Despot in Space

by Donald S. Rowland

  When they reached the floor of the valley they hid amongst the stunted undergrowth, careful not to reveal their presence. From time to time they saw Humics patrolling the ridges surrounding the valley. There were savages around the camp, and Ethne saw children running around. She was beginning to feel hopeless about the whole business, fearing that Condor was lost to them for good, when there was a commotion in the camp. She dropped flat with Ozen at her side, and they lay staring into the compound, wondering what was causing the excitement there.

  The next moment she saw a crowd gathering, and while she wondered at the great height of these primitives she studied their tall figures with interest. The next instant she was stiffening in surprise and wonder, for a man dressed in clothes that she recognized was walking into the centre of the gathering savages, and appeared to be at home with them. She gasped as she saw him, for it was Rez Condor, and a tall, savage woman was holding him by the hand…

  Chapter Ten

  Condor realized that he had to rely on speed and surprise to overpower the giant of a man confronting him. Setting himself, he awaited the attack, saw the club lift in preparation for a tremendous blow, and sidestepped as it was delivered. He used an ancient form of self-defence, which he had practised many times in the gymnasium, and struck with his hands at nerve points on the chief’s body, moving swiftly and striking with all his power because of the warrior’s superior strength and weight.

  The club slipped from the chief’s hands as muscles in his forearms refused to take the strain after attack. Condor slid away as a big hand reached for his throat, and he kicked sharply, finding a knee, then a thigh, finally the groin. The bigger man collapsed instantly writhing in agony, and Condor eased away, reaching for his hand-stunner as the other warriors began to push forward. There was a frontal attack then, and Condor hurriedly retreated, using the stunner quickly, knocking down a dozen of the warriors in a flash of shrewd aiming. The others backed away immediately, cowering from him, and suddenly another hand-stunner was in operation from the right. As the savages started going down, Condor glanced to his right, and saw two figures running into the compound.

  He was amazed to recognize Ethne and Ozen, and he stood with his feet apart, the hand-stunner dangling in his right hand, as they came up with him.

  ‘Professor, I’m so glad you’re all right,’ Ethne said breathlessly. ‘I was afraid you were dead.’ She turned at his side and confronted the Nethers, who were backing away to their dwellings. A score of the males were stretched unconscious on the ground, and Condor took hold of the stunner in Ethne’s hand and glanced at the setting, relieved to see that it was on minimum emission. After an hour’s unconsciousness the Nethers rendered so would recover and feel no ill effects of the shock treatment they had received.

  ‘How did you come to be here?’ Condor demanded, keeping an eye on the camp. The woman who had brought him here was standing downcast in front of her dwelling, staring at Condor.

  ‘I’d better explain that later,’ Ethne retorted. ‘Right now we’d better get out of here. We’ve got to get back to that landing point on the slope. There’ll be a reverse operation of the Celertron every hour, so we don’t have much time, and I think the sooner we get away from here the better for all concerned.’

  ‘It may not look like it, but these people are my friends, or have been until that chief showed up again. But if it hadn’t been for the woman over there I’d be dead by now.’ Condor noticed that Ethne was wearing a semantics transmuter, and he smiled. ‘Give me the transmuter,’ he said. ‘I want to talk to that woman. I’ve been trying to communicate with her for hours.’

  Ethne glanced at the general as she divested herself of the transmuter. He was watching closely, and she began to fear that he might try to make an advantage for himself here. But he was glancing uneasily at the surrounding ridges, and Ethne saw two of the robot guards patrolling steadily, taking no apparent notice of what was happening in the compound.

  ‘Those robots up there,’ she said as Condor prepared himself with the transmuter. ‘Why don’t they attack us?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’ve had trouble with them before arriving here. I think they’re programmed to attack these Nethers if they stray off the reservation. Because I look roughly like a Nether I’ve been attacked. Just stay together here and keep your eyes open. I want a few minutes to communicate with that woman.’

  ‘Be as quick as you can,’ Ethne said uneasily. ‘I’ve got a strange feeling that we’ll be stretching our good fortune if we delay. I never expected to find you again, Professor.’

  He smiled and started towards the dwelling, clipped the electrodes of the transmuter to his throat and temples. The woman watched him silently, unafraid, and he halted in front of her, smiling. She smiled slowly in reply, and Condor touched his chest and said his name.

  It didn’t take the woman long to understand. She smiled wider and nodded, then repeated his name before tapping her own chest.

  ‘Pii,’ she said.

  Condor smiled and nodded, then waved a hand around the camp.

  ‘Tell me all about this place, Pii,’ he said.

  She frowned, but he continued talking, saying anything that entered his head. Then he fell silent and motioned for her to speak. She stared at him for a moment, then started talking, slowly at first, but with increasing confidence, and Condor turned on the power of the transmuter. There was a small microphone leading from the box strapped to his chest, and he pulled it in front of his mouth and prepared to speak. But he waited while the transmuter took in the woman’s words and analysed her speech. He heard the computer clicking and whirring, and the woman’s voice was still gibberish in his ears. He snapped down a switch and unhooked a second microphone, which he handed to the wondering woman. She held it gingerly, a frown on her tanned face, but then the computer did its job and Condor heard her gibberish suddenly coming through the transmuter in English.

  ‘We are kept prisoners here by the Humics,’ the woman said. ‘While we remain in this valley we are not harmed. If we try to leave they kill us. But sometimes the Cranums come here and kill some of us. There are not very many of us left now. We were the slaves until the Humics were made. Then we were forced to live here and wait to be killed at the whim of the Cranums.’ Condor flicked a switch and began to talk, and his words were automatically translated into the woman’s native tongue. He saw shocked surprise touch her face as she began to understand what he said, and Condor smiled.

  ‘I would like to thank you for the help you gave me today. I am not from this planet, but from another far away. I must return to my planet now, if I can get back to the spot where I landed. Are you in any danger from your own people because you helped me and brought me here?’

  ‘The man you fought is going to be my man. He is jealous because I brought you, but I told him that you saved my life by bringing me out of the Cranum prison. The men always fight here, and it means nothing. Have you killed all those lying on the ground?’

  ‘No. They will recover in time. We are your friends. We would not hurt you except in self-defence.’

  ‘But the Cranums were attacked by you. It is said that you brought down the Cranum aircraft, and was captured with Naa while she was bringing you into the camp. The men fear you because no one has ever killed a Humic before, and you have destroyed some with your bare hands. That is why Oon wanted to fight with you. He has to prove that he is the bravest and toughest.’

  Condor smiled thinly. It seemed to be a universal law that the strong should demonstrate their strength and the weak should bow down to the strong. He glanced around, watching for trouble. But the Nethers were not interested in fighting against such powerful weapons. The men were sitting in their open-sided dwellings, watching carefully.

  ‘Will you have trouble from the Humics and Cranums because of what I have done?’ he demanded. ‘Why were you in the Cranum prison?’

  ‘Because I left the reservation to look for my sister Naa!’

  �
�So Naa is your sister! She saved me and so did you. What will happen to Naa?’

  ‘She will be released in time. The Cranums do not kill the women here for petty reasons. They have their sport in hunting us down, and while there are women here with the men there will be children.’

  Condor spotted a dot in the sky far to the south of the valley, and it was joined a moment later by another. Both dots rapidly became larger, and he tightened his lips as he glanced towards Ethne and the immobile Ozen.

  ‘There are aircraft coming, and that will mean trouble for us and for you. We must leave now.’

  ‘Shall we not see you again?’ Pii cried, coming forward to grasp Condor’s hands. He winced in pain, for she didn’t seem to know her own strength, and he shook his head slowly as he took the microphone from her.

  ‘I do not think so. I must go back to my own world, where we have trouble similar to this facing you. I do have the means to travel from planet to planet, and if I get the opportunity to return later then I will try to do so. Now we must go before the Cranums arrive.’

  The woman nodded and wrung her hands, and Condor turned away, calling to Ethne and Ozen to follow him. They hurriedly left the camp and started to ascend the valley slope. In the meantime the two airships were coming very much closer, moving silently and quickly towards the valley. Condor would have given a lot for the opportunity of examining one of the craft, but that didn’t seem possible, unless he fell into the hands of the Cranums again.

  They were halfway up the slope when the first of the airships arrived, and it hovered over the centre of the camp, its shadow covering a large area. Condor dropped into cover, and Ethne ranged herself alongside him. Ozen was several feet away, lying motionless on his face, unarmed and obviously considering that this fight was none of his business.

  Condor could see some Cranums on the catwalk of their craft, peering down at the ground, most of them armed with the terrible rod-like weapons he’d seen in action. He tossed the energy-gun which he’d taken from the dead Cranum in the corridor towards Ozen, who looked up, stared at the weapon for a moment, then snatched at it and turned to face the compound. Ethne was holding the hand-stunner, and Condor shook his head when she offered it to him.

  ‘No thanks! I’ll have the laser projector I saw you carrying.’

  She smiled grimly and unclipped it from her belt. Her eyes met his as she handed it over.

  ‘Are we going to fight?’ she demanded.

  ‘We are if those fellows up there attempt to destroy that camp,’ Condor said grimly. ‘I’ve seen some of their weapons in action, and the situation those Nethers are facing is similar to the problem we have on Earth. But instead of one Abelard Aubin here as the oppressor, there’s a whole race of them called Cranums! They’re the pigmies with the transparent skulls.’

  ‘While the aircraft are up there we cannot move,’ Ozen said. ‘I want to get back to Earth, Condor. How do we go about it?’

  ‘One thing at a time,’ Condor retorted. He was watching the aircraft very closely, and saw considerable movement amongst the Cranums lining the rail around the catwalk.

  The second craft was coming up fast, like a huge, silent bird of prey. It circled the valley a couple of times, and there were Cranums on the catwalk, searching the ground thoroughly. Condor began to feel too exposed although they had sought cover under large rocks and were invisible from the air. But he remembered the Humic craft that had blasted a section of the ground indiscriminately, and he was ready for any such attempt to repeat that action.

  He thought it strange that the Cranums didn’t land and begin a physical search of the area. Turning slowly to avoid attracting attention with any kind of a movement, he scanned that part of the ridge which he could see, and his eyes narrowed and glittered when he spotted a long line of Humics assembling along the skyline. He called Ethne’s attention to the fact, and the girl paled as she looked up at the awful sight.

  ‘What happens now?’ she demanded.

  ‘I don’t think it is up to us, Ethne,’ he retorted. ‘Those Humics are well armed with a type of energy-gun. I don’t think they have anything as powerful as this laser though. But it looks as if we shall soon find out. The problem is that if a fight develops here then the Cranums can call upon unlimited reserves. They could swamp this area, and we wouldn’t have enough firepower to hold them. I think it would be a far better thing for us if we could slip out of this area without trouble.’

  ‘I agree with you,’ the girl retorted, suppressing a shudder. ‘I saw a dry watercourse a little to our left. If we sneaked along it we might be able to get over the ridge without being spotted by those clay robots up there.’

  ‘Right. Try to get into the watercourse, but move very slowly, Ethne. Those Cranums will spot anything that moves.’ Condor signalled Ozen, who lifted his head and peered sullenly at him. ‘You’d better edge your way over here, Ozen,’ he called softly. ‘We’re badly outnumbered, and we’ve got to try and slip out of this cordon.’

  ‘I’ll have a lot to say about this business when we get back to Earth,’ Ozen rasped, sliding towards Condor.

  ‘If we get back,’ Condor retorted grimly.

  Ethne was already moving, and Condor watched the girl grimly, keeping part of his attention upon the aircraft over the valley and a part on the motionless Humics on the ridge. When Ethne dropped out of sight into the gully he sighed heavily, glancing at Ozen.

  ‘You go next, General,’ he said.

  Ozen looked around grimly. His face was showing strain and shock, but he moved slowly in the direction the girl had taken, and he seemed to evoke no attention from the watching aliens. Condor held his breath for long, tense seconds as the general moved into the gully, but no alarm was raised and he sighed heavily as he prepared to follow suit. He had just started moving out of his cover where there was the sudden roar of engines and a huge black shadow flickered across the ridge above him.

  Condor tried to scuttle back into hiding before he was spotted, but the massive Humic ship went whirling overhead, its decks alive with robots armed and ready for action. Looking up, Condor saw the robots staring down with their lifeless eyes, and jerky movements informed him that weapons were being lined up at his general position. Shaking his head almost angrily at being discovered, Condor used the laser in his hands, sending a flash of hot destruction up at the grotesque flying machine.

  The uncanny sound of the powerful emission echoed across the valley, and at the same time there were flashes from the craft. Condor saw his beam strike the aircraft, and there was a terrific flash, a rolling barrage of thunderous noise. Then the ground about him was struck as if by an earthquake, and he ducked hastily, closing his eyes as his surroundings seemed to change shape under the terrible power that was unleashed in flailing spurts.

  But he could not take his attention off the Humic ship for long. He opened his eyes and stared upwards, and his lips pulled into a thin line when he saw the effects of his laser. The craft was darting upwards into the clear sky, flitting and lurching like a wounded dragonfly. It turned upside down, and small dark figures came falling quickly to the ground. Then it jerked right side up once more and slanted from side to side in its death throes. It seemed alive in those tense seconds, and Humics continued to fall from it. Then a terrific explosion tore it asunder, and dark smoke smeared the bright sky and there was nothing left of the ungainly machine.

  Condor glanced up at the ridge as the echoes of the explosion faded, and he saw the Humics starting forward down the slope in line abreast, their right hands lifted, the hollow index fingers ready to deal death. One of the Cranum aircraft had already disappeared, and the second, which had been hovering directly over the Nether camp, was already whirling away towards the nearest horizon. Condor was tempted to blast it, but he held his fire and darted into the gully.

  Ethne and Ozen were waiting tensely for him, and Condor saw the girl’s face set in fear and doubt. Ozen was shocked, but silent, content to let Condor have the initiativ
e. Condor said nothing. He saw that the gully traversed the slope, and started at once in the direction that would take them clear of the descending line of Humics, if they could cover enough ground.

  He set a fast pace, slipping and sprawling in his haste, and sweat ran into his eyes. He could hear the others at his back, and when he glanced over his shoulder he saw Ozen holding Ethne’s arm, helping the girl over the rougher parts. He smiled grimly. This was a situation he had never dreamed of in the past. But they were facing a common enemy now, and they had to stand together to have any chance of survival.

  When he paused for a brief halt, Condor scaled the side of the gully and stared up the slope. He saw the line of Humics getting closer, and tension filled him as he made rapid mental calculations on their chances of getting clear. He saw that they needed to cover another two hundred yards at least to get clear of the trap that was closing upon them, and he dropped back into the gully and spoke in clipped tones as he started running once more.

  ‘Another two hundred yards might take us clear. Let’s keep moving.’

  He had the laser projector ready in his hands, but hoped he wouldn’t have to use the fearsome weapon. The walls of the gully rose above their heads to a height of twenty feet, and Condor began to have an uncomfortable feeling of claustrophobia. Then he spotted movement ahead of him in the gully, and he skidded to a halt and dropped to one knee as he peered forward.

  Ethne cannoned into him, unprepared for his sudden halt, and she pitched over him, falling in a sprawl of arms and legs, crying out in shock and fear. He placed a hand upon her shoulder, cautioning her to silence, and Ozen came to his shoulder, his breath sounding harsh as he inhaled and exhaled.

  ‘What is it?’ Ozen demanded brusquely.