by Ray Cummings
XVIII
A fair little world. I had thought so before; and I thought so now asI gazed at the asteroid hanging so close before our bow. A huge, thincrescent, with the Sun off to one side behind it. A silver crescent,tinged with red. From this near vantage point, all of the littleglobe's disc was visible. The seas lay in gray patches. The convexityof the disc was sharply defined. So small a world! Fair and beautiful,shrouded with clouded areas.
"Where is Miko?"
"In the lounge, Gregg?"
"Can we stop there?"
Moa turned into the lounge archway. Strange, tense scene. I saw Anitaat once. Her robed figure lurked in an inconspicuous corner; her eyeswere upon me as Moa and I entered, but she did not move. Thethirty-odd passengers were huddled in a group. Solemn, white-facedmen; frightened women. Some of them were sobbing. One Earth woman--ayoung widow--sat holding her little girl, and wailing withuncontrolled hysteria. The child knew me. As I appeared now, with mygold laced white coat over my shoulders, the little girl seemed to seein my uniform a mark of authority. She left her mother and ran to me.
"You--please, will you help us? My Moms is crying."
I sent her gently back. But there came upon me then a compassion forthese innocent passengers, fated to have embarked on this ill-fatedvoyage. Herded here in this cabin, with brigands like pirates of old,guarding them. Waiting now to be marooned on an uninhabited asteroidroaming in space. A sense of responsibility swept me. I swung uponMiko. He stood with a nonchalant grace, lounging against the wall witha cylinder dangling in his hand. He anticipated me, and was the firstto speak.
"So, Haljan, she put some sense into your head? No more trouble? Thenget into the turret. Moa, stay there with him. Send Hahn here. Whereis that ass, Coniston? We will be in the atmosphere shortly."
I said, "No more trouble from me, Miko. But these passengers--whatpreparation are you making for them on the asteroid?"
He stared in surprise. Then he laughed. "I am no murderer. The crew ispreparing food, all we can spare. And tools. They can build themselvesshelter--they will be picked up in a few weeks."
Dr. Frank was here. I caught his gaze but he did not speak. On thelounge couches there still lay the five bodies. Rankin, who had beenkilled by Blackstone in the fight; a man passenger killed; a woman anda man wounded, as well.
Miko added, "Dr. Frank will take his medical supplies and will carefor the wounded. There are other bodies among the crew." His gesturewas deprecating. "I have not buried them. We will put them ashore;easier that way."
The passengers were all eying me. I said:
"You have nothing to fear. I will guarantee you the best equipment wecan spare." I turned to Miko. "You will give them apparatus with whichto signal?"
"Yes. Get to the turret."
I turned away, with Moa after me. Again the little girl ran forward.
"Come ... speak to my Moms; she is crying."
It was across the cabin from Miko. Coniston had appeared from thedeck; it created a slight diversion. He joined Miko.
"Wait," I said to Moa. "She is afraid of you. This is humanity."
I pushed Moa back. I followed the child. I had seen that Venza wassitting with the child's weeping mother. This was a ruse to get a wordwith me.
I stood before the terrified woman while the child clung to my legs.
I said gently, "Don't be so frightened. Dr. Frank will take care ofyou. There is no danger; you will be safer on the asteroid than hereon the ship." I leaned down and touched her shoulder. "There is nodanger."
I was between Venza and the open cabin. Venza whispered swiftly, "Whenwe are landing, Gregg, I want you to make a commotion--anything--justas the women go ashore."
"Why? Of course you will have food, Mrs. Francis."
"Never mind details! An instant--just confusion. Go, Gregg--don'tspeak now!"
I raised the child. "You take care of Mother." I kissed her.
From across the cabin, Miko's sardonic voice made me turn. "Touchingsentimentality, Haljan! Get to your post in the turret!"
His rasping note of annoyance brooked no delay. I set the child down.I said, "I will land us in an hour. Depend on it."
Hahn was at the controls when Moa and I reached the turret.
"You will land us safely, Haljan?" he demanded anxiously.
I pushed him away. "Miko wants you in the lounge."
"You take command here?"
"Yes. I am no more anxious for a crash than you are, Hahn."
He sighed with relief. "That is true, of course. I am no expert atatmospheric entry."
"Have no fear. Sit down, Moa."
I waved to the lookout in the forward watch tower, and got his routinegesture. I rang the corridor bells, and the normal signals camepromptly back.
I turned to Hahn. "Get along, won't you? Tell Miko that things are allright here."
Hahn's small dark figure, lithe as a leopard in his tight fittingtrousers and jacket with his robe now discarded, went swiftly down thespider incline and across the deck.
"Moa, where is Snap? By the infernal--if he has been injured--"
Up on the radio room bridge, the brigand guard still sat. Then I sawthat Snap was out there sitting with him. I waved from the turretwindow, and Snap's cheery gesture answered me. His voice carried downthrough the silver moonlight: "Land us safely, Gregg. These weirdamateur navigators!"
Within the hour I had us dropping into the asteroid's atmosphere. Theship heated steadily. The pressure went up. It kept me busy with theinstruments and the calculations. But my signals were always promptlyanswered from below. The brigand crew did its part efficiently.
At a hundred and fifty thousand feet I shifted the gravity plates tothe landing combinations, and started the electronic engines.
"All safe, Gregg?" Moa sat at my elbow; her eyes, with what seem aglow of admiration in them, followed my busy routine activities.
"Yes. The crew works well."
The electronic streams flowed out like a rocket tail behind us. The_Planetara_ caught their impetus. In the rarefied air, our bow liftedslightly, like a ship riding a gentle ground swell. At a hundredthousand feet we sailed gently forward, hull down to the asteroid'ssurface, cruising to seek a landing space.
A little sea was now beneath us. A shadowed sea, deep purple in thenight down there. Occasional verdurous islands showed, with the linesof white surf marking them. Beyond the sea, a curving coastline wasvisible. Rocky headlines, behind which mountain foothills rose inserrated, verdurous ranks. The sunlight edged the distant mountains;and presently this rapidly turning little world brought the sunlightforward.
It was day beneath us. We slid gently downward. Thirty thousand feetnow, above a sparkling blue ocean. The coastline was just ahead; greenwith a lush, tropical vegetation. Giant trees, huge-leaved. Long,dangling vines; air plants, with giant pods and vivid orchidlikeblossoms.
I sat at the turret window, staring through my glasses. A fair, littleworld, yet obviously uninhabited. I could fancy that all this wasnewly sprung vegetation. This asteroid had whirled in from the cold ofthe interplanetary space, far outside our solar system. A few yearsago--as time might be measured astronomically, it was no more thanyesterday--this fair landscape was congealed white and bleak with asweep of glacial ice. But the seeds of life miraculously were here.The miracle of life! Under the warming, germinating sunlight, theverdure had sprung.
"Can you find landing space, Gregg?" Moa's question brought back mywandering fancies. I saw an upland glade, a level spread of ferns withthe forest banked around it. A cliff height nearby, frowning down atthe sea.
"Yes. I can land us there." I showed her through the glasses. I rangthe sirens, and we spiraled, descending further. The mountain topswere now close beneath us. Clouds were overhead, white masses withblue sky behind them. A day of brilliant sunlight. But soon, with ourforward cruising, it was night. The sunlight dropped beneath thesharply convex horizon; the sea and the land went purple.
A night of brilliant stars; th
e Earth was a blazing blue-red point oflight. The heavens visibly were revolving; in an hour or so it wouldbe daylight again.
On the forward deck now Coniston had appeared, commanding half a dozenof the crew. They were carrying up caskets of food and the equipmentwhich was to be given the marooned passengers. And making ready thedisembarking incline, loosening the seals of the side dome windows.
Sternward on the deck, by the lounge oval, I could see Miko standing.And occasionally the roar of his voice at the passengers, sounded.
My vagrant thoughts flung back into Earth's history. Like this,ancient travelers of the surface of the sea were herded by pirates towalk the plank, or be put ashore, marooned upon some fair desertisland of the tropic Spanish main.
Hahn came mounting our turret incline. "All is well, Gregg Haljan?"
"Get to your work," Moa told him sharply.
He retreated, joining the bustle and confusion which now was beginningon the deck. It struck me--could I turn that confusion to account?Would it be possible, now at the last moment, to attack thesebrigands? Snap still sat outside the radio room doorway. But his guardwas alert with upraised projector. And that guard, I saw, in hisposition, commanded all the deck.
And I saw too, as the passengers now were herded in a line from thelounge oval, that Miko had roped and bound all of the men, a clankingchain connected them. They came like a line of convicts, marchingforward, and stopped on the open deck near the base of the turret. Dr.Frank's grim face gazed up at me.
Miko ordered the women and children in a group beside the chained men.His words to them reached me: "You are in no danger. When we land, becareful. You will find gravity very different--this is a very smallworld."
I flung on the landing lights; the deck glowed with the blue radiance;the searchbeams shot down beside our hull. We hung now a thousand feetabove the forest glade. I cut off the electronic streams. We poised,with the gravity plates set at normal, and only a gentle night breezeto give us a slight side drift. This I could control with the lateralpropeller rudders.
For all my busy landing routine, my mind was on other things. Venza'sswift words back there in the lounge. I was to create a commotionwhile the passengers were landing. Why? Had she and Dr. Frank somelast minute desperate purposes?
I determined I would do what she said. Shout, or mis-order the lights.That would be easy.
I was glad it was night. I had, indeed, calculated our descent so thatthe landing would be in darkness. But to what purpose? These brigandswere very alert. There was nothing I could think of to do which wouldavail us anything more than a probable swift death under Miko's anger.
"Well done, Gregg!" said Moa.
I cut off the last of the propellers. With scarcely a perceptible jar,the _Planetara_ grounded, rose like a feather, and settled to rest inthe glade. The deep purple night with stars overhead was around us. Ihissed out our interior air through the dome and hull ports, andadmitted the night air of the asteroid. My calculations--of necessitymere mathematical approximations--proved fairly accurate. Intemperature and pressure there was no radical change as the domewindows slid back.
We had landed. Whatever Venza's purpose, her moment was at hand. I wastense. But I was aware also, that beside me Moa was very alert. I hadthought her unarmed. She was not. She sat back from me; in her handwas a long thin knife blade.
She murmured tensely, "You have done your part, Gregg. Well andskillfully done. Now we will sit here quietly and watch them land."
Snap's guard was standing, keenly watching. The lookouts in theforward and stern towers were also armed; I could see them both gazingkeenly down at the confusion of the blue lit deck.
The incline went over the hull side and touched the ground.
"Enough!" Miko roared. "The men first. Hahn, move the women back!Coniston, pile those caskets to the side. Get out of the way, Prince."
Anita was down there. I saw her at the edge of the group of women.Venza was near her.
Miko shoved her. "Get out of the way, Prince. You can help Coniston.Have the things ready to throw off."
Five of the steward crew were at the head of the incline. Miko shoutedup at me:
"Haljan, hold our shipboard gravity normal."
"Yes."
The line of men were first to descend. Dr. Frank led them. He flasheda look of farewell up at me and Snap as he went down the incline withthe chained men passengers after him.
Motley procession! Twenty odd, disheveled, half-clothed men of theseworlds. The changing, lightening gravity on the incline caught them.Dr. Frank bounded up to the rail under the impetus of his step; caughtand held himself. Drew himself back. The line swayed. In the dim, bluelit glare it seemed unreal, crazy. A grotesque dream of men descendinga plank.
They reached the forest glade. Stood swaying, afraid at first to move.The purple night crowded them; they stood gazing at this strangeworld, their new prison.
"Now the women."
Miko was shoving the women to the head of the incline. I could feelMoa's gaze upon me. Her knife gleamed in the turret light.
She murmured again, "In a few moments you can bring us away, Gregg."
I felt like an actor awaiting his cue in the wings of some turgiddrama the plot of which he did not know. Venza was near the head ofthe incline. Some of the women and children were on it. A womanscreamed. Her child had slipped from her hand; bounded up over therail and fallen. Hardly fallen--floated down to the ground, withflailing arms and legs, landing in the dark ferns unharmed. Itsterrified wail came up.
There was a confusion on the incline. Venza, still on the deck, seemedto send a look of appeal to the turret. My cue?
I slid my hand to the light switchboard. It was near my knees. Ipulled a switch. The blue lit deck beneath the turret went dark.
I recall an instant of horrible, tense silence, and in the gloombeside me I was aware of Moa moving. I felt a thrill of instinctivefear--would she plunge that knife into me?
The silence of the darkened deck was broken with a confusion ofsounds. A babble of voices; a woman passenger's scream; shufflingfeet; and above it all, Miko's roar:
"Stand quiet! Everyone! No movement!"
On the descending incline there was chaos. The disembarking women wereclinging to the gang rail; some of them had evidently surged forwardand fallen. Down on the ground in the purple-shadowed starlight, Icould vaguely see the chained line of men. They too, were inconfusion, trying to shove themselves toward the fallen women.
Miko roared: "Light those tubes! Gregg Haljan! By the Almighty, Moa,are you up there? What is wrong? The light tubes--"
Dark drama of unknown plot! I wondered if I should try and leave theturret. Where was Anita? She had been down there on the deck when Iflung out the lights.
I think twenty seconds would have covered it all. I had not moved. Ithought, "Is Snap concerned with this?"
Moa's knife could have stabbed me. I felt her lunge against me. Andsuddenly I was gripping her, twisting her wrist. But she flung theknife away. Her strength was almost the equal of my own. Her hand wentfor my throat, and with the other hand she was fumbling.
The deck abruptly sprang into light again. Moa had found the switchand threw it back.
She fought me as I tried to reach the switch. I saw down on the deck.Miko was gazing up at us. Moa panted, "Gregg--stop! If he sees youdoing this, he'll kill you."
The scene down there was almost unchanged. I had answered my cue. Towhat purpose? I saw Anita near Miko. The last of the women were on theplank.
I had stopped struggling with Moa. She sat back, panting. And then shecalled:
"Sorry, Miko. It will not happen again."
Miko was in a towering rage. But he was too busy to bother with me;his anger swung on those nearest him. He shoved the last of the womenviolently at the incline. She bounded over. Her body, with the gravitypull of only a few Earth pounds, sailed in an arc and dropped nearthe swaying line of men.
Miko swung back. "Get out of my way!" A sweep of his huge
arm knockedAnita sidewise. "Prince, damn you, help me with those boxes!"
The frightened stewards were lifting the boxes, square metal storagechests each as long as a man, packed with food, tools, and equipment.
"Here, get out of my way! All of you!"
My breath came again; Anita nimbly retreated before Miko's angry rush.He dashed at the stewards. Three of them held a box. He took it fromthem; raised it at the top of the incline, poised it over his head aninstant, with his massive arms like gray pillars beneath it; and flungit. The box catapulted, dropped; and then passing the _Planetara's_gravity area, it sailed in a long flat arc over the forest glade andcrashed into the purple underbrush.
"Give me another!"
The stewards pushed another at him. Like an angry Titan, he flung it.And another. One by one the chests sailed out and crashed.
"There is your food. Go pick it up! Haljan, make ready to ring usaway!"
On the deck lay the dead body of Rance Rankin, which the stewards hadcarried out. Miko seized it: flung it.
"There! Go to your last resting place!"
And the other bodies, Balch, Blackstone, Captain Carter, Johnson--Mikoflung them all. And the course masters and those of our crew who hadbeen killed.
The passengers were all on the ground now. It was dim down there. Itried to distinguish Venza, but could not. I could see Dr. Frank'sfigure at the end of the chained line of men. The passengers weregazing in horror at the bodies hurtling over them.
"Ready, Haljan?"
Moa prompted me. "Tell him yes!"
I called, "Yes!" Had Venza failed in her unknown purpose? It seemedso. On the radio room bridge Snap and his guard stood like silentstatues in the blue lit gloom.
The disembarkation was over.
"Close the ports!" Miko commanded.
The incline came folding up with a clatter. The port and dome windowsslid closed. Moa hissed against my ear:
"If you want life, Gregg Haljan, you will start your duties!"
Venza had failed. Whatever it was, it had come to nothing. Down in thepurple forest, disconnected now from the ship, the last of our friendsstood marooned. I could distinguish them through the blur of theclosed dome--only a swaying, huddled group was visible. But my fancypictured this last sight of them, Dr. Frank, Venza, Shac and DudArdley.
They were gone. There were left only Snap, Anita and myself.
I was mechanically ringing us away. I heard my sirens sounding downbelow, with the answering clangs here in the turret. The _Planetara's_respiratory controls started; the pressure equalizers began operating;and the gravity plates began shifting into lifting combinations.
The ship was hissing and quivering with it, combined with the gratingof the last of the dome ports. And Miko's command:
"Lift, Haljan!"
Hahn had been mingling with the confusion of the deck though I hadhardly noticed him. Coniston had remained below with the crewanswering my signals. Hahn stood now with Miko, gazing down through adeck window. Anita was alone at another.
"Lift, Haljan!"
I lifted up gently, bow first, with a repulsion of the bow plates. Andstarted the central electronic engine. Its thrust from the stern movedus diagonally over the purple forest trees.
The glade slid downward and away. I caught a last vague glimpse ofthe huddled group of marooned passengers, staring up at us. Left totheir fate, alone on this deserted world.
With the three engines going, we slid smoothly upward. The forestdropped, a purple spread of treetops edged with starlight andEarthlight. The sharply curving horizon seemed to follow us upward. Iswung on all the power. We mounted at a forty degree angle, slowlycircling, with a bank of clouds over us to the side and the shininglittle sea beneath.
"Very good, Gregg." In the turret light Moa's eyes blazed at me. "I donot know what you meant by darkening the deck lights." Her fingers dugat my shoulders. "I will tell my brother it was an error."
I said, "An error--yes."
"I didn't know what it was. But you have me to deal with now. Youunderstand? I will tell my brother so. You said, 'On Earth a man maykill the thing he loves.' A woman of Mars may do that! Beware of me,Gregg Haljan."
Her passion-filled eyes bored into me. Love? Hate? The venom of awoman scorned--a mingling of turgid emotions....
I twisted back from her grip and ignored her. She sat back, silentlywatching my busy activities: the calculations of the shiftingconditions of gravity, pressures, temperatures; a checking of theinstruments on the board before me.
Mechanical routine. My mind went to Venza, back there on the asteroid.The wandering little world was already shrinking to a convex surfacebeneath us. Venza, with her last unknown play, gone to failure. Had Imissed my cue? Whatever my part, it seemed now that I must havehorribly misacted it.
The crescent Earth was presently swinging over our bow. We rocketedout of the asteroid's shadow. The glowing, flaming Sun appeared,making a crescent of the Earth. With the glass I could see our tinyMoon, visually seeming to hug the limb of its parent Earth.
We were on our course to the Moon. My mind flung ahead. Grantlinewith his treasure, unsuspecting this brigand ship. And suddenly,beyond all thought of Grantline, there came to me a fear for Anita. InGod's truth I had been, so far, a very stumbling, inept champion,doomed to failure with everything I tried. Why had I not contrived tohave Anita desert at the asteroid? Would it not have been far betterfor her there, taking her chance for rescue with Dr. Frank, Venza andthe others?
But no! I had, like a fool, never thought of that! Had let her remainhere on board at the mercy of these outlaws.
And I swore now, that beyond everything, I would protect her.
Futile oath! If I could have seen ahead a few hours! But I sensed thecatastrophe. There was a shudder within me as I sat in that turret,docilely guiding us out through the asteroid's atmosphere, heading usupon our course for the Moon.
