Praise for the Novels of the Galactic Empire Pebble in the Sky “Pebble in the Sky was originally published in 1950 but, except for a few details, holds up. . . . You get to share in the rare view of the beginning of Asimov’s vision of the Galactic Empire, which would serve as the backdrop of many novels, culminating with the Foundation series.” —SFRevu The Stars, Like Dust “Science fiction on the larger scale is Isaac Asimov’s specialty. The scene of his new book, a rousing adventure story of the remote future, is the Galaxy, which, with its hundreds of inhabited planets, has been taken over by a dictatorial race called, appropriately enough, the Tyranni. . . . Clear writing and excellent suspense make this book a welcome addition to the science fiction lists.” —The New York Times The Currents of Space “Obviously, Isaac Asimov had a lot of fun concocting this merry tangle of interplanetary power politics. . . . If it isn’t often science fiction, it is always beautifully contrived melodrama. The reader will have just as much fun as Mr. Asimov.” —The New York Times Pebble in the Sky ISAAC ASIMOV ORB A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK NEW YORK The characters and the incidents in this book are entirely the product of the author’s imagination and have no relation to any person or event in real life. PEBBLE IN THE SKY Copyright © 1950, renewed 1978 by The Estate of Isaac Asimov All rights reserved. An Orb Book Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC 175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010 www.tor-forge.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Asimov, Isaac, 1920–1992. Pebble in the sky / Isaac Asimov.—1st Orb ed. p. cm. “A Tom Doherty Associates book.” ISBN 978-0-7653-1913-5 I. Title. PS3551.S5P4 2009 813'.54—dc22 2008046430 First Tor Edition: January 2008 First Orb Edition: May 2010 Printed in the United States of America 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To my father, who first introduced me to science fiction Contents 1 Between One Footstep and the Next 2 The Disposal of a Stranger 3 One World—or Many? 4 The Royal Road 5 The Involuntary Volunteer 6 Apprehension in the Night 7 Conversation with Madmen? 8 Convergence at Chica 9 Conflict at Chica 10 Interpretation of Events 11 The Mind That Changed 12 The Mind That Killed 13 Spider Web at Washenn 14 Second Meeting 15 The Odds That Vanished 16 Choose Your Side! 17 Change Your Side! 18 Duel! 19 The Deadline That Approached 20 The Deadline That Was Reached 21 The Deadline That Passed 22 The Best Is Yet to Be Pebble in the Sky 1 Between One Footstep and the Next Two minutes before he disappeared forever from the face of the Earth he knew, Joseph Schwartz strolled along the pleasant streets of suburban Chicago quoting Browning to himself. In a sense this was strange, since Schwartz would scarcely have impressed any casual passerby as the Browning-quoting type. He looked exactly what he was: a retired tailor, thoroughly lacking in what the sophisticates of today call a “formal education.” Yet he had expended much of an inquisitive nature upon random reading. By the sheer force of indiscriminate voracity, he had gleaned a smattering of practically everything, and by means of a trick memory had managed to keep it all straight. For instance, he had read Robert Browning’s Rabbi Ben Ezra twice when he was younger, so, of course, knew it by heart. Most of it was obscure to him, but those first three lines had become one with the beating of his heart these last few years. He intoned them to himself, deep within the silent fortress of his mind, that very sunny and very bright early summer day of 1949: “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made . . .” Schwartz felt that to its fullness. After the struggles of youth in Europe and those of his early manhood in the United States, the serenity of a comfortable old age was pleasant. With a house of his own and money of his own, he could, and did, retire. With a wife in good health, two daughters safely married, a grandson to soothe these last best years, what had he to worry about? There was the atom bomb, of course, and this somewhat lascivious talk about World War III, but Schwartz was a believer in the goodness of human nature. He didn’t think there would be another war. He didn’t think Earth would ever see again the sunlike hell of an atom exploded in anger. So he smiled tolerantly at the children he passed and silently wished them a speedy and not too difficult ride through youth to the peace of the best that was yet to be. He lifted his foot to step over a Raggedy Ann doll smiling through its neglect as it lay there in the middle of the walk, a foundling not yet missed. He had not quite put his foot down again . . . In another part of Chicago stood the Institute for Nuclear Research, in which men may have had theories upon the essential worth of human nature but were half ashamed of them, since no quantitative instrument had yet been designed to measure it. When they thought about it, it was often enough to wish that some stroke from heaven would prevent human nature (and damned human ingenuity) from turning every innocent and interesting discovery into a deadly weapon. Yet, in a pinch, the same man who could not find it in his conscience to curb his curiosity into the nuclear studies that might someday kill half of Earth would risk his life to save that of an unimportant fellow man. It was the blue glow behind the chemist’s back that first attracted the attention of Dr. Smith. He peered at it as he passed the half-open door. The chemist, a cheerful youngster, was whistling as he tipped up a volumetric flask, in which the solution had already been made up to volume. A white powder tumbled lazily through the
