I called, "Yes!" Had Venza failed in her unknown purpose? It seemed
so. On the radio room bridge Snap and his guard stood like silent
statues in the blue lit gloom.
The disembarkation was over.
"Close the ports!" Miko commanded.
The incline came folding up with a clatter. The port and dome windows
slid closed. Moa hissed against my ear:
"If you want life, Gregg Haljan, you will start your duties!"
Venza had failed. Whatever it was, it had come to nothing. Down in the
purple forest, disconnected now from the ship, the last of our friends
stood marooned. I could distinguish them through the blur of the
closed dome--only a swaying, huddled group was visible. But my fancy
pictured this last sight of them, Dr. Frank, Venza, Shac and Dud
Ardley.
They were gone. There were left only Snap, Anita and myself.
I was mechanically ringing us away. I heard my sirens sounding down
below, with the answering clangs here in the turret. The _Planetara's_
respiratory controls started; the pressure equalizers began operating;
and the gravity plates began shifting into lifting combinations.
The ship was hissing and quivering with it, combined with the grating
of the last of the dome ports. And Miko's command:
"Lift, Haljan!"
Hahn had been mingling with the confusion of the deck though I had
hardly noticed him. Coniston had remained below with the crew
answering my signals. Hahn stood now with Miko, gazing down through a
deck window. Anita was alone at another.
"Lift, Haljan!"
I lifted up gently, bow first, with a repulsion of the bow plates. And
started the central electronic engine. Its thrust from the stern moved
us diagonally over the purple forest trees.
The glade slid downward and away. I caught a last vague glimpse of
the huddled group of marooned passengers, staring up at us. Left to
their fate, alone on this deserted world.
With the three engines going, we slid smoothly upward. The forest
dropped, a purple spread of treetops edged with starlight and
Earthlight. The sharply curving horizon seemed to follow us upward. I
swung on all the power. We mounted at a forty degree angle, slowly
circling, with a bank of clouds over us to the side and the shining
little sea beneath.
"Very good, Gregg." In the turret light Moa's eyes blazed at me. "I do
not know what you meant by darkening the deck lights." Her fingers dug
at my shoulders. "I will tell my brother it was an error."