Mack Reynolds: After Utopia

Betty said indignantly, “But, Tracy, they’re destroying themselves, and, as a result, eventually the race!”

“It’s not the fault of the system,” he insisted. “It’s the fault of the individuals. Everybody doesn’t destroy themselves under it. You three for instance. And that small percentage you say are still needed by the International Congress of Guilds to keep things going.”

Walter Stein sighed. “I suspect that you’re right,” he said. “Frankly, I never have been able to vizualize a social system to replace this one, even if the people would stand for it and they probably wouldn’t.”

Tracy said, “Where is the Jupiter probe located?”

“In North America, at the spaceport near what used to be the city of Greater Washington.”

“Will you help me make arrangements to volunteer to pilot it to Jupiter?”

Walter Stein said lowly, and in resignation, “Yes, certainly. I brought you here, against your will. You have always been free to go. My big dream has turned out to be a mistake, but that is not your fault. You tried. You did your best.”

The takeoff was less than two months later.

Tracy Cogswell had made his goodbyes to Betty and Academician Walter Stein, and to Jo Edmonds, whom he had grown to like increasingly over the months. The three of them had accompanied him to the Greater Washington area and were present at the blast-off.

Three persons out of four in the world were glued to their tri-di sets. It went like clockwork. The spacecraft was in perfect condition.

Even with the new nuclear engines, the trip was a long one. Each day Tracy made a laser-beam report back to Earth.

Each day, at that time, the Steins and Jo Edmonds sat before their screens, waiting for him. Sometimes he would send them a personal message, usually a humorous quip… which was understandable. Precious little was happening that was new, nor would it, until he reached the vicinity of the giant planet.

And as he did, at long last, Earth’s interest in him grew to new heights. Would he make it? Would Jupiter grab him in her powerful gravity and suck him down into the swirling gases that seemed to cover her surface?

He was within a couple of thousand kilometers of Ganymede when the tragedy struck.

He had been making more reports than usual as Jupiter grew larger before him. So he was on the laser beam when it happened.

Suddenly, in the midst of a description of the satellite Ganymede, he blurted, “Something has just materialized only a few kilometers from me. It’s a giant… a giant spaceship… It must be as big as an aircraft carrier, like the Forrestal .… it’s gigantic!”

His voice was high, almost shrill. “There’s something strange about it. I can feel thought waves or something coming from it… they’re malevolent. It’s like a wave of hate… I… I can feel it! It’s monstrous! They hate us! They hate the idea of there being another intelligent life form in the galaxy. They hate us! Hate us!”

He broke off for a moment, as though overwhelmed, and then took it up again, his voice still rising. “Something is happening… I’m being drawn toward it… Some sort of magnetic tractor force is pulling me in.”

His last words were shouted. “Earth! EARTH!… DEFEND! DEFEND!…

And those were the last words Tracy Cogswell ever spoke.

Within twenty-four hours, Earth was shifting into high gear, and within forty-eight the rioting mobs were burning the Pleasure Centers.

« ^The next few weeks were hectic. Half the world was taking intensified courses in subjects involving space. The International Congress of Guilds was organizing a crash program to revive the space projects of yesteryear. The Steins and Jo Edmonds split up, with Jo returning to England and Betty going out to the American west coast to apply for a position at one of the new spaceports. It wasn’t as yet completed and wouldn’t be for approximately a month, so she returned east to stay with her father.

On their first night together they sat and watched the news of the tri-di. Almost all of it was devoted to the new crash program to get man back into space. Betty said lowly, “I wonder whatever happened to Tracy.”

Her father looked at her in surprise. “You mean you don’t understand?”

“Understand what?”

“Betty, don’t you see? There was nothing out there. Perhaps, one day, man will find other intelligent life in the stars, but this wasn’t it. This was Tracy’s plan to unite the race, to put it back on the road to progress and expansion. The expansion into space is beginning with a fury. Perhaps, for a time, a century or so, it will largely be with defense in mind. But then, after we have progressed far, far beyond the point we are at now, the truth will undoubtedly come home to us and though we will continue our march toward our destiny, the stars, it will no longer be with military matters in mind. I suspect that Tracy Cogswell has taken care of that.”

“Taken care of it? But where is Tracy?”

Her father shook his head sadly. “Dead by now, I assume. Surely his supplies have failed by now. I suspect that he is in orbit about Jupiter, that he has become in his ship, one of Jupiter’s satellites. One day, an Earth military space cruiser, or a group of them, will probably cautiously reconnoiter the area. They will find his dead ship and that will be the tipoff. He will probably have left a note of explanation, or a tape, to explain the whole farce. Then we will realize what a hero he was. That he made a false scare report to spur on the race and in so doing made a martyr of himself.” longdash#«»—«»—«»—