Outcast Of The Stars

"We're coming close to Earth now, Yorkan Varr," said the patrolman."We'll be dumping you any minute now."

The man addressed as Yorkan Varr scowled bitterly. "You're making amistake, I tell you. I didn't kill that man. I didn't even know him!"

The patrolman shrugged. "Sorry, but that's the way things go. The courtsaid you're guilty—and here you are. Don't jump on me. I'm just doingmy job."

Yorkan Varr made no reply. There was no sense arguing with thepatrolman, after all. There was no sense arguing with anyone.

He got up and stared out the viewplate at the mottled, spinning globeof Earth below, growing closer every moment, and his thin lips curledin an angry grimace. Earth. The garbage world, the dumping-groundfor the Galaxy's undesirables. Who'd ever imagine that he—YorkanVarr—would someday be approaching Earth for a life of exile?

He whirled to face the unsmiling patrolman. "Dammit, Hober, I didn'tkill him! You can't throw me into that refuse-heap down there! Youcan't do it!"

"Please, Yorkan Varr. We're approaching the moment when we must part."The patrolman held out a hand. "I'm sorry to have to do this to you.It's my job, that's all. Shake?"

Yorkan Varr stared at the extended hand for a moment, then slapped itaway. The patrolman smiled apologetically and rang a bell. Three othermen, also in the bronze uniform of the Condelari Federation, appearedfrom within and saluted.

"Get the disposal ship ready," the patrolman ordered.

"Yes, sir."

Hober turned to Yorkan Varr. "Come on, now. Let's go down and get readyto go to Earth, shall we?"

With a half-sobbing cry, Yorkan Varr threw himself forward on thepatrolman. His fists pounded mercilessly into the amazed man as hereleased the pent-up emotions of the nightmarish trial, the sentence,the journey across space to Earth.

"Help! Help!"

Varr felt hands grasp him from behind. Blind with rage, he let go ofHober, struck out at the others, felt his fists crack satisfyinglyinto flesh.

Then there was the chilling numbness of a stunbeam, and Varr froze.

"All right," he heard someone say. "Let's load him aboard the disposalrocket. They all crack up this way, I guess."

He felt hands lift him, felt himself being carried down a ladderand into a cooler room. Then he blanked out as a sudden thrust ofacceleration struck him. His last conscious thought was that he wasnow on the last leg of his one-way journey to Earth, condemned to thedumping-ground of the universe for a crime he never committed.

I didn't kill him, he thought fiercely. I didn't kill him.

When he awoke, he found himself lying in a wooded area. He sat up inthe grass and tried to get his bearings. He was dressed in rough,oddly-cut clothing, and in his hand was a letter-capsule. He broke itopen and read the note inside.