Edmond Hamilton

“ Arrin had some other things to say. He said, if you are planning an attack on the Citadel, forget it. He said, We will slaughter you without mercy."
"Now," said Sawyer, "here is what we have to decide. Two things. Is this man Price a friend offering us a weapon, or a spy of the Vurna offering us death? And shall we fight, or let it go until another year? They're big questions, the biggest you'll ever have to answer in your lives. Don't come at them like hasty boys, all feeling and no sense. Come at them man-like, slow and careful." ”

“ This seemed to be a refinement of the same principle, faster than a jet and maneuverable as a toy balloon. His hands itched to fly it.
He saw the insigne on its side—a golden sunburst with what looked like a many-colored, many-faceted globe at its heart. He did not know what it signified but he knew what it was. The mark of the Star Lords, of the Vurna. And even as he looked, four of them came out of the craft. ”

“ They came along the street to where Sawyer and the other Chiefs and a little crowd of leather-clad men silently waited. No one had a gun, no one made a motion. Yet that dusty street was electric with a hatred so deep and strong and quivering that it made Price shiver.
Yet the four Vurna came straight on. The Star Lords, they from unguessable spaces who had smashed Earth like a child's toy, to make it their footstool. Price pressed closer to the gun-slot. ”

“ Sawyer said, "smashed our cities and broke our nation and our world down to where it is. My own father saw it happen. One day a free world, the next—nothing. So fast there was hardly even a blow struck back. You did it."
The crowd muttered louder. Price felt Burr and Twist move beside him, breathing in the dark. Breathing hate.
"Don't come to me, an old man," Sawyer said, "and ask me to believe foolishness. As for the plane you say you saw, I tell you again I haven't got it. And if I did have I wouldn't give it up to you, nor the man either. And you know it, Arrin." ”

“ Two Vurna guards lay prone, and a third man, probably the English-speaking guide, was trying to crawl away unnoticed, his face ashen with fear.
The bulkhead was open.
A man's voice neighed suddenly in terror. Then another, and another, and the tribesmen were rolled back upon themselves as by the blow of a great hand, as the fore edge of the group turned and burst its way to the rear. There was a moment of wild panic. Price stood flat against the wall and watched brave men run by him sobbing. ”

“ Arrin raged and mocked them. "We saved you from the Ei two generations ago, when Ei ships had smashed your defenses and they were ready to move in. We moved in first, we've held them back, but now you've let them in! So run!"
"Good God!" said Sawyer, his face stricken. "Then it was all true, what you told us about the Ei. It was true all the time!"
Price did not, like the other Earthmen, have a lifetime's thinking to revise. He grabbed Arrin's shoulders.
"Can we face them?" he cried. "Can we kill them?"
"They can be killed," Arrin said. "Their minds can hold many—but not an unlimited number. ”

“ And then of a sudden they were all of them running back down the corridors, jostling, crowding, screaming, Price with Arrin beside him, with old Sweetbriar ahead, with Sawyer shouting in hoarse anger. A mob, not an army, a mob urged forward by its own horror. ”

“ The Chief of the Michigans, a huge black-bearded man with an enormous voice, bellowed suddenly for silence. In seconds the place was absolutely quiet, except for the shuffle of men closing in to see and hear a little better.
"Sawyer of the Missouris has something to tell you," shouted Michigan. "You listen hard. Because what he's got to say will make the difference whether we fight or hold our peace." ”

“ Atop the Citadel, on the vast plain of metal that was its roof, there were installations that looked like radar, and others he could only guess at—something in the radio-telescope line, perhaps, with elaborate grids. Set around the perimeter of the roof, and looking ominously out across the Belt, were hooded emplacements that made Price think of Arrin's warning: We will make of the Belt a blasted barren, where not even a beetle can survive....
"You see how helpless," Linna said, quietly echoing his own thoughts. "Men with knives and little guns—they would be throwing their lives away." ”

“ A hooting, loud and commanding, getting louder by the second, braying like the voice of doom through the vast iron pile.
The two Vurna still left on their feet tried to turn and run down the corridor. The hunter's bolos brought them down quickly.
Sweetbriar's leathery old face was wild and startled as he got to his feet. "What the hell—"
"That's the Vurna's big battle-stations siren!" Price said. "They're a bit late with it. Come on!"
He and the hunters began to look for stairs, racing swiftly along the deserted corridors. They found some at last, and sped downward, level after level. ”

“ Her voice was low and clear, as beautiful as the rest of her, but there was an impatient contempt in it that made Price bristle. The same thing was in her eyes when she looked at the old Chief of the Missouris.
Arrin shook his head. "Sawyer, I tell you once more, as you have been told for two generations, it was not the Vurna who destroyed your world, but the Ei. And I tell you that the Ei may even attack the Citadel, and that the fate of Earth would be decided in that battle, just as much as ours."
His voice rose suddenly in very human anger. "There is a war, you stubborn old man! ”

“ When Price opened his eyes he was in another corridor and old Sawyer was slapping his face with rough hands.
"Yes," said Sawyer thickly. "They're dead. And a good many men dead with them, and some others that act like their brains are dead."
He shook his head, a little wildly. "To think it was true all the time—"
Whoom! came a deep sound from outside the Citadel. And then more of them, in quick succession. Whoom! Whoom! Whoom!
"Arrin—" said Price, getting weakly to his feet.
"He's down in that room, with his men," said Sawyer. "And they're turning loose on that Ei fleet out in space." ”

“ Four men in uniforms of dull gold watched the screens and checked a series of clicking recorders. Beneath each screen was a battery of studs.
"You see how much chance you would have of approaching unseen? And do you see what would happen to an army? One man here, touching those firing studs, and the whole Belt would become in seconds like the barren outside the walls. Nothing would be left. Nothing."
In Linna's eyes now there was the same impatient contempt for his stupidity that he had seen there before, when Arrin had talked to Sawyer in the square. ”

“ Burr looked sullen. "Humans don't fly. Only Starlords do that."
"Maybe he's a collaborator?" said a yellow-haired boy, all bright and eager, and Burr smiled again.
"Maybe. Anyway, he's none of us. Stand by, Twist."
But Twist did not stand by. He faced the others in fatherly anger at their stupidity.
"You're almighty anxious for a killing Burr. Now what's the Chief going to say when we come back and tell him that a human man came in an airplane, and asked us for help, and we stuck him like a pig and left the plane for the Star Lords?" ”

“ Price shouted, "Would the Vurna be so anxious to get me back if they'd just sent me out as a spy? You heard Sawyer."
The Chief of the Louisianas said, "It would be a very smart trick for them to say so, for just that reason."
"And how is it," cried the Chief of the Arkansas, "that right away the minute you turn up, Arrin says that about attacking the Citadel? Doesn't that show they know something, and want to know more?"
"I should think that was obvious," said Price. "There hasn't been a plane in the air for two generations. All of a sudden there is one. ”

“ There was anger in Price too, a deep rage growing in him as he looked at the men and the woman who stood here like conquerors on the planet they had ruined, indifferent to the hatred they faced.
"Here is no time and no place for stubborn obstructions," the Vurna man was saying. "Things move quickly now. We have an enemy before us so vast and powerful that we dare not have one also at our backs, no matter how weak. I ask you to believe that, Sawyer. I ask you to understand that if we Vurna fall, you perish—" he made a sudden chopping gesture of the hand "—utterly." ”

“ Price nodded toward the bulkhead. "The solution is simple enough, isn't it? Let me see them. Then I'll have to believe you."
"Simple enough," said Linna, echoing his words. "Do you think you could stand against them? We have fought them for generations, we have knowledge and experience, and even for us, with all our safe-guards, it is difficult. Only a few, like Arrin, would attempt it, and I saw him this morning. He looks like a ghost."
"And that's why you've never let any Earthmen see an Ei—because they're too dangerous." ”

“ They were inclined to be hostile, demanding to know where Sawyer was, and what had happened, and how he came to be piloting a Vurna flier. Price shouted for quiet.
"Sawyer's alive. He's a prisoner in the Citadel. So are Burr and Twist. You want to rescue them?"
That startled them. "Listen," Price started, and then he saw Oakes pushing toward him with a small determined-looking group of men.
"Stand back," Oakes demanded. "Stand back, there. This man is a traitor. He betrayed the council, he betrayed Sawyer. If you listen to him, he'll betray you." He turned to Price. ”

“ And now at last Linna spoke, because the pilot, looking out, began to yell frantically in Vurna. She translated.
"He says do not cut the down-blast so sharply, or you will crash. That lever—there, under your left hand—ease it back."
Price eased it. He settled down to a rough and ragged landing, just about where the Vurna craft had settled before, when he had been Sawyer's prisoner. Men came out of the houses and along the streets, to stand as they had stood then, to greet their hated over-lords with silence and contempt. ”

“ He was standing between two muscular tribesmen, facing the chiefs, and his face held such an agony of despair and terror that Price was shaken by it.
"What must I do," he was saying, "to make you understand? That warning came from our fleet. The Ei have evaded it in the Centaurus Gulf, and are sweeping in toward Earth. If we don't defend the Citadel—"
He broke off as he saw Price come up. Then he said bitterly, "I congratulate you. Few men can say that practically single-handed they destroyed a world."
One of the chiefs asked Price, "Is Sawyer with you?" ”

“ Someone on the far side of the room cried out in rage and pain. "I thank you," said Sawyer, "and now let's get off this damned target."
They got off, the four of them sticking close together. Price did not see Oakes, nor the man who had carried their lantern. Most of the lights were going out, knocked over and trampled. The dark surge of running men carried them to the stair and up and out into full, blinding day.
Somebody pointed to the sky and yelled, "There they come—the Vurna!" ”

“ A war vast—huge—" His arm swung in a wide circle that seemed to include the whole sunset sky. "Beyond your comprehension. Earth is nothing in it. A forward base, an observation post, that is all. But if we lose it, the Ei will sweep this part of the galaxy and you will regret it more than we. We can withdraw. You cannot. You think you are cruelly treated now. You will weep to have us back!"
Sawyer remained unbending and unimpressed. Arrin sighed. His voice was quiet when he spoke again, but it had a ring of iron in it. ”

“ Price, sweating, looked up. Sweetbriar and the hunters were eagerly gazing at the screens.
They showed the storm-swept Belt and they showed small dark figures in it—hundreds of them—thousands—tribesmen running toward the Citadel.
An alarm-bell rang somewhere in the Citadel. Instantly other bells echoed it, a distant confusion of alarms.
"Out of here fast," Price cried. "This is the first place the Vurna will be coming. If we can get down through, we can help the others." ”

“ He sat looking out the port and covertly watching the pilot's hands on the controls. Linna had some kind of a side-arm strapped around her slender waist. Probably a shocker. The pilot had one, too. He considered the problem, and the woods and prairies rolled back underneath.
Linna spoke suddenly, out of a long and somber silence.
"This mission is more important than ever now, Price, or I wouldn't have been allowed to divert even one man from our defences. I beg you, for the sake of your own people, to play fair with me. If there's either help or hindrance in our rear, we must know it. ”

“ It'd take days for a man on horseback to get around to the east and north."
"I'll take the word," said Price. "In the flier. By sundown tomorrow, there'll be men from every tribe ready to move into the Belt. And pick me half a dozen seasoned men to go along, under a sub-chief. Half a dozen men you can trust for the fate of the whole attack."
The leathery old chief, whose name was Sweetbriar, said quietly, "I'll pick you six, and I'll go along."
His gaze locked with Price's, and Price smiled.
"I'll give you the shocker," he said. "You can use it any time you see fit. ”

“ And when they had smashed all that, and built the Citadel to hold the ruined Earth, they had tried to make men willing captives by telling them that story of the Ei. It was the old Big Lie technique, but this lie had been too big for anyone to believe.
The woman might not be cruel. Arrin might be only a decent officer in a hard position. But all the same, they were aliens, despoilers of Earth, and he was an Earthman. These were his people—Sawyer, Burr, Twist, even the hateful and suspicious Oakes. ”

“ This, he thought, was a safe assumption. "Life's too hard. I wanted to come where there are trees and water."
It was a good story. He didn't know whether they believed it.
The Beechcraft left a fleeting shadow on the river and passed on. Twist peered anxiously into the sky behind.
"Can you go any faster?"
"I'm wide open now."
"Not fast enough. They come like lightning. Whoom!" Jets, thought Price, and began to look for a hole in the forest. Twist said, "And if they don't find us the first time, they'll send the flying-eyes."
"And they can smell metal," Price said. ”

“ Price knocked out the other three with the shocker, and the hunters bound them. There was a rack of side-arms in one wall, with several shockers in it. Price handed them out and then turned his attention to the batteries of firing-studs. The hunters stood staring at the moving pictures of the stormy Belt reflected in the scanner screens, until Sweetbriar sent them to guard the door.
There were service-hatches below the waist-high control panels. Price got one open and studied the wiring, panting more with excitement than exertion. ”