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."Red said, "Hildy, I've got to ask you something.There's a ship down there.Are you three going to escape in it?"She frowned."I suppose Jat will try and get back to Venus for help.Why?""You're not going?""Not without my father.""And you, Chandler?""Those people are my friends.There may be some way I can help.A lot of them will die before help can possibly get here."Red measured Jat's strength."I can take that ship from you." Hildy's face was suddenly brighter than the sunlight.She put her hands on his arms and smiled and said, "But you won't.You're beginning to see, Red, aren't you? You're realizing that the people you've known are only a small part of humanity.Haven't you ever felt lonely, Red? Out there in space, with no one to speak to, nothing to trust, nothing to work for?" He looked away from her, out to the insulated hangar that meant freedom, the old life.Her hands were warm and strong on him, and they never quivered."Lonely?" he whispered."I never knew till now." He broke away sharply."Jat, take that ship and clear out.Get help here as fast as you can.Chandler—"Chandler said, "Hold on.There's Rakshi."They looked out.Far below, a little floating dot pressed over the hangar dome, trailing a pencil of pale flame.Then it flashed away, back to the great black cube tilted drunkenly in the neat green fields, with one corner crumpled and the square ports split."Fused the hangar opening," said Jat bitterly."So that's that." Chandler turned his brown eyes to Red."Do you know of any way?""Perhaps." He was thinking of a man in black armor, and a vengeance that had waited too long."Anyway, I'll try."He sat down with them to wait until dark.And he laughed suddenly."It doesn't make sense, any of it.You know that."Markham Chandler smiled."The best things," he said softly, "seldom do."* * *Plans were completed by dark.Red and the Martian went cautiously back to the caves for arms.There was no sign of a search."Too busy," growled Red."That's what I'm gambling on.They're in a fever for new bodies, and there are only nine of 'em to work." Coming back, Red had an idea.He stripped the heavy glassy-scaled wings from several of the fallen bats."Armor," he said briefly.When it was time, they went out into the stifling, moonless dark, going down the valley toward the broken cube.Steam from the hot springs choked them, and the rich earth was warm underfoot.There was a Rakshi on guard.Red grinned."All right," he whispered."Cover me.And if I don't see you again."Hildy said, "Good luck, Red.God go with you." She kissed him, firmly on the lips.Jat and Markham Chandler shook hands with him.Red let his head drop."I still don't know why I'm doing this.Maybe if I come back." He shrugged and went away, going softly through thick undergrowth.The glassy bat wings hanging against his body made a tiny clicking.The Rakshi stopped suddenly in his drifting patrol.He didn't look at Red, but beyond, and Red smiled.The three he had just left were thinking hard at the Rakshi, thinking threats and plans, trying to cover Red's mind.He crept on, his mind guarded.The Rakshi made a single dart toward the noisy minds.Red got behind him.His blaster made a brief bright flare in the blackness."Eight," he said grimly, and climbed in through the riven port.There was no one in the control room, or the dark well beyond.He could hear muffled sounds from the prisoners.He didn't try to release them.Their suddenly-altered thought pattern would warn the Rakshi no matter what they were doing.But two brains, wary and guarded, might be blanketed, might go unnoticed long enough.One mind, if Crom had died in the wreck.But Crom's sword would still be there.The floor of the well tilted crazily, but the walls, here in the heart of the cube, were not much buckled.The Titan in black mail lay still on his block, his eyes open, fixed on the sword.Red padded softly across the floor.The heavy iron doors were all shut.He came up beside the block and whispered, "Crom!" He thought for a long moment that the man was dead.The black, fixed eyes never wavered.Then, from a vast, cold distance, "Go away.The stink of you makes me sick."Red said, "I discovered something, Crom.I am a human—and proud of it." The eyes moved then.They came slowly to Red's face, and a fire began to burn in them, deep and terrible."You lie.The gods blast you!"Red said doggedly, "How do I get you loose?" The mad black eyes seared into his, but this time he could meet them.He felt Crom's brain beating at his, and he didn't stop it."Gods, gods, gods!" whispered Crom."Don't give me hope again!" Red said, "How, Crom? Before it's too late." This time he couldn't meet Crom's eyes."Take out the tubes and bind my wrists.I'll live long enough." He did it, binding the round holes tight with strips from his tunic."Now, Crom.The shackles.""Take down my sword.Hold it by the grip only." Red climbed on the block.The sword was heavy in his hands.He got it free and climbed down again."Lay the blade across the iron bands."Wild violet light sheeted out.Molten metal sparked and ran.Red stood back, pulses hammering thick and hot in his throat and head.Slowly, slowly, Crom rose from his block and stood.Red put the sword in his hands.A cold shudder shook him.It wasn't Crom's body doing this impossible thing.It was something beyond, something primal and burning strong as the sun.There was a grating clang of metal behind him.He spun around.Korah floated in the red dusk, smiling, his light tube raised."Well, Red," he said softly, "I thought you might come back." Then he saw the giant standing, his hair spread like a sable cloak over the block and the rusty iron floor.His face turned to a pale, glowing mask, and his opal eyes had death in them.He didn't speak.But the light tube steadied.The blinding beam struck Crom fairly across the eyes.* * *Red fired.The flame of his blaster shot wide as Korah made his car dip aside.Crom cried out, a great thundering roar.Red cursed silently and went in closer.He fired again, and missed again.The Rakshi was diabolically quick.Crom was abruptly quiet.Korah laughed, the tip of his blue tongue sharp between his pointed teeth.His beam flicked to Red.Red smiled without mirth.With his free hand he held one of the bat wings to shield his face, firing from the shelter of it.The blaster flame just grazed Korah's gleaming shoulder.Red heard, behind him, the ring and groan of Crom's armor and the heavy, dragging whisper of his hair.Korah's face tightened.His beam shifted strength, shot down below Red's guard to leave a seared weal across his midriff.Then it went to Crom again [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]