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









                            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 Yrl
waited to greet the God.

If the God continued its present rate of approach, it would land within
moments.

Grg and Yrl had journeyed all night, with their eyes on that distant
glinting speck in the sky. Over cold-crusted sand dunes and jagged
crater walls they had flowed, crept, bounded, oozed, toward the spot
where the God must land if its course held true.

Grg was a Fsgh, which is the equivalent of High Priest, Yrl was a
Ffssgghh, or Much Higher Priest. The best wishes of their people had
gone with them on their tremendous mission.

Now, at the place, they trembled in every tentacle as they peered
upward. The rust-red orb of Mars rode the black horizon.

Mars was, as Grg and Yrl had learned from their Elders and now taught
their Youngers, the stern Seeing-All Eye of It Who Was the Universe.

From that great Eye, a day ago, had sprung a shining Messenger, an
Emissary, a God that must be coming on a purposeful visit.

It had been detected at the half-way point of its trip. But there
could be no doubt regarding its origin, its nature, its destination--

For, in the matter of form, the God was a close replica of Grg and
Yrl--of all the creatures of their race! It was octopidal, with sinewy
double 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 in
shining stone. As it flew it reflected starlight--and the red glow of
the Universal Eye behind it--from its sleek surfaces.

Grg and Yrl blinked their own dull-surfaced, astronomically
far-sighted, rust-red eyes at each other in supreme excitement and
anticipation.

What would the God tell them? What would it reveal? Would it divulge
the Cosmic Secret? Would it tell them the place and destiny of their
lowly race? Had it come to punish them for not being good enough, for
over-reproducing, for worshipping improperly?

From a selfish standpoint, it might even tell them how to get rid of
the _plllnk_--a subject of constant prayer.

How smoothly it flew! While Grg and Yrl and their people could bound
about with a great agility in Phobos' light gravity, they could not
_fly_.

"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 left
double-tentacle. He combed the light fur there, found the _plllnk_,
and shredded it, casting the pieces round-about so that no two of them
might combine to form another _plllnk_.

How wonderful it would be also if the God could tell them how to get
rid of the itching, crawling, parasitic _plllnk_, whose bite, in
sufficient numbers, was often fatal!...

The God began to land.

It shot red flame downward from its mouth, on the underside of its
gleaming body. Red flickers and sharp-edged black shadows danced about
the two who waited below. They shrank back, fearful that the display
might be a disapproving communication--yet they held their ground,
knowing they had lived good lives and deserved no condemnation on any
score they could imagine.

The God lowered, on its belching tongue of flame--the flame that seemed
a tiny part, a sliver, of the Universal Eye that Watched.

Strange marks were on the side of the God's body. They were: 1st MARS
EXPEDITION--U. S. SPACE FORCE--PLANET-TO-SATELLITE CREWBOAT NO. 2.

       *       *       *       *       *

The last few moments of the God's descent were quite rapid.
Simultaneously, the darting red flames seemed to lessen in intensity
and length. Then, at the second of impact, they brightened again to
previous power--but too late. The impact was hard.

Grg and Yrl gasped as one of the God's double-tentacles buckled,
crumpled, with a glinting of shiny-hard material. The flames stopped.

The God, unable to remain erect with its injury, slowly toppled. Its
body thudded silently, stirring pumice dust. It was motionless.

Grg and Yrl stared at each other.

Was the God fatally injured? Dying? Dead? (For a broken tentacle meant
that fluids would seep out, and soon the dry-death would occur.)

The God stirred.

It braced two sets of tentacles against the ground, as if trying
to push itself erect. The effort was not successful. Again it
was motionless. The two double-tentacles remained outstretched,
however--and they pointed at the shadows where Grg and Yrl waited and
watched.

Grg and Yrl sighed in relief.

The God had assumed conversation-position.

It must have healed its broken tentacle--truly a God! Soon it would be
as good as new; for otherwise, agony would forbid conversation.

It was ready to address them. Now.

This was the greatest moment of Grg's and Yrl's lives.

They waited for the God to speak.

It was silent.

A long time passed. The God remained motionless, though in
conversation-position, and silent. A _very_ long time passed.

Then a tiny hole appeared in the God's side. It grew
larger--larger--and then it stopped growing larger.

Something appeared at the hole. It paused, then dropped to the surface
of Phobos, where it began to crawl about.

It bore considerable resemblance to a _plllnk_, except for its
shiny-wrinkled grey skin (_plllnks_ were purple.) And this thing was
huge--_Huge_. It was one-fifth the size of the God's body.

Caught by horror, and fearing the worst, Grg and Yrl waited for the God
to speak.

(_Damn_, John Cotter was thinking. _That was a neat bit of sloppiness,
that landing.... Carruthers will chew me out and in again!_ Pause:
_Holy cats, I hope the radio isn't busted, or I'll have a helluva wait
before they follow up and find me!..._)

       *       *       *       *       *

The God was dead.

Killed by the giant _plllnk_--a scourge from which, evidently, even
the Gods were not spared. The huge _plllnk_, even now creeping
around--wrinkle-skinned and detestable, its coloration the same as the
God's; the most loathsome sight imaginable ... a god-_plllnk_!

Grg and Yrl moved into view, from the shadows of the crater wall.
Their thinking trunks tingled with misery, sorrow, bitter anger and
disappointment.

The _plllnk_ stopped, having sensed them. Then it darted for the hole
it had eaten in the God.

Yrl moved to intercept it. The _plllnk_ changed course and headed
swiftly up a sand dune. With a great bound, impelled by outrage, Yrl
was upon it.

While Grg touched tentacles with the dead God, in reverent mourning,
in terrible sorrow, in loss, in supplication, Yrl shredded the
god-_plllnk_.

       *       *       *       *       *

Two days later, a second God was detected. It silently circled Phobos
from the Universal Eye.

It did not land. It silently circled Phobos, and then returned to the
Eye.

Within the day, it was back, in the company of eleven other Gods. They
landed. Joyfully, mortals went forth to meet them.

It was quite a battle while it lasted.

Joy quickly ended, as the Gods died one by one, each of them showing
the holes eaten in their sides by the insatiable _plllnks_.

Likewise, eventually, died all the _plllnks_, which presumably had
killed the Gods. They fought with strange white flares and crackling
blue flashes, which only tickled the hides of the faithful. Then they
were shredded.

Religious beliefs on Phobos underwent certain basic changes. Such as:
the Gods, or at least their Messengers, were known not to be immortal.

Nor were the special variety of _plllnk_ which afflicted them....

On Earth, twenty years afterward, word is anxiously awaited of the 4th
Mars Expedition.

END