DEAD WORLD
By JACK DOUGLAS
Illustrated by BARR
Out on the ice-buried planet, Commander Red Stone led his FreeCompanions to almost certain death. They died for a dangerousdream that had only one chance in a thousand trillion tocome true. Is there a better reason for dying?
... although the most recentstar to die, RNAC 89778 in thedistant Menelaus galaxy (commonname, Menelaus XII), hadeight inhabited planets, onlysome one thousand people of thefifth planet escaped and survivedas a result of a computer errorwhich miscalculated the exacttime by two years. Due to basicpsycho-philo maladjustments therefugees of Menelaus XII-5 areclassified as anti-social-types-B-6and must be considered unstable.All anti-social-types-B-6are barred from responsible positionsin United Galaxies by orderof the Inter-Galactic Council.
—Short History of The United Galaxies
Yuan Saltario started it.He was serving in my Companyand he was one of them.A Menelaus XII-5 "unstable,"and don't ever call that damnedlittle planet by its number if youmeet one of them. They call itNova-Maurania. But you won'tmeet one of them. Or maybe youwill, maybe they did make it. Ilike to think they did.
There were a lot of them in theCompanies in 3078. Restless men.The Companies were the logicalplace for them. We're still classifiedanti-social-B-6, too. Everyyear it's harder to get recruits,but we still have to be carefulwho we take in. We took YuanSaltario. There was somethingabout him from the very start.
"Why do you want to join aFree Company?" He was a short,humanoid type with deep blackeyes and a thin, lipless mouththat never smiled.
"I'm an anti-social. I like tofight. I want to fight."
"A misfit joining the misfits?A grudge against the Council?It's not good enough, mister, welive on the Council. Try again."
Saltario's black eyes staredwithout a flicker. "You're RedStone, Commander of the RedCompany. You hate the Counciland I hate the Council. You'rethe ..." Saltario stopped.
I said, "The Traitor of theGlorious War of Survival. Youcan say it, Saltario."
The lipless mouth was rigid."I don't think of it that way.I think of a man with personalintegrity," Saltario said.
I suppose I should have seenit then, the rock he carried deepinside him. It might have savedthirty thousand good men. ButI was thinking of myself. CommanderRed Stone of the RedCompany, Earthmen. Only we'renot all Earthmen now, every yearthere are fewer recruits, and itwon't be long before we die outand the Council will have the lastlaugh. Old Red Stone, the Traitorof the War of Survival, the littlefinger of my left hand still missingand telling the Universe Iwas a very old soldier of the outlawedFree Companies hangingonto life on a rocky planet of thedistant Salaman galaxy. Back atthe old stand because UnitedGalaxies still need us. In a wayit's a big joke. Two years afterRajay-Ben and I had a bellyfullof the Glorious War of Survivaland they chased us all the wayout here, they turned rightaround and made the peace. Ajoke on me, but sometimes I liketo think that our runout was thething that made them think andmake peace. When you've been asoldier for thirty-five years youlike to win battles, but you like tofeel you helped bring peace, too.
I said, "Personal integrity.That sounds pretty good, doesn'tit? So you like personal