Robert Emmett McDowell

“ Jupiter sucked in his breath. A procession of humans was filing out of the darkness.
A scrawny, naked Caligan was in the lead, making cabalistic signs with a phallic instrument resembling the Egyptian sistrum as he moved in front of the idol.
Behind him came the others, two by two—wild Kagans fresh from the jungle, a man with four arms, several with prehensile tails, some with fur and some hairless. They walked with the same dreamy preoccupied air of the humans that Jupiter had seen in the courtyard, and prostrated themselves before the glowing idol. ”

“ Sometime before, the caravan had split up, and only the cages holding the wild people remained. Then without warning, they too turned off down a bisecting passage.
"Lete!" he yelled after the girl; "Lete!" His own bearers were carrying his cage straight ahead. The girl waved at him forlornly and called:
"A'towee, Jupiter."
It meant, "Goodbye forever" as near as he could translate it. He felt lonely—more lonely even than after Briggs' suicide.
Good Lord! he thought in alarm. He'd better watch himself. He'd been in space so long that he was growing overly fond of this naked little barbarian. ”

“ Reiloc sprawled on the floor, gasping painfully.
"Are you crazy?" Tabak cried. "Kill him, Jupiter! Kill him before he can give the alarm." She suddenly snatched the carbine, aimed a blow at the prone warrior's head. Jupiter tore it out of her hands.
Reiloc pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. He looked from the dead Anolyn to Jupiter, his hand massaging his bruised throat.
"What are you?" he whispered painfully. "What manner of man are you who can kill the Anolyn in their own temple?" ”

“ Tabak was silent as she led him back down the tunnel to the vaulted canal.
"Can you swim?" she asked as they reached the water's edge.
"Yes."
The girl stripped off the boj, laid it on the ledge, dived into the canal like a slim, naked, sea nymph. Her head broke water a dozen feet out creating phosphorescent ripples.
Jupiter plunged after her. The water was black, cold, salty. He kept up with the girl easily using strong breast strokes.
At length she paused again, treading water near the opposite wall of the aquaduct.
"There's a tunnel here, a man's height below the surface. ”

“ The wall of the city loomed above them dark and threatening.
Tabak's fingers closed convulsively over Jupiter's hand.
"I'm afraid," she whispered. "It's so big and so empty out here. And there's no place where we can hide from them. They'll be after us in the morning with Nehogans and web-birds. They'll never let you go, Jupiter, never! They're afraid that you'll be able to unite the wild Kagans—"
"If we can only reach the ship," he muttered, and felt around in his pack for the metal tentacle that Reiloc had hacked from the Radiant God. ”

“ If he ever were to lift the Mizar from the surface again, he must find a deposit of uranium or thorium bearing minerals.
Then he shaved off his great red beard, revealing a hard face, bold featured with a wide, thin-lipped mouth. He slung the load to his shoulders, opened the main port.
A strong saffron sunlight beat into his eyes as he let himself to the ground. He stood still a moment, feeling the dirt press against the soles of his feet, examining the blank hostile wall of jungle, tasting the moist warm air.
Bird-like creatures flitted through the foliage. ”

“ He felt weak as he pulled Reiloc from the water.
"They know where we are," the giant Nehogan growled ominously, "our chances to—"
"Look out!" Tabak screamed.
Jupiter whirled around. He was just in time to see Lete run at him with Reiloc's sword. The cave girl had snatched it from the Nehogan's scabbard. Holding it like a lance, she flung herself on Jupiter, her face contorted with hate!
Jupiter jumped convulsively into the canal. His instinctive reaction was the only thing that saved him. ”

“ There were Anolyn in the pool, fifty or sixty of them, floating like purple jellyfish. Humans, too. Pink-skinned Caligans, wild Kagans, fighting men and the stolid green porters. Even the tailed, ape-like Begans were represented. They moved with a dreamy apathy like sleepwalkers.
"Their minds are under the control of the Anolyn in the pool," Tabak breathed into his ear. "The Anolyn have entered into them. They feel and see and hear exactly what their human vehicles do."
Jupiter's face was drawn. ”

“ The humans weren't slaves. They were domesticated—like cattle or dogs or horses. And Lete's people were wild with all the contempt of the wild thing for its tame cousin!
Reiloc, trotting beside the cage, grunted suddenly and raised his arm, pointing ahead. Jupiter lifted his eyes, felt a tingle of excitement run through him.
There, glittering in the rays of the setting sun were the spires and battlements of the city by the Dra Dur.
Night had fallen by the time they reached the city gate. Yogol, as Lete called the planet, had no satellite. ”

“ With drawn sword, Reiloc leaped past Jupiter. He ran for the glowing idol, began to hack at one of ten tentacles with his sword. Tabak and Jupiter were right behind him. They grabbed Lete by either arm, hauled the bemused cave girl to her feet.
Some of the shock of the Anolyn's sudden death had been transmitted to the humans under its control. They stared at the profaners of the temple with pained uncomprehending eyes. ”

“ The Caligan stood like a man in a cataleptic trance, regarded Jupiter with fixed, unwinking attention.
"I am to inform you that the girl, Tabak, and the man, Reiloc, are unharmed."
Jupiter realized suddenly that his forehead was covered with sweat. He didn't interrupt.
The Caligan continued in that flat, unemotional voice:
"Unless you disband your army and send them away, the girl will be turned over to the long-tailed Begans to play with. If she survives the animal-men, which is doubtful, she will be sent to the biological laboratories for vivisection. ”

“ Reiloc said to tell you that he was going to split his forces, attack from both ends of the valley."
Jupiter swore under his breath. "We're going down," he told Tabak. "Going down fast. Hang onto your hair."
He put the Mizar into a tight spiral, drove her down like a blazing meteor. The star ship must have presented an awe-inspiring sight, jets shooting streamers of flame, her nose pointed directly at the cluster of striped tents in the center of the army. ”

“ It was dusk, a hazy burnt amber twilight that made everything appear as if he were wearing tinted glasses. The pink-skins had broken camp, loaded the Rik'gans, formed them into a caravan. A detachment of fighting men moved to the head of the procession.
Jupiter's cage was equipped like the others with stretcher poles. Two squat porters approached and lifted it to their shoulders, moved into line with the other captives. One of the Anolyns gave a blast on a horn. The head of the caravan moved into the jungle. ”

“ At least half of the purple-shelled octopods had been consumed instantly by the jets. The Anolyn who remained alive were scuttling for the protection of the jungle. Jupiter swung the needle gun into action.
The Nehogans had outstripped their slow-moving masters, who crawled like a cluster of frightened tortoises across the bare, flat land. The sides of the valley were alive with humans ”

“ Without bothering to test for consciousness he wrenched the little plum-colored shell from the cave girl's neck, smashed it against the wall of the aquaduct.
"Carry her!" he ordered Reiloc, and threw his instruments back into the pack, slipped a fresh drum of cartridges into the carbine. He could hear the thud of running feet on the ramp leading to the surface.
"Back!" he said tersely. "We'll have to try another way!"
For an hour they followed Tabak through the network of aquaducts, twisting, cutting down bisecting canals until Jupiter was exhausted. ”

“ The Caligan girl slowed down. Behind them the pandemonium from the breeding pens became fainter and died away. Reiloc, pounding along at Jupiter's elbow, said:
"Has the city been attacked?"
"No. Sun up. We've got to open the main gate."
They burst from the temple into the street. The guard at the entrance was caught flatfooted. Reiloc laid him out with a blow of his sword, and they ran on down a strangely deserted street.
"Where's everybody?" Jupiter panted.
Tabak said over her shoulder. "There's only a skeleton force in the city. Most of the Nehogans were in the army they sent after us." ”

“ The Caligan girl brightened.
"At least we're giving Reiloc and Lete a better chance to get through. We've drawn off all the birds for miles around."
Jupiter nodded, broke open his pack. Tabak's blue eyes were alive with curiosity as she watched him feed the radioactive tentacle into the fuel hoppers, reset the alarms and check the instruments.
Tabak poked into every corner of the ship, "Oh-ed" and "ah-ed" with delight. She wanted to know about everything. But before Jupiter could tell her she would say, "This is Briggs' cabin, isn't it?" Or, "This is the galley," and laugh at his expression. ”

“ It was no bigger than a large monkey. Eight spidery arms sprouted from its grotesque body which was covered with a glittering purple shell like a huge mollusk. Jupiter Jones noted these details almost before the creatures recovered from their surprise at the blinding light. His first impression of the purple-shelled octopod in the litter had been that it must be a captive. ”

“ Certain insects had been trained to spin thread from their own body secretions and weave fabrics. Humans had been bred for specialized functions: draft animals and meat animals, soldiers and sailors and artisans.
As soon as a Yogolian attained adolescence, a young Anolyn was fastened to his spinal cord. Thus the humans were forced to act both as living incubators for the Anolyn young and as servants for the adults.
It was, Jupiter realized with horror, a wholly parasitic culture. Orgies were held, and gladiatorial combats, one Anolyn pitting its human vehicle against another. ”

“ He entered the pavilion stooping slightly and stopped—like a machine subject to its operator's whim.
The Anolyns made no sound. They regarded him in utter silence, their tentacles waving in the air like the feelers of a cricket.
"What do you want?" Jupiter tried to ask and found that his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth. ”

“ Jupiter took a short length of strong plastic cord from his pack, made a loop in it. His face looked older, grimmer. His vivid green eyes were dull.
"Where is he stationed?" he said.
The dissection laboratory occupied a long, hall-like room in one wing of the temple. The pool of water was at one end, the main entry at the other.
Tabak wound the black cloth about herself sarong-fashion, nodded towards the arched doorway.
"There's a—a lobby of sorts through there. The guard stays just outside on the street. He'll be a Nehogan, Jupiter. They're terrible men—"
Jupiter brushed past her. ”

“ Tabak was a pet, like a cat or dog, and as such she'd had a greater opportunity to observe the purple-shelled octopods.
The Anolyns hadn't always been the dominant life form on Yogol. Ages ago, eons perhaps—Tabak had entertained only the vaguest notion of time—the humans had ruled the planet. They had built splendid cities, now crumbled into dust and even the dust buried beneath the jungle mould. ”

“ As the last chunk of the Radiant God went into the fuel hoppers aboard the Mizar, Jupiter realized that there was nothing left to hold him on the planet.
The Yogolians were busy organizing themselves into a cohesive people. Outside the city walls, the horde was camped. Lete was high in the council of chiefs and an expedition was being planned against a second town further up the coast.
They were a resilient race, these Yogolians. Now that they had the means to combat the Anolyn, it wouldn't be long before the last of the octopods were driven back into the Dra Dur. ”

“ Tabak said: "I think it's crazy."
"Crazy or not, we need her," Jupiter said. "We can't hope to succeed without her."
He closed his eyes searching the memory patterns imprinted on his brain by Tabak.
The temple was built in the form of a hollow square with the breeding pens located in the main courtyard. Every day the human guinea pigs were driven up a back way into the sanctum of the Radiant God. There they were exposed to the hard radiations emitted by the statue. ”

“ He looked somewhat like Reiloc except that he was older, heavier.
"After all," he said, "many men will die during the battle. Is that any reason to abandon the fight? What's the life of two people against the whole world? I don't understand it. The Anolyn must be very desperate to offer such terms. It is a trick, maybe."
"No," said Jupiter. "No, I don't think it's a trick." But he knew that it would be impossible to explain his feelings either to the cave girl or the Nehogan general. ”

“ He allowed the Kagans to retain their loose tribal organization. More tribes joined the march on the city by the Dra Dur every day. They were more like a migrating people than an army. They were bound together by only one common impulse—a desire to annihilate the Anolyn.
Lete was some help to Jupiter there. The cave girl acted as liaison officer between him and the Kagan chiefs. He was aware that she had risen to a position of eminence among her people—an Amazon chieftainess, a cave girl Joan of Arc.
Her rise to power suited him because it left him free to organize the Nehogan army. ”

“ Tabak gasped.
"I'm almost afraid I might fall into it!" Then she stiffened. "There they are! There! Look, Jupiter!"
He glanced into the screen. The valley widened out below, and he could see a great army of men camped on the level ground. Thousands of the copper-skinned Nehogan warriors! They stood in excited clusters, staring upward, pointing at the Mizar with its comet tail of flame.
Jupiter could make out the striped tents of the Anolyn in the center of the encampment. He could see pink-skinned Caligans and stolid porters. He turned to the terrified cave girl.
"What happened to Reiloc?" ”