Rebels of the Red Planet

by Charles L. Fontenay

  17

  Behind the locked door of the conference room, one of the Masters passedout heatguns to Nuwell, Placer and the other four.

  "If we use these on them at half intensity, I think we can calm themdown without killing any of them," said Placer. "We'll probably havemore trouble beating down the Toughs and keeping them from killing allthe Jellies than we will subduing the Jellies in the first place."

  "I hope we warned the three at the other end of the hall in time," saidone of the others. "There hasn't been any word from them."

  Placer flicked a switch on the intercom system.

  "Touchstone, are you men safe?" he asked.

  "Yes, sir," replied a voice on the other end. "We locked ourselves in,because there aren't any heatguns we can get to from here. The Jellieshaven't gotten this far down yet. They seem to be cowed by the Toughs atthe door to Miss Cara Nome's room, and the Toughs are strutting aroundgetting themselves in the mood for an attack. We've been watching themthrough the window."

  "Good," said Placer. "Between the Toughs at that end and our heatguns atthis end, we ought to be able to force them back below without muchtrouble. Are we ready to move out?"

  A different voice came in over the intercom, the voice of the tenthMaster, who was on duty in the farm's control room.

  "Placer, the screens show three groundcars moving up from the south," hesaid. "I've tried to contact them by radio, but they don't answer."

  "We haven't been notified to expect any government visitors," saidPlacer. "It may be a convoy of travelers off-course in the desert, or itcould be a wandering party of escaped rebels. Warn them away."

  "Yes, sir."

  Touchstone's voice came in from the other end of the hall.

  "The Toughs are attacking, Placer. Space, it's awful! Those poor Jelliescan't stand up to the Toughs."

  Suddenly his voice changed, and became shrill with excitement.

  "Placer! One of those Jellies has a heatgun! Two of the Toughs were justburned down, and the others are falling back down the hall. The Jelliesare coming on, and I can see the gun in the hand of one of them."

  "Great space!" muttered Placer. "All right, Touchstone. Hold tight andkeep that door locked. We'll get to you."

  He turned to the others.

  "We've got to move out now," he said. "Use full intensity and shoot tokill. We'll have to burn our way through those Jellies and get to theother end of the hall."

  Leaving one of the Masters at the intercom in the control room, theother six went out into the corridor, heatguns ready. The foremostJellies had advanced almost to the door, and now that they had spreadout along the corridor, they were not packed so closely together.

  The six men advanced steadily, leveling their guns. They fired, intense,almost invisible beams stabbing into the group of Jellies.

  Jellies shrieked in pain, several of them collapsing to the floor withsmoking flesh. The others turned in panic and began to crowd back downthe corridor, the beams stabbing at them and picking them off one byone.

  Then, from amid the Jellies, a beam struck forth, and one of the Masterswent down, his face burned away. Placer burned down the Jelly holdingthe heatgun, and the five survivors moved grimly on.

  On the ramp ahead, Dark and Old Beard approached the open gate to thecorridor, Happy and Shadow following them.

  "I wish I had been able to find more heatguns at Ultra Vires," said Darkto Old Beard. "Only three, besides our four, are spreading them outpretty thin."

  "At least the Jellies made the break into the corridor, and we'vemanaged to discourage the Toughs below from following them up for awhile," said Old Beard. The bodies of a dozen Toughs at the foot of theramp behind them attested to the rear guard battle they had fought. Thatwas what had held them up so long. "If we can hold the corridor and keepthe Masters bottled up, your friends outside should be able to turn thetide."

  "It will take them a while to break in," said Dark. "But I've alreadycontacted Cheng telepathically and told him to move in."

  They emerged into the corridor, into a scene of tremendous confusion.All they could see in both directions were Jellies, milling about andchattering. The mass seemed to be drifting gradually toward the left,while from the right came shrieks of agony.

  "This way," said Dark, turning to the left. "We have to get Maya out ofhere before we can do anything else."

  Forcing their way through the Jellies, they came to a door. Dark triedit. It was locked. He burned the lock off and pushed it open.

  Maya was standing back against the wall on the other side of the room,alarmed at the noise in the corridor, frightened at the opening of thedoor. As Dark and Old Beard came in, and she recognized Dark, she ranacross the room to meet them, joy transforming her face.

  She threw herself into Dark's arms.

  "Oh, Dark!" she cried. "I knew you'd come!"

  He enfolded her in his arms and kissed her. Then he turned back to OldBeard, his arm around Maya's shoulders.

  "Old Beard, this is Maya Cara Nome," said Dark. "Maya, this is myfather, the real Dark Kensington."

  "The older Dark Kensington," corrected Old Beard. "I am very happy tomeet you, Maya. My son, you have chosen a beautiful woman."

  Happy and Shadow had followed the other two into the room and werestanding against the door, holding it closed.

  "Maya, we're going to have to try to hold the corridor until the Phoenixgets here," said Dark. "I want you to go with Shadow and Happy down tothe vats. You get into a marsuit, and they'll take you to one of theentrance buildings. I'll tell Cheng to pick you up in one of thegroundcars, and then Happy and Shadow can come back here to help us."

  "I'll do nothing of the sort," said Maya flatly. "You need them up herenow, and I won't leave you. I'm going to stay here and help you. Afterall, I can handle a heatgun better than any of these Jellies."

  "But, Maya, I want to know that you're safe."

  "I don't want to be safe until you are. Please let me stay, Dark."

  "All right," Dark surrendered. "Shadow, give her your heatgun."

  The five of them left the room together.

  They emerged into a scene of incredible carnage. The Jellies, with onlythree heatguns which they were inept at using, had been no match for theMasters. Almost all of the Jellies were lying dead on the floor of thecorridor, and the remaining few were backed up at the end of the hall totheir right.

  Three of the men were advancing toward these last Jellies. The othertwo, returning to the conference room, already had passed Maya's doorand were picking their way back among the scorched, twitching bodies ofthe Jellies. Dark and the others were between these two retreatingforces of Masters.

  "We'll have to try to save those Jellies," decided Dark at once. "Happy,you and Shadow move back up the corridor and hold the line in case thoseother two turn back to attack our rear. The rest of us will tackle thethree to the right."

  They split up and moved off. But they were too late. Dark, Maya and OldBeard had advanced hastily no more than ten feet when the last of theJellies at the end of the corridor collapsed under the combined beams ofthree heatguns. Immediately, the door beyond the dead Jellies opened andthree more Masters emerged. They joined the first three, and were giventhe heatguns taken from the vanquished Jellies.

  Dark stopped and held up his hand, halting the advance of his littlegroup.

  "We're too badly outnumbered now," he said. "Let's collect Happy andShadow and get back down to the vats, where we can hide until thePhoenix break in."

  The Masters had seen them now, and started to move up the corridortoward them in a group, but were still ten or fifteen feet out ofheatgun range. Dark was not surprised to see that one of the group wasNuwell.

  Dark and Maya turned back toward the entrance toward the undergroundvats, but stopped as Old Beard emitted a growl of recognition.

  One of the three men who had emerged from the room was skinny, goateedGoat Hennessey, and he was coming forward now in the forefront of thegroup, a heatgun in his ha
nd.

  "Dark, you and Maya go on without me," said Old Beard very quietly. "Ihave a score to settle."

  Dark turned back, his mouth open to protest, but Old Beard had alreadystarted swiftly down the corridor toward the oncoming group.

  "Wait!" cried Dark, and started to run after him. But, in his haste,Dark tripped over the corpse of a Jelly and fell sprawling. In themoments it took Dark to scramble to his feet and recover his droppedheatgun from the floor, the drama ahead of him flashed like lightning toits conclusion.

  Old Beard ran down the corridor toward the group of Masters, leapinglightly over the bodies of Jellies in his path, his gray hair streamingout behind him.

  "Goat Hennessey!" he thundered, his voice reverberating from the wallsof the corridor. "You betrayed me and killed my wife! Now the time hascome for you to pay for your crimes!"

  The Masters stopped in their tracks, frozen at the sight of this figureof retribution charging down on them. In their forefront, Goat stoodstaring, open-mouthed, not comprehending until the full impact of OldBeard's words broke upon him. Then, recognition dawning, he squawled inamazement and fear:

  "Dark Kensington!"

  With that cry, Goat turned in terror to escape. But Dark was now withinrange, and the intense beam of his downward-chopping heatgun caught Goatat the base of the skull and swept all the way down his back. GoatHennessey plunged forward to the floor, dead, his spine burned away.

  Even as Goat fell, his companions emerged from their paralysis. Thebeams of five heatguns focussed on Old Beard, and he died in a burst offlame that flared from wall to wall of the narrow corridor.

  Appalled at his father's sudden death, Dark almost leaped after him, toattack the five survivors single-handed. But Maya grasped his arm.

  "No, Dark!" she urged. "Please don't!"

  Realizing on the instant that to die now would only leave Maya at themercy of the Masters and Nuwell, Dark turned back. He and Maya ran forthe door to the ramp leading underground, Dark calling to Happy andShadow to join them.

  But Happy, and presumably the invisible Shadow, were well up thecorridor and they, too, were under attack now. The two Masters who hadbeen heading for the conference room had turned back and were now inrange of Happy, their heatguns blasting.

  Happy had remained true to Dark's charge to hold the line against anyattack from the rear. Frightened but staunch, he was standing hisground, waving his own heat beam at the approaching pair of Masters.

  But Happy was too unfamiliar with the weapon and too nervous to hiteither of his targets. The beams of both Masters found him at the sametime, and, with a woeful shriek that was cut off in a choking gurgle,the unfortunate Jelly collapsed to a smoking heap on the floor, quiveredonce and lay still.

  Apparently from out of nowhere, the unarmed Shadow descended like athunderbolt on one of Happy's killers. The surprised Master wentsprawling, his heatgun flying from his hand.

  Shadow might have vanquished the other, too, except that this startledindividual, waving his heat beam wildly in an attempt to catch theelusive, vanishing and reappearing figure, scored a lucky hit. There wasa tremendous flare of flame, and the extraordinary form of Shadowappeared for the last time, a charred, flat body lying on the floor ofthe corridor like the shadow for which he had been named.

  The whole tragedy ran its course in less than a minute. In that time,Dark and Maya reached the entrance to the ramp, ducked into it and randown the incline to the sheltering dimness of the labyrinthine vats.

  18

  Moments later, the two groups of Masters converged at the gate, two fromone direction and five from the other.

  "After them!" commanded Placer. "But stay together. We'll have to try tohunt them down in the vats, and maybe the Toughs can help us, but wedon't want to get separated so they can pick us off one by one."

  "Wait, Placer, there's something you ought to know," said one of the twoMasters who had come from the direction of the conference room. "Greydecalled out a few minutes ago to tell us he had word from Vidonati in thecontrol room. Those groundcars that were hanging around had attackedone of the entrance buildings."

  "Space!" growled Placer. "There must be a conspiracy involved heresomewhere. We'd better stay up here, then."

  He pulled the lever beside the gate to the ramp, and it rumbled down andcrashed into place.

  "At least, those two are trapped below," he said with satisfaction. "Wecan hunt them down at our leisure when we've repelled this attack fromoutside. If we can take them alive, I'm of a mind to make them pay wellfor their responsibility in our losing all our experimental Jellies."

  The seven of them went on to the conference room, picking their wayamong the bodies of the Jellies. Placer took over the intercom fromGreyde.

  "Vidonati, this is Placer," he said. "What's the situation?"

  "The groundcars attacked the south building," replied Vidonati. "Theymoved in and concentrated all three car beams on the airlock and burnedit through. I counted nine men in marsuits who left the groundcars andwent into the building. Of course, as soon as they started blasting theairlocks, I closed the emergency barrier to block off the downwardramp."

  "Obviously, since we still have air in the place," commented Placerdryly. "You'd better call Mars City and get them to send help."

  "I've already done that," said Vidonati. "A jet squadron's on its way."

  "Good," said Placer. "They can be here in about five hours, and it willtake those rebels, or whoever they are, two or three times that long toburn through one of the emergency barriers, even if they blast anopening and bring their groundcars into the building to bring thegroundcars' big guns on it."

  "Should I stick it out here, or seal all the barriers and come below?"asked Vidonati. The control room was in the north building.

  "Stay up there so you can report on what they're doing, unless theystart to move toward that building," instructed Placer. "If they do,seal the other emergency barriers at once and come below. We can switchto the emergency radio down here to keep in touch with the task forcefrom Mars City, and just wait it out underground until they clean upthese rebels."

  "Good enough," agreed Vidonati. "I won't take any chances."

  In the vats below, Dark and Maya made their way to Old Beard's hideout,their heatguns ready, keeping a sharp lookout for Toughs. They reachedit without incident.

  Dark looked sadly around the little recess beneath the tangledvegetation, where Old Beard had concealed himself successfully so longfrom both Toughs and Masters. He had hoped that this reunion with hisfather would mean many years of companionship between them, once theywere free of the Canfell Hydroponic Farm and had found a haven in theIcaria Desert.

  But he knew that Old Beard had died in an act that had great meaning tohim, a savage revenge that had wiped out the bitter memory of the lossof his wife and had repaid him for twenty-five long years of exile. OldBeard had died nobly.

  Dark picked up one of the smaller marsuits.

  "We don't know what's going to happen above, and we can't help much bystaying inside, now that we can't hold that corridor and bottle them upin a room until Cheng and the Phoenix break in," said Dark. "We'd bestget up to one of the exit buildings, get out through the airlock and getpicked up by one of the groundcars. I don't need a marsuit, but you canput that on as soon as we get above in the building."

  "Have you been in telepathic touch with Cheng?" asked Maya.

  "Yes. They've already broken into the south building. That's the one Icame through when I left for Ultra Vires and when I came back. But theMasters let down a heavy emergency barrier on the ramp when theyattacked the airlock, and we wouldn't be able to get through that.There's a ramp near here that Old Beard told me opens onto the northbuilding. We'll go there, and I'll send a call to Cheng to move overand meet us there."

  Dark sent out a call to Cheng and received an acknowledgement. He andMaya started for the ramp, unaware that the building which was theirgoal housed the farm's control room, and the watching Vidonati.
<
br />   Above, a few moments later, Vidonati called Placer on the intercom.

  "Placer, they've come back to the groundcars and turned them in thisdirection," said Vidonati. "I'm going to let down the barriers on theramps from the east and west buildings, sabotage the controls so theycan't raise them again, and come on down. I'll lower the barrier to thisbuilding from inside, as soon as I get past it on the ramp."

  "All right," said Placer. "We'll start getting the emergency radio inoperation down here. Do a good job, but do it fast, and don't get caughtup there by the rebels blasting the airlock."

  "I won't," promised Vidonati. "It'll only take me a few minutes, and Ican be down the ramp before they can focus their beams on the airlock."

  In the lead groundcar, as the three of them wheeled around and headedslowly for the north building, Cheng turned to one of his companionswith a frown.

  "I've been trying to get through telepathically to Dark, but I can'treach him," said Cheng. "He didn't give any instructions for gettinginto the building, but they seem to have locked these airlocks by remotecontrol so they can't be operated. We'll have to blast this one as wedid the other one, because I don't imagine Dark will be able to open itfrom inside. He seemed in rather a hurry to be picked up."

  Dark and Maya hurried up the ramp toward the north building. Dark hadbeen concentrating too heavily on finding his way through the vats toreceive Cheng's telepathic call.

  They passed the barred gate that opened into the corridors of the upperlevel, and a few moments later reached the top of the ramp and the gateto the north building. Dark had been prepared to open this bytelekinesis but, to his surprise, it was already open.

  They passed through it and emerged into the north building.

  Dark had never seen one of the ground-level buildings in daylight, asboth times he had passed through the south building it had been night.He looked around the place curiously as they entered.

  It was about fifty feet square, bare except for the low, hard bunks onwhich the Toughs slept at night. On three sides of it were windows, nowclosed with heavy steel shutters. The airlock was across the room,opposite the ramp entrance. The fourth wall was blank, and apparentlyshut off a room at the end, because there was a closed door in thecenter of it.

  They moved out into the room, and Dark said:

  "Slip into your marsuit, and we'll go out the airlock. I told Cheng tobring the groundcars over this way, and they ought to be ready to pickus up by the time we get out."

  "I don't see why we didn't stay down in the vats until the Phoenix breakin," said Maya. "We were well hidden down there, and there might havebeen some way we could have helped the Phoenix from inside."

  "Primarily because I'm not sure now that the Phoenix can break in,"answered Dark. "I didn't know about that heavy emergency barrier theMasters let down on the south ramp, and I was surprised and relieved tofind they hadn't dropped one on this ramp, too. If they had, we'd havebeen trapped below. If they have those barriers on all four ramps, thePhoenix can't stay around long enough to burn through them, because theMasters have probably already called for help from Mars City."

  Maya had laid her marshelmet down on one of the bunks, and was pullingthe marsuit on over her tunic and trousers.

  The door at the other end of the room opened, and a man emerged, aheatgun in his hand.

  Vidonati stopped in his tracks, startled, at the sight of Dark and Maya.Dark grunted in surprise, and reached for his heatgun.

  Even as Dark freed his weapon, Vidonati fired. The beam missed them,melting away the top of Maya's marshelmet and setting the bunk aflame.Then, as the beam of Dark's gun swung toward him, Vidonati duckedprecipitately back into the control room.

  "He got your marshelmet!" exclaimed Dark. "We're going to have to go inand flush him out of there, and just hope there's another marsuit inthere, before we can open the airlock."

  Heatgun in hand, Dark started for the door of the control room, Maya athis heels.

  It was then that the Phoenix, the three groundcars drawn up with theirheavy guns focused, blasted the airlock of the north building. Inseconds, the airlock was burned through.

  There was no emergency barrier down on this ramp. The heavy,Earth-pressured air of the north building whistled out into the desert.As from a punctured balloon, the pressured atmosphere of the entireCanfell Hydroponic Farm rushed after it, roaring up the ramp, in amoment stripping the vats, the upper level and the north building.

  Caught in the tornadic blast, Dark could only cling to a bolted-down cotwith one hand, and hold onto Maya around the waist with the other. Asthe pressure dropped precipitately and oxygen no longer touched hislungs, he could actually feel his alternate metabolism shifting intogear, he could feel his breathing stop and the glow of solar energybegin to spread through his body.

  As the wind faded and died, Dark released Maya and rose exultantly tohis feet. Down below, he knew, Nuwell and the Masters were gasping outtheir lives in the thin air, like beached fish. Their recent attacker,Vidonati, lay half out of the door of the control room, his handsclutching convulsively at the floor.

  "That's not the way I'd planned it, but it's just as good!" Darkexclaimed. "We've taken the farm!"

  Then he remembered. Maya had no marshelmet!

  Appalled, struck to the heart, he turned in his tracks.

  Maya was standing behind him, calmly trying to rearrange her raven hair,tangled by the raging rush of wind.

  "What's the matter?" she asked quietly, becoming aware of Dark's intentgaze.

  "Maya! You don't have a helmet on! Are you breathing?"

  She was silent for a moment, apparently examining herself.

  "Why, no, I don't believe I am," she replied, just as calmly.

  "How can you ...? Wait a minute!"

  Dark sent his mind into the invisible. His probing thoughts fled overdesert and lowland, seeking. They found the Martian, Qril, and herecognized that Qril responded immediately.

  _Qril, how is it that Maya is able to live in the Martian atmospherewithout breathing?_ asked Dark telepathically.

  _She is as you_, replied Qril. _When she was a child, living among theMartians, we altered her physiological and genetic structure so thatshe, also, is able to utilize solar energy and exist without oxygen_.

  _Why didn't you tell me this before, at Ultra Vires?_ demanded Dark.

  _You did not ask_, replied Qril, and the mental contact faded out.

  Dark turned to Maya, his face alight.

  "Darling," he said, "our children will need no embryonic alterations.They will be born as we are, able to live under Martian conditions. Andnever again will either of us ever have to wear a marsuit!"

  He felt the questing touch of Cheng's mind.

  Cheng: _Are you there, Dark?_

  Dark: _Here._

  Cheng: _Are you all right?_

  Dark: _We're both fine! We're coming out. Then we'll take off at oncefor the Icaria Desert, before the Mars City task force gets here._

  He and Maya walked hand in hand through the blasted airlock. The threegroundcars were there, waiting.

  The two of them stood for a moment, before getting aboard thegroundcars, and looked out together across the red desert toward thesinking sun.

  Death? Desolation? No, not for them. This was life, and free, bleakbeauty, for them and for their children.

  The future of Mars was theirs.