CHAPTER V
Nevian Strife
The Nevian space-ship was hurtling upon its way. Space-navigators both,the two Terrestrial officers soon discovered that it was even thenmoving with a velocity far above that of light and that it must beaccelerating at a stupendous rate, even though to them it seemedstationary--they could feel only a gravitational force somewhat lessthan that of their native earth.
Bradley, seasoned old campaigner that he was, had retired promptly assoon as he had completed a series of observations, and was sleepingsoundly upon a pile of cushions in the first of the threeinter-connecting rooms. In the middle room, which was to be Clio's,Costigan was standing very close to the girl, but was not touching her.His body was rigid, his face was tense and drawn.
"You are wrong, Conway; all wrong," Clio was saying, very seriously. "Iknow how you feel, but it's false chivalry."
"That isn't it, at all," he insisted, stubbornly. "It isn't only thatI've got you out here in space, in danger and alone, that's stopping me.I know you and I know myself well enough to know that what we start nowwe'll go through with for life. It doesn't make any difference, thatway, whether I start making love to you now or whether I wait untilwe're back on Tellus--I've been telling you for half an hour that foryour own good you'd better pass me up entirely. I've got enoughhorsepower to keep away from you if you tell me to--not otherwise."
"I know it, both ways, dear, but...."
"But nothing!" he interrupted. "Can't you get it into your skull whatyou'll be letting yourself in for if you marry me? Assume that we getback, which isn't sure, by any means. But even if we do, some day--andmaybe soon, too, you can't tell--somebody is going to collect fiftygrams of radium for my head."
"Fifty grams--and everybody knows that Samms himself is rated at onlysixty? I _knew_ that you were somebody, Conway!" Clio exclaimed,undeterred. "But at that, something tells me that any pirate will earneven that much reward several times over before he collects it. Don't besilly, dear heart--good-night."
She tipped her head back, holding up to him her red, sweetly curved,smiling lips, and his eager arms, hitherto kept away from her by sheerforce of will, swept around her in almost fierce intensity. As his hotlips met hers, her arms crept up around his neck and they stood, claspedtogether in the motionless ecstasy of love's first embrace.
"Girl, girl, how I love you!" Costigan's voice was husky, his usuallyhard eyes were glowing with a tender light. "That settles that. I'llreally _live_ now, anyway, while...."
"Stop it!" she commanded, sharply. "You're going to live until you dieof old age--see if you don't. You'll simply _have_ to, Conway!"
"That's so, too--no percentage in dying now. All the pirates betweenTellus and Andromeda couldn't take me after this--I've got too much tolive for. Well, good-night, sweetheart, I'd better beat it--you needsome sleep."
The lovers' parting was not as simple and straightforward a procedure asCostigan's speech would indicate, but finally he did seek his own roomand relaxed upon a pile of cushions, his stern visage transformed.Instead of the low metal ceiling he saw a beautiful, oval, tanned youngface, framed in a golden-blonde corona of hair. His gaze sank into thedepths of loyal, honest, dark-blue eyes; and looking deeper and deeperinto those blue wells he fell asleep. Upon his face, too set and grim byfar for a man of his years--the lives of Sector Chiefs of the T. S. S.are never easy, nor as a rule are they long--there lingered as he sleptthat newly acquired softness of expression, the reflection of histranscendent happiness.
For eight hours he slept soundly, as was his wont; then, also accordingto his habit and training, he came wide awake, with no intermediatestage of napping.
"Clio?" he whispered. "Awake, girl?"
"Awake!" Her voice came through the ultra-phone, relief in everysyllable. "Good heavens, I thought you were going to sleep until we gotto wherever it is that we're going! Come on in, you two--I don't see howyou can possibly sleep, just as though you were home in bed."
"You've got to learn to sleep anywhere if you expect to keep in...."Costigan broke off as he opened the door and saw Clio's wan face. Shehad evidently spent a sleepless and wracking eight hours. "Good Lord,Clio, why didn't you call me?"
"Oh, I'm all right, except for being a little jittery. No need of askinghow _you_ feel, is there?"
"No--I feel hungry," he answered cheerfully. "I'm going to see what wecan do about it--or say, guess I'll see whether they're stillinterfering on Samms' wave."
He took out a small, insulated case and touched the contact stud lightlywith his fingers. His arm jerked away powerfully.
"Still at it," he gave the necessary explanation. "They don't seem towant us to talk outside, but his interference is as good as mytalking--they can trace it, of course. Now I'll see what I can find outabout our breakfast."
He stepped over to the plate and shot its projector beam forward intothe control room, where he saw Nerado lying, doglike, at his instrumentpanel. As Costigan's beam entered the room a blue light flashed on andthe Nevian turned an eye and an arm toward his own small observationplate. Knowing that they were now in visual communication, Costiganbeckoned an invitation and pointed to his mouth in what he hoped was theuniversal sign of hunger. The Nevian waved an arm and fingered controls,and as he did so a wide section of the floor of Clio's room slid aside.The opening thus made revealed a table which rose upon its low pedestal,a table equipped with three softly cushioned benches and spread with aglittering array of silver and glassware. Bowls and platters ofdazzlingly white metal, narrow-waisted goblets of sheerest crystal; allwere hexagonal, beautifully and intricately carved or etched inapparently conventional marine designs. And the table utensils of thisstrange race were peculiar indeed. There were tearing forceps of sixteenneedle-sharp curved teeth; there were flexible spatulas; there were deepand shallow ladles with flexible edges; there were many other peculiarlycurved instruments at whose uses the Terrestrials could no even guess;all having delicately fashioned handles to fit the long, slender fingersof the Nevians.
But if the table and its appointments were surprising to theTerrestrials, revealing as they did a degree of culture which none ofthem had expected to find in a race of beings so monstrous, the food waseven more surprising, although in another sense. For the wonderfulcrystal goblets were filled with a grayish-green slime of a nauseous andoverpowering odor, the smaller bowls were full of living sea spiders andother such delicacies; and each large platter contained a fish fully afoot long, raw and whole, garnished tastefully with red, purple, andgreen strands of seaweed!
Clio looked once, then gasped, shutting her eyes and turning away fromthe table, but Costigan flipped the three fish into a platter and set itaside before he turned back to the visiplate.
"They'll go good fried," he remarked to Bradley, signaling vigorously toNerado that the meal was not acceptable and that he wanted to talk tohim, _in person_. Finally he made himself clear, the table sank down outof sight, and the Nevian commander cautiously entered the room.
At Costigan's insistence, he came up to the plate, leaving near the doorthree guards armed with projectors in instant readiness. The operativethen shot the beam into the galley of the pirate's lifeboat, suggestingthat they should be allowed to live there. For some time the argument ofarms and fingers raged--though not exactly a fluent conversation, bothsides managed to convey their meanings quite clearly. Nerado would notallow the Terrestrials to visit their own ship--he was taking nochances--but after a thorough ultra-ray inspection he did finally ordersome of his men to bring into the middle room the electric range and asupply of Terrestrial food. Soon the Nevian fish were sizzling in a panand the appetizing odors of coffee and of browning biscuit permeated theroom. But at the first appearance of those odors the Nevians departedhastily, content to watch the remainder of the curious and repulsiveprocedure in their visiray plates.
Breakfast over and everything made tidy and shipshape, Costigan turnedto Clio.
"Look here, girl; you've got to learn how to sleep. You're a
ll in. Youreyes look like you'd been on a Martian picnic and you didn't eat halfenough breakfast. You've got to sleep and eat to keep fit. We don't wantyou passing out on us, so I'll put out this light, and you'll lie downhere and sleep until noon."
"Oh, no; don't bother. I'll sleep to-night. I'm quite...."
"You'll sleep now," he informed her, levelly. "I never thought of youbeing nervous, with Bradley and me on each side of you. We're both righthere now, though, and we'll stay here. We'll watch over you like acouple of old hens with one chick between them. Come on; lie down and gobye-bye."
Clio laughed at the simile, but lay down obediently. Costigan sat uponthe edge of the great divan, holding her hand, and they chatted idly.The silences grew longer, Clio's remarks became fewer, and soon herlong-lashed lids fell and her deep, regular breathing showed that shewas sound asleep. The man stared at her, his very heart in his eyes. Soyoung, so beautiful, so lovely--and _how_ he did love her! He was notformally religious, but his every thought was a sincere prayer. If hecould only get her out of this mess ... he wasn't fit to live on thesame planet with her, but ... just give him one chance, just one!
But Costigan had been laboring for days under a terrific strain, and hadbeen going very short on sleep. Half hypnotized by his own mixedemotions and by his staring at the smooth curves of Clio's cheek, hisown eyes closed and, still holding her hand, he sank down into the softcushions beside her and into oblivion.
Thus sleeping hand-in-hand like two children Bradley found them, and atender, fatherly expression came over his face as he looked down atthem.
"Nice little girl, Clio," he mused, "and when they made Costigan theybroke the mould. They'll do--about as fine a couple of kids as oldTellus ever produced. I could do with some more sleep myself." He yawnedprodigiously, lay down at Clio's left, and almost instantly was himselfasleep.
Hours later, both men were awakened by a merry peal of laughter. Cliowas sitting up, regarding them with sparkling eyes. She was refreshed,buoyant, ravenously hungry and highly amused. Costigan was amazed andannoyed at what he considered a failure in a self-appointed task;Bradley was calm and matter-of-fact.
"Thanks for being such a nice bodyguard, you two," Clio laughed again,but sobered quickly. "I slept wonderfully well, but I wonder if I cansleep to-night without making you hold my hand all night?"
"Oh, he doesn't mind doing that," Bradley commented.
"Mind it!" Costigan exclaimed, and his eyes and his tone spoke volumesthat his tongue left unsaid.
They prepared and ate another meal, one to which Clio did full justice;and, rested and refreshed, had begun to discuss possibilities of escapewhen Nerado and his three armed guards entered the room. The Nevianscientist placed a box upon a table and began to make adjustments uponits panels, eyeing the Terrestrials attentively after each setting.After a time a staccato burst of articulate speech issued from the box,and Costigan saw a great light.
"You've got it--hold it!" he exclaimed, waving his arms excitedly. "Yousee, Clio, their voices are pitched either higher or lower thanours--probably higher--and they've built an audio-frequency changer.He's nobody's fool, that fish!"
Nerado heard Costigan's voice; there was no doubt of that. His long necklooped and angled in Nevian gratification, and, although neither sidecould understand the other, both knew that intelligent speech andhearing were attributes common to the two races. This fact alteredmarkedly the relations between captors and captives. The Neviansadmitted among themselves that the strange bipeds might be quiteintelligent, after all; and the Terrestrials at once became morehopeful.
"It isn't so bad, if they can talk," Costigan summed up the situation."We might as well take it easy and make the best of it, particularlysince we haven't been able to figure out any possible way of gettingaway from them. They can talk and hear, and we can learn their languagein time. Maybe we can make some kind of a deal with them to take us backto our own system, if we can't make a break."
The Nevians being as eager as the Terrestrials to establishcommunication, Nerado kept the newly devised frequency-changer inconstant use. There is no need of describing at length the details ofthat interchange of languages. Suffice it to say that starting at thevery bottom they learned as babies learn, but with the great advantageover babies of possessing fully developed and capable brains. And whilethe human beings were learning the tongue of Nevia, several of theamphibians (and incidentally Clio Marsden) were learning Triplanetarian;the two officers knowing well that it would be much easier for theNevians to learn the logically-built common language of the ThreePlanets than to master the senseless intricacies of English.
In a few weeks the two parties were able to understand each other aftera fashion, by using a weird mixture of both languages. As soon as a fewideas had been exchanged, the Nevian scientists built transformers smallenough to be worn collar-like by the Terrestrials, and the captives wereallowed to roam at will throughout the great vessel; only thecompartment in which was stored the dismembered pirate lifeboats beingsealed to them. Thus it was that they were not left long in doubt, whenanother fish-shaped cruiser of the world was revealed upon their lookoutplates in the awful emptiness of interstellar space.
"That is our sister-ship, going to your Solarian system for a cargo ofthe iron which is so plentiful there," Nerado explained to hisinvoluntary guests.
"I hope the gang has got the bugs worked out of our super-ship,"Costigan muttered savagely to his companions as Nerado turned away. "Ifthey have, that outfit will get something more than a load of iron whenthey get there!"
More weeks passed; weeks during which a blue-white star separated itselffrom the infinitely distant firmament and began to show a perceptibledisk. Larger and larger it grew, becoming bluer and bluer as the flyingspace-ship approached it, until finally Nevia could be seen, apparentlyclose beside her parent orb.
Heavily laden though the vessel was, such was her power that she wassoon dropping vertically toward a large lagoon in the middle of theNevian city. That bit of open water was strangely devoid of life, forthis was to be no ordinary landing. Under the terrific power of thebeams braking the descent of that unimaginable load of allotropic ironthe water seethed and boiled; and instead of floating gracefully uponthe surface of the sea, this time the huge ship of space sank like aplummet to the bottom. Having accomplished this delicate feat of dockingthe vessel safely in the immense cradle prepared for her, Nerado turnedto the Terrestrials, who, now under guard, had been brought before him.
"While our cargo of iron is being discharged, I am to take you threeTellurians to the College of Science, where you are to undergo athorough physical and psychological examination. Follow me."
"Wait a minute!" protested Costigan, with a quick and furtive wink athis companions. "Do you expect us to go _through water_, and at thisfrightful depth?"
"Certainly," replied the Nevian, in surprise. "You are air-breathers, ofcourse, but you must be able to swim a little, and this slightdepth--but little more than thirty of your meters--will not troubleyou."
"You are wrong, twice," declared the Terrestrial, convincingly. "If by'swimming' you mean propelling yourself in or through the water, we knownothing of it. In water over our heads we drown helplessly in a minuteor two, and the pressure at this depth would kill us instantly."
"Well, I could take a lifeboat, of course, but that...." The NevianCaptain began, doubtfully, but broke off at the sound of a staccato callfrom his signal panel.
"Captain Nerado, attention!"
"Nerado," he acknowledged into a microphone.
"The Third City is being attacked by the fishes of the greater deeps.They have developed new and powerful mobile fortresses mountingunheard-of weapons and the city reports that it cannot long withstandtheir attack. The inhabitants are asking for all possible help. Yourvessel not only has vast stores of iron, but also mounts weapons ofpower. You are requested to proceed to their aid at the earliestpossible moment."
Nerado snapped out orders and the liquid iron fell in streams from
wide-open ports, forming a vast, red pool in the bottom of the dock. Ina short time the great vessel was in equilibrium with the water shedisplaced, and as soon as she had attained a slight buoyancy the portssnapped shut and Nerado threw on the power.
"Go back to your own quarters and stay there until I send for you," theNevian directed, and as the Terrestrials obeyed the curt orders thefish-shaped cruiser of space tore herself from the water and flashed upinto the crimson sky.
"What a barefaced liar!" Bradley exclaimed. The three, transformers cutoff, were back in the middle room of their suite. "You can outswim anotter, and I happen to know that you came up out of the old DZ83 from adepth of...."
"Maybe I did exaggerate a trifle," Costigan interrupted him, "but themore helpless he thinks we are the better for us. And we want to stayout of any of their cities as long as we can, because they may be hardplaces to escape from. I've got a couple of ideas, but they aren't ripeenough to pick yet.... Wow! how this bird's been traveling! We're therealready! If he hits the water going like this, he'll split himself,sure!"
With undiminished velocity they were flashing downward in a long slanttoward the beleaguered Third City, and from the flying vessel there waslaunched toward the city's central lagoon a torpedo. No missile this,but a capsule containing a full ton of allotropic iron, which would beof more use to the Nevian defenders than millions of men. For the ThirdCity was sore pressed indeed. Around it was one unbroken ring ofboiling, exploding water--water billowing upward with searing, blindingbursts of superheated steam, or being hurled bodily in all directions insolid masses by the cataclysmic forces being released by the embattledfishes of the greater deeps. Her outer defenses were already down, andeven as the Terrestrials stared in amazement another of the immensehexagonal buildings burst into fragments; its upper structure flyingwildly into scrap metal, its lower half subsiding drunkenly below thesurface of the boiling sea.
The three Terrestrials involuntarily seized whatever supports were athand as the Nevian space-ship struck the water with undiminished speed,but the precaution was needless--Nerado knew thoroughly his vessel, itsstrength and its capabilities. There was a mighty splash, but that wasall. The artificial gravity was unchanged by the impact; to thepassengers the vessel was still motionless and on even keel as, now asubmarine, she snapped around like a very fish and attacked the rear ofthe nearest fortress.
For fortresses they were; vast structures of green metal, plowingforward implacably upon immense caterpillar treads. And as they crawledthey destroyed, and Costigan, exploring the strange submarine with hisvisiray beam, watched and marveled. For the fortresses were full ofwater; water artificially cooled and aerated, entirely separate from theboiling flood through which they moved. They were manned by fish somefive feet in length. Fish with huge, goggling eyes; fish plentifullyequipped with long, armlike tentacles; fish poised before control panelsor darting about intent upon their various duties. Fish with intelligentbrains, waging desperate war upon a hated foe!
Nor was their warfare ineffectual. Their heat-rays boiled the water forhundreds of yards before them and their torpedoes were exploding againstthe Nevian defenses in one appallingly continuous concussion. But mostpotent of all was a weapon unknown to Triplanetary warfare. From afortress there would shoot out, with the speed of a meteor, a long,jointed, telescopic rod, tipped with a tiny, brilliantly shining ball.Whenever this glowing tip encountered any obstacle, that obstacledisappeared in an explosion world-wracking in its intensity. Then whatwas left of the rod, dark now, would be retracted into thefortress--only to emerge again in a moment with a tip once more shiningand potent.
Nerado, apparently as unfamiliar with the peculiar weapon as were theTerrestrials, attacked cautiously; sending out far to the fore hismurkily impenetrable screens of red. But the submarine was entirelynon-ferrous, and its officers were apparently quite familiar with theNevian beams which licked at and clung to the green walls in impotentfury. Through the red veil came stabbing tiny ball after brilliant ball,and only the most frantic dodging saved the space-ship from destructionin those first few furious seconds. And now the Nevian defenders of theThird City had secured and were employing the vast store of allotropiciron so opportunely delivered by Nerado.
From the city there pushed out immense nets of metal, extending from thesurface of the ocean to its bottom; nets radiating such terrific forcesthat the very water itself was beaten back and stood motionless invertical, glassy walls. Torpedoes were futile against that wall ofenergy. The most fiercely driven rays of the fishes flamed incandescentagainst it, in vain. Even the incredible violence of a concentration ofevery available force-ball against one point could not break through. Atthat unimaginable explosion water was hurled for miles. The bed of theocean was not only exposed, but in it there was blown a crater at whosedimensions the Terrestrials dared not even guess. The crawlingfortresses themselves were thrown backward violently and the very worldwas rocked to its core by the concussion, but that iron-driven wallheld. The massive nets swayed and gave back, and tidal waves hurledtheir mountainously destructive masses through the Third City, but themighty barrier remained intact. And Nerado, still attacking two of thepowerful tanks with his every weapon, was still dodging those flashingballs charged with the quintessence of destruction. The fishes could notsee through the sub-ethereal veil, but all the rod-gunners of the twofortresses were combing it thoroughly with ever-lengthening,ever-thrusting rods, in a desperate attempt to wipe out the new andapparently all-powerful Nevian submarine, whose sheer power was slowlybut inexorably crushing even their gigantic walls.
"Well, I think that right now's the best chance we'll ever have of doingsomething for ourselves." Costigan turned away from the absorbing scenespictured upon the visiplate and faced his two companions.
"But what can we possibly do?" asked Clio, and
"Whatever it is, we'll try it!" Bradley exclaimed.
"Anything's better than staying here and letting them analyze us--notelling what they'd do to us," Costigan went on. "I know a lot moreabout things than they think I do. They never did catch me using myspy-ray--it's on an awfully narrow beam, you know, and uses almost nopower at all--so I've been able to dope out quite a lot of stuff. I canopen most of their locks, and I know how to run their small boats. Thisbattle, fantastic as it is, is deadly stuff, and it isn't one-sided, byany means, either, so that every one of them, from Nerado down, seems tobe on emergency duty. There are no guards watching us, or stationedwhere we want to go--our way out is open. And once out, this battle isgiving us our best possible chance to get away from them. There's somuch emission out there already that they probably couldn't detect thedriving rays of the lifeboat, and they'll be too busy to chase us,anyway."
"Once out, then what?" asked Bradley, eagerly.
"We'll have to decide that before we start, of course. I'd say make abreak back for our own Solarian system. We know the direction, from ourown observation, and we'll have plenty of power."
"But good Heavens, Conway, it's so far!" exclaimed Clio. "How aboutfood, water, and air--would we ever get there?"
"You know as much about that as I do. I think so, but of course anythingmight happen. This ship is none too big, is considerable slower than thebig space-ship, and we're a long ways from home. Another bad thing isthe food question. The boat is well stocked according to Nevian ideas,but it's pretty foul stuff for us to eat. However, it's nourishing, andwe'll have to eat it, since we can't carry enough of our own supplies tothe boat to last long. Even so, we may have to go on short rations, butI think that we'll be able to make it. On the other hand, what happensif we stay here? We will certainly strike trouble sooner or later, andwe don't know any too much about these ultra-weapons. We areland-dwellers, and there is mighty little land on this planet. Then,too, we don't know where to look for what little land there is, and,even if we could find it, we know that it is all over-run withamphibians already. There's a lot of things that might be better, butthey might be a lot worse, too. How about it? Do we try it or
do we stayhere?"
"We try it!" exclaimed Clio and Bradley as one.
"All right. I'd better not waste any more time talking--let's go!"
Stepping up to the locked and shielded door, he took out a peculiarlybuilt torch and pointed it briefly at the Nevian lock. There was nolight, no noise, but the massive portal swung smoothly open. Theystepped out and Costigan relocked and reshielded the entrance.
"How ... what ...?" Clio demanded, almost stuttering in her surprise.
"I've been going to school for the last few weeks," Costigan grinned,"and I've picked up quite a few things here and there--literally as wellas figuratively speaking. Snap it up, guys! Our armor is stored awaywith the pieces of the pirates' lifeboat, and I'll feel a lot betterwhen we've got it on and have hold of a few fresh Lewistons."
They hurried down corridors, up ramps, and along hallways, withCostigan's spy-ray investigating the course ahead for chance Nevians.Bradley and Clio were unarmed, but the secret agent had found a piece offlat metal and had ground it to a razor edge.
"I think I can throw this thing straight enough and fast enough to chopoff a Nevian's head before he can put a paralyzing ray on us," heexplained grimly, but he was not called upon to show his skill with theimprovised cleaver.
As he had concluded from his careful survey, every Nevian was at somecontrol or weapon, doing his part in that frightful combat with thedenizens of the greater deeps. Their part was open, they were neithermolested nor detected as they ran toward the compartment within whichwas sealed all their Terrestrial belongings. The door of that roomopened, as had the other, to Costigan's knowing beam; and all three sethastily to work. They made up packs of food, filled their capaciouspockets with emergency rations, recharged and buckled on Lewistons andautomatics, donned their armor, and clamped into their external holstersa full complement of additional weapons.
"Now comes the ticklish part of the business," Costigan informed them.His helmet was slowly turning this way and that, and the others knewthat through his spy-ray goggles he was studying their route. "There'sonly one boat we stand a chance of reaching, and somebody's mighty aptto see us. There's a lot of detectors up there, and we'll have to crossa corridor full of communicator beams. There, that line's off ...scoot!"
At his word they dashed out into the hall and hurried along for minutes,dodging to right or left as the leader snapped out orders. Finally hestopped.
"Here's those beams I told you about. We'll have to roll under 'em.They're less than waist high--right there's the lowest one. Watch me doit, and when I give you the word, one at a time, you do the same. _Keeplow_--don't let an arm or a leg get up into the path of a ray or theymay see us."
He threw himself flat, rolled upon the floor a yard or so, and scrambledto his feet. He gazed intently at the blank wall for a space, then:
"Bradley--now!" he snapped, and the Interplanetary captain duplicatedhis performance.
But Clio, unused to the heavy and cumbersome space-armor she waswearing, could not roll in it with any degree of success. When Costiganbarked his order she tried, but stopped, floundering, almost directlybelow the invisible network of communicator beams. As she struggled onemailed arm went up, and Costigan saw in his ultra-goggles the faintflash as the beam encountered the interfering field. But already he hadacted. Crouching low, he struck down the arm, seized it, and dragged thegirl out of the zone of visibility. Then in furious haste he opened anearby door and all three sprang into a tiny compartment.
"Shut off all the fields of your suits, so that they can't interfere!"he hissed into the utter darkness. "Not that I'd mind killing a few ofthem, but if they start an organized search we're sunk. But even if theydid get a warning by touching your glove, Clio, they probably won'tsuspect us. Our rooms are still shielded, and the chances are thatthey're too busy to bother much about us, anyway."
He was right. A few beams darted here and there, but the Nevians sawnothing amiss and ascribed the interference to the falling into the beamof some chance bit of charged metal. With no further misadventures theTerrestrials gained entrance to the Nevian lifeboat, where Costigan'sfirst act was to disconnect one steel boot from his armor of space. Witha sigh of relief he pulled his foot out of it, and from it carefullypoured into the small power-tank of the craft fully thirty pounds ofallotropic iron!
"I pinched it off them," he explained, in answer to amazed and inquiringlooks, "and maybe you don't think it's a relief to get it out of thatboot! I couldn't steal a flask to carry it in, so this was the onlyplace I could put it in. These lifeboats are equipped with only a coupleof grams of iron apiece, you know, and we couldn't get half-way back toTellus on that, even with smooth going; and we may have to fight. Withthis much to go on, though, we could go to Andromeda, fighting all theway. Well, we'd better break away."
Costigan watched his plate closely, and, when the maneuvering of thegreat vessel brought his exit port as far away as possible from theThird City and the warring citadels of the deep, he shot the littlecruiser out and away. Straight out into the ocean it sped, through themurky red veil, and darted upward toward the surface. The threewanderers sat tense, hardly daring to breathe, staring into theplates--Clio and Bradley pushing at metal levers and stepping down hardupon metal brakes in unconscious efforts to help Costigan dodge thebeams and rods of death flashing so appallingly close upon all sides.Out of the water and into the air the darting, dodging lifeboat flashedin safety; but in the air, supposedly free from menace, came disaster.There was a crunching, grating shock and the vessel was thrown into adizzy spiral, from which Costigan finally leveled it into headlongflight away from the scene of battle. Watching the pyrometers whichrecorded the temperature of the outer shell, he drove the lifeboat aheadat the highest safe atmospheric speed while Bradley went to inspect thedamage.
"Pretty bad, but better than I thought," the captain reported. "Outerand inner plates broken away on a seam. Inter-wall vacuum all lost, andwe wouldn't hold carpet-rags, let alone air. Any tools aboard?"
"Some--and what we haven't got we'll make," Costigan declared. "We'llput a lot of distance behind us, then we'll fix her up and get away fromhere."
"What are those fish, anyway, Conway?" Clio asked, as the lifeboat torealong. "The Nevians are bad enough, Heaven knows, but the very idea ofintelligent and _educated_ FISH is enough to drive one mad!"
"You know Nerado mentioned several times the 'semi-civilized fishes ofthe greater deeps'?" he reminded her. "I gather that there are at leastthree intelligent races here. We know two--the Nevians, who areamphibians, and the fishes of the greater deeps. The fishes of thelesser deeps are also intelligent. As I get it, the Nevian cities wereoriginally built in very shallow water, or perhaps were upon islands.The development of machinery and tools gave them a big edge on the fish;and those living in the shallow seas, nearest the islands, graduallybecame tributary nations, if not actually slaves. Those fish not onlyserve as food, but work in the mines, hatcheries, and plantations, anddo all kinds of work for the Nevians. Those so-called 'lesser deeps'were conquered first, of course, and all their races of fish are docileenough now. But the deep-sea breeds, who live in water so deep that theNevians can hardly stand the pressure down there, were more intelligentto start with, and more stubborn besides. But the most valuable metalshere are deep down--this planet is very light for its size, you know--sothe Nevians kept at it until they conquered some of the deep-sea fish,too, and put 'em to work. But those high-pressure boys were nobody'sfools. They realized that as time went on the amphibians would getfurther and further ahead of them in development, so they let themselvesbe conquered, learned how to use the Nevians' tools and everything elsethey could get hold of, developed a lot of new stuff of their own, andnow they're out to wipe the amphibians off the slate completely, beforethey get too far ahead of them to handle."
"And the Nevians are afraid of them, and want to kill them all, as fastas they possibly can," guessed Clio.
"That would be the logical thing, of course," commented Bradley. "Got
pretty nearly enough distance now, Costigan?"
"There isn't enough distance on the planet to suit me," Costiganreplied. "We'll need all we can get. A full diameter away from that crewof amphibians is too close for comfort--their detectors are keen."
"Then they can detect us?" Clio asked. "Oh, I wish they hadn't hitus--we'd have been away from here long ago."
"So do I," Costigan assented, feelingly. "But they did--no usesquawking. We can rivet and weld those seams and pump out the shell, andwe'd have to fill our air-tanks to capacity for the trip, anyway. Andthings could be a lot worse--we are still breathing air!"
In silence the lifeboat flashed onward, and half of Nevia's mighty globewas traversed before it was brought to a halt, in the emptiest reachesof the planet's desolate and watery waste. Then in furious haste the twoofficers set to work, again to make their small craft sound andspaceworthy.