by Harl Vincent
CHAPTER XI
_Disaster_
The great crystal sphere on the central pedestal was ablaze with thescarlet warning signal of the Supreme Council. A sonorous voice fromits depths boomed out above the clamor.
"Kill them! Kill the Earth men," it roared. "The Zara is dead andIanito has vanished. Denari has mounted the throne, and it is he whocommands you. Kill the traitors!"
But the Llotta and the green-bronze guards needed no command from thenew ruler of Antrid. These devils from Earth had tampered with the lastrocket-tube charge; probably had caused serious damage to the tubeitself. They must die.
Only the guards were armed, and the Llotta swarmed so closely inpursuit of the fugitives that it was impossible for them to use theirray pistols. At the great iron gate that now closed the exit stood theguard who had admitted them. Tommy's pistol spurted blue flame and hewas enveloped by the destroying energy.
Ulana screamed as a Llott grasped her, wrenching the iron bar from herhands. Blaine covered the intervening distance in a bound and his fistcrashed to the fellow's jaw, snapping back his head and lifting him offhis feet. He crashed to the floor plates an inert heap and the Earthman recovered the pinch bar.
Pocketing his pistol, he swung the bar with both hands in mightycircles that took terrible toll of the Llotta. They fell back beforethe onslaught of the infuriated Terrestrial, leaving eight of theirnumber dead or dying with crashed skulls and broken ribs and arms.
* * * * *
"Open the gate, Tommy," he shouted. "Use your pistol on the lock if youhave to." A guard was coming at him and he ducked to the floor as theblue flame crackled, singeing the hair from his head and blistering thescalp as it spent its charge in fusing a cross member from one of thesteel columns nearby.
He fired from under his prostrate body and the guard thrashed his armswildly in the blue mist, then stiffened to a sparkling vanishing figurewithin the dissipating vapor.
A gas grenade burst at his side and Blaine sprang to his feet, runningfrom the spreading sulphurous cloud. The gate was open and its lockdropped molten metal. Good old Tommy!
The poison gas hid them from their pursuers for the moment and theywere through the gate, all three.
"Get back!" Blaine shouted: "the gas!" He held his breath and closedhis eyes as he slammed the gate and wedged it with the pinch bar hestill carried. That would hold them for a while.
The gas was upon him and his skin flamed scorching hot from thecontact. He mustn't breathe: mustn't open his eyes. He groped there inthe scalding vapor, blindly. Tommy had him by the wrist then, dragginghim away. Ulana was calling somewhere there in the darkness. His lungswere bursting. And then he knew the air was pure, and he exhaled thelong pent breath noisily, and inhaled deeply.
Eyes smarting and head reeling, he saw Ulana through a haze of dancingsmoke wisps he knew were illusory. She was safe, thank God! They wereon the moving platform then, on the return side, and his strength wasreturning. Narrow escape, he'd had, from that lung-rotting gas. Ulanasmiled happily when his vision cleared.
* * * * *
The speeding platform carried them swiftly toward the lift that hadbrought them down. What if the lift would not operate? This Denarimight well have shut off the power or even returned the cage to theupper end of the shaft.
"Boy, oh boy," Tommy was saying, "you sure did gum up the works. Knowwhat happened?"
"Plenty, from the look of things," Blaine smiled grimly.
"I'll say. You cut down the dry soil ratio a third. Not sure of theexact reaction, but the expansion was too rapid. Explosion followedbefore the air could be driven from the tube. I'll bet the big cannonwas wrecked somewhere overhead. Boy, what a blast!"
As if the last sentence were a prophecy, there came a terrific jar thattwisted the platform violently from under them. They were thrownheadlong and an awe-inspiring rumbling came up from the vitals ofAntrid. An earthquake! The tortured satellite could not withstand thestrains set up by the tremendous reactive force of the rocket-tube. Thelights snuffed out and the platform came to a grinding stop. One of theunderground power plants was out of commission and they were trappedhere in the stifling darkness.
"Nice fix we're in now!" Tommy grunted where he had fallen.
Blaine, having located Ulana, was relieved to find that she wasunharmed. "Yes," he said slowly; "but there's one thing sure: theycan't follow us here unless they walk."
"Why can't we walk?" Ulana asked with forced cheerfulness. "It isn'tfar now."
"Oh, we can walk all right; we'll have to. And here's hoping we getsomewhere." Tommy, at least, was undaunted so far.
* * * * *
It was their only chance now. Blaine held fast to the girl as they felttheir way along the smooth tunnel wall, and Tom Farley, behind themthere in the darkness, kept up a running fire of small talk that wasutterly irrelevant. Nothing could keep that Irishman down.
After what seemed like miles of steady plodding they glimpsed a lightahead. They quickened their pace. It was the open door at the base ofthe shaft, and the cage of the lift was there, fully lighted andwaiting. Denari had not shut off the power after all. But of course! Itcame to Blaine in a flash; this was a private shaft, used by Ianito inhis clandestine visits to the palace of the Zara and for his own use indescending to the sub-surface chamber at the base of the rocket-tube.Denari did not even know it existed.
Strange they had not been followed. Surely the Llotta could have forcedthat gate back there in a comparatively short time. A mass of fallingrock, shaken loose by the temblor that cut off their light and stoppedthe moving platform, must have closed the tunnel.
They were in the cage now, shooting aloft with smooth acceleration.Tommy fidgeted and paced the floor in the narrow confines like a cagedanimal.
"Lord, man," he said, after a while, "what I wouldn't give for acigarette!"
"Is that all you can think of?" Blaine was sarcastic. His own nerveswere on edge. They were nearing the upper end of the shaft. "Try to doa little thinking about what's going to happen up there above Ilen-dar.We've got to do some tall figuring and some swift scrapping beforewe're through."
"Sure." Tommy shrugged his shoulders. "There'll be a lot of fireworks,I guess. But I wish I had a smoke just the same."
Ulana pouted. They spoke in English and she did not understand. But theexpression of their faces forced a laugh to her lips, one of thosesilvery tinkles that caught at Blaine's heart strings. All thatmattered now was to see her to safety--and happiness.
* * * * *
The cage slowed up and came to rest as the automatic control of itsgravity energy functioned. The door rolled back and Blaine thrust hishead through the opening, pistol in hand.
There on the floor of the corridor that led to the great dome room wasa crumpled figure. Dantor! It couldn't be that they had slain him!Blaine was on his knees by the body, raising the blood-smeared headwith gentle hands. A deep gash extended from over the right temple upinto the scalp and the skull was crushed; a mortal wound. But thedoughty heart of the aged scientist still beat on, weakly, but withdetermination. He opened his eyes and smiled.
"Ah, you have come at last," he sighed. "I have waited here to warn youand advise you."
"Easy now." Blaine straightened the helpless limbs and cradled thedrooping head on his knees. Ulana was beside him, bravely holding backthe sobs that were in her throat.
"I saw--in the crystal," Dantor whispered. "And Denari struck me downwhen I expressed relief at your escape. Carson--Ulana--Farley--you canescape if you do as I say. Antrid is doomed; the incorrectlyproportioned charge burst the rocket-tube in several places and torethe muzzle asunder where it projected from the copper shell of ourworld. With the explosion at the muzzle a huge section of the coppercasing was blown away and the atmosphere of Antrid is now escapingrapidly into the vacuum of space...."
Da
ntor closed his eyes, and a spasm of pain twisted his features.
Tommy expelled a shuddering breath, solemnly expressive.
* * * * *
The aged scientist fought off the grim spectre valiantly. He pattedUlana's hand as his weak voice resumed. "You will take care of her Iknow, Carson. Take her with you to your own world; make her happy." Hefell silent once more.
"But how?" Blaine whispered.
"Oh yes, I am forgetting. The side passage--next one on the right--itleads to a storeroom of the oxygen helmets and vacuum-tight suits inwhich you can step forth from the adjoining airlock. Your space ship isthere ... unharmed.... In it you will be able to return ... and...."
But Dantor's spirit had fled the pain-racked body. Blaine closed hislids and stretched him on the hard metal floor, crossing the thin handson his breast. Ulana sobbed openly for a moment and then bowed her headin silence.
"The last of the Rulans," Blaine said softly, looking down at all thatwas mortal of the Rulan scientist.
"No," Ulana whispered, "I am the last, my Carson."
"You'll become a good American, sweetheart," he said gently. "That is,if we get away from here." There was no time to be lost, at that. Atany moment this Denari might find them. "Come," he begged, drawing herfrom the body, "we must hurry."
Following the passage indicated by Dantor they came at last to an opendoor. A noticeable draft blew outward and Blaine thought grimly of thescenes that were being enacted throughout all Antrid. The air that madelife possible was escaping. And the news broadcasts from Ilen-dar wouldhave notified the entire population by this time. There would berioting, panics, murder and suicide in the cities of the accursedLlotta and in their subject countries. A frantic effort of thescientists to stop the gap would avail them nothing: it was animpossible task now. The construction of the great shell had been adifferent matter; there was some natural atmosphere remaining in thosedays. And, finally, they would suffocate, every last one of them.They'd die miserably, purple of face and with swollen tonguesprotruding.
* * * * *
The open door led to a railed-in balcony that looked out over the domeroom. Machines still hummed there but the place was deserted save for afew scattered corpses: probably those of the Llotta who had objectedwhen Denari usurped the throne.
A second door opened from the balcony into the store room of themoon-suits. At least these helmeted contraptions resembled theso-called moon-suits used by inhabitants of the inner planets when theyvisited a body having no atmosphere.
Ulana needed some assistance with the bulky equipment, and then Blaineclimbed into another of the suits and locked his helmet. A moment laterthey were in the air-lock with Tommy, who had attired himself morequickly and was operating the controls.
At the outer hatch they waited until the air pressure reduced to apractically complete vacuum. Their suits distended ludicrously now bythe pressure within, they unclamped the hatch and stepped out to thesurface of the great copper shell. It vibrated under their feet to theblast from the huge gap that was not five miles distant.
The RX8 was there as Dantor had said, a slim tapered, cylinder thatgleamed, a thing of beauty, in the reflected light of Jupiter which nowwas millions of miles distant. The sun was not visible and the light ofthe mother planet cast long shadows on the copper plates. Pelting iceparticles clattered resoundingly against the metal helmets: frozenmoisture from the escaping air of Antrid.
Blaine cried out in surprise; then remembered his companions could nothear him. There were moving shadows over there, four of them, nearingthe hull of the RX8. The Llotta had beat them to it. Denari, no doubt,intending to escape with a chosen few of his subjects. He broke into arun through the now blinding hail storm. He would have to head themoff; else, Ulana was lost, they all were lost.
CHAPTER XII
_The Last of Antrid_
Tommy was running beside him now and Ulana was not far behind. They toohad seen the danger. If they could not reach the vessel ahead of theLlotta; would not fight them off and gain possession, it was all off.They'd die here, horribly, on the roof of Antrid.
And the ray pistols were useless: they could not be fired inside theballooning fabric of their suits without destroying it and themselves.There were only the hooks that were attached to the bulgingsleeves--iron hooks for lifting--but these were heavy and sharppointed. They might be of some use, at that.
Once they were completely blinded by a deluge of ice particles, Blainecould see neither the RX8 nor the waddling figures of the Llotta. Heclung to his companions by means of the hooks, interlocking his withtheirs, and waited for the storm to ease off. If ever it would!Pressing the thick glass window of his helmet against that of Ulana's,he saw that her eyes were wide with terror. But she smiled bravely andnodded encouragement. What a girl!
There was a momentary clearing a little way from the white wall and hesaw the hull of the ship, a dim shape that loomed suddenly distinct andnear. They dashed for the open port, still holding together.
One of the bulging, helmeted Llotta had reached the port and wasscrambling inside. Blaine loosed himself and pounced on him, swingingone of his hooks in a sweeping, clawing arc. It caught in the fabric ofthe fellow's suit, ripping a foot-long slit. Like a punctured ballon itdeflated and became a shriveled, clinging thing. The Llott hung thereover the rim of the port, instantly suffocated and frozen stiff in thevacuum and intense cold of space as the air and heat of the suit wasdissipated.
* * * * *
Blaine dragged the rigid body from the opening and flung it to thewhite powdered copper surface. Wheeling, he saw that another of theLlotta had engaged Tommy. Two of them: in fact, there were threeswollen figures in that mix-up. And the fourth was advancing on asmaller figure that turned and ran. Ulana! In a flash he was afterthem. Tom Farley would have to look out for himself, poor devil. Withtwo of them against him, the outcome was dubious.
And then came a second snow-like deluge of white particles. He stumbledon, groping blindly; slipping, sliding in the precarious footing. Itwas ankle deep now, that powdery carpet of ice particles. Oh God, ifthat Llott devil got Ulana! He groaned aloud, a hideous mournful echoin the confines of the helmet. Groping, staggering there in the whitesilence, he gave up hope. The white-carpeted shell of Antrid heavedmightily from the force of some new concussion within, and threw Blainescrambling.
Crawling now, feeling his way over the shuddering surface, he saw a dimhuddled mass there in the pelting rain of ice. Moving, it was! Twobloated figures, one large and one small, rolling over and over: Ulanaand the Llott who had chased her! He was there in one mad scramble andhad dragged the fellow from her; was astride the rubbery inflatedcovering, clawing and tearing. The thing collapsed and went flatbetween his knees. He saw the mist of moisture-laden escaping air; feltthe quick swelling and the jarring collapse as internal organs explodedfrom the atmospheric pressure inside the brute's body. Nauseated, hecrawled away from the dead, grotesque-looking figure.
Ulana was on her knees, endeavoring to get to her feet. She had notbeen harmed, thanks to his good fortune in finding them. But where wasthe RX8? In the awful white silence, broken only by the eery patter ofthe ice particles on helmets and fabric, all sense of direction waslost. Through the double thickness of helmet lenses he looked intoUlana's eyes: for the last time, he thought.
* * * * *
And then the white shroud lifted once more. The ship was there, not ahundred yards distant! Tommy still battled one of the Llotta,desperately circling the wary, grotesquely bobbing figure and swingingthose terrible slashing hooks. The other was down, almost covered withwhite. Out of the picture, that one, but the remaining Llott was givinghis friend a tough time of it. With the girl clinging to him, theirarms hooked fast, he scuttled over the treacherous, ice-powderedcopper. He had to get there quickly, and help.
Tom Farley slipped and
fell heavily. The Llott was on him in a flashand they struggled madly there in splashings of white that hid themfrom view for a moment. Then one of them was up and the other laystill, a surprisingly shrunken and motionless figure.
The victor was coming at him then, bloated arms lashing out in swift,vicious circles. He had got Tommy, the damned swine! Blaine met hisrush with a flying tackle that brought him down crashing. He lay still,the devil, knocked out probably by the metal helmet contacting with hisskull. With arm poised for that slashing swing that would send him intoeternity, Blaine peered through the lens of his helmet. His heartstopped beating and the upraised arm fell limp. This was no Llott: itwas Tom Farley! Good Lord, he would have killed him in another second!
He tried to shake him; to bring him to. But he couldn't get hold of thebulging suit anywhere without danger of slashing it with one of thosehooks. What if that fall had been fatal! Ulana was at his side now andhe stared at her, white-faced, trembling in his uncertainty and horror.
And then Tommy opened his eyes. They saw him shake his head to clear itand then he, too, stared in horror. How close a call! Friend killingfriend, out here in the air-less cold on the shivering shell of thedying alien world!
They helped him to his feet and through the entrance manhole. His mindawhirl with emotion, Blaine saw that Ulana was inside and then followedas in a dream. He bolted the outer cover and turned the valve thatwould admit air to the lock. Soon they would be inside. With theirprotecting coverings discarded there would be the fresh air of theinterior; light; warmth. Safety for Ulana. Away from the copper-cladworld, they'd be on their way--home.
* * * * *
A little later, Blaine Carson sat at the controls of the RX8, Ulana athis side. Tommy was below, polishing and oiling and fondling hisbeloved machines. The surface of Antrid was visible through theviewing port, twenty miles beneath them and receding rapidly. Swingingin its new orbit, Antrid was gasping its last.
Over there, a few miles to the east, there spouted a column of whitevapor that rose from a heaped up crater of ice which extended in acircle now many miles in diameter. Heavily laden with moisture as itwas, the artificial atmosphere of Antrid provided a vast storm offrozen particles as it escaped into the absolute zero of space. Formany days this would continue and the pressure within would dropgradually, down, down, until the air was so rare it would no longersustain life. And there was no hope of repairing the break: themountain of ice prevented getting at it from outside, and the rush ofair from within made the handling of patch plates and brazing torchesimpossible. Besides, an area of supporting columns of more than a milediameter had been wrecked by the blast of the rocket-tube. It wouldrequire an Earth year to make such a repair, even if they could retainthat atmosphere. Antrid was done for, this time.
Abruptly, Blaine turned his head from the port and gave his attentionto the controls. The RX8 pointed her nose upward, away from thisterrible world of disaster and death--homeward bound. With a tremendousblast from the stern rocket-tubes she headed swiftly into the heavens.A thousand miles, five, ten, they shot into space with ever increasingacceleration.
* * * * *
And then a blazing orb was visible off to one side of the swiftlyreceding globe that was Antrid. Through the floor ports it shone,casting cheerful rays upward to the ceiling where they made a patchworkpattern of the gleaming metal.
"The sun," Ulana breathed, in awe. "I--I've never seen it, my Carson.It is most beautiful."
He drew her to him tenderly. "You'll see it every day, dear," hewhispered, "when we're home."
Home--a wonderful thought! He'd not hoped to see it again; hadn't daredto since Antarro showed his hand back there in the asteroid belt. Andnow it was a reality. He was going home, and with him he wastaking--Ulana.
"You--you think they will approve of me?" she was saying as he sentblasts from the steering rockets to swing them around on a new coursesunward. "Your people, I mean. They will approve of your choice, myCarson?"
Anxiety showed in her wide-eyed gaze and she drew closer as if fearfulof losing him.
If only she knew! If only he had words to tell her!
"Approve of you!" he said huskily. "Lord, girl, they'll love you! Butnot as I love you. It is the biggest thing--"
Tommy's discreet cough came from the head of the companionway. Blaineturned to glare savagely. His friend was standing there, grinning likean idiot and extending a paper-wrapped package.
"Look," he exclaimed guilelessly: "cigarettes. I found them, a wholecarton."
"Well, I'll be damned!" Blaine exploded, careful that he spoke inEnglish. "All you think of, all you've talked about since we left thevessel, is your hankering for a cigarette. For God's sake, get out ofhere and go smoke yourself to death."
But Tommy was advancing, still grinning, still extending the package."Come on, old kid, have one," he insisted. "It'll do you good; quietyour nerves."
And his friend dropped a tantalizing eyelid. In spite of his annoyanceBlaine was forced to laugh. "Oh, all right," he said, reaching for thepackage of smokes; "I'll take one. Just to please you. But, beat itthen, will you?"
* * * * *
Swaggering as he went and casting knowing glances over his shoulder, hewas gone. Great little Irishman, Tommy: always smiling, always there ina pinch, never worried, he was the best friend a man could have. They'dcatch hell when they got back, for losing a part of their preciouscargo. Those miserly k-metal people wouldn't give them credit forsalvaging nine-tenths of the stuff (luckily only about a tenth had beenremoved by the Llotta): they'd only cry about the amount that was lost.And Tom Farley would laugh it off: kid them out of it.
Ulana was smiling as if she understood. She _did_ understand, God blessher. She saw into this wonderful friendship and was glad. It was greatto have a friend like that--and a girl like this.
Hand in hand, they gazed into the heavens before them. To the girl itwas a most marvelous sight, an omen of good fortune and of happiness tocome. She nestled her head into the shoulder of the Earth man as shewatched; spellbound.
For a long time the silence was broken only by the steady muffled purrof the stern rocket-tubes. The aroma of cigarette smoke drifted up thecompanionway.
Out there in the heavens was the sun, Mars, Earth, Venus; the dear oldsolar system was still intact, undisturbed excepting for the slightperturbation in the region of Jupiter. Blaine doubted if the influencewas measurable insofar as changes in the motions of the inner planetswere concerned.
He turned to the eyepiece of the telescope and swung the instrumentaround to bear on the Earth. A cool green crescent was there in thefield of vision: the eastern coast line of the Americas outlined clearand distinct.
"Look, dear," he whispered. "Home! Your new home is there; our hometogether."
She sighed happily as she gazed at the inviting sunlit outlines."Home," she repeated, softly, reverently, "with you, oh my Carson--forall eternity."