"Gregg...."
"Good-bye, dear. I'll jump first, down this side, you follow."
To leap into that black patch, with the rocks under it....
"Gregg--"
She was trying to tell me to look overhead. She gestured, "Gregg,
see!"
I saw it, out over the plains, a little speck amid the stars. A moving
speck, coming toward us!
"Gregg, what is it?"
I gazed, held my breath. A moving speck out there. A blob now. And
then I realized it was not a large object, far away, but small, and
already very close--only a few hundred feet off, dropping toward the
top of our dome. A narrow, flat, ten foot object, like a wingless
volplane. There were no lights on it, but in the Earthlight I could
see two crouching, helmeted figures riding it.
"Anita! Don't you remember!"
I was swept with dawning comprehension. Back in the Grantline camp
Snap and I had discussed how to use the _Planetara's_ gravity plates.
We had gone to the wreck and secured them, had rigged this little
volplane flyer....
The brigands on the rocks saw it now. A flash went up at it. One of
the figures crouching on it opened a flexible fabric like a wing over
its side. I saw another flash from below, harmlessly striking the
insulated shield.
I gasped to Anita, "Light your helmet! It's from Grantline! Let them
see us!"
I stood erect. The little flying platform went over us, fifty feet up,
circling, dropping to the dome top.
I waved my helmet light. The exit lock from below--up which we had
come--was near us. The advancing brigands were already in it! I had
forgotten to demolish the manuals. And I saw that the darkness down on
the rocks was almost gone now, dissipating in the airless night. The
brigands down there began firing up at us.
It was a confusion of flashing lights. I clutched at Anita.
"Come this way--run!"
The platform barely missed our heads. It sailed lengthwise of the dome
top, and crashed silently on the central runway near the stern tip.
Anita and I ran to it.
The two helmeted figures seized us, shoved us prone on the metal
platform. It was barely four feet wide; a low railing, handles with
which to cling, and a tiny hooded cubby in front.
"Gregg!"
"You, Snap!"
It was Snap and Venza. She seized Anita, held her crouching in place.
Snap flung himself face down at the controls.
The brigands were out on the dome now. I took a last shot as we
lifted. My bullet punctured one of them: he slid, fell scrambling off
the rounded dome and dropped out of sight.
Light rays and silent flashes seemed to envelope us. Venza held the
side shields higher.
We tilted, swayed crazily, and then steadied.
The ship's dome dropped away beneath us. The rocks of the open ledge
were beneath us. Then the abyss, with the moving, climbing specks of
Miko's lights far down.
I saw, over the side shield, the already distant brigand ship resting
on the ledge with the massive Archimedes' wall behind it. A confusion
back there of futile flashing rays.
It all faded into a remote glow as we sailed smoothly up into the
starlight and away, heading for the Grantline camp.