The walls were inlaid to the very ceiling. No matter how strange the artistic conventions, Chee could not but respond to an intrinsic nobility. The hues were at once rich and restrained, the images at once heroic and gentle. She did not know what facts or myths or allegories were portrayed; she knew she never would, and that knowledge was an odd small pain. Partly for anodyne, she bent her whole attention to the factual content.
Excitement sprang to life in her. This was the clearest portrayal she
had ever found of the Old Dathynans. Falkayn was digging up their bones where the ship rested, noting crushed skulls and arrowheads lodged in rib cages. But here, by the lamp’s single shaft of light, surrounded by limitless night and cold and wind and beating wings and death, here they themselves looked forth. And a tingle went along Chee Lan’s nerves.
The builders were not unlike Shenna. Falkayn could not prove from his relics that they were not as close as Mongoloid is to Negroid on Earth. In their wordless language, these pictures said otherwise.
It was not mere typological difference. You could get a scale from objects that were shown, like still-extant plants and animals. They indicated the ancients were smaller than today’s race, none over one hundred eighty centimeters tall, more slender, more hairy, though lacking the male mane. Within those limits, however, many variants appeared. In fact, the section that Chee was looking at seemed to make a point of depicting every kind of autochthon, each wearing native costume and holding something that was most likely emblematic of his or her land. Here came a burly golden-furred long-headed male with a sickle in one hand and an uprooted sapling in the other; there stood a tiny dark female in an embroidered robe, a distinct epicanthic fold in her eyelids, playing a harp; yonder a kilted baldpate with a large and curved muzzle raised his staff, as if in protection, over a bearer of ripe fruits whose face was almost solar in its roundness. The loving spirit and the expert hand which put together this scene had been guided by a scientifically trained eye.
Today one solitary race existed. That was so unusual—so disturbing—that Chee and Falkayn had made it their special business to verify the fact as they slunk about the planet.
And yet the Shenna, altogether distinct in appearance and culture, were shown nowhere on a mosaic which had tried to represent everybody. Nowhere!
A taboo, a dislike, a persecution? Chee spat in contempt of the thought. Every sign pointed to the lost civilization as having been unified and rationalistic. A particular series of pictures on this wall doubtless symbolized progress up from savagery. A nude male was vivdly shown defending his female against a large predatory beast—with a broken branch. Later on, edged metal implements appeared: but always tools, never weapons. Masses of Dathynans were seen working together: never fighting. But this could not be because the topic excluded strife. Two scenes of individual combat did appear; they must be key incidents in a history or legendry forever vanished. The earliest had one male wielding a kind of brush knife, the other an unmistakable wood ax. The second armed the enemies with primitive matchlock guns which were surely intended for help against dangerous animals . . . seeing that the background depicted steam vehicles and electric power lines.
Occupations through the ages were likewise recreated here. Some were recognizable, like agriculture and carpentry. Others could only be guessed at. (Ceremonial? Scientific? The dead cannot tell us.) But hunting was not among them, nor herding except for a species that obviously provided wool, nor trapping, nor fishing, nor butchering.
Everything fitted together with the best clue of all: diet. Intelligence on Dathyna had evolved among herbivores. Though not common, this occurs often enough for certain general principles to be known. The vegetarian sophonts do not have purer souls than omnivores and carnivores. But their sins are different. Among other things, while they may sometimes institutionalize the duello or accept a high rate of crimes of passion, they do not independently invent war, and they find the whole concept of the chase repugnant. As a rule they are gregarious and their social units—families, clans, tribes, nations, or less nameable groups—merge easily into larger ones as communication and transportation improve.
The Shenna violated every such rule. They killed for sport, they divided their planet into patriarchies, they built weapons and warships, they menaced a neighbor civilization which had never given them offense . . . in short, thought Chee Lan, they act like humans. If we can understand what brought them forth, out of this once promising world, maybe we’ll understand what to do about them.
Or, at least, what they want to do about us.
Her communicator interrupted. It was a bone-conduction device, so as not to be overheard; the code clicks felt unnaturally loud in her skull. “Return without delay.” Neither she nor Falkayn would have transmitted except in emergency. Chee switched her impeller to lift-and-thrust, and streaked out the doorway.
The stars glittered frigid, the aurora danced in strange figures, the desert rolled stark beneath her. With no hostiles around, and no warning about them near the ship, she lowered her face mask and flew at top speed. Wind hooted and cut at her. That was a long hundred kilometers.
Muddlin’ Through lay in the bottom of a dry, brush-grown canyon, hidden from above. Chee slanted past the snags of that minor community on its edge which Falkayn was excavating. Descending into shadow, she switched both her lamp and her goggles to infrared use. There was still no observable reason for caution, but to a carnivore like her it was instinctive.
Twigs clawed at her, leaves rustled, she parted the branches and hovered before an air lock. Muddlehead’s sensors identified her and the valves opened. She darted inside.
“David!” she yelled. “What in Tsucha’s flaming name’s the matter?”
“Plenty.” His intercom voice had never been bleaker. “I’m in the bridge.”
She could have flitted along the hall and companionway, but it was almost as quick and more satisfying to use her muscles. Quadrupedal again, tail erect, fangs agleam, eyes a green blaze, she sped through the ship and soared into her chair. “Niaor!” she cried.
Falkayn regarded her. Since he didn’t sleep while she was out, he wore the dusty coveralls of his day’s work, which had begrimed his nails and leathered his skin. A sun-bleached lock of hair hung past one temple. “Word received,” he told her.
“What?” She tensed. “Who?”
“Old Nick in person. He’s on this planet . . . with Adzel.” Falkayn turned his face to the main control board, as if the ship herself lived there. “Read back the message in clear,” he ordered.
The phrases fell curt and flat.
They were followed by a silence which went on and on.
At last Chee stirred. “What do you propose to do?” she asked quietly.
“Obey, of course,” Falkayn said. His tone was as bare as the computer’s. “We can’t get the message home too soon. But we’d better discuss first how to leave. Muddlehead keeps getting indications of more and more ships on picket. I suppose the Shenna are finally worried about spies like us. Question is, should we creep out, everything throttled down to minimum, and hope we won’t be noticed? Or should we go at full power and rely on surprise and a head start and possible evasive action in deep space?”
“The latter,” Chee said. “Our rescue operation will already have alerted the enemy. If we time it right, we can jump between their patrollers and—”
“Huh?” Falkayn sat straight. “What rescue operation?”
“Adzel,” Chee said. Her manner was forbearing but her whiskers vibrated. “And van Rijn, no doubt. We have to pick up Adzel, you know.”
“No, I do not know! Listen . . .”
“We have squabbled, he and I,” Chee said, “but he remains my shipmate and yours.” She cocked her head and considered the man. “I always took you for a moral person, Davy.”
“Well, but . . . but I am!” Falkayn yelled. “Didn’t you listen? Our orders are to start directly for home!”
“What has that got to
do with the price of eggs? Don’t you want to rescue Adzel?”
“Certainly I do! If it costs me my own life, I’d want to. But—”
“Will you let a few words from that potgutted van Rijn stop you?”
Falkayn drew a shaken breath. “Listen, Chee,” he said, “I’ll explain slowly. Van Rijn wants us to abandon him, too. He hasn’t even told us where he’s at. Since he necessarily used a waveband that would bounce around the planet, he could be anywhere on it.”
“Muddlehead,” asked Chee, “can you work out the source of his transmission?”
“By the pattern of reflections off the ionosphere, yes, to a fair approximation,” answered the computer. “It corresponds to one of the larger communities, not extremely far from here, which we identified as such during our atmospheric entry.”
Chee turned back to Falkayn. “You see?” she said.
“You’re the one that doesn’t see!” he protested. “Adzel and van Rijn aren’t important compared to what’s at stake. Neither are we. It merely happens they can’t warn the League but we can.”
“As we shall, after we fetch Adzel.”
“And risk getting shot down, or caught ourselves, or—” Falkayn paused. “I know you, Chee. You’re descended from beasts of prey that operated alone, or in minimum-size groups. You get your instincts from that. Your world never knew any such thing as a nation. The idea of universal altruism is unreal to you. Your sense of duty is as strong as mine, maybe stronger, but it stops with your kinfolk and friends. All right. I realize that. Now suppose you exercise your imagination and realize what I’m getting at. Hell’s balls, just use arithmetic! One life is not equal to a billion lives!”
“Certainly not,” Chee said. “However, that doesn’t excuse us from our obligation.”
“I tell you—”
Falkayn got no further. She had drawn her stun pistol and aimed it between his eyes. He might have attempted to swat it from her, had she been human, but he knew she was too fast for him. He sat frozenly and heard her say:
“I’d rather not knock you out and tie you up. Lacking your help, I may well fail to get our people out. I’ll try anyhow, though. And really, Davy, be honest. Admit we have a reasonable chance of pulling the job off. If we didn’t, against these Shenn yokels, we ought to turn ourselves in at the nearest home for the feeble-minded.”
“What do you want of me?” he whispered.
“Your promise that we’ll try our best to take Adzel with us.”
“Can you trust me?”
“If not, one of us shall have to kill the other.” Her gun remained steady, but her head drooped. “I would hate that, Davy.”
He sat a whole minute, unmoving. Then his fist smote the chair arm and his laughter stormed forth. “All right, you little devil! You win. It’s pure blackmail . . . but Judas, I’m glad of it!”
Her pistol snicked back into its holster. She sprang to his lap. He rubbed her back and tickled her beneath the jaws. Her tail caressed his cheek. Meanwhile she said: “We need their help too, starting with a full description of the layout where they are. I expect they’ll refuse at first. Point out to them in your message that they have no choice but to cooperate with us. If we don’t go home together, none of us will.”
XXIV
Again Chee Lan worked alone. Muddlin’ Through had come down below the horizon. Other spacecraft stood ahead a pair of destroyers, a flitter, the disabled vessel where the prisoners were kept. Hulls glimmered hoarfrosted in the dying night. Behind them, Moath’s stronghold lifted like a mountain. It was very quiet now.
Ghosting from rock to bush to hillock, Chee neared. The guards were said to be a pair. She could make out one, a shaggy-maned shadow, restlessly apace near the barrel of a mobile cannon. His breath smoked, his metal jingled. She strained her eyes, tasted the pre-dawn wind, listened, felt with every hair and whisker. Nothing came to her. Either van Rijn and Adzel had been mistaken in what they related, or the guard’s mate had gone off duty without a replacement—or, in an environment for which she was not evolved, she missed the crucial sensory cues.
No more time! They’ll be astir in that castle before long. Ay-ah, let’s go.
She launched herself across the final sandy stretch. It would have been better to strike from above. But her impeller, like close-range radio conversation with those in the ship, might trip some damned detector. No matter. The sentry was not aware of the white shape that flowed toward him. The instant she came in range, she flattened to earth, drew her stunner and fired. She would rather have killed, but that might be noisy. The supersonic bolt spun the Shenn around on his heel. He toppled with a doomsday racket. Or did he? Sounded like that anyhow. Chee flashed her light at the ship, blink-blink-blink. They’d better be watching their screens, those two!
They were. An air lock slid open, a gangway protruded. Adzel came out, himself huge and steel-gray by starlight. On his back, where a dorsal plate had been removed for riders, sat Nicholas van Rijn. Chee bounded to meet them. Hope fluttered in her. If they could really make this break unnoticed—
A roar blasted from the darkness near the warships. A moment later, there sizzled an energy beam. “Get going . . . yonder way!” Chee yelled. Her flashbeam pointed toward unseen Falkayn. Whizzing upward on antigrav, she activated her communicator. “We’ve been seen, Davy.” She curved down again, to meet the shooter.
“Shall I come get you?” Falkayn’s voice sounded.
“Hold back for a minute. Maybe—” A firebeam stabbed at her. She had been noticed, too. She dodged, feeling its heat, smelling its ozone and ions, half dazzled by its brightness. The Shenn could have taken cover and tried to pick her off, but that was not his nature. He dashed forth. Chee dove at full power, pulled out of her screaming arc a few centimeters above his head, gave him a jolt as she did. He collapsed. She barely avoided smashing into the ship before her.
Alarms gonged through the castle. Its black mass woke with a hundred lights. Shenna streamed from the gate. Most were armed; they must sleep with their cursed weapons. Four of them were donning flit-harness. Chee headed after Adzel’s galloping form. He couldn’t outrun such pursuers. She’d provide air cover . . .
“What’s wrong?” Falkayn barked. “Shouldn’t I come?”
“No, not yet. We’ll keep you for a surprise.” Chee unholstered her own blaster. Enough of these la-de-da stun pistols. The enemy were aloft, lining out after Wodenite and human. They hadn’t noticed her. She got altitude on them, aimed, and fired twice. One crashed, in a cloud of dust. The other flew on, but did not stir any longer save as the wind flapped his limbs.
The third angled after her. He was good. They started a dogfight. She could do nothing about the fourth, who stooped upon the escapers.
Adzel slammed to a halt, so fast that van Rijn fell off and rolled yammering through the thorn-bushes. The Wodenite picked up a rock and threw. It struck with a clang. Impeller disabled, the Shenn fluttered to the ground.
His mates, incredibly swift on their feet, were not far behind. They opened fire. Adzel charged them, bounding from side to side, taking an occasional bolt or bullet in his scales but suffering no serious wound. He was mortal, of course. A shot sufficiently powerful or sufficiently well-placed would kill him. But he got in among the Shenna first. Hoofs, hands, tail, fangs ripped into action.
The downed flier was not badly hurt either. He saw his gun lying where he had dropped it and ran to retrieve the weapon. Van Rijn intercepted him. “Oh, no, you don’t, buddy-chum,” the merchant panted. “I take that thing home and see if you got new ideas in it I can patent.” Taller, broader, muscles like cables, the minotaur sprang at the fat old man. Van Rijn wasn’t there any more. Somehow he had flicked aside. He delivered a karate kick. The Shenn yelled. “Ha, is a tender spot for you, too?” van Rijn said.
The Dathynan circled away from him. They eyed each other, and the blaster that sheened on the sand between them. The Sheen lowered his head and charged. Knowing he faced an opponent with
some skill, he kept his hands in a guarding position. But no Earthling would survive on whom they closed. Van Rijn sped to meet him. At the last breath before collision, he sidestepped again, twirled, and was at the back of the onrushing giant warrior. “God send the right!” bawled van Rijn, reached into his tunic, drew forth St. Dismas, and sapped his foe. The Shenn went down.
“Whoo-hoo,” van Rijn said, blowing out his cheeks above the dazed colossus. “I’m not so young like I used to be.” He returned the statuette to its nesting place, collected the gun, studied it until he had figured out its operation, and looked around for targets.
There were none immediately on hand. Chee Lan had overcome her adversary. Adzel trotted back. The Shenn mob was scattered, fleeing toward the castle. “I hoped for that result,” the Wodenite remarked. “It accords with their psychology. The instinct to assail rashly should, by and large, be coupled with an equal tendency to stampede. Otherwise the ancestral species could not long have survived.”
Chee descended. “Let’s travel before they gather their wits,” she said.
“Ja, they isn’t really stupids, them, I am afraid,” van Rijn said. “When they tell their robots to stop loafing—”
A deep hum cut through the night. One of the destroyers trembled on her landing jacks. “They just did,” Chee said. Into her communicator: “Come and eat them, friends.”
Muddlin’ Through soared above the horizon. “Down!” Adzel called. He sheltered the other two with his body, which could better stand heat and radiation.
Beams flashed. Had either warcraft gotten off the ground, Falkayn and Muddlehead would have been in trouble. Their magazines were depleted after the battle of Satan. But they were forewarned, warmed up, ready and ruthless to exploit the advantage of surprise. The first destroyer loosed no more than a single ill-aimed shot before she was undercut. She fell, struck her neighbor, both toppled with an earth-shaking metal roar. The League vessel disabled Moath’s flitter—three bolts were needed, and the sand ran molten beneath—and landed.
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