CHAPTER V

This room was large, and luxuriously furnished with the treasures of a score of satellites and planets. Here were rich tapestries from Orlon, a thousand blinding years in the making. Here, a table from Rhea, aglitter with the inlays of the spider men, delicate as the traceries of frost. Great _borvne_ crystals from the pits of Neptune had been transformed into lamps, their cold fire blazing like the play of sun on glacial ice. A priceless Grecian vase from Earth, older almost than time itself, created a world of its own in one corner.

But it was the woman who held all eyes ... the silver woman.

She came forward now, a strange, shining creature. Her beauty was a breathless thing--ethereal, almost unreal. The cunningly-fashioned toga of silver cloth she wore matched the spun silver of her hair.

Yet her hair's silver could not have been that of age, for her skin still held the fresh glow of youth, though uniquely translucent and silvery itself--nearly as pale and clear as the bodies of Pluto's bloodless ice-things.

As if in studied contrast, her lips gleamed rich purple, more blue than red; and a hundred striking violet tints glinted in her eyes.

Even over the vocodor, her voice had a strange, alien lilt, as if her thoughts, her words, strained the unit's powers: "You ... you are the Earthman--the _gar_ of the asteroids...."

She came close to Shane as she spoke; very close, till the fragrance of unknown flowers rose in his nostrils. Her pale hands touched his cheeks, and the violet eyes probed his.

They were strange eyes, as strange as the worlds had ever seen--young and clear as a girl's, yet somehow old, too ... old as the void itself; and the things that were in them sent queer tremors rippling through Shane like a chill. It was as if the woman were looking beyond the things that others saw--probing deeper, searching for some precious secret element that only she could grasp.

"You are strong, Earthman!" she said softly, and now her voice held a throaty urgency, an undertone that might have told of inner tension. "There is life in you ... much life. It flows hot in your veins...."

"He is not for you, _Shi_ Kyrsis!" Reggar rasped harshly. "Our trap needs bait, and we cannot spare him!"

* * * * *

The hands drew away from Shane's cheeks. The woman turned, and her violet eyes grew big and dangerous. "You cannot--?" she asked, her voice even softer than before. "Who says you cannot, Reggar?"

"_We_ cannot, _Shi_ Kyrsis," Reggar answered. One webbed hand moved in an angry, incisive gesture. "We, the two of us, you and I. I cannot, because without him to serve as cover the Federation will sooner or later have my head. And you cannot, because without me there will be no slaves."

The woman's hands cupped, as if the long, purple-nailed fingers held some priceless goblet. "But life is a sacred thing!" she whispered. "It runs so strong within him...."

"It runs stronger than you know," Quos Reggar slashed back bitterly. "He is a legend, a madman who has carved his destiny across the void." He slapped the great _Chonya_ belt that girded him. "Do you think that weakness won this belt? He is built of blood and iron! Even I confess it, though I hate him. But you cannot let yourself think of that now. For he must live, and he must raid, and he must be seen, if we are to break the power of the Federation and open up the void to slaving. Trust me, I know--"

Shane said: "I once knew a man who trusted Reggar. They were partners together in their dirty business, and as thick as thieves could get. When my blockade--"

"Shut up!" roared Reggar.

"When my blockade drove the slavers out of the asteroids, these two were trapped off Juno--"

Reggar sprang at Shane--webbed hands clutching, great lobed eyes aflame.

But the silver woman, Kyrsis, came between them. Gently, she said, "I'll hear him out, Reggar."

Shane smiled thinly. "When I ordered the pair of them to surrender, Reggar, here, came to me secretly, and offered to send me the partner's head if I'd let him--Reggar--go on a promise that he'd never ramp ship in the asteroid belt again. I agreed, and he brought the head."

"You _chitza_!" screamed Reggar. With agility amazing for his size, he leaped past the woman called Kyrsis.

Shane tried to dodge, but the guards who flanked him seized him.

Reggar struck him across the mouth.

Shane slumped back. He would have fallen but for the guards.

* * * * *

Then the woman's voice came--sharp, icecold: "I would not do that again, Reggar, if I were you ... if I wished to live!" And then, to Shane: "Is there more?"

Blood trickled from Shane's mouth. He swayed, and a crooked grin twisted his swollen lips. "Only one thing, _Shi_ Kyrsis," he mumbled. "The partner was Tas Reggar--this creature's brother!"

"He lies!" snarled Reggar. "He lies in his teeth like the _chitza_ he is! I have no brother--"

"Perhaps not--now!" Shane baited. "How could you have? You sent me his head in a sack!"

A sound of incoherent fury bubbled in Reggar's throat. The great lobed eyes were flecked with red. Again he sprang at Shane.

But again the silver woman came between them. The violet eyes were probing, thoughtful. "The story has a ring to it, Reggar--a twist that somehow fits you."

The other's mottled face contorted. The webbed hands clenched into fists. "It is a lie!" he snarled thickly. And then, in a voice that still trembled with repression: "I have no brother. I had none. But even if the tale were true, what difference would it make? We are here, together--"

Shane said: "What difference? For one thing, it would let her know whose neck would stretch, whose blood would spurt, if the time again came for you to make a choice. You'd cut her throat and save your own--"

"Silence!" roared the giant mongrel. He pivoted to face the woman. "Can you not see this _yodor_ Earthman's goal, _Shi_ Kyrsis? Is it not plain enough that he seeks to brew distrust between us, in the hope that out of it he can snatch a chance to break us both, and save his hide and his beloved _Chonyas_?"

Slowly, the woman nodded. "Perhaps ... yes, probably."

"And is there anyone but me who'll bring you slaves by the thousands?" Reggar pressed on, relentless. "Where else can you find these lives you're seeking?"

The woman made no answer.

"But why?" Shane cut in fiercely. "Where is your home, that you still need slaves? Work is for machines, and power is free. Why throw away living beings upon it?"

The silver woman stared. "You mean--you do not know--?"

"No! Quiet!" choked Reggar. "Have you gone mad, _Shi_ Kyrsis? This man would destroy us. He must not know."

The silver woman looked from the mongrel to Shane and back again. "Then ... how do you plan--?"

Quos Reggar shrugged. "The _theol_ will make him ours. Three injections, spaced one Earth day apart, give the habit." He turned, leered at Shane. "Do you know about _theol_, great _gar_? Have you heard what it does--how it paralyzes the will of even the strongest?"

"I know," Shane answered bleakly. "Call it madness, not habit. It works on the brain a hundred times worse than wormwood--and a thousand times faster."

"You live for it," the mongrel nodded, chuckling. "Night and day, you dream of it, they say. You'll steal for it, fight for it, kill for it. With every dose, you need it more. And nowhere is there a cure."

Shane said nothing.

Reggar gestured to the guards.

They caught Shane's arms once more; held him rigid.

Reggar drew an injector from inside his tunic; then a bottle. Quickly, he filled the needle and inserted the gas ampule.

Still Shane stood silent, stoney-faced.

Kyrsis said: "Why must you have it this way, Earthman? Give your sworn word that you'll serve us, and Reggar will put away the _theol_."

"I'd rather take the _theol_," Shane answered tightly.

"But why, Earthman? Why?"

Shane's laugh was bitter, curt. "It is a thing you would not understand, _Shi_ Kyrsis. On Earth, they call it conscience."

A shadow seemed to pass across the silver woman's pale, lovely face. The violet eyes were suddenly uncertain. "I--I do not know...."

"You never will," Shane answered. Coldly, contemptuously, he met her gaze. "But the time will come, I promise you, when you'll know that I did not lie about Reggar--that no matter what he says, you cannot trust him. Even now--here, today, this very minute--he is planning to betray you."

"But how--?"

"Why bother to tell you more? You would not believe me. But when the day arrives, say to yourself just once, 'I had my chance; the Earthman warned me'."

"Hold him tight!" Reggar warned the guards angrily. "The _theol_ will put an end to his mumblings!"

* * * * *

He came close to Shane. A webbed hand twitched the Earthman's head. The injector poised close to the sun-tanned throat.

Shane went completely limp. Dead weight, he sagged loose in the guards' hands.

They swayed under the drag of him; shifted, trying to regain their balance.

Shane writhed in a savage, spasmodic effort to break free. He kicked hard at Reggar.

But the guards' hold held. Reggar twisted out of the way of the kick. He jerked Shane's head around by the hair.

"It ends here, _chitza_!"

Face contorted in ghoulish triumph, he drove the injector's plunger home.

The _theol_ sprayed into Shane's throat....