Mind Webs - The Weapon A N D The Castaway

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2:03Epglyce can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Epglyce. A allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. I problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have newer worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglyce. Before starting Epglyce tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Pay partnership with Lily. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about Epglyce and visit Epglyce.com or call 1-800-LilyRx or 1-800-545-5979.

3:14Mindwebs short stories from the world's respective infection. The first story on Mindwebs tonight originally appeared in 1951. It's the weapon by Frederick Brown and among the places it appears is in science fiction for people who hate science fiction. A logon edited by Terry Carr. Frederick Brown's The Weapon. The room was quiet in the dimness of early evening. Dr. James Graham, key scientist of a very important project sat in his favorite chair, thinking. It was so still that he could hear the turning of pages in the next room as his son leaped through a picture book. Often Graham did his best work his most creative thinking under these circumstances sitting alone in an unlighted room and his own apartment after the day's regular work. But tonight his mind would not work constructively. Mostly he thought about his

4:18mentally arrested son, his only son, in the next room. The thoughts were loving thoughts, not the bitter anguish he had felt years ago when he had first learned of the boy's condition. The boy was happy and wasn't at the main thing and to how many men is given a child who will always be a child who would not grow up to leave him. Certainly that was a rationalization but what's wrong with rationalization when the doorbell rang. Graham rose and turned on lights in the almost dark room before he went through the hallway to the door. He was not annoyed. Tonight at this moment almost any interruption to his thoughts was welcome. He opened the door. A stranger stood there. He said, Dr. Graham, my name is Nehman. I'd like to talk to you. May I come in for a moment? Graham looked at him. He was a small man, undescript, obviously harmless, possibly a reporter or an insurance agent. What it didn't matter what he was. Graham found himself saying, of course, come in Mr. Nehman. A few minutes of conversation,

5:23he justified himself by thinking might divert his thoughts and clear his mind. Sit down, you said in the living room. Care for a drink? No, thank you. He sat in the chair. Graham on the sofa. The small man interlocked his fingers. He leaned forward and said, Dr. Graham, you are the man whose scientific work is more likely than that of any other man to end the human race's chance for survival. Graham thought a crackpot. No too late now and he realized he should have asked the man's business before admitting him. It would be an embarrassing interview. He just liked being rude, but rudeness was effective. Dr. Graham, the weapon on which you are working, the visitor stopped and turned his head as the door that led to a bedroom opened and a boy of 15 came in. The boy didn't notice Nehman. He ran to Graham. Daddy, will you read to me now? Boy of 15 laughed this. We laughed over a child before. Graham put an arm around the boy. He

6:27looked at his visitor wondering whether he had known about the boy. From the lack of surprise on Nehman's face, Graham felt sure he had known. Harry, Daddy's busy right now just for a little while. Go back to your room. I'll come and read you soon. Chicken little? You'll read me chicken little? If you wish, now run along. Wait a minute, Harry. This is Mr. Nehman. The boy smiled bashfully at the visitor. Nehman said, Hi, Harry. And smiled back at him holding out his hand. Graham, watching, was sure now that Nehman had known. The smile in the gesture were for the boy's mental age, not his physical one. The boy took Nehman's hand. Before a moment, it seemed that he was going to climb into Nehman's lap. And Graham pulled him back gently. Go to your room now, Harry. The boy skipped back into his bedroom, not closing the door. Nehman's eyes met Graham's, and he said, I like him, Dr. Graham. I hope that what you're going to

7:28read to him will always be true. Graham didn't understand. Nehman said, Chicken little, I mean, it's a fine story, but may chicken little always be wrong about the sky, falling down. Graham suddenly had liked Nehman when Nehman had shown liking for the boy. Now he remembered that he must close the interview quickly. He rose in this missile. Well, I fear you're wasting your time in mind, Mr. Nehman. I know all the arguments, everything you can say I've heard a thousand times. Possibly there's truth in what you believe, but it does not concern me. I am a scientist and only a scientist. I know it is public knowledge that I am working on a weapon, a rather ultimate one. But you see, for me, personally, that is only a byproduct of the fact that I am advancing science. I've thought it through, and I have found that that is my only concern.

8:33But Dr. Graham is humanity ready for an ultimate weapon. Now I've told you my point of view, Mr. Nehman. Nehman rose slowly from the chair. Very well, if you did not choose to discuss it, I'll say no more. He passed a hand over his forehead. I'll leave Dr. Graham, although I wonder, might I change my mind about the drink you offered me? Graham's irritation faded. There certainly will whiskey and water do? Admurably. Graham excused himself and went into the kitchen. He got the decanter of whiskey and other of water and the ice cubes and the glasses. When he returned to the living room, Nehman was just leaving the boys' bedroom. He heard Nehman's, ah, good night, Harry. Harry's happy. Night, Mr. Nehman. Graham made drinks. A little later, Nehman declined a second one and started to leave. Nehman said, ah, Dr. Graham, I took the liberty of bringing a small gift to your son. I gave it to him

9:41while you were getting the drinks for us. I hope you'll forgive me, Dr. Of course. Thank you. Good night. Graham closed the door. He walked through the living room into Harry's room, he said. All right, Harry, now I'll read to you. Only a madman would give a loaded revolver to an idiot. Our first story this evening was titled The Weapon by Frederick Brown. It appeared in the book Science Fiction for People Who Hate Science Fiction, edited by Terry Carr.

10:49The second story on Mydwebs this evening comes from the book A Wilderness of Stars, edited by William F. Nolan. The story is by Charles E. Fritch, and is called La Caster Way. He didn't know how long he'd been here. In this world of eternal day, there was no way of telling the passage of time. The spaceship's chronometer was dead, as the spaceship itself was dead. As someday he would be dead. The rocket had crashed on this oxygen-planted breathe that its last mechanical sigh had died. Jordan, that was his name, that much he knew. He'd forgotten the great many things during the long years, but those things didn't matter. Jordan was his name, and he clung to the identity of the grasp of a dying man. A dying man, he thought, how long? Between the twin sons, the planet rotated slowly, warmed and illuminated first by one son, and then by the other. There was no need for clothing for the air was warm, and besides all his

11:54clothing had crumbled into dust long ago. A long, months, years, decades. Ageless and yet aging, he found himself growing old without the discomforts of growing old. After a while, he didn't even mind being alone. It was terrible at first, if only the radio had worked, even if only the receiver, so he could hear a human voice. But the twin sons blocked communication, and after a while, after a long while, he forgot about it. He remembered the crash, and the darkness that followed, he recalled approaching this planet with his spaceship, wobbling bursting's basmotic jets of flame through torn tubes, frantically working controls that wouldn't respond as they should, forcing him toward the twin sons, toward the single planet between the twin sons. His heart held no hope, he had expected to die. But he was alive. He remembered sitting up and feeling his bones and stretching and wondering at this miracle. Fifty yards away, the spaceship lay a broken metal hulk that should have been his coffin.

13:00Great gaping wounds stood from it like evil sores and mechanical veins sprouted lifeless from the holes. It was a miracle he had lived. A second miracle that the planet contained an atmosphere he could breathe without discomfort. But greater miracles were forthcoming. He took small handwebbons from the spaceship and explored the planet. It was very much like his earth, but much smaller. The gravity was similar. There was green grass and there were ever green trees, and there were small ponds and rivers which reflected the sky and the great yellow suns, and there was even a small ocean. He stood at the edge of this ocean and wondered what lay beyond. Years or was it decades later, he found out. He wandered across the face of this planet, occasionally building crude but serviceable rafts to navigate bodies of water, and he found the world the same as it was where he had crashed. There were no intelligent creatures to be found. There were animals that looked like squirrels,

14:03others which resembled deer, the waters held a multi-colored fish, not too unlike those of earth. This offered some consolation. He even made friends with one squirrel like animal, calling it Friday. If any ships flew near the planet, they might see the crashed rocket and investigate. That was his hope. Often he shaded his eyes from the glare of the sun and gazed into the bright sky, searching for a gleam of metal, but he found none. Food was everywhere. Fruits and berries could be head for the reaching and small animals could easily be caught, but he wasn't hungry. At first, this puzzled him. After the crash, he'd taken inventory of his rations aboard the spaceship, mentally calculating how long they'd last. After several days, or what he considered to be several days, he tried to force rations down his throat, thinking he would starve if he didn't. But the food was repugnant and he felt worse, or having tried to eat it.

15:03He looked into the cracked mirror aboard the spaceship at his smooth, young features. I'm 26 now, he thought. How old will I be when I'm rescued, or will I spend the rest of my life here? At that thought, he angrily picked up a stool and smashed his only mirror into fragments. He had caused to regret that for later, when he looked into ponds of clear water that Boris reflected, he tried to see what lines lay in his features to calculate how long he'd been on this planet. After a while, he forgot about it. He... It's fall in Jeep country, and during the driving to fall sales events, get a great deal on 4x4s that refuse to be contained. Like Jeep Wrangler, confidence built into every drive with the most awarded SUV ever, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and freedom that can't be denied, with the open air freedom in Jeep Gladiator. After 85 years, it's no surprise that Jeep became America's SUV brand. Get a great deal during the Jeep driving to fall sales event. Jeep is one more awards over its lifetime than any other SUV brand, cheap in the Jeep Grill or Registered Trademarks of FCA US LLC.

16:06Shop vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at vans and Albertsons, get fresh, boneless, skinless chicken breast for £199 per pound limit 10 pounds, and locally grown Grappery Cotton Candy Graves are £299 per pound with digital coupon. Plus 24 packs of Canada dry or 7-up 12-ounce cans are £499 limit 1 with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in, these deals won't last. Visit vans or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. It's fall in Jeep Country and during the driving to fall sales event, get a great deal on 4x4s that refuse to be contained, like Jeep Wrangler, confidence built into every drive with the most awarded SUV ever, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and freedom that can't be denied, with the open air freedom in Jeep Gladiator. After 85 years, it's no surprise that Jeep became America's SUV brand. Get a great deal during the Jeep driving to fall sales event. Jeep is one more awards over its lifetime than any other SUV brand, Jeep and Jeep Grille registered trademarts of FCA US LLC.

17:32Even that yellowness that becomes black as the blackest of all of it, with the stars like blazing diamonds. He was 26 and all of space lay before him like a great challenge like a beckoning finger in fighting. No one could ever know what it meant to me, he told Friday. It was an obsession. I remember when I was in my teens the way I used to stand and stare at the stars. Why, I'd spend the whole night just standing there and watching the stars whirling about the heavens looking at the universe as though it was a great celestial circus. I'd say to myself, Freddie, that I'd say someday I'm going out there, someday I'm going out there and take apart some of those flaming pinwheels and see what they're made of. I'll go farther than anyone has ever gone before and then farther than that. I'll discover sons and worlds no one has ever known existed. And I'll find out if the universe is round after all. And if it is, I'll find out what's on the outside of it. Jordan laughed. Friday sat in a nearby

18:38rock cotton plating the earth man with large round eyes that looked thoughtful. Now it was a good dream, Freddie, but only a dream. You'll never know how I felt about it. This is your world, your planet. You can climb the highest tree on it and look down on the world and know you've accomplished what you've set out to do, but not me. He looked up and shrugged. And yet I haven't seen a star or the night sky and how long has it been? And Friday looked up at him sympathetically. Jordan laughed and weached out the peppy animal. You're a good friend, Jordan said. Not many friends would be so patient. It was good to have someone to talk to who Jordan was grateful and then suddenly, or was it suddenly the time came when the animal was gone? Jordan found him dead a short distance from his tree home. Jordan cried unashamedly remembering the times they'd spent together with the earth man tossing a berry for the animal to scamper for, but Friday occasionally making some small chattering

19:43noise. But death was real and came without regard for friendship. Jordan buried Friday beneath the tree that was his home and then stood for a moment eyes and listed staring at the grave. A sudden chattering brought his eyes upward to the crotch of a tree where another animal squatted on its haunches and regarded him with frank curiosity. Friday, Jordan breathed. No, that was impossible. There were differences even among the animals. A subtle difference in the placement of colors and the fur, a tapering to the ears and the bushy tail, an individual idiosyncrasy even in the automatic twitching of the nose. Jordan turned away sadly and went back to the rocket. The spaceship was a skeleton now almost toppling beneath its own weights. He didn't look at it. He sat down in the sunlight. The animal leaped upon the nearby rock as Friday used to do and regarded the earth man. Jordan said, I wonder if you knew Friday. Maybe we're relatives, maybe a cousin,

20:47that's it. You look like you might be a cousin. He used to sit there just the way you're doing and I used to tell him about the other worlds in this universe. He never complained about being limited to this planet. I wish I could be as content. In the days that followed, Jordan grew to like the small furry animal he called it Friday. He knew that Friday wouldn't mind and at times it seemed to the earth man that Friday actually lived in this animal. Now let's see, advantage of a family, Jordan said to himself, through offspring you achieve immortality passing a part of yourself arm from generation to generation so that in a sense you actually live arm after death. But what of my death? He didn't like to think of that. Not because he was afraid, because he wasn't, but there were so many things he had wanted to do, so many places out there in the universe to see, so much that it would take a million lifetimes to see only a small part of it. At least he thought, there should be

21:53night, but there wasn't the slightest inkling that such a thing could exist. The planet Jordan was on rotated at an even pace between the two sons when one son was not in the sky the other was, when one left the other appeared. And there was no twilight period, no brief instant when a faint pinpoint of starlight might pierce the atmosphere, yet Jordan never ceased to look for it. During all the years no spaceship came. His own ship was red dust now. It takes a long time for metal to become dust. How long? He looked into the quiet pools of water at his reflection, engaging back at him. It was an ancient face wrinkled and incredibly old. He looked at his hands and at his naked body and found them the color and texture of burned leather with the bonds showing through. Dozens of Fridays had set upon the rocks and patiently listened to his story. He had

22:54forgotten many things, but he never forgot the blackness of space and the stars that might have shared his destiny. He buried each animal tenderly, weeping for the friend he had lost. And each time Friday came re-incarnated to listen to him, to keep him company during the long, lonely vigil. I'm an old man, Jordan said, an old old man. He walked across the fields and among the trees and down to the ocean. Soon he would not be able to do this. He felt a gradual lessening of strength, an overall weakness that slowly crept over him. Now he remained in the vicinity of the rocket crash near the last few fragments. He sat beneath the tree near the edge of the clearing. And here I'll die, he thought. The only regret he felt was it not seeing the stars again. He sat quietly in the shade. If he had required food, he would have starved, or he lacked the

23:56strength to move. The animal often sat nearby. A critical look on its squirrel features as though wondering why no sound came from the lips of the strange creature that had once talked to it. Jordan sat there thinking silently to himself. Jordan, that was all there was left now, the identity, the name. How long would it be he wondered before even consciousness left? He waited. He waited patiently while the planet rotated on its axis and the twin suns chased each other across the sky. He waited, dying. While the forest grew on around him, the animals came to stare at him in wonder. He waited, and his body grew brittle, until it seemed the skin would crack open like a dry, riverbed baked in the sun. It seemed his bones were dry, powdered with anemones, though his blood that ceased flowing. When a gentle breeze came, he could feel his body crumble like a leaf in a

24:57wind storm as though it were a pattern of dust that would scatter in a meaningless cloud. He stared straight ahead with eyes, the gruel weak and wicker, staring at the empty stretch of clearing in the forest that lay beyond. He sat, not moving because he could not move, and thought of the stars he would never see. He waited while the years passed uncounted. And one day the spaceship came. It came down out of the yellow sky, all silver and flame settled in the clearing. It was a new ship like a freshly-mended coin sturdy and powerful with a promise of lightning velocities in its proud lines. Two men descended a ladder to the ground, tall earth men in spaces. The earthmen stopped by the rust fragments that were once a spaceship, and looked down at them wondering, they walked cautiously about the clearing. They don't see me, Jordan thought wildly. They don't see me sitting here by the tweed.

26:01Dear, over here I've been waiting for you, but no sound came. The two earthmen returned to their spaceship, climbed the ladder. Jordan watched the manor of the rocket saw the airlock doors wing-shot. His last chance about to blast off on wings of flame forever. He struggled. He tried to raise an arm, a leg tried to move as lips his head. He could feel his ancient body shudder gently under the strain. He felt the very particles shake from a precarious balance. And then suddenly he was free. He ran to the edge of the forest into a clearing to the great silver ship. He stood beneath it and shouted, here I am, here I am, look, look down here, don't take off yet. I've been waiting for you down here. With the rocket crumpled, and great sheets of golden flames swept down over him, blinding him cutting off all side of the grass, and the trees, and sky. The spaceship was gone, a dot that became less than a dot, and then nothing memory had dreamed.

27:06Sadly, Jordan turned away. At the foot of the tree where he had sat was a pattern of dust. He looked at it, puzzled for a moment, wondering. He felt weightless. He felt he could fly. Experimentally, he rose from the ground. He flew. He low in the forest, grew small. The world became a round ball of rivers and piles and oceans of one vast planet and beautiful. What did it mean? What did it mean? His body had grown old and older, and an older still. It had grown so old that it had disintegrated at a movement, but that was not really dead. And if it did not really die, but merely aged and illogical age no longer, what would prevent the mind, the consciousness from continuing out? Jordan knew the answer. He was no longer planet-bound, no longer prisoner to gravity.

28:13He knew it as he left the planet far, far below him, wrapped in its haze of atmosphere, as he swept past the nearest golden sun, brushing it with a mental finger. And then he was clear. Night burst upon him like a velvet mantle, cool with ice crystal patterns of stars. He hung poised for a brief moment, centuries of emotion flooding through him. He world excitedly then looking this way and that. Here were the stars and the constellations and the island universes and the nebulae that curved, inspired, and stretched in great gaseous bands across the heavens like fiery jewels in some vast showcase. And here and here and here were the others, all of them, all of them waiting. Softly, he spoke their names. They were old friends

29:16not seen too long a time. It would take a million lifetimes to visit only a small number of them, but he had that and more. Which way first he wondered? Which way? Around him, patiently, the universe waited. The second story this evening was called The Cast Away, written by Charles E. Fritch. It appeared in the book edited by William F. Nolan, A Wilderness of Stars. This is Michael Hanson speaking, production engineer for Mindwebs as Steve Gordon. Mindwebs is a production of WHA Radio and Madison, a service of University of Wisconsin extension. McDonald's is putting value back on the menu. Whether you're craving a big mac,

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