His glowing, dark-eyed gaze roved us. Out in the corridor there was a
man's voice--one of the other Gorts passing. And the weird, shambling
hunchback suddenly burst into guttural laughter. "So the Earthmen are
afraid of me? Afraid of Borgg, who wants only to amuse people?"
He suddenly backed away from us, hurling what seemed a stream of
invective at us in the guttural syllables of his own language. Then he
backed through our door, slammed it upon us and bolted it.
We stared at each other blankly. "Well I'll be damned," Allen muttered.
"What could that mean?"
* * * * *
I can only sketch the weird events of that voyage to Venus. My first
spaceflight. You who read this can anticipate taking one soon, of
course. And you are naturally familiar with the glowing words of
description the newscasters have used. With the mechanical details of
Interplanetary traveling, the more scientific-minded among you must
be thoroughly familiar. I think all that need have little place in my
narrative. Human motives; human conflicts. The things of actuality
which happened to me, to Jack Allen, to little Nereid--with those
things only am I concerned here.
There were some ten men and five of the grim Gort women, here on the
space vehicle. By Earth routine of living, it could have been five or
six days. After the first time of sleep, Allen and I were given a fair
freedom of movement. Much of it we spent in the control turret, with
Rhool, the leader here. Tollgamo's lieutenant was well pleased with
himself. He was bringing Nereid back. He had learned from her that her
little space-cylinder was lost at the bottom of the sea on Earth. What
Tollgamo had ordered, Rhool had accomplished, with efficiency which
would bring him commendation. And he was bringing Allen and me back,
Earthmen whom Tollgamo doubtless would very much want to question.
"You tell him much--he treat you well," Rhool assured us with his heavy
leer. He was, I could see, far more impressed with Allen than with
me; Allen who now was winning his confidence, pretending that there
was much he could tell Tollgamo; hinting even that he and I would not
be averse to joining the great Master of the Gorts in his schemes of
conquest.
Nereid was unharmed. The woman Garga was caring for her; and on the
third day from Earth, Allen persuaded Garga to bring Nereid to the
turret. After that, Nereid was often with us, and her fragile, delicate
beauty here among the grey, metal-clad Gorts made her seem ethereal
indeed. She came to my side, with her face lighting up.
"I was afraid they had killed you," she whispered. "Bad time for us
all, my Earth-friend. I--I did very badly on my adventure to Earth."
She told us then that her father had built the little cylinder,
intending to send one of his men in it. But Nereid, who had learned its
operation, had stolen it.
Then suddenly she was whispering to us, that the Gorts in the turret
might not hear. "I have a brother--my twin--his name is Leh. Tollgamo
does not know there is such a person." She shot a furtive glance
around the turret. "For several years he has been living with the
Gorts. Pretending he is one of them. From him, father has gotten much
information of Tollgamo's plans. It would be death to Leh if who he is
were known. And now I will tell you--Leh is--"
A guttural shout from Rhool at the control table checked her.
"He says, stop whispering," she murmured. "That other thing I will tell
you later.... I speak the English," she said to Rhool. "You speak it
too? Then we talk it here, so that these Earthmen may understand?"
Rhool laughed. His heavy dark gaze roved her. "You very beautiful," he
said. "See--I talk English. Come sit by me. The starshine makes you
beautiful, girl of Arron."
I tensed, with my heart pounding as I saw his darkly leering gaze rove
over her again.
"Easy!" whispered Allen. "Don't start anything."
Then at last Venus had grown to a full-round, glowing silver disk
before our bow. After the next time of sleep it was a monstrous
ball, filling half the firmament, mottled with clouds so that its
surface configurations were only vaguely apparent. Heavy, thick Venus
atmosphere. Within another day of our living routine we dropped into
it, sliding diagonally downward, with slackening velocity now and
rocket streams of fluorescent gases to check and guide us.
With Rhool and Nereid I was in the starlit turret. It was night here,
the Venus night of atmospheric fog. Rhool had been drinking from a
little gourd at his belt, and was flushed with his triumph and the
liquor.
"A few hours," he said to Nereid. "Then I give you to Tollgamo." His
arm went suddenly around her waist, drawing her against him. What he
was muttering in his own language I had no idea; but as she cried out,
struggling with him, I jumped.
"That's enough from you--let her alone!" I rasped.
* * * * *
He cast her off, leaped to his feet. Rage darkened his heavy face so
that it seemed to blacken. My lunging jab struck his mailed chest, but
my swing at his face missed him. He jumped backward, with a hand going
to a weapon at his belt. I have no doubt that I would have been dead
in another few seconds. But there were shouts behind me; the woman
Garga and Allen coming from the corridor. Garga's guttural remonstrance
checked the angry Rhool. And then Borgg, the weird little hunchback,
came shambling forward.
"Stop it!" Allen shouted at me. "Easy there, you idiot!"
Borgg grabbed me. As I fought, his mouth jabbed against my ear. His
voice was a sibilant whisper. "Fight me--not too hard! I am Leh--her
brother!"
Nereid's brother! Spy among the Gorts, for years masquerading in this
grotesque guise of half-demented hunchback jester! I struggled with him
now as he cuffed me, while Nereid stared terrified and Rhool laughed
with coarse ribald amusement, appeased that I was being beaten.
And then Leh shoved me from the turret, dragged me down the corridor,
slammed me into my sleeping cubby. Again his mouth was to my ear.
"Later tonight, I will try and turn you loose. And your friend Allen,
and my sister."
In a swift whisper he told me his plans. At the ship's lower exit porte
he had hidden a small anti-gravity platform, and three pressure suits.
We could escape from there. He shoved the door upon me, barred it and
was gone.
I sat tense in the darkness, those last hours. Through the bullseye
window the Venus clouds were an opalescent haze of weird glowing
luminosity, like phosphorescence in tropic water. It seemed inherent
to the cloud-vapours; but more than that I could see that it was
radiating up from below. Venus-shine. Pale and weirdly beautiful light
inherent to the planet herself.
And then our little ship sank below the clouds, and the surface of
Venus lay spread some ten thousand feet below me. It was an amazing
world of lush shining forests and gleaming, rippling opalescent water.
We were near the country of the Arones; but for just a moment, beyond
the shining sea, tiers of black metal mountains were visible which I
knew to be the country of the Gorts.
The rasp of my door softly opening made me turn. The grotesque hunched
form of Nereid's brother stood there, with a hand in a silencing
gesture to his mouth.
"Most of them are in the forward control turret. You go down into the
hull to the exit porte. My sister and Allen will join you."
He shoved me. Then he softly closed my door, barred it, and shambled
forward toward the turret, grinning, mumbling an inane little tune. I
ducked into a doorway; went down an incline ladder. The hull corridor
was dark, with just a small hooded light of green glow. Tense, alert,
I came to the pressure porte doorway. And suddenly a figure stirred in
the shadows.
"Kent!" It was Nereid, crouching here, waiting for me. I gripped her.
"Where's Jack?"
"My brother said he would send him down. But he has not come."
Then we heard faint footsteps on the incline. And suddenly from up
there in the dimness, came Allen's voice:
"Why--why hello, Garga. I didn't see you."