They were air-borne once more, but Raf was not pleased. In the seat
beside him, which Captain Hobart should be occupying, there now
squirmed an alien warrior who apparently was uncomfortable in the
chair-like depression so different from the low stools he was
accustomed to. Soriki was still in the second passenger place, but he,
too, shared that with another of the men from the city who rested
across bony knees a strange weapon rather like a Terran rifle.
No, the spacemen were not prisoners. According to the official
statement they were allies. But, Raf wondered, as against his will he
followed the globe in a northeastern course, how long would that
fiction last if they refused to fall in with any suggestions the
aliens might make? He did not doubt that there was on board the globe
some surprise which could shoot the flitter out of the air, if, for
example, he adjusted the controls before him and bore west toward the
mountains and the safety of the space ship. Either of the aliens he
now transported could bring him under control by using those weapons,
which might do anything from boiling a man in some unknown ray to
smothering him in gas. He had not seen the arms in action, and he did
not want to.
Yet Hobart and Lablet did not, as far as he could tell, share his
suspicions. Lablet was eager to see the mysterious storehouse, and the
captain was either moved by the same desire or else had long since
deduced the folly of trying to make a break for it. Thus they were now
heading seaward with the captain and Lablet sharing quarters with the
leaders of the expedition on board the globe, and Raf and the
com-tech, with companions--or guards--bringing up the rear. The aliens
had even insisted on stripping the flitter of much of its Terran
equipment before they left the city, pointing out that the cleared
storage space would be filled with salvage when they made the return
voyage.
The globe had been trailing along the coastline, and now it angled out
to glide over a long finger of cape, rocky and waterworn, which
pointed at almost a right angle into the sea. This dwindled into a
reef of rock, like the nail on a finger. The sea ahead was no unbroken
expanse. Instead there was a series of islands, some merely tops of
reefs over which the waves broke, others more substantial, rising well
above the threatening water, and one or two showing the green of
vegetation.
The chain of islets extended so far out that when the flitter passed
over the last one the main continent was out of sight. Now only water
stretched beneath them. The globe skidded on as if its pilot had given
it an extra burst of power, and Raf accelerated in turn, having no
desire to lose his guide. But they were not to make the ocean-wide
trip in one jump.
At midday he saw again a break in the smooth carpet of waves, another
island, or perhaps the southern tip of a northern continent for the
land swept in that direction as far as he could see. The globe
spiraled down to make a neat landing on a flat plateau, and Raf
prepared to join it. When the undercarriage of the flitter jarred
lightly on the rock, he saw signs that this was a man- or
alien-fashioned place which must have had much use in the dim past
when his new companions ruled all their native world.
The rock had been smoothed off to a flat surface, and at its perimeter
were several small domed buildings. Yet, as there had been in the
countryside and in the city, except at its very heart, there was an
aura of desertion at the site.
Both his alien passengers jumped out of the flitter, as if only too
pleased at their release from the Terran flyer. For the first time Raf
was shaken out of his own preoccupation with his dislike for the
aliens to wonder if they could be moved by a similar distaste for
Terrans. Lablet might be interested in that as a scientific
problem--the pilot only knew how he felt and that was not comfortable.
Soriki got out and walked across the rock, stretching. But for a long
moment Raf remained where he was, behind the controls of the flyer. He
was as cramped and tired of travel as the com-tech, perhaps even more
so since the responsibility of the flight had been his. And had they
landed in open country he would have liked to have thrown himself down
on the ground, taking off his helmet and unhooking his tunic collar to
let the fresh wind blow through his hair and across his skin. Perhaps
that would take away the arid dust of centuries, which, to his mind,
had grimed him since their hours in the city. But here was no open
country, only a landing space which reminded him too much of the roof
of the building in the metropolis.
A half-dozen of the breastplated warriors filed out of the globe and went
to the nearest dome, returning with heavy boxes. Fuel--supplies--Raf
shrugged off the problem. The pilot was secretly relieved when Captain
Hobart dropped out of the hatch in the globe and made his way over to the
flitter.
"Everything running smoothly?" he asked with a glance at the two
aliens who were Raf's passengers.
"Yes, sir. Any idea how much farther--?" Raf questioned.
Hobart shrugged. "Until we work out basic language difficulties," he
muttered, "who knows anything? There is at least one more of these way
stations. They don't run on atomics, need some kind of fuel, and they
have to have new supplies every so often. Their head man can't
understand why it isn't necessary for us to do the same."
"Has he suggested that his techneers want a look at our motors, sir?"
Hobart unbent a little. It was as if in that question he had read
something which pleased him. "So far we've managed not to understand
that. And if anyone tries it on his own, refer him to me--understand?"
"Yes, sir!" Some of the relief in Raf's tone came through, and he saw
that the captain was watching him narrowly.
"You don't like these people, Kurbi?"
The pilot replied with the truth. "I don't feel easy with them, sir.
Not that they've shown any unfriendliness. Maybe it's because they're
alien--"
He had said the wrong thing and knew it immediately.
"That sounds like prejudice, Kurbi!" Hobart's voice carried the snap
of a reprimand.
"Yes, sir," Raf said woodenly. That had done it as far as the captain
was concerned. The fierce racial and economical prejudices which had
been the keystones of the structure of Pax had left their shadow on
Terra's thinking. Nowadays a man would better be condemned for murder
than for prejudice against another--it was the unforgivable crime. And
in that unconsidered answer Raf had rendered unreliable in the eyes of
authority any future report on the aliens which he might be forced to
make.
Silently cursing his lack of judgment, Raf made a careful check of the
flyer, which might not be necessary but going through the motions of
doing his duty gave him some relief. Once the idea struck him of
claiming some trouble that would take them back to the spacer for
repairs. But Hobart was too good a mechanic himself not to see through
that.
They covered the second stage of their flight by evening, this time
putting down on an island where, by some ancient and titanic feat of
labor, the top had been sheared off a central mountain to make a base.
A ring of reefs cut off the land from the action of the waves. At once
a party of aliens left the main company and made their way down the
mountain to prowl along the shore. They made a discovery of sorts, for
Raf saw them ring in some object they had pulled up on the sand. What
it was and what meaning it had for them they did not try to explain to
the Terrans.
The party spent the night there, the four spacemen wrapped in their
sleeping rolls by the flitter, the aliens in their globe ship. The
Terrans did not miss the fact that the others had unobtrusively posted
guards at the only two places where the mountain could be climbed. And
each of those guards cradled in the crook of his arm one of the rifle
weapons.
They were aroused shortly after dawn. As far as Raf could see the
island was barren of life, or else any creature native to it kept
prudently out of the way while the flyers were there. They took off,
the globe rising like a balloon into the morning sky, the flitter
waiting until it was air-borne before scaling after it.
The mountainous island where they had based was the sea sentinel of an
archipelago, which they saw spread out below them as if someone had
flung a handful of pebbles into a shallow pool. Most of the islands
were merely rocky crags. But there were two which showed the green of
small open fields, and Raf thought he caught a glimpse of a dome house
on the last.
They were now over a region thick with islands, the first collection
giving way to a second and then a third. Raf, expecting no sudden move
on the part of the globe he trailed, was startled when the alien ship
made a downward swoop. At the same time the warrior seated beside him
tugged at the sleeve of his tunic and jabbed a finger toward the
ground, clearly an order to follow. Raf cut speed and cautiously lost
altitude, determined that he was not going to be rushed into any move
for which he did not know the reason.
The globe was hovering over a small island set a little apart from the
others. A moment later Soriki's excited voice drew Raf's attention
from his controls to what was going on below.
"There's people down there! Look at them run!"
They were too far away to be sure of the nature of the brown-gray
things so close to the color of the sea-washed rock that they could
only be detected when they moved. But it was evident that they were
alive, and as Raf brought the flitter closer, he was also certain that
they ran on their two hind feet instead of on an animal's four pads.
From the under part of the globe ship licked a tongue of fire. With
the force of a whiplash it coursed across the rock and in its passing
embrace, the creatures below writhed and withered to charred heaps.
They had no chance under that methodical blasting. The alien beside
Raf signaled again for a drop. He patted the weapon that he held and
motioned for Raf to release the covering of the windshield. But the
pilot shook his head firmly.
This might be war. The aliens could have a very good reason for their
deadly attack on the creatures surprised below. But he wanted no part
of it, nor did he want to get any closer to the scene of slaughter.
And he made an emphatic gesture that the windshield could not be
opened while the flitter was air-borne.
But as he did so they glided down, and he caught a single good look at
what was going on on the rock--a look which remained to haunt his
dreams for long years to come. For now he saw clearly the creatures
who ran fruitlessly for safety. Some reached the edge of the cliff and
leaped to what was an easier death in the sea. But too many others
could not make it and died in flaming agony. And they were not all of
one size!
Children! There was no mistaking the infant in its mother's arms, the
two small ones who fled hand in hand until one stumbled and the
burning lash caught them both as the other strove to pull the fallen
to its feet. Raf gagged. He triggered the controls and soared up and
away, fighting the heaving in his middle, shaking off with one savage
jerk the insistent pawing hand of the alien who wanted to join in the
fun.
"Did you see that?" he demanded of Soriki.
For once the com-tech sounded subdued. "Yes," he replied shortly.
"Those were children," Raf hammered home the point.
"Young ones anyway," the com-tech conceded. "Maybe they aren't people.
They had fur all over them--"
Raf grinned mirthlessly. Should he now accuse Soriki of prejudice?
What did it matter if a thinking creature was clothed in a space suit,
silken bandages, or natural fur--it was still a thinking creature. And
he was sure that those had been intelligent creatures he had just seen
blasted without a chance to fight back. If these were the enemy the
aliens feared, he could understand the vicious cruelty of the attack
which had killed the man he had been shown back in the city. Fire
against primitive spears was not equal, and when the spears got their
chance they must make up for much to balance the scales of justice.
He did not even wonder why his emotions were so wholeheartedly
enlisted upon the side of the furred people. Nor did he try to analyze
his feelings. He was only sure that more than ever he wanted to be
free of the aliens and out of this whole venture.
The warrior sharing his seat was sulking now, twisting about to look
back at the island as Raf circled in ever-widening glides to get away
from the site and yet not lose track of the globe when it would have
finished its dirty business and take once more to the air. But the
alien ship was in no hurry to leave.
"They are making sure," Soriki reported. "Giving the whole island a
fire bath. I wonder what that stuff is--"
"I'd just as soon not know," Raf returned from between set teeth. "If
that is one of their pieces of precious knowledge, we're as well off
without it--" he stopped short. Perhaps he had said too much. But
Terra had been racked by the torrid horror of atomic war, until all
his kind had been so revolted that it was bred into them not to meddle
again with such weapons. And war by fire aroused in them that old
horror. Surely Soriki must feel it too, and when the com-tech did not
comment, Raf was sure of that. He hoped that the slaughter had made
some impression on the captain and on Lablet into the bargain.
But when, as if sated with killing, the globe rose again from its
position over the island, moving almost sluggishly into the fresh sky,
he had to follow it on. More islands were below, and he feared that
each one might show some sign of life and tempt the killers to a
second hunting.
Luckily that did not happen. The chains of islands became a cape as
they had on the coast of the western continent. And now the globe
swung to the south, trailing the shore line. Forests made green
splotches with bluish overtones running from the sea cliffs back to
carpet the land. So far no signs of civilization were to be seen. This
land was as untouched as that where the spacer had landed.
Then they saw the bay, stretching out wide arms to engulf the sea. It
could have harbored a whole fleet. And marching down to its waters
were broad levels of buildings, a giant's staircase leading from sea
to cliff tops.
"They had it here--!"
Raf saw what Soriki meant by that outburst. Destruction had struck. He
had seen the atomic ruins of his own world, those which were free
enough from radiation to explore. But he had never seen anything like
these chilling scars. In long strips the very stone which provided
foundation for the tiered city had been churned and boiled, had run in
rivulets of lava down to the sea, enclosing narrow tongues of still
untouched structures. The fire whip the globe had used, magnified to
some infinitely greater extent--? It could be.
The alien at his side pressed tightly against the windshield gazing
down at the ruins. And now he mouthed a gabble of words which was
echoed by his fellow sitting with Soriki. Their excitement must mean
that this was their goal. Raf slacked speed, waiting for the globe to
point a way to a landing.
But to his surprise the alien ship shot forward inland. The long day
was almost over as they came to a second city with a river knotting a
ribbon through its middle. Here were no traces of the fury which had
laded the seaport with havoc. This collection of buildings seemed
whole and perfect.
There was, oddly enough, no landing strip within the city. The globe
coasted over the rough oval and came down in open fields to the west.
It was a maneuver which Raf copied, though he first dropped a flare as
a precaution and brought the flier down in its red glare, with the
warrior expressing shrill disapproval.
"I don't think they like fireworks," Soriki remarked.
Raf snorted. "So they don't like fireworks! Well, I don't like
crack-ups, and I'm the pilot!" But he didn't believe that the com-tech
was really protesting. Soriki had been very quiet since they had
witnessed the attack on the island.
"Grim-looking place," was his second comment as they touched ground.
Since Raf privately had held that opinion of all the alien settlements
he had so far seen, he agreed. Their two alien passengers were out of
the flitter as soon as he opened the bubble shield. And as they stood
by the Terran flyer, they held their weapons ready, facing out into
the dusk as if they half expected trouble. After the earlier episode
that day, Raf did not wonder at their preparedness. Terror begets
terror, and ruthlessness arouses retaliation in kind.
"Kurbi! Soriki!" Hobart's voice sounded out of the shadows. "Stay
where you are for the present."
Soriki settled deeper in his seat. "He doesn't have to tell me to
brake jets," he muttered. "I like it here--"
Raf did not need to echo that. He had a strong surmise that had he
been tempted to roam away from the flitter the move would not have
been encouraged by the alien guardsmen. If this was their treasure
city, they would not welcome any independent investigation by
strangers.
When the captain joined them, he was accompanied by the officer who
had first shown Raf the globe. And the warrior was either disturbed or
angry, for he was talking in a steady stream and his hands were
whirling in explanatory gestures.
"They didn't like that flare," Hobart remarked. But there was no
reproof in his words. As a spacer pilot he knew that Raf had only done
what duty demanded. "We're to remain here--for the night."
"Where's Lablet?" Soriki wanted to know.
"He's staying with Yussoz, the alien commander. He thinks he has the
language problem about solved."
"Good enough." Soriki pulled out his bed roll. "We're out of touch
with the ship--"
There was a second of silence, unduly prolonged it seemed to Raf. Then
Hobart spoke:
"We couldn't expect to keep in call forever. The best com has its
range. When did you lose contact?"
"Just before these wrapped-up heroes played with fire back there. I
gave the boys all I knew up until then. They know we were headed west,
and they had us beamed as long as they could."
So it wasn't too bad, thought Raf. But he didn't like it, even with
that mitigating factor. To all purposes the four Terrans were now
surrounded by some twenty times their number, in an unknown country,
out of all communication with the rest of their kind. It could add up
to disaster.
9