Tama Princes of Mercury

by Terry Pratchett

The Cube visually began dwindling. The Roc vehicle grew larger.

  I fell free. The heavens shifted. Then the attraction of the silver ball caught me. I went around it in a great ellipse.

  And with a slow axial rotation I was turning end over end, so that now the Earth was over me and then the Sun my days, which now were minutes or seconds of human time and my year, once around this enlarging globe.

  I circled it several times in a narrowing spiral orbit, as steadily its bulk drew me closer. There were glimpses of the Cube, hovering watchful in the starry distance. I saw that my orbit was eccentric as I passed the side of the ball upon which Roc was using his power. Then I think he made all the ball neutral, for it drew me evenly inward each time I went around. I thought several times that at the small convex panes there were faces peering out at me.

  The whole process took many minutes, or hours. I went at last with a curving rush at the ball. Struck its smooth gleaming, convex side. Rebounded, with the impulse of the air pressure in my bloated garments; struck again. It seemed like a fall: I landed with hands and knees under me, and felt that I now had a little weight: I lay sprawled, sticking outward like a fly upon the side of the sphere! With the contact, blessed normality returned. Detached no longer, free of the abnormality of an independent existence, I was once again the inhabitant of the world.

  The sense of human time came back to me, with human movement. I sprawled on the sharply rounded metal surface.

  I was on its side, but it seemed like its top, with the windows set wrongly and all the globe under me.

  I lay for a moment. I seemed to weigh a few pounds. I began cautiously crawling away from the windows, and to my senses the ball was slowly passing beneath me, so that always I remained on top.

  My mind was working clearly now. Would they let me in? It seemed probable. I had a tiny revolver. It was hidden m one boot, inaccessible now; I thought that perhaps when they captured me they might not find it. And there was a thin-bladed knife, of a size that made a fair weapon, fastened to my outer belt.

  I clutched it now in my gloved hand. It might be that in the confusion of my arrival some chance would present itself. I knew that with my more than six-foot stature, I had many times the strength of any Mercurian.

  I crawled past a window. A face ducked away. I moved sidewise over the small lower doorwayan entrance that could not be used in the vacuum of space. I could not get in that way.

  The pressure port was farther around. I was over its smooth, opaque panel before I realized it. Sprawling, knife in hand.

  The panel abruptly slid from beneath me. I dropped out of the starlight of the outer surface and fell in a heap against an inner wall; then I dropped to a metal floor.

  The panel slid swiftly closed. I was in a soundless blackness.

  v HATRED WITHIN Roc's VEHICLE, shortly after it left Earth's atmosphere, Tama, Rowena and Jimmy were sitting and talking with the giant Mercurian. He had told them his name was Dorrek and that he was an army leader on Mercury. And Rowena, a giantess compared to the women of Mercury, quite evidently attracted him. He told her so, in his gutteral, broken English.

  "I like youbig womanbeautiful. My woman soon" Then Jimmy saw, lurking in the dimness of the narrow metal room, the short, flabby, gray Muta with folded gray wings. Her face was contorted with jealous rage. Without warning she gave a scream and with a glittering knife-blade in her hand, leaped upon Rowena.

  Jimmy had no time to rise; he flung himself, sprawling forward from his sitting posture. But Tama was quicker. Her wings were spread behind her on the floor. She half turned, raised one of the crimson-feathered wings and with a sweeping blow, struck Muta as she leaned down. Rowena had thrown herself backward; the descending knife missed her.

  The force of her blow and the thud of Tama's wing made the woman fall. Jimmy reached her, seized the knife and wrenched it from her hand. Dorrek was struggling to his feet, shouting with rage and surprise. He clutched the woman, lifted her up, and cuffed her in the face.

  Out of the confusion Jimmy found himself apart and armed. He sprang erect. Then, for the first time, he was aware of the feeble gravity pull existing within this Mercurian vehicle. To the Mercurians it was normal. To Jimmy, it was not enough. He bounced into the air with his upward leap, and his head struck the vaulted ceiling. He fell back, fortunately on his feet, with the knife still clutched in his hand, and found Roc confronting him.

  The small triangular room was in a turmoil. Jimmy had an instant flash of determination. He was armed. He would fight his way out of this.

  But before he could translate his thoughts into action, other thoughts brought sanity. How could he fight his way out? Imprisoned with two girls in this silver ball hurtling through space! Jimmy's muscles relaxed. He raised the knife, held it out toward the astounded Roc, and smiled.

  "Here's the knife. Roc. I took it away from that damned womanshe tried to kill Rowena." Roc took the knife, turned from Jimmy to the turmoil of the others. The woman stood sullen in the clutch of the angry Dorrek.

  There was a confusion of argument in the Mercurian tongue.

  Then Muta was ordered from the room. The giant Dorrek, triumphantly grinning, turned to Rowena.

  "That Mutashe be punished soon by meDorrek." He struck his bulging chest with a show of manly strength.

  "Brave fellow," muttered Jimmy.

  Roc said abruptly, "The end of that. She will not try that again. You, Turk, come with me. Another room1 will give you something to eat. Are you hungry?"

  "Yes. So are the girls, I think."

  "They shall be well cared for, have no fear. The Earthship, that Flying Cube they call it"he pushed Jimmy toward the door"I suppose it will be after us?"

  "I suppose so." Jimmy flashed a farewell look to Rowena and Tama as he let Roc lead him away.

  This, by Earth-time, was shortly after dawn of March 16th, about the time our Cube was leaving the Earth. Jimmy was confined in a small three-sided room. He could see that the ball was divided into two stories. A raised base-floor perhaps a third up the vertical height gave a level area for the bottom of the lower tier of rooms. The space beneath it a single bowl-shaped roomheld the ball's driving mechanisms. The lower tier was cut into triangular rooms, like slices of pie. The upper tier was the sametwo triangular sleeping rooms, the others housing operating instruments and controls.

  It was to this upper tier, up a steep metal ladder, that Roc now pushed Jimmy ahead of him. They entered a small triangular room. Wall and ceiling one continuous curve, which was the outer side of the ball; the other walls converging to a point at the ball's center.

  Jimmy stood gazing around. The room was dimly lighted by starlight and Earthlight streaming in its single window.

  "So this is where I bunk down? Do I eat in here?"

  "Yes." It was a comfortable though very small room. There was a low, bunk-like couch on the floor set under the bull's-eye window. A low, curiously-shaped table, a wide-armed metal seat, and an animalskin rug were on the floor. One side wall was blank; the other held the small door-slide through which they had entered. Roc turned toward it.

  "I will send you food, or bring it."

  "Much obliged." Jimmy took a step and gripped his captor. "Say, what are you going to do with us?" Roc eyed him. The fellow's queer satanic look with his thin pale face and that peak of black hair down on his forehead was accentuated now by an ironic smile.

  "You can follow me in our great conquest of Mercury the Light Country." He checked himself suddenly. "You ask too many questions." But Jimmy gripped him again. "I don't give a damn about your Mercury. Except for Tama"

  "Tama is mine!" The irony left Roc's face. "It is you who are the intruder. You and Guy Palisse, Earthmen.

  Tama is a girl of Mercury, my world. I loved her years before you or Guy Palisse ever heard of her. Did you know that?" His eyes held Jimmy. His voice was vibrant with the intensity of his emotion.

  "You Earthmen would think to steal her from me? She is mine!"

&n
bsp; "She doesn't say so. Look here. Roc, don't lets try to kill each other, especially about a girl who most certainly is nothing to me." It flashed to Jimmy that something might be gained by talldug. He added, "Get me something to eat. Bring it back and we'll argue this out." Rocs look was gauging him. "You Earthmen are strange."

  "That's our way. You help me, and I'll help you. I like that better than sticking knives into people. Do you realize that the Bolton Cube will probably be after us by now?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, I know all about the Flying Cube and what it's going to do to you, Roc. Get that food and we'll talk." Roc did not answer. He went through the doorway; and Jimmy heard the snap of the door-slide as it closed upon him.

  Left alone, Jimmy examined the room in which he was imprisoned. No way, apparently, of getting out. Much good it would do him, to get out until they landed on Mercury.

  He went to the window. The Earth hung level with it, a great disk spreading half across the firmament. The ball had now a very slow axial rotation. The Earth, the Moon and all the starfield slowly swung; presently the Sun was visible.

  Roc did not return. He sent in the meal. Jimmy confronted the sullen woman who had attacked Rowena.

  "Where is Roc?"

  "He no come. Not now. Once again maybe, later." She put down the thin metal slab on which Jimmy's meal was arranged. She had left the door-slide open; Roc evidently did not much fear that Jimmy would try leaving the room. As she closed the door-slide, Jimmy called: "Tell Roc to come in here!" But Roc did not come. Jimmy bad no way of calculating the time. He slept, and Muta served him his meals. The ball's axial rotation continued. Outside Jimmy's single window the heavens passed in slow horizontal procession.

  Then Roc brought Jimmy's meal. While Jimmy ate he squatted on the floor. He thumped his chest.

  "Master of Mercury, and Tama my mate to help me rule iti" A crafty look was on the Mercurians face. "I love Tama.

  It was a fortunate choice tor me. She is leader of the flying virgins. They have always been rebellious. With Tama as my mate I can win them.'"

  "Diplomacy," said Jimmy, "is a great thing. But maybe Tama is rebellious too?"

  "I shall win her."

  "Not force her?"

  "No, unless she makes it necessary."

  "What do you want of me?"

  "Perhaps as what you call a hostage," Roc promptly returned. "The Earth vehicle might attack us. They would not want me to kill you. That Cube is in sight now"

  "Is it?" Jimmy involuntarily turned to the window, but Roc stopped him.

  "Eat your meal. It is not visible yetonly with my detection instruments."

  "Will you attack It?" Jimmy held his breath.

  "No. I cannot. And it will not attack me. That is one advantage of having you here. You and Tama and that big Earth-girl you call Rowena." Roc rose to his feet. "We will talk again."

  "Sit down a minute," Jimmy urged. "You mention Rowena.

  What do you want of her?"

  "I brought her," said Roc, "for Dorrek. Or at least, he Rmbcs ao." Roc's crafty look came back; again he lowered his voice. "I would rather trust you, Earthman, than any Mercurian of the Cold Country. This Rowena makes a good hostage now. That is what interests me. I do not wish to harm her."

  "No, I believe you don't. But there's Dorrek"

  "A leader of many men, is Dorrek. I need them so I need him. Yet" His voice fell still lower: "I have been in the Light Country for many years. This Dorrekthese eight other men with us here nowthey are strange to me. I command them, because I am my father's son. But I cannot trust them. I did not realize it when we started for Earth, but I do now. So you see, Jimmy Turk, why I want to make friends with you? I am really alone here on this flight." A pulse was pounding in Jimmy's throat. For the first time l,Ai.ViA, Z 11* Uuu v-I------ -'he felt that he and Roc were talking without duplicity. A bond was between them. They both desired, at least, the present safety of Tama and Rowena. And they were shut up here with what Jimmy now realized were barbarians, savages of a strange planet. Roc was bad enough; but Jimmy realized now these others were infinitely worse.

  "You mean," said Jimmy tensely, "he might slip a knife into you? Now that your father is out of the way, if he got rid of you, would he be the leader then of this invasion or conquest or whatever it is you are planning?"

  "Yes."

  "Look here," pursued Jimmy, "hadn't you better give me a weapon?"

  "And have you turn it on me?"

  "Don't be a fool, Roc. I'm with youfor this flight, anyway. See here, we're shut up in this damn little ball" They were startled by a sound outside the door. Roc's cylinder weapon sprang into his hand. He shoved it back to his belt with a laugh.

  "Talking like this makes me nervous." He and Jimmy were on their feet. Jimmy gripped him, whispered, "See herethose girls, don't let anything happen to them" The slide abruptly opened. It was the giant, DoJ,tde.What had he heard? His face was impassive as he stooped and squeezed through the little doorway. He spoke to Roc in the Mercurian tongue. Roc said in English: "The Earth vehicle can be seen now." They went to the window, waited a moment for the ball's axial rotation to bring the Earth into view. Jimmy stood gazing at the slowly shifting, starfield; but he was very conscious of the giant Mercurian beside him. Roc was undoubtedly an unscrupulous, crafty scoundrel. But at least one could talk to him, perhaps almost reason with him.

  Jimmy's surreptitious, gaze roved Doirek. Six and a half feeta gigantic hulk of a man, with a gray, flat, flabby face, heavy jowls and a broken nose. An animalskin was draped now across his bulging, hairless chest.

  Other Mercurians crowded in to question Roc about the approaching Eaitilship. Men of smaller stature, but with the same heavy barbaric look that characterized Dorrek.

  ' A babble of unintelligible Mercurian words enveloped Jimmy. Suddenly Jimmy thought of the girls on the lower tier.

  The woman Muta might be down there alone with them.

  He flashed Roc a significant look.

  "Let's go down, see it from below. Why wait up here?" Tama and Rowena were standing at one of the lower windows. Strangely contrasting types, these girls of different worlds. They stood with arms around each other. Rowena's tall figure was draped in the brown dressing gown; her hair fell in brown braids down her back. Her extended arm with the robe was thrown out over Tama's wings, enveloping the small Mercurian girl who leaned affectionately against her.

  Their backs were to the room; and its only other occupant at the moment was Muta. She stood against the wall gazing with heavy brooding eyes at Rowena.

  They saw the Cube draw level and check its accelera-' tton, sweeping along with them some ten miles away. They saw me leave as a tiny projectile hurtling toward them across the intervening void. Roc kept everyone away from the windows; he threw his mechanism to neutral so that 't~~e attractive mass of the ball might capture and hold me. ' Roc had' no way of knowing the identity of this emissary sent by the Earth vehicle. But when I had closely approached, Jimmy could guess. He thought it likely that the personnel of the Cube now was the same as upon its first flight, when Jimmy himself had been aboard. And as my bloated, grotesquely helmeted figure now encircled Roc's ship, drawing inward until I fell against the gleaming side, Jimmy guessed who it was, for I was by far the tallest man on the Cube.

  The occupants of the ball crowded one of its lower compartments at the inner entrance of the air lock chamber.

  The inner slide was closed.

  Jimmy said nothing. He stood tense beside Roc at the gauges of the pressure port. They saw my figure as I crawled like a fly outside the windows. I came against the outer entrance slide. Roc shoved at a lever.

  They felt the vibration of the metal wall as I tumbled to the floor of the air lock.

  VI WEAPONS THE AIR LOCK was black. I lay huddled on its floor. I could feel the air pressure coming into it. For a moment or two I crouched, clinging to my knife. When the air in the lock reached the pressure of the interior of the hall, the inner door w
ould open, no doubt; and the Mercurians would leap upon me. I had an instinct to put up a -fight, if I saw that Jimmy was free. It was a chance for us. But now I felt that it would be too dangerous, shut up here in this tiny world, to start acts of violence with Rowena and Tama aboard.

  I determined to keep my wits, betray myself into no rash move. ._._ I became aware that the air pressure was aboHfrTBBnnaT" The tiny gauge inside my helmet, faintly illumined, showed 15.5. The darkness continued. But my eyes were more accustomed to it now; I could see the narrow walls of a small room. Where the inner slide might be I could not yet determine.

  Another moment passed and I took off my helmet, placed It on the floor and stood up cautiously. There was barely room for me to stand erect, scarce an inch above my head to the metal ceiling. As I got to my feet, I realized they were maintaining a gravity much less than that of Earth.

  A sudden slit of light dazzled me. The inner slide was opening. Air of a little heavier pressure rushed in with a gust. I saw figures: squat, heavy men in crudely fashioned animalskins. One was gigantic. Then I saw a small slender fellow who was Roc. I recognized him from Guy's description.

  They crowded in upon me with a rush and jerked me forward out of the lock into a metal room which seemed brightly illumined.

  But though I was dazzled by the sudden light, I could see enough. Infinite relief swept me. Rowena, unharmed! Tama and Jimmy1 saw them standing in a group in the midst of the confusion. And over the babble of voices, I heard Rowena give a single cry, instantly suppressed. Joy at seeing me, yet fear, too, for my safety.

  I found myself standing alone, with the Mercurians crowd ing me. The knife was still in my gloved hand; I had held it in a fold of my deflated robe.

  Roc confronted me. "Who are you?" In that instant a score of wild plans flashed over me. I discarded them all. I smiled. I was holding the knife by its blade; I extended its handle.

  "My only weapon. Take it. I come peacefully." He took the knife. "Who are you?"

  "Jack Dean." I thought that Rowena gave a cry of protest. I could see comprehension sweep Roc's face, but to the other Mercurians the name seemed to mean nothing.