“There is no time to explain,” he said, while his eyes searched the room through the two-way visicom. “Where is Lylwani?"
“We don't know,” said Yldra. “After you escaped from the guards, she disappeared."
Then Ron found his voice. “I think she tried some crazy scheme to save you, and the Navigators probably have her by now. Maybe Sargon."
"Sargon!" Nad's face blanched and his mouth tightened. “It can't be-not now, not at a time like this! She's got to be here! There's no time to lose!"
Quickly, he gave them his recruiting message, with extra explanations to help reassure Ron, and he deputized Yldra to gather up some of her friends.
The effect on Yldra was astonishing to Nad. As he told her the news, she seemed to come alive as though all her previous life had been lived in a shadow world. Now she seemed to perceive reality for the first time. In spite of her naturally pale Venusian complexion, a new color leaped to her cheeks and her eyes flashed with little fires of wild, new energy.
She turned to Ron and flung her arms around his neck. “Ron!” she cried. “It's come true at last! There is another world and another life! Nad's dream has come true! Quick! Let's go get Nilra and Gorn and Myrla and—"
She stopped, amazed, because Ron did not reflect any of her mood. Sweat stood out on his forehead and his mouth was agape, his eyes round with fear...
“They'll kill us all!” he cried out. “It's mutiny! I'm innocent!” he yelled. “Innocent, do you hear! I wanted none of it! I want to stay right!"
"Ron!” shouted Nad, in a tone which he seldom used with his brother. “Shut your mouth and don't speak another word. If you are so afraid of death, then remember this. Open your mouth once more as you have done just now and I will kill you myself!"
Ron was left speechless, as was Yldra.
“I can't help it, Yldra,” Nad explained. “There is too much at stake. The whole future of humanity may be ruined by that sniveling coward. You keep him quiet if you want him to live or join us at all. Now hurry and assemble your friends in this room as quickly as you can. I'll give you two hours. In the meantime-I'm going to find Lylwani..."
* * * *
Krylorno, the poet, was a vain and sensitive man. Secretly, he resented the fact that no woman had as yet gone with him to the authorities to request permission for cohabitation. He was older than the crowd he chose to associate with by some ten years, but he did everything possible to conceal the difference as it was one of the sore points of his vanity. Another blow to his vanity was Yldra's inexplicable attachment to Ron. To think that she should prefer that club-footed, worthless coward to him!
He was thinking of these things when Ron and Yldra approached him. It was on one of the refreshment mezzanines overlooking the great Recreation Hall. Many of his previous “suicide” group were there, but they had become divorced from their fanaticism by the unprecedented message of “X". Since that moment a great, secret unrest had manifested itself among the Passengers. The Navigators had been able to gather that certain of the Passengers were discussing some great secret that they were somewhat unwilling to share with others of their number, and general Passenger speculation was running wild. The Navigators, suspecting that the whole thing was merely another manifestation of general discontent, had resorted to an experiment. They had released a previous ban on alcoholic refreshments, and the effect, in general, had been favorable already.
Whereas most of the Passengers had become cheerful, Krylorno had become more moody and sensitive than usual, and was consuming liquor in large amounts. Yldra's entrance with Ron was, therefore, the spark that kindled the smouldering fire.
When Yldra tried to engage certain younger members of the party in private conversation, he resented it at once. Also, his curiosity was piqued by the transformation that had come over her. Her face was radiant, her eyes flashed new life and vigor, as though her existence had taken on new meaning. She spoke rapidly and excitedly, but it was obvious that he, Kyrlorno, was being excluded deliberately.
Somewhat erratically, he walked over to her table with his half-filled glass. Everyone stopped talking as he began to give her a toast:
“She's made of dreams, or so it seems,
“For when she speaks to me,
“My thoughts are stilled and my heart is thrilled
“With a dreamy ecstasy;
“And in her eyes my reason dies
"And I am prison bound-"
He paused, with upraised glass, scowling at her and the others.
“I swear!” he said. “If you don't all look as though you resented my presence!"
No one said a word. Some hung their heads or looked away.
“Why!” he said, not pleadingly, but challengingly. “What is this secret business all about? Has the voice of ‘X’ been haunting you again from out of the Abyss? Has he said you shall exclude Krylorno from the great liberation?"
Yldra paled because Krylorno was shouting these words recklessly. She got to her feet quickly and came close to him. Her small hand clamped down over his mouth.
“Krylorno, listen to me,” she said, softly. “You spoke to me recently great words about courage. You have demonstrated to everyone that you care for me. Now I am asking you to prove both. For my sake, and for the sake of all our kind, be still! This is the time of salvation for a few. There is neither time nor room for more. Perhaps your time will come later, but for the present Nad says they should all be young—"
“Young!” Krylorno fired back. “What do you think I am-an octogenarian ?"
Again the small hand closed his lips, and her dark eyes sought his, pleadingly. Finally, he shrugged.
“All right, children,” he said, patronizingly. “What difference does it make, after all? A lifetime of certain boredom or a brief struggle for a dream that must end in certain death for all of you. Condemn me to boredom if you will.” He smiled mockingly at them. “I congratulate you!” he said, lifting his glass. “It is not every day that one may die for a heroic cause!"
Ron broke, at last. He threw himself on Krylorno, terrified.
“Take my place!” he exclaimed. “Go with Yldra! She's going to take the others to my unit, where Nad will contact them. Take my place!” he cried. “I don't want to go! I'm innocent! I want no part of it!"
Krylorno cocked an eyebrow at him in theatrical disdain, and Yldra scowled for the first time since anyone could remember.
“Ron,” she said, icily, “you had better hope Nad did not hear you over the sonophone. He would kill you. Remember his warning. It is evident your words to me of love and devotion were false, or you would want to be with me."
Ron broke down completely. He sat at a table and buried his head in his arms.
“I do love you, Yldra,” he sobbed, “but I'm a coward. I can't help being what I am!"
Yldra made a sign to several of the young men beside her, and they moved to obey. They picked Ron up bodily and carried him. He screamed, once, and they knocked him senseless.
Left alone, Krylorno bathed his internal wounds with alcohol. The drunker he became, the more distorted was his reasoning, until he was filled with bitter resentment,
“Leave me out, will they?” he said, staggering to his feet. “Ha! I'll teach them not to slight Krylorno!"
Bottle in hand, he staggered in the general direction of section N, to find a Navigator.
* * * *
By this time, Yiddir was busy leading various groups of recruits through maintenance hatches and guiding them to a safe rendezvous between the walls. He became very apprehensive as Nad's quota failed to appear, however. Suspecting that something was wrong, he deputized certain young men to guard the others and keep them quiet, and then he moved swiftly to take in Nad's groups.
When at last he came to Yldra's group, he questioned them, through the visiplate, concerning Nad. When he learned that the latter had gone searching for Lylwani in section N, a shadow of grave disappointment fell across his aged countenance.
&
nbsp; “We cannot wait,” he said. “All of you enter the first apartment of this unit, quickly!"
“But this is a bachelor's unit!” protested one of the girls.
“Forget all the laws the Navigators ever taught you, if you value your life,” said Yiddir. “Go quickly!"
Yiddir led the last of the recruits through a maintenance hatch. just as he was fastening it behind him, however, the whole ark began to resound with alarm bells.
“What is that?” Yldra asked him, close by his shoulder.
Yiddir's old hands trembled as he tightened the last bolt. “Perhaps our plan has been discovered,” he said. “Listen!"
The sonophones were raising a bedlam. "All guard units report immediately to T.H.Q." came the announcement.
“T.H.Q. means Technical Headquarters,” said Yiddir. “And only Technical knows anything about this area of the ship we are in. I think they are after us. We must move immediately to the life boat lockers. Follow me!"
“But Nad-and Lylwani!” protested Yldra.
“Casualties,” said Yiddir, coldly. “Forget them or you'll all be caught. There is too much at stake now. Come on, quickly, all of you!"
* * *
CHAPTER VI
Nad did not try to excuse himself for disobeying Yiddir's admonition to subordinate personal desires to the welfare of the majority. When it came to leaving Lylwani in Sargon's clutches-forever, never to see her again-his rationalizations ceased and instinct took over. In a blind, reckless rage, he sought Sargon out.
By following the catwalks forward, he soon reached section N, and at his first opportunity he began unfastening one of the now familiar. safety hatches. Yiddir had armed him with both an M-Ray and a Disruptor. In the mood he was in, he was prepared to M-Ray all Navigators into a state of complete idiocy, or blast the whole section to atoms, if necessary.
When he came through the hatch he fixed it so that it was unfastened while appearing not to have been disturbed. This would be his exit, he hoped.
He found himself in a vault-like room that was a maze of instruments, some whirring and ticking, others flickering with kaleidoscope colors. Quickly, he tried the door of the chamber and found it could only be opened from the outside. So he blasted it with the Disruptor.
Once outside, he found himself in a shining corridor, face to face with a young Navigator who was paralyzed with shock. Evidently, nothing of this nature had ever occurred in his lifetime. To see an armed Passenger come blasting his way out of the recording vault was too much for him.
By the time he had recovered, he found himself covered with a hot-barreled Disruptor, and he was looking into a pair of cold gray eyes that said simply: Obey or die!
“Take me to Sargon,” said Nad. “No questions. Quick!” He jabbed the Navigator and the latter moved without saying a word.
Two more Navigators turned into the corridor ahead of them. They were armed guards, Sargon's own men. In spite of their surprise, they raised their Stun Rays almost simultaneously.
But Nad's M-Ray was on them, and their weapons lowered suddenly to dangle ludicrously from their fingertips. They grinned idiotically as Nad and the now fully terrified Navigator passed them. Nad acquired one of the Navigators’ Stun Rays and thrust it into his belt.
“I'm your man,” the Navigator with him whispered. “Just don't M-Ray me! I swear I won't double cross you!"
“Shut up and keep moving-fast! Nad hissed. “How much farther is it?"
“Here!” The Navigator pointed to a large metal door on Nad's right.
Whereupon Nad extracted the Stun Ray from his belt. “This won't hurt,” he whispered. The other slumped quietly to the floor, blissfully unconscious.
Nad tried Sargon's door and found it to be unlocked. Then he flung it open and sprang into the middle of the room.
The first thing he focused his eyes on was Lylwani, herself, sitting up in her cushioned chair as though paralyzed with amazement. Obviously she had been crying, for her usually clear green eyes were bloodshot and their lids were swollen.
Now her eyes widened and an incredulous cry rose :to her lips, but Nad instantly signalled her to be quiet. He turned and dragged into the room the inert body of the Navigator he had stunned, and he closed the door behind him. Then he beckoned Lylwani to him.
She sprang to her feet and came into his arms, trembling on the edge of hysteria. “My darling!” she whispered. “You're safe! You're safe!"
“Far from it,” he said. “We've got to get out of here. Where's Sargon?"
“I don't know. He told me you had killed yourself, so I gave up all hope of ever—"
“Never mind, honey. Let's go!
Then he stopped in his tracks as alarm bells started ringing everywhere. The sonophone in the room boomed a torrent of excited orders.
“Come on!” he said, opening the door to the corridor. But when he looked out he knew his way was blocked. The corridor was filled with running guards.
“Oh Nad!” cried Lylwani. “What can we do now!"
“Plenty,” he said, locking the door from inside. “Follow me!"
He took her by the hand and led her into an inner compartment which composed Sargon's private quarters. Unfortunately he did not find the usual maintenance hatch.
The two looked at each other. The din raised by the alarms, the bellowing of the sonophones and the sound of many running feet began to increase the beating of their pulses, and terror found a grip on their hearts.
Just then, guards outside in the corridor began to pound on Sargon's office door.
Lylwani clutched at Nad's arms and pressed her head tightly against his chest. “You tried, darling,". she said. “It's all right. We'll go out together!"
“That's right,” he said, grimly. “We'll go out together. Get behind me!"
When she stepped wonderingly behind him, he focused his Disruptor on the wall of the apartment. There was a white flash accompanied by an explosion, and Lylwani saw a ragged hole leading into unknown darkness.
“What is it?” she whispered in awe. “The Abyss?"
“No. It is the road to the Abyss-and freedom. Follow me!"
Soon it became apparent that Navigators had entered between the walls, because he could hear them shouting, and their voices echoed and reechoed eerily through the dark and narrow labyrinths. Far ahead of him, Nad heard a series of startled shouts and screams.
“They've found them!” he muttered. “They're fighting-probably being M-Rayed! Come on, quickly, or we're lost forever!"
At that precise moment, a booted foot kicked Nad's light out of his hand and darkness engulfed him. At the same time, he felt his M-Ray being snatched out of his grip.
Viciously, he sprayed the whole area in front of him and to each side with Stun Ray, and silence filled in the darkness to completion. Aside from dim and distant sounds of fighting, he could only hear Lylwani's frightened breathing and his own. He felt the walls on either side of him and found them to be of a strange, warm substance that he had felt once before when Yiddir first guided him between the walls.
Suddenly, from above his head a voice said, “I have this M-Ray focused on both of you. Don't move!"
As the two looked up into the apathetic glare of Nad's own flashlight, they did not have to see who was there above it in the darkness. The voice was that of Sargon.
Nad swiftly analyzed his predicament. He and Lylwani stood on a narrow catwalk between the walls. Below them was a black pit of emptiness. Above, somewhere deadly close, crouched Sargon. And far away somewhere Yiddir and the recruits struggled with the Navigators.
Whatever was to be done had to be done instantly or the whole cause was lost. But Sargon had an M-Ray focused on him, and there came to Nad's mind all too clearly the full evaluation of his danger in regard to that weapon.
If Sargon activated it, Nad and perhaps Lylwani also would lose all memory of life, their purpose, their hopes and plans, their love for each other, their conditionings, their personalities-their very identi
ty. A wave of real terror engulfed him, but he fought it, strengthened at last by one element in his blood and marrow that was unfailing-his hatred of Sargon.
“In my hand,” he said quietly to Sargon, “I hold a Disruptor. I believe you know better than I do whether or not there is an instant of awareness before the mind succumbs to the M-Ray. In that instant, if you use it on me, I will blast you into extinction, as well as a good portion of the ship."
There was a tantalizing silence, except that Nad heard Sargon breathing tensely above him. He also felt Lylwani's tightened grip on his arm.
“Lylwani,” he said, divining Sargon's thoughts, “if you feel the M-Ray, grip my arm as hard as you can."
Sargon said, “You also have some reason for not using your weapons."
“Yes,” Nad replied, every sense tingling with alertness. “The Stun Ray might miss.” He realized that the action of using. the Stun Ray might allow the brief instant of awareness of the M-Ray to come and pass, leaving him helpless. “Furthermore,” he said, “we are standing between two reactor shields.” Yiddir had tried to explain what lay behind these weird shields, but all Nad had understood was that something of monstrous power lay harnessed there. “You can appreciate better than I,” he said to Sargon, “what would happen if the Disruptor were to penetrate these shields."
“It would blow this whole ark to blazes,” said Sargon coldly.
“Then don't force me to use it in this spot,” countered Nad. “Drop that M-Ray and get out of here!"
There was another moment of intense silence, while Nad nervously fingered his Stun Ray and Lylwani still gripped him with a feverish tenacity. Sweat trickled around the trigger finger of Nad's other hand, where it rested on the Disruptor release. The roaring of his pulse drowned out the more distant sounds of alarm and fighting. He marveled, in spite of his predicament, at the degree of tenseness to which the mind could be brought without breaking down.
Finally, slowly and calmly, Sargon spoke. “It's Lylwani I want,” he said. “I'll take every risk you will, so listen to this, if you want to help your friends down there, leave Lylwani here and go. If you don't like that proposition—"
Martian Honeymoon and Beyond the Darkness Page 11