The passage led down. The air was heavy and thick, and as they walked down the passage, Adharans pressed behind them.
"Get back." Shure spun, his rifle up. The Adharans halted. "Stay back. Come on. Let's go."
The Terrans turned a corner. They were in the hold. Shure advanced cautiously, moving with care. Several Adharan guards stood with drawn weapon tubes.
"Get out of the way." Shure waved his Slem rifle. Reluctantly, the guards moved aside. "Come on!"
The guards separated. Shure advanced.
And stopped, amazed.
Before them was the cargo of the ship. The hold was half-filled with carefully stacked orbs of milky fire, giant jewels like immense pearls. Thousands of them. As far back as they could see. Disappearing back into the recesses of the ship, endless stacks of them. All glowing with a soft radiance, an inner illumination that lit up the vast hold of the ship.
"Incredible!" Shure muttered.
"No wonder they were willing to slip in here without permission." Barnes took a deep breath, his eyes wide. "I think I'd do the same. Look at them!"
"No wonder they were willing to slip in here without permission." Barnes took a deep breath, his eyes wide. "I think I'd do the same. Look at them!"
They glanced at each other.
"I've never seen anything like it," Shure said, dazed. The Adharan guards were watching them warily, their weapon tubes ready. Shure advanced toward the first row of jewels, stacked neatly with mathematical precision. "It doesn't seem possible. Jewels piled up like -- like a warehouse full of doorknobs."
"They may have belonged to the Adharans at one time," Nelson said thoughtfully. "Maybe they were stolen by the city-builders of the Sirius system. Now they're getting them back."
"Interesting," Barnes said. "Might explain why the Adharans found them so easily. Perhaps charts or maps existed."
Shure grunted. "In any case they're ours, now. Everything in the Sirius system belongs to Terra. It's all been signed, sealed and agreed on."
"But if these were originally stolen from the Adharans --"
"They shouldn't have agreed to the closed-system treaties. They have their own system. This belongs to Terra." Shure reached up toward one of the jewels. "I wonder how it feels."
"Careful, Captain. It may be radioactive."
Shure touched one of the jewels.
The Adharans grabbed him, throwing him back. Shure struggled. An Adharan caught hold of his Slem rifle and twisted it out of his hands.
Barnes fired. A group of Adharans puffed out of existence.
Nelson was down on one knee, firing at the passage entrance. The passage was choked with Adharans. Some were firing back. Thin heat beams cut over Nelson's head.
"They can't get us," Barnes gasped. "They're afraid to fire. Because of the jewels."
The Adharans were retreating into the passage, away from the hold. Those with weapons were being ordered back by the commander.
Shure snatched Nelson's rifle and blasted a knot of Adharans into particles. The Adharans were closing the passage. They rolled heavy emergency plates into position and welded them rapidly into place.
"Burn a hole," Shure barked. He turned his gun on the wall of the ship. "They're trying to seal us in here."
Barnes turned his gun on the wall. The two Slem beams ate into the side of the ship. Abruptly the wall gave way, a circular hole falling out.
Outside the ship Terran soldiers were fighting with the Adharans. The Adharans were retreating, making their way back as best they could, firing and hopping. Some of them hopped up onto their ship. Others turned and fled, throwing their guns down. They milled about in helpless confusion, running and leaping in all directions, clicking wildly.
The parked cruiser glowed into life, its heavy guns lowering into position.
"Don't fire," Shure ordered through his phone. "Leave their ship alone. It isn't necessary."
"They're finished," Nelson gasped, jumping onto the ground. Shure and Barnes leaped after him, out of the Adharan ship onto the surface. "They don't have a chance. They don't know how to fight."
Shure waved a group of Terran soldiers over to him. "Over here! Hurry up, damn it."
Milky jewels were spilling out of the ship onto the ground, rolling and bouncing through the hole. Part of the containing struts had been blasted away. Stacks of jewels cascaded down and rolled around their feet, getting in their way.
Barnes scooped one up. It burned his gloved hand faintly, tingling his fingers. He held it to the light. The globe was opaque. Vague shapes swam in the milky fire, drifting back and forth. The globe pulsed and glowed, as if it were alive.
Nelson grinned at him. "Really something, isn't it?"
"Lovely." Barnes picked up another. On the hull of the ship an Adharan fired down at him futilely. "Look at them all. There must be thousands of them."
"Lovely." Barnes picked up another. On the hull of the ship an Adharan fired down at him futilely. "Look at them all. There must be thousands of them."
Most of the fighting had ceased. The remaining Adharans were being rounded up by the Terran soldiers.
"What about them?" Nelson said.
Shure didn't answer. He was examining one of the jewels, turning it over and over. "Look at it," he murmured. "Brings out different colors each way you hold it. Did you ever see anything like it?"
The big Terran freighter bumped to a landing. Its loading hatches dropped down. Jitney cars rumbled out, a fleet of stubby trucks. The jitney cars crossed to the Adharan ship. Ramps dropped into place, as robot scoops prepared to go to work.
"Shovel them up," Silvanus Fry rambled, crossing over to Captain Shure. The Manager of Terran Enterprises wiped his forehead with a red handkerchief. "Astonishing haul, Captain. Quite a find." He put out his moist palm and they shook.
"I can't understand how we could have missed them," Shure said. "The Adharans walked in and picked them up. We watched them going from one planet to the next, like some sort of honey bee. I don't know why our own teams didn't find them."
Fry shrugged. "What does it matter?" He examined one of the jewels, tossing it up in the air and catching it. "I imagine every woman on Terra will have one of these around her neck -- or will want one of these around her neck. In six months they won't know how they ever lived without them. That's the way people are, Captain." He put the globe into his briefcase, snapping it shut. "I think I'll take one home to my own wife."
The Adharan commander was brought over by a Terran soldier. He was silent, clicking nothing. The surviving Adharans had been stripped of their weapons and allowed to resume work on their ship. They had got the hull patched and most of the corrosion repaired.
"We're letting you go," Shure said to the Adharan commander. "We could try you as pirates and shoot you, but there wouldn't be much point in it. Better tell your government to stay out of the Sirius system from now on."
"He can't understand you," Barnes said mildly.
"I know. This is a formality. He gets the general idea, though."
The Adharan commander stood silently, waiting.
"That's all." Shure waved impatiently toward the Adharan ship. "Go on. Take off. Clear out of here. And don't come back."
The soldier released the Adharan. The Adharan made his way slowly back to his ship. He disappeared through the hatch. The Adharans working on the hull of the ship gathered up their equipment and followed their commander inside.
The hatches closed. The Adharan ship shuddered, as its jets roared into life. Awkwardly it lifted from the surface, rising up into the sky. It turned, heading toward outer space.
Shure watched it until it was gone.
"That's that." He and Fry walked rapidly toward the cruiser. "You think these jewels will attract some attention on Terra?"
"Of course. Is there any doubt?"
"No." Shure was deep in thought. "They got to only five of the ten planets. There should be more on the remaining inner planets. After this load gets back to Terra we can begin work on the inner planets. If the Adharans found them we should be able to."