Chapter 15
Raf cupped his palms over his watering eyes. He wanted badly to see clearly the other's face, to be able to read his expression. Yet it seemed that somehow he _was_ able to see that sober face, as sincere as the words in his mind.
"You will come again," Dalgard said with certainty. "And we shall be waiting because you, Raf Kurbi, made it possible." There was something so solemn about that that Raf looked up in surprise.
"When you destroyed the core of Those Other's holding, you gave us our chance. For had you not done that we, the mermen, the other harmless, happy creatures of this world, would have been wiped out. There would be no new beginning here, only a dark and horrible end."
Raf blinked; to his surprise that other figure standing in the direct sunlight did not waver, and beyond the proudly held head was a stretch of turquoise sky. He could see the color!
"Yes, you shall see with your eyes--and with your mind," now Dalgard spoke aloud. "And if the Spirit which rules all space is kind, you shall return to your own people. For you have served His cause well."
Then, as if he were embarrassed by his own solemnity, Dalgard ended with a most prosaic inquiry: "Would you like shellfish for eating?"
Moments later, wading out into the water-swirled sand, his boots kicked off, his toes feeling for the elusive shelled creatures no one could see, Raf felt happier, freer than he could ever remember having been before. It was going to be all right. He could _see_! He would find the ship! He laughed aloud at nothing and heard an answering chuckle and then a whoop of triumph from the scout stooping to claw one of their prey out of hiding.
It was after they had eaten that Dalgard asked another question, one which did not seem important to Raf. "You have a close friend among the crew of your ship?"
Raf hesitated. Now that he was obliged to consider the point, did he have any friends--let alone a close one--among the crew of the _RS 10_? Certainly he did not claim Wonstead who had shared his quarters--he honestly did not care if he never saw him again. The officers, the experts such as Lablet--quickly face and character of each swept through his mind and was as swiftly discarded. There was Soriki--He could not claim the com-tech as any special friend, but at least during their period together among the aliens he had come to know him better.
Now, as if Dalgard had read his mind--and he probably had, thought Raf with a flash of the old resentment--he had another question.
"And what was he--is he like?"
Though the pilot could see little reason for this he answered as best he could, trying to build first a physical picture of the com-tech and then doing a little guessing as to what lay under the other's space-burned skin.
Dalgard lay on his back, gazing up into the blue-green sky. Yet Raf knew that he was intent on every word. A merman padded up, settled down cross-legged beside the scout, as if he too were enthralled by the pilot's halting description of a man he might never see again. Then a second of the sea people came and a third, until Raf felt that some sort of a noiseless council was in progress. His words trailed away, and then Dalgard offered an explanation.
"It will take us many, many days to reach the place where your ship is. And before we are able to complete that journey your friends may be gone. So we shall try something else--with your aid."
Raf fingered the little bundle of his possessions. Even his helmet with its com phone was missing.
"No," again Dalgard read his mind. "Your machines are of no use to you now. We shall try _our_ way."
"How?" Wild thoughts of a big signal fire--But how could that be sighted across a mountain range. Of some sort of an improvised com unit--
"I said _our_ way." There was a smile on Dalgard's face, visible to Raf's slowly clearing vision. "We shall provide another kind of machine, and these"--he waved at the mermen--"will give us the power, or so we hope. Lie here," he gestured to the sand beside him, "and think only of your friend in the ship, in his natural surroundings. Try to hold that picture constant in your mind, letting no other thought trouble it."
"Do you mean--send a message to him mentally!" Raf's reply was half protest.
"Did I not so reach you when we were in the city--even before I knew of you as an individual?" the scout reminded him. "And such messages are doubly possible when they are sent from friend to friend."
"But we were close then."
"That is why--" again Dalgard indicated the mermen. "For them this is the natural means of communication. They will pick up your reaching thought, amplify it with their power, beam it north. Since your friend deals with matters of communication, let us hope that he will be sensitive to this method."
Raf was only half convinced that it might work But he remembered how Dalgard had established contact with him, before, as the scout had pointed out, they had met. It was that voiceless cry for aid which had pulled him into this adventure in the first place. It was only fitting that something of the same process give _him_ help in return.
Obediently he stretched out on the sand and closed his dim eyes, trying to picture Soriki in the small cabin which held the com, slouched in his bucket seat, his deceptive posture that of a lax idler, as he had seen him so many times. Soriki--his broad face with its flat cheekbones, its wide cheerful mouth, its heavy-lidded eyes. And having fixed Soriki's face, he tried to believe that he was now confronting the com-tech, speaking directly to him.
"Come--come and get me--south--seashore--Soriki come and get me!" The words formed a kind of chant, a chant aimed at that familiar face in its familiar surroundings. "South--come and get me--" Raf struggled to think only of that, to allow nothing to break through that chant or disturb his picture of the scene he had called from memory.
How long that attempt at communication lasted the pilot could not tell, for somehow he slipped from the deep concentration into sleep, dreamless and untroubled, from which he awoke with the befogged feeling that something important had happened. But had he gotten through?
The ring of mermen was gone, and it was dawn, gray, chill with the forewarnings of rain in the air. He was reassured because he was certain that in spite of the gloom his sight was a fraction clearer than it had been the day before. But had they gotten through? As he arose, brushing the sand from him, he saw the scout splashing out of the sea, a fish impaled on his spear.
"Did we get through?" Raf blurted out.
"Since your friend cannot reply with the mind touch, we do not know. But later we shall try again." To Raf's peering gaze Dalgard's face had a drawn, gaunt look as if he had been at hard labor during the hours just past. He walked up the beach slowly, without the springing step Raf had come to associate with him. As he settled down to gut the fish with one of the bone knives, the scout repeated, "We can try again--!"
Half an hour later, as the rain swept in from the sea, Raf knew that they would not have to try. His head went up, his face eager. He had known that sound too long and too well ever to mistake it--the drone of a flitter motor cutting through the swish of the falling water. Some trick of the cliffs behind them must be magnifying and projecting the sound, for he could not sight the machine. But it was coming. He whirled to Dalgard, only to see that the other was on his feet and had taken up his spear.
"It is the flitter! Soriki heard--they're coming!" Raf hastened to assure him.
For the last time he saw Dalgard's slow, warm smile, clearer than he had ever seen it before. Then the scout turned and trotted away, toward a fringing rock wall. Before he dropped out of sight behind that barrier he raised the spear in salute.
"Swift and fortunate voyaging!" He gave the farewell of Homeport.
Then Raf understood. The colonist meant just what he had said: he wanted no contact with the space ship. To Raf he had owed a debt and now that was paid. But the time was not yet when the men of Astra and the men of Terra should meet. A hundred years from now perhaps--or a thousand--but not yet. And remembering what had summoned the flitter winging toward him, Raf drew a deep breath. What would the men of Astra accomplish in a hundred years? What could those of Terra do to match them in knowledge? It was a challenge, and he alone knew just how much of a challenge. Homeport must remain his own secret. He had been guided to this place, saved by the mermen alone. Dalgard and his people must not exist as far as the crew of the _RS 10_ were concerned.
For the last time he experienced the intimacy of the mind touch. "That is it--brother!" Then the sensation was gone as the black blot of the flitter buzzed out of the clouds.
From behind the rocks Dalgard watched the pilot enter the strange machine. For a single moment he had an impulse to shout, to run forward, to surrender to his desire to see the others, the ship which had brought them through space and would, they confidently believed, take them back to the Terra he knew only as a legend of the past. But he mastered that desire. He had been right. The road had already forked and there was no going back. He must carry this secret all the rest of his life--he must be strong-willed enough so that Homeport would never know. Time--give them time to be what they could be. Then in a hundred years--or a thousand--But not yet!
* * * * *
"Nobody today is telling better stories of straight-forward interstellar adventure."
--_New York Herald-Tribune_
When Raf Kurbi's Terran spaceship burst into unexplored skies of the far planet Astra and was immediately made welcome by the natives of a once-mighty metropolis, Kurbi was unaware of three vital things:
One was that Astra already harbored an Earth colony--descended from refugees from the world of the previous century.
Two was that these men and women were facing the greatest danger of their existence from a new outburst of the inhuman fiends who had once tyrannized Astra.
Three was that the natives who were buying Kurbi's science know-how were those very fiends--and their intentions were implacably deadly for all humans, whether Earth born or STAR BORN.
_It's an Andre Norton space adventure--and therefore the tops in its field!_
* * * * *
Quotes from the reviews:
"All science-fiction fans will thrill to these new adventures created by Andre Norton.... All who enjoy a good adventure about the unknown parts of our galaxy will find this an enchanting story."
--_Jackson _(_Tenn._) _Sun_
"Superb science-fiction."
--_Montgomery Advertiser_
"Andre Norton adds another star to her literary laurels."
--_Cleveland Press_
"A good, clearly thought-out story."
--_New York Times_
"Exciting and adventure-laden."
--_Library Journal_
"Suspense and excitement.... A storyteller of the first class, this is one of her best."
--_Fantasy & Science Fiction_
* * * * *
NOW AVAILABLE AGAIN!
PERRY RHODAN
95¢ each
#1 Enterprise Stardust Scheer & Ernsting #2 The Radiant Dome Scheer & Ernsting #3 Galactic Alarm Mahr & Shols #4 Invasion from Space Ernsting & Mahr #5 The Vega Sector Scheer & Mahr #6 Secret of the Time Vault Darlton #7 Fortress of the Six Moons Scheer #8 The Galactic Riddle Darlton #9 Quest through Space and Time Darlton #10 The Ghosts of Gol Mahr #11 Planet of the Dying Sun Mahr #12 Rebels of Tuglan Darlton #13 The Immortal Unknown Darlton #14 Venus in Danger Mahr #15 Escape To Venus Mahr #16 Secret Barrier X Shols #17 The Venus Trap Mahr #18 Menace of the Mutant Master Darlton #19 Mutants vs. Mutants Darlton #20 The Thrall of Hypno Darlton
_Available wherever paperbacks an sold or use this coupon._
* * * * *
ace books, (Dept. MM) Box 576, Times Square Station
New York, N.Y. 10036
Please send me titles checked above.
I enclose $.................. Add 25¢ handling fee per copy.
Name....................................................
Address.................................................
City...................... State............ Zip........
* * * * *
ANDRE NORTON
Android at Arms $1.25 Beast Master $1.25 Breed to Come $1.25 Catseye $1.25 The Crossroads Of Time $1.25 Dark Piper $1.25 Daybreak 2250 A.D. $1.25 Defiant Agents $1.25 Dragon Magic $1.25 Dread Companion $1.25 Exiles of the Stars $1.25 Eye of the Monster $1.25 Forerunner Foray $1.50 Galactic Derelict $1.25 High Sorcery $1.25 Huon of the Horn $1.25 Ice Crown $1.25 Judgment on Janus $1.25 Key Out of Time $1.25 The Last Planet $1.25 Lord of Thunder $1.25 Moon of Three Rings $1.25 Night of Masks $1.25 Operation Time Search $1.25 Ordeal In Otherwhere $1.25
_Available wherever paperbacks are sold or use this coupon._
* * * * *
ace books, (Dept. MM) Box 576, Times Square Station New York. N.Y. 10036
Please send me titles checked above.
I enclose $................ Add 25¢ handling fee per copy.
Name................................................
Address..........................................
City............... State........... Zip.........
* * * * *
ANDRE NORTON
$1.25 each
Plague Ship Postmarked the Stars Quest Crosstime Sargasso of Space Sea Seige Secret of the Lost Race. Shadow Hawk The Sioux Spaceman Sorceress of Witch World Star Born Star Gate Star Guard Star Hunter & Voodoo Planet The Stars are Ours Storm Over Warlock Three Against the WitchWorld The Time Traders Uncharted Stars Victory on Janus Warlock of the Witch World Web of the Witch World Witch World The X Factor Year Of The Unicorn The Zero Stone
_Available wherever paperbacks are sold or use this coupon._
* * * * *
ace books, (Dept. MM) Box 576, Times Square Station New York, N.Y. 10036
Please send me titles checked above.
I enclose $............... Add 25¢ handling fee per copy.
Name...................................................
Address.................................................
City...................... State............ Zip........