(New York had broken windows now, and the streets were glass littered.
An occasional white face peered out suspiciously from above a ground
floor. But the heart beat of subways was stilled. The cry had been:
"You'll _starve_ in the City!" and there had been an hysterical exodus,
slow at first and then faster and faster and faster. The moon marched
her train of shadows in the cavern streets.)
In Denver, the moon rode the mountains, calm, misted, serene.
"Parr," he spoke into the comset, and he felt Lauri's hand tighten on
his elbow.
He glanced nervously at the sky. He was afraid to see the planet shield
blossom as it might any minute to signify the attack had begun. But he
feared even worse the absence of it.
"Parr?" the Advanceship spat back.
"The Oholos have a defense system around their own planets. _It won't
do you any good to capture this one!_ You won't be able to get nearer!"
"You are guilty of treason, Parr!"
"You can't get at their inner system! They have a defense ring that can
blast your Fleet out of space."
"Lies!"
Parr glanced at Lauri beside him in the darkness. "No!" he said. "They
are stronger than you are!"
"They would have attacked us if they were," the Knoug said calmly.
"They don't think like that!"
"A poor bluff, Parr."
"Stop!" Parr said, "Listen...." He looked at Lauri again. "No use. They
cut off."
"I didn't think they'd bluff," Lauri said. She looked across the
street. The street lights had come on on schedule, but they soon
flickered out as the power supply waned. The city was dark.
"Will they scorch the planet?"
* * * * *
Parr glanced once more at the sky. "I think they're holding off trying
to gain new information on your Oholos. Or maybe they're having trouble
getting ready. We'll know very soon whether they'll scorch it or
assault it with an occupation force."
Lauri said, "You tried."
"If we could _convince_ them, like I was convinced ... if we could show
them you _were_ strong and peaceful...."
"But we aren't strong, Parr. They caught us unprepared. If we had a
year or two...."
"How long would it be before you could get reinforcements here?"
Lauri bit her lower lip. "At least a month. We'd have to organize the
units and everything. No sooner."
"Oh."
"What were you thinking?"
"I thought," Parr said. "... I thought I might hold the attack off ...
for as much as a couple of hours."
"That wouldn't help."
Parr swallowed and cleared his throat nervously. "I don't know. Maybe
it would give the Oholos more time to prepare. It might help a little."
"How?"
"I'm going to try that. I've got to do something, Lauri."
He flipped open the comset and started to speak, but the channel was
already busy. It was filled with crackling explosive Knoug language.
Parr began to listen intently.
It was a conversation between the Flagship and one of the other ships
of the Fleet. "... Parr's right," the other ship said. "So they're down
there. They say they've fought Oholos, and he's probably right...."
"How many are there?" the Flagship demanded.
"Thirteen. All in the engine room."
"Tell them Parr was bluffing," the Flagship ordered.
"I already did."
"Tell them they're guilty of mutiny!"
"I did, and they still won't come out. They're the bunch that were in
the assault at Coly. They've been hard to handle ever since."
"All right. Go after them with guns...."
"What is it?" Lauri asked.
"Shhhh!" Parr cautioned.
A third circuit opened. "No other ship reports trouble. It's just this
one bunch."
* * * * *
There was a harsh curse, guttural and nasty. "These channels are open!
The whole Fleet knows about that Coly bunch now!"
"What in hell! _God damn it, get them off!_ We've got to isolate...."
Click.
Parr stared at the comset in his hand.
Parr smiled thinly. "I did a little good, at least. A bunch of veterans
must have been listening in on me.... One of the Fleet ships has a
little trouble."
"Maybe ...," she began excitedly.
"No," Parr said. "It was only thirteen Knougs. It's scarcely a ripple.
It might make the rest of the Fleet a little uneasy--but they'll still
take orders. I'm sorry Lauri, but it's not going to help much."
"How do you know it won't?" she insisted.
The bitter smile was still there. "I've seen something like it before.
In five minutes it will all be over."
"Oh."
"Well," he said after a moment, "I better try to get the Ship. I'm
going to hold them off as long as I can."
He clicked open the comset again. "Kal," he lied icily. "Advanceman
Kal." For the first time he was glad of the tinny, voice disguising
diaphragm.
"Get off!" the Advanceship ordered. "This is the Commander. We're
under communication security, damn it!"
* * * * *
Parr nodded to himself in recognition of what had happened. Commanders
were now on the whole communications network. It would prevent ordinary
operators from spreading more news of mutiny through the Fleet; it
would blanket the manufacturing of rumors. And, if things were running
true to course the Flagship was monitoring all channels just in case.
"I've found out the Oholo's disposition," Parr hissed into the tiny
comset. "Can you pick me up?"
There was a momentary pause.
"... We thought you were dead, Kal. Why didn't you answer our calls?"
"... Broke my comset," Parr lied quickly. "I've just killed the
traitor, Parr, and I'm using his."
There seemed to be suspended judgment in the Ship.
"If you pick me up, I can give you details. But you'll have to hurry!
Two Oholos are closing in right now!"
"How many are there altogether?"
Parr hesitated. "Only twenty, Parr said. I think less than that. It
won't be necessary to scorch the planet."
Again silence. Then the Flagship itself cut in, "All right. We'll pick
you up. Where are you?"
"Denver." He made out the street signs in the darkness. "I'm here at a
street corner. Eighteenth and Larimer."
"Someone who knows the territory from the Advanceship can pick you up.
Ten minutes. Hold on."
"Hurry!" Parr pleaded.
He cut off the comset. He realized he was frightened. The night was
growing cold and he took two deep breaths. He let the comset slip from
his fingers and shatter on the pavement. He kicked it away in savage
annoyance, and snarled a curse.
Lauri shuddered inwardly at his violence, but he did not notice. And
she forced a smile and touched him with a warm thought.
"I told them I was Kal," he said. "I ... asked them to pick me up."
Lauri half gasped in surprise.
"They'll hold off the attack until they hear from me again. I'll try to
keep them guessing as long as I can."
He was tired. He and Lauri had been walking the streets aimlessly for
hours. At first there had been mobs after the mail delivery. Then the
governor, conscious of what had happened in some Eastern cities, had
declared martial law and only soldiers were supposed to be on the
streets after sundown curfew. Already many people had fled the city in
terror.
* * * * *
As he and Lauri walked side by side, Parr felt he had come to know her
better than he had ever known anyone. He realized how strong his mind
had grown under its month long test, and he knew that she had come to
respect his strength, she who was so strong herself. But it was not her
strength he respected. Strangely, it was her weakness--her compassion
and her ability to forgive. An unknown thing, forgiveness, a beautiful
thing.
She stood silently beside him. Then she said, "What time you gain won't
matter."
"Maybe it will!" he said harshly, hating the Empire.
She stared into his face. She shook her head. "No," she said. She
touched his cheek. "I ought to say something."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know. That it's a brave thing you want to do...."
"After what I've done, I've got to do something to make up for my life."
"What you did doesn't matter anymore."
"Listen," he said. "Listen, Lauri. You better leave. Don't stand here
any longer."
She did not move.
He gritted his teeth. "Hurry up!"
Her mind touched his gently, cloudlike, and drew away. "Let me go with
you."
"You know that wouldn't work."
After a minute she turned reluctantly.
"Wait!" he cried after she had gone only a few steps.
Eagerly she turned.
"Listen!" He glanced at his watch. "Listen. The Fleet is nervous. The
Knougs are nervous. It might not take much after that Coly bunch
revolted.... They're yellow inside, and the seeds of doubt are there.
If we could just make them believe you really had a weapon. An hour
from now--give me _one hour_--you're to contact the Fleet on my comset
and tell them the Oholos are going to destroy their Advanceship right
before their eyes. Then tell them to get out, the whole Fleet, or
you'll destroy every ship. That may make them think! That may make them
believe!"
"But unless the Ship really is destroyed before their eyes...."
"I'll take it into hyperspace without a shield. One minute it will be
there, the next minute it won't. Maybe they won't stop to figure it
out."
"But you'll be killed!"
* * * * *
"Give me just one hour. Go on, damn it. Don't argue!" She seemed ready
to cry. Then she bit her lip.
"But--Parr! Parr! I _can't_! How can I? _You broke the comset!_"
Parr's mind was dazed. He tried to think. "... Listen. Find the one Kal
had! See if you can find that! You've _got to_, Lauri. It all depends
on that. You've just got to find it!"
She hesitated.
"Don't argue," he insisted. "Hurry! They'll be after me any minute."
She seemed to want to say something.
"Run!" he cried. And then she was hurrying away and her mind left his
entirely, so there would be no danger of detection when the scout ship
came for him. And then she turned a corner, and was gone....
* * * * *
The silver saucer shaped scout ship zipped down the street, banked
sharply and vanished, recording (Parr knew) electronic details for its
mothership, the pick-up craft.
Parr waited, his mouth dry.
Finally--after what seemed a long time--he saw the dark, moving
patch return. It lowered, and Parr could make out the details of the
unlighted surface. He sighed with relief. Fortunately it was the small
three passenger craft.
It hovered, closed on the intersection and settled. Hoping that neither
of its crew knew him by sight, Parr sprinted from the shadows of the
building to the opening door.
The distance seemed to unravel before his feet, lengthening like a
magic carpet.
His feet hit the edge of the door almost together and grasping the
sides he pulled himself in, falling forward and gasping for the crew's
benefit, "Oholos!"
The inside of the craft, operating under low flying procedure, was
darkened except for the dull orange of the instruments.
"Up!" Parr cried in Knoug, and the craft shot away pressing him to the
floor even though the acceleration compensator was whirring in his
ears.
He groaned and stiffened, anticipating the light when they were in
second procedure level.
He heard one of the crew say: "Pick-up successful."
"Can you berth your craft on the Flagship?"
* * * * *
Parr felt a dread for he had thought to go to the Advanceship, and that
was the one Lauri would name for destruction!
Relief came when the crewman said, "Wrong hangar sort. This isn't
combat equipment, sorry."
"All right."
Parr breathed an easier sigh, and the communications set went off.
The lights came on.
Instinctively Parr lowered his head into his arms. He groaned again.
"My leg," he mumbled.
"What?"
"Hurt my leg," he lied.
A crewman knelt beside him. Parr realized then that they were carrying
an extra crewman.
The Knoug rolled him over.
There was a startled gasp of recognition and Parr hit him in the neck.
He slumped down and Parr had to squirm from under his limp body.
"What the--!"
Parr was on his feet.
"That's not Kal!" one of the others said.
The pilot swiveled around.
Parr dove, realizing, even as he was in the air, that each Knoug was
reaching for his focus gun.
He hit the standing Knoug. The Knoug teetered. Parr hit him again.
The pilot had his gun out.
Parr slammed a mental bolt at the pilot and he was surprised to see
that the shield folded like hot butter. Even had he wished to, he could
not have stopped his assault from crisping the other's thoughts to
oblivion. He was almost annoyed at the weakness.
He tried a mental assault at the other sagging crewman with equal
results.
The craft started to spin out of control.
Parr struggled forward, was slammed sideways, and far below he could
see moonlight flash on water.
He was thrown into the controls on the second spin, and he pulled back
the emergency equalizer in desperation. The craft skittered.
And then he was in control.
He found the beam on the dial. He was to the left. He centered on it
and followed it in.
He jockeyed below the gaping hatch of the Advanceship and came up
slowly. The controls were stiff. It was a ticklish job.
Then he was inside. He shied left to set the craft down.
It bounced and half rolled on the deck. Then he struggled to the door.
When he opened it there was an orderly waiting. "That was a hell of a
landing," he said. "For--hey!"
He went down easily under the assault. Parr realized his mind had grown
even stronger than he had supposed. For the first time he began to
hope that he really stood a chance of making it.
He glanced at his watch.
Almost forty-five minutes! It had seemed only five....
* * * * *
Lauri ran toward the second building. Her mind usually smooth and calm,
was now a welter of conflicting thoughts. She had tried to reach the
other Oholos. But they shut themselves off. No help from them.
There were no cabs out. And the telephones were dead. She was
desperately afraid Kal was in the morgue but she could not risk the
time to be sure. Vaguely she remembered the siren that had squalled
when the police came for the body of the Oholo and his Earth assailant
who had been killed outside the hotel. But she could not remember
another siren near the time Kal had been killed. She was forced to
assume the police had not come for him.
But she could not be sure.
If the police had not come, she reasoned, then he had not been killed
before witnesses. Therefore he had not been killed in the streets.
She knew that he had seen them leave the hotel. That narrowed the
range. That he had been killed shortly afterward by the Oholos narrowed
the range even more.
He had not been moving when he was killed, and he had just finished
reporting Parr's and her flight, meaning that he had been stationary
since his observation. And there would be no reason for the Oholos to
move or to hide the body.
Therefore his body should be where it had fallen.
There had been four business buildings in the vicinity where a man
could have been killed unseen.
She pushed open the doors to the second. The ground floor, within
observation range, was easily checked. So was the second. Third.
Fourth. Fifth.
She was back in the street. Two more buildings. Half her time gone.
She glanced at her watch for verification. Each of the two remaining
buildings had four floors.
The nearest one was locked. But there was a light inside. She was
puzzled. Then she saw the cleaning maid come down the front stairs,
carrying a brace of candles in one hand and a mop and bucket in the
other. The old woman moved slowly, unconcerned, oblivious of the
outside world, intent only on her job. Lauri shuddered, but she knew
that the face would not be calm if she had seen a corpse in her duties.
Therefore, there was no corpse inside.
One building left!
But a few minutes later she was back in the streets. There had been
nothing on the lower floor, the second floor, and the two top floors
needed only a glance.
She sobbed desperately.
Something had been wrong with her reasoning, and she had only twenty
minutes left to start from the beginning and find the Knoug's body.
* * * * *
Parr ran quickly along the corridor. He passed two incurious Knougs. He
continued on, winding upward toward the control room which he had to
capture. There would be a delicate balance of timing and luck between
success and failure.
He was not frightened now, even though he knew he could not personally
win the fight in capture or success. His mind was calm. Strangely, too,
it was at peace.
He clambered up the final ladder, his hands unsteady on the rungs. The
control room door was closed. He tensed, listening, wondering how many
of the enemy were inside.
He knocked, his knuckles brittle on steel. He thought, in that fleet
second, of Lauri. He wondered dimly, if she had found the comset.
"Yeah?"
"I've got Kal out here, sir!" Parr said briskly, hoping to imitate the
orderly's voice.
"What the hell!" a voice from inside roared, "I thought we told you to
take him down to the Commander's office."
Parr held his breath.
He heard an indistinct mutter of voices inside and he knew that one of
them must be on the inter-phone to the Commander.
"Something screwy here!" the voice roared indignantly.
Parr hit the door and it crashed inward with an echoing clang.
He catapulted into the congested control room. In a glance he saw there
were only two Knougs. One was at the control banks, half turned in
surprise. The other held the phone limply in his left hand, his eyes
staring.
Parr kicked the door shut viciously and the sound rang in his ears. He
launched himself at the Knoug with the phone. He felt his head meet a
soft stomach and he heard explosive air pop from the man's lungs. The
Knoug went over backwards, down hard.
The other one roared an oath.
* * * * *
Parr walked on the fallen one's face. He stomped the face and it
gurgled. He stomped again in fury as all his frustration and new
bitterness found an outlet. He locked the other Knoug in mental battle,
but the mind he met was strong, catching him off guard.
The Knoug dove for the huge comset to warn the Fleet.
Parr could hear, from the receiver of the dangling phone, the Commander
saying over and over again, "What the hell's going on? What the hell's
going on?"
Parr brought the remaining Knoug to his knees with a mental assault.
Parr backed toward the door. As he fought mentally, he managed to slide
the force bar across it. They'd play hell getting him out, at least.
His enemy was down, quivering. Parr panted desperately, and then from
beyond the door, he felt the growth of mental assault force. Three
minds hurrying toward him! Two more minds came in and he staggered and
almost fell.
Then he was down, as if from a hammer blow to the chin. He fought,
sickened. He began to crawl toward the control board. And fighting, he
struggled up, as if under a great weight. New minds came in. And still
he could fight. But he was almost down again.
(Five minutes, he thought.)
He found the right lever, pulled.
There was the crackle of the heterodyne mind shield. And the control
room was isolated by a high, shrill whine. He winced, recovering, and
smiled inwardly at the careful devices Knoug officers had to protect
themselves against a mutinous crew.
He dampened all the thrust engines with three hacking strokes at knife
switches, being careful to get the right ones. He ripped out the engine
room control. The Advanceship was dead in space for at least an hour.
* * * * *
He staggered to the comset. He stumbled over the dead Knoug and kicked
the body. He shattered the transmitter with a furious blow.
With fumbling fingers he ripped away the seal the Commander had placed
on the receiver. He snapped the volume control to the right. The radio
whined.
Someone was trying to call the Advanceship, and Parr smiled grimly.
Another circuit broke in on the call. "Their commander is questioning
the advancemen they brought up, I imagine. Let him go. The information
we got from the Texas advanceman supersedes it anyway."
Parr cursed monotonously.
"Forward bank in!" another circuit reported.
"Nine stations on planet shield. Ready?"
There was a crackling of readiness.
"We'll hit before it. Try to get it set in fifteen minutes."
"In position, there. Eight, back a little."
"Clear hulls. Unscreen."
"Check.... Check...."
Parr glanced at his watch. The hour had only minutes of life. What was
wrong with Lauri?
"Ready around?"
The Fleet was getting ready to move. Parr screamed in wild frustration.
At the door, the force field was beginning to show strain. Outside they
had a huge force director focused on it. Parr speculated idly how they
had managed to get it up from the engine room so quickly. The force
field at the door began to peel. In a few minutes it would shatter and
the control room would be an inferno with every switch and bit of metal
melted into smoking blobs.
* * * * *
She was searching the shops, kicking in glass, when necessary to gain
entrance. She was listening, now, and time dribbled away. Standing
amid broken glass, she cocked her head hoping to hear the whisper of
the still active comset.
Ten minutes.
What had been wrong with her logic? Why hadn't Kal's body been in one
of the four buildings? Even as she searched on she reviewed it in
her mind, until suddenly, with an abrupt snap she knew that she had
overlooked one. There were not four possible buildings but five.
Kal might have been hiding in the hotel itself!
Nine minutes.
_And how many front rooms were in the hotel?_ A twelve storied welter
of windows, and he might be behind any one.
Nine minutes.
Automatically she was running for the hotel.
(Not the lower floors, she thought, or the Oholos would have had him
sooner. They must have come down and then gone back up or else the
whole time element was wrong.)
One of the upper floors then?
She would have to chance that.
She was in the deserted lobby. As she ran across it she marveled at the
panic of a few hours ago. She saw a busy looter in the shadows, and
there were not, certainly enough soldiers to be everywhere.
In her headlong rush she did not see the human form on the second
landing before she crashed into him. She gasped as the breath went out
of her lungs.
The man reached out for her. "What happened?" His voice was desperate.
"I've been asleep, and all of a sudden, when I wake up--"
"Let me go!"
"What happened?" he said pathetically. "The city's so _still_."
She pushed him back and continued up the stairs.
He ran after her. "Wait!"
At the top floor she saw no exit to the roof.
The corridor was "U" shaped, the bottom of the "U" facing onto the
street. Six rooms on it.
"Young lady!" the man cried, rounding the corner of the stairs below
her. She dropped her mental range into a low register and struck toward
him. But she could not quite find his range and he shook his head and
continued up the stairs. She waited, and when he arrived, she said,
"Sorry," and hit him on the chin. He rolled halfway down the short
flight of stairs.
She searched the six rooms. All were unlocked and empty, and the doors
slammed in her wake.
Nothing.
She gritted her teeth and headed for the stairs and the next floor
below.
* * * * *
Parr shattered the glass from the emergency deep space suit. He ripped
the suit from the hangar and struggled into it with anxious fingers.
It was a minute after the hour.
He hesitated, holding the helmet in his hands.
The force field at the door was nearly gone. The radio crackled with
Knoug attack orders.
And then--with infinite relief--he heard her voice, crackling over the
other voices. She sounded short of breath and excited.
"What's that?" someone roared in Knoug, and Parr realized they did not
understand English, the common language they had used on the planet.
"Idiots!" Parr shrieked. "Fools! Can't _any_ of you understand!"
"I'm going to destroy your Advanceship," Lauri said breathlessly. "I am
an Oholo. I'm...."
Suddenly a Knoug was translating her message.
Last minute instructions to the Fleet ceased.
"I'm going to destroy your Advanceship," she said again. And then,
after a breath, she said, "Be careful! Be careful!" And he knew that
the last was not to them but to him.
He could wait no longer. The force field was seconds thin. His mind
cried desperately, "Hurry!" He clamped down the helmet and all sound
vanished.
But her words rang in his mind, "Be careful!" and he was grateful for
them. They choked in his throat.
Then he threw the Advanceship into hyperspace.
* * * * *
There was a pinwheel of motion that slammed him into the control panel.
He could not hear, but everywhere, around him, metal screamed and
wrenched and tore.
The force director beyond the door spun loose and sprayed the Knougs
around it, and they vanished. It jerked its current cable and was
still. A vast rent in the hull let the air whoosh out into hyperspace,
and the Knougs all over the Ship puffed and exploded.
Parr came slowly to his senses. He staggered directionless around the
control room. Everything was a shambles.
After a while--nearly an hour had elapsed--he was wandering through
silent corridors. It was hot inside his suit.
He found the pick-up ships eventually, but they were ripped from their
moorings. One seemed upright and serviceable. He tested the motor. The
motor worked. He got out and struggled with the escape hatch. Finally
it came loose.
He taxied the pick-up ship out of the mother ship.
Hyperspace was grey and hideous. Here and there lights flashed. The
vast, battered derelict of the Advanceship lay below him. Hyperspace
sped away. He blasted further from the gutted hull and brought up
the space shield of his craft. It wavered around him. Behind him the
tortured Advanceship exploded.
He hit back toward real space. The craft skittered under his hands as
he wrenched at the controls. The motor was strong, but its delicate
shielding apparatus had been damaged and there was a sickening jolt.
The shield was off and Parr was falling, down, down, down, and lights
in his head exploded.
And he thought it was infinitely sad that he had done something decent
for the first time and now he was to be punished for all the rest. Then
he knew no more....
* * * * *
The comset had erupted into a babble of incredible confusion after her
message. She waited leadenly. She warned the Fleet once more. "If you
do not leave at once, we Oholos will destroy your whole Fleet." She had
no way of knowing what was happening.
The Knoug commanders, unnerved, cried among themselves:
"No weapon I ever heard of could do _that_!"
"The advanceman was right! They can destroy us!"
"I say we don't stand a chance!"
"Did you hear? It just _vanished_."
"I'm going to order my ship back."
"I've already shielded for hyperspace."
"What's the Flagship say?"
"What's the Flagship _say_?"
"Commander Cei just pulled out. That makes five."
"As for me, I say, Let's go!"
"_The Flagship has already got its hyperspace shield turned on!_"
Slowly the voices died away. The comset was silent in Lauri's hand, and
she knew that the Fleet had gone. The Advanceship was destroyed.
Remembering Parr, she bowed her head. She saw the body of Kal lying at
her feet, where she had found it in the second room on the tenth floor.
And she was crying without sound.