THE GOD-PLLLNK
BY JEROME BIXBY
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of Tomorrow December 1963
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Astronauts and cosmonauts! When you finally reach
Mars, please be very careful what you look like!
In the shadows of a crater-wall on Phobos, moon of Mars, Grg and Yrlwaited to greet the God.
If the God continued its present rate of approach, it would land withinmoments.
Grg and Yrl had journeyed all night, with their eyes on that distantglinting speck in the sky. Over cold-crusted sand dunes and jaggedcrater walls they had flowed, crept, bounded, oozed, toward the spotwhere the God must land if its course held true.
Grg was a Fsgh, which is the equivalent of High Priest, Yrl was aFfssgghh, or Much Higher Priest. The best wishes of their people hadgone with them on their tremendous mission.
Now, at the place, they trembled in every tentacle as they peeredupward. The rust-red orb of Mars rode the black horizon.
Mars was, as Grg and Yrl had learned from their Elders and now taughttheir Youngers, the stern Seeing-All Eye of It Who Was the Universe.
From that great Eye, a day ago, had sprung a shining Messenger, anEmissary, a God that must be coming on a purposeful visit.
It had been detected at the half-way point of its trip. But therecould be no doubt regarding its origin, its nature, its destination—
For, in the matter of form, the God was a close replica of Grg andYrl—of all the creatures of their race! It was octopidal, with sinewydouble tentacles, and a thinking trunk, and a reproduction pouch!
The only significant difference was that the God gleamed mysteriously,as if its angular, hard-line representation of normal form were cast inshining stone. As it flew it reflected starlight—and the red glow ofthe Universal Eye behind it—from its sleek surfaces.
Grg and Yrl blinked their own dull-surfaced, astronomicallyfar-sighted, rust-red eyes at each other in supreme excitement andanticipation.
What would the God tell them? What would it reveal? Would it divulgethe Cosmic Secret? Would it tell them the place and destiny of theirlowly race? Had it come to punish them for not being good enough, forover-reproducing, for worshipping improperly?
From a selfish standpoint, it might even tell them how to get rid ofthe plllnk—a subject of constant prayer.
How smoothly it flew! While Grg and Yrl and their people could boundabout with a great agility in Phobos' light gravity, they could notfly.
"How wonderful it would be to fly," said Yrl.
"Perhaps," said Grg, "we have been found ready to be taught!"
Then Grg twitched as a plllnk bit him, just under the front leftdouble-tentacle. He combed the light fur there, found the plllnk,and shredded it, casting the pieces round-about so that no two of themmight combine to form another plllnk.
How wonderful it would be also if the God could tell them how to getrid of the itching, crawling, parasitic plllnk, whose bite, insufficient numbers, was often fatal!...
The God began to land.
It shot red flame downward from its mouth, on the underside of itsgleaming body. Red flickers and sharp-edged black shadows danced aboutthe two who waited below. They shrank back, fearful that the displaymight be a disapproving communication—yet they held their ground,knowing they had lived good lives a