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He heard himself say, 'He's all right. There is very little emotional shock ... How about you?'
'I'm disturbed by Barbara's death,' Helen admitted. 'But now I have Dr Gloge on the phone. He's quite
anxious to talk to you.'
Hammond said, 'All right, Put him on.'
'Mr. Hammond,' Dr Gloge's voice said a moment later, 'this is in connection with the Point Omega
Stimulation project. I've been going over all my notes and conclusions on these experiments, and I'm
convinced that once you understand the extraordinary dangers which might result if the details of my
experiments became known, you will agree that the project should be closed out and my records
referring to it destroyed at once.'
After switching off the phone, he remained for a while at the desk.
* *
So that part of the problem also had been solved! The last traces of the Omega serum were being wiped
out, would soon linger only in his mind.
And for how long there? Perhaps no more than two or three hours, John Hammond decided. The
memory pictures were paling; he had a feeling that sections of them already had vanished. And there was
an odd, trembling uncertainty about what was left ... thin, colored mind-canvas being tugged by a wind
which presently would carry it off.
He had no objections, Hammond told himself. He had seen one of the Great Ones, and it was not a
memory that it was good for a lesser being to have.
Somehow, it hurt to be so much less.
He must have slept. For he awoke suddenly. He felt vaguely bewildered, for no reason that he could
imagine.
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Helen came in, smiling. 'Don't you think it's time we closed up for the night? You're working too long
hours again.'
'You're right,' Hammond nodded.
He got up and went into the room next to the office to tell Vincent Strather he was free to go home.
[ -: CONTENTS :-]
Him
by A. E. VAN VOGT
As all knew, everything came from Him.
* *
Josiah Him, dictator of Earth except for a few areas of resistance, consisting of a total of about eight
hundred million scientific savages, a portion of whom were located in the western half of North America
and the rest in the great mountain regions of Asia and elsewhere.
These barbaric remnants had, in their madness, declared a state of war on Him. As it developed, the
counterattack from, Him had included an initial surprise invasion which was repelled. After the defeat,
the word from Him was that every means of humanitarian warfare would be employed to defeat the
savages, including in severe emergencies the planarian education plan.
This particular word from Him had come that morning to Edgar Maybank: ... Your assistants, hereinafter
to be called students, have been selected for planarian accelerated education. ... Report July 12 ...'
That wasnext, day!
The man who had climbed onto the bar stool next to Edgar, and who had somehow drawn the
anguished truth out of Edgar, was singularly unsympathetic. He was a big, gentle fellow, who jiggled a
little to the music, but had all the correct attitudes instantly at the tip of his tongue.
'... The word from Him,' he said with quiet certainty, 'is that the planarian system should be used only in
extreme emergencies. All truly patriotic educators should therefore be prepared for the supreme sacrifice.
You are to be congratulated on this rare opportunity to serve Him, but, uh, don't you think that's rather
an unusual get-up for an expert?'
He thereupon eyed Edgar's corduroys and formless shirt.
Edgar said, 'I came straight from work.'
'Oh, straight from the laboratory.'
'I guess you could call it that,' said Edgar absently.
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He was admitting to himself, gloomily, that he had been very remiss in the past, when other people had
been selected for the planarian program. In fact, his indignation against the plan had started belatedly that
morning. What bothered him most was the feeling that he was the victim of a scheme.
'After all,' he said, 'we know that these decisions are not made by Him, but by administrators and
subadministrators '
The older man interjected quickly: 'But always from the highest motives, solely in the name of Him,
responsible to Him '
No question, that was the theory; and Edgar had given lip-service to it for so long that he was now
briefly silenced.
While the dancers writhed around him, and his barmate kept time by moving one portion or another of
his body, Edgar sipped his drink and grimly contemplated the entire planarian idea.
Long ago, it had been discovered that planarian worms could be trained in simple condition responses.
When these trained worms were ground up and fed to other planarian worms, these latter learned the
same responses faster than worms not so fed.
During the great rebellion, at the command of Him, the truths thus scientifically established were applied
to human beings. University professors, scientists, and other experts were ground up and fed to their
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