Stairway to the Stars
Page 3
his webbed hands. Finally he placed his fingers on thelargest of the control switches--then changed his mind and gesturedimperatively to Judge Ray.
"You--the 'intelligent' one," he said. The quotes around 'intelligent'were clear in his intonation. "Explain this to me. It's obviously whatreactivated the gate--but whoever made it did a screwball job. There areall sorts of things that don't seem to belong, and even the parts thatshould be there seem wrong, somehow...."
He paused. "Of course," he added, smugly, "I'm not a transportationexpert. If I were, I'd have made my own activator long ago, and donesome visiting on the closed worlds before this. Not that they'd havekept me from getting bored for long, but yours looks as if it's going tobe slightly amusing, at least."
A struggle showed in Ray's face. Farmer saw insulted anger, hurt pride,a desire to brag about his gadgetry, a question about Garf's last words,and a caution that was not too far from fear. John Andrew had stoppedtrying to hide his own fear, and though he had plenty of questions ofhis own, he was mainly concerned with looking for a means of escape.
Garf was rising again, looking impatient. Ray reached a decision, said"Go to hell!", and turned his back on the fishman. Garf lookedastonished, then angry, and raised a hand. Ray jumped, not very farbecause of the heavy diving suit, stumbled on oddly twisted legs, andcollapsed on the deck, writhing, moaning, and turning red in the face.The diving helmet clattered on the planks.
Farmer got mad. He started to charge across the deck at Garf, but hisown feet went out from under him and he landed flat on his nose. Therewere waves of fire chasing each other around his body, and his stomachwas trying to turn itself inside out.
* * * * *
As instantaneously as it had come, the pain left him. It left him weakand quivering, and John Andrew Farmer lay on his back waiting for hisstrength to seep back. As the red haze drifted from before his eyes, herealized that the launch had acquired another occupant.
In appearance, she could easily have been Garf's sister--or his wife.Her figure was lithe and nicely curved. Her scales stopped ineye-catching points just above her distinctly mammalian bosom; fromthere on up she looked almost completely human. She wasn't wearinganything either. The over-all effect was oddly beautiful. Farmer blushedhotly, and tried to keep his eyes on her face.
Not that it made any difference to her. She ignored everyone andeverything but the fishman. Glaring at him angrily, she snapped out hisname in an icy voice. "Garf!"
"Dor!"
Garf was a changed fishman; he looked faintly frightened, moderatelyworried, and definitely embarrassed. This passed, and he started tosmile in a placating manner.
"Garf!" Dor snapped again. She followed it up, this time, with a stringof intricate, foreign-sounding words that even Farmer could tell werehot and stinging.
The fishman backed away. He seemed to be growing angry himself now underthe whiplashing woman's tongue. Finally he spoke, in English. He calledDor a puddle-snake. That wasn't all of what he said, by any means; thename was preceded by several adjectives and followed by an obscenecommand. Dor blanched slightly.
"Oh, yes?" she said, her voice dripping danger. "I can speak thislanguage too, you know--I learned it years ago, before the gate to thisworld was closed! And let me tell you something else...."
She told him something else. John Andrew blushed furiously again, andcovered his ears with his hands.
Little Ray was on his feet, trying to get a word in edgewise, but notsucceeding at all. He too started to get angry. Farmer hauled himselfupright, hoping to approach Ray, calm him, and get him to figure a wayout of this madhouse.
Garf yelled an expletive and gestured with his hand. A wave of pure heatswept over the boat, blistering what paint it still boasted. The blowhad been directed at Dor, and she showed that she had absorbed most ofit by wilting visibly--but Farmer felt as much of it as he wanted. Itwas as if a blast furnace had suddenly opened beside him; sweat poppedout on his brow and filmed his eyes. He wondered how uncomfortable hecould get.
A deadly silence descended.
* * * * *
John Andrew was wishing that he could swim when Dor smiled, and he beganto be interested in living again in spite of himself. The girl, hethought, was somehow radiant--really lovely, in spite of her scales andfins. It was peculiar; he'd never liked women at all, and had certainlynever thought he'd like a mermaid, but....
Anyway, he decided, he wasn't going to take sides if the two aliens weregoing to fight it out. His first interest was in saving his own hide;his second, in getting back to shore to give warning of the invasion. Asfor Dor--John Andrew had lived this long without going to the aid of adamsel in distress--without, in fact, ever seeing one that he couldremember, who wasn't obviously more capable of helping herself than hewas. He wasn't going to start rescuing fair maidens now--even if sheneeded rescuing. Still, there was something awfully attractive.... Damn,but he was confused!
Dor's smile didn't really last that long; Farmer's thoughts were goingfast now, somehow. He had finished those just described before Dor said,"All right, Garf. Fun's fun; now let's kiss and make up. After all, it'sillegal for us to be here--not only our own cops, but the GalacticFederation, would be on our necks if they knew. Let's see if we canclose up the gate ourselves or if this needs to be reported. And thenlet's go home."
Garf grinned. "Whatever you say, my dear." He dipped an eyebrow in awink. Behind Dor, the nonapus stirred sluggishly, extended a tentacle,opened a claw, and nipped Dor neatly on the behind. She screeched.
There was an explosion in Farmer's brain. This was too much--Garf hadgone too far! The burly editor plunged across the deck, swinging a fist.To his surprise, Garf did nothing to stop him; probably, John Andrewfigured later, the fishman expected no further trouble from the humansafter the treatment they'd had.
Farmer's haymaker connected.
Garf staggered across the deck until he brought up against the rail,holding his jaw and shaking his head muzzily. Farmer braced himself forretaliation, hoping it would be something less than a bolt of barbedlightning. But Garf remained unpredictable. He mumbled something thatwasn't "Oh the hell with it" but sounded like it, and softly andsilently slid overboard. He disappeared under water with scarcely aripple.
"Good!" Dor said, briskly. "Now, I'll just.... Ah!" She strode directlyto Ray's invention, and Farmer wondered why both the aliens were sointerested in a gadget that didn't work.
* * * * *
Dor wasted no time. She bent over, picked up the machine, yanking wiringloose carelessly, straightened up, turned a beaming smile on Farmer andRay, said "Goodbye," and headed for the rail.
Ray yelped. He started after her, but his progress in the diving suitwas waddling and slow. She reached the rail first and went over. Ray wasnot too far behind, and he slammed his helmet down angrily as he reachedthe rail. Farmer, galvanized belatedly, gave chase as well.
Dor was picking her way slowly down the stone steps, the machine cradledunder her arm. Ray climbed up on the rail, poised there a second, thenattempted a swan dive. John Andrew yelled at him as he arced forward,but it was too late. The old man dropped like a stone, flapping hisarms, bounced slightly on the top step, then slid forward down severalmore steps on his faceplate.
Dor hesitated, her head just above water. She looked at the limp,diving-suited body beside her, then back at the launch and Farmer.Again, she came to a decision quickly.
Bending, leaving a trail of bubbles as her head went under, she set theJudge's invention down on a lower step and picked up the Judge instead.Cradling him in her arms, she started back up again, calling to Farmerto be ready to take her burden aboard.
They got him on the boat with little difficulty, and John Andrew laidhim on the deck as Dor sprang lithely over the rail again, showinginterest in the little fellow's condition. The diving helmet came offeasily, not having been properly fastened down at all. Farmer bentanxiously over the Judge, looking
for signs of life.
The diving suit had shipped some water, and the Judge had gotten a nastycrack on the head--but he was a tough bozo. There was no blood, hisbreathing seemed almost normal, and he already showed signs of returningconsciousness.
John Andrew turned to Dor. "Well, I should thank you for bringing himback, I guess," he muttered. "But now that you're with us again"--heshot out a big paw and grabbed her by the wrist--"how about explainingsome of this?"
He was very gentle with the wrist. He didn't want to hurt her; he waswondering already, in fact, what had made him get so rough at all. Butshe didn't seem to mind.
"I've got to go quickly," she told him. "I think Garf will be all rightnow, but he may take a notion to