He opened his eyes. This wasn't a dream. It was real. Something covered his face. He tried to move, but his body was stiff and cold. A sharp pain stabbed through his head.
"Ty?" His voice was a dull croak. "Ty?"
His jet suit was gone. He couldn't remember where he was. He was shivering from a damp chill and fighting for breath.
"No sweat, Jeff." Ty's easy voice was closer. "You'll be okay."
He tried to sit up, but he was wrapped in a thick cocoon of his own. Something hard and cold was strapped against his heart, and something stung his arms when he tried to move. A sharp sweet smell in the air burned his throat when he breathed.
"Easy, Jeff." Ty's voice was cheerful. "You are not supposed to wake up yet."
But he kept struggling until he felt something lifted from his head. Looking through a narrow slit in his bandages, he saw Ty's face floating over him. Ty was wearing dark glasses.
"I thought—" He had to stop and breathe, and the air hurt his lungs. "Thought the hoppers had me!"
12
"We've both been under deep sleep," Ty said. "I beat you out by a day and a half. What they have to do to wake you up is not much fun, but Buzz says you'll be okay."
Jeff shook his pounding head to clear it. Peering through the slit, he recognized the padded metal shapes around him in the tall round room. It was the cabin of his own ship. Too tired to be very much surprised at anything, he looked back at Ty.
"Your eyes?" he asked.
"Still weak," Ty said. "But I can see."
"I'm—glad!" He drew another breath. "How—how did I get here?"
"Buzz says the hoppers gave you a sleep shot from the aid kit in your own suit," Ty told him. "That kept you alive while they brought you out of the rocks."
"I was fighting a hopper—"
"But then you saved its hfe," Ty said. "Buzz didn't tell me how."
"I think I remember." He drew another long breath, which didn't hurt so much. "I remember a rock. I remember pushing the hopper out of the way."
"Buzz says that's why the hoppers helped you."
"What do they care?" He blinked through the slit. "They weren't acting very friendly when they trapped Ben's ship and copied his voice to bait a trap for us—"
"I will let you talk to Lupe/' Ty said, "She knows more about it."
Ty disappeared. Alone in the room, JefiE closed his aching eyes to rest them. When he looked up again, Lupe was bending over him.
"Don't worry, Jeff." Her cool hand felt good on his hot forehead. "You are trying to wake up too soon."
"I want to know about the hoppers," he told her.
"They were afraid," she said. "You see, all the hoppers belong to one great being—a queer, vast creature that is even stranger than Buzz's multiple mind. Each hopper has parts that can be separate beings or work together as they choose. But all the hoppers share one common intelligence, as Buzz and all his sister-brothers do. Their mind is the only one in all the rings of Topaz. It had never met another mind. That's why it was afraid."
Jeff tried to understand.
"Buzz had crawled back into his cocoon as we drifted toward the ring," she said. "He had sensed the hopper mind, and he was trying hard to make contact. The hopper mind was closed to him because it was afraid. But when you risked your own life to save that hopper, its mind saw that we could be friends. It opened up to Buzz."
"So now the hoppers are our friends?"
"They're Buzz's friends, anyhow." Her face came closer. "His mind has a lot in common with theirs. Buzz has been telling me all about them."
'What are they like?" His voice stopped when he remembered the mystery and wonder of the hoppers. ''How can they exist? Out among these dry, bare, flying rocks, with no planet at all!"
"Buzz says they're as strange and wonderful as human beings are." A quick smile lighted her face. "He says the working of their bodies is based on metals, the way ours is based on water."
"So they really eat rocks!"
"Buzz says they do eat certain ores. They drink hot metal. They don't have to breathe. Their bodies produce electric and magnetic forces, as well as laser beams. They fly with natural jets."
"Queer things!"
"Buzz says we seem queer to them. The air we breathe would burn them up."
"I guess in a way we're odd, too." Jeff moved stiffly in his tight cocoon. "But how do they live? Do they have machines and ships and cities?"
"Buzz says they have no use for things like that. Their bodies don't need them. Their great common mind keeps them all in touch, so they don't have to crowd into cities."
"What do they do?"
"They Hve," she said. "They weave their homes of metal strands. They spread their webs to gather food. They have their famihes and bring up the new-born hoppers. Buzz says their family webs are scattered far apart, wherever they can find the rare ores they need for food."
"Is that all?" Jeff felt somehow disappointed. "For things like the hoppers, that seems—well, dull."
Lupe shook her head.
"They think," she said. "They feel. Their rocks are filled with treasures and with dangers. They have to search all through the ring for the ores they eat. They have to hide from terrible creatures that prey on them."
Resting in his firm cocoon, Jeff tried to picture that.
"Sometimes, Buzz says, they leave their rocks. They swarm out into open space. They drift down toward Topaz, soaking up the energy of its rays the way our green plants do. The pure bright light makes them happy. They fly through patterns like dances and sing songs of silent thought."
Jeff looked up at Lupe, trying hard to understand.
"Maybe they aren't so dull," he said. "Anyway, I'm glad they're our friends."
"They do want to be," she said. "They saved your life, when they gave you that sleep shot and brought you back to the probe. They even made new parts for the
boosters, when Buzz taught them how, so that we can fly the ship again. They want to help us get back home.'*
"Why?" he asked.
"Because now they see that we will help them, when they help us. Buzz says they'd always been afraid of life on other stars. Now they want to join us."
"That's great," he said. "But when can I get up?'*
"Not yet," Lupe said. "You have two more shots to take before we can get you up."
He felt too weak to object when he saw the bright needle in her hand. He woke feeling better. The stiff bandages were gone so that he could move. Lupe helped him sit up. He sat for a moment rubbing the small blue scars on his left arm, where tubes had been attached. They were healed almost smooth.
"Ty and Buzz are up in the cock pit," Lupe told him. "We are circling outside the ring, not far from your brother's ship. Buzz is having a wonderful time talking to the hopper mind."
"What about—about Ben?" Jeff looked hard at Lupe, afraid of what she would say. "Is he alive?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. Buzz doesn't either."
"Why "were the hoppers fighting him, if they want to be so friendly now?"
"They thought his laser was a weapon," Lupe said.
"You see, they don't talk with their own lasers. They have a better link through their common mind. They use their own lasers just for tools—for blasting rock and fusing ore. When Ben began to signal, they thought he was trying to destroy them."
"What did they do to him?"
"They fought to keep him out of the ring," Lupe said. "Ben fought back. When he got close enough, he did use his laser for a weapon. He hurt the hopper you found, before they caught his ship in the web."
"But that was all before we made peace," JefiF said. "Won't they help him now?"
"Ty and Buzz have been trying to persuade them to do something," Lupe said. "But they haven't made peace with Ben. They're still afraid of him. They won't go near the ship in the web."
"Then we are going after Ben," Jeff said. "That's why we came to Topaz."
"We are ready," Lupe said, "as soon as you fee
l up to it. Ty has been repairing your jet suit with new parts the hoppers made for him. Buzz says the hoppers will guide us back."
"I'm okay," Jeff said. "Let's go."
Eagerly, he climbed ahead of her to the cock pit. He felt weak at first, but he didn't want to wait. They
found Ty sleeping in one of the seats with the dark glasses over his eyes.
''He's not strong yet," Lupe whispered. "But he's getting better."
Buzz was in the pilot's seat. He looked too small for it, but his short fur was bright gold with happiness. He was sucking at a thick yellow tube.
"Gear grease," Lupe explained. "He loves it."
Buzz wiped his lips and carefully licked his hand. Blinking his green eyes, he whistled at Jeff.
"He and Ty have everything ready," Lupe said. "The hoppers are waiting to guide us."
"Let's go," Jeff said.
Buzz purred and stretched to reach the control board with his small paws. The ship swung toward the blazing ring. Buzz kept chirping as they flew.
"He's still talking to the hopper mind," Lupe said. "He's telling it all about X-space flight. The hoppers have found the parts of the two stations they wrecked. Buzz is telling them how to use the parts to make a new station for Topaz. He says the hoppers want to open X-space to us. They have plenty of metals to trade, and we have many things to offer them."
"So the hoppers are coming to Earth?"
Jeff was thinking of that cab man back on Earth who didn't like Buzz. When the hoppers came, he thought,
the people of Earth would have to learn to get along with stranger life than Buzz.
Even to him, the hoppers were still frightening. He couldn't help an odd feeling when one of them came flying to meet their ship. Yet he knew that it was now a friend. He knew that it had come to guide them to Ben, and he began to feel the excitement of learning about such a different way of life.
This hopper had been joined by another part which pushed it through open space. The extra part was a dark cone that fitted under the flat black body between the coiled silver arms. The tip of the cone shone with changing shades of blue as the hopper turned and moved. Jeff thought the cone must be a kind of living jet.
As they followed the hopper into the ring, shattered rocks whirled around them. Deep inside the dim blue cloud they came to the beaded web where Ben's ship was caught. Jeff squeezed into his jet suit and flew down.
The locks were blocked with the bright coils of the web, but that didn't matter. He found a hole big enough for him where a laser bolt had ripped through the skin of the ship.
The cabin was empty of air and very cold. The green glow of his laser machine picked out Jim Ozaki and Tony Mescalero, lying side by side against the cabin wall. Their
bodies were stiff. He thought they were dead until he saw the dim red glow of the timers on their wrists.
He bent to read the timers. MAN UNDER DEEP SLEEP, the red letters said. MUST BE AWAKENED BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT. Both timers had been set for one thousand hours. Both showed that nine hundred and ninety-seven hours had passed.
Jeff hoped he had not come too late. Hurrying on to look for Ben, he found Whiz Miller in the back of the ship, where another bolt had chopped the main power cables. His timer was set like the others.
Jeff climbed to the cock pit, searching for Ben. In the green glow of his light, he saw Ben's face. The blue eyes were open, but the flesh looked cold.
He found the broken needle stuck through the sleeve of the jet suit into Ben's frozen arm. The timer was not buckled to his wrist, but tossed on the instrument board. Set for one thousand hours, it showed that Ben had thirteen hours left.
That small red timer told the story. Ben had fought on, ten hours longer, after his men had taken deep sleep. He had fought on until his laser was dead.
Jeff called his ship.
"Ben and his men are all in deep sleep. They need help—now!"
"Stand by," Ty's voice came back. "Buzz says the
hoppers will help you move your brother and his star men."
The hoppers didn't need a signal, because Buzz now had a link to their common mind. They came out of the rocks around the web. Their flat black bodies and their yellow eyes still made Jeff feel a bit strange, but their quick silver arms lifted the sleeping star men with a wonderful strength and care.
Back on their star ship, Jeff and Ty stripped the men, handling them carefully with thick gloves. They were cold as liquid air. In the warm cabin, white feathers of frost grew all around them.
Buzz examined each of them, his big green eyes very solemn. He took a long time over Ben, in silent contact with the multiple mind of his race.
"He says we are late," Lupe spoke for him. "He says we will have to warm them very carefully in the packs before we do anything else. He doesn't know just what effect this much cold will have."
Their stiff bodies didn't fit the shock seats. Jeff and Ty strapped them into hammocks hung across the cabin. Jeff helped Lupe wrap them in the thick packs and watched Buzz strap the pace makers over their hearts.
"That's all we can do until they are thawed," Lupe said. "Then we can start the shots and connect the
machine to wash the deep sleep drugs out of their blood. When they begin breathing, we can start the oxygen."
"When will we know if they are alive?"
''Not for hours." She gave him a searching look. "You are worn out, Jeff. You haven't gotten over your own deep sleep. Better take a nap."
He complained, but when Ty had gone back to the cock pit and Lupe was watching the sleeping men and he had nothing to do, he lay back in an empty shock seat to rest for just a moment. The next thing he knew, Ty was shaking him.
"Wake up, Jeff. You've slept twelve hours."
He sat up with a start and looked around the cabin. The hammocks were gone, but he saw one man wrapped up in the seat across from him, still attached to the black tubes.
"That's your brother," Ty said. "The others came out of it hours ago. Tony Mescalero's up in the cock pit now, spelling me. Jim and Whiz went back to the other ship. The hoppers are helping them fix it up. They mean to fly it back to the moon."
"That's fine," Jeff said, without feeling anything. He got out of the seat and bent over the sleeping man. "How's Ben?"
"We don't know yet," Ty said. "Buzz says the deep sleep needle was broken off in his arm. He didn't quite
get a full shot of the drug. His body may have been damaged. VVe just don't know."
Jeff watched until he couldn't sit still any longer. He climbed into the cock pit and found Tony Mescalero on the phone. Tony grinned and shook his hand and let him speak to the other ship.
With the hoppers' help, Jim Ozaki and Whiz Miller had finished the repairs and moved their ship out of the rocks. They wanted Tony to join them now. Jeff took the controls and circled back to meet them. Flying slowly between the dead black sky and the ring of Topaz, he waited for news of Ben.
No news had come when the two star ships met. Tony went out in his jet suit and flew across to meet the other ship. Five rock hoppers helped the two ships move away from the ring, picking a safe path between the clouds of dust. They danced ahead, floating and darting, and finally flew back to their world of rocks.
Jeff twisted in his seat and waited for news.
Why, he wondered, had he never been content to let Ben be first at anything? How could he ever have envied his own brother?
He heard Lupe on the ladder behind him.
His voice caught. "How's Ben?"
"We still don't know," she said. "But Buzz has a message for you. From Admiral Serov on the moon."
In a different voice, she recited the message.
"To Star Man Jefferson Stone. My personal regards to you and the star men with you. I hope your brother recovers, and we are keeping your parents informed. We are happy about the success of your mission. We are glad to welcome the rock hoppers into our great family."
She asked if he wanted to answer. He told her he woul
d wait until he knew about Ben. She came back later to say that Ben was doing well. ''He's awake/' she told him. "You can go in to see him now."
"Well, kid!" Ben gripped Jeff's hand with his old strength. His face looked pale, but his blue eyes had
their familiar bright shine. "I never expected to see you here."
They talked about the flights from Earth and the battle with the hoppers. Ben asked about their parents.
"You know Mom," Jeff said.
''When I signed up for the Topaz flight," Ben said, "I wasn't worried about her and Dad. Or even about finding new facts for science or new worlds for men. All I really had in mind was just to be the first man to 1 opaz.
"And I had to follow," Jeff said. "Because I wanted to catch up."
"Glad you did." Ben grinned and punched Jeff on the shoulder, but in a moment his face was grave again. "You know, kid, in a way that fight with the hoppers was all my fault."
"Buzz said they didn't understand you—"
"But I wasn't even trying to understand them," Ben said. "You see, they didn't attack me at first. They just fired bolts ahead of me to warn me, trying to keep me out of their ring. But I came on in spite of them."
"Look!" Jeff was staring at the dusty dark ahead. "Out there!"
There in the dark, far toward the distant sun and its small Earth, an orange spark burned and went out. A green spark lit—
"That's the new beacon!" Jeff whispered. "Out at the new station the hoppers have put it together. The way to Earth is open again."
Ty came up to take the controls. Buzz was hopping ahead of him, purring happily and sucking at a new tube of grease. Jeff and Ben asked him to have his sister-brother on the moon let their parents know that they were well.
Buzz chirped and nodded.
Jeff and Ben went below. Lupe was flying the ship when they came back. Buzz was in his cocoon, she said, and Ty had gone across to take command of the other star ship. When Lupe got up, Jeff waited for Ben to move into the pilot's seat.
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