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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..2d9ac81 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64075 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64075) diff --git a/old/64075-8.txt b/old/64075-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3bda98d..0000000 --- a/old/64075-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2721 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Captive of the Centaurianess, by Poul Anderson - -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: Captive of the Centaurianess - -Author: Poul Anderson - -Release Date: December 18, 2020 [EBook #64075] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTIVE OF THE CENTAURIANESS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - Captive of the Centaurianess - - _A Novel of Primitive Future Worlds_ - - By POUL ANDERSON - - _The entire System was after Ballantyne. - Earth wanted him. The Jovian war-fleet jetted - on his trail. But mainly Ballantyne feared his - big-bosomed, sword-swinging space-mate--Dyann - the Amazon from man-starved Alpha C3._ - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories March 1952. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - The hero is the child of his times, in that his milieu furnishes - him with motives and means, and yet the hero seizes the time and - shapes it as he will. And he remains an enigma to his contemporaries - and to the future._ - - Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the strange story of the - three whose discoveries and achievements determined the whole course - of history. The driving idealism and bold military genius of Dyann - Korlas; the mighty wisdom, profound and benign, of Urushkidan; above - all, perhaps, the transcendent clarity of mind and inspired - leadership of Ballantyne--these molded our century and all centuries - to come, and yet we will never understand them, they are too far - beyond us and their essential selves must be forever a mystery - - --Vallabbhai Rasmussen, History - of the Twenty-third Century, v. 1 - - * * * * * - - - I - -The tender loomed above the crowd of passengers and leave-takers, a -great shining bullet caught in floodlights against the dark, and Ray -Ballantyne quickened his steps. By Heaven, he'd made it! The flight -from San Francisco to Quito, the nail-biting dawdle as he waited for -the airbus, then the flight out to Ecuador Spaceport, the last walk -through the vast echoing hollowness of the terminal, out onto the -field--and there it was, there the little darling lay, waiting to carry -him from Earth up to the _Jovian Queen_ and safety. - -He kissed his fingers at the tender and shoved rudely through the swarm -of people and Martians. He'd already missed the first trip up to the -liner, and the thought of waiting for the third was beyond endurance. - -"Hey, chum." - -As the heavy hand fell on his arm, Ballantyne whirled, his heart -slamming against his teeth and his spine dropping out. The thick-set -man compared his thin sharp features with the photograph in the other -paw, nodded, and said, "All right, Ballantyne, come along." - -"_Se llama Garcia!_" gibbered the engineer. "_No hablo Inglés._" - -"I said come along," said the detective wearily. "I thought you'd try -to leave Earth. This way." - -Ballantyne's free hand reached up and crammed the fellow's hat down -over his eyes. Wrenching loose, he turned and ran for the gangway, -upsetting a corpulent Latin woman en route and pursued by a volley of -imprecations. He shoved aside the passenger before him and ran into the -solid wall of an impassive Jovian ship's officer. - -The Jovian, a tall muscular blond in a dazzling crispness of white -uniform, looked at him with the thinly veiled contempt of a proper -Confed for the lesser breeds of humanity. "Ticket and passport, -please," he said stonily. - -Ballantyne shoved them at him, glancing shakily back to the detective -who had become entangled with the indignant woman and was being slapped -with a handbag and volubly cursed. With maddening deliberation the -Jovian scanned the engineer's papers, compared them with a list in his -hand, and waved him on. - -The detective caromed against the same immovable barrier. "Let me by!" -he gasped. - -"Your ticket and passport, please," said the Jovian. - -"That man is under arrest. Let me by." - -"Your ticket and passport, please." - -"I tell you I'm an officer of the law and I have a warrant for that -man. Let me by." - -"Proper authorization may be obtained at the main office," said the -Jovian coldly. - -The detective tried to rush, encountered a bit of expert judo, -and tumbled back into the crowd. Every able-bodied Jovian was a -well-trained military reservist. - -"Proper authorization may be obtained at the main office," repeated the -immovable barrier. To the next man, "Your ticket and passport, please." - -Ray Ballantyne dashed the sweat off his brow and permitted himself a -nasty chuckle. By the time the hapless detective had gone through all -that red tape, the tender would be well on its way. - -Before one of his country's secret police the Jovian would have quailed -and said nothing. But this was Earth, and the Confeds loved to bait -Terrestrials, and there was no better way than by demanding the endless -papers which their file-clerk mentalities had devised. - -The engineer went on into the tender, found a seat, and strapped -himself in. He was clear. Before Heaven, he was away! - -Even the long Vanbrugh arm did not reach to Jupiter. Ballantyne's -alleged crimes weren't enough for the Earth government to ask his -extradition. He could stay on Ganymede till the whole business had -blown over, and then--well-- - -He sighed, relaxing--a medium-sized young man, slender and wiry, -with close-cropped yellow hair and features a little too sharp to be -handsome. His thin deft fingers rearranged his overly colorful tie and -straightened his sports jacket. Always wanted to see the Jovian System, -anyway, he rationalized. - -The tender's airlock sighed shut and a stewardess went down the -aisle handing out anti-acceleration pills. She had the full-bodied, -pure-blooded good looks of the ideal Jovian together with their faintly -repellent air of hard, purposeful efficiency. The rockets began to -throb, warming up, and a siren hooted. - -Ballantyne turned to the man beside him, obsessed with the idiotic -desire for conversation found in all recent escapees from the law or -the dentist. "Going home, I see," he remarked. - -The man was a tall specimen in the gray Jovian army uniform, with -colonel's planets on his shoulders and a chestful of ribbons and -medals--about forty, closely shaven head, iron jaw, ramrod spine. He -fixed the Earthling with a chill pale eye and said, "And you, I see, -are leaving home. Two scintillating deductions." - -"Ummm--uh--well." Ballantyne looked away, his ears ablaze. The Jovian -clutched his heavy portfolio tighter to his side. - -The tender shook itself, howled, and jumped into the sky. Ballantyne -leaned back in the cushioned seat, staring out the port at the -fire-starred unfolding of space. The Jovian colonel sat rigid as -before, not deigning to yield to the pressure. - -They came up to the _Jovian Queen_, where the great liner held her -orbit about Earth, and Ballantyne glimpsed her long metal shape, -blinding in the raw sunlight, as the tender swung in for contact. When -the airlocks joined there was a steady one-gravity as the spaceship -rotated on her axis. Whatever you could say against the Jovians--and -that was quite a bit--they did maintain the best transport in the Solar -System. Earth's heavy passenger and freight haulers were in tight -financial straits competing with the state-subsidized lines of Jupiter. - -An expressionless uniformed steward took charge of the passengers as -they entered the ship, herding them to their respective destinations. -Ballantyne lugged his valise toward third-class section. He'd have to -share his cabin with two others--how had the mighty fallen! Thinking -over the decline and fall of the Ballantyne pocketbook, he sighed, and -the suitcase seemed to drag at him. He'd hit Ganymede pretty broke, -unless.... - -He opened his assigned door. - -"Put--me--down!" - -Ballantyne dropped his suitcase and his jaw. Within the narrow cabin a -Martian was struggling in the clutch of a six-foot armored woman. - -"Put--me--down!" he spluttered. He coiled his limbs snakelike -around the woman's brawny arms, and a Martian's four thick, rubbery -walking-tentacles have formidable strength. She didn't seem to notice. -She laughed and shook him a bit. - -"I--beg your pardon--" gasped Ballantyne, backing away. - -"You are forgiven," said the woman. Her voice was a husky contralto, -burdened with a rippling, slurring accent he couldn't place. She shot -out one Martian-encumbered arm, grabbed him by the coat, and hauled him -inside. "You be the yudge, my friend. Is it not yustice that I have the -lower berth?" - -"It is noting of te sort!" screamed the Martian, fixing Ballantyne with -round, bulging, and indignant yellow eyes. "My position, my eminence, -clearly entitle me to ebery consideration, and ten tis hulking -monster--" - -The Earthling let his gaze travel up and down the woman's -smooth-muscled form and said in an awed whisper, "I think you'd better -accept the lady's generous offer. But--uh--I seem to have the wrong -cabin--" - -"Are you Ray Ballantyne of Earth?" asked the woman. - -He pleaded guilty. - -"Then you belon vith us. I have looked at the passenyer lists. You may -have the cot." - -"Th-thanks," shivered Ballantyne, sitting down on it. - -The Martian seemed to give the fight up as a bad job and allowed -himself to be placed on the upper bunk. "To tink of it," he squeaked. -"Tat I, te great Urushkidan of Ummunashektaru, should be man-handled by -a sabage who does not know a logaritm from an exponent!" - -Urushkidan. Ballantyne knew the name of the Martian mathematician, the -latter-day Gauss or Einstein, and stared as if this were the first -Martian he had seen in his life. Urushkidan looked like any other of -his race, at least to the inexperienced eye. A great gray-skinned -cupola of a body balanced four feet high on the walking-tentacles, with -the two slim, three-fingered arm-tentacles writhing from either side -of a wide lipless mouth set beneath that torse. Big unwinking eyes -behind horn-rimmed spectacles, flat nose, elephantine ears--"Not _the_ -Urushkidan?" he gasped. - -"Tere is only _one_ Urushkidan," said the Martian. - - * * * * * - -The amazon sat down on her own bunk and laughed, a Homeric shout of -laughter ringing between the metal walls and shivering the furniture. -"Velcome, little Earthman," she cried. "You are cute, I think I vill -like you. I am Dyann Korlas of Kathantuma." She grabbed his hand in a -bone-cracking grip. - -"One of the Centaurians," said Ballantyne feebly. - -"Yes, so you call us." She opened her trunk and began unpacking. -Ballantyne watched her with appreciation and some curiosity. He'd only -seen the Alpha Centaurian visitors on television before now. - -She looked human enough externally, aside from a somewhat different -convolution of the ears. Internally there were plenty of peculiarities, -among them a skeletal and tissue structure considerably harder and -denser than that of Homo Solis. Alpha Centauri III--or Varann, as its -more advanced nation had decided to call it after learning from the -terrestrial explorers that it was a planet--was Earth-like enough in a -cool and bracing way, but it had half again the surface gravity. - -Sexual differentiation also varied a bit from the Solar norm. The -Centaurian men were somewhat smaller and weaker than the women. They -stayed at home and did the housework while their wives conducted the -business. In the warlike culture of Kathantuma and its neighbor states -that meant going out, cutting the other army into hamburger, and -stealing everything which wasn't bolted down. - -This--Dyann Korlas--was something to write home about as far as looks -went. Her size and the broadsword at her waist were intimidating, but -her build was magnificent in a statuesque, tiger-lithe way. She looked -young, her skin smooth, and faintly golden, a heavy mass of shining -bronze hair coiled about the haughtily lifted head. Her face was close -to the ideal of an ancient Hellenic sculptor, clean straight lines, -firm jaw, brilliant gray eyes under heavy brows. She wore a light -cuirass over her tunic, sandals, a bat-winged helmet on her head. - -"It--ah--it's strange they'd put you in the same cabin with me," said -Ballantyne hesitantly. - -"Oh, you are safe enough," she grinned. - -He flushed, reflecting that the ladies from Centauri were in little -danger from any Solar man. Very likely it was the other way around. -Then he recalled that their native titles translated into things -like warrior, district-ruler, chief, and so on. With their arrogant -indifference to mere exploration and ethnology, the Jovians had -probably assumed that Dyann Korlas was male. Well, he wasn't going to -enlighten them. - -He looked up to Urushkidan, who was morosely stuffing a big-bowled -pipe. "Ah, I know of your work, of course," he said hesitantly. "I -am--was--a nuclear engineer, so maybe I even have some appreciation of -what it's about." - -The Martian preened. "Doubtless you have grasped it bery well," he said -generously. "As well as any Eartman could, which is, of course, saying -bery little." - -"But, if I may ask, sir, what are you doing here?" - -"Oh, I have an inbitation from te Jobian Academy of Science to lecture. -Tey are commendably interested and seem to realise my fundamental -importance. I will be glad to get off Eart. Te air pressure, te -gravity, pfui!" - -"But a man, uh, Martian of your distinction--traveling third class--" - -"Oh, they sent me a first-class ticket, of course. But I turned -it in, bought a tird class, and banked te difference." He scowled -darkly at Dyann Korlas. "Tough if I must be treated so--Well." He -shrugged. A Martian shrugging is quite a sight. "It is of no matter. -We of Uttu--Mars as you insist on calling it--are so incomparably far -advanced in te philosophic virtues of serenity, generosity, and modesty -tat I can accept wit equanimity." - -"Oh," said Ballantyne. To the Centaurian, "And may I ask why you are -going to Jupiter--ah--Miss Korlas?" - -"You may call me Dyann," she said sweetly, "and I vill call you -Ray, so? I vish only to see Yupiter, though I doubt it vill be as -glamorous as Earth." Her eyes glowed. "You live in a fable. The flyin -and travelin machines, auto--automatic kitchens, television, clocks an -vatches, exotic dress. Aah, it vas vorth ten years travelin yust to see -them." - - * * * * * - -Ballantyne reflected on what he knew of Alpha Centauri. Even the -fantastically fast new exploratory ships took ten years to cross the -interstellar gulf to its wild planets, and there had only been three -expeditions so far. The third had brought back a group of curious -natives who were to report to their queen what the strangers' homeland -was like. - -He imagined that the spacemen had had quite a time, with that score of -turbulent barbarians crammed into a narrow hull though of course they'd -passed almost the whole voyage in suspended animation. The visitors -had spent about a year now on Earth and Luna, staring, asking endless -questions, wondering what their hosts did with themselves now that the -U. N. had brought the nations together and ended war. There hadn't -been much trouble. Occasionally one of them would get mad and break -somebody's jaw, and then there'd been the one who was invited to speak -at a women's club.... He chuckled to himself. - -"Are these Yovians humans like you?" asked Dyann. - -"Uh-huh," he nodded. "The moons were colonized from Earth about a -hundred and twenty-five years ago. They declared their independence -about sixty years past, and nobody thought it was worth the trouble to -fight about it. Though maybe we should have." - -"Vy that?" - -"Oh well, the colonists were misfits originally, remnants of the -old Eurasian militarisms. They did do heroic work in settling and -developing the Jovian System, but they live under a dictatorship -and make no bones about despising Earth and considering themselves -the destined rulers of all the planets. Last year they grabbed the -Saturnian colonies on the thinnest of pretexts, and Earth was too -chicken-livered to do more than give them a reproachful look. Not that -the U. N. has much of a navy these days, compared to theirs." - -Dyann shrugged and went on unpacking. She hung an extra sword on the -wall, unshipped her armor and put it up, and slipped into a loose -fur-trimmed robe. Urushkidan slithered to the floor and opened his -own trunk, pulling out a score of fat books which he placed on the -shelf over his bunk and expropriated the little table for his papers, -pencils, and humidor. - -"You know--ah--Dr. Urushkidan--" said Ballantyne uneasily, "I wish you -weren't going to Jupiter." - -"And why not?" asked the Martian belligerently. - -"Well, doesn't your reformulation of general relativity indicate a way -to build a ship which can go faster than light?" - -"Among oter tings, yes." Urushkidan blew a malodorous cloud of smoke. - -"Well, I don't think the Jovians are interested in science for its own -sake. I think they want to get you and your knowledge so they can build -such ships themselves which would be the last thing they need to take -over the Solar System." - -"A Martian," said Urushkidan condescendingly, "is not concerned wit te -squabblings of te lower animals. Noting personal, of course." - -Dyann pulled an idol from her trunk and put it on her shelf. It was a -small wooden image, gaudily painted and fiercely tusked, each of its -six arms holding some weapon. One, Ballantyne noticed, was a carved -Terrestrial tommy-gun. "Qviet, please," she said, raising one arm. "I -am about to pray to Ormun the Terrible." - -"Barbarian," guffawed Urushkidan. - -Dyann took a pillow and stuffed it in his mouth. "Qviet, please, I -said." She smiled gently and prostrated herself before the god. - -After a while she got up. Urushkidan was still speechless with rage. -She turned to Ballantyne and asked, "Do the ships here carry live -animals? I vould like to make a small sacrifice too." - - - II - -The bulletin board said that in the present orbital positions of the -planets, the _Jovian Queen_ would make her voyage at one Earth-gravity -acceleration in six days, forty-three minutes, and twelve seconds, plus -or minus ten seconds. That might be pure braggadocio, though Ballantyne -wouldn't have been surprised to learn that it was sober truth. He hoped -the time was overestimated. His cabin mates were a little wearing on -the nerves. Urushkidan filling the room with smoke, sitting up till all -hours covering paper with mathematical symbols and screaming at any -interruption. Dyann was nice-looking but rather overwhelming. In some -ways she was reminiscent of Catherine Vanbrugh. The Engineer shuddered. - -He slouched moodily into the bar and ordered a martini he could ill -afford. The place was quiet, discreetly lit, not very full. His eyes -fell on the stiff-laced Jovian colonel, still clutching his portfolio -like grim death, but talking with unusual animation to a stunning -Terrestrial redhead. It was clear that ideas about the purity of the -Jovian stock--"hardened in the fire and ice of outer space, tempered -and beaten into the new and dominant mankind"--had been temporarily -shelved. - -If I had some money, thought Ballantyne gloomily, I could detach her -from him and enjoy this trip. - -The bartender informed him, with some awe, that the man was Colonel -Ivan Hosea Domenico Roshevsky-Feldkamp, late military attaché of -Jupiter's Terrestrial embassy and an officer who had served with -distinction in suppressing the Ionian revolt and in asserting Jupiter's -rightful claims to Saturn. Ray was more interested in the girl's name -and antecedents. Just as he'd thought, an heiress on a pleasure trip. -Expensive. - -A couple of genial Earthmen moved up and began talking to him. Before -long they suggested a friendly game of poker. - -Oh-ho! thought Ray, who knew that sort. "Sure," he said. - -They played most of the time for a couple of days. Luck went back -and forth but in general Ray won, and toward the end he was a couple -of thousand U. N. credits to the good. He let his eyes glitter with -febrile cupidity, and the sharks--there were three of them all -told--almost licked their lips. - -"Excuse me a minute," said Ray, pocketing his winnings. "I'll be back, -and then we'll play for real stakes." - -"You bet," said the sharks. They sat back, lit anticipatory cigars, and -waited. - -And waited. - -And waited. - -Ray found the redhead remarkably easy to pry from the colonel. - -The girl thought it would be just too much fun to go slumming and have -the captain's dinner with him in the third-class saloon. He led her -down the thrumming corridor, thinking wistfully that before he knew it -he'd be in Ganymede City and as broke as he'd been to start with. - -Urushkidan crawled slowly by, waving an idle tentacle at him. The -Martian walking system was awkward under Earth gravity and, their table -manners being worse than atrocious, they ate in a separate section. It -was Dyann who really started the trouble. She strode up behind Ray and -clapped a heavy hand on his shoulder. - -"Vere have you been?" she asked reproachfully. "You have not been in -our cabin for two days and nights now." - -The redhead blushed. - -"Oh hullo, Dyann," said Ray, annoyed. "I'll see you later." - -"Of course you vill." She smiled. "Ah, you dashin' glamorous Earthmen, -you make me feel so small and veak." She topped him by a good two -inches. - -They came into the doorway of the saloon and three familiar figures -barred Ray's passage. - -"What the hell became of you, Ballantyne?" demanded one. His geniality -was quite gone. "You was going to play some more with us." - -"I forgot," said Ray huskily. The three men looked bigger than they -had, somehow. - -"It's not sporting to quit when you're so far ahead," said another. - -"Yeah," said a third. "You ought at least to give us our money back." - -"I haven't got it," said Ray. - -"Look, pal, things happen to people that ain't good sports. They ain't -very pop-u-lar, and things happen to them. Where's that money?" - -They crowded in, hemming him against the wall. Beyond them, he could -see Colonel Roshevsky-Feldkamp staring coldly at the tableau. Ray -wondered if he hadn't put the players up to this. They wouldn't have -dared start trouble without some kind of _sub rosa_ official hint. - - * * * * * - -"Come on back to our cabin and we'll talk this over, pal." - -The redhead squeaked and shrank aside. A meaty hand closed on Ray's arm -and dragged him half off his feet. Dyann bristled, one hand clapped to -her sword. "Are these men annoyin' you, Ray?" she asked. - -"No, we just want a quiet little private talk with our friend," said -one of them. "Just come along easy, Ballantyne." - -"Dyann, I think they are annoying me," said the engineer, the words -rattling in a suddenly dry and tightened throat. - -"Oh, vell, in that case--" She smiled, reached out, and grabbed a -collar. - -There was a minor explosion. The man catapulted into the air, hit the -ceiling, caromed off a wall, and bounced on the floor. Sheer reflex -sent knives flying into the hands of the other two. - -"Ormun is good!" shouted Dyann joyously. She gave the nearest gambler a -fistful of knuckles, tossed him into the air, clutched his ankles as he -came down, and whirled him against the wall. - -The third was stabbing at her back. Blindly, Ray grabbed his arm and -pulled him away. He snarled and lunged at the engineer, who tumbled -backward clutching after the nearest weapon. It happened to be Colonel -Roshevsky-Feldkamp's massive briefcase. He grabbed it free and brought -it down on the gambler's head. It hit with a dull _thwack_ and the -fellow lurched. Ray hit him again. The briefcase burst open and papers -snowed through the air. Then Dyann got the enemy from behind and -proceeded to tie him in knots. - -The redhead had already departed, screaming. Ray sank to one shaky knee -and looked up into the colonel's livid face. - -"I'm terribly sorry, sir," he gasped. "Here, let me help--" - -He began stuffing papers back into the briefcase. A polished boot -hit him where it would do the most good and he skidded through the -disorderly mass. "You unutterable fool!" raged the voice above him. - -"You vould kick my friend, huh?" asked Dyann indignantly. - -A revolver clanked from the colonel's belt. "That will do," he snapped. -"Consider yourself under arrest." - -Dyann's broad smooth shoulders sagged a little. "I am so sorry," she -said meekly. "Let me help yust a litle." She stooped and picked up one -of the unconscious men. - -"March!" rapped the colonel. - -"Yes, sir," whispered Dyann abjectly. Then, being almost next to him, -she rammed her burden into his belly. He sat down with a thunderous -_oof_ and Dyann kicked him behind the ear. - -"That vas fun," she grinned, picking up the revolver and sticking it -into her belt. "Vat shall ve do now?" - - * * * * * - -"You," said Urushkidan acidly, "are a typical human." - -Ray looked despairingly out of the brig at him. "What else could I do?" -he asked wildly. "I couldn't fight a shipful of Jovians. It was all I -could do to talk Dyann into surrendering." - -"I mean in fighting in te first place," said Urushkidan. "I hear it -started over a female. Why don't you lower animals habe a regular -rutting season as we do on Uttu? Ten you could spend time tinking of -someting else too, someting constructive." - -"Well--" Ray couldn't suppress a wry smile, "those are constructive -thoughts, of a sort. But what happened to Dyann?" - -"Oh, tey questioned her, found she couldn't read, and let her go. But -tey won't let her see you." - -"I suppose Earth would raise more of a stink over her being arrested -than it's worth to the Jovians. But what's her literacy got to do with -it?" - -"Te colonel's papers, you idiot. Tey are bery secret. Doubtless tey -are information about Eart's defenses, obtained by his spies and to be -brought home by him in person." - -"But I didn't read them either!" - -"You saw tem. Tey are implanted in your subconscious memories and -a hypnotreatment could extract tem. An illiterate like Dyann lacks -te word-gestalts, she would not remember eben subconsciously, but -you--Well, tat is luck. Maybe Eart can sabe you." - -"Oh, no!" Ray clutched his head. "They won't bother. They don't give a -damn. I'm wanted back there, and old Vanbrugh will be only too pleased -to see me get the works." - -"Banbrugh--te Nort American Councillor?" - -"Uh-huh." Ray leaned gloomily against the door. "I was just a plain -ordinary engineer till Uncle Hosmer left me a million credits. Damn -him, I hope he fries in hell." - -"A man left you money and you don't like it?" Urushkidan's eyes bugged -so they seemed in some danger of falling out. "Shalmuannusar, what did -you do wit it?" - -"I spent it. I spent damn near every millo in a year." - -"On _what_?" - -"Oh, wine, women, song--the usual." - -Urushkidan clapped his tentacles to his eyes and groaned. "A million -credits!" - -"It got me into high society," went on Ray. "I made out as if I had -more than I did. I met Catherine Vanbrugh--that's the Councillor's -daughter--and she got ideas that I might make a good fifth husband, -or would it be the sixth? Well, she wasn't a bad-looking wench, and -I--uh--well--about the time my money gave out and I went into debt, -she was really after me. It was somewhat urgent. I skipped, of course. -Old Vanbrugh got the cops after me. I barely escaped. He's got enough -influence to--well, it boils down to the fact that the Jovians can do -anything to me their little hearts desire." - -He strained against the bars. "Can't you do anything, sir? Your fame is -so illustrious. Can't you slip the word to somebody?" - -The Martian puffed out his chest above his eyes and simpered. Then he -said with mild regret, "No, I cannot entangle myself in te empirical. -My domain is te beauty and purity of matematics alone. I adbise you to -accept your fate wit philosophy. Perhaps I can lend you Ekbannutil's -_Treatise on te Unimportance of Temporal Sorrows_. It has many -consoling toughts." - -He waved affably and waddled off. Ray sank to the bunk. - -Presently a squad of soldiers arrived to escort him to the tender -which would take him down to Ganymede. Colonel Roshevsky-Feldkamp was -there, as stiff as ever, though the bandage behind his ear set his cap -somewhat askew. - -"Where am I going?" asked Ray. - -"To Camp Muellenhoff, outside the city," said the Jovian with a hard -satisfaction. "It is where we keep spies until we get ready to question -and shoot them." - - - III - -It took Dyann Korlas about two Earth-days to decide that she didn't -like Ganymede. - -The Jovians had been very courteous, apologized in a stiff way for the -unfortunate misunderstanding aboard ship, and assigned her a brawny -young sergeant as guide. Their armament was much more in evidence and -much more interesting than Earth's but granting that spaceships and -atomic bombs and guided missiles were more effective than swords and -bows and mounted lancers, they took all the fun out of war and left -nothing to plunder. She missed the brawling mirth of the war-camps of -Varann among these bleak-faced and endlessly marching men in their drab -uniforms. - -The civilians were almost as depressingly clad, and even more orderly -and obedient than those of Earth. Only the arrogant, bemedaled officer -caste had any touch of dash or glamor about it. The Terrestrial concept -of sexual equality had been interesting, even exciting in a way, but -these Jovians had inverted the natural order of things to a repulsive -extent. - -She had seen the sights, and those were impressive enough--the grim -rocky face of Ganymede, with mighty Jupiter eternally high in the dusky -heavens; the bustling, crowded, machine-crammed underground cities, -level after level of apartments, farms, factories, shops, barracks--but -Earth could show more. Her guide promised to take her to the other -moons of the Jovian Confederacy but she felt as bored by the thought as -he seemed to be. - -She got the impression that she was hurried along, from sight to sight -and speech to speech, without ever a chance to talk to anyone and find -out what really was dreamed and striven for on this land. To be sure, -the Jovians all talked endlessly about a superior way of life and their -right to return to the green vales of Earth whence their forefathers -had been cruelly made to flee. But if they were going to fight why -didn't they just hop in their ships and go there? - -The dictator's face seemed to be framed wherever she turned, a small -and puffy-eyed man in an elaborate uniform. Martin Wilder the Great. -Her guide the sergeant, one Robert Hamand, said in an awed tone that -she might be introduced to the dictator. He looked hurt when she yawned. - -And what had become of Ray? Hamand knew nothing and seemed to care -less. The secret police officer had said he would be held for a short -time as a lesson and then released but surely he'd look her up if he -were free. She contrasted the Earthling's liveliness with the quiet men -of Varann and thought that he would be an ornament to anyone's harem -even if there couldn't be issue between the two species. - -On the third day, as she got up, she decided to ask counsel of Ormun. -She washed, singing a cheerful song of clattering swords and sundering -skulls, stowed away a breakfast that would have sufficed two humans, -and walked into the sitting room of the apartment assigned her. - -Hamand was waiting, very straight and correct in his uniform. "Good -day," he said, bowing from the waist. "Today we will go topside again -and visit the Devil's Garden. Then at eleven forty-five proceed to -Robinsburg where we will lunch until thirteen hundred and then go on -to--" - -"I must take an omen first," said Dyann. - -"I beg your pardon?" - -"You need not do so, you have done no wrong." Dyann prostrated herself -before the god. Then, struck with a sudden thought, gestured at Hamand. -"You too." - -"What?" cried the sergeant. - -"You too. She might be offended if you do not pray." - -"Madam," said Hamand, stiff with indignation, "I am a Jovian of the -machine age, not a savage groveling before superstition." - - * * * * * - -Dyann got up, knocked him to the floor, and rubbed his nose in the -carpet before Ormun. "You vill please to grovel," she said urbanely. -"It is good manners." She laid herself prone again, keeping one hand -on the sergeant's head, and repeated several magic formulas. Then she -rose to her knees, fished three Centaurian dice from her pocketed kilt, -and tossed them. - -"Ah-hah," she said. "The omen says--hm, let me see now, I am not a -_marya_. I think they say go to Urushkidan." She bowed deeply before -Ormun. "Thank you, my lady. Now come, we go find Urushkidan." - -"You can't!" gibbered Hamand. "He's doing important work. He's at the -Academy--" - -Dyann strolled out and he trailed futilely in her wake, still -protesting. She inquired her way along the many tunnels and corridors -and ramps to the Academy of Science. There were no slideways. Everyone -walked. The Jovian leaders, with their concern over physical fitness, -insisted that there be as much assorted exercises as possible to -compensate for Ganymede's low gravity. To Dyann, weight was feathery. -She bounded twenty or thirty feet at a time when the crowd thinned -enough. - -The Academy, a combined college and technical research institute, had a -good-sized sector to itself. There was a broad open space covered with -turf and the uniformed students and professors went from one to another -of the doors which opened on the grass. Dyann loomed over an undersized -academician who gibbered in answer to her that Dr. Urushkidan was in -_that_ sector and then scuttled away. - -There was an armed sentry in front of the door. Seeing none elsewhere, -Dyann concluded shrewdly that he was posted because of the potential -military applications of Urushkidan's work. He slanted his rifle across -her path. "Halt!" - -"I must see the Martian," said Dyann mildly. "Please to let me by." - -"No one sees him without a pass," said the guard. - -Dyann shoved him aside and opened the door. He yelled and grabbed her -arm. That was his big mistake. - -"A man," said the Varannian reprovingly, "should have respect for -women." She yanked the rifle from him and hit him in the stomach with -the butt. He flew across the plaza, retching, rolled to one elbow, -and snatched at his sidearm. Dyann leaped, landing on his face with a -crunch of bone and a small explosion of blood and teeth. - -She turned back, hefting the rifle appreciatively. The Earthlings on -Varann had been regrettably stingy about giving modern weapons to the -natives. Assorted people, including Hamand, fled in all directions as -she entered the doorway. - -Down a long hall, peering into the rooms on either side, up a -staircase--another sentry before a frosted-glass door gaped at her. -She smiled reassuringly, moved close to him, and got her hands on his -throat. Shortly thereafter she had his rifle and revolver. - -Loud voices drifted through the door and Dyann, who was not at all -stupid, listened with interest. One was--yes, that was Urushkidan -himself, bubbling like an indignant teakettle. - -"I will not, sir, do you hear me? I will not. And I demand a return -passage from tis foul satellite at once!" - -"Come now, Dr. Urushkidan, be reasonable." Was that the voice of -Roshevsky-Feldkamp? "After all, can you complain of your treatment? -You have Mars-conditioned quarters, servants, high pay, every -consideration." - -"I came here to lecture and complete my mathematical research. Now -I find you habe arranged no lectures for me and expect me to--to -superbise an--an _engineering_ project! As if--as if I were a -mere--empiricist!" - -"But Dr. Urushkidan--after all, science advances by checking its -theory against the facts. If with your help we create the first -faster-than-light ship, it will be a triumphant confirmation of--" - -"My teories need no confirmation. Tey are a debelopment of certain -relatibity postulates, a piece of pure matematics in all its elegance -and beauty. If tey agree or disagree wit te facts, tat is of no -interest to any proper natibe of Uttu. Te matematics is enough, and -I will habe noting to do wit applied physics. And furtermore--" -The squeaky voice rose even higher--"you want only te military -applications, you would habe me stoop to such bulgarity. You do not -appreciate me, and I am going back to Uttu!" - -"I am afraid," said the man slowly, "that that is impossible." - -Dyann entered. "Are they annoyin you?" she asked. - - * * * * * - -Urushkidan whirled about. The room was thick with the fumes of his -pipe, and one of the two Jovians with him--a bald man in the black -uniform of the secret police--was holding a handkerchief to his nose. -The other one was Roshevsky-Feldkamp, who started to his feet with an -oath and grabbed for his revolver. - -Dyann held her own stolen gun on his midriff. "No," she said. - -"What are you doing here?" gasped the officer. - -"Vere is Ray Ballantyne?" - -"Get out! Guards--" - -Dyann took one long leap across the office, seized Roshevsky-Feldkamp -by the neck and hammered his forehead against the desk. Her free hand -covered the secret policeman. "Vere is Ray Ballantyne?" she repeated. - -"I am glad you came," said Urushkidan. "Shall we leabe tis uncibilised -place?" - -Two armed soldiers appeared in the doorway. Dyann brought her gun -around. The silenced weapon hissed. One of the men tumbled with a hole -drilled in his forehead. She was rather proud of herself, she'd never -had much chance for target practice. - -There wasn't much time for self-praise, though. The other man already -had his rifle up. Dyann dropped behind the desk, and the stream of -slugs ripped through the wood after her. She bunched her muscles and -threw the desk. There was a crash of splintering wood as it knocked -down the Jovian. - -The secret police officer had his gun out and trained on her. -Urushkidan snaked forth a tentacle and pulled him off his feet. Dyann -stopped to slug Roshevsky-Feldkamp before she got her hands about the -policeman's throat. - -"Vere is Ray Ballantyne?" she growled. - -"Come on, come on, we habe to get out of here!" wailed the Martian. - -"Vich is the vay out?" - -"I'll show you--come along, quick--tis way." - -Dyann frogmarched the Jovian cop toward a rear door. Booted feet were -thudding up the stairs toward the office. Urushkidan held a pistol in -each hand, gingerly as if he feared they would blow up. He led the way -into a hall and down a long, echoing ramp. - -"Hurry, hurry," he gasped. "Shalmuannusar, we habe te whole Jobian -Confederacy after us!" - -A voice bellowed atop the ramp and a slug whanged after them. Dyann -whirled and fired back, using the helplessly pinioned captive as a -shield. They retreated slowly, rounding a corner and going on down a -long slope to a heavy steel door. - -Urushkidan opened it, slamming it frantically as they went through. -They were in a hangar where several small spaceships rested on their -rail-mouthed cradles. Mechanics stared at the trio. - -"Quick!" snapped the Martian. "Te laboratory ships!" - -The prisoner opened his mouth. Dyann laid a friendly hand on the back -of his neck and squeezed a little. - -"Yes, yes, the laboratory ship--practice maneuvers--hurry!" the man -said. - -"Aye, sir! At once!" A life time's training in blind obedience spoke -there, behind the puzzled faces. - -A teardrop-shaped rocket was trundled forth. Dyann looked nervously -back at the door. Pursuit was most likely playing it safe, posting men -outside while others went around to block all remaining exits. Once -that was done they'd close in. - -"I'll warm up the engine for you, sir," said one of the mechanics. - -"Ve'll take it now," said Dyann. - -"But you can't! You'll carbon the tubes--be likely to crash--" - -"I said now." Dyann propelled her captive ahead of her through the -airlock and Urushkidan crawled after. The valves clanged shut after -them. - -"I hope you can fly vun of these thins," said Dyann, lashing the secret -policeman to a recoil chair. - -"I hope so too," said Urushkidan. - -Dyann stood over her prisoner. "Vere is Ray Ballantyne?" she asked. -"The Earthman who vas arrested off the liner a few days ago." - -"I don't know," he gasped. - -Dyann drew her knife, smiling nastily. - -"Camp Muellenhoff, you savage! Outside the city, to the north. You'll -never make it. You'll kill us all." - -The cradle rumbled forward to the hangar airlock. Urushkidan took the -pilot chair and strapped himself in and relit his pipe with nervous -boneless fingers. Dyann whistled tunelessly between her teeth. It was -dark in the airlock chamber as the pumps evacuated it. - -"Why bother wit tis Ballantyne?" asked the Martian. "What claim has he -on us? It will need all our luck and my genius for us to escape with -our own lives." - -"We need his luck too, maybe," said Dyann shortly. - - * * * * * - -The outer valve swung open and they trundled over the rails to the -surface of Ganymede. Behind them, the dome covering the city rose -against a background of saw-toothed mountains and dark, faintly -star-lit sky. A dwarfed sun lit the spaceport field with pale cold -luminance. There were not many vessels in sight, no liner or freighter -was in and the military ports were elsewhere. One lean black patrol -ship stood not far off. - -"They vill be out after us soon," said Dyann. "Vat can you do about -that boat there, huh?" - -"We will see," said Urushkidan. He touched studs, levers, and buttons. -The engines thuttered and the little vessel shook. - -"Let's go!" - -The rocket stood on her tail and climbed for the sky. Urushkidan -brought her around, the gyros screaming at his clumsy management, and -lowered her on her jets directly above the patrol ship. An atom-driven -ion-blast is not good for a patrol ship. - -"Now," said Dyann as they took off again, "you, my policeman friend, -vill call this Camp Muellenhoff and tell them to release Ballantyne to -us. If you do that, ve vill set you down somevere. If not--vell--" She -tested the edge of her knife on his ear. "You may still be a police, -but you vill not be very alive." - -"You can't escape," said the Jovian with a certain hollow lack of -conviction. "You'd better throw yourself on the Leader's mercy." - -Dyann knocked a few teeth loose. - -"You savage!" he gasped. "You cruel, murdering--" - -"I tought you Jobians were always talking about te glories of war and -te rutless superman," snickered Urushkidan. "Also destiny and tings. -Better call te camp as she says." - -A few minutes later the ship lowered into the walled enclosure of Camp -Muellenhoff. It was a dreary place, metal barracks lying harsh under -the guns of the watchtowers, spacesuited prisoners clumping to work -through the thin chill air of Ganymede. A detail hurried up and shoved -an unarmed, suited form into the airlock. - -Their leader's voice rattled over his helmet radio of the ship's -telereceiver, "Major, sir, are you sure they want this man in the -city now? We just got an alert to look out for a couple of escaped -desperadoes." - -Dyann slammed the outer valve in his face by the remote-control lever -and the little ship stood on her tail again and flamed skyward. - -A somewhat battered Ray Ballantyne crawled out of his suit and blinked -at them. It had been a rough two or three days, though they hadn't gone -very far with him. The truth drugs must have satisfied them that he was -not an intentional spy, and thereafter they had simply held him until -orders for his execution should come. He swayed into Dyann's arms. - -"Oh, my poor Ray," she murmured. "My poor, poor little Earthlin." - -"Hey, wait a minute," he began weakly. - -"Just lie still, I will take care of you." - -"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Lemme go!" - -They sat down again on a remote mountaintop, gave the policeman a -spacesuit, and kicked him out of the ship. He was still wailing about -barbarous and inhuman treatment. He said something too about wild -beasts. - -"And now," said Dyann, "let us get back to Earth before the Yovians -find us." - -"This crate'll never make Earth," said Ray. "I've flown 'em--let me at -those controls, Urushkidan." - -They heard it as well, the ominous sizzling and knocking from the -engine-room shields, and felt the ship tremble with it. - -"Is tat te carboning te man was talking about?" asked the Martian -innocently. - -"I'm--afraid--so." Ray shook his head. "We'll have to land somewhere -before the rockets quit altogether. Then it'll take a week for the -radioactivity to get low enough so we can go back there and clean them -out." - -"And all the Yovian army, navy, police, and fire department out chasin -us by now," said Dyann. Her clear brow wrinkled. "I fear that Ormun is -offended because I left her amon the heathen back there. I am afraid -our luck is runnin' low." - -"And," said Ray bleakly, "how!" - - - IV - -They used the last sputter of flame to sit down in the wildest and -remotest valley they could find. Looking out the port, Ray wondered if -they hadn't perhaps overdone it. - -Beyond the little ship there was a stretch of seamed and gullied stone, -a rough craggy waste sloping up toward the fang-peaked razorback -ridge of the hills, weird flickering play of shadows between the -looming boulders as the thin wind blew a veil of snow across the deep -greenish-blue sky. Jupiter was an amber scimitar low on the northern -horizon. They were near the south pole with a sprawling panorama of -sharp stars around it fading out near the tiny sun. Snow lay heaped -in drifts beyond the wind-scoured rocks, and the far green blink of -glaciers reflected the pale heatless sunlight from the hills. - -Snow--well, yes, thought Ray, it was snow of a sort. All the water -on Ganymede was of course solid ice. So were the carbon dioxide and -ammonia. But the temperature often dropped low enough to precipitate -methane or nitrogen. The moon's atmosphere what there was of it, -consisted mostly of argon, nitrogen, methane, and vapors of the frozen -substances--not especially breathable. - -The colonists used the standard green-plant air-renewal system, -obtaining extra oxygen from its compounds and water from the -ice-strata, and heated their dwellings from the central atomic-energy -units. Ray hoped the ship's equipment was in working order. - -There was native life out there, a few scrubby gray-leaved thickets, -a frightened leaper bounding kangaroo-like into the hills. The -biochemistry of Ganymede was a weird and wonderful thing which human -scientists were still a long way from understanding, but it involved -substances capable of absorbing heat energy directly and releasing it -as needed. The carnivores lacked the secretions, obtaining them from -their prey, and had given the colonists a lot of trouble because of -their fondness for the generous supply of heat a human necessarily -carried around with him. - -"And now what do we do?" asked Ray. - -Dyann's eyes lit with a hopeful gleam. "Hunt monsters?" she suggested. - -"Bah!" Urushkidan snaked his way to the small desk bolted to the cabin -floor and extracted paper and pencil from the drawers. "I shall debelop -an interesting aspect of unified field teory. Do not disturb me." - -Ray looked around the ship. Behind the forward cabin, which held bunks -and a little cooking outfit as well as the controls, there was a larger -space cluttered with assorted physical apparatus. Beyond that, he -supposed, were the gyros, airplant, and misbehaving engines. "Is this a -laboratory boat?" he inquired. - -"Yes," said the Martian. "I chose it because tey are always kept ready -to go out for gibing field tests to new apparatus. Get me a table of -elliptic integrals, please." - -"Look," said Ray, "we've got to do something. The Jovians will be -combing this damned moon for us, and it's not so big that we have much -chance of their not finding us before we can clean out those tubes. -We've got to prepare an escape." - -"How?" Urushkidan fixed him with a bespectacled stare. - -"Well--uh--well--maybe get ready to flee into the hills." - -"How long would we last out tere?" The Martian turned back to his work -and blew a cloud of smoke. "No, I will debote myself to te beauties of -pure matematics." - -"But if they catch us, they'll kill us!" - -"Tey won't kill me," said Urushkidan smugly. "I am too baluable." - -"Come on, Ray," said Dyann. "Let's go monster-huntin." - -"Waaah!" The Earthman blew up, jumping with rage. In the low gravity, -his leap cracked his head against the ceiling. - -"Oh, my poor Ray!" Dyann folded him in a bear's embrace. - -"Let me go! Damn it, I want to live if you don't!" - -"Be serene," advised Urushkidan. "Look at it from te aspect of -eternity. You are one of te lower animals and your life is of no -importance." - -"You octopus! You conceited windbag! If I needed any proof that -Martians are inferior, you'd be it." - -"Temper, temper!" Urushkidan wagged a flexible finger at Ray. "Be -objective, my friend, and if your philosophy is so deficient tat -it will not prove _a priori_ tat Martians are always right--by -definition--ten consider te facts. Martians are beautiful. Martians -habe an old and peaceful cibilisation. Eben physically, we are -superior--we can libe under Earth conditions but I dare you to go out -on Mars witout a spacesuit. I double-dog dare you." - -"Martians," gritted Ray, "didn't come to Earth. Earthmen came to Mars." - -"Certainly. We had no reason to bisit Earth, but you, of course, came -to Mars to admire our beauty and wisdom. Now please fetch me tat table -of integrals." - -"There is nothin ve can do to help ourselves," said Dyann, "so ve might -as well go huntin. Afterward ve can make love." - -"Oh, no!" Ray grunted. "If I had that damn interstellar drive I'd get -out of this hole so fast that--that--that--" - -"Yes?" asked Dyann. - - * * * * * - -"Gods of Pluto!" whispered the man. "That's it. _That's it!_" - -"Get me tat table!" screamed Urushkidan. - -"The drive--the faster-than-light drive--" Ray did a jig, bouncing from -floor to wall to ceiling. "We've got a shipful of equipment, we've got -the System's only authority on the subject, we'll build ourselves a -faster-than-light engine!" - -Urushkidan grumbled his way back into the lab. "I'll get it myself, -ten," he muttered. "See if I care." - -"The engine--the engine--Dyann, we can escape!" Ray grabbed her by the -arms and tried to shake her. "We can go home!" - -Her eyes filled with tears. "You vant to leave me," she accused. "You -vant to get rid of me." - -"No, no, no, I want to save all our lives. Come on, give me a hand, -we've got some heavy stuff to move around." - -Dyann shook her head, pouting. "No," she said. "You don't love me. I -won't help you." - -"Oh, Lord! Look, Dyann, I love you, I adore you, I worship at your -feet. But give me a hand." - -Dyann brightened considerably, but said only, "Prove it." - -Ray kissed her. She kissed back and he yelled as his ribs began to give -way. - -"Yowp! Some other time, honey. I want only to save your life, don't you -see?" - -"Some other time," said Dyann firmly, "is not now. Come here, you." - -"Stop tat noise!" yelled Urushkidan, and slammed the laboratory door. - -"Ve will honeymoon on Varann," sighed Dyann happily. "You shall ride to -battle at my side." - -Much later the aroma of coffee drew Urushkidan back into the forward -cabin. A disheveled and weary-looking Ray Ballantyne was puttering -around the hotplate while Dyann sat polishing her sword and humming to -herself. - -"Now," said Ray, turning with what seemed like relief to the Martian, -"just how does this new drive of yours work?" - -"It is not a dribe and it does not work--it is a structure of -pure matematics," said Urushkidan. "Anyway, te teory is beyond te -comprehension of anybody but myself. Gibe me some coffee." - -"But you must have an idea how it would work in practice." - -"Oh, no doubt if I wanted to take te time I could debise someting. But -I am engaged in debeloping a new teory of cosmic origins." Urushkidan -slurped coffee into himself. - -"We've got to build it and escape." - -"I told you you are of neiter beauty nor importance. Why should I take -time wit you?" - -"But look, if the Jovians capture you they'll force you to build it -for them. They have ways. And then they'll overrun Mars along with all -the other planets. The only thing that's held them back so far is the -difficulty of interplanetary logistics. But when you have ships that -can cross the orbit of Pluto in a matter of hours or minutes that isn't -a problem any longer." - -"Tat would be unfortunate, yes. But I am in te midst of a bery new and -important train of tought. It would be more unfortunate if tat were -lost tan if a few ephemeral Jobians conquered te System. Tey wouldn't -last a tousand years, but a genius like me is born once in a million." - -Dyann hefted her sword. "Do as Ray says," she advised. - -"You dare not hurt me," said Urushkidan with a smug expression, "or you -will neber get away." - -He went over to the desk and began investigating the drawers again. -"Where do tey keep teir tobacco? I cannot work witout my pipe." - -"Jovians," said Ray glumly, "don't smoke. They consider it a degenerate -habit." - -"What?" The Martian's howl rattled the coffeepot on the hotplate. "No -tobacco?" - -"Only your own supply, back in Ganymede City, and I daresay the Jovians -have confiscated and destroyed it by now. That puts the nearest cigar -store somewhere in the Asteroid Belt." - -"Oh, no! Te new cosmology ruined by tobacco shortage." Urushkidan stood -thinking a moment, then came to a sudden decision. "Tere is no help for -it. If te nearest tobacco is millions of miles away we must build te -faster-tan-light engine at once." - - * * * * * - -Ray made no attempt to follow the Martian's long-winded equations -in detail. What he was interested in was making use of them, and he -proceeded with slashing approximations that brought screams of almost -physical agony from Urushkidan. - -Essentially, though, he recognized that the scientist's achievement lay -in making what seemed to be a final correlation of relativity and wave -mechanics, something which even the Goldfarb-Olson formulas had not -fully reached. - -Relativity deals with solid bodies moving at definite velocities which -cannot exceed that of light, but in wave mechanics the particle becomes -a weird and shadowy psi function and is only probably where it is. In -the latter theory, point-to-point transitions are not velocities but -shifts in the node of a complex wave. It turned out that the electronic -wave velocity--which, unlike the group velocity, is not limited by the -speed of light--could be imparted to matter under the right conditions, -so that the most probable position of the electron went from point -to point at a bewildering rate. The trick was to create the right -conditions. - -"A field of nuclear space-strain is set up by the circuit, and the -ship, reacting against the entire mass of the universe, moves without -need of rockets--right?" asked the Earthman. - -"Wrong," said Urushkidan. - -"Well, we'll build it anyway," said Ray. "Here, Dyann, bring that -generator over this way, will you?" - -"I vant to go monster-huntin," she sulked. - -"Bring--it--over, you lummox!" - -Dyann glared, but stooped over the massive machine and, between -Ganymedean gravity and Varannian muscles, staggered across the floor -with it. Ray was checking circuits on the oscilloscope. Urushkidan sat -grumbling about heat and humidity and fanning himself with his ears. -The lab was a mess of tubes, condensers, rheostats, and tangled wire. - -"I'm stuck," wailed Ray. "I need a resistor having so and so many ohms -along with such-and-such a capacitance. Find me one, quick." - -"If you would specify your units more precisely--" began Urushkidan -huffily. - -Ray pawed through the litter on the floor, putting one object after -another into his testing circuit, glancing at the meters, and throwing -it across the room. "It's vital," he said. - -"Vill this do, maybe?" asked Dyann innocently, holding out the ship's -one and only frying pan. - -"Get out!" screamed Ray. - -"I go monster-huntin," she pouted. - -Absent-mindedly, Ray tested the frying pan. It was nearly right. By -Luna, if he sawed off the handle-- - -"Hey!" yelped Urushkidan. - -"I don't like the thought of eating cold beans, cold canned meat, and -raw eggs any better than you," said Ray. "But damn it, we've got to -get out of here." He soldered the emasculated pan into his circuit. -"Starward the course of human empire," he muttered viciously. - -"Martian empire," corrected Urushkidan. - -"It'll be Jovian empire if we don't clear out of here. Okay, big brain, -what comes next?" - -"How should I know? How can you expect me to tink in tis foul tick air, -and witout tobacco?" Urushkidan turned his back. Dyann clumped in, -spacesuited, sword in one hand and rifle in the other. "I saw monsters -out there," she said. "I'm goin out to kill them." - -"Oh, yeah, sure," muttered Ray without looking up from his slide rule. -"Urushkidan, you've got to calculate the resonant psi function for me." - -"Won't," said the Martian. - -"By Heaven, you snake-legged bagpipe, I'm the captain here and you'll -do as I say." - -"Up your rectifier." Urushkidan was emptying his ash tray in search of -tobacco shreds. - -The airlock clanged behind Dyann. "I'll be damned," murmured Ray. "She -really is going out after them." - -"It is a good idea," said Urushkidan, a trifle more amiably. "Tey habe -sensed te radiations of our ship and are probably coming to crack it -open." - -"Oh, well, if that's all--_Huh?_" Ray sprang to the nearest port and -looked out. - -"Gannydragons," he groaned. "I thought they'd been exterminated." - -"Tose two don't seem to know it," said Urushkidan uneasily. "All right, -I'll calculate your function for you." - - * * * * * - -There were two of the monsters moving toward the boat. They looked -like thirty feet of long-legged alligator, but the claws and beaks had -ripped metal in earlier days of colonization. Dyann lifted her rifle -and fired. - -A dragon screamed, thin and faint in the wispy atmosphere, and turned -his head and snapped. Dyann laughed and bounded closer. Another shot -and another.... - -Something hit her and the gun flew from her hand. The dragon's tail -smote again and Dyann soared skyward. As she hit the ground the two -monsters leaped for her. - -"Ha, Ormun!" she yelled, shaking her ringing head till the ruddy hair -flew within the helmet. She crouched low and then sprang. - -Up--over the fanged head--striking down with her sword as she went by. -The monster whirled after her, greenish blood streaming from the cut -and freezing. - -Dyann backed against a looming rock, spread her feet and lifted the -sword. The first dragon struck at her, mouth agape. Dyann hewed out -again, the sword a leaping blaze of steel, the blow smashing home and -exploding its force back into her own muscles. The dragon's head sprang -from the neck. She rolled under the lashing claws and tail to get free. -The headless body struck the other dragon which promptly began to fight -it. - -Dyann circled warily about the struggle, breathing hard. The live -dragon trampled its opponent underfoot, looked around, and charged her. -The ground shuddered under its galloping mass. Dyann turned and fled. - -The dragon roared hollowly as she went up the long slope of the -nearest hill. She saw a high crag and scrambled to its top, the dragon -rampaging below her. - -"Nyaaah!" She thumbed her faceplate. "Come and get me." - -The monster's dim brain finally decided that the ship was bigger and -easier prey. Turning, it lumbered down the hillside. Dyann launched -herself into the air and landed astride its neck. - -The dragon hooted and snapped after her. She climbed higher, grabbed -its horn with one gauntleted hand, and hung on for her life. The steed -began to run. - -Hoo, bang, away over the hills with the moonscape blurring in speed. -Wind shrieked thinly about Dyann's helmet. She bounced off her seat -and came down again, a landslide rumbled behind her. The dragon zoomed -up the ridge, leaped from a bluff, and started across the cratered -plain beyond. Dyann dragged at the horn, turning its head, fighting -the monster into a circular stampede. "Ha, Ormun!" she yelled. "Ha, -Kathantuma!" - -In an hour or so the dragon stopped and stood gasping. Dyann slid -stiffly to the ground, whirled her sword over her head, and -decapitated the monster. Then she skipped home, laughing. - -"Dyann!" cried Ray as she came through the airlock. "Dyann, we thought -you were dead--" - -"Oh, it vas fun," she grinned. "Fix me a sandvich." She sat down, got -up rather quickly, and opened her arms to Ray. He retreated nervously -toward the lab. Urushkidan snickered and slammed the door in his face. - - - V - -The eighty-six hour day of Ganymede drew to a close. Jupiter was at the -half now, a banded amber giant in a sky of thronging wintry stars. Ray -wiped his grimy hands and sighed. - -"Done," he said, looking fondly at the haywired mess filling half -the lab and reaching back toward the engines. "We've done it--we've -conquered the stars." - -"My little Earthlin is so clever," simpered Dyann. - -"I am horribly afraid," said Urushkidan, "tat tis minor achievement -of mine will eclipse my true accomplishments in te popular mind. Oh, -well." He shrugged. "I can always use te money." - -"Umm, yeah, I never thought of that," said Ray. "I'm safe enough -from Vanbrugh now--you don't arrest the man who's given Earth the -Galaxy--but by gosh, there's a fortune in this little gadget too." - -"For me, of course, when I have patented it," said Urushkidan. - -"What?" yelped Ray. "You--" - -"Certainly. I inbented it, didn't I? I shall patent it too. Tell me, -should I charge an exorbitant royalty or would tere be more money in -mass sales at small price?" - -"Look here," snarled Ray, "I happen to know how this thing is put -together too." - -"Do you?" grinned Urushkidan nastily. - -"Uh--" Ray looked at the jungle of apparatus and gulped. He had only a -few fragmentary drawings. By Einstein, he had no idea how the damned -thing worked. - -"But we helped you," he protested feebly. - -"When you pay your mules and cows, I may consider gibing you a small -percentage," said Urushkidan loftily. - -"You've already got more money than you know what to do with, you -bloated capitalist. I happen to know you invested your Nobel Prize in -mortgages and then foreclosed." - -"And why not? When te royalties on tis engine start coming in, and I -get my second Nobel Prise, maybe ten I can afford an occasional cigar. -You Earthlings neber reward genius. All tese years I'be had to smoke -tat foul pipe--And tat reminds me, we habe to test tis machine. Where -is te nearest tobaco store?" - -Ray sighed and gave up. Martians had replaced Scotchmen in the lexicon -of thrift, but Urushkidan set some kind of new record. - -He sat down in the pilot chair and started the atomic generator on -high level conversion. "I hope it works," he muttered nervously. His -fingers moved over the improvised control panel for the star drive. -"Hang on, folks, here goes nothing." - -"Nothin," said Dyann after a long silence, "is correct." - -"Oh, lord! What's the matter now?" Ray went back to the new engine. Its -circuits were alive, tubes glowed and indicators blinked, but the boat -sat stolidly where it was. - -"I told you not to use tose approximations," said Urushkidan. - -Ray fiddled with the main-drive settings. "It's like any other gadget," -he complained. "You sweat yourself dry designing it from theory, and -then you have to tinker till it works." - -He began changing the positions of resistors and condensers, cutting -sections out of the circuit to work on them. Urushkidan shredded a -piece of paper, wetted it, and tried to smoke it. - -"Ray!" Dyann's voice came sharp and urgent from the forward cabin. "I -saw a rocket flare." - -"Oh, no!" He sprang back to her and peered into the night sky. A long -trail of flame arced across it. And another, and another-- - -"The Jovians," he groaned. "They've found us." - -"They may not see us," said Dyann hopefully. - -"They have metal detectors. We're done for." - -"Vell, ve can only die vunce. Kiss me, sveetheart." Dyann folded Ray -in one arm while the other reached for her sword. - -The patrol rockets went over the horizon, braking, and swam back. -Blast-flames spattered off the valley floor and frozen-gas vapors -boiled furiously up toward mighty Jupiter. - -The boat telescreen blinked its indicator light. Numbly, Ray tuned it -in. The lean hard face of Colonel Roshevsky-Feldkamp sprang into its -frame. - -"Ah, there you are," said the Jovian. - -"If we surrender," said Ray, "will you give us safe conduct back to -Earth?" - -"Certainly not. But you may be allowed to live." - -Urushkidan spoke from the lab. "Ballantyne, I tink te trouble lies in -tis square-wave generator. If we doubled te boltage--" - - * * * * * - -The first patrol ship sizzled to a landing. Roshevsky-Feldkamp leaned -forward till his face seemed to project from the screen and Ray had a -wild desire to punch its nose. "So you've been working on our project." -He said, "Well, so much the more labor spared us." - -Dyann cut loose with a short-range blaster she had located somewhere on -the lab ship. - -"Urushkidan will die before he surrenders to you," said Ray -belligerently. - -"I will do noting of te sort," said the Martian. Experimentally, he cut -the square-wave generator back into the circuit and turned a dial. - -The boat lifted off the ground. - -"Hey, there," roared the colonel. "You can't do that!" - -The Jovian soldiers who had been pouring from the grounded ship looked -stupidly upward. - -"Shell them!" snapped the colonel. - -Ray slammed the main star drive switch clear over. - -There was no feeling of acceleration. They were suddenly floating -weightless and Jupiter whizzed past the forward port. - -"Stop!" howled the Jovian. - -The engine throbbed and sang, energy pulsing in great waves through -its shuddering substance. The stars crawled eerily across the ports. -"Aberration," gasped Ray. "We're approaching the speed of light." - -Space swam and blazed with a million million suns. They bunched near -the forward port, thinning out toward the rear, as the ship added its -fantastic velocity vector to their light-rays. A distorted pale-green -globe grew rapidly before the vessel. - -"Vat planet is that up ahead?" pointed Dyann. - -"I think--" muttered Ray. He looked out the rearward port. "I think it -was Neptune." - -"Triumph!" chortled Urushkidan, rubbing his tentacles together. "My -teory is confirmed. Not tat it needs confirmation, but now even an -Eartman can see tat I am always right. And oh, how tey'll habe to pay!" - -The colors of the stars shifted toward blue in front and red behind. -Doppler effect, thought Ray wildly. He was probably seeing by radio -waves and gamma rays now. How fast were they going, anyway? He should -have thought to install some kind of speed gauge. Several times the -velocity of light at least. - -"Ha, this is fun," laughed Dyann. - -"Hmmm--we better stop while we can still see the Solar System," said -Ray, and cut the main drive. - -The ship kept on going. - -"Hey!" screamed the Earthling. "Stop! Whoa!" - -"We can't stop," said Urushkidan coolly. "We're in a certain -pseudobelocity-state now. Te engine merely accelerates us." - -"Well, how in hell do you brake?" groaned Ray. - -"I don't know. We'll habe to figure tat out. I tought you knew tis -would happen." - -"Now I do." Ray floated free of his chair, beating his forehead with -his fists. "I hope to heaven we can do it before the food runs out." - -Dyann looked at Urushkidan speculatively. "If vorst comes to vorst," -she murmured, "roast Martian--" - -"Let's get busy," gasped Urushkidan. - - * * * * * - -It took a week to improvise a braking system. By that time they were no -longer very sure where they were. - -"This is all my fault," said Dyann contritely. "If I had brought Ormun -along she vould have looked after us." - -"One thing that worries me," said Ray, "is the Jovians. They aren't -fools, and they won't be sitting on their hands waiting for us to come -back and give the star drive to Earth." - -"First," said Urushkidan snappishly, "tere is te problem of finding our -sun." - -Ray looked out the port. The ship was braked and, in the normal -space-time state of matter, was floating amidst a wilderness of -unfamiliar constellations. "It shouldn't be too hard," he said -thoughtfully. "Look, there are the Magellanic Clouds, I think, and we -should be able to locate Rigel or some other bright star. That way we -can get a fix and locate ourselves relative to Sol." - -"Tere are no astronomical tables aboard ship," pointed out Urushkidan, -"and I certainly don't clutter my brain wit mere numerical data." - -"Vich star is Rigel?" asked Dyann. - -"Why--uh--well--that one--no, it might be that one over there--or -perhaps--how should I know?" growled Ray. - -"We will simply habe to go back te way we came, as nearly as we can -judge it," said Urushkidan. - -"Maybe ve can find somevun who knows," suggested Dyann. - -Ray thought of landing on a planet and asking a winged, three-headed -monster, "Pardon me, do you know which way Sol is?" To which the -monster would doubtless reply, "Sorry, I'm a stranger here myself." He -chuckled wryly. They'd encountered a difficulty which all the brave -futuristic stories about exploring the Galaxy seemed to have overlooked. - -They had headed out in the ecliptic plane, very nearly on a line -joining the momentary positions of Jupiter and Neptune. That didn't -help much, though, in a boat never meant for interplanetary flight and -thus carrying only the ephemerides of the Jovian System. Presumably -they had gone in a straight line, so that one of the zodiacal -constellations was at their back and should still be recognizable, -but the high-velocity distortions of the outside view had precluded -anyone's noticing which stars had been where. - -Ray floated over to the port and looked out at the eerie magnificence -of unknown space. "If I'd been a Boy Scout," he lamented, "I might -know the constellations. The thing to do is to head back toward any -one which looks halfway familiar, since that must be the one which was -at our stern. But I only know Orion and the Big Dipper." He looked at -Urushkidan with accusing eyes. "You're the great astrophysicist. Can't -you tell one star from another?" - -"Certainly not," said the Martian huffily. "No astrophysicist eber -looks at de stars if he can help it." - -"Oh, you want a con--con--star-picture?" asked Dyann innocently. - -Ray said, "I mean one we know, as we see the stars from Sol, or from -Centauri. You're nice to look at, honey, but right now I can't help -wishing you Varannians were a little more intellectual." - -"Oh, I know the stars," said Dyann. "Every noble learns them. -Let me see--" She floated around the chamber, from port to port, -staring out and muttering to herself. "Oh, yes. There is Kunatha the -Hunter-threatened-by-woman-devourin-monster. Not changed much." - -"Huh?" Ray and Urushkidan pushed themselves over beside her. "By gosh," -said the Earthling, "it does look like Virgo, I think, or one of 'em. -Dyann, I love you to pieces." - -"Let's get home qvick, then," she beamed. "I vant to be on a planet." -During the outward flight she had been somewhat discomforted by -discovering the erotic importance of gravity. - -"_You_ steer us home?" screeched Urushkidan. "How in Nebukadashatbu do -you know te stars?" - -"I had to learn them," she said. "Every noble on Varann has to -know--vat you call it?--astroloyee. How else could ve plan our battles -visely?" - -"Astrology?" screamed the Martian. "You are an--an--_astrologer_?" - -"Vy, of course. I thought you vere too, but it seems like you Solarians -are more backvard than I supposed. Shall I cast your horoscope?" - -"Astrology," groaned Urushkidan. He looked ill. - -"Well," said Ray helplessly, "I guess it's up to you to pilot us back, -Dyann." - -"Vy, sure." She jumped into the pilot seat. "Anchors aveigh." - -"Brought home by an astrologer," groaned Urushkidan. "Te ignominy of it -all." - - * * * * * - -Ray started the new engine. They could accelerate all the way back and -use the brake to stop almost instantly--it shouldn't take long. "All -set," he called, and the rising note of power thrummed behind his words. - -"Giddap!" yelled Dyann. She swung the ship around and slammed the main -drive switch home. - -Ray looked out at the weirdly distorted heavens. "There should be some -way to compensate for that aberration," he murmured. "A viewplate -using photocells, with the electron beam control-fields hooked into -the drive circuit--sure. Simple." He floated back to the lab and -began assembling scattered apparatus. In a few hours he emerged -with a gadget as uncouth as the engine itself but there was a set -of three telescreens which gave clear views in three directions. -Dyann smiled and pointed to one of them. "See, now Avalla--the -Victorious-warrior-returnin-from-battle-vith-captive-man-slung-across-her-saddle-bow--is -taking shape," she said. - -"That," said Ray, "is Ursa Major. You Varannians have a fantastic -imagination." - -A blue-white giant of a sun flamed ahead, prominences seething millions -of miles into space. Dyann's eyes sparkled and she applied a sideways -vector to the star drive. "Yippee!" she howled. - -"Hey!" screamed the Earthman. - -They whizzed past the star, playing tag with the reaching flames while -Dyann roared out a Centaurian battle chant. Ray's subconscious mind -spewed forth every prayer he had even known. - -"Okay, ve are past it," said Dyann. - -"Don't do such things!" he said weakly. - -"Darlin," said the girl, "I think we should spend our honeymoon flyin' -through space like this." - -The stars blurred past. The Galaxy's conquerors looked at the splendor -of open space and ate cold beans out of a can. - -"I think," said Dyann thoughtfully, "ve should go first to Varann." - -"Alpha Centauri?" asked Urushkidan. "Nonsense. We are going back at -once to Uttu and cibilised society." - -"Ve may need help at Sol," said the girl. "Ve have been gone--how -long--about two veeks? Much could have happened in that time." - -"But--but--it's not practical," objected Ray. - -Dyann grinned cheerfully. "And how vill you stop me?" - -"Varann--oh, well, I've always wanted to see it anyway." - -The Centaurian began casting about, steering by the aspect of the sky. -Before many hours, she was slanting in toward a double star with a dim -red dwarf in the background. "This is it," she said. "This is it." - -"Okay," answered Ray. "Now tell me how you find a planet." - -"Hmmm--vell--" Dyann scratched her ruddy head. - -Ray began to figure it aloud. - -"The planets--let me see, now--yeah, they're in the plane of the two -stars. They'd have to be. So if you go out to a point in that plane -where Alpha A, your sun, seems of about the right size, and then swing -in a circle of that radius, you should come pretty close to Varann. It -has a good-sized moon, doesn't it, and its color is greenish-blue? Yes, -we should be able to spot it." - -"You are so clever," sighed Dyann. - -"Hah!" sneered Urushkidan. - -At a mere fraction of the velocity of light--Ray thought of the -consequences of hitting a planet when going faster than light, and -wished he hadn't--the spaceboat moved around Alpha A. It seemed only -minutes before Dyann pointed and cried joyously, "There ve are. There -is home. After many years--home!" - -"I would still like to know what we are going to do when we get there," -said Urushkidan. - -He was not answered. Dyann and Ray were too busy bringing the vessel -down into the atmosphere and across the wild surface. - -"Kathantuma!" cried the girl. "There is my homeland. See, there is the -mountain, old Mother Hastan. There is the city Mayta. Hold on, ve're -goin down!" - - - VI - -Mayta was a huddle of thatch-roofed wooden buildings at the foot of a -fantastically spired gray castle, sitting amid the broad fields and -forests and rivers of Kathantuma with the mountains shining in the far -distance. Dyann set the ship down just outside the town, stood up, and -stretched her tigress body with an exultant laugh. - -"Home!" she cried. "Gravity!" - -"Uh--yeah." Ray tried to lift his feet. It went slowly, with some -strain--half again the pull of Earth. Urushkidan groaned and wheezed -his painful way to a chair and collapsed all over it. - -"Let's go!" Dyann snatched up her sword, set the helmet rakishly on her -bronze curls, and opened the airlock. When Ray hesitated she reached -and yanked him out. - -The air was cool and windy, pungent with a million scents of earth and -growing things, tall clouds sailing over a high blue heaven, and even -the engineer was grateful for it after the stuffiness of the boat. He -looked around him. Not far off was a charming rustic cottage. It was -like a scene from some forgotten idyll of Earth's old past. - -"Looks good," he said. - -A four-foot arrow hummed past his ear and rang like a gong on the -ship's hull. - -"Yowp!" Ray dove for shelter. Another arrow zipped in front of him. He -whirled at a storm of contralto curses. - -There were half a dozen women pouring from the charming rustic cottage, -a battle-scarred older one and five tall young daughters, waving swords -and axes and spears. A couple of men peered nervously from the door. - -"Ha, Ormun!" yelled Dyann. She lifted her sword and dashed to meet the -onslaught. The oldest woman caught the amazon's blow on a raised shield -and her ax clanged off Dyann's helmet. Dyann staggered, shook her head, -and struck out afresh. The others closed in, yelling and jabbing. - -Dyann's sword met the nearest ax halfway and broke across. She stooped, -picked the woman off her feet, and whirled her over her head. With -a shout, she threw the old she-warrior into two of her nearest -daughters, and the trio went down in a roar of metal. - -Centaurian hospitality, thought Ray. - -A backhanded blow sent him reeling. He looked up to see a yellow-haired -girl looming over him. Before he could do more than mutter she had -slugged him again and thrown him over one brawny shoulder. - -Hoofs clattered down the narrow dirt road. A squad of armored women -riding animals reminiscent of Percherons, but horned and red of hide, -were charging from the town. They swept into the fight, wielding -clubbed lances with fine impartiality, and it broke up in a sullen -wave of red-splashed femininity. Nobody, Ray saw from his upside-down -position, had been killed, but there were plenty of slashes and the -intent had certainly been there. - -The harsh barking language of Kathantuma rose on either side. Finally -an understanding seemed to be reached. One of the riders pointed a -mailed hand at Ray's captor and snapped an order. The girl protested, -was overruled, and tossed him pettishly to the ground. He recovered -consciousness in a minute or two. - -Dyann picked him up, tenderly. "Poor Ray," she murmured. "Ve play too -rough for you here, huh?" - -"What was it all about?" he mumbled. - -"Oh, these people vere mad because ve landed in their field, but the -qveen's riders stopped the fight in time. It is only lawful to kill -people on the regular duellin grounds, inside the city limits. Ve must -have law and order, you know." - -"I see," said Ray faintly. - - * * * * * - -It was a large and turbulent crowd which gathered at sunset to hear -Dyann speak. She and her companions were on a raised stand in the -market square, together with the scarred, arrogant queen and her troop -of pikewomen and cavalry. In the guttering red flare of torches, -Ray looked down on a surging lake of women, the soldier-peasants of -Kathantuma gathered from all the hinterland, brandishing their weapons -and beating clangorous shields in lieu of applause. Here and there -public entertainers circulated, thinly clad men with flowers twined -into their hair and beards, strumming harps and watching with great -liquid eyes. - -Ray was still not quite sure what the girl's plan was, and by now -didn't much care. A combination of the dragging Varannian gravity and -the potent Varannian wine made him so sleepy that he could barely focus -on the milling crowd. Urushkidan slept the sleep of the just, snoring -hideously. - -Dyann ended her harangue and the racket of metal and voices shook the -surrounding walls. After that there were long-winded arguments which -sometimes degenerated into fist fights, until Ray himself dropped off -to sleep. - -He was shaken awake by Dyann and looked blearily around him. Dawn was -streaking the horizon with cold colorless light, and the mob was slowly -and noisily dispersing. He groaned as he stretched his stiffened body -and tried to brush the dew off his clothes. - -"The natural life--Hah!" he said miserably, and sneezed. - -"It has been decided," cried the girl. She was still as fresh as the -morning, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes ablaze. "They agreed at -last, and now the var-vord goes over the land and envoys are bound for -Almarro and Kurin to get allies. How soon can ve leave, Ray?" - -"Leave?" he asked stupidly. "Leave for where?" - -"Vy, for Yupiter, of course!" - -"Huh?" - -"You are tired, my little bird. Come vith me, and ve shall rest in the -castle." - -Ray groaned again. - - * * * * * - -How do you equip an army of barbarians still in the early Iron Age to -cross four and a third light-years of space? - -A preliminary question, perhaps is, Do you want to? - -Ray emphatically didn't, but he had very little choice in the matter. -He was soon given forcibly to understand that men kept their place and -did as they were commanded. - -He went to Urushkidan and poured out his sorrows. The Martian, after an -abortive attempt to steal the spaceship and sneak home, had been given -a room in one of the castle towers and was covering large sheets of -local parchment with equations. This place, thought Ray, has octopuses -in the belfry. - -"They want to go to Jupiter and fight the Jovians," he said. - -"What of it?" asked Urushkidan, lighting his pipe. He had found that -dried bark could be smoked. "Tey may eben succeed. Primitibes habe -often obercome more adbanced and better armed hosts. Read te history of -Eart sometime." - -"But they'll take us along." - -"Oh. Oh-oh! Tat is different." The Martian riffled through his papers. -"Let me see, I tink Equations 549 trough 627 indicate--yes, here we -are. It is possible to project te same type of dribing beam as we -use in te faster-tan-light engine so as to impart a desired belocity -bector to external objects. Toward or away from you. Or--look here, -differentiation of tis equation shows it would be equally simple to -break intranuclear bonds by trowing only a certain type of particle -into te pseudo-condition. Te atom would ten feed on its own energy." - -Ray looked at him in awe. "You," he whispered, "have just invented the -tractor beam, the pressor beam, the disintegrator, and the all-purpose, -all-fuel atomic motor." - -"I habe? Is tere money in tem?" - -Ray went to work. - -The three expeditions from Sol had left a good deal of assorted -supplies and equipment behind for the use of later arrivals. Most of -this had been stored in a local temple, and sacrifices were made yearly -to the digital computer. It took an involved theological argument to -obtain the stuff--the point that Ormun had to be rescued was conceded -to be a good one, but it wasn't till the high priestess suddenly -disappeared that the material was forthcoming. - -The Ballantyne-Urushkidan circuits were simple things, once you knew -how to make them. With the help of a few tolerably skilled smiths, Ray -hammered out enough of the new-type atomic generators to lift the fleet -off Varann and across to Sol. He built the drive-circuits carefully, -designing them to burn out after landing again on Varann. The prospect -of the amazon planet's people flitting whither they pleased in the -Galaxy was not one any sane man could cheerfully contemplate. - -The spaceships were mere hulks of varnished and greased hardwood, -equipped with airlocks and slapped together by the carpenters of Mayta -in a few weeks. The crossing would be made so rapidly that heating -and air plants wouldn't be needed. Once the haywired star drives were -installed, a pilot sketchily trained for each vessel, and every hull -crammed with a couple of hundred yelling warriors, the fleet was ready -to go. - -They poured in, ten times as many as the thirty ships could hold, -riding and hiking from the farthest of the continent's little kingdoms -to be in on the most glorious piracy of their dreams. Only Dyann cared -much about Ormun, who was after all merely her personal joss, and -only Ray gave a good damn about the menace of Jupiter. The rest came -to fight and steal and see new countries. They were especially eager -to kidnap husbands--the polyandrous system of Varann worked undue -hardships on many women, and Dyann shrewdly gave preference to the -unmarried in choosing her followers. - -As to the practicability of the whole insane idea--Ray didn't dare -think about it. - -Three hectic months after his arrival at Centauri, the barbarian fleet -left for Sol. - - * * * * * - -Jupiter swam enormously in the forward ports, diademed with the bitter -glory of open space, growing and growing as the ship rushed closer. Ray -pushed his way through the restless crowd of armed women that jammed -the boat. "Dyann," he pleaded, "couldn't I at least call up Earth and -find out what's happened?" - -"Vy, I suppose so," she said, not taking her eyes off the swelling -giant before them. "But be qvick, please." - -The human fiddled with the telescreen. Three months ago the notion of -calling over nearly half a billion miles with that undersized thing -would have been merely ridiculous. But that was another byproduct of -Urushkidan's theory. You used an electron wave with unlimited velocity -as a carrier beam for your radio photons. It induced a similar effect -in the other transmitter. No distance diminution. No time lag. Anyway, -not within the limits of anything so small as the Solar System. Ray -got the standard wavelength of the U.N. public relations office, the -only one which he could call freely without going through a lot of red -tape. - -A blurred face looked out at him. He hadn't refined his circuits to -the point of eliminating distortion, and the U.N. official resembled -something seen through ten feet of rippled water--at least, his image -did. But the voice was clear enough. "Who is this, please?" - -"Ray Ballantyne, returning from Alpha Centauri on the first -faster-than-light spaceship. Calling from the vicinity of Jupiter." - -"This is no time for joking. Who the devil are you and what do you -want? Please report." - -"I want to give the U.N. Patrol the secret of faster-than-light travel. -Stand by to record." - -"Hey!" screamed Urushkidan. "I neber said I'd gibe--" - - * * * * * - -Dyann put her foot on his head and pushed him against the floor. - -"Oh, well," he said. "Trough te incredible generosity of myself, ten, -te secret is made freely abailable--" - -"Ready to record?" asked Ray tightly. - -"I said your humor is in very bad taste," said the official, and -switched off with an ugly scowl. - -Ray blinked weakly at the set for a while. Then he tuned in on Earth -broadcasts until he caught a news program. Jupiter had declared war a -month ago, defeated the U.N. navy in a running battle off Mars, seized -bases on Luna, and was threatening atomic bombardment of Earth unless -terms were met. "Oh, gosh," said Ray. - -"Such an inbasion could only be launched, on a shoestring," said -Urushkidan. "Te U.N. still has bases closer to home, it can cut Jobian -supply lines--" - -"And meanwhile poor old Earth is reduced to radioactive rubbish," said -Ray gloomily. "And those gruntbrains in charge won't believe I've got -the decisive weapon to save them." - -"Would you beliebe such a claim?" - -"No, but this is different, damn it." - -"Ganymede dead ahead," shouted Dyann. "Stand by for action! Get ready -to make a landing." - - - VII - -The flagship-spaceboat slanted into the moon's atmosphere with a whoop -and a holler, blazed across the ragged surface, and lowered outside the -great dome of Ganymede City. The clumsy hulks behind her wallowed after -at a more leisurely pace. - -Lacking spacesuits, the amazons were faced with a certain problem of -entry. Dyann hovered over the spaceport and opened her disintegrators -full blast. The port disappeared in a sudden tornado of boiling rock -and leaping blue fires. When she had sunk a fifty-foot pit, she went -down into it, hung before the side of it facing the city, and narrowed -the dis-beam to a drill. In moments she had cut a tunnel through to the -lower levels of the city. - -Air began streaming out, ghost-white with freezing water vapor, but -it would take quite a few minutes for the pressure within to fall -dangerously low. Meanwhile Dyann sailed blithely through her tunnel, -disintegrated various walls and bulkheads to clear a landing space, and -set down amid the ruins of the city's factory level. - -"All out!" she cried. "Hai, Kathantuma!" - -Ray buckled on his helmet with shaking fingers, drew his sword, and -followed her out the airlock, more because of the press of bodies -behind than from any desire for glory. In fact, he admitted to himself, -he was scared witless. Only Urushkidan stayed behind--the lucky devil. - -The rest of the barbarian fleet streamed in one by one, landing -clumsily and discharging their clamorous hordes. When the clear -area was filled, they landed on top of each other and the armored -warriors jumped down in a flash of edged metal. After they were all -in, Urushkidan projected a beam and melted the passageway shut against -the escape of air and heat. Also, thought Ray sickly, against a quick -retreat. - -"Hoo, hah!" Dyann's sword shrieked in the air above the helmeted heads -of her milling army. She started down the nearest corridor, running -and bounding and whooping. The amazons were hard on her heels, and the -racket of clashing armor and girlish voices was shattering. - -Up a long staircase, five steps at a time, into the hall beyond that, -spilling out over a broad plaza-- - -A machine gun raved and Ray saw three Centaurians tumble to the floor. -As he dove for it himself, he looked across the square and into the -muzzle of the thing where it sat in one of the branch corridors. -There might be only a skeleton garrison left in the city but it had -reacted with terrifying swiftness. Ray tried to dig through the metal -floorplates. - -The air was suddenly thick and whistling. A solid rain of spears and -arrows loosed. It didn't leave much of the machine gun crew. One of -the amazon officers--they had some notion of firearms--picked up -the .50-caliber under one arm. When a squad of Jovian soldiers appeared -down the hallway, she held it against her knee and used it tommy-gun -style. It worked. - -Ray was carried along by the tide. In this weird struggle, modern -firearms weren't of decisive use. Boiling through the miles of -gloomy hallways and narrow apartments, the fight was almost entirely -hand-to-hand, and that was exactly what the Varannians loved. - -Dyann vaulted over a row of bodies and hit a Jovian squad with all -her mass and momentum. She trampled two men underfoot while her sword -howled in a shearing arc around her. A Jovian grenadier hurled his -pineapple in her direction. She snatched it out of the air and tossed -it back. Wildly, he caught it and threw it again. Dyann laughed and -pitched it once more--very shortly before it went off. Turning, she -skewered one Jovian, kicked another in the belly, used her sword's -guard as a knuckle-duster against a third, and cut down a fourth in -almost the same motion. The squad broke up. - -Ray saw an inviting door and scurried for it. There was a bed to -hide under. Two Jovian soldiers came in at that moment, fleeing the -barbarians. - -Ray's helmet and cuirass were as good as a uniform, or he would have -shouted "Hail, Wilder!" As it was, the nearest man lunged at him with a -bayonet. Ray's sword clattered against the weapon, driving it briefly -aside. The Jovian snarled and probed inward, but a bayonet is clumsy -compared to a well-handled blade and Ray had done a little fencing. He -beat the assault back and thrust under the fellow's guard. - -The other man had been circling, trying to get in on the fun. Now -he charged. Ray whirled to meet him and tripped on his scabbard. He -clanged to the floor and the rushing Jovian tripped on him. Ray got on -the man's back, pulled off his helmet, and beat his head against the -floor. - -Rising, he checked the two rifles. Empty--the Jovians must have used -all their clips in an attempt to stem the Centaurian thrust, which -explained their choice of cold steel against him. But they had full -cartridge belts. Ray reloaded one of the guns and felt better. - -Peering carefully out the door, he saw that the fight had moved -somewhere else. He started back toward the ships, the safest place he -could think of. - - * * * * * - -As he rounded a corner a tommy-gun blast nearly took his head off. He -yelled, dropped to the floor just in time, and let the gun fall from -his hands. - -A hard boot slammed against his ribs. "Get up!" - -He lurched to his feet and stared into the faces of a Jovian -detachment, the black-clad elite guard of the dictator himself. Martin -Wilder the Great huddled in their midst. Colonel Roshevsky-Feldkamp was -at their head, in charge of Jupiter's home defense, Ray thought wildly, -and tried to stretch his arms higher. - -"Ballantyne!" The Jovian officer glared at him for a long moment. "So -you are responsible." - -"I had nothing to do with it, so help me I didn't," protested Ray -between the clattering of his teeth. - -"You brought these savages in, you and your damned faster-than-light -engine. If it weren't for your hostage value, I'd shoot you now. As it -is, I'll wait till later. March!" - -They went carefully down the glutted hall-street. The Centaurians had -been picking up souvenirs from every shop and apartment they passed. -"Don't think this will accomplish anything," said Wilder pompously. -"You may have driven us from our capital, but we have already called -for help from the other cities--from the whole Jovian System. The -fleet is on its way." - -So the amazons had taken Ganymede City. And now they'd be too busy -looting to think about counterattacks from outside. Ray groaned. - -"We have to get out of here, sir," said Roshevsky-Feldkamp. "We don't -want you to be caught in the fighting." - -"No, no, that would never do," said Wilder quickly. - -"There is a military airlock this way, with spacesuits. We can get out -on the surface." - -"I will strike a new medal," chattered the dictator. "The Defense of -the Homeland Medal." - -"And afterward we will take those ships." Roshevsky-Feldkamp's hard -face lit with a terrible glee. "And then the stars are ours." - -"Hoo-ah!" - -The shout rang down the hallway. Ray saw a Centaurian band, staggering -under armloads of assorted plunder, emerge from a side passage. The -Jovians brought their rifles up. - -Something like an atomic bomb hit the group from the rear. Dyann's -war-cry shrieked above the sudden din. She hadn't been altogether a -fool. - -Ray was shoved back against the wall by the sudden whirlpool of -struggling bodies. He ducked as a Varannian sword whistled overhead. -Dyann was wading in among the Jovians, kicking, striking, hewing like a -maniac. She split one enemy apart, pitched another into a third, turned -around and chopped loose. Her warriors got to work at her side. - -A panting Jovian backed up close to Ray, lifting his rifle anew to -shoot down the bronze-haired girl. The Earthmen thoughtfully removed -the soldier's pistol from its holster and shot him. - -"My little hero!" cried Dyann happily. "I love you so much!" She beat -down another man's gun and broke his head. - -The fight ended. Most of the Jovians had simply been knocked -galley-west and submitted in a stunned way to being bound and hoisted -to Varannian shoulders. Ray had a glimpse of Martin Wilder the Great -and Colonel Roshevsky-Feldkamp being dragged off by a squat and -muscular amazon with a silly smirk on her sword-scarred face. They -were destined for her harem, and he couldn't think of two people he'd -rather have it happen to. - -Only there were those Jovian ships-- - -Ray had no way, just then, of knowing that Urushkidan had prudently -taken the spaceboat outside again and was using its long-range beams to -disintegrate the fleet as it came down. He hummed an old Martian work -song to himself as he did. There are times when even a philosopher must -take measures. - - * * * * * - -Official banquets are notoriously dull affairs, and the present -celebration was no different. That the Luna-based invaders had -capitulated on hearing of the disaster at home, that a democratic -government with U.N. membership had been set up for a permanently -disarmed Jupiter, and that the stars were open to mankind, seemed to -call forth only bigger and better platitudes. - -Ray Ballantyne, drowsy with food and cocktails, nearly snowblind with -white tablecloth, would have fallen asleep except for the fact that his -shoes pinched him. So he listened with some surprise to the president -of his alma mater telling what an outstanding student he had been. As a -matter of fact, he recalled, he'd damn near been expelled. - -Urushkidan, crammed into a Martian-designed tuxedo, smoked a thoughtful -pipe at his right and made calculations on the tablecloth. Dyann -Korlas, her shining hair braided around a stolen Jovian tiara, looked -stunning in a low-cut evening gown on his left. The dagger at her waist -was to set a new fashion on Earth, but there had been some confusion -when she insisted on having Ormun the Terrible placed in front of her -and grace said to the idol. Oh, well. - -"--and this dauntless genius of science, whom his university is pleased -to honor with a doctorate of law--" - -She leaned over and whispered in his ear--it could only be heard for -three yards around--"Ray, vat vill you do now?" - -"I dunno," he murmured back. "I want to get a patent on that damn -interstellar drive before Urushkidan does, but after that--well--" - -"It vas a lot of fun vile it lasted, vasn't it?" Dyann's smile was -wistful. "But I have been thinking, Ray. I am goin' back to Varann and -carve me out a throne. You--vell, Ray, you are too fine and beautiful -for such rough vork. You belon here, in the glamor and bright lights, -not out vith a lot of coarse unruly vomen who might hurt you." - -"You know," he said, "I think you've got something there." - -"I vill alvays remember you," she said sentimentally. "Maybe some day -ven ve are old, ve can meet again and bore the youth vith talk of our -great days." She looked around. "If only ve could sneak out of here now -and have a farevell party of our own--I know a bar--" - -"Hmmm." Ray stroked his chin. "This calls for tactics. If we could sort -of slump down in our chairs, as if we were tired--and Lord, I am!--and -gradually sink out of sight, we could crawl under the table and through -that door--" - -As he crept from the hall, Ray heard Urushkidan, called on for a -speech, begin the detailed exposition of his latest theory. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Captive of the Centaurianess, by Poul Anderson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTIVE OF THE CENTAURIANESS *** - -***** This file should be named 64075-8.txt or 64075-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/4/0/7/64075/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Captive of the Centaurianess - -Author: Poul Anderson - -Release Date: December 18, 2020 [EBook #64075] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTIVE OF THE CENTAURIANESS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>Captive of the Centaurianess</h1> - -<h3><i>A Novel of Primitive Future Worlds</i></h3> - -<h2>By POUL ANDERSON</h2> - -<p><i>The entire System was after Ballantyne.<br /> -Earth wanted him. The Jovian war-fleet jetted<br /> -on his trail. But mainly Ballantyne feared his<br /> -big-bosomed, sword-swinging space-mate—Dyann<br /> -the Amazon from man-starved Alpha C3.</i></p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories March 1952.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p><i>The hero is the child of his times, in that his milieu furnishes him -with motives and means, and yet the hero seizes the time and shapes it -as he will. And he remains an enigma to his contemporaries and to the -future.</i></p> - -<p><i>Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the strange story of the -three whose discoveries and achievements determined the whole course -of history. The driving idealism and bold military genius of Dyann -Korlas; the mighty wisdom, profound and benign, of Urushkidan; above -all, perhaps, the transcendent clarity of mind and inspired leadership -of Ballantyne—these molded our century and all centuries to come, and -yet we will never understand them, they are too far beyond us and their -essential selves must be forever a mystery.</i></p> - -<p class="ph2">—<i>Vallabbhai Rasmussen</i>, History<br /> -of the Twenty-third Century, <i>v.</i> 1</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">I</p> - -<p>The tender loomed above the crowd of passengers and leave-takers, a -great shining bullet caught in floodlights against the dark, and Ray -Ballantyne quickened his steps. By Heaven, he'd made it! The flight -from San Francisco to Quito, the nail-biting dawdle as he waited for -the airbus, then the flight out to Ecuador Spaceport, the last walk -through the vast echoing hollowness of the terminal, out onto the -field—and there it was, there the little darling lay, waiting to carry -him from Earth up to the <i>Jovian Queen</i> and safety.</p> - -<p>He kissed his fingers at the tender and shoved rudely through the swarm -of people and Martians. He'd already missed the first trip up to the -liner, and the thought of waiting for the third was beyond endurance.</p> - -<p>"Hey, chum."</p> - -<p>As the heavy hand fell on his arm, Ballantyne whirled, his heart -slamming against his teeth and his spine dropping out. The thick-set -man compared his thin sharp features with the photograph in the other -paw, nodded, and said, "All right, Ballantyne, come along."</p> - -<p>"<i>Se llama Garcia!</i>" gibbered the engineer. "<i>No hablo Inglés.</i>"</p> - -<p>"I said come along," said the detective wearily. "I thought you'd try -to leave Earth. This way."</p> - -<p>Ballantyne's free hand reached up and crammed the fellow's hat down -over his eyes. Wrenching loose, he turned and ran for the gangway, -upsetting a corpulent Latin woman en route and pursued by a volley of -imprecations. He shoved aside the passenger before him and ran into the -solid wall of an impassive Jovian ship's officer.</p> - -<p>The Jovian, a tall muscular blond in a dazzling crispness of white -uniform, looked at him with the thinly veiled contempt of a proper -Confed for the lesser breeds of humanity. "Ticket and passport, -please," he said stonily.</p> - -<p>Ballantyne shoved them at him, glancing shakily back to the detective -who had become entangled with the indignant woman and was being slapped -with a handbag and volubly cursed. With maddening deliberation the -Jovian scanned the engineer's papers, compared them with a list in his -hand, and waved him on.</p> - -<p>The detective caromed against the same immovable barrier. "Let me by!" -he gasped.</p> - -<p>"Your ticket and passport, please," said the Jovian.</p> - -<p>"That man is under arrest. Let me by."</p> - -<p>"Your ticket and passport, please."</p> - -<p>"I tell you I'm an officer of the law and I have a warrant for that -man. Let me by."</p> - -<p>"Proper authorization may be obtained at the main office," said the -Jovian coldly.</p> - -<p>The detective tried to rush, encountered a bit of expert judo, -and tumbled back into the crowd. Every able-bodied Jovian was a -well-trained military reservist.</p> - -<p>"Proper authorization may be obtained at the main office," repeated the -immovable barrier. To the next man, "Your ticket and passport, please."</p> - -<p>Ray Ballantyne dashed the sweat off his brow and permitted himself a -nasty chuckle. By the time the hapless detective had gone through all -that red tape, the tender would be well on its way.</p> - -<p>Before one of his country's secret police the Jovian would have quailed -and said nothing. But this was Earth, and the Confeds loved to bait -Terrestrials, and there was no better way than by demanding the endless -papers which their file-clerk mentalities had devised.</p> - -<p>The engineer went on into the tender, found a seat, and strapped -himself in. He was clear. Before Heaven, he was away!</p> - -<p>Even the long Vanbrugh arm did not reach to Jupiter. Ballantyne's -alleged crimes weren't enough for the Earth government to ask his -extradition. He could stay on Ganymede till the whole business had -blown over, and then—well—</p> - -<p>He sighed, relaxing—a medium-sized young man, slender and wiry, -with close-cropped yellow hair and features a little too sharp to be -handsome. His thin deft fingers rearranged his overly colorful tie and -straightened his sports jacket. Always wanted to see the Jovian System, -anyway, he rationalized.</p> - -<p>The tender's airlock sighed shut and a stewardess went down the -aisle handing out anti-acceleration pills. She had the full-bodied, -pure-blooded good looks of the ideal Jovian together with their faintly -repellent air of hard, purposeful efficiency. The rockets began to -throb, warming up, and a siren hooted.</p> - -<p>Ballantyne turned to the man beside him, obsessed with the idiotic -desire for conversation found in all recent escapees from the law or -the dentist. "Going home, I see," he remarked.</p> - -<p>The man was a tall specimen in the gray Jovian army uniform, with -colonel's planets on his shoulders and a chestful of ribbons and -medals—about forty, closely shaven head, iron jaw, ramrod spine. He -fixed the Earthling with a chill pale eye and said, "And you, I see, -are leaving home. Two scintillating deductions."</p> - -<p>"Ummm—uh—well." Ballantyne looked away, his ears ablaze. The Jovian -clutched his heavy portfolio tighter to his side.</p> - -<p>The tender shook itself, howled, and jumped into the sky. Ballantyne -leaned back in the cushioned seat, staring out the port at the -fire-starred unfolding of space. The Jovian colonel sat rigid as -before, not deigning to yield to the pressure.</p> - -<p>They came up to the <i>Jovian Queen</i>, where the great liner held her -orbit about Earth, and Ballantyne glimpsed her long metal shape, -blinding in the raw sunlight, as the tender swung in for contact. When -the airlocks joined there was a steady one-gravity as the spaceship -rotated on her axis. Whatever you could say against the Jovians—and -that was quite a bit—they did maintain the best transport in the Solar -System. Earth's heavy passenger and freight haulers were in tight -financial straits competing with the state-subsidized lines of Jupiter.</p> - -<p>An expressionless uniformed steward took charge of the passengers as -they entered the ship, herding them to their respective destinations. -Ballantyne lugged his valise toward third-class section. He'd have to -share his cabin with two others—how had the mighty fallen! Thinking -over the decline and fall of the Ballantyne pocketbook, he sighed, and -the suitcase seemed to drag at him. He'd hit Ganymede pretty broke, -unless....</p> - -<p>He opened his assigned door.</p> - -<p>"Put—me—down!"</p> - -<p>Ballantyne dropped his suitcase and his jaw. Within the narrow cabin a -Martian was struggling in the clutch of a six-foot armored woman.</p> - -<p>"Put—me—down!" he spluttered. He coiled his limbs snakelike -around the woman's brawny arms, and a Martian's four thick, rubbery -walking-tentacles have formidable strength. She didn't seem to notice. -She laughed and shook him a bit.</p> - -<p>"I—beg your pardon—" gasped Ballantyne, backing away.</p> - -<p>"You are forgiven," said the woman. Her voice was a husky contralto, -burdened with a rippling, slurring accent he couldn't place. She shot -out one Martian-encumbered arm, grabbed him by the coat, and hauled him -inside. "You be the yudge, my friend. Is it not yustice that I have the -lower berth?"</p> - -<p>"It is noting of te sort!" screamed the Martian, fixing Ballantyne with -round, bulging, and indignant yellow eyes. "My position, my eminence, -clearly entitle me to ebery consideration, and ten tis hulking -monster—"</p> - -<p>The Earthling let his gaze travel up and down the woman's -smooth-muscled form and said in an awed whisper, "I think you'd better -accept the lady's generous offer. But—uh—I seem to have the wrong -cabin—"</p> - -<p>"Are you Ray Ballantyne of Earth?" asked the woman.</p> - -<p>He pleaded guilty.</p> - -<p>"Then you belon vith us. I have looked at the passenyer lists. You may -have the cot."</p> - -<p>"Th-thanks," shivered Ballantyne, sitting down on it.</p> - -<p>The Martian seemed to give the fight up as a bad job and allowed -himself to be placed on the upper bunk. "To tink of it," he squeaked. -"Tat I, te great Urushkidan of Ummunashektaru, should be man-handled by -a sabage who does not know a logaritm from an exponent!"</p> - -<p>Urushkidan. Ballantyne knew the name of the Martian mathematician, the -latter-day Gauss or Einstein, and stared as if this were the first -Martian he had seen in his life. Urushkidan looked like any other of -his race, at least to the inexperienced eye. A great gray-skinned -cupola of a body balanced four feet high on the walking-tentacles, with -the two slim, three-fingered arm-tentacles writhing from either side -of a wide lipless mouth set beneath that torse. Big unwinking eyes -behind horn-rimmed spectacles, flat nose, elephantine ears—"Not <i>the</i> -Urushkidan?" he gasped.</p> - -<p>"Tere is only <i>one</i> Urushkidan," said the Martian.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The amazon sat down on her own bunk and laughed, a Homeric shout of -laughter ringing between the metal walls and shivering the furniture. -"Velcome, little Earthman," she cried. "You are cute, I think I vill -like you. I am Dyann Korlas of Kathantuma." She grabbed his hand in a -bone-cracking grip.</p> - -<p>"One of the Centaurians," said Ballantyne feebly.</p> - -<p>"Yes, so you call us." She opened her trunk and began unpacking. -Ballantyne watched her with appreciation and some curiosity. He'd only -seen the Alpha Centaurian visitors on television before now.</p> - -<p>She looked human enough externally, aside from a somewhat different -convolution of the ears. Internally there were plenty of peculiarities, -among them a skeletal and tissue structure considerably harder and -denser than that of Homo Solis. Alpha Centauri III—or Varann, as its -more advanced nation had decided to call it after learning from the -terrestrial explorers that it was a planet—was Earth-like enough in a -cool and bracing way, but it had half again the surface gravity.</p> - -<p>Sexual differentiation also varied a bit from the Solar norm. The -Centaurian men were somewhat smaller and weaker than the women. They -stayed at home and did the housework while their wives conducted the -business. In the warlike culture of Kathantuma and its neighbor states -that meant going out, cutting the other army into hamburger, and -stealing everything which wasn't bolted down.</p> - -<p>This—Dyann Korlas—was something to write home about as far as looks -went. Her size and the broadsword at her waist were intimidating, but -her build was magnificent in a statuesque, tiger-lithe way. She looked -young, her skin smooth, and faintly golden, a heavy mass of shining -bronze hair coiled about the haughtily lifted head. Her face was close -to the ideal of an ancient Hellenic sculptor, clean straight lines, -firm jaw, brilliant gray eyes under heavy brows. She wore a light -cuirass over her tunic, sandals, a bat-winged helmet on her head.</p> - -<p>"It—ah—it's strange they'd put you in the same cabin with me," said -Ballantyne hesitantly.</p> - -<p>"Oh, you are safe enough," she grinned.</p> - -<p>He flushed, reflecting that the ladies from Centauri were in little -danger from any Solar man. Very likely it was the other way around. -Then he recalled that their native titles translated into things -like warrior, district-ruler, chief, and so on. With their arrogant -indifference to mere exploration and ethnology, the Jovians had -probably assumed that Dyann Korlas was male. Well, he wasn't going to -enlighten them.</p> - -<p>He looked up to Urushkidan, who was morosely stuffing a big-bowled -pipe. "Ah, I know of your work, of course," he said hesitantly. "I -am—was—a nuclear engineer, so maybe I even have some appreciation of -what it's about."</p> - -<p>The Martian preened. "Doubtless you have grasped it bery well," he said -generously. "As well as any Eartman could, which is, of course, saying -bery little."</p> - -<p>"But, if I may ask, sir, what are you doing here?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, I have an inbitation from te Jobian Academy of Science to lecture. -Tey are commendably interested and seem to realise my fundamental -importance. I will be glad to get off Eart. Te air pressure, te -gravity, pfui!"</p> - -<p>"But a man, uh, Martian of your distinction—traveling third class—"</p> - -<p>"Oh, they sent me a first-class ticket, of course. But I turned -it in, bought a tird class, and banked te difference." He scowled -darkly at Dyann Korlas. "Tough if I must be treated so—Well." He -shrugged. A Martian shrugging is quite a sight. "It is of no matter. -We of Uttu—Mars as you insist on calling it—are so incomparably far -advanced in te philosophic virtues of serenity, generosity, and modesty -tat I can accept wit equanimity."</p> - -<p>"Oh," said Ballantyne. To the Centaurian, "And may I ask why you are -going to Jupiter—ah—Miss Korlas?"</p> - -<p>"You may call me Dyann," she said sweetly, "and I vill call you -Ray, so? I vish only to see Yupiter, though I doubt it vill be as -glamorous as Earth." Her eyes glowed. "You live in a fable. The flyin -and travelin machines, auto—automatic kitchens, television, clocks an -vatches, exotic dress. Aah, it vas vorth ten years travelin yust to see -them."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Ballantyne reflected on what he knew of Alpha Centauri. Even the -fantastically fast new exploratory ships took ten years to cross the -interstellar gulf to its wild planets, and there had only been three -expeditions so far. The third had brought back a group of curious -natives who were to report to their queen what the strangers' homeland -was like.</p> - -<p>He imagined that the spacemen had had quite a time, with that score of -turbulent barbarians crammed into a narrow hull though of course they'd -passed almost the whole voyage in suspended animation. The visitors -had spent about a year now on Earth and Luna, staring, asking endless -questions, wondering what their hosts did with themselves now that the -U. N. had brought the nations together and ended war. There hadn't -been much trouble. Occasionally one of them would get mad and break -somebody's jaw, and then there'd been the one who was invited to speak -at a women's club.... He chuckled to himself.</p> - -<p>"Are these Yovians humans like you?" asked Dyann.</p> - -<p>"Uh-huh," he nodded. "The moons were colonized from Earth about a -hundred and twenty-five years ago. They declared their independence -about sixty years past, and nobody thought it was worth the trouble to -fight about it. Though maybe we should have."</p> - -<p>"Vy that?"</p> - -<p>"Oh well, the colonists were misfits originally, remnants of the -old Eurasian militarisms. They did do heroic work in settling and -developing the Jovian System, but they live under a dictatorship -and make no bones about despising Earth and considering themselves -the destined rulers of all the planets. Last year they grabbed the -Saturnian colonies on the thinnest of pretexts, and Earth was too -chicken-livered to do more than give them a reproachful look. Not that -the U. N. has much of a navy these days, compared to theirs."</p> - -<p>Dyann shrugged and went on unpacking. She hung an extra sword on the -wall, unshipped her armor and put it up, and slipped into a loose -fur-trimmed robe. Urushkidan slithered to the floor and opened his -own trunk, pulling out a score of fat books which he placed on the -shelf over his bunk and expropriated the little table for his papers, -pencils, and humidor.</p> - -<p>"You know—ah—Dr. Urushkidan—" said Ballantyne uneasily, "I wish you -weren't going to Jupiter."</p> - -<p>"And why not?" asked the Martian belligerently.</p> - -<p>"Well, doesn't your reformulation of general relativity indicate a way -to build a ship which can go faster than light?"</p> - -<p>"Among oter tings, yes." Urushkidan blew a malodorous cloud of smoke.</p> - -<p>"Well, I don't think the Jovians are interested in science for its own -sake. I think they want to get you and your knowledge so they can build -such ships themselves which would be the last thing they need to take -over the Solar System."</p> - -<p>"A Martian," said Urushkidan condescendingly, "is not concerned wit te -squabblings of te lower animals. Noting personal, of course."</p> - -<p>Dyann pulled an idol from her trunk and put it on her shelf. It was a -small wooden image, gaudily painted and fiercely tusked, each of its -six arms holding some weapon. One, Ballantyne noticed, was a carved -Terrestrial tommy-gun. "Qviet, please," she said, raising one arm. "I -am about to pray to Ormun the Terrible."</p> - -<p>"Barbarian," guffawed Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>Dyann took a pillow and stuffed it in his mouth. "Qviet, please, I -said." She smiled gently and prostrated herself before the god.</p> - -<p>After a while she got up. Urushkidan was still speechless with rage. -She turned to Ballantyne and asked, "Do the ships here carry live -animals? I vould like to make a small sacrifice too."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>The bulletin board said that in the present orbital positions of the -planets, the <i>Jovian Queen</i> would make her voyage at one Earth-gravity -acceleration in six days, forty-three minutes, and twelve seconds, plus -or minus ten seconds. That might be pure braggadocio, though Ballantyne -wouldn't have been surprised to learn that it was sober truth. He hoped -the time was overestimated. His cabin mates were a little wearing on -the nerves. Urushkidan filling the room with smoke, sitting up till all -hours covering paper with mathematical symbols and screaming at any -interruption. Dyann was nice-looking but rather overwhelming. In some -ways she was reminiscent of Catherine Vanbrugh. The Engineer shuddered.</p> - -<p>He slouched moodily into the bar and ordered a martini he could ill -afford. The place was quiet, discreetly lit, not very full. His eyes -fell on the stiff-laced Jovian colonel, still clutching his portfolio -like grim death, but talking with unusual animation to a stunning -Terrestrial redhead. It was clear that ideas about the purity of the -Jovian stock—"hardened in the fire and ice of outer space, tempered -and beaten into the new and dominant mankind"—had been temporarily -shelved.</p> - -<p>If I had some money, thought Ballantyne gloomily, I could detach her -from him and enjoy this trip.</p> - -<p>The bartender informed him, with some awe, that the man was Colonel -Ivan Hosea Domenico Roshevsky-Feldkamp, late military attaché of -Jupiter's Terrestrial embassy and an officer who had served with -distinction in suppressing the Ionian revolt and in asserting Jupiter's -rightful claims to Saturn. Ray was more interested in the girl's name -and antecedents. Just as he'd thought, an heiress on a pleasure trip. -Expensive.</p> - -<p>A couple of genial Earthmen moved up and began talking to him. Before -long they suggested a friendly game of poker.</p> - -<p>Oh-ho! thought Ray, who knew that sort. "Sure," he said.</p> - -<p>They played most of the time for a couple of days. Luck went back -and forth but in general Ray won, and toward the end he was a couple -of thousand U. N. credits to the good. He let his eyes glitter with -febrile cupidity, and the sharks—there were three of them all -told—almost licked their lips.</p> - -<p>"Excuse me a minute," said Ray, pocketing his winnings. "I'll be back, -and then we'll play for real stakes."</p> - -<p>"You bet," said the sharks. They sat back, lit anticipatory cigars, and -waited.</p> - -<p>And waited.</p> - -<p>And waited.</p> - -<p>Ray found the redhead remarkably easy to pry from the colonel.</p> - -<p>The girl thought it would be just too much fun to go slumming and have -the captain's dinner with him in the third-class saloon. He led her -down the thrumming corridor, thinking wistfully that before he knew it -he'd be in Ganymede City and as broke as he'd been to start with.</p> - -<p>Urushkidan crawled slowly by, waving an idle tentacle at him. The -Martian walking system was awkward under Earth gravity and, their table -manners being worse than atrocious, they ate in a separate section. It -was Dyann who really started the trouble. She strode up behind Ray and -clapped a heavy hand on his shoulder.</p> - -<p>"Vere have you been?" she asked reproachfully. "You have not been in -our cabin for two days and nights now."</p> - -<p>The redhead blushed.</p> - -<p>"Oh hullo, Dyann," said Ray, annoyed. "I'll see you later."</p> - -<p>"Of course you vill." She smiled. "Ah, you dashin' glamorous Earthmen, -you make me feel so small and veak." She topped him by a good two -inches.</p> - -<p>They came into the doorway of the saloon and three familiar figures -barred Ray's passage.</p> - -<p>"What the hell became of you, Ballantyne?" demanded one. His geniality -was quite gone. "You was going to play some more with us."</p> - -<p>"I forgot," said Ray huskily. The three men looked bigger than they -had, somehow.</p> - -<p>"It's not sporting to quit when you're so far ahead," said another.</p> - -<p>"Yeah," said a third. "You ought at least to give us our money back."</p> - -<p>"I haven't got it," said Ray.</p> - -<p>"Look, pal, things happen to people that ain't good sports. They ain't -very pop-u-lar, and things happen to them. Where's that money?"</p> - -<p>They crowded in, hemming him against the wall. Beyond them, he could -see Colonel Roshevsky-Feldkamp staring coldly at the tableau. Ray -wondered if he hadn't put the players up to this. They wouldn't have -dared start trouble without some kind of <i>sub rosa</i> official hint.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Come on back to our cabin and we'll talk this over, pal."</p> - -<p>The redhead squeaked and shrank aside. A meaty hand closed on Ray's arm -and dragged him half off his feet. Dyann bristled, one hand clapped to -her sword. "Are these men annoyin' you, Ray?" she asked.</p> - -<p>"No, we just want a quiet little private talk with our friend," said -one of them. "Just come along easy, Ballantyne."</p> - -<p>"Dyann, I think they are annoying me," said the engineer, the words -rattling in a suddenly dry and tightened throat.</p> - -<p>"Oh, vell, in that case—" She smiled, reached out, and grabbed a -collar.</p> - -<p>There was a minor explosion. The man catapulted into the air, hit the -ceiling, caromed off a wall, and bounced on the floor. Sheer reflex -sent knives flying into the hands of the other two.</p> - -<p>"Ormun is good!" shouted Dyann joyously. She gave the nearest gambler a -fistful of knuckles, tossed him into the air, clutched his ankles as he -came down, and whirled him against the wall.</p> - -<p>The third was stabbing at her back. Blindly, Ray grabbed his arm and -pulled him away. He snarled and lunged at the engineer, who tumbled -backward clutching after the nearest weapon. It happened to be Colonel -Roshevsky-Feldkamp's massive briefcase. He grabbed it free and brought -it down on the gambler's head. It hit with a dull <i>thwack</i> and the -fellow lurched. Ray hit him again. The briefcase burst open and papers -snowed through the air. Then Dyann got the enemy from behind and -proceeded to tie him in knots.</p> - -<p>The redhead had already departed, screaming. Ray sank to one shaky knee -and looked up into the colonel's livid face.</p> - -<p>"I'm terribly sorry, sir," he gasped. "Here, let me help—"</p> - -<p>He began stuffing papers back into the briefcase. A polished boot -hit him where it would do the most good and he skidded through the -disorderly mass. "You unutterable fool!" raged the voice above him.</p> - -<p>"You vould kick my friend, huh?" asked Dyann indignantly.</p> - -<p>A revolver clanked from the colonel's belt. "That will do," he snapped. -"Consider yourself under arrest."</p> - -<p>Dyann's broad smooth shoulders sagged a little. "I am so sorry," she -said meekly. "Let me help yust a litle." She stooped and picked up one -of the unconscious men.</p> - -<p>"March!" rapped the colonel.</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," whispered Dyann abjectly. Then, being almost next to him, -she rammed her burden into his belly. He sat down with a thunderous -<i>oof</i> and Dyann kicked him behind the ear.</p> - -<p>"That vas fun," she grinned, picking up the revolver and sticking it -into her belt. "Vat shall ve do now?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"You," said Urushkidan acidly, "are a typical human."</p> - -<p>Ray looked despairingly out of the brig at him. "What else could I do?" -he asked wildly. "I couldn't fight a shipful of Jovians. It was all I -could do to talk Dyann into surrendering."</p> - -<p>"I mean in fighting in te first place," said Urushkidan. "I hear it -started over a female. Why don't you lower animals habe a regular -rutting season as we do on Uttu? Ten you could spend time tinking of -someting else too, someting constructive."</p> - -<p>"Well—" Ray couldn't suppress a wry smile, "those are constructive -thoughts, of a sort. But what happened to Dyann?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, tey questioned her, found she couldn't read, and let her go. But -tey won't let her see you."</p> - -<p>"I suppose Earth would raise more of a stink over her being arrested -than it's worth to the Jovians. But what's her literacy got to do with -it?"</p> - -<p>"Te colonel's papers, you idiot. Tey are bery secret. Doubtless tey -are information about Eart's defenses, obtained by his spies and to be -brought home by him in person."</p> - -<p>"But I didn't read them either!"</p> - -<p>"You saw tem. Tey are implanted in your subconscious memories and -a hypnotreatment could extract tem. An illiterate like Dyann lacks -te word-gestalts, she would not remember eben subconsciously, but -you—Well, tat is luck. Maybe Eart can sabe you."</p> - -<p>"Oh, no!" Ray clutched his head. "They won't bother. They don't give a -damn. I'm wanted back there, and old Vanbrugh will be only too pleased -to see me get the works."</p> - -<p>"Banbrugh—te Nort American Councillor?"</p> - -<p>"Uh-huh." Ray leaned gloomily against the door. "I was just a plain -ordinary engineer till Uncle Hosmer left me a million credits. Damn -him, I hope he fries in hell."</p> - -<p>"A man left you money and you don't like it?" Urushkidan's eyes bugged -so they seemed in some danger of falling out. "Shalmuannusar, what did -you do wit it?"</p> - -<p>"I spent it. I spent damn near every millo in a year."</p> - -<p>"On <i>what</i>?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, wine, women, song—the usual."</p> - -<p>Urushkidan clapped his tentacles to his eyes and groaned. "A million -credits!"</p> - -<p>"It got me into high society," went on Ray. "I made out as if I had -more than I did. I met Catherine Vanbrugh—that's the Councillor's -daughter—and she got ideas that I might make a good fifth husband, -or would it be the sixth? Well, she wasn't a bad-looking wench, and -I—uh—well—about the time my money gave out and I went into debt, -she was really after me. It was somewhat urgent. I skipped, of course. -Old Vanbrugh got the cops after me. I barely escaped. He's got enough -influence to—well, it boils down to the fact that the Jovians can do -anything to me their little hearts desire."</p> - -<p>He strained against the bars. "Can't you do anything, sir? Your fame is -so illustrious. Can't you slip the word to somebody?"</p> - -<p>The Martian puffed out his chest above his eyes and simpered. Then he -said with mild regret, "No, I cannot entangle myself in te empirical. -My domain is te beauty and purity of matematics alone. I adbise you to -accept your fate wit philosophy. Perhaps I can lend you Ekbannutil's -<i>Treatise on te Unimportance of Temporal Sorrows</i>. It has many -consoling toughts."</p> - -<p>He waved affably and waddled off. Ray sank to the bunk.</p> - -<p>Presently a squad of soldiers arrived to escort him to the tender -which would take him down to Ganymede. Colonel Roshevsky-Feldkamp was -there, as stiff as ever, though the bandage behind his ear set his cap -somewhat askew.</p> - -<p>"Where am I going?" asked Ray.</p> - -<p>"To Camp Muellenhoff, outside the city," said the Jovian with a hard -satisfaction. "It is where we keep spies until we get ready to question -and shoot them."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>It took Dyann Korlas about two Earth-days to decide that she didn't -like Ganymede.</p> - -<p>The Jovians had been very courteous, apologized in a stiff way for the -unfortunate misunderstanding aboard ship, and assigned her a brawny -young sergeant as guide. Their armament was much more in evidence and -much more interesting than Earth's but granting that spaceships and -atomic bombs and guided missiles were more effective than swords and -bows and mounted lancers, they took all the fun out of war and left -nothing to plunder. She missed the brawling mirth of the war-camps of -Varann among these bleak-faced and endlessly marching men in their drab -uniforms.</p> - -<p>The civilians were almost as depressingly clad, and even more orderly -and obedient than those of Earth. Only the arrogant, bemedaled officer -caste had any touch of dash or glamor about it. The Terrestrial concept -of sexual equality had been interesting, even exciting in a way, but -these Jovians had inverted the natural order of things to a repulsive -extent.</p> - -<p>She had seen the sights, and those were impressive enough—the grim -rocky face of Ganymede, with mighty Jupiter eternally high in the dusky -heavens; the bustling, crowded, machine-crammed underground cities, -level after level of apartments, farms, factories, shops, barracks—but -Earth could show more. Her guide promised to take her to the other -moons of the Jovian Confederacy but she felt as bored by the thought as -he seemed to be.</p> - -<p>She got the impression that she was hurried along, from sight to sight -and speech to speech, without ever a chance to talk to anyone and find -out what really was dreamed and striven for on this land. To be sure, -the Jovians all talked endlessly about a superior way of life and their -right to return to the green vales of Earth whence their forefathers -had been cruelly made to flee. But if they were going to fight why -didn't they just hop in their ships and go there?</p> - -<p>The dictator's face seemed to be framed wherever she turned, a small -and puffy-eyed man in an elaborate uniform. Martin Wilder the Great. -Her guide the sergeant, one Robert Hamand, said in an awed tone that -she might be introduced to the dictator. He looked hurt when she yawned.</p> - -<p>And what had become of Ray? Hamand knew nothing and seemed to care -less. The secret police officer had said he would be held for a short -time as a lesson and then released but surely he'd look her up if he -were free. She contrasted the Earthling's liveliness with the quiet men -of Varann and thought that he would be an ornament to anyone's harem -even if there couldn't be issue between the two species.</p> - -<p>On the third day, as she got up, she decided to ask counsel of Ormun. -She washed, singing a cheerful song of clattering swords and sundering -skulls, stowed away a breakfast that would have sufficed two humans, -and walked into the sitting room of the apartment assigned her.</p> - -<p>Hamand was waiting, very straight and correct in his uniform. "Good -day," he said, bowing from the waist. "Today we will go topside again -and visit the Devil's Garden. Then at eleven forty-five proceed to -Robinsburg where we will lunch until thirteen hundred and then go on -to—"</p> - -<p>"I must take an omen first," said Dyann.</p> - -<p>"I beg your pardon?"</p> - -<p>"You need not do so, you have done no wrong." Dyann prostrated herself -before the god. Then, struck with a sudden thought, gestured at Hamand. -"You too."</p> - -<p>"What?" cried the sergeant.</p> - -<p>"You too. She might be offended if you do not pray."</p> - -<p>"Madam," said Hamand, stiff with indignation, "I am a Jovian of the -machine age, not a savage groveling before superstition."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Dyann got up, knocked him to the floor, and rubbed his nose in the -carpet before Ormun. "You vill please to grovel," she said urbanely. -"It is good manners." She laid herself prone again, keeping one hand -on the sergeant's head, and repeated several magic formulas. Then she -rose to her knees, fished three Centaurian dice from her pocketed kilt, -and tossed them.</p> - -<p>"Ah-hah," she said. "The omen says—hm, let me see now, I am not a -<i>marya</i>. I think they say go to Urushkidan." She bowed deeply before -Ormun. "Thank you, my lady. Now come, we go find Urushkidan."</p> - -<p>"You can't!" gibbered Hamand. "He's doing important work. He's at the -Academy—"</p> - -<p>Dyann strolled out and he trailed futilely in her wake, still -protesting. She inquired her way along the many tunnels and corridors -and ramps to the Academy of Science. There were no slideways. Everyone -walked. The Jovian leaders, with their concern over physical fitness, -insisted that there be as much assorted exercises as possible to -compensate for Ganymede's low gravity. To Dyann, weight was feathery. -She bounded twenty or thirty feet at a time when the crowd thinned -enough.</p> - -<p>The Academy, a combined college and technical research institute, had a -good-sized sector to itself. There was a broad open space covered with -turf and the uniformed students and professors went from one to another -of the doors which opened on the grass. Dyann loomed over an undersized -academician who gibbered in answer to her that Dr. Urushkidan was in -<i>that</i> sector and then scuttled away.</p> - -<p>There was an armed sentry in front of the door. Seeing none elsewhere, -Dyann concluded shrewdly that he was posted because of the potential -military applications of Urushkidan's work. He slanted his rifle across -her path. "Halt!"</p> - -<p>"I must see the Martian," said Dyann mildly. "Please to let me by."</p> - -<p>"No one sees him without a pass," said the guard.</p> - -<p>Dyann shoved him aside and opened the door. He yelled and grabbed her -arm. That was his big mistake.</p> - -<p>"A man," said the Varannian reprovingly, "should have respect for -women." She yanked the rifle from him and hit him in the stomach with -the butt. He flew across the plaza, retching, rolled to one elbow, -and snatched at his sidearm. Dyann leaped, landing on his face with a -crunch of bone and a small explosion of blood and teeth.</p> - -<p>She turned back, hefting the rifle appreciatively. The Earthlings on -Varann had been regrettably stingy about giving modern weapons to the -natives. Assorted people, including Hamand, fled in all directions as -she entered the doorway.</p> - -<p>Down a long hall, peering into the rooms on either side, up a -staircase—another sentry before a frosted-glass door gaped at her. -She smiled reassuringly, moved close to him, and got her hands on his -throat. Shortly thereafter she had his rifle and revolver.</p> - -<p>Loud voices drifted through the door and Dyann, who was not at all -stupid, listened with interest. One was—yes, that was Urushkidan -himself, bubbling like an indignant teakettle.</p> - -<p>"I will not, sir, do you hear me? I will not. And I demand a return -passage from tis foul satellite at once!"</p> - -<p>"Come now, Dr. Urushkidan, be reasonable." Was that the voice of -Roshevsky-Feldkamp? "After all, can you complain of your treatment? -You have Mars-conditioned quarters, servants, high pay, every -consideration."</p> - -<p>"I came here to lecture and complete my mathematical research. Now -I find you habe arranged no lectures for me and expect me to—to -superbise an—an <i>engineering</i> project! As if—as if I were a -mere—empiricist!"</p> - -<p>"But Dr. Urushkidan—after all, science advances by checking its -theory against the facts. If with your help we create the first -faster-than-light ship, it will be a triumphant confirmation of—"</p> - -<p>"My teories need no confirmation. Tey are a debelopment of certain -relatibity postulates, a piece of pure matematics in all its elegance -and beauty. If tey agree or disagree wit te facts, tat is of no -interest to any proper natibe of Uttu. Te matematics is enough, and -I will habe noting to do wit applied physics. And furtermore—" -The squeaky voice rose even higher—"you want only te military -applications, you would habe me stoop to such bulgarity. You do not -appreciate me, and I am going back to Uttu!"</p> - -<p>"I am afraid," said the man slowly, "that that is impossible."</p> - -<p>Dyann entered. "Are they annoyin you?" she asked.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Urushkidan whirled about. The room was thick with the fumes of his -pipe, and one of the two Jovians with him—a bald man in the black -uniform of the secret police—was holding a handkerchief to his nose. -The other one was Roshevsky-Feldkamp, who started to his feet with an -oath and grabbed for his revolver.</p> - -<p>Dyann held her own stolen gun on his midriff. "No," she said.</p> - -<p>"What are you doing here?" gasped the officer.</p> - -<p>"Vere is Ray Ballantyne?"</p> - -<p>"Get out! Guards—"</p> - -<p>Dyann took one long leap across the office, seized Roshevsky-Feldkamp -by the neck and hammered his forehead against the desk. Her free hand -covered the secret policeman. "Vere is Ray Ballantyne?" she repeated.</p> - -<p>"I am glad you came," said Urushkidan. "Shall we leabe tis uncibilised -place?"</p> - -<p>Two armed soldiers appeared in the doorway. Dyann brought her gun -around. The silenced weapon hissed. One of the men tumbled with a hole -drilled in his forehead. She was rather proud of herself, she'd never -had much chance for target practice.</p> - -<p>There wasn't much time for self-praise, though. The other man already -had his rifle up. Dyann dropped behind the desk, and the stream of -slugs ripped through the wood after her. She bunched her muscles and -threw the desk. There was a crash of splintering wood as it knocked -down the Jovian.</p> - -<p>The secret police officer had his gun out and trained on her. -Urushkidan snaked forth a tentacle and pulled him off his feet. Dyann -stopped to slug Roshevsky-Feldkamp before she got her hands about the -policeman's throat.</p> - -<p>"Vere is Ray Ballantyne?" she growled.</p> - -<p>"Come on, come on, we habe to get out of here!" wailed the Martian.</p> - -<p>"Vich is the vay out?"</p> - -<p>"I'll show you—come along, quick—tis way."</p> - -<p>Dyann frogmarched the Jovian cop toward a rear door. Booted feet were -thudding up the stairs toward the office. Urushkidan held a pistol in -each hand, gingerly as if he feared they would blow up. He led the way -into a hall and down a long, echoing ramp.</p> - -<p>"Hurry, hurry," he gasped. "Shalmuannusar, we habe te whole Jobian -Confederacy after us!"</p> - -<p>A voice bellowed atop the ramp and a slug whanged after them. Dyann -whirled and fired back, using the helplessly pinioned captive as a -shield. They retreated slowly, rounding a corner and going on down a -long slope to a heavy steel door.</p> - -<p>Urushkidan opened it, slamming it frantically as they went through. -They were in a hangar where several small spaceships rested on their -rail-mouthed cradles. Mechanics stared at the trio.</p> - -<p>"Quick!" snapped the Martian. "Te laboratory ships!"</p> - -<p>The prisoner opened his mouth. Dyann laid a friendly hand on the back -of his neck and squeezed a little.</p> - -<p>"Yes, yes, the laboratory ship—practice maneuvers—hurry!" the man -said.</p> - -<p>"Aye, sir! At once!" A life time's training in blind obedience spoke -there, behind the puzzled faces.</p> - -<p>A teardrop-shaped rocket was trundled forth. Dyann looked nervously -back at the door. Pursuit was most likely playing it safe, posting men -outside while others went around to block all remaining exits. Once -that was done they'd close in.</p> - -<p>"I'll warm up the engine for you, sir," said one of the mechanics.</p> - -<p>"Ve'll take it now," said Dyann.</p> - -<p>"But you can't! You'll carbon the tubes—be likely to crash—"</p> - -<p>"I said now." Dyann propelled her captive ahead of her through the -airlock and Urushkidan crawled after. The valves clanged shut after -them.</p> - -<p>"I hope you can fly vun of these thins," said Dyann, lashing the secret -policeman to a recoil chair.</p> - -<p>"I hope so too," said Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>Dyann stood over her prisoner. "Vere is Ray Ballantyne?" she asked. -"The Earthman who vas arrested off the liner a few days ago."</p> - -<p>"I don't know," he gasped.</p> - -<p>Dyann drew her knife, smiling nastily.</p> - -<p>"Camp Muellenhoff, you savage! Outside the city, to the north. You'll -never make it. You'll kill us all."</p> - -<p>The cradle rumbled forward to the hangar airlock. Urushkidan took the -pilot chair and strapped himself in and relit his pipe with nervous -boneless fingers. Dyann whistled tunelessly between her teeth. It was -dark in the airlock chamber as the pumps evacuated it.</p> - -<p>"Why bother wit tis Ballantyne?" asked the Martian. "What claim has he -on us? It will need all our luck and my genius for us to escape with -our own lives."</p> - -<p>"We need his luck too, maybe," said Dyann shortly.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The outer valve swung open and they trundled over the rails to the -surface of Ganymede. Behind them, the dome covering the city rose -against a background of saw-toothed mountains and dark, faintly -star-lit sky. A dwarfed sun lit the spaceport field with pale cold -luminance. There were not many vessels in sight, no liner or freighter -was in and the military ports were elsewhere. One lean black patrol -ship stood not far off.</p> - -<p>"They vill be out after us soon," said Dyann. "Vat can you do about -that boat there, huh?"</p> - -<p>"We will see," said Urushkidan. He touched studs, levers, and buttons. -The engines thuttered and the little vessel shook.</p> - -<p>"Let's go!"</p> - -<p>The rocket stood on her tail and climbed for the sky. Urushkidan -brought her around, the gyros screaming at his clumsy management, and -lowered her on her jets directly above the patrol ship. An atom-driven -ion-blast is not good for a patrol ship.</p> - -<p>"Now," said Dyann as they took off again, "you, my policeman friend, -vill call this Camp Muellenhoff and tell them to release Ballantyne to -us. If you do that, ve vill set you down somevere. If not—vell—" She -tested the edge of her knife on his ear. "You may still be a police, -but you vill not be very alive."</p> - -<p>"You can't escape," said the Jovian with a certain hollow lack of -conviction. "You'd better throw yourself on the Leader's mercy."</p> - -<p>Dyann knocked a few teeth loose.</p> - -<p>"You savage!" he gasped. "You cruel, murdering—"</p> - -<p>"I tought you Jobians were always talking about te glories of war and -te rutless superman," snickered Urushkidan. "Also destiny and tings. -Better call te camp as she says."</p> - -<p>A few minutes later the ship lowered into the walled enclosure of Camp -Muellenhoff. It was a dreary place, metal barracks lying harsh under -the guns of the watchtowers, spacesuited prisoners clumping to work -through the thin chill air of Ganymede. A detail hurried up and shoved -an unarmed, suited form into the airlock.</p> - -<p>Their leader's voice rattled over his helmet radio of the ship's -telereceiver, "Major, sir, are you sure they want this man in the -city now? We just got an alert to look out for a couple of escaped -desperadoes."</p> - -<p>Dyann slammed the outer valve in his face by the remote-control lever -and the little ship stood on her tail again and flamed skyward.</p> - -<p>A somewhat battered Ray Ballantyne crawled out of his suit and blinked -at them. It had been a rough two or three days, though they hadn't gone -very far with him. The truth drugs must have satisfied them that he was -not an intentional spy, and thereafter they had simply held him until -orders for his execution should come. He swayed into Dyann's arms.</p> - -<p>"Oh, my poor Ray," she murmured. "My poor, poor little Earthlin."</p> - -<p>"Hey, wait a minute," he began weakly.</p> - -<p>"Just lie still, I will take care of you."</p> - -<p>"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Lemme go!"</p> - -<p>They sat down again on a remote mountaintop, gave the policeman a -spacesuit, and kicked him out of the ship. He was still wailing about -barbarous and inhuman treatment. He said something too about wild -beasts.</p> - -<p>"And now," said Dyann, "let us get back to Earth before the Yovians -find us."</p> - -<p>"This crate'll never make Earth," said Ray. "I've flown 'em—let me at -those controls, Urushkidan."</p> - -<p>They heard it as well, the ominous sizzling and knocking from the -engine-room shields, and felt the ship tremble with it.</p> - -<p>"Is tat te carboning te man was talking about?" asked the Martian -innocently.</p> - -<p>"I'm—afraid—so." Ray shook his head. "We'll have to land somewhere -before the rockets quit altogether. Then it'll take a week for the -radioactivity to get low enough so we can go back there and clean them -out."</p> - -<p>"And all the Yovian army, navy, police, and fire department out chasin -us by now," said Dyann. Her clear brow wrinkled. "I fear that Ormun is -offended because I left her amon the heathen back there. I am afraid -our luck is runnin' low."</p> - -<p>"And," said Ray bleakly, "how!"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>They used the last sputter of flame to sit down in the wildest and -remotest valley they could find. Looking out the port, Ray wondered if -they hadn't perhaps overdone it.</p> - -<p>Beyond the little ship there was a stretch of seamed and gullied stone, -a rough craggy waste sloping up toward the fang-peaked razorback -ridge of the hills, weird flickering play of shadows between the -looming boulders as the thin wind blew a veil of snow across the deep -greenish-blue sky. Jupiter was an amber scimitar low on the northern -horizon. They were near the south pole with a sprawling panorama of -sharp stars around it fading out near the tiny sun. Snow lay heaped -in drifts beyond the wind-scoured rocks, and the far green blink of -glaciers reflected the pale heatless sunlight from the hills.</p> - -<p>Snow—well, yes, thought Ray, it was snow of a sort. All the water -on Ganymede was of course solid ice. So were the carbon dioxide and -ammonia. But the temperature often dropped low enough to precipitate -methane or nitrogen. The moon's atmosphere what there was of it, -consisted mostly of argon, nitrogen, methane, and vapors of the frozen -substances—not especially breathable.</p> - -<p>The colonists used the standard green-plant air-renewal system, -obtaining extra oxygen from its compounds and water from the -ice-strata, and heated their dwellings from the central atomic-energy -units. Ray hoped the ship's equipment was in working order.</p> - -<p>There was native life out there, a few scrubby gray-leaved thickets, -a frightened leaper bounding kangaroo-like into the hills. The -biochemistry of Ganymede was a weird and wonderful thing which human -scientists were still a long way from understanding, but it involved -substances capable of absorbing heat energy directly and releasing it -as needed. The carnivores lacked the secretions, obtaining them from -their prey, and had given the colonists a lot of trouble because of -their fondness for the generous supply of heat a human necessarily -carried around with him.</p> - -<p>"And now what do we do?" asked Ray.</p> - -<p>Dyann's eyes lit with a hopeful gleam. "Hunt monsters?" she suggested.</p> - -<p>"Bah!" Urushkidan snaked his way to the small desk bolted to the cabin -floor and extracted paper and pencil from the drawers. "I shall debelop -an interesting aspect of unified field teory. Do not disturb me."</p> - -<p>Ray looked around the ship. Behind the forward cabin, which held bunks -and a little cooking outfit as well as the controls, there was a larger -space cluttered with assorted physical apparatus. Beyond that, he -supposed, were the gyros, airplant, and misbehaving engines. "Is this a -laboratory boat?" he inquired.</p> - -<p>"Yes," said the Martian. "I chose it because tey are always kept ready -to go out for gibing field tests to new apparatus. Get me a table of -elliptic integrals, please."</p> - -<p>"Look," said Ray, "we've got to do something. The Jovians will be -combing this damned moon for us, and it's not so big that we have much -chance of their not finding us before we can clean out those tubes. -We've got to prepare an escape."</p> - -<p>"How?" Urushkidan fixed him with a bespectacled stare.</p> - -<p>"Well—uh—well—maybe get ready to flee into the hills."</p> - -<p>"How long would we last out tere?" The Martian turned back to his work -and blew a cloud of smoke. "No, I will debote myself to te beauties of -pure matematics."</p> - -<p>"But if they catch us, they'll kill us!"</p> - -<p>"Tey won't kill me," said Urushkidan smugly. "I am too baluable."</p> - -<p>"Come on, Ray," said Dyann. "Let's go monster-huntin."</p> - -<p>"Waaah!" The Earthman blew up, jumping with rage. In the low gravity, -his leap cracked his head against the ceiling.</p> - -<p>"Oh, my poor Ray!" Dyann folded him in a bear's embrace.</p> - -<p>"Let me go! Damn it, I want to live if you don't!"</p> - -<p>"Be serene," advised Urushkidan. "Look at it from te aspect of -eternity. You are one of te lower animals and your life is of no -importance."</p> - -<p>"You octopus! You conceited windbag! If I needed any proof that -Martians are inferior, you'd be it."</p> - -<p>"Temper, temper!" Urushkidan wagged a flexible finger at Ray. "Be -objective, my friend, and if your philosophy is so deficient tat -it will not prove <i>a priori</i> tat Martians are always right—by -definition—ten consider te facts. Martians are beautiful. Martians -habe an old and peaceful cibilisation. Eben physically, we are -superior—we can libe under Earth conditions but I dare you to go out -on Mars witout a spacesuit. I double-dog dare you."</p> - -<p>"Martians," gritted Ray, "didn't come to Earth. Earthmen came to Mars."</p> - -<p>"Certainly. We had no reason to bisit Earth, but you, of course, came -to Mars to admire our beauty and wisdom. Now please fetch me tat table -of integrals."</p> - -<p>"There is nothin ve can do to help ourselves," said Dyann, "so ve might -as well go huntin. Afterward ve can make love."</p> - -<p>"Oh, no!" Ray grunted. "If I had that damn interstellar drive I'd get -out of this hole so fast that—that—that—"</p> - -<p>"Yes?" asked Dyann.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Gods of Pluto!" whispered the man. "That's it. <i>That's it!</i>"</p> - -<p>"Get me tat table!" screamed Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>"The drive—the faster-than-light drive—" Ray did a jig, bouncing from -floor to wall to ceiling. "We've got a shipful of equipment, we've got -the System's only authority on the subject, we'll build ourselves a -faster-than-light engine!"</p> - -<p>Urushkidan grumbled his way back into the lab. "I'll get it myself, -ten," he muttered. "See if I care."</p> - -<p>"The engine—the engine—Dyann, we can escape!" Ray grabbed her by the -arms and tried to shake her. "We can go home!"</p> - -<p>Her eyes filled with tears. "You vant to leave me," she accused. "You -vant to get rid of me."</p> - -<p>"No, no, no, I want to save all our lives. Come on, give me a hand, -we've got some heavy stuff to move around."</p> - -<p>Dyann shook her head, pouting. "No," she said. "You don't love me. I -won't help you."</p> - -<p>"Oh, Lord! Look, Dyann, I love you, I adore you, I worship at your -feet. But give me a hand."</p> - -<p>Dyann brightened considerably, but said only, "Prove it."</p> - -<p>Ray kissed her. She kissed back and he yelled as his ribs began to give -way.</p> - -<p>"Yowp! Some other time, honey. I want only to save your life, don't you -see?"</p> - -<p>"Some other time," said Dyann firmly, "is not now. Come here, you."</p> - -<p>"Stop tat noise!" yelled Urushkidan, and slammed the laboratory door.</p> - -<p>"Ve will honeymoon on Varann," sighed Dyann happily. "You shall ride to -battle at my side."</p> - -<p>Much later the aroma of coffee drew Urushkidan back into the forward -cabin. A disheveled and weary-looking Ray Ballantyne was puttering -around the hotplate while Dyann sat polishing her sword and humming to -herself.</p> - -<p>"Now," said Ray, turning with what seemed like relief to the Martian, -"just how does this new drive of yours work?"</p> - -<p>"It is not a dribe and it does not work—it is a structure of -pure matematics," said Urushkidan. "Anyway, te teory is beyond te -comprehension of anybody but myself. Gibe me some coffee."</p> - -<p>"But you must have an idea how it would work in practice."</p> - -<p>"Oh, no doubt if I wanted to take te time I could debise someting. But -I am engaged in debeloping a new teory of cosmic origins." Urushkidan -slurped coffee into himself.</p> - -<p>"We've got to build it and escape."</p> - -<p>"I told you you are of neiter beauty nor importance. Why should I take -time wit you?"</p> - -<p>"But look, if the Jovians capture you they'll force you to build it -for them. They have ways. And then they'll overrun Mars along with all -the other planets. The only thing that's held them back so far is the -difficulty of interplanetary logistics. But when you have ships that -can cross the orbit of Pluto in a matter of hours or minutes that isn't -a problem any longer."</p> - -<p>"Tat would be unfortunate, yes. But I am in te midst of a bery new and -important train of tought. It would be more unfortunate if tat were -lost tan if a few ephemeral Jobians conquered te System. Tey wouldn't -last a tousand years, but a genius like me is born once in a million."</p> - -<p>Dyann hefted her sword. "Do as Ray says," she advised.</p> - -<p>"You dare not hurt me," said Urushkidan with a smug expression, "or you -will neber get away."</p> - -<p>He went over to the desk and began investigating the drawers again. -"Where do tey keep teir tobacco? I cannot work witout my pipe."</p> - -<p>"Jovians," said Ray glumly, "don't smoke. They consider it a degenerate -habit."</p> - -<p>"What?" The Martian's howl rattled the coffeepot on the hotplate. "No -tobacco?"</p> - -<p>"Only your own supply, back in Ganymede City, and I daresay the Jovians -have confiscated and destroyed it by now. That puts the nearest cigar -store somewhere in the Asteroid Belt."</p> - -<p>"Oh, no! Te new cosmology ruined by tobacco shortage." Urushkidan stood -thinking a moment, then came to a sudden decision. "Tere is no help for -it. If te nearest tobacco is millions of miles away we must build te -faster-tan-light engine at once."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Ray made no attempt to follow the Martian's long-winded equations -in detail. What he was interested in was making use of them, and he -proceeded with slashing approximations that brought screams of almost -physical agony from Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>Essentially, though, he recognized that the scientist's achievement lay -in making what seemed to be a final correlation of relativity and wave -mechanics, something which even the Goldfarb-Olson formulas had not -fully reached.</p> - -<p>Relativity deals with solid bodies moving at definite velocities which -cannot exceed that of light, but in wave mechanics the particle becomes -a weird and shadowy psi function and is only probably where it is. In -the latter theory, point-to-point transitions are not velocities but -shifts in the node of a complex wave. It turned out that the electronic -wave velocity—which, unlike the group velocity, is not limited by the -speed of light—could be imparted to matter under the right conditions, -so that the most probable position of the electron went from point -to point at a bewildering rate. The trick was to create the right -conditions.</p> - -<p>"A field of nuclear space-strain is set up by the circuit, and the -ship, reacting against the entire mass of the universe, moves without -need of rockets—right?" asked the Earthman.</p> - -<p>"Wrong," said Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>"Well, we'll build it anyway," said Ray. "Here, Dyann, bring that -generator over this way, will you?"</p> - -<p>"I vant to go monster-huntin," she sulked.</p> - -<p>"Bring—it—over, you lummox!"</p> - -<p>Dyann glared, but stooped over the massive machine and, between -Ganymedean gravity and Varannian muscles, staggered across the floor -with it. Ray was checking circuits on the oscilloscope. Urushkidan sat -grumbling about heat and humidity and fanning himself with his ears. -The lab was a mess of tubes, condensers, rheostats, and tangled wire.</p> - -<p>"I'm stuck," wailed Ray. "I need a resistor having so and so many ohms -along with such-and-such a capacitance. Find me one, quick."</p> - -<p>"If you would specify your units more precisely—" began Urushkidan -huffily.</p> - -<p>Ray pawed through the litter on the floor, putting one object after -another into his testing circuit, glancing at the meters, and throwing -it across the room. "It's vital," he said.</p> - -<p>"Vill this do, maybe?" asked Dyann innocently, holding out the ship's -one and only frying pan.</p> - -<p>"Get out!" screamed Ray.</p> - -<p>"I go monster-huntin," she pouted.</p> - -<p>Absent-mindedly, Ray tested the frying pan. It was nearly right. By -Luna, if he sawed off the handle—</p> - -<p>"Hey!" yelped Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>"I don't like the thought of eating cold beans, cold canned meat, and -raw eggs any better than you," said Ray. "But damn it, we've got to -get out of here." He soldered the emasculated pan into his circuit. -"Starward the course of human empire," he muttered viciously.</p> - -<p>"Martian empire," corrected Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>"It'll be Jovian empire if we don't clear out of here. Okay, big brain, -what comes next?"</p> - -<p>"How should I know? How can you expect me to tink in tis foul tick air, -and witout tobacco?" Urushkidan turned his back. Dyann clumped in, -spacesuited, sword in one hand and rifle in the other. "I saw monsters -out there," she said. "I'm goin out to kill them."</p> - -<p>"Oh, yeah, sure," muttered Ray without looking up from his slide rule. -"Urushkidan, you've got to calculate the resonant psi function for me."</p> - -<p>"Won't," said the Martian.</p> - -<p>"By Heaven, you snake-legged bagpipe, I'm the captain here and you'll -do as I say."</p> - -<p>"Up your rectifier." Urushkidan was emptying his ash tray in search of -tobacco shreds.</p> - -<p>The airlock clanged behind Dyann. "I'll be damned," murmured Ray. "She -really is going out after them."</p> - -<p>"It is a good idea," said Urushkidan, a trifle more amiably. "Tey habe -sensed te radiations of our ship and are probably coming to crack it -open."</p> - -<p>"Oh, well, if that's all—<i>Huh?</i>" Ray sprang to the nearest port and -looked out.</p> - -<p>"Gannydragons," he groaned. "I thought they'd been exterminated."</p> - -<p>"Tose two don't seem to know it," said Urushkidan uneasily. "All right, -I'll calculate your function for you."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>There were two of the monsters moving toward the boat. They looked -like thirty feet of long-legged alligator, but the claws and beaks had -ripped metal in earlier days of colonization. Dyann lifted her rifle -and fired.</p> - -<p>A dragon screamed, thin and faint in the wispy atmosphere, and turned -his head and snapped. Dyann laughed and bounded closer. Another shot -and another....</p> - -<p>Something hit her and the gun flew from her hand. The dragon's tail -smote again and Dyann soared skyward. As she hit the ground the two -monsters leaped for her.</p> - -<p>"Ha, Ormun!" she yelled, shaking her ringing head till the ruddy hair -flew within the helmet. She crouched low and then sprang.</p> - -<p>Up—over the fanged head—striking down with her sword as she went by. -The monster whirled after her, greenish blood streaming from the cut -and freezing.</p> - -<p>Dyann backed against a looming rock, spread her feet and lifted the -sword. The first dragon struck at her, mouth agape. Dyann hewed out -again, the sword a leaping blaze of steel, the blow smashing home and -exploding its force back into her own muscles. The dragon's head sprang -from the neck. She rolled under the lashing claws and tail to get free. -The headless body struck the other dragon which promptly began to fight -it.</p> - -<p>Dyann circled warily about the struggle, breathing hard. The live -dragon trampled its opponent underfoot, looked around, and charged her. -The ground shuddered under its galloping mass. Dyann turned and fled.</p> - -<p>The dragon roared hollowly as she went up the long slope of the -nearest hill. She saw a high crag and scrambled to its top, the dragon -rampaging below her.</p> - -<p>"Nyaaah!" She thumbed her faceplate. "Come and get me."</p> - -<p>The monster's dim brain finally decided that the ship was bigger and -easier prey. Turning, it lumbered down the hillside. Dyann launched -herself into the air and landed astride its neck.</p> - -<p>The dragon hooted and snapped after her. She climbed higher, grabbed -its horn with one gauntleted hand, and hung on for her life. The steed -began to run.</p> - -<p>Hoo, bang, away over the hills with the moonscape blurring in speed. -Wind shrieked thinly about Dyann's helmet. She bounced off her seat -and came down again, a landslide rumbled behind her. The dragon zoomed -up the ridge, leaped from a bluff, and started across the cratered -plain beyond. Dyann dragged at the horn, turning its head, fighting -the monster into a circular stampede. "Ha, Ormun!" she yelled. "Ha, -Kathantuma!"</p> - -<p>In an hour or so the dragon stopped and stood gasping. Dyann slid -stiffly to the ground, whirled her sword over her head, and -decapitated the monster. Then she skipped home, laughing.</p> - -<p>"Dyann!" cried Ray as she came through the airlock. "Dyann, we thought -you were dead—"</p> - -<p>"Oh, it vas fun," she grinned. "Fix me a sandvich." She sat down, got -up rather quickly, and opened her arms to Ray. He retreated nervously -toward the lab. Urushkidan snickered and slammed the door in his face.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">V</p> - -<p>The eighty-six hour day of Ganymede drew to a close. Jupiter was at the -half now, a banded amber giant in a sky of thronging wintry stars. Ray -wiped his grimy hands and sighed.</p> - -<p>"Done," he said, looking fondly at the haywired mess filling half -the lab and reaching back toward the engines. "We've done it—we've -conquered the stars."</p> - -<p>"My little Earthlin is so clever," simpered Dyann.</p> - -<p>"I am horribly afraid," said Urushkidan, "tat tis minor achievement -of mine will eclipse my true accomplishments in te popular mind. Oh, -well." He shrugged. "I can always use te money."</p> - -<p>"Umm, yeah, I never thought of that," said Ray. "I'm safe enough -from Vanbrugh now—you don't arrest the man who's given Earth the -Galaxy—but by gosh, there's a fortune in this little gadget too."</p> - -<p>"For me, of course, when I have patented it," said Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>"What?" yelped Ray. "You—"</p> - -<p>"Certainly. I inbented it, didn't I? I shall patent it too. Tell me, -should I charge an exorbitant royalty or would tere be more money in -mass sales at small price?"</p> - -<p>"Look here," snarled Ray, "I happen to know how this thing is put -together too."</p> - -<p>"Do you?" grinned Urushkidan nastily.</p> - -<p>"Uh—" Ray looked at the jungle of apparatus and gulped. He had only a -few fragmentary drawings. By Einstein, he had no idea how the damned -thing worked.</p> - -<p>"But we helped you," he protested feebly.</p> - -<p>"When you pay your mules and cows, I may consider gibing you a small -percentage," said Urushkidan loftily.</p> - -<p>"You've already got more money than you know what to do with, you -bloated capitalist. I happen to know you invested your Nobel Prize in -mortgages and then foreclosed."</p> - -<p>"And why not? When te royalties on tis engine start coming in, and I -get my second Nobel Prise, maybe ten I can afford an occasional cigar. -You Earthlings neber reward genius. All tese years I'be had to smoke -tat foul pipe—And tat reminds me, we habe to test tis machine. Where -is te nearest tobaco store?"</p> - -<p>Ray sighed and gave up. Martians had replaced Scotchmen in the lexicon -of thrift, but Urushkidan set some kind of new record.</p> - -<p>He sat down in the pilot chair and started the atomic generator on -high level conversion. "I hope it works," he muttered nervously. His -fingers moved over the improvised control panel for the star drive. -"Hang on, folks, here goes nothing."</p> - -<p>"Nothin," said Dyann after a long silence, "is correct."</p> - -<p>"Oh, lord! What's the matter now?" Ray went back to the new engine. Its -circuits were alive, tubes glowed and indicators blinked, but the boat -sat stolidly where it was.</p> - -<p>"I told you not to use tose approximations," said Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>Ray fiddled with the main-drive settings. "It's like any other gadget," -he complained. "You sweat yourself dry designing it from theory, and -then you have to tinker till it works."</p> - -<p>He began changing the positions of resistors and condensers, cutting -sections out of the circuit to work on them. Urushkidan shredded a -piece of paper, wetted it, and tried to smoke it.</p> - -<p>"Ray!" Dyann's voice came sharp and urgent from the forward cabin. "I -saw a rocket flare."</p> - -<p>"Oh, no!" He sprang back to her and peered into the night sky. A long -trail of flame arced across it. And another, and another—</p> - -<p>"The Jovians," he groaned. "They've found us."</p> - -<p>"They may not see us," said Dyann hopefully.</p> - -<p>"They have metal detectors. We're done for."</p> - -<p>"Vell, ve can only die vunce. Kiss me, sveetheart." Dyann folded Ray -in one arm while the other reached for her sword.</p> - -<p>The patrol rockets went over the horizon, braking, and swam back. -Blast-flames spattered off the valley floor and frozen-gas vapors -boiled furiously up toward mighty Jupiter.</p> - -<p>The boat telescreen blinked its indicator light. Numbly, Ray tuned it -in. The lean hard face of Colonel Roshevsky-Feldkamp sprang into its -frame.</p> - -<p>"Ah, there you are," said the Jovian.</p> - -<p>"If we surrender," said Ray, "will you give us safe conduct back to -Earth?"</p> - -<p>"Certainly not. But you may be allowed to live."</p> - -<p>Urushkidan spoke from the lab. "Ballantyne, I tink te trouble lies in -tis square-wave generator. If we doubled te boltage—"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The first patrol ship sizzled to a landing. Roshevsky-Feldkamp leaned -forward till his face seemed to project from the screen and Ray had a -wild desire to punch its nose. "So you've been working on our project." -He said, "Well, so much the more labor spared us."</p> - -<p>Dyann cut loose with a short-range blaster she had located somewhere on -the lab ship.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Urushkidan will die before he surrenders to you," said Ray -belligerently.</p> - -<p>"I will do noting of te sort," said the Martian. Experimentally, he cut -the square-wave generator back into the circuit and turned a dial.</p> - -<p>The boat lifted off the ground.</p> - -<p>"Hey, there," roared the colonel. "You can't do that!"</p> - -<p>The Jovian soldiers who had been pouring from the grounded ship looked -stupidly upward.</p> - -<p>"Shell them!" snapped the colonel.</p> - -<p>Ray slammed the main star drive switch clear over.</p> - -<p>There was no feeling of acceleration. They were suddenly floating -weightless and Jupiter whizzed past the forward port.</p> - -<p>"Stop!" howled the Jovian.</p> - -<p>The engine throbbed and sang, energy pulsing in great waves through -its shuddering substance. The stars crawled eerily across the ports. -"Aberration," gasped Ray. "We're approaching the speed of light."</p> - -<p>Space swam and blazed with a million million suns. They bunched near -the forward port, thinning out toward the rear, as the ship added its -fantastic velocity vector to their light-rays. A distorted pale-green -globe grew rapidly before the vessel.</p> - -<p>"Vat planet is that up ahead?" pointed Dyann.</p> - -<p>"I think—" muttered Ray. He looked out the rearward port. "I think it -was Neptune."</p> - -<p>"Triumph!" chortled Urushkidan, rubbing his tentacles together. "My -teory is confirmed. Not tat it needs confirmation, but now even an -Eartman can see tat I am always right. And oh, how tey'll habe to pay!"</p> - -<p>The colors of the stars shifted toward blue in front and red behind. -Doppler effect, thought Ray wildly. He was probably seeing by radio -waves and gamma rays now. How fast were they going, anyway? He should -have thought to install some kind of speed gauge. Several times the -velocity of light at least.</p> - -<p>"Ha, this is fun," laughed Dyann.</p> - -<p>"Hmmm—we better stop while we can still see the Solar System," said -Ray, and cut the main drive.</p> - -<p>The ship kept on going.</p> - -<p>"Hey!" screamed the Earthling. "Stop! Whoa!"</p> - -<p>"We can't stop," said Urushkidan coolly. "We're in a certain -pseudobelocity-state now. Te engine merely accelerates us."</p> - -<p>"Well, how in hell do you brake?" groaned Ray.</p> - -<p>"I don't know. We'll habe to figure tat out. I tought you knew tis -would happen."</p> - -<p>"Now I do." Ray floated free of his chair, beating his forehead with -his fists. "I hope to heaven we can do it before the food runs out."</p> - -<p>Dyann looked at Urushkidan speculatively. "If vorst comes to vorst," -she murmured, "roast Martian—"</p> - -<p>"Let's get busy," gasped Urushkidan.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It took a week to improvise a braking system. By that time they were no -longer very sure where they were.</p> - -<p>"This is all my fault," said Dyann contritely. "If I had brought Ormun -along she vould have looked after us."</p> - -<p>"One thing that worries me," said Ray, "is the Jovians. They aren't -fools, and they won't be sitting on their hands waiting for us to come -back and give the star drive to Earth."</p> - -<p>"First," said Urushkidan snappishly, "tere is te problem of finding our -sun."</p> - -<p>Ray looked out the port. The ship was braked and, in the normal -space-time state of matter, was floating amidst a wilderness of -unfamiliar constellations. "It shouldn't be too hard," he said -thoughtfully. "Look, there are the Magellanic Clouds, I think, and we -should be able to locate Rigel or some other bright star. That way we -can get a fix and locate ourselves relative to Sol."</p> - -<p>"Tere are no astronomical tables aboard ship," pointed out Urushkidan, -"and I certainly don't clutter my brain wit mere numerical data."</p> - -<p>"Vich star is Rigel?" asked Dyann.</p> - -<p>"Why—uh—well—that one—no, it might be that one over there—or -perhaps—how should I know?" growled Ray.</p> - -<p>"We will simply habe to go back te way we came, as nearly as we can -judge it," said Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>"Maybe ve can find somevun who knows," suggested Dyann.</p> - -<p>Ray thought of landing on a planet and asking a winged, three-headed -monster, "Pardon me, do you know which way Sol is?" To which the -monster would doubtless reply, "Sorry, I'm a stranger here myself." He -chuckled wryly. They'd encountered a difficulty which all the brave -futuristic stories about exploring the Galaxy seemed to have overlooked.</p> - -<p>They had headed out in the ecliptic plane, very nearly on a line -joining the momentary positions of Jupiter and Neptune. That didn't -help much, though, in a boat never meant for interplanetary flight and -thus carrying only the ephemerides of the Jovian System. Presumably -they had gone in a straight line, so that one of the zodiacal -constellations was at their back and should still be recognizable, -but the high-velocity distortions of the outside view had precluded -anyone's noticing which stars had been where.</p> - -<p>Ray floated over to the port and looked out at the eerie magnificence -of unknown space. "If I'd been a Boy Scout," he lamented, "I might -know the constellations. The thing to do is to head back toward any -one which looks halfway familiar, since that must be the one which was -at our stern. But I only know Orion and the Big Dipper." He looked at -Urushkidan with accusing eyes. "You're the great astrophysicist. Can't -you tell one star from another?"</p> - -<p>"Certainly not," said the Martian huffily. "No astrophysicist eber -looks at de stars if he can help it."</p> - -<p>"Oh, you want a con—con—star-picture?" asked Dyann innocently.</p> - -<p>Ray said, "I mean one we know, as we see the stars from Sol, or from -Centauri. You're nice to look at, honey, but right now I can't help -wishing you Varannians were a little more intellectual."</p> - -<p>"Oh, I know the stars," said Dyann. "Every noble learns them. -Let me see—" She floated around the chamber, from port to port, -staring out and muttering to herself. "Oh, yes. There is Kunatha the -Hunter-threatened-by-woman-devourin-monster. Not changed much."</p> - -<p>"Huh?" Ray and Urushkidan pushed themselves over beside her. "By gosh," -said the Earthling, "it does look like Virgo, I think, or one of 'em. -Dyann, I love you to pieces."</p> - -<p>"Let's get home qvick, then," she beamed. "I vant to be on a planet." -During the outward flight she had been somewhat discomforted by -discovering the erotic importance of gravity.</p> - -<p>"<i>You</i> steer us home?" screeched Urushkidan. "How in Nebukadashatbu do -you know te stars?"</p> - -<p>"I had to learn them," she said. "Every noble on Varann has to -know—vat you call it?—astroloyee. How else could ve plan our battles -visely?"</p> - -<p>"Astrology?" screamed the Martian. "You are an—an—<i>astrologer</i>?"</p> - -<p>"Vy, of course. I thought you vere too, but it seems like you Solarians -are more backvard than I supposed. Shall I cast your horoscope?"</p> - -<p>"Astrology," groaned Urushkidan. He looked ill.</p> - -<p>"Well," said Ray helplessly, "I guess it's up to you to pilot us back, -Dyann."</p> - -<p>"Vy, sure." She jumped into the pilot seat. "Anchors aveigh."</p> - -<p>"Brought home by an astrologer," groaned Urushkidan. "Te ignominy of it -all."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Ray started the new engine. They could accelerate all the way back and -use the brake to stop almost instantly—it shouldn't take long. "All -set," he called, and the rising note of power thrummed behind his words.</p> - -<p>"Giddap!" yelled Dyann. She swung the ship around and slammed the main -drive switch home.</p> - -<p>Ray looked out at the weirdly distorted heavens. "There should be some -way to compensate for that aberration," he murmured. "A viewplate -using photocells, with the electron beam control-fields hooked into -the drive circuit—sure. Simple." He floated back to the lab and -began assembling scattered apparatus. In a few hours he emerged -with a gadget as uncouth as the engine itself but there was a set -of three telescreens which gave clear views in three directions. -Dyann smiled and pointed to one of them. "See, now Avalla—the -Victorious-warrior-returnin-from-battle-vith-captive-man-slung-across-her-saddle-bow—is -taking shape," she said.</p> - -<p>"That," said Ray, "is Ursa Major. You Varannians have a fantastic -imagination."</p> - -<p>A blue-white giant of a sun flamed ahead, prominences seething millions -of miles into space. Dyann's eyes sparkled and she applied a sideways -vector to the star drive. "Yippee!" she howled.</p> - -<p>"Hey!" screamed the Earthman.</p> - -<p>They whizzed past the star, playing tag with the reaching flames while -Dyann roared out a Centaurian battle chant. Ray's subconscious mind -spewed forth every prayer he had even known.</p> - -<p>"Okay, ve are past it," said Dyann.</p> - -<p>"Don't do such things!" he said weakly.</p> - -<p>"Darlin," said the girl, "I think we should spend our honeymoon flyin' -through space like this."</p> - -<p>The stars blurred past. The Galaxy's conquerors looked at the splendor -of open space and ate cold beans out of a can.</p> - -<p>"I think," said Dyann thoughtfully, "ve should go first to Varann."</p> - -<p>"Alpha Centauri?" asked Urushkidan. "Nonsense. We are going back at -once to Uttu and cibilised society."</p> - -<p>"Ve may need help at Sol," said the girl. "Ve have been gone—how -long—about two veeks? Much could have happened in that time."</p> - -<p>"But—but—it's not practical," objected Ray.</p> - -<p>Dyann grinned cheerfully. "And how vill you stop me?"</p> - -<p>"Varann—oh, well, I've always wanted to see it anyway."</p> - -<p>The Centaurian began casting about, steering by the aspect of the sky. -Before many hours, she was slanting in toward a double star with a dim -red dwarf in the background. "This is it," she said. "This is it."</p> - -<p>"Okay," answered Ray. "Now tell me how you find a planet."</p> - -<p>"Hmmm—vell—" Dyann scratched her ruddy head.</p> - -<p>Ray began to figure it aloud.</p> - -<p>"The planets—let me see, now—yeah, they're in the plane of the two -stars. They'd have to be. So if you go out to a point in that plane -where Alpha A, your sun, seems of about the right size, and then swing -in a circle of that radius, you should come pretty close to Varann. It -has a good-sized moon, doesn't it, and its color is greenish-blue? Yes, -we should be able to spot it."</p> - -<p>"You are so clever," sighed Dyann.</p> - -<p>"Hah!" sneered Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>At a mere fraction of the velocity of light—Ray thought of the -consequences of hitting a planet when going faster than light, and -wished he hadn't—the spaceboat moved around Alpha A. It seemed only -minutes before Dyann pointed and cried joyously, "There ve are. There -is home. After many years—home!"</p> - -<p>"I would still like to know what we are going to do when we get there," -said Urushkidan.</p> - -<p>He was not answered. Dyann and Ray were too busy bringing the vessel -down into the atmosphere and across the wild surface.</p> - -<p>"Kathantuma!" cried the girl. "There is my homeland. See, there is the -mountain, old Mother Hastan. There is the city Mayta. Hold on, ve're -goin down!"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">VI</p> - -<p>Mayta was a huddle of thatch-roofed wooden buildings at the foot of a -fantastically spired gray castle, sitting amid the broad fields and -forests and rivers of Kathantuma with the mountains shining in the far -distance. Dyann set the ship down just outside the town, stood up, and -stretched her tigress body with an exultant laugh.</p> - -<p>"Home!" she cried. "Gravity!"</p> - -<p>"Uh—yeah." Ray tried to lift his feet. It went slowly, with some -strain—half again the pull of Earth. Urushkidan groaned and wheezed -his painful way to a chair and collapsed all over it.</p> - -<p>"Let's go!" Dyann snatched up her sword, set the helmet rakishly on her -bronze curls, and opened the airlock. When Ray hesitated she reached -and yanked him out.</p> - -<p>The air was cool and windy, pungent with a million scents of earth and -growing things, tall clouds sailing over a high blue heaven, and even -the engineer was grateful for it after the stuffiness of the boat. He -looked around him. Not far off was a charming rustic cottage. It was -like a scene from some forgotten idyll of Earth's old past.</p> - -<p>"Looks good," he said.</p> - -<p>A four-foot arrow hummed past his ear and rang like a gong on the -ship's hull.</p> - -<p>"Yowp!" Ray dove for shelter. Another arrow zipped in front of him. He -whirled at a storm of contralto curses.</p> - -<p>There were half a dozen women pouring from the charming rustic cottage, -a battle-scarred older one and five tall young daughters, waving swords -and axes and spears. A couple of men peered nervously from the door.</p> - -<p>"Ha, Ormun!" yelled Dyann. She lifted her sword and dashed to meet the -onslaught. The oldest woman caught the amazon's blow on a raised shield -and her ax clanged off Dyann's helmet. Dyann staggered, shook her head, -and struck out afresh. The others closed in, yelling and jabbing.</p> - -<p>Dyann's sword met the nearest ax halfway and broke across. She stooped, -picked the woman off her feet, and whirled her over her head. With -a shout, she threw the old she-warrior into two of her nearest -daughters, and the trio went down in a roar of metal.</p> - -<p>Centaurian hospitality, thought Ray.</p> - -<p>A backhanded blow sent him reeling. He looked up to see a yellow-haired -girl looming over him. Before he could do more than mutter she had -slugged him again and thrown him over one brawny shoulder.</p> - -<p>Hoofs clattered down the narrow dirt road. A squad of armored women -riding animals reminiscent of Percherons, but horned and red of hide, -were charging from the town. They swept into the fight, wielding -clubbed lances with fine impartiality, and it broke up in a sullen -wave of red-splashed femininity. Nobody, Ray saw from his upside-down -position, had been killed, but there were plenty of slashes and the -intent had certainly been there.</p> - -<p>The harsh barking language of Kathantuma rose on either side. Finally -an understanding seemed to be reached. One of the riders pointed a -mailed hand at Ray's captor and snapped an order. The girl protested, -was overruled, and tossed him pettishly to the ground. He recovered -consciousness in a minute or two.</p> - -<p>Dyann picked him up, tenderly. "Poor Ray," she murmured. "Ve play too -rough for you here, huh?"</p> - -<p>"What was it all about?" he mumbled.</p> - -<p>"Oh, these people vere mad because ve landed in their field, but the -qveen's riders stopped the fight in time. It is only lawful to kill -people on the regular duellin grounds, inside the city limits. Ve must -have law and order, you know."</p> - -<p>"I see," said Ray faintly.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was a large and turbulent crowd which gathered at sunset to hear -Dyann speak. She and her companions were on a raised stand in the -market square, together with the scarred, arrogant queen and her troop -of pikewomen and cavalry. In the guttering red flare of torches, -Ray looked down on a surging lake of women, the soldier-peasants of -Kathantuma gathered from all the hinterland, brandishing their weapons -and beating clangorous shields in lieu of applause. Here and there -public entertainers circulated, thinly clad men with flowers twined -into their hair and beards, strumming harps and watching with great -liquid eyes.</p> - -<p>Ray was still not quite sure what the girl's plan was, and by now -didn't much care. A combination of the dragging Varannian gravity and -the potent Varannian wine made him so sleepy that he could barely focus -on the milling crowd. Urushkidan slept the sleep of the just, snoring -hideously.</p> - -<p>Dyann ended her harangue and the racket of metal and voices shook the -surrounding walls. After that there were long-winded arguments which -sometimes degenerated into fist fights, until Ray himself dropped off -to sleep.</p> - -<p>He was shaken awake by Dyann and looked blearily around him. Dawn was -streaking the horizon with cold colorless light, and the mob was slowly -and noisily dispersing. He groaned as he stretched his stiffened body -and tried to brush the dew off his clothes.</p> - -<p>"The natural life—Hah!" he said miserably, and sneezed.</p> - -<p>"It has been decided," cried the girl. She was still as fresh as the -morning, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes ablaze. "They agreed at -last, and now the var-vord goes over the land and envoys are bound for -Almarro and Kurin to get allies. How soon can ve leave, Ray?"</p> - -<p>"Leave?" he asked stupidly. "Leave for where?"</p> - -<p>"Vy, for Yupiter, of course!"</p> - -<p>"Huh?"</p> - -<p>"You are tired, my little bird. Come vith me, and ve shall rest in the -castle."</p> - -<p>Ray groaned again.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>How do you equip an army of barbarians still in the early Iron Age to -cross four and a third light-years of space?</p> - -<p>A preliminary question, perhaps is, Do you want to?</p> - -<p>Ray emphatically didn't, but he had very little choice in the matter. -He was soon given forcibly to understand that men kept their place and -did as they were commanded.</p> - -<p>He went to Urushkidan and poured out his sorrows. The Martian, after an -abortive attempt to steal the spaceship and sneak home, had been given -a room in one of the castle towers and was covering large sheets of -local parchment with equations. This place, thought Ray, has octopuses -in the belfry.</p> - -<p>"They want to go to Jupiter and fight the Jovians," he said.</p> - -<p>"What of it?" asked Urushkidan, lighting his pipe. He had found that -dried bark could be smoked. "Tey may eben succeed. Primitibes habe -often obercome more adbanced and better armed hosts. Read te history of -Eart sometime."</p> - -<p>"But they'll take us along."</p> - -<p>"Oh. Oh-oh! Tat is different." The Martian riffled through his papers. -"Let me see, I tink Equations 549 trough 627 indicate—yes, here we -are. It is possible to project te same type of dribing beam as we -use in te faster-tan-light engine so as to impart a desired belocity -bector to external objects. Toward or away from you. Or—look here, -differentiation of tis equation shows it would be equally simple to -break intranuclear bonds by trowing only a certain type of particle -into te pseudo-condition. Te atom would ten feed on its own energy."</p> - -<p>Ray looked at him in awe. "You," he whispered, "have just invented the -tractor beam, the pressor beam, the disintegrator, and the all-purpose, -all-fuel atomic motor."</p> - -<p>"I habe? Is tere money in tem?"</p> - -<p>Ray went to work.</p> - -<p>The three expeditions from Sol had left a good deal of assorted -supplies and equipment behind for the use of later arrivals. Most of -this had been stored in a local temple, and sacrifices were made yearly -to the digital computer. It took an involved theological argument to -obtain the stuff—the point that Ormun had to be rescued was conceded -to be a good one, but it wasn't till the high priestess suddenly -disappeared that the material was forthcoming.</p> - -<p>The Ballantyne-Urushkidan circuits were simple things, once you knew -how to make them. With the help of a few tolerably skilled smiths, Ray -hammered out enough of the new-type atomic generators to lift the fleet -off Varann and across to Sol. He built the drive-circuits carefully, -designing them to burn out after landing again on Varann. The prospect -of the amazon planet's people flitting whither they pleased in the -Galaxy was not one any sane man could cheerfully contemplate.</p> - -<p>The spaceships were mere hulks of varnished and greased hardwood, -equipped with airlocks and slapped together by the carpenters of Mayta -in a few weeks. The crossing would be made so rapidly that heating -and air plants wouldn't be needed. Once the haywired star drives were -installed, a pilot sketchily trained for each vessel, and every hull -crammed with a couple of hundred yelling warriors, the fleet was ready -to go.</p> - -<p>They poured in, ten times as many as the thirty ships could hold, -riding and hiking from the farthest of the continent's little kingdoms -to be in on the most glorious piracy of their dreams. Only Dyann cared -much about Ormun, who was after all merely her personal joss, and -only Ray gave a good damn about the menace of Jupiter. The rest came -to fight and steal and see new countries. They were especially eager -to kidnap husbands—the polyandrous system of Varann worked undue -hardships on many women, and Dyann shrewdly gave preference to the -unmarried in choosing her followers.</p> - -<p>As to the practicability of the whole insane idea—Ray didn't dare -think about it.</p> - -<p>Three hectic months after his arrival at Centauri, the barbarian fleet -left for Sol.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jupiter swam enormously in the forward ports, diademed with the bitter -glory of open space, growing and growing as the ship rushed closer. Ray -pushed his way through the restless crowd of armed women that jammed -the boat. "Dyann," he pleaded, "couldn't I at least call up Earth and -find out what's happened?"</p> - -<p>"Vy, I suppose so," she said, not taking her eyes off the swelling -giant before them. "But be qvick, please."</p> - -<p>The human fiddled with the telescreen. Three months ago the notion of -calling over nearly half a billion miles with that undersized thing -would have been merely ridiculous. But that was another byproduct of -Urushkidan's theory. You used an electron wave with unlimited velocity -as a carrier beam for your radio photons. It induced a similar effect -in the other transmitter. No distance diminution. No time lag. Anyway, -not within the limits of anything so small as the Solar System. Ray -got the standard wavelength of the U.N. public relations office, the -only one which he could call freely without going through a lot of red -tape.</p> - -<p>A blurred face looked out at him. He hadn't refined his circuits to -the point of eliminating distortion, and the U.N. official resembled -something seen through ten feet of rippled water—at least, his image -did. But the voice was clear enough. "Who is this, please?"</p> - -<p>"Ray Ballantyne, returning from Alpha Centauri on the first -faster-than-light spaceship. Calling from the vicinity of Jupiter."</p> - -<p>"This is no time for joking. Who the devil are you and what do you -want? Please report."</p> - -<p>"I want to give the U.N. Patrol the secret of faster-than-light travel. -Stand by to record."</p> - -<p>"Hey!" screamed Urushkidan. "I neber said I'd gibe—"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Dyann put her foot on his head and pushed him against the floor.</p> - -<p>"Oh, well," he said. "Trough te incredible generosity of myself, ten, -te secret is made freely abailable—"</p> - -<p>"Ready to record?" asked Ray tightly.</p> - -<p>"I said your humor is in very bad taste," said the official, and -switched off with an ugly scowl.</p> - -<p>Ray blinked weakly at the set for a while. Then he tuned in on Earth -broadcasts until he caught a news program. Jupiter had declared war a -month ago, defeated the U.N. navy in a running battle off Mars, seized -bases on Luna, and was threatening atomic bombardment of Earth unless -terms were met. "Oh, gosh," said Ray.</p> - -<p>"Such an inbasion could only be launched, on a shoestring," said -Urushkidan. "Te U.N. still has bases closer to home, it can cut Jobian -supply lines—"</p> - -<p>"And meanwhile poor old Earth is reduced to radioactive rubbish," said -Ray gloomily. "And those gruntbrains in charge won't believe I've got -the decisive weapon to save them."</p> - -<p>"Would you beliebe such a claim?"</p> - -<p>"No, but this is different, damn it."</p> - -<p>"Ganymede dead ahead," shouted Dyann. "Stand by for action! Get ready -to make a landing."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">VII</p> - -<p>The flagship-spaceboat slanted into the moon's atmosphere with a whoop -and a holler, blazed across the ragged surface, and lowered outside the -great dome of Ganymede City. The clumsy hulks behind her wallowed after -at a more leisurely pace.</p> - -<p>Lacking spacesuits, the amazons were faced with a certain problem of -entry. Dyann hovered over the spaceport and opened her disintegrators -full blast. The port disappeared in a sudden tornado of boiling rock -and leaping blue fires. When she had sunk a fifty-foot pit, she went -down into it, hung before the side of it facing the city, and narrowed -the dis-beam to a drill. In moments she had cut a tunnel through to the -lower levels of the city.</p> - -<p>Air began streaming out, ghost-white with freezing water vapor, but -it would take quite a few minutes for the pressure within to fall -dangerously low. Meanwhile Dyann sailed blithely through her tunnel, -disintegrated various walls and bulkheads to clear a landing space, and -set down amid the ruins of the city's factory level.</p> - -<p>"All out!" she cried. "Hai, Kathantuma!"</p> - -<p>Ray buckled on his helmet with shaking fingers, drew his sword, and -followed her out the airlock, more because of the press of bodies -behind than from any desire for glory. In fact, he admitted to himself, -he was scared witless. Only Urushkidan stayed behind—the lucky devil.</p> - -<p>The rest of the barbarian fleet streamed in one by one, landing -clumsily and discharging their clamorous hordes. When the clear -area was filled, they landed on top of each other and the armored -warriors jumped down in a flash of edged metal. After they were all -in, Urushkidan projected a beam and melted the passageway shut against -the escape of air and heat. Also, thought Ray sickly, against a quick -retreat.</p> - -<p>"Hoo, hah!" Dyann's sword shrieked in the air above the helmeted heads -of her milling army. She started down the nearest corridor, running -and bounding and whooping. The amazons were hard on her heels, and the -racket of clashing armor and girlish voices was shattering.</p> - -<p>Up a long staircase, five steps at a time, into the hall beyond that, -spilling out over a broad plaza—</p> - -<p>A machine gun raved and Ray saw three Centaurians tumble to the floor. -As he dove for it himself, he looked across the square and into the -muzzle of the thing where it sat in one of the branch corridors. -There might be only a skeleton garrison left in the city but it had -reacted with terrifying swiftness. Ray tried to dig through the metal -floorplates.</p> - -<p>The air was suddenly thick and whistling. A solid rain of spears and -arrows loosed. It didn't leave much of the machine gun crew. One of -the amazon officers—they had some notion of firearms—picked up -the .50-caliber under one arm. When a squad of Jovian soldiers appeared -down the hallway, she held it against her knee and used it tommy-gun -style. It worked.</p> - -<p>Ray was carried along by the tide. In this weird struggle, modern -firearms weren't of decisive use. Boiling through the miles of -gloomy hallways and narrow apartments, the fight was almost entirely -hand-to-hand, and that was exactly what the Varannians loved.</p> - -<p>Dyann vaulted over a row of bodies and hit a Jovian squad with all -her mass and momentum. She trampled two men underfoot while her sword -howled in a shearing arc around her. A Jovian grenadier hurled his -pineapple in her direction. She snatched it out of the air and tossed -it back. Wildly, he caught it and threw it again. Dyann laughed and -pitched it once more—very shortly before it went off. Turning, she -skewered one Jovian, kicked another in the belly, used her sword's -guard as a knuckle-duster against a third, and cut down a fourth in -almost the same motion. The squad broke up.</p> - -<p>Ray saw an inviting door and scurried for it. There was a bed to -hide under. Two Jovian soldiers came in at that moment, fleeing the -barbarians.</p> - -<p>Ray's helmet and cuirass were as good as a uniform, or he would have -shouted "Hail, Wilder!" As it was, the nearest man lunged at him with a -bayonet. Ray's sword clattered against the weapon, driving it briefly -aside. The Jovian snarled and probed inward, but a bayonet is clumsy -compared to a well-handled blade and Ray had done a little fencing. He -beat the assault back and thrust under the fellow's guard.</p> - -<p>The other man had been circling, trying to get in on the fun. Now -he charged. Ray whirled to meet him and tripped on his scabbard. He -clanged to the floor and the rushing Jovian tripped on him. Ray got on -the man's back, pulled off his helmet, and beat his head against the -floor.</p> - -<p>Rising, he checked the two rifles. Empty—the Jovians must have used -all their clips in an attempt to stem the Centaurian thrust, which -explained their choice of cold steel against him. But they had full -cartridge belts. Ray reloaded one of the guns and felt better.</p> - -<p>Peering carefully out the door, he saw that the fight had moved -somewhere else. He started back toward the ships, the safest place he -could think of.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>As he rounded a corner a tommy-gun blast nearly took his head off. He -yelled, dropped to the floor just in time, and let the gun fall from -his hands.</p> - -<p>A hard boot slammed against his ribs. "Get up!"</p> - -<p>He lurched to his feet and stared into the faces of a Jovian -detachment, the black-clad elite guard of the dictator himself. Martin -Wilder the Great huddled in their midst. Colonel Roshevsky-Feldkamp was -at their head, in charge of Jupiter's home defense, Ray thought wildly, -and tried to stretch his arms higher.</p> - -<p>"Ballantyne!" The Jovian officer glared at him for a long moment. "So -you are responsible."</p> - -<p>"I had nothing to do with it, so help me I didn't," protested Ray -between the clattering of his teeth.</p> - -<p>"You brought these savages in, you and your damned faster-than-light -engine. If it weren't for your hostage value, I'd shoot you now. As it -is, I'll wait till later. March!"</p> - -<p>They went carefully down the glutted hall-street. The Centaurians had -been picking up souvenirs from every shop and apartment they passed. -"Don't think this will accomplish anything," said Wilder pompously. -"You may have driven us from our capital, but we have already called -for help from the other cities—from the whole Jovian System. The -fleet is on its way."</p> - -<p>So the amazons had taken Ganymede City. And now they'd be too busy -looting to think about counterattacks from outside. Ray groaned.</p> - -<p>"We have to get out of here, sir," said Roshevsky-Feldkamp. "We don't -want you to be caught in the fighting."</p> - -<p>"No, no, that would never do," said Wilder quickly.</p> - -<p>"There is a military airlock this way, with spacesuits. We can get out -on the surface."</p> - -<p>"I will strike a new medal," chattered the dictator. "The Defense of -the Homeland Medal."</p> - -<p>"And afterward we will take those ships." Roshevsky-Feldkamp's hard -face lit with a terrible glee. "And then the stars are ours."</p> - -<p>"Hoo-ah!"</p> - -<p>The shout rang down the hallway. Ray saw a Centaurian band, staggering -under armloads of assorted plunder, emerge from a side passage. The -Jovians brought their rifles up.</p> - -<p>Something like an atomic bomb hit the group from the rear. Dyann's -war-cry shrieked above the sudden din. She hadn't been altogether a -fool.</p> - -<p>Ray was shoved back against the wall by the sudden whirlpool of -struggling bodies. He ducked as a Varannian sword whistled overhead. -Dyann was wading in among the Jovians, kicking, striking, hewing like a -maniac. She split one enemy apart, pitched another into a third, turned -around and chopped loose. Her warriors got to work at her side.</p> - -<p>A panting Jovian backed up close to Ray, lifting his rifle anew to -shoot down the bronze-haired girl. The Earthmen thoughtfully removed -the soldier's pistol from its holster and shot him.</p> - -<p>"My little hero!" cried Dyann happily. "I love you so much!" She beat -down another man's gun and broke his head.</p> - -<p>The fight ended. Most of the Jovians had simply been knocked -galley-west and submitted in a stunned way to being bound and hoisted -to Varannian shoulders. Ray had a glimpse of Martin Wilder the Great -and Colonel Roshevsky-Feldkamp being dragged off by a squat and -muscular amazon with a silly smirk on her sword-scarred face. They -were destined for her harem, and he couldn't think of two people he'd -rather have it happen to.</p> - -<p>Only there were those Jovian ships—</p> - -<p>Ray had no way, just then, of knowing that Urushkidan had prudently -taken the spaceboat outside again and was using its long-range beams to -disintegrate the fleet as it came down. He hummed an old Martian work -song to himself as he did. There are times when even a philosopher must -take measures.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Official banquets are notoriously dull affairs, and the present -celebration was no different. That the Luna-based invaders had -capitulated on hearing of the disaster at home, that a democratic -government with U.N. membership had been set up for a permanently -disarmed Jupiter, and that the stars were open to mankind, seemed to -call forth only bigger and better platitudes.</p> - -<p>Ray Ballantyne, drowsy with food and cocktails, nearly snowblind with -white tablecloth, would have fallen asleep except for the fact that his -shoes pinched him. So he listened with some surprise to the president -of his alma mater telling what an outstanding student he had been. As a -matter of fact, he recalled, he'd damn near been expelled.</p> - -<p>Urushkidan, crammed into a Martian-designed tuxedo, smoked a thoughtful -pipe at his right and made calculations on the tablecloth. Dyann -Korlas, her shining hair braided around a stolen Jovian tiara, looked -stunning in a low-cut evening gown on his left. The dagger at her waist -was to set a new fashion on Earth, but there had been some confusion -when she insisted on having Ormun the Terrible placed in front of her -and grace said to the idol. Oh, well.</p> - -<p>"—and this dauntless genius of science, whom his university is pleased -to honor with a doctorate of law—"</p> - -<p>She leaned over and whispered in his ear—it could only be heard for -three yards around—"Ray, vat vill you do now?"</p> - -<p>"I dunno," he murmured back. "I want to get a patent on that damn -interstellar drive before Urushkidan does, but after that—well—"</p> - -<p>"It vas a lot of fun vile it lasted, vasn't it?" Dyann's smile was -wistful. "But I have been thinking, Ray. I am goin' back to Varann and -carve me out a throne. You—vell, Ray, you are too fine and beautiful -for such rough vork. You belon here, in the glamor and bright lights, -not out vith a lot of coarse unruly vomen who might hurt you."</p> - -<p>"You know," he said, "I think you've got something there."</p> - -<p>"I vill alvays remember you," she said sentimentally. "Maybe some day -ven ve are old, ve can meet again and bore the youth vith talk of our -great days." She looked around. "If only ve could sneak out of here now -and have a farevell party of our own—I know a bar—"</p> - -<p>"Hmmm." Ray stroked his chin. "This calls for tactics. If we could sort -of slump down in our chairs, as if we were tired—and Lord, I am!—and -gradually sink out of sight, we could crawl under the table and through -that door—"</p> - -<p>As he crept from the hall, Ray heard Urushkidan, called on for a -speech, begin the detailed exposition of his latest theory.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Captive of the Centaurianess, by Poul Anderson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTIVE OF THE CENTAURIANESS *** - -***** This file should be named 64075-h.htm or 64075-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/4/0/7/64075/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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