CRY CHAOS!
By Dwight V. Swain
The dark star held a dread secret that Gar
Shane had to discover before our solar system was
destroyed. But to go there meant certain death....
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
September 1951
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
They got the great silver ship's hatches pried open, finally, and
dragged Shane out by his heels. They dumped him on his face in the
gravel and cinders of the ramp like a pole-axed _huecco_.
He wasn't a particularly big man, as men came out here in the
spaceways. But there was a spare, hard quality to his close-knit body,
and the old scars that marked him told of forgotten battles, bitter
fights to the death with no quarter asked or given. Strange suns had
burnt him dark as a _Malya_. Mercury's blazing sands, the high deserts
of Mars, had dulled the crisp brown of his hair. Faint bluish pockmarks
along his left cheek bespoke Pluto and the ice-things that dwelt there.
And the _Chonya_ belt still girded his waist; the great iron belt of
the asteroids, one link for every chief who'd vowed fealty, eternal
symbol of his power as _gar_.
So he lay there in the dirt of the ramp like a dog, while the motley
rabble that were his captors gathered round. And because he was the man
he was; because of the stories and scars; above all, because of that
great iron belt of brotherhood he wore, the token of his might, they
hung back just a little, still touched by awe of this fallen great one.
Only then Shane's eyes opened--eyes of that strange, pale blue found
only among Earthmen; blank now, unseeing. His fingers scrabbled the
dirt. Saliva drooled from the loose mouth and puddled beneath his cheek.
Explosively, a hard-faced Venusian _Pervod_ laughed. "I claim the
belt!" he cried, and sprang forward, reptilian claws gouging Shane's
flesh, rolling the Earthman over.
An incoherent, protestful sound rose in Shane's throat. His mouth
worked, and his hands batted clumsily at the _Pervod's_ claws.
The Venusian's laugh rang out again--harsh, contemptuous. Skillfully,
he fended Shane's blows with bony vestigial wings. His claws worked at
the boss that clasped the belt.
Shane's blue eyes lost a little of their blankness. The loose mouth
drew in a fraction. "No!" he choked. "No!" He clutched at the
_Pervod's_ wrists; tried to pull them away.
The _Pervod_ twisted free. His claws left bloody paths across Shane's
palms. Catching the Earthman's shoulders, he lifted him half clear of
the ramp, then slammed him down again with stunning force.
Shane lay limp--panting, head lolled to one side.
The _Pervod_ unclasped the belt and pulled it free of Shane's body.
* * * * *
Feebly, Shane clutched for the Venusian's ankle, and missed. Shaking,
sobbing for breath, he struggled to a sitting position, bracing himself
with his arms.
The _Pervod_ dangled the belt tantalizingly. "Do you want it,
Earthman?" he mocked. "Come get it--quick, while you have the chance!"
Veins stood out at Shane's temples. His fingers dug into the dirt. He
brought one leg forward--levered up on it, lurched to his feet, stood
swaying.
"The belt of the _Chonyas_!" the _Pervod_ shrilled gleefully. "Here it
is, _starbo_! The belt of a _gar_ for the taking!"
He flicked the belt past Shane's face.
The Earthman lunged for it, staggering wildly. Only collision with the
hull of the space ship kept him from pitching to the ground again.
"What? You don't want it?" cried the _Pervod_, sidling closer. "I
thought you were _gar_ of the asteroids, _yanat_--high chief of the
_Chonyas_! Why don't you take your belt?"
Again Shane lunged. But this time the Venusian did not dart away.
Instead, he ducked beneath the Earthman's outstretched arms and hurled
his whole weight into Shane's middle.
Shane catapulted backward under the impact and crashed against a
heavy-thewed Uranian.
"Not there, _Gar_ Shane! Here! This way!" shrilled the Venusian.
The Uranian gave Shane a monstrous shove toward the _Pervod_.
But the Venusian side-stepped swiftly. Shane lurched past him, into the
arms of a ghoulishly grinning Martian.
The Martian, in turn, shoved Shane on, sent him caroming off at yet
another angle. From one to another they drove him, bouncing him about
the ring they had formed like the huge ball in a game of _ha lao_.
And all the time the _Pervod_ danced and waved the belt and shrieked
sadistic laughter.
And then, just once, he came too close.
Like the flash of a meteor, Shane's hand shot out. He caught one end of
the belt and let it bring him up short.
His weight jerked the Venusian off balance. Before the _Pervod_ could
recover, Shane was upon him.
Claws slashing, the reptilian fought to hold the belt.
Only then, of a sudden, Shane let go of the precious links of iron.
Catching the _Pervod's_ wrist, turning as he moved, he ducked between
arm and body and levered the arm up behind the Venusian's back.
* * * * *
The brittle reptilian bones snapped with a sound like the crackling of
an angry fire. The _Pervod_ shrieked in anguish.
The crowd stood frozen in stunned, unbelieving silence.
Shane caught the end of the iron belt and flicked it out in a loop that
circled the _Pervod's_ scaly throat. Then, one end in each hand, he
whipped it tight.
The Venusian's scream cut off in mid-breath. His legs, his unbroken
arm, flailed desperately.
But Shane stayed behind him, out of reach of the murderous claws,
drawing the belt ever tighter.
The _Pervod_ sagged.
The crowd's paralysis broke. The air rang with shouts. Beings from a
dozen far-flung planets rushed forward.
The muscles in Shane's arms and shoulders bulged. Belt-ends still tight
in his hands, he spun about, dragging the Venusian with him, elbowing
the others out of the way. Faster he turned, and faster ... faster,
till he was whirling like some monstrous gyro-top, the body of the
_Pervod_ swinging in a giant arc beyond him, clubbing the other raiders
down.
They scrambled back as fast as they'd come, the laughter, the mockery,
dead within them.
Shane let go one end of the belt. The _Pervod's_ body shot out like a
stone from a sling, the head half torn from the torso.
Dizzily, the Earthman lurched to the space ship and braced himself
against it. Then, very deliberately, he slung the belt about his waist
and snapped the clasp. The blue eyes flamed, no longer blank. Knots of
muscle stood out at the hinges of his jaws.
"Who _dares_ to try take the iron belt of the asteroids?" he shouted at
the rabble ring that hemmed him in.
No one moved. No one spoke.
Shane swept them with cold, contemptuous eyes. "Scum!" he spat. "Scum
of the spaceways! Carrion, one and all!"
But he swayed as he said it, and his face showed white beneath the tan.
"Scum ..." he repeated in a voice gone dead, and pitched forward,
unconscious, to the ground.
CHAPTER II
The walls and floor and ceiling and door of Shane's windowless cell all
had the cold green glitter of pure telonium.
So did the handcuffs and leg-irons that shackled him.
But the bare metal cot hinged to one wall was of steel.
Telonium rated harder than steel, seventeen point seven times harder.
Its tensile strength figured nine times greater.
Even so, it took Shane most of the night to tear loose one of the cot's
cross-straps, using the locking lug of the leg-irons as combination
pry-bar and cutter.
The cross-strap measured about two inches wide by two feet long. It had
the weight and striking edge to cave in the skull of a Uranian _dau_.
Shane laid it down beside him on the cot, and waited for someone to
open the cell door.
After awhile faint whispering sounds of motion drifted in; then a
clicking noise.
Shane turned so that shadow half hid his face. He twisted his body in
a semblance of restless sleep, and closed his eyes to lash-shuttered
slits. His fingers caressed the cross-strap mace.
The door opened. The doorway framed a burly, tentacled Thorian guard.
Then the guard stepped aside and a woman came past him, into Shane's
cell, carrying a small, cloth-draped tray. Young and straight and slim,
she moved with a _tara's_ grace. Her high, firm breasts were bared in
the _Malya_ fashion, and the dark loveliness of her face was _Malya_
also. Glistening blue-black hair hung clear to her waist in softly
rippling waves.
Closing the vault-like door behind her, she crossed the cell to Shane's
side: paused there for a moment, looking down at him.
Shane lay very still.
"_Gar_ of the asteroids, high chief of the _Chonyas_," the woman said
softly, almost to herself. Her voice held a note that might have been
weariness, or pain. "You've traveled far, Earthman ... so far, to have
it all end here."
* * * * *
She moved on, to the stand that flanked Shane's cot, and busied herself
at her tray for a moment. Then, straightening, she held a hypodermic
injector up to the light. It contained a colorless liquid. Deftly, she
set the screw, adjusted the high-pressure gas ampule that would spray
the injection straight into the bloodstream without breaking the skin.
Shane twisted a fraction further around on the cot. His breathing was
careful, measured.
Turning, the woman bent over him. She poised the injector, close to his
throat.
Shane's manacled hands shot up. He caught the woman's wrist; twisted
sharply before she could jerk away.
She gave a sharp little in-drawn cry of shock and pain and came down
hard on her knees, lithe body writhing. The injector fell from her
twitching fingers.
Shane's heel smashed it into the floor. Already, he was up and off the
cot, forcing the woman down onto it.
He said tightly: "The first scream breaks your arm, _Malyalara_!"
"A _Malya_ does not scream, _Sha_ Shane!" she answered through clenched
teeth.
She tossed her head as she said it, proud even through the pain, and
for the first time the right side of her face came into full view.
And along that whole right side, someone had cropped the glistening
black hair short, square with the temple, in the ugly, outlawed badge
of slavery.
For a long moment Shane did not move. Then, slowly, he drew back a
fraction and relaxed his grip on the woman's arm.
Some of the tightness left the lovely face. She rose in a single
smooth, supple movement. No fear showed in her dark eyes, even now.
Rather, they probed boldly--eagerly, almost--as if measuring Shane's
metal.
"What do they call you, _Malyalara_?" he asked.
"My name is Talu, _Sha_ Shane."
"You wear your hair cropped like a slave's--"
"--Because I am a slave."
"The Federation banned slavery."
* * * * *
Bitterness twisted the woman's mouth. The midnight eyes burned with the
fierce, blazing anger that had made her people the scourge of the void
within the memory of living man. "I tell myself that every day, _Sha_
Shane. But it does not free me."
Shane's lips drew thin. "Has it been long?"
"About an Earth year. I was of Hidalgo. First, the slavers sent in
_theol_-smugglers. They sought out our leaders--"
"I know," Shane nodded grimly. "_Theol_ breaks the will. Not even a
_Malya_ can fight, with the hunger for it in him." He broke off. "And
then, _Malyalara_--?"
"Then the slave ships came. What else?" Again Talu's ripe lips took
on the bitter twist. "They came by the score--whole fleets of them,
blasting and killing and hunting us down. The Federation had taken our
proton batteries and our fighting ship away, and _theol_ had broken the
men who should have led us. So they stripped Hidalgo bare: every man,
every woman, every child--"
Shane's fingers dug into the slave girl's arms. "But where did they
send you?" he demanded fiercely. "Who wants slaves in a solar system
where power is broadcast free to all planets? What use is there for
labor?"
"I do not know."
"My _Chonyas_ have been raided, too. But why?" Shane clenched his
fists. "Why raid for slaves, when machines can handle any task? Where
do they take them? Are they here, in this place?"
Talu shook her head. "No, not here. This is only a ramping-spot--some
small moon the slavers have taken over. But I have seen a woman here,
a silver woman--Kyrsis, they name her." A momentary tremor rippled
through the _Malyalara_. "She is evil ... more evil than words can
tell. They say that she is the agent for those who buy. But where she
comes from, why her people seek slaves--that I do not know."
"And who serves her? Who is the raider, the _starbo_ whose wolf-pack
gathers in the slaves?"
"His name is Reggar, Quos Reggar--"
"_Quos Reggar!_" Shane spat the name as if it were an epithet. "Slaver,
smuggler, scum!" He twisted violently against his shackles, blue eyes
blazing. "I should have known! I drove him out of the asteroids once--"
"--And he remembers, _Sha_ Shane," Talu said softly. "He remembers,
and he hates you, and he swears the day will come when you shall pray
for death. He has gathered up the scum of the spaceways, the dregs of
the void--"
"You mean, he captured me only for vengeance?" Shane broke in. "He
dragged me here just to kill me--?"
* * * * *
Talu shook her head. "No, _Sha_ Shane. There is more than vengeance. He
has plans for using you, great plans. But that is all I know."
"But how did he capture me? How did he bring me here?" A haunted,
haggard shadow flickered across Shane's face. He raised his manacled
hands and held his head between them. "I was on a mission, an ...
important ... mission, traveling through space. There was no sign of
trouble. And then, all at once, the void went mad. It was a nightmare;
I can't remember what happened--" He broke off, shaking his head as if
to clear away the fog of memory. Then his hands fell, and his eyes met
the girl's once more. "The next thing I knew, I was coming out of it
on the ramp, with dirt in my mouth and a _Pervod_ at my throat. And I
still don't know how I got here."
"It was a projector, they say. A Paulsini projector, focussed on your
ship. They captured your minds with it--yours, and all your crews'."
Shane stared at her incredulously. "A Paulsini that can reach out into
space and take over a ship--? You're mad as a _ban_!"
"They say it is the strongest Paulsini mind-control beam the universe
has ever seen, _Sha_ Shane," Talu replied. "It was ten Earth years
in the building. The power output would send a space ship beyond the
stars."
Shane's eyes narrowed. "'The strongest Paulsini beam the universe has
ever seen'," he repeated slowly. "It tells something, _Malyalara_.
No common slaver ever had the brains or time or money to take on the
building of such a machine as that." Thoughtfully, he stared down at
his fetters. "And what happens, now that I'm here?"
"I do not know."
"You do not know?" Shane studied the woman's face. "Yet you came here,
alone, with an injector, and tried to use it on me."
The other's hands moved in a small, helpless gesture. "The guard was to
have done it, _Sha_ Shane. But I was there when Reggar gave the order.
I had heard of you so many times. I wanted to see you...."
"What was in the injector?"
The girl shook her head. "I do not know. They do not trust me to know
too much."
"They do not trust you?" Shane's eyes probed hers while the seconds
ticked by. He flicked the shattered remnants of the crushed injector
with his toe. "But they let you come to my cell alone." The faintest
of edges crept into his voice. "And they kept you here on this moon
with them, Talu, and sent the rest of your people on across the void to
slavery."
* * * * *
For a long moment Talu stood motionless as some dark statue. Then, all
at once, she began to tremble. Her eyes struck sparks. The bare breasts
rose and fell too fast.
"Yes, they kept me," she whispered tautly, fiercely. "A woman can often
find a place here ... for a time."
She swayed forward, and in that instant she seemed suddenly all
passion, all temptress. Her body brushed Shane's. The warm, half-parted
lips invited him. He stood rigid at the very nearness of her.
Then she drew away once more, and her face had the look of graven
stone. "I have made it my business to be kept here, _Sha_ Shane," she
said icily. "My body is good, and _Malya_ blood runs hot, and even
slavers can lose their caution. So I stay, and earn what trust I can,
and do such work as brought me here. For my grandfather was Toran, the
last great _Malya_ raider chief. He taught me the old way, the _Malya_
way--that blood cries out for blood. I live for the day when my chance
will come, and I can let my knife drink deep from the heart of the
monster, Quos Reggar, who set the slavers on Hidalgo!"
Grim-faced, Shane studied her. "You say the words, Talu," he clipped,
"but will you prove it?"
"Prove it--?"
"The _Chonya_ chiefs gave me a belt--the great iron belt of the
asteroids, the symbol of my power as _gar_. I swore an oath when I
took it ... an oath that the _Chonyas'_ blood and tears would be my
own."
Wordless, the woman watched him, her face a mirror of mixed emotions.
"They have taken my belt away, Talu, these slavers who raid _Malya_
and _Chonya_ alike. They have locked me here like a berserk _vrong_,
and thrown the key away. But my oath still stands. The _Chonyas_ made
me _gar_ because I knew how to fight, and feared no man. So I'll fight
here."
The fierce eagerness crept back into Talu's face. Her hands clutched
his. "Yes, yes! But what can you do?"
"I'll carve my way, _Malyalara_! I'll give them blood for blood and
tears for tears, till the asteroids breath free again!" The ring of
steel on steel was in Shane's voice. His face was carved with rocky
lines. "You told me that a _Malya_ does not scream, Talu. But if you
_were_ to scream, just once, would that slimy Thorian guard outside pay
heed?"
She caught her breath. "And ... if he did--?"
Shane smiled a thin, hard, ruthless smile. "Even in leg-irons I can
drag myself to the door." He bent over the cot and pulled free the
broken cross-strap; slashed with it so it sighed and whispered through
the air. "It sings a song of death, Talu!"
The woman's midnight eyes burned murder-bright. Her voice was a
breathless whisper: "Strike hard and straight and fast, _Sha_
Shane...."