The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seventh Order, by Gerald Allan Sohl

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Title: The Seventh Order

Author: Gerald Allan Sohl

Illustrator: EMSH

Release Date: May 11, 2010 [EBook #32327]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE 7TH ORDER

By JERRY SOHL

Illustrated by EMSH

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction
March 1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: History is filled with invincible conquerors. This one from
space was genuinely omnipotent, but that never keeps humanity from
resisting!]

The silver needle moved with fantastic speed, slowed when it neared the
air shell around Earth, then glided noiselessly through the atmosphere.
It gently settled to the ground near a wood and remained silent and
still for a long time, a lifeless, cylindrical, streamlined silver
object eight feet long and three feet in diameter.

Eventually the cap end opened and a creature of bright blue metal slid
from its interior and stood upright. The figure was that of a man,
except that it was not human. He stood in the pasture next to the wood,
looking around. Once the sound of a bird made him turn his shiny blue
head toward the wood. His eyes began glowing.

[Illustration]

An identical sound came from his mouth, an unchangeable orifice in his
face below his nose. He tuned in the thoughts of the bird, but his mind
encountered little except an awareness of a life of low order.

The humanoid bent to the ship, withdrew a small metal box, carried it to
a catalpa tree at the edge of the wood and, after an adjustment of
several levers and knobs, dug a hole and buried it. He contemplated it
for a moment, then turned and walked toward a road.

He was halfway to the road when his ship burst into a dazzling white
light. When it was over, all that was left was a white powder t