The twilight beyond faded into the darkness of the huge forest, and not
a Perlac was to be seen. Not so much as a moving shadow. But they were
there, Mark knew, thousands of them; and when they came it would be
silently.
And silently they came. Mark's first intimation was the explosion of
grenades far down the line, and then he saw them--hordes of Perlacs,
heavy of limb, but coming with amazing speed. Most of them were using
cross-bows, and Mark realized that some of the shafts were equipped
with metal-tipped explosives. Then he was too busy for further
observation, as he brought his atomic rifle to bear.
The old style electrics were at work too, all along the line; and
the grenades blasted huge gaps in the advancing tide. But still they
came, moving now across the lighter zone. Thousands hadn't been an
overstatement! The dark tide came rushing over their stunned and dead.
And now those explosive tipped shafts were having effect. Several of
them struck a barricade next to Mark, and tore the metal from the
foundations. Now Janus, beside him, was bringing the neutro-pistol into
play.
Savagely Mark swung his beam in a never-ceasing arc, exulting at the
swath it cut before him. Further down, Driscoll, Kaarj and the others
were doing the same. Together with the grenades it seemed to stem the
tide, but only for a moment.
"Keep it going! Keep it going!" Janus was yelling. "These beams are
good for hours!"
The very silence of the attack made it the more terrible. No yells, no
screams of fury came from the heavy-furred Perlacs as they littered the
terrain by the score.
Then, as suddenly as they had come, they retreated. The seven sweeping
beams had done the work well, but in an unexpected manner. Flames were
leaping in the lush grass between the defenders and the forest!
"Respite!" Janus yelled. "Ten minutes, maybe. They'll be back when that
grass is burned down!"
But there was no resting now. A score of men were dead and twice that
many wounded, who had to be carried back from the battle line. Three of
the barricades were wrecked, and they strove to get these into place
again.
Mark noticed Mari, sweat-grimed and weary, her golden hair streaming
down. But she was magnificent still, a tower of strength as she hurried
along the line giving aid and encouragement to her people.
"I wonder where the robots are?" Mark suddenly remembered as he
worked beside Janus. "If the Perlacs have learned to reactivate those
monsters, as Donli thinks--"
"Encouraging, ain't you? As if we're not having a hard enough time as
it is!"
And then Mark remembered something else. Remembered so suddenly that he
began laughing, a little wildly, and Janus slipped him a light one on
the jaw.
"Come out of it, lad! None of that, now--we're not licked yet!"
But Mark had reached to his inner pocket, and brought out his secret
flat box. "Remember this, Janus? Good Lord, but I ought to be blasted
for forgetting it! You always knew it wasn't a camera--well, now you're
going to see it in action!"
"Good, lad! I hope you've got something there. Here they come again!"
* * * * *
This time the Perlacs had massed their forces, and they came in two
wide flanking movements aimed at the ends of the barricades.
"Let them get close," Janus passed the word to the men, as they hurried
down to the left. "Then give them your grenades--all you've got!"
Grim-faced they waited. Mark once more touched the release stud on his
box, exulted as the coils hummed into power.
"Now!" Janus yelled at last, and swept his beam into play.
Simultaneously the grenades rained outward. The terrain erupted in
geysers of blackened grass and fleshy fragments. But determinedly the
Perlacs came, and their cross-bow shafts filled the air.
Despair began to touch the Earthmen now. It was obvious the fanatical
Perlacs were going to make this a war to extinction, and there could be
but one final result. The Perlacs outnumbered them a hundred to one. If
only they could have gotten the new electronic weapons ready in time!
Even their grenades were running low now.
Grim-lipped, Mark waited for the next onrush. He passed his neutro to
a neighbor and concentrated on his box. Its power had been proven in
minor tests, but this would be the maximum!
The wave came. More of them now than before. Mark stepped for a moment
into the open, heedless of the shafts. The box, held waist high, looked
for all the world like a camera....
But the result was devastatingly different!
The men felt a violent holocaust of air around them, rushing away from
all sides. For seconds they couldn't breathe or move! The temperature
dropped so suddenly that they were literally frozen where they stood!
Then warmer air came pressing in again but still they didn't move,
because now they were staring--staring at the miracle.
In a hundred-yard area before their barricade the mass of Perlacs
were motionless, many of them arrested in grotesque postures! Others
had literally burst outward. But all were dead, and now they began to
topple over, like frozen statutes!
Another wave was coming behind, just beyond the area. Now they wheeled
and fled for the forest. Quickly Mark adjusted the sights and gave them
another burst. The same thing happened. The rush of air, the sudden
drop in temperature--and the horde was a mass of frozen corpses. But
this time, the box became hot in Mark's hands, burning them severely,
and he quickly dropped it.
At the other end of the line the defenders weren't doing so well.
The Perlacs had gained that end of the barricade, and the battle was
furious and to the death.
"Come on!" Mark raced for that end, followed by the others. But now
Mark couldn't use his weapon, for it would mean blasting Earthmen and
Perlacs alike!
And then, fantastically, the battle seemed to hang poised.
There came a grinding, shuddering sound. A series of these sounds.
The ground seemed to vibrate, and then along the twilight strip came
a towering, stalking, fifty-foot shape. One of the robots! It came
swiftly, purposefully, huge eyes glaring down--straight for the battle
line!
V
"This does it," Janus groaned. "That thing looks mad!" But no other
robots came, and he raised his beam-pistol in readiness as the great
monster came bearing down.
"Hold it," Mark caught his wrist. "Hold your fire, men!"
For the Perlacs were fleeing! Forgotten now was the fury of battle as
they raced _en masse_ back to the darkness of their forest!
And abruptly the robot swerved in its course, went after them with
purposeful strides. It bent down a little and swept huge, claw-like
hands close to the ground. A few of the Perlacs were caught, dashed to
the ground, never to rise. Almost gleefully the metal monster trampled
down the edges of the forest. The Earth people could only watch
wearily, numbly. It was over. Unbelievably, the battle was over.
Tiring at last of its mad sport, the robot turned and came striding
back. Heedless of Mark's warning, Mari stepped forth and faced it
defiantly, rifle held in readiness. Tall and straight, her golden hair
tumbling down, she was a defender of her people to the last.
And the robot paused! Only for a second, during which it seemed to be
surveying her. Then it came on, but stopped some twenty yards away.
Then it spoke! The voice was rasping, metallic, but the words were
unmistakable:
"Hi-ya, bud. What's cookin'?"
Janus' voice was a ridiculous gurgle in his throat. He took a step
backward and his eyes bulged. For the thing had seemed to be addressing
_him_!
At last he got the words out: "Ketrik! By all the red-tailed Zigs
on Venus, it's Ketrik! Only he could use an archaic expression like
that--what's cookin', indeed!"
There came a rumble of metallic laughter.
"Hi-ya, Janus! Haven't seen you in years. And Kaarj! Last time I saw
you was on Deimos, when I robbed the temple of ancients. How are you,
kid?" The robot went down, extended a long metal finger as big around
as a man's arm. Kaarj retreated hastily!
"Well, ain't any of you glad to see me?" the voice came mockingly. "And
after I saved your battle, too!"
"Sure, we're glad to see you," Janus replied shakily. "But good Lord,
man, come down out of that thing so we can get a look at you!"
"Hell, no. I'm havin' fun! Anyway, I'm not up here. Not the real
Ketrik. My body's lying in an alcove back there at the temple of
robots."
Mari had come to stand beside Janus. Her face was flushed from the
recent battle, but some of her defiance had fled. The robot bent closer
still, seemed to be peering. Then came a long whistle, metallic but
shrill, and one of the huge eyes winked!
The girl seemed to recognize that primitive sound and her face turned a
deeper red. But she stepped a pace forward.
"Mister--ah--Ketrik, you have saved my people and have earned our
undying thanks! But what about the Perlacs--do you think they'll be
coming back again?"
The robot chuckled. "Not for a long time! Certainly not when they know
I'm around. Those babies have given me a wide berth so far." He added:
"I've been intending to pay a visit to your side of the world, but I
could tell those dark-skinned brutes were up to something. I decided to
hang around and await developments."
"But Ketrik"--Janus hesitated--"what's this about your body?"
"Don't worry, it's safe. This is only the mental part of me. Sure,
there's a huge temple about ten miles back, with dozens more of these
robots standing around idle." A sudden thought occurred. "Want to take
a look? I could carry you across the heavy gravity."
"No thanks!" Janus declined. "My scientific interest doesn't go that
far. Maybe the Professor, here--"
"Sure!" Brownell came forward, eager.
"I'll go too," Mark said. "I'd like to see how those robots work."
Ketrik extended a huge hand. Brownell and Mark clung tightly as it
swung them up. With the two men perched on its shoulders, the robot
went striding back through the forest.
The temple, massive and pillared, rested in a wide clearing.
They saw the robots, dozens of them lining the walls. The quartz discs
of their eyes were now dull and lifeless. And near each robot, fifty
feet high in the wall, were alcoves.
"Gravity here is normal!" Mark noticed suddenly.
"Yes," Ketrik replied. "That's probably what saved my life. I crashed
right through the roof!"
They saw Ketrik's spacer on the floor below them, its nose and forward
tubes crumpled beyond recognition.
"I'll show you my body." He strode to one of the alcoves, and the men
stepped from his shoulders onto a stone ledge. Before them was a thick
glass coffin. Resting in it was the material Ketrik!
* * * * *
It was a large body, as large as Janus, but clean shaven. The blue eyes
were open and staring, and even in this suspended state there seemed to
be a quality of recklessness, even amusement, about them.
"How do you get the mental self into the robot?" Brownell asked.
"Damned if I know how it works," there was almost a shrug in Ketrik's
robot voice. "I just experimented with the thing."
He just experimented! Mark marvelled at this man.
"Don't touch it," Ketrik warned, "but you'll notice there are two
cathodes attached to the temples of my earth body. See how the wires
lead out, and up to that panelled board on the wall? There are all
kinds of coils and things behind that board. Those other cathodes, that
you see dangling, were attached to the brain plate of the robot. I
suppose the molecules of your mental self flow through the wires. When
the transference is complete, you merely detach the cathodes and start
walking about, a full-fledged robot! I tell you it's wonderful!"
"Ketrik," Brownell said, as they went back through the forest, "we
should be returning to Earth as soon as we complete the new weapon for
Man's people. Don't you want to return with us?"
"No, I think I'll stay. I want to be sure those Perlacs don't cause any
more trouble for a while."
"There wouldn't be any other reason?" Mark grinned.
"There would and is." The smile was in Ketrik's voice, if not on his
metal lips. "I like that golden-haired Amazon--what's her name--Mari?"
"But why return at all?" Mari wanted to know, when the Professor
announced the plans. "You have said you wanted a base for the
manufacture of your Frequency Tuners. What better place than here?"
"Thank you, my dear. I had thought of that, but after all this is your
world, and we are intruders."
Mari was hurt. "After all that you've done for us? And you can do so
much more!"
"Then rest assured we'll be back, possibly within a month. True, there
is much to be done here but we need new supplies, tools, equipment of
every sort."
Janus said: "And with your permission, we'll want to bring back some
new men. Not rogues and adventurers like me, but scientific men who can
come here and work out their ideas without fear of that stupid Earth
Bureau. Men like Mark, here, and the Professor."
Brownell nodded agreement. "I see a new regime. The Tri-Planet Council
will have to cooperate with expanding endeavors, or take a back seat.
Already I know two men on Earth, and four on Mars, who'll be delighted
to come here to carry on their work. And Mark, that reminds me. That
new weapon of yours. I think we can ask about it now?"
"Oh, it's nothing much, but I wasn't going to let the Bureau have it on
their terms! It's merely an advanced frigidation idea. Works along an
extended magnetic beam, absorbing all heat in a given area, almost to
absolute zero."
"And he says it's nothing much!" came from Janus.
"It still needs some working out. The coils didn't stand up, the last
time I applied it out there."
In two more days they were turning out the neutro weapons in quantity.
During that time nothing more was seen of the Perlacs, as the
robot-Ketrik maintained a vigilance. Brownell made a last check-up of
the spaceship, and more important still, he strengthened the Frequency
Tuner to counteract the gravity.
* * * * *
On the last night, Mark tossed restlessly in his bed. He could not
sleep, and he didn't know why. Was it something they had forgotten?
He didn't think so. Nevertheless he had a preternatural awareness of
something wrong....
He arose, dressed quickly. There was never "night" on this side of the
little world, but the rooms were automatically dimmed. Silently he
tip-toed through the rooms. Brownell was there, sleeping peacefully.
And Janus, and all the others.
No! Ferris was gone.
Mark's heart leaped. He had never liked that man, never quite trusted
him. Now it came back. Ferris' eternal harping about the fortune he had
put into this expedition.
If that little rat was planning--Mark hurried outside. The city was
deathly quiet, immersed in sleep. The eternal light struck his eyes
and brought him fully alert. He hurried along the street toward the
outskirts, toward the base of the hill where the spaceship waited.
As he neared the hill, he spied Ferris. The man was coming down the
slope. Ferris saw him, and waved a hand in greeting.
"Hi! Is it you, Travers? What's the matter, can't you sleep either?"
Mark's steps slowed, and he breathed in relief. He'd been wrong. After
all, the man had a right to be up.
They met near the spaceship, and Ferris waved a hand toward the crest
of the hill. "I was just looking at the Stone. It's the damnedest
thing!"
"Yes. Brownell tells me--"
Ferris' hand moved like lightning. Mark found himself staring into the
stub end of a neutro-gun. Ferris was no longer smiling and casual.
"In!" he snarled. "Get in there--quick!" He gestured toward the ship,
and Mark noticed the door was open. He moved toward it slowly, then
paused, started to turn.
"I'll blast you, Travers!"
Mark shrugged, entered. Ferris came quickly behind him.
"That's better. I don't want to rouse any of the others. Sounds carry
far on this world." He paused and grinned, with all but his eyes.
"Sure, Travers, I was looking at the Stone. I'd like to get it back to
Earth, but it's too much for me. Guess I'll just have to be satisfied
with the Frequency Tuner. The Bureau of Inventions will pay me a
handsome price for it, no questions asked."
"You sneaking, double-crossing rat," Mark said slowly. "You'll never
get away with this!"
"_This_ says I will," Ferris sneered, gesturing with the neutro. "And
since you came snooping out here, I'll just take that new weapon of
yours."
"It doesn't work any more."
"I'll take it anyway. Hand it over. Careful!"
Mark shrugged, tossed the box-like weapon to him. But his mind was
racing. Ferris had the upper hand, all right, and he _would_ get away
with this if Mark didn't do something quick. Mark glanced around. They
were in the control room, and he knew the Frequency Tuner was ready. He
said:
"What about Brownell--Janus--the others?"
"What about 'em? They wanted to come out here, so let 'em stay.
Yeah--for the next hundred years!"
"What about me?"
"You know, I think I'll just take you along--for a short distance,
anyway."
Mark's voice was taunting. "Because you're not quite sure how to handle
this Frequency control. You'll need me."
"And that's where you're wrong. I've studied it plenty. It's easy!"
Mark dropped suddenly to his knees, and with the same movement his body
lashed forward--low and hard. He heard the neutro sing, and felt the
swirling heat of it over his shoulder. But Ferris was quick. He danced
lithely back. His right hand with the gun in it came swinging up.
The heavy gun caught Mark squarely under the chin.
* * * * *
He came struggling back to consciousness, aware that he was still lying
prone. He allowed his brain to clear before opening his eyes, but
already he could tell they were in space.
He thought of his friends on Perlac--stranded! It would be a miracle
if they ever succeeded in building another spaceship there, with their
limited equipment.
"Hi, Travers. We're on our way. So I can't handle the Tuner, eh?"
Mark groaned, rolled his head a little, feigning grogginess. But he was
alert now, and he cursed himself for a fool for underestimating Ferris.
He heard the man's voice go on:
"And to show how much I need you, I'll just toss you out somewhere
between Perlac and Pluto. Or maybe between Pluto and Neptune. Which
would you prefer?"
Mark's heart leaped. They couldn't have come far, then! He was lying
near the control-console and he knew they were on robot control. Ferris
must have set the course already. He was confident now, watching Mark,
for he knew it took minutes to adjust that complex set-up.
Mark stirred, grasped a metal stanchion to help hoist himself erect.
His plan was made. To the right of the console was an auxiliary unit,
feeding emergency power to the Tuner. He wondered if Ferris knew of
it. He glimpsed Ferris coming toward him. Mark surged erect, his right
hand darted out. It came down in a full sweep against the auxiliary
impellator.
The spacer leaped ahead, sickeningly, as acceleration multiplied in a
split second. Mark glimpsed Ferris flying backward. He hadn't time to
see more. Both hands gripped the stanchion now as intolerable pressure
built up. His arms seemed to be wrenching from their sockets. Slowly,
agonizingly, he managed to encircle the stanchion with his left arm.
His right hand seemed to weigh a ton as it reached out. It touched the
impellator stud ... reversed it.
Mark sagged limply forward as acceleration lowered. He hadn't the
strength left to turn his head, see what had happened to Ferris.
When he did, minutes later, he saw a limp figure against the far wall.
The limbs were twisted beyond recognition. The head was crushed. It
wasn't a pretty sight.
Mark changed direction, headed in a sweeping parabola back toward
Perlac. He avoided Brownell's previous mistake and swung wide of the
planet, approaching it from the light side. He landed safely near the
city. The others had already missed the ship, and they received him
joyously.
They left the next day, after a final check-up. Mari had prepared long
lists of items for them to bring back to her people.
The robot-Ketrik was there too, to bid them bon voyage. Brownell said:
"Ketrik, you can reclaim that body of yours. Sure you won't change your
mind and go back with us?"
Again Ketrik resorted to archaic expression:
"Are you kidding?" and he glanced at Mari with his huge robot eyes.
They lifted gravs, and not until they were crossing the orbit of Pluto
did Brownell remember something. He chuckled, said to Mark:
"Suppose Ketrik does transfer again to his body, as he probably will.
How's he going to transport it across that heavy gravity?"
For a moment Mark was startled. Then he grinned and replied, "Well,
don't worry your mind over that. I'll bet you a thousand to one he'll
do it! Positively. That man will find a way!"