Dwight V. Swain

“ Now he lay in a sort of amphitheatre, it seemed—a bubble joined on all sides by a thousand other, smaller bubbles.
Each lesser sphere held one of the Helgae.
Fascinated, Boone studied them through the clear walls of his cage; and never did man look on stranger creatures.
For their bodies were mottled, shapeless blobs—limbless, with no visible trace of sensory organs. They could as well have been lumps of mud or metal, for all that Boone could see.
Perhaps the men at the Titan base had been right. It outraged human reason even to dream that such things could have intelligent, independent life. ”

“ Tomorrow. To Boone, it seemed that the hours dragged on beyond measure. Yet then, when at last the new day had come, he found himself almost regretful—dreading the things he knew that it must bring; fighting down an ever-growing tension.
Because he knew in his heart that he wasn't going to take it. Not with Eileen's life perhaps at stake; not with Hyperion's ice-shell beckoning. ”

“ Hyperion loomed ahead, a bead-like dot hovering in the shadow of the Rings.
Beyond it, dim and distant, lay Titan.
Titan, greatest satellite of Saturn, nearly half the size of Earth itself. Titan, that had given Man mekronal, the precious, mysterious catalyst that cut loose the human race from the need for the oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere of its homeland.
Titan, world of lost sphere-ships and phantasmic monsters.
Bleakly, Boone wondered if he'd ever reach it.
Or even if he did, would Eileen Rey live to see it with him? What were the odds against a woman struck down by Titan fever? ”

“ A monster, it rose up—a weird, insectile monster! Great mandibles speared out, clacking and slashing.
A guard saw it, cried hoarsely and leaped back.
Too late. The thing was upon him. Claws ripped at his belly. A stinger-shaft pierced him.
Someone fired with a nerve-gun.
He died the monster's second victim.
Panic roared through the room, then. The guards trampled each other in their rush for the hatchway, Boone swayed off balance, deserted.
Only five in the room now: Lor, Eileen, Krobis, Boone—and the monster. ”

“ At his elbow, Eileen said, "Fred, that light—this black—I don't understand."
"I'm afraid I do." Boone rubbed the stiffness from his neck and quit trying to watch the spark above. "We've always thought of the outer worlds as rock and ice. Where this one's concerned, we were wrong. There's ice, all right, but at least in places it's just a shell, with a warm pocket underneath." ”

“ So, I know of Krobis: the things he's done; the way he thinks; the fact that he is here now, blasting at this very city—"
Like an exclamation point, new impact came. Thread-like cracks shot through the radiance of the bubble-chamber's inner surface. The floor shook till Boone could hardly stand.
Lor's face went grim. His voice rang with sudden tension: "Come, quickly! We dare not die in this mad destruction! We dare not!"
He pivoted as he spoke; moved swiftly towards the bubble's exit.
Gripping his blaster, Eileen trembling beside him, Boone followed. ”

“ Twitching, writhing, the body halted. Then, as with the giant arm, the other monsters, the creature's whole structure began to shrivel and ooze away in slime.
Panting, shaking, Boone slumped back to the ground, his brain a cauldron bubbling with inchoate thoughts.
Like a mosaic, then, the pieces fell into place.
This whole void-area—and this area only—seemed to crawl with mad phantasms ... lunatic life-forms like none that Man had ever seen before. Out of nowhere, they materialized aboard the Cartel's sphere-ships. Here, on Hyperion; Titan, too. ”

“ Then it dawned on him that the shell itself was sliding, sliding upwards!
It was Eileen who gave the answer: "Lean back, Fred! The bubble's rolling, that's all. The dirt keeps sliding forward." Strangely, her voice was steady now; calm, almost.
After that, there was no more time for talking. Faster and faster, the grey sphere careened onward, bumping and bouncing. A dozen times, one or the other of them fell. But as long as they held their places against the rear wall, the earth and clods spilled away from them, so that with sweat and scrambling they managed each time to regain their footing. ”

“ He strode to the screen, traced a course with his finger. "If you arc it right, we'll pass through Hyperion's field of attraction. When that happens, you can shoot a handful of us down in carriers without even stopping. You'll take the ship on towards Uranus. The Federation, the Cartel, won't even know we've left you."
The captain rocked. "Boone, you are crazy!"
"No!" As if by magic, the chill had left Boone. He burned with sudden, feverish excitement. "The only trick will be to breach the ice-shell. For that, you can rig an unmanned carrier or two with warheads. They'll blast a hole. ”

“ Panic gripped Boone—the black, surging panic that roars up in a tidal wave when Man stands face to face with the unknown. Dimly, he knew that Eileen had swayed against him; that instinctively he'd thrown his arm about her. ”

“ You'd gamble her life on it—send her into a chunk of void where monsters materialize out of nowhere and two ships in three never come back. If she lives and cracks the nut, figures out how those nightmares get aboard our ships and why, mekronal production and your rating—with Eileen and IC both—go sky-high. If she dies, you chalk up another score for yourself as an ironclad Cartel man so set on his job that he doesn't know what sentiment means. Either way, Martin Krobis wins. ”

“ Maybe, on their plane, they can think as well as we, or better. Do you think they won't react when the Cartel rips apart their cities and hauls them off by millions for the sake of the mekronal that can be extracted from their bodies?"
Eileen drew back. Her eyes distended. "You're mad, Fred! The Helgae—they'd strike back if they were alive or had the power to think!"
"Maybe they have. Maybe that's the origin of Titan fever, and the monsters that appear aboard our sphere-ships." Boone hammered on the shell that caged them. "Or would you like to deny this bubble, too? ”

“ The other kept on talking: "There are things you should know, Boone—and these guards here are men I can trust, so I'll tell you." Martin Krobis smiled thinly. "You always forget that I stand for the Cartel. We're reaching for power, those of us high in it. Mekronal is our weapon. So long as it's ours alone, that power keeps growing. Make it free to all comers, and IC's backbone is broken."
"You mean that you'd wipe out a whole culture to hold it? You'd bring war with the Helgae for the sake of the Cartel?" ”

“ What proof did he have of the real effects of the mutation, or of the Helgae's motives? True, they'd not harmed either him or Eileen. But might not that be a mere trick to lull suspicion? Perhaps Lor himself did not even know the facts. It could be that he was only a pawn—a being created as part of some dark plan to bring the whole human race down in disaster.
As for Eileen—Boone frowned and pondered. She was changed, somehow, from the girl he'd known. It was as if her basic drive, her fierce ambition, all at once had vanished. Now she was woman. Woman only. ”

“ No one's ever seen Helgae alive. Or maybe we have. They're a non-carbon chemistry life-form. The elemental blobs we figured for skeletal structure may actually be their version of organic matter. Our mekronal units could have been smashing the golden age of their civilization, for all we really know."
The girl's face blanched. "No! It can't be!"
"Why can't it?" Her opposition lashed Boone to new fierceness. "Man's never found a way to communicate with any other life-form—not even on our own home planet! We can't talk to ants or paramecium, let alone Martian torglors or Callistan crustachs. ”

“ Sweat chilled Boone. "Wait...." In spite of himself, all at once he was pleading. "Kill us both, then—Eileen and me. But not Lor, there. He's a mutant—"
"A mutant—?"
"Yes. The Helgae, those structures we process—they're living, not dead. They sent him to tell us, to give us their knowledge—"
"Their knowledge? What knowledge?" Of a sudden Krobis' black eyes were gleaming and wary.
Boone sucked in a breath. "How much would the Cartel give to learn mekronal's structure—the true chemistry of it?"
"Mekronal—? This creature can make it? From basic elements found outside Saturn's system?" ”

“ The ensign slammed shut the hatch. He studied Boone curiously. "Just what are you looking for?"
Boone shrugged. "Monsters don't come out of nowhere; not really. My bet is that they get aboard our ships at the Titan base—in embryo, maybe, or as a virus. If we can spot one before it's grown to a full-scale nightmare, it may give us a hint as to how to beat them." ”

“ Boone's lips went stiff. "You mean, he's here?"
"Of course he's here." The guard chuckled. "You told him about this Helgae city underneath the ice-shell yourself, didn't you? So he set up a base but pronto, with manpower enough to fight off monsters. He plans to start blasting the domes before next cycle, get a mekronal unit into production, and claim Hyperion for the next Cartel."
He broke off; gestured to Boone with the blaster. "Get up! We're going in. The way Krobis feels about you, catching you's good for Earth leave and a sergeant's rating." ”

“ We must have been crossing this planetoid's orbit when the crew abandoned ship. It's too small to have much gravity, but there was enough to pull us in. So we crashed through the ice-shell and landed here."
The girl's body touched his. He could feel her shiver. "Then those lights we see are the stars as they pass above the hole we made? We'll have to go through it again to get back into space?"
"That's right." Boone put his arm about her shoulders. "It shouldn't be too hard. I'm betting this is Hyperion—and that means we are close enough to jump to Titan, even in a carrier. ”

“ Boone remained tensely silent.
Now the microreel image showed Saturn rising.
Saturn, mother planet of bleak Titan.
Somewhere in the shadow of those vast, shimmering rings Hyperion, too, moved in its orbit.
Hyperion: Another potential source of the precious mekronal and chandak. Another world of strange domed Helgae cities.
Only Hyperion was turning out to be a trap, not refuge. With Cartel and Federation ships alike spread out in a filter-screen across the void, there'd be no chance for this lone Independent ship to land or hide there.
Unless—
Boone all at once was rigid. ”

“ When he came back, he brought an audio-visual com-box with him. "The call's allowed. I've placed it for you." Setting down the unit on the stand beside Boone's bed, he left the room.
Taut-nerved, Boone waited.
Then the signal blinked. Krobis' face flashed on the receptor-screen, sharp features set in an expression that was half gloating smirk, half chill, bleak menace. "Well, Boone?" His voice came brittle.
Boone hunched forward. "Let's not waste time on things past, Krobis. We know how we feel about each other. What counts now is that Eileen's in trouble." ”

“ For the first time, emotion seemed to grip Lor. He stared down at the bulky bundle in his hands; then, opening it, spread out an array of Cartel crewman's clothes. "They are an old race, older than you can know; and wise. They wanted no war with anyone, but there was no way for them to speak to a life-form so unlike theirs. So, when your ships attacked their cities on the world called Titan, they drew monsters from your minds to slow your onslaughts, then sought some way to bridge the barrier between your different brains."
Boone caught his breath. "You mean—mutation—?" ”

“ The sphere-man reached out, plucked it. "Here, my mother."
Eileen's eyes went wide with awe and sheer delight. She gasped aloud and held the opening bud close, drinking in its fragrance.
Lor faced Boone. "You asked for proof to convince doubters. Would such serve?"
Boone ran his tongue along dry lips. "Do I even need to answer?"
"Then let us go. We must reach those who can stop the blasting of these Helgae cities."
"That means the top men of the Federation. No one else could act against the Cartel."
"So, we must have a carrier." Lor smiled thinly. "Even one of Krobis', perhaps...." ”

“ Ice-nerved, Boone waited, weapon ready.
The carrier screamed to a stop beside the door. Men leaped down.
Boone stepped from the shadows, swung his nerve-gun. "Back, damn you!"
The men froze, staring.
Vaulting aboard the vehicle, Boone jammed the gun against the back of the driver's neck. "We're going onto the ramp—out to that Independent ship!"
Wordless, the man pressed buttons, swung the steering lever. The carrier jerked forward.
More dragging seconds. The great sphere on the ramp looming ever-larger.
Boone clipped, "Pull in beside the lift-shaft!" ”

“ With mekronal, their crews can work in all atmospheres, set up bases at a hundredth the cost of anyone else, and claim satellite monopoly rights from the Federation on grounds of prior colonization."
Boone nodded slowly. "Yes. I know how that works."
"All right. That's straight commercial rivalry, so even though it cuts our throats we've got no come-back. But now comes Titan fever—a disease that kills men like flies when you treat it with any of the mill run of specifics. If you don't treat them—" Terral broke off; looked square at Boone. "Boone, do you know the story on that?" ”

“ While you lay in your sphere here, in the state you call unconscious, your seed was planted in the woman. When growth began, the egg itself was taken, processed. By science beyond your human dreams, they speeded the whole cycle of gestation, then brought me on to manhood in days instead of years. ”

“ He'd left Eileen on far Hyperion, a prisoner of the Helgae.
No, in spite of all Krobis' machinations, fate had thrown him a wild gambler's chance to reach her.
Terral's voice drummed at him: "That order cost us, Boone. Who cares, though, if it breaks the Cartel? Sure, you'll be a fugitive for awhile. But you'll be safe so long as nobody thinks to tie you in with us, and we can smooth the whole business over once we get our own source of mekronal and chandak...."
Pushing his jumbled thoughts aside, Boone pivoted. "What are we waiting for? Let's get started." ”

“ Boone, it means a Cartel-dominated solar system, the end of human freedom! IC's got a monopoly on chandak and they intend to hold it, Federation or no Federation. The rest of us won't have any choice but to come to them on their terms, or else gamble that our children will grow up gibbering idiots. ”

“ Then they were past the guard ... out on the ramp again ... into the black shadows on the far side of an emptied cargo carrier.
Boone stepped back while Krobis awkwardly lowered Eileen to the ramp. She moaned a little; that was all.
Barely two minutes till grav-time now, the chronox said.
Krobis straightened. "You'll never get away with this, Boone!" His voice was thick with hate.
"Because you'll stop the grav-off, you mean?" Boone spun the nerve-gun's dial back to the temporary paralysis level. "I've thought of that, too, Krobis." ”

“ First listless, then feverish, he wandered in and out among the columns, ever seeking. Servitors brought rare foods, sun-blushing fruits, to tempt his palate; and there were women who pressed themselves upon him, seducing him with eye and voice and touch. ”

“ The man who claimed him father bent to slide on shoes. "By casting their powers of mind in human bodies through the contagion you call Titan fever, the source of conflict between your separate species once and for all could be removed."
"Of course!" Of a sudden Boone was pacing. "Only then, our sphere-ship hit Hyperion, broke the ice-shell—"
"—And menaced another whole Helgae world." Lor shrugged into a jacket. "It made the danger too great for them to wait on normal human reproduction and maturing. ”