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diff --git a/25270-h/25270-h.htm b/25270-h/25270-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68d1c15 --- /dev/null +++ b/25270-h/25270-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6657 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Hunters out of Space, +by Joseph E. Kelleam.</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; width: 80%;} + h1,h2 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; + margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 2em; + page-break-after: avoid; } + p { margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; padding: 0em; + text-align: justify;} + body > p {text-indent: 1em;} + p.toclink {text-align: right; font-size: 80%; visibility: hidden;} + .noin {text-indent:0em;} + .drop { float: left; font-size: 280%; line-height: 0.75em; padding-bottom: 0px; + padding-top: 3px; padding-right: 2px; text-indent: 0em; border: 0px;} + + hr {width: 65%; margin: 2em auto 2em auto; clear: both;} + hr.tb {border-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; + border-bottom: 0em; width: 10%; color: white; + background-color: inherit;} + hr.fn {width: 100%; margin: 0.5em auto 0.5em auto; + border: dotted gray 0.5px;} + + .nowrap { white-space: nowrap; } + .newpage { page-break-before: always; } + .pagenum { visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; + right: 4px; + text-indent: 0em; + font-size: 70%; + text-align: right;} + + .letter {margin-left: 1.75em; margin-right: 1.75em; text-indent: 1em;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 0.75em; margin-right: 0.75em;} + .tn {margin: 4em 5%; padding: 1em; background-color: #f6f2f2; + color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 80%; + border: dotted black 1px; text-indent: 0em;} + + .noborder {border: 0px;} + .notop {margin-top: 0em;} + .nopad {margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em;} + .nozip {margin: 0em; padding: 0em; text-indent: 0em; + border: 0em; border-spacing: 0em;} + + .pad1 {margin: 1em auto;} + .pad1bot {margin: 0em auto 1em auto;} + .pad2 {margin: 2em auto;} + .pad2top {margin: 2em auto 0em auto;} + .pad2bot {margin: 0em auto 2em auto;} + .pad4top {margin: 4em auto 0em auto;} + .pad4bot {margin: 0em auto 4em auto;} + + .center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .caption {font-weight: bold; font-size: 90%;} + .r {text-align: right;} + .l {text-align: left;} + .i {font-style: italic;} + + .s1 {text-indent: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 400%;} + .s4 {text-indent: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 200%;} + .s5 {text-indent: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 150%;} + .s6 {text-indent: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 120%;} + + .w60 {width: 60%;} + .w600 {width: 600px;} + .insome {margin-left:6em;} + .inmore {margin-left:10em;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + .fnmeat {font-size: 0.8em; font-family: sans-serif;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; width: 80%; font-size: 1em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right; + text-decoration: none; font-size: 1.2em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: 0.4ex; font-size: 1.2em; text-decoration: none;} + ins { border-bottom: 1px dotted; text-decoration: none;} +@media print { + p.toclink {visibility: hidden;} + .pagenum {visibility: hidden;} } + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Hunters Out of Space, by Joseph Everidge Kelleam + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Hunters Out of Space + +Author: Joseph Everidge Kelleam + +Release Date: May 1, 2008 [EBook #25270] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNTERS OUT OF SPACE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Andrew Wainwright and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter w600"> +<img class="noborder" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover picture" /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<h1 class="s1 pad1bot"><a id="CONTENTS" />HUNTERS<br />OUT OF<br />SPACE</h1> + +<p class="s5">By JOSEPH E. KELLEAM</p> + +<p class="s6 pad2bot">ILLUSTRATED by FINLAY</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_1" id="CHAPTER_1"></a>CHAPTER 1</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">I</span>N KANSAS, spring usually falls on the day before summer. It +had been such a day, and now at midnight I was sitting at my +desk. Both hands of the clock were pointing to the +ceiling—and to the limitless stars beyond. My wife and +daughter had long been asleep. I had stayed up to write a +few letters but it was not a night for working. Although it +was a bit chilly outside, the moon was bright and a bird was +singing a glad and plaintive song about the summer that was +coming and all the summers that had passed and all that +would be. Adding, here + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 47]<br />[Pg 48]</a></span> + +and there, a bit of melody about all the good things that +happen to birds and men without their knowing why.</p> + +<p>Both hands of the clock were pointing upward. And I was +half-asleep, and half-dreaming. Remembering all the friends +I had—most of them scattered to the four winds by now. And +that best friend of all, Doctor Jack Odin! I wondered where +he was and how he had fared since he disappeared into that +dark cave in Texas.</p> + +<p>Suddenly I became aware of a flickering light above me. I +looked up. I had thought that the lights were winking, but +they were not. The room was lit by a reading lamp, and the +ceiling was so shadowy that at first I could see nothing at +all. Then I saw the light—or the ghost of a light—gleaming +faintly upon—or through—the ceiling. It was the faintest +yellow, neither a bull’s eye nor a splotch. Instead, +it seemed to be a tiny whirlpool of movement—the faintest +nebula in miniature with spirals of light swiftly circling a +central core. For a second I thought I could see through the +roof, and the stars swarmed before me. It was as though I +was at the vortex of a high whirlwind of dancing, shining +specks of light. Then that sensation was gone, and there +were two faint coiling spirals of yellow light upon the +ceiling.</p> + +<p>The lights began to whisper.</p> + +<p>“We are Ato and Wolden,” they said. +“Remember us?”</p> + +<p>I remembered them from the notes that I had pieced together +to tell the story of my old friend, Doctor Jack Odin, and +his adventure in the World of Opal. It seemed impolite to +tell them that we had never met. So I listened.</p> + +<p>“Wolden’s work has succeeded,” the +whispering continued. “We have reduced time and space +to nothing. You see us as lights, or as we once put it, +‘as flame-winged butterflies,’ but we are +neither. We are Ato and Wolden. By adding ourselves to +another dimension we are hardly recognizable to you. +Actually, we are at our starting point billions of miles +away! We are traveling through space toward you at a speed +which would make the speed of light look like a glow-worm +crawling across the dark ground; and at the same time, we +are there in your room. Do you understand?”</p> + +<p>I didn’t, but I have learned that a man can live quite +comfortably by merely keeping his mouth shut. So I kept +still.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>My little daughter had been playing in the room before she +had unwillingly gone to bed. She had left a red rubber ball +upon my desk.</p> + +<p>“Look at the ball,” the voices whispered. +“We will give you an idea of the time-space in which +we live.”</p> + +<p>I looked. Suddenly the little ball twitched, vanished and +reappeared. I gazed in wonder. It had been red. Now it was +white. I picked it up and a white powder + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> + +rubbed off upon my fingertips.</p> + +<p>“See.” The lights whispered. “We have +turned it inside out—”</p> + +<p>The whispering continued.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>“We are bringing you a gift. Our last gift, probably, +because we are weary of your world and the affairs of men. +Pygmies! Now, stand back from your desk—”</p> + +<p>It was such a command that I fairly leaped out of my chair +and drew away from the desk. Still leaning upon it I stared +in wonder at the shadow which was forming itself upon the +cleared space by the side of my typewriter. At first it was +merely a dark square. Then it was a shadowy cube, growing +denser all the time until it became a dim shape. The shape +grew brighter. There was a tiny spitting sound, like two hot +wires being touched together. There was a smell in the room, +not unpleasant but not pleasant either—a completely alien +smell. A wave of cold air struck me, and passed by, leaving +me shivering. Our furnace came on with a start.</p> + +<p>Then the lights were gone and I was looking in wonder at a +leaden box, about a foot square. It had a hinged lid, and +around the middle of it the figure of a snake was +excellently carved. It held its tail in its mouth, locking +the box securely. Its eyes were two great moonstones that +appeared to look up at me with half-blind amusement—winking +at the wisdom they had forgotten and the fear that I was +feeling.</p> + +<p>I touched the box and drew my hand away in pain. It was +colder than cold. Desolate, burning cold.</p> + +<p>It was two hours before the box became warm enough—or cool +enough—to touch. Then, after several experiments I got the +snake’s mouth open and the lid swung upward on chilled +hinges.</p> + +<p>Within it was a manuscript. As soon as I looked at it I +recognized the handwriting of my old friend, Doctor Jack +Odin.</p> + +<p>Well, it was just as before. It was more of a series of +notes and jottings than a story. It took months to piece it +together. Several pages were badly burned and spotted. It +was hard work and slow work—</p> + +<p>And this is the tale that Jack Odin sent me—from Somewhere.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_2" id="CHAPTER_2"></a>CHAPTER 2</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">J</span>ACK ODIN descended into the cavern—or what Keefe had +called the Hole—for less than a hundred yards before his +strong flashlight sent its lancing beam into a stone wall. +At his feet was a crevice which went straight down as though +it had been measured by a giant square. He got to his knees +and looked over. Playing his light around he detected a few +ledges like narrow steps far below. It was pitch-dark down +there, and not even his strong light could reach to the +bottom. He tried tossing a few pebbles into it; listening he + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> + +heard the faint rattle of their fall, but could not be sure +whether they had landed on one of the ledges or had reached +bottom.</p> + +<p>Looking about him, he found a weathered bit of limestone +that thrust itself up like a small table. It did not look +very substantial but it was his only hope. Odin had crammed +his ammunition, food and canteen into a knapsack. Looping +the rope through it and his rifle strap, he lowered them +over until he felt the rope slacken as his gun and supplies +rested upon the first ledge. Releasing one end of the rope +he carefully drew it back.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Now he knotted the rope about the stone and let the two +lengths of it trail down toward the ledge. He had kept his +flashlight which he thrust into his belt. One other thing, a +little miner’s cap and light, now came into use. It +was warm down there, and as soon as the cap with its lighted +lamp was on his head, sweat began to pour down his neck. +Suddenly he remembered a scene he had witnessed one morning +in West Virginia—so long ago that it should have been +forgotten. His car had stalled in a tiny town one evening. +He had slept in the only hotel, but had got up before +daybreak so he could start an early search for a mechanic. +Looking up toward the hills he had seen a silent procession +of lights going upward to some unknown mine. There was +something grotesque about those climbing lights; the +identity of the men was lost, and this was a crawling thing +up there on the hillside. For a moment he felt himself +feeling infinite pity for all the men everywhere who spent +their days in the dark.</p> + +<p>Then he laughed. Better feel a bit sorry for Jack Odin too. +Getting ready to lower himself over a precipice, and not +having the slightest idea when he would reach bottom. Or +whether there was any bottom at all. The blackness beat at +the little light. A startled bat left its upside-down perch +and fluttered against his face, clicking its teeth in +warning.</p> + +<p>Well, one could stay here and think until doomsday. So, with +a shrug of his big shoulders, he got a firm grip on his +doubled rope and slid over the edge. He went down and down +until his shoulders ached. Once he got his feet down on an +outcropping but dared not brace himself there for fear of +loosening his rope from its unsteady mooring above. Then, at +last, he came to the ledge with only a few feet of his +doubled rope to spare.</p> + +<p>After resting the little cap and lamp in a secure cranny he +lay flat on his stomach for a few minutes, gulping great +draughts of air and trying to rub some feeling back into his +aching shoulders. Then he got up and started looking about +for some anchorage. Some twenty feet away, he found a little +spur of rock.</p> + +<p>The second ledge was negotiated in the same fashion as the + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> + +first. It was scarcely four feet in width. Leaning over it, +with his powerful flashlight spraying a beam of light +downward, he saw that there were no more ledges between him +and the floor of the crevice below. Not even a single +out-cropping. The wall was smooth and glassy as though at +one time, for ages and ages, water had flown down it and had +left a glossy coating upon its face.</p> + +<p>Moreover, when he awkwardly dangled his rope into the abyss +with one hand, and kept his light upon it with the other, he +found to his disappointment that not even a single length +would reach to the dimly-seen floor below.</p> + +<p>He sat there for a while, chewing at a bit of jerked beef, +trying to get his strength back, racking his brains for a +plan. But he could think of nothing except getting back to +Opal. Then, at last, with a sigh and maybe a curse at the +things that happen and maybe a bit of a prayer, he began to +tie a loop, lasso fashion, in his rope. Finding another spur +of rock became a problem. This ledge was smooth. But in time +he found one and drew his loop tightly about it. Rolling the +knapsack up into a ball and tying it securely, he threw it +over the brink. Listening, he heard it land and bounce two +or three times. The gun was slung over his shoulder. The +miner’s cap and lamp went back upon his head. He +stuffed his pockets full of ammunition and slid over the +edge. Once he nearly lost his grip on the single strand and +slid downward for a yard or two with the rough coils taking +the hide off his palms. But he held on. And at last he was +dangling at the end of the rope like a plumb-bob. Carefully +he tightened his grip with his right hand and let go with +the left. His shoulder creaked, and fangs of pain struck at +his wrist and elbow.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>But he hung on. Playing the flashlight below him, he saw +that the floor of the crevice was still many yards away. It +seemed to be of sand, but he was not sure. Limestone could +be deceiving. Putting the light back in his belt, he began +feeling along the wall. It was smooth. Finally, reaching +down as far as he could, he found a little hole scarcely +large enough for one hand. There was no time left to +consider. Getting his fingers into it he turned loose of the +rope and dropped down. It felt as though his left shoulder +was tearing loose, but he held his grip. Kicking about he +found a toe-hold in the wall—and finally another grip for +his hand.</p> + +<p>In this way, Odin went down for nearly a dozen yards. But at +last he could find neither a grip for his hands nor a rest +for his feet. He did not care now. The pain in his shoulders +was becoming unbearable. Taking one great gulp of air, he +released his hold on the wall and thrust his body out into +space. The little light in his cap went out. Odin fell + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> + +through darkness. He fell into soft sand, doubling up as +his feet touched it. Odin rolled over and over, losing both +flashlight and gun as he tumbled. Then he came up against +hard rock, with most of the wind knocked out of him, and lay +there gasping, feeling about him with frantic hands for the +light and the gun.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The old terror of the dark swept over him as he clutched +this way and that and found nothing. Then he got a grip on +himself and laughed at his fears—remembering that he had +matches in his pockets.</p> + +<p>The spurt of a match showed him his miner’s cap not +five feet away. He must have missed it by inches as he was +clutching about in the dark. He lit it and soon found gun +and flash.</p> + +<p>Pointing his light upward, he could faintly see the knotted +end of his rope swinging back and forth up there against the +precipice. It was his only link with the outside world, and +it was far out of reach. He shrugged and played the light +about the cavern into which he had ventured.</p> + +<p>The walls of the crevice into which he had fallen were never +over ten feet apart and in spots were less than three. But +the sandy bed sloped noticeably downward, so downward he +went. Only pausing occasionally to take a mouthful of water +from his canteen or eat a bite or two. His watch had been +broken in that last fall. He threw it away.</p> + +<p>The air grew hotter. So hot at last that Odin had to pause +more often and rest upon the sand. But it too was hot, as +though it had never known anything but this one temperature.</p> + +<p>Stumbling along, his nostrils and chest burning, and +something thumping in his ears, he finally fell to his +knees. Jack Odin lay there for a long time. But the floor of +the cavern still led downward. So, with nothing else left in +his mind, he got to his knees and crawled on.</p> + +<p>That last determination saved him. A cool breath of air +struck him in the face. He toiled downward and was soon in a +wider cavern that was so cold that he was shivering. He +rested again and then went on. The cold grew worse.</p> + +<p>Odin came to a tunnel of ice. The faint smell of ammonia set +him to coughing. It was nearly as uncomfortable here as the +heat had been a few hours before. But he kept on. Finally, +there was no ice left on the walls about him. The air grew +warmer.</p> + +<p>Soon the walls opened out until he could scarcely see them +with his flashlight. Playing it upward he could only get a +faint reflection from the stalactites hundreds of feet away.</p> + +<p>At length Odin came to a vast room where his light could +reach neither walls nor ceiling. But in the center of it was +a tiny pool, rimmed by white sand and a shell-like lip of +limestone. He got to his knees and tested the water. It was +clean—but old and old and old. Filling his canteen, he +opened + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> + +his knapsack and prepared a hearty meal. He was dog-tired +but before he slept he walked around the little pool. He had +heard of fish being found in underground caverns—or +even the fossils of things that had once been there. But +here Odin found no sign of life. Nothing except traces of +the vast underground river that must have once swept through +here long ago.</p> + +<p>It was a desolate feeling to stand there with his beam of +light pushing the dark away. Alone in a place which +apparently had never known the beat of life before. And then +Odin saw it—</p> + +<p>A footprint. A small footprint which must have been made by +someone who wore moccasins or sandals. He recognized it at +once. He had seen hundreds of those footprints!</p> + +<p>A Neebling had been there. How long before he did not know. +But, certainly, Odin’s theory had been right. The +cavern led the way to Opal. Jack Odin was not sure how many +times he ate and slept as he toiled his way downward. The +long dead river had carved cunningly and beautifully upon +the walls of the tunnel. And the dripping waters of +centuries had fashioned pedestals, carvings, and statues +that were beautiful indeed. Ordinarily he would have been +interested in these, for Jack Odin was a man who loved +beautiful things, but now he had but one idea: To go on.</p> + +<p>Occasionally he found more footprints. But always near the +scattered pools. The dwarfs must have kept against the walls +and come out upon the sand only to quench their thirst. He +wondered about that. And a possible answer came to him. They +had been there without a light—feeling their way, +almost—although he knew that they could see in the dark to +a certain extent. He wondered at their courage. Here, with +two lights, the staring darkness and the silent empty spaces +were making him shaky.</p> + +<p>The descent became sharper. At times he slid down long +grades of limestone. Now and then he came to sharp drops +where little waterfalls had once been. But there was usually +sand below and he was able to leap down without much harm, +other than a jolt or two.</p> + +<p>But once he came to one of these drops that must have +measured a hundred feet. He found a few rocky steps where +the little precipice met the wall and clambered down, but it +was rough going, and he had to make a jump for it at the +last.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Picking himself up and dusting the sand from his clothes he +thought he saw a white gleam over against the wall. His +light found a squat skeleton sitting there grimacing at him. +He touched the skull and it fell to powder. Here was one of +the dwarfs—a Neebling—but the bones did not belong to this +age; the poor fellow must have lain there for centuries.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>Doctor Jack Odin was never able to get all of his medical +training out of his mind. Examining the skeleton he found +that both legs had been broken. Apparently, the little man +had been climbing up or down the precipice Odin had just +negotiated and had slipped and fallen. His legs shattered, +and infection setting in, the Neebling had crawled against +the wall to die. Odin could imagine him doing that last task +silently. They were akin to the animals that they loved, the +Neeblings. They did not complain.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Hours and hours later, as Odin toiled his way downward, he +became aware of a growing stench in the stale air. Even this +was welcome, for he was becoming obsessed with the idea that +the cavern had not changed since the long-ago river had +died, and that nothing in it could change. It was an odor of +rottenness. Where there was decay, life had also been.</p> + +<p>By the time he reached the next pool the putrescence which +hung on the stale air was almost sickening. There he made +his second discovery. A saurian of some sort, with squat +legs and long, fanged mouth, had died there. Half-decayed, +it made a little phosphor glowing in the dark and its long +teeth flashed as he played a beam of light over it.</p> + +<p>Noisome as it was, the sight of it made his heart quicken, +for here was one of the things of Opal. It must have crawled +up here from that silent sea. Then a feeling of gloom and +dread swept over him. What had happened down there to make +this thing leave its home and crawl here to die!</p> + +<p>Odin went on and on, and the smell of the thing behind him +slowly faded from the air.</p> + +<p>Then, as he rounded a corner, Odin blinked his eyes. Far +ahead of him was a red glow. Taking a deep breath, he +thought he smelled smoke. Or was it sulphur? He had never +been able to get one grim possibility out of his mind. What +if some of the fires and lava streams of inner earth should +lie between him and the world of Opal?</p> + +<p>He had gone too far to turn back. So Odin went on +cautiously. As he neared the red glow, he saw that it was +only a campfire dying down to coals. But from the darkness +came such a clamoring of hisses, groans, and screeches that +he could feel goose-pimples popping out on his arms.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>His rifle held a clamp for his flash. Making gun and light +ready, he advanced cautiously, still unable to determine +what was happening except that one hell of a fight was going +on. Then a coal burst into quick flame and he could see the +struggle. A broad-shouldered man, stripped to the waist, was +fighting with one of the saurians. He had closed its long +mouth with a huge hand and was striking again and again at +the white throat with a broad-bladed knife. The thing was +screeching and clawing at the man’s arm. Its razored +tail was lashing forward—and the man was dodging it as he +kept backing in a circle and thrusting the head upward and +backwards. Both brute and man were streaming blood. The man +made no sound other than an occasional savage grunt as his +blade struck deep through the horny hide of the thing. The +Saurian became wilder with each blow.</p> + +<p>It was a long shot. But Jack Odin made it. Both man and +reptile quickened into momentary stone as his light centered +its beam upon them. Odin aimed and fired. The heavy bullet +shattered the top of the saurian’s head.</p> + +<p>Then Odin was running forward, calling out in the language +of Opal. The broad-shouldered man kicked the wriggling +carcass of the thing out of the way and threw a few sticks +upon the coals. They flamed up. The man sat down calmly, +though still gasping for breath, and began to wipe the blade +of his knife upon his thigh.</p> + +<p>He had regained some of his breath when Odin reached him. +Rubbing a gashed forearm and smiling as though such a +meeting were an every-day occurrence he called out +cheerfully.</p> + +<p>“Ho, Nors-King. I knew you would come. Sooner or later +you would be here and we would go hunting together.”</p> + +<p>The man was Gunnar, successor to Jul, and Chief of the +Neeblings!</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_3" id="CHAPTER_3"></a>CHAPTER 3</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">G</span>OING to the pool, Gunnar began to wash his bleeding arms. +“Yes, Old Gunnar knew you would be here, Jack Odin, +for it was writ in runes of silver long ago that a man will +go to the gates of death and brave Old Nidhug the dragon +there to find his maid.”</p> + +<p>“And how is she, Gunnar? Where is she?”</p> + +<p>But the dwarf did not answer for a few minutes. He stared +moodily into the coals, and then feeling behind him in the +dark he found a bright shirt and struggled into it. “I +was getting ready to take a bath when the thing came at +me,” he explained simply.</p> + +<p>“Gunnar! Where is Maya?”</p> + +<p>Gunnar’s big hand squeezed Odin’s shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Steady, lad. I wish I knew. I wish I knew. But you +are here now, and we will go hunting together. For you are +my friend and Maya is my friend. And I swore by my sword, +the Blood-Drinker, to her father I swore it. And to Jul. +That I would look after her. But I failed. And is my word no +stronger than a puff of wind? I have sworn a new oath. I +will find her. Even though we go farther than the graveyard +of stars—or beyond the gates of hell, maybe—I will find +her.”</p> + +<p>There was a sob in the squat man’s throat and Jack +Odin could see by the light of the flickering coals that +Gunnar had + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> + +aged. His face was more seamed. The knots of muscle at each +jaw were larger. His hair was gray-streaked and thinner. But +those huge shoulders were huger still, and the big gnarled +hands kept closing and unclosing as though they were +grasping at a throat.</p> + +<p>“We will go together, then,” Odin said. +“But tell me—”</p> + +<p>“Then swear it by my blade.” And Gunnar took the +long sword and harness up from the sand where he had left +it.</p> + +<p>“My people do not swear by the sword.”</p> + +<p>Gunnar cursed. “The tongues of your people are like +two-edged knives. I have had enough of them. But you are not +like them, Odin. I said before that you were a throwback to +the men of old-time, when they went berserker together, or +followed the whale’s path in their dragon-headed +ships. Here, swear by the sword, my sword.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>And Jack Odin reached forward and touched the sword and +swore that he would go with Gunnar even to the edge of the +stars—</p> + +<p>“Now,” Odin pleaded. “Tell me what +happened down there.”</p> + +<p>“It is a long story. And not a pretty one, either. +Have you anything to eat?”</p> + +<p>Odin produced some bread and jerked beef. As they sat there, +with the coals winking red eyes at them, Gunnar told his +tale between wolfish bites.</p> + +<p>“Grim Hagen planned well.” (So Gunnar began). +“He planned well, and even yet I hope to kill him.</p> + +<p>“That was an evil day when you and Maya decided to go +back to outer-earth. An evil day. Some of Grim Hagen’s +men snared Maya with their thons. There was much fighting. +We killed many but many got away.</p> + +<p>“I should have known from the black scowl which Grim +Hagen had worn those many months that he would not be +stopped by one defeat. You will remember, Odin, how I told +you of the little flying machines that we strapped on our +backs in the old days and went sailing through the air. They +were outlawed. But during the time that Grim Hagen held the +tower he must have found the plans for the flying machine, +or maybe even one of the machines. For when his men attacked +us, each one had such a machine. And each man carried dozens +of little glass eggs. When they threw them they exploded and +dissolved nearly everything for twenty foot around.</p> + +<p>“Oh, we fought. We killed many. But it is hard to +fight the hawk. One by one they blew up our ships. Then, +carrying Maya and a few other prisoners with them, they flew +out to sea like a flight of evil birds—no, not birds, for +not even the hawk is evil. What was the word that you used +for the leather-winged, toothy things that live in the +forest?”</p> + +<p>“Dactyls,” Jack Odin prompted.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s it,” Gunnar said as he +stared into the fire. “Dactyls. I like that word. It +has an evil, bloody ring to it.”</p> + +<p>He stopped talking to take a huge bite of stale bread that +nearly choked him. Then he continued his story.</p> + +<p>“Meanwhile, in the city of the Scientists, the same +kind of fighting had been going on. We learned later that +when Grim Hagen’s men winged their way in from the +sea, his army had already retaken the Tower. Ato and his +soldiers were scattered. Half of them were dead. So, after +scattering their explosive eggs across the city, and killing +the very old and the very young, Grim Hagen and his men took +refuge in the Tower and prepared to withstand our siege. +They had learned much from their first defeat, and this time +they held it well.</p> + +<p>“As soon as we could patch up our ships, we came +a-following and joined forces with Ato’s soldiers. We +assaulted the Tower day after day. Until the ground and the +walks around it were black with our dried blood. But they +held out. Not once did they try a counter-attack. We should +have guessed at what Grim Hagen was planing. But we +didn’t until one of the prisoners escaped. His name +was Zol, and he was a friend of Maya’s father. Poor +fellow, he is dead now, but if we of Opal went in for +monuments we would build one a mile high for Zol. He told us +that Grim Hagen was readying the Old Ship for flight into +space. Also, he planned to leave the sea gates open.</p> + +<p>“Zol saved us. Or saved some of us and a part of +Opal. Ato began training divers against the day when the +tunnel would be flooded. We moved as many people as we could +onto the ledges high up on the walls of Opal. We got our +great pumps ready to cope with the flooding.</p> + +<p>“Also, Ato and I renewed our assault upon the Tower. +But they bested us. They had learned too many of the old +secrets. Most of the young men of the Neeblings died there +against the walls. That is how we keep our promises, +Nors-King.</p> + +<p>“But Old Gunnar had a trick or two left. Remember the +tale that I read to you in the throne-room of Baldar. The +first of the Brons to enter the world of Opal were soldiers +sent from some blasted planet in outer space to find a new +home. They could fly their ship, but they knew nothing of +the science and the magic that had gone into it. We of the +Neeblings learned that. And we Neeblings were their +historians for a thousand years. Also, it was we who pieced +together what little is known of their trip through space. +And this is why:</p> + +<p>“We of Opal have always kept up with the world above +us. About thirty years ago there were some popular stories +in your land about Tani of Ekkis<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">*</a> whose people came +through the void in a spaceship. They traveled slow, and +this is how they made the trip. They had discovered +something which kept most + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> + +of the crew under suspended animation for years upon years. +That tale was not far from right. For the Brons too had a +capsule, red like a ruby, which made them sleep for a score +of years. There was an antidote, a yellow liquid like +curdled flames. Three drops into the veins and the sleeper +would awake. That is how they made the trip. Only a pilot, a +co-pilot, a navigator, and a chief engineer were ever awake +at one time. Their log-books were brief. But we of the +Neeblings have them.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">*</span></a><span class="fnmeat">Amazing Stories, c. 1929.</span></p></div> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>“So,” (Gunnar continued, drawing a huge forearm +across his moist blue eyes) “I persuaded Zol to go +back to the Tower. I might as well have run him through, but +he was our best and last hope. Wolden gave him a tiny cube, +no larger than a ring-case. In it was a crystal with a +number of silver wires woven into it, but it was a good +transmitter. Better than yours, Jack Odin. For a week we +heard from him daily.</p> + +<p>“I say it was a week. We were working the clock around +and our little sun was misbehaving again. It was a feverish +week, not measured by day and night, for the sun would wink +on and off as though it were getting ready to give up.</p> + +<p>“For a week we heard from Zol. He gave the ruby +capsule to Maya. She sleeps and will continue to sleep for +twenty years unless the antidote which looks like curdled +yellow flame is given to her. I have it. Grim Hagen may +kill her or cast her adrift in space, but he cannot awaken +her. That hound of hell can taunt her no more. She sleeps, +until Gunnar stands by her side.</p> + +<p>“Then Zol sent us his last message. Maya was sleeping. +He was barricaded in one of the rooms of the Tower, and Grim +Hagen and his men were battering down the door. From what we +heard in the next few minutes, I suppose that the door gave +way and Zol died. Then Grim Hagen’s voice came to us, +screaming in rage. He had all that he wanted. Even though +our princess slept, he would take her into space with him. +And she would awaken some day with the smoke of plundered +worlds in her nostrils. Yes, she would awaken—to be his +slave, even as he had promised us that night in Maya’s +home when we fought. And I wish I had killed the beast then. +But Zol was dead and there was no sense in listening to this +man’s ravings, so we turned off our radio. And that is +the last we ever heard from Grim Hagen.</p> + +<p>“It was the next day when he opened the sea-gates and +trundled the ship out upon the floor of the sea. We had done +all that we could to be prepared. But it was not enough.</p> + +<p>“The water came pouring in upon Opal. Half of the +people died. Many had taken refuge in ships, and I doubt if +a single ship survived that night. Yes, just as the water +came flooding in, our little sun went out. We fought. + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> + +The waters flooded both Valla and the Scientists’ +City. Here it rose nearly to the top of the Tower. There +were only a few forests and meadows in the land that were +not flooded. These were high up against the walls. As for +the creatures of the deep, the reptiles and amphibians, most +of them were dead. Many crawled into the ancient caves and +fled upward. Most of them died.</p> + +<p>“That is nearly all. We know now that Grim Hagen and +his ship, with all his prisoners and loot, took off from the +bed of the sea with a flourish which was just like Grim +Hagen.</p> + +<p>“Meanwhile, Ato and his crews got the gates closed and +started the pumps. Only a few men of that crew are alive +today, for the tunnel was radio-active at that time. It was +weeks before the pumps could force the water back into the +Gulf. Most of our plants were lost. My men and I have been +foraging in the world above for these—and have helped +ourselves to your cattle when we could.</p> + +<p>“The waters are back to their old level, but they left +a soggy, ruined world behind them. There is a deal of work +to be done before it will be like the world that you knew. +And our sun is of so little use that it can scarcely dry out +the sloughs.</p> + +<p>“Meanwhile, Wolden and his men are working on another +ship. Even a larger ship than the one which Grim Hagen +stole. They work day and night. Grim Hagen took his choice +of our treasures. He stole our princess, and he killed +millions. We are going after him, even if he drives to the +edge of space. And I am going because of a promise I made +long ago, and because of the love that I have for Maya. And +because of you, Jack Odin. The sword is forged now. It is +white-hot upon the anvil. The sparks leap out like stars as +the hammer of the smith clangs down. And I will follow Grim +Hagen as far as a man can go—even a league beyond the outer +shell of space—or a day’s journey beyond the +grave.” (So Gunnar’s tale was ended. And the two +sat there in silence, watching the coals wink out, and +feeling the all-devouring dark coming back into the cavern.)</p> + +<p>“Then I will go with you,” Jack Odin told +Gunnar. “To fight at your right side until we find my +princess—”</p> + +<p>“And until Grim Hagen is dead,” Gunnar added. +“For he is a noisome leaven that will pollute all of +space that he touches.”</p> + +<p>The last coal went back to ashes. Odin turned on his light, +and Gunnar blinked in pain at the sudden glare. Then they +went onward and downward, past columns of limestone that +were already old when the world was young.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_4" id="CHAPTER_4"></a>CHAPTER 4</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">S</span>OON the floor of the cavern was slippery beneath their +feet.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>“The waters came up to here,” Gunnar said. +“Now, take a deep breath, Nors-King, for the air gets +worse before it gets better.”</p> + +<p>He was right. The stench of dead things came crawling upward +to meet them. Soon the floor was littered with the things +from Opal’s sea that had crept here to die. Huge, +fanged saurians, lizards, toads, snakes. The cave was strewn +with their carcasses, some half-decayed, others drying into +hardened shells, others already reduced to stinking bones +and sinew.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Gunnar kicked several out of the way as he made a trail for +Odin to follow.</p> + +<p>The short man did not tire. He went on and on at his steady +shuffling gait which left the miles behind, while +Odin’s pack and rifle grew heavier and heavier. But +Gunnar did not stop. So Jack gritted his teeth and stumbled +after him, while the dead things grinned at them from the +dark.</p> + +<p>At last they saw a reddish light ahead.</p> + +<p>Gunnar paused and pointed with a gnarled forefinger. +“Opal ahead. All that is left of it.”</p> + +<p>They came out upon a narrow ledge high up in the cliff wall. +Odin filled his lungs with clear air and gasped at the +changes. Above them the little sun had dwindled to a red +coal. The crimson-flecked clouds of Opal steamed and boiled +beneath it. The sluggish sea was black now, and the long low +waves were crested with bloody foam.</p> + +<p>Something was choking in his throat. All the wealth of +June-land had spilled over into the night. Gone, all gone! +And for what reason? It was not enough to say that time, and +gravity worked against the things of men’s hands. It +was not enough to say that all good things must pass. No, +here was Old Loki the Mischief-maker at work. The one who +destroyed for no reason at all—who ran through space like +quicksilver and laughed as blossoms and leaves, towers and +trees, the old and the young, fell before his senseless +jests.</p> + +<p>Tears came to Odin’s eyes as he looked out there at +the ruins and remembered the splendor that had been. As he +thought of all who had died there, his hands were begging +for the feel of Grim Hagen’s throat. Darkling he stood +there on that narrow ledge and thought how strange he and +Gunnar must seem. Like two trolls peering out of +Hell’s Gate.</p> + +<p>As though fanned by a tiny wind the red coal of a sun flamed +up. Out there, far away, its red beams flashed upon the +topmost turrets of the Tower. They bathed it in reddish +light, and it loomed halfway out of the slate-black sea like +something left alone in a ruined world. An emblem of +man’s pride and his love for beautiful things, it +stood there bravely and held back the night.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<p>There were tears in Gunnar’s eyes also. Nearly two +heads shorter than Odin, he stood beside him and clutched +the taller man’s forearm with a huge, gnarled hand.</p> + +<p>“Over there,” he said, pointing in a direction +opposite from the Tower, “is where I was raised. Ah, +it was good in those days, Odin. Very good. We of the +Neeblings do not care for cities, but our farms and pastures +were so arranged that there were several houses close +together. And what fun the boys had hunting and fishing. +Then I would straggle home for supper—and my mother, who +wasn’t old then, would be at the back door with a +laugh and a joke to see that her Gunnar had come home whole, +and to make him wash his hands properly. And the supper +table, Odin! You ought to have seen it. It groaned. There +was no end to our food in those days. And after supper, the +younguns of the neighborhood would play outside until dark. +One of our games was like one of yours. Some lad shut his +eyes and counted while all of us hid. And then, after the +counting was done, he came hunting us. And toward the last +he would sing out for those who were still hiding: +‘Bee, bee, bumblebee, all’s out’s in +free.’ It was a great game, and then the night would +fall and we would hurry home. One had no trouble sleeping in +those days.” Gunnar paused to sigh a great sigh. +“But it didn’t work out. No one got in free. The +homes, the pastures, the players, most of them are gone—and +time took a heavy price. And only Gunnar is left to toss the +last coin upon the counter. Well, I am ready to pay, so long +as I get my hands on Grim Hagen.”</p> + +<p>Jack Odin gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, for +Gunnar’s thoughts seemed to be growing more dismal by +the minute. “Well, little man, it was all a bright +dream that went too fast. And are we to stay here on this +ledge ’til doomsday while you try to re-spin the +broken threads of the past?”</p> + +<p>So Gunnar’s thoughts came back to the present and his +big shoulders heaved when he laughed. “Eh! Spoken like +a Nors-King, Odin. I must be getting old. Well, +there’s a way from here to the sea. If we were +cliff-swallows we could make it easily. But being men we had +better trudge—”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>He led the way along the ledge which did not appear to have +much of a descent until they came to a place where a rocky +slide had taken trail and all into the sea. The avalanche +that had made it must have been a granddaddy of avalanches, +for there was a steep slope of rocks and rubble from here to +the water below. There, the stones had spilled out in all +directions and the waves moiled over and about them for +several hundred yards. Far out, the rocks had piled up into +a little sea-wall, with gaps here and there where the +breakers foamed through.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>“We go down here now,” Gunnar instructed. +“But don’t start anything rolling. The stones +are loose, and we might end up in the water with a hundred +feet of granite over us for a tombstone.”</p> + +<p>Gunnar led the way. Crawling backwards like a crab, he felt +his way down the precarious slope. Odin followed. Once his +foot slipped and he sent a shower of stones down upon the +dwarf. Gunnar caught them like a juggler and held them in +place so comically that Jack Odin laughed for the first time +since he had started on this journey.</p> + +<p>“And could you do better?” Gunnar grumbled. +“Maybe I let you go first and we all go tumbling into +the sea—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Gunnar, you did fine. But you reminded me of a +cartoon back home where the cat’s in the kitchen and +has upset some pots and pans and is trying to catch them +before they fall and make a clatter.”</p> + +<p>“And is this a time to talk about cats? A cat’s +place is in the woods. Tell me about dogs, maybe, but I have +no time for cats. Besides, if you would throw that gun away +you wouldn’t be so clumsy. It’s no good.”</p> + +<p>“No. I was here once without a rifle, and I needed it +badly. One bullet between Grim Hagen’s eyes and none +of this would have happened.”</p> + +<p>Gunnar retorted: “I doubt if you could have changed +one thread of the Spinners—”</p> + +<p>“But didn’t I save you back there in the tunnel +with this same rifle?” Jack Odin answered.</p> + +<p>“And nearly deafened me, too. Oh, well, I would +probably have killed that thing anyway.”</p> + +<p>Odin shrugged. Gunnar’s philosophy couldn’t be +shaken.</p> + +<p>But the dwarf was serious about the rifle. “One shot +would bring the rocks down upon us, Odin. Throw the thing +away. It’s no good.”</p> + +<p>“Not until I find a better weapon.” Jack Odin +shook his head.</p> + +<p>At last they struggled through to the water’s edge. It +could not be called a beach, or even a landing, for the +rocks came down at a sixty-degree angle.</p> + +<p>“I have a boat over here,” Gunnar said, and led +the way.</p> + +<p>Going parallel to the water was nearly as hard as coming +down to it. Then Gunnar, who by now was a score of yards +ahead, stopped and held up his hand.</p> + +<p>When Odin came up he whispered, “We have a +visitor.”</p> + +<p>Peering behind a huge rock Odin saw a tiny motorboat moored +in a little inlet that was barely large enough to fit it. +But the boat, curious as it was in Opal, was not the +attraction.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>A great sea-serpent had coiled up in it and was taking a +nap. The thing was nearly a foot thick. Though it was coiled +closely its tail hung over into the water. Its head looked +very much like the head of an enlarged moccasin, except that +there were long barbels about its mouth. And just below the +throat were two limbs that were a bit like forearms, but +were made up of long spikes joined by pulsing white skin.</p> + +<p>Gunnar reached back of his + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> + +shoulder and drew his huge broadsword from its scabbard. +Then, with sword upraised, he advanced cautiously toward the +sleeping snake.</p> + +<p>A rock must have grated beneath his feet, for suddenly the +snake awoke and its ugly head rose nearly ten feet into the +air. It looked down upon the advancing dwarf with a hungry +look and its long red tongue flicked in and out. Then with a +devilish hiss it swept toward him, nearly capsizing the +boat. Gunnar’s sword went halfway through the thick, +scaly neck, but with a leap it was upon him, its fore-limbs +spread out fan-wise, flogging and clawing. The head opened. +Long fangs gleamed as it struck. Gunnar ducked and dodged +and the striking fangs missed. The head flashed over +Gunnar’s shoulder. The weight of it sent him to his +knees, and his broadsword buried itself in the snake again. +Blood spouted, but it seemed as alive and vicious as ever.</p> + +<p>Jack Odin had unslung his rifle as Gunnar, went forward. Now +he knelt and took aim at the swaying head that was rising +above the dwarf.</p> + +<p>The sound of the shot was deafening. Its backbone drilled +just beneath the skull, the snake dropped upon Gunnar, +burying him beneath its writhing folds. Then Gunnar was +loose, and running to the boat. Above them the cliff was +groaning as though it were tired of hanging there.</p> + +<p>“Hurry, Nors-King, hurry! The rocks tremble.”</p> + +<p>The snake’s writhing tail still lay athwart the boat. +Gunnar swung his sword and severed it. It slid into the +water and something that was mostly triangular teeth and +mouth hit the water and seized it. Then it was gone, leaving +a fading trail of froth and blood.</p> + +<p>The boat was half-full of water. Gunnar climbed in and Odin +came right behind him.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Gunnar struggled with the controls. The boat sputtered, +moved, and then stopped. Odin was staring at the cliff above +them. A huge layer of stone was cracking and leaning +outward. The boat came to life. Gunnar swung it crazily +through the rock-strewn water.</p> + +<p>Looking back, Jack Odin watched the cliff coming down. +Slowly, as though in a dream, the cracks grew larger—and +then with a roar of pain the rocks parted and one huge +section of the wall leaned outward, tore itself loose, and +came at them like a waterfall of rumbling stones.</p> + +<p>The rocks fell just a few feet short of the fleeing, +sputtering boat. The huge wave that followed the settling of +thousands of tons of stone into the water swiftly picked +them up and hurled them through one of the gaps in the +sea-wall.</p> + +<p>Long after, while Odin was bailing water from the boat, and +Gunnar was fiddling with the motor that had conked out +again, the dwarf looked back at the cliff. It was shadowy +now. Dust + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> + +was still rising as it shook loose an occasional, +crumbling ledge.</p> + +<p>“Eh, Nors-King, we fight again,” the squat man +laughed. “You saved Gunnar’s life once more—and +you almost killed him, too.” He paused to wipe sweat +from his dripping face.</p> + +<p>Odin grinned back at him. Then, without another word, he +took up the expensive rifle and let it slip overboard. The +ammunition that cost him so much trouble and pain as he +lugged it all the way to Opal followed after. He watched the +copper shells as they gleamed like a school of minnows and +plunged out of sight.</p> + +<p>“There, Gunnar. I have nothing left to fight with but +my hands.”</p> + +<p>“Good-riddance to that thing,” Gunnar smiled. +“I will make you a blade that will slice through an +anvil.”</p> + +<p>The motor coughed, sputtered—and began to purr.</p> + +<p>The boat churned a wide arc in the water as Gunnar turned it +and headed toward the Tower, which now loomed far ahead like +a beacon.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_5" id="CHAPTER_5"></a>CHAPTER 5</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">A</span>S THE the boat sped over the water, leaving a churning wake +behind it, Jack Odin remembered that first sea-voyage he had +made on the seas of Opal. It was June-time then, and Maya +had been with him. Perhaps they had thought that June would +last forever. Perhaps they had thought that all of life +would go by at five miles per hour. Remembering that slow, +wonderful trip—almost like a voyage in a dream—he sighed +as he held on to the skipping boat. They were now going well +over sixty.</p> + +<p>Gunnar seemed to sense his thoughts. “Wolden has +ordered speed and more speed, my friend,” he called +over the roar of the motor. “The governors are all +gone from the old machines. The smiths are turning out newer +and faster ones all the time. Sometimes I think even the +hands of the clocks are going faster.”</p> + +<p>Odin muttered a curse. What he had loved about this world +was its leisure. What he had hated about his own world above +was its constantly increasing speed. Like a squirrel caught +in a cage, his world had gone faster and faster until +reality had vanished into a mad blur of turning wheels and +running feet. Oh, well, he thought, a man is like a pup. +Contented enough until life takes him by the scruff of the +neck and shakes him up and proves to him that things change +and a pup’s world changes and he had better accustom +himself to new standards or be shaken up again.</p> + +<p>So they sped on through the low waves while the Tower loomed +nearer and taller before them. Gunnar was guiding with one +hand while he talked into a little square box of gleaming +metal.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p>He turned his head, and the boat careened into a trough +that set it to shaking. “I have contacted Wolden and +Ato,” he called cheerfully. “They are meeting us +at the dock. Not the old dock—it is still under water. The +new one is farther up the street.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>As they neared Orthe-Gard, Gunnar slowed the boat. Looking +down into the murky water, Jack Odin could detect, now and +then, the faintly-traced shadow of a roof or tower. Once as +he looked down at a finely-carved weather-vane, a huge +fang-fish rolled between him and his view. A white belly +gleamed through the water, and a serrated mouth opened wide. +Its jaws bent out of proportion by the refraction of the +water, it reminded Odin of the old story of the Monster of +Chaos rushing with gaping mouth to swallow the works of men.</p> + +<p>Then they were at the dock, which was scarcely a dock at all +but a place where the waters ended halfway up the sloping +streets of the city.</p> + +<p>One thing had not changed. To the last the people of Opal +refused to take part in any governmental excitement. A car +was there. A driver. Wolden was there looking much thinner +and grayer. Beside him was his son, Ato, inches taller and +perhaps a bit thicker in the shoulders and a bit thinner at +the waist. These were all.</p> + +<p>He had nearly broken his neck half a dozen times to get +there, but Jack Odin was glad that the old idea had +survived. Being reared so near to Washington, he had been +puzzled for years over his country’s mile-long +processions and the spectacle of thousands rushing to watch +a parade for some visiting celebrity or some current +politician who would be forgotten before the next snow.</p> + +<p>He and Wolden shook hands. Odin was surprised at the change +in him. When last seen, Wolden had been a man just leaving +the prime of life. Too much of a brain, perhaps. A bit too +curious and a bit too fearful of the affairs of the world. +But now the hand was weak—the face was thinner and grayer, +although even nobler than it had been, but the eyes were sad +and pained as though they had seen too much and had dreamed +dreams beyond the comprehension of his fellows. Somehow, +Odin found himself remembering a lecture about Addison, who +probably knew as much as anyone about the hearts of men, but +upon being made second-high man in his government could only +stand tongue-struck in the presence of Parliament.</p> + +<p>Then there was Ato. The months had changed him too. He stood +tall and lean, and there was a deep line running from each +cheekbone down his face. He looked older, but his eyes were +piercing now, while his father’s were somber. Strife +and hard work had sweated all the fat from his bones. He +seemed much stronger than when Odin had first met him. But +here was something more than strength. Ato had developed +into a first-class + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> + +fighting man. Wolden could never have been a fighter.</p> + +<p>There was something both terrifying and sad in the +comparison. Ato looked like a man who could calmly send a +hundred-thousand to their deaths for one objective, while +Wolden would have theorized and rationalized until the +objective was lost. The old comparison between the impulsive +executive and the liberal arts man who has learned that +there are only one or two positive decisions available in +all the world of thinking.</p> + +<p>But each in his own way was glad to see Odin, and welcomed +him back to the ruins of Opal.</p> + +<p>Then, just before the reunion was over, the clouds grew +grayer and it began to rain. As they got into the little +car, Wolden told Odin that they would have to circle the bay +before going to the Tower on a ferry, since the lower +stories were still under water. The city had once been +beautiful with trees. Now they stood like gaunt skeletons, +drowned by the sea water. Here and there a few limbs +struggled to put out their leaves. The rain was cold, colder +than Odin had ever felt in Opal before. He shivered, but +there was something more than the cold dankness of the air +to make him shiver.</p> + +<p>Then they came to the ferry, and the ferryman was so old and +bent that Odin looked twice at him to make sure that he +wasn’t one-eyed. He wasn’t. So the ferry creaked +its way out to the Tower—to an improvised landing just +below the sixth-story windows. They climbed through the +windows into a huge room that seemed to be carved of +fairy-foam, and behind them the rain grew heavier and the +thunder rolled in the distance and the lightning flashed +like witch-fires across the jaded sky.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Three days had passed since Gunnar and Odin had returned to +Opal. Doctor Jack Odin stretched out on a huge bed and felt +the strength of the ultra-violet light upon the ceiling pour +into his shoulders. In the next room, Gunnar was bathing and +complaining about the sea water. Drinking-water in Opal was +now at a premium.</p> + +<p>Odin had been in the dumps. Now he was feeling better, +although memory of the sodden ruins that he had seen in the +last three days would never leave him.</p> + +<p>“And are you howling, my strong little man?” he +called out cheerfully. “In Korea I once bathed in a +mud puddle and enjoyed the bath.”</p> + +<p>Gunnar’s first few words were unprintable. +“There was a river close to my house where the water +ran silver over the stones of the ford. And there Gunnar +used to bathe. This is slop, Nors-King. Nothing but +slop.”</p> + +<p>Odin laughed again. “You are getting old, Gunnar. Did +anyone ever guarantee that ford to you for always?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gunnar, dripping water, and with a towel wrapped around his +middle, came dashing into the room. He stood there, his arms +and shoulders flexed. “And does Gunnar look too old to +fight?” he asked.</p> + +<p>Odin blinked. Gunnar’s muscular development had always +amazed him. The short man stood an inch less than five feet. +His chest and shoulders must have measured more than that, +his muscles writhed like iron snakes as he moved. His biceps +and forearms were those of a smith—which indeed Gunnar had +been, for Gunnar had been many things. The huge torso +slanted down to narrow waist and hips. Then his short legs +propped him up like carved things of oak. Gunnar had once +killed a bull with one blow of his fist. He had once snapped +a man’s back across those bulging, stubby thighs.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Gunnar disappeared in search of fresh clothing. Odin lay +there, thinking of all the things he had seen since +returning to Opal.</p> + +<p>Although the water level was still high up on the Tower, the +lower floors had been made water-tight and had been pumped +dry. On his first trip to the Tower, Odin had little chance +to survey the rooms. Now he knew something of what Opal had +lost. Curtains, paintings, rugs, statues, the finest +furniture. All these had been ruined or damaged by the +flood. Each room of the Tower had been a work of art. Both +Brons and Neeblings had contributed to it, back in the days +when they were working shoulder to shoulder.</p> + +<p>In spite of his thoughts for Maya, he could not help +thinking that the Brons had brought this on themselves. When +they tried to put the Neeblings in second place, that was +when the bell had sounded. Even so, why had this splendor +been reduced to ruin? Oh, there were jewels that could be +salvaged. And statues. But the Tower was a work of art from +top to bottom. The finest lace. China as thin as paper. +Paintings. These were gone. One might as well salvage Mona +Lisa’s eyes and swear that they were the original. +Higher up, where the water had not reached, the machines had +been stored along with other treasures. But Opal’s +best had been water-logged.</p> + +<p>And the trip that Odin had made with Wolden into the tunnel. +That was the most heart-breaking of all. The Brons and the +Neeblings had saved the treasures from the warring +civilizations of the world above. The statues could be +preserved. Some of the machines might possibly be restored. +But the paintings, the art, and the books. All gone. Wolden +especially mourned a Navajo sand-painting, which he compared +to Goya. Not a trace was left of it.</p> + +<p>Wolden had taken him into the tunnel, just as he had once +before. It was dripping now, and the sound of the pumps +throbbed through the ruins like the struggling heart of a +wounded thing. + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> + +Their little car moved slowly down the old tracks. +Occasionally it had to stop, where some disintegrating pile +of treasures had spilled out. One sack of diamonds had +broken. Wolden stopped and kicked the stones away. An +ancient Ford, with its back seat piled high with rotting and +sprouting sacks of prize-winning oat seed, was both +heart-breaking and ludicrous.</p> + +<p>The Brons and the Neeblings had been the true antiquarians +of the world. And they had taken centuries to gather their +collection. A dinosaur skeleton stared at them. The salvaged +carved prow of a galleon leaned against a gaping +whale’s jaw. A model of the first atomic pile +supported a score of leaning spears, but the feathers and +artwork on those spears were now stains and shreds. An +English flag, delicately embroidered, drooped beside the +dripping tatters of the Confederacy. A Roman eagle was +lifted high beside the crudely beautiful banner of the +Choctaws—on which Odin could barely make out the three +arrows and the unstrung bow.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Chinese vases, thin as egg shells, most of them broken, lay +in a tumbled pile beside ancient cradles and spinning +wheels.</p> + +<p>A Neanderthal skull was staring hungrily at a twelve foot +skeleton of a giant bird. And a restoration of a tiny little +<ins title="ancestral horse">equus</ins> was looking up like an inquisitive mouse at a huge +ruined painting by Rosa Bonheur.</p> + +<p>Thousands upon thousands of relics of the world above—some +taken from the jetsam of the sea and others taken by +exploring parties from Opal during those long glad years +when the inner-world was as comfortable as Eden and almost +as happy. Gems by the millions, gold and silver coins, +trappings inlaid with diamonds, furs, silks, bone +instruments and ivory carvings. A Stradivarius was warping +apart, and a Gutenberg was swollen to twice its size, its +moldy pages curling away from the parent-book. The books had +fared worse. Great stacks of leather-covered libraries were +turning into moldy, starchy mounds. Papyrus and lambskin +scrolls were falling apart. Once, when they stopped for +Wolden to thrust some moldy folds of Hindu thread-of-gold +weaving from their path, Odin stopped and picked up the +cover of a book. It was soggy and faded. But he could make +out the title: “Poems by a Bostonian.”</p> + +<p>So they had gone on, but slower now than on their first +journey into the tunnel which led to the floor of the Gulf. +An odor of dankness and decay hung over everything. The air +was cold and damp. And everywhere were the footprints and +handprints of Death who had spared this galley for so long, +but who had come back with his flashing scythe to claim his +own. The stinking carcass of a hammer head shark, washed in +by the flood, lay sprawled across the + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> + +sodden sarcophagus of an Egyptian princess.</p> + +<p>And a gloomy sickness fell upon Jack Odin there in the +tunnel as he thought of all the splendor that had died here, +and the ages and ages of sweat and blood that had gone into +these treasures. A thousand, thousand treasures were trying +to whisper their stories to him, but the dripping water was +drowning them out. Thousands of men, some slaves and some +kings, were trying to tell him what the jewels and books, +and swords and cradles had meant to them—but the +drip-drip-drip of the water choked the echoes of their +voices. The darkness that was ever crowding in seemed to be +filled with the shadows of beautiful women in fine laces, +with flashing jewels about their throats, and pendants +brushing their half-covered breasts. They were trying to +smile out of the dark, but a cold fog was creeping from the +walls of the tunnel, settling about the shadows, and driving +them back, farther and farther into all pervading +nothingness.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Seeing his misery, Gunnar had clutched Odin’s arm. +“These were things of the past, Nors-King, and the +things of the past belong to the old dragon. Let us not +complain if he has taken them at last. We have things to do +and we cannot do them if we are sick at heart. Did I tell +you that four of my children died in the flood?” The +voice of the broad-shouldered dwarf sounded husky and far +away.</p> + +<p>“No, Gunnar. You never told me. Indeed, old friend, I +am sorry. Very sorry. And ashamed that I sit here mourning +the past and forgetting your troubles.”</p> + +<p>“Yes. They died. My Freida and the other three are +coming here. And we will eat at the same table again—and I +will tell them that their grand-sire and their +great-grand-sires were men among men. And that Gunnar +himself has often sat high at the councils. Then we will go +out to find Grim Hagen—and Freida and the three will go +back to rebuild the farm. For that is the way of things—and +as long as there are strong ones left to rebuild, Loki +cannot altogether destroy us.”</p> + +<p>The car moved slowly forward. The dismal fog grew heavier. +Until at last they came to the place where the Old Ship had +stood.</p> + +<p>Now there was a new ship taking form within its huge +cradles. Lights were everywhere. The red lights of the +forge. The blue lights of the welding torches, the white +light of the workbenches. The yellow lights that surrounded +the high scaffolds went up and up to the top of the +hour-glass figure.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>“This is our second,” Wolden explained. +“Our first was much smaller. We had been working on a +smaller model long before Grim Hagen got ambitious. Some of +our scientists have already gone into space. We are in touch +with them. They went quietly and noiselessly. There was no +need for all the destruction and havoc that Grim Hagen +worked. But this model is larger even than the Old Ship, and +all the improvements that we once dreamed of are here. You +see, Odin,” Wolden continued, “the Old Ship was +ours for centuries. We of Orthe-Gard have exploring minds. +We went over the ship thousands of times. We knew where +every bolt and pin was located. We improved it. In the +beginning, when it brought our ancestors here, it must have +been comparatively slow. But during the past forty years we +learned much from your scientists about space. Einstein was +the only thinker in a century gone mad from bickering. About +ten years ago we perfected what I call The Fourth Drive. It +would take days to explain it, but it can throw a ship into +Trans-Einsteinian Space. We had equipped the Old Ship with +the new invention. Our experimental ship was so equipped. +And this newer, larger one will also have The Fourth Drive. +But we have made a few improvements at the last.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>It was all too deep for Odin. And there was so much to see +that he did not ask any questions.</p> + +<p>Workers and smiths were everywhere. They crawled over the +scaffolding like ants. They hammered and pounded at the +framework. They were bent over the furnaces and the anvils. +The presses and the shapers were pounding away. Never before +had Jack Odin seen so much activity in Opal.</p> + +<p>“We are wrecking our buildings for this ship,” +Wolden mourned. “Given time, my experiments would have +made worlds and space unnecessary. But it has been voted +that we go after Maya and punish Grim Hagen, even though we +drive to the edge of space. So be it. We are now building in +weeks what it would once have taken years to do. Those on +our experimental ship who have already gone out into space, +they have helped us immensely. Daily they report the results +of their tests to us. The good points—the bad ones—the +improvements. Oh, when this is finished it will be a greater +ship than we ever dreamed of. I did dream of such a ship +when I was young. But now I find that I do not want it. Even +so, I will go out among the stars. Wolden was never a +coward, nor his fathers before him.”</p> + +<p>“So be it,” Odin answered and he leaned his head +back and looked high up at the scaffolding where the +welders’ torches flashed like stars. “So be it, +Wolden. But I would have gone anyway.”</p> + +<p>And Gunnar spoke: “I would have gone beside you. My +sword is thirsty.”</p> + +<p>High up on the hour-glass shape a bit of magnesium caught + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> + +fire and burned brilliantly for a second, its sparks +flashing out and down. A worker, who was no more than a +shadow, smothered the flame.</p> + +<p>The sparks drifted downward like lost suns seeking a course +that they could find no more. They sparkled and burned. Then +they winked out, and there was nothing left upon the +scaffolding but lancing flames and scurrying shadows.</p> + +<p>All about them now, the smiths were beating out old chanteys +on the ancient anvils and the newer, clashing machines.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_6" id="CHAPTER_6"></a>CHAPTER 6</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">I</span>N THE days that followed there was no time for rest. Thanks +to the smaller prototype which had already gone into space, +no elaborate tests were required of the new ship. Moreover, +the scientists had taken centuries to go over the Old Ship, +bolt by bolt, part by part, wire by wire. Improvements had +been made, but these had been incorporated into the little +prototype which was now successfully berthed within a cavern +somewhere on the moon. Over thirty men and women had gone +with it. Wolden was constantly in touch with them and daily +growing more envious of their position.</p> + +<p>Odin knew little of such matters, but he sat daily at the +council table where progress reports and squawk-sheets were +examined and discussed. The speed with which they were +developing the new ship was amazing. There was one +innovation to be noted.</p> + +<p>Wolden referred to it as the Fourth Drive. Odin gathered +that the Old Ship had been equipped with such a drive, but +new principles and new mechanics had been added. Odin showed +him a little book, which had been privately printed in the +world above some fifteen years before. It was entitled: +“Einstein and Einsteinian Space, with Conjectures upon +a Trans-Einsteinian concept.” Wolden said it had been +written by a young refugee from the Nazis, and he doubted if +over two or three copies of the manuscript were now in +existence. Memories of concentration camps, poverty, and the +internecine battles of the professors in a small college +where the refugee was an assistant in the Physics +Department, had finally driven the poor fellow to suicide.</p> + +<p>“He was grasping at something new,” Wolden +explained. “His concept was only nascent. But such a +mind! The book has been invaluable. Still, it is nothing but +a starting point—but such a starting point!”</p> + +<p>Time passed. It was like working in a dream, where no sooner +was one task done than another was ready. Odin ached. His +head spun with all the information that Wolden had given +him—the basic principles behind those + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> + +machines that had gone into the ship.</p> + +<p>Then, at last, it was finished. A young girl who reminded +him of Maya was hoisted up on a scaffold to the highest +bulge of the hour-glass shaped craft. Workers and visitors +stood below by the thousands while she spoke into a tiny +microphone and swung a ruby-colored bottle against the ship.</p> + +<p>“You are christened The Nebula,” she cried. +“Go out into space—”</p> + +<p>They had used a bottle of red wine for the christening. A +shower of ruby-glass and winedrops came sprinkling down. +They fell slowly—like drops of blood, and the onlookers, +who were by nature opposed to crowds, began to disperse.</p> + +<p>“That girl,” Odin grasped Gunnar’s arm +“Who is she?”</p> + +<p>Gunnar looked at him curiously. “Her name is Nea. A +distant cousin of Maya’s. Also, a distant cousin to +Grim Hagen.”</p> + +<p>Nothing else was said. But Odin suddenly realized that since +the day he had been unwillingly carried back to the world +above in the elevator he had not noticed any girl at all.</p> + +<p>That night Jack Odin could not sleep, although he had never +slept more than five hours at a time since returning to +Opal. Getting up he found a little radio and turned it to a +frequency which occasionally caught some of the stations +above. A hill-billy band was playing, and a comic was +singing: “So I kissed her little sister and forgot my +Clementine.”</p> + +<p>He turned off the radio with a curse and finally got to +sleep, and dreamed of star spaces and emerald worlds ruled +by beautiful Brons girls who looked like Maya—or maybe a +bit like Nea. Until the worlds streaked across the dark sky +like comets. And Gunnar was shaking him by the arm and a +streak of light was coming in at the window.</p> + +<p>“Ho, sluggard. We start to load the ship today. How +long have you waited for this? We were going to savor each +moment, remember! And you lie here like a turtle in the +sun.”</p> + +<p>Odin yawned. “The lists are ready. Everything is +packed. I, myself, have checked the lists.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gunnar laughed. “How much time have your people spent +checking lists? You are the world’s best +list-checkers. And the worst. I wish we were just a handful +of warriors going out for a fight. But whole families are +coming along. Apparently the Brons intend to sow their seed +among the stars. And with families. I’ll wager that +your lists are not worth a darning needle. Something will be +left behind. A slice of some bride’s wedding cake. +Little Nordo’s favorite toy. Papa’s best +pocket-knife. Mama’s button-box.” The strong +little man made a wry face. “Bah, this is no trip for +families. They want too much. They are never satisfied. With +warriors it is much different. They can take things as they +are and grumble a bit—or if they grumble too much, Gunnar +can slap them silly. But families—on a trip like this. +No!”</p> + +<p>“Well, they’re going,” Odin retorted. +“From what I hear, you were the only one who voted +against them. So you had better get ready to listen to the +patter of little feet, and squalling babies, and Mamas and +Papas arguing over whose idea it was to make the trip +anyway.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, it does not matter. I am not of the Brons, +but I go because of a promise.” Gunnar shrugged and +his face appeared sad and seamed. “My Freida and the +boys will be here today. I want you to meet them. I have +spent over half my days a-wandering, Jack Odin, but now I +have a sick feeling inside me. And I think to myself if I +could go back to the farm with Freida and the boys, I could +work there, and die an old, old man—as my father and his +father did before me. But the wanderlust is heavy upon me. +Freida understands. And I swore that I would go after Grim +Hagen—and after Maya. But this way, I die up there among +the stars some day, and no one unless it be you and Maya +will think of Gunnar.”</p> + +<p>Odin slapped his arm across Gunnar’s shoulders. +“You are chief among the Neeblings. Stay here with +your family. I will go out there to the stars, and I will +always remember Gunnar. Faith, man, you owe us nothing. The +debts are ours—”</p> + +<p>But Gunnar shook his head. “I swore by my sword. And I +go.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>A few hours later, they stood at the water’s edge and +waited for Freida and the boys. It was not long before a +boat hove into sight. And soon Gunnar was helping Freida and +the three sons upon the landing.</p> + +<p>Family meetings always made Odin ill at ease. He stood +there, shuffling his feet.</p> + +<p>Freida was a short, broad woman, with big breasts and broad +hips. Her eyes, the palest blue, were still beautiful. Odin +guessed that when she was young her face had matched her +eyes. But the face was worn and the hand that she offered +him was calloused. She was dressed in +<ins title="a cheap but durable fabric made from a combination of linen and wool">linsey-woolsey</ins>, +and the overalls of the three sons were also home-spun.</p> + +<p>The three lads, miniature copies of Gunnar, stood there +solemnly. Each wore a new straw hat with a black and red +band around it. They were barefooted. Odin guessed that the +hats had been bought special for the occasion.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>For the next three days Odin was kept busy by Ato. There +were a million things to go on the ship. The Brons had done +a wonderful job of warehousing. All was packaged and tagged. + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> + +A place for each box or machine was already marked and +numbered on the prints of The Nebula. The tunnel had been +cleared for two lanes of trucks and tractors. Steadily the +line of laden cars moved down to the ship and steadily +another line came back for more supplies.</p> + +<p>Odin was assigned to superintend one of the warehouses, and +he was both annoyed and pleased to find that the girl Nea +was his assistant. She was a hard worker and pleasant +enough, though she said little to him. And the only time he +saw her flustered was when she ordered a young man of the +Brons out of the building. Jack felt a bit sorry for the +fellow. He was scarcely out of his teens and was all shook +up because Nea was going out there into space instead of +staying here in Opal with him.</p> + +<p>So the work went on at a furious pace, and before he +realized that three days had gone he was back at the +improvised docks with Gunnar and his family.</p> + +<p>The parting was a quiet one. Gunnar told the boys to mind +their mother and not stay out late at night. “Get +strong muscles on your legs and shoulders,” he told +them. “A man is not too good at thinking, and he never +knows what will happen next. The muscles will keep him +going, and after the muscles are gone a fighting heart will +carry him a little farther.”</p> + +<p>No tears were shed. They talked of little things, and +laughed at old jokes that Gunnar’s grandfather had +told them. One of those family jokes that never seem very +funny to an outsider.</p> + +<p>After that, Freida worked the conversation around to the +voyage that Gunnar would soon be making.</p> + +<p>“They say it is cold out there,” she ventured +cautiously.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes. Very cold.” Gunnar agreed.</p> + +<p>“Then you wrap up good, Gunnar. We wouldn’t want +you to have a chill.”</p> + +<p>Gunnar scoffed, “I never had a chill in my +life.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, such talk. Don’t pretend to be so big. I +have nursed you through many a chill.” Then she +produced her parting gift—a muffler that would have swathed +poor Gunnar from chin to belt.</p> + +<p>“You promise you wear this if it gets cold,” she +urged.</p> + +<p>“I tell you, mama, I don’t need such things. You +don’t know how tough old Gunnar is.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know. You promise to wear the muffler—”</p> + +<p>Gunnar took it as he cast a sheepish look at Odin. +“All right. All right. I’ll take it—”</p> + +<p>After Freida’s boat had disappeared, Gunnar tried to +joke about the muffler. But he was a bit proud of it too, +and put it around his neck. The ends almost brushed the +ground, but it was so warm that he soon had to roll it up +and carry it with him.</p> + +<p>The two went for a meal. But + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> + +Gunnar ate little, grumbling at the food. Once he assured +Odin that he had never had a chill in his life—that +Freida was too thoughtful about him—</p> + +<p>“Sure. Sure.” Odin agreed.</p> + +<p>Then, finally, Gunnar cleared his throat and spoke the +things that were in his mind.</p> + +<p>“Friend Odin,” he began, looking down at his +plate as though he expected to see an answer there. “I +fear that I have seen my family for the last time. We are in +for a trip beyond the dreams of men. Beyond Ragnarok—to the +edge of the night where the mad gods make bonfires of +worn-out suns—where space itself serves the mad +squirrel.”</p> + +<p>Gunnar paused to mutter a few words to himself and then +looked up at Odin with the old smile on his broad face. +“Oh, well, a man must go as far as his heart will take +him—”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>But for all his big talk, Gunnar tossed and muttered that +night. And once, Odin heard him cry out—“So, Hagen, +the stars swing right at last, and you are mine for the +taking. Oh, my lost little boys and my lost little +girl—”</p> + +<p>And Gunnar, the strong one, sobbed in his sleep.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The ship was loaded at last. The time for departure was +near. The crew of The Nebula—over two hundred men, women +and children—went quietly into the tunnel. Thousands of +relatives and friends had come to the Tower to see them +off. There was little weeping though most of the faces were +sad and lined.</p> + +<p>Ato and Wolden had some last words with the captains who +were working upon the rebuilding of Opal.</p> + +<p>“We can talk to you from the moon,” Wolden was +saying. “Beyond that, when we swing into the Fourth +Drive, we cannot. May your work prosper.”</p> + +<p>The last man had filed up the ramp to the sphere at the +center of the hour-glass shaped craft. The door was finally +closed and sealed.</p> + +<p>There were no portholes in the Nebula. But at least a dozen +screens were mounted at convenient locations. These showed +the outside world as clearly as a window.</p> + +<p>The ship moved along its rails to the Great Door. The door +opened. Then it closed behind them. The second door—the one +that opened upon the sea—slowly parted and slid back into +the walls of the tunnel. The water poured in. For a second +or two, all that Odin could see was swirling bubbling water. +Then water was all around them. Seaweed still swirled in mad +little whirlpools. A fish swam close to an outside scanner, +and seemed to peer closer and closer at them until there was +only one great staring eye upon the screen. Then it flirted +its tail at them and sped away.</p> + +<p>The ship moved on. Far out upon the floor of the Gulf, it + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> + +paused. There were twenty minutes of last-minute checking.</p> + +<p>Then, swiftly, as a cork bobs upward, the Nebula arose +through the parting waters.</p> + +<p>Then the sea was below them and they were still rising. The +scanner showed the sea receding. They were looking down at a +segment of a curved world. Far away was land, and Odin saw +two dark specks in the distance which he thought were +Galveston and Houston. The world below them became half of a +sphere that filled the viewer. And then it was a turning +globe, growing smaller and smaller. As it diminished, the +stars winked out on the screen’s background.</p> + +<p>The sensation of rushing upward was no worse than being in a +fast elevator. And yet, as Odin watched the earth recede, he +realized that they must have risen from the water at a speed +much faster than a bullet.</p> + +<p>Soon the earth appeared no larger than a basketball. The +viewers were changed. The moon appeared upon it—a growing +sphere, with its mountains and craters all silver and black +in the reflected light.</p> + +<p>Wolden turned to Odin. “See how it is done. We left +there quietly. Not a drop of water entered Opal. We left so +fast that I doubt if your world even noticed us. Grim Hagen +always loved the sensational. There was no need for the +havoc that he made—”</p> + +<p>In less than an hour, the onrushing moon filled the +screens. And with scarcely a quiver of excitement the Nebula +circled it swiftly—and landed.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_7" id="CHAPTER_7"></a>CHAPTER 7</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">W</span>OLDEN and Ato, +acting as pilot and co-pilot, set The Nebula +down with as much ease as a housewife putting a fine piece +of china upon the drainboard.</p> + +<p>There was no fuss and no noise. Jack Odin had seen +B-47’s come in with a great deal more hubbub and +dithers than the Nebula had caused.</p> + +<p>The screens were still on. Out there all was dark, and a +wealth of stars was in the purple-black sky. They seemed +larger and brighter. Wolden touched a knob and the stars on +the screen before them slowly grew larger and larger. +“An astronomer’s paradise,” he said to +Odin. “Look closely and you can see Centauri’s +binary suns. Here, with no refraction, a small telescope can +do as well as the best that your people have made. There is +no telling what your large ones could do. Ah, the riddles +that could be answered.”</p> + +<p>Odin shrugged. Like almost everyone else, he had often +fancied how it would be to land on the moon. Now he was +here, and the surface of the moon was blacker than the +blackest night he had ever seen. Moreover, there had been no +change in gravity. The Nebula had been built to take care of +that.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>As though sensing his thoughts, Wolden began to explain. +“We are less than fifty miles from a spot where the +earth could be seen. Not over a degree below the curvature. +In fact, if the moon were full, there would be a bit of +light here, for a strong light playing upon any globe always +lights up over half of it. We are not far from the Heroynian +Mountains and the Bay of Dew. Just a few miles within that +other side of the moon which none of your people have ever +seen before.”</p> + +<p>Odin remembered Jules Verne’s account of a volcano +spouting its last breath of life in that zone, but out there +was nothing but the dark and the stars that smoldered like +sapphires, rubies, and diamonds upon a black velvet sky. +There were no shadows. The darkness was solid, as though it +had frozen there since old and no spark had ever invaded it.</p> + +<p>“Be patient, my friend,” Wolden had sensed his +thoughts again. “Before long, you will see more of the +moon than men have ever known. We sent a smaller ship into +space. Remember! Our scientists are here. In a place beyond +your dreams. Look. They are coming now.”</p> + +<p>Wolden was adjusting the screen again. Far off, something +like a long jointed bug with a single glaring light in its +head was crawling toward them.</p> + +<p>It drew nearer. Jack Odin saw that it was no more than a +huge caterpillar tractor with several cars attached, +armored and sheathed with sort of a bellows-type connection +at each joint. As it neared the Nebula, it played its light +around so that Odin got his first glimpse of the moon. +Barren, worn, cindered. An ash-heap turned to stone. Puddles +and splashes shaped like great crowns, as though liquid rock +had congealed at the very height of its torment. Needles of +rock, toadstools of rock, bubbles of rock, and glassy sheets +of rock—this was the surface of the moon.</p> + +<p>Then the crawling tractor with its cars lumbering along +behind it on their endless tracks was below them and playing +its single light upward.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>An air-lock in the Nebula opened and a huge hose came slowly +down. Odin watched it on the screen. It seemed to have been +pleated and shoved together like an accordion. Now it opened +out in little jerking movements, extending itself about two +feet at each writhing twitch. As it grew longer it expanded +and was nearly three feet across when it reached the top of +the first car. A round door opened. Unseen hands reached the +end of the big hose and fastened it securely.</p> + +<p>Odin had often dreamed of landing on the moon. There, in the +traditional space-suit, with a plastic bubble about his +head, he would leap twenty feet into the air, and maybe even +turn a somersault as a gesture of man’s escape from +the tiring tyranny + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> + +of gravity. Compared to this dream, his arrival upon the +moon was just a bit ridiculous. He and over a score of +others simply slid down the inside of the long, slanting +hose like a group of third-graders practicing on the +fire-escape at the school house.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Larger than the others, Odin landed awkwardly upon the floor +of the car. Before he could jump aside, another passenger +piled upon him. It was a girl, and the perfume in her hair +was the same that Maya had always used. He helped her to her +feet and drew her aside just as another voyager came sliding +down. The girl was Nea. Somehow, he had an odd feeling that +Maya was here. He was just a bit annoyed at Nea, and wished +to himself that she wasn’t making the trip. She shook +her black curls and thanked him softly.</p> + +<p>“How awkward of me,” she explained. “It +wouldn’t have happened if I had not been carrying +this—”</p> + +<p>She held up a little round satchel. It was exactly like the +cases that people used in his country for carrying bowling +balls. Odin was puzzled. And he assured himself that he +would never understand women. Why would the girl be carrying +a bowling ball with her into outer space?</p> + +<p>Odin joined Wolden, Ato, and Gunnar in the +“engine” of the bumpy little train. Here were +real windows of quartz, and he could see more of the +moon’s surface as the tractor and its jointed cars +wheeled about in a great circle and headed off in the +direction from whence it had come.</p> + +<p>Once there was a loud <i>Ping</i> upon the roof above them. The +tractor shook.</p> + +<p>“A meteorite,” the driver explained. +“They’re thick tonight. Don’t worry. +There’s a screen upon the roof that slows them down +and melts ’em. The larger ones never reach us. Some of +the tiny ones get through.”</p> + +<p>They came to a sheer mountain which in the beams of the +tractor looked like a silver pyramid painted across a +jet-black canvas.</p> + +<p>As though answering an unheard vibration, a door opened and +they lumbered in. The door closed behind them. For a moment +they were in such darkness that even the beam from the +tractor seemed alien. Then another door started to open +before them and a widening shaft of light was there to greet +them.</p> + +<p>Odin was thinking that each race must have some craft at +which it excels all others. If so, then the building of +air-locks was certainly the Brons’ highest art.</p> + +<p>Then they advanced into a cavern where five tiny atomic suns +were strung out at equal distances upon the ceiling. The +cavern was geometrical. Roughly, it was a mile long, half a +mile wide, and half a mile high. The floor was smooth; the +walls were sheer. “As though they had been shaped by +human hand,” Odin + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> + +thought, but he soon learned that other hands had sheered +those walls.</p> + +<p>In the very middle of the cavern was a little lake, shaped +in the same proportion as the floor. It was surrounded by +green grass, and at one corner was a profusion of +water-lilies and cat-tails. There were no trees, but flowers +were everywhere. A few small bushes. Here and there were +great clumps of vines. Odin guessed them to be wild cucumber +and trumpet vines, for they had grown riotously.</p> + +<p>It was beautiful indeed, but there were other things to +catch the eye. At least a hundred hemispheres—little igloos +of porcelain—were scattered about the floor of the cave. +Each one was a different color. They shimmered and +glittered. Scarlet, mauve, mother-of-pearl, the blue Capri, +and the blue of cobalt. Pinks, yellows, oranges. Every +possible shade had gone into those porcelain igloos. And the +lighted walls of the cavern were covered from floor to +ceiling with numberless figures, marching, fighting, +working, playing. At first, Odin thought it was a vast +procession of armored knights with huge chests and closed +visors. But none of them stood completely erect—and each of +them had two sets of arms.</p> + +<p>Straining his eyes at the windows to look up, Odin learned +that the vast ceiling was completely covered by similar +figures.</p> + +<p>In contrast to these was one huge tower of rough stone +which Odin guessed to be new.</p> + +<p>So they came to the moon, and disembarked. And at last Odin +felt the lightened pull of the moon’s gravity. He felt +so free that he laughed and leaped into the air and turned a +somersault just as he had dreamed of doing. Then one of the +Brons’ scientists gave him a heavy pair of shoes—as +if to remind him that no man can be altogether free.</p> + +<p>As he glumly strapped the heavy shoes to his feet, Jack +thought of something his father had told him: “No man +was ever really free, unless it was Robinson Crusoe. Then +Friday showed up and became Crusoe’s servant, and +Crusoe’s freedom flew away.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Forty-eight hours had passed since they came to the cavern. +Odin and Gunnar had gone with Wolden to visit the Scientist +who had led the first expedition to the moon. The Scientist, +whose name was Gor, was explaining: “—They were +hardly out of the Iron Age. That was how we found this +place. Our instruments detected a surplus of iron in this +area. They must have developed fast—for life did not last +long. Insectival, beyond a doubt. Also, they had what we +call The Moon Metal. Their houses, practically everything +they used, are made of that. It must have been an accident. +In cooling, the moon spewed this new alloy out upon its +surface. Yes, it looks like porcelain—but it is as hard as +steel. It has + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> + +strange vibrations. They had musical +instruments—although they may have produced tingling +vibrations instead of sound. When these people saw that all +was lost, they retreated here and closed the cave.</p> + +<p>“For over a thousand years, theirs was an economy of +death and rottenness. Mushrooms and toadstools were their +food. Banks of rotting mushrooms made their light. Also, it +appears they had some rocks which gave out a dim glow. Even +their dead went to feed the mushrooms. And so they lived. +With time on their hands they covered the walls with +paintings. Also, we think they must have developed their +music to a high degree—though we may never know about that. +Then their water and air gave out and they died.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Good heavens, Odin thought, what a cold-blooded obituary for +any race!</p> + +<p>“And so, Wolden,” the Scientist continued, +“it has worked out well. We were lucky to find this +spot. We fashioned the two doors first, for the cave was +open when we reached it—I think a meteor must have crashed +here long after these people died. After that, it was easy +to build the lights and to draw moisture and air from the +rocks. We have struck a balance now. I said all along that +it could be done, if we could escape the constant +interference from those ruffians above us—uh, Odin, I beg +your pardon.”</p> + +<p>Odin always resented these cracks at his people so he +ignored the request by asking another question. “But +how did you do all this in so short a time? Those vines look +like they have been growing for years.”</p> + +<p>“Just as they do in Alaska during the growing season. +We kept our suns burning all the time. Soon we may be able +to afford both day and night, but not yet.</p> + +<p>“And after that,” the Scientist went on, +“we were able to get back to your work on the +Time-Space Continuum. We have made some wonderful advances. +I would like to show you—but Gunnar and Odin, I am boring +you.”</p> + +<p>“Wouldn’t you care to look at the new +lake?” Wolden urged.</p> + +<p>“I can take a hint,” Gunnar grumbled. +“Nobody wants a fighting man about until the swords +are flashing—”</p> + +<p>As Odin and Gunnar went down the front steps of the tower, +they met the girl Nea. She was swinging the +bowling-ball-shaped satchel at her side.</p> + +<p>When they greeted her, Odin felt that he could hold back his +curiosity no longer. “Are you a bowler, Miss +Nea?” he asked.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>“A bowler!” Then she laughed a silvery laugh. +“Oh, no. This is an invention of mine. My father and I +were working on it. He died in the tunnel when it was +flooded.” For a second her dark eyes appeared +infinitely sad. Then she laughed again. “But it is not +perfected. It may not ever be perfected now. I thought that +perhaps Wolden and Gor might help me with it.”</p> + +<p>Gunnar muttered some words that might be roughly interpreted +as “Fat Chance” and he and Odin left the girl on +the steps.</p> + +<p>As they walked around the little lake which was as smooth as +a mirror, Gunnar explained. “Her mother was a cousin +to Maya’s mother. You know how the Brons number their +kin to the seventh generation. Her father was one of the +Scientists. A brilliant man—but a poor provider. However, +he died nobly. Remember, Nors-King, Nea’s branch of +the family is a strange group. They have done brilliant +things, but they have thought up some hare-brained schemes, +too. As I said before, she is also kin to Grim +Hagen—”</p> + +<p>Another day had passed. The voyagers had been summoned to a +council hall within the tower. A screen was set up for the +convenience of those who had been left upon the Nebula.</p> + +<p>Wolden arose to speak. “My friends, a troubled +question has entered my mind. As you know, I am a man of +peace. My entire life has been spent in developing theories +upon what I call this subject before me. I had thought it to +be something that could be developed within three +generations—if we were left at peace. But we were not left +at peace. And I accepted your decision that we go forth into +space and find Grim Hagen. But now I have learned new +things. This discovery of the Moon Metal has advanced my +work by fifty years. Gor here has advanced it farther. We +are upon the brink of perfecting my life’s work. Now, +I ask that I be relieved of command. Look, you have my son +Ato. A much better commander than I could ever be. Let me +stay here with my work, I beg of you.”</p> + +<p>So the votes were taken, following a century-old ritual. +Wolden was relieved of command and Ato was given his place.</p> + +<p>Hours later Gunnar and Odin sat with Ato in his quarters, +making some last-minute decisions.</p> + +<p>There was a knock at the door. Wolden entered, carrying a +strange-looking slug-horn that glimmered like +mother-of-pearl. “I want you to take this with +you,” he begged his son. “It is made of the +Moon-Metal. I think I know its secret now. A vibration that +defies a vacuum. I hope to perfect my work, but I may not. +Here,” he offered the tiny horn to his son. +“Blow it if you need me. It is soundless, but it +defies time and space just as my work does. I carry a ring +to match it. I may not succeed. But blow it when you need +me, son, and if I can I’ll be there—”</p> + +<p>Tears were in the eyes of both when Ato took the slug-horn +from his father.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_8" id="CHAPTER_8"></a>CHAPTER 8</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">A</span>T THEIR request, +eight couples and their children were +brought from The Nebula to the cavern. For the crew of the +first ship had been old men—and the cavern had never known +a child’s laughter.</p> + +<p>Then Ato led his group back to the moon’s surface.</p> + +<p>As a little conveyor belt hoisted him through the tube into +the central core of the ship, Jack Odin found himself +worrying a bit about Nea. She had decided to go on with +them. Due to her experimental interests, Jack had supposed +that she would stay with Wolden. But there she was, still +carrying that perplexing case of hers. Quiet and sad-eyed, a +little smaller than Maya, her face a little sharper, she +still looked so much like Maya that Odin couldn’t get +his thoughts away from her.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>There was one last period of final check-outs. Then Ato gave +the signal, standing lean and tall in the control room, with +a tight belt about his narrow waist, and Wolden’s +slug-horn fastened securely to it.</p> + +<p>The Nebula leaped toward the star-studded skies.</p> + +<p>Odin watched the moon disappear below them. Mars with its +canals and mossy deserts loomed ahead—swerved aside, and +was behind them, Jupiter with its red clouds and its protean +“eye” reached out for them and was left behind. +The planets became smaller. They winked at them and cheered +them on with a far halloo. Then Pluto loomed ahead, lost and +forgotten up there in the night. And to Odin’s +surprise, one last tiny planet, frozen to the color of a +moonstone, looked at them like a dead thing that could not +even remember life—and asked them what they were—and +wearily bade them goodbye.</p> + +<p>When the planets were no more than seed-pearls floating in +the vast behind them, Ato gave the signal for all to make +ready. There was a scurrying aboard ship for couches and +over-stuffed chairs. And after the warning bell had ceased +clanging, Ato muttered to Odin and Gunnar: “This has +been tested enough. It ought to work.”</p> + +<p>With one last shrug of his lean shoulders, Ato pulled the +lever that threw them into the Fourth Drive.</p> + +<p>The stars and the planets became streamers of light. They +burst like sky-rockets and a million sparks fell into the +void. The sparks winked out and the ship hurtled on through +a darkness that seemed to take form before them. It was as +though they burrowed through swathes of black cotton.</p> + +<p>Once before, Jack Odin had experienced a feeling akin to +this. It was the time when he had used Ato’s belt, and +Gunnar had flung him into space as though he had been a +minnow at the end of a snapping line. But that experience +had been momentary. This built itself up—until Odin felt +himself expanding and contracting at each pulse beat. His +heart seemed to beat slower and slower. Waves of smothering + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> + +pain struck him when they passed the speed of light. Then +the pain diminished. He gasped for air, and it seemed to +take years to reach his chest. The pain and the feeling of +speed went slowly away. They were merely drifting now, as +though in a dream, with a feeling of high exhilaration +flooding over him. He remembered feeling that way once as a +boy when a heavy storm had passed, taking its wracks of +clouds with it, and the sinking sun had come out to turn all +the trees to emeralds.</p> + +<p>And now, beyond life, and beyond death, with eternity +curving like a rainbow of light around them, they dashed on +and on into the unknown.</p> + +<p>Time did not exist. Space had a new concept. Speed was +something that advanced them. It was little more than a +sensation until Alpha Centauri began to loom larger upon +their screens. From their vantage point in Trans-Einsteinian +space, it did not look like a star at all. It was two +intertwined circular spirals of light, and at the intervals +where the two coils met were little nodules of gold.</p> + +<p>The crew was given instructions on the anticipated +sensations that were to follow.</p> + +<p>“It will be like plunging back from immortality to +mortality,” Ato told Odin. “Over four years have +passed, as light is measured. We have not eaten more than +twenty meals.”</p> + +<p>He pulled the lever that slowed them out of the Fourth Drive +into three-dimensional space. There was the same sickening +sensation when they dropped lower than the speed of light. +And, braking all the while, they zoomed swiftly down upon +the binary suns and their seven worlds.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Odin had been watching the screens for three hours. He felt +sick and old over the things that he had seen. Seven +worlds—all blackened and burned out. Life had been there, +but what form of life only Grim Hagen might have told them. +They were cindered—their atmosphere, which had not been +oxygen, had burned away. Ato’s probing instruments +found neither liquid nor gas. His screens found an +occasional shattered city, where broken spires reached +twisted fingers into the vacant sky.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ato was watching the needles upon another machine. +“The Old Ship has been here. What happened I do not +know. They may have defied Grim Hagen. Maybe they refused to +join him. Certainly, in all the worlds, billions of them, +there must be many where conflict and submission are +unknown. These people might not have been able to understand +Grim Hagen’s ultimatum. They may have died trying to +figure out what the strange voice from the sky was talking +about. On the other hand, he may not have given them an +ultimatum at all. This may have been a practice +assault—like Hitler’s attack upon Poland, just to see +how much death could be inflicted. We shall never +know.”</p> + +<p>They flashed away into space. Ato threw them into the Fourth +Drive again. And once more the lights from the far-off stars +circled like fireflies. And eternity curved in a rainbow of +light about them.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Hours no longer existed, but it seemed to Jack Odin that +many hours passed while he tried to get that sick, cold +feeling out of his chest. Time crawled by while he tried to +resolve his thoughts. Perhaps Wolden had been right. Men did +not belong here. Man and Brons were orphans of the stars. +Was there some element upon the earth that made them +vicious? Was there any way that they could come out here +into space on equal terms with living things? Or must they +always come as conquerors, eager to fight, or refugees who +soon became resentful of the natives. Would the worlds out +there become mere plundered planets with a portion of the +aborigines’ land grudgingly set apart for +reservations?</p> + +<p>Of course, Grim Hagen was a Bron—one of the worst of them. +But Brons and men had lived so close together for so long +that there was little difference between them. Odin knew +some men who, given the ship and the weapons, would have +done as Grim Hagen had done. And would have arrogantly +demanded a medal, besides.</p> + +<p>Oh, well, there was no sense in staying in the doldrums +forever. Out there, time was on the side of the stars. If a +demon of discord stole in, time could wait—</p> + +<p>They readied themselves for combat. Ato’s instruments +were probing space for a sign of the Old Ship. The ancient +weapons and some new ones were now in place. Each man took +his turn at practice.</p> + +<p>But Gunnar, although he was put in charge of one of the +needle-nosed guns, took the service lightly. In his spare +time he busied himself with his and Odin’s swords.</p> + +<p>“Grim Hagen has all of these. We have defenses for +such weapons. So has Grim Hagen. The total of all such +endeavor will be zero. And then, when the chips are down, it +will be the old swords and the knives and the strong arms. +Wait and see—”</p> + +<p>However, Odin soon learned that there was one new weapon +aboard ship. At the request of Nea, Ato called a meeting of +his ten captains.</p> + +<p>The girl was dressed neatly in a white skirt and blouse. She +wore a red ribbon in her hair. Odin had not known her to +take any interest in clothes. Ordinarily she was the poorest +dressed woman on the ship.</p> + +<p>Now, she produced her invention with a proud toss of black +curls and a flush of excitement on her pale face.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<p>“My father’s work is finished,” she told +them proudly. “The Scientist back there within the +moon gave me the last idea. But, all in all, it is my +father’s invention. Had he lived, he would have +perfected it. Just as I have done.” Her eyes flashed. +“Yes, some who are within this room thought that he +wasted his time away. He washed beakers in the labs because +some of you said that he produced nothing—”</p> + +<p>Ato’s face was thin. “Nea, the past is behind +us. Why carry your resentment with you? Your father died a +hero’s death. We have honored him.”</p> + +<p>Again Nea’s dark eyes flashed. “Oh, once he was +dead you thought very well of him. And as for resentment, +isn’t this whole trip being made because you resent +Grim Hagen—”</p> + +<p>Ato’s face was growing darker. “You signed the +ship’s articles, Nea. We go to rescue our friends and +loved ones. We go as a police force to punish one who has +done much evil—”</p> + +<p>A grizzled Bron nodded in agreement. “Yes, Nea, this +talk serves no purpose. Get along with your +invention.”</p> + +<p>“Very well. I asked for a live thing, but Ato would +not agree.”</p> + +<p>Again Ato was on the defensive. “There are not a dozen +pets on the ship. I do not approve of such experiments. +Besides, the batteries are already set up.” He pointed +to a row of dry-cells, connected together and wired to a +large volt-meter upon the wall.</p> + +<p>“All right.” Nea threw a switch that put the +batteries in circuit. The needle of the gauge moved over to +its farthest point. “Now,” she told them. +“You shall see. But be still. I am sure I can control +it—”</p> + +<p>Odin thought there was just a bit of doubt in her voice. If +so, it would only be natural.</p> + +<p>She opened the case and took out something which still +looked to Jack Odin like a bowling ball—except that it was +studded with little brads of copper and a swatch of fine, +silky wires was wrapped around it.</p> + +<p>She pressed a button upon its surface. It began to hum. +Slowly it rose into the air. The silky wires drooped down. +They writhed and probed about.</p> + +<p>“This is as near as man has ever come to making a +living thing,” Nea explained. “It moves. It +reacts to sensations. It makes its own energy. Watch!”</p> + +<p>Slowly the globe with its trailing tentacles moved about the +room. It whined hungrily when it found the batteries. It +hovered above them and the silky wires fanned out. Then it +darted down. The wires felt over the batteries and their +connections—softly—eagerly. The whine changed to a purr of +enjoyment. The thing fed. And slowly the pointer upon the +volt-meter moved over to zero.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Nea raised a tiny whistle to her mouth. There was no sound, +but the copper-studded globe seemed to hear. It raised +itself back into the air. The silken wires wrapped +themselves about the round body. It came back to +Nea—slowly—almost defiantly—and settled into her arms +like a + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> + +plump cat returning to a doting mistress.</p> + +<p>Nea pressed the button again and put it back into its case.</p> + +<p>“Wonderful,” Ato applauded. “I move that +we give Nea a vote of thanks.”</p> + +<p>“But what earthly good is it?” Gunnar asked. +“I could have swatted it with a broom.”</p> + +<p>“And you would have died.” Nea turned upon him +like a tigress. “It feeds upon electricity and it can +discharge a lightning bolt. Don’t you see? There are +few weapons that can resist it. But that is not all. In your +own brain, Gunnar, there is a charge of electricity. It may +be the only real life that you have within you. This can +take it all away. That was why I asked for a live thing to +demonstrate—”</p> + +<p>The grizzled Bron who had spoken once before now laughed +good-humoredly. “Demonstrate it on Gunnar,” he +suggested.</p> + +<p>“And I will thump your skull—” Gunnar was ready +to go for him, but Odin grabbed the little giant’s +arm.</p> + +<p>“He jokes. Besides, you are ruining the girl’s +show. This means much to her.”</p> + +<p>Nea gave him a grateful glance. The council voted their +thanks to Nea and a tribute to her father. She was assigned +a half-dozen helpers to fashion as many of the globes as she +could. They adjourned.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>As The Nebula drove on, it became harder and harder for +Odin to judge time. He could only gauge it by some event +such as the council meeting and say “before +this” or “after that.”</p> + +<p>He and Gunnar were with Ato in the control room when +suddenly warning bells began to jangle and red lights +flashed on and off.</p> + +<p>Ato adjusted the largest screen. And there, slowly revolving +like an hour-glass of gold amid uprushing sparks of sun and +flame, was The Old Ship.</p> + +<p>Ato pointed to a bright star. “Aldebaran. They are +headed there.”</p> + +<p>His voice was shaking just a bit when he called into the +speaker: “Battle stations, everyone!”</p> + +<p>Gunnar took off for the needle-nosed instrument which he had +grown to hate. Odin stood by to help with the screens.</p> + +<p>“Watch forward now!” Ato warned. “Sight at +thirty degrees above the equator of The Nebula. Adjust for +Doppler—X over Y. We have him on the screens now. This +means that he can get a fix on us. Careful now—”</p> + +<p>As he watched the screen, Jack Odin saw three tiny sparks +leap from Grim Hagen’s ship. They danced toward them, +growing as they came. At first they were blue, but as they +filled the screen, almost hiding the Old Ship from his +vision, they changed to amber and topaz.</p> + +<p>Bells and klaxons shrieked their warnings.</p> + +<p>Ato watched and waited. Just as the three growing lights +filled the screen he touched a lever. The Nebula danced +away. Breathless, Jack Odin altered the + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> + +screens and watched the three globes of flame hurtle past +them.</p> + +<p>Far away now, they slowed like living things, puzzled at +having lost their prey.</p> + +<p>Slowed they merged together—</p> + +<p>And turned back upon their quarry!</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_9" id="CHAPTER_9"></a>CHAPTER 9</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">T</span>HE three sunlets +of flame merged together and dripped +yellow blobs of light into the darkness. They grew into a +great soap bubble that turned to topaz.</p> + +<p>Like something moving in a dream it gained upon The Nebula, +until it was pacing beside them—a little larger now and +still growing—dwarfing them and filling half the screen.</p> + +<p>A shadow—no, two shadows—were growing within it, Odin +tried to make them out. But they were dark and wavering. +Still, they looked something like a high priest standing +above a prone victim stretched out upon some sacrificial +altar.</p> + +<p>Odin was working the screens like mad. Keeping their entire +crew before his and Ato’s eyes and at the same time +watching the topaz bubble.</p> + +<p>The bubble cleared. Over the loudspeakers came Grim +Hagen’s shriek of wild laughter.</p> + +<p>Odin turned another knob and the bubble loomed larger.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen stood there, one lean hand rubbing his chin as he +laughed at them.</p> + +<p>And the figure lying prone upon a couch beside him was +swathed by a sheet which came almost to its eyes. But the +shadows were leaving the bubble now. And Odin saw that it +was Maya. Asleep. Statuesque. Like a carving upon a +tomb—but it was Maya.</p> + +<p>Then he cried out in alarm. For upon another screen he saw +Gunnar and his crew swing their weapon into action. Shell +after shell of greenish fire burst about the globe. Green +flame thrust out tiny rootlets that crawled over it, +outlining it in garish light. Another shell seemed to burst +upon Grim Hagen’s chest, tearing the bubble of light +apart. And as Jack watched, horrified and sick, the shards +of flame came back together. And there was the globe +again—with Grim Hagen and Maya as whole as ever. And a +green streak of fire—one of Gunnar’s misses—went +careening off into space until it shrank to a pinpoint of +light and then vanished.</p> + +<p>At a signal from Ato, the firing stopped.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen was still laughing.</p> + +<p>“You are wasting your energy, Ato. I am only a +projection. And so is this that is with me. I have +Maya.” He bowed mockingly. “See, Odin. Come and +get her, Odin, so I can kill you. I had thought I was done +with you but it is just as well. Out here, somewhere, +somewhen, I can kill you slowly. Look, she sleeps.”</p> + +<p>Shrouded there within a bubble + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> + +of changing light, Maya looked like a bronze statue. Lying +upon her back with her arms folded across her breasts, and +with half of her face covered by the flowing folds of a +coverlet, she was like a bride of death, waiting the end of +eternity.</p> + +<p>Hagen laughed again. “Here in Trans-Einsteinian space +there is neither size nor time as we once knew it. I could +leave her on a giant planet, a statue ten miles long for the +ages to marvel at. Or I could cast her adrift to make the +trillion-mile-long trip with the suns until the last +explosion when space will dissolve and be born again. So +give up now. Bother me no more. Space and its treasures are +mine for the taking, and I have waited too long.”</p> + +<p>Then the topaz globe twitched as a bubble vanishes. And it +was gone. Out there was nothing but the night.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Ato set a course for Aldebaran. His watch finished, Jack +Odin sat alone in the lounge and watched the star upon the +screen. It did not seem to be much larger. A single +brilliant jewel of flame that beckoned them on.</p> + +<p>Gunnar had long since gone to bed, grumbling that the way +order and military discipline were maintained aboard ship +they probably couldn’t whip their way out of a +child’s wading pool. Odin was thinking of all the +things that had happened to him since that night when Maya +and the dwarfs had brought the helpless Grim Hagen to the +old Odin homestead. Lord, how long had it been? Out here, +where time could not be measured, and perhaps did not exist +at all, it seemed futile to count the weeks and the months.</p> + +<p>He stared at the single star upon the screen until he was +half asleep. Behind it Maya’s face, outlined in black +curls, seemed to peer at him—and her pouting lips parted as +she smiled.</p> + +<p>He stared and shook his head. The dream-vision vanished from +the screen. Someone had entered the room.</p> + +<p>It was Nea. Dressed in slacks once more, she slouched over +to his chair and drew a hassock up beside it. As she looked +at him, Jack Odin saw that her eyes were +tired—tired—tired. As though they had not rested for +months.</p> + +<p>“You ought to be asleep,” he warned. “Now +that your work is finished—”</p> + +<p>“And is it finished?” she asked. “Is +anything ever finished?” Nea drooped upon the hassock. +Resting her chin upon her hands she looked up at the screen.</p> + +<p>“That is where we are going?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Ato is certain that Grim Hagen is headed for +Aldebaran,” Odin answered.</p> + +<p>“One star out of millions. What difference does it +make?”</p> + +<p>“You have been working too hard—”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Oh, damn!” she said angrily. “There is +more to the work than you and the others guessed. Now, we +are going to rescue a cousin of mine and to punish another +cousin. The old rat-race. Tell me why don’t people +just go sit in a corner and enjoy themselves. So far, we +have done nothing but increase our scurrying a +thousand-fold.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>He tried to make a joke of the matter. “You sound like +a beatnik.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps,” she answered slowly, still looking up +at the screen. “They considered my father +beat—dead-beat. But I know more of this science than you +do, Jack Odin. What if I told you there was little chance of +finding Maya. Or, if you found her, she might be an old, old +lady.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I’d say ‘Nuts.’ We would keep +on looking. But why such gloomy thoughts?”</p> + +<p>“You do not understand. Here, flashing through +Trans-Space, we are in another time. Oh, it goes by. But not +as the clocks of Opal. Once a ship slides out of here to a +planet it is caught in a web of time and space. The clocks +resume their old work of grinding the minutes and the hours +to bits. The black oxen of the sun take up their measured +march. Oh, I could show you the mathematical formula to +prove this, but it would take a blackboard larger than the +screen. Don’t you see! While we search through +Trans-Space, it is highly possible that Grim Hagen, Maya, +and all their crew are growing old on some planet that you +might never find.”</p> + +<p>Odin drew his hand across his face in dismay. “You +make all this sound like a mad voyage. Why, this is +insane!”</p> + +<p>“Check with Ato if you wish.” Her sad smile was +almost a sneer. “And men talk of going to the stars. +Where is the clock they will use? Where is their yardstick? +Where is the concept? Why, out there, for all you know, +Huckleberry Finn is still floating down the river, and +Macbeth walks through the halls of Dunsinane. And the last +man, in the year one-million AD, may be squatting over a +fire, watching his last stick of wood turn to ashes.”</p> + +<p>Lithely she got to her feet and reached a dial upon the +screen. The lone star vanished. A thousand pinpoints leaped +out.</p> + +<p>“There is but a segment,” she said, sitting back +upon the hassock again. “I have known Maya all my +life. I was the poor relation. I envied her, but I did not +hate her. And so with Grim Hagen. I should hate him, but I +remember him as a frustrated cousin who always ran second in +the races. And all that—even my father—seems far away and +long ago. Why do you bring love and hate with you out here +to the stars, Jack Odin?”</p> + +<p>“Because I am a man, I suppose.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<p>She sighed again. “There is much more to this +invention of mine that I showed you. Upon that screen there +must be ten thousand worlds. Let us pick one, you and I. We +can glide out of here at any time. And we can make that +world over as we please. We might even eat of the fruit of +life and become as gods—”</p> + +<p>As though it came from the dark corridor of the years, Jack +Odin seemed to hear the resounding echo of slow footsteps, +and a deep voice that thundered: “For I, thy God, am a +jealous God—”</p> + +<p>She had almost hypnotized him with her weary, earnest voice. +For a moment, it had seemed that all this frantic quest was +nothing. That it would be far, far better to find a home +with Nea and build a world of his own than to go on +searching the stars.</p> + +<p>Then he answered slowly, trying to measure his words, for he +did not want to hurt her feelings. “No, Nea. If I go +wandering forever, it will be no worse than my fathers did +before me. For a man is vagrant and restless. What he gets, +he loses. And if he is lucky, he can hold fast to his +dreams.”</p> + +<p>For a moment dark anger blazed in her eyes. Then they were +calm and sad again. She got to her feet, as though she were +very tired.</p> + +<p>She smiled. “If I followed all the books, I would make +a scene now. I have offered myself and a world to you and +have been refused. But I wish you and your dreams well, Jack +Odin.”</p> + +<p>She bent over him, and her lips brushed his. Faintly, like +the touch of a rose petal, and the perfume of her hair +seemed to fill the room.</p> + +<p>Then she was gone.</p> + +<p>Jack Odin sat there, looking long and long at the swarm of +stars upon the screen, thinking of the unseen worlds about +them—the worlds that he had just renounced.</p> + +<p>Until finally he got up and went to bed.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_10" id="CHAPTER_10"></a>CHAPTER 10</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">A</span>TO’S probing +instruments still pointed the way to +Aldebaran. In a surprisingly short time, the warning signals +were flashing and jingling throughout The Nebula. There was +that same sick feeling as it moved slower than the speed of +light.</p> + +<p>And there was a glowing sun with nine planets circling +stately about it. Slower The Nebula moved, and slower, until +the outermost planet sparkled in the light of its sun below +them. They swooped down.</p> + +<p>Not a single blast was fired at them. Every man was at his +post, while Ato guided them in, and Odin worked the screens.</p> + +<p>Once more, Jack was disappointed. He had looked forward to +some alien—even exotic—civilization. Here were fields and +streams. And there were cities—looking very much like the +cities of his world and of Opal.</p> + +<p>Those other worlds which he had seen had been blasted. So +there was no way of knowing how their cities had looked. But +these were too recognizable. He was certain that he had seen +several of the taller buildings before.</p> + +<p>Was space no more creative + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> + +than this? Had the worlds dedicated themselves to the same +monotonous pattern? He had caught a glimpse of conventional, +rocket-shaped spaceships, plying their courses back and +forth among the planets. He saw boats and cars and a few +long-nosed airplanes, with the merest trace of vestigial +wings far back near the +<ins title="the tail assembly of an aircraft">empennage</ins>, +streaking through the sky +in high arcs, leaving curling trails of fog and smoke behind +them. But there was little here that his world had not +already mastered—or at least had on the drawing board.</p> + +<p>The Nebula came to rest upon a bare plain not far from the +nearest city. As he turned to the scanner upon it, Odin saw +that while it looked familiar enough there was one exotic +thing about it. Toward the outskirts of the city, in the +bend of a wide river, was the Taj Mahal.</p> + +<p>He felt nearly as bewildered as he had been when Nea +explained her theories of the Time-Space Concept to him.</p> + +<p>They had hardly landed before one of Ato’s scientists +announced that there was good clean air outside. Oxygen and +nitrogen with good old water held as moisture within it.</p> + +<p>The city sat there upon the plain and stared at them. The +Nebula looked back.</p> + +<p>At length a procession of cars moved toward them.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen’s voice came thundering over the +loud-speakers.</p> + +<p>“A truce, Ato. I offer you a week’s truce in +return for a few meetings. This world has seen enough +destruction—”</p> + +<p>Gunnar and his crew leveled their death-gun at the advancing +party. Odin kept them on the screen. Ato and a few of his +captains got ready to disembark.</p> + +<p>As Odin watched, he kept puzzling over that voice. It +certainly was Grim Hagen’s. But it was different. +Perhaps it was a bit lower, a bit more commanding. But there +was just a bit of weariness in it. And the answer came to +him suddenly—although he never knew why.</p> + +<p>The voice was older!</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Then Grim Hagen and his staff were below The Nebula. They +were dressed in white and gold uniforms. That was not +surprising, either. Ato and his men advanced for a parley. +Odin watched and listened.</p> + +<p>At first he could not get a clear look at the man for +Ato’s broad shoulders. Then Ato turned aside, and Grim +Hagen’s head and shoulders filled the screen.</p> + +<p>Odin gasped in amazement. Grim Hagen was nearly twenty years +older than when he had seen him last.</p> + +<p>The shoulders and arms were larger although there appeared +to be little fat upon Grim Hagen. The dark hair was streaked +with gray. The face was seamed, and though the black eyes +still blazed they now burned with a fanatic hate and +desperation. Where pride and ambition had once made a face +coldly handsome, + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> + +there was now nothing but seamed lines like scars and +blazing eyes. It was an evil face. Grim Hagen had become a +devil.</p> + +<p>Hagen looked at the much younger Ato and laughed. “So, +the cub comes to fight with the tiger? Didn’t you +know? Didn’t you guess? While you came galloping after +me, I had already landed within this system. And time began +its old <ins title="Alnage was a system of taxation and quality control originally applied to the manufacture of cloth">alnage</ins>. +These were a peaceful people. We wrecked +them. We enslaved them and built the nine worlds in our own +fashion. Nearly nineteen years, Ato! No Caesar ever dreamed +of a larger kingdom. I even gave them a new goddess—for I +did not want them to do much thinking. Yonder.” He +pointed to the duplicate Taj Mahal in the distance. +“She sleeps. My only failure. No older. And sometimes +I go there and look at her, and my youth seems to walk +beside me—”</p> + +<p>“We want the people that you brought with you, Grim +Hagen,” Ato answered coldly. “And the +treasures.”</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen laughed again. “Those that came with me +willingly are dukes and kings beyond their wildest dreams. +Those who would not take oath to serve me are still slaves. +Except for Maya, who sleeps. As for the treasures, my +treasure houses are so full now that I doubt if I could +separate one thing from the other. So youth grows old. But +you must admit that this is better than cringing in a hole +in the ground—”</p> + +<p>“None of us cringed, unless it was you,” Ato +retorted angrily. “We have come beyond time and +space—for Maya and her friends—for the treasures—and for +you—”</p> + +<p>The mad light flamed in Grim Hagen’s eyes as he +laughed again. “You could not get a thousand feet into +the air unless I permitted it. Come, now, I have given a +week’s truce. Relax and enjoy yourselves. After all, +we are kinsmen in a far country.” He rubbed his chin +thoughtfully and repeated. “A far country.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Three days had passed since they had landed on Grim +Hagen’s planet. Ato, Gunnar, Odin, and a score of +others had gone into the city where they had been given +quarters in a palace that made Windsor look like a +second-class lodging.</p> + +<p>Odin and Gunnar shared a suite. As he dressed that morning, +Odin looked about him at the splendor. Every bit of woodwork +was hand-carved. The walls were covered with frescoes. The +chandeliers were jeweled masterpieces and the carpets were +thick crimson piles. The lace curtains must have ruined the +eyes and hands of a dozen women.</p> + +<p>He had heard that the planets of Aldebaran had been peopled +by a blond peaceful race who were on a par with the culture +of the Middle Ages when Grim Hagen arrived. Lord, how he +must have worked himself and + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> + +them to bring them this far along in nineteen years. There +was a peaceful air of prosperity about the planet; and +trade, he understood, was flourishing with the other worlds +of the system. But the people were no more than +slaves—beaten and cowed into submission. Oh, they +worked hard. But Odin wondered what had been their +punishment in years past for not working. There was +something in their eyes—a stunned, unhappy +look—that made him wonder what would happen some day +when they learned as much as their masters and turned upon +them. Moreover, he had been told that the planets were +over-crowded when Grim Hagen arrived. They did not seem so +now. How many graves throughout those nine planets were +dedicated to the conquerors?</p> + +<p>Only once had he seen one of them mistreated. That was at a +dinner the night before. The banquet hall had been a +combination of medieval, modern, and Brons’ splendor. +The dishes, the food, and the music had been superb. But a +fair-skinned girl had spilled a few drops of wine when she +was serving Grim Hagen. His face had grown dark. Half +arising from his high-backed chair at the head of the table, +he had doubled up his fist and struck her below the +cheek-bone. She reeled back, her face crimsoning from the +blow and the shame. The other servants pretended to see +nothing. But in the girl’s eyes and in the eyes of the +others he saw the old promise that had been written in the +eyes of slaves since time began: “Some Day! Some +Day!”</p> + +<p>Then, with perfect calm, Grim Hagen had sat down, wiping his +lips with a lacy napkin. “Pardon me, gentlemen, but +they have so much to learn in so short a time.” Then +he looked down the long table at Odin and could not resist +one gibe. “You don’t know how happy I was to +find that these planets were peopled by a light-skinned +race.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>That was all. True to his promise, Grim Hagen had given them +the run of the city. But there was always one of +Hagen’s men or some native in uniform to politely +assure them that there was little to see down the off +streets. The main squares were a tourist’s paradise. +Beautiful buildings—in all colors and styles, black marble +and silver. Tracings of gold. Clocks, bells, statues, +fountains. All the architecture of the world they had left, +with fine selections and matching, with daring +improvisations. And everything new. Odin had to admit that +the squares were beautiful. Some day this conquered race +might even owe a debt to Grim Hagen and his crew. But right +now they did not seem to be bubbling over. The natives were +polite—too meek for comfort. Some of the women were +beautiful; most of the men were too slight of build, almost +effeminate.</p> + +<p>But once Jack Odin and Gunnar + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> + +managed to stroll down a narrow street without anyone +noticing them. It was the cry of the birds that caused them +to turn aside into even a narrower one. So they came to a +little run-down park that looked old enough to have survived +the conquest. Then they saw the scaffoldings. And there were +twelve shapes hanging from ropes and meat-hooks. As they +neared, a flock of fat revolting-looking birds arose and +complained as they fluttered away.</p> + +<p>Gunnar and Odin had stood there looking up at the half-dried +mummies that swung slowly about and grimaced at the tiny +wind that perplexed them. The gibbets were spotted with +blood and filth. Flies swarmed about them.</p> + +<p>“So,” Gunnar remarked. “The leopard does +not change his spots. Grim Hagen still gives lessons to +these people. And knowing Grim Hagen I would say he is a +rough schoolmaster.”</p> + +<p>They did not stay long. And a guard opened his mouth in +surprise when he saw them entering the square from the dark, +little street.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Today Grim Hagen had invited them to another conference. +Gunnar and Odin dressed carefully. But Gunnar took a last +look at harness and sword as he complained: “He wants +something. And Grim Hagen can be mean when he doesn’t +get what he wants. We should have started wrecking this +world before we landed. The people would be no worse off. +And maybe we could have rid ourselves of a snake. Ato needs +a big drink of tiger milk—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, quit complaining, little giant. We still have +some bargaining power.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, our swords. This meeting reminds me of the +conference that a king once held to decide upon another +conference which would decide what the next conference would +be about. Bah!”</p> + +<p>“Quit worrying. One of us will kill Grim Hagen, sooner +or later.”</p> + +<p>But Gunnar went on with his complaining. “You had +better stay close to me, you understand, or you will be +hanging from one of Grim Hagen’s meat-hooks.”</p> + +<p>So they went to the conference. All of Ato’s men and +at least fifty of Grim Hagen’s were there. Contrary to +Gunnar’s prediction, Grim Hagen got to the point at +once.</p> + +<p>“Kinsmen,” he began mockingly. “You may +have wondered why I called a truce when I could just as well +have destroyed you—”</p> + +<p>“That I doubt,” Ato answered him. “We have +defensive weapons. Even now the guns from our ship are +trained upon the city.”</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen shrugged. “Let us not quibble, Ato. Your +father was a quibbler before you.”</p> + +<p>Ato flushed in anger.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p>Grim Hagen continued with an apologetic smile. +“I’m only joking. But I do know certain things. +Your father, Wolden, is a brilliant man, Ato.” He +bowed slightly as he admitted this. “From time to +time, as you hurtled through the star spaces, I picked up +scraps of conversation with my instruments. Also, I knew +something of what Wolden has been working on all these +years.”</p> + +<p>“Now, you’re quibbling,” Gunnar jeered. +“Get on with your speech, Grim Hagen.”</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen bowed to the broad-shouldered little man. +“Some day, Gunnar, I may have to kill you—”</p> + +<p>“Now. Now.” Gunnar urged, fairly jumping in +rage. “Just the two of us, Grim Hagen. Just the two of +us with bare hands—”</p> + +<p>“Not yet.” Grim Hagen sneered. “Now, I +will continue. From what I have learned, it appears that +Wolden’s work has been a success. It is possible for +men to master both time and space. I have mastered space, +but time is turning everything to dust and ashes. What good +is it to be an old emperor? No better than to be an old +herdsman.” Again he tossed a sneer in Gunnar’s +direction—</p> + +<p>“That’s easy,” Gunnar retorted. “The +old herdsman sleeps well at night.”</p> + +<p>“Bah. Who wants to sleep? Please quit interrupting, +Gunnar.”</p> + +<p>“Even before we came to Aldebaran,” Hagen went +on, “I was in contact with a dying world out there at +the edge of space. Those people are desperate. And they are +weary of life, having seen too much of it. They have agreed +to go with me. Why, this sun and these worlds are piddling +trifles. With that invention we could go from sun to sun. +Space would be ours to play with—”</p> + +<p>“Loki, the Mischief-Maker, running through +creation—” Gunnar muttered.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen may not have heard him for he continued in that +same desperate, pleading voice. “So here is my +proposition, Ato. Give me your father’s secret. In +return, I give you the treasures, the Old Ship, the +prisoners, and even Maya. Is not that complete +surrender?” He smiled disarmingly.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Ato stood tall and proud as he answered. His eyes were +blazing now, as he saw through Grim Hagen’s plan. +“So, you thought I would bargain away Wolden’s +secret, did you? Well, your surmises were wrong. When last I +saw him his work was not finished. I know so little about it +that I could tell you nothing of any value. But if I +did,” Ato’s voice was trembling in disgust. +“If I did, Hagen, would I turn you and your +hells’ spawn loose upon the stars to perplex them +forever?”</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen’s face was almost blue with rage. +“You have said enough. And there are other ways to +make you talk. Make these swine prisoners,” he +screamed.</p> + +<p>A dozen knives flashed. A dozen death-tubes were pointed +toward Ato and his followers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + +<p>But one of Grim Hagen’s lieutenants, a Bron who was +now silver-haired, intervened. “No, Grim Hagen. They +are under truce. The week is not yet up. I will not see you +go back on your own word—”</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen flamed. “You will die on the hook for +this—”</p> + +<p>“Maybe so. One thing is certain: I will die. And I can +face it. But you can’t, can you, Grim Hagen? You would +prefer to be some sort of eternal devil, working its fury +upon the stars. Now, where is the new thinking that you used +to preach? That dream is as old as the incantations beside +the cave-fires—”</p> + +<p>“Arrest them all,” Grim Hagen screamed. +“Arrest Rama too,” he added with rage.</p> + +<p>But the knives and swords were back in their holsters. The +guns were lowered. One by one his men filed out of the +council room. Grim Hagen’s face was so dark that Odin +feared a stroke. But with a curse at Ato and Odin, Hagen +lifted his chin high and followed his men from the room. +Only the one called Rama remained.</p> + +<p>“I will do what I can, Ato,” he said quietly. +“I was nearly fifty when we started this journey. And +we lived hard and fast. I am old now. I married one of the +slave-girls. We have children. Were it not for that, I would +go with you. But I am tired. God, I’m tired—”</p> + +<p>He saluted them as he went out the door.</p> + +<p>They never saw Rama again.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_11" id="CHAPTER_11"></a>CHAPTER 11</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">A</span>LTHOUGH Gunnar +had spent most of the past four days in +grumbling and polishing his sword, there had been hours and +hours when Odin had not seen him. The little man had a +secret, but what it was he would not tell. +“For,” he said to Odin, “then it would not +be my secret. It would be mine and yours, and I would own +but half of it. Does a man give half of his flocks +away?”</p> + +<p>Odin was a bit hurt over his friend’s behavior. He +even wondered if Gunnar had taken a liking to one of the +white-skinned slave-girls—for they were beautiful. Still, +that did not seem like Gunnar. But you could never tell. +After all, he found himself quoting, there’s no fool +like an old fool.</p> + +<p>Mixed up in this secret was a buckskin bag that Gunnar had +brought with him from the ship. When Odin had inquired about +it, Gunnar had replied: “Magic. A very old +magic.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>That too was not like Gunnar. He relied upon his sword, +since the Norse gods were usually busy with their own +affairs. Those gods ate their rejuvenating apples every day +and then went out like healthy boys to see what was +happening; and though they meant well they usually were +somewhere else when they were needed. Therefore, the use of +magic bags and incantations was a lot of foolishness. But +here was Gunnar fondling a tightly-drawn buckskin bag as +though it held eternity’s secrets.</p> + +<p>“You ought to get yourself a witch-doctor’s mask +and a couple of hollowbones to whistle through,” Odin +had told him scathingly.</p> + +<p>“Never mind. Never mind. Old Gunnar will be there when +they put out the fire and call the dogs. Now, you stay here +in this room, Odin. And don’t go looking after any of +these slave-girls. They are too pretty. And you are young. +After all, there’s no fool like a young fool. So +don’t go wandering off. Just stay here and polish your +sword and wait until I return. I think my magic will do a +great deal this afternoon.”</p> + +<p>“Touché!” Jack Odin thought as Gunnar departed. +“So he’s been worrying about me and the girls, +has he?”</p> + +<p>Odin polished his sword and looked at the paintings. But the +entire palace seemed to be whispering. An air of tension +hung over it. The halls were quiet, where servants usually +were busily going back and forth.</p> + +<p>Once he heard shouts and the sound of fighting far off. +There was a loud shot and a scream of pain. After that, the +unusual quiet returned.</p> + +<p>This was the sixth afternoon that he had spent on this +enslaved world. Odin did not enjoy it. He tried to make +plans to rescue Maya, but he had gone over those same plans +many times before. The Taj Mahal was well-guarded. There was +an unshaded road that went from the city to it. Also, the +road was usually crowded with pilgrims. He never knew +whether they went out there in some strong belief that here +was a goddess from outer space, or whether they were forced +to go. After all, Grim Hagen was clever—</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>He took a bath and changed clothes. Then Jack Odin read one +of those books that Grim Hagen had stolen. It was a first +edition of the Rubaiyat, the one with the jeweled peacock +cover, and it would have been worth a fortune back home. But +here it was just another of Grim Hagen’s treasures—it +was dusty and neglected, and Odin wondered if he were not +the first to take a look at it since Hagen had brought it +here.</p> + +<p>The windows were dark when Gunnar returned. Jack Odin sat by +a single tiny light, and greeted his old friend in a glum +and sour fashion. But Gunnar was in a gay mood.</p> + +<p>“Look, I told you that my magic would do great tricks. +See, the bag is nearly empty.” He held the buckskin +bag high and it was much thinner than before. “You +waited, did you? Good, Nors-King. I had to make sure that no +one came here while I was gone.”</p> + +<p>“Just myself,” Odin replied. “Now +what—”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Oh, I told you I had great magic in that bag. You +shall see.” Gunnar returned to the door, opened it, +and led a tall white-skinned slave into the room. A man of +about thirty dressed in white uniform with some sort of +insignia upon his shoulders. Odin had never bothered to +learn the different gradations in Grim Hagen’s +slave-world.</p> + +<p>“This man goes by the name of Piper,” Gunnar +announced simply.</p> + +<p>The man bowed and smiled nervously.</p> + +<p>“And he is a Bro-Stoka among the slaves,” Gunnar +continued.</p> + +<p>Odin was about to reply that he didn’t give a damn if +the man were a colonel or a two star general. But Gunnar +hurried on to explain. “A Stoka is a captain of a +hundred. But a Bro-Stoka is a captain over ten Stokas and +all their men. Not often does one advance so at an early +age—”</p> + +<p>Gunnar seemed to be buttering up the man for some reason or +other so Jack Odin decided to go along. “I have never +seen a Bro-Stoka so young,” he admitted. This was +true, Odin thought, since this was the first Bro-Stoka who +had ever been identified to him. And he wondered if maybe +Bro-Stoka were not a local term for “Ninety Day +Wonder.” God knows he had seen too many of them.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Gunnar seated himself comfortably and swung the nearly empty +bag to and fro. “Ah, I told you that I carried great +magic in the bag. With Piper’s help, Maya will be ours +before midnight.”</p> + +<p>Odin’s lethargy was gone now. “Gunnar, old +friend! What magic was in that bag of yours?”</p> + +<p>“The oldest magic in the world. Pieces of gold, +diamonds, and rubies. When we left the Nebula I said to +myself that if Grim Hagen owned everything here, it was +quite possible that many would be eating very little. +Knowing Grim Hagen, I said to myself, there will be a mad +scramble for money and position. It would be the only kind +of a world that Grim Hagen could fashion.”</p> + +<p>Odin slapped him on the back. “Gunnar, you are a +genius, a sheer genius.”</p> + +<p>“Not at all. When I was a young man I learned such +strategy from studying the world above me.”</p> + +<p>Odin winced.</p> + +<p>Gunnar continued. “Well, it has turned out even as I +figured. Only more so. When traveling in far countries you +should try to learn how the people live, Odin. It is +enlightening. I had an old uncle who always said that travel +broadens one. It must have, for he weighed nearly +two-hundred when he died.”</p> + +<p>“Please, Gunnar. When will we see Maya—”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<p>“So, I have been working ever since we arrived. A +jewel here. A bit of gold there. It is amazing how a diamond +can make a man see just what you tell him to see. Much +better than ordinary glasses. Then I found Piper here. And +Piper is ambitious. Do you know what it costs to become +head-man and chief tax-gatherer of a town of five-thousand, +Odin?”</p> + +<p>“Gunnar, I know nothing of these matters. Tell me +about Maya—”</p> + +<p>“Well, Piper has been paid. The town will be his if +our plan works out tonight. Otherwise, I will twist his +neck.” And Gunnar paused to scowl at the young man in +the white uniform until poor Piper began sweating.</p> + +<p>“Many others have been paid. They are to stay away +from their posts. They will see nothing and hear nothing at +certain times tonight. Here, hand me your book.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Odin obliged and Gunnar produced a ragged bit of pencil and +started drawing a map upon the fly-leaf. “Here,” +he said, “is the city. And here is the river. Now, if +you remember, there is a deep bend in the river, and this +tomb that Grim Hagen has built is within the bend of the +river. There is a good road that goes from the city to the +tomb, but it is guarded. The Nebula is on the other side of +the bend. So the answer is quite simple. We go up the river. +Piper has a boat waiting for us—”</p> + +<p>“I have already paid many and have sworn them to +silence,” Piper interrupted. “But it will be a +dangerous business. I would not dare it at all except that +it will be five years before I am eligible for tax-gatherer, +and the waiting is killing me. A city of my own—”</p> + +<p>Piper, Jack Odin gathered, was a very ambitious man.</p> + +<p>The boat moved up-river in darkness. There were beacons +upon the shore, turning this way and that, but they seemed +to be trained a bit high this night.</p> + +<p>Once a motor-boat passed them, going at a fast clip, and +somebody called out that he saw a shadow over toward the far +side of the river. And another voice answered. +“You’re always seeing things. A log, maybe. +Didn’t I tell you that I found some money in the +street? And aren’t we going to have the best meal that +money can buy? Do you want to stay here with an empty belly +on this cold river all night? Our watch is nearly over. +I’m tired. Let’s get along—”</p> + +<p>Later, some one hailed them from the bank and threatened to +shoot if they did not pull in. Then there was a loud scream +that died in a weltering gurgle. They heard a splash as +something hit the water—and then all was still. They +waited. A peculiar little whistle sounded three notes from +the darkness.</p> + +<p>As though reassured, Piper took up his oars.</p> + +<p>“That was the last guard,” Gunnar whispered. +“It took a ruby the size of a sparrow’s egg to +get him killed. Oh, well, blame Grim Hagen. He +shouldn’t have gouged these people so hard—” +And then, to Piper: “You’re bright enough, I +guess, but you don’t know how to row a boat. Give me +the oars.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> + +<p>He took them and slid them into their hole-pins. +“Now, give Gunnar room.” He bowed his broad +head, leaning forward almost to his toes. Then he dug the +oars into the water and straightened up and bent backward +like a machine. Noiselessly the oars came up again. He bent +forward and dipped them into the river again. And as he +worked faster he began to count to himself in a panting +whisper: “Huh—huh—huh—huf!”</p> + +<p>The boat streaked across the river’s surface like a +water-bug.</p> + +<p>At last they slid into some thick cat-tails. Gunnar got a +hand-hold and propelled them forward until the prow grounded +in the shallows.</p> + +<p>“This is as far as I can go,” Piper told them in +a sweating voice. “Over there is the tomb.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Odin and Gunnar scrambled ashore. Piper pushed the boat back +into the river and was gone. Three thin sickles of moons +were cleaving their way across the sky. A few unfamiliar +stars were out. There was enough light now for them to see +Maya’s tomb not far away. It seemed to be fashioned of +moonbeams. It was such a perfect copy of the Taj Mahal that +here both death and sleep were brothers—and a nirvana of +peace hung over it in an aura of silver light.</p> + +<p>“That Piper is a smart lad,” Gunnar whispered. +“He knows what he wants. He’ll go +far—maybe.”</p> + +<p>They approached. Odin knew that four guards were stationed +here at all times. They were all gone. The two went in, +Gunnar turned on a little flash.</p> + +<p>Had there been time, Odin might have grudgingly given Grim +Hagen a few kind words for the work he had done and the +tribute he had paid Maya. The best of a planet’s +treasures and art had been brought here. But all he could +see was Maya, lying upon a golden, diamond-set couch. A silk +embroidered coverlet was drawn over her, and it too seemed +to have been spun from moonbeams. She looked no older. Odin +could see no sign of breath. But he touched her hand and it +was warm. He knelt beside her.</p> + +<p>“Here,” Gunnar handed him the light. “Hold +this while I get busy. Here now, Nors-King. No +blubbering.”</p> + +<p>He opened his buckskin bag and took out the last of its +treasures—a small hypodermic case. He filled the hypodermic +from a little vial that glittered in the light of the lamp. +“Turn the light upon her forearm, now,” he +instructed.</p> + +<p>Gunnar slowly counted to sixty after he had given her the +shot. Maya’s breasts moved. She sighed and raised a +hand to her dark curls. Then her eyes opened—in fear and +wonder as a child opens its eyes in a strange place.</p> + +<p>Then her vision cleared and she recognized them.</p> + +<p>“Jack—Gunnar—” she gasped. Then she was in +Odin’s arms. And Gunnar, the strong one, was standing +over them—sniffling.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was one of those moments that seem to last forever. And +then it was over and she drew her hand through his light +hair, “What happened? Where are we? I dreamed the +strangest dreams.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind,” Odin comforted. “We will +explain later. Can you walk now?”</p> + +<p>“Walk? Of course I can walk.” But when Maya +tried to sit up, she moaned in pain. “My whole body is +stiff and sore. Have I been sick?”</p> + +<p>Odin helped her to her feet. As he did so, hundreds of +precious stones that had been heaped upon the couch rolled +unnoticed to the floor.</p> + +<p>Maya winced as she stood up. Reaching down, she rubbed the +calves of her legs and then stood straight with a little +gasp of pain.</p> + +<p>“Carry her, Nors-King,” Gunnar muttered. +“The night grows old and we must make our way to the +Nebula.”</p> + +<p>Odin lifted her easily. She put her arms around his neck and +clung to him. The perfume of her hair was as faint as the +ghost of autumn flowers. Her breath was warm and caressing +against his throat.</p> + +<p>Then the mausoleum turned into a blinding glare of lights. +Gunnar dropped the flash and his broadsword shrieked against +the scabbard as he drew it. Odin set Maya’s feet upon +the floor. Still holding her with one arm, he drew his sword +and made ready to stand beside Gunnar.</p> + +<p>A dozen cloaked figures came into the room. The first was +Grim Hagen, smiling sardonically. The others were Brons. The +last to enter was carrying poor Piper’s dripping head +by a handful of hair.</p> + +<p>“So.” Grim Hagen bowed. “The Princess +awakens. And here is Prince Charming. And here is the last +Neebling that I shall ever kill. I would like to kill you +very slowly, but I am afraid I do not have time. Hell is +bubbling over in that fair city of mine tonight. I thought I +paid my captains well, but some of them wanted more. Or they +wanted what I could not give them. It doesn’t matter. +Let them fight it out. We have the Old Ship with the New +Drive. Out there at the edge of space a desperate people are +waiting for me. And now I have Maya. Gunnar, that was a mean +trick. You used the science that your people stole from us +to cheat me of my bride and my slave.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Gunnar had heard enough. The huge sword flashed in a circle +as he swung it above his head with both hands. A Bron +stepped forward and Gunnar slashed him from shoulder to +stomach-pit.</p> + +<p>Odin thrust Maya to the couch as he came forward to help.</p> + +<p>But Grim Hagen had merely stepped back. Now he was holding a +deadly little tube in his hand. A cold light winked on and +off. Odin felt his muscles harden as though a hundred +charley-horses had struck him at once. + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> + +He froze, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Gunnar +standing like a statue, his sword still upraised, a look of +agony upon his face.</p> + +<p>“One more flash and you will be dead.” Grim +Hagen mocked. “But before you plunge into the night, +remember that I watched you so I could get Maya back. You +were not clever at all, Gunnar. Ato can have these worlds if +he wants them. I have the ship and Maya. And space is mine +to ravage as I please.”</p> + +<p>Then, at last, while Maya watched with fear-struck eyes, the +tube flashed once more. Gunnar and Odin stood there for a +second. They fell like unbalanced things of stone.</p> + +<p>A Bron stepped forward and drew his sword. But Grim Hagen +waved him aside as he bent over the two silent forms. +“Put up your sword,” he said quietly. +“They are dead.”</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_12" id="CHAPTER_12"></a>CHAPTER 12</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">H</span>E HAD been drowned. +He was floating in a sea of light, and +now and then shining little fishes swam inquisitively up to +him and stared. They would look at him with wide, cold eyes +and then dart off into space, leaving a flashing wake behind +them. They hurtled through the murky light like shooting +stars. And once two of them dashed together and burst like a +rocket. The sparks came falling down through a billion miles +of space, and as they fell they built up planets and +systems of their own. Until a dark coil that had the shape +of a dragon slithered across the milky way and began to +devour them one by one. The sparks disappeared into its dark +maw. Then it turned about and came snuffling the air as it +looked for him. It found him and buried its long fangs in +the back of his skull.</p> + +<p>Jack Odin groaned in pain and awoke. The pain hit him again +and he thrust out with his arms. But strong hands were +holding him down.</p> + +<p>He became conscious of a buzzing, murmuring sound. It was +neither sad nor glad. Something like the sound that the last +bee of autumn makes as it hovers above the last ball of +clover.</p> + +<p>Something was falling across the back of his neck and +spreading out across his shoulders. Like a woman’s +hair, he thought. Perhaps it was a bit coarser. But not +much. But then, just as the strange soothing feeling was +putting him back to sleep, the hairs changed their soft +caress and a dozen of them plunged into his spinal cord and +upward into that small old-brain where all the bogies of the +stone age still cowered.</p> + +<p>Odin yelled in pain and fought. But the hands held him +tight. In his ears he could hear someone else screaming and +cursing—threatening all sorts of vengeance. The voice was +Gunnar’s.</p> + +<p>Three times more the soft mane of hair caressed him and +three times more just as he was + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> + +getting ready to go back to sleep the torture began. And all +the while he was lying upon his belly, his face thrust into +a pillow. He could see little as he writhed from one side to +the other. The hands held him securely. And once when he +almost struggled clear, a strong knee was thrust into his +back and forced him down.</p> + +<p>At intervals, he could hear Gunnar’s voice—and his +own—crying, pleading, threatening.</p> + +<p>Then at last it was over. The hands turned Odin upon his +back and he lay there, gasping and hurting, like one who has +just come up from deep water.</p> + +<p>The lights were so bright that at first he could see +nothing. Then his vision cleared and he knew where he +was—in the surgery room of the Nebula.</p> + +<p>Ato was standing nearby, trying to reassure him. Beside Odin +on another bed was Gunnar, lying flat on his back and +stripped to the waist. Gunnar was howling curses and kicking +like a frog.</p> + +<p>A doctor and a nurse were there. And completing the group +was Nea holding a round object in each hand—round things +with unkempt, trailing hair. He was not completely +conscious—and for a second she looked like a high priestess +of the Amazon, holding two mummified heads before her—</p> + +<p>The pain left him. His mind cleared and he lay there gasping +from the ordeal.</p> + +<p>Ato and Nea smiled at them. So cheerfully that he almost +expected them to write out a bill for surgical fees.</p> + +<p>“God, that was a close one,” Ato said, and wiped +his forehead. “Five hours of it. And it was touch and +go all the time.”</p> + +<p>“What happened?” Odin asked. He remembered +something about a glittering tomb and Maya awakening from +her long sleep and Grim Hagen. He even remembered the Bron +carelessly swinging Piper’s head by the hair. But +these were mere scenes that flashed before his mind. He +could not fit them together, as yet.</p> + +<p>“Tell him, Nea,” Ato said.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>She smiled proudly. “It was my invention that saved +you. You see, I have two of them now. I told you that they +are as near as we can get to making living things. And I +also told you that there is much more to them than you saw. +They are destroyers and they are builders. We found you +dead—or nearly so. Hagen had sent volt after volt through +your bodies. You were electrocuted.”</p> + +<p>“We hurried you back to the ship. And all this time, +while Ato steered us back into space, the Kalis and I—for +that is what I have decided to call them—have been working +over you. You might say that we are master electronicians, +rebuilding circuits, repairing transistors and +condensers—”</p> + +<p>“You were plenty rough,” Gunnar grumbled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>“We had to be. Do you remember a story about the +bush-men dying from a curse? Here.” She held her two +precious Kalis in one arm while she tapped the base of her +skull. “In here is a bulb, the old brain, not even an +idiot’s brain, that brought you up from the jungle. It +is a simple, worrying brain. Easily frightened. Easily +convinced. It was convinced that you were dead. We had to +arouse it.”</p> + +<p>Odin fancied that he could hear the two Kalis purring +contentedly like cats. Well, they had done a good job. Let +them purr. He would like to have thanked them, but how can +you thank two bowling balls with scalps of cat’s +whisker wire?</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Gunnar sat up and began grumbling anew: “Well, thanks. +Now, get me some clothes. Freida would not like it if I sat +here half-undressed before a young lady. And tell me where +we are?”</p> + +<p>It was Ato’s turn to talk. “I threw The Nebula +into the Fourth Drive some time ago. That may have helped to +save your lives too. We should check on that, Nea.”</p> + +<p>“Will you please tell me where we are?” Gunnar +demanded.</p> + +<p>“Give me time, little man,” Ato retorted. +“We are back in Trans-Einsteinian space, and Aldebaran +and its worlds are far behind us. Ahead of us is Grim Hagen +and the Old Ship. Maya is with him. So are at least a +hundred of the white-skinned captains from the planet we +just left. Also, a dozen Brons. Maybe more, but not many. +What we saw at the council that day when Rama defied Grim +Hagen was just a sample of what was to follow. The people +were bled white. Graft, corruption, and patronage had taken +its toll. Some of the Brons were older and wanted to rest. +But injustice couldn’t stop until the last tear had +washed away the last drop of blood. A few of the Brons and +most of the slaves revolted. They won, of course. Grim Hagen +should have known the result. He and his men were in flight +when they found you and took Maya. They gathered at the Old +Ship and took off. Meanwhile, we fought our way out of the +city. We decided to have one last try for Maya. But we found +you two and a dead Bron and the head of a native. We brought +you here and took off. All this time I have had a fix on +Hagen.”</p> + +<p>“Can’t we overtake him?” Odin asked.</p> + +<p>“We are trying to. He seems to be heading for a huge +dust-cloud. He also sent us a message. Some nonsense about +having contacted some race at the edge of creation who would +go with him to plunder the stars. He demanded the secret of +Wolden’s invention again. I think his mind is going +fast.”</p> + +<p>“Not as fast as he will go if I ever get my hands on +him,” Gunnar promised.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>“But Maya is awake now,” Ato explained. +“We had time on our side before. Now, if he gets away +from us he can live out his days on some obscure planet. The +years will pass like a whirlwind—while we go dashing this +way and that, and in a surprisingly short time our willing +and unwilling fugitives will have lived out their lives. +They have the vagaries of time, space, and speed upon their +side.”</p> + +<p>Nea laughed. “Even as I said before.” She gave +Jack Odin a searching look, but Odin avoided her gaze—</p> + +<p>“Then, what have you done?” Odin asked.</p> + +<p>“All that I could do under the circumstances. I have a +fix upon him. We sapped all the energy from Aldebaran that +we could. We have power enough, but there are no stars +nearby. As I said before, he is heading for a dust-cloud. +There, both ships can replenish their energy. After that we +will have to stick close by him and see what happens. After +all, we are behind him. By the old Airmen’s rule of +thumb, a ship with another upon its tail is a hundred +percent loss.”</p> + +<p>“Only at that moment,” Odin corrected. “If +not destroyed, it has a chance to improve its percentage +when the pursuer has made its pass.”</p> + +<p>“True enough,” Ato admitted. “That is why +I propose to stay close behind it. I can’t seem to +find that dust cloud on any map. It must be far, far +away.”</p> + +<p>Nea laughed again. “What is far? What is near? You do +not even have catch-words for Trans-Space. You are looking +into the books of the advanced classes, and you have not yet +opened the primers of space.”</p> + +<p>Ato flushed in anger. “Nea, I was my father’s +helper for years and years. I know as much about space as +any man.”</p> + +<p>She shrugged. “Oh, you can cover blackboards with +formulas, and I don’t doubt that they will be right. +But living things and living emotions demand something to +cling to. A measuring stick. Grim Hagen tried to give them +something substantial back there: A system of brutality and +graft that worked for the last-minute Caesars. He even threw +in a goddess. Did he succeed?”</p> + +<p>She paused to caress the two things she held in her arms. +“My pets know more about time and space and energy +than all of you, don’t you, dears?” She kissed +one of them and gave Odin a mysterious smile.</p> + +<p>The Kalis began purring contentedly, as though space were no +more than a huge living room, and they were beside a +comfortable fireplace, looking up at their all-powerful +mistress.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_13" id="CHAPTER_13"></a>CHAPTER 13</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">T</span>HE dust-cloud was +farther away than Ato had guessed. Long +before they reached it, his instruments began to waver.</p> + +<p>He looked at a star-map. Meanwhile, Nea fed rows of figures +into a humming calculator.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p>“We’ll never make it this way,” Ato said. +“Not even the emergency storage would help us. +Here,” he pointed to a pinpoint of light upon the map. +“A white star. We can reach it, I think.”</p> + +<p>Nea sighed. “That dust-cloud is beyond our +calculations. We should be nearly there, but it’s +still far-off. I think it is shrinking and expanding. At the +same time it’s dashing off into space at a terrific +rate of speed. You’ll have to swing toward that star, +Ato. I’ll try to probe the cloud some more. My father +would have liked this problem—”</p> + +<p>“I don’t like the problem at all—” Gunnar +complained. “Just where is Grim Hagen?”</p> + +<p>“He must be having as much trouble beating his way to +that dust-cloud as we are,” Ato assured him. And then, +doubtfully, he added. “But he has more energy. The Old +Space Ship was sitting there below Aldebaran for years and +years. He surely took advantage of the time to replenish his +fuel. All the while, we were using ours up in an effort to +find him.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Jack Odin’s science did not go far enough to pursue +the conversation. He knew that their power was something +like a solar battery. When in gear, the current that went +through the “frame” of the hour-glass-shaped +craft turned it into a huge blob of plasma, a miniature +nebula, and hurled it into space. As for the Fourth Drive, +he hadn’t the slightest idea how it worked. Ato had +said that the scientists who developed it were not +sure—just as men had developed generators long before they +knew the laws that governed them. Ato had a theory that the +Fourth Gear slid the ship from plane to plane. If a bug were +crawling along a million mile spiral of wire, he might go on +until he died before getting anywhere—but if he simply +lumbered across the intervening space to the next coil, +would he have traveled a short distance, or a million miles? +Ato had also told Odin that the ship took energy from the +gravitational field that it created when traveling at +tremendous speeds, so that the motors were 99% efficient.</p> + +<p>Ato set a course for the distant star, and in a short while +it was looming upon the screen with sheets of atomic flame +leaping out like the teeth of a circular saw. One huge +explosion flicked a long tongue of heat at them. The corona +of the sun gleamed and writhed like a thin band of +quicksilver.</p> + +<p>“We’re going in there,” Ato decided. +“It’s the quickest way.”</p> + +<p>Warnings were sounded all through the ship. The screens were +turned off now, as no eye could have survived the sight of +that flaming ball which was rushing toward them at such +extraordinary speed.</p> + +<p>The ship groaned as it hit the corona. Vast whirlwinds of +flame shook it. The motors coughed and spat. Then the +gyroscopes took over. It steadied itself and went through. +Like a moth fluttering through a candle-flame, The Nebula +drew away from the star. But this moth was unharmed—and a +million cells had drunk so much + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> + +energy that the ship reeled with its power.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>On and on. In zig-zag pursuit of Grim Hagen, they crashed +through Trans-Space. The dust-cloud loomed larger now upon +their screens. It was still no larger than a baseball, +though it must have been millions of miles across.</p> + +<p>Three times they had to sweep from their course to renew +their energy from straggling suns that seemed to be farther +and farther apart. The first was a tiny blue sun that burned +its way through the emptiness. The second was a huge nebula +that pulsed and spouted flame and protean worlds into +space—enveloped them again as it breathed, scared them, and +cast them out once more. And Odin wondered if in such a +furnace and such torment his own world had been born. He had +now seen as much of space as any man, with the exception of +Grim Hagen, and so far it had been a tumultuous creation +that he had watched. Nothing was still. The forges of space +were white-hot. As they sped toward this sun, they passed +two planets, perilously close together, pelting each other +with splashing gobs and spears of flame and slag. The third +was a red sun with lonely burned-out planets circling +wearily about it. As they skimmed above its surface Odin +slid a dark plate over the screen and watched. Here were +molten lakes of metal rimmed by red flames that looked like +writhing trees. The surface was splitting and bubbling. A +mountain of molten ooze swiftly grew to a height of thirty +miles. Then it burst into red flame from its own weight and +came toppling down.</p> + +<p>As they hurled away from the red star, Ato turned to Odin +and Gunnar and said: “I’m afraid that will be +the last. Even the stars are behind us—”</p> + +<p>The screens now showed nothing but the dust-cloud, with +specks of light and coils of darkness threaded through it. +It loomed larger and larger until it filled the screen.</p> + +<p>“Ragnarok,” Gunnar growled in his throat. He +adjusted the shoulder strap that harnessed his broadsword to +his back and looked at Odin curiously.</p> + +<p>“You should have rest, Nors-King. You look gaunt and +tired—but stronger too. I wonder if I have changed as much +as you since we started this trip. Eh, Nors-King,” he +chuckled, “if you had but one eye, I would swear that +you were old Odin himself, rushing out to the edge of space +to start that last bonfire of suns.”</p> + +<p>“Quiet,” Nea pleaded as she worked with the +calculator. “So far this has defied computation. +It’s unstable, Ato. Before I can identify it, a factor +is added or taken away.”</p> + +<p>“Grim Hagen went in there,” Ato replied as he +studied his instruments. “If he can, we can.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Perhaps,” she answered. “But space out +there is curdling in his wake.” She shivered. +Nea’s shoulders were beautifully shaped, and Odin +found himself thinking that they were made for a man’s +arms instead of bending over calculators and machines.</p> + +<p>“Oh, well!” he thought. “They are not for +my arms, but why doesn’t Ato wake up and claim her? +Then there wouldn’t be distractions like this—”</p> + +<p>With one warning blare, The Nebula plunged into the fringe +of the dust-cloud.</p> + +<p>The boat rocked. A spattering sound like the falling of +heavy sleet filled the control room. Needles jumped and +wheeled. Dials turned madly, spun back and forth, and +jammed.</p> + +<p>The lights flickered on and off. For a time they were in +darkness. Then the lights came back, but continued their +flickering. The screens were dark.</p> + +<p>Nea worked with the instruments. When power enough was +available she began probing the dust-cloud as though nothing +had happened. Then she fed more figures into the calculator +and handed the result to Ato.</p> + +<p>“Try this,” she said in a tremulous voice. +“It may work.”</p> + +<p>Ato took the tape from her hands and set the controls +accordingly.</p> + +<p>The lights dimmed again—came on—and remained steady. The +expanses of dim yellow light through which coils and +ellipses of darkness crawled like black worms.</p> + +<p>Odin knew that such a feeling was impossible out here, but +it seemed to him that The Nebula leaped forward.</p> + +<p>Ato cried out in triumph. “I’ve got another fix +on Grim Hagen. He’s much nearer now.”</p> + +<p>“Hurry, Ato. Hurry,” Nea was pleading.</p> + +<p>They drove on and on. The screens remained as before. Yellow +light and crawling shadows. Then, suddenly, the screens were +filled with dancing circles of flame. They blazed brightly, +and thrust out little fiery arms and took their +neighbors’ hands. They danced. They gleamed and +glistened. They became circles of flame. They grew toward +each other and ran together into little puddles of light.</p> + +<p>“Ato. Hurry,” Nea screamed. One of her +instruments melted as she stared into it and she jumped +back, her hands to her eyes—</p> + +<p>Then they were out of the cloud, and space lay empty and +free before them, with only one tiny sun in view.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Jack Odin twisted the controls to take a look at what was +happening back there in the cloud.</p> + +<p>Just as he got it in view, the moiling space out there +coalesced into one smoldering ember. Crushed by the awful +weight, that single giant of flame suddenly burst into a +thousand pieces. Comets streaked away. Dripping suns +streamed across the mad sky. Worlds spewed out—and moons +dripped tears of light as they followed after their mothers. +They crashed and wheeled. They merged in gigantic splashes +of fire. Pinwheels + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> + +rushed across the screen. Rockets flashed. And fountains of +flame spilled sun after sun into the sparkling void. Odin +stood transfixed by the sight.</p> + +<p>Then, momentarily, the holocaust of flame was over. New suns +and new worlds drifted calmly, with only a few erratic +meteors and some settling dust-clouds left to tell of the +explosion that had shaped them.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>All was as bright and calm out there as the day after +creation. But only for a while. For a very short time the +new suns sparkled clean and fresh. Then one by one they +guttered and winked out. They drew closer together as though +afraid of the dark. Then smoldered and flickered. Then they +were gone. And all that was left was one dark cloud that +slowly drifted away.</p> + +<p>“It was an artificial explosion,” Nea murmured +in a puzzled voice. “Grim Hagen’s ship and ours +destroyed the balance and caused a premature burst. There +must be some law—some time and weight factor that governs +these things. I would judge that the explosion was not +violent enough.”</p> + +<p>“Not violent enough,” Odin exclaimed. “How +violent can an explosion be?”</p> + +<p>Her eyes were still wide and creamy with wonder when she +replied. “I don’t know. Something went wrong. +Relatively speaking, it may have been a mild explosion. At +any rate, that new galaxy was unstable. I wish we had time +to go back and make some tests—”</p> + +<p>Gunnar shivered. “Not back there. I have seen enough. +Now, Ato, what lies ahead?”</p> + +<p>Ato shrugged his lean shoulders. “I still have a fix +on Grim Hagen. And there seems to be but one place for him +to go.”</p> + +<p>He turned a dial and the screens picked up one lone red sun +far away. One tiny black dot slowly circled it.</p> + +<p>That was all. Space itself was wrapped in primeval darkness. +And the sable wings of nothingness spanned the void. +Odin’s eyes ached at sight of the awful emptiness. His +heart felt heavy as the weight of dread distances pressed +upon him. Could space itself reach some limit and curve +wearily back upon itself? Like folds of black silk, the +emptiness out there shimmered and flowed away—</p> + +<p>One other speck now appeared upon the screen. A pinpoint of +light that crawled toward the lone sun and its single huge +planet.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen and the Old Ship!</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Time, if time existed at all, went slowly by. They ate and +slept. Nea and her workers were busy with the Kalis, as she +called them. Four were now finished. A fifth had been +fashioned, but Nea had sent it through the locks into space +and it had been lost. It had simply sailed out there and +disappeared.</p> + +<p>“Sunk from sight,” were Gunnar’s words, +and this explained + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> + +the disappearance as well as anything. It was as though they +had been on a boat and the thing had dived overboard.</p> + +<p>Nea, who had been trained to scientific thinking since she +was knee-high, had to think up an answer. Her explanation +was that it had slid down a plane into three-dimensional +space. Even now, it might be on some planet, puzzling and +worrying the natives. For the Kalis were almost like living +things—and almost like gods.</p> + +<p>That was like Nea, Odin thought. A scientist, always. +Anything unexplainable must be immediately attached to a +theory—whether the theory were right or wrong. Just as long +as there was an explanation to hang upon a phenomenon she +was happy enough. She might blithely think up a new theory +tomorrow and throw the old one away, but that was of no +consequence. Odin had grown skeptical of such thinking when +he was a medical student. Each doctor had his own pet +diagnosis—and too many tried to fit the patient to the cure +instead of working out a cure for the patient. Oh, well, +that was far away and long ago.</p> + +<p>How far away and how long ago!</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Meanwhile, the red sun and its planet were looming large +upon the screen. The shining light that was the Old Ship was +crawling nearer to them. Twice Grim Hagen had hurled sheets +of flame at them. And once he contacted The Nebula on the +speaker—and cursed everyone fluently in three languages. He +assured them that he now had a fighting crew and would soon +join up with others. He had a dozen new weapons. So why +didn’t they simply get lost?</p> + +<p>Sleep after sleep went by and still the two ships crawled +toward that last port on the edge of space.</p> + +<p>Until, finally, they saw the Old Ship leave Trans-Space and +glide down to the huge planet. And with a last burst of +speed, Ato came in behind it.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_14" id="CHAPTER_14"></a>CHAPTER 14</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">T</span>HE two ships +landed a few miles apart at almost the same time.</p> + +<p>They settled to the plane’s surface like whirling +hour-glasses. Fire spouted from them in all directions. Then +their movement stopped. Smoke shrouded them and slowly +drifted away.</p> + +<p>They were upon a reddish plain. Above them, the red sun +filled a twelfth of the sky. That sky was one vast swirl of +crimson. Even the few clouds seemed to be on fire. And yet +their instruments showed that the temperature of the thin +air outside was in the sixties.</p> + +<p>There were no mountains or valleys. The giant planet had +weathered down to one great curving plain. It was mostly red +sandstone, but here and there were reddish carpets of moss +and grass. In the distance were a few gaunt trees. They had +seen no + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> + +rivers or seas before they landed. Odin learned later that +there were many muddy ponds left upon the surface from the +remains of stagnant seas. He also learned later that huge +reservoirs were underground.</p> + +<p>With the exception of the trees, the only thing that broke +the monotonous line of the horizon was one great dome of +violet stone or metal. It flashed like an amethyst in the +red glare of the sun—and it was certainly man-made.</p> + +<p>But on that occasion Jack Odin had little time to look at +the scenery. They had hardly settled to the planet’s +surface before Grim Hagen trained his guns upon them and +began to fire. Flame enveloped them. Bombs of acid and steel +shook The Nebula. The battle-stations were already manned, +and Ato gave orders to return fire. For nearly an hour, the +holocaust continued. Both ships rocked upon their steady +foundations. They were bathed in flame, acid streamed down +their sides, and rockets tore at them. Shells burst upon +them. And then it was over.</p> + +<p>The two ships, scarred and blackened; glared at each other +across a three-mile expanse that had now turned to cinders. +And that was all. Practically indestructible, and evenly +matched, they had fought to a standstill. Neither ship had +lost a man.</p> + +<p>“See how it is, Nors-King?” Gunnar said as he +drew his fingers across the shaft of his sword. “It is +as I told you before. We have the same weapons. The same +defenses. I will use the Blood-Drinkers yet, before this is +over.”</p> + +<p>There was a demanding buzz from the loudspeaker.</p> + +<p>Ato turned the dial. A strange, harsh voice was calling. +“You there, on the Second ship. You on the second +ship. Answer.”</p> + +<p>“Yes!” Ato replied gruffly. “Who are +you?”</p> + +<p>“I am the head man of the city—the city within the +dome.”</p> + +<p>“How did you know our language?”</p> + +<p>“We have known it for thirty years. For that long have +we been in contact with Grim Hagen.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Jack Odin was never quite able to cope with the passing of +time on these planets, while the ships scurried through +Trans-Space in what appeared to be a matter of a few days.</p> + +<p>The voice continued. “We invited Grim Hagen to our +world. We did not invite you. Go away.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t think I like his tone,” Gunnar +interrupted. “Some day I will catch the owner of that +voice and make him eat his ears.”</p> + +<p>“We are not going away,” Ato told the voice +stubbornly.</p> + +<p>“Then you can stay where you are. We have just +witnessed the battle. We do not have weapons such as yours. +But we do have a defense. An electric screen nearly half a +mile across has been placed about you. Watch.”</p> + +<p>They looked at the screen, and a tiny drone-torpedo came +winging + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> + +its way from the violet dome. It came to within a thousand +yards of them and suddenly crashed into an unseen barrier. +Broken and blazing, it came falling down like a crippled +bird.</p> + +<p>“There,” the voice said triumphantly. +“That is what will happen to you. Why don’t you +leave us? You are not wanted. Leave us.”</p> + +<p>“Faith, he’s a hospitable soul,” Odin +murmured.</p> + +<p>Ato’s voice was shaking in wrath when he answered. +“We can find a way to smash that curtain. We want Grim +Hagen and his prisoners. When we have them we will +depart.”</p> + +<p>“Grim Hagen is our ally. We have already sworn our +allegiance. I have no more words for you.”</p> + +<p>There was a clicking sound and the loudspeaker died with a +sputter of static.</p> + +<p>It sputtered again, and this time Grim Hagen’s voice +mocked them. “There, Ato. You have your answer. You +are wasting your time. But I am a reasonable man. You can +have Maya. You can have the ship. You can have the +prisoners—the few that are left. I will trade all these for +Wolden’s secret.”</p> + +<p>“Greed has you in its hand, Grim Hagen. I know nothing +of my father’s secret. I do not even know if he +succeeded—”</p> + +<p>“Then summon him and let him decide for himself. You +are young, but two-thirds of my life is gone now—”</p> + +<p>“Your calculation is wrong,” Gunnar shouted. +“You life is nearly all gone, Grim Hagen.”</p> + +<p>“The dwarf still lives,” Grim Hagen answered +with a curse. “But so does Maya, my slave. I had to +beat her the other day. My boots were not polished very +well—”</p> + +<p>“Talk on, Grim Hagen,” Odin growled. “I am +here. And I intend to kill you—Just as I promised.”</p> + +<p>“Like most of your race, you talk too loud, Odin. +Well, Ato, Gunnar, and Odin, I am going now. Please +don’t get in my way or I will hatchet the flesh from +your bones.”</p> + +<p>Another click and the loudspeaker was silent.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>They had landed on the giant, worn planet very early in the +day. Now, as time went on, they watched Grim Hagen’s +ship and tried to make plans.</p> + +<p>Gunnar was in favor of hazarding an attack on the barrier +and then going on to the city.</p> + +<p>Ato and Odin voted in favor of waiting, although they +admitted that they could think of no better plan. Ato was +sure that The Nebula could plunge through any curtain, but +he wanted to try that as a last resort.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p> + +<p>Meanwhile, a steady stream of tractors and men was going +back and forth from the Old Ship to the city. Odin watched +them on the screen. They were mostly the white-skinned +people of Aldebaran. The Brons who had gone out into space +with Grim Hagen had dwindled away. Odin saw a few +white-headed ones. And once he saw a captain stop to lash a +worn, gray-haired Bron who must have been one of the +original prisoners. The poor fellow looked so old and +frazzled that Odin could not recognize him. His heart grew +heavy as he thought of those prisoners. They had done no +harm. Their lives had been wasted away because of their +loyalty to Maya. And the words of an old poet came to his +mind: “Think of man’s inhumanity to man and +write your poem if you can.”</p> + +<p>The day passed wearily by.</p> + +<p>Odin felt that it was one of the worst days of his life. +They had spanned thousands of light-years and time had slid +by like a stream of quicksilver while they hunted through +space. And now, at the last, they were pinned down on a +gaunt planet while a triumphant Grim Hagen went back and +forth from the Old Ship to the violet dome. Welcomed like a +conqueror, and holding every card, Grim Hagen was the man of +the hour.</p> + +<p>Yes, it was certainly Grim Hagen’s day.</p> + +<p>Night fell quite suddenly. But the sky above them turned to +the faintest mauve, and there was still a pale ghost of a +light hovering over the plain. There were no stars. No moon. +Jack Odin learned later that the people of this planet had +fed their moon to the dying sun long before.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>They ate supper—as Gunnar called it—and then Ato and Odin +studied some photo-maps which they had taken just before +they landed. Meanwhile, Gunnar busied himself with the +sword. And Nea, who stayed in her lab most of the day, +brought in a few calculations on the barrier that prisoned +them.</p> + +<p>“It’s an old idea,” she told them quietly. +“It can be broken by a steadily increasing force. +Twenty days, perhaps, after I rig up the machine—”</p> + +<p>Odin groaned. “In twenty days Grim Hagen will be back +among the stars—”</p> + +<p>She smiled quietly. And now he saw how tired her face and +eyes were. Like the face of a child that has worked too +hard. “I think not,” she answered him simply. +“Gunnar is always talking about fate. I do not believe +in such. But all day I have felt that the end is drawing +near. Remember, I still have my Kalis. With them I could +have been a huntress on some greener planet—another Diana, +perhaps. Oh!” She stamped her foot in worriment. +“We held creation in our grasp out here. We could have +forced the last secrets from her. Yes, I will say it! We +could have been as gods. And where is it ending? A mad chase +after a madman. And for all the years and all the lives that +have been spent on these two ships, time and space are the +only winners.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Nea went back to the lab. Odin and Ato continued their study +of the maps. Gunnar was putting a fine edge to his +broadsword.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then the warning buzzer sounded its alarm. Odin dived for +the screen and turned on the controls.</p> + +<p>A long procession of mauve shadows was approaching. Already +inside the barrier, they came single-file and slowly circled +The Nebula.</p> + +<p>Even in the pale weird light, they certainly seemed to be +men.</p> + +<p>Ato ordered “Battle-Stations” and sirens sounded +all over the ship.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>But the circling host made no offer to attack. Odin turned +the receiver up to its highest point, and speaking brokenly +in the language of the Brons a voice came through.</p> + +<p>“Men of the strange ship. Men of the strange +ship—”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Odin answered.</p> + +<p>“Good. You hear me. We are those who have been driven +out of the city. We would visit you in peace. We are called +Lorens.”</p> + +<p>Within a few minutes, a dozen of the strangers had been +brought aboard The Nebula. Ato summoned Nea and the rest of +the captains.</p> + +<p>The leader of the visitors was a man by the name of Val. He +was a tall, lean man with a Norman nose and his dark skin +was drawn so tightly about his face that he looked a bit +like a mummy. Val was over sixty, Odin judged, and though +his wrists were skinny the tendons and muscles on his arms +stood out like taut lengths of cable. He and his men were +dressed alike—a sleeveless shirt of walnut-brown plastic, +dark peg-bottomed trousers of corduroy, and footgear that +looked like engineer’s boots with rippled soles. The +tops of the boots were tight-fitting and the peg-bottomed +trousers were drawn snugly over them. Odin learned later +that what had appeared to be green moss out there on the +weathered plain was a kind of thistle with cat-claw thorns.</p> + +<p>Each man wore a heavy black belt about his waist. Attached +to the belt were at least a dozen weapons: several grenades, +a pistol, another pistol with a flaring muzzle, a long +knife, a glassy looking tube fitted to a pistol-butt, and a +blue-black ugly thing which was shaped like an over-sized +toadstool.</p> + +<p>In addition to this odd assortment of gear, each man carried +something in his hand which greatly resembled the frame of +an old-fashioned umbrella—except that half a dozen +vari-colored buttons were set into the handles.</p> + +<p>“It was nearly thirty years ago,” Val was +explaining, “that the voice of Grim Hagen began to +interfere with our broadcasting system. Some said it was a +god. Some said it was a devil. It came from space. It came +from almost anywhere. We have been an intelligent race, but +we were sore beset. Our sun was dying. All that we had was +our sun and a huge dust-cloud in the distance. In times +past, our astronomers had seen the glow of millions of + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> + +suns, millions upon millions of miles away. But we were +never able to perfect a telescope that could bring a single +sun into view.</p> + +<p>“Nor did we ever have a chance to do this. The +dust-cloud surged out toward us every twenty years, and our +scientists were able to use a gravitational beam to deflect +a part of it toward our sun. In this way we kept it alive +and might have been able to do so for ages. But now the +dust-cloud is gone.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Val paused to sigh, and then resumed his story. “The +voice—I mean the voice of Grim Hagen—promised my people +that if they would accept him he would take them forth into +the stars. They would plunder thousands of worlds and they +would live for centuries while generations died. Also, he +said, he was on the brink of discovering eternal +life—”</p> + +<p>“He was playing at being the eternal Loki—the old +mischief-maker—” Gunnar interrupted and went on +edging his sword.</p> + +<p>“Well,” Val continued, “I cannot blame my +people too much for believing this story. Our plight was +desperate. But there were those of us who did not believe +him. He seemed to know too much, when according to our +philosophy the only wise man is the one who admits that he +knows nothing—”</p> + +<p>“I am not a philosopher,” Gunnar interrupted +again. “I only know that once you have thrust a foot +of steel into a man he does not bother you again.”</p> + +<p>“Please, Gunnar,” Ato begged. “Let Val go +on with his story.”</p> + +<p>“The rest of the story I do not understand at +all,” Val said with a shake of his grizzled head. +“This Grim Hagen said that he did not age until he +stopped to conquer a planet and replenish his ship’s +energy. It was thirty years ago when he first spoke to us. +He looks like a man of forty-five now. Could he have been an +upstart of fifteen when he first spoke into our +receivers?”</p> + +<p>“I will try to explain that later,” Ato +answered.</p> + +<p>“Well, there were those of us who could not agree with +the general idea. There are even some of the Lorens in the +Violet Dome who think he is a god. We think he is an evil +man. We have no desire to plunder the stars. If he is so +great, why doesn’t he give new life to our feeble sun? +That is what we really need. Meanwhile, the people of the +Dome are building five new ships, as Grim Hagen directed. +They have been working upon them for years—”</p> + +<p>“Good God,” Jack Odin was thinking, “what +a hideous propaganda machine these ships are? To condition +and instruct a whole generation while you flash through +space in the twinkling of an eye!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>“And that is all,” Val finished with a shrug of +his lean shoulders. “Those of us who had never agreed +with the idea were thrown out of the city as soon as Grim +Hagen arrived. We have come to join forces with you.”</p> + +<p>“How did you get through the barrier?” Nea +asked.</p> + +<p>Val lifted the umbrella-frame. “We have had the +barrier for years. There are strange beasts out there on the +plain. This instrument allows us to go through the barrier +when we please.”</p> + +<p>“Then we can go to the city?” Gunnar exclaimed +with a joyful war-whoop. “To kill, and kill, and +kill—”</p> + +<p>“You are right,” Ato admitted. “Delay will +only increase Grim Hagen’s advantage. To the city—as +fast as we can—”</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_15" id="CHAPTER_15"></a>CHAPTER 15</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">V</span>AL and his men had +brought along enough of the +umbrella-shaped defenses to get them through the barrier.</p> + +<p>They held a short council of war. It was agreed that every +able-bodied man would go into the city. Nea and a few of the +older men were detailed to stay by The Nebula and take care +of the women and children.</p> + +<p>Nea had screamed and protested against that. She had only +agreed to stay upon one condition: That she be left one of +the umbrella-skeletons.</p> + +<p>The nights, Odin learned, were about sixteen hours long on +this dying planet. It was toward midnight when they started +out from the ship toward the violet dome. The strange +half-light still hovered over the ground. In the sky, +splinters of mauve tore at curtains of purplish flame. +Something like northern lights, they glinted and gleamed, +wrestled and writhed. There was no peace up there in that +abandoned sky. But there was enough of that unearthly light +glimmering below for him to watch his footsteps.</p> + +<p>They had brought every kind of weapon that they could lug +with them. Atomic machine-guns. Needle-nosed things that +spat blobs of flame. Anti-gravitational bombs. Bombs that +swirled slowly toward the enemy and cut him down with +scythe-blades.</p> + +<p>Gunnar had laughed at that. “Hang on to your sword and +knife, Nors-King. We will need them yet.”</p> + +<p>With the umbrella frames held over them, as though +protecting them from a flood, they went through the barrier. +Beyond it, thousands of men rose up from the scarred plain +to join them. Val had a much larger following than Odin had +ever guessed. These men were swathed in long coats and +capes. Similar items of apparel were hastily furnished the +crew of The Nebula—for when they were through the barrier +the temperature dropped to about thirty. Once they passed +through a thin swirl of snow.</p> + +<p>Then something screamed at them out there in the night and +came at them like a juggernaut. It must have stood nearly +fifty feet high, and came rushing at them on a score of +legs, with dozens of eyes flashing green as it hurtled +forward.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p>The men of Loren were not greatly worried. They began to +fire at it with the pistol-shaped weapons. There was only a +popping noise, but Odin could hear the bullets smashing into +the onrushing thing. Others used the tulip-flared guns, +which made no noise at all, but bolts of lightning sank into +the sides of the behemoth.</p> + +<p>After it was dead its furious drive sent it nearly a score +of yards forward. It slid into a clump of twisted trees and +tore them to splinters before it stopped quivering. Finally +the way was clear.</p> + +<p>They waited there for a time to see if they had attracted +any attention from the city of the violet dome. Nothing +happened, so they advanced again. At least five thousand men +now made up this little army. Val guessed that there were a +hundred thousand fighters left in the city, not counting the +experienced ruffians that Grim Hagen had brought with him.</p> + +<p>They had advanced not over half a mile before the pale glow +of the night turned to utter darkness. Something that looked +like a vast sea-nettle was slowly sinking down toward them +from the sky. Its tentacles glowed faintly as it fell—and +it must have been a hundred yards across at the top. Once +more bullets, lightning bolts and sheets of flame were +hurled at the descending thing. It fell apart and came +writhing down. Men rushed to get away from the reach of +those flailing arms. They laid low and watched while the +thing died.</p> + +<p>“Listen,” Gunnar warned.</p> + +<p>From far away came the sound of shots and an eerie whine +that seemed faintly familiar. The shots died down. The whine +continued, louder and louder, almost to the top peak of +sound, as though a tiger was growling to itself as it +feasted.</p> + +<p>Then all was still.</p> + +<p>“It was from the Old Ship,” Gunnar said. +“I wonder—”</p> + +<p>But there was no time left to wonder. As the thing died, the +phosphor glow faded from its lashing tentacles. Finally it +was still. They picked themselves up and went on toward the +dome.</p> + +<p>The dome was propped upon miles of forty-foot columns, all +carved and decorated like those from the Hall of Kings. +Below the dome, the same barrier came pouring down like an +unseen waterfall. Again they used their protective +umbrella-frames. Then, sweating and cursing and grunting, +they hauled their weapons of war into the city.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Val the Loren had explained that the city was not a city as +Ato and Odin understood the words. Being domed, there was no +use for rooms of any kind. The temperature stayed constant. +There were wide streets, paved with blocks of pink and black +marble. These streets were flanked by sidewalks and walls. +At intervals of a hundred feet the huge columns were placed. +They were minutely decorated and + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> + +carved. These supported a silver and clear-plastic framework +that held up the violet dome. Looking upward, Odin had the +impression that he was standing beneath a vast spider-web.</p> + +<p>There were many hedges, all neatly trimmed. Some resembled +privet, but most of them were like pomegranate with larger +reddish blossoms that seemed to drip blood.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Here and there were railings with steps going down. Like +subway entrances, Odin thought, except they were more +elaborately carved. These steps went down to tier after tier +of labyrinths. It was a skyscraper-city turned upside down, +Odin gathered from Val’s explanations. The first level +below the city was made up of factories and machine shops. +The next was where plants, flowers, and trees were forced, +producing the city’s food. Below that, for nearly a +thousand feet, were the living quarters of the people.</p> + +<p>The ground-level of the city was in reality a beautiful +park. During the day, Val explained, it was busy with +street-vendors, open-air schools, theaters, and thousands +who came up from underground to drink the air and the sun.</p> + +<p>Now, it was nearly empty. The columns were evenly spaced +and at a spot exactly between each two columns was a great +cresset of stone. At the top of each cresset were flickering +flames that burned without leaving any smoke. “Like +stone tulips with petals of flame,” Gunnar said as he +looked at them. They stood nearly twelve feet high. Their +pedestals were broad; their stems were nearly a foot thick, +nearly a yard across. Their flames were violet, tipped with +blue. They made a beautiful sight, but it did not matter. +For within less than an hour this lovely park with its +carved columns and tulip-shaped cressets of fire was turned +into a shambles.</p> + +<p>They had not gone a quarter of a mile before a guard hailed +them. A score of guns popped like opened bottles and the +guard died before the echo of his voice was gone. But his +cry was taken up by others. And now Odin saw that up there +in the spider-web framework that held the dome were hundreds +of little cubicles—all manned.</p> + +<p>Shafts of flame darted through the dim-lit area. Bullets +whizzed. Ato’s needle-nosed machines began to whine +and the metal in the guards’ cubicles grew red-hot and +melted. Charred bodies came tumbling down. Men came pouring +out of the subway entrances. There was a crashing and +grinding as hidden elevators brought weapons of death to the +surface. The fires in the cressets danced higher. They +fought now in mid-day light.</p> + +<p>There was a blast nearby that nearly burst Odin’s +eardrums. A crash of flame that half-blinded him. A gun-crew +screamed and died as one of the needle-nosed + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> + +machines melted into puddles of steel. One by one these guns +exploded, taking their crews with them. But even as they +died, they littered the streets with the bodies of those who +were pouring up from the depths of the city. Even as one +melted, its needle-nose swung upward and its beam cut +through girders as though they were soft cheese. There was +an awful grating sound as the heavy dome sagged a few +inches. Splinters of glass and plastic rained down upon +invader and defender alike.</p> + +<p>Guns burst in men’s hands—or turned to soft wax. The +machine guns grew red-hot and melted. Ato sent his swirling +bombs toward the enemy. The scythe-blades dripped as they +cut swaths through massed rows of human flesh. But from far +down the street a swarm of red sparks came rushing at the +bombs like hornets. They swirled about them, humming +angrily. And then the bombs and the hornet-sparks were gone.</p> + +<p>Odin learned that the toadstool-shaped weapon which +Val’s men carried was a defense against the lancing +beams from the glassy tubes. So one by one the weapons of +offense and the weapons of defense fell apart. Sirens were +screaming within the city. Hordes were still arriving from +the depths below.</p> + +<p>Ato had set up a huge, slowly-whirling globe that was +studded with spines. As it turned upon its axis, it emitted +a strange pulsing light. As the defenders came rushing up +the stairways to the upper world, the guns at their belts +exploded in furious heat. They died by the hundreds at those +entrances. They filled the stairways and the halls below. +Screams from seared throats drowned out the noise of battle. +The stench of burned flesh and blood was now so heavy that +it was hard to breathe. Another wild shell crashed into the +spider-web framework of the dome. It sagged again with a +shriek and a groan of protest. And once more a rain of glass +showered down upon them.</p> + +<p>The defenders cleared the choked stairways and came +on—dying at the entrances and falling back and blocking the +stairs again.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>At the last they unbuckled their belts and their weapons and +threw them aside. Then they plunged through the entrances in +a flood, armed with only knives and clubs.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Ato’s guns were going out. The last became +a white torch when a magnesium blob struck it.</p> + +<p>The side-arms were all gone.</p> + +<p>They fought now with sword and knife.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>Jack Odin felt a heavy hand upon his arm. Gunnar was at his +side. “It is even as I foretold you, Nors-King. The +weapons are all gone. Stay close by Gunnar’s side now. +We will fight together, as we fought before. Eh, they are +coming up from underground like ants. I think we have lost +the advantage. Hagen’s dead lie thick, though. And now +it is our turn. The old swords and the swinging chant. Ah, +Old Blood-Drinker will not be thirsty tonight. Brace +yourself. Here comes the first assault.”</p> + +<p>And with his huge short legs spread wide apart, Gunnar swung +his broadsword. The first wave of attackers went down like +ripe wheat. Gunnar and Odin cut their way through them, and +came out against a smoking hedge. Behind them, Ato and his +Lorens strewed the streets with dead.</p> + +<p>Gunnar and Odin went through a hole in the hedge. A defender +was making for it from the other side, and Gunnar broke the +man’s neck. Clinging to the thin shadow of the hedge +they moved forward, killing as they went.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_16" id="CHAPTER_16"></a>CHAPTER 16</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">G</span>UNNAR and Odin +followed the hedge for a long way, until +they came out against the far side of the dome. The noise of +fighting still continued. It was back of them, but drawing +nearer. Odin guessed—or hoped—that Ato and Val were +driving the defenders before them.</p> + +<p>They came out upon a lane that was flanked by the beautiful +colonnades. Near them was one of the entrances to the +tunnels below, and beside it was one of the stone cressets +with a high-flaring flame. At the end of the lane was a +dais. Upon this dais stood Grim Hagen, shouting instructions +to a crew of white-skinned, soldiers below him who were +trying to set up a strange machine. It looked like a model +of Saturn balanced upon a tripod. Except that it had three +concentric rings about it.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen’s shirt was scorched and tattered. It was +falling from his lean shoulders. His face was seamed and +lined. The muscles upon his neck stood out in cords. His +hair was gray now. His left arm was gashed from elbow to +wrist, and blood was dripping down his fingers. He dashed +the drops aside as he screamed orders. His black eyes still +blazed with that old feral hate, and though the years had +wasted him, his hips were still as thin as an Apache’s +and he looked iron-hard.</p> + +<p>Odin and Gunnar knelt beside the railing that marked the +entrance to the tunnels below. Neither Hagen nor his men saw +them.</p> + +<p>Gunnar grasped Odin’s shoulders and pulled him down. +“Listen,” he whispered in Odin’s ear. +“Do you hear anything strange?”</p> + +<p>Odin listened. Above the tumult behind them came that same +sound which he had heard out on the plain. A whining, +purring sound. The purring of a tiger feeding contentedly.</p> + +<p>Then screams drowned out the whining sound, and Odin +wondered if he had not imagined it.</p> + +<p>Nearly a hundred of the defenders came running toward Grim +Hagen. They were in mad flight now. Most of them were + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> + +weaponless. Grim Hagen cursed them, rallied them about him, +and urged them to pick up new weapons and fight.</p> + +<p>Now, Ato and Val and another hundred men came charging +forward.</p> + +<p>Leaving three men to set up the strange machine, Grim +Hagen’s trained Aldebaranians met them. They clashed +head-on—blade against blade, fist against bone. They held +there, like two wrestlers evenly matched. For a moment Grim +Hagen’s men were forced back. Then some new defenders +swarmed out of the side-alleys and joined them. A head was +poked up from the stairway below, Gunnar split the +man’s skull and sent him tumbling down upon some new +replacements.</p> + +<p>Now Grim Hagen spied Odin and Gunnar as they advanced to +help Ato.</p> + +<p>Standing upon the dais, his face livid with rage, Hagen +pointed to them and screamed—as mad as any of the last +Caesars who had gone insane from too much power.</p> + +<p>“Look, men of the Lorens,” Hagen cried, still +pointing. “I will give immortality to the men who +bring me those two alive.”</p> + +<p>The first two to reach Gunnar and Odin died at the end of +Gunnar’s and Odin’s swords.</p> + +<p>“Your immortality does not last very long, Grim +Hagen,” Gunnar shouted as he wiped his blade.</p> + +<p>Then another man came up the stairway. Odin killed him and +flung him back upon the men who followed.</p> + +<p>But reinforcements were pouring in from other lanes. Grim +Hagen and his men now numbered over a thousand.</p> + +<p>Seeing Odin and Gunnar, Ato swung his men over against the +subway entrance. They rallied there. Grim Hagen’s +soldiers came at them. Ato, Gunnar, and Odin stood side by +side and led the counter-attack that forced them back upon +Grim Hagen’s strange machine.</p> + +<p>But Hagen’s men rallied and drove them back +again—almost to the stairway.</p> + +<p>“The next drive will get us,” Ato groaned. +“Brace yourselves, men.”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>But the next drive did not come. Suddenly a dozen screaming +wretches—they could no longer be called soldiers—came +running up the street. They joined Grim Hagen’s men +and gibbered in fear as they pointed back.</p> + +<p>From down there came a sudden burst of music. Odin’s +heart leaped when he heard it. It was the old song of the +Brons. But the lights were burning low back there and as yet +he could see nothing.</p> + +<p>Then they came. Nea and Maya, walking side by side. Behind +them were half a dozen women, playing fifes and horns. One +was carrying a tattered flag. Behind the musicians came a +motley crowd. Old women, young women, half-grown children, +and + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> + +dozens of old men. All were armed. And they came forward +like the wrack of a surviving army at judgement day.</p> + +<p>Oh, there was something noble about them, and pitiful too. +And something terrible. For before them, floating upon the +air like bobbing heads were Nea’s four fantoms, the +Kalis, whining hungrily as they came, their copper hair +trailing about them.</p> + +<p>One caught a fugitive as he lagged behind—and he died +screaming.</p> + +<div class="figcenter w600"><a href="images/illo.jpg"> +<img class="noborder" src="images/tn.jpg" alt="Grim Hagen’s men writhed helplessly in the grip of the Kalis’ deadly copper hairs!" title="" /></a> +<span class="caption">Grim Hagen’s men writhed helplessly in the grip of the Kalis’ deadly copper hairs!</span> +</div> + +<p>The Kalis darted this way and that and Grim Hagen’s +men writhed. Their muscles clenched. Their jaws set as +though tetanus had struck them. They slid to the marble +street and died.</p> + +<p>And the Kalis laughed and whined and screamed as they fed. +Even above their feeding-song and the screams of their +victims came the shrill, triumphant cry of Nea urging them +on.</p> + +<p>Nor was the rest of Maya’s army still. One old Bron +who had been a slave of Grim Hagen for too long had found a +shotgun among Hagen’s treasures and was blasting away. +They were armed with everything from staves, blunderbusses, +old forty-fours and Sharps rifles to machine guns. They +fired and fired. Grim Hagen’s men went down. But +though dozens of ill-aimed shots were fired at him, Grim +Hagen still lived, dodging here and there, rallying his men, +and urging his gun-crew to finish setting up that odd +weapon.</p> + +<p>Few were left of the thousand that had rallied to Grim +Hagen. But another thousand were coming through the hedges +from other lanes and streets. Although it was a gallant, +ragged little army that Nea and Maya led, it would have +lasted no longer than a straw in a whirlwind had it not been +for the Kalis. They appeared to be enjoying themselves, even +as Grim Hagen’s men were not. They zig-zagged this way +and that. They purred. They fed. They were stronger now and +their movements were quicker. Their victims died faster.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>And as they forged forward, Nea was growing in strength. She +leaped after them, leaving Maya to command the small army. +She screamed. She urged them on with a “Kill, kill, +kill!” that froze the back of Odin’s neck. Here +was no girl trained to work in a laboratory. This was a +high-priestess, long derided and forgotten, come back from +the stars to wreak her vengeance.</p> + +<p>“Good God,” Odin was thinking. “What +unexplored labyrinths are left in the human brain?”</p> + +<p>Then there was no time for thinking. The Lorens who were +trying to gain the stairway had finally dislodged the two +bodies that Odin and Gunnar had flung down upon them. They +came up like a surging tide, and for the next few minutes +Odin and Gunnar were busy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gunnar had never been any happier in his life. He talked to +his sword and he growled at those that he killed. He yelled +at Ato’s and Maya’s wearying armies, urging them +to go on and account themselves well. He stood by +Odin’s side, and the two hacked and thrust until the +stairway was chocked with bodies and no one was left to +assail them.</p> + +<p>He and Odin were splashed with blood. The tumult was +deafening. The tiger-screams of the Kalis, the agonized +torment of their prey. The gun-blasts from Maya’s +army, the cry of Ato who had hacked his way almost to Gunnar +and Odin, the victory-scream of Nea, the broken music! And +even above this, the mad curses and commands of Grim Hagen!</p> + +<p>Some of Grim Hagen’s Lorens were in flight. Most of +them were dead. But his white-skinned warriors held firm. +Not over a dozen were left at Grim Hagen’s side. Two +were still working with the odd-shaped weapon.</p> + +<p>There were other Lorens coming out of the hedges, but they +held back. They had seen enough.</p> + +<p>Had fortune favored Ato then, his army would have won.</p> + +<p>But at the precise moment when the balance was swinging +toward the Brons, Grim Hagen’s gun-crew got the +strange weapon unlimbered. The globe started turning. Unseen +motors roared within it. As though spun out like gleaming +strands of cobwebs, coils of light came flickering toward +the attacking Brons. Like blue-white ripples they went +across the fore-running Kalis. The ripples of light went on +expanding. The shotgun in the hands of the old Bron suddenly +burst to pieces. The old rifles fell apart. The newer +machine-guns talked briefly, and then disappeared in a burst +of flame that took their masters with them.</p> + +<p>The first coil of light struck Odin. There was a tingling +sensation, neither painful nor pleasant. But it went through +his body like a mild opiate. He did not want to sleep. He +merely wanted to relax and forget this slaughter. He fought +against it. Gunnar leaned against him, suddenly weak and +shaken.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>More widening circles of light swept out upon them. +Ato’s and Maya’s troops fell back. Those who had +been armed with explosive weapons had died. Odin was almost +too weak to lift his sword. From the stairway below came a +scrabbling sound, as men pulled the corpses away from the +stairs.</p> + +<p>Nea’s Kalis reeled back. She urged them on and they +advanced like corks bobbing on ripples of light. Three moved +slowly toward Grim Hagen’s machine. A fourth faltered +and fell back.</p> + +<p>The Kalis were no longer screaming their frightful song. The +purr of victory was gone. Instead they yowled a savage, +tormented scream as though they + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> + +had been cornered by an enemy they could not understand.</p> + +<p>But the three moved forward, while the fourth hesitated +behind them. As though struggling against a heavy flood they +came on. The gun-crew died defending their whirling weapon. +The three Kalis swarmed over it—like bees smothering the +enemy, Odin thought. The pulsing coiling light died. There +was a burst of flame. The weapon and the three Kalis +suddenly became one immense +<ins title="a red-coloured semi-precious stone">sardonyx</ins> +that blazed huge and +grand for a brief moment. Then the jewel-blaze burned out, +and a handful of ashes sifted to the ground.</p> + +<p>The fourth Kali was undone. It tried to go forward against +that jewel-fire. Then it hesitated and darted back. With a +shrill cry of fear it flung itself into Nea’s arms, +its coppery tentacles holding her close in a last effort to +escape destruction.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>She had said before that the Kalis were the nearest things +to human that could be made. She had been the poor relation, +the daughter of a dreaming failure. Perhaps something of the +fear and doubt which Nea had known all her life had gone +into the making of the Kalis. She screamed once—more in +bewilderment than pain, as though a favorite cat had +suddenly clawed her. She must have been dead before she +fell, and the last Kali clung to her bosom and spread its +copper-wires about her face. It emitted one weak purr—then +it stopped purring and moving forever.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen’s Lorens who had been clinging to the +hedges now came forward triumphantly. Strength came back to +Gunnar and Odin. The attackers had cleared the stairway +again. And once more Gunnar and Odin threw them back.</p> + +<p>By now both Ato and Maya had swung their shattered little +armies over to the subway entrance.</p> + +<p>Hagen had retreated from the dais. Meeting the advancing +Lorens, he led them forward.</p> + +<p>Those on the stairway retreated as they saw that they were +no longer against two warriors.</p> + +<p>Gunnar rested his sword against his leg and reached out with +huge arms and pulled Ato and Odin toward him. “Down +there,” he pointed toward the stairway. “There +is plenty of room to fight, and those who have been coming +up don’t seem to be so strong. Force your way down +there and make another stand. Make a barricade if you can. +Up here you will soon be surrounded.”</p> + +<p>“But Grim Hagen will be at our heels—” Odin +protested.</p> + +<p>Gunnar laughed deep in his throat. “Oh, no. The +stairway is narrow. A strong man could hold the entrance for +some time—perhaps a long, long time. And Gunnar is strong. +To get at you, Grim Hagen would either have to go down this +stairway or take another entrance. These entrances, are few +and far apart.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Go with Maya, Ato,” Odin said, “and I +will stay here with Gunnar.”</p> + +<p>“No. The entrance is narrow. You would be in the +way,” Gunnar protested. “Now, go! Oh, but the +valkyries will be busy tonight!”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Ato and Odin led the rush down the stairs. There were only a +dozen men below and they had already tired of warfare. Three +fell and the others rushed off into the shadows.</p> + +<p>Ato’s and Maya’s fighters tumbled after them. +There were only a few of the old people and children left.</p> + +<p>Now they found themselves in a huge room which was filled +with benches and small machines. It was evidently a +wood-working shop. The room was lit by several of the +high-flaring cressets of stone. It was rectangular, about +the size of a football field. They were fortunate that there +was no heavy machinery left here. From each side, +dim-lighted tunnels led off into the distance. While Odin +and the strongest soldiers guarded, Ato and his people +shoved benches, tables and chairs to the four tunnels and +set them afire. There were still quite a number of benches +left, and some of these were stacked close together into one +corner of the room, making a sort of rude balcony that +looked down upon the littered floor. More benches and +machines were left. These were made into a barricade a few +yards in front of the balcony.</p> + +<p>All was done now that could be done. So Odin rushed back to +the stairway to help Gunnar. But his heart sank as he stood +at the foot of the stairs. Up there was nothing but +swirling, violet flame. Some liquid was burning furiously at +the entrance-way, and blazing rivulets were pouring down the +steps. There was no way to go through those flames. There +was now no way to go around. Gunnar, if he lived at all, +must fight alone. And Odin’s eyes filled with tears as +he cursed himself for deserting his old comrade.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The attackers were almost upon Gunnar before the last of +Maya’s rag-tag army had gone down the stairs. There +were high bannisters around the entrance-way. These afforded +plenty of protection to his back and flanks unless someone +scaled them, which he doubted. One of the heavy cressets was +burning nearby. It seemed to be no more than a huge, open +lamp. Standing upon a circular base about three feet across, +the twelve-inch stem went up nearly eight feet and then +flared out into a tulip-shaped bowl that was filled with +flickering violet fire. Bending low, Gunnar grasped the +bottom of the stem and moved it a little closer to the +stairway entrance. It took all of his strength, but it +moved, complaining as it slid along the flagging. Now he was +almost under it. The light was in his opponents’ +faces, and it gave a little added protection to his left +side.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gunnar braced himself, his long blade high over his +shoulder, both hands locked to the long carved haft.</p> + +<p>“Grim Hagen,” he called mockingly. “Here +we are at the edge of the stars. Just you and I left on top +of this world. Just you and I of the two crews that sailed +from Opal. The mad gods have made bonfires of the suns. +Ragnarok has come and passed. I have no quarrel with these +people, Grim Hagen. Come forward now and let the two of us +end what should have been ended long ago—”</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Grim Hagen silenced his men and screamed back: +“Gunnar, what I say now I have said before. I promised +you death. But I will let you go free—and all the +frightened rats below can go free—if you will give me +Wolden’s secret—”</p> + +<p>“I know nothing of Wolden’s secret. It may be +nothing but a twitch in your mad brain. The old +Blood-Drinker and I know but one secret, Grim Hagen, the +secret of death. Step forth like a man now and I promise you +more peace than even Wolden’s secret could give +you.”</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen said no more to Gunnar. He sent four companies in +the direction of other entrances to the underground city. +Then he martialled his remaining men and threw them toward +Gunnar in threes.</p> + +<p>Three by three they came, and three by three they went down. +Braced on his strong, short legs Gunnar flailed them like +wheat. Screams and curses filled the night. And Gunnar piled +the dead before him.</p> + +<p>One by one the companies returned to Grim Hagen and reported +that for the present there was no other way into the room +below.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen held a short council of war. He had less than a +score of the white-skinned soldiers left. These he sent at +Gunnar in a body, and came following after with the +remaining Lorens.</p> + +<p>Gunnar cut them down, but a leaping soldier died as he +buried his knife in Gunnar’s side. The Lorens were +throwing sticks and stones when they could. They closed in +like dogs upon a wolf. Gunnar reeled back and then advanced +once more as he swung his broadsword.</p> + +<p>He cleared a path and sent his attackers back until they +stood about him in a circle, their fangs ready.</p> + +<p>And then Gunnar reached forth and took the stem of the huge +torch high up in his hands and bowed his back. The lamp +rocked upon its pedestal and then came crashing forward. Its +fuel spilled down and caught fire as it fell. Flames leaped +up and lashed out at the Lorens.</p> + +<p>The fierce flames drove the attackers farther back. But in +falling, the great lamp careened and half of its liquid had +splashed across the entrance to the tunnel. It caught fire. +Gunnar gasped as it struck him. Then he strode + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> + +forward, like a dwarf-king advancing from Hell.</p> + +<p>A thrown knife caught him in the chest. Gunnar took another +step, and another knife caught him below the throat. He +stood there, trying to go on, and a mace thudded against his +temple.</p> + +<p>Gunnar reeled back into the flames.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_17" id="CHAPTER_17"></a>CHAPTER 17</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">A</span> DEADENING quiet +fell over the huge room where Maya’s +and Ato’s little armies were making their last stand. +The flames were dying out in the tunnels and on the +stairway. They fed more fuel to the fires and waited.</p> + +<p>Maya was at Odin’s side now. They clung together. Jack +Odin kissed her and swore that they would never be parted +again.</p> + +<p>“Until death—” Maya said and raised her lips to +his.</p> + +<p>He shivered. It was a promise and an assurance that might be +kept too soon. The fires could not burn much longer. Grim +Hagen’s power over the Lorens might be questioned +after the havoc that had been wreaked in the city above. But +Hagen and his white-skinned soldiers could still fight. And +Grim Hagen’s hate was hotter than the fires that were +now dying out in the tunnels.</p> + +<p>Ato joined them. He had proven himself a general. +Outnumbered all the way, he had broken Grim Hagen’s +lines time and again during that awful night.</p> + +<p>“I think we had better wait behind the barricades and +make our last stand upon the balcony,” he said. +“We can’t defend five entrances at the same +time.”</p> + +<p>Odin agreed.</p> + +<p>“Some of Maya’s people are unarmed. We still +have a few of the Lorens who joined us. They are good +fighters. Better than the Lorens who are with Grim Hagen. +Apparently, he drew his following from the weakest among +them.”</p> + +<p>“Aye,” Val the Loren agreed. He had fought near +Ato’s side all through the night, and his lean left +hand was rubbing two deep cuts across his chest. “They +have already had enough. But they have asked the wild things +of the moss-country to dine with them, and now they +can’t get rid of their guests. If Grim Hagen and his +soldiers should die, they would give up in a minute.”</p> + +<p>“Are your men still armed, Val?” Odin asked.</p> + +<p>“Aye. They know to hang on to their weapons.”</p> + +<p>“Not all of Maya’s people are,” Odin said. +“I don’t like the idea of the children and old +men fighting.”</p> + +<p>“Children and old men have fought before,” Ato +answered simply. “If this should be the last time, +then the battle would be worth the blood. Anyway, I have set +them to fashioning lances and staves from wood that we saved +from the fires.”</p> + +<p>They waited. All the troops and all the weapons were moved +behind the barricade.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>Some of the best throwers were mounted upon the improvised +balcony. They had rigged up a rude catapult from some lumber +and ropes. They had barrels of nails and spikes for +ammunition. Odin wished for some good bowmen, but the bow +was as foreign to the Lorens as it was to the Brons. There +was nothing left to do except move all the workshop’s +water-pails and sand-buckets behind the barricade in case of +fire.</p> + +<p>Soon they heard the sound of war-cries and the splashing of +water from the tunnels. Smoke poured into the room from the +quenched and dying fires. It disappeared almost as fast as +it came. Evidently the Lorens were masters of +air-conditioning. Odin was thankful. Knowing Grim Hagen, he +had been fearful of gas. Now that seemed unlikely. Even as +Gunnar had predicted, this last fight would be with knife +and sword and spear. Or, if it lasted long, with clubs and +bare hands.</p> + +<p>They had spanned space and had mocked at time. Now time was +triumphant as always. Would they end up as pre-stone-age men +throwing sticks at one another? And was this a sample of the +end of all the thinking men who would follow after into +space? If so, what a hollow, foolish end to such high +endeavor. Odin remembered an old professor who had said that +all races carry their own seeds of destruction with them +wherever they go. The bees who steal the honey soon die, the +old man had said, but the flowers are pollinated anew and +life goes on forever.</p> + +<p>But such bleak thoughts were short-lasting. For as soon as +the tunnels and the stairway were cleared of smoke, Grim +Hagen’s army came pouring into the room. Grim Hagen +had mustered at least two-thousand men. He had divided these +into five groups, and they came through the five entrances +at the same time. Yelling and brandishing swords and flares, +they rushed the barricade.</p> + +<p>Jack Odin had underestimated the catapult. The crew released +it. And a shower of spikes tore the invading ranks apart. +Odin saw a white-skinned warrior go to his knees and scream +as he tried to pull a six-inch spike from his eye.</p> + +<p>Ato had ordered his men to try for Grim Hagen’s +trained soldiers first. Odin saw an old Bron cast a +home-made spear with as much ease as a trained +javelin-thrower back home. A soldier tried to pull it out of +his chest until his legs buckled beneath him and he tumbled +over backwards.</p> + +<p>Then a white-skinned warrior leaped at the barricade and +Odin thrust him through.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Torches began to rain down upon them. Half the defending +forces were now busy with water and sand, beating out the +flames.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then, after what seemed to be hours, the catapult crew +cranked their awkward weapon to the trigger-point again and +sent another rain of spikes into Grim Hagen’s ranks.</p> + +<p>The floor beyond the barrier was littered with dead and +slippery with blood before Grim Hagen’s men broke the +barrier.</p> + +<p>There were only two hundred to meet the charge of two +thousand. The end was inevitable.</p> + +<p>As the barrier went down, Jack Odin and Maya urged their men +to climb upon the balcony. Odin was the last to retreat. A +soldier caught at him as he scrambled upward and Odin turned +and slashed him across the face.</p> + +<p>Ato was calling his men around him. They drew back to a +corner where two thick walls met. Ato had placed one bench +there. This he stood upon, calling out orders and cheering +them on as the attackers climbed the unsteady tiers of +benches and tables to reach them. The defenders gathered +around. There were not over fifty of them left now. Odin +thrust Maya behind him. A body fell at his feet. He bent and +lifted up a twelve-year-old boy who was streaming from +wounds. He handed the lad to Maya.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen led the attack. Odin braced himself. He took one +step forward and waited. Seeing him, Grim Hagen veered +toward him, screaming a mad battle-cry—his eyes wild with +hate. Even in what appeared to be the last moment, Jack Odin +saw that only three or four of the white-skinned soldiers +were left; and not over a dozen of the Brons who had stayed +with Grim Hagen during all those wasting years remained.</p> + +<p>He did not take his eyes from Grim Hagen. He was conscious +only of a sudden flickering, as of many lights twinkling on +and off. But he did not know what was happening. Maya told +him later.</p> + +<p>Ato was already bleeding badly from a deep slash in his +shoulder. As he rallied his men around him, someone threw a +knife that buried itself in the right side of his chest. He +stumbled and went down to his knees. Then he struggled up, +and as he stood straight he reached down to his waist and +clutched the little slug-horn of moon-metal that his father +had given him. His head went back as he raised the horn to +his lips. Like Childe Roland, who came at last to the Dark +Tower, he blew one unheard blast.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Suddenly the room was filled with lights, flashing and +dancing everywhere. Whispering.</p> + +<p>A stillness fell upon the room and the shambles. Men paused +as they lifted their knives or braced themselves for a last +thrust.</p> + +<p>For a single breath, all was in silence.</p> + +<p>Then a light began to whisper. “Ato, it is I, your +father, Wolden. We have learned the secret of time and space +and we have come for you, my son. But before we go, we must +rid ourselves of the mischief-makers.”</p> + +<p>The lights darted down upon Grim Hagen’s men. And as +they touched them, the cold of space + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> + +came flowing through. They fell one by one. And the +hoar-frost covered them like spiderwebs across the faces and +bodies of long-dead mummies.</p> + +<p>There was a spattering sound, as of sleet falling against a +distant roof. A strange smell filled the air.</p> + +<p>And one by one Grim Hagen’s men went down.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_18" id="CHAPTER_18"></a>CHAPTER 18</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">A</span>LL this happened +while Grim Hagen was rushing toward Odin +and Maya. A thin trickle of blood was flowing down the +corner of Hagen’s mouth. Odin heard the voices. Out of +the corner of his eye he saw some men go down. The room felt +cold now, and a thin breeze was going through it, as though +blown gently across the star-spaces.</p> + +<p>He saw a light dart down toward Grim Hagen.</p> + +<p>But at that instant Grim Hagen reached him and swung his +sword. Jack Odin stepped aside. His foot slipped upon the +unsteady planking of the improvised balcony. He thrust for +Grim Hagen’s throat, but his blade went high and wide. +It gashed Grim Hagen from the lower corner of his chin clear +back to the jawbone. Blood streamed and as Odin slipped to +his knee Grim Hagen swung again.</p> + +<p>Then Maya was between them, both hands grasping +Hagen’s sword-arm. Hagen’s free hand closed +about her wrists. He swung her aside and the point of his +sword came down to rest upon her throat.</p> + +<p>“Now,” Grim Hagen screamed, and his voice was +the shriek of a man who has nothing left to lose. “Let +no light come near me and Maya or we die together. Wolden, I +caught scattered words about your work as I fled through +space. I held the stars and planets in my hands and I flung +them away, for they were no more than the sparks that fly +out from flint. They were worthless and I flung them away. +And there was nothing to match my desire. Not even Maya. +Now, listen, if you care for her life.”</p> + +<p>The descending lights hesitated and drew back. Jack Odin +righted himself and chanced a thrust at Hagen. The thrust +failed as Grim Hagen moved Maya between them.</p> + +<p>“No more of that, Odin. Drop your sword or she dies. +Drop it now!”</p> + +<p>And Odin lowered his hand and let his sword fall to the +table beneath him.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen continued: “The ship is yours. This world +is yours. Let me have your secret, Wolden. I would not care +to be with such as you. I would laugh at space with the +comets. I would make the stars cringe. I would watch the +generations go by like falling snow. I would—”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<p>“No, you would be like Lucifer, wreaking his +vengeance upon the planets,” the voice of what had +been Wolden interrupted in a whisper. “No, Grim Hagen, +even if I gave you what you asked, all space would seem as +hell to you.”</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen smiled an evil smile. “So. But it is I who +make the bargain. Even yet. Maya goes with me. +Remember!”</p> + +<p>But at that instant Maya got one hand free and thrust the +sword aside.</p> + +<p>It was all the time that Jack Odin needed. Reaching forward +he grasped Grim Hagen’s sword with his bare hand. It +cut to the bone. And then he had Hagen’s wrist with +his free hand. He twisted. A bone cracked and he shook the +blade from Hagen’s grasp. Maya leaped to one side. +Then Hagen’s fingers were pushing Odin’s face +back and Odin was clutching at Hagen’s throat.</p> + +<p>They stood there swaying. Then they tumbled down the rude +stairway of tables that Ato had fashioned for his last +stand.</p> + +<p>They rolled to the blood-stained floor beneath. And Odin +never knew how either of them survived the fall.</p> + +<p>The lights hovered above them, waiting for an opening. Maya +took up a fallen sword and came following after.</p> + +<p>Grim Hagen’s fingers were feeling for Odin’s +eyes. Odin got a bloody fist against Hagen’s face and +shoved him back. Then he rolled on top of him and got the +man’s throat between his hands. Hagen’s fists +worked like pistons as he beat at Odin’s face. Odin +felt the blood dripping down upon his hands and upon +Hagen’s throat but he held on. At the last, Grim Hagen +screamed and clawed like an animal. And then it was over. +The hands stopped clawing. There was one last sob of pain +and hate that was cut off in the middle. Then Grim Hagen was +still. And Odin, with his face dripping blood, held on while +Maya and the others struggled to tear his hands free from +the man he had killed.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>With the death of Grim Hagen the fight was over. None of +Hagen’s Brons or Aldebaranians were left. The Lorens +threw down their arms and swore loyalty to Val.</p> + +<p>A cot was improvised for Ato. The lights hovered around him, +whispering cheerfully and ignoring all others.</p> + +<p>Val, Odin and Maya tried to count the survivors. Of the +fifty who had lived through the fighting, only eighteen were +Brons. The rest were Val’s men.</p> + +<p>“There are a hundred more on the two ships,” +Maya told Odin. “Oh, Jack, we have Nea to thank for +most of this. Nea and Wolden. After you and your men left, +Nea took her Kalis, as she called them, and some of her +people. They came through the barrier and made their way to +the Old Ship. They surprised the few guards that Grim Hagen +had left. They freed me and the other prisoners. Then we got +our little army together and came to help. Without Nea, it +could never have been done.” She buried her face on +Odin’s shoulder. “Oh, Jack, when we were kids +together we used to laugh at her.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<p>He patted her shoulder comfortingly, for he could think of +nothing to say. He had seen soldiers like Nea—cast-offs +from their home-towns gallantly going to their deaths. It +was something that he could not understand. And being +honest, he had nothing to say.</p> + +<p>Clean-up was begun. Jack Odin left Val of the Lorens to take +over. Then he rushed to the stairway where last he had seen +Gunnar. The fires had burned out. The steps were blackened. +A few smoking corpses were still upon the stairs.</p> + +<p>Odin’s face was covered with blood. His strength was +nearly gone. But he went up the stairs two steps at a time, +his spent breath whistling through his bloody nostrils.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>There at the top of the stairs he found Gunnar. And +Gunnar’s dead lay thick about him.</p> + +<p>Gunnar had moved himself to a sitting position against one +of the railings. His chin was upon his great chest and his +eyes were closed as though he slept. But when Odin knelt +beside him, he opened one eye and looked up with a twisted +smile upon his broad face. One side of his face was barely +recognizable. Gunnar was badly burned. He had been thrust +through at least a dozen times. But Gunnar lived.</p> + +<p>“Eh, Nors-King,” he whispered, sitting up +straight as Odin steadied him in his arms. “It was a +long time to wait. And I thought sometimes that I would not +make it. But I held on, for I knew you would come. Oh, it +has been a long wait—and it took all my strength.”</p> + +<p>“As fast as I could,” Odin answered in a choking +voice. “As fast as I could, O Chief of the Neeblings. +For Ragnarok is past, and the tree of life still reaches +into the stars. The twilight is past and new suns and new +earths are quickened. And Gunnar still lives.”</p> + +<p>“Part of him.” Gunnar blinked his good eye. +“What happened down there? Oh,” he gasped in +pain, “to have missed the fighting!”</p> + +<p>“Maya lives and I live. Ato is wounded. Wolden came at +the last to help us, Gunnar. We won. And I have killed Grim +Hagen with my bare hands, even as I promised.”</p> + +<p>“Good, Nors-King. I knew always that one of us would +kill him. Oh, it was a grand fight. But Gunnar will sharpen +his sword no more. There was a ford near my father’s +house where the clear water ran fresh over the stones. That +might help me. But it is far away. And my father too. You +tell Freida that we did not make the long trip in +vain.”</p> + +<p>“If I can,” Odin promised.</p> + +<p>“Oh, you can. For we have won the stars and nothing is +beyond us—except youth, maybe.”</p> + +<p>Gunnar closed his eyes and slept for a few minutes while +Odin held him in his arms. Then Gunnar awoke.</p> + +<p>He smiled at Jack Odin and murmured:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<p>“To awake on the sea of the stars—”</p> + +<p>Jack Odin had heard Gunnar sing those words before. They +belonged to an old Norse lullaby that Gunnar’s mother +had crooned to him when he was a little boy.</p> + +<p>Then Gunnar died.</p> + +<p>And Odin knelt over him, tears streaming down his broken +face.</p> + +<p class="toclink"><a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_19" id="CHAPTER_19"></a>CHAPTER 19</h2> + +<p class="noin"><span class="drop">S</span>IX months had +passed since the battle.</p> + +<p>The city of the violet dome was rebuilt. The ashes of the +dead had been strewn upon the mossy plains. The two ships +now stood in peace and gazed at each other across the +expanse of moss and grass that had replaced the cinders left +from the fighting.</p> + +<p>Another city was being built a few miles away.</p> + +<p>Ato had soon recovered from his wounds, and as ship’s +captain had married Maya and Odin.</p> + +<p>So it was over. But Odin and Maya had asked for +Gunnar’s ashes, and had buried them out there on the +plain, beneath a gaunt tree which was something like a +mesquite. Gunnar would have liked that. Twisted, gnarled, +and tough, the tree spread out its branches above him; and a +bird had built its nest there and sang its old song of stars +and men and time.</p> + +<p>The Lorens were a happier people. One of the first things +that the lights had done was to plunge back into space. +Within a few days they returned, trailing a huge dust-cloud +behind them. It must have been the last salvage from the +explosion that Odin had witnessed back there in space. The +cloud trailed out in one great streamer and slowly circled +the ancient sun. Slowly the spirals came nearer to the +fires. The sun fed. Its old warmth returning, it smiled at +its lone child. The air of the planet of the Lorens grew +warmer and fresher. The plains seemed to shake themselves as +a new spring returned to enliven the land and take up its +old work of helping life to begat new life. Out there in +empty space, Odin fancied, Death lowered his scythe and +smiled and shrugged his lean shoulders as he went away to +harvest other suns.</p> + +<p>Oh, it was a wonderful spring. The trip was over, but what a +haggard few had beached the boats at the vast edge of space!</p> + +<p>The few surviving Brons were happy now. Those who had been +Grim Hagen’s slaves out of their loyalty to Maya were +offered anything that they wished. However, it turned out +that most of them wanted little except peace and rest.</p> + +<p>The families of Brons that survived were now building their +houses above ground—although the Lorens had generously +offered them quarters below the city. The Brons wanted no +more of caves or tunnels. They preferred to live up there on +this world’s surface and take their chances with frost +and flood.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>Opal had been beautiful and wonderful. It had been like +living eastward in Eden, but Eden’s gardens were no +more. And perhaps it would be better to face the elements +and meet them head-on instead of seeking shelter. For time +and chance were working everywhere—even in Eden—and as +Gunnar had always said, a fighting heart could carry a man +to the last.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The days and the nights were longer than on earth. The work +was long and hard. But the world of the Lorens was being +rebuilt. And at night, Odin usually set an hour aside to +work on his notes.</p> + +<p>At times he talked with Wolden, although he could never be +completely at ease when talking to a light. Nor could he +understand half the things that Wolden told him. Wolden +quoted formulas on time and space, mass and speed. Odin +guessed that the belt which he had once used so briefly +embodied a No-Time and No-Space factor. But this was beyond +him.</p> + +<p>As for Ato, he grew moodier every day. At last he came to +see Maya and Odin one evening. Sitting by the fire—for the +nights there were chilly—he talked to them of his decision.</p> + +<p>“It was a great fight,” he said. “And I +will always remember it. If Nea had lived, I might have felt +differently. But Wolden and the others say that they will +not stay here much longer. I have decided to go with them. +Theirs is a sort of Nirvana, a timeless, dimensionless +existence. Yesterday and tomorrow, near and far, are +one—”</p> + +<p>Maya shivered. “It sounds like a frightening +existence. I don’t understand it at all. It is as +though they had become spirits without dying.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps,” said Ato thoughtfully, looking into +the fire. “You may be right. But they say it is +wonderful to be freed from the shackles of space and time. +You remember the belt, Odin? Wolden has merely improved upon +it. Soon, I think, I will put on the belt that they brought +for me and go forth with them like +<ins title="a mythological hunting dog who always caught his prey">Laelaps</ins> +to invade the night.”</p> + +<p>He paused a minute and then added cautiously, “They +have brought two more belts with them. For you two, if you +should decide—”</p> + +<p>Maya shivered. Odin laughed, as he shook his head. +“No. I am a man. Just flesh and blood, Ato. And I +choose to stay here and take the blows of time. To endure to +the end—even as my fathers before on earth—”</p> + +<p>Maya snuggled against his shoulder as she nodded her +agreement.</p> + +<p>Ato smiled. “I thought so—But we will say no more +about it. There is one thing that you may not understand. +Wolden has tried to tell you. But he is a scientist, and his +words are different and difficult to follow. You and I have +fought shoulder to shoulder. Perhaps I can explain—”</p> + +<p>Then he talked for nearly an + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> + +hour about the passing of time—and how a ship could +circle the universe at the speed of light—and upon +returning it might find its home-port nothing but dust and +memories. For while their hearts were beating once a month +out there in space tide after tide of years had flowed over +their homes and their loved ones.</p> + +<p>It was a sad, bewildering speech. It reduced time to +nothing—and both Maya and Odin felt a lump of ice in their +throats as Ato talked.</p> + +<p>But even after he had finished, they shook their heads and +clung together. A chill wind from space seemed to be blowing +through the room, whispering of time’s vagaries, and +how space had different clocks, and how the affairs of men +were swept by time and chance down to a sunless sea.</p> + +<p>For the last time Jack Odin and Maya refused Ato’s +offer. Eden was behind him. Immortality was lost. But Adam +and Eve held close to each other there at the edge of +space—and as they left Eden behind an old sad nobility +clung to them. Something brave and beautiful, like the last +leaves of autumn glinting in the setting sun.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The notes that Doctor Jack Odin sent me are ended. But even +as before he wrote a short letter and added it to the +package at the last.</p> + +<div class="letter"><p class="noin">Dear Joe: (he began)</p> + +<p>Wolden and Ato have agreed to deliver this message and the +attached notes. Wolden says that it is a terrible experience to +go from the fourth-dimensional light of his into a time-bound +world. He will not again obligate himself as a messenger boy.</p> + +<p>I promised to let you know how we fared. And here is the tale, +if you can piece it together. And I suppose you can, for you +always liked to monkey around with words. (From this distance, I +would say that putting words together has been both the curse +and the blessing of your entire life.)</p> + +<p>I fear that I cannot understand Ato’s and Wolden’s +talk. But let me put it this way. We traveled fast and furiously +through space. And all the while, Father Time was laughing at +us. You will remember how Grim Hagen aged on Aldebaran while we +sped after him in what seemed to be only a few weeks. Well, if +we left in The Nebula now and plunged back to earth we would +arrive there two hundred years from the day that we took off. +And from what I saw of your civilization at the last, I have no +desire to see it two hundred years later.</p> + +<p>Bewildering, isn’t it? Nea always said that we would have +to use new concepts and develop new mores if we ever conquered +space. She was right.</p> + +<p>Theoretically, you are gone and forgotten for two centuries. And +yet, Wolden assures me that he can deliver this to you in short +order. Therefore, time does not + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> + +exist as we know it. Or is it a river that can be navigated?</p> + +<p>Our home is finished. Maya and I are happy. This is a peaceful +planet. Val’s people are philosophers. They only fought +out of desperation.</p> + +<p>My sword and Gunnar’s are growing rusty upon the wall. I +have a small office now, and will probably end up as a country +doctor. The two ships are still out there on the plain. Our +children, if they wish, can man them and go out into space. But +as far as we are concerned we go no more a-hunting.</p> + +<p>The notes that I am sending you are fairly complete. It is +nearly midnight and the fire is burning low. Maya is nodding +beside me. So—happy at last—parsecs away and years away—I +wish my old friend a hearty fare-thee-well—and</p> + +<p class="smcap">it is a tale that is told.</p> + +<p class="insome">Best wishes,</p> + +<p class="inmore">Jack Odin, M. D.</p> +</div> + +<p class="center pad2top">THE END</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="tn" id="tn"> + +<p class="s4 center">Transcriber's Notes</p> + +<p>This etext was produced from Amazing Science +Fiction Stories May 1960. Extensive research did +not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright +on this publication was renewed.</p> + +<p>The following corrections have been made to the text:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Page 48: Both hands of the clock were pointing +upward{original had uward}.</p> + +<p>Page 51: Rolling the knapsack up into a ball and tying it +securely{original had securly}, he threw it over the brink.</p> + +<p>Page 52: The spurt of a match showed him his miner’s +cap{original had cape} not five feet away.</p> + +<p>Page 55: Even though we go farther than the graveyard of +stars—or beyond the gates of hell, maybe—I will find +her.”{original omitted quotation mark}</p> + +<p>Page 59: We know now that Grim Hagen and his ship, with all +his prisoners and loot, took off from the bed of the sea +with a flourish which was just like Grim Hagen{original had +Hagin}.</p> + +<p>Page 70: They hammered and pounded at the +framework.{original omitted the period}</p> + +<p>Page 71: It was entitled: “Einstein and Einsteinian +Space, with Conjectures upon a Trans-Einsteinian +concept.{original had a comma here}”</p> + +<p>Page 73: She was dressed in linsey-woolsey{original had +lindsey-woolsey}, and the overalls of the three sons were +also home-spun.</p> + +<p>Page 75: And once,{original had a period} Odin heard him +cry out</p> + +<p>Page 78: Larger than the others, Odin landed +awkwardly{original had awkardly} upon the floor of the car.</p> + +<p>Page 79: It was surrounded by green grass, and at one corner +was a profusion of water-lilies{original had water-lillies} +and cat-tails.</p> + +<p>Page 80: “{original omitted this quotation mark}For +over a thousand years, theirs was an economy of death and +rottenness. Mushrooms and toadstools were their food.</p> + +<p>Page 82: Jupiter with its red clouds and its +protean{original had portean} “eye” reached out +for them and was left behind.</p> + +<p>Page 83: “It will be like plunging back from +immortality{original had imortality} to mortality,” +Ato told Odin.</p> + +<p>Page 84: “My father’s work is finished{original +had finisheded},” she told them proudly.</p> + +<p>Page 86: Don’t you see?{original had a period instead +of the question mark}</p> + +<p>Page 91: He saw boats and cars and a few long-nosed +airplanes, with the merest trace of vestigial{original had +vestigeal} wings far back near the empennage,</p> + +<p>Page 95: Again he tossed a sneer in Gunnar’s +direction—{original had a superfluous quotation mark here}</p> + +<p>Page 95: “If I did, Hagen, would I turn you and your +hell’s{original had hells’} spawn loose upon the +stars to perplex them forever?”</p> + +<p>Page 97: “Touché{original had Touche}!” Jack +Odin thought as Gunnar departed.</p> + +<p>Page 98: This was true,{original omitted the comma} Odin +thought, since this was the first Bro-Stoka who had ever +been identified to him.</p> + +<p>Page 98: “And he is a Bro-Stoka among the +slaves,{original omitted this comma}” Gunnar +continued.</p> + +<p>Page 100: “Turn the light upon her forearm{original +had fore-arm, but all other occurrences were spelled +forearm}, now,” he instructed.</p> + +<p>Pages 103-104: Do you remember a story about the bush-men +dying from a curse?{original had a period instead of the +question mark}</p> + +<p>Page 106: {original had a superfluous quotation mark +here}Here,” he pointed to a pinpoint of light upon the +map.</p> + +<p>Page 107: "Perhaps," she answered.{original had a comma} +"But space out there is curdling in his wake."</p> + +<p>Illustration caption (Page 122): Grim Hagen’s men +writhed helplessly in the grip of the Kalis’{original +had Kali’s} deadly copper hairs!</p> + +<p>Page 128: The bees who steal the honey soon die, the old +man{original had men} had said,</p> + +<p>Page 134: Soon, I think, I will put on the belt that they +brought for me and go forth with them like Laelaps{original +had laelaps} to invade the night.”</p> +</div> + +<p>The following words were inconsistently hyphenated, and have +been left as in the original:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>cheek-bone/cheekbone</p> + +<p>fore-arm/forearm</p> + +<p>loud-speakers/loudspeakers</p> + +<p>motor-boat/motorboat</p> + +<p>out-cropping/outcropping</p> +</div> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Hunters Out of Space, by Joseph Everidge Kelleam + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNTERS OUT OF SPACE *** + +***** This file should be named 25270-h.htm or 25270-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/2/7/25270/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Andrew Wainwright and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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