Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1931. Various
go!” It was Croy, and his voice shook with feeling. “You are in command of the Ertak; she, and those in her need you. Let me go! I insist, sir!”
I turned in the darkness, quickly and angrily.
“Mr. Croy,” I said swiftly, “do you realize that you are speaking to your commanding officer?”
I felt his grip tighten on my arm as the reproof struck home.
“Yes, sir,” he said doggedly. “I do. But I repeat that your duty commands you to remain here.”
“The duty of a commander in this Service leads him to the place of greatest danger, Mr. Croy,” I informed him.
“Then stay with your ship, sir!” he pleaded, craftily. “This may be some trick to get you away, so that they may attack us. Please! Can’t you see that I am right, sir?”
I thought swiftly. The earnestness of the youngster had touched me. Beneath the formality and the “sirs” there was a real affection between us.
In the darkness I reached for his hand; I found it and shook it solemnly – a gesture of Earth which it is hard to explain. It means many things.
“Go, then, Andy,” I said softly. “But do not stay long. An hour at the longest. If you are not back in that length of time, we’ll come after you, and whatever else may happen, you can be sure that you will be well avenged. The Ertak has not lost her stinger.”
“Thank you, John,” he replied. “Remember that I shall wear my menore. If I adjust it to full power, and you do likewise, and stand without the shelter of the Ertak’s metal hull, I shall be able to communicate with you, should there be any danger.” He pressed my hand again, and strode through the exit out into the darkness, which was lit only by a few distant stars.
The long, slim legs closed in around him; like a pigmy guarded by the skeletons of giants he was led quickly away.
The minutes dragged by. There was a nervous tension on the ship, the like of which I have experienced not more than a dozen times in all my years.
No one spoke aloud. Now and again one man would matter uneasily to another; there would be a swift, muttered response, and silence again. We were waiting – waiting.
Ten minutes went by. Twenty. Thirty.
Impatiently I paced up and down before the exit, the guards at their posts, ready to obey any orders instantly.
Forty-five minutes. I walked through the exit; stepped out onto the cold, hard earth.
I could see, behind me, the shadowy bulk of the Ertak. Before me, a black, shapeless blot against the star-sprinkled sky, was the great administrative building of the Chisee. And in there, somewhere, was Anderson Croy. I glanced down at the luminous dial of my watch. Fifty minutes. In ten minutes more —
“John Hanson!” My name reached me, faintly but clearly, through the medium of my menore. “This is Croy. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” I replied instantly. “Are you safe?”
“I am safe. All is well. Very well. Will you promise me now to receive what I am about to send, without interruption?”
“Yes,” I replied, thoughtlessly and eagerly. “What is it?”
“I have had a long conference with the chief or head of the Chisee,” explained Croy rapidly. “He is very intelligent, and his people are much further advanced than we thought.
“Through some form of communication, he has learned of the fight with the weird birds; it seems that they are – or were – the most dreaded of all the creatures of this dark world. Apparently we got the whole brood of them, and this chief, whose name, I gather, is Wieschien, or something like that, is naturally much impressed.
“I have given him a demonstration or two with my atomic pistol and the flashlight – these people are fairly stricken by a ray of light directly in the eyes – and we have reached very favorable terms.
“I am to remain here as chief bodyguard and adviser, of which he has need, for all is not peaceful, I gather, in this kingdom of darkness. In return, he is to give up his plans to subjugate the rest of Antri; he has sworn to do this by what is evidently, to him, a very sacred oath, witnessed solemnly by the rest of his council.
“Under the circumstances, I believe he will do what he says; in any case, the great canal will be filled in, and the Antrians will have plenty of time to erect a great series of disintegrator ray stations along the entire twilight zone, using the broad fan rays to form a solid wall against which the Chisee could not advance even did they, at some future date, carry out their plans. The worst possible result then would be that the people in the sunlit portion would have to migrate from certain sections, and perhaps would have day and night, alternately, as do other worlds.
“This is the agreement we have reached; it is the only one that will save this world. Do you approve, sir?”
“No! Return immediately, and we will show the Chisee that they cannot hold an officer of the Special Patrol as a hostage. Make haste!”
“It’s no go, sir,” came the reply instantly. “I threatened them first. I explained what our disintegrator rays would do, and Wieschien laughed at me.
“This city is built upon great subterranean passages that lead to many hidden exits. If we show the least sign of hostility the work will be resumed on the canal, and, before we can locate the spot, and stop the work, the damage will be done.
“This is our only chance, sir, to make this expedition a complete success. Permit me to judge this fact from the evidence I have before me. Whatever sacrifice there is to make, I make gladly. Wieschien asks that you depart at once, and in peace, and I know this is the only course. Good-by, sir; convey my salutations to my other friends upon the old Ertak, and elsewhere. And now, lest my last act as an officer of the Special Patrol Service be to refuse to obey the commands of my superior officer, I am removing the menore. Good-by!”
I tried to reach him again, but there was no response.
Gone! He was gone! Swallowed up in darkness and in silence!
Dazed, shaken to the very foundation of my being, I stood there between the shadowy bulk of the Ertak and the towering mass of the great silent pile that was the seat of government in this strange land of darkness, and gazed up at the dark sky above me. I am not ashamed, now, to say that hot tears trickled down my cheeks, nor that as I turned back to the Ertak, my throat was so gripped by emotion that I could not speak.
I ordered the exit closed with a wave of my hand; in the navigating room I said but four words: “We depart at once.”
At the third meal of the day I gathered my officers about me and told them, as quickly and as gently as I could, of the sacrifice one of their number had made.
It was Kincaide who, when I had finished, rose slowly and made reply.
“Sir,” he said quietly, “We had a friend. Some day, he might have died. Now he will live forever in the records of the Service, in the memory of a world, and in the hearts of those who had the honor to serve with him. Could he – or we – wish more?”
Amid a strange silence he sat down again, and there was not an eye among us that was dry.
I hope that the snappy young officer who visited me the other day reads this little account of bygone times.
Perhaps it will make clear to him how we worked, in those nearly forgotten days, with the tools we had at hand. They were not the perfect tools of to-day, but what they lacked, we somehow made up.
That fine old motto of the Service, “Nothing Less Than Complete Success,” we passed on unsullied to those who came after us.
I hope these youngsters of to-day may do as well.
The Sunken Empire
Concerning the strange adventures of Professor Stevens with the Antillians on the floors of the mysterious Sargasso Sea.
“Then