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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: The Dragon-Queen of Jupiter - -Author: Leigh Brackett - -Release Date: April 22, 2020 [EBook #61890] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAGON-QUEEN OF JUPITER *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="349" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>The Dragon-Queen of Jupiter</h1> - -<h2>By LEIGH BRACKETT</h2> - -<p>More feared than the deadly green snakes,<br /> -the hideous red beetles of that outpost of<br /> -Earth Empire, was the winged dragon-queen<br /> -of Jupiter and her white Legions of Doom.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Summer 1941.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Tex stirred uneasily where he lay on the parapet, staring into the -heavy, Jupiterian fog. The greasy moisture ran down the fort wall, -lay rank on his lips. With a sigh for the hot, dry air of Texas, and -a curse for the adventure-thirst that made him leave it, he shifted -his short, steel-hard body and wrinkled his sandy-red brows in the -never-ending effort to see.</p> - -<p>A stifled cough turned his head. He whispered. "Hi, Breska."</p> - -<p>The Martian grinned and lay down beside him. His skin was wind-burned -like Tex's, his black eyes nested in wrinkles caused by squinting -against sun and blowing dust.</p> - -<p>For a second they were silent, feeling the desert like a bond between -them. Then Breska, mastering his cough, grunted:</p> - -<p>"They're an hour late now. What's the matter with 'em?"</p> - -<p>Tex was worried, too. The regular dawn attack of the swamp-dwellers was -long overdue.</p> - -<p>"Reckon they're thinking up some new tricks," he said. "I sure wish our -relief would get here. I could use a vacation."</p> - -<p>Breska's teeth showed a cynical flash of white.</p> - -<p>"If they don't come soon, it won't matter. At that, starving is -pleasanter than beetle-bombs, or green snakes. Hey, Tex. Here comes the -Skipper."</p> - -<p>Captain John Smith—Smith was a common name in the Volunteer -Legion—crawled along the catwalk. There were new lines of strain on -the officer's gaunt face, and Tex's uneasiness grew.</p> - -<p>He knew that supplies were running low. Repairs were urgently needed. -Wasn't the relief goin' to come at all?</p> - -<p>But Captain Smith's pleasant English voice was as calm as though he -were discussing cricket-scores in a comfortable London club.</p> - -<p>"Any sign of the beggars, Tex?"</p> - -<p>"No, sir. But I got a feeling...."</p> - -<p>"H'm. Yes. We all have. Well, keep a sharp...."</p> - -<p>A scream cut him short. It came from below in the square compound. Tex -shivered, craning down through the rusty netting covering the well.</p> - -<p>He'd heard screams like that before.</p> - -<p>A man ran across the greasy stones, tearing at something on his wrist. -Other men ran to help him, the ragged remnant of the force that had -marched into new Fort Washington three months before, the first -garrison.</p> - -<p>The tiny green snake on the man's wrist grew incredibly. By the time -the first men reached it, it had whipped a coil around its victim's -neck. Faster than the eye could follow, it shifted its fangs from -wrist to throat.</p> - -<p>The man seemed suddenly to go mad. He drew his knife and slashed at his -comrades, screaming, keeping them at bay.</p> - -<p>Then, abruptly, he collapsed. The green snake, now nearly ten feet -long, whipped free and darted toward a drainage tunnel. Shouting men -surrounded it, drawing rapid-fire pistols, but Captain Smith called out:</p> - -<p>"Don't waste your ammunition, men!"</p> - -<p>Startled faces looked up. And in that second of respite, the snake -coiled and butted its flat-nosed head against the grating.</p> - -<p>In a shower of rust-flakes it fell outward, and the snake was gone like -a streak of green fire.</p> - -<p>Tex heard Breska cursing in a low undertone. A sudden silence had -fallen on the compound. Men fingered the broken grating, white-faced as -they realized what it meant. There would be no metal for repairs until -the relief column came.</p> - -<p>It was hard enough to bring bare necessities over the wild terrain. And -air travel was impracticable due to the miles-thick clouds and magnetic -vagaries. There would be no metal, no ammunition.</p> - -<p>Tex swore. "Reckon I'll never get used to those varmints, Captain. The -rattlers back home was just kid's toys."</p> - -<p>"Simple enough, really." Captain Smith spoke absently, his gray eyes -following the sag of the rusty netting below.</p> - -<p>"The green snakes, like the planarians, decrease evenly in size with -starvation. They also have a vastly accelerated metabolism. When they -get food, which happens to be blood, they simply shoot out to their -normal size. An injected venom causes their victims to fight off help -until the snake has fed."</p> - -<p>Breska snarled. "Cute trick the swamp men thought up, starving those -things and then slipping them in on us through the drain pipes. They're -so tiny you miss one, every once in a while."</p> - -<p>"And then you get that." Tex nodded toward the corpse. "I wonder who -the war-chief is. I'd sure like to get a look at him."</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Captain Smith. "So would I."</p> - -<p>He turned to go, crawling below the parapet. You never knew what -might come out of the fog at you, if you showed a target. The body was -carried out to the incinerator as there was no ceremony about burials -in this heat. A blob of white caught Tex's eye as a face strained -upward, watching the officer through the rusty netting.</p> - -<p>Tex grunted. "There's your countryman, Breska. I'd say he isn't so sold -on the idea of making Venus safe for colonists."</p> - -<p>"Oh, lay off him, Tex." Breska was strangled briefly by a fit of -coughing. "He's just a kid, he's homesick, and he's got the wheezes, -like me. This lowland air isn't good for us. But just wait till we -knock sense into these white devils and settle the high plateaus."</p> - -<p>If he finished, Tex didn't hear him. The red-haired Westerner was -staring stiffly upward, clawing for his gun.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He hadn't heard or seen a thing. And now the fog was full of thundering -wings and shrill screams of triumph. Below the walls, where the -ground-mist hung in stagnant whorls, a host of half-seen bodies crowded -out of the wilderness into which no civilized man had ever gone.</p> - -<p>The rapid-fire pistol bucked and snarled in Tex's hand. Captain Smith, -lying on his belly, called orders in his crisp, unhurried voice. C -Battery on the northeast corner cut in with a chattering roar, spraying -explosive bullets upward, followed by the other three whose duty it was -to keep the air clear.</p> - -<p>Tex's heart thumped. Powder-smoke bit his nostrils. Breska began to -whistle through his teeth, a song that Tex had taught him, called, "The -Lone Prairee."</p> - -<p>The ground-strafing crews got their guns unlimbered, and mud began to -splash up from below. But it wasn't enough. The gun emplacements were -only half manned, the remainder of the depopulated garrison having been -off-duty down in the compound.</p> - -<p>The Jupiterians were swarming up the incline on which the fort stood, -attacking from the front and fanning out along the sides when they -reached firm ground. The morasses to the east and west were absolutely -impassable even to the swamp-men, which was what made Fort Washington -a strategic and envied stronghold.</p> - -<p>Tex watched the attackers with mingled admiration and hatred. They had -guts; the kind the Red Indians must have had, back in the old days in -America. They had cruelty, too, and a fiendish genius for thinking up -tricks.</p> - -<p>If the relief column didn't come soon, there might be one trick too -many, and the way would be left open for a breakthrough. The thin, -hard-held line of frontier posts could be flanked, cut off, and -annihilated.</p> - -<p>Tex shuddered to think what that would mean for the colonists, already -coming hopefully into the fertile plateaus.</p> - -<p>A sluggish breeze rolled the mist south into the swamps, and Tex got -his first clear look at the enemy. His heart jolted sharply.</p> - -<p>This was no mere raid. This was an attack.</p> - -<p>Hordes of tall warriors swarmed toward the walls, pale skinned giants -from the Sunless Land with snow-white hair coiled in warclubs at the -base of the skull. They wore girdles of reptile skin, and carried bags -slung over their brawny shoulders. In their hands they carried clubs -and crude bows.</p> - -<p>Beside them, roaring and hissing, came their war-dogs; semi-erect -reptiles with prehensile paws, their powerful tails armed with -artificial spikes of bone.</p> - -<p>Scaling ladders banged against the walls. Men and beasts began to -climb, covered by companions on the ground who hurled grenades of baked -mud from their bags.</p> - -<p>"Beetle-bombs!" yelled Tex. "Watch yourselves!"</p> - -<p>He thrust one ladder outward, and fired point-blank into a dead-white -face. A flying clay ball burst beside the man who fired the nearest -ground gun, and in a split second every inch of bare flesh was covered -by a sheath of huge scarlet beetles.</p> - -<p>Tex's freckled face hardened. The man's screams knifed upward through -the thunder of wings. Tex put a bullet carefully through his head and -tumbled the body over the parapet. Some of the beetles were shaken off, -and he glimpsed bone, already bare and gleaming.</p> - -<p>Missiles rained down from above; beetle-bombs, green snakes made -worm-size by starvation. The men were swarming up from the compound -now, but the few seconds of delay almost proved fatal.</p> - -<p>The aerial attackers were plain in the thinning mist—lightly-built men -mounted on huge things that were half bird, half lizard.</p> - -<p>The rusty netting jerked, catching the heavy bodies of man and lizard -shot down by the guns. Tex held his breath. That net was all that -protected them from a concerted dive attack that would give the natives -a foot-hold inside the walls.</p> - -<p>A gun in A Battery choked into silence. Rust, somewhere in the -mechanism. No amount of grease could keep it out.</p> - -<p>Breska swore sulphurously and stamped a small green thing flat. Red -beetles crawled along the stones—thank God the things didn't fly. Men -fought and died with the snakes. Another gun suddenly cut out.</p> - -<p>Tex fired steadily at fierce white heads thrust above the parapet. The -man next to him stumbled against the infested stones. The voracious -scarlet flood surged over him, and in forty seconds his uniform sagged -on naked bones.</p> - -<p>Breska's shout warned Tex aside as a lizard fell on the catwalk. Its -rider pitched into the stream of beetles and began to die. Wings beat -close overhead, and Tex crouched, aiming upward.</p> - -<p>His freckled face relaxed in a stare of utter unbelief.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She was beautiful. Pearl-white thighs circling the gray-green barrel -of her mount, silver hair streaming from under a snake-skin diadem -set with the horns of a swamp-rhino, a slim body clad in girdle and -breast-plates of irridescent scales.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" width="578" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Her face was beautiful, too, like a mask cut from pearl. But her eyes -were like pale-green flames, and the silver brows above them were drawn -into a straight bar of anger.</p> - -<p>Tex had never seen such cold, fierce hate in any living creature, even -a rattler coiled to strike.</p> - -<p>His gun was aimed, yet somehow he couldn't pull the trigger. When he -had collected his wits, she was gone, swooping like a stunting flyer -through the fire of the guns. She bore no weapons, only what looked -like an ancient hunting-horn.</p> - -<p>Tex swore, very softly. He knew what that horned diadem meant.</p> - -<p>This was the war chief!</p> - -<p>The men had reached the parapet just in time. Tex blasted the head from -a miniature Tyrannosaurus, dodged the backlash of the spiked tail, and -threw down another ladder. Guns snarled steadily, and corpses were -piling up at the foot of the wall.</p> - -<p>Tex saw the woman urge her flying mount over the pit of the compound, -saw her searching out the plan of the place—the living quarters, the -water tanks, the kitchen, the radio room.</p> - -<p>Impelled by some inner warning that made him forget all reluctance to -war against a woman, Tex fired.</p> - -<p>The bullet clipped a tress of her silver hair. Eyes like pale green -flames burned into his for a split second, and her lips drew back from -reptilian teeth, white, small, and pointed.</p> - -<p>Then she whipped her mount into a swift spiral climb and was gone, -flashing through streamers of mist and powder-smoke.</p> - -<p>A second later Tex heard the mellow notes of her horn, and the -attackers turned and vanished into the swamp.</p> - -<p>As quickly as that, it was over. Yet Tex, panting and wiping the sticky -sweat from his forehead, wasn't happy.</p> - -<p>He wished she hadn't smiled.</p> - -<p>Men with blow-torches scoured the fort clean of beetles and green -snakes. One party sprayed oil on the heaps of bodies below and fired -them. The netting was cleared, their own dead burned.</p> - -<p>Tex, who was a corporal, got his men together, and his heart sank as he -counted them. Thirty-two left to guard a fort that should be garrisoned -by seventy.</p> - -<p>Another attack like that, and there might be none. Yet Tex had an -uneasy feeling that the attack had more behind it than the mere attempt -to carry the fort by storm. He thought of the woman whose brain had -evolved all these hideous schemes—the beetle-bombs, the green snakes. -She hadn't risked her neck for nothing, flying in the teeth of four -batteries.</p> - -<p>He had salvaged the lock of silver hair his bullet had clipped. Now it -seemed almost to stir with malign life in his pocket.</p> - -<p>Captain John Smith came out of the radio room. The officer's gaunt -face was oddly still, his gray eyes like chips of stone.</p> - -<p>"At ease," he said. His pleasant English voice had that same quality of -dead stillness.</p> - -<p>"Word has just come from Regional Headquarters. The swamp men have -attacked in force east of us, and have heavily beseiged Fort Nelson. -Our relief column had been sent to relieve them.</p> - -<p>"More men are being readied, but it will take at least two weeks for -any help to reach us."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Tex heard the hard-caught breaths as the news took the men like a jolt -in the belly. And he saw eyes sliding furtively aside to the dense -black smoke pouring up from the incinerator, to the water tanks, and to -the broken grating.</p> - -<p>Somebody whimpered. Tex heard Breska snarl, "Shut up!" The whimperer -was Kuna, the young Martian who had stared white-faced at the captain a -short while before.</p> - -<p>Captain Smith went on.</p> - -<p>"Our situation is serious. However, we can hold out another fortnight. -Supplies will have to be rationed still further, and we must conserve -ammunition and man-power as much as possible. But we must all remember -this.</p> - -<p>"Help is coming. Headquarters are doing all they can."</p> - -<p>"With the money they have," said Breska sourly, in Tex's ear. "Damn the -taxpayers!"</p> - -<p>"... and we've only to hold out a few days longer. After all, we -volunteered for this job. Jupiter is a virgin planet. It's savage, -uncivilized, knowing no law but brute force. But it can be built into a -great new world.</p> - -<p>"If we do our jobs well, some day these swamps will be drained, the -jungles cleared, the natives civilized. The people of Earth and Mars -will find new hope and freedom here. It's up to us."</p> - -<p>The captain's grim, gaunt face relaxed, and his eyes twinkled.</p> - -<p>"Pity we're none of us using our right names," he said. "Because I -think we're going to get them in the history books!"</p> - -<p>The men laughed. The tension was broken. "Dismissed," said Captain -Smith, and strolled off to his quarters. Tex turned to Breska.</p> - -<p>The Martian, his leathery dark face set, was gripping the arms of his -young countryman, the only other Martian in the fort.</p> - -<p>"Listen," hissed Breska, his teeth showing white like a dog's fangs. -"Get hold of yourself! If you don't, you'll get into trouble."</p> - -<p>Kuna trembled, his wide black eyes watching the smoke from the bodies -roll up into the fog. His skin lacked the leathery burn of Breska's. -Tex guessed that he came from one of the Canal cities, where things -were softer.</p> - -<p>"I don't want to die," said Kuna softly. "I don't want to die in this -rotten fog."</p> - -<p>"Take it easy, kid." Tex rubbed the sandy-red stubble on his chin and -grinned. "The Skipper'll get us through okay. He's aces."</p> - -<p>"Maybe." Kuna's eyes wandered round to Tex. "But why should I take the -chance?"</p> - -<p>He was shaken suddenly by a fit of coughing. When he spoke again, his -voice had risen and grown tight as a violin string.</p> - -<p>"Why should I stay here and cough my guts out for something that will -never be anyway?"</p> - -<p>"Because," said Breska grimly, "on Mars there are men and women -breaking their backs and their hearts, to get enough bread out of the -deserts. You're a city man, Kuna. Have you ever seen the famines that -sweep the drylands? Have you ever seen men with their ribs cutting -through the skin? Women and children with faces like skulls?</p> - -<p>"That's why I'm here, coughing my guts out in this stinking fog. -Because people need land to grow food on, and water to grow it with."</p> - -<p>Kuna's dark eyes rolled, and Tex frowned. He'd seen that same starry -look in the eyes of cattle on the verge of a stampede.</p> - -<p>"What's the bellyache?" he said sharply. "You volunteered, didn't you?"</p> - -<p>"I didn't know what it meant," Kuna whispered, and coughed. "I'll die -if I stay here. I don't want to die!"</p> - -<p>"What," Breska said gently, "are you going to do about it?"</p> - -<p>Kuna smiled. "She was beautiful, wasn't she, Tex?"</p> - -<p>The Texan started. "I reckon she was, kid. What of it?"</p> - -<p>"You have a lock of her hair. I saw you pick it from the net. The -net'll go out soon, like the grating did. Then there won't be anything -to keep the snakes and beetles off of us. She'll sit up there and watch -us die, and laugh.</p> - -<p>"But I won't die, I tell you! I won't!"</p> - -<p>He shuddered in Breska's hands, and began to laugh. The laugh rose -to a thin, high scream like the wailing of a panther. Breska hit him -accurately on the point of the jaw.</p> - -<p>"Cafard," he grunted, as some of the men came running. "He'll come -round all right."</p> - -<p>He dragged Kuna to the dormitory, and came back doubled up with -coughing from the exertion. Tex saw the pain in his dark face.</p> - -<p>"Say," he murmured, "you'd better ask for leave when the relief gets -here."</p> - -<p>"<i>If</i> it gets here," gasped the Martian. "That attack at Fort Nelson -was just a feint to draw off our reinforcements."</p> - -<p>Tex nodded. "Even if the varmints broke through there, they'd be -stopped by French River and the broken hills beyond it."</p> - -<p>A map of Fort Washington's position formed itself in his mind; the -stone blockhouse commanding a narrow tongue of land between strips of -impassable swamp, barring the way into the valley. The valley led back -into the uplands, splitting so that one arm ran parallel to the swamps -for many miles.</p> - -<p>To fierce and active men like the swamp-dwellers, it would be no trick -to swarm down that valley, take Fort Albert and Fort George by surprise -in a rear attack, and leave a gap in the frontier defenses that could -never be closed in time.</p> - -<p>And then hordes of white-haired warriors would swarm out, led by that -beautiful fury on the winged lizard, rouse the more lethargic pastoral -tribes against the colonists, and sweep outland Peoples from the face -of Venus.</p> - -<p>"They could do it, too," Tex muttered. "They outnumber us a thousand to -one."</p> - -<p>"And," added Breska viciously, "the lousy taxpayers won't even give us -decent equipment to fight with."</p> - -<p>Tex grinned. "Armies are always step-children. I guess the sheep just -never did like the goats, anyhow." He shrugged. "Better keep an eye on -Kuna. He might try something."</p> - -<p>"What could he do? If he deserts, they'll catch him trying to skip out, -if the savages don't get him first. He won't try it."</p> - -<p>But in the morning Kuna was gone, and the lock of silver hair in Tex's -pocket was gone with him.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Five hot, steaming days dragged by. The water sank lower and lower -in the tank. Flakes of rust dropped from every metal surface at the -slightest touch.</p> - -<p>Tex squatted on a slimy block of stone in the compound, trying to -forget hunger and thirst in the task of sewing a patch on his pants. -Fog gathered in droplets on the reddish hairs of his naked legs, -covered his face with a greasy patina.</p> - -<p>Breska crouched beside him, coughing in deep, slow spasms. Out under -the sagging net, men were listlessly washing underwear in a tub of -boiled swamp water. The stuff held some chemical that caused a stubborn -sickness no matter what you did to it.</p> - -<p>Tex looked at it thirstily. "Boy!" he muttered. "What I wouldn't give -for just one glass of ice water!"</p> - -<p>"Shut up," growled Breska. "At least, I've quit being hungry."</p> - -<p>He coughed, his dark face twisted in pain. Tex sighed, trying to ignore -the hunger that chewed his own belly like a prisoned wolf.</p> - -<p>Nine more days to go. Food and water cut to the barest minimum. Gun -parts rusting through all the grease they could put on. The strands of -the net were perilously thin. Even the needle in his hand was rusted so -that it tore the cloth.</p> - -<p>Of the thirty-one men left after Kuna deserted, they had lost seven; -four by green snakes slipped in through broken drain gratings, three -by beetle-bombs tossed over the parapet. There had been no further -attacks. In the dark, fog-wrapped nights, swamp men smeared with black -mud crept silently under the walls, delivered their messages of death, -and vanished.</p> - -<p>In spite of the heat, Tex shivered. How much longer would this silent -war go on? The swamp-men had to clear the fort before the relief column -came. Where was Kuna, and why had he stolen that lock of hair? And what -scheme was the savage beauty who led these devils hatching out?</p> - -<p>Water slopped in the tub. Somebody cursed because the underwear never -dried in this lousy climate. The heat of the hidden sun seeped down in -stifling waves.</p> - -<p>And suddenly a guard on the parapet yelled.</p> - -<p>"Something coming out of the swamp! Man the guns!"</p> - -<p>Tex hauled his pants on and ran with the others. Coming up beside the -lookout, he drew his pistol and waited.</p> - -<p>Something was crawling up the tongue of dry land toward the fort. At -first he thought it was one of the scaly war-dogs. Then he caught a -gleam of scarlet collar-facings, and shouted.</p> - -<p>"Hold your fire, men! It's Kuna!"</p> - -<p>The grey, stooped thing came closer, going on hands and knees, its dark -head hanging. Tex heard Breska's harsh breathing beside him. Abruptly -the Martian turned and ran down the steps.</p> - -<p>"Don't go out there, Breska!" Tex yelled. "It may be a trap." But the -Martian went on, tugging at the rusty lugs that held the postern gate. -It came open, and he went out.</p> - -<p>Tex sent men down to guard it, fully expecting white figures to burst -from the fog and attempt to force the gate.</p> - -<p>Breska reached the crawling figure, hauled it erect and over one -shoulder, and started back at a stumbling run. Still there was no -attack. Tex frowned, assailed by some deep unease. If Kuna had gone -into the swamps, he should never have returned alive. There was a trap -here somewhere, a concealed but deadly trick.</p> - -<p>Silence. The rank mist lay in lazy coils. Not a leaf rustled in the -swamp edges.</p> - -<p>Tex swore and ran down the steps. Breska fell through the gate and -sagged down, coughing blood, and it was Tex who caught Kuna.</p> - -<p>The boy lay like a grey skeleton in his arms, the bones of his face -almost cutting the skin. His mouth was open. His tongue was black and -swollen, like that of a man dying of thirst.</p> - -<p>Kuna's sunken, fever-yellowed eyes opened. They found the tub, in which -soiled clothing still floated.</p> - -<p>With a surge of strength that took Tex completely by surprise, the boy -broke from him and ran to the water, plunging his face in and gulping -like an animal.</p> - -<p>Tex pulled him away. Kuna sagged down, sobbing. There was something -wrong about his face, but Tex couldn't think what.</p> - -<p>"Won't let me drink," he whispered. "Still won't let me drink. Got to -have water." He clawed at Tex. "Water!"</p> - -<p>Tex sent someone after it, trying to think what was strange about Kuna, -scowling. There were springs of sweet water in the swamps, and even the -natives couldn't drink the other. Was it simply the desire to torture -that had made them deny the deserter water?</p> - -<p>Tex caught the boy's collar. "How did you get away?"</p> - -<p>But Kuna struggled to his knees. "Breska," he gasped. "Breska!"</p> - -<p>The older man looked at him, wiping blood from his lips. Kuna said -something in Martian, retched, choked on his own blood, and fell over. -Tex knew he was dead.</p> - -<p>"What did he say, Breska?"</p> - -<p>The Martian's teeth showed briefly white.</p> - -<p>"He said he wished he'd had my guts." His expression changed abruptly. -He caught Tex's shoulder.</p> - -<p>"Look, Tex! Look at the water!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Where there had been nearly a full tub, there was now only a little -moisture left in the bottom. While Tex watched, that too disappeared, -leaving the wood dry.</p> - -<p>Tex picked up an undershirt. It was as dry as any he'd ever hung in -the prairie air, back in Texas. He touched his face. The skin was like -sun-cured leather. His hair had not a drop of fog on it.</p> - -<p>Yet the mist hung as heavy as ever.</p> - -<p>Captain Smith came out of the radio room, looking up at the net and the -guns. Tex heard him mutter, quite unconsciously.</p> - -<p>"It's the rust that'll beat us. It's the rust that'll lose us Jupiter -in the end."</p> - -<p>Tex said, "Captain...."</p> - -<p>Smith looked at him, startled. But he never had time to ask what the -matter was. The lookout yelled. Wings rushed overhead. Guns chattered -from the parapet. The attack was on.</p> - -<p>Tex ran automatically for the catwalk. Passing Kuna's crumpled body, he -realized something he should have seen at first.</p> - -<p>"Kuna's body was dry when he came into the fort. All dry, even his -clothes." And then, "Why did the swamp-men wait until he was safely -inside and the door closed to attack?"</p> - -<p>With a quarter of their guns disabled and two-thirds of their garrison -gone, they still held superiority due to their position and powerful -weapons.</p> - -<p>There was no concerted attempt to force the walls. Groups of -white-haired warriors made sallies, hurled beetle-bombs and weighed -bags of green snakes, and retired into the mist. They lost men, but not -many.</p> - -<p>In the air, it was different. The weird, half-feathered mounts wheeled -and swooped, literally diving into the gunbursts, the riders hurling -missiles with deadly accuracy. And they were dying, men and lizards, by -the dozen.</p> - -<p>Tex, feeling curiously dazed, fired automatically. Bodies thrashed into -the net. Rust flakes showered like rain. Looking at the thin strands, -Tex wondered how long it would hold.</p> - -<p>Abruptly he caught sight of what, subconsciously, he'd been looking -for. She was there, darting high over the melee, her silver hair -flying, her body an iridescent pearl in the mist.</p> - -<p>Captain Smith spoke softly.</p> - -<p>"You see what she's up to, Tex? Those flyers are volunteers. Their -orders are to kill as many of our men as possible before they die -themselves, but they must fall inside the walls! On the net, Tex. To -weaken, break it, if possible."</p> - -<p>Tex nodded. "And when it goes...."</p> - -<p>"We go. We haven't enough men to beat them if they should get inside -the walls."</p> - -<p>Smith brushed his small military mustache, his only sign of -nervousness. Tex saw him start, saw him touch the bristles wonderingly, -then finger his skin, his tunic, his hair.</p> - -<p>"Dry," he said, and looked at the fog. "My Lord, dry!"</p> - -<p>"Yes," returned Tex grimly. "Kuna brought it back. He couldn't get wet -even when he tried to drink. Something that eats water. Even if the net -holds, we'll die of thirst before we're relieved."</p> - -<p>He turned in sudden fury on the distant figure of the woman and emptied -his gun futilely at her swift-moving body.</p> - -<p>"Save your ammunition," cautioned Smith, and cried out, sharply.</p> - -<p>Tex saw it, the tiny green thing that had fastened on his wrist. He -pulled his knife and lunged forward, but already the snake had grown -incredibly. Smith tore at it vainly.</p> - -<p>Tex got in one slash, felt his knife slip futilely on rubbery flesh of -enormous contractile power. Then the venom began to work. A mad look -twisted the officer's face. His gun rose and began to spit bullets.</p> - -<p>Grimly, Tex shot the gun out of Smith's hand, and struck down with the -gun-barrel. Smith fell. But already the snake had thrown a coil round -his neck and shifted its grip to the jugular.</p> - -<p>Tex sawed at the rubbery flesh. Beaten as though with a heavy whip, he -stood at last with the body still writhing in his hand.</p> - -<p>Captain Smith was dead, with the snake's jaws buried in his throat.</p> - -<p>Dimly Tex heard the mellow notes of the war-chief's horn. The sky -cleared of the remnants of the suicide squad. The ground attackers -vanished into the swamps. And then the woman whirled her mount sharply -and sped straight for the fort.</p> - -<p>Puffs of smoke burst around her but she was not hit. Low over the -parapet she came, so that Tex saw the pupils of her pale-green eyes, -the vital flow of muscles beneath pearly skin.</p> - -<p>He fired, but his gun was empty.</p> - -<p>She flung one hand high in derisive salute, and was gone. And Breska -spoke softly behind Tex.</p> - -<p>"You're in command now. And there are just the fourteen of us left."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Tex stood staring down at the dead and dying caught in the rusty net. -He felt suddenly tired; so tired that just standing and looking seemed -too much drain on his wasted strength.</p> - -<p>He didn't want to fight any more. He wanted to drink, to sleep, and -forget.</p> - -<p>There was only one possible end. His mouth and throat were dry with -this strange new dryness, his thirst intensified a hundredfold. The -swamp men had only to wait. In another week they could take the fort -without losing a man.</p> - -<p>Even with the reduced numbers of the defenders, this fiendish thing -would make their remaining water supply inadequate. And then another -thought struck him.</p> - -<p>Suppose it stayed there, so that even if by some miracle the garrison -held out, it made holding the fort impossible no matter how many men, -or how much water there was.</p> - -<p>The men were looking at him. Tex let the dead snake drop to the catwalk -and vanish under a pall of scarlet beetles.</p> - -<p>"Clean up this mess," said Tex automatically. Breska's black eyes were -brilliant and very hard. Why didn't the men move?</p> - -<p>"Go on," Tex snapped. "I'm ranking officer here now."</p> - -<p>The men turned to their task with a queer reluctance. One of them, a -big scar-faced hulk with a mop of hair far redder far than Tex's, stood -long after the others had gone, watching him out of narrowed green eyes.</p> - -<p>Tex went slowly down into the compound. There were no breaks in the -net, but another few days of rust would finish them.</p> - -<p>What was the use of fighting on? If they left now, they might get out -alive. Headquarters could send more men, retake Fort Washington.</p> - -<p>But Headquarters didn't have many men. And the woman with the eyes like -pale-green flames wouldn't waste any time.</p> - -<p>Some falling body had crushed a beetle-bomb caught in the net. The -scarlet things were falling like drops of blood on Kuna's body. Tex -smiled crookedly. In a few seconds there'd be nothing left of the -flesh Kuna had cherished so dearly.</p> - -<p>And then Tex rubbed freckled hands over his tired blue eyes, wondering -if he were at last delirious.</p> - -<p>The beetles weren't eating Kuna.</p> - -<p>They swirled around him restlessly, scenting meat, but they didn't -touch him. His face showed parchment dry under the whorls of fog. And -suddenly Tex understood.</p> - -<p>"It's because he's dry. They won't touch anything dry."</p> - -<p>Recklessly, he put his own hand down in the scarlet stream. It divided -and flowed around it, disdaining the parched flesh.</p> - -<p>Tex laughed, a brassy laugh with an edge of hysteria in it. Now -that they were going to die anyway, they didn't have to worry about -beetle-bombs.</p> - -<p>Feet, a lot of them, clumped up to where he knelt. The red-haired giant -with the green eyes stood over him, the men in a sullen, hard-faced -knot behind him.</p> - -<p>The red-haired man, whose name was Bull, had a gun in his hand. He said -gruffly,</p> - -<p>"We're leavin', Tex."</p> - -<p>Tex got up. "Yeah?"</p> - -<p>"Yeah. We figure it's no use stayin'. Comin' with us?"</p> - -<p>Why not? It was his only chance for life. He had no stake in the -colonies. He'd joined the Legion for adventure.</p> - -<p>Then he looked at Kuna, and at Breska, thinking of all the people of -two worlds who needed ground to grow food on, and water to grow it -with. Something, perhaps the ancestor who had died in the Alamo, made -him shake his sandy head.</p> - -<p>"I reckon not," he said. "And I reckon you ain't, either."</p> - -<p>He was quick on the draw, but Bull had his gun already out. The bullet -thundered against Tex's skull. The world exploded into fiery darkness, -through which he heard Breska say,</p> - -<p>"Sure, Bull. Why should I stay here to die for nothing?"</p> - -<p>Tex tried to cry out, but the blackness drowned him.</p> - -<p>He came to lying on the catwalk. His head was bandaged. Frowning, he -opened his eyes, blinking against the pain.</p> - -<p>Breska hunched over the nearest gun, whistling softly through his -teeth. "The Lone Prairee." Tex stared incredulously.</p> - -<p>"I—I thought you'd gone with the others."</p> - -<p>Breska grinned. "I just wasn't as dumb as you. I hung behind till they -were all outside, and then I barred the door. I'd seen you weren't -dead, and—well, this cough's got me anyway, and I hate forced marches. -They give me blisters."</p> - -<p>They grinned at each other. Tex said,</p> - -<p>"We're a couple of damn fools, but I reckon we're stuck with it. Okay. -Let's see how long we can fool 'em." He got up, gingerly. "The Skipper -had some books in his quarters. Maybe one of 'em would tell what this -dry stuff is."</p> - -<p>Breska coughed and nodded. "I'll keep watch."</p> - -<p>Tex's throat burned, but he was afraid to drink. If the water -evaporated in his mouth as it had in Kuna's....</p> - -<p>He had to try. Not knowing was worse than knowing. A second later he -stood with an empty cup in his hand, fighting down panic.</p> - -<p>Half the water had vanished before he got the cup to his mouth. The -rest never touched his tongue. Yet there was nothing to see, nothing to -feel. Nothing but dryness.</p> - -<p>He turned and ran for Captain Smith's quarters.</p> - -<p>Hertford's <i>Jungles of Jupiter</i>, the most comprehensive work on a -subject still almost unknown, lay between Kelland's <i>Field Tactics</i> -and <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>. Tex took it down, leafing through it as he -climbed to the parapet.</p> - -<p>"Here it is," he said suddenly. "'Dry Spots. These are fairly common -phenomena in certain parts of the swamplands. Seemingly Nature's method -for preserving the free oxygen balance in the atmosphere, colonies of -ultra-microscopic animalcules spring up, spreading apparently from -spores carried by animals which blunder into the dry areas.</p> - -<p>"'These animalcules attach themselves to hosts, inanimate or otherwise, -and absorb all water vapor or still water nearby, utilizing the -hydrogen in some way not yet determined, and liberating free oxygen. -They become dormant during the rainy season, apparently unable to cope -with running water. They expand only within definite limits, and the -life of each colony runs about three weeks, after which it vanishes.'"</p> - -<p>"The rains start in about a week," said Breska. "Our relief can't -get here under nine days. They can pick us off with snakes and -beetle-bombs, or let us go crazy with thirst, let the first shower -clear out the ani—the whatyoucallits, and move in. Then they can -slaughter our boys when they come up, and have the whole of Jupiter -clear."</p> - -<p>Tex told him about Kuna and the beetles. "The snakes probably won't -touch us, either." He pounded a freckled fist on the stones. "If we -could find some way to drink, and if the guns and the net didn't rust, -we might hold them off long enough."</p> - -<p>"'If'," grunted Breska. "If we were in heaven, we wouldn't have to -worry."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The days that followed blurred into a daze of thirst and ceaseless -watching. For easier defence, there was only one way down from the -parapet through the net. They took the least rusted of the guns and -filled the small gap. They could hold out there until they collapsed, -or the net gave.</p> - -<p>They wasted several quarts of water in vain attempts to drink. Then -they gave it up. The final irony of it made Tex laugh.</p> - -<p>"Here we are, being noble till it hurts, and it won't matter a damn. -The Skipper was right. It's the rust that'll lose us Venus in the -end—that, and these Dry Spots."</p> - -<p>Food made thirst greater. They stopped eating. They became mere -skeletons, moving feebly in sweat-box heat. Breska stopped coughing.</p> - -<p>"It's breathing dry air," he said, in a croaking whisper. "It's so -funny I could laugh."</p> - -<p>A scarlet beetle crawled over Tex's face where he lay beside the -Martian on the catwalk. He brushed it off, dragging weak fingers across -his forehead. His skin was dry, but not as dry as he remembered it -after windy days on the prairie.</p> - -<p>"Funny it hasn't taken more oil out of my skin." He struggled suddenly -to a sitting position. "Oil! It might work. Oh, God, let it work! It -must!"</p> - -<p>Breska stared at him out of sunken eyes as he half fell down the steps. -Then a sound overhead brought the Martian's gaze upward.</p> - -<p>"A scout, Tex! They'll attack!"</p> - -<p>Tex didn't hear him. His whole being was centered on one thing—the -thing that would mean the difference between life and death.</p> - -<p>Dimly, as he staggered into the room where the oil was kept, Tex heard -a growing thunder of wings. He groaned. If Breska could only hold out -for a moment.</p> - -<p>It took all his strength to turn the spigot of the oil drum. It was -empty. All the stuff had been used to burn bodies. Almost crying, Tex -crawled to the next one, and the next. It was the fourth drum that -yielded black, viscous fluid.</p> - -<p>Forcing stiff lips apart, Tex drank.</p> - -<p>If there'd been anything in him, he'd have vomited. The vile stuff -coated lips, tongue, throat. Outside, Breska's gun cut in sharply. Tex -dragged himself to the water tank.</p> - -<p>"Running water," he thought. Tilting his head up under the spigot, -he turned the tap. Water splashed out. Some of it hit his skin and -vanished. But the rest ran down his oil-filmed throat. He felt it, warm -and brackish and wonderful, in his stomach.</p> - -<p>He laughed, and let go a cracked rebel yell. Then he turned and lurched -back outside, toward the steps.</p> - -<p>The net sagged to the weight of white-haired warriors and roaring -lizards. Breska's gun choked and stammered into silence. Tex groaned in -utter agony.</p> - -<p>It was too late. The rust had beaten them.</p> - -<p>His freckled, oil-smeared face tightened grimly. Drawing his gun, he -charged the steps.</p> - -<p>"Where the hell did you go?" snarled Breska. "The ammo belt jammed." He -grabbed for the other gun set in the narrow gap.</p> - -<p>Then it wasn't rust! And Tex realized something else. There were no -rust flakes falling from the net.</p> - -<p>Something had stopped the rusting. Before, his physical anguish had -been too great for him to see that the net strands grew no thinner, -the gun-barrels no rustier.</p> - -<p>Scraps of the explanation shot through Tex's mind. Breska's cough -stopping because the air was dried before it reached his lungs. Dry -stone. Dry clothing.</p> - -<p>Dry metal! The water-eating organisms kept the surface dry. There could -be no rust.</p> - -<p>"We've licked 'em, Breska! By God, we've licked 'em!" He shouldered the -Martian out of the way, gripped the triggers of the gun. Shouting over -the din, he told Breska how to drink, sent him lurching down the steps. -He could hold the gap alone for a few minutes.</p> - -<p>Looking up, Tex found her, swooping low over the fight, her silver hair -flying in the wind. Tex shouted at her.</p> - -<p>"You did it! You outsmarted yourself, lady. You showed us the way!"</p> - -<p>Scientists could find out how to harness the Dry Spots to keep off the -rust, and still let the soldiers drink.</p> - -<p>And some day the swamps would be drained, and men and women would find -new wealth, new life, new horizons here on Jupiter.</p> - -<p>Breska came back, grinning, and fought the jam out of the gun. White -bodies began to pile up, mixed with the saurian carcasses of their -war-dogs. And presently the notes of the war-chief's horn drifted down, -and the attackers faded back into the swamps.</p> - -<p>And suddenly, wheeling her mount away from the others, the warrior -woman swooped low over the parapet. Tex held his fire. For a moment he -thought she was going to dash her lizard into them. Then, at the last -second, she pulled him up in a thundering climb.</p> - -<p>Her face was a cut-pearl mask of fury, but her pale-green eyes held -doubt, the beginning of an awed fear. Then she was gone, bent low over -her mount, her silver hair hiding her face.</p> - -<p>Breska watched her go. "For Mars," he said softly. Then, pounding Tex -on the chest until he winced.</p> - -<p>Two voices, cracked, harsh, and unmusical, drifted after the retreating -form of the white-haired war-chief.</p> - -<p>"Oh, bury us not on the lone praire-e-e...."</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Dragon-Queen of Jupiter, by Leigh Brackett - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAGON-QUEEN OF JUPITER *** - -***** This file should be named 61890-h.htm or 61890-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/8/9/61890/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: The Dragon-Queen of Jupiter - -Author: Leigh Brackett - -Release Date: April 22, 2020 [EBook #61890] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAGON-QUEEN OF JUPITER *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - The Dragon-Queen of Jupiter - - By LEIGH BRACKETT - - More feared than the deadly green snakes, - the hideous red beetles of that outpost of - Earth Empire, was the winged dragon-queen - of Jupiter and her white Legions of Doom. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Summer 1941. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Tex stirred uneasily where he lay on the parapet, staring into the -heavy, Jupiterian fog. The greasy moisture ran down the fort wall, -lay rank on his lips. With a sigh for the hot, dry air of Texas, and -a curse for the adventure-thirst that made him leave it, he shifted -his short, steel-hard body and wrinkled his sandy-red brows in the -never-ending effort to see. - -A stifled cough turned his head. He whispered. "Hi, Breska." - -The Martian grinned and lay down beside him. His skin was wind-burned -like Tex's, his black eyes nested in wrinkles caused by squinting -against sun and blowing dust. - -For a second they were silent, feeling the desert like a bond between -them. Then Breska, mastering his cough, grunted: - -"They're an hour late now. What's the matter with 'em?" - -Tex was worried, too. The regular dawn attack of the swamp-dwellers was -long overdue. - -"Reckon they're thinking up some new tricks," he said. "I sure wish our -relief would get here. I could use a vacation." - -Breska's teeth showed a cynical flash of white. - -"If they don't come soon, it won't matter. At that, starving is -pleasanter than beetle-bombs, or green snakes. Hey, Tex. Here comes the -Skipper." - -Captain John Smith--Smith was a common name in the Volunteer -Legion--crawled along the catwalk. There were new lines of strain on -the officer's gaunt face, and Tex's uneasiness grew. - -He knew that supplies were running low. Repairs were urgently needed. -Wasn't the relief goin' to come at all? - -But Captain Smith's pleasant English voice was as calm as though he -were discussing cricket-scores in a comfortable London club. - -"Any sign of the beggars, Tex?" - -"No, sir. But I got a feeling...." - -"H'm. Yes. We all have. Well, keep a sharp...." - -A scream cut him short. It came from below in the square compound. Tex -shivered, craning down through the rusty netting covering the well. - -He'd heard screams like that before. - -A man ran across the greasy stones, tearing at something on his wrist. -Other men ran to help him, the ragged remnant of the force that had -marched into new Fort Washington three months before, the first -garrison. - -The tiny green snake on the man's wrist grew incredibly. By the time -the first men reached it, it had whipped a coil around its victim's -neck. Faster than the eye could follow, it shifted its fangs from -wrist to throat. - -The man seemed suddenly to go mad. He drew his knife and slashed at his -comrades, screaming, keeping them at bay. - -Then, abruptly, he collapsed. The green snake, now nearly ten feet -long, whipped free and darted toward a drainage tunnel. Shouting men -surrounded it, drawing rapid-fire pistols, but Captain Smith called out: - -"Don't waste your ammunition, men!" - -Startled faces looked up. And in that second of respite, the snake -coiled and butted its flat-nosed head against the grating. - -In a shower of rust-flakes it fell outward, and the snake was gone like -a streak of green fire. - -Tex heard Breska cursing in a low undertone. A sudden silence had -fallen on the compound. Men fingered the broken grating, white-faced as -they realized what it meant. There would be no metal for repairs until -the relief column came. - -It was hard enough to bring bare necessities over the wild terrain. And -air travel was impracticable due to the miles-thick clouds and magnetic -vagaries. There would be no metal, no ammunition. - -Tex swore. "Reckon I'll never get used to those varmints, Captain. The -rattlers back home was just kid's toys." - -"Simple enough, really." Captain Smith spoke absently, his gray eyes -following the sag of the rusty netting below. - -"The green snakes, like the planarians, decrease evenly in size with -starvation. They also have a vastly accelerated metabolism. When they -get food, which happens to be blood, they simply shoot out to their -normal size. An injected venom causes their victims to fight off help -until the snake has fed." - -Breska snarled. "Cute trick the swamp men thought up, starving those -things and then slipping them in on us through the drain pipes. They're -so tiny you miss one, every once in a while." - -"And then you get that." Tex nodded toward the corpse. "I wonder who -the war-chief is. I'd sure like to get a look at him." - -"Yes," said Captain Smith. "So would I." - -He turned to go, crawling below the parapet. You never knew what -might come out of the fog at you, if you showed a target. The body was -carried out to the incinerator as there was no ceremony about burials -in this heat. A blob of white caught Tex's eye as a face strained -upward, watching the officer through the rusty netting. - -Tex grunted. "There's your countryman, Breska. I'd say he isn't so sold -on the idea of making Venus safe for colonists." - -"Oh, lay off him, Tex." Breska was strangled briefly by a fit of -coughing. "He's just a kid, he's homesick, and he's got the wheezes, -like me. This lowland air isn't good for us. But just wait till we -knock sense into these white devils and settle the high plateaus." - -If he finished, Tex didn't hear him. The red-haired Westerner was -staring stiffly upward, clawing for his gun. - - * * * * * - -He hadn't heard or seen a thing. And now the fog was full of thundering -wings and shrill screams of triumph. Below the walls, where the -ground-mist hung in stagnant whorls, a host of half-seen bodies crowded -out of the wilderness into which no civilized man had ever gone. - -The rapid-fire pistol bucked and snarled in Tex's hand. Captain Smith, -lying on his belly, called orders in his crisp, unhurried voice. C -Battery on the northeast corner cut in with a chattering roar, spraying -explosive bullets upward, followed by the other three whose duty it was -to keep the air clear. - -Tex's heart thumped. Powder-smoke bit his nostrils. Breska began to -whistle through his teeth, a song that Tex had taught him, called, "The -Lone Prairee." - -The ground-strafing crews got their guns unlimbered, and mud began to -splash up from below. But it wasn't enough. The gun emplacements were -only half manned, the remainder of the depopulated garrison having been -off-duty down in the compound. - -The Jupiterians were swarming up the incline on which the fort stood, -attacking from the front and fanning out along the sides when they -reached firm ground. The morasses to the east and west were absolutely -impassable even to the swamp-men, which was what made Fort Washington -a strategic and envied stronghold. - -Tex watched the attackers with mingled admiration and hatred. They had -guts; the kind the Red Indians must have had, back in the old days in -America. They had cruelty, too, and a fiendish genius for thinking up -tricks. - -If the relief column didn't come soon, there might be one trick too -many, and the way would be left open for a breakthrough. The thin, -hard-held line of frontier posts could be flanked, cut off, and -annihilated. - -Tex shuddered to think what that would mean for the colonists, already -coming hopefully into the fertile plateaus. - -A sluggish breeze rolled the mist south into the swamps, and Tex got -his first clear look at the enemy. His heart jolted sharply. - -This was no mere raid. This was an attack. - -Hordes of tall warriors swarmed toward the walls, pale skinned giants -from the Sunless Land with snow-white hair coiled in warclubs at the -base of the skull. They wore girdles of reptile skin, and carried bags -slung over their brawny shoulders. In their hands they carried clubs -and crude bows. - -Beside them, roaring and hissing, came their war-dogs; semi-erect -reptiles with prehensile paws, their powerful tails armed with -artificial spikes of bone. - -Scaling ladders banged against the walls. Men and beasts began to -climb, covered by companions on the ground who hurled grenades of baked -mud from their bags. - -"Beetle-bombs!" yelled Tex. "Watch yourselves!" - -He thrust one ladder outward, and fired point-blank into a dead-white -face. A flying clay ball burst beside the man who fired the nearest -ground gun, and in a split second every inch of bare flesh was covered -by a sheath of huge scarlet beetles. - -Tex's freckled face hardened. The man's screams knifed upward through -the thunder of wings. Tex put a bullet carefully through his head and -tumbled the body over the parapet. Some of the beetles were shaken off, -and he glimpsed bone, already bare and gleaming. - -Missiles rained down from above; beetle-bombs, green snakes made -worm-size by starvation. The men were swarming up from the compound -now, but the few seconds of delay almost proved fatal. - -The aerial attackers were plain in the thinning mist--lightly-built men -mounted on huge things that were half bird, half lizard. - -The rusty netting jerked, catching the heavy bodies of man and lizard -shot down by the guns. Tex held his breath. That net was all that -protected them from a concerted dive attack that would give the natives -a foot-hold inside the walls. - -A gun in A Battery choked into silence. Rust, somewhere in the -mechanism. No amount of grease could keep it out. - -Breska swore sulphurously and stamped a small green thing flat. Red -beetles crawled along the stones--thank God the things didn't fly. Men -fought and died with the snakes. Another gun suddenly cut out. - -Tex fired steadily at fierce white heads thrust above the parapet. The -man next to him stumbled against the infested stones. The voracious -scarlet flood surged over him, and in forty seconds his uniform sagged -on naked bones. - -Breska's shout warned Tex aside as a lizard fell on the catwalk. Its -rider pitched into the stream of beetles and began to die. Wings beat -close overhead, and Tex crouched, aiming upward. - -His freckled face relaxed in a stare of utter unbelief. - - * * * * * - -She was beautiful. Pearl-white thighs circling the gray-green barrel -of her mount, silver hair streaming from under a snake-skin diadem -set with the horns of a swamp-rhino, a slim body clad in girdle and -breast-plates of irridescent scales. - -Her face was beautiful, too, like a mask cut from pearl. But her eyes -were like pale-green flames, and the silver brows above them were drawn -into a straight bar of anger. - -Tex had never seen such cold, fierce hate in any living creature, even -a rattler coiled to strike. - -His gun was aimed, yet somehow he couldn't pull the trigger. When he -had collected his wits, she was gone, swooping like a stunting flyer -through the fire of the guns. She bore no weapons, only what looked -like an ancient hunting-horn. - -Tex swore, very softly. He knew what that horned diadem meant. - -This was the war chief! - -The men had reached the parapet just in time. Tex blasted the head from -a miniature Tyrannosaurus, dodged the backlash of the spiked tail, and -threw down another ladder. Guns snarled steadily, and corpses were -piling up at the foot of the wall. - -Tex saw the woman urge her flying mount over the pit of the compound, -saw her searching out the plan of the place--the living quarters, the -water tanks, the kitchen, the radio room. - -Impelled by some inner warning that made him forget all reluctance to -war against a woman, Tex fired. - -The bullet clipped a tress of her silver hair. Eyes like pale green -flames burned into his for a split second, and her lips drew back from -reptilian teeth, white, small, and pointed. - -Then she whipped her mount into a swift spiral climb and was gone, -flashing through streamers of mist and powder-smoke. - -A second later Tex heard the mellow notes of her horn, and the -attackers turned and vanished into the swamp. - -As quickly as that, it was over. Yet Tex, panting and wiping the sticky -sweat from his forehead, wasn't happy. - -He wished she hadn't smiled. - -Men with blow-torches scoured the fort clean of beetles and green -snakes. One party sprayed oil on the heaps of bodies below and fired -them. The netting was cleared, their own dead burned. - -Tex, who was a corporal, got his men together, and his heart sank as he -counted them. Thirty-two left to guard a fort that should be garrisoned -by seventy. - -Another attack like that, and there might be none. Yet Tex had an -uneasy feeling that the attack had more behind it than the mere attempt -to carry the fort by storm. He thought of the woman whose brain had -evolved all these hideous schemes--the beetle-bombs, the green snakes. -She hadn't risked her neck for nothing, flying in the teeth of four -batteries. - -He had salvaged the lock of silver hair his bullet had clipped. Now it -seemed almost to stir with malign life in his pocket. - -Captain John Smith came out of the radio room. The officer's gaunt -face was oddly still, his gray eyes like chips of stone. - -"At ease," he said. His pleasant English voice had that same quality of -dead stillness. - -"Word has just come from Regional Headquarters. The swamp men have -attacked in force east of us, and have heavily beseiged Fort Nelson. -Our relief column had been sent to relieve them. - -"More men are being readied, but it will take at least two weeks for -any help to reach us." - - * * * * * - -Tex heard the hard-caught breaths as the news took the men like a jolt -in the belly. And he saw eyes sliding furtively aside to the dense -black smoke pouring up from the incinerator, to the water tanks, and to -the broken grating. - -Somebody whimpered. Tex heard Breska snarl, "Shut up!" The whimperer -was Kuna, the young Martian who had stared white-faced at the captain a -short while before. - -Captain Smith went on. - -"Our situation is serious. However, we can hold out another fortnight. -Supplies will have to be rationed still further, and we must conserve -ammunition and man-power as much as possible. But we must all remember -this. - -"Help is coming. Headquarters are doing all they can." - -"With the money they have," said Breska sourly, in Tex's ear. "Damn the -taxpayers!" - -"... and we've only to hold out a few days longer. After all, we -volunteered for this job. Jupiter is a virgin planet. It's savage, -uncivilized, knowing no law but brute force. But it can be built into a -great new world. - -"If we do our jobs well, some day these swamps will be drained, the -jungles cleared, the natives civilized. The people of Earth and Mars -will find new hope and freedom here. It's up to us." - -The captain's grim, gaunt face relaxed, and his eyes twinkled. - -"Pity we're none of us using our right names," he said. "Because I -think we're going to get them in the history books!" - -The men laughed. The tension was broken. "Dismissed," said Captain -Smith, and strolled off to his quarters. Tex turned to Breska. - -The Martian, his leathery dark face set, was gripping the arms of his -young countryman, the only other Martian in the fort. - -"Listen," hissed Breska, his teeth showing white like a dog's fangs. -"Get hold of yourself! If you don't, you'll get into trouble." - -Kuna trembled, his wide black eyes watching the smoke from the bodies -roll up into the fog. His skin lacked the leathery burn of Breska's. -Tex guessed that he came from one of the Canal cities, where things -were softer. - -"I don't want to die," said Kuna softly. "I don't want to die in this -rotten fog." - -"Take it easy, kid." Tex rubbed the sandy-red stubble on his chin and -grinned. "The Skipper'll get us through okay. He's aces." - -"Maybe." Kuna's eyes wandered round to Tex. "But why should I take the -chance?" - -He was shaken suddenly by a fit of coughing. When he spoke again, his -voice had risen and grown tight as a violin string. - -"Why should I stay here and cough my guts out for something that will -never be anyway?" - -"Because," said Breska grimly, "on Mars there are men and women -breaking their backs and their hearts, to get enough bread out of the -deserts. You're a city man, Kuna. Have you ever seen the famines that -sweep the drylands? Have you ever seen men with their ribs cutting -through the skin? Women and children with faces like skulls? - -"That's why I'm here, coughing my guts out in this stinking fog. -Because people need land to grow food on, and water to grow it with." - -Kuna's dark eyes rolled, and Tex frowned. He'd seen that same starry -look in the eyes of cattle on the verge of a stampede. - -"What's the bellyache?" he said sharply. "You volunteered, didn't you?" - -"I didn't know what it meant," Kuna whispered, and coughed. "I'll die -if I stay here. I don't want to die!" - -"What," Breska said gently, "are you going to do about it?" - -Kuna smiled. "She was beautiful, wasn't she, Tex?" - -The Texan started. "I reckon she was, kid. What of it?" - -"You have a lock of her hair. I saw you pick it from the net. The -net'll go out soon, like the grating did. Then there won't be anything -to keep the snakes and beetles off of us. She'll sit up there and watch -us die, and laugh. - -"But I won't die, I tell you! I won't!" - -He shuddered in Breska's hands, and began to laugh. The laugh rose -to a thin, high scream like the wailing of a panther. Breska hit him -accurately on the point of the jaw. - -"Cafard," he grunted, as some of the men came running. "He'll come -round all right." - -He dragged Kuna to the dormitory, and came back doubled up with -coughing from the exertion. Tex saw the pain in his dark face. - -"Say," he murmured, "you'd better ask for leave when the relief gets -here." - -"_If_ it gets here," gasped the Martian. "That attack at Fort Nelson -was just a feint to draw off our reinforcements." - -Tex nodded. "Even if the varmints broke through there, they'd be -stopped by French River and the broken hills beyond it." - -A map of Fort Washington's position formed itself in his mind; the -stone blockhouse commanding a narrow tongue of land between strips of -impassable swamp, barring the way into the valley. The valley led back -into the uplands, splitting so that one arm ran parallel to the swamps -for many miles. - -To fierce and active men like the swamp-dwellers, it would be no trick -to swarm down that valley, take Fort Albert and Fort George by surprise -in a rear attack, and leave a gap in the frontier defenses that could -never be closed in time. - -And then hordes of white-haired warriors would swarm out, led by that -beautiful fury on the winged lizard, rouse the more lethargic pastoral -tribes against the colonists, and sweep outland Peoples from the face -of Venus. - -"They could do it, too," Tex muttered. "They outnumber us a thousand to -one." - -"And," added Breska viciously, "the lousy taxpayers won't even give us -decent equipment to fight with." - -Tex grinned. "Armies are always step-children. I guess the sheep just -never did like the goats, anyhow." He shrugged. "Better keep an eye on -Kuna. He might try something." - -"What could he do? If he deserts, they'll catch him trying to skip out, -if the savages don't get him first. He won't try it." - -But in the morning Kuna was gone, and the lock of silver hair in Tex's -pocket was gone with him. - - * * * * * - -Five hot, steaming days dragged by. The water sank lower and lower -in the tank. Flakes of rust dropped from every metal surface at the -slightest touch. - -Tex squatted on a slimy block of stone in the compound, trying to -forget hunger and thirst in the task of sewing a patch on his pants. -Fog gathered in droplets on the reddish hairs of his naked legs, -covered his face with a greasy patina. - -Breska crouched beside him, coughing in deep, slow spasms. Out under -the sagging net, men were listlessly washing underwear in a tub of -boiled swamp water. The stuff held some chemical that caused a stubborn -sickness no matter what you did to it. - -Tex looked at it thirstily. "Boy!" he muttered. "What I wouldn't give -for just one glass of ice water!" - -"Shut up," growled Breska. "At least, I've quit being hungry." - -He coughed, his dark face twisted in pain. Tex sighed, trying to ignore -the hunger that chewed his own belly like a prisoned wolf. - -Nine more days to go. Food and water cut to the barest minimum. Gun -parts rusting through all the grease they could put on. The strands of -the net were perilously thin. Even the needle in his hand was rusted so -that it tore the cloth. - -Of the thirty-one men left after Kuna deserted, they had lost seven; -four by green snakes slipped in through broken drain gratings, three -by beetle-bombs tossed over the parapet. There had been no further -attacks. In the dark, fog-wrapped nights, swamp men smeared with black -mud crept silently under the walls, delivered their messages of death, -and vanished. - -In spite of the heat, Tex shivered. How much longer would this silent -war go on? The swamp-men had to clear the fort before the relief column -came. Where was Kuna, and why had he stolen that lock of hair? And what -scheme was the savage beauty who led these devils hatching out? - -Water slopped in the tub. Somebody cursed because the underwear never -dried in this lousy climate. The heat of the hidden sun seeped down in -stifling waves. - -And suddenly a guard on the parapet yelled. - -"Something coming out of the swamp! Man the guns!" - -Tex hauled his pants on and ran with the others. Coming up beside the -lookout, he drew his pistol and waited. - -Something was crawling up the tongue of dry land toward the fort. At -first he thought it was one of the scaly war-dogs. Then he caught a -gleam of scarlet collar-facings, and shouted. - -"Hold your fire, men! It's Kuna!" - -The grey, stooped thing came closer, going on hands and knees, its dark -head hanging. Tex heard Breska's harsh breathing beside him. Abruptly -the Martian turned and ran down the steps. - -"Don't go out there, Breska!" Tex yelled. "It may be a trap." But the -Martian went on, tugging at the rusty lugs that held the postern gate. -It came open, and he went out. - -Tex sent men down to guard it, fully expecting white figures to burst -from the fog and attempt to force the gate. - -Breska reached the crawling figure, hauled it erect and over one -shoulder, and started back at a stumbling run. Still there was no -attack. Tex frowned, assailed by some deep unease. If Kuna had gone -into the swamps, he should never have returned alive. There was a trap -here somewhere, a concealed but deadly trick. - -Silence. The rank mist lay in lazy coils. Not a leaf rustled in the -swamp edges. - -Tex swore and ran down the steps. Breska fell through the gate and -sagged down, coughing blood, and it was Tex who caught Kuna. - -The boy lay like a grey skeleton in his arms, the bones of his face -almost cutting the skin. His mouth was open. His tongue was black and -swollen, like that of a man dying of thirst. - -Kuna's sunken, fever-yellowed eyes opened. They found the tub, in which -soiled clothing still floated. - -With a surge of strength that took Tex completely by surprise, the boy -broke from him and ran to the water, plunging his face in and gulping -like an animal. - -Tex pulled him away. Kuna sagged down, sobbing. There was something -wrong about his face, but Tex couldn't think what. - -"Won't let me drink," he whispered. "Still won't let me drink. Got to -have water." He clawed at Tex. "Water!" - -Tex sent someone after it, trying to think what was strange about Kuna, -scowling. There were springs of sweet water in the swamps, and even the -natives couldn't drink the other. Was it simply the desire to torture -that had made them deny the deserter water? - -Tex caught the boy's collar. "How did you get away?" - -But Kuna struggled to his knees. "Breska," he gasped. "Breska!" - -The older man looked at him, wiping blood from his lips. Kuna said -something in Martian, retched, choked on his own blood, and fell over. -Tex knew he was dead. - -"What did he say, Breska?" - -The Martian's teeth showed briefly white. - -"He said he wished he'd had my guts." His expression changed abruptly. -He caught Tex's shoulder. - -"Look, Tex! Look at the water!" - - * * * * * - -Where there had been nearly a full tub, there was now only a little -moisture left in the bottom. While Tex watched, that too disappeared, -leaving the wood dry. - -Tex picked up an undershirt. It was as dry as any he'd ever hung in -the prairie air, back in Texas. He touched his face. The skin was like -sun-cured leather. His hair had not a drop of fog on it. - -Yet the mist hung as heavy as ever. - -Captain Smith came out of the radio room, looking up at the net and the -guns. Tex heard him mutter, quite unconsciously. - -"It's the rust that'll beat us. It's the rust that'll lose us Jupiter -in the end." - -Tex said, "Captain...." - -Smith looked at him, startled. But he never had time to ask what the -matter was. The lookout yelled. Wings rushed overhead. Guns chattered -from the parapet. The attack was on. - -Tex ran automatically for the catwalk. Passing Kuna's crumpled body, he -realized something he should have seen at first. - -"Kuna's body was dry when he came into the fort. All dry, even his -clothes." And then, "Why did the swamp-men wait until he was safely -inside and the door closed to attack?" - -With a quarter of their guns disabled and two-thirds of their garrison -gone, they still held superiority due to their position and powerful -weapons. - -There was no concerted attempt to force the walls. Groups of -white-haired warriors made sallies, hurled beetle-bombs and weighed -bags of green snakes, and retired into the mist. They lost men, but not -many. - -In the air, it was different. The weird, half-feathered mounts wheeled -and swooped, literally diving into the gunbursts, the riders hurling -missiles with deadly accuracy. And they were dying, men and lizards, by -the dozen. - -Tex, feeling curiously dazed, fired automatically. Bodies thrashed into -the net. Rust flakes showered like rain. Looking at the thin strands, -Tex wondered how long it would hold. - -Abruptly he caught sight of what, subconsciously, he'd been looking -for. She was there, darting high over the melee, her silver hair -flying, her body an iridescent pearl in the mist. - -Captain Smith spoke softly. - -"You see what she's up to, Tex? Those flyers are volunteers. Their -orders are to kill as many of our men as possible before they die -themselves, but they must fall inside the walls! On the net, Tex. To -weaken, break it, if possible." - -Tex nodded. "And when it goes...." - -"We go. We haven't enough men to beat them if they should get inside -the walls." - -Smith brushed his small military mustache, his only sign of -nervousness. Tex saw him start, saw him touch the bristles wonderingly, -then finger his skin, his tunic, his hair. - -"Dry," he said, and looked at the fog. "My Lord, dry!" - -"Yes," returned Tex grimly. "Kuna brought it back. He couldn't get wet -even when he tried to drink. Something that eats water. Even if the net -holds, we'll die of thirst before we're relieved." - -He turned in sudden fury on the distant figure of the woman and emptied -his gun futilely at her swift-moving body. - -"Save your ammunition," cautioned Smith, and cried out, sharply. - -Tex saw it, the tiny green thing that had fastened on his wrist. He -pulled his knife and lunged forward, but already the snake had grown -incredibly. Smith tore at it vainly. - -Tex got in one slash, felt his knife slip futilely on rubbery flesh of -enormous contractile power. Then the venom began to work. A mad look -twisted the officer's face. His gun rose and began to spit bullets. - -Grimly, Tex shot the gun out of Smith's hand, and struck down with the -gun-barrel. Smith fell. But already the snake had thrown a coil round -his neck and shifted its grip to the jugular. - -Tex sawed at the rubbery flesh. Beaten as though with a heavy whip, he -stood at last with the body still writhing in his hand. - -Captain Smith was dead, with the snake's jaws buried in his throat. - -Dimly Tex heard the mellow notes of the war-chief's horn. The sky -cleared of the remnants of the suicide squad. The ground attackers -vanished into the swamps. And then the woman whirled her mount sharply -and sped straight for the fort. - -Puffs of smoke burst around her but she was not hit. Low over the -parapet she came, so that Tex saw the pupils of her pale-green eyes, -the vital flow of muscles beneath pearly skin. - -He fired, but his gun was empty. - -She flung one hand high in derisive salute, and was gone. And Breska -spoke softly behind Tex. - -"You're in command now. And there are just the fourteen of us left." - - * * * * * - -Tex stood staring down at the dead and dying caught in the rusty net. -He felt suddenly tired; so tired that just standing and looking seemed -too much drain on his wasted strength. - -He didn't want to fight any more. He wanted to drink, to sleep, and -forget. - -There was only one possible end. His mouth and throat were dry with -this strange new dryness, his thirst intensified a hundredfold. The -swamp men had only to wait. In another week they could take the fort -without losing a man. - -Even with the reduced numbers of the defenders, this fiendish thing -would make their remaining water supply inadequate. And then another -thought struck him. - -Suppose it stayed there, so that even if by some miracle the garrison -held out, it made holding the fort impossible no matter how many men, -or how much water there was. - -The men were looking at him. Tex let the dead snake drop to the catwalk -and vanish under a pall of scarlet beetles. - -"Clean up this mess," said Tex automatically. Breska's black eyes were -brilliant and very hard. Why didn't the men move? - -"Go on," Tex snapped. "I'm ranking officer here now." - -The men turned to their task with a queer reluctance. One of them, a -big scar-faced hulk with a mop of hair far redder far than Tex's, stood -long after the others had gone, watching him out of narrowed green eyes. - -Tex went slowly down into the compound. There were no breaks in the -net, but another few days of rust would finish them. - -What was the use of fighting on? If they left now, they might get out -alive. Headquarters could send more men, retake Fort Washington. - -But Headquarters didn't have many men. And the woman with the eyes like -pale-green flames wouldn't waste any time. - -Some falling body had crushed a beetle-bomb caught in the net. The -scarlet things were falling like drops of blood on Kuna's body. Tex -smiled crookedly. In a few seconds there'd be nothing left of the -flesh Kuna had cherished so dearly. - -And then Tex rubbed freckled hands over his tired blue eyes, wondering -if he were at last delirious. - -The beetles weren't eating Kuna. - -They swirled around him restlessly, scenting meat, but they didn't -touch him. His face showed parchment dry under the whorls of fog. And -suddenly Tex understood. - -"It's because he's dry. They won't touch anything dry." - -Recklessly, he put his own hand down in the scarlet stream. It divided -and flowed around it, disdaining the parched flesh. - -Tex laughed, a brassy laugh with an edge of hysteria in it. Now -that they were going to die anyway, they didn't have to worry about -beetle-bombs. - -Feet, a lot of them, clumped up to where he knelt. The red-haired giant -with the green eyes stood over him, the men in a sullen, hard-faced -knot behind him. - -The red-haired man, whose name was Bull, had a gun in his hand. He said -gruffly, - -"We're leavin', Tex." - -Tex got up. "Yeah?" - -"Yeah. We figure it's no use stayin'. Comin' with us?" - -Why not? It was his only chance for life. He had no stake in the -colonies. He'd joined the Legion for adventure. - -Then he looked at Kuna, and at Breska, thinking of all the people of -two worlds who needed ground to grow food on, and water to grow it -with. Something, perhaps the ancestor who had died in the Alamo, made -him shake his sandy head. - -"I reckon not," he said. "And I reckon you ain't, either." - -He was quick on the draw, but Bull had his gun already out. The bullet -thundered against Tex's skull. The world exploded into fiery darkness, -through which he heard Breska say, - -"Sure, Bull. Why should I stay here to die for nothing?" - -Tex tried to cry out, but the blackness drowned him. - -He came to lying on the catwalk. His head was bandaged. Frowning, he -opened his eyes, blinking against the pain. - -Breska hunched over the nearest gun, whistling softly through his -teeth. "The Lone Prairee." Tex stared incredulously. - -"I--I thought you'd gone with the others." - -Breska grinned. "I just wasn't as dumb as you. I hung behind till they -were all outside, and then I barred the door. I'd seen you weren't -dead, and--well, this cough's got me anyway, and I hate forced marches. -They give me blisters." - -They grinned at each other. Tex said, - -"We're a couple of damn fools, but I reckon we're stuck with it. Okay. -Let's see how long we can fool 'em." He got up, gingerly. "The Skipper -had some books in his quarters. Maybe one of 'em would tell what this -dry stuff is." - -Breska coughed and nodded. "I'll keep watch." - -Tex's throat burned, but he was afraid to drink. If the water -evaporated in his mouth as it had in Kuna's.... - -He had to try. Not knowing was worse than knowing. A second later he -stood with an empty cup in his hand, fighting down panic. - -Half the water had vanished before he got the cup to his mouth. The -rest never touched his tongue. Yet there was nothing to see, nothing to -feel. Nothing but dryness. - -He turned and ran for Captain Smith's quarters. - -Hertford's _Jungles of Jupiter_, the most comprehensive work on a -subject still almost unknown, lay between Kelland's _Field Tactics_ -and _Alice in Wonderland_. Tex took it down, leafing through it as he -climbed to the parapet. - -"Here it is," he said suddenly. "'Dry Spots. These are fairly common -phenomena in certain parts of the swamplands. Seemingly Nature's method -for preserving the free oxygen balance in the atmosphere, colonies of -ultra-microscopic animalcules spring up, spreading apparently from -spores carried by animals which blunder into the dry areas. - -"'These animalcules attach themselves to hosts, inanimate or otherwise, -and absorb all water vapor or still water nearby, utilizing the -hydrogen in some way not yet determined, and liberating free oxygen. -They become dormant during the rainy season, apparently unable to cope -with running water. They expand only within definite limits, and the -life of each colony runs about three weeks, after which it vanishes.'" - -"The rains start in about a week," said Breska. "Our relief can't -get here under nine days. They can pick us off with snakes and -beetle-bombs, or let us go crazy with thirst, let the first shower -clear out the ani--the whatyoucallits, and move in. Then they can -slaughter our boys when they come up, and have the whole of Jupiter -clear." - -Tex told him about Kuna and the beetles. "The snakes probably won't -touch us, either." He pounded a freckled fist on the stones. "If we -could find some way to drink, and if the guns and the net didn't rust, -we might hold them off long enough." - -"'If'," grunted Breska. "If we were in heaven, we wouldn't have to -worry." - - * * * * * - -The days that followed blurred into a daze of thirst and ceaseless -watching. For easier defence, there was only one way down from the -parapet through the net. They took the least rusted of the guns and -filled the small gap. They could hold out there until they collapsed, -or the net gave. - -They wasted several quarts of water in vain attempts to drink. Then -they gave it up. The final irony of it made Tex laugh. - -"Here we are, being noble till it hurts, and it won't matter a damn. -The Skipper was right. It's the rust that'll lose us Venus in the -end--that, and these Dry Spots." - -Food made thirst greater. They stopped eating. They became mere -skeletons, moving feebly in sweat-box heat. Breska stopped coughing. - -"It's breathing dry air," he said, in a croaking whisper. "It's so -funny I could laugh." - -A scarlet beetle crawled over Tex's face where he lay beside the -Martian on the catwalk. He brushed it off, dragging weak fingers across -his forehead. His skin was dry, but not as dry as he remembered it -after windy days on the prairie. - -"Funny it hasn't taken more oil out of my skin." He struggled suddenly -to a sitting position. "Oil! It might work. Oh, God, let it work! It -must!" - -Breska stared at him out of sunken eyes as he half fell down the steps. -Then a sound overhead brought the Martian's gaze upward. - -"A scout, Tex! They'll attack!" - -Tex didn't hear him. His whole being was centered on one thing--the -thing that would mean the difference between life and death. - -Dimly, as he staggered into the room where the oil was kept, Tex heard -a growing thunder of wings. He groaned. If Breska could only hold out -for a moment. - -It took all his strength to turn the spigot of the oil drum. It was -empty. All the stuff had been used to burn bodies. Almost crying, Tex -crawled to the next one, and the next. It was the fourth drum that -yielded black, viscous fluid. - -Forcing stiff lips apart, Tex drank. - -If there'd been anything in him, he'd have vomited. The vile stuff -coated lips, tongue, throat. Outside, Breska's gun cut in sharply. Tex -dragged himself to the water tank. - -"Running water," he thought. Tilting his head up under the spigot, -he turned the tap. Water splashed out. Some of it hit his skin and -vanished. But the rest ran down his oil-filmed throat. He felt it, warm -and brackish and wonderful, in his stomach. - -He laughed, and let go a cracked rebel yell. Then he turned and lurched -back outside, toward the steps. - -The net sagged to the weight of white-haired warriors and roaring -lizards. Breska's gun choked and stammered into silence. Tex groaned in -utter agony. - -It was too late. The rust had beaten them. - -His freckled, oil-smeared face tightened grimly. Drawing his gun, he -charged the steps. - -"Where the hell did you go?" snarled Breska. "The ammo belt jammed." He -grabbed for the other gun set in the narrow gap. - -Then it wasn't rust! And Tex realized something else. There were no -rust flakes falling from the net. - -Something had stopped the rusting. Before, his physical anguish had -been too great for him to see that the net strands grew no thinner, -the gun-barrels no rustier. - -Scraps of the explanation shot through Tex's mind. Breska's cough -stopping because the air was dried before it reached his lungs. Dry -stone. Dry clothing. - -Dry metal! The water-eating organisms kept the surface dry. There could -be no rust. - -"We've licked 'em, Breska! By God, we've licked 'em!" He shouldered the -Martian out of the way, gripped the triggers of the gun. Shouting over -the din, he told Breska how to drink, sent him lurching down the steps. -He could hold the gap alone for a few minutes. - -Looking up, Tex found her, swooping low over the fight, her silver hair -flying in the wind. Tex shouted at her. - -"You did it! You outsmarted yourself, lady. You showed us the way!" - -Scientists could find out how to harness the Dry Spots to keep off the -rust, and still let the soldiers drink. - -And some day the swamps would be drained, and men and women would find -new wealth, new life, new horizons here on Jupiter. - -Breska came back, grinning, and fought the jam out of the gun. White -bodies began to pile up, mixed with the saurian carcasses of their -war-dogs. And presently the notes of the war-chief's horn drifted down, -and the attackers faded back into the swamps. - -And suddenly, wheeling her mount away from the others, the warrior -woman swooped low over the parapet. Tex held his fire. For a moment he -thought she was going to dash her lizard into them. Then, at the last -second, she pulled him up in a thundering climb. - -Her face was a cut-pearl mask of fury, but her pale-green eyes held -doubt, the beginning of an awed fear. Then she was gone, bent low over -her mount, her silver hair hiding her face. - -Breska watched her go. "For Mars," he said softly. Then, pounding Tex -on the chest until he winced. - -Two voices, cracked, harsh, and unmusical, drifted after the retreating -form of the white-haired war-chief. - -"Oh, bury us not on the lone praire-e-e...." - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Dragon-Queen of Jupiter, by Leigh Brackett - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAGON-QUEEN OF JUPITER *** - -***** This file should be named 61890.txt or 61890.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/8/9/61890/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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