Part 16 (2/2)

There was a clicking sound and the loudspeaker died with a sputter of static.

It sputtered again, and this time Grim Hagen's voice mocked them.

”There, Ato. You have your answer. You are wasting your time. But I am a reasonable man. You can have Maya. You can have the s.h.i.+p. You can have the prisoners--the few that are left. I will trade all these for Wolden's secret.”

”Greed has you in its hand, Grim Hagen. I know nothing of my father's secret. I do not even know if he succeeded--”

”Then summon him and let him decide for himself. You are young, but two-thirds of my life is gone now--”

”Your calculation is wrong,” Gunnar shouted. ”You life is nearly all gone, Grim Hagen.”

”The dwarf still lives,” Grim Hagen answered with a curse. ”But so does Maya, my slave. I had to beat her the other day. My boots were not polished very well--”

”Talk on, Grim Hagen,” Odin growled. ”I am here. And I intend to kill you--Just as I promised.”

”Like most of your race, you talk too loud, Odin. Well, Ato, Gunnar, and Odin, I am going now. Please don't get in my way or I will hatchet the flesh from your bones.”

Another click and the loudspeaker was silent.

They had landed on the giant, worn planet very early in the day. Now, as time went on, they watched Grim Hagen's s.h.i.+p and tried to make plans.

Gunnar was in favor of hazarding an attack on the barrier and then going on to the city.

Ato and Odin voted in favor of waiting, although they admitted that they could think of no better plan. Ato was sure that The Nebula could plunge through any curtain, but he wanted to try that as a last resort.

Meanwhile, a steady stream of tractors and men was going back and forth from the Old s.h.i.+p to the city. Odin watched them on the screen. They were mostly the white-skinned people of Aldebaran. The Brons who had gone out into s.p.a.ce with Grim Hagen had dwindled away. Odin saw a few white-headed ones. And once he saw a captain stop to lash a worn, gray-haired Bron who must have been one of the original prisoners. The poor fellow looked so old and frazzled that Odin could not recognize him. His heart grew heavy as he thought of those prisoners. They had done no harm. Their lives had been wasted away because of their loyalty to Maya. And the words of an old poet came to his mind: ”Think of man's inhumanity to man and write your poem if you can.”

The day pa.s.sed wearily by.

Odin felt that it was one of the worst days of his life. They had spanned thousands of light-years and time had slid by like a stream of quicksilver while they hunted through s.p.a.ce. And now, at the last, they were pinned down on a gaunt planet while a triumphant Grim Hagen went back and forth from the Old s.h.i.+p to the violet dome. Welcomed like a conqueror, and holding every card, Grim Hagen was the man of the hour.

Yes, it was certainly Grim Hagen's day.

Night fell quite suddenly. But the sky above them turned to the faintest mauve, and there was still a pale ghost of a light hovering over the plain.

There were no stars. No moon. Jack Odin learned later that the people of this planet had fed their moon to the dying sun long before.

They ate supper--as Gunnar called it--and then Ato and Odin studied some photo-maps which they had taken just before they landed. Meanwhile, Gunnar busied himself with the sword. And Nea, who stayed in her lab most of the day, brought in a few calculations on the barrier that prisoned them.

”It's an old idea,” she told them quietly. ”It can be broken by a steadily increasing force. Twenty days, perhaps, after I rig up the machine--”

Odin groaned. ”In twenty days Grim Hagen will be back among the stars--”

She smiled quietly. And now he saw how tired her face and eyes were. Like the face of a child that has worked too hard. ”I think not,” she answered him simply. ”Gunnar is always talking about fate. I do not believe in such.

But all day I have felt that the end is drawing near. Remember, I still have my Kalis. With them I could have been a huntress on some greener planet--another Diana, perhaps. Oh!” She stamped her foot in worriment. ”We held creation in our grasp out here. We could have forced the last secrets from her. Yes, I will say it! We could have been as G.o.ds. And where is it ending? A mad chase after a madman. And for all the years and all the lives that have been spent on these two s.h.i.+ps, time and s.p.a.ce are the only winners.”

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