Manly Wade Wellman

“ That the Newcomers are not rescuers or dealers of justice, but invaders and destroyers! I remember that, too!"
"Do you remember yourself?" she demanded. "Barak, the wonder warrior, who met the enemy by twos and threes, and conquered them like flies, like puffs of wind? Barak, mighty in battle, who offered to fight the whole Council of Dondromogon single-handed? Who led one digging assault after another, and who fell only to a stupid trick?" ”

“ Gederr was there, and Doriza behind him. I felt the gaze of her blue eyes, very soft and pretty. Gederr smiled respectfully.
"We have talked much about the duel, we of the Council. It is agreed that great Yandro's value is more than inspirational. If a single combat could be arranged, with some champion of the Newcomers, ill be their fate! Some boasting successor to Barak—"
"Barak," I repeated and wondered again why his name stuck so in my fogged mind. "I—I do not know how to say it, but I seek no quarrel with Barak. I do not fear him, or anyone else; but I do not wish to fight him." ”

“ I thought that I sensed an uncomfortable wriggle in Sporr, behind me. "Why is this?" I demanded.
"Because, Yandro, there cannot be room and supplies enough for a greater number."
I scowled to myself. So far I had seen luxury enough in Dondromogon's chambers and tunnels. But there remained so much to learn. "Go on," I bade her.
She nodded again, and obeyed: "Thus we on Dondromogon live and have lived. This world is ours, its good and evil. But," and her voice, from a soft, shy murmur, turned hard, "there are those who do not wish it so. The Newcomers—the invaders!" ”

“ But I—I, Barak, the foremost fighter on this planet—am here to see that it does not happen!"
And I drew the saber at my side.
VI
I struck a pose as I stood there. I hoped that a grim and heroic attitude might give them pause.
"It's Barak!" said an officer at the forefront of the Newcomers.
"Barak!" echoed a warrior of Dondromogon. I heard a rattle and clink of weapons.
"Remember," I made haste to call out, "a bullet or ray will tear this place—and both forces—to bits! I'll perish, and so will every man on either side, as far as the explosion reaches!" ”

“ His voice rose to a scream. "With us—leading us—comes the greatest fighter that Dondromogon has ever known, and the sight of him shall break your hearts!"
My ears rang, as the ears of all listeners must have rung, with those last words. Gederr turned away, and Sporr dialed the power off.
"Now," Gederr said, "is there not some plan for amusement? A pleasant hour in the Pavilion? Great Yandro's heart is troubled—for it is as great as himself—by thoughts of war and its pains. Let him come with us for solace."
"Amen to that," said Elonie, and she walked toward me. ”

“ Hear! Wise are the words of Yandro!" Thus went up a new chorus. I felt reassured, and spoke more confidently.
"Your Council has explained much. Now I come to the people represented by that Council. If I am to help, you are to explain how. For the voice of a people is seldom wrong or foolish."
"Wise are the words!" They chorused again, and the man with the deep voice suddenly put up his hand and moved forward. I saw that he had the armor and weapons of a soldier, and in one hand he held a cup, from which he had been drinking. ”

“ Elonie told me softly. "We need not wait for the others. Come, Yandro. They have poured wine—Yandro knows what wine is? And we have music, perfume, light, laughter, and for companions all of Dondromogon."
"All?" I repeated.
"All save those on guard or garrison duty. Come, mighty one. Know happiness that is worth fighting and conquering to keep." ”

“ Around a star it spins, light-years away from the world of your birth. One face of Dondromogon ever looks to the light and heat, wherefore its metals run in glowing seas. The other face is ever away in cold darkness, with its air freezing into solid chunks. But because Dondromogon wavers on its axis, there are two lunes of its surface which from time to time shift from night to day. ”

“ Doriza shook her head. "That happens to be my cloak. I gave it to him because he was naked, and not for any treasonable masquerade. But the thumb-print—"
"Oh, yes, the thumb-print," I repeated wearily. "By all means, study my thumbs, if you'll first take these bonds off of me."
"Bonds," mumbled old Sporr. He got creakily up from his knees and bustled to me. From under his robe he produced a pouch, and took out a pencil-sized rod. Gingerly opening the red mantle, he touched my tether in several places with the glowing end of the rod. The coils dropped away from my grateful body and limbs. ”

“ Sporr did so. I shook myself, as if to rid my body of unpleasant dampness and chill.
"Exciting," I said. "Unusual. I suppose this goes on all the time."
"Not all the time," Elonie demurred. "As Yandro has heard, the battle-areas are limited, in the region of the poles. There is much maneuvering, but not too much contact. This incident was an order."
"Order?" I repeated.
"We sent the man you saw, knowing that you would want this televiso view of how we made war."
I snorted and faced her angrily. "You sent him to his death? So that I could see a show? You value life very cheaply, Elonie." ”

“ Doriza murmured.
I gazed at the men on duty. "Is nobody armed? What if the Newcomers get in here?"
The officer shook his head. "You know that weapons would be our own destruction. Electro-automatics, disintegrators, ray-sabers—they all give off flame. And a touch of flame in any one of these glare-fields would explode the whole chamber, and the solid soil around it, into atoms." ”

“ And Doriza was sobbing. "You aren't Yandro—you're Barak of the Newcomers!"
V
I stared at her, astounded, shocked—and suddenly remembering things.
"Barak," I repeated foolishly. "Barak. Yes, I am Barak. I—how did I get here? Things are still so shadowy—but I'm beginning to recollect—"
"Try," she begged. "Try hard. It's the only way you can save yourself. Let me remind you; this world called Dondromogon was settled long ago by adventurers. For centuries their descendants built up a luxurious way of living. ”

“ They brought broadcasting equipment to him, and he suddenly grew huge on the screen.
"Attention," he bawled, "all true people of Dondromogon! We do not hesitate to kill traitors, even the highest of rank! Those false folk who made up the Council—they have died!"
He paused, glared, and swallowed. "I, Gederr, have discovered their plot! They foisted off upon us a man of the Newcomers as Yandro—caused us to accept him as a hero, when he was only the tool of their plan to betray and sell us!" ”

“ But what is happening just beyond my knowledge?"
She caught me by the forearm, her small, strong hands gripped like vises.
"I'll tell you! Tell you everything! Those devils of the Council have long exploited and drained Dondromogon—with lies about the First Comers, and the exclusive use of science! The Newcomers are to be trapped through you, the natives deluded through you! But you—you are to die when your usefulness is through!"
"They'd do that?" I demanded. "After they name me as Yandro, their legendary hero?" ”

“ Doriza had no answer that time, but Sporr spoke up behind us: "Great Yandro is wise as well as powerful. But the Newcomers do not want to help, not even to conquer. They want to obliterate us. There is nothing to do—not for lifetimes—but to fight them back at the two poles."
We came to a main corridor. It had a line of armed guards, but no pedestrians or vehicles, though I thought I caught a murmur of far-off traffic. Doriza paused before a great portal, closed by a curtainlike sheet of dull metal. ”

“ Under cover of the din, Gederr took my elbow and escorted me from the platform.
"They have been despondent, Yandro. They grow unwilling to face death and wounds. But you have changed all that. Hark to their cries of your name! Now there shall be no more speaking, only happiness."
Elonie had joined us again. Her hand dropped warmly over mine. "This way," she bade. "This wine is for the Council only—the best on Dondromogon. Honor us by taking some."
She gave me a goblet, of some transparent substance clasped in bright metal, and brimming with a red liquor. ”

“ I saw only an indistinct fuzziness in a sort of niche against the tunnel wall. Doriza pointed.
"A vibration-shield," she told me. "The Newcomers have such things. Some machine or other power stirs the molecules of air to such a new tempo as to create a plane of force. No missile, no light even, can penetrate. They are sheltered and all but indistinguishable. See, they go forward."
The eddying cloud moved along the tunnel. We could see the scout again. He tucked away his disk and employed the ray-digger. ”

“ A fair combat, like the one last night with Rohbar, is like a game—grim, but like a game. Not so these strategems and pitfalls, which are only an unpleasant job to be done."
"The strategems need not affect Yandro," stated Gederr. "As for a simple single combat, I say that will be arranged. We broadcast, Yandro will remember, a warning and a challenge. The enemy has sent back a message that they are making ready a fighter to face anyone we can furnish."
"I see," said I. "Well, they speak my language." Both Doriza and Gederr started violently, and stared. ”

“ No crops can grow outside, no domestic animals flourish. We must pen ourselves away from the sky and soil, with stout walls and heavy sunken parapets. Our deep mines afford every element for necessities of life."
I looked at my garments, and hers. There were various kinds of fabric, which I now saw plainly to be synthetic. "The other side, where those you call the Newcomers dwell and fight," I reminded. "Is it also windswept? Why can two people not join forces and face toil and nature together? They should fight, not each other, but the elements." ”

“ As Gederr had admitted, the commoners of Dondromogon wanted no more fighting. Perhaps my coming was indeed by providence, to bring peace. A better peace, I now decided, than they had ever known.
"When the war is over," I went on, "I propose to lead you still. Since I am accepted as a leader, I have a right to do that. It seems that your health and happiness will be bettered if, in some way, we achieve a new conquest—conquest of the outdoors. There may be storms, but there are also natural sunlight and fresh air. ”

“ And the floor of the chamber is mined—enough explosive even to wreck those power-shields. Their van, with its heavy equipment, will perish. We'll wipe out the others easily!"
"How many?" ventured Doriza.
"Who can say?" Gederr responded. "They are many, but most of them must work to sustain life and action in the section of Dondromogon they have seized. They have not the sunken cities, the synthesizing advances, the other time-seasoned devices for living that we have developed. Several hundred fighting men, not many more than ours, are all that can be sent against us." ”

“ The Council had insisted that it was necessary to keep the population of Dondromogon small, for the sake of good living. Yet it seemed false reasoning if even women must be armed for battle. And the women, on the whole, were better specimens than the men. They were not large—none anywhere near as tall as Elonie or as compactly vigorous as Doriza—but seemed healthy and intelligent for the most part, and some were even handsome. ”

“ I greatly fear you'll have a world to run."
"World?" I echoed stupidly. "What world?" My head cleared a bit. "Where's Doriza?"
"The fighting's over," Parkeson soothed me. "Just as you forced it to be. I'm still trying to decide whether you were an epic hero or an epic idiot, there at the crossways of battle, making us all stop, or fight you! But your hunch paid off. The entire Council of Dondromogon is dead, and—"
"Doriza," I said again.
"Somebody named Klob, a sturdy soldierly chap, is taking charge. An old sneak named Sporr tried to foment a counter-rising, but Klob disintegrated him. ”

“ I called down to her.
"Dare we?"
"We must dare!"
She tossed me the disintegrator pistol. I turned it on and fate favored me once again. No explosion occurred. I tunnelled upward, upward, and climbed up the slanting chimney-like tunnel I made. Moments later, I broke into open air above.
I was in a necklike passage. Lying flat, I looked each way. To one hand was a great cavern, the ambush-space, in which Dondromogon's warriors were cautiously ranging themselves. Opposite was a wide tunnel, empty as yet—a work of the Newcomers, into which this passage had been invitingly opened by the defenders. ”

“ The officer spoke first. "I am Rohbar, field commander of this defense position," he said with crisp respect. "Sporr is a mystic doctor, full of godly wisdom. Doriza, a junior officer and chief of the guard. And you—how could you know?—are sent by the First Comers to save us from our enemies."
"Enemies?" I repeated.
"The Newcomers," supplemented Doriza. "They have taken the "Other Side" of Dondromogon, and would take our side as well. We defend ourselves at the poles. ”

“ The girl Doriza spoke to the officer: "If Sporr speaks truth, and he generally does, you have committed a blasphemy."
The other made a little grimace. "This may be Yandro, though I'm a plain soldier and follow the classics very little. The First Comers are souls to worship, not to study. If indeed he is Yandro," and he was most respectful, "he will appreciate, like a good military mind, my caution against possible impostors." ”

“ One of his lieutenants spoke to two of the foremost men, who stepped forward, rifles at the ready.
"If they shoot—" began Doriza tremulously.
"If they do, they destroy everyone!" I reminded yet again. "Come, who dares. Swords if you will, but no fire!"
The officer who had given the order stepped between the two soldiers, saber drawn. "Ready to rush," he said. "My blade, your butts—"
They approached, side by side. Their faces were set, grim. They faltered for only a moment at the entry to the glare field. ”