Empire of Two Worlds

I spent some minutes inspecting the valley closely, especially the entrance. A fair-sized road came through it and branched out all over the crater. Some buildings lined the crater walls; probably places for processing the dope, I thought.

What I took to be barracks were lodged just inside the entrance, on either side of the road. They weren’t very big, but I thought I’d better see what they had on the outside of the crater. Telling Tone and Heshan to stay put, I worked my way round. There were guards posted on the outside of the entrance, that was all. I was in time to see a couple of wagons leave the valley, turning to circle it by a road that left to the south.

According to what we had heard the valley was the producing and disseminating centre for a free public service, like protein was supposed to be (but wasn’t) back on Killibol. There was no need, in Rheattic eyes, for it to be heavily guarded; to my more predatory mind it was ludicrously vulnerable, especially in time of war. If I had been the Rheattic commander I would have stationed an army there.

The place wasn’t even very big. I judged the valley to be three miles in diameter. Bec was going to be pleased.

I slithered back to the others. “Let’s be on our way,” I said. “I think I’ve seen enough.”

“Aren’t we going in?” Tone asked pleadingly.

“Don’t be stupid, Tone,” I told him.

“But you know what I want. Bec promised—”

“You’ll have to wait,” I said bluntly. “We have to report to Bec first. You’ll get your dope when we take the valley.”

Tone stared down at the heady blossoms. His face looked like he was going to cry.

“Come on, move it!” I said harshly. “You’ve held out this long, you can hold out a bit longer.” I turned to go.

We had been speaking Klittmann, but the Heshan had been watching our exchange closely. He stood up uncertainly on the loose shale.

“You come in secret and hide. You are not here for your friend. You mean some harm to Blue Space Valley.”

“Pack it in, will ya?” I glared from one to the other, surreptitiously loosening the strap that held my repeater on my back.

The Heshan backed away. “Let us go openly through the gate. I do not have to hide. I will go and tell them you are here.”

I had to give him a score for guts. He set off down the outer slope at a slithering run. I yelled for him to stop, and reached for my repeater.

But Tone had grabbed my elbow. “I’m sorry, Klein, I can’t go away now. Not when it’s so close. Just lemme—”

He broke off and scrambled over the lip of the crater. I made a grab for him but it was too late.

Cursing, I turned back to the Heshan, who was making good time down the slope now. If he made it to the entrance I would be in trouble. I took careful aim. My repeater hammered loudly. The Heshan took a tumble, the slugs knocking him yards further down the slope, and lay still.

I flung myself to the crater brim, thinking I might still be in time to stop Tone. For a moment or two the sun flashed straight into my eye-shades, dazzling me. Then I saw him. He wasn’t running or clambering but rolling down the inside slope, plunging helter-skelter towards those blossoms that he hoped would give him peace of mind.

Already he was a long way off. I threw a long burst from the repeater after him. The sound echoed across the valley. Then Tone was lost to sight beneath the pink and red blooms and I wasn’t sure if I had hit him.

I quickly discarded the idea of going after him. A lot of people down in the crater might already have heard my repeater going off. There were too many of them. The only thing I could do now was get back to Hesha.

Making the journey back alone was kind of lonely, a little frightening. I’d never been left alone in the middle of an Earth landscape before, seven days from my own people. But I made it without any trouble and gave Bec the news.

“So you think this valley is wide open?” he asked after I’d finished.

“Looks like it. Of course, they might have some way of sealing off the entrance that I didn’t see — a metal door or a rock fall. But I reckon we could be through before they have time to use it. The sloop could get over the wall of the crater in any case.”

“Hmm. Do you think Tone will talk if he’s still alive?”

“It’s hard to say. Not willingly, because he knows we’re going to turn up sooner or later and he doesn’t want us to have a score to settle. But if they hold the stuff out on him he’ll do anything.”

Bec nodded. “It’s a chance we’ll have to take. We have to move fast anyway. Things are happening.”

“Oh?” I had noticed that things didn’t seem quite the same in the village. The atmosphere was more subdued, more quiet.

“Somebody came to the village to say that the Meramites are moving this way. The locals are pretty scared. They’re asking us to fight the Meramites for them.” He chuckled.

“So how do we handle it?” I asked.