My hand kept returning to the ring beneath my
coverall. It had led us on a wild chase, probably to our deaths—where we would lie in company. I glanced around the vault. The
light was low, and shadows crept toward us from the rows of ominous
boxes. Behind those was only the heavy masonry of the walls. Even
if we were able to cut through on the opposite side from the ship
so that Hory might not sight our going, we would still have the
water to cross.
The ring. It had saved me and Eet before, though perhaps that
was only incidental to its seeking for its kind. Could it do
anything to get us out of here? Hory wanted it—wanted it
badly
I glanced at Eet, who was now a barely discernible blot against
the wall.
“Could you reach Hory’s mind from this
distance?”
“If there was a reason—I think so. His has—at least on
the surface—a relatively simple pattern—like yours.”
“How much influence could you bring to bear on him under
contact?”
“Very little. Such a tie needs cooperation to be
successful. The Patrolman does not trust me, nor would he open his
mind to me now. It would be necessary to break down active
resistance. I coud not hold him in any thrall.”
“But—you could me?” I did not know just what I
fished for. I was one feeling his way through the dark by touch
alone. If I chose rightly it meant life; if I failed—well—we
might not be worse off than at present.
“If you surrendered your full will. But that is not in
you. There is a stubborn core in your species which would resist
any take-over. Whether you wished to cooperate or not, I would have
a struggle on my hands.”
“But Hory does not know that. All he knows is that you
communicate mentally. He knows, though he will not admit it, that
you are not an animal. Suppose he were led to believe that you have
been controlling me all along, that I am only hands and feet to
serve you. Suppose I acted that part now, got out there saying you
were dead, I was free and wanted nothing more than to get back with
him—bringing the ring?”
“And just how are you going to make that clear to
him?” Eet inquired. He left the wall, flowed over the boxes
to hunch before me, his eyes level with mine. “If you emerge
on the platform he will burn you instantly.”
“Can you die spectacularly in a way he can see?” I
countered.
There was amusement rather than any direct answer.
“Clutching my throat and flopping about?” he asked
after a moment. “But with a laser you cannot perform so. I
would be scorched fur and a dead body instantly. However, always
supposing we could convince Hory I had made my exit permanently—what then?”
“I would emerge, dazed, cowed, ready to be taken
prisoner—”
“While I would later come to your rescue? Do you remember
that we played somewhat similar roles before? No, I do not believe
Hory is so gullible. Do not underestimate him. He may be more than
he seems.”
“What do you mean?”
“I believe he has a mind shield—that I have read only
surface thoughts—perhaps what he was programed to reveal. Did not
you yourself once say ‘Do not underrate your
opponents’? However, your suggestion has some points worth
considering. Suppose you were the one to meet his laser
beam?”
“But—he hates you. Would be treat with you?”
“Just so—a question. However, there is an implanted
feeling in your race that size and superior muscularity count much.
Hory hates me as a freak, a thing which belies his superiority.
Therefore, he must deal with me—for his own emotional
satisfaction—not by a flash of fire, but rather by delivering me
to his superiors in triumph. So far we have bested him and that
rankles. I wish we knew more.” Eet hesitated. “He is a
puzzle. And he is also intelligent enough to know that time is his
enemy. Do you think he has not already figured out a Guild
detachment may be on its way here?
“But they could not shake him out of his ship. Only—he
needs the ring as a booster to take off. He wants the ring, and he
would like me—you are merely incidental.”
“Thank you!” But Eet’s dissection of the
problem was not irritating—it was true. “So I
die—”
“As conspicuously as possible. I will then endeavor to
take over the noble mind of Hory, promising him the sun, any
vagrant moon, and, of course, the stars, all via the help of the
ring. I think he will use a stun beam on me—”
“But—”
“Oh, I do not think that weapon will be as effective as he
thinks it is. I shall be transported to the ship, doubtless
installed in a cage, and Hory will see his way clear to
departing.”
“Leaving me here? How—”
Again amusement from Eet. “I said I could not control Hory
without his assistance. But there is one time when that assistance,
unconsciously, may be mine for a short period. When he thinks I am
totally in his power, he will then, by our hope, relax his guard. I
do not need to advise you that period will be short. I am his
shocked and docile prisoner, you are dead. He has full
control—”
“And if the stunner really works on you?”
“Do you want to await death here?” Eet countered.
“What one can say this or that sore stroke will not fall on
his shoulders, aimed by the strong arm of fortune? Do you wish to
sit here waiting for the Guild, or perhaps for Hory to switch on
whatever heavy armament his ship affords and burn us to the bare
rocks, setting even those to bubbling around our roasted ears? What
I have learned of your minds suggests I have a good chance for what
I propose to do. Esper powers are not used much and to mechanical
devices such as cages there are always keys.”
Perhaps my partnership with Eet had made me particularly
susceptible to his self-confidence, or perhaps I merely wanted to
believe that his plan could work because I could not turn up a
better. But I made tacit agreement when I asked:
“And how do I die by laser beam without being crisped in
the process? That is a weapon one does not dodge, or survive. And
Hory will not be aiming over my head, or any place except where it
will do him the most good and me the least!”
It was now twilight in the vault and I could see Eet but not too
clearly. If he had a plausible answer I was willing to agree that
in this partnership he was the senior.
“I can give you five, perhaps ten heartbeats—” he
answered slowly.
“To do what? Act as if I were going to jump in the lake?
And how—”
“I can expend a little power over Hory, confusing his
sight. He will aim at what he thinks is his target. But that will
not be you.”
“Are you sure?” My skin crawled. Death by fire is
something no one of my kind faces with equanimity.
“I am sure.”
“What if he comes to view the remains?”
“I can again confuse his sight—for a short
period.” After a long moment’s pause he spoke more
briskly: “Now—we make sure of a future bargaining
point—”
“Bargaining point?” My imagination was still
occupied with several unpleasant possible future happenings.
“The cache of stones here. I do not think that without the
ring they will be visible.”
“The ring.” I took it out. “You will take the
ring, and leave the stones here as bait to draw him
back?”
Eet appeared to consider that. “If he had more time
perhaps. But I think not now. Give me the ring. These—we do not
want them in sight, if and when he comes to pick me up.”
It was my muscle which dragged the box from below the opening
and concealed it back behind one of the rows of coffins.
“Now!” Eet sat on a box. “He will not fire
until you are out in the open, making a dash for the parapet. The
laser may beam close enough so that you will feel its heat. The
rest is up to you.”
My good sense belabored me as I climbed up, reached out to grasp
the edges of the opening. If—if—and if again—
Eet popped out, running, heading for the parapet. I had only an
instant and then I fell, a searing, biting pain along my side—a
pain so intense that I was aware of nothing else for a second. I
could smell my clothes smoldering. Then Eet was back with me,
pulling at my coverall as if to urge me up and on, though in
reality putting out those lickings of fire.
His mind was closed to me, and I knew he was on the defensive,
waiting for a second attack from our common enemy. Suddenly he
stiffened, fell over, and lay still, though his eyes were open and
I could see the fluttering of his breathing along his side. Hory
had used a stunner even as Eet had foreseen, but how effectively?
And I could not query Eet as to that.
Around one of his forelegs was the ring. Perhaps his pawing at
my smoldering clothing might have been translated by the watcher
into a hunt for that. Now we lay still, I belly down, my head
turned toward Eet, he flattened out, his legs stiff. Where was
Hory?
It seemed to me that we lay there for hours. Since we must be
under observation from the ship, there was no chance to move. I had
gone down at the touch of that searing beam, not in a planned fall,
and my right leg, half doubled under my body, began to cramp. I
would be in ho shape to carry on battle should Hory decide I was
not safely dead. In fact he would be a fool not to crisp us now as
we lay.
Except that Eet was sure the Patrolman wanted him. And he had
contrived to collapse so close to me that now a sweeping beam aimed
from the ship could not remove one of us without killing the other
into the bargain.
I could not raise my head to watch the shore line or the span,
both hidden by the parapet. Winged things came out of nowhere to
buzz about us, crawl across my flesh. And I had to lie and take
their attention with no show of life. In that period it was driven
home to me again that a man’s hardest ordeal is waiting.
Then I heard a crackling. Someone, or something, was climbing
the span from the shore, the frail structure creaking and crackling
under the weight. A many-legged thing crawled across my cheek and I
shrank from its touch, so that it seemed my very skin must
shrivel.
My field of vision was so limited! I was not even facing the
direction where booted feet would be visible as they crossed the
parapet. I heard the metallic click of the sole plates of space
footgear on the stone.
Now—would Hory finish the job by simply turning a hand laser
on me? Or would the illusion Eet promised hold long enough to
deceive him? Perhaps Eet was truly stunned, unable to provide such
cover.
Those few moments were the longest of my life. I think had I
come out of them with the touch of old age upon me I would not have
been surprised.
The boots came into my restricted line of vision. The crawling
thing on my face now rested across my nose. A hand reached down and
I saw the sleeve of a uniform. Fingers closed on Eet, swung him
aloft out of my sight. I waited for a burning flash.
But (and for an instant I could not believe it) the boots
turned, were gone. I was not yet safe; he could pause before he
climbed the parapet and fire at me again.
I heard the scrape of his boot plates die away and listened once
more to the creak of the span. He had only to pull that down or
burn it to make me a prisoner.
How long before I dared move? The need to do that became a
growing agony in me. I lay and endured as best I could. What came
at last was enough to fill me with despair—the clatter of a
ship’s ramp being rolled in. Hory was back in his fortress
and he had activated the sealing of the ship. Preparing to take
off?
I waited no longer, struggling against the stiffness and pain in
my body, rolling into the shadow of the parapet. Then I pulled
along to reach the span. It was still in place; Hory had not
stopped to destroy it. Perhaps he intended to return and
investigate what lay here after he had made sure of Eet and the
ring.
Half sliding, at a speed which left splinters in my hands, for I
lay almost flat on that fragile link with land and allowed its
slope to carry me to the beach, I reached the sand. Once ashore, I
sprinted for the underbrush, expecting at any instant to be
enveloped by fire.
The very uncertainty of what might be happening, or Hory’s
next move, was as hard to take as if I were under physical attack.
I must rely entirely on Eet. And whether at this moment he was a
helpless captive I did not know. But I could not expect more than
the worst.
There was one fairly safe place if I could reach it—directly
under the fins of the ship. Always supposing Hory did not choose
that particular moment to press the off button and crisp my
cowering body by rocket blast. Throwing all caution to the winds, I
dashed straight for the ship and somehow reached that hiding place.
My side was ablaze with pain. The laser had not really caught me—I would have been dead if it had—but it had passed close enough
to burn away the fabric and leave a red brand on my ribs.
So far I had managed to keep alive. But now what? The ship was
sealed, Eet imprisoned in it, and Hory the master of the situation.
Would he lift off-world? Or could his curiosity be so aroused by
the vault that he would make another visit to it? The ring! What if
he used the ring even as we had done and followed its guide? But
would he be so incautious—
“Murdoc!”
Eet’s summons was as demanding as a shout from an aroused
sentry.
“Here!”
“He is now under my control—for how long—”
Eet’s thread of communication broke. I waited, tense. Dare I
beam to him where I was and how helplessly outside the sealed ship?
If his control had slipped, then perhaps Hory would be able to pick
that up too. I knew too little about his own powers.
Then I saw the loops set in the fin, surely meant to be hand-
and foot-holds, leading up to the body of the ship. But would they
bring me to any hatch? They might be for the convenience of workmen
only. That they might—a thin chance—be indeed a way in, made me
move.
My seared side hurt so badly as I racked it by my struggles that
only willpower kept me going. I reached the top of the fin. My
ladder did not end there as I feared it would. The holds were now
smaller, less easy to negotiate, but beyond them was the outline of
a hatch.
I took a chance—“Eet!” I am sure my summons was as
strident as the one he had roused me with, because I knew this to
be my last chance. “A hatch—lower—can you activate the
opening?”
I knew that I was asking the impossible. But still I made my way
toward it, clung to the side of the ship as sweat poured down my
face and arms, threatening my hold on those slippery loops.
But the crack around the sealing was more pronounced. It was
giving. I loosed one hand and beat upon it with all my strength.
Whether that small expenditure of effort did hasten the process, or
whether the controls suddenly loosened, I had no way of knowing,
but the whole plate fell away.
What I crawled into was a much larger space than the upper hatch
into which the ramp led. And it was occupied, almost to the full
extent of the area, by a one-man flitter—a scout intended for
exploration use.
I had found not only a door in but a possible escape out. Before
I crawled over and around the machine to the inner hatch, I got out
of the flitter one of its store of emergency tools, a bar for
testing the composition of ground, and wedged it with all the
strength I could to hold the hatch open. Now, even if Hory tried to
take off, the ship would not rise. That hatch would have to be
closed and he must do it by hand. The protection alarms of the ship
would see to that.
The inner hatch had no latch, and it gave easily. I was out in a
corridor. I had a laser, and I had also taken an aid kit from the
flitter. Now I leaned back against the wall to open that. I brought
out a tube of plasta-heal and plastered its contents liberally over
my ribs. That almost instantly-hardening crust banished pain and
began the healing, giving me renewed strength and mobility.
Then, feeling far more able to tackle what might await me above,
I slipped along the ladder. Had I had more than a passenger’s
knowledge of the ship I might have found a more secretive way from
level to, level, but I did not. So I had to go openly, up to the
control cabin, where I was sure I would find both Eet and Hory.
I did not attempt to touch minds with Eet again. If my last
appeal to him had alerted the Patrolman, then Hory would guess I
was in the ship and would be readying traps for me.
One small advantage I had. My feet had nearly worn through those
coverings which had been the linings of the space boots. The
material was tough but it had become very thin. The lack of boots
now gave me silence as I took the core ladder one hesitant step at
a time, listening ever for either a betraying noise from above, or
the sound of engines.
I had advanced to the level which held the galley. As yet I had
heard nothing, nor had I had any message from Eet. The silence
which covered my advance now seemed ominous to me. Perfect
confidence on Hory’s part could keep him waiting for me. And
since I would emerge from a well in the floor there, he would have
me at his mercy when I reached my goal.
Now I had only those last few steps. I flattened myself against
the ladder, tried to make of my body one giant ear, listening,
listening.
“I know you are down there—” Hory’s voice. But
it sounded thin, strained, almost desperate, as if its owner was in
such a vice of tension as to be on the raw edge of breaking. What
could have reduced him to such a state?
“I know you are there! I am waiting—”
To burn my head off, I deduced. And then Eet broke in, but he
was not addressing me.
“It is no use, you cannot kill him.”
“You—you—” Hory’s voice arose in an eerie
shriek. “I’ll burn you!”
I heard the crackle of a laser beam and cringed against the
ladder. Then I found myself climbing without my mind ordering my
hands and feet into action. There was ozone in the air and I saw,
shooting across the mouth of the well, flashes of light.
Eet once more: “Your fear is self-defeating, as I have
shown you.” He seemed very calm. “Why not be sensible?
You are not unintelligent. Do you not see that a temporary alliance
is going to be the only solution? Look up at that
screen—look!”
I heard an inarticulate exclamation from Hory. And then Eet
spoke to me.
“UP!”
I took the last two steps with a rush, remained half crouched,
my laser ready. But I did not need that. Hory stood, his back to
me, a laser in his hand, but that hand had fallen to his side. He
was staring at the visa-screen and I saw over his shoulder what
held him oblivious.
Across the inlet, facing the platform of the vault, a square of
gleaming metal pushed out of the brush, advancing onto the sand at
a crawl. I do not know what type of machinery it hid, but there was
a small port open at its top. And I thought that whatever lurked
behind it was certainly a deadly promise.
How well protected this ship might be I could not tell, but
there are some weapons which it might not be able to withstand. A
quick lift could be our only hope. But—the bar I had left in the
hatch—an anchor keeping us grounded.
“Eet—” I paid no attention to Hory. “I have to
unstopper a hatch—so we can lift—”
I half-threw myself into the well, skidding down the ladder in a
progress which was a series of falls I delayed from level to level
by grabs at the rails. Then I slammed along the corridor at the
bottom, wedged past the flitter once more. I had done my work of
locking the hatch open almost too well. Though I jerked at the bar,
I finally had to use the butt of the laser to pound it loose. At
last it fell with a clang. I pulled at the far too slowly moving
door, brought it shut, dogged it down as fast as I could.
Panting, I started back up the ladder. Would Hory’s
solution be the same? If so, I would have to reach a shock cushion
before we lifted. Also—what was going on in the control
cabin?
My ascent was not as speedy as the descent had been, but I
wasted no time in making it. And I half expected to be greeted by a
laser blast; or at least threatened into submission.
But Hory stood with both hands on controls, not those of the
pilot, but another set to one side. A beam flashed out from the
ship. The visa-screen allowed us to follow its track as it struck
across the platform. But it was mounted on a higher course now, to
hit directly on that wall of metal moving slowly out of the
brush.
There was no resulting glow of the sort that would have followed
such an impact on any surface I knew. It was almost as if the
shield simply absorbed the ray Hory hurled at it.
I glanced from the screen to look for Eet. There was a
burned-out, melted-down mass of wiring to one side of the passenger
webbing. But if that had caged the mutant, it had not done so for
long. Now he clung to the pilot’s seat, swinging back and
forth, as intent upon the screen as Hory.
A second or two later, and the ship rocked as if a giant fist
had beat upon it. Not from the direction of that advancing shield,
but from behind. We had been intent upon one enemy and lowered our
guard to another. There was no time to assess the nature of that
second, only to feel what attack it launched. I kept my feet by
grabbing at the back of the seat. Hory crashed against the bank of
buttons he tended, caromed off to the floor. Lights flickered and
ran wild across both boards.
Eet sprang from his hold to the edge of the board. We were
slightly aslant, enough to make it noticeable that we had been
rocked from a straight three-fin stand. Another such blow would
send us over, to lie as helpless as a sea dweller stranded
ashore.
“Cushions!” Eet’s warning rang in my head.
“Blast off—!”
I caught at Hory, pulled him over against the pilot’s
chair so that we both lay half across the webbing. The quiver of
the ship’s awaking was about us. I saw Eet’s paws
playing across the board, his long body seemingly plastered to
that. Then we did indeed blast off—into a nothingness of
mind.
My hand kept returning to the ring beneath my
coverall. It had led us on a wild chase, probably to our deaths—where we would lie in company. I glanced around the vault. The
light was low, and shadows crept toward us from the rows of ominous
boxes. Behind those was only the heavy masonry of the walls. Even
if we were able to cut through on the opposite side from the ship
so that Hory might not sight our going, we would still have the
water to cross.
The ring. It had saved me and Eet before, though perhaps that
was only incidental to its seeking for its kind. Could it do
anything to get us out of here? Hory wanted it—wanted it
badly
I glanced at Eet, who was now a barely discernible blot against
the wall.
“Could you reach Hory’s mind from this
distance?”
“If there was a reason—I think so. His has—at least on
the surface—a relatively simple pattern—like yours.”
“How much influence could you bring to bear on him under
contact?”
“Very little. Such a tie needs cooperation to be
successful. The Patrolman does not trust me, nor would he open his
mind to me now. It would be necessary to break down active
resistance. I coud not hold him in any thrall.”
“But—you could me?” I did not know just what I
fished for. I was one feeling his way through the dark by touch
alone. If I chose rightly it meant life; if I failed—well—we
might not be worse off than at present.
“If you surrendered your full will. But that is not in
you. There is a stubborn core in your species which would resist
any take-over. Whether you wished to cooperate or not, I would have
a struggle on my hands.”
“But Hory does not know that. All he knows is that you
communicate mentally. He knows, though he will not admit it, that
you are not an animal. Suppose he were led to believe that you have
been controlling me all along, that I am only hands and feet to
serve you. Suppose I acted that part now, got out there saying you
were dead, I was free and wanted nothing more than to get back with
him—bringing the ring?”
“And just how are you going to make that clear to
him?” Eet inquired. He left the wall, flowed over the boxes
to hunch before me, his eyes level with mine. “If you emerge
on the platform he will burn you instantly.”
“Can you die spectacularly in a way he can see?” I
countered.
There was amusement rather than any direct answer.
“Clutching my throat and flopping about?” he asked
after a moment. “But with a laser you cannot perform so. I
would be scorched fur and a dead body instantly. However, always
supposing we could convince Hory I had made my exit permanently—what then?”
“I would emerge, dazed, cowed, ready to be taken
prisoner—”
“While I would later come to your rescue? Do you remember
that we played somewhat similar roles before? No, I do not believe
Hory is so gullible. Do not underestimate him. He may be more than
he seems.”
“What do you mean?”
“I believe he has a mind shield—that I have read only
surface thoughts—perhaps what he was programed to reveal. Did not
you yourself once say ‘Do not underrate your
opponents’? However, your suggestion has some points worth
considering. Suppose you were the one to meet his laser
beam?”
“But—he hates you. Would be treat with you?”
“Just so—a question. However, there is an implanted
feeling in your race that size and superior muscularity count much.
Hory hates me as a freak, a thing which belies his superiority.
Therefore, he must deal with me—for his own emotional
satisfaction—not by a flash of fire, but rather by delivering me
to his superiors in triumph. So far we have bested him and that
rankles. I wish we knew more.” Eet hesitated. “He is a
puzzle. And he is also intelligent enough to know that time is his
enemy. Do you think he has not already figured out a Guild
detachment may be on its way here?
“But they could not shake him out of his ship. Only—he
needs the ring as a booster to take off. He wants the ring, and he
would like me—you are merely incidental.”
“Thank you!” But Eet’s dissection of the
problem was not irritating—it was true. “So I
die—”
“As conspicuously as possible. I will then endeavor to
take over the noble mind of Hory, promising him the sun, any
vagrant moon, and, of course, the stars, all via the help of the
ring. I think he will use a stun beam on me—”
“But—”
“Oh, I do not think that weapon will be as effective as he
thinks it is. I shall be transported to the ship, doubtless
installed in a cage, and Hory will see his way clear to
departing.”
“Leaving me here? How—”
Again amusement from Eet. “I said I could not control Hory
without his assistance. But there is one time when that assistance,
unconsciously, may be mine for a short period. When he thinks I am
totally in his power, he will then, by our hope, relax his guard. I
do not need to advise you that period will be short. I am his
shocked and docile prisoner, you are dead. He has full
control—”
“And if the stunner really works on you?”
“Do you want to await death here?” Eet countered.
“What one can say this or that sore stroke will not fall on
his shoulders, aimed by the strong arm of fortune? Do you wish to
sit here waiting for the Guild, or perhaps for Hory to switch on
whatever heavy armament his ship affords and burn us to the bare
rocks, setting even those to bubbling around our roasted ears? What
I have learned of your minds suggests I have a good chance for what
I propose to do. Esper powers are not used much and to mechanical
devices such as cages there are always keys.”
Perhaps my partnership with Eet had made me particularly
susceptible to his self-confidence, or perhaps I merely wanted to
believe that his plan could work because I could not turn up a
better. But I made tacit agreement when I asked:
“And how do I die by laser beam without being crisped in
the process? That is a weapon one does not dodge, or survive. And
Hory will not be aiming over my head, or any place except where it
will do him the most good and me the least!”
It was now twilight in the vault and I could see Eet but not too
clearly. If he had a plausible answer I was willing to agree that
in this partnership he was the senior.
“I can give you five, perhaps ten heartbeats—” he
answered slowly.
“To do what? Act as if I were going to jump in the lake?
And how—”
“I can expend a little power over Hory, confusing his
sight. He will aim at what he thinks is his target. But that will
not be you.”
“Are you sure?” My skin crawled. Death by fire is
something no one of my kind faces with equanimity.
“I am sure.”
“What if he comes to view the remains?”
“I can again confuse his sight—for a short
period.” After a long moment’s pause he spoke more
briskly: “Now—we make sure of a future bargaining
point—”
“Bargaining point?” My imagination was still
occupied with several unpleasant possible future happenings.
“The cache of stones here. I do not think that without the
ring they will be visible.”
“The ring.” I took it out. “You will take the
ring, and leave the stones here as bait to draw him
back?”
Eet appeared to consider that. “If he had more time
perhaps. But I think not now. Give me the ring. These—we do not
want them in sight, if and when he comes to pick me up.”
It was my muscle which dragged the box from below the opening
and concealed it back behind one of the rows of coffins.
“Now!” Eet sat on a box. “He will not fire
until you are out in the open, making a dash for the parapet. The
laser may beam close enough so that you will feel its heat. The
rest is up to you.”
My good sense belabored me as I climbed up, reached out to grasp
the edges of the opening. If—if—and if again—
Eet popped out, running, heading for the parapet. I had only an
instant and then I fell, a searing, biting pain along my side—a
pain so intense that I was aware of nothing else for a second. I
could smell my clothes smoldering. Then Eet was back with me,
pulling at my coverall as if to urge me up and on, though in
reality putting out those lickings of fire.
His mind was closed to me, and I knew he was on the defensive,
waiting for a second attack from our common enemy. Suddenly he
stiffened, fell over, and lay still, though his eyes were open and
I could see the fluttering of his breathing along his side. Hory
had used a stunner even as Eet had foreseen, but how effectively?
And I could not query Eet as to that.
Around one of his forelegs was the ring. Perhaps his pawing at
my smoldering clothing might have been translated by the watcher
into a hunt for that. Now we lay still, I belly down, my head
turned toward Eet, he flattened out, his legs stiff. Where was
Hory?
It seemed to me that we lay there for hours. Since we must be
under observation from the ship, there was no chance to move. I had
gone down at the touch of that searing beam, not in a planned fall,
and my right leg, half doubled under my body, began to cramp. I
would be in ho shape to carry on battle should Hory decide I was
not safely dead. In fact he would be a fool not to crisp us now as
we lay.
Except that Eet was sure the Patrolman wanted him. And he had
contrived to collapse so close to me that now a sweeping beam aimed
from the ship could not remove one of us without killing the other
into the bargain.
I could not raise my head to watch the shore line or the span,
both hidden by the parapet. Winged things came out of nowhere to
buzz about us, crawl across my flesh. And I had to lie and take
their attention with no show of life. In that period it was driven
home to me again that a man’s hardest ordeal is waiting.
Then I heard a crackling. Someone, or something, was climbing
the span from the shore, the frail structure creaking and crackling
under the weight. A many-legged thing crawled across my cheek and I
shrank from its touch, so that it seemed my very skin must
shrivel.
My field of vision was so limited! I was not even facing the
direction where booted feet would be visible as they crossed the
parapet. I heard the metallic click of the sole plates of space
footgear on the stone.
Now—would Hory finish the job by simply turning a hand laser
on me? Or would the illusion Eet promised hold long enough to
deceive him? Perhaps Eet was truly stunned, unable to provide such
cover.
Those few moments were the longest of my life. I think had I
come out of them with the touch of old age upon me I would not have
been surprised.
The boots came into my restricted line of vision. The crawling
thing on my face now rested across my nose. A hand reached down and
I saw the sleeve of a uniform. Fingers closed on Eet, swung him
aloft out of my sight. I waited for a burning flash.
But (and for an instant I could not believe it) the boots
turned, were gone. I was not yet safe; he could pause before he
climbed the parapet and fire at me again.
I heard the scrape of his boot plates die away and listened once
more to the creak of the span. He had only to pull that down or
burn it to make me a prisoner.
How long before I dared move? The need to do that became a
growing agony in me. I lay and endured as best I could. What came
at last was enough to fill me with despair—the clatter of a
ship’s ramp being rolled in. Hory was back in his fortress
and he had activated the sealing of the ship. Preparing to take
off?
I waited no longer, struggling against the stiffness and pain in
my body, rolling into the shadow of the parapet. Then I pulled
along to reach the span. It was still in place; Hory had not
stopped to destroy it. Perhaps he intended to return and
investigate what lay here after he had made sure of Eet and the
ring.
Half sliding, at a speed which left splinters in my hands, for I
lay almost flat on that fragile link with land and allowed its
slope to carry me to the beach, I reached the sand. Once ashore, I
sprinted for the underbrush, expecting at any instant to be
enveloped by fire.
The very uncertainty of what might be happening, or Hory’s
next move, was as hard to take as if I were under physical attack.
I must rely entirely on Eet. And whether at this moment he was a
helpless captive I did not know. But I could not expect more than
the worst.
There was one fairly safe place if I could reach it—directly
under the fins of the ship. Always supposing Hory did not choose
that particular moment to press the off button and crisp my
cowering body by rocket blast. Throwing all caution to the winds, I
dashed straight for the ship and somehow reached that hiding place.
My side was ablaze with pain. The laser had not really caught me—I would have been dead if it had—but it had passed close enough
to burn away the fabric and leave a red brand on my ribs.
So far I had managed to keep alive. But now what? The ship was
sealed, Eet imprisoned in it, and Hory the master of the situation.
Would he lift off-world? Or could his curiosity be so aroused by
the vault that he would make another visit to it? The ring! What if
he used the ring even as we had done and followed its guide? But
would he be so incautious—
“Murdoc!”
Eet’s summons was as demanding as a shout from an aroused
sentry.
“Here!”
“He is now under my control—for how long—”
Eet’s thread of communication broke. I waited, tense. Dare I
beam to him where I was and how helplessly outside the sealed ship?
If his control had slipped, then perhaps Hory would be able to pick
that up too. I knew too little about his own powers.
Then I saw the loops set in the fin, surely meant to be hand-
and foot-holds, leading up to the body of the ship. But would they
bring me to any hatch? They might be for the convenience of workmen
only. That they might—a thin chance—be indeed a way in, made me
move.
My seared side hurt so badly as I racked it by my struggles that
only willpower kept me going. I reached the top of the fin. My
ladder did not end there as I feared it would. The holds were now
smaller, less easy to negotiate, but beyond them was the outline of
a hatch.
I took a chance—“Eet!” I am sure my summons was as
strident as the one he had roused me with, because I knew this to
be my last chance. “A hatch—lower—can you activate the
opening?”
I knew that I was asking the impossible. But still I made my way
toward it, clung to the side of the ship as sweat poured down my
face and arms, threatening my hold on those slippery loops.
But the crack around the sealing was more pronounced. It was
giving. I loosed one hand and beat upon it with all my strength.
Whether that small expenditure of effort did hasten the process, or
whether the controls suddenly loosened, I had no way of knowing,
but the whole plate fell away.
What I crawled into was a much larger space than the upper hatch
into which the ramp led. And it was occupied, almost to the full
extent of the area, by a one-man flitter—a scout intended for
exploration use.
I had found not only a door in but a possible escape out. Before
I crawled over and around the machine to the inner hatch, I got out
of the flitter one of its store of emergency tools, a bar for
testing the composition of ground, and wedged it with all the
strength I could to hold the hatch open. Now, even if Hory tried to
take off, the ship would not rise. That hatch would have to be
closed and he must do it by hand. The protection alarms of the ship
would see to that.
The inner hatch had no latch, and it gave easily. I was out in a
corridor. I had a laser, and I had also taken an aid kit from the
flitter. Now I leaned back against the wall to open that. I brought
out a tube of plasta-heal and plastered its contents liberally over
my ribs. That almost instantly-hardening crust banished pain and
began the healing, giving me renewed strength and mobility.
Then, feeling far more able to tackle what might await me above,
I slipped along the ladder. Had I had more than a passenger’s
knowledge of the ship I might have found a more secretive way from
level to, level, but I did not. So I had to go openly, up to the
control cabin, where I was sure I would find both Eet and Hory.
I did not attempt to touch minds with Eet again. If my last
appeal to him had alerted the Patrolman, then Hory would guess I
was in the ship and would be readying traps for me.
One small advantage I had. My feet had nearly worn through those
coverings which had been the linings of the space boots. The
material was tough but it had become very thin. The lack of boots
now gave me silence as I took the core ladder one hesitant step at
a time, listening ever for either a betraying noise from above, or
the sound of engines.
I had advanced to the level which held the galley. As yet I had
heard nothing, nor had I had any message from Eet. The silence
which covered my advance now seemed ominous to me. Perfect
confidence on Hory’s part could keep him waiting for me. And
since I would emerge from a well in the floor there, he would have
me at his mercy when I reached my goal.
Now I had only those last few steps. I flattened myself against
the ladder, tried to make of my body one giant ear, listening,
listening.
“I know you are down there—” Hory’s voice. But
it sounded thin, strained, almost desperate, as if its owner was in
such a vice of tension as to be on the raw edge of breaking. What
could have reduced him to such a state?
“I know you are there! I am waiting—”
To burn my head off, I deduced. And then Eet broke in, but he
was not addressing me.
“It is no use, you cannot kill him.”
“You—you—” Hory’s voice arose in an eerie
shriek. “I’ll burn you!”
I heard the crackle of a laser beam and cringed against the
ladder. Then I found myself climbing without my mind ordering my
hands and feet into action. There was ozone in the air and I saw,
shooting across the mouth of the well, flashes of light.
Eet once more: “Your fear is self-defeating, as I have
shown you.” He seemed very calm. “Why not be sensible?
You are not unintelligent. Do you not see that a temporary alliance
is going to be the only solution? Look up at that
screen—look!”
I heard an inarticulate exclamation from Hory. And then Eet
spoke to me.
“UP!”
I took the last two steps with a rush, remained half crouched,
my laser ready. But I did not need that. Hory stood, his back to
me, a laser in his hand, but that hand had fallen to his side. He
was staring at the visa-screen and I saw over his shoulder what
held him oblivious.
Across the inlet, facing the platform of the vault, a square of
gleaming metal pushed out of the brush, advancing onto the sand at
a crawl. I do not know what type of machinery it hid, but there was
a small port open at its top. And I thought that whatever lurked
behind it was certainly a deadly promise.
How well protected this ship might be I could not tell, but
there are some weapons which it might not be able to withstand. A
quick lift could be our only hope. But—the bar I had left in the
hatch—an anchor keeping us grounded.
“Eet—” I paid no attention to Hory. “I have to
unstopper a hatch—so we can lift—”
I half-threw myself into the well, skidding down the ladder in a
progress which was a series of falls I delayed from level to level
by grabs at the rails. Then I slammed along the corridor at the
bottom, wedged past the flitter once more. I had done my work of
locking the hatch open almost too well. Though I jerked at the bar,
I finally had to use the butt of the laser to pound it loose. At
last it fell with a clang. I pulled at the far too slowly moving
door, brought it shut, dogged it down as fast as I could.
Panting, I started back up the ladder. Would Hory’s
solution be the same? If so, I would have to reach a shock cushion
before we lifted. Also—what was going on in the control
cabin?
My ascent was not as speedy as the descent had been, but I
wasted no time in making it. And I half expected to be greeted by a
laser blast; or at least threatened into submission.
But Hory stood with both hands on controls, not those of the
pilot, but another set to one side. A beam flashed out from the
ship. The visa-screen allowed us to follow its track as it struck
across the platform. But it was mounted on a higher course now, to
hit directly on that wall of metal moving slowly out of the
brush.
There was no resulting glow of the sort that would have followed
such an impact on any surface I knew. It was almost as if the
shield simply absorbed the ray Hory hurled at it.
I glanced from the screen to look for Eet. There was a
burned-out, melted-down mass of wiring to one side of the passenger
webbing. But if that had caged the mutant, it had not done so for
long. Now he clung to the pilot’s seat, swinging back and
forth, as intent upon the screen as Hory.
A second or two later, and the ship rocked as if a giant fist
had beat upon it. Not from the direction of that advancing shield,
but from behind. We had been intent upon one enemy and lowered our
guard to another. There was no time to assess the nature of that
second, only to feel what attack it launched. I kept my feet by
grabbing at the back of the seat. Hory crashed against the bank of
buttons he tended, caromed off to the floor. Lights flickered and
ran wild across both boards.
Eet sprang from his hold to the edge of the board. We were
slightly aslant, enough to make it noticeable that we had been
rocked from a straight three-fin stand. Another such blow would
send us over, to lie as helpless as a sea dweller stranded
ashore.
“Cushions!” Eet’s warning rang in my head.
“Blast off—!”
I caught at Hory, pulled him over against the pilot’s
chair so that we both lay half across the webbing. The quiver of
the ship’s awaking was about us. I saw Eet’s paws
playing across the board, his long body seemingly plastered to
that. Then we did indeed blast off—into a nothingness of
mind.