CHAPTER VII

Now they were hurtling through the utter blackness that was space, away from the bleak moon that had been their prison. To port, Jupiter loomed monstrous, overwhelming, its great Red Spot weirdly aglow with seas of flaming hydrogen that seethed and boiled amid gigantic ice-cliffs carved from frozen gases. On the other side, Ganymede and Callisto swung slowly in their orbits; and beyond them, dwarfed by them, tiny Jupiter IX raced through the sky in the counter direction.

A navigator said: "The place they held us is Jupiter V--the satellite closest to the planet. The manuals say it is abandoned now. But it was built up as a power station by the Jupiterian entente in the days before the Federation began to broadcast energy."

"And now Quos Reggar holds it," the mate echoed. "What is your command, _Gar_ Shane? Shall we ramp at Europa and report it?"

Bleakly, Shane stared into the visiscreen. Gadar, the dark star, hurled across the void into the solar system a thousand years ago, was coming into view now, the faint silver gleam of its profile barely visible.

"Or we could try Callisto," the mate went on. "They would notify the Federation unit stationed at Europa--send out patrols--"

"No," Shane said. "No. We'll go on to Federation headquarters, the Martian meeting. The things we have to tell will mean more there."

Abruptly, he turned and left the pilot room, and made his way to Kyrsis' quarters.

She came to his knock, and a glow of pleasure suffused her pale, silvery face at the sight of him. "Enter Shane...." The cool fingers touched his hand, drew him in. The violet eyes clung to his, as if in the sharing of some precious secret.

He closed the door behind him; breathed in deeply. "Why did you choose to come with me, Kyrsis?"

The rich purple lips curved and parted. As always, her eyes seemed to mock him. "How many times have you asked me, Shane?"

"How many times--?" he echoed, and now his voice had a bitter ring. "I wish I knew. But still I have no answer." He strode to the visiscreen across the room and snapped it on with an angry flick. Stared broodingly into it.

Gadar was almost to the screen's center now.

* * * * *

Shane said: "You're like that dark star, Kyrsis. What men can see is beautiful--but beneath the surface you're both all mystery. Where did you come from? Where are you going? And why? I always come back to that one question: why, why, why?"

She came very close to him, then, and what might have been sorrow was in her face, her eyes. "I've told you, Shane. To me, life is a sacred thing ... more sacred than you can ever dream. To see it wasted as yours would have been is the sin above all sin. And there was Reggar. After you'd told me the things you did, how could I believe him? How could I trust him? I had to get away from him, and quickly. If I could do it and save you, too, would I not have been a fool to throw away the chance?"

He turned on her. "But where is your home--your moon, your planet? Why do your people need slaves--?"

She shook her head sadly. "I am sorry, Shane, truly sorry. But those secrets are not mine to tell ... unless--"

"Unless what--?"

"Unless you are willing to travel with me ... to take the road Quos Reggar took." Again her hand was on his arm, her silvery body close to his. A note of tension crept into her voice. "Because we need slaves, Shane! You cannot know how desperately we need them! Nor is it hard. They do not suffer...."

For a moment the Earthman stood there with her, and her hand left his arm and came up to caress his cheek. "If you would but learn to understand us ... there is so much to learn."

Shane swayed a little. His blue eyes dulled, and his breathing was shallow, uneven.

The woman's eyes mirrored indefinable things, things old beyond all measure.

Shane stood rigid. Then, jerkily, he pulled away.

"I don't care why you need slaves," he said thickly. "It doesn't matter how you treat them--"

The silver woman spread her hands. "You see--?"

"But your people could work out a better way--"

"No." The word rang final. "For us there is--can be--no better way."

Shane's lips twisted. The dullness was gone from his eyes now. "Then, Kyrsis, we can never meet. You have picked your people's road, and I have taken the _Chonya_ way."

"But then--"

"There can be nothing more. But you saved my life, and I must buy it back. So I'll land you at Horla, on Mars, and set you free, and you can go your way."

He turned to go.

Then the woman said: "Your throat, _Gar_ Shane!"

The Earthman pivoted, face hard. "Yes?"

"There are flecks of green beneath the jaw--a slight eruption of the skin."

"I saw it in a mirror a while ago," Shane answered tightly. "It goes with _theol_."

"The first injection," the silver woman nodded, and now her smile was lazy, taunting. "With the second, the welts grow darker. After the third there are ... more obvious symptoms."

"You saved my life," Shane said, thin-lipped. "I'll see you safe to Mars."

He wheeled and left the room.

* * * * *

The committee on the interterrestrial slave trade was listening to a speaker from Titan when Shane reached the Federation chambers.

"Slavers? I can give you two names for slavers!" the Titanian cried out in a frenzy. "One is _Chonya_ and the other is _Malya_! And those are the names for 'pirate,' too, and 'cutthroat' and 'thief and 'hypocrite'!"

Grim-faced, Shane started forward.

A basilisk-eyed Mercurian with a sly and smirking air barred his way. "Your credentials, please. You cannot enter the chamber without credentials."

"I left my credentials with a mongrel outlaw named Quos Reggar," Shane clipped tightly. "He ambushed my ship on the way. The chairman, the delegates--any of them can identify me."

"My deepest regrets, but identification is not enough." The Mercurian was openly grinning now. "My orders are specific: regardless of excuse, there will be no admission without credentials."

"The _Chonyas_ and _Malyas_ have made the asteroid belt a space ship graveyard!" the Titanian ranted shrilly.

"Get me the chairman!" Shane rapped.

"My orders are specific," the Mercurian repeated, smirking. "The issue of your attendance has already been discussed, Earthman, and you are barred--"

Shane raised his hand, tried to flag attention.

The chairman looked quickly away. Committee members turned till their backs were to him, or else openly ignored him.

"They have looted the void for a thousand years!" the Titanian screamed. "When we finally put that down, they grew clever, and now they wail of raids, even while they re-energize their proton cannon and hose the blood from their hatches--"

A sudden, mirthless grin twisted Shane's face.

"You lie in your teeth!" he shouted. Slamming the Mercurian to one side, he strode forward.

* * * * *

The Titanian cut off in mid-breath, great blue-green wattles shaking. Committee members spun about.

"Order!" bellowed the chairman, hammering on his desk. "Order in the chamber!"

"To hell with your order!" Shane shouted back savagely, eyes blazing. "I said he lied. I'll back it!"

"The _Chonya_ delegate must wait his turn. He must clear his credentials--"

"Let someone wait who has yet to count his dead! I'm here to see that the _Chonyas_ get justice and an end to slavery, not words! I'll stay till action's taken!"

A rubbery, flat-faced Europan leaped up. "And why were you not here before? Where have you been? What have you been doing?"

"Yes!" roared a delegate from Ganymede. "Eye-witnesses already have told us that the _Chonyas_ are raiding for slaves again--and there are those who say that you, _gar_ of the _Chonyas_, raid with them--that a raid is what kept you absent here--"

"My crew will tell you--"

"Your crew?" rasped a Venusian _Vansta_. "Your _Chonya_ crew? Who ever heard of a _Chonya_ with a mote of truth within him?"

A wave of raucous laughter swept through the chamber.

Then the delegate from Earth was on his feet, a tall, heavy man with thinning hair. "Silence!" he thundered. "Silence!"

The laughter, the shouts, died away.

The Earth delegate addressed Shane: "There is a woman called Kyrsis, of an unknown race, who is known to have been buying slaves. Do you know her?"

"Yes, but--"

"And is it true that when you landed at the Horla spaceport, less than an hour ago, this woman was with you?"

"Yes--"

"That you knew her to have been buying slaves, yet you let her go free, instead of turning her over to the constituted authorities?"

"But she--"

"Answer yes or no: is it true?"

"Yes, but--"

"'Buts' have no place in this committee, Shane!" The Earth delegate swung about. "My fellow-members. I am ashamed to confess that this renegade came from Earth. Now, as Earth delegate, the least I can do to atone is to demand, in the name of Earth, that he be placed under arrest as a slaver; and that the _Chonyas_ whom he leads be expelled from the Federation, placed outside the protection of its laws, and subjected to an immediate punitive campaign by the Federation fleet to destroy their sovereignty and reduce them to the status of wards of the Federation!"

* * * * *

For the fraction of a second, silence echoed. Then the great room exploded into a cacophony of hate, a tumult of affirmation: "Yes, yes--!" "Seize him!" "Jail him!" "Burn him down!"

Two uniformed _Fantays_ and the Mercurian from the door rushed towards Shane.

The Earthman stood as if frozen in his tracks. Then, explosively, he leaped backward, twisting, and of a sudden the light-pistol that had swung at his hip was in his hand.

"Who dares to seize me?"

The _Fantays_, the Mercurian, stopped short.

Blue eyes contemptuous, cold as death, Shane looked from them to the delegates ... the chairman. "I'm going out now," he said.

No answer came ... no comment or sound save that of the crowd's loud, nervous breathing.

"I'm going," he repeated savagely. "I'm going because the Federation holds knaves and fools enough that decent men no longer dare feel safe within it. The truth finds a graveyard here, and justice hangs in chains. Better to fight you and the slavers both than count on your weak-kneed aid. From this moment on, the _Chonyas_ will carve their own way."

Not one of them would meet his eyes.

"No comments, no arguments?" The Earthman laughed sourly; he brought up the light-gun in a gesture that held at once both menace and defiance. "Then I'll leave you now. You may follow me--if you dare!"

Boldly, not even glancing back, he strode out of the room.