Ty was fumbling weakly at the straps, trying to sit up in the shock seat. He spoke too loudly, his face toward the wall.
"Jeff?"
"Yes, Ty."
"Ask Buzz to go ahead." He stopped, and Jeff saw sweat on his face. "Jeff?"
"Right here, Ty."
"You are in command till I wake up."
Ty sank weakly back. His hand reached up and found Jeff's shoulder. He hung on, his fingers cold, while they waited.
Buzz was humming fast at Lupe. They sprayed their hands to clean them. They sprayed the wound. Buzz gave Ty a careful shot of the deep sleep drug. Ty's hand
grew tight on Jeff's shoulder, trembled, and suddenly eased.
Jeff watched as Buzz began the operation. His fur and eyes had turned bright blue again. His tiny hands seemed very quick and sure. He used the instruments from the kit as if he knew all about them.
Lupe was his helper. She looked pale and weak at first. Once she dropped a pink ball of cotton. But Buzz kept purring at her, asking for what he needed next. Soon she was working calmly, too busy to think of anything else.
When he saw that he was no longer needed, Jeff climbed back to the cock pit. If he was going to carry on the rescue mission, as commander of the ship, he had problems of his own to solve.
What were those "queer kinds of life" that Ben had found here? Where did they live, if Topaz had no planets? Why had he named them rock hoppers? How had they come to attack him?
Was the admiral wrong, Jeff wondered, to send Lupe and Buzz to search for peace? Shouldn't Earth be sending fighting ships through X-space instead, to crush the hoppers before they could carry space war to Earth?
The ship was still on auto pilot, gliding at low power toward Topaz. The pumps of the screen still drummed
softly, like the beat of a great slow heart—but he knew the screen wouldn't stop laser bolts.
He wondered how far that first shot had come. Earth, he knew, had no laser weapon that could fire a shot even a thousand miles before it spread wider than the hole in the hull. Earth had no weapon of any kind that could hit such a small object as the ship in the first minute of fire.
Did that mean the hoppers were less than a thousand miles away? Or did it mean that the hoppers' weapons were far ahead of Admiral Serov's, in range and power?
With Ty in deep sleep, the answers to all those questions were up to Jeff.
He slipped into the pilot's seat and reached up to test the seal in the hull. The thick black sealing foam was already hard. He found no leak. But the next shot, he thought, might punch a larger hole.
When he looked outside, the view took his breath again. Half the sky was dusty black. The rest was filled with Topaz and its ring. The giant blue sun with its wide belt of white looked beautiful to him. Yet he knew there was danger in that strange sky.
The ship's screen showed nothing near. But there hadn't been time for that deadly bolt to come all the way from the ring.
Something was waiting out there, closer.
A dull, cold feeling sank into Jeff. He saw no way to find the lost ship. Not even if it were still whole. Not even if the rock hoppers would let him look for it.
In all the unknown space around Topaz, Ben's ship was less than a grain of dust. Jeff's naked eyes could see anything its size, perhaps a hundred miles away. The laser screen could find the lost ship at ten thousand miles.
But ten thousand miles was nothing here. The nearest edge of that strange ring was still tens of millions of miles away.
The figures mocked him. Even one million miles was a thousand thousand miles. A billion miles was a thousand million. When he tried to grasp those figures, and the distances they stood for, he felt like a tiny insect trapped in some great web.
He was still trying to think of a plan, when Lupe came up the ladder behind him. Her face showed the strain, but her eyes remained bright.
"We have finished," she told him. "Ty was worse than Buzz first thought. The damage went behind his eyes, to the nerves. Buzz gave him another deep sleep shot, to last until the tissues heal. We set the timer at a hundred hours."
"Will he—see?"
"Buzz isn't sure." Her voice was slow with trouble.
"He hopes the eye nerves will heal, but he has never done this operation on a human being. We won't really know until we can wake Ty and take the bandage off."
"We need him now."
"I know we do," Lupe said. "We've been reporting to the admiral on the moon. Buzz says he's worried about us. He isn't giving any orders, because he isn't on the spot, but he wants to know everything that happens. He has some questions for you."
"All right," Jeff said.
Lupe whistled, and Buzz ran up the ladder. Lively as a monkey now, he chattered to her, hopped into the empty seat beside Jeff, and sat there looking out at Topaz. In the blue glare of the star, his big eyes turned bright green.
"The admiral wants your description of Topaz," Lupe said.
"It's twice the size of our sun." Jeff tried to put his facts in the exact way that the admiral would approve. "We've found no planets. The stuff that might have formed planets is still scattered all around the star, in a flat ring like the rings of Saturn.
"Really;" he added, "the ring is three rings. We can see two dim circles that almost separate it. If it had formed planets, I think there would have been three of them.
"The ring system extends about a billion miles from Topaz," he went on. "That makes it somewhat smaller than our sun system. We cut out of X-space above the plane of the ring. We are moving now about 60 million miles from the outside edge of the ring."
"The admiral wants to know what the ring is made of."
"Dust, I guess," Jeff said. "Or maybe crystals of ice. It is stuff that never collected into planets. At this distance the screen doesn't show any individual parts."
"He wants to know if we've found any possible place for life to exist."
"None except the ring itself," Jeff said. "If life did begin in a ring, instead of on a planet, I don't know what it would be like. My brother's message mentioned rock hoppers. I don't know what they are."
Buzz whistled.
"The admiral has received your report," Lupe said. "Now he wants to know your plan of action,"
Frowning, Jeff took another 30 seconds to finish making up his mind.
"We are going to place the X-space station at once," he said. "That will make the ship lighter. It will save fuel and give us more freedom of action. I hope that Ben and his men will see the station beacon and signal us. I see no better way to begin the search for them."
Buzz chirped sharply.
"The admiral has your reply," Lupe said. "He suggests that the beings of Topaz are likely to consider the dropping of the beacon as an enemy action. He suggests that you may draw their fire."
"I think we have to accept that risk/' Jeff replied. "We still have a long flight through common space to reach the ring. Loaded with the station, we would be a sitting duck for any attack. If we let the station loose with the beacon dead, so far out here, we would never find it again."
Buzz made a sound like a trapped fly.
"The admiral has no advice for you," Lupe said. "He repeats that you are in full command. He wants us to keep him fully informed."
Buzz gave another whistle.
"Buzz doesn't think much of your plan," Lupe said. "But even his multiple mind can't suggest a better one."
"So we will try this," Jeff said. "We will drop the station and run. The hoppers may shoot at it. If they do, we may have a minute or so before their bolts get here. Try to see anything you can."
He turned a key on the instrument board and punched a button- to drop the station. The sharp nose-cone spun away from their ship. Inside the cone, power flowed and machines came to life. Outside, a web spread to sweep objects from the entrance zone.
On tlie side of the station toward the far Earth, the neutrino beacon began flashing its signal through X-space, ready to guide new ships from E
arth to Topaz—if any other ships ever came.
On the side toward Topaz, the laser beacon began winking orange and green, orange and green. Its winks could reach the nearest edge of the ring around the star. Jeff hoped they would reach Ben. He knew they would reach the waiting hopper.
"One. . . ." Under his breath, he counted the seconds. "Two . . . three. . . ."
He had opened the motor to full power and pushed the mass-reduction lever. Freed from all the tons of the station, the star ship seemed light as a bird. They darted away from the wink of the beacon.
"Five . . . six . . . seven. . . ."
He was counting to get the distance of the hopper. The light of the beacon would take time to reach it. Its laser bolt would take time to come back. Each second meant nearly a hundred thousand miles.
"Eleven . . . twelve . . . thirteen. . . ."
Behind their ship, the beacon blinked red once, instead of green. A small ball of bright yellow fire ballooned in black space. It turned pale and went out. The beacon did not wink again.
Though Jeff had expected this, he felt a shock. The
station had been an open gate on the long road back to Earth. Now it was closed. They couldn't go back.
"A flash! I saw a red flash." Lupe was pointing. "There —just above the ring of Topaz."
JeflF nodded. "That was the laser. That's where the hopper is. I think about a million miles from here."
Buzz was purring softly.
"He thinks we should head that way," Lupe said. "He must find the hoppers, to make peace with them."
"I don't think they mean to give us much time for talking peace," Jeff said, but he turned the ship toward that spot in the dark sky above the ring.
The star ship flew fast. They had covered half of that million miles when the screen picked up another laser beam. Buzz's bright blue fur turned pale.
"This is not another attack," Jeff told him. "It's too weak to harm anything."
Unlike the deadly spears of red light that had blinded Ty and wrecked the station, this was the very thinnest thread of light, as fine as the ray of a far-off star.
"A signal!" Jeff whispered. "A voice!"
He bent over the screen, working to increase the signal and shut Out the noise. At last a hoarse, hollow voice boomed in the cock pit, still mixed with the hiss and crash of noise.
"Star Man Ben Stone calling. . . ."
CHAPTER 7
Rainbow of Rocks
The hoarse voice was cut off sharply, as if the thin thread of hght had broken. Odd noises drummed and howled in the cock pit.
''Ben!" Jeff looked up at Lupe. ''He's still alive."
Quickly, he bent over the screen. His fingers worked furiously to mend the thread of light. Nothing but noise. But at last the voice came out again.
"Star Man Ben Stone, calling anybody. Our ship has been under laser attack. We've lost air and power. Now we are in the rocks around Topaz, caught in a rock hopper's web. . . ."
Roaring noise drowned the voice.
Jejff searched for it again, but all he got was the crash and hiss and scream of noise. At last he gave up.
''What does it mean?" Lupe whispered. "What's a rock hopper's web?"
''I don't know what it is." Staring at the shining ring of Topaz, Jeff felt a cold prickling at the back of his neck. ''Anyhow," he said, "we know where it is. We can chart it on the screen. Ben's voice came from the outside edge of that ring—from a point 60 million miles ahead of us. The question—"
He stopped to look at Lupe.
"The question now is, do we answer?"
"Why not?" Lupe asked. "If your brother is asking for help."
"Whoever fired at us is probably waiting just ahead," Jeff said. "If we use power enough to reach 60 million miles, he's sure to see our signal beam. I think he will shoot—"
Buzz chattered suddenly, shrinking away from Jeff.
"His body is frightened." Lupe was standing just behind his seat, and she bent to stroke his shining fur. "But his multiple mind says we must answer. His mind says we can't make peace by hiding."
"I don't see how we can make peace by letting them shoot at us," Jeff said. "But still I think we must answer. I want to let Ben know we are here."
Buzz tugged at Lupe until she sat down in tlie seat with him. He scrambled into her lap and sat blinking up at her. His fur was turning dark.
"Star Ship Topaz B, to Topaz A." Jeff's eyes were on the clock on the instrument board, watching the second hand. "Ben, we are on the way—"
Smash!
Something exploded. A red flash blinded him for a moment, so that he couldn't read the clock. There was the smell of burned paint in the cock pit, and he heard Buzz whining.
"Did they hurt us?" Lupe whispered.
"Don't know yet."
Jeff listened for leaking air. When he could see, he blinked to read the instrument board. Air pressure normal. Fuel pressure normal. Power normal. Mass-reduction normal. Everything seemed normal, until he noticed that the sound of the pumps had stopped.
"They got the screen," he said. "But we can go on without it—as long as we are lucky."
"Will they shoot again?"
"Wish I knew." He glanced at the clock. "They hit us something like six seconds after our beam went on. That would mean they're still about half a million miles ahead."
"What do we do now?"
"Ben's out beyond them/' JeE said. "We've got to keep going."
Buzz twittered in Lupe's lap. He was clinging fast to her, both thin arms wrapped around her neck. His eyes were bright green, peering at Jeff.
"If you are afraid, so am I." Jeff tried to grin at him. "I think there is good reason to be afraid. Earth has no weapon that could hit a moving star ship half a million miles away—or even a tenth that far."
He looked up at Lupe.
"If the hoppers get into X-space—if they break through Sun Point—all our planets will be at their mercy. They can stay out of range while they cut us to pieces."
Buzz chirped weakly.
"He says we must go on," Lupe said, "because we-must make peace."
They went on. Jeff pushed the mass-reduction lever as far as he dared, changing mass to speed, hoping to make them harder to hit. Watching the clock, watching the screen, he waited for another shot.
"Here we are!" He looked at Buzz. "If you want to make peace, we've come to the point where they fired at
y>
US.
Searching the space around them, Jeff saw nothing except dusty darkness and the rings of Topaz. The screen
showed nothing.
Lupe lowered her voice. "Where are they now?"
''Hard to say." JefF frowned. "We can't see far enough. They've got plenty of room to hide, until they want to shoot again."
"What now?"
"We will go on," Jeff said. "We will look for Ben's ship in that rock hopper's web."
Buzz moved around in Lupe's lap. Humming softly as she held Buzz close, she looked up with a quick smile for Jeff. He pushed the mass-reduction lever farther over.
"If we get hit, we get hit." He grinned back at her. "With our screen dead, we are just as safe at twice the speed."
That was not exactly true. At twice the speed they would hit meteors twice as fast, and each one they hit would do four times the damage. Lupe knew it and so did Jeff, but neither said anything.
They flew on toward the clean bright edge of that far ring. Lupe and Buzz were busy reporting to the admiral. Lupe questioned Jeff. She read the ship's log to Buzz. She figured out pen scratches from the recording instruments. Sometimes she spoke English to Buzz, and sometimes she talked his own language. They went all over the ship, observing the rings of Topaz through the cock pit windows, studying the instrument board,
scrambling down the ladder to examine Ty, climbing farther down to inspect the mass-reduction gear.
"I'm afraid all this won't help us find your brother." Lupe gave Jeff a look of sympathy. "But it's what the admiral wants.
What we've learned won't be wasted."
Jeff said he understood. He tried to feel as cool and brave as Lupe seemed. He even pushed the speed of the ship a little higher, but he had to pull it back when he began to hear the dust.
The dust was a whisper at first, a hiss of small hits against many thousand bits of matter too small for the auto pilot to steer around. The whisper changed to a rattle of hail when they hit too many grains of dust too fast.
Their speed made each grain a small bomb that exploded against the thick shield over the cock pit. In the deadly seconds of cut out, when they were still near the speed of light, one small speck of matter could have smashed the ship. Even now, though their lower speed had cut the force each time dust exploded, they were in danger.
The admiral wanted another report.
"The dust seems to lie in clouds," Jeff said. "The closer we get to Topaz and the ring, the thicker they get. Flying through them, we have to balance two different risks. If we fly too fast, some larger grain may
crack the shield. But we are still too far from the ring. If we fly too slow, we may be too late to do anytliing for Ben and his crew."
"The admiral has your message/' Lupe repeated after Buzz's chirp.
They pushed on toward the ring.
Once Lupe took the controls to let Jeff rest while they flew between the clouds, but another storm of dust brought Jeff back to the cock pit. With every hiss and crash, his nerves tightened. The sky seemed to him like a dreadful pit. Sometimes he had a dizzy feeling that the ship was falling all the way to the hot blue heart of Topaz.
Buzz came to join Lupe in the cock pit, carrying a tube of paste. He waved it eagerly at Jeff, his bright blue face wrinkled into a grin.
"He got it out of your space bag," Lupe said. "He wants your permission to eat it."
"Help yourself, Buzz." Jeff tried not to laugh at him. "I'm glad you like it."
Buzz climbed into Lupe's lap, sucking at the tube. He squeezed it flat, carefully licked the smears from his lips and his slim hands, and then purred softly at Jeff.
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