"Just like old times," Jason said when Brucco came into the room with a
tray of food. Without a word Brucco served Jason and the wounded men in
the other beds, then left. "Thanks," Jason called after his retreating
back.
A joke, a twist of a grin, like it always was. Sure. But even as he
grinned and his lips shaped a joke, Jason felt them like a veneer on
the outside. Something plastered on with a life of its own. Inside he
was numb and immovable. His body was stiff as his eyes still watched
that arch of alien flesh descend and smother the one-armed Pyrran with
its million burning fingers.
He could feel himself under the arch. After all, hadn't the wounded man
taken his place? He finished the meal without realizing that he ate.
Ever since that morning, when he had recovered consciousness, it had
been like this. He knew that he should have died out there in that
battle-torn street. _His_ life should have been snuffed out, for making
the mistake of thinking that he could actually help the battling
Pyrrans. Instead of being underfoot and in the way. If it hadn't been
for Jason, the man with the wounded arm would have been brought here to
the safety of the reorientation buildings. He knew he was lying in the
bed that belonged to that man.
The man who had given his life for Jason's.
The man whose name he didn't even know.
There were drugs in the food and they made him sleep. The medicated pads
soaked the pain and rawness out of the burns where the tentacles had
seared his face. When he awoke the second time, his touch with reality
had been restored.
A man had died so he could live. Jason faced the fact. He couldn't
restore that life, no matter how much he wanted to. What he could do was
make the man's death worth while. If it can be said that any death was
worth while ... He forced his thoughts from that track.
Jason knew what he had to do. His work was even more important now. If
he could solve the riddle of this deadly world, he could repay in part
the debt he owed.
Sitting up made his head spin and he held to the edge of the bed until
it slowed down. The others in the room ignored him as he slowly and
painfully dragged on his clothes. Brucco came in, saw what he was doing,
and left again without a word.
Dressing took a long time, but it was finally done. When Jason finally
left the room he found Kerk waiting for him.
"Kerk ... I want to tell you ..."
"Tell me _nothing_!" The thunder of Kerk's voice bounced back from the
ceiling and walls. "I'm telling _you_. I'll tell you once and that will
be the end of it. You're not wanted on Pyrrus, Jason dinAlt, neither you
nor your precious off-world schemes are wanted here. I let you convince
me once with your twisted tongue. Helped you at the expense of more
important work. I should have known what the result of your 'logic'
would be. Now I've seen. Welf died so you could live. He was twice the
man you will ever be."
"Welf? Was that his name?" Jason asked stumblingly. "I didn't know--"
"You didn't even know." Kerk's lips pulled back from his teeth in a
grimace of disgust. "You didn't even know his name--yet he died that
you might continue your miserable existence." Kerk spat, as if the words
gave a vile flavor to his speech, and stamped towards the exit lock.
Almost as an afterthought he turned back to Jason.
"You'll stay here in the sealed buildings until the ship returns in two
weeks. Then you will leave this planet and never come back. If you do,
I'll kill you instantly. With pleasure." He started through the lock.
"Wait," Jason shouted. "You can't decide like that. You haven't even
seen the evidence I've uncovered. Ask Meta--" The lock thumped shut and
Kerk was gone.
* * * * *
The whole thing was just too stupid. Anger began to replace the futile
despair of a moment before. He was being treated like an irresponsible
child, the importance of his discovery of the log completely ignored.
Jason turned and saw for the first time that Brucco was standing there.
"Did you hear that?" Jason asked him.
"Yes. And I quite agree. You can consider yourself lucky."
"Lucky!" Jason was the angry one now. "Lucky to be treated like a
moronic child, with contempt for everything I do--"
"I said lucky," Brucco snapped. "Welf was Kerk's only surviving son.
Kerk had high hopes for him, was training him to take his place
eventually." He turned to leave but Jason called after him.
"Wait. I'm sorry about Welf. I can't be any sorrier knowing that he was
Kerk's son. But at least it explains why Kerk is so quick to throw me
out--as well as the evidence I have uncovered. The log of the ship--"
"I know, I've seen it," Brucco said. "Meta brought it in. Very
interesting historical document."
"That's all you can see it as--an historical document? The significance
of the planetary change escapes you?"
"It doesn't escape me," Brucco answered briefly, "but I cannot see that
it has any relevancy today. The past is unchangeable and we must fight
in the present. That is enough to occupy all our energies."
Jason felt too exhausted to argue the point any more. He ran into the
same stone wall with all the Pyrrans. Theirs was a logic of the moment.
The past and the future unchangeable, unknowable--and uninteresting.
"How is the perimeter battle going?" he asked, wanting to change the
subject.
"Finished. Or in the last stages at least," Brucco was almost
enthusiastic as he showed Jason some stereos of the attackers. He did
not notice Jason's repressed shudder.
"This was one of the most serious breakthroughs in years, but we caught
it in time. I hate to think what would have happened if they hadn't been
detected for a few weeks more."
"What are those things?" Jason asked. "Giant snakes of some kind?"
"Don't be absurd," Brucco snorted. He tapped the stereo with his
thumbnail. "Roots. That's all. Greatly modified, but still roots. They
came in under the perimeter barrier, much deeper than anything we've had
before. Not a real threat in themselves as they have very little
mobility. Die soon after being cut. The danger came from their being
used as access tunnels. They're bored through and through with animal
runs, and two or three species of beasts live in a sort of symbiosis
inside.
"Now we know what they are we can watch for them. The danger was they
could have completely undermined the perimeter and come in from all
sides at once. Not much we could have done then."
[Illustration]
The edge of destruction. Living on the lip of a volcano. The Pyrrans
took satisfaction from any day that passed without total annihilation.
There seemed no way to change their attitude. Jason let the conversation
die there. He picked up the log of the _Pollux Victory_ from Brucco's
quarters and carried it back to his room. The wounded Pyrrans there
ignored him as he dropped onto the bed and opened the book to the first
page.
For two days he did not leave his quarters. The wounded men were soon
gone and he had the room to himself. Page by page he went through the
log, until he knew every detail of the settlement of Pyrrus. His notes
and cross-references piled up. He made an accurate map of the original
settlement, superimposed over a modern one. They didn't match at all.
It was a dead end. With one map held over the other, what he had
suspected was painfully clear. The descriptions of terrain and physical
features in the log were accurate enough. The city had obviously been
moved since the first landing. Whatever records had been kept would be
in the library--and he had exhausted that source. Anything else would
have been left behind and long since destroyed.
Rain lashed against the thick window above his head, lit suddenly by a
flare of lightning. The unseen volcanoes were active again, vibrating
the floor with their rumblings deep in the earth.
The shadow of defeat pressed heavily down on Jason. Rounding his
shoulders and darkening, even more, the overcast day.