The Revolt of the Star Men Part 8

Janice, sensing that she was about to be separated from her lover, threw herself into his arms. The series of things she had gone through in the past twenty-four hours had frayed her nerves almost to the breaking point.

"Don't let them take me away from you, Austin. Don't let them! Oh, Hekki, please!"

Hekalu's face reddened, and then Sega tore the two apart. Shelby struggled but it was useless. Sega's huge muscles were quite equal to the task of mastering a dozen of the best fighting men of Earth.

He dragged his captives aboard the _Selba_, and guided by the inscrutable Koo Faya, locked them in chambers from which escape would now be definitely impossible. Jan was thrust into the room she had occupied before, but Shelby was put into a chamber somewhat larger than his original prison.

An almost ungovernable fury had taken possession of the young Earthman.

If for only a moment he could get his hand on the smooth Hekalu! His fingers clutched and unclutched spasmodically as he hurriedly paced the room. When presently, he found himself hammering on the walls with the frenzy of a trapped gorilla, a realization of where he was headed came to him. "Stop where you are, you fool!" he muttered to himself.

He went to the table where an appetizing breakfast was set out. He ate a little and then waited a while. He wanted to make sure that the food was not drugged. Half an hour pa.s.sed and he felt no ill effects. He ate the rest of his breakfast. Then he made several attempts to signal Jan by tapping on the walls, but he was quite sure that to get a message to her in this way was now out of the question.

For a long time he gazed out into the sunlit valley floor from his window. Preparations of some kind were under way. It looked as though the entire population, which must have numbered close to fifteen hundred s.p.a.ce Men all told, was getting ready to move away _en ma.s.se_. Scores of the strange black people were hurrying about, lugging loads of weapons and hundreds of large cylindrical objects into four immense box-like things of dull metal. Several vehicles, resembling machines of the s.p.a.ce Men, but many times larger, were cl.u.s.tered together in a group.

It must have been several hours after Shelby had been taken into the s.p.a.ce ship that two of Alkebar's people came to his room, carrying between them the unconscious form of the s.p.a.ce Man who had been Jan's and his fellow prisoner during the night of their arrival on Mars. They threw the limp giant down carelessly on one of the bunks, and without a glance at him or the Earthman, they stamped out.

Shelby would have liked to examine his cell mate more closely, but owing to the chain which had again been fastened to his ankle, it was impossible to get nearer to him than four yards. Who was this creature?

His gorgeously bejeweled harness and his huge size seemed to indicate that he had been a leader of some kind. Shelby had noticed that all s.p.a.ce Men who had a right to command, were somewhat larger than their fellows.

All through the long Martian day Shelby paced the length of his tether, pausing occasionally to look out of the window and to think. By nightfall he was in a state bordering upon complete dejection. Not that he was weak; Shelby could face trying situations shoulder to shoulder with the stubbornest and cleverest men that Earth or Mars could produce.

But he was human and had his limitations. Recapture after a glowing promise of freedom and safety for his people, his love, and himself had almost crushed him.

Only half interestedly he wondered when Hekalu Selba would strike. He knew that it would be very soon. In vain he tried to tell himself that he had no real proof of the Martian's power, but always a vision of those black horrors swooping down like living thunderbolts upon Taboor or New York or Chicago made him realize how futile would be any resistance that the planets could offer.

Even if there were but fifteen hundred s.p.a.ce Men, and Shelby was certain as actual knowledge that there were many more, and even if they must fight with their bare hands, still they would be a formidable menace.

Within an hour's time they could strike in a dozen different places on the surface of a planet. Shelby did not know that already there were forces of Fate in action which neither he nor Hekalu Selba himself had been able to foresee--forces however, which boded no good for the worlds.

Koo Faya brought the Earthman his noonday and evening meal. With each came a note from Hekalu, both exactly alike: "Remember the Atomic Ray."

Doubtless the Martian sought by endless repet.i.tion of this message to undermine his captive's nerves to a point where he would divulge the secret.

At dusk there was the sound of activity aboard the _Selba_--m.u.f.fled shouts and the drone of generators being tuned up. Then the slow rocking and swaying of the vessel which told that her levitator plates were in action, raising her off the ground, through the atmosphere and out into the void.

Shelby looked out of the window, saw that the stars were growing brighter and the sky blacker. A searchlight was playing from somewhere on the ship, for in the shadow of the planet it was very dark. The beams swung back and forth stabbing through the swarms of s.p.a.ce Men who flew in a cl.u.s.ter about the _Selba_. The lights lingered for several instants on the forms of four great metal cubes that were being lifted up through the gaseous envelope of Mars by a number of the larger discs the Earthman had seen resting beside them in the valley that day.

Shelby threw himself upon his bunk. He gave one quick glance at the blob of darkness on the other bunk at the farther end of the room, wondered vaguely who or what the creature could be, and then, mentally and physically exhausted, went quickly to sleep.

When he awoke Shelby spent many minutes staring at his fellow prisoner.

There were indications that his consciousness was returning for he stirred frequently. Presently he who had been the Earthman's and the mysterious one's jailer in the hut the night before, came, bearing a bowl filled with a purplish radio-active liquid which served the s.p.a.ce Men as food. He also carried a hypodermic syringe and a small gla.s.s container partially filled with a clear fluid.

These last two articles he placed upon the table, while he carried the bowl over to his charge. He shook the lacerated and bejeweled s.p.a.ce Man roughly and when he had aroused him to a sluggish half-consciousness, held the bowl of liquid food to his lips. Mechanically the prisoner drank.

Shelby looked at the tiny vial on the table and then at the back of the jailer. Close beside the vial stood a gla.s.s partially filled with water.

The Earthman had drawn a drink from the tap shortly before going to bed, and had left the tumbler standing there.

The idea that had now entered his head had no real purpose. He recognized it as no more than a practical joke, plain and simple; but the idea was clamoring for attention. He would pour out the drug, which was almost certainly meant to keep the giant captive senseless, and replace it with harmless water. The jailer would not see for he was very busy. A little noise, the rattling of the chain or the tinkling of the gla.s.s as it was set down, would not matter, for though the s.p.a.ce Men may have possessed a very delicate touch sense capable of detecting faint vibrations in solid objects about them, Shelby knew by now that they had no real organs of hearing.

And so, quickly the deed was done, and quickly he returned to his bed feigning sleep.

It was a long time after the jailer had departed before Shelby's trick bore fruit. The huge prisoner rose to a sitting posture and looked about, a trifle dazedly at first. He surveyed his wounds, felt over himself tentatively, and then glanced at Shelby. The Earthman saw that the fogginess was clearing from his big eyes. There was a questioning expression in them.

Shelby thought that there was a slight chance that the colossus might be able to read his lips even though he could not hear. "Who are you?" he questioned in Pagari.

Apparently the creature understood, for immediately he turned, and with his forefinger slowly traced out on the wall behind him in the planetary symbols: "Friend of enemies of Black Emperor and of Man from Fourth World."

Shelby was taken aback by the s.p.a.ce Man's startling knowledge of things of which he should know nothing. "That makes me your friend," he wrote, smiling.

The giant nodded, and for almost a minute stared fixedly at the Earthman. There was a strange appeal in his eyes. Finally he turned, and laboriously he traced a quaintly worded message on the wall: "Think hard to know what I go say," he wrote.

Shelby had heard a good deal about telepathy and thought transference, depending on etheric vibrations of some kind, supposedly originating in the mind of one individual, and capable of being detected and interpreted by the mind of another. Several savants of Earth and Mars claimed to be adept with it, but owing to the fact that to master the art required a long period of intensive practice, it had not come into general use.

Could it be that this savage of the void was claiming knowledge of it?

Sensing the meaning back of the odd words, the Earthman bent every fibre of his will to the task of concentrating on the idea of communication.

He gazed fixedly at the eyes of the black mystic, and presently felt a slight tingling about his temples, and then, within his brain it seemed that a tiny voice speaking with a queer wording and a peculiar accent, came to life. It was odd to look at that blank impa.s.sive face and hear those words!

"I know you to be friend of mine," the voice said. "I read it in brains.

You free me from sleep. But where are we? What Fourth World Man do? What for you here?"

Briefly Shelby outlined the events of the past few days, starting with his meeting with Hekalu. However, he was careful not to make any mention of the Atomic Ray. Then, partially through curiosity, and partially in the hope that the information might be helpful, he mentally asked his companion to tell him more about the s.p.a.ce Men's relations with the Martian.

"Everything maybe all right," said the giant. "Maybe everybody happy at last. Who know? But I tell you. We Star People--my people Star People.

For a long time, oh, for very long time, we wander out there in empty places. One million year, two million year, who know? We free. Maybe find little planet--we camp there--soon go away. We fight, we hunt. Oh, there very many of us! Like sand in sky!

"One day some of us find your sun. We land on little world. Stay long.

Man from Fourth World come in ship. We frightened, but he make friends.

Bring us gifts. We give jewels and things we make. He learn our sign language--talk with us--tell about his world. Go away but soon come back. Bring more gifts--want more jewels and things. He take some of us with him to empty desert where n.o.body live. Tell us to bring jewels there to trade, but always be careful no one see!

"He make friends with Black Emperor. They plan. Gather big army. But many not like Black Emperor and Fourth World Man. My father, big n.o.ble, not like them; I not like them. They never good to us--make our people work hard, and take away our animals.

"Civil war soon--my father lead many little tribes, but Black Emperor and Man from Fourth World win. Have many strange weapons. Make peace for big conquest war, and I am hostage on Fourth Planet.

"Mars man good to me at first. I learn languages--both Pagari and Earth language. I learn to throw thoughts. My father learned from Mars slave.

Then bad things happen. Fourth World Man not like me to throw thoughts to my father so far away. He give me sleep drug. When my father lead revolt again, Mars Man torture me. Now, as you say, he take me back to place where army is, on two little worlds."

A gleam of hope came into Austin Shelby's eyes, but it pa.s.sed quickly.

His lips curled bitterly. It was not well to base one's hope on the a.s.sertion of an unknown savage that he could hurl his thoughts across millions of miles of s.p.a.ce.

"By what name are you known, Man of the Void?" he asked.

The voice in his brain spoke again: "Mars Man call me Ankova." Here the giant made a darting gesture with his hand. "Mean same as so in my sign language--Darting Meteor."

"I see. Can you communicate with your father now, Ankova?--get help?"

The s.p.a.ce Man nodded. "My brain clear now," he said. "Sleep drug not bother me any more. I talk right away."