Part 3

A cave, its brilliant lights dimming the glow of luminous bodies, lay before them. Well furnished from looted ships, auxiliary engines from some plundered liner, run by rocket fuel, supplied electricity to power the great arc lights that hung from the ceiling. One entire end of the room was an Aladdin's cave of treasures. Bars of gold, from the mines of Saturn, stacked in towering heaps ... leaden chests of radium, uranium, polonium, a nation's ransom of the stuff for which men died in the great fields of Venus ... and jewels, huge Martian rubies, big as pigeon's eggs, flame-colored _karnites_ of Io, even the rare _crystolex_ that collects, absorbs, light, until it gives off a diffused pink aura. Loot of a hundred vessels that had met their doom on this Island of Lost Spaceships, utterly worthless on the barren asteroid, yet hoarded because of the legend that they were prized on other worlds, because lure of treasure lingered in the savage minds of the sub-men.

Incalculable as was this treasure, Haller gave it but a passing glance. His gaze was fixed on the glowing, hideous figures grouped about the cave. With them were Carlson, Seltzsky, Wallace, and Kindt ... renegades, joining these inhuman brutes, fearing the consequences of refusal. In the center of the cave stood Orth, a gigantic, semi-simian figure, his herculean body shining like a cat's eye, and beside him stood Fay. All the joyousness, the gayety, the beauty, that had bedeviled Haller's memories, were gone from the girl. Pale, emaciated, worn by constant fear, she seemed scarcely aware of her surroundings, stood there like a sleepwalker.

"I claim the new woman!" Orth boomed, his guttural voice echoing through the cavern. "Does anyone dispute it?"

For a long moment there was silence, then a repulsive, embryonic creature, nearly as big as the leader, stepped forward.

"You have another woman!" he growled. "I claim this one!"

A roar went up from the sub-men. "Let strength decide! Fight!"

Orth grinned, advanced toward the center of the cave to meet his opponent. Unarmed, barehanded, they circled one another, uttering strange animal-like sounds. All at once the second claimant hurtled forward, taloned fingers clutching for Orth's eyes. He risked all in that one frenzied charge but the leader of the sub-men saw it coming, moved his head. The claw-like fingers raked his cheek, drawing blood, but missed his eyes. In that instant Orth sprang to the attack. Seizing his opponent about the waist, he lifted him high with one titanic burst of energy, slammed him to the rocky floor. There was a sharp, sickening crack, and the man lay still.

"So!" Orth roared. "Do any others claim the new woman? I, Orth...."

Which was as far as he got. An ancient pistol roared, filling the cave with noise and the glowing giant spun about twice, toppled to the floor. Before the stunned sub-men could recover from their surprise, there was a rumbling of dirt and stone, and a section of the cavern's wall gave way in a cloud of dust. Two wild-eyed figures, torn, ragged, furious, their archaic weapons gleaming in the phosphorescent light, sprang through the opening!

* * * * *

The first thirty seconds of the attack on the sub-men was sheer delirium. Above the roar of the old pistols came howls of rage, of pain, and a momentary panic sent the phosphorescent beings back in confusion. Powder smoke mingled with the clouds of dust, the stench of unclean bodies tainted the air.

"Fay!" Steve seized the stunned girl, half-carried her to a corridor leading from the cave. "Keep 'em busy, Barger!"

The old quartermaster was firing steadily into the packed mass of howling brutes. By the time he and Haller had reached the corridor, however, both automatics were empty. Barger hurled his empty weapon at a hulking, ungainly figure, leaped for the passage.

"Got to run for it!" he choked. "They won't use their atomite guns! They want Fay alive! Come on!"

Then they were racing through the shadowy corridors, invisible in the darkness. Their pursuers, however, shining shapes in the gloom, were easily seen.

"If only we had a gun!" Barger groaned. "What targets they make!"

Carrying Fay, Haller hadn't the breath to reply. Onward they stumbled, through a maze of corridors, with no notion of direction. The green forms were gaining rapidly, their feet thudding on the stone floor.

Onward the fugitives plunged, through great caves, winding passages. Once they swept through a grotto in which a dozen of the ugly sub-women were gathered, but before the shrill-voiced creatures could attack them, they had reached a rocky gallery beyond. Haller forced himself on, heart pounding. In spite of the dank chill of the caverns he was bathed in sweat; beside him old Barger was wheezing noisily, gasping.

With all their effort, however, the glowing monstrosities were gaining rapidly. Haller cast a furtive glance over his shoulder, saw a squat figure only a step behind him, and beside the sub-man raced Kindt. Kindt, turned renegade! Carlson and the others didn't surprise him; scum of the space-ports, they were hardly above the inhabitants of the asteroid. But Kindt had seemed different.

The squat green figure, face set in a savage grin, increased his speed. In another moment his clutching hand must seize Steve, drag him down. Suddenly Haller heard the strangled shout:

"Cap'n! Go on! Quick!"

One backward glance Steve had, of Kindt throwing his weight against the foremost pursuer. Down they went in a tangled heap, blocking the narrow passage, and the others fell over them. Then an atomite gun flared blue in the darkness and Kindt's shouts abruptly ceased.

"A right guy," Barger panted. "Plenty right. And I thought he was yellow! We.... Look! Light!"

Far ahead feeble sunlight gleamed, and the passage slanted upward. The sub-men had resumed the pursuit, but it was evident that they couldn't make up the lost distance before their prey reached the surface of the little world. But even though free of the caverns, the three fugitives could never hope to reach the _Lodestar_ without being overtaken. Even if they did reach it, the ship could not break the magnetic grip.

"No ... no use, Steve!" Fay whispered. "They're bound to get us in the end! Join them, let me go! It's your only chance!"

"Forget it!" he gasped. "Food and water on _Lodestar_! Can stand seige for months once we reach it! Come on!"

The mouth of the passage was only a few feet away, now. Behind them the howling phosphorescent figures were closing in swiftly. All at once Barger, in the lead, gave a cry, pointed through the passage entrance. In the dark sky high above, something huge, glowing, was exploding into a rain of white-hot dots.

"Meteors!" he shouted. "A big one's broken up, and the magnetism is pulling the pieces this way! There'll be hell out there in a moment!"

"Got to risk it!" Steve took one glance at the onrushing sub-men, leaped through the opening. "Come on!"

Hardly a dozen steps had they taken when the storm broke. Easy to understand now, why the pirates of the asteroid had burrowed underground for their dwellings. The meteor storm was a rain of death.

* * * * *

Screaming through the thin atmosphere, white-hot from the explosion, the first great stone struck the asteroid. The ground shook as if from an earthquake, a shower of shattered rock rose in a deadly spray. Now another, and another, in a terrifying cosmic bombardment. Fiery missiles, hurtling from the heavens, tearing great gaps in the rough terrain.

Staggering over the heaving, shifting bed of stone, Haller felt as though he were in an inferno. The heat was overpowering, on all sides the ground was churned like a twentieth-century battlefield. Blinding light, the shriek of descending meteors, the earth-shaking roar and rumble as they struck. Barger glanced back; the sub-men were huddled in the entrance of their caverns, shouting with rage, yet not daring to go out.

"Free of them for the time being!" Barger shouted to make himself heard above the roar. "But if one of these chunks of rock hits us...."

Haller, supporting the girl, nodded grimly, plodded on. The rain of meteors was at its height now, and the entire plain seemed to be exploding. A great liner, lying ahead, disappeared in a shower of débris as a great stone struck it; another, beside it, was completely buried under the rubble and wreckage. A scene of sheer horror, the plain, shrouded in dust, lit by incessant flashes of light, the loose stones of its surface sliding and rumbling with each new shock. As the three fugitives reeled onward, one of the missiles landed nearby in a blinding flash, a gust of heat. Hurled to the ground, Haller was half-buried by a hail of splintered stone. Blindly, groggily, he picked himself up, pulled Fay to her feet, and, aided by the bruised and bloody Barger, pushed on.

With startling suddenness the storm of meteors ceased. Two or three belated thuds, and there was only the pall of dust, the wrecked spaceships, the great craters, to mark its path.

"Short and sweet," Barger grunted. "You don't carry a rabbit's foot, do you, Cap'n? How we ever got through that barrage alive!" He glanced back. Luminous figures were streaming from the caverns. "Here come our boy-friends, hell-bent!"

Haller peered through the swirling dust. The stumpy, battered shape of the _Lodestar_ was visible not a hundred yards ahead.

"You see, Fay?" he laughed jubilantly. "She's not much of a ship but her hull's tough enough to hold off atomite guns and we've food enough for months. Maybe by that time we can figure out a way to break the magnetic grip!"

She nodded, the color returning to her cheeks, quickened her pace. Behind them faint shouts of rage were audible, and a few blue bolts of energy tore up the rocks nearby. The distance was too great for accurate shooting; and a moment later the three fugitives had swung into the freighter's airlock.

"So!" Haller wiped a paste of sweat and dust from his forehead. "Barger, see that all ports are secure. Replace that smashed one in the control room with a spare from the stores. We're in for a seige!"

As Barger made fast the heavy glassex ports, Haller and the girl closed the massive lock. Howls of rage from outside announced the presence of their pursuers. A moment later several spots on the steel hull glowed red under atomite blasts.

"Let 'em have their fun," Haller grinned. "There's not enough juice in their guns to melt the steel, and as long as we keep away from the outer walls, we don't get burned! Right now the one thing that interests me is a sandwich and...."

"Cap'n!" Old Barger rattled down the companionway steps, his face gray. "Big guns! Look!"

Steve whirled, glanced through one of the ports. From a wrecked space-cruiser about half a mile away the sub-men were laboriously dragging a gleaming mass of copper and glass tubes. A heavy heat-gun, designed to destroy armored warships. The little _Lodestar_ could have no chance of withstanding its blast. Bestial ape-like figures were setting it up to cover the vessel's bow, while another group were dragging a second heavy projector around to play upon the stern.

"Sixteen-power projectors!" Fay whispered. "Oh, Steve, isn't there anything we can do? To have come through so much ... and now...."

* * * * *

Haller was silent, and his face took on the old living robot look. No escape! If only the dragging magnetism didn't hold them down! It would have been so simple to open the rockets, leap skyward. But the invisible field held them like a vise, as it had held so many helpless vessels on this Island of Lost Spaceships, never to leave!

A roar from the sub-men sounded outside. Beams of dazzling blue light had burst from the two projectors, had caught the ship in their focus, until it was like a bit of steel in the middle of a spark-gap. Heat ... searing, unbearable heat, swept the cabin.

"They're turning on the juice slowly," Barger muttered through clenched teeth. "Full power would blast the ship to atoms, but they're trying to force us to surrender! They don't want to destroy the food we got aboard!"

Haller nodded grimly. The heat within the cabin was becoming unbearable now, and the walls were beginning to turn a dull red. He shot a glance at Fay; paper-white, face drawn, the girl was gasping for breath. The veins in old Barger's neck were beginning to stand out apoplectically.

"Lie down!" Haller whispered. "Cooler ... on floor!"

"What's use!" the quartermaster gasped.

Moment by moment the heat increased. The dull red of the hull was beginning to creep along the floorplates, until they were searing to the touch. Outside the howling of the sub-men was vulpine, frenzied, in mad triumph. Barger groaned, writhing in agony.

"Can't stand it!" he choked. "Being roasted alive!"

Fay turned tortured eyes toward Haller, touched his hand.

"Good fight, Steve!" she whispered. "Shame it has to end like this! Pray that ... fuel tanks blow up, end it quickly! I ... I...." She fell back, unconscious.

"Fuel tanks...." Haller repeated dully. There was something in his mind but he couldn't think. So hot. Hell--living hell. That something in his mind! Heat ... magnetism ... no escape.

"Magnetism ... heat...." Drunkenly Haller lurched to his feet. "Barger! Barger!" He dragged the groaning spaceman erect. "Heat destroys magnetism! You see? The bulk of the ship's interior bulkheads are aluminum alloy for lightness! It was the steel hull that dragged us down! And now it's hot ... red hot! No magnetism! Get down to those motors!"

Half-conscious Barger stumbled down to the engine-room. Haller reeled toward the controls. Everything was spinning before his gaze, the red glare from the searing hull plates dazzled him. Heat! Unbelievable heat ... killing heat! An ant in an oven! Hair singed, hands blistered, he tugged at the rocket switch. Every movement was torture, the hot air tore at his lungs. Frantically he jerked the switch. Why didn't they start?

* * * * *

The sudden roar of the rockets was like a roar of triumph. But though the red-hot hull of the _Lodestar_ was now non-magnetic, the engines were still in the grip of the field. The ship ground forward, but did not rise. Desperately Haller opened the jets wide, and slowly the vessel began to climb, gathering speed with each second. Suddenly, as though breaking invisible bonds that had held her, the little ship, glowing like a furnace, leaped toward open space. With a weary sigh Haller slumped over the controls, out, but anything but cold.

They were heading in the general direction of Vega when Barger staggered into the control room, swung the _Lodestar_ back toward Mars. Fay bent over Haller, pressed a damp cloth to his face.

"O ... okay!" he muttered. "Are we clear?"

"Away clean as a whistle," the quartermaster grinned, caressing blistered hands. "And here's hoping I never see the Isle o' Lost Spaceships again!"

Haller lurched to his feet, one arm about the girl's shoulders.

"Aren't you coming along, then?" he laughed. "I haven't forgotten that crack you made about an aluminum, non-magnetic spaceship, and as soon as we reach Mars I'm going to organize a company, have one built! We'll take a well-armed expedition and have a go at that treasure the sub-men had in their caves. After all, a man needs money when" ... he glanced at the girl beside him ... "when he's going to get married! I'll need you on an expedition like that, Barger. Think of the fortune in that cave! Millions and millions! How about it?"

The old quartermaster shifted his quid to the other cheek, grinned.

"You could talk the devil into installing air-conditioning," he chuckled. "I'll go!"

End of Project Gutenberg's Sargasso of the Stars, by Frederic A. Kummer