Key Out of Time Read online

  11

  Weapon from the Depths

  Jazia told her story with an attention to time and detail which amazedRoss and won his admiration for her breed. She had witnessed the deathand destruction of all which was her life, and yet she had the wit tonote and record mentally for possible future use all that she had beenable to see of the raiders.

  They had come out of the sea at dawn, walking with supreme confidenceand lack of any fear. Axes flung when they did not reply to thesentries' challenges had never touched them, and a bombardment ofheavier missiles had been turned aside. They proved invulnerable to anyweapon the Rovers had. Men who made suicidal rushes to use sword orbattle ax hand-to-hand had fallen, before they were in strikingdistance, under spraying tongues of fire from tubes the aliens carried.

  Rovers were not fearful or easily cowed, but in the end they had fledfrom the five invaders, gone to ground in their halls, tried to reachtheir beached ships, only to die as they ran and hid. The slaughter hadbeen remorseless and entire, leaving Jazia in the hill shrine as theonly survivor. She had hidden for the rest of the day, seen the killingof a few fugitives, and that night had stolen to the shore, launched oneof the ship's boats which was in a cove well away from the main harborof the fairing, heading out to sea in hope of meeting the homingcruisers with her warning.

  "They stayed there on the island?" Ross asked. That point of her storypuzzled him. If the object of that murderous raid had been only to stirup trouble among the Hawaikan Rovers, perhaps turning one clan againstthe other, as he had deduced when he had listened to Torgul's report ofsimilar happenings, then the star men should have withdrawn as soon astheir mission was complete, leaving the dead to call for vengeance inthe wrong direction. There would be no reason to court discovery oftheir true identity by lingering.

  "When the boat was asea there were still lights at the fairing hall, andthey were not our lights, nor did the dead carry them," she said slowly."What have those to fear? They can not be killed!"

  "If they are still there, that we can put to the test," Torgul repliedgrimly, and a murmur from his officers bore out his determination.

  "And lose all the rest of you?" Ross retorted coldly. "I have met thesebefore; they can will a man to obey them. Look you--" He slammed hisleft hand flat on the table. The ridges of scar tissue were plainagainst his tanned skin. He knew no better way of driving home thedangers of dealing with the star men than providing this graphicexample. "I held my own hand in fire so that the hurt of it would workagainst their pull upon my thoughts, against their willing that I comeand be easy meat for their butchering."

  Jazia's fingers flickered out, smoothed across his old scars lightly asshe gazed into his eyes.

  "This, too, is true," she said slowly. "For it was also pain of bodywhich kept me from their last snare. They stood by the hall and I sawPrahad, Okun, Mosaji, come out to them to be killed as if they were in ahold net and were drawn. And there was that which called me also so thatI would go to them though I called upon the Power of Phutka to save. Andthe answer to that plea came in a strange way, for I fell as I went fromthe shrine and cut my arm on the rocks. The pain of that hurt was as aknife severing the net. Then I crawled for the wood and that calling didnot come again--"

  "If you know so much about them, tell us what weapons we may use to pullthem down!" That demand came from Vistur.

  Ross shook his head. "I do not know."

  "Yet," Jazia mused, "all things which live must also die sooner orlater. And it is in my mind that these have also a fate they dread andfear. Perhaps we may find and use it."

  "They came from the sea--by a ship, then?" Ross asked. She shook herhead.

  "No, there was no ship; they came walking through the breaking waves asif they had followed some road across the sea bottom."

  "A sub!"

  "What is that?" Torgul demanded.

  "A type of ship which goes under the waves, not through them, carryingair within its hull for the breathing of the crew."

  Torgul's eyes narrowed. One of the other captains who had been summonedfrom the two companion cruisers gave a snort of disbelief.

  "There are no such ships--" he began, to be silenced by a gesture fromTorgul.

  "We know of no such ships," the other corrected. "But then we know of nosuch devices as Jazia saw in operation either. How does one war uponthese under-the-seas ships, Ross?"

  The Terran hesitated. To describe to men who knew nothing of explosivesthe classic way of dealing with a sub via depth charges was close toimpossible. But he did his best.

  "Among my people one imprisons in a container a great power. Then thecontainer is dropped near the sub and--"

  "And how," broke in the skeptical captain, "do you know where such aship lies? Can you see it through the water?"

  "In a way--not see, but hear. There is a machine which makes for thecaptain of the above-seas ship a picture of where the sub lies or movesso that he may follow its course. Then when he is near enough he dropsthe container and the power breaks free--to also break apart the sub."

  "Yet the making of such containers and the imprisoning of the powerwithin them," Torgul said, "this is the result of a knowledge which isgreater than any save the Foanna may possess. You do not have it?" Hisconclusion was half statement, half question.

  "No. It took many years and the combined knowledge of many men among mypeople to make such containers, such a listening device. I do not haveit."

  "Why then think of what we do not have?" Torgul's return was decisive."What _do_ we have?"

  Ross's head came up. He was listening, not to anything in that cabin,but to a sound which had come through the port just behind his head.There--it had come again! He was on his feet.

  "What--?" Vistur's hand hovered over the ax at his belt. Ross saw theirgaze centered on him.

  "We may have reinforcements now!" The Terran was already on his way tothe deck.

  He hurried to the rail and whistled, the thin, shrill summons he hadpracticed for weeks before he had ever begun this fantastic adventure.

  A sleek dark body broke water and the dolphin grin was exposed asTino-rau answered his call. Though Ross's communication powers with thetwo finned scouts was very far from Karara's, he caught the message inpart and swung around to face the Rovers who had crowded after him.

  "We have a way now of learning more about your enemies."

  "A boat--it comes without sail or oars!" One of the crew pointed.

  Ross waved vigorously, but no hand replied from the skiff. Though itcame steadily onward, the three cruisers its apparent goal.

  "Karara!" Ross called.

  Then side by side with Tino-rau were two wet heads, two masked facesshowing as the swimmers trod water--Karara and Loketh.

  "Drop ropes!" Ross gave that order as if he rather than Torgulcommanded. And the Captain himself was one of those who moved to obey.

  Loketh came out of the sea first and as he scrambled over the rail hehad his sword ready, looking from Ross to Torgul. The Terran held upempty hands and smiled.

  "No trouble now."

  Loketh snapped up his mask. "So the Sea Maid said the finned onesreported. Yet before, these thirsted for your blood on their blades.What magic have you worked?"

  "None. Just the truth has been discovered." Ross reached for Karara'shand as she came nimbly up the rope, swung her across the rail to thedeck where she stood unmasked, brushing back her hair and looking aroundwith a lively curiosity.

  "Karara, this is Captain Torgul," Ross introduced the Rover commanderwho was staring round-eyed at the girl. "Karara is she who swims withthe finned ones, and they obey her." Ross gestured to Tino-rau. "It isTaua who brings the skiff?" he asked the Polynesian.

  She nodded. "We followed from the gate. Then Loketh came and said that... that...." She paused and then added, "But you do not seem to be indanger. What has happened?"

  "Much. Listen--this is important. There is trouble at an island ahead.The Baldies were there; they murdered the kin of these men.
The odds arethey reached there by some form of sub. Send one of the dolphins to seewhat is happening and if they are still there...."

  Karara asked no more questions, but whistled to the dolphin. With a flipof tail Tino-rau took off.

  Since they could make no concrete plan of action, the cruiser captainsagreed to wait for Tino-rau's report and to cruise well out of sight ofthe fairing harbor until it came.

  "This belief in magic," Ross remarked to Karara, "has one advantage. Thenatives seem able to take in their stride the fact the dolphins willscout for us."

  "They have lived their lives on the sea; for it they must have a vastrespect. Perhaps they know, as did my people, that the ocean has manysecrets, some of which are never revealed except to the forms of lifewhich claim their homes there. But, even if you discover this Baldy sub,what will the Rovers be able to do about it?"

  "I don't know--yet." Ross could not tell why he clung to the idea thatthey could do anything to strike back at the superior alien force. Heonly knew that he was not yet willing to relinquish the thought that insome way they could.

  "And Ashe?"

  Yes, Ashe....

  "I don't know." It hurt Ross to admit that.

  "Back there, what really happened at the gate?" he asked Karara. "All atonce the dolphins seemed to go crazy."

  "I think for a moment or two they did. You felt nothing?"

  "No."

  "It was like a fire slashing through the head. Some protective device ofthe Foanna, I think."

  A mental defense to which he was not sensitive. Which meant that hemight be able to breach that gate if none of the others could. But hehad to be there first. Suppose, just suppose Torgul could be persuadedthat this attack on the gutted Kyn Add was useless. Would the Rovercommander take them back to the Foanna keep? Or with the dolphins andthe skiff could Ross himself return to make the try?

  That he could make it on his own, Ross doubted. Excitement and willpower had buoyed him up throughout the past Hawaikan day and night. Nowfatigue closed in, past his conditioning and the built-in stimulant ofthe Terran rations, to enclose him in a groggy haze. He had been warnedagainst this reaction, but that was just another item he had pushed outof his conscious mind. The last thing he remembered now was seeingKarara move through a fuzzy cloud.

  Voices argued somewhere beyond, the force of that argument carried moreby tone than any words Ross could understand. He was pulled sluggishlyout of a slumber too deep for any dream to trouble, and lifted heavyeyelids to see Karara once again. There was a prick in his arm--or wasthat part of the unreality about him?

  "--four--five--six--" she was counting, and Ross found himself joiningin:

  "--seven--eight--nine--ten!"

  On reaching "ten" he was fully awake and knew that she had applied theemergency procedure they had been drilled in using, giving him a pepshot. When Ross sat up on the narrow bunk there was a light in the cabinand no sign of day outside the porthole. Torgul, Vistur, the two othercruiser captains, all there ... and Jazia.

  Ross swung his feet to the deck. A pep-shot headache was alreadybeginning, but would wear off soon. There was, however, a concentrationof tension in the cabin, and something must have driven Karara to usethe drug.

  "What is it?"

  Karara fitted the medical kit into the compact carrying case.

  "Tino-rau has returned. There _is_ a sub in the bay. It emits energywaves on a shoreward beam."

  "Then they are still there." Ross accepted the dolphin's report withoutquestion. Neither of the scouts would make a mistake in those matters.Energy waves beamed shoreward--power for some type of unit the Baldieswere using? Suppose the Rovers could find a way of cutting off thepower.

  "The Sea Maid has told us that this ship sits on the bottom of theharbor. If we could board it--" began Torgul.

  "Yes!" Vistur brought his fist down against the end of the bunk on whichthe Terran still sat, jarring the dull, drug-borne pain in Ross's head."Take it--then turn it against its crew!"

  There was an eagerness in all Rover faces. For that was a game theHawaikan seafarers understood: Take an enemy ship and turn its armamentagainst its companions in a fleet. But that plan would not work out.Ross had a healthy respect for the technical knowledge of the galacticinvaders. Of course he, Karara, even Loketh might be able to reach thesub. Whether they could then board her was an entirely different matter.

  Now the Polynesian girl shook her head. "The broadcast there--Tino-raurates it as lethal. There are dead fish floating in the bay. He hadwarning at the reef entrance. Without a shield, there will be no way ofgetting in."

  "Might as well wish for a depth bomb," Ross began and then stopped.

  "You have thought of something?"

  "A shield--" Ross repeated her words. It was so wild this thought ofhis, and one which might have no chance of working. He knew almostnothing about the resources of the invaders. Could that broadcast whichprotected the sub and perhaps activated the weapons of the invadersashore be destroyed? A wall of fish--sea life herded in there as ashield ... wild, yes, even so wild it might work. Ross outlined theidea, speaking more to Karara than to the Rovers.

  "I do not know," she said doubtfully. "That would need many fish, toomany to herd and drive----"

  "Not fish," Torgul cut in, "salkars!"

  "Salkars?"

  "You have seen the bow carving on this ship. That is a salkar. Such arelarger than a hundred fish! Salkars driven in ... they might even wreckthis undersea ship with their weight and anger."

  "And you can find these salkars near-by?" Ross began to take fire. Thatdragon which had hunted him--the bulk of the thing was well above anyother sea life he had seen here. And to its ferocity he could givetestimony.

  "At the spawning reefs. We do not hunt at this season which is the timeof the taking of mates. Now, too, they are easily angered so they willeven attack a cruiser. To slay them at present is a loss, for theirskins are not good. But they would be ripe for battle were they to bedisturbed."

  "And how would you get them from the spawning reefs to Kyn Add?"

  "That is not too difficult; the reef lies here." Torgul drew lines withthe point of his sword on the table top. "And here is Kyn Add. Salkarshave a great hunger at this time. Show them bait and they will follow;especially will they follow swimming bait."

  There were a great many holes in the plan which had only a halfwaychance of working. But the Rovers seized upon it with enthusiasm, and soit was set up.

  Perhaps some two hours later Ross swam toward the land mass of Kyn Add.Gleams of light pricked on the shore well to his left. Those must markthe Rover settlement. And again the Terran wondered why the invaders hadremained there. Unless they knew that there had been three cruisers outon a raid and for some reason they were determined to make a completemop-up.

  Karara moved a little to his right, Taua between them, the dolphin'ssuper senses their guide and warning. The swiftest of the cruisers haddeparted, Loketh on board to communicate with Tino-rau in the water.Since the male dolphin was the best equipped to provide a fox for salkarhounds, he was the bait for this weird fishing expedition.

  "No farther!" Ross's sonic pricked a warning against his body. Throughthat he took a jolt which sent him back, away from the bay entrance.

  "On the reef." Karara's tapped code drew him on a new course. Momentslater they were both out of the water, though the wash of waves overtheir flippered feet was constant. The rocks among which they crouchedwere a rough harborage from which they could see the shore as a darkblot. But they were well away from the break in the reef through which,if their outlandish plan succeeded, the salkars would come.

  "A one-in-a-million chance!" Ross commented as he put up his mask.

  "Was not the whole Time Agent project founded on just such chances?"Karara asked the right question. This was Ross's kind of venture. Yes,one-in-a-million chances had been pulled off by the Time Agents. Why, ithad been close to those odds against their ever finding what they hadfirst sought along the back tr
ails of time--the wrecked spaceships.

  Just suppose this could be a rehearsal for another attack? If thesalkars could be made to crack the guard of the Baldies, could they alsobe used against the Foanna gate? Maybe.... But take one fight at a time.

  "They come!" Karara's fingers gripped Ross's shoulder. Her hand washard, bar rigid. He could see nothing, hear nothing. That warning musthave come from the dolphins. But so far their plan was working; themonsters of the Hawaikan sea were on their way.