15
Dark walked across the desert toward the Canfell Hydroponic Farm.
He had discarded the marsuit he had been wearing, and substituted for ita light loincloth torn from one of Goat Hennessey's sheets. Thisreverse reaction, in a temperature that would be uncomfortably chillyfor a fully clothed man and descended far below zero at night, resultedfrom his recognition that he gained a tremendously greater direct influxof energy from the total exposure of his skin to the sunlight. He couldfeel the energy penetrating his flesh, building up in him. And, withthis energy, the low temperature did not bother him.
Behind him, by a rope, he dragged a little two-wheeled cart he hadconstructed from groundcar parts. It rolled and bumped over the sandyterrain, containing all the marsuits and all the seven heatguns that hehad been able to find at Ultra Vires.
It also contained a supply of water, in cans. Dark had found that, whilehe was operating directly on solar energy, he did not need food at alland he did not need as much water as he did under ordinarycircumstances. He probably could have survived two weeks without anywater at all. But some water did make him much more efficient. Hisindependence of food and oxygen did not prevent the slow dessication ifhis tissues in the dry Martian air.
As he walked, only part of his mind was devoted to the routine task ofmoving across the desert. The remainder of it was free of the limitationof distance, touching and interacting with the minds of three other men.
These men were members of the Phoenix. At the Childress Barber College,they had been among the instructors, struggling to develop the ESPpotentialities of their students so that a psychic community of purposeand action might be developed toward the goal of teleporting materialsfrom Earth to Mars.
These were the men whose ability at telepathy and psychokinesis had beenmost fully developed, to the point of practical demonstration. Now,newly aware of the extent of his own inner powers, Dark had conceived abold plan of action to which these men's comparable abilities was anecessary contribution.
There were three of them: Mantar Falusaine at Hesperidum, PietroCorrallani at Mars City and Cheng I K'an at Ophir. Among them, by a vastintangible network of communication, they discussed strategy and thesituation on which it was based.
Mantar: _We knew of the existence of the Canfell Hydroponic Farm. It wason our charts as a Marscorp industry, supported by the government. Butwe thought it was only an industry, producing food. We did not know itwas an experimental center._
Cheng: _We did not know Marscorp was conducting genetic experiments atall, except those of Goat Hennessey. We kept a casual observation onGoat's work. Our intention was that, if he ever succeeded completely inwhat he was trying to do, we would make a fast raid with a task forceand appropriate his work to our own purposes._
Dark chuckled.
Dark: _That would have dismayed Marscorp! But it appears that, as thingshave developed, this sort of raid must be directed now at the CanfellHydroponic Farm, to free my father and the Marscorp slaves there. OldBeard is, after all, the real leader of the Phoenix. If we succeed inkidnapping Goat, we can put him to work for us, but that is not theprimary objective._
Pietro: _Do you plan to take over the Canfell Hydroponic Farm, and makeit our base of operation?_
Dark: _No. When we attack the Farm, they will radio Mars City for helpand we don't possess the force to fight off an all-out governmentcounterattack. I have been in communication with a Martian friend, Qril,and I am informed that the domes in the Icaria Desert, which were usedby the original rebels a quarter of a century ago, are still usable,although they will have to be supplied with oxygen, food and water. Iintend for the Phoenix to congregate there and utilize the help of theMartians in carrying out the embryonic changes which will make yourchildren and mine as I am. A new race, capable of living in the naturalMartian environment._
Pietro: _Will these characteristics of which you speak be inherited, ormust the embryonic changes be made in each generation?_
Dark: _They will be inherited, because they are changes of the geneticstructure. The changes will have to be made on each individual embryo ofyour children, but their children will be born with these qualitiesnaturally._
Cheng: _What are your instructions?_
Dark: _How many Phoenix are at each of your places?_
Cheng: _Twelve at Ophir._
Mantar: _I would have to count. About twice that many at Hesperidum._
Pietro: _About seventy-five here, as well as the wives of most of thePhoenix who are married_.
Dark: _Seventy-five! That's more than we had in school!_
Pietro: _Don't forget that the school was there for a long time beforeyou came, and it had many graduates. The government captured between athird and a half of us who were in the school at that time, but thereare still probably three to four hundred Phoenix scattered about Mars._
Dark: _Where are the other three instructors, whom I was unable tocontact with this telepathic call?_
Pietro: _They are at Charax, Nuba and Ismenius. Their telepathic powersare not as well developed as ours, and they would not hear you unlessthey were expecting the call._
Dark: _Cheng, I thought your group was to go to Regina._
Cheng: _It was, but the Regina airlocks were more effectively blockadedto us than at the other cities. Those who went to the other cities,except those who were caught, had identification establishing them aslegitimate residents of those cities. Regina has a peculiar socialstructure which makes this virtually impossible, except for the Phoenixwho are already there and have been for a long time. We thought ofstopping at Zur, but there were no arrangements to care for us there. Wewent to a dome farm operated by a friend of the Phoenix in PandoraeFretum, and stayed there until we could trickle gradually into Ophir._
Dark: _You had quite an odyssey. Cheng, I want you to bring your twelvein groundcars, with what weapons you can get, and attack the CanfellHydroponic Farm. I'll try to break it open from inside._
Pietro: _Shall I bring my group from Mars City as reinforcements?_
Dark: _No, twelve will be enough, and the conquest of the farm willdepend on speed. Before you can get there with your group by groundcar,the government will have a well-armed force there by jet. I want you toload trucks with supplies, gather all the wives and go straight to theIcaria Desert to establish our colony. I'll direct you telepathicallywhen you reach Icaria, if we aren't already there. Cut across thedeserts and lowlands, and stay away from the roads and cities._
Pietro: _Very well. But we'll have to leave the city vehicle by vehicle,and rendezvous somewhere in the lowland. It will take some time._
Dark: _Whatever is necessary. Do you know where the Chief is?_
Pietro: _He's here in jail in Mars City. His trial is due in twentydays, and we had planned to rescue him sometime during the trial._
Dark: _Leave a few good men there to rescue him as soon as you'vecleared Mars City and are on the way to Icaria. Has Nuwell Eli gottenback to Mars City yet?_
Pietro: _I don't know. We can find out._
Dark: _He has Maya Cara Nome with him. She's the girl who was thesecretary at the barber college when it was raided, and she's one of thePhoenix now. I want her rescued, at the same time, if possible. If not,I'll go to Mars City and do it myself later, but I want to get all ofyou cleared of the city first._
Mantar: _What do you want me to do?_
Dark: _The most difficult thing of all. I want you to stay inHesperidum, and send out all the Phoenix you have with you to contactthose in other Martian cities. They are to rendezvous at Hesperidum, andthen you will gather supplies and form another caravan to join the restof us in Icaria._
Cheng: _When shall I move out?_
Dark: _As soon as you can gather your men and material together. Butstay out of sight of the farm and don't attack until you hear from me. Ishould be there within the next forty-eight hours._
The instructions given, the telepathic conference faded out, and Darkwas a solitary man plodding across the desert,
pulling a loaded cartbehind him.
He came in sight of the Canfell Hydroponic Farm in just about the timethat he had predicted to Cheng, but waited until nightfall to approachit. Phobos was abroad in the east at sunset, so Dark waited a littlelonger, until the nearer moon plunged beneath the eastern horizon.Deimos was not in the sky this night, and Phobos' disappearance left itnear pitch-dark.
Dark moved across the starlit desert, pulling his cart, to the walls ofthe farm. The farm was not a massive, sprawling fortress like UltraVires, because most of it was underground. The upper floor, in whichHappy's "Masters" lived and worked, was just below the ground level andthe underground vats were below it, extending considerably beyond it inall directions. The only parts of the farm that projected above groundwere its four entrances, small buildings of white stone, each with itsown airlock.
Dark went through the airlock of the nearest one. These entrancebuildings were the barracks of the Toughs, in which they slept at night,secure from the possibility of escape because no marsuits were availableto them. Dark had moved quietly through a barracks of sleeping Toughsthe night he had left the farm for Ultra Vires, but this time he had hiscart with him.
There was no alternative but a bold course. Spearing the light of anelectric torch before him, he walked down the aisle toward the barredgate leading into the regions below, pulling the metal-wheeled cartacross the stone floor behind him.
Its clatter brought the whole barracks awake. On all sides of him arosean angry growling and shouting, an upsurge from many throats of theanimal noises that were the Toughs' nearest approach to human language.Dark moved forward steadily, keeping a telepathic "radar" out to warnhim of any impending attack.
The very boldness of his action paid off. Its openness apparentlyconvinced the Toughs that this was merely another, unusually noisy caseof one of the Masters returning to the farm at night--as Dark sensed hadoccurred often before. Dark was not molested.
The barred gate had no controls on this side. Dark operated itpsychokinetically. It raised slowly, he pulled his cart through, and helowered it behind him and went on down the ramp into the undergroundcavern.
He went straight to Old Beard's hiding place, and awoke him. Old Beardgreeted him joyously.
"I was afraid something had happened to you, you were gone so long,"said Old Beard.
"I had to walk back," said Dark. "None of the groundcars at Ultra Vireswas in operating condition."
"Then there's no chance of the rest of us escaping," said Old Bearddisappointedly. "We can't get at the groundcars here, and the marsuitsyou brought won't help. The oxygen supply of a marsuit isn't adequate totake us from here to the nearest civilization."
"I think we can get to the groundcars," answered Dark confidently. "Ibrought heatguns, as well as marsuits. Besides, I have a larger plan nowthan merely escape."
He related to Old Beard all the things that had happened, including thefact that Old Beard was his father.
"I am very happy," said Old Beard simply, tears in his pale eyes. "Iliked you very much from the first, Dark, and I'm glad that you can bearthe name of Dark Kensington rightfully."
When Dark told him of the plan for the conquest of the farm, Old Beardstroked his beard thoughtfully.
"I'm afraid that the attack from within will depend largely on you andme, although Shadow probably will be able to help effectively," said OldBeard. "The Jellies aren't very aggressive and, even with a fewheatguns, I'm afraid they won't be of much use."
"How about the Toughs?"
"The Toughs would be fine, if you want to wipe out all the Masters andall the Jellies, and possibly us, too. They're vicious andunintelligent, and they can't be disciplined or depended upon."
"With the attack from the outside timed right, I think the three of uscan handle it," said Dark. "How many of the Masters are there?"
"Only ten," answered Old Beard. "And they aren't soldiers, butscientists. But they do have weapons, and they know how to handle them.They have to, in order to keep the Toughs from getting out of line."
"Perhaps we can whip the Jellies up to the point of causing a good dealof initial trouble and confusion, and then the three of us move in atthe proper moment after the attack from outside is under way," saidDark. "We might even turn the Toughs loose on them, without weapons."
Old Beard gave him a steady gaze from beneath bushy eyebrows.
"I don't think we want to use the Toughs," he said slowly. "I said thereare ten Masters, and that is correct. But they have a visitor whoarrived by copter several days ago. A visitor and a prisoner."
"A prisoner?"
"Yes, a prisoner who wasn't sent down to the vats, but is kept on theupper floor. This prisoner is a black-haired, black-eyed woman."
"Maya!"
"Yes, I think the visitor is Nuwell Eli and the prisoner is your friend,Maya."
Rebels of the Red Planet Page 15