Amazing – November 1956
(1956)*
Randall Garrett
Ghevil of Archeron dropped his spaceship silently down through the night. For five rotations of the planet, he had been watching the natives.
The planet looked ripe for plucking. If their defenses and general state of development were as poor as he thought, the hordes of Archeron could overwhelm them.
It was a particularly beautiful world; the third planet from its primary, with large seas, and broad green continents. The inhabitants were fairly intelligent, because he could see cities easily from space. But it was obvious that they had not yet developed space travel. It looked as though they would be easy to crush.
But he had to be sure. Before he could return to Archeron to report his find, he would have to investigate the planet more closely.
He had decided not to land near any of the big cities; such a concentration of population might be dangerous.
He wanted an out-of-the-way spot which he could investigate at leisure without running too great a risk of being detected. Finally, he had found what was obviously a military installation. It was a heavy, stone-walled fortress that appeared to have no energy screens around it; obviously these beings had not developed ray projectors yet.
He smiled grimly to himself as he settled his invisible ship silently into a wooded area less than half a mile from the big fortress. All he would have to do was get inside the fortress and take a look around. He'd soon know what sort of opposition the hordes of Archeron would have to overcome.
Hovering smoothly on anti-gravity beams just above the treetops, Ghevil checked his instruments. Good! There were no signs of any kind of detection radiation. These people obviously hadn't even developed radar yet; if they had, they would surely use it to protect a fortress like this one.
Ghevil applied two of his eyes to a binocular telescope.
-
It was a military fortress, all right. There were armed men at the walls, and sentries pacing back and forth at their posts. He was unfamiliar with the weapons they carried, but they were quite obviously crude; they couldn't be ray rifles.
All that night, Ghevil watched the fortress, checking the sentries, investigating the defenses, and making notes on the layout of the place.
When dawn came, he lowered his ship to the ground in the woods. Relying on his invisibility at night was well and good, but he didn't know enough about these beings yet. They might have eyes that responded to different radiations than his own; they might—just might—be able to see the ship.
From the woods, he watched the fortress by day. Once, he saw a detail of soldiers march out of the big gate. It was easy to tell the enlisted men from the officers by the uniforms they wore. The enlisted men, who were following the officer's orders, wore light gray uniforms, while the officer wore a uniform that was somewhat darker.
Ghevil studied the beings closely. It would be fairly easy to imitate one of them. They had only two eyes, but Ghevil could see as well with two eyes as he could with four—at least for awhile. Imitating the pinkish color of their skin would be easy, too. There would be nothing to it.
That evening, Ghevil spent his time poring over his notes, trying to devise a plan to enter the fortress. It was well past midnight when he heard the crunch of footsteps in the woods. He turned on his visiscreen and looked out. In the moonlight, he could see one of the natives. It was a soldier, an enlisted man, by his uniform. Ghevil chuckled softly to himself. Here was his chance! A soldier outside the fortress for a stroll!
He watched the soldier for a moment. The being was carrying a hand weapon of some kind; it was best to take no chances.
Aiming one of the death ray projectors on the outside of his ship was the work of a second. He pressed the stud, and the silent, lethal beam dropped the soldier in his tracks.
Ghevil stepped out and walked over to the corpse. Within a matter of minutes, he had changed his appearance completely; he now looked exactly like the dead thing at his feet. Then he stripped off the gray uniform and donned it. He took the handgun from the corpse's limp hand and then took the body inside his ship, where the atomic disintegrators burned it to nothingness in three seconds.
Now he was ready. All he would have to do was walk back to the fortress and go in through the gate. There was no need to know whether there were any passwords. If he were within five feet of any sentry, he could read its mind easily. It would be very simple to pass himself off as one of the soldiers.
Boldly, he walked toward the fortress.
He was twenty yards from the wall when a sudden, odd wailing sounded through the air. He stopped, puzzled. What did it mean? Suddenly, a light came on, sweeping the ground around the fortress with a powerful beam.
Ghevil realized that something had gone wrong. Quickly, he turned and ran for the protection of the woods.
He was too late. The searchlight beam hit him, and was followed quickly by a chattering roar. Something hit Ghevil in the back, throwing him to the ground. He tried to lift himself, but another something and then another slammed into his body. A final one smashed into his brain.
Ghevil of Archeron shuddered and died. His last thought was that now his report would never reach Archeron at all.
Jim Galloway stared down at the body the men had brought into the infirmary. "He's wearing Mike's uniform, and he looks like Mike, but Mike never had yellow blood! Who do you suppose he is, Captain?"
The Captain of the Guards shook his head. "I'm damned if I know, Warden. But if it's one of them flying saucer men or something, why would he try to put on an escaped prisoner's uniform and break into a prison?"
The End
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