"Just a minute." It was Laniq, sitting near the telio. "Someone's
calling." A face flashed into view on the screen--Ruscar.
"Let me speak to Barwan," he said. "You have a few seconds to decide
whether you want to live or die."
"Take the conveyor back up," Tedor told Dorlup, and went to the telio.
Ruscar looked far from happy.
"Tedor, you still have a chance. I've been following you in time, ever
since we found out what happened to Malenkov and Chenkov. You can't
stop me now, Tedor. Everything is ready and there are enough atom and
hydrogen bombs here at this one base to do the job."
Tedor was looking at Ruscar for the first time since his dual life had
been revealed. Enemy of time-tyrants on the one hand, tyrant who wanted
all the world and all of time under his control on the other.
"Throw in with me, Tedor! I'll forget what you've done. We need men
like you."
Tedor shook his head. "It would take me years to tell you what I think
of you, so I won't even try. The answer is no."
"My conveyor is five miles to the south, Tedor. We're going to blow you
out of the sky unless you--"
Tedor snapped the telio off, went to the controls and replaced Dorlup
at them.
"Can he do it?" Laniq wanted to know.
Through the port, they watched the other conveyor streak into view.
Suddenly there was a rattling noise and a furious hissing as Ruscar
opened up with rockets and machine guns. Cursing, Tedor clutched at the
controls and their conveyor plummeted towards the earth.
"We're not armed," Dorlup wailed. "He can destroy us at his leisure."
"Maybe." Tedor brought them down to within a few hundred feet of the
ground, Ruscar right behind them. The lack of anti-aircraft fire meant
Ruscar had ordered the ground batteries out of action, since they might
just as easily have hit him.
Ruscar's craft opened up again. A rocket ripped into the hull of their
conveyor and exploded, flipping it in a quick 360 degree turn and
flinging Tedor from the controls.
He climbed groggily to hands and knees, dragged himself back to the
pilot chair. Laniq was stretched out on the floor, moaning. Dorlup sat
dazed in a corner. But by the time Tedor sat at the instrument panel
again, Laniq was on her feet groggily at his side.
"Bad?" she said.
"We're helpless, unless we can out-maneuver him."
They dived again. Tedor brought them out of it at the last moment,
plunging them half a minute into the past. Ruscar had stayed with them
all the way.
"All I need is time to release the bomb and get away, but he's
sticking."
Machine gun bullets ripped in through their hull, unarmed since the
conveyor was not intended for aerial battle. Tedor forced the craft
into a steep climb, then brought it down again in the same maneuver.
But Ruscar fled into the past with him and he could not destroy the
storage area and Ruscar's conveyor without also killing himself, Laniq
and Dorlup in the process.
Ruscar was fast converting their conveyor into a sieve and Tedor
realized it would be only moments before he damaged their engine and
forced them to crash. They climbed once more, dove again. Laniq looked
at Tedor, tears in her eyes. They had come so close to victory....
Tedor punched the controls rapidly. The conveyor rocked, absorbed
another rocket hit, shuddered. Then for an instant, it was floating
calmly in undisturbed air.
Tedor released the bomb and sent the ship skyward.
"What did you do?" Laniq cried.
"Ruscar figured I'd leap into the past again. I didn't. I tried the
future, because it was our only chance. Just fifty seconds, but by the
time Ruscar realizes his mistake, I hope...."
They looked down below them, saw a tiny dot which was Ruscar's ship
materialize. Then it was blotted out, along with the storage area, by
a flash of light, a roar, a seething, rocking, thundering tempest--
Ruscar's conveyor, the storage area, the barren tundra below them--all
were replaced by a huge, mushroom-topped pillar of kaleidoscoping
destruction....
* * * * *
Much later, in southwestern United States:
"My father is going to be all right, Tedor. And have you seen the
headlines?"
"Yes." He smiled at her. "There were three mysterious atomic
explosions, almost simultaneous, in the USSR. Malenkov and Chenkov have
become extremely conciliatory."
"The people of the world will never know what happened."
"Neither will Ruscar. He'd closed the year 1955, intending to move into
it in the normal time-stream, sure it would be the crucial year. He
died in 1954."
"Then, everything is fine--except for all those trophies I have,
Tedor. We could set up a museum, I suppose."
"What for? Those trophies are more valuable where they came from. I
can't think of a better way to spend the first few weeks of our married
life than to return them. Sort of a honeymoon in time." And Tedor took
her in his arms.
She pulled away from him. "Just a minute, Tedor Barwan! I'm not going
to kiss anyone until he removes that disguise."
Tedor smiled at her, turned to Dorlup. "You'd better do the same thing,
Comrade Malenkov, unless you want the people around here to lynch you."
"I sure will," Dorlup said. "Wait till you see the solidio I'm going to
write, though. We'll call it 1954. What a story!"
"Oh, no," groaned Tedor.
But Laniq kissed him and Tedor forgot everything else....