Val and his men had brought along enough of the umbrella-shaped defenses
to get them through the barrier.
They held a short council of war. It was agreed that every able-bodied man
would go into the city. Nea and a few of the older men were detailed to
stay by The Nebula and take care of the women and children.
Nea had screamed and protested against that. She had only agreed to stay
upon one condition: That she be left one of the umbrella-skeletons.
The nights, Odin learned, were about sixteen hours long on this dying
planet. It was toward midnight when they started out from the ship toward
the violet dome. The strange half-light still hovered over the ground. In
the sky, splinters of mauve tore at curtains of purplish flame. Something
like northern lights, they glinted and gleamed, wrestled and writhed. There
was no peace up there in that abandoned sky. But there was enough of that
unearthly light glimmering below for him to watch his footsteps.
They had brought every kind of weapon that they could lug with them.
Atomic machine-guns. Needle-nosed things that spat blobs of flame.
Anti-gravitational bombs. Bombs that swirled slowly toward the enemy
and cut him down with scythe-blades.
Gunnar had laughed at that. "Hang on to your sword and knife, Nors-King.
We will need them yet."
With the umbrella frames held over them, as though protecting them from a
flood, they went through the barrier. Beyond it, thousands of men rose up
from the scarred plain to join them. Val had a much larger following than
Odin had ever guessed. These men were swathed in long coats and capes.
Similar items of apparel were hastily furnished the crew of The Nebula--for
when they were through the barrier the temperature dropped to about thirty.
Once they passed through a thin swirl of snow.
Then something screamed at them out there in the night and came at them
like a juggernaut. It must have stood nearly fifty feet high, and came
rushing at them on a score of legs, with dozens of eyes flashing green as
it hurtled forward.
The men of Loren were not greatly worried. They began to fire at it with
the pistol-shaped weapons. There was only a popping noise, but Odin could
hear the bullets smashing into the onrushing thing. Others used the
tulip-flared guns, which made no noise at all, but bolts of lightning sank
into the sides of the behemoth.
After it was dead its furious drive sent it nearly a score of yards
forward. It slid into a clump of twisted trees and tore them to splinters
before it stopped quivering. Finally the way was clear.
They waited there for a time to see if they had attracted any attention
from the city of the violet dome. Nothing happened, so they advanced again.
At least five thousand men now made up this little army. Val guessed that
there were a hundred thousand fighters left in the city, not counting the
experienced ruffians that Grim Hagen had brought with him.
They had advanced not over half a mile before the pale glow of the night
turned to utter darkness. Something that looked like a vast sea-nettle was
slowly sinking down toward them from the sky. Its tentacles glowed faintly
as it fell--and it must have been a hundred yards across at the top. Once
more bullets, lightning bolts and sheets of flame were hurled at the
descending thing. It fell apart and came writhing down. Men rushed to get
away from the reach of those flailing arms. They laid low and watched
while the thing died.
"Listen," Gunnar warned.
From far away came the sound of shots and an eerie whine that seemed
faintly familiar. The shots died down. The whine continued, louder and
louder, almost to the top peak of sound, as though a tiger was growling to
itself as it feasted.
Then all was still.
"It was from the Old Ship," Gunnar said. "I wonder--"
But there was no time left to wonder. As the thing died, the phosphor
glow faded from its lashing tentacles. Finally it was still. They picked
themselves up and went on toward the dome.
The dome was propped upon miles of forty-foot columns, all carved and
decorated like those from the Hall of Kings. Below the dome, the same
barrier came pouring down like an unseen waterfall. Again they used their
protective umbrella-frames. Then, sweating and cursing and grunting, they
hauled their weapons of war into the city.
* * * * *
Val the Loren had explained that the city was not a city as Ato and Odin
understood the words. Being domed, there was no use for rooms of any
kind. The temperature stayed constant. There were wide streets, paved
with blocks of pink and black marble. These streets were flanked by
sidewalks and walls. At intervals of a hundred feet the huge columns
were placed. They were minutely decorated and carved. These supported a
silver and clear-plastic framework that held up the violet dome. Looking
upward, Odin had the impression that he was standing beneath a vast
spider-web.
There were many hedges, all neatly trimmed. Some resembled privet, but
most of them were like pomegranate with larger reddish blossoms that
seemed to drip blood.
* * * * *
Here and there were railings with steps going down. Like subway entrances,
Odin thought, except they were more elaborately carved. These steps went
down to tier after tier of labyrinths. It was a skyscraper-city turned
upside down, Odin gathered from Val's explanations. The first level below
the city was made up of factories and machine shops. The next was where
plants, flowers, and trees were forced, producing the city's food. Below
that, for nearly a thousand feet, were the living quarters of the people.
The ground-level of the city was in reality a beautiful park. During the
day, Val explained, it was busy with street-vendors, open-air schools,
theaters, and thousands who came up from underground to drink the air and
the sun.
Now, it was nearly empty. The columns were evenly spaced and at a spot
exactly between each two columns was a great cresset of stone. At the top
of each cresset were flickering flames that burned without leaving any
smoke. "Like stone tulips with petals of flame," Gunnar said as he looked
at them. They stood nearly twelve feet high. Their pedestals were broad;
their stems were nearly a foot thick, nearly a yard across. Their flames
were violet, tipped with blue. They made a beautiful sight, but it did not
matter. For within less than an hour this lovely park with its carved
columns and tulip-shaped cressets of fire was turned into a shambles.
They had not gone a quarter of a mile before a guard hailed them. A score
of guns popped like opened bottles and the guard died before the echo of
his voice was gone. But his cry was taken up by others. And now Odin saw
that up there in the spider-web framework that held the dome were hundreds
of little cubicles--all manned.
Shafts of flame darted through the dim-lit area. Bullets whizzed. Ato's
needle-nosed machines began to whine and the metal in the guards' cubicles
grew red-hot and melted. Charred bodies came tumbling down. Men came
pouring out of the subway entrances. There was a crashing and grinding as
hidden elevators brought weapons of death to the surface. The fires in the
cressets danced higher. They fought now in mid-day light.
There was a blast nearby that nearly burst Odin's eardrums. A crash of
flame that half-blinded him. A gun-crew screamed and died as one of the
needle-nosed machines melted into puddles of steel. One by one these
guns exploded, taking their crews with them. But even as they died, they
littered the streets with the bodies of those who were pouring up from the
depths of the city. Even as one melted, its needle-nose swung upward and
its beam cut through girders as though they were soft cheese. There was an
awful grating sound as the heavy dome sagged a few inches. Splinters of
glass and plastic rained down upon invader and defender alike.
Guns burst in men's hands--or turned to soft wax. The machine guns grew
red-hot and melted. Ato sent his swirling bombs toward the enemy. The
scythe-blades dripped as they cut swaths through massed rows of human
flesh. But from far down the street a swarm of red sparks came rushing at
the bombs like hornets. They swirled about them, humming angrily. And then
the bombs and the hornet-sparks were gone.
Odin learned that the toadstool-shaped weapon which Val's men carried was
a defense against the lancing beams from the glassy tubes. So one by one
the weapons of offense and the weapons of defense fell apart. Sirens were
screaming within the city. Hordes were still arriving from the depths
below.
Ato had set up a huge, slowly-whirling globe that was studded with spines.
As it turned upon its axis, it emitted a strange pulsing light. As the
defenders came rushing up the stairways to the upper world, the guns at
their belts exploded in furious heat. They died by the hundreds at those
entrances. They filled the stairways and the halls below. Screams from
seared throats drowned out the noise of battle. The stench of burned flesh
and blood was now so heavy that it was hard to breathe. Another wild shell
crashed into the spider-web framework of the dome. It sagged again with a
shriek and a groan of protest. And once more a rain of glass showered down
upon them.
The defenders cleared the choked stairways and came on--dying at the
entrances and falling back and blocking the stairs again.
* * * * *
At the last they unbuckled their belts and their weapons and threw them
aside. Then they plunged through the entrances in a flood, armed with only
knives and clubs.
Meanwhile, Ato's guns were going out. The last became a white torch when
a magnesium blob struck it.
The side-arms were all gone.
They fought now with sword and knife.
Jack Odin felt a heavy hand upon his arm. Gunnar was at his side. "It
is even as I foretold you, Nors-King. The weapons are all gone. Stay
close by Gunnar's side now. We will fight together, as we fought before.
Eh, they are coming up from underground like ants. I think we have lost
the advantage. Hagen's dead lie thick, though. And now it is our turn.
The old swords and the swinging chant. Ah, Old Blood-Drinker will not be
thirsty tonight. Brace yourself. Here comes the first assault."
And with his huge short legs spread wide apart, Gunnar swung his
broadsword. The first wave of attackers went down like ripe wheat.
Gunnar and Odin cut their way through them, and came out against a
smoking hedge. Behind them, Ato and his Lorens strewed the streets
with dead.
Gunnar and Odin went through a hole in the hedge. A defender was making
for it from the other side, and Gunnar broke the man's neck. Clinging to
the thin shadow of the hedge they moved forward, killing as they went.