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dazzling brilliance.
"I'm glad," she whispered, and pressed her head against Court's chest. "I'm
glad you're human, after all."
Yes, Court thought to himself, he was human. For years he had refused to admit
it, -
But now-a chuckle started behind his lips-he gloried in~ it! -
The others came running up, staring at Marion. She drew away from Court. -
"Thordred wrecked the lab," she explained. "Who are these men?" -
She eyed them inquisitively. - -
"No time for introductions now," Court snapped. "Tell me what's happened.
You've seen Thordred, or you wouldn't know his name." - -
She nodded. "He came here two hours ago and -destroyed the house. I was the
only one who got out alive. I saw the ship not far away. When I started to
run, a beam of light flashed out and I was paralyzed! A huge bearded man came
running and carried me into the ship. He seemed to know who I was."
"Of course," Court agreed. "He acquired all my memories with his damned
machine."
"There was a girl called Jansaiya. She didn't say anything. She just watched.
Thordred showed me dozens of men and women in the ship, asleep, cataleptic. He
said he had captured them to start a new civilization. He was going to another
planet-and he'd decided to take me, too. Since I'd been your assistant, Steve,
he figured I'd be a good assistant for him. My scientific training would be
invaluable to him. He told me you were dead, that he'd killed you with a ray
in New York."
"So he thinks I'm dead," Court observed. "That means he didn't know the ray
only paralyzed me."
Marion didn't look at him as she continued.
"I pretended to fall in with Thordred's wishes, said - I'd go with him. So he
didn't bother to put me into catalepsy. He started the motors and the ship
began to rise. Then I-I-"
"Go on," Court said gently. -
"He wasn't watching me. I saw what he was doing at the instrument panel, and I
jumped at it. Somehow I pushed all -the levers and buttons before he grabbed
me. The ship crashed. I wanted to kill Thordred, Steve, because I thought he'd
killed you. If you were dead, I didn't want to keep on living."
For answer, Court drew the girl closer. She went on talking hurriedly.
"The ship was wrecked completely. It's right over the ridge. All the prisoners
were killed, and Jansaiya was hurt. - I tried -to help her, but Thordred
dragged me away. I don't know how he got me out alive. He was like a madman.
He salvaged some weapons from the wreck, and made me gO with him- I don't know
why, or what he intended. I think he wanted to kill me later, Steve. Slowly!"
-
Court's face was chalk-white. Clipping his words, he gave his orders. -
"Let's find the ship. We may be able to salvage something,
too. Li Yang, Scipio, watch out for Thordred, though I don't think he'll
bother us now."
The four mounted the slope. At the top of the ridge they halted. In the valley
before them lay the vast golden bulk of the space ship, near a streamlet that
made a winding ribbon of quick-silver between its banks. There was no sign of
life near the vesseL -
They descended the slope. Suddenly Marion cried out softly and gripped Court's
arm. The four halted abruptly.
A shining oval drifted into view from behind a bush. It was a Carrier, a
glowing fog, fading toward its, edges into invisibility. With more than human
speed, it moved toward the group.
Court instinctively thrust the girl behind him. Scipio lifted his hard fist in
futile defiance. Then he remembered the saber and drew it.
But there was no defense against a Carrier, Court knew. He opened his mouth to
shout a command to flee. But for some reason that he could not define, he
waited.
The shining thing had halted. It was motionless, and Court was conscious of an
intent regard. The creature was watching him. Why? Such a thing had never
happened before. Always the Carrier had leaped eagerly, avidly, upon their
prey. Why did this horror wait?
Court inexplicably felt something stir and move in his brain. Briefly the
image~of old Sammy, with his brown, wrinkled face and his mop of white hair,
rose- up vividly in his mind. Behind him, Marion's voice whispered like a
prayer.
"Sammy!"
The shining thing seemed to hear. It hesitated and drew back. Suddenly it
turned, speeding up the slope, and vanished over the ridge.
"Good God!" Court whispered through dry lips. "Marion, do you think that
was-Sammy?"
White-faced, the girl nodded.
"Yes, Steve. And I think he knew us, remembered us. That's why-" She could not
go on. -
"Well," Scipio broke in roughly, "why do we wait? Let's go on."
In silence, Court led the way down the slope. Presently he shivered a little,
and Marion glanced sharply at him.
"Do you feel that, too?"
"What? Wait a minute, yes. Some radiation-"
"There!" Li Yang sai-d, pointing. -
Court followed the gesture, saw the spot of light.
Blazing like the heart of a blue sun, flaming with a fierce and terrible
radiance, the light-speck glowed upon the hull of the ship. Instantly Court
guessed what it was. The atomic energy that powered the huge motors had broken
free. No longer prisoned by its guarding, resistant sheath, it was sending its
powerful vibrations out like ripples widening on a pool.
"Don't go any closer!" Court clutched Scipio's arm, halting him. "That's
dangerous. It can fry us to a crisp."
"Gods!" The Carthaginian stared. "Is that true? A mere glow of light?"
In theory Court knew something of atomic energy, though -it had never been
achieved practically on earth. In the old days, men had feared that unleashed
atomic energy would destroy the whole planet, its fiery breath spreading
swiftly like a poisonous infection. But Court knew there was no danger of
that. The rate of matter-consumption was far too slow. In a thousand years, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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