by Unknown
“Look!” Carney croaked. His finger shot out again, and Samul whirled, appalled to see three huge black shapes moving toward them above the forest.
“Get in the lifeboat,” he shouted urgently. “Yoshi! Arla!”
“They’ve stopped,” the crewman yelled.
Samul jerked his gaze back and saw that they were hovering above the trees at the edge of the meadow. Squat, oval in shape, they possessed ugly black snouts protruding from one end. Slender antennae quivered against the emerald sky. He shot a fast look at Arla.
“Did Danny describe anything like that?”
“No, Mr. Smith.”
“They’re artificial,” Yoshi said. She appeared calm again.
“Artificial?” Carney gaped at them. “I’d rather tangle with the octopus.”
“You might get the chance,” Samul gritted. He studied the black ovoids, relieved they hadn’t approached any closer. “Think they’re telepathic?”
“I think they’re like the birds,” Yoshi said.
“Get in the lifeboat.”
She shook her head. “We’ve come to get Danny.”
“I’ll get him.”
“You’ll need Arla. I’ll stay.”
“Be ready to jump,” he warned. He looked around slowly. Four humans, five androids, three metal birds, three ugly black blobs in the sky, Danny somewhere out of sight…and a giant octopus in a pool; he thought it a quite unusual collection. He studied the swamp, then turned back toward the forest. The silence was awesome.
The alien was watching them, he reflected. He was watching them through the eyes of the metal birds, perhaps through the eyes of the three black blobs in the sky. What was he thinking? He? It? The pronoun made small difference; what mattered was the intelligence. He had scant doubt but that the alien possessed it a-plenty.
“Danny!” Yoshi shrieked. “He’s coming!”
Startled, Samul spun around to see the figure of a youth emerging from the swamp. In the startled tableau that followed, he had the eerie impression that the Universe had ground to a halt, that nothing moved save for the boy coming toward them. The sweep of stunted trees and rushes, the emerald sun beating down, the solitary figure-in Samul’s mind they symbolized the stark
loneliness of this world.
Danny, for Samul knew it was Danny, walked slowly, stiffly, showing no awareness of them. Samul caught his breath. The face, the hair, the body build — the youth could be a blood brother to the Tommies. Was it another Tommy? No, it had to be Danny. He shot a glance at Arla; she was watching, wide-eyed.
Danny was tall, bronzed, with tousled yellow hair, flat, wide cheekbones. His feet were bare. He wore the tattered remnants of crudely made garments fastened around the waist with vines. Halting several paces away, he regarded them incuriously.
Samul looked into his eyes. They were deep blue like those of the Tommies.
Blue and wide and blank.
13
“DANNY!” Samul recovered his presence of mind and sprang forward with a glad smile. “You must be Danny June!”
“Danny June.” The echoed answer held a strange mechanical sound.
“I’m Samul Smith. This is Miss Penn and Arla Koy. You’ve spoken with Arla.”
“Arla,” the youth intoned.
“And crewman Carney.” Samul spoke swiftly, gesturing to each in turn as the words spilled out, at the same time attempting to discern what was wrong; the youth acted exactly like a Tommy. “We’ve come to take you back to Gylan.”
“Gylan,” Danny echoed.
“On Makal. Arla’s told you about it, I am sure.”
“Danny!” Arla caught her voice. Danny glanced incuriously at her. Her lips trembling, she moved her gaze slowly to Samul. Her face was stricken. “I can’t reach him telepathically,” she whispered tragically.
“Nothing at all?”
“His mind is blotted out.”
“Let me try.” Samul gestured casually toward the hovering birds. “What are those?”
Danny raised his eyes. “Metal birds,” he answered dully. Samul felt a surge of relief, the fear banished that Danny could do no more than echo the words put to him.
“Zandro’s birds?” he persisted.
“Yes…”
“What do they do?”
“They…talk with Zandro.”
“What about?”
“On what they see.”
“And those?” Samul gestured toward the Three black blobs in the sky.
Danny moved his head slowly. “Sky hounds,” he answered. Samul sensed something akin to a shudder passing through the youth’s body.
“What do they do?”
“They burn worlds.”
“Burn worlds?”
“With fire.”
Samul held his eyes. “Where is Zandro?”
“There…” Danny turned, pointing toward the swamp.
“Enough of that!”
Samul whirled at the unexpected voice behind him, at the same time glimpsing the startled looks on the faces of the others. He as quickly realized the voice had come from one of the Tommies. He stared speechlessly at the androids.
“I am here,” one of them said suddenly.
“Here?” Samul echoed the word incredulously.
“Here in a vocal sense,” the voice corrected.
“You are Zandro?” he whispered.
“Mind Master Zandro.” The answer held a lofty note. “Unfortunately you have undeveloped minds, hence I can’t speak telepathically with you.”
Samul pulled himself together. “What have you done to Danny?” he demanded.
“Danny is subservient to my will.”
“I knew it,” Arla cried. “He’s hypnotized him.”
“A similar state,” Zandro agreed.
“You…you fish,” she screamed.
“Octopus,” Samul corrected.
“That octopus?” Carney, who had been following the conversation incredulously, gaped at the Tommy. “Is it talking through that thing?”
“It’s like a communicator,” Samul agreed. He fought to control his shakiness. “We’re taking Danny back to his people.”
“No,” Zandro corrected, “he’ll never leave Wenda. None of you will.”
“Never leave?” Carney exclaimed. Samul silenced him with a gesture.
“We’re leaving now,” he stated firmly.
“You are?” Speaking through the Tommy, Zandro’s voice held an inflection Samul didn’t like. He glanced quickly at Yoshi. Her face taut with anxiety, she tried a reassuring smile that didn’t quite come off.
“Get in the lifeboat,” he instructed tersely. “All of you.” He saw Yoshi clasp Arla’s hand and start to move, then stand as if rooted to the ground. She looked strickenly at him.
“What’s wrong?” he blurted.
“I…can’t move my legs.” Samul started to spring toward her but found he couldn’t. He felt no sensation in his legs; it was as if they simply failed to respond to his will.
“None of you can move,” Zandro proclaimed imperiously.
“What have you done?” He battled his rising fear.
“I have taken command of your bodies,” Zandro replied. “Now I shall take command of your minds.”
Samul subdued his terror. “You can’t,” he stated firmly.
“You dare challenge a mind master?” The Tommy’s mechanical voice held anger.
“You’re not a mind master to my race,” he rebutted.
“Your race soon will feel our power.”
“It might be the other way around,” he answered bravely.
“Be logical,” Zandro counseled. “I have studied your race through Danny for almost his entire life. What is your culture? It is a puny thing restricted to sixty-eight hundred sun systems. Do you believe that a significant power? Yes, I see by your mind that you do. But it is a belief born of ignorance, the inability to comprehend the scale of life. That is a measure of your inadequacy. My empire contains the planetary systems
of more than one million suns.”
“A million?” Samul gulped. That took a lot of paperwork. “What do you want with us?”
“Your minds.”
“Why?” Not daring to look at the others, he fought to keep the tremor from his voice.
“For what knowledge they might contain.”
“To what purpose?” he whispered.
“Conquest! Certainly you realize that by now.”
“What does that octopus think it is?” Carney cut in angrily. His face livid, he struggled to move his feet.
“Silence!” Zandro thundered.
“Octopus,” the crewman shouted. “I used to catch ‘em just like you in the rocks off Otrup.”
“Silence or you die!”
“Quiet,” Samul admonished. As the crewman subsided into angry mutterings, his glance fell on Arla. Her eyes half closed, her thin face held a faraway look. His swift perturbation was washed away in the realization that she was lost in some strange telepathic world. Why hadn’t Zandro detected it? Could she erect a mind shield against him? Suddenly he realized he had to keep the alien’s attention from her — keep him distracted, keep him talking.
“And when you get our minds, what then?” he asked.
“You will die. I have explained all that to Danny.”
“Explain it to us,” Samul entreated. “If we have to die, we’d like to know why.”
“But one race can rule the Universe,” Zandro replied. “It is written in the Book of the Gods.”
“Could one race dwell alone in all this vastness?” He gestured around wonderingly. “That would be intolerable to any form of life. It would shrivel up and die.”
“You stand at the first step of evolution,” Zandro reproved. “You are shortsighted.”
“In what way? Tell me.”
“Your vision is limited by your comprehension.”
“I don’t understand.” Samul made his words humble.
“What is a Universe? The very word denotes the finite, hence its limits can be exceeded. In the ultimate, the Universe itself will prove but a small segment. The only limiting factor is the mind itself.”
“You hope to conquer this Universe, go beyond it?” he asked skeptically.
“That is a certainty,” Zandro stated loftily. “We will sweep through universes without end, for the simple reason that time is unending — time and space. Destiny is written against those two immeasurables.”
Listening with part of his mind, Samul frantically groped for a clue to action. Danny and Arla — the strange things Danny had told her. He shuddered violently, suppressing the memory. Was Zandro reading his mind now, even while talking through the Tommy? He had to prevent it! Gylan, Sol Houston, the Wasach Sea, aircars, Ghengin Kaan, the wind in the Cardon Hills, kashba lilies, golden lucca trees, the Space Administration Building — he combined mental pictures, words, sounds into a vast mental whirl and said, “Not all of your race believes that is so.”
“No?” The single word from the Tommy’s lips was cold and formidable. “You know nothing of my race.”
“But we do,” Samul retorted quickly. “Our Regent Administrator has established communication with one of your leaders.”
“That is a lie,” Zandro rebutted icily. “Even through the confusion in your mind I can perceive that.”
“I can prove it,” he shouted. “He’s been exchanging views with a Subcommander Gobit through the Ikus.”
“What was that?” Zandro thundered. Samul detected a quick alarm behind the words and sensed a faint hope.
He said swiftly, “When we tracked your ship coming in from the Ebon Deeps to deliver the Tommies to Gylan, we allowed your captain to discover several of our secret weapons. He realized instantly, of course, that any attack against us would be disastrous…”
“Lies,” Zandro snapped.
“Hear me out,” Samul rushed on. Street of the Shopkeepers, Altair Harbin, public library, the Princess Yoshi of Karn — he had to keep his mind a mishmash. “You want the proof, don’t you? We allowed your ship to land, then
tracked it back to its base. Following that, one of our mind masters…”
“Your mind masters?”
“We have quite a few of them,” Samul responded quickly. Benkar Redmont, Obi Station, Reg SW1414B…“Civil service. We use them to communicate between star systems. Quite a bit faster and cheaper than the Zirg band. Anyway, our mind master reached Subcommander Gobit…”
“How did you learn that name?” Zandro roared.
“We plucked it from the mind of the captain who was delivering the Tommies. We reached him through Iku 214J and…”
“Remain where you are,” Zandro thundered. “The sky hounds will destroy you immediately at any attempt to leave.”
“But…” Samul grew suddenly silent, aware of some subtle change. Zandro had withdrawn! He sensed it instinctively.
“You moved your foot,” Yoshi screamed. He looked down, realizing he had taken a step.
“I can move,” she cried. She stepped toward him. “We’re free, we’re free.”
“Let’s make a break for it,” Carney shouted. He wheeled toward the lifeboat.
“No,” Samul yelled hoarsely. “The sky hounds will destroy us!”
“I don’t want to be here when that octopus gets back!”
“Wait!” Yoshi gestured, staring toward Arla and Danny. Samul swung back to look at them. The girl’s face held the same taut, faraway expression, but Danny was trembling; his hands jerked spasmodically. He shot a swift look at Yoshi; her face was a study in anxious concentration. The crewman looked bewildered.
Danny suddenly shook his head; his vacuous eyes took on a glimmer of life. He shuddered violently, then stood straight, blinking with his face turned toward the emerald sun.
“Danny!” Arla came to life, her eyes riveted on him. He stiffened, turning slowly, gazing at her.
“Danny, it’s all right,” she exclaimed urgently.
“You are…” He spoke wonderingly.
“Arla Koy. We’ve come for you. Zandro had you hypnotized.”
“Zandro…”
“He’s gone now.”
“Gone…”
“This is Mr. Smith and Miss Penn” — she spoke rapidly, gesturing with her hands — “and Mr. Carney, who runs the lifeboat.”
“You’ve come!” Danny shook his head again and blinked.
“We’ve come to take you back to Gylan,” Samul cut in, “but we have a problem.”
“Problem?” Danny uttered the word without shifting his gaze from Arla. His bronzed face held a breathless, awestruck expression. Samul started to answer, but Yoshi gestured him to silence. For a long moment the girl and boy regarded each other wonderingly.
Then Arla said, “You have to listen to Mr. Smith, Danny.”
“Is this a dream?”
“No, it’s real.”
“The sky hounds…” He looked at the black blobs above the trees and shuddered.
“That’s the problem,” Samul said. “We have to find a way to escape them.”
“You can’t. I tried.”
“We can,” Arla said determinedly.
“How?”
“You said Zandro tried to make you die, tried to kill you by stopping
your heart.”
“Yes, he did.” Danny clenched his fists.
“He wouldn’t have tried it unless he knew it could be done.”
“What do you mean?” Samul cut in.
“We’re as strong as he is,” she exclaimed positively. “I know it. He isn’t as powerful as he’d have us believe.”
“What are you getting at?” he asked sharply. “He could control our bodies, keep us from moving, but he couldn’t control Danny’s, Mr. Smith.” She shook her head vigorously. “If he could, he wouldn’t have let him run away.”
“I still don’t see…”
“If I can fog film, I can fog his mind. At least Danny and I together can. And we can amplify our power thr
ough the Tommies.” Her face got a strained look. “We could make him die.”
“The sky hounds?” Samul rubbed his knuckles reflectively.
“Perhaps they wouldn’t work if you got rid of the octopus,” Carney interrupted.
Samul stared at him. “We can’t take that chance.”
“I could take the boat up for a trial run, see what they do.”
“No.” Samul returned his gaze to the girl. “Wouldn’t it be easier to control his mind than to make him die?”
“Make him destroy the sky hounds?”
“Could you do that?”
“I…we could try, Mr. Smith.”
“You can do it,” Samul stated. He felt a quiet assurance. “I know you can.”
“He’s awfully powerful,” Danny cautioned dubiously.
“So are we,” Arla exclaimed. Her eyes glistened. “You don’t know yet.”
Danny grinned boyishly. “Sure we are,” he declared. “Tell me what to do.”
“He’s coming,” Danny whispered excitedly. “I feel him.” He gazed at Arla.
“I feel…something.” She glanced at Samul, her voice hushed, then switched her eyes back to Danny. Watching, Samul could all but feel the telepathic messages flashing between them. He looked reassuringly at Yoshi. She smiled faintly.
“Subcommander Gobit has died a thousand deaths!” The words crackled suddenly from the lips of a Tommy. Samul jerked straighter, groping for words.
Danny murmured urgently, “The Tommies…”
Arla nodded violently. “Tommy One, Arla to Zandro. Tommy Two, Arla to Zandro. Tommy Three…” She spoke quickly, without glancing at the androids. Samul held his breath, waiting.
“So, the girl is a telepath?” The words, spilling from the lips of one of the Tommies, sent a chill through Samul’s body.
“Tommy Four, Arla to Zandro.” She murmured the call as if she hadn’t heard. “Tommy Five…” The instant the last name left her lips, she lifted her head, signaling Danny with her eyes.
“She’s one of our mind masters,” Danny said. He spoke aloud. “She’s more powerful than you. She’s driven you from my mind.”
“Then I shall destroy her!”