about.
* * * * *
"So you can create just anything," Glaudot said.
"I guess so."
A goddess, he thought. A beautiful goddess who ...
Suddenly he stared at her. Who could make him the most powerful man inthe galaxy.
"This spaceship of yours--" she began.
"Wait. Wait a minute. If you can create anything, how's aboutre-creating Chandler?"
"Chand-ler? What is Chand-ler?"
"The boy back there. The one your braves killed."
Robin said: "If you wish," and Glaudot held his breath. The power overlife and death, he thought....
He looked down and saw Chandler's spacesuited body there, the two arrowsprotruding from his chest. He shook his head. "Not dead," he said. "Whatgood is he to anybody dead?"
Robin nodded. "I'm sorry," she said. "I just hadn't thought before ofbringing people back to life. It ... why it seems ..."
"What's the matter?"
"I wouldn't really be bringing him back, you know. It would be a copy,just a copy."
"But a perfect copy?"
"I think so."
"Then if it's just a copy it shouldn't bother you at all, should it?"
"Well ..." Robin said doubtfully.
"Go ahead. Show me you can do it."
Glaudot gaped. Another figure sat alongside Chandler's corpse,Chandler's second corpse. The other figure got up. It was Chandler.
* * * * *
"Look out!" the new Chandler cried. "Look out--Indians!"
"Just take it easy," Glaudot told him. Glaudot's face was very white,his eyes big and round and staring.
Chandler looked down at the body on the rocks. His knees buckled andGlaudot caught him, stopping him from falling. Chandler tried to saysomething, but the words wouldn't come. He stared with horrifiedfascination at the body, which was an exact copy of himself--or a copyof the dead man from whom the new living man was copied.
"May we go to your spaceship now?" Robin asked Glaudot politely. "I havealways wished to see a spaceship."
Here was power, Glaudot thought. Incredible power. All the power tocontrol worlds, to carve worlds from primordial slime, almost, foryourself. Here was far more power than any man in the galaxy had everbeen offered. Was it his, Glaudot's?
It wouldn't be if he brought the beautiful girl to the spaceship andPurcell. For Captain Purcell, a devoted servant of the galacticcivilization which he was attempting to spread to the outworlds, wouldthink in terms of what good the discovery of this girl could bring toall humanity. But if Glaudot kept her to himself ...
And then another thought almost stunned him. Why merely the girl? She'dmentioned a friend, hadn't she? Perhaps it was something in theatmosphere of this strange world, in the very air you breathed. Perhapsanyone could do it, could create out of nothing--Glaudot included.
"You want to go to the spaceship?" he asked.
"Yes. Oh, yes."
"Then teach me the secret of creation."
"Of making things, you mean? Why, there isn't any secret. Should therebe any secret? You merely--create."
"Show me," said Glaudot.
* * * * *
A table appeared, and savory dishes of food.
"Magician!" cried Chandler.
A great roan stallion, bridled but without a saddle, materialized. Robinswung up on its broad back and used her bare knees for balance andcontrol. The stallion cantered off.
"Wait!" cried Glaudot. "Please wait."
The stallion cantered back and Robin alighted. The stallion began tograze on a patch of grass which suddenly appeared on the naked rock. Thestallion seemed quite content.
"You mean," the new Chandler asked in an awed voice, "she just _made_these things? The food. The table. The horse ..."
"Yes," said Glaudot. He concentrated his will on creating a singleflower in the new field of grass. He concentrated his whole being.
But nothing happened.
He glared almost angrily at Robin, as if it were her fault. "I don'thave the power you have," he said.
She nodded. "Only Charlie and me." She looked at the roan stallion."Beauty, isn't he? I'll present him to Charlie." She turned to Glaudot."Now take me to the ship."
"We ought to get started back there, Mr. Glaudot," Chandler said.
"Yes? Why?"
"But--but I don't have to tell you why! This girl is one of the mostimportant discoveries that has ever been made. The ability to creatematerial things ... out of nothing...."
"Show me your planet," Glaudot told Robin, ignoring the younger man. "Wecan talk about the spaceship later. You see, I'm an explorer and it'smy job to explore new worlds." He spoke slowly, simply, as he wouldspeak to a child. Somehow, although the girl was not a child and wasquite the most astonishingly beautiful girl he had ever seen, he thoughtthat was the right approach.
"Now wait a minute, Mr. Glaudot," Chandler protested. "We both know it'sour duty to bring her to Captain Purcell."
"Maybe you think it's your duty," Glaudot told the younger man. "I don'tthink it's mine. And before you run off to the ship to tell thatprecious captain of yours, you ought to know that you'd be dead rightnow if it hadn't been for me."
"You?"
"Hell, yes. Those Indians or whatever they were killed you. I asked thegirl to bring you back to life."
"To bring--" echoed Chandler his mouth falling open.
"Actually, she produced a perfect copy of you. A living copy. Do you seewhat she offers us, Chandler? Infinite wealth from creativity out ofnothing--and eternal life by copying our bodies each time we die! Whatdo you say about your precious captain now?"
Chandler seemed confused. He shook his head, staring first at Glaudotand then at Robin. "The ship," he said. "Our duty ... the captain ..."
Glaudot snorted and told Robin: "Kill him."
"Kill him?"
"Yes. You brought him into being. Now send him out of being."
"But I can't do that. I have no further control once I make something.And besides I--I wouldn't kill a human being, even if I could."
Fear was in Chandler's eyes. "Mr. Glaudot, listen ..." he began.
"Listen, hell," Glaudot said. "I brought you back to life. I offered youa share in the greatest power the worlds have ever known. You turned itdown. I'm sorry, Chandler. I'm really sorry for you. But I can't let youreturn to the ship, you see. Not until I learn some more about thisworld, not until I understand exactly what the girl's power is, andconsolidate my position."
* * * * *
Without waiting to hear more, Chandler began to run. In three greatbounds he reached the grazing roan stallion and leaped on its back,digging his heels into its flanks. The stallion moved off at a quicktrot as Glaudot drew his blaster and took dead aim at Chandler'sretreating back.
When he had Chandler squarely in his sights, Glaudot began to squeezethe trigger. But suddenly the trigger-housing-unit of the blaster becameencumbered with tiny vines. There were hundreds of them writhing andcrawling all over the weapon and getting in the sights too so Glaudotcould no longer aim. By the time he tore the vines clear, cursingsavagely, the roan stallion had taken Chandler out of sight on hisretreat toward the spaceship.
Glaudot whirled on Robin. "You did this!" he accused her. "You did it.Why--why?"
"You were going to kill him. You shouldn't have."
"But now you've ruined everything. Not just for me. For us, don't yousee? I could have laid the world at your feet. I could have--listen!Tell me this--is there any place we can hide? Some place they won't findus if they come looking, while we work on this power of yours and seeexactly what it can do and what it can't do?"
"I want to see the spaceship, please," said Robin.
"Afterwards, I promise you," Glaudot said. "Why, we can make all thespaceships we want--out of nothing. Can't we?"
"Yes," said Robin. "I guess so. But even if we hide fr
om your friends,my friend Charlie will find us. He'll be worried about me and he'll findus. Charlie can do everything I can do, you see."
* * * * *
Glaudot stared at her with anger in his eyes. Then something elsereplaced the anger. No, he thought, Charlie couldn't do everything shecould do. She was beautiful. Her half-nude body summoned desire in him.Tentatively, ready to withdraw his hand at the first indication ofprotest, he touched her