The Project Gutenberg EBook of Proktols of Neptune, by Henry Hasse

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Title: Proktols of Neptune

Author: Henry Hasse

Release Date: April 27, 2020 [EBook #61950]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROKTOLS OF NEPTUNE ***




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Commander Janus stared in bafflement at the power-board of the Patrol ship Wasp. The Deflector needle was still gyrating wildly. That had begun five minutes ago. His lips tightened, and he looked up irritably as the First Mate peered inquisitively over his shoulder.

"Better check up on the course again, Devries!"

"Just did, sir. We're point oh-oh perfect, not the slightest aberrancy."

Janus swore under his breath. "I just can't figure it! Must be some object dead ahead to cause this disturbance, but why doesn't our Deflector beam shunt it from us or pivot us around it?"

He paced the Control room, stopped and looked over at Ketrik whose eyes were fixed steadily on the visipanel. "See anything yet?"

Ketrik merely shook his head, not looking up. That panel magnified their course several times, and Ketrik had the sharpest eyes in the Patrol.

"Damned if I like it a bit," Janus muttered, staring again at the crazy needle that seemed about to jump its bearings. "Devries, tell Blake to cut all jets. We'd better go into a drift until we are a little better able to determine what's wrong."

Devries stepped to the tube and gave the order to Blake in the rocket room. A moment later the Wasp was in the drift. Blake came forward to see what was up. Far behind rolled the hideous green ball that was Neptune, and immeasurably far ahead somewhere was Pluto. Devries stepped again to the chart and saw that the hair-line indicator still had Pluto right on the nose.

"I think I've got something," Ketrik spoke from the panel. The men crowded around him, peering into the square of blackness that seemed to swim as Ketrik turned the magnifying dial.

"I see it!" Blake exclaimed. "Something ... a meteor? Looks like it's drifting right at us."

But Ketrik shook his head, and his eyes narrowed. "That looks to me like a derelict, and it's my opinion that we're drifting at it."

"A spacer?" Commander Janus asked excitedly. "Can you make it out, Ketrik? Maybe it's Perrin! I hope to God it is, it'll save us days!"

But the next few minutes revealed that it wasn't Perrin's pirate ship. The drifting spacer was much larger, and of different design, with no name or emblem of any kind. And it was solid black, preventing easy detection against the blackness of space.

"It's a derelict all right," Devries said. "See that ragged gap in the hull near the stern?" He pointed and the others crowded around to look. He was right. In the side of the hull near the stern was a great jagged hole, that looked as though it had been made either by collision with a rogue meteor, or the blast of a space cannon.

They watched in silence as the strange craft drifted toward them. There was no sign of life aboard her; no attempts at communication or of establishing her identity. Quite obviously the craft was deserted.

Devries didn't like the looks of it one bit, and said so.

It loomed up larger and larger as the tiny Wasp was drawn swiftly to it. Then with a little shock the Wasp clanged against the strange ship's side and clung there.

The crew moved for the space-suits. Commander Janus snapped: "Wait a minute!" He stood there frowning, his gray hair bristling. "Something funny here. We'd better go slow." His eyes were troubled.

"But a derelict, sir," Blake said. "Space code says we're obliged to board her, examine her log."

"Don't quote me the space code!" Janus snapped. "Point is, is she a derelict? Maybe you failed to notice we didn't drift to her by natural attraction; we were pulled! Someone left on her magniplates. Why?"

"Could have been an accident," Blake suggested.

Janus shook his head. "Another thing. Her outer lock is open and we landed smack against it. All we've got to do is step over. How extraordinarily convenient."

Ketrik peered through the turret at the black derelict. "Say, you're right!" He grinned, started to quote an ancient nursery rhyme: "Walk into my parlor, said the spider—"

He stopped suddenly, aware of young Ross standing there with eyes aglow and eager. Ross was the novice member. The space-ennui had begun to get to him, so Janus had ordered him to his cabin to sleep it off. Once the ennui gets a grip on a man in the vast outer spaces he's not much good for anything, even though he might be a good spaceman in the inner planets.

Now Janus made up his mind, turned to him. "Ross, we're going across. You stand by the controls. Keep your eyes open, and your hand on the portable atom-blast."

Ross showed his disappointment, but obeyed orders.

"My hunch may be wrong," Janus warned, "but we'd better be careful anyway."

The men didn't need his admonition. As they passed out of the Wasp's lock and into the other, their hands all hovered around their atom-blasts. And the moment they stepped into the alien spacer they knew Janus' hunch hadn't been wrong. Looking down a long empty corridor, they saw a barred door; beyond that door was the stern compartment where the gap was in the metal hull.

But the rest of the spacer was still air-tight.

Janus flashed them a look that said, "See?" They threw back their helmets. Soundlessly they walked toward the bow, listening intently for any sign of life. They passed some narrow cross-corridors and many doors, all tightly closed. Devries, bringing up the rear, glanced behind him occasionally. Nothing. Nevertheless he shivered. There was a jittery tension in the very air.

They came in sight of the navigation room, and stopped suddenly. Janus stared at the odd looking controls. "I never saw a spacer like this before!" he whispered.

The voice behind him didn't whisper, it rang hollowly down the long corridor.

"No, I am sure you did not. Do not go any farther, please."

The four men whirled.

It was a mystery where they came from, those dozen fantastic beings behind them. They had heard no steps, no sound of a door opening.

Devries was nearest. His first startled impression was that they weren't more than semi-human: as tall as a man, but much thinner, with flexible wiry limbs. Absurdly large heads, quite hairless and glistening, from which protruded frail antennae. Eyes huge, lidless and staring. No perceptible noses. Mouths but thin gashes. Most striking of all, their entire skin shimmered with a metallic reddish-brown lustre; although the Earthmen learned later it was not metallic, but shell-like.

Ketrik was always reckless. His hand flew to his atom-blast. Much faster, the nearest of the creatures raised a flame pistol. The charge passed so close to Ketrik's body it scorched his suit. Ketrik changed his mind, and the creature said: "That is better."

"Take it easy," Janus warned, still whispering. "We're in their trap now."

The creatures had keen hearing. "Indeed you are, Commander Janus," said the one with the flame-pistol, apparently the leader. "And it was so simple it was almost childish. But you Earthmen are always so noble, with what you call a space code; always ready to go to the aid of a helpless derelict. Or is it merely curiosity? The Martians are not so stupid, they never go prying."

The insult was lost on Janus, who stared. "How do you know my name?" he demanded.

The creature spoke perfect English, but the voice was toneless and the words precise, clipped: "That does not matter. It is my business to know certain things."

"Well, I'm sorry to say I don't know as much about you!" Janus eyed the flame-pistol angrily. "Kindly state your business with us. We're from the Earth Patrol, on official—"

"Yes, I know. In search of one of your race, a pirate, one whom you call Perrin. I have heard of this Perrin." The creature's facial expression didn't change, but the wide blackness of his staring eyes turned to a momentary angry orange, then back to black. He went on in his cold voice:

"I have not introduced myself. I am known as V'Naric. If you wish to know more about us I think your friend there can tell you. It would be amusing to hear about us from his lips." The men were amazed as the creature gestured toward Devries with the pistol. Again the eyes changed color, this time to a soft green which must have signified amusement.

Had the creature read Devries's mind? Yes, he knew them, or rather he'd heard something about them; this was the first one he'd actually seen.

"We're in a spot now," he said in a low tone to his friends. "Those are the Proktols, inhabitants of the single moon of Neptune! They usually stick pretty close to home, but once they go on the warpath, or rather the space-path, you can bet something's up."

"Yes, yes, go on," said V'Naric in his clipped voice, his eyes still green with amusement.

But at that moment the men heard the inner-lock clang shut, and a sudden roar of the rockets. Too late, they realized V'Naric had held their attention with conversation while a few of his men sneaked off to get the spacer under way.

They leaped to the ports and saw the Wasp drifting free. They saw something else. A flame leaped from this ship, touched the Wasp and lingered there. A circular spot on its silvery hull glowed suddenly red. Ross was frantically trying to swing the Wasp away.

"Good Lord! Ross!" Janus sprang toward V'Naric and clutched at him. "Stop it! One of our men is still aboard back there!"

V'Naric deliberately turned his back.

They saw the thin shell of the Wasp burst outward.

"You murdering devils!" yelled Ketrik, suddenly berserk. He leaped toward V'Naric in blind fury, reaching out with his hands.

V'Naric stepped aside, brought up his flame-pistol and calmly crashed the butt of it down upon Ketrik's head. Ketrik crumpled.

V'Naric turned to Devries casually, his eyes now black and placid. "You were saying?"

Devries went numb. He could only barely feel Blake's and Janus' hands restraining him as he tried to leap forward. But his brain was a searing thing of fire. "I was saying you're a blight on the universe, you damned unholy devils!" he shrieked. "You scum, you spawn of hell, you're unfit to inhabit the same space with decent men! I know what you do! I've heard all about you! If I ever get back to Earth I'll bring men out here to blast your filthy planet from the skies!" He shrieked other things, shrieked 'til his throat was raw.

When the red mist cleared from before Devries' eyes he saw V'Naric standing there complacently with his men around him. V'Naric opened his gash of a mouth. He uttered four sentences in that emotionless, precise English:

"I am really disappointed. You do not half do us justice. We are actually much worse than you paint us. I think you will soon have occasion to realize that."

He turned and gestured to his men. They came forward, wrapped their wiry arms around the Earthmen and hustled them down a narrow corridor. They thrust them in an empty room, but kept their atom-blasts, which they examined curiously. They dumped the unconscious Ketrik in on the floor.

The door clanged shut. The Earthmen felt a faint vibration in the bare metal walls as rockets thundered, sending the alien spacer surging ahead.

They managed to revive Ketrik after a while. Then they all looked questioningly at Devries.

Devries sank down on the floor, bowed his head in his hands and groaned. "Lord, what a spot to be in! I guess I let loose with some utter gibberish out there. I don't remember all that I yelled. But you wouldn't blame me if you knew what we're probably in for."

"I could make a good guess," Blake said, grinning wryly.

"No, you couldn't," Devries said, so solemnly that Blake's grin vanished. "Commander Janus, I noticed you made a wide sweep away from Neptune. I'll bet you've had orders to stay clear of there. Am I right?"

Janus nodded affirmatively, startled.

"I thought so. And didn't you wonder why?"

"It's not for me to wonder," replied Janus. "There are standing orders that Neptune's utterly unfit, uninhabitable, no reason to land there."

Devries nodded grimly. "All right, and now I'll tell you something. Neptune's not uninhabitable. At least its moon is not, for these Proktols live there, and where they can live Earthmen can live. But spacemen usually give Neptune a wide beam, at least those who have heard the rumor. I first heard it in a spacerfront dive on Mars, a few years ago, from a drunken half-breed Martian. He and two companions had been inward-bound from Pluto. They set down on Neptune's moon for a rocket repair. The Proktols got them and hauled them off to their capitol-city. There, before a vast populace, they tortured two of the men horribly. The third Martian managed to escape to his ship, and made it back to Mars alone."

Blake was aghast. "These Proktols did that? These—these things that have got us now?"

"Yes," Devries nodded.

"But why?"

"I don't know. The Martian who told me this didn't seem to know himself."

"Bunk!" Janus pronounced. "No one tortures men without any reason; not even these Proktols."

"But maybe they do have a reason!" Devries replied. "Oh, I'll admit, at first I didn't believe that Martian's story myself. I thought it was the effect of the tsith he was drinking, and God knows he needed it, poor devil. But when I looked in his eyes they weren't the kind of eyes I'd ever seen in a Martian or anyone else. They were mad eyes, mad with the sight they had looked upon."

"You said there were rumors," Ketrik spoke up. "I've never even heard of these Proktols before, much less any rumors about 'em."

Devries looked at Ketrik. "I told you they stayed close to home. But you know how many men from the inner planets have come out here, never to be heard of again. After that Martian's story, I made inquiries; mostly from hardened, independent spacemen. I went about the lowest dives of Mars, whispering surreptitiously about 'Proktols.' Out of a hundred I approached, only three men seemed to know what I was talking about. And two of these turned a funny color, and muttered something, and hurried away from me. Their silence was the best eloquence. The third man told me a vague, similar story to that of the Martian's."

"This torture the Proktols seem so fond of," Ketrik sneered. "Tell us about that."

"Well, it's—" Devries tried to tell them but he couldn't. That mad Martian had painted him a picture that rose up now in his brain and flooded it with horror. He was suddenly sick, he couldn't speak and he wished he couldn't think. He simply rolled over and lay there with his face to the wall.

The others were suddenly silent.

Blake spoke a minute later. His voice didn't sound the same. "I wonder where they're taking us?"

"There's your answer," Janus replied from the port where he was standing. "I can see Neptune almost dead ahead from here. And it's growing larger."

Hours later V'Naric came in, bringing them a pasty kind of food that didn't taste too bad. Apparently nonchalant, but very watchful, he stood just inside the door while they ate.

Devries watched him in turn. Already he had learned much just by observing V'Naric's eyes, apparently the Proktols' only medium of emotion. Black—as his were now—meant calm, orange meant anger, and green meant amusement.

When they had finished eating, V'Naric started to leave without a word. Devries stopped him.

"Would you mind telling us, now, where you're taking us and why?" he asked, careful not to lose his temper again. He figured it would do no harm, and might do infinite good, to learn as much as possible.

V'Naric hesitated, surveying him musingly. Then he answered indirectly: "Have you Earthmen ever heard of the sacred temple of Dhovril, or of the Shining Stone?"

No, the Earthmen had never heard of either. "Dhovril," Devries repeated, "that is your planet?"

"Yes."

"And this Shining Stone?"

V'Naric's eyes became green-tinged, and Devries wondered why. "The Shining Stone is merely a colorful meteoric fragment. Many years ago it came flashing through space and landed on Dhovril. The inhabitants there are semi-savage, and worship it, believing it a present from the gods. Of course to such as we"—he apparently meant himself and his companions—"the Shining Stone means nothing, but the others are roused to a fanatical fury when it is touched. And when it is stolen...."

"So you think we stole it!" Janus said. "We never set foot on your planet!"

V'Naric turned complacent black eyes upon him. "No, Commander, I did not say that. Because I know you did not steal it."

"Then why are you holding up?"

"You will see soon."

Ketrik, remembering that blow on the head, was regarding V'Naric balefully. And V'Naric was standing fairly close to him. Now Ketrik didn't move, merely turned his head and spat contemptuously in the Proktol's face.

V'Naric's hand leaped to his belt, like a whip lash, and snatched out the flame-pistol. He pressed it hard against Ketrik's body before any of the men could move. The swift flood of the angry orange filled his eyes.

But he didn't press the button. The orange slowly faded and gave way to a deep purple, as though he were remembering something, then it too faded. He jammed the pistol back in his belt, brought up his hand and slapped Ketrik sharply across the mouth. Those fingers were long and wiry and shell-like; they left four furrows in Ketrik's cheek from which blood oozed. But he stood there stolidly, regarding V'Naric with contempt. V'Naric turned abruptly and left the room.

"You damned fool!" Devries snapped. "Why did you do that?"

"I don't like him," was all Ketrik said, as he slowly raised his hand to his cheek.

"Oh, you don't! Well, he's not exactly in love with you now! He would have blasted you then, but he's got something else up his sleeve. I'd hate to be in your shoes."

Janus said: "We'd all hate to be in our shoes, but it looks like we are. I don't like this Shining Stone business. Must be a pretty important fetish on their world, eh?"

Blake muttered: "If it was stolen, I'll bet I know who got it. That damned pirate, Perrin! You know we had information he was out this way."

Devries said: "No. I think there's something else behind all this, something more than the Shining Stone. And I hate to think what."

He was still remembering a mad Martian's story.

Bells clanged. The vibration of the rockets ceased. Through the ports came a weird, green glow as they passed close to the atmosphere of Neptune. The spacer swung around that planet, using its gravity as a pivot, then the Earthmen saw the single tiny satellite which V'Naric had called Dhovril.

An hour later they were there, slanting down over a terrain of desert and serrated cliffs. The great ball of Neptune hung behind, filling half the sky, its glow casting just enough light over the satellite to tinge everything with a greenish grotesquerie.

"Lord, that gives me the creeps!" Blake muttered, peering out.

"This little planet must be pretty heavy, though," Janus estimated. "Gravity seems about right."

They passed beyond the cliffs and over a large desert. Then, far ahead, they saw the towering stone edifices of a city, gleaming a ghastly skull-white in the green tinged atmosphere. Devries turned his face away. He recognized the city from the Martian's description.

Before they quite, reached there, however, Blake cried: "Look! Down there!"

Far below them, covering a large section of desert, were row after row of blunt-nosed objects, looking like tiny silvery bugs, except they were motionless. But they weren't bugs. They were space-ships. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of them in formidable array.

Ketrik stared, then turned to Devries and exclaimed: "Hah! Thought you said these Proktols stuck close to home! Off-hand I'd say they've got other ideas now. I wonder what? I don't like the look of that fleet down there!"

But now their spacer was gliding in low over the city, settling down into landing cradles.

Janus turned to his men. "If we see a chance, we'd better make a break for it! I'd like to get at the Controls of this ship just once!"

"I'd rather get at our atom-blasts!" Ketrik snapped.

But they had no chance to do either. A score of the Proktols, with flame-pistols alert, came to escort them out. As they marched down a wide avenue thousands of the gathered populace gave vent to prolonged shouting, or rather shrilling. It was definitely unfriendly, and somehow fanatical, anticipatory.

The Earthmen looked at these inhabitants with interest. They seemed to be Proktols too, but in several ways were different from V'Naric and the others. They were smaller, hardly four feet tall, and frailer if that were possible. And they had no antennae. Neither did they wear any raiment that the Earthmen could see—evidence of their semi-savagery. But they seemed to respect the larger Proktols, for although their shrilling continued, they kept their distance and didn't touch the Earthmen.

"Just listen to those devils!" Blake said. "They're waiting, expecting something!"

They reached a vast plaza in the center of the city. Their captors marched them through the mass of shrilling little coppery devils, and into a building; then up a flight of stairs and into a bare stone room with a single tiny window looking out upon the square below.

As the last of the Proktols passed out of the room he pressed a key into a slot outside the doorway. A sheet of bluish, crackling flame leaped up from the floor, effectively barring the entrance.

Janus whirled to the window. A louder sound came swelling up from the tiny savages below as they caught sight of him.

"Shut up, we haven't got your damned Shining Stone! I wish V'Naric would tell 'em so," he added, coming away. "Sounds like they want our blood!"

Devries had a better idea of what they wanted, but he kept still. They hadn't long to wait. V'Naric came. He left some of his men outside, shut off the electrical barrier and stepped into the room and turned it on again. He held his flame-pistol ready in his hand.

"I am indeed sorry to have kept you waiting," he said with over-emphasized politeness, "but I had to consult with the Lahk-tzor as to your disposal. He has waited long. He is anxious to begin."

"And who might he be?" asked Janus, glaring.

V'Naric turned serious black eyes upon him. "Lahk-tzor," he said, obviously seeking the right term, "is our word for what you Earthmen might call the Greatest One, or the Ultimate—or more laterally, perhaps, the Brain."

"The Brain, eh?" Ketrik spoke up scornfully. "Well, if this Brain of yours has half the sense it was born with, it'll think twice before—"

V'Naric turned on him with suddenly angry eyes, and Janus intervened quickly: "Just what is this Brain, or Lahk-tzor? And if he's in authority here, why don't you take us to him?"

"That is not necessary. He is interested in you, but very impersonally." V'Naric's voice was cold. "I have been instructed to allow you to choose among yourselves who will be the One."

"The One?" Blake whispered to Devries. "What does he mean, the One?"

"For the Ritual," V'Naric said, as though they should have known.

"And suppose," Janus said, "none of us chooses to be the One?"

V'Naric shrugged in a purely Earthian manner and raised the flame-pistol a bit higher. "Then it will be a pleasure for me to choose for you."

"No, thanks." Janus glanced at the others questioningly, hesitated, then took a notebook from his pocket and tore a page into four strips of varying length.

Devries was watching his friends' faces. Either they didn't know what was going to happen or were pretending not to. Devries said: "You know what he means by the Ritual! It's just his polite word for the torture I was telling you about!"

None of them answered, and he knew that they knew.

V'Naric's emotionless black eyes watched them.

They drew, recklessly, and Blake held the shortest slip. His face went suddenly pale but he did not say a word.

V'Naric was disappointed. He stared past Blake at Ketrik. He said, "I wish it were you," as his eyes tinged with the angry orange again. He glanced around at them, then he went on musingly: "The Lahk-tzor need not know, and it can make no difference. Yes, it will be you!" He gestured with the flame-pistol.

"That's all right with me," said Ketrik contemptuously. Blake started to protest but Ketrik brushed him aside. "It's all right, I know what I'm doing. I defy these devils to do their worst." But he flashed them a look that said, "be ready!"

But V'Naric watched too closely. As they moved to the doorway he kept the pistol trained. He produced the key that shut off the electrical barrier. They passed outside, and it leaped up again.

The three men inside could dimly see through it. And they saw V'Naric's eyes turn away for a half-second.

Ketrik bent and lunged forward in one swift motion, flooring the frail Proktol in a vicious tackle. He snatched up the flame-pistol and sprayed it in a semi-circle as other Proktols came rushing in. Four or five fell with holes burned through their frail bodies. Still others came. Ketrik's arms flailed. His fist caught one squarely in the middle, and the brittle shell-like skin popped open in a wide gap as a thick colorless fluid oozed out. He hit another in the head, something snapped and the head dangled grotesquely. Ketrik's knee came up and another Proktol popped open, exuding a viscous stuff.

But there had been too many out there waiting. Their bodies were frail but their limbs were like steel cables. The men just inside the room could only look on helplessly as Ketrik went down, still swinging elbows and knees. A dozen wiry arms lashed him to the floor.

V'Naric rose to his feet, staggering a little, holding his middle as though he wished to vomit. He snatched a flame-pistol, aimed it, and changed his mind. He gave a staccato command in his own language.

"Can't blame me for trying!" Ketrik sang out to his friends, as he was hurried down the stairs.

Through the window they could see the horde of tiny Proktols still gathered in the square below. Suddenly the murmuring leaped to a louder clamor. Then they saw the reason for it. Ketrik was being dragged out into the square, through the throng toward a little dais. From the dais rose a single pillar of stone.

They fastened him securely to the pillar. The clamoring subsided a little. Those savages were waiting for something—just as the three Earthmen were waiting, watching the scene below them.

Some of the larger Proktols brought a huge metal disc, perhaps three feet in diameter. A hole was in the center. They put it over Ketrik's head and it rested on his shoulders.

"I don't like the looks of that," Janus muttered tensely. "What are they going to do?"

But they weren't through. Next, over Ketrik's head they placed a spacious wire cage which clicked into place on the rim of the disc.

"My God!" Blake said suddenly, staring. "Do you suppose they're going to run some kind of voltage through that thing?"

"That's a nice pleasant thought!" Janus snapped at him.

Devries turned away from them both. He knew better. "No," he told Blake hoarsely. "No, not that. Better come away."

But they couldn't come away. Horror, especially an unknown horror, has a fascination. They saw some of the Proktols seemingly in consultation. Presently a couple of them hurried away, and all that could be heard from that massed throng was a gentle murmuring as they swayed restlessly, waiting.

Then in the room behind them they heard the electrical crackling in the doorway cease. V'Naric stood before them again, ever watchful with the flame-pistol.

"That was a very noble effort on the part of your friend," he said, "but quite useless as you can see. Moreover, he killed some of my men, and I do not think he helped the rest of you by that." His eyes glittered. "Yes, before the Ritual ends this time I think all of you will have participated."

"We haven't got your damned Shining Stone," Blake grated through clenched teeth, "and we never even heard of it!"

"The Shining Stone? Oh, yes, I had quite forgotten I told you about it; but I neglected to say that it is quite safe. It is always quite safe, even when it is stolen; because, you see—we stole it."

"You stole it!" Janus repeated. "But didn't you say the Stone meant little to such as you?"

"Only as a means to an end. Commander Janus, you are a scientific man above all else. For that reason I respect you as much as I despise your stupid friend down there. I shall explain the Ritual you are about to witness. First: those little savages think you Earthmen stole their Shining Stone, because we wish them to think that; and you could never convince them otherwise. Therefore they must have their revenge. All this is very necessary for a certain reason you will understand shortly."

"I'm beginning to already," Blake said bitterly. "It's a high-powered racket and we're the fall guys."

V'Naric looked at him as though he didn't quite understand such English words.

A sudden, louder murmur came up from below.

"It has begun," V'Naric said, nodding toward the window. "If you will observe, please."

The men turned back to the window and watched. Devries at least half knew what to expect; but he felt the other two tense beside him as they realized the purpose of that cage over Ketrik's head.

A little door in the side of it was open, and one of the official Proktols was thrusting several tiny animals inside. They were sharp-fanged, scaled, almost reptilian. But they had beady little rodent eyes, and the eyes blinked as the animals scurried around the disc under the cage. Ketrik's head jerked convulsively at the nearness of them.

"Little inhabitants of our desert," came V'Naric's calm voice across the room behind them. "Ordinarily quite tame and harmless. But these are trained for this. They are very hungry."

The Earthmen's minds were too numbed just then. They didn't feel the full horror until sometime later. They just stood there in terrible fascination, staring down, unable to move; and behind them they could still hear V'Naric's cold voice, as though he were a class-room lecturer. He didn't even need to look as he spoke. He knew what was happening. He had seen this many times.

"The little creatures are a bit restless now. I imagine the way your friend moves his head frightens them. But they will become used to that presently, and then their work will begin."

But something else was happening down there. The crowd had become silent, not even a murmuring. They all seemed to be looking in the same direction, away from the dais where the Earthman was fastened. Then a path opened up. A procession of the large Proktols came through, with something on a movable platform in the midst of them.

Again V'Naric's voice: "I suppose the Lahk-tzor is entering now. Or the Brain as you would undoubtedly call it."

"Good Lord, yes," Janus murmured at last, staring. "That's what I'd call it, for that's what it is!"

The Brain was huge, five feet or more across, convoluted and pale but red-streaked. A dome of glass enclosed it. Beneath the bulging, pale-pink mass was something that might have been two tiny eyes and the veriest excuse of a chin, but from their distance the Earthmen could not be sure.

V'Naric's voice droned on, beating through their numbed consciousness: "You are wondering about the Brain. Long ago one of our race, one far ahead of his time, created it. In a period of six months he advanced evolution from a single cell through all its stages to what you see now. The Lahk-tzor—pardon me—the Brain down there is the most advanced evolutionary product yet to exist in this solar system. It slew its creator, but seemed to exhaust all its energy in so doing. For a long, long time it lay dormant. Such scientists as there were at the time tried to activate it, for they knew it wasn't dead; but their efforts were clumsy and futile.

"Then one day it began to pulse and think again, feebly. Do you know when, and why? I think you could guess, Commander Janus. It was the day the Shining Stone came flashing to land here. That event caused a tremendous religious hysteria among the savages, and it wasn't hard to connect that with the Brain's revival; the Brain was absorbing the accumulative mental flow that was impacting against it! Of course it has long been proven that thought is material just as light is material."

Of the three, Janus alone was beginning to show a gleam of interest as he listened to the toneless words. "I think I see the whole system now," he said bitterly. "Periodically you pull this Ritual business and get those little savages down there religiously worked up, in order to—" The idea was so ghastly he choked on the words and couldn't go on.

"In order to keep the Brain mentally activated," V'Naric finished for him. "Precisely. To those savages it is nothing more than a religious ritual, brought about by the revenge motive. But to us it is a scientific necessity. The Brain teaches us much. It was the Brain which thought out all our technicalities of space travel and most of our other achievements. By now it realizes we have no intention of letting it die; but periodically its thought-processes seem exhausted. When it feels that happening it informs us. Then we must activate it again, through the accumulative mental-hysteria of those thousands of little Proktols. It is easy to steal their Shining Stone, keep it safely in our custody awhile, and bring some hapless spacefarer here for them to vent their hysteria upon. A little complex and a little sardonic, but very necessary."

Janus, listening, nodded dully. He was remembering the huge fleet of space-ships they had seen waiting out on the desert; but he did not mention them. Instead he said: "And right now, what scientific problem is the Brain working on?"

V'Naric seemed proud to talk of the Brain, appreciative of Janus' scientific interest in it. "We can never quite tell what the Brain is thinking," he explained. "It propounds scientific theories to us, we put them to the test, and they are usually practical. But this I know: lately a change has come over it. We are sure it is planning something big. It never used to question us much, but now it is beginning to, about other planets, the solar system, the universe. Then it ponders.

"You see, it has never been away from here. It is restless now and I think it has ambitions! But we shall learn its plans when it has thought them through. From the astronomical data we have furnished it propounds vast calculations. Mathematically it is supreme! And it ponders...."

Now, suddenly, the sound below burst forth into a tremendous surge of unified shrilling. Hysteria. That's the word V'Naric had used, and this sounded like it! As if something interesting had started to happen.

They turned quickly to the window again. Yes, something had begun to happen. There was a wide flow of red down Ketrik's cheek. The sharp-fanged little beasts under the cage had begun their work, just as V'Naric had said they would. Another of them darted forward. Ketrik's head jerked, but it was useless. Another flow of red started down; again came the surge of hysterical sound.

No man should have watched that scene long, but they couldn't tell how many minutes they stood there at the window. Blake cracked first. He whirled away suddenly toward the doorway.

But V'Naric had silently gone, and the crackling sheet of flame across the entrance filled the room with a bluish glow. Blake stood tottering a moment, horror still in his eyes, a little moan deep in his throat; then he staggered over and flopped into a bunk at the side of the room, turning his face away.

Janus and Devries continued to look, but only for a few minutes more. V'Naric had said those vicious little animals were hungry; now, becoming bolder, they darted frequently at Ketrik's twisting head only a foot or so away. Ketrik didn't utter a sound, but every time another red streak started down they saw his features were contorted. Pretty soon they couldn't even see his features.

His eyes were shut tight, but once he opened them and twisted his head around and saw the men looking down. He tried to smile, but it was a grimace. He called, "Devries, remember what you swore! Do it! Get back to Earth if you can, then bring men out here and blast these devils to the hell where they belong! If you promise somehow to do that, I won't mind this so much. Don't watch any more, no telling how long—"

Ketrik stopped on that word, as his head jerked violently away again.

And all the while came the shrillings from the immense, watching throng. The men heard it rise and fall, rise and fall, in regular cadence. They could almost feel the impact of the hate going out, the hate for that Earthman who supposedly had violated their sacred Stone. Those savages didn't wish to tear Ketrik limb from limb; they had been trained in this, and it was a better revenge, more to their enjoyment.

A little apart, carefully guarded, was the huge Brain, grotesque and convoluted under its glass dome. Janus even thought he could see it pulsing rhythmically as the bursts of sound and thought-force swelled out to it. That tangible force was being absorbed, and gradually the Brain was taking on a deeper hue than the pale-pink.

Savagely the men paced the stone room. They examined the electrical barrier across the door, which was too obviously deadly. "How long does that go on?" Janus asked in horror, nodding toward the window.

"To the very end, I'm afraid," Devries replied. Twice more in the following hours he moved to the window, only to look quickly away when he saw the horrible thing was still going on. He couldn't see Ketrik moving any more, but the beasts were still at work.

And then, it must have been hours later, Devries awoke from a fitful sleep. He was conscious that all was silent as a tomb below. He crept to the window and saw that a weird kind of greenish, shadowy nightfall had come over the place. All those savage Proktols had gone away, and the Brain was gone, and the square below was empty. Save for Ketrik. He was still there, and the cage was still over his head, but it was empty.

Thank God, Devries thought, it's all over for him. But who will be next?

When next he awoke it was day again, or what served for day on that shadowy world; and the first thing he saw was Blake over at the window.

"You fool, come away from there!" Devries cried, springing up. "What good is it to watch? It's all over now for Ketrik anyway."

Blake turned to face him, and Devries saw a look in his eyes similar to that he had seen in the Martian's.

"He's alive, still alive!" Blake cried. "And it's still going on!"

It was then Devries heard those sounds of hate surging up again, and knew that the throng had again gathered to watch; but it was Blake's voice, and the look in his eyes, that made Devries' blood run cold.

"And I should have been down there instead of him!" Blake said; but the voice didn't sound like his any longer.

Devries should have watched him closer. He turned to wake Janus. Blake sprang suddenly past him, toward the doorway. Devries made a grab at him and missed. Blake leaped straight into that crackling sheet of electrical blueness.

But he didn't get through. He seemed to hang suspended in the air for a few seconds; then he crashed to the floor across the doorway, as the electrical flame enveloped and crackled over his body.

There was nothing they could do about Blake except keep their faces averted from the entrance where his charred body lay. But they couldn't close their ears to the waves of sound that came up from below. It seemed even more suggestive than before. Blake's words kept hammering in Devries' brain: "He's alive, still alive!" Blake had been the last to look out that window. Devries hated to think of what he had seen down there.

Grimly they examined the room again, although they'd done so a hundred times before. Two bare stone walls. In the third wall the window, far too narrow, and the adjacent stones solid and unmovable. In the fourth side the doorway, open except for the deadly sheet of blue crackling across it.

"That's the only way," Devries said, nodding toward it. "I'm sure V'Naric will be around here again; when he comes, watch for my nod and we'll make a rush. If we die, at least it won't be the way Ketrik did."

V'Naric did come again. He stared down at Blake's charred body and shook his head distressfully as he shut off the flame. He motioned for some of his men to take the body away.

"That is too bad," he said. "Very wasteful. It leaves only two of you." He nodded to the window. "It will soon be over with your friend down there, and I regret that. The fools have allowed it to progress too rapidly!"

Janus' attention was more on the flame-pistol than on the words. He glanced quickly at Devries, but the latter flashed him a look that said no.

V'Naric must have seen it. He raised the pistol slightly so that it leveled between them. "You are quite right," he said, "it would not be wise."

Janus tried to engage him in more conversation, but V'Naric seemed to know his purpose. He left, still watching them carefully as he shut off the flame and stepped out and turned it on again. His last words were: "I will leave you to decide between yourselves who will be next. It will be soon."

Janus whirled angrily. "Why didn't you take the chance? Now we're sunk. We'll probably never have another!"

"You're wrong," Devries replied. "Empty your pockets, quick!"

Janus stared at him, uncomprehending. "That slot in the doorway!" Devries explained. "I watched how V'Naric worked that key. I can't hope to duplicate it, but if we have a pocket knife or something—we might make a short circuit! Should have thought of that before."

Already he was searching his own pockets, and Janus quickly followed his example.

But their hopes waned. Neither of them had a knife, and what was worse, they had nothing else that might serve the purpose.

Devries turned away in despair. "Wouldn't you know it! And I always carry a knife—all except this time!"

Janus was still searching. Suddenly he gave a shout as he produced something from an inside pocket. A round, flat metal object. Devries saw that it was an ancient half-dollar. He had seen very few of them, and only in museums.

"My good luck charm," Janus said wistfully. "I've carried it with me ever since my first space flight."

Devries seized it eagerly. "We'll see how lucky it is!" He examined the narrow slot in the doorway, but its length was considerably less than the diameter of the coin. Nor could he tell how deep that slot was.

"We've got to get this down to proportion," Devries said grimly. "Even then it may not work, but we've got to try anything." He began rubbing the edge of the coin against the bare stone, and the rounded edge flattened infinitesimally. "Quite a job on our hands; we've got to get this diameter down to less than half!"

Taking turns, they kept at it, holding the coin in strips of cloth to protect their fingers from the heat of the metal. While one worked the other watched the doorway. Occasionally a Proktol passed by, but V'Naric did not come again.

Once Janus moved to the window and ventured to look down at the Brain again, but carefully kept his gaze averted from the spot where Ketrik was. Now he could distinctly see the huge mass of the Brain pulsing with the impact of the thought-force that swelled out to it. And now it was not pale-pink, it was red. It was even more than blood-red, it seemed fiery. He could sense the pulsing power of it, the super-mental force, and it seemed diabolic. Here, he knew, was a dangerous thing, a thing that should not exist in this solar system.

"Do you know what I think?" Janus said, turning back to Devries who was again working on the coin. "That Brain is mad! It's bound to be. God knows how long it's been receiving those Proktols' thought-force, living and thriving and planning on it—and that thought-force is hate! V'Naric said it's getting ambitions. Ambitions for conquest, I think. That's all that fleet of space-ships out there can mean!"

They worked slowly but steadily with the coin, gradually wearing its diameter down to fit the slot in the doorway. What they feared mostly now was that the Proktols would very soon be through with Ketrik down there, and one of them would be next.

But luck was with them. Suddenly, startlingly, that green shadowy nightfall came again. "Listen!" Devries said. All was silent again in the square below. He rushed to the window and saw the throng dispersing. The Brain, on its portable platform, was moving away into one of the buildings. Apparently the Ritual was over for the day.

"We'll have to work fast!" Devries exclaimed. "This side of the planet's away from Neptune now, but we don't know how long it'll last. This is our last chance!"

They worked frantically, risking skinned fingers on the stone wall. About an hour later Devries tried the mutilated coin in the slot, for perhaps the twentieth time, and this time it fitted. But would it reach as far as V'Naric's key had reached? Devries wrapped his fingers carefully with strips of cloth before he tried.

For a moment he thought it was useless. The metal touched nothing. Clumsily he managed to slide it forward a tiny bit more, and the silver oblong barely touched a hard surface.

Instantly at the contact there came a sputter of fused metal. The silver became suddenly hot under Devries' fingers. Sparks leaped out and burnt his hand. But he didn't care. He suppressed a joyous shout as the sheet of electrical flame across the doorway ceased.

They sprang through the door and stood a moment in the dim corridor, listening. Evidently their tampering had caused no other alarm. They moved swiftly to the stairs leading down into the square.

Peering down through the greenish dusk, they could see one of the Proktols at the bottom of the steps, evidently on guard. Devries gestured downward, and Janus nodded silently.

Those steps were solid stone, and they negotiated them silently by all Earthly standards, but they had forgotten these creatures had super-sensitive hearing. They weren't over halfway down when the Proktol sprang up, whirling to face them.

Devries acted on sheer instinct. He made the remaining distance through the air in one prodigious leap. The Proktol had reached for its flame-pistol, at the same time opening its mouth to sound an alarm. But there was only a shrilling gasp as Devries' shoulder caught it in the middle and hurled it backward.

Devries climbed to his feet, a little dazed. Janus took only one look at the Proktol and saw that the frail body was snapped in two; quickly he confiscated its flame-pistol. They stood quite still, listening, but there was no alarm.

In some of the radiating streets they could see the weird glow of many colored lights moving about, but the square seemed empty now in the gloom. They started to move across it, when something caught Janus' attention. He stopped.

Only a little distance away a stone pillar rose from a dais. A dark blur of a figure still sagged there with a wide, wire cage over its head. Janus stared through the gloom. He knew it was Ketrik, but there was something vaguely wrong, unnatural, about it. Something he could not immediately make out.

He moved swiftly nearer to find out. Devries, knowing what he would see, called a warning. But Janus didn't stop. He didn't stop until he came very near, and the full horror of the sight burst suddenly upon his vision.

The Ritual had gone on to the very end.

Through the ghastly, greenish dusk all that Janus saw was a white gleaming skull upon a still living body. He knew the body lived for he saw it still breathing, faintly, and he saw one of the out-stretched hands twitch. And from somewhere in the throat he heard a horrible little gurgling sound as though the skull were trying to speak. The brain, of course, had not been touched, but Janus knew the brain within that skull must now be mad. He could no longer think of the thing as Ketrik.

In those few seconds that he looked, Janus felt his mind slowly slipping away into a chaos of vertiginous horror, but he caught it on the brink. Instinctively he raised the flame-pistol, aimed, and made very sure that the thing which had been Ketrik no longer lived.

Devries gave a cry of warning. Four or five thin, shadowy figures were leaping from a nearby street. They had probably seen the flash of the flame-pistol.

Devries tensed. "For Lord's sake fire! Let 'em have it!" he cried hoarsely to Janus, as the creatures bounded nearer in long leaping strides. But Janus stood there, swaying a little, still dazed by the sight he had just seen.

Devries leaped to his side, snatched the flame-pistol just as the Proktols came within range. One of them reached for its pistol. At the same time Devries let his flash out in a sweeping path. He was about two seconds quicker. The Proktols' momentum carried them straight into it, and they crumpled with hardly a sound.

Devries grasped Janus' arm and shook him out of his daze. "That way!" he whispered, indicating a wide street across the square. "It's the way we came in. If we can get out into that desert, we might steal one of those space-ships we saw!"

But the delay had been fatal. Other Proktols had seen the flash, and were hurrying toward them. Janus stopped to snatch up a fallen flame-pistol, then they were leaping away across the square.

But they didn't get far. Now, not dozens, but hordes of Proktols were converging on the scene. The entire square seemed to resound with their shrilling cries, bringing others. The Earthmen hadn't even time to wonder where they all came from. Most of them were the smaller, savage Proktols, unarmed; but some of the others with flame-pistols were trying to press through.

As the men swept their flaming fire around, the savages fell back in shrilling panic. Scores of them were burned down, but more of the creatures kept surging in. The Earthmen knew it would be only a matter of seconds before the sheer mass of the creatures overwhelmed them. Still they pressed forward, slowly burning a way through.

For some foolish reason Devries remembered shouting at Janus: "These flame-pistols are all right as toys. Wish I had an atom-blast!" Then the shrilling coppery devils were closing around, clawing. Janus brought down some more with a sweeping blast, and Devries did the same, but the flame-charges were getting very weak.

Then the Earthmen stared. The savages were no longer pressing around them; they were fleeing away! For no reason at all they saw the space ahead of them open up. They saw a long, clean swath of Proktols topple like grain cut down by a mower. Those that did not fall fled frantically, shrilling in thin terror at a strangely invisible death.

The men couldn't quite understand what had happened, but they took swift advantage of the miracle and darted across the now open square. But the larger Proktols weren't so superstitious. A dozen of them, now unimpeded, came leaping to intercept them. But before these Proktols could raise their flame-pistols, they toppled too, cut clean in two! All was clear around the men now, and they paused to catch a breath.

"What the devil was it, Janus? What happened?"

"Pure luck! I knew that lucky piece of mine couldn't fail!"

But just then a figure emerged from the dark shadow of a building, and ran toward them. It was a familiar figure, and it held two atom-blasts, one of which it thrust into Devries' hands.

"Luck nothing!" Devries yelled, recognizing him. "It's Ross! How did you escape? We thought you died on the Wasp!"

"Not quite," Ross said. "Come on, this is no picnic! Let's get out of here before those devils stop wondering what an atom-blast is."

The men turned and sprinted for the open street ahead of them. But they hadn't taken five steps when Devries felt a crushing, numbing weight upon his brain. He staggered, fell to his knees; tried to rise but couldn't. Then he fell flat, as a force hit him like a giant invisible hand. Agonizingly he wondered why the others didn't help him; then he saw that they too were lying flat, dazed and panting heavily.

With a tremendous effort Devries twisted his head around and looked across the square. He saw the huge Brain under its glass dome. It was pulsing with a fiery, angry red radiance. And Devries knew it was the Brain's tremendous thought-force that was reaching out and crushing them there.

His right hand, still grasping the atom-blast, was doubled under him. Desperately he tried to move it—and did—about an inch. It seemed to weigh a ton. With a tremendous effort that took all his strength, Devries managed to slide his hand around so the atom-blast was trained on the Brain across the square. With his last ounce of strength he pressed the power button and held it there.

Devries knew his aim was good, but that dome over the Brain must have been of tougher substance that he thought. It did not blast, although he held the weapon there for about five seconds, on full power.

But the Brain must have felt the menace. There came a great surge of anger, and the atom-blast was suddenly torn from Devries' hand, as was the one Ross held. Then the men were jerked to their feet by the same invisible force which had held them prone upon the pavement. The Brain, still pulsing angrily, held them there until dozens of the official Proktols came and grasped them; not until then did it withdraw its powerful thought-force.

Janus and Devries, with Ross accompanying them this time, were hurried back toward that building from which they had just escaped at such pains. Now Devries saw the huge, green glowing Neptune rising swiftly in the heavens, and realized that day was here again. And already the hordes of savage Proktols were coming again into the square, to await their Ritual, which would undoubtedly continue so long as there were victims.

"Too bad you had to come here, Ross," Devries said dully. He was utterly without hope now. They had come very close to escape, and they would have made it, had it not been for that diabolical Brain.

Devries was just wondering how he could die, but not the way Ketrik had, when they heard a great cry go up from the gathered throng behind them. And it was a cry of fear, or awe. Despite the wiry arms that held them, the men twisted around and looked back.

Coming toward them, low over the city, was a rocket-plane. And it was undeniably an Earth type of plane! The Proktols holding the three men jabbered excitedly in their own staccato language; then, still holding the men, they hurried to the shelter of the nearest building and crouched there. It sounded very much as if they had seen this rocket-plane before, and feared it!

The Proktols crowding in the square were trying to flee too; but before they could all disperse, the plane was over them, letting loose a wide swath of death. From the extent of it, the Earthmen judged that rocket-plane must carry a portable atom-blast nearly as large as the Patrol ships carried! It swept over the square once, veered sharply and came back. This time the atom-blast swept very close to the line of buildings where the men crouched. Their captors broke and raced for shelter.

But the Earthmen were not yet free. As they crouched there, watching their unknown benefactor, they felt the fierce surge of power from the Brain again. It alone did not flee. It remained there, on its platform, in the middle of the now deserted square. And if it was angry before, it was raging now, with a crimson, crackling radiance.

For it was the Brain which was the object of the rocket-plane's attack. A third, fourth, and yet a fifth time the plane came sweeping back over the square. And each time it did so, the Earthmen could feel part of the crushing thought-force which the Brain hurled upward at it. Invisible weapon against invisible weapon. Atom-blast versus the Brain's super mental-force!

And the Brain fought tenaciously. Such was its power that the rocket-plane was caught in its grip once, veered crazily and was almost buffeted down until an extra burst of the rockets sent it zooming away. The watching Earthmen felt that power too, and were sent spinning, bruised and battered, against the building where they crouched.

But the plane's atom-blast must have begun to find the range, because soon the Brain propelled itself toward the shelter of one of the buildings. It was angry, but it was intelligent. It recognized the danger of that atom-blast. The transparent dome encasing the Brain was of very tough material, but it would have soon crumbled under a few direct and powerful blasts.

It was not until the Brain had withdrawn to safety that the tension eased, and the men dared to leap across the square again, strewn with the ghastly remains of numberless Proktols. This time they were not apprehended. The mysterious rocket-plane was speeding away toward the desert, but the destruction had been so terrible that the remaining Proktols didn't care or dare to emerge.

Devries spied one of the atom-blasts that he or Ross had dropped. He snatched it up, stopped and looked back speculatively, weighing the weapon in his hand.

Janus pulled at him. "Come on, you don't know when you're lucky!"

"Yes, but I'd like to take at least one good blast at that Brain after the way it slapped and battered us around!" Devries stumbled along after them, unwillingly.

"Have you got the Wasp?" Janus finally managed to ask Ross.

"I didn't get here through the fourth dimension! It's out on the desert there, just about a mile from here. I had a close call when they turned that flame on the Wasp. I got to a space-suit just in time. Kept their ship in our visipanel long enough to see they were heading back for Neptune. Took me hours to repair the Wasp, and hours more to find you." Ross very prudently didn't ask about Blake or Ketrik, and Janus was glad of that.

They reached the Wasp, and lost little time in blasting out into space.

"What about that fleet of space-ships we saw down there?" Devries asked. "Can't we go down and blast them off the map?"

"It would take days," replied Commander Janus, "and we're lucky to be away from there as it is!"

"But—"

"Haven't you had enough action this trip?" Janus snapped.

"Look," Ross said suddenly, pointing down at the tiny satellite they had just left. Blasting out into space from that planet was a sleek, black space-ship.

Janus exclaimed: "That's Perrin—I'd recognize his ship anywhere! That must have been his rocket-plane we saw fighting with the Brain! And we came out here to get that pirate!"

He leaped to the radio, clicked it on. "Attention Perrin! Perrin, in the Princess! Commander Janus of Earth Patrol ship Wasp speaking. We now have our long-range blast trained upon you, and you cannot outrun a Patrol ship. You will please go into a drift while we come over to board you."

A voice replied almost immediately, calm and a little amused: "Very well, Commander, do not get excited. I was just coming over to you, but if you wish, come to me instead." The rockets of the Princess immediately ceased blasting, and the pirate ship drifted just a few hundred miles away.

The Wasp drew near and made contact. Janus spoke again: "Our lock is ready. I should prefer that you came across, Perrin. No tricks!"

A minute later Perrin stepped through their lock with his hands held high, mockingly. He was tall, darkly handsome, with a straightforwardness that put Commander Janus ill at ease. Perrin smiled and looked down at his belt. "My pistol, Commander? That is customary I believe."

Janus stepped forward and took it. Perrin lowered his hands and said, "That is better. I was going to come over anyway, and see who it was I saved down there. I thought you were Earthmen, but I wasn't sure."

There was a slight mockery in the words. Janus flushed a little as he said: "This is damned awkward, Perrin. You did save our lives, but we were sent out here to get you, you're wanted on three planets."

"Three? I thought it was four," said Perrin, still smiling. "But I quite understand, Commander, and I ask no favors. As for saving your lives, that was a side issue. I really came to take a crack at that Brain. What did you think of our duel?"

"Interesting," murmured Janus. He was still uncomfortable, wavering between his duty and his debt of honor.

"Yes, wasn't it?" Perrin said. "You know, that thing's getting more powerful than I ever thought possible! Oh, sure, I've had a couple of other encounters with it. It's too canny to let me get a good crack at it, but how it hates me! I've been hanging around out here to see what it's up to."

"Then you know about that fleet of space-ships down there," Devries spoke up. "What do you think? Is that Brain going to direct that fleet toward the inner planets by remote control?"

"No," replied Perrin, reflectively. "That's not too fantastic a thought, but the Brain's not that powerful yet. However, those Proktols might man the ships. I think that's the plan. Did you notice those antennae they have? That's the way the Brain contacts them, and it might control them from any distance! Another thing: did you notice their flame-pistols? Modelled after the ones the Martians use, but an improvement. If you men left any atom-blasts there, the Brain'll soon find out how they click, and they'll turn out their own. And they'll be an improvement. That entire space fleet will be equipped with them. But that fleet's not quite ready to move yet; they've got to have fuel."

"You mean," said Devries, "they haven't any?"

Perrin laughed softly. "They did have. Those Proktols were mining it on Neptune—greenish grained stuff, something like the Tynyte we get from the Mars mountains. I watched their operations awhile, secretly. It seems to be pretty hard stuff to get out. I waited until they had quite a supply, then I swooped down and blasted it all sky high, together with a few score Proktols. That's just one more reason they hate me. But they're still mining, and getting more of the fuel out."

Janus had been listening to the pirate's words. Now he paced the control room, nervously. "That would give us time," he said softly to himself. "We could get back to Earth in a week, at full speed." He stopped and looked up. "Yes," he said aloud, "we're going back to Earth immediately!"

"Very well, Commander Janus," said Perrin, looking straight at him. "But I trust you will take the Princess in tow? I love that ship very much."

"Not you, Perrin! You're not going."

"Not me, Commander? I wonder what you can mean?" The pirate's black eyes were glowing.

"Perrin, suppose I should get very careless and you suddenly escaped. I wonder where you'd escape to?"

Perrin glanced out at the glowing ball of Neptune. He was smiling again, but it was a grim little smile. "I have a hideout," he said, "which not even those Proktols have found yet. I imagine they have a lot more of that fuel mined by now, and I just love for them to hate me."

Janus glanced at the space-lock, and turned his back. When next he looked he saw the trim, black Princess speeding unerringly back toward Neptune, a thousand miles away.

Devries alone was regretful, almost bitter. He weighed the familiar atom-blast in his hand. "And I didn't even get to use this! Damn it, Janus, you know what that Brain's doing, planning. If they keep on with those sacrifices, feeding it that mental force, who knows how far it'll go? It's a potential menace, it oughtn't to be allowed to exist!"

"Devries, stop gibbering!" Once again Janus was in his familiar role, Commander of the Wasp of the Earth Patrol. "Ross! Stand by in the rocket room for orders; we're on double duty now."

"Yes, sir! It's a pleasure, sir." Ross hurried away.

"Devries! Start charting our course for Earth."

"Yes sir." Devries turned to the charts, disgruntled but obedient. Janus took over the controls. But a moment later he turned.

"I know it, Devries. Don't think I'm forgetting what they did to Ketrik, and what we promised him. You see, that's why I want to be sure of making a thorough job of it!"

"Yes sir," Devries said again, briskly, and he was satisfied. As the hideous green ball of Neptune rolled away behind them he didn't even look back; for he knew they'd be out here again—and soon—with more than a Patrol ship and a few atom-blasts.

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