When Escobar had agreed that Kem’s programme appeared the only prospect of sooner or later getting the better of their captors, they went to sleep; but on the following day it transpired that his companions were not to be given any chance to prompt or aid him. Soon after sunrise, and the issue of rations, Gog and Magog took all three of them out on a trolley. Still miserable from another night spent with only a few mats between them and the hard floor, and from the chill of early morning, they were taken to the bean-fields. There, the trolley halted; Gog lifted Kem and Carmen off, and Magog drove on with Escobar towards the hive.
As the trolley rolled swiftly away in a cloud of dust, Gog pushed his charges in among the ten-foot-high beanstalks, picked up one of the great floppy baskets that was lying there and proceeded to demonstrate that they should pick beans into it.
Kem’s round face went red with rage and his black eyes flashed dangerously. ‘This… this is the end!’ he choked. ‘The utter, outside limit!’
Carmen could not help laughing at the sight of his indignation. Picking a bean, she waved it under his nose and chaffed him: ‘Beans, Kem, beans! Surely you remember how eager we were to get hold of a few yesterday morning? Now we can eat as many as we like.’
‘But this is outrageous!’ he spluttered. ‘I’m damned if I’ll submit to being treated like a Negro slave and made to labour eleven hours a day in a plantation.’
‘No, it’s very far from funny really,’ she agreed with sudden seriousness. ‘But, after all, what else can we expect? If ever there was a perfect example of a Communist State, this is one. The bee-beetles are the Commissars and the giants the masses. The masses get the minimum possible to eat that they can be kept fit to work on, and it being a well-known precept that “given an inch they ask for an ell”, they are deprived of all comfort as a routine measure, in case they got spoilt and demanded better conditions. As we have bodies that are more like those of the giants than the bee-beetles, we have been classed with the giants. That must be why we have been given quarters in the barracks instead of in the hive. And now we have shown that we either can’t or won’t make ourselves useful to our masters in the way Estévan is doing, they have decided that we are fit only to labour with the masses.’
‘That’s about it,’ Kem said angrily. ‘In a Communist State there are only bosses and slaves; and it would be quite illogical for the bosses to allow a couple of slaves to sit about all day doing nothing—even if we are very small ones.’
Under Gog’s supervision, and that of a bee-beetle who flew up to have a look at them and continued to hover nearby, they set about their uninteresting task; but they had picked only a few dozen beans when the morning sand-storm blew up. For over half an hour it put them out of action, then when it had abated they reluctantly started work again.
They had been picking for a further twenty minutes when a group of giants that was picking along the same row, and working much faster than they were, came up with them. Most of the giants in the group gave them a dull, stupid stare, then went on working. But one, about eight feet high, whom Kem judged to be not yet in his teens, stopped picking altogether and stood with his toothless mouth hanging open, gaping at Carmen.
Suddenly he rushed at her, seized her, and threw her to the ground. About the lout’s intentions there could be no possible doubt. His clumsy hands, with their horny, broken nails, grabbed at Carmen’s clothes, ripping them away from her shoulders in jagged strips.
As Carmen screamed Kem leapt upon the young monster’s broad back, got his hands on his thick throat and endeavoured to dig his nails into it. But the skin was loose and tough, and with a sickening sense of helplessness he felt his grip was making little impression. Jerking back his bald head, the brute broke Kem’s grip, then violently contracted the muscles of his great shoulders and threw him off.
In vain Kem shouted to Gog for help. The giant stood there contemplating the struggle with the brutish expectancy on his face that one might see on that of a village idiot watching a mongrel savaging a duck.
Rushing in again, Kem kicked the huge youth in the ribs with all his might. Then, as he winced sideways from the blow, endeavoured to land another kick, but he could not reach him. The second kick landed on the massive thigh and made no more impression on it than if it had been hit by a falling apple.
Frenzied with loathing and terror, Carmen clawed madly at her attacker’s face. By chance rather than with intent her clutching fingers ripped away his eye protector. Evidently his eyes, unaccustomed to being exposed to the air, were stung by it. For a moment he ceased from his endeavours, and a low wail issued from his slobbering mouth. Blindly he began to strike at her with his hands; but Kem seized him by the lobe of the ear and wrenched him sideways, so that his flailing fists struck the earth instead of her.
Carmen’s screams had brought the giants running from all directions. Scores of them of both sexes and all sizes now jostled one another among the bean rows, striving to get a glimpse of what was going on. But this herding together had also brought the bee-beetles on the scene. Like competent policemen dealing with a traffic jam, they split up the crowds of giants by diving at their faces, then harried them back to work. One buzzed round Gog’s head like an angry hornet, evidently giving him an order; for he stooped, seized the cause of all the trouble round the waist, lifted him in the air and flung him a dozen yards to land with a screech upon the ground.
Kem knelt down by Carmen, raised her head on to his shoulder and took both her hands. Neither had breath enough left to speak for some minutes, then he panted:
‘You poor sweet! I’m not standing for any more of this. Lie still till you can breathe quite freely.’
She gave him a wan smile, and murmured, ‘What do you mean to do?’
‘We’ll make a bolt for it. We are lighter and faster than they are. I don’t believe they’ll be able to catch us.’
‘What… what about the bee-beetles?’
‘They may sting us. Are you game to risk that?’
‘Yes. I’d rather die than be raped by one of these loathsome animals. He was the first who had really looked at me. And there are hundreds of them. Oh, Kem, that awful toothless mouth and those bristles sprouting from his nostrils…’
‘Steady! Lie quiet. Try not to think about it. Just let me know when you feel recovered enough to make an all-out effort.’
They remained where they were for several more minutes, then she nodded to him. As they stood up they turned together towards a gap in the bean rows and began to run. The low gravity gave them a strength and speed three times as great as they would have had on Earth. With each bound they covered ten or twelve feet.
Gog’s strides equalled that in length, and he came crashing after them. But they were more nimble and easily eluded him by dodging between the tall bean plants. Within two minutes they had left him well behind, but a bee-beetle came diving at them like a miniature aerial torpedo.
It pinged past Kem’s ear, turned with incredible swiftness and zoomed up straight at Carmen’s face. She ducked; it soared over her head, circled and dived again. Yet it did not strike or attempt to land on either of them. Time after time, as they ran on, zig-zagging from side to side, it came zizzing towards them; but each time they either ducked or swerved aside of its own accord at the last second.
Although it would have been impossible for them to outdistance it, fear lent them additional speed. With their lungs threatening to burst their chests and their eyes starting from their heads, they raced on, finally to stagger clear of the bean rows and out across the open desert. It was only after they had covered several hundred yards of barren ground that the bee-beetle gave up its attempts to check their flight, and flew back to resume its normal duties.
Collapsing on the reddish earth, they gasped and panted with closed eyes until the intolerable pain in their lungs gradually eased. Then they smiled weakly at one another, knowing that their bid for freedom had succeeded. When they had fully recovered their breath they made thei
r way slowly back to the barracks. On reaching their cell Carmen changed the rags to which her dress had been reduced for other clothes. Only then did reaction set in and she suddenly fainted.
Kem tucked her up in the coverings that she used at night to sleep under, bathed her face, and when she came to gave her two of the bromides. He sat by her, holding her hand till she went to sleep; and, fearing to disturb her, remained so through the long hours of the afternoon. She did not wake until Escobar’s return, half an hour before sunset, roused her.
As soon as she was fully awake she declared that she now felt none the worse for the revolting experience of which she had been the victim, and while they chewed their rations she and Kem told Escobar of all that had happened that morning.
After he had expressed his sympathy and concern for her he said that he had little to report. He had managed to improve his own terms of service to some extent by adopting the rule of a battalion on the march, and resting for ten minutes in every hour. At first the bee-beetles had fussed and worried him while he sat resolutely in the hard armchair; but after two brief sit-down strikes of this kind they had accepted the practice, and had not even been unduly troublesome when he had taken half an hour’s break in the middle of the day.
Nevertheless he was very tired and extremely depressed. He had examined all the copies of his scientific impedimenta and found that with the exception of a few items, such as slide-rules, test-tubes and graph paper, they were completely useless. He had had to spend practically the whole day drawing further sections of his rocket, and now felt pessimistic about his chances of making any but the most primitive explosives, even if he succeeded in obtaining suitable materials.
As twilight fell Carmen looked up from her couch to say, ‘If the whole of Mars is inhabited only by bee-beetles and giants, I can’t see why the insects are so anxious to find out how to make destructive weapons. They have the monsters under their thumb already and there is no one else for them to use them against.’
Escobar gave a bitter laugh. ‘You don’t need any higher mathematics to solve that problem. Surely you remember what I told you about Mars; and you have seen for yourself how desperately short of water they are here. What does a bedouin tribe do when their cattle have drunk all the water in the wells within reach of the encampment? They move on to the nearest place where there is more to be had. Nature is the same the world over—the universe over, I should have said. The masters of Mars know that if they remain here their race is doomed to become extinct in a few more generations through lack of water; so they are preparing to move on to the nearest place where water is to be had. That is Earth. They must conquer Earth or die. That is why they want to learn the secrets of our most destructive weapons. To use them against us and wipe us out.’
Kem had already guessed that; and as they fell silent he thought of the ghastly fate that must overtake mankind if ever the bee-beetles succeeded in obtaining the secrets of the Atom bomb. They were far from desperate for water yet, so had no pressing need to hurry their preparations. There would be ample time for them to make a stock-pile large enough to blot out Earth’s civilisation in a few weeks; and when they did launch their attack it would come as a complete surprise. In their Flying Saucers they possessed vastly superior air power. That of Earth was infantile compared with it. London, Paris, New York would be reduced overnight to a few square miles of flaming ruins. All resistance would prove futile. Plague from the wrecked cities would sweep over the Earth, killing off the country-dwellers. Any remnant of mankind that survived would be hunted down by the giants landed for that purpose, or enslaved and brutalised until it lost all memory of its former greatness.
It was a terrible picture; but he went to sleep on one comforting thought. The masters of Mars had slipped up in selecting Estévan Escobar from whom to learn the secret of the Atom bomb. Whatever pressure might be applied to him, his ignorance of it ensured that he would never disclose it to them.
Kem had not been asleep for long when he woke with a start. Someone was shaking him by the shoulder. As he turned over, his half-conscious mind told him that it must be either Estévan or Carmen. But, to his amazement, he could see the dim forms of both of them still sound asleep a few feet from him. The touch on his shoulder had been too gentle for that of a giant. Wide awake now, he jerked his head round. The bright starlight showed him instantly that he had been woken by another human being. He was staring into the pale face of a fair-haired girl.
19
The Coming of Anna
A torrent of excited thoughts surged through Kem’s mind. Amazement was succeeded by relief, joy and eager hopes. The sight of a human being in such circumstances conjured up all sorts of exciting possibilities. Evidently the bee-beetles controlled only a part of Mars. A species similar to mankind had, after all, developed there. As the planet was far more advanced in its life than Earth their state must have reached Utopian levels. They would be wise, gracious and beautiful through many generations of selective breeding. Their habitations would contain all the comforts that the mind could devise; and they would live frugally but well on all the choicest delicacies that long experience would have enabled them to produce with little effort.
Swift visions of escape from grim captivity to an earthly paradise were still tumbling helter-skelter across Kem’s mental horizon when the girl spoke. Her voice was low and pleasant but her words conveyed nothing whatever to him.
He shook his head and peered at her, trying, in the semi-darkness, to get a better impression of what she looked like. He had glimpsed her face only for a moment as she knelt above him, but on his starting up she had altered her position a little, so that she was now kneeling with her back towards the light.
She spoke again, and, half turning, pointed at the window. For a second her profile was outlined against it. He saw that her hair was straight and fell to her shoulders, framing a face that was round with plump cheeks, full lips, a determined little chin and a snub nose. From what he could make out, her outer garment appeared to be made of fur. In the vague hope that she might understand him, he asked in English: ‘Where have you come from?’
She now shook her head; so he tried her again in French and Spanish; but it was clear that she no more understood him than he did her.
‘Carmen! Estévan!’ he called loudly. ‘Wake up! Wake up! Something terrific has happened.’
His fellow captives started from their sleep and poked their heads out from beneath their coverings. For a moment both of them stared speechlessly at the girl, thinking they must be dreaming. But Kem said with an excited laugh:
‘You’re not seeing things. She’s real. She’s warm flesh and blood like we are; but I can’t understand her language.’
‘How… how on earth did she get here?’ asked Carmen in amazement.
‘Goodness knows! She woke me up a moment ago. She must come from another part of Mars where there are people like ourselves. Isn’t it terrific! Just think of it! Where she comes from there must be warmth, comfort, and decent food instead of those accursed beans. Perhaps her people and the bee-beetles fought one another to a standstill ages ago, then agreed to divide Mars between them. She may have got over the frontier through some accident, and have been brought here as a prisoner. But if that’s the way of it we’ll all escape together and go back with her. Then heigh-ho for the fleshpots!’
With the volatile enthusiasm which was one of Kem’s characteristics, he suddenly took the girl by the shoulders, drew her forward, and planted a hearty kiss on her cheek.
At that she laughed and kissed him back; then she spoke again in her own language.
Like a cold douche, Escobar’s voice destroyed in a single sentence all Kem’s joyous imaginings of Elysian fields only a few days’ march away.
‘She’s not a Martian; she is speaking Russian.’
For a moment they all remaind completely silent, occupied with swift speculations on what that might portend. Then Carmen asked, ‘Do you speak enough of it to talk to he
r?’
‘No, only a few words,’ Escobar replied, but sitting up on his pallet, he turned to the girl and said, ‘Tovarishch’
Instantly her face brightened into a delightful smile, and lifting her clenched fist in the air, she cried, ‘Tovarishch! Tovarishch!’
‘Sprechen Sie Deutsch?’ he asked.
‘Ja,’ came the quick response.’ Genug um Sie zu verstehen’
‘Thank God for that!’ he muttered in Spanish; and that being the language he, Carmen and Kem had used habitually since their kidnapping, he went on in it quickly to them: ‘German is the only foreign language the Russians teach to any extent in these days, and then only in their higher schools. We’re lucky that this young woman has had a decent education.’ Turning back to her, he asked:
‘Wie kommen Sie hierher?’
She replied in a spate of heavily accented phrase-book German. Both Kem and Carmen had a smattering of that language, so by following her with strained interest were able to make out a little of what she said; but to get her full meaning they had to restrain their impatience until, from time to time, Escobar gave them a précis of it.
He told them that her story was very similar to their own. She had been kidnapped with two men companions at night by giants and brought to Mars in a Flying Saucer. They, too, had been parachuted out on arrival in sealed sacks, then decontaminated, and had come round to find themselves naked under a few fibre mats in a big bare cell. Next day they had been shown the film sequence of major historical events on Earth, then listened to extracts from broadcasts in various languages and been told to ‘Get going!’ by the talking machine.
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