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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. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0569447 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62170 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62170) diff --git a/old/62170-h.zip b/old/62170-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1404782..0000000 --- a/old/62170-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62170-h/62170-h.htm b/old/62170-h/62170-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 0e570fc..0000000 --- a/old/62170-h/62170-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1792 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Star-master, by Ray Cummings. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.caption p -{ - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0; - margin: 0.25em 0; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph1 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Star-Master, by Ray Cummings - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. 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 Star-Master - -Author: Ray Cummings - -Release Date: May 20, 2020 [EBook #62170] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR-MASTER *** - - - - -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 STAR-MASTER</h1> - -<h2>By RAY CUMMINGS</h2> - -<p>Docile, decadent Venus was easy<br /> -pickings for that twenty-first century<br /> -Hitler's dream of cosmic empire.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Summer 1942.<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>My name is Arthur Frane. You who read this story now, of course -are familiar with momentous events into which I was unexpectedly -plunged—momentous for all mankind.</p> - -<p>I write this narrative now to add the true details to what you have -all read and heard blared by the newscasters around the world. I have -been extolled as a hero although I did nothing except try to keep from -getting killed.</p> - -<p>I was twenty-six years old last summer, in June of 2003, when fate -so strangely brought Venta and me together. My family is wealthy, as -you have heard. Do not envy me for that. An income of ten thousand -decimars, however nice it may seem in theory, is in reality no -advantage to a young man of twenty-six. I am a big blond fellow whom -the newscasters have been pleased to call Viking-like and handsome as a -god. I'm much obliged. But whatever truth there is in it, that too has -been a disadvantage.</p> - -<p>The weird events began in July, last summer, when with Jim Gregg I -went hunting in that Adirondac forest. Jim and I were in Government -College together. I left to spend my income and become a dawdler—the -disadvantage of money; and Jim joined the Crime Prevention Bureau of -the New York Shadow Squad. We got a one-day hunting permit. Jim took -his official crime-tracker equipment, with an extra flash-gun for me; -we flew to the Adirondac mountain slope which our permit named and -hopefully set out on foot to try our luck.</p> - -<p>But we had no luck. A few birds, which even the minimum pencil-ray -flash had all but burned to a crisp, were all we had bagged. Evening -came, with twilight settling so that the forest glades were deepening -into purple. And then suddenly it seemed that we heard a rustling in -the underbrush—a rustling which ought to be a deer.</p> - -<p>We crouched in a thicket, waiting. The sound stopped. "Let's try the -listener," I whispered.</p> - -<p>Jim got out his little eavesdropping gadget. But he had no time to -connect it. The rustling began again. It was obviously up a short slope -no more than a hundred feet from us—some wild animal which seemed now -to be retreating.</p> - -<p>"I'll take a chance," I muttered. "If that's a deer, we'll lose it if I -can't drill it now."</p> - -<p>We knew it could not be a human, since our permit for today barred -anyone else from the twenty square miles of Government preserve -allotted to us. I fired at the sound, with my violet pencil-flash -eating through the underbrush at the top of the slope.</p> - -<p>There was a startled, weird outcry; and from the summit of the little -rise a shape broke cover. A girl! She came bursting from a thicket no -more than three feet to the side of the swath my flash had burned, and -for a second or two she stood poised on a rock with the open evening -sky a background above and behind her. A slim shape of bare legs and -arms with a brief drape from shoulders to her thighs. The starlight and -fading daylight gleamed on her bronzed skin as though she were a metal -statue.</p> - -<p>"Well—I say—" Jim muttered.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Thoughts are instant things. There was in my mind the vague idea that -here, by some wild circumstances, was a girl in a fancy-dress party -costume or something of the kind. But the thought, and Jim's muttered -words of astonishment, were in another second stricken away. She paused -for that instant on the rock, and then she leaped. Amazing, incredible -leap! It carried her in a flat arc some ten or fifteen feet above the -ground and twenty feet away, where light as a faun she landed on the -toes of her bare feet. Nearer to us now; and seeing us, perhaps for the -first time, she stood and stared.</p> - -<p>I could see the silvery streaks running through the black hair that -framed her face. It was a queerly beautiful face, apparently devoid of -normal cosmetic-make-up. Negroid? Oriental? In that second I had the -thought that it was neither—nor anything else that I could name. A -girl with a mysterious wild beauty which stirred my pulses.</p> - -<p>"Well—good Lord—" Jim muttered again. He too was staring, with a -hand in his shock of bristling red hair, and I can imagine the look of -numbed astonishment on his freckled, pug-nosed face. "Good Lord, how -did she jump like that?"</p> - -<p>I heard myself stammering, "You—up there—what in the devil—"</p> - -<p>Like a terrified fugitive the girl abruptly swept a look behind her; -and then she leaped again, and landed almost beside us.</p> - -<p>"You—you—Oh you mus' help me! There was a flash that tried to kill -me—"</p> - -<p>English! With weird, indescribable intonation, she gasped the English -words.</p> - -<p>"I—shot at you," I stammered. "Sorry—we thought you were an animal. -No human is allowed here today but us."</p> - -<p>Somehow it seemed futile, incongruous that I should try to explain -anything rational to a girl so weird as this.</p> - -<p>But she smiled. "Oh—I thought—I thought—"</p> - -<p>"Someone is after you?" Jim said quickly.</p> - -<p>"Yes. I thought—but I guess not now. Oh you are good Earthmen—not -like Curtmann. I escaped, and I have come long long a way from my poor -terrified people."</p> - -<p>I saw Jim glance at me significantly. We both had the same thought, of -course. A girl demented; with painted skin and fancy dress—trappings -of insanity; and she had escaped from some asylum?</p> - -<p>But those leaps were far beyond the power of any trained athlete!</p> - -<p>"What's your name?" I murmured.</p> - -<p>"Venta. I was a prisoner—and now I have to tell someone of importance -here on Earth. I did escape when I was brought here by Curtmann." She -babbled it out, breathless, terrified. "I did not know what to do, he -is so bad to my people—to the Midge—to all of us. And I—I do not -love him. I am afraid of him. In Shan he rules—and my family now are -all in the great Forest City. And Curtmann will capture that too."</p> - -<p>Blankly Jim and I exchanged glances. And suddenly with a muttered oath, -Jim gasped,</p> - -<p>"My God, Art! Look at that—thing! There—behind you!"</p> - -<p>I whirled. But whatever he had seen, or thought he saw, was gone.</p> - -<p>"Behind me? What?"</p> - -<p>"Why—why—" Jim could only gasp. The girl was staring at us blankly. -Jim was stupified into incoherency. "Why—why—a little thing—it -ran—" And then he raised his left wrist with another muttered gasp.</p> - -<p>"What in the devil?" I demanded. "Are you crazy too?"</p> - -<p>"Electro-eavesdropper on us! Look—" An eavesdropper detector was on -his wrist, connected with his watch. Part of his S.S. equipment and he -always wore it. The underplate was glowing now, its warmth against his -flesh attracting his attention.</p> - -<p>An eavesdropper being used against us! I knew it was illegal for anyone -but a Federal Man to have one; but criminals had them, and most of the -other S.S. devices and weapons, of course. Some criminal was near here, -listening to us now!</p> - -<p>"Someone not far away!" Jim gasped. "Look at that dial!"</p> - -<p>His little detector-needle was swaying violently, in the range of one -to two hundred feet. Then it swung back to normal as the ray evidently -was shut off.</p> - -<p>I snatched out my flash-gun. Jim and I crouched with the numbed, -terrified girl between us.</p> - -<p>"Oh—" she muttered. "They have come, and they will kill us."</p> - -<p>"There it is again!" Jim's hand gripped my arm. "My God—that little -thing!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The purple shadows of night were deepening in the forest now. But in -the gloom I saw it. On the bole of a tree no more than six or eight -feet from us a tiny figure stood peering at us. The glistening, -brown-bronze figure of a man; a broad-shouldered, stocky little -figure no more than a foot high! I had an instant glimpse of a -powerfully-muscled body, a tiny hairless round head, then the creature -leaped to the ground, recovered its balance and ran. In another second -it was lost in the gloom.</p> - -<p>The girl too, had seen it. "A Midge! Here? Why—then Curtmann's men are -here, too!"</p> - -<p>She stopped abruptly. From the leafy darkness something hurtled into a -tree beside us. There was the faint tinkling of fragile glass, then a -sickening sweet smell assailed us, and sticky liquid splattered on us.</p> - -<p>"Anesthesia-bomb!" Jim gasped. "Get away from here—grab the girl!"</p> - -<p>My head was reeling, with senses fading so that the dim scene was -blurring around me. Jim and I dragged the girl through the thickets. -Then came a shot at us, the sizzling flash just missing us, shriveling -the foliage over our heads. Jim's shot answered it. I saw a skulking -figure by a nearby tree, and fired quickly. My shot caught him full; he -went down.</p> - -<p>In front of me, Jim had dropped prone into the brush. His voice warned: -"They're here. Get down."</p> - -<p>We had no chance to fight them off. I drilled a shape that appeared in -front of me; but another pounced on my shoulders as I crouched. Blurred -by the drug, I squirmed, reached up and grabbed him by the throat. But -another man was on us. Jim's shot sounded again; and then as I fought, -I saw several dark shapes leaping on him. His panting oaths mingled -with the girl's scream.</p> - -<p>In the melee glass hit my face, breaking with the sticky drug oozing -out on me. A man's fist followed it, with a crack that made my head -burst into roaring light before I drifted off into an abyss of -nothingness....</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>I came to with the sound of distant throbbing in my ears. It seemed -that I was lying on a metal grid-floor; and as I stirred, a familiar -voice sounded.</p> - -<p>"Thank the Lord, you're coming out of it at last."</p> - -<p>It was Jim, here on the floor with me, bending anxiously over me in a -luminous darkness. His pug-nosed face grinned down at me.</p> - -<p>"I sure thought you might never come back, Art. You been a day, -sleeping off that damned drug."</p> - -<p>Dizzily I tried to sit up as he held me. "What—what happened? Where -the devil are we?" Then I remembered the fight. "Venta—" I murmured.</p> - -<p>"She's all right. I've seen her, and talked with her."</p> - -<p>I could see that Jim and I were alone in a small, triangular metal -apartment. A closed door was to one side. And to the other, there was -a round bull's-eye window. It was black out there, with bright white -points of stars. The thrumming was a faint distant electronic throb, -off in this strange interior.</p> - -<p>I could feel my strength rapidly coming back. I sat up, shoving Jim -away. "I'm all right now. Where are we?"</p> - -<p>He grinned wryly. "Hold your breath for a shock. We're out in Space, -plenty far. I guess, by now, we're on our way to Venus!"</p> - -<p>Out in Space! How often, like everyone else in our modern world of -science, I had envisaged it, and wondered why it had never been made -possible.</p> - -<p>"On the way to Venus?"</p> - -<p>"So they tell me, an' Lord knows I wouldn't doubt it. If you don't -believe me, come take a look."</p> - -<p>With his arm around me, I staggered dizzily to the bull's-eye porte. It -was an amazing scene! The Heavens everywhere were a black vault, strewn -with myriad white gems of the blazing worlds. Filling one whole side, -the familiar Earth hung motionless. It was mottled with clouds, beneath -which the configurations of the oceans and continents were plainly -visible.</p> - -<p>I stared, awed, wordless; and then, still weak and dizzy with the cold -sweat of the drug chilling me, I was glad enough to sit down on the -couch, with Jim beside me.</p> - -<p>"Who's got us?" I asked presently.</p> - -<p>"A fellow named Curtmann and his band. A dozen or more of them here -on board. I've talked with one of them—they're all Earthmen—this -ship was built on Earth. Would you believe it? A damned scientist from -mid-Europe built it secretly. He never told the world about it, but -gathered a bunch of crooks and beat it off."</p> - -<p>"Not so fast," I murmured. "Don't get incoherent."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I tried to sort it out as he breathlessly told me what he had -learned. Some eight or ten years ago, among the captive people of -mid-Europe under police domination of the Anglo-American Federation, -a fellow named Karl Curtmann had built this hundred foot cylindrical -space-flyer. The same old urge for world conquest. But this fellow -Curtmann had known that on Earth he had no chance. This was not -1915, nor 1939. And so he had gathered others like himself; all -English-speaking, since their racial language had been banned by the -Federation before they were born, and with his ship and his men, they -had adventured into Space.</p> - -<p>"Seems they landed on Venus," Jim was saying. "It was a fertile field -for a world-conqueror, by what I hear! Peaceful, simple people, with -these Earth cutthroats jumping on them. They used a bunch of our -Shadow Squad weapons, which was enough and plenty."</p> - -<p>Once established there as a conqueror, Curtmann had gone back to Earth -on several trips, for supplies and more weapons and men.</p> - -<p>"I guess there are several hundred of 'em on Venus now," Jim went -on. "Built themselves a little city, and made slaves out of the -Venus-people. You can imagine what this style Earthman would do when -he's a conqueror with nothing to challenge him! And the Venus-people -are on the down-grade. Dying out, except for the Midges."</p> - -<p>"Midges?"</p> - -<p>"They're the little people of Venus. They serve. They believe that all -Earth men are gods, or something." Jim shrugged. "Don't ask me. We'll -find out soon enough."</p> - -<p>The Midge! I remembered that little bronze man-figure which had peered -at us.</p> - -<p>"And Venta?" I prompted.</p> - -<p>"Her father—No, I guess it's her grandfather—he's a leader on Venus. -Religious leader, or something. He and some others have escaped to a -Forest City. Curtmann had Venta. Venta says he's just trying to make -her love him—make her see how wonderful he is. Curtmann, the Man of -Destiny—I can't wait to meet him!"</p> - -<p>He had taken Venta on one of his forays to Earth, and she had escaped -from him. "An' they got us along with her," Jim finished wryly. "Damned -lucky we didn't get killed. We will yet, most probably."</p> - -<p>A little rasp here in the darkness made us turn. A doorslide had -opened; a man's heavy-featured face scowled in at us.</p> - -<p>"At last you have recovered," he said to me. His voice was the heavy, -guttural timber of a mid-European. He was a villainous-looking fellow, -his slack-jowled face bluish with a week's growth of beard.</p> - -<p>"Yes," I said. "Fortunately for me. Are you Curtmann?"</p> - -<p>"He's Frantz," Jim put in. "He's been feeding me."</p> - -<p>"Tell your master I want to see him," I said. "And take me to the girl, -Venta."</p> - -<p>The fellow leered. "You talk like you own the ship," he commented.</p> - -<p>The doorslide closed. His footsteps retreated, but presently they came -back. He opened the door. "The Great-Master says, bring you," he said -with an ironic grin. "Come on. You can both come."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Silently we followed him down a narrow metal corridor.</p> - -<p>"This way—" I saw our captor now as a bulky six-foot fellow clad -incongruously in a crudely plaited robe of dried vegetable fibre, -draped upon him like a Roman toga. He stood aside at an oval doorway; -and Jim and I went into a small triangular room. Starlight filtered -into it from a side bull's-eye.</p> - -<p>Clad still in her brief garment, Venta sat on a square pad on the -floor. As we entered she flung me a look, and then stared straight -ahead.</p> - -<p>"So? This is the fellow who thought he would steal my little Venta? -Come in, Frane. Stand over there; I want to look you over."</p> - -<p>Karl Curtmann. He was seated in a small, straight-backed armchair. He -was a smallish, slim fellow, not over forty perhaps. A vivid blue toga -encased him; sandals were on his feet. At our entrance he raised one of -his bare ornamented arms with a gesture.</p> - -<p>The costume was queerly incongruous to a modern Earthman; but upon -Curtmann there was an immense dignity, a sense of the consciousness -of his own greatness. More than mere conceit, it seemed to radiate -from him. On his heavy, square-jawed face there was a look of amused -contempt as he regarded me.</p> - -<p>"My little Venta has asked me not to kill you," he added. His voice was -soft and suave. English was his native language, taught him exclusively -by Government decree. But the inherited timbre was guttural. "That is -fortunate, is it not?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," I agreed. "Very. I thank her."</p> - -<p>His eyes twinkled; his immaculate hands with jeweled fingers, brushed -his crisp blond hair. "You can also thank me. I am permitting you to -join our life. You know now, of course, that I am Master of Venus? It -is their good fortune. Always I shall protect them from any harm, and -teach them the life that is good for them."</p> - -<p>He was utterly sincere. His eyes were gleaming with his fervour. Man of -Destiny. He believed it with the faith of a child. And now his gaze -went to Venta.</p> - -<p>"Her people—" He was still talking to me, though he stared at her. -"Some of them still are misguided. Old Prytan, her grandfather, is a -very wicked old man, Frane. He has fled to the Forest City. He defies -my rule. I shall have to punish that Forest City."</p> - -<p>Suddenly his face contorted; his arm shook as he pounded his fist on -his chair. "I shall not tolerate it. They are all to die. Nor in the -city of Shan itself will I have rebellion. I am a man of peace—there -shall be no strife. And each year, from Earth, more of my men will come -to mate with the Venus women. The new race. The new Empire of Curtmann. -Is it not a wonderful future, Venta? I shall make you Empress."</p> - -<p>"Yes," she murmured.</p> - -<p>"Race of the Gods," he said. "And I—Karl Curtmann—"</p> - -<p>He checked himself. There was a little sound of beating wings here in -the dim starlit room. I turned as through the door a tiny shape came -like a fluttering bird through the air. A footlong bronze man-shape. -One of the Midge! Again my mind leaped back to that little figure in -the Adirondac forest. It had had wings, though then I had not noticed -them.</p> - -<p>This one came and poised on the arm of Curtmann's chair. "What is it, -Rahn?" he said.</p> - -<p>The Midge's voice was tiny, but clear. "The flight-master has asked -that you come now to check his calculations of our course." The English -words, taught to this Midge, were quaintly intoned. The voice was -gentle, humble.</p> - -<p>Curtmann stood up. "All right. I shall go." He waved an arm at the -burly Frantz who was standing silently to one side. "Our captives can -remain here, Frantz."</p> - -<p>He turned, smiled gently at Venta, and strode from the room.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>As the days passed we were allowed a fair freedom of movement. A -freedom to plan—what? I must confess that Jim and I had no conception -of what we might do in circumstances like these.</p> - -<p>Once Venta had whispered to me, "We shall escape from here—it can be -done."</p> - -<p>Escape from this Curtmann, join Venta's grandfather—old Prytan—out -there in the Venus Forest City.... Certainly it was all that Jim and I -could hope for. And then came that night when the misty lead-grey ball -of Venus had grown to a monstrous disc beneath us, with the cone of its -shadow blotting out the Sun as we dropped down into the heavy Venus -atmosphere. There came a moment when Venta, Jim and I were alone, and -from the dim corridor with a little beat of wings, Rhan, the Midge, -came to join us. He was carrying an oxohydro heat-torch. Amazing little -man-shape. The alumite torch was as big as himself, and heavier. His -diaphanous, dragonfly wings struggled with it. Like a giant flying ant, -with an ant's monstrous strength in proportion to its size. Panting, he -fluttered heavily and laid it at my feet.</p> - -<p>"You, the Great God," he said. "I serve you. Here it is."</p> - -<p>He stood now by the torch he had brought. The muscles on his broad -chest heaved under the sleek bronzed skin with his panting breath.</p> - -<p>"For you," he added. "No one saw me. I got it for you. I did well, -Seyla Venta?"</p> - -<p>"Oh yes. Thank you, Rhan." Venta was trembling now with excitement. -"When we get lower into the atmosphere, we'll go to one of the -pressure-portes at the bottom of the hull. There are space suits there, -if we can get to them."</p> - -<p>"Let's close this door," Jim said quickly. "Not so loud, Venta."</p> - -<p>We planned it, as the ship settled down through the heavy, -sullen-looking Venus clouds and then burst out into the lower -atmosphere with the dark surface of Venus far down beneath us. Rhan -watched and reported that Curtmann and most of his men were forward by -the control turret. Then Jim, Venta and I were able to get down through -one of the dim corridors, down a little catwalk ladder into the lower -hull. The metal pressure porte door was locked.</p> - -<p>I stood at the bottom of the ladder. Above me the voices of Curtmann's -ruffians were audible. Every moment I expected that we would be missed.</p> - -<p>"Hurry it," I murmured.</p> - -<p>The porte doorlock melted as Jim held the torch upon it. We slid into -the porte, closed the door after us. Venta, on the voyage to Earth, had -been trained by Curtmann in the use of these pressure-suits, and in a -moment we stood in them, helmeted, with the air bloating the suits so -that we were shapeless monsters.</p> - -<p>I opened the outer doorslide. A little at first, and then wider. In -the rarified atmosphere of Venus at this fifty mile height, the air of -the little porte went out with a rush. It blew us out with it. I had a -sickening sensation of falling into nothingness. Then it seemed that my -head steadied. I fumbled with a hand upon the anti-gravity mechanisms -by which the fall could be guided.</p> - -<p>Above me the dark finned shape of Curtmann's space ship was drawing -swiftly upward and away. Head down, with the bloated shapes of Jim -and Venta beside me, we plummeted like falling meteorites through the -sub-stratosphere darkness.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>"A rainbow storm is coming," old Prytan said. "We shall have to wait -until it is passed before trying to get to the broken city."</p> - -<p>We were in the depths of an orange-blue forest of giant, spindly -vegetation that rose in fantastic shapes from the soft, porous ground -five hundred feet or more into the air. Pods and vines hung upon the -lacery of trees. There were huge vivid flowers, redolent with a perfume -exotic, cloying in the heavy humid air.</p> - -<p>Everything, particularly at first, to me was heavy, oppressive. Venus -is denser than the Earth, and the gravity is a full third heavier. It -made walking, to us Earthmen, a panting labor. I felt that I weighed, -not my normal hundred and eighty pounds, but almost two hundred and -fifty. For us to run seemed impossible.</p> - -<p>I had seen but little of this Forest City. It was a group of perhaps a -thousand dwellings, all seemingly built of slabs of the porous forest -trees, with walls and roofs of thatch. The houses nestled between the -great fantastic trees. Some were like birds' nests in the branches, -with vine-ladders from the ground leading up to them. The colors of the -thatch were vivid blue, red and yellow.</p> - -<p>It was a fairyland of woodland fantasy, peopled by the humans of this -scattered, futile Venus-race. I had seen gaping groups of them as -Venta and I pushed through them, heading for old Prytan's dwelling. -Men, women and children crowded the flower-lined, crooked little city -streets. They were all gaudily-dressed in toga-like fabrics made from -the vivid-colored, dried vegetable fibres. A few of them had fled -here from Shan where they had picked up a little English from the -Earth-conquerors. But most of them babbled at me in their own weird -tongue. They were a gentle people. The lack of struggle, lack of -accomplishment for generations now, had stamped them with a futility. -Here in the benign climate of Venus they had grown content with simple -wants. Love-making, music—that was enough for them. The Midge attended -their every want.</p> - -<p>Decadence perhaps, but who shall say but what it is to be preferred -to the bloody upward struggles of our own Earth's history? All that -too, had been upon Venus. Far ahead of Earth in the life-cycle of its -humans, there had been great scientific civilizations here. The science -of war had risen into all its ghastly power and then had destroyed -itself, with mankind at last coming to realize its tragic futility. -There were ruins of great cities here, with the silt of centuries upon -them and the forests growing lush amid their wreckage.</p> - -<p>"You two Earthmen are not quite like Curtmann and his fellows," old -Prytan said to me. His eyes twinkled beneath his shaggy white brows. -His seamed old face wrinkled with a smile.</p> - -<p>"No," I said. "We hope not."</p> - -<p>"But your Earth still struggles, with each man wanting more than his -neighbor."</p> - -<p>We were in a room of a huge, crudely-built dwelling of thatch. A -thousand Midges had woven it in a day. Venta was here; and draped -on the floor at her feet was the graceful, gaudily-clad figure of a -young Venusman. His name was Jahnt. He was her cousin, I understood. -A handsome fellow with longish, bushy dark hair; an oval face with -pointed chin, hawk nose and eyes with an almost Oriental slant. He -spoke English as fluently as Venta. I don't know why I took an instant -dislike to him, save that he always seemed to want to be beside Venta.</p> - -<p>A rainbow storm was coming. I could see the premonitory signs of it. -The room here was lighted with little braziers—seemingly the caged -bodies of tiny insects which were luminous as fireflies. Through the -oval window-openings the night outside was turgidly dark. But wind -now was pattering the trees, and there were distant flares of weird -opalescent lightning.</p> - -<p>A tenseness was here in this room of old Prytan's home—and it was -everywhere about the little city. Like an aura of terror it seemed to -envelope us. All this day that had passed, Midges by hundreds had been -flying in from Shan. And now, this evening, the big people themselves -had begun coming. Fugitives. Terrified people who had escaped from -Shan; rebellious, wanting to do something to rid Venus of these cruel -conquerors, coming to Prytan as their leader; helplessly throwing -themselves upon him, asking him what they should do. Groups of people -milled in the streets, eyed the coming storm. Rebellion against the -Earth-conquerors. But it was more than that. Among us all, here in this -eerie opalescent room there was the feeling of impending disaster. -Curtmann had returned to Shan. In a rage at the loss of Venta, he had -learned that the rebellion against him was growing. Would he wait for -old Prytan to organize some attack? Certainly I doubted it. And my mind -swept back so that again I seemed to hear his grim words: "I shall have -to punish that Forest City!"</p> - -<p>Was Curtmann planning to strike at us now?</p> - -<p>"... but until the storm is over we can do nothing," old Prytan was -saying.</p> - -<p>Even then, what could we do? In somber voices that seemed to echo -dully through the rustic room and mingled with the weird storm-noises -outside, we discussed it. One of the great broken cities of by-gone -days was only some ten miles away. In it there was hidden away a cache -of ancient weapons of science.</p> - -<p>"I have kept them workable," Prytan said grimly. "And my father before -me also attended them. And before him, his father. But never did we -really think the horrible time would come when they should be used."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>But whatever we could do, certainly must be done soon. The news from -Shan every moment was more serious. Upon Curtmann's return, open -disorder had broken out in the capital city. As punishment, a thousand -or more of the young Venusmen of the city had been summarily killed by -the diabolic flash-guns of the Earthmen. "Only our men he kills," young -Jahnt put in ironically. "Why not? Our women are very beautiful. Like -you, is it not so, Venta?"</p> - -<p>I tensed at the glance with which he swept her. "I shall bring in the -supper," Venta said. His gaze followed her as she rose and left us.</p> - -<p>"I tell you all this about our hidden weapons," Prytan was saying to -me in his cracked treble voice. "We can trust you, even though you are -Earthmen?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," I agreed.</p> - -<p>"Listen," Jim put in. "These young men you've got here—well, no -offense meant—on Earth we'd call them ladylike." His gaze barely -touched the gaudy figure of Jahnt and then went back to Prytan. "My -business, sir, on Earth is to deal with criminals. I'm pretty good in -a fight. You just give me some of your weapons."</p> - -<p>"I trust you," Prytan agreed. "Never, until tonight, has anyone but -myself known about the weapons. If Curtmann knew it—"</p> - -<p>"He won't," I said. "We'll get them tonight. We—"</p> - -<p>I checked myself. The beat of wings sounded, and a Midge came through -the window, and landed on Prytan's shoulder.</p> - -<p>"Well, Meeta," he said, "you come with more bad news?"</p> - -<p>A female Midge. It was the first one I had seen except at a distance. -She was a fairylike little creature—a ten-inch high miniature -of Venta. Her flesh was like pink-white satin, glistening in the -insect-light. Her wings thrummed to balance her as she poised.</p> - -<p>"English?" she said in her tiny voice.</p> - -<p>"Yes," Prytan nodded. "These are good Earthmen."</p> - -<p>Her pixie-like, tiny face turned toward me. I saw then, in those tiny -glowing eyes, the leap of her instinctive adoration for my giant size. -Here a new God for her to worship and serve.</p> - -<p>"English, yes," she agreed. "Master, there have been still more -killings. They kill our men now for no reason; and those of the women -who are young and beautiful they have herded together into a harem."</p> - -<p>Prytan's old body trembled with anger. "We must stop it. And Meeta, -have you told the Midge to meet us in the broken city?"</p> - -<p>"Master, yes. They will be there when the storm is passed. We cannot -fly in the wind, and even now it is very strong."</p> - -<p>I could hear it, crackling through the giant foliage outside. Then -there was a monstrous flare of color as though a rainbow had burst -around us.</p> - -<p>"It gets bad," young Jahnt muttered. He went to one of the windows; -then sauntered to a door-oval and disappeared.</p> - -<p>Meeta, I understood now, was one of the leaders of the Midge. It was -her brother who had aided us to escape from Curtmann's ship. I told her -about it now as she perched on my hand, with her soft eyes roaming my -face and her tiny lips parted with eager breath as she listened.</p> - -<p>"Oh I am glad of that. Rahn so wants to do what is right in serving -our Gods. But it is confusing, Gods here on Venus who fight with one -another—"</p> - -<p>Through the window, upon a blast of storm-wind another little figure -came fluttering. Another female Midge, like Meeta. With beating wings -she hovered a second and then fell to the floor at our feet.</p> - -<p>"Mela!" old Prytan gasped. "What is it?"</p> - -<p>The storm had tossed her against a tree. One of her wings was broken; -blood was on her body. But she had struggled on to us, bringing her -news.</p> - -<p>"What is it?" old Prytan demanded.</p> - -<p>"Curtmann comes! He and all his men—his army, coming now to attack the -Forest City!"</p> - -<p>Curtmann coming to attack us! A dozen little male Midges here on the -floor of the room heard it and scurried away.</p> - -<p>"Curtmann coming?" Prytan gasped. "Why—why we will not be ready for -him."</p> - -<p>It stunned us. Within a minute, out in the city, the news was spreading -with cries of the frightened people. A panic was beginning here. That -would have to be controlled.</p> - -<p>"They've left Shan already?" I demanded of the little Midge.</p> - -<p>"No. Perhaps not. But they are ready—the storm may hold them off."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I was on my feet. Old Prytan was trembling with the palsy of his -confused terror. By what Jim and I had seen of the young men of the -Forest City, there was not one who could be counted on to do anything -constructive in this crisis. If the Venus-people were to have any -leadership, it would have to be Jim and me.</p> - -<p>"Send word that the women and children are to stay in their homes," -I said. "There must be no panic. Have the young men come here. Storm -or no storm we shall have to get to the broken city, and get those -Venus-weapons."</p> - -<p>"How far is it from here to Shan?" Jim put in.</p> - -<p>"Twenty Earth-miles perhaps," old Prytan stammered. "If Curtmann and -his men should start now—"</p> - -<p>"Maybe they won't," I said. "The storm is still going strong."</p> - -<p>"Where is Venta?" Prytan stared helplessly about the room. "She said -she would bring us food. What use of that? We have no time to eat it -now." He suddenly raised his shaking old voice. "Venta. Venta, where -are you?"</p> - -<p>There was no answer from the nearby interior door-oval through which -Venta had gone. Just blank, stark silence. Horror struck at me.</p> - -<p>Jim and I were on our feet. Jim gasped, "I'll go see." But before he -could move, we heard a woman's moan, followed again by silence!</p> - -<p>Jim broke it with an oath. I tossed little Meeta into the air with a -flip of my hand as I ran toward the crude kitchen, out there beyond the -dim door-oval.</p> - -<p>Thank God, it was not Venta. On the packed loam of the floor an old -serving woman lay sprawled. Her throat was a ghastly welter of crimson, -and near her a Midge lay dead.</p> - -<p>The old woman was still alive. She tried faintly to gasp in English as -I bent over her.</p> - -<p>"He—took her—Venta—"</p> - -<p>"Who took her?"</p> - -<p>"Jahnt—he—"</p> - -<p>The blood choked her. But I had no interest in hearing more. Jahnt!</p> - -<p>"Why—he's got the secret of those weapons now!" Jim gasped. "Get the -idea, Art?"</p> - -<p>The commotion had brought others. They all stood milling, helpless, -frightened. Jim and I shoved them away.</p> - -<p>"He'd probably head for the broken city," Jim said. "It's much closer -to here."</p> - -<p>"That he might do," Prytan agreed. "And where is his Midge—you -people—you have seen little Ort lately?"</p> - -<p>"Jahnt could send that Midge flying to Shanga to tell Curtmann about -the weapons," I suggested.</p> - -<p>Old Prytan could only stammer assent to the possibility. And if -Curtmann and his ruffians got to that cache before we could get there, -that indeed would be the end of any possibility of overcoming him.</p> - -<p>"Where is Meeta?" I demanded. "Meeta knows the location of the broken -city."</p> - -<p>She fluttered from behind me at the sound of my voice. "Master I am -here. What I can do to serve?"</p> - -<p>"We're going after Jahnt," Jim said. "He can't have gotten far."</p> - -<p>"But you run so heavily," old Prytan murmured. "My young men here—"</p> - -<p>They were all standing looking frightened and confused. Jim swept them -with a glance and drew me past them. It occurred to me that we might -use the three spacesuits in which we had escaped from Curtmann. With -their anti-gravity mechanisms and tiny rocket-streams we could propel -ourselves over the forest. But we found now that they were gone.</p> - -<p>Precious minutes were passing. We would have to go on foot. At the door -we paused, appalled by the wind and a chromatic burst of glaring light. -Meeta fluttered in the air beside my head, and as the wind hit her she -was tossed back.</p> - -<p>"You can't fly out into that, Meeta?"</p> - -<p>"No, I am afraid it's not possible now. But you can carry me."</p> - -<p>She fluttered to my shoulder, crouching with a tiny hand gripping my -coat collar. With Jim beside me we plunged out into the roaring riot of -the rainbow storm.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>"Guess we'll have to wait a bit longer," Jim murmured. "But it seems to -be easing, don't you think?"</p> - -<p>In a sheltered recess of the forest we were crouching, forced to wait -for the weird storm to pass. There had been no possible chance of -finding the fleeing Jahnt. We could only hope now that he would go on -to the broken city. The storm seemed to be lessening but still it was -a roar of wind which cracked through the spindly giant trees, often -bringing down great segments of branches which it had torn loose.</p> - -<p>A lull came at last, and through a ragged, littered forest Jim and I -pushed our tortuous way. Meeta could fly now. She guided us, and with -little forays hummed ahead and to the sides, seeking some signs of -Jahnt and Venta. But there were none.</p> - -<p>The storm had been a torture of delay. In my heart now I had no thought -that we would be able to locate Jahnt and Venta. I could only hope that -they might be in the broken city. Had Curtmann received news of the -Venus weapons? My mind was upon Venta, but still I could envisage that -bloodthirsty band of Earth cutthroats advancing upon the Forest City.</p> - -<p>"I say, is it much further?" Jim demanded suddenly of Meeta. "This is -tough going for us."</p> - -<p>"Master, no. It is ahead, just down that slope."</p> - -<p>The dim forest glade was descending into a great shallow area of -deeper shadow. And presently we could see the ruins of tumbled, broken -buildings lying here, half buried by the rank forest growth. In the -turgid dimness, with a faint orange luminosity that seemed inherent -to the great trees, it was an eerie place of colored shadows. Great -buildings were everywhere around us now, weird of shape and substance, -some of them still partly erect with the spindly trees growing through -them.</p> - -<p>It was a place of the ghosts of Venus' past.</p> - -<p>"It is down in here," Meeta said, pointing.</p> - -<p>A littered rocky depression was before us. A ruined amphitheatre, with -its walls almost gone and the forest like a monstrous clump in its -middle. We descended into it. The ground in places was rocky. Some -natural cataclysm must have torn this ground since the original arena -was built.</p> - -<p>Then we saw the cache of weapons. It was half a demolished room in some -broken structure that now was unrecognizable; an apartment partly open -at the top, of some two hundred feet diameter. A little light filtered -down from the lurid greenish-yellow storm-clouds high overhead.</p> - -<p>"No one here ahead of us, Jim?" In the darkness, with Meeta perched -again upon my shoulder, we stood peering and listening. There was only -silence.</p> - -<p>"Where are the weapons?" Jim demanded.</p> - -<p>Meeta led us. "There in that little recess, Master. Many old broken -boxes are filled with them."</p> - -<p>We stood before the rock-shelves, numbed with disappointment and -horror. The crumbling old metal boxes were here. But they were strewn -about; broken open; empty! The weapons were gone!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Gone!" Jim gasped. "That damned Jahnt!"</p> - -<p>Abruptly Meeta cried, "Look! He is over there!"</p> - -<p>With his hiding place discovered, Jahnt leaped suddenly erect from the -shadows of a rocky niche. A knife was in his hand. I was nearest to -him. I leaped. But I had miscalculated my abnormal heaviness. I hit -the rocks a few feet short of him, stumbled, almost went down. As my -arms flailed I saw him over me, his pointed face demoniac with lustful -triumph, his knife stabbing at my chest.</p> - -<p>There was a whirring of wings, and a glistening body went past my head. -Meeta. The ten inches of her elfin form flapped and struck Jahnt in -the face. He hit wildly at her with his left hand, went off balance, -with his knife-thrust going wild; and collided against me so that I -was able to fling my arms around him. Then my left hand caught his -wrist, twisted and the knife fell away. We went down, locked together, -rolling. And suddenly I felt the knife hit my hand. Meeta with swift -agility had retrieved it and brought it to me. The lithe Jahnt, far -stronger than he looked, was momentarily on top of me. I seized the -knife, stabbed upward into his chest; and with a choked cry he went -limp, fell forward on me.</p> - -<p>I scrambled to my feet. Jahnt wasn't quite dead, but obviously dying. -Jim and I bent over him.</p> - -<p>"You got away with the weapons?" Jim muttered. "Or are they still -around here?"</p> - -<p>"Curtmann has them. My little Midge flew to him, and came back with -some of Curtmann's men. They left just a little while ago. I—showed -them how to use the weapons. You will—be defeated by Curtmann. You -damned—"</p> - -<p>Again little Meeta suddenly called us. "Here! Here is Venta!"</p> - -<p>She was lying, bound and gagged, but unharmed in the recess of some -crags nearby. Jim and I rushed to her.</p> - -<p>The three spacesuits were with her. Jim had gone back to the dying -Jahnt and he called me. Blood was gushing now from Jahnt's mouth; he -was gasping, but still he was trying ironically to smile.</p> - -<p>"I—did not tell Curtmann's men that I had Venta. Why should I be -in the battle? I just thought I would stay here with Venta, and if -Curtmann won, then I would join him."</p> - -<p>"Has he started from Shan?" Jim demanded.</p> - -<p>"Oh—yes. He and his men must be half way to the Forest City by now. I -am sorry now I did not go with them."</p> - -<p>I had a sudden thought. "Is he planning to use that spaceship of his?"</p> - -<p>Jahnt was choking now with the blood in his throat. Then he gasped, -"No—his men said they—could not handle it—so close to the -ground—such a—short distance. They are on foot—in the forest—"</p> - -<p>Venta was with us now, bending down over the dying Jahnt. His glazing -eyes saw her, and he murmured, "You—if you had loved me—this would -not have happened. I'm dying—you'll all die when—Curtmann uses those -weapons against you. I'm—glad of that—"</p> - -<p>His body twitched. Horribly the blood rattled in his throat, choking -him; and then in another moment he was gone.</p> - -<p>"They're half way to the Forest City," Jim muttered. "Good Lord, we've -got to stop them. But how? How can we do it, Art?"</p> - -<p>Venta was standing apart from us, with the tiny Meeta on her shoulder. -They were murmuring together, and abruptly Meeta flew to me.</p> - -<p>"She says it is right and it can be done. We Midges—serve the Gods, -and surely now we know the good Gods from the evil."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>An army of the Little People! Jim and I stood blankly listening while -Venta told us what she and Meeta had been planning. A myriad of Midges -could be rallied now. And they had human intelligence.... Only a foot -high, or less. But, especially the females, they could fly with the -agility of humming birds.</p> - -<p>"And we can be armed," Meeta cried. She hummed away, came back in a -moment. In her tiny hand there was a thorn. It was no more than two -inches long, but to her it was a sword, stiff and sharp as a needle.</p> - -<p>"The poisoned enta-thorn!" Venta exclaimed. "But I did not know that -any of the enta-shrub was near here."</p> - -<p>"I found it," Meeta said proudly. "There is much of it."</p> - -<p>"What's that noise?" Jim abruptly demanded.</p> - -<p>With my nerves taut, I stood tense. A faint thrumming was audible. We -had left the cave where the weapons had been hidden, and were out in -the broken amphitheatre with the ruined ancient buildings like spectres -around us. Far overhead there was a little starlight, straggling -faintly down. The thrumming grew louder. A tiny blurred shape came down -through the darkness.... And then another—and another.</p> - -<p>The Midges were arriving from Shan, expecting to carry the -Venus-weapons from here to the Forest City. In a moment a dozen were -here, then a hundred. They came in little groups, males and females, -keeping separate in the flight. Like huge insects they thrummed around -us, and then settled and stood awaiting our commands. Then Meeta was -among them, telling what had happened and explaining that they must -fight for the lives of the Forest City people.</p> - -<p>For a moment there was awed silence; then a tiny blended chorus of -voices, and little shapes humming away to get the thorns.</p> - -<p>Jim gripped me. "By the Lord, it's our only chance! You can see that, -Art."</p> - -<p>"Yes. You and I in the spacesuits, if we can maneuver them. An army in -the air—the Midges and you and I to plan their battle—direct them."</p> - -<p>"And I shall be with you," Venta cried.</p> - -<p>Vaguely I had thought to leave her here, or send her off to the Forest -City on foot. She persuaded me at last.</p> - -<p>"You talk of planning the battle," she cried. "But almost none of the -Midges speak your language. I shall give your commands to them."</p> - -<p>Once we had decided, a desperate haste was on us. Midges were arriving -here now from the Forest City. Some of them had seen the oncoming -columns of Curtmann's men, down in the forest. They were more than half -way from Shan. Occasionally their Earth-flash weapons would stab into -the forest ahead of them.</p> - -<p>Within ten minutes or so we were ready. I had sent a few of the -swiftest-flying Midges back to the Forest City to tell Prytan what had -happened. His young men were to arm themselves as best they could, -and take position. In a ring around the city, prepared to make a last -stand, if we should fail. All the Midges now in the Forest City were -to arm themselves with the poisoned thorns, and come to join us in the -battle as fast as they could.</p> - -<p>Then Venta, Jim and I had donned the spacesuits. No need to inflate -them now; we only needed the anti-gravity mechanisms, and the -rocket-streams for balancing and for lateral movement.</p> - -<p>We rose presently into the air, up into the starlight with the ruined -piles of the broken buildings and the forest dropping away beneath -us. At five hundred feet we poised. In thrumming groups the Midges, -more than two thousand of them now, circled around us. Then, with Jim, -Venta and me leading, our bodies in the baggy spacesuits poised almost -horizontal in the air and the Midges strung out in long thin lines like -insects behind us, we plunged forward to the battle.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">V</p> - -<p>"There they are!" Jim called.</p> - -<p>Five hundred feet below us the forest tree-tops were a fantastic matted -mass of vivid vegetation. And suddenly, down in a glade, the line of -Curtmann's men was visible. More than I had thought—there seemed a -full four hundred of them. In two columns they plodded slowly forward. -With them was a great wheeled cart, like a clumsy barge. Evidently -Curtmann had built it in Shan. It toiled forward, with the marching -men in advance of it and behind it. We could see that it was drawn by -harnessed lines of Midges—hundreds of the tiny figures plodding on -the ground, bending hunched as they pulled the huge creaking vehicle. -The top of the cart was uncovered and a dozen men were riding in it. -Groups of them were seated, around a little raised platform on which -was mounted what seemed a huge projector.</p> - -<p>"Keep the Midges high," I called to Venta who was near me. "Wait until -I give the signal."</p> - -<p>Our Midges were circling, wildly excited now that the enemy was in -sight beneath them. Jim and I had discussed our tactics. In groups -of about a hundred we would send the Midges plummeting down. Each -would try to stab one of Curtmann's men and then come up again. The -enta-poison, Venta had told us, was deadly—sure death if enough of it -got into the blood-stream. But it did not act at once; five minutes or -more was necessary before the victim would feel its lethal effect.</p> - -<p>We made a great sweeping half-circle, plunging down as though to attack -and leveling at above two hundred feet. As we passed over the lines of -watching men and the cart, two or three bolts stabbed up, fell short. -Then a man's voice roared orders to withhold the fire.</p> - -<p>Curtmann. As we passed at the lower altitude over the cart I saw him -standing on a raised platform near its front. We swept past, and up -again.</p> - -<p>"We better swoop now," Jim urged. "This is as good a place to attack as -any we'll ever get."</p> - -<p>That was obvious. The lines of men were in an open glade. A few hundred -feet ahead of them, the forest was dense again. It would be far more -difficult for our Midges to swoop down and attack amid the enveloping -lacery of vegetation.</p> - -<p>And Curtmann, even though probably he had not as yet the least fear -of us, already was starting to advance again. The men in front were -marching on. Orders were being roared at the harnessed Midges. The cart -went into motion. And the Forest City certainly was no more than a few -miles ahead. Curtmann's murderous band would be there in an hour or two.</p> - -<p>But still I hesitated to give the signal.</p> - -<p>Little Meeta hovered before me. "The Master-God will order us down -now?" she pleaded. "We will serve you well."</p> - -<p>My heart was pounding. I nodded, with a lump in my throat that choked -my voice as I shouted the signal sending so many of them to die.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A designated quarter of them swooped down. From up at this height, -Venta, Jim and I hovered, with the rest of the Midges in a gathered -group around us. All of us staring down.</p> - -<p>The cloud of some five hundred Midges swooped, circled, and then -plummeted. For a second or two the startled Curtmann men merely seemed -to stare upward. Then the Midges were upon them, fluttering into their -faces, jabbing at them. The men's arms wildly failed to fend off the -viciously attacking little bodies.</p> - -<p>Some of the Midges were caught, bashed into pulp and hurled away with -a single flailing blow. Some were caught in huge hands, squeezed to -death and flung to the ground. The oaths of the startled men came up, -mingled with the cries of the Midges, then the tiny fluttering shapes -were rising again. A shot stabbed at them, its crackling bolt stabbing -through a group of them. It was like a monstrous blow-torch stabbing -into fluttering moths. It left a trail of wisps of light as their -bodies were consumed.</p> - -<p>The rest of them came up and joined us, panting, flopping.</p> - -<p>"Good enough," Jim murmured. "Five minutes more and we'll see what -really happened."</p> - -<p>But I was cold inside. No more than half the Midges had come back. Two -hundred or more of them gone already. And here in the air, some of -them, wounded, were bravely struggling not to fall.</p> - -<p>The men and the huge cart down in the glade had started forward again. -Suddenly it was apparent that the harnessed lines of Midges on the -ground were in revolt. They milled in confusion, struggling to cast off -the lines that held them. We heard Curtmann roaring threats at them. -And then he fired a bolt horizontally through them. It cut a ghastly -swath; a burst of trailing little wisps of fire. Beside me, Venta -gasped in horror; and Jim murmured,</p> - -<p>"Fool! With what's left of those Midges that heavy cart will never move -again."</p> - -<p>The cart had stopped. Curtmann, doubtless regretting his shot of -exasperation, was roaring more orders. The straggling columns of his -men came toward the cart, and all of them bunched around it in a solid -group, out there in the center of the open glade.</p> - -<p>"Got them stalled," Jim said grimly. "Much better for us."</p> - -<p>If the poison would work. But would it? At three hundred feet we were -still circling in great humming sweeps while again I withheld my -signal. Did I dare send the Midges down for a general attack? Every -shot cut them so horribly into nothingness. Off to the side, in the -direction of the Forest City, other Midges were appearing now. Little -groups of them, males and females, humming toward us, joining our -circling ranks. Reinforcements. In a minute or two it seemed that a new -thousand were here to swell our weird little army.</p> - -<p>"Look!" Jim suddenly cried triumphantly. "The enta-poison!"</p> - -<p>Up to now, in these tentative exchanges, Curtmann and his men doubtless -had contemptuously figured that this engagement was harassing, but -certainly nothing worse. Some of his men had been stabbed by little -thorns. What of it? But down there now a new confusion was apparent. -One of his men on the ground beside the cart suddenly staggered and -fell. Then another. In the cart a group of them called with startled -questions. Two of them by the big projector abruptly slumped in their -seats with their fellows bending anxiously over them.</p> - -<p>A moment of startled confusion. A dozen stricken men. And then others. -What was happening must have dawned on Curtmann. In the starlit dimness -down there on the cart we saw the blob of his figure leap erect.</p> - -<p>And then Curtmann, at last realizing the deadliness of this menace, -went into action! From the cart there was a little puff, with the -hissing, popping sound of it coming up to us a few seconds later. A -small round blob rose toward us, went harmlessly through us and burst -up in the starlight. An electrolite-flare. It glared with a lurid, -prismatic splash of color in the sky, illumined brightly the tiny -flying dots of our Midges.</p> - -<p>Just that few seconds and then the great projector hurled its missile -at us—a blob coming slowly up in an arc. The blob burst. It seemed as -though suddenly there was an earthquake in the air-split columns of -air rushing together with a deafening thunderclap. The air rocked me, -hurled me sidewise; the brief roar was deafening.</p> - -<p>"A thunder-thrower!" Venta gasped as she clung to me.</p> - -<p>In the cataclysm of air the cloud of Midges was hurled into chaos, -their bodies knocked together, whirling end over end, some of them -dropping with broken wings.</p> - -<p>Just a few seconds, and now the blue-white starlit night had been -transformed into a chaos of glaring light and roaring, clapping sound. -Flares were bursting everywhere; the cracking thunderclaps came one -upon the other in a chaos of prismatic horror. Curtmann's hand-flashes -were stabbing recklessly up through it. One of longer range burned a -wide swath with the bodies of Midges bursting into a myriad pin-points -of light.</p> - -<p>In the rocking turmoil I heard Jim shouting, "Good God, we can't stay -up here!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Half our Midges already were gone! Everywhere little broken dots were -drifting or falling down.</p> - -<p>"Down!" I shouted. "Venta—Meeta—tell them! Everyone down. Don't come -back up—everyone for himself, now!"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" width="582" height="500" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>Downward plunged the weird armada.</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>In the roaring chaos of pyrotechnic glare what was left of our Midges -swooped to the attack. With the rocket-streams at last righting my -whirling body, head down I plummeted. The glare from above revealed -Curtmann's men far more plainly now. Everywhere the men were -staggering. In the cart some of them had fallen, but others were still -erect, frantically working the projectors and stabbing with the hand -heat-flashes. Our Midges were among them now, desperate fluttering -little figures, stabbing at their faces. On the ground some of the -staggering men were trying to get into the forest underbrush. I -plummeted toward a group of them.</p> - -<p>I hit the ground in the midst of a staggering group, with a thump that -all but knocked the breath from me. Two of the men staggered at me. I -was unarmed. My fist knocked one down, and I gripped the other as he -half fell upon me. He was still clutching his flash-gun. I seized it, -knocked him away and rose again into the roaring tumult of the air.</p> - -<p>"Art! You got a gun? So did I."</p> - -<p>Jim was here with me; side by side we rose. I saw the cart directly -underneath me. His figure painted lurid, the desperate Curtmann was -still erect. Almost the last one now. And I saw that he was struggling -with a projector which had not yet been in use. A tiny figure flapped -against my face. Little Meeta. She gripped my shoulder, clung, and her -tiny voice gasped in my ear.</p> - -<p>"That weapon Curtmann has—the big molecule-melter—very -long-range—the Forest City."</p> - -<p>With a burst of numbing horror I understood it. This projector would -cut the forest and the ground into a leprous molten swath, out to the -Forest City itself.</p> - -<p>I plummeted down, with Meeta still clinging desperately to my neck. -Curtmann saw me coming. With a wild oath he dropped the projector and -fired at me with a hand-flash. It missed. There was just a second -when I leveled off, heading horizontally at him. The glare was on -his sweat-bathed face, contorted with his lust; but I saw a look of -despairing terror there as my flash drilled him and he fell as I -swooped close over him.</p> - -<p>We rose at last, high into the starlight. So pitifully few of us, -gathering in a little broken, circling group. Beneath us now there -was only a lurid red-yellow fire-pit of molten bubbling rocks where -the forest glade had been. Then the heavy turgid smoke and gas-fumes -settled upon it like a shroud.</p> - -<p>Almost silently we struggled back through the starlight to the Forest -City. Jim and Venta and little Meeta were here with me, but our little -Midges were struggling to keep aloft. Dozens of them were clustering -upon Jim and Venta and me. Their tiny, gasping voices were horrible. -And we were the victors! It came to me then that surely whatever has -been said and written of the futility of human killing, can never -adequately picture it.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I think that is all I need recount. You have all heard how we returned -to Earth, and the stir that my news brought. I should have been -considered a charlatan perhaps, with my wild tale. But there was the -spaceship; and Jim, Venta, and little Meeta. Scientists have inspected -Venta now. It was an ordeal. But mostly they have been interested in -Meeta.</p> - -<p>That is passed. There are others on Venus like Venta, and others -like our little Midge. We are living now on Earth, with Jim near us. -Certainly neither here, nor on Venus, do we want any turmoil.</p> - -<p>With Jim for my friend, and the adoration of little Meeta who thinks me -in very truth, a God—and the love of my dear wife—certainly I am a -mortal very singularly blessed.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Star-Master, by Ray Cummings - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR-MASTER *** - -***** This file should be named 62170-h.htm or 62170-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/1/7/62170/ - -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 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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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 Star-Master - -Author: Ray Cummings - -Release Date: May 20, 2020 [EBook #62170] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR-MASTER *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - THE STAR-MASTER - - By RAY CUMMINGS - - Docile, decadent Venus was easy - pickings for that twenty-first century - Hitler's dream of cosmic empire. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Summer 1942. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -My name is Arthur Frane. You who read this story now, of course -are familiar with momentous events into which I was unexpectedly -plunged--momentous for all mankind. - -I write this narrative now to add the true details to what you have -all read and heard blared by the newscasters around the world. I have -been extolled as a hero although I did nothing except try to keep from -getting killed. - -I was twenty-six years old last summer, in June of 2003, when fate -so strangely brought Venta and me together. My family is wealthy, as -you have heard. Do not envy me for that. An income of ten thousand -decimars, however nice it may seem in theory, is in reality no -advantage to a young man of twenty-six. I am a big blond fellow whom -the newscasters have been pleased to call Viking-like and handsome as a -god. I'm much obliged. But whatever truth there is in it, that too has -been a disadvantage. - -The weird events began in July, last summer, when with Jim Gregg I -went hunting in that Adirondac forest. Jim and I were in Government -College together. I left to spend my income and become a dawdler--the -disadvantage of money; and Jim joined the Crime Prevention Bureau of -the New York Shadow Squad. We got a one-day hunting permit. Jim took -his official crime-tracker equipment, with an extra flash-gun for me; -we flew to the Adirondac mountain slope which our permit named and -hopefully set out on foot to try our luck. - -But we had no luck. A few birds, which even the minimum pencil-ray -flash had all but burned to a crisp, were all we had bagged. Evening -came, with twilight settling so that the forest glades were deepening -into purple. And then suddenly it seemed that we heard a rustling in -the underbrush--a rustling which ought to be a deer. - -We crouched in a thicket, waiting. The sound stopped. "Let's try the -listener," I whispered. - -Jim got out his little eavesdropping gadget. But he had no time to -connect it. The rustling began again. It was obviously up a short slope -no more than a hundred feet from us--some wild animal which seemed now -to be retreating. - -"I'll take a chance," I muttered. "If that's a deer, we'll lose it if I -can't drill it now." - -We knew it could not be a human, since our permit for today barred -anyone else from the twenty square miles of Government preserve -allotted to us. I fired at the sound, with my violet pencil-flash -eating through the underbrush at the top of the slope. - -There was a startled, weird outcry; and from the summit of the little -rise a shape broke cover. A girl! She came bursting from a thicket no -more than three feet to the side of the swath my flash had burned, and -for a second or two she stood poised on a rock with the open evening -sky a background above and behind her. A slim shape of bare legs and -arms with a brief drape from shoulders to her thighs. The starlight and -fading daylight gleamed on her bronzed skin as though she were a metal -statue. - -"Well--I say--" Jim muttered. - - * * * * * - -Thoughts are instant things. There was in my mind the vague idea that -here, by some wild circumstances, was a girl in a fancy-dress party -costume or something of the kind. But the thought, and Jim's muttered -words of astonishment, were in another second stricken away. She paused -for that instant on the rock, and then she leaped. Amazing, incredible -leap! It carried her in a flat arc some ten or fifteen feet above the -ground and twenty feet away, where light as a faun she landed on the -toes of her bare feet. Nearer to us now; and seeing us, perhaps for the -first time, she stood and stared. - -I could see the silvery streaks running through the black hair that -framed her face. It was a queerly beautiful face, apparently devoid of -normal cosmetic-make-up. Negroid? Oriental? In that second I had the -thought that it was neither--nor anything else that I could name. A -girl with a mysterious wild beauty which stirred my pulses. - -"Well--good Lord--" Jim muttered again. He too was staring, with a -hand in his shock of bristling red hair, and I can imagine the look of -numbed astonishment on his freckled, pug-nosed face. "Good Lord, how -did she jump like that?" - -I heard myself stammering, "You--up there--what in the devil--" - -Like a terrified fugitive the girl abruptly swept a look behind her; -and then she leaped again, and landed almost beside us. - -"You--you--Oh you mus' help me! There was a flash that tried to kill -me--" - -English! With weird, indescribable intonation, she gasped the English -words. - -"I--shot at you," I stammered. "Sorry--we thought you were an animal. -No human is allowed here today but us." - -Somehow it seemed futile, incongruous that I should try to explain -anything rational to a girl so weird as this. - -But she smiled. "Oh--I thought--I thought--" - -"Someone is after you?" Jim said quickly. - -"Yes. I thought--but I guess not now. Oh you are good Earthmen--not -like Curtmann. I escaped, and I have come long long a way from my poor -terrified people." - -I saw Jim glance at me significantly. We both had the same thought, of -course. A girl demented; with painted skin and fancy dress--trappings -of insanity; and she had escaped from some asylum? - -But those leaps were far beyond the power of any trained athlete! - -"What's your name?" I murmured. - -"Venta. I was a prisoner--and now I have to tell someone of importance -here on Earth. I did escape when I was brought here by Curtmann." She -babbled it out, breathless, terrified. "I did not know what to do, he -is so bad to my people--to the Midge--to all of us. And I--I do not -love him. I am afraid of him. In Shan he rules--and my family now are -all in the great Forest City. And Curtmann will capture that too." - -Blankly Jim and I exchanged glances. And suddenly with a muttered oath, -Jim gasped, - -"My God, Art! Look at that--thing! There--behind you!" - -I whirled. But whatever he had seen, or thought he saw, was gone. - -"Behind me? What?" - -"Why--why--" Jim could only gasp. The girl was staring at us blankly. -Jim was stupified into incoherency. "Why--why--a little thing--it -ran--" And then he raised his left wrist with another muttered gasp. - -"What in the devil?" I demanded. "Are you crazy too?" - -"Electro-eavesdropper on us! Look--" An eavesdropper detector was on -his wrist, connected with his watch. Part of his S.S. equipment and he -always wore it. The underplate was glowing now, its warmth against his -flesh attracting his attention. - -An eavesdropper being used against us! I knew it was illegal for anyone -but a Federal Man to have one; but criminals had them, and most of the -other S.S. devices and weapons, of course. Some criminal was near here, -listening to us now! - -"Someone not far away!" Jim gasped. "Look at that dial!" - -His little detector-needle was swaying violently, in the range of one -to two hundred feet. Then it swung back to normal as the ray evidently -was shut off. - -I snatched out my flash-gun. Jim and I crouched with the numbed, -terrified girl between us. - -"Oh--" she muttered. "They have come, and they will kill us." - -"There it is again!" Jim's hand gripped my arm. "My God--that little -thing!" - - * * * * * - -The purple shadows of night were deepening in the forest now. But in -the gloom I saw it. On the bole of a tree no more than six or eight -feet from us a tiny figure stood peering at us. The glistening, -brown-bronze figure of a man; a broad-shouldered, stocky little -figure no more than a foot high! I had an instant glimpse of a -powerfully-muscled body, a tiny hairless round head, then the creature -leaped to the ground, recovered its balance and ran. In another second -it was lost in the gloom. - -The girl too, had seen it. "A Midge! Here? Why--then Curtmann's men are -here, too!" - -She stopped abruptly. From the leafy darkness something hurtled into a -tree beside us. There was the faint tinkling of fragile glass, then a -sickening sweet smell assailed us, and sticky liquid splattered on us. - -"Anesthesia-bomb!" Jim gasped. "Get away from here--grab the girl!" - -My head was reeling, with senses fading so that the dim scene was -blurring around me. Jim and I dragged the girl through the thickets. -Then came a shot at us, the sizzling flash just missing us, shriveling -the foliage over our heads. Jim's shot answered it. I saw a skulking -figure by a nearby tree, and fired quickly. My shot caught him full; he -went down. - -In front of me, Jim had dropped prone into the brush. His voice warned: -"They're here. Get down." - -We had no chance to fight them off. I drilled a shape that appeared in -front of me; but another pounced on my shoulders as I crouched. Blurred -by the drug, I squirmed, reached up and grabbed him by the throat. But -another man was on us. Jim's shot sounded again; and then as I fought, -I saw several dark shapes leaping on him. His panting oaths mingled -with the girl's scream. - -In the melee glass hit my face, breaking with the sticky drug oozing -out on me. A man's fist followed it, with a crack that made my head -burst into roaring light before I drifted off into an abyss of -nothingness.... - - - II - -I came to with the sound of distant throbbing in my ears. It seemed -that I was lying on a metal grid-floor; and as I stirred, a familiar -voice sounded. - -"Thank the Lord, you're coming out of it at last." - -It was Jim, here on the floor with me, bending anxiously over me in a -luminous darkness. His pug-nosed face grinned down at me. - -"I sure thought you might never come back, Art. You been a day, -sleeping off that damned drug." - -Dizzily I tried to sit up as he held me. "What--what happened? Where -the devil are we?" Then I remembered the fight. "Venta--" I murmured. - -"She's all right. I've seen her, and talked with her." - -I could see that Jim and I were alone in a small, triangular metal -apartment. A closed door was to one side. And to the other, there was -a round bull's-eye window. It was black out there, with bright white -points of stars. The thrumming was a faint distant electronic throb, -off in this strange interior. - -I could feel my strength rapidly coming back. I sat up, shoving Jim -away. "I'm all right now. Where are we?" - -He grinned wryly. "Hold your breath for a shock. We're out in Space, -plenty far. I guess, by now, we're on our way to Venus!" - -Out in Space! How often, like everyone else in our modern world of -science, I had envisaged it, and wondered why it had never been made -possible. - -"On the way to Venus?" - -"So they tell me, an' Lord knows I wouldn't doubt it. If you don't -believe me, come take a look." - -With his arm around me, I staggered dizzily to the bull's-eye porte. It -was an amazing scene! The Heavens everywhere were a black vault, strewn -with myriad white gems of the blazing worlds. Filling one whole side, -the familiar Earth hung motionless. It was mottled with clouds, beneath -which the configurations of the oceans and continents were plainly -visible. - -I stared, awed, wordless; and then, still weak and dizzy with the cold -sweat of the drug chilling me, I was glad enough to sit down on the -couch, with Jim beside me. - -"Who's got us?" I asked presently. - -"A fellow named Curtmann and his band. A dozen or more of them here -on board. I've talked with one of them--they're all Earthmen--this -ship was built on Earth. Would you believe it? A damned scientist from -mid-Europe built it secretly. He never told the world about it, but -gathered a bunch of crooks and beat it off." - -"Not so fast," I murmured. "Don't get incoherent." - - * * * * * - -I tried to sort it out as he breathlessly told me what he had -learned. Some eight or ten years ago, among the captive people of -mid-Europe under police domination of the Anglo-American Federation, -a fellow named Karl Curtmann had built this hundred foot cylindrical -space-flyer. The same old urge for world conquest. But this fellow -Curtmann had known that on Earth he had no chance. This was not -1915, nor 1939. And so he had gathered others like himself; all -English-speaking, since their racial language had been banned by the -Federation before they were born, and with his ship and his men, they -had adventured into Space. - -"Seems they landed on Venus," Jim was saying. "It was a fertile field -for a world-conqueror, by what I hear! Peaceful, simple people, with -these Earth cutthroats jumping on them. They used a bunch of our -Shadow Squad weapons, which was enough and plenty." - -Once established there as a conqueror, Curtmann had gone back to Earth -on several trips, for supplies and more weapons and men. - -"I guess there are several hundred of 'em on Venus now," Jim went -on. "Built themselves a little city, and made slaves out of the -Venus-people. You can imagine what this style Earthman would do when -he's a conqueror with nothing to challenge him! And the Venus-people -are on the down-grade. Dying out, except for the Midges." - -"Midges?" - -"They're the little people of Venus. They serve. They believe that all -Earth men are gods, or something." Jim shrugged. "Don't ask me. We'll -find out soon enough." - -The Midge! I remembered that little bronze man-figure which had peered -at us. - -"And Venta?" I prompted. - -"Her father--No, I guess it's her grandfather--he's a leader on Venus. -Religious leader, or something. He and some others have escaped to a -Forest City. Curtmann had Venta. Venta says he's just trying to make -her love him--make her see how wonderful he is. Curtmann, the Man of -Destiny--I can't wait to meet him!" - -He had taken Venta on one of his forays to Earth, and she had escaped -from him. "An' they got us along with her," Jim finished wryly. "Damned -lucky we didn't get killed. We will yet, most probably." - -A little rasp here in the darkness made us turn. A doorslide had -opened; a man's heavy-featured face scowled in at us. - -"At last you have recovered," he said to me. His voice was the heavy, -guttural timber of a mid-European. He was a villainous-looking fellow, -his slack-jowled face bluish with a week's growth of beard. - -"Yes," I said. "Fortunately for me. Are you Curtmann?" - -"He's Frantz," Jim put in. "He's been feeding me." - -"Tell your master I want to see him," I said. "And take me to the girl, -Venta." - -The fellow leered. "You talk like you own the ship," he commented. - -The doorslide closed. His footsteps retreated, but presently they came -back. He opened the door. "The Great-Master says, bring you," he said -with an ironic grin. "Come on. You can both come." - - * * * * * - -Silently we followed him down a narrow metal corridor. - -"This way--" I saw our captor now as a bulky six-foot fellow clad -incongruously in a crudely plaited robe of dried vegetable fibre, -draped upon him like a Roman toga. He stood aside at an oval doorway; -and Jim and I went into a small triangular room. Starlight filtered -into it from a side bull's-eye. - -Clad still in her brief garment, Venta sat on a square pad on the -floor. As we entered she flung me a look, and then stared straight -ahead. - -"So? This is the fellow who thought he would steal my little Venta? -Come in, Frane. Stand over there; I want to look you over." - -Karl Curtmann. He was seated in a small, straight-backed armchair. He -was a smallish, slim fellow, not over forty perhaps. A vivid blue toga -encased him; sandals were on his feet. At our entrance he raised one of -his bare ornamented arms with a gesture. - -The costume was queerly incongruous to a modern Earthman; but upon -Curtmann there was an immense dignity, a sense of the consciousness -of his own greatness. More than mere conceit, it seemed to radiate -from him. On his heavy, square-jawed face there was a look of amused -contempt as he regarded me. - -"My little Venta has asked me not to kill you," he added. His voice was -soft and suave. English was his native language, taught him exclusively -by Government decree. But the inherited timbre was guttural. "That is -fortunate, is it not?" - -"Yes," I agreed. "Very. I thank her." - -His eyes twinkled; his immaculate hands with jeweled fingers, brushed -his crisp blond hair. "You can also thank me. I am permitting you to -join our life. You know now, of course, that I am Master of Venus? It -is their good fortune. Always I shall protect them from any harm, and -teach them the life that is good for them." - -He was utterly sincere. His eyes were gleaming with his fervour. Man of -Destiny. He believed it with the faith of a child. And now his gaze -went to Venta. - -"Her people--" He was still talking to me, though he stared at her. -"Some of them still are misguided. Old Prytan, her grandfather, is a -very wicked old man, Frane. He has fled to the Forest City. He defies -my rule. I shall have to punish that Forest City." - -Suddenly his face contorted; his arm shook as he pounded his fist on -his chair. "I shall not tolerate it. They are all to die. Nor in the -city of Shan itself will I have rebellion. I am a man of peace--there -shall be no strife. And each year, from Earth, more of my men will come -to mate with the Venus women. The new race. The new Empire of Curtmann. -Is it not a wonderful future, Venta? I shall make you Empress." - -"Yes," she murmured. - -"Race of the Gods," he said. "And I--Karl Curtmann--" - -He checked himself. There was a little sound of beating wings here in -the dim starlit room. I turned as through the door a tiny shape came -like a fluttering bird through the air. A footlong bronze man-shape. -One of the Midge! Again my mind leaped back to that little figure in -the Adirondac forest. It had had wings, though then I had not noticed -them. - -This one came and poised on the arm of Curtmann's chair. "What is it, -Rahn?" he said. - -The Midge's voice was tiny, but clear. "The flight-master has asked -that you come now to check his calculations of our course." The English -words, taught to this Midge, were quaintly intoned. The voice was -gentle, humble. - -Curtmann stood up. "All right. I shall go." He waved an arm at the -burly Frantz who was standing silently to one side. "Our captives can -remain here, Frantz." - -He turned, smiled gently at Venta, and strode from the room. - - * * * * * - -As the days passed we were allowed a fair freedom of movement. A -freedom to plan--what? I must confess that Jim and I had no conception -of what we might do in circumstances like these. - -Once Venta had whispered to me, "We shall escape from here--it can be -done." - -Escape from this Curtmann, join Venta's grandfather--old Prytan--out -there in the Venus Forest City.... Certainly it was all that Jim and I -could hope for. And then came that night when the misty lead-grey ball -of Venus had grown to a monstrous disc beneath us, with the cone of its -shadow blotting out the Sun as we dropped down into the heavy Venus -atmosphere. There came a moment when Venta, Jim and I were alone, and -from the dim corridor with a little beat of wings, Rhan, the Midge, -came to join us. He was carrying an oxohydro heat-torch. Amazing little -man-shape. The alumite torch was as big as himself, and heavier. His -diaphanous, dragonfly wings struggled with it. Like a giant flying ant, -with an ant's monstrous strength in proportion to its size. Panting, he -fluttered heavily and laid it at my feet. - -"You, the Great God," he said. "I serve you. Here it is." - -He stood now by the torch he had brought. The muscles on his broad -chest heaved under the sleek bronzed skin with his panting breath. - -"For you," he added. "No one saw me. I got it for you. I did well, -Seyla Venta?" - -"Oh yes. Thank you, Rhan." Venta was trembling now with excitement. -"When we get lower into the atmosphere, we'll go to one of the -pressure-portes at the bottom of the hull. There are space suits there, -if we can get to them." - -"Let's close this door," Jim said quickly. "Not so loud, Venta." - -We planned it, as the ship settled down through the heavy, -sullen-looking Venus clouds and then burst out into the lower -atmosphere with the dark surface of Venus far down beneath us. Rhan -watched and reported that Curtmann and most of his men were forward by -the control turret. Then Jim, Venta and I were able to get down through -one of the dim corridors, down a little catwalk ladder into the lower -hull. The metal pressure porte door was locked. - -I stood at the bottom of the ladder. Above me the voices of Curtmann's -ruffians were audible. Every moment I expected that we would be missed. - -"Hurry it," I murmured. - -The porte doorlock melted as Jim held the torch upon it. We slid into -the porte, closed the door after us. Venta, on the voyage to Earth, had -been trained by Curtmann in the use of these pressure-suits, and in a -moment we stood in them, helmeted, with the air bloating the suits so -that we were shapeless monsters. - -I opened the outer doorslide. A little at first, and then wider. In -the rarified atmosphere of Venus at this fifty mile height, the air of -the little porte went out with a rush. It blew us out with it. I had a -sickening sensation of falling into nothingness. Then it seemed that my -head steadied. I fumbled with a hand upon the anti-gravity mechanisms -by which the fall could be guided. - -Above me the dark finned shape of Curtmann's space ship was drawing -swiftly upward and away. Head down, with the bloated shapes of Jim -and Venta beside me, we plummeted like falling meteorites through the -sub-stratosphere darkness. - - - III - -"A rainbow storm is coming," old Prytan said. "We shall have to wait -until it is passed before trying to get to the broken city." - -We were in the depths of an orange-blue forest of giant, spindly -vegetation that rose in fantastic shapes from the soft, porous ground -five hundred feet or more into the air. Pods and vines hung upon the -lacery of trees. There were huge vivid flowers, redolent with a perfume -exotic, cloying in the heavy humid air. - -Everything, particularly at first, to me was heavy, oppressive. Venus -is denser than the Earth, and the gravity is a full third heavier. It -made walking, to us Earthmen, a panting labor. I felt that I weighed, -not my normal hundred and eighty pounds, but almost two hundred and -fifty. For us to run seemed impossible. - -I had seen but little of this Forest City. It was a group of perhaps a -thousand dwellings, all seemingly built of slabs of the porous forest -trees, with walls and roofs of thatch. The houses nestled between the -great fantastic trees. Some were like birds' nests in the branches, -with vine-ladders from the ground leading up to them. The colors of the -thatch were vivid blue, red and yellow. - -It was a fairyland of woodland fantasy, peopled by the humans of this -scattered, futile Venus-race. I had seen gaping groups of them as -Venta and I pushed through them, heading for old Prytan's dwelling. -Men, women and children crowded the flower-lined, crooked little city -streets. They were all gaudily-dressed in toga-like fabrics made from -the vivid-colored, dried vegetable fibres. A few of them had fled -here from Shan where they had picked up a little English from the -Earth-conquerors. But most of them babbled at me in their own weird -tongue. They were a gentle people. The lack of struggle, lack of -accomplishment for generations now, had stamped them with a futility. -Here in the benign climate of Venus they had grown content with simple -wants. Love-making, music--that was enough for them. The Midge attended -their every want. - -Decadence perhaps, but who shall say but what it is to be preferred -to the bloody upward struggles of our own Earth's history? All that -too, had been upon Venus. Far ahead of Earth in the life-cycle of its -humans, there had been great scientific civilizations here. The science -of war had risen into all its ghastly power and then had destroyed -itself, with mankind at last coming to realize its tragic futility. -There were ruins of great cities here, with the silt of centuries upon -them and the forests growing lush amid their wreckage. - -"You two Earthmen are not quite like Curtmann and his fellows," old -Prytan said to me. His eyes twinkled beneath his shaggy white brows. -His seamed old face wrinkled with a smile. - -"No," I said. "We hope not." - -"But your Earth still struggles, with each man wanting more than his -neighbor." - -We were in a room of a huge, crudely-built dwelling of thatch. A -thousand Midges had woven it in a day. Venta was here; and draped -on the floor at her feet was the graceful, gaudily-clad figure of a -young Venusman. His name was Jahnt. He was her cousin, I understood. -A handsome fellow with longish, bushy dark hair; an oval face with -pointed chin, hawk nose and eyes with an almost Oriental slant. He -spoke English as fluently as Venta. I don't know why I took an instant -dislike to him, save that he always seemed to want to be beside Venta. - -A rainbow storm was coming. I could see the premonitory signs of it. -The room here was lighted with little braziers--seemingly the caged -bodies of tiny insects which were luminous as fireflies. Through the -oval window-openings the night outside was turgidly dark. But wind -now was pattering the trees, and there were distant flares of weird -opalescent lightning. - -A tenseness was here in this room of old Prytan's home--and it was -everywhere about the little city. Like an aura of terror it seemed to -envelope us. All this day that had passed, Midges by hundreds had been -flying in from Shan. And now, this evening, the big people themselves -had begun coming. Fugitives. Terrified people who had escaped from -Shan; rebellious, wanting to do something to rid Venus of these cruel -conquerors, coming to Prytan as their leader; helplessly throwing -themselves upon him, asking him what they should do. Groups of people -milled in the streets, eyed the coming storm. Rebellion against the -Earth-conquerors. But it was more than that. Among us all, here in this -eerie opalescent room there was the feeling of impending disaster. -Curtmann had returned to Shan. In a rage at the loss of Venta, he had -learned that the rebellion against him was growing. Would he wait for -old Prytan to organize some attack? Certainly I doubted it. And my mind -swept back so that again I seemed to hear his grim words: "I shall have -to punish that Forest City!" - -Was Curtmann planning to strike at us now? - -"... but until the storm is over we can do nothing," old Prytan was -saying. - -Even then, what could we do? In somber voices that seemed to echo -dully through the rustic room and mingled with the weird storm-noises -outside, we discussed it. One of the great broken cities of by-gone -days was only some ten miles away. In it there was hidden away a cache -of ancient weapons of science. - -"I have kept them workable," Prytan said grimly. "And my father before -me also attended them. And before him, his father. But never did we -really think the horrible time would come when they should be used." - - * * * * * - -But whatever we could do, certainly must be done soon. The news from -Shan every moment was more serious. Upon Curtmann's return, open -disorder had broken out in the capital city. As punishment, a thousand -or more of the young Venusmen of the city had been summarily killed by -the diabolic flash-guns of the Earthmen. "Only our men he kills," young -Jahnt put in ironically. "Why not? Our women are very beautiful. Like -you, is it not so, Venta?" - -I tensed at the glance with which he swept her. "I shall bring in the -supper," Venta said. His gaze followed her as she rose and left us. - -"I tell you all this about our hidden weapons," Prytan was saying to -me in his cracked treble voice. "We can trust you, even though you are -Earthmen?" - -"Yes," I agreed. - -"Listen," Jim put in. "These young men you've got here--well, no -offense meant--on Earth we'd call them ladylike." His gaze barely -touched the gaudy figure of Jahnt and then went back to Prytan. "My -business, sir, on Earth is to deal with criminals. I'm pretty good in -a fight. You just give me some of your weapons." - -"I trust you," Prytan agreed. "Never, until tonight, has anyone but -myself known about the weapons. If Curtmann knew it--" - -"He won't," I said. "We'll get them tonight. We--" - -I checked myself. The beat of wings sounded, and a Midge came through -the window, and landed on Prytan's shoulder. - -"Well, Meeta," he said, "you come with more bad news?" - -A female Midge. It was the first one I had seen except at a distance. -She was a fairylike little creature--a ten-inch high miniature -of Venta. Her flesh was like pink-white satin, glistening in the -insect-light. Her wings thrummed to balance her as she poised. - -"English?" she said in her tiny voice. - -"Yes," Prytan nodded. "These are good Earthmen." - -Her pixie-like, tiny face turned toward me. I saw then, in those tiny -glowing eyes, the leap of her instinctive adoration for my giant size. -Here a new God for her to worship and serve. - -"English, yes," she agreed. "Master, there have been still more -killings. They kill our men now for no reason; and those of the women -who are young and beautiful they have herded together into a harem." - -Prytan's old body trembled with anger. "We must stop it. And Meeta, -have you told the Midge to meet us in the broken city?" - -"Master, yes. They will be there when the storm is passed. We cannot -fly in the wind, and even now it is very strong." - -I could hear it, crackling through the giant foliage outside. Then -there was a monstrous flare of color as though a rainbow had burst -around us. - -"It gets bad," young Jahnt muttered. He went to one of the windows; -then sauntered to a door-oval and disappeared. - -Meeta, I understood now, was one of the leaders of the Midge. It was -her brother who had aided us to escape from Curtmann's ship. I told her -about it now as she perched on my hand, with her soft eyes roaming my -face and her tiny lips parted with eager breath as she listened. - -"Oh I am glad of that. Rahn so wants to do what is right in serving -our Gods. But it is confusing, Gods here on Venus who fight with one -another--" - -Through the window, upon a blast of storm-wind another little figure -came fluttering. Another female Midge, like Meeta. With beating wings -she hovered a second and then fell to the floor at our feet. - -"Mela!" old Prytan gasped. "What is it?" - -The storm had tossed her against a tree. One of her wings was broken; -blood was on her body. But she had struggled on to us, bringing her -news. - -"What is it?" old Prytan demanded. - -"Curtmann comes! He and all his men--his army, coming now to attack the -Forest City!" - -Curtmann coming to attack us! A dozen little male Midges here on the -floor of the room heard it and scurried away. - -"Curtmann coming?" Prytan gasped. "Why--why we will not be ready for -him." - -It stunned us. Within a minute, out in the city, the news was spreading -with cries of the frightened people. A panic was beginning here. That -would have to be controlled. - -"They've left Shan already?" I demanded of the little Midge. - -"No. Perhaps not. But they are ready--the storm may hold them off." - - * * * * * - -I was on my feet. Old Prytan was trembling with the palsy of his -confused terror. By what Jim and I had seen of the young men of the -Forest City, there was not one who could be counted on to do anything -constructive in this crisis. If the Venus-people were to have any -leadership, it would have to be Jim and me. - -"Send word that the women and children are to stay in their homes," -I said. "There must be no panic. Have the young men come here. Storm -or no storm we shall have to get to the broken city, and get those -Venus-weapons." - -"How far is it from here to Shan?" Jim put in. - -"Twenty Earth-miles perhaps," old Prytan stammered. "If Curtmann and -his men should start now--" - -"Maybe they won't," I said. "The storm is still going strong." - -"Where is Venta?" Prytan stared helplessly about the room. "She said -she would bring us food. What use of that? We have no time to eat it -now." He suddenly raised his shaking old voice. "Venta. Venta, where -are you?" - -There was no answer from the nearby interior door-oval through which -Venta had gone. Just blank, stark silence. Horror struck at me. - -Jim and I were on our feet. Jim gasped, "I'll go see." But before he -could move, we heard a woman's moan, followed again by silence! - -Jim broke it with an oath. I tossed little Meeta into the air with a -flip of my hand as I ran toward the crude kitchen, out there beyond the -dim door-oval. - -Thank God, it was not Venta. On the packed loam of the floor an old -serving woman lay sprawled. Her throat was a ghastly welter of crimson, -and near her a Midge lay dead. - -The old woman was still alive. She tried faintly to gasp in English as -I bent over her. - -"He--took her--Venta--" - -"Who took her?" - -"Jahnt--he--" - -The blood choked her. But I had no interest in hearing more. Jahnt! - -"Why--he's got the secret of those weapons now!" Jim gasped. "Get the -idea, Art?" - -The commotion had brought others. They all stood milling, helpless, -frightened. Jim and I shoved them away. - -"He'd probably head for the broken city," Jim said. "It's much closer -to here." - -"That he might do," Prytan agreed. "And where is his Midge--you -people--you have seen little Ort lately?" - -"Jahnt could send that Midge flying to Shanga to tell Curtmann about -the weapons," I suggested. - -Old Prytan could only stammer assent to the possibility. And if -Curtmann and his ruffians got to that cache before we could get there, -that indeed would be the end of any possibility of overcoming him. - -"Where is Meeta?" I demanded. "Meeta knows the location of the broken -city." - -She fluttered from behind me at the sound of my voice. "Master I am -here. What I can do to serve?" - -"We're going after Jahnt," Jim said. "He can't have gotten far." - -"But you run so heavily," old Prytan murmured. "My young men here--" - -They were all standing looking frightened and confused. Jim swept them -with a glance and drew me past them. It occurred to me that we might -use the three spacesuits in which we had escaped from Curtmann. With -their anti-gravity mechanisms and tiny rocket-streams we could propel -ourselves over the forest. But we found now that they were gone. - -Precious minutes were passing. We would have to go on foot. At the door -we paused, appalled by the wind and a chromatic burst of glaring light. -Meeta fluttered in the air beside my head, and as the wind hit her she -was tossed back. - -"You can't fly out into that, Meeta?" - -"No, I am afraid it's not possible now. But you can carry me." - -She fluttered to my shoulder, crouching with a tiny hand gripping my -coat collar. With Jim beside me we plunged out into the roaring riot of -the rainbow storm. - - - IV - -"Guess we'll have to wait a bit longer," Jim murmured. "But it seems to -be easing, don't you think?" - -In a sheltered recess of the forest we were crouching, forced to wait -for the weird storm to pass. There had been no possible chance of -finding the fleeing Jahnt. We could only hope now that he would go on -to the broken city. The storm seemed to be lessening but still it was -a roar of wind which cracked through the spindly giant trees, often -bringing down great segments of branches which it had torn loose. - -A lull came at last, and through a ragged, littered forest Jim and I -pushed our tortuous way. Meeta could fly now. She guided us, and with -little forays hummed ahead and to the sides, seeking some signs of -Jahnt and Venta. But there were none. - -The storm had been a torture of delay. In my heart now I had no thought -that we would be able to locate Jahnt and Venta. I could only hope that -they might be in the broken city. Had Curtmann received news of the -Venus weapons? My mind was upon Venta, but still I could envisage that -bloodthirsty band of Earth cutthroats advancing upon the Forest City. - -"I say, is it much further?" Jim demanded suddenly of Meeta. "This is -tough going for us." - -"Master, no. It is ahead, just down that slope." - -The dim forest glade was descending into a great shallow area of -deeper shadow. And presently we could see the ruins of tumbled, broken -buildings lying here, half buried by the rank forest growth. In the -turgid dimness, with a faint orange luminosity that seemed inherent -to the great trees, it was an eerie place of colored shadows. Great -buildings were everywhere around us now, weird of shape and substance, -some of them still partly erect with the spindly trees growing through -them. - -It was a place of the ghosts of Venus' past. - -"It is down in here," Meeta said, pointing. - -A littered rocky depression was before us. A ruined amphitheatre, with -its walls almost gone and the forest like a monstrous clump in its -middle. We descended into it. The ground in places was rocky. Some -natural cataclysm must have torn this ground since the original arena -was built. - -Then we saw the cache of weapons. It was half a demolished room in some -broken structure that now was unrecognizable; an apartment partly open -at the top, of some two hundred feet diameter. A little light filtered -down from the lurid greenish-yellow storm-clouds high overhead. - -"No one here ahead of us, Jim?" In the darkness, with Meeta perched -again upon my shoulder, we stood peering and listening. There was only -silence. - -"Where are the weapons?" Jim demanded. - -Meeta led us. "There in that little recess, Master. Many old broken -boxes are filled with them." - -We stood before the rock-shelves, numbed with disappointment and -horror. The crumbling old metal boxes were here. But they were strewn -about; broken open; empty! The weapons were gone! - - * * * * * - -"Gone!" Jim gasped. "That damned Jahnt!" - -Abruptly Meeta cried, "Look! He is over there!" - -With his hiding place discovered, Jahnt leaped suddenly erect from the -shadows of a rocky niche. A knife was in his hand. I was nearest to -him. I leaped. But I had miscalculated my abnormal heaviness. I hit -the rocks a few feet short of him, stumbled, almost went down. As my -arms flailed I saw him over me, his pointed face demoniac with lustful -triumph, his knife stabbing at my chest. - -There was a whirring of wings, and a glistening body went past my head. -Meeta. The ten inches of her elfin form flapped and struck Jahnt in -the face. He hit wildly at her with his left hand, went off balance, -with his knife-thrust going wild; and collided against me so that I -was able to fling my arms around him. Then my left hand caught his -wrist, twisted and the knife fell away. We went down, locked together, -rolling. And suddenly I felt the knife hit my hand. Meeta with swift -agility had retrieved it and brought it to me. The lithe Jahnt, far -stronger than he looked, was momentarily on top of me. I seized the -knife, stabbed upward into his chest; and with a choked cry he went -limp, fell forward on me. - -I scrambled to my feet. Jahnt wasn't quite dead, but obviously dying. -Jim and I bent over him. - -"You got away with the weapons?" Jim muttered. "Or are they still -around here?" - -"Curtmann has them. My little Midge flew to him, and came back with -some of Curtmann's men. They left just a little while ago. I--showed -them how to use the weapons. You will--be defeated by Curtmann. You -damned--" - -Again little Meeta suddenly called us. "Here! Here is Venta!" - -She was lying, bound and gagged, but unharmed in the recess of some -crags nearby. Jim and I rushed to her. - -The three spacesuits were with her. Jim had gone back to the dying -Jahnt and he called me. Blood was gushing now from Jahnt's mouth; he -was gasping, but still he was trying ironically to smile. - -"I--did not tell Curtmann's men that I had Venta. Why should I be -in the battle? I just thought I would stay here with Venta, and if -Curtmann won, then I would join him." - -"Has he started from Shan?" Jim demanded. - -"Oh--yes. He and his men must be half way to the Forest City by now. I -am sorry now I did not go with them." - -I had a sudden thought. "Is he planning to use that spaceship of his?" - -Jahnt was choking now with the blood in his throat. Then he gasped, -"No--his men said they--could not handle it--so close to the -ground--such a--short distance. They are on foot--in the forest--" - -Venta was with us now, bending down over the dying Jahnt. His glazing -eyes saw her, and he murmured, "You--if you had loved me--this would -not have happened. I'm dying--you'll all die when--Curtmann uses those -weapons against you. I'm--glad of that--" - -His body twitched. Horribly the blood rattled in his throat, choking -him; and then in another moment he was gone. - -"They're half way to the Forest City," Jim muttered. "Good Lord, we've -got to stop them. But how? How can we do it, Art?" - -Venta was standing apart from us, with the tiny Meeta on her shoulder. -They were murmuring together, and abruptly Meeta flew to me. - -"She says it is right and it can be done. We Midges--serve the Gods, -and surely now we know the good Gods from the evil." - - * * * * * - -An army of the Little People! Jim and I stood blankly listening while -Venta told us what she and Meeta had been planning. A myriad of Midges -could be rallied now. And they had human intelligence.... Only a foot -high, or less. But, especially the females, they could fly with the -agility of humming birds. - -"And we can be armed," Meeta cried. She hummed away, came back in a -moment. In her tiny hand there was a thorn. It was no more than two -inches long, but to her it was a sword, stiff and sharp as a needle. - -"The poisoned enta-thorn!" Venta exclaimed. "But I did not know that -any of the enta-shrub was near here." - -"I found it," Meeta said proudly. "There is much of it." - -"What's that noise?" Jim abruptly demanded. - -With my nerves taut, I stood tense. A faint thrumming was audible. We -had left the cave where the weapons had been hidden, and were out in -the broken amphitheatre with the ruined ancient buildings like spectres -around us. Far overhead there was a little starlight, straggling -faintly down. The thrumming grew louder. A tiny blurred shape came down -through the darkness.... And then another--and another. - -The Midges were arriving from Shan, expecting to carry the -Venus-weapons from here to the Forest City. In a moment a dozen were -here, then a hundred. They came in little groups, males and females, -keeping separate in the flight. Like huge insects they thrummed around -us, and then settled and stood awaiting our commands. Then Meeta was -among them, telling what had happened and explaining that they must -fight for the lives of the Forest City people. - -For a moment there was awed silence; then a tiny blended chorus of -voices, and little shapes humming away to get the thorns. - -Jim gripped me. "By the Lord, it's our only chance! You can see that, -Art." - -"Yes. You and I in the spacesuits, if we can maneuver them. An army in -the air--the Midges and you and I to plan their battle--direct them." - -"And I shall be with you," Venta cried. - -Vaguely I had thought to leave her here, or send her off to the Forest -City on foot. She persuaded me at last. - -"You talk of planning the battle," she cried. "But almost none of the -Midges speak your language. I shall give your commands to them." - -Once we had decided, a desperate haste was on us. Midges were arriving -here now from the Forest City. Some of them had seen the oncoming -columns of Curtmann's men, down in the forest. They were more than half -way from Shan. Occasionally their Earth-flash weapons would stab into -the forest ahead of them. - -Within ten minutes or so we were ready. I had sent a few of the -swiftest-flying Midges back to the Forest City to tell Prytan what had -happened. His young men were to arm themselves as best they could, -and take position. In a ring around the city, prepared to make a last -stand, if we should fail. All the Midges now in the Forest City were -to arm themselves with the poisoned thorns, and come to join us in the -battle as fast as they could. - -Then Venta, Jim and I had donned the spacesuits. No need to inflate -them now; we only needed the anti-gravity mechanisms, and the -rocket-streams for balancing and for lateral movement. - -We rose presently into the air, up into the starlight with the ruined -piles of the broken buildings and the forest dropping away beneath -us. At five hundred feet we poised. In thrumming groups the Midges, -more than two thousand of them now, circled around us. Then, with Jim, -Venta and me leading, our bodies in the baggy spacesuits poised almost -horizontal in the air and the Midges strung out in long thin lines like -insects behind us, we plunged forward to the battle. - - - V - -"There they are!" Jim called. - -Five hundred feet below us the forest tree-tops were a fantastic matted -mass of vivid vegetation. And suddenly, down in a glade, the line of -Curtmann's men was visible. More than I had thought--there seemed a -full four hundred of them. In two columns they plodded slowly forward. -With them was a great wheeled cart, like a clumsy barge. Evidently -Curtmann had built it in Shan. It toiled forward, with the marching -men in advance of it and behind it. We could see that it was drawn by -harnessed lines of Midges--hundreds of the tiny figures plodding on -the ground, bending hunched as they pulled the huge creaking vehicle. -The top of the cart was uncovered and a dozen men were riding in it. -Groups of them were seated, around a little raised platform on which -was mounted what seemed a huge projector. - -"Keep the Midges high," I called to Venta who was near me. "Wait until -I give the signal." - -Our Midges were circling, wildly excited now that the enemy was in -sight beneath them. Jim and I had discussed our tactics. In groups -of about a hundred we would send the Midges plummeting down. Each -would try to stab one of Curtmann's men and then come up again. The -enta-poison, Venta had told us, was deadly--sure death if enough of it -got into the blood-stream. But it did not act at once; five minutes or -more was necessary before the victim would feel its lethal effect. - -We made a great sweeping half-circle, plunging down as though to attack -and leveling at above two hundred feet. As we passed over the lines of -watching men and the cart, two or three bolts stabbed up, fell short. -Then a man's voice roared orders to withhold the fire. - -Curtmann. As we passed at the lower altitude over the cart I saw him -standing on a raised platform near its front. We swept past, and up -again. - -"We better swoop now," Jim urged. "This is as good a place to attack as -any we'll ever get." - -That was obvious. The lines of men were in an open glade. A few hundred -feet ahead of them, the forest was dense again. It would be far more -difficult for our Midges to swoop down and attack amid the enveloping -lacery of vegetation. - -And Curtmann, even though probably he had not as yet the least fear -of us, already was starting to advance again. The men in front were -marching on. Orders were being roared at the harnessed Midges. The cart -went into motion. And the Forest City certainly was no more than a few -miles ahead. Curtmann's murderous band would be there in an hour or two. - -But still I hesitated to give the signal. - -Little Meeta hovered before me. "The Master-God will order us down -now?" she pleaded. "We will serve you well." - -My heart was pounding. I nodded, with a lump in my throat that choked -my voice as I shouted the signal sending so many of them to die. - - * * * * * - -A designated quarter of them swooped down. From up at this height, -Venta, Jim and I hovered, with the rest of the Midges in a gathered -group around us. All of us staring down. - -The cloud of some five hundred Midges swooped, circled, and then -plummeted. For a second or two the startled Curtmann men merely seemed -to stare upward. Then the Midges were upon them, fluttering into their -faces, jabbing at them. The men's arms wildly failed to fend off the -viciously attacking little bodies. - -Some of the Midges were caught, bashed into pulp and hurled away with -a single flailing blow. Some were caught in huge hands, squeezed to -death and flung to the ground. The oaths of the startled men came up, -mingled with the cries of the Midges, then the tiny fluttering shapes -were rising again. A shot stabbed at them, its crackling bolt stabbing -through a group of them. It was like a monstrous blow-torch stabbing -into fluttering moths. It left a trail of wisps of light as their -bodies were consumed. - -The rest of them came up and joined us, panting, flopping. - -"Good enough," Jim murmured. "Five minutes more and we'll see what -really happened." - -But I was cold inside. No more than half the Midges had come back. Two -hundred or more of them gone already. And here in the air, some of -them, wounded, were bravely struggling not to fall. - -The men and the huge cart down in the glade had started forward again. -Suddenly it was apparent that the harnessed lines of Midges on the -ground were in revolt. They milled in confusion, struggling to cast off -the lines that held them. We heard Curtmann roaring threats at them. -And then he fired a bolt horizontally through them. It cut a ghastly -swath; a burst of trailing little wisps of fire. Beside me, Venta -gasped in horror; and Jim murmured, - -"Fool! With what's left of those Midges that heavy cart will never move -again." - -The cart had stopped. Curtmann, doubtless regretting his shot of -exasperation, was roaring more orders. The straggling columns of his -men came toward the cart, and all of them bunched around it in a solid -group, out there in the center of the open glade. - -"Got them stalled," Jim said grimly. "Much better for us." - -If the poison would work. But would it? At three hundred feet we were -still circling in great humming sweeps while again I withheld my -signal. Did I dare send the Midges down for a general attack? Every -shot cut them so horribly into nothingness. Off to the side, in the -direction of the Forest City, other Midges were appearing now. Little -groups of them, males and females, humming toward us, joining our -circling ranks. Reinforcements. In a minute or two it seemed that a new -thousand were here to swell our weird little army. - -"Look!" Jim suddenly cried triumphantly. "The enta-poison!" - -Up to now, in these tentative exchanges, Curtmann and his men doubtless -had contemptuously figured that this engagement was harassing, but -certainly nothing worse. Some of his men had been stabbed by little -thorns. What of it? But down there now a new confusion was apparent. -One of his men on the ground beside the cart suddenly staggered and -fell. Then another. In the cart a group of them called with startled -questions. Two of them by the big projector abruptly slumped in their -seats with their fellows bending anxiously over them. - -A moment of startled confusion. A dozen stricken men. And then others. -What was happening must have dawned on Curtmann. In the starlit dimness -down there on the cart we saw the blob of his figure leap erect. - -And then Curtmann, at last realizing the deadliness of this menace, -went into action! From the cart there was a little puff, with the -hissing, popping sound of it coming up to us a few seconds later. A -small round blob rose toward us, went harmlessly through us and burst -up in the starlight. An electrolite-flare. It glared with a lurid, -prismatic splash of color in the sky, illumined brightly the tiny -flying dots of our Midges. - -Just that few seconds and then the great projector hurled its missile -at us--a blob coming slowly up in an arc. The blob burst. It seemed as -though suddenly there was an earthquake in the air-split columns of -air rushing together with a deafening thunderclap. The air rocked me, -hurled me sidewise; the brief roar was deafening. - -"A thunder-thrower!" Venta gasped as she clung to me. - -In the cataclysm of air the cloud of Midges was hurled into chaos, -their bodies knocked together, whirling end over end, some of them -dropping with broken wings. - -Just a few seconds, and now the blue-white starlit night had been -transformed into a chaos of glaring light and roaring, clapping sound. -Flares were bursting everywhere; the cracking thunderclaps came one -upon the other in a chaos of prismatic horror. Curtmann's hand-flashes -were stabbing recklessly up through it. One of longer range burned a -wide swath with the bodies of Midges bursting into a myriad pin-points -of light. - -In the rocking turmoil I heard Jim shouting, "Good God, we can't stay -up here!" - - * * * * * - -Half our Midges already were gone! Everywhere little broken dots were -drifting or falling down. - -"Down!" I shouted. "Venta--Meeta--tell them! Everyone down. Don't come -back up--everyone for himself, now!" - -[Illustration: _Downward plunged the weird armada._] - -In the roaring chaos of pyrotechnic glare what was left of our Midges -swooped to the attack. With the rocket-streams at last righting my -whirling body, head down I plummeted. The glare from above revealed -Curtmann's men far more plainly now. Everywhere the men were -staggering. In the cart some of them had fallen, but others were still -erect, frantically working the projectors and stabbing with the hand -heat-flashes. Our Midges were among them now, desperate fluttering -little figures, stabbing at their faces. On the ground some of the -staggering men were trying to get into the forest underbrush. I -plummeted toward a group of them. - -I hit the ground in the midst of a staggering group, with a thump that -all but knocked the breath from me. Two of the men staggered at me. I -was unarmed. My fist knocked one down, and I gripped the other as he -half fell upon me. He was still clutching his flash-gun. I seized it, -knocked him away and rose again into the roaring tumult of the air. - -"Art! You got a gun? So did I." - -Jim was here with me; side by side we rose. I saw the cart directly -underneath me. His figure painted lurid, the desperate Curtmann was -still erect. Almost the last one now. And I saw that he was struggling -with a projector which had not yet been in use. A tiny figure flapped -against my face. Little Meeta. She gripped my shoulder, clung, and her -tiny voice gasped in my ear. - -"That weapon Curtmann has--the big molecule-melter--very -long-range--the Forest City." - -With a burst of numbing horror I understood it. This projector would -cut the forest and the ground into a leprous molten swath, out to the -Forest City itself. - -I plummeted down, with Meeta still clinging desperately to my neck. -Curtmann saw me coming. With a wild oath he dropped the projector and -fired at me with a hand-flash. It missed. There was just a second -when I leveled off, heading horizontally at him. The glare was on -his sweat-bathed face, contorted with his lust; but I saw a look of -despairing terror there as my flash drilled him and he fell as I -swooped close over him. - -We rose at last, high into the starlight. So pitifully few of us, -gathering in a little broken, circling group. Beneath us now there -was only a lurid red-yellow fire-pit of molten bubbling rocks where -the forest glade had been. Then the heavy turgid smoke and gas-fumes -settled upon it like a shroud. - -Almost silently we struggled back through the starlight to the Forest -City. Jim and Venta and little Meeta were here with me, but our little -Midges were struggling to keep aloft. Dozens of them were clustering -upon Jim and Venta and me. Their tiny, gasping voices were horrible. -And we were the victors! It came to me then that surely whatever has -been said and written of the futility of human killing, can never -adequately picture it. - - * * * * * - -I think that is all I need recount. You have all heard how we returned -to Earth, and the stir that my news brought. I should have been -considered a charlatan perhaps, with my wild tale. But there was the -spaceship; and Jim, Venta, and little Meeta. Scientists have inspected -Venta now. It was an ordeal. But mostly they have been interested in -Meeta. - -That is passed. There are others on Venus like Venta, and others -like our little Midge. We are living now on Earth, with Jim near us. -Certainly neither here, nor on Venus, do we want any turmoil. - -With Jim for my friend, and the adoration of little Meeta who thinks me -in very truth, a God--and the love of my dear wife--certainly I am a -mortal very singularly blessed. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Star-Master, by Ray Cummings - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR-MASTER *** - -***** This file should be named 62170.txt or 62170.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/1/7/62170/ - -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 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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