by Douglas Hill
The galling taste of failure rose in Keill again. He guessed that Quern had paid more heed to Keill's warning than the albino had been willing to admit, and had made his getaway -most likely taking Joss along.
It was past time, Keill thought dismally, to make his own getaway.
He glanced round the bulwark of the outcrop. The Veynaans were almost on them - and carrying hand beamers and energy guns, far more powerful than the out-dated lasers.
"You'll have to move, Shalet !" he shouted urgently. "You'll be cut off in a couple of minutes !'
The big woman nodded and bellowed at her group. They slid down into a gully that ran beneath the outcrop, then hesitated.
'This way," Keill barked. There's a good ridge not so far from here, and my ship is just beyond it. Let's move!'
Instinctively his voice had taken on the commanding tone of a Legion officer.
As instinctively, the five formed up behind him, trotting obediently along as Keill moved ahead along the gully.
The wrinkled, creased slopes of the basin that contained the Home produced plenty of gullies, furrows and shallow ravines, interspersed between its ridges and crests. These low areas offered shelter and a tangled network of paths that might take them neat Keill's ship with a minimum of exposure.
And one quick glance around from the height of the outcrop had given Keill a picture of the terrain, now printed like a three-dimensional map on his mind's eye. He could see the twisting, mazy route that he must take as if it were a bright ted meandering line on that map.
Urging Shalet and the others to greater speed, he raced ahead of them along that route, more and more desperate to get out of the basin, up on to the ridge where Glr was waiting.
But around a craggy shoulder of rock, where one gully intersected another, the way was blocked.
Two Veynaan soldiers, on the level floor of the gully, spun towards him, guns sweeping round.
Keill was still unarmed. But the Veynaan beams blasted nothing but rock behind him as he flung himself into a flat dive to one side, against the rough, sloping rock at the side of the gully.
His hands struck for an instant, and then he rebounded as if his arms were springs. The battering-ram impact of his boots flung the first Veynaan off his feet - and Keill followed through into a twisting roll, reaching for the first soldier's dropped gun as that of the second man spurted flame.
The beam blistered rock only centimetres away from Keill's rolling form, but the Veynaan had no second chance. Behind Keill, Shalet's laser fizzed, and the Veynaan dropped.
Keill sprang up, holding the first soldier's gun, grinning tautly at Shalet.
"I've got a lot to thank you for."
Her echoing smile flashed. "I reckon we're about even." Then the smile faded to seriousness. "Keill - that ship of yours. I reckon we ain't comin'."
Keill looked surprised. Beyond the gully, the thunderous fire of the Veynaan fighters had become only sporadic now. But the air was torn with the blazing crackle of energy guns, the shrieks of fleeing and dying people and scattered bursts of answering laser fire, as the Veynaan forces advanced upon the overwhelmingly outnumbered Clusterfolk.
Shalet shrugged. "We ain't gonna win this fight, but we ain't gonna run from it either." Her eyes misted slightly. i wish we'd listened to you. I wish we'd stopped Quern."
'So do I." He took her hand, groping for the right words to gay. But the words never came.
Instead, a heart-stopping sound froze him in his tracks.
A scream. His own name, in a scream of pure agony and terror, drawn-out, weakening, trailing away.
And a scream that was silent. That was heard only in his mind.
Glr.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Keill raced over the rocks like a blind, unstoppable projectile, arrowing in a perfectly straight line towards the steep ridge that hid his ship.
He had hardly been aware of Shalet's grunt of surprise as he had suddenly flung himself away, up the slope of the gully at top speed. He" hardly looked at the crumbling, cracked, treacherous surface of the rocks beneath him, letting instinct and reflexes maintain his sure-footed balance. He was unaware of the occasional random energy beam that sizzled past him or splintered rock at his feet, as he sprinted across the furrowed terrain. He did not even think of the Veynaan gun that he had acquired, and that he had thrust into his belt at his back, to keep it out of the way during his half-crouched, headlong dash.
But for all his blazing speed, for all the unthinking cold fear and fury that gripped him, he was still a legionary. Though he leaped without slowing up the near slope of the ridge that he sought, he slid at once to a halt before reaching the top, and raised his head with slow caution to peer over the crest towards his ship.
It rested as he had left it. No Veynaan energy beam seemed to have been flung at it; no sound or sign of movement came from it.
But the ship had been landed so that the airlock was on the far side, not visible from where Keill crouched. He ghosted over the lip of the ridge, down the far slope, circling the ship.
The airlock was open, the landing ramp extended. And at the foot of the ramp stood a menacing, hulking figure.
Groll - with a laserifle levelled at KeilTs chest, and a brutal smile twisting his thick lips.
'Master Quern said you'd be along." The smile broadened. "Always right, him."
Groll could not have seen the Veynaan gun, in Keill's belt at the back. But Keill did not reach for it - did not respond directly in any way. Instead, the strength seemed to drain out of him. His head dropped, his shoulders slumped, his hands dangled limply at his sides. He stumbled slightly as he moved towards the ship.
Groll grinned cruelly at the visible signs of defeat. "Took on more'n y" c'd handle, didn't y', legionary?" He motioned abruptly with the rifle towards the ramp. cIn y" go."
Keill moved forward like a sleepwalker. Groll stepped aside, the rifle unwavering, as Keill reached the foot of the ramp. He took a plodding step up, then another. One more would bring him level with the watchful Groll, and the gun at Keill's back would be visible.
He began the next step, then seemed to stumble again, sagging forward.
Groll, chuckling coarsely, swung the rifle around, the heavy butt lashing out brutally to drive Keill forward.
But it missed its target
In that fragment of time Keill's right hand blurred -reaching back, plucking the Veynaan gun from his belt, firing unerringly across his back.
And Groll's heavy body crashed backwards to the ground, his chest a smoking ruin.
Keill turned towards the airlock. But before he could take the four paces into his ship, a voice floated out to him from within.
A voice cold as death itself, tinged with laughter that bore an infinity of malice. The voice of Quern. "If that was your gun, Randor - and I'm sure it was - throw it into the ship. And then follow it in very carefully. Or I shall turn this creature of yours into ashes."
Keill scarcely hesitated. The gun went clattering in through the airlock, and he walked in after it, keeping his hands visible.
But as he stepped through the inner door, he stopped as if he had been struck.
The blood congealed in his veins, his mind reeled.
Glr lay in a crumpled heap on top of the control panel.
She lay on her side, motionless, her hands limp, her eyes blank and sightless, her wings half-opened beneath her like crumpled leaves.
'Tricked you!" Quern's gloating laughter resounded from the bulkheads. It is already deadl And so will you be, legionary, if you movel'
Keill turned slowly, painfully, as if his muscles were strangers to him. Quern stood towards the rear of the ship's interior, a beam-gun levelled at Keill.
The albino's red eyes drilled into him, the manic laughter slashing like a whip. At once within Keill the numbness of shock gave way to a volcanic flood of killing fury. He was on the point of launching himself at Quern's throat, whatever the energy gun did to him in the process.
/> But Quern saw the blazing rage in Keill's eyes and took a nervous step backwards. As he did so, the black metal case slung round his shoulder clanged against the bulkhead.
And that sound sliced through Keill's torrential rage, and reawakened his control.
A still rational fragment of his mind drew conclusions. Quern was still carrying the weapon's activating mechanism; and he was here, not on the shuttle. So there was a chance, for reasons he could not guess, that the weapon had not yet been used.
'Move away!" Quern screamed. "Over by the controls!'
Keill moved as he was directed. The glaring mists of his fury began to clear, and his balanced, cool alertness was restored. There will be a chance, he told himself. To avenge Glr and save the planet, at once, will make victory the sweeter. Quern's gloating smile returned as he saw Keill apparently submissive. He stepped forward, positioning himself near the airlock, the gun held firm. "Now take the ship up," he ordered. "Gently- no tricks with acceleration !'
Keill bent silently over the small body of Glr, lifting her "with care into her special sling-seat, smoothing the limp, delicate wings. Then, obediently, he slid into his own sling-seat and lifted the ship up into the Cluster's yellow sky.
"excellent," Quern snarled. "The Veynaans may well pursue us, but you will be able to enter Overlight before they become dangerous. Set a course to emerge in deep space beyond Veynaa, on its far side." Keill's hands moved over the controls. i was naturally reluctant to perform the final act of this drama without being on hand to watch it," Quern went on. "And it was good of you to provide me with a ship, when the Veynaans destroyed the second shuttle.
I had thought for a moment that I might not personally have the pleasure of pressing the switches."
Keill said nothing, but a fierce triumph leaped within him. The planet was still unharmed.
"Indeed, everything has worked out better than I dared hope." The laughter was a vicious giggle. "When the Veynaans attacked so suddenly I feared that I had lost you. But I might have known you would find a way out. With Shalet's help, no doubt?"
Still silent, Keill puzzled over the vague but ominous meaning of Quern's words. But at least the albino, enjoying what seemed to be his victory, was talking freely.
I thought you wanted to lose me/ he said, letting his voice seem dull, defeated.
'So you have not become speechless?" Quern sniggered.
"Excellent No, you are quite important to me. When we have watched my little show, we will journey awhile together -and I will seek more of your conversation."
In the viewscreens, as Keill's ship left atmosphere, the distant flares of a squad of Veynaan fighters, racing in pursuit, slid into view against the background.of starry vastness. But within seconds, the screens blurred - and the views of deep space were replaced by the blank and empty nothingness of Overlight.
'Then you can tell me more about yourself, legionary," Quern continued, grinning like a skull. "And about that. A telepathic alien - fascinating.
Regrettable that it resisted me, and that my mind-force was too powerful for it. I might have learned many interesting things from it."
"And made The One very pleased," Keill added quietly.
There was a hiss of surprise from Quern. "So your "wing of death" remark was not coincidence," he said, his voice icily thoughtful. "More and more fascinating. A legionary who has survived the death of his world, who comes posing as a wrecked space drifter but has a ship containing a telepathic alien - and who knows more of the Deathwing and its leader than he has any right to know." The red eyes studied Keill like a specimen on a slide. "This mystery will intrigue the Master himself. The One is already looking forward to prying out your secrets."
Something odd in that last remark tried to force itself on Keill's attention.
But he was concentrating instead on the disturbing information that Quern had already contacted the Deathwing's nameless leader, and had passed on information about Keill.
Still, it had to happen sometime, he thought He had been lucky in his first meeting with one of the Deathwing, who had not communicated with his leader before he died at Keill's hands. And in any case it would not matter. He had no intention of remaining the docile prisoner of the maniac who had murdered Glr.
Around him the viewscreens shimmered. The welcome reality of space sprang to life on the screens as the ship emerged from Overlight. Putting the controls on manual, Keill rotated the ship slowly - until a small, bright spheroid that was the planet Veynaa was fixed in the centre of the forward screen.
As he did so, his eye caught a small flare in the distant black depths, and recognized the planetary drive of another ship.
Quern had spotted it too. "Ah, my little fail-safe seems to be in position."
Keill understood at once. "The shuttle?" "Precisely. On its way to the freighter, to stand by. If anything had happened to me—" Quern grinned maliciously at Keill'—they would activate the weapon directly. As it is, when I press the switches, they will know at once, and will have time to get clear."
Quern reached down to the metal case slung round his shoulders and flipped open the lid, to reveal rows of multicoloured switches.
Keill stirred, reaching for words, any words, to create a delay that might give him the opening he needed. "What's going to happen, when you use those switches ?"
The albino smirked. "I wondered if you would be curious. And I am happy to enlighten you. Some of these switches will operate the freighter's controls, bringing it out of Overlight, altering its orbit. That will warn my fail-safe, to get clear. . When the freighter is well into the Veynaan atmosphere, the container of the weapon will be opened - and its contents expelled. Then minute quantities of the radioactive substance will begin a reaction - sub-microscopic at first, accelerating at great speed into a chain reaction.
It alters the very nature of the air itself- so that in moments the planet will be enveloped in a radioactivity that instantly and fatally enters the body of every air-breathing thing." He giggled, horribly. "As you will know, Randor, from having seen Moros." At the mention of his dead world's name, every scrap ofKeill's control was needed to keep him from leaping, suicid-ally, at Quern's throat. But he fought his fury again, and won. Coldly he said, "What is this magical radioactivity? I know of no such substance."
"If you did," Quern tittered, "you would be only the second in the galaxy to know - after myself."
Keill blinked, taken aback by the implications. "You mean that.. .you are..."
'The creator of the weapon, yes," Quern announced, drawing himself up. "I am a scientist, Randor, not a gunman. A great scientist. The radioactivity is my own discovery - and no one in the Deathwing, not the One, not the Master himself, can fathom the physics that led me to it. It is mint, legionary, mine alone !'
If that is true, Keill thought fiercely, then when you die, the secret of this monstrosity dies with you.
'Now," Quern said, red eyes gleaming manically, let us proceed."
Skeletal white fingers clawed over the switches. But the gun in the other hand did not quiver a millimetre. Desperately Keill sought a way to delay a moment longer, perhaps to make Quern forget himself, to make that gun muzzle waver -for just long enough.
"Are you really insane enough," he asked harshly, "to kill so many millions of people ?"
Demonic anger flared in Quern's eyes. Insane? Small minds always see insanity when they look at a superior being !'
Keill shook his head. "I have met superior beings, Quern. One of them lies there." He gestured towards Glr's still form. "Superior beings do not slaughter worlds. Only homicidal maniacs do."
That, he knew, was the turning point, make or break. He was poised like a notched arrow, ready for the faintest opening that Quern might allow.
But Quern allowed none. Perhaps the prospect of destroying Veynaa gripped him too firmly to allow Keill's barbs to undermine his caution. The ted eyes narrowed. Quern stepped away, his back to the airlock, putting more space between himsel
f and Keill.
"I see," he hissed. "You wish to anger me, to make me careless. But you will not I am ready for you, legionary."
A bloodless finger curved over the gun's firing stud.
Would you shoot me, Quern," Keill said quickly, "when the One wants me alive ?"
"The Master's plan requires the destruction of Veynaa," Quern snarled.
"Whatever secrets you might reveal are of secondary importance."
Again, an oddness in the words nudged at Keill's awareness. But he could not focus on it He was too overwhelmingly aware of the task he must perform.
Quern would not be diverted or thrown off balance. The gun remained rock-steady, and within seconds the switches would be thrown.
Keill knew that he would have to charge full into the muzzle of the gun - and would need all his speed and strength and will to stay alive long enough to get his hands on Quern.
And even then the planet would not be preserved - for Quern's "fail-safe" in the shuttle would activate the weapon.
Even so, he thought grimly, it will be worth it His death -and Glr's - would not be entirely meaningless. The Death-wing would not have a live Keill Randor to interrogate, putting the Overseers at risk. And the frightful weapon that was Quern's secret would be lost to the Warlord.
Quern was watching him coldly, the cruel smile twitching at his pale lips.
"Resign yourself, Randor. Be still, and watch the viewscreen. I only wish that I had time to bypass that strange barrier of yours - I would enjoy reading your inner reactions to what you are about to see."
In the last instant before Keill flung himself suicidally at the albino, realization burst like a flare within him.
That was what had been so odd about those earlier remarks! Quern had spoken of prying out his secrets - and now of his "barrier" - as if Kcill's mind was still shielded. Which could only mean...
But before he could complete the thought, Quern screamed.
He staggered backwards, screaming again, a thin shriek of pain. His face was contorted, the veins and cords of his neck jutting like ropes. The beam-gun dropped, harmlessly, and he damped his hands as if in agony to his head.
