by Eando Binder
And so it took them quite by surprise as a shadow swooped over the ground. Only then thinking to look straight up did they spy the jet-craft pouncing down at them.
Paige stood frozen for a panicky moment. Then he grabbed the other pair’s hands and used his chin-piece. The rocket-belt gave its last blasts and propelled them away swiftly. “That cleft ahead…our one chance…”
It was a narrow deep cleft in a rocky ridge that might, by luck, afford them a hiding place. Leaping like great kangaroos, they reached the cleft and darted in, just as the hissing of stun-rays spat at their heels. The jet-craft was forced to spin away from the narrow cleft.
Paige found the bottom of the cleft jaggedly uneven but was able to keep running rather than leaping, in order to reach the middle part of the fissure, where the steep overhang would keep them hidden from overhead view. The jetmen would have to come after them on foot, through the cleft, putting them on a more equal basis.
Soon after, Paige spied the first jetman coming along the cleft, firing his stun-gun, but the twistings of the cleft kept him from getting a clear shot. Paige was able to lift a big stone—ten times bigger than in upper earth’s strong gravity—and carefully hurl it through the cleft so that it ricocheted and tumbled down on the jetman, making him jerk back convulsively and knock down three of his companions.
“But we’re still trapped,” panted Sparky. “If they come at us from both ends of the cleft…”
“That’s what we’ve got to avoid,” barked Paige, leading them on toward the other end. “They had to land at one end. Before the rest fly and find the other exit from the cleft, maybe we can run out and—well, try something else.”
Paige stopped at the exit of the cleft and peered cautiously. “Too late,” he groaned. “The jet-craft is just landing.”
“But it’s a different kind of jet-ship,” pointed out Sparky. “And look who’s jumping out—Sur Vellko!”
The gaunt albino scientist came to the cleft and beckoned furiously. “Come on,” he yelled. “Into my ship…hurry!”
“Rescued in the knick of time,” said Sparky, as they ran out and leaped into the craft. Already at the controls, Vellko banged over a lever and the jet-craft catapulted into the air with enough violence to slam the three rescued men to the floor.
Below, the police jet-craft belatedly swooped at the cleft’s exit, then stopped short as if the astounded pilot had made a double-take and saw a blurred streak shooting into the air, only then realizing what had happened.
“I’ve got enough of a head start,” said Sur Vellko through set teeth, “to out-fly them…I think.”
He headed across the hollow. When the police jet spun up after them and shot off warning rockets to halt, Vellko put the ship into twisting maneuvers designed to shake pursuit. But the police ship bulldogged after them relentlessly.
Paige had watched closely as the albino used the controls, which were compact and uncomplicated. “Let me take over,” he demanded, wanting to gamble his younger reflexes on the chase.
Shooting up through the hollow, Paige began a series of maneuvers that left his passengers dizzy. He darted around the huge 10-mile globe of Centropolis, then spun around the miniature sun, and even made a tight turn past Malmind Ward, hoping to throw the police ship off. But evidently the pilot was equally skillful and the orange flare of his jets was always behind.
Paige’s jaw tightened. A dim plan came to his mind as he rocketed closer to one side of the hollow.
Making a straightaway run and waiting until the tiny sun had vanished around the bulk of Centropolis, Paige took a breath as darkness fell around them. Then he swung the ship straight “down” toward the hollow’s inner surface.
“Sarge, we’ll crash,” gulped Sparky, eyes wide in horror. “Have you flipped your lid?”
The others could only cling and stare as it seemed Paige was driving straight down for destruction. But then what Paige had seen before in the daylight came dimly into view—a large cave entrance opened out into the hollow at this point.
Praying that he was aiming right in the gloom, Paige dove down into the cavern, at the same time applying the nose rockets used for slowing down. Paige’s heart stopped as he saw that the cavern only went straight for a thousand yards, then twisted. He would never be able to follow those twists in a fast rocket ship. Would they stop in time?
Chapter 12
With only yards to spare, the jet-craft came to a halt, landing with a bump on the cavern floor.
Controlling his own shaking nerves, Paige forced a grin and turned to the others. Sparky and Aronson were as white-faced as the albino scientist and the latter looked a bit green.
“It scared me more than you,” quipped Paige, then added, “but I think that threw off our pursuer. Sparky, run back to the cave mouth and take a look.”
It was more diving through the air than running that Sparky did under the low-gravity conditions. He returned with a broad grin as the others now stood outside the ship.
“You pulled a miracle, Sarge. I looked out and saw the police ship swinging back and forth high up like they were going crazy trying to figure out where we were.”
“To them,” nodded Paige, “we actually seemed to vanish. All they saw was our rocket flames approaching the hollow’s rim as if to land. Then our flame went out, and no sign of our ship anywhere. It’ll take them till daylight to figure out we drove into this cavern. By then we can be far away.”
Aronson put a hand on Paige’s arm. “You saved us,” he said simply.
“Not me, really,” denied Paige. “Sur Vellko did it, by snatching us away before in his jet-craft.” He turned to the albino. “How did you happen to find us?”
“After the guards took you away a week ago,” explained the scientist, “the Kal of Dorthia let me free.”
“Let you free? After you had sided with us and claimed our ‘mad delusion’ of an upper world was true?”
“Well, I had been working on something vital in the war effort. It’s a sonar device to detect the movements of armies in a cavern many miles away. When perfected, it will eliminate any surprise attacks the enemy could make. The Kal decided my work must go on, with the understanding that I must never again mention the upperworld. And so I was left alone.”
He brushed at his hair and went on. “A week later, I heard the news of how you three had daringly escaped from Malmind Ward, and your amazing rocket-belt flight out of their hands. I knew you had landed somewhere in the hollow and surmised you would head for the tube-car station. It was simple for me, then, to go in search of you in my private jet-craft. Fortunately, I found you just before the police jet-craft had spied you. I’m glad I was able to save you from being incarcerated back in Malmind Ward. I know, of course, that you don’t belong there. Your upperworld story is true.”
“But haven’t you thrown away your reputation for us?” said Dr. Aronson hollowly. “From now on you’ll be a hunted man like we are…”
Sur Vellko was shaking his head vigorously. “The police did not glimpse me in my jet-craft. They don’t know who it was that aided your escape. I’ll fly back quietly to my lab with nobody the wiser.”
“Thank heaven for that.”
“But what are your plans?” asked the albino.
Paige answered quickly. “To get to the tube-cars and return to the high caverns where we first descended into the underworld. There, we won’t be hounded so closely.”
“A wise plan,” agreed Vellko. “Follow me to the cave mouth and I’ll show you the way.”
At the cave mouth there was still the darkness of night ahead while the artificial sun was eclipsed by the great bulk of Centropolis. Vellko pointed toward lights that hung somewhat above them, along the inner curvature of the hollow. “The tube-car station, about 20 miles! I had guessed you would go there.” He pulled three shin
y medallions from his pocket, inscribed in underworld lettering. “Your ‘passports,’ so to speak. Forged of course. But the signature of the responsible official is mine, and it does carry weight. You should have no trouble. Good luck, earthmen.”
Dr. Aronson gripped his hand gratefully. “Thanks. Thanks to the only man in the underworld who believes our story.”
Vellko turned and waved farewell, returning within the cave to retrieve his jet-craft. Paige glanced up. The police ship was gone. They had given up the baffling chase. Sur Vellko could leave safely.
* * * *
They had to proceed cautiously in the dark, no longer taking kangaroo leaps across the rocky floor of the hollow. By the time they had reached the tube-car station, it was daylight with the small sun swinging into view around Centropolis overhead.
“Sparky,” admonished Paige. “Stop looking like a fugitive, darting your eyes around. Act nonchalant.”
The little man started guiltily, then straightened up and stuck out his chest as they went closer to the station. “How’s that, Sarge?” he said out of the corner of his mouth.
“A little less swagger would do,” said Paige half-humorously.
He went on seriously. “We should get through with these medallions. Our tans have faded in the time we’ve been down here and we don’t look too much different from the albino natives. Dr. Aronson will pass easily. Nobody should suspect, if we’re careful, that we’re the three wanted men—or madmen—who escaped. Let’s go…”
They were suddenly electrified by the clanging of a loud bell. The sound seemed to reverberate all through the hollow for miles.
They stopped, mystified. Activity increased around the station. Dorthians began scurrying by excitedly, jabbering among themselves. Aronson bent his ear and listened attentively to the blur of language which was too much for Paige and Sparky to understand.
Aronson turned, his face grave. “Attack, by Uldornian forces.”
“Here?” gasped Paige. “At the center of Dorthia?”
“No. Reena’s city at the ‘borders’ of Dorthia. But a real attack this time, not a skirmish. The beginning of large-scale war. The Kal of Dorthia has just called for general mobilization.”
“Just the thing we didn’t want,” said Paige bitterly. “Now, even if we convinced them of the upperworld, they’ll be locked in a savage war, blind to all other events. Our job has gone from the impossible to the unthinkable.”
Aronson’s thoughts were also whirling. “Hmm, this changes our plans. If we went to the high caverns, we’d be thrown in the midst of the war, right at the battlefronts. That would hamper us more than anything. We won’t go, putting ourselves in danger.”
Paige’s nerves tightened. Reena in danger, the albino girl whose vision still hovered in his mind. That one thought incongruously stood out above all others. He clutched the scientist’s arm.
“I’m going anyway, up to Reena’s city,” he said hoarsely.
“Good heavens—why?”
“Because he loves her,” Sparky spoke up, matter-of-factly.
Aronson stared for a moment, as Paige made no denial. Then he smiled in understanding. “We can’t do much for ourselves and our ‘mission’ right now, anyway. Keep out of trouble if you can, my boy. Let’s hope you return…”
Paige gave a farewell salute, silently. Then he shoved Sparky back as he attempted to follow. “Not you,” he snapped. “It’s enough that I’m crazy fool enough to go. You stay here with Dr. Aronson.”
“But Sarge—”
Paige glared.
“Okay, Sarge,” Sparky muttered, with a slight quiver of his lip. “What a mish-mash it’s all been, since we’ve come down here. But I never thought we’d be separated.”
Paige gripped the little man’s hand. “I’m an idiot, I know. But it isn’t just Reena. I’ve got a sudden new idea—if we couldn’t convince the Kal of Dorthia about upper-earth maybe I can try the King of Uldorn.”
Leaving Sparky with his mouth open and Aronson looking stunned, Paige strode to the line of people boarding the tube-cars. He flashed his medallion before a guard’s eyes, hoping for a quick wave-on.
But the guard began staring closely at the metallic badge.
“Soldier, wounded in the high caverns,” Paige mumbled hurriedly. “Ready to get back into action. I’m sure every man is needed up there, fighting our enemy…”
It had the desired effect. As if guilty of holding up the whole war, the guard jammed the medallion back in Paige’s hand and waved him on. “Do a good job, soldier.” Rolling his eyes upward in relief, Paige hastened to the boarding platform, then bit his lip as every seat seemed taken. But he spied an empty one and beat an albino there, jumping in.
The car’s cover slid forward. A moment later the long train moved, slowly gathering speed. Paige heard the muffled throb of motors, and the drone of powerful rockets. This train was going up, against gravity, and needed power. Yet its speed, after acceleration, was scarcely less than that of free fall. The train roared up into its tube like a runaway comet.
Paige’s thoughts were in a turmoil. His adventure into the underworld seemed more than ever a page out of the impossible. War raging above ground and below ground. Buried humans fighting under earth’s crust for a few paltry caves. Doomed humans above ground counting their last hours.
The universe was a madhouse.
It was ironic, too, that at the moment Paige cared nothing for those things. Two worlds precariously dangled by fate, and he thought only of Reena, lovely albino girl of the underworld, and her possible danger.
* * * *
Five hours later the train slowed and ground to a halt.
Its soldier-passengers stepped out into the midst of battle. The enemy was pressing forward, bent on capturing the tube-station and cutting off both retreat and reinforcement. The trained Dorthian troops scurried for cover, unslung their rifles, and began peppering away.
Paige gasped as he raised his head and felt a diabolic bolt whine past his ear. Then fire leaped into his eyes. That strange madness which comes over men in battle swept through him. He leaped out with tigerish speed, and crouched behind the protective train. His shoulder wound was completely healed, after a week in the gravity-less sanitarium.
A moment later he picked up the rifle of a Dorthian whose crushed body lay sprawled over the stone floor. He loaded his pockets with charge-clips from slain Dorthians and settled down to the grim business of picking off as many of the enemy as possible. In this way he was helping Reena, who was safe back in the city. But if the city fell…
Paige looked around.
A wide no-man’s land separated the two forces. Periodically the enemy charged in little detachments, never getting more than halfway. But Paige recognized the tactics. The detachments drew concentrated fire, marking the strongest and weakest points of the defending Dorthian line. The Uldornian generals must be paving the way for a great assault, within an hour, Paige reasoned.
His eyes narrowed suddenly to a frown.
Why didn’t the Dorthians counterattack and flank? Now was the time. It would be too late soon. It was ABC military tactics. A queer thought struck Paige. Was it possible—just possible—that the military of both Dorthia and Uldorn knew nothing of flanking?
Napoleon had beaten all Europe to its knees that way, once.
Paige stopped firing and crawled on hands and knees toward the center of the Dorthian forces. He made out the officer in command—a general evidently rushed from headquarters to supersede Tal, now that the full tide of war had begun. He was staring out over the battlefield. Beside him stood Tal Rithor, now second-in-command. There was a strange look in Tal’s face, as he glanced from the battle-ground to the city, as though contemplating how soon the city would be in enemy hands.
“Tal,” Paige called, strid
ing up. “Is Reena safe?”
Tal Rithor started, and flushed as he met Paige’s eyes, as though caught off guard. “So you’re back, Evan Paige?”
Paige tensed. Had he heard of how the three upper-world men had been declared lunatics? Would he now call guards and have Paige captured, for return to Malmind Ward?
But Tal made no move to call guards, nor did he seem suspicious in any way. Paige’s nerves unwound. As he had hoped, the news from distant Centropolis had not yet filtered to this Dorthian outpost, or else it had been filed away as trivial in the face of enemy attack.
Tal was looking at Paige in a half-mocking, half-serious way. “You’ve returned just in time to see the city fall.”
Paige grunted at the fatalistic words. He whirled on the high-commander, who hadn’t noticed him.
“The enemy will attack soon, in force,” Paige said without preamble.
“Yes, and we will be wiped out,” returned the commander imperturbably, without turning his head. “We are outnumbered. The city will fall. But we will fight to the last man.”
Chapter 13
It was starkly clear to Paige then. Middle Age warfare, frontal attack, no strategy, no thought of outwitting the enemy. Paige could almost understand. The albino people had never known wide battlefields on which to experiment with maneuvers.
Paige drew a breath. Could they be taught?
“There’s still a chance,” he said. “Look! Send a file of men hugging the left wall, in the shadows. Halfway to the first Uldornian line there’s a hollow. From there they can blast out at the enemy attack from the side, taking them completely by surprise.”