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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..eb60a26 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64759 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64759) diff --git a/old/64759-0.txt b/old/64759-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c104be4..0000000 --- a/old/64759-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2386 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Last Two Alive!, by Alfred Coppel - -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 -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Last Two Alive! - -Author: Alfred Coppel - -Release Date: March 08, 2021 [eBook #64759] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST TWO ALIVE! *** - - - - - THE LAST TWO ALIVE! - - by ALFRED COPPEL - - Aram Jerrold watched helplessly as Santane's - beast-rockets screamed into the Void bearing - madness to the Thirty Suns, and knew that - this was cosmic Armageddon ... the crimson - horror of Space-war would smash Galactic - Civilization utterly and forever! Yet in his - tortured mind a voice from the past commanded: - "_You must save something from the ruins!_" - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories November 1950. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -The verdict, thought Aram Jerrold wearily, would be death. The -Supreme Council itself would demand it. He had rebelled against the -Tetrarchy--rebelled senselessly, desperately, without hope of success -or escape--and the reckoning had come. The Government of the Thirty -Suns would demand his life ... more, if the science of the Security -Police were up to it. Aram repressed a shudder. He knew that science -well. No one rose to a position of command in the Thirty Suns Navy or -to membership in the Executive Committee of the Tetrarchy without -respect for the methods of the dread Greens. - -The courtroom was dark, a pattern of sombre hues calculated to -impress a prisoner with the futility of hope. It had been weeks since -Jerrold had seen the sun. Weeks of endless interrogation and repeated -narcosynthesis. He had been shunted from Bureau to Bureau, from -Department to Department, each set of cogs in the vast governmental -machinery of the Terminus probing him for evidence of sabotage or -rebellion within its own structure. He had been badgered, beaten, -drugged and threatened. Now, at last, the end of the ordeal seemed -near. There remained only the sentence of death to be passed--the -method and place decided upon--and it would be done with. The ponderous -bureaucracy of the Tetrarchy had wrung him dry, and now it prepared -to cast him aside, satisfied that his rebellion was a purely personal -aberration and not part of a widespread plot against the stability of -galactic tyranny. - -The drugs had clouded his vision, giving a nightmare mistiness to the -shadowy courtroom. Jerrold could see that the room was empty but for -the guards and clerks and the black-masked tribunes. It would not do, -of course, to let the people know that one of the chosen masters--a -member of the Executive Committee--had suddenly become an insubordinate -rebel and traitor. - -Behind him a door opened, splitting the gloom with a fleeting wedge of -light. The wedge vanished and Aram Jerrold heard again the light, crisp -footsteps. He knew without looking that it was Deve Jennet. She had -been in the courtroom every day, giving testimony, slamming doors in -his face. Doors that might possibly have led to freedom. Every day she -had driven another rivet into the chains of evidence that bound him, -methodically, deliberately. - -She passed by him without turning her head and took a seat near the -tribune's dais. Jerrold stared at her through the mist that swam -sickeningly before his eyes. Dimly, the memory of her as she had been -before this nightmare came to him. He remembered her, soft and yielding -in his arms through the long nights of Terminus. Nights filled with -tenderness and longing talk of freedom for the two of them somewhere -beyond the stars. - -This was the same woman, but changed. The lustrous dark eyes were the -same, and the full lips. The same pale hair and slim body. But it sat -encased in a severely cut uniform, all femininity gone from it. The -uniform was green. The hated color of the Security Police.... - -Jerrold had heard again all the words that he had spoken to her through -those nights. Only this time the words had been retold to three masked -judges and their clerk. This time, the words had had a ring of doom. - -At first Aram had suffered the tortures of the damned wondering why -Deve had betrayed him. He had known well enough her high connections in -the Supreme Council and he had known that she served as a member of the -Greens. But he had imagined that she loved him, and he had been stupid -enough to trust her. Now, after weeks of ordeal, it seemed to matter no -longer. Jerrold wanted only to rest. - - * * * * * - -On the dais, one of the black-masked figures was speaking. Aram leaned -forward painfully to catch what was being said. - -"This court wishes to go on record as favoring a severe reprimand for -the Bureau of Psychometrics personnel involved in the testing of Aram -Jerrold. His inherent instability should have been uncovered long -before he was appointed to the Executive Committee. Only the chance use -of a mental probe on him--at the request of the Security Police--" he -nodded toward Deve Jennet, "--prevented serious inconvenience to the -Government of the Thirty Suns. Such negligence cannot be tolerated in -so vital a Bureau." - -He paused while the clerk recorded his remarks, then continued: "Aram -Jerrold, you have been convicted of treason against the Government of -the Thirty Suns. You have been proved guilty of attempting to use your -position as an officer of the Thirty Suns Navy to steal a spacecraft -and escape from the dominance of your government. You have disgraced -your uniform and your high office as a member of the Executive -Committee of the Supreme Council of the Government of the Thirty -Suns--" The hooded man rolled the sonorous phrases off his tongue with -obvious relish. "Have you anything to say before the sentence of the -court is passed?" - -Jerrold looked at Deve Jennet. She sat motionless, her body tense -in the green Police uniform. It was hard for Jerrold to speak. The -druggings and violent interrogations had left him weak. Yet a spark of -rebellion remained. Enough to lash out against his tormentors for one -last time. - -"I ... I want only to say," he began thickly, "that ... what I have -done ... I would do again, gladly. I was sick of oppression ... tired -of not ... daring even to think a thought of my own. Sick of pompous -bureaucratic tyranny...." Jerrold drew a shuddering breath. "The -Tetrarchy rules thirty star-systems ... but thirty star systems are not -the Universe. Somewhere, I thought ... there must be freedom. My -crime ... was _failure_ ... nothing more!" - -"Enough!" The tribune's voice shook with sudden anger. "This court is -not convened to listen to treasonous tirades! The clerk will strike the -prisoner's remarks from the record!" - -Darkness flickered momentarily at the edges of Jerrold's field of -vision. He felt spent by his effort at defiance. He forced himself to -stand erect. - -"The sentencing will proceed!" - -"The prisoner will face the Standard!" intoned the clerk. - - * * * * * - -Aram raised his eyes to the hated symbol on the wall behind the judges' -dais. Long habit made him square his shoulders under the tattered -remains of his blue uniform. He stared up at the Standard of the -Tetrarchy's Spaceship and Sun, despising everything it stood for. - -"_Aram Jerrold, traitor and rebel: you are sentenced by this court to -death by slow disintegration!_ For the safety of the Tetrarchy!" - -The words fell like stones from the lips of the masked tribune into the -fragile silence of the vaulted chamber. - -In spite of himself, Jerrold flinched. Sometimes men survived weeks of -torment under the cancerous rays of the disintegrators.... - -One of the judges spoke in low tones to his colleagues. - -"We have received a request from Kaidor V, gentlemen. Provincial -Governor Santane asks that this sentence be commuted to life -imprisonment on Kaidor V so that the prisoner may be used in some -experimental work now in progress there." - -Aram could feel his stomach muscles tightening and the weakness seeping -into his knees. The disintegrators would be preferable to becoming an -experimental animal on Kaidor V. The Kaidor province was the farthest -of the Thirty Suns, and the arsenal of the Tetrarchy. The ghastliest -of the Tetrarchy's weapons came from Kaidor, and they had to be tested -there ... on living men. - -"It seems," muttered one of the tribunes pettishly, "that every time -a naval officer is convicted of anything a request comes through from -Kaidor that he be turned over to Santane. One would imagine Governor -Santane is building a navy!" He shuffled the papers before him while -the others waited. "Still," he continued thoughtfully, "it would -be politically unwise to execute this prisoner here on Terminus. -The spacemen of his command are based here and there is no point -in stirring up trouble in the Fleet... I am inclined to recommend -acceptance of this offer to take him off our hands." - -"_Objection, sirs!_" Jerrold looked about to see that Deve Jennet was -on her feet, addressing the members of the tribunal. - -"As you know, sirs," she was saying crisply, "I have the good fortune -to be one of the lesser members of the Executive Committee in my office -as liaison officer from Security. I feel it only fair to warn you that -the Supreme Council would be extremely displeased if this prisoner -should escape with his life. It is felt that an example must be made of -him. If it is unwise to carry out the sentence here on Terminus, I will -be happy to arrange a transfer to Atmion IV. On the Green planet there -will be no possibility of trouble by Fleet members. I must insist that -you accede to the wishes of the Council. Aram Jerrold must die in the -disintegrators. No other course of action will be acceptable to the -Supreme Council!" - -The three judges conferred among themselves and then the senior spoke -again. The tone of his voice indicated all too well the awe in which -the Supreme Council and all its appendages was held by members of the -Judicial Department of the Thirty Suns Government. - -"This court was not aware that the Supreme Council had any special -desires concerning the disposition of this case. Had it been known to -us earlier, we would not have considered even for a moment the request -of Provincial Governor Santane." - -"The Supreme Council, gentlemen," returned Deve Jennet stiffly, "_has_ -an interest in this case, as I have indicated to you. It has been -communicated to you in the proper time and form. I await your action on -it." - -"Of course, Leader Jennet, of course. It was not our intention to -question the policies of the Council!" The judge signalled the guards. - -"Aram Jerrold is hereby remanded to the custody of the Security Police, -to be transported by first available spaceship to Atmion IV, there to -be put to death in the manner prescribed by Directive 25-A-38 governing -Execution of Convicted Persons Above the Rank of Commander. Remove the -prisoner!" - -Aram passed near Deve Jennet as she replied: "It will be so reported, -gentlemen." And then looking somberly at Jerrold she added, "I myself -will go to Atmion IV to see to it that this prisoner is accorded the -treatment he deserves." - -Aram stumbled out of the courtroom under guard. Deve's final words rang -strangely in his ears, a perplexing threnody of the dreams they had -shared in the hazy past. He had the odd feeling that in spite of the -things that had passed, the end was not yet.... - - * * * * * - -Of the flight out to Atmion, Jerrold remembered almost nothing. The -iron determination that had kept him on his feet during the last days -of his trial failed him at last and the reaction of the druggings he -had suffered hit him ... hard. He writhed in the agonies of addiction -for the duration of the trip out from Terminus. He knew vaguely that he -lay in the prison ship's infirmary, strapped to a bunk. The discomforts -of acceleration and the shift into second-stage flight above light -speed added themselves to his tortures and filled his nightmares with -nauseating spectres. For two weeks Jerrold went through sheer hell as -his drug-saturated system screamed for more narcotics. None were given. - -By the time the huge prison ship touched down on the dread world of the -Greens, Aram Jerrold was on his way back. Spent, weak and emaciated, -he heard the landing alarms and knew that he would live to face the -disintegrators. - - * * * * * - -Atmion IV, the only habitable planet of a star-system bizarre and -hateful! Three suns in the smoky sky, air that tasted of brimstone and -ashes. Heavy, deadening gravity. A world of hot rain that fell daily -out of the hazy cloud canopy, a desert at periaston and quagmire at -apastron. Barren ground and a turbulent, sulphuric sea. - -The three suns blazed through the overcast as the prison ship settled -into the steaming mud that was the spaceport. Scalding rain sluiced -down the long flanks of the vessel, corrosive and fetid. - -Aram Jerrold knew of Atmion IV. No officer in the Fleet did not. It -was a foul planet, a world unwanted by any of the many Bureaus, and -as such the perfect prison world. The planet of the Greens. On all -its vast hulk there was only one settlement. The Green Fortress. -Political exiles and condemned prisoners from all over the Tetrarchy of -the Thirty Suns were brought to the Fortress on Atmion IV. None ever -returned. - -Aram remembered that Atmion lay in the Twenty Ninth Decant, only four -light years from Kaidor on the very periphery of the Tetrarchy. These -were the outpost systems, the suns far from mighty Terminus and the -center of the teeming life of the galaxy. These were the hinterlands of -empire, sullen, unknown, unwanted. - -The Green Fortress proper stood on a high crag, etched against the -smoky grey of Atmion IV's eternal overcast. Standing in the open port -of the prison ship, Jerrold could see the black bulk of the turreted -stronghold through the curtain of driving rain. The spaceport was a -sea of mud that still boiled in places from the heat of the great -starship's landing jets. - -Chained in a long line, the human cargo of the vessel was herded -through the rain and mud toward an electrified wire enclosure. Aram -smiled wryly at that evidence of "Security." What need was there for -it on this world? Where could a prisoner go if he should find himself -on the other side of the wire barrier? It was likely, Jerrold thought, -that there was a Directive on it from Terminus, and that accounted for -the electrified wire. - -He estimated that there were perhaps nine hundred men and women in the -human chain that stretched from the starship to the long reception -buildings within the enclosure. The chaff of heterodoxy--cast off by -the single-track machinery of galactic bureaucracy. - -The Greens drove the sodden prisoners through the gates without rancor -or interest. It was as though the prisoners had ceased to be human once -they crossed the line that excluded them from the society of free men. - -Inside the long, draughty shelters, the prisoners were stripped naked, -men and women alike, run through cleansing water jets, dried, clothed -and photographed. Then they were broken into groups and registered -by Greens sitting in armored cubicles within the walls. There was a -machine-like efficiency to the bureaucratic procedure on this level. -Aram Jerrold had the impression that the operation would continue to -run by sheer momentum should higher authority suddenly try to halt -it.... - - * * * * * - -Jerrold presented himself before a Green of about forty, a man with -a thin, tired face and colorless eyes, who codified the information -given him, looking up at the prisoner with no apparent interest. Quite -abruptly, he emerged from his cubicle, signalling another Green to take -his place. - -"You," he said to Aram; "come with me." - -Jerrold followed the Green out of the reception building and out into -the rain. For a wild moment, Aram had the impulse to try an escape, but -the thought died stillborn. Escape was plainly impossible. There was -simply no place to go--even if he could shake free of his guard and -the others stationed about the enclosure. The prison ship was being -refuelled a short distance from the reception pen, but the valves were -closed and guarded. - -Presently Jerrold and his guide reached a shaft imbedded in the side -of the crag, atop which sat the grim Fortress. Aram turned his eyes -upward. The great, bastioned stronghold seemed to crouch on the crest -of the cliff. On the highest turret, a green banner emblazoned with a -golden Spaceship and Sun hung sodden and limp in the falling rain. - -With no hesitation, the Green stationed at the guard-post by the shaft -entrance signalled Aram and his guide through. There was a short walk -up a spiralling ramp and then they stood before what appeared to be -simply a blank wall. Jerrold stared in perplexity as his guard took a -bit of metal from his tunic and held it to the wall. - -"Isotope," said the guard shortly, "It acts as a key to the scanner ... -below." - -Before Aram could question him, the section of wall slid back -soundlessly and they stepped into a tubecar. Quickly, the Green set up -a complicated series of stops on the tubecar controls and the vehicle -started downward with a rush. - -Aram clutched at the man for support. Something was not as it should -be. Then, quite suddenly, he realized what it was. The tubecar was -travelling _down_ ... and the Fortress lay above! - -"Where are we going?" he asked cautiously. - -The Green shook his head. - -"Aren't the condemned cells above in the Fortress?" - -"Be quiet. Talk is dangerous!" - -"But...." - -"Be quiet," the Green said again. "You'll understand soon enough. We -have to be careful. Not all of us here are of the Group." He turned -his back on Jerrold. - -Aram's head was spinning. What was there on Atmion that a Green need -fear? And what was this ... Group? - -With a wisdom born of his long imprisonment, Aram Jerrold decided -to hold his peace. What would be would be, and it was becoming -increasingly plain that he was about to learn of things that he had not -dreamed existed. - -After what seemed to be an interminable period, the tubecar began to -slow. The hum of atomics died and the car came to a stop. They must -be well below the level of the Fortress now, reflected Jerrold, and -very likely under the sea. The panels slid away and in front of them -stretched a long white corridor lighted by dim bulbs set in the curved -ceiling. - -"There are miles of tubeways down here," said the guard, "and only the -isotope key gives entrance. The central pattern on the tubecar has been -altered, too ... for the safety of the Group. Follow me." - -At the end of the corridor, a steelite door barred further progress. -The Green produced his isotope key again and touched it to the metal. - -"A word of advice," he said to Jerrold coolly. "Listen and believe. -A great many risks have been taken and a vast amount of work done to -bring you this far." - -He leaned forward and shoved the metal door open. Within lay a brightly -lit chamber. The glare of it hurt Jerrold's eyes and he stood a moment, -blinking on the threshold. Slowly, as his eyes accustomed themselves to -the light, Aram became aware of a group of men and women who watched -him impassively. There were a few in Fleet uniform. One or two of them -casual acquaintances he had thought lost in space or imprisoned by the -Greens. There were others in prison garb, and here and there he could -see the dread color of the Security Police. His heart began to pound. -Another trap? But why? - -One slight figure in green stood a little apart, watching him through -shadowed eyes. Jerrold felt the breath catch in his throat. - -It was Deve Jennet! - - * * * * * - -With a cry Deve ran to him. Jerrold felt a surge of mixed fury and -desire. Almost defensively, he lifted his hand and struck Deve across -the face. - -She gasped and stepped back, eyes suddenly bright with tears, a thin -streak of blood marking her pale face. The gathered strangers muttered -angrily. Aram turned to stare at them; his face set and grim. Anger was -pulsing within him, a deep, consuming anger born of the tortures he had -suffered--he looked at the stunned girl--because of _her_. - -"Oh, Aram ... what have they done to you?" whispered Deve. - -"What have _they_ done to me?" he asked thickly. "_They?_ Now tell me -you had no part in it!" He was hemmed in, lost in a sea of treachery -and formless dangers. For a few moments he had dared to let himself -hope...! And this was the end of it. Deve again. And another trap! -"What more do you want from me? Is this just entertainment for you? To -raise my hopes and then step on them again? Maybe you'd like to open my -veins and have a drink of my blood?" - -"Aram ... _stop it_!" - -"You lying, cheating wench! Was it you that brought me to the Fortress? -Was it you that spilled all my stupid dreams to those black ghouls who -tried me?" he asked bitterly. - -"Yes! Yes, it was me!" sobbed Deve, "but can you listen to me? Aram, I -beg you! Listen to me!" - -Aram felt some of the rage draining out of him. He stared at Deve in -confusion. There were tears streaking her face. There was no reason for -her to cry now, he thought heavily. Her job was done. Done well. - -"I had to do it that way, Aram. You can't know how I've suffered for -you ... every minute of the time. But it had to be done, I swear it! -There was no other way I could get you here to the Group! If I had let -you go your own way, you'd have been killed, Aram. I'd have died with -you gladly, but there are other things that must be done. And we can -live, Aram! Do you understand me? We can live!" - -Jerrold looked about him. The group had gathered around him. Someone -said: "Listen to Deve Jennet, Jerrold!" - -Dave stepped close to him again, her face upturned. He felt again the -old desire for her, even here--now. Did it matter that she had betrayed -him? Did anything matter any more to him? The last ebb of fury flowed -out of him, leaving him silent and relaxed at last. If this was a -trap ... what did it matter? He had nothing to lose now. - -He realized quite suddenly then that he wanted very much to believe -what Deve said. He wanted it so badly that he reacted defensively, not -daring to let himself be hurt by her again. Very cautiously, he let -down the barriers that he had erected against her since the very first -day of the trial when he had known for the first time that she had been -his betrayer. - -Deve sensed the change in him and laid a hand on his arm. "You ... you -will listen now?" she asked quietly. - -Aram nodded, his eyes fixed on her face. The bruise on her lips was -dark and painful looking. - -"I heard of your arrest the day it happened, Aram," she said. "I knew -what the end of it would be if they could find no real evidence against -you--you'd have been subjected to an extensive mental probing that -would have left you ... an ... an idiot. That's true. You know it is." - -Aram nodded agreement. - -"You would have been lost to _us_," Deve said, "and Aram, we need you! -Need you desperately!" - -Aram looked about him in confusion. Still weak from his bout with the -drugs, he was having difficulty marshalling his thoughts. - -"Who are you people?" he demanded. "_What_ are you?" - - * * * * * - -A grizzled naval officer stepped forward. Aram recognized him as Kant -Mikal, recorded in the headquarters of the Thirty Suns Navy as having -been lost in space two years earlier while on a routine exploration -into the Thirtieth Decant. - -"We have no name, other than 'the Group,'" he said simply. "We have as -our purpose the prevention of a disastrous war ... possibly even the -destruction of civilization as we have known it." - -"You don't make any sense," Jerrold said confusedly. "What is there -in the galaxy that can threaten the Tetrarchy with a war such as you -describe?" - -"There is a very real and present danger, Aram Jerrold," Mikal said -flatly. "_Santane_...." - -Aram felt a chilling premonition. Santane again. He remembered the -testy words of the black judge who had condemned him: "One would think -Santane were building a fleet...." - -Mikal seemed to read his thoughts. "Yes," he said, "Provincial Governor -Santane." - -"I don't ask you to join us for the sake of the Tetrarchy, Aram," -pleaded Deve Jennet earnestly, "or because of any personal relationship -between you and me. If the Thirty Suns Government knew of the Group, -and of the manipulations we've performed to get equipment and personnel -for our mission, not one of us would be left alive by the Greens. We've -penetrated the highest circles, we've subverted loyal people. We've -used every trick and subterfuge to get the men and women we need out -here without giving away our secret." She smiled ruefully. "We've even -had men arrested and condemned so that we could gather them here on -Atmion IV...." - -Aram felt a terrible load being lifted from his shoulders. No matter -what happened next, it was good to know that Deve had not betrayed him -as he had thought. - -"The Tetrarchy would not allow the existence of such a unit as the -Group for a moment. Every hour that passes increases our danger. But -we must finish our mission, Aram; we can do nothing else!" Deve said -fervently. - -"If Santane overthrows the Tetrarchy," said Kant Mikal bleakly, "the -dark ages will descend. The man is mad for power, cruel and intelligent -enough to hold it." - -Aram thought swiftly. Santane was a relative unknown back on Terminus, -was merely one of the thirty civil servants that held the Governorships -of the Thirty star-systems making up the Tetrarchy. The Tetrarchy -was a tyrannous bureaucracy ... but at least it was not a one-man -government. As bad as it was, Santane's iron hand would be infinitely -worse. - -"But how," protested Jerrold. "With what? How can Santane hope to -withstand the whole of the Tetrarchy's power?" - -"As you have guessed," Mikal said, "he is building a fleet; new -construction and better than anything in the Thirty Suns Navy. However, -if it were only that, there would be no real need for us to interfere. -The Fleet is antiquated, as you know, but able to muster a force of -more than ten thousand first line battlecraft. No matter how good -Santane's ships might be, they could not handle an attack by that kind -of numbers. The Kaidor system would take a terrible beating, and most -probably Kaidor V would be bombed to rubble. That would be the end -of it. The destruction would be strictly localized in the Thirtieth -Decant. But there is, unfortunately more ... much more." - -"Aram," exclaimed Deve, "it's horrible!" - -"Santane has developed interstellar guided missiles, Jerrold," said -Kant Mikal. "Faster than any Fleet vessel and impossible to intercept. -But that isn't the worst of it. It's the stuff he has developed for -these missiles to carry...." - -"Biological weapon?" asked Aram with a sinking feeling in his heart. - -Mikal nodded. "Follow me," he said. - - * * * * * - -Aram Jerrold followed the grizzled naval officer into an antechamber. -With Deve Jennet at his side he let Mikal lead him down a narrow, -zig-zagging ramp into a stone room below the meeting hall. The place -was dimly lit and there was a smell in the air that reminded Aram of -a zoological garden. A strong wire mesh had been stretched across the -room to divide it roughly into two sections. In the corner of the -interior division, a figure squatted, gnawing on a piece of bone. The -sound of its teeth scraping the bits of flesh off the shank made Aram -shudder. - -Mikal led him up to the wire. - -"That," he said, "was a man. Santane's weapon did what you see there." - -Jerrold's stomach muscles knotted. The figure in the cage was roughly -human, but it squatted on greatly foreshortened hams and waved long, -hairy arms at them angrily. The forehead sloped back from a face -completely bestial, and as Aram stood there, sickened and fascinated, -the hirsute apparition flung the chewed bone at him and bared its fangs -in a blood-chilling howl. - -Aram turned away, white-faced. "Is ... is there no cure for this -thing?" he asked. - -Mikal shook his head. "We have been able to develop none. This was -an agent of ours who was taken on Kaidor IV by Santane's raiders. We -tried to establish a surveillance point there and failed--the planet is -hardly livable--and Santane has been able to maintain a very complete -coverage of the two planets nearest his capital. The inoculation was -made on Kaidor V, and Santane sent him back here, thinking him an -agent of the Greens. He is laying the foundations of his psychological -attack, you see. A few cases like this, and then the shocker--the -announcement that every planet in the Thirty Suns can expect an attack -by guided missiles loaded with that virus unless his demands are -acceded to." - -"But surely there must be a specific for this thing," pursued Aram. "It -would be valueless as a weapon unless there is." - -"The virus attacks the higher cerebral centers first," explained -Mikal. "Then the endocrine balance. First memory goes. Our medical -people believe that Santane _has_ an antidote for this thing, but in -very limited amounts. They tell me that if caught soon enough, it can -be stopped. But within hours after infection permanent damage to the -higher nervous system is done. They suspect that even if a very small -amount of serum is introduced into the body after infection, _physical_ -damage can be completely avoided. What the effect on the mind might be, -they do not care to say. Complete loss of memory certainly. A lessening -of the ability to relearn the forgotten is also probable." - -The creature behind the wire howled again, plaintively now. - -"Let's get out of here," breathed Deve faintly. - - * * * * * - -"You see what Santane will use to seize the Tetrarchy," Mikal went on -when they were once again in the meeting hall. "He imagines that the -mere threat of it will subdue the Supreme Council." - -"But that's wrong!" exclaimed Aram: "The Tetrarchy will fight! There -has never been a bureaucracy in the history of mankind that didn't -imagine itself invincible!" - -"Yes, the Tetrarchy will fight," agreed Mikal. "And a war of absolute -destruction will engulf the Thirty Suns. Unless...." - -"Unless what?" demanded Jerrold. - -"Unless Santane can be convinced of that. Unless he can be prevailed -upon to give up his ambition and content himself with being a balance -for the rest of the Tetrarchy's power. Where there's one power only, -tyranny results invariably. But if there are two, co-equal and -autonomous, then they must compete for the favor of the people. Only -in such a way can the civilization of the Thirty Suns survive, and the -slavish lot of the people of the inhabited worlds be improved. - -"That, then, is the purpose of the Group. We are pledged to stop--if -we can--the impending struggle for power between Santane and the -Tetrarchy. Savagery is the price we will pay for failure!" - - * * * * * - -In the days that followed, Aram Jerrold grew to despise the name of -Santane more than he had ever despised the Tetrarchy. Deep under the -turbulent sea of Atmion IV, he rested--recuperating from his ordeals -and making ready for the time when the small band of peacemakers would -move to forestall Santane's bid for galactic dominion. - -The plan, as Kant Mikal outlined it, was simple and direct. In the -colony under the sea there were forty-five men and women. These were -mainly scientists and soldiers who had incurred the wrath of the -Government of the Thirty Suns, though there were some, like Leader -Deve Jennet of the Security Police, who carried on a double existence -on Atmion IV, living both above in the Green Fortress and in the -tunnels.... - -Of the more than three thousand Greens stationed on the prison planet, -some fifty knew of the Group, and of the fifty, perhaps ten had access -to the secret quarters. These Greens, at great personal risk, supplied -the scientists and workers of the Group with the materials needed for -their medical and physical researches. - -A falsified report of Aram Jerrold's death under the disintegrators -was sent to Terminus under the personal cachet of Leader Deve Jennet -of the Security Police; so for the first time in many weeks Aram had a -semblance of peace. - -Mikal's plan was for the Group to divide into two units. One, the -larger of the two, would go--at the proper time--to Kaidor V, there to -establish contact with the Provincial Governor and try by any means to -dissuade him from his plan to defy the Thirty Suns Government. There -were several among the Group who felt that such an approach to Santane -would succeed where harsher methods might well fail in the face of -the Thirtieth Decant's hidden power. It was Mikal's plan to lead this -delegation himself in a starship now being fitted in the central pit of -the tunnel maze. - -But Kant Mikal did not delude himself that Santane could be won by -arguments. Another expedition to the Kaidor Sun would be dispatched at -the same time. A small two-man destroyer that had been rendered--Mikal -claimed--"undetectable," would leave the Atmion system with the larger -vessel and land on Kaidor III, a planet uninhabited save for a few -bands of degenerated experimental subjects dumped there by Santane's -biological ecologists. Mikal took care to point out that Kaidor III had -two large land-masses, and the landing by the two members of the Group -selected for that duty would be made on the land-mass unoccupied by the -unfortunate subhumans. - -This expedition would remain on Kaidor III to await word from the first -as to the success or failure of the Group's plan. Failing to hear from -them, or hearing of failure, the small ship would proceed to Kaidor V -and try to wrest the secret of the virus weapon from Santane. Plainly -enough, the second expedition into the Thirtieth Decant would be a -last, spasmodic attempt to save something from the ruins of galactic -war. That phrase stayed with Jerrold as he listened to Kant Mikal. _To -save something from the ruins._ That, he told himself, might well be -the best the Group could accomplish with their meager resources. - - * * * * * - -During the hours that Deve was working in the Fortress, Jerrold -wandered freely through the maze of underground tunnels and chambers -that the Group had built. The original catacombs had been built a -thousand years earlier, and the men and women of the Group had expanded -and refurbished the forgotten maze to suit their purposes. Jerrold was -continually amazed at what they had been able to accomplish with so -little at their command and under a shroud of almost complete secrecy. - -Life in the tunnels centered on the central pit--the spaceport. This, -as Kant Mikal explained with considerable pride, was connected with the -surface by a series of locks that emerged through the bottom of the sea -in the offshore shallows down the coast from the Green Fortress. Under -cover of night, a spaceship could emerge from the tunnels and lift into -space without arousing the garrison of Greens who served on Atmion IV -never dreaming of the quiet life beneath their feet. - -Two spacecraft rested in their cradles in the pit, a medium sized -merchantman, the "Star Cluster," and a Fleet scout-destroyer, -"Serpent." Jerrold recognized both vessels as craft that had long ago -been reported lost in space in Admiralty headquarters back on Terminus. -The Serpent still carried its Fleet insigne of the Spaceship and Sun, -a reminder to Aram of his former life and of the immense power of the -Thirty Suns Navy. He knew only too well the position of the Group in -the coming silent struggle between the galactic Tetrarchy and the -rebellious Santane. They were the smallest, weakest corner in a vicious -triangular madness that threatened to smash the entire civilization of -the Thirty Suns. - -His personal happiness at being with Deve Jennet again, and free -of the haunting pain of her supposed betrayal, was mitigated by a -realization of the dangers they would soon face when the Group's -quixotic plan went into operation. Nor were these forebodings lessened -when Kant Mikal informed him that he and Deve were the unanimous -choices of the Group for the second--and secret--expedition into the -Kaidor Province. - -"It will be your purpose," Kant Mikal told him again, "to save -something from the wreckage if all else fails...." - - * * * * * - -Aram lay comfortably under the bank of sun-lamps in the underground -infirmary. The days of rest and treatment had brought him back into -condition again, and he felt fit and ready for action. He had begun to -chafe at the inactivity, but Kant Mikal insisted that the time to move -out against Kaidor had not come, and Jerrold was forced to be content -with the older man's judgment. - -Deve sat with him in the infirmary, her slim body golden under the -glowing lamps. Sitting near her, watching the graceful sweep of her -pale hair as it brushed her shoulders, Aram was filled with a sense of -well-being and contentment. - -"Aram," asked Deve, "have you had time to examine the Serpent? Are you -familiar with that class of ship?" - -"I spent three years on Periphery Patrol with Serpent class scouts, -Deve," murmured Aram sleepily. "There won't be any trouble...." He -stretched himself and sat up. "But there's one thing I'd like more -information on ... if I can be trusted with it." - -"Aram! We trust you! You know we do ..." protested Deve. - -"Kant Mikal told me the Serpent was ... undetectable. In all my -years with the Fleet, I never heard of a spaceship that could not be -detected." - -"Avon Marsh--one of our scientists--has developed an energy shield, -Aram." - -"That's nothing new, Deve," said Aram. "The Fleet vessels have had them -for years. They use them against attack by ray weapons of all kinds." - -"But this reaches into the highest frequencies," Deve explained. "It -shunts all radiation around the ship. Of course, it can't be used -during second order flight above light speed, but it wouldn't be of any -value then, anyway." - -"You mean it shunts _all_ radiation around the ship? All? Even light?" -demanded Jerrold with sudden interest. - -"Yes. At close observational ranges it results in a slight -distortion--like a very clear lens, but--" - -"Then the ship is ... invisible?" Aram asked incredulously. - -Deve Jennet smiled. "Yes, among other things. And it prevents a radio -echo being sent back to a detector, too." - - * * * * * - -Aram sank back thoughtfully. An invisible ship! His spaceman's mind -toyed with the thought. It was like something from a naval officer's -dream fantasies. A battleship so equipped could very nearly rule the -plenum...! But Deve's next words cut that dream short. - -"The field is so limited, though," she said, "that only a two-man scout -can be equipped with it. And since the shield works two ways, the -occupants of the ship are blind. Nothing outside the ship itself can be -seen." - -Jerrold was about to reply when Kant Mikal burst into the room. His -grey hair was matted with blood, and his face was pale and drawn with -pain and anxiety. - -"I should have listened to you, Jerrold," he breathed heavily. "We -should have moved out long ago!" - -"Kant! You're hurt," cried Deve. - -Mikal gestured impatiently. "It's nothing! We have to get out -immediately! Get ready...!" - -Jerrold and Deve were on their feet, reaching for their cloaks. - -"What's happened?" asked Aram. - -"The Greens have found the tunnel entrance. I think they must have -caught one of our topside people with a mental probe, I don't know for -sure. But there's fighting in the tube-shafts now. We have to get to -the ships!" - -Aram cursed. "Are there any weapons nearby?" - -The grey haired officer shook his head. "None. Only the medical -instruments here." - -Aram ransacked the wall cabinets and produced a single small scalpel. -"This will have to do," he muttered. - -"If we can reach the pit," said Kant Mikal, "the steelite doors may -give us enough time to get clear. They're disintegrator-resistant." - -"Let's go," said Aram tensely. "Ready?" - -Deve and Mikal nodded and followed him as he opened the door to the -corridor and stepped out. The tunnel was deserted, but there were -muffled sounds of fighting coming through the ventilators. Aram -sprinted toward the pit, his bare feet soundless on the stone floor. -Deve and Mikal ran silently beside him. - -As they came to a turn in the tube, a single Green seemed to appear out -of nowhere. Aram had a fleeting glimpse of a pistol being raised and he -felt the hot, searing touch of a graze as he launched himself bodily at -the man. - -There was a crashing roar as the tetrol shell exploded harmlessly -against the stone wall of the tunnel, sending echoes reverberating down -the long passageway. Aram caught the Green in the pit of the stomach -with the full force of his charge. The man doubled up painfully, -dropping his weapon to the floor. Aram rolled to his feet, catlike. -The Green roared with rage and lunged at him. Aram stepped under the -attack and brought his two clenched fists down on the back of the man's -neck. The Green staggered and spun about, catching Aram in a vise-like -embrace. The policeman was huge, and as his arms closed about Aram's -lighter frame, Aram could feel his ribs being crushed. His hand closed -on the scalpel he had thrust into the waistband of his shorts. He -raised it high and drove it hard into the man's broad back. The Green -stiffened. With an incredulous expression, he released Aram and toppled -to the stone floor. - -Aram leaned against the wall of the tunnel, panting, sickened. His -hands were red with blood. From somewhere down the tunnel came the -sound of booted feet clattering on the stones. Suddenly another Green -rounded the turn, an energy rifle in his hands. Aram straightened -for the expected attack, but the Green stopped abruptly, his head -vanishing into a red smear as another crashing roar echoed down the -corridor. As he sank to the floor, Aram turned to see Kant Mikal -lowering the first Green's still smoking pistol. - -"Let's keep going," Mikal muttered breathlessly. - -Stopping only to pick up the fallen Green's rifle, Aram, Kant Mikal and -Deve ran on toward the pit. - -"Will the others try to make the spaceport?" gasped Jerrold as they ran. - -"There's nowhere else to go," returned Mikal simply. - - * * * * * - -The Greens had not completely occupied the tunnels, for they met no -more opposition. The sounds of fighting had stopped, though, as they -burst into the large chamber that housed the spacecraft, and Aram -realized that the Greens were gathering their forces for an attempt to -prevent the Group's escape in the vessels. Aram looked about him with -a sick heart. Of the original forty-five that had been in the tunnels -before the attack, only ten besides himself and Deve had reached the -pit. The others, they told him, had been killed or captured by the -Greens, and one of them must have been forced to tell of the spaceships -and the plan of escape through the locks. - -The steelite doors of the pit were closed, and the remnants of the -Group straggled aboard the Star Cluster. Kant Mikal took immediate -command of the ship and made ready for the perilous passage through the -locks to the sea above. He laid a hand on Aram's shoulder and spoke -with feeling. "This isn't the way I planned it, Jerrold, but we must do -the best we can. Good luck!" - -Aram helped rig the Star Cluster for flight and then stepped down onto -the floor of the pit. He realized only too well, as he stood with Deve -alone on the floor of the vast chamber, that they would have to wait -until the heavy Star Cluster had cleared the locks before they could -blast free of the cavern in the Serpent. - -He helped Deve through the valve of the small scout ship and hoisted -himself up, crouching in the open lock with the dead Green's energy -rifle, ready to pick off the first Green to come through the door. The -Greens had brought their disintegrators into play, and within minutes -the door would reach its limit of endurance. The steelite panels -already glowed red.... - -The Star Cluster lifted from its cradle with a hissing roar that set -the smaller Serpent to trembling. The first lock opened above it and -it was gone into the black maw of the vertical shaft, its tail-flare -vanishing in the stygian darkness. The lock did not close, and Aram -Jerrold breathed a silent message of thanks to Kant Mikal who had left -it open to ease the Serpent's escape. - -"How long will it take them to clear the remaining locks?" Jerrold -asked Deve anxiously. - -Deve divined his thoughts, and shook her head. "More time than it will -take the Greens to cut through that door!" - -Aram was struck with an idea. "The shield, Deve! The energy shield!" - -For a moment hope lighted her face, but it quickly faded. "There -is a time-lag when the shield is deactivated, Aram," she said. "If -we use it now, we won't be able to operate the locks in time. They -are radio-controlled from inside the ship and the shield stops all -radiation ... both ways!" - -"Then we'll ram the locks!" - -"Will the ship stand it?" - -"I don't know, Deve, but it's our only chance. If we can confuse them -just long enough to get under way, we may make it. Show me how the -shield is energized." - -Deve shrugged and sat down before the control panel. Her fingers -flashed lightly over the banks of switches. A low whining of generators -started deep in the vitals of the small starship. Aram, watching the -process, glanced through the ports at the melting steelite door of the -cavern, and he was amazed to see the scene fade before his eyes into a -murky grayness. - -"They can't see us now," Deve Jennet said with a slow smile, "and we -can't see them." - -"Let's go," breathed Aram. - - * * * * * - -He hurriedly began rigging the Serpent for flight, warming the jets, -energizing the pumps and aerators. He gave silent thanks for the -rigid training of the Thirty Suns Navy, for his hands automatically -and swiftly found the proper instruments and controls. Gyros began -their ascending crescendo, whining in strident unison with the shield -generators to shape a harmonic pattern that pulsed in the eardrums and -set the teeth on edge. Accumulators filled slowly, relays clicked shut -as the Serpent poised itself for flight. - -A harsh, thumping sound made Aram Jerrold pause. He cursed bitterly -and resumed his work. The Greens, of course, were not fools. They -could not see the Serpent, nor, presumably, had they ever encountered -an invisible craft before. But having melted down the steelite portal -at last and flooded into the vast pit, they could hear the Serpent's, -myriad warnings of impending takeoff, and they must have begun raking -the pit with projectile fire. Some of the shots were finding the -invisible Serpent, and Aram knew that the destroyer's light armor could -not long withstand a shelling. - -"Deve! Has Mikal had time to get the Star Cluster clear of the locks -now?" Jerrold shouted at the girl over the whine of machinery. - -Deve Jennet had heard the projectiles too. She nodded her head and -braced herself against the navigation table. "Let's go!" she shouted -back. - -With pounding heart, Aram Jerrold lifted the Serpent off the floor -of the pit. Blindly, he let the invisible starship nose into the -open shaft above. He knew that the moment the Greens realized their -quarry was gone, they would begin firing blindly up into the vertical -tunnel above them. If one shot should hit the jets...! Aram shuddered. -The destroyer would come hurtling down out of the shaft to smashing -destruction on the floor of the pit. He held his breath and eased the -power forward. The Serpent responded eagerly, leaping up the mile-long -tunnel.... - -Ahead lay the second set of locks and then the shallows of the sea. -The small starship careened upward, scraping its flanks on the smooth -metal of the shaft. Aram sat frozen before the controls. A thousand -questions burned in his mind, and there were no sure answers for any of -them. - -He couldn't be sure that Mikal had gotten the Star Cluster free. He -might at this moment be driving the Serpent into the atomic tail-flare -of the larger ship. He did not know whether or not the small destroyer -could withstand the impact of the locks ... or the sea itself. Still, -he drove the ship upward and outward, the automatics set to continue -the same suicidal course should his own human hands falter or fail. - -He shouted for Deve to strap herself to the deck rings near the -navigation table and make ready for the impact. Time seemed to slow -down to a crawling pace. The breath came harshly in his throat, and -sweat coursed down his naked back. His bare feet and legs felt cold and -clammy.... - -He was not ready when it came. The first rending screech of tearing -metal filled the tiny control room and the instrument panel came -smashing up to meet him. He heard a whooshing roar and the scream of -protesting gyros. He heard Deve cry out as her bindings ripped loose, -and then blackness seemed to splash up out of the control panel and -engulf him.... - - * * * * * - -Jerrold woke. His head was pounding painfully and his lips felt mashed -and bruised. The strap that had held him to the pilot's seat had -broken, and he lay across the instrument panel in a welter of glass -shards from shattered dials. The instruments were smeared with -blood ... his blood, Aram realized numbly. He put a hand to his face, -and it came away sticky and red. - -The atomics throbbed, and the dials told him that the Serpent was still -under way. The high pitched hissing of escaping air attested to the -damage, but it also told him that the ship was in space ... and clear -of Atmion IV. - -Jerrold got dizzily to his feet and looked about for Deve. She lay -crumpled in a corner under a chart-locker, bruised and scratched by -the impact of the crash. She moaned slightly as Aram picked her up and -carried her to the pilot's chair. - -Red alarm lights glared at him from several points on the panel, -showing that five forward compartments had been crumpled and ruptured -by the ramming of the locks. The pressure in the ship was low enough -to add to his discomfort. Methodically, fighting off the dizziness, -Aram sealed off the leaky compartments and started the aerators to -build up the pressure. The greyness beyond the parts indicated that the -energy shield was still operating. The Serpent was traveling in slow -first-stage flight toward Kaidor, four and one half light years distant. - -"Aram!" - -Jerrold turned to see that Deve had opened her eyes and was staring at -him, horrified. He tried to grin reassuringly at her, but his bruised -lips succeeded only in grimacing grotesquely through the bloody smear -of his face. - -Deve got to her feet, found the surgical kit that all Fleet vessels -carried and set to work mending the damage. Aram was glad to find that -aside from his battered lips, he had only a long scalp cut along his -hair-line where the instrument panel had tried to decapitate him. The -kit contained balms and soothing anaesthetics, and presently both Deve -and Jerrold were patched and cleansed of blood and dirt. - -There were coveralls in the lockers, and spaceboots; and a hot drink -from the robot galley added to their rising spirits. They had escaped -a force of the best the Thirty Suns Government could throw against -them and they were free of Atmion IV. Their ship was damaged, but -serviceable ... and they were together. - -Deve cut the energy shield and Aram took star-shots to reckon their -position. If the Greens had chased them in spacecraft, their long -flight under the shield had certainly lost the pursuit, for the space -behind them toward Atmion IV was clear. The three stars of the system -blazed below them and Aram pointed the ship at the spot where the -yellow Kaidor Sun lay just under the range of visibility, shifting -into second-stage flight. The three suns of Atmion streaked into a -polychromatic blur, and the Serpent plunged through the interstellar -night toward the Thirtieth Decant and the unknown. - - * * * * * - -It was a star-system of ten planets. Aram Jerrold could see clearly -that, as was generally the case, one of them was a ringed giant. Under -planetary first-stage drive, he brought the small starship down into -the system's ecliptic plane. At a distance of one light day, as the -Serpent passed the outermost planet, the energy shield was reactivated. - -During the days of the trip from the Twenty Ninth Decant and the Atmion -Suns, no word had come from Kant Mikal and his party aboard the Star -Cluster. Both Jerrold and Deve Jennet had pondered the advisability -of trying to establish contact with the larger ship, but finally they -decided to maintain radio silence. Aram felt it inadvisable to risk -detection of the Serpent so close to Santane's stronghold. - -Instead, they resolved to stick to the original plan as outlined by -Kant Mikal back on Atmion IV--landing on the third planet of the Kaidor -Sun and there awaiting word from the Star Cluster. Meanwhile, Aram -could attempt to repair the damage caused the Serpent by the ramming of -the locks. - -On a dead-reckoning course, Jerrold guided the small spaceship sunward. -The peaceful pleasure of the days in space was forgotten now, forced -out of his mind by the nearness of Kaidor V and its hellish spawn of -destruction. Thinking of the poor creature he had seen in the tunnels -back on Atmion IV, Aram was taken with a sick chill. Here, under the -alien light of Kaidor Sun, the virus that had degenerated what had once -been a man lay quiescent in the sleek shells of uncounted interstellar -missiles, ready to leap out and away and carry its mind-destroying -power to all the inhabited worlds of the Thirty Suns. Jerrold knew that -the use of such a weapon would mean disaster. If war came, it would be -a war of stellar giants, smashing planets and minds alike in a hideous -carnival of death and savagery. The spawn of the Kaidor Sun meant -ruin.... - -As yet, Aram reflected with faint hope, there had been no break. -Provincial Governor Santane was still, as far as anyone outside the -Thirtieth Decant knew, a loyal civil servant of the Thirty Suns -bureaucracy. The Special Intelligence reports that clicked methodically -through the Serpent's subspace communicator gave no hint of rebellion -against the banner of the Spaceship and Sun in the Kaidor system. It -was possible, too, thought Jerrold, that the Group under Kant Mikal -could convince Santane of the folly of open defiance. But even as the -thoughts formed in his mind, doubt grew. Kant Mikal had said that -Santane had already stopped weapons shipments to the rest of the -Thirty Suns. He had no such authority. It would take some time for -an investigation to be activated through the ponderous bureaucratic -procedures of the Tetrarchy, but investigation there would definitely -be ... and Santane could have nothing in his mind but war with the -Thirty Suns Government to have taken such a risk. Kaidor Province was -the scientific arsenal of the Tetrarchy, and as such strategically -valuable beyond its intrinsic worth. It would not be too difficult, -Aram realized, to imagine that the man who ruled Kaidor could rule the -Tetrarchy. Only it wasn't so. No one system could muster enough power -to crush the Thirty Suns without being smashed to rubble itself in the -process. A man who had served in a galactic Fleet could understand -that. But a man who had served only as a governor could not, and _that_ -was the danger.... - -As a naval officer, Aram Jerrold knew something that Santane did not. -He knew that vast navies will fight and destroy long after the hope of -victory has gone. - -If war came, there would _be_ no victory. There would be only galactic -disaster.... - - * * * * * - -With the energy shield off, and under reduced power, the Serpent came -down into the atmosphere of Kaidor III. The planet's satellite lay, -like a crescent of silver, in the dark blue, star-flecked sky of the -stratosphere. - -Beneath them, the vast curving surface of the planet flattened as the -starship sank lower, the mottled blues and greens and browns taking -shape of oceans, islands and continents. The sky grew lighter--a pale -blue--as the Serpent crossed the twilight line and slanted down toward -the surface of the turbulent sea. - -Scud clouds raced across the sky and light rain pattered against the -ports of the slowly moving spaceship. Quite suddenly the squall passed, -and the Serpent hung above a sea of brilliant blues and greens, frothed -with white-caps. - -Deve watched through the ports, enraptured. "Look, Aram! Look at the -colors in that sea!" - -Side by side they watched the play of colors in the ocean, fascinated -by the swirling grace and chromatic wonder of the waves. - -In the far distance lay the low silhouette of land. Jerrold let the -Serpent move toward it, keel skimming the dancing white crowns of the -sea. - -There were a few graceful sea-birds with leathery wings and brightly -plumed breasts, and there was life in the sea. Deve and Jerrold could -see schools of lithe shapes flashing silver beneath the water. But the -land itself was silent. The white sand of a curving beach came up out -of the distance to meet them. Beyond lay green rolling hills and wooded -slopes bright with flowers, and farther into the glare of the morning -sun great snow-capped mountains reared their jagged spines against the -blue in the sky. - -"Aram ... it's beautiful!" the girl breathed. "It's the world we -dreamed of finding...." - -Jerrold remembered the nights they had shared back on mighty Terminus. -He recalled their idle dreams of a world beyond the farthest stars -where they could be free. This, he felt, was such a world. - -Deve turned around suddenly to face him. There was longing in her -eyes--a look of wistfulness that filled him with tenderness. - -"We ... we must never forget this world, Aram," she said. "Perhaps one -day we can come here...." She let her voice sink low. "Oh, Aram! If -we could only stay here! If we could just forget everything but this -lovely, peaceful world!" - -Aram Jerrold thought of Santane and the threatening clouds of war. -He thought of the mighty, senseless civilization of the Thirty -Suns--oblivious to the dangers that threatened to engulf it. Quite -suddenly he hated it all. Hated it more than he had ever despised -it when it had tortured and persecuted him. He felt trapped by his -unasked-for responsibilities to the culture that had condemned him. -But trapped he was, and he knew it. Even hating it, he could not let a -galactic civilization vanish without trace and refuse to lift a hand to -save it ... _to save something from the wreckage_. - -Kant Mikal's words came back to him. Pressing, insistent, demanding. - -He took Deve in his arms. "I'd want nothing more than to stay here ... -with you," he said gently. "But we'd never be safe if Santane ruled the -Tetrarchy. He'd never leave a paradise like this alone...." - -"I know that," said Deve, sighing. "But maybe someday...." She broke -off. "I'm so tired, Aram." - -Jerrold thought of how long this girl had been fighting--in secret, in -constant danger of her life--against the menace of an interregnum of -savagery in the galaxy. It made him want to kill Santane with his bare -hands and smash the Tetrarchy into cosmic rubble! - -But it was no good. A responsibility had fallen onto Deve's shoulders -and his. Kant Mikal had said it. And no matter how they might wish -that two others had been chosen out of all the teeming billions of the -Thirty Suns, both he and Deve knew that they must throw themselves -between the galactic millstones and try with their last breath to avert -the limbo that yawned to swallow the first stellar civilization that -the race had laboriously built. It was not perfect--but it was their -own. - - * * * * * - -For two days and two nights Deve and Aram waited by the restless sea of -Kaidor III. They wandered over the green hills and through the wooded -glades hand in hand, caught up in the wonder and beauty of the silent -planet. - -Aram was able to patch some of the breaks in the Serpent's hull, and -together he and Deve planned what moves they must make next. Each time -they left the ship, the recorders were set so that any possible word -from the Star Cluster would be caught; but only the endless stream of -reports and routine messages of the Thirty Suns Naval Intelligence -Bureau marred the wire of the recording device when they sought the -shelter of the ship again. - -Together, they swam in the warm sea and rested in the sunlight on the -white beach, listening to the restless sound of the ocean. It was an -idyll of happiness made more poignant by the pressing nearness of -danger coming ever closer. - -It was on the evening of the third day on Kaidor III that the subspace -radio shattered their faint hopes for the success of the Star Cluster's -mission. The information came not from the Group and Kant Mikal, but -viciously, shockingly, from the announcer in the Naval Intelligence -sending station back on Terminus. It came, smashing the peaceful -stillness of the evening calm. - -"ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ALL FLEET UNITS OF THE TWENTY EIGHTH, TWENTY -NINTH, AND THIRTIETH DECANT SQUADRONS! RENDEZVOUS CHECK POINT 45223 -KAIDOR PROVINCE ACCORDING TO PLAN 5-25 DIRECTIVE 19-A-9! TASK FORCE -COMMANDER WILL NEUTRALIZE PLANET KAIDOR FIVE FOR THE SAFETY OF THE -TETRARCHY!" - -Deve's face was pale. "Santane has done it at last!" - -It had come, then, thought Aram heavily. The cosmic wheels were -beginning to turn. A provincial governor rebelled and across -light years of space forces of mind-defying magnitude began to gather. -Thousands of mighty battleships, millions of men! Planet-smashing -weapons! Far away, on Terminus, government bureaus shifted ponderously -from peaceful administration to War. Clerks and department heads, -councilmen and executives--all shifting their attentions from peacetime -routines to wartime expedients. And within hours, those wartime -expedients would become routine. Fixed, immutable. Routines impossible -to change without painful, _time-consuming_, effort. - -Jerrold spun the radio dials, searching for the government station on -Kaidor V. He needed information. He needed to know what Santane was -telling his population. - -"... _the Thirty Suns merchant vessel, Star Cluster, has fallen into -our hands. The passengers and crew, sabotage agents of the Tetrarchy, -have been imprisoned and will be executed_ ..." - -The voice of the Kaidor announcer echoed menacingly through the still -control room of the Serpent. - -"Aram! They've got Kant Mikal and the others!" cried Deve. - -"Sabotage agents!" Aram spat. - -"... _it is expected that the worker population will conduct itself -with courage and resourcefulness under the threatened attack_," -continued the announcer smoothly. "_Our newly organized armed forces -are even now taking measures against the tyrants' home worlds_ ..." - -Aram shuddered, thinking about the "measures" Santane had devised for -use against the Tetrarchy. The brutalizing virus.... - -"... _it is not to be expected that the war will be of long duration. -Our scientists have developed a weapon that will make active resistance -on the part of the tyrants impossible. They will not dare to attack -us_ ..." - -Confirmation, thought Aram bleakly, of Santane's dream of winning power -by threats. A savage, terrible blunder! - -"_Generalissimo Santane has struck the shackles of the Tetrarchy from -the people of Kaidor! Work and fight for victory!_" The announcement -was followed by the playing of martial music. - -Jerrold snapped the radio off with a curse. Kant Mikal a prisoner--very -likely dead already. The Fleet converging on Kaidor. Santane, drunk -with power, brandishing his awful weapon over the heads of the mute -billions of the Thirty Suns! - -"What now, Aram?" asked Deve quietly. - -"We must go to Kaidor V ... now!" he replied. - -In space again, Aram tried to shake off his forebodings and failed -miserably. They were speeding into a tempest of stellar magnitude, and -they were but two--a man and a woman--against a war-mad galaxy. - -The tiny Serpent pointed for the fifth planet of the Kaidor Sun and -drew its mantle of invisibility around itself, as though to hide from -the fiery stars. - - * * * * * - -Far beneath the starship, Kaidor V lay like a bright scimitar. With the -energy shield momentarily off, they approached the planet's night side, -deep in the global penumbra. No lights marked the populous factory -cities--the world rested dark, poised to lash out against the stars, -falsely confident in its possession of frightful weapons. - -Carefully, Jerrold lowered the Serpent toward the spot he had marked -on the planetary chart--a deep valley near Santane's capital city of -Astrel. Once course and rate of descent were computed, he reactivated -the energy shield and groped his way downward through the sullen night -of Kaidor V. - -After what seemed an eternity of waiting, Deve and Jerrold felt their -ship's keel touch the ground. Aram stood by the jets, alert for the -sudden tipping that would warn them that the Serpent had landed on a -steep slope or crag. The deck assumed a slight angle--no more. Aram cut -the power and listened to the descending whine of the gyroscopes as -they coasted to a halt. Then there was silence. Only the faint hum of -the energy shield broke the stillness. - -Jerrold and Deve studied the chart of Kaidor V carefully. Aram had no -desire to have the Serpent meet with the same fate as the ill-starred -Star Cluster. Concealment and secrecy were paramount. - -On the gridded chart of the planet, the dark city of Astrel lay like a -blot of ink. "There is a conveyor running near here, Deve," Aram said. -"It must carry ores from the mines here--" he pointed out the shafts on -the map, "--to the foundries in the city. They won't be able to guard -the conveyor all along its length. We can get into Astrel that way, I -think." - -"And what then?" asked the girl. - -Jerrold shrugged. "I'm a space officer--not a spy. I know that we must -try to reach Santane and help Mikal and the others if we can--" - -"We had some agents still in the city," said Deve thoughtfully. -"Perhaps they haven't been discovered. We can try and reach them ... -they might be able to help us." - -"It will be risky, Deve, now that the fight is in the open." - -"I don't see how we can possibly reach Santane alone," she said. - -Deve was right, of course, Aram realized. Without help they would never -be able to penetrate the barriers of security the Provincial Governor -must have erected between himself and the population of his planet. - -Cutting the shield, Aram searched the dark landscape beyond the ports. -The night was black and still. The stars made an unfamiliar pattern -across the sky. A thin band of nebulosity showed the edge of the -Galactic Lens in a peculiarly distorted perspective. Here, in the heart -of the Thirtieth Decant, they were far from the populous worlds of the -galaxy's center--farther even than they had been in Atmion Province. -But this barren, cold world would be for the next few hours the center -of the Thirty Suns. Here, on the metallic soil of Kaidor V, the fate of -an interstellar civilization would be decided.... - -There were many deadly weapons in the lockers, but Jerrold decided to -take only two plastic energy pistols. Such weapons would be less likely -to be found by the weapons alarms that were standard street fixtures on -all the planets of the Thirty Suns. - -With a sigh, the valve slid open and Aram and the girl dropped to the -frozen volcanic soil. The air smelled bitter, and the cold was intense. -Kaidor V was more than twenty-four light-minutes from its primary, and -warmth was slight. It had been chosen for the center of Kaidor Province -rather than a more hospitable world because of the richness of its -radioactive ores and immense nitrogen yielding deposits. - - * * * * * - -The starship had landed in a small ravine, and there, Aram decided, -it could stay relatively safe from discovery. Aram marked the spot on -his chart and etched it into his brain. It was hard to leave the tiny -Serpent. It represented all the security they could expect on this -unfriendly world. - -They climbed to the crest of the ridge and dropped down onto a flat -plateau, striking out across it toward the spot where Jerrold estimated -they would intercept the line of the conveyor. - -They walked along in silence under a canopy of oddly unfriendly stars. -Presently the faint sound of machinery warned that the conveyor was -near. In the darkness, they almost ran headlong into it. The light of -Deve's small pocket torch revealed two belts. One bounced along empty, -speeding back toward the mines in the hills; the other groaned under -a heavy loading of metallic ores bound for the smelters and steel -converters of Astrel. - -"It's moving fast, but we'll have to jump it anyway," Aram said softly. - -"Don't worry about me," replied Deve stoutly. "Just give me a hand." - -Aram grinned in spite of himself. Deve's courage and resolution were a -boon on this quixotic mission. - -He picked her up and began to run along the uneven soil parallel to the -racing conveyor. With an effort he heaved her up on to the pile of ore. -He heard her give a little cry of pain as she landed among the sharp -shards, and then she was gone into the blackness. Without pause, he -leaped onto the belt himself, skinning his hands and legs on the rocky -cargo. - - * * * * * - -For a moment he stopped to catch his breath, and then began to crawl -forward toward Deve Jennet. It took him a long while to reach her, and -when he did, they found that she had dropped her gun in the scramble to -board the conveyor. - -The thought of facing a hostile city with one small pistol did not -please; but Aram realized that under no circumstances could he have -hoped to out-gun the combined forces of the Thirtieth Decant, so the -loss of a gun really made little difference. The whole of the Serpent's -armory would do them no good if concealment failed. - -"We'll have to get clear of this thing before it reaches its -destination, Deve," Jerrold shouted above the roar of the belt. - -"I only hope the marshalling yards and ore stockpiles aren't too well -guarded!" Deve replied--and Aram silently echoed her hope. - -In the near distance, coming ever nearer, were the periodic flares -of the great steel converters of Astrel. The city itself seemed -blacked-out, but apparently Santane--the "Generalissimo," thought -Jerrold wryly--was keeping his workers busy on weapons production -right up until the last moment of danger ... another proof to Aram's -mind that Santane did not believe the Tetrarchy would dare to actually -attack. He must already have warned the Thirty Suns Government, perhaps -sending specimens of his handiwork to impress the Supreme Council of -the power of his virus weapons. Yet the Fleet would attack--Jerrold -felt sure of it. The very nature of the Thirty Suns Government made -any other course unthinkable. Bureaucracies, Aram knew, reacted like -headless beasts to the things that threatened them, unable to make fine -distinctions or true evaluations. Defiance brought reprisal. It was as -simple as that. - -It was difficult to see anything in the darkness, and Jerrold began to -fear that they might be catapulted into the furnaces themselves. The -flares in the sky seemed very close now. - -A tiny blue light flashed by that Aram thought must mark the entrance -to the stockpiling yards. He scrambled to his feet and pulled Deve up -beside him. - -"Get ready to jump clear!" he shouted in her ear. - -Wind snatched at his words, and the swaying conveyor made standing -difficult--almost impossible. Deve clutched at him, trying to keep her -balance. And then, without warning, the belt slammed abruptly into a -flat right-angle turn, pitching them off into darkness filled with -hurtling chunks of ore. - -Aram clung to the girl as they spilled off the belt and banged hard -into a great pile of ore. More of the stuff continued to flood down on -them from the conveyor above, burying them under an oppressive weight. -Desperately, Jerrold clawed his way out into the open, and still -clinging to Deve, rolled precipitously down the steep slope of the -stockpile. They struck the bottom with bone-jarring force and lay there -gasping. - -A brilliant beam of light sliced through the dusty darkness, pinning -them to the ore pile. Motes danced wildly in the gleaming cone. And in -one awful flash of insight Aram knew what had happened ... understood -the meaning of that tiny blue light he had seen. A dark-light scanner! - -Floodlights came on, and the intruders found themselves blinking into -a semi-circle of energy rifle muzzles in the hands of grim-faced, -black-clad guards. - -Aram Jerrold felt his heart sink. They were captured.... - - * * * * * - -Between two files of guards, Deve and Jerrold walked into the city they -had hoped to strip of its weapons. The bitterness of their failure rode -hard on Jerrold's shoulders. He kept hearing again and again the phrase -that Kant Mikal had used: "To save something from the wreckage...." It -seemed impossible now. The giants and the furies were gathering. The -might of the Thirty Suns would descend like a rain of fire on Kaidor V, -and the mindless death nurtured here would sweep the inhabited worlds -like a plague. The forces Jerrold had hoped to chain were free now, and -threatening, like some ghastly cosmic storm. The teeming cities would -crumble, the spaceways would be deserted. Night would fall on man's -imperfect, but highest achievement, and he would return to the primeval -muck. - -Aram searched the faces of the streams of workers they passed. They -were sullen, whipped men. From the tyranny of the Tetrarchy they had -slipped into the clutches of Santane. For them, there was no hope, no -dignity, and only the release of death could change their lot. - -The black guards herded Deve and Jerrold onto a small air-sled, and the -tiny craft nosed upward and into the streams of aerial traffic above -the darkened city. Ahead lay the black bulk of a towering skylon. -This, Aram realized, must be Santane's citadel. - -The air-sled was sinking slowly to a landing on one of the many landing -platforms that marred the flanks of the mighty skylon when the first -alarm sirens began to wail. Aram turned his eyes to the night sky -automatically. He could not hope to see the Fleet, for they must still -be beyond the orbit of Kaidor X, but he did see the red streaks of the -first interceptor rockets taking off. The sky in the east was greying; -the attack would come by day. - -The air-sled touched the landing stage, and the guards hurried Jerrold -and Deve Jennet into the citadel. Through a maze of halls thronging -with white-faced officers in new and unfamiliar uniforms they went, -past guards and armored doorways. At last they stood in a vaulted, -oblong room that hummed with activity. - -It was a Combat Center. In the center of the room lay a huge, -three-dimensional chart of the Thirtieth Decant and the Kaidor system. -Jerrold recognized the red blips that indicated the approaching -Fleet, fully ten thousand strong ... and he recognized something else -too. He had felt this kind of tension in ships of the Navy. It was -fear--universal, jittery fear. These people, Aram knew suddenly, were -terribly, desperately afraid of that advancing armada. Their leader had -told them that it would not dare attack, yet it came on inexorably and -they were afraid. - -Yellow streaks in the chart showed the track of interceptors, already -fanning out from Kaidor V, seeking targets in the huge, onrushing -formation of mighty battleships that spread across light-minutes of -space. The tiny weapons had already taken a small toll of the slower -Fleet vessels, but the rest continued sunward, their losses unfelt. - -This was what Aram feared Santane would not or could not realize ... -that no matter how dreadful his virus weapon, forces of such magnitude -could not be halted by threats once they were put in motion. - -Now Santane's secretly built fleet was blasting into space. -Jerrold estimated that it consisted of perhaps five hundred large -starships--torpedo launchers mainly, built for defense. - -Near Kaidor VII, the ringed giant, the two Fleets made first contact. -The battle of the Thirtieth Decant had begun. - -The guards shoved at Jerrold, and he was led away from the chart -and its fascinating picture of battle. He and Deve were taken up a -spiralling staircase to the balcony that overlooked the Combat Center -and through a heavily guarded door. - -The chamber in which they now found themselves was strangely quiet -after the fear-tinged confusion of the Combat Center. All but one of -their guards withdrew, and Aram faced a tall, powerfully built man who -stood engrossed in a bank of scanner-views of the battle. - -Presently the man looked up to scowl at his prisoners. Aram Jerrold -knew at once that it was--at last--Santane. - - * * * * * - -Aram studied the man with interest. Here was the man whose rebellion -had catapulted the galaxy into war. Because of Santane, billions faced -degradation or extinction. It seemed impossible that one man could -cause such a cataclysmic upheaval in a star-spanning culture. But there -was more to it than that, of course. Santane--as a man--was simply -one more bit of protoplasm in the vast mystery of the cosmos. But -Santane--as a symbol--was real and important. He was a living monument -to the immutable face that tyranny begets more tyranny, and that -the very existence of absolute power results in the two awful -corollaries ... ambition and strife. - -The Tetrarchy had spawned Santane just as surely as night follows day. -Santane was the cancer in the body of the despotism of the Thirty Suns -that was destined to destroy it ... and, thought Aram grimly, himself -with it. - -Aram Jerrold studied the craggy face and the deep-set, glowing eyes -as Santane stood there before the simulacrum of Armageddon in the -scanners, and knew there was madness in the man. - -Santane spoke, and the sound rasped across the senses. - -"You are Aram Jerrold and Deve Jennet--agents of the Tetrarchy. -Spies ... high ranking spies!" His icy gaze searched the faces of the -man and woman before him. "Do you deny it?" - -"We are who you say," replied Jerrold evenly, "but we are not spies. -The Tetrarchy has undoubtedly set a price on our heads by now." - -"You lie! The Tetrarchy sent you here because they are afraid of me." -Santane laughed scornfully, "They have seen what I can do." - -"Don't be a fool, Santane," Jerrold said softly. "The Tetrarchy is -not afraid of you. It can't be. It hasn't the ability to fear you or -anything else. Can't you see that?" He indicated the scanners. The -Fleet was bearing ever closer to Kaidor V, slashing through the cordons -of defensive craft doggedly, impervious to losses and dying ships and -men. - -Fear touched Santane's face ... but for just an instant. Aram knew with -sinking heart that the man's madness would not let him believe the -truth. - -"No," said Santane tensely. "They are afraid of me--or you wouldn't -have been sent here." - -Aram was struck with a sudden, grotesque pity for the man. All the -weeks he had spent in danger and in preparation for this mission that -had failed, he had thought of Santane as the living incarnation of -crafty evil. What he saw before him now was a insane man--frightened -by the mighty forces he had unleashed and could not now turn or -control. In that moment, Aram felt that Kant Mikal's injunction to save -something from the ruins was truly impossible, for nothing could come -right when a single madman could smash in days the work of millennia. - -Santane's face was again rigid and cold. "Perhaps you have not seen -what my biological weapons can do.... Guard! Bring in the others!" - -Aram felt an icy hand closing about his heart. The others.... - -_Kant Mikal ... the men and women of the Star Cluster...._ - -"Santane ... you haven't...!" Jerrold broke off in horror as the guard -returned, leading a line of five shambling beasts. The creatures fought -the chains that bound them, howling with outrage. - -"How," demanded Santane, "can Terminus attack me if they face _that_?" -His eyes lit, kindled with some obscene pleasure at the spectacle. -"First there are pains in the neck and head. Blinding--agonizing pains! -Then comes unconsciousness, and memory goes ... then the glands alter, -and men become ... beasts...." - -Deve Jennet moaned. Her friends and comrades were in that line of -disfigured subhuman things. She clutched at Aram for support. - -Jerrold felt red fury explode within him. He wanted to feel his bare -hands on Santane's throat ... his teeth in his flesh. With an oath -he launched himself bodily at the smiling madman, hands groping for -the throat under the twisted grin. He saw Santane back away in sudden -fright, and the black flash of the guard interposing himself between -them. The guard raised his rifle and brought the muzzle down in a -chopping arc. Aram felt a searing pain above his eyes and pitched into -a reddish blur of oblivion.... - - * * * * * - -Jerrold awoke in a small, glassed-in chamber. His head ached dully, -and he could feel the stiffness of dried blood on his brow. He rolled -over and staggered to his feet, realizing that he must be at the very -pinnacle of the mighty skylon that housed Santane's headquarters. - -The same black guard who had struck him down stood impassive in the -corner, and Aram could see Santane standing with Deve on a small -landing stage beyond the glass. He saw something else, too, and his -breath came faster. There was a small air-sled on the landing stage, -bright with new paint and Santane's own insigne of the Trident and -Flame. - -There was a subspace radio installation in the corner of the aerie, and -Aram Jerrold knew instantly that he had been brought up to the skylon's -top to establish contact with the invading Fleet, to warn the forces of -the Thirty Suns to surrender. - -Santane returned with Deve held at his side. The sight of the man's -hand possessively on Deve's wrist brought a return of Aram's fury. - -"You see," Santane said with a thin smile, "the Fleet _does_ fear -me. They have broken off their attack and are circling beyond the -stratosphere." - -That meant, Aram knew, that the ships of the Thirty Suns were -preparing for bombardment of Kaidor V. Knowing the richness of the -nitrogen-bearing surface soil of the planet, the Task Force commander -would undoubtedly be readying his vessels to rain down nitrogen -fission bombs, trying to exceed critical mass in the air and ground -of the planet and setting off chain reactions to rip it apart by the -expenditure of the energy contained in the globe itself. Santane, not -being a space officer, could not know that. - -Kant Mikal's wish to have something saved from the wreckage now could -be accomplished in only two ways--both impossible to Aram's mind. - -He and Deve could escape, and save themselves ... or he could prevent -Santane from launching his interstellar missiles when the bombs began -to fall. - -"Call the Fleet commander," Santane ordered brusquely. "Tell him he -must land and place himself at my orders." - -Such a call would be ignored. Aram knew that.... - -"Hurry!" Santane demanded pettishly. - -Still Aram could bring himself to no decision. - -Santane turned, took a stoppered vial from a cabinet and faced Aram -again with a scowl. "One drop of this on the skin, and a human being -becomes ... what you saw below. Shall I use it on the woman to convince -you where your duty lies?" - -Aram felt his heart skip a beat. Santane was not bluffing. Pressed, he -would carry out his threat from sheer perverted malice. Aram looked -hungrily toward the small air-sled on the landing.... - -He took a step toward the radio. Very probably his voice, recognized, -would brings the bombs even quicker--but there was no way to convince -Santane of that. He was beyond reason. - -A high pitched sound broke the stillness. Aram pitched instinctively to -the floor as a bomb struck the ground far below and near the base of -the skylon! The whole structure shook with the force of the concussion, -the glass of the aerie fogging into a maze of tiny cracks. Fragments of -the ceiling came powdering down. Santane staggered against the wall, -the vial still in his hand, a look of terrified disbelief on his face. - -"_No!_" he gasped. "_They wouldn't dare...._" - -Aram tried to reach Deve's side, but Santane was quicker. - -"Tell them to call off the attack!" he screamed, "or I infect the -woman! Quickly! Quickly!" - - * * * * * - -Aram spun on his knee and dived for Santane. The vial flew across the -room and shattered against the wall. Jerrold smashed his fist into -Santane's distorted face--he felt the splintering of teeth in the -shattered mouth. A sizzling beam of fire flashed past Aram's eyes. -He straightened and struck Santane again, sending the man staggering -across the room. - -[Illustration: _Jerrold smashed his fist into Santane's distorted -face...._] - -Instead of attacking or trying to escape, Santane leaped for a wall -communicator. His battered face was a mask of maniacal rage. Jerrold -caught him but ... too late to prevent four words from screeching into -the microphone.... - -"_Fire the virus missiles!_" - -Aram sobbed with frustrated rage and swung his clenched fists again -and again into Santane's bloody face. He rolled on the littered floor, -trying to strangle the life from the wildly struggling madman who had -spawned disaster. - -Another bomb fell, rocking the skylon. Beams clattered down from the -towering superstructure, caving in sections of the aerie's roof. The -guard, who had been circling for a safe shot at Aram, shrieked in agony -as a metal section took him across the shoulders and snapped his back -like a twig. - -Suddenly Aram felt a wetness on his clothes and a bitterness on his -tongue. The two wrestling men had rolled into the pool of liquid from -the broken-vial. - -Santane screamed with terror, and in a frantic burst of energy, broke -away and stumbled out onto the landing stage and the air-sled. - -Deve rushed to Aram, helping him to his feet. As she touched him, he -recoiled. - -"_Don't, Deve! Don't touch me!_" - -But the girl's hands, too, were wet with the sticky stuff of the vial, -and Aram knew with a sick certainty that they were both infected with -the virus of bestiality. - -"After _him_!" Hopeless now, sick with despair, Aram wanted only to -kill Santane. - -But Santane had not launched the air-sled. Instead he knelt on its -deck, a medical kit in his hands. He was trying with trembling fingers -to fill a syringe from a narrow capsule. Jerrold knocked the instrument -from his hands and dragged him from the machine. The madman fought back -with desperate strength, but Aram smashed him again and again against -the stones of the landing. In a last spasmodic effort, Santane caught -Aram by the throat and forced him toward the edge. Far below, the -glowing, radioactive smoke of death roiled against the sides of the -weakened skylon. Aram could see flames eating ravenously at the lower -levels. Santane shrieked with triumph as Aram hung momentarily over the -abyss. Aram twisted.... - -And then Santane was gone, vanishing in a long wailing fall, twisting -and turning like a rag-doll until his scream of terror blended with the -cry of another falling bomb. - - * * * * * - -Without pausing to catch his breath, Jerrold returned to the air-sled -and picked up the syringe. It was only partly full, and the capsule -that Santane had used to load it had been smashed. It was the -antidote ... it had to be the antidote! - -"Deve, here!" With shaking hands he caught her arm and sank the needle -into her flesh, squeezing the plunger down. As the fluid in the -cylinder reached the half-way point, Deve pulled away. - -"That's enough! The rest is for you," she breathed. - -"No, Deve! I don't know if it's enough for both of us. Santane was -going to take the full measure for himself, and he should know...." - -Deve Jennet shook her head. "I don't care," she said. "I wouldn't want -to go on ... without you." - -Aram pleaded but Deve would not be convinced. She had no wish to -survive alone. Finally, Aram took the syringe and emptied it into his -forearm. - -"Now, we'll see," he muttered. - -The howl of bombs was a steady, increasing cacophony now, and, -though ships of Santane's fleet still fought, the Thirty Suns naval -force bombed almost at will. The skylon shook and buckled under the -bombardment and the radiation count on the counters in the wrecked -aerie showed an increasingly dangerous concentration. Still the virus -missiles took the air, streaking the radioactive clouds with their -tail-flares, and Aram watched with sick horror as the awful spawn of -the Kaidor Sun rose to spread bestiality while he stood helplessly by. - -"Aram," Deve spoke to him gently amid the rising symphony of -destruction. "We have to get clear, Aram. Remember what Kant Mikal -said ... and we are all that's left now." - -"The Fleet...." - -"The Fleet will return to Terminus. We can't stop them," Deve said with -finality. - -Aram knew it was true. Mindless to the last, the bureaucracy would -stick to its directives and general orders. The Fleet would return ... -to oblivion. - - * * * * * - -They mounted the air-sled and slanted up into the tortured air of the -dying planet. A huge starship with the golden Spaceship and Sun blazon -came hurtling down out of the sky like a fiery brand, a smaller ship -bearing Santane's Trident and Flame imbedded in its flank. The two -ships dissolved into a ball of greasy fire as they smashed into the -crowded buildings of shattered Astrel. - -More and more nitrogen fission bombs were falling now as the air-sled -streaked across the flaming sky toward the ravine that hid the -Serpent. The very soil of the planet seemed to dance in a hellish -carnival of destruction. Glancing back, Aram saw the towering skylon -come plunging down in torrents of rubble and human flesh. He knew with -finality that he was witnessing the end of everything he had known--the -chaotic collapse of a culture that had spawned its own nemesis. -Man--diving from the pinnacle of stellar dominion to the depths of -nothingness ... because he had tolerated tyranny. - -Jerrold shook his head to clear away the sudden pain that stabbed -across his temples. One thought grew in his mind with increasing -clarity. He and Deve must somehow survive. Perhaps other men and -women would come through the end in remote worlds, but there was no -way of being certain. He had to be sure ... he had to know that the -end would not come for all the race. He, a man, and Deve, a woman, -could still carry out the mercifully dead Kant Mikal's injunction. In -those fleeting moments above the writhing, doomed surface of Kaidor V, -survival became an obsession with Aram Jerrold. - -The Serpent awaited them where they had left it, and they hurried -through the valve, feeling the tremblors of the fifth planet's death -agonies. - -Aram drove the ship upward, seeking the safety of space and their -haven. Both knew where they were going, though neither had put it into -words. - -At a distance of five diameters from the globe of Kaidor V, Aram paused -to see the death of a world. - -Like a savage animal, the Fleet continued to worry the trembling planet -with a vicious hail of bombs. The pair in the Serpent could see bright -internal fires as the crust of the world split under the hideous -attack. Like a stricken thing, Kaidor V seemed to totter on its axis. -Great chunks of rock were blown clear by the pressure of expanding -inner fires. - -For hours, the death agonies of the planet continued, until finally, -like a bursting bubble, the globe expanded. Huge slashes appeared from -pole to pole. The ice caps vanished into twin clouds of superheated -steam. Fragments peeled off as gravitational balances were disturbed. -Globules of molten lava fanned out, like strings of beads. Kaidor V -trembled with a cosmic delirium--great prominences of atomic fire -leaping far into space. And then, quite suddenly, it was over. With -its heart ripped out by the violent fission of its inner substance, -the hollow shell collapsed into a swirling, nebulous cloud of cosmic -rubble, rapidly spreading out into a belt of tiny planetoids spanning -the place where once a mighty world circled the parent star.... - - * * * * * - -The Serpent settled softly into a wooded glade and grew still. Within, -Aram Jerrold fought the wracking pains in his head, screaming aloud -with the agony of it. Deve lay unconscious on the steel deck, moaning -softly. - -Aram knew that the antidote he had injected into their veins was not -enough. Vaguely, he recalled that once--long ago, it seemed--he had -been told that a small amount of specific would prevent physical -damage. But the virus was claiming him, nonetheless. The pounding agony -in his head was streaked with delirious phantasms. Kant Mikal's words -echoed through his brain, though he no longer recognized them as other -than his own. His screaming madness took the shape of those words as he -lifted Deve in his arms and staggered out of the ship. - -Driven by some deep seated racial memory, he stumbled toward the -sea--the mother--the giver of life. The sheer brutal agony of the virus -increased with every step, blinding him with its intensity, until at -last he could bear it no longer and sank to his knees on the white sand -of a beach and pitched forward across the still form of the woman he -carried, hands outstretched toward the shallows of a restless sea that -laved him ... laved him.... - - * * * * * - -Deve stood nude in the glory of the morning sunlight and lifted her -arms to the sky in an ecstacy of freedom. "How lovely it is," she -murmured. - -The figure at her feet stirred and she touched him playfully with a -bare foot. - -Aram woke, puzzled. Something, deep in the back of his mind troubled -him. There had been something.... - -"Come swim with me!" - -Aram looked up at the naked girl before him. She was Deve. He knew -that. He tried to remember more, but he could not. A strange shroud -seemed to have covered up everything ... language he seemed to command, -but.... - -He put the troublesome thoughts out of his mind and stripped off the -strange coverings on his body. Hand in hand with Deve, he waded into -the sea. They swam and played in the warm sunlight, and presently, -tiring of their sport, sought the shade of a wooded glade. - -As they walked hand in hand among the flowering shrubs under the trees, -Deve stopped abruptly. - -"Aram," she said, puzzled, "what is that?" - -An alien shape stood among the verdure, gleaming where the sunlight -pierced the foliage. It was a long cylinder, tapered at both ends -and lined with round, blank ports. They stood there staring at the -spaceship with perplexed incomprehension. Both had a vague feeling that -it was familiar. - -"What is it, Aram?" the girl asked again. - -"I ... don't know," he confessed. - -"I think we did know ... once," Deve said softly. "Aram, why are we -here?" - -Why? The question touched off sparks of memory that brightened and as -quickly faded. Aram spoke, painfully dredging the words from beyond the -veil of forgetfulness. - -"We ... must ... save ... something ... from the ruins." - -"What ruins?" the girl asked impatiently. "What is it we must save?" - -But memory had faded. Aram could not answer her. - -Still she persisted with feminine curiosity unsatisfied. - -"Aram, what is this place?" - -For a long moment he stood in silence beside her in the sun-splashed -glade. He listened to the gentle sound of the wind in the trees and the -restless murmur of the sea. Presently he replied, but with a question. -"Are you happy here, Deve?" - -"Oh, yes!" she breathed. - -He took her in his arms, the spaceship and the past completely -forgotten. - -"Then this is ... Paradise," he said. - - - EPILOGUE - -... And twenty thousand years after, as Man reached again for the -stars ... these two lived in memory ... as _Adam and Eve_. - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST TWO ALIVE! *** - -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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If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Last Two Alive!</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Alfred Coppel</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 08, 2021 [eBook #64759]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST TWO ALIVE! ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> - <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>THE LAST TWO ALIVE!</h1> - -<h2>By ALFRED COPPEL</h2> - -<p>Aram Jerrold watched helplessly as Santane's<br /> -beast-rockets screamed into the Void bearing<br /> -madness to the Thirty Suns, and knew that<br /> -this was cosmic Armageddon ... the crimson<br /> -horror of Space-war would smash Galactic<br /> -Civilization utterly and forever! Yet in his<br /> -tortured mind a voice from the past commanded:<br /> -"<i>You must save something from the ruins!</i>"</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories November 1950.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The verdict, thought Aram Jerrold wearily, would be death. The -Supreme Council itself would demand it. He had rebelled against the -Tetrarchy—rebelled senselessly, desperately, without hope of success -or escape—and the reckoning had come. The Government of the Thirty -Suns would demand his life ... more, if the science of the Security -Police were up to it. Aram repressed a shudder. He knew that science -well. No one rose to a position of command in the Thirty Suns Navy or -to membership in the Executive Committee of the Tetrarchy without -respect for the methods of the dread Greens.</p> - -<p>The courtroom was dark, a pattern of sombre hues calculated to -impress a prisoner with the futility of hope. It had been weeks since -Jerrold had seen the sun. Weeks of endless interrogation and repeated -narcosynthesis. He had been shunted from Bureau to Bureau, from -Department to Department, each set of cogs in the vast governmental -machinery of the Terminus probing him for evidence of sabotage or -rebellion within its own structure. He had been badgered, beaten, -drugged and threatened. Now, at last, the end of the ordeal seemed -near. There remained only the sentence of death to be passed—the -method and place decided upon—and it would be done with. The ponderous -bureaucracy of the Tetrarchy had wrung him dry, and now it prepared -to cast him aside, satisfied that his rebellion was a purely personal -aberration and not part of a widespread plot against the stability of -galactic tyranny.</p> - -<p>The drugs had clouded his vision, giving a nightmare mistiness to the -shadowy courtroom. Jerrold could see that the room was empty but for -the guards and clerks and the black-masked tribunes. It would not do, -of course, to let the people know that one of the chosen masters—a -member of the Executive Committee—had suddenly become an insubordinate -rebel and traitor.</p> - -<p>Behind him a door opened, splitting the gloom with a fleeting wedge of -light. The wedge vanished and Aram Jerrold heard again the light, crisp -footsteps. He knew without looking that it was Deve Jennet. She had -been in the courtroom every day, giving testimony, slamming doors in -his face. Doors that might possibly have led to freedom. Every day she -had driven another rivet into the chains of evidence that bound him, -methodically, deliberately.</p> - -<p>She passed by him without turning her head and took a seat near the -tribune's dais. Jerrold stared at her through the mist that swam -sickeningly before his eyes. Dimly, the memory of her as she had been -before this nightmare came to him. He remembered her, soft and yielding -in his arms through the long nights of Terminus. Nights filled with -tenderness and longing talk of freedom for the two of them somewhere -beyond the stars.</p> - -<p>This was the same woman, but changed. The lustrous dark eyes were the -same, and the full lips. The same pale hair and slim body. But it sat -encased in a severely cut uniform, all femininity gone from it. The -uniform was green. The hated color of the Security Police....</p> - -<p>Jerrold had heard again all the words that he had spoken to her through -those nights. Only this time the words had been retold to three masked -judges and their clerk. This time, the words had had a ring of doom.</p> - -<p>At first Aram had suffered the tortures of the damned wondering why -Deve had betrayed him. He had known well enough her high connections in -the Supreme Council and he had known that she served as a member of the -Greens. But he had imagined that she loved him, and he had been stupid -enough to trust her. Now, after weeks of ordeal, it seemed to matter no -longer. Jerrold wanted only to rest.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>On the dais, one of the black-masked figures was speaking. Aram leaned -forward painfully to catch what was being said.</p> - -<p>"This court wishes to go on record as favoring a severe reprimand for -the Bureau of Psychometrics personnel involved in the testing of Aram -Jerrold. His inherent instability should have been uncovered long -before he was appointed to the Executive Committee. Only the chance use -of a mental probe on him—at the request of the Security Police—" he -nodded toward Deve Jennet, "—prevented serious inconvenience to the -Government of the Thirty Suns. Such negligence cannot be tolerated in -so vital a Bureau."</p> - -<p>He paused while the clerk recorded his remarks, then continued: "Aram -Jerrold, you have been convicted of treason against the Government of -the Thirty Suns. You have been proved guilty of attempting to use your -position as an officer of the Thirty Suns Navy to steal a spacecraft -and escape from the dominance of your government. You have disgraced -your uniform and your high office as a member of the Executive -Committee of the Supreme Council of the Government of the Thirty -Suns—" The hooded man rolled the sonorous phrases off his tongue with -obvious relish. "Have you anything to say before the sentence of the -court is passed?"</p> - -<p>Jerrold looked at Deve Jennet. She sat motionless, her body tense -in the green Police uniform. It was hard for Jerrold to speak. The -druggings and violent interrogations had left him weak. Yet a spark of -rebellion remained. Enough to lash out against his tormentors for one -last time.</p> - -<p>"I ... I want only to say," he began thickly, "that ... what I have -done ... I would do again, gladly. I was sick of oppression ... tired -of not ... daring even to think a thought of my own. Sick of pompous -bureaucratic tyranny...." Jerrold drew a shuddering breath. "The -Tetrarchy rules thirty star-systems ... but thirty star systems are not -the Universe. Somewhere, I thought ... there must be freedom. My -crime ... was <i>failure</i> ... nothing more!"</p> - -<p>"Enough!" The tribune's voice shook with sudden anger. "This court is -not convened to listen to treasonous tirades! The clerk will strike the -prisoner's remarks from the record!"</p> - -<p>Darkness flickered momentarily at the edges of Jerrold's field of -vision. He felt spent by his effort at defiance. He forced himself to -stand erect.</p> - -<p>"The sentencing will proceed!"</p> - -<p>"The prisoner will face the Standard!" intoned the clerk.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Aram raised his eyes to the hated symbol on the wall behind the judges' -dais. Long habit made him square his shoulders under the tattered -remains of his blue uniform. He stared up at the Standard of the -Tetrarchy's Spaceship and Sun, despising everything it stood for.</p> - -<p>"<i>Aram Jerrold, traitor and rebel: you are sentenced by this court to -death by slow disintegration!</i> For the safety of the Tetrarchy!"</p> - -<p>The words fell like stones from the lips of the masked tribune into the -fragile silence of the vaulted chamber.</p> - -<p>In spite of himself, Jerrold flinched. Sometimes men survived weeks of -torment under the cancerous rays of the disintegrators....</p> - -<p>One of the judges spoke in low tones to his colleagues.</p> - -<p>"We have received a request from Kaidor V, gentlemen. Provincial -Governor Santane asks that this sentence be commuted to life -imprisonment on Kaidor V so that the prisoner may be used in some -experimental work now in progress there."</p> - -<p>Aram could feel his stomach muscles tightening and the weakness seeping -into his knees. The disintegrators would be preferable to becoming an -experimental animal on Kaidor V. The Kaidor province was the farthest -of the Thirty Suns, and the arsenal of the Tetrarchy. The ghastliest -of the Tetrarchy's weapons came from Kaidor, and they had to be tested -there ... on living men.</p> - -<p>"It seems," muttered one of the tribunes pettishly, "that every time -a naval officer is convicted of anything a request comes through from -Kaidor that he be turned over to Santane. One would imagine Governor -Santane is building a navy!" He shuffled the papers before him while -the others waited. "Still," he continued thoughtfully, "it would -be politically unwise to execute this prisoner here on Terminus. -The spacemen of his command are based here and there is no point -in stirring up trouble in the Fleet... I am inclined to recommend -acceptance of this offer to take him off our hands."</p> - -<p>"<i>Objection, sirs!</i>" Jerrold looked about to see that Deve Jennet was -on her feet, addressing the members of the tribunal.</p> - -<p>"As you know, sirs," she was saying crisply, "I have the good fortune -to be one of the lesser members of the Executive Committee in my office -as liaison officer from Security. I feel it only fair to warn you that -the Supreme Council would be extremely displeased if this prisoner -should escape with his life. It is felt that an example must be made of -him. If it is unwise to carry out the sentence here on Terminus, I will -be happy to arrange a transfer to Atmion IV. On the Green planet there -will be no possibility of trouble by Fleet members. I must insist that -you accede to the wishes of the Council. Aram Jerrold must die in the -disintegrators. No other course of action will be acceptable to the -Supreme Council!"</p> - -<p>The three judges conferred among themselves and then the senior spoke -again. The tone of his voice indicated all too well the awe in which -the Supreme Council and all its appendages was held by members of the -Judicial Department of the Thirty Suns Government.</p> - -<p>"This court was not aware that the Supreme Council had any special -desires concerning the disposition of this case. Had it been known to -us earlier, we would not have considered even for a moment the request -of Provincial Governor Santane."</p> - -<p>"The Supreme Council, gentlemen," returned Deve Jennet stiffly, "<i>has</i> -an interest in this case, as I have indicated to you. It has been -communicated to you in the proper time and form. I await your action on -it."</p> - -<p>"Of course, Leader Jennet, of course. It was not our intention to -question the policies of the Council!" The judge signalled the guards.</p> - -<p>"Aram Jerrold is hereby remanded to the custody of the Security Police, -to be transported by first available spaceship to Atmion IV, there to -be put to death in the manner prescribed by Directive 25-A-38 governing -Execution of Convicted Persons Above the Rank of Commander. Remove the -prisoner!"</p> - -<p>Aram passed near Deve Jennet as she replied: "It will be so reported, -gentlemen." And then looking somberly at Jerrold she added, "I myself -will go to Atmion IV to see to it that this prisoner is accorded the -treatment he deserves."</p> - -<p>Aram stumbled out of the courtroom under guard. Deve's final words rang -strangely in his ears, a perplexing threnody of the dreams they had -shared in the hazy past. He had the odd feeling that in spite of the -things that had passed, the end was not yet....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Of the flight out to Atmion, Jerrold remembered almost nothing. The -iron determination that had kept him on his feet during the last days -of his trial failed him at last and the reaction of the druggings he -had suffered hit him ... hard. He writhed in the agonies of addiction -for the duration of the trip out from Terminus. He knew vaguely that he -lay in the prison ship's infirmary, strapped to a bunk. The discomforts -of acceleration and the shift into second-stage flight above light -speed added themselves to his tortures and filled his nightmares with -nauseating spectres. For two weeks Jerrold went through sheer hell as -his drug-saturated system screamed for more narcotics. None were given.</p> - -<p>By the time the huge prison ship touched down on the dread world of the -Greens, Aram Jerrold was on his way back. Spent, weak and emaciated, -he heard the landing alarms and knew that he would live to face the -disintegrators.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Atmion IV, the only habitable planet of a star-system bizarre and -hateful! Three suns in the smoky sky, air that tasted of brimstone and -ashes. Heavy, deadening gravity. A world of hot rain that fell daily -out of the hazy cloud canopy, a desert at periaston and quagmire at -apastron. Barren ground and a turbulent, sulphuric sea.</p> - -<p>The three suns blazed through the overcast as the prison ship settled -into the steaming mud that was the spaceport. Scalding rain sluiced -down the long flanks of the vessel, corrosive and fetid.</p> - -<p>Aram Jerrold knew of Atmion IV. No officer in the Fleet did not. It -was a foul planet, a world unwanted by any of the many Bureaus, and -as such the perfect prison world. The planet of the Greens. On all -its vast hulk there was only one settlement. The Green Fortress. -Political exiles and condemned prisoners from all over the Tetrarchy of -the Thirty Suns were brought to the Fortress on Atmion IV. None ever -returned.</p> - -<p>Aram remembered that Atmion lay in the Twenty Ninth Decant, only four -light years from Kaidor on the very periphery of the Tetrarchy. These -were the outpost systems, the suns far from mighty Terminus and the -center of the teeming life of the galaxy. These were the hinterlands of -empire, sullen, unknown, unwanted.</p> - -<p>The Green Fortress proper stood on a high crag, etched against the -smoky grey of Atmion IV's eternal overcast. Standing in the open port -of the prison ship, Jerrold could see the black bulk of the turreted -stronghold through the curtain of driving rain. The spaceport was a -sea of mud that still boiled in places from the heat of the great -starship's landing jets.</p> - -<p>Chained in a long line, the human cargo of the vessel was herded -through the rain and mud toward an electrified wire enclosure. Aram -smiled wryly at that evidence of "Security." What need was there for -it on this world? Where could a prisoner go if he should find himself -on the other side of the wire barrier? It was likely, Jerrold thought, -that there was a Directive on it from Terminus, and that accounted for -the electrified wire.</p> - -<p>He estimated that there were perhaps nine hundred men and women in the -human chain that stretched from the starship to the long reception -buildings within the enclosure. The chaff of heterodoxy—cast off by -the single-track machinery of galactic bureaucracy.</p> - -<p>The Greens drove the sodden prisoners through the gates without rancor -or interest. It was as though the prisoners had ceased to be human once -they crossed the line that excluded them from the society of free men.</p> - -<p>Inside the long, draughty shelters, the prisoners were stripped naked, -men and women alike, run through cleansing water jets, dried, clothed -and photographed. Then they were broken into groups and registered -by Greens sitting in armored cubicles within the walls. There was a -machine-like efficiency to the bureaucratic procedure on this level. -Aram Jerrold had the impression that the operation would continue to -run by sheer momentum should higher authority suddenly try to halt -it....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jerrold presented himself before a Green of about forty, a man with -a thin, tired face and colorless eyes, who codified the information -given him, looking up at the prisoner with no apparent interest. Quite -abruptly, he emerged from his cubicle, signalling another Green to take -his place.</p> - -<p>"You," he said to Aram; "come with me."</p> - -<p>Jerrold followed the Green out of the reception building and out into -the rain. For a wild moment, Aram had the impulse to try an escape, but -the thought died stillborn. Escape was plainly impossible. There was -simply no place to go—even if he could shake free of his guard and -the others stationed about the enclosure. The prison ship was being -refuelled a short distance from the reception pen, but the valves were -closed and guarded.</p> - -<p>Presently Jerrold and his guide reached a shaft imbedded in the side -of the crag, atop which sat the grim Fortress. Aram turned his eyes -upward. The great, bastioned stronghold seemed to crouch on the crest -of the cliff. On the highest turret, a green banner emblazoned with a -golden Spaceship and Sun hung sodden and limp in the falling rain.</p> - -<p>With no hesitation, the Green stationed at the guard-post by the shaft -entrance signalled Aram and his guide through. There was a short walk -up a spiralling ramp and then they stood before what appeared to be -simply a blank wall. Jerrold stared in perplexity as his guard took a -bit of metal from his tunic and held it to the wall.</p> - -<p>"Isotope," said the guard shortly, "It acts as a key to the scanner ... -below."</p> - -<p>Before Aram could question him, the section of wall slid back -soundlessly and they stepped into a tubecar. Quickly, the Green set up -a complicated series of stops on the tubecar controls and the vehicle -started downward with a rush.</p> - -<p>Aram clutched at the man for support. Something was not as it should -be. Then, quite suddenly, he realized what it was. The tubecar was -travelling <i>down</i> ... and the Fortress lay above!</p> - -<p>"Where are we going?" he asked cautiously.</p> - -<p>The Green shook his head.</p> - -<p>"Aren't the condemned cells above in the Fortress?"</p> - -<p>"Be quiet. Talk is dangerous!"</p> - -<p>"But...."</p> - -<p>"Be quiet," the Green said again. "You'll understand soon enough. We -have to be careful. Not all of us here are of the Group." He turned -his back on Jerrold.</p> - -<p>Aram's head was spinning. What was there on Atmion that a Green need -fear? And what was this ... Group?</p> - -<p>With a wisdom born of his long imprisonment, Aram Jerrold decided -to hold his peace. What would be would be, and it was becoming -increasingly plain that he was about to learn of things that he had not -dreamed existed.</p> - -<p>After what seemed to be an interminable period, the tubecar began to -slow. The hum of atomics died and the car came to a stop. They must -be well below the level of the Fortress now, reflected Jerrold, and -very likely under the sea. The panels slid away and in front of them -stretched a long white corridor lighted by dim bulbs set in the curved -ceiling.</p> - -<p>"There are miles of tubeways down here," said the guard, "and only the -isotope key gives entrance. The central pattern on the tubecar has been -altered, too ... for the safety of the Group. Follow me."</p> - -<p>At the end of the corridor, a steelite door barred further progress. -The Green produced his isotope key again and touched it to the metal.</p> - -<p>"A word of advice," he said to Jerrold coolly. "Listen and believe. -A great many risks have been taken and a vast amount of work done to -bring you this far."</p> - -<p>He leaned forward and shoved the metal door open. Within lay a brightly -lit chamber. The glare of it hurt Jerrold's eyes and he stood a moment, -blinking on the threshold. Slowly, as his eyes accustomed themselves to -the light, Aram became aware of a group of men and women who watched -him impassively. There were a few in Fleet uniform. One or two of them -casual acquaintances he had thought lost in space or imprisoned by the -Greens. There were others in prison garb, and here and there he could -see the dread color of the Security Police. His heart began to pound. -Another trap? But why?</p> - -<p>One slight figure in green stood a little apart, watching him through -shadowed eyes. Jerrold felt the breath catch in his throat.</p> - -<p>It was Deve Jennet!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>With a cry Deve ran to him. Jerrold felt a surge of mixed fury and -desire. Almost defensively, he lifted his hand and struck Deve across -the face.</p> - -<p>She gasped and stepped back, eyes suddenly bright with tears, a thin -streak of blood marking her pale face. The gathered strangers muttered -angrily. Aram turned to stare at them; his face set and grim. Anger was -pulsing within him, a deep, consuming anger born of the tortures he had -suffered—he looked at the stunned girl—because of <i>her</i>.</p> - -<p>"Oh, Aram ... what have they done to you?" whispered Deve.</p> - -<p>"What have <i>they</i> done to me?" he asked thickly. "<i>They?</i> Now tell me -you had no part in it!" He was hemmed in, lost in a sea of treachery -and formless dangers. For a few moments he had dared to let himself -hope...! And this was the end of it. Deve again. And another trap! -"What more do you want from me? Is this just entertainment for you? To -raise my hopes and then step on them again? Maybe you'd like to open my -veins and have a drink of my blood?"</p> - -<p>"Aram ... <i>stop it</i>!"</p> - -<p>"You lying, cheating wench! Was it you that brought me to the Fortress? -Was it you that spilled all my stupid dreams to those black ghouls who -tried me?" he asked bitterly.</p> - -<p>"Yes! Yes, it was me!" sobbed Deve, "but can you listen to me? Aram, I -beg you! Listen to me!"</p> - -<p>Aram felt some of the rage draining out of him. He stared at Deve in -confusion. There were tears streaking her face. There was no reason for -her to cry now, he thought heavily. Her job was done. Done well.</p> - -<p>"I had to do it that way, Aram. You can't know how I've suffered for -you ... every minute of the time. But it had to be done, I swear it! -There was no other way I could get you here to the Group! If I had let -you go your own way, you'd have been killed, Aram. I'd have died with -you gladly, but there are other things that must be done. And we can -live, Aram! Do you understand me? We can live!"</p> - -<p>Jerrold looked about him. The group had gathered around him. Someone -said: "Listen to Deve Jennet, Jerrold!"</p> - -<p>Dave stepped close to him again, her face upturned. He felt again the -old desire for her, even here—now. Did it matter that she had betrayed -him? Did anything matter any more to him? The last ebb of fury flowed -out of him, leaving him silent and relaxed at last. If this was a -trap ... what did it matter? He had nothing to lose now.</p> - -<p>He realized quite suddenly then that he wanted very much to believe -what Deve said. He wanted it so badly that he reacted defensively, not -daring to let himself be hurt by her again. Very cautiously, he let -down the barriers that he had erected against her since the very first -day of the trial when he had known for the first time that she had been -his betrayer.</p> - -<p>Deve sensed the change in him and laid a hand on his arm. "You ... you -will listen now?" she asked quietly.</p> - -<p>Aram nodded, his eyes fixed on her face. The bruise on her lips was -dark and painful looking.</p> - -<p>"I heard of your arrest the day it happened, Aram," she said. "I knew -what the end of it would be if they could find no real evidence against -you—you'd have been subjected to an extensive mental probing that -would have left you ... an ... an idiot. That's true. You know it is."</p> - -<p>Aram nodded agreement.</p> - -<p>"You would have been lost to <i>us</i>," Deve said, "and Aram, we need you! -Need you desperately!"</p> - -<p>Aram looked about him in confusion. Still weak from his bout with the -drugs, he was having difficulty marshalling his thoughts.</p> - -<p>"Who are you people?" he demanded. "<i>What</i> are you?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A grizzled naval officer stepped forward. Aram recognized him as Kant -Mikal, recorded in the headquarters of the Thirty Suns Navy as having -been lost in space two years earlier while on a routine exploration -into the Thirtieth Decant.</p> - -<p>"We have no name, other than 'the Group,'" he said simply. "We have as -our purpose the prevention of a disastrous war ... possibly even the -destruction of civilization as we have known it."</p> - -<p>"You don't make any sense," Jerrold said confusedly. "What is there -in the galaxy that can threaten the Tetrarchy with a war such as you -describe?"</p> - -<p>"There is a very real and present danger, Aram Jerrold," Mikal said -flatly. "<i>Santane</i>...."</p> - -<p>Aram felt a chilling premonition. Santane again. He remembered the -testy words of the black judge who had condemned him: "One would think -Santane were building a fleet...."</p> - -<p>Mikal seemed to read his thoughts. "Yes," he said, "Provincial Governor -Santane."</p> - -<p>"I don't ask you to join us for the sake of the Tetrarchy, Aram," -pleaded Deve Jennet earnestly, "or because of any personal relationship -between you and me. If the Thirty Suns Government knew of the Group, -and of the manipulations we've performed to get equipment and personnel -for our mission, not one of us would be left alive by the Greens. We've -penetrated the highest circles, we've subverted loyal people. We've -used every trick and subterfuge to get the men and women we need out -here without giving away our secret." She smiled ruefully. "We've even -had men arrested and condemned so that we could gather them here on -Atmion IV...."</p> - -<p>Aram felt a terrible load being lifted from his shoulders. No matter -what happened next, it was good to know that Deve had not betrayed him -as he had thought.</p> - -<p>"The Tetrarchy would not allow the existence of such a unit as the -Group for a moment. Every hour that passes increases our danger. But -we must finish our mission, Aram; we can do nothing else!" Deve said -fervently.</p> - -<p>"If Santane overthrows the Tetrarchy," said Kant Mikal bleakly, "the -dark ages will descend. The man is mad for power, cruel and intelligent -enough to hold it."</p> - -<p>Aram thought swiftly. Santane was a relative unknown back on Terminus, -was merely one of the thirty civil servants that held the Governorships -of the Thirty star-systems making up the Tetrarchy. The Tetrarchy -was a tyrannous bureaucracy ... but at least it was not a one-man -government. As bad as it was, Santane's iron hand would be infinitely -worse.</p> - -<p>"But how," protested Jerrold. "With what? How can Santane hope to -withstand the whole of the Tetrarchy's power?"</p> - -<p>"As you have guessed," Mikal said, "he is building a fleet; new -construction and better than anything in the Thirty Suns Navy. However, -if it were only that, there would be no real need for us to interfere. -The Fleet is antiquated, as you know, but able to muster a force of -more than ten thousand first line battlecraft. No matter how good -Santane's ships might be, they could not handle an attack by that kind -of numbers. The Kaidor system would take a terrible beating, and most -probably Kaidor V would be bombed to rubble. That would be the end -of it. The destruction would be strictly localized in the Thirtieth -Decant. But there is, unfortunately more ... much more."</p> - -<p>"Aram," exclaimed Deve, "it's horrible!"</p> - -<p>"Santane has developed interstellar guided missiles, Jerrold," said -Kant Mikal. "Faster than any Fleet vessel and impossible to intercept. -But that isn't the worst of it. It's the stuff he has developed for -these missiles to carry...."</p> - -<p>"Biological weapon?" asked Aram with a sinking feeling in his heart.</p> - -<p>Mikal nodded. "Follow me," he said.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Aram Jerrold followed the grizzled naval officer into an antechamber. -With Deve Jennet at his side he let Mikal lead him down a narrow, -zig-zagging ramp into a stone room below the meeting hall. The place -was dimly lit and there was a smell in the air that reminded Aram of -a zoological garden. A strong wire mesh had been stretched across the -room to divide it roughly into two sections. In the corner of the -interior division, a figure squatted, gnawing on a piece of bone. The -sound of its teeth scraping the bits of flesh off the shank made Aram -shudder.</p> - -<p>Mikal led him up to the wire.</p> - -<p>"That," he said, "was a man. Santane's weapon did what you see there."</p> - -<p>Jerrold's stomach muscles knotted. The figure in the cage was roughly -human, but it squatted on greatly foreshortened hams and waved long, -hairy arms at them angrily. The forehead sloped back from a face -completely bestial, and as Aram stood there, sickened and fascinated, -the hirsute apparition flung the chewed bone at him and bared its fangs -in a blood-chilling howl.</p> - -<p>Aram turned away, white-faced. "Is ... is there no cure for this -thing?" he asked.</p> - -<p>Mikal shook his head. "We have been able to develop none. This was -an agent of ours who was taken on Kaidor IV by Santane's raiders. We -tried to establish a surveillance point there and failed—the planet is -hardly livable—and Santane has been able to maintain a very complete -coverage of the two planets nearest his capital. The inoculation was -made on Kaidor V, and Santane sent him back here, thinking him an -agent of the Greens. He is laying the foundations of his psychological -attack, you see. A few cases like this, and then the shocker—the -announcement that every planet in the Thirty Suns can expect an attack -by guided missiles loaded with that virus unless his demands are -acceded to."</p> - -<p>"But surely there must be a specific for this thing," pursued Aram. "It -would be valueless as a weapon unless there is."</p> - -<p>"The virus attacks the higher cerebral centers first," explained -Mikal. "Then the endocrine balance. First memory goes. Our medical -people believe that Santane <i>has</i> an antidote for this thing, but in -very limited amounts. They tell me that if caught soon enough, it can -be stopped. But within hours after infection permanent damage to the -higher nervous system is done. They suspect that even if a very small -amount of serum is introduced into the body after infection, <i>physical</i> -damage can be completely avoided. What the effect on the mind might be, -they do not care to say. Complete loss of memory certainly. A lessening -of the ability to relearn the forgotten is also probable."</p> - -<p>The creature behind the wire howled again, plaintively now.</p> - -<p>"Let's get out of here," breathed Deve faintly.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"You see what Santane will use to seize the Tetrarchy," Mikal went on -when they were once again in the meeting hall. "He imagines that the -mere threat of it will subdue the Supreme Council."</p> - -<p>"But that's wrong!" exclaimed Aram: "The Tetrarchy will fight! There -has never been a bureaucracy in the history of mankind that didn't -imagine itself invincible!"</p> - -<p>"Yes, the Tetrarchy will fight," agreed Mikal. "And a war of absolute -destruction will engulf the Thirty Suns. Unless...."</p> - -<p>"Unless what?" demanded Jerrold.</p> - -<p>"Unless Santane can be convinced of that. Unless he can be prevailed -upon to give up his ambition and content himself with being a balance -for the rest of the Tetrarchy's power. Where there's one power only, -tyranny results invariably. But if there are two, co-equal and -autonomous, then they must compete for the favor of the people. Only -in such a way can the civilization of the Thirty Suns survive, and the -slavish lot of the people of the inhabited worlds be improved.</p> - -<p>"That, then, is the purpose of the Group. We are pledged to stop—if -we can—the impending struggle for power between Santane and the -Tetrarchy. Savagery is the price we will pay for failure!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>In the days that followed, Aram Jerrold grew to despise the name of -Santane more than he had ever despised the Tetrarchy. Deep under the -turbulent sea of Atmion IV, he rested—recuperating from his ordeals -and making ready for the time when the small band of peacemakers would -move to forestall Santane's bid for galactic dominion.</p> - -<p>The plan, as Kant Mikal outlined it, was simple and direct. In the -colony under the sea there were forty-five men and women. These were -mainly scientists and soldiers who had incurred the wrath of the -Government of the Thirty Suns, though there were some, like Leader -Deve Jennet of the Security Police, who carried on a double existence -on Atmion IV, living both above in the Green Fortress and in the -tunnels....</p> - -<p>Of the more than three thousand Greens stationed on the prison planet, -some fifty knew of the Group, and of the fifty, perhaps ten had access -to the secret quarters. These Greens, at great personal risk, supplied -the scientists and workers of the Group with the materials needed for -their medical and physical researches.</p> - -<p>A falsified report of Aram Jerrold's death under the disintegrators -was sent to Terminus under the personal cachet of Leader Deve Jennet -of the Security Police; so for the first time in many weeks Aram had a -semblance of peace.</p> - -<p>Mikal's plan was for the Group to divide into two units. One, the -larger of the two, would go—at the proper time—to Kaidor V, there to -establish contact with the Provincial Governor and try by any means to -dissuade him from his plan to defy the Thirty Suns Government. There -were several among the Group who felt that such an approach to Santane -would succeed where harsher methods might well fail in the face of -the Thirtieth Decant's hidden power. It was Mikal's plan to lead this -delegation himself in a starship now being fitted in the central pit of -the tunnel maze.</p> - -<p>But Kant Mikal did not delude himself that Santane could be won by -arguments. Another expedition to the Kaidor Sun would be dispatched at -the same time. A small two-man destroyer that had been rendered—Mikal -claimed—"undetectable," would leave the Atmion system with the larger -vessel and land on Kaidor III, a planet uninhabited save for a few -bands of degenerated experimental subjects dumped there by Santane's -biological ecologists. Mikal took care to point out that Kaidor III had -two large land-masses, and the landing by the two members of the Group -selected for that duty would be made on the land-mass unoccupied by the -unfortunate subhumans.</p> - -<p>This expedition would remain on Kaidor III to await word from the first -as to the success or failure of the Group's plan. Failing to hear from -them, or hearing of failure, the small ship would proceed to Kaidor V -and try to wrest the secret of the virus weapon from Santane. Plainly -enough, the second expedition into the Thirtieth Decant would be a -last, spasmodic attempt to save something from the ruins of galactic -war. That phrase stayed with Jerrold as he listened to Kant Mikal. <i>To -save something from the ruins.</i> That, he told himself, might well be -the best the Group could accomplish with their meager resources.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>During the hours that Deve was working in the Fortress, Jerrold -wandered freely through the maze of underground tunnels and chambers -that the Group had built. The original catacombs had been built a -thousand years earlier, and the men and women of the Group had expanded -and refurbished the forgotten maze to suit their purposes. Jerrold was -continually amazed at what they had been able to accomplish with so -little at their command and under a shroud of almost complete secrecy.</p> - -<p>Life in the tunnels centered on the central pit—the spaceport. This, -as Kant Mikal explained with considerable pride, was connected with the -surface by a series of locks that emerged through the bottom of the sea -in the offshore shallows down the coast from the Green Fortress. Under -cover of night, a spaceship could emerge from the tunnels and lift into -space without arousing the garrison of Greens who served on Atmion IV -never dreaming of the quiet life beneath their feet.</p> - -<p>Two spacecraft rested in their cradles in the pit, a medium sized -merchantman, the "Star Cluster," and a Fleet scout-destroyer, -"Serpent." Jerrold recognized both vessels as craft that had long ago -been reported lost in space in Admiralty headquarters back on Terminus. -The Serpent still carried its Fleet insigne of the Spaceship and Sun, -a reminder to Aram of his former life and of the immense power of the -Thirty Suns Navy. He knew only too well the position of the Group in -the coming silent struggle between the galactic Tetrarchy and the -rebellious Santane. They were the smallest, weakest corner in a vicious -triangular madness that threatened to smash the entire civilization of -the Thirty Suns.</p> - -<p>His personal happiness at being with Deve Jennet again, and free -of the haunting pain of her supposed betrayal, was mitigated by a -realization of the dangers they would soon face when the Group's -quixotic plan went into operation. Nor were these forebodings lessened -when Kant Mikal informed him that he and Deve were the unanimous -choices of the Group for the second—and secret—expedition into the -Kaidor Province.</p> - -<p>"It will be your purpose," Kant Mikal told him again, "to save -something from the wreckage if all else fails...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Aram lay comfortably under the bank of sun-lamps in the underground -infirmary. The days of rest and treatment had brought him back into -condition again, and he felt fit and ready for action. He had begun to -chafe at the inactivity, but Kant Mikal insisted that the time to move -out against Kaidor had not come, and Jerrold was forced to be content -with the older man's judgment.</p> - -<p>Deve sat with him in the infirmary, her slim body golden under the -glowing lamps. Sitting near her, watching the graceful sweep of her -pale hair as it brushed her shoulders, Aram was filled with a sense of -well-being and contentment.</p> - -<p>"Aram," asked Deve, "have you had time to examine the Serpent? Are you -familiar with that class of ship?"</p> - -<p>"I spent three years on Periphery Patrol with Serpent class scouts, -Deve," murmured Aram sleepily. "There won't be any trouble...." He -stretched himself and sat up. "But there's one thing I'd like more -information on ... if I can be trusted with it."</p> - -<p>"Aram! We trust you! You know we do ..." protested Deve.</p> - -<p>"Kant Mikal told me the Serpent was ... undetectable. In all my -years with the Fleet, I never heard of a spaceship that could not be -detected."</p> - -<p>"Avon Marsh—one of our scientists—has developed an energy shield, -Aram."</p> - -<p>"That's nothing new, Deve," said Aram. "The Fleet vessels have had them -for years. They use them against attack by ray weapons of all kinds."</p> - -<p>"But this reaches into the highest frequencies," Deve explained. "It -shunts all radiation around the ship. Of course, it can't be used -during second order flight above light speed, but it wouldn't be of any -value then, anyway."</p> - -<p>"You mean it shunts <i>all</i> radiation around the ship? All? Even light?" -demanded Jerrold with sudden interest.</p> - -<p>"Yes. At close observational ranges it results in a slight -distortion—like a very clear lens, but—"</p> - -<p>"Then the ship is ... invisible?" Aram asked incredulously.</p> - -<p>Deve Jennet smiled. "Yes, among other things. And it prevents a radio -echo being sent back to a detector, too."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Aram sank back thoughtfully. An invisible ship! His spaceman's mind -toyed with the thought. It was like something from a naval officer's -dream fantasies. A battleship so equipped could very nearly rule the -plenum...! But Deve's next words cut that dream short.</p> - -<p>"The field is so limited, though," she said, "that only a two-man scout -can be equipped with it. And since the shield works two ways, the -occupants of the ship are blind. Nothing outside the ship itself can be -seen."</p> - -<p>Jerrold was about to reply when Kant Mikal burst into the room. His -grey hair was matted with blood, and his face was pale and drawn with -pain and anxiety.</p> - -<p>"I should have listened to you, Jerrold," he breathed heavily. "We -should have moved out long ago!"</p> - -<p>"Kant! You're hurt," cried Deve.</p> - -<p>Mikal gestured impatiently. "It's nothing! We have to get out -immediately! Get ready...!"</p> - -<p>Jerrold and Deve were on their feet, reaching for their cloaks.</p> - -<p>"What's happened?" asked Aram.</p> - -<p>"The Greens have found the tunnel entrance. I think they must have -caught one of our topside people with a mental probe, I don't know for -sure. But there's fighting in the tube-shafts now. We have to get to -the ships!"</p> - -<p>Aram cursed. "Are there any weapons nearby?"</p> - -<p>The grey haired officer shook his head. "None. Only the medical -instruments here."</p> - -<p>Aram ransacked the wall cabinets and produced a single small scalpel. -"This will have to do," he muttered.</p> - -<p>"If we can reach the pit," said Kant Mikal, "the steelite doors may -give us enough time to get clear. They're disintegrator-resistant."</p> - -<p>"Let's go," said Aram tensely. "Ready?"</p> - -<p>Deve and Mikal nodded and followed him as he opened the door to the -corridor and stepped out. The tunnel was deserted, but there were -muffled sounds of fighting coming through the ventilators. Aram -sprinted toward the pit, his bare feet soundless on the stone floor. -Deve and Mikal ran silently beside him.</p> - -<p>As they came to a turn in the tube, a single Green seemed to appear out -of nowhere. Aram had a fleeting glimpse of a pistol being raised and he -felt the hot, searing touch of a graze as he launched himself bodily at -the man.</p> - -<p>There was a crashing roar as the tetrol shell exploded harmlessly -against the stone wall of the tunnel, sending echoes reverberating down -the long passageway. Aram caught the Green in the pit of the stomach -with the full force of his charge. The man doubled up painfully, -dropping his weapon to the floor. Aram rolled to his feet, catlike. -The Green roared with rage and lunged at him. Aram stepped under the -attack and brought his two clenched fists down on the back of the man's -neck. The Green staggered and spun about, catching Aram in a vise-like -embrace. The policeman was huge, and as his arms closed about Aram's -lighter frame, Aram could feel his ribs being crushed. His hand closed -on the scalpel he had thrust into the waistband of his shorts. He -raised it high and drove it hard into the man's broad back. The Green -stiffened. With an incredulous expression, he released Aram and toppled -to the stone floor.</p> - -<p>Aram leaned against the wall of the tunnel, panting, sickened. His -hands were red with blood. From somewhere down the tunnel came the -sound of booted feet clattering on the stones. Suddenly another Green -rounded the turn, an energy rifle in his hands. Aram straightened -for the expected attack, but the Green stopped abruptly, his head -vanishing into a red smear as another crashing roar echoed down the -corridor. As he sank to the floor, Aram turned to see Kant Mikal -lowering the first Green's still smoking pistol.</p> - -<p>"Let's keep going," Mikal muttered breathlessly.</p> - -<p>Stopping only to pick up the fallen Green's rifle, Aram, Kant Mikal and -Deve ran on toward the pit.</p> - -<p>"Will the others try to make the spaceport?" gasped Jerrold as they ran.</p> - -<p>"There's nowhere else to go," returned Mikal simply.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Greens had not completely occupied the tunnels, for they met no -more opposition. The sounds of fighting had stopped, though, as they -burst into the large chamber that housed the spacecraft, and Aram -realized that the Greens were gathering their forces for an attempt to -prevent the Group's escape in the vessels. Aram looked about him with -a sick heart. Of the original forty-five that had been in the tunnels -before the attack, only ten besides himself and Deve had reached the -pit. The others, they told him, had been killed or captured by the -Greens, and one of them must have been forced to tell of the spaceships -and the plan of escape through the locks.</p> - -<p>The steelite doors of the pit were closed, and the remnants of the -Group straggled aboard the Star Cluster. Kant Mikal took immediate -command of the ship and made ready for the perilous passage through the -locks to the sea above. He laid a hand on Aram's shoulder and spoke -with feeling. "This isn't the way I planned it, Jerrold, but we must do -the best we can. Good luck!"</p> - -<p>Aram helped rig the Star Cluster for flight and then stepped down onto -the floor of the pit. He realized only too well, as he stood with Deve -alone on the floor of the vast chamber, that they would have to wait -until the heavy Star Cluster had cleared the locks before they could -blast free of the cavern in the Serpent.</p> - -<p>He helped Deve through the valve of the small scout ship and hoisted -himself up, crouching in the open lock with the dead Green's energy -rifle, ready to pick off the first Green to come through the door. The -Greens had brought their disintegrators into play, and within minutes -the door would reach its limit of endurance. The steelite panels -already glowed red....</p> - -<p>The Star Cluster lifted from its cradle with a hissing roar that set -the smaller Serpent to trembling. The first lock opened above it and -it was gone into the black maw of the vertical shaft, its tail-flare -vanishing in the stygian darkness. The lock did not close, and Aram -Jerrold breathed a silent message of thanks to Kant Mikal who had left -it open to ease the Serpent's escape.</p> - -<p>"How long will it take them to clear the remaining locks?" Jerrold -asked Deve anxiously.</p> - -<p>Deve divined his thoughts, and shook her head. "More time than it will -take the Greens to cut through that door!"</p> - -<p>Aram was struck with an idea. "The shield, Deve! The energy shield!"</p> - -<p>For a moment hope lighted her face, but it quickly faded. "There -is a time-lag when the shield is deactivated, Aram," she said. "If -we use it now, we won't be able to operate the locks in time. They -are radio-controlled from inside the ship and the shield stops all -radiation ... both ways!"</p> - -<p>"Then we'll ram the locks!"</p> - -<p>"Will the ship stand it?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know, Deve, but it's our only chance. If we can confuse them -just long enough to get under way, we may make it. Show me how the -shield is energized."</p> - -<p>Deve shrugged and sat down before the control panel. Her fingers -flashed lightly over the banks of switches. A low whining of generators -started deep in the vitals of the small starship. Aram, watching the -process, glanced through the ports at the melting steelite door of the -cavern, and he was amazed to see the scene fade before his eyes into a -murky grayness.</p> - -<p>"They can't see us now," Deve Jennet said with a slow smile, "and we -can't see them."</p> - -<p>"Let's go," breathed Aram.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He hurriedly began rigging the Serpent for flight, warming the jets, -energizing the pumps and aerators. He gave silent thanks for the -rigid training of the Thirty Suns Navy, for his hands automatically -and swiftly found the proper instruments and controls. Gyros began -their ascending crescendo, whining in strident unison with the shield -generators to shape a harmonic pattern that pulsed in the eardrums and -set the teeth on edge. Accumulators filled slowly, relays clicked shut -as the Serpent poised itself for flight.</p> - -<p>A harsh, thumping sound made Aram Jerrold pause. He cursed bitterly -and resumed his work. The Greens, of course, were not fools. They -could not see the Serpent, nor, presumably, had they ever encountered -an invisible craft before. But having melted down the steelite portal -at last and flooded into the vast pit, they could hear the Serpent's, -myriad warnings of impending takeoff, and they must have begun raking -the pit with projectile fire. Some of the shots were finding the -invisible Serpent, and Aram knew that the destroyer's light armor could -not long withstand a shelling.</p> - -<p>"Deve! Has Mikal had time to get the Star Cluster clear of the locks -now?" Jerrold shouted at the girl over the whine of machinery.</p> - -<p>Deve Jennet had heard the projectiles too. She nodded her head and -braced herself against the navigation table. "Let's go!" she shouted -back.</p> - -<p>With pounding heart, Aram Jerrold lifted the Serpent off the floor -of the pit. Blindly, he let the invisible starship nose into the -open shaft above. He knew that the moment the Greens realized their -quarry was gone, they would begin firing blindly up into the vertical -tunnel above them. If one shot should hit the jets...! Aram shuddered. -The destroyer would come hurtling down out of the shaft to smashing -destruction on the floor of the pit. He held his breath and eased the -power forward. The Serpent responded eagerly, leaping up the mile-long -tunnel....</p> - -<p>Ahead lay the second set of locks and then the shallows of the sea. -The small starship careened upward, scraping its flanks on the smooth -metal of the shaft. Aram sat frozen before the controls. A thousand -questions burned in his mind, and there were no sure answers for any of -them.</p> - -<p>He couldn't be sure that Mikal had gotten the Star Cluster free. He -might at this moment be driving the Serpent into the atomic tail-flare -of the larger ship. He did not know whether or not the small destroyer -could withstand the impact of the locks ... or the sea itself. Still, -he drove the ship upward and outward, the automatics set to continue -the same suicidal course should his own human hands falter or fail.</p> - -<p>He shouted for Deve to strap herself to the deck rings near the -navigation table and make ready for the impact. Time seemed to slow -down to a crawling pace. The breath came harshly in his throat, and -sweat coursed down his naked back. His bare feet and legs felt cold and -clammy....</p> - -<p>He was not ready when it came. The first rending screech of tearing -metal filled the tiny control room and the instrument panel came -smashing up to meet him. He heard a whooshing roar and the scream of -protesting gyros. He heard Deve cry out as her bindings ripped loose, -and then blackness seemed to splash up out of the control panel and -engulf him....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jerrold woke. His head was pounding painfully and his lips felt mashed -and bruised. The strap that had held him to the pilot's seat had -broken, and he lay across the instrument panel in a welter of glass -shards from shattered dials. The instruments were smeared with -blood ... his blood, Aram realized numbly. He put a hand to his face, -and it came away sticky and red.</p> - -<p>The atomics throbbed, and the dials told him that the Serpent was still -under way. The high pitched hissing of escaping air attested to the -damage, but it also told him that the ship was in space ... and clear -of Atmion IV.</p> - -<p>Jerrold got dizzily to his feet and looked about for Deve. She lay -crumpled in a corner under a chart-locker, bruised and scratched by -the impact of the crash. She moaned slightly as Aram picked her up and -carried her to the pilot's chair.</p> - -<p>Red alarm lights glared at him from several points on the panel, -showing that five forward compartments had been crumpled and ruptured -by the ramming of the locks. The pressure in the ship was low enough -to add to his discomfort. Methodically, fighting off the dizziness, -Aram sealed off the leaky compartments and started the aerators to -build up the pressure. The greyness beyond the parts indicated that the -energy shield was still operating. The Serpent was traveling in slow -first-stage flight toward Kaidor, four and one half light years distant.</p> - -<p>"Aram!"</p> - -<p>Jerrold turned to see that Deve had opened her eyes and was staring at -him, horrified. He tried to grin reassuringly at her, but his bruised -lips succeeded only in grimacing grotesquely through the bloody smear -of his face.</p> - -<p>Deve got to her feet, found the surgical kit that all Fleet vessels -carried and set to work mending the damage. Aram was glad to find that -aside from his battered lips, he had only a long scalp cut along his -hair-line where the instrument panel had tried to decapitate him. The -kit contained balms and soothing anaesthetics, and presently both Deve -and Jerrold were patched and cleansed of blood and dirt.</p> - -<p>There were coveralls in the lockers, and spaceboots; and a hot drink -from the robot galley added to their rising spirits. They had escaped -a force of the best the Thirty Suns Government could throw against -them and they were free of Atmion IV. Their ship was damaged, but -serviceable ... and they were together.</p> - -<p>Deve cut the energy shield and Aram took star-shots to reckon their -position. If the Greens had chased them in spacecraft, their long -flight under the shield had certainly lost the pursuit, for the space -behind them toward Atmion IV was clear. The three stars of the system -blazed below them and Aram pointed the ship at the spot where the -yellow Kaidor Sun lay just under the range of visibility, shifting -into second-stage flight. The three suns of Atmion streaked into a -polychromatic blur, and the Serpent plunged through the interstellar -night toward the Thirtieth Decant and the unknown.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was a star-system of ten planets. Aram Jerrold could see clearly -that, as was generally the case, one of them was a ringed giant. Under -planetary first-stage drive, he brought the small starship down into -the system's ecliptic plane. At a distance of one light day, as the -Serpent passed the outermost planet, the energy shield was reactivated.</p> - -<p>During the days of the trip from the Twenty Ninth Decant and the Atmion -Suns, no word had come from Kant Mikal and his party aboard the Star -Cluster. Both Jerrold and Deve Jennet had pondered the advisability -of trying to establish contact with the larger ship, but finally they -decided to maintain radio silence. Aram felt it inadvisable to risk -detection of the Serpent so close to Santane's stronghold.</p> - -<p>Instead, they resolved to stick to the original plan as outlined by -Kant Mikal back on Atmion IV—landing on the third planet of the Kaidor -Sun and there awaiting word from the Star Cluster. Meanwhile, Aram -could attempt to repair the damage caused the Serpent by the ramming of -the locks.</p> - -<p>On a dead-reckoning course, Jerrold guided the small spaceship sunward. -The peaceful pleasure of the days in space was forgotten now, forced -out of his mind by the nearness of Kaidor V and its hellish spawn of -destruction. Thinking of the poor creature he had seen in the tunnels -back on Atmion IV, Aram was taken with a sick chill. Here, under the -alien light of Kaidor Sun, the virus that had degenerated what had once -been a man lay quiescent in the sleek shells of uncounted interstellar -missiles, ready to leap out and away and carry its mind-destroying -power to all the inhabited worlds of the Thirty Suns. Jerrold knew that -the use of such a weapon would mean disaster. If war came, it would be -a war of stellar giants, smashing planets and minds alike in a hideous -carnival of death and savagery. The spawn of the Kaidor Sun meant -ruin....</p> - -<p>As yet, Aram reflected with faint hope, there had been no break. -Provincial Governor Santane was still, as far as anyone outside the -Thirtieth Decant knew, a loyal civil servant of the Thirty Suns -bureaucracy. The Special Intelligence reports that clicked methodically -through the Serpent's subspace communicator gave no hint of rebellion -against the banner of the Spaceship and Sun in the Kaidor system. It -was possible, too, thought Jerrold, that the Group under Kant Mikal -could convince Santane of the folly of open defiance. But even as the -thoughts formed in his mind, doubt grew. Kant Mikal had said that -Santane had already stopped weapons shipments to the rest of the -Thirty Suns. He had no such authority. It would take some time for -an investigation to be activated through the ponderous bureaucratic -procedures of the Tetrarchy, but investigation there would definitely -be ... and Santane could have nothing in his mind but war with the -Thirty Suns Government to have taken such a risk. Kaidor Province was -the scientific arsenal of the Tetrarchy, and as such strategically -valuable beyond its intrinsic worth. It would not be too difficult, -Aram realized, to imagine that the man who ruled Kaidor could rule the -Tetrarchy. Only it wasn't so. No one system could muster enough power -to crush the Thirty Suns without being smashed to rubble itself in the -process. A man who had served in a galactic Fleet could understand -that. But a man who had served only as a governor could not, and <i>that</i> -was the danger....</p> - -<p>As a naval officer, Aram Jerrold knew something that Santane did not. -He knew that vast navies will fight and destroy long after the hope of -victory has gone.</p> - -<p>If war came, there would <i>be</i> no victory. There would be only galactic -disaster....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>With the energy shield off, and under reduced power, the Serpent came -down into the atmosphere of Kaidor III. The planet's satellite lay, -like a crescent of silver, in the dark blue, star-flecked sky of the -stratosphere.</p> - -<p>Beneath them, the vast curving surface of the planet flattened as the -starship sank lower, the mottled blues and greens and browns taking -shape of oceans, islands and continents. The sky grew lighter—a pale -blue—as the Serpent crossed the twilight line and slanted down toward -the surface of the turbulent sea.</p> - -<p>Scud clouds raced across the sky and light rain pattered against the -ports of the slowly moving spaceship. Quite suddenly the squall passed, -and the Serpent hung above a sea of brilliant blues and greens, frothed -with white-caps.</p> - -<p>Deve watched through the ports, enraptured. "Look, Aram! Look at the -colors in that sea!"</p> - -<p>Side by side they watched the play of colors in the ocean, fascinated -by the swirling grace and chromatic wonder of the waves.</p> - -<p>In the far distance lay the low silhouette of land. Jerrold let the -Serpent move toward it, keel skimming the dancing white crowns of the -sea.</p> - -<p>There were a few graceful sea-birds with leathery wings and brightly -plumed breasts, and there was life in the sea. Deve and Jerrold could -see schools of lithe shapes flashing silver beneath the water. But the -land itself was silent. The white sand of a curving beach came up out -of the distance to meet them. Beyond lay green rolling hills and wooded -slopes bright with flowers, and farther into the glare of the morning -sun great snow-capped mountains reared their jagged spines against the -blue in the sky.</p> - -<p>"Aram ... it's beautiful!" the girl breathed. "It's the world we -dreamed of finding...."</p> - -<p>Jerrold remembered the nights they had shared back on mighty Terminus. -He recalled their idle dreams of a world beyond the farthest stars -where they could be free. This, he felt, was such a world.</p> - -<p>Deve turned around suddenly to face him. There was longing in her -eyes—a look of wistfulness that filled him with tenderness.</p> - -<p>"We ... we must never forget this world, Aram," she said. "Perhaps one -day we can come here...." She let her voice sink low. "Oh, Aram! If -we could only stay here! If we could just forget everything but this -lovely, peaceful world!"</p> - -<p>Aram Jerrold thought of Santane and the threatening clouds of war. -He thought of the mighty, senseless civilization of the Thirty -Suns—oblivious to the dangers that threatened to engulf it. Quite -suddenly he hated it all. Hated it more than he had ever despised -it when it had tortured and persecuted him. He felt trapped by his -unasked-for responsibilities to the culture that had condemned him. -But trapped he was, and he knew it. Even hating it, he could not let a -galactic civilization vanish without trace and refuse to lift a hand to -save it ... <i>to save something from the wreckage</i>.</p> - -<p>Kant Mikal's words came back to him. Pressing, insistent, demanding.</p> - -<p>He took Deve in his arms. "I'd want nothing more than to stay here ... -with you," he said gently. "But we'd never be safe if Santane ruled the -Tetrarchy. He'd never leave a paradise like this alone...."</p> - -<p>"I know that," said Deve, sighing. "But maybe someday...." She broke -off. "I'm so tired, Aram."</p> - -<p>Jerrold thought of how long this girl had been fighting—in secret, in -constant danger of her life—against the menace of an interregnum of -savagery in the galaxy. It made him want to kill Santane with his bare -hands and smash the Tetrarchy into cosmic rubble!</p> - -<p>But it was no good. A responsibility had fallen onto Deve's shoulders -and his. Kant Mikal had said it. And no matter how they might wish -that two others had been chosen out of all the teeming billions of the -Thirty Suns, both he and Deve knew that they must throw themselves -between the galactic millstones and try with their last breath to avert -the limbo that yawned to swallow the first stellar civilization that -the race had laboriously built. It was not perfect—but it was their -own.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For two days and two nights Deve and Aram waited by the restless sea of -Kaidor III. They wandered over the green hills and through the wooded -glades hand in hand, caught up in the wonder and beauty of the silent -planet.</p> - -<p>Aram was able to patch some of the breaks in the Serpent's hull, and -together he and Deve planned what moves they must make next. Each time -they left the ship, the recorders were set so that any possible word -from the Star Cluster would be caught; but only the endless stream of -reports and routine messages of the Thirty Suns Naval Intelligence -Bureau marred the wire of the recording device when they sought the -shelter of the ship again.</p> - -<p>Together, they swam in the warm sea and rested in the sunlight on the -white beach, listening to the restless sound of the ocean. It was an -idyll of happiness made more poignant by the pressing nearness of -danger coming ever closer.</p> - -<p>It was on the evening of the third day on Kaidor III that the subspace -radio shattered their faint hopes for the success of the Star Cluster's -mission. The information came not from the Group and Kant Mikal, but -viciously, shockingly, from the announcer in the Naval Intelligence -sending station back on Terminus. It came, smashing the peaceful -stillness of the evening calm.</p> - -<p>"ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ALL FLEET UNITS OF THE TWENTY EIGHTH, TWENTY -NINTH, AND THIRTIETH DECANT SQUADRONS! RENDEZVOUS CHECK POINT 45223 -KAIDOR PROVINCE ACCORDING TO PLAN 5-25 DIRECTIVE 19-A-9! TASK FORCE -COMMANDER WILL NEUTRALIZE PLANET KAIDOR FIVE FOR THE SAFETY OF THE -TETRARCHY!"</p> - -<p>Deve's face was pale. "Santane has done it at last!"</p> - -<p>It had come, then, thought Aram heavily. The cosmic wheels were -beginning to turn. A provincial governor rebelled and across -light years of space forces of mind-defying magnitude began to gather. -Thousands of mighty battleships, millions of men! Planet-smashing -weapons! Far away, on Terminus, government bureaus shifted ponderously -from peaceful administration to War. Clerks and department heads, -councilmen and executives—all shifting their attentions from peacetime -routines to wartime expedients. And within hours, those wartime -expedients would become routine. Fixed, immutable. Routines impossible -to change without painful, <i>time-consuming</i>, effort.</p> - -<p>Jerrold spun the radio dials, searching for the government station on -Kaidor V. He needed information. He needed to know what Santane was -telling his population.</p> - -<p>"... <i>the Thirty Suns merchant vessel, Star Cluster, has fallen into -our hands. The passengers and crew, sabotage agents of the Tetrarchy, -have been imprisoned and will be executed</i> ..."</p> - -<p>The voice of the Kaidor announcer echoed menacingly through the still -control room of the Serpent.</p> - -<p>"Aram! They've got Kant Mikal and the others!" cried Deve.</p> - -<p>"Sabotage agents!" Aram spat.</p> - -<p>"... <i>it is expected that the worker population will conduct itself -with courage and resourcefulness under the threatened attack</i>," -continued the announcer smoothly. "<i>Our newly organized armed forces -are even now taking measures against the tyrants' home worlds</i> ..."</p> - -<p>Aram shuddered, thinking about the "measures" Santane had devised for -use against the Tetrarchy. The brutalizing virus....</p> - -<p>"... <i>it is not to be expected that the war will be of long duration. -Our scientists have developed a weapon that will make active resistance -on the part of the tyrants impossible. They will not dare to attack -us</i> ..."</p> - -<p>Confirmation, thought Aram bleakly, of Santane's dream of winning power -by threats. A savage, terrible blunder!</p> - -<p>"<i>Generalissimo Santane has struck the shackles of the Tetrarchy from -the people of Kaidor! Work and fight for victory!</i>" The announcement -was followed by the playing of martial music.</p> - -<p>Jerrold snapped the radio off with a curse. Kant Mikal a prisoner—very -likely dead already. The Fleet converging on Kaidor. Santane, drunk -with power, brandishing his awful weapon over the heads of the mute -billions of the Thirty Suns!</p> - -<p>"What now, Aram?" asked Deve quietly.</p> - -<p>"We must go to Kaidor V ... now!" he replied.</p> - -<p>In space again, Aram tried to shake off his forebodings and failed -miserably. They were speeding into a tempest of stellar magnitude, and -they were but two—a man and a woman—against a war-mad galaxy.</p> - -<p>The tiny Serpent pointed for the fifth planet of the Kaidor Sun and -drew its mantle of invisibility around itself, as though to hide from -the fiery stars.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Far beneath the starship, Kaidor V lay like a bright scimitar. With the -energy shield momentarily off, they approached the planet's night side, -deep in the global penumbra. No lights marked the populous factory -cities—the world rested dark, poised to lash out against the stars, -falsely confident in its possession of frightful weapons.</p> - -<p>Carefully, Jerrold lowered the Serpent toward the spot he had marked -on the planetary chart—a deep valley near Santane's capital city of -Astrel. Once course and rate of descent were computed, he reactivated -the energy shield and groped his way downward through the sullen night -of Kaidor V.</p> - -<p>After what seemed an eternity of waiting, Deve and Jerrold felt their -ship's keel touch the ground. Aram stood by the jets, alert for the -sudden tipping that would warn them that the Serpent had landed on a -steep slope or crag. The deck assumed a slight angle—no more. Aram cut -the power and listened to the descending whine of the gyroscopes as -they coasted to a halt. Then there was silence. Only the faint hum of -the energy shield broke the stillness.</p> - -<p>Jerrold and Deve studied the chart of Kaidor V carefully. Aram had no -desire to have the Serpent meet with the same fate as the ill-starred -Star Cluster. Concealment and secrecy were paramount.</p> - -<p>On the gridded chart of the planet, the dark city of Astrel lay like a -blot of ink. "There is a conveyor running near here, Deve," Aram said. -"It must carry ores from the mines here—" he pointed out the shafts on -the map, "—to the foundries in the city. They won't be able to guard -the conveyor all along its length. We can get into Astrel that way, I -think."</p> - -<p>"And what then?" asked the girl.</p> - -<p>Jerrold shrugged. "I'm a space officer—not a spy. I know that we must -try to reach Santane and help Mikal and the others if we can—"</p> - -<p>"We had some agents still in the city," said Deve thoughtfully. -"Perhaps they haven't been discovered. We can try and reach them ... -they might be able to help us."</p> - -<p>"It will be risky, Deve, now that the fight is in the open."</p> - -<p>"I don't see how we can possibly reach Santane alone," she said.</p> - -<p>Deve was right, of course, Aram realized. Without help they would never -be able to penetrate the barriers of security the Provincial Governor -must have erected between himself and the population of his planet.</p> - -<p>Cutting the shield, Aram searched the dark landscape beyond the ports. -The night was black and still. The stars made an unfamiliar pattern -across the sky. A thin band of nebulosity showed the edge of the -Galactic Lens in a peculiarly distorted perspective. Here, in the heart -of the Thirtieth Decant, they were far from the populous worlds of the -galaxy's center—farther even than they had been in Atmion Province. -But this barren, cold world would be for the next few hours the center -of the Thirty Suns. Here, on the metallic soil of Kaidor V, the fate of -an interstellar civilization would be decided....</p> - -<p>There were many deadly weapons in the lockers, but Jerrold decided to -take only two plastic energy pistols. Such weapons would be less likely -to be found by the weapons alarms that were standard street fixtures on -all the planets of the Thirty Suns.</p> - -<p>With a sigh, the valve slid open and Aram and the girl dropped to the -frozen volcanic soil. The air smelled bitter, and the cold was intense. -Kaidor V was more than twenty-four light-minutes from its primary, and -warmth was slight. It had been chosen for the center of Kaidor Province -rather than a more hospitable world because of the richness of its -radioactive ores and immense nitrogen yielding deposits.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The starship had landed in a small ravine, and there, Aram decided, -it could stay relatively safe from discovery. Aram marked the spot on -his chart and etched it into his brain. It was hard to leave the tiny -Serpent. It represented all the security they could expect on this -unfriendly world.</p> - -<p>They climbed to the crest of the ridge and dropped down onto a flat -plateau, striking out across it toward the spot where Jerrold estimated -they would intercept the line of the conveyor.</p> - -<p>They walked along in silence under a canopy of oddly unfriendly stars. -Presently the faint sound of machinery warned that the conveyor was -near. In the darkness, they almost ran headlong into it. The light of -Deve's small pocket torch revealed two belts. One bounced along empty, -speeding back toward the mines in the hills; the other groaned under -a heavy loading of metallic ores bound for the smelters and steel -converters of Astrel.</p> - -<p>"It's moving fast, but we'll have to jump it anyway," Aram said softly.</p> - -<p>"Don't worry about me," replied Deve stoutly. "Just give me a hand."</p> - -<p>Aram grinned in spite of himself. Deve's courage and resolution were a -boon on this quixotic mission.</p> - -<p>He picked her up and began to run along the uneven soil parallel to the -racing conveyor. With an effort he heaved her up on to the pile of ore. -He heard her give a little cry of pain as she landed among the sharp -shards, and then she was gone into the blackness. Without pause, he -leaped onto the belt himself, skinning his hands and legs on the rocky -cargo.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For a moment he stopped to catch his breath, and then began to crawl -forward toward Deve Jennet. It took him a long while to reach her, and -when he did, they found that she had dropped her gun in the scramble to -board the conveyor.</p> - -<p>The thought of facing a hostile city with one small pistol did not -please; but Aram realized that under no circumstances could he have -hoped to out-gun the combined forces of the Thirtieth Decant, so the -loss of a gun really made little difference. The whole of the Serpent's -armory would do them no good if concealment failed.</p> - -<p>"We'll have to get clear of this thing before it reaches its -destination, Deve," Jerrold shouted above the roar of the belt.</p> - -<p>"I only hope the marshalling yards and ore stockpiles aren't too well -guarded!" Deve replied—and Aram silently echoed her hope.</p> - -<p>In the near distance, coming ever nearer, were the periodic flares -of the great steel converters of Astrel. The city itself seemed -blacked-out, but apparently Santane—the "Generalissimo," thought -Jerrold wryly—was keeping his workers busy on weapons production -right up until the last moment of danger ... another proof to Aram's -mind that Santane did not believe the Tetrarchy would dare to actually -attack. He must already have warned the Thirty Suns Government, perhaps -sending specimens of his handiwork to impress the Supreme Council of -the power of his virus weapons. Yet the Fleet would attack—Jerrold -felt sure of it. The very nature of the Thirty Suns Government made -any other course unthinkable. Bureaucracies, Aram knew, reacted like -headless beasts to the things that threatened them, unable to make fine -distinctions or true evaluations. Defiance brought reprisal. It was as -simple as that.</p> - -<p>It was difficult to see anything in the darkness, and Jerrold began to -fear that they might be catapulted into the furnaces themselves. The -flares in the sky seemed very close now.</p> - -<p>A tiny blue light flashed by that Aram thought must mark the entrance -to the stockpiling yards. He scrambled to his feet and pulled Deve up -beside him.</p> - -<p>"Get ready to jump clear!" he shouted in her ear.</p> - -<p>Wind snatched at his words, and the swaying conveyor made standing -difficult—almost impossible. Deve clutched at him, trying to keep her -balance. And then, without warning, the belt slammed abruptly into a -flat right-angle turn, pitching them off into darkness filled with -hurtling chunks of ore.</p> - -<p>Aram clung to the girl as they spilled off the belt and banged hard -into a great pile of ore. More of the stuff continued to flood down on -them from the conveyor above, burying them under an oppressive weight. -Desperately, Jerrold clawed his way out into the open, and still -clinging to Deve, rolled precipitously down the steep slope of the -stockpile. They struck the bottom with bone-jarring force and lay there -gasping.</p> - -<p>A brilliant beam of light sliced through the dusty darkness, pinning -them to the ore pile. Motes danced wildly in the gleaming cone. And in -one awful flash of insight Aram knew what had happened ... understood -the meaning of that tiny blue light he had seen. A dark-light scanner!</p> - -<p>Floodlights came on, and the intruders found themselves blinking into -a semi-circle of energy rifle muzzles in the hands of grim-faced, -black-clad guards.</p> - -<p>Aram Jerrold felt his heart sink. They were captured....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Between two files of guards, Deve and Jerrold walked into the city they -had hoped to strip of its weapons. The bitterness of their failure rode -hard on Jerrold's shoulders. He kept hearing again and again the phrase -that Kant Mikal had used: "To save something from the wreckage...." It -seemed impossible now. The giants and the furies were gathering. The -might of the Thirty Suns would descend like a rain of fire on Kaidor V, -and the mindless death nurtured here would sweep the inhabited worlds -like a plague. The forces Jerrold had hoped to chain were free now, and -threatening, like some ghastly cosmic storm. The teeming cities would -crumble, the spaceways would be deserted. Night would fall on man's -imperfect, but highest achievement, and he would return to the primeval -muck.</p> - -<p>Aram searched the faces of the streams of workers they passed. They -were sullen, whipped men. From the tyranny of the Tetrarchy they had -slipped into the clutches of Santane. For them, there was no hope, no -dignity, and only the release of death could change their lot.</p> - -<p>The black guards herded Deve and Jerrold onto a small air-sled, and the -tiny craft nosed upward and into the streams of aerial traffic above -the darkened city. Ahead lay the black bulk of a towering skylon. -This, Aram realized, must be Santane's citadel.</p> - -<p>The air-sled was sinking slowly to a landing on one of the many landing -platforms that marred the flanks of the mighty skylon when the first -alarm sirens began to wail. Aram turned his eyes to the night sky -automatically. He could not hope to see the Fleet, for they must still -be beyond the orbit of Kaidor X, but he did see the red streaks of the -first interceptor rockets taking off. The sky in the east was greying; -the attack would come by day.</p> - -<p>The air-sled touched the landing stage, and the guards hurried Jerrold -and Deve Jennet into the citadel. Through a maze of halls thronging -with white-faced officers in new and unfamiliar uniforms they went, -past guards and armored doorways. At last they stood in a vaulted, -oblong room that hummed with activity.</p> - -<p>It was a Combat Center. In the center of the room lay a huge, -three-dimensional chart of the Thirtieth Decant and the Kaidor system. -Jerrold recognized the red blips that indicated the approaching -Fleet, fully ten thousand strong ... and he recognized something else -too. He had felt this kind of tension in ships of the Navy. It was -fear—universal, jittery fear. These people, Aram knew suddenly, were -terribly, desperately afraid of that advancing armada. Their leader had -told them that it would not dare attack, yet it came on inexorably and -they were afraid.</p> - -<p>Yellow streaks in the chart showed the track of interceptors, already -fanning out from Kaidor V, seeking targets in the huge, onrushing -formation of mighty battleships that spread across light-minutes of -space. The tiny weapons had already taken a small toll of the slower -Fleet vessels, but the rest continued sunward, their losses unfelt.</p> - -<p>This was what Aram feared Santane would not or could not realize ... -that no matter how dreadful his virus weapon, forces of such magnitude -could not be halted by threats once they were put in motion.</p> - -<p>Now Santane's secretly built fleet was blasting into space. -Jerrold estimated that it consisted of perhaps five hundred large -starships—torpedo launchers mainly, built for defense.</p> - -<p>Near Kaidor VII, the ringed giant, the two Fleets made first contact. -The battle of the Thirtieth Decant had begun.</p> - -<p>The guards shoved at Jerrold, and he was led away from the chart -and its fascinating picture of battle. He and Deve were taken up a -spiralling staircase to the balcony that overlooked the Combat Center -and through a heavily guarded door.</p> - -<p>The chamber in which they now found themselves was strangely quiet -after the fear-tinged confusion of the Combat Center. All but one of -their guards withdrew, and Aram faced a tall, powerfully built man who -stood engrossed in a bank of scanner-views of the battle.</p> - -<p>Presently the man looked up to scowl at his prisoners. Aram Jerrold -knew at once that it was—at last—Santane.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Aram studied the man with interest. Here was the man whose rebellion -had catapulted the galaxy into war. Because of Santane, billions faced -degradation or extinction. It seemed impossible that one man could -cause such a cataclysmic upheaval in a star-spanning culture. But there -was more to it than that, of course. Santane—as a man—was simply -one more bit of protoplasm in the vast mystery of the cosmos. But -Santane—as a symbol—was real and important. He was a living monument -to the immutable face that tyranny begets more tyranny, and that -the very existence of absolute power results in the two awful -corollaries ... ambition and strife.</p> - -<p>The Tetrarchy had spawned Santane just as surely as night follows day. -Santane was the cancer in the body of the despotism of the Thirty Suns -that was destined to destroy it ... and, thought Aram grimly, himself -with it.</p> - -<p>Aram Jerrold studied the craggy face and the deep-set, glowing eyes -as Santane stood there before the simulacrum of Armageddon in the -scanners, and knew there was madness in the man.</p> - -<p>Santane spoke, and the sound rasped across the senses.</p> - -<p>"You are Aram Jerrold and Deve Jennet—agents of the Tetrarchy. -Spies ... high ranking spies!" His icy gaze searched the faces of the -man and woman before him. "Do you deny it?"</p> - -<p>"We are who you say," replied Jerrold evenly, "but we are not spies. -The Tetrarchy has undoubtedly set a price on our heads by now."</p> - -<p>"You lie! The Tetrarchy sent you here because they are afraid of me." -Santane laughed scornfully, "They have seen what I can do."</p> - -<p>"Don't be a fool, Santane," Jerrold said softly. "The Tetrarchy is -not afraid of you. It can't be. It hasn't the ability to fear you or -anything else. Can't you see that?" He indicated the scanners. The -Fleet was bearing ever closer to Kaidor V, slashing through the cordons -of defensive craft doggedly, impervious to losses and dying ships and -men.</p> - -<p>Fear touched Santane's face ... but for just an instant. Aram knew with -sinking heart that the man's madness would not let him believe the -truth.</p> - -<p>"No," said Santane tensely. "They are afraid of me—or you wouldn't -have been sent here."</p> - -<p>Aram was struck with a sudden, grotesque pity for the man. All the -weeks he had spent in danger and in preparation for this mission that -had failed, he had thought of Santane as the living incarnation of -crafty evil. What he saw before him now was a insane man—frightened -by the mighty forces he had unleashed and could not now turn or -control. In that moment, Aram felt that Kant Mikal's injunction to save -something from the ruins was truly impossible, for nothing could come -right when a single madman could smash in days the work of millennia.</p> - -<p>Santane's face was again rigid and cold. "Perhaps you have not seen -what my biological weapons can do.... Guard! Bring in the others!"</p> - -<p>Aram felt an icy hand closing about his heart. The others....</p> - -<p><i>Kant Mikal ... the men and women of the Star Cluster....</i></p> - -<p>"Santane ... you haven't...!" Jerrold broke off in horror as the guard -returned, leading a line of five shambling beasts. The creatures fought -the chains that bound them, howling with outrage.</p> - -<p>"How," demanded Santane, "can Terminus attack me if they face <i>that</i>?" -His eyes lit, kindled with some obscene pleasure at the spectacle. -"First there are pains in the neck and head. Blinding—agonizing pains! -Then comes unconsciousness, and memory goes ... then the glands alter, -and men become ... beasts...."</p> - -<p>Deve Jennet moaned. Her friends and comrades were in that line of -disfigured subhuman things. She clutched at Aram for support.</p> - -<p>Jerrold felt red fury explode within him. He wanted to feel his bare -hands on Santane's throat ... his teeth in his flesh. With an oath -he launched himself bodily at the smiling madman, hands groping for -the throat under the twisted grin. He saw Santane back away in sudden -fright, and the black flash of the guard interposing himself between -them. The guard raised his rifle and brought the muzzle down in a -chopping arc. Aram felt a searing pain above his eyes and pitched into -a reddish blur of oblivion....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jerrold awoke in a small, glassed-in chamber. His head ached dully, -and he could feel the stiffness of dried blood on his brow. He rolled -over and staggered to his feet, realizing that he must be at the very -pinnacle of the mighty skylon that housed Santane's headquarters.</p> - -<p>The same black guard who had struck him down stood impassive in the -corner, and Aram could see Santane standing with Deve on a small -landing stage beyond the glass. He saw something else, too, and his -breath came faster. There was a small air-sled on the landing stage, -bright with new paint and Santane's own insigne of the Trident and -Flame.</p> - -<p>There was a subspace radio installation in the corner of the aerie, and -Aram Jerrold knew instantly that he had been brought up to the skylon's -top to establish contact with the invading Fleet, to warn the forces of -the Thirty Suns to surrender.</p> - -<p>Santane returned with Deve held at his side. The sight of the man's -hand possessively on Deve's wrist brought a return of Aram's fury.</p> - -<p>"You see," Santane said with a thin smile, "the Fleet <i>does</i> fear -me. They have broken off their attack and are circling beyond the -stratosphere."</p> - -<p>That meant, Aram knew, that the ships of the Thirty Suns were -preparing for bombardment of Kaidor V. Knowing the richness of the -nitrogen-bearing surface soil of the planet, the Task Force commander -would undoubtedly be readying his vessels to rain down nitrogen -fission bombs, trying to exceed critical mass in the air and ground -of the planet and setting off chain reactions to rip it apart by the -expenditure of the energy contained in the globe itself. Santane, not -being a space officer, could not know that.</p> - -<p>Kant Mikal's wish to have something saved from the wreckage now could -be accomplished in only two ways—both impossible to Aram's mind.</p> - -<p>He and Deve could escape, and save themselves ... or he could prevent -Santane from launching his interstellar missiles when the bombs began -to fall.</p> - -<p>"Call the Fleet commander," Santane ordered brusquely. "Tell him he -must land and place himself at my orders."</p> - -<p>Such a call would be ignored. Aram knew that....</p> - -<p>"Hurry!" Santane demanded pettishly.</p> - -<p>Still Aram could bring himself to no decision.</p> - -<p>Santane turned, took a stoppered vial from a cabinet and faced Aram -again with a scowl. "One drop of this on the skin, and a human being -becomes ... what you saw below. Shall I use it on the woman to convince -you where your duty lies?"</p> - -<p>Aram felt his heart skip a beat. Santane was not bluffing. Pressed, he -would carry out his threat from sheer perverted malice. Aram looked -hungrily toward the small air-sled on the landing....</p> - -<p>He took a step toward the radio. Very probably his voice, recognized, -would brings the bombs even quicker—but there was no way to convince -Santane of that. He was beyond reason.</p> - -<p>A high pitched sound broke the stillness. Aram pitched instinctively to -the floor as a bomb struck the ground far below and near the base of -the skylon! The whole structure shook with the force of the concussion, -the glass of the aerie fogging into a maze of tiny cracks. Fragments of -the ceiling came powdering down. Santane staggered against the wall, -the vial still in his hand, a look of terrified disbelief on his face.</p> - -<p>"<i>No!</i>" he gasped. "<i>They wouldn't dare....</i>"</p> - -<p>Aram tried to reach Deve's side, but Santane was quicker.</p> - -<p>"Tell them to call off the attack!" he screamed, "or I infect the -woman! Quickly! Quickly!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Aram spun on his knee and dived for Santane. The vial flew across the -room and shattered against the wall. Jerrold smashed his fist into -Santane's distorted face—he felt the splintering of teeth in the -shattered mouth. A sizzling beam of fire flashed past Aram's eyes. -He straightened and struck Santane again, sending the man staggering -across the room.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>Jerrold smashed his fist into Santane's distorted face....</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Instead of attacking or trying to escape, Santane leaped for a wall -communicator. His battered face was a mask of maniacal rage. Jerrold -caught him but ... too late to prevent four words from screeching into -the microphone....</p> - -<p>"<i>Fire the virus missiles!</i>"</p> - -<p>Aram sobbed with frustrated rage and swung his clenched fists again -and again into Santane's bloody face. He rolled on the littered floor, -trying to strangle the life from the wildly struggling madman who had -spawned disaster.</p> - -<p>Another bomb fell, rocking the skylon. Beams clattered down from the -towering superstructure, caving in sections of the aerie's roof. The -guard, who had been circling for a safe shot at Aram, shrieked in agony -as a metal section took him across the shoulders and snapped his back -like a twig.</p> - -<p>Suddenly Aram felt a wetness on his clothes and a bitterness on his -tongue. The two wrestling men had rolled into the pool of liquid from -the broken-vial.</p> - -<p>Santane screamed with terror, and in a frantic burst of energy, broke -away and stumbled out onto the landing stage and the air-sled.</p> - -<p>Deve rushed to Aram, helping him to his feet. As she touched him, he -recoiled.</p> - -<p>"<i>Don't, Deve! Don't touch me!</i>"</p> - -<p>But the girl's hands, too, were wet with the sticky stuff of the vial, -and Aram knew with a sick certainty that they were both infected with -the virus of bestiality.</p> - -<p>"After <i>him</i>!" Hopeless now, sick with despair, Aram wanted only to -kill Santane.</p> - -<p>But Santane had not launched the air-sled. Instead he knelt on its -deck, a medical kit in his hands. He was trying with trembling fingers -to fill a syringe from a narrow capsule. Jerrold knocked the instrument -from his hands and dragged him from the machine. The madman fought back -with desperate strength, but Aram smashed him again and again against -the stones of the landing. In a last spasmodic effort, Santane caught -Aram by the throat and forced him toward the edge. Far below, the -glowing, radioactive smoke of death roiled against the sides of the -weakened skylon. Aram could see flames eating ravenously at the lower -levels. Santane shrieked with triumph as Aram hung momentarily over the -abyss. Aram twisted....</p> - -<p>And then Santane was gone, vanishing in a long wailing fall, twisting -and turning like a rag-doll until his scream of terror blended with the -cry of another falling bomb.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Without pausing to catch his breath, Jerrold returned to the air-sled -and picked up the syringe. It was only partly full, and the capsule -that Santane had used to load it had been smashed. It was the -antidote ... it had to be the antidote!</p> - -<p>"Deve, here!" With shaking hands he caught her arm and sank the needle -into her flesh, squeezing the plunger down. As the fluid in the -cylinder reached the half-way point, Deve pulled away.</p> - -<p>"That's enough! The rest is for you," she breathed.</p> - -<p>"No, Deve! I don't know if it's enough for both of us. Santane was -going to take the full measure for himself, and he should know...."</p> - -<p>Deve Jennet shook her head. "I don't care," she said. "I wouldn't want -to go on ... without you."</p> - -<p>Aram pleaded but Deve would not be convinced. She had no wish to -survive alone. Finally, Aram took the syringe and emptied it into his -forearm.</p> - -<p>"Now, we'll see," he muttered.</p> - -<p>The howl of bombs was a steady, increasing cacophony now, and, -though ships of Santane's fleet still fought, the Thirty Suns naval -force bombed almost at will. The skylon shook and buckled under the -bombardment and the radiation count on the counters in the wrecked -aerie showed an increasingly dangerous concentration. Still the virus -missiles took the air, streaking the radioactive clouds with their -tail-flares, and Aram watched with sick horror as the awful spawn of -the Kaidor Sun rose to spread bestiality while he stood helplessly by.</p> - -<p>"Aram," Deve spoke to him gently amid the rising symphony of -destruction. "We have to get clear, Aram. Remember what Kant Mikal -said ... and we are all that's left now."</p> - -<p>"The Fleet...."</p> - -<p>"The Fleet will return to Terminus. We can't stop them," Deve said with -finality.</p> - -<p>Aram knew it was true. Mindless to the last, the bureaucracy would -stick to its directives and general orders. The Fleet would return ... -to oblivion.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They mounted the air-sled and slanted up into the tortured air of the -dying planet. A huge starship with the golden Spaceship and Sun blazon -came hurtling down out of the sky like a fiery brand, a smaller ship -bearing Santane's Trident and Flame imbedded in its flank. The two -ships dissolved into a ball of greasy fire as they smashed into the -crowded buildings of shattered Astrel.</p> - -<p>More and more nitrogen fission bombs were falling now as the air-sled -streaked across the flaming sky toward the ravine that hid the -Serpent. The very soil of the planet seemed to dance in a hellish -carnival of destruction. Glancing back, Aram saw the towering skylon -come plunging down in torrents of rubble and human flesh. He knew with -finality that he was witnessing the end of everything he had known—the -chaotic collapse of a culture that had spawned its own nemesis. -Man—diving from the pinnacle of stellar dominion to the depths of -nothingness ... because he had tolerated tyranny.</p> - -<p>Jerrold shook his head to clear away the sudden pain that stabbed -across his temples. One thought grew in his mind with increasing -clarity. He and Deve must somehow survive. Perhaps other men and -women would come through the end in remote worlds, but there was no -way of being certain. He had to be sure ... he had to know that the -end would not come for all the race. He, a man, and Deve, a woman, -could still carry out the mercifully dead Kant Mikal's injunction. In -those fleeting moments above the writhing, doomed surface of Kaidor V, -survival became an obsession with Aram Jerrold.</p> - -<p>The Serpent awaited them where they had left it, and they hurried -through the valve, feeling the tremblors of the fifth planet's death -agonies.</p> - -<p>Aram drove the ship upward, seeking the safety of space and their -haven. Both knew where they were going, though neither had put it into -words.</p> - -<p>At a distance of five diameters from the globe of Kaidor V, Aram paused -to see the death of a world.</p> - -<p>Like a savage animal, the Fleet continued to worry the trembling planet -with a vicious hail of bombs. The pair in the Serpent could see bright -internal fires as the crust of the world split under the hideous -attack. Like a stricken thing, Kaidor V seemed to totter on its axis. -Great chunks of rock were blown clear by the pressure of expanding -inner fires.</p> - -<p>For hours, the death agonies of the planet continued, until finally, -like a bursting bubble, the globe expanded. Huge slashes appeared from -pole to pole. The ice caps vanished into twin clouds of superheated -steam. Fragments peeled off as gravitational balances were disturbed. -Globules of molten lava fanned out, like strings of beads. Kaidor V -trembled with a cosmic delirium—great prominences of atomic fire -leaping far into space. And then, quite suddenly, it was over. With -its heart ripped out by the violent fission of its inner substance, -the hollow shell collapsed into a swirling, nebulous cloud of cosmic -rubble, rapidly spreading out into a belt of tiny planetoids spanning -the place where once a mighty world circled the parent star....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Serpent settled softly into a wooded glade and grew still. Within, -Aram Jerrold fought the wracking pains in his head, screaming aloud -with the agony of it. Deve lay unconscious on the steel deck, moaning -softly.</p> - -<p>Aram knew that the antidote he had injected into their veins was not -enough. Vaguely, he recalled that once—long ago, it seemed—he had -been told that a small amount of specific would prevent physical -damage. But the virus was claiming him, nonetheless. The pounding agony -in his head was streaked with delirious phantasms. Kant Mikal's words -echoed through his brain, though he no longer recognized them as other -than his own. His screaming madness took the shape of those words as he -lifted Deve in his arms and staggered out of the ship.</p> - -<p>Driven by some deep seated racial memory, he stumbled toward the -sea—the mother—the giver of life. The sheer brutal agony of the virus -increased with every step, blinding him with its intensity, until at -last he could bear it no longer and sank to his knees on the white sand -of a beach and pitched forward across the still form of the woman he -carried, hands outstretched toward the shallows of a restless sea that -laved him ... laved him....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Deve stood nude in the glory of the morning sunlight and lifted her -arms to the sky in an ecstacy of freedom. "How lovely it is," she -murmured.</p> - -<p>The figure at her feet stirred and she touched him playfully with a -bare foot.</p> - -<p>Aram woke, puzzled. Something, deep in the back of his mind troubled -him. There had been something....</p> - -<p>"Come swim with me!"</p> - -<p>Aram looked up at the naked girl before him. She was Deve. He knew -that. He tried to remember more, but he could not. A strange shroud -seemed to have covered up everything ... language he seemed to command, -but....</p> - -<p>He put the troublesome thoughts out of his mind and stripped off the -strange coverings on his body. Hand in hand with Deve, he waded into -the sea. They swam and played in the warm sunlight, and presently, -tiring of their sport, sought the shade of a wooded glade.</p> - -<p>As they walked hand in hand among the flowering shrubs under the trees, -Deve stopped abruptly.</p> - -<p>"Aram," she said, puzzled, "what is that?"</p> - -<p>An alien shape stood among the verdure, gleaming where the sunlight -pierced the foliage. It was a long cylinder, tapered at both ends -and lined with round, blank ports. They stood there staring at the -spaceship with perplexed incomprehension. Both had a vague feeling that -it was familiar.</p> - -<p>"What is it, Aram?" the girl asked again.</p> - -<p>"I ... don't know," he confessed.</p> - -<p>"I think we did know ... once," Deve said softly. "Aram, why are we -here?"</p> - -<p>Why? The question touched off sparks of memory that brightened and as -quickly faded. Aram spoke, painfully dredging the words from beyond the -veil of forgetfulness.</p> - -<p>"We ... must ... save ... something ... from the ruins."</p> - -<p>"What ruins?" the girl asked impatiently. "What is it we must save?"</p> - -<p>But memory had faded. Aram could not answer her.</p> - -<p>Still she persisted with feminine curiosity unsatisfied.</p> - -<p>"Aram, what is this place?"</p> - -<p>For a long moment he stood in silence beside her in the sun-splashed -glade. He listened to the gentle sound of the wind in the trees and the -restless murmur of the sea. Presently he replied, but with a question. -"Are you happy here, Deve?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes!" she breathed.</p> - -<p>He took her in his arms, the spaceship and the past completely -forgotten.</p> - -<p>"Then this is ... Paradise," he said.</p> - - -<p class="ph1">EPILOGUE</p> - -<p>... And twenty thousand years after, as Man reached again for the -stars ... these two lived in memory ... as <i>Adam and Eve</i>.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST TWO ALIVE! ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -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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