by Kris Neville
She jerked the muzzle of the weapon. “I told you. He saved my life. He could have killed me. He didn’t.”
“A trick!”
“Get away from him!”
Reluctantly the two stood back, and the leader shifted uneasily on his feet.
“Don’t you try it,” Lauri suggested. “For all you know, I might really shoot. You aren’t that quick.”
Parr let out his breath.
“You!” she snapped at him. “Get to the door!”
Dazed, he obeyed her He shook his head to clear it. He was afraid they would try to stop him.
“Open it!”
He opened the door and hesitated, looking at her.
“I’m coming,” she snapped. Still covering the three Oholos she got to her feet and began to back toward him. “Don’t follow,” she warned the three before her.
“You know what this means?” the leader said. “You know what it means to help the enemy?”
“Go on out,” she told Parr. “He saved my life,” she said doggedly.
He obeyed. She followed him. She fumbled for the door knob, found it. “Run!” she cried. She slammed the door.
They ran desperately for the stairs. Their feet pounded on the soft carpet as they clattered down.
She was almost abreast of him.
“Help me!” she cried when they passed the first landing.
And a moment, later Parr knew what she meant. They were trying to tear into his mind, and she was holding them off with her own shield. He joined her as well as he could, marveling at the vast strength she had recovered.
“Hurry!” she cried. “I can’t hold it much longer.” She lurched into him and he put an arm around her waist.
AND then they were through the lobby and into the silent street. No curious spectators were lingering to stare at the drying patch of dirty brown in the gutter beyond the awning.
“This way!” she cried.
As they fled on the pressure weakened. She was running fleetly at his side now, her brow unfurrowed, and yet he knew that she was still holding the shield under terrific pressure.
“In here,” she gasped, suddenly turning into a narrow alleyway. “Stop!” she said. She half dragged him down to the pavement behind a row of packing crates.
“They’ll be right after us!” he panted.
“No. Listen. Follow my lead. I think I can blanket us, if you help me.”
Parr felt the warmth of her thoughts around him, and then they began to go up beyond his range and he had to strain to stay with them. Underneath her thoughts his mind began to quiet, and, in a moment he felt—isolation.
“Help, here,” she said.
He saw the weakness and strengthened it. With her helping, he found the range less high, and he could almost relax under it. And their minds were very close together, and their thoughts were completely alone. “We’re safe here,” she whispered.
He listened to his own far away breathing, and heard hers, too, softer but labored.
They crouched, waiting, and the street before them was quiet in the sunlight, for the mail trucks were out, and no taxis moved. The city—for the moment—was deathly still and waiting uneasily. The high air was sharp in his lungs.
“They’ve missed us,” she said at length. “Wait! They’re . . . They’re after . . . it’s another Knoug. They think we’ve separated, and they think it’s you.”
“That would be Kal,” Parr said. “He must have been waiting nearby.” He brought out the comset. “He must have seen us come out together.”
He flicked open the comset, heard, “. . . joined with the Oholos. Parr and the other just left the hotel together.”
“He’s told the Advanceship,” Parr said to the girl.
“It doesn’t make any difference,” Lauri replied wearily.
And Parr breathed a nervous sigh, for the hate had found its channel. The Empire had made him unclean and debased him, and he had to cleanse himself. His vast reserve of hate shrieked out against the Empire; their own weapon turned against then.
“I’d like to get back to the Advanceship,” Parr said. “If I could get back, I could smash in their faces!”
“Oh,” she said.
THE comset sputtered excitedly.
“Three Oholos after me! They’re armed! Must be new ones. The other two weren’t armed!”
The comset was silent.
“Three?” Parr said. “That’s right, there were three. I thought there were just five on the whole planet.”
“There’s about fifty now. They landed last night. Out in the Arizona desert They’re the only ones who could get here in time.”
Parr felt elation. But it passed. “Fifty . . . That’s not enough to stop the invasion.”
“It’s all we could get here,” Lauri repeated.
Parr groaned. “The Knougs will shield the planet tomorrow. It will trap those fifty on the surface. And us. They’ll shoot us, if we’re lucky. But I’d like to kill some first!”
The comset crackled, and the Ship voice said: “How many new ones altogether?”
“I don’t know,” Kal answered. “I only know of three.”
“We’ll hurry the attack, then, before they’re set. Can you hold out, Kal?”
“I don’t know,” Kal said.
The attack. The meaning of it suddenly rang in Parr’s ears. Until a second ago, he had seen his hate as personal, and now he realized that the Empire was ready to capture a planet and then to destroy a System. And he saw the vast evil of the Empire hurtling toward Oholo civilization. He gnashed his teeth.
Lauri’s hand jerked on Parr’s elbow. “The one you call Kal is dead.”
“I’m glad,” Parr was grim. He remembered the savage eyes which the Earth disguise could not conceal. “I’m glad.”
“Kal, Kal,” the Advanceship called into emptiness. “Kal! Come in, advanceman Kal!”
Parr flipped off the comset.
She lowered the thought blanket completely. “Relax. Try to relax.”
“Why did you do it?” he said. “Why didn’t you let them kill me?”
“I don’t know,” she said slowly. “You saved my life. I couldn’t let them kill you. I saw how you felt, how you suddenly changed. How you’d become a new person all at once. I couldn’t pass judgment on you after that. I hated you and then I didn’t hate you anymore. It doesn’t matter. It’s too late to matter. I . . . I . . .”
Her mind was warm against his.
“They’re going back to join the others in the desert now,” she said. “They’re going to get ready to fight.”
“Lauri,” Parr said. “Lauri, I’ve got to do something!”
CHAPTER X
(New York had broken windows now, and the streets were glass littered. An occasional white face peered out suspiciously from above a ground floor. But the heart beat of subways was stilled. The cry had been: “You’ll starve in the City!” and there had been an hysterical exodus, slow at first and then faster and faster and faster. The moon marched her train of shadows in the cavern streets.)
In Denver, the moon rode the mountains, calm, misted, serene.
“Parr,” he spoke into the comset, and he felt Lauri’s hand tighten on his elbow.
He glanced nervously at the sky. He was afraid to see the planet shield blossom as it might any minute to signify the attack had begun. But he feared even worse the absence of it.
“Parr?” the Advanceship spat back.
“The Oholos have a defense system around their own planets. It won’t do you any good to capture this one! You won’t be able to get nearer!”
“You are guilty of treason, Parr!”
“You can’t get at their inner system! They have a defense ring that can blast your Fleet out of space.”
“Lies!”
Parr glanced at Lauri beside him in the darkness. “No!” he said. “They are stronger than you are!”
“They would have attacked us if they were,” the Knoug said calmly. “They don
’t think like that!”
“A poor bluff, Parr.”
“Stop!” Parr said, “Listen . . .” He looked at Lauri again. “No use. They cut off.”
“I didn’t think they’d bluff,” Lauri said. She looked across the street. The street lights had come on on schedule, but they soon flickered out as the power supply waned. The city was dark.
“Will they scorch the planet?”
PARR glanced once more at the sky. “I think they’re holding off trying to gain new information on your Oholos. Or maybe they’re having trouble getting ready. We’ll know very soon whether they’ll scorch it or assault it with an occupation force.”
Lauri said, “You tried.”
“If we could convince them, like I was convinced . . . if we could show them you were strong and peaceful . . .”
“But we aren’t strong, Parr. They caught us unprepared. If we had a year or two . . .”
“How long would it be before you could get reinforcements here?” Lauri bit her lower lip. “At least a month. We’d have to organize the units and everything. No sooner.”
“Oh.”
“What were you thinking?”
“I thought,” Parr said. “. . . I thought I might hold the attack off . . . for as much as a couple of hours.”
“That wouldn’t help.”
Parr swallowed and cleared his throat nervously. “I don’t know. Maybe it would give the Oholos more time to prepare. It might help a little.”
“How?”
“I’m going to try that. I’ve got to do something, Lauri.”
He flipped open the comset and started to speak, but the channel was already busy. It was filled with crackling explosive Knoug language. Parr began to listen intently.
It was a conversation between the Flagship and one of the other ships of the Fleet, “. . . Parr’s right,” the other ship said. “So they’re down there. They say they’ve fought Oholos, and he’s probably right . . .”
“How many are there?” the Flagship demanded.
“Thirteen. All in the engine room.”
“Tell them Parr was bluffing,” the Flagship ordered.
“I already did.”
“Tell them they’re guilty of mutiny!”
“I did, and they still won’t come out. They’re the bunch that were in the assault at Coly. They’ve been hard to handle ever since.”
“All right. Go after them with guns . . .”
“What is it?” Lauri asked. “Shhhh!” Parr cautioned.
A third circuit opened. “No other ship reports trouble. It’s just this one bunch.”
THERE was a harsh curse, gutteral and nasty. “These channels are open! The whole Fleet knows about that Coly bunch now!”
“What in hell! God damn it, get them off! We’ve got to isolate . . .” Click.
Parr stared at the cosmet in his hand.
Parr smiled thinly, did a little good, at least. A bunch of veterans must have been listening in on me . . . One of the Fleet ships has a little trouble.”
“Maybe . . . she began excitedly.
“No,” Parr said. “It was only thirteen Knougs. It’s scarcely a ripple. It might make the rest of the Fleet a little uneasy—but they’ll still take orders. I’m sorry Lauri, but it’s not going to help much.”
“How do you know it won’t?” she insisted.
The bitter smile was still there. “I’ve seen something like it before. In five minutes it will all be over.”
“Oh.”
“Well,” he said after a moment, “I better try to get the Ship. I’m going to hold them off as long as I can.”
He clicked open the comset again. “Kal,” he lied icily. “Advanceman Kal.” For the first time he was glad of the tinny, voice disguising diaphragm.
“Get off!” the Advanceship ordered. “This is the Commander. We’re under communication security, damn it!”
PARR nodded to himself in recognition of what had happened. Commanders were now on the whole communications network. It would prevent ordinary operators from spreading more news of mutiny through the Fleet; it would blanket the manufacturing of rumors. And, if things were running true to course the Flagship was monitoring all channels just in case.
“I’ve found out the Oholo’s disposition,” Parr hissed into the tiny comset. “Can you pick me up?” There was a momentary pause.
“. . . We thought you were dead, Kal. Why didn’t you answer our calls?”
“. . . Broke my comset,” Parr lied quickly. “I’ve just killed the traitor, Parr, and I’m using his.” There seemed to be suspended judgment in the Ship.
“If you pick me up, I can give you details. But you’ll have to hurry! Two Oholos are closing in right now!”
“How many are there altogether?” Parr hesitated. “Only twenty, Parr said. I think less than that. It won’t be necessary to scorch the planet.” Again silence. Then the Flagship itself cut in, “All right. We’ll pick you up. Where are you?”
“Denver.” He made out the street signs in the darkness. “I’m here at a street corner. Eighteenth and Larimer.”
“Someone who knows the territory from the Advanceship can pick you up. Ten minutes. Hold on.”
“Hurry!” Parr pleaded.
He cut off the comset. He realized he was frightened. The night was growing cold and he took two deep breaths. He let the comset slip from his fingers and shatter on the pavement. He kicked it away in savage annoyance, and snarled a curse.
Lauri shuddered inwardly at his violence, but he did not notice. And she forced a smile and touched him with a warm thought.
“I told them I was Kal,” he said. “I . . . asked them to pick me up.”
Lauri half gasped in surprise.
“They’ll hold off the attack until they hear from me again. I’ll try to keep them guessing as long as I can.”
He was tired. He and Lauri had been Walking the streets aimlessly for hours. At first there had been mobs after the mail delivery. Then the governor, conscious of what had happened in some Eastern cities, had declared martial law and only soldiers were supposed to be on the streets after sundown curfew. Already many people had fled the city in terror.
AS he and Lauri walked side by side, Parr felt he had come to know her better than he had ever known anyone. He realized how strong his mind had grown under its month long test, and he knew that she had cone to respect his strength, she who was so strong herself. But it was not her strength he respected. Strangely, it was her weakness—her compassion and her ability to forgive. An unknown thing, forgiveness, a beautiful thing.
She stood silently beside him. Then she said, “What time you gain won’t matter.”
“Maybe it will!” he said harshly, hating the Empire.
She stared into his fact. She shook her head. “No,” she said. She touched his cheek. “I ought to say something.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. That it’s a brave thing you want to do . . .”
“After what I’ve done, I’ve got to do something to make up for my life.”
“What you did doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Listen,” he said. “Listen, Lauri. You better leave. Don’t stand here any longer.”
She did not move.
He gritted his teeth. “Hurry up!”
Her mind touched his gently, cloudlike, and flew away. “Let me go with you.”
“You know that wouldn’t work.”
After a minute she turned reluctantly.
“Wait!” he cried after she had gone only a few steps.
Eagerly she turned.
“Listen!” He glanced at his watch. “Listen. The Fleet is nervous. The Knougs are nervous. It might not take much after that Coly bunch revolted . . . They’re yellow inside, and the seeds of doubt are there. If we could just make them believe you really had a weapon. An hour from now—give me one hour—you’re to contact the Fleet on my comset and tell them the Oholos are going to destroy their Advanceshi
p right before their eyes. Then tell them to get out, the whole Fleet, or you’ll destroy every ship. That may make them think! That may make them believe!”
“But unless the Ship really is destroyed before their eyes . . .”
“I’ll take it into hyperspace without a shield. One minute it will be there, the next minute it won’t. Maybe they won’t stop to figure it out.”
“But you’ll be killed!”
“GIVE me just one hour. Go on, damn it. Don’t argue!” She seemed ready to cry. Then she bit her lip.
“But—Parr! Parr! I can’t! How can I? You broke the comset!”
Parr’s mind was dazed. He tried to think. “. . . Listen. Find the one Kal had! See if you can find that! You’ve got to, Lauri. It all depends on that. You’ve just got to find it!”
She hesitated.
“Don’t argue,” he insisted. “Hurry! They’ll be after me any minute.”
She seemed to want to say something.
“Run!” he cried. And then she was hurrying away and her mind left his entirely, so there would be no danger of detection when the scout ship came for him. And then she turned a corner, and was gone . . .
THE silver saucer shaped scout ship zipped down the street, banked sharply and vanished, recording (Parr knew) electronic details for its mothership, the pick-up craft.
Parr waited, his mouth dry.
Finally—after what seemed a long time—he saw the dark, moving patch return. It lowered, and Parr could make out the details of the unlighted surface. He sighed with relief. Fortunately it was the small three passenger craft.
It hovered, closed on the intersection and settled. Hoping that neither of its crew knew him by sight, Parr sprinted from the shadows of the building to the opening door.
The distance seemed to unravel before his feet, lengthening like a magic carpet.
His feet hit the edge of the door almost together and grasping the sides he pulled himself in, falling forward and gasping for the crew’s benefit, “Oholos!”
The inside of the craft, operating under low flying procedure, was darkened except for the dull orange of the instruments.
“Up!” Parr cried in Knoug, and the craft shot away pressing him to the floor even though the acceleration compensator was whirring in his ears.