by Douglas Hill
The slow stumbling retreat of Keill's mind from the edge of the abyss, the slow restoration of self-control, seemed to be timeless – to extend over aeons of suffering. But when at last he opened his eyes, it was to find that only moments had passed since Glr had lowered him to the cluttered floor of the hangar.
He was unbelievably weak, feeling half-paralysed as his nervous system re-learned how to accept messages from his own brain. The agony within his head remained as fiery and blinding as before.
But he was Keill Randor again, legionary of Moros, no longer slave, puppet, or robot. And a fierce joy rose in him, to aid the task of restoration.
Glr was perched beside him, among the clutter on the floor, with an energy gun nearby. Keill looked into the round, bright eyes – and though he was too weak, too mentally shaky, to form a thought clearly enough, he had no doubt that she would sense the fullness within him, the flooding of gratitude that he wanted to express.
In turn, he sensed Glr's voice softly, carefully within his mind, echoing with relief and thankfulness – and with something that, if the two words had been spoken aloud, might have been a sob.
Welcome back.
Then, despite the pain-wracked exhaustion of his mind, Keill wanted to frame some of the swarm of questions that needed answers. But he could not – for their time had run out.
Without warning, the lights of the hangar blazed on, obviously controlled from some outside source. Beyond the doors of the building, Keill heard the clatter of many boots on the plasticrete.
And Glr snatched up her gun and flung herself into the air, as the Golvician militia burst into the hangar.
Raging at his own weakness, Keill fought to rise. But his body moved sluggishly, painfully, still unwilling to respond to the dictates of his brain. It seemed to take him forever merely to roll partway over, and to force his upper body into a sitting position.
And while he struggled, Glr plunged into furious battle.
Six armed Golvicians had come through the door. But they had come with too much clumsy incaution, and Glr's gun had cut down two of them before the remaining four were able to take cover at the sides of the hangar.
From there they began a furious fire fight, their guns blazing and crackling almost without pause.
Yet Glr remained miraculously unhit, as she wheeled and swooped, darting into cover behind the bulk of the spaceship which also sheltered Keill, bursting out again to return the Golvicians' fire.
In a moment another Golvician screamed and fell, his green tunic a smoking ruin. A second tried a sudden rush towards the ship, but before he could reach the safety of its shadow Glr's energy beam had slashed across his legs to send him tumbling in a screaming, bleeding heap.
Keill heard within his mind the high-pitched whoop of Glr's battle-cry. And it galvanised him to greater efforts in his grim struggle to make his body obey him. His hands swept out to find leverage, and brushed across the ice-smooth length of a slim metal rod. He clutched at it, recognising it as an extension rod for the electro-probes used to reach deep into the mechanisms of a spaceship. It was just what Keill needed.
Bracing himself on it, as an old and crippled man might lean his weight on a stick, Keill lurched to his knees. But there he halted, frozen by a movement he had glimpsed at the edge of his vision.
A previously unseen access hatch at the side of the hangar had slid open. And framed in it, Keill saw the stealthy figure of Festinn, gun in hand.
The Deathwing assassin took in the scene at once. Keill, unarmed and on his knees, looking half-paralysed and helpless. And Glr, still engaged in combat with the two remaining Golvicians, but entirely exposed to Festinn's position.
The mad eyes blazed like twin beacons of murderous joy, as Festinn raised his gun.
Keill did not call to Glr. For one thing, he dared not distract her from her own fight. For another, the appearance of Festinn had acted upon him like a jolt of electricity, bringing with it a renewed surge of the revulsion and hatred that had so nearly swamped his mind, moments before.
But now the force of those emotions was channelled into a gigantic burst of vengeful rage, which called up reserves of strength from the deepest areas of his being.
As the assassin's gun steadied, its deadly muzzle tracking Glr's rapid swooping flight, Keill hefted the slender metal rod in one hand, drew it back, and flung it.
The smooth end of the rod struck precisely between the glittering eyes. And such was the power of the fury behind the throw that the metal smashed onwards through flesh and bone, to bury itself in the depths of Festinn's brain.
---
Less than an hour later, Keill and Glr were seated, or perched, at the controls of his ship, in deep space, and locked in determined argument.
Glr had managed to flush out and finish off the last Golvician attackers in almost the same moment as Festinn's body had crumpled to the floor. Then she had urged and half-supported Keill as he staggered into the ship – his own ship. From her special sling-perch, she had taken the controls, lifting them off in a crashing escape straight through the roof of the hangar, just as a larger force of militia had poured in through its doors.
Once safely out of Golvic territorial space, Glr had begun to answer the swarm of questions in Keill's mind. It was a sombre and fearsome story.
From her hiding place, after she had landed Keill's ship, she had been telepathically aware of the unbearable moment of Keill's capture by the Arachnis tendril. What happened then to Keill's mind had very nearly done serious damage to her own mind, Glr said. But she had recovered herself quickly, and had quelled her terror and rage enough to reach out with her mind across the stars to Talis, the leader of the Overseers.
The old man had also been almost overwhelmed by despair and sorrow when he heard Glr's news. But he too had rallied quickly. He and Glr realised that every corner of Keill's mind would now be open to the Twenty-four – the Warlord. And that supreme, evil intelligence would do everything it could to locate the Overseers.
So Talis decided to send the Overseers to safety, though he himself made up his mind to remain on the asteroid, and would not be budged by Glr's desperate urgings.
Meanwhile, Glr had kept watch on events on Golvic. She had watched with glum misery as flyers searched the wilderness for Keill's ship, and found it, once the Twenty-four had learned from Keill's mind where it might be hidden. She had then made her way unseen to the city, and had even spied on some of Keill's own robot activities.
And she had filled her days with many other things – including the grimly enjoyable game of disrupting what she could in Golv City, while eluding the men sent out to hunt her. By doing so she hoped that one day the Deathwing would send Keill after her – so that she could try to lure him to some safe place, on his own, and perhaps release him from his evil bondage.
At that point in her narrative, Keill's eyes had darkened. 'I came very close to killing you,' he said.
Since they were alone, he could speak aloud, knowing that she would pick up the thought behind the words. And his voice shook with the memory of that deadly pursuit at the spaceport.
Glr laughed quietly. I was beginning to fear you would. Otherwise I would not have risked removing the tendril so drastically – which came close to killing you.
'No matter,' Keill said. 'We're both alive. The Warlord will find out just how alive we are.'
You are aware,Glr said forlornly, that the Twenty-four and the Deathwing have the asteroid.
Keill's eyes clouded with pain. 'I know. They traced it through the monitors. I even helped them prepare the assault.'
You are not to blame,Glr replied soothingly. But certainly they succeeded. I lost contact with Talis's mind many days ago. In the same way, Keill, as I lost contact with yours.
Keill slumped back into his sling-seat, wrapped in numbed horror as he contemplated the kindly old man who had created the Overseers, who had saved Keill's life, who had been concerned above all for the safety of the galaxy, and not at
all for his own.
And now that old man was a prisoner of the Warlord, a puppet-slave of Arachnis.
'Somehow, then,' Keill said through clenched teeth, 'we're also going to have to locate the asteroid.'
I know its location, Glr said. Talis gave me the co-ordinates.
Keill stared at her. He remembered, at the beginning of their travels together, how Glr had explained that while she could reach across interstellar distances to touch Talis's mind, she had willingly submitted to a hypnotic block implanted by Talis, as part of his obsessive secrecy. The block had prevented her from pinpointing the position of the asteroid base. But now, Talis had clearly lifted the block – when the need for secrecy no longer existed.
'Then if you know,' Keill said fiercely, 'let's go!'
And that was when the argument broke out.
Glr insisted that Keill was in no condition to dash off into what would be a fearful battle, against terrible odds. Keill was determined not to delay a moment more than necessary before launching an assault on the asteroid. Glr urged him to rest, promising that with her healing telepathic aid he would have recovered full control of his mind and body in no more than a day or two. He insisted that there was not a day or two to spare. She grew annoyed, and scolded. He grew more determined, and resisted.
In the process he tried to raise himself from his slingseat. But the burst of strength that had come to him in time to destroy Festinn had been temporary. His legs trembled; his arms seemed to be made of lead.
He sagged back into the slingseat, sweating, and turned with a shaky smile to Glr.
'Your point has been made,' he said. 'But whatever it takes to get me back to normal – can we make it happen quickly?'
It will be quick,Glr promised him. I know your resilience, your powers of recovery. After a day's rest, and some special treatment from me, we can set out. By the time we reach the asteroid, you will be ready.
A muted shadow of her bubbling laughter sounded in her mental voice. After all, my friend –
you will need to be at your best, when you go to save the galaxy!
PART THREE
ASTEROID APOCALYPSE
CHAPTER TEN
Glr was proved right about Keill's condition. After he had resigned himself to a period of rest, he slept for the span of nearly a full day. It was a deep and healing sleep, made more so by Glr's gently soothing presence that he vaguely sensed, like a lingering, peaceful dream, within his mind.
As carefully as before, but now more thoroughly, her mind moved among the still pain-racked centres and channels of his mental being, the after-effects of shock and disruption. She was like warm sun-light, like the soft breath of a summer breeze – and where she passed storms were quelled, menacing clouds were driven away, tranquillity began to gather.
When Keill at last awoke, he found himself refreshed, alert, free of pain. Even his head-wound, from Glr's claws, had been treated and was healing well. His mind was clear, his self-control restored.
His body responded readily to his every command. And he retained, like the fleeting shadow-memory of a dream, a sense of the healing presence that had floated through his mind as he had slept.
He stared at Glr wonderingly. 'I didn't know you could do such things. I thought nearly all of a human mind was closed to you.'
Not closed,Glr said. Just mostly very alien. Her laughter was still muted. I have been with you a long time, Keill. I can reach depths in your mind that I could reach in no other. And while I may not understand all the human strangeness that I find there, I can recognise pain and turmoil.
'Then perhaps,' Keill said softly, 'you can also see just how huge a debt of gratitude I feel I owe you.'
Glr's round eyes gleamed. You repaid a good part of the debt, she laughed, with that makeshift spear back in the hangar. Not a bad throw, for an invalid!
Keill laughed, but there was ferocity as well as humour in his voice – a fierce gladness that he had been able to deal with Festinn as he had, and that he was now able to deal with the rest of his enemies.
Glr caught his mood at once. Her wings half-flared as she shifted her position, her small hands reaching for the controls.
I will take us into Overlight, she announced. You may continue preparing yourself for what we must face, a few hours from now.
As the formless void of Overlight blotted out the stars on the viewscreens, Keill rose from the slingseat, marvelling at how easily his body moved, and began his preparations. He selected weapons and equipment, and checked them with a legionary's thoroughness. He ate hugely, a refuelling meal of food concentrates, while Glr nibbled at a portion, complaining as always about the intolerable food on humans' spacecraft. He even had time to put himself through a series of limbering exercises, testing his strength, speed, reactions and stamina – and feeling pleased that he seemed to be wholly himself again, unimpaired.
When the speedy preparations were done, he returned to the slingseat, to wait patiently for the emergence from Overlight. As he waited and watched the viewscreens, he saw not the grey void, but a crowding host of memories.
One memory in particular stood out – the image of his world, Moros, as he had last seen it, enveloped in the radiant haze that had ended all life upon the planet. And he heard again the dying words of his then closest friend, Oni Wolda, who had dragged her ship away from the dead planet to warn Keill, and to launch him on his mission.
Avenge us, Keill,Oni had said. Avenge the murder of Moros.
There's more to it than that, Oni, he told the ghostly memory. There's an evil that we never guessed at, threatening all the galaxy, certain that it can't be stopped. But it can be – and will be. And Moros will be avenged.
Only moments later the cells of his body felt that eerie, disorientating shift, and the greyness on the viewscreens gave way to the star-dappled blackness of space.
Keill reached for the controls, sending the ship forward on normal planetary drive, operating its long-range detectors. Soon they produced the information he sought.
A small spherical body, moving slowly through the incalculable emptiness among the stars. Not an orbiting body, for there were no suns or planets near enough. It was certainly the asteroid, its path following the co-ordinates that Glr had put into the ship's computer.
And it was not moving alone on that path. Close to it, in its wake, the detectors showed a collection of even smaller bodies – minor asteroids and rocky chunks of space rubble.
Keill pointed them out to Glr. 'I didn't know the Overseers' asteroid had company.'
I was only told of them once, while I was with the Overseers, Glr replied, and did not think them important.
Keill shrugged. 'Maybe they aren't, except to show that the asteroid was once part of a larger planetoid, a few million million years ago. But on the other hand...'
His fingers flicked over the controls, sweeping the ship sideways on to a new course. 'It's likely that the Deathwing have their own detectors, watching space around them. So we'll come at them through all that rubble.'
You will wreck the ship,Glr warned.
'Don't worry,' Keill said. 'We'll get through. It's just the cover we need, to get close before they spot us.'
Setting the computer guidance system, he rose from the slingseat and moved swiftly to the neat stack of equipment that he had set out earlier. Much of the stack was formed by the sections of a Legion spacesuit. Fully protective, but remarkably light and flexible, it allowed the unhampered mobility that a legionary needed in combat.
When he had donned the spacesuit and carefully checked it, he gathered up his weapons. Two energy-guns that clipped to a belt on the suit. Two extra energy charges, which he felt sure would be enough. And four small, flat plastic objects – the special grenades of the Legions – that also fastened to the belt.
Keill's battle plan was blatantly simple. He knew that he had little chance of reaching the surface of the asteroid undetected, once he had emerged from the cluster of space rubble. So he intende
d to go in at top speed, his ship's guns blazing, and blast his way through the asteroid hull – relying on Glr's telepathic reach to guide him to an area where he would not be putting Talis at risk.
He was not concerned about who else might be at risk when his ship smashed through the hull and brought with it, into that area, the vacuum and absolute zero of space.
Once inside, he would leave his ship, protected by his spacesuit -and then he would take things as they came.
I know there is no suit for me,Glr said. But am I to wait quietly while you go out to fight alone?
'Not for long,' Keill reassured her. The hull of the asteroid, he told her, would be like the exterior skin of any human space station. It would contain a self-sealing substance, that would swiftly flow into the gap made by Keill's ship, sealing the hull so that atmosphere could be restored.
Then I can come out and join you,Glr said with satisfaction, flaring her wings.
'Then you come out,' Keill corrected her, 'and locate Talis, to see what you can do for him.'
Keill, from what you told me there must be forty Golvician soldiers in the asteroid,Glr protested.
And there are twelve Deathwing killers, besides The One. You will need me.
Keill shrugged. 'Even counting the Twenty-four, that makes less opposition than I had when I last tackled The One.'
You do not have the Starwind to help you now,Glr pointed out.
'The Starwind nearly killed me,' Keill reminded her. 'Anyway – I'm going to be raising up a storm of my own.'
He poured on the power, and the ship surged forward in a great glittering arc through the emptiness.
Within minutes, their goal had appeared on the view-screens – the cluster of space rubble, and on its far side the larger bulk of the asteroid. Within a few seconds more they were near enough to see greater detail.
'Look at it,' Keill breathed.
Once the asteroid might have presented a normal, undistinguished surface of flat rock and shallow craters, like any number of similar wandering bodies in space. That had been the Overseers'