John Rackham (21 page)

"The top!
It's the last one! Jasar, on my shoulders and up the slope, to the edge
. . . and hang on! My
lady, up you go
. Climb on himl
You
can!"

Somehow
Jack found himself standing with his head in the open light, peering blearily
at Haldar, who was stretched out and down the polished slope with his hands
ready to grab, and heave.
And over the edge and falling,
limply, to the ground
...
too far
gone to be able to do anything but roll over and just lie there.
Breathing was an effort and a pleasure. The whole of his body felt rusty and
lead-heavy, and it ached. Far too soon he heard Jasar again.

"Cornel Up!
Time is melting away and the ship is still
distant!"

Jack
groaned, rolled over, shoved with his arms, got to his knees, and there by his
side, on all fours but with her head down and smothered in her hair, was
Silvana. She looked as if the least touch would pitch her over again, and her
obvious distress somehow stirred strength in him from some unsuspected source.
He struggled to his feet, then reached and touched her shoulder, caught her
arm, helped her up. Haldar was already on his feet, defiantly erect. Jasar
lifted an arm. "The ship is that way," he said, and started marching,
straight at the riotous weeds, drawing his beamer. In a moment there came a
spit and sizzle and a gust of gray smoke
...
and a scorched pathway through the green. Haldar tramped after the scout and
Jack followed, almost dragging Silvana along. She walked unsteadily, like
someone in a dream, but she walked. The smoke from the scorched weeds curled
and drifted lazily away and it came into Jack's numbed mind that they were
laying a glaring trail for Garmel to follow, if he needed to. But it was faster
than trying to wade through the stuff, or to follow diverging water courses. It
didn't seem to matter anyway. Nothing mattered anymore. This was all some
insane dream. It didn't surprise him at all when the ground under his feet
suddenly heaved and spun so that he almost fell, and Silvana went to her knees
before he could catch her. There came a sudden shrieking buffet of wind. He
felt a hot ache in his chest He heard Haldar scream, as if from a far distance:

"The screens are
going! We're losing atmosphere!"

Whatever that might mean.
He drew a difficult breath,
then
heard a vast
and distant roar of a totally different kind.

"Vermin!
You won't get away from me, not now!"

Staggering,
he hauled Silvana around so that he could look back, and there, dwarfed into
near-normal size by distance, came Garmel, huge and slow and menacing, a
dark-blue Nemesis who swung a glittering something in one vast hand, leveling
it.
Aiming it.
Even through his numbing fatigue, Jack
realized it had to be a weapon of some kind. Instinctively he flung his arms
about Silvana and spun her around again, shielding her with his body. In the
next instant he stood in the heart of a fireball, all his world gone red, his
very bones aching and tingling with the heat of it. In his arms Silvana groaned
and went limp. In the next breath the fireball was gone again, and the clean,
cool, blue-and-green world came back. There was Jasar, feet apart, aiming his
beamer. From behind came a bellow of pain. Jack stared, saw Jasar scowl, shake
his head.

"Only a pinprick.
The charge is spent!" He slapped the weapon to his belt, stooped
and groped at Haldar's prone body, came up again with the other one. Again he
aimed
...
and again there came a vast
screech of anguish, but a long way off now. Jack shook himself out of stupor,
stared down at Silvana. Her face was bloodless, but there was a faint heartbeat
in her breast as he touched it. Stooping, he grunted with effort but gathered
her totally and got her over his shoulder, feeling the rub of her bare rump
against his cheek as he started to shamble on. He saw Jasar doing the same for
Haldar, and, almost unbelievably, managing to lift the big man and move with
that load.

"Not much
farther!" the scout grunted doggedly.

"Why
is it so hard to breathe?" Jack demanded, choking on the fire in his
throat and lungs.

"We
are losing air. The protective force-fields are decaying as the power-units
drop out." There came a sudden thrashing in the weeds and a squealing
rat-creature came springing at them. Jasar halted, drew, aimed, and the thing
vanished with a screech in a red-blue gush of flame and smoke. "Charge is
low on this one, too. I hit Garmel, but not to kill. He was too far away. I
regret that. I had intended to see him dead. You were saved from the fire-beam
by your harness?"

"I
suppose so. I felt it.
But what of Silvana?
And Haldar?"

'Time will tell. Perhaps . . ." The
words tore away in a furious shriek of wind. Jack felt his ears pop and his
tongue swell huge in his mouth so that he had to struggle to breathe.

"We
...
made
...
it!" Jasar cried, touching his belt. There, like magic,
was his weird yet well-remembered ship, its metal spider-work glittering and
one eight-sided orifice open, welcoming them in. Heaving mightily, Jasar
tumbled the limp form of Haldar up and over the edge, scrambled up
himself
, to turn and reach and lift Silvana to safety. Then
he had a hand for Jack too.

"We
have settled," the little man muttered, as he touched a control that
closed the opening and produced

lights
, and welcome air. "The whole structure
of the station is breaking up. We had to leap down, remember?"

"That's
something to be glad of," Jack argued foolishly. "We could never have
leaped back up. Not myself, at any rate. My sinews are of ordinary stuff, not
like yours.
And what of our friends?"

"Stretch
them out on the cot-beds on either side. I must check our position. We are safe
for the moment, but far from clear, yet."

TEN

"Jasar!"
Jack came nervously but urgently to where
the little scout was intently huddled over his flickering instrument board.
"I would not interrupt you in this most critical moment
...
but I am in fear for Silvana. Haldar
breathes and is warm, but she seems to have on her the chill of death!"

"Look
in the compartment of the bed, underneath," Jasar
muttered,
his eyes on a row of uncertain greens. "There is a package blanket, of
thin silver-like foil. Strip off her wet garment and wrap her in that. I will
be there to see, in a moment." Jack went back to her side, groped and
found the blanket. It was a very small thing. When opened it seemed
ridiculously frail, until he tested a comer in his fingers and found it tough.
Silvana's flesh felt like velvet ice as he peeled off the jersey garment and
then managed to swathe her in the silver stuff so that only her bloodless face
showed. By that time Haldar had snorted a time or two and was now trying to sit
up, groaning. Jack went to him, guessed there would be a similar blanket under
his cot-bed, and gave it to him.

"Strip," he
ordered, "and wrap in this!"

"A
thermo-blankett
That's
just what I need. Many
thanks!"

Relieved, Jack went back to his vigil by
Silvana's side, brushing away a damp frond of hair from her brow, touching her
cheek from time to time. Like this she seemed very young, very peaceful, very
lovely, but defenseless. He slid one hand under the edge of the blanket to
rest it at her throat. In his judgment she was already a little warmer. He
heard Haldar speak.

"What's
our state, Jasar? I don't remember a thing after that fire-beam hit us. You
must have shielded me from

most
of it, or I wouldn't be here, and I thank
you. We must be in your ship, too. That's obvious.
But what
of Garmel?"

"I
hit him, but to wound only, not to kill. He was too far away and the power was
almost spent.
Which is unfortunate.
All it did was to
make him back off and run."

"And
what are we waiting for now?" Haldar spoke deliberately, asking, not in
impatience.

"The
station is staggering.
Part of its breakdown.
Swinging on its axis.
In effect we are three-tenths of a
time unit out of line with my grid, back on Earth. So we have to wait that
long. And the question is
,
what will Garmel be doing
in that time?"

"Is
there anything effective he can do? Are we shielded?"

"Oh
yes. He cannot touch us here, not with anything he has at hand. His major
armament is pointed outward anyway. And there's nothing he can do to reverse
the de-struct triggers we have planted."

"But
. . . ?" Haldar spoke the doubt that was in Jasar's voice.

"But,
friend Haldar, I refuse to underestimate Garmel. I imagine what I would do in
his place. I am sure that he has a small ship at hand, the kind of thing he
would need in order to carry out checks and inspections of the station from
time to time, on the outside."

"You think he will
take ship and escape?"

"That
would be the obvious thing to do. The station is doomed. He will appreciate
that. Self-preservation will dictate the obvious. But if he is as skilled—and
dedicated—as I think he is, he will do more. He will try to follow us!"

"Follow us?" Haldar exclaimed, and
Jack's head came around in sudden alarm. "Can he do that?"

"I
could do it," Jasar said simply. "A warp-jump leaves a space-twist
that any skilled astrogator can follow, if he is fast, and ready for it. We
have to assume that Garmel is clever enough. Meanwhile there is nothing we can
do but wait it out.
Two-tenths now.
We are swinging
into line. I have coupled the final destruct-signal together with our warp-jump
trigger. This station, at any rate, will cease to exist!"

"That is something, anyway!" Haldar
stood, holding the silver foil about
himself
.
"You've done well, Jasar!"

"Yes.
It was what I set out to do.
Nor ever really expected to get
away with my life.
But I fear that I may be leading Garmel back to
Earth.
To your peaceful home, Jack!"

"If
it is to happen so, it will be by no fault of yours, Jasar." Jack smiled
wearily at the little scout. "Fate has a way with such things. That is
something I have learned." He felt movement under his fingers and looked
back and down to see Silvana's eyes open and on him.

"Are we safe?"
she whispered, and he smiled.

"Are you warm, my
love? That is more important."

She
moved under the silver drape, and smiled to show a dimple. "Warm enough.
Better if you were here with me. But
...
are we safe, at last?"

"Not yet, lady."
Jasar was as blunt as always. "Not
while we are still in range of Garmel's hate. But soon, I hope . . ." His
gruff words were drowned in a sudden scream of protest from the hitherto
quietly murmuring ship's machinery. Everything shook violently. The inside air
was instantly acrid and hot. As shockingly as it had come, the attack went away
again.
"Coronas and comets!"
Jasar snarled.
"That was a disrupter beam, and no inspection-float ever mounted
a cannon
that big. Garmel must have commandeered one of the
docked battle-craft to his aid. We can't stand another like that. Unless
..."
He whirled to get at a panel and
drag it open. "Haldar, you're the expert in this field. Have we a
power-gem to match that?"

Haldar came to stoop and peer, and nod.
"I think so. Looks like a blue Sterteel. I stuck one of those on my
tunic." He went back to the damp red garment by his cot
...
and that tortured scream came again
from the machines. The ship lurched. All the lights died, and the air was
ghost-blue. As the death-blast cut off again, Jack saw Haldar stand, an eerie
figure in the blue haze and the dying red glow from the open panel.
"You're going to need this now, Jasar. She's blown altogether. Break
circuit I'm going to have to do this blind!"

With
a snapping click, even the red glow faded and the blue haze in the air was
worse than darkness, robbing the eye of any sense of shape or outline. Jack
held his breath, felt Silvana turn her face to press her lips to his hand.
Then, out of the deathly hush, Haldar gave a grunt of effort.

"Try
that!" he suggested. The ship's lights sprang into life, and the low
murmur of machinery started up again. Jasar let out a breath.

"I doubt if there's another man in the
Fleet who could do that, Haldar. An odd twist, that GarmePs training should so
betray him. And he can't hurt us with that damned disrupter now . . . nor has
he the time, anyway. Hold on tight, my friends. We are almost there!"

Jack
remembered well the flat, measured clacking noise. It seemed an entire lifetime
since he had first heard it Then it stopped. In that instant there was an
enormous, eye-blinding flare of light that came and went faster then the eye
could blink
...
and right with it
that exploding-apart-to-fill-the-whole-world feeling, that also came and went
so quickly that it was a memory as soon as he felt it. Then a screeching
jar,
and a shout from Jasar.

"We
made it! We are in the gridl" He struck switches that brought back the
familiar patterns of blue webs and columns on his screens, then he touched
another lever and another picture came, and Jack knew they were dropping
swiftly, straight down the middle of that incredible mile-high structure that
Jasar had "grown" from those wonderful "seeds" of his. He
felt Silvana's hand emerge from the blanket to find his and grip it.

"You
are almost home, Jack," she whispered. "I am glad for you." He
saw tears in her wide eyes, and sighed.

"Would that I could make it your home too.
I would give it to you at once, and
gladly."

"Ground zero!"
Jasar sang out and weight came on for a moment to drag them down.
Then, "By the First Star!
That devil has followed us!
He is up there now
...
in a
line-of-battle ship.The fool!" Jack saw the little man in a crouch over
his controls. The ship lurched violently sideways, making them all gasp and
stagger. "Get well clear!" the scout muttered to himself. "Well
clear!
Out of field range.
There! And now!" he
shouted aloud. "Stand by that hatch and look if you want to see such a
sight as you never saw before, nor will ever again!"

Jack
caught her up and pressed to the hatch-edge, staring up at the enormous
"tree" of glowing blue that rose from the natural trees and towered
far above them into the dark sky, Haldar shoving by his side. "So
die,
Garmel!" the little scout cried
...
and up there they saw a new star, tiny at
first, that
grew and grew until it shone like the sun. And still it grew, white and
glaring, more and more, until the heat from it scorched their faces. But then
that fearsome disk darkened to blood-red from the center outward, and there
came noise, a vast and battering cascade of sound violent enough to feel, that
shook them. Jack felt himself shaken like a leaf in a gale, his head filling
and overflowing with echoes. Stunned and fearful, seeing that sudden star die
and leave a speckled hole in the dark, he drew a shaky breath, and then choked
on it, as the sky-piercing grid started to shiver, and shake, and fade, until
there was only the shimmering ghost of it left.
And then . .
. nothing at all.

Shaking
his head stupidly to clear the bells from it, his nostrils were filled with an
old familiar scent, that indefinable blend of growing things . . . and dew . .
. and near-dawn. Then came the chirp and chatter of birds as they regained
their courage after the outrage and proceeded to herald the sun as they had
always done. Over there, above the dark treetops, the sky was starting to
blush.

"Now
it is all over!" Jasar
said, but Jack didn't need to be told. He looked down and aside to see the glow
in Sil-vana's eyes.

"Welcome to my world,"
he said, and she smiled.

"I
love it already. It smells and sounds so very like my own. You must show me all
its wonders."

"For what they are, gladly.
But now
...
Jasar, will you put out the gangway, so that I may go and tell my mother I am
returned safely. And prepare her for guests, too."

"That's
a kind thought." Silvana nodded. "That awful blast will have
frightened her, for sure."

"And
everyone else for miles around!" Haldar agreed. "That was indeed a
spectacle, Jasar!"

"It
may have been a little too good," the little scout muttered. "
I’ ll
need to check my systems. Make my apologies to your
mother, Jack, if I do not come immediately. There are one or two things wrong
here that I must look into."

Jack climbed up onto the gangway and ran
down, feeling an odd pang as his feet settled on grass again.
Real grass.
The real world.
Home!
And there was the corner of the cottage, showing beyond the berry bushes. He
ran, all at once urgent and excited, leaping the carrot patch, along the path,
turning the corner
...
and there in
the open doorway his mother stood with a hand to her head, still staring to
where that grid had been only moments before. Her hair in loose disarray
drifted in the breeze that caught her nightdress. The sound of his feet brought
her around in momentary fear,
then
she gasped, stared.

"Jack!"
Her voice quavered. "Is it really you? I thought never to see you
again!" She came to clutch him, hug him as if to convince
herself
. "All yesterday I grieved, finding you gone,
thinking you dead!"

"Not dead, Mother, though near to it a
time or two. I'm back, safe and sound, and with a friend or two. You will find
them good people. And we have many wonderful things to tell you!"

She
drew back from him in instant dismay. "You bring visitors, at this hour?
The house is not fit to be seen, nor
myself
, for that
matter!"

"They
will not think anything of that. We have come far and suffered much misfortune.
We need food and rest above everything else."

"May
the saints keep me!" she cried.
"Full well you now
there is naught in my larder but a few herbs and a crust or two.
Will
you shame us utterly?
And where got you the fine cloth?
And those baubles?"
She stretched her hand to the
jewels on his chest and he laughed.

"You shall hear all about those, soon.
Put on the stew-pot and do what you can. I will bring them!"

"When
is the stew-pot ever off the fire?" she retorted. "Without it we
would starve. I think I can find one last loaf, and some pork scraps. Go and
bring them if you must, but give me time to dress and arrange my hair. It is
hardly dawn! Visitors!
Was there ever such a son!"

Jack
laughed, and turned and ran back to where the ship was. Haldar was out and
standing by a tree, the first sun rays striking gold from his hair and beard
and finding fire in the still-moist velvet of his tunic. Silvana, by
bis
side, had again donned the dark, brief jersey garment.
She seemed a part of the woodland as she cast her head back to look up. They
both appeared to be listening for something. As he drew near he heard her say:

"There!
There he is. That black featherball with the yellow beak. Let me talk to
him." She opened her lips, drew a breath, and trilled a lilt to the
blackbird high above. Jack halted, held his breath as the bird up there cocked
his head and twittered back at her. She laughed softly, turned to him.
"I've made a friend already. And there are so many more. I want to meet
them all."

"So you shall," he promised.
"But first
...
listen. I have
told my mother that I am bringing you, and she is dis-
tressed because she has hut little to offer you. We are poor
people
___
"