Hunters Out of Space Part 16

They settled to the plane's surface like whirling hour-gla.s.ses. Fire spouted from them in all directions. Then their movement stopped. Smoke shrouded them and slowly drifted away.

They were upon a reddish plain. Above them, the red sun filled a twelfth of the sky. That sky was one vast swirl of crimson. Even the few clouds seemed to be on fire. And yet their instruments showed that the temperature of the thin air outside was in the sixties.

There were no mountains or valleys. The giant planet had weathered down to one great curving plain. It was mostly red sandstone, but here and there were reddish carpets of moss and gra.s.s. In the distance were a few gaunt trees. They had seen no rivers or seas before they landed. Odin learned later that there were many muddy ponds left upon the surface from the remains of stagnant seas. He also learned later that huge reservoirs were underground.

With the exception of the trees, the only thing that broke the monotonous line of the horizon was one great dome of violet stone or metal. It flashed like an amethyst in the red glare of the sun--and it was certainly man-made.

But on that occasion Jack Odin had little time to look at the scenery. They had hardly settled to the planet's surface before Grim Hagen trained his guns upon them and began to fire. Flame enveloped them. Bombs of acid and steel shook The Nebula. The battle-stations were already manned, and Ato gave orders to return fire. For nearly an hour, the holocaust continued.

Both ships rocked upon their steady foundations. They were bathed in flame, acid streamed down their sides, and rockets tore at them. Sh.e.l.ls burst upon them. And then it was over.

The two ships, scarred and blackened; glared at each other across a three-mile expanse that had now turned to cinders. And that was all.

Practically indestructible, and evenly matched, they had fought to a standstill. Neither ship had lost a man.

"See how it is, Nors-King?" Gunnar said as he drew his fingers across the shaft of his sword. "It is as I told you before. We have the same weapons.

The same defenses. I will use the Blood-Drinkers yet, before this is over."

There was a demanding buzz from the loudspeaker.

Ato turned the dial. A strange, harsh voice was calling. "You there, on the Second ship. You on the second ship. Answer."

"Yes!" Ato replied gruffly. "Who are you?"

"I am the head man of the city--the city within the dome."

"How did you know our language?"

"We have known it for thirty years. For that long have we been in contact with Grim Hagen."

Jack Odin was never quite able to cope with the pa.s.sing of time on these planets, while the ships scurried through Trans-s.p.a.ce in what appeared to be a matter of a few days.

The voice continued. "We invited Grim Hagen to our world. We did not invite you. Go away."

"I don't think I like his tone," Gunnar interrupted. "Some day I will catch the owner of that voice and make him eat his ears."

"We are not going away," Ato told the voice stubbornly.

"Then you can stay where you are. We have just witnessed the battle. We do not have weapons such as yours. But we do have a defense. An electric screen nearly half a mile across has been placed about you. Watch."

They looked at the screen, and a tiny drone-torpedo came winging its way from the violet dome. It came to within a thousand yards of them and suddenly crashed into an unseen barrier. Broken and blazing, it came falling down like a crippled bird.

"There," the voice said triumphantly. "That is what will happen to you. Why don't you leave us? You are not wanted. Leave us."

"Faith, he's a hospitable soul," Odin murmured.

Ato's voice was shaking in wrath when he answered. "We can find a way to smash that curtain. We want Grim Hagen and his prisoners. When we have them we will depart."

"Grim Hagen is our ally. We have already sworn our allegiance. I have no more words for you."

There was a clicking sound and the loudspeaker died with a sputter of static.

It sputtered again, and this time Grim Hagen's voice mocked them.

"There, Ato. You have your answer. You are wasting your time. But I am a reasonable man. You can have Maya. You can have the ship. You can have the prisoners--the few that are left. I will trade all these for Wolden's secret."

"Greed has you in its hand, Grim Hagen. I know nothing of my father's secret. I do not even know if he succeeded--"

"Then summon him and let him decide for himself. You are young, but two-thirds of my life is gone now--"

"Your calculation is wrong," Gunnar shouted. "You life is nearly all gone, Grim Hagen."

"The dwarf still lives," Grim Hagen answered with a curse. "But so does Maya, my slave. I had to beat her the other day. My boots were not polished very well--"

"Talk on, Grim Hagen," Odin growled. "I am here. And I intend to kill you--Just as I promised."

"Like most of your race, you talk too loud, Odin. Well, Ato, Gunnar, and Odin, I am going now. Please don't get in my way or I will hatchet the flesh from your bones."

Another click and the loudspeaker was silent.

They had landed on the giant, worn planet very early in the day. Now, as time went on, they watched Grim Hagen's ship and tried to make plans.

Gunnar was in favor of hazarding an attack on the barrier and then going on to the city.

Ato and Odin voted in favor of waiting, although they admitted that they could think of no better plan. Ato was sure that The Nebula could plunge through any curtain, but he wanted to try that as a last resort.

Meanwhile, a steady stream of tractors and men was going back and forth from the Old Ship to the city. Odin watched them on the screen. They were mostly the white-skinned people of Aldebaran. The Brons who had gone out into s.p.a.ce with Grim Hagen had dwindled away. Odin saw a few white-headed ones. And once he saw a captain stop to lash a worn, gray-haired Bron who must have been one of the original prisoners. The poor fellow looked so old and frazzled that Odin could not recognize him. His heart grew heavy as he thought of those prisoners. They had done no harm. Their lives had been wasted away because of their loyalty to Maya. And the words of an old poet came to his mind: "Think of man's inhumanity to man and write your poem if you can."

The day pa.s.sed wearily by.

Odin felt that it was one of the worst days of his life. They had spanned thousands of light-years and time had slid by like a stream of quicksilver while they hunted through s.p.a.ce. And now, at the last, they were pinned down on a gaunt planet while a triumphant Grim Hagen went back and forth from the Old Ship to the violet dome. Welcomed like a conqueror, and holding every card, Grim Hagen was the man of the hour.

Yes, it was certainly Grim Hagen's day.

Night fell quite suddenly. But the sky above them turned to the faintest mauve, and there was still a pale ghost of a light hovering over the plain.

There were no stars. No moon. Jack Odin learned later that the people of this planet had fed their moon to the dying sun long before.

They ate supper--as Gunnar called it--and then Ato and Odin studied some photo-maps which they had taken just before they landed. Meanwhile, Gunnar busied himself with the sword. And Nea, who stayed in her lab most of the day, brought in a few calculations on the barrier that prisoned them.

"It's an old idea," she told them quietly. "It can be broken by a steadily increasing force. Twenty days, perhaps, after I rig up the machine--"

Odin groaned. "In twenty days Grim Hagen will be back among the stars--"

She smiled quietly. And now he saw how tired her face and eyes were. Like the face of a child that has worked too hard. "I think not," she answered him simply. "Gunnar is always talking about fate. I do not believe in such.

But all day I have felt that the end is drawing near. Remember, I still have my Kalis. With them I could have been a huntress on some greener planet--another Diana, perhaps. Oh!" She stamped her foot in worriment. "We held creation in our grasp out here. We could have forced the last secrets from her. Yes, I will say it! We could have been as G.o.ds. And where is it ending? A mad chase after a madman. And for all the years and all the lives that have been spent on these two ships, time and s.p.a.ce are the only winners."