A particularly virulent germ-life infested
           the third planet of Sol. It was obvious the world
           had to be decontaminated. But the aliens found--

                          Earthmen Die Hard!

                          By Richard O. Lewis

           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
              Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
                               June 1954
         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]


They climbed the hill together, arm in arm. At the crest, they stopped
and looked back into the moon-brightened valley where the thin needle
of metal pointed skyward.

The night wind blew her dress tightly about her slim legs, and she
reached a hand to her head to keep the blonde curls from whipping about
her face.

He put his arm about her waist, squeezed her gently. "Only a few more
hours to wait," he said, reassuringly.

       *       *       *       *       *

The great ship from beyond the Galaxy drew alongside the tiny planet,
matched its orbit, cut its drive, and drifted slightly toward the lone
moon. The ship was nearly as large as the planet itself, but there was
no interchange of gravity between the two bodies, for the ship was of a
substance made beyond the stars.

Inspector Ryt looked at his sky chart. Yes, it was Sol III. Then he
looked through the port hole at his left and adjusted the lens. Then he
swore by the Seven Sister Suns of Sagittarius.

The lens showed him the moonlit side of the planet. There were lights
there, little rows of lights forming checkered patterns in various
areas. And there were other lights, greater lights which flickered
viciously among the patterns, leaving squat, circular clouds above them.

Ryt's cheeks puffed out in uncontrollable wrath. "Contaminated!" he
bellowed. "And they are warring on each other!"

He turned from the lens, his gross body glowing in red anger.
"Krembyl!" he screamed. "Krembyl!"

The door at the far side of the room swung open, and the entity called
Krembyl fluttered in. "Yes?" he asked, his body trembling at the manner
in which his name had rung out.

"Your records show Sol III as sterile. Decontaminated!"

"Y-yes, sir," Krembyl stammered. "I--I took care of it myself. Just
a--a few days ago...."

"Look!" shouted Inspector Ryt. "Look for yourself!"

Krembyl went hesitantly to the lens and adjusted himself before it. He
saw the sparkling lights below, the flashes, the tiny clouds, and his
body went pale pink with the shame of defeat.

"I--I am sorry, sir." He turned from the instrument, his pale pink
fading to an ashen gray. "I just don't understand it. I have renovated
the planet several times...."

"_Several times?_"

"Why, y-yes." Krembyl hurried to a shelf of documents along one wall,
scanned the titles briefly selected one, and returned to the desk.
"Here it is, sir. You will find my reports quite in order, sir."

"Damn the reports!" snapped the inspector. "I want to know why this
planet hasn't been cared for properly!" He darkened his body with a
scowl.

       *       *       *       *       *

Krembyl fumbled the document open, flipped a few pages. "Here it is,
sir. All written down, sir. All in correct order, sir.

"_Cosmos 66, 9238_," he read. "_Malignant growth noted._

"_Cosmos 67, 9238 Decontamination process begun._

"_Method: Entire planet encircled with electrical impulses which caused
hydrogen and oxygen to unite into a heavy liquid. Process continued for
a full 40 of planet revolutions._

"_Result: Planet covered with the liquid to an average depth of 30
fathoms. Contaminating element, being oxygen-breathing, could not
possibly exist under such conditions._"

"Fool!" barked Ryt. "Some of them probably floated to the surface on
some of the buoyant vegetation. They may even have made rafts of the
vegetation. Or a boat!"

"They are exceedingly persistent and adaptable, sir," Krembyl admitted.
"And there were other times...." He broke off to fumble through the
documented account. "Yes, here it is, all written down in correct
form...."

"Damn the reports!" snapped the inspector. "Tell me what happened!"

"Well, sir," said Krembyl, scanning the pages carefully, "it was back
in 9237. I noticed the malignancy and took proper measures. I took
the planet from its orbit and into an area remote from the Sol unit.
There, in the intense cold, the polar caps grew larger and larger until
they finally extended over the land portions. Even the middle belt
became frigid. Then I swung the planet back near Sol and let it soak in
tropical heat. I subjected the planet to this treatment three--or was
it four?--times before placing it back permanently in its orbit."

"Dolt!" said Ryt. "They probably hid away in deep crevices. Probably
remained alive through the treatment by eating each other!" He looked
at the unhappy Krembyl for a devastating minute. "You should have used
fire. _Burned them out!_"

"But I _did_, sir!" Krembyl said, hurriedly. "I _did_!" He fumbled
rapidly through the pages. "Here it is, right here! All written out!

"_Nebula 42, 9235. Persistence of malignant contamination noted...._"

He broke off abruptly as the inspector's body turned to brittle
obsidion.

"H-m-mm.... A-hh.... Well, sir, finding them confined in an area of
particularly lush vegetation, I burned them out, chased them with fire
into arid regions, and swept the garden of plant growth completely away
where they could not find it again."

"But it is obvious that you failed! Even if two of them succeeded in
escaping...."

"And before that, sir," Krembyl hurried on. "Before that, I shook the
land masses violently, rent great fissures that permitted the gasses
and flames to leap out from the central core and spread destruction. I
submerged huge infected areas into the depths of the seas, and brought
up new land masses, fresh and clean, into the light of Sol. I even...."

"Enough! Enough!" Ryt hit the desk before him a ponderous blow.
"Silence, fool, while I think!"

       *       *       *       *       *

Krembyl turned a sickly shade of green and let the document close in
weary hands.

Sol III had been a particularly painful lancet in his side, even more
so than had yet been guessed. He hoped the inspector would probe no
deeper. But even as his hopes kindled, they became but ashes.

"There are a few more things I do not understand about this," Inspector
Ryt was saying. "When this planet was formed from the elements of
space, there was no contamination. It was virgin. And, yet, it is now
contaminated. Why?"

Krembyl felt his inners churning fearfully. His whole body was so
filled with trembling that he could not bring himself to fashion words.

Ryt's body grew blacker in the silence. "_Why?_" The word was lightning
from the Stygian depths. "WHY?"

Krembyl's body rent asunder, and the effort of reknitting himself so
weakened him that his voice was scarcely a whisper. "They--they came
from Sol V, sir."

The thunderous blow upon the desk top mingled with Ryt's bellow of
fury. Together, the sounds shook the room and nearly disintegrated
Krembyl's hastily reassembled body.

"Dolt! Ass!" screamed Ryt, his body assuming the blackness of the dust
cloud of Orion. "You failed to stop them on Sol V! You not only let
them blow the planet into tiny bits, but you also let them escape to
Sol III! And here all your efforts of extermination have failed again
and again!"

He wheeled to look through the lens again. Three brilliant flashes,
greater than the others, sparkled almost simultaneously upon the
planet's troubled surface, sent up mushrooms of dust and shattered
atoms. "And is this what happened on Sol V?"

"Y-yes," stammered Krembyl. "The same thing. Just before ... just
before...."

He could not bring himself to complete the statement.

Ryt leaped from the seat at the desk, his body black and bloated.
"Then there is not a moment to lose! Exterminate before this planet is
destroyed! And let none escape!"

"But, sir," pleaded Krembyl, "I have tried everything--fire, floods,
ice...."

"Then try something else!" Ryt roared.

Krembyl drifted slowly towards the door.

"Wait!"

Krembyl stopped obediently.

"What about Sol IV?"

"Oh, Sol IV is all right, sir." Krembyl brightened a shade as he
turned. "There is not the slightest trace of contamination. That planet
must have been on the far side of Sol when--when they escaped Sol V.
I am certain, sir, you will find the rest of the system quite in
order...."

"Enough! Begin the extermination! And this time employ drastic
measures. Take the planet to the rim of Sol itself and bake it to a
crisp before they infest the entire galaxy."

"Yes, sir. Immediately, sir." Krembyl turned again to the door,
thankful his fate had not been worse.

"And don't fail this time!" warned Ryt. "If you lose Sol III as you
lost Sol V, I'll see to it that you put them both back together again,
piece by piece, if it takes you six eons beyond your retirement age!"

       *       *       *       *       *

The moon, with its strange accompanying cloud, had nearly set. The blue
of the eastern sky was fading into apple-green. There was a roaring
swish of sound, a shattering blast of energy, a whistling sigh, then
a remote whisper. The needle-like structure from the valley became a
flickering pin point in the sky.

The girl leaned her blonde head against the shoulder of the man beside
her. "We--we are free?" Her voice was but a whisper.

He adjusted the ra-vis to get a clearer view of Earth and its
surrounding space. The view was but slightly distorted by the hot gases
of the stern tubes. "Yes," he said, struggling to keep his nervousness
from playing havoc with his vocal cords. "Free. Free from a mad world!"
He squeezed her hand reassuringly, his eyes intent upon the screen.

Something had gone wrong. The earth had slid to one edge of the screen.
He readjusted the ra-vis. The space-cloud of black that had hovered
near the moon that night had also shifted its position. It was now
between the earth and the sun, and the earth seemed to be following
it.... The furrow between his dark brows deepened, but he said nothing.

"Just think of it!" she said, her voice a song. "Mars! And a brave new
world!"

He put an arm about her shoulders and took his eyes from the screen.
It was absurd to think the earth was moving sunward. It was probably
merely due to some space aberration....

"Yes," he said, picking up her enthusiasm. "And after that--the
_stars_!"