War Against the Rull (17 page)

Meanwhile, mirrors were used to contact a companion cruiser which "floated" in an orbit above the atmosphere. The half-mad, terrified crew below was given an analysis of their situation which confirmed their own observations.

"The aliens," they were advised, "do not seem to be directly inimical to human beings. All deaths appear to be accidental results of their interference with the electrical system of the ship. It may therefore be postulated that a study can be made of this life form, by setting up various combinations of electrical phenomena and watching the reaction. Instruments for this purpose will be devised and will be dropped to you."

The expedition became scientific. And for six months the phenomena of a strange life form were studied. The end result was not satisfactory, because at no time was contact established, nor was it finally determined that a life form actually existed on the planet.

At the end of the half year, the companion cruiser dropped several old-style rockets, - which utilized nonelectrical firing mechanisms. And so the survivors of the first expedition to Ploia were rescued.

Jamieson thought of all this as he used tractor beams to draw his lifeboat into an airlock of his own cruiser. A few moments later the great ship was speeding out into interstellar space.

There was nothing decisive to do immediately. The ezwal reported the presence of another "mind" but could not pin down any thought other than anxiety and unhappiness.

The indication that there was
something
eased Jamieson's own mind considerably. In view of the experience of the first expedition, he had not been able to escape the feeling that he was
deluding himself. By identifying a presence, the ezwal was already serving a useful purpose.

A hundred light-years from Ploia, he disconnected the interstellar drives from all electrical connections. Then he and the ezwal retreated into a part of the ship specially constructed for this journey. It was connected to the main section by motor-driven and hand-operated mechanisms. In it was a second control board. From it, using a specially built mechanical device, Jamieson opened the airlock of the lifeboat and allowed the Ploian to enter the main part of the ship—if that strange being chose to do so.

The ezwal reported in his swift mental fashion. "I have pictures of scenes in the main control room. They seem to come from near the ceiling. I have the impression he is sizing up the situation."

That seemed reasonably decisive. The Ploian's mind could be read. Jamieson could imagine himself in a similar predicament aboard an alien ship. He guessed how wary he would be.

"Now he's gone into the control board," flashed the ezwal.

"Into it?"
Jamieson asked, startled.

There was a jerk, and the ship darted off at an angle from its course. The erratic course did not disturb Jamieson. But his new knowledge of the Ploian—gained from the ezwal—made a startling picture of a short-circuited control board. He visualized an amorphous creature creeping and slithering through a mass of wires and instruments, its "body" a bridge for the live power in the numerous relays.

Even as he had the picture, the ship's course steadied. The great vessel plunged in a line drive through that remote edge of the galaxy.

The ezwal's thought came. "He selected a direction and has a plan to go in that direction exactly as long as we did, earlier. He knows nothing of faster drives."

Jamieson shook his head, impressed but pitying. Poor Ploian! Caught in a trap of distance the like of which his race had never seen or even, perhaps, guessed.

Aloud, he said, presently, "Tell him how great the distance is. Tell him about the difference between the interstellar drive and the drive he's using."

The ezwal said, "I've told him. All I got back is rage."

"Keep telling him," said Jamieson steadily.

Later he said, "Tell him that we have an electrically operated machine through which he and I can talk to each other—once he learns its mechanism."

Still later, Jamieson instructed, "Ask him what he uses for food."

And that brought the first reply.

"He says," reported the ezwal, "that he's dying, and that we're responsible."

It was telepathy in full. Presently, they had the information that Ploians lived off the magnetic force of their planet, which they converted into a sort of life energy.

With the electrical system dead, no magnetic flux was available from the numerous coils and armatures of electric motors, generators, relays and magnetrons. Ephraim received the impression that such concentrations of flux were extremely exhilarating to Ploians.

It occurred to Jamieson that this simple reaction would account for much if not all the damage the Ploians had inflicted on the previous explorers. He had a sudden visualization that all the wreckage of equipment, and the deadly effect on the human crew, had largely been incidental to a sort of "jag" enjoyed by the Ploians.

With that in mind, it was no trick to set up a small gas turbine to drive a generator, which, in turn, operated the electric motor of a compressor.

"Tell him," said Jamieson to the ezwal, "not to assimilate the flux too fast, or he'll stall the system."

They gave the Ploian his "meal." Then: "Now tell him," said Jamieson, "no more nourishment until he agrees to work that communication machine."

Within hours, the Ploian could so modulate electrical current that intelligible if rather guttural speech sounds came over the speaker of the voice machine. The being acquired an acceptable command of English in one day.

"The question is," said Jamieson, more to himself than to the young ezwal, "what kind of I.Q. does this fellow have, to learn a language as rapidly as that?"

Ephraim could not comment on that directly, having no need for language. But he did report: "He seems to have his entire energy field available for storing memories, and that field extends out almost as far as he wants it to."

Jamieson considered that, but was unable to obtain a clear mental picture of such a "nervous system." He said finally, "On our way home, I'm going to put together a miniature version of that communication machine, so I can wear it in my ear. I'd like to train him to the point where I can talk to him as easily as I do to you."

He manufactured the instrument and was in process of giving
the training when two messages arrived for him from Earth. They changed his plans for the immediate future.

The first message was from Caleb Carson: "Political switch on Carson's Planet makes possible educational program for ezwals without waiting for Galactic Convention. A Mrs. Whitman is the source of this information. She said you would understand."

Jamieson's comment on that message was wry: "There was a time when Mrs. Whitman and I didn't like each other. I presume that has now changed. I guess I'm willing."

The second message was equally decisive: "Proceed at once to newly discovered planet in Region 18. Location will be scrambled on 1—8—3—18—26—54—6. You are commanded to make personal survey and report asap. Signed,
sucomspaop."

Jamieson did not need to be told why the Supreme Commander of Space Operations had concerned himself directly. Region 18 was code for the farthest forward "line" of the anti-Rull forces. Along with Carson's Planet, and two others, this new world would make up a foursome of military bastions from which Earth—and man's part of the galaxy—could be defended.

The numbers simply indicated the code by which the location of the new planet would be radioed to him.

On receipt of the messages, Jamieson altered his plans.

He acknowledged both messages immediately. To Caleb

Carson he radioed: "Meet me at-----" He named a planet which

he and Carson could both reach at approximately the same time. "Will turn Ephraim and this ship over to you and you proceed to Carson's Planet and carry on as planned."

To
sucomspaop
he radioed: "Have warship meet me
at -----" He named the planet where he would meet Caleb
Carson. "And he prepared to take aboard my personal lifeboat."

It was the only good solution to the problem presented by the Ploian—take him along.

Earnestly, Jamieson impressed upon that being the importance of not doing anything rash. "If you ever hope to get back to your own planet, you'll have to do exactly as I say at all times," he said.

The Ploian promised faithfully and soberly.

Trevor Jamieson saw the other space boat out of the corner of his eye. He was sitting in a hollow about a dozen yards from the edge of the precipice, and some score of feet from the
doorway of his own lifeboat. He had been intent on his survey book, annotating a comment beside the voice graph, to the effect that Laertes III was so close to the invisible dividing line between Earth-controlled and Rull-controlled space that its prior discovery by man was in itself a major victory in the Rull-human war.

He had written: "The fact that ships based on this planet could strike at several of the most densely populated areas of the galaxy,
Rull
or
human,
gives it an AA priority on all available military equipment. Preliminary defense units should be set up on Mount Monolith, where I am now, within three weeks. . .." It was at that point that he saw the other boat, above and somewhat to his left, approaching the tableland. He glanced up at it, and froze where he was, torn between two opposing purposes. His first impulse, to run for the lifeboat, yielded to the realization that the movement would be seen instantly by the electronic reflexes of the other ship. For a moment, then, he had the dim hope that, if he remained quiet enough, neither he nor his ship would be observed.

Even as he sat there, perspiring with indecision, his tensed eyes noted the Rull markings and the rakish design of the other vessel. His vast knowledge of things Rull enabled him to catalogue it instantly as a survey craft.

A survey
craft. The Rulls had discovered the Laertes sun. The terrible potentiality was that, behind this small craft, might be fleets of battleships, whereas he was alone. His own lifeboat had been dropped by the
Orion
nearly a parsec away, while the big ship was proceeding at antigravity speeds. That was to insure that Rull energy tracers did not record its passage through this area of space. The
Orion
was to head for the nearest base, load up with planetary defense equipment, and then return. She was due in ten days.

Ten days. Jamieson groaned inwardly and drew his legs under him and clenched his hand about the survey book. But still the possibility that his ship, partially hidden under a clump of trees, might escape notice if
he
remained quiet, held him there in the open. His head tilted up, his eyes glared at the alien, and his
brain willed it to turn aside. Once more, while he waited, the implications of the disaster that could be here struck deep.

The Rull ship was a hundred yards away now and showed no signs of changing its course. In seconds it would cross the clump of trees, which half hid the lifeboat.

In a spasm of movement, Jamieson launched himself from his chair. With complete abandon, he dived for the open doorway of his machine. As the door clanged behind him, the boat shook as if it had been struck by a giant. Part of the ceiling sagged; the floor heaved under him, and the air grew hot and suffocating. Gasping, Jamieson slid into the control chair and struck the main emergency switch. The rapid-fire blasters huzzaed into automatic firing positions and let go with a hum and a deep-throated
ping.
The refrigerators whined with power; a cold blast of air blew at his body. The relief was so quick that a second passed before Jamieson realized that the atomic engines had failed to respond. And that the lifeboat, which should have already been sliding into the air, was still lying inert in an exposed position.

Tense, he stared into the visiplates. It took a moment to locate the Rull ship. It was at the lower edge of one plate, tumbling slowly out of sight beyond a clump of trees a quarter of a mile away. As he watched, it disappeared; and then the crash of the landing came clear and unmistakable from the sound board in front of him.

The relief that came was weighted with an awful reaction. Jamieson sank into the cushions of the control chair, weak from the narrowness of his escape. The weakness ended abruptly as a thought struck him. There had been a sedateness about the way the enemy ship fell.
The crash hadn't killed the Rulls aboard.
He was alone in a damaged lifeboat on an impassable mountain with one or more of the most remorseless creatures ever spawned. For ten days he must fight in the hope that man would still be able to seize the most valuable planet discovered in half a century.

Jamieson opened the door and went out onto the tableland. He was still trembling with reaction, but it was rapidly growing darker and there was no time to waste. He walked quickly to the top of the nearest hillock a hundred feet away, taking the last few feet on his hands and knees. Cautiously, he peered over the rim. Most of the mountaintop was visible. It was a rough oval some eight hundred yards wide at its narrowest, a wilderness of scraggly brush and upjutting rock, dominated here and there by clumps of trees. There was not a movement to be seen, and not a sign of the Rull ship. Over everything lay an
atmosphere of desolation, and the utter silence of an uninhabited wasteland.

The twilight was deeper now that the sun had sunk below the southwest precipice. And the deadly part was that, to the Rulls, with their wider vision and more complete sensory equipment, the darkness would mean nothing. All night long he would have to be on the defensive against beings whose nervous systems outmatched his in every function except, possibly, intelligence." On that level, and that alone, human beings claimed equality. The very comparison made him realize how desperate
his
situation was. He needed an advantage. If he could get to the Rull wreck and cause them some kind of damage before it got pitch-dark, before they recovered from the shock of the crash, that alone might make the difference between life and death for him. It was a chance he had to take. Hurriedly, Jamieson backed down the hillock and, climbing to his feet, started along a shallow wash. The ground was rough with stone and projecting edges of rock and the gnarled roots and tangle of hardy growth. Twice he fell, the first time gashing his right hand. It slowed him mentally and physically. He had never before tried to make speed over the pathless wilderness of the tableland. He saw that in ten minutes he had covered a distance of no more than a few hundred yards. He stopped. It was one thing to be bold on the chance of making a vital gain. It was quite another to throw away his life on a reckless gamble. The defeat would not be his alone but man's.

As he stood there he grew aware of how icy cold it had become. A chilling wind from the east had sprung up. By midnight the temperature would be zero. He began to retreat. There were several defenses to rig up before night; and he had better hurry. An hour later, when the moonless darkness lay heavily over the mountain of mountains, Jamieson sat tensely before his visiplates. It was going to be a long night for a man who dared not sleep. Somewhere about the middle of it, Jamieson saw a movement at the remote perimeter of his all-wave vision plate. Finger on blaster control, he waited for the object to come into sharper focus. It never did. The cold dawn found him weary but still alertly watching for an enemy that was acting as cautiously as he himself. He began to wonder if he had actually seen anything.

Jamieson took another antisleep pill and made a more definite examination of the atomic motors. It didn't take long to verify his earlier diagnosis. The basic gravitation pile had been thoroughly frustrated. Until it could be reactivated on the
Orion,
the motors were useless. The conclusive examination braced him.

He was committed irrevocably to this deadly battle of the tableland. The idea that had been turning over in his mind during the night took on new meaning. This was the first time in his knowledge that a Rull and a human being had faced each other on a limited field of action, where neither was a prisoner. The great battles in space were ship against ship and fleet against fleet. Survivors either escaped or were picked up by overwhelming forces.

Unless he was bested before he could get organized, here was a priceless opportunity to try some tests on the Rulls—and without delay. Every moment of daylight must be utilized to the uttermost limit.

Jamieson put on his special "defensive" belts and went outside. The dawn was brightening minute by minute; and the vistas that revealed themselves with each increment of light power held him, even as he tensed his body for the fight ahead. Why, he thought, in a sharp, excited wonder, this is happening on the strangest mountain every known.

Mount Monolith stood on, a level plain and reared up precipitously to a height of eight thousand two hundred feet. The most majestic pillar in the known universe, it easily qualified as one of the hundred natural wonders of the galaxy.

He had walked the soil of planets a hundred thousand light-years from Earth, and the decks of great ships that flashed from the eternal night into the blazing brightness of suns red and suns blue, suns yellow and white and orange and violet, suns so wonderful and different that no previous imaginings could match the reality.

Yet, here he stood on a mountain on far Laertes, one man compelled by circumstances to pit his cunning against one or more of the supremely intelligent Rull enemy.

Jamieson shook himself grimly. It was time to launch his attack—and discover the opposition that could be mustered against him. That was Step One, and the important point about it was to insure that it wasn't also Step Last. By the time the Laertes sun peered palely over the horizon that was the northeast cliff's edge, the assault was under way. The automatic defensors, which he had set up the night before, moved slowly from point to point ahead of the mobile blaster. He cautiously saw to it that one of the three defensors also brought up his rear. He augmented that basic protection by crawling from one projecting rock after another. The machines, he manipulated from a tiny hand control, which was connected to the visiplates that poked out from his headgear just above his eyes. With tensed eyes, he watched the wavering needles that would indicate movement or that the defensor screens were being subjected to energy opposition.

Nothing happened. As he came within sight of the Rull craft, Jamieson halted, while he seriously pondered the problem of no resistance. He didn't like it. It was possible that all the Rulls aboard had been killed, but he doubted it.

Bleakly he studied the wreck through the telescopic eyes of one of the defensors. It lay in a shallow indentation, its nose buried in a wall of gravel. Its lower plates were collapsed versions* of the original. His single energy blast of the day before, completely automatic though it had been, had really dealt a smashing blow to the Rull ship.

The over-all effect was of lifelessness. It it were a trick then it was a very skillful one. Fortunately, there were tests he could make, not final but evidential and indicative.

The echoless height of the most unique mountain ever discovered hummed with the fire sound of the mobile blaster. The noise grew to a roar as the unit's pile warmed to its task and developed its maximum kilo-curie of activity. Under that barrage, the hull of the enemy craft trembled a little and changed color slightly, but that was all. After ten minutes, Jamieson cut the power and sat baffled and indecisive.

The defensive screens of the Rull ship were full on. Had they gone on automatically after his first shot of the evening before? Or had they been put up deliberately to nullify just such an attack as this? He couldn't be sure. That was the trouble; he had no positive knowledge.

The Rull could be lying inside dead. (Odd, how he was beginning to think in terms of one rather than several, but the degree of caution being used by the opposition—if opposition existed—matched his own, and indicated the caution of an individual moving against unknown odds.) It could be wounded and incapable of doing anything against him. It could have spent the night marking up the tableland with nerve control lines— he'd have to make sure he never looked directly at the ground— or it could simply be waiting for the arrival of the greater ship that had dropped it onto the planet.

Jamieson refused to consider that last possibility. That way was death, without qualification of hope. Frowning, he studied the visible damage he had done to the ship. All the hard metals had held together, so far as he could see, but the whole bottom of the ship was dented to a depth that varied from one to four feet. Some radiation must have got in, and the question was, what would it have damaged? He had examined dozens of captured Rull survey craft, and if this one ran to the pattern,
then in the front would be the control center, with a sealed-off blaster chamber. In the rear the engine room, two storerooms, one for fuel and equipment, the other for food and—
For food.
Jamieson jumped, and then with wide eyes noted how the food section had suffered greater damage than any other part of the ship. Surely, surely, some radiation must have got into, it, poisoning it, ruining it, and instantly putting the Rull, with his swift digestive system, into a deadly position.

Jamieson sighed with the intensity of his hope and prepared to retreat. As he turned away, quite incidentally, accidentally, he glanced at the rock behind which he had shielded himself from possible direct fire. Glanced at it and saw the lines on it. Intricate lines, based on a profound and inhuman study of human neurons. He recognized them for what they were and stiffened in horror. He thought, Where—
where
am I being directed?

That much had been discovered after his return from Mira 23, with his report of how he had been apparently, instantly, hypnotized; the lines impelled movement to somewhere. Here, on this fantastic mountain, it could only be to a cliff. But which
one?