"What was it you glimpsed?"
"We ... we are not certain ... we think...."
The human could not wait to get the message from the corners of his
eyes. Steps were driving forward. He whirled in time to see Taldero
lunging at him. A naked knife glittered in the Venusian's uplifted
hand. Taldero's face was a gleaming mask of triumph. The Venusian was
already relishing the good feeling he would get from sinking his knife
up to the hilt in this human's throat. Men were interlopers on Venus,
space creatures to be destroyed, vermin that no honest Venusian could
accept.
Johnson dropped the zit gun. There was no time to use it. In this
moment it was only in his way. One hand caught the uplifted arm. His
body met Taldero's body. He was rocked backward by the fury of that
charge. He caught himself. The other hand sought Taldero's body. The
Venusian gasped with pain as the Karmer nerve block was forced home.
He shuddered and went limp. The knife fell from his fingers. Johnson
shoved him backward against another Venusian. From the floor he
snatched the gun and the knife.
He could hear Caldwell's gun spitting. A semi-circle of Venusians were
pressing toward the three humans. Caldwell was holding them back.
Martin, unarmed, was clutching the recorder. Vee Vee stood in front of
him like some amazon preparing to do battle for her mate.
"Vee Vee! Catch!" She turned startled eyes toward Johnson in time to
snatch the gun he threw to her.
"But what will you do--"
"I've still got Taldero's knife. Back up against the back wall and try
to hold them at bay. I think I know something."
Johnson dived through the spotlight. The wall behind the light was
decorated with a mural, a spot on Venus where the sun was breaking
through clouds and illumining a vast, rain-swept valley. On Venus,
where they saw the sun but rarely, the sight of Sol was considered
about the same as a glimpse of heaven. He felt along the mural. The
corners of his eyes insisted, "He went this way." His searching fingers
found a spot, pushed against it. A section of the wall slid soundlessly
away.
Sitting in a soft chair in the hidden room revealed there, Unger looked
calmly at him.
"You saw me go?" Unger said. "You are very, very seeing. No Venusian
and up until now no human has ever seen an adept move. We have a rule
about it...."
"A part of my eyes saw you move and recorded the impression," Johnson
stepped into the room. In his hand, the knife blade glittered. "Life
ticks away very rapidly here tonight." He gestured outward where the
screams of the Venusians mingled with the throb of the guns. "Call off
your wolves or life will stop ticking for you."
Unger seemed utterly unperturbed by the sight of the knife or the man
behind it. "They are not my wolves," he said. "I do not know that I can
call them off but perhaps I can hold them at bay for a while." He rose
with the easy grace of an athlete and moved to the opening.
Out there three humans were backing against the wall. Johnson did not
look at them. This time he would not take his eyes off Unger.
"Peace!" The Dreamer's voice was practically a roar.
The Venusians pressing close against the three humans hesitated. In the
distance a voice screamed, "I saw you--"
"Inside here, you humans," Unger spoke quickly.
Vee Vee, Martin, and Caldwell slid through the opening. Unger slammed
the door, dropped a bar across it. Looking at him, Johnson saw that the
Venusian was sweating.
The humans were panting. Vee Vee looked at Johnson. Her eyes glowed.
"Johnny! You did it!" Johnson looked away.
Martin stared around the room. "So this is the trick!" He spat out the
words. "They distract your attention, then they jump into this hole.
It's just a matter of moving very rapidly. Probably they spend years
learning it and think they have something very important when they
master it." Bitter disappointment sounded in Martin's voice. He seemed
to have forgotten the death they had so narrowly missed outside. He
lifted the recorder as if he intended to smash it on the floor.
Unger caught it, took it from the human. "I thought you wanted to see
what went on inside the Room of the Dreaming."
"I did, but I didn't think it was fraud. I sensed that something
important was here." Martin's voice was the voice of a man who has lost
a dream.
"Why don't you look at the recording?"
"To hell with the recording. It will only show more fraud."
"But--"
"I say to hell with it too!" Caldwell interrupted. "Our necks come
first. Let's get out of here. Johnny--"
"Just a moment," Johnson said. Sweat was now visible on Unger's face,
glistening in heavy yellow drops.
"Why don't you see the recording?" Unger urged. From the angle in
which his head was held, Johnson had the impression the Dreamer was
listening. The human listened too. He could hear no sound unless it was
a thin mumble of voices beyond the barred door.
"The recorder is also a projector on the sound and visual tracks, is it
not?" Unger asked.
"Yes," Martin's voice was sullen.
"Then shall we take a few minutes and see what the recorder caught in
the Room of the Dreaming?" Without waiting for an answer he snapped
the switches that rewound the wires and began to set up the recorder
to function as a projector. "We will project the visual part against
the wall there and listen to the sound. The other radiations you have
caught will need extensive laboratory equipment to interpret."
"You seem to know a lot about this!" Martin challenged.
"Do I? Ah...." Watching him handle the recorder Johnson had the
impression that the Venusian had never seen one of these instruments
but was swiftly grasping the meaning of the various dials and switches
as he came to them. If this was true, it was a marvelous mental feat.
Wonder rose in Johnson. But his eyes never left Unger and his hand did
not relax its grip on Taldero's knife.
"Watch," Unger said.
* * * * *
A jet of light from the self-contained unit sprang out through the
lens, flashing against the wall. Unger gestured toward it. "Watch," he
repeated.
"I'm watching you," Johnson said.
"Suspicious?"
"Don't I have a right to be?"
The question went unanswered. Music from the sound track throbbed in
the small room. The scene on the wall revealed Unger stretched flat on
the mat.
"Damned fraud!" Martin muttered.
Vee Vee moved close to Johnson. Her whisper was very soft. "I wonder if
we will see the dreams again?"
"I do not know. I am watching the Dreamer."
"Yes. I know." She moved closer still. Her voice was even softer.
"Darling."
"Shut up!"
She shrank away from him. He was aware that her eyes were on him.
Suddenly she laughed, softly. "Oh, good! You're jealous."
Had she read his mind? "I am not jealous. Shut up. This is no time for
talk."
In spite of what he said she moved closer. Under his breath he swore at
her.
In the distance he seemed to catch the mutter of shouted voices. "I
tell you I saw him!" one voice screamed.
"Look!" Wild excitement was in Martin's tone. "Look! He _is_ floating."
Johnson felt his heart beat pick up.
The projected scene revealed that Unger was actually floating.
"If the recorder caught it like that it actually happened that way!"
Martin screamed. "You can't hypnotize a recorder."
But was it real? Was the Dreamer really floating? Desperately Johnson
wanted to see with all his eyes.
"We will watch Unger for you," the corners of his eyes whispered.
Johnson dared to look at the projected picture. There was no mistaking
the evidence. The Dreamer was floating. No wires lifted him. The
recorder would have caught wires.
"This floating is no fraud," Unger said softly. "We Dreamers know and
manipulate and use forces--"
"Anti-gravity!" Martin screamed. "With anti-gravity comes ships to the
stars!"
"We Dreamers know certain forces, certain energy states, which we
manipulate--"
Crash!
The door went down. The bar was torn from its sockets by the sudden
pressure applied against it. Through the opening a knife came, crashed
against the wall. Then another and another.
In Vee Vee's and Caldwell's hands the zit guns throbbed. Venusians
stumbled through the doorway.
"This way," Unger said, moving toward the farther wall.
Martin snatched the recorder from the table and turned the light beam
on a Venusian trying to get through the door. He dodged backward. From
the Room of the Dreaming a babble of angry voices arose.
"This way," Unger repeated. The door was open in the farther wall. The
humans dived through it. Unger closed it and followed them.
They found themselves in darkness. Martin turned the recorder on it.
The light from it revealed a tunnel. Unger moved forward. "Follow,
please."
"These Dreamers do know something," Martin was babbling to Johnson.
"They have latched on to vital secrets of nature. I don't know what
else they've got but that secret of floating is...."
"There are many secrets," Unger said as he moved ahead of them. "In the
last analysis perhaps there is only one secret, one energy, but this
energy takes many forms."
"How do you do this dreaming?" Martin questioned.
"It is a very complex process," Unger answered. "The music and the
perfume are part of it. But we, the Dreamers, are the heart and the
core and the soul of it. What you call hypnosis is involved in part.
We Dreamers reach the minds of our audience. We bring up to the level
of awareness the most cherished dream of those who are in rapport with
us. We Dreamers see, feel, and share in the dreaming of our audience.
To some extent we direct their dreaming. They have no comprehension of
what is involved. To them the Dreaming is a sacred thing. The Dreamers
are minor gods."
"But how do you float?" Martin repeated.
"We take the force which you call gravity. It is an energy state. We
tap this energy to reach the minds of our audience, to control and to
come into rapport with them." The Venusian's breath was coming in gasps.
"Yes. Go on." Martin was the hound on the scent of prey, the eager
scientist following the clue no matter where it lead, knowing there was
an answer and determined to have that answer no matter the cost.
Unger stopped. A door was ahead. He fumbled with a catch. The door
swung open.
Rain and the darkness of the night swept through the opening. In the
far distance lightning walked across the sky. Outside was the streets
of the city.
"Seek safety!" Unger's voice was hoarse. "It will perhaps be better if
you leave Venus. I warn you fairly, my people are wolves. They hold
the dreaming sacred. Sometimes they hold the Dreamers sacred. But if
they think you have stolen the secrets of the dreaming--Well, it would
be better for you for wolves to tear you to pieces than it would be for
my people to catch you." He leaned against the open door.
"But the secret of the floating?" Martin insisted.
"You have it on your recorder." Unger answered. "It is a matter of
frequency, of vibration and interwoven vibration. From the information
on your recorder, you can develop the equations you will need. Go."
"Good!" Martin's voice was a shout of exultation rising in the dark
night.
"My people will soon be searching the streets. Go."
Martin and Caldwell went quickly through the opening. Johnson
hesitated. "Unger ... Dreamer...." He sought for words. "You ... you're
a great guy."
The Venusian's hand came to his arm. Vee Vee stood very close,
watching, waiting, though Martin had already gone.
"Thank you, my friend," Unger whispered. "I accept your words and the
meaning that is behind them."
"I...." Johnson's voice choked into silence. Here was a great Venusian
and he knew it, a Dreamer whose dream went beyond race, beyond space,
perhaps beyond time.
"Come with us," Johnson said. "Come to Earth with us."
"No." Unger's voice was almost a sob. "I may not leave this planet."
"Why not? We will protect you. On Earth there will be great honor for
you."
"There is honor here for me among the Dreamers. You do not know it, my
friend, but all the Dreamers of Venus are with me now in this moment
while my life drains away. They give me honor. More than I deserve."
Horror flooded through Johnson. "While your life drains away? I don't
understand."