Poisoned! I poisoned it!
Be glad that you did, snapped Kimber. Youre in luck. These werent! He kicked up the gravel below the vines with the toe of his boot and plowed up brittle bones and small skulls.
The pilot as he treated Dards slight wounds was emphatic:
Hereafter we stay together. It worked out all right this time. But again it might not. Stick together and distrust everything unless you have already seen it in action!
But they were all together and apparently in no danger when disaster struck them a back-handed blow that same day. They had been using the sleepy stream as a guide back into a range of hills and by midmorning had sighted in the northeast what could only be a chain of mountains, purple-blue against the sky. These ran from north to south as far as those in the sled could see.
Perhaps if the Terrans had not been so intent upon those distant peaks they might have seen something below which would have warned them. Probably not. Man, when he goes to war, displays the deepest depths of cunning.
Their first intimation of danger arrived simultaneously with the blow that smashed them out of the sky. A sharp burst of sound and the sled bucked-as if batted by a giant club. The craft fluttered into a falling twirl while Kimber fought the controls, trying to pull out of the spin. If the passengers had not been strapped in they would have plunged earthward in the first three seconds of that wild descent.
While Dard was trying to understand what had happened a burst of brilliant light temporarily blinded him. More sound, bracketing them, and someone cried out in pain. Then he knew that they were failing out of control, and by some instinct he flung up his arms to shield his head just before they struck and he blacked out.
He couldnt have been unconscious long, because when he raised his head Cully was still dazedly fumbling to flee himself from the safety straps. Dard spat to clear a full month and saw a blob of blood and a tooth strike the ground. He loosened the belt and lurched out of the sled after Cully. In front Santee bent over a limp Kimber on whose face blood trickled from a cut just below the hair line.
What happened? Dard wiped his chin and took away a bloody hand. His lips hurt and his jaw ached.
Kimbers dark eyes opened and stared up at them bemusedly. Then comprehension came back and he demanded:
Who shot us down?
Santee had his rifle in his hands.
Thats what Im gonna see, right now!
Before the rest could protest, he darted away, back down the valley where they had landed, zigzagging into cover as he neared its mouth. There was a final boom of an exploding shell from that direction and then silence.
Dard and Cully got Kimber free of the sled. The pilots right arm was bleeding from a ragged wound near the shoulder. They broke open the medical kit and the engineer went competently to work so that Dard had nothing to do. When Kimber was stretched out on a bedroll Cully returned to examine the sled itself. He took up the cover of the motor and squirmed half into the space which enclosed it, ordering Dard to hold the torch for him. When he crawled back his face was very sober.
How bad? asked Kimber. There was more color in his dark face and be levered himself up on an elbow.
Not the worst-but about as near to that as we can get. Cully was interrupted by a shout from the trees where Santee had disappeared.
The big man returned walking in the open, his rifle cradled in the crook of his arm-as if they had nothing to fear.
Fellas, this heres plain crazy! Theres a nest of guns down there all hidden away. Little stuff-light field pieces. But theres not a livin critter in the place. Them there guns fired at us their ownselves!
A robot control triggered when we flew over a certain point! exploded Cully. Some kind of radar, Ill bet. Rogan ought to be here.
First, Kimber reminded him grimly, weve got to get back to tell him about them.
A broken sled with which to cross several hundred miles of unknown country. They were going to have quite a hike, thought Dard. But he did not comment upon that aloud.
7: RETURN JOURNEY
WONDER HOW MANY more booby traps such as that are
hidden around? Cully glanced down the valley with open suspicion.
Not many, Id say, Kimber answered weakly. It must have been only a fluke that those guns were still able to fire
His voice was swallowed by an explosion severe enough to rock the ground under them. Dard saw earth, trees and debris rise into the air far down the valley as an acrid white-yellow smoke fouled the air in drifting wisps.
That, Kimber said into the ensuing silence, was probably the end of the guns. Theyve blown themselves up.
Shoulda done that sooner! growled Santee. A lot sooner! How about us gettin away from here? He turned to Cully who had been blasted loose from his work on the sled.
Thats going to be a problem. Shell get into the air again, yes. But not with a full load. Stripped down she may be able to carry two-flying with a list.
Santee grinned at his fellow castaways. All fight. Two of usll hike and pack some stuff. The other twoll ride.
Kimber frowned as he agreed reluctantly: I suppose well have to do that. Those in the sled can make a camp a half days march ahead and wait for the others to catch up. We mustnt lose contact. Do you think you can raise Rogan in the valley?
Cully brought out the small vedio. And Kimber, using his left hand awkwardly, made the proper adjustment. But there was no answering spark. The engineer raised the box and shook it gently. They all heard that faint answering rattle which put an end to their hopes of a message to those they had left by the sea.
Camp was made that night just where the fortunes of that long ago war had marooned them. Santee and Dard undertook another visit to the hidden emplacement. Two of the strange guns were tilted at a crazy angle, their loading mechanism ripped wide open, behind them a pit, newly hollowed and still cloudy with fumes.
Keeping away from that the two Terrans prowled about the installation. If man or any other intelligent life had been there before them, it had been many years in the past.
But Dard, knowing very little of mechanics, believed that it had been robot controlled. Perhaps lack of man-power had made the last war a purely push-button affair.
Now heres somethin!
Santees shout brought him to an opening in the ground. The cover had been wrenched loose by the explosion and its clever camouflage no longer hid the steps leading down into the dark. Santee flashed a beam ahead and started to descend. The steps were very narrow and shallow as if those who had used them had had feet not quite the same shape or size of a Terrans. But once down, the explorers found themselves in a square box of a metal-walled chamber. Along one entire wall was a control panel and facing it a small table and a single backless bench. Otherwise the room was empty.
Musta jus set them robots goin and left. This metal aint rusted none. But it was left a long time ago
As Santee swept the light across that control board Dard saw an object lying on the table. He picked up his find just as the big man started up the stairs to the outer and fresher air.
What he held was four sheets of a crystalline substance, fastened together at the upper left-hand corner. Running through each sheet, as if they had been embedded when the stuff was made, were lines of shaded colors in combinations not unlike those he had seen about the city door. Instruction book? Orders? Did Those Others express their thoughts in color patterns? He thrust the find into his safest pocket, determined to compare it with the microfilm of the doorway.