Chapter V

But it was possible. As Standish ran forward, he saw a hatch open in the metal sphere and a man climb out. And yet it wasn't a man. The face and body were normal, but the arms and legs were vine-like appendages with segmented fronds for hands. When this person saw Standish, it recoiled and whipped a knife out from a scabbard at its waist.

Quickly the Earthman raised one arm above his head in the common symbol of friendliness. A smile of recognition crossed the little man's face. He nodded and raised his frond-like hand in a similar gesture. Then he pointed to himself and said:

"Ga-Marr!"

The rocket ship now came under Standish's gaze. He saw that it was of a design foreign to any craft he had ever seen before. Spherical in shape, with a series of strange-looking fins along the sides, its stern rudders were formed of crude exhaust jettisons, and the several ports were formed of a transparent material that resembled quartz.

Ga-Marr--for it was evident those syllables formed the stranger's name--opened the hatch door and motioned Standish to enter. Without hesitation, the Earthman did so. Inside was a single cabin, with a control panel occupying two of the four walls. Ga-Marr pressed a button, and a panel slid open in the floor, revealing the motor chamber.

The stranger pointed downward, then shook his head violently. Standish nodded.

"Motors went dead on you, eh? Well, my friend, it looks as though you and I were in the same fix. Come along, and I'll show you my diggings."

But when Ga-Marr looked upon the wrecked space liner, he stared incredulously. He walked its entire length as if doubting its proportions.

"Yes, she's big all right," Standish smiled, aware that he was not understood. "But she's no good, the way she is now. Now, how about a little food?"

In his forecastle home, the Earthman set out a bottle of wine and some cakes. He noted that Ga-Marr used his front hands with great dexterity, but that he betrayed no surprise at Standish's own physical appearance.

Once the stranger had eaten, Standish began the necessary task of providing a common means of communication. He used the Corelli sound-system--a shortcut method of acquainting the ear and the eye simultaneously with objects of fundamental importance. Within two hours, he found he could converse with Ga-Marr with a minimum amount of difficulty.

Haltingly then, the stranger began to speak:

"I am from the city, Calthedra, of the planet Lyra, of the system Aritorius. My race was once a great people, but raiders from another planet destroyed our civilization. All we have left is a few rocket ships of the kind in which I came. These were built long ago by our ancestors, and only a few of us know how to operate them."

Standish nodded. "How came you here?"

"I was voyaging to visit my brother on our satellite, Zora, when those same raiders caught sight of me and gave chase. My space compass broke, and I became lost. I found my way here just as my rocket motors consumed the last of their power."

"I see." Standish lit his pipe and began to smoke slowly. "And these raiders--they come from near here?"

"From Sirius," Ga-Marr replied. "They raid us for funds to continue their war with a planet many light years away."

For a full moment Standish sat there rigid. Then the pipe fell from his hands, and he leaped to his feet.

"Sirius!" he cried. "So those butchers are not content to place in bondage all the solar system. They must plague other worlds also!"

He paced the length of the forecastle.

"Tell me," he said, whirling abruptly, "do you know of a Sirian leader called Drum Faggard?"

Ga-Marr's eyes gleamed. "Aye. The crudest and most bloodthirsty of them all. It was he who led the attack against my people in which my brother was killed. It was he who directed the sacking of our city of Calthedra. My one hope is that some day we may meet on common ground."

* * * * *

The next day Standish revealed to the newcomer his plan to build a smaller space ship out of the wreckage of the old.

"Your own craft is useless without power for its rocket motors," he told Ga-Marr. "Yet it contains parts that will be valuable. Have I your consent to dismantle it?"

The stranger nodded.

"To work then. And remember, if we succeed, we may yet be able to strike at Drum Faggard."

It was the desire for revenge that spurred them on. Quickly they set about dismantling Ga-Marr's ship. Rivets were cut, bolts unscrewed, plates ripped off. Using the dismantled parts of the space liner's atomic motors, Standish fashioned a smaller but powerful engine. Gradually out of the mass a crude craft began to take form.

But they were working on counted time. Days were growing shorter; the nights, longer. Icy winds began to sweep across the ravine, bringing sleet and flurries of snow.

With the change in seasons came new dangers. Strange animal life, following the perverse migrational instinct of the planet, swept out of the jungle.

First came the lizard-birds, similar to, but larger than, the one which had attacked Standish. They came over the cliff in squadron formation, a dense cloud that blotted out the sky.

For two days the men were kept prisoners, while the flock stalked back and forth about the ravine like a vast Roman encampment.

A week later the thrads came. It was Ga-Marr who called them thrads. They were a tiny species of anthropoid, no larger than a squirrel, with bright red bodies. Inquisitive and bold, they hampered the two men as they gathered close to watch the work.

The ship was nearing completion. While Standish labored at the control adjustments, Ga-Marr carried in a supply of food concentrates from the wrecked liner. Along the length of the ravine an inclined runway was built for a take-off. At the end of this, Standish constructed a rifle-like catapult, using the parts of Ga-Marr's rocket motor and a quantity of trinitrate cellulose he found in the liner. If the device worked, it would multiply their initial trajectory power and quicken their passage through the planet's gravitational field.

At length Standish fastened the last bolt of the crude new ship in its place. Nervously, he pressed the starting button. The single motor began with a smooth powerful hum. The ship strained at its moorings.

"Ready, Ga-Marr? We'll give her a trial flight and see how she handles."

The little man grinned, shouted. "Cast off!" he cried. "Cast off!"

Standish severed the mooring cable of the ship with one shot from his genithode pistol. The two men yanked shut the hatch, screwed down the air lock. With a yank, the Earthman threw over the control lever.

Up from the ground the ship shot. Through the floor panel, Standish saw the ground receding.

"Take the controls," he told Ga-Marr. "I'm going to try and chart a course for your planet."

* * * * *

The planet rose up before them like a great ripened peach. It had taken Standish long hours to calculate with his elementary astrophysics the location of their destination. Ga-Marr had supplied what information he could; but he knew only that the planet, Lyra, was bordered by a spiral nebulae on one side, and that it revolved about a sun some hundred million miles distant.

As they approached now, Ga-Marr betrayed no emotion. "The city of Calthedra is on the other hemisphere," he said. "I'll direct you to the landing."

They crept slowly along the surface, and the Earthman found himself looking upon a land similar in many respects to his own. Nostalgia seized him. Here were lakes and woods and broad fields in the state of cultivation. Here were lanes, roads and hedges, a tracery of browns and greens that was good to see.

But when a moment later Ga-Marr pointed out the port and said, "Calthedra," Standish's jaw set hard. The city had been devastated. Buildings stood in ruins. Towers were crumbling masses of masonry. Only one structure seemed to have escaped the fearful onslaught, a globe-shaped building, fashioned of some kind of black metal.

The Earthman saw the landing place and guided the ship downward. Below he could see people milling about excitedly, groups of them pointing upward.

The moment the ship came to a rest, Ga-Marr threw open the hatch and climbed out. Standish followed, to find an assemblage drawn up suspiciously in battle array, their weapons ready for any hostile move of the newcomers.

In the foreground stood a taller man of Lyra, wearing a suit of copper-colored chain mail and a helmet studded with gleaming chips of yellow metal. At his sides were two men in white flowing robes. All had high brows, penetrating eyes and frond-like appendages in lieu of arms and legs.

Ga-Marr ran forward and embraced the man in the helmet.

"My father," he said, "this man is Mason Standish, a great warrior from the planet Earth. He has rescued me from certain death, and has brought me back to your empire at the risk of his life."

The Emperor paced forward, a benevolent smile playing across his lips.

"He who befriends my son has my gratitude," he said softly.

* * * * *

Standish was bewildered. Ga-Marr had made no mention of the fact that he was of royal birth. It was a long time before the Earthman found his tongue.

"Your son tells me that your people and my people are at war with a common enemy. May I ask how long since the Sirians made their last attack upon you?"

"Within the risings of twelve suns," the Emperor replied. "But come. Let us go to the palace where we may speak alone."

* * * * *

Standish missed no detail of his passage through the city. Calthedra, besides being hard hit by the invaders, was quite evidentally in the process of decay. Streets were racked and unrepaired. House windows were broken and open to the elements. And on all sides the Earthman saw faces devoid of intelligence staring at him.

But when he climbed the steps and followed Ga-Marr and the Emperor into the black metal globe, he entered a different world.

A vast pillared hall stretched before him. On one side a balustrated ramp led to the upper levels. Opposite were a series of high triangular doorways, each opening into separate chambers. The air was cool and exhilarating and seemed to have a different chemical content than that of the street.

"This is our palace," Ga-Marr said, "built thousands of years before when our people were a great civilization. It alone has withstood all the attacks our planet has been exposed to."

"Why?" demanded Standish. "I should think this would be the enemy's first striking place."

Ga-Marr stook his head. "I do not understand the science of it myself. It is something in the black metal. It is an electon-stripped element, I believe, tremendously heavy and impregnable to any weapon of cosmic warfare."

They reached the last doorway and entered the royal quarters. The Emperor and his son sat down before a circular table and motioned Standish to a chair opposite. The older man removed his helmet and closed his eyes as if in weariness.

"Earthman," he said at length, "you come at a time when my planet is sorely in need of help. I don't know how much my son has told you, but if you will listen I will tell you the history of Lyra. But first I have something to show you."

He touched a button on the table, and a chime sounded melodiously in the outer corridor. A servant appeared in the doorway.

"Tell Thalia I would see her at once," the Emperor said.

A moment later light steps sounded and Standish looked up curiously. What he saw brought him out of his chair with a cry of pleasure and amazement.

The figure of a girl--an Earth girl of his own race stood there on the threshold.