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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..d2e7fd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64813 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64813) diff --git a/old/64813-0.txt b/old/64813-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a190298..0000000 --- a/old/64813-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1582 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Lightning's Course, by John Victor -Peterson - -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 Lightning's Course - -Author: John Victor Peterson - -Release Date: March 13, 2021 [eBook #64813] - -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 LIGHTNING'S COURSE *** - - - - - THE LIGHTNING'S COURSE - - by JOHN VICTOR PETERSON - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Comet January 41. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - It was only a robot, tiny, chubby, for all the universe like a - Ganymedean monkey. It stood in the dark old mansion alone, stiff, - immovable. Its pink, bewhiskered, rubberoid face seemed twisted - with abject loneliness.... Aye, it stood alone and lonely, as if - awaiting the return of its master-- - -The song pulsed in a vibrant, ominous cadence through the -streets of nightclad Certagarni, clashed against the glassite -atmosphere--retaining walls of the ancient Martian city, and penetrated -faintly into a dimly lighted room of the Earth Embassy where the two -earthmen sat smoking, listening. - -One of them spoke in a hoarse whisper which cut out above the dull, -endless drone of discontented voices like the scream of a tortured soul: - -"God, if it would only break! Flame across a world--battles to be -fought and won!" - -"And lost, Del Andres!" came the other's calm voice. "If this revolt -does come, it'll be so big that we'll never stamp it down without -the Legion!" His slender fingers rose to caress thoughtfully a -close-cropped, golden beard. - -A twisted, bitter smile played on Del Andres' full, sensitive lips. -Strange pain was etched on his dark, handsome face and in the black -pools of his eyes flame burned. He remained silent. - -"What are you thinking about, Del?" - -"Battle--and death! War like we had in Alpha Centauri. A blaze of -conquest like the Fall of Kackijakaala. What else is there to live -for?" - -"There are many things!" - -"Not any more, Frederix. The years have been too cruel." The dark eyes -were staring out into the night, thrusting aside the enfolding curtain -of a dozen decades and many trillion miles of outer space. "Oh, why did -I stay here fooling around with robots when I could have gone out to -Sirius with the Legion--to battle, to glory?" - -"Because you're needed here. Hear those voices! Of what are they -singing? Revolt, of course. And why? Because they think earthmen -are wholly to blame for the loss of control of their industry and -commerce!" - -"Aren't they?" blazed Andres. "We think we're always right, we of -Earth. Because we were the first to conquer space we think we should -rule its farthest bounds, cosmic policeman, arbitrator of all internal -strife from here to the ultimate! - -"We went out to Centauri over a century ago, brought the Vrons out of -subjugation beneath the Dwares, gave them freedom after tying up all -kinds of trade agreements for our benefit; and then skipped over to -Lalande and fixed everything according to our scale of values. And now -Sirius! - -"Here in our own system what goes on? I need not mention the names -of the men who are undermining and usurping the greatest Martian -institutions. Earthmen all! - -"Mars has as much a right to freedom and monopoly on its own -civilization as Earth on hers. Because a few greedy men spread tyranny -through Certagarni, the Thyles, Botrodus, Zabirnza and other regions, -they blame all of Earth. Neither you nor I can say they're wrong!" - -"It's deeper than that, Del. The Vrons of Centauri have as great a hand -in it as Wilcox, Onupari and the other earthmen here. You'll find--" - -"Bosh!" snapped Andres, and then that smouldering flame was in his eyes -again, something that leaped to the lure of the far places and spoke -of the meteoric winds that blow between the worlds. His deep, resonant -voice grew strained, lingered on his words: - -"I wonder--" - - * * * * * - -The purring of a bell insinuated itself above the dull droning without. -Hunter Frederix arose, switched on the televisorphone. - -"Hello, Dave," he addressed the face on the video, "what's up?" - -"Plenty, Hunt. Just received a teletype from Kaa. Revolt has broken -out all over Botrodus. Captain Adelbert Andres is commanded to report -immediately to eleventh division Kaa to command the defense squadrons. -Signed by old 'Zipper' Taine himself. And, Hunt, something is screwy in -the air over here. The old man's on a hot jet over something or other. -Better get over here quick!" - -"O.K., brother Cravens! Del will break a speed record getting to Kaa; -he has the old battle itch worse than ever. I'll be over to the Station -as soon as my gyro'll make it. Sounds like all hell is about to break -in the city!" - -"So? Well, you'd--So long!" Cravens broke off abruptly, and they could -see him whirl away from the transmitter as the videos died. - -Snapping off the T V P, Hunter Frederix turned and said slowly, -regretfully: - -"Well, this is it!" - -A smile lightninged across Andres' face. - -"It's about time! This inactivity was killing me!" - -"Be careful; the best of luck and all that; and may you come back in -one piece!" - -"One _live_ piece, Frederix!" he mocked, and his dark face, tanned by -long exposure to Centauri's blazing binary sun, set forth the fierce -glint in his eyes and sudden, bitter pain on his lips. "Thank God it -matters to some one--" - -"It matters to the world," Frederix said softly. "After all the Legion -is ten light years away, and the Defense Squadrons must keep our system -at peace!" - -"Just keep believing that we will. Faith helps a lot sometimes." - -Their hands clasped warmly. - -"So I'm checking out. If you get near Botrodus, drop in at the -Rendezvous; I'll be there if I'm off duty. You see, I've a new robot to -show you--something I can't understand myself--powered by radium; and I -_know_ it has intelligence!" - -"O.K., Del. And I may be in sooner than you think. When Dave Cravens -gets the jitters something pretty powerful is giving them to him!" - -"Good old Dave. He was with me at Kackijakaala, helped me at the robot -controls--but you know about that. Ask him to tell you about the time -we were surrounded at Travarga." - -"He has!" - -"Well. Oh, hell, Hunt, goodbye!" Andres whirled lithely, and with long -strides left the room. - -"So long!" Frederix called after him; then turned, swept a mass of -Starcharts into the safe, locked it, and turned towards the tiny -landing outside where rested his one man gyrotomic ... towards the -beginning of a strange destiny which would weave together the fates of -worlds and stars, and bring to him knowledge of greatness such as man -had never known before. - - - II - - The robot stirred restlessly and moved at length across a room - littered with parts of others of its kind. Its blue photocellular - eyes peered out into the starshot Martian sky. Could it know that - its creator was coming nearer, riding flame through the night? - -Swiftly the gyrotomic sped beneath the vaulted ceiling of Certagarni, -using the air propellers and gyrovanes as local ordinances demanded for -the sake of air conservation, slanting above streets thronging with -gesticulating, chanting men wearing the bizarre native dress of old -Mars. - -It was no impersonal, cursory glance which Frederix gave that tense -mob; rather was it a careful, searching observation. Here and there his -keen gray eyes discerned Centaurians, tall, slender men, haranguing the -natives. More uneasy grew his anxious heart. Had his words to Andres -contained more of the truth than he had realized? - -Beating down through the thick glassite ceiling, clearly audible above -the faint purr of his motors, he heard the roar of many gyrotomics, -flashed a glance upward and glimpsed an hundredfold of blasts flashing -to the east towards Kaa. With revolt so imminent here, had the Station -ships been ordered to Botrodus? - -Out into the clear cold Martian night through a photocell-actuated lock -he raced, his atomics red-flaring now, towards the Spacestation. - -Ten miles out the great towering structure housing mighty positron guns -(anti-spacecraft batteries) rose in the blackness. Dropping down low, -he slipped into a small lock behind the hangars and clambered forth -beneath the vaulted roof. - -The tall, blond man paused for a moment, listening for the familiar -sounds of men playing poker with virile blasphemy over in Barracks, -but, save for the hum of generators in the power plant, all was deathly -still. - -Strange, he thought, that _all_ the men should go to Kaa, even the -mechanics, draftsmen and ordinance men! - -He turned uneasily towards the lighted Communications office, finding -it deserted. Now where was Cravens? He should be here at the teletypes, -T V P's and radios. He wouldn't have gone to Kaa nor deserted his post -wilfully. - -Advancing to the silent teletype machine Frederix saw that it was cut -off all circuits save the direct Certagarni-Calidao band. What he read -on the page brought a mounting fury into his brain: - - "VRON XII DE XIV. CERTAGARNI STATION HELPLESS. SEEDRONA PLANTED. - WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS? - - "XII REPORTING. GREATER CALIDAO ABSOLUTELY IN OUR POWER. INDUSTRIAL - SECTIONS SHOULD FALL BY DAWN. BOTRODUS IS IN SAFE FOR KAA WHERE - SPACESTATION HAS RESISTED ALL ATTACKS. SEND SHIPS OF YOUR STATION - PILOTED BY MARTIAN GROUP IX FOR IMMEDIATE ATTACK ON KAA. UPON - DEPARTURE DESTROY ALL GUN EMPLACEMENTS LEST THEY BE RECAPTURED - BEFORE THE ADVENT." - -The messages were dated scarcely ten minutes before. They must have -been completed directly after Cravens had called the Embassy. But who -had sent the first and received the second? There was only one Vron at -Certagarni. It couldn't be he; he was loyal to the Legion. - -Perplexedly Frederix turned towards the inner room. Simultaneously a -voice cut across the silence: - -"Looking for someone, Lieutenant?" - -Slowly he turned to confront Captain Meevo of the Defense -Squadron--Meevo of whom he had thought but seconds past. - -"Yes, sir. What does this mean? Where are the men?" - -Meevo's thin, haughty face twisted cruelly. "The men have been taken -care of; and this means that the old regime is going out; that a new -race shall rule all of this system when the Legion returns from Sirius!" - -"A new race?" - -"Yes. Mine, the Vrons, true blood of Alpha Centauri--" - -Frederix could sense again the mystic alien strength of this man who -had joined the Legion years ago during the Liberation; that subtle -magnetism at which he had so often wondered, which kept him now from -plunging recklessly into that leveled weapon. - -"And just how do you propose doing this?" - -"First, internal revolt, the rekindling of the old fires of worldly -and national prejudice by a few well-ordered murders and the wholesale -destruction of the spacestations. Even now my good friend Manuel -Onupari has a ship waiting in Calidao, waiting to be loaded with -_seedrona_ from Jethe's munitions plant which will blast every station -on Earth. Tomorrow night we will put that ship into its orbit. - -"But you shall only see the beginning here, Frederix. Now be so kind as -to go out to the control turret." - -Slowly the young ordnance engineer turned and walked out through the -glassite tunnel to the turret overlooking the fortress. His heart -was hammering madly and his slender hands nervously clenching and -unclenching. He forced himself to speak: - -"And this Advent. What of that?" - -"Three years ago an Armada left Centauri, two thousand light ships -armed, as you earthmen say, to the teeth. Three more years and they -will be here; and a system ruined by internal revolt will lie helpless -for conquest!" - -"God!" burst Frederix. - -"Call on your God, Earthman, and I will call on mine to speed those -mighty ships!" - -Frederix forced himself to stop that mad desire to whirl about, to -charge Meevo with bare hands. For that would be certain, horrible death -with burning disruption in his vitals. - -Now he glimpsed Captain Marlin's huddled, ray-ribboned body lying near -the smashed controls within the tower. Close by Lieutenant Gorman lay -in hideous death. - -Strange thoughts passed through his brain. Why did not Meevo, schooled -in slaughter, slay him, too? - -But Meevo merely motioned him to enter the room; he did so, then the -frail, haughty Vron said slowly, relishing the situation with an alien -humor which the other could not understand: - -"You've about fifteen minutes, Frederix. Fifteen minutes to realize the -fact that you'll be blown to bits. When the station goes, Certagarni -will revolt; in a few weeks, as the other stations go, Mars will fall -completely into chaos. - -"A few months and Onupari shall have lain waste the Earth stations. -It's too bad you must miss it all; but you must! So I'm locking you -in here where you can view the glorious beginning. This room has been -the _sanctum sanctorum_ of these two dead gentlemen; I've no doubt -you'll be unable to solve the diallock's combination. It will give you -something to pass the moments away with. So, goodbye, Earthman. May -your ancestors welcome you with wine and tribulation!" - -With that alien idiom uttered, the Vron stepped outside. The great -durite door crashed shut, the diallock whirled. - -A moment later a small gyrotomic blasted into the night sky and moved -swiftly into the northeast towards distant Calidao. - - * * * * * - -Frederix heard the purring of the electric clock, turned his gaze -towards it, and the second hand going 'round, swiftly. He tried the -door, turned back into the room. Glassite-durite walls faced him, -transparent but comprised of the hardest alloy in the system. - -Flicking on a desk lamp, he rummaged around the room. No weapons, no -tools.... And the minutes were fleeing--ten minutes more--nine! - -And then his eyes fell on a portable cathode ray oscillograph, and -inspiration lighted up his rugged, bearded face! - -The door was locked by a high frequency radio wave diallock, the most -delicate and most burglar proof lock in the system. Its shielded -exterior made it invulnerable to the most advanced instruments of a -modern Raffles; but its unshielded inner side-- - -Quickly he plugged in the oscillograph on A.C., brought it to the door, -adjusted the wires from the jack-top binding posts to the terminal -of the lock, stepped up the anode voltage, cut in the sweep circuit -and paused for a long moment to still the quivering of his hand as he -reached for the diallock. - -His eyes were glued to the greenish fluorescence of the slow-screen -tube as he started twirling the combination. Waves pulsed evenly across -the grid. And then they jerked almost unnoticeably; a wave-plate had -fallen into position! He changed the diallock's direction back slowly. -Another variance in the oscillation. Back, again! - -The clock purring, purring, and somewhere another clock ticking the -doom of the station away. - -His whole body was trembling as he made the final turn and was -breathlessly rewarded with the sight of a higher frequency wave -pulsing smoothly across the tube. The door fell silently open. The -clock said a minute to the zero hour! - -He raced across the roof, full in the flare of a swirling beacon. Of -course he did not see the crawling, bleeding body in the darkness near -the radio-room's door, did not hear the hoarse, feeble cry: - -"_Oh, God, not Frederix!_" - -He blasted his ship out through the automatic lock at full speed. -Seconds later his radio receiver burst into life: - -"Calling KBM, Kaa. This is Cravens at Certagarni. Meevo and Frederix -killed all the men; sent the squadron to attack Kaa. Station will -blow into Hell within a minute. Oh, God, get them--Captain Meevo and -Lieutenant Hunter Frederix--traitors! The Cen--" - -The weak, quavering voice died away. - - * * * * * - -The night turned to crimson flame. _Boom!_ A vast concussion shook -the earth, the sky. Frederix fought the bucking controls. Behind, the -spacestation's defenses were debris spouting into the upper air, and -livid, leaping fire cast macabre patterns upon the distant vaults of -Certagarni. - -He sat in the cushioned seat, stunned by the immensity of the deed and -by the startling denunciation he had heard as Cravens, with whom he had -conversed so much, Cravens who had made the trio of Andres, Frederix -and himself rich indeed in the folklore of the stars--Cravens had named -him traitor! - -Dave had even taken his transmitter to overhaul the day before. -Consequently he could not contact Kaa or Del and protest his innocence, -warn them of the awful fullness of the Vron plot, of the Armada. He -would probably be shot down should he stumble upon the aerial battle -which would soon be waged over Botrodus since Cravens had warned Kaa, -the key station there. - -As if in attendance upon his thoughts, his open receiver burst, amid -general static: - -"KBM calling all ships. Apprehend all suspicious craft approaching -Botrodus; engage if they refuse to give proper clearance. -Meevo--Frederix--if you hear my voice, understand that you will be -given no quarter--" - -Suddenly another carrier wave whined into the wavelength; Andres' angry -voice broke in: - -"Blake, you damned fool, Frederix had nothing to do with this!" - -"Captain Andres, unless you have absolute proof, please get off the -band--" - -Silence. Heartbreaking silence. KBM took up again, vainly calling -Calidao. - -Frederix looked at his directional finder. He was heading for Kaa at -nearly a thousand m.p.h. If he changed his course a few degrees and -headed for Andres' Rendezvous on the Kaa-Calidao airline, he could -call KBM and straighten the matter out. Quickly he made the necessary -alterations.... - -The bitter chill of the Martian night cut through the ship's hull. -Locking the robot controls, Frederix slipped on a beryl-durite oxysuit, -locked the glassite helmet in place and turned on the thermo-electric -unit. - -Straight out across the Hargoan Swamps he flew, towards the Rendezvous. -And he thought of the past, back before his birth when Andres, as -legend ran, had come back from far places, from a memorable battle in -Alpha Centauri's vast system, wounded in body, and, his legion buddies -whispered, in heart. Aye, even in soul. Rumor had it that he had -loved with all the native fire and enthusiasm that were his--fighter -extraordinary, D'Artagnan of the Legion. Had loved and lost and -something within him had died. - -He had for a while lived a hermitary existence in an old Martian ruin -on a narrow, arid, mountainous strip cutting across Hargo; but combat, -strife, adventure called-- - -Reenlistment. Out to Lalande 21,185; for Centauri was in peace. Battle -after hellborn battle until that lesser and nearer Lalande had found a -newbirth of freedom. - -But Andres had not embarked upon the twelve-year journey across the -8.4 light years to Sirius in the Legion's stellatomics. He had told -Frederix that the day might come when Sol would need him more. And -so he remained with the Solarian Defense, clinging to that ancient -estate--his Rendezvous where he held communion with his memories and -with the ghosts of those who had fallen beside and before his blazing -guns--haunting it when on Mars and off duty.... - -Far to the south Frederix caught the fierce glare of disrupters, of -jets flaming in the black, starshot night as furious combat raged. Del, -too, was probably there, deep in the bloody game which was his life -now-- - -Onward, onward. - - * * * * * - -Dawn shot up, breaking with all the suddenness of Martian day. To his -right Frederix glimpsed a ship bearing down upon him--a Certagarni -ship, named doubtless by a Vron-minded Martian. - -Suddenly the savage whine of other atomics crescendoed from above. From -the corner of his eye Frederix caught the crimson splurge of a master -disrupter from the nose of an insanely-plunging blue ship--a Kaa ship! - -A red finger burned across his right wing, tearing it cleanly free; the -ship whipstalled, hung like a stricken, one-winged bird and whirled -into a dizzy, whipping spin. Grimly he wrestled with the useless -controls, tried to avert the crash, flung his eyes upwards towards the -victor, and a scream sundered his lips: - -"_DEL!_" A useless scream, killed by the higher keening of wind and -unleashed jets. - -The craft careened erratically into the swamp, down through infinitely -intermeshed trees which broke the velocity of its fall, and crashed -sickeningly into the frozen mire. - -Miraculously Frederix retained consciousness and tore his bruised, -throbbing body from the shattered cabin, plunged to the slippery ground -and screamed madly, flinging his helmet open: - -"Del! Del! Oh, God! Come back!" But the atomics screamed as Andres -whirled towards the other Certagarni ship and, embattled, fled into the -distances towards Kaa. - -He dragged himself weakly from the frozen, broken ice, reeling in -dizziness. Blood was spurting from his nostrils, his breath was shot -and rasping in the frigid, ozone-tainted atmosphere. Feebly he fumbled -for his helmet catch, closing it after an eternity, and collapsed on a -nearby hummock, gulping in the oxygen which meant life. - -He looked at the crumpled, broken ship. Something man had built, gone -the way of all his creations. And why? Because of man's savagery, man's -impetuosity, man's searching after the vain chimera of glory-- - -Rising, he stumbled into the north, towards the Rendezvous and, beyond, -Calidao, Onupari, and that upon which the future freedom of Earth -depended--the _seedrona_ in the vaults of Jethe. - -At length he dropped in utter exhaustion. The noonday sun shone upon -his inert body near the foothills of a low-lying mountain range. - -Long hours later he awoke, incredibly refreshed, and scrambled upward -to the highest summit of the range. A cry of exultation burst from his -lips. Before him was a tiny valley on whose farther side clung a huge, -rocky pile which only a Martian--or Andres and his kin who had beheld -the insane architecture of the hither stars--might call an abode of man. - -_The Rendezvous--Del Andres' Rendezvous, at last!_ - - - III - - Within, the monkey-like robot waited, weapons gleaming in its - finely fashioned hands. A stranger was approaching--someone who - knew the Master--friend or foe, it knew not; yet something purely - intuitive spoke inside it, saying "Friend!" - -Darkly red and ominous, the old pile seemed untenanted when first its -bloody portico spread beneath his swiftly questing feet. Fantastic, -ponderous arches topping offset, fluted columns; weirdly carven -facades. An architect's nightmare; a surrealistic concept of a palace -in Hades; but house ne'er seemed so welcoming to a lone man against a -world. - -Silence broken only by the faint, thin whisper of a rising wind -sweeping red dust through the trellises about the time-scarred walls, -indicative of a simoon in the offing. - -Advancing to the great door, he rapped sharply, then tried the latch. -To his surprise it yielded. Entering the vestibule, he opened his -helmet to a revivifying blast of oxygen fresh from the automatic ozone -transformers, and called. The echo of his voice alone came back. - -He found the library dustless and orderly. Trophies hung on the walls: -mounted heads and bodies of creatures slain beneath alien suns, ghastly -travesties on solarian mammals, creatures envisioned in dreams. -Weapons from the far places, taken (as the labels read) at the siege -of Kackijakaala in Alpha Centauri, six years distant by the fastest -stellatomic. - -How old, then, was Del Andres the magnificent? Man's allotted span, -increased by the elimination of all disease, covers but a hundred and -fifty years; yet Andres had seen and fought those years away within the -vast systems of Centauri and Lalande, and he seemed still a young man, -by appearance no older than Frederix's thirty years. - -Aye, there were mysteries about Del Andres--rumors about a Vron -princess far across space, years ago as time runs. - -Intuitively Frederix moved to luxurious draperies hanging on the walls, -moved them aside and a sigh came from his parted lips. The sheer, -glorious, breath-taking beauty of the picture revealed stunned him! -Third-dimensional it seemed, tinted with an ethereal loveliness, the -supreme glory of womankind-- - -Haughtiness, perhaps, but the haughtiness that breeds the hope of -conquest that would be rich, indeed, in its fulfillment. - -He released the drapes and turned aside with a cry in his heart. Only -now did he fully realize the fatalistic spirit which drove Del Andres: -the devil-may-care fearlessness, the sheer recklessness, the constant -hoping, perhaps, for death. - -Small wonder that Hunter Frederix left that shrine and quested inward, -saddened immeasurably by what he had seen and what he had so suddenly -realized. For he had seen, in that moment, into the hidden recesses of -a great man's soul. - -The dining salle opened before him, seemingly converted into a species -of _chambre-des-horreurs_ since robot parts were strewn all over -the place: limbs, wires, sockets, photocells, small atomic motors. -Robot control was a hobby of Andres--a robot of his making had, at -Kackijakaala, entered and opened the gates of the fortress at which the -Legion had hammered futilely for months on end in conquering the Dwares -of Centauri and bringing peace and prosperity to the system's many -races--prosperity and _the ultimate hope of cosmic conquest_! - -He crossed the sill, started hurriedly towards a radio cabinet in the -far corner. Simultaneously a door nearby fell silently open and what he -saw caused, at first, a smile to flash across his bearded face. - -Into the room came a tiny form, probably three feet tall, hairy and -chubby like a Ganymedean monkey, its face a delicate pink, its large -eyes an innocent baby-blue, dominating a pudgy simian face. A robot, -no less--the robot about which Del had talked--whose comical aspect was -not at all in keeping with the grim menace of a paralysis-pellet gun -in one manual extremity and a disrupter in the other! Its thick lips -parted and a reproduction of Andres' voice said: - -"Don't move or I shall be forced to shoot. You will kindly remain as -you are until Del Andres returns!" Whereupon the litany continued -rapidly in Lalandean and Centaurian and abated. - -Frederix stood frozen in his tracks, his smile gone now. He'd heard -of automatic robots before, guarding bleak, desolate outposts in the -still watches of extra-terrestrial nights whose weapons would be -automatically discharged should anything change the visual pattern on -their photocells during or after the warning. - -The suspense was maddening. A radio transmitter and receiver stood -scant feet away, and he dared not move to reach them--the means of -calling Kaa, of sending angry ships swarming at Calidao, for perhaps (a -_perhaps_ that was maddening in its import)--perhaps Onupari had not -swept into the void with his cargo of death. - -Andres had spoken of some intelligence manifest in the robot's actions. -Might it then understand if he spoke to it? - -"I am Hunter Frederix, Del Andres' friend," he said softly, scarcely -moving his lips. The robot remained motionless, irresponsive. Was it -merely the sparking of relays or had he described a gleam of something -else in those mechanical eyes? - -He talked on, explaining the entire situation. Abruptly, amazingly, the -automaton sheathed its weapons. - -Frederix turned towards the radio, astounded by what he had seen, -striving to give the exhibition of understanding some explanation which -did not admit of a created mentality; then, without, he heard the -jetting of a landing gyrotomic. - - * * * * * - -A warm, excited cry cut the silence of the old mansion: - -"Hunt! I thought you'd come here! Oh, I knew Dave was wrong!" - -Del Andres rushed into the room, his dark face agleam, his strong arms -outstretched in welcome greeting. - -Frederix caught his hands, crushed them and said nothing. - -"We captured a Vron, learned that they have sent an Armada--" - -"I know," Frederix said simply. - -"Oh, I knew they'd come!" Andres raced on. "I warned the Legion years -ago; but they knew more than I who lived with the Vrons at Centauri, -who--well, it doesn't matter! What matters is that I know them for what -they are: cruel, domineering, the greatest actors in the universe; and -when they want something--power or love or gold, it doesn't matter -which for their fancies change in a moment--nothing will stop their mad -rush towards that goal--" Suddenly he was staring into the shadowed -room whence he had come and there was bitterness in his dark eyes--the -bitterness of cruel and undimmed memories. - -"But they must be stopped!" Frederix cried. - -"We'll stop them!" whispered Andres, his strong, white teeth bared -almost wolfishly. "The Legion can't get back in time; but we've worlds -to defend, Hunt, and the courage to defend them. But why did Dave -Cravens name you traitor?" - -He could talk now. He could empty his bursting heart. Swiftly he -recounted everything from those dangerous moments in Certagarni to the -present. - -"We'll win through!" Andres cried, his great hands strong and -encouraging on Frederix's shoulders. "We'll get the Kaa ships to -Calidao; we'll wireless Earth; we'll curb it now while it's not too -late! Their armada is years away; much can be done ere it comes! - -"Why, we've already downed the Certagarni squadron and reestablished -control there and in Botrodus!" - -That supreme confidence banished the hopeless resignation in Frederix's -heart, buoyed him up and gave him newborn hope. - -Andres was smiling, reaching into the young engineer's open helmet to -grasp his golden beard in iron fingers, to tug at it playfully. - -"Getting gray, fella! Must've happened when I shot you down!" - -That broke the strain. They grinned boyishly at each other; then Del -spun on his heel, walked to the radio cabinet, and simultaneously a -carbon copy of his own voice cried in mockery: - -"Don't move a muscle or I shall be forced to shoot." - -He started to turn; the robot's unsheathed pellet gun coughed and Del -toppled over against the transmitter, smashing the bared, delicate -condensers into nothingness as he dropped into paralysis. - -Frederix stood stunned. "No ... no ..." he murmured; and then he was -leaping forward, tears of rage and futility in his eyes, to lift Del to -a nearby couch, to call to him incoherently. - -He looked then to the robot standing silently nearby. The curses on -his lips were never uttered, for flooding into his mind came a strong -feeling of sorrow, regret, and the automaton was extending the weapons -to him grip foremost, as though their surrender might repair the damage -done! - -He tried to fight off the thoughts which thronged the threshold of -his mind then. He tried to think of Del and of Onupari and his death -cargo, of hellish death rushing across the light years towards Sol; -but instead he could think only of the things Del had told him of -creating this robot, powering it with a full gram of radium, releasing -intelligence. - -That there was intelligence here, he did no longer question. A -reasoning intellect which had forbade slaying him and now had done -this inexplicable thing. Or did it have complete control of the -robot's form? Had it acted of its own accord or had the robot's -relays automatically caused this dilemma? That final thought brought a -counter-thought, a clear and sorrowing affirmation! - -But how could he credit anything existing independent of a flesh and -blood body as having intelligence? Must not every life form remain an -insoluble psychophysical being? - -And yet--is not the basis of all things electrical? Life and all that -pertains to it and the universe? Why not, then, a pure, radioactive -intelligence? Could it not have arisen by evolving degrees from the -complexity of atomic fluctuations finding genesis in the pitted core of -Pallas--where Andres, prospecting to pass empty days away, had found -it--a sentient consciousness born in cosmic loneliness out of the very -fabric of the universe? Had not One Other thus found genesis? - -The weird new wonder of it strong within him, Frederix looked down at -Andres, silent, immovable on the couch. A strange little smile played -on sensitive, parted lips beneath the thin black mustache. Frederix -wondered if he dreamed-- - -Spinning around to the radio, he discovered that to repair it would -take hours. Yet he must call Kaa, summon the Service men, and depart in -Del's ship for Calidao, on the slim chance that Onupari might still be -there and that he might stay the take-off. - -Atomics moaning above. He rushed to the window. Five ships V-ed into -the south, magnificent against a dust-darkened sky, flashing swiftly -out of sight under full power. Service ships, so near and yet so far! - -Of course, the ship! Del's ship would have radio equipment. He rushed -out on the impulse, his breath coming fast within his helmet. - -Snapping on the transmitter, he called quickly into the microphone: - -"Frederix calling KBM, Kaa. Calling KBM...." - -QRM snapped through his receiver, born of those lowering skies over -Botrodus, one of those rare but violent sandstorms come to disrupt -radio communication. - -Now a calm official voice answered, badly distorted by atmospheric -disturbance: - -"KBM to Frederix. What (brrrrrt) ... message?" - -"Andres is paralyzed at the Rendezvous. Send a doctor. Send all -available ships to Calidao--" - -"Andres paralyzed.... Rendezvous.... Repeat ... mess ... can't...." - -Frederix repeated grimly, persistently, but Kaa kept calling: - -"KBM ... do not get ... repeat ... K ... rrrrrrrr...." - -And then QRM blotted even that out. - - * * * * * - -Disgustedly he turned towards the port and the grim old mansion looming -large in the cold, storm-born dusk, and hesitated. The message had -gotten through. They at least knew Andres' condition and position; -they would doubtless come plunging to the Rendezvous. He must leave a -message! - -Moments later he returned to the ship, a disrupter and a -freshly-charged paralysis-pellet gun buckled at his waist. Before him -scurried the automaton, its tragi-comic simian face turned back to him -as if exhorting him to greater speed. - -Gently, awesomely, almost reverently (for is not reverence born in -recognition of the mighty and the mystic unknown which man cannot -quite understand?), he handed the monkey-like thing into the cabin and -followed. - -Blasting off, he set a Mercator course, with all due corrections, for -Calidao. Soon he outflew the fringes of the storm and then night fell -like a finely-stitched widow's veil, the stars danced crazily as the -air cooled, and he was alone in the darkness, roaring at full speed -towards Calidao. Alone, aye, save for the weird little robot standing -by his side, whatever life it possessed recording his every movement. - -Gloom and hope held thrall in his soul. Things had seemed soluble with -Andres smiling and pledging his support. Now he had weapons and a ship -and a strong feeling that Onupari was still in Calidao, but--he was -alone! Del was not here to help him. Still, he did have weapons. He -might-- - -Aye, gloom was fighting a losing battle. A transcendental confidence -was stirring his breast--and yet he wondered if it were not telepathic -hypnosis finding genesis in the mind of the alien life which was close -beside him? What were the limits of its intellect? What aid might it -give? He did not dare to even wonder. - - - IV - - Who could say what thoughts, emotions, surged through the robot's - mind? Intelligence there was and an undeniable strength inspiring - confidence.... And something greater--some indefinable prowess - beyond, perhaps, the ken of man-- - -Calidao, city of mystic intrigue, cosmopolitan city where Solarian, -Centaurian and Lalandean hold daily intercourse, bartering in lives and -souls, and in treasures and alien lore whose origin and significance -shall remain forever hidden in the womb of time-- - -Thither flashed Frederix in the dead of night, riding the radio beam in -from the direction of Kaa. Starshine alone and what light the almost -indetectable moons gave illumined the semi-somnolent cosmopolis. Along -the main artery, famed Space Boulevard, the varicolored lights of night -clubs blazed up through the glassite vaults; the spaceport, a mile and -more out of town, shone in a wavering splendour of swirling beacons, -pointing white, stabbing fingers into the dark, and the whole was -flooded intermittently with brightest green as the great concentration -of spacelamps flashed a mighty, guiding column upward and outward to -whatever craft might move across the firmament. - -Frederix drove down low over the port, searching for sight of a large -black freighter marked with Onupari's famous (and infamous) boxed-star -insignia. Just as he was rewarded by a glimpse of it lying in the ways, -just as exultation swept in a warm tide over him, a blindingly-crimson -blast seared up from beneath, cutting a great gap in the left wing, -waving futilely after him as he careened into the night, his tortured -sight seeping slowly back, trying desperately to keep the crippled ship -awing. - -He realized that the Calidaoan Vrons and sympathizers bought with -golden coins, promises of greatness, and freedom from the "Anarchy of -Earth," had indeed taken dictatorial possession of Calidao and were -guarding well the ship of Onupari which would bring death to the Double -World. - -Opening the purring atomics wide, he swept in a wide arc far out over -the wastes and back to the farther side of the city, and, cutting in -the infra-red viewplates, glided to a swift albeit unsteady landing on -the verge of the encircling desert. - -He hesitated, but the robot, dropping to the ground, led him unerringly -to a small lock opening on one of the back streets. Pausing in the -darkness, Frederix peered through the glassite wall. - -A young Martian policeman stood smoking thoughtfully beneath a carbon -arc, handsome and proudly erect in his bright, apparently-new uniform, -quite alone in this narrow thoroughfare. - -Frederix's hand dropped to the disrupter, shifted to the needle-gun, -and, opening the lock slowly, he aimed and pressed the trigger. Leaping -within, he caught the paralyzed youth, lowering him into the shadows of -a nearby doorway. - -A surge of commendation beat in his brain--praise for his choice of -weapons. For why should one so young and handsome die? Why should any -of Sol's disillusioned billions die because of a few greedy men who had -rushed into a band which would damn the entire system unless someone -revealed their duplicity, which had already precipitated all manner of -internal strife? Violence would avail naught; they must be shown the -plain truth of it so that they might live and be free! - -The robot hurried away now, turned swiftly in a high-arched tunnel -which intersected the street, and led Frederix to the fantastically -carven front of a large mansion whose portal had been but recently -blasted asunder. Over that shattered door was the crest of Jethe the -munitions baron, and _within the room_-- - -Nausea seized Frederix's stomach. Hoary-haired Jethe, dealer in power -for peace or war, was sprawled across a paper-strewn table in terrible -death, his wizened face and body ribboned into one horrible mess of -blood and gore, sliced by a disrupter, signature no doubt of Meevo or -Onupari-- - -Dizzy with the sheer bestiality of the scene but driven by some manner -of apprehension, Frederix threaded his way through the debris to an -all-wave radio clinging on the farther wall, snapped the switch and -dialed to the Kaa frequency. - -A message was coming through, clear now, proof that the sandstorm had -subsided and skies were clear. Frederix recognized the cold emotionless -voice of Blake, the Kaa chief operator. - -"... the message you've found may ring true, but in the light of -Cravens' message from Certagarni, proving Frederix to be in league with -anti-service factions, we find that we cannot send ships to a possible -trap in Calidao until you've learned from Andres what's really behind -all this. Please inform us of any developments. Off!" - -Oh, the blind fools! They had found Andres and the message but would do -nothing until the paralytic spell had worn away! And Onupari must have -been in this room hours before; his ship, prepared for flight, must -have long been loaded! He left the place of death at a run. - -The tiny monkey-thing led the way toward Space Boulevard, and into the -engineer's mind an encouraging thought came. _Onupari has not left!_ -And Frederix raged inwardly against the callousness, the bloodlust of -that fat, swarthy renegade whom he had seen so many times glossing over -crimes charged to him by the Embassy. - -The freighter had not taken off yet; the thunder of its atomics would -have been easily heard. He might yet--_what_? If the Service men--_If_-- - -As if they, trying to resuscitate an unconscious man almost an hour's -flight away, could come in time! - - - V - - Dwells there a thing in all of space - Without a smile to light its face? - Intellect: Puck's dwelling place? - "What fools we mortals be!" - -Ahead he saw an enormous Geissler tube sign flashing alternately with -neon's bright red and argon's blue: - - THE SPACASINO - Dine & Dance--Floorshow Tonite - Joy Rikki & Martian Madcaps - -and simultaneously, he heard voices and the double tread of footsteps -down a cross street. The robot slipped intelligently into the shadow of -an ornate doorway and he followed. - -Coarse voices--the voices of space-hardened men: - -"We gotta git Manuel out to the ship. 'S been loaded since sundown. -What'll the Envoy think? Cripes, we're behind schedule now--'most a -day!" - -"You git 'im out! Ain't I tried? Y'know 'ow 'e is when 'e gits drunk! -Give the blighter a bevy of chorines to dance in front of 'im and some -vod-vil stuff and the blinkin' fool will set there all the bloomin' -night 'e will, if 'e's anywheres near tight, an 'ell itself won't move -'im!" - -... The voices became inaudible-- - -Inspiration came to Hunter Frederix then. It was a futile, vain hope. -It was a desperate gamble and Death held the odds; but an hour's delay -might mean success. Andres would soon be conscious; the rockets would -flash out of Botrodus. - -A wild plan flashed across his brain, and then a pure thought which -held in it understanding and acknowledgment--understanding of one man's -weakness and acknowledgment of another's genius. - -He looked down at the robot, saw the photocellular eyes turned upwards -to his face. Despite the seriousness of it all, he smiled crookedly as -he caught the automaton up in his arms and hurried across to a doorway -marked plainly "Stage Door--No Loiterers!" - -The door opened as he crossed the photo-electric eye on the threshold, -and he came upon a hectic scene: a sweating, cigar-chewing manager -upbraiding a group of voluptuous chorines. - -"Listen, girls, please can't you think up a new routine? This fellow's -a madman when he's drunk and he might take it in his cranium to tear -the joint apart. How's about that Starshine Sequence?" - -Frederix shouldered his way brusquely through the surprised throng, -ignoring the angry remarks which came as his metal suit brushed bare -arms and backs. No time for pardons now; seconds meant life or death-- - -"Hey, Mac!" he said by way of introduction. "Could you use an act?" - -The irate manager surveyed the big, purposeful man inside the oxysuit, -grinned and said: - -"Listen, Goldilocks, whatcha think this is--a bearded man's convention?" - -"Never mind about the customers!" the engineer burst in repartee, -smiling though his heart was grim. "I've a trained, talking Ganymedean -ape here. I'll give you an act that'll knock 'em wild if you'll -announce me now and give me a dressing room for about ten minutes. Oke?" - -A system was hanging on the balance in the weighing of a few, short, -seemingly lightly-spoken words--the future of many kindred races sprung -from a common sun who labored now under greatest stress--And the -grinning manager must have sensed the aura of seriousness and power -about the unshaven man and his strange companion, for his face grew -sober. - -"What's the act like, pal?" - -"Ever hear the '_Saga-of-Sal_'?" - -"I've heard _of_ it!" - -"Tonight you'll hear _it_!" - -Frederix's heart was beating with the power surges of a liquid-rocket's -blast as he hurried into the dressing room, completely removed his -helmet, splashed on fiery pseudo-pirate make-up, darkened his golden -beard, and then turned his attention to the stoic robot. - -Time flew with the beating of his heart. Removing the robot's system -of speech, he set the disks awhirl, loosening the bolts which held the -144 common units of enunciation in a fixed order. Transcribing his -reedy falsetto onto the disks, remembering some of the great poem, -extemporizing with his natural flair for poetry, he recited some of the -choicest lines; then locked the enunciator unit and lay the robot aside -with an air of confidence and satisfaction. - -Carefully he obliterated with make-up any distinguishing signs on the -government suit; then hurried out into the wings, the monkey-thing -scurrying before-- - - (The rockets are coming from Kaa, from Kaa, - Out of Kaa flashing flames in the night.) - - * * * * * - -All spacemen have heard the "Saga-of-Sal," repeated from expedition -quarters on Pluto into the English colony in Mercury's twilight zone, -Sal, the throaty torch-singer from dear old Boston at the very sound -of whose magic voice the maharajahs of Mars went into ecstasy and who -spurned them all to marry a blue midget from Callisto. - -Conceived by some long-dead bard with the virile, full style of a -Kipling, it had been handed from mouth to mouth, every minstrel singing -it differently; but none of them ever had cause to sing it quite like -Hunter Frederix and his futuristic concept of a vaudeville stooge did -that wild night in the Spacasino while he waited, his life hanging on -a thread, anticipating momentary recognition, praying for the sound of -rockets out of Kaa. - -The automaton scampered out in advance and a howl of laughter shook -the terra cotta walls. Frederix glimpsed Manuel Onupari rising from -a drink-laden table beyond the arc-lamps, a reluctant scowl on his -black-jowled, evil face as he argued vehemently with a Vron who was -plainly encouraging the renegade's men to take their leader to the -waiting ship. - -But at the sound of applause, Onupari shook himself free and sank back -into his seat, exploding in drunken laughter, calling for more wine. - - (Out of Kaa flashing flames in the night--) - -A sigh of relief on his lips, Frederix looked down at that pink, -bewhiskered face, unspeakably comical, unspeakably innocent as they -swung into the Saga, holding its cues while the crowd roared, giving -them full punch under the sensitive direction of the electrical life -which seemed to know so much of all things. - - "I will take my atomic and sweep through the stars - And chase all the girlies from Pluto to Mars; - I'm a knight with a steed which belches out flame; - I'm a whooper, by golly, Vamose is my name! - - "Monk is my partner--he rides on my knee! - He flirts with them girlies, what a grand sight to see! - From Callisto to Luna, from mountain to shore - We still are a-whoopin'; may the rockets roar!" - -Whereupon they swung into an animated recital of how they, privateers -ranging the void, had heard Sal broadcasting from a Martian station, -and, unutterably fascinated by her siren's call, landed only to be -turned over to the Service since she was a Service dame, and to sit in -a jail cell and watch her say I do to that Callistan blue midget in -a magnificent jail house wedding for dear old publicity's sake! What -a wild, uproarious yarn that was; what shouting, whistling, stomping -arose in that semi-barbaric place! - -And the minutes were fleeing--and the miles behind the ships plunging -onward-- - - * * * * * - -Mad thunder of applause broken by an equally mad roar. Meevo, pale, -wild-eyed, bursting into the club, crying out: - -"Onupari! Planes riding the beam in from Kaa--two hundred miles away! -Come on, you drunken fool!" And Meevo jerked the drunken commander to -his unsteady feet, slapped his face with an insane violence, threw him -into the arms of some less-drunken men and rushed them and his fellow -Vron out into the night. - -_They were coming!_ Coming, yes, but fifteen endless minutes away! Half -that time would see Onupari's powerful ship standing out into cosmic -space! - -And the native impetuosity of Hunter Frederix could not fail to come. -Heated thoughts surged through his brain. His hand strayed to the guns -at his side and then he had flung the helmet on to his suit, clamped -it down and was gone from the Spacasino like a flash. "Monk," the -robot-extraordinary, tried in vain to match his madly-plunging steps. - - - VI - -And so he rushed, his oxygen carefully adjusted, out through the -massive main-city-lock almost on the heels of Onupari's helmeted men, -and they, for the greater part drunken and stumbling blindly along, -heeded him not. - -The rockets were coming from Kaa, out of Kaa flashing flames in the -night! But they would be far too late! Onward he ran, his heart -screaming protest against the violence of his pace, an endless mile -across the desert waste. - -Onupari's men were streaming up the gleaming aluminum plated ramp now, -pouring into the bowels of the ship resting on the ways. Frederix drove -forward, a disrupter clenched in his right hand, leaped towards the -ramp, yards behind the last man. - -And Meevo, thin, haughty Meevo, stood before him, recognition dawning -in his wide, cruel eyes, hand reaching for a disrupter. Frederix heard -the faint purring of the warming atomics. The Vron in his way! He must -reach the controls, wreck them, even though his life be in forfeit! - -He brought the gun up even as Meevo whipped out his. - -Frederix fired first--right into that glassite helmet--red burst of -flame, blood spurting out of a jugular vein severed from nothingness; -the Vron's decapitated body crumpled. - -But the lock crashed shut, and a man loomed within a lighted gun turret. - -The atomics were hissing more loudly now, the intense wave of heat -driving Frederix back. A leader flashed past him, fabricating an -ionized path for the incredible bolt of lightning which crashed nearby, -sucking him into the very heart of a stunning thunderclap. - -He regained his feet unsteadily, tried to run on, intent on escaping -the roaring atomics ere they blasted him with their dispersed fury. - -He stumbled, went down, and his mad eyes saw the outdistanced -robot coming towards him. A lightning leader flashed, smiting the -metallic automaton squarely in the fuel compartment--_the radium -compartment_--fusing the whole into a blinding, white hot, leaping -electrical aura which strung itself out in a roaring, seething, -zigzagging finger _which leaped backwards along that ionized pathway -towards the ship_! - -[Illustration: _In a glory of pyrotechnic thunder the ship was off--but -in seeking revenge the captain made one mistake!_] - -A tiny voice keened above that mad tumult, shrilling out of that -gutted, wrecked automaton: - - "_We still are a-whoopin'; may the rockets roar!_" - -Even as that plaintive, laughing voice cut across the prostrate, -half-blinded man's brain, so spoke more mightily the thunder of the -atomics, flinging the mighty hull up the ways into the illimitable -starshine. His nerve centers revolted. The agonizing white of afterjets -initially super-charged; then that excruciatingly painful splash of -furious lightning intermeshed and blazing in supernal glory on the -ship's side. - -The very roof of the heavens seemed to cleave in twain. The universe -became one crazy, all encompassing roar; the skies were a livid, -screaming wave of white, brain singeing, ear bursting agony. - -Frederix was blasted end over end, his bones snapping like matchwood, -intolerable pain crushing in on him-- - -Vibration upon mad vibration. Reverberation of hell thunder. -Pain--unutterable, endless voids of swimming pain-- - -Consciousness remained. Sound--crushing sound. - -And, at length, silence. - - * * * * * - -The man tried to drag his broken, throbbing, bleeding body from beneath -the debris of the hangars against which he had been thrown, which -had sheltered him from the highest fury of that unleashed cargo of -_seedrona_, set aspark by the short circuit caused by the disrupting -blast of unnatural lightning, radium transformed into flame. - -Frederix looked up into the blackness and strained to see beyond it. -A faint, almost ironic smile crossed his pain wracked, bleeding lips. -Gone, the minions of those who sought to subjugate a system--gone, the -deadly cargo which, treated and compressed, would have destroyed the -spacestations and laid the World bare to conquest. - -And, Oh God! at what price to him? _What price, indeed?_ - -But he, what did he matter? He was only a means to the end. The plot -was known now. Back on Earth, here on Mars, in all the other solarian -havens of life, the Vrons of Centauri would meet defeat; for Solarians -would believe him now with Del Andres by his side. Andres who knew the -Vrons of Centauri for the strange, changeable, domineering creatures -that they were, Andres who called him friend and in whose great heart -only friendship was left--aye, they would believe him well! - -When he heard the murmuring of rockets out of Kaa, he was thinking -many things: of what the strange life form he had come to know by the -lowly name of "Monk" had done--truly the workings of something far -greater than man striving for universal betterment. He thought of the -earnestness, the striving, the sense of honor and glory and all that is -good. - -In essence, what had it been? A consciousness born of the basic fabric -of the universe, electricity however strange the form. Something come -out of seemingly nowhere to aid a race in its moment of greatest -blindness, of greatest need. Come to render a queer, heroic, supernal -sacrifice. - -And now, despite the living, shuddering pain within him, a smile -twisted his lips. He was thinking of a little voice whispering a very -virile tune as it went down into death. He was thinking that even -something akin to a god, in its most serious workings for good, might -find time to know laughter. - -And he was wishing that that intelligence had not been consumed by -the blessed flame of martyrdom. He was wondering what aid it might -have given in those moments not far hence when the Armada would come -blasting out of the void between the stars. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIGHTNING'S COURSE *** - -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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. 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 Lightning's Course</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: John Victor Peterson</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 13, 2021 [eBook #64813]</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 LIGHTNING'S COURSE ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>THE LIGHTNING'S COURSE</h1> - -<h2>by JOHN VICTOR PETERSON</h2> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Comet January 41.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>It was only a robot, tiny, chubby, for all the universe like a -Ganymedean monkey. It stood in the dark old mansion alone, stiff, -immovable. Its pink, bewhiskered, rubberoid face seemed twisted with -abject loneliness.... Aye, it stood alone and lonely, as if awaiting -the return of its master—</p></div> - -<p>The song pulsed in a vibrant, ominous cadence through the -streets of nightclad Certagarni, clashed against the glassite -atmosphere—retaining walls of the ancient Martian city, and penetrated -faintly into a dimly lighted room of the Earth Embassy where the two -earthmen sat smoking, listening.</p> - -<p>One of them spoke in a hoarse whisper which cut out above the dull, -endless drone of discontented voices like the scream of a tortured soul:</p> - -<p>"God, if it would only break! Flame across a world—battles to be -fought and won!"</p> - -<p>"And lost, Del Andres!" came the other's calm voice. "If this revolt -does come, it'll be so big that we'll never stamp it down without -the Legion!" His slender fingers rose to caress thoughtfully a -close-cropped, golden beard.</p> - -<p>A twisted, bitter smile played on Del Andres' full, sensitive lips. -Strange pain was etched on his dark, handsome face and in the black -pools of his eyes flame burned. He remained silent.</p> - -<p>"What are you thinking about, Del?"</p> - -<p>"Battle—and death! War like we had in Alpha Centauri. A blaze of -conquest like the Fall of Kackijakaala. What else is there to live -for?"</p> - -<p>"There are many things!"</p> - -<p>"Not any more, Frederix. The years have been too cruel." The dark eyes -were staring out into the night, thrusting aside the enfolding curtain -of a dozen decades and many trillion miles of outer space. "Oh, why did -I stay here fooling around with robots when I could have gone out to -Sirius with the Legion—to battle, to glory?"</p> - -<p>"Because you're needed here. Hear those voices! Of what are they -singing? Revolt, of course. And why? Because they think earthmen -are wholly to blame for the loss of control of their industry and -commerce!"</p> - -<p>"Aren't they?" blazed Andres. "We think we're always right, we of -Earth. Because we were the first to conquer space we think we should -rule its farthest bounds, cosmic policeman, arbitrator of all internal -strife from here to the ultimate!</p> - -<p>"We went out to Centauri over a century ago, brought the Vrons out of -subjugation beneath the Dwares, gave them freedom after tying up all -kinds of trade agreements for our benefit; and then skipped over to -Lalande and fixed everything according to our scale of values. And now -Sirius!</p> - -<p>"Here in our own system what goes on? I need not mention the names -of the men who are undermining and usurping the greatest Martian -institutions. Earthmen all!</p> - -<p>"Mars has as much a right to freedom and monopoly on its own -civilization as Earth on hers. Because a few greedy men spread tyranny -through Certagarni, the Thyles, Botrodus, Zabirnza and other regions, -they blame all of Earth. Neither you nor I can say they're wrong!"</p> - -<p>"It's deeper than that, Del. The Vrons of Centauri have as great a hand -in it as Wilcox, Onupari and the other earthmen here. You'll find—"</p> - -<p>"Bosh!" snapped Andres, and then that smouldering flame was in his eyes -again, something that leaped to the lure of the far places and spoke -of the meteoric winds that blow between the worlds. His deep, resonant -voice grew strained, lingered on his words:</p> - -<p>"I wonder—"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The purring of a bell insinuated itself above the dull droning without. -Hunter Frederix arose, switched on the televisorphone.</p> - -<p>"Hello, Dave," he addressed the face on the video, "what's up?"</p> - -<p>"Plenty, Hunt. Just received a teletype from Kaa. Revolt has broken -out all over Botrodus. Captain Adelbert Andres is commanded to report -immediately to eleventh division Kaa to command the defense squadrons. -Signed by old 'Zipper' Taine himself. And, Hunt, something is screwy in -the air over here. The old man's on a hot jet over something or other. -Better get over here quick!"</p> - -<p>"O.K., brother Cravens! Del will break a speed record getting to Kaa; -he has the old battle itch worse than ever. I'll be over to the Station -as soon as my gyro'll make it. Sounds like all hell is about to break -in the city!"</p> - -<p>"So? Well, you'd—So long!" Cravens broke off abruptly, and they could -see him whirl away from the transmitter as the videos died.</p> - -<p>Snapping off the T V P, Hunter Frederix turned and said slowly, -regretfully:</p> - -<p>"Well, this is it!"</p> - -<p>A smile lightninged across Andres' face.</p> - -<p>"It's about time! This inactivity was killing me!"</p> - -<p>"Be careful; the best of luck and all that; and may you come back in -one piece!"</p> - -<p>"One <i>live</i> piece, Frederix!" he mocked, and his dark face, tanned by -long exposure to Centauri's blazing binary sun, set forth the fierce -glint in his eyes and sudden, bitter pain on his lips. "Thank God it -matters to some one—"</p> - -<p>"It matters to the world," Frederix said softly. "After all the Legion -is ten light years away, and the Defense Squadrons must keep our system -at peace!"</p> - -<p>"Just keep believing that we will. Faith helps a lot sometimes."</p> - -<p>Their hands clasped warmly.</p> - -<p>"So I'm checking out. If you get near Botrodus, drop in at the -Rendezvous; I'll be there if I'm off duty. You see, I've a new robot to -show you—something I can't understand myself—powered by radium; and I -<i>know</i> it has intelligence!"</p> - -<p>"O.K., Del. And I may be in sooner than you think. When Dave Cravens -gets the jitters something pretty powerful is giving them to him!"</p> - -<p>"Good old Dave. He was with me at Kackijakaala, helped me at the robot -controls—but you know about that. Ask him to tell you about the time -we were surrounded at Travarga."</p> - -<p>"He has!"</p> - -<p>"Well. Oh, hell, Hunt, goodbye!" Andres whirled lithely, and with long -strides left the room.</p> - -<p>"So long!" Frederix called after him; then turned, swept a mass of -Starcharts into the safe, locked it, and turned towards the tiny -landing outside where rested his one man gyrotomic ... towards the -beginning of a strange destiny which would weave together the fates of -worlds and stars, and bring to him knowledge of greatness such as man -had never known before.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>The robot stirred restlessly and moved at length across a room -littered with parts of others of its kind. Its blue photocellular -eyes peered out into the starshot Martian sky. Could it know that its -creator was coming nearer, riding flame through the night?</p></div> - -<p>Swiftly the gyrotomic sped beneath the vaulted ceiling of Certagarni, -using the air propellers and gyrovanes as local ordinances demanded for -the sake of air conservation, slanting above streets thronging with -gesticulating, chanting men wearing the bizarre native dress of old -Mars.</p> - -<p>It was no impersonal, cursory glance which Frederix gave that tense -mob; rather was it a careful, searching observation. Here and there his -keen gray eyes discerned Centaurians, tall, slender men, haranguing the -natives. More uneasy grew his anxious heart. Had his words to Andres -contained more of the truth than he had realized?</p> - -<p>Beating down through the thick glassite ceiling, clearly audible above -the faint purr of his motors, he heard the roar of many gyrotomics, -flashed a glance upward and glimpsed an hundredfold of blasts flashing -to the east towards Kaa. With revolt so imminent here, had the Station -ships been ordered to Botrodus?</p> - -<p>Out into the clear cold Martian night through a photocell-actuated lock -he raced, his atomics red-flaring now, towards the Spacestation.</p> - -<p>Ten miles out the great towering structure housing mighty positron guns -(anti-spacecraft batteries) rose in the blackness. Dropping down low, -he slipped into a small lock behind the hangars and clambered forth -beneath the vaulted roof.</p> - -<p>The tall, blond man paused for a moment, listening for the familiar -sounds of men playing poker with virile blasphemy over in Barracks, -but, save for the hum of generators in the power plant, all was deathly -still.</p> - -<p>Strange, he thought, that <i>all</i> the men should go to Kaa, even the -mechanics, draftsmen and ordinance men!</p> - -<p>He turned uneasily towards the lighted Communications office, finding -it deserted. Now where was Cravens? He should be here at the teletypes, -T V P's and radios. He wouldn't have gone to Kaa nor deserted his post -wilfully.</p> - -<p>Advancing to the silent teletype machine Frederix saw that it was cut -off all circuits save the direct Certagarni-Calidao band. What he read -on the page brought a mounting fury into his brain:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>"VRON XII DE XIV. CERTAGARNI STATION HELPLESS. SEEDRONA PLANTED. WHAT -ARE YOUR ORDERS?</p> - -<p>"XII REPORTING. GREATER CALIDAO ABSOLUTELY IN OUR POWER. INDUSTRIAL -SECTIONS SHOULD FALL BY DAWN. BOTRODUS IS IN SAFE FOR KAA WHERE -SPACESTATION HAS RESISTED ALL ATTACKS. SEND SHIPS OF YOUR STATION -PILOTED BY MARTIAN GROUP IX FOR IMMEDIATE ATTACK ON KAA. UPON -DEPARTURE DESTROY ALL GUN EMPLACEMENTS LEST THEY BE RECAPTURED BEFORE -THE ADVENT."</p></div> - -<p>The messages were dated scarcely ten minutes before. They must have -been completed directly after Cravens had called the Embassy. But who -had sent the first and received the second? There was only one Vron at -Certagarni. It couldn't be he; he was loyal to the Legion.</p> - -<p>Perplexedly Frederix turned towards the inner room. Simultaneously a -voice cut across the silence:</p> - -<p>"Looking for someone, Lieutenant?"</p> - -<p>Slowly he turned to confront Captain Meevo of the Defense -Squadron—Meevo of whom he had thought but seconds past.</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir. What does this mean? Where are the men?"</p> - -<p>Meevo's thin, haughty face twisted cruelly. "The men have been taken -care of; and this means that the old regime is going out; that a new -race shall rule all of this system when the Legion returns from Sirius!"</p> - -<p>"A new race?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Mine, the Vrons, true blood of Alpha Centauri—"</p> - -<p>Frederix could sense again the mystic alien strength of this man who -had joined the Legion years ago during the Liberation; that subtle -magnetism at which he had so often wondered, which kept him now from -plunging recklessly into that leveled weapon.</p> - -<p>"And just how do you propose doing this?"</p> - -<p>"First, internal revolt, the rekindling of the old fires of worldly -and national prejudice by a few well-ordered murders and the wholesale -destruction of the spacestations. Even now my good friend Manuel -Onupari has a ship waiting in Calidao, waiting to be loaded with -<i>seedrona</i> from Jethe's munitions plant which will blast every station -on Earth. Tomorrow night we will put that ship into its orbit.</p> - -<p>"But you shall only see the beginning here, Frederix. Now be so kind as -to go out to the control turret."</p> - -<p>Slowly the young ordnance engineer turned and walked out through the -glassite tunnel to the turret overlooking the fortress. His heart -was hammering madly and his slender hands nervously clenching and -unclenching. He forced himself to speak:</p> - -<p>"And this Advent. What of that?"</p> - -<p>"Three years ago an Armada left Centauri, two thousand light ships -armed, as you earthmen say, to the teeth. Three more years and they -will be here; and a system ruined by internal revolt will lie helpless -for conquest!"</p> - -<p>"God!" burst Frederix.</p> - -<p>"Call on your God, Earthman, and I will call on mine to speed those -mighty ships!"</p> - -<p>Frederix forced himself to stop that mad desire to whirl about, to -charge Meevo with bare hands. For that would be certain, horrible death -with burning disruption in his vitals.</p> - -<p>Now he glimpsed Captain Marlin's huddled, ray-ribboned body lying near -the smashed controls within the tower. Close by Lieutenant Gorman lay -in hideous death.</p> - -<p>Strange thoughts passed through his brain. Why did not Meevo, schooled -in slaughter, slay him, too?</p> - -<p>But Meevo merely motioned him to enter the room; he did so, then the -frail, haughty Vron said slowly, relishing the situation with an alien -humor which the other could not understand:</p> - -<p>"You've about fifteen minutes, Frederix. Fifteen minutes to realize the -fact that you'll be blown to bits. When the station goes, Certagarni -will revolt; in a few weeks, as the other stations go, Mars will fall -completely into chaos.</p> - -<p>"A few months and Onupari shall have lain waste the Earth stations. -It's too bad you must miss it all; but you must! So I'm locking you -in here where you can view the glorious beginning. This room has been -the <i>sanctum sanctorum</i> of these two dead gentlemen; I've no doubt -you'll be unable to solve the diallock's combination. It will give you -something to pass the moments away with. So, goodbye, Earthman. May -your ancestors welcome you with wine and tribulation!"</p> - -<p>With that alien idiom uttered, the Vron stepped outside. The great -durite door crashed shut, the diallock whirled.</p> - -<p>A moment later a small gyrotomic blasted into the night sky and moved -swiftly into the northeast towards distant Calidao.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Frederix heard the purring of the electric clock, turned his gaze -towards it, and the second hand going 'round, swiftly. He tried the -door, turned back into the room. Glassite-durite walls faced him, -transparent but comprised of the hardest alloy in the system.</p> - -<p>Flicking on a desk lamp, he rummaged around the room. No weapons, no -tools.... And the minutes were fleeing—ten minutes more—nine!</p> - -<p>And then his eyes fell on a portable cathode ray oscillograph, and -inspiration lighted up his rugged, bearded face!</p> - -<p>The door was locked by a high frequency radio wave diallock, the most -delicate and most burglar proof lock in the system. Its shielded -exterior made it invulnerable to the most advanced instruments of a -modern Raffles; but its unshielded inner side—</p> - -<p>Quickly he plugged in the oscillograph on A.C., brought it to the door, -adjusted the wires from the jack-top binding posts to the terminal -of the lock, stepped up the anode voltage, cut in the sweep circuit -and paused for a long moment to still the quivering of his hand as he -reached for the diallock.</p> - -<p>His eyes were glued to the greenish fluorescence of the slow-screen -tube as he started twirling the combination. Waves pulsed evenly across -the grid. And then they jerked almost unnoticeably; a wave-plate had -fallen into position! He changed the diallock's direction back slowly. -Another variance in the oscillation. Back, again!</p> - -<p>The clock purring, purring, and somewhere another clock ticking the -doom of the station away.</p> - -<p>His whole body was trembling as he made the final turn and was -breathlessly rewarded with the sight of a higher frequency wave -pulsing smoothly across the tube. The door fell silently open. The -clock said a minute to the zero hour!</p> - -<p>He raced across the roof, full in the flare of a swirling beacon. Of -course he did not see the crawling, bleeding body in the darkness near -the radio-room's door, did not hear the hoarse, feeble cry:</p> - -<p>"<i>Oh, God, not Frederix!</i>"</p> - -<p>He blasted his ship out through the automatic lock at full speed. -Seconds later his radio receiver burst into life:</p> - -<p>"Calling KBM, Kaa. This is Cravens at Certagarni. Meevo and Frederix -killed all the men; sent the squadron to attack Kaa. Station will -blow into Hell within a minute. Oh, God, get them—Captain Meevo and -Lieutenant Hunter Frederix—traitors! The Cen—"</p> - -<p>The weak, quavering voice died away.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The night turned to crimson flame. <i>Boom!</i> A vast concussion shook -the earth, the sky. Frederix fought the bucking controls. Behind, the -spacestation's defenses were debris spouting into the upper air, and -livid, leaping fire cast macabre patterns upon the distant vaults of -Certagarni.</p> - -<p>He sat in the cushioned seat, stunned by the immensity of the deed and -by the startling denunciation he had heard as Cravens, with whom he had -conversed so much, Cravens who had made the trio of Andres, Frederix -and himself rich indeed in the folklore of the stars—Cravens had named -him traitor!</p> - -<p>Dave had even taken his transmitter to overhaul the day before. -Consequently he could not contact Kaa or Del and protest his innocence, -warn them of the awful fullness of the Vron plot, of the Armada. He -would probably be shot down should he stumble upon the aerial battle -which would soon be waged over Botrodus since Cravens had warned Kaa, -the key station there.</p> - -<p>As if in attendance upon his thoughts, his open receiver burst, amid -general static:</p> - -<p>"KBM calling all ships. Apprehend all suspicious craft approaching -Botrodus; engage if they refuse to give proper clearance. -Meevo—Frederix—if you hear my voice, understand that you will be -given no quarter—"</p> - -<p>Suddenly another carrier wave whined into the wavelength; Andres' angry -voice broke in:</p> - -<p>"Blake, you damned fool, Frederix had nothing to do with this!"</p> - -<p>"Captain Andres, unless you have absolute proof, please get off the -band—"</p> - -<p>Silence. Heartbreaking silence. KBM took up again, vainly calling -Calidao.</p> - -<p>Frederix looked at his directional finder. He was heading for Kaa at -nearly a thousand m.p.h. If he changed his course a few degrees and -headed for Andres' Rendezvous on the Kaa-Calidao airline, he could -call KBM and straighten the matter out. Quickly he made the necessary -alterations....</p> - -<p>The bitter chill of the Martian night cut through the ship's hull. -Locking the robot controls, Frederix slipped on a beryl-durite oxysuit, -locked the glassite helmet in place and turned on the thermo-electric -unit.</p> - -<p>Straight out across the Hargoan Swamps he flew, towards the Rendezvous. -And he thought of the past, back before his birth when Andres, as -legend ran, had come back from far places, from a memorable battle in -Alpha Centauri's vast system, wounded in body, and, his legion buddies -whispered, in heart. Aye, even in soul. Rumor had it that he had -loved with all the native fire and enthusiasm that were his—fighter -extraordinary, D'Artagnan of the Legion. Had loved and lost and -something within him had died.</p> - -<p>He had for a while lived a hermitary existence in an old Martian ruin -on a narrow, arid, mountainous strip cutting across Hargo; but combat, -strife, adventure called—</p> - -<p>Reenlistment. Out to Lalande 21,185; for Centauri was in peace. Battle -after hellborn battle until that lesser and nearer Lalande had found a -newbirth of freedom.</p> - -<p>But Andres had not embarked upon the twelve-year journey across the -8.4 light years to Sirius in the Legion's stellatomics. He had told -Frederix that the day might come when Sol would need him more. And -so he remained with the Solarian Defense, clinging to that ancient -estate—his Rendezvous where he held communion with his memories and -with the ghosts of those who had fallen beside and before his blazing -guns—haunting it when on Mars and off duty....</p> - -<p>Far to the south Frederix caught the fierce glare of disrupters, of -jets flaming in the black, starshot night as furious combat raged. Del, -too, was probably there, deep in the bloody game which was his life -now—</p> - -<p>Onward, onward.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Dawn shot up, breaking with all the suddenness of Martian day. To his -right Frederix glimpsed a ship bearing down upon him—a Certagarni -ship, named doubtless by a Vron-minded Martian.</p> - -<p>Suddenly the savage whine of other atomics crescendoed from above. From -the corner of his eye Frederix caught the crimson splurge of a master -disrupter from the nose of an insanely-plunging blue ship—a Kaa ship!</p> - -<p>A red finger burned across his right wing, tearing it cleanly free; the -ship whipstalled, hung like a stricken, one-winged bird and whirled -into a dizzy, whipping spin. Grimly he wrestled with the useless -controls, tried to avert the crash, flung his eyes upwards towards the -victor, and a scream sundered his lips:</p> - -<p>"<i>DEL!</i>" A useless scream, killed by the higher keening of wind and -unleashed jets.</p> - -<p>The craft careened erratically into the swamp, down through infinitely -intermeshed trees which broke the velocity of its fall, and crashed -sickeningly into the frozen mire.</p> - -<p>Miraculously Frederix retained consciousness and tore his bruised, -throbbing body from the shattered cabin, plunged to the slippery ground -and screamed madly, flinging his helmet open:</p> - -<p>"Del! Del! Oh, God! Come back!" But the atomics screamed as Andres -whirled towards the other Certagarni ship and, embattled, fled into the -distances towards Kaa.</p> - -<p>He dragged himself weakly from the frozen, broken ice, reeling in -dizziness. Blood was spurting from his nostrils, his breath was shot -and rasping in the frigid, ozone-tainted atmosphere. Feebly he fumbled -for his helmet catch, closing it after an eternity, and collapsed on a -nearby hummock, gulping in the oxygen which meant life.</p> - -<p>He looked at the crumpled, broken ship. Something man had built, gone -the way of all his creations. And why? Because of man's savagery, man's -impetuosity, man's searching after the vain chimera of glory—</p> - -<p>Rising, he stumbled into the north, towards the Rendezvous and, beyond, -Calidao, Onupari, and that upon which the future freedom of Earth -depended—the <i>seedrona</i> in the vaults of Jethe.</p> - -<p>At length he dropped in utter exhaustion. The noonday sun shone upon -his inert body near the foothills of a low-lying mountain range.</p> - -<p>Long hours later he awoke, incredibly refreshed, and scrambled upward -to the highest summit of the range. A cry of exultation burst from his -lips. Before him was a tiny valley on whose farther side clung a huge, -rocky pile which only a Martian—or Andres and his kin who had beheld -the insane architecture of the hither stars—might call an abode of man.</p> - -<p><i>The Rendezvous—Del Andres' Rendezvous, at last!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>Within, the monkey-like robot waited, weapons gleaming in its finely -fashioned hands. A stranger was approaching—someone who knew the -Master—friend or foe, it knew not; yet something purely intuitive -spoke inside it, saying "Friend!"</p></div> - -<p>Darkly red and ominous, the old pile seemed untenanted when first its -bloody portico spread beneath his swiftly questing feet. Fantastic, -ponderous arches topping offset, fluted columns; weirdly carven -facades. An architect's nightmare; a surrealistic concept of a palace -in Hades; but house ne'er seemed so welcoming to a lone man against a -world.</p> - -<p>Silence broken only by the faint, thin whisper of a rising wind -sweeping red dust through the trellises about the time-scarred walls, -indicative of a simoon in the offing.</p> - -<p>Advancing to the great door, he rapped sharply, then tried the latch. -To his surprise it yielded. Entering the vestibule, he opened his -helmet to a revivifying blast of oxygen fresh from the automatic ozone -transformers, and called. The echo of his voice alone came back.</p> - -<p>He found the library dustless and orderly. Trophies hung on the walls: -mounted heads and bodies of creatures slain beneath alien suns, ghastly -travesties on solarian mammals, creatures envisioned in dreams. -Weapons from the far places, taken (as the labels read) at the siege -of Kackijakaala in Alpha Centauri, six years distant by the fastest -stellatomic.</p> - -<p>How old, then, was Del Andres the magnificent? Man's allotted span, -increased by the elimination of all disease, covers but a hundred and -fifty years; yet Andres had seen and fought those years away within the -vast systems of Centauri and Lalande, and he seemed still a young man, -by appearance no older than Frederix's thirty years.</p> - -<p>Aye, there were mysteries about Del Andres—rumors about a Vron -princess far across space, years ago as time runs.</p> - -<p>Intuitively Frederix moved to luxurious draperies hanging on the walls, -moved them aside and a sigh came from his parted lips. The sheer, -glorious, breath-taking beauty of the picture revealed stunned him! -Third-dimensional it seemed, tinted with an ethereal loveliness, the -supreme glory of womankind—</p> - -<p>Haughtiness, perhaps, but the haughtiness that breeds the hope of -conquest that would be rich, indeed, in its fulfillment.</p> - -<p>He released the drapes and turned aside with a cry in his heart. Only -now did he fully realize the fatalistic spirit which drove Del Andres: -the devil-may-care fearlessness, the sheer recklessness, the constant -hoping, perhaps, for death.</p> - -<p>Small wonder that Hunter Frederix left that shrine and quested inward, -saddened immeasurably by what he had seen and what he had so suddenly -realized. For he had seen, in that moment, into the hidden recesses of -a great man's soul.</p> - -<p>The dining salle opened before him, seemingly converted into a species -of <i>chambre-des-horreurs</i> since robot parts were strewn all over -the place: limbs, wires, sockets, photocells, small atomic motors. -Robot control was a hobby of Andres—a robot of his making had, at -Kackijakaala, entered and opened the gates of the fortress at which the -Legion had hammered futilely for months on end in conquering the Dwares -of Centauri and bringing peace and prosperity to the system's many -races—prosperity and <i>the ultimate hope of cosmic conquest</i>!</p> - -<p>He crossed the sill, started hurriedly towards a radio cabinet in the -far corner. Simultaneously a door nearby fell silently open and what he -saw caused, at first, a smile to flash across his bearded face.</p> - -<p>Into the room came a tiny form, probably three feet tall, hairy and -chubby like a Ganymedean monkey, its face a delicate pink, its large -eyes an innocent baby-blue, dominating a pudgy simian face. A robot, -no less—the robot about which Del had talked—whose comical aspect was -not at all in keeping with the grim menace of a paralysis-pellet gun -in one manual extremity and a disrupter in the other! Its thick lips -parted and a reproduction of Andres' voice said:</p> - -<p>"Don't move or I shall be forced to shoot. You will kindly remain as -you are until Del Andres returns!" Whereupon the litany continued -rapidly in Lalandean and Centaurian and abated.</p> - -<p>Frederix stood frozen in his tracks, his smile gone now. He'd heard -of automatic robots before, guarding bleak, desolate outposts in the -still watches of extra-terrestrial nights whose weapons would be -automatically discharged should anything change the visual pattern on -their photocells during or after the warning.</p> - -<p>The suspense was maddening. A radio transmitter and receiver stood -scant feet away, and he dared not move to reach them—the means of -calling Kaa, of sending angry ships swarming at Calidao, for perhaps (a -<i>perhaps</i> that was maddening in its import)—perhaps Onupari had not -swept into the void with his cargo of death.</p> - -<p>Andres had spoken of some intelligence manifest in the robot's actions. -Might it then understand if he spoke to it?</p> - -<p>"I am Hunter Frederix, Del Andres' friend," he said softly, scarcely -moving his lips. The robot remained motionless, irresponsive. Was it -merely the sparking of relays or had he described a gleam of something -else in those mechanical eyes?</p> - -<p>He talked on, explaining the entire situation. Abruptly, amazingly, the -automaton sheathed its weapons.</p> - -<p>Frederix turned towards the radio, astounded by what he had seen, -striving to give the exhibition of understanding some explanation which -did not admit of a created mentality; then, without, he heard the -jetting of a landing gyrotomic.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A warm, excited cry cut the silence of the old mansion:</p> - -<p>"Hunt! I thought you'd come here! Oh, I knew Dave was wrong!"</p> - -<p>Del Andres rushed into the room, his dark face agleam, his strong arms -outstretched in welcome greeting.</p> - -<p>Frederix caught his hands, crushed them and said nothing.</p> - -<p>"We captured a Vron, learned that they have sent an Armada—"</p> - -<p>"I know," Frederix said simply.</p> - -<p>"Oh, I knew they'd come!" Andres raced on. "I warned the Legion years -ago; but they knew more than I who lived with the Vrons at Centauri, -who—well, it doesn't matter! What matters is that I know them for what -they are: cruel, domineering, the greatest actors in the universe; and -when they want something—power or love or gold, it doesn't matter -which for their fancies change in a moment—nothing will stop their mad -rush towards that goal—" Suddenly he was staring into the shadowed -room whence he had come and there was bitterness in his dark eyes—the -bitterness of cruel and undimmed memories.</p> - -<p>"But they must be stopped!" Frederix cried.</p> - -<p>"We'll stop them!" whispered Andres, his strong, white teeth bared -almost wolfishly. "The Legion can't get back in time; but we've worlds -to defend, Hunt, and the courage to defend them. But why did Dave -Cravens name you traitor?"</p> - -<p>He could talk now. He could empty his bursting heart. Swiftly he -recounted everything from those dangerous moments in Certagarni to the -present.</p> - -<p>"We'll win through!" Andres cried, his great hands strong and -encouraging on Frederix's shoulders. "We'll get the Kaa ships to -Calidao; we'll wireless Earth; we'll curb it now while it's not too -late! Their armada is years away; much can be done ere it comes!</p> - -<p>"Why, we've already downed the Certagarni squadron and reestablished -control there and in Botrodus!"</p> - -<p>That supreme confidence banished the hopeless resignation in Frederix's -heart, buoyed him up and gave him newborn hope.</p> - -<p>Andres was smiling, reaching into the young engineer's open helmet to -grasp his golden beard in iron fingers, to tug at it playfully.</p> - -<p>"Getting gray, fella! Must've happened when I shot you down!"</p> - -<p>That broke the strain. They grinned boyishly at each other; then Del -spun on his heel, walked to the radio cabinet, and simultaneously a -carbon copy of his own voice cried in mockery:</p> - -<p>"Don't move a muscle or I shall be forced to shoot."</p> - -<p>He started to turn; the robot's unsheathed pellet gun coughed and Del -toppled over against the transmitter, smashing the bared, delicate -condensers into nothingness as he dropped into paralysis.</p> - -<p>Frederix stood stunned. "No ... no ..." he murmured; and then he was -leaping forward, tears of rage and futility in his eyes, to lift Del to -a nearby couch, to call to him incoherently.</p> - -<p>He looked then to the robot standing silently nearby. The curses on -his lips were never uttered, for flooding into his mind came a strong -feeling of sorrow, regret, and the automaton was extending the weapons -to him grip foremost, as though their surrender might repair the damage -done!</p> - -<p>He tried to fight off the thoughts which thronged the threshold of -his mind then. He tried to think of Del and of Onupari and his death -cargo, of hellish death rushing across the light years towards Sol; -but instead he could think only of the things Del had told him of -creating this robot, powering it with a full gram of radium, releasing -intelligence.</p> - -<p>That there was intelligence here, he did no longer question. A -reasoning intellect which had forbade slaying him and now had done -this inexplicable thing. Or did it have complete control of the -robot's form? Had it acted of its own accord or had the robot's -relays automatically caused this dilemma? That final thought brought a -counter-thought, a clear and sorrowing affirmation!</p> - -<p>But how could he credit anything existing independent of a flesh and -blood body as having intelligence? Must not every life form remain an -insoluble psychophysical being?</p> - -<p>And yet—is not the basis of all things electrical? Life and all that -pertains to it and the universe? Why not, then, a pure, radioactive -intelligence? Could it not have arisen by evolving degrees from the -complexity of atomic fluctuations finding genesis in the pitted core of -Pallas—where Andres, prospecting to pass empty days away, had found -it—a sentient consciousness born in cosmic loneliness out of the very -fabric of the universe? Had not One Other thus found genesis?</p> - -<p>The weird new wonder of it strong within him, Frederix looked down at -Andres, silent, immovable on the couch. A strange little smile played -on sensitive, parted lips beneath the thin black mustache. Frederix -wondered if he dreamed—</p> - -<p>Spinning around to the radio, he discovered that to repair it would -take hours. Yet he must call Kaa, summon the Service men, and depart in -Del's ship for Calidao, on the slim chance that Onupari might still be -there and that he might stay the take-off.</p> - -<p>Atomics moaning above. He rushed to the window. Five ships V-ed into -the south, magnificent against a dust-darkened sky, flashing swiftly -out of sight under full power. Service ships, so near and yet so far!</p> - -<p>Of course, the ship! Del's ship would have radio equipment. He rushed -out on the impulse, his breath coming fast within his helmet.</p> - -<p>Snapping on the transmitter, he called quickly into the microphone:</p> - -<p>"Frederix calling KBM, Kaa. Calling KBM...."</p> - -<p>QRM snapped through his receiver, born of those lowering skies over -Botrodus, one of those rare but violent sandstorms come to disrupt -radio communication.</p> - -<p>Now a calm official voice answered, badly distorted by atmospheric -disturbance:</p> - -<p>"KBM to Frederix. What (brrrrrt) ... message?"</p> - -<p>"Andres is paralyzed at the Rendezvous. Send a doctor. Send all -available ships to Calidao—"</p> - -<p>"Andres paralyzed.... Rendezvous.... Repeat ... mess ... can't...."</p> - -<p>Frederix repeated grimly, persistently, but Kaa kept calling:</p> - -<p>"KBM ... do not get ... repeat ... K ... rrrrrrrr...."</p> - -<p>And then QRM blotted even that out.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Disgustedly he turned towards the port and the grim old mansion looming -large in the cold, storm-born dusk, and hesitated. The message had -gotten through. They at least knew Andres' condition and position; -they would doubtless come plunging to the Rendezvous. He must leave a -message!</p> - -<p>Moments later he returned to the ship, a disrupter and a -freshly-charged paralysis-pellet gun buckled at his waist. Before him -scurried the automaton, its tragi-comic simian face turned back to him -as if exhorting him to greater speed.</p> - -<p>Gently, awesomely, almost reverently (for is not reverence born in -recognition of the mighty and the mystic unknown which man cannot -quite understand?), he handed the monkey-like thing into the cabin and -followed.</p> - -<p>Blasting off, he set a Mercator course, with all due corrections, for -Calidao. Soon he outflew the fringes of the storm and then night fell -like a finely-stitched widow's veil, the stars danced crazily as the -air cooled, and he was alone in the darkness, roaring at full speed -towards Calidao. Alone, aye, save for the weird little robot standing -by his side, whatever life it possessed recording his every movement.</p> - -<p>Gloom and hope held thrall in his soul. Things had seemed soluble with -Andres smiling and pledging his support. Now he had weapons and a ship -and a strong feeling that Onupari was still in Calidao, but—he was -alone! Del was not here to help him. Still, he did have weapons. He -might—</p> - -<p>Aye, gloom was fighting a losing battle. A transcendental confidence -was stirring his breast—and yet he wondered if it were not telepathic -hypnosis finding genesis in the mind of the alien life which was close -beside him? What were the limits of its intellect? What aid might it -give? He did not dare to even wonder.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>Who could say what thoughts, emotions, surged through the robot's -mind? Intelligence there was and an undeniable strength inspiring -confidence.... And something greater—some indefinable prowess beyond, -perhaps, the ken of man—</p></div> - -<p>Calidao, city of mystic intrigue, cosmopolitan city where Solarian, -Centaurian and Lalandean hold daily intercourse, bartering in lives and -souls, and in treasures and alien lore whose origin and significance -shall remain forever hidden in the womb of time—</p> - -<p>Thither flashed Frederix in the dead of night, riding the radio beam in -from the direction of Kaa. Starshine alone and what light the almost -indetectable moons gave illumined the semi-somnolent cosmopolis. Along -the main artery, famed Space Boulevard, the varicolored lights of night -clubs blazed up through the glassite vaults; the spaceport, a mile and -more out of town, shone in a wavering splendour of swirling beacons, -pointing white, stabbing fingers into the dark, and the whole was -flooded intermittently with brightest green as the great concentration -of spacelamps flashed a mighty, guiding column upward and outward to -whatever craft might move across the firmament.</p> - -<p>Frederix drove down low over the port, searching for sight of a large -black freighter marked with Onupari's famous (and infamous) boxed-star -insignia. Just as he was rewarded by a glimpse of it lying in the ways, -just as exultation swept in a warm tide over him, a blindingly-crimson -blast seared up from beneath, cutting a great gap in the left wing, -waving futilely after him as he careened into the night, his tortured -sight seeping slowly back, trying desperately to keep the crippled ship -awing.</p> - -<p>He realized that the Calidaoan Vrons and sympathizers bought with -golden coins, promises of greatness, and freedom from the "Anarchy of -Earth," had indeed taken dictatorial possession of Calidao and were -guarding well the ship of Onupari which would bring death to the Double -World.</p> - -<p>Opening the purring atomics wide, he swept in a wide arc far out over -the wastes and back to the farther side of the city, and, cutting in -the infra-red viewplates, glided to a swift albeit unsteady landing on -the verge of the encircling desert.</p> - -<p>He hesitated, but the robot, dropping to the ground, led him unerringly -to a small lock opening on one of the back streets. Pausing in the -darkness, Frederix peered through the glassite wall.</p> - -<p>A young Martian policeman stood smoking thoughtfully beneath a carbon -arc, handsome and proudly erect in his bright, apparently-new uniform, -quite alone in this narrow thoroughfare.</p> - -<p>Frederix's hand dropped to the disrupter, shifted to the needle-gun, -and, opening the lock slowly, he aimed and pressed the trigger. Leaping -within, he caught the paralyzed youth, lowering him into the shadows of -a nearby doorway.</p> - -<p>A surge of commendation beat in his brain—praise for his choice of -weapons. For why should one so young and handsome die? Why should any -of Sol's disillusioned billions die because of a few greedy men who had -rushed into a band which would damn the entire system unless someone -revealed their duplicity, which had already precipitated all manner of -internal strife? Violence would avail naught; they must be shown the -plain truth of it so that they might live and be free!</p> - -<p>The robot hurried away now, turned swiftly in a high-arched tunnel -which intersected the street, and led Frederix to the fantastically -carven front of a large mansion whose portal had been but recently -blasted asunder. Over that shattered door was the crest of Jethe the -munitions baron, and <i>within the room</i>—</p> - -<p>Nausea seized Frederix's stomach. Hoary-haired Jethe, dealer in power -for peace or war, was sprawled across a paper-strewn table in terrible -death, his wizened face and body ribboned into one horrible mess of -blood and gore, sliced by a disrupter, signature no doubt of Meevo or -Onupari—</p> - -<p>Dizzy with the sheer bestiality of the scene but driven by some manner -of apprehension, Frederix threaded his way through the debris to an -all-wave radio clinging on the farther wall, snapped the switch and -dialed to the Kaa frequency.</p> - -<p>A message was coming through, clear now, proof that the sandstorm had -subsided and skies were clear. Frederix recognized the cold emotionless -voice of Blake, the Kaa chief operator.</p> - -<p>"... the message you've found may ring true, but in the light of -Cravens' message from Certagarni, proving Frederix to be in league with -anti-service factions, we find that we cannot send ships to a possible -trap in Calidao until you've learned from Andres what's really behind -all this. Please inform us of any developments. Off!"</p> - -<p>Oh, the blind fools! They had found Andres and the message but would do -nothing until the paralytic spell had worn away! And Onupari must have -been in this room hours before; his ship, prepared for flight, must -have long been loaded! He left the place of death at a run.</p> - -<p>The tiny monkey-thing led the way toward Space Boulevard, and into the -engineer's mind an encouraging thought came. <i>Onupari has not left!</i> -And Frederix raged inwardly against the callousness, the bloodlust of -that fat, swarthy renegade whom he had seen so many times glossing over -crimes charged to him by the Embassy.</p> - -<p>The freighter had not taken off yet; the thunder of its atomics would -have been easily heard. He might yet—<i>what</i>? If the Service men—<i>If</i>—</p> - -<p>As if they, trying to resuscitate an unconscious man almost an hour's -flight away, could come in time!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">V</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">Dwells there a thing in all of space</div> - <div class="verse">Without a smile to light its face?</div> - <div class="verse">Intellect: Puck's dwelling place?</div> - <div class="verse">"What fools we mortals be!"</div> -</div></div> - -<p>Ahead he saw an enormous Geissler tube sign flashing alternately with -neon's bright red and argon's blue:</p> - -<p class="ph1">THE SPACASINO<br /> -Dine & Dance—Floorshow Tonite<br /> -Joy Rikki & Martian Madcaps</p> - -<p>and simultaneously, he heard voices and the double tread of footsteps -down a cross street. The robot slipped intelligently into the shadow of -an ornate doorway and he followed.</p> - -<p>Coarse voices—the voices of space-hardened men:</p> - -<p>"We gotta git Manuel out to the ship. 'S been loaded since sundown. -What'll the Envoy think? Cripes, we're behind schedule now—'most a -day!"</p> - -<p>"You git 'im out! Ain't I tried? Y'know 'ow 'e is when 'e gits drunk! -Give the blighter a bevy of chorines to dance in front of 'im and some -vod-vil stuff and the blinkin' fool will set there all the bloomin' -night 'e will, if 'e's anywheres near tight, an 'ell itself won't move -'im!"</p> - -<p>... The voices became inaudible—</p> - -<p>Inspiration came to Hunter Frederix then. It was a futile, vain hope. -It was a desperate gamble and Death held the odds; but an hour's delay -might mean success. Andres would soon be conscious; the rockets would -flash out of Botrodus.</p> - -<p>A wild plan flashed across his brain, and then a pure thought which -held in it understanding and acknowledgment—understanding of one man's -weakness and acknowledgment of another's genius.</p> - -<p>He looked down at the robot, saw the photocellular eyes turned upwards -to his face. Despite the seriousness of it all, he smiled crookedly as -he caught the automaton up in his arms and hurried across to a doorway -marked plainly "Stage Door—No Loiterers!"</p> - -<p>The door opened as he crossed the photo-electric eye on the threshold, -and he came upon a hectic scene: a sweating, cigar-chewing manager -upbraiding a group of voluptuous chorines.</p> - -<p>"Listen, girls, please can't you think up a new routine? This fellow's -a madman when he's drunk and he might take it in his cranium to tear -the joint apart. How's about that Starshine Sequence?"</p> - -<p>Frederix shouldered his way brusquely through the surprised throng, -ignoring the angry remarks which came as his metal suit brushed bare -arms and backs. No time for pardons now; seconds meant life or death—</p> - -<p>"Hey, Mac!" he said by way of introduction. "Could you use an act?"</p> - -<p>The irate manager surveyed the big, purposeful man inside the oxysuit, -grinned and said:</p> - -<p>"Listen, Goldilocks, whatcha think this is—a bearded man's convention?"</p> - -<p>"Never mind about the customers!" the engineer burst in repartee, -smiling though his heart was grim. "I've a trained, talking Ganymedean -ape here. I'll give you an act that'll knock 'em wild if you'll -announce me now and give me a dressing room for about ten minutes. Oke?"</p> - -<p>A system was hanging on the balance in the weighing of a few, short, -seemingly lightly-spoken words—the future of many kindred races sprung -from a common sun who labored now under greatest stress—And the -grinning manager must have sensed the aura of seriousness and power -about the unshaven man and his strange companion, for his face grew -sober.</p> - -<p>"What's the act like, pal?"</p> - -<p>"Ever hear the '<i>Saga-of-Sal</i>'?"</p> - -<p>"I've heard <i>of</i> it!"</p> - -<p>"Tonight you'll hear <i>it</i>!"</p> - -<p>Frederix's heart was beating with the power surges of a liquid-rocket's -blast as he hurried into the dressing room, completely removed his -helmet, splashed on fiery pseudo-pirate make-up, darkened his golden -beard, and then turned his attention to the stoic robot.</p> - -<p>Time flew with the beating of his heart. Removing the robot's system -of speech, he set the disks awhirl, loosening the bolts which held the -144 common units of enunciation in a fixed order. Transcribing his -reedy falsetto onto the disks, remembering some of the great poem, -extemporizing with his natural flair for poetry, he recited some of the -choicest lines; then locked the enunciator unit and lay the robot aside -with an air of confidence and satisfaction.</p> - -<p>Carefully he obliterated with make-up any distinguishing signs on the -government suit; then hurried out into the wings, the monkey-thing -scurrying before—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">(The rockets are coming from Kaa, from Kaa,</div> - <div class="verse">Out of Kaa flashing flames in the night.)</div> -</div></div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>All spacemen have heard the "Saga-of-Sal," repeated from expedition -quarters on Pluto into the English colony in Mercury's twilight zone, -Sal, the throaty torch-singer from dear old Boston at the very sound -of whose magic voice the maharajahs of Mars went into ecstasy and who -spurned them all to marry a blue midget from Callisto.</p> - -<p>Conceived by some long-dead bard with the virile, full style of a -Kipling, it had been handed from mouth to mouth, every minstrel singing -it differently; but none of them ever had cause to sing it quite like -Hunter Frederix and his futuristic concept of a vaudeville stooge did -that wild night in the Spacasino while he waited, his life hanging on -a thread, anticipating momentary recognition, praying for the sound of -rockets out of Kaa.</p> - -<p>The automaton scampered out in advance and a howl of laughter shook -the terra cotta walls. Frederix glimpsed Manuel Onupari rising from -a drink-laden table beyond the arc-lamps, a reluctant scowl on his -black-jowled, evil face as he argued vehemently with a Vron who was -plainly encouraging the renegade's men to take their leader to the -waiting ship.</p> - -<p>But at the sound of applause, Onupari shook himself free and sank back -into his seat, exploding in drunken laughter, calling for more wine.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">(Out of Kaa flashing flames in the night—)</div> -</div></div> - -<p>A sigh of relief on his lips, Frederix looked down at that pink, -bewhiskered face, unspeakably comical, unspeakably innocent as they -swung into the Saga, holding its cues while the crowd roared, giving -them full punch under the sensitive direction of the electrical life -which seemed to know so much of all things.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">"I will take my atomic and sweep through the stars</div> - <div class="verse">And chase all the girlies from Pluto to Mars;</div> - <div class="verse">I'm a knight with a steed which belches out flame;</div> - <div class="verse">I'm a whooper, by golly, Vamose is my name!</div> -</div> - - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">"Monk is my partner—he rides on my knee!</div> - <div class="verse">He flirts with them girlies, what a grand sight to see!</div> - <div class="verse">From Callisto to Luna, from mountain to shore</div> - <div class="verse">We still are a-whoopin'; may the rockets roar!"</div> -</div></div> - -<p>Whereupon they swung into an animated recital of how they, privateers -ranging the void, had heard Sal broadcasting from a Martian station, -and, unutterably fascinated by her siren's call, landed only to be -turned over to the Service since she was a Service dame, and to sit in -a jail cell and watch her say I do to that Callistan blue midget in -a magnificent jail house wedding for dear old publicity's sake! What -a wild, uproarious yarn that was; what shouting, whistling, stomping -arose in that semi-barbaric place!</p> - -<p>And the minutes were fleeing—and the miles behind the ships plunging -onward—</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Mad thunder of applause broken by an equally mad roar. Meevo, pale, -wild-eyed, bursting into the club, crying out:</p> - -<p>"Onupari! Planes riding the beam in from Kaa—two hundred miles away! -Come on, you drunken fool!" And Meevo jerked the drunken commander to -his unsteady feet, slapped his face with an insane violence, threw him -into the arms of some less-drunken men and rushed them and his fellow -Vron out into the night.</p> - -<p><i>They were coming!</i> Coming, yes, but fifteen endless minutes away! Half -that time would see Onupari's powerful ship standing out into cosmic -space!</p> - -<p>And the native impetuosity of Hunter Frederix could not fail to come. -Heated thoughts surged through his brain. His hand strayed to the guns -at his side and then he had flung the helmet on to his suit, clamped -it down and was gone from the Spacasino like a flash. "Monk," the -robot-extraordinary, tried in vain to match his madly-plunging steps.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">VI</p> - -<p>And so he rushed, his oxygen carefully adjusted, out through the -massive main-city-lock almost on the heels of Onupari's helmeted men, -and they, for the greater part drunken and stumbling blindly along, -heeded him not.</p> - -<p>The rockets were coming from Kaa, out of Kaa flashing flames in the -night! But they would be far too late! Onward he ran, his heart -screaming protest against the violence of his pace, an endless mile -across the desert waste.</p> - -<p>Onupari's men were streaming up the gleaming aluminum plated ramp now, -pouring into the bowels of the ship resting on the ways. Frederix drove -forward, a disrupter clenched in his right hand, leaped towards the -ramp, yards behind the last man.</p> - -<p>And Meevo, thin, haughty Meevo, stood before him, recognition dawning -in his wide, cruel eyes, hand reaching for a disrupter. Frederix heard -the faint purring of the warming atomics. The Vron in his way! He must -reach the controls, wreck them, even though his life be in forfeit!</p> - -<p>He brought the gun up even as Meevo whipped out his.</p> - -<p>Frederix fired first—right into that glassite helmet—red burst of -flame, blood spurting out of a jugular vein severed from nothingness; -the Vron's decapitated body crumpled.</p> - -<p>But the lock crashed shut, and a man loomed within a lighted gun turret.</p> - -<p>The atomics were hissing more loudly now, the intense wave of heat -driving Frederix back. A leader flashed past him, fabricating an -ionized path for the incredible bolt of lightning which crashed nearby, -sucking him into the very heart of a stunning thunderclap.</p> - -<p>He regained his feet unsteadily, tried to run on, intent on escaping -the roaring atomics ere they blasted him with their dispersed fury.</p> - -<p>He stumbled, went down, and his mad eyes saw the outdistanced -robot coming towards him. A lightning leader flashed, smiting the -metallic automaton squarely in the fuel compartment—<i>the radium -compartment</i>—fusing the whole into a blinding, white hot, leaping -electrical aura which strung itself out in a roaring, seething, -zigzagging finger <i>which leaped backwards along that ionized pathway -towards the ship</i>!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>In a glory of pyrotechnic thunder the ship was off—but in seeking revenge the captain made one mistake!</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>A tiny voice keened above that mad tumult, shrilling out of that -gutted, wrecked automaton:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">"<i>We still are a-whoopin'; may the rockets roar!</i>"</div> -</div></div> - -<p>Even as that plaintive, laughing voice cut across the prostrate, -half-blinded man's brain, so spoke more mightily the thunder of the -atomics, flinging the mighty hull up the ways into the illimitable -starshine. His nerve centers revolted. The agonizing white of afterjets -initially super-charged; then that excruciatingly painful splash of -furious lightning intermeshed and blazing in supernal glory on the -ship's side.</p> - -<p>The very roof of the heavens seemed to cleave in twain. The universe -became one crazy, all encompassing roar; the skies were a livid, -screaming wave of white, brain singeing, ear bursting agony.</p> - -<p>Frederix was blasted end over end, his bones snapping like matchwood, -intolerable pain crushing in on him—</p> - -<p>Vibration upon mad vibration. Reverberation of hell thunder. -Pain—unutterable, endless voids of swimming pain—</p> - -<p>Consciousness remained. Sound—crushing sound.</p> - -<p>And, at length, silence.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The man tried to drag his broken, throbbing, bleeding body from beneath -the debris of the hangars against which he had been thrown, which -had sheltered him from the highest fury of that unleashed cargo of -<i>seedrona</i>, set aspark by the short circuit caused by the disrupting -blast of unnatural lightning, radium transformed into flame.</p> - -<p>Frederix looked up into the blackness and strained to see beyond it. -A faint, almost ironic smile crossed his pain wracked, bleeding lips. -Gone, the minions of those who sought to subjugate a system—gone, the -deadly cargo which, treated and compressed, would have destroyed the -spacestations and laid the World bare to conquest.</p> - -<p>And, Oh God! at what price to him? <i>What price, indeed?</i></p> - -<p>But he, what did he matter? He was only a means to the end. The plot -was known now. Back on Earth, here on Mars, in all the other solarian -havens of life, the Vrons of Centauri would meet defeat; for Solarians -would believe him now with Del Andres by his side. Andres who knew the -Vrons of Centauri for the strange, changeable, domineering creatures -that they were, Andres who called him friend and in whose great heart -only friendship was left—aye, they would believe him well!</p> - -<p>When he heard the murmuring of rockets out of Kaa, he was thinking -many things: of what the strange life form he had come to know by the -lowly name of "Monk" had done—truly the workings of something far -greater than man striving for universal betterment. He thought of the -earnestness, the striving, the sense of honor and glory and all that is -good.</p> - -<p>In essence, what had it been? A consciousness born of the basic fabric -of the universe, electricity however strange the form. Something come -out of seemingly nowhere to aid a race in its moment of greatest -blindness, of greatest need. Come to render a queer, heroic, supernal -sacrifice.</p> - -<p>And now, despite the living, shuddering pain within him, a smile -twisted his lips. He was thinking of a little voice whispering a very -virile tune as it went down into death. He was thinking that even -something akin to a god, in its most serious workings for good, might -find time to know laughter.</p> - -<p>And he was wishing that that intelligence had not been consumed by -the blessed flame of martyrdom. He was wondering what aid it might -have given in those moments not far hence when the Armada would come -blasting out of the void between the stars.</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIGHTNING'S COURSE ***</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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. 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