The Project Gutenberg EBook of Millennium, by Everett B. Cole
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Title: Millennium
Author: Everett B. Cole
Release Date: March 8, 2008 [EBook #24779]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILLENNIUM ***
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Transcriber note.
This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction May 1955.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.
* * * * *
MILLENNIUM
BY EVERETT B. COLE
_There are devices a high-level culture could produce that simply
don't belong in the hands of incompetents of lower cultural
evolution. The finest, and most civilized of tools can be made a
menace ..._
[Illustration]
Illustrated by Freas
Liewen Konar smiled wryly as he put a battered object on the bench.
"Well, here's another piece recovered. Not worth much, I'd say, but here
it is."
Obviously, it had once been a precisely fabricated piece of equipment.
But its identity was almost lost. A hole was torn in the side of the
metal box. Knobs were broken away from their shafts. The engraved
legends were scored and worn to illegibility, and the meter was merely a
black void in the panel. Whatever had been mounted at the top had been
broken away, to leave ragged shards. Inside the gaping hole in the case,
tiny, blackened components hung at odd angles.
Klion Meinora looked at the wreckage and shook his head.
"I know it's supposed to be what's left of a medium range communicator,"
he said, "but I'd never believe it." He poked a finger inside the hole
in the case, pushing a few components aside. Beyond them, a corroded
wheel hung loosely in what had once been precision bearings.
"Where's the power unit?"
Konar shook his head. "No trace. Not much left of the viewsphere,
either."
"Well." Meinora shook his head resignedly. "It's salvage. But we got it
back." He stood back to look at the communicator. "Someone's been
keeping
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