Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley by Robert Sheckley Read Free Book Online Page A

safely.
    There was nothing to be done until morning, so Pid began to make plans. They had landed as close to the atomic power installation as they dared. Now they would have to get closer. Somehow, one of them had to get very near the reactor room, in order to activate the Displacer.
    Difficult. But Pid felt certain of success. After all, the Glom were strong on ingenuity.
    Strong on ingenuity, he thought bitterly, but terribly short of radioactives. That was another reason why this expedition was so important. There was little radioactive fuel left, on any of the Glom worlds.
    Ages ago, the Glom had spent their store of radioactives spreading throughout their neighbor worlds, occupying the ones that they could live on. Colonization barely kept up with the mounting birthrate. New worlds were constantly needed.
    This particular world, discovered in a scouting expedition, was needed. It suited the Glom perfectly. But it was too far away. They didn’t have enough fuel to mount a conquering space fleet.
    Luckily, there was another way. A better way.
    Over the centuries, the Glom scientists had developed the Displacer. A triumph of Identity Engineering, the Displacer allowed mass to be moved instantaneously between any two linked points.
    One end was set up at Glom’s sole atomic energy plant. The other end had to be placed in proximity to another atomic power source, and activated. Diverted power then flowed through both ends, was modified, and modified again.
    Then, through the miracle of Identity Engineering, the Glom could step through from planet to planet; or pour through in a great, overwhelming wave.
    It was quite simple. But twenty expeditions had failed to set up the Earth-end Displacer.
    What had happened to them was not known.
    For no Glom ship had ever returned to tell.
    Before dawn they crept through the woods, taking on the coloration of the plants around them. Their Displacers pulsed feebly, sensing the nearness of atomic energy.
    A tiny, four-legged creature darted in front of them. Instantly, Ger grew four legs and a long, streamlined body and gave chase.
    â€œGer! Come back here!” Pid howled at the Detector, throwing caution to the winds.
    Ger overtook the animal and knocked it down. He tried to bite it, but he had neglected to grow teeth. The animal jumped free, and vanished into the underbrush. Ger thrust out a set of teeth and bunched his muscles for a leap.
    â€œGer!”
    Reluctantly, the Detector turned away. He loped silently back to Pid.
    â€œI was hungry,” he said.
    â€œYou were not,” Pid said sternly.
    â€œWas,” Ger mumbled, writhing with embarrassment.
    Pid remembered what the Chief had told him. Ger certainly did have Hunter tendencies. He would have to watch him more closely.
    â€œWe’ll have no more of that,” Pid said. “Remember—the lure of Exotic Shapes is not sanctioned. Be content with the shape you were born to.”
    Ger nodded, and melted back into the underbrush. They moved on.
    At the extreme edge of the woods they could observe the atomic energy installation. Pid disguised himself as a clump of shrubbery, and Ger formed himself into an old log. Ilg, after a moment’s thought, became a young oak.
    The installation was in the form of a long, low building, surrounded by a metal fence. There was a gate, and guards in front of it.
    The first job, Pid thought, was to get past that gate. He began to consider ways and means.
    From the fragmentary reports of the survey parties, Pid knew that, in some ways, this race of Men were like the Glom. They had pets, as the Glom did, and homes and children, and a culture. The inhabitants were skilled mechanically, as were the Glom.
    But there were terrific differences. The Men were of fixed and immutable forms, like stones or trees. And to compensate, their planet boasted a fantastic array of species, types, and kinds. This was completely unlike Glom, which had only eight distinct forms of