Part 2

"Not enough data," answered Tom. "Maybe this new stuff will help, and you might scrape for everything else you can transmit. I'd hate to try a rescue operation, because that might force us to head back for Deneb III. But if they don't decide to blast the ship in the next hour or so, there's a chance we can pull out of this trap at our end."

John did not ask for details, for he knew their conversation probably was monitored.

* * * * *

The four of them sat up half the night poring over the books in their room. They gleaned nothing except from the "history" Phil had been reading the night before. Unfortunately, it was not a general history, but the flowery story of a high military family. The sort of references they found were, "after the Jovian invaders had been driven from Earth" and "Second Sarge Vesix participated in the bombardment that destroyed the Jovian tyrants." No details.

What did emerge from their study was a picture of the rise of a military aristocracy on the ashes of an earlier civilization which had been ground to pieces under the heels of alien rulers.

There was good news from the starship at dawn.

"We're orbiting," said Commander Wallace with quiet pride. "Shortly after I talked with you last night, they called on us to surrender or be blasted. I asked time for a conference of officers and promised to fire a rocket from the nose if we decided to surrender.

"I fired the rocket all right, but it was an instantaneous smoke screen rocket. I still don't know whether their guns are manned or robot-controlled, but I gambled that their firing was keyed to the sight of the ship blasting off instead of to vibration. We were half a mile up before they could swing into action, and we didn't get a scratch."

A rescue mission with one of the scout rockets was too risky against the strong forces of the Earthmen. Tom mentioned that fast planes had followed them into the stratosphere. But one thing was done for the imprisoned four.

Soon after breakfast, they were taken under guard to a Spartan courtroom, presided over by Third Sarge Elfor.

"We have received a warning from your colleagues," Elfor said grimly. "They broadcast to us a short time ago that if harm came to you, this city and others will be destroyed before they leave the solar system. In case you knew of this and it has in any way raised your hopes, I wish to remind you that Earth's cities have been destroyed before. This threat will not affect our decision to mete strict justice to you.

"You are charged with being enemies of the people of Earth, and with having landed on Earth under false colors with the intent of sabotage and espionage. Your prosecutor will be Fifth Tech Jatoo, representing the nations of Earth. You will be permitted to speak in your own defense."

Jatoo was a slender, thin-faced man with the air of an experienced attorney.

"The governments of Earth make these charges against the joint defendants," he began matter-of-factly: "That they are members of a rebellious and traitorous group who are allied with the Jovians and maintain an illegal, secret base on some planet or moon of the solar system; that they came here under the guise of strangers, with the specific intent of espionage and sabotage of Earth's defense against the Jovian enemy; and that they actually began such operations.

"We shall present the following major evidence in support of these charges:

"First, that the defendants did travel from the Numex spaceport to the military town of Pebbro in a vehicle, the motive power of which is still unknown but which obviously must utilize fuel, in violation of the conservation laws;

"Second, that the defendants' colleagues did not approach the peoples of Earth in peace, but remained enfortressed in an armed space vessel;

"Third, that the defendants Phil Alcorn and Fran Golden did throw the switches activating the electrical system and powered water system of the military town of Pebbro, that the above-named two defendants did utilize a military power vehicle for pleasure purposes and that all the defendants did unnecessarily destroy glass drinking vessels, all in violation of the conservation laws;

"And, fourth, that the starship Discovery, listed in ancient records as having departed on a colonizing mission to the third planet of the star Deneb, was not scheduled to return to Earth for another seventy-five years and therefore could not be the ship in which the defendants arrived, as claimed."

Elfor inclined his head toward the quartet from the starship, who sat behind a long table on the side of the room opposite Jatoo.

"You may state what your defense will be," he said.

"Our defense to the first three items of evidence," answered John, who had been taking notes, "is that we have been absent from Earth for more than 250 Earth-years and that we were, and are, ignorant of your laws and customs. Thus, we are innocent of intent to violate them. Our defense to the fourth item of evidence is that certain improvements were made in the engines of the starship Discovery while colonization of Deneb III was in progress, making it possible for us to return to Earth ahead of schedule. Our defense to all three charges made against us is that they are false."

It was a monotonous trial, with a parade of witnesses brought to the stand by Jatoo, all of whom testified to seeing the defendants perform one or more acts of "unconservation."

"In the courts of Earth, a case can be decided only on the evidence presented," said Third Sarge Elfor when John had offered his brief defense for the quartet. "The defendants have presented no evidence, only argument. The fact that the defendants' clothing corresponds to that in use two and a half centuries ago cannot be considered competent, as it could be copied easily.

"For the safety of Earth, the defendants are found guilty and remanded for immediate execution. In view of the existence of doubt as to their treasonable intent and their previous status as deevs, they are accorded the honor of death by power weapons. Conserve!"

* * * * *

Shocked and silent, the four were led to a courtyard outside. As they walked, John switched on his pocket transmitter with a casual, almost unnoticeable gesture, and murmured a report to the ship.

"I'm sorry, John," said the commander, his voice tense with emotion. "There's no possibility of rescue, and I know it's small satisfaction to you that your deaths will be avenged."

The quartet's hands were bound behind them and they were lined up against a wall. The Third Sarge, attended by a good-sized retinue, stood at ease nearby, smoking a cigar, to direct the execution personally.

"'Power weapons' to them apparently mean regulation heat-guns," remarked Phil, almost jocularly. "That's what the fellow has."

A soldier was standing square in the center of the courtyard, a pistol dangling from his grip. At a signal from Elfor, he lifted it.

"Looks like I'm first," said John, bracing himself. "Be seeing you, somewhere."

He gritted his teeth for the wave of unbearable heat that was sure to come. Instead, there was a silent explosion in the midst of the courtyard and the soldier who had held the gun writhed on the ground, incinerated.

"John! The gun exploded!" cried Phil in amazement. "I've only seen that happen once before!--Remember that crewman who wouldn't take the trouble to keep his gun clean?"

John was thinking fast.

"I remember," he said in a low voice. His heart was still racing from the reaction of his near brush with death. "There's a pattern here. If I could only get a chance to talk over things sensibly with this Third Sarge...."

There was great excitement among the soldiery. Several of the men were crowded around the corpse of the marksman. Elfor stood nervously, his hand on his own holstered gun.

"They're concealing weapons," he barked to his aides. "Search them!"

A squad of guards swarmed over the four prisoners. There was an excited twitter when they discovered the pocket transmitters. They removed the little packets, snapping the aerial wires, and carried them to Elfor. He glanced at them, took one in his hand, and ordered:

"Execute them!"

Another guard with a heat-gun took his position in the center of the courtyard. He handled the weapon somewhat gingerly, but checked its mechanism and prepared to follow orders.

He waited for the command from Elfor. But the Third Sarge now was staring hard at the little transmitter in his hand. Instead of ordering the guard to fire, he strode across the courtyard and thrust the tiny radio before John's face.

"Is this true?" he demanded. He pointed at the well-known symbol stamped on the packet, the red diagram of an atom that warned against opening the lead-shielded mechanism without precaution.

"You mean, is it atomic-powered?" asked John. "Yes it is."

"It is a weapon?"

"No, it's a radio transmitter."

"But it operates?"

"Certainly it operates. Why in thunder do you think I'd be carrying a useless transmitter?"

"It has been many years since this sign was seen on a working mechanism on Earth," said Elfor soberly. "You are familiar, then, with atomic power?"

"I'm not an atomic technician," answered John carefully, "but there are several on the Discovery who can build anything from one of these little transmitters to the engines of a spaceship, with the proper equipment."

The Third Sarge stood in silent thought for several minutes. He was high in the councils of his country, or he would not have been commander of the zone that guarded Numex spaceport. He knew the reason for the basic slogan "Conserve!" and he knew, as 99 per cent of his subordinates did not, what circumstances would make that slogan meaningless.

"Guard!" he growled. "Unbind the deevs! John Gray, come with me in peace."

"You'd better give me back that transmitter, first," suggested John drily. "I'd hate to escape execution just to get H-bombed by my own ship."

* * * * *

It was the next afternoon that the four were escorted by a trim-uniformed guard of honor across the flat spaceport to the Discovery.

"The Jovians wanted to reduce Earth to colonial status, to be exploited for its natural resources," John explained to his companions as they walked. "All atomic installations were destroyed, all technicians and scientists exterminated systematically and all scientific books burned. They were very thorough about it.

"The successful revolt was accomplished with a concealed stock-pile of atomic weapons. Since that time, they've been garrisoned against the return of the Jovians. But atomic power was gone and so were the scientists who could bring it back and the books from which new scientists could learn.

"It's because they can't replace even so small a thing as an electric light bulb that destruction or unnecessary use of any sort of equipment is the rankest sort of treason. They've been saving all their technological capital for a last-ditch stand against the expected invasion.

"And it was their faulty, groping sort of maintenance that saved our lives, because even a heat-gun deteriorates in 150 years. That gun hadn't been fired since the Revolt!"

"Then we can be their salvation?" suggested Phil.

"Yes. The scientists who built the Deneb colony can rebuild the technology of our own Earth. It will take a long time ... there'll have to be schools and we'll all have to work hard ... but maybe some of us will be able to go back, in 30 or 40 years, say, when the Discovery can return to Deneb."

They were nearing the ship, and John saw the officers crowding the main port, watching them come.

"It's sort of inconsequential, I know," said Ann then. "But several times the Third Sarge referred to us as 'deevs.' Did he mention to you what a deev is?"

John smiled.

"It's an ancient military slang term, just like 'sarge' and 'topkick,'" he replied. "'Deev' is just plain old D.V. Distinguished Visitor. And I suppose we are, at that."