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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..694ec4c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62249 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62249) diff --git a/old/62249-h.zip b/old/62249-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 2678116..0000000 --- a/old/62249-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62249-h/62249-h.htm b/old/62249-h/62249-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index b73af50..0000000 --- a/old/62249-h/62249-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1463 +0,0 @@ -<!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=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Outpost on Io, by Leigh Brackett. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.caption p -{ - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0; - margin: 0.25em 0; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph1 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Outpost on Io, by Leigh Brackett - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Outpost on Io - -Author: Leigh Brackett - -Release Date: May 27, 2020 [EBook #62249] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTPOST ON IO *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="346" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>OUTPOST ON IO</h1> - -<h2>By LEIGH BRACKETT</h2> - -<p>In a crystalline death lay the only<br /> -release for those prisoners of that<br /> -Ionian hell-outpost. Yet MacVickers<br /> -and the men had to escape—for to<br /> -remain meant the conquering of the<br /> -Solar System by the inhuman Europans.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Winter 1942.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>MacVickers stopped at the brink of the dark round shaft.</p> - -<p>It was cold, and he was stark naked except for the silver collar welded -around his neck. But it was more than cold that made him shiver and -clamp his long bony jaw.</p> - -<p>He didn't know what the shaft was for, or where it led. But he had a -sudden feeling that once he went down he was down for good.</p> - -<p>The small, round metal platform rocked uneasily under his feet. Beyond -the railing, as far as MacVickers could see to the short curve of Io's -horizon, there was mud. Thin, slimy blue-green mud.</p> - -<p>The shaft went down under the mud. MacVickers looked at it. He licked -dry lips, and his grey-green eyes, narrow and hot in his gaunt dark -face, flashed a desperate look at the small flyer from which he had -just been taken.</p> - -<p>It bobbed on the heaving mud, mocking him. The eight-foot Europan guard -standing between it and MacVickers made a slow weaving motion with his -tentacles.</p> - -<p>MacVickers studied the Europan with the hating eyes of a wolf in -a trap. His smooth black body had a dull sheen of red under the -Jupiter-light. There was no back nor front to him, no face. Only the -four long rubbery legs, the roundish body, and the tentacles in a -waving crown above.</p> - -<p>MacVickers bared white, uneven teeth. His big bony fists clenched. He -took one step toward the Europan.</p> - -<p>A tentacle flicked out, daintily, and touched the silver collar at the -Earthman's throat. Raw electric current, generated in the Europan's -body, struck into him, a shuddering, blinding agony surging down his -spine.</p> - -<p>He stumbled backward, and his foot went off into emptiness. He twisted -blindly, catching the opposite side of the shaft, and hung there, -groping with his foot for the ladder rungs, cursing in a harsh, -toneless voice.</p> - -<p>The tentacle struck out again, with swift, exquisite skill. Three times -like a red-hot lash across his face, and twice, harder, across his -hands. Then it touched the collar again.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" width="306" height="500" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>The tentacle reached out again, with swift exquisite -skill. Raw agony filling his body, MacVickers retched and fell -backward.</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>MacVickers retched and let go. He fell jarringly down the ladder, -managed to break his fall onto the metal floor below, and crouched -there, sick and furious and afraid.</p> - -<p>The hatch cover clanged down over him like the falling hammer of doom.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>MacVickers dropped into a circular room thirty feet across, floored and -walled with metal and badly lighted. The roof was of thick glassite -plates. Through them, very clearly, MacVickers could see four Europan -guards, watching.</p> - -<p>"They're always there," said the Venusian softly. "You'll come to love -them, stranger."</p> - -<p>There were men standing around the ladder foot, thirteen of them, with -the Venusian. Earthmen, Martians, Venusians, pale, stark naked, smeared -with a blue-green stain. Their muscles stood out sharp on their gaunt -bodies, their silver collars a mocking note of richness.</p> - -<p>Deep, deep, inside himself, MacVickers shivered. His nostrils wrinkled. -There was fear in the room. The smell of it, the shudder of it in the -air. Fear that was familiar and accustomed, lying in uneasy sleep, but -ready to awake.</p> - -<p>There were other men, four or five of them, back in the shadows by -the wall bunks. They didn't speak, nor come out.</p> - -<p>He took a deep breath and said steadily, "I'm Chris MacVickers. -Deep-space trader out of Terra. They caught me trying to get through -the Asteroid lines."</p> - -<p>Their eyes glistened at him, looking from him to something behind -them that he couldn't see. They were waiting, and there was something -ghoulish in it.</p> - -<p>The Venusian said sharply, "Tough luck, MacVickers. I'm Loris, late of -the Venusian Guard. Introduce yourselves, boys."</p> - -<p>They did, in jerky detached voices, their eyes sliding from him to the -hidden something. Loris drew a little closer, and one of the Earthmen -in the group came toward him.</p> - -<p>"I'm Pendleton," he said. "The <i>Starfish</i>. Remember?"</p> - -<p>MacVickers stared at him. The furrows deepened in his craggy face. He -said, "My God!" very softly, and not as a curse. "Pendleton!"</p> - -<p>The man grinned wryly. He was English, the ravaged ghost of the big, -ruddy, jovial spaceman MacVickers remembered.</p> - -<p>"Quite a change, eh? Well, perhaps we're lucky, MacVickers. We shan't -have to see the smash."</p> - -<p>MacVickers' head dropped forward. "Then you saw it coming, too?"</p> - -<p>Loris made a little bitter laugh that was almost a sob. All the -desperate boyish humor was gone from his face, leaving it old and grim.</p> - -<p>"Who hasn't? I've been here—God knows. An eternity. But even before my -ship was taken, we knew it. We can't build spaceships as fast as their -Jovium destroys them. When they break through the Asteroid line...."</p> - -<p>Pendleton's quiet voice was grave. "Mars is old and tired and torn -with famine. Venus is young, but her courage is undisciplined. Her -barbarians aren't suited to mechanized warfare. And Earth...." He -sighed. "Perhaps if we hadn't fought so much among ourselves...."</p> - -<p>MacVickers said harshly, "It wouldn't make much difference. When a man -has a weapon that causes metal to explode its own atoms, it doesn't -make any difference what you stack up against him."</p> - -<p>He shook his craggy head impatiently. "What is this place? What are you -doing here? The Jovies just brought me here and dumped me in without a -word of explanation."</p> - -<p>Pendleton shrugged. "We, too. There's a pit below, full of machinery. -We work it, but we're not told why. Of course, we do a lot of guessing."</p> - -<p>"Guessing!" The word rose sharp on the thick hot air. A man burst out -of the group and stood swaying with the restless motion of the floor. -He was a swart Low-Canal Martian. His yellow cat-eyes glittered in his -hatch-face, and his thin ropy muscles twitched.</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you what this place is, Earthman. It's a hell! And we're -caught in it. Trapped, for the rest of our lives." He turned on -Pendleton. "It's your fault. We were in a neutral port. We might have -been safe. But you had to get back...."</p> - -<p>"Janu!" Pendleton's voice cracked like a whip. The Martian went silent, -watching him. There was more than hate in his yellow eyes. <i>Dando</i>, -the beginning of the trap-madness. MacVickers had seen it in men who -couldn't stand the confinement of a deep-space voyage.</p> - -<p>The Englishman said quietly, "Janu was my glory-hole foreman. He rather -holds this against me."</p> - -<p>The Martian snarled, and then coughed. The cough became a paroxysm. He -stumbled away, grey-faced and twitching, bent almost double.</p> - -<p>"It's the heat," said Loris, "and the damp. Poor devil."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>MacVickers thought of the air of Mars, cold and dry and pure. The floor -rocked under him. Eyes, with the queer waiting shine to them, slid -furtively to the hidden thing behind the standing men.</p> - -<p>The hot wet air lay on his lungs. He sweated. There was a stir of -nausea in him and the lights swirled. He shut his jaw hard.</p> - -<p>He said, "What did Janu mean, the rest of our natural lives? They'll -let us go when the war's over—if there's anything left to go to."</p> - -<p>There was a tight little silence. And then, from the shadows against -the wall, there came a brittle, whispering laugh.</p> - -<p>"The war? They let us go before that!"</p> - -<p>The group parted. MacVickers had a brief glimpse of a huge man crouched -in a strange position on the floor. Then he couldn't see anything but -the shape that came slowly out into the light.</p> - -<p>It moved with a stiff, tottering gait, and its naked feet made a dry -clicking sound on the metal floor. MacVickers' hand closed hard on the -ladder behind him.</p> - -<p>It had been a man, an Earthman. His body was still tall, his features -still fine. But there was a film over him, a pale blue-green sheathe -that glistened dully.</p> - -<p>He thrust out an arm, with a hand on it like a hand carved in -aquamarine. "Touch it," he whispered.</p> - -<p>MacVickers touched it. It was quite hard, and warm only with the heat -of the air. MacVickers' grey-green eyes met the sunken, sheathed eyes -of the Earthman. His body hurt with the effort to control it.</p> - -<p>"When we can no longer move," the whispering voice said, "they take -us up the shaft and throw us over, into the mud. That's why you're -here—because we were one man short."</p> - -<p>MacVickers put his hand back on the ladder rung. "How long?"</p> - -<p>"About three Earth months."</p> - -<p>He looked at the blue-green stain that smeared them all. The color of -the mud. His hands sweated on the ladder rung. "What is it?"</p> - -<p>"Something in the mud. A radioactivity, I think. It seems to turn the -carbon in human flesh to a crystalline form. You become a living jewel. -It's painless. But it's...." He didn't finish.</p> - -<p>Beads of sweat stood on MacVickers' forehead. The men standing watching -him smiled a little. There was motion behind them. Loris and Pendleton -stiffened, and their eyes met.</p> - -<p>MacVickers said steadily, "I don't understand. The mud's outside."</p> - -<p>Loris said, with a queer, hurried urgency, "You will. It's almost time -for the other shift...."</p> - -<p>He broke off. Men scattered suddenly, crouching back in a rough circle, -grinning with feral nervousness. The room was suddenly quiet.</p> - -<p>The crouching man had risen. He stood with his huge corded legs wide -apart, swaying with the swaying of the floor, his round head sunk -between ridges of muscle, studying the Earthman out of pale, flat eyes.</p> - -<p>Loris put his old, bitter boy's face close to MacVickers. His whisper -was almost inaudible.</p> - -<p>"Birek. He's boss here. He's mad. Don't fight him."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>MacVickers' grey-green eyes narrowed. He didn't move. Birek breathed in -slow, deep sighs. He was a Venusian, a coal-swamper from his size and -pallor and the filthy-white hair clubbed in his neck.</p> - -<p>He shimmered, very faintly in the dim light. The first jewel-crust was -forming across his skin.</p> - -<p>Knife-sharp and startling across the silence, a round hatch-cover in -the floor clashed open. Sweat broke cold on MacVickers. Men began to -come out of the hole, just at the edge of his vision. Naked, dirty men -with silver collars.</p> - -<p>They had been talking, cursing, jostling. The first ones saw Birek and -stopped, and the silence trickled back down the shaft. It was utterly -quiet again, except for the harsh straining of lungs against the hot, -wet air and the soft sounds of naked men climbing the ladder.</p> - -<p>The cords ridged on MacVickers' jaw. He shifted his balance slightly, -away from the ladder. He could see the faces thrust forward in the dim -light, eager, waiting.</p> - -<p>Shining eyes, shining teeth, cheek-bones shining with sweat. -Frightened, suffering men, watching another man fear and suffer, and -being glad about it.</p> - -<p>Birek moved forward, slowly. His eyes held a pale glitter, like distant -ice, and his lips smiled.</p> - -<p>"I prayed," he said softly. "I was answered. You, new man! Get down on -your belly."</p> - -<p>Loris grinned at Birek, but there was no humor in his eyes. He had -drawn a little away from MacVickers. He said carelessly:</p> - -<p>"There's no time for that now, Birek. It's our shift. They'll be -burning us if we don't go."</p> - -<p>Birek repeated, "Down on your belly," not looking at Loris.</p> - -<p>A vein began to throb on MacVickers' forehead. He looked slight, almost -small against the Venusian's huge bulk.</p> - -<p>He said quietly, "I'm not looking for trouble.</p> - -<p>"Then get down."</p> - -<p>"Sorry," said MacVickers. "Not today."</p> - -<p>Pendleton's voice cracked out sharply. "Let him alone, Birek! You men, -down the ladder! They're going for the shockers."</p> - -<p>MacVickers was aware of movement overhead, beyond the glass roof. Men -began to drop slowly, reluctantly, down the ladder. There was sweat on -Pendleton's forehead and Loris' face was as grey as his eyes.</p> - -<p>Birek said hoarsely, "Down! Grovel! Then you can go."</p> - -<p>"No." The ladder was beyond Birek. There was no way past him.</p> - -<p>Loris said, in a swift harsh whisper, "Get down, MacVickers. For God's -sake get down, and then come on!"</p> - -<p>MacVickers shook his head stubbornly. The giant smiled. There was -something horribly wrong about that smile. It was the smile of a man in -agony when he feels the anaesthetic taking hold. Peaceful, and happy.</p> - -<p>He struck out, startlingly fast for such a big man. MacVickers shrank -aside. The fist grazed past his head, tearing his ear. He crouched and -went in, trying for a fast body-blow and a sidestep.</p> - -<p>He'd forgotten the glimmering sheathe. His fist struck Birek on the -mark, and it was like striking glass that didn't shatter. The pain shot -up his arm, numbing, slowing, sickening. Blood spattered out from his -knuckles.</p> - -<p>Birek's right swept in, across the side of his head.</p> - -<p>MacVickers went down, on his right side. Birek put a foot in the small -of his back. "Down," he said. "Grovel."</p> - -<p>MacVickers twisted under the foot, snarling. He brought up his own -feet, viciously, with all his strength. The pain of impact made him -whimper, but Birek staggered back, thrown off balance.</p> - -<p>There was no sign of hurt in his face. He stood there, looking down at -MacVickers. Suddenly, shockingly, he was crying. He made no sound. He -didn't move. But the tears ran out of his eyes.</p> - -<p>A deep, slow shudder shook MacVickers. He said softly, "There's no -pain, is there?"</p> - -<p>Birek didn't speak. The tears glistened over the faint, hard film on -his cheeks. MacVickers got up slowly. The furrows were deep and harsh -in his face and his lips were white.</p> - -<p>Loris pulled at him. Somewhere Pendleton's voice was yelling, "Hurry! -Hurry, <i>please</i>!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The guards were doing something overhead. There was a faint crackling -sound, a flicker of sparks in a circle around the top of the wall. -Shivering, tingling pain swept through MacVickers from the silver -collar at his throat.</p> - -<p>Men began to whisper and curse. Loris clawed at him, shoved him down -the ladder, kicked his face to make him hurry. The pain abated.</p> - -<p>MacVickers looked up. The great corded legs of Birek were coming down, -the soles of the feet making a faint, hard sound on the rungs.</p> - -<p>The hatch closed overhead. The voice of the dying Earthman came dry and -soft over his shoulder.</p> - -<p>"Here's where you'll work until you die. How do you like it?"</p> - -<p>MacVickers turned, scowling. It was hot. The room above was cool by -comparison. The air was thick and sluggish with the reek of heated oil -and metal. It was a big space, running clear to the curving wall, but -the effect was of stifling, cramped confinement.</p> - -<p>Machinery crammed the place, roaring and hissing and clattering, -running in a circuit from huge intake pumps through meaningless bulking -shapes to a forced-air outlet, with oil-pumps between them.</p> - -<p>The pumps brought mud into a broad sluice, and the blue-green stain of -it was everywhere.</p> - -<p>There were two glassite control boxes high on the walls, each with a -black, tentacled Europan. About five feet overhead was a system of -metal catwalks giving complete coverage of the floor area. There were -Europans on the walks, too, eight of them, patrolling steadily.</p> - -<p>Their sleek, featureless bodies were safe from contact with the mud. -They carried heavy plastic tubes in their tentacles, and there were -heavy-duty shockers mounted at every intersection.</p> - -<p>MacVickers grinned dourly. "Trustful lot."</p> - -<p>"Very." Pendleton nudged him over toward a drive motor attached to some -kind of a centrifugal separator. Loris and the blue-sheathed Earthman -followed, with Birek coming slowly behind him.</p> - -<p>MacVickers said, "What's all this for?"</p> - -<p>Pendleton shook his head. "We don't know. But we have an idea that -Jovium comes from the mud."</p> - -<p>"Jovium!" MacVickers' grey-green eyes began to grow hot. "The stuff -that's winning this war for them. The metal destroyer!"</p> - -<p>"We're not sure, of course." Pendleton's infinitely weary eyes turned -across the stretch of greasy metal deck to the end of the circuit. "But -look there. What does that suggest to you?"</p> - -<p>The huge pipe of the forced-air ejector ran along the deck there behind -a screen of heavy metal mesh. Just above it, enclosed behind three -thicknesses of glassite, was a duct leading upward. The duct, from the -inordinate size of its supports and its color, was pure lead.</p> - -<p>Lead. Lead pipe, lead armor. Radiations that changed living men into -half-living diamonds. Nobody knew what Jovium was or where it came -from—only it did.</p> - -<p>But scientists on the three besieged worlds thought it was probably an -isotope of some powerful radioactive metal, perhaps uranium, capable of -setting up a violent progressive breakdown in metallic atoms.</p> - -<p>"If," said MacVickers softly, "the pipe were lined with plastic.... -Blue mud! I've traded through these moons, and the only other deposit -of that mud is a saucepanful on J-XI! This must be their only source."</p> - -<p>Loris shoved an oil can at him. "What difference does it make?" he said -savagely.</p> - -<p>MacVickers took the can without seeing it. "They store it up there, -then, in the space between the inner wall and the outer. If somebody -could get up there and set the stuff off...."</p> - -<p>Pendleton's mouth twisted. "Can you see any way?"</p> - -<p>He looked. Guards and shockers, charged ladders and metal screens. No -weapons, no place to conceal them anyway. He said doggedly:</p> - -<p>"But if someone could escape and get word back.... This contraption -is a potential bomb big enough to blow Io out of space! The experts -think it only takes a fraction of a gram of the pure stuff to power a -disintegrator shell."</p> - -<p>There was a pulse beating hard under his jaw and his grey-green eyes -were bright.</p> - -<p>Loris said, "Escape." He said it as though it were the most infinitely -beautiful word in existence, and as though it burned his mouth.</p> - -<p>"Escape," whispered the man with the shimmering, deadly sheathe of -aquamarine. "There is no escape but—this."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>MacVickers said, into the silence that followed, "I'm going to try. One -thing or the other, I'm going to try."</p> - -<p>Pendleton's incredibly tired eyes looked at the livid burns on -MacVickers' face. "It's been tried. And it's no use."</p> - -<p>Birek moved suddenly out of his queer, dazed stillness. He looked up -and made a hoarse sound in his throat. MacVickers caught a flicker -of motion overhead, but he didn't pay attention to it. He went on, -speaking quietly in a flat, level voice.</p> - -<p>"There's a war on. We're all in it. Soldiers, civilians, and kings, the -big fellows and the little ones. When I got my master's ticket, they -told me a man's duty wasn't done until his ship was cradled or he was -dead.</p> - -<p>"My ship's gone. But I haven't died, yet."</p> - -<p>Pendleton's broad, gaunt shoulders drooped. He turned his head away. -Loris' face was a death-mask carved from grey bone. He said, almost -inaudibly:</p> - -<p>"Shut up, damn you. Shut up."</p> - -<p>The movement was closer overhead, ominously close. The men scattered -across the pit had stopped working, watching MacVickers with -glistening, burning eyes across hot oil-filmed metal.</p> - -<p>MacVickers said harshly, "I know what's wrong with you. You were broken -before you came, thinking the smash was coming and it was no use."</p> - -<p>Pendleton whispered, "You don't know, the things they do to you."</p> - -<p>Stiff and dry out of the Earthman's aquamarine mask, came the words, -"You'll learn. There's no hope, MacVickers, and the men have all they -can bear without pain.</p> - -<p>"If you bring them more suffering, MacVickers, they'll kill you."</p> - -<p>Heat. Oil and reeking metal, and white stiff faces filmed with sweat. -Eyes shining, hot and glittering with fear. Rocking floor and sucking -pumps and a clutching nausea in his belly. Birek, standing straight and -still, watching him. Watching. Everybody, watching.</p> - -<p>MacVickers put his hand flat on the engine-housing beside him. "There's -more to it than duty," he said softly, and smiled, without humor, the -vertical lines deep in his cheeks. His gaunt Celtic head had a grim -beauty.</p> - -<p>His voice rang clear across the roar of the machines. "I'm Christopher -Rory MacVickers. I'm the most important thing in the universe. And if I -have to give my life, it'll not be without return on the value of it!"</p> - -<p>Janu the Martian, away on the other side of the pit, made a shrill -wailing cry. Loris and Pendleton flinched away like dogs afraid of the -whip, looking upward.</p> - -<p>MacVickers glimpsed a dark tentacled shape on the catwalk above, just -before the shattering electricity coursed through him. He screamed, -once. And then Birek moved.</p> - -<p>He struck Loris and Pendleton and the blue-sheathed Earthman out of the -way like children. His left leg took MacVickers behind the knees in the -same instant that his right hand pushed MacVickers' face.</p> - -<p>MacVickers fell heavily on his back, screaming at the contact of the -metal floor. Then Birek sprawled over him, shielding his body with the -bulk of his own.</p> - -<p>The awful shocking pain was lessened. Lying there, looking up into -Birek's pale eyes, MacVickers made his twitching lips say, "Why?"</p> - -<p>Birek smiled. "The current doesn't hurt much any more. And I want you -for myself—to break."</p> - -<p>MacVickers drew a deep, shuddering breath and smiled back, the lines -deep in his lean cheeks.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He had no clear memories of that shift. Heat and motion and strangling -air, and Janu coughing with a terrible, steady rhythm, his own hands -trying to guide the oil can. Toward the end of the time he fainted, and -it was Birek who carried him up the ladder.</p> - -<p>He had no way of knowing how long after that he came to. There was -no time in that little hell. The first thing he noticed, with the -hair-trigger senses of a man trained to ships, that the motion of the -room was different.</p> - -<p>He sat up straight on the bunk where Birek had laid him. "The tidal -wave," he said, over a quick stab of fear. "What...."</p> - -<p>"We ride it out," said Loris bitterly. "We always have."</p> - -<p>MacVickers knew the Jovian Moons pretty well. Remembering the -tremendous tides and winds caused by the gravitational pull of Jupiter, -he shuddered. There was no solid earth on Io, nothing but mud. And the -extraction plant, from the feel of it, was a hollow bell sunk under it, -perfectly free.</p> - -<p>It had to be free. No mooring cable made could stand the pull of a -Jupiter-tide.</p> - -<p>"One thing about it," said Pendleton with quiet viciousness. "It makes -the bloody Jovies seasick."</p> - -<p>Janu the Martian made a cracked, harsh laugh. "So they keep a weak -current on us all the time." His hatchet-face was drawn, his yellow -cat-eyes lambent in the dim light.</p> - -<p>The men sprawled on their bunks, not talking much. Birek sat on the -end of his, watching MacVickers with his pale still eyes. There was a -tightness in the room.</p> - -<p>It was coming. They were going to break him now, before he hurt them. -Break him, or kill him.</p> - -<p>MacVickers wiped the sweat from his face and said, "I'm thirsty."</p> - -<p>Pendleton pointed to a thing like a horse-trough against the bulkhead. -His eyes were tired and very sad. Loris was scowling at his stained and -faintly filmed feet.</p> - -<p>There wasn't much water in the trough. What there was was brackish and -greasy. MacVickers drank and splashed some on his face and body. He saw -that he was already stained with the mud. It wouldn't wash off.</p> - -<p>The dying Earthman whispered, "There is food also."</p> - -<p>MacVickers looked at the basket of spongy synthetic food, and shook his -head.</p> - -<p>The floor dipped and swung. There was a frightening, playful violence -about it, like the first soft taps of a tiger's paw. Loris looked up at -the glass roof with the black shapes beyond.</p> - -<p>"They get the pure air," he said. "Our ventilator pipes are only a few -inches wide, lest we crawl up through them."</p> - -<p>Pendleton said, rather loudly, "The swine breathe through the skin, you -know. All their sense organs, sight and hearing...."</p> - -<p>"Shut up," snarled Janu. "Stop talking for time."</p> - -<p>The sprawled men on the bunks drew themselves slowly tight, breathing -hard and deep in anticipation. And Birek rose.</p> - -<p>MacVickers faced them, Birek and the rest. There was no lift in his -heart. He was cold and sodden, like a chuted ox watching the pole-axe -fall. He said, with a bitter, savage quiet,</p> - -<p>"You're a lot of bloody cowards. You, Birek. You're scared of the death -creeping over you, and the only way you can forget the fear is to make -someone else suffer.</p> - -<p>"It's the same with all of you. You have to trample me down to your own -level, break me for the sake of your souls as much as your bodies."</p> - -<p>He looked at the numbers of them, at Birek's huge impervious bulk and -his great fists. He touched his silver collar, remembering the agony of -the shock through it.</p> - -<p>"And I will break. You know that, damn you."</p> - -<p>He gave back three paces and set his feet. "All right. Come on, Birek. -Let's get it over with."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Venusian came toward him across the heaving floor. Loris still -looked at his feet and Pendleton's eyes were agonized. MacVickers wiped -his hands across his buttocks. The palms were filmed and slick with oil -from the can he had handled.</p> - -<p>There was no use to fight. Birek was twice his size, and he couldn't -be hurt anyway. The diamond-sheathe even screened off the worst of the -electric current, being a non-conductor.</p> - -<p>That gave the dying men an advantage. But even if they had spirit -enough left by that time to try anything, the hatches were still locked -tight by air-pressure and the sheer numbers of their suffering mates -would pull them down. Also, the Jovies were as strong as four men.</p> - -<p>Non-conductor. Sheathed skin. Birek's shoulders tensing for the first -blow. Sweat trying to break through the film of oil on his palms, the -slippery feel of his hands as he clenched them.</p> - -<p>Birek's fist lashed out. MacVickers dodged under it, looking for an -opening, dreading the useless agony of impact. The bell lurched wildly.</p> - -<p>A guard moved abruptly overhead. The motion caught MacVickers' eye. -Something screamed sharply in his head: Pendleton's voice saying, "They -breathe through the skin. All their sense organs...."</p> - -<p>He sensed rather than saw Birek's fist coming. He twisted, enough to -take the worst of it on his shoulder. It knocked him halfway across the -deck. And then the current came on.</p> - -<p>It was weak, but it made him jerk and twitch. He scrambled up on -the pitching deck and started to speak. Birek was coming again, -leisurely, smiling. Then, quite suddenly, the hatch cover clanged -open, signalling the change of the shifts. MacVickers stood still for -a second. Then he laughed, a queer little chuckle, and made a rush for -the hatch.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>He went down it with Birek's hand brushing past his head. Men yelled -and cursed. He trampled on them ruthlessly. The ones lower down fell -off the ladder to avoid his feet.</p> - -<p>There was a clamor up above. Hands grabbed at him. He lashed out, -kicking and butting. His rush carried him through and out across the -pit, toward the space between the end points of the horseshoe circuit.</p> - -<p>He slowed down, then. The guards had noticed the scuffle. But it seemed -to be only the shift changing, and MacVickers looked like a man going -peacefully for oil.</p> - -<p>Peacefully. The blood thundered in his head, he was cold, and the skin -of his back crawled. Men shoved and swore back by the ladder. He went -on, not too fast, fighting the electric shiver in his brain.</p> - -<p>Fuel and lubricating oils were brought up, presumably from tanks in -a still lower level, by big pressure pumps. All three sets of pumps, -intake, outlet, and oil, worked off the same compressed-air unit.</p> - -<p>He set the lubricating-oil pump going and rattled cans into place. The -men of his shift were straggling out from the ladder, twitching from -the light current, scared, angry, but uncertain.</p> - -<p>There was a subtle change in the attitude of the Europan guards. -Their movements were sluggish, faintly uncertain. MacVickers grinned -viciously. Seasick. They'd be sicker—if they didn't get him too soon.</p> - -<p>The surging pitch of the bell was getting worse. The tide was rising, -and the mud was playing with the bell like a child throwing a ball. -Nausea began to clutch at MacVickers' stomach.</p> - -<p>The pressure-gage on the pump was rising. He let it rise, praying, his -grey-green eyes hot and bright. Going with the motion of the deck, he -sprawled over against the intake pumps.</p> - -<p>He spun the wheel on the pressure-control as far as it would go. A -light wrench, chained so that it could not be thrown, lay at his feet. -He picked it up, his hand jerking and tingling, and began to work at -the air-pipe coupling.</p> - -<p>Hands gripped his shoulder suddenly, slewing him around. The yellow -eyes of Janu the Martian glared into his.</p> - -<p>"What are you doing here, Earthman? This is my station."</p> - -<p>Then he saw the pressure gauge. He let out a keening wail, cut short -by the crunch of MacVickers' fist on his mouth. MacVickers whirled and -swung the wrench.</p> - -<p>The loose coupling gave. Air burst whistling from the pipe, and the -rhythm of the pumps began to break.</p> - -<p>But Janu's cry had done it. Men were pelting toward him, and the guards -were closing in overhead.</p> - -<p>MacVickers flung himself bodily on the short hose of the oil-pump.</p> - -<p>Birek, Loris, Pendleton, the dying Earthman, the hard faces behind -them. The guards were manning the shockers. Up in the control boxes -black tentacles were flashing across banks of switches. He had to work -fast, before they cut the pressure.</p> - -<p>Birek was ahead of the others, very close. MacVickers gave him the -oil-stream full in the face. It blinded him. Then the nearest shocker -came on, focussed expertly on MacVickers.</p> - -<p>He shut his teeth hard, whimpering through them, and turned the hard -forced stream of oil into the hoarsely shrieking blast from the open -pipe.</p> - -<p>Oil sprayed up in a heavy, blinding fog. Burning, shuddering agony -shook MacVickers, but he held his hose, his feet braced wide, praying -to stand up long enough.</p> - -<p>The catwalks were hidden in the oily mist. The ventilating blowers -caught it, thrusting it across the whole space. MacVickers yelled -through it, his voice hardly recognizable as human.</p> - -<p>"You, out there! All of you. This is your chance. Are you going to take -it?"</p> - -<p>Something fell, close by, with a heavy thrashing thud. Something black -and tentacled and writhing, covered with a dull film.</p> - -<p>MacVickers laughed, and the laughter was less human than the voice.</p> - -<p>"Cowards!" he cried. "All right. I'll do it all myself."</p> - -<p>Somebody yelled, "They're dying. Look!" There was another heavy thud. -The hot strangling fog roiled with hidden motion. MacVickers gasped and -retched and shuddered helplessly. He was going to drop the hose in a -minute. He was going to fall down and scream.</p> - -<p>If they stepped the power up one more notch, he was going to fall down -and die. Only they were dying too, and forgetting about power.</p> - -<p>It seemed a static eternity to MacVickers, but it had all happened in -the space of a dozen heartbeats. There were yells and shouts and a sort -of animal tumult in the thick haze. Suddenly Pendleton's voice rang out -of it.</p> - -<p>"MacVickers! I'm with you, man! You others, listen. He's giving us the -break we needed. Don't let him down!"</p> - -<p>And Janu screamed, "No! He's killed the guards, but there are more. -They'll fry us from the control boxes if we help him."</p> - -<p>The pressure was dropping in the pipe as the power cut out. There was a -last hiss, a spurt of oily spray, then silence. MacVickers dropped the -hose.</p> - -<p>Janu's voice went on, sharp and harsh with fear. "They'll fry us, I -tell you. We'll lie here and jerk and scream until we're crazy. I'm -going to die. I know it. But I won't go through that, for nothing! I'm -going back by the ladder and pray they won't notice me."</p> - -<p>More sounds, more tumult. Men suddenly torn between hope and abject -terror. MacVickers said wearily into the fog,</p> - -<p>"If you help me, we can win the war for our worlds. Destroy this bell, -start the Jovium working, destroy Io—victory for us. And if you don't, -I hope you fry here and in Hell afterward."</p> - -<p>They wavered. MacVickers could hear their painful breathing, ragged -with the emotion in them. Some of them started toward the sound of -Pendleton's voice.</p> - -<p>Janu made an eerie wauling sound, like a hurt cat, and went for him.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>MacVickers started to help, but the current froze him to the metal -floor. He strained, feeling his nerves, his brain dissolving in a -shuddering fire. He knew why the others had broken so soon. The current -did things to you, inside.</p> - -<p>He couldn't see what was happening. The heavy mist choked his eyes, his -throat, his nostrils. The pitching of the bell was a nightmare thing. -Men thrashed and struggled and cursed.</p> - -<p>So he had killed the guards. So what. There were still the control -boxes. If they didn't rush them before the oil settled, they wouldn't -have a chance.</p> - -<p>Why not give up? Let himself dissolve into the blackness he was -fighting off?</p> - -<p>A great pale shape came striding through the mist toward him. Birek. -This was it, then. Well, he'd had his moment of fun. His fists came up -in a bland, instinctive gesture.</p> - -<p>Birek laughed. The current made him jerk only a little, in his thin -diamond sheathe. He bunched his shoulders and reached out.</p> - -<p>MacVickers felt himself ripped clear of the floor. In a second he was -out of focus of the shocker and the pain was gone. He came nearest to -fainting then, but Birek's huge hand shook him by the hair and Birek's -voice shouted,</p> - -<p>"Tell 'em, little man! Tell 'em it's better to die quick, now, than go -mad with fear."</p> - -<p>"Come on!" yelled Pendleton. "Here's our chance to show we're still -men. Hurry up, you sons!"</p> - -<p>MacVickers looked at the Venusian's face. The terrible frozen fear -was gone from his eyes. He wanted to die, now, quickly, fighting for -vengeance.</p> - -<p>The gray, pinched face of Loris loomed abruptly out of the fog. It was -suddenly young again, and the smile was genuine. He said,</p> - -<p>"Let's teach 'em to mind, Birek. MacVickers, I...." He shook his head, -looking away. "You know."</p> - -<p>"I know. Hurry up with it."</p> - -<p>Pendleton's voice burst out of the fog, triumphantly. Janu crouched on -the heaving deck, bleeding and whimpering. MacVickers yelled,</p> - -<p>"Who's with me? We're going to take the control boxes. Who wants to be -a hero?"</p> - -<p>Birek laughed and threw him bodily up onto the catwalk overhead. Most -of the men came forward then. The three or four that were left looked -at the Martian and followed.</p> - -<p>Birek helped them up onto the catwalk. They were moving, now. It took -only a few seconds. MacVickers divided them into two groups.</p> - -<p>"You men that are sheathed go first, to help block the charge. It'll -be your job to take the Jovies out of the way. Quick, before this fog -settles enough so they can see to focus on us."</p> - -<p>They split up, running along the walk that connected with the control -boxes, hurdling the bodies of Jovians suffocated in oil. Presently the -glassite door loomed before them.</p> - -<p>Birek and the dying Earthman led MacVickers' party. The Venusian -wrenched open the door. And MacVickers felt his heart stop.</p> - -<p>There were three Europans instead of one. The guards had come down from -above.</p> - -<p>"Get them out here," he said. "Out into the oil."</p> - -<p>A wave of shuddering agony tossed through him. The Jovies were using -their powerful hand-tubes. Only the glassite walls partially protected -them.</p> - -<p>The fog began to whip past him. He groaned, thinking that it was going. -And then he put his head in his hands and wept with incredulous, -thankful joy.</p> - -<p>The oily mist was being sucked into the box by powerful ventilators. -MacVickers remembered Loris saying, "They get the pure air. Our -ventilator tubes are only a few inches wide."</p> - -<p>He laughed. The bell swooped sickeningly. Somewhere off in the fog he -heard screams and shouts and Pendleton's voice roaring triumph.</p> - -<p>He thought, "We never could have done it if the tide hadn't come and -made the Jovies seasick."</p> - -<p>He laughed again. It tickled him that seasickness should lose a war.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>They went in and up the ladders into the sealed storage space next the -convict quarters. There was a huge cylinder of lead suspended over the -mouth of the duct from the extractor.</p> - -<p>"They must collect the stuff when they bring oil and supplies," said -Loris. "Well, MacVickers, what happens to us now?"</p> - -<p>MacVickers looked at them, the lines deep in his face. "We all -agree, don't we, that there's no hope of escape? If we wait until -the next supply ship comes and try to take it, we lose the chance of -doing—well, call it our duty if you want to. That is, to wreck their -only source of the explosive that's winning the war for them.</p> - -<p>"I think you know," he added, "what our chances of taking that ship -would be, without offensive weapons or any protection against theirs. -It would only mean a return to this slavery, if they didn't kill us all -outright."</p> - -<p>His grey-green eyes were somber, deeply bright.</p> - -<p>"It comes down to this. Shall we turn this bell into a disintegrator -bomb, setting the Jovium free to destroy its own and every other -metallic atom in the mud, or shall we gamble our worlds on the slim -chance of saving our necks?"</p> - -<p>Loris looked down at the deck and said softly, "Why should we worry -about our necks, MacVickers? You've saved our souls."</p> - -<p>"Agreed, then, all you men?"</p> - -<p>Birek looked them over. "The man who refuses will have no neck to -save," he said.</p> - -<p>There was no disagreement.</p> - -<p>MacVickers turned to the leaden cylinder. It was fixed to the duct by a -plastic-lined, lead-sheathed collar. There was an arrangement whereby a -plug could be driven into the open mouth of the filled cylinder without -spilling a grain of the stuff.</p> - -<p>MacVickers reached up and loosed the apparatus that held the cylinder -upright. It fell over with a shattering crash. A palely glowing powder -puffed out, settling over the adjacent metal.</p> - -<p>MacVickers had one second of terror. An eerie bluish light grew, -throwing faces into strong relief. Pendleton, praying silently. Loris, -smiling. The blue-sheathed Earthman with closed eyes, his face a mask -of peace. The others, facing a death they understood and welcomed. All -of them, thinking of three little worlds that could go on living their -own lives.</p> - -<p>Birek grinned at him. "I'm glad you ran away," he whispered.</p> - -<p>MacVickers grinned back.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Outpost on Io, by Leigh Brackett - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTPOST ON IO *** - -***** This file should be named 62249-h.htm or 62249-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/2/4/62249/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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 print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Outpost on Io - -Author: Leigh Brackett - -Release Date: May 27, 2020 [EBook #62249] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTPOST ON IO *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - OUTPOST ON IO - - By LEIGH BRACKETT - - In a crystalline death lay the only - release for those prisoners of that - Ionian hell-outpost. Yet MacVickers - and the men had to escape--for to - remain meant the conquering of the - Solar System by the inhuman Europans. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Winter 1942. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -MacVickers stopped at the brink of the dark round shaft. - -It was cold, and he was stark naked except for the silver collar welded -around his neck. But it was more than cold that made him shiver and -clamp his long bony jaw. - -He didn't know what the shaft was for, or where it led. But he had a -sudden feeling that once he went down he was down for good. - -The small, round metal platform rocked uneasily under his feet. Beyond -the railing, as far as MacVickers could see to the short curve of Io's -horizon, there was mud. Thin, slimy blue-green mud. - -The shaft went down under the mud. MacVickers looked at it. He licked -dry lips, and his grey-green eyes, narrow and hot in his gaunt dark -face, flashed a desperate look at the small flyer from which he had -just been taken. - -It bobbed on the heaving mud, mocking him. The eight-foot Europan guard -standing between it and MacVickers made a slow weaving motion with his -tentacles. - -MacVickers studied the Europan with the hating eyes of a wolf in -a trap. His smooth black body had a dull sheen of red under the -Jupiter-light. There was no back nor front to him, no face. Only the -four long rubbery legs, the roundish body, and the tentacles in a -waving crown above. - -MacVickers bared white, uneven teeth. His big bony fists clenched. He -took one step toward the Europan. - -A tentacle flicked out, daintily, and touched the silver collar at the -Earthman's throat. Raw electric current, generated in the Europan's -body, struck into him, a shuddering, blinding agony surging down his -spine. - -He stumbled backward, and his foot went off into emptiness. He twisted -blindly, catching the opposite side of the shaft, and hung there, -groping with his foot for the ladder rungs, cursing in a harsh, -toneless voice. - -The tentacle struck out again, with swift, exquisite skill. Three times -like a red-hot lash across his face, and twice, harder, across his -hands. Then it touched the collar again. - -[Illustration: _The tentacle reached out again, with swift exquisite -skill. Raw agony filling his body, MacVickers retched and fell -backward._] - -MacVickers retched and let go. He fell jarringly down the ladder, -managed to break his fall onto the metal floor below, and crouched -there, sick and furious and afraid. - -The hatch cover clanged down over him like the falling hammer of doom. - - * * * * * - -MacVickers dropped into a circular room thirty feet across, floored and -walled with metal and badly lighted. The roof was of thick glassite -plates. Through them, very clearly, MacVickers could see four Europan -guards, watching. - -"They're always there," said the Venusian softly. "You'll come to love -them, stranger." - -There were men standing around the ladder foot, thirteen of them, with -the Venusian. Earthmen, Martians, Venusians, pale, stark naked, smeared -with a blue-green stain. Their muscles stood out sharp on their gaunt -bodies, their silver collars a mocking note of richness. - -Deep, deep, inside himself, MacVickers shivered. His nostrils wrinkled. -There was fear in the room. The smell of it, the shudder of it in the -air. Fear that was familiar and accustomed, lying in uneasy sleep, but -ready to awake. - -There were other men, four or five of them, back in the shadows by -the wall bunks. They didn't speak, nor come out. - -He took a deep breath and said steadily, "I'm Chris MacVickers. -Deep-space trader out of Terra. They caught me trying to get through -the Asteroid lines." - -Their eyes glistened at him, looking from him to something behind -them that he couldn't see. They were waiting, and there was something -ghoulish in it. - -The Venusian said sharply, "Tough luck, MacVickers. I'm Loris, late of -the Venusian Guard. Introduce yourselves, boys." - -They did, in jerky detached voices, their eyes sliding from him to the -hidden something. Loris drew a little closer, and one of the Earthmen -in the group came toward him. - -"I'm Pendleton," he said. "The _Starfish_. Remember?" - -MacVickers stared at him. The furrows deepened in his craggy face. He -said, "My God!" very softly, and not as a curse. "Pendleton!" - -The man grinned wryly. He was English, the ravaged ghost of the big, -ruddy, jovial spaceman MacVickers remembered. - -"Quite a change, eh? Well, perhaps we're lucky, MacVickers. We shan't -have to see the smash." - -MacVickers' head dropped forward. "Then you saw it coming, too?" - -Loris made a little bitter laugh that was almost a sob. All the -desperate boyish humor was gone from his face, leaving it old and grim. - -"Who hasn't? I've been here--God knows. An eternity. But even before my -ship was taken, we knew it. We can't build spaceships as fast as their -Jovium destroys them. When they break through the Asteroid line...." - -Pendleton's quiet voice was grave. "Mars is old and tired and torn -with famine. Venus is young, but her courage is undisciplined. Her -barbarians aren't suited to mechanized warfare. And Earth...." He -sighed. "Perhaps if we hadn't fought so much among ourselves...." - -MacVickers said harshly, "It wouldn't make much difference. When a man -has a weapon that causes metal to explode its own atoms, it doesn't -make any difference what you stack up against him." - -He shook his craggy head impatiently. "What is this place? What are you -doing here? The Jovies just brought me here and dumped me in without a -word of explanation." - -Pendleton shrugged. "We, too. There's a pit below, full of machinery. -We work it, but we're not told why. Of course, we do a lot of guessing." - -"Guessing!" The word rose sharp on the thick hot air. A man burst out -of the group and stood swaying with the restless motion of the floor. -He was a swart Low-Canal Martian. His yellow cat-eyes glittered in his -hatch-face, and his thin ropy muscles twitched. - -"I'll tell you what this place is, Earthman. It's a hell! And we're -caught in it. Trapped, for the rest of our lives." He turned on -Pendleton. "It's your fault. We were in a neutral port. We might have -been safe. But you had to get back...." - -"Janu!" Pendleton's voice cracked like a whip. The Martian went silent, -watching him. There was more than hate in his yellow eyes. _Dando_, -the beginning of the trap-madness. MacVickers had seen it in men who -couldn't stand the confinement of a deep-space voyage. - -The Englishman said quietly, "Janu was my glory-hole foreman. He rather -holds this against me." - -The Martian snarled, and then coughed. The cough became a paroxysm. He -stumbled away, grey-faced and twitching, bent almost double. - -"It's the heat," said Loris, "and the damp. Poor devil." - - * * * * * - -MacVickers thought of the air of Mars, cold and dry and pure. The floor -rocked under him. Eyes, with the queer waiting shine to them, slid -furtively to the hidden thing behind the standing men. - -The hot wet air lay on his lungs. He sweated. There was a stir of -nausea in him and the lights swirled. He shut his jaw hard. - -He said, "What did Janu mean, the rest of our natural lives? They'll -let us go when the war's over--if there's anything left to go to." - -There was a tight little silence. And then, from the shadows against -the wall, there came a brittle, whispering laugh. - -"The war? They let us go before that!" - -The group parted. MacVickers had a brief glimpse of a huge man crouched -in a strange position on the floor. Then he couldn't see anything but -the shape that came slowly out into the light. - -It moved with a stiff, tottering gait, and its naked feet made a dry -clicking sound on the metal floor. MacVickers' hand closed hard on the -ladder behind him. - -It had been a man, an Earthman. His body was still tall, his features -still fine. But there was a film over him, a pale blue-green sheathe -that glistened dully. - -He thrust out an arm, with a hand on it like a hand carved in -aquamarine. "Touch it," he whispered. - -MacVickers touched it. It was quite hard, and warm only with the heat -of the air. MacVickers' grey-green eyes met the sunken, sheathed eyes -of the Earthman. His body hurt with the effort to control it. - -"When we can no longer move," the whispering voice said, "they take -us up the shaft and throw us over, into the mud. That's why you're -here--because we were one man short." - -MacVickers put his hand back on the ladder rung. "How long?" - -"About three Earth months." - -He looked at the blue-green stain that smeared them all. The color of -the mud. His hands sweated on the ladder rung. "What is it?" - -"Something in the mud. A radioactivity, I think. It seems to turn the -carbon in human flesh to a crystalline form. You become a living jewel. -It's painless. But it's...." He didn't finish. - -Beads of sweat stood on MacVickers' forehead. The men standing watching -him smiled a little. There was motion behind them. Loris and Pendleton -stiffened, and their eyes met. - -MacVickers said steadily, "I don't understand. The mud's outside." - -Loris said, with a queer, hurried urgency, "You will. It's almost time -for the other shift...." - -He broke off. Men scattered suddenly, crouching back in a rough circle, -grinning with feral nervousness. The room was suddenly quiet. - -The crouching man had risen. He stood with his huge corded legs wide -apart, swaying with the swaying of the floor, his round head sunk -between ridges of muscle, studying the Earthman out of pale, flat eyes. - -Loris put his old, bitter boy's face close to MacVickers. His whisper -was almost inaudible. - -"Birek. He's boss here. He's mad. Don't fight him." - - - II - -MacVickers' grey-green eyes narrowed. He didn't move. Birek breathed in -slow, deep sighs. He was a Venusian, a coal-swamper from his size and -pallor and the filthy-white hair clubbed in his neck. - -He shimmered, very faintly in the dim light. The first jewel-crust was -forming across his skin. - -Knife-sharp and startling across the silence, a round hatch-cover in -the floor clashed open. Sweat broke cold on MacVickers. Men began to -come out of the hole, just at the edge of his vision. Naked, dirty men -with silver collars. - -They had been talking, cursing, jostling. The first ones saw Birek and -stopped, and the silence trickled back down the shaft. It was utterly -quiet again, except for the harsh straining of lungs against the hot, -wet air and the soft sounds of naked men climbing the ladder. - -The cords ridged on MacVickers' jaw. He shifted his balance slightly, -away from the ladder. He could see the faces thrust forward in the dim -light, eager, waiting. - -Shining eyes, shining teeth, cheek-bones shining with sweat. -Frightened, suffering men, watching another man fear and suffer, and -being glad about it. - -Birek moved forward, slowly. His eyes held a pale glitter, like distant -ice, and his lips smiled. - -"I prayed," he said softly. "I was answered. You, new man! Get down on -your belly." - -Loris grinned at Birek, but there was no humor in his eyes. He had -drawn a little away from MacVickers. He said carelessly: - -"There's no time for that now, Birek. It's our shift. They'll be -burning us if we don't go." - -Birek repeated, "Down on your belly," not looking at Loris. - -A vein began to throb on MacVickers' forehead. He looked slight, almost -small against the Venusian's huge bulk. - -He said quietly, "I'm not looking for trouble. - -"Then get down." - -"Sorry," said MacVickers. "Not today." - -Pendleton's voice cracked out sharply. "Let him alone, Birek! You men, -down the ladder! They're going for the shockers." - -MacVickers was aware of movement overhead, beyond the glass roof. Men -began to drop slowly, reluctantly, down the ladder. There was sweat on -Pendleton's forehead and Loris' face was as grey as his eyes. - -Birek said hoarsely, "Down! Grovel! Then you can go." - -"No." The ladder was beyond Birek. There was no way past him. - -Loris said, in a swift harsh whisper, "Get down, MacVickers. For God's -sake get down, and then come on!" - -MacVickers shook his head stubbornly. The giant smiled. There was -something horribly wrong about that smile. It was the smile of a man in -agony when he feels the anaesthetic taking hold. Peaceful, and happy. - -He struck out, startlingly fast for such a big man. MacVickers shrank -aside. The fist grazed past his head, tearing his ear. He crouched and -went in, trying for a fast body-blow and a sidestep. - -He'd forgotten the glimmering sheathe. His fist struck Birek on the -mark, and it was like striking glass that didn't shatter. The pain shot -up his arm, numbing, slowing, sickening. Blood spattered out from his -knuckles. - -Birek's right swept in, across the side of his head. - -MacVickers went down, on his right side. Birek put a foot in the small -of his back. "Down," he said. "Grovel." - -MacVickers twisted under the foot, snarling. He brought up his own -feet, viciously, with all his strength. The pain of impact made him -whimper, but Birek staggered back, thrown off balance. - -There was no sign of hurt in his face. He stood there, looking down at -MacVickers. Suddenly, shockingly, he was crying. He made no sound. He -didn't move. But the tears ran out of his eyes. - -A deep, slow shudder shook MacVickers. He said softly, "There's no -pain, is there?" - -Birek didn't speak. The tears glistened over the faint, hard film on -his cheeks. MacVickers got up slowly. The furrows were deep and harsh -in his face and his lips were white. - -Loris pulled at him. Somewhere Pendleton's voice was yelling, "Hurry! -Hurry, _please_!" - - * * * * * - -The guards were doing something overhead. There was a faint crackling -sound, a flicker of sparks in a circle around the top of the wall. -Shivering, tingling pain swept through MacVickers from the silver -collar at his throat. - -Men began to whisper and curse. Loris clawed at him, shoved him down -the ladder, kicked his face to make him hurry. The pain abated. - -MacVickers looked up. The great corded legs of Birek were coming down, -the soles of the feet making a faint, hard sound on the rungs. - -The hatch closed overhead. The voice of the dying Earthman came dry and -soft over his shoulder. - -"Here's where you'll work until you die. How do you like it?" - -MacVickers turned, scowling. It was hot. The room above was cool by -comparison. The air was thick and sluggish with the reek of heated oil -and metal. It was a big space, running clear to the curving wall, but -the effect was of stifling, cramped confinement. - -Machinery crammed the place, roaring and hissing and clattering, -running in a circuit from huge intake pumps through meaningless bulking -shapes to a forced-air outlet, with oil-pumps between them. - -The pumps brought mud into a broad sluice, and the blue-green stain of -it was everywhere. - -There were two glassite control boxes high on the walls, each with a -black, tentacled Europan. About five feet overhead was a system of -metal catwalks giving complete coverage of the floor area. There were -Europans on the walks, too, eight of them, patrolling steadily. - -Their sleek, featureless bodies were safe from contact with the mud. -They carried heavy plastic tubes in their tentacles, and there were -heavy-duty shockers mounted at every intersection. - -MacVickers grinned dourly. "Trustful lot." - -"Very." Pendleton nudged him over toward a drive motor attached to some -kind of a centrifugal separator. Loris and the blue-sheathed Earthman -followed, with Birek coming slowly behind him. - -MacVickers said, "What's all this for?" - -Pendleton shook his head. "We don't know. But we have an idea that -Jovium comes from the mud." - -"Jovium!" MacVickers' grey-green eyes began to grow hot. "The stuff -that's winning this war for them. The metal destroyer!" - -"We're not sure, of course." Pendleton's infinitely weary eyes turned -across the stretch of greasy metal deck to the end of the circuit. "But -look there. What does that suggest to you?" - -The huge pipe of the forced-air ejector ran along the deck there behind -a screen of heavy metal mesh. Just above it, enclosed behind three -thicknesses of glassite, was a duct leading upward. The duct, from the -inordinate size of its supports and its color, was pure lead. - -Lead. Lead pipe, lead armor. Radiations that changed living men into -half-living diamonds. Nobody knew what Jovium was or where it came -from--only it did. - -But scientists on the three besieged worlds thought it was probably an -isotope of some powerful radioactive metal, perhaps uranium, capable of -setting up a violent progressive breakdown in metallic atoms. - -"If," said MacVickers softly, "the pipe were lined with plastic.... -Blue mud! I've traded through these moons, and the only other deposit -of that mud is a saucepanful on J-XI! This must be their only source." - -Loris shoved an oil can at him. "What difference does it make?" he said -savagely. - -MacVickers took the can without seeing it. "They store it up there, -then, in the space between the inner wall and the outer. If somebody -could get up there and set the stuff off...." - -Pendleton's mouth twisted. "Can you see any way?" - -He looked. Guards and shockers, charged ladders and metal screens. No -weapons, no place to conceal them anyway. He said doggedly: - -"But if someone could escape and get word back.... This contraption -is a potential bomb big enough to blow Io out of space! The experts -think it only takes a fraction of a gram of the pure stuff to power a -disintegrator shell." - -There was a pulse beating hard under his jaw and his grey-green eyes -were bright. - -Loris said, "Escape." He said it as though it were the most infinitely -beautiful word in existence, and as though it burned his mouth. - -"Escape," whispered the man with the shimmering, deadly sheathe of -aquamarine. "There is no escape but--this." - - * * * * * - -MacVickers said, into the silence that followed, "I'm going to try. One -thing or the other, I'm going to try." - -Pendleton's incredibly tired eyes looked at the livid burns on -MacVickers' face. "It's been tried. And it's no use." - -Birek moved suddenly out of his queer, dazed stillness. He looked up -and made a hoarse sound in his throat. MacVickers caught a flicker -of motion overhead, but he didn't pay attention to it. He went on, -speaking quietly in a flat, level voice. - -"There's a war on. We're all in it. Soldiers, civilians, and kings, the -big fellows and the little ones. When I got my master's ticket, they -told me a man's duty wasn't done until his ship was cradled or he was -dead. - -"My ship's gone. But I haven't died, yet." - -Pendleton's broad, gaunt shoulders drooped. He turned his head away. -Loris' face was a death-mask carved from grey bone. He said, almost -inaudibly: - -"Shut up, damn you. Shut up." - -The movement was closer overhead, ominously close. The men scattered -across the pit had stopped working, watching MacVickers with -glistening, burning eyes across hot oil-filmed metal. - -MacVickers said harshly, "I know what's wrong with you. You were broken -before you came, thinking the smash was coming and it was no use." - -Pendleton whispered, "You don't know, the things they do to you." - -Stiff and dry out of the Earthman's aquamarine mask, came the words, -"You'll learn. There's no hope, MacVickers, and the men have all they -can bear without pain. - -"If you bring them more suffering, MacVickers, they'll kill you." - -Heat. Oil and reeking metal, and white stiff faces filmed with sweat. -Eyes shining, hot and glittering with fear. Rocking floor and sucking -pumps and a clutching nausea in his belly. Birek, standing straight and -still, watching him. Watching. Everybody, watching. - -MacVickers put his hand flat on the engine-housing beside him. "There's -more to it than duty," he said softly, and smiled, without humor, the -vertical lines deep in his cheeks. His gaunt Celtic head had a grim -beauty. - -His voice rang clear across the roar of the machines. "I'm Christopher -Rory MacVickers. I'm the most important thing in the universe. And if I -have to give my life, it'll not be without return on the value of it!" - -Janu the Martian, away on the other side of the pit, made a shrill -wailing cry. Loris and Pendleton flinched away like dogs afraid of the -whip, looking upward. - -MacVickers glimpsed a dark tentacled shape on the catwalk above, just -before the shattering electricity coursed through him. He screamed, -once. And then Birek moved. - -He struck Loris and Pendleton and the blue-sheathed Earthman out of the -way like children. His left leg took MacVickers behind the knees in the -same instant that his right hand pushed MacVickers' face. - -MacVickers fell heavily on his back, screaming at the contact of the -metal floor. Then Birek sprawled over him, shielding his body with the -bulk of his own. - -The awful shocking pain was lessened. Lying there, looking up into -Birek's pale eyes, MacVickers made his twitching lips say, "Why?" - -Birek smiled. "The current doesn't hurt much any more. And I want you -for myself--to break." - -MacVickers drew a deep, shuddering breath and smiled back, the lines -deep in his lean cheeks. - - * * * * * - -He had no clear memories of that shift. Heat and motion and strangling -air, and Janu coughing with a terrible, steady rhythm, his own hands -trying to guide the oil can. Toward the end of the time he fainted, and -it was Birek who carried him up the ladder. - -He had no way of knowing how long after that he came to. There was -no time in that little hell. The first thing he noticed, with the -hair-trigger senses of a man trained to ships, that the motion of the -room was different. - -He sat up straight on the bunk where Birek had laid him. "The tidal -wave," he said, over a quick stab of fear. "What...." - -"We ride it out," said Loris bitterly. "We always have." - -MacVickers knew the Jovian Moons pretty well. Remembering the -tremendous tides and winds caused by the gravitational pull of Jupiter, -he shuddered. There was no solid earth on Io, nothing but mud. And the -extraction plant, from the feel of it, was a hollow bell sunk under it, -perfectly free. - -It had to be free. No mooring cable made could stand the pull of a -Jupiter-tide. - -"One thing about it," said Pendleton with quiet viciousness. "It makes -the bloody Jovies seasick." - -Janu the Martian made a cracked, harsh laugh. "So they keep a weak -current on us all the time." His hatchet-face was drawn, his yellow -cat-eyes lambent in the dim light. - -The men sprawled on their bunks, not talking much. Birek sat on the -end of his, watching MacVickers with his pale still eyes. There was a -tightness in the room. - -It was coming. They were going to break him now, before he hurt them. -Break him, or kill him. - -MacVickers wiped the sweat from his face and said, "I'm thirsty." - -Pendleton pointed to a thing like a horse-trough against the bulkhead. -His eyes were tired and very sad. Loris was scowling at his stained and -faintly filmed feet. - -There wasn't much water in the trough. What there was was brackish and -greasy. MacVickers drank and splashed some on his face and body. He saw -that he was already stained with the mud. It wouldn't wash off. - -The dying Earthman whispered, "There is food also." - -MacVickers looked at the basket of spongy synthetic food, and shook his -head. - -The floor dipped and swung. There was a frightening, playful violence -about it, like the first soft taps of a tiger's paw. Loris looked up at -the glass roof with the black shapes beyond. - -"They get the pure air," he said. "Our ventilator pipes are only a few -inches wide, lest we crawl up through them." - -Pendleton said, rather loudly, "The swine breathe through the skin, you -know. All their sense organs, sight and hearing...." - -"Shut up," snarled Janu. "Stop talking for time." - -The sprawled men on the bunks drew themselves slowly tight, breathing -hard and deep in anticipation. And Birek rose. - -MacVickers faced them, Birek and the rest. There was no lift in his -heart. He was cold and sodden, like a chuted ox watching the pole-axe -fall. He said, with a bitter, savage quiet, - -"You're a lot of bloody cowards. You, Birek. You're scared of the death -creeping over you, and the only way you can forget the fear is to make -someone else suffer. - -"It's the same with all of you. You have to trample me down to your own -level, break me for the sake of your souls as much as your bodies." - -He looked at the numbers of them, at Birek's huge impervious bulk and -his great fists. He touched his silver collar, remembering the agony of -the shock through it. - -"And I will break. You know that, damn you." - -He gave back three paces and set his feet. "All right. Come on, Birek. -Let's get it over with." - - * * * * * - -The Venusian came toward him across the heaving floor. Loris still -looked at his feet and Pendleton's eyes were agonized. MacVickers wiped -his hands across his buttocks. The palms were filmed and slick with oil -from the can he had handled. - -There was no use to fight. Birek was twice his size, and he couldn't -be hurt anyway. The diamond-sheathe even screened off the worst of the -electric current, being a non-conductor. - -That gave the dying men an advantage. But even if they had spirit -enough left by that time to try anything, the hatches were still locked -tight by air-pressure and the sheer numbers of their suffering mates -would pull them down. Also, the Jovies were as strong as four men. - -Non-conductor. Sheathed skin. Birek's shoulders tensing for the first -blow. Sweat trying to break through the film of oil on his palms, the -slippery feel of his hands as he clenched them. - -Birek's fist lashed out. MacVickers dodged under it, looking for an -opening, dreading the useless agony of impact. The bell lurched wildly. - -A guard moved abruptly overhead. The motion caught MacVickers' eye. -Something screamed sharply in his head: Pendleton's voice saying, "They -breathe through the skin. All their sense organs...." - -He sensed rather than saw Birek's fist coming. He twisted, enough to -take the worst of it on his shoulder. It knocked him halfway across the -deck. And then the current came on. - -It was weak, but it made him jerk and twitch. He scrambled up on -the pitching deck and started to speak. Birek was coming again, -leisurely, smiling. Then, quite suddenly, the hatch cover clanged -open, signalling the change of the shifts. MacVickers stood still for -a second. Then he laughed, a queer little chuckle, and made a rush for -the hatch. - - - III - -He went down it with Birek's hand brushing past his head. Men yelled -and cursed. He trampled on them ruthlessly. The ones lower down fell -off the ladder to avoid his feet. - -There was a clamor up above. Hands grabbed at him. He lashed out, -kicking and butting. His rush carried him through and out across the -pit, toward the space between the end points of the horseshoe circuit. - -He slowed down, then. The guards had noticed the scuffle. But it seemed -to be only the shift changing, and MacVickers looked like a man going -peacefully for oil. - -Peacefully. The blood thundered in his head, he was cold, and the skin -of his back crawled. Men shoved and swore back by the ladder. He went -on, not too fast, fighting the electric shiver in his brain. - -Fuel and lubricating oils were brought up, presumably from tanks in -a still lower level, by big pressure pumps. All three sets of pumps, -intake, outlet, and oil, worked off the same compressed-air unit. - -He set the lubricating-oil pump going and rattled cans into place. The -men of his shift were straggling out from the ladder, twitching from -the light current, scared, angry, but uncertain. - -There was a subtle change in the attitude of the Europan guards. -Their movements were sluggish, faintly uncertain. MacVickers grinned -viciously. Seasick. They'd be sicker--if they didn't get him too soon. - -The surging pitch of the bell was getting worse. The tide was rising, -and the mud was playing with the bell like a child throwing a ball. -Nausea began to clutch at MacVickers' stomach. - -The pressure-gage on the pump was rising. He let it rise, praying, his -grey-green eyes hot and bright. Going with the motion of the deck, he -sprawled over against the intake pumps. - -He spun the wheel on the pressure-control as far as it would go. A -light wrench, chained so that it could not be thrown, lay at his feet. -He picked it up, his hand jerking and tingling, and began to work at -the air-pipe coupling. - -Hands gripped his shoulder suddenly, slewing him around. The yellow -eyes of Janu the Martian glared into his. - -"What are you doing here, Earthman? This is my station." - -Then he saw the pressure gauge. He let out a keening wail, cut short -by the crunch of MacVickers' fist on his mouth. MacVickers whirled and -swung the wrench. - -The loose coupling gave. Air burst whistling from the pipe, and the -rhythm of the pumps began to break. - -But Janu's cry had done it. Men were pelting toward him, and the guards -were closing in overhead. - -MacVickers flung himself bodily on the short hose of the oil-pump. - -Birek, Loris, Pendleton, the dying Earthman, the hard faces behind -them. The guards were manning the shockers. Up in the control boxes -black tentacles were flashing across banks of switches. He had to work -fast, before they cut the pressure. - -Birek was ahead of the others, very close. MacVickers gave him the -oil-stream full in the face. It blinded him. Then the nearest shocker -came on, focussed expertly on MacVickers. - -He shut his teeth hard, whimpering through them, and turned the hard -forced stream of oil into the hoarsely shrieking blast from the open -pipe. - -Oil sprayed up in a heavy, blinding fog. Burning, shuddering agony -shook MacVickers, but he held his hose, his feet braced wide, praying -to stand up long enough. - -The catwalks were hidden in the oily mist. The ventilating blowers -caught it, thrusting it across the whole space. MacVickers yelled -through it, his voice hardly recognizable as human. - -"You, out there! All of you. This is your chance. Are you going to take -it?" - -Something fell, close by, with a heavy thrashing thud. Something black -and tentacled and writhing, covered with a dull film. - -MacVickers laughed, and the laughter was less human than the voice. - -"Cowards!" he cried. "All right. I'll do it all myself." - -Somebody yelled, "They're dying. Look!" There was another heavy thud. -The hot strangling fog roiled with hidden motion. MacVickers gasped and -retched and shuddered helplessly. He was going to drop the hose in a -minute. He was going to fall down and scream. - -If they stepped the power up one more notch, he was going to fall down -and die. Only they were dying too, and forgetting about power. - -It seemed a static eternity to MacVickers, but it had all happened in -the space of a dozen heartbeats. There were yells and shouts and a sort -of animal tumult in the thick haze. Suddenly Pendleton's voice rang out -of it. - -"MacVickers! I'm with you, man! You others, listen. He's giving us the -break we needed. Don't let him down!" - -And Janu screamed, "No! He's killed the guards, but there are more. -They'll fry us from the control boxes if we help him." - -The pressure was dropping in the pipe as the power cut out. There was a -last hiss, a spurt of oily spray, then silence. MacVickers dropped the -hose. - -Janu's voice went on, sharp and harsh with fear. "They'll fry us, I -tell you. We'll lie here and jerk and scream until we're crazy. I'm -going to die. I know it. But I won't go through that, for nothing! I'm -going back by the ladder and pray they won't notice me." - -More sounds, more tumult. Men suddenly torn between hope and abject -terror. MacVickers said wearily into the fog, - -"If you help me, we can win the war for our worlds. Destroy this bell, -start the Jovium working, destroy Io--victory for us. And if you don't, -I hope you fry here and in Hell afterward." - -They wavered. MacVickers could hear their painful breathing, ragged -with the emotion in them. Some of them started toward the sound of -Pendleton's voice. - -Janu made an eerie wauling sound, like a hurt cat, and went for him. - - * * * * * - -MacVickers started to help, but the current froze him to the metal -floor. He strained, feeling his nerves, his brain dissolving in a -shuddering fire. He knew why the others had broken so soon. The current -did things to you, inside. - -He couldn't see what was happening. The heavy mist choked his eyes, his -throat, his nostrils. The pitching of the bell was a nightmare thing. -Men thrashed and struggled and cursed. - -So he had killed the guards. So what. There were still the control -boxes. If they didn't rush them before the oil settled, they wouldn't -have a chance. - -Why not give up? Let himself dissolve into the blackness he was -fighting off? - -A great pale shape came striding through the mist toward him. Birek. -This was it, then. Well, he'd had his moment of fun. His fists came up -in a bland, instinctive gesture. - -Birek laughed. The current made him jerk only a little, in his thin -diamond sheathe. He bunched his shoulders and reached out. - -MacVickers felt himself ripped clear of the floor. In a second he was -out of focus of the shocker and the pain was gone. He came nearest to -fainting then, but Birek's huge hand shook him by the hair and Birek's -voice shouted, - -"Tell 'em, little man! Tell 'em it's better to die quick, now, than go -mad with fear." - -"Come on!" yelled Pendleton. "Here's our chance to show we're still -men. Hurry up, you sons!" - -MacVickers looked at the Venusian's face. The terrible frozen fear -was gone from his eyes. He wanted to die, now, quickly, fighting for -vengeance. - -The gray, pinched face of Loris loomed abruptly out of the fog. It was -suddenly young again, and the smile was genuine. He said, - -"Let's teach 'em to mind, Birek. MacVickers, I...." He shook his head, -looking away. "You know." - -"I know. Hurry up with it." - -Pendleton's voice burst out of the fog, triumphantly. Janu crouched on -the heaving deck, bleeding and whimpering. MacVickers yelled, - -"Who's with me? We're going to take the control boxes. Who wants to be -a hero?" - -Birek laughed and threw him bodily up onto the catwalk overhead. Most -of the men came forward then. The three or four that were left looked -at the Martian and followed. - -Birek helped them up onto the catwalk. They were moving, now. It took -only a few seconds. MacVickers divided them into two groups. - -"You men that are sheathed go first, to help block the charge. It'll -be your job to take the Jovies out of the way. Quick, before this fog -settles enough so they can see to focus on us." - -They split up, running along the walk that connected with the control -boxes, hurdling the bodies of Jovians suffocated in oil. Presently the -glassite door loomed before them. - -Birek and the dying Earthman led MacVickers' party. The Venusian -wrenched open the door. And MacVickers felt his heart stop. - -There were three Europans instead of one. The guards had come down from -above. - -"Get them out here," he said. "Out into the oil." - -A wave of shuddering agony tossed through him. The Jovies were using -their powerful hand-tubes. Only the glassite walls partially protected -them. - -The fog began to whip past him. He groaned, thinking that it was going. -And then he put his head in his hands and wept with incredulous, -thankful joy. - -The oily mist was being sucked into the box by powerful ventilators. -MacVickers remembered Loris saying, "They get the pure air. Our -ventilator tubes are only a few inches wide." - -He laughed. The bell swooped sickeningly. Somewhere off in the fog he -heard screams and shouts and Pendleton's voice roaring triumph. - -He thought, "We never could have done it if the tide hadn't come and -made the Jovies seasick." - -He laughed again. It tickled him that seasickness should lose a war. - - - IV - -They went in and up the ladders into the sealed storage space next the -convict quarters. There was a huge cylinder of lead suspended over the -mouth of the duct from the extractor. - -"They must collect the stuff when they bring oil and supplies," said -Loris. "Well, MacVickers, what happens to us now?" - -MacVickers looked at them, the lines deep in his face. "We all -agree, don't we, that there's no hope of escape? If we wait until -the next supply ship comes and try to take it, we lose the chance of -doing--well, call it our duty if you want to. That is, to wreck their -only source of the explosive that's winning the war for them. - -"I think you know," he added, "what our chances of taking that ship -would be, without offensive weapons or any protection against theirs. -It would only mean a return to this slavery, if they didn't kill us all -outright." - -His grey-green eyes were somber, deeply bright. - -"It comes down to this. Shall we turn this bell into a disintegrator -bomb, setting the Jovium free to destroy its own and every other -metallic atom in the mud, or shall we gamble our worlds on the slim -chance of saving our necks?" - -Loris looked down at the deck and said softly, "Why should we worry -about our necks, MacVickers? You've saved our souls." - -"Agreed, then, all you men?" - -Birek looked them over. "The man who refuses will have no neck to -save," he said. - -There was no disagreement. - -MacVickers turned to the leaden cylinder. It was fixed to the duct by a -plastic-lined, lead-sheathed collar. There was an arrangement whereby a -plug could be driven into the open mouth of the filled cylinder without -spilling a grain of the stuff. - -MacVickers reached up and loosed the apparatus that held the cylinder -upright. It fell over with a shattering crash. A palely glowing powder -puffed out, settling over the adjacent metal. - -MacVickers had one second of terror. An eerie bluish light grew, -throwing faces into strong relief. Pendleton, praying silently. Loris, -smiling. The blue-sheathed Earthman with closed eyes, his face a mask -of peace. The others, facing a death they understood and welcomed. All -of them, thinking of three little worlds that could go on living their -own lives. - -Birek grinned at him. "I'm glad you ran away," he whispered. - -MacVickers grinned back. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Outpost on Io, by Leigh Brackett - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTPOST ON IO *** - -***** This file should be named 62249.txt or 62249.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/2/4/62249/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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 print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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