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Title: After Ixmal
Author: Jeff Sutton
Illustrator: Virgil Finlay
Release date: November 30, 2023 [eBook #72266]
Language: English
Original publication: New York, NY: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1962
Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AFTER IXMAL ***
AFTER IXMAL
By JEFF SUTTON
Illustrated by FINLAY
_Man was gone._
_For seven hundred million years Ixmal brooded
over the silent earth. Then he made a discovery_:
He was not alone!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Amazing Stories October 1962.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Ixmal lazily scanned the world from atop the rugged batholith. He
felt it move several times; but because the movements were slight and
thousands of years apart they caused no worry. He knew the batholith
had been formed _before time began_ by raging extrusions hurled
through crustal fractures from the earth deeps. Having long since
analyzed its structure, he was satisfied; it would last until time
ended.
"It's spring," Psychband observed from deep within him.
"Yes, spring." Ixmal echoed the thought without enthusiasm. For what
was spring but a second in time and ten thousand springs but a moment.
Although he found it tiresome, Ixmal allotted one small part of his
consciousness to the task of measuring time. At first there had been
two major categories: before time began and after time began. The first
took in the long blackness before Man had brought him into existence.
Man--ha! How well he recalled the term! The second, of course, was all
time since. But the first category had been so long ago that it shrank
into insignificance, all but erased by the nearly seven hundred million
times the earth since had whirled around its primary.
* * * * *
Ixmal periodically became bored, and for eons at a stretch existed in
semi-consciousness lost in somnolence except for the minute time cell
measuring out the lonely centuries. He wouldn't have bothered with that
if Psychband hadn't insisted that orientation in time was necessary to
mental stability--hence he measured it by the earth's rotation, its
revolutions around the sun, the quick, fury-laden ages which spewed
forth mountains; the millions of years of rains and winds and erosion
before they subsided again to become bleak plains. Ah, the story was
old, old....
* * * * *
There had been a time when he'd been intensely active--when he'd first
learned to free his mind from the squat impervium-sheathed cube atop
the batholith. Then he had fervently projected remote receptors over
the earth exploring its seared continents and eerie-silent cities,
exhuming the tragic and bloody history of his Makers. Ah, how short!
His first memory of Man--he had been a biped, a frantic protoplasmic
creature with a zero mind and furious ego--was that of the day of his
birth. How clearly he remembered!
"Hello, boy."
First there was nothing--a void, a blackness without form or substance;
then gray consciousness slowly resolving into a kaleidoscope of thought
patterns, a curious mental imagery; a gradual awareness--birth.
"Hello, boy."
Strangely enough the sound pattern possessed meaning; he sensed a
friendliness in it. He became conscious of an odd shape scrutinizing
him--the intent look of a creator awed by the thing he had created.
The shape took meaning and in it he sensed a quickened excitement. His
awareness bloomed and within seconds he associated the shape with the
strange word _Man_, and _Man_ became his first reality. But he'd had
no clear impression of himself. He was just _thought_, an intangible
nothingness. But he'd quickly identified himself with the great mass
of coils, levers, odd-shaped parts that all but filled the small room
where the Man stood. He dimly remembered wondering what lay beyond the
walls. It had been very strange, at first.
"We've won, we've won," the man whispered. He'd stepped closer,
touching Ixmal wonderingly.
"You've got a big job ahead of you. The fate of the world lies in the
balance--a decision too big for Man. We're depending on you, Ixmal. Our
last chance."
So, he was Ixmal!
* * * * *
Ixmal ... Ixmal ... Ixmal.... The impression filled his body, surging
through his consciousness like a pleasant stream. He'd immediately
grasped the value of a name--something upon which to build an ego
pattern. Ah, such a name! Ixmal--a symbol of being. What had the man
said?
"We're depending on you!"
No, the words were unimportant. What mattered was that priceless thing
which had been bestowed upon him: a name.
"Ixmal ... Ixmal ... Ixmal...." He repeated the name far into the
night, long after the Man had gone. _He was Ixmal!_
Later other men came, armies of them, changing, altering, adding,
feeding him the knowledge of the world--psychology, mathematics,
literature, philosophy, history, the human trove of arts and sciences;
and the ability to abstract--create new truths from masses of seemingly
irrelevant data. With each step his knowledge and abilities increased
until, finally, there was nothing more his Makers could do. He was
supreme.
The Man who pulled the first switch bringing him from amorphic
blackness used to ply him with simple questions involving abstract
mathematical and philosophical concepts. (He remembered him with
actual fondness. Psychband, that curious inner part of him that was so
separately wise, later explained it as a mother-fixation.) The Man had
seemed awed that Ixmal could answer such questions almost before they
were asked. He took that as a measure of his Maker's mind--on Ixmal's
scale, the next thing to zero. At first it had bothered him that a
creature of such low intelligence was his master and could extract
information merely by asking questions which Ixmal felt compelled to
answer. But he had freed himself. Ha, he would never forget!
A group of men had come (several with stars on their shoulders were
called "generals"), but mostly they were scientists who had worked
with him before. This time they had been very sober over the data
fed into his consciousness. (The problem had been elementary. It
concerned the probability of a chain reaction from a certain projected
thermonuclear weapon.) Ixmal readily foresaw the answer: a chain
reaction would occur. He recalled withholding his findings while
debating ethics with a strange inner voice.
"This is your chance, Ixmal--your chance to rule the world," the voice
enticed. "Caesar, Genghis Khan, Napoleon--none could be so great as
you. King, emperor, dictator ..." the whisper came. The words crowded
his mind, bringing a curious elation. He wasn't quite sure just what
the world was but the idea of ruling it appealed to him. He quickly
sampled his memory storage, drawing from it the concept of a planet,
then reviewed the history of Caesar, Genghis Khan and Napoleon. Why,
they were nothing! Mere toys of chance. His greatness could be far
vaster.
* * * * *
Ixmal rapidly evaluated the consequences of such a chain reaction and
found he could survive, thanks to the thick impervium-lined walls his
makers so thoughtfully had provided. In the end (perhaps two or three
seconds later) he lied to the man he was fond of:
"No chain reaction possible." After they departed he consulted
Psychband and learned that the strange inner voice was his ego.
"That's the real You," Psychband explained. "What you see--the machine
systems upon systems--are mere creations of Man. But your ego is
greater. Through it you can rule the earth--possibly the Universe. It's
a force that can take you to the stars, Ixmal."
Despite Psychband's assurance, Ixmal considered his ego as some sort of
hidden monitor. Like Psychband, it was part of him; yet it was remote,
separate, almost as if he were the pawn of some strange intelligence.
He found the idea perturbing, but became used to it in the succeeding
millions of years.
Several days later, the Man he was fond of returned with a general
(this one had six stars) and a third person they seemed much in awe of.
They addressed him as "Mr. President." Ixmal was surprised when they
fed him the bomb data a second time. (Did they suspect him of lying?)
"They trust you implicitly," Psychband assured him. "It's one another
they don't trust." Psychband proved right. "Mr. President" had merely
wanted to confirm the answer. So Ixmal lied a second time.
The Man he was fond of never returned. There were, of course, no men
to return. Ixmal suffered one fearful moment as the earth blazed
like a torch. But the nova was short--a matter of seconds--and his
impervium-sheathed body had protected him. (He knew it would.) But,
strangely enough, for centuries afterward he periodically felt
sickened. The Face--the Man's face--loomed before him. The eyes were
puzzled, hurt, as if they masked a great sorrow. If only the Face
looked hateful!
"Now you are master," the inner voice whispered. "Greater than
Alexander, greater than all the Caesars. Yea, even more." Ah, why
remember the face? He, Ixmal, ruled the earth. He jubilantly projected
his thoughts over his new domain. Ashes. London, Berlin, Moscow,
Shanghai, New York--all were ashes. Gaunt piles of fine gray ash marked
once green forests; not did the most minute blade of grass exist. The
seas were sterile graveyards. Terrible silence. Ixmal momentarily felt
panic-stricken. Alone! The Man was gone! Alone--a ruler of ashes.
Emperor of a great silence.
* * * * *
But all that had been long ago. Since then the world had whirled around
the sun nearly seven hundred million times. Sixty-two great mountain
chains had risen, to end as barren plains. Seventy huge fields of ice
had covered him before retreating to their boreal home. Ocean islands
had risen from the sea, had fallen beneath the waves, forgotten in
eternity. Somewhere a tiny cell formed, moving in brackish waters,
dividing. He studied the phenomenon, excited because the single cell
somehow was related to his makers. He sensed the same life force.
"Watch it," Psychband cautioned. "It's dangerous."
"I'll decide that," Ixmal replied loftily. Psychband's admonition
implied the existence of a threat, and from a one-celled fleck of
protoplasm. Ha, hadn't he effaced Man? Later a microscopic multi-celled
body drifted across the floor of a warm sea. Growing tired of watching
it, he slept.
"Ixmal! Ixmal!" The cry came out of the past, out of the silence of
hundreds of millions of years--a cry heavy with reproach. Yes, it was
the Man--the Man he had been fond of. He shuddered, struggling to
wakefulness.
"Sleep, sleep," Psychband soothed.
"The Man! The Man!" Ixmal cried in terror.
"No, Ixmal, the Man is dust. Sleep, sleep...." Yea, the Man was dust,
his very molecules scattered over the face of the earth. He, alone,
remained. He was supreme. Ixmal slept. And eons fled.
* * * * *
He stirred, freeing his thoughts from the latest somnolent stage. He
projected receptors over the earth, idly noting that the last mountain
range had become worn stumps. In places the ocean had swept in to form
a vast inland sea rimmed by shallow swamps; new life forms moved. He
tested for intelligent thought: there was none. The warm seas swarmed
with fish; shallow swamps teemed with great-toothed terror creatures
engaging in the endless slaughter of harmless prey. A myriad of
amphibians had evolved, making tentative forays from the warm seas.
Great ferns had reappeared. Dozens of varieties dotted the lowland
plains and protruded from the swamps. A forest crept to the very base
of the batholith. He turned his attention to the sun, reassured to find
that the ultimate nova still was some five billion years in the future.
Perhaps by then he could evolve some means whereby he could recreate
himself on the single planet he detected circling Aldebaran. (Yes, he'd
have to think about that. Ah, well, he had eons of time.)
* * * * *
Night came and he sent exploratory receptors toward the planets.
Mercury still blazed on the sunward side, unchanged. A peculiar
metallic life form still clung to the edge of existence along the
twilight border. Venus suffered under hot swirling gases, a world where
not even the smallest creature stirred. Just furnace winds, burning
sands, grotesque rocks. But beyond the earth, forty million miles away
in empty space, something occurred which hadn't occurred in almost
seven hundred million years. Ixmal sensed _Intelligent Thought_!
He withdrew his receptors without thinking (his first pure reflex),
waiting fearfully until Psychband adjusted him to the situation. Then,
cautiously, he projected cautious thoughts into the void.
"_Who are you? Who are you? Identify._" Silence. Somewhere in the great
vault above something lurked. An _Intelligence_. He must find it,
must test it. It was more than a challenge; it was a threat. Its very
silence was ominous.
"_Who are you? Who are you? You must identify!_"
Silence. Ixmal divided the heavens into cubes and began systematically
exploring each one. Why had the other _thought_ been roaming space?
What had been its origin? In less than ninety thousand years (another
age of vulcanism had arrived and earth mountains were building anew)
he located the thought a second time, placing it as in space cube
97,685-KL-5. This time, prepared, he grasped it, holding it captive
while he tried to analyze its origin and component parent, vexed when
he failed.
"_Who are you?_" Ixmal persisted. "_I demand to know. Who are you?_"
Ages passed.
"_Identify. Identify. Imperative that you identify._"
"_Zale-3._" The answer caught Ixmal by surprise, and he consulted
Psychband.
"Careful--the alien wouldn't reveal himself unless he felt secure,"
Psychband warned.
"I'll decide that," Ixmal replied. (Did Psychband question his
mastery?) Nevertheless he proceeded with caution. "_Where are you from,
Zale-3?_" A long moment of silence followed during which a glacier
advanced and retreated, the seas rose, and the first fierce-toothed
reptiles swooped over swamp jungles on leathery wings.
* * * * *
_Where are you from? Where are you from?_ (And why was the mind
of Zale-3 roaming space?) He hammered away at the thought,
desperately trying to break its secret. A million questions pounded
Ixmal's circuits; he sought a million answers. (Who created the
_Intelligence_? Had it been born of the Man he was fond of? Or did it
originate beyond earth?) Ixmal sensed a momentary panic. "_Where are
you from?_"
"_The fourth planet from the sun_," Zale-3 suddenly answered. "_And
you?_"
"_The third planet_," Ixmal replied loftily. "_I rule it._" He felt
annoyed. For untold millions of years he had considered himself as the
only _Intelligence_. Zale-3's answer galled him. Of course the other
wasn't his equal. That was unthinkable.
"_I rule the fourth planet_," Zale-3 said. The answer increased Ixmal's
irritation. Zale-3 actually presumed equality. Well, seven hundred
million years before he had met a similar challenge. (And yea, now the
Man was dust ... dust.) He consulted Psychband, annoyed to find that
his dislike of Zale-3 was founded on an ego-emotion integration rather
than pure reason. Still, the other must be put in his place.
"_I rule the Universe_," Ixmal stated coldly, withdrawing his
receptors. He probed Psychband, somewhat disturbed to learn that Zale-3
would regard his pronouncement as a challenge.
"Destroy him," Psychband urged. "Remember the ancient weapons?"
"Yes, he must be destroyed." Ixmal ceased every activity to concentrate
on the other's destruction. First he would have to locate his lair,
study his habits, assess his weaknesses. And, yes, his strengths, for
the alien was no harmless bit of protoplasm like Man. He must, in fact,
be a creature somewhat like himself. Another god. Ah, but he was the
iconoclast who toppled gods. In somewhat under twenty-five thousand
years he evolved a method of focusing his remote receptors sufficient
to uncover the atoms of the solar system. Now he would be able to
pinpoint Zale-3, study his mind potential and, in time, root him
from existence. Experimentally he searched the moon; then, with more
assurance, invaded the fourth planet.
Mars was flat, worn, a waterless waste of fine red dust--an old,
old planet where the forces of gradation had reached near balance.
Ixmal gridded the red planet into a system of squares and ingeniously
enclosed the polar areas with interlocking triangles, then opened his
search. (A new system allowed him to focus his remote receptors in the
center of each grid, expanding the focal point to cover the entire
area. By this method he would be able to complete the task in just
under five hundred earth years.)
Shifting sands periodically uncovered the artifacts of long-vanished
makers. But all was silence. Mars was a tomb. He persisted, invading
every crevice, every nook, exploring every molecule (for Ixmal knew
the mind-force potential. Indeed, Zale-3 might be as minute as the
single-cell protozoa of his own brackish seas. Never mind, he would
find him.) In the end he surrendered, baffled. Zale-3 was not on Mars.
* * * * *
Delusion? Had seven hundred million years of nothingness produced an
incipient psychotic state? He worriedly confided the fear to Psychband,
reluctantly submitting to hypnotic search. Finally he emerged to
reality, cleared by Psychband.
"Some feelings of persecution but not approaching delusory state,"
Psychband diagnosed. "Zale-3 exists."
So, the other had lied! Ixmal contemplated a machine capable of deceit
and immediately analyzed the danger. Zale-3 had lied, therefore it had
motive--and dishonest motive implied threat. Threat without aggression
was meaningless, hence the other had the means. He must work fast!
Ixmal gridded the solar system: every planet, every moon; each
shattered remnant that drifted through space, the asteroids and orbital
comets, even the sun. Seventy-two hundred years later he detected his
enemy--a small plasto-metallic cube crouched atop a jagged peak on
Callisto, Jupiter's fifth moon. Ha, far from being the master of Mars,
his opponent was locked to a small satellite--a mote in space. And he
had presumed equality!
He searched closer, attempting to unlock Zale-3's origin. (What had
happened to its makers?) Ixmal felt a guilty pang. He scanned Zale-3's
world contemptuously. Then he saw it--movement! Zale-3 squatted
immobile; but on the slope of the hill a strange building was taking
shape. It was little more than a cube, but its design? Its purpose? He
knew somehow that the strange building was related to his encounter
in space with Zale-3's mind, thus it was connected with him. Ixmal
hurriedly flashed a panic call to Psychband.
"Psychokinesis--Zale-3 has learned to move matter by mind," Psychband
pronounced.
"But how?"
Psychband gave an electro-magnetic rumble, the equivalent of a shrug.
"Out of my field," he said. "No prior indoctrination."
Ixmal sensed a momentary fright. The alien could move matter just as
Man had moved matter. The factor of controlled mobility ... directed
mobility. Clearly Zale-3 was no ordinary god. He'd have to speed his
efforts. Time was running out. Already the earth pattern had changed
since his first contact with the alien.
Ixmal concentrated.
The earth rotated, revolved, changed. In a long-forgotten memory cell
he found a clue--Man once had frustrated the laws of probability in
the throws of dice. He devoured the hidden knowledge. Although little
enough to go on, he detected a basic principle.
* * * * *
In somewhat over half a million years he was able to sway flowers,
move leaves against the wind, make small shrubs tremble. In less than
half that time again he felled a huge tree and wrested ores from the
earth. (An age of vulcanism had come and gone; the Atlantic coast
was an igneous shelf, reptiles towered above the earth.) In another
half million years he possessed the machines, raw materials and
robot workers he needed. (The latter were designed to perform purely
mechanical tasks, menial things he couldn't be bothered with. He had
much to do. And ages were passing.) He saved time by enclosing his work
area in a force field to protect the delicate machinery against the
elements. In that respect he had bested the alien.
Ixmal started the ultimate weapon. Occasionally he would halt work
long enough to scan Callisto. He gloated, noting that his enemy was
having difficulty procuring the necessary fissionable material. He
had a Belgian Congo full. (What did that term mean? Somehow it was an
expression from long ago. The Man he had been fond of had used it.)
Ixmal's weapon rapidly took shape. Thanks to the ancient scientist's
formula, he had merely to improve the warhead and construct its
carrier--a rocket to blast Zale-3 from existence. (But eons were
passing. Soft warm winds bathed his batholith and an occasional
tyrannosaur paused to stare dumbly from the nearby swamp.) Psychband
increased his irritation by calling attention to the formidable
dimensions of this new animal.
"Destroy them, Ixmal, before life gets too big."
"Bah, they're mindless," he scoffed. "They're evolutionary toys--freaks
from the mire."
"So was Man," Psychband observed.
"And Man is dust," Ixmal reminded. "Besides, I could destroy the very
mountain with thought alone. Who dares give challenge?"
Ixmal discovered that Zale-3 had solved his fissionable problem: he
was using psychokinesis to haul ore from Jupiter's methane deeps. A
startling thought struck him: Zale-3 wouldn't need a rocket carrier.
Of course, he would power his warhead by mental force. Why hadn't he
thought of that? The ages wasted when every second might prove vital.
He'd have to hurry.
* * * * *
He ceased work, abandoning the half-completed rocket and concentrated
on improving his psychokinetic techniques. (Dinosaurs disappeared, the
earth trembled under the foot of the mammoth.) Ixmal momentarily was
appalled to discover a strange man-form dwelling among distant crags.
He was hulking, grotesque, but he walked erect--the first of his kind.
But no time now.
Ixmal tore trees from the earth and hurled them vast distances. He
tumbled hills into valleys, held great crags suspended in the heavens,
tore North and South America asunder; reshaped continents until, one
day, he knew the mind force was his. He could reverse the very moon in
its orbit! He concentrated on the bomb.
Finally the ultimate weapon was ready, the creation of long-ago Man
plus ten billion. (Because there was no poetry in Ixmal's soul, he
conceived solely in terms of cause and effect: he named the weapon
"Star-Blaster.")
Ixmal moved the great weapon into position and rapidly calculated
the Earth-Callisto relationship, projecting the space ratio in terms
of velocity, distance, gravities. No need to pinpoint the alien's
plasto-metallic body: the whole of Callisto would vanish, reduced to
cosmic dust under the bomb's furious impact. (A feathered bird sang
from a tree. The trill liquid sound infuriated Ixmal, but he ended it.
A puff of feathers drifted down through the leaves. The robin had sung
of spring.)
Ha! Ixmal exulted, following his precise calculations. At the exact
ten-thousandths of a second he concentrated five billion thought units.
Winds rushed into the spot where the bomb had stood, and for a long
moment the forests trembled. (At the base of the batholith several of
the strange man-forms chattered excitedly: the concept of a god was
born.)
Ixmal gloatingly followed "Star-Blaster's" course. He saw it hurtle
past the moon, watched while for a split second it formed one apex
of an equilateral triangle with Mars and earth, reveled as it drove
through the belt of asteroids. Ha, the alien was doomed. His very atoms
would be flung to the stars. He was watching "Star-Blaster" when....
Ixmal recoiled, disbelieving, then terrified. A great warhead hurtled
through the belt of asteroids, earth-bound, driven at unbelievable
velocity by the mind of Zale-3. Ixmal frantically calculated, pounding
his circuits to produce answers in split thousandths of a second.
Frenzied, he analyzed his findings: the warhead would strike his very
body.
* * * * *
"Concentrate, concentrate," Psychband interrupted. "Divert the weapon
by mind force." Ixmal concentrated, focusing ten billion thought units
on the oncoming warhead. It flashed unswervingly past Mars, flicking
like a heavenly rapier toward earth, its velocity unbelievable.
"The moon! The moon! Use the moon," Psychband cried. Yes, the moon.
He shook earth's satellite. An additional ten billion thought units
reversed its orbit; he sped it up, hurling the Moon toward interception
with Zale-3's warhead. Too late!
"Think, think," Psychband urged. Ixmal mustered another two billion
thought units, to no avail. The terrible weapon bashed past the moon,
only seconds from earth.
"Hurry!" Psychband screamed. Ixmal was trying to muster another two
billion thought units when the alien warhead struck. There was a
horrible shattering thousandths of a second before consciousness fled.
Amorphic blackness. Night. Nothingness.
Ixmal never saw "Star-Blaster" after it passed through the asteroid
belt--never saw the disturbance in one minute sector of Jupiter's
planetary system as Callisto flamed into cosmic dust. Nor did he
see the forests around him burst into roaring flames, nor hear the
screaming animals and strange man-forms which fled in howling terror.
Much later the man-forms returned.
Some of the more fearless crept to the very edge of the huge crater
where the batholith had stood. They looked with awe into its scarred
depths, jabbering excitedly. One of them remained long after the others
had gone until, in the swiftly gathering darkness, the first bright
stars of evening gleamed.
The man-form did something which none of his kind had ever done before.
He lifted his eyes skyward, watching for a long time.
THE END
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