The Defiant Agents Read online

  16

  At first, as one second and then two passed and there was no response tothe pressure, Travis thought he had mistaken the reading of the tape.Then, directly before his eyes, a dark line cut vertically down thewall. He applied more pressure until his fingers were half numb witheffort. The line widened slowly. Finally he faced a slit some eight feetin height, a little more than two in width, and there the openingremained.

  Light beyond, a cold, gray gleam--like that of a cloudy winter day onTerra--and with it the chill of air out of some arctic wasteland.Favoring his still bandaged side, Travis scraped through the door aheadof the others, and came into the place of gray cold.

  "Wauggh!" Travis heard that exclamation from Jil-Lee, could have echoedit himself except that he was too astounded by what he had seen to sayanything at all.

  The light came from a grid of bars set far above their heads into thenative rock which roofed this storehouse, for storehouse it was. Therewere orderly lines of boxes, some large enough to contain a tank, othersno bigger than a man's fist. Symbols in the same blue-green-purplelights of the outer wall shone from their sides.

  "What--?" Buck began one question and then changed it to another: "Wheredo we begin to look?"

  "Toward the far end." Travis started down the center aisle between rowsof the massed spoils of another time and world--or worlds. The same tapewhich had given him the clue to the unlocking of the door, emphasizedthe importance of something stored at the far end, an object or objectswhich must be used first. He had wondered about that tape. A sensationof urgency, almost of despair, had come through the gabble of alienwords, the quick sequence of diagrams and pictures. The message mighthave been taped under a threat of some great peril.

  There was no dust on the rows of boxes or on the floor underfoot. Acurrent of cold, fresh air blew at intervals down the length of the hugechamber. They could not see the next aisle across the barriers of storedgoods, but the only noise was a whisper and the faint sounds of theirown feet. They came out into an open space backed by the wall, andTravis saw what had been so important.

  "No!" His protest was involuntary, but his denial loud enough to echo.

  Six--six of them--tall, narrow cases set upright against the wall; andfrom their depths, five pairs of dark eyes staring back at him in coldmeasurement. These were the men of the ships--the men Menlik had dreamedof--their bald white heads, their thin bodies with the skintightcovering of the familiar blue-green-purple. Five of them were here,alive--watching ... waiting....

  Five men--and six boxes. That small fact broke the spell in which thoseeyes held Travis. He looked again at the sixth box to his right.Expecting to meet another pair of eyes this time, he was disconcerted toface only emptiness. Then, as his gaze traveled downward, he saw whatlay on the floor there--a skull, a tangle of bones, tattered materialcobwebbed into dusty rags by time. Whatever had preserved five of thestar men intact, had failed the sixth of their company.

  "They are alive!" Jil-Lee whispered.

  "I do not think so," Buck answered. Travis took another step, reachedout to touch the transparent front of the nearest coffin case. There wasno change in the eyes of the alien who stood within, no indication thatif the Apaches could see him, he would be able to return their interest.The five stares which had bemused the visitors at first, did not breakto follow their movements.

  But Travis knew! Whether it was some message on the tape which the sightof the sleepers made clear, or whether some residue of the drivingpurpose which had set them there now reached his mind, was immaterial.He knew the purpose of this room and its contents, why it had been madeand the reason its six guardians had been left as prisoners--and whatthey wanted from anyone coming after them.

  "They sleep," he said softly.

  "Sleep?" Buck caught him up.

  "They sleep in something like deep freeze."

  "Do you mean they can be brought to life again!" Jil-Lee cried.

  "Maybe not now--it must be too long--but they were meant to wait out aperiod and be restored."

  "How do you know that?" Buck asked.

  "I don't know for certain, but I think I understand a little. Somethinghappened a long time ago. Maybe it was a war, a war between whole starsystems, bigger and worse than anything we can imagine. I think thisplanet was an outpost, and when the supply ships didn't come any more,when they knew they might be cut off for some length of time, theyclosed down. Stacked their supplies and machines here and then went tosleep to wait for their rescuers...."

  "For rescuers who never came," Jil-Lee said softly. "And there is achance they could be revived even now?"

  Travis shivered. "Not one I would want to take."

  "No," Buck's tone was somber, "that I agree to, younger brother. Theseare not men as we know them, and I do not think they would be good_dalaanbiyat'i_--allies. They had _go'ndi_ in plenty, these star men,but it is not the power of the People. No one but a madman or a foolwould try to disturb this sleep of theirs."

  "The truth you speak," Jil-Lee agreed. "But where in this," he turnedhis shoulder to the sleeping star men and looked back at the filledchamber--"do we find anything which will serve us here and now?"

  Again Travis had only the scrappiest information to draw upon. "Spreadout," he told them. "Look for the marking of a circle surrounding fourdots set in a diamond pattern."

  They went, but Travis lingered for a moment to look once more into thebleak and bitter eyes of the star men. How many planet years ago hadthey sealed themselves into those boxes? A thousand, ten thousand? Theirempire was long gone, yet here was an outpost still waiting to berevived to carry on its mysterious duties. It was as if in Saxon-invadedBritain long ago a Roman garrison had been frozen to await the return ofthe legions. Buck was right; there was no common ground today betweenTerran man and these unknowns. They must continue to sleep undisturbed.

  Yet when Travis also turned away and went back down the aisle, he wasstill aware of a persistent pull on him to return. It was as thoughthose eyes had set locking cords to will him back to release thesleepers. He was glad to turn a corner, to know that they could nolonger watch him plunder their treasury.

  "Here!" That was Buck's voice, but it echoed so oddly across the bigchamber that Travis had difficulty in deciding what part of thewarehouse it was coming from. And Buck had to call several times beforeTravis and Jil-Lee joined him.

  There was the circle-dot-diamond symbol shining on the side of a case.They worked it out of the pile, setting it in the open. Travis knelt torun his hands along the top. The container was an unknown alloy, tough,unmarked by the years--perhaps indestructible.

  Again his fingers located what his eyes could not detect--theimpressions on the edge, oddly shaped impressions into which his fingertips did not fit too comfortably. He pressed, bearing down with the fullstrength of his arms and shoulders, and then lifted up the lid.

  The Apaches looked into a set of compartments, each holding an objectwith a barrel, a hand grip, a general resemblance to the sidearms oftheir own world and time, but sufficiently different to point up theessential strangeness. With infinite care Travis worked one out of thevise-support which held it. The weapon was light in weight, lighter thanany automatic he had ever held. Its barrel was long, a good eighteeninches--the grip alien in shape so that it didn't fit comfortably intohis hand, the trigger nonexistent, but in its place a button on thelower part of the barrel which could be covered by an outstretchedfinger.

  "What does it do?" asked Buck practically.

  "I'm not sure. But it is important enough to have a special mention onthe tape." Travis passed the weapon along to Buck and worked anotherloose from its holder.

  "No way of loading I can see," Buck said, examining the weapon with careand caution.

  "I don't think it fires a solid projectile," Travis replied. "We'll haveto test them outside to find out just what we do have."

  The Apaches took only three of the weapons, closing the box before theyleft. And as they wriggled back through the c
rack door, Travis wasvisited again by that odd flash of compelling, almost possessive powerhe had experienced when they had lain in ambush for the Red huntingparty. He took a step or two forward until he was able to catch the edgeof the reading table and steady himself against it.

  "What is the matter?" Both Buck and Jil-Lee were watching him;apparently neither had felt that sensation. Travis did not reply for asecond. He was free of it now. But he was sure of its source; it had notbeen any backlash of the Red caller! It was rooted here--a compulsiontriggered to make the original intentions of the outpost obeyed, a lastdrag from the sleepers. This place had been set up with a singlepurpose: to protect and preserve the ancient rulers of Topaz. Andperhaps the very presence here of the intruding Terrans had released aforce, started an unseen installation.

  Now Travis answered simply: "They want out...."

  Jil-Lee glanced back at the slit door, but Buck still watched Travis.

  "They call?" he asked.

  "In a way," Travis admitted. But the compulsion had already ebbed; hewas free. "It is gone now."

  "This is not a good place," Buck observed somberly. "We touch that whichshould not be held by men of our earth." He held out the weapon.

  "Did not the People take up the rifles of the Pinda-lick-o-yi for theirdefense when it was necessary?" Jil-Lee demanded. "We do what we must.After seeing that," his chin indicated the slit and what lay behindit--"do you wish the Reds to forage here?"

  "Still," Buck's words came slowly, "this is a choice between two evils,rather than between an evil and a good--"

  "Then let us see how powerful this evil is!" Jil-Lee headed for thecorridor leading to the pillar.

  * * * * *

  It was late afternoon when they made their way through the swirlingmists of the valley under the archway giving on the former site of theoutlaw Tatar camp. Travis sighted the long barrel of the weapon at asmall bush backed by a boulder, and he pressed the firing button. Therewas no way of knowing whether the weapon was loaded except to try it.

  The result of his action was quick--quick and terrifying. There was nosound, no sign of any projectile ... ray-gas ... or whatever might haveissued in answer to his finger movement. But the bush--the bush was nomore!

  A black smear made a ragged outline of the extinguished branches andleaves on the rock which had stood behind. The earth might still encloseroots under a thin coating of ash, but the bush was gone!

  "The breath of Naye'nezyani--powerful beyond belief!" Buck broke theirhorrified silence first. "In truth evil is here!"

  Jil-Lee raised his gun--if gun it could be called--aimed at the rockwith the bush silhouette plain to see and fired.

  This time they were able to witness disintegration in progress, thecrumble of the stone as if its substance was no more than sand lapped byriver water. A pile of blackened rubble remained--nothing more.

  "To use this on a living thing?" Buck protested, horror basing the doubtin his voice.

  "We do not use it against living things," Travis promised, "but againstthe ship of the Reds--to cut that to pieces. This will open the shell ofthe turtle and let us at its meat."

  Jil-Lee nodded. "Those are true words. But now I agree with your fearsof this place, Travis. This is a devil thing and must not be allowed tofall into the hands of those who--"

  "Will use it more freely than we plan to?" Buck wanted to know. "Wereserve to ourselves that right because we hold our motives higher? Tothink that way is also a crooked trail. We will use this means becausewe must, but afterward...."

  Afterward that warehouse must be closed, the tapes giving the entranceclue destroyed. One part of Travis fought that decision, right though heknew it to be. The towers were the menace he had believed. And what wasmore discouraging than the risk they now ran, was the belief that thetreasure was a poison which could not be destroyed but which mightspread from Topaz to Terra.

  Suppose the Western Conference had discovered that storehouse andexplored its riches, would they have been any less eager to exploitthem? As Buck had pointed out, one's own ideals could well supplyreasons for violence. In the past Terra had been racked by wars ofreligion, one fanatically held opinion opposed to another. There was norighteousness in such struggles, only fatal ends. The Reds had no rightto this new knowledge--but neither did they. It must be locked againstthe meddling of fools and zealots.

  "Taboo--" Buck spoke that word with an emphasis they could appreciate.Knowledge must be set behind the invisible barriers of taboo, and thatcould work.

  "These three--no more--we found no other weapons!" Jil-Lee added awarning suggestion.

  "No others," Buck agreed and Travis echoed, adding:

  "We found tombs of the space people, and these were left with them.Because of our great need we borrowed them, but they must be returned tothe dead or trouble will follow. And they may only be used against thefortress of the Reds by us, who first found them and have taken untoourselves the wrath of disturbed spirits."

  "Well thought! That is an answer to give the People. The towers are thetombs of dead ones. When we return these they shall be taboo. We areagreed?" Buck asked.

  "We are agreed!"

  Buck tried his weapon on a sapling, saw it vanish into nothingness. Noneof the Apaches wanted to carry the strange guns against their bodies;the power made them objects of fear, rather than arms to delight awarrior. And when they returned to their temporary camp, they laid allthree on a blanket and covered them up. But they could not cover up thememories of what had happened to bush, rock, and tree.

  "If such are their small weapons," Buck observed that evening, "thenwhat kind of things did they have to balance our heavy armament? Perhapsthey were able to burn up worlds!"

  "That may be what happened elsewhere," Travis replied. "We do not knowwhat put an end to their empire. The capital-planet we found on thefirst voyage had not been destroyed, but it had been evacuated in haste.One building had not even been stripped of its furnishings." Heremembered the battle he had fought there, he and Ross Murdock and thewinged native, standing up to an attack of the ape-things while thewinged warrior had used his physical advantage to fly above and bomb theenemies with boxes snatched from the piles....

  "And here they went to sleep in order to wait out some danger--time ordisaster--they did not believe would be permanent," Buck mused.

  Travis thought he would flee from the eyes of the sleepers throughouthis dreams that night, but on the contrary he slept heavily, finding ithard to rouse when Jil-Lee awakened him for his watch. But he was alertwhen he saw a four-footed shape flit out of the shadows, drink waterfrom the stream, and shake itself vigorously in a spray of drops.

  "Naginlta!" he greeted the coyote. Trouble? He could have shouted thatquestion, but he put a tight rein on his impatience and strove tocommunicate in the only method possible.

  No, what the coyote had come to report was not trouble but the fact thatthe one he had been set to guard was headed back into the mountains,though others came with her--four others. Nalik'ideyu still watchedtheir camp. Her mate had come for further orders.

  Travis squatted before the animal, cupped the coyote's jowls between hispalms. Naginlta suffered his touch with only a small whine ofuneasiness. With all his power of mental suggestion, Travis strove toreach the keen brain he knew was served by the yellow eyes looking intohis.

  The others with Kaydessa were to be led on, taken to the ship. ButKaydessa must not suffer harm. When they reached a spot near-by--Travisthought of a certain rock beyond the pass--then one of the coyotes wasto go ahead to the ship. Let the Apaches there know....

  Manulito and Eskelta should also be warned by the sentry along thepeaks, but additional alerting would not go amiss. Those four withKaydessa--they must reach the trap!

  "What was that?" Buck rolled out of his blanket.

  "Naginlta--" The coyote sped back into the dark again. "The Reds havetaken the bait, a party of at least four with Kaydessa are moving intothe foothills, heading south."<
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  But the enemy party was not the only one on the move. In the light ofday a sentry's mirror from a point in the peaks sent another warningdown to their camp.

  Out in their mountain meadows the Tatar outlaws were on horseback,moving toward the entrance of the tower valley. Buck knelt by theblanket covering the alien weapons.

  "Now what?"

  "We'll have to stop them," Travis replied, but he had no idea of justhow they would halt those determined Mongol horsemen.