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289
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930
·
Various
45
Axelson
shut
the
door.
He
tried
to
speak
and
failed
to
master
his
emotion.
At
last
he
said:
"I
am
prepared
to
offer
you
terms,
Nathaniel
Lee,
in
accordance
with
my
promise."
"I'll
make
no
terms
with
murderers,"
replied
Nat
bitterly.
Axelson
stood
looking
at
him.
His
great
chest
rose
and
fell.
Suddenly
he
put
out
one
great
hand
and
clapped
Nat
on
the
shoulder.
"Wise
men,"
he
said,
"recognize
facts.
Within
three
weeks
I
shall
be
the
undisputed
ruler
of
Earth.
Whether
of
a
desert
or
of
a
cowed
and
submissive
subject-population,
rests
with
the
Earth
men.
I
have
never
been
on
Earth,
for
I
was
born
on
Eros.
My
mother
died
at
my
birth.
I
have
never
seen
another
human
woman
until
to-day."
Nat
looked
at
him,
trying
to
follow
what
was
in
Axelson's
mind.
"My
father
fled
to
Eros,
a
little
planet
seventeen
miles
in
diameter,
as
we
have
found.
He
called
it
a
heavenly
paradise.
It
was
his
intention
to
found
there
a
colony
of
those
who
were
in
rebellion
against
the
tyrants
of
Earth.
"His
followers
journeyed
to
the
Moon
and
brought
back
Moon
women
for
wives.
But
there
were
no
children
of
these
unions.
Later
there
were
dissensions
and
civil
war.
Three-fourths
of
the
colony
died
in
battle
with
one
another.
"I
was
a
young
man.
I
seized
the
reins
of
power.
The
survivors--these
old
men--were
disillusioned
and
docile.
I
made
myself
absolute.
I
brought
Moon
men
and
women
to
Eros
to
serve
us
as
slaves.
But
in
a
few
years
the
last
of
my
father's
old
compatriots
will
have
died,
and
thus
it
was
I
conceived
of
conquering
Earth
and
having
men
to
obey
me.
For
fifteen
years
I
have
been
experimenting
and
constructing
apparatus,
with
which
I
now
have
Earth
at
my
mercy.
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