There was no more room for words, Nad fired the Stun Ray upward as rapidly as his hand could work, but in the same moment he yelled as Lylwani's fingernails tore his flesh. Simultaneously, Sargon's heavy body thumped unconscious onto the catwalk.
Nad placed his weapons in his belt and reached down with hungry hands to find the other's throat. But he was too late to prevent the body from slipping off the catwalk into nothingness.
“Lylwani!” he called. Groping behind him, he found her and clutched her to him, kissing her face and lips. “You're safe! We'll make it yet!"
Then his flesh crept and he felt his hair bristling. For Lylwani only giggled at him and made nameless sounds in response,
* * * *
Nad could never quite remember how he found his way to the lifeboat lockers, even though Yiddir had already shown him the way.
Vaguely, he recalled interminable periods of balancing precariously on dark catwalks with Lylwani in his arms, or of hiding while Navigators led the poor recruits back into captivity, passing him close by, with lights, so that he could see the victims’ idiotic smiles. They had all been M-Rayed like his beloved Lylwani. The whole plan was at an end, he had thought dimly.
Except for himself and Lylwani. He had an irrational desire to risk it in one of the space boats alone with her, somehow to master the secret of the controls and in spite of having no knowledge of astronomy whatsoever to find that little lost world of which Yiddir had told him. There he would reeducate his sweetheart and they would live and reproduce their own kind.
With these dim, mad thoughts and with Lylwani lying childlike in his arms, he arrived at the lockers. There he saw lights and Navigator guards, a squad of ten of them who had made one fatal mistake, Nad perceived. They were all gathered together in one small group.
Suddenly, his reason became twisted between insupportable grief and a reckless thirst for revenge. He set Lylwani down and deliberately aimed his Disruptor at the guards, firing without warning.
There followed a quick succession of blinding flashes and deafening explosions. Not only the guards went into nothingness, but several space boats, as well, along with part of the metal floor. Fortunately, the great cryosite doors separating the lockers from the Abyss held, although the inner sections of the two airlocks were destroyed.
He stood there, wondering if he were going to vomit. Behind him, Lylwani laughed and clapped her hands gaily at the fireworks and the smouldering results. Nad did not look back at her. He stood alone in the broken desolation of the place, trying to swallow a lump in his throat that threatened to choke him.
Then, suddenly, he felt a friendly hand on his arm and a voice sad “Follow us quickly.” It was Yiddir.
Nad's mind was reeling from the impact of events too terrible and swift to assimilate. He heard Yldra's voice crying out in the darkness behind him as she discovered Lylwani's plight, and there were a few other male voices, but he cared not whether they were of friend or foe, of sane man or idiot. He followed blindly...
* * * *
There were other space boats and launching locks that were still intact, although one thing bothered Yiddir that he refrained from mentioning to the others. He observed a very curious thing about one of the launching locks, but paused there for only a brief moment. Then, grimly, he led his pitifully small party onward. There was no time for conversation. The Navigators would be back in a matter of moments.
The dark ship lay enigmatically in its lock-a question mark standing between precarious Today and a totally unknown Tomorrow. Success? Failure? Privation, recapture, endless wandering through blackness and into madness? Sudden, violent, merciful death? All these questions were equally unanswerable as they filed silently on board and Yiddir turned to the control room.
No one was curious about the interior of this ark of freedom for which they had fought and for which scores of their companions had sacrificed their personalities. To them it was shelter. They tied themselves into cushioned seats as Yiddir instructed them to do-and they waited.
Yiddir had not wasted his thirty years of hidden exile. He had studied all controls and every phase of maintenance with painstaking care, and now he knew more about these space boats than the best Navigator on board the mother vessel. Expertly, he activated the lock and caused the outer doors to slide open, exposing the lifeboat to the awful gulf of blackness outside. For one brief moment his hand paused on the control. For centuries, his kind had been bottled up in darkness, except for sporadic, half-forgotten intervals. He felt suddenly the weight of Man's loneliness, lost as they all were in the far reaches of the unknown galaxy. He knew that this single lifeboat, once detached from its base, would be like an electron lost in the farthest depths of the Seventh Sea.
With an unaccustomed prayer on his lips, he launched the boat outward into the great darkness...
* * *
CHAPTER VII
Their little group consisted of seven. There were Yiddir, Nad, Ron, Yldra, Lylwani, Gorn and Karg. Gorn was a pale, blue-haired Venusian like Yldra. Karg was one of Lylwani's race-a Martian. Gorn had been wounded by a bad fall from one of the catwalks. Two ribs had punctured his left lung and he was dying from a pulmonary hemorrhage.
He was bitterly contemptuous of Ron. just before he died, on that first day out, he called everybody around him and addressed Ron in their presence. In his dimming eyes they could see most of those qualities which they needed so desperately for their venture-courage, strength, and a full awareness of the role they were all acting in the destiny of their kind.
“Ron,” he said, laboriously, “I want you to witness my death and realize what it means. This expedition could well be the only chance for survival of the human race. Of course, you may all die and one or both branches of the fleet may succeed. But it's just as possible that the reverse may happen. Here there is no room for a coward!” His emphasis on this last phrase cost him a new pain and he almost fainted. “I want you to realize that your outburst to Krylorno was directly responsible for the failure of the others to reach this ship. Thanks to you, about eighty-five recruits, young men and women, have been deprived of being here. If this thought haunts you through the days or years ahead as you seek a new world, I hope it serves to cure you of your cowardice. My death is also your fault, Ron. So you are responsible for taking my place in this party.” His eyes closed and his whole body tensed. “Take over-Ron!"
These were his last words.
As Yiddir decelerated as much as he could within the limits of reasonable comfort, the invisible mother ship and the rest of the rebel fleet receded at the rate of millions of kilometers each minute; in an opposite direction the distant Government Fleet still flung its light years long phalanx into ever expanding vastness; and he and his handful of lost souls were totally detached from all things kindred. They were like the first seeds of life in the Beginning, or like the last dust of the ages settling in the sunset of Creation. Whether colossal Nature would be mother or nemesis to them was a question that would remain unanswered through long months or even years to come. Yiddir was without hope, because of their small number, but where hope ran out, life continued. Almost like a robot, he went forward with the plan. He decelerated, day after day and week after week, calculating that their velocity would be reduced to that of the speed of light within two months. Then, for the first time in years, he would see the stars. It would be the first glimpse for the rest on board, and he wondered if that over-whelming spectacle would inspire them, or depress them with a sense of utter futility.
Then, too, there was that strange mystery concerning the lifeboat locker. After he had brooded on it for days, he finally called Nad to his side.
“What happened to Sargon?” he asked him, without preamble. “You said you overcame him in a struggle, during which he M-Rayed Lylwani. But what are the details? How did you overcome him?"
Mention of Sargon never failed to key Nad's faculties to a maximum of alertness. He quickly perceived that Yiddir was driving at something.<
br />
“Why?” he asked, his gray eyes meeting Yiddir's steadily. “I got him with a Stun Ray and he fell off the catwalk."
Yiddir stared back intently. “How far did he fall?"
“I don't know. It was dark. Why do you ask?"
“The effects of the Stun Ray only last a few minutes, depending on the intensity for which the weapon is set. It may be—"
He paused, thinking. Then he asked, “Did Sargon really care a great deal about Lylwani?"
“He told me he would take every risk I would to get her."
“Hm-m-m. That might be the motive. He certainly wouldn't take such a risk in the line of mere duty, or even for revenge alone. But if Lylwani means as much to him as she does to you—Tell me this. Did he know she was M-Rayed?"
“No. But what are you driving at?"
Yiddir spoke very slowly. “The space boat locker next to ours was empty,” he said, “yet only six hours before our departure I know there was a ship sitting in it. That can only mean that very shortly before we left another ship also came out. It may be out here somewhere right now, trailing us."
Nad's excitement subsided slightly. “Sargon could have recovered in time to get to the lockers ahead of us,” he said. “And he could have gone out into the Abyss to trap us in case we escaped. But in that case he would have spotted us immediately on his instruments and struck long before this. His stake in the rebellion is too important to be abandoned, I think, even for Lylwani."
“That is an admirable deduction,” said Yiddir. “But perhaps he might know how to take Lylwani and return to the rebel fleet as well."
“What! Return to the fleet from here? There is no return!"
“Yes,” said Yiddir. “I have never told you, and you must never tell the others, but there is a way. Our drivers can be altered for more speed. It is possible to overtake the fleet, although as the distance increases the time factor increases proportionately. Sargon is a capable Navigator and I know he finished Technical in order to increase his rating. He would know how to convert the drivers. Higher velocities haven't been resorted to, in general, because the occasional meteors getting through our detection screens would have dangerous mass, enough to penetrate cryosite walls."
“But-why should Sargon wait this long to strike?"
“I don't know. Maybe a new factor has been added that delayed him. A breakdown, or some accident."
“But all that is pure supposition. Haven't you some sort of detector on board? Can't you tell if he is out here?"
“Within ten million kilometers or so, yes. Much time has elapsed, and distances are tremendous out here. He could be on our trail without our knowing it."
“But if we couldn't detect him, how could he detect us in this darkness?"
“The answer to that is simpler than you think,” said Yiddir. “You forget that he knows where we are going."
Nad's brows raised and his mouth parted. “How could he?” he asked. “I'll admit he'd know all about the world we're trying to reach, but why should he assume we know about it?"
Yiddir shrugged. “I don't know how much Yldra said in front of Krylorno or how much Krylorno told the Navigators. But one thing is certain. No Passenger could handle this ship as I have. It takes technical training which, incidentally, I am going to have to give to you and Ron and Karg as soon as possible. The Navigators have always speculated on my escape and that of my son, years ago. They have always feared that perhaps one of us would return, either alone or in force. Krylorno's tale would easily enable them to guess what happened. They knew at once that I was on board. Well, that may be one thing that has made Sargon cautious, if he has followed us. He knows, perhaps, that he not only has another full-fledged Navigator to deal with, but the former captain of the ark-and a man of legendary scientific ability, in fact, the inventor of the M-Ray. The more I think of it, the more it all seems to fit together. That missing lifeboat in the locker next to ours cannot be disregarded."
Nad sat silently for a long time, gazing with narrowed eyes into space. “What could he do if he decided to take us?” he asked, finally.
“Our meteor detectors would give us warning. We have shields against all primary rays and the Disruptor cannons which the rebels have mounted in all these boats. I doubt if he knows enough about second order stuff to assemble an effective M-Ray projector, which he would have to have, because the hand M-Ray is only good at short range. I have no shield against a good M-Ray projector. Only my son knew that secret, and he is long since gone.
“Then what can Sargon do?"
“I don't know. That may be why he's holding back-perhaps trying to figure something out. Perhaps—"
“What?"
“Perhaps he would even go so far as to follow us to that little planet of ours and kidnap Lylwani when :the opportunity presented itself."
Nad got to his feet. “I think we're both dreaming,” he said. “Why don't you start teaching me what you know about this ship?"
Yiddir sat still, thinking for a long time. Then he looked up and asked, “What do you want first, instruction in piloting-or in the use of the armaments?"
As he looked steadily at Nad, the latter broke into a grim smile. “Okay,” Nad said. “Then we're not dreaming. Let me see those Disruptor cannons..."
* * * *
Deceleration continued, unabated, and the passengers of the small ship walked in it with heavy and laborious tread. The darkness prevailed, day after day, and each sought to occupy himself to the best of his abilities. Yiddir carefully instructed Nad, Karg and Ron concerning all the controls on board. He even started on a long-range conversion job, working on one of their four drivers at a time. He hoped to utilize the increased velocity some day in their further search for the better solar system whose existence he suspected.
Yldra had been assigned the long, arduous task of reeducating Lylwani. She had to teach her to speak and even how to eat and walk properly. It was a heartbreaking task, but Nad was always there, encouraging her in the depths of each new discouragement.
Karg was indirectly helpful. The short-statured little Martian was naturally cheerful in spite of the discomforture of doubled gravity due to deceleration. He was interested in everything, quick to learn, and entertaining. But most valuable of all, from the psychological standpoint, he had brought along one precious belonging that was now a means of mental salvation. It was a Martian querla, a small musical instrument that generated invisible rays in which his moving fingers produced a marvelous music of rich tone and endless variety. Yldra had a very pleasing voice, and sometimes the two would entertain the others by playing and singing.
At such times, Lylwani was very receptive and cooperative, and she even repeated some of Yldra's sonars, to Nad's infinite delight. All these things served to establish a routine and way of life for the ship's small company which provided a certain measure of stability.
But one day-tragedy struck.
* * * *
On the upper deck, astern was an observation chamber equipped with a huge, double-paned window of transparent metal. While they were in the darkness, there was nothing to be seen from this vantage point, but Yiddir had announced that their velocity was being reduced very closely to the speed of light, and that any time now they might begin to see some evidence of the bright universe that had surrounded them invisibly all of their lives.
Ron had been sitting with Yldra in this room, both of them watching the window for some break in the darkness that lay astern. They had spoken of many things, their old acquaintances left behind, and of the possibilities of their future life on the new world.
Suddenly, the sonophone in their chamber brought Nad's voice to them. He reminded Yldra that it was her watch with Lylwani, and she got up to leave.
“I'll stay here a while,” Ron told her.
The chamber just forward of the aft observation bridge had been converted into a battle station by the rebel Navigators. Here were mounted several Disruptor cannons. Just as Yldra stepped into this ro
om on her way forward, the galactite struck.
Started on its journey eons past, the small metallic fragment had gathered much more velocity than a meteor. Meteors were local phenomena, occurring within the galaxy, but the galactite was much rarer owing to its extra-galactic origin. In the course of time required for its transit between galaxies, it had acquired a velocity greater than light, itself. The arks of the fleet and the lifeboats could detect the approach of ordinary meteors and automatically vary their courses slightly to avoid them in time, or if a meteor penetrated the detection area and struck, the cryosite hulls could withstand the blow. But no detectors or metal walls could stop a galactite because of its terrible velocity.
The galactite struck the ship and penetrated it like a hot knife passing through butter. In its path it left a series of small, neat, round holes on both sides of the hull and through two decks of cryosite. Its passage was accompanied by a deafening report, which stunned Yldra momentarily.
Then air began to rush out of the chamber she was in. She began to struggle with the forward hatch, but it was jammed as the result of the galactite's titanic blow. She turned aft, but too late, because the observation hatch slid automatically into place, as it had been designed to operate just that way in such an emergency.
Its seal could be released, however, from Ron's side, and she called to him frantically to help her. When half the air had been released from the room, an unexpected phenomenon occurred that gave promise of saving her, even as she slipped into unconscious. The moisture in the air, as it encountered the deep cold of outer space, froze instantly, and soon the galactite holes in the hull were obstructed with ice, which slowed the escape of air. There was still a chance.
Over the sonophone, Yiddir's tense instructions penetrated Ron's panic. “The air in Yldra's chamber is leaking out very slowly,” he said. “Open your hatch and pull Yldra through. Then close it again. This will reduce your own air pressure considerably “and you may pass out, but you'll be safe. We are putting on space suits on this side and will burn our way through this jammed hatch, repair the damage and then pull you out. Now act quickly, or Yldra is lost!"
Martian Honeymoon and Beyond the Darkness Page 12