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+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
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               HUNTERS
+
+                               OUT  OF
+
+                                SPACE
+
+
+
+
+                        By  JOSEPH E. KELLEAM
+
+                        ILLUSTRATED by FINLAY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+
+In 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 and there, a bit of melody about all
+the good things that happen to birds and men without their knowing why.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The lights began to whisper.
+
+"We are Ato and Wolden," they said. "Remember us?"
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+I didn't, but I have learned that a man can live quite comfortably by
+merely keeping his mouth shut. So I kept still.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"Look at the ball," the voices whispered. "We will give you an idea of the
+time-space in which we live."
+
+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 rubbed off upon my fingertips.
+
+"See." The lights whispered. "We have turned it inside out--"
+
+The whispering continued.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"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--"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+I touched the box and drew my hand away in pain. It was colder than cold.
+Desolate, burning cold.
+
+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.
+
+Within it was a manuscript. As soon as I looked at it I recognized the
+handwriting of my old friend, Doctor Jack Odin.
+
+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--
+
+And this is the tale that Jack Odin sent me--from Somewhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+
+Jack 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 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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The second ledge was negotiated in the same fashion as the 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+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--
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+Odin went on and on, and the smell of the thing behind him slowly faded
+from the air.
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Ho, Nors-King. I knew you would come. Sooner or later you would be here
+and we would go hunting together."
+
+The man was Gunnar, successor to Jul, and Chief of the Neeblings!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+
+Going 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."
+
+"And how is she, Gunnar? Where is she?"
+
+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.
+
+"Gunnar! Where is Maya?"
+
+Gunnar's big hand squeezed Odin's shoulder.
+
+"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."
+
+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 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.
+
+"We will go together, then," Odin said. "But tell me--"
+
+"Then swear it by my blade." And Gunnar took the long sword and harness up
+from the sand where he had left it.
+
+"My people do not swear by the sword."
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And Jack Odin reached forward and touched the sword and swore that he would
+go with Gunnar even to the edge of the stars--
+
+"Now," Odin pleaded. "Tell me what happened down there."
+
+"It is a long story. And not a pretty one, either. Have you anything to
+eat?"
+
+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.
+
+"Grim Hagen planned well." (So Gunnar began). "He planned well, and even
+yet I hope to kill him.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"Dactyls," Jack Odin prompted.
+
+"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."
+
+He stopped talking to take a huge bite of stale bread that nearly choked
+him. Then he continued his story.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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:
+
+"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[Footnote: Amazing Stories, c. 1929.] 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 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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. 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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.)
+
+"Then I will go with you," Jack Odin told Gunnar. "To fight at your right
+side until we find my princess--"
+
+"And until Grim Hagen is dead," Gunnar added. "For he is a noisome leaven
+that will pollute all of space that he touches."
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+
+Soon the floor of the cavern was slippery beneath their feet.
+
+"The waters came up to here," Gunnar said. "Now, take a deep breath,
+Nors-King, for the air gets worse before it gets better."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gunnar kicked several out of the way as he made a trail for Odin to follow.
+
+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.
+
+At last they saw a reddish light ahead.
+
+Gunnar paused and pointed with a gnarled forefinger. "Opal ahead. All that
+is left of it."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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?"
+
+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--"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"And could you do better?" Gunnar grumbled. "Maybe I let you go first and
+we all go tumbling into the sea--"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+Gunnar retorted: "I doubt if you could have changed one thread of the
+Spinners--"
+
+"But didn't I save you back there in the tunnel with this same rifle?"
+Jack Odin answered.
+
+"And nearly deafened me, too. Oh, well, I would probably have killed that
+thing anyway."
+
+Odin shrugged. Gunnar's philosophy couldn't be shaken.
+
+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."
+
+"Not until I find a better weapon." Jack Odin shook his head.
+
+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.
+
+"I have a boat over here," Gunnar said, and led the way.
+
+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.
+
+When Odin came up he whispered, "We have a visitor."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Gunnar reached back of his shoulder and drew his huge broadsword from its
+scabbard. Then, with sword upraised, he advanced cautiously toward the
+sleeping snake.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Hurry, Nors-King, hurry! The rocks tremble."
+
+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.
+
+The boat was half-full of water. Gunnar climbed in and Odin came right
+behind him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 was still rising as it shook loose an
+occasional, crumbling ledge.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+"There, Gunnar. I have nothing left to fight with but my hands."
+
+"Good-riddance to that thing," Gunnar smiled. "I will make you a blade that
+will slice through an anvil."
+
+The motor coughed, sputtered--and began to purr.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+
+As 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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 fighting man. Wolden could never have been a fighter.
+
+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.
+
+But each in his own way was glad to see Odin, and welcomed him back to the
+ruins of Opal.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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."
+
+Odin laughed again. "You are getting old, Gunnar. Did anyone ever guarantee
+that ford to you for always?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gunnar disappeared in search of fresh clothing. Odin lay there, thinking
+of all the things he had seen since returning to Opal.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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. 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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chinese vases, thin as egg shells, most of them broken, lay in a tumbled
+pile beside ancient cradles and spinning wheels.
+
+A Neanderthal skull was staring hungrily at a twelve foot skeleton of a
+giant bird. And a restoration of a tiny little equus was looking up like
+an inquisitive mouse at a huge ruined painting by Rosa Bonheur.
+
+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."
+
+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 sodden sarcophagus of an Egyptian princess.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+The car moved slowly forward. The dismal fog grew heavier. Until at last
+they came to the place where the Old Ship had stood.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was all too deep for Odin. And there was so much to see that he did not
+ask any questions.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+And Gunnar spoke: "I would have gone beside you. My sword is thirsty."
+
+High up on the hour-glass shape a bit of magnesium caught 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.
+
+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.
+
+All about them now, the smiths were beating out old chanteys on the ancient
+anvils and the newer, clashing machines.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6
+
+
+In 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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!"
+
+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
+machines that had gone into the ship.
+
+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.
+
+"You are christened The Nebula," she cried. "Go out into space--"
+
+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.
+
+"That girl," Odin grasped Gunnar's arm "Who is she?"
+
+Gunnar looked at him curiously. "Her name is Nea. A distant cousin of
+Maya's. Also, a distant cousin to Grim Hagen."
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+Odin yawned. "The lists are ready. Everything is packed. I, myself, have
+checked the lists."
+
+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!"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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--"
+
+But Gunnar shook his head. "I swore by my sword. And I go."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Family meetings always made Odin ill at ease. He stood there, shuffling his
+feet.
+
+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 linsey-woolsey, and the
+overalls of the three sons were also home-spun.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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. 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+After that, Freida worked the conversation around to the voyage that Gunnar
+would soon be making.
+
+"They say it is cold out there," she ventured cautiously.
+
+"Oh, yes. Very cold." Gunnar agreed.
+
+"Then you wrap up good, Gunnar. We wouldn't want you to have a chill."
+
+Gunnar scoffed, "I never had a chill in my life."
+
+"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.
+
+"You promise you wear this if it gets cold," she urged.
+
+"I tell you, mama, I don't need such things. You don't know how tough old
+Gunnar is."
+
+"Yes, I know. You promise to wear the muffler--"
+
+Gunnar took it as he cast a sheepish look at Odin. "All right. All right.
+I'll take it--"
+
+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.
+
+The two went for a meal. But 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--
+
+"Sure. Sure." Odin agreed.
+
+Then, finally, Gunnar cleared his throat and spoke the things that were in
+his mind.
+
+"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."
+
+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--"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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--"
+
+And Gunnar, the strong one, sobbed in his sleep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Ato and Wolden had some last words with the captains who were working upon
+the rebuilding of Opal.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The ship moved on. Far out upon the floor of the Gulf, it paused. There
+were twenty minutes of last-minute checking.
+
+Then, swiftly, as a cork bobs upward, the Nebula arose through the parting
+waters.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7
+
+
+Wolden 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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Then the crawling tractor with its cars lumbering along behind it on their
+endless tracks was below them and playing its single light upward.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"How awkward of me," she explained. "It wouldn't have happened if I had not
+been carrying this--"
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+Once there was a loud _Ping_ upon the roof above them. The tractor shook.
+
+"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."
+
+They came to a sheer mountain which in the beams of the tractor looked like
+a silver pyramid painted across a jet-black canvas.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 thought, but he soon learned that other hands had
+sheered those walls.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Straining his eyes at the windows to look up, Odin learned that the vast
+ceiling was completely covered by similar figures.
+
+In contrast to these was one huge tower of rough stone which Odin guessed
+to be new.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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 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.
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Good heavens, Odin thought, what a cold-blooded obituary for any race!
+
+"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."
+
+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."
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Wouldn't you care to look at the new lake?" Wolden urged.
+
+"I can take a hint," Gunnar grumbled. "Nobody wants a fighting man about
+until the swords are flashing--"
+
+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.
+
+When they greeted her, Odin felt that he could hold back his curiosity no
+longer. "Are you a bowler, Miss Nea?" he asked.
+
+"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."
+
+Gunnar muttered some words that might be roughly interpreted as "Fat
+Chance" and he and Odin left the girl on the steps.
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+So the votes were taken, following a century-old ritual. Wolden was
+relieved of command and Ato was given his place.
+
+Hours later Gunnar and Odin sat with Ato in his quarters, making some
+last-minute decisions.
+
+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--"
+
+Tears were in the eyes of both when Ato took the slug-horn from his father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8
+
+
+At 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.
+
+Then Ato led his group back to the moon's surface.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+The Nebula leaped toward the star-studded skies.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+With one last shrug of his lean shoulders, Ato pulled the lever that threw
+them into the Fourth Drive.
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The crew was given instructions on the anticipated sensations that were
+to follow.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+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--
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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--"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Now, she produced her invention with a proud toss of black curls and a
+flush of excitement on her pale face.
+
+"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--"
+
+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."
+
+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--"
+
+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--"
+
+A grizzled Bron nodded in agreement. "Yes, Nea, this talk serves no
+purpose. Get along with your invention."
+
+"Very well. I asked for a live thing, but Ato would not agree."
+
+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.
+
+"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--"
+
+Odin thought there was just a bit of doubt in her voice. If so, it would
+only be natural.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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!"
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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 plump cat
+returning to a doting mistress.
+
+Nea pressed the button again and put it back into its case.
+
+"Wonderful," Ato applauded. "I move that we give Nea a vote of thanks."
+
+"But what earthly good is it?" Gunnar asked. "I could have swatted it with
+a broom."
+
+"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--"
+
+The grizzled Bron who had spoken once before now laughed good-humoredly.
+"Demonstrate it on Gunnar," he suggested.
+
+"And I will thump your skull--" Gunnar was ready to go for him, but Odin
+grabbed the little giant's arm.
+
+"He jokes. Besides, you are ruining the girl's show. This means much to
+her."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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."
+
+He and Gunnar were with Ato in the control room when suddenly warning
+bells began to jangle and red lights flashed on and off.
+
+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.
+
+Ato pointed to a bright star. "Aldebaran. They are headed there."
+
+His voice was shaking just a bit when he called into the speaker: "Battle
+stations, everyone!"
+
+Gunnar took off for the needle-nosed instrument which he had grown to hate.
+Odin stood by to help with the screens.
+
+"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--"
+
+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.
+
+Bells and klaxons shrieked their warnings.
+
+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 screens and watched the three globes of flame hurtle past them.
+
+Far away now, they slowed like living things, puzzled at having lost their
+prey.
+
+Slowed they merged together--
+
+And turned back upon their quarry!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9
+
+
+The 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The bubble cleared. Over the loudspeakers came Grim Hagen's shriek of
+wild laughter.
+
+Odin turned another knob and the bubble loomed larger.
+
+Grim Hagen stood there, one lean hand rubbing his chin as he laughed at
+them.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+At a signal from Ato, the firing stopped.
+
+Grim Hagen was still laughing.
+
+"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."
+
+Shrouded there within a bubble 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.
+
+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."
+
+Then the topaz globe twitched as a bubble vanishes. And it was gone. Out
+there was nothing but the night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+He stared and shook his head. The dream-vision vanished from the screen.
+Someone had entered the room.
+
+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.
+
+"You ought to be asleep," he warned. "Now that your work is finished--"
+
+"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.
+
+"That is where we are going?" she asked.
+
+"Ato is certain that Grim Hagen is headed for Aldebaran," Odin answered.
+
+"One star out of millions. What difference does it make?"
+
+"You have been working too hard--"
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He tried to make a joke of the matter. "You sound like a beatnik."
+
+"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."
+
+"Well, I'd say 'Nuts.' We would keep on looking. But why such gloomy
+thoughts?"
+
+"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."
+
+Odin drew his hand across his face in dismay. "You make all this sound
+like a mad voyage. Why, this is insane!"
+
+"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."
+
+Lithely she got to her feet and reached a dial upon the screen. The lone
+star vanished. A thousand pinpoints leaped out.
+
+"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?"
+
+"Because I am a man, I suppose."
+
+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--"
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+Then she was gone.
+
+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.
+
+Until finally he got up and went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10
+
+
+Ato'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.
+
+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.
+
+Not a single blast was fired at them. Every man was at his post, while Ato
+guided them in, and Odin worked the screens.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Was space no more creative 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 empennage, 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.
+
+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.
+
+He felt nearly as bewildered as he had been when Nea explained her theories
+of the Time-Space Concept to him.
+
+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.
+
+The city sat there upon the plain and stared at them. The Nebula looked
+back.
+
+At length a procession of cars moved toward them.
+
+Grim Hagen's voice came thundering over the loud-speakers.
+
+"A truce, Ato. I offer you a week's truce in return for a few meetings.
+This world has seen enough destruction--"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The voice was older!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Odin gasped in amazement. Grim Hagen was nearly twenty years older than
+when he had seen him last.
+
+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, there was now nothing but seamed lines like scars and blazing
+eyes. It was an evil face. Grim Hagen had become a devil.
+
+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 alnage. 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--"
+
+"We want the people that you brought with you, Grim Hagen," Ato answered
+coldly. "And the treasures."
+
+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--"
+
+"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--"
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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
+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?
+
+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!"
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+But once Jack Odin and Gunnar 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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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--"
+
+"Oh, quit complaining, little giant. We still have some bargaining power."
+
+"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!"
+
+"Quit worrying. One of us will kill Grim Hagen, sooner or later."
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+"Kinsmen," he began mockingly. "You may have wondered why I called a truce
+when I could just as well have destroyed you--"
+
+"That I doubt," Ato answered him. "We have defensive weapons. Even now the
+guns from our ship are trained upon the city."
+
+Grim Hagen shrugged. "Let us not quibble, Ato. Your father was a quibbler
+before you."
+
+Ato flushed in anger.
+
+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."
+
+"Now, you're quibbling," Gunnar jeered. "Get on with your speech, Grim
+Hagen."
+
+Grim Hagen bowed to the broad-shouldered little man. "Some day, Gunnar, I
+may have to kill you--"
+
+"Now. Now." Gunnar urged, fairly jumping in rage. "Just the two of us, Grim
+Hagen. Just the two of us with bare hands--"
+
+"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--
+
+"That's easy," Gunnar retorted. "The old herdsman sleeps well at night."
+
+"Bah. Who wants to sleep? Please quit interrupting, Gunnar."
+
+"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--"
+
+"Loki, the Mischief-Maker, running through creation--" Gunnar muttered.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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?"
+
+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.
+
+A dozen knives flashed. A dozen death-tubes were pointed toward Ato and
+his followers.
+
+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--"
+
+Grim Hagen flamed. "You will die on the hook for this--"
+
+"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--"
+
+"Arrest them all," Grim Hagen screamed. "Arrest Rama too," he added with
+rage.
+
+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.
+
+"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--"
+
+He saluted them as he went out the door.
+
+They never saw Rama again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11
+
+
+Although 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?"
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+"You ought to get yourself a witch-doctor's mask and a couple of
+hollowbones to whistle through," Odin had told him scathingly.
+
+"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."
+
+"Touché!" Jack Odin thought as Gunnar departed. "So he's been worrying
+about me and the girls, has he?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Just myself," Odin replied. "Now what--"
+
+"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.
+
+"This man goes by the name of Piper," Gunnar announced simply.
+
+The man bowed and smiled nervously.
+
+"And he is a Bro-Stoka among the slaves," Gunnar continued.
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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."
+
+Odin's lethargy was gone now. "Gunnar, old friend! What magic was in that
+bag of yours?"
+
+"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."
+
+Odin slapped him on the back. "Gunnar, you are a genius, a sheer genius."
+
+"Not at all. When I was a young man I learned such strategy from studying
+the world above me."
+
+Odin winced.
+
+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."
+
+"Please, Gunnar. When will we see Maya--"
+
+"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?"
+
+"Gunnar, I know nothing of these matters. Tell me about Maya--"
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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--"
+
+"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--"
+
+Piper, Jack Odin gathered, was a very ambitious man.
+
+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.
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+As though reassured, Piper took up his oars.
+
+"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."
+
+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!"
+
+The boat streaked across the river's surface like a water-bug.
+
+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.
+
+"This is as far as I can go," Piper told them in a sweating voice. "Over
+there is the tomb."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"That Piper is a smart lad," Gunnar whispered. "He knows what he wants.
+He'll go far--maybe."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Here," Gunnar handed him the light. "Hold this while I get busy. Here now,
+Nors-King. No blubbering."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Then her vision cleared and she recognized them.
+
+"Jack--Gunnar--" she gasped. Then she was in Odin's arms. And Gunnar, the
+strong one, was standing over them--sniffling.
+
+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."
+
+"Never mind," Odin comforted. "We will explain later. Can you walk now?"
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Carry her, Nors-King," Gunnar muttered. "The night grows old and we must
+make our way to the Nebula."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Odin thrust Maya to the couch as he came forward to help.
+
+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. 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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12
+
+
+He 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Three times more the soft mane of hair caressed him and three times more
+just as he was 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.
+
+At intervals, he could hear Gunnar's voice--and his own--crying, pleading,
+threatening.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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--
+
+The pain left him. His mind cleared and he lay there gasping from the
+ordeal.
+
+Ato and Nea smiled at them. So cheerfully that he almost expected them to
+write out a bill for surgical fees.
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+"Tell him, Nea," Ato said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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."
+
+"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--"
+
+"You were plenty rough," Gunnar grumbled.
+
+"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."
+
+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?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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?"
+
+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."
+
+"Will you please tell me where we are?" Gunnar demanded.
+
+"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."
+
+"Can't we overtake him?" Odin asked.
+
+"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."
+
+"Not as fast as he will go if I ever get my hands on him," Gunnar promised.
+
+"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."
+
+Nea laughed. "Even as I said before." She gave Jack Odin a searching look,
+but Odin avoided her gaze--
+
+"Then, what have you done?" Odin asked.
+
+"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."
+
+"Only at that moment," Odin corrected. "If not destroyed, it has a chance
+to improve its percentage when the pursuer has made its pass."
+
+"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."
+
+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."
+
+Ato flushed in anger. "Nea, I was my father's helper for years and years.
+I know as much about space as any man."
+
+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?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13
+
+
+The dust-cloud was farther away than Ato had guessed. Long before they
+reached it, his instruments began to waver.
+
+He looked at a star-map. Meanwhile, Nea fed rows of figures into a humming
+calculator.
+
+"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."
+
+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--"
+
+"I don't like the problem at all--" Gunnar complained. "Just where is Grim
+Hagen?"
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"We're going in there," Ato decided. "It's the quickest way."
+
+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.
+
+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 energy that the ship reeled with its power.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+"Ragnarok," Gunnar growled in his throat. He adjusted the shoulder strap
+that harnessed his broadsword to his back and looked at Odin curiously.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Grim Hagen went in there," Ato replied as he studied his instruments. "If
+he can, we can."
+
+"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.
+
+"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--"
+
+With one warning blare, The Nebula plunged into the fringe of the
+dust-cloud.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Try this," she said in a tremulous voice. "It may work."
+
+Ato took the tape from her hands and set the controls accordingly.
+
+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.
+
+Odin knew that such a feeling was impossible out here, but it seemed to him
+that The Nebula leaped forward.
+
+Ato cried out in triumph. "I've got another fix on Grim Hagen. He's much
+nearer now."
+
+"Hurry, Ato. Hurry," Nea was pleading.
+
+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.
+
+"Ato. Hurry," Nea screamed. One of her instruments melted as she stared
+into it and she jumped back, her hands to her eyes--
+
+Then they were out of the cloud, and space lay empty and free before them,
+with only one tiny sun in view.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jack Odin twisted the controls to take a look at what was happening back
+there in the cloud.
+
+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 rushed across the screen.
+Rockets flashed. And fountains of flame spilled sun after sun into the
+sparkling void. Odin stood transfixed by the sight.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Not violent enough," Odin exclaimed. "How violent can an explosion be?"
+
+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--"
+
+Gunnar shivered. "Not back there. I have seen enough. Now, Ato, what lies
+ahead?"
+
+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."
+
+He turned a dial and the screens picked up one lone red sun far away. One
+tiny black dot slowly circled it.
+
+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--
+
+One other speck now appeared upon the screen. A pinpoint of light that
+crawled toward the lone sun and its single huge planet.
+
+Grim Hagen and the Old Ship!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"Sunk from sight," were Gunnar's words, and this explained the
+disappearance as well as anything. It was as though they had been on
+a boat and the thing had dived overboard.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+How far away and how long ago!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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?
+
+Sleep after sleep went by and still the two ships crawled toward that last
+port on the edge of space.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14
+
+
+The two ships landed a few miles apart at almost the same time.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+There was a demanding buzz from the loudspeaker.
+
+Ato turned the dial. A strange, harsh voice was calling. "You there, on the
+Second ship. You on the second ship. Answer."
+
+"Yes!" Ato replied gruffly. "Who are you?"
+
+"I am the head man of the city--the city within the dome."
+
+"How did you know our language?"
+
+"We have known it for thirty years. For that long have we been in contact
+with Grim Hagen."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+The voice continued. "We invited Grim Hagen to our world. We did not invite
+you. Go away."
+
+"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."
+
+"We are not going away," Ato told the voice stubbornly.
+
+"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."
+
+They looked at the screen, and a tiny drone-torpedo came winging 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.
+
+"There," the voice said triumphantly. "That is what will happen to you. Why
+don't you leave us? You are not wanted. Leave us."
+
+"Faith, he's a hospitable soul," Odin murmured.
+
+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."
+
+"Grim Hagen is our ally. We have already sworn our allegiance. I have no
+more words for you."
+
+There was a clicking sound and the loudspeaker died with a sputter of
+static.
+
+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."
+
+"Greed has you in its hand, Grim Hagen. I know nothing of my father's
+secret. I do not even know if he succeeded--"
+
+"Then summon him and let him decide for himself. You are young, but
+two-thirds of my life is gone now--"
+
+"Your calculation is wrong," Gunnar shouted. "You life is nearly all gone,
+Grim Hagen."
+
+"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--"
+
+"Talk on, Grim Hagen," Odin growled. "I am here. And I intend to kill
+you--Just as I promised."
+
+"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."
+
+Another click and the loudspeaker was silent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Gunnar was in favor of hazarding an attack on the barrier and then going
+on to the city.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+The day passed wearily by.
+
+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.
+
+Yes, it was certainly Grim Hagen's day.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"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--"
+
+Odin groaned. "In twenty days Grim Hagen will be back among the stars--"
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nea went back to the lab. Odin and Ato continued their study of the maps.
+Gunnar was putting a fine edge to his broadsword.
+
+Then the warning buzzer sounded its alarm. Odin dived for the screen and
+turned on the controls.
+
+A long procession of mauve shadows was approaching. Already inside the
+barrier, they came single-file and slowly circled The Nebula.
+
+Even in the pale weird light, they certainly seemed to be men.
+
+Ato ordered "Battle-Stations" and sirens sounded all over the ship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"Men of the strange ship. Men of the strange ship--"
+
+"Yes," Odin answered.
+
+"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."
+
+Within a few minutes, a dozen of the strangers had been brought aboard The
+Nebula. Ato summoned Nea and the rest of the captains.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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
+suns, millions upon millions of miles away. But we were never able to
+perfect a telescope that could bring a single sun into view.
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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--"
+
+"He was playing at being the eternal Loki--the old mischief-maker--" Gunnar
+interrupted and went on edging his sword.
+
+"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--"
+
+"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."
+
+"Please, Gunnar," Ato begged. "Let Val go on with his story."
+
+"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?"
+
+"I will try to explain that later," Ato answered.
+
+"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--"
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+"How did you get through the barrier?" Nea asked.
+
+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."
+
+"Then we can go to the city?" Gunnar exclaimed with a joyful war-whoop.
+"To kill, and kill, and kill--"
+
+"You are right," Ato admitted. "Delay will only increase Grim Hagen's
+advantage. To the city--as fast as we can--"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15
+
+
+Val and his men had brought along enough of the umbrella-shaped defenses
+to get them through the barrier.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Gunnar had laughed at that. "Hang on to your sword and knife, Nors-King.
+We will need them yet."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Listen," Gunnar warned.
+
+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.
+
+Then all was still.
+
+"It was from the Old Ship," Gunnar said. "I wonder--"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The defenders cleared the choked stairways and came on--dying at the
+entrances and falling back and blocking the stairs again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Meanwhile, Ato's guns were going out. The last became a white torch when
+a magnesium blob struck it.
+
+The side-arms were all gone.
+
+They fought now with sword and knife.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16
+
+
+Gunnar 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Odin and Gunnar knelt beside the railing that marked the entrance to the
+tunnels below. Neither Hagen nor his men saw them.
+
+Gunnar grasped Odin's shoulders and pulled him down. "Listen," he whispered
+in Odin's ear. "Do you hear anything strange?"
+
+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.
+
+Then screams drowned out the whining sound, and Odin wondered if he had not
+imagined it.
+
+Nearly a hundred of the defenders came running toward Grim Hagen. They were
+in mad flight now. Most of them were weaponless. Grim Hagen cursed them,
+rallied them about him, and urged them to pick up new weapons and fight.
+
+Now, Ato and Val and another hundred men came charging forward.
+
+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.
+
+Now Grim Hagen spied Odin and Gunnar as they advanced to help Ato.
+
+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.
+
+"Look, men of the Lorens," Hagen cried, still pointing. "I will give
+immortality to the men who bring me those two alive."
+
+The first two to reach Gunnar and Odin died at the end of Gunnar's and
+Odin's swords.
+
+"Your immortality does not last very long, Grim Hagen," Gunnar shouted as
+he wiped his blade.
+
+Then another man came up the stairway. Odin killed him and flung him back
+upon the men who followed.
+
+But reinforcements were pouring in from other lanes. Grim Hagen and his
+men now numbered over a thousand.
+
+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.
+
+But Hagen's men rallied and drove them back again--almost to the stairway.
+
+"The next drive will get us," Ato groaned. "Brace yourselves, men."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 dozens of old men. All were armed. And they
+came forward like the wrack of a surviving army at judgement day.
+
+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.
+
+One caught a fugitive as he lagged behind--and he died screaming.
+
+[Illustration: Grim Hagen's men writhed helplessly in the grip of the
+Kalis' deadly copper hairs!]
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"Good God," Odin was thinking. "What unexplored labyrinths are left in the
+human brain?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+There were other Lorens coming out of the hedges, but they held back.
+They had seen enough.
+
+Had fortune favored Ato then, his army would have won.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 had been cornered by an enemy they could not understand.
+
+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 sardonyx that blazed huge and grand for a brief
+moment. Then the jewel-blaze burned out, and a handful of ashes sifted
+to the ground.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+By now both Ato and Maya had swung their shattered little armies over to
+the subway entrance.
+
+Hagen had retreated from the dais. Meeting the advancing Lorens, he led
+them forward.
+
+Those on the stairway retreated as they saw that they were no longer
+against two warriors.
+
+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."
+
+"But Grim Hagen will be at our heels--" Odin protested.
+
+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."
+
+"Go with Maya, Ato," Odin said, "and I will stay here with Gunnar."
+
+"No. The entrance is narrow. You would be in the way," Gunnar protested.
+"Now, go! Oh, but the valkyries will be busy tonight!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Ato's and Maya's fighters tumbled after them. There were only a few of the
+old people and children left.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Gunnar braced himself, his long blade high over his shoulder, both hands
+locked to the long carved haft.
+
+"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--"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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--"
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+One by one the companies returned to Grim Hagen and reported that for the
+present there was no other way into the room below.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+He cleared a path and sent his attackers back until they stood about him
+in a circle, their fangs ready.
+
+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.
+
+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 forward, like a dwarf-king advancing from Hell.
+
+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.
+
+Gunnar reeled back into the flames.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17
+
+
+A 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.
+
+Maya was at Odin's side now. They clung together. Jack Odin kissed her
+and swore that they would never be parted again.
+
+"Until death--" Maya said and raised her lips to his.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+Odin agreed.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Are your men still armed, Val?" Odin asked.
+
+"Aye. They know to hang on to their weapons."
+
+"Not all of Maya's people are," Odin said. "I don't like the idea of the
+children and old men fighting."
+
+"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."
+
+They waited. All the troops and all the weapons were moved behind the
+barricade.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Then a white-skinned warrior leaped at the barricade and Odin thrust him
+through.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Torches began to rain down upon them. Half the defending forces were now
+busy with water and sand, beating out the flames.
+
+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.
+
+The floor beyond the barrier was littered with dead and slippery with
+blood before Grim Hagen's men broke the barrier.
+
+There were only two hundred to meet the charge of two thousand. The end
+was inevitable.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Suddenly the room was filled with lights, flashing and dancing everywhere.
+Whispering.
+
+A stillness fell upon the room and the shambles. Men paused as they lifted
+their knives or braced themselves for a last thrust.
+
+For a single breath, all was in silence.
+
+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."
+
+The lights darted down upon Grim Hagen's men. And as they touched them,
+the cold of space 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.
+
+There was a spattering sound, as of sleet falling against a distant roof.
+A strange smell filled the air.
+
+And one by one Grim Hagen's men went down.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18
+
+
+All 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.
+
+He saw a light dart down toward Grim Hagen.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"No more of that, Odin. Drop your sword or she dies. Drop it now!"
+
+And Odin lowered his hand and let his sword fall to the table beneath him.
+
+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--"
+
+"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."
+
+Grim Hagen smiled an evil smile. "So. But it is I who make the bargain.
+Even yet. Maya goes with me. Remember!"
+
+But at that instant Maya got one hand free and thrust the sword aside.
+
+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.
+
+They stood there swaying. Then they tumbled down the rude stairway of
+tables that Ato had fashioned for his last stand.
+
+They rolled to the blood-stained floor beneath. And Odin never knew how
+either of them survived the fall.
+
+The lights hovered above them, waiting for an opening. Maya took up a
+fallen sword and came following after.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+A cot was improvised for Ato. The lights hovered around him, whispering
+cheerfully and ignoring all others.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There at the top of the stairs he found Gunnar. And Gunnar's dead lay thick
+about him.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Part of him." Gunnar blinked his good eye. "What happened down there? Oh,"
+he gasped in pain, "to have missed the fighting!"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"If I can," Odin promised.
+
+"Oh, you can. For we have won the stars and nothing is beyond us--except
+youth, maybe."
+
+Gunnar closed his eyes and slept for a few minutes while Odin held him in
+his arms. Then Gunnar awoke.
+
+He smiled at Jack Odin and murmured:
+
+"To awake on the sea of the stars--"
+
+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.
+
+Then Gunnar died.
+
+And Odin knelt over him, tears streaming down his broken face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 19
+
+
+Six months had passed since the battle.
+
+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.
+
+Another city was being built a few miles away.
+
+Ato had soon recovered from his wounds, and as ship's captain had married
+Maya and Odin.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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--"
+
+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."
+
+"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 Laelaps to invade the night."
+
+He paused a minute and then added cautiously, "They have brought two more
+belts with them. For you two, if you should decide--"
+
+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--"
+
+Maya snuggled against his shoulder as she nodded her agreement.
+
+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--"
+
+Then he talked for nearly an 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+   Dear Joe: (he began)
+
+   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.
+
+   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.)
+
+   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.
+
+   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.
+
+   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 exist as we know it. Or is it a
+   river that can be navigated?
+
+   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.
+
+   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.
+
+   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
+
+   IT IS A TALE THAT IS TOLD.
+
+           Best wishes,
+
+                   Jack Odin, M. D.
+
+
+                               THE END
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+
+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.
+
+The following corrections have been made to the text:
+
+Page 48: Both hands of the clock were pointing upward{original had uward}.
+
+Page 51: Rolling the knapsack up into a ball and tying it securely{original
+had securly}, he threw it over the brink.
+
+Page 52: The spurt of a match showed him his miner's cap{original had cape}
+not five feet away.
+
+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}
+
+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}.
+
+Page 70: They hammered and pounded at the framework.{original omitted the
+period}
+
+Page 71: It was entitled: "Einstein and Einsteinian Space, with Conjectures
+upon a Trans-Einsteinian concept.{original had a comma here}"
+
+Page 73: She was dressed in linsey-woolsey{original had lindsey-woolsey},
+and the overalls of the three sons were also home-spun.
+
+Page 75: And once,{original had a period} Odin heard him cry out
+
+Page 78: Larger than the others, Odin landed awkwardly{original had
+awkardly} upon the floor of the car.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Page 82: Jupiter with its red clouds and its protean{original had portean}
+"eye" reached out for them and was left behind.
+
+Page 83: "It will be like plunging back from immortality{original had
+imortality} to mortality," Ato told Odin.
+
+Page 84: "My father's work is finished{original had finisheded}," she told
+them proudly.
+
+Page 86: Don't you see?{original had a period instead of the question mark}
+
+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,
+
+Page 95: Again he tossed a sneer in Gunnar's direction--{original had a
+superfluous quotation mark here}
+
+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?"
+
+Page 97: "Touché{original had Touche}!" Jack Odin thought as Gunnar
+departed.
+
+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.
+
+Page 98: "And he is a Bro-Stoka among the slaves,{original omitted this
+comma}" Gunnar continued.
+
+Page 100: "Turn the light upon her forearm{original had fore-arm, but all
+other occurrences were spelled forearm}, now," he instructed.
+
+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}
+
+Page 106: {original had a superfluous quotation mark here}Here," he pointed
+to a pinpoint of light upon the map.
+
+Page 107: "Perhaps," she answered.{original had a comma} "But space out
+there is curdling in his wake."
+
+Illustration caption (Page 122): Grim Hagen's men writhed helplessly in
+the grip of the Kalis'{original had Kali's} deadly copper hairs!
+
+Page 128: The bees who steal the honey soon die, the old man{original had
+men} had said,
+
+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."
+
+The following words were inconsistently hyphenated, and have been left as
+in the original:
+
+  cheek-bone/cheekbone
+  fore-arm/forearm
+  loud-speakers/loudspeakers
+  motor-boat/motorboat
+  out-cropping/outcropping
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Hunters Out of Space, by Joseph Everidge Kelleam
+
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+<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&nbsp;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&mdash;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&nbsp;47]<br />[Pg&nbsp;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&mdash;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&mdash;or the ghost of a light&mdash;gleaming
+faintly upon&mdash;or through&mdash;the ceiling. It was the faintest
+yellow, neither a bull&rsquo;s eye nor a splotch. Instead,
+it seemed to be a tiny whirlpool of movement&mdash;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>&ldquo;We are Ato and Wolden,&rdquo; they said.
+&ldquo;Remember us?&rdquo;</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>&ldquo;Wolden&rsquo;s work has succeeded,&rdquo; the
+whispering continued. &ldquo;We have reduced time and space
+to nothing. You see us as lights, or as we once put it,
+&lsquo;as flame-winged butterflies,&rsquo; 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?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I didn&rsquo;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>&ldquo;Look at the ball,&rdquo; the voices whispered.
+&ldquo;We will give you an idea of the time-space in which
+we live.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;49]</a></span>
+
+rubbed off upon my fingertips.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;See.&rdquo; The lights whispered. &ldquo;We have
+turned it inside out&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The whispering continued.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>&ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</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&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;or cool
+enough&mdash;to touch. Then, after several experiments I got the
+snake&rsquo;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&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>And this is the tale that Jack Odin sent me&mdash;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&mdash;or what Keefe had
+called the Hole&mdash;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;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&mdash;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;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&mdash;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&nbsp;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&mdash;remembering that he had
+matches in his pockets.</p>
+
+<p>The spurt of a match showed him his miner&rsquo;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&mdash;but old and old and old. Filling his canteen, he
+opened
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg&nbsp;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&mdash;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&mdash;</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&rsquo;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&mdash;feeling their way,
+almost&mdash;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&mdash;a Neebling&mdash;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&nbsp;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;s arm. Its razored
+tail was lashing forward&mdash;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&rsquo;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>&ldquo;Ho, Nors-King. I knew you would come. Sooner or later
+you would be here and we would go hunting together.&rdquo;</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.
+&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And how is she, Gunnar? Where is she?&rdquo;</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. &ldquo;I
+was getting ready to take a bath when the thing came at
+me,&rdquo; he explained simply.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Gunnar! Where is Maya?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar&rsquo;s big hand squeezed Odin&rsquo;s shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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&mdash;or beyond the gates of hell, maybe&mdash;I will find
+her.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There was a sob in the squat man&rsquo;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&nbsp;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>&ldquo;We will go together, then,&rdquo; Odin said.
+&ldquo;But tell me&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then swear it by my blade.&rdquo; And Gunnar took the
+long sword and harness up from the sand where he had left
+it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My people do not swear by the sword.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar cursed. &ldquo;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&rsquo;s path in their dragon-headed
+ships. Here, swear by the sword, my sword.&rdquo;</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&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; Odin pleaded. &ldquo;Tell me what
+happened down there.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is a long story. And not a pretty one, either.
+Have you anything to eat?&rdquo;</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>&ldquo;Grim Hagen planned well.&rdquo; (So Gunnar began).
+&ldquo;He planned well, and even yet I hope to kill him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That was an evil day when you and Maya decided to go
+back to outer-earth. An evil day. Some of Grim Hagen&rsquo;s
+men snared Maya with their thons. There was much fighting.
+We killed many but many got away.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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>&ldquo;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&mdash;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?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dactyls,&rdquo; Jack Odin prompted.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg&nbsp;57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, that&rsquo;s it,&rdquo; Gunnar said as he
+stared into the fire. &ldquo;Dactyls. I like that word. It
+has an evil, bloody ring to it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He stopped talking to take a huge bite of stale bread that
+nearly choked him. Then he continued his story.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Meanwhile, in the city of the Scientists, the same
+kind of fighting had been going on. We learned later that
+when Grim Hagen&rsquo;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>&ldquo;As soon as we could patch up our ships, we came
+a-following and joined forces with Ato&rsquo;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&rsquo;t until one of the prisoners escaped. His name
+was Zol, and he was a friend of Maya&rsquo;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>&ldquo;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>&ldquo;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>&ldquo;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>&ldquo;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&nbsp;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>&ldquo;So,&rdquo; (Gunnar continued, drawing a huge forearm
+across his moist blue eyes) &ldquo;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>&ldquo;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>&ldquo;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>&ldquo;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&rsquo;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&mdash;to be his
+slave, even as he had promised us that night in Maya&rsquo;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&rsquo;s ravings, so we turned off our radio. And that is
+the last we ever heard from Grim Hagen.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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>&ldquo;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&nbsp;59]</a></span>
+
+The waters flooded both Valla and the Scientists&rsquo;
+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>&ldquo;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>&ldquo;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&mdash;and have helped
+ourselves to your cattle when we could.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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>&ldquo;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&mdash;even a league beyond the outer
+shell of space&mdash;or a day&rsquo;s journey beyond the
+grave.&rdquo; (So Gunnar&rsquo;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>&ldquo;Then I will go with you,&rdquo; Jack Odin told
+Gunnar. &ldquo;To fight at your right side until we find my
+princess&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And until Grim Hagen is dead,&rdquo; Gunnar added.
+&ldquo;For he is a noisome leaven that will pollute all of
+space that he touches.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;60]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The waters came up to here,&rdquo; Gunnar said.
+&ldquo;Now, take a deep breath, Nors-King, for the air gets
+worse before it gets better.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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.
+&ldquo;Opal ahead. All that is left of it.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&nbsp;61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There were tears in Gunnar&rsquo;s eyes also. Nearly two
+heads shorter than Odin, he stood beside him and clutched
+the taller man&rsquo;s forearm with a huge, gnarled hand.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Over there,&rdquo; he said, pointing in a direction
+opposite from the Tower, &ldquo;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&mdash;and my mother, who
+wasn&rsquo;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:
+&lsquo;Bee, bee, bumblebee, all&rsquo;s out&rsquo;s in
+free.&rsquo; It was a great game, and then the night would
+fall and we would hurry home. One had no trouble sleeping in
+those days.&rdquo; Gunnar paused to sigh a great sigh.
+&ldquo;But it didn&rsquo;t work out. No one got in free. The
+homes, the pastures, the players, most of them are gone&mdash;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Jack Odin gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, for
+Gunnar&rsquo;s thoughts seemed to be growing more dismal by
+the minute. &ldquo;Well, little man, it was all a bright
+dream that went too fast. And are we to stay here on this
+ledge &rsquo;til doomsday while you try to re-spin the
+broken threads of the past?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>So Gunnar&rsquo;s thoughts came back to the present and his
+big shoulders heaved when he laughed. &ldquo;Eh! Spoken like
+a Nors-King, Odin. I must be getting old. Well,
+there&rsquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</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&nbsp;62]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We go down here now,&rdquo; Gunnar instructed.
+&ldquo;But don&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</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>&ldquo;And could you do better?&rdquo; Gunnar grumbled.
+&ldquo;Maybe I let you go first and we all go tumbling into
+the sea&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Gunnar, you did fine. But you reminded me of a
+cartoon back home where the cat&rsquo;s in the kitchen and
+has upset some pots and pans and is trying to catch them
+before they fall and make a clatter.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And is this a time to talk about cats? A cat&rsquo;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&rsquo;t be so clumsy. It&rsquo;s no good.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No. I was here once without a rifle, and I needed it
+badly. One bullet between Grim Hagen&rsquo;s eyes and none
+of this would have happened.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar retorted: &ldquo;I doubt if you could have changed
+one thread of the Spinners&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But didn&rsquo;t I save you back there in the tunnel
+with this same rifle?&rdquo; Jack Odin answered.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And nearly deafened me, too. Oh, well, I would
+probably have killed that thing anyway.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin shrugged. Gunnar&rsquo;s philosophy couldn&rsquo;t be
+shaken.</p>
+
+<p>But the dwarf was serious about the rifle. &ldquo;One shot
+would bring the rocks down upon us, Odin. Throw the thing
+away. It&rsquo;s no good.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not until I find a better weapon.&rdquo; Jack Odin
+shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>At last they struggled through to the water&rsquo;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>&ldquo;I have a boat over here,&rdquo; 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, &ldquo;We have a
+visitor.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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>&ldquo;Hurry, Nors-King, hurry! The rocks tremble.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The snake&rsquo;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&mdash;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&nbsp;64]</a></span>
+
+was still rising as it shook loose an occasional,
+crumbling ledge.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Eh, Nors-King, we fight again,&rdquo; the squat man
+laughed. &ldquo;You saved Gunnar&rsquo;s life once more&mdash;and
+you almost killed him, too.&rdquo; 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>&ldquo;There, Gunnar. I have nothing left to fight with but
+my hands.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Good-riddance to that thing,&rdquo; Gunnar smiled.
+&ldquo;I will make you a blade that will slice through an
+anvil.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The motor coughed, sputtered&mdash;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&mdash;almost like a voyage in a dream&mdash;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. &ldquo;Wolden has
+ordered speed and more speed, my friend,&rdquo; he called
+over the roar of the motor. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&nbsp;65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He turned his head, and the boat careened into a trough
+that set it to shaking. &ldquo;I have contacted Wolden and
+Ato,&rdquo; he called cheerfully. &ldquo;They are meeting us
+at the dock. Not the old dock&mdash;it is still under water. The
+new one is farther up the street.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;t one-eyed. He wasn&rsquo;t. So the ferry creaked
+its way out to the Tower&mdash;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>&ldquo;And are you howling, my strong little man?&rdquo; he
+called out cheerfully. &ldquo;In Korea I once bathed in a
+mud puddle and enjoyed the bath.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar&rsquo;s first few words were unprintable.
+&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin laughed again. &ldquo;You are getting old, Gunnar. Did
+anyone ever guarantee that ford to you for always?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg&nbsp;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. &ldquo;And does Gunnar look too old to
+fight?&rdquo; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Odin blinked. Gunnar&rsquo;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;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&mdash;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&mdash;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: &ldquo;Poems by a Bostonian.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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&mdash;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&rsquo;s arm.
+&ldquo;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?&rdquo; The
+voice of the broad-shouldered dwarf sounded husky and far
+away.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. They died. My Freida and the other three are
+coming here. And we will eat at the same table again&mdash;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&mdash;and Freida and the three will go
+back to rebuild the farm. For that is the way of things&mdash;and
+as long as there are strong ones left to rebuild, Loki
+cannot altogether destroy us.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This is our second,&rdquo; Wolden explained.
+&ldquo;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,&rdquo; Wolden continued, &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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>&ldquo;We are wrecking our buildings for this ship,&rdquo;
+Wolden mourned. &ldquo;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&mdash;the bad ones&mdash;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;So be it,&rdquo; Odin answered and he leaned his head
+back and looked high up at the scaffolding where the
+welders&rsquo; torches flashed like stars. &ldquo;So be it,
+Wolden. But I would have gone anyway.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And Gunnar spoke: &ldquo;I would have gone beside you. My
+sword is thirsty.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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:
+&ldquo;Einstein and Einsteinian Space, with Conjectures upon
+a Trans-Einsteinian concept.&rdquo; 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>&ldquo;He was grasping at something new,&rdquo; Wolden
+explained. &ldquo;His concept was only nascent. But such a
+mind! The book has been invaluable. Still, it is nothing but
+a starting point&mdash;but such a starting point!&rdquo;</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&mdash;the basic principles behind those
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg&nbsp;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>&ldquo;You are christened The Nebula,&rdquo; she cried.
+&ldquo;Go out into space&mdash;&rdquo;</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&mdash;like drops of blood, and the onlookers,
+who were by nature opposed to crowds, began to disperse.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That girl,&rdquo; Odin grasped Gunnar&rsquo;s arm
+&ldquo;Who is she?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar looked at him curiously. &ldquo;Her name is Nea. A
+distant cousin of Maya&rsquo;s. Also, a distant cousin to
+Grim Hagen.&rdquo;</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: &ldquo;So I kissed her little sister and forgot my
+Clementine.&rdquo;</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&mdash;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>&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin yawned. &ldquo;The lists are ready. Everything is
+packed. I, myself, have checked the lists.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg&nbsp;73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gunnar laughed. &ldquo;How much time have your people spent
+checking lists? You are the world&rsquo;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&rsquo;ll wager that
+your lists are not worth a darning needle. Something will be
+left behind. A slice of some bride&rsquo;s wedding cake.
+Little Nordo&rsquo;s favorite toy. Papa&rsquo;s best
+pocket-knife. Mama&rsquo;s button-box.&rdquo; The strong
+little man made a wry face. &ldquo;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&mdash;or if they grumble too much, Gunnar
+can slap them silly. But families&mdash;on a trip like this.
+No!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, they&rsquo;re going,&rdquo; Odin retorted.
+&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, well, it does not matter. I am not of the Brons,
+but I go because of a promise.&rdquo; Gunnar shrugged and
+his face appeared sad and seamed. &ldquo;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&mdash;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&mdash;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin slapped his arm across Gunnar&rsquo;s shoulders.
+&ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But Gunnar shook his head. &ldquo;I swore by my sword. And I
+go.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>A few hours later, they stood at the water&rsquo;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&nbsp;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. &ldquo;Get
+strong muscles on your legs and shoulders,&rdquo; he told
+them. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>No tears were shed. They talked of little things, and
+laughed at old jokes that Gunnar&rsquo;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>&ldquo;They say it is cold out there,&rdquo; she ventured
+cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes. Very cold.&rdquo; Gunnar agreed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then you wrap up good, Gunnar. We wouldn&rsquo;t want
+you to have a chill.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar scoffed, &ldquo;I never had a chill in my
+life.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, such talk. Don&rsquo;t pretend to be so big. I
+have nursed you through many a chill.&rdquo; Then she
+produced her parting gift&mdash;a muffler that would have swathed
+poor Gunnar from chin to belt.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You promise you wear this if it gets cold,&rdquo; she
+urged.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I tell you, mama, I don&rsquo;t need such things. You
+don&rsquo;t know how tough old Gunnar is.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, I know. You promise to wear the muffler&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar took it as he cast a sheepish look at Odin.
+&ldquo;All right. All right. I&rsquo;ll take it&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After Freida&rsquo;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&nbsp;75]</a></span>
+
+Gunnar ate little, grumbling at the food. Once he assured
+Odin that he had never had a chill in his life&mdash;that
+Freida was too thoughtful about him&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sure. Sure.&rdquo; Odin agreed.</p>
+
+<p>Then, finally, Gunnar cleared his throat and spoke the
+things that were in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Friend Odin,&rdquo; he began, looking down at his
+plate as though he expected to see an answer there. &ldquo;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&mdash;to the
+edge of the night where the mad gods make bonfires of
+worn-out suns&mdash;where space itself serves the mad
+squirrel.&rdquo;</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.
+&ldquo;Oh, well, a man must go as far as his heart will take
+him&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>But for all his big talk, Gunnar tossed and muttered that
+night. And once, Odin heard him cry out&mdash;&ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</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&mdash;over two hundred men, women
+and children&mdash;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>&ldquo;We can talk to you from the moon,&rdquo; Wolden was
+saying. &ldquo;Beyond that, when we swing into the Fourth
+Drive, we cannot. May your work prosper.&rdquo;</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&mdash;the one
+that opened upon the sea&mdash;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;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&mdash;a growing
+sphere, with its mountains and craters all silver and black
+in the reflected light.</p>
+
+<p>Wolden turned to Odin. &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</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&mdash;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&rsquo;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.
+&ldquo;An astronomer&rsquo;s paradise,&rdquo; he said to
+Odin. &ldquo;Look closely and you can see Centauri&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As though sensing his thoughts, Wolden began to explain.
+&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin remembered Jules Verne&rsquo;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>&ldquo;Be patient, my friend,&rdquo; Wolden had sensed his
+thoughts again. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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&mdash;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&rsquo;s escape from
+the tiring tyranny
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg&nbsp;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&rsquo;t making the trip. She shook
+her black curls and thanked him softly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How awkward of me,&rdquo; she explained. &ldquo;It
+wouldn&rsquo;t have happened if I had not been carrying
+this&mdash;&rdquo;</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
+&ldquo;engine&rdquo; of the bumpy little train. Here were
+real windows of quartz, and he could see more of the
+moon&rsquo;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>&ldquo;A meteorite,&rdquo; the driver explained.
+&ldquo;They&rsquo;re thick tonight. Don&rsquo;t worry.
+There&rsquo;s a screen upon the roof that slows them down
+and melts &rsquo;em. The larger ones never reach us. Some of
+the tiny ones get through.&rdquo;</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&rsquo; 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. &ldquo;As though they had been shaped by
+human hand,&rdquo; Odin
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg&nbsp;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&mdash;little igloos
+of porcelain&mdash;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&rsquo; scientists gave him a heavy pair of shoes&mdash;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: &ldquo;No man
+was ever really free, unless it was Robinson Crusoe. Then
+Friday showed up and became Crusoe&rsquo;s servant, and
+Crusoe&rsquo;s freedom flew away.&rdquo;</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: &ldquo;&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;but it is as hard as
+steel. It has
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg&nbsp;80]</a></span>
+
+strange vibrations. They had musical
+instruments&mdash;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>&ldquo;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&mdash;though we may never know about that.
+Then their water and air gave out and they died.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Good heavens, Odin thought, what a cold-blooded obituary for
+any race!</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And so, Wolden,&rdquo; the Scientist continued,
+&ldquo;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&mdash;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&mdash;uh, Odin, I beg
+your pardon.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin always resented these cracks at his people so he
+ignored the request by asking another question. &ldquo;But
+how did you do all this in so short a time? Those vines look
+like they have been growing for years.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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>&ldquo;And after that,&rdquo; the Scientist went on,
+&ldquo;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&mdash;but Gunnar and Odin, I am boring
+you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t you care to look at the new
+lake?&rdquo; Wolden urged.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I can take a hint,&rdquo; Gunnar grumbled.
+&ldquo;Nobody wants a fighting man about until the swords
+are flashing&mdash;&rdquo;</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. &ldquo;Are you a bowler, Miss
+Nea?&rdquo; he asked.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg&nbsp;81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A bowler!&rdquo; Then she laughed a silvery laugh.
+&ldquo;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.&rdquo; For a second her dark eyes appeared
+infinitely sad. Then she laughed again. &ldquo;But it is not
+perfected. It may not ever be perfected now. I thought that
+perhaps Wolden and Gor might help me with it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar muttered some words that might be roughly interpreted
+as &ldquo;Fat Chance&rdquo; 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. &ldquo;Her mother was a cousin
+to Maya&rsquo;s mother. You know how the Brons number their
+kin to the seventh generation. Her father was one of the
+Scientists. A brilliant man&mdash;but a poor provider. However,
+he died nobly. Remember, Nors-King, Nea&rsquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</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. &ldquo;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</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. &ldquo;I want you to take this with
+you,&rdquo; he begged his son. &ldquo;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,&rdquo; he offered the tiny horn to his son.
+&ldquo;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&rsquo;ll be there&mdash;&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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&mdash;and the cavern had never known
+a child&rsquo;s laughter.</p>
+
+<p>Then Ato led his group back to the moon&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&mdash;swerved aside, and
+was behind them, Jupiter with its red clouds and its protean
+&ldquo;eye&rdquo; 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&rsquo;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&mdash;and asked them what they were&mdash;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: &ldquo;This has
+been tested enough. It ought to work.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&mdash;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&nbsp;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>&ldquo;It will be like plunging back from immortality to
+mortality,&rdquo; Ato told Odin. &ldquo;Over four years have
+passed, as light is measured. We have not eaten more than
+twenty meals.&rdquo;</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&mdash;all blackened and burned out. Life had been there,
+but what form of life only Grim Hagen might have told them.
+They were cindered&mdash;their atmosphere, which had not been
+oxygen, had burned away. Ato&rsquo;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&nbsp;84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ato was watching the needles upon another machine.
+&ldquo;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&rsquo;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&mdash;like Hitler&rsquo;s attack upon Poland, just to see
+how much death could be inflicted. We shall never
+know.&rdquo;</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&rsquo; land grudgingly set apart for
+reservations?</p>
+
+<p>Of course, Grim Hagen was a Bron&mdash;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&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>They readied themselves for combat. Ato&rsquo;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&rsquo;s swords.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</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&nbsp;85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My father&rsquo;s work is finished,&rdquo; she told
+them proudly. &ldquo;The Scientist back there within the
+moon gave me the last idea. But, all in all, it is my
+father&rsquo;s invention. Had he lived, he would have
+perfected it. Just as I have done.&rdquo; Her eyes flashed.
+&ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Ato&rsquo;s face was thin. &ldquo;Nea, the past is behind
+us. Why carry your resentment with you? Your father died a
+hero&rsquo;s death. We have honored him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Again Nea&rsquo;s dark eyes flashed. &ldquo;Oh, once he was
+dead you thought very well of him. And as for resentment,
+isn&rsquo;t this whole trip being made because you resent
+Grim Hagen&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Ato&rsquo;s face was growing darker. &ldquo;You signed the
+ship&rsquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A grizzled Bron nodded in agreement. &ldquo;Yes, Nea, this
+talk serves no purpose. Get along with your
+invention.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very well. I asked for a live thing, but Ato would
+not agree.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Again Ato was on the defensive. &ldquo;There are not a dozen
+pets on the ship. I do not approve of such experiments.
+Besides, the batteries are already set up.&rdquo; He pointed
+to a row of dry-cells, connected together and wired to a
+large volt-meter upon the wall.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;All right.&rdquo; Nea threw a switch that put the
+batteries in circuit. The needle of the gauge moved over to
+its farthest point. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; she told them.
+&ldquo;You shall see. But be still. I am sure I can control
+it&mdash;&rdquo;</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&mdash;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>&ldquo;This is as near as man has ever come to making a
+living thing,&rdquo; Nea explained. &ldquo;It moves. It
+reacts to sensations. It makes its own energy. Watch!&rdquo;</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&mdash;softly&mdash;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&mdash;slowly&mdash;almost defiantly&mdash;and settled into her arms
+like a
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg&nbsp;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>&ldquo;Wonderful,&rdquo; Ato applauded. &ldquo;I move that
+we give Nea a vote of thanks.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But what earthly good is it?&rdquo; Gunnar asked.
+&ldquo;I could have swatted it with a broom.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And you would have died.&rdquo; Nea turned upon him
+like a tigress. &ldquo;It feeds upon electricity and it can
+discharge a lightning bolt. Don&rsquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The grizzled Bron who had spoken once before now laughed
+good-humoredly. &ldquo;Demonstrate it on Gunnar,&rdquo; he
+suggested.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And I will thump your skull&mdash;&rdquo; Gunnar was ready
+to go for him, but Odin grabbed the little giant&rsquo;s
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He jokes. Besides, you are ruining the girl&rsquo;s
+show. This means much to her.&rdquo;</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 &ldquo;before
+this&rdquo; or &ldquo;after that.&rdquo;</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. &ldquo;Aldebaran. They are
+headed there.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His voice was shaking just a bit when he called into the
+speaker: &ldquo;Battle stations, everyone!&rdquo;</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>&ldquo;Watch forward now!&rdquo; Ato warned. &ldquo;Sight at
+thirty degrees above the equator of The Nebula. Adjust for
+Doppler&mdash;X over Y. We have him on the screens now. This
+means that he can get a fix on us. Careful now&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As he watched the screen, Jack Odin saw three tiny sparks
+leap from Grim Hagen&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&mdash;</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&mdash;a little larger now and
+still growing&mdash;dwarfing them and filling half the screen.</p>
+
+<p>A shadow&mdash;no, two shadows&mdash;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&rsquo;s eyes and at the same time
+watching the topaz bubble.</p>
+
+<p>The bubble cleared. Over the loudspeakers came Grim
+Hagen&rsquo;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&mdash;with Grim Hagen and Maya as whole as ever. And a
+green streak of fire&mdash;one of Gunnar&rsquo;s misses&mdash;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>&ldquo;You are wasting your energy, Ato. I am only a
+projection. And so is this that is with me. I have
+Maya.&rdquo; He bowed mockingly. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Shrouded there within a bubble
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg&nbsp;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. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;t whip their way out of a
+child&rsquo;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&rsquo;s face, outlined in black
+curls, seemed to peer at him&mdash;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&mdash;tired&mdash;tired. As though they had not rested for
+months.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You ought to be asleep,&rdquo; he warned. &ldquo;Now
+that your work is finished&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And is it finished?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;Is
+anything ever finished?&rdquo; Nea drooped upon the hassock.
+Resting her chin upon her hands she looked up at the screen.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That is where we are going?&rdquo; she asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ato is certain that Grim Hagen is headed for
+Aldebaran,&rdquo; Odin answered.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;One star out of millions. What difference does it
+make?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You have been working too hard&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg&nbsp;89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, damn!&rdquo; she said angrily. &ldquo;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&rsquo;t people
+just go sit in a corner and enjoy themselves. So far, we
+have done nothing but increase our scurrying a
+thousand-fold.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>He tried to make a joke of the matter. &ldquo;You sound like
+a beatnik.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; she answered slowly, still looking up
+at the screen. &ldquo;They considered my father
+beat&mdash;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;d say &lsquo;Nuts.&rsquo; We would keep
+on looking. But why such gloomy thoughts?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin drew his hand across his face in dismay. &ldquo;You
+make all this sound like a mad voyage. Why, this is
+insane!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Check with Ato if you wish.&rdquo; Her sad smile was
+almost a sneer. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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>&ldquo;There is but a segment,&rdquo; she said, sitting back
+upon the hassock again. &ldquo;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&mdash;even my father&mdash;seems far away and
+long ago. Why do you bring love and hate with you out here
+to the stars, Jack Odin?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Because I am a man, I suppose.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg&nbsp;90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She sighed again. &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</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: &ldquo;For I, thy God, am a
+jealous God&mdash;&rdquo;</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. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&mdash;even exotic&mdash;civilization. Here were fields and
+streams. And there were cities&mdash;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&nbsp;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s voice came thundering over the
+loud-speakers.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A truce, Ato. I offer you a week&rsquo;s truce in
+return for a few meetings. This world has seen enough
+destruction&mdash;&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&mdash;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&rsquo;s broad shoulders. Then Ato turned aside, and Grim
+Hagen&rsquo;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&nbsp;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. &ldquo;So,
+the cub comes to fight with the tiger? Didn&rsquo;t you
+know? Didn&rsquo;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&mdash;for I
+did not want them to do much thinking. Yonder.&rdquo; He
+pointed to the duplicate Taj Mahal in the distance.
+&ldquo;She sleeps. My only failure. No older. And sometimes
+I go there and look at her, and my youth seems to walk
+beside me&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We want the people that you brought with you, Grim
+Hagen,&rdquo; Ato answered coldly. &ldquo;And the
+treasures.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Grim Hagen laughed again. &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;None of us cringed, unless it was you,&rdquo; Ato
+retorted angrily. &ldquo;We have come beyond time and
+space&mdash;for Maya and her friends&mdash;for the treasures&mdash;and for
+you&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The mad light flamed in Grim Hagen&rsquo;s eyes as he
+laughed again. &ldquo;You could not get a thousand feet into
+the air unless I permitted it. Come, now, I have given a
+week&rsquo;s truce. Relax and enjoy yourselves. After all,
+we are kinsmen in a far country.&rdquo; He rubbed his chin
+thoughtfully and repeated. &ldquo;A far country.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Three days had passed since they had landed on Grim
+Hagen&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&mdash;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&mdash;a stunned, unhappy
+look&mdash;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&rsquo; 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&rsquo;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: &ldquo;Some Day! Some
+Day!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Then, with perfect calm, Grim Hagen had sat down, wiping his
+lips with a lacy napkin. &ldquo;Pardon me, gentlemen, but
+they have so much to learn in so short a time.&rdquo; Then
+he looked down the long table at Odin and could not resist
+one gibe. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t know how happy I was to
+find that these planets were peopled by a light-skinned
+race.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s paradise.
+Beautiful buildings&mdash;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&mdash;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&nbsp;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>&ldquo;So,&rdquo; Gunnar remarked. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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: &ldquo;He wants
+something. And Grim Hagen can be mean when he doesn&rsquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, quit complaining, little giant. We still have
+some bargaining power.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Quit worrying. One of us will kill Grim Hagen, sooner
+or later.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But Gunnar went on with his complaining. &ldquo;You had
+better stay close to me, you understand, or you will be
+hanging from one of Grim Hagen&rsquo;s meat-hooks.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>So they went to the conference. All of Ato&rsquo;s men and
+at least fifty of Grim Hagen&rsquo;s were there. Contrary to
+Gunnar&rsquo;s prediction, Grim Hagen got to the point at
+once.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Kinsmen,&rdquo; he began mockingly. &ldquo;You may
+have wondered why I called a truce when I could just as well
+have destroyed you&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That I doubt,&rdquo; Ato answered him. &ldquo;We have
+defensive weapons. Even now the guns from our ship are
+trained upon the city.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Grim Hagen shrugged. &ldquo;Let us not quibble, Ato. Your
+father was a quibbler before you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Ato flushed in anger.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg&nbsp;95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Grim Hagen continued with an apologetic smile.
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m only joking. But I do know certain things.
+Your father, Wolden, is a brilliant man, Ato.&rdquo; He
+bowed slightly as he admitted this. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Now, you&rsquo;re quibbling,&rdquo; Gunnar jeered.
+&ldquo;Get on with your speech, Grim Hagen.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Grim Hagen bowed to the broad-shouldered little man.
+&ldquo;Some day, Gunnar, I may have to kill you&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Now. Now.&rdquo; Gunnar urged, fairly jumping in
+rage. &ldquo;Just the two of us, Grim Hagen. Just the two of
+us with bare hands&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not yet.&rdquo; Grim Hagen sneered. &ldquo;Now, I
+will continue. From what I have learned, it appears that
+Wolden&rsquo;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.&rdquo; Again he tossed a sneer in Gunnar&rsquo;s
+direction&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s easy,&rdquo; Gunnar retorted. &ldquo;The
+old herdsman sleeps well at night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Bah. Who wants to sleep? Please quit interrupting,
+Gunnar.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Even before we came to Aldebaran,&rdquo; Hagen went
+on, &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Loki, the Mischief-Maker, running through
+creation&mdash;&rdquo; Gunnar muttered.</p>
+
+<p>Grim Hagen may not have heard him for he continued in that
+same desperate, pleading voice. &ldquo;So here is my
+proposition, Ato. Give me your father&rsquo;s secret. In
+return, I give you the treasures, the Old Ship, the
+prisoners, and even Maya. Is not that complete
+surrender?&rdquo; 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&rsquo;s plan.
+&ldquo;So, you thought I would bargain away Wolden&rsquo;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,&rdquo; Ato&rsquo;s voice was trembling in disgust.
+&ldquo;If I did, Hagen, would I turn you and your
+hells&rsquo; spawn loose upon the stars to perplex them
+forever?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Grim Hagen&rsquo;s face was almost blue with rage.
+&ldquo;You have said enough. And there are other ways to
+make you talk. Make these swine prisoners,&rdquo; 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&nbsp;96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But one of Grim Hagen&rsquo;s lieutenants, a Bron who was
+now silver-haired, intervened. &ldquo;No, Grim Hagen. They
+are under truce. The week is not yet up. I will not see you
+go back on your own word&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Grim Hagen flamed. &ldquo;You will die on the hook for
+this&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Maybe so. One thing is certain: I will die. And I can
+face it. But you can&rsquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Arrest them all,&rdquo; Grim Hagen screamed.
+&ldquo;Arrest Rama too,&rdquo; 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&rsquo;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>&ldquo;I will do what I can, Ato,&rdquo; he said quietly.
+&ldquo;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&rsquo;m tired&mdash;&rdquo;</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.
+&ldquo;For,&rdquo; he said to Odin, &ldquo;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?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin was a bit hurt over his friend&rsquo;s behavior. He
+even wondered if Gunnar had taken a liking to one of the
+white-skinned slave-girls&mdash;for they were beautiful. Still,
+that did not seem like Gunnar. But you could never tell.
+After all, he found himself quoting, there&rsquo;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: &ldquo;Magic. A very old
+magic.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg&nbsp;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&rsquo;s secrets.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You ought to get yourself a witch-doctor&rsquo;s mask
+and a couple of hollowbones to whistle through,&rdquo; Odin
+had told him scathingly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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&rsquo;t go looking after any of
+these slave-girls. They are too pretty. And you are young.
+After all, there&rsquo;s no fool like a young fool. So
+don&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Touch&eacute;!&rdquo; Jack Odin thought as Gunnar departed.
+&ldquo;So he&rsquo;s been worrying about me and the girls,
+has he?&rdquo;</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&mdash;</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&rsquo;s treasures&mdash;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>&ldquo;Look, I told you that my magic would do great tricks.
+See, the bag is nearly empty.&rdquo; He held the buckskin
+bag high and it was much thinner than before. &ldquo;You
+waited, did you? Good, Nors-King. I had to make sure that no
+one came here while I was gone.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Just myself,&rdquo; Odin replied. &ldquo;Now
+what&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg&nbsp;98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, I told you I had great magic in that bag. You
+shall see.&rdquo; 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&rsquo;s
+slave-world.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This man goes by the name of Piper,&rdquo; Gunnar
+announced simply.</p>
+
+<p>The man bowed and smiled nervously.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And he is a Bro-Stoka among the slaves,&rdquo; Gunnar
+continued.</p>
+
+<p>Odin was about to reply that he didn&rsquo;t give a damn if
+the man were a colonel or a two star general. But Gunnar
+hurried on to explain. &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar seemed to be buttering up the man for some reason or
+other so Jack Odin decided to go along. &ldquo;I have never
+seen a Bro-Stoka so young,&rdquo; 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 &ldquo;Ninety Day
+Wonder.&rdquo; 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. &ldquo;Ah, I told you that I carried great
+magic in the bag. With Piper&rsquo;s help, Maya will be ours
+before midnight.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin&rsquo;s lethargy was gone now. &ldquo;Gunnar, old
+friend! What magic was in that bag of yours?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin slapped him on the back. &ldquo;Gunnar, you are a
+genius, a sheer genius.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not at all. When I was a young man I learned such
+strategy from studying the world above me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin winced.</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar continued. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Please, Gunnar. When will we see Maya&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg&nbsp;99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Gunnar, I know nothing of these matters. Tell me
+about Maya&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, Piper has been paid. The town will be his if
+our plan works out tonight. Otherwise, I will twist his
+neck.&rdquo; And Gunnar paused to scowl at the young man in
+the white uniform until poor Piper began sweating.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Odin obliged and Gunnar produced a ragged bit of pencil and
+started drawing a map upon the fly-leaf. &ldquo;Here,&rdquo;
+he said, &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have already paid many and have sworn them to
+silence,&rdquo; Piper interrupted. &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</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.
+&ldquo;You&rsquo;re always seeing things. A log, maybe.
+Didn&rsquo;t I tell you that I found some money in the
+street? And aren&rsquo;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&rsquo;m tired. Let&rsquo;s get along&mdash;&rdquo;</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&mdash;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>&ldquo;That was the last guard,&rdquo; Gunnar whispered.
+&ldquo;It took a ruby the size of a sparrow&rsquo;s egg to
+get him killed. Oh, well, blame Grim Hagen. He
+shouldn&rsquo;t have gouged these people so hard&mdash;&rdquo;
+And then, to Piper: &ldquo;You&rsquo;re bright enough, I
+guess, but you don&rsquo;t know how to row a boat. Give me
+the oars.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg&nbsp;100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He took them and slid them into their hole-pins.
+&ldquo;Now, give Gunnar room.&rdquo; 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: &ldquo;Huh&mdash;huh&mdash;huh&mdash;huf!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The boat streaked across the river&rsquo;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>&ldquo;This is as far as I can go,&rdquo; Piper told them in
+a sweating voice. &ldquo;Over there is the tomb.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&mdash;and a nirvana of
+peace hung over it in an aura of silver light.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That Piper is a smart lad,&rdquo; Gunnar whispered.
+&ldquo;He knows what he wants. He&rsquo;ll go
+far&mdash;maybe.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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>&ldquo;Here,&rdquo; Gunnar handed him the light. &ldquo;Hold
+this while I get busy. Here now, Nors-King. No
+blubbering.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He opened his buckskin bag and took out the last of its
+treasures&mdash;a small hypodermic case. He filled the hypodermic
+from a little vial that glittered in the light of the lamp.
+&ldquo;Turn the light upon her forearm, now,&rdquo; he
+instructed.</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar slowly counted to sixty after he had given her the
+shot. Maya&rsquo;s breasts moved. She sighed and raised a
+hand to her dark curls. Then her eyes opened&mdash;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>&ldquo;Jack&mdash;Gunnar&mdash;&rdquo; she gasped. Then she was in
+Odin&rsquo;s arms. And Gunnar, the strong one, was standing
+over them&mdash;sniffling.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg&nbsp;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, &ldquo;What happened? Where are we? I dreamed the
+strangest dreams.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Never mind,&rdquo; Odin comforted. &ldquo;We will
+explain later. Can you walk now?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Walk? Of course I can walk.&rdquo; But when Maya
+tried to sit up, she moaned in pain. &ldquo;My whole body is
+stiff and sore. Have I been sick?&rdquo;</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>&ldquo;Carry her, Nors-King,&rdquo; Gunnar muttered.
+&ldquo;The night grows old and we must make our way to the
+Nebula.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s dripping head
+by a handful of hair.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;So.&rdquo; Grim Hagen bowed. &ldquo;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&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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>&ldquo;One more flash and you will be dead.&rdquo; Grim
+Hagen mocked. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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.
+&ldquo;Put up your sword,&rdquo; he said quietly.
+&ldquo;They are dead.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&mdash;threatening all sorts of vengeance. The voice was
+Gunnar&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;s voice&mdash;and his
+own&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;round things
+with unkempt, trailing hair. He was not completely
+conscious&mdash;and for a second she looked like a high priestess
+of the Amazon, holding two mummified heads before her&mdash;</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>&ldquo;God, that was a close one,&rdquo; Ato said, and wiped
+his forehead. &ldquo;Five hours of it. And it was touch and
+go all the time.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What happened?&rdquo; 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&rsquo;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>&ldquo;Tell him, Nea,&rdquo; Ato said.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>She smiled proudly. &ldquo;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&mdash;or nearly so. Hagen had sent volt after volt through
+your bodies. You were electrocuted.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We hurried you back to the ship. And all this time,
+while Ato steered us back into space, the Kalis and I&mdash;for
+that is what I have decided to call them&mdash;have been working
+over you. You might say that we are master electronicians,
+rebuilding circuits, repairing transistors and
+condensers&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You were plenty rough,&rdquo; Gunnar grumbled.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg&nbsp;104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We had to be. Do you remember a story about the
+bush-men dying from a curse? Here.&rdquo; She held her two
+precious Kalis in one arm while she tapped the base of her
+skull. &ldquo;In here is a bulb, the old brain, not even an
+idiot&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;s
+whisker wire?</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Gunnar sat up and began grumbling anew: &ldquo;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?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was Ato&rsquo;s turn to talk. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Will you please tell me where we are?&rdquo; Gunnar
+demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Give me time, little man,&rdquo; Ato retorted.
+&ldquo;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&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Can&rsquo;t we overtake him?&rdquo; Odin asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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&rsquo;s invention again. I think his mind is going
+fast.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not as fast as he will go if I ever get my hands on
+him,&rdquo; Gunnar promised.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg&nbsp;105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But Maya is awake now,&rdquo; Ato explained.
+&ldquo;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&mdash;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Nea laughed. &ldquo;Even as I said before.&rdquo; She gave
+Jack Odin a searching look, but Odin avoided her gaze&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then, what have you done?&rdquo; Odin asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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&rsquo;s rule of
+thumb, a ship with another upon its tail is a hundred
+percent loss.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Only at that moment,&rdquo; Odin corrected. &ldquo;If
+not destroyed, it has a chance to improve its percentage
+when the pursuer has made its pass.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;True enough,&rdquo; Ato admitted. &ldquo;That is why
+I propose to stay close behind it. I can&rsquo;t seem to
+find that dust cloud on any map. It must be far, far
+away.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Nea laughed again. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Ato flushed in anger. &ldquo;Nea, I was my father&rsquo;s
+helper for years and years. I know as much about space as
+any man.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged. &ldquo;Oh, you can cover blackboards with
+formulas, and I don&rsquo;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?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She paused to caress the two things she held in her arms.
+&ldquo;My pets know more about time and space and energy
+than all of you, don&rsquo;t you, dears?&rdquo; 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&nbsp;106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll never make it this way,&rdquo; Ato said.
+&ldquo;Not even the emergency storage would help us.
+Here,&rdquo; he pointed to a pinpoint of light upon the map.
+&ldquo;A white star. We can reach it, I think.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Nea sighed. &ldquo;That dust-cloud is beyond our
+calculations. We should be nearly there, but it&rsquo;s
+still far-off. I think it is shrinking and expanding. At the
+same time it&rsquo;s dashing off into space at a terrific
+rate of speed. You&rsquo;ll have to swing toward that star,
+Ato. I&rsquo;ll try to probe the cloud some more. My father
+would have liked this problem&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like the problem at all&mdash;&rdquo; Gunnar
+complained. &ldquo;Just where is Grim Hagen?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He must be having as much trouble beating his way to
+that dust-cloud as we are,&rdquo; Ato assured him. And then,
+doubtfully, he added. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Jack Odin&rsquo;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 &ldquo;frame&rdquo; 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&rsquo;t the slightest idea how it worked. Ato had
+said that the scientists who developed it were not
+sure&mdash;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&mdash;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>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going in there,&rdquo; Ato decided.
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the quickest way.&rdquo;</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&mdash;and a
+million cells had drunk so much
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg&nbsp;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&mdash;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: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m afraid that will be
+the last. Even the stars are behind us&mdash;&rdquo;</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>&ldquo;Ragnarok,&rdquo; Gunnar growled in his throat. He
+adjusted the shoulder strap that harnessed his broadsword to
+his back and looked at Odin curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You should have rest, Nors-King. You look gaunt and
+tired&mdash;but stronger too. I wonder if I have changed as much
+as you since we started this trip. Eh, Nors-King,&rdquo; he
+chuckled, &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Quiet,&rdquo; Nea pleaded as she worked with the
+calculator. &ldquo;So far this has defied computation.
+It&rsquo;s unstable, Ato. Before I can identify it, a factor
+is added or taken away.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Grim Hagen went in there,&rdquo; Ato replied as he
+studied his instruments. &ldquo;If he can, we can.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg&nbsp;108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;But space out
+there is curdling in his wake.&rdquo; She shivered.
+Nea&rsquo;s shoulders were beautifully shaped, and Odin
+found himself thinking that they were made for a man&rsquo;s
+arms instead of bending over calculators and machines.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, well!&rdquo; he thought. &ldquo;They are not for
+my arms, but why doesn&rsquo;t Ato wake up and claim her?
+Then there wouldn&rsquo;t be distractions like this&mdash;&rdquo;</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>&ldquo;Try this,&rdquo; she said in a tremulous voice.
+&ldquo;It may work.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Ato took the tape from her hands and set the controls
+accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>The lights dimmed again&mdash;came on&mdash;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. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got another fix
+on Grim Hagen. He&rsquo;s much nearer now.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hurry, Ato. Hurry,&rdquo; 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&rsquo; 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>&ldquo;Ato. Hurry,&rdquo; Nea screamed. One of her
+instruments melted as she stared into it and she jumped
+back, her hands to her eyes&mdash;</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&mdash;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&nbsp;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>&ldquo;It was an artificial explosion,&rdquo; Nea murmured
+in a puzzled voice. &ldquo;Grim Hagen&rsquo;s ship and ours
+destroyed the balance and caused a premature burst. There
+must be some law&mdash;some time and weight factor that governs
+these things. I would judge that the explosion was not
+violent enough.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not violent enough,&rdquo; Odin exclaimed. &ldquo;How
+violent can an explosion be?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes were still wide and creamy with wonder when she
+replied. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar shivered. &ldquo;Not back there. I have seen enough.
+Now, Ato, what lies ahead?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Ato shrugged his lean shoulders. &ldquo;I still have a fix
+on Grim Hagen. And there seems to be but one place for him
+to go.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&mdash;</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>&ldquo;Sunk from sight,&rdquo; were Gunnar&rsquo;s words,
+and this explained
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg&nbsp;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&mdash;and almost like gods.</p>
+
+<p>That was like Nea, Odin thought. A scientist, always.
+Anything unexplainable must be immediately attached to a
+theory&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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>&ldquo;See how it is, Nors-King?&rdquo; Gunnar said as he
+drew his fingers across the shaft of his sword. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There was a demanding buzz from the loudspeaker.</p>
+
+<p>Ato turned the dial. A strange, harsh voice was calling.
+&ldquo;You there, on the Second ship. You on the second
+ship. Answer.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes!&rdquo; Ato replied gruffly. &ldquo;Who are
+you?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am the head man of the city&mdash;the city within the
+dome.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How did you know our language?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We have known it for thirty years. For that long have
+we been in contact with Grim Hagen.&rdquo;</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. &ldquo;We invited Grim Hagen to our
+world. We did not invite you. Go away.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I like his tone,&rdquo; Gunnar
+interrupted. &ldquo;Some day I will catch the owner of that
+voice and make him eat his ears.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We are not going away,&rdquo; Ato told the voice
+stubbornly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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>&ldquo;There,&rdquo; the voice said triumphantly.
+&ldquo;That is what will happen to you. Why don&rsquo;t you
+leave us? You are not wanted. Leave us.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Faith, he&rsquo;s a hospitable soul,&rdquo; Odin
+murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Ato&rsquo;s voice was shaking in wrath when he answered.
+&ldquo;We can find a way to smash that curtain. We want Grim
+Hagen and his prisoners. When we have them we will
+depart.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Grim Hagen is our ally. We have already sworn our
+allegiance. I have no more words for you.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;s voice
+mocked them. &ldquo;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&mdash;the few that are left. I will trade all these for
+Wolden&rsquo;s secret.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Greed has you in its hand, Grim Hagen. I know nothing
+of my father&rsquo;s secret. I do not even know if he
+succeeded&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then summon him and let him decide for himself. You
+are young, but two-thirds of my life is gone now&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your calculation is wrong,&rdquo; Gunnar shouted.
+&ldquo;You life is nearly all gone, Grim Hagen.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The dwarf still lives,&rdquo; Grim Hagen answered
+with a curse. &ldquo;But so does Maya, my slave. I had to
+beat her the other day. My boots were not polished very
+well&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Talk on, Grim Hagen,&rdquo; Odin growled. &ldquo;I am
+here. And I intend to kill you&mdash;Just as I promised.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Like most of your race, you talk too loud, Odin.
+Well, Ato, Gunnar, and Odin, I am going now. Please
+don&rsquo;t get in my way or I will hatchet the flesh from
+your bones.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&nbsp;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: &ldquo;Think of man&rsquo;s inhumanity to man and
+write your poem if you can.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&mdash;as Gunnar called it&mdash;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>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an old idea,&rdquo; she told them quietly.
+&ldquo;It can be broken by a steadily increasing force.
+Twenty days, perhaps, after I rig up the machine&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin groaned. &ldquo;In twenty days Grim Hagen will be back
+among the stars&mdash;&rdquo;</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. &ldquo;I think not,&rdquo; she answered him simply.
+&ldquo;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&mdash;another Diana,
+perhaps. Oh!&rdquo; She stamped her foot in worriment.
+&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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 &ldquo;Battle-Stations&rdquo; 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>&ldquo;Men of the strange ship. Men of the strange
+ship&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; Odin answered.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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&mdash;a sleeveless shirt of walnut-brown plastic,
+dark peg-bottomed trousers of corduroy, and footgear that
+looked like engineer&rsquo;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&mdash;except that half a dozen
+vari-colored buttons were set into the handles.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It was nearly thirty years ago,&rdquo; Val was
+explaining, &ldquo;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&nbsp;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>&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Val paused to sigh, and then resumed his story. &ldquo;The
+voice&mdash;I mean the voice of Grim Hagen&mdash;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He was playing at being the eternal Loki&mdash;the old
+mischief-maker&mdash;&rdquo; Gunnar interrupted and went on
+edging his sword.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; Val continued, &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am not a philosopher,&rdquo; Gunnar interrupted
+again. &ldquo;I only know that once you have thrust a foot
+of steel into a man he does not bother you again.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Please, Gunnar,&rdquo; Ato begged. &ldquo;Let Val go
+on with his story.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The rest of the story I do not understand at
+all,&rdquo; Val said with a shake of his grizzled head.
+&ldquo;This Grim Hagen said that he did not age until he
+stopped to conquer a planet and replenish his ship&rsquo;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?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I will try to explain that later,&rdquo; Ato
+answered.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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&rsquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Good God,&rdquo; Jack Odin was thinking, &ldquo;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!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg&nbsp;116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And that is all,&rdquo; Val finished with a shrug of
+his lean shoulders. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How did you get through the barrier?&rdquo; Nea
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>Val lifted the umbrella-frame. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then we can go to the city?&rdquo; Gunnar exclaimed
+with a joyful war-whoop. &ldquo;To kill, and kill, and
+kill&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are right,&rdquo; Ato admitted. &ldquo;Delay will
+only increase Grim Hagen&rsquo;s advantage. To the city&mdash;as
+fast as we can&mdash;&rdquo;</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. &ldquo;Hang on to your sword and
+knife, Nors-King. We will need them yet.&rdquo;</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&mdash;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&nbsp;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&mdash;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>&ldquo;Listen,&rdquo; 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>&ldquo;It was from the Old Ship,&rdquo; Gunnar said.
+&ldquo;I wonder&mdash;&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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. &ldquo;Like
+stone tulips with petals of flame,&rdquo; 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&mdash;all manned.</p>
+
+<p>Shafts of flame darted through the dim-lit area. Bullets
+whizzed. Ato&rsquo;s needle-nosed machines began to whine
+and the metal in the guards&rsquo; 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&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;s hands&mdash;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&rsquo;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&nbsp;120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Jack Odin felt a heavy hand upon his arm. Gunnar was at his
+side. &ldquo;It is even as I foretold you, Nors-King. The
+weapons are all gone. Stay close by Gunnar&rsquo;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&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&mdash;or hoped&mdash;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s shoulders and pulled him down.
+&ldquo;Listen,&rdquo; he whispered in Odin&rsquo;s ear.
+&ldquo;Do you hear anything strange?&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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&rsquo;s trained Aldebaranians met them. They clashed
+head-on&mdash;blade against blade, fist against bone. They held
+there, like two wrestlers evenly matched. For a moment Grim
+Hagen&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&mdash;as mad as any of the last
+Caesars who had gone insane from too much power.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Look, men of the Lorens,&rdquo; Hagen cried, still
+pointing. &ldquo;I will give immortality to the men who
+bring me those two alive.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The first two to reach Gunnar and Odin died at the end of
+Gunnar&rsquo;s and Odin&rsquo;s swords.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your immortality does not last very long, Grim
+Hagen,&rdquo; 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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s strange machine.</p>
+
+<p>But Hagen&rsquo;s men rallied and drove them back
+again&mdash;almost to the stairway.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The next drive will get us,&rdquo; Ato groaned.
+&ldquo;Brace yourselves, men.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>But the next drive did not come. Suddenly a dozen screaming
+wretches&mdash;they could no longer be called soldiers&mdash;came
+running up the street. They joined Grim Hagen&rsquo;s men
+and gibbered in fear as they pointed back.</p>
+
+<p>From down there came a sudden burst of music. Odin&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;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&mdash;and he died
+screaming.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter w600"><a href="images/illo.jpg">
+<img class="noborder" src="images/tn.jpg" alt="Grim Hagen&rsquo;s men writhed helplessly in the grip of the Kalis&rsquo; deadly copper hairs!" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Grim Hagen&rsquo;s men writhed helplessly in the grip of the Kalis&rsquo; deadly copper hairs!</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Kalis darted this way and that and Grim Hagen&rsquo;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&rsquo;s army still. One old Bron
+who had been a slave of Grim Hagen for too long had found a
+shotgun among Hagen&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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 &ldquo;Kill, kill,
+kill!&rdquo; that froze the back of Odin&rsquo;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>&ldquo;Good God,&rdquo; Odin was thinking. &ldquo;What
+unexplored labyrinths are left in the human brain?&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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&rsquo;s and Maya&rsquo;s wearying armies, urging them
+to go on and account themselves well. He stood by
+Odin&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s and Maya&rsquo;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&rsquo;s Kalis reeled back. She urged them on and they
+advanced like corks bobbing on ripples of light. Three moved
+slowly toward Grim Hagen&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&mdash;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&mdash;then
+it stopped purring and moving forever.</p>
+
+<p>Grim Hagen&rsquo;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. &ldquo;Down
+there,&rdquo; he pointed toward the stairway. &ldquo;There
+is plenty of room to fight, and those who have been coming
+up don&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But Grim Hagen will be at our heels&mdash;&rdquo; Odin
+protested.</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar laughed deep in his throat. &ldquo;Oh, no. The
+stairway is narrow. A strong man could hold the entrance for
+some time&mdash;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg&nbsp;125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Go with Maya, Ato,&rdquo; Odin said, &ldquo;and I
+will stay here with Gunnar.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No. The entrance is narrow. You would be in the
+way,&rdquo; Gunnar protested. &ldquo;Now, go! Oh, but the
+valkyries will be busy tonight!&rdquo;</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&rsquo;s and Maya&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;
+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&nbsp;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>&ldquo;Grim Hagen,&rdquo; he called mockingly. &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Grim Hagen silenced his men and screamed back:
+&ldquo;Gunnar, what I say now I have said before. I promised
+you death. But I will let you go free&mdash;and all the
+frightened rats below can go free&mdash;if you will give me
+Wolden&rsquo;s secret&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I know nothing of Wolden&rsquo;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&rsquo;s secret could give
+you.&rdquo;</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&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;s
+and Ato&rsquo;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&rsquo;s side now. They clung together. Jack
+Odin kissed her and swore that they would never be parted
+again.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Until death&mdash;&rdquo; 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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s
+lines time and again during that awful night.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I think we had better wait behind the barricades and
+make our last stand upon the balcony,&rdquo; he said.
+&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t defend five entrances at the same
+time.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Odin agreed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Some of Maya&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Aye,&rdquo; Val the Loren agreed. He had fought near
+Ato&rsquo;s side all through the night, and his lean left
+hand was rubbing two deep cuts across his chest. &ldquo;They
+have already had enough. But they have asked the wild things
+of the moss-country to dine with them, and now they
+can&rsquo;t get rid of their guests. If Grim Hagen and his
+soldiers should die, they would give up in a minute.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are your men still armed, Val?&rdquo; Odin asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Aye. They know to hang on to their weapons.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not all of Maya&rsquo;s people are,&rdquo; Odin said.
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like the idea of the children and old
+men fighting.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Children and old men have fought before,&rdquo; Ato
+answered simply. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;s ranks.</p>
+
+<p>The floor beyond the barrier was littered with dead and
+slippery with blood before Grim Hagen&rsquo;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&mdash;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. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The lights darted down upon Grim Hagen&rsquo;s men. And as
+they touched them, the cold of space
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg&nbsp;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s sword-arm. Hagen&rsquo;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>&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; Grim Hagen screamed, and his voice was
+the shriek of a man who has nothing left to lose. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</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>&ldquo;No more of that, Odin. Drop your sword or she dies.
+Drop it now!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And Odin lowered his hand and let his sword fall to the
+table beneath him.</p>
+
+<p>Grim Hagen continued: &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg&nbsp;131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, you would be like Lucifer, wreaking his
+vengeance upon the planets,&rdquo; the voice of what had
+been Wolden interrupted in a whisper. &ldquo;No, Grim Hagen,
+even if I gave you what you asked, all space would seem as
+hell to you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Grim Hagen smiled an evil smile. &ldquo;So. But it is I who
+make the bargain. Even yet. Maya goes with me.
+Remember!&rdquo;</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&rsquo;s sword with his bare hand. It
+cut to the bone. And then he had Hagen&rsquo;s wrist with
+his free hand. He twisted. A bone cracked and he shook the
+blade from Hagen&rsquo;s grasp. Maya leaped to one side.
+Then Hagen&rsquo;s fingers were pushing Odin&rsquo;s face
+back and Odin was clutching at Hagen&rsquo;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&rsquo;s fingers were feeling for Odin&rsquo;s
+eyes. Odin got a bloody fist against Hagen&rsquo;s face and
+shoved him back. Then he rolled on top of him and got the
+man&rsquo;s throat between his hands. Hagen&rsquo;s fists
+worked like pistons as he beat at Odin&rsquo;s face. Odin
+felt the blood dripping down upon his hands and upon
+Hagen&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s men.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There are a hundred more on the two ships,&rdquo;
+Maya told Odin. &ldquo;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.&rdquo; She buried her face on
+Odin&rsquo;s shoulder. &ldquo;Oh, Jack, when we were kids
+together we used to laugh at her.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg&nbsp;132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He patted her shoulder comfortingly, for he could think of
+nothing to say. He had seen soldiers like Nea&mdash;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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>&ldquo;Eh, Nors-King,&rdquo; he whispered, sitting up
+straight as Odin steadied him in his arms. &ldquo;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&mdash;and it took all my strength.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;As fast as I could,&rdquo; Odin answered in a choking
+voice. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Part of him.&rdquo; Gunnar blinked his good eye.
+&ldquo;What happened down there? Oh,&rdquo; he gasped in
+pain, &ldquo;to have missed the fighting!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;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&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If I can,&rdquo; Odin promised.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, you can. For we have won the stars and nothing is
+beyond us&mdash;except youth, maybe.&rdquo;</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&nbsp;133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;To awake on the sea of the stars&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Jack Odin had heard Gunnar sing those words before. They
+belonged to an old Norse lullaby that Gunnar&rsquo;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&rsquo;s
+captain had married Maya and Odin.</p>
+
+<p>So it was over. But Odin and Maya had asked for
+Gunnar&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&mdash;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&rsquo;s surface and take their chances with frost
+and flood.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg&nbsp;134]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Opal had been beautiful and wonderful. It had been like
+living eastward in Eden, but Eden&rsquo;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&mdash;even in Eden&mdash;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&mdash;for the
+nights there were chilly&mdash;he talked to them of his decision.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It was a great fight,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Maya shivered. &ldquo;It sounds like a frightening
+existence. I don&rsquo;t understand it at all. It is as
+though they had become spirits without dying.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; said Ato thoughtfully, looking into
+the fire. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He paused a minute and then added cautiously, &ldquo;They
+have brought two more belts with them. For you two, if you
+should decide&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Maya shivered. Odin laughed, as he shook his head.
+&ldquo;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&mdash;even as my fathers before on earth&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Maya snuggled against his shoulder as she nodded her
+agreement.</p>
+
+<p>Ato smiled. &ldquo;I thought so&mdash;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&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Then he talked for nearly an
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg&nbsp;135]</a></span>
+
+hour about the passing of time&mdash;and how a ship could
+circle the universe at the speed of light&mdash;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&mdash;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s
+offer. Eden was behind him. Immortality was lost. But Adam
+and Eve held close to each other there at the edge of
+space&mdash;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&rsquo;s and Wolden&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&nbsp;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&rsquo;s people are philosophers. They only fought
+out of desperation.</p>
+
+<p>My sword and Gunnar&rsquo;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&mdash;happy at last&mdash;parsecs away and years away&mdash;I
+wish my old friend a hearty fare-thee-well&mdash;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&rsquo;s
+cap{original had cape} not five feet away.</p>
+
+<p>Page 55: Even though we go farther than the graveyard of
+stars&mdash;or beyond the gates of hell, maybe&mdash;I will find
+her.&rdquo;{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: &ldquo;Einstein and Einsteinian
+Space, with Conjectures upon a Trans-Einsteinian
+concept.{original had a comma here}&rdquo;</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: &ldquo;{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} &ldquo;eye&rdquo; reached out
+for them and was left behind.</p>
+
+<p>Page 83: &ldquo;It will be like plunging back from
+immortality{original had imortality} to mortality,&rdquo;
+Ato told Odin.</p>
+
+<p>Page 84: &ldquo;My father&rsquo;s work is finished{original
+had finisheded},&rdquo; she told them proudly.</p>
+
+<p>Page 86: Don&rsquo;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&rsquo;s
+direction&mdash;{original had a superfluous quotation mark here}</p>
+
+<p>Page 95: &ldquo;If I did, Hagen, would I turn you and your
+hell&rsquo;s{original had hells&rsquo;} spawn loose upon the
+stars to perplex them forever?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Page 97: &ldquo;Touch&eacute;{original had Touche}!&rdquo; 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: &ldquo;And he is a Bro-Stoka among the
+slaves,{original omitted this comma}&rdquo; Gunnar
+continued.</p>
+
+<p>Page 100: &ldquo;Turn the light upon her forearm{original
+had fore-arm, but all other occurrences were spelled
+forearm}, now,&rdquo; 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,&rdquo; 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&rsquo;s men
+writhed helplessly in the grip of the Kalis&rsquo;{original
+had Kali&rsquo;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.&rdquo;</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
+
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+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: ASCII
+
+*** 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
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               HUNTERS
+
+                               OUT  OF
+
+                                SPACE
+
+
+
+
+                        By  JOSEPH E. KELLEAM
+
+                        ILLUSTRATED by FINLAY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+
+In 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 and there, a bit of melody about all
+the good things that happen to birds and men without their knowing why.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The lights began to whisper.
+
+"We are Ato and Wolden," they said. "Remember us?"
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+I didn't, but I have learned that a man can live quite comfortably by
+merely keeping his mouth shut. So I kept still.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"Look at the ball," the voices whispered. "We will give you an idea of the
+time-space in which we live."
+
+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 rubbed off upon my fingertips.
+
+"See." The lights whispered. "We have turned it inside out--"
+
+The whispering continued.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"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--"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+I touched the box and drew my hand away in pain. It was colder than cold.
+Desolate, burning cold.
+
+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.
+
+Within it was a manuscript. As soon as I looked at it I recognized the
+handwriting of my old friend, Doctor Jack Odin.
+
+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--
+
+And this is the tale that Jack Odin sent me--from Somewhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+
+Jack 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 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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The second ledge was negotiated in the same fashion as the 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+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--
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+Odin went on and on, and the smell of the thing behind him slowly faded
+from the air.
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Ho, Nors-King. I knew you would come. Sooner or later you would be here
+and we would go hunting together."
+
+The man was Gunnar, successor to Jul, and Chief of the Neeblings!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+
+Going 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."
+
+"And how is she, Gunnar? Where is she?"
+
+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.
+
+"Gunnar! Where is Maya?"
+
+Gunnar's big hand squeezed Odin's shoulder.
+
+"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."
+
+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 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.
+
+"We will go together, then," Odin said. "But tell me--"
+
+"Then swear it by my blade." And Gunnar took the long sword and harness up
+from the sand where he had left it.
+
+"My people do not swear by the sword."
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And Jack Odin reached forward and touched the sword and swore that he would
+go with Gunnar even to the edge of the stars--
+
+"Now," Odin pleaded. "Tell me what happened down there."
+
+"It is a long story. And not a pretty one, either. Have you anything to
+eat?"
+
+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.
+
+"Grim Hagen planned well." (So Gunnar began). "He planned well, and even
+yet I hope to kill him.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"Dactyls," Jack Odin prompted.
+
+"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."
+
+He stopped talking to take a huge bite of stale bread that nearly choked
+him. Then he continued his story.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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:
+
+"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[Footnote: Amazing Stories, c. 1929.] 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 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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. 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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.)
+
+"Then I will go with you," Jack Odin told Gunnar. "To fight at your right
+side until we find my princess--"
+
+"And until Grim Hagen is dead," Gunnar added. "For he is a noisome leaven
+that will pollute all of space that he touches."
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+
+Soon the floor of the cavern was slippery beneath their feet.
+
+"The waters came up to here," Gunnar said. "Now, take a deep breath,
+Nors-King, for the air gets worse before it gets better."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gunnar kicked several out of the way as he made a trail for Odin to follow.
+
+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.
+
+At last they saw a reddish light ahead.
+
+Gunnar paused and pointed with a gnarled forefinger. "Opal ahead. All that
+is left of it."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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?"
+
+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--"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"And could you do better?" Gunnar grumbled. "Maybe I let you go first and
+we all go tumbling into the sea--"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+Gunnar retorted: "I doubt if you could have changed one thread of the
+Spinners--"
+
+"But didn't I save you back there in the tunnel with this same rifle?"
+Jack Odin answered.
+
+"And nearly deafened me, too. Oh, well, I would probably have killed that
+thing anyway."
+
+Odin shrugged. Gunnar's philosophy couldn't be shaken.
+
+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."
+
+"Not until I find a better weapon." Jack Odin shook his head.
+
+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.
+
+"I have a boat over here," Gunnar said, and led the way.
+
+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.
+
+When Odin came up he whispered, "We have a visitor."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Gunnar reached back of his shoulder and drew his huge broadsword from its
+scabbard. Then, with sword upraised, he advanced cautiously toward the
+sleeping snake.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Hurry, Nors-King, hurry! The rocks tremble."
+
+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.
+
+The boat was half-full of water. Gunnar climbed in and Odin came right
+behind him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 was still rising as it shook loose an
+occasional, crumbling ledge.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+"There, Gunnar. I have nothing left to fight with but my hands."
+
+"Good-riddance to that thing," Gunnar smiled. "I will make you a blade that
+will slice through an anvil."
+
+The motor coughed, sputtered--and began to purr.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+
+As 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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 fighting man. Wolden could never have been a fighter.
+
+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.
+
+But each in his own way was glad to see Odin, and welcomed him back to the
+ruins of Opal.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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."
+
+Odin laughed again. "You are getting old, Gunnar. Did anyone ever guarantee
+that ford to you for always?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gunnar disappeared in search of fresh clothing. Odin lay there, thinking
+of all the things he had seen since returning to Opal.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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. 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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chinese vases, thin as egg shells, most of them broken, lay in a tumbled
+pile beside ancient cradles and spinning wheels.
+
+A Neanderthal skull was staring hungrily at a twelve foot skeleton of a
+giant bird. And a restoration of a tiny little equus was looking up like
+an inquisitive mouse at a huge ruined painting by Rosa Bonheur.
+
+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."
+
+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 sodden sarcophagus of an Egyptian princess.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+The car moved slowly forward. The dismal fog grew heavier. Until at last
+they came to the place where the Old Ship had stood.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was all too deep for Odin. And there was so much to see that he did not
+ask any questions.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+And Gunnar spoke: "I would have gone beside you. My sword is thirsty."
+
+High up on the hour-glass shape a bit of magnesium caught 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.
+
+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.
+
+All about them now, the smiths were beating out old chanteys on the ancient
+anvils and the newer, clashing machines.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6
+
+
+In 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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!"
+
+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
+machines that had gone into the ship.
+
+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.
+
+"You are christened The Nebula," she cried. "Go out into space--"
+
+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.
+
+"That girl," Odin grasped Gunnar's arm "Who is she?"
+
+Gunnar looked at him curiously. "Her name is Nea. A distant cousin of
+Maya's. Also, a distant cousin to Grim Hagen."
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+Odin yawned. "The lists are ready. Everything is packed. I, myself, have
+checked the lists."
+
+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!"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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--"
+
+But Gunnar shook his head. "I swore by my sword. And I go."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Family meetings always made Odin ill at ease. He stood there, shuffling his
+feet.
+
+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 linsey-woolsey, and the
+overalls of the three sons were also home-spun.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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. 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+After that, Freida worked the conversation around to the voyage that Gunnar
+would soon be making.
+
+"They say it is cold out there," she ventured cautiously.
+
+"Oh, yes. Very cold." Gunnar agreed.
+
+"Then you wrap up good, Gunnar. We wouldn't want you to have a chill."
+
+Gunnar scoffed, "I never had a chill in my life."
+
+"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.
+
+"You promise you wear this if it gets cold," she urged.
+
+"I tell you, mama, I don't need such things. You don't know how tough old
+Gunnar is."
+
+"Yes, I know. You promise to wear the muffler--"
+
+Gunnar took it as he cast a sheepish look at Odin. "All right. All right.
+I'll take it--"
+
+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.
+
+The two went for a meal. But 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--
+
+"Sure. Sure." Odin agreed.
+
+Then, finally, Gunnar cleared his throat and spoke the things that were in
+his mind.
+
+"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."
+
+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--"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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--"
+
+And Gunnar, the strong one, sobbed in his sleep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Ato and Wolden had some last words with the captains who were working upon
+the rebuilding of Opal.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The ship moved on. Far out upon the floor of the Gulf, it paused. There
+were twenty minutes of last-minute checking.
+
+Then, swiftly, as a cork bobs upward, the Nebula arose through the parting
+waters.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7
+
+
+Wolden 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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Then the crawling tractor with its cars lumbering along behind it on their
+endless tracks was below them and playing its single light upward.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"How awkward of me," she explained. "It wouldn't have happened if I had not
+been carrying this--"
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+Once there was a loud _Ping_ upon the roof above them. The tractor shook.
+
+"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."
+
+They came to a sheer mountain which in the beams of the tractor looked like
+a silver pyramid painted across a jet-black canvas.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 thought, but he soon learned that other hands had
+sheered those walls.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Straining his eyes at the windows to look up, Odin learned that the vast
+ceiling was completely covered by similar figures.
+
+In contrast to these was one huge tower of rough stone which Odin guessed
+to be new.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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 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.
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Good heavens, Odin thought, what a cold-blooded obituary for any race!
+
+"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."
+
+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."
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Wouldn't you care to look at the new lake?" Wolden urged.
+
+"I can take a hint," Gunnar grumbled. "Nobody wants a fighting man about
+until the swords are flashing--"
+
+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.
+
+When they greeted her, Odin felt that he could hold back his curiosity no
+longer. "Are you a bowler, Miss Nea?" he asked.
+
+"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."
+
+Gunnar muttered some words that might be roughly interpreted as "Fat
+Chance" and he and Odin left the girl on the steps.
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+So the votes were taken, following a century-old ritual. Wolden was
+relieved of command and Ato was given his place.
+
+Hours later Gunnar and Odin sat with Ato in his quarters, making some
+last-minute decisions.
+
+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--"
+
+Tears were in the eyes of both when Ato took the slug-horn from his father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8
+
+
+At 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.
+
+Then Ato led his group back to the moon's surface.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+The Nebula leaped toward the star-studded skies.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+With one last shrug of his lean shoulders, Ato pulled the lever that threw
+them into the Fourth Drive.
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The crew was given instructions on the anticipated sensations that were
+to follow.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+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--
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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--"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Now, she produced her invention with a proud toss of black curls and a
+flush of excitement on her pale face.
+
+"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--"
+
+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."
+
+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--"
+
+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--"
+
+A grizzled Bron nodded in agreement. "Yes, Nea, this talk serves no
+purpose. Get along with your invention."
+
+"Very well. I asked for a live thing, but Ato would not agree."
+
+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.
+
+"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--"
+
+Odin thought there was just a bit of doubt in her voice. If so, it would
+only be natural.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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!"
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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 plump cat
+returning to a doting mistress.
+
+Nea pressed the button again and put it back into its case.
+
+"Wonderful," Ato applauded. "I move that we give Nea a vote of thanks."
+
+"But what earthly good is it?" Gunnar asked. "I could have swatted it with
+a broom."
+
+"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--"
+
+The grizzled Bron who had spoken once before now laughed good-humoredly.
+"Demonstrate it on Gunnar," he suggested.
+
+"And I will thump your skull--" Gunnar was ready to go for him, but Odin
+grabbed the little giant's arm.
+
+"He jokes. Besides, you are ruining the girl's show. This means much to
+her."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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."
+
+He and Gunnar were with Ato in the control room when suddenly warning
+bells began to jangle and red lights flashed on and off.
+
+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.
+
+Ato pointed to a bright star. "Aldebaran. They are headed there."
+
+His voice was shaking just a bit when he called into the speaker: "Battle
+stations, everyone!"
+
+Gunnar took off for the needle-nosed instrument which he had grown to hate.
+Odin stood by to help with the screens.
+
+"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--"
+
+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.
+
+Bells and klaxons shrieked their warnings.
+
+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 screens and watched the three globes of flame hurtle past them.
+
+Far away now, they slowed like living things, puzzled at having lost their
+prey.
+
+Slowed they merged together--
+
+And turned back upon their quarry!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9
+
+
+The 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The bubble cleared. Over the loudspeakers came Grim Hagen's shriek of
+wild laughter.
+
+Odin turned another knob and the bubble loomed larger.
+
+Grim Hagen stood there, one lean hand rubbing his chin as he laughed at
+them.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+At a signal from Ato, the firing stopped.
+
+Grim Hagen was still laughing.
+
+"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."
+
+Shrouded there within a bubble 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.
+
+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."
+
+Then the topaz globe twitched as a bubble vanishes. And it was gone. Out
+there was nothing but the night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+He stared and shook his head. The dream-vision vanished from the screen.
+Someone had entered the room.
+
+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.
+
+"You ought to be asleep," he warned. "Now that your work is finished--"
+
+"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.
+
+"That is where we are going?" she asked.
+
+"Ato is certain that Grim Hagen is headed for Aldebaran," Odin answered.
+
+"One star out of millions. What difference does it make?"
+
+"You have been working too hard--"
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He tried to make a joke of the matter. "You sound like a beatnik."
+
+"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."
+
+"Well, I'd say 'Nuts.' We would keep on looking. But why such gloomy
+thoughts?"
+
+"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."
+
+Odin drew his hand across his face in dismay. "You make all this sound
+like a mad voyage. Why, this is insane!"
+
+"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."
+
+Lithely she got to her feet and reached a dial upon the screen. The lone
+star vanished. A thousand pinpoints leaped out.
+
+"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?"
+
+"Because I am a man, I suppose."
+
+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--"
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+Then she was gone.
+
+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.
+
+Until finally he got up and went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10
+
+
+Ato'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.
+
+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.
+
+Not a single blast was fired at them. Every man was at his post, while Ato
+guided them in, and Odin worked the screens.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Was space no more creative 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 empennage, 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.
+
+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.
+
+He felt nearly as bewildered as he had been when Nea explained her theories
+of the Time-Space Concept to him.
+
+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.
+
+The city sat there upon the plain and stared at them. The Nebula looked
+back.
+
+At length a procession of cars moved toward them.
+
+Grim Hagen's voice came thundering over the loud-speakers.
+
+"A truce, Ato. I offer you a week's truce in return for a few meetings.
+This world has seen enough destruction--"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The voice was older!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Odin gasped in amazement. Grim Hagen was nearly twenty years older than
+when he had seen him last.
+
+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, there was now nothing but seamed lines like scars and blazing
+eyes. It was an evil face. Grim Hagen had become a devil.
+
+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 alnage. 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--"
+
+"We want the people that you brought with you, Grim Hagen," Ato answered
+coldly. "And the treasures."
+
+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--"
+
+"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--"
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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
+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?
+
+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!"
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+But once Jack Odin and Gunnar 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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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--"
+
+"Oh, quit complaining, little giant. We still have some bargaining power."
+
+"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!"
+
+"Quit worrying. One of us will kill Grim Hagen, sooner or later."
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+"Kinsmen," he began mockingly. "You may have wondered why I called a truce
+when I could just as well have destroyed you--"
+
+"That I doubt," Ato answered him. "We have defensive weapons. Even now the
+guns from our ship are trained upon the city."
+
+Grim Hagen shrugged. "Let us not quibble, Ato. Your father was a quibbler
+before you."
+
+Ato flushed in anger.
+
+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."
+
+"Now, you're quibbling," Gunnar jeered. "Get on with your speech, Grim
+Hagen."
+
+Grim Hagen bowed to the broad-shouldered little man. "Some day, Gunnar, I
+may have to kill you--"
+
+"Now. Now." Gunnar urged, fairly jumping in rage. "Just the two of us, Grim
+Hagen. Just the two of us with bare hands--"
+
+"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--
+
+"That's easy," Gunnar retorted. "The old herdsman sleeps well at night."
+
+"Bah. Who wants to sleep? Please quit interrupting, Gunnar."
+
+"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--"
+
+"Loki, the Mischief-Maker, running through creation--" Gunnar muttered.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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?"
+
+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.
+
+A dozen knives flashed. A dozen death-tubes were pointed toward Ato and
+his followers.
+
+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--"
+
+Grim Hagen flamed. "You will die on the hook for this--"
+
+"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--"
+
+"Arrest them all," Grim Hagen screamed. "Arrest Rama too," he added with
+rage.
+
+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.
+
+"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--"
+
+He saluted them as he went out the door.
+
+They never saw Rama again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11
+
+
+Although 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?"
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+"You ought to get yourself a witch-doctor's mask and a couple of
+hollowbones to whistle through," Odin had told him scathingly.
+
+"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."
+
+"Touche!" Jack Odin thought as Gunnar departed. "So he's been worrying
+about me and the girls, has he?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Just myself," Odin replied. "Now what--"
+
+"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.
+
+"This man goes by the name of Piper," Gunnar announced simply.
+
+The man bowed and smiled nervously.
+
+"And he is a Bro-Stoka among the slaves," Gunnar continued.
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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."
+
+Odin's lethargy was gone now. "Gunnar, old friend! What magic was in that
+bag of yours?"
+
+"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."
+
+Odin slapped him on the back. "Gunnar, you are a genius, a sheer genius."
+
+"Not at all. When I was a young man I learned such strategy from studying
+the world above me."
+
+Odin winced.
+
+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."
+
+"Please, Gunnar. When will we see Maya--"
+
+"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?"
+
+"Gunnar, I know nothing of these matters. Tell me about Maya--"
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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--"
+
+"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--"
+
+Piper, Jack Odin gathered, was a very ambitious man.
+
+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.
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+As though reassured, Piper took up his oars.
+
+"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."
+
+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!"
+
+The boat streaked across the river's surface like a water-bug.
+
+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.
+
+"This is as far as I can go," Piper told them in a sweating voice. "Over
+there is the tomb."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"That Piper is a smart lad," Gunnar whispered. "He knows what he wants.
+He'll go far--maybe."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Here," Gunnar handed him the light. "Hold this while I get busy. Here now,
+Nors-King. No blubbering."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Then her vision cleared and she recognized them.
+
+"Jack--Gunnar--" she gasped. Then she was in Odin's arms. And Gunnar, the
+strong one, was standing over them--sniffling.
+
+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."
+
+"Never mind," Odin comforted. "We will explain later. Can you walk now?"
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Carry her, Nors-King," Gunnar muttered. "The night grows old and we must
+make our way to the Nebula."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Odin thrust Maya to the couch as he came forward to help.
+
+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. 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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12
+
+
+He 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Three times more the soft mane of hair caressed him and three times more
+just as he was 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.
+
+At intervals, he could hear Gunnar's voice--and his own--crying, pleading,
+threatening.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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--
+
+The pain left him. His mind cleared and he lay there gasping from the
+ordeal.
+
+Ato and Nea smiled at them. So cheerfully that he almost expected them to
+write out a bill for surgical fees.
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+"Tell him, Nea," Ato said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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."
+
+"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--"
+
+"You were plenty rough," Gunnar grumbled.
+
+"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."
+
+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?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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?"
+
+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."
+
+"Will you please tell me where we are?" Gunnar demanded.
+
+"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."
+
+"Can't we overtake him?" Odin asked.
+
+"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."
+
+"Not as fast as he will go if I ever get my hands on him," Gunnar promised.
+
+"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."
+
+Nea laughed. "Even as I said before." She gave Jack Odin a searching look,
+but Odin avoided her gaze--
+
+"Then, what have you done?" Odin asked.
+
+"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."
+
+"Only at that moment," Odin corrected. "If not destroyed, it has a chance
+to improve its percentage when the pursuer has made its pass."
+
+"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."
+
+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."
+
+Ato flushed in anger. "Nea, I was my father's helper for years and years.
+I know as much about space as any man."
+
+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?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13
+
+
+The dust-cloud was farther away than Ato had guessed. Long before they
+reached it, his instruments began to waver.
+
+He looked at a star-map. Meanwhile, Nea fed rows of figures into a humming
+calculator.
+
+"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."
+
+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--"
+
+"I don't like the problem at all--" Gunnar complained. "Just where is Grim
+Hagen?"
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"We're going in there," Ato decided. "It's the quickest way."
+
+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.
+
+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 energy that the ship reeled with its power.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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--"
+
+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.
+
+"Ragnarok," Gunnar growled in his throat. He adjusted the shoulder strap
+that harnessed his broadsword to his back and looked at Odin curiously.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Grim Hagen went in there," Ato replied as he studied his instruments. "If
+he can, we can."
+
+"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.
+
+"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--"
+
+With one warning blare, The Nebula plunged into the fringe of the
+dust-cloud.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Try this," she said in a tremulous voice. "It may work."
+
+Ato took the tape from her hands and set the controls accordingly.
+
+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.
+
+Odin knew that such a feeling was impossible out here, but it seemed to him
+that The Nebula leaped forward.
+
+Ato cried out in triumph. "I've got another fix on Grim Hagen. He's much
+nearer now."
+
+"Hurry, Ato. Hurry," Nea was pleading.
+
+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.
+
+"Ato. Hurry," Nea screamed. One of her instruments melted as she stared
+into it and she jumped back, her hands to her eyes--
+
+Then they were out of the cloud, and space lay empty and free before them,
+with only one tiny sun in view.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jack Odin twisted the controls to take a look at what was happening back
+there in the cloud.
+
+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 rushed across the screen.
+Rockets flashed. And fountains of flame spilled sun after sun into the
+sparkling void. Odin stood transfixed by the sight.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Not violent enough," Odin exclaimed. "How violent can an explosion be?"
+
+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--"
+
+Gunnar shivered. "Not back there. I have seen enough. Now, Ato, what lies
+ahead?"
+
+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."
+
+He turned a dial and the screens picked up one lone red sun far away. One
+tiny black dot slowly circled it.
+
+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--
+
+One other speck now appeared upon the screen. A pinpoint of light that
+crawled toward the lone sun and its single huge planet.
+
+Grim Hagen and the Old Ship!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"Sunk from sight," were Gunnar's words, and this explained the
+disappearance as well as anything. It was as though they had been on
+a boat and the thing had dived overboard.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+How far away and how long ago!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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?
+
+Sleep after sleep went by and still the two ships crawled toward that last
+port on the edge of space.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14
+
+
+The two ships landed a few miles apart at almost the same time.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+There was a demanding buzz from the loudspeaker.
+
+Ato turned the dial. A strange, harsh voice was calling. "You there, on the
+Second ship. You on the second ship. Answer."
+
+"Yes!" Ato replied gruffly. "Who are you?"
+
+"I am the head man of the city--the city within the dome."
+
+"How did you know our language?"
+
+"We have known it for thirty years. For that long have we been in contact
+with Grim Hagen."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+The voice continued. "We invited Grim Hagen to our world. We did not invite
+you. Go away."
+
+"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."
+
+"We are not going away," Ato told the voice stubbornly.
+
+"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."
+
+They looked at the screen, and a tiny drone-torpedo came winging 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.
+
+"There," the voice said triumphantly. "That is what will happen to you. Why
+don't you leave us? You are not wanted. Leave us."
+
+"Faith, he's a hospitable soul," Odin murmured.
+
+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."
+
+"Grim Hagen is our ally. We have already sworn our allegiance. I have no
+more words for you."
+
+There was a clicking sound and the loudspeaker died with a sputter of
+static.
+
+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."
+
+"Greed has you in its hand, Grim Hagen. I know nothing of my father's
+secret. I do not even know if he succeeded--"
+
+"Then summon him and let him decide for himself. You are young, but
+two-thirds of my life is gone now--"
+
+"Your calculation is wrong," Gunnar shouted. "You life is nearly all gone,
+Grim Hagen."
+
+"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--"
+
+"Talk on, Grim Hagen," Odin growled. "I am here. And I intend to kill
+you--Just as I promised."
+
+"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."
+
+Another click and the loudspeaker was silent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Gunnar was in favor of hazarding an attack on the barrier and then going
+on to the city.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+The day passed wearily by.
+
+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.
+
+Yes, it was certainly Grim Hagen's day.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"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--"
+
+Odin groaned. "In twenty days Grim Hagen will be back among the stars--"
+
+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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nea went back to the lab. Odin and Ato continued their study of the maps.
+Gunnar was putting a fine edge to his broadsword.
+
+Then the warning buzzer sounded its alarm. Odin dived for the screen and
+turned on the controls.
+
+A long procession of mauve shadows was approaching. Already inside the
+barrier, they came single-file and slowly circled The Nebula.
+
+Even in the pale weird light, they certainly seemed to be men.
+
+Ato ordered "Battle-Stations" and sirens sounded all over the ship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"Men of the strange ship. Men of the strange ship--"
+
+"Yes," Odin answered.
+
+"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."
+
+Within a few minutes, a dozen of the strangers had been brought aboard The
+Nebula. Ato summoned Nea and the rest of the captains.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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
+suns, millions upon millions of miles away. But we were never able to
+perfect a telescope that could bring a single sun into view.
+
+"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."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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--"
+
+"He was playing at being the eternal Loki--the old mischief-maker--" Gunnar
+interrupted and went on edging his sword.
+
+"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--"
+
+"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."
+
+"Please, Gunnar," Ato begged. "Let Val go on with his story."
+
+"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?"
+
+"I will try to explain that later," Ato answered.
+
+"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--"
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+"How did you get through the barrier?" Nea asked.
+
+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."
+
+"Then we can go to the city?" Gunnar exclaimed with a joyful war-whoop.
+"To kill, and kill, and kill--"
+
+"You are right," Ato admitted. "Delay will only increase Grim Hagen's
+advantage. To the city--as fast as we can--"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15
+
+
+Val and his men had brought along enough of the umbrella-shaped defenses
+to get them through the barrier.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Gunnar had laughed at that. "Hang on to your sword and knife, Nors-King.
+We will need them yet."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Listen," Gunnar warned.
+
+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.
+
+Then all was still.
+
+"It was from the Old Ship," Gunnar said. "I wonder--"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+The defenders cleared the choked stairways and came on--dying at the
+entrances and falling back and blocking the stairs again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Meanwhile, Ato's guns were going out. The last became a white torch when
+a magnesium blob struck it.
+
+The side-arms were all gone.
+
+They fought now with sword and knife.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16
+
+
+Gunnar 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Odin and Gunnar knelt beside the railing that marked the entrance to the
+tunnels below. Neither Hagen nor his men saw them.
+
+Gunnar grasped Odin's shoulders and pulled him down. "Listen," he whispered
+in Odin's ear. "Do you hear anything strange?"
+
+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.
+
+Then screams drowned out the whining sound, and Odin wondered if he had not
+imagined it.
+
+Nearly a hundred of the defenders came running toward Grim Hagen. They were
+in mad flight now. Most of them were weaponless. Grim Hagen cursed them,
+rallied them about him, and urged them to pick up new weapons and fight.
+
+Now, Ato and Val and another hundred men came charging forward.
+
+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.
+
+Now Grim Hagen spied Odin and Gunnar as they advanced to help Ato.
+
+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.
+
+"Look, men of the Lorens," Hagen cried, still pointing. "I will give
+immortality to the men who bring me those two alive."
+
+The first two to reach Gunnar and Odin died at the end of Gunnar's and
+Odin's swords.
+
+"Your immortality does not last very long, Grim Hagen," Gunnar shouted as
+he wiped his blade.
+
+Then another man came up the stairway. Odin killed him and flung him back
+upon the men who followed.
+
+But reinforcements were pouring in from other lanes. Grim Hagen and his
+men now numbered over a thousand.
+
+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.
+
+But Hagen's men rallied and drove them back again--almost to the stairway.
+
+"The next drive will get us," Ato groaned. "Brace yourselves, men."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 dozens of old men. All were armed. And they
+came forward like the wrack of a surviving army at judgement day.
+
+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.
+
+One caught a fugitive as he lagged behind--and he died screaming.
+
+[Illustration: Grim Hagen's men writhed helplessly in the grip of the
+Kalis' deadly copper hairs!]
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"Good God," Odin was thinking. "What unexplored labyrinths are left in the
+human brain?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+There were other Lorens coming out of the hedges, but they held back.
+They had seen enough.
+
+Had fortune favored Ato then, his army would have won.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 had been cornered by an enemy they could not understand.
+
+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 sardonyx that blazed huge and grand for a brief
+moment. Then the jewel-blaze burned out, and a handful of ashes sifted
+to the ground.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+By now both Ato and Maya had swung their shattered little armies over to
+the subway entrance.
+
+Hagen had retreated from the dais. Meeting the advancing Lorens, he led
+them forward.
+
+Those on the stairway retreated as they saw that they were no longer
+against two warriors.
+
+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."
+
+"But Grim Hagen will be at our heels--" Odin protested.
+
+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."
+
+"Go with Maya, Ato," Odin said, "and I will stay here with Gunnar."
+
+"No. The entrance is narrow. You would be in the way," Gunnar protested.
+"Now, go! Oh, but the valkyries will be busy tonight!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Ato's and Maya's fighters tumbled after them. There were only a few of the
+old people and children left.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+Gunnar braced himself, his long blade high over his shoulder, both hands
+locked to the long carved haft.
+
+"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--"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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--"
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+One by one the companies returned to Grim Hagen and reported that for the
+present there was no other way into the room below.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+He cleared a path and sent his attackers back until they stood about him
+in a circle, their fangs ready.
+
+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.
+
+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 forward, like a dwarf-king advancing from Hell.
+
+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.
+
+Gunnar reeled back into the flames.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17
+
+
+A 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.
+
+Maya was at Odin's side now. They clung together. Jack Odin kissed her
+and swore that they would never be parted again.
+
+"Until death--" Maya said and raised her lips to his.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+Odin agreed.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Are your men still armed, Val?" Odin asked.
+
+"Aye. They know to hang on to their weapons."
+
+"Not all of Maya's people are," Odin said. "I don't like the idea of the
+children and old men fighting."
+
+"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."
+
+They waited. All the troops and all the weapons were moved behind the
+barricade.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Then a white-skinned warrior leaped at the barricade and Odin thrust him
+through.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Torches began to rain down upon them. Half the defending forces were now
+busy with water and sand, beating out the flames.
+
+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.
+
+The floor beyond the barrier was littered with dead and slippery with
+blood before Grim Hagen's men broke the barrier.
+
+There were only two hundred to meet the charge of two thousand. The end
+was inevitable.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Suddenly the room was filled with lights, flashing and dancing everywhere.
+Whispering.
+
+A stillness fell upon the room and the shambles. Men paused as they lifted
+their knives or braced themselves for a last thrust.
+
+For a single breath, all was in silence.
+
+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."
+
+The lights darted down upon Grim Hagen's men. And as they touched them,
+the cold of space 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.
+
+There was a spattering sound, as of sleet falling against a distant roof.
+A strange smell filled the air.
+
+And one by one Grim Hagen's men went down.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18
+
+
+All 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.
+
+He saw a light dart down toward Grim Hagen.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"No more of that, Odin. Drop your sword or she dies. Drop it now!"
+
+And Odin lowered his hand and let his sword fall to the table beneath him.
+
+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--"
+
+"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."
+
+Grim Hagen smiled an evil smile. "So. But it is I who make the bargain.
+Even yet. Maya goes with me. Remember!"
+
+But at that instant Maya got one hand free and thrust the sword aside.
+
+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.
+
+They stood there swaying. Then they tumbled down the rude stairway of
+tables that Ato had fashioned for his last stand.
+
+They rolled to the blood-stained floor beneath. And Odin never knew how
+either of them survived the fall.
+
+The lights hovered above them, waiting for an opening. Maya took up a
+fallen sword and came following after.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+A cot was improvised for Ato. The lights hovered around him, whispering
+cheerfully and ignoring all others.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There at the top of the stairs he found Gunnar. And Gunnar's dead lay thick
+about him.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Part of him." Gunnar blinked his good eye. "What happened down there? Oh,"
+he gasped in pain, "to have missed the fighting!"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"If I can," Odin promised.
+
+"Oh, you can. For we have won the stars and nothing is beyond us--except
+youth, maybe."
+
+Gunnar closed his eyes and slept for a few minutes while Odin held him in
+his arms. Then Gunnar awoke.
+
+He smiled at Jack Odin and murmured:
+
+"To awake on the sea of the stars--"
+
+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.
+
+Then Gunnar died.
+
+And Odin knelt over him, tears streaming down his broken face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 19
+
+
+Six months had passed since the battle.
+
+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.
+
+Another city was being built a few miles away.
+
+Ato had soon recovered from his wounds, and as ship's captain had married
+Maya and Odin.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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--"
+
+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."
+
+"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 Laelaps to invade the night."
+
+He paused a minute and then added cautiously, "They have brought two more
+belts with them. For you two, if you should decide--"
+
+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--"
+
+Maya snuggled against his shoulder as she nodded her agreement.
+
+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--"
+
+Then he talked for nearly an 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+   Dear Joe: (he began)
+
+   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.
+
+   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.)
+
+   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.
+
+   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.
+
+   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 exist as we know it. Or is it a
+   river that can be navigated?
+
+   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.
+
+   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.
+
+   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
+
+   IT IS A TALE THAT IS TOLD.
+
+           Best wishes,
+
+                   Jack Odin, M. D.
+
+
+                               THE END
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+
+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.
+
+The following corrections have been made to the text:
+
+Page 48: Both hands of the clock were pointing upward{original had uward}.
+
+Page 51: Rolling the knapsack up into a ball and tying it securely{original
+had securly}, he threw it over the brink.
+
+Page 52: The spurt of a match showed him his miner's cap{original had cape}
+not five feet away.
+
+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}
+
+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}.
+
+Page 70: They hammered and pounded at the framework.{original omitted the
+period}
+
+Page 71: It was entitled: "Einstein and Einsteinian Space, with Conjectures
+upon a Trans-Einsteinian concept.{original had a comma here}"
+
+Page 73: She was dressed in linsey-woolsey{original had lindsey-woolsey},
+and the overalls of the three sons were also home-spun.
+
+Page 75: And once,{original had a period} Odin heard him cry out
+
+Page 78: Larger than the others, Odin landed awkwardly{original had
+awkardly} upon the floor of the car.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Page 82: Jupiter with its red clouds and its protean{original had portean}
+"eye" reached out for them and was left behind.
+
+Page 83: "It will be like plunging back from immortality{original had
+imortality} to mortality," Ato told Odin.
+
+Page 84: "My father's work is finished{original had finisheded}," she told
+them proudly.
+
+Page 86: Don't you see?{original had a period instead of the question mark}
+
+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,
+
+Page 95: Again he tossed a sneer in Gunnar's direction--{original had a
+superfluous quotation mark here}
+
+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?"
+
+Page 97: "Touche{original had Touche}!" Jack Odin thought as Gunnar
+departed.
+
+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.
+
+Page 98: "And he is a Bro-Stoka among the slaves,{original omitted this
+comma}" Gunnar continued.
+
+Page 100: "Turn the light upon her forearm{original had fore-arm, but all
+other occurrences were spelled forearm}, now," he instructed.
+
+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}
+
+Page 106: {original had a superfluous quotation mark here}Here," he pointed
+to a pinpoint of light upon the map.
+
+Page 107: "Perhaps," she answered.{original had a comma} "But space out
+there is curdling in his wake."
+
+Illustration caption (Page 122): Grim Hagen's men writhed helplessly in
+the grip of the Kalis'{original had Kali's} deadly copper hairs!
+
+Page 128: The bees who steal the honey soon die, the old man{original had
+men} had said,
+
+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."
+
+The following words were inconsistently hyphenated, and have been left as
+in the original:
+
+  cheek-bone/cheekbone
+  fore-arm/forearm
+  loud-speakers/loudspeakers
+  motor-boat/motorboat
+  out-cropping/outcropping
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Hunters Out of Space, by Joseph Everidge Kelleam
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