hand in farewell. Trella took a fast plane from White
Sands and twenty four hours later walked up the front
steps of the familiar bronstone house on the outskirts of Washington.
Don Blessing himself met her at the door, a stooped

(20:57):
gray man who peered at her over his spectacles. You
have the papers, eh, he said, spying the briefcase. Good good,
Come in and we'll see what we have eh. She
accompanied him through the bare windowless ante room, which always
seemed to her such a strange feature of this luxurious house,

(21:18):
and they entered the big living room. They sat before
a fire in the old fashioned fireplace, and Blessing opened
the briefcase with trembling hands. There are things here, he said,
his eyes sparkling as he glanced through the notebooks. Yes,
there are things here. We shall make something of these,
Miss Trella. Eh, I'm glad there's something you can use,

(21:42):
Mister Blessing, she said. There's something else I found on
my trip that I think I should tell you about.
She told him about quest. He thinks he's the son
of doctor Mansart, she finished, But apparently he is without
knowing it, and android doctor Mansart built on Jupiter. He
came back to Earth with you, eh, asked Blessing intently. Yes,

(22:07):
I'm afraid it's your decision whether to let him go
on living as a man, or to tell him he's
an android and claim ownership as doctor Mansard's heir. Trella
planned to spend a few days resting in her employer's
spacious home, and then to take a short vacation before
resuming her duties as his confidential secretary. The next morning,
when she came down from her room, a change had

(22:29):
been made. Two armed men were with Dom Blessing at
breakfast and accompanied him wherever he went. She discovered that
two more men with guns were stationed in the bare
ante room, and a guard was stationed at every entrance
to the house. Why all the protection, she asked Blessing.
A wealthy man must be careful, said Blessing cheerfully. When

(22:51):
we don't understand all the implications of new circumstances, we
must be prepared for anything. Eh. There was only one
new circumstance Trella could think of without actually intending to,
She exclaimed, You aren't afraid of quest why an android
can't hurt a human? Blessing peered at her over his spectacles.

(23:14):
And what if he isn't an android? A? And what
if he is? What if Old Mansard didn't build in
the prohibition against harmon humans that's required by law? What
about that? Ah? Trella was silent, shocked. There was something
here she hadn't known about, hadn't even suspected. For some reason,

(23:35):
Dom Blessing feared doctor Ericklynd Mansart, or his heir or
his mechanical servant. She was sure that Blessing was wrong
that quest whether man or android intended no harm to him.
Surely Quest would have said something of such bitterness during
their long time together on gany Meat and a space,
since he did not know of Trella's connection with Blessing,

(23:58):
but since this was to be the act fear of
Blessing's house, she was glad that he decided to assign
her to take the Mansard papers to the New York laboratory.
Quest came the day before she was scheduled to leave.
Trella was in the living room with Blessing discussing the
instructions she was to give to the laboratory officials in
New York. The two bodyguards were with them, the other

(24:20):
guards were at their posts. Trella heard the doorbell ring.
The heavy oaken front door was kept locked now, and
the guards in the anteroom examined callers through a tiny window. Suddenly,
alarm bells rang all over the house. There was a
terrific crash outside the room as the front door splintered.
There were shouts and the sound of a shot. The

(24:42):
steel doors. Cried Blessing, turning white, Let's get out of here.
He and his bodyguards ran through the back of the
house out of the garage. Blessing, ahead of the rest,
leaped into one of the cars and started the engine.
The door from the house shattered, and Quest burst through
the two guards turned and fired together. He could be

(25:04):
hurt by bullets. He staggered momentarily, then in a blur
of motion, he sprang forward and swept the guards aside
with one hand with such force that they skidded across
the floor and lay in an unconscious heap against the
rear of the garage. Trella had opened the door of
the car, but it was wrenched from her hand as
Blessing stepped on the accelerator and it leaped into the

(25:26):
driveway with spinning wheels. Quest was after it like a
chunky deer, running faster than Trella had ever seen a
man run before. Blessing slowed for the turn at the
end of the driveway and glanced back over his shoulder.
Seeing Quest almost upon him, he slammed down the accelerator
and twisted the wheel hard. The car whipped into the street,

(25:49):
careened and rolled over and over, bringing up against a
tree on the other side in a twisted tangle of wreckage.
With a horrified gasp, Trella ran down the dry way
toward the smoking heap of metal. Quest was already beside it,
probing it. As she reached his side, he lifted the
torn body of Don Blessing. Blessing was dead. I'm lucky,

(26:13):
said Quest soberly. I would have murdered him. But why
quest I knew he was afraid of you, but he
didn't tell me why. It was conditioned into me, answered Quest.
I didn't know it until just now when it ended.
But my father conditioned me psychologically from my birth to
the task of hunting down Dawn Blessing and killing him.

(26:36):
It was an unconscious drive in me that wouldn't release
me until the task was finished. You see, Blessing was
my father's assistant on Ganymede. Right after my father completed
the development of the Sergiscope, he and my mother blasted
off for Io. Blessing wanted the valuable rights to the sergiscope,
and he sabotaged the ship's drive so it would fall

(26:57):
into Jupiter. But my father was able to control it
in the heavy atmosphere of Jupiter and landed it successfully.
I was born there, and he conditioned me to come
to Earth and track done Blessing. I know now that
it was part of the conditioning that I was unable
to fight any other man until my task was finished.
It might have gotten me in trouble and diverted me

(27:18):
from that purpose more gently than Trella would have believed
possible for his Jupiter's strong muscles. Quest took her in
his arms. Now I can say I love you, He said.
That was part of the conditioning too. I couldn't love
any woman until my job was done. Trella disengaged herself.

(27:38):
I'm sorry, she said. Don't you know this too, now
that you're not a man but an android. He looked
at her in astonishment. Stunned by her words, What in
space makes you think that? He demanded, why? Quest, It's obvious,
she cried, tears in her eyes, everything about you, your

(28:01):
build suited for Jupiter's gravity, your strength, the fact that
you were able to live in Jupiter's atmosphere after the
oxygen equipment failed. I know you think doctor Mansart was
your father, but Androids often believe that. He grinned at her.
I'm no android, he said, confidently. Do you forget My

(28:21):
father was the inventor of the sergioscope. He knew I'd
have to grow up on Jupiter, and he operated on
the Jenes before I was born. He altered my inherited
characteristics to adapt me to the climate of Jupiter, even
to being able to breathe a chlorine atmosphere as well
as an oxygen atmosphere. Trello looked at him. He was
not badly hurt, any more than an elephant would have been,

(28:44):
but his tunic was stained with red blood where the
bullets had struck him. Normal android blood was green. How
can you be sure, she asked, Doubtfully androids are made,
he answered with a laugh. They don't grow up, and
I remember my boyhood on Jupiter very well. He took
her in his arms again, and this time she did

(29:06):
not resist. His lips were very human and of the
Jupiter Weapon by Charles L. Fontenet