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They were flung off their feet again, this time backward along the boat.As they picked themselves up, Seldar Glav was shaking his head, sadly."That was the ship going up," he said; "the blast must have caught usdead astern."
"All right." Kalvar Dard rubbed a bruised forehead. "Set course forTareesh, then cut out the jets till we're ready to land. And get thescreens on, somebody; I want to see what's happened."
The screens glowed; then full vision came on. The planet on which theywould land loomed huge before them, its north pole toward them, and itssingle satellite on the port side. There was no sign of any rocket-boatin either side screen, and the rear-view screen was a blur of yellowflame from the jets.
"Cut the jets, Glav," Dard repeated. "Didn't you hear me?"
"But I did, sir!" Seldar Glav indicated the firing-panel. Then heglanced at the rear-view screen. "The gods help us! It's yellow flame;the jets are burning out!"
Kalvar Dard had not boasted idly when he had said that his people wouldnot panic. All the girls went white, and one or two gave low cries ofconsternation, but that was all.
"What happens next?" Analea wanted to know. "Do we blow, too?"
"Yes, as soon as the fuel-line burns up to the tanks."
"Can you land on Tareesh before then?" Dard asked.
"I can try. How about the satellite? It's closer."
"It's also airless. Look at it and see for yourself," Kalvar Dardadvised. "Not enough mass to hold an atmosphere."
Glav looked at the army officer with new respect. He had always beeninclined to think of the Frontier Guards as a gang of scientificallyilliterate dirk-and-pistol bravos. He fiddled for a while withinstruments on the panel; an automatic computer figured the distance tothe planet, the boat's velocity, and the time needed for a landing.
"We have a chance, sir," he said. "I think I can set down in aboutthirty minutes; that should give us about ten minutes to get clear ofthe boat, before she blows up."
"All right; get busy, girls," Kalvar Dard said. "Grab everything we'llneed. Arms and ammunition first; all of them you can find. After that,warm clothing, bedding, tools and food."
With that, he jerked open one of the lockers and began pulling outweapons. He buckled on a pistol and dagger, and handed otherweapon-belts to the girls behind him. He found two of the heavybig-game rifles, and several bandoliers of ammunition for them. Hetossed out carbines, and boxes of carbine and pistol cartridges. Hefound two bomb-bags, each containing six light anti-personnel grenadesand a big demolition-bomb. Glancing, now and then, at the forwardscreen, he caught glimpses of blue sky and green-tinted plains below.
"All right!" the pilot yelled. "We're coming in for a landing! A coupleof you stand by to get the hatch open."
There was a jolt, and all sense of movement stopped. A cloud of whitesmoke drifted past the screens. The girls got the hatch open; snatchingup weapons and bedding-wrapped bundles they all scrambled up out of theboat.
There was fire outside. The boat had come down upon a grassy plain; nowthe grass was burning from the heat of the jets. One by one, they ranforward along the top of the rocket-boat, jumping down to the groundclear of the blaze. Then, with every atom of strength they possessedthey ran away from the doomed boat.
* * * * *
The ground was rough, and the grass high, impeding them. One of thegirls tripped and fell; without pausing, two others pulled her to herfeet, while another snatched up and slung the carbine she had dropped.Then, ahead, Kalvar Dard saw a deep gully, through which a little streamtrickled.
They huddled together at the bottom of it, waiting, for what seemed likea long while. Then a gentle tremor ran through the ground, and swelledto a sickening, heaving shock. A roar of almost palpable sound sweptover them, and a flash of blue-white light dimmed the sun above. Thesound, the shock, and the searing light did not pass away at once; theycontinued for seconds that seemed like an eternity. Earth and stonespelted down around them; choking dust rose. Then the thunder and theearth-shock were over; above, incandescent vapors swirled, and darkenedinto an overhanging pall of smoke and dust.
For a while, they crouched motionless, too stunned to speak. Then shakennerves steadied and jarred brains cleared. They all rose weakly.Trickles of earth were still coming down from the sides of the gully,and the little stream, which had been clear and sparkling, was roiledwith mud. Mechanically, Kalvar Dard brushed the dust from his clothesand looked to his weapons.
"That was just the fuel-tank of a little Class-3 rocket-boat," he said."I wonder what the explosion of the ship was like." He thought for amoment before continuing. "Glav, I think I know why our jets burned out.We were stern-on to the ship when she blew; the blast drove our flameright back through the jets."
"Do you think the explosion was observed from Doorsha?" Dorita inquired,more concerned about the practical aspects of the situation. "The ship,I mean. After all, we have no means of communication, of our own."
"Oh, I shouldn't doubt it; there were observatories all around theplanet watching our ship," Kalvar Dard said. "They probably know allabout it, by now. But if any of you are thinking about the chances ofrescue, forget it. We're stuck here."
"That's right. There isn't another human being within fifty millionmiles," Seldar Glav said. "And that was the first and only space-shipever built. It took fifty years to build her, and even allowing twentyfor research that wouldn't have to be duplicated, you can figure when wecan expect another one."
"The answer to that one is, never. The ship blew up in space; fiftyyears' effort and fifteen hundred people gone, like that." Kalvar Dardsnapped his fingers. "So now, they'll try to keep Doorsha habitable fora few more thousand years by irrigation, and forget about immigrating toTareesh."
"Well, maybe, in a hundred thousand years, our descendants will build aship and go to Doorsha, then," Olva considered.
"Our descendants?" Eldra looked at her in surprize. "You mean, then...?"
* * * * *
Kyna chuckled. "Eldra, you are an awful innocent, about anything thatdoesn't have a breech-action or a recoil-mechanism," she said. "Why doyou think the women on this expedition outnumbered the men seven tofive, and why do you think there were so many obstetricians andpediatricians in the med. staff? We were sent out to put a humanpopulation on Tareesh, weren't we? Well, here we are."
"But.... Aren't we ever going to...?" Varnis began. "Won't we ever seeanybody else, or do anything but just live here, like animals, withoutmachines or ground-cars or aircraft or houses or anything?" Then shebegan to sob bitterly.
Analea, who had been cleaning a carbine that had gotten covered withloose earth during the explosion, laid it down and went to Varnis,putting her arm around the other girl and comforting her. Kalvar Dardpicked up the carbine she had laid down.
"Now, let's see," he began. "We have two heavy rifles, six carbines, andeight pistols, and these two bags of bombs. How much ammunition,counting what's in our belts, do we have?"
They took stock of their slender resources, even Varnis joining in thetask, as he had hoped she would. There were over two thousand rounds forthe pistols, better than fifteen hundred for the carbines, and fourhundred for the two big-game guns. They had some spare clothing, mostlyspace-suit undergarments, enough bed-robes, one hand-axe, twoflashlights, a first-aid kit, and three atomic lighters. Each one had acombat-dagger. There was enough tinned food for about a week.
"We'll have to begin looking for game and edible plants, right away,"Glav considered. "I suppose there is game, of some sort; but ourammunition won't last forever."
"We'll have to make it last as long as we can; and we'll have to beginimprovising weapons," Dard told him. "Throwing-spears, andthrowing-axes. If we can find metal, or any recognizable ore that we cansmelt, we'll use that; if not, we'll use chipped stone. Also, we canlearn to make snares and traps, after we learn the habits of the animalson this planet. By the time the ammunition's gone, we ought to havelearn
ed to do without firearms."
"Think we ought to camp here?"
Kalvar Dard shook his head. "No wood here for fuel, and the blast willhave scared away all the game. We'd better go upstream; if we go down,we'll find the water roiled with mud and unfit to drink. And if the gameon this planet behave like the game-herds on the wastelands of Doorsha,they'll run for high ground when frightened."
Varnis rose from where she had been sitting. Having mastered heremotions, she was making a deliberate effort to show it.
"Let's make up packs out of this stuff," she suggested. "We can use thebedding and spare clothing to bundle up the food and ammunition."
They made up packs and slung them, then climbed out of the gully. Off tothe left, the grass was burning in a wide circle around the crater leftby the explosion of the rocket-boat. Kalvar Dard, carrying one of theheavy rifles, took the lead. Beside and a little behind him, Analeawalked, her carbine ready. Glav, with the other heavy rifle, brought upin the rear, with Olva covering for him, and between, the other girlswalked, two and two.
Ahead, on the far horizon, was a distance-blue line of mountains. Thelittle company turned their faces toward them and moved slowly away,across the empty sea of grass.
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