Venus Is a Man's World

 BY WILLIAM TENN

 Illustrated by GENE FAWCETTE

 [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction July 1951. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

 Actually, there wouldn't be too much difference if women took over the Earth altogether. But not for some men and most boys!

 I've always said that even if Sis is seven years older than me—and a girl besides—she don't always know what's best. Put me on a spaceship jam-packed with three hundred females just aching to get themselves husbands in the one place they're still to be had—the planet Venus—and you know I'll be in trouble.

 Bad trouble. With the law, which is the worst a boy can get into.

 Twenty minutes after we lifted from the Sahara Spaceport, I wriggled out of my acceleration hammock and started for the door of our cabin.

 "Now you be careful, Ferdinand," Sis called after me as she opened a book called Family Problems of the Frontier Woman . "Remember you're a nice boy. Don't make me ashamed of you."

 I tore down the corridor. Most of the cabins had purple lights on in front of the doors, showing that the girls were still inside their hammocks. That meant only the ship's crew was up and about. Ship's crews are men; women are too busy with important things like government to run ships. I felt free all over—and happy. Now was my chance to really see the Eleanor Roosevelt !

 It was hard to believe I was traveling in space at last. Ahead and behind me, all the way up to where the companionway curved in out of sight, there was nothing but smooth black wall and smooth white doors—on and on and on. Gee , I thought excitedly, this is one big ship !

 Of course, every once in a while I would run across a big scene of stars in the void set in the wall; but they were only pictures. Nothing that gave the feel of great empty space like I'd read about in The Boy Rocketeers , no portholes, no visiplates, nothing.

 So when I came to the crossway, I stopped for a second, then turned left. To the right, see, there was Deck Four, then Deck Three, leading inward past the engine fo'c'sle to the main jets and the grav helix going purr-purr-purrty-purr in the comforting way big machinery has when it's happy and oiled. But to the left, the crossway led all the way to the outside level which ran just under the hull. There were portholes on the hull.

 I'd studied all that out in our cabin, long before we'd lifted, on the transparent model of the ship hanging like a big cigar from the ceiling. Sis had studied it too, but she was looking for places like the dining salon and the library and Lifeboat 68 where we should go in case of emergency. I looked for the important things.

 As I trotted along the crossway, I sort of wished that Sis hadn't decided to go after a husband on a luxury liner. On a cargo ship, now, I'd be climbing from deck to deck on a ladder instead of having gravity underfoot all the time just like I was home on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. But women always know what's right, and a boy can only make faces and do what they say, same as the men have to do.

 Still, it was pretty exciting to press my nose against the slots in the wall and see the sliding panels that could come charging out and block the crossway into an airtight fit in case a meteor or something smashed into the ship. And all along there were glass cases with spacesuits standing in them, like those knights they used to have back in the Middle Ages.

 "In the event of disaster affecting the oxygen content of companionway," they had the words etched into the glass, "break glass with hammer upon wall, remove spacesuit and proceed to don it in the following fashion."

 I read the "following fashion" until I knew it by heart. Boy , I said to myself, I hope we have that kind of disaster. I'd sure like to get into one of those! Bet it would be more fun than those diving suits back in Undersea!

 And all the time I was alone. That was the best part.

 Then I passed Deck Twelve and there was a big sign. "Notice! Passengers not permitted past this point!" A big sign in red.

 I peeked around the corner. I knew it—the next deck was the hull. I could see the portholes. Every twelve feet, they were, filled with the velvet of space and the dancing of more stars than I'd ever dreamed existed in the Universe.

 There wasn't anyone on the deck, as far as I could see. And this distance from the grav helix, the ship seemed mighty quiet and lonely. If I just took one quick look....

 But I thought of what Sis would say and I turned around obediently. Then I saw the big red sign again. "Passengers not permitted—"

 Well! Didn't I know from my civics class that only women could be Earth Citizens these days? Sure, ever since the Male Desuffrage Act. And didn't I know that you had to be a citizen of a planet in order to get an interplanetary passport? Sis had explained it all to me in the careful, patient way she always talks politics and things like that to men.

 "Technically, Ferdinand, I'm the only passenger in our family. You can't be one, because, not being a citizen, you can't acquire an Earth Passport. However, you'll be going to Venus on the strength of this clause—'Miss Evelyn Sparling and all dependent male members of family, this number not to exceed the registered quota of sub-regulations pertaining'—and so on. I want you to understand these matters, so that you will grow into a man who takes an active interest in world affairs. No matter what you hear, women really like and appreciate such men."

 Of course, I never pay much attention to Sis when she says such dumb things. I'm old enough, I guess, to know that it isn't what Women like and appreciate that counts when it comes to people getting married. If it were, Sis and three hundred other pretty girls like her wouldn't be on their way to Venus to hook husbands.

 Still, if I wasn't a passenger, the sign didn't have anything to do with me. I knew what Sis could say to that , but at least it was an argument I could use if it ever came up. So I broke the law.

 I was glad I did. The stars were exciting enough, but away off to the left, about five times as big as I'd ever seen it, except in the movies, was the Moon, a great blob of gray and white pockmarks holding off the black of space. I was hoping to see the Earth, but I figured it must be on the other side of the ship or behind us. I pressed my nose against the port and saw the tiny flicker of a spaceliner taking off, Marsbound. I wished I was on that one!

 Then I noticed, a little farther down the companionway, a stretch of blank wall where there should have been portholes. High up on the wall in glowing red letters were the words, "Lifeboat 47. Passengers: Thirty-two. Crew: Eleven. Unauthorized personnel keep away!"

 Another one of those signs.

 I crept up to the porthole nearest it and could just barely make out the stern jets where it was plastered against the hull. Then I walked under the sign and tried to figure the way you were supposed to get into it. There was a very thin line going around in a big circle that I knew must be the door. But I couldn't see any knobs or switches to open it with. Not even a button you could press.

 That meant it was a sonic lock like the kind we had on the outer keeps back home in Undersea. But knock or voice? I tried the two knock combinations I knew, and nothing happened. I only remembered one voice key—might as well see if that's it, I figured.

 "Twenty, Twenty-three. Open Sesame."

 For a second, I thought I'd hit it just right out of all the million possible combinations—The door clicked inward toward a black hole, and a hairy hand as broad as my shoulders shot out of the hole. It closed around my throat and plucked me inside as if I'd been a baby sardine.

 I bounced once on the hard lifeboat floor. Before I got my breath and sat up, the door had been shut again. When the light came on, I found myself staring up the muzzle of a highly polished blaster and into the cold blue eyes of the biggest man I'd ever seen.

 He was wearing a one-piece suit made of some scaly green stuff that looked hard and soft at the same time.

 His boots were made of it too, and so was the hood hanging down his back.

 And his face was brown. Not just ordinary tan, you understand, but the deep, dark, burned-all-the-way-in brown I'd seen on the lifeguards in New Orleans whenever we took a surface vacation—the kind of tan that comes from day after broiling day under a really hot Sun. His hair looked as if it had once been blond, but now there were just long combed-out waves with a yellowish tinge that boiled all the way down to his shoulders.

 I hadn't seen hair like that on a man except maybe in history books; every man I'd ever known had his hair cropped in the fashionable soup-bowl style. I was staring at his hair, almost forgetting about the blaster which I knew it was against the law for him to have at all, when I suddenly got scared right through.

 His eyes.

 They didn't blink and there seemed to be no expression around them. Just coldness. Maybe it was the kind of clothes he was wearing that did it, but all of a sudden I was reminded of a crocodile I'd seen in a surface zoo that had stared quietly at me for twenty minutes until it opened two long tooth-studded jaws.

 "Green shatas!" he said suddenly. "Only a tadpole. I must be getting jumpy enough to splash."

 Then he shoved the blaster away in a holster made of the same scaly leather, crossed his arms on his chest and began to study me. I grunted to my feet, feeling a lot better. The coldness had gone out of his eyes.

 I held out my hand the way Sis had taught me. "My name is Ferdinand Sparling. I'm very pleased to meet you, Mr.—Mr.—"

 "Hope for your sake," he said to me, "that you aren't what you seem—tadpole brother to one of them husbandless anura."

 " What? "

 "A 'nuran is a female looking to nest. Anura is a herd of same. Come from Flatfolk ways."

 "Flatfolk are the Venusian natives, aren't they? Are you a Venusian? What part of Venus do you come from? Why did you say you hope—"

 He chuckled and swung me up into one of the bunks that lined the lifeboat. "Questions you ask," he said in his soft voice. "Venus is a sharp enough place for a dryhorn, let alone a tadpole dryhorn with a boss-minded sister."

 "I'm not a dryleg," I told him proudly. " We're from Undersea."

 " Dryhorn , I said, not dryleg. And what's Undersea?"

 "Well, in Undersea we called foreigners and newcomers drylegs. Just like on Venus, I guess, you call them dryhorns." And then I told him how Undersea had been built on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, when the mineral resources of the land began to give out and engineers figured that a lot could still be reached from the sea bottoms.

 He nodded. He'd heard about the sea-bottom mining cities that were bubbling under protective domes in every one of the Earth's oceans just about the same time settlements were springing up on the planets.

 He looked impressed when I told him about Mom and Pop being one of the first couples to get married in Undersea. He looked thoughtful when I told him how Sis and I had been born there and spent half our childhood listening to the pressure pumps. He raised his eyebrows and looked disgusted when I told how Mom, as Undersea representative on the World Council, had been one of the framers of the Male Desuffrage Act after the Third Atomic War had resulted in the Maternal Revolution.

 He almost squeezed my arm when I got to the time Mom and Pop were blown up in a surfacing boat.

 "Well, after the funeral, there was a little money, so Sis decided we might as well use it to migrate. There was no future for her on Earth, she figured. You know, the three-out-of-four."

 "How's that?"

 "The three-out-of-four. No more than three women out of every four on Earth can expect to find husbands. Not enough men to go around. Way back in the Twentieth Century, it began to be felt, Sis says, what with the wars and all. Then the wars went on and a lot more men began to die or get no good from the radioactivity. Then the best men went to the planets, Sis says, until by now even if a woman can scrounge a personal husband, he's not much to boast about."

 The stranger nodded violently. "Not on Earth, he isn't. Those busybody anura make sure of that. What a place! Suffering gridniks, I had a bellyful!"

 He told me about it. Women were scarce on Venus, and he hadn't been able to find any who were willing to come out to his lonely little islands; he had decided to go to Earth where there was supposed to be a surplus. Naturally, having been born and brought up on a very primitive planet, he didn't know "it's a woman's world," like the older boys in school used to say.

 The moment he landed on Earth he was in trouble. He didn't know he had to register at a government-operated hotel for transient males; he threw a bartender through a thick plastic window for saying something nasty about the length of his hair; and imagine !—he not only resisted arrest, resulting in three hospitalized policemen, but he sassed the judge in open court!

 "Told me a man wasn't supposed to say anything except through female attorneys. Told her that where I came from, a man spoke his piece when he'd a mind to, and his woman walked by his side."

 "What happened?" I asked breathlessly.

 "Oh, Guilty of This and Contempt of That. That blown-up brinosaur took my last munit for fines, then explained that she was remitting the rest because I was a foreigner and uneducated." His eyes grew dark for a moment. He chuckled again. "But I wasn't going to serve all those fancy little prison sentences. Forcible Citizenship Indoctrination, they call it? Shook the dead-dry dust of the misbegotten, God forsaken mother world from my feet forever. The women on it deserve their men. My pockets were folded from the fines, and the paddlefeet were looking for me so close I didn't dare radio for more munit. So I stowed away."

 For a moment, I didn't understand him. When I did, I was almost ill.
"Y-you mean," I choked, "th-that you're b-breaking the law right now? And I'm with you while you're doing it?"

 He leaned over the edge of the bunk and stared at me very seriously.
"What breed of tadpole are they turning out these days? Besides, what business do you have this close to the hull?"

 After a moment of sober reflection, I nodded. "You're right. I've also become a male outside the law. We're in this together."

 He guffawed. Then he sat up and began cleaning his blaster. I found myself drawn to the bright killer-tube with exactly the fascination Sis insists such things have always had for men.

 "Ferdinand your label? That's not right for a sprouting tadpole. I'll call you Ford. My name's Butt. Butt Lee Brown."

 I liked the sound of Ford. "Is Butt a nickname, too?"

 "Yeah. Short for Alberta, but I haven't found a man who can draw a blaster fast enough to call me that. You see, Pop came over in the eighties—the big wave of immigrants when they evacuated Ontario. Named all us boys after Canadian provinces. I was the youngest, so I got the name they were saving for a girl."

 "You had a lot of brothers, Mr. Butt?"

 He grinned with a mighty set of teeth. "Oh, a nestful. Of course, they were all killed in the Blue Chicago Rising by the MacGregor boys—all except me and Saskatchewan. Then Sas and me hunted the MacGregors down. Took a heap of time; we didn't float Jock MacGregor's ugly face down the Tuscany till both of us were pretty near grown up."

 I walked up close to where I could see the tiny bright copper coils of the blaster above the firing button. "Have you killed a lot of men with that, Mr. Butt?"

 "Butt. Just plain Butt to you, Ford." He frowned and sighted at the light globe. "No more'n twelve—not counting five government paddlefeet, of course. I'm a peaceable planter. Way I figure it, violence never accomplishes much that's important. My brother Sas, now—"

 He had just begun to work into a wonderful anecdote about his brother when the dinner gong rang. Butt told me to scat. He said I was a growing tadpole and needed my vitamins. And he mentioned, very off-hand, that he wouldn't at all object if I brought him some fresh fruit. It seemed there was nothing but processed foods in the lifeboat and Butt was used to a farmer's diet.

 Trouble was, he was a special kind of farmer. Ordinary fruit would have been pretty easy to sneak into my pockets at meals. I even found a way to handle the kelp and giant watercress Mr. Brown liked, but things like seaweed salt and Venusian mud-grapes just had too strong a smell. Twice, the mechanical hamper refused to accept my jacket for laundering and I had to wash it myself. But I learned so many wonderful things about Venus every time I visited that stowaway....

 I learned three wild-wave songs of the Flatfolk and what it is that the native Venusians hate so much; I learned how you tell the difference between a lousy government paddlefoot from New Kalamazoo and the slaptoe slinker who is the planter's friend. After a lot of begging, Butt Lee Brown explained the workings of his blaster, explained it so carefully that I could name every part and tell what it did from the tiny round electrodes to the long spirals of transformer. But no matter what, he would never let me hold it.

 "Sorry, Ford, old tad," he would drawl, spinning around and around in the control swivel-chair at the nose of the lifeboat. "But way I look at it, a man who lets somebody else handle his blaster is like the giant whose heart was in an egg that an enemy found. When you've grown enough so's your pop feels you ought to have a weapon, why, then's the time to learn it and you might's well learn fast. Before then, you're plain too young to be even near it."

 "I don't have a father to give me one when I come of age. I don't even have an older brother as head of my family like your brother Labrador. All I have is Sis. And she —"

 "She'll marry some fancy dryhorn who's never been farther South than the Polar Coast. And she'll stay head of the family, if I know her breed of green shata. Bossy, opinionated. By the way, Fordie," he said, rising and stretching so the fish-leather bounced and rippled off his biceps, "that sister. She ever...."

 And he'd be off again, cross-examining me about Evelyn. I sat in the swivel chair he'd vacated and tried to answer his questions. But there was a lot of stuff I didn't know. Evelyn was a healthy girl, for instance; how healthy, exactly, I had no way of finding out. Yes, I'd tell him, my aunts on both sides of my family each had had more than the average number of children. No, we'd never done any farming to speak of, back in Undersea, but—yes, I'd guess Evelyn knew about as much as any girl there when it came to diving equipment and pressure pump regulation.

 How would I know that stuff would lead to trouble for me?

 Sis had insisted I come along to the geography lecture. Most of the other girls who were going to Venus for husbands talked to each other during the lecture, but not my sister! She hung on every word, took notes even, and asked enough questions to make the perspiring purser really work in those orientation periods.

 "I am very sorry, Miss Sparling," he said with pretty heavy sarcasm,
"but I cannot remember any of the agricultural products of the Macro Continent. Since the human population is well below one per thousand square miles, it can readily be understood that the quantity of tilled soil, land or sub-surface, is so small that—Wait, I remember something. The Macro Continent exports a fruit though not exactly an edible one. The wild dunging drug is harvested there by criminal speculators. Contrary to belief on Earth, the traffic has been growing in recent years. In fact—"

 "Pardon me, sir," I broke in, "but doesn't dunging come only from Leif Erickson Island off the Moscow Peninsula of the Macro Continent? You remember, purser—Wang Li's third exploration, where he proved the island and the peninsula didn't meet for most of the year?"

 The purser nodded slowly. "I forgot," he admitted. "Sorry, ladies, but the boy's right. Please make the correction in your notes."

 But Sis was the only one who took notes, and she didn't take that one. She stared at me for a moment, biting her lower lip thoughtfully, while I got sicker and sicker. Then she shut her pad with the final gesture of the right hand that Mom used to use just before challenging the opposition to come right down on the Council floor and debate it out with her.

 "Ferdinand," Sis said, "let's go back to our cabin."

 The moment she sat me down and walked slowly around me, I knew I was in for it. "I've been reading up on Venusian geography in the ship's library," I told her in a hurry.

 "No doubt," she said drily. She shook her night-black hair out. "But you aren't going to tell me that you read about dunging in the ship's library. The books there have been censored by a government agent of Earth against the possibility that they might be read by susceptible young male minds like yours. She would not have allowed—this Terran Agent—"

 "Paddlefoot," I sneered.

 Sis sat down hard in our zoom-air chair. "Now that's a term," she said carefully, "that is used only by Venusian riffraff."

 "They're not!"

 "Not what?"

 "Riffraff," I had to answer, knowing I was getting in deeper all the time and not being able to help it. I mustn't give Mr. Brown away!
"They're trappers and farmers, pioneers and explorers, who're building Venus. And it takes a real man to build on a hot, hungry hell like Venus."

 "Does it, now?" she said, looking at me as if I were beginning to grow a second pair of ears. "Tell me more."

 "You can't have meek, law-abiding, women-ruled men when you start civilization on a new planet. You've got to have men who aren't afraid to make their own law if necessary—with their own guns. That's where law begins; the books get written up later."

 "You're going to tell , Ferdinand, what evil, criminal male is speaking through your mouth!"

 "Nobody!" I insisted. "They're my own ideas!"

 "They are remarkably well-organized for a young boy's ideas. A boy who, I might add, has previously shown a ridiculous but nonetheless entirely masculine boredom with political philosophy. I plan to have a government career on that new planet you talk about, Ferdinand—after I have found a good, steady husband, of course—and I don't look forward to a masculinist radical in the family. Now, who has been filling your head with all this nonsense?"

 I was sweating. Sis has that deadly bulldog approach when she feels someone is lying. I pulled my pulpast handkerchief from my pocket to wipe my face. Something rattled to the floor.

 "What is this picture of me doing in your pocket, Ferdinand?"

 A trap seemed to be hinging noisily into place. "One of the passengers wanted to see how you looked in a bathing suit."

 "The passengers on this ship are all female. I can't imagine any of them that curious about my appearance. Ferdinand, it's a man who has been giving you these anti-social ideas, isn't it? A war-mongering masculinist like all the frustrated men who want to engage in government and don't have the vaguest idea how to. Except, of course, in their ancient, bloody ways. Ferdinand, who has been perverting that sunny and carefree soul of yours?"

 "Nobody! Nobody! "

 "Ferdinand, there's no point in lying! I demand—"

 "I told you, Sis. I told you! And don't call me Ferdinand. Call me Ford."

 "Ford? Ford? Now, you listen to me, Ferdinand...."

 After that it was all over but the confession. That came in a few moments. I couldn't fool Sis. She just knew me too well, I decided miserably. Besides, she was a girl.

 All the same, I wouldn't get Mr. Butt Lee Brown into trouble if I could help it. I made Sis promise she wouldn't turn him in if I took her to him. And the quick, nodding way she said she would made me feel just a little better.

 The door opened on the signal, "Sesame." When Butt saw somebody was with me, he jumped and the ten-inch blaster barrel grew out of his fingers. Then he recognized Sis from the pictures.

 He stepped to one side and, with the same sweeping gesture, holstered his blaster and pushed his green hood off. It was Sis's turn to jump when she saw the wild mass of hair rolling down his back.

 "An honor, Miss Sparling," he said in that rumbly voice. "Please come right in. There's a hurry-up draft."

 So Sis went in and I followed right after her. Mr. Brown closed the door. I tried to catch his eye so I could give him some kind of hint or explanation, but he had taken a couple of his big strides and was in the control section with Sis. She didn't give ground, though; I'll say that for her. She only came to his chest, but she had her arms crossed sternly.

 "First, Mr. Brown," she began, like talking to a cluck of a kid in class, "you realize that you are not only committing the political crime of traveling without a visa, and the criminal one of stowing away without paying your fare, but the moral delinquency of consuming stores intended for the personnel of this ship solely in emergency?"

 He opened his mouth to its maximum width and raised an enormous hand. Then he let the air out and dropped his arm.

 "I take it you either have no defense or care to make none," Sis added caustically.

 Butt laughed slowly and carefully as if he were going over each word.
"Wonder if all the anura talk like that. And you want to foul up Venus."

 "We haven't done so badly on Earth, after the mess you men made of politics. It needed a revolution of the mothers before—"

 "Needed nothing. Everyone wanted peace. Earth is a weary old world."

 "It's a world of strong moral fiber compared to yours, Mr. Alberta Lee Brown." Hearing his rightful name made him move suddenly and tower over her. Sis said with a certain amount of hurry and change of tone, "What do you have to say about stowing away and using up lifeboat stores?"

 He cocked his head and considered a moment. "Look," he said finally,
"I have more than enough munit to pay for round trip tickets, but I couldn't get a return visa because of that brinosaur judge and all the charges she hung on me. Had to stow away. Picked the Eleanor Roosevelt because a couple of the boys in the crew are friends of mine and they were willing to help. But this lifeboat—don't you know that every passenger ship carries four times as many lifeboats as it needs? Not to mention the food I didn't eat because it stuck in my throat?"

 "Yes," she said bitterly. "You had this boy steal fresh fruit for you. I suppose you didn't know that under space regulations that makes him equally guilty?"

 "No, Sis, he didn't," I was beginning to argue. "All he wanted—"

 "Sure I knew. Also know that if I'm picked up as a stowaway, I'll be sent back to Earth to serve out those fancy little sentences."

 "Well, you're guilty of them, aren't you?"

 He waved his hands at her impatiently. "I'm not talking law, female; I'm talking sense. Listen! I'm in trouble because I went to Earth to look for a wife. You're standing here right now because you're on your way to Venus for a husband. So let's."

 Sis actually staggered back. "Let's? Let's what ? Are—are you daring to suggest that—that—"

 "Now, Miss Sparling, no hoopla. I'm saying let's get married, and you know it. You figured out from what the boy told you that I was chewing on you for a wife. You're healthy and strong, got good heredity, you know how to operate sub-surface machinery, you've lived underwater, and your disposition's no worse than most of the anura I've seen. Prolific stock, too."

 I was so excited I just had to yell: "Gee, Sis, say yes !"

Ferdinand is a young man accompanying his sister Evelyn on a spaceliner called the Eleanor Roosevelt with 300 hundred other women. The final destination of the spaceship is Venus, where the women hope to find a husband. Although women are in charge, the crew of the ship is all men. Ferdinand decides to explore the ship, and he encounters a large red sign forbidding passengers from entering the next deck. Despite being hesitant at first, he decides to break the law anyway because he is technically not a passenger on the ship. Ferdinand is amazed to see the stars, the moon, and another spaceliner take off in space. Unfazed by the next sign that tells unauthorized personnel to leave, he goes to the porthole and tries to figure out a way to open it by trying various methods. Suddenly, the door opens, and a large man plucks him inside by the throat. The man recognizes him as a brother to one of the Anura, which he defines as a herd of women looking for mates. Ferdinand explains his childhood in the Undersea and his parents, to which the other man listens intently. He also mentions that he and his sister have left Earth because she realized there would be no future there. All men have either died in wars, become negatively affected by radioactivity, or gone off to the planets. Then, the older man explains that there are little to no women on Venus, and he had no idea that women were in charge when he first went to Earth to find a wife. He had been arrested and was charged but decided to become a stowaway instead. The man, who introduces himself as Alberta (Butt) Lee Brown, gives Ferdinand the nickname Ford and talks more about his past. Eventually, he asks more about Evelyn, and Ferdinand does not overthink his intentions when he answers. Later, Evelyn then forces Ferdinand to go to a geography lecture with her, where she continuously asks questions and takes notes. However, she does not write down his answer after he corrects the purser and instead takes him back to the cabin to lecture him. They begin to debate, and Ferdinand begins to use the words and knowledge he learned from Butt. Evelyn is suspicious that somebody has been feeding him rebellious opinions, and she begins to hound him for answers after seeing he has a photo of her in his pocket. He then takes Evelyn to see Butt, and she begins to lecture him about breaking the law. While the both of them debate over Butt’s status as a criminal and stowaway, he suddenly suggests that they should get married. Evelyn is surprised by his proposal, and Ferdinand eagerly urges her to accept it.

Ferdinand Sparling is accompanying his older sister, Evelyn, on a trip to Venus. Society on Earth is ruled by women, and there are barely enough men for each, so many women take a trip to Venus, where men are in surplus, to find a husband. Ferdinand and Evelyn are aboard the Eleanor Roosevelt. Ferdinand decides to explore the ship alone, coming across rooms and areas that passengers are not allowed to go past; he notes that he wasn't really a passenger, because men weren't citizens, and explores them anyway. Ferdinand comes across Lifeboat 47, whose doors are voice activated. He tries to open the doors, and is then pulled inside by a strange, large man with long hair. Ferdinand introduces himself, and quickly learns that the man is a Venusian. Ferdinand tells him about Undersea, where he and Evelyn are from, and his family, including the death of his parents and Evelyn's decision to migrate in search of a husband afterwards. The man tells Ferdinand about growing up on Venus, about how there, it was still a man's world. He had visited Earth to find a wife, but unaware of society there, was quickly in trouble and sentenced to prison. To avoid going broke, he stowed away on the ship. The man introduces himself as Butt, his full name being Alberta Lee Brown, and begins calling Ferdinand "Ford". Butt continues telling stories of Venus, such as stories of his brothers, Venusian songs and vocabulary, and Butt's blaster, a weapon that he does not allow Ford to touch. Ferdinand begins visiting Butt regularly, bringing him fresh fruit from the dining hall. Butt starts to gain interest in Evelyn, and Ferdinand answers questions about her for him. One day, Ferdinand and Evelyn are in a geography lecture, where Ferdinand discusses dunging, a concept that has been censored by Earth's libraries. This makes Evelyn suspicious, and she interrogates Ferdinand about where he got the information. Ferdinand digs his hole deeper, using Venusian vocabulary and sharing ideas of male dominance. Evelyn then finds a picture of her in Ferdinand's pocket, and demands to know what man he is speaking to. Ferdinand confesses and tells Evelyn about Butt, and he takes her to visit him. There, she yells at Butt, and threatens legal action, and Butt then makes a surprising proposal; he suggests the two get married.

Ferdinand is on a spaceship with his elder sister. The ship is jam-packed with females going to Venus in search of husband and he exits the cabin while the women are still in their hammocks. The women at his times have all the rights and do all the important things since the Male Desuffrage Act, so the boy is admitted to the ship on behalf of his sister. He explores the empty ship in search of portholes and after some hesitation enters a forbidden area. There he looks at the stars and then tries to open a lock on the lifeboat. A huge scary man appears with a blaster and frighteningly cold gaze. Ferdinand explains that he comes from Undersea, an area on Earth, and tells his family story - his parents being one of the first married couples in Undersea and dying a while ago, leading to his sister's decision to migrate to Venus. The stranger, Butt, tells about the lack of women on Venus and his travel to Earth in search of a wife without any idea "it's a woman's world". So he got in trouble with the law and stowed away on this ship. His many brothers were killed in a rising and only one is left. From that day on Ferdinand keeps visiting the stowaway bringing fruits and listening to stories about Venus. Butt teaches the boy to use the blaster without giving it not hold and constantly asks about Evelyn, the sister. Once, Ferdinand attends a geography lecture on the ship with his sister and corrects the lecturer about Venusian geography. Evelyn starts eliciting where the boy learned that and the boy tells about real men working on Venus. Sis gets angry with those masculine ideas and doesn't believe them to come from a little boy. Ferdinand tries to lie but Sis suppresses him into confession and he leads her to Butt. She tells Butt about all the laws he has broken while the least responds with an appeal to sense. Suddenly, Butt simply proposes a mutually beneficial marriage to stop the debate.

Ferdinand Sparling is a passenger aboard that spaceship Eleanor Roosavelt. He lives in a future society in which only women are citizens of Earth, and he is traveling to Venus with his sister Evelyn where she is in search of a husband. Women are seen as intellectuals and the only ones fit to work in positions like the government. As everyone sleeps just after the ship has taken off, Ferdinand decides to explore the ship. He comes to the hull of the ship, the crew are still asleep. In the hull are multiple doors leading to lifeboats. Ferdinand manages to open one of them, and is pulled into the lifeboat by a huge, intimidating looking man. He relates to Ferdinand how he is from Venus and had traveled to Earth to find a wife. Once he got to Earth, he realised that the planet was run by women, and when he didn't realise he has to book into a government run hotel for transient males, assaulted a barman and resisted arrest and was held for contempt in court, he decided to escape back to Venus as a stowaway. When Ferdinand attends a geography lecture with his sister, and reveals the knowledge that he has acquired from spending his days with the Venusian Butt Lee Brown, his sister becomes suspicious. He eventually gets the information that he has been spending time with a stowaway out of him. He takes her to see Butt, where she interrogates him. He tells her how he has enough money for a ticket, but doesn't want to get caught and face charges back on Earth. He tells her how he has admired her from the stories that Ferdinand has told of her, and asks her to marry him. THE END.

Who is Evelyn Sparling, and what are her traits in the story?

Evelyn Sparling is the older sister of Ferdinand Sparling. She is seven years older than him and was born in the Undersea. Her parents were one of the first people to get married in the Undersea, and her mom was an Undersea representative in the World Council. Furthermore, her mom was heavily involved in the Male Desuffrage Act and the Maternal Revolution before being blown up in a surfacing boat alongside her husband. Evelyn herself is proficient in operating sub-surface machinery, believes firmly in the ideals of women leading politics, and is also very focused on affairs that other women do not care much about. She is also skilled at detecting lies, seeing past Ferdinand’s lies that he spoke of to protect Butt’s identity. Moreover, she has a very assertive personality. She did not back down from correcting Ferdinand about the opinions he picked up from Butt, which she classifies as masculinist and anti-socialist. Even if Butt is an intimidating man, her righteousness still shines through when she begins to scold him for escaping Earth on the Eleanor Roosevelt and about how he is also implicating Ferdinand in breaking the law by having the younger boy deliver fruit to him. Despite Evelyn’s forceful nature, she does care for her younger brother and tells him what women appreciate in men.

Evelyn Sparling is the older sister of Ferdinand by seven years. She watches over Ferdinand and takes on almost a maternal role, scolding him and directing him throughout the story. Evelyn is strong-minded and intelligent, well-versed in politics. She represents the typical woman in the societal structure of Earth, and advises her brother to be the ideal man. Evelyn is extremely cautious and abides by the rules; when she finds out that Ferdinand has been talking to Butt, she panics and tries to put an end to it as soon as possible.

Evelyn Sparling is Ferdinand's sister. She is migrating to Venus as many other women in search of a husband. She is bossy, lecturing and the head of the family of two - her and her brother. She is described as healthy, she is a careful student who listens and takes notes of every word. She is very serious and concentrated. She follows the law and enjoys politics, she wants to lead. She is a feminist, as most women on Earth, and she is very insistent.

Evelyn Sparling is the sister of Ferdinand Sparling. She is on the way to Venus, aboard the spaceship "Eleanor Roosavelt '', in search of a husband. She is an intellectual woman, constantly reading. She hopes to work in a government position some day, after she has found a husband. She realises that there are only three men to every four women on Earth, so she must look elsewhere. She teaches Ferdinand to be intellectually driven, and well spoken, as women will admire those characteristics when he enters the marriage market. She is the only girl in the geography lecture who takes notes, making sure to keep her mind in shape. To Butt, Ferdinand describes Evelyn as a "healthy girl". When she realises what Feridinand was up to, she promises not to turn Butt in, showing her kind side. She interrogates Butt, interrogating him and scorning him for breaking the law. She does seem to let him off in the end though after he has explained his case. She is a very learned, intelligent and fair person.

Who is Alberta Lee Brown, and what are his traits in the story?

Alberta Lee Brown, nicknamed Butt, is the man from Venus who Ferdinand meets when he explores the spaceliner. Butt used to have a very large family, and his father immigrated in the eighties after being evacuated from Ontario. His family also consisted of many brothers, also named after Canadian provinces, Unfortunately, all of his brothers except Saskatchewan and him were murdered  by the MacGregor boys in an incident known as the Blue Chicago Rising. He is not one to usually act brutally, but he has not hesitated to pull the trigger on people who have wronged him. Butt has great knowledge of his blaster and is capable of explaining everything about it to Ferdinant. Additionally, he tells Ferdinand that he has killed twelve people, excluding the five government personnel, and that he considers his brother as someone who is much more willing to resort to violence. Although he is usually level-headed, Butt is also a very blunt person. He is not afraid to tell Ferdinand what he thinks of Earth, and his actions of breaking the law as a criminal on the run show that he is more than willing to take dangerous risks if he disagrees with something. Butt also tends to act rashly, suggesting to Evelyn that they get married during their first meeting despite never having interacted with her before and only having an impression of her based on what Ferdinand told him earlier.

Alberta Lee Brown, nicknamed Butt, is a native Venusian man who is currently stowed away aboard the ship. Initially unaware of the women-ruled society on Earth, he had visited in search of a wife, gotten into trouble, and snuck onto the ship to avoid bankruptcy and legal punishment. Butt is a skilled man in combat, though he believes that violence is usually not the answer. He has long hair, something never seen on an Earthman and catching Ferdinand by surprise. Butt tells Ferdinand stories of Venus and their people, and in return he takes an interest in Evelyn, asking questions about her.

Alberta Lee Brown or Butt is a huge man from Venus. He was born in a huge family with lots of brothers who were all but one killed in a rising. He was living on some lonely little islands on Venus and searching for a wife. He came to Earth for that purpose and soon got in trouble as he didn't know it was a women's world. He was used to men being the main figures and soon was brought to court, eventually he escaped and hid on this spaceship going back to Venus. He has a dark tan, huge body and long hair. He turns out to be an interesting storyteller and starts caring about the boy. He is also interested in the boy's sister as she fits an image of a good wife - strong, healthy and knowledgeable. He is straightforward and appeals to sense rather than law.

Alberta Lee Brown is the stowaway aboard the "Eleanor Roosavelt". He was born on Venus and travelled to Earth in search of a wife. He had no idea that Earth was run by women, and only realised this when he got there. He gets in trouble immediately, not following protocol for travelling to Earth as a man from another planet, assaulting a bartender, resisting arrest and "sassing" a judge in court. He was enraged that he had female attorneys, as on Mars, men speak for themselves, and women only walk by their side. He was sentenced to jail.He has many brothers, and he has killed many men, but doesn't consider himself "violent". He is very gruff and blunt. He clearly hates the idea of women having power. He asks about Ferdinand's sister, and gets annoyed at the idea of her marrying someone else. When Evelyn finds him in the lifeboat, he uses his astute skills to convince her that he hadn't really done anything wrong. He then takes on a straightforward demeanour, immediately asking her to marry him.

How do the societal structures on Earth differ from Venus in the story?

Women are generally given positions of power and have significant influence over political matters on Earth. Most of the hard labor is left to the men instead of the women. Ferdinand mentions that the crews on the spaceliner ships are always men, as women fulfill the more important tasks of running governments. It is also revealed that only women can become Earth Citizens because of the Male Desuffrage Act, which means that men cannot get an interplanetary passport. In many situations, women have the final say as well. When Butt was arrested on Earth, he could only use a female attorney to communicate his thoughts. Compared to the women, the men on Earth face much more restrictions and must follow what they say at all times. The number of men on Earth has greatly diminished, and the population primarily consists of women.

On the other hand, Venus is primarily male-inhabited, and there is a scarcity of women there. Butt says that he is unused to the saying "it's a woman's world" because women do not run Venus, unlike Earth. He also told his attorney that on Venus, a man could speak freely if he wanted to, and a woman's role is to support him. Men can also make a law whenever they wish with their own guns and that they should not wholly be subservient to the rule of women.

Earth is a planet where women dominate. There are a surplus of women on Earth, way more than men, and men are not citizens on Earth as a result of the Male Desuffrage Act. Women rule the government and its decisions on Earth. Venus is quite the opposite, where men still remain prominent and in control while women are scarce. Venus is much more primitive than Earth, with the men being skilled in battle. Because of the complementary differences between Earth and Venus, many Earthwomen travel to Venus in search of a husband.

After previous political structure had failed, Earth became ruled by women. Women are citizens and have all the rights, they are in every important sphere and they are the majority. They are the leaders and there is even an Act diminishing men and their rights. Men can only move as women's plus ones and are simply needed for reproduction. On Venus, on the opposite, there are more men and they seek for women. Women are searching for mild and steady men to support females in their careers. Men on Venus are in charge, they are building Venus with masculine jobs to start a civilization there, as the conditions on the planet are difficult and require real men.

The society on Earth is run by women. The "Male Suffrage Act" was put in place after the third atomic war. Men were seen to not be fit to work in positions such as the government anymore. Only women are eligible to be citizens. There aren't as many men anymore on Earth as most of them have died due to various wars. All intellectual and important roles are filled by women. There are also a number of cities which lie under water on Earth, they are mining communities. A lot of women leave Earth in search of a husband, as there are so few left on Earth.
Mars seems to be the opposite to this. Men still hold the power and women, stand by their side, still silent. Venus is also a newer civilisation, and it seems as if it's citizens are freer to partake in violent, criminal acts which would be punished on Earth.

The story is mainly set on the Eleanor Roosevelt spaceliner. The ship is a luxury liner, and there are purple lights in front of the doors that light up when a girl is inside on her hammock. Ferdinand describes the ship as being very large, consisting of smooth black walls and white doors that seem to go on endlessly. There are multiple numbered decks and steam jets. The engines and machinery are all properly oiled. Multiple portholes line the hulls, and there is the feeling of gravity underfoot. Many emergency-use spacesuits in glass cases also line the crossways. Some of the decks also have signs with glowing red letters that warn passengers not to enter further. The portholes are described to have no knobs, switches, or even a button to press to open them. Inside the portholes, there are also bunks for the lifeboats. Some of the other amenities on the ship include a dining salon, library, and numbered lifeboat sections for passengers to go to if there is an emergency.

The story takes place aboard the Eleanor Roosevelt, a spaceship leaving from Earth to Venus. The spaceship is large, and Ferdinand explores it throughout the story. The ship contains many decks, including a hull with portholes, where the view of space and stars is visible. From the portholes, Ferdinand can see the Moon and another spaceship headed towards Mars. Ferdinand then finds Lifeboat 47, where he meets Butt, who had been staying there. The ship also contains a dining room, a lecture hall, and a salon.

The story begins on a huge spaceship packed with over three hundred females traveling to Venus. All of them have their cabins with hammocks along the corridor. Pictures of stars are everywhere in the corridor but no actual portholes. There is an outside level under the hull though and it has portholes, but the  area is prohibited to enter for the passengers. From there opens a great view at the stars and the Moon. There was also a lifeboat. The rest of the story takes place either in the cabin with Sis or in the lifeboat with Butt. Once, the setting moves to a class with a geography lecture.

The main setting of the story takes place on the "Eleanor Roosavelt''. It is a starship headed for the planet Venus. It holds three hundred women, all of whom seem to share cabins. Everyone has their own acceleration hammock. There are lights on the cabin doors, which glow purple when the occupants are sleeping. The corridor that holds all the doors to the cabins curves out of sight, with its black walls and white doors. The ship seems to be huge. There are pictures of stars on the walls. There is a crossway, which leads to various decks , the main engine, the main jets and the gravity helix and the hull. We also know that there is a dining salon and a library. Along the walls are spacesuits cased in glass, in case of emergency. There is a huge notice sign passed deck twelve telling passengers to not go any further. Past this sign is the hull. Every twelve feet is a porthole. Farther down the corridor is the entrance to lifeboat 47, with a voice activated lock.


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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STALEMATE IN SPACE ***

 Stalemate In Space

 By CHARLES L. HARNESS

 Two mighty metal globes clung in a murderous death-struggle, lashing out with flames of poison. Yet deep in their twisted, radioactive wreckage the main battle raged—where a girl swayed sensuously before her conqueror's mocking eyes.

 [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Summer 1949. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

 At first there was only the voice, a monotonous murmur in her ears.

 " Die now—die now—die now —"

 Evelyn Kane awoke, breathing slowly and painfully. The top of the cubicle was bulging inward on her chest, and it seemed likely that a rib or two was broken. How long ago? Years? Minutes? She had no way of knowing. Her slender right hand found the oxygen valve and turned it. For a long while she lay, hurting and breathing helplessly.

 " Die now—die now—die now —"

 The votron had awakened her with its heart-breaking code message, and it was her duty to carry out its command. Nine years after the great battle globes had crunched together the mentors had sealed her in this tiny cell, dormant, unwaking, to be livened only when it was certain her countrymen had either definitely won—or lost.

 The votron's telepathic dirge chronicled the latter fact. She had expected nothing else.

 She had only to find the relay beside her cot, press the key that would set in motion gigantic prime movers in the heart of the great globe, and the conquerors would join the conquered in the wide and nameless grave of space.

 But life, now doled out by the second, was too delicious to abandon immediately. Her mind, like that of a drowning person, raced hungrily over the memories of her past.

 For twenty years, in company with her great father, she had watched The Defender grow from a vast metal skeleton into a planet-sized battle globe. But it had not grown fast enough, for when the Scythian globe, The Invader , sprang out of black space to enslave the budding Terran Confederacy, The Defender was unfinished, half-equipped, and undermanned.

 The Terrans could only fight for time and hope for a miracle.
  The Defender , commanded by her father, Gordon, Lord Kane, hurled itself from its orbit around Procyon and met The Invader with giant fission torpedoes.

 And then, in an intergalactic proton storm beyond the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, the globes lost their bearings and collided. Hordes of brute-men poured through the crushed outer armor of the stricken Defender .

 The prone woman stirred uneasily. Here the images became unreal and terrible, with the recurrent vision of death. It had taken the Scythians nine years to conquer The Defender's outer shell. Then had come that final interview with her father.

 "In half an hour our last space port will be captured," he had telepathed curtly. "Only one more messenger ship can leave The Defender . Be on it."

 "No. I shall die here."

 His fine tired eyes had studied her face in enigmatic appraisal. "Then die usefully. The mentors are trying to develop a force that will destroy both globes in the moment of our inevitable defeat. If they are successful, you will have the task of pressing the final button of the battle."

 "There's an off-chance you may survive," countered a mentor. "We're also working on a means for your escape—not only because you are Gordon's daughter, but because this great proton storm will prevent radio contact with Terra for years, and we want someone to escape with our secret if and when our experiments prove successful."

 "But you must expect to die," her father had warned with gentle finality.

 She clenched her fingernails vehemently into her palms and wrenched herself back to the present.

 That time had come.

 With some effort she worked herself out of the crumpled bed and lay on the floor of her little cubicle, panting and holding her chest with both hands. The metal floor was very cold. Evidently the enemy torpedo fissionables had finally broken through to the center portions of the ship, letting in the icy breath of space. Small matter. Not by freezing would she die.

 She reached out her hand, felt for the all-important key, and gasped in dismay. The mahogany box containing the key had burst its metal bonds and was lying on its side. The explosion that had crushed her cubicle had been terrific.

 With a gurgle of horror she snapped on her wrist luminar and examined the interior of the box.

 It was a shattered ruin.

 Once the fact was clear, she composed herself and lay there, breathing hard and thinking. She had no means to construct another key. At best, finding the rare tools and parts would take months, and during the interval the invaders would be cutting loose from the dead hulk that clutched their conquering battle globe in a metallic rigor mortis.

 She gave herself six weeks to accomplish this stalemate in space.

 Within that time she must know whether the prime movers were still intact, and whether she could safely enter the pile room herself, set the movers in motion, and draw the moderator columns. If it were unsafe, she must secure the unwitting assistance of her Scythian enemies.

 Still prone, she found the first-aid kit and taped her chest expertly. The cold was beginning to make itself felt, so she flicked on the chaudiere she wore as an under-garment to her Scythian woman's uniform. Then she crawled on her elbows and stomach to the tiny door, spun the sealing gear, and was soon outside. Ignoring the pain and pulling on the side of the imitation rock that contained her cell, she got slowly to her feet. The air was thin indeed, and frigid. She turned the valve of her portable oxygen bottle almost subconsciously, while exploring the surrounding blackened forest as far as she could see. Mentally she was alert for roving alien minds. She had left her weapons inside the cubicle, except for the three things in the little leather bag dangling from her waist, for she knew that her greatest weapon in the struggle to come would be her apparent harmlessness.

 Four hundred yards behind her she detected the mind of a low-born Scythe, of the Tharn sun group. Very quickly she established it as that of a tired, brutish corporal, taking a mop-up squad through the black stumps and forlorn branches of the small forest that for years had supplied oxygen to the defenders of this sector.

 The corporal could not see her green Scythian uniform clearly, and evidently took her for a Terran woman. In his mind was the question: Should he shoot immediately, or should he capture her? It had been two months since he had seen a woman. But then, his orders were to shoot. Yes, he would shoot.

 Evelyn turned in profile to the beam-gun and stretched luxuriously, hoping that her grimace of pain could not be detected. With satisfaction, she sensed a sudden change of determination in the mind of the Tharn. The gun was lowered, and the man was circling to creep up behind her. He did not bother to notify his men. He wanted her first. He had seen her uniform, but that deterred him not a whit. Afterwards, he would call up the squad. Finally, they would kill her and move on. Women auxiliaries had no business here, anyway.

 Hips dipping, Evelyn sauntered into the shattered copse. The man moved faster, though still trying to approach quietly. Most of the radions in the mile-high ceiling had been destroyed, and the light was poor. He was not surprised when he lost track of his quarry. He tip-toed rapidly onward, picking his way through the charred and fallen branches, thinking that she must turn up again soon. He had not gone twenty yards in this manner when a howl of unbearable fury sounded in his mind, and the dull light in his brain went out.

 She fought for her life under that mile-high ceiling.

 Breathing deeply from her mental effort, the woman stepped from behind a great black tree trunk and hurried to the unconscious man. For I.Q.'s of 100 and less, telepathic cortical paralysis was quite effective. With cool efficiency and no trace of distaste she stripped the odorous uniform from the man, then took his weapon, turned the beam power down very low, and needled a neat slash across his throat. While he bled to death, she slipped deftly into the baggy suit, clasped the beam gun by the handle, and started up the sooty slope. For a time, at least, it would be safer to pass as a Tharn soldier than as any kind of a woman.

 II

 The inquisitor leaned forward, frowning at the girl before him.

 "Name?"

 "Evelyn Kane."

 The eyes of the inquisitor widened. "So you admit to a Terran name. Well, Terran, you are charged with having stolen passage on a supply lorry, and you also seem to be wearing the uniform of an infantry corporal as well as that of a Scythian woman auxiliary. Incidentally, where is the corporal? Did you kill him?"

 He was prepared for a last-ditch denial. He would cut it short, have the guards remove her, and execution would follow immediately. In a way, it was unfortunate. The woman was obviously of a high Terran class. No—he couldn't consider that. His slender means couldn't afford another woman in his quarters, and besides, he wouldn't feel safe with this cool murderess.

 "Do you not understand the master tongue? Why did you kill the corporal?" He leaned impatiently over his desk.

 The woman stared frankly back at him with her clear blue eyes. The guards on either side of her dug their nails into her arms, as was their custom with recalcitrant prisoners, but she took no notice.

 She had analyzed the minds of the three men. She could handle the inquisitor alone or the two guards alone, but not all three.

 "If you aren't afraid of me, perhaps you'd be so kind as to send the guards out for a few minutes," she said, placing a hand on her hip. "I have interesting information."

 So that was it. Buy her freedom by betraying fugitive Terrans. Well, he could take the information and then kill her. He nodded curtly to the guards, and they walked out of the hut, exchanging sly winks with one another.

 Evelyn Kane crossed her arms across her chest and felt her broken rib gingerly. The inquisitor stared up at her in sadistic admiration. He would certainly be on hand for the execution. His anticipation was cut short with a horrible realization. Under the paralyzing force of a mind greater than his own, he reached beneath the desk and switched off the recorder.

 "Who is the Occupational Commandant for this Sector," she asked tersely. This must be done swiftly before the guards returned.

 "Perat, Viscount of Tharn," replied the man mechanically.

 "What is the extent of his jurisdiction?"

 "From the center of the Terran globe, outward four hundred miles radius."

 "Good. Prepare for me the usual visa that a woman clerk needs for passage to the offices of the Occupational Commandant."

 The inquisitor filled in blanks in a stiff sheet of paper and stamped a seal at its bottom.

 "You will add in the portion reserved for 'comments', the following:
'Capable clerk. Others will follow as they are found available.'"

 The man's pen scratched away obediently.

 Evelyn Kane smiled gently at the impotent, inwardly raging inquisitor. She took the paper, folded it, and placed it in a pocket in her blouse.
"Call the guards," she ordered.

 He pressed the button on his desk, and the guards re-entered.

 "This person is no longer a prisoner," said the inquisitor woodenly.
"She is to take the next transport to the Occupational Commandant of Zone One."

 When the transport had left, neither inquisitor nor guards had any memory of the woman. However, in the due course of events, the recording was gathered up with many others like it, boxed carefully, and sent to the Office of the Occupational Commandant, Zone One, for auditing.

 Evelyn was extremely careful with her mental probe as she descended from the transport. The Occupational Commandant would undoubtedly be high-born and telepathic. He must not have occasion to suspect a similar ability in a mere clerk.

 Fighting had passed this way, too, and recently. Many of the buildings were still smoking, and many of the radions high above were either shot out or obscured by slowly drifting dust clouds. The acrid odor of radiation-remover was everywhere.

 She caught the sound of spasmodic small-arm fire.

 "What is that?" she asked the transport attendant.

 "The Commandant is shooting prisoners," he replied laconically.

 "Oh."

 "Where did you want to go?"

 "To the personnel office."

 "That way." He pointed to the largest building of the group—two stories high, reasonably intact.

 She walked off down the gravel path, which was stained here and there with dark sticky red. She gave her visa to the guard at the door and was admitted to an improvised waiting room, where another guard eyed her stonily. The firing was much nearer. She recognized the obscene coughs of a Faeg pistol and began to feel sick.

 A woman in the green uniform of the Scythe auxiliary came in, whispered something to the guard, and then told Evelyn to follow her.

 In the anteroom a grey cat looked her over curiously, and Evelyn frowned. She might have to get rid of the cat if she stayed here. Under certain circumstances the animal could prove her deadliest enemy.

 The next room held a foppish little man, evidently a supervisor of some sort, who was studying her visa.

 "I'm very happy to have you here, S'ria—ah—"—he looked at the visa suspiciously—"S'ria Lyn. Do sit down. But, as I was just remarking to S'ria Gerek, here"—he nodded to the other woman, who smiled back—"I wish the field officers would make up their august minds as to whether they want you or don't want you. Just why did they transfer you to H.Q.?"

 She thought quickly. This pompous little ass would have to be given some answer that would keep him from checking with the inquisitor. It would have to be something personal. She looked at the false black in his eyebrows and sideburns, and the artificial way in which he had combed hair over his bald spot. She crossed her knees slowly, ignoring the narrowing eyes of S'ria Gerek, and smoothed the back of her braided yellow hair. He was studying her covertly.

 "The men in the fighting zones are uncouth, S'ria Gorph," she said simply. "I was told that you , that is, I mean—"

 "Yes?" he was the soul of graciousness. S'ria Gerek began to dictate loudly into her mechanical transcriber.

 Evelyn cleared her throat, averted her eyes, and with some effort, managed a delicate flush. "I meant to say, I thought I would be happier working for—working here. So I asked for a transfer."

 S'ria Gorph beamed. "Splendid. But the occupation isn't over, yet, you know. There'll be hard work here for several weeks yet, before we cut loose from the enemy globe. But you do your work well"—winking artfully—"and I'll see that—"

 He stopped, and his face took on a hunted look of mingled fear and anxiety. He appeared to listen.

 Evelyn tensed her mind to receive and deceive a mental probe. She was certain now that the Zone Commandant was high-born and telepathic. The chances were only fifty-fifty that she could delude him for any length of time if he became interested in her. He must be avoided if at all possible. It should not be too difficult. He undoubtedly had a dozen personal secretaries and/or concubines and would take small interest in the lowly employees that amused Gorph.

 Gorph looked at her uncertainly. "Perat, Viscount of the Tharn Suns, sends you his compliments and wishes to see you on the balcony." He pointed to a hallway. "All the way through there, across to the other wing."

 As she left, she heard all sound in the room stop. The transcribing and calculating machines trailed off into a watchful silence, and she could feel the eyes of the men and women on her back. She noticed then that the Faeg had ceased firing.

 Her heart was beating faster as she walked down the hall. She felt a very strong probe flooding over her brain casually, palping with mild interest the artificial memories she supplied: Escapades with officers in the combat areas. Reprimands. Demotion and transfer. Her deception of Gorph. Her anticipation of meeting a real Viscount and hoping he would let her dance for him.

 The questing probe withdrew as idly as it had come, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She could not hope to deceive a suspicious telepath for long. Perat was merely amused at her "lie" to his under-supervisor. He had accepted her at her own face value, as supplied by her false memories.

 She opened the door to the balcony and saw a man leaning moodily on the balustrade. He gave no immediate notice of her presence.

 The five hundred and sixth heir of Tharn was of uncertain age, as were most of the men of both globes. Only the left side of his face could be seen. It was gaunt and leathery, and a deep thin scar lifted the corner of his mouth into a satanic smile. A faint paunch was gathering at his abdomen, as befitted a warrior turned to boring paper work. His closely cut black hair and the two sparkling red-gemmed rings—apparently identical—on his right hand seemed to denote a certain fastidiousness and unconscious superiority. To Evelyn the jeweled fingers bespoke an unnatural contrast to the past history of the man and were symptomatic of a personality that could find stimulation only in strange and cruel pleasures.

 In alarm she suddenly realized that she had inadvertently let her appraisal penetrate her uncovered conscious mind, and that this probe was there awaiting it.

 "You are right," he said coldly, still staring into the court below.
"Now that the long battle is over, there is little left to divert me."

 He pushed the Faeg across the coping toward her. "Take this."

 He had not as yet looked at her.

 She crossed the balcony, simultaneously grasping the pistol he offered her and looking down into the courtyard. There seemed to be nearly twenty Terrans lying about, in pools of their own blood.

 Only one man, a Terran officer of very high rank—was left standing. His arms were folded somberly across his chest, and he studied the killer above him almost casually. But when the woman came out, their eyes met, and he started imperceptibly.

 Evelyn Kane felt a horrid chill creeping over her. The man's hair was white, now, and his proud face lined with deep furrows, but there could be no mistake. It was Gordon, Lord Kane.

 Her father.

 The sweat continued to grow on her forehead, and she felt for a moment that she needed only to wish hard enough, and this would be a dream. A dream of a big, kind, dark-haired man with laugh-wrinkles about his eyes, who sat her on his knee when she was a little girl and read bedtime stories to her from a great book with many pictures.

 An icy, amused voice came through: "Our orders are to kill all prisoners. It is entertaining to shoot down helpless men, isn't it? It warms me to know that I am cruel and wanton, and worthy of my trust."

 Even in the midst of her horror, a cold, analytical part of her was explaining why the Commandant had called her to the balcony. Because all captured Terrans had to be killed, he hated his superiors, his own men, and especially the prisoners. A task so revolting he could not relegate to his own officers. He must do it himself, but he wanted his underlings to know he loathed them for it. She was merely a symbol of that contempt. His next words did not surprise her.

 "It is even more stimulating to require a shuddering female to kill them. You are shuddering you know?"

 She nodded dumbly. Her palm was so wet that a drop of sweat dropped from it to the floor. She was thinking hard. She could kill the Commandant and save her father for a little while. But then the problem of detonating the pile remained, and it would not be solved more quickly by killing the man who controlled the pile area. On the contrary if she could get him interested in her—

 "So far as our records indicate," murmured Perat, "the man down there is the last living Terran within The Defender . It occurred to me that our newest clerk would like to start off her duties with a bang. The Faeg is adjusted to a needle-beam. If you put a bolt between the man's eyes, you may dance for me tonight, and perhaps there will be other nights—"

 The woman seemed lost in thought for a long time. Slowly, she lifted the ugly little weapon. The doomed Terran looked up at her peacefully, without expression. She lowered the Faeg, her arm trembling.

 Gordon, Lord Kane, frowned faintly, then closed his eyes. She raised the gun again, drew cross hairs with a nerveless wrist, and squeezed the trigger. There was a loud, hollow cough, but no recoil. The Terran officer, his eyes still closed and arms folded, sank to the ground, face up. Blood was running from a tiny hole in his forehead.

 The man leaning on the balustrade turned and looked at Evelyn, at first with amused contempt, then with narrowing, questioning eyes.

 "Come here," he ordered.

 The Faeg dropped from her hand. With a titanic effort she activated her legs and walked toward him.

 He was studying her face very carefully.

 She felt that she was going to be sick. Her knees were so weak that she had to lean on the coping.

 With a forefinger he lifted up the mass of golden curls that hung over her right forehead and examined the scar hidden there, where the mentors had cut into her frontal lobe. The tiny doll they had created for her writhed uneasily in her waist-purse, but Perat seemed to be thinking of something else, and missed the significance of the scar completely.

 He dropped his hand. "I'm sorry," he said with a quiet weariness. "I shouldn't have asked you to kill the Terran. It was a sorry joke." Then: "Have you ever seen me before?"

 "No," she whispered hoarsely. His mind was in hers, verifying the fact.

 "Have you ever met my father, Phaen, the old Count of Tharn?"

 "No."

 "Do you have a son?"

 "No."

 His mind was out of hers again, and he had turned moodily back, surveying the courtyard and the dead. "Gorph will be wondering what happened to you. Come to my quarters at the eighth metron tonight."

 Apparently he suspected nothing.
  Father. Father. I had to do it. But we'll all join you, soon. Soon.

 III

 Perat lay on his couch, sipping cold purple terif and following the thinly-clad dancer with narrowed eyes. Music, soft and subtle, floated from his communications box, illegally tuned to an officer's club somewhere. Evelyn made the rhythm part of her as she swayed slowly on tiptoe.

 For the last thirty "nights"—the hours allotted to rest and sleep—it had been thus. By "day" she probed furtively into the minds of the office staff, memorizing area designations, channels for official messages, and the names and authorizations of occupational field crews. By night she danced for Perat, who never took his eyes from her, nor his probe from her mind. While she danced it was not too difficult to elude the probe. There was an odd autohypnosis in dancing that blotted out memory and knowledge.

 "Enough for now," he ordered. "Careful of your rib."

 When he had first seen the bandages on her bare chest, that first night, she had been ready with a memory of dancing on a freshly waxed floor, and of falling.

 Perat seemed to be debating with himself as she sat down on her own couch to rest. He got up, unlocked his desk, and drew out a tiny reel of metal wire, which Evelyn recognized as being feed for an amateur stereop projector. He placed the reel in a projector that had been installed in the wall, flicked off the table luminar, and both of them waited in the dark, breathing rather loudly.

 Suddenly the center of the room was bright with a ball of light some two feet in diameter, and inside the luminous sphere were an old man, a woman, and a little boy of about four years. They were walking through a luxurious garden, and then they stopped, looked up, and waved gaily.

 Evelyn studied the trio with growing wonder. The old man and the boy were complete strangers. But the woman—!

 "That is Phaen, my father," said Perat quietly. "He stayed at home because he hated war. And that is a path in our country estate on Tharn-R-VII. The little boy I fail to recognize, beyond a general resemblance to the Tharn line.

 "But— can you deny that you are the woman ?"

 The stereop snapped off, and she sat wordless in the dark.

 "There seemed to be some similarity—" she admitted. Her throat was suddenly dry. Yet, why should she be alarmed? She really didn't know the woman.

 The table luminar was on now, and Perat was prowling hungrily about the room, his scar twisting his otherwise handsome face into a snarling scowl.

 "Similarity! Bah! That loop of hair over her right forehead hid a scar identical to yours. I have had the individual frames analyzed!"

 Evelyn's hands knotted unconsciously. She forced her body to relax, but her mind was racing. This introduced another variable to be controlled in her plan for destruction. She must make it a known quantity.

 "Did your father send it to you?" she asked.

 "The day before you arrived here. It had been en route for months, of course."

 "What did he say about it?"

 "He said, 'Your widow and son send greetings. Be of good cheer, and accept our love.' What nonsense! He knows very well I'm not married and that—well, if I have ever fathered any children, I don't know about them."

 "Is that all he said?"

 "That's all, except that he included this ring." He pulled one of the duplicate jewels from his right middle finger and tossed it to her.
"It's identical to the one he had made for me when I entered on my majority. For a long time it was thought that it was the only stone of its kind on all the planets of the Tharn suns, a mineralogical freak, but I guess he found another. But why should I want two of them?"

 Evelyn crossed the room and returned the ring.

 "Existence is so full of mysteries, isn't it?" murmured Perat.
"Sometimes it seems unfortunate that we must pass through a sentient phase on our way to death. This foolish, foolish war. Maybe the old count was right."

 "You could be courtmartialed for that."

 "Speaking of courtmartials, I've got to attend one tonight—an appeal from a death sentence." He arose, smoothed his hair and clothes, and poured another glass of terif . "Some fool inquisitor can't show proper disposition of a woman prisoner."

 Evelyn's heart skipped a beat. "Indeed?"

 "The wretch insists that he could remember if we would just let him alone. I suppose he took a bribe. You'll find one now and then who tries for a little extra profit."

 She must absolutely not be seen by the condemned inquisitor. The stimulus would almost certainly make him remember.

 "I'll wait for you," she said indifferently, thrusting her arms out in a languorous yawn.

 "Very well." Perat stepped to the door, then turned and looked back at her. "On the other hand, I may need a clerk. It's way after hours, and the others have gone."

 Beneath a gesture of wry protest, she swallowed rapidly.

 "Perhaps you'd better come," insisted Perat.

 She stood up, unloosed her waist-purse, checked its contents swiftly, and then followed him out.

 This might be a very close thing. From the purse she took a bottle of perfume and rubbed her ear lobes casually.

 "Odd smell," commented Perat, wrinkling his nose.

 "Odd scent," corrected Evelyn cryptically. She was thinking about the earnest faces of the mentors as they instructed her carefully in the use of the "perfume." The adrenalin glands, they had explained, provided a useful and powerful stimulant to a man in danger. Adrenalin slowed the heart and digestion, increased the systole and blood pressure, and increased perspiration to cool the skin. But there could be too much of a good thing. An overdose of adrenalin, they had pointed out, caused almost immediate edema. The lungs filled rapidly with the serum and the victim ... drowned. The perfume she possessed over-stimulated, in some unknown way, the adrenals of frightened persons. It had no effect on inactive adrenals.

 The question remained—who would be the more frightened, she or the condemned inquisitor?

 She was perspiring freely, and the blonde hair on her arms and neck was standing stiffly when Perat opened the door for her and they entered the Zone Provost's chambers.

Evelyn Kane finds herself in pain in the middle of fighting spaceships. She realizes that her nation has lost after 9 years of war and remembers about her task to explode both ships. When she resolves to press the button, it doesn’t work. By deception, she manages to defeat the guards on the ship. Then she gets to the inquisitor and by control of his mind makes him set her free and send her to another zone as a clerk. There a supervisor gets suspicious of her transfer but she convinces him in her honesty. After that she meets Perat, Viscount of the Tharn Suns, her main aim, and is forced to shoot her own father not to be uncovered. From that moment she becomes a private dancer for Perat by night, and a spy into the officers’ minds by day. One day Perat showed Evelyn a reel of his father, a boy, and a woman very much alike her. This reel was sent by his father with a greeting from Perat’s wife and son, though he was not married. Then the mysterious topic changes and Perat asks Evelyn to accompany him to the execution of the foolish inquisitor. Scared of being recognised by the inquisitor she used a dangerous perfume capable of causing death and entered the room.

Evelyn Kane is awoken by a dark message that is commanding her to die. She realizes that when she wakes up that it is time to set off the device given to her that is meant to destroy both of the globes. She goes to the device to do so only to realize that it was in shattered ruins. Dismayed but still understanding that she has a job to complete, she sets a strict and tight timeline for herself to fix the device. To fix the device, she sets about to collect components that she needs. She leaves her cubicle and carries little with her to ensure that she appears harmless.

After she leaves her cubicle, she senses a man with a desire to kill her. Using her telepathic capabilities, she overpowers the man and strips him of his uniform and weapon. She then kills him. She then goes to get a travel visa from a man and does so by controlling his mind to get the necessary information and documents that she wants. When she makes it to the Occupational Commandant of Zone One she goes to the personal office. She flirts with the a man to explain her transfer to the headquarters. At the end of the meeting, she is directed to meet with Perat on his balcony. On her way there she feels someone reading her brain and thinks about false information to feed them what she wants them to believe about her. She gets to the balcony where Perat is standing with a gun. Below the balcony, she chills when she notices her father is the prisoner meant to be executed. She shoots her father with the justification that it was necessary to complete her mission.

Later on Evelyn dances for Perat and repeats this routine, among other tasks, for a period of time. Eventually, Perat pesters and accuses her of being someone other than she says she is. He shows her a video of a woman that looks strikingly similar to her. She denies being the woman. The story ends with Evelyn being asked to accompany Perat to a prisoner’s death sentence appeal. She takes along perfume as a weapon to prevent the prisoner from recognizing her out loud.

Evelyn Kane awakes injured and in pain to the sound of a voice, commanding her to die. She is the daughter of Gordon Kane, the commander of The Defender, a Terran battle globe. The Defender has been in a nine year war with The Invader, its Scythian counterpart, and Evelyn had previously promised her father that she would die on the planet instead of escaping, doing so by pressing a button that would detonate the globe and both empires. As she awakes, she realizes that the time has come to press the button. However, the cell in which she stays in had been damaged by an explosion, the button being beyond repair. Determined to obtain a replacement or repair the button, but unable to do so herself, she decides to set out, using her telepathic abilities to go undercover as a Scythian guard by killing one and wearing his uniform. She then visits the Inquisitor, who questions why she is wearing a Scythian uniform and plans to take her prisoner. Evelyn uses her telepathy on the Inquisitor to make him fill out a visa for her to visit the Occupational Commandant, Perat. Once there, she visits an office, where she is questioned and sent to Perat, who wishes to see her. Evelyn realizes that Perat is even more skilled than her in the realm of telepathy, so she is not able to use her abilities on him and instead must conceal that she possesses them at all. Evelyn's first order from Perat is to execute a final prisoner in the courtyard, who ends up being her father. Reluctantly, she does so to follow orders. For the next month or so, Evelyn dances for Perat every night, using the daytime to gather any information possible to help her construct a new device. One night, Perat shows Evelyn an image of an old man, a boy, and a woman. Perat identifies the man as his father, but the woman looks identical to Evelyn. Perat's father had sent this to him, naming Evelyn as his widow; both Perat and Evelyn have no explanation. Perat then informs Evelyn that he must attend a courtmartial, where he must address a man who let a woman prisoner escape. Evelyn realizes that this man is the Inquisitor, and she must join Perat at the hearing while going unrecognized.

The story starts with Evelyn, a Terran at The Defender, waking up in a cubicle, badly hurt. Soon, we learn that the Terrans are in war with The Invader. There was a huge explosion, and if Evelyn gets the chance to survive, she was told to carry the secret of the Terrans. When she comes out from her cubicle, with a few broken ribs, she heard the sound of a low-born Scythe four hundred yards behind her. There, she uses her telepathic skills and avoided being caught or murdered. Instead, the Scythe drops unconscious on the ground. Then at the inquisitor, she was questioned. After having the inquisitor ask the guards to leave, she uses her telepathic skills on him. She is then set free with a visa for woman clerk, and the guards and the inquisitor does not remember a thing about her. Then finally, she gets to meet the Viscount. But then she is shocked to see her father being captured and announced as the last Terran alive in The Defender. She is further horrified by the fact that she has to kill him. Because she knows that there is no other possible way, she indeed shot her father.

Later, we learn that Perat has an image of a woman that has the identical scars as the one on Evelyn’s head, this finding might affect Evelyn’s destruction plan. Later, Perat asks Evelyn to be the clerk for tonight’s coutmartial where some inquisitor did not show proper disposition of a female prisoner. Evelyn is worried, this clearly sounds like her and the inquisitor that she mind controlled.

What relationship does Evelyn have with her father?

Evelyn was very close with her father as a child and she has a lot of warm memories of their moments together. Her father was the commander of the Defender, a powerful man, Lord Kane. He wanted to save his daughter by putting her on the last ship leaving the Defender, but she decided to stay and die with her people. This decision impressed her father, and after a brief evaluation he decided to make use of her and give her the most important task - explode both ships. Therefore, their relationship is both caring but professional and with the feeling of duty. While resolving to press the button, Evelyn remembered her father and that helped her decision. After her escape and getting to the Viscount she had to end her relationship with her father by shooting him. Trembling, full of emotions and desire to save him, Evelyn was still able to shoot as she didn't see another positive solution for them both. She felt sad and sorry, but she felt she did the right think and would soon join her father in death.

Along with her father, she watched The Defender grow into a planet-sized battle globe over the course of 20 years. The Defender was commanded by her father, Gordon. Evelyn cares for her father. She is honest and mimics his passion for the war. When she was a little girl her father would play with her and read her bedtime stories, memories that she treasures. While Evelyn and her father had a good relationship and she held no ill will towards him, she eventually kills him with Perat’s gun at his orders. She does so through the justification that she cannot complete her mission if she tries to save him.

Evelyn and her father have a strong relationship, primarily bonded by their passion and willingness to die for their planet. Evelyn grew up witnessing Kane's success in expanding the Defender, and she took on a similar duty for the planet,  evident when she promised to die there, destroying the planet and the two at war before doing so. Kane admires his daughter for doing this. Despite Evelyn's good relationship with her father, she ultimately ends up killing him for the sake of her duty, as he becomes a prisoner of the Scythian and Evelyn is ordered to execute him.

Evelyn and her father both are fighting for the Terrans. Her father wanted her to board the last ship leaving The Defender, however, Evelyn wants to stay behind to fight. While her father does not want her to stay, he approves it and reminds her that if she is to die, die usefully. Then Evelyn is tasked with pressing the final button of the battle by her father. This will give her a chance to survive, not only because she is Gordon’s father, but also because she will be tasked with the secret of the Terrans. Later when Evelyn finally gets to meet the Viscount on the balcony, he orders her to kill the last Terran living within The Defender, her father. Evelyn did not want to do this, but given the circumstances, she has to, and she says that soon she will join him.

What tricks does Evelyn use to stay alive and free?

First, she decided to appear harmless in the struggle and left her weapon in the cubicle. She took only three things in a small bag with her when exiting her spot. Then she detected a corporal and when facing him, stretched luxuriously to change his mind to shoot her or notify his man. That was a manipulation of a woman using her charm not to get killed. When he didn't expect it, she mentally attacked the corporal to death and put on his clothes. This was her Scythian trick. When Evelyn met the inquisitor and the guards, she analyzed their minds again and with a little use of her feminine charm she pretended to be willing to give some interesting information  to the inquisitor one on one. That way she got rid of the guards, also by challenging the inquisitor asking to stay one on one if he is not afraid. Then she forced his mind to answer her questions and fill the blanks for her passage to the Occupational Commandant as a clerk and set her free. Then his memory and the guards' about her were deleted by her force of mind. When she reached the supervisor of her transfer, she made up a legend about its reasons as another trick. She complained about the men in the fighting zones and appealed to the supervisor's ego by claiming she had been told he was a better boss. When it came to Perat she followed his orders and even killed her father. She was humble and seductive and gained his trust and attention, which was her feminine trick again. In the very end she used a trick of a dangerous perfume given by her mentors. She used it not to be set up by the inquisitor.

Evelyn uses many tricks to ensure her safety in precarious situations. She sues her sexual appeal often. In one situation she sues her sexual appeal to distract a man from instantly killing her, giving her the opportunity to stealthy sneak upon him and kill him.

In addition to sexual appeal, she uses her telepathic capabilities to force people to carry out her wishes. She receives a visa for travel using her telepathic skills. Evelyn is careful with her telepathic capabilities when she reaches the Occupational Commandment as she correctly believes that there will be others that have the ability.

At the end of the story, Evelyn arms herself with perfume to prevent a prisoner from publicly identifying her at his death execution appeal. The perfume is capable of drowning a person if they have active adrenals.

Evelyn uses a combination of her smarts and her telepathic ability to stay alive and undercover. When she initially steps outside, she lures a Scythian man to her, and uses telepathic paralysis to kill him and take his uniform. She also uses telepathy and mind control on the Inquisitor, who is able to give her information and allow her to travel to the Occupational Commandant. Once there, however, her telepathy skills are less useful because the people she is surrounded by have higher capabilities than her and she must be unassuming. So, to maintain her cover, Evelyn plays along to the commands of the Scythian.

First, when Evelyn first leaves the cubicle, she detects a low-born Scythe four hundred yards behind her. She uses her telepathic skills and found that the Scythian corporal is taking a mop-up squad through the forest. Knowing that he wondered if he should kill or not, she made him follow her. And then she performs telepathic cortical paralysis on the man which made him drop unconsciously.

Later, when the inquisitor, along with his two guards, were questioning her, she told the inquisitor to ask the guards to leave. Then she paralyzed the mind of the inquisitor to finds out the Occupational Commandant of this Sector. Before she makes them let her go, she controls the inquisitor to give him a visa for a woman clerk. Later, at the personnel office she pretends to be blushed and lies about her reason to transfer here. And when she goes to the balcony, she has to pretend to not know the man she has to kill, her father.

What is the significance of the device given to Evelyn not exploding?

If the device exploded and all went according to the plan, both The Defender and The Invader would be destroyed immediately with all the people on board including Evelyn. Due to a technical break, Evelyn stayed alive and had to think of other ways to destroy the ships. The whole rest of the story is a sequence of events and encounters, accompanied by tricks and cunning, leading to this final aim. She is breaking free, gets trust of her enemies, and even kills her father for this great purpose of destroying their enemies. Every her action is carefully controlled in order to get to Perat and spy on the thoughts of his officers. As she doesn't have anyone left and is surrounded by enemies, she need the purpose to live, which is given by this broken exploder and her following inability to fulfill her task.

The device that Evelyn is given is meant to destroy both globes at war with each other when Evelyn’s side has undeniably lost. The button will potentially kill her and everyone else fighting. When Evelyn wakes, she realizes the device is broken and she needs to fix it. If the device had worked properly and was not shattered, Evelyn would not have gone to the Occupational Commandment of Zone 1 and seen her father. The device is significant because it is to put an end to the war through severe destruction and death.

When Evelyn vowed to stay on the planet until it was time to destroy it, leading to her death, she was given a key that would carry it out when she was commanded to do so. However, when Evelyn finally receives this command, the cubicle where she stays had suffered damage from an explosion. This caused the key that would destroy the planet to be shattered. Evelyn is unable to construct a new key herself, but she knows she must carry out the destruction as it was her final duty. So, Evelyn decides to take the risk of going undercover as a Scythian to find a way to repair or create a new device.

After Evelyn demands to stay behind when her father asks her to board the last ship leaving The Defender, she will be the person that press the final button of the battle. The mentors are developing some means of escape so that Evelyn, Gordon’s daughter, can survive with the secret of the Terrans. This is because the explosion that will destroy both globes will prevent radio contact with Terra for years. Thus, they needs someone to escape with their secret. But when Evelyn search for the box after the explosion, it becomes shattered ruin, which makes her set to accomplish the stalemate in space. Leading her to paralyze the soldier and escaping from the inquisitor, as well as later killing her father.

How is the theme of duty explored in this story?

Evelyn, the main character, is an example of a person following and respecting her duty. As a daughter of the commander she was brought up with a role model during the war time. Her father commanded the ship, defending the whole nation, and she witnessed it for years. It taught her to understand the duty and therefore she refused to leave the ship when she had the opportunity and accepted the important task of exploding both ships and herself as well. No matter how scared she was, she was determined to fulfill the duty placed on her by her father and mentors, and for that reason she pressed the button. When it didn't work, she kept feeling the burden of duty on her and started thinking of other means to destroy the enemies to fulfill the task. Following her duty moved her forward through pain and danger, made her find the ways to achieve it. When she shot her father, she did it because she had to, she knew it was the only right way to reach her aim instead of giving up to emotions.

Evelyn had an opportunity to save her life by joining the last messenger ship leaving The Defender as her father had originally instructed her to do. However, she does not want to abandon the fight because she possess a sense of duty towards the war and sticking by her father’s side. She chooses to continue fighting with an understanding that it is inevitable that her side will lose the fight. She also accepts controlling a device that will destroy both globes and has a high chance of killing her in the process. She is willing to sacrifice her life to finish the job. The theme of duty is further explored when she is told to shoot her own father. She understands that if she saves her problem she would not be able to complete the detonation that she was assigned. Evelyn shoots her father as she concludes that she has to kill him to not alert anyone of her real identity.

Many of the characters in the story have their own duties that they take as a matter of life or death. Kane, Evelyn's father, is the Commander of The Defender and his duty is fighting for its people, even if it ultimately leads to his death. Evelyn has a similar duty, which is to destroy the planet, and thus both the Invaders and Defenders, and sacrifice her life in doing so. Evelyn is aware of this duty and does everything she can to see that it is done, which is why she decides to go undercover when she realizes that the destruct button has been broken. By following this duty, Evelyn does things she never imagined she would have to do, such as killing her father in order to maintain her cover.

The theme of duty is explored through Evelyn staying behind and refusing to board the last ship to leave The Defender. Duty is seen when she wakes up with broken rib, but still remembers her mission and tries to achieve it. Evelyn and her father both put duty before each other. When Evelyn was ordered to kill her father, she felt very bad and did not want to, but she had to do it. Her father did not express anything about knowing the person who will kill him.