XXI.
"Drop that equipment and Kerk will undoubtedly pull both your arms off,"Jason said. "He's over there now, looking as sorry as possible that Iever talked him into this."
Skop cursed under the bulky mass of the psi detector, passing it up toMeta who waited in the open port of the spaceship. Jason supervised theloading, and blasted all the local life that came to investigate.Horndevils were thick this morning and he shot four of them. He was lastaboard and closed the lock behind him.
"Where are you going to install it?" Meta asked.
"You tell me," Jason said. "I need a spot for the antenna where therewill be no dense metal in front of the bowl to interfere with thesignal. Thin plastic will do, or if worst comes to worst I can mount itoutside the hull with a remote drive."
"You may have to," she said. "The hull is an unbroken unit, we do allviewing by screen and instruments. I don't think ... wait ... there isone place that might do."
She led the way to a bulge in the hull that marked one of the lifeboats.They went in through the always-open lock, Skop struggling after themwith the apparatus.
"These lifeboats are half buried in the ship," Meta explained. "Theyhave transparent front ports covered by friction shields that withdrawautomatically when the boat is launched."
"Can we pull back the shields now?"
"I think so," she said. She traced the launching circuits to a junctionbox and opened the lid. When she closed the shield relay manually, theheavy plates slipped back into the hull. There was a clear view, sincemost of the viewport projected beyond the parent ship.
"Perfect," Jason said. "I'll set up here. Now how do I talk to you inthe ship?"
"Right here," she said. "There's a pre-tuned setting on thiscommunicator. Don't touch anything else--and particularly not thisswitch." She pointed to a large pull-handle set square into the centerof the control board. "Emergency launching. Two seconds after that ispulled the lifeboat is shot free. And it so happens this boat has nofuel."
"Hands off for sure," Jason said. "Now have Husky there run me in a linewith ship's power and I'll get this stuff set up."
The detector was simple, though the tuning had to be precise. Adish-shaped antenna pulled in the signal for the delicately balanceddetector. There was a sharp fall-off on both sides of the input sodirection could be precisely determined. The resulting signal was fed toan amplifier stage. Unlike the electronic components of the first stage,this one was drawn in symbols on white paper. Carefully glued-on inputand output leads ran to it.
When everything was ready and clamped into place, Jason nodded to Meta'simage on the screen. "Take her up--and easy please. None of your nine-Gspecials. Go into a slow circle around the perimeter, until I tell youdifferently."
* * * * *
Under steady power the ship lifted and grabbed for altitude, then easedinto its circular course. They made five circuits of the city beforeJason shook his head.
"The thing seems to be working fine, but we're getting too much noisefrom all the local life. Get thirty kilometers out from the city andstart a new circuit."
The results were better this time. A powerful signal came from thedirection of the city, confined to less than a degree of arc. With theantenna fixed at a right angle to the direction of the ship's flight,the signal was fairly constant. Meta rotated the ship on its main axis,until Jason's lifeboat was directly below.
"Going fine now," he said. "Just hold your controls as they are and keepthe nose from drifting."
After making a careful mark on the setting circle, Jason turned thereceiving antenna through one hundred eighty degrees of arc. As the shipkept to its circle, he made a slow collecting sweep of any signalsbeamed at the city. They were halfway around before he got a new signal.
It was there all right, narrow but strong. Just to be sure he let theship complete two more sweeps, and he noted the direction on thegyro-compass each time. They coincided. The third time around he calledto Meta.
"Get ready for a full right turn, or whatever you call it. I think Ihave our bearing. Get ready--_now_."
It was a slow turn and Jason never lost the signal. A few times itwavered, but he brought it back on. When the compass settled down Metapushed on more power.
They set their course towards the native Pyrrans.
An hour's flight at close to top atmospheric speed brought no change.Meta complained, but Jason kept her on course. The signal never variedand was slowly picking up strength. They crossed the chain of volcanoesthat marked the continental limits, the ship bucking in the fiercethermals. Once the shore was behind and they were over water, Skopjoined Meta in grumbling. He kept his turret spinning, but there wasvery little to shoot at this far from land.
When the islands came over the horizon the signal began to dip.
"Slow now," Jason called. "Those islands ahead look like our source!"
A continent had been here once, floating on Pyrrus' liquid core.Pressures changed, land masses shifted, and the continent had sunkbeneath the ocean. All that was left now of the teeming life of thatland mass was confined to a chain of islands, once the mountain peaks ofthe highest range of mountains. These islands, whose sheer, sides rosestraight from the water, held the last inhabitants of the lostcontinent. The weeded-out descendants, of the victors of uncountableviolent contests. Here lived the oldest native Pyrrans.
"Come in lower," Jason signaled. "Towards that large peak. The signalsseem to originate there."
They swooped low over the mountain, but nothing was visible other thanthe trees and sun-blasted rock.
The pain almost took Jason's head off. A blast of hatred that drovethrough the amplifier and into his skull. He tore off the phones, andclutched his skull between his hands. Through watering eyes he saw theblack cloud of flying beasts hurtle up from the trees below. He had asingle glimpse of the hillside beyond, before Meta blasted power to theengines and the ship leaped away.
"We've found them!" Her fierce exultation faded as she saw Jason throughthe communicator. "Are you all right? What happened?"
"Feel ... burned out ... I've felt a psi blast before, but nothing likethat! I had a glimpse of an opening, looked like a cave mouth, justbefore the blast hit. Seemed to come from there."
"Lie down," Meta said. "I'll get you back as fast as I can. I'm callingahead to Kerk, he has to know what happened."
* * * * *
A group of men were waiting in the landing station when they came down.They stormed out as soon as the ship touched, shielding their faces fromthe still-hot tubes. Kerk burst in as soon as the port was cracked,peering around until he spotted Jason stretched out on an accelerationcouch.
"Is it true?" he barked. "You've traced the alien criminals who startedthis war?"
"Slow, man, slow," Jason said. "I've traced the source of the psimessage that keeps your war going. I've found no evidence as to whostarted this war, and certainly wouldn't go so far as to call themcriminals--"
"I'm tired of your word-play," Kerk broke in. "You've found thesecreatures and their location has been marked."
"On the chart," Meta said, "I could fly there blindfolded."
"Fine, fine," Kerk said, rubbing his hands together so hard they couldhear the harsh rasp of the callouses. "It takes a real effort to graspthe idea that, after all these centuries, the war might be coming to anend. But it's possible now. Instead of simply killing off theseself-renewing legions of the damned that attack us, we can get to theleaders. Search them out, carry the war to them for a change--and blasttheir stain from the face of this planet!"
"Nothing of the sort!" Jason said, sitting up with an effort. "Nothingdoing! Since I came to this planet I have been knocked around, andrisked my life ten times over. Do you think I have done this just tosatisfy your blood-thirsty ambitions? It's peace I'm after--notdestruction. You promised to contact these creatures, attempt tonegotiate with them. Aren't you a man of honor who keeps his word?"
"I'll ign
ore the insult--though I'd have killed you for it at any othertime," Kerk said. "You've been of great service to our people, we arenot ashamed to acknowledge an honest debt. At the same time--do notaccuse me of breaking promises that I never made. I recall my exactwords. I promised to go along with any reasonable plan that would endthis war. That is just what I intend to do. Your plan to negotiate apeace is not reasonable. Therefore we are going to destroy the enemy."
"Think first," Jason called after Kerk, who had turned to leave. "Whatis wrong with trying negotiation or an armistice? Then, if that fails,you can try your way."
The compartment was getting crowded as other Pyrrans pushed in. Kerk,almost to the door, turned back to face Jason.
"I'll tell you what's wrong with armistice," he said. "It's a coward'sway out, that's what it is. It's all right for you to suggest it, you'refrom off-world and don't know any better. But do you honestly think Icould entertain such a defeatist notion for one instant? When I speak, Ispeak not only for myself, but for all of us here. We don't mindfighting, and we know how to do it. We know that if this war was over wecould build a better world here. At the same time, if we have the choiceof continued war or a cowardly peace--_we vote for war_. This war willonly be over when the enemy is utterly destroyed!"
The listening Pyrrans shouted in agreement, and when Kerk pushed outthrough the crowd some of them patted his shoulder as he went by. Jasonslumped back on the couch, worn out by his exertions and exhausted bythe attempt to win the violent Pyrrans over to a peaceful point of view.
When he looked up they were gone--all except Meta. She had the same lookof blood-thirsty elation as the others, but it drained away when sheglanced at him.
"What about it, Meta?" he asked bitterly. "No doubts? Do you think thatdestruction is the only way to end this war?"
"I don't know," she said. "I can't be sure. For the first time in mylife I find myself with more than one answer to the same question."
"Congratulations," he said. "It's a sign of growing up."