Part 2

"I was mad." He thrust out a stubborn chin. "They're stirring up a hornet's nest, Tod, and I won't be responsible for what happens! My formula was meant to be used on the native worlds of the subjects and there's no telling what kind of monstrosities they may evolve by not following the natural laws embodied in it. The resultant organisms may be intelligent, yes, but--"

Augie broke off, tenderly fingering a swollen eye and munching thoughtfully on his lower lip. He was sure down in the dumps all right, and I couldn't blame him. We were in a hell of a mess, putting it mildly. Three worlds to save, and we couldn't even save ourselves!

We spent two full months in the dungeon. I fretted away the last thirty nights on the floor, since contact with the cold stone had goaded Augie's rheumatism into full-flare.

News leaked in now and then and, on the sixty-second day, our guard disclosed the experiment had been completed and the high officials of Jupiter and its cohorts would meet that very day with the evolved Plutonians in the Grand Assembly Hall of the palace to form a pact that would seal the fate of the Allied Worlds.

"Now is the time, Augie!" I whispered excitedly.

Augie was electrified into action. He backed off in a corner and pulled the cot down over him. There would be tremendous heat.

I placed one hand under a foot and heaved up. The false hand remained on the floor, leaving my prehensile tentacle free to act.

I strode to the door and glanced up and down the tunnel. No guards were present--they were probably outside discussing the conference, which was now in progress.

I twined my "fingers" about a thick, steel bar and gave it all the juice I had! The metal glowed red-hot slowly fading into an incandescent white! The stuff began to melt, flowing out into the tunnel and forming bubbling puddles at my feet. The door didn't last long; all that was left was the cooling pools of metal and a gaping frame that yawned invitingly! The way was clear!

"Willing to take a chance?" I asked.

Augie gulped and nodded weakly.

I boosted him to my back and made a sudden dash through the hissing, liquid steel, taking care not to slip. I wasn't afraid for myself, I'm non-conducive to heat. But Augie, perched precariously on my back, would certainly be engulfed and devoured by the stuff if I should fall.

* * * * *

Then we were through the molten hell, making our way cautiously down the passageway. Pitiful moans assailed our ears; frenzied pleas for us to release the sufferers inside welled forth from the dark cells. But I was adamant.

"Time enough for that later, _if_ we're successful," I said to Augie. "These half-dead creatures would only be in our way in the coming fight."

We reached the outer door and I pulled tentatively on the handle. It was unlocked! Apparently, the guards thought the thick cell-doors were enough protection against escape and hadn't bothered to fasten this one. Anyway, they would return soon.

"You wait here," I whispered to Augie. "They're probably outside the door and would raise a hell of a noise if we came rushing out fighting. I may be forced to use a little persuasion on them."

I opened the door and stepped casually outside. The guards were huddled in a circle not ten feet from me, absorbed in an abstract debate on what would arise from the palace conference. One of them spotted me and let out a squeal.

"L-look!" he stammered. "One of de prisoners is loose!"

They marshalled their forces and advanced on me slowly, quietly, seeing no reason to summon aid. There were five of them--I was but one.

They made a concerted rush and clamped eager hands on my arms. Mon Pordo and Xan would reward them liberally for thwarting such an ill-planned coup. It was so easy, too.

I placed my exposed tentacle on the shoulder of one and let go with a few thousand volts!

The Jovians were packed together tightly and the electric charge dispatched them with grim ease. There was nothing left but a sickening mass of blackened, cooked flesh.

Augie poked his head through the door and gagged wretchedly at the charnel sight.

"It was necessary," I said.

We stuffed the charred bodies inside the tunnel door and fled swiftly across the courtyard to the palace-proper where I pointed to a high window. Vines ran rampant on the wall. It would be an easy matter to climb up them to the window.

We started up, gaining footing in small cracks between stones and going hand over hand toward the opening. Augie looked down once, and turned a pale green. From then on, he kept his eyes fastened to our objective.

I reached the window first and held out a hand to Augie. I pulled him through and we stood looking about. We were on a huge balcony, overlooking the brilliantly lighted Grand Assembly Hall. The most eminent political figures of three planets were there below us.

Here was Taj Morkus and Klex II of Saturn. There was Wen Dorn and the intellectual, if perverted, scientist, Haljin from Uranus.

The wily Mon Pordo was all about the Hall, like a fretful hen, bowing and shaking hands and directing the villainous delegates to seats at the council table.

At the head of the table sat Xan VIII himself, adorned from head to foot with rare, exotic jewels, watching the redundant proceedings from bored, seemingly-sleepy eyes.

There were more, many more, but those six were the main cogs of the machine. I counted exactly one hundred figures seated around the table, and some of them were strange beings indeed....

I knew immediately these were the evolved Plutonians. There were twenty-five of them, ranged along one side of the immense table, fidgeting uncomfortably under the concentrated attention of their hosts. There was something odd about those creatures, although I couldn't say just what. Certainly their color was strange; a sick, yellowish-white--but that wasn't what bothered me. I could tell by their actions they were rational, thinking beings. It was something about their "flesh" that had me going. Augie solved the problem with his next words.

"My lord!" he whispered loudly. "Those creatures are composed almost entirely of an impure form of calcium carbonate! I thought something like this would happen! Away from the native world, the Plutonian process of evolution was torn between its natural tendencies and the contradictory characteristics of its new environment. This is the result!"

It was then I knew what we must do. We went over the plan hurriedly, yet making sure there were no flaws. Down below, Mon Pordo was beginning a speech. He stood at the table importantly, white teeth flashing against the purple background of his corpulent lips.

"Gendlemen," he began blandly, as if that was the only form of address he knew. "I have de unequalled honor of presending do you a mosd marvelous revelashion. I have de privilege of making known do you dad which has been kepd secred from your eyes; dad which we have ofden hinded ad in the pasd dwo monds, bud have nod yed divulged. Once I have mad dis gread disclosure, you will realize vicdory is widin our grasp--jusd as our enemies will realize furder resisdance is endirely fudile and will abandon deir idealisdic cause. I--"

* * * * *

He rambled on like that for half an hour, finally getting around to introducing the Plutonians. Things moved more swiftly then. The Plutonians were just the least bit reluctant to form an allegiance and the experienced diplomats argued, pleaded, thrust and parried and generally browbeat them into a decision. The confident delegates finally withdrew to other parts of the palace to give the beleaguered Plutonians a chance to think it over in private. This was what I had been counting on, and we took quick advantage of the situation.

Augie scurried back through the window and clung to the vines outside, to be a safe distance away from what was to come. An hour, the diplomats had said. We would make good use of those sixty minutes. I leaped to the balcony-rail and plummetted down in the center of the Hall.

The Plutonians didn't have time to get out so much as a peep. I had divested myself of both false arms and, even in mid-air, I released a killing charge of electricity that left the duped creatures slumped in their chairs--lifeless hulks. If the armed Mon Pordo had been there, things would probably have been different. The Jovians were quick-eyed and quick-acting and he would have blasted me to pieces with his ato-matic the minute I appeared on the balcony-rail. That's why I couldn't risk it before. I didn't want Augie facing the devils alone.

I spent quite a little time in the Hall, standing in the center of the table and sending out wave after wave of electricity over the dead Plutonians--doing things to their bodies.

Finally satisfied I had accomplished my purpose, I arranged the beings in life-like poses along the table and moved silently to a spot beneath the balcony-rail.

Augie had succeeded in tearing one of the tough vines loose from the palace wall and now he lowered it to me, keeping a wary eye on the Hall door.

Going quickly up the thin fiber strand, I stepped jubilantly over the rail--and found myself looking directly into the venom-filled eyes of Mon Pordo!

He was standing in back of Augie, a little to one side, so the deadly ato-matic held unwaveringly in his hand could cover us both.

The frozen surprise on my face caused Augie to turn and stare sickly. All the heart seemed to go out of him at that moment. His shoulders slumped wearily and the hard lines of determination in his face dissolved into a black pool of despair beneath the caustic solvent of a big, unashamed tear. We were beaten!

For once, Pordo was so infuriated he forgot all about bowing. His eyes smouldered like blobs of hot grease, about to burst into flame; frenzied, unholy hate seemed to ooze from every pore. Even so, he spoke quietly.

"A nead plan, gendlemen. Bud id has failed, jusd as all plods againsd Xan VIII will fail! Drue, you have given us a demporary sed-back by killing de Pludonians, bud we sdill have de formula and dere are odders who, dough nod as indelligend, will well serve our purpose. Id is doo bad I decided do visid you during de recess, isn'd id? Odderwise, your rash acd may have succeeded! When I found you gone and your guards dead, I knew insdandly whad you were up do and came here as de logical poind for you do sdrike from. I am sorry, gendlemen, bud you are doo dangerous do be allowed do live. So, I musd eliminade you!" Pordo raised the gun and his finger tightened on the firing stud.

This was it! I couldn't blast Pordo with an electric shock without killing Augie, too. Good-bye, "Tod Mulhane"--you've had a short but interesting life! I steeled myself for the atomic capsule that would soon rip through my body.

Augie acted almost impulsively. He still held the fibrous vine in his hand and had noted slyly one of Pordo's feet enmeshed in the extending end. He lunged suddenly backward and Pordo came down hard on the balcony floor!

* * * * *

Instantly we were on him; clawing, punching--making a desperate bid for the ato-matic. Pordo tried to scream and Augie planted a solid kick in his belly. The Jovian suddenly decided he didn't want to scream; maybe because there wasn't any air left in him to yell with.

I whipped a tentacle about the fat throat and began tightening my muscles, ruthlessly. Pordo's eyes bugged hideously and the wind whistled through his teeth in a vain effort to enter his lungs.

Sure, we were two on one, but fair play didn't enter the picture. We were fighting to save three worlds, and Xan and his henchmen had used the same tactics in their blood-drenched rise to power. This was a case of 'Durn aboud _is_ fair play,' as Pordo would say.

Right now, he wasn't saying _anything_. The fat body had gone limp in my grasp and Pordo's evil soul was probably this minute bowing at the gates of hell and saying, "Gendlemen!"

"They'll be returning any minute!" Augie panted anxiously. "We've got to work fast!"

I handed him a small chunk of stuff I'd gouged from the body of a dead Plutonian and retired to my place at the balcony rail.

Augie took the stuff gingerly and placed it on the flat, upturned butt of Pordo's ato-matic. He crossed the slanting balcony to a point where the ceiling almost met the floor and waited there breathlessly.

A network of pipes ran across that ceiling. Pipes that contained water. This part of the palace was much the same as it had been many years ago, when the first Jovian dictator had met with his underlings here in the Assembly Hall and formed the policies of government that had laid the groundwork for eventual System domination. The Jovians entertained a sentimental attachment to this outmoded room and wouldn't think of modernizing it, except for inconsequential details such as lighting. Even the ancient, automatic sprinkler system remained. Originally used to combat fire, it was now nothing but an ornament; a relic of bygone days. The Jovians didn't need it now; scattered about the room were dozens of the recently invented _Kelecyrine-capsules_, one of which could extinguish the most persistent of flames. But I was staking everything on the hope the sprinkler was still connected to a water pump.

The diplomats were reentering the room! They moved forward confidently--unrealizing of the fact the Plutonians were dead. Xan led the procession, his gigantic belly bouncing up and down in rhythm to his pompous steps.

Now! I waved my hand frantically at Augie. He snapped to sudden life. A stream of saliva squirted from his lips and impaled the stuff on the gun butt. It literally exploded into flames! Fingers of fire danced around the gun butt, questing hungrily for something to absorb.

Augie supplied that something. He moved the gun up under a rusty sprinkler pipe and held it there. Luckily, he had had the foresight to empty the gun's atomic capsules and wrap a torn piece of cloth about his hand.

The Assembly Hall was big and the men below were walking slowly. Augie's torch had ample time to heat the pipes before the group reached the table.

Xan was getting suspicious. The unmoving forms of the Plutonians had him puzzled. They ought to at least have the courtesy to rise from their chairs to acknowledge his august presence.

At that moment, one of the dead beings tumbled from his seat, breaking into a million pieces as he hit the floor. Xan yelped alarmedly and rushed forward--just as the sprinkler pipes opened up and gushed forth a thick sheet of water; drenching the whole assemblage!

* * * * *

Things began to happen then! A tremendous _whooom!_ shook the room and a canopy of flame flashed out from the table! In a trice, the Hall was a blazing holocaust. Scream after scream tore from the throats of the victims as the roaring inferno gulped them in and fiery teeth gnawed the flesh from their bones. There wasn't a chance of one of them reaching a _Kelecyrine-capsule_!

We raced to the window and tumbled down the vines. I had the location of the space-port well fixed in my mind, although it didn't matter much now if we were captured. The plot had been foiled!

"We have the Plutonians to thank for our success!" Augie yelled, pounding across the courtyard.

He was right. Calcium carbonate had been almost the sole constituent of the Plutonians. There were other elements, yes, but in a far less degree. Using electricity for heat, I had simply converted that impure carbonate into a crude form of calcium oxide! It was crumbly stuff, but it had stuck together long enough to deceive the conspirators into thinking everything was shipshape in the Assembly Hall. When those sprinkler pipes let go with their load of water, well ... any high school boy can tell you what happened.

"What about those devils in the dungeon, Tod?" Augie had to shout to make himself heard above the turmoil. Guards were running for the palace, intent on saving their ruler; screaming court-ladies were dropping from windows, enveloped in clouds of dense, black smoke. I knew the _Kelecyrine-capsules_ had long since burst and put out the flames, but not before they had done their grisly job.

"They'll be released when the Jovians find their government has collapsed about them!" I flung back. "We've got to get away from here before these people come out of their daze!" That sounds cowardly, but, to me, it was prudence.

We found a surface-car and sped for the Jove City Space-port. It was deserted. Everybody had been drawn to the palace by the frantic emergency calls of the Jovian Secret Police. We scrambled in a small, private cruiser and were soon far out in space, making for Earth.

"In a way, I'm glad the formula was lost," Augie said reflectively. "I can't reconstruct it from memory, you know. Too complicated. I don't think I would, anyway, seeing what havoc it can cause."

I nodded, setting the automatic control and relaxing in the bucket seat. "Tod Mulhane" had pulled through one more scrape.

"Too," Augie continued, "there would be no need of it now. Our enemies will be practically helpless now their leaders are dead, and we can easily force them to capitulate. The Jovians and their allies should welcome a democratic government after so many years of tyranny. Incidentally, Tod, where do you go from here?"

I grinned at Augie and lit a _Tobac-tube_.

"I haven't any plans, Augie, but you can bet I'll not sit home knitting!"