She came forward and put a small, shapely hand on the Carthaginian's brawny arm. He looked down at her, his gargoyle face alight with wonder.
"You know me? But who are you?"
"Jansaiya." The girl glanced over her shoulder. "And this is Thordred."
Scipio saw the giant for the first time, apparently. His gaze met and locked with Thordred's smoldering glare. The two men stood silent. Scipio did not notice when Jansaiya took her hand from his arm.
Li Yang's red lips pursed as he glanced from one to the other.
It was a sight worth seeing. Thordred was huge, elephant-thewed, hairy as a beast, with jutting beard and aquiline, handsome, features.
Scipio, though slightly shorter, was almost as huge. His gargoyle face grew stone-hard. Thordred's cat's-eyes glittered. A silent enmity flamed in those glares that met without speech.
Ardath broke the deadlock by coming out of the laboratory.
"We are moving out toward our orbit," he said, smiling. "Soon it will be time to sleep again. Perhaps next time. ." He sighed. "Meanwhile, though Scipio is not the super-mentality I need, he is a genius in his way. Let me explain, warrior."
Scipio nodded from time to time as Ardath told his story. The Carthaginian's quick brain grasped the situation without difficulty.
"You will come with us?" Ardath asked at last.
"Why not?" Scipio replied, shrugging. "The world is not ready for such a man as I. In later ages, countries will recognize my worth and kneel at my feet." The granite face cracked into a grin, and he glanced at Jansaiya. "Besides, I shall be in good company. To how many men is it given to know a goddess?"
Thordred growled under his breath while Li Yang chuckled. The fat Oriental picked up his lute and strummed softly upon it. His voice raised mellowly.
"My love has come down from the Moon-lantern. In the heart of the lotus she dwells…"
"And now—" Ardath turned toward the laboratory. "I must adjust my controls. We shall automatically fall into our orbit. For two thousand years we shall sleep, and then revisit the Earth."
He vanished into the next room.
"Fragrant are her hands as petals," Li Yang sang. "In her hair the stars dance."
Jansaiya smiled. Scipio grinned a silent, confident reply to Thordred's dark scowl.
Humming power throbbed through the ship, swiftly grew louder. Li Yang clambered awkwardly on a couch, gesturing for Scipio to follow his example. Sleep poured from the monotonous sound. Idly Li Yang touched the strings of his lute.
"Give me sweet dreams, dear goddess," he murmured.
Jansaiya reclined on a couch. When Scipio turned his head to watch her, her green eyes met his.
Thordred moved stiffly forward. His hand was hidden from view behind him as he stood beside the laboratory door.
The languorous humming grew louder, more compelling. Jansaiya slept. Li Yang's pudgy hand fell from the lute. Scipio's eyelids drooped.
Footsteps sounded softly. Through the doorway came Ardath, smiling his gentle smile. Perhaps he was dreaming that when he awoke, he would find his quest at an end. Not noticing Thordred beside him, he turned and fumbled over the wall with rapidly slowing fingers.
The skin around Thordred's eyes wrinkled as he fought to remain awake. His hand came up with the slow motion of encroaching torpor, and he gripped a heavy metal bludgeon.
He crashed it down on Ardath's head.
Without a sound, the Kyrian crumpled and fell, lay utterly motionless. Blood seeped slowly through his dark hair.
Instantly Thordred lunged through the doorway and reeled toward an instrument panel. If he could throw a single switch, the sleep-inducing apparatus would be shut off—
Louder the humming grew. Its vibration shuddered through every atom of Thordred's body. In the next room was absolute silence.
Thordred fell without feeling that he was doing so. The shock awakened him. He dragged himself to his knees and crawled on, his hand clawing desperately.
One finger touched the switch and helplessly slipped down. The giant Earthman crouched, shaking his head slowly.
Then he collapsed and sprawled out, silent. The yellow eyes were filmed with cataleptic sleep.
The humming rose to a peak that gradually began to die away. Inside the golden ship, nothing stirred when it reached its orbit and robot controls made swift adjustments. Around the Earth the vessel hurtled.
The lute fell from Li Yang's couch. A string snapped…
CHAPTER XII
The Man from Earth
Stephen Court raced his roadster along a Wisconsin road as he peered through sun-glasses at the lonely countryside. Beside him, Marion Barton huddled like a kitten in the seat, the collar of her white blouse open for coolness.
"How long?" she asked.
"Couple of hours," Court grunted. "We pass through Madison first. The 'drome's fifty miles south of there."
Marion drew a notebook from her purse and thumbed through it rapidly.
"Everything's checked, I think," she reported absently. "Except the test flight. I don't believe the Temra was thoroughly inspected."
"Damn silly name the papers gave the ship," Court said wryly. "It didn't need a name. It'll make the flight, all right."
"And if it doesn't?"
He shrugged indifferently without glancing at her.
"Nothing much lost. For more than a month now, I've been working on the Plague—since Sammy got away—and I'm still at sea. Earth's science just isn't advanced enough. But perhaps I can find some more advanced alien science in that golden ship. Anyhow, we'll see."
"Why must you go alone?" she insisted, her voice not quite steady.
"Because there's only room for one. We can't take chances. There will be little enough air and supplies as it is. I'm the best man for the job, so I'm the one to go.'
"But suppose something happens!"
"I can't stop the Plague by myself. X is still unknown, as far as I'm concerned. The only real clue so far is entropy. I know that X is catalyzed by some element in Earth's atmosphere. It speeds up the entropy of a living organism, changes it into some form of life that might exist, normally, a billion years from now. But it's so alien!"
He switched on the radio. A news commentator was talking excitedly.
"Around Pittsburgh, martial law has been declared. W. P. A. workers are blasting out a deep trench around the city, and pouring deadly acids into it. Whether this will form an effective barrier, no one knows. The rivers are filled with floating corpses. The contagion is spreading with great speed. Nearly a hundred of the Carriers have been seen in Pittsburgh, and the bridges are choked with refugees…"
So there were still more of the shining monsters. Sammy had been one of the first, and he was still wandering at large, since nothing could capture or destroy him.
"The Carriers kill instantly by touching their victims. Lead-plated suits are being issued to the guardsmen, but these do not always work. It depends on the quantity of energy emitted by a Carrier. Dynamite has been placed at the New York bridges and tubes. The mayor is ready to isolate Manhattan, if necessary, for protection.
"The war is at a standstill. Troops are mutinying by the thousands. Every metropolis is being vacated. We estimate about three thousand Carriers now exist, widely scattered over the Earth. From Buenos Aires—"
With an impatient gesture, Court shut off the radio.
"No hope," he said. "The Plague is steadily on the increase. I must get to the golden ship and back as soon as possible."
They sat in silent despair as the car swept along the deserted highways. The landscape was incongruously peaceful. The green, rolling hills of Wisconsin stretched around them. A broad, lazy river flowed quietly beside the road. The only sound in the stillness was the humming of the motor.
Marion leaned her head back and stared up at the cloudless blue sky. All she could do now was let her thoughts drift. Suppose the Plague had never come to Earth. She and Stephen might be driving along together, under this same sky, and perhaps—