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diff --git a/25270.txt b/25270.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32f8334 --- /dev/null +++ b/25270.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5298 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNTERS OUT OF SPACE *** + +***** This file should be named 25270.txt or 25270.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/2/7/25270/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Andrew Wainwright and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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