Barrington Bayley SF Gateway Omnibus: The Soul of the Robot, The Knights of the Limits, The Fall of Chronopolis

Hastily they scrambled aboard the solidity ship and made a rapid check of all the equipment. The newly completed craft slid along its ramp until reaching the further wall, when the rock touched by its snout seemed to collapse and to flow like fine oil. The ship lurched suddenly forward, and seconds later it had merged and disappeared into the bare, blank rock.

‘Incredible,’ murmured Erled.

Ereton joined him from aft and peered over his shoulder at the flickering bank of instruments. ‘What is it?’

‘I think we’re being followed.’

They had been en voyage for just over two weeks. In the cramped space, Ereton leaned closer. Pretty soon there was no doubt of it: the image plates of both sonicscope and tremorscope sharpened to reveal that a second solidity ship was following them. And it was close.

While they stared in amazement they heard a ping and a light came on over the rockvid receiver. Erled flicked a switch. Across the plate streamed recurrent ripples that slowly built up a crude, low-definition picture carried by sonicwaves from the following ship.

The hooded face of Ergrad stared at them from the plate, distorted somewhat by the incessant ripples.

‘I never dreamed they’d go this far!’ Erled breathed.

The Proctors, presumably, were so furious at their escape that they had sent Ergrad in hot pursuit! The second ship must have been put together in a hurry by modifying a surveyor vessel. At that, Erled thought, the enforcer had done very well indeed to catch up with them so quickly. He must have strained the engines to the utmost, at considerable danger to himself.

Ergrad spoke, the words coming blurred through the speaker.

‘Erled, Ereton! Halt and turn your ship round at once! I am here to escort you back to the Cavity, where you will stand trial for your crimes!’

Erled and Ereton looked at one another quizzically.

‘No return!’ Erled said fiercely. ‘We keep going!’

Nodding, Ereton spoke into the transmitter microphone. ‘Sorry, Proctor, we can’t turn back now.’

‘Be warned that we are armed with quake beams and will not hesitate to use them! Obey or be destroyed!’ Ergrad glowered, and his voice was like iron.

‘What shall we do?’ Ereton hissed, switching off the microphone. ‘Those beams can shake us to pieces!’

‘Perhaps we can dodge them.’

Ereton crouched down behind Erled as the latter took over the controls. The solidity ship surged forward at top speed and began to weave about through the rock. Shortly afterwards there was a screeching, rumbling sound and the ship shook as though it were a bell struck by a giant hammer. Erled gasped as the vibrations caught hold of him and made him feel that he was being turned inside out.

Although they had been struck only a glancing blow, Erled had been counting on the fact that quake beams travelled fairly slowly through their rock medium and therefore were difficult to aim at a fast-moving object. Unfortunately, Ergrad – or whoever was operating the weapon – seemed to be skilled in its use.

Finding the controls unaffected by the strike, Erled put the ship through a dizzying series of turns. He knew that he had to avoid another hit and at the same time to put distance between himself and the pursuer, because their only hope lay in the probability that Ergrad’s vessel was limited in its range and therefore he would soon have to turn back.

He peered at the sonicscope and tremorscope plates, trying to judge precisely where the pursuing ship lay and where it might strike next. But suddenly both plates erupted into an unreadable, screaming flurry as the quake beam went into action again. All around them the tortured rock quaked and imploded and the metal of the ship shrieked as if demented. Erled and Ereton immediately lost consciousness, but the injured solidity ship, its engines still working at full blast, plunged blindly on at top speed through the eternal rock.

Erled did not know how much later it was that he came to himself again. His first impression was of a grating noise jarring on his ears, telling him that all was not well. He saw that Ereton too was stirring, and then he climbed back to his bucket seat and scaled down the accelerator.

‘Are you hurt?’ he asked Ereton.

‘I don’t think so,’ groaned the other, and he hauled himself to his knees in the confined space. ‘What in God’s name is that noise?’

‘We’ve sustained some damage, I think. Something amiss in the traction motor by the sound of it.’

He glanced at the ’scope plates. They were both working normally but showed no hint of anything unusual in the vicinity. ‘No sign of Ergrad,’ he announced.

‘Eh?’ Ereton stared at the plates in delight. ‘What can have happened to him? He should be able to track us down easily enough.’