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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31519-h.zip b/31519-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..74f3609 --- /dev/null +++ b/31519-h.zip diff --git a/31519-h/31519-h.htm b/31519-h/31519-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f262aaf --- /dev/null +++ b/31519-h/31519-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1841 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Narakan Rifles, About Face!, by Jan Smith + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Narakan Rifles, About Face!, by Jan Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Narakan Rifles, About Face! + +Author: Jan Smith + +Release Date: March 6, 2010 [EBook #31519] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARAKAN RIFLES, ABOUT FACE! *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Planet Stories January 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<h1>Narakan Rifles, About Face!</h1> +<p> </p> +<h2>By JAN SMITH</h2> +<p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Those crazy, sloppy, frog-like Narakans ... all thumbs and +six-inch skulls ... relics of the Suzi swamps. Until +four-fisted Lt. Terrence O'Mara moved among them—lethal, +dangerous, with a steady purpose flaming in his volcanic +eyes.</i></p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t1.jpg" alt="T" width="41" height="50" /></div> +<p>errence O'Mara lay flat on his back trying to keep his big body as +still as possible. Despite the fact that he was stripped to his +regulation shorts, a large pool of sweat had formed on the cot +underneath him. The only movement he permitted himself was an +occasional pursing of his lips as he dragged on a cigarette and sent a +swirl of smoke upward through the heavy humid air. Then he would just +lie there watching as the smoke crept up to mingle with the large +drops of water that were forming on the concrete of the command post.</p> + +<p>"Damn! Damn Naraka, anyway! Outpost of civilization! Who'd want the +blasted place except the Rumi?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="700" height="549" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>At the words, Terrence moved his head just a fraction of an inch and +his eyes only a little farther to look across the room to where Bill +Fielding was twisting and turning on his cot. All he could see of the +other man was the wet outline of his body under a once white sheet and +a hand that every so often reached into a bucket of water on the +floor and then replaced a soaking T-shirt over a red head.</p> + +<p>"You'll feel it less if you lie still," Terrence said, distressed at +the necessity for talking.</p> + +<p>"Feel it less! My God, listen to the man! What difference does it make +if you lie still or move around or even run around in the suns like a +bloody Greenback? Dust Bin will get you one way or another ... and if +it doesn't, the Rumi will."</p> + +<p>The visible hand lifted the T-shirt and began to pop salt tablets into +an open mouth like they were so many peppermints.</p> + +<p>"I wonder where Norton is. Out reviewing the troops?"</p> + +<p>"Reviewing, my eye. He's up at Government House sitting in that cool +living room drinking one of Mrs. Wilson's icy drinks and admiring Mrs. +Wilson's shapely legs. From a discreet distance, of course. Being +temporary Commanding Officer of even Dust Bin has its privileges!"</p> + +<p>There was a rattle of drums and the blare of one or two off-key +instruments from outside.</p> + +<p>"Then why," asked Terrence, "are those poor beggars marching up and +down in this blasted heat?"</p> + +<p>"The Greenbacks? They love it! It would take more than a little heat +to get under those inch-thick skins of theirs. They like to play +soldier when it's a hundred and thirty under water."</p> + +<p>There were a few more straggling notes and then the semblance of a +march began.</p> + +<p>"Listen to that, will you?" Fielding moaned, "They can't even keep +time with a drum! They can't march, they can't shoot, they can't break +down a Banning; they're all thumbs and six-inch thick skulls. 'Train +local forces to take over'! Bah! Did those desk jockeys back in New +Chicago ever see a Greenback? Did they ever try to teach a Narakan to +fix a bayonet to the proper end of a rifle or to fire a blaster in the +right direction?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>errence was lighting another cigarette with as little exertion as +possible. "Yes, but they keep trying. Ten hours a day. You don't have +to drive those boys. They want to learn. Listen to O'Shaughnessy +barking out orders."</p> + +<p>"Sergeant Major O'Shaughnessy of the First Narakan Rifles!" Fielding +murmured sarcastically. "A year ago he was squatting in a mud cocoon +at the bottom of Suzi swamp with the rest of the frogs. Now he's got a +good Irish name and he's strutting around like a Martian Field +Marshal."</p> + +<p>"I thought the names might give them a sense of self respect. Besides +we couldn't pronounce theirs and I was tired of hearing Norris yell +'Hey, greenboy!' at them."</p> + +<p>"Well, they picked the right guy when they made you Training Officer. +You and those damn frogs get along like you came from the same +county!"</p> + +<p>"They aren't any great shakes for brains but you can't take anything +away from me boys for willingness."</p> + +<p>"Willingness! Hooray! They're willing, so what? So is a Suzi Swamp +lizard. What'll it get them? A week after they pull the Terran forces +out, the Rumi will gobble up the lot of them. Maybe they'll gobble +them and us before we pull out. Who could fight in this place? Who'd +want to fight? I say, to hell with Naraka! It's so near to hell +already with those two blasted suns blazing sixteen hours a day. Let +the Rumi have the stinking planet! Let them have the whole Centaurian +System!"</p> + +<p>"Speaking of pulling out, I wouldn't be surprised if Dust Bin wasn't +the next place we let go of...."</p> + +<p>Fielding raised himself on one elbow, "No kidding? Where did you hear +that?" His sunburned and blistered face was alight with excitement.</p> + +<p>"Well, you know how it's been. When we first came here twenty years +back, we drove the Rumi out of all this country and more or less took +their cat feet off the Narakan's backs but now that so much of the +Earth garrison has been pulled all the way back into the Solar System, +the Rumi are acting up again. So much so that the dope I got is that +we may be pulling everything back into the Little Texas peninsula to +wait for reinforcements and it will take four years for those to come +out from Mars."</p> + +<p>"Great! Great! But.... Ah, it's too good to be true. Can't you just +picture Fielding and O'Mara parading down Dobi street in New Chicago +with their first lieutenant bars on their collars? Say, you don't +suppose that's why the <i>Sun Maid</i> is sticking around out here, do you? +Imagine, free transportation! A two hour trip to New Chi!"</p> + +<p>"I'd sure hate to march those two hundred miles at this time of year!"</p> + +<p>"March? Through those swamps? Every time we run a patrol through +them...."</p> + +<p>Fielding was interrupted by a knock on the door and a skinny young +Terran with sergeant's chevrons on his shorts stuck his head through +from the other room and said, "Major Chapelle's on the voice radio, +sir. He's calling from battalion headquarters and wants Captain +Norton."</p> + +<p>"Tell him Norton's up playing footsies with the Resident's wife," +Fielding said, "You'd think those people down at the river would have +enough to do without bothering us in the heat of the day, wouldn't +you?"</p> + +<p>The sergeant looked shocked and started to withdraw his head. Terrence +frowned Fielding into silence and called to the sergeant, "Just a +minute, Rogers. I'll talk to the Major."</p> + +<p>Major Chapelle was a thickset, balding man in his late forties. Even +the blazing suns of Naraka hadn't succeeded in burning the sickly +yellow color off his face. In the vision screen he looked like a man +on his last legs. Whatever was wrong with him didn't help his temper, +Terrence thought as he lowered himself gently into a seat before the +screen.</p> + +<p>"O'Mara! Where in hell is Norton?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, you see...." began Terrence.</p> + +<p>"Never mind! I've a pretty good idea where he is. A fine time to be +chasing skirts! Well, get this straight, O'Mara. Orders have come +through and we're pulling the battalion out. We're ordered back to +Little Texas. We're going to give up these positions along the river +tonight and pull back into Dust Bin. The <i>Sun Maid</i> will stand by to +evacuate us. You people are to come too. Everybody has to get out, +both the military and civilians. All hell's broken loose down river. +The Rumi are across the Muddy in half a dozen places. They've cut the +5th to pieces. New Chicago thinks that those cats have been bringing +troops in from space all along despite the agreement by both sides not +to do so. And now they have us way outnumbered." The Major's voice +held a thin edge of hysteria.</p> + +<p>"Is there any action along our front, Major?" Terrence asked quickly, +hoping to stop the flow of talk before Chapelle's hysteria +communicated itself to the enlisted men who were sitting or lying +about the command post.</p> + +<p>"Not yet; just patrols across the river so far. We've got to get out, +O'Mara, and get out fast. They'll be all over us if we don't. The +Colonel says for Norton to have everything ready to go. He wants the +depot destroyed. Everything's got to go, everything we can't take +along. The <i>Sun Maid</i> won't have time for more than one trip. He wants +the HQ company and the civilians on board by tomorrow morning at the +latest."</p> + +<p>"What about the Rifles, sir?"</p> + +<p>"What? The what?"</p> + +<p>"The native troops, sir. The Narakan Rifles." Terrence grated.</p> + +<p>"The Rifles? Good God, man! We haven't time for nonsense. The Rifles +are only Greenbacks, aren't they? You get Norton started burning those +stores."</p> + +<p>Terrence put down the microphone very carefully to keep from slamming +it down and stalked back into his quarters. Angrily he began to take +his radiation clothing from its hooks on the wall.</p> + +<p>"What the devil is eating you?" demanded Bill Fielding.</p> + +<p>"We're pulling out, lock, stock and barrel," Terrence told him.</p> + +<p>"Pulling out? Whoweee! I knew Mrs. Fielding didn't raise her boy to be +a fried egg. Goodbye, Dust Bin! Hello, New Chi!" Bill was up on his +hands and knees pounding on his cot. "But what's the matter with you? +You like this place?"</p> + +<p>"They're leaving the Rifles," Terrence said, zipping up his protective +coveralls as he left the room.</p> + + +<h2>II</h2> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="26" height="40" /></div> +<p>tepping outside on Naraka with the full power of Alpha and Beta +Centauri beating down was like stepping into a river of fire. Even +with the cooling unit in his suit, Terrence was aware of the searing +heat that filled the parade ground. Looking off across the makeshift +native huts, he could see the bright sides of a huge space ship-like +object. The big dirigible <i>Sun Maid</i> was lying in an open field. It's +a funny world, he thought to himself, where you have to use dirigibles +for planetary travel. But a dirigible was the only practical aircraft +when you had to use steam turbine engines because of the lack of +gasoline and the economic impracticability of transporting it in the +limited cargo holds of the occasional spacers that came out from Sol.</p> + +<p>The Narakan Rifles were marching toward him now, the band doing +absolutely nothing for <i>The Wearing of the Green</i>. Three hundred big, +green bodied, beady eyed, frog-like creatures were marching in the +boiling heat with their non-coms croaking out orders in English which +might have come out of <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>.</p> + +<p>As they marched by him, he snapped a salute. Watching them closely he +tried to find two men who were in step with each other or one man who +had his rifle at the right angle. Unable to find either, he stood +there conscious of failure; failure which went beyond mere military +precision however. Sloppiness at review could have been overlooked if +he had been able to find that the Narakans had any ability as fighting +men but after a year of training they seemed almost as hopeless as +they had at first. It wasn't that they were completely unintelligent. +In fact, other than the Galactic traveling Rumi, they were the only +extra-solar race of intelligent beings encountered by man so far. It +was just, he thought, that the hundreds of years during which the Rumi +had dominated their planet had reduced the Narakans to a state of +almost complete ineptitude.</p> + +<p>He stood there as they passed in review three times because he knew +that his presence pleased and encouraged them. Then he turned, and +with dragging feet made his way down Dust Bin's single street toward +Government House.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes he was standing in the cool, air conditioned living +room of the Wilsons. Wilson was seated at his desk rummaging through +some papers while Norris and Mrs. Wilson were lounging in contour +chairs admiring each other over tall, frosty drinks.</p> + +<p>They took the news just as he expected them to. Wilson ran his hand +through his sparse, gray hair and murmured something about it being a +shame to have to leave the natives on their own after having more or +less dragged them out of their comfortable swamps. A glance from his +wife silenced him.</p> + +<p>"What the hell," Norris said, "they're only blasted thick witted +Greenbacks."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wilson yawned, "It'll be something of a bother packing but it'll +certainly be a pleasure to get back to New Chicago. Some women's +husbands get good posts in half-way civilized parts of the Universe. I +don't know why I should always have to be stuck in every backwater, +hick town there is."</p> + +<p>Wilson smiled apologetically, "Now, dear...." he began but was +interrupted by the sudden ringing of the telephone on the table near +Norris' chair.</p> + +<p>"Get that, will you, O'Mara?" the captain said, making no attempt to +reach for it, "It's probably the Command Post."</p> + +<p>Terrence put the phone to his ear angrily and growled into it. An +excited Bill Fielding was on the line. "Terry? Is that you? Fielding +here. Hell's breaking loose. There's a bunch of blasted Rumi trying to +force their way into town. They attacked the sentries down this way +and may be heading for your end of town too."</p> + +<p>Terrence dropped the phone and headed for the door. "<i>Rumi!</i>" he +shouted and there were shouts and cries from outside in answer. Then +he heard the clack, clack, clack of Rumi spring guns. Windows of the +room crashed in and Wilson collapsed across his desk. Norton grabbed +Mrs. Wilson and pulled her down onto the floor. Terrence dropped to +his hands and knees and continued toward the door as he drew his +forty-five.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="26" height="40" /></div> +<p>omewhere, someone had cut loose with a Banning and its high whine +drowned out the clack of the spring guns. With a quick look around, +Terrence started at a run for the next building which was the native +schoolhouse. He didn't make it. There was a clack, clack from off to +his left and he threw himself forward, skidding and sliding in the +dust and gravel of the street. A warehouse across the square was on +fire and three Rumi had darted from behind it. In one brief glance he +saw those long barreled spring guns of theirs and the tall, graceful +bodies and the feline faces under the plastic protective clothing.</p> + +<p>He snapped four shots at them and saw one fall. Then he began to +slither along the ground raising enough dust to mask his movements. +There were half a dozen of them in the square when he reached the rear +door of the schoolhouse. Several gleaming plastic bolts smashed into +the wooden outer door a second after he had raised up to open it and +then had dropped back down.</p> + +<p>Norton fired from the residency and momentarily scattered the Rumi and +Terrence was inside the school room and racing for the side window +from which he could get a clear line of fire at the raiders. He had a +brief glimpse of Joan Allen, the school teacher, standing in a corner +of the room with the tiny green figures of native children huddled +around her. Then he was at a window and had beaten out the heavy +protective glass and was firing into a mass of the catmen, firing and +cursing as his gun emptied. He cursed in a stream of Martian, English +and Greenback profanity as he forced another clip into the gun.</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant O'Mara, if you'll be so kind as to restrain your language +in front of these children," a voice said from over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>Terrence reached back and felt something soft and forced it over +against the wall out of the line of the window. Then he risked a quick +look which was almost his last. A spring gun bolt burned a groove in +the windowsill next to his head and smashed into the blackboard across +the room.</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant O'Mara, would you mind telling me what this is all about?" +came the same calm determined woman's voice from beside him. He fired +again at a darting figure across the square and saw it stumble before +he had to drop to his haunches as the window above him was smashed and +scattered by bolts and glass rained down about his head.</p> + +<p>He put another clip into his gun and cursed because he had only two +left. He turned his head briefly and had a quick glimpse of a white +face framed in straight dark hair and a small, neat figure in a yellow +dress.</p> + +<p>"Rumi attack. One of their patrols must have gotten around the +battalion."</p> + +<p>A husky, whimpering little sound made him look down. A native child or +pollywog as the Terrans called them was clinging desperately to the +teacher's skirt. His tiny webbed feet clutched at the cloth as he +buried his face against her leg. From behind her peered still another +child, its baby frog face working spasmodically in the beginnings of a +sob. Six or seven others were lying flat on the floor their bodies +trembling in terror.</p> + +<p>Terrence took another look outside and what he saw sent him into +another stream of cursing. The Narakan Rifles were hurrying to the +scene of action. Down the middle of the street they came in a column +of fours with their drums and bugles blaring out a poor imitation of +<i>The Wearing of the Green</i>. Their standard bearer was running at the +head of the column beside Sergeant Major O'Shaughnessy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my God! He wouldn't...!"</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant, please!"</p> + +<p>"Teacher, will you shut up!" he roared as he leaped across the room +toward the front door. At the harsh tone of his voice, the whimpering +sounds in the room suddenly burst forth in full volume as the ten +pollywogs raised their hoarse voices into full throated croaks.</p> + +<p>Terrence braced his body against the wall and held his gun ready as he +pulled open the door. In parade formation his men were moving up the +street and in a moment they would be away from the buildings' +protection and directly in the Rumi line of fire.</p> + +<p>"O'Shaughnessy, you idiot!" he roared above the croaking from behind +him and the rattle of firing outside.</p> + +<p>O'Shaughnessy came to a skidding halt almost directly in front of the +schoolhouse but his men kept on going, their faces set and determined. +O'Shaughnessy came to attention and snapped a salute.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, Mr. Lieutenant."</p> + +<p>"Halt! Damn it, HALT!" Terrence yelled at the column of greenbacks. +Their formation crumbled as they ran into each other, stepped on each +other's feet and pushed and shoved. But they halted.</p> + +<p>"O'Shaughnessy! Break ranks ... take cover ... line of skirmishers!" +Terrence shouted and hit the dirt behind a sandbox in the schoolyard +as the Rumi resumed firing. There was a mad scramble among the +Narakans as they scattered behind walls and into buildings, moving +with an incredibly rapid jumping motion which they used when in a +hurry.</p> + +<p>Terrence was so glad to see only one sprawled figure in the dust of +the street that he just lay there for a few seconds spitting dust +before he realized that he had forgotten to close the face visor of +his radiation clothing.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>here was a slight clucking sound from beside him and when he turned +he found O'Shaughnessy lying almost beside him, squinting along his +carbine. The Narakan's face split into two replicas of the map of +Ireland and he saluted flat handed, his webbed fingers at just the +proper angle.</p> + +<p>"O'Shaughnessy, you don't have to salute when you're lying down!" +O'Mara tried to keep his voice as calm as possible.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, Mr. Lieutenant. Pretty quick we fight now?"</p> + +<p>His lieutenant ignored him and searched for signs of life in the +houses across the square. There wasn't a Rumi in sight except for one +on the roof of a shed next to the burning warehouse. He tried a couple +of shots with his automatic and missed. He grabbed O'Shaughnessy's +carbine and dropped the creature as it tried to scramble off the shed.</p> + +<p>"Pretty soon we fight with bayonet?" O'Shaughnessy asked as Terrence +handed back the carbine.</p> + +<p>"O'Shaughnessy, why do you do things like this to me, me who took you +out of your damn mud hole and made a soldier out of you?"</p> + +<p>O'Shaughnessy's mouth formed a huge round moon, "Not understand, +Lieutenant...." he began but he was ignored again as Terrence stared +across the street in pained disbelief to where the heavy weapons squad +of the Narakan Rifles was gathered in a huddled group behind a native +house, struggling to set up their Banning Automatic Blaster and two +machine guns. One of the men was down on his hands and knees balancing +the heavy barrel of the blaster on his back while two others were +attempting to push the ponderous breech onto it by main strength. The +two machine guns were half on and half off their tripods. The leg of +one of them had been bent in the wrong direction and the other was so +covered with grease that the parts wouldn't fit together.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lord!" moaned Terrence and was bracing himself for a dash across +the street when a figure in Terran battle armor came around the +building on the run, dodging and crawling as spring bolts raised the +dust in front of him. It was the short, stout Gunnery Sergeant, +Polasky. Terrence breathed a sigh of relief.</p> + +<p>He turned to O'Shaughnessy, "Now, Sergeant, this is our problem. Those +buildings over there are filled with Rumi. They have automatic weapons ... +spring guns ... firing a clip of twenty plastic bolts. They're deadly at +close to medium range. They can penetrate our battle armor." He looked at +the thick, knobby skin of the Narakan, "Yours too. Now, they are probably +just a patrol about the size of one of our companies. They don't seem to +have any heavy weapons and ours will be in action in a few minutes. Then, +O'Shaughnessy...." The Narakan was squinting along the barrel of his +rifle.</p> + +<p>"Are you paying attention, Sergeant?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir! Attention, yes, sir." O'Shaughnessy started to lift his +bulky three hundred pounds up off the ground. Terrence heaved with all +his might against those thick khaki clad legs to knock him down again.</p> + +<p>"Man, what are you doing?" he yelled.</p> + +<p>"Attention, sir. Sir said...."</p> + +<p>"No, no, O'Shaughnessy. I meant, listen to me. O'Shaughnessy, how +could you? Haven't I been like a brother to you? Didn't I share my +whiskey and candy ration with you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. That's why...."</p> + +<p>"Then for the sake of your two headed frog-faced gods, shut up and +listen to me."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Look. In a minute our Banning will be in action," his voice was +drowned out by the scream of tortured air as the Banning cut loose. +"Now there is a sweet sound. What do we do next, O'Shaughnessy?"</p> + +<p>One of the row of buildings across the square glowed red briefly as +the beam from the Blaster caught it; glowed red and then burst into a +ball of fire. O'Shaughnessy's mouth was open wide, his chinless face +resting on the edge of the sandbox and his little black bead eyes were +as large as they could get.</p> + +<p>"What do we do now, O'Shaughnessy ... come on...."</p> + +<p>The Narakan made a thrusting gesture with his carbine, "Bayonet ... we +go in with bayonet now," he said.</p> + +<p>O'Mara slapped him on the seat of his khaki pants. "No, no. You got to +get this stuff straight."</p> + +<p>The whine of the Banning interrupted him again and it was joined by +the chatter of machine guns and rifle fire and answered by the rapid +clacking of spring guns. Bolts dug into the wall of the schoolhouse +and showered them with plaster. Others shattered the front window. +Terrence wiped plaster off his visor and tried again. "You've got to +get this straight, O'Shaughnessy, because ... well, because you may be +getting an independent command pretty soon and there won't be anyone +around to tell you what to do."</p> + +<p>The Narakan was listening to him but wide-mouthed and uncomprehending. +"We're going to burn them out of those huts; burn them out or burn the +houses down over their heads. About the time Polasky gets to the third +one, those guys are going to break and then they'll either rush us +or...."</p> + +<p>Norton was yelling something from the Residency. There was a noise of +clanking armor behind him and he could hear Fielding's voice cracking +out orders as he came up with twenty hastily armed and armored clerks, +cooks and radiomen from the HQ unit.</p> + +<p>"O'Mara! O'Mara, they're breaking! They're running! Let's go!" Norton +was on the porch of the Residency pouring Tommy gun slugs at the rear +of the burning row of houses.</p> + +<p>"Okay, let's go," Terrence said, lurching to his feet. The Narakan +sergeant blew his whistle and the riflemen swarmed out from their +shelters and started at a run across the square with Norton, Terrence +and O'Shaughnessy at their head. The rest of the Terrans in full +battle armor lumbered along after them.</p> + +<p>One or two bolts whistled overhead and Corporal O'Brien dropped his +rifle and fell forward clutching his leg. The smoke from the burning +buildings obscured their vision but Terrence had a momentary sight of +Rumi radiation clothing and emptied his clip at it.</p> + +<p>Someone from behind threw a grenade which fell short of its target and +rolled in front of them. Norton took two quick strides and kicked it +into one of the flaming buildings.</p> + + +<h2>III</h2> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>here were about twenty Rumi, less than they had thought, fleeing +across the open fields behind the burning huts. They were firing as +they ran and giving out those queer yelping cries of theirs. Three or +four of them fell and then Norton was shouting, calling back his men +to organize fire fighting parties.</p> + +<p>"Captain! Captain, let's go after those guys. We can cut them off +before they get to the grasslands," Terrence yelled.</p> + +<p>"Get your men after these fires, O'Mara. We can't let them spread."</p> + +<p>There was nothing to do but obey but he delayed long enough to empty +his automatic in the general direction of the fleeing Rumi. Then he +turned and yelled, "Harrigan! Sergeant Harrigan! Where in the devil is +that...." There was a crashing sound behind him and Harrigan stumbled +through the smoke and came down on his foot, all three hundred pounds +of him.</p> + +<p>Later, as the last smoking embers of the fire were being smothered by +industrious squads of Narakans with buckets and shovels, Terrence +limped back across the square with Bill Fielding.</p> + +<p>"We should have gone after those lousy scum," Bill said, "They may cut +back around the town again and give the battalion some trouble on the +river road."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think I know it! As fast as the Greenbacks can move when +they want to, we could have caught the lot of them before they got +into the grasslands. But Norton was worried about the fires! Of +course, we're going to burn all these buildings tomorrow or the next +day but Norton was afraid the Residency would catch fire."</p> + +<p>"Probably didn't want his sweetie's fancy clothes to burn."</p> + +<p>"They got Wilson, you know."</p> + +<p>"Good Lord! Dead?"</p> + +<p>"Right between the eyes. They almost got all four of us."</p> + +<p>Fielding took his heavy battle helmet off and pushed back the glass +visor of his radiation helmet to wipe the perspiration and dirt off +his face. "Well, maybe Norton didn't want us to catch those damn cats. +Maybe he figured he owed them that much."</p> + +<p>O'Mara shielded his eyes as he said, "Beta's setting. It'll be night +in a couple of hours and we can walk around without this blasted +radiation armor for a while."</p> + +<p>"Yeah, and we can start looking for a full scale night attack as soon +as good old Alpha hides his hoary head."</p> + +<p>"If you see O'Shaughnessy, tell him I want to see him, will you? I'm +going to stop at the schoolhouse for a few minutes."</p> + +<p>Surprise spread across Bill's freckled face, "Not the school teacher? +Not you! Buddy, you've been in Dust Bin too long. You've been on +Naraka too long. You'll be attending services at the Chapel next."</p> + +<p>Terrence muttered a few old Anglo-Saxon words under his breath and +limped off in the direction of the school building.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>he Reverend Ames Goodman was the smallest Narakan that Terrence had +ever seen. The Johnathian missionary from Little Texas was somewhat +under two hundred and fifty pounds which was slight for a Greenback. +He also spoke the best English except for some of the big shots in New +Chicago. Ordinarily he was a composite of superstitious reverence and +natural dignity which Terrence had always found admirable. Today, +however, he couldn't have appeared more ludicrous if he had tried. He +was dressed for a visit to the Residency in a white duck suit which +was too small and out of which he bulged in a number of surprising +places.</p> + +<p>He and Joan Allen were talking half in English and half in Narakan as +the lieutenant entered. The minister had a painfully surprised look on +his round green face.</p> + +<p>"I hope we didn't bust up your school too much, Miss Allen."</p> + +<p>"If you are quite finished with your shooting and cursing, Lieutenant +O'Mara, perhaps you have time to explain to Rev. Goodman and me what +this talk about evacuation means."</p> + +<p>As she spoke, she brushed stray strands of black hair up under her +radiation helmet. For the first time in the six months that she had +been in charge of the orphan school in Dust Bin, Terrence decided that +maybe she was pretty after all. He wasn't sure whether it was the high +color which excitement lent to her usually pale face or if Bill +Fielding was right in saying he had been on Naraka too long, but Joan +Allen was beginning to look good to him. At the moment the feeling +wasn't at all mutual.</p> + +<p>"Is it true that the Defense Force is pulling out and leaving the rest +of us to the Rumi?"</p> + +<p>Terrence took off his helmet and let the rapidly cooling air strike +his head. "Not exactly, teacher," he said, "The Fifth is pulling out +but so are all the Terrans in Dust Bin. Everyone's being ordered back +to Little Texas. That's why the <i>Sun Maid</i> is standing by."</p> + +<p>"All the Terrans, Lieutenant? What about the people here who depend on +us? What about my children?"</p> + +<p>O'Mara somehow couldn't quite look either of them in the face. He +muttered something about having to get back to his command post and +started out the door. Joan called after him as she noticed his limp, +"Lieutenant, I'm sorry, I didn't know you have been wounded."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's nothing ... nothing," he said, hurrying away, his neck +reddening from something more than the attention of Beta Centauri. How +in the name of Naraka's sixty devils could you tell a woman that one +of your own non-coms had stepped on your foot and nearly broken your +instep?</p> + +<p>The battalion straggled into Dust Bin during the night. It hadn't +exactly fought its way back from the river but had had enough +casualties to make the men nervous and jumpy without tempering them at +all. One of the casualties had been Lt. Colonel Upton. Now Major +Chapelle was in command. The men of the battalion were nervous but +Chapelle was riding on the thin edge of panic. He ordered everyone on +board the <i>Sun Maid</i> at once and then countermanded the order and +formed a defense perimeter around the town. He threw out patrols which +were unable to contact any Rumi on the Dust Bin side of the river.</p> + +<p>The next morning Terrence was summoned to Government House for an +officers' conference. As he hurried along its single street, Dust Bin +was in a state of confused and helpless excitement. The three or four +hundred Narakans who made up its population were all in the street or +square. Many of them were carrying their belongings on their shoulders +and looked as if they were only waiting for an order of some kind to +send them scurrying off toward the Suzi swamps.</p> + +<p>As O'Mara reached the veranda of the Residency, Rev. Goodman was +speaking with Joan Allen by his side. His words were aimed at +Chapelle, Norton and a large gray-eyed man whom Terrence recognized as +the Captain of the <i>Sun Maid</i>.</p> + +<p>"When you came, you earthmen in your great ships, the Narakan was a +hunted creature on his own planet and had been back as far as he could +remember. You drove off the Rumi and took parts of the planet for your +own use but you did not hunt the Narakan. You brought him out of his +swamps and taught him much; to wear clothes, to till the ground and +many other things. You even gave him your religion. But now the Rumi +have returned and you say you are not strong enough to hold all the +planet."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="42" height="40" /></div> +<p>ajor Chapelle was impatient, "That's right, Reverend, there's too +many of them. The garrison just isn't big enough to hold everything +and it's too far back to Earth for us to expect any reinforcements for +a year or even longer."</p> + +<p>Norton took over. "You're an educated ... ah ... man, Goodman. You see +what the problem is. We can't hold everything so we've got to cut our +losses. All of the most important resources and towns are in the +Little Texas area and so we're pulling back into there."</p> + +<p>"I see. Yes, I understand. The people of Dust Bin are part of the +losses that must be cut."</p> + +<p>"Now, now. Don't put it that way, Reverend. The natives can always +take refuge in the swamps, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I suppose it must be so. Back to Little Texas for the Terrans +and back to the swamps for the Narakans. Back to living naked in the +mud, back to fishing for our food and back to thinking only of the +next meal."</p> + +<p>"It really isn't that bad," Chapelle said. "As soon as the situation +adjusts itself, the Terran forces will be coming back. Then you can +come out of your hiding places and resume your regular life again."</p> + +<p>"Yes. And in the meantime our only problem will be to stay out of the +way of the Rumi."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe that they will go out of their way to harm you. It's +the Terrans they want to drive out."</p> + +<p>Suddenly the Reverend Goodman was shaking his fist in the Major's +face, forgetting in his excitement both his manners and his correct +English. "Not hurt! Not hurt, Mr. General? No, they not hurt, they +just eat! They favorite food is Naraka steak."</p> + +<p>"Now, now, calm yourself," Norton put a hand on Goodman's shoulder. +"There's plenty of room in the <i>Sun Maid</i> for you and the rest of your +people will be safe enough in the swamps."</p> + +<p>"What about my children?" demanded Joan Allen.</p> + +<p>"Children, Miss Allen? I don't know.... Oh, yes, you mean the poly ... +the children. Why, I assume they will go with their parents."</p> + +<p>Joan placed a small fist firmly on each of her slim hips. "Major, all +the children in the mission school are orphans. They have no parents. +None of them have ever lived in the swamps."</p> + +<p>"Ah yes. But I hardly see what we can do about it, Miss Allen."</p> + +<p>"Well, Major, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do about it. +Unless those kids are loaded on the <i>Sun Maid</i> in place of some of +this junk," she waved a hand at the piles of luggage which belonged to +Mrs. Wilson, "I'm going to stay with my charges and leave you with the +problem of explaining to the Mission Board and to the Bishop of New +Chicago just why you left me behind."</p> + +<p>At the mention of the extremely influential Johnathian Bishop the +Major looked more worried than ever. After a short conference with +Norton, he turned to Joan.</p> + +<p>"Very well, Miss Allen. The children will go in the airship. I'm sure +that Mrs. Wilson will be only too glad to leave some of her clothes to +make room for them."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Major." Joan said, making no attempt to gloat over her +victory.</p> + +<p>"Now, Captain, I understand that most of the military stores have been +destroyed and that the men are ready for embarkation," Chapelle went +on hurriedly, addressing himself to the captain of the <i>Sun Maid</i>. "We +will have about three hundred and twenty, no ... about three hundred +and thirty passengers for you."</p> + +<p>The captain shook his head doubtfully, "It's a big load. I hope we can +make it without any trouble."</p> + +<p>"Well, then," Chapelle went on, "We'll go aboard during the day after +we complete the destruction of the stores and facilities. The native +troops under Lieutenant O'Shaughnessy will cover our embarkation and +then convoy the civilians as far as the Suzi swamps. Afterwards they +will march overland to Fort Craven on the Little Texas border."</p> + +<p>Terrence had never had any urge to be a hero. He had always pictured +himself retiring at a ripe old age as a Colonel or Brigadier and +raising canal oranges on Mars, but suddenly the memory of the Narakan +Rifles rushing down the street with bugles blaring and flag waving +right into the Rumi line of fire rose before him. The thought of +O'Shaughnessy, even with his new lieutenant's commission, leading the +blundering troops along the two hundred miles to Fort Craven was too +much for him.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, Major," he heard himself saying, "But as the +Narakan Training Officer, I think that I should remain in command of +the unit in its overland march."</p> + +<p>The Major was dumfounded. Norton looked as if he were sure the Narakan +climate had proven too much of a strain for the lieutenant.</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant O'Mara, are you sure...." began Chapelle.</p> + +<p>"Are you nuts, O'Mara? Do you know what you're asking for?" demanded +Norton.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. I feel that since Colonel Upton appointed me Training +Officer for the Narakan Rifles, it is my duty to stay with them until +I am relieved."</p> + +<p>Chapelle's look of astonishment had changed to one of relief. It would +be far easier to explain the hurried abandonment of the Narakan Rifles +to the native representatives at New Chicago if a Terran officer were +to remain with them.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "I could, of course, relieve you of your +responsibility but if you feel that...."</p> + +<p>"I do, sir." Terrence said quickly lest he be tempted to back out.</p> + + +<h2>IV</h2> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="40" /></div> +<p>ater in the day as he sat in the shade of the command post's +overhanging roof with his back against a stack of sand-bags, he cursed +himself for sixteen kinds of an idiot as he watched the evacuation +begin. Beta was dropping low over the pink Maldo hills as the long +line of earthmen filed up the gangway into the big airship.</p> + +<p>"Hello," said a voice behind him. He turned to find Joan Allen +standing there clothed in radiation armor and holding a small canvas +bag in one hand. "I thought ... I mean ... I came to say good-bye."</p> + +<p>"Hello, yourself. I thought you were on board with the rest of them." +He got up hastily.</p> + +<p>"No. I got the kids on board but I wanted one more look at the +schoolhouse before we shoved off."</p> + +<p>Somehow he was holding onto her arm, "I guess it meant a lot to you, +that schoolhouse," he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it did. I ... I was afraid that I wouldn't get to see you when +you get to New Chicago."</p> + +<p>"There's no danger of that, Joanie. If and when I get there, I'll be +looking for you ... that is ... if you want to see me."</p> + +<p>"If you think you can stand an old maid school teacher, I'll be +looking for you." She was very close to him now. "Why did you do it, +Terrence? Why are you making the march with the Narakans? Fielding +says your chances aren't very good."</p> + +<p>"I'll thank Fielding to keep his big mouth shut! I don't really know +why, probably kind of an Earthman's Burden, noblesse oblige ... you +know ... something like the sort of thing Kipling used to write +about."</p> + +<p>"Hell," she said, surprising him with her vehemence, "you don't +believe that guy any more than I do. It was old when Kipling wrote it +and it's even older now. I think that somewhere under that tough Irish +skin of yours, there's a sentimental fool hiding."</p> + +<p>She was still closer now with her hands pressed lightly against his +chest and suddenly his arms went around her, he lifted her protective +visor and forced his lips down hard on hers. All of her primness had +disappeared as she leaned against him, returning his kiss with a +burning eagerness which a more experienced woman might have +controlled.</p> + +<p>There were tears running down his cheeks and he knew they weren't his. +He released her slightly and looked down into her tear streaked face, +wondering how it was possible for them to have been at the same post +for six months without really knowing each other.</p> + +<p>"I guess I'm kind of crazy about you, teacher," he said.</p> + +<p>He had lifted her off her feet and she clung there with her arms +around his neck. "Terrence, I can't leave you ... I...."</p> + +<p>As Terrence bent over to kiss her again there was a loud cough and +Bill Fielding was standing there dressed in full battle armor. He +grinned and said, "Much as I hate to break this up, I don't think +Chapelle is going to hold the <i>Sun Maid</i> much longer."</p> + +<p>Terrence set Joan gently on her feet and she turned and fled toward +the waiting ship. He watched until she was on board and then turned to +stare at Bill. Still grinning broadly, Bill clapped him on the +shoulder as he said, "I could never have faced those bartenders on +Dobi Street if I had gone back without you. We better get going, +hadn't we? Sergeant Polasky's down with the men. He couldn't bear to +leave his Bannings."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be damned!" was all O'Mara could find to say as he watched +the big airship lift itself in the fading light, circle and pass +through the smoke of Dust Bin for the last time.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>hrowing their gear over their shoulders, the two officers crossed the +parade ground to where the two hundred khaki clad figures of the +Narakan Rifles stood waiting with Sergeant Polasky clucking slightly +as he fussed over his Bannings.</p> + +<p>O'Shaughnessy was wearing his new lieutenant bars and a pith helmet +and was carrying a large piece of wood in imitation of Norton's +swagger stick. Terrence took one look at him and at the two orderlies +who stood behind him holding his field kit. He strode toward him +scowling, placed his fists on his hips and stood glaring up at the +Greenback as he roared, "So! It's delusions of grandeur you've got, is +it? Where are Hannigan and O'Toole and their patrols? Why aren't they +back?"</p> + +<p>O'Shaughnessy stiffened to attention trying to pull in his great +stomach. "They are back, Mr. Lieutenant Sir.... I forgot. They had +nothing to report ... no contact."</p> + +<p>Terrence looked him up and down, "If you foul up just once more ... +I'm going to ... I'll split your gizzard, stuff it with To-To leaves +and send you to the Rumi for their breakfast with my compliments!"</p> + +<p>O'Shaughnessy shivered at the dire threat as O'Mara turned to Rev. +Goodman who stood with his people clustered about him. "All right, +Reverend, you can move out with your flock. I'll throw patrols out in +front of you and bring up the rear with the rest of the Rifles. We'll +see you as far as the edge of the swamps."</p> + +<p>In a long straggly line, the refugees started out with the native +police keeping order and Goodman marching at their head. The two drums +and the three bugles of the Narakan Rifles struck up a badly mangled +version of <i>Back to Donegal</i>, and the column followed on the heels of +the civilians. Once or twice Terrence glanced back at the smoke and +flame that had been Dust Bin before he turned his face forward across +the miles of grasslands to where the Suzi swamps lay.</p> + +<p>Darkness had fallen but progress wasn't difficult until one of those +sudden, lashing storms for which Naraka was famous hurled itself upon +them, flattening the tall grass, raising swirls of dust and finally +turning the dust into thick, clinging mud.</p> + +<p>As suddenly as it had come, the storm was gone. But by that time they +were in the swamp itself. Night in the Suzi swamps. Swamps composed of +a sticky, gray mud and heavy tangled undergrowth. The night was as +black as the day had been bright. The column which had left the +civilians at the edge of the swamp was pushing slowly forward. The +Narakans glided along on their bare, webbed feet and the Terrans +pushed along on snowshoe-like glides attached to their boots.</p> + +<p>Bill Fielding, bareheaded with his helmet thrown back over his +shoulder, floundered along beside Terrence. "Did you ever see a place +like this? Did you ever see mud like this? Even the Irish bogs +couldn't be this bad."</p> + +<p>Terrence checked his map, shielding his flashlight carefully. "We'll +be out of the worst of this by tomorrow morning," he said.</p> + +<p>"If we live until tomorrow morning," Fielding replied, "those Rumi +have eyes like the blasted jungle cats they're descended from."</p> + +<p>"I don't think we have much to worry about until we get out of the +swamps. I doubt if their patrols would penetrate very deeply into this +mess."</p> + +<p>"How about the radio? Has Polasky been able to get through to Fort +Craven?" asked Fielding.</p> + +<p>O'Mara shook his head, "no. You know what Beta's radiations do to +radio reception this time of year. Even at night it takes a powerful +transmitter to reach farther than twenty or thirty miles."</p> + +<p>Later in the night, with a good ten miles of swamp country between him +and the enemy, Terrence called a halt on a slightly raised spot of +almost dry ground. The unwearied Greenbacks and the exhausted Terrans +dropped down in huddled groups. The patrols that had penetrated to the +edge of the swamp came in to report that they had contacted no Rumi +ahead. Terrence munched a can of cold beans and fell over in an +exhausted sleep to the sound of O'Shaughnessy placing sentries about +the camp.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="31" height="40" /></div> +<p>he next day's march was a nightmare to the lieutenant. If anything, +the heat and humidity were worse in the swamps than they had been in +Dust Bin and the going got tougher every mile. The mud was softer and +the undergrowth had to be cut away by bayonet-wielding Narakans before +the main body could move through. Terrence had thrown off his battle +armor and lost his radiation helmet somewhere in the morass as had +other of the Earthmen. Hannigan had prepared a thick mess of mud and +grass which the Terrans applied to exposed parts of their bodies.</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon of the second day the Narakan Rifles came to a +tepid little stream that marked the end of the swamps, and for the +first time Terrence ordered a rest of longer than two hours. Bill +Fielding was lying flat on his back in the grass beside the stream +with his feet dangling in the water, shoes and all, when O'Mara +dragged himself wearily back from inspecting the pickets and flopped +down beside him.</p> + +<p>"If I never to my dying day see another speck of mud," Fielding +muttered as he ate a bar of tropical chocolate that was as mud covered +as he was, "I'll still have seen more than all the Fieldings for two +hundred years back have seen on Earth and Mars."</p> + +<p>"And now," said Terrence as he eased over on his back with a heavy +sigh, "that we have run out of mud, we can start looking for Rumi."</p> + +<p>"At least it'll be a change! Here Kitty! Here kitty! Nice Rumi! Come +and get a bayonet in...."</p> + +<p>Clack, clack, clack. The sound of spring guns broke the stillness of +the afternoon and was followed by the sound of rifles and a cry of +pain.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lord!" moaned O'Mara, "now it starts!" He was on his feet, +gripping his carbine and running bent over. Fielding was at his heels, +dragging a machine gun off the ground.</p> + +<p>"O'Shaughnessy! Hannigan! Take the first platoon. Move up to support +the pickets. O'Toole! On the double! Take your squad and try to get +around the firing. Bill, you and Polasky stand by here with the rest +of the men and the Bannings."</p> + +<p>Terrence had plunged into the stream and splashed across and was +clambering up the opposite bank when one of his pickets came crawling +and stumbling back clutching a wounded arm. "Mr. Lieutenant! Mr. +Lieutenant! Rumi! Rumi! Many Rumi up ahead! Sullivan and O'Leary dead! +Rumi get!"</p> + +<p>"Medic! Medic!" O'Shaughnessy was yelling in his ear with the +full-throated croak of an adult Narakan, drowning out what the wounded +picket was trying to say.</p> + +<p>"How many? How many Rumi, man?" Terrence demanded.</p> + +<p>"Twenty ... thirty ... maybe thousand!" the Narakan gasped as the +Medic led him off.</p> + +<p>"'Twenty, thirty, maybe thousand.' That gives us a damn fine idea of +what we're up against!"</p> + +<p>While his men dragged their big bodies up the bank of the stream, +O'Mara stood scowling at the eight foot high grass. Usually about a +foot high, the hardy and ubiquitous purple grass of Naraka grew far +more lushly around the edges of the swamps. He felt that it would be a +risky business at best to plunge into it after an unknown number of +enemy. At the same time he had an illogical determination not to leave +the bodies of his men in the hands of the Rumi. He looked at the +broad, big-mouthed exaggerations of Irish faces around him, heaved a +sigh that came from deep in his chest and ordered, "All right, men. +Spread out. Keep low and keep your eyes open. And try not to shoot +each other."</p> + +<p>"We fix bayonets now, Lieutenant, sir?" Hannigan asked.</p> + +<p>"You keep your eyes open, Sergeant," Terrence snapped, "I'll tell you +when to fix bayonets."</p> + +<p>The noisy rustling of his men's heavy bodies as they pushed through +the grass made him nervous and irritable. Then suddenly, just as they +were edging their way around a gully, a dozen Rumi were swarming down +on them. Terrence cut down two with his carbine but his men were +firing and missing as the incredibly fast catmen hurtled at them. He +had a brief glimpse of O'Shaughnessy spraying submachine gun slugs +wildly about and then there was a hail of spring bolts and two of his +men were down. The whole platoon was thrashing through the grass in +their direction and the Rumi were gone as quickly as they had come.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" Terrence shouted, breaking into a run with twenty or thirty +Riflemen after him. A bolt grazed his cheek and another cut down a man +to his right. He emptied his carbine in the general direction of the +Clack, Clack, Clack. Hannigan was roaring a primitive bull-throated +chant and firing at everything that moved. O'Shaughnessy managed to +jam his gun and was beating frantically at it with one webbed fist. +They burst into a clearing filled with Rumi and both sides blazed away +at point blank range. It was hard for even a Narakan to miss at that +close range and the Rumi broke and ran just as Sergeant O'Toole and +his squad came out of the grass on the other side of the clearing.</p> + +<p>The Rumi, trapped, turned and dashed at Terrence and his men. The +lieutenant drove his fist into one cat faced creature and smashed his +empty gun across the head of another. Hannigan grappled with one of +the lithe gray-bodied things and slowly crushed it beneath his 350 odd +pounds. O'Shaughnessy beat another insensible with his jammed Tommy +gun. Several Narakans were down but most of them had taken Rumi with +them.</p> + +<p>Terrence was knocked off his feet by a gray ball of fury that leaped +at him wielding a stiletto-thin knife. He caught at the Rumi's arm +with both hands but the creature was not only fast but strong. It +twisted out of his grasp and slashed at him and only a quick sideward +roll saved him. Desperately he brought his fist down on his +assailant's head.</p> + +<p>The Rumi's grip relaxed slightly and Terrence drove his fist full into +its face and locked his legs about its waist. The catman couldn't have +weighed more than a hundred and fifty pounds but all of it was wiry +strength. It clawed at him now, ripping his protective clothing and +gashing his legs, meanwhile trying to get its knife into play. He was +vaguely conscious that his men had disposed of the rest of the Rumi +and were dancing around him frantically trying to get a chance to aid +him. He was struck by the incongruity of a civilized being descended +from simian ancestors and a civilized being descended from feline +ancestors fighting fang and claw while a bunch of misplaced amphibians +danced about them.</p> + +<p>Making his weight count he suddenly twisted and hurled the Rumi under +him but something hit him a terrific blow on the back of the head and +blackness closed in.</p> + + +<h2>V</h2> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="35" height="40" /></div> +<p>'Mara awoke with a head that felt like all the hangovers of a +misspent life.</p> + +<p>"Have a nice rest?" Bill Fielding asked.</p> + +<p>Terrence reached a weak hand to the back of his head and felt +bandages. "Did I catch a spring bolt?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Bill grinned, "Well, no. Not exactly. It was more on the order of +Private O'Hara's rifle butt. He was trying to hit the Rumi you were +necking with."</p> + +<p>"I might have known," Terrence groaned.</p> + +<p>"We lost six men but recovered all the bodies except for one. We've +got four wounded ... litter cases. Thought you were going to make it +five for a while."</p> + +<p>"Well, they won't slow us down too much. We still have about a hundred +and fifty miles to go. We'll camp here for the night and move out at +dawn."</p> + +<p>Marching in the early morning and resting in the heat of the day +before another afternoon march, the Narakan Rifles covered another +fifty miles of the distance to Fort Craven without incident but not +without signs of Rumi. Twice they came on recently occupied camps and +once they caught sight of a Rumi patrol moving parallel to their own +line of march.</p> + +<p>The next morning, which was blistering and cloudless, they were only +seventy miles from the Fort.</p> + +<p>"Maybe we ought to give the radio another try." Terrence decided. +"We're close enough to have a chance of getting through now."</p> + +<p>Polasky set up the field radio.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Balliwick. Hello, Balliwick. This is Apple Three Three. Can +you read me? Come in, please."</p> + +<p>O'Mara and Fielding sat and listened while he repeated the call a +dozen or more times. His only answer was the heavy static that Beta +produced in most electronic instruments. The same static that made +radar and space scanners all but useless, that limited aircraft to the +big dirigibles and weapons to old fashioned rifles and machine guns.</p> + +<p>"I guess we'll know what's going on when we get there!" Terrence said. +He wiped his forehead with his arm, noticing that the heavily caked +mud was beginning to crack off. He would be in for a bad case of sun +poisoning probably.</p> + +<p>A rare breeze had sprung up and drifting down it from the west came +the sound of gunfire. As one man, everyone in the camp stiffened.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear that?" demanded Fielding.</p> + +<p>"I think I hear a Banning," Polasky said, "sounds like it's coming +from in back of us ... off to the west."</p> + +<p>"From what our scouts have been able to pick up, that's the general +direction that the Rumi have been moving," Terrence said.</p> + +<p>"But there's nothing over that way. What in hell could they be +attacking?" Fielding was on his feet, looking off in the direction +from which the sounds were coming.</p> + +<p>Terrence was aware of an increasingly uneasy feeling. He got to his +feet and picked up his gear. "The sounds could be deceiving. We might +as well get moving. It isn't going to get much cooler before +nightfall."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p>n hour later they were hotly engaged with a large force of Rumi. Rumi +armed for the first time with heavier weapons, mortar-like guns that +hurled pods of smothering dust that caused almost instant +strangulation. Rumi who attacked suddenly, giving them time only to +drop to the ground and set up the Bannings and machine guns before +three hundred howling fiends came charging through the grass at a dead +run, firing as they came.</p> + +<p>O'Mara was behind a machine gun and Fielding and Polasky each had a +Banning in action. They met the Rumi charge with a withering hail of +lead and fire. The Narakans lying as flat as their huge chests would +allow them were firing as fast as the automatic rifles would fire. The +Bannings swept the line of charging figures. As the beams paused for a +moment, the charge would take effect and a ball of fire would +mushroom skyward, leaving a dozen seared cat bodies on the ground. +Terrence swept his machine gun along in a swath behind the Bannings, +picking off what they left. Some dozen catmen made it to within ten +yards of their front but sprawled still or lay kicking briefly until a +Greenback put another bullet into him.</p> + +<p>The Rumi were gone, withdrawing to the west and Terrence was yelling +and cursing at his men to keep them from breaking ranks and following +them. Three Riflemen and O'Toole were dead and Sergeant Polasky was +coughing out his life beside his Banning with a spring gun bolt in his +stomach.</p> + +<p>"Those damn cats!" he was muttering when O'Mara reached him, "those +damn cats. We showed 'em, didn't we, Lieutenant? That Banning's a good +gun if you...."</p> + +<p>They buried the Greenbacks in eight foot graves and the Earthman in a +seven foot one. "Those dirty, lousy, stinking...." Bill Fielding was +beating his fist into the palm of his hand. "We got one of them alive +this time, Terrence. Hannigan knows a little of their lingo. His old +man escaped from one of their breeding pens on the other side of the +Muddy. He's working him over."</p> + +<p>In the twenty odd years that Terrans and Rumi had occupied different +halves of the same planet, the number of men who had learned the Rumi +language wouldn't have filled a small room. So Terrence was surprised +at Bill's information and hurried toward the place where the +interrogation was taking place. Before he got there, he heard a +piercing cat cry which ended in a gurgle and when he reached the group +of Greenbacks, Hannigan was wiping his bayonet on the grass. He stood +looking down at a Rumi officer whose throat was neatly slit from furry +ear to furry ear. Then fists clenched on his hips, he confronted his +men.</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose it ever occurred to you bunch of dimwits that we +might have gotten some information out of this guy. He might have +talked, you know."</p> + +<p>"He talk," grinned Hannigan, "he talk plenty. He feared we might hurt +him. We tell him no hurt if he talk.... Ha!"</p> + +<p>"He say big flyship down, Mr. Lieutenant," said O'Shaughnessy.</p> + +<p>"What? What do you mean?" demanded O'Mara.</p> + +<p>"Flyship ... <i>Sun Maid</i> crash in storm.... Rumi find."</p> + +<p>"Good God! The <i>Sun Maid</i>!" Terrence gasped, "That storm the first +night!"</p> + +<p>"They surround and attack Terrans. These ones on way to join attack +when meet us," O'Shaughnessy went on.</p> + +<p>"He tell where ship down," Hannigan said, "it near bend in Big Muddy ... +place I know. Ten, twenty mile back."</p> + +<p>The Greenbacks were watching the Terrans, fingering their bayonets +eagerly and hugging their rifles. Terrence had the impression that +they were beginning to like their jobs. He turned to Bill Fielding, +"Well, Bill, it looks like we came about twenty miles too far."</p> + +<p>Bill grinned, "Yep, I guess so. Come on, soldiers, fall in. We got +work to do back here a piece."</p> + +<p>A two hour's forced march with the sun beating down and the sound of +firing growing closer. Only a column of Greenbacks could have done it +and only a crazy Irishman would have asked them to. They came up over +a rise and looked down a gentle slope toward the brown twisting snake +that was the Big Muddy. On its banks lay the broken shape of the +airship and swarming across a burned circle around it were Rumi, +thousands of them. The firing had slackened in the last few minutes +and now they could see why. The Rumi were assaulting and were at close +grips with the ring of defending Terrans.</p> + +<p>"Now?" questioned O'Shaughnessy, "we fix bayonets now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Terrence, "now we fix bayonets."</p> + +<p>At his word three hundred big clumsy hands reached for three hundred +bayonets and fixed them to three hundred rifles.</p> + +<p>"O'Shea, take O'Toole's squad and stand by up here with the Bannings. +O'Shaughnessy, take the left flank. Bill, you take the right. Let's +go!"</p> + +<p>There wasn't a sound out of the Rifles as they started down the hill, +none of their usual croakings and bellowings, just silence and the +heavy thud of their feet. The Rumi had seen them. Many of those in +the rear of the attack were swinging about to face them. Spring gun +bolts began to whiz in their direction. One or two Narakans fell. They +were closer to the struggle now, closer to the tightly packed Rumi and +the hand to hand struggle about the <i>Sun Maid</i>.</p> + +<p>Terrence was firing, throwing lead into the gray-bodied mass ahead of +him but his men were just thundering along with their little black +eyes fixed on their old oppressors, bayonets leveled in front of them +in approved training school method. They resembled nothing so much as +a regiment of tanks hurtling at an enemy. The momentum of their charge +carried them half way through the Rumi ranks, the terrific force of +the plunging amphibians bowling over the lighter catmen.</p> + +<p>Bayonets, clubbed rifle and heavy webbed fist fought against claw, +teeth and knife. There was almost no firing, almost no sound save for +the cries of the Rumi and an occasional cheer from the Terrans.</p> + +<p>Terrence emptied his Tommy gun, hurled it in the face of a Rumi and +reached for his knife and automatic. A Rumi knocked him off his feet +with the butt end of a spring gun but before he could do more, +Hannigan stepped over his lieutenant and plunged his bayonet into the +catman. The Irishman scrambled to his feet amidst the gray furry +bodies, thrust his .45 into a snarling face and pulled the trigger. +The face disappeared but another took its place and he fired again. A +Rumi with a knife grabbed at him from behind and he raised his pistol +again but the cat was already down with a bayonet between his +shoulders.</p> + +<p>The Greenbacks were yelling now, lifting those great voices of theirs +in full throated bullfrog croaks. The Rumi, trapped and desperate, +were scattering and trying to flee down river. O'Mara stumbled over a +barricade of rocks and boxes and almost got a Terran slug in him +before he realized that they had cut their way through to the broken +ship. He was up in a minute and urging his men on after the scattering +enemy. Twenty or thirty of them tried to make a stand around a tall +Rumi officer but O'Shaughnessy at the head of a wedge of Narakans +swept into them at a full run.</p> + +<p>Their bayonets flashed for a few seconds and then flashed no more, the +steel was covered with blood. A few hundred Rumi made it to the river +under a hail of fire from O'Shea and his squad on the hill. Hardly +pausing to consider their cat-like aversion to water, most of them +plunged in and struck out for the other shore. The rest were cut down +on the bank by onrushing Greenbacks. Terrence grabbed hold of one of +his buglers and then had to practically beat the man over the head to +get him to sound Recall.</p> + +<p>Bill Fielding picked his way among the bodies and came toward Terrence +holding his left arm. O'Shaughnessy was leaping up and down and waving +his fist across the river.</p> + +<p>"Things different now! All different now! One Greenback better than +four, five, eight Rumi!"</p> + +<p>"At least that many," Terrence said under his breath before he roared +at O'Shaughnessy, "Fall the men in on the double now! We're going to +march back to the <i>Sun Maid</i> in proper military style."</p> + +<p>There was a blowing of sergeant's whistles, the shouting of corporals, +and the Narakan Rifles slowly formed ranks. Some were missing and +others were limping and holding wounds but they stepped out smartly as +the column headed back up the river. Every rifle was at the correct +slope, every man was in step as they marched through the makeshift +barricade and past where Chapelle was standing. The drum and bugle +corps struck up <i>The Wearing of the Green</i> just as O'Mara shouted, +"<i>Eyes Right!</i>" and every eye swung right in perfect unison. A +tattered and weary Chapelle brought a surprised hand up to salute and +the Narakan Rifles came to a snappy halt.</p> + +<p>A small, black haired figure threw itself at Terrence and his arms +were again holding Joan Allen. "I knew you'd come," she said, "only a +big, crazy Irishman like you could do it."</p> + +<p>He kissed her and then pressed his mud-caked face against hers as he +said into her ear. "Only three hundred big, crazy Irishmen, baby. +There's not a drop of anything else in me boys."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Narakan Rifles, About Face!, by Jan Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARAKAN RIFLES, ABOUT FACE! *** + +***** This file should be named 31519-h.htm or 31519-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/5/1/31519/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Narakan Rifles, About Face! + +Author: Jan Smith + +Release Date: March 6, 2010 [EBook #31519] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARAKAN RIFLES, ABOUT FACE! *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Planet Stories January 1954. Extensive + research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this + publication was renewed. + + + Narakan Rifles, About Face! + + + By JAN SMITH + + + _Those crazy, sloppy, frog-like Narakans ... all thumbs and + six-inch skulls ... relics of the Suzi swamps. Until + four-fisted Lt. Terrence O'Mara moved among them--lethal, + dangerous, with a steady purpose flaming in his volcanic + eyes._ + + * * * * * + + + + +Terrence O'Mara lay flat on his back trying to keep his big body as +still as possible. Despite the fact that he was stripped to his +regulation shorts, a large pool of sweat had formed on the cot +underneath him. The only movement he permitted himself was an +occasional pursing of his lips as he dragged on a cigarette and sent a +swirl of smoke upward through the heavy humid air. Then he would just +lie there watching as the smoke crept up to mingle with the large +drops of water that were forming on the concrete of the command post. + +"Damn! Damn Naraka, anyway! Outpost of civilization! Who'd want the +blasted place except the Rumi?" + +[Illustration] + +At the words, Terrence moved his head just a fraction of an inch and +his eyes only a little farther to look across the room to where Bill +Fielding was twisting and turning on his cot. All he could see of the +other man was the wet outline of his body under a once white sheet and +a hand that every so often reached into a bucket of water on the +floor and then replaced a soaking T-shirt over a red head. + +"You'll feel it less if you lie still," Terrence said, distressed at +the necessity for talking. + +"Feel it less! My God, listen to the man! What difference does it make +if you lie still or move around or even run around in the suns like a +bloody Greenback? Dust Bin will get you one way or another ... and if +it doesn't, the Rumi will." + +The visible hand lifted the T-shirt and began to pop salt tablets into +an open mouth like they were so many peppermints. + +"I wonder where Norton is. Out reviewing the troops?" + +"Reviewing, my eye. He's up at Government House sitting in that cool +living room drinking one of Mrs. Wilson's icy drinks and admiring Mrs. +Wilson's shapely legs. From a discreet distance, of course. Being +temporary Commanding Officer of even Dust Bin has its privileges!" + +There was a rattle of drums and the blare of one or two off-key +instruments from outside. + +"Then why," asked Terrence, "are those poor beggars marching up and +down in this blasted heat?" + +"The Greenbacks? They love it! It would take more than a little heat +to get under those inch-thick skins of theirs. They like to play +soldier when it's a hundred and thirty under water." + +There were a few more straggling notes and then the semblance of a +march began. + +"Listen to that, will you?" Fielding moaned, "They can't even keep +time with a drum! They can't march, they can't shoot, they can't break +down a Banning; they're all thumbs and six-inch thick skulls. 'Train +local forces to take over'! Bah! Did those desk jockeys back in New +Chicago ever see a Greenback? Did they ever try to teach a Narakan to +fix a bayonet to the proper end of a rifle or to fire a blaster in the +right direction?" + + * * * * * + +Terrence was lighting another cigarette with as little exertion as +possible. "Yes, but they keep trying. Ten hours a day. You don't have +to drive those boys. They want to learn. Listen to O'Shaughnessy +barking out orders." + +"Sergeant Major O'Shaughnessy of the First Narakan Rifles!" Fielding +murmured sarcastically. "A year ago he was squatting in a mud cocoon +at the bottom of Suzi swamp with the rest of the frogs. Now he's got a +good Irish name and he's strutting around like a Martian Field +Marshal." + +"I thought the names might give them a sense of self respect. Besides +we couldn't pronounce theirs and I was tired of hearing Norris yell +'Hey, greenboy!' at them." + +"Well, they picked the right guy when they made you Training Officer. +You and those damn frogs get along like you came from the same +county!" + +"They aren't any great shakes for brains but you can't take anything +away from me boys for willingness." + +"Willingness! Hooray! They're willing, so what? So is a Suzi Swamp +lizard. What'll it get them? A week after they pull the Terran forces +out, the Rumi will gobble up the lot of them. Maybe they'll gobble +them and us before we pull out. Who could fight in this place? Who'd +want to fight? I say, to hell with Naraka! It's so near to hell +already with those two blasted suns blazing sixteen hours a day. Let +the Rumi have the stinking planet! Let them have the whole Centaurian +System!" + +"Speaking of pulling out, I wouldn't be surprised if Dust Bin wasn't +the next place we let go of...." + +Fielding raised himself on one elbow, "No kidding? Where did you hear +that?" His sunburned and blistered face was alight with excitement. + +"Well, you know how it's been. When we first came here twenty years +back, we drove the Rumi out of all this country and more or less took +their cat feet off the Narakan's backs but now that so much of the +Earth garrison has been pulled all the way back into the Solar System, +the Rumi are acting up again. So much so that the dope I got is that +we may be pulling everything back into the Little Texas peninsula to +wait for reinforcements and it will take four years for those to come +out from Mars." + +"Great! Great! But.... Ah, it's too good to be true. Can't you just +picture Fielding and O'Mara parading down Dobi street in New Chicago +with their first lieutenant bars on their collars? Say, you don't +suppose that's why the _Sun Maid_ is sticking around out here, do you? +Imagine, free transportation! A two hour trip to New Chi!" + +"I'd sure hate to march those two hundred miles at this time of year!" + +"March? Through those swamps? Every time we run a patrol through +them...." + +Fielding was interrupted by a knock on the door and a skinny young +Terran with sergeant's chevrons on his shorts stuck his head through +from the other room and said, "Major Chapelle's on the voice radio, +sir. He's calling from battalion headquarters and wants Captain +Norton." + +"Tell him Norton's up playing footsies with the Resident's wife," +Fielding said, "You'd think those people down at the river would have +enough to do without bothering us in the heat of the day, wouldn't +you?" + +The sergeant looked shocked and started to withdraw his head. Terrence +frowned Fielding into silence and called to the sergeant, "Just a +minute, Rogers. I'll talk to the Major." + +Major Chapelle was a thickset, balding man in his late forties. Even +the blazing suns of Naraka hadn't succeeded in burning the sickly +yellow color off his face. In the vision screen he looked like a man +on his last legs. Whatever was wrong with him didn't help his temper, +Terrence thought as he lowered himself gently into a seat before the +screen. + +"O'Mara! Where in hell is Norton?" he demanded. + +"Well, sir, you see...." began Terrence. + +"Never mind! I've a pretty good idea where he is. A fine time to be +chasing skirts! Well, get this straight, O'Mara. Orders have come +through and we're pulling the battalion out. We're ordered back to +Little Texas. We're going to give up these positions along the river +tonight and pull back into Dust Bin. The _Sun Maid_ will stand by to +evacuate us. You people are to come too. Everybody has to get out, +both the military and civilians. All hell's broken loose down river. +The Rumi are across the Muddy in half a dozen places. They've cut the +5th to pieces. New Chicago thinks that those cats have been bringing +troops in from space all along despite the agreement by both sides not +to do so. And now they have us way outnumbered." The Major's voice +held a thin edge of hysteria. + +"Is there any action along our front, Major?" Terrence asked quickly, +hoping to stop the flow of talk before Chapelle's hysteria +communicated itself to the enlisted men who were sitting or lying +about the command post. + +"Not yet; just patrols across the river so far. We've got to get out, +O'Mara, and get out fast. They'll be all over us if we don't. The +Colonel says for Norton to have everything ready to go. He wants the +depot destroyed. Everything's got to go, everything we can't take +along. The _Sun Maid_ won't have time for more than one trip. He wants +the HQ company and the civilians on board by tomorrow morning at the +latest." + +"What about the Rifles, sir?" + +"What? The what?" + +"The native troops, sir. The Narakan Rifles." Terrence grated. + +"The Rifles? Good God, man! We haven't time for nonsense. The Rifles +are only Greenbacks, aren't they? You get Norton started burning those +stores." + +Terrence put down the microphone very carefully to keep from slamming +it down and stalked back into his quarters. Angrily he began to take +his radiation clothing from its hooks on the wall. + +"What the devil is eating you?" demanded Bill Fielding. + +"We're pulling out, lock, stock and barrel," Terrence told him. + +"Pulling out? Whoweee! I knew Mrs. Fielding didn't raise her boy to be +a fried egg. Goodbye, Dust Bin! Hello, New Chi!" Bill was up on his +hands and knees pounding on his cot. "But what's the matter with you? +You like this place?" + +"They're leaving the Rifles," Terrence said, zipping up his protective +coveralls as he left the room. + + +II + +Stepping outside on Naraka with the full power of Alpha and Beta +Centauri beating down was like stepping into a river of fire. Even +with the cooling unit in his suit, Terrence was aware of the searing +heat that filled the parade ground. Looking off across the makeshift +native huts, he could see the bright sides of a huge space ship-like +object. The big dirigible _Sun Maid_ was lying in an open field. It's +a funny world, he thought to himself, where you have to use dirigibles +for planetary travel. But a dirigible was the only practical aircraft +when you had to use steam turbine engines because of the lack of +gasoline and the economic impracticability of transporting it in the +limited cargo holds of the occasional spacers that came out from Sol. + +The Narakan Rifles were marching toward him now, the band doing +absolutely nothing for _The Wearing of the Green_. Three hundred big, +green bodied, beady eyed, frog-like creatures were marching in the +boiling heat with their non-coms croaking out orders in English which +might have come out of _Alice in Wonderland_. + +As they marched by him, he snapped a salute. Watching them closely he +tried to find two men who were in step with each other or one man who +had his rifle at the right angle. Unable to find either, he stood +there conscious of failure; failure which went beyond mere military +precision however. Sloppiness at review could have been overlooked if +he had been able to find that the Narakans had any ability as fighting +men but after a year of training they seemed almost as hopeless as +they had at first. It wasn't that they were completely unintelligent. +In fact, other than the Galactic traveling Rumi, they were the only +extra-solar race of intelligent beings encountered by man so far. It +was just, he thought, that the hundreds of years during which the Rumi +had dominated their planet had reduced the Narakans to a state of +almost complete ineptitude. + +He stood there as they passed in review three times because he knew +that his presence pleased and encouraged them. Then he turned, and +with dragging feet made his way down Dust Bin's single street toward +Government House. + +In a few minutes he was standing in the cool, air conditioned living +room of the Wilsons. Wilson was seated at his desk rummaging through +some papers while Norris and Mrs. Wilson were lounging in contour +chairs admiring each other over tall, frosty drinks. + +They took the news just as he expected them to. Wilson ran his hand +through his sparse, gray hair and murmured something about it being a +shame to have to leave the natives on their own after having more or +less dragged them out of their comfortable swamps. A glance from his +wife silenced him. + +"What the hell," Norris said, "they're only blasted thick witted +Greenbacks." + +Mrs. Wilson yawned, "It'll be something of a bother packing but it'll +certainly be a pleasure to get back to New Chicago. Some women's +husbands get good posts in half-way civilized parts of the Universe. I +don't know why I should always have to be stuck in every backwater, +hick town there is." + +Wilson smiled apologetically, "Now, dear...." he began but was +interrupted by the sudden ringing of the telephone on the table near +Norris' chair. + +"Get that, will you, O'Mara?" the captain said, making no attempt to +reach for it, "It's probably the Command Post." + +Terrence put the phone to his ear angrily and growled into it. An +excited Bill Fielding was on the line. "Terry? Is that you? Fielding +here. Hell's breaking loose. There's a bunch of blasted Rumi trying to +force their way into town. They attacked the sentries down this way +and may be heading for your end of town too." + +Terrence dropped the phone and headed for the door. "_Rumi!_" he +shouted and there were shouts and cries from outside in answer. Then +he heard the clack, clack, clack of Rumi spring guns. Windows of the +room crashed in and Wilson collapsed across his desk. Norton grabbed +Mrs. Wilson and pulled her down onto the floor. Terrence dropped to +his hands and knees and continued toward the door as he drew his +forty-five. + + * * * * * + +Somewhere, someone had cut loose with a Banning and its high whine +drowned out the clack of the spring guns. With a quick look around, +Terrence started at a run for the next building which was the native +schoolhouse. He didn't make it. There was a clack, clack from off to +his left and he threw himself forward, skidding and sliding in the +dust and gravel of the street. A warehouse across the square was on +fire and three Rumi had darted from behind it. In one brief glance he +saw those long barreled spring guns of theirs and the tall, graceful +bodies and the feline faces under the plastic protective clothing. + +He snapped four shots at them and saw one fall. Then he began to +slither along the ground raising enough dust to mask his movements. +There were half a dozen of them in the square when he reached the rear +door of the schoolhouse. Several gleaming plastic bolts smashed into +the wooden outer door a second after he had raised up to open it and +then had dropped back down. + +Norton fired from the residency and momentarily scattered the Rumi and +Terrence was inside the school room and racing for the side window +from which he could get a clear line of fire at the raiders. He had a +brief glimpse of Joan Allen, the school teacher, standing in a corner +of the room with the tiny green figures of native children huddled +around her. Then he was at a window and had beaten out the heavy +protective glass and was firing into a mass of the catmen, firing and +cursing as his gun emptied. He cursed in a stream of Martian, English +and Greenback profanity as he forced another clip into the gun. + +"Lieutenant O'Mara, if you'll be so kind as to restrain your language +in front of these children," a voice said from over his shoulder. + +Terrence reached back and felt something soft and forced it over +against the wall out of the line of the window. Then he risked a quick +look which was almost his last. A spring gun bolt burned a groove in +the windowsill next to his head and smashed into the blackboard across +the room. + +"Lieutenant O'Mara, would you mind telling me what this is all about?" +came the same calm determined woman's voice from beside him. He fired +again at a darting figure across the square and saw it stumble before +he had to drop to his haunches as the window above him was smashed and +scattered by bolts and glass rained down about his head. + +He put another clip into his gun and cursed because he had only two +left. He turned his head briefly and had a quick glimpse of a white +face framed in straight dark hair and a small, neat figure in a yellow +dress. + +"Rumi attack. One of their patrols must have gotten around the +battalion." + +A husky, whimpering little sound made him look down. A native child or +pollywog as the Terrans called them was clinging desperately to the +teacher's skirt. His tiny webbed feet clutched at the cloth as he +buried his face against her leg. From behind her peered still another +child, its baby frog face working spasmodically in the beginnings of a +sob. Six or seven others were lying flat on the floor their bodies +trembling in terror. + +Terrence took another look outside and what he saw sent him into +another stream of cursing. The Narakan Rifles were hurrying to the +scene of action. Down the middle of the street they came in a column +of fours with their drums and bugles blaring out a poor imitation of +_The Wearing of the Green_. Their standard bearer was running at the +head of the column beside Sergeant Major O'Shaughnessy. + +"Oh, my God! He wouldn't...!" + +"Lieutenant, please!" + +"Teacher, will you shut up!" he roared as he leaped across the room +toward the front door. At the harsh tone of his voice, the whimpering +sounds in the room suddenly burst forth in full volume as the ten +pollywogs raised their hoarse voices into full throated croaks. + +Terrence braced his body against the wall and held his gun ready as he +pulled open the door. In parade formation his men were moving up the +street and in a moment they would be away from the buildings' +protection and directly in the Rumi line of fire. + +"O'Shaughnessy, you idiot!" he roared above the croaking from behind +him and the rattle of firing outside. + +O'Shaughnessy came to a skidding halt almost directly in front of the +schoolhouse but his men kept on going, their faces set and determined. +O'Shaughnessy came to attention and snapped a salute. + +"Yes, sir, Mr. Lieutenant." + +"Halt! Damn it, HALT!" Terrence yelled at the column of greenbacks. +Their formation crumbled as they ran into each other, stepped on each +other's feet and pushed and shoved. But they halted. + +"O'Shaughnessy! Break ranks ... take cover ... line of skirmishers!" +Terrence shouted and hit the dirt behind a sandbox in the schoolyard +as the Rumi resumed firing. There was a mad scramble among the +Narakans as they scattered behind walls and into buildings, moving +with an incredibly rapid jumping motion which they used when in a +hurry. + +Terrence was so glad to see only one sprawled figure in the dust of +the street that he just lay there for a few seconds spitting dust +before he realized that he had forgotten to close the face visor of +his radiation clothing. + + * * * * * + +There was a slight clucking sound from beside him and when he turned +he found O'Shaughnessy lying almost beside him, squinting along his +carbine. The Narakan's face split into two replicas of the map of +Ireland and he saluted flat handed, his webbed fingers at just the +proper angle. + +"O'Shaughnessy, you don't have to salute when you're lying down!" +O'Mara tried to keep his voice as calm as possible. + +"Yes, sir, Mr. Lieutenant. Pretty quick we fight now?" + +His lieutenant ignored him and searched for signs of life in the +houses across the square. There wasn't a Rumi in sight except for one +on the roof of a shed next to the burning warehouse. He tried a couple +of shots with his automatic and missed. He grabbed O'Shaughnessy's +carbine and dropped the creature as it tried to scramble off the shed. + +"Pretty soon we fight with bayonet?" O'Shaughnessy asked as Terrence +handed back the carbine. + +"O'Shaughnessy, why do you do things like this to me, me who took you +out of your damn mud hole and made a soldier out of you?" + +O'Shaughnessy's mouth formed a huge round moon, "Not understand, +Lieutenant...." he began but he was ignored again as Terrence stared +across the street in pained disbelief to where the heavy weapons squad +of the Narakan Rifles was gathered in a huddled group behind a native +house, struggling to set up their Banning Automatic Blaster and two +machine guns. One of the men was down on his hands and knees balancing +the heavy barrel of the blaster on his back while two others were +attempting to push the ponderous breech onto it by main strength. The +two machine guns were half on and half off their tripods. The leg of +one of them had been bent in the wrong direction and the other was so +covered with grease that the parts wouldn't fit together. + +"Oh, Lord!" moaned Terrence and was bracing himself for a dash across +the street when a figure in Terran battle armor came around the +building on the run, dodging and crawling as spring bolts raised the +dust in front of him. It was the short, stout Gunnery Sergeant, +Polasky. Terrence breathed a sigh of relief. + +He turned to O'Shaughnessy, "Now, Sergeant, this is our problem. Those +buildings over there are filled with Rumi. They have automatic weapons ... +spring guns ... firing a clip of twenty plastic bolts. They're deadly at +close to medium range. They can penetrate our battle armor." He looked at +the thick, knobby skin of the Narakan, "Yours too. Now, they are probably +just a patrol about the size of one of our companies. They don't seem to +have any heavy weapons and ours will be in action in a few minutes. Then, +O'Shaughnessy...." The Narakan was squinting along the barrel of his +rifle. + +"Are you paying attention, Sergeant?" + +"Yes, sir! Attention, yes, sir." O'Shaughnessy started to lift his +bulky three hundred pounds up off the ground. Terrence heaved with all +his might against those thick khaki clad legs to knock him down again. + +"Man, what are you doing?" he yelled. + +"Attention, sir. Sir said...." + +"No, no, O'Shaughnessy. I meant, listen to me. O'Shaughnessy, how +could you? Haven't I been like a brother to you? Didn't I share my +whiskey and candy ration with you?" + +"Yes, sir. That's why...." + +"Then for the sake of your two headed frog-faced gods, shut up and +listen to me." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Look. In a minute our Banning will be in action," his voice was +drowned out by the scream of tortured air as the Banning cut loose. +"Now there is a sweet sound. What do we do next, O'Shaughnessy?" + +One of the row of buildings across the square glowed red briefly as +the beam from the Blaster caught it; glowed red and then burst into a +ball of fire. O'Shaughnessy's mouth was open wide, his chinless face +resting on the edge of the sandbox and his little black bead eyes were +as large as they could get. + +"What do we do now, O'Shaughnessy ... come on...." + +The Narakan made a thrusting gesture with his carbine, "Bayonet ... we +go in with bayonet now," he said. + +O'Mara slapped him on the seat of his khaki pants. "No, no. You got to +get this stuff straight." + +The whine of the Banning interrupted him again and it was joined by +the chatter of machine guns and rifle fire and answered by the rapid +clacking of spring guns. Bolts dug into the wall of the schoolhouse +and showered them with plaster. Others shattered the front window. +Terrence wiped plaster off his visor and tried again. "You've got to +get this straight, O'Shaughnessy, because ... well, because you may be +getting an independent command pretty soon and there won't be anyone +around to tell you what to do." + +The Narakan was listening to him but wide-mouthed and uncomprehending. +"We're going to burn them out of those huts; burn them out or burn the +houses down over their heads. About the time Polasky gets to the third +one, those guys are going to break and then they'll either rush us +or...." + +Norton was yelling something from the Residency. There was a noise of +clanking armor behind him and he could hear Fielding's voice cracking +out orders as he came up with twenty hastily armed and armored clerks, +cooks and radiomen from the HQ unit. + +"O'Mara! O'Mara, they're breaking! They're running! Let's go!" Norton +was on the porch of the Residency pouring Tommy gun slugs at the rear +of the burning row of houses. + +"Okay, let's go," Terrence said, lurching to his feet. The Narakan +sergeant blew his whistle and the riflemen swarmed out from their +shelters and started at a run across the square with Norton, Terrence +and O'Shaughnessy at their head. The rest of the Terrans in full +battle armor lumbered along after them. + +One or two bolts whistled overhead and Corporal O'Brien dropped his +rifle and fell forward clutching his leg. The smoke from the burning +buildings obscured their vision but Terrence had a momentary sight of +Rumi radiation clothing and emptied his clip at it. + +Someone from behind threw a grenade which fell short of its target and +rolled in front of them. Norton took two quick strides and kicked it +into one of the flaming buildings. + + +III + +There were about twenty Rumi, less than they had thought, fleeing +across the open fields behind the burning huts. They were firing as +they ran and giving out those queer yelping cries of theirs. Three or +four of them fell and then Norton was shouting, calling back his men +to organize fire fighting parties. + +"Captain! Captain, let's go after those guys. We can cut them off +before they get to the grasslands," Terrence yelled. + +"Get your men after these fires, O'Mara. We can't let them spread." + +There was nothing to do but obey but he delayed long enough to empty +his automatic in the general direction of the fleeing Rumi. Then he +turned and yelled, "Harrigan! Sergeant Harrigan! Where in the devil is +that...." There was a crashing sound behind him and Harrigan stumbled +through the smoke and came down on his foot, all three hundred pounds +of him. + +Later, as the last smoking embers of the fire were being smothered by +industrious squads of Narakans with buckets and shovels, Terrence +limped back across the square with Bill Fielding. + +"We should have gone after those lousy scum," Bill said, "They may cut +back around the town again and give the battalion some trouble on the +river road." + +"Don't you think I know it! As fast as the Greenbacks can move when +they want to, we could have caught the lot of them before they got +into the grasslands. But Norton was worried about the fires! Of +course, we're going to burn all these buildings tomorrow or the next +day but Norton was afraid the Residency would catch fire." + +"Probably didn't want his sweetie's fancy clothes to burn." + +"They got Wilson, you know." + +"Good Lord! Dead?" + +"Right between the eyes. They almost got all four of us." + +Fielding took his heavy battle helmet off and pushed back the glass +visor of his radiation helmet to wipe the perspiration and dirt off +his face. "Well, maybe Norton didn't want us to catch those damn cats. +Maybe he figured he owed them that much." + +O'Mara shielded his eyes as he said, "Beta's setting. It'll be night +in a couple of hours and we can walk around without this blasted +radiation armor for a while." + +"Yeah, and we can start looking for a full scale night attack as soon +as good old Alpha hides his hoary head." + +"If you see O'Shaughnessy, tell him I want to see him, will you? I'm +going to stop at the schoolhouse for a few minutes." + +Surprise spread across Bill's freckled face, "Not the school teacher? +Not you! Buddy, you've been in Dust Bin too long. You've been on +Naraka too long. You'll be attending services at the Chapel next." + +Terrence muttered a few old Anglo-Saxon words under his breath and +limped off in the direction of the school building. + + * * * * * + +The Reverend Ames Goodman was the smallest Narakan that Terrence had +ever seen. The Johnathian missionary from Little Texas was somewhat +under two hundred and fifty pounds which was slight for a Greenback. +He also spoke the best English except for some of the big shots in New +Chicago. Ordinarily he was a composite of superstitious reverence and +natural dignity which Terrence had always found admirable. Today, +however, he couldn't have appeared more ludicrous if he had tried. He +was dressed for a visit to the Residency in a white duck suit which +was too small and out of which he bulged in a number of surprising +places. + +He and Joan Allen were talking half in English and half in Narakan as +the lieutenant entered. The minister had a painfully surprised look on +his round green face. + +"I hope we didn't bust up your school too much, Miss Allen." + +"If you are quite finished with your shooting and cursing, Lieutenant +O'Mara, perhaps you have time to explain to Rev. Goodman and me what +this talk about evacuation means." + +As she spoke, she brushed stray strands of black hair up under her +radiation helmet. For the first time in the six months that she had +been in charge of the orphan school in Dust Bin, Terrence decided that +maybe she was pretty after all. He wasn't sure whether it was the high +color which excitement lent to her usually pale face or if Bill +Fielding was right in saying he had been on Naraka too long, but Joan +Allen was beginning to look good to him. At the moment the feeling +wasn't at all mutual. + +"Is it true that the Defense Force is pulling out and leaving the rest +of us to the Rumi?" + +Terrence took off his helmet and let the rapidly cooling air strike +his head. "Not exactly, teacher," he said, "The Fifth is pulling out +but so are all the Terrans in Dust Bin. Everyone's being ordered back +to Little Texas. That's why the _Sun Maid_ is standing by." + +"All the Terrans, Lieutenant? What about the people here who depend on +us? What about my children?" + +O'Mara somehow couldn't quite look either of them in the face. He +muttered something about having to get back to his command post and +started out the door. Joan called after him as she noticed his limp, +"Lieutenant, I'm sorry, I didn't know you have been wounded." + +"Oh, it's nothing ... nothing," he said, hurrying away, his neck +reddening from something more than the attention of Beta Centauri. How +in the name of Naraka's sixty devils could you tell a woman that one +of your own non-coms had stepped on your foot and nearly broken your +instep? + +The battalion straggled into Dust Bin during the night. It hadn't +exactly fought its way back from the river but had had enough +casualties to make the men nervous and jumpy without tempering them at +all. One of the casualties had been Lt. Colonel Upton. Now Major +Chapelle was in command. The men of the battalion were nervous but +Chapelle was riding on the thin edge of panic. He ordered everyone on +board the _Sun Maid_ at once and then countermanded the order and +formed a defense perimeter around the town. He threw out patrols which +were unable to contact any Rumi on the Dust Bin side of the river. + +The next morning Terrence was summoned to Government House for an +officers' conference. As he hurried along its single street, Dust Bin +was in a state of confused and helpless excitement. The three or four +hundred Narakans who made up its population were all in the street or +square. Many of them were carrying their belongings on their shoulders +and looked as if they were only waiting for an order of some kind to +send them scurrying off toward the Suzi swamps. + +As O'Mara reached the veranda of the Residency, Rev. Goodman was +speaking with Joan Allen by his side. His words were aimed at +Chapelle, Norton and a large gray-eyed man whom Terrence recognized as +the Captain of the _Sun Maid_. + +"When you came, you earthmen in your great ships, the Narakan was a +hunted creature on his own planet and had been back as far as he could +remember. You drove off the Rumi and took parts of the planet for your +own use but you did not hunt the Narakan. You brought him out of his +swamps and taught him much; to wear clothes, to till the ground and +many other things. You even gave him your religion. But now the Rumi +have returned and you say you are not strong enough to hold all the +planet." + + * * * * * + +Major Chapelle was impatient, "That's right, Reverend, there's too +many of them. The garrison just isn't big enough to hold everything +and it's too far back to Earth for us to expect any reinforcements for +a year or even longer." + +Norton took over. "You're an educated ... ah ... man, Goodman. You see +what the problem is. We can't hold everything so we've got to cut our +losses. All of the most important resources and towns are in the +Little Texas area and so we're pulling back into there." + +"I see. Yes, I understand. The people of Dust Bin are part of the +losses that must be cut." + +"Now, now. Don't put it that way, Reverend. The natives can always +take refuge in the swamps, you know." + +"Yes. I suppose it must be so. Back to Little Texas for the Terrans +and back to the swamps for the Narakans. Back to living naked in the +mud, back to fishing for our food and back to thinking only of the +next meal." + +"It really isn't that bad," Chapelle said. "As soon as the situation +adjusts itself, the Terran forces will be coming back. Then you can +come out of your hiding places and resume your regular life again." + +"Yes. And in the meantime our only problem will be to stay out of the +way of the Rumi." + +"I don't believe that they will go out of their way to harm you. It's +the Terrans they want to drive out." + +Suddenly the Reverend Goodman was shaking his fist in the Major's +face, forgetting in his excitement both his manners and his correct +English. "Not hurt! Not hurt, Mr. General? No, they not hurt, they +just eat! They favorite food is Naraka steak." + +"Now, now, calm yourself," Norton put a hand on Goodman's shoulder. +"There's plenty of room in the _Sun Maid_ for you and the rest of your +people will be safe enough in the swamps." + +"What about my children?" demanded Joan Allen. + +"Children, Miss Allen? I don't know.... Oh, yes, you mean the poly ... +the children. Why, I assume they will go with their parents." + +Joan placed a small fist firmly on each of her slim hips. "Major, all +the children in the mission school are orphans. They have no parents. +None of them have ever lived in the swamps." + +"Ah yes. But I hardly see what we can do about it, Miss Allen." + +"Well, Major, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do about it. +Unless those kids are loaded on the _Sun Maid_ in place of some of +this junk," she waved a hand at the piles of luggage which belonged to +Mrs. Wilson, "I'm going to stay with my charges and leave you with the +problem of explaining to the Mission Board and to the Bishop of New +Chicago just why you left me behind." + +At the mention of the extremely influential Johnathian Bishop the +Major looked more worried than ever. After a short conference with +Norton, he turned to Joan. + +"Very well, Miss Allen. The children will go in the airship. I'm sure +that Mrs. Wilson will be only too glad to leave some of her clothes to +make room for them." + +"Thank you, Major." Joan said, making no attempt to gloat over her +victory. + +"Now, Captain, I understand that most of the military stores have been +destroyed and that the men are ready for embarkation," Chapelle went +on hurriedly, addressing himself to the captain of the _Sun Maid_. "We +will have about three hundred and twenty, no ... about three hundred +and thirty passengers for you." + +The captain shook his head doubtfully, "It's a big load. I hope we can +make it without any trouble." + +"Well, then," Chapelle went on, "We'll go aboard during the day after +we complete the destruction of the stores and facilities. The native +troops under Lieutenant O'Shaughnessy will cover our embarkation and +then convoy the civilians as far as the Suzi swamps. Afterwards they +will march overland to Fort Craven on the Little Texas border." + +Terrence had never had any urge to be a hero. He had always pictured +himself retiring at a ripe old age as a Colonel or Brigadier and +raising canal oranges on Mars, but suddenly the memory of the Narakan +Rifles rushing down the street with bugles blaring and flag waving +right into the Rumi line of fire rose before him. The thought of +O'Shaughnessy, even with his new lieutenant's commission, leading the +blundering troops along the two hundred miles to Fort Craven was too +much for him. + +"I beg your pardon, Major," he heard himself saying, "But as the +Narakan Training Officer, I think that I should remain in command of +the unit in its overland march." + +The Major was dumfounded. Norton looked as if he were sure the Narakan +climate had proven too much of a strain for the lieutenant. + +"Lieutenant O'Mara, are you sure...." began Chapelle. + +"Are you nuts, O'Mara? Do you know what you're asking for?" demanded +Norton. + +"Yes, sir. I feel that since Colonel Upton appointed me Training +Officer for the Narakan Rifles, it is my duty to stay with them until +I am relieved." + +Chapelle's look of astonishment had changed to one of relief. It would +be far easier to explain the hurried abandonment of the Narakan Rifles +to the native representatives at New Chicago if a Terran officer were +to remain with them. + +"Well," he said, "I could, of course, relieve you of your +responsibility but if you feel that...." + +"I do, sir." Terrence said quickly lest he be tempted to back out. + + +IV + +Later in the day as he sat in the shade of the command post's +overhanging roof with his back against a stack of sand-bags, he cursed +himself for sixteen kinds of an idiot as he watched the evacuation +begin. Beta was dropping low over the pink Maldo hills as the long +line of earthmen filed up the gangway into the big airship. + +"Hello," said a voice behind him. He turned to find Joan Allen +standing there clothed in radiation armor and holding a small canvas +bag in one hand. "I thought ... I mean ... I came to say good-bye." + +"Hello, yourself. I thought you were on board with the rest of them." +He got up hastily. + +"No. I got the kids on board but I wanted one more look at the +schoolhouse before we shoved off." + +Somehow he was holding onto her arm, "I guess it meant a lot to you, +that schoolhouse," he said. + +"Yes, it did. I ... I was afraid that I wouldn't get to see you when +you get to New Chicago." + +"There's no danger of that, Joanie. If and when I get there, I'll be +looking for you ... that is ... if you want to see me." + +"If you think you can stand an old maid school teacher, I'll be +looking for you." She was very close to him now. "Why did you do it, +Terrence? Why are you making the march with the Narakans? Fielding +says your chances aren't very good." + +"I'll thank Fielding to keep his big mouth shut! I don't really know +why, probably kind of an Earthman's Burden, noblesse oblige ... you +know ... something like the sort of thing Kipling used to write +about." + +"Hell," she said, surprising him with her vehemence, "you don't +believe that guy any more than I do. It was old when Kipling wrote it +and it's even older now. I think that somewhere under that tough Irish +skin of yours, there's a sentimental fool hiding." + +She was still closer now with her hands pressed lightly against his +chest and suddenly his arms went around her, he lifted her protective +visor and forced his lips down hard on hers. All of her primness had +disappeared as she leaned against him, returning his kiss with a +burning eagerness which a more experienced woman might have +controlled. + +There were tears running down his cheeks and he knew they weren't his. +He released her slightly and looked down into her tear streaked face, +wondering how it was possible for them to have been at the same post +for six months without really knowing each other. + +"I guess I'm kind of crazy about you, teacher," he said. + +He had lifted her off her feet and she clung there with her arms +around his neck. "Terrence, I can't leave you ... I...." + +As Terrence bent over to kiss her again there was a loud cough and +Bill Fielding was standing there dressed in full battle armor. He +grinned and said, "Much as I hate to break this up, I don't think +Chapelle is going to hold the _Sun Maid_ much longer." + +Terrence set Joan gently on her feet and she turned and fled toward +the waiting ship. He watched until she was on board and then turned to +stare at Bill. Still grinning broadly, Bill clapped him on the +shoulder as he said, "I could never have faced those bartenders on +Dobi Street if I had gone back without you. We better get going, +hadn't we? Sergeant Polasky's down with the men. He couldn't bear to +leave his Bannings." + +"Well, I'll be damned!" was all O'Mara could find to say as he watched +the big airship lift itself in the fading light, circle and pass +through the smoke of Dust Bin for the last time. + + * * * * * + +Throwing their gear over their shoulders, the two officers crossed the +parade ground to where the two hundred khaki clad figures of the +Narakan Rifles stood waiting with Sergeant Polasky clucking slightly +as he fussed over his Bannings. + +O'Shaughnessy was wearing his new lieutenant bars and a pith helmet +and was carrying a large piece of wood in imitation of Norton's +swagger stick. Terrence took one look at him and at the two orderlies +who stood behind him holding his field kit. He strode toward him +scowling, placed his fists on his hips and stood glaring up at the +Greenback as he roared, "So! It's delusions of grandeur you've got, is +it? Where are Hannigan and O'Toole and their patrols? Why aren't they +back?" + +O'Shaughnessy stiffened to attention trying to pull in his great +stomach. "They are back, Mr. Lieutenant Sir.... I forgot. They had +nothing to report ... no contact." + +Terrence looked him up and down, "If you foul up just once more ... +I'm going to ... I'll split your gizzard, stuff it with To-To leaves +and send you to the Rumi for their breakfast with my compliments!" + +O'Shaughnessy shivered at the dire threat as O'Mara turned to Rev. +Goodman who stood with his people clustered about him. "All right, +Reverend, you can move out with your flock. I'll throw patrols out in +front of you and bring up the rear with the rest of the Rifles. We'll +see you as far as the edge of the swamps." + +In a long straggly line, the refugees started out with the native +police keeping order and Goodman marching at their head. The two drums +and the three bugles of the Narakan Rifles struck up a badly mangled +version of _Back to Donegal_, and the column followed on the heels of +the civilians. Once or twice Terrence glanced back at the smoke and +flame that had been Dust Bin before he turned his face forward across +the miles of grasslands to where the Suzi swamps lay. + +Darkness had fallen but progress wasn't difficult until one of those +sudden, lashing storms for which Naraka was famous hurled itself upon +them, flattening the tall grass, raising swirls of dust and finally +turning the dust into thick, clinging mud. + +As suddenly as it had come, the storm was gone. But by that time they +were in the swamp itself. Night in the Suzi swamps. Swamps composed of +a sticky, gray mud and heavy tangled undergrowth. The night was as +black as the day had been bright. The column which had left the +civilians at the edge of the swamp was pushing slowly forward. The +Narakans glided along on their bare, webbed feet and the Terrans +pushed along on snowshoe-like glides attached to their boots. + +Bill Fielding, bareheaded with his helmet thrown back over his +shoulder, floundered along beside Terrence. "Did you ever see a place +like this? Did you ever see mud like this? Even the Irish bogs +couldn't be this bad." + +Terrence checked his map, shielding his flashlight carefully. "We'll +be out of the worst of this by tomorrow morning," he said. + +"If we live until tomorrow morning," Fielding replied, "those Rumi +have eyes like the blasted jungle cats they're descended from." + +"I don't think we have much to worry about until we get out of the +swamps. I doubt if their patrols would penetrate very deeply into this +mess." + +"How about the radio? Has Polasky been able to get through to Fort +Craven?" asked Fielding. + +O'Mara shook his head, "no. You know what Beta's radiations do to +radio reception this time of year. Even at night it takes a powerful +transmitter to reach farther than twenty or thirty miles." + +Later in the night, with a good ten miles of swamp country between him +and the enemy, Terrence called a halt on a slightly raised spot of +almost dry ground. The unwearied Greenbacks and the exhausted Terrans +dropped down in huddled groups. The patrols that had penetrated to the +edge of the swamp came in to report that they had contacted no Rumi +ahead. Terrence munched a can of cold beans and fell over in an +exhausted sleep to the sound of O'Shaughnessy placing sentries about +the camp. + + * * * * * + +The next day's march was a nightmare to the lieutenant. If anything, +the heat and humidity were worse in the swamps than they had been in +Dust Bin and the going got tougher every mile. The mud was softer and +the undergrowth had to be cut away by bayonet-wielding Narakans before +the main body could move through. Terrence had thrown off his battle +armor and lost his radiation helmet somewhere in the morass as had +other of the Earthmen. Hannigan had prepared a thick mess of mud and +grass which the Terrans applied to exposed parts of their bodies. + +Late in the afternoon of the second day the Narakan Rifles came to a +tepid little stream that marked the end of the swamps, and for the +first time Terrence ordered a rest of longer than two hours. Bill +Fielding was lying flat on his back in the grass beside the stream +with his feet dangling in the water, shoes and all, when O'Mara +dragged himself wearily back from inspecting the pickets and flopped +down beside him. + +"If I never to my dying day see another speck of mud," Fielding +muttered as he ate a bar of tropical chocolate that was as mud covered +as he was, "I'll still have seen more than all the Fieldings for two +hundred years back have seen on Earth and Mars." + +"And now," said Terrence as he eased over on his back with a heavy +sigh, "that we have run out of mud, we can start looking for Rumi." + +"At least it'll be a change! Here Kitty! Here kitty! Nice Rumi! Come +and get a bayonet in...." + +Clack, clack, clack. The sound of spring guns broke the stillness of +the afternoon and was followed by the sound of rifles and a cry of +pain. + +"Oh, Lord!" moaned O'Mara, "now it starts!" He was on his feet, +gripping his carbine and running bent over. Fielding was at his heels, +dragging a machine gun off the ground. + +"O'Shaughnessy! Hannigan! Take the first platoon. Move up to support +the pickets. O'Toole! On the double! Take your squad and try to get +around the firing. Bill, you and Polasky stand by here with the rest +of the men and the Bannings." + +Terrence had plunged into the stream and splashed across and was +clambering up the opposite bank when one of his pickets came crawling +and stumbling back clutching a wounded arm. "Mr. Lieutenant! Mr. +Lieutenant! Rumi! Rumi! Many Rumi up ahead! Sullivan and O'Leary dead! +Rumi get!" + +"Medic! Medic!" O'Shaughnessy was yelling in his ear with the +full-throated croak of an adult Narakan, drowning out what the wounded +picket was trying to say. + +"How many? How many Rumi, man?" Terrence demanded. + +"Twenty ... thirty ... maybe thousand!" the Narakan gasped as the +Medic led him off. + +"'Twenty, thirty, maybe thousand.' That gives us a damn fine idea of +what we're up against!" + +While his men dragged their big bodies up the bank of the stream, +O'Mara stood scowling at the eight foot high grass. Usually about a +foot high, the hardy and ubiquitous purple grass of Naraka grew far +more lushly around the edges of the swamps. He felt that it would be a +risky business at best to plunge into it after an unknown number of +enemy. At the same time he had an illogical determination not to leave +the bodies of his men in the hands of the Rumi. He looked at the +broad, big-mouthed exaggerations of Irish faces around him, heaved a +sigh that came from deep in his chest and ordered, "All right, men. +Spread out. Keep low and keep your eyes open. And try not to shoot +each other." + +"We fix bayonets now, Lieutenant, sir?" Hannigan asked. + +"You keep your eyes open, Sergeant," Terrence snapped, "I'll tell you +when to fix bayonets." + +The noisy rustling of his men's heavy bodies as they pushed through +the grass made him nervous and irritable. Then suddenly, just as they +were edging their way around a gully, a dozen Rumi were swarming down +on them. Terrence cut down two with his carbine but his men were +firing and missing as the incredibly fast catmen hurtled at them. He +had a brief glimpse of O'Shaughnessy spraying submachine gun slugs +wildly about and then there was a hail of spring bolts and two of his +men were down. The whole platoon was thrashing through the grass in +their direction and the Rumi were gone as quickly as they had come. + +"Come on!" Terrence shouted, breaking into a run with twenty or thirty +Riflemen after him. A bolt grazed his cheek and another cut down a man +to his right. He emptied his carbine in the general direction of the +Clack, Clack, Clack. Hannigan was roaring a primitive bull-throated +chant and firing at everything that moved. O'Shaughnessy managed to +jam his gun and was beating frantically at it with one webbed fist. +They burst into a clearing filled with Rumi and both sides blazed away +at point blank range. It was hard for even a Narakan to miss at that +close range and the Rumi broke and ran just as Sergeant O'Toole and +his squad came out of the grass on the other side of the clearing. + +The Rumi, trapped, turned and dashed at Terrence and his men. The +lieutenant drove his fist into one cat faced creature and smashed his +empty gun across the head of another. Hannigan grappled with one of +the lithe gray-bodied things and slowly crushed it beneath his 350 odd +pounds. O'Shaughnessy beat another insensible with his jammed Tommy +gun. Several Narakans were down but most of them had taken Rumi with +them. + +Terrence was knocked off his feet by a gray ball of fury that leaped +at him wielding a stiletto-thin knife. He caught at the Rumi's arm +with both hands but the creature was not only fast but strong. It +twisted out of his grasp and slashed at him and only a quick sideward +roll saved him. Desperately he brought his fist down on his +assailant's head. + +The Rumi's grip relaxed slightly and Terrence drove his fist full into +its face and locked his legs about its waist. The catman couldn't have +weighed more than a hundred and fifty pounds but all of it was wiry +strength. It clawed at him now, ripping his protective clothing and +gashing his legs, meanwhile trying to get its knife into play. He was +vaguely conscious that his men had disposed of the rest of the Rumi +and were dancing around him frantically trying to get a chance to aid +him. He was struck by the incongruity of a civilized being descended +from simian ancestors and a civilized being descended from feline +ancestors fighting fang and claw while a bunch of misplaced amphibians +danced about them. + +Making his weight count he suddenly twisted and hurled the Rumi under +him but something hit him a terrific blow on the back of the head and +blackness closed in. + + +V + +O'Mara awoke with a head that felt like all the hangovers of a +misspent life. + +"Have a nice rest?" Bill Fielding asked. + +Terrence reached a weak hand to the back of his head and felt +bandages. "Did I catch a spring bolt?" he asked. + +Bill grinned, "Well, no. Not exactly. It was more on the order of +Private O'Hara's rifle butt. He was trying to hit the Rumi you were +necking with." + +"I might have known," Terrence groaned. + +"We lost six men but recovered all the bodies except for one. We've +got four wounded ... litter cases. Thought you were going to make it +five for a while." + +"Well, they won't slow us down too much. We still have about a hundred +and fifty miles to go. We'll camp here for the night and move out at +dawn." + +Marching in the early morning and resting in the heat of the day +before another afternoon march, the Narakan Rifles covered another +fifty miles of the distance to Fort Craven without incident but not +without signs of Rumi. Twice they came on recently occupied camps and +once they caught sight of a Rumi patrol moving parallel to their own +line of march. + +The next morning, which was blistering and cloudless, they were only +seventy miles from the Fort. + +"Maybe we ought to give the radio another try." Terrence decided. +"We're close enough to have a chance of getting through now." + +Polasky set up the field radio. + +"Hello, Balliwick. Hello, Balliwick. This is Apple Three Three. Can +you read me? Come in, please." + +O'Mara and Fielding sat and listened while he repeated the call a +dozen or more times. His only answer was the heavy static that Beta +produced in most electronic instruments. The same static that made +radar and space scanners all but useless, that limited aircraft to the +big dirigibles and weapons to old fashioned rifles and machine guns. + +"I guess we'll know what's going on when we get there!" Terrence said. +He wiped his forehead with his arm, noticing that the heavily caked +mud was beginning to crack off. He would be in for a bad case of sun +poisoning probably. + +A rare breeze had sprung up and drifting down it from the west came +the sound of gunfire. As one man, everyone in the camp stiffened. + +"Did you hear that?" demanded Fielding. + +"I think I hear a Banning," Polasky said, "sounds like it's coming +from in back of us ... off to the west." + +"From what our scouts have been able to pick up, that's the general +direction that the Rumi have been moving," Terrence said. + +"But there's nothing over that way. What in hell could they be +attacking?" Fielding was on his feet, looking off in the direction +from which the sounds were coming. + +Terrence was aware of an increasingly uneasy feeling. He got to his +feet and picked up his gear. "The sounds could be deceiving. We might +as well get moving. It isn't going to get much cooler before +nightfall." + + * * * * * + +An hour later they were hotly engaged with a large force of Rumi. Rumi +armed for the first time with heavier weapons, mortar-like guns that +hurled pods of smothering dust that caused almost instant +strangulation. Rumi who attacked suddenly, giving them time only to +drop to the ground and set up the Bannings and machine guns before +three hundred howling fiends came charging through the grass at a dead +run, firing as they came. + +O'Mara was behind a machine gun and Fielding and Polasky each had a +Banning in action. They met the Rumi charge with a withering hail of +lead and fire. The Narakans lying as flat as their huge chests would +allow them were firing as fast as the automatic rifles would fire. The +Bannings swept the line of charging figures. As the beams paused for a +moment, the charge would take effect and a ball of fire would +mushroom skyward, leaving a dozen seared cat bodies on the ground. +Terrence swept his machine gun along in a swath behind the Bannings, +picking off what they left. Some dozen catmen made it to within ten +yards of their front but sprawled still or lay kicking briefly until a +Greenback put another bullet into him. + +The Rumi were gone, withdrawing to the west and Terrence was yelling +and cursing at his men to keep them from breaking ranks and following +them. Three Riflemen and O'Toole were dead and Sergeant Polasky was +coughing out his life beside his Banning with a spring gun bolt in his +stomach. + +"Those damn cats!" he was muttering when O'Mara reached him, "those +damn cats. We showed 'em, didn't we, Lieutenant? That Banning's a good +gun if you...." + +They buried the Greenbacks in eight foot graves and the Earthman in a +seven foot one. "Those dirty, lousy, stinking...." Bill Fielding was +beating his fist into the palm of his hand. "We got one of them alive +this time, Terrence. Hannigan knows a little of their lingo. His old +man escaped from one of their breeding pens on the other side of the +Muddy. He's working him over." + +In the twenty odd years that Terrans and Rumi had occupied different +halves of the same planet, the number of men who had learned the Rumi +language wouldn't have filled a small room. So Terrence was surprised +at Bill's information and hurried toward the place where the +interrogation was taking place. Before he got there, he heard a +piercing cat cry which ended in a gurgle and when he reached the group +of Greenbacks, Hannigan was wiping his bayonet on the grass. He stood +looking down at a Rumi officer whose throat was neatly slit from furry +ear to furry ear. Then fists clenched on his hips, he confronted his +men. + +"I don't suppose it ever occurred to you bunch of dimwits that we +might have gotten some information out of this guy. He might have +talked, you know." + +"He talk," grinned Hannigan, "he talk plenty. He feared we might hurt +him. We tell him no hurt if he talk.... Ha!" + +"He say big flyship down, Mr. Lieutenant," said O'Shaughnessy. + +"What? What do you mean?" demanded O'Mara. + +"Flyship ... _Sun Maid_ crash in storm.... Rumi find." + +"Good God! The _Sun Maid_!" Terrence gasped, "That storm the first +night!" + +"They surround and attack Terrans. These ones on way to join attack +when meet us," O'Shaughnessy went on. + +"He tell where ship down," Hannigan said, "it near bend in Big Muddy ... +place I know. Ten, twenty mile back." + +The Greenbacks were watching the Terrans, fingering their bayonets +eagerly and hugging their rifles. Terrence had the impression that +they were beginning to like their jobs. He turned to Bill Fielding, +"Well, Bill, it looks like we came about twenty miles too far." + +Bill grinned, "Yep, I guess so. Come on, soldiers, fall in. We got +work to do back here a piece." + +A two hour's forced march with the sun beating down and the sound of +firing growing closer. Only a column of Greenbacks could have done it +and only a crazy Irishman would have asked them to. They came up over +a rise and looked down a gentle slope toward the brown twisting snake +that was the Big Muddy. On its banks lay the broken shape of the +airship and swarming across a burned circle around it were Rumi, +thousands of them. The firing had slackened in the last few minutes +and now they could see why. The Rumi were assaulting and were at close +grips with the ring of defending Terrans. + +"Now?" questioned O'Shaughnessy, "we fix bayonets now?" + +"Yes," replied Terrence, "now we fix bayonets." + +At his word three hundred big clumsy hands reached for three hundred +bayonets and fixed them to three hundred rifles. + +"O'Shea, take O'Toole's squad and stand by up here with the Bannings. +O'Shaughnessy, take the left flank. Bill, you take the right. Let's +go!" + +There wasn't a sound out of the Rifles as they started down the hill, +none of their usual croakings and bellowings, just silence and the +heavy thud of their feet. The Rumi had seen them. Many of those in +the rear of the attack were swinging about to face them. Spring gun +bolts began to whiz in their direction. One or two Narakans fell. They +were closer to the struggle now, closer to the tightly packed Rumi and +the hand to hand struggle about the _Sun Maid_. + +Terrence was firing, throwing lead into the gray-bodied mass ahead of +him but his men were just thundering along with their little black +eyes fixed on their old oppressors, bayonets leveled in front of them +in approved training school method. They resembled nothing so much as +a regiment of tanks hurtling at an enemy. The momentum of their charge +carried them half way through the Rumi ranks, the terrific force of +the plunging amphibians bowling over the lighter catmen. + +Bayonets, clubbed rifle and heavy webbed fist fought against claw, +teeth and knife. There was almost no firing, almost no sound save for +the cries of the Rumi and an occasional cheer from the Terrans. + +Terrence emptied his Tommy gun, hurled it in the face of a Rumi and +reached for his knife and automatic. A Rumi knocked him off his feet +with the butt end of a spring gun but before he could do more, +Hannigan stepped over his lieutenant and plunged his bayonet into the +catman. The Irishman scrambled to his feet amidst the gray furry +bodies, thrust his .45 into a snarling face and pulled the trigger. +The face disappeared but another took its place and he fired again. A +Rumi with a knife grabbed at him from behind and he raised his pistol +again but the cat was already down with a bayonet between his +shoulders. + +The Greenbacks were yelling now, lifting those great voices of theirs +in full throated bullfrog croaks. The Rumi, trapped and desperate, +were scattering and trying to flee down river. O'Mara stumbled over a +barricade of rocks and boxes and almost got a Terran slug in him +before he realized that they had cut their way through to the broken +ship. He was up in a minute and urging his men on after the scattering +enemy. Twenty or thirty of them tried to make a stand around a tall +Rumi officer but O'Shaughnessy at the head of a wedge of Narakans +swept into them at a full run. + +Their bayonets flashed for a few seconds and then flashed no more, the +steel was covered with blood. A few hundred Rumi made it to the river +under a hail of fire from O'Shea and his squad on the hill. Hardly +pausing to consider their cat-like aversion to water, most of them +plunged in and struck out for the other shore. The rest were cut down +on the bank by onrushing Greenbacks. Terrence grabbed hold of one of +his buglers and then had to practically beat the man over the head to +get him to sound Recall. + +Bill Fielding picked his way among the bodies and came toward Terrence +holding his left arm. O'Shaughnessy was leaping up and down and waving +his fist across the river. + +"Things different now! All different now! One Greenback better than +four, five, eight Rumi!" + +"At least that many," Terrence said under his breath before he roared +at O'Shaughnessy, "Fall the men in on the double now! We're going to +march back to the _Sun Maid_ in proper military style." + +There was a blowing of sergeant's whistles, the shouting of corporals, +and the Narakan Rifles slowly formed ranks. Some were missing and +others were limping and holding wounds but they stepped out smartly as +the column headed back up the river. Every rifle was at the correct +slope, every man was in step as they marched through the makeshift +barricade and past where Chapelle was standing. The drum and bugle +corps struck up _The Wearing of the Green_ just as O'Mara shouted, +"_Eyes Right!_" and every eye swung right in perfect unison. A +tattered and weary Chapelle brought a surprised hand up to salute and +the Narakan Rifles came to a snappy halt. + +A small, black haired figure threw itself at Terrence and his arms +were again holding Joan Allen. "I knew you'd come," she said, "only a +big, crazy Irishman like you could do it." + +He kissed her and then pressed his mud-caked face against hers as he +said into her ear. "Only three hundred big, crazy Irishmen, baby. +There's not a drop of anything else in me boys." + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Narakan Rifles, About Face!, by Jan Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARAKAN RIFLES, ABOUT FACE! *** + +***** This file should be named 31519.txt or 31519.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/5/1/31519/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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