by Hal Annas
Rahn Ruskner stepped forward. “The girl has been in my care. I want her. Take my share of the spoils and an equal amount of wealth I have stored away. Give me the girl. I have a right ahead of others because I induced her to wear the trinkets that enabled us to discover Wilmo and his treasure.”
“I will double any sum offered,” said Nyuk.
Somebody pointed at him. “That man is not a Novakkan. Give him the girl. It will provide us immediate prey when his ship attempts to leave the planet.”
Laughter sounded, but there was grimness about it. And Nyuk seemed to understand then that if he bought the girl he would not live to carry her away. “I withdraw my bid,” he said.
More laughter sounded, then Flat-nose roared, “I offer wealth in excess of that of Buskner. I want that girl.”
“We are not interested in wealth,” another Novakkan said, “which is stored away. Every man must bid what he has here and now, so that the spoils may be divided.”
“My full share of the spoils,” said Rahn Buskner.
“Mine is equal to his,” said Flat-nose. “I offer it.”
The officers on the platform conferred. When they turned back there was bitter amusement in their faces. “We have a way out of the dilemma,” one announced. “Two men offer their full share of the spoils. The girl is worth it. Let them pool their wealth and buy her between them.”
“And,” another thundered, “let them settle between them who shall own her.”
Merriment went round, and then cries of, “Let them fight to the death for her.”
The idea met with approval on every side. Buskner was asked if he accepted the decision. He nodded. So also Flat-nose.
“Then we will make a holiday,” said an officer. “Each man to be stripped and armed equally. We will ring a space. Both men shall enter. Only one may come out. The girl will be there in view so that he can see what he is fighting for.”
CHAPTER SIX
ALETA shivered. The thin garments that covered her flesh had been torn to shreds. No one moved to put a wrap about her.
“The winner of the fight will warm you,” one Novakkan told her. “His blood will be running out and it will be hot.”
They brought an elaborate seat and placed her there in full view. The men below cleared a space, stood in a circle. The two contestants shed their clothes and marched to the center of the circle. Neither was armed.
An officer gave instructions. “There before you,” he said, “is the prize. Well worth fighting for. Shall we toss her in the ring beside you, or leave her in view?”
“Leave her there,” Rahn Buskner said.
“Toss her in the ring,” Flat-nose said.
The officer made the decision. “Move her close. Let her see that the man who wins her is worthy of her charms.”
The seat on which Aleta sat was shoved closer to the ring. She could not take her eyes off the figures of the green-tinged giants. It seemed unreal that one of them would soon be lying dead and that she would be in the bloody arms of the other. She closed her eyes, but the vision remained.
“There is to be no mercy,” the officer went on. “Only one may leave that ring. The other must be dead. Toss them knives.”
Aleta opened her eyes in time to see two blades flash through the air. They were caught expertly by the opponents.
“Briefly the giants circled. Flat-nose moved swiftly, slashing upward with his knife. He lost an ear as a result. It instantly dawned that Flat-nose had not expected to win. He was no match for Rahn Buskner. The reason for his acceptance of the challenge wasn’t clear. Not immediately.
They continued circling. Then Buskner closed in. It looked as if the fighting would be over in a moment. Flat-nose was bleeding from several wounds. He backed away, circled. And then Aleta saw the strategy.
Flat-nose had not expected to win in the ordinary way. From her position high on the platform she saw scores of knives unsheathed. They were in the hands of Novakkans whose garments differed from the garments of those on the ship that had held her prisoner. She concluded that the men were from the second Novakkan raider.
She saw the knife raised behind Rahn Buskner’s back. In another moment it would plunge down and she would belong to Flat-nose. Nothing had been said about fair play. She gasped the whole thing in an instant.
She hated the Novakkans and everything they stood for, but something within her surged against the killing that was about to take place. She screamed with all her might. “Rahn Buskner! Behind you.”
The giant who had told her that he led boarding parties showed now why he had been chosen for that task.
He moved from under the descending blade, bent low, whirled and disemboweled the man who had sought to stab him.
Instantly Flat-nose was on him and his back was laid open from shoulder to waist. But Rahn Buskner did not go down. It was evident that he had friends in the gathering. They rallied about him now. In another moment the fighting was general and such as Aleta had never seen.
The Novakkans were known for their ferocity and cruelty. So far as she knew, these had always been displayed against other races. Now it was Novakkan against Novakkan. Blood spurted and flowed. They fought like demons. They knew neither mercy nor fear, and were never content with merely wounding. They killed. They stabbed and cut until the last breath ceased.
Photon guns flashed. But in the mob these killed friend and enemy alike. They were not used indiscriminately except by those mortally wounded who insisted on taking others with them into death.
Aleta did not take in the full scene. The thing that held her fascinated gaze was Rahn Buskner as the blood streamed from the wound in his back. It was as if he knew that life was going out of him and that he must kill Flat-nose before he died.
Flat-nose had no way to retreat. The mob was all about him. He had to stand and fight, and the sight of the blood flowing from Rahn Buskner gave him courage.
With his back against the platform, at Aleta’s feet, he stood his ground. Rahn Buskner came on, staggering slightly. They both struck at the same time. And each buried his knife to the hilt. Flat-nose struck downward and the blade entered the muscles of Rahn Buskner’s chest. Rahn Buskner struck upward. His blade went through Flat-nose’s stomach and came out his back. Nor did it stop. It cut upward.
Then Flat-nose was lying gurgling at the foot of platform, and Rahn Buskner was reeling and plucking at the haft of the knife buried in the muscles of his chest.
Aleta saw no more. A hand went over her mouth. She was lifted bodily from the seat, and then she was aboard a float.
No Novakkan moved to stop her. They were too busy fighting. And when the cry went up the float was already lofting.
She turned and looked into the eyes of redbearded Nyuk.
“I did,” he said, “merely to let you known that I meant to rescue you. I was aware that the Novakkans would not permit another to walk off with their prize. But Nyuk takes what he desires.”
“You hope to escape the Novakkans?” she asked. “You know, of course, they will cross the galaxy to avenge what they deem a wrong?”
He nodded. “I have outwitted the Novakkans before. Rest assured. Soon we will be aboard my ship and well into space.”
It was preferable to being in the hands of the Novakkans, but Aleta was by no means assured. More killing, she feared, lay ahead.
She made no resistance when they reached the ship. Getting off the planet was paramount now. Later, she thought, she would persuade Nyuk to take her to a spaceway.
She was assigned luxurious quarters, to which Nyuk returned after the ship got underway.
“Do you know what happened to Ernest Vardon?” She described the man who had defended her well in the lifeship but who had gone down under the blows of the Novakkans on the platform.
Nyuk shook his head. “I was interested only in you,” he admitted. “That and in laying my plans”
“Where are you taking me?”
“You reminded me,” he said, “tha
t the Novakkans will cross the galaxy to avenge what they think is a wrong. It is necessary for me to take you to a place where I can stand off their ships.”
“Stand off Novakkan raiders? You must have a fleet to support you!
“I have weapons,” he said, “and wits. I also rule a planet. Sparsely populated and small, but a planet.”
“Is it right to bring the Novakkans down on the population of a planet,” she reasoned, “because of me?”
“Of what are the creatures of a planet except to afford such as I defense and pleasure?”
Then she knew that she was going to hate Nyuk. And yet, a few hours earlier, she had told herself that she would become ruthless. She had vowed to destroy her finer self, starve the feelings of compassion, sympathy, pity, mercy, in order to halt the madness loose in the universe.
Out of some vague rage against brute force she had thought for a moment that she could right things by using wiles and strategems to make brute force destroy brute force. Now it dawned that that was precisely what she was doing. She was setting one force against another.
The thought didn’t bring a sense of relief. Above all things, she wanted to stop suffering rather than cause it.
Nyuk sent in exquisite garments brought from far corners of the galaxy. They had various effects on their wearer. Certain garments would make her cheerful, almost ecstatically happy, in a sort of hypnotized way. Others would make her serene. Still others roused uneasy passions.
These things she had to learn by experience. And it took quite a while for her to associate the changes in her moods with the garments. Then she was careful to wear only those that brought tranquillity.
Although she had no way of judging their velocity Aleta thought that they reached their destination in surprisingly short time. She had slept seven times and lost count of meals when she was informed that they were down.
They could hardly have got out of the Eg System, she concluded. The important thing was whether they had moved in or out, for outward was the spaceway. If they were close to the dead star that held the planets in the system, possibility of return to earth would be more remote.
She followed Nyuk down the ramp into darkness, their way lighted by beams coming from instruments in the hands of the crewmen. The air was thin and cold. Nyuk hastily bundled her in a long heavy coat and pressed her on toward what appeared, when the beams struck it, to be a forest. When they reached it she saw that it was a tangle of trees and growth hiding an unbroken wall.
They moved along the wall. The crewmen formed in a line on either side and eventually paused. Then the trees melted into one another and the wall opened into a corridor. Inside, they went through opening after opening. Each succeeding corridor was brighter and richer in colors.
They arrived in what appeared to be an endless garden. Above appeared long reaches of blue and gray. Close study revealed a dome colored to simulate clouds and sky.
In the midst of the garden was what seemed to be a maze built on a gigantic scale. It turned out to be roofless corridors, vast chambers and sleeping rooms. Richly furnished, it was a palace without towers or spires or gables. Its roof was the simulated sky and clouds.
“The sleeping chambers,” Nyuk explained, “can be darkened separately.”
“But there are two opposed suns in this system,” Aleta said. “There should be light all the time.”
“Only in the northern latitudes.”
“But the remainder of the planet should be too cold to sustain life.”
Nyuk took her into a room that had a mock-up of the system. “We are close to the dead star,” he explained. “It reflects back dark rays which create heat in our atmosphere. It modifies life, but there’s nothing new about it. Many kinds of life survive better in darkness. Our race belongs to the light world. But the longer we remain here the more adapted we become to darkness.”
“Where do you get food?”
“Some of the most nourishing foods grow in darkness. We have our own cultures as well as access to the northern latitudes where other food is grown.”
“And this is why you don’t fear the Novakkans?”
Nyuk drew himself up to his full height of more than six feet. “The Novakkans,” he said, “are largely brute. They are cunning in many ways, but no match for superior intelligence.”
“I’m beginning to understand,” Aleta went on. “And understanding gives me hope. Perhaps you will do something for me no one else could do.”
“There are limits,” he admitted. “But many obstacles can be overcome. What is it?”
She puzzled on how to phrase her request. “I would like to know,” she said, “how my people are faring on Earth. And I would like to know what has happened to Norwich Wyatt.”
Nyuk studied her, his expression unchanging. “Are you in love with Wyatt?” She tried to conceal her emotions. “I am engaged to marry him,” she admitted.
After reflection, Nyuk said, “It will take time, but I may be able to get the information. We will see.”
In a hangar which could be opened to the outside would he showed her the light cruiser.
“It is fast and armed,” he said, “but would be no match for a raider. The wonder of it is that it can be operated by one man. The time may come when I will have to escape alone from this planet.”
Aleta studied his eyes. They didn’t show fear at the thought that he might have to escape alone. They showed cunning. She got the idea that in a crisis he would desert his followers without regret.
He talked of sights on the planet that could be seen from the cruiser. But the danger of raiders having the planet under surveillance kept him from taking the cruiser aloft.
He had other reasons, she gathered for remaining in the palace. Egotistical to the extreme, he seemed to feel that in time she would welcome his amours. He showered her with gifts, rare garments, strange perfumes and jewelry, placed servants at her disposal, and provided entertainment of such fascinating variety that she feared he might on day find her in a mellow mood.
She diverted his thoughts by showing wonder and childlike interest in the things he did for her. She kept him busy providing new things of interest. But the time would come, she knew, when he would tire of being a suiter and demand his place on her couch.
The thought disturbed her. He didn’t appeal to her, and her own longing was to return to Earth and Norwich Wyatt where she might again seek the happiness that was rightly hers.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE day came when quiet fear spread through the palace. The womenservants who attended her spoke in hushed whispers. Their movements were hesitant, uncertain. Now and then she heard breathed the word that roused the fear.
“Novakkans!”
She, too, feared, but having been a prisoner of the dread race, was not as moved as others. A picture of Ernest Vardon seeking to come to her aid on the slave platform would crowd other things from her mind. She would never forget the sight of him tottering on one leg and striving to reach her. The blows that clubbed him down seemed to strike her own body.
Her reaction to the news that raiders hovered over the planet was hate. She earnestly hoped that they would be blasted out of the cosmos, but the fear about her gave her little reason to believe that such might come to pass.
Tales of Novakkan raids reached her. In the past they had had swooped down on the defenseless populace killing and destroying where they found nothing worth carrying away. Nyuk had finally organized a system of defense. But fighting Novakkans was considered hopeless.
The fear was greater because this time they hadn’t come as mere raiding parties. Squadrons circled the planet and each day their number increased. It wasn’t the way of Novakkans except upon a mission of vengeance.
Stories were told of how the surface of other planets had been scorched. Few escaped alive when the green-tinged giants were out not for booty but for blood.
Inhabitants of the planet who lived outside came to the palace and begged admittance. Nyuk admit
ted the strong who would be of use in defending the place, but turned away the weak.
His counselors advised him, Aleta learned, to cruise about the planet and broadcast words of assurance. He dismissed the advice on the grounds that he was too busy arranging his own defense.
As time passed the servants became more and more agitated. Ordinarily they kept Aleta informed of what was going on outside, but now they suddenly ceased talking.
One fragile Eg woman, who confided that when she was young and appealing she had been stolen from an outer planet and sold to Nyuk’s father, entered Aleta’s private chamber when she was alone.
“You must see the master and have him arrange a special guard,” she told Aleta. “A rumor has spread that the Novakkans are gathering because of you. The people outside are clamoring to have you brought out and given to the Novakkans so that the planet may be spared.”
Aleta could understand he woman’s fear, but realized the futility of the thought that the raiders could be appeased. They would not be satisfied with anything less than the blood of Nyuk. She didn’t put the thought into words. She understood that the woman meant she was in danger from the populace.
It occurred to her that if Nyuk would take her aboard ship and try to escape the planet might be spared. A vague plan began to form. She sent a request for an audience.
Hours passed and then she was summoned. Nyuk was no longer amorous, he was occupied with the grim business of strengthening his defenses.
“I’ve neglected you out of necessity,” he said. “This state of affairs will have to continue for the present. Later, I assure you, I shall demonstrate that I’m not unappreciative of your charms.”
Aleta made no pretense. “There may not be any later,” she said, “unless you do something now. It was a mistake to bring me here. We must escape together in your cruiser.”
He shook his head. “And where would you hide?”
“On one of the outer planets, one that isn’t inhabited.”
Again he shook his head. “My father before me held this planet. I shall hold it.”