Dwight V. Swain

“ The Earthman smirked at him, still swaying.
Recklessness sang a death-song in Jarl Corvett's veins.
"Hail, coward!" he cried fiercely, and swept the crowd with a scathing glance. "Is this the best your Federation fleet can offer—scum so low that they draw their sport from taunting prisoners? Huroks so green with fear that you must bring me here in bonds?"
An angry babble rose from the tables, and the commissioner's kabat-heavy lids drooped lower. But his lips twisted in the mirthless semblance of a smile.
"Do you rate yourself so high that you think I'd waste time on you, starbo?" ”

“ Now, parallel but on opposite sides of what once had been the city's central thoroughfare, Dane and Nelva trudged from the carrier towards the distant shaft. A sort of honor guard of Kalquoi surrounded each of them, directing them in the way they were to go by means of sudden, small, darting beams of light that stung like so many angry insects.
The shaft grew larger as they approached, till Dane was staring up at it in awe. With every step, the compulsive drive he felt to reach the needle grew stronger in him. Nothing else could hold his interest or attention. ”

“ Zenaor laughed harshly; gestured to the cubicle, and the dying serfman engulfed in slime. "I have already done it!"
"Then—you would destroy our world—the Baemae—?" The girl's voice was queer, choked.
"Are there only Baemae, then, on Lysor?" Anger carved Zenaor's jaw-line deeper, sharper. "I am of the Kukzubas, Narla; the barons! My loyalty is to them, for from them I draw my power."
"Your power!" Narla came erect at the word. "There is the answer, father! Your loyalty is not to the barons or to Lysor, but to power alone. You live for it. You bow before no other god." ”

“ Then, at long last, they were on a ramp and climbing in slow spirals, ever upward. Ahead, a pale light glowed ... the light of Hyperion's ice-shell-filtered outer day.
Lor led them out a low-roofed cave-mouth ... helped them up the slope of a brushy rise. Bitterly, he flung his arm out: "Look—the city!"
Boone looked, then shuddered; and suddenly Eileen was sobbing.
For they gazed on a holocaust, a ruin, strewn with the smouldering shards of a thousand shattered domes.
"So these are the ways of men!" Now there was wonder in Lor's voice; and sadness. "They have so much to learn!" ”

“ Behind him, Ross silently crept forward through the well-nigh unendurable heat in a half-crouch. His lips were parted, the skin taut and shiny across his cheek bones.
Mawson glanced up at the open skylight. His hand dropped to the seat's arm. His fingers moved over the controls.
The chair lifted just a fraction, till it hovered clear of the catwalk.
Ross' eyes distended. Nostrils flaring, he broke into a headlong run.
But the catwalk vibrated under the impact of his weight. As if by reflex, his quarry's shoulders stiffened. The fingers on the control-arm spun a dial. ”

“ Haral shifted. Frowning, he studied the priestess' shadowed eyes and strain-straught face.
She breathed deep. Her words rushed forth in a flood, a frantic, half-hysterical jumble:
"I'll tell you the secret, warrior! I'll tell you why we left our goddess sleeping through all our hour of need!" Her lips parted. Her voice rose shrilly. "She's mad, that's the reason! Xaymar's mad! Mad with lust and power, and passion! Her beauty was a thing of shining splendor that no man could resist or deny. Each night she took a different lover—and then, at the dawn, at her command, each one was slain! ”

“ The Earthman laughed harshly. "Send out the word to break the Federation fleet into squadrons, each to stay far from the others, and all to strike at Gadar. We'll see how many meteor swarms our friends down there can muster!"
"And the rest of us—the Malyas, Chonyas—?"
"You'll follow me," Shane said. He took the jet-globe. "I'll set the course."
Kyrsis' eyes were like great violet flames. "Pay him no heed, Chonya!" she cried hoarsely. "Kill him! Lock him away! He is of Earth, and he has gone mad with fear for his homeland! He takes you there to try to battle another, greater meteor swarm! ”

“ Chill tendrils brushed Jarl's spine. But he held his face blank, without emotion. "And so—?"
"So you, too, have a choice to make, raider—the choice between coming back, or trying to cross the void in a short-flight carrier."
Jarl shrugged and forced the thin vestige of a smile. "A good threat, Malya. It might break me—if I believed it."
"But you do not?"
"No projector has the range to reach my ship from Vesta."
"More power lies in cosmic dust than you can dream of, raider." Atak's eyes were bleak, his dark face set in a mask of menace. "You've made your choice, Corvett! ”

“ Craig could find no words.
"We are as one in so many ways, Craig Nesom," dark Vydys went on. "Fear is not in us, nor yet mercy. We know what it means to strike with daring. Both of us hold ruthless to our hatred for Lord Zenaor."
Still Craig did not move. "And because we both hate Zenaor, I should kiss you?"
"If we stand together, we can defeat him." The dark eyes half mocked, half measured. "Some say that pain is my only passion. That is not true. I love also as a woman. There are men, Kukzubas barons, who would sell their souls for my embrace." ”

“ For as Dane's hands touched the rim, sparks leaped from flesh to metal. His whole body convulsed. Blue flame crackled in a tight sheath round him. Power pulsed through every bone and muscle in a surging tide.
Then sound came—a high, thin skirl, louder and louder, till Dane thought his eardrums must surely burst.
But the sound still welled and swelled and echoed; and now numbly, it dawned on Dane that something was happening to the Kalquoi. Even blurred as his eyes were, and in spite of the spasms of his body, he could see that, one and all, the aliens had reverted to crystal form. ”

“ New sweat rilled down Boone's spine. A knot of tension drew tight within his belly.
Sinuously, the monster's eyestalk swayed. The huge orb atop stared at Boone unblinking.
Stiff-fingered, too fear-straught to even look away, he slid his hands out in arcs along the ground.
But they touched no stick, no stone, no clod, no debris. He remained as he had been, a warrior sore beset, without a weapon.
And still the monster eddied closer....
He could not even break and run. Weak as he was, he dared not even trust his muscles. ”

“ Feeling that mind, fighting it, Burke all at once understood the malevolence he'd seen in Minos' eyes.
In the sea-king, he faced a man possessed.
Now, the alien thing sought to possess him, too.
Savagely, Burke met its probings. Sweating, straining, he fought it, hate for hate, and turned it back, and drove it from his brain.
Then, as quickly as it had come, the pressure was gone.
But in the same instant, Minos cried out, "This is no god! This is but a man!"
And from the crowd above, a thunderous echo: "Yes, yes! He's but a man!" ”

“ A welling anger touched the blue man, and he twisted in its clutches. He'd saved this slim Shamon girl from the coleoptera; thrown away his own chance at destiny for her. Why could she not now let him be?
Yet still she spoke, almost as if she'd read his thoughts:
"You care nothing for destiny; not really. For if you did, you'd not be here with me now. What you truly seek is an excuse for living, a warmth to fill the void inside you. There lies the root of your recklessness, your mad ambition."
The anger grew in Haral, and sweat drenched him inside his armor. ”

“ But when he looked up again, Ungo was still there, and now Ylana, too, knelt beside him, whispering, "Jarl—! Jarl Corvett...." while the red lips quivered and tears spilled from the cool grey eyes.
Ungo said: "She made us come, Jarl—all of us that were left from Bor Legat's ships. With her to talk for us, we didn't even have to fight to get in here."
"You're lying!" Jarl accused him, twisting as pain stabbed along his wounded side. "You're not here. I'm just dreaming. When I wake up, if I'm not dead, you'll all be gone." ”

“ No man has ever come out of the pit over a zanth."
"What holds for other men is not for me. I asked: what if I win?"
Admiration showed in the Malya's dark face. "If you fight as boldly as you talk—small wonder that the Chonyas made you gar!" And then: "If you win, you'll live—but here, on Amara, forever a slave."
"I ask no more," Shane came back coldly. Again his blue eyes swept the crowd, the sparkling night of a thousand stars. For a moment his gaze lingered on Talu, catching the fever in her eyes, the tension carved in every line. ”

“ Sideslipping, out of control, the seat careened down to a precarious landing athwart the catwalk.
Convulsively, Mawson beat at Ross' face—raking the cheeks, stabbing for the eyes.
Ducking his head, Ross levered the control-arm still farther out of place.
A sound close to that of a sob echoed in Mawson's throat. He pounded Ross' back. "Stop it, you fool! Stop it, before you kill us both!"
Panting with strain, Ross paused for an instant.
Mawson, babbling: "Don't you see? There's no way left for us to get out of here except that skylight—and it's too high to do us any good without the grav-seat." ”

“ Dane felt Nelva's fingers stiffen on his cheek. A tremor ran through her.
Abruptly, his desire to leave the arena ebbed. He sat up. "What happens when you get no for an answer, Jessup?"
"Mister Jessup, you chitza!" Pfaff snarled. But the hairless man himself only smiled faintly.
"A wise man knows when not to talk, Dane," he observed. "For you, this is one of those times. You've done well. I like you. So human or not, I'll look after you so long as you behave."
"And Nelva?"
"She's no concern of yours, Dane. And as I said once, a wise man knows when not to talk." ”

“ Zenaor dived over the sleeping-couch. The fireball seared into the wall.
Craig jammed the gun against Narla. "Zenaor! If I die, she burns with me!"
Time stood still. Silence echoed.
Again Craig lashed out: "Do you love her, Zenaor? Do you want her to burn?"
He could hear the rasp of the other's quick-drawn breath. "Curse you, Earthman—!"
"And curse you, Zenaor!" New recklessness surged through Craig. "Curse you for all the blood you've shed; your arrogance, your lust for power, your cruelty!" And then: "Vydys! Bring me that crystal!" ”

“ Burke breathed in sharply. As swiftly as it had come, his anger died. Of a sudden he wanted nothing so much as to take the girl in his arms and draw her to him ... solace her, soothe her, hold her with a thousand tender caresses through the endless hours of this long, black night.
Why was it always so between him and Ariadne? What was there about this slim Minoan princess that the very sight of her should make his firmest resolves melt? The women he'd known in his own world—they'd been wiser, wittier; more beautiful, even, perhaps, by an objective standard. ”

“ Like an echo to her words, a shadow fell across the inverted crystal bowl in which they stood.
Incredulously, Haral shot a fast glance skyward. An icy knot took form deep in his midriff.
Where mere seconds before he had gazed up into the bright, clear yellow of the Ulnese day, now clouds were swirling! Before his very eyes, they grew and darkened.
Through his haze of shock, Xaymar's words came dimly:
"A storm is a dynamo, blue one—a dynamo greater than it lies within man's power even to conceive! It generates the lightning. Mighty bolts crash from it down to earth—spent, wasted. ”

“ And there was Earth, Shane's native planet, a great, green-glowing arc in the lower corner. A lone space ship was rising in the foreground, speeding out into the void. But already, about it, were meteor clusters ... gathering swarms that grew with every passing minute.
"You see, Gar Shane? The people of your Earth are doomed!" the silver woman jeered in paranoiac frenzy. "There is no hope, no way to save them! The other planets, too, will go, till at last there is no one left but we of Gadar. Then we shall migrate out of this dark star, into your worlds, where life is not yet spent and faded. ”

“ Numbly, Dane tried to force his aching brain to function. If only he could find the concepts—!
He verbalized it, spoke aloud in hope that meaning would somehow come through: "Yes, yes. Man wants peace as you do. He'll go half-way and more—"
The arc of Kalquoi pulsed approval. All but one.
The others' glow slowly faded.
Instantly, like a bomb bursting, the lone dissenter flared emerald and purple, a radiance so brilliant that Dane reeled back, near-blinded.
His brain reeled, too. For such was the burst of energy the Kalquoi spewed into it that flame seemed to sear at every cell. ”

“ Only five brief minutes till the moment all Knossos was to be destroyed, according to the time inverter's scanner screen.
Still Burke hesitated, straining his eyes against the night as he strove for some glimpse of Ariadne. In taut concentration, he listened for the distant echo of her voice.
Without avail.
Then, while he yet lingered, a man called out to him hoarsely. He wheeled just as one of Minos' huge Sudani guards came hurrying in his direction.
It was a stimulus Burke couldn't ignore. Another moment and the man might recognize him. ”

“ Jarl stood rock-rigid. The words he could not understand. But the threat, the menace—they needed no translator.
Pivoting, the primitive stepped back from the altar; thrust out the torch till its flame touched the tip of the nozzle protruding out of the shackled prisoner's chest.
Of a sudden Jarl's whole body was drenched with icy sweat. He could not move; he could not breathe. The tales of horror he'd heard so many times swirled through his brain.
For an instant, nothing happened. ”

“ Visibly, Vydys stiffened. Her head came round—dark eyes flashing, jet hair ashimmer; and when she spoke her words were edged with fury. "Have a care, Zenaor! I've no taste for taunts, even from the chief of barons."
"The truth is no taunt." Zenaor gave not a fraction. "Because pain is your passion, you drive our serfs to rebellion."
"Rebellion—!" The woman's eyes glinted like crater diamonds. "How many of the Baemae have flown south with their cursed discs already, off to the djevoda ranges? There lies your rebellion—and only torture will stop it!" ”

“ With an effort, Haral held his face immobile. "Now you speak as a woman, not a goddess. Kyla was your priestess. I sought her only to guide me to you."
Xaymar pushed back from him. "Have a care how you lie to me, blue man! I looked into your mind while you lay unconscious. She was there, that Kyla! Your first thoughts were of her!"
Haral let his words go harsh and angry: "You still talk like a jealous woman! She gave me only trouble. I care nothing for her."
"Trouble? That was all she gave you?" Xaymar taunted. Her lips twisted. "Then you'll be happy to hear what I've done with her, warrior!" ”

“ Quos Reggar slashed back bitterly. "He is a legend, a madman who has carved his destiny across the void." He slapped the great Chonya belt that girded him. "Do you think that weakness won this belt? He is built of blood and iron! Even I confess it, though I hate him. But you cannot let yourself think of that now. For he must live, and he must raid, and he must be seen, if we are to break the power of the Federation and open up the void to slaving. Trust me, I know—"
Shane said: "I once knew a man who trusted Reggar. ”

“ Nelva came close now; clung to him. "Clark, what is it? What's wrong? What have I done?"
Dane choked. "It's not you. It's me; what I am."
"What you are—?" She tugged him around and stared at him, grey eyes ever so wide. "What are you, Clark?"
"You heard Jessup say it: I'm ... not human." Miserably, Dane forced himself to meet her gaze. "Don't you understand, Nelva? I don't even dare to think about—you and me. I'm—different. Like no one, not even Jessup's Zombie guards." ”

“ Burke bit down harder. Heedless of the pain and sweat and knotting muscles, he forced himself to thrust his wrists down so the flame could play upon the cords.
In seconds, the stench of searing flesh and burned cloth blotted out the chamber's odor. Eyes squeezed tight shut as if to shut out the agony, cursing beneath his breath, Burke strained to keep his bonds taut and in the right position.
Then, when it seemed that he could stand the pain no longer, a cord snapped like a clipped wire. Another followed.
The next instant, Burke's wrists were free. ”

“ What was loyalty now, when it made a man try to choose between Sais and the thin-drawn chance that he might somehow save Ceresta?
Of a sudden he felt as if he were being pulled apart by the conflicting claims of love and loyalty, torn asunder under the impact of a dozen different kinds of duty.
The proton bomb on the table would rend a man less.
The proton bomb....
Bor Legat straightened. He snapped to the crewmen, "Take the woman!"
Never had the basilisk eyes held more deadly malice.
"Jarl ..." whispered Sais. But her voice held only proud farewell; no tears nor fears, no piteous entreaty. ”

“ Make me prove it!" the raider chieftain spat. "It's simple, warrior! Just trigger a beam from your light-lance through me! As I die, I'll still throw the switch, and there will be your answer!"
Haral sat very still. He was gripping his lance's shaft so hard that the very bones of his fingers ached. A thin rill of sweat ran down his spine. Yet he could not fight off the spell of shock that gripped him.
As if sensing it, Sark spoke once more in coaxing tones: "You make your task hard, warrior. There is an easier way. Give up this madness, this trying to beat me and destroy me. ”

“ Shane the slaver, the worlds will call you."
"And then?" clipped Shane.
The note of triumph in the mongrel's voice rose higher. A scaly fist came up, in a gesture that spoke of arrogance and power. "Chaos will sweep the void, Earthman—and I shall sweep the asteroids! The fools in the Federation will hang deadlocked for a time, for some still fear war more than they fear raiders. So long as that deadlock lasts, the void is mine! The Chonyas have given up their war fleets; they cannot strike back. Yet no matter how they cry of raids and beg for mercy, no one will believe them. ”

“ Jarl leaped at him like a pouncing zanth, stabbing for the throat-sac with the keen-edged skrii blade.
The point bit in, even as the Martian tried to throw up a warding arm. What might have been a shout came out as a rush of blood and bubbling air.
The fala tottered, coughing out his life. Down the corridor, the Ganymedan whirled.
Jarl snatched the ray-gun from the toppling guard's holster. His voice rasped, low-keyed and tense: "Don't make me kill you, ktar! I want only freedom, not your life!" ”

“ Haral laughed aloud. "And what happens to the woman—Xaymar's priestess, Kyla?" he challenged harshly. "Her body's pressed next to mine. Can your blasters kill me, and let her live? Can they burn my armor through, yet leave her still unharmed?" Again he laughed, and the fierce recklessness he felt poured out in hot, slashing words. "No, Sark! You can't afford to have her die, no matter how you'd shame her or abuse her to break her spirit and make her speak. For though you talk of the old high priest, Namboina, you can't know for sure how much she told him. ”

“ Gadar was almost to the screen's center now.
Shane said: "You're like that dark star, Kyrsis. What men can see is beautiful—but beneath the surface you're both all mystery. Where did you come from? Where are you going? And why? I always come back to that one question: why, why, why?"
She came very close to him, then, and what might have been sorrow was in her face, her eyes. "I've told you, Shane. To me, life is a sacred thing ... more sacred than you can ever dream. To see it wasted as yours would have been is the sin above all sin. And there was Reggar. ”

“ It was old, this ship—old with an age that staggered Jarl Corvett's mind. Eons were in the sagging plates and splitting arches. The crystals that glinted in the dull, warped metal spoke of untold ages here on Womar. The hull was smashed and shattered, too, and the blazing sun poured in through a thousand great jagged holes and rifts. One whole end of the craft was crumpled, buckled, where it had plowed deep into the rocks and sand as it crashed here. ”

“ Haral shrugged, not turning. Dimly, the priestess' words drifted to him through the haze of his own dark thoughts and feelings:
"Your life has been bitter, warrior—as empty as the void itself. But the thing you've sought, the thing you seek, is not an empire, no matter what you think. Even if fate should give you the power of which you dream, its savor would turn to ashes in your mouth." ”

“ But the great lobed eyes that saw in the dark were pure Fantay, and the scaly roughness of the mottled skin was Pervod. The bulge of the skull went with Mars; the peculiar, pad-footed stride with the swamplands of Io. Hybrid, mongrel, the thing was a queer, off-trail mixture of all the races of Mars and Earth and Venus, and the gods of the far stars knew where else.
And there, at its waist, hung the belt of the Chonyas.
"I remember," Shane said. "You're Reggar, Quos Reggar—the slaver, the theol-peddler." Deliberately, insultingly, he spat on the floor. ”