Then there was the strange message from Beta just before they entered hypers.p.a.ce. Some nonsense about Rye being killed. All the time there he was, large as life, dropping plates in the first-cla.s.s pa.s.senger saloon.
Rye"s condition had degenerated so badly by the time they made the jump to hypers.p.a.ce that the chief purser had ordered him confined to the sick bay. There he had remained, refusing food, drink and medical attention, until they emerged from hypers.p.a.ce and prepared for planetfall on Sentarion.
When the chief purser visited him, all Rye would say was, "I must land on Sentarion."
The chief purser looked at the slim, fair-haired figure sitting motionless on the bunk. He turned to the ship"s doctor.
"What do you think?"
"Perhaps it would be for the best. I can"t help him here. He refuses all medication, won"t even let me examine him. He"s in some kind of hypermanic state. My nurse swears he gave her an electric shock when she tried to bathe his face.
Besides..."
"Besides what?"
The ship"s doctor shrugged. "Sometimes the patient really does know best. Perhaps he"s developed an allergy to something about s.p.a.ce travel itself. The hyper-jumps or the anti-grav field. Who knows? Maybe he"ll do better planet-side.
There are good medical facilities at the University on Sentarion."
"I think something happened to him on Beta," said the chief purser. "Something so horrible that it affected his mind. When we get back to Beta I"m going to try to find out what it was."
(Much later he looked at Rye"s mutilated body in the morgue on Beta, and wondered what he had carried to Sentarion.) The ship"s doctor said, "Listen, Rye, we"ll drop you off on Sentarion if that"s what you really want. We"re landing to pick up a couple of homegoing scientists from the University. I"ll hand you over to one of the University staff, I"m sure they"ll look after you."
Rye stared straight ahead. "I must land on Sentarion."
And so he did. When farewells had been made and the scientists were safely aboard, the ship"s doctor explained Rye"s case to the University official who had been in charge of them.
The official, a spindly gra.s.shopper-like creature called Hapiir, couldn"t have been more helpful.
"Of course, we will be glad to help. I have my "thopter here, I will fly him to our medical facility myself. Poor young man."
Rye was led down the ramp and handed over to Hapiir. As the liner prepared for blast-off, Hapiir led him across the little s.p.a.ceport to the "thopter, helped him into one of the pa.s.senger seats and climbed into the c.o.c.kpit.
They waited until Hyperion Hyperion blasted off. Then with a clumsy flapping of its wings the ornithopter rose slowly into the sky. blasted off. Then with a clumsy flapping of its wings the ornithopter rose slowly into the sky.
As they approached Sentarion City, Hapiir heard a flat, dead voice from behind him. "Take me to the Temple."
"That is not possible," said Hapiir. "I see that you do not know our ways. It is forbidden even to speak of such things."
"Take me to the Temple."
"Please, this is most discourteous. You are not well, you do not know what you are saying. I will take you to our medical complex where you will be cared for."
A palm slapped down onto Hapiir"s carapace. Before he could so much as protest, five thousand volts seared through his body.
Hapiir screamed thinly, once, and then died.
Rye scrambled into the c.o.c.kpit and hurled Hapiir"s charred corpse from the "thopter. The controls were unfamiliar, but seemed simple enough. He flew on over the city, flying in great sweeping circles until at last the Temple appeared below him.
He began to descend.
The Lord Chancellor watched the descending craft with increasing indignation.
"If he lands here, I shall let the Harrubtii kill him. You, at least, came reverently, as a scholar, but this intrusion is sheer insolence."
Directly overhead now, the "thopter suddenly went into a descending spiral, clearly out of control. Bernice and the Lord Chancellor retreated to the bushes as the "thopter crashed to the ground before the central statue, disintegrating with the impact.
"I do not think the Harrubtii will be needed," said the Lord Chancellor grimly. "No one could have survived such a crash."
The Harrubtii were there all the same, though. Appearing with their usual mysterious suddenness, they gathered menacingly about the wreck.
A light flared briefly inside the wrecked "thopter and for a moment Bernice thought it was going to burst into flames. The light faded and a slender young man climbed from the wreckage, apparently quite unhurt.
He looked at Bernice and the Lord Chancellor without surprise and said, "Take me to the Temple."
"I shall do no such thing," said the Lord Chancellor and gestured towards the waiting Harrubtii. "Kill him!"
"No!" shouted Bernice. She tried to move forward but the Lord Chancellor"s claw held her back.
As the Harrubtii advanced, the slender young man blurred, and changed. Suddenly, in his place, there was a hovering globe of light, trailing fiery tentacles.
The Lord Chancellor released Bernice"s arm and threw himself to the ground. The Harrubtii too prostrated themselves.
Bernice looked at the hovering sphere. It was the shape that was on the murals in the Temple, and on the statue before her.
The Shining Ones or one of them at least had returned to Sentarion.
20.
Revelation Commander Steg"s head fell forward onto his chest, and he slumped back against the wall of the communications room.
With a mighty effort he forced himself back to wakefulness. If he slept now, he would die and he would not die would not die! Not until his mission was complete.
He glanced around the room and saw the humans watching him eagerly, waiting for him to succ.u.mb to the rising tide of weakness.
"Not yet," he rasped. "Not yet." He swept the muzzle of his blaster in an arc around the room.
Suddenly one of the technicians called, "Mr Malic look!"
Steg looked too, and saw, with enormous relief, the War Wheel looming up on the main monitor screen.
A Sontaran voice blared out over the com-unit. "War Wheel to Commander Steg. Respond!"
Steg lurched forward. "Commander Steg to War Wheel.
Request immediate pick-up. I repeat, immediate! Top priority."
"Stand by."
Steg stood by. He stood by until he heard the clang of a docking a.s.sault craft, until a Sontaran lieutenant and a squad of troopers marched into the room.
The lieutenant saluted. "Commander Steg."
"Return me to the War Wheel immediately," ordered Steg.
"Shall we kill the humans?"
Steg looked round the room, at the terrified humans who had been waiting for him to die, who had seen his weakness.
The one called Malic whispered, "You promised. You promised we wouldn"t be harmed if we co-operated."
As if that meant anything, thought Steg. It would to a human, of course. Humans had different standards. For some reason the words reminded him of the captain of Tiger Moth Tiger Moth, the human female. Lisa Lisa Deranne...
Shaking his head to clear it he ordered, "Destroy the communications equipment. Do not harm the humans."
He straightened up and with an immense effort marched steadily from the room.
Admiral Sarg"s suite on the War Wheel was a dark, metal-walled chamber, devoid of all luxury.
Commander Steg marched in, freshly uniformed and immaculate, and saluted, a little stiffly.
Sitting behind a ma.s.sive war-desk, the admiral raised his grizzled head and regarded him steadily for a moment. As if satisfied by what he saw, he said, "Report."
"My a.s.sault craft captured the solar yacht Tiger Moth Tiger Moth as ordered. We conducted a search, and evidence was discovered suggesting that the Rutan was indeed on board." as ordered. We conducted a search, and evidence was discovered suggesting that the Rutan was indeed on board."
"What kind of evidence?"
"Partially dissected dead bodies human and Sontaran."
"Continue."
"I organized a search and the Rutan was located in the power room. It escaped, killing a number of my troopers and several of the human crew. Since my forces were already much reduced, I entered into a pact with the surviving human prisoners, promising them freedom in return for their aid in trapping the Rutan."
The admiral looked mildly surprised. "Did you intend to honour this agreement?"
"Naturally not, Admiral. Once the Rutan had been destroyed any surviving humans would have been killed to preserve the secrecy of this operation."
Rea.s.sured that Steg had not given way to undue sentiment the admiral nodded. "Go on."
"Unfortunately the humans acted first. Led by their captain, they revolted against us, killing another of my troopers and Lieutenant Vorn."
"Did Vorn die well?"
"He fell honourably in battle, Admiral."
The admiral made a note. "His clan will be so informed."
"With only one trooper surviving," said Steg, "I judged it best to destroy the human ship and the Rutan with it. I armed a destructor bomb, set the timer and placed it in the airlock between our two ships." Steg paused, recalling the last desperate flurry of events. "The human captain and her last surviving crew member ambushed us. My trooper and myself were both shot down. The Rutan appeared in the shape of one of the dead humans then reverted to its own form. It departed through the airlock, with the intention of escaping in our a.s.sault craft."
"A difficult situation, Commander," said the Admiral drily.
"And then?"
"I recovered sufficiently to inform the captain of the presence of the destructor bomb in the airlock tunnel. She succeeded in putting it through the door of the a.s.sault craft just as it closed."
"Why should this human captain wish to aid you?"
"It is rather that she wished to destroy the Rutan. It had killed an older human with which she had formed some kind of emotional relationship. Humans do this."
Steg did not feel it necessary to inform the admiral that he himself had held back the airlock door, saving the human female"s life. The admiral would have wanted to know his reason for this extraordinary action, and Steg had none to give him.
He hurried on. "At this point, I collapsed from my wound and went into anabolic coma."
(A badly wounded Sontaran automatically shuts down all systems, falling into a protective coma. Usually, this condition ends in death. More rarely, anabiosis occurs and the subject returns from the brink as had happened with Steg.) "So your mission was successful?" said the admiral. "The a.s.sault craft blew up and the Rutan was destroyed?"
"Such was my belief, Admiral."
" Was? Was? " "
"I recovered consciousness in the morgue on Station Beta.