The Stutterer

The Stutterer, by R.R. Merliss

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Title: The Stutterer
Author: R.R. Merliss
Illustrator: Riley
Release Date: September 5, 2007 [EBook #22512]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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STUTTERER ***

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THE STUTTERER
BY R. R. MERLISS

A man can be killed by a toy gun--he can die of fright, for heart attacks
can kill. What, then, is the deadly thing that must be sealed away,
forever locked in buried concrete--a thing or an idea?
Illustrated by Riley
[Illustration]
Out of the twenty only one managed to escape the planet. And he did it
very simply, merely by walking up to the crowded ticket window at
one of the rocket ports and buying passage to Earth. His Army
identification papers passed the harassed inspection of the agent, and he
gratefully and silently pocketed the small plastic stub that was handed
him in exchange for his money.
He picked his way with infinite care through the hordes of ex-soldiers
clamoring for passage back to the multitudinous planets from which
they had come. Then he slowly climbed the heavy ramp into the
waiting rocket.
He saw with relief that the seats were strongly constructed, built to
survive the pressure of many gravities and he chose one as far removed
as possible from the other passengers.
He was still very apprehensive, and, as he waited for the rocket to take
off, he tried hard to remember the principles of the pulse drive that
powered the ship, and whether his additional weight would upset its
efficiency enough to awaken suspicion.
The seats filled quickly with excited hurrying passengers. Soon he
heard the great door clang shut, and saw the red light flicker on,
warning of the take-off. He felt a slow surge of pressure as the ship
arose from the ground, and his chair creaked ominously with the extra
weight. He became fearful that it might collapse, and he strained
forward trying to shift some of the pressure through his feet to the floor.
He sat that way, tense and immobile, for what seemed a long time until
abruptly the strain was relieved and he heard the rising and falling
whine of the rockets that told him the ship was in pulse drive, flickering

back and forth across the speed of light.
He realized that the pilots had not discovered his extra weight, and that
the initial hazards were over. The important thing was to look like a
passenger, a returning soldier like the others, so that no one would
notice him and remember his presence.
His fellow travelers were by this time chatting with one another, some
playing cards, and others watching the teledepth screens. These were
the adventurers who had flocked from all corners of the galaxy to fight
in the first national war in centuries. They were the uncivilized few
who had read about battle and armed struggle in their history books and
found the old stories exciting.
They paid no attention to their silent companion who sat quietly
looking through the quartz windows at the diamond-bright stars, tacked
against the blackness of infinity.
The fugitive scarcely moved the entire time of the passage. Finally
when Earth hung out in the sky like a blue balloon, the ship cut its
pulsations and swung around for a tail landing.
The atmosphere screamed through the fins of the rocket, and the
continents and the countries, and then the rivers and the mountains took
shape. The big ship settled down as gently as a snowflake, shuddered a
few times and was quiet.
* * * * *
The passengers hurriedly gathered up their scattered belongings and
pushed toward the exit in a great rush to be out and back on Earth.
The fugitive was the last to leave. He stayed well away from the others,
being fearful that, if he should touch or brush up against someone, his
identity might be recognized.
When he saw the ramp running from the ship to the ground, he was
dismayed. It seemed a flimsy structure, supported only by tubular steel.

Five people were walking down it, and he made a mental calculation of
their weight--about eight hundred pounds he thought. He weighed five
times that. The ramp was obviously never built to support such a load.
He hesitated, and then he realized that he had caught the eye of the
stewardess waiting on the