"And you're saying you know."
"I know. Don't waste time asking me how, Danny. All I can tell you is that we are at a crucial point here in the cosmic continuum."
Danny shook his head and frowned in troubled thought. "Well whatever the hell it is I hope that something happens soon. You know I mentioned to the men today that if Ravano didn't make up his mind there was still plan two. I think you know what that means."
"Your hiber trip?"
"What else?"
"Danny, I don't think you realize this, but in Lalille we seem to have a prophetess. At least on this world some of her latent abilities have awakened. She foresees the Oracle and more."
"What do you mean by more?"
"Perhaps plan three, neither hiber trip nor major war."
Danny stopped the unicorn and allowed the rear guard lancers to pass him on the trail. He couldn't turn to stare at the swami but here in the humid heat of the jungle stillness he could at least hear him better.
"Sam, could you spell that out for me?"
"The original mission of the Star Quest might still be achieved, with some bloodshed perhaps, but without a total war of elimination."
"That isn't telling me everything. How?"
"Basically, Danny, you wouldn't be compelled by this blindness to duty, to make your lonely hiber trip with a few of your friends. It may not be necessary for you and Frederica to be separated."
Danny froze. Before he could react to this thrust at his deepest personal dilemma, an urgent buzzing sounded from his pocket. Slowly, he took out the transceiver and stared at it wonderingly. When he turned on the receiver he wasn't prepared for another of Sam's realities. It was Boozie, who fairly rattled the minispeaker in his excitement.
"Ye gods, Danny, it actually happened! I did it, man. We've got it!"
"Got what for God's sake? What is it, Boozie?"
"Are you ready for this? No, you're not, so brace yourself! Listen to this tape!"
Out of the tiny phone came a series of sounds never heard before. Danny felt the tense grip of the swami on his arms as he heard a far cacophony of strange voices in many tongues, tantalizing strains of music from unknown instruments, and complex pulsing patterns of high-speed data transmission. It was as if Boozie had tuned in on multiple wavebands across the galaxies.
No, not as if. It was!
"I tried the reception end of the experiment first," Boozie explained swiftly, still in a strained euphoria of discovery. "I tried rectifying the gravity carrier, thanks to Sam's idea. What holds the worlds together also keeps them in contact. Poyntner would hand me the inverse-square law but there's a tension factor in some kind of universal medium."
"The collective consciousness of matter itself," whispered Sam.
Danny hardly heard him. "Jesus, Boozie, what do the Duke and the Skipper think of it?"
"Are you kidding? They still could be brainwashed! Whoever's the mastermind would have my ass if he knew I was onto instant communication!"
"So what are you going to do? Good God, Boozie, you might be able to contact the Earth!"
"Don't jump the gun, baby. That was your line, remember? Who on Earth is fiddling with gravity rectifying these days? But maybe I could contact somebody out there, like standing on a star and thumbing a ride!"
"Then do it! It might change our whole bag of marbles here before somebody gets hurt."
"It's not that easy, Danny. For a stellar transmission on cosmoscope I have to modulate the fields, using the gravitrons. That means beaucoup power, lad. I have to find some way of modulating the lasers."
"You mean the main propulsors, out in orbit?"
"That's right, and it will take some doing to counteract thrust with the nav jets. But Bruno's with us. He and I and Fitz have been working on it. We're also thinking up excuses for taking the shuttle out to the pods."
The rest of the trek to the ridge country was made in a kind of separate dimension, with Danny and Sam contemplating the tremendous implications. This was the goal of the Star Quest. Man was not alone among his stars. Now Earth had to know, one way or another. Even if the hiber trip was the ultimate answer.
Or would Sam's principle of intervention yield a still more unexpected solution?
CHAPTER XIV
The red-ridge country was in the foothills of the prayava-kwatni or Fire Mountains. The volcanic region had been honeycombed by earlier geologic upheavals. The reddish and somewhat barren ridges contained a virtual city of natural tunnels and caverns. Until the advent of the Star Sons in their Maitluccan, this location had been a principal habitat of the Raks, but now for strange reasons of their own the giant cyclopes had drifted elsewhere as if they, too, were restlessly anticipating a cataclysmic change.
Approximately half of Ravano's forces in Lankara had been concentrated here. The other Talavats and their families who had not already emigrated to the mainland were located in the delta country to protect the shipbuilding camps against marauding Golaks. The main body of trained warriors and lancers, however, were with Ravano. They lived in jungle camps north of the ridge-rock formations, but in case of trouble, such as the appearance of the scoutship or air cars, they took cover in the extensive maze of caverns.
By this time the number of insurgents who had defected from Terra Nova had grown to over thirty men, more than half of whom had been working with Foxy on the fleet. However, when Danny returned with Sam and Lalille and the latest recruits, he found Ravano in a surly and uncommunicative mood because apparently the Star Sons had been pressing the monarch again for a decision.
"His Royal Highness is selling us short," reported Kenny Makart. The stocky, black-bearded former flight mechanic and security guard had been browned in the sun almost to a shade of mahogany and the hardness of his physique resembled the same material. "Maybe we'd better pull a strike in the boat yards until he helps us take the base."
"The Tallies would go on with the work," said another man. "Foxy's taught 'em enough by now."
"The fleet's only part of the problem," advised Kerby Zellon, a sallow-faced machinist and toolmaker. Ever since defecting the rather gangly spaceman had worn a battered hat to shade him from the sun.
"Yeah, it's the temple bit now," grumbled Bjornson. "He and that chesty sister of his are working the shamans overtime. By God I'll tell you, the Monk's no help! He's really flipped on this voodoo business!"
"Hey, Danny," put in Henshaw, "maybe you'd better shake out plan two and let us have a look at it."
"You may not like it," Danny answered.
The veteran insurgents were familiar with the hiber trip idea and they remained silent. Plan two did not merely involve a wild, lonely gamble by a six-man specialized star crew, it meant leaving the colony stranded, probably forever. Moreover, since the Council had decreed that all defectors were subject to execution should they be caught, those who had left Terra Nova would have to face a future life with Ravano's people in the new land. The reaction to that prospect again depended upon one's makeup and personal philosophy. Some like Noley and Foxy were self-committed to interfacing with the natives and in fact some men had already chosen Talavat girls as their future mates. The majority of the insurgents, however, were behind plan one. They could only see a return to the colony, with or without native wives, once it had been rescued from the secessionists. They favored a continuing development of nuclear cores for the star ship's propulsion, and many still believed that an S-link could eventually be built although it might take years to achieve the right technology for it. If Ravano failed to strike now the chances for victory would fade swiftly. The Golaks would soon be armed and the Tallies would have emigrated.
Danny sought to encourage them all with the news of Boozie's cosmoscope, but that proved to be a mistake. After the wonderment had worn off to some degree the general mood firmed up all the more in terms of plan one.
"Christ!" exclaimed Bill Vinet. "That means there's all the more chance for us to survive! If Boozie could contact Earth there might ev
en be a chance for rescue!"
"Or maybe we could get instructions on the S-link," added another man.
"If we could just get rid of Pointed Head and Adolf," growled the Axe, swelling his heavy chest belligerently. "Or maybe get the Duke and the Skipper to see it our way.
"Look, boys, for my part you know I'm going native, but no life will be safe on this rock if things don't change at the base. Give those secessionists enough time and they'll probably set up a king or a dictator of some kind. They'll try to enslave us all!"
The pressure was too great to be countered by anything short of a showdown with Ravano.
* * * *
The monarch's court had been established in a large cavern near the hidden site of the sacred temple. Many of the larger chambers of the higher red-ridge country were partially open to the sky because of explosive action in the distant past. The major network of caves was actually a system of old volcanic flues, and some parts were still untenable because of the presence of small molten potholes and underground geysers. The court chamber was spacious and split-leveled, providing ample over-head concealment while offering sufficient sky holes for air and the venting of smoke from torches and cooking fires.
Here Ravano received Danny and his small delegation with an unwonted display of militancy and power. He even wore a regal fur over his sturdy shoulders which had an orange golden tint and was jangling with what the American aborigines might have called medicine beads and bones. His royal metal headband supported two white feathers from the eagle-like kvakule bird, representing the sun and the moon, a universal totem of affinity with the gods. Next to him was the coppery-haired Akala in undraped pagan seductiveness and as mystical as ever. They sat on a long rock bench between tall duraca poles which supported huge flaming torches. They were surrounded by a royal guard of two dozen fully-armed Talavat warriors, crossbows included.
Nolokov was off to one side looking more Svengali-like than ever with his now heavier beard and his deep-set brooding dark eyes. Sitting next to him on a low basalt ledge were Khyatri and several of his holy Krias. The high priest was tall, middle-aged and lean, of a darker copper hue than normal, and on his shaved head he wore a three-horned shaman headpiece fashioned from a nyanyo skull. It was said that the triple horns were symbolic of the three spiritual pillars of the world. He wore a metallic linked necklace and a gorgeous white fur loincloth that included a sweeping tall.
One feature of the meeting helped to soften some of Ravano's initial surliness. He and Akala were obviously pleased to receive Lalille and the swami, who both spoke fairly fluent Talavat. In the past few years Ravano had all but abandoned his broken English. And it was in his flowing Talavat that he spoke to Danny.
"I am aware of why Vigranyi Tarnura is here," he said with a deep-voiced formality. "The sun and moon hasten for both of us." He had given Danny the native name of Gray-eyed Star Son. He then made an amazingly concise summary of the general situation and concluded: "The olden prophecy yet waits for the shining star, and until then I am not bound by Ramor to die for my word. Meanwhile, we wait for the second Oracle. If it does not come before the fire gods of prayava-kutami give us their final warning, or if the winged vessels of Kimbu Dyota are ready without the Spirit Word being heard in the holy temple of the Lahas – we must go." He had used Foxy's native name, the White-haired One.
When Danny tried to counter his argument, he became surly again. "Does not Vigranyi know that thousands of warriors must take the sunset journey to conquer Maitluccan and his prayava-chaitus?" The latter term was a reference to the feared roborgs which they had named "fire devils" as if they were evil progeny of the Sky Dragon. He had always personified the colony as the Dragon itself, which in a sense was somewhat intuitive.
Danny and Bjornson and the other men realized that little could be gained by arousing the powerful monarch's enmity. This was particularly true since they no longer had any bargaining point to speak of. The fleet was practically completed. However, Nolokov drew them aside later and gave them one of his yabbut angles. He pointed to Lalille and Sam who were already in a close and urgent-seeming conference with Ravano and his sister as well as with the high priest, Kahyatri.
"Don't overlook your high cards," he admonished almost impatiently. "Lalille and the swami are practically regarded as Krias. Anyway, don't knock this Oracle business. That's hallowed ground. You're not going to argue them out of it. But Sam and Lalille may be what we've needed. We might get some action yet, sooner than you think."
"What kind of action?" asked Danny doubtfully. A bitter mood had come over him.
"The Oracle! The sooner it happens the sooner we'll know Ravano's decision."
"Aw stow that baloney!" said Bjornson, equally disgruntled.
The Monk's eyes flashed enigmatically. "You're on your slabs again. You don't know what's involved!"
Danny stared at him and felt a coldness creeping over him. It was a coldness of decision again, the same as when he had decided to defect. This time the personal stakes were higher. "Noley, I think I've had enough of Sam's hocus-pocus. I've decided to go for plan two."
Bjornson and the others muttered among themselves while the Monk returned his stare in dark contemplation.
"The hiber trip?" he asked finally.
"That's right. At least the Earth deserves an answer."
"So six of you go. What about the colony?"
Danny smiled grimly as he started to walk away with his companions. "Maybe the great magic of Ramor will shield the noble colony of Terra Nova from evil days. I'm not a miracle worker, just a star jock stuck with a job to do."
Later, the men considered plan two more seriously but they were dubious. The hiber trip was a suicidal gamble and might not accomplish its purpose. Besides, they argued, maybe Boozie would still make contact with Earth, using the cosmoscope. When he relayed to them Boozie's fears on that score, they still demurred. The majority finally favored waiting a while longer to see what Holy Sam would come up with. Danny knew they were grasping at straws.
There were several days of indecision, during which their own issues were overshadowed by an increasing Talavat anticipation of the Oracle. There was also a mystery involved in the disappearance of Lalille into inner sanctums of the temple. According to the swami, the high priest and Akala were apparently taking the Lily as a kind of novitiate into the deeper mysteries of kryasakti.
"She seems to have cast a spell on them," he said, "as if she were a part of prophecy."
Late on the second day, Danny went up on the ridge and sat alone to look at an angry red sunset. He was thinking of the hiber trip. The six-man crew was a strategic item. All of them had to be quadruple experts. So far there was himself, Boozie, Fitz, and Bruno. They needed two more. Foxy? He had already found his chesty Talavat girl and gotten her pregnant. Maybe Hapgood? If he'd only get his head on straight. They'd all have to decide soon, because he finally realized bitterly that there was no other choice. Where was Sam's mysterious intervention now? Who was there to provide the so-called intervention, the pagan gods, or maybe galactic greenmen tuning in on Boozie's cosmoscope?
He threw a stone down the slope disconsolately and thought bleakly of Freddie. He remembered the night on the temple terrace: her shining female silhouette under the moon, her searching responses to him. Before she could live, she told him, there had to be hope. Their Earth dreams had died among alien stars.
Suddenly, a gaunt dark figure came running up the shale slope toward him from the caves. It was the Monk, strangely agitated. Danny had a presentiment that something vital had happened or was about to.
"Danny!" Nolokov called to him while still climbing. "I think I have the answer!"
The answer? To what? There were too many questions for any one answer to solve them all. He waited, saying nothing. But what came next brought him tensely to his feet, staring, while Noley blurted out his story.
"You mentioned shield. It was a trigger for my subconscious. I told you once that all the clues we
re staring at us, that they hadn't stood up to be counted. Well, now some of them have come together. I think I can name your mastermind, or at least one of his main partners in crime. And this is really something you can take to the Skipper! You can even reopen the Forum hearing with a thing like this. Maybe there won't be a war, Danny! We can have peace by Lyshenko's precious book!"
Danny grabbed the Mad Monk's wiry arms. "What the hell are you talking about?" His blood and his thoughts were racing.
Nolokov's eidetic memory had finally come through. "Back on the ship, that time Boozie was plastered, down in the KPO, and we told you about the sabotage. Just before that you and Fitz were in the maintenance section. I heard you two talking about the chromaplast trim."
"So, what about it? There wasn't any, not even for the Skipper's new aquarium."
"That's the point!" exclaimed Noley triumphantly. "But that was months before we landed, and long before that the supply of chromaplast trim had been exhausted!"
"I don't get it."
"Shield, man, Alonso's shield! It's trimmed with chromaplast! The Duke made it way before the explosion! He knew we'd be forced to land! He's one of the head secessionists!"
* * * *
Boozie was not overly surprised when Danny contacted him and told him about the shield.
"Very timely, however," he commented. "It fits in nicely with something else that's going on. Maybe we can stick our necks out on what we've got."
"What do you mean, something else going on? Don't play games, Boozie!"
The mini-speaker crackled blankly for a moment. He and Noley were still on the ridge. The sun had lowered behind the horizon, silhouetting the two tall figures against a darkening magenta sky. Behind them the long fingers of volcanic clouds reached over the primeval world, red-limned in restless reflected fire.
"Speaking of games," answered Boozie finally, "this one should interest you."
"Damn it, Boozie!"
"Freddie is here with me."
Now Danny was silent for a moment. He was aware of Noley watching him with a new intentness.
Star Quest Page 18