_Ashes of the Moon_
Through the micro-telescopes it was possible to see what had happened
after Dalis had assumed command of the Gens of Dalis. For even though
the Moon, in spite of the speed of the Beryls, was being forced
further and further from the Earth, the eyes of the micro-telescopes
picked out and enlarged details to such an extent that the battle
seemed to be transpiring under the eyes of the beholders.
A terrific jumble, in which Earthlings and aircars were all tumbled
together in mad chaos, a great mass of writhing, green-garbed figures.
Infinite in number--in the midst of which were the gigantic aircars,
like monster beetles being beset by armies upon armies of ants.
Then, by the time Jaska had seated herself in the observatory atop the
Himalayas, to watch what developed, the battle seemed to be over, and
the Moon-men had won. For the huge cars swung around between the
myriads of the Gens of Dalis, and seemed to be herding them toward the
Moon, as though they were prisoners.
Telepathically, Sarka and his father had been able to catch some hint
of the thoughts of the Earthlings in the battle, and these thoughts
had been tinged with doubt, fear and horror, so that even thus to
receive them, by mental telepathy, was to feel the searing heat of
their fear.
* * * * *
Now, in the instant when the battle in Space seemed to be over and the
Gens of Dalis were prisoners, the thought waves were no more, and a
brooding silence took their place. Dalis, the Sarkas knew, possessed
the power to mask his thoughts, for it was a power possessed in common
by all the scientists of Earth. But the common people of his Gens did
not posses that power. However, for the moment Sarka had forgotten an
all important something: that, when people were outside the roof of
the world, they were subservient to the will of a common commander to
whom they had sworn allegiance.
If, therefore, Dalis could mask his own thoughts from the brains of
men, he could also mask the thoughts of the people of his Gens, merely
by willing it! So Sarka and his father and Jaska could not know
whether the Gens of Dalis had gone over in a body with him, in a truce
with the people of the Moon, or whether they were dual prisoners--of
Dalis and of the Moon-men!
More than ever was it necessary for someone to somehow reach the Moon
and make a thorough investigation, discover just what Dalis was doing,
what mischief he was hatching.
The secret exit dome seemed to be the answer.
"You can manage without me, father?" asked Sarka.
* * * * *
The elder Sarka nodded.
"Of the other Spokesmen of Earth," went on Sarka, "I trust Gerd the
most. Might I suggest that you bring him here, trust him in all
details, and let him take my place wherever possible? Or, better
still, keep Jaska here with you! I ... I may not be able to return!
I'll try to find a way, but--we can always communicate telepathically.
Jaska...."
"Jaska," said that young lady grimly, "goes with Sarka wherever Sarka
goes!"
"But it may mean death! We can only guess at the cunning of the Moon
dwellers! They may have been in secret communication with Dalis for
centuries! Dalis, who somehow discovered our secret finger code, may
also know of the secret exit dome, and the principle upon which it
operates! If he does, he may know how to combat it! Perhaps that
explains his laughter! Perhaps he heard and understood every word we
spoke, hears and understands every word we speak now! Who knows? He
may wait until I have passed through the secret exit dome, and then
make it impossible for me to be reincarnated on the Moon--or
elsewhere!"
"No matter," said Jaska softly, "wherever Sarka goes, there goes
Jaska! It is useless to attempt to dissuade me, and it is time you
learned that!"
In spite of himself Sarka smiled, and his father met his smile with a
quizzical one of his own. Both men had the same thought.
"The eternal woman!" said Sarka the Elder. "No man has ever understood
her--no man ever will! And all men are ruled by her!"
Sarka shrugged, and Jaska spoke again.
"Don't you think it is time we tried this new experiment?"
* * * * *
Sarka nodded, and his face was suddenly alight with the excitement
which burned within him.
"First," he said, "we need accoutrements of the Gens of Dalis for two
people!"
Jaska smiled.
"Forseeing that we might have need of such equipment, I had several
complete outfits sent here when I took charge of the Gens of Dalis as
its Spokesman!"
Two minutes later, arrayed in the green clothing of the House of
Dalis, swathed in it from neck to toe, wearing their belts and the
masks which were necessary to life in space where there was no
atmosphere, the whole topped by the gleaming helmets whose skull-pans
held the infinitesimally small anti-gravitational ovoids, Jaska and
Sarka entered the secret exit dome, side by-side.
On the breast and back of each showed the yellow stars of the Gens of
Dalis. There was no hiding their identity otherwise, and if any of the
Gens saw them, both would be immediately recognized--for Jaska had
commanded the Gens, and Sarka was the world's greatest scientist known
to every human being. But they planned on carrying out their
investigations by stealth.
"Father," said Sarka, "when the inner door is closed upon us, you have
but to press the button to the right of the door. Press it when the
light beside it glows red, which will indicate that we have willed
ourselves to go to a certain destination!"
* * * * *
The inner door closed upon Sarka and Jaska, and, hand in hand, side by
side, their bodies glowing with knowledge of warm, sympathetic
contact, they waited for a miracle which had never before been
attempted.
"Are you afraid, beloved?" queried Sarka.
"When I am with you," she said softly, "I have no fear."
"Then face the outer door, and will to go wherever I will to take
you!"
Side by side, hand-in-hand still, they faced the outer door, and Sarka
willed:
"Let us appear together in a deserted spot, within sight but unseen,
of the Moon crater from which those aircars were sent against us!"
A sudden blur, a cessation of all knowledge, and then....
Sarka and Jaska stood side by side in a desolate expanse surrounded by
bleak and appalling mountains of grotesque shape, in a light that was
weirdly, awesomely blue. Their feet were invisible, deeply rooted in
some soft, fine material which looked like snow.
After a swift glance around to see if anything lived or moved in this
awful desolation, Sarka stooped and dipped up some of the fine stuff
with his fingers, touched it to his lips.
* * * * *
The material seemed to be fine blue ashes and on his tongue it had a
soapy savor. He peered at Jaska, whose eyes were glowing with
excitement, whose lips were parted with anticipation, and instantly he
opened a mental conversation with her.
"We must speak with each other telepathically, but do not speak with
me until I have explained to you how to mask your thoughts from all
persons save the one with whom you hold converse! First, I love you!
Second, let us see if, searching the sky, we can find the Earth!"
In a few brief, highly technical words, Sarka told his beloved how to
talk with him in the manner which he had never before explained to
her. They had used telepathy before, countless times, but they had not
cared who heard--while now secrecy in all things was the prime
essential for success, even for life.
When he had told her, and she replied, "I understand perfectly, and it
seems quite easy," they turned and surveyed the heavens, out of which,
by this new miracle of the secret exit dome, they had dropped to the
face of the Moon.
Away across the space between worlds, its transfiguration plainly
visible to the two, they could make out and identify the world from
which they had come. Save that they knew themselves standing on the
Moon, they would have thought as far as appearances went, that the
place where they had come was the Moon, many times enlarged. It seemed
incredible that they had come so far in the twinkling of an eye; but
that they had was proved by the fact of their physical presence.
"Look, Jaska!" said Sarka suddenly. "See how our Earth glows, as
though it were afire inside!"
* * * * *
They stared at the great circular yellowish flame that he pointed out,
and Sarka, always the scientist whose science was one of exactness,
tried to estimate just where, on the Earth's surface, the glow was.
"Jaska," he said again, "that glow comes out of the heart of the Gens area
which Dalis ruled! And no one lives there, since Dalis' Gens flew out to do
battle! That's why we did not know of it before we left! That glow,
somehow, beloved, is the cause of the outward-from-the-Earth journey of the
Moon! First we must locate the Moon-source of the glow, and render it
incapable of further forcing itself away! For do you realize that, unless
we do so, we will never again see home?"
Jaska said nothing, but her eyes were troubled for a moment. Then she
smiled again.
"What care I if I become a prisoner on the Moon, if you are with me?"
Sarka was just now realizing the wonder of this raven-haired woman
whom, knowing her for half a century as he had, he had just known so
little after all.
"If we seem in danger of discovery, Jaska," he said to her, "drop down
instantly into the ashes, for if we are discovered by Dalis...."
He left it there and, with a deep intake of breath, started away for
the nearest and highest hill. They desired to walk, yet found walking
almost impossible, as they could not keep their feet on the ground
save by the exercise of a really incredible effort of will. So,
despairing of keeping their feet in contact with the ashes, they flew
just above them, heading for the nearest weird-looking ridge.
* * * * *
In the strange light, which was oddly like moonlight in some painted
desert of Earth, shapes were distorted and somehow menacing, colors
were raw, almost bleeding--and distances that seemed but a step
required hours to traverse.
Ever and anon, as they traveled they looked back up at the Earth which
was their home. It still was visible, though plainly smaller with
distance, and for a time Sarka's heart misgave him; but he only
clasped tighter the hand of Jaska and moved on.
They were just at the base of the first hill, which had now become a
mountain of gloomy, forbidding aspect, when the first sound they had
heard on the moon came to them. A sound that was a commingling of the
laughter of Dalis, the barking of jackals of the olden times, the
humming of a million Beryls revolving at top speed, and a strident
buzzing such as neither had ever heard.
Had they been discovered? Was the sound a warning? They could not
know; but as they stared at the crest of the hill, two long, snaky,
waving things appeared above the crest, undulating, waving to and
fro, as though questing for something. They crouched low in the white
ashes at the base of the mountain, and waited, scarcely breathing.