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this operation, leaving it to the future Marians.
Some of the metal pipes used as corridors and the premises of the
disused laboratories were detached from the station. Braked by the reactive
force of the defence rocket, they were to leave the station's orbit and,
reducing speed relative to the Marian orbital velocity, were to begin their
descent onto the planet. Because of its thinness and low oxygen content,
Mar's atmosphere should add to the braking effect on the falling metal
without causing re-entry burn-up.
The whole of Vydum Polar's operation took a considerable time, during
which all the Faetians lived together. The condemned, however, kept apart
from the rest and their attitude to them was hostile.
The leave-taking of the Marians and the condemned was consequently not
a particularly sad occasion. On the contrary, both sides had a feeling of
relief.
Dm Sat and Toni Fae were the first to cross over into Quest. Both were
thinking about Ave, Mada and Gor Terr who had self-sacrificingly given up
their places on the ship to the Faetians from the space stations. How were
the other three finding it on Terr? Would they hold out in the battle with
the Faetoids?
Then all the other Faetians who were leaving went into the ship through
the airlock of the station's central section.
Ala Veg went up to Toni Fae.
"We're going to a new world together," she said, putting her hand on
his shoulder.
The young Faetian nearly choked with emotion. Incredible trials and
tribulations lay ahead of them, but he was happy.
Toni Fae had to determine the exact landing place for the reserve metal
to be used by future generations of Marians.
Um Sat ordered that Quest should land as near as possible to the metal
dropped onto Mar. Initially, they would have to dig the first deep shelter
themselves. Afterwards, perhaps, they would be able to find natural caves
into which future generations would move.
Remembering the lessons taught to him by his friends on Terr, Toni Fae
began the gradual undocking of the ship from the central section of Station
Phobo.
"Will some other spaceship ever come close to this station?" he
wondered. "And when will it be?"
None of those remaining behind was in the central section.
Nega Luton and Vlasta Sirus locked themselves in their cabins.
Mrak Luton, his arms thrust behind his back, was pacing up and down the
ring corridor onto which the lifts opened. He was considering how to seize
power on Station Phobo. It was Vlasta Sirus whom he regarded as his main
opponent, not the bloated Dovol Sirus.
He mentally assigned them all to the various sections leaving the sole
leadership to himself. They had many, many cycles to live yet!
The Faetians may not have known about the behaviour of spiders in a jar
and how they devour one another. Consequently, the court in space, when
leaving the condemned on Phobo, was not influenced by this example.
However...
Dovol Sirus became the chronicler on Phobo. He solemnly wrote memoirs
which, in his view, would tell the truth about the tragedy of Faena and its
space colonies.
A long, long time afterwards, they did indeed, in certain respects,
help to establish the fate of the condemned.
Chapter Five
When the wail of a newborn child was heard in the Faetians' house, Dzin
was in the forest nearby. She crept up to the window, squatted down and,
gripping her heels with her forepaws, began listening. Sensing that the
hunters were returning, she leapt for cover into the undergrowth and from
there she looked round at the stake-barred window.
The first native Terran had appeared in the Faetians' house. He had to
be called by his father's abbreviated surname-Av, or simply Avik.
Mada doted upon her first baby. Often, with his arm round her
shoulders, Ave would look for a long time at the tiny, helpless creature.
"The first boy on Terr!" boomed Gor Terr happily. "It's a good thing
that a boy was born first. Let him grow up fast so that I can teach him many
tricks of the trade that a r-real Faetian ought to know."
Gor Terr was a wonderful comrade. Modest, tactful, quiet in spite of
his reverberating bass voice, he looked after Ave and Mada in the most
touching way.
"The future of civilisation is in you," he would say.
After Quest's thunderous lift-off, the Faetoids were evidently afraid
of the Faetians for some time and did not come near them. But they gradually
forgot their fear. The beasts became bolder; Ave and Gor noticed them
several times while hunting in the forest. They even stole the trophies
occasionally.
As a precaution, the Faetians decided to keep together wherever they
went.
The Faetoids took advantage of this.
Once, at dusk, when Mada, left on her own in the house, went to the
lake for water, three or four shaggy beasts rushed up to the barred windows
and began smashing the stakes.
On hearing the baby cry out, Mada took alarm and ran back, spilling
water from the home-made vessel before finally throwing it aside.
The door of the house was locked, but she could not hear Avik crying
inside. She threw the door open and froze with horror.
Stakes broken out of the window were lying on the floor. The chi Id was
gone. There was a foul reek of animals. Mada recognised it at once.
Snatching something from the shelf and not closing the door behind her,
Mada rushed into a thicket where she had glimpsed a tawny red shadow.
Mada was not conscious of her actions. She was impelled purely by her
maternal instinct, which replaced courage, strength and even cool
calculation.
Her sixth sense told her that the animal that had kidnapped Avik was
heading for the caves so as to tear him to pieces...
There is no knowing how she guessed which way the beast would run; she
even guessed that the creature was afraid of crossing water. She twice
forded a loop in the stream and reached the gully ahead of the kidnappers.
Dzin sprang down from the tree, clutching the howling infant to her
hairy breast.
Mada had already heard her child crying in the distance. She ran
towards the creature. The powerful beast automatically turned back, but Mada
overtook her in a single bound. Then Dzin turned round and bared her fangs.
Mada boldly advanced on the shaggy beast, although Dzin could easily
have snapped her fragile opponent in two. But Mada was the more intelligent.
Not for nothing had she stopped in the house to snatch something from the
shelf. She didn't have a firearm, but she was holding in her fist a silvery
bullet, being careful not to be stung by the brown prickles.
Dzin had not yet released the stolen baby. She threateningly reached
for Mada with her free paw. Mada dodged it, jumped at Dzin and struck her in
the breast.
One blow by the fragile Faetess was enough for the enormous beast to
crash backwards to the ground. Her paws quivered convulsively and her eyes
rolled upwards.
Mada snatched up the child without noticing that he too had curled up
and gone silent. She ran off, but her way was barred by two more female
Faetoids who had accompanied Dzin on her raid.
Mada rushed fearlessly forward, hugging the inert little body to her
breast.
Both Faetoids were struck by accurate blows in quick succession. They
collapsed. Their paws curled up and their muzzles froze in a grimace.
Without pausing for breath, Mada ran back the way she had come. The
spray from the stream helped to bring her to her senses. She looked at Avik
for the first time and screamed.
Someone touched her shoulder. Mada looked round to find Ave bending
over her. He had heard her cry in the forest and had rushed to her
assistance. Gor Terr was standing close by, ready to beat off any attack.
Ave understood everything without having to be told.
"How did this happen?" he asked in a strangled voice.
Mada told him through her tears about the raid by the Faetoids.
She walked beside Ave, pressing the stiff little Avik to her breast.
They did not say another word until they were home.
"Isn't there any antidote at all?" cried Mada, wringing her hands after
she had laid the infant on its tiny bed.
Ave stood at the shelf, counting up the rounds of ammunition. Then he
turned to Mada.
"Let Mada warm her son. Fortunately, what's missing here is a stun
bullet, not a poisoned one. Warmth will bring Avik round."
Gor Terr was carefully refixing the stakes in the window.
Avik's first cry as he came round was no less of a joy to Mada than his
very first wail, heard in the house not so long ago.
"This means the Faetoids will recover too," observed Mada.
"That's bad," responded Gor Terr. "They've found the way here!"
Gor Terr proved right. The Faetoids had become completely fearless and
began to fight a real war with the newcomers.
Several times, the beasts openly attacked the hunters, who only beat
off the animals by using firearms. Their reserves of ammunition were
limited. They would hardly last out for more than a few local cycles.
Gor Terr had the idea of fixing a bullet to the end of a spear so as to
strike the beasts without losing the bullet. The inspiration for this had
been Mada's desperate behaviour in the battle with Dzin.
Ave insisted that stun bullets should be used, not the poisoned ones.
He did not want to exterminate the Faetoids, who were Terr's indigenous
population.
Gor Terr grumbled about this, but finally agreed.
However, this softness on the part of the Faetians led to even more
ferocity and determination from the Faetoids. The realisation that, if they
had a brush with the newcomers, they would wake up alive after only a brief
sleep, led to the beasts imagining that they could always get away with it.
It came to the point at which the herd laid systematic siege to the
house. The men could not go out hunting and each time they were forced to
disperse the frenzied Faetoids waiting for them outside the door.
Gor Terr began determinedly insisting that the enemy should be wiped
out.
"Ave's right," objected Mada. "Can we really bring the ill-fated
Faena's terrible principles to Terr? The Faetoids didn't come to us, we came
to them uninvited. Perhaps we could find a common language with them."
"R-really?" said Gor Terr, astonished, and he became thoughtful.
The situation deteriorated. The Faetoids were no longer the stupid
beasts who had originally seized the newcomers in the forest so as to eat
them alive. They now seemed guided by will and thought inspired by someone
more rational. They were fighting to exterminate the Faetians or drive them
away. Mada could not go outside alone for water or golden apples any more.
Shaggy bodies could always drop on her from a tree to strangle her or tear
her to pieces. Hit by the stun weapon, they recovered consciousness to
attack again on the next day. Their brazen determination was impressive and,
perhaps, had indeed been born of a feeling of immunity to punishment. The
beasts could evidently understand only crude force and deadly danger.
"They'll all have to be killed off," decided Gor Terr.
But Mada and Ave didn't agree.
"It would be better if we went away from here," suggested Mada. "This
is their place. They have the right to drive uninvited guests away."
"Will you ever get away from them?" asked Gor Terr, gloomily doubtful.
"D'you remember the snowy mountains we saw through the upper porthole
on Quest? We'll go where it's too cold for the Faetoids. They won't come
after us."
"You have no r-right to risk the child's life," boomed Gor Terr. "But
you're right about one thing. Someone's got to leave here. Either the
Faetians or the Faetoids."
From that time on, Gor Terr began disappearing frequently from the
house and returning without the usual hunting trophies.
Ave and Mada didn't ask him where he was going, believing that it was
up to him to tell them.
He was, in fact, secretly making his way to the gully with the caves.
He had selected a reliable shelter and spent a long time observing how the
Faetoids lived.
He had marked out an enormous shaggy Faetoid who was evidently the
leader of the tribe. Wasn't it he who was conducting the war on the
newcomers?
Exceptionally burly and fierce, he dealt ruthlessly with anyone who
displeased him. He once gave Dzin a terrible beating: Gor Terr spotted her
unerringly among the other beasts. However, it was not just strength that
made him superior to the rest of the Faetoids. His brain must have been more
developed than that of any other individual.
The Faetoids had not yet developed as far as rational speech, but they
nevertheless communicated amongst themselves with monosyllables that
differed mainly in cadence. After being beaten, Dzin fled the cave and came
upon Gor Terr hiding in a thicket.
She took fright at first, then squatted in silence not far from him,
clutching her heels with her forepaws, and began making soft, piteous
sounds. When he realised that she was not going to make a noise at the sight
of him, Gor Terr didn't strike her with his stun-spear. He was conceiving a
plan of insane daring, and Dzin could be useful to him.
Every day after that, when Gor Terr went to the hiding-place that he
had picked between two close-growing tree-trunks, he would find Dzin waiting
for him.
She became a kind of ally to him. Gor Terr could not explain anything
to her. But she behaved exactly as he wanted. With her animal instinct, she
was able to guess his intentions. Several times, when one of the Faetoids
drew near to Gor Terr's hiding-place, Dzin jumped up, screamed threateningly
and gesticulated to drive the uninvited beast away.
Gor Terr's dangerous plan was soon ripe for action. He decided to
disclose it to the others.
When she heard him, Mada decided that he was having another crazy spell
and offered to shock him out of it with an injection.
But Gor Terr was adamant.
"One thing's certain," he affirmed. "The herd's got to be driven out of
here; it must be led away. They'll take me for one of themselves. I look
sufficiently like them and I know their habits. I'll deal quickly enough
with the disobedient ones. I'll become their tyrant, their r-ruler, their
dictator. And to their own advantage. I'll teach them sense and r-reason."
It proved impossible to dissuade Gor Terr. He regarded his scheme as
the duty of a friend.
"We certainly won't win a war with them," he said. "I'll lead them off
into the mountains. When they're settled there, I'll come back to you.
You'll already have had lots of children. I'll turn your little ones into
r-real Faetians."
Gor Terr began preparing for his exploit as if for an afternoon stroll.
In fact, he didn't need to take anything with him.
Ave could not let him go out alone and decided to back him with
small-arms fire from under cover if events did not work out as Gor Terr
planned.
As Gor Terr had requested, Ave Mar was following Gor Terr at a distance
so as not to frighten Dzin. They had embraced as they left the house and had
said goodbye in silence. But Mada had wept in the doorway as she waved Gor
Terr goodbye.
Dzin was sitting in her usual attitude. She was waiting.
Ave watched the strange scene from a distance.
Gor Terr went up to the Faetoid, who met him amicably, even warmly. He
then took off his Faetian clothes.
He was covered with dense hair, but compared with one of the shaggy
beasts he looked almost naked, although in general body shape, height, broad
shoulders and stoop he vaguely resembled a Faetoid. He could have been
mistaken for one in the dark, but, of course, not in broad daylight or at
dusk. So, at least, it seemed to Ave Mar, who feared greatly for his friend.
But Gor Terr, unarmed, went fearlessly down into the gully with Dzin.
Ave was gripping a pistol so as to come to Gor Terr's aid; his friend
was already approaching the cave from which he had rescued his captive
friends.
Ave watched as the Faetoids who met Dzin paid no attention to her
companion at first. Then they noticed something unusual about him and began
gathering in twos and threes to study the newcomer with the thin hair whom
Dzin had brought back with her.
At last, the rest returned from the hunt.
Accompanied by Dzin, Gor Terr went bravely up to them.
Dzin began shrieking something, squatting, falling onto the stones and
jumping up again. She must have been explaining that she was starting a new
family and was presenting the one of her choice to the others.
The Faetoids didn't take the one of her choice very much. One beast, at
the far end, stood up, rudely thrust Dzin aside and struck the stranger with
his forepaw. To be more precise, he had intended to strike. But before he
could do so, he shot up into the air and crashed to the ground several paces
away. Bellowing, he got up on all fours and sprang at his assailant like a
spotted predator. But the stranger dealt him such a blow that the Faetoid
spun round on the stones, howling. The others reacted to the incident with
what seemed like total indifference. However, no one else dared try his
strength with the newcomer.
Interestingly enough, Gor Terr had only to take his clothes off for the
beasts not to recognise their former enemy and not even to see any
difference between him and themselves.
Sol was rising. It was the beginning of the magnificent dawn that had
impressed the Faetians so much during the first days of their sojourn on
Terr.
The Faetoids, however, were not admiring it. They were lying down to
sleep in their caves.
Only one particularly large beast with repulsive features, flared
nostrils and brown fangs protruding from his mouth, wandered from cave to
cave as if checking something.
His mental powers were unlikely to have been so developed that he could
really have been capable of checking anything at all. He might simply have
been wandering aimlessly from one cave to another.
Any beast he found outside, however, hurriedly disappeared into the
darkness under the vaulted roof.
Ave had still not left his observation post, fearing for Gor Terr's
safety.
He had stayed there all day, well aware how alarmed Mada must be for
him. He was waiting for, and dreading, the showdown between Gor Terr and the
leader.
The leader appeared earlier than the rest and summoned all the others
with a throaty scream.
Stretching and yawning, the Faetoids emerged reluctantly from their
shelters. Gor Terr also came out. Compared with all the others, he now
looked almost puny. No wonder the beasts were looking askance at the new
arrival. He didn't wait to be attacked, but exhibited his own character.
For no apparent reason, he attacked a fairly inoffensive Faetoid,
nimbly knocking him off his hind legs and hurling him down to the bottom of
the gully. Another was outraged at this conduct on the newcomer's part, but
paid dearly for it. Gor Terr rushed at him in a fury and, pinning him to the
stone wall, began banging his head so hard against it that the other howled
with pain.
At this point, the infuriated leader decided to put the wild one in his
place. He began bellowing with wrath, but this had no effect on the
newcomer, who knocked another beast over and hurled him down to the bottom
of the gully.
The leader's patience snapped. He snatched up a heavy stone and threw
it at the rebel. Neither Gor Terr nor Ave Mar had been expecting this. Ave
nearly fired, drawing a bead on the leader, but desisting when he saw that
Gor Terr had nimbly dodged the stone.
That Faetoid knew how to use weapons! This meant that he was more
developed than the others!
Ave didn't know what Gor Terr was going to do next, but his friend
didn't stop to think. He, too, picked up a stone and threw it at his enemy
with much better results.
The leader jumped and then bellowed with fury, hurling himself at Gor
Terr. But the other was already rushing to meet his enemy.
The Faetoids were bunched together at the rocky wall, watching the
savage battle. Their enormous leader, compared with whom the newcomer was
merely a small animal, crushed Gor Terr underneath his own weight.
At this point, Ave realised what he must do.
The Faetoids howled with glee at this duel and the lesson being taught
to the newcomer by their leader. Because of all the shouting, the crack of a
shot went unnoticed. Ave didn't miss, aiming at the leader's shaggy back
just below the powerful neck.
Half-crushed by the heavy body, Gor Terr realised what had happened. As
if continuing the fight, he raised the massive, convulsed body of the leader
up on his outstretched arms and hurled him from a rocky ledge down to the
bottom of the gully.
The Faetoids tried to look down, gibbering. Those thrown down by Gor
Terr had recovered from their beating, had successfully climbed up onto the
ledge and were crowded together in the rear of the herd; but their leader
was still lying motionless.
Ave had fired the first live round on Terr. The leader was dead.
Dzin bounded nimbly down to the bottom of the gully and began dancing
frenziedly near the overthrown body.
Dealing out punches and blows, sometimes knocking the beasts over, Gor
Terr drove all the Faetoids back into their caves. He had put a stop to the
aggressive campaign evidently launched by his predecessor.
The stranger's incredible strength convinced the beasts that it was
useless to resist him.
"The tyrant has seized power," thought Ave. "Now he will teach the
Faetoids to use clubs, he will make their hunting more successful, the herd
will no longer starve and will be content with the new leader."
Thus did the naked leader appear in the herd of Faetoids.
Ave and Mada never managed to find out anything more about Gor Terr.
Their self-sacrificing friend kept his word, however. He led the herd
of Faetoids away somewhere else. No longer did the shaggy beasts annoy the
solitary Faetians.
Chapter Six
Polar, great-great-great grandson of Vydum Polar, the first Marian
inventor, who was honoured on Mar alongside Brat Lua, the creator of the
first cave shelter, had inherited from his remote ancestor a daring and
penetrating mind that was immune to all prohibitions.
He was a young Marian with a handsome, calm and self-confident face, a
straight chin and a curly head on the long, sturdy neck typical of the
Marians.
He recognised no obstacles in life, being always ready to tear them
down. He learned easily and eagerly, flummoxing the teachers with his
questions. It seemed to him that the writings of his ancestors concealed
something about the origin of the Marians.
Tome Polar would put on a space-suit, without which Marians could not
breathe their planet's atmosphere, and would often wander over the desert
sands. He was looking among the mountain ridges for a cave that could be
used as a laboratory. In it, mentally, he was already carrying out daring
experiments on matter.
However, he had neither the instruments nor a cave for his research.
Once upon a time, the first Marians had been lucky. They had found in
the mountains an interconnected network of caves with an underground river
flowing through them which they named the River of Life.
Most probably of all, his ancestors had come from a remote region of
Mar where the conditions had once been different: the air had been
breathable and there had been rivers flowing on the surface of the planet
(as now in the caves). That was why the legends told of incredibly large
areas of water. After all, every drop of the River of Life in the
underground city was precious. They even obtained water artificially,
extracting it from mines sunk in distant caves. Water, together with the
metal found in the depths, was the basis of Marian civilisation. Owing to
the small amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, metal was native. This baffled
Tome somewhat. After all, his remote ancestors had breathed in the open air.
Tome Polar finally discovered a convenient little cave with a narrow
entrance which could easily be converted into an airlock.
Excited and happy, he went down on to the sandy plain from where he
would make his way direct to the oasis of cultivated plants and further on
down into the underground city.
In his short life. Tome Polar had not known any landscapes other than
the dead Marian sands. They were dear to him and he thought them beautiful.
As he walked over them, he sometimes tried to imagine himself crossing the
bed of one of the fabulous seas of the ancient Marians. But his sceptical
reason gained the uppermost over fantasy.
He could not imagine what was absolutely impossible.
Tome Polar was hoping to return to the city not alone, but with Ena
Fae, the most wonderful girl on the planet. At least, so she seemed to him.
He knew where to find her and headed for the clumps of nutritive plants
irrigated by water from the underground river. Tome knew from the ancient
folk tales that there was even supposed to be water on the surface at their
planet s poles, and at a low heat level it solidified there in the form of a
hard cap. This cap sometimes melted under Sol's rays. A lovely folk tale! If
it could be proved true, the Marians would one day deliver the melted water
from the poles to their oases. But, in the meantime, the fabulous
accumulations of solid water on Mar, if they existed, were infinitely far
away from the underground Marian city.
To the inhabitants of the legendary Faena, the local plants would have
looked like sickly bushes. But to Tome Polar, they were an impassable
thicket in which it was possible to make out with difficulty several figures
in space-suits.
They could all have seemed identical, but not to Tome Polar. He had no
difficulty in recognising Ena, who was gathering fruits.
She was the only creature on Mar to whom Tome Polar could confide his
secret thoughts. He had decided to do that today. He and Ena would begin
experimenting in the new cave together and they would revolutionise Marian
civilisation.
The Marian girl, lissom in spite of her garb, was gathering fruits.
Tome Polar went up to the bushes.
Ena Fae recognised him, signalled to him with a wave and followed after
him.
They did not switch on the intercom in their helmets so that the others
wouldn't hear them talking. They understood one another without words.
The love story of Tome and Ena was touchingly simple. They were brought
together by Great Chance, which seemed to be answering a legitimate need.
They met during the celebrations for the end of their studies. The young
people were singing and dancing in one of the remoter caves.
The stone icicles of stalactites hung from the roof to meet the needles
of stalagmites reaching up from the floor. Joined in some places, they
formed fantastic columns that seemed to be supporting the roof.
Lit up so that they seemed almost transparent, these colonnades,
demolished in other caves to make way for buildings, gave a magical
appearance to the place where the young were celebrating.
The young Marians used to enjoy themselves here with all their hearts,
donning airtight helmets for a lark to make themselves unrecognisable.
Tome Polar somehow managed to fall for his dancing partner, although he
hadn't yet seen her face. It seemed to him that it ought to be beautiful, so
vibrant and tender was her voice, even when muffled by the mask.
When Ena took off her helmet, she turned out to be exactly what he had
been expecting.
A straight brow sloping slightly backwards to continue the line of the
nose, elongated eyes with a slight slant up towards the temples, russet hair
with a heavy bun on the neck so that it did not fit easily into a
helmet-such was his new acquaintance, Ena Fae. There was something in her of
her great-great-great-grandmother, Ala Veg; but neither Tome nor Ena had the
slightest idea of what she had looked like.
It was love at first sight between the two Marians, as if two torches
had been brought to the same fire.
The young couple passed through the entrance airlock, which had always
been a source of puzzlement to Tome Polar. Why had it been made entirely of
metal (and when there was a permanent metal famine!), round in shape and
straining upwards, like the ancient skyscrapers of the legendary Faena? Had
the first Marians perhaps wanted to set up a monument to the beautiful fairy
tale? Tome Polar, of course did not share the superstitions according to
which the tower had once voyaged among the stars with no mechanical means of
propulsion. This legend had been born of the unusual shape of the
installation which served as an entrance airlock to the city.
There was only one real monument in the city, the one to the Great
Elder. Sculpted out of a stalagmite, the Elder of ancient times towered to
his full enormous stature, with his stone beard falling onto his chest and
with mystery in the dark, piercing cavities of his eyes.
New deposits had formed with the years on the stone sculpture, and
these smoothed over (as in memory) the features of the great Marian of the
past who had called himself a Faetian.
The monument to the Great Elder stood in the cave of the young.
It was towards this that Tome Polar and Ena Fae made their way when
they had taken off their space-suits.
Nothing, it seemed, could ever come between them to spoil their radiant
love and happy life together. Tome and Ena, however, had a hard trial ahead
of them.
According to the ancient Marian tradition, it was by the monument to
the Great Elder that vows of love and faithfulness were sworn, and also the
work was chosen which, from that moment on, the future married couple would
take upon themselves. On Mar, the young people bound themselves with ties of
marriage which, as they understood it, concerned no one else.
On this spot, the lovers had to declare to one another which path in
life each had chosen.
"Ena!" said Tome. "There can be no greater happiness for me than to be
with you always, not only in the family but at work. I want you to be a
loyal helpmate to me in the scientific research which I have decided to do."
"Am I ready for this?" said Ena doubtfully, looking admiringly at her
betrothed.
"It will be enough for me if you are by my side in our
cave-laboratory."
"What cave?" asked Ena, brightening up. "Are they going to give us a
small hall?"
"No. I've found myself a cave in the mountains. We'll fit it out
ourselves. We'll make airlocks and we'll take with us the air-recycling
equipment from spare space-suits."
"But what for?" asked Ena, amazed. "Surely you could find a cave in the
underground city?"
"The experiments we are going to do are dangerous. No one believes me,
but I suspect that matter has a tendency to disintegrate into even smaller
particles than the 'indivisible' ones of which matter consists."
"Matter has a tendency to disintegrate?" echoed Ena in horror.
"Yes, that's the thought I've reached. Of course, it's only a
scientific hunch, nothing more. You and I will take a vow here to enrich the
Marians with the energy of disintegration."
"No," said Ena Fae firmly. "You're mad to have such ambitions."
"But why? Are you really going to become one of those who misunderstand
me?"
"Listen to what, as a Marian girl, I have to say to you. We who bear
within us new generations of Marians have had passed down to us the
injunction of the Great Elder at whose monument we now stand."
"The Great Elder bequeathed to us the power of knowledge. What else?"
"Follow me," commanded Ena.
Tome obediently went after her.
Ena took him by a roundabout path. Descending steeply, it led them into
a stalagmite cave which was evidently directly underneath the Cave of Youth.
Ena pointed at the roof.
"The Elder above is pointing downwards, and if you follow the line of
direction, it runs through a stalactite to indicate some writings."
Sure enough, under the stalactite there was a stone slab fashioned from
the base of a removed stalagmite. The deposits on it had been carefully
cleaned off.
"Read it!" commanded Ena.
Some passages in the inscription seemed particularly strange to Tome
Polar.
"Never must the Marians, descendants of the Faetians, touch those
fields of knowledge which led to the destruction of the beautiful Faena.
Never must they strive to learn of what matter consists, never must they
strive to achieve movement without propulsion. These prohibitions are for
the protection of future generations who must be saved from the suffering
that comes from such knowledge."
Tome turned to Ena.
"What crude superstition! What did this Elder do to be called great?
What do the structure of matter and movement without propulsion have in
common? Apart from that, the deciding question should be, 'Who is in
possession of the knowledge?' "
"I don't know enough to argue with you," said Ena, "but what rational
people know today can become the property of very different ones tomorrow.
That is why the Prohibitions of the Great Elder have been imposed on the
Marian women. That duty of ours is higher than anything else. No one must
know what is forbidden."
"What d'you mean by 'higher than anything else'?" said Tome, much put
out. "Higher than love?"
Ena lowered her eyes.
"Yes, my Tome, even higher than love."
"I don't recognise you!"
Tome Polar could not bear objections, especially if they weren't upheld
by the logic of reason. He despised and rejected everything that seemed
unfounded. This had been encouraged in him since early childhood by his
parents, whom he remembered vaguely (he had been the youngest of nine
children), and it had subsequently developed thanks to his own outstanding
abilities, enabling him to laugh off any lack of understanding. But to meet
with no response from the girl of his choice was too hard for Tome Polar. A
spoiled darling of fate, he refused to believe his ears. His mood darkened
and he said haughtily:
"I didn't expect your love to be so feeble that it would pale before
the first flash of superstition."
"You must make a vow," demanded Ena in a ringing voice that echoed
under the roof of the cave, "you must make a vow never again to try and
learn the secret of matter which is supposed to be liable to
disintegration."
"How can I make such a vow if that is the one thing I yearn for?"
"I thought you were yearning for me..."
Tome Polar was taken aback. He had been ready for anything in the
marriage ceremony with Ena Fae except this unreasonable stubbornness. He did
not know that his bride was speaking for generations of Faetesses who had
handed down their concern for posterity to her. Perhaps the terrible
disaster on Faena had awakened in the exiles on Mars a new feature which
should guarantee life for the Marians. This had found expression in the
Great Elder's Prohibitions, which had been passed on to all without
exception.
The tragedy of Faena must not happen again.
Ena realised that Tome Polar would only respond to conviction. She sat
beside him on a rock near the stalactite with the inscriptions and told him
in a sad voice everything she had learned from her mother about the
destruction of Faena.
The exasperated Tome Polar refused to listen. To him, the Marian girl's
story was an ignorant fairy tale full of senseless superstitions. What use
was the mere assertion that the Faetians who escaped the destruction of
their planet had flown from it in a kind of projectile that, it was claimed,
moved on its own without pushing itself off from anything? Incidentally, the
possible disintegration of matter was quite rightly not in any way connected
with such movement.
Convinced that a Marian girl's fictitious duty, to save the population
of Mar from future disasters, was being put higher than her own love for
him. Tome Polar decided that she did not truly love him.
Hot-tempered, vain, and, moreover, not one to acknowledge
half-measures, he broke it off with the girl he loved and walked out of the
stalactite cave on his own.
Behaving like that in the heat of the moment, however, proved much
easier than living without Ena afterwards.
Tome Polar began pining away. The population of the underground City of
Life (it was so named after the River of Life in the caves) was not so great
that Tome and Ena could avoid one another. On the contrary, they kept
meeting one another accidentally all the time, and Ena seemed even more
beautiful than ever to Tome Polar. He started trying to make a date with
her, but Ena was cold and distant. At least she managed to make that
impression on him.
He was suffering. "She's simply oppressed by ignorant superstitions,"
he thought, trying to justify her to himself.
He soon became convinced that he couldn't live without Ena. By this
time, his dreams of setting up a laboratory for himself in a distant cave
had also faded away. He hadn't the strength to equip it by himself, and the
Marians he approached for help refused, mentioning the hostility of their
wives. These, evidently, were prisoners of the same superstitions as the
young Ena.
Tome Polar was in despair. The ancient traditions were tightening round
him in a ring, as if squeezing the breathing tubes of a space-suit.
Civilisation on Mar had developed in an unusual way. Receiving the
heritage of a more ancient culture, the Marians on the whole devoted all
their energies not to the struggle with the representatives of the animal
world, since the planet's atmosphere was unfavourable for the development of
certain species, but to the struggle with the harsh natural environment. It
was only possible to live in shelters supplied with artificial air and go
out to the surface in space-suits. Plants could be grown successfully at the
oases, but the Marians had to supply artificial irrigation and tend them
while wearing space-suits. The struggle of rational beings with one another
remained only in the memories of long-past generations that had become
embodied in the duty of the Marian women and girls.
Perhaps like no other Marian of her kind, Ena felt the full burden of
that duty. She suffered more than Tome Polar, because she could renounce her
duty in the name of love. She didn't do so, however, never doubting for a
moment that she was protecting the whole population of Mar from destruction.
Yet she was the first to call Tome Polar into the Cave of Youth.
Tome Polar was overjoyed. He was no longer hoping for mutual vows at
the monument to the Great Elder. He simply wanted to see her.
Ena came to her beloved fully armed with the cunning of her
great-grandmothers, who had not lived solely on Mar. She knew perfectly well
about his unsuccessful attempts to equip a cave and make the instruments he
had invented. She brought with her a flower grown at the oasis.
"Isn't it more important for the Marians to devote all their energies
to the struggle for water?" she said, ruffling the petals with her fingers.
"I would like my Tome" (she said MY TOME, and his heart missed a beat) "to
lay the foundations of an enormous task for the future-to create a river
deep underground that will bring the melted waters from the poles to new
oases. Isn't that more important than seeking the conditions for the
disintegration of matter, forbidden by the Great Elder? Leaves, flowers,
fruits..."
Tome Polar had a lively mind. One hint was enough for him to imagine
the vast installations of the future irrigation system, as fabulous as the
ice caps at the poles. Moreover, he was game for anything just so long as it
would bring Ena back to him.
"I surrender, my incomparable Ena," he said, taking the flower from
her. "Rather let me leave for the poles in search of melted water than lose
you."
So Tome and Ena were joined after overcoming the obstacle that had come
between them, and in this way was buried the idea of the disintegration of
matter that had arisen so unexpectedly among the Marians. The Great Elder's
behest had been fulfilled.
...The struggle for power on Phobo was fought between Vlasta Sirus and
Mrak Luton. It ended in favour of the intractable Faetess when Mrak Luton,
skilfully driven by her to a heart attack, suddenly died.
Next, Nega Luton, who did not wish to yield her supremacy, was poisoned
by a fruit specially grown by Vlasta in the greenhouse.
Left on Phobo, its native inhabitants, the Siruses, lived for many
cycles, sick to death of each other's company.
When Dovol Sirus, at an advanced age, fell ill, Vlasta, "desirous of
relieving his sufferings", reduced the oxygen supply to his cabin and then,
to put an end to them, turned the tap right off.
Vlasta Sirus continued her husband's memoirs and, reduced to despair,
with no one left on the station to order about, took her own life by jumping
outside without a space-suit. Her rigid corpse, preserved by the absolute
cold of interplanetary space, became an eternal satellite of Station Phobo.
Epilogue
О forebears, forebears! Who are you?
Toni Fae, Marian poet, early period
Av had not yet reached maturity and still bore his father's abbreviated
name, but his younger brother still went by the child's name of Avik.
Av was a strong, graceful boy and resembled his father, from whom he
had inherited the long, powerful neck, like a tree-trunk, the curly head and
the firm, dimpled chin. The slightly uplifted eyebrows and the clear gaze
made his face calm and quizzical. He loved wearing the skin of a spotted
predator, slinging its fanged head over his shoulder onto his chest.
Av became first helper to his father, who was finding it increasingly
difficult to feed his big family by hunting.
Av was a skilful archer, able to pierce any branch on a tree without
missing. The boy made himself a sharp stone knife which was in no way worse
than his father's metal one. He taught himself to wield a spear with a sharp
stone head that he had fashioned himself. He also had a replaceable metal
spear-point with a silvery blade and brown prickles. He didn't know where
his father had obtained such a strange spear-point and he kept it for
exceptionally difficult duels when he had to fell his dangerous enemy with a
dexterous blow. His mother cautioned him against these fights and could not
in any way get used to the idea that her son was in constant danger when
hunting in the forest.
The boy merely laughed, which threw Ma, his sister, into raptures.
One day, an enormous reptile with a powerful long body but no legs fell
onto him from a tree. It coiled itself round the boy several times, crushing
him in a deadly embrace. Av was out hunting alone, a long way from his
father. It was no use crying and it was impossible anyway-he couldn't even
gasp for breath. Then he acted as his father had taught him: he tensed all
his muscles, not letting the serpent crush his ribs in its coils.
It was a silent struggle. The boy realised that he was doomed. He had
often watched from the undergrowth as a serpent crushed its victim to death.
The boy didn't know how much longer he could hold out. There was a crack as
the spear, pressed against his side with his arm, snapped in two.
The fanged head of the spotted predator slung over his shoulder was
used by Av as a kind of pocket or bag. A spare spear-point was kept between
the jaws. If only he could get at it!
The serpent, its coils wound round his body, was rolling over the
ground with him.
The boy was still alive, straining muscles that were on the verge of
giving way. He was also watching out for a moment when the maw of the
spotted predator was facing the ground.
Fortunately, the serpent itself was rolling its victim over in order to
exhaust him completely. Ave's hope was justified: the spare spear-point fell
out.
He could see it quite near him, but could not reach it with his hand
pinned to his side.
From time to time, the serpent loosened its coils to deceive its
Some of the metal pipes used as corridors and the premises of the
disused laboratories were detached from the station. Braked by the reactive
force of the defence rocket, they were to leave the station's orbit and,
reducing speed relative to the Marian orbital velocity, were to begin their
descent onto the planet. Because of its thinness and low oxygen content,
Mar's atmosphere should add to the braking effect on the falling metal
without causing re-entry burn-up.
The whole of Vydum Polar's operation took a considerable time, during
which all the Faetians lived together. The condemned, however, kept apart
from the rest and their attitude to them was hostile.
The leave-taking of the Marians and the condemned was consequently not
a particularly sad occasion. On the contrary, both sides had a feeling of
relief.
Dm Sat and Toni Fae were the first to cross over into Quest. Both were
thinking about Ave, Mada and Gor Terr who had self-sacrificingly given up
their places on the ship to the Faetians from the space stations. How were
the other three finding it on Terr? Would they hold out in the battle with
the Faetoids?
Then all the other Faetians who were leaving went into the ship through
the airlock of the station's central section.
Ala Veg went up to Toni Fae.
"We're going to a new world together," she said, putting her hand on
his shoulder.
The young Faetian nearly choked with emotion. Incredible trials and
tribulations lay ahead of them, but he was happy.
Toni Fae had to determine the exact landing place for the reserve metal
to be used by future generations of Marians.
Um Sat ordered that Quest should land as near as possible to the metal
dropped onto Mar. Initially, they would have to dig the first deep shelter
themselves. Afterwards, perhaps, they would be able to find natural caves
into which future generations would move.
Remembering the lessons taught to him by his friends on Terr, Toni Fae
began the gradual undocking of the ship from the central section of Station
Phobo.
"Will some other spaceship ever come close to this station?" he
wondered. "And when will it be?"
None of those remaining behind was in the central section.
Nega Luton and Vlasta Sirus locked themselves in their cabins.
Mrak Luton, his arms thrust behind his back, was pacing up and down the
ring corridor onto which the lifts opened. He was considering how to seize
power on Station Phobo. It was Vlasta Sirus whom he regarded as his main
opponent, not the bloated Dovol Sirus.
He mentally assigned them all to the various sections leaving the sole
leadership to himself. They had many, many cycles to live yet!
The Faetians may not have known about the behaviour of spiders in a jar
and how they devour one another. Consequently, the court in space, when
leaving the condemned on Phobo, was not influenced by this example.
However...
Dovol Sirus became the chronicler on Phobo. He solemnly wrote memoirs
which, in his view, would tell the truth about the tragedy of Faena and its
space colonies.
A long, long time afterwards, they did indeed, in certain respects,
help to establish the fate of the condemned.
Chapter Five
When the wail of a newborn child was heard in the Faetians' house, Dzin
was in the forest nearby. She crept up to the window, squatted down and,
gripping her heels with her forepaws, began listening. Sensing that the
hunters were returning, she leapt for cover into the undergrowth and from
there she looked round at the stake-barred window.
The first native Terran had appeared in the Faetians' house. He had to
be called by his father's abbreviated surname-Av, or simply Avik.
Mada doted upon her first baby. Often, with his arm round her
shoulders, Ave would look for a long time at the tiny, helpless creature.
"The first boy on Terr!" boomed Gor Terr happily. "It's a good thing
that a boy was born first. Let him grow up fast so that I can teach him many
tricks of the trade that a r-real Faetian ought to know."
Gor Terr was a wonderful comrade. Modest, tactful, quiet in spite of
his reverberating bass voice, he looked after Ave and Mada in the most
touching way.
"The future of civilisation is in you," he would say.
After Quest's thunderous lift-off, the Faetoids were evidently afraid
of the Faetians for some time and did not come near them. But they gradually
forgot their fear. The beasts became bolder; Ave and Gor noticed them
several times while hunting in the forest. They even stole the trophies
occasionally.
As a precaution, the Faetians decided to keep together wherever they
went.
The Faetoids took advantage of this.
Once, at dusk, when Mada, left on her own in the house, went to the
lake for water, three or four shaggy beasts rushed up to the barred windows
and began smashing the stakes.
On hearing the baby cry out, Mada took alarm and ran back, spilling
water from the home-made vessel before finally throwing it aside.
The door of the house was locked, but she could not hear Avik crying
inside. She threw the door open and froze with horror.
Stakes broken out of the window were lying on the floor. The chi Id was
gone. There was a foul reek of animals. Mada recognised it at once.
Snatching something from the shelf and not closing the door behind her,
Mada rushed into a thicket where she had glimpsed a tawny red shadow.
Mada was not conscious of her actions. She was impelled purely by her
maternal instinct, which replaced courage, strength and even cool
calculation.
Her sixth sense told her that the animal that had kidnapped Avik was
heading for the caves so as to tear him to pieces...
There is no knowing how she guessed which way the beast would run; she
even guessed that the creature was afraid of crossing water. She twice
forded a loop in the stream and reached the gully ahead of the kidnappers.
Dzin sprang down from the tree, clutching the howling infant to her
hairy breast.
Mada had already heard her child crying in the distance. She ran
towards the creature. The powerful beast automatically turned back, but Mada
overtook her in a single bound. Then Dzin turned round and bared her fangs.
Mada boldly advanced on the shaggy beast, although Dzin could easily
have snapped her fragile opponent in two. But Mada was the more intelligent.
Not for nothing had she stopped in the house to snatch something from the
shelf. She didn't have a firearm, but she was holding in her fist a silvery
bullet, being careful not to be stung by the brown prickles.
Dzin had not yet released the stolen baby. She threateningly reached
for Mada with her free paw. Mada dodged it, jumped at Dzin and struck her in
the breast.
One blow by the fragile Faetess was enough for the enormous beast to
crash backwards to the ground. Her paws quivered convulsively and her eyes
rolled upwards.
Mada snatched up the child without noticing that he too had curled up
and gone silent. She ran off, but her way was barred by two more female
Faetoids who had accompanied Dzin on her raid.
Mada rushed fearlessly forward, hugging the inert little body to her
breast.
Both Faetoids were struck by accurate blows in quick succession. They
collapsed. Their paws curled up and their muzzles froze in a grimace.
Without pausing for breath, Mada ran back the way she had come. The
spray from the stream helped to bring her to her senses. She looked at Avik
for the first time and screamed.
Someone touched her shoulder. Mada looked round to find Ave bending
over her. He had heard her cry in the forest and had rushed to her
assistance. Gor Terr was standing close by, ready to beat off any attack.
Ave understood everything without having to be told.
"How did this happen?" he asked in a strangled voice.
Mada told him through her tears about the raid by the Faetoids.
She walked beside Ave, pressing the stiff little Avik to her breast.
They did not say another word until they were home.
"Isn't there any antidote at all?" cried Mada, wringing her hands after
she had laid the infant on its tiny bed.
Ave stood at the shelf, counting up the rounds of ammunition. Then he
turned to Mada.
"Let Mada warm her son. Fortunately, what's missing here is a stun
bullet, not a poisoned one. Warmth will bring Avik round."
Gor Terr was carefully refixing the stakes in the window.
Avik's first cry as he came round was no less of a joy to Mada than his
very first wail, heard in the house not so long ago.
"This means the Faetoids will recover too," observed Mada.
"That's bad," responded Gor Terr. "They've found the way here!"
Gor Terr proved right. The Faetoids had become completely fearless and
began to fight a real war with the newcomers.
Several times, the beasts openly attacked the hunters, who only beat
off the animals by using firearms. Their reserves of ammunition were
limited. They would hardly last out for more than a few local cycles.
Gor Terr had the idea of fixing a bullet to the end of a spear so as to
strike the beasts without losing the bullet. The inspiration for this had
been Mada's desperate behaviour in the battle with Dzin.
Ave insisted that stun bullets should be used, not the poisoned ones.
He did not want to exterminate the Faetoids, who were Terr's indigenous
population.
Gor Terr grumbled about this, but finally agreed.
However, this softness on the part of the Faetians led to even more
ferocity and determination from the Faetoids. The realisation that, if they
had a brush with the newcomers, they would wake up alive after only a brief
sleep, led to the beasts imagining that they could always get away with it.
It came to the point at which the herd laid systematic siege to the
house. The men could not go out hunting and each time they were forced to
disperse the frenzied Faetoids waiting for them outside the door.
Gor Terr began determinedly insisting that the enemy should be wiped
out.
"Ave's right," objected Mada. "Can we really bring the ill-fated
Faena's terrible principles to Terr? The Faetoids didn't come to us, we came
to them uninvited. Perhaps we could find a common language with them."
"R-really?" said Gor Terr, astonished, and he became thoughtful.
The situation deteriorated. The Faetoids were no longer the stupid
beasts who had originally seized the newcomers in the forest so as to eat
them alive. They now seemed guided by will and thought inspired by someone
more rational. They were fighting to exterminate the Faetians or drive them
away. Mada could not go outside alone for water or golden apples any more.
Shaggy bodies could always drop on her from a tree to strangle her or tear
her to pieces. Hit by the stun weapon, they recovered consciousness to
attack again on the next day. Their brazen determination was impressive and,
perhaps, had indeed been born of a feeling of immunity to punishment. The
beasts could evidently understand only crude force and deadly danger.
"They'll all have to be killed off," decided Gor Terr.
But Mada and Ave didn't agree.
"It would be better if we went away from here," suggested Mada. "This
is their place. They have the right to drive uninvited guests away."
"Will you ever get away from them?" asked Gor Terr, gloomily doubtful.
"D'you remember the snowy mountains we saw through the upper porthole
on Quest? We'll go where it's too cold for the Faetoids. They won't come
after us."
"You have no r-right to risk the child's life," boomed Gor Terr. "But
you're right about one thing. Someone's got to leave here. Either the
Faetians or the Faetoids."
From that time on, Gor Terr began disappearing frequently from the
house and returning without the usual hunting trophies.
Ave and Mada didn't ask him where he was going, believing that it was
up to him to tell them.
He was, in fact, secretly making his way to the gully with the caves.
He had selected a reliable shelter and spent a long time observing how the
Faetoids lived.
He had marked out an enormous shaggy Faetoid who was evidently the
leader of the tribe. Wasn't it he who was conducting the war on the
newcomers?
Exceptionally burly and fierce, he dealt ruthlessly with anyone who
displeased him. He once gave Dzin a terrible beating: Gor Terr spotted her
unerringly among the other beasts. However, it was not just strength that
made him superior to the rest of the Faetoids. His brain must have been more
developed than that of any other individual.
The Faetoids had not yet developed as far as rational speech, but they
nevertheless communicated amongst themselves with monosyllables that
differed mainly in cadence. After being beaten, Dzin fled the cave and came
upon Gor Terr hiding in a thicket.
She took fright at first, then squatted in silence not far from him,
clutching her heels with her forepaws, and began making soft, piteous
sounds. When he realised that she was not going to make a noise at the sight
of him, Gor Terr didn't strike her with his stun-spear. He was conceiving a
plan of insane daring, and Dzin could be useful to him.
Every day after that, when Gor Terr went to the hiding-place that he
had picked between two close-growing tree-trunks, he would find Dzin waiting
for him.
She became a kind of ally to him. Gor Terr could not explain anything
to her. But she behaved exactly as he wanted. With her animal instinct, she
was able to guess his intentions. Several times, when one of the Faetoids
drew near to Gor Terr's hiding-place, Dzin jumped up, screamed threateningly
and gesticulated to drive the uninvited beast away.
Gor Terr's dangerous plan was soon ripe for action. He decided to
disclose it to the others.
When she heard him, Mada decided that he was having another crazy spell
and offered to shock him out of it with an injection.
But Gor Terr was adamant.
"One thing's certain," he affirmed. "The herd's got to be driven out of
here; it must be led away. They'll take me for one of themselves. I look
sufficiently like them and I know their habits. I'll deal quickly enough
with the disobedient ones. I'll become their tyrant, their r-ruler, their
dictator. And to their own advantage. I'll teach them sense and r-reason."
It proved impossible to dissuade Gor Terr. He regarded his scheme as
the duty of a friend.
"We certainly won't win a war with them," he said. "I'll lead them off
into the mountains. When they're settled there, I'll come back to you.
You'll already have had lots of children. I'll turn your little ones into
r-real Faetians."
Gor Terr began preparing for his exploit as if for an afternoon stroll.
In fact, he didn't need to take anything with him.
Ave could not let him go out alone and decided to back him with
small-arms fire from under cover if events did not work out as Gor Terr
planned.
As Gor Terr had requested, Ave Mar was following Gor Terr at a distance
so as not to frighten Dzin. They had embraced as they left the house and had
said goodbye in silence. But Mada had wept in the doorway as she waved Gor
Terr goodbye.
Dzin was sitting in her usual attitude. She was waiting.
Ave watched the strange scene from a distance.
Gor Terr went up to the Faetoid, who met him amicably, even warmly. He
then took off his Faetian clothes.
He was covered with dense hair, but compared with one of the shaggy
beasts he looked almost naked, although in general body shape, height, broad
shoulders and stoop he vaguely resembled a Faetoid. He could have been
mistaken for one in the dark, but, of course, not in broad daylight or at
dusk. So, at least, it seemed to Ave Mar, who feared greatly for his friend.
But Gor Terr, unarmed, went fearlessly down into the gully with Dzin.
Ave was gripping a pistol so as to come to Gor Terr's aid; his friend
was already approaching the cave from which he had rescued his captive
friends.
Ave watched as the Faetoids who met Dzin paid no attention to her
companion at first. Then they noticed something unusual about him and began
gathering in twos and threes to study the newcomer with the thin hair whom
Dzin had brought back with her.
At last, the rest returned from the hunt.
Accompanied by Dzin, Gor Terr went bravely up to them.
Dzin began shrieking something, squatting, falling onto the stones and
jumping up again. She must have been explaining that she was starting a new
family and was presenting the one of her choice to the others.
The Faetoids didn't take the one of her choice very much. One beast, at
the far end, stood up, rudely thrust Dzin aside and struck the stranger with
his forepaw. To be more precise, he had intended to strike. But before he
could do so, he shot up into the air and crashed to the ground several paces
away. Bellowing, he got up on all fours and sprang at his assailant like a
spotted predator. But the stranger dealt him such a blow that the Faetoid
spun round on the stones, howling. The others reacted to the incident with
what seemed like total indifference. However, no one else dared try his
strength with the newcomer.
Interestingly enough, Gor Terr had only to take his clothes off for the
beasts not to recognise their former enemy and not even to see any
difference between him and themselves.
Sol was rising. It was the beginning of the magnificent dawn that had
impressed the Faetians so much during the first days of their sojourn on
Terr.
The Faetoids, however, were not admiring it. They were lying down to
sleep in their caves.
Only one particularly large beast with repulsive features, flared
nostrils and brown fangs protruding from his mouth, wandered from cave to
cave as if checking something.
His mental powers were unlikely to have been so developed that he could
really have been capable of checking anything at all. He might simply have
been wandering aimlessly from one cave to another.
Any beast he found outside, however, hurriedly disappeared into the
darkness under the vaulted roof.
Ave had still not left his observation post, fearing for Gor Terr's
safety.
He had stayed there all day, well aware how alarmed Mada must be for
him. He was waiting for, and dreading, the showdown between Gor Terr and the
leader.
The leader appeared earlier than the rest and summoned all the others
with a throaty scream.
Stretching and yawning, the Faetoids emerged reluctantly from their
shelters. Gor Terr also came out. Compared with all the others, he now
looked almost puny. No wonder the beasts were looking askance at the new
arrival. He didn't wait to be attacked, but exhibited his own character.
For no apparent reason, he attacked a fairly inoffensive Faetoid,
nimbly knocking him off his hind legs and hurling him down to the bottom of
the gully. Another was outraged at this conduct on the newcomer's part, but
paid dearly for it. Gor Terr rushed at him in a fury and, pinning him to the
stone wall, began banging his head so hard against it that the other howled
with pain.
At this point, the infuriated leader decided to put the wild one in his
place. He began bellowing with wrath, but this had no effect on the
newcomer, who knocked another beast over and hurled him down to the bottom
of the gully.
The leader's patience snapped. He snatched up a heavy stone and threw
it at the rebel. Neither Gor Terr nor Ave Mar had been expecting this. Ave
nearly fired, drawing a bead on the leader, but desisting when he saw that
Gor Terr had nimbly dodged the stone.
That Faetoid knew how to use weapons! This meant that he was more
developed than the others!
Ave didn't know what Gor Terr was going to do next, but his friend
didn't stop to think. He, too, picked up a stone and threw it at his enemy
with much better results.
The leader jumped and then bellowed with fury, hurling himself at Gor
Terr. But the other was already rushing to meet his enemy.
The Faetoids were bunched together at the rocky wall, watching the
savage battle. Their enormous leader, compared with whom the newcomer was
merely a small animal, crushed Gor Terr underneath his own weight.
At this point, Ave realised what he must do.
The Faetoids howled with glee at this duel and the lesson being taught
to the newcomer by their leader. Because of all the shouting, the crack of a
shot went unnoticed. Ave didn't miss, aiming at the leader's shaggy back
just below the powerful neck.
Half-crushed by the heavy body, Gor Terr realised what had happened. As
if continuing the fight, he raised the massive, convulsed body of the leader
up on his outstretched arms and hurled him from a rocky ledge down to the
bottom of the gully.
The Faetoids tried to look down, gibbering. Those thrown down by Gor
Terr had recovered from their beating, had successfully climbed up onto the
ledge and were crowded together in the rear of the herd; but their leader
was still lying motionless.
Ave had fired the first live round on Terr. The leader was dead.
Dzin bounded nimbly down to the bottom of the gully and began dancing
frenziedly near the overthrown body.
Dealing out punches and blows, sometimes knocking the beasts over, Gor
Terr drove all the Faetoids back into their caves. He had put a stop to the
aggressive campaign evidently launched by his predecessor.
The stranger's incredible strength convinced the beasts that it was
useless to resist him.
"The tyrant has seized power," thought Ave. "Now he will teach the
Faetoids to use clubs, he will make their hunting more successful, the herd
will no longer starve and will be content with the new leader."
Thus did the naked leader appear in the herd of Faetoids.
Ave and Mada never managed to find out anything more about Gor Terr.
Their self-sacrificing friend kept his word, however. He led the herd
of Faetoids away somewhere else. No longer did the shaggy beasts annoy the
solitary Faetians.
Chapter Six
Polar, great-great-great grandson of Vydum Polar, the first Marian
inventor, who was honoured on Mar alongside Brat Lua, the creator of the
first cave shelter, had inherited from his remote ancestor a daring and
penetrating mind that was immune to all prohibitions.
He was a young Marian with a handsome, calm and self-confident face, a
straight chin and a curly head on the long, sturdy neck typical of the
Marians.
He recognised no obstacles in life, being always ready to tear them
down. He learned easily and eagerly, flummoxing the teachers with his
questions. It seemed to him that the writings of his ancestors concealed
something about the origin of the Marians.
Tome Polar would put on a space-suit, without which Marians could not
breathe their planet's atmosphere, and would often wander over the desert
sands. He was looking among the mountain ridges for a cave that could be
used as a laboratory. In it, mentally, he was already carrying out daring
experiments on matter.
However, he had neither the instruments nor a cave for his research.
Once upon a time, the first Marians had been lucky. They had found in
the mountains an interconnected network of caves with an underground river
flowing through them which they named the River of Life.
Most probably of all, his ancestors had come from a remote region of
Mar where the conditions had once been different: the air had been
breathable and there had been rivers flowing on the surface of the planet
(as now in the caves). That was why the legends told of incredibly large
areas of water. After all, every drop of the River of Life in the
underground city was precious. They even obtained water artificially,
extracting it from mines sunk in distant caves. Water, together with the
metal found in the depths, was the basis of Marian civilisation. Owing to
the small amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, metal was native. This baffled
Tome somewhat. After all, his remote ancestors had breathed in the open air.
Tome Polar finally discovered a convenient little cave with a narrow
entrance which could easily be converted into an airlock.
Excited and happy, he went down on to the sandy plain from where he
would make his way direct to the oasis of cultivated plants and further on
down into the underground city.
In his short life. Tome Polar had not known any landscapes other than
the dead Marian sands. They were dear to him and he thought them beautiful.
As he walked over them, he sometimes tried to imagine himself crossing the
bed of one of the fabulous seas of the ancient Marians. But his sceptical
reason gained the uppermost over fantasy.
He could not imagine what was absolutely impossible.
Tome Polar was hoping to return to the city not alone, but with Ena
Fae, the most wonderful girl on the planet. At least, so she seemed to him.
He knew where to find her and headed for the clumps of nutritive plants
irrigated by water from the underground river. Tome knew from the ancient
folk tales that there was even supposed to be water on the surface at their
planet s poles, and at a low heat level it solidified there in the form of a
hard cap. This cap sometimes melted under Sol's rays. A lovely folk tale! If
it could be proved true, the Marians would one day deliver the melted water
from the poles to their oases. But, in the meantime, the fabulous
accumulations of solid water on Mar, if they existed, were infinitely far
away from the underground Marian city.
To the inhabitants of the legendary Faena, the local plants would have
looked like sickly bushes. But to Tome Polar, they were an impassable
thicket in which it was possible to make out with difficulty several figures
in space-suits.
They could all have seemed identical, but not to Tome Polar. He had no
difficulty in recognising Ena, who was gathering fruits.
She was the only creature on Mar to whom Tome Polar could confide his
secret thoughts. He had decided to do that today. He and Ena would begin
experimenting in the new cave together and they would revolutionise Marian
civilisation.
The Marian girl, lissom in spite of her garb, was gathering fruits.
Tome Polar went up to the bushes.
Ena Fae recognised him, signalled to him with a wave and followed after
him.
They did not switch on the intercom in their helmets so that the others
wouldn't hear them talking. They understood one another without words.
The love story of Tome and Ena was touchingly simple. They were brought
together by Great Chance, which seemed to be answering a legitimate need.
They met during the celebrations for the end of their studies. The young
people were singing and dancing in one of the remoter caves.
The stone icicles of stalactites hung from the roof to meet the needles
of stalagmites reaching up from the floor. Joined in some places, they
formed fantastic columns that seemed to be supporting the roof.
Lit up so that they seemed almost transparent, these colonnades,
demolished in other caves to make way for buildings, gave a magical
appearance to the place where the young were celebrating.
The young Marians used to enjoy themselves here with all their hearts,
donning airtight helmets for a lark to make themselves unrecognisable.
Tome Polar somehow managed to fall for his dancing partner, although he
hadn't yet seen her face. It seemed to him that it ought to be beautiful, so
vibrant and tender was her voice, even when muffled by the mask.
When Ena took off her helmet, she turned out to be exactly what he had
been expecting.
A straight brow sloping slightly backwards to continue the line of the
nose, elongated eyes with a slight slant up towards the temples, russet hair
with a heavy bun on the neck so that it did not fit easily into a
helmet-such was his new acquaintance, Ena Fae. There was something in her of
her great-great-great-grandmother, Ala Veg; but neither Tome nor Ena had the
slightest idea of what she had looked like.
It was love at first sight between the two Marians, as if two torches
had been brought to the same fire.
The young couple passed through the entrance airlock, which had always
been a source of puzzlement to Tome Polar. Why had it been made entirely of
metal (and when there was a permanent metal famine!), round in shape and
straining upwards, like the ancient skyscrapers of the legendary Faena? Had
the first Marians perhaps wanted to set up a monument to the beautiful fairy
tale? Tome Polar, of course did not share the superstitions according to
which the tower had once voyaged among the stars with no mechanical means of
propulsion. This legend had been born of the unusual shape of the
installation which served as an entrance airlock to the city.
There was only one real monument in the city, the one to the Great
Elder. Sculpted out of a stalagmite, the Elder of ancient times towered to
his full enormous stature, with his stone beard falling onto his chest and
with mystery in the dark, piercing cavities of his eyes.
New deposits had formed with the years on the stone sculpture, and
these smoothed over (as in memory) the features of the great Marian of the
past who had called himself a Faetian.
The monument to the Great Elder stood in the cave of the young.
It was towards this that Tome Polar and Ena Fae made their way when
they had taken off their space-suits.
Nothing, it seemed, could ever come between them to spoil their radiant
love and happy life together. Tome and Ena, however, had a hard trial ahead
of them.
According to the ancient Marian tradition, it was by the monument to
the Great Elder that vows of love and faithfulness were sworn, and also the
work was chosen which, from that moment on, the future married couple would
take upon themselves. On Mar, the young people bound themselves with ties of
marriage which, as they understood it, concerned no one else.
On this spot, the lovers had to declare to one another which path in
life each had chosen.
"Ena!" said Tome. "There can be no greater happiness for me than to be
with you always, not only in the family but at work. I want you to be a
loyal helpmate to me in the scientific research which I have decided to do."
"Am I ready for this?" said Ena doubtfully, looking admiringly at her
betrothed.
"It will be enough for me if you are by my side in our
cave-laboratory."
"What cave?" asked Ena, brightening up. "Are they going to give us a
small hall?"
"No. I've found myself a cave in the mountains. We'll fit it out
ourselves. We'll make airlocks and we'll take with us the air-recycling
equipment from spare space-suits."
"But what for?" asked Ena, amazed. "Surely you could find a cave in the
underground city?"
"The experiments we are going to do are dangerous. No one believes me,
but I suspect that matter has a tendency to disintegrate into even smaller
particles than the 'indivisible' ones of which matter consists."
"Matter has a tendency to disintegrate?" echoed Ena in horror.
"Yes, that's the thought I've reached. Of course, it's only a
scientific hunch, nothing more. You and I will take a vow here to enrich the
Marians with the energy of disintegration."
"No," said Ena Fae firmly. "You're mad to have such ambitions."
"But why? Are you really going to become one of those who misunderstand
me?"
"Listen to what, as a Marian girl, I have to say to you. We who bear
within us new generations of Marians have had passed down to us the
injunction of the Great Elder at whose monument we now stand."
"The Great Elder bequeathed to us the power of knowledge. What else?"
"Follow me," commanded Ena.
Tome obediently went after her.
Ena took him by a roundabout path. Descending steeply, it led them into
a stalagmite cave which was evidently directly underneath the Cave of Youth.
Ena pointed at the roof.
"The Elder above is pointing downwards, and if you follow the line of
direction, it runs through a stalactite to indicate some writings."
Sure enough, under the stalactite there was a stone slab fashioned from
the base of a removed stalagmite. The deposits on it had been carefully
cleaned off.
"Read it!" commanded Ena.
Some passages in the inscription seemed particularly strange to Tome
Polar.
"Never must the Marians, descendants of the Faetians, touch those
fields of knowledge which led to the destruction of the beautiful Faena.
Never must they strive to learn of what matter consists, never must they
strive to achieve movement without propulsion. These prohibitions are for
the protection of future generations who must be saved from the suffering
that comes from such knowledge."
Tome turned to Ena.
"What crude superstition! What did this Elder do to be called great?
What do the structure of matter and movement without propulsion have in
common? Apart from that, the deciding question should be, 'Who is in
possession of the knowledge?' "
"I don't know enough to argue with you," said Ena, "but what rational
people know today can become the property of very different ones tomorrow.
That is why the Prohibitions of the Great Elder have been imposed on the
Marian women. That duty of ours is higher than anything else. No one must
know what is forbidden."
"What d'you mean by 'higher than anything else'?" said Tome, much put
out. "Higher than love?"
Ena lowered her eyes.
"Yes, my Tome, even higher than love."
"I don't recognise you!"
Tome Polar could not bear objections, especially if they weren't upheld
by the logic of reason. He despised and rejected everything that seemed
unfounded. This had been encouraged in him since early childhood by his
parents, whom he remembered vaguely (he had been the youngest of nine
children), and it had subsequently developed thanks to his own outstanding
abilities, enabling him to laugh off any lack of understanding. But to meet
with no response from the girl of his choice was too hard for Tome Polar. A
spoiled darling of fate, he refused to believe his ears. His mood darkened
and he said haughtily:
"I didn't expect your love to be so feeble that it would pale before
the first flash of superstition."
"You must make a vow," demanded Ena in a ringing voice that echoed
under the roof of the cave, "you must make a vow never again to try and
learn the secret of matter which is supposed to be liable to
disintegration."
"How can I make such a vow if that is the one thing I yearn for?"
"I thought you were yearning for me..."
Tome Polar was taken aback. He had been ready for anything in the
marriage ceremony with Ena Fae except this unreasonable stubbornness. He did
not know that his bride was speaking for generations of Faetesses who had
handed down their concern for posterity to her. Perhaps the terrible
disaster on Faena had awakened in the exiles on Mars a new feature which
should guarantee life for the Marians. This had found expression in the
Great Elder's Prohibitions, which had been passed on to all without
exception.
The tragedy of Faena must not happen again.
Ena realised that Tome Polar would only respond to conviction. She sat
beside him on a rock near the stalactite with the inscriptions and told him
in a sad voice everything she had learned from her mother about the
destruction of Faena.
The exasperated Tome Polar refused to listen. To him, the Marian girl's
story was an ignorant fairy tale full of senseless superstitions. What use
was the mere assertion that the Faetians who escaped the destruction of
their planet had flown from it in a kind of projectile that, it was claimed,
moved on its own without pushing itself off from anything? Incidentally, the
possible disintegration of matter was quite rightly not in any way connected
with such movement.
Convinced that a Marian girl's fictitious duty, to save the population
of Mar from future disasters, was being put higher than her own love for
him. Tome Polar decided that she did not truly love him.
Hot-tempered, vain, and, moreover, not one to acknowledge
half-measures, he broke it off with the girl he loved and walked out of the
stalactite cave on his own.
Behaving like that in the heat of the moment, however, proved much
easier than living without Ena afterwards.
Tome Polar began pining away. The population of the underground City of
Life (it was so named after the River of Life in the caves) was not so great
that Tome and Ena could avoid one another. On the contrary, they kept
meeting one another accidentally all the time, and Ena seemed even more
beautiful than ever to Tome Polar. He started trying to make a date with
her, but Ena was cold and distant. At least she managed to make that
impression on him.
He was suffering. "She's simply oppressed by ignorant superstitions,"
he thought, trying to justify her to himself.
He soon became convinced that he couldn't live without Ena. By this
time, his dreams of setting up a laboratory for himself in a distant cave
had also faded away. He hadn't the strength to equip it by himself, and the
Marians he approached for help refused, mentioning the hostility of their
wives. These, evidently, were prisoners of the same superstitions as the
young Ena.
Tome Polar was in despair. The ancient traditions were tightening round
him in a ring, as if squeezing the breathing tubes of a space-suit.
Civilisation on Mar had developed in an unusual way. Receiving the
heritage of a more ancient culture, the Marians on the whole devoted all
their energies not to the struggle with the representatives of the animal
world, since the planet's atmosphere was unfavourable for the development of
certain species, but to the struggle with the harsh natural environment. It
was only possible to live in shelters supplied with artificial air and go
out to the surface in space-suits. Plants could be grown successfully at the
oases, but the Marians had to supply artificial irrigation and tend them
while wearing space-suits. The struggle of rational beings with one another
remained only in the memories of long-past generations that had become
embodied in the duty of the Marian women and girls.
Perhaps like no other Marian of her kind, Ena felt the full burden of
that duty. She suffered more than Tome Polar, because she could renounce her
duty in the name of love. She didn't do so, however, never doubting for a
moment that she was protecting the whole population of Mar from destruction.
Yet she was the first to call Tome Polar into the Cave of Youth.
Tome Polar was overjoyed. He was no longer hoping for mutual vows at
the monument to the Great Elder. He simply wanted to see her.
Ena came to her beloved fully armed with the cunning of her
great-grandmothers, who had not lived solely on Mar. She knew perfectly well
about his unsuccessful attempts to equip a cave and make the instruments he
had invented. She brought with her a flower grown at the oasis.
"Isn't it more important for the Marians to devote all their energies
to the struggle for water?" she said, ruffling the petals with her fingers.
"I would like my Tome" (she said MY TOME, and his heart missed a beat) "to
lay the foundations of an enormous task for the future-to create a river
deep underground that will bring the melted waters from the poles to new
oases. Isn't that more important than seeking the conditions for the
disintegration of matter, forbidden by the Great Elder? Leaves, flowers,
fruits..."
Tome Polar had a lively mind. One hint was enough for him to imagine
the vast installations of the future irrigation system, as fabulous as the
ice caps at the poles. Moreover, he was game for anything just so long as it
would bring Ena back to him.
"I surrender, my incomparable Ena," he said, taking the flower from
her. "Rather let me leave for the poles in search of melted water than lose
you."
So Tome and Ena were joined after overcoming the obstacle that had come
between them, and in this way was buried the idea of the disintegration of
matter that had arisen so unexpectedly among the Marians. The Great Elder's
behest had been fulfilled.
...The struggle for power on Phobo was fought between Vlasta Sirus and
Mrak Luton. It ended in favour of the intractable Faetess when Mrak Luton,
skilfully driven by her to a heart attack, suddenly died.
Next, Nega Luton, who did not wish to yield her supremacy, was poisoned
by a fruit specially grown by Vlasta in the greenhouse.
Left on Phobo, its native inhabitants, the Siruses, lived for many
cycles, sick to death of each other's company.
When Dovol Sirus, at an advanced age, fell ill, Vlasta, "desirous of
relieving his sufferings", reduced the oxygen supply to his cabin and then,
to put an end to them, turned the tap right off.
Vlasta Sirus continued her husband's memoirs and, reduced to despair,
with no one left on the station to order about, took her own life by jumping
outside without a space-suit. Her rigid corpse, preserved by the absolute
cold of interplanetary space, became an eternal satellite of Station Phobo.
Epilogue
О forebears, forebears! Who are you?
Toni Fae, Marian poet, early period
Av had not yet reached maturity and still bore his father's abbreviated
name, but his younger brother still went by the child's name of Avik.
Av was a strong, graceful boy and resembled his father, from whom he
had inherited the long, powerful neck, like a tree-trunk, the curly head and
the firm, dimpled chin. The slightly uplifted eyebrows and the clear gaze
made his face calm and quizzical. He loved wearing the skin of a spotted
predator, slinging its fanged head over his shoulder onto his chest.
Av became first helper to his father, who was finding it increasingly
difficult to feed his big family by hunting.
Av was a skilful archer, able to pierce any branch on a tree without
missing. The boy made himself a sharp stone knife which was in no way worse
than his father's metal one. He taught himself to wield a spear with a sharp
stone head that he had fashioned himself. He also had a replaceable metal
spear-point with a silvery blade and brown prickles. He didn't know where
his father had obtained such a strange spear-point and he kept it for
exceptionally difficult duels when he had to fell his dangerous enemy with a
dexterous blow. His mother cautioned him against these fights and could not
in any way get used to the idea that her son was in constant danger when
hunting in the forest.
The boy merely laughed, which threw Ma, his sister, into raptures.
One day, an enormous reptile with a powerful long body but no legs fell
onto him from a tree. It coiled itself round the boy several times, crushing
him in a deadly embrace. Av was out hunting alone, a long way from his
father. It was no use crying and it was impossible anyway-he couldn't even
gasp for breath. Then he acted as his father had taught him: he tensed all
his muscles, not letting the serpent crush his ribs in its coils.
It was a silent struggle. The boy realised that he was doomed. He had
often watched from the undergrowth as a serpent crushed its victim to death.
The boy didn't know how much longer he could hold out. There was a crack as
the spear, pressed against his side with his arm, snapped in two.
The fanged head of the spotted predator slung over his shoulder was
used by Av as a kind of pocket or bag. A spare spear-point was kept between
the jaws. If only he could get at it!
The serpent, its coils wound round his body, was rolling over the
ground with him.
The boy was still alive, straining muscles that were on the verge of
giving way. He was also watching out for a moment when the maw of the
spotted predator was facing the ground.
Fortunately, the serpent itself was rolling its victim over in order to
exhaust him completely. Ave's hope was justified: the spare spear-point fell
out.
He could see it quite near him, but could not reach it with his hand
pinned to his side.
From time to time, the serpent loosened its coils to deceive its