Hunters Out of Space Read online

  CHAPTER 15

  Val and his men had brought along enough of the umbrella-shaped defensesto get them through the barrier.

  They held a short council of war. It was agreed that every able-bodied manwould go into the city. Nea and a few of the older men were detailed tostay by The Nebula and take care of the women and children.

  Nea had screamed and protested against that. She had only agreed to stayupon one condition: That she be left one of the umbrella-skeletons.

  The nights, Odin learned, were about sixteen hours long on this dyingplanet. It was toward midnight when they started out from the ship towardthe violet dome. The strange half-light still hovered over the ground. Inthe sky, splinters of mauve tore at curtains of purplish flame. Somethinglike northern lights, they glinted and gleamed, wrestled and writhed. Therewas no peace up there in that abandoned sky. But there was enough of thatunearthly light glimmering below for him to watch his footsteps.

  They had brought every kind of weapon that they could lug with them.Atomic machine-guns. Needle-nosed things that spat blobs of flame.Anti-gravitational bombs. Bombs that swirled slowly toward the enemyand cut him down with scythe-blades.

  Gunnar had laughed at that. "Hang on to your sword and knife, Nors-King.We will need them yet."

  With the umbrella frames held over them, as though protecting them from aflood, they went through the barrier. Beyond it, thousands of men rose upfrom the scarred plain to join them. Val had a much larger following thanOdin had ever guessed. These men were swathed in long coats and capes.Similar items of apparel were hastily furnished the crew of The Nebula--forwhen they were through the barrier the temperature dropped to about thirty.Once they passed through a thin swirl of snow.

  Then something screamed at them out there in the night and came at themlike a juggernaut. It must have stood nearly fifty feet high, and camerushing at them on a score of legs, with dozens of eyes flashing green asit hurtled forward.

  The men of Loren were not greatly worried. They began to fire at it withthe pistol-shaped weapons. There was only a popping noise, but Odin couldhear the bullets smashing into the onrushing thing. Others used thetulip-flared guns, which made no noise at all, but bolts of lightning sankinto the sides of the behemoth.

  After it was dead its furious drive sent it nearly a score of yardsforward. It slid into a clump of twisted trees and tore them to splintersbefore it stopped quivering. Finally the way was clear.

  They waited there for a time to see if they had attracted any attentionfrom the city of the violet dome. Nothing happened, so they advanced again.At least five thousand men now made up this little army. Val guessed thatthere were a hundred thousand fighters left in the city, not counting theexperienced ruffians that Grim Hagen had brought with him.

  They had advanced not over half a mile before the pale glow of the nightturned to utter darkness. Something that looked like a vast sea-nettle wasslowly sinking down toward them from the sky. Its tentacles glowed faintlyas it fell--and it must have been a hundred yards across at the top. Oncemore bullets, lightning bolts and sheets of flame were hurled at thedescending thing. It fell apart and came writhing down. Men rushed to getaway from the reach of those flailing arms. They laid low and watchedwhile the thing died.

  "Listen," Gunnar warned.

  From far away came the sound of shots and an eerie whine that seemedfaintly familiar. The shots died down. The whine continued, louder andlouder, almost to the top peak of sound, as though a tiger was growling toitself as it feasted.

  Then all was still.

  "It was from the Old Ship," Gunnar said. "I wonder--"

  But there was no time left to wonder. As the thing died, the phosphorglow faded from its lashing tentacles. Finally it was still. They pickedthemselves up and went on toward the dome.

  The dome was propped upon miles of forty-foot columns, all carved anddecorated like those from the Hall of Kings. Below the dome, the samebarrier came pouring down like an unseen waterfall. Again they used theirprotective umbrella-frames. Then, sweating and cursing and grunting, theyhauled their weapons of war into the city.

  * * * * *

  Val the Loren had explained that the city was not a city as Ato and Odinunderstood the words. Being domed, there was no use for rooms of anykind. The temperature stayed constant. There were wide streets, pavedwith blocks of pink and black marble. These streets were flanked bysidewalks and walls. At intervals of a hundred feet the huge columnswere placed. They were minutely decorated and carved. These supported asilver and clear-plastic framework that held up the violet dome. Lookingupward, Odin had the impression that he was standing beneath a vastspider-web.

  There were many hedges, all neatly trimmed. Some resembled privet, butmost of them were like pomegranate with larger reddish blossoms thatseemed to drip blood.

  * * * * *

  Here and there were railings with steps going down. Like subway entrances,Odin thought, except they were more elaborately carved. These steps wentdown to tier after tier of labyrinths. It was a skyscraper-city turnedupside down, Odin gathered from Val's explanations. The first level belowthe city was made up of factories and machine shops. The next was whereplants, flowers, and trees were forced, producing the city's food. Belowthat, for nearly a thousand feet, were the living quarters of the people.

  The ground-level of the city was in reality a beautiful park. During theday, Val explained, it was busy with street-vendors, open-air schools,theaters, and thousands who came up from underground to drink the air andthe sun.

  Now, it was nearly empty. The columns were evenly spaced and at a spotexactly between each two columns was a great cresset of stone. At the topof each cresset were flickering flames that burned without leaving anysmoke. "Like stone tulips with petals of flame," Gunnar said as he lookedat them. They stood nearly twelve feet high. Their pedestals were broad;their stems were nearly a foot thick, nearly a yard across. Their flameswere violet, tipped with blue. They made a beautiful sight, but it did notmatter. For within less than an hour this lovely park with its carvedcolumns and tulip-shaped cressets of fire was turned into a shambles.

  They had not gone a quarter of a mile before a guard hailed them. A scoreof guns popped like opened bottles and the guard died before the echo ofhis voice was gone. But his cry was taken up by others. And now Odin sawthat up there in the spider-web framework that held the dome were hundredsof little cubicles--all manned.

  Shafts of flame darted through the dim-lit area. Bullets whizzed. Ato'sneedle-nosed machines began to whine and the metal in the guards' cubiclesgrew red-hot and melted. Charred bodies came tumbling down. Men camepouring out of the subway entrances. There was a crashing and grinding ashidden elevators brought weapons of death to the surface. The fires in thecressets danced higher. They fought now in mid-day light.

  There was a blast nearby that nearly burst Odin's eardrums. A crash offlame that half-blinded him. A gun-crew screamed and died as one of theneedle-nosed machines melted into puddles of steel. One by one theseguns exploded, taking their crews with them. But even as they died, theylittered the streets with the bodies of those who were pouring up from thedepths of the city. Even as one melted, its needle-nose swung upward andits beam cut through girders as though they were soft cheese. There was anawful grating sound as the heavy dome sagged a few inches. Splinters ofglass and plastic rained down upon invader and defender alike.

  Guns burst in men's hands--or turned to soft wax. The machine guns grewred-hot and melted. Ato sent his swirling bombs toward the enemy. Thescythe-blades dripped as they cut swaths through massed rows of humanflesh. But from far down the street a swarm of red sparks came rushing atthe bombs like hornets. They swirled about them, humming angrily. And thenthe bombs and the hornet-sparks were gone.

  Odin learned that the toadstool-shaped weapon which Val's men carried wasa defense against the lancing beams from the glassy tubes. So one by onethe weapons of offense and the weapons of defense fell apa
rt. Sirens werescreaming within the city. Hordes were still arriving from the depthsbelow.

  Ato had set up a huge, slowly-whirling globe that was studded with spines.As it turned upon its axis, it emitted a strange pulsing light. As thedefenders came rushing up the stairways to the upper world, the guns attheir belts exploded in furious heat. They died by the hundreds at thoseentrances. They filled the stairways and the halls below. Screams fromseared throats drowned out the noise of battle. The stench of burned fleshand blood was now so heavy that it was hard to breathe. Another wild shellcrashed into the spider-web framework of the dome. It sagged again with ashriek and a groan of protest. And once more a rain of glass showered downupon them.

  The defenders cleared the choked stairways and came on--dying at theentrances and falling back and blocking the stairs again.

  * * * * *

  At the last they unbuckled their belts and their weapons and threw themaside. Then they plunged through the entrances in a flood, armed with onlyknives and clubs.

  Meanwhile, Ato's guns were going out. The last became a white torch whena magnesium blob struck it.

  The side-arms were all gone.

  They fought now with sword and knife.

  Jack Odin felt a heavy hand upon his arm. Gunnar was at his side. "Itis even as I foretold you, Nors-King. The weapons are all gone. Stayclose by Gunnar's side now. We will fight together, as we fought before.Eh, they are coming up from underground like ants. I think we have lostthe advantage. Hagen's dead lie thick, though. And now it is our turn.The old swords and the swinging chant. Ah, Old Blood-Drinker will not bethirsty tonight. Brace yourself. Here comes the first assault."

  And with his huge short legs spread wide apart, Gunnar swung hisbroadsword. The first wave of attackers went down like ripe wheat.Gunnar and Odin cut their way through them, and came out against asmoking hedge. Behind them, Ato and his Lorens strewed the streetswith dead.

  Gunnar and Odin went through a hole in the hedge. A defender was makingfor it from the other side, and Gunnar broke the man's neck. Clinging tothe thin shadow of the hedge they moved forward, killing as they went.