‘I believe our luck’s still in,’ he cried. ‘They must already have realised what a potent weapon they have in the bombs for suppressing the revolt; but they are not strong enough to operate the levers that discharge them and are trying to work out a method of doing so before sending the Saucer up.’
Whether he was right or wrong, it was instantly made clear that the insects did not regard them as potential allies. No sooner had the trolley appeared over the bridge than a swarm of them rose in the air and came hurtling straight at it.
Halting the trolley, Kem drew the bag containing his four captives from under his cloak, threw it to Harsbach, and shouted:
‘Quick! We must use those boys as our ambassadors. Do your stuff on each one before you let it go. Send them back with my apologies and offer of help. We’ll keep off the swarm while you concentrate.’
He had hardly finished speaking before the swarm was on them. The cloud of insects was ten times the number that had attacked Kem in the bean-field. The air seemed black with them. They beat on every part of the four humans, tearing with their sharp little claws at faces, hair and clothing. With flailing arms Kem and the two girls smashed at them, and with little cries of pain plucked them from their ears, chins and fingers.
Meanwhile Harsbach had thrown himself on his knees beween two baskets of beans, and, crouching down with his head almost on the floor of the trolley, had drawn one of the bee-beetles out of the bag. Holding it between his hands he pressed it to his forehead, and strove to impart to it the simple telepathic message that they came as friends. To each of the four insects he gave a full minute; then, as he released the last of them, he stood up to join in the fight that was still raging. For a further two minutes it continued, then it ceased as suddenly as it had begun. The whole party were left breathless and reeling; their faces and hands were dripping with blood; the two girls were weeping unashamedly from the hurts they had received; but they knew that their message had been delivered, and that they would now at least be able to parley with their enemies.
Kem ran the trolley across the big yard and halted it beside the Saucer. Harsbach signed to all the others to stay on it, got off, and proceeded to open negotiations. For some moments he remained standing with his eyes riveted on the black mass of insects that had now gathered there, occasionally making descriptive gestures, while they watched him intently but gave no apparent indication of their thoughts.
Nevertheless, when he did turn his head towards the trolley he declared himself quite certain about what was in their minds.
They had sent for help to all the hives in other parts of Mars, and when it came would overwhelm the local giants. But that would take time and every moment meant a further destruction of their property. If the humans would go up and stop the revolt at once by dropping the bombs they would have them flown back to Earth. But not yet. They must remain on Mars until they had made two more bombs. The insects were quite confident that they would manage to restore order without human aid, and were unshakable in their decision that, if the bombs were to be used, only by their replacement could the captives buy their freedom.
27
Tempting Providence
The attitude of the bee-beetles was bitterly disappointing. Kem had felt confident that in their present desperate situation, once they understood that an alliance was being offered to them they would be only too eager to accept help at the price asked for it. He had forgotten the great advantage that the insects’ immensely superior mobility would give them over the giants in a prolonged conflict. Within a few hours swift flight would probably bring hundreds of thousands of them from other oases; and the creatures had brains, whereas the giants were morons. They were at a temporary loss only because they had been faced by a totally unexpected situation; but they would soon get themselves organised and think of a way to subdue the few hundred stupid, unwieldy slaves who could not hope for reinforcements.
Yet there was the Saucer all set to go up. A navigating crew must already be in it, ready to take off and save it from sabotage by the giants if they succeeded in breaking through to this yard. Kem felt that by hook or by crook he and his party must get aboard, as they might never get another chance like this to escape from Mars. It was natural that the insects should be most loath for the bombs to be used unless they could ensure that others should be made, so that they would still have prototypes from which to make hundreds more for their hellish designs against Earth; but there was still a chance that in their present extremity they would give way if they were treated with firmness. Jumping off the trolley, he cried:
Tell them there’s nothing doing!’
‘Those are the best terms they will give us,’ Harsbach replied a little uncertainly.
‘I bet they have no intention of keeping their word. Anyway, we couldn’t possibly leave them with the secret of the Atom bomb.’
‘All the same, I feel we should accept. Once we are on board, we may be able to think of some way to trick them.’
‘No amount of trickery will enable us to live through the journey to Earth without rations,’ put in the practical Anna.
The Herr Doktor gave her a worried look. ‘I know. I had not lost sight of that. I was thinking that we might adopt some modification of our original plan.’
Carmen shook the drops of blood from her hands, and said: ‘You mean use one of the bombs and save the other to terrify them into doing as we wish? We could then make it part of our terms that they should put out a dump of rations for us to come down and collect.’
‘We’d never pull that off!’ Kem’s voice was abrupt and urgent. ‘The old plan might have worked if we’d been able to spring it on them as a surprise. But we’ve more of less shown our hand now, and when they’ve quelled the revolt they are far more likely to dig their toes in. Our one chance is to defy them while they are still up against it. If only we can get the rations aboard, we’ll find some way to coerce the pilots when they have to take the Saucer up to save it from being sabotaged by the giants. Come on! It’s now or never!’
Suiting the action to the word, he picked up a basket full of water flasks, sprang off the trolley with it, and leapt towards the Saucer.
In spite of the lacerating they had already received, both the girls followed his example, while Harsbach made a great mental effort to dissuade the bee-beetles from intervening. His attempt was unsuccessful. As Kem bounded up the ramp to the entry port the great swarm of insects rose and again fell upon them.
To all of them the next ten minutes seemed a night-long nightmare. To lift and hold the big baskets they needed both hands, so only for brief intervals were they able to defend themselves. Had not the strong transparent shades protected their eyes, they would have been blinded and rendered hors de combat within the first few moments. The only factor in their favour was that their bodies and the loads they carried weighed only a third of what they would have done on Earth. That enabled them to transfer the provisions and their belongings from the trolley to the Saucer without great effort and comparatively swiftly. Yet as they worked all of them sobbed with agony from the tearing of their flesh by the pincers of the scores of insects endeavouring to stop them.
They had succeeded in getting little more than half their supplies aboard when there came a fresh development. At first it looked like proving helpful to them, but swiftly turned to a new menace.
As Kem had anticipated, the flights of bee-beetles that they had seen twenty minutes earlier, striving to check the depredations of the giants, could no longer hold the mutinous monsters in the third yard. Little groups of giants were now penetrating to the fourth yard, intent on further destruction. At their appearance, as though at a signal, the main swarm of insects ceased attacking the humans, and sped away to aid their comrades’ attempts to repel this new incursion; while a dozen or so of them—presumably the crew of the Saucer—flew into it.
‘Take a breather!’ Kem cried, and only too gladly they all paused from their labours for a few moments to wipe th
e blood and sweat from their faces. Then, with renewed energy, they set to work again.
But they had hardly done so when they became aware that within a matter of minutes they would be faced with another crisis. Some of the giants had seen the beans that they were loading into the Saucer and, with a greedy cackling, were making most determined efforts to reach it. The clouds of insects beat upon and harried them; but, shaking their bald heads and flailing wildly with their hands, they continued to make swift progress across the yard.
While loading up, even the physical pain to which the four humans had been subjected had not entirely swamped in their minds the vital question upon which everything now hung—once they had got aboard the Saucer with their rations would they, or would they not, be able to induce its insect pilots to take it up?
Even as they laboured so desperately, they knew that all their efforts might be thrown away. It was quite certain that the pilots would not willingly take them back to Earth without having received definite instructions, and if they feared that there was any likelihood of their being coerced into doing so, they might refuse to go at all.
Their fears that they had, perhaps, reached a dead-end were suddenly relieved by feeling the Saucer lift a few inches. Evidently the pilots had decided that it was preferable to take their machine up with the humans on board to allowing it to fall into the hands of the giants. Yet the time margin left for escape was of the narrowest.
Harsbach and Carmen were already aboard. Anna had brought the last load of mats from the trolley. The monsters reached it at the moment she tumbled through the port. Kem was still outside and about to scramble in after her. One of the giants flung himself forward and seized him by the ankle. The Saucer was now rocking a little from side to side, but had not yet fully taken off. For a moment it looked as if Kem would be dragged from it before it could get into the air. Desperately he clung on with both hands, his muscles strained almost to the limit of endurance as the monster tugged upon his leg.
Suddenly, beneath his left arm, he glimpsed a spurt of flame. A deafening report almost shattered his ear drum. Six feet away the giant’s forehead dissolved into a mass of pulped bone that spurted blood. The grip on his ankle relaxed. With a gasp he tumbled inboard.
As he fell upon his back on its upper deck the port above him closed, and the ceiling of which it formed part began rapidly to revolve. Anna was standing over him, her small white teeth clenched, and a pistol clutched in her hand, from the barrel of which a wisp of smoke still trailed upward.
‘Thank you!’ he muttered as he got to his feet; then pointing at the weapon, he added, ‘I didn’t know that you had been carrying a gun on you all this time.’
She turned and gave him a contemptuous look. It is Zadovitch’s. Surely you do not think that I am quite such a fool as to have left it where he dropped it; so that you could get hold of it? As to saving you, I did so because we shall yet be faced with many difficulties before we can get away, and we need you to help us overcome some of them.’
Aware that certain of those difficulties would confront them almost immediately, Kem turned his back upon her without replying. Owing to the way in which they had had to get aboard the Saucer its upper deck presented a spectacle of wild disorder. Great piles of beans and water flasks littered the floor in all directions. Scattered among them were Carmen’s bags, her original bedding, a score of fibre-mats and numerous oddments that had reached Mars with the Russian party. All four survivors of the two kidnappings were now hardly recognisable, owing to the blood that oozed from scores of small wounds all over their faces. Anna, still clasping her pistol, but her nerve now gone, had collapsed in a flood of tears upon a heap of beans; Carmen lay moaning against one of the square tanks. The two men were in little better shape, but both knew that everything depended on their taking prompt and vigorous action within the next ten minutes. Harsbach had already pulled open the door to the control tower, and motioned Kem to precede through it.
Their roles had long since been decided, when they had worked out their original plan and had expected to be allowed to go up as the crew of the Saucer instead of having to fight their way into it. Kem was to act as bomber, while Harsbach remained in the control tower, and used his utmost endeavours to dominate the insects there.
When the alterations to the Saucer were being carried out, Harsbach had persuaded those who were supervising the work to have the way through the tower made, on the excuse that it would be necessary for a human crew to pass from the upper deck to the lower in order to launch the bombs. Actually he could have easily worked out a way of releasing the bombs from the upper deck, and his secret reason for insisting on a means of getting from one deck to the other was to gain access to the control room. Only by stationing himself in it could he hope to prevent the pilot from flying the Saucer away from the oasis before they had gained sufficient height to release a bomb without danger to themselves. Moreover, by watching the insects while the Saucer was in the air there was at least a chance that they might grasp the principles upon which they flew it.
As Kem clambered down through the control tower he had little opportunity to take in anything but a general impression of its interior. He got a glimpse into one miniature cabin in which an insect was facing what appeared to be a complicated chart; into another that seemed to serve as the bridge, as there were three bee-beetles there, one of whom was looking into the lens of an instrument that resembled a camera, while the other two perched on a thick rod with a number of small levers spaced out along it; and into a third, which contained five more of them who appeared to be off duty, as they were not occupied with anything. The remainder of the space was criss-crossed by a number of struts and wires, but there was none of the complicated machinery he had expected to see; so it seemed that the great magnet worked upon quite simple principles.
When he reached the lower deck he was faced with the tricky business of getting into position as, had he let go, the gravity of Mars would have caused him to drop on to the whirling lower surface of the Saucer. As a means of getting over this a number of hand-holds had been fixed to the underside of the deck and two strongly made box-like structures, each six feet in length and open at their ends, which were about four feet square. The two open-ended boxes were parallel to, and just above, the noses of the two bombs, and had been designed for the bomb-aimer to lie in.
Swinging from hand-hold to hand-hold Kem reached one of the boxes, stuck his legs into it, then wriggled inside. Turning over on his stomach, he lay there looking down the bomb-sights, past the nose of the bomb to the place where its port would open. Barely two hours had elapsed since he had gone to the bean-fields that morning, yet that now seemed days away, and he had been through so much that he felt almost at the end of his tether. His face, neck and hands ached intolerably; he would have given almost anything to be able to shut his eyes and relax his vigilance, but he dared not. The moment of crisis which would spell success or utter ruin was almost upon them. Racked by anxiety as well as pain, he waited, his nerves strung to fever pitch, for the signal.
Some fifteen feet above him Harsbach had already embarked on his delicate and difficult task. For the first few moments he had kept one eye on an altimeter of his own construction that was fixed to the wall of the control room, but his main attention was riveted on the bee-beetles. As the altimeter reached 1,500 feet one of them pushed forward a lever. The Saucer heeled over a little, and the Herr Doktor guessed that, as he and his companions had forced their way into it, the pilot had decided to accept their offer to drop a bomb on the giants’ barracks. Instantly, he put out his hand and pulled the little lever back until the Saucer righted itself.
The insect waved its pincers in protest; but Harsbach put the tip of his finger on the needle of the altimeter, then raised it gradually, at the same time throwing out the thought that they must go very high to escape their own blast. Apparently satisfied, the creature quietened down. Soundlessly, but so swiftly that all the humans in it felt the pull of gravi
ty strongly, the Saucer continued to gain height. In another two minutes the altimeter showed 25,000 feet.
Harsbach then stretched out his hand and began to fiddle with the row of little control levers. His job was to stop the Saucer spinning, so that a bomb could be dropped; but he did not know how, and could find out only by trial and error,
The first lever he touched enormously increased their speed; so he swiftly flipped it back. The second sent them heeling over sideways; again he withdrew it. The third apparently had no effect; but from the control room he could see neither the upper nor lower surface of the Saucer; so he shouted loudly to Kem:
‘Watch out! This may be it.’
Meanwhile, the two insects on the lever bridge were evidently much annoyed at his interference with their machine, and buzzed angrily up and down; but he ignored them and listened anxiously for Kem’s reply. After a moment it came:
‘O.K. She’s slowing down.’
From where Kem lay he could now see circular streaks in the under-surface as it revolved less rapidly; then, as it slowed still further, the streaks became identifiable as parts of the bomb ports that had been cut in it. Anther ten seconds and it stopped; but not in the right position for the bombs to be launched. They had not realised that all the chances were against it doing so, and the second it came to rest Kem jumped down on to it.
‘She’s stopped!’ he yelled up to Harsbach, and bracing himself against one of the bombs he began to push with his feet against the surface, until it came round with the bomb ports under the noses of the bombs. Then, opening a section of the bomb’s casing, he swiftly adjusted the mechanism controlling the plunger so that it should detonate the bomb when the altimeter inside it had fallen to 2,000 feet.
Star of Ill-Omen Page 33
