XXII
I opened my eyes to a dark blur of confusion. My shoulder hurt--a painshooting through it. Something lay like a weight on me. I could notseem to move my left arm. Then I moved it and it hurt. I was lyingtwisted. I sat up. And with a rush, memory came. The crash was over. Iwas not dead. Anita--
She was lying beside me. There was a little light here in the silentblur--a soft mellow Earthlight filtering in the window. The weight onme was Anita. She lay sprawled, her head and shoulders half way acrossmy lap.
Not dead! Thank God, not dead! She moved. Her arms went around me, andI lifted her. The Earthlight glowed on her pale face.
"It's past, Anita! We've struck, and we're still alive."
I held her as though all of life's turgid dangers were powerless totouch us.
But in the silence my floating senses were brought back to reality bya faint sound forcing itself upon me. A little hiss. The faintestmurmuring breath like a hiss. Escaping air!
I cast off Anita's clinging arms. "Anita, this is madness!"
For minutes we must have been lying there in the heaven of ourembrace. But air was escaping! The _Planetara's_ dome was broken andour precious air was hissing out.
Full reality came to me. I was not seriously injured. I found I couldmove freely. I could stand. A twisted shoulder, a limp left arm, butthey were better in a moment.
And Anita did not seem to be hurt. Blood was upon her. But not herown.
Beside Anita, stretched face down on the turret grid, was the giantfigure of Miko. The blood lay in a small pool against his face. Awidening pool.
Moa was here. I thought her body twitched; then was still. Thissoundless wreckage! In the dim glow of the wrecked turret with its twomotionless, broken human figures, it seemed as though Anita and I wereghouls prowling. I saw that the turret had fallen over to the_Planetara's_ deck. It lay dashed against the dome side.
The deck was aslant. A litter of wreckage! A broken human figureshowed--one of the crew who, at the last, must have come running up.The forward observation tower was down on the chart room roof: in itsmetal tangle I thought I could see the legs of the tower lookout.
So this was the end of the brigands' adventure. The _Planetara's_ lastvoyage! How small and futile are humans' struggles. Miko's daringenterprise--so villainous--brought all in a few moments to this silenttragedy. The _Planetara_ had fallen thirty thousand miles. But why?What had happened to Hahn? And where was Coniston, down in this brokenhull?
And Snap! I thought suddenly of Snap.
I clutched at my wandering wits. This inactivity was death. Theescaping air hissed in my ears. Our precious air, escaping away intothe vacant desolation of the Lunar emptiness. Through one of thetwisted, slanting dome windows a rocky spire was visible. The_Planetara_ lay bow down, wedged in a jagged cradle of Lunar rock. Amiracle that the hull and dome had held together.
"Anita, we must get out of here!"
"Their helmets are in the forward storage room, Gregg."
She was staring at the fallen Miko and Moa. She shuddered and turnedaway and gripped me. "In the forward storage room, by the port of theemergency exit."
If only the exit locks would operate! We must find Snap and get out ofhere. Good old Snap! Would we find him lying dead?
We climbed from the slanting, fallen turret, over the wreckage of thelittered deck. It was not difficult. A lightness was upon us. The_Planetara's_ gravity-magnetizers were dead; this was only the lightMoon gravity pulling us.
"Careful, Anita. Don't jump too freely."
We leaped along the deck. The hiss of the escaping pressure was like aclanging gong of warning to tell us to hurry. The hiss of death soclose!
"Snap--" I murmured.
"Oh, Gregg, I pray we may find him alive!"
With a fifteen foot leap we cleared a pile of broken deck chairs. Aman lay groaning near them. I went back with a rush. Not Snap! Asteward. He had been a brigand, but he was a steward to me now.
"Get up! This is Haljan. Hurry, we must get out of here The air isescaping!"
But he sank back and lay still. No time to find if I could help him:there was Anita and Snap to save.
We found a broken entrance to one of the descending passages. I flungthe debris aside and cleared it. Like a giant of strength with onlythis Moon gravity holding me, I raised a broken segment ofsuperstructure and heaved it back.
Anita and I dropped ourselves down the sloping passage. The interiorof the wrecked ship was silent and dim. An occasional passage lightwas still burning. The passage and all the rooms lay askew. Wreckageeverywhere but the double dome and hull shell had withstood the shock.Then I realized that the Erentz system was slowing down. Our heat,like our air, was escaping, radiating away, a deadly chill settling oneverything. The silence and the deadly chill of death would soon behere in these wrecked corridors. The end of the _Planetara_.
We prowled like ghouls. We did not see Coniston. Snap had been by theshifter pumps. We found him in the oval doorway. He lay sprawled.Dead? No, he moved. He sat up before we could get to him. He seemedconfused, but his senses clarified with the movement of our figuresover him.
"Gregg! Why, Anita!"
"Snap! You're all right? We struck--the air is escaping."
He pushed me away. He tried to stand. "I'm all right. I was up aminute ago. Gregg, it's getting cold. Where is she? I had herhere--she wasn't killed. I spoke to her."
Irrational!
"Snap!" I held him. Shook him. "Snap, old fellow!"
He said normally, "Easy, Gregg. I'm all right."
Anita gripped him. "Who, Snap?"
"She--there she is...."
Another figure was here! On the grid floor by the door oval. A figurepartly shrouded in a broken invisible cloak and hook. An invisiblecloak! I saw a white face with opened eyes regarding me.
"Venza!" I bent down. "You!"
Venza here? Why ... how ... my thoughts swept on. Venza here--dying?Her eyes closed. But she murmured to Anita, "Where is he? I want him."
I murmured impulsively, "Here I am, Venza dear." Gently, as one wouldspeak with gentle sympathy to humor the dying. "Here I am, Venza."
But it was only the confusion of the shock upon her. And it was uponus all. She pushed at Anita. "I want him." She saw me; this whimsicalVenus girl! Even here as we gathered, all of us blurred by shock,confused in the dim, wrecked ship with the chill of death coming--evenhere she could jest. Her pale lips smiled.
"You, Gregg. I'm not hurt--I don't think I'm hurt." She managed to getherself up on one elbow. "Did you think I wanted you with my dyingbreath? What conceit! Not you, Handsome Haljan! I was calling Snap."
He was down to her. "We're all right, Venza. It's over. We must getout of the ship. The air is escaping."
We gathered in the oval doorway. We fought the confusion of panic.
"The exit port is this way."
Or was it? I answered Snap, "Yes, I think so."
The ship suddenly seemed a stranger to me. So cold. So vibrationless.Broken lights. These slanting wrecked corridors. With the ventilatingfans stilled, the air was turning fetid. Chilling. And thinning, withescaping pressure, rarefying so that I could feel the grasp of it inmy lungs and the pin-pricks in my cheeks.
We started off. Four of us, still alive in this silent ship of death.My blurred thoughts tried to cope with it all. Venza here. Iremembered how she had bade me create a diversion when the womenpassengers were landing on the asteroid. She had carried out herpurpose! In the confusion she had not gone ashore. A stowaway here.She had secured the cloak. Prowling, to try and help us, she had comeupon Hahn. Had seized his ray cylinder and struck him down, and beenherself knocked unconscious by his dying lunge, which also had brokenthe tubes and wrecked the _Planetara_. And Venza, unconscious, hadbeen lying here with the mechanism of her cloak still operating, sothat we did not see her when we came and found why Hahn did not answermy signals.
"It's here, Gregg."
Snap and I lifted the pile of Moon equipment to
which she referred.We located four suits and helmets and the mechanisms to operate them.
"More are in the chart room," Anita said.
But we needed no others. I robed Anita and showed her the mechanisms.Snap was helping Venza. We were all stiff from the cold; but withinthe suits and their pulsing currents, the blessed warmth came again.
The helmets had ports through which food and drink could be taken. Istood with my helmet ready. Anita, Venza and Snap were bloated andgrotesque beside me. We had found food and water here, assembled inportable cases which the brigands had prepared. Snap lifted them, andsignaled to me he was ready.
My helmet shut out all sounds save my own breathing, my poundingheart, and the murmur of the mechanism. The warmth and pure air weregood.
We reached the hull port locks. They operated! We went through in thelight of the headlamps over our foreheads.
I closed the locks after us: an instinct to keep the air in the shipfor the other trapped humans lying in there.
We slid down the sloping side of the _Planetara_. We were unweighted,irrationally agile with this slight gravity. I fell a dozen feet andlanded with barely a jar.
We were out on the Lunar surface. A great sloping ramp of cragsstretched down before us. Gray-black rock tinged with Earthlight. TheEarth hung amid the stars in the blackness overhead like a hugesection of a glowing yellow ball.
This grim, desolate, silent landscape! Beyond the ramp, fifty feetbelow us, a tumbled naked plain stretched away into blurred distance.But I could see mountains off there. Behind us, the towering, frowningrampart-wall of Archimedes loomed against the sky.
I had turned to look back at the _Planetara_. She lay broken, wedgedbetween spires of upstanding rock. A few of her lights still gleamed.The end of the _Planetara_!
The three grotesque figures of Anita, Venza and Snap had started off.Hunchback figures with the tanks mounted on their shoulders. I boundedand caught them. I touched Snap. We made audiphone contact.
"Which way do you think?" I demanded.
"I think this way, down the ramp. Away from Archimedes, toward themountains. It shouldn't be too far."
"You run with Venza. I'll hold Anita."
He nodded. "But we must keep together, Gregg."
We could soon run freely. Down the ramp, out over the tumbled plain.Bounding, grotesque, leaping strides. The girls were more agile, moreskillful. They were soon leading us. The Earth shadows of theirfigures leaped beside them. The _Planetara_ faded into the distancebehind us. Archimedes stood back there. Ahead, the mountains camecloser.
An hour perhaps. I lost track of time. Occasionally we stopped torest. Were we going toward the Grantline camp? Would they see our tinywaving headlights?
Another interval. Then far ahead of us on the ragged plain, lightsshowed! Moving, tiny spots of light! Headlights on helmeted figures!
We ran, monstrously leaping. A group of figures were off there.Grantline's party? Snap gripped me.
"Grantline! We're safe, Gregg! Safe!"
He took his bulb light from his helmet; we stood in a group while hewaved it. A semaphore signal.
"_Grantline?_"
And the answer came, "_Yes. You, Dean?_"
Their personal code. No doubt of this--it was Grantline, who had seenthe _Planetara_ fall and had come to help us.
I stood then with my hand holding Anita. And I whispered, "It'sGrantline! We're safe, Anita, my darling!"
Death had been so close! Those horrible last minutes on the_Planetara_ had shocked us, marked us. We stood trembling. AndGrantline and his men came bounding up, weird, inflated figures.
A helmeted figure touched me. I saw through the helmetpane the visageof a stern-faced, square-jawed young man.
"Grantline? Johnny Grantline?"
"Yes," said his voice at my ear-grid. "I'm Grantline. You're Haljan?Gregg Haljan?"
They crowded around us. Gripped us, to hear our explanations.
Brigands! It was amazing to Johnny Grantline. But the menace was overnow, over as soon as Grantline realized its existence.
We stood for a brief time discussing it. Then I drew apart, leavingSnap with Grantline. And Anita joined me. I held her arm so that wehad audiphone contact.
"Anita, mine."
"Gregg--dear one!"
Murmured nothings which mean so much to lovers!
As we stood in the fantastic gloom of Lunar desolation, with theblessed Earthlight on us, I sent up a prayer of thankfulness. Not thatthe enormous treasure was saved. Not that the attack upon Grantlinehad been averted. But only that Anita was given back to me. In momentsof greatest emotion the human mind individualizes. To me, there wasonly Anita.
Life is very strange! The gate to the shining garden of our loveseemed swinging wide to let us in. Yet I recall that a vague fearstill lay on me. A premonition?
I felt a touch on my arm. A bloated helmet visor was thrust near myown. I saw Snap's face peering at me.
"Grantline thinks we should return to the _Planetara_. Might find someof them alive."
Grantline touched me. "It's only human--"
"Yes," I said.
We went back. Some ten of us--a line of grotesque figures boundingwith slow, easy strides over the jagged, rock-strewn plain. Our lightsdanced before us.
The _Planetara_ came at last into view. My ship. Again that pang sweptme as I saw her. This, her last resting place. She lay here, in heropen tomb, shattered, broken, unbreathing. The lights on her wereextinguished. The Erentz system had ceased to pulse--the heart of thedying ship, for a while beating faintly, but now at rest.
We left the two girls with some of Grantline's men at the admissionport. Snap, Grantline and I, with three others, went inside. Therestill seemed to be air, but not enough so that we dared remove ourhelmets.
It was dark inside the wrecked ship. The corridors were black. Thehull control rooms were dimly with Earthlight straggling through thewindows.
This littered tomb. Cold and silent with death. We stumbled over afallen figure. A member of the crew. Grantline straightened fromexamining it.
"Dead," he said.
Earthlight fell on the horrible face. Puffed flesh, bloated red fromthe blood which had oozed from its pores in the thinning air. I lookedaway.
We prowled further. Hahn lay dead in the pump room. The body ofConiston should have been near here. We did not see it. We climbed upto the slanting, littered deck. The air up here had all almost hissedaway.
Again Grantline touched me. "That the turret?"
No wonder he asked me! The wreckage was all so formless.
"Yes."
We climbed after Snap into the broken turret room. We passed the bodyof that steward who just at the end had appealed to me and I had leftdying. The legs of the forward lookout still poked grotesquely up fromthe wreckage of the observatory tower where it lay smashed downagainst the roof of the chart room.
We shoved ourselves into the turret. What was this? No bodies here!The giant Miko was gone! The pool of blood lay congealed into a frozendark splotch on the metal grid.
And Moa was gone! They had not been dead. Had dragged themselves outof here, fighting desperately for life. We would find them somewherearound here.
But we did not. Nor Coniston. I recalled what Anita had said: othersuits and helmets had been here in the nearby chart room. The brigandshad taken them, and food and water doubtless, and escaped from theship, following us through the lower admission ports only a fewminutes after we were gone.
We made careful search of the entire ship. Eight of the bodies whichshould have been here were missing: Miko, Moa, Coniston and five ofthe crew.
We did not find them outside. They were hiding near here, no doubt,more willing to take their chances than to yield to us now. But how,in all this Lunar desolation, could we hope to locate them?
"No use," said Grantline. "Let them go. If they want death, well, theydeserve it."
But we were saved. Then, as I stood there, realization leaped at me.Saved? Were we not
indeed fatuous fools?
In all these emotion-swept moments since we had encountered Grantline,memory of that brigand ship coming from Mars had never once occurredto Snap and me!
I told Grantline now. He stared at me.
"What!"
I told him again. It would be here in eight days. Fully manned andarmed.
"But Haljan, we have almost no weapons! All my _Comet's_ space wastaken with equipment and the mechanisms for my camp. I can't signalEarth! I was depending on the _Planetara_!"
It surged upon us. The brigand menace past? We were blindlycongratulating ourselves on our safety! But it would be eight days ormore before in distant Ferrok-Shahn the nonarrival of the _Planetara_would cause any real comment. No one was searching for us--no one wasworried over us.
No wonder the crafty Miko was willing to take his chances out here inthe Lunar wilds! His ship, his reinforcements, his weapons were comingrapidly!
And we were helpless. Almost unarmed. Marooned here on the Moon!