"You are ridiculous, old insect! Such things are known only to
technicians in factories, not to mining men like myself."
Again the blinding light struck at me, the sickening shaking of the
vibrance welled through me. I sank and was raised again to
consciousness.
Still the same foolish old insect face, the same bulging ignorant eyes.
The words:
"Tell, then, how this Croen and the forces of Prince Genner may be
overcome? Speak, earthman."
The compulsion moved me, and I answered:
"There is no way you can overcome them, Jivro. You are doomed, and there
is no hope for your tyranny over the Schrees to continue. They have
tired of the Jivros, and you deserve what you are going to get."
Again the sickening application of force and again the exterior
compulsion to speak. I said:
"Your only chance to get back power is to get forces from your home in
space, wherever that may be. You cannot overcome these fighting men and
their weapons, which are as good as your weapons, for you Jivros have
relied for too long upon the Schrees and Shinros for your fighting, and
for your thinking too, by the questions you ask. Have you not done any
thinking in your life, that you ask me such silly questions?"
A change came over the old creature. I knew he was wounded, for I had
seen the glistening milky fluid pouring from the wound in his breast. He
leaned weakly against the table to which I was strapped, his eyes on
mine glazing over with death. The wide lips at the very bottom of the
flat face, moved:
"The Jivro Empire is ending, I think, earthman. We dug our own grave
when we relegated all unpleasant duties to our conquered races. For an
age the Jivro has been a creature shunning all work and effort, even
thinking. We were bound to lose our grip. I see now that I am really
foolish, and not a strong being of intellect. Our doom is written, and
the day of the writing was that day when we conquered and enslaved the
Schrees."
"Now you are talking sense, Old One. You see what is plain to all
others; at last it becomes clear to you. But you are dying, and it is
too late for wisdom to come to the Jivros. Once you set your feet on the
path to greatness; but when you did evil, your feet naturally turned to
the downward path of decadence. Evil is not a way of life, it is a way
of death."
The bulging eyes on mine flickered with a fierce inner fire for an
instant, then the head bent lower. For an instant he tottered there
beside me, then crashed to the floor with a sound like a bundle of dry
sticks.
I turned my head, saw that I was in the chamber of my first
interrogation, and the sound of feet about me was the Jivro "doctors,"
moving to carry away their ruler. I saw the sleek body of Carna on a
table but a dozen feet away. Three of the tall white-robed insects bent
over her, one moving a control in a great lamp device, another
scribbling on a pad, and the third was speaking. Evidently the Zoorph
was getting the third degree, too. I lay back weakly. I felt as if I had
been through a washing machine and some of my buttons left in the
wringer.
As I closed my eyes, a vast _boom_ crashed into my ears, the table
jumped beneath me, pieces of masonry fell bounding on the floor and I
raised my head, staring wildly. Evidently the prince and the Croen were
still bombing the place.
I tugged at the straps on my wrists and ankles. They gave a little. I
kept on tugging, turning my head as far as I could to see how the insect
men were taking their bombardment. They stood, near fifty of them, in a
group by the door. Evidently they had started to run out when the crash
came, but had stopped when it was evident the roof was going to remain
intact. If those things had any sense they would be in the deepest
sub-basement they could find, I figured. The Schrees must have been
carrying them as helpless parasites for too many centuries to realize
they could do without them, for them to be so inept.
Straining my neck, I watched the grotesque high-breasted white figures
about the doorway, they were tittering to each other in some tongue I
did not know, a strange sound like the rasping of corn husks under
squeaking wagon wheels. Suddenly the whole palace shook terribly, the
floor seemed to reel, an unbearable sound raged at my ears. I cringed
from the pain of the sound. When I opened my eyes, the whole mass of the
Jivro medicals was jammed in the doorway, struggling to get over each
other, and the squeaking and rasping increased into a bedlam of sound. I
laughed, a deep "ha ha," and from the neighboring table Carna cried:
"See what wonderful creatures are the tyrants when things are not going
their way. If I had known they were like that in war, I would have
killed them all myself long, long, ago. I would have poisoned them, and
when they asked me who did it, I would have said, _boo_ and they would
all have run away and hid!"
As the last of them got through the door, I gave my loosened straps one
mighty pull, and the heavy leather tore. I could hear it part in the
sudden silence. Again and again I strained, and at last the leather
parted entirely. My right hand was free. Feverishly I tore at the other
fastenings. There could be but little time left us before that bombing
struck dead center and brought the whole palace down. We had to get out.
I knew it quite as well as those fleeing insect men.
Free at last, I rolled off the table, landed on all fours, leaped to
Carna's side, and released the buckles of the straps. As she sat up, her
face level with mine, she pursed her lips, and I gave her a hearty
smack. As her arms went about my neck, I picked her up, raced through
the doorway, along the passage, down the ramps. I was weaponless, but I
had no longer any fear of the Jivros. I saw a group of them busy in a
big chamber as I passed, but I raced on, spinning around the next
corner, down the ramps and on ... on ... until I felt the coolness of
fresh air ahead, ran out beneath the stars again, and along the shadowed
street.
Putting my Zoorph back on her feet, we raced toward that breach in the
wall. Over our heads the great blasting explosions went on, and I saw
but three of the circling disks left to the defense of the city.
Outside the city wall we stopped to catch our breath, leaning against
the wall in the shadow.
Carna said, musingly: "It is all over for the ancient Empire of the
Jivros, if help does not come for them tonight. For, now that they are
seen to be so helpless without their slaves and their fighting men, the
news will spread. Planet after planet will rise against them. This is
their finish!"
"They expected to conquer earth, Carna. They could never have done it.
For a little while, perhaps, but not for long."
"They might have! They are like ants; they have a highly developed
pattern of activity. But when that pattern is disrupted, they are lost.
They do not think--they remember."
"We've got to make contact with the queen and with Genner and the Croen.
We will be left out of things." I was wondering what Carna's future
plans were.
"You are interested in the beautiful sister of the Prince?" asked Carna.
"You are interested in the so handsome Prince?" I answered in the same
tone of voice.
"Of course, what woman would not be! But I am more interested in you,
for I fell in love with you. But I can fall out again, and maybe--who
knows...." she laughed.
"What's more to the point, Carna, is she interested in me?"
"I could tell you," said Carna, her eyes mysterious on my own, luminous
and huge in the darkness.
"Well, perhaps you had better tell me, then."
"Why? I love you!"
"You mean she _is_ interested in me!"
"Very much, and she is a very smart woman who has ways of getting what
she wants. I am very much afraid she will take you with her to space
when they go, and leave poor Carna in her ruined city, with no one but
the wild beasts and the dead bodies. This will be the end of this
place."
"You are wrong!" I smiled, thinking the girl was flattering me.
"No, not wrong, dear earthman. I am very much afraid of the future, for
I am to lose you, but I have a way of avoiding that."
"And what is that way?"
"You will find out when the time comes, and you may like it very much!"
"Let's get away from this wall where we can see what's going on...."
We plodded across the level, grassy valley floor, walking backward some
of the time, watching the great circling ships above the city's center,
and the lancing blue paths of their rays stabbing at some darting
adversary high above them.
Then from the western sky came a series of round low shapes, speeding so
rapidly the eye could hardly distinguish them from the darkly glowing
horizon. After their passage, in a close series, came the air-scream of
falling missiles, high-pitched, then came a terrific cannonading of
explosions. Fountains of fire sprang up in exact sequence, one after the
other. The ground shook and shook underfoot, each shock seeming greater,
to add its strength to the one preceding it. I knew that this was for
the Jivros the end of their plans on earth.
Simultaneous with the arrow-swift flight, two great blazing lances of
blue fire shot downward from the ships far overhead, transfixed the
circling spheres one after the other. They tilted, plunged slowly,
faster and faster--ended in great splashes of fire and sound somewhere
in the city below.