Storm on Venus

by R. A. Bentley

  He shook his head. No, it wouldn't do. There was more to it than that. Her resemblance to the Migraani went far deeper than eyes and skin. The thing that had been nagging at him for weeks could no longer be denied. Here was not merely the distant kinship of two members of the Venusian nobility but something much more immediate. The shape of their lips, the way they walked, the way they tilted their heads a little while listening — all these spoke of close family ties. He now realised that he had first noticed this on the day the two women came back from Bournemouth, dressed in identical costumes. Only their diametrically opposite colouring and his then ignorance of Daphne's origins had prevented him from seeing the obvious. Just how closely was the Migraani related to the royal dynasty she professed to hate so much? Was this the further information that she proposed to impart to him? Well, he would soon find out.

  'What ho, young Daphne,' cried Freddy. 'Finished for the day? We were just saying, it's a shame you and Agnes can't rustle up some sandwiches and a nice big pot of tea for the chaps. You can't properly have village cricket without tea and sandwiches. Egg and cucumber preferably'

  'I'd settle for something I could be sure was dead,' sighed Charles as they stood up to greet her. 'Hullo, my dear. Good turnout I see.'

  'Where is the Migraani?' asked the Professor. 'I don't believe she has seen a match. It might interest her.'

  Daphne settled herself decorously beside them, as seemingly indifferent now to her nakedness as a Polynesian maiden. 'I suppose you know she doesn't approve? She says you don't realise how dangerous and unpredictable the thaalid are.'

  'So are the Australians,' quipped Freddy, 'and we play them. Anyway, if we make pals of them they might be less inclined to eat us. That's my view anyway.'

  'I'm just telling you what she thinks,' said Daphne. 'I'm not saying I agree with her. I've been watching them for a good while now, and as far as I can see it's all rather rot; they just need kindness and a firm hand.'

  'Why was the Migraani so angry yesterday?' asked the Professor. 'I hope it wasn't my amateur attempt at surgery. I must say, it was extraordinarily interesting; I never hoped to see a living brain, let alone that of a Venusian humanoid.'

  Daphne shook her head. 'It wasn't you, Daddy; she said I shouldn't have interfered. I tried to explain, but she just went on and on. It's too humiliating to be scolded so, and I'm fed up with it. I am the Queen after all. One of these days I shall snap and give her a piece of my mind.'

  'I hate to say it,' said Charles, 'but in this case I'm inclined to agree with her. Suppose the creature dies and you get the blame? If these johnnies were suddenly to decide that their goddess has feet of clay we could find ourselves in deep trouble.'

  'I don't see why they should,' said Daphne. All I did was comfort him and keep him still and quiet. Anyway, surely they'd prefer a Goddess who cares about them and tries to make their lives better, rather than a cruel and distant one who flogs them and steals their children? I certainly don't intend to behave like that, even if the Purples capture me.'

  'They wouldn't be capturing you,' Charles reminded her. They'd be liberating you. Or are we to assume that you favour the revolutionaries?'

  Daphne looked thoughtful. 'Do you know? I think I do. My relatives sound beastly, don't they? And those pilots were so brave, attacking those huge spaceships in their tiny little aeroplanes. They must think they have something worth fighting for.'

  'No doubt they do, but it's their fight, not ours,' said Charles. 'I believe we should remain neutral, at least for now. That searching ship could arrive at any moment and we have no idea what side it's on. If the alternative is to remain here, we might do better to throw in our lot with whomever they turn out to be and worry about the politics later.'

  'But suppose it's the Purples?' protested Freddy. 'The Migraani and the Tuuntu would be at their mercy.'

  'That's hardly our concern. We didn't ask to be kidnapped.'

  'Much would depend on the authority permitted to a newly-arrived queen,' mused the Professor. 'If what the Migraani says about the Purple House is true, we might none of us be safe from them.'

  'I doubt the Purples would provide a good character for the rebels either,' rejoined Charles. 'In truth we know almost nothing about either.'

  'Well I know whom I prefer,' said Freddy. 'You had only to clock that Ishtan Whatshisname's ugly phis to see they're a bad lot. Hullo, what's going on? Can't they find the ball?'

  A great crowd, including their fellow players, had begun to form at the water's edge, all chattering and pointing. Simms came hurrying back. 'Begging your pardon,' he said, eschewing formality, 'but I think you should know there's a giant mechanical man, wading in the river.'

  They found the Migraani and the Tuuntu gazing with evident astonishment at this new phenomenon, now some three hundred yards upstream from them. Even at that distance it seemed enormous.

  'What is it?' asked Charles. 'Do you know?'

  'The Tuuntu struck his brow with the flat of his palm. 'Out! I do not believe this. In a moment I shall wake and find it a dream.'

  'I never expected to see one,' said the Migraani, 'But unless I am much mistaken, it is a tzin.'

  'But that is impossible,' protested the Tuuntu. 'They are mythical!'

  'It is most disturbing,' agreed the Migraani. 'We are threatened with these things as children. "If you misbehave, a tzin will come for you." When you are grown, you realise they are not real. But what else can it be?'

  'Suppose it is,' said Charles, 'should we be concerned about it?'

  'The thaalid don't appear to be frightened,' said the Professor. 'I rather think they plan to trade.'

  Certainly all around them was a buzz of excitement, the cricket match quite forgotten, as the females laid out the best of their finely woven fabric and the males took down from the drying frames the tanned pelts of various animals. Meanwhile, from one of the huts were produced no fewer than three of the strange pijtaal fruits that had so enlivened Lady Lambent's dinner party.

  'They kept those pretty quiet,' observed Freddy. 'I thought they were supposed to be rare.'

  Wilfred watched the approaching colossus with fascination. Its body and head were two fat cylinders in the normal proportion, the former with what looked like a door in it and the latter anthropomorphically equipped with two small eyes, vertical slits for a nose and a circular hole for a mouth. Most of its great height, however, was in its thin, tubular legs; a number of piston-like attachments apparently serving as muscles. Like everything else of Venusian manufacture it was constructed of polished bronze. It didn't appear to be carrying any weapon and was moving towards them in an unhurried fashion, occasionally holding out its skinny arms for balance, just as a human would, as it negotiated the uneven river bed.

  'It must be twenty feet tall,' marvelled Charles. 'Do you suppose it has a mechanical brain as well?'

  'While not denying that possibility,' said the Professor, 'I offer a simpler explanation. There is someone inside, controlling it.'

  '"He rode in a tzin; Rain did not stop him, nor the night; Women . . . feared him, men admired,"' recited the Migraani hesitantly. 'I'm afraid it doesn't translate very well.'

  'It is from the Hamafaalid,' offered the Tuuntu, 'a collection of epic poems, many centuries old.'

  Agnes joined them; surrounded, as always, by a cloud of orphaned and unclaimed young. With her was the witchdoctor. He was talking very fast and gesturing with his wand, first at Daphne then at the approaching colossus. 'He says they're harmless, Miss Daphne, as long as you give them something, otherwise they make trouble. They specially like those pineapple things, though he doesn't know why because they're poisonous.' She frowned at the spiky, yellowish fruits in sudden recognition. 'But isn't that what Cook baked in a tart, miss? The one that made the gentlemen so . . .'

  'Yes, that will do Agnes, thank you,' said Daphne hurriedly. 'Why does he keep pointing at me like that?'

  'I'm not entirely sure, miss. I think he's saying you belong to him now
, and not this whatever-it-is. Maybe he's afraid you'll go away with it.'

  'Well I'm hardly going to do that,' said Daphne. 'Please tell him so.'

  'Perhaps we should clear off until it's done what it came for,' said Freddy. 'We could take a canoe and drop a few yards downstream.'

  'It isn't going to look very good if their goddess is seen to run away,' said Charles. 'We might do better to stay put and get the guns out, just in case.'

  'We've no idea how thick that bronze is,' the Professor reminded him. 'Bullets may have no effect.'

  'What about your pistol, Migraani?' asked the Tuuntu.

  'I have lost it,' said the Migraani, glancing at Wilfred.

  Paralysed with indecision, they watched the thing come steadily closer. Suddenly, Wilfred felt the hair rising on the back of his neck. A second mechanical monster had approached from behind and was even at that moment looming over them. Turning in alarm, the Migraani fell into the river and Wilfred immediately dived in after her. He found her gamely struggling to throw off her sodden skirts, but just as he went to grab her, an enormous articulated hand reached down and scooped her out of the water.

  Breaking the surface he saw Daphne in the arms of the other tzin, her long legs frantically kicking. Shots were fired and he heard the Professor cry, 'No! You might hurt her!' By the time he'd hauled himself out, the thing had turned away and was striding rapidly after its retreating companion. In moments, both were gone.

  Chapter 14

  Gathered at one end of the long-house the survivors of the tzin raid gazed miserably out at the afternoon rain. Behind them the big communal building was crowded with sheltering thaalid, the hunters resting in their hammocks, the females working at various indoor chores. Normally, these activities would be accompanied by much jolly banter and the occasional burst of snickering, high-pitched laughter, but today they went about their business in dejected silence. They, too, were mourning the loss of their once-feared Goddess whom they had learned to trust and love. Even the juveniles seemed listless and subdued. Occasionally the scene would be briefly illuminated by a jagged flash of lightning but that only served to accentuate the general gloom.

  'You know, I've been thinking,' said Charles, who had been prowling restlessly about. 'Grave though our situation is, there may yet be one positive aspect to it.'

  The Professor looked cynically up at him. 'Then I should be very pleased to hear of it, for I cannot imagine what it might be.'

  'It is simply this. Before the tzinid attacked, we were faced with the starkest of choices; to remain with these creatures indefinitely or throw ourselves upon the uncertain mercy of that searching ship. It now appears, however, that there are civilised beings living here in Dameefu, and perhaps not far off. If only we can find them, we may be able to gain some advantage in dealing with them. At the least we should be among our own kind.'

  Freddy stared at him in amazement. 'Civilised! They have stolen Daphne! I can still hear the poor child's cries, and the Migraani's too. You might consider that civilised behaviour; I certainly don't.'

  'What I mean is that they are clearly not savages,' said Charles calmly. 'They have at their disposal some pretty impressive machinery and that must suggest civilisation of a kind. Also, it was not just anyone they stole. It can surely have been no accident that they took the Queen-Goddess. One can speculate upon their motives, but I think we may safely assume that they won't harm her. Isn't that right, Tuuntu?'

  The Tuuntu appeared to hesitate before replying. 'If they are Venusians, yes,' he agreed. 'The Voorni is our only guarantee of security against the thaalid. It is every man's duty to protect her.'

  'That is what I surmised,' said Charles. 'Indeed, she may well be safer in their hands than she was here, for one false move might have set these creatures against her. As for the rest of us, it's possible that they are unaware of our existence, or indifferent to it. If we can present ourselves as harmless members of her entourage, it may be possible to gain their confidence, and perhaps even negotiate safe passage out of Dameefu. They may well have other forms of transport beside these metal men.'

  'But all that is purest speculation!' protested Freddy. 'These people, if they are people, must live deep in the jungle, where no other humans dare go. They may be brigands or outlaws of some kind. There is no knowing what they might be about.'

  'Let me repeat, I am not for a moment suggesting that our situation is in any way satisfactory,' rejoined Charles, 'merely that it may be a little more hopeful than it first appeared. Obviously our first task is to find and rescue Daphne. Nothing I have said alters that.'

  Leaning against one of the hut's stout supporting posts, Wilfred continued to stare bleakly out at the rain-shrouded river. He doesn't give a fig for her, he thought. The girl he plans to marry has been stolen away by machines from a nightmare and he doesn't turn a hair! One didn't expect the fellow to break down like some milksop, especially in front of the servants, but a proper display of anger would be manly and right and no-one would think less of him for it. Instead, he sounded as though he was addressing a board meeting of one of his confounded companies. As for his assessment of the situation, it was perhaps true that Daphne's abductors were unlikely to kill or seriously harm her – they could have done so quite easily if they'd wanted to – but who knew what cruel indignities she and the Migraani might now be suffering? He could scarcely bear to think of it.

  'I suppose we can assume they took the Migraani because she was similarly dressed to Daphne,' said the Professor, 'In the heat of the moment they might not have been able to distinguish between them.'

  The Tuuntu nodded. 'I think that is very likely, though she alone would be a valuable prize. I also agree with Mr Carstairs that we are probably dealing with outlaws of some kind. Had we been in another part of Venus, I should have feared an abduction by one of the great houses, but in this case I suspect it is a purely opportunistic kidnapping.'

  'But to what end?' asked Freddy.

  'They probably plan to ransom the Voorni to whomever will pay most for her. Such things are not unknown.'

  But what about your mythical tzinid?' said the Professor. 'If these people are mere outlaws, how might they have come by such machines? Can you remember any of the Hamafaalid you mentioned?'

  'I can scarcely fail to,' said the Tuuntu. 'We learn them by rote at school. The stories centre on the Black Tuun. He was also an outlaw, but that was many centuries ago. He would not accept the authority of the Voorni, saying it was demeaning for a man to be ruled by a woman. There was a great battle, which he lost, so he took his followers and departed. They could not live without mates, however, and began raiding for them, snatching them even from their beds and carrying them away to their hiding place in a hollow mountain. The stories concern these raids and the efforts of the Heroes to get back their wives and daughters. They could not destroy the metal men, which were invincible, so at last they hid close by the entrance to the Black Tuun's lair and when the tzinid and their victims went inside they rolled a great stone against it so they could never get out. We still burn them in effigy at the feast of Piguul.'

  'But we now know the tzinid exist,' said Freddy, 'so the tales must have some basis in fact. Perhaps the myth was woven around real people whose descendants might still be living here in the jungle.'

  'That is not possible,' said the Tuuntu. 'These things happened, if they happened at all, many hundreds of years ago. How could humans survive for so long in this terrible place?'

  'Well clearly someone is managing to live here,' Freddy pointed out.

  'Are the tzinid, perhaps, a rather late addition to the Hamafaalid?' asked the Professor. 'That sort of thing often happens with traditional tales, each teller adding a few flourishes of his own. They might have been encountered far more recently than centuries ago.'

  'No, no,' said the Tuuntu, shaking his head. 'They can be found in the earliest texts, one of which is more than twelve hundred years old.'

  Simms, who seldom had much t
o say for himself, looked perplexed. 'Excuse me, sir,' he said, 'but if that is the case, where did the tzinid come from? They surely wouldn't have been invented twelve hundred years ago.'

  The Tuuntu smiled at him condescendingly. 'You underestimate us, Mr Simms. Your own technology, such as it is, is in its infancy, while much of ours is very ancient. Unlike you, we have had no foolish religion to hold us back. Nor are we forever at war. Our civilization has been continuous, always building on what came before.'

  'And what are you involved in now if it isn't a war?' asked Charles sourly. 'Anyway, this is getting us nowhere. The origins of these people are surely irrelevant.'

  'I was only trying to determine what we're up against,' protested the Professor. 'Know your enemy, as they say.'

  Wilfred at last turned to face them. 'I suggest we have a word with Huft,' he said. 'He claims to have travelled about, so must know Dameefu better than most. In any case he's the only thaal who speaks Venusian.'

  'Good idea,' agreed Charles. 'If we can only keep the old fool to the point, we may learn something.' He turned to a nearby group of villagers. 'I say, you there. Where is Huft? Can you understand me? The . . old . . fisherman, . . we . . wish . . to . . speak . . to . . him.'

  The others exchanged wry glances. Charles's method of communicating with the thaalid was based on the principle that if one addresses a foreigner loudly and clearly enough he will surely understand. As usual, they ignored him.

  'Just what is the matter with these creatures?' he complained. 'Are they deaf, stubborn or plain stupid?'