Close to the clearing where his own ship lay, he stumbled again, momentarily losing his grip on his one remaining Disruptor. As he lay there, panting, looking at the deadly weapon just three feet from him, he heard a crashing in the underbrush ahead. Then there stepped into his view, not twenty feet away, a man with golden blond hair and a year's growth of blond beard. A pair of gray eyes looked at him out of shadows that had never been there before-shadows of terror and near madness, filled with haunting memories of secret things that no other man had ever seen. It seemed to Sargon in that moment that this unarmed, half naked mortal enemy of his was looking at him from out of the grave. His body was full and hardened, in apparently excellent condition, but it was the look in his eyes that made Sargon lunge toward his Disruptor.
Just then a body hurtled over his head and Ron fell flat on the Disruptor, clutching it so tightly in his arms that Sargon could not dislodge him in time. He sprang to his feet just in time to receive a blow from the bearded one that sent him staggering off balance into the bushes.
When he could see clearly again, he saw Ron hand the Disruptor to Nad. Nad only stood there looking at Sargon with his death-haunted eyes, while Sargon's flesh crept and he sweated.
“You left me without weapons,” said Nad, in a toneless voice. “Even if I had chosen suicide-which I did not! “ His gray eyes blazed. “I could only have chosen the Abyss. That's the way you wanted it, wasn't it? There are no weapons at your ship, either. You seem to enjoy holding all the cards, don't you, Sargon?"
A deathly stillness ensued, while Nad just stood there looking at him.
“How-how did you—” Sargon stammered.
“How did I survive?” Nad finished the sentence for him. “How did I repair the ship? Thanks to Yiddir's patient instructions, I know more about what was wrong than you did. But a lot has happened since then. Before emerging from the nebula I was drawn to its center, where I made an amazing discovery, thanks to you. I found...” He paused, looking at Sargon with cold deliberation. “But you're never going to see it, so why should I tell you? Get on your feet!"
Sargon scrambled to his feet. “All right, you've won!” he shouted, white with fear. “Take everything! Take the ship! Take Lylwani and Dirno, but don't shoot me in cold blood!"
Suddenly, Nad looked down at the Disruptor as though he had forgotten it was in his hands. Then, to Ron's amazement, he threw it away with all his might, and it became lost in impenetrable undergrowth.
“This is what I have waited for-and dreamed of-during all the time I spent-out there.” He started toward Sargon. “I've got to do it with my bare hands!” he yelled, and he charged.
Sargon's confidence returned when he saw the Disruptor fly over the bushes, and in the same instant he knew this was what he wanted. too. With a fierce shout of triumph, he met Nad's charge...
Ron stood motionlessly to one side, watching them. He knew that this was inevitable. He also knew, somehow, that Nad preferred to die rather than accept outside help, even if Ron had been able to give it. Nor was it a matter of principle, it was a life-consuming hate that could only be expended in one way. Ron knew he had to leave both of them alone. He knew that if Sargon killed Nad he would have to stand there and watch him die.
As he watched, what he witnessed sickened him so that he felt faint. His legs failed him and he sat down. He did not know how two human bodies could take such punishment and still keep on struggling. The towering, pristine jungle held them as though in its lap, like some primitive god, understanding its children who obeyed the earliest law ever written-that which rules all the forces of construction and destruction, of love and hate, of survival and death...
It lasted about fifteen minutes. Nad dragged himself, somehow, off of Sargon's prostrate body and stood up. He groped, as one blind, took two steps, and then fell on his face. Ron struggled with him and finally got him on his feet again. As he left the small clearing, he looked back at Sargon and shuddered. There was no doubt that Sargon was absolutely dead...
* * * *
So it was that Nad returned out of virtual limbo. He and Ron and Yiddir, with Lylwani and the small son of Sargon, left the small planet behind them-a planet that was still too young to receive them and too small to support the potential expansion of a new human race.
Nad piloted the ship back to the nebula and plunged directly into its weird darkness. He refused to tell even Yiddir what he had found, except to say that it was definitely the end of their search. There was a tense time of waiting, during which they struggled with the freak gravitational fields and ether warps within the nebula.
Then, suddenly, they burst into the tremendous interior, and Yiddir's heart leapt in exultation. For there it was, the solar system he had detected-a more spectacular and beautiful system than he could have imagined in his most optimistic dreams. Ron and Lylwani joined him in wonderment and awe.
Four white suns filled that tremendous chamber with a light that was sheer heavenly splendor. They formed the center of a system which possessed at least eight major planets, five minor ones and a decorative host of thousands of planetoids and satellites. None of them showed distinct phases, because the sunlight seemed to be everywhere. On the “night side” of the various planets there was only a silvery twilight.
The world Nad had chosen was the fourth minor planet. It was roughly nine thousand miles in diameter and possessed about one-sixth land area and five-sixths water area. Yiddir knew even before he analyzed it that the atmosphere was healthful.
They landed by a broad river, just above a great waterfall, on a plateau that overlooked green jungle and a broad, blue ocean. At that altitude, the jungle had given way to mighty forests of coniferous trees, interspersed with great, rolling green prairie-lands that swept gently away and upward to snow-capped mountains.
“This is Paradise,” said Yiddir. “Thank God I've lived to see it!"
Two years passed, during which Yiddir's life faded slowly away and new life took his place, for to Lylwani was born a baby girl, whom they named Yldra. The boy, Dirno, and his step-sister, Yldra, throve in their healthful environment as though their race had been indigenous to it. Lylwani made rapid recovery and happily accepted Nad as her man, forever.
Ron seemed to be the only one who was not content to adjust himself. He worked harder than anyone else to establish a permanent base on the ground. A sturdy house of wood and steel took shape. Storehouses, work-shops and sheds followed. Out of the ship's converters came metal, which was processed, forged and machined-under Yiddir's occasional supervision. New hand weapons were made, and the Disruptor cannons were transferred to permanent installations on the ground, as a source of nuclear energy. And at last certain plants and animals were domesticated. The foundation for a natural adjustment to the new world was finally set.
It was when Yiddir finally lay on his death bed that his ultimate wish was expressed.
“Your little beginning here,” he said to Nad and Lylwani, “will require a millennium to bear substantial fruit. I regret very much that neither part of our divided fleet may ever know of this paradise you have discovered. By now the rebel fleet should be more than half way to its goal, and there is no one who can turn their course to this place. I wish they might be turned back before they invade those other planets. Even if they are rebels, all the Passengers should certainly be considered. They should be given a chance. Dictatorial governments come and go, but humanity goes on forever.
“Still, if there were a choice to be made, I'd prefer to notify the Fleet Government. The rebels have some sort of chance on those other worlds, if they survive the conflict, but the other arks are only plunging ever more deeply into the Unknown. I can understand why it is impossible for you, Nad, to go. It would take more than half a lifetime to catch up with them now, even with the converted drivers. Still, it is sad to think that Dirno and Yldra, your children, will find themselves alone in this great solar system after you are gone."
Yiddir's dimming eyes did not fail to
notice that Ron was standing in the background, listening intently. “If you ever could contact the Government Fleet,” he said, “it would be worth more than life, itself. I'd try to locate Nor E-I-M, because he is the only person I can think of who might possibly be able to defend this place against the rebels, should they ever come back here exploring. There are some among their number who suspected the existence of this place more than they cared to admit to their companions."
Nad thought silently for a long while, and Yiddir smiled inwardly when he observed that Ron had disappeared.
“I could leave Ron with Lylwani,” Nad said, finally.
Yiddir laid his withered hand on his arm. “It would take years, Nad. Years. Your children would be grown to adulthood before you reached the arks."
A ripple of muscles appeared along Nad's jaws. “But it must be done!” he exclaimed.
Just then, he heard a roar of rockets outside, accompanied by an unmistakable “swoosh!” He tried to jump to his feet, but Yiddir held him.
“Relax, Nad!” exclaimed Yiddir. “I knew it was going to happen. This is what he has been waiting for. It took great courage, but he has found that in full measure at last."
Nad glared at him. “What do you mean?"
“Ron,” said Yiddir, with his last breath, “has gone to find Nor-to bring back the Government Fleet. A poor, misguided coward with a club foot, who fought his cowardice and failed, only to lose Yldra, whom he loved perhaps in a way and with a depth of feeling which we could never understand. And finally the shock of that loss has made of him such a hero that his name may shine through all the pages of Man's future history-if he succeeds..."
* * *
CHAPTER XV
When Dirno was seventeen years old, Nad and Lylwani had almost forgotten the strange and all but hopeless mission of Ron. There were three more children, two boys and a girl. All the elements of their natural environment had combined to assist their adaptation to normal life, and their parents found the afternoon of their existence to be the fulfillment of human desire-except for infrequently recurrent memories that sometimes haunted Nad in his deeper moments of reflection.
Sometimes in the still hours of the night when Lylwani lay sleeping beside him, his mind would still wander out beyond the stupendous, black walls of the nebula and try to find his lost brother, Ron. He would quail at the thought of the other's loneliness, riding the star-roads outward toward the edge of the galaxy, searching for an invisible fleet. Logic told him that Ron had failed, that in using the ultra-velocity available from the converted drivers he had made himself the victim of meteors-or that a lifetime of terrible loneliness had robbed him at last of his sanity. Sometimes he would dream that Ron was a white-haired maniac, whose star-blinded eyes stared at him from afar out of the Abyss, and he would awake with a start...
* * * *
Nor E-I-M was a man in his early seventies, still straight of limb and of an alert, military manner. His distinguishing mane of gray hair was vigorous and thick, and his blue eyes reflected a brightness of mind that had defied the years. For one week he and his medical staff had worked on the stranger from the Abyss. Under special second order type rays of his own devising, he had thrown the man's conscious mind into a restful coma, and his nervous system was subjected to a complete reenergizing process. When they brought him back to consciousness, he was able to talk, haltingly, but effectively. He told them of a hidden paradise lying within the depths of the dark nebula, and of Yiddir and Nad and Sargon and Lylwani and the children and the rebel fleet.
“Of course you may think me insane,” said Ron, wearily.
“On the contrary,” Nor smiled. “I know this Yiddir of whom you speak, and I am quite sure the discovery you mention was actually made. In fact, we are going to return to the nebula. We may require another generation of time to reach it, but we will get there. If the rebel fleet has returned there and established a dictatorial government, we will overcome that government..."
“But they have the M-Ray,” Ron reminded him.
“And I have, at long last, finally perfected an effective screen against it-plus a lot more,” Nor told him, calmly.
“You!” Ron's eyes widened. “But only Yiddir's son—"
Nor smiled again. “This Yiddir you speak of,” he said, “was in reality Korlon E-3-N. I know, because he was my father..."
THE END
* * *
SF/F/H FROM PAGETURNER EDITIONS
FROM PAGETURNER EDITIONS
THE CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION OF STUART J. BYRNE
Music of the Spheres & Other Classic SF Stories
Star Quest
Power Meta
Hoaxbreaker
The Alpha Trap (1976)
The Land Beyond the Lens: The Michael Flannigan Trilogy (writing as John Bloodstone)
The Metamorphs & The Naked Goddess: Two Classic Pulp Novels
Children of the Chronotron & The Ultimate Death: Two Classic Pulp Novels
Beyond the Darkness & Potential Zero: Two Classic Pulp Novels
The Agartha Series #1. Prometheus II
The Agartha Series #2. Colossus
The Agartha Series #3: The Golden Gardsmen
Thundar, Man of Two Worlds The Land Beyond the Lens: The Michael Flannigan Trilogy (writing as John Bloodstone)
Last Days of Thronas (writing as John Bloodstone)
The First Star Man Omnibus: #1 Supermen of Alpha & Star Man #2 Time Window
The Second Star Man Omnibus: #3 Interstellar Mutineers & #4 The Cosmium Raiders
The Third Star Man Omnibus: #5 The World Changer & #6 The Slaves of Venus
The Fourth Star Man Omnibus: #7 Lost in the Milky Way & #8. Time Trap
The Fifth Star Man Omnibus: #9 The Centaurians & #10 The Emperor
The Sixth Star Man Omnibus: #11 The Return of Star Man & #12 Death Screen
STEFAN VUCAK'S EPPIE NOMINEE SPACE SAGA “THE SHADOW GODS"
In the Shadow of Death
Against the Gods of Shadow
A Whisper From Shadow
Immortal in Shadow
With Shadow and Thunder
Through the Valley of Shadow
JANRAE FRANK'S #1 BESTSELLING FANTASY SAGAS
Dark Brothers of the Light Book I. Blood Rites
Dark Brothers of the Light Book II. Blood Heresy
Dark Brothers of the Light Book III. Blood Dawn
Dark Brothers of the Light Book IV: Blood Wraiths
Dark Brothers of the Light Book V: Blood Paladin
In the Darkness, Hunting: Tales of Chimquar the Lionhawk
Journey of the Sacred King I: My Sister's Keeper
Journey of the Sacred King II: Sins of the Mothers
Journey of the Sacred King III: My Father's House
THE COSMIC KALEVALA
The Saga of Lost Earths—Emil Petaja (Nebula nominee author)
The Star Mill—Emil Petaja
The Stolen Sun—Emil Petaja
Tramontane—Emil Petaja
JACK JARDINE'S HUMOROUS SF AND MYSTERY
The Agent of T.E.R.R.A. #1 The Flying Saucer Gambit
The Agent of T.E.R.R.A. #2 The Emerald Elephant Gambit
The Agent of T.E.R.R.A. #3 The Golden Goddess Gambit
The Agent of T.E.R.R.A. #4 The Time Trap Gambit
The Mind Monsters
Unaccustomed As I Am To Public Dying & Other Humorous and Ironic Mystery Stories
The Nymph and the Satyr
ARDATH MAYHAR'S AWARD-WINNING SF & F
The Crystal Skull & Other Tales of the Terrifying and Twisted
The World Ends in Hickory Hollow, or After Armageddon
The Tupla: A Nover of Horror
The Twilight Dancer & Other Tales of Magic, Mystery and the Supernatura
The Black Tower: A Novel of Dark Fantasy
Forbidden Geometries: A Novel Alien Worlds
HAL ANNAS’ COSMIC RECKONING TRILOGY
I. The Woman from Eternity
II. Daughter of Do
om
III. Witch of the Dark Star
THE HILARIOUS ADVENTURES OF TOFFEE
1. The Dream Girl—Charles F. Myers
2. Toffee Haunts a Ghost—Charles F. Myers
3. Toffee Turns the Trick—Charles F. Myers
OTHER AWARD WINNING & NOMINEE STORIES AND AUTHORS
Moonworm's Dance & Other SF Classics—Stanley Mullen (includes The Day the Earth Stood Still & Other SF Classics—Harry Bates (Balrog Award winning story)
Hugo nominee story Space to Swing a Cat)
People of the Darkness-Ross Rocklynne (Nebulas nominee author)
When They Come From Space-Mark Clifton (Hugo winning author)
What Thin Partitions-Mark Clifton (Hugo winning author)
Star Bright & Other SF Classics—Mark Clifton
Eight Keys to Eden-Mark Clifton (Hugo winning author)
Rat in the Skull & Other Off-Trail Science Fiction-Rog Phillips (Hugo nominee author)
The Involuntary Immortals-Rog Phillips (Hugo nominee author)
Inside Man & Other Science Fictions-H. L. Gold (Hugo winner, Nebula nominee)
Women of the Wood and Other Stories-A. Merritt (Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame award)
A Martian Odyssey & Other SF Classics—Stanley G. Weinbaum (SFWA Hall of Fame author)
Dawn of Flame & Other Stories—Stanley G. Weinbaum (SFWA Hall of Fame author)
The Black Flame—Stanley G. Weinbaum
Scout-Octavio Ramos, Jr. (Best Original Fiction)
Smoke Signals-Octavio Ramos, Jr. (Best Original Fiction winning author)
The City at World's End-Edmond Hamilton
The Star Kings-Edmond Hamilton (Sense of Wonder Award winning author)
A Yank at Valhalla-Edmond Hamilton (Sense of Wonder Award winning author)
Dawn of the Demigods, or People Minus X—Raymond Z. Gallun (Nebula Nominee Author)
THE BESTSELLING SF/F/H OF J. D. CRAYNE
Tetragravitron (Captain Spycer #1)
Monster Lake
Invisible Encounter & Other Stories
The Cosmic Circle
PLANETS OF ADVENTURE
Martian Honeymoon and Beyond the Darkness Page 16