suddenly over the tree tops, circled, slid quicklydownward.
"FLAT!" Mason yelled. And as they stretched prone, they saw Cainrunning toward the ship from a great open shaft in the ground, around, shiny thing beneath one arm.
A probing needle of white hot flame stabbed out from one of thedescending ships, and there was a scream, and then Cain fell, acharred skeleton, to the ground. The shiny thing he had carried rolledlazily along the grass, teetered on edge, plopped silently over.
Mason was poised like a runner awaiting the starting gun. For a splitsecond he hesitated as the guard ships touched down, their weaponsmomentarily screened by the lush foliage at the clearing's edge.
And then Mason was running, Judith and Kriijorl only steps behind him.
There were perhaps seconds before the armed women of the Thrayxiteguard detail would break from the forest's edge.
He stumbled, fell, and his outstretched hands touched the round, shinything, and he could smell the reek of Cain's smouldering skeleton.
Kriijorl and Judith hesitated.
"Damn it, run!" and he felt his scream tear at his dry throat, andthen clutched the metal disk to him and regained his feet in a singlewhip-like motion, and bolted after them toward the gaping air lock ofthe ship that Cain had never reached.
There was a hissing sound and a wave of heat crackled behind him,seared his flesh beneath his tattered tunic. And there was another,inches before him, scorching smoking scars in the soft green turf, andshouted orders filled the air scant yards behind him.
Then somehow he was at the air lock, and strong hands were pulling himover its edge, and it swung to, glowed red as a bolt of raw energyspent itself harmlessly against it.
"Now Ihelos!" Mason said as he fought for new breath.
* * * * *
It was white, all white around him.
He tried to sit up but there was the touch of gentle hands that stayedhim, lowered him back upon the bed.
There were two of them--tall, like Vikings, and memory returnedslowly. There was a smaller one, too, standing straight and erectbeside him, like a proud queen from the pages of Earth's colorfulhistory.
Judith. And Kriijorl. And another. And in his hands there was thesilver disk. The can.
The can of records. The Book of the Saints.
He tried again to straighten, and then heard the voice of the one whomhe did not know.
"I am Yhevvak, Grand Liege of Ihelos," the voice said. "And I hold inmy hands, Earthman, the Book of the Saints. I have read it, and I havebroadcast to all of Thrayx what I have read. A truce delegation hasalready departed from that planet to meet us here in Space."
"But--" the word stuck in his throat, and it was hard to think.
"Commander Kriijorl said that you suspected it was the key to ourgreat trouble. You were right.
"For it tells of a conference among the leaders of our two worlds manymillenia ago; a conference held in secret, because of the nature ofits subject--the very people of our worlds themselves. Secret, becauseof the decision concerning them and their staggering number. Toostaggering for either planet any longer to feed. And the record itselfwas then committed to this single microtape, and itself, kept insecrecy since the day it was recorded.
"At first shrouded in deliberate mysticism, it was at lengthremembered only as the Last Word of the Saints in the sudden warswhich so quickly followed its creation, the true cause of which wasskillfully falsified to the people of the time, and truly known onlyto those who made the microtape I hold here.
"They were our greatest leaders; in them was invested theresponsibility for the welfare and livelihood of our two planets, bothmaterially and spiritually.
"When they lived, those records say, travel in Space beyond the speedof light had not been accomplished; they believed such a feat animpossibility imposed by a condescending Nature that could bechallenged too far. And they therefore knew no way of reaching beyondthe planets of Ihelos and Thrayx for the food and resources thatbecame so sorely depleted as both planets became, at length, strippednearly bare as their populations swelled beyond saturation point.
"Medical science had permitted the old to grow older; granted thenew-born an almost certain purchase on life once first breath had beendrawn. Yet its greatest offering was rejected by the people; therewere indignant cries at the merest suggestion that they intelligentlyregulate their number, so that their posterity might live in greaterplenty than had they.
"There was but one solution for our desperate leaders. For althoughwarfare had long since vanished from our civilization as it hadmatured, it took with it Nature's own unpleasant balance for herovergenerous fecundity.
"The new balance, then, had to be of Man's making. And so it was made.
"Our leaders, our Saints, as we have come through the years to knowthem, were of course adept masters at the many subtle arts ofpropaganda, and they used those arts to the very limits of theirskill. They deliberately fomented, as their ancient record shows, thewars, small at first and then ever larger, between Ihelos and Thrayx.
"They could not have foreseen that one day there would be conflict forexistence between the sexes; logically calculating intellect againstintuitive, wily cunning in a battle to determine the most fit, whowould then enjoy the right to survive.
"Nor could they have foreseen that one day, because of the veryconflict they fomented, the science of controlled genetics would atlast be recognized as a necessity of survival to both factions.
"Today we have our answer to the age old problem of keeping ourconsumption within the limits of our ability to produce for it; wehave used it to survive. But to survive war, not peace.
"And that, as you apparently suspected, Earthman, is the key.
"We know now why we fought. And with the knowledge of the life forceswith which we insured our continued existence during our years ofbattle, we may now become united worlds of peace again. For we shalluse that knowledge to take more advisedly of Nature's fruits than wetook before.
"Well done, Earthmen. And with our thanks, know that we shall bealways in your debt."
Then Yhevvak bowed low, and left just the three of them together inthe white hospital bay of his flagship.
Kriijorl was smiling, and there was a shininess in Judith's eyes.
Mason grinned. "I hope those Thrayxite babes get a wiggle on," hesaid. "Those Earth gals gotta get 'em home! Their mothers'll befrantic. Hey, girl, not in front of company!"
* * * * *
The Women-Stealers of Thrayx Page 9