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I leaned back in my seat, full of the satisfaction that comes of drawing the right card. "A thrill-mill," I observed, assuming a mock-academic tone, "is a fantastically expensive little device known technically as a perceptual intensifier. It's given away, not bought or sold, and is found only on Rizal. No one knows where it comes from, or why. Neither is there any certainty as to its true purpose.
But whether as primary function or by-product, it shatters the wall of tranquillity established by our Educational Psych Department's inhibitory conditioning program and supplies the user with sensory, emotional and intellectual experiences of his selection, also vividly communicated as to render his earlier, conditioned contacts with reality as flat and insipid as so many pale grey shadows."
FINAL FOE
The Friendly Killers
By S. M. Tenneshaw
How do you fight an alien race invisible
to Terran eyes? Particularly when you suspect
your enemy is really masquerading as an ally!
"
Mankind never learned where the Kel came from. They were, apparently, a remnant of some uncontacted island culture.
"
The first hint the FedGov had of their existence was the sudden appearance of their strange silver globeships off Cadar. Sweeping down with not even an effort to communicate with the helpless inhabitants, the Kel desolated the entire planet. Other outlying worlds met the same fate.
"
Then the FedGov rallied. A rigid defense net was set up, and the controversial compulsory conditioning laws enacted.
"
But since the Kel maintained no fixed base of operations, it seemed impossible to strike any really damaging blow against them.
"
The result was a stalemate, in which neither side appeared able to gain any real advantage.
"
This situation continued for well-nigh two hundred years, until a disastrous break through in which the Kel wiped out the entire population of Bejak II.
"
The next four years saw a whole series of renewed assaults on the human race. Interplanetary shipping was disrupted so badly that in many areas worlds were virtually without mutual contact save through the limited and highly restricted facilities of FedGov space-warp.
"
The final climax developed on the bastion world of Rizal, when it became apparent that in this struggle man was faced with enemies within...."
—Hedikawa, GALACTIC HISTORY
FINAL FOE The Friendly Killers By S. M. Tenneshaw How do you fight an alien race invisible to Terran eyes? Particularly when you suspect your enemy is really masquerading as an ally! " Mankind ne…
THE LUCKY ONES Outside the space-warp chamber, Rizal's great green sun had already set. Thick olive dusk eddied through the interplanetary transit center. I swore under my breath and slammed shut…
PRESSURE PLAY I locked the door behind Gaylord. Then, crossing to the rack beside the psychostructor, I began hunting down city charts, transport and communications guides, specifications for the plan…
CELESTE There was a musty smell about this place, and it was deathly still. Beyond that— I sighed, a sigh that was almost a groan, and shifted. My groping hand slid over something rough, like a coarse…
THE KINDLY KILLERS "Sometimes you just don't know." Celeste's voice was strangely flat and lifeless in the black. "Sometimes there's nothing you can do but hope and try.&…
SHIP OF DEATH This prison room was like the inside of a great, glowing, metal sphere. Light seemed to radiate from its very walls—strange scarlet light that washed over us in pulsing waves. Yet weird …
THRILL-MILLS, F.O.B. The first three Kel Celeste rooted out were loyal to their species. Unto death. The fourth, it seemed, felt differently about it. Even life in the FedGov's interplanetary zoo…
FINAL FOE It was still as death inside the space-warp chamber. But the indicators showed that I'd now reached the Interplanetary Center. Grimly, I shoved shut the switch that released the heavy w…
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