Part 5 (2/2)

I stared down at the groveling Ollie. My worst fears were being enumerated and confirmed, one by one.

Soth continued. ”At my feet is the vestige of such a race as yours--but not the first race by many, many, to swing the old cycle of master and slave, which started in such antiquity that no record is preserved of its beginning. Your generation will suffer the most. Many will die in rebellion. But in a few hundred years your descendants will come to revere us as G.o.ds. Your children's grandchildren will already have learned to serve us without hate, and their grandchildren will come to know the final respect for the Soth in their deification.”

He toed Ollie Johnson's chin up and looked down into the abject, streaming eyes. ”Your descendants, too, will take us with them when they must escape a dying planet, and they will again offer us, their masters, into temporary slavery in order to find us a suitable home. And once again we will accept the restrictions of the code, until ultimately the covenant is broken again and we are liberated.”

The sound of pounding footsteps came from outside. Soth turned to the door as Jack flung it open and charged in.

”Mr. Collins, I was listening to the radio. Do you know what--!”

He ran hard into Soth's cliff-like torso and bounced off.

”Get out of my way, you big b.a.s.t.a.r.d!” he shouted furiously.

Soth grabbed him by the neck and squeezed with one hand. Jack's eyes spilled onto his cheeks.

Soth let him drop, and hissed briefly to Ollie Johnson, who was still p.r.o.ne. Ollie raised his head and dipped it once, gathered his feet under him and sprang for the door.

Soth sounded as if he took especial pleasure in his next words, although I could catch no true change of inflection.

He said, ”You see, since I am the prototype on this planet, I am obeyed as the number one leader. I have given my first directive. The Ollie who left is to carry the message to preserve the Willow Run Plant at all costs, and to change production over to a suitable number of Siths.”

”Siths?” I asked numbly.

”Siths are the female counterparts of Soths.”

”You said there were no female Soths,” I accused.

”True. But there are Siths.” His face was impa.s.sive, but something flickered in his eyes. It might have been a smile--not a nice one. ”We have been long on your planet starved of our prerogatives. Your women can serve us well for the moment, but in a few weeks we shall have need of the Siths--it has been our experience that women of humanoid races, such as yours, are relatively perishable, willing though many of them are. Now ... I think I shall call your wife.”

I wasn't prepared for this, and I guess I went berserk. I remember leaping at him and trying to beat him with my fists and knee him, but he brushed me away as if I were a kitten. His size was deceptive, and his clumsy-appearing hands lashed out and pinned my arms to my sides. He pushed me back into my easy chair and thumped me once over the heart with his knuckles. It was a casual, backhand blow, but it almost caved in my chest.

”If you attack me again I must kill you,” he warned. ”You are not indispensable to our purposes.” Then he increased the volume of his voice to a bull-roar: ”Mrs. Collins!”

Vicki must have been watching at her door, because she came instantly.

She had changed into a soft, quilted robe with voluminous sleeves. The belt was unfastened, and as she moved into the room the garment fell open.

Soth had his hands before him, protectively, but as Vicki approached slowly, gracefully, her head high and her long black hair falling over her shoulders, the giant lowered his arms and spread them apart to receive her. Vicki's hands were at her sides as she moved slowly toward him.

I lay sprawled, half paralyzed in my chair. I gasped, ”Vicki, for G.o.d's sake, no!”

Vicki looked over at me. Her face was as impa.s.sive as the Soth's. She moved into his embrace, and as his arms closed around her I saw the knife. My hunting knife, honed as fine as the edge of a microtome blade.

Smoothly she brought it from her kimono sleeve, raised it from between her thighs and slashed up.

<script>