Chapter 18
"THAT WAS a beautiful bluff, Dick!" Dunark exclaimed, as the door closed behind Nalboon and his guards. "Exactly the right tone—you've got him guessing plenty."
"It got him, all right—for the moment—but I'm wondering how long it will hold him. He's a big time operator, and smart. The smart thing for us to do, I think, would be to take off for the Skylark right now, before he can get organized. What do you think, Mart?"
"I think so. We're altogether too vulnerable here."
The Earth-people quickly secured the few personal things they had brought with them. Seaton stepped out into the hall, waved the guards away, and motioned Dunark to lead the way. The other Kondalians fell in behind, as usual, and the group walked boldly toward the exit nearest the landing dock. The guards offered no opposition, but stood at attention and saluted as they passed. The officer lifted his microphone, however, and Seaton knew that Nalboon was being kept informed of every development.
Outside the palace, Dunark turned his head.
"Run!" he snapped. All did so. "If they get a flyer into the air before we reach the dock it'll be just too bad. There'll be no pursuit from the palace—it isn't expendable—but the dock will be tough."
Rounding a metal statue some fifty feet from the base of the towering dock they saw that the door of one of the elevators was open and that two guards stood just inside it. At sight of the party the guards raised their guns; but, fast as they were, Seaton was faster. At first sight of the open door he had taken two quick steps and hurled himself across the intervening forty feet in a football plunge. Before the two soldiers could bring their guns to bear he crashed into them, hurling them across the cage and crushing them against its metal wall.
"Good work," Dunark said. He stripped the unconscious guards of their weapons and, after asking Seaton's permission, distributed them among the men of his party. "Now, perhaps, we can surprise whoever is on the roof. That was why you didn't shoot?"
"No," Seaton grunted. "We need this elevator. It wouldn't be much good after taking even a Mark One load." He threw the two Mardonalians out of the elevator and closed the door.
Dunark took the controls. The elevator shot upward, stopping at a level well below the top. He took a tubular device from his belt and fitted it over the muzzle of the Mardonalian pistol.
"We get out here," Dunark said, "and go up the rest of the way by side stairs that aren't used much. We'll meet a few guards, probably, but I can take care of them. Stay behind me, please, everybody."
Seaton promptly objected and Dunark went on, "No, Dick, stay back. You know as much about this as I do, I know, but you can't get at the knowledge as fast. I'll let you take over when we reach the top."
Dunark took the lead, his pistol resting lightly against his hip. At the first turn of the corridor they came upon four guards. The pistol did not leave Dunark's hip, but were four subdued clicks, in faster succession than a man could count, and four men dropped.
"What a silencer!" DuQuesne whispered to Seaton. "I didn't suppose a silencer could work that fast"
"They don't use powder," Seaton replied absently, all his faculties pinned to the next corner. "Force-field projection."
Dunark disposed of several more groups of guards before the head of the last stairway was reached. He stopped there.
"Now, Dick, you take over. I'm speaking English so I won't have to order each of my men individually—command them, literally—not to take my place at your side. We'll need all the speed and all the fire-power you have. There are hundreds of men on the roof outside, with rapid-fire cannon throwing a thousand shells a minute. If Crane will give me his pistols you can kick that door open as soon as you're ready"
"I've got a lot better idea than that," DuQuesne said. "I'm as fast as you are, Seaton, and like you, I can use both hands. Give me the guns and well have 'em cleaned out before the door gets fully open."
"That's a thought, brother—that's really a thought, Seaton said. "Hand 'em over, Mart. Ready, Blackie? On your mark get set—go!"
He kicked the door open and there was a stuttering crash as the four weapons burst into almost continuous flame—a crash obliterated by an overwhelming concatenation of sound as the X-plosive bullets, sweeping the roof with a rapidly-opening fan of death, struck their marks and exploded.
It was well that the two men in the doorway were past masters in the art of handling their weapons—and that they had in their bullets the force of giant shells! For rank upon rank of soldiery were massed there; engines of destruction covered elevators, doorways, and approaches.
So fast and fierce was the attack that trained gunners had no time to press their switches. The battle lasted approximately one second. It was over while shattered remnants of the guns and fragments of the metal and stone of the dock were still falling, through a fine mist of what had once been men.
Assured that not a single Mardonalian remained upon the dock, Seaton waved emphatically to the others.
"Snap it up !" he yelled. "This is going to be hotter than the middle tail-race of Hades in exactly one minute."
He led the way across the dock toward the Skylark, choosing the path with care between yawning holes. The ship was still in place, still held immovable by the attractor, but what a sight she was! Her quartz windows were shattered, her Norwegian armor skin was dented and warped and fissured, half her plating was gone.
Not a shot had struck her. All this damage had been done by flying fragments of the guns and of the dock itself; and Seaton and Crane, who had developed the new explosive, were aghast at its awful power.
They climbed hastily into the vessel and Seaton ran toward the controls.
"I hear battleships," Dunark said. "Is it permitted that I operate one of your machine guns?"
"Go as far as you like!"
While Seaton was reaching for the speed-lever the first ranging shell from the first warship exploded against the side of the dock, just below them. His hand grasped the lever just as the second shell screamed through the air, scant yards above them; and as he shot the Skylark into the air under five notches of power a stream of the huge projectiles poured through the spot where she had just been.
Crane and DuQuesne aimed several shots at the battleships, but the range was so extreme that no damage was done. Dunark's rifle, however, was making a continuous chatter and they turned toward him. He was shooting, not at the warships, but at the city growing so rapidly smaller beneath them. He was moving the gun's muzzle in a small spiral, spraying the entire city with death and destruction. As they looked, the first of the shells reached the ground, just as Dunark ceased firing for lack of ammunition. The palace disappeared, blotted out in a cloud of dust; a cloud which spiraled outward until it obscured the area where the city had been.
High enough to be safe, Sexton stopped climbing and went out to confer with the others.
"It sure feels good to get a cool breath," he said, inhaling deeply the thin, cold air of that altitude. Then he saw the Kondalians, who, besides having taken a beating from the—to them—atrocious acceleration, were gasping for breath and were shivering, pale with cold.
"If this is what you like," Dunark said, trying manfully to grin, "I see at last why you wear clothes."
Apologizing quickly, Seaton went back to the board and laid a course, on a downward slant, toward the ocean. Then he asked DuQuesne to take over and rejoined the group.
"There's no accounting for tastes," he said to Dunark, "but I can't hand your climate a thing. It's hotter and muggier than
"Be glad to . . . now we'll see what they really look like. . . . Why, they are beautiful . . . in spite of being sort of greenish like, they really are!"
But Sitar took one look at the woman by her side, shut both eyes, and screamed. "What a horrible light! Shut it off; please! I'd rather be in darkness all my . . ."
"Did you ever see any darkness?" Seaton interrupted.
"Yes, I shut myself into a dark closet once, when I was a girl . . . and it scared me half out of my senses. I'll take back what I started to say; but that light"—Dorothy had already turned it off—"was the most terrible thing I ever saw!"
"Why, Sitar," Dorothy said, "You looked perfectly stunning!"
"They see things differently from the way we do," Sexton explained. "Their optic nerves respond differently, send a different message to the brain. The same stimulus produces two entirely different end sensations. Am I making myself clear?"
"Sort of. Not very." Dorothy said, doubtfully.
"Take a concrete example, the Kondalian color 'mlap'. Can you describe it?"
"It's a kind of greenish orange . . . but it shouldn't be. By what we learned from Dunark, it's brilliant purple."
"That's what I mean. Well, get set, everybody, and we'll tear off a few knots for Kondalek."
As they neared the ocean several Mardonalian battleships tried to intercept them; but the Skylark hopped over them and her speed was such that pursuit was not attempted. The ocean was crossed at the same high speed.
Dunark, who had already tuned the Skylark's powerful transmitter to his father's private frequency, reported to him everything that had happened; and emperor and crown prince worked out a modified version which was to be broadcast throughout the nation.
Crane drew Seaton aside.
"Do you think we can really trust these Kondalians, any more than we should have trusted the Mardonalians? It might he better for us to stay in the Skylark instead of going to the palace at all."
"Yes to the first; no to the second," Seaton replied. "I went off half-cocked last time, I admit; but I've got his whole mind inside my skull, so I know him a lot better than I know you. They've got some mighty funny ideas, and they're bloodthirsty and hard as tungsten carbide; but, basically, they're just as decent as we are.
"As for staying in here, what good would that do? Steel is as soft as mush to the stuff they've got. And we can't go anywhere, anyway. No copper—we're down to the plating in spots. And we couldn't if we were full of copper. The old bus is a wreck; she's got to be completely rebuilt. But you don't have to worry this time, Mart. I know they're friends of ours."
"You don't say that very often," Crane conceded, "and when you do, I believe you. All objections are withdrawn."
Flying over an immense city, the Skylark came to a halt directly above the palace, which, with its landing dock near by, was very similar to that of Nalboon, the Mardonalian potentate.
From the city beneath the Skylark hundreds of big guns roared in welcome. Banners and streamers hung from every point. The air became tinted and perfumed with a bewildering variety of colors and scents. Ether and air alike were full of messages of welcome and hymns of joy.
A fleet of giant warships came up, to escort the battered little globe with impressive ceremony down to the landing dock; while around them great numbers of smaller aircraft flitted. Tiny one-man machines darted here and there, apparently always in imminent danger of collision with each other or with their larger fellows, but always escaping as though by a miracle. Beautiful pleasure-planes soared and dipped and wheeled like great gulls; and, cleaving their stately way through the hordes o£ lesser craft, immense multi-plane passenger liners partially supported by helicopter screws turned aside from their scheduled courses to pay homage to the half of the Kondalian royal family so miraculously returned from the dead.
As the Skylark approached the roof of the dock, all the escorting vessels dropped away. On the roof, instead of the brilliant assemblage the Earthmen had expected to see, there was only a small group of persons, all of whom were as completely unadorned as were Dunark and the other erstwhile captives.
In answer to Seaton's look of surprise, Dunark said, with feeling, "My father, mother, and the rest of the family. They knew we'd be stripped; they are meeting us that way."
Seaton landed the ship. He and his four stayed inside while the family reunion, which was very similar to an Earthly one under similar circumstances, took place. Dunark then led his father up to the Skylark and the Tellurians disembarked.
"Friends, I have told you of my father; I present you to Roban, the Karfedix of Kondal. Father, it is an honor to present to you those who rescued us from Nalboon and from Mardonale. Seaton, Karfedix of Knowledge; Crane, Karfedix of Wealth; Miss Vaneman, and Miss Spencer. The Karfedelix DuQuesne"—waving his hand at him—"is a lesser authority of knowledge and is captive to the others."
"The Karfedix Dunark exaggerates our services," Seaton said, "and does not mention the fact that he saved all our lives."
Disregarding Seaton's remark, Roban thanked them in the name of Kondal and introduced them to the rest of his party. As they all walked toward the elevator the emperor turned to his son with a puzzled expression.
"I know that our guests are from a very distant world, and I understand your accident with the educator, but I cannot understand the titles of these men. Knowledge and wealth are not—cannot be—ruled over. Are you sure that you have translated their titles correctly?"
"No translation is possible. Crane has no title, and was not at all willing for me to apply any title to him. Seaton's title, one of learnedness, had no equivalent in our language. What I did was to call them what each one would certainly become if he had been born one of us. Their government is not a government at all, but stark madness, the rulers being chosen by the people themselves, who change their minds and their rulers every year or two. And, everyone being equal before the law, does just about as he pleases. . . ."
"Incredible !" exclaimed Roban. "How, then, is anything done?"
"I do not know. I simply do not understand it at all. They do not seem to care, as a nation, whether anything worth while gets done or not, as long as each man has what he calls his liberty. But that isn't the worst, or the most unreasonable. Listen to this."
Dunark told his father all about the Seaton-Crane versus DuQuesne conflict. "Then, in spite of all that, Crane gave DuQuesne both his pistols and DuQuesne stood at Seaton's side in that doorway and the two of them killed every Mardonalian on that roof before I could fire a single shot. DuQuesne fired every bullet in both his pistols and made no attempt whatever to kill either Seaton or Crane. And he is still their captive!"
"Incredible! What an incomprehensibly distorted sense of honor! If it were anyone except you saying this, I would deem it the ravings of a maniac. Are you sure, son, that these are facts?"
"I am sure. I saw them happen; so did the others. But in many other respects they are . . . well, they are not insane . . . incomprehensible. The tenets of reason as we know reason simply are not applicable to many of their ideas, concepts, and actions. Clothing, for instance. Their values, their ethics, are in some respects absolutely incommensurate with ours. However, their sense of honor is, at bottom, as sound as ours, and as strong. And, since Nalboon tried to kill them, they are definitely on our side."
"That, at least, I can understand, and it is well." The older man shook his head. "My mind is full of cobwebs. An enemy who is a friend. Or vice versa. Or both. A master who arms a slave. An armed slave who does not kill his master. That, my son, is simple, plain, stark lunacy!"
During this conversation they had reached the palace, after traversing grounds even more sumptuous and splendid than those surrounding the
"This'd be nice," Seaton said, indicating the pool, "if you had some cold water."
"There is cold water." Dunark turned on a ten-inch stream of lukewarm water, then shut it off and smiled sheepishly. "But I keep forgetting what you mean by the word 'cold'. We will install refrigerating machines at once."
"Oh, don't bother about that; we won't be here long enough. One thing, though, I forgot to tell you. We'll eat our own food, not yours."
"Of course. We'll take care of it. I'll be back in half an hour to take you to fourth-meal."
Scarcely had the Earthlings freshened themselves than he was back; but he was no longer the Dunark they had known. He now wore a metal-and-leather harness that was one blaze of gems. A belt hung with resplendent weapons replaced the familiar hollow one of metal. His right arm, between the wrist and the elbow, was almost covered by six bracelets of a transparent, deep cobalt-blue metal; each set with an incredibly brilliant stone of the same color. On his left wrist he wore a Kondalian chronometer. This was an instrument resembling an odometer, whose numerous revolving segments showed a large and constantly increasing number—the date and time of the Osnomian day expressed in a decimal number of the years of Kondalian history.
"Greetings, oh guests from Tellus! I feel more like myself, now that I am again in my trappings and have my weapons at my side." He attached a timepiece to the wrist of each of the guests, with a bracelet of the blue metal. "Will you accompany me to fourth-meal or aren't you hungry?"
"We accept with thanks," Dorothy replied, promptly. "I, for one, am starving by inches."
As they walked toward the dining-hall Dunark noticed that Dorothy's eyes kept straying to his bracelets.
"They are our wedding rings. Man and wife exchange bracelets as part of the ceremony."
"Then you can always tell whether a man is married, and how many wives he has, just by looking at his arm. Nice. Some men on Earth wear wedding rings, but not many."
Roban met them at the door of the hall, and Dorothy counted ten of the peculiar bracelets upon his right arm as he led them to places near his own. The room was a replica of the other Osnomian dining-hall they had seen; and the women were decorated with the same barbaric splendor of scintillating gems.
After the meal, which was a happy one, taking on the nature of a celebration in honor of the return of the children, DuQuesne went directly to his room, while the others spent the time until zero hour in strolling about the grounds. Upon returning to the room occupied by the two girls, the couples separated, each girl accompanying her lover to the door of his room.
Margaret was ill at ease.
"What's the matter, sweetheart?" Crane asked, solicitously.
She twisted nervously at a button on his shirt.
"I didn't know that you . . . I wasn't . . . I mean I didn't . . ." She broke off, then went on with a rush. "What did Dunark mean by calling you the Karfedix of Wealth?"
"Well, you see, I happen to have some money . . ." he began.
"Then you really are M. Reynolds Crane!"
Crane put his other arm around her, kissed her, and held her close.
"Is that all that was bothering you? What does money amount to between you and me?"
"Nothing—to me—but I'm awfully glad I didn't know anything about it before." She returned his kisses with fervor. "That is, it doesn't mean a thing if you are perfectly sure that I'm not after—"
Crane, the imperturbable, broke a hard and fast rule and interrupted her. "Don't say that, dear. Don't even think of it, ever again. We both know that between you and me there never have been, are not now, and never shall be, any doubts or any questions."
"If I could have that tank full of good cold water right now," Seaton said, as he stood with Dorothy in the door of his room, "I'd throw you in, clothes and all, dive in with you, and we'd soak in it all night. Night? What do I mean, night? This constant daylight, constant heat, and supersaturated humidity are pulling my cork. You don't look up to snuff, either." He lifted her gorgeous auburn head from his shoulder and studied her face. "You look like you'd been pulled through a knot hole—you're starting to get black circles under your eyes."
"I know it." She nestled even closer against him. "I'm scared blue half the time. I always thought I had good nerves, but every thing here is so perfectly horrible that I can't sleep—and I always used to go to sleep in the air, two or three inches before I hit the sheets. When I'm with you it isn't too bad—I really enjoy a lot of the things—but the sleeping-periods—Ugh!" She shivered in the circle of his arms. "You can say anything about them you can think of, and I'll back you to your proverbial nineteen decimals. I just lie there, tenser and tighter, and my mind goes up like a skyrocket. Peggy and I just huddle up to each other in a ghastly purple funk. I'm ashamed of both of us, but that's the way it is and we can't help it."
"I'm sorry, ace." He tightened his arms. "Sorrier than I can say. You've got nerve, and you aren't going to fall apart; I know that. It's just that you haven't roughed it away from home enough to be able to feel at home wherever your hat is. The reason you feel safe with me is probably that I feel perfectly at home here myself—except for the temperature and so on."
"Uh-huh . . . probably." Dorothy gnawed at her lower lip. "I never thought I was a clinging-vine type, but I'm getting to be. I'm simply scared to death to go to bed."
"Chin up, sweetheart." An interlude. "I wish I could be with you all the time—you know how much I wish it—but it won't be long. We'll fix the chariot and snap back to Earth in a hurry."
She pushed him into his room, followed him inside, closed the door, and put both hands on his shoulders.
"Dick Seaton," she said, blushing hotly, "You're not as dumb as I thought you were—you're dumber ! But if you won't say it, even after such a sob-story as that, I will. No law says that a marriage has to be performed on Earth to be legal."
He pressed her close; his emotion so great that for a minute he could not talk. Then he said, "I never thought of anything like that, Dottiegirl." His voice was low and vibrant. "If I had, I wouldn't have dared say it out loud. With you so far away from home, it'd seem . . ."
"It wouldn't seem anything of the kind," she denied, without waiting to find out what it was that she was denying. Don't you see, you big, thick-headed, wonderful lug, it's the only thing to do? We need each other—at least I need you so much . . ."
"Say 'each other'—it's right," he declared fervently.
"The family would like to have seen me married, of course . . . but there are some advantages, even there. Dad would hate a grand
Seaton, who had been trying to get a word in, silenced her.
"I'm convinced, Dottie, have been ever since I came out of shock. I'm so glad I can't express it. I've been scared stiff every time I've thought about our wedding. I'll speak to the karfedix the first thing in the morning . . . or say, how'd it be to wake him up and have it done right now?"
"Oh, Dick, be reasonable !" Dorothy's eyes, however, danced with glee. "That would never do. Tomorrow will be too awfully sudden, as it is. And Dick, please speak to Martin will you? Peggy's scared a lot worse than I am, and Martin, the dear old stupid jerk, is a lot less likely than even you are to think of being prime mover in anything like this. And Peggy's afraid to suggest it to him. Said she'd curl right up and die; and she just about would."
"Ah. Aha!" Seaton straightened up and held her out at arms' length. "A light dawns. I thought there was something fishy about your walking me home. Queer—like a nine-dollar bill. It didn't register, even at 'sob-story'—I thought my bad example was corrupting your English. A put-up job, eh?"
"What do you think? That I'd have the nerve to do it all by myself? But not all, Dick." She snuggled up to him again, blissfully content. "Just the littlest, teeniest bit of it, was all."
Seaton opened the door. "Mart, bring Peggy over here!"
"Heavens, Dick! Be careful! You'll spoil everything!"
"No, I won't. Leave it to me—I bashfully admit that I'm a blinding flash and a deafening report at this diplomacy stuff. Smooth, like an eel." The other two joined them.
"Dottie and I have been talking things over, and have decided that today would be the best possible day for a wedding. She's afraid of these long daylight nights, and I'd sleep a lot better if I knew where she was all the time instead of part of it. She's willing, if you two see it the same way and make it a double. So how about it? And if you say anything but 'yes' I'll tie you, Mart, up like a pretzel; and take you, Peg, over my knee and spank you. I'll give you one whole second to think it over."
Margaret blushed furiously but pressed herself closer against Crane's side.
"That's time enough for me," Crane said. "A marriage here would be recognized anywhere, I think . . . with the certificate registered . . . if the final court declared it invalid we could be married again. . . . Considering all the circumstances, it would be the best thing for everyone concerned." Crane's lean, handsome face assumed a darker color as he looked down at Margaret's sparkling eyes and happily animated face. "Nothing else in existence is as certain as our love. It is of course the bride's privilege to set the date. Peggy?"
"The sooner the better," Margaret said, blushing again. "Did you say today, Dick?"
"That's what I said. I'll see the karfedix about it as soon as we get up," and the two couples separated.
"I'm just too perfectly happy for words," Dorothy whispered into Seaton's ear as he kissed her good night. "I simply don't care whether I sleep a wink tonight or not."