REVOLT OF THE DEVIL STAR
By ROSS ROCKLYNNE
The Law of the Universe stated that
all life must create and die. Devil
Star defied the law—for did he not
know the dread secret of his birth?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
February 1951
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The story of Darkness has been told. Darkness, the dreamer who crossedthe immeasurable gulf of lightless emptiness between two universes.He, an energy creature tens of millions of miles in girth, sought theanswer to life. Perhaps he found that answer in death, when he mated inthe thus-far inaccessible forty-eighth band of life.
And the story of Darkness' daughter Sun Destroyer has been told. Sheplunged back along Darkness' trail to seek out that aged, sorrowingbeing whose name was Oldster. For Oldster was wise. He had counselledDarkness. Surely Oldster could lead Sun Destroyer to her life'scompletion in the forty-ninth band of hyper-space. But there was noforty-ninth band, unless it lay in Sun Destroyer's wild fantasies ofimpossible happiness. She too died, yearning for her son Vanguard,the infant purple light who lay helpless in the seventeenth band ofhyper-space.
The story of Vanguard too has been told. He was renamed Yellow Lightby his taunting playmates, because of imperfections in his centralcore. Physically disabled by his long stay in the seventeenth band, hewas never to know happiness. Oldster, in his compassion and wisdom, ledVanguard to mate—to create and thus to die—for he knew Vanguard'strue greatness, that he was destined to father a new race who wouldsupplant the old.
And this is the last story of the Darkness, the story of the purplelight named Devil Star.
Youth and play. Youth and that great yard of galaxies with the greathigh fence of the darkness. Youth and the joys of living ... and thedeep-fluttering memory of his birth.
Into his ten-millionth year he never spoke of that memory. He kept itcold and suffocating in an unplumbed chamber of his thought swirls.Then it pressed upward in its wild escape.
"Moon Flame!"
His companion in the joyous race across that galaxy touched him brieflywith his visions.
"You spoke?"
"Yes! Moon Flame, listen to me. I must know something. Whether you—ifthe others—if they remember. Remember the moment of birth! Rememberthe mother—the dying father—the band of life—"
His aura quivered. He strove not to read concern in the gaze of MoonFlame.
"I do not remember it," said Moon Flame slowly. "Birth? Death? Father?You speak in riddles, Devil Star. Come now, faster! I see the others inthe galaxy beyond. Forget that silliness!"
For a clairvoyant second in his time-scale, the raging thoughts ofDevil Star swelled. And subsided.
He flung himself into Moon Flame's path.
"You must listen," he said tensely. "We must all beware. For all of uswill die!"
Moon Flame did not lessen his speed. "Die?"
"You do not understand, Moon Flame. Death is our destiny. It wasdestined long before we were born."
Moon Flame stared. "Then if this strange thing is destined, no one canwin against it."
"No one?" Devil Star swerved in his backward fl