The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Variable Man, by Philip K. Dick

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Title: The Variable Man

Author: Philip K. Dick

Illustrator: Alex Ebel

Release Date: April 27, 2010 [EBook #32154]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VARIABLE MAN ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Barbara Tozier and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

This etext was produced from Space Science Fiction September
1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

[Illustration]

THE VARIABLE MAN

BY PHILIP K. DICK

ILLUSTRATED BY EBEL

He fixed things--clocks, refrigerators, vidsenders and
destinies. But he had no business in the future, where the
calculators could not handle him. He was Earth's only
hope--and its sure failure!

Security Commissioner Reinhart rapidly climbed the front steps and
entered the Council building. Council guards stepped quickly aside and
he entered the familiar place of great whirring machines. His thin
face rapt, eyes alight with emotion, Reinhart gazed intently up at the
central SRB computer, studying its reading.

"Straight gain for the last quarter," observed Kaplan, the lab
organizer. He grinned proudly, as if personally responsible. "Not bad,
Commissioner."

"We're catching up to them," Reinhart retorted. "But too damn slowly.
We must finally go over--and soon."

Kaplan was in a talkative mood. "We design new offensive weapons, they
counter with improved defenses. And nothing is actually made!
Continual improvement, but neither we nor Centaurus can stop designing
long enough to stabilize for production."

"It will end," Reinhart stated coldly, "as soon as Terra turns out a
weapon for which Centaurus can build no defense."

"Every weapon has a defense. Design and discord. Immediate
obsolescence. Nothing lasts long enough to--"

"What we count on is the _lag_," Reinhart broke in, annoyed. His hard
gray eyes bored into the lab organizer and Kaplan slunk back. "The
time lag between our offensive design and their counter development.
The lag varies.