It gave him food for thought as he looked at the primeval terrain below. Were they out there somewhere, perhaps vastly aware of this earthman invasion? What about Jerry's nymphs or that much more ominous cyclops? He was thankful for the timeless reality of a warm morning sun, the gleam of rivers, the colorful flash of bird wings in the upper terraces of the rain forest. These things, at least, were a reference point for sanity.
"Attention, Bluebird," said the voice from his panel speaker. "You are approaching the coastline. Do not overshoot your pattern. Over."
"Nice to know we're still on the scanners," Dr. Odell laughed somewhat nervously behind him.
"Roger, Terra Nova," Danny answered into his chin mike. "First leg completed. One hundred miles. Now entering circle course. Over and out."
He heard lively conversation behind him as he side-slipped into a long gliding curve over the seacoast. There was also a whir and clicking of the big aerial camera. Cartography was high on the priority list. Their two land rovers would be blazing some trails as soon as the maps were ready. An ironical thought flashed through his mind. If human civilization ever did break through the "chastity belt" and come here, there would be alarm clocks in Paradise. As Boozie had expressed it with his usual cynical smirk: "Beware the star gods, my children!" Which, before the day was over, seemed to be prophetic.
From photo-probe and ship data obtained while in orbit, it was known that they had landed on an island continent which was about eight hundred miles from a major land mass to the north. They had chosen their present site because of the temple and other signs of civilization nearby. They were circling back to the areas where such signs had been revealed on the space photos. Meanwhile they were orienting themselves to the general terrain.
The jungle land sloped gently toward the sea, dropping gradually away from the volcanic ridges in the south. A lush drainage basin terminated in a large delta system at the coastline. In between were jungles and some patches of open meadowlands, as well as a few large areas marked by steaming bogs and swamps. Occasionally they caught sight of some of the larger fauna. They saw another ponderous brontops on the shore of a swamp, but most of the animals were more in the antelope class.
The consensus of the geologists was in agreement with Stockton: late Miocene. Or had that been Sam's evaluation? Danny wondered, thinking of the "Memory of Nature." Except for the mystery of alien constellations, this might as well be Earth, eighteen million years across. But what of temple-building civilizations so long ago? Again he thought of the Great Ones, and Lalille's eerie presentiment. "No holds barred, baby," Boozie had said, as if to summarize the whole situation.
A note of discord disturbed the expectant mood of the survey group when a message from base advised them to keep their eyes open for another "dog-faced man." It had been discovered that "Red" had somehow escaped during the night. Immediately, Pike accused Jerry, who had been requisitioned for the flight by Stockton.
"Hey, Fontaine, you were the last one seen near that cage!"
"I couldn't help it," Jerry confessed rather sheepishly. "I can't stand to see animals in a cage, much less a near-human creature like that."
"That makes you a two-time loser!" snapped Pike. "Not counting the time when you let 'Fritters' burn!"
"Hey, Dolph!" The unnecessary remark had fired up Danny's temper but he managed to manufacture a chuckle. "The woods are full of critters. Soil chemists and exobiologists are a little scarce in Terra Nova!"
Alonso intervened. He firmly advised that the matter should be shelved until their return. Once more he seemed to be shielding Jerry, but he added: "Fontaine, you are going to learn to follow the rules. This is a disciplinary matter!"
The cabin conversation soon returned to a discussion of the terrain below, but within a few minutes Adolphus Pike thrust his heavy frame into the copilot seat next to Danny. His deep-set black eyes glared at him menacingly. After turning off the ship's transmitter, he leaned close and muttered a warning.
"You're mouthing off again, Captain! That sniveling nature boy is in trouble! He's going to be straightened out in a hurry, by me! So you stick to the book, soldier boy, or I'll handle you next!"
Danny couldn't suppress an imitation of one of Boozie's smirks as he made a mock salute and whispered, "Heil!"
Pike glared at him. "That's insubordination!"
Danny leaned toward him confidentially. "The hell it is, Major! You read the book! It's been revised, and it seems the Council overlooked one little item. You're the big chief of the militia now, so you're not in Flight-Com anymore. I answer straight to the Skipper, flathead, so get off my back!"
Pike was interrupted by a call from Stockton, who needed some help with the equipment, but he managed a heated retort almost in Danny's ear. "Why should I, smartass? That really unties my hands!"
Danny calmly clicked on the transmitter again and reported. "Bluebird to Terra Nova. Everything's still under control." He gave his position, heading, and airspeed while wondering how long the "control" would last.
In the late forenoon the party was gripped by the excitement of new discovery. Surprisingly, this was within thirty miles or so of the base camp.
"There!" cried Zebby Kane, their chief zoologist. "I see cliff dwellings!"
It was soon discovered that the dwellings were far from being of the cavemen variety. A long, winding canyon cut a natural passage through a reddish sandstone ridge. The canyon walls were somewhat elaborately carved, revealing a definite community pattern of rock-hewn habitations.
"Primitive," commented Carl Sinding, "but vaguely Dravidian."
"Not as elaborate as Ajunta or Ellora," said Odell.
Axel Bjornson grunted. "In a crude way, more like Al Khaznah at Petra. No free-standing structures."
"Still a poleolithic culture."
The learned observations were interrupted by a chorus of shouts. The inhabitants themselves had been sighted.
"By God, they're human!" yelled Holberg, who was one of three security guards Pike had brought along.
Alonso came forward in the bedlam of excitement and took the copilot's seat. He pulled out the panel mike and covered the reporting to base. Both here and at camp the enthusiasm and wonder had to run its course as on that first occasion when the photo-probe had sent back evidence of civilization. Now there was proof positive that the long star quest had reached its goal. Intelligent humanoid life-forms would have been wonder enough, but this was the ultimate miracle. Man in his own image, light-years away among the unknown stars.
"Danny, hover, dammit!" yelled Stockton. "Slow down!"
He buttoned a retro-thrust with full flaps and activated the twin gyros. The scout ship almost came to a standstill above the canyon dwellings. This gave him a chance to take a better look for himself. About five-hundred feet below, he could see the tiny human figures milling about like bugs, their faces turned upward toward the ship.
"Well formed and copper toned," said Stockton who was at the floor scope.
"Not a weapon among them," observed Pike at the portside opticals.
"Look! They're dropping to their knees!"
"Maybe they think we're gods!"
"Of course," said Odell. "In a relative sense, that's what we are, to them."
"Doctor!" called Danny, interrupting the Duke at his micro-phone. "What's the procedure now?"
Alonso cut off his mike for the moment. "We land, of course. Are you serious?"
The worthy doctor glanced at him in mild surprise, but then gave him one of his patronizing smiles. "My son, to come this far, and not complete the voyage?"
Danny figured the Duke had a point, and yet – was the flowery question only some of his poetic flare for drama? Fantastic as the situation appeared to be, this was reality. There were hundreds of people down there. They might be on their knees now, but one false move by Adolf and his Gestapo could alter the picture in a hurry. In fact he took a very dim view of what was going on in the cabin behind him as he descended. Hand beamers and
machine weapons were being distributed.
"Security will handle the flamers and the other ordnance," Pike announced officiously.
"Good God, Major!" Jerry protested. "They're supposed to be the savages!"
"Shut your yap, Fontaine!"
After the centuries of searching and bridging the endless starry gulfs, thought Danny, were they only proving that Sam was right about the Barrier Wall? His recollection of man's first contact with extra-terrestrial humans always remained hazy because of the memory scar of the disaster that followed. He recalled setting the ship down on the canyon floor in a clearing that was created for him as the natives drew back in obvious awe of the roaring "bird god" out of the sky. He had chosen the largest area, which seemed to be their community plaza. The canyon made a sharp turn into a widened bay, which was dominated by the most imposing habitations. Towering carved sandstone facades were broken by several shallow terraces that were connected by narrow and irregular stone steps.
His own observations and a storm of remarks from his companions were enough to give him a favorable first impression of the aborigines, in spite of technical jargon referring to "perfect mandibles" and "mesaticephalic" attributes including excellent "frontal and parietal" structures. It boiled down to the fact that they were well-formed humans and, above all, peaceful. They were obviously intelligent, exhibiting no indications of furtive savagery, which would have been characteristic of early primitives. Although almost naked, they were surprisingly clean and healthy looking. Apparently, there were no lice, no pockmarks, no eczema, no marks of yaws, or other evidence of hygienic ignorance. In fact their loincloths of animal skins were apparently cured and bleached.
"Most amazing!" Odell commented in a tone of wonderment. "They're not even warlike in spite of those splendid physiques. No weapons, no battle scars!"
"Let's hold off on the Paradise bit," growled Pike. "We have to watch out for last impressions, not the first ones!"
Alonso had instructed Danny to stay on board and handle communications with base. He remembered the strategic deployment of the other men as they went outside.
"Here!" Pike had barked at Jerry, slapping a machine rifle into his hands. "Maybe you'll learn something that's not in your flower books!"
The major and his three security men spread out on either side of the ship while the scientific group moved cautiously forward, armed with beamers and light machine weapons. They were covering Alonso who calmly took the lead, as dignified as ever in spite of his pale green Flight-Com jumper, which struck Danny as being somewhat incongruous for a bearded scholar and poet.
He remembered carrying on a lively conversation with men at the base, including Lyshenko, as he described the proceedings. The survey group was standing out there in the noonday light of an alien star, facing a kneeling and muttering multitude of coppery-haired humans who were children of some other dawn of time. The thought had flashed through his mind: did the Duke know what he was doing?
Apparently, he did. His gentle gestures of peace seemed to he reassuring to the natives. Some of them had looked warily at Pike and his men but not because of their weapons. The latter were too exotic to be recognized, but scowls of suspicion and egression were something more universally understood. It was not long before the chief among them appeared in the company of a woman who might have been his wife, but she looked more like his younger sister. Their copper-golden hair lay down over their shoulders. Although the woman's hair was much longer and decorated with flowers, it failed to conceal her prominent breasts, to which she seemed oblivious. The two came forward out of the crowd, accompanied by repeated cries of "Ravano!" and "Akala!"
Evidently these were their names. They were both distinguished from their people in clothing, bearing, and attitude as they came to a stop within a dozen feet of Alonso. Ravano and Akala were slightly taller than the others, and in their clear bright eyes was an expression of wondering respect and welcome rather than awe. The man was in his middle prime and obviously rugged. There were also a few long scars across the heavy square of his chest. Whether these were signs of the hunt or war could not be determined at the moment. They both wore gleaming yellow headbands and heavy metallic necklaces, apparently of silver. The earthmen muttered excitedly among themselves about the metal ornaments, arguing that they could not have been produced by this culture. Somebody suggested that they might have taken such articles from the temple of the so-called Great Ones.
Alonso shushed everybody and proceeded to speak. "We bring you greetings from another world," he said dramatically.
With equal solemnity, Ravano bowed his head slightly and replied: "Tativa yahosa bagenata samdtli vamaani-na."
Roadblock, thought Danny. Not even the Lily would have been able to help them here. That was the end of his hazier recollection of the encounter. What happened next could never be forgotten in any least detail because the peaceful scene was turned abruptly into a nightmare.
It started with screams of alarm and a reverberating bellow. The earthmen also shouted as two giant monstrosities emerged from the narrower canyon and charged the defenseless natives, crushing skulls and breaking backs with cudgels and fists. The red-eyed cyclops titans were disfigured by birthmarks or a pigmentation defect which mottled their skin with a camouflage effect of random coloration ranging from yellow and green to red or blue splotches across their arms, torsos and faces. They were at least a dozen feet tall, troglodytic in frame, and gargantuan in strength. They were also cannibals, tearing apart their living victims and eating hungrily at their spurting flesh with bristling fangs.
The stun-beamers had no effect on them, nor did the gas bombs. There were too many people in the way for the flamers, so the machine weapons came into play. These were effective, and the grisly giants soon sank to the ground after almost being cut in two by a hail of lead.
The bedlam continued, however, and Danny had little time to answer frantic calls from the base. Apparently under Alonso's instructions, Ravano and Akala were taken into "protective custody" by some of the armed scientists who pushed them closer to the ship. Ravano's cries to his people may have been in response to his apparent entrapment or to the general emergency. From the beginning of the attack, the native men had gone for their weapons, which were apparently close by. Many of the women brought them their stone-headed spears and ropelike slings. The latter had the appearance of triple-thonged bolas and were handled gingerly because of their hooks of bone and shell.
In moments it became evident that Ravano's concern was not for himself or Akala. Something else was happening that seemed to fill them with more consternation and despair than the one-eyed giants and their torn victims.
"Look!" came a cry from Bill Vinet, another of Pike's men. "What are those?"
"Danny!" shouted Jerry frantically. "These are the nymphs!"
If they were nymphs, there were males of the species also, thought Danny, as he saw a number of frail creatures fleeing along the terraces. They were a pale rose in color and utterly exotic or mythological in their features, just as Jerry had described his blind undine of the jungle pool.
"What the hell's going on!?" yelled somebody from the base.
"You wouldn't believe it!" Danny answered. But after that there was no time for communications. He figured the automatic cameras would have to tell the story later.
Suddenly an exquisite young nymph emerged from a cave on a lower terrace. Jerry shouted, pointing at her. Akala called out to the beautiful being in a strange, melodic voice, but the blind nymph girl walked off the terrace and fell to the rocky floor of the canyon. A groan of sorrow arose from the natives.
"Hey, you fool!" yelled Pike. "Come back here!"
Jerry dashed heedlessly across the open area to the side of the fallen fairylike form.
"I'll get him. He's out of his head!" Holberg's stubby figure was next seen running among the startled natives. There was no time for collecting wits. In one moment the armed men of the tribe looked questioningly at their chief. I
n the next moment a lone cyclops, streaked with natural orange and yellow splotches, came charging from concealment around the corner of the canyon. The local warriors threw spears and flung their menacing bolas, but it was too late. Three native women were mauled and torn asunder within a dozen feet of Holberg. He turned and fired his flamer at the towering beast. The searing heat only seemed to enrage it, but then something happened that secretly alarmed the earthmen most of all. An invisible force whipped Holberg's weapon from his hands.
"Telekinesis!" somebody yelled.
With a roar, the monster charged Holberg and in an instant he was dead, decapitated by wrenching claws. It wasn't Jerry's gun that brought him down. It took a withering fusillade from the other men. Some of them kept firing at the riddled corpse after it had ceased to struggle, as if fear of the unknown had cramped some trigger fingers.
Danny had a flash of memory – Noley's use of telekinesis on the guards at the temple, and his declaration before the Council that such forces had served to lift the great stones into place. Now here were mythological titans demonstrating the same psychic powers! There was no time to ponder over the mystery, however, because he suddenly saw something that made him flick a control switch in instinctive haste.
"Good God!" he yelled over the bullhorn. "Pull back. Come on!"
At least a dozen motley colored cyclopes were coming down the canyon face, leaping from terrace to terrace while throwing giant spears and hurling clubs. Several more on the rim were hurling boulders, and it seemed that some of the giant rocks were not thrown by means of brutal strength but by the eerie force of psychokinesis. A huge spear shaft crashed through a side port of the scout ship's cabin. Then Danny went out into the fray, pulling Jerry back and firing at the bellowing attackers. The natives huddled against the canyon walls to avoid the greater battle between the titans and the "sky gods," aware of the magic death of the high-speed machine fire.
Sweat was blurring his vision when he got Jerry back to the ship and climbed in with the others, helping them to pull in a few who had been mangled by falling rocks. Carl Sinding was moaning, out of his head from the shock of his experience. The titanic figures attempted an attack on the ship but the hail of gun fire was a deterrent. The spears, cudgels, and rocks from overhead were the greatest menace, yet more terrifying still was a violent rocking motion of the ship as if it were caught in a vortex of invisible forces.
Star Quest Page 11