The Centaurians were making one last effort to
conquer Earth, and their tools were wise-cracking,
space-jaunting O'Dea and Hawthorne--two guys
to whom _freedom_ was more than a word.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories Fall 1944.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The frantic flares of the rockets lit up a murderous landscape as
barrel-chested Paul Hawthorne wrestled with the controls. He fought to
keep the ship from falling too swiftly, anxious eyes searching for a
level spot to set down the partly-crippled vessel.
Behind him, Lance O'Dea clung to a chart table and growled.
"Put it down!" O'Dea ordered. "You're the Einstein who got us to this
desert planet of Centauri; now get us landed safely!"
Hawthorne risked a second to turn his grimy face to the animated bean
pole behind him. Like himself, O'Dea was unshaven and wrapped in the
shapeless coveralls of spacemen. Hawthorne scowled and pushed his hairy
arms back into the controls.
"If you think you can do any better," he grunted, "take over yourself!"
"No, thanks." O'Dea bent over to look through the port. The jagged
terrain was closer, and a horrified shudder ran down his bony frame.
"No, I'll let you answer to Saint Peter for the death of us both!"
His expression as he glared at Hawthorne was distasteful, but the
makings of a grin played on the corners of his lips, and a thinly-hid
concern was in his eyes.
"This is the end," he said. In one hand he clutched a photograph of a
dark-haired girl. "The end, Mercedes! To think you'll be a widow before
you're even a wife, all because that ape of a Hawthorne lost all our
fuel in Centauri's asteroid belt--"
"Shut up!" the pilot demanded. One of his hands flipped a wad of
something green back in O'Dea's direction. "Here's the ten _platins_ I
owe you. And get ready--this is it!"
A roughly level spot swept up at them--an uneven mesa that ended
abruptly a few hundred feet ahead. Hawthorne dropped the vessel in a
cushion of rocket blasts that were starting to cough for lack of fuel.
The ship bellied along the mesa, dipped into a pocket. O'Dea crashed
into the stocky pilot as the ship turned end over end, then both
struck the control board, smashing fifty thousand _platins_ worth of
instruments as they bounced around. The ship hesitated for a second at
the edge of the mesa, balanced neatly, and decided to stay there.
* * * * *
Inside the ship, the lights were gone. For a few seconds there was a
crashing of furniture, then silence.
"Lance!" Hawthorne's voice trembled slightly. "Are you killed? I
h-hope--"
But the catch in his throat indicated he meant differently. From the
darkness came O'Dea's answering drawl:
"No, you ape--I was just hoping the same about you. How about some
light?"
Hawthorne fumbled around, found a battery-operated light that had
survived the crash. He hobbled to where O'Dea was half buried in a heap
of furniture and extricated him. The two of them rubbed their sore
spots and looked glumly about.
"Centauri Six," Hawthorne mused. "You have the book l'arnin'. What's
this planet like?"
O'Dea pressed fingers to his temples.
"Not inhabited by Centaurs," he said. "Which is one small break. At
least we won't have those monsters--"
"I asked about the planet."
"If any Centaurs show up," said O'Dea shortly, "it'll make no
difference about the planet. The Space Guide gives it the name Avignon.
Hardly known by humans, of course--like the rest of this system. It
has no water and no air. We'll die of thirst or suffocation here, but
at least the Centaurs won't get us."
Hawthorne looked up from the aneroid set beside the airlock.
"As usual," he said, "you're wrong. We have an atmospheric pressure
of ten pounds. And what's more, the instruments show it's a real
atmosphere--like Earth's!"
"There's no such planet! Your instruments must be damaged!"
"No." Hawthorne shook his head. "These instruments don't lie. And they
say we have an atmosphere. It may be thicker in the valleys!"
"Then," O'Dea insisted, "the Space Guide must be wrong, because my
memory distinctly tells me--"
"Be damned to your memory! I brought this ship down, and I felt the
atmosphere. What's more, all the planets inside the asteroid belt,
except this one, are inhabited by Centaurs--and we're certainly inside
the asteroid belt."
"You should know." O'Dea glared at him. "After letting that asteroid
smash through our fuel tanks--"
"You make me tired," Hawthorne yawned. "We're getting on each other's
nerves. Better get some sleep and cool off."
He cleared a place on the floor and relaxed. While O'Dea watched, fists
knotted, the burly pilot started to snore.
O'Dea grinned suddenly and turned away. He stared thoughtfully out the
port. It was dark. A feeble, distant sun was falling below a rugged
horizon; and in the sky above he picked out ruddy Proxima.
But there should be a "real" sun due to rise soon. Nice thing about
Centauri--there were enough suns to suit anybody.
His eyes fell on the wad of bills Hawthorne had thrown at him. He
retrieved it happily, also finding the photograph. He gazed fondly
at the deep dark eyes and rich lips of the girl, kissed the picture
happily.
"Good night, Mercedes," he said. "We'll show him in the morning."
* * * * *
Brilliant sunlight flooded the cabin when they awoke. At this distance,
the sun seemed somewhat smaller than Sol as seen from Earth, but it
was brilliant and warm. They ate a fast concentrated breakfast and
studied the airlock. Hawthorne voiced his verdict:
"We can repair it in a few hours. Get the tools out."
O'Dea was looking at the gravity indicator.
"Gravity is .92," he announced. "That's the correct figure for
Avignon--no question about it. But I can't understand that atmosphere!
It doesn't belong!"
He took the torch Hawthorne shoved at him and they went to work on the
airlock. When they had unjammed the inner door, they found that the
outer had somehow escaped injury.
They crawled into the lock, an almost vertical climb with the ship
tilted as it was, and closed the inner door behind them. O'Dea shoved
open the outer and pushed his nose over the edge of the ship. His eyes
bulged.
"Gulp," he said, pointing.
Hawthorne's head appeared beside O'Dea's, and the two stared at the
caƱon floor a thousand feet below. Their space ship was partly hanging
over the edge of the mesa.
"And I slept last night!" O'Dea marveled.
He swiveled his head in the other direction.
"Gulp!" he said again.
Three Centaurs, dominant beings of the Alpha Centauri system, faced
them with drawn guns. The grinning creatures were vaguely manlike--they
walked on two legs and breathed oxygen. At that point the resemblance
ceased, for they also breathed methane or ammonia or practically
nothing at all. They also had big eyes, a dozen arms, and more fingers
than a moron could count without risking a headache.
O'Dea closed his eyes and moaned.
"This is it, Mercedes," he said softly.
"Shut up!" Hawthorne muttered. "Maybe they're an independent tribe--"
He twisted his homely face into a grin and spoke in South Martian
Vlandian, the _lingua franca_ of space:
"_Somu amiki ... neura barc s' arik_--"
"Oh how lovely!" said the largest Centaur, in English. "Such a
delightful ship and what wonderful specimens of _homo sapiens_ we are
find! This auspicious occurrence will aid our plans in the utmost
manner!"
The creature assumed an expression that passed for a friendly smile
among the Centaurs. This consisted of displaying all his teeth and
snapping them together as he spoke.
"I am called Morguma," he announced. "In Bridgeport, Connecticut,
I learn the English before comes the war--so sorry, the trouble!"
He smirked apologetically. "It is with the most pleased pleasure I
acquaint myself with you!"
O'Dea heard Hawthorne's voice, low in his ear. "Now we're in for it!
He's no independent tribesman!"
The lanky spaceman shrank back from the Centaur, eyeing the gleaming
molars suspiciously. He was remembering that the human race was at
war with these beings, though there had been practically no fighting
for ten years, since the time the Centaurs in the solar system were
exchanged for human hostages held by the enemy.
While man was learning the rules of space flight, these creatures had
been building their first spaceships. Strange contest! Though neither
human nor Centaur suspected the existence of the other, each progressed
about as rapidly, as if linked by cosmic telepathy. Each race colonized
its own system and gradually built up speeds great enough for
interstellar travel. Indeed, the first human ship had just left for
Centauri when the first vessel of the Centaurs landed on Mars.
For a time, it seemed that a beneficial union of two races had been
established. Then it was discovered that the aliens had moral standards
so different from humans that life with them was impossible. Though
small groups of them visiting Earth or the planets were well-behaved
and gracious guests, they were likely when they outnumbered their hosts
to turn their thoughts to vivisection. Or to casual massacre, if they
decided that humans annoyed them.
So outraged humanity had declared war, driven the visitors from the
system. But at that point the war virtually ended. It was impossible
for either Earth or Centauri to send a serious invasion fleet into the
other's home system because of the tremendous distance! In either case,
the defenders would have an advantage that could not be overcome!
* * * * *
Lance O'Dea felt perspiration trickling down his face. He studied the
happy aliens.
Morguma waved his weapon. "You will please to come out, our beloved
brothers of Earth! It will create difficulty to remove your ship to a
more auspicious location if you do not remove yourselves from it first!"
The two men descended from the lock. Above them a Centaur ship hovered,
darted out pale green seizure beams. In the grip of the beams, the
Earth ship slid back from the mesa edge to more secure ground.
Behind Morguma, more Centaurs were coming up, their features masked
with broad happy grins. The Centaur leader stepped aside, motioned the
men to precede him.
Flanked by the armed guards, they marched across the mesa, reached
a broad trail that led into a valley below. O'Dea stopped short in
surprise.
He stared into the broad valley.
"Is it not inspiring?" Morguma enthused, behind him. "Our beautiful
rocket center that we created on this formerly barren world! Oh it
makes my heart sing with joy!"
The two men, eyes wide, looked down at the teeming Centaur life
that filled the immense valley. Great factories sprawled for miles,
apparently engaged in manufacturing and servicing space ships.
Thousands of craft were berthed in neat rows for as far as they could
see. From small one passenger jobs to deadly battle cruisers they were
taking off and landing by the hundreds.
"There aren't that many ships in the universe," O'Dea mumbled, dazed.
"And millions of Centaurs! Of all the places we could have landed--"
He felt a polite prodding in his spine.
"Please to walk, our charming brothers of Earth!" came Morguma's
voice. "It is with pleasure I will explain to you when we reach our
destination."
Their destination was a sprawling building set in the noisy center of
the rocket base. They were marched into a room where a gigantic Centaur
sat shouting orders to lesser ones. Among the Centaurs, size was
synonymous with rank. In this civilization so alien to human thought,
the largest creature was king, though he should be only an idiot
mentally!
O'Dea listened, bored, while Morguma explained in his native language
to his chief. The leader stared in surprise at the two humans, then his
mood suddenly became ecstatic. He spoke swiftly to Morguma, who turned
to the men.
"Oh you fortunate people! It is your remarkable luck to be the first
humans to inhabit this planet we create for our brothers of the solar
system!"
"What's this all about?" Hawthorne growled.
* * * * *
Morguma waved several arms and translated the remarks of his chief:
"We were so devastated to have a misunderstanding with your wonderful
people! We are so sorry not to associate with you that we are preparing
this planet for human beings to inhabit!"
O'Dea and Hawthorne stared at each other.
"Like you people of Earth." Morguma went on, "we too have an asteroid
belt in our system. And in our asteroids are included many delightful
pieces of frozen oxygen, nitrogen, water and other ravishingly
beautiful elements that gladden the heart of a human. We are bringing
these life-giving substances to this planet, Avignon!"
"I told you!" said O'Dea. "My memory didn't fail me! Paul, maybe these
two-legged crocodiles aren't so bad after all--creating a planet for
us--"
"When this pleasant operation is concluded," said Morguma, "we will
bring humans to this planet. They will have children, whom we shall
take from their parents and educate in the proper manner--"
"What!" Hawthorne's fists knotted. He moved a step in Morguma's
direction, stopped when he faced a line of drawn guns. Morguma
continued:
"Oh it will be such rapturous delight to instruct these little
innocents in such tasks as espionage work on Earth and killing of those
misguided humans who continue to fight us--"
Morguma's eyes rolled piously--and, chuckled. He displayed his teeth
in a friendly smile.
"And you two--oh you favorite sons of fortune! We shall allow you to
help us in this gesture of interstellar good will! In your ship you may
aid in securing the necessary elements from our asteroid belt!"
"In our ship--" O'Dea looked hopeful. "Oh, sure, we'll be glad to help.
We'll go out right after it's patched up and loaded with fuel--"
"Of course," gurgled Morguma, "I should be overjoyed to enjoy your
charming company; therefore I shall accompany you. Also, it is not
necessary to give you more than enough fuel to reach the asteroid belt
and come back here!"
"I knew there was a catch," O'Dea grumbled. "What do we do now, Paul?"
"You can do anything you please," Hawthorne snapped. "I've had enough!"
The heavy framed spaceman hurled himself at the grinning Centaur. A
fraction of a second later O'Dea followed suit. Before they could cross
the few feet that separated Morguma from them, the shock guns of the
guards barked. The two men sprawled forward unconscious at the feet of
the still grinning alien.
[Illustration: _O'Dea whirled--to face a lifted shock gun._]
"Oh how sad!" Morguma cried. "How unfortunate! We must revive these
beautiful persons! I am sure they will see our point of view!"