Страница:
Mada.
Inwardly alarmed, Lada Lua went over to her husband.
"I... I must tell you everything..." continued Mada.
"What is it? Is the war beginning?"
"Mother Lua tried to stop it," said Mada in a flash of intuition. "And
she was killed. Brat..."
"Killed?" The Faetian went white in the face.
"She was murdered by that scoundrel Yar Alt But your mother, and mine,
has been avenged."
Brat Lua let his head fall onto the table with the drawings spread on
it and began sobbing. Mada held Ave by the hand, herself almost in tears.
Lada Lua rushed to the door.
"Mrak Luton is coming to invite us to a banquet," she whispered.
"He must not know anything," warned Mada.
The little world of the tiny inhabited islet in the Universe was like
the big world of the planet, rent by hostile forces.
Chapter Two
Mada's strongest sensation was one of light. It was falling in a
brilliant mosaic onto the ground through the leaves of the trees, whose
trunks resembled compactly grown roots. Above, they spread out like
transparent canopies filled with light. Each fruit up there was like a tiny
star.
A stream of foam, tumbling down from a stone ledge, was lit up by a
quivering rainbow. The smooth lake that fed the current lay tranquilly
there, crossed by a sparkling mother-of-pearl footpath.
Round the banks grew fantastic trees bearing golden apples. And the
water lured Mada from the depths with the same vivid fruits, very slightly
tinged with haze, that you could touch so easily by just reaching out your
hand.
She thought how ugly the two unwieldy, clumsy creatures seemed in such
a setting. They moved about on their hind legs, holding their bodies erect
but rolling from side to side at each step. Their sturdy bodies, with belts
high on the hips, were decorated with a spiral ornament Their upper and
lower extremities were covered with inflated bubbles and their heads were
enclosed in hard spheres with slits for the eyes.
Two enormous birds were swimming across the lake with proudly upcurved
necks; they turned their heads with their red beaks and made trustingly for
the shore.
Several light quadrupeds came out of the forest. They had the same
wondrous trees with root-branches growing on their heads, but without fruits
or foliage. The creatures began drinking the water.
A mighty beast with greenish, glittering eyes softly sprang onto the
bright patches in the shade of the canopied trees. His hide merged with the
bright mosaic. Lithe and powerful, he made his way soundlessly towards the
water, paying no attention to the horned denizens of the forest nor to the
strange newcomers.
"I'm not even frightened," said Mada through her helmet intercom.
"A virgin, unfrightened world," responded Ave.
"And there's so much light!"
"The experts on Faena thought it could kill."
"It can kill only darkness, ignorance and hatred. We have found a world
where evil and hatred do not and cannot exist."
Mada went up quite close to the watering place. A young reindeer looked
round curiously, leapt out of the water and dug its wet muzzle into Mada's
glove.
"Could you think of such a thing on Faena?" she cried.
"Alas, there's no room left for them there!"
"These are children of light. Open your visor and look. Don't be
afraid, the eye is a most self-accommodating organ. They won't believe our
stories on Faena."
"Millions of Faetians are waiting for them."
"Aren't we cheating this way? Why this envelope shutting us off from
the new world. I've opened my visor all the way!"
"Mada, my dear!" warned Ave. "That's dangerous."
"We've found a world of amazing beauty, but we haven't proved that we
can live on it."
"We must remember Dm Sat's warning."
"What is there to be afraid of? Dangerous invisible beings? But light
is the best medicine for them. I myself am a Sister of Health. Our ancestors
didn't take thought, they injected themselves with illness-creating microbes
in order to rid all Faetians of deadly diseases. It is the doctor on Terr
who should be the first to shed a space-suit! It is a duty! Besides, I want
to bathe in the lake. Will my Ave, who tamed the ocean waves on a board,
back out now? Take the tablets I gave you. They will protect you from the
unknown world of the Planet of Light. And its light will help us. Take off
your space-suit! And help me."
"Why are you tempting me, Mada?"
"So that we can be the first to do what must be done anyway. After all,
we can't go back to Faena without having tried to live here in real freedom.
And not in a shell."
So saying, Mada plucked a golden apple and held it out to Ave.
"Peel it for me, please. It has a skin as bright as Sol and as tough as
one of our space-suits."
When Quest began approaching the orbit of Terr, the members of the
expedition found the brilliant light of Sol more and more intolerable. It
became particularly searing when the ship went into orbit round the planet.
Mada established that Terr's atmosphere was strikingly like that of
Faena. Except that there was little carbon dioxide and there was no
greenhouse effect. The planet freely emitted the excess solar heat into
space. The conditions of existence on it were consequently similar to those
on Faena, as Ave Mar had once suggested.
Toni Fae, the astronomer, observed the planet with the enthusiasm of a
poet. Most of it was under water and seemed to be hatched with the lines of
the waves. The land and sea surfaces were strikingly varied in colour. But
most of all, there were clouds over Terr. Singly, they cast distinct shadows
onto the surface of the planet, and in the misty oceans here and there it
was possible to distinguish the spiral whirlwinds of hurricanes raging down
below.
But nowhere, neither on land nor on the sea coast, could they see the
patches of towns stretching out the tendrils of roads. This was what struck
everyone at the first sight of Terr from space.
"Must be a dead planet," suggested Flight Engineer Gor Terr.
"It's a live one!" exclaimed Toni Fae. "The green of the continents
means vegetation. And the others..."
"That's the whole point; you won't guess what they mean."
"Why not?" said Toni Fae animatedly. "It's easy!"
"R-really?" said Gor Terr, astonished.
"The priests in ancient times believed that every living being was
surrounded by an aura. Its colour was supposed to enable the 'psychic
vision' to recognise the most secret thoughts and feelings."
"You mean the pr-riests would have looked on Terr as a living
cr-reature?"
"Yes, so as to draw a map of it," laughed Toni Fae.
"All r-right, let's get on with it. I can see black gaps in the
mountain r-range."
"That means the Mountains of Bitterness and Hate."
"Much as on our Faena. There are dirty green valleys r-running into the
distance."
"The Valleys of Jealousy."
"And the black and gr-reen ones?"
"Base Deceit."
"Is it worth it, starting with such gr-rim names?"
"Then look at the big land areas."
"Bright gr-reen."
"The priests considered that colour to be a sign of worldly wisdom and
subtle deceit."
"Let's be indulgent to Terr and call the dry land the Continent of
Wisdom without any deceit. And here is a narrow sea with r-red lightning
flashing over it."
"The Sea of Wrath."
"It has a pink bay."
"The Bay of Love."
"And the sea coast here is r-russet brown."
"The Coast of Greed."
"Not bad for future Terrans. Will it be better with the dark blue
ocean, perhaps?"
"The Ocean of Hope."
"And its light blue bay?"
"The Bay of Justice."
"That's better already. And these fire-breathing mountains with the
r-red flames and the black smoke?"
"The Volcanoes of Passions."
As they carried on with their game, the young Faetians gradually drew
the first map of Terr with amusing names recalling the members of the
expedition.
"As for Mada's aura," continued Toni Fae, "that's a spectrum of dawn in
space."
"And what about Toni Fae himself? Hasn't he been blazing with a bright
r-red aura ever since the visit to Deimo?"
Toni looked embarrassed.
"You see," continued Gor Terr, "I interpret your aura no worse than one
of those ancient pr-riests." And he laughed knowingly.
"It's not so difficult," said Toni Fae in an attempt at self-defence.
"You can see into Ave and even into Smel Ven."
"R-really?.. Even into Smel Ven?"
"We're all blazing red," sighed Toni Fae, "only the shades are all
different."
"Then shouldn't we name the seas after lovers?" said Gor Terr,
clutching at this playful idea.
"It would be better to call Terr the Planet of Eternal Passions."
Toni Fae had been right not only about Terr, but about Smel Ven. If he
had an aura, then it must inevitably be fiery red. He was burning with love
for Mada, and the feelings she inspired would have streaked his own aura
with black and dirty-green.
Fate's darling on Faena, a celebrated astronaut, the favourite of the
Faetesses, he had not even dared to make Mada's acquaintance although he had
often admired her on the Great Shore. He had hoped that the prompt departure
into space would cure him, but.. Mada was close at hand to humiliate and
destroy him with her marriage to an insignificant half-breed whose father
had gained the Ruler's chair by nefarious means.
Like many longfaces, Smel Ven never did things by halves. Which is why
he had become a celebrated and fearless astronaut and had flown to Terr. He
had not been unpleasant or cunning as a young man, but Mada's contempt had
stirred up the hidden sides of his character. Seeing how happy Mada and Ave
were together and hating them for that reason, he brooded on plans of
revenge as cunning as they were cruel... But he had to remain beyond all
suspicion. The planet Terr itself was going to help him!
Quest, its braking engines switched on, was decelerating, without
friction in the atmosphere and without any overheating of the cabin's outer
surface. Gor Terr, the ship's designer, carried out the landing as "lift off
in reverse", in his own words. He did not apply the parachute brakes typical
of the early stages in Faetian astronavigation. The spaceship could make
landfall as slowly as it had lifted off.
Quest came down on its three landing feet, towering above the tallest
trees and listing dangerously. The automatic controls immediately
straightened it up.
The astronauts pressed their faces up against the portholes. A dense
forest of unrecognisable trees rose on either side of a river.
"This is Terr," announced Dm Sat, "that is to be the birthplace • of
our successors! In the meantime, however, we must refrain from taking off
our space-suits. We have yet to explore the unknown world of this planet."
First, they lowered the instruments through the open hatch, then
dropped the ladder, and strange figures wearing stiff space-suits began
climbing down to the ground.
The last to emerge were Smel Ven and Mada. Smel Ven helped Mada to put
on her helmet.
"Could it be that a Faetess like Mada Jupi..."
"Mada Mar," she corrected him.
"Could it be that a Faetess like Mada could agree with Dm Sat and
disgrace herself with this garb?"
"You are suggesting a brave deed that is worthy of you, Smel Ven."
"There is nothing in the world that could frighten me. But I am the
ship's pilot, and an element of return is vital to Um Sat."
Mada frowned at his pompousness.
"You consider yourself the most valuable?" Smel Ven restrained himself;
it was not in his interests to annoy Mada.
"You are a Sister of Health yourself and will feel a need to discard
that clothing as soon as you go into the new world." Mada pulled down her
visor.
The sunset on Terr was spreading over the river.
In space, the astronauts had become familiar with Sol and his furious,
raging brilliance. But here, in the evening of their first day on Terr, it
was possible to stare with the naked eye at the reddish, flattened Sol,
shorn of his space corona. Elongated clouds were beginning to gather near
its oval disc. Two of them, coming from different directions, joined up and
divided Sol into two. And then a miracle happened. Instead of one, two
heavenly bodies hung over the horizon one after the other, each of them
purple in colour.
Mada could not take her eyes off this spectacle as she watched the two
bodies change in size: the lower one touched the sea of forest, the upper
one became thinner and thinner, dwindling to a mere segment of a disc and
finally disappearing altogether. The lower part of Sol also vanished behind
a big cloud. Now the whole sky flickered with fire. And, as if in a crimson
ocean spreading above the clouds, there hung lilac waves, and very high up,
illumined by the sinking Sol, there floated a solitary white island, its
red-hot edges blazing.
The sunset glow was gradually dying away, but the little cloud burned
on without going out. Then, as if all of a sudden, darkness came down on
Terr. Night had fallen, just as on Faena. And even the stars were the same.
Except that Terr did not have at that time a magnificent nocturnal
luminary like Faena's satellite, Lua, which gave such beauty to the Faetian
night and which had appeared near Terr a million years later. The planet
Ven, however, was particularly brilliant here. Toni Fae pointed out to Mada
the evening star that had begun shining on the horizon like a spark in the
flames of dawn. It was still the brightest object in the night sky.
The astronauts continued admiring the sky of Terr for quite some time.
Strange nocturnal sounds came from the forest.
Urn Sat suggested spending the night in the rocket.
Mada went back inside reluctantly, although she could take off her
heavy space-suit in there.
She could not shake off the unpleasant impression made by Smel Ven's
remarks.
Next morning, the Faetians went for a stroll through the forest in
pairs. They were to assemble by the rocket at a prearranged time.
Long shadows lay on the ground. According to the instruments, it had
turned cooler. They were about to see Sol set on Terr for the second time.
Ave and Mada were late. Urn Sat was alarmed. Toni Fae painstakingly
kept calling the missing pair. Mada and Ave did not reply, as if
electromagnetic communications had broken down.
Gor Terr sent up two signal rockets in succession. They soared up into
the colourful evening sky, leaving curly trains of smoke behind them. The
red and yellow curves floated across the heavens for a long time.
"From red to yellow," quipped Toni Fae. "From love to wisdom. A
hopeless call."
Gor Terr shook the inflated sleeve of his space-suit at him.
Smel Ven kept apart as if nothing had happened. His helmet concealed
tightened lips and downcast eyes.
His hopes were finally fulfilled. Mada ran out of the forest in her
skin-tight, wet undergarment. She had taken off her space-suit!
Smel Ven trembled and raised his visor.
This was the Mada whom the sculptors had tried to catch sight of on the
Great Shore and whom Smel Ven himself had admired. Head flung back on the
slender neck, dark blue, ecstatic eyes. She was holding a golden apple in
each hand.
"Ave and I are now the first inhabitants of Terr. It'll go down in the
planet's history!"
Ave followed behind her, also without his space-suit. They had
evidently been enjoying a swim. He was also carrying two golden fruits.
"Maybe we are at fault," he said in response to the reproach in Dm
Sat's eyes, "but it's now been proved that Faetians can live on Terr. The
planet will feed them. The labours of the colonists will be generously
rewarded. This means an end to overpopulation on Faena!"
Dm Sat merely gave Ave a look; the other bowed his head in
embarrassment.
"We simply carried out an experiment. Someone had to, otherwise there
would have been no point in flying here."
Smel Ven waited for many days, but in vain. Ave and Mada, Terr's first
inhabitants, enjoyed all the benefits of the paradise they had found and did
not succumb to any form of illness.
After a sufficient period of time had elapsed. Dm Sat permitted the
other Faetians to take off their space-suits.
They took this alien world of nature at once: the air, filled with
strange perfumes, the bright light, unknown on Faena, and the unfamiliar
sounds coming from the forest. Something would be walking about in there,
hiding, leaping from branch to branch, shrieking, bellowing. Then, suddenly,
all the noises would die down and from the depths of the forest Silence
itself would seem to be watching the uninvited guests.
Chapter Three
Dm Sat was regarding his companions with a kind of strange sadness,
trying not to go near them. He made a sign to Smel Ven and climbed up into
the rocket. The First Pilot of Quest found the scientist already lying on
the couch in the common cabin. His cheeks were hollow and the pouches under
his eyes were even more pronounced.
Smel Ven stopped a short distance away. His narrow face with the big
bald patches on his head looked even longer because of the straggly little
goatee beard.
"I feel a great weakness," said the Elder. "I have no headache or rash.
It might pass off. Let the Sister of Health stay with me; the rest can carry
on with their work. However, I still consider it my duty to hand over the
leadership of the expedition to you, as the ship's commander."
"So be it," declared Smel Ven solemnly, drawing himself up as if on
parade. "I assume all the authority! Henceforth, I shall be in charge of
everything. And I order you, my aged friend, to lie down. You know where the
provisions are. I forbid all subordinates to come near the rocket."
"Even the Sister of Health?" asked Um Sat quietly.
"Even her," snapped Smel Ven. "She will be useful to the others if they
fall ill as well."
Um Sat laughed weakly but said nothing.
"I am leaving now," Smel Ven hastened to say.
"I am replacing you," said the old man after him, but the hatch had
already slammed shut.
Um Sat wearily closed his eyes. When would he stop making mistakes? Why
ever did they think him wise?
Smel Ven assembled all the astronauts.
"Um Sat has ordered me to inform you that the camp is being transferred
from the rocket into the forest. As it will be hard for the old man to spend
the night there, he has delegated the leadership of the camp to me as his
deputy."
"But the forest's dangerous at night," commented Toni Fae.
Smel Ven looked at him contemptuously.
"I don't know who is more graced with cowardice: the astronomer or the
poet."
Toni Fae flushed. Gor Terr interceded on his behalf.
"Caution is useful, even in a leader."
"What risk can there be," said Smel Ven aggressively, "if we've come to
a world of love and harmony?" And he turned to Mada and Ave.
"Who's threatening us?" said Mada, backing him up.
Ave nodded silently.
The explorers collected up everything they needed, armed themselves at
Gor Terr's insistence with pistols, though loaded only with stun bullets
harmless to animal life, and set off into the forest.
Mada urgently wanted to see Um Sat, but Smel Ven refused to let her; he
was anxious to get into the forest before darkness fell.
They pitched camp on the shore of the lake from which the stream fell
into the chasm. White birds with curved necks were swimming on rippling
water that was tinged with mother-of-pearl.
"Why do they have such long necks?" asked Toni Fae.
"To fetch up underwater weeds," replied Mada.
"A very peaceful occupation," commented Gor Terr.
The evening glow was already flickering in the sky when Smel Ven sent
Mada and Ave to survey the other shore of the lake. They had to make their
way across the stream, jumping from rock to rock.
They walked on, occasionally stooping under low branches, dressed in
their clinging black suits and delightedly looking about them. Suddenly,
they both stopped in their tracks.
A reindeer, its antlered head flung back, raced past in front of them.
A powerful beast with a spotted hide was following it in great soft bounds.
It overtook the reindeer and pounced on its neck. The victim, its artery
bitten through, made a last desperate bound and collapsed under a tree.
There was a bellowing sound. The beast was tearing its prey to pieces.
Ave snatched at his pistol to reload it with poisoned bullets.
"We daren't take lives here," intervened Mada. "We mustn't bring
Faena's morals with us."
"I'm afraid they already exist here."
"But why?"
"The laws of life's development on the planets are exactly the same."
"But what about the watering place?" protested Mada weakly. "None of
them attacked any of the others there."
"A beast of prey can't just slaughter animals. It lets them live,
drink, propagate and grow. Otherwise it won't have anything to eat. It's
like a forest animal-breeder: by catching the weakest when out hunting, it
improves the selection of the herd."
Mada made no objection. She walked along at Ave's side, dejected,
conscious of his hand on her shoulder. But suddenly he snatched it away and
slapped his forehead. Mada involuntarily did the same. Then she stared in
bewilderment at her fingers, which were stained with blood. It had become
dark in the forest and there was a buzzing noise everywhere. Tiny flying
creatures swooped on the Faetians and began stinging them. Ave and Mada had
to pluck branches and beat the flies off.
They found Smel Ven alone in the camp. He was frantically slapping his
cheeks and neck.
"Filthy creatures!" he swore. "We'd be better off in our space-suits."
"I was terribly wrong," began Mada at once. "Ave and I have just seen
murder in the forest. Murder is committed here as on Faena! We must move the
camp back to the rocket as soon as possible, to open ground where there
aren't any insects or beasts of prey."
"We're not going back to the rocket," snapped Smel Ven. "There's a far
more terrible death in store for us there-the one that was lying in wait for
Dm Sat."
"What d'you mean?" Mada was outraged. "And you. Dm Saf's deputy,
wouldn't allow me, as a doctor, to be with him?"
"Such was his will. It's not just filthy flying creatures or spotted
predators, but the hidden microworld that's bared its teeth at us."
"I'm going to Um Sat!" declared Mada.
"With me," added Ave.
"Only cowards who've found a pretext escape by running away!" shouted
Smel Ven after them, forgetting his own false warning.
Mada ran ahead. Ave could hardly see her outline in the swiftly
approaching darkness. Suddenly, his heart contracted with pain. It seemed to
him that Mada had been stopped by a gigantic round-shouldered creature with
long, dangling arms. He drew his pistol, which he still hadn't loaded with
live ammunition, but noticed that Mada was not in the least afraid. Ave
gasped with relief. That showed how badly his nerves had been set on edge by
the forest episode! He hadn't recognised Gor Terr. And now the puny Toni Fae
also turned up.
Ave put his pistol away and only then did he see at least five figures
like Gor Terr with him. The Faetoids knocked Toni Fae and the frantically
resisting Mada off their feet. The whole gang of them charged at Gor Terr.
Ave dashed towards Gor Terr, but couldn't tell him from among the
similar round-shouldered, shaggy beasts. They sorted themselves out and all
five of them hurled themselves on Ave.
He hadn't time to draw his pistol. He merely shook off the assailants
clinging to him. They were bigger than Ave, but had no idea how to fight.
Using his fists and his feet, Ave scattered the beasts as they fell on him.
Two of them writhed under a tree, the others flung themselves at Ave again.
Throwing over his shoulder one who stank of sweat and mud, he glimpsed Gor
Terr dealing with his opponents. Several shaggy carcasses were squirming at
his feet. But still more of the enemy were tumbling down onto his shoulders
from the trees. Ave tried to shout that he should run to open ground, but a
shaggy paw clamped itself over his face. Ave twisted the paw till the bones
cracked.
Mada was nowhere to be seen. Nor was Toni Fae. Only Gor Terr and Ave
Mar continued the unequal struggle.
"Hold out, Ave!" shouted Gor Terr. "These are all of one local family!"
Ave flung aside the first assailants, but at least a dozen fresh ones
leapt on him. Four taloned paws fastened on to each of his hands and feet.
The young Faetian summoned up all his strength, heaved and crashed to
the ground, crushing his enemies underneath him. More shaggy beasts leapt
onto the pile of weltering bodies. He felt as if he had been buried in a
mine shaft: he could neither move nor breathe.
On seeing Ave's predicament, Gor Terr rushed to help him. But it would
have probably been easier to fell with one shoulder the wide-spreading tree
under which the scrum had taken place than to come to Ave's assistance. Then
Gor Terr made a sudden leap and grabbed hold of a low branch. Two or three
of the Faetoids, no shorter in stature than he was himself, hung onto his
legs. The bough bent, threatening to crack. With an incredible burst of
strength, Gor Terr hoisted himself up onto the bough with all the animals
clinging to him. They dived head-downwards off it, howling frantically. Two
more seemed to be waiting above Gor Terr, but were thrown down.
With an agility denied to his shaggy opponents, Gor Terr literally
soared up to the topmost branches of the tree.
Despairing shrieks and roars came from below.
Gor Terr jumped down from the topmost branch and, it seemed, ought to
have crashed into the paws of the beasts galloping in a frenzy round it, but
by some miracle he seized hold of a branch on a neighbouring tree and ran
lightly along it, although it bent under his considerable weight.
A way had been found, the only escape from the bellowing herd below.
Gor Terr couldn't understand why none of the fanged beasts had bitten
him. There was no time to think about it, and he continued running along the
upper branches. He might well have been envied by his remote ancestors, who
had come down from the trees of Faena once upon a time.
His pursuers, however, were running along below every bit as fast as he
was himself.
At this point, Gor Terr saw something like a Faetian liana. It hung
down from a distant, very high tree and was caught on one of the branches
near him. Gor Terr seized hold of the living cable and flew downwards. He
had a glimpse of the infuriated herd. Gathering speed like a swinging
pendulum, he sailed over his pursuers' heads and managed to kick the biggest
of them. He was followed by a despairing wail.
Gor Terr caught sight of a waterfall below him. The liana carried him
across to the other bank. He clutched at a branch, jumped down to the ground
and started running.
The shouts of pursuit died down far behind him. The Faetoids were
evidently afraid of water and could not cross to the other side of the river
after him.
Gor Terr slowed down and breathed heavily, inflating his chest, and
only then did he discover that in his confusion he had forgotten to bring
his pistol from the camp, although he had been the one to insist that
everybody should be armed.
He was overcome with horror. There was no one left now, except himself.
He must hurry back to the rocket, but his news of what had happened to all
the Faetians would be the death of Urn Sat.
He had no alternative, however. He decided to wait until dawn,
believing that the Faetoids were nocturnal and feared the daylight.
He climbed a tree and settled himself on the topmost branch.
As he pictured his friends torn to pieces, he wept with grief and
helplessness. The tears stuck in his beard, which was as matted as the hair
of a Faetoid. At times, his reason was clouded with frenzy. Suddenly, in the
pale glimmer of dawn, he saw one of the abominable creatures slowly coming
along under the tree.
Round-shouldered, almost the same height, it was rolling from side to
side at every step. Its back was covered with wool. The beast turned round,
and Gor Terr realised that it was a female Faetoid. She was walking erect,
and her forepaws dangled down to her knees. From time to time, she stooped
to pluck a plant or grub up a root.
Gor Terr shook with fury, making ready to pounce on the beast and deal
with her.
At that moment, something flashed past below and the Faetoid fell to
the ground. She was being suffocated by the spotted animal that Mada had
told him about.
Himself not knowing why, Gor Terr jumped down on the predator. The
animal roared, trying to struggle free of the weight that had landed on its
back. But Gor Terr jumped off and gripped it by the hind legs. The human
giant pulled the beast towards him, raised it into the air on his
outstretched hands and dashed its head against a tree-trunk, then flung the
inert body to one side.
The Faetoid rose to her feet and stared at Gor Terr with curiosity
rather than in fear. He even took offence.
"Am I really so like her fellow-creatures that I didn't even frighten
her?"
She approached him trustingly and said, "Dzin!"
Yes, that was what she said! These animals could pronounce articulate
words. If they were not wholly rational, then in a million or more cycles
they could become like the rational Faetians.
"Gor," said the Faetian, pointing at his naked, hairy chest. His shirt
had been ripped down to the waist.
"Dzin," repeated the Faetoid, and she pointed at herself. It would be
hard to say what thought process was taking place in the low-browed, sloping
skull. However, she too was capable of the gratitude innate in many Faetian
animals.
Dzin had obviously been overtaken by some kind of thought. She clutched
Gor Terr by the hand and pulled him along, gibbering incoherently.
Was she taking him to her lair, acknowledging him not only as her
saviour, but as her master?
Gor Terr frowned. He wanted to shoo her away and even raised his hand.
But she waited for the blow so meekly that he thought better of hitting her.
It occurred to him that she might lead him to the dwelling of her
fellow-creatures. What if his friends were still alive? Could he miss a
chance of going to their assistance? He pushed her forward and went after
her.
Dzin was overjoyed and ran off, looking round at Gor Terr. Both moved
fast and soon crossed the same stream. She knew where a tree lay across it.
Dzin was afraid of water.
Then they walked through the Faetian camp on the shore of the lake. Gor
Terr could see the traces of a violent struggle. Bags and scientific
instruments lay scattered all round, but the victims of the struggle were
nowhere to be seen. Smel Ven had evidently not been able to use his weapon
and had been seized by the beasts.
Dzin looked at Gor Terr, but he prodded her firmly in the back. That
was evidently the kind of treatment she understood best. She looked round,
bared her fangs in the semblance of a grin and joyfully ran on ahead.
Soon she stopped and made a warning sign, if the movement of her paw
meant anything at all.
Gor Terr looked cautiously out from behind a tree growing on the edge
of a gully. On the opposite side he could see caves, and down below swarmed
a herd of shaggy beasts. He could hear them growling, bellowing and
shrieking.
Gor Terr saw Smel Ven among the Faetoid predators. He was standing
proudly in their midst, with many of them clutching him. For some reason,
they had not yet killed him.
At this point, Gor Terr realised that these creatures could not tie
people up, they could only hold the prisoner with their forepaws while
standing on their hind legs. But what if they didn't slaughter their victim
before devouring him? What if they didn't like dead flesh?
The Faetoids began roaring down below. Smel Ven was hurled to the
ground and the shaggy bodies piled on top of him, tearing him to pieces.
It was too much for Gor Terr. He felt sick.
But Smel Ven never uttered a groan or a cry. Gor Terr had never thought
it possible to have such superhuman fortitude. He felt ashamed of his own
weakness. He was almost about to jump down, but saw Mada, Ave and Toni Fae
on the opposite cliff. They had evidently not been slaughtered so that they
could be eaten alive. All of them, like Smel Ven, were unbound. But four
beasts were holding each by the hands and feet. The Faetians couldn't move
an inch.
Gor Terr turned to Dzin. She sprang back and lay on the ground,
pretending to have fallen asleep. Then she jumped up, waved her paw towards
the beasts who were devouring their victim and again threw herself down on
the ground.
The engineer understood. Dzin was trying to explain that they would go
to sleep as soon as they had gorged themselves.
Dzin was right. She knew her fellow-creatures well.
They soon lay down in a heap and began snoring.
Only the sentries stayed in their places, pretending to be awake, but
actually nodding their shaggy heads.
Gor Terr was not very hopeful of success. Still, he crawled to one side
and silently moved across the gully. When he had crawled up to the cave in
which the prisoners were lying, he jumped to his feet at the entrance.
Ave Mar was lying nearest to him with a useless pistol at his side.
Before the flesh-glutted sentries could make a move, Gor Terr proceeded
to dispatch them by methods ordered by Yar Jupi in schools for the
Superiors. He struck with precision in the morning light. The sensitive
spots of the Faetoids were almost the same as those of the Faetians. The
shaggy beasts rolled over without a sound. Gor Terr snatched up Ave Mar's
pistol and fired point-blank at the fourth Faetoid who was still gripping
Ave by the hand. It was a stun bullet; the creature fell in convulsions and
lay still.
The crash of the explosion terrified the other guards. They let Mada
and Toni Fae go free. Mada seized her chance and hit one of them so deftly
that he rolled down over the rocks.
Toni Fae had barely recovered his breath when Ave and Gor Terr hurled
themselves on the dumbfounded guards.
Gor Terr fired a few more shots. Ave was throwing the feebly resisting
beasts down to the bottom of the gully. Indescribable panic broke out down
there.
The beasts had no idea of how to put up a fight. They had seized their
victims with the sole purpose of eating them. After devouring the first,
they had slept peacefully without even mounting a guard. And now-deafening
claps of thunder, of which they had always gone in terror. Moreover, the
corpses of their fellow-creatures were raining down on them as if from the
sky.
The herd scattered, shrieking and abandoning the dead and maimed on the
bottom of the gully.
Mada threw herself on Ave Mar's breast and sobbed her heart out.
Toni Fae offered his hand to his friend and saviour.
In the corner of his eye, Ave noticed one more Faetoid at the cave
entrance who was evidently intending to attack Gor Terr from behind.
He promptly sprang to the rescue, but Gor Terr's huge arm held him
back.
"This is Dzin, a female. She helped me to r-rescue you."
Mada stared in amazement at the shaggy creature, who was not hiding her
delight at Gor Terr's strength and fearlessness.
Chapter Four
When Quest lifted off for space, the body of Kutsi Merc was lying in an
underground corridor. But the pool of blood under him did not dry up, as if
the stiletto-pierced heart was still bleeding. Suddenly, Kutsi Merc's hand
twitched, fell on the wound and stanched it. The blood coagulated and
stopped flowing.
It was a long time before Kutsi Merc moved again. Not one of many
millions of Faetians could have survived his condition; not a single one
except Kutsi Merc himself.
Kutsi Merc came from a roundhead family who had fled the continent of
the Superiors after the Uprising of Justice was defeated. Yar Jupi was only
beginning the Blood Bath there. Kutsi was still a small boy without a name
of his own. Kutsi's father, Khrom Merc, suspected of being sympathetic to
the Doctrine of Justice, was earmarked for elimination by the Blood Guard.
The Mercs were poor and could not afford to escape by ship. The three of
them made an incredible journey on a raft knocked together by Khrom Merc.
After harrowing days at sea, enduring storms that swept away their meagre
provisions and a lull that brought an intolerable thirst, they avoided
pursuit (none of the Blood Guard ever thought of looking for a raft in the
ocean!) until finally, emaciated and at the end of their tether, they
reached the coast of Danjab. But no one there had prepared a warm welcome
for the refugees. They could not even find work in the fields and workshops
of the proprietors, who were indifferent to anything that did not promise
gain.
Reduced to desperation by poverty, Khrom Merc steeled himself for what
he would have formerly rejected with disgust: he decided to make money out
of his deformed little son.
Kutsi had two hearts. This "deformity" is exceedingly rare. On the
continent of the Superiors, the parents had kept quiet about their son's
abnormality, afraid that he might be pronounced unfit and destroyed.
But here, on the continent of the Culturals, anything that could arouse
even morbid curiosity could be a source of profit.
They began exhibiting the little boy at show-booths. Crowds of the
curious came rolling in. And each spectator felt himself entitled to feel
the naked, terrified "monster". He was roughly turned round, cold tubes were
applied to his chest and back, or ears were pressed to his skin in a
repulsive manner. He was made to squat, dance to general guffaws and shouts,
then again he was examined and auscultated. The rubbernecks shook their
heads in bewilderment, marvelled and went away to tell, exaggerating wildly,
about the weird monster they had seen with their own eyes.
The enterprising Khrom Merc managed to earn so much that he became the
owner, first of a small workshop, then of big ones in which thousands of
Faetians were employed by him.
Kutsi Merc grew up, remembering with shame and revulsion the days when
his deformity had been "put on show". However, not only his father profited
by it. Soon, it transpired that the little boy was becoming uncommonly
strong and tough. By tacit agreement between the son and his parents, his
two hearts now became a family secret so as not to attract a wearisome
curiosity about the boy in school. When he was given a new name on his
coming-of-age (he was called Khrom-Merc Junior), he was named Kutsi (Shorty)
because of his ungainly shape as a result of his having a double heart.
Kutsi soon grasped that he could make a virtue of his deformity. During
the humiliating career of the "show-booth freak", Kutsi Merc developed the
traits of character that were to decide his profession.
Unsociable, cunning, venomous, hating the Superiors across the ocean,
he possessed rare strength and stamina. He caught the attention of the
Special Service. He was found suitable for intelligence work. His
irreproachable knowledge of barbarian mores and the barbarian language
enabled him to carry out many dangerous transoceanic assignments (but not on
a raft any more).
Making his way up the secret ladder, intelligent and self-effacing,
rational and decisive, the son of a proprietor and in no way sympathetic to
the Doctrine of Justice, he came to enjoy a position of trust among the big
proprietors who were selecting convenient rulers for themselves.
Dobr Mar's predecessor had been so afraid of a disintegration war that
he had been ready to give way to Dictator Yar Jupi, and so he had become
useless to the proprietors. Kutsi Merc was able at that time to warn "the
Ruler's friend", Dobr Mar, on what terms he could himself become Ruler, by
being the first to start a disintegration war. That was the only way the
proprietors, who were members of the Great Circle, thought of dealing with
the proprietors of the Blood Council.
On becoming Ruler, Dobr Mar manoeuvred skilfully on the brink of war.
When his re-election fell due and he had to take the prescribed step, he
sent Kutsi on a diversionary escapade, even risking his own son's life in
his personal interests. Kutsi Merc was such an eminent spy that he could
have refused the mission. But ever since childhood he had had his own score
to settle with the Superiors. He could forgive them neither the Blood Bath,
nor the misfortunes of his own family, nor the oppression of the roundheads.
That is why Kutsi Merc became a "hunchback", carrying on his back a
disintegration charge to destroy the Dictator's Lair together with all the
technology delivered by the short-sighted proprietors of Dan jab.
Kutsi Merc had taken a dangerous risk and had lost, struck down by Yar
Alt's stiletto.
But it could never have entered Yar Alt's mind, when he tugged the
stiletto out of Kutsi's heart, that the hunchback had a second heart.
Kutsi took a long, long time to regain consciousness. The second heart
continued beating. Only an organism as unusual as his could win. But he was
too weak owing to the enormous loss of blood.
When he came round and realised what had happened, he first of all took
off his "hump" and examined it. It had been punctured in several places. The
delayed-action fuse had been rendered useless. He threw the "hump" aside.
He was spurred on by a ravenous hunger. He must get out of this place
somehow, although it seemed impossible. Kutsi, however, was not one to give
up, even when the situation was hopeless.
Overcoming his pain and stomach spasms, he crawled over the stone
floor, convinced that the Wall would bar his way. He could not believe the
evidence of his own eyes when he saw a gap in it. After the battle of the
brain biocurrents, when Yar Alt had mentally been trying to open the door
and Lua to close it, no one had ordered the automatic system to close up the
Wall. Also still open were the next two barriers through which Yar Alt had
hurried and through which the dying Mother Lua had managed to crawl on her
hands and knees.
At the familiar turn in the palace gardens, which Kutsi was hoping to
reach, his way was barred by a high wall. He crawled off along Lua's bloody
trail. He would crawl a little way, stop out of exhaustion and then carry on
further. And still Kutsi Merc was alive!
During the few hours that had elapsed, the spaceship Quest had lifted
off from Cape Farewell. Yar Jupi himself had gone down into the deep
underground bunker to begin the disintegration war on which he had finally
decided.
The palace was empty. After switching off the energy that fed the
palace's automatic systems, the security robots carried a heavy box with
slits on it down into the shelter.
And now the Wall in front of Kutsi Merc trembled slightly. He managed
to insert his fingers into the gap and, to his great surprise, was able to
assure himself that the Wall was yielding to his pressure. Finally, it
parted enough for him to crawl through.
Then, without understanding how, he got to his feet and leaned back
against the Wall. It trembled again and moved. Kutsi Merc fell down. (The
power supply had been switched on again.)
Kutsi lay there gritting his teeth and trying to understand what had
happened. He suddenly realised that the disintegration war was beginning and
that he had failed to prevent it nevertheless.
He forced himself to rise to his feet. Everything went dark. He screwed
up his eyes and stood swaying slightly, then supported himself by holding
onto the priceless wood panelling on the walls. It finally led him out into
the garden, fragrant with the Dictator's celebrated flowerbeds. Kutsi felt
very much like lying down and dying. He had even stopped thinking about
food.
He decided that the disintegration war had evidently not yet broken
out. He couldn't hear any explosions, which meant that he must go on living!
He did not allow himself to remain lying on the sand in the avenue, but
Inwardly alarmed, Lada Lua went over to her husband.
"I... I must tell you everything..." continued Mada.
"What is it? Is the war beginning?"
"Mother Lua tried to stop it," said Mada in a flash of intuition. "And
she was killed. Brat..."
"Killed?" The Faetian went white in the face.
"She was murdered by that scoundrel Yar Alt But your mother, and mine,
has been avenged."
Brat Lua let his head fall onto the table with the drawings spread on
it and began sobbing. Mada held Ave by the hand, herself almost in tears.
Lada Lua rushed to the door.
"Mrak Luton is coming to invite us to a banquet," she whispered.
"He must not know anything," warned Mada.
The little world of the tiny inhabited islet in the Universe was like
the big world of the planet, rent by hostile forces.
Chapter Two
Mada's strongest sensation was one of light. It was falling in a
brilliant mosaic onto the ground through the leaves of the trees, whose
trunks resembled compactly grown roots. Above, they spread out like
transparent canopies filled with light. Each fruit up there was like a tiny
star.
A stream of foam, tumbling down from a stone ledge, was lit up by a
quivering rainbow. The smooth lake that fed the current lay tranquilly
there, crossed by a sparkling mother-of-pearl footpath.
Round the banks grew fantastic trees bearing golden apples. And the
water lured Mada from the depths with the same vivid fruits, very slightly
tinged with haze, that you could touch so easily by just reaching out your
hand.
She thought how ugly the two unwieldy, clumsy creatures seemed in such
a setting. They moved about on their hind legs, holding their bodies erect
but rolling from side to side at each step. Their sturdy bodies, with belts
high on the hips, were decorated with a spiral ornament Their upper and
lower extremities were covered with inflated bubbles and their heads were
enclosed in hard spheres with slits for the eyes.
Two enormous birds were swimming across the lake with proudly upcurved
necks; they turned their heads with their red beaks and made trustingly for
the shore.
Several light quadrupeds came out of the forest. They had the same
wondrous trees with root-branches growing on their heads, but without fruits
or foliage. The creatures began drinking the water.
A mighty beast with greenish, glittering eyes softly sprang onto the
bright patches in the shade of the canopied trees. His hide merged with the
bright mosaic. Lithe and powerful, he made his way soundlessly towards the
water, paying no attention to the horned denizens of the forest nor to the
strange newcomers.
"I'm not even frightened," said Mada through her helmet intercom.
"A virgin, unfrightened world," responded Ave.
"And there's so much light!"
"The experts on Faena thought it could kill."
"It can kill only darkness, ignorance and hatred. We have found a world
where evil and hatred do not and cannot exist."
Mada went up quite close to the watering place. A young reindeer looked
round curiously, leapt out of the water and dug its wet muzzle into Mada's
glove.
"Could you think of such a thing on Faena?" she cried.
"Alas, there's no room left for them there!"
"These are children of light. Open your visor and look. Don't be
afraid, the eye is a most self-accommodating organ. They won't believe our
stories on Faena."
"Millions of Faetians are waiting for them."
"Aren't we cheating this way? Why this envelope shutting us off from
the new world. I've opened my visor all the way!"
"Mada, my dear!" warned Ave. "That's dangerous."
"We've found a world of amazing beauty, but we haven't proved that we
can live on it."
"We must remember Dm Sat's warning."
"What is there to be afraid of? Dangerous invisible beings? But light
is the best medicine for them. I myself am a Sister of Health. Our ancestors
didn't take thought, they injected themselves with illness-creating microbes
in order to rid all Faetians of deadly diseases. It is the doctor on Terr
who should be the first to shed a space-suit! It is a duty! Besides, I want
to bathe in the lake. Will my Ave, who tamed the ocean waves on a board,
back out now? Take the tablets I gave you. They will protect you from the
unknown world of the Planet of Light. And its light will help us. Take off
your space-suit! And help me."
"Why are you tempting me, Mada?"
"So that we can be the first to do what must be done anyway. After all,
we can't go back to Faena without having tried to live here in real freedom.
And not in a shell."
So saying, Mada plucked a golden apple and held it out to Ave.
"Peel it for me, please. It has a skin as bright as Sol and as tough as
one of our space-suits."
When Quest began approaching the orbit of Terr, the members of the
expedition found the brilliant light of Sol more and more intolerable. It
became particularly searing when the ship went into orbit round the planet.
Mada established that Terr's atmosphere was strikingly like that of
Faena. Except that there was little carbon dioxide and there was no
greenhouse effect. The planet freely emitted the excess solar heat into
space. The conditions of existence on it were consequently similar to those
on Faena, as Ave Mar had once suggested.
Toni Fae, the astronomer, observed the planet with the enthusiasm of a
poet. Most of it was under water and seemed to be hatched with the lines of
the waves. The land and sea surfaces were strikingly varied in colour. But
most of all, there were clouds over Terr. Singly, they cast distinct shadows
onto the surface of the planet, and in the misty oceans here and there it
was possible to distinguish the spiral whirlwinds of hurricanes raging down
below.
But nowhere, neither on land nor on the sea coast, could they see the
patches of towns stretching out the tendrils of roads. This was what struck
everyone at the first sight of Terr from space.
"Must be a dead planet," suggested Flight Engineer Gor Terr.
"It's a live one!" exclaimed Toni Fae. "The green of the continents
means vegetation. And the others..."
"That's the whole point; you won't guess what they mean."
"Why not?" said Toni Fae animatedly. "It's easy!"
"R-really?" said Gor Terr, astonished.
"The priests in ancient times believed that every living being was
surrounded by an aura. Its colour was supposed to enable the 'psychic
vision' to recognise the most secret thoughts and feelings."
"You mean the pr-riests would have looked on Terr as a living
cr-reature?"
"Yes, so as to draw a map of it," laughed Toni Fae.
"All r-right, let's get on with it. I can see black gaps in the
mountain r-range."
"That means the Mountains of Bitterness and Hate."
"Much as on our Faena. There are dirty green valleys r-running into the
distance."
"The Valleys of Jealousy."
"And the black and gr-reen ones?"
"Base Deceit."
"Is it worth it, starting with such gr-rim names?"
"Then look at the big land areas."
"Bright gr-reen."
"The priests considered that colour to be a sign of worldly wisdom and
subtle deceit."
"Let's be indulgent to Terr and call the dry land the Continent of
Wisdom without any deceit. And here is a narrow sea with r-red lightning
flashing over it."
"The Sea of Wrath."
"It has a pink bay."
"The Bay of Love."
"And the sea coast here is r-russet brown."
"The Coast of Greed."
"Not bad for future Terrans. Will it be better with the dark blue
ocean, perhaps?"
"The Ocean of Hope."
"And its light blue bay?"
"The Bay of Justice."
"That's better already. And these fire-breathing mountains with the
r-red flames and the black smoke?"
"The Volcanoes of Passions."
As they carried on with their game, the young Faetians gradually drew
the first map of Terr with amusing names recalling the members of the
expedition.
"As for Mada's aura," continued Toni Fae, "that's a spectrum of dawn in
space."
"And what about Toni Fae himself? Hasn't he been blazing with a bright
r-red aura ever since the visit to Deimo?"
Toni looked embarrassed.
"You see," continued Gor Terr, "I interpret your aura no worse than one
of those ancient pr-riests." And he laughed knowingly.
"It's not so difficult," said Toni Fae in an attempt at self-defence.
"You can see into Ave and even into Smel Ven."
"R-really?.. Even into Smel Ven?"
"We're all blazing red," sighed Toni Fae, "only the shades are all
different."
"Then shouldn't we name the seas after lovers?" said Gor Terr,
clutching at this playful idea.
"It would be better to call Terr the Planet of Eternal Passions."
Toni Fae had been right not only about Terr, but about Smel Ven. If he
had an aura, then it must inevitably be fiery red. He was burning with love
for Mada, and the feelings she inspired would have streaked his own aura
with black and dirty-green.
Fate's darling on Faena, a celebrated astronaut, the favourite of the
Faetesses, he had not even dared to make Mada's acquaintance although he had
often admired her on the Great Shore. He had hoped that the prompt departure
into space would cure him, but.. Mada was close at hand to humiliate and
destroy him with her marriage to an insignificant half-breed whose father
had gained the Ruler's chair by nefarious means.
Like many longfaces, Smel Ven never did things by halves. Which is why
he had become a celebrated and fearless astronaut and had flown to Terr. He
had not been unpleasant or cunning as a young man, but Mada's contempt had
stirred up the hidden sides of his character. Seeing how happy Mada and Ave
were together and hating them for that reason, he brooded on plans of
revenge as cunning as they were cruel... But he had to remain beyond all
suspicion. The planet Terr itself was going to help him!
Quest, its braking engines switched on, was decelerating, without
friction in the atmosphere and without any overheating of the cabin's outer
surface. Gor Terr, the ship's designer, carried out the landing as "lift off
in reverse", in his own words. He did not apply the parachute brakes typical
of the early stages in Faetian astronavigation. The spaceship could make
landfall as slowly as it had lifted off.
Quest came down on its three landing feet, towering above the tallest
trees and listing dangerously. The automatic controls immediately
straightened it up.
The astronauts pressed their faces up against the portholes. A dense
forest of unrecognisable trees rose on either side of a river.
"This is Terr," announced Dm Sat, "that is to be the birthplace • of
our successors! In the meantime, however, we must refrain from taking off
our space-suits. We have yet to explore the unknown world of this planet."
First, they lowered the instruments through the open hatch, then
dropped the ladder, and strange figures wearing stiff space-suits began
climbing down to the ground.
The last to emerge were Smel Ven and Mada. Smel Ven helped Mada to put
on her helmet.
"Could it be that a Faetess like Mada Jupi..."
"Mada Mar," she corrected him.
"Could it be that a Faetess like Mada could agree with Dm Sat and
disgrace herself with this garb?"
"You are suggesting a brave deed that is worthy of you, Smel Ven."
"There is nothing in the world that could frighten me. But I am the
ship's pilot, and an element of return is vital to Um Sat."
Mada frowned at his pompousness.
"You consider yourself the most valuable?" Smel Ven restrained himself;
it was not in his interests to annoy Mada.
"You are a Sister of Health yourself and will feel a need to discard
that clothing as soon as you go into the new world." Mada pulled down her
visor.
The sunset on Terr was spreading over the river.
In space, the astronauts had become familiar with Sol and his furious,
raging brilliance. But here, in the evening of their first day on Terr, it
was possible to stare with the naked eye at the reddish, flattened Sol,
shorn of his space corona. Elongated clouds were beginning to gather near
its oval disc. Two of them, coming from different directions, joined up and
divided Sol into two. And then a miracle happened. Instead of one, two
heavenly bodies hung over the horizon one after the other, each of them
purple in colour.
Mada could not take her eyes off this spectacle as she watched the two
bodies change in size: the lower one touched the sea of forest, the upper
one became thinner and thinner, dwindling to a mere segment of a disc and
finally disappearing altogether. The lower part of Sol also vanished behind
a big cloud. Now the whole sky flickered with fire. And, as if in a crimson
ocean spreading above the clouds, there hung lilac waves, and very high up,
illumined by the sinking Sol, there floated a solitary white island, its
red-hot edges blazing.
The sunset glow was gradually dying away, but the little cloud burned
on without going out. Then, as if all of a sudden, darkness came down on
Terr. Night had fallen, just as on Faena. And even the stars were the same.
Except that Terr did not have at that time a magnificent nocturnal
luminary like Faena's satellite, Lua, which gave such beauty to the Faetian
night and which had appeared near Terr a million years later. The planet
Ven, however, was particularly brilliant here. Toni Fae pointed out to Mada
the evening star that had begun shining on the horizon like a spark in the
flames of dawn. It was still the brightest object in the night sky.
The astronauts continued admiring the sky of Terr for quite some time.
Strange nocturnal sounds came from the forest.
Urn Sat suggested spending the night in the rocket.
Mada went back inside reluctantly, although she could take off her
heavy space-suit in there.
She could not shake off the unpleasant impression made by Smel Ven's
remarks.
Next morning, the Faetians went for a stroll through the forest in
pairs. They were to assemble by the rocket at a prearranged time.
Long shadows lay on the ground. According to the instruments, it had
turned cooler. They were about to see Sol set on Terr for the second time.
Ave and Mada were late. Urn Sat was alarmed. Toni Fae painstakingly
kept calling the missing pair. Mada and Ave did not reply, as if
electromagnetic communications had broken down.
Gor Terr sent up two signal rockets in succession. They soared up into
the colourful evening sky, leaving curly trains of smoke behind them. The
red and yellow curves floated across the heavens for a long time.
"From red to yellow," quipped Toni Fae. "From love to wisdom. A
hopeless call."
Gor Terr shook the inflated sleeve of his space-suit at him.
Smel Ven kept apart as if nothing had happened. His helmet concealed
tightened lips and downcast eyes.
His hopes were finally fulfilled. Mada ran out of the forest in her
skin-tight, wet undergarment. She had taken off her space-suit!
Smel Ven trembled and raised his visor.
This was the Mada whom the sculptors had tried to catch sight of on the
Great Shore and whom Smel Ven himself had admired. Head flung back on the
slender neck, dark blue, ecstatic eyes. She was holding a golden apple in
each hand.
"Ave and I are now the first inhabitants of Terr. It'll go down in the
planet's history!"
Ave followed behind her, also without his space-suit. They had
evidently been enjoying a swim. He was also carrying two golden fruits.
"Maybe we are at fault," he said in response to the reproach in Dm
Sat's eyes, "but it's now been proved that Faetians can live on Terr. The
planet will feed them. The labours of the colonists will be generously
rewarded. This means an end to overpopulation on Faena!"
Dm Sat merely gave Ave a look; the other bowed his head in
embarrassment.
"We simply carried out an experiment. Someone had to, otherwise there
would have been no point in flying here."
Smel Ven waited for many days, but in vain. Ave and Mada, Terr's first
inhabitants, enjoyed all the benefits of the paradise they had found and did
not succumb to any form of illness.
After a sufficient period of time had elapsed. Dm Sat permitted the
other Faetians to take off their space-suits.
They took this alien world of nature at once: the air, filled with
strange perfumes, the bright light, unknown on Faena, and the unfamiliar
sounds coming from the forest. Something would be walking about in there,
hiding, leaping from branch to branch, shrieking, bellowing. Then, suddenly,
all the noises would die down and from the depths of the forest Silence
itself would seem to be watching the uninvited guests.
Chapter Three
Dm Sat was regarding his companions with a kind of strange sadness,
trying not to go near them. He made a sign to Smel Ven and climbed up into
the rocket. The First Pilot of Quest found the scientist already lying on
the couch in the common cabin. His cheeks were hollow and the pouches under
his eyes were even more pronounced.
Smel Ven stopped a short distance away. His narrow face with the big
bald patches on his head looked even longer because of the straggly little
goatee beard.
"I feel a great weakness," said the Elder. "I have no headache or rash.
It might pass off. Let the Sister of Health stay with me; the rest can carry
on with their work. However, I still consider it my duty to hand over the
leadership of the expedition to you, as the ship's commander."
"So be it," declared Smel Ven solemnly, drawing himself up as if on
parade. "I assume all the authority! Henceforth, I shall be in charge of
everything. And I order you, my aged friend, to lie down. You know where the
provisions are. I forbid all subordinates to come near the rocket."
"Even the Sister of Health?" asked Um Sat quietly.
"Even her," snapped Smel Ven. "She will be useful to the others if they
fall ill as well."
Um Sat laughed weakly but said nothing.
"I am leaving now," Smel Ven hastened to say.
"I am replacing you," said the old man after him, but the hatch had
already slammed shut.
Um Sat wearily closed his eyes. When would he stop making mistakes? Why
ever did they think him wise?
Smel Ven assembled all the astronauts.
"Um Sat has ordered me to inform you that the camp is being transferred
from the rocket into the forest. As it will be hard for the old man to spend
the night there, he has delegated the leadership of the camp to me as his
deputy."
"But the forest's dangerous at night," commented Toni Fae.
Smel Ven looked at him contemptuously.
"I don't know who is more graced with cowardice: the astronomer or the
poet."
Toni Fae flushed. Gor Terr interceded on his behalf.
"Caution is useful, even in a leader."
"What risk can there be," said Smel Ven aggressively, "if we've come to
a world of love and harmony?" And he turned to Mada and Ave.
"Who's threatening us?" said Mada, backing him up.
Ave nodded silently.
The explorers collected up everything they needed, armed themselves at
Gor Terr's insistence with pistols, though loaded only with stun bullets
harmless to animal life, and set off into the forest.
Mada urgently wanted to see Um Sat, but Smel Ven refused to let her; he
was anxious to get into the forest before darkness fell.
They pitched camp on the shore of the lake from which the stream fell
into the chasm. White birds with curved necks were swimming on rippling
water that was tinged with mother-of-pearl.
"Why do they have such long necks?" asked Toni Fae.
"To fetch up underwater weeds," replied Mada.
"A very peaceful occupation," commented Gor Terr.
The evening glow was already flickering in the sky when Smel Ven sent
Mada and Ave to survey the other shore of the lake. They had to make their
way across the stream, jumping from rock to rock.
They walked on, occasionally stooping under low branches, dressed in
their clinging black suits and delightedly looking about them. Suddenly,
they both stopped in their tracks.
A reindeer, its antlered head flung back, raced past in front of them.
A powerful beast with a spotted hide was following it in great soft bounds.
It overtook the reindeer and pounced on its neck. The victim, its artery
bitten through, made a last desperate bound and collapsed under a tree.
There was a bellowing sound. The beast was tearing its prey to pieces.
Ave snatched at his pistol to reload it with poisoned bullets.
"We daren't take lives here," intervened Mada. "We mustn't bring
Faena's morals with us."
"I'm afraid they already exist here."
"But why?"
"The laws of life's development on the planets are exactly the same."
"But what about the watering place?" protested Mada weakly. "None of
them attacked any of the others there."
"A beast of prey can't just slaughter animals. It lets them live,
drink, propagate and grow. Otherwise it won't have anything to eat. It's
like a forest animal-breeder: by catching the weakest when out hunting, it
improves the selection of the herd."
Mada made no objection. She walked along at Ave's side, dejected,
conscious of his hand on her shoulder. But suddenly he snatched it away and
slapped his forehead. Mada involuntarily did the same. Then she stared in
bewilderment at her fingers, which were stained with blood. It had become
dark in the forest and there was a buzzing noise everywhere. Tiny flying
creatures swooped on the Faetians and began stinging them. Ave and Mada had
to pluck branches and beat the flies off.
They found Smel Ven alone in the camp. He was frantically slapping his
cheeks and neck.
"Filthy creatures!" he swore. "We'd be better off in our space-suits."
"I was terribly wrong," began Mada at once. "Ave and I have just seen
murder in the forest. Murder is committed here as on Faena! We must move the
camp back to the rocket as soon as possible, to open ground where there
aren't any insects or beasts of prey."
"We're not going back to the rocket," snapped Smel Ven. "There's a far
more terrible death in store for us there-the one that was lying in wait for
Dm Sat."
"What d'you mean?" Mada was outraged. "And you. Dm Saf's deputy,
wouldn't allow me, as a doctor, to be with him?"
"Such was his will. It's not just filthy flying creatures or spotted
predators, but the hidden microworld that's bared its teeth at us."
"I'm going to Um Sat!" declared Mada.
"With me," added Ave.
"Only cowards who've found a pretext escape by running away!" shouted
Smel Ven after them, forgetting his own false warning.
Mada ran ahead. Ave could hardly see her outline in the swiftly
approaching darkness. Suddenly, his heart contracted with pain. It seemed to
him that Mada had been stopped by a gigantic round-shouldered creature with
long, dangling arms. He drew his pistol, which he still hadn't loaded with
live ammunition, but noticed that Mada was not in the least afraid. Ave
gasped with relief. That showed how badly his nerves had been set on edge by
the forest episode! He hadn't recognised Gor Terr. And now the puny Toni Fae
also turned up.
Ave put his pistol away and only then did he see at least five figures
like Gor Terr with him. The Faetoids knocked Toni Fae and the frantically
resisting Mada off their feet. The whole gang of them charged at Gor Terr.
Ave dashed towards Gor Terr, but couldn't tell him from among the
similar round-shouldered, shaggy beasts. They sorted themselves out and all
five of them hurled themselves on Ave.
He hadn't time to draw his pistol. He merely shook off the assailants
clinging to him. They were bigger than Ave, but had no idea how to fight.
Using his fists and his feet, Ave scattered the beasts as they fell on him.
Two of them writhed under a tree, the others flung themselves at Ave again.
Throwing over his shoulder one who stank of sweat and mud, he glimpsed Gor
Terr dealing with his opponents. Several shaggy carcasses were squirming at
his feet. But still more of the enemy were tumbling down onto his shoulders
from the trees. Ave tried to shout that he should run to open ground, but a
shaggy paw clamped itself over his face. Ave twisted the paw till the bones
cracked.
Mada was nowhere to be seen. Nor was Toni Fae. Only Gor Terr and Ave
Mar continued the unequal struggle.
"Hold out, Ave!" shouted Gor Terr. "These are all of one local family!"
Ave flung aside the first assailants, but at least a dozen fresh ones
leapt on him. Four taloned paws fastened on to each of his hands and feet.
The young Faetian summoned up all his strength, heaved and crashed to
the ground, crushing his enemies underneath him. More shaggy beasts leapt
onto the pile of weltering bodies. He felt as if he had been buried in a
mine shaft: he could neither move nor breathe.
On seeing Ave's predicament, Gor Terr rushed to help him. But it would
have probably been easier to fell with one shoulder the wide-spreading tree
under which the scrum had taken place than to come to Ave's assistance. Then
Gor Terr made a sudden leap and grabbed hold of a low branch. Two or three
of the Faetoids, no shorter in stature than he was himself, hung onto his
legs. The bough bent, threatening to crack. With an incredible burst of
strength, Gor Terr hoisted himself up onto the bough with all the animals
clinging to him. They dived head-downwards off it, howling frantically. Two
more seemed to be waiting above Gor Terr, but were thrown down.
With an agility denied to his shaggy opponents, Gor Terr literally
soared up to the topmost branches of the tree.
Despairing shrieks and roars came from below.
Gor Terr jumped down from the topmost branch and, it seemed, ought to
have crashed into the paws of the beasts galloping in a frenzy round it, but
by some miracle he seized hold of a branch on a neighbouring tree and ran
lightly along it, although it bent under his considerable weight.
A way had been found, the only escape from the bellowing herd below.
Gor Terr couldn't understand why none of the fanged beasts had bitten
him. There was no time to think about it, and he continued running along the
upper branches. He might well have been envied by his remote ancestors, who
had come down from the trees of Faena once upon a time.
His pursuers, however, were running along below every bit as fast as he
was himself.
At this point, Gor Terr saw something like a Faetian liana. It hung
down from a distant, very high tree and was caught on one of the branches
near him. Gor Terr seized hold of the living cable and flew downwards. He
had a glimpse of the infuriated herd. Gathering speed like a swinging
pendulum, he sailed over his pursuers' heads and managed to kick the biggest
of them. He was followed by a despairing wail.
Gor Terr caught sight of a waterfall below him. The liana carried him
across to the other bank. He clutched at a branch, jumped down to the ground
and started running.
The shouts of pursuit died down far behind him. The Faetoids were
evidently afraid of water and could not cross to the other side of the river
after him.
Gor Terr slowed down and breathed heavily, inflating his chest, and
only then did he discover that in his confusion he had forgotten to bring
his pistol from the camp, although he had been the one to insist that
everybody should be armed.
He was overcome with horror. There was no one left now, except himself.
He must hurry back to the rocket, but his news of what had happened to all
the Faetians would be the death of Urn Sat.
He had no alternative, however. He decided to wait until dawn,
believing that the Faetoids were nocturnal and feared the daylight.
He climbed a tree and settled himself on the topmost branch.
As he pictured his friends torn to pieces, he wept with grief and
helplessness. The tears stuck in his beard, which was as matted as the hair
of a Faetoid. At times, his reason was clouded with frenzy. Suddenly, in the
pale glimmer of dawn, he saw one of the abominable creatures slowly coming
along under the tree.
Round-shouldered, almost the same height, it was rolling from side to
side at every step. Its back was covered with wool. The beast turned round,
and Gor Terr realised that it was a female Faetoid. She was walking erect,
and her forepaws dangled down to her knees. From time to time, she stooped
to pluck a plant or grub up a root.
Gor Terr shook with fury, making ready to pounce on the beast and deal
with her.
At that moment, something flashed past below and the Faetoid fell to
the ground. She was being suffocated by the spotted animal that Mada had
told him about.
Himself not knowing why, Gor Terr jumped down on the predator. The
animal roared, trying to struggle free of the weight that had landed on its
back. But Gor Terr jumped off and gripped it by the hind legs. The human
giant pulled the beast towards him, raised it into the air on his
outstretched hands and dashed its head against a tree-trunk, then flung the
inert body to one side.
The Faetoid rose to her feet and stared at Gor Terr with curiosity
rather than in fear. He even took offence.
"Am I really so like her fellow-creatures that I didn't even frighten
her?"
She approached him trustingly and said, "Dzin!"
Yes, that was what she said! These animals could pronounce articulate
words. If they were not wholly rational, then in a million or more cycles
they could become like the rational Faetians.
"Gor," said the Faetian, pointing at his naked, hairy chest. His shirt
had been ripped down to the waist.
"Dzin," repeated the Faetoid, and she pointed at herself. It would be
hard to say what thought process was taking place in the low-browed, sloping
skull. However, she too was capable of the gratitude innate in many Faetian
animals.
Dzin had obviously been overtaken by some kind of thought. She clutched
Gor Terr by the hand and pulled him along, gibbering incoherently.
Was she taking him to her lair, acknowledging him not only as her
saviour, but as her master?
Gor Terr frowned. He wanted to shoo her away and even raised his hand.
But she waited for the blow so meekly that he thought better of hitting her.
It occurred to him that she might lead him to the dwelling of her
fellow-creatures. What if his friends were still alive? Could he miss a
chance of going to their assistance? He pushed her forward and went after
her.
Dzin was overjoyed and ran off, looking round at Gor Terr. Both moved
fast and soon crossed the same stream. She knew where a tree lay across it.
Dzin was afraid of water.
Then they walked through the Faetian camp on the shore of the lake. Gor
Terr could see the traces of a violent struggle. Bags and scientific
instruments lay scattered all round, but the victims of the struggle were
nowhere to be seen. Smel Ven had evidently not been able to use his weapon
and had been seized by the beasts.
Dzin looked at Gor Terr, but he prodded her firmly in the back. That
was evidently the kind of treatment she understood best. She looked round,
bared her fangs in the semblance of a grin and joyfully ran on ahead.
Soon she stopped and made a warning sign, if the movement of her paw
meant anything at all.
Gor Terr looked cautiously out from behind a tree growing on the edge
of a gully. On the opposite side he could see caves, and down below swarmed
a herd of shaggy beasts. He could hear them growling, bellowing and
shrieking.
Gor Terr saw Smel Ven among the Faetoid predators. He was standing
proudly in their midst, with many of them clutching him. For some reason,
they had not yet killed him.
At this point, Gor Terr realised that these creatures could not tie
people up, they could only hold the prisoner with their forepaws while
standing on their hind legs. But what if they didn't slaughter their victim
before devouring him? What if they didn't like dead flesh?
The Faetoids began roaring down below. Smel Ven was hurled to the
ground and the shaggy bodies piled on top of him, tearing him to pieces.
It was too much for Gor Terr. He felt sick.
But Smel Ven never uttered a groan or a cry. Gor Terr had never thought
it possible to have such superhuman fortitude. He felt ashamed of his own
weakness. He was almost about to jump down, but saw Mada, Ave and Toni Fae
on the opposite cliff. They had evidently not been slaughtered so that they
could be eaten alive. All of them, like Smel Ven, were unbound. But four
beasts were holding each by the hands and feet. The Faetians couldn't move
an inch.
Gor Terr turned to Dzin. She sprang back and lay on the ground,
pretending to have fallen asleep. Then she jumped up, waved her paw towards
the beasts who were devouring their victim and again threw herself down on
the ground.
The engineer understood. Dzin was trying to explain that they would go
to sleep as soon as they had gorged themselves.
Dzin was right. She knew her fellow-creatures well.
They soon lay down in a heap and began snoring.
Only the sentries stayed in their places, pretending to be awake, but
actually nodding their shaggy heads.
Gor Terr was not very hopeful of success. Still, he crawled to one side
and silently moved across the gully. When he had crawled up to the cave in
which the prisoners were lying, he jumped to his feet at the entrance.
Ave Mar was lying nearest to him with a useless pistol at his side.
Before the flesh-glutted sentries could make a move, Gor Terr proceeded
to dispatch them by methods ordered by Yar Jupi in schools for the
Superiors. He struck with precision in the morning light. The sensitive
spots of the Faetoids were almost the same as those of the Faetians. The
shaggy beasts rolled over without a sound. Gor Terr snatched up Ave Mar's
pistol and fired point-blank at the fourth Faetoid who was still gripping
Ave by the hand. It was a stun bullet; the creature fell in convulsions and
lay still.
The crash of the explosion terrified the other guards. They let Mada
and Toni Fae go free. Mada seized her chance and hit one of them so deftly
that he rolled down over the rocks.
Toni Fae had barely recovered his breath when Ave and Gor Terr hurled
themselves on the dumbfounded guards.
Gor Terr fired a few more shots. Ave was throwing the feebly resisting
beasts down to the bottom of the gully. Indescribable panic broke out down
there.
The beasts had no idea of how to put up a fight. They had seized their
victims with the sole purpose of eating them. After devouring the first,
they had slept peacefully without even mounting a guard. And now-deafening
claps of thunder, of which they had always gone in terror. Moreover, the
corpses of their fellow-creatures were raining down on them as if from the
sky.
The herd scattered, shrieking and abandoning the dead and maimed on the
bottom of the gully.
Mada threw herself on Ave Mar's breast and sobbed her heart out.
Toni Fae offered his hand to his friend and saviour.
In the corner of his eye, Ave noticed one more Faetoid at the cave
entrance who was evidently intending to attack Gor Terr from behind.
He promptly sprang to the rescue, but Gor Terr's huge arm held him
back.
"This is Dzin, a female. She helped me to r-rescue you."
Mada stared in amazement at the shaggy creature, who was not hiding her
delight at Gor Terr's strength and fearlessness.
Chapter Four
When Quest lifted off for space, the body of Kutsi Merc was lying in an
underground corridor. But the pool of blood under him did not dry up, as if
the stiletto-pierced heart was still bleeding. Suddenly, Kutsi Merc's hand
twitched, fell on the wound and stanched it. The blood coagulated and
stopped flowing.
It was a long time before Kutsi Merc moved again. Not one of many
millions of Faetians could have survived his condition; not a single one
except Kutsi Merc himself.
Kutsi Merc came from a roundhead family who had fled the continent of
the Superiors after the Uprising of Justice was defeated. Yar Jupi was only
beginning the Blood Bath there. Kutsi was still a small boy without a name
of his own. Kutsi's father, Khrom Merc, suspected of being sympathetic to
the Doctrine of Justice, was earmarked for elimination by the Blood Guard.
The Mercs were poor and could not afford to escape by ship. The three of
them made an incredible journey on a raft knocked together by Khrom Merc.
After harrowing days at sea, enduring storms that swept away their meagre
provisions and a lull that brought an intolerable thirst, they avoided
pursuit (none of the Blood Guard ever thought of looking for a raft in the
ocean!) until finally, emaciated and at the end of their tether, they
reached the coast of Danjab. But no one there had prepared a warm welcome
for the refugees. They could not even find work in the fields and workshops
of the proprietors, who were indifferent to anything that did not promise
gain.
Reduced to desperation by poverty, Khrom Merc steeled himself for what
he would have formerly rejected with disgust: he decided to make money out
of his deformed little son.
Kutsi had two hearts. This "deformity" is exceedingly rare. On the
continent of the Superiors, the parents had kept quiet about their son's
abnormality, afraid that he might be pronounced unfit and destroyed.
But here, on the continent of the Culturals, anything that could arouse
even morbid curiosity could be a source of profit.
They began exhibiting the little boy at show-booths. Crowds of the
curious came rolling in. And each spectator felt himself entitled to feel
the naked, terrified "monster". He was roughly turned round, cold tubes were
applied to his chest and back, or ears were pressed to his skin in a
repulsive manner. He was made to squat, dance to general guffaws and shouts,
then again he was examined and auscultated. The rubbernecks shook their
heads in bewilderment, marvelled and went away to tell, exaggerating wildly,
about the weird monster they had seen with their own eyes.
The enterprising Khrom Merc managed to earn so much that he became the
owner, first of a small workshop, then of big ones in which thousands of
Faetians were employed by him.
Kutsi Merc grew up, remembering with shame and revulsion the days when
his deformity had been "put on show". However, not only his father profited
by it. Soon, it transpired that the little boy was becoming uncommonly
strong and tough. By tacit agreement between the son and his parents, his
two hearts now became a family secret so as not to attract a wearisome
curiosity about the boy in school. When he was given a new name on his
coming-of-age (he was called Khrom-Merc Junior), he was named Kutsi (Shorty)
because of his ungainly shape as a result of his having a double heart.
Kutsi soon grasped that he could make a virtue of his deformity. During
the humiliating career of the "show-booth freak", Kutsi Merc developed the
traits of character that were to decide his profession.
Unsociable, cunning, venomous, hating the Superiors across the ocean,
he possessed rare strength and stamina. He caught the attention of the
Special Service. He was found suitable for intelligence work. His
irreproachable knowledge of barbarian mores and the barbarian language
enabled him to carry out many dangerous transoceanic assignments (but not on
a raft any more).
Making his way up the secret ladder, intelligent and self-effacing,
rational and decisive, the son of a proprietor and in no way sympathetic to
the Doctrine of Justice, he came to enjoy a position of trust among the big
proprietors who were selecting convenient rulers for themselves.
Dobr Mar's predecessor had been so afraid of a disintegration war that
he had been ready to give way to Dictator Yar Jupi, and so he had become
useless to the proprietors. Kutsi Merc was able at that time to warn "the
Ruler's friend", Dobr Mar, on what terms he could himself become Ruler, by
being the first to start a disintegration war. That was the only way the
proprietors, who were members of the Great Circle, thought of dealing with
the proprietors of the Blood Council.
On becoming Ruler, Dobr Mar manoeuvred skilfully on the brink of war.
When his re-election fell due and he had to take the prescribed step, he
sent Kutsi on a diversionary escapade, even risking his own son's life in
his personal interests. Kutsi Merc was such an eminent spy that he could
have refused the mission. But ever since childhood he had had his own score
to settle with the Superiors. He could forgive them neither the Blood Bath,
nor the misfortunes of his own family, nor the oppression of the roundheads.
That is why Kutsi Merc became a "hunchback", carrying on his back a
disintegration charge to destroy the Dictator's Lair together with all the
technology delivered by the short-sighted proprietors of Dan jab.
Kutsi Merc had taken a dangerous risk and had lost, struck down by Yar
Alt's stiletto.
But it could never have entered Yar Alt's mind, when he tugged the
stiletto out of Kutsi's heart, that the hunchback had a second heart.
Kutsi took a long, long time to regain consciousness. The second heart
continued beating. Only an organism as unusual as his could win. But he was
too weak owing to the enormous loss of blood.
When he came round and realised what had happened, he first of all took
off his "hump" and examined it. It had been punctured in several places. The
delayed-action fuse had been rendered useless. He threw the "hump" aside.
He was spurred on by a ravenous hunger. He must get out of this place
somehow, although it seemed impossible. Kutsi, however, was not one to give
up, even when the situation was hopeless.
Overcoming his pain and stomach spasms, he crawled over the stone
floor, convinced that the Wall would bar his way. He could not believe the
evidence of his own eyes when he saw a gap in it. After the battle of the
brain biocurrents, when Yar Alt had mentally been trying to open the door
and Lua to close it, no one had ordered the automatic system to close up the
Wall. Also still open were the next two barriers through which Yar Alt had
hurried and through which the dying Mother Lua had managed to crawl on her
hands and knees.
At the familiar turn in the palace gardens, which Kutsi was hoping to
reach, his way was barred by a high wall. He crawled off along Lua's bloody
trail. He would crawl a little way, stop out of exhaustion and then carry on
further. And still Kutsi Merc was alive!
During the few hours that had elapsed, the spaceship Quest had lifted
off from Cape Farewell. Yar Jupi himself had gone down into the deep
underground bunker to begin the disintegration war on which he had finally
decided.
The palace was empty. After switching off the energy that fed the
palace's automatic systems, the security robots carried a heavy box with
slits on it down into the shelter.
And now the Wall in front of Kutsi Merc trembled slightly. He managed
to insert his fingers into the gap and, to his great surprise, was able to
assure himself that the Wall was yielding to his pressure. Finally, it
parted enough for him to crawl through.
Then, without understanding how, he got to his feet and leaned back
against the Wall. It trembled again and moved. Kutsi Merc fell down. (The
power supply had been switched on again.)
Kutsi lay there gritting his teeth and trying to understand what had
happened. He suddenly realised that the disintegration war was beginning and
that he had failed to prevent it nevertheless.
He forced himself to rise to his feet. Everything went dark. He screwed
up his eyes and stood swaying slightly, then supported himself by holding
onto the priceless wood panelling on the walls. It finally led him out into
the garden, fragrant with the Dictator's celebrated flowerbeds. Kutsi felt
very much like lying down and dying. He had even stopped thinking about
food.
He decided that the disintegration war had evidently not yet broken
out. He couldn't hear any explosions, which meant that he must go on living!
He did not allow himself to remain lying on the sand in the avenue, but