The gorilla-creature screamed and fell away from Jan. He saw that a smoking arrow with yellow fletchings had transfixed one of its thighs. It dropped to the ground, still screaming and sobbing, and crawled away. Jan looked to the right and saw Petra, bow in hand, running towards him.
She arrived at his side, eyes widening in horror as she saw that he was in the process of being devoured by the slug-monster. She whipped out her sword, and was about to attack the living grey mass with it when Jan raised a warning hand.
“A blade won’t work,” he shouted. “Try an arrow! A red one! Fire it in!”
In a single swift movement she drew an arrow from her quiver, notched it into the bow and fired it into the slug-creature’s rippling grey bulk. The arrow flared brilliantly and sank out of sight, burrowing far down into the quivering tissues. Foul-smelling greasy smoke erupted from behind it.
There was a seemingly endless moment when it appeared that the miniature rocket had been effortlessly absorbed, then the slug-monster gave a convulsive heave.
Suddenly Jan was free.
He leaped to his feet, his face pale with shock, wiping a coating of acidic slime from his left hand. The skin was red and already beginning to blister.
“Are you all right?” Petra said urgently.
Jan managed something close to a smile. “I will be—thanks to you.”
“What about that thing?” Petra nodded towards the stricken gorilla-creature which was dragging itself away from the scene. “I had to aim low—its legs were the only clear shot I could get.”
Jan eyed the beast with hatred and revulsion. “I’ll finish the brute off,” he said, picking up his fallen bow. Taking a yellow-feathered arrow from his quiver, he nocked it onto the bowstring, drew the bow and took aim at the black hairy form, which was grunting and whimpering as it tried to make its escape. He maintained the firing stance for perhaps ten seconds, then slowly lowered the weapon.
“I can’t kill it,” he said. “We’re the intruders on its world. We came here to rescue my brother—not to go hunting for big game.”
Petra nodded. “It’s no longer a threat—so let’s keep moving.”
Jan glanced down and saw that she was again wearing both of her boots. “It didn’t take you long to get the thorn out.”
“I’ve got the hands of a surgeon.”
“Lucky for me…” Jan eyed Petra solemnly for a moment, then put his arms around her. “You saved my life.”
“You can do the same for me sometime,” Petra said, briefly returning the embrace. “Now, let’s get going.”
“Good idea!” Jan replaced the unused arrow in his quiver. He turned and pulled his sword out of the grey bulk of the slug-monster’s body, which was settling and wrinkling like a slowly deflating balloon.
“We’ve learned a valuable lesson here,” he said, staring down at the dying creature with distaste. “From now on we don’t assume that anything on this God-forsaken world is harmless.”
“Two valuable lessons,” Petra corrected. “From now on we must keep in sight of each other at all times.”
“Agreed.” Jan dried the blade of his sword on a tuft of grass and pulled his jungle hat down tightly on his head. “Now, let’s see what this city can tell us.”
Chapter Five
In spite of the profusion of creeping plants and mosses, the going was much easier now that there was level pavement under their feet. They picked their way along the ruins of broad avenues, at times speculating about what kind of calamity had wiped out such an advanced and thriving culture. Rows of broken columns projecting from the ground-hugging vegetation increasingly reminded Jan of classical ruins on Earth, augmenting his sympathy for the long-dead Verdians.
The humid, murky atmosphere and the frequent stabs of lightning between the ground and the low cloud ceiling added to the pair’s sense of foreboding. It was impossible as yet to know what the Verdians themselves had looked like, but from the proportions of occasional doors and windows which had remained intact it seemed possible that the dead race had been about the same size and shape as human beings.
“I wish we could find a few statues,” Petra said. “It would be like meeting the Verdians face to face.”
Jan nodded. “That’s a thought. I wish we had a camera with us—just in case.”
“I’ve got a pencil, and I can make sketches.”
A few minutes later they had to skirt around a rectangular opening where a section of pavement had collapsed into what must have been a tunnel. An unusually bright flurry of lightning bolts lit up the scene for a moment, enabling them to see the remains of enigmatic machines in the subterranean dimness. The ruined equipment was heavily stained with rust.
“It looks a bit like a power station,” Petra said. “You can imagine workers scuttling around down there and…”
“Wait a minute!” Jan cut in, his words fading away rapidly into the surrounding gloom. “That looks like ordinary rust on those machines! In fact, I’m sure that’s what it is!”
“What of it?”
“Remember the official theory about what caused all the disasters on this world?”
Petra looked thoughtful. “Yes, something about our vehicles and machinery attracting lightning.”
“It was electromagnetic forces, actually, but lightning is near enough.”
“If lightning is near enough,” Petra said impatiently, “why don’t they just say lightning instead of dragging in long words?”
“Because electromagnetism covers other forces which can’t be seen, but which are just as powerful and…” Jan took a deep breath. “We’re getting away from the point, Petra. According to the theory, metal machinery could never have existed on Verdia—but those machines down in the tunnel are covered in ordinary rust. They must be made of metal! And if the Verdians routinely used metal artifacts…”
“Whatever destroyed our< forces must have come on the scene more recently!” Petra glanced up at the sullen clouds. “Could the climate of the planet have changed in the last hundred years or so?”
“I don’t know,” Jan replied. “This place is a bigger mystery to me than ever.”
Suppressing an unaccountable feeling that the threat against them had somehow become more immediate, they moved on. Frowning, their eyes constantly scanning their surroundings, they carefully made their way through mounds of rubble and strangely-coloured vegetation. An indeterminate time later they picked out the spire-like outline of a large spaceship jutting above some trees in the middle distance.
“That’s a civilian craft!” Jan gave a whoop of excitement. “We’re getting somewhere at last! That ship must be sitting where the engineering team landed—maybe we’ll find a sign telling us where they’ve gone.”
They worked their way towards the ship, occasionally hacking through curtains of vines, and scrambling over piles of masonry which had been upturned by massive roots. Eventually they reached the edge of an area where the vegetation was comparatively sparse—an indication that some clearing work had once been done—enabling them to see perhaps four hundred metres ahead.
The scene was one of utter desolation.
The giant spaceship was a rusting hulk which appeared to have been struck by a thousand lightning bolts. Its surface was covered with gashes and scars, where molten metal had run like candle wax, and the heavy plating had been blasted off in places to expose the ribs of the underlying structure. Jan tried to visualise what could have wreaked such damage, but his imagination baulked at the task.