Key Out of Time Read online

  5

  Time Wrecked

  "Can we go back?" Karara was herself again, her voice crisp.

  "I don't know." Ross gave her the truth. The force which had drawn themthrough the gate was beyond his experience. As far as he knew, there hadnever been such an involuntary passage by time gate, and what their tripmight mean he did not know.

  The main concern was that Ashe must have come through, too, and that hewas missing. Just let the storm abate, and, with the dolphins' aid,Ross's chance for finding the missing agent was immeasurably better. Hesaid so now, and Karara nodded.

  "Do you suppose there is a war going on here?" She hugged her armsacross her breast, her shoulders heaving in the torch light withshudders she could not control. The damp chill was biting, and Rossrealized that was also danger.

  "Could be." He got to his feet, switched the light from the girl to thewalls. That seaweed, could it make them some form of protectivecovering?

  "Hold this--aim it there!" He thrust the torch into her hands and wentfor one of the loops of kelp.

  Ross reeled in lines of the stuff. It was rank-smelling but onlyslightly damp, and he piled it on the ledge in a kind of nest. At leastin the hollow of that mound they would be sheltered after a fashion.

  Karara crawled into the center of the mass, and Ross followed her. Thesmell of the stuff filled his nose, was almost like a visible cloud, buthe had been right, the girl stopped shivering, and he felt a measure ofwarmth in his own shaking body. Ross snapped off the torch, and they laytogether in the dark, the half-rotten pile of weed holding them.

  He must have slept, Ross guessed, when he stirred, raising his head. Hisbody was stiff, aching, as he braced himself up on his hands and peeredover the edge of their kelp nest. There was light in the cave, a palegrayish wash which grew stronger toward the slit opening. It must beday. And that meant they could move.

  Ross groped in the weed, his hand falling on a curve of shoulder.

  "Wake up!" His voice was hoarse and held the snap of an order.

  There was a startled gasp in answer, and the mound beside him heaved asthe girl stirred.

  "Day out--" Ross pointed.

  "And the storm--" she stood up, "I think it is over."

  It was true that the level of water within the cave had fallen, thatwavelets no longer lapped with the same vigor. Morning ... the stormover ... and somewhere Ashe!

  Ross was about to snap his mask into place when Karara caught at hisarm.

  "Be careful! Remember what I saw--last night they were killingswimmers!"

  He shook her off impatiently. "I'm no fool! And with the packs on we donot have to surface. Listen--" he had another thought, one which wouldprovide an excellent excuse for keeping her safely out of his company,reducing his responsibility for her, "you take the dolphins and try tofind the gate. We'll want out as soon as I locate Ashe."

  "And if you do not find him soon?"

  Ross hesitated. She had not said the rest. What if he could not findGordon at all? But he would--he had to!

  "I'll be back here"--he checked his watch, no longer an accuratetimekeeper, for Hawaikan days held an hour more than the Terrantwenty-four, but the settlers kept the off-world measurement to check onwork periods--"in, say, two hours. You should know by then about thegate, and I'll have some idea of the situation along the shore. Butlisten--" Ross caught her shoulders in a taut grip, pulled her around toface him, his eyes hot and almost angry as they held hers, "don't letyourself be seen--" He repeated the cardinal rule of Agents in newterritory. "We don't dare risk discovery."

  Karara nodded and he could see that she understood, was aware of theimportance of that warning. "Do you want Tino-rau or Taua?"

  "No, I'm going to search along the shore first. Ashe would have triedfor that last night ... was probably driven in the way we were. He'd goto ground somewhere. And I have this--" Ross touched the sonic on hisbelt. "I'll set it on his call; you do the same with yours. Then if weget within distance, he'll pick us up. Back here in two hours--"

  "Yes." Karara kicked free of the weed, was already wading down to wherethe dolphins circled in the cave pool waiting for her. Ross followed,and the four swam for the open sea.

  It could not be much after dawn, Ross thought, as he clung by one handto a rock and watched Karara and the dolphins on their way. Then hepaddled along the shore northward for his own survey of the coast. Therewas a rose cast in the sky, warming the silver along the far reaches ofthe horizon. And about him bobbed storm flotsam, so that he had to picka careful way through floating debris.

  On the reef one of the wrecked ships had vanished entirely. Perhaps ithad been battered to death by the waves, ground to splinters against therocks. The other still held, its prow well out of the now recedingwaves, jagged holes in its sides through which spurts of water cascadednow and then.

  The wreck which had been driven landward was composed of planks, boxes,and containers rolled by the waves' force. Much of this was already freeof the sea, and on the beach figures moved examining it. In spite of thedanger of chance discovery, Ross edged along rocks, seeking a vantagepoint from which he could watch that activity.

  He was flat against a sea-girt boulder, a swell of floating weed drapedabout him, when the nearest of the foraging parties moved into goodview.

  Men ... at least they had the outward appearance of men much likehimself, though their skin was dark and their limbs appeareddisproportionately long and thin. There were two groups of them, fourwearing only a scanty loincloth, busy turning over and hunting throughthe debris under the direction of the other two.

  The workers had thick growths of hair which not only covered theirheads, but down their spines and the outer sides of their thin arms andlegs to elbow and knee. The hair was a pallid yellow-white in vividcontrast to their dark skins, and their chins protruded sharply,allowing the lower line of their faces to take on a vaguely disturbinglikeness to an animal's muzzle.

  Their overseers were more fully clothed, wearing not only helmets ontheir heads, whose helms had a protective visor over the face, but alsobreast- and back-plates molded to their bodies. Ross thought that thesecould not be solid metal since they adapted to the movements of thewearers.

  Feet and legs were covered with casing combinations of shoe andleggings, colored dull red. They were armed with swords of an oddpattern; their points curved up so that the blade resembled a fishhook.Unsheathed, the blades were clipped to a waist belt by catches whichglittered in the weak morning light as if gem set.

  Ross could see little of their faces, for the beak visors overhung theirfeatures. But their skins were as dusky as those of the laborers, andtheir arms and legs of the same unusual length ... men of the same race,he deduced.

  Under the orders of the armed overseers the laborers were reducing thebeach to order, sorting out the flotsam into two piles. Once theygathered about a find, and the sound of excited speech reached Ross asan agitated clicking. The armored men came up, surveyed the discovery.One of them shrugged, and clicked an order.

  Ross caught only a half glimpse of the thing two of the workers draggedaway. A body! Ashe.... The Terran was about to move closer when he sawthe green cloak dragging about the corpse. No, not Gordon, just anothervictim from the wrecks.

  The aliens were working their way toward Ross, and perhaps it was timefor him to go. He was pushing aside his well-arranged curtain of weedwhen he was startled by a shout. For a second he thought he might havebeen sighted, until resulting action on shore told him otherwise.

  The furred workers shrank back against the mound to which they had justdragged the body. While the two guards took up a position before them,curved swords, snapped from their belt hooks, ready in their hands.Again that shout. Was it a warning or a threat? With the languagebarrier Ross could only wait to see.

  Another party approached along the beach from the south. In the lead wasa cloaked and hooded figure, so muffled in its covering of silver-graythat Ross had no idea of the form beneath. Silvery-gray--no, n
ow thathue was deepening with blue tones, darkening rapidly. By the time thecloaked newcomer had passed the rock which sheltered the Terran thecovering was a rich blue which seemed to glow.

  Behind the leader were a dozen armed men. They wore the same beakedhelmets, the supple encasing breast- and back-plates, but their leggingswere gray. They, too, carried curved swords, but the weapons were stilllatched to their belts and they made no move to draw them in spite ofthe very patent hostility of the guards before them.

  Blue cloak halted some three feet from the guards. The sea wind pulledat the cloak, wrapping it about the body beneath. But even so, thewearer remained well hidden. From under a flapping edge came a hand. Thefingers, long and slender, were curled about an ivory-colored wand whichended in a knob. Sparks flashed from it in a continuous flickering.

  Ross clapped his hand to his belt. To his complete amazement the sonicdisk he wore was reacting to those flashes, pricking sharply in perfectbeat to their blink-blink. The Terran cupped his scarred fingers overthe disk as he waited to see what was going to happen, wondering if theholder of that wand might, in return, pick up the broadcast of the codeset on Ashe's call.

  The hand clasping the wand was not dusky-skinned but had much of thesame ivory shade as the rod, so that to Ross the meeting between fleshand wand was hardly distinguishable. Now by one firm thrust the handplanted the rod into the sand, leaving it to stand sentinel between thetwo parties.

  Retreating a step or two, the red-clad guards gave ground. But they didnot reclasp their swords. Their attitude, Ross judged, was that of menin some awe of their opponent, but men urged to defiance, either by abelief in the righteousness of their cause, or strengthened by an oldhatred.

  Now the cloaked one began to speak--or was that speech? Certainly theflow of sound had little in common with the clicking tongue Ross hadcaught earlier. This trill of notes possessed the rise and fall of achant or song which could have been a formula of greeting--or a warning.And the lines of warriors escorting the chanter stood to attention,their weapons still undrawn.

  Ross caught his lower lip between his teeth and bit down on it. Thatchanting--it crawled into the mind, set up a pattern! He shook his headvigorously and then was shocked by that recklessness. Not that any ofthose on shore had glanced in his direction.

  The chant ended on a high, broken note. It was followed by a moment ofsilence through which sounded only the wind and the beat of wave.

  Then one of the laborers flung up his head and clicked a word or two. Heand his fellows fell face down on the beach, cupping their hands to poursand over their unkempt heads. One of the guards turned with a sharpyell to boot the nearest of the workers in the ribs.

  But his companion cried out. The wand which had stood so erect when itwas first planted, now inclined toward the working party, its sparksshooting so swiftly and with such slight break between that they werefast making a single beam. Ross jerked his hand from contact with thesonic; a distinct throb of pain answered that stepping up of themysterious broadcast.

  The laborers broke and ran, or rather crawled on their bellies untilthey were well away, before they got to their feet and pelted back downthe strand. However, the guards were of sterner stuff. They werewithdrawing all right, but slowly backing away, their swords held upbefore them as men might retreat before insurmountable odds.

  When they were well gone the robed one took up the wand. Holding it outbeyond, the cloaked leader of the second party approached the two pilesof salvage the workers had heaped into rough order. There was a detailedinspection of both until the robed one came upon the body.

  At a trilled order two of the warriors came up and laid out the corpse.When the robed one nodded they stood well back. The rod moved, the tiprather than the knobbed head being pointed at the body.

  Ross's head snapped back. That bolt of light, energy, fire--whatever itwas--issuing from the rod had dazzled him into momentary blindness. Anda vibration of force through the air was like a blow.

  When he was able to see once more there was nothing at all on the sandwhere the corpse had lain, nothing except a glassy trough from whichsome spirals of vapor arose. Ross clung to his rock support badlyshaken.

  Men with swords ... and now this--some form of controlled energy whichargued of technical development and science. Just as the cliff castlehad bombarded with rocks ships sailing with a speed which argued enginepower of an unknown type. A mixture of barbaric and advanced knowledge.To assess this, he needed more experience, more knowledge than hepossessed. Now Ashe could....

  Ashe!

  Ross was jerked back to his own quest. The rod was quiet, no more sparkswere flung from its knob. And under Ross's touch his sonic was quietalso. He snapped off the broadcast. If that device had picked up theflickering of the rod, the reverse could well be true.

  The cloaked one chose from the pile of goods, and its escort gathered upthe designated boxes, a small cask or two. So laden, the party returnedsouth the way they had come. Ross allowed his breath to expel in a sighof relief.

  He worked his way farther north along the coast, watching other partiesof the furred workers and their guards. Lines of the former climbed thecliff, hauling their spoil, their destination the castle. But Ross sawno sign of Ashe, received no answer to the sonic code he had reset oncethe strangers were out of distance. And the Terran began to realize thathis present search might well be fruitless, though he fought againstaccepting it.

  When he turned back to the slit cave Ross's fear was ready to beexpressed in anger, the anger of frustration over his own helplessness.With no chance of trying to penetrate the castle, he could not learnwhether or not Ashe had been taken prisoner. And until the workers leftthe beach he could not prowl there hunting the grimmer evidence his mindflinched from considering.

  Karara waited for him on the inner ledge. There was no sign of thedolphins and as Ross pulled out of the water, pushing aside his mask,her face in the thin light of the cave was deeply troubled.

  "You did not find him," she made that a statement rather than aquestion.

  "No."

  "And I did not find it--"

  Ross used a length of weed from the nest as a towel. But now he stoodvery still.

  "The gate ... no sign of it?"

  "Just this--" She reached behind her and brought up a sealed container.Ross recognized one of the supply cans they had had in the cache by thegate. "There are others ... scattered. Taua and Tino-rau seek them now.It is as if all that was on the other side was sucked through with us."

  "You are sure you found the right place?"

  "Is--is this not part of it?" Again the girl sought for something on theledge. What she held out to him was a length of metal rod, twisted andbroken at one end as if a giant hand had wrenched it loose from theinstallation.

  Ross nodded dully. "Yes," his voice was harsh as if the words werepulled out of him against his will and against all hope--"that's part ofa side bar. It--it must have been totally wrecked."

  Yet, even though he held that broken length in his hands, Ross could notreally believe the gate was gone. He swam out once more, heading for thereef where the dolphins joined him as guides. There was a second pieceof broken tube, the scattered containers of supplies, that was all. TheTerrans were wrecked in time as surely as those ships had been wreckedon the sea reef the night before!

  Ross headed once again for the cave. Their immediate needs were of majorimportance now. The containers must be all gathered and taken into theirhiding place, because upon their contents three human lives coulddepend.

  He paused just at the entrance to adjust the net of containers hetransported. And it was that slight chance which brought him knowledgeof the intruder.

  On the ledge Karara was heaping up the kelp of the nest. But to one sideand on a level with the girl's head....

  Ross dared not flash his torch, thus betraying his presence. Leaving thenet hitched to the rock by its sling, he swam under water along the sideof the cave by a route which should bring him out with
in strikingdistance of that hunched figure perching above to watch Karara's everymove.