Part 11 (1/2)

”They had it here--!”

Raf saw what Soriki meant by that outburst. Destruction had struck. He had seen the atomic ruins of his own world, those which were free enough from radiation to explore. But he had never seen anything like these chilling scars. In long strips the very stone which provided foundation for the tiered city had been churned and boiled, had run in rivulets of lava down to the sea, enclosing narrow tongues of still untouched structures. The fire whip the globe had used, magnified to some infinitely greater extent--? It could be.

The alien at his side pressed tightly against the winds.h.i.+eld gazing down at the ruins. And now he mouthed a gabble of words which was echoed by his fellow sitting with Soriki. Their excitement must mean that this was their goal. Raf slacked speed, waiting for the globe to point a way to a landing.

But to his surprise the alien s.h.i.+p shot forward inland. The long day was almost over as they came to a second city with a river knotting a ribbon through its middle. Here were no traces of the fury which had laded the seaport with havoc. This collection of buildings seemed whole and perfect.

There was, oddly enough, no landing strip within the city. The globe coasted over the rough oval and came down in open fields to the west.

It was a maneuver which Raf copied, though he first dropped a flare as a precaution and brought the flier down in its red glare, with the warrior expressing shrill disapproval.

”I don't think they like fireworks,” Soriki remarked.

Raf snorted. ”So they don't like fireworks! Well, I don't like crack-ups, and I'm the pilot!” But he didn't believe that the com-tech was really protesting. Soriki had been very quiet since they had witnessed the attack on the island.

”Grim-looking place,” was his second comment as they touched ground.

Since Raf privately had held that opinion of all the alien settlements he had so far seen, he agreed. Their two alien pa.s.sengers were out of the flitter as soon as he opened the bubble s.h.i.+eld. And as they stood by the Terran flyer, they held their weapons ready, facing out into the dusk as if they half expected trouble. After the earlier episode that day, Raf did not wonder at their preparedness. Terror begets terror, and ruthlessness arouses retaliation in kind.

”Kurbi! Soriki!” Hobart's voice sounded out of the shadows. ”Stay where you are for the present.”

Soriki settled deeper in his seat. ”He doesn't have to tell me to brake jets,” he muttered. ”I like it here--”

Raf did not need to echo that. He had a strong surmise that had he been tempted to roam away from the flitter the move would not have been encouraged by the alien guardsmen. If this was their treasure city, they would not welcome any independent investigation by strangers.

When the captain joined them, he was accompanied by the officer who had first shown Raf the globe. And the warrior was either disturbed or angry, for he was talking in a steady stream and his hands were whirling in explanatory gestures.

”They didn't like that flare,” Hobart remarked. But there was no reproof in his words. As a s.p.a.cer pilot he knew that Raf had only done what duty demanded. ”We're to remain here--for the night.”

”Where's Lablet?” Soriki wanted to know.

”He's staying with Yussoz, the alien commander. He thinks he has the language problem about solved.”

”Good enough.” Soriki pulled out his bed roll. ”We're out of touch with the s.h.i.+p--”

There was a second of silence, unduly prolonged it seemed to Raf. Then Hobart spoke:

”We couldn't expect to keep in call forever. The best com has its range. When did you lose contact?”

”Just before these wrapped-up heroes played with fire back there. I gave the boys all I knew up until then. They know we were headed west, and they had us beamed as long as they could.”

So it wasn't too bad, thought Raf. But he didn't like it, even with that mitigating factor. To all purposes the four Terrans were now surrounded by some twenty times their number, in an unknown country, out of all communication with the rest of their kind. It could add up to disaster.

9

SEA GATE

”What is it?” Dalgard asked his question as Sssuri, his attention still on their back trail, stole along cautiously on a retracing of their path.

But that retreat ended abruptly with the merman plastered against the wall, his whole shadowy form a tense warning which stopped Dalgard short. In that moment the answer flashed from mind to mind.