But the lithe, young Amazon was already running along a row of banked
machinery, withdrawing the second time-bomb from under her hybrid
disguise. In the far wall a green light glowed as she approached. A
door dilated open, and a Sediphron appeared in the opening.
For a moment he hesitated, stalk eyes swaying toward Gena. Then
suspicion fused to purpose, and he swung his electron to target her.
Hammond's rifle lashed out first. Gena scarcely slowed in her run.
She stepped over the crustacean's green body, and vanished into the
degravitator room.
Sweat gathered on Hammond's brow as he waited, rifle held tight in his
right hand. Storm was stroking Ardiné's forehead, his face grim. The
high-pitched hum of the giant degravitator filled the room.
Then Gena returned, swiftly, tearing off her hybrid disguise. "One
hour, Earthmen!" she said, unevenly, her eyes dark with the terrible
strain. "One hour, and then we go down with Zuggoth and his hideous
horde!"
"No!" Hammond's voice was rough. He ripped the disguise from him,
flung it aside. Bronzed and rangy, his square jaw set, he faced the
girl-commander. "You've handled this so far, Gena. But we're not giving
up. We're getting out of here if we have to blast our way through every
foot!"
* * * * *
His ringing cry seemed to whip hope into Gena. The strain in her white
face seemed to ease, and a strange smile touched her full lips.
"Earthman, I think I shall like your breed. It does not easily give up!"
They turned away, crossed the huge room just as a squad of Sediphrons
burst in at the other end. Hammond dropped behind, his rifle covering
the burdened Storm and Gena, the girl he loved.
In a swift rearguard engagement, they fought their way out of the
room. Gena's aimed electronic bolt fused the hidden mechanism of the
dilating door through which they escaped, momentarily holding up the
rush of the hideous crustaceans.
"The tank rooms!" Hammond barked, taking command. "You know how to
reach one of them, Gena?"
The girl nodded. Tensed, grim-faced, Hammond followed the girl, keeping
Storm and Ardiné between them, electronic rifle held ready.
A small Sediphron squad patrolled the area, evidently on the alert for
such a break. But the sudden appearance of the Earthmen and the girls
caught them by surprise.
There were eight of them, and four went down to the combined fire of
Gena and Hammond before they could train their rifles. Then Storm,
laying Ardiné on the hard floor, took a hand.
Only one of that crustacean squad emerged from that withering fire. He
succeeded in reaching a huge wall switch. A moment later the huge bell
clanged its harsh alarm through the ship.
Hammond killed him, without regret.
They took the nearest war tank, a small, fast scout vehicle. Gena
sent it clattering toward the far wall just as Zuggoth and a horde of
Sediphrons burst into the room.
The electronic rifle bolts splattered harmlessly against the armor of
the speeding tank. Unharmed the fugitives passed through the dilating
door, and dipped down the side of the huge space craft.
Hammond hung on to the hand grips, watching Storm. The blond American
held Ardiné in the curve of his strong arm, anxiety in his face. Only
when the brunette began to stir, open her eyes, did relief finally ease
the grimness of Storm's face.
The girl smiled up at him, her arms tightening. Hammond took his gaze
away from the oblivious pair, and peered through the observation
windows.
Gena was guiding the small tank along the huge ledge that was the boat
side.
Back of them a score of bigger war tanks were following. Huge rays were
blasting at them, burning scars in the ledge about them.
The small tank finally dipped down the boat side onto the far seat. For
a moment they were safe, out of range of the bigger tank batteries.
Gena brought the tank to an abrupt halt. "Our only chance!" she
snapped. "We must use the size-expanding ray!"
They clambered quickly out. Far across the void between seats the "big
ones" loomed. Nearer, coming toward them along the heaving boat side,
clattered the Sediphron war tanks.
For a brief moment Gena's eyes mirrored a deep regret. Then she set the
adjustment on her ray gun, and turned it on Hammond, while Ardiné did
the same to Storm.
The familiar, whirling darkness, the bitter cold, claimed Hammond.
The darkness faded. He found himself facing Storm on the boat seat. The
skiff was rocking crazily. Hammond teetered, stumbled back into the
stern, and at the same moment Ardiné and Gena appeared.
A wave shipped over the side, washing tiny, antlike things that a
moment before had loomed as colossal war tanks, into the bottom of the
boat. And at the same moment Gena stiffened.
Thrusting from a turret in the Sediphron space craft appeared a small,
glinting tube, similar to the one Gena had used to change them to tiny
mites. In another moment they would experience again the sickening
change to ultra-smallness.
The twin reports, like small firecrackers going off inside the "big
ones," cut across Hammond's instinctive yell to dive overboard. The
space cruisers on the boat seat, with the degravitators gone, seemed
suddenly sucked down with irresistible force. They crashed through the
seat, through the bottom of the skiff, and vanished in a swirl of water.
* * * * *
The _Crawfish_ foundered, precipitating Hammond and his companions into
the Sound. Hammond stroked instinctively to Gena's side, but the girl
was as good a swimmer as he.
Ardiné and Storm swam alongside, and together they idled, looking back
to where the _Crawfish_ barely showed between swells, her thwarts awash.
"That's the end of Zuggoth and his crustacean horde!" Storm remarked
with relief. "Both ships must be buried deep in the muck and rock of
the Sound!"
Gena's eyes clouded. Hammond had the sudden knowledge she was thinking
of the Amazon warriors that had gone down with the _Vandar III_. Yet
he knew, too, that it was better this way, than the more horrible fate
that had been in store for them.
Gena stroked closer, her shoulder brushing his. She was still staring
at the bobbing skiff, a strange half-fearful doubt tightening her wet
face. Hammond sensed the trend of her thoughts.
The occupants of the pursuing war tanks, unfitted for water travel,
must have surely drowned. But the huge space craft were water tight. It
might be that Zuggoth and his crustacean horde, buried in the muck of
the Sound, by their tremendous weight relative to their size, would yet
succeed in repairing the degravitator of his ship and win free before
death overtook them.
Hammond thrust the chill apprehension from him. He grinned reassuringly
as Gena looked up at him, eyes dark with uncertainty--with sudden
loneliness. She was no longer master of a million warriors--commander
of a mighty ship of space. She was just a girl, now, soft and lovely
and somewhat afraid.
"Frank," she said softly, tremulously. "What is it like--on Earth? We
are lost, Ardiné and I--"
"Not lost, Gena," Frank answered, his voice serious. Over the girl's
wet shoulder, in the west, he could see the swollen red orb of sun
setting behind the wooded island. He saw farther, into tomorrow,
and after. To his friends in the lab--to a story he knew would be
incredulously received--to a world he and Storm would have to try to
explain to these girls from across the star hung void.
"You'll be with me, Gena," he said, his voice gentle. "As my wife. And
perhaps some day, with your knowledge, and Ardiné's--"
The girl smiled, and followed the line of his upward glance. The
shadows were lengthening across the heaving Sound. But in the still,
flushed sky a pin point of light beckoned, like a smiling answer--the
brilliant disc of glowing Mars.