The Gate of Time

“Lieutenant Roger Two Hawks.” Two Hawks then introduced Kwasind. Raske barely nodded at him; he knew that Kwasind was one of the inferior races and a man who could not help him in any way. He also knew that Kwasind was there only because Two Hawks had argued that he be kept with him. When the Perkunishans had discovered that Kwasind was not O’Brien, they had intended to take him off to a labor battalion. They did not know that he was a Kinukkinuk and a deserter, otherwise they would have shot him within the hour. But Two Hawks had told Vyautas that Kwasind was a Hotinohsonih who had escaped with him from the asylum. He demanded that Kwasind be left in his care; he needed a servant. Vyautas had consented.

Raske told Kwasind to bring them some beer. He sat down on a huge sofa covered with wolf- skins, started to put his hand inside his jacket, then stopped. He smiled and said, “I still reach for a cigarette. Well, that’s one of the things I’ll have to learn to get along without. A small price to pay in a world which offers me—us—so much more than our native planet. I tell you, Lieutenant, we have it made. These people will give us anything for our knowledge. Anything!”

He was watching Two Hawks to observe the effect of his words. Two Hawks sat down on a chair facing the sofa and said, “You seem to have done well, considering the short time you’ve been here.”

Horst Raske laughed and said, “I’m not one to let the grass grow under my feet. I am a superb linguist; I’ve already mastered this barbarous language, at least enough for my purposes. Of course, I was lucky in being half-Lithuanian; Perkunishan is remarkably close to my mother’s tongue, you know. But you don’t think that coincidence is a sign of my lucky star?”

He took the glass of beer offered by Kwasind and raised it to Two Hawks. “A toast, my friend! To our success; Two Earthmen in a strange but not necessarily unhospitable world! Long may we live and thrive! Thrive as we never could back there!”

“I’ll drink to that,” Two Hawks said. “And let me congratulate you on your remarkable adaptability. Most men would be in a state of shock from which they would never entirely recover.”

“You seem to be doing all right,” Raske said.

“I’m tough. I eat whatever is placed before me. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be looking for tastier food.”

Raske laughed again. “I like you! You’re a man after my own heart. I was hoping you would be.”

“Why?” Two Hawks said.

“I’ll be frank with you. I’m not quite as self-sufficient as I seem. I am a little lonely, only a little, you must understand, but a little lonely for the companionship of somebody from my Earth.” He laughed and said, “I would have preferred a woman, of course, but I can’t always get what I want. Besides...” He raised his glass and winked at Two Hawks over it. “Besides, I have all the female company I want. The best, too. I have managed to gain the interest, more than interest, I might say, of the daughter of the Kassandras. She wields great influence.”

“You need me for more than companionship,” Two Hawks said. “What other reason is there for this red-carpet treatment?”

“I’m glad you’re not stupid. If you were, you wouldn’t be of much use to me. Yes, I need you. In fact, you owe your presence here to the fact that I arranged for you to get here. I have a friend who’s high in the espionage service; he told me about the two otherworlders who had been put in the insane asylum. I suggested the kidnapping and...”

“Were you also the one who suggested we be killed if we couldn’t be captured alive?”

Raske was taken by surprise, but he rallied swiftly. Smiling, he said, “Yes, I did. I couldn’t have you giving information to the Hotinohsonih that would put them on a technological level with the Perkunishans—my adopted people—could I? Wouldn’t you have done the same if you had been in my shoes?”

“Probably.”

“Of course, you would. But you weren’t killed. And you owe your escape from a terrible death in an Itskapintik labor camp to me. It was I who insisted that the Perkunishan government demand your release. Of course, the Kassandras was furious when he heard about how his niece had been violated. He was the one who insisted that the policemen be executed.”

“And what will happen to her now?” Two Hawks said.

“She’ll be offered citizenship. If she takes the oath, she’ll be treated well, very well, as befits the Kassandras’ niece. If she refuses, and she’s likely to do so, being a stubborn Britisher, she’ll be imprisoned. But she’ll be in a nice prison, probably have private rooms and servants in some castle.”

Two Hawks sipped at his beer and looked at the German. German? Raske had already forgotten about the war on his native world. He was interested only in what he could get for himself here and was delighted that he had something valuable to trade. His attitude, Two Hawks had to admit, was realistic. Why continue the war here? Deutschland and America and Russia might as well be on a planet in another galaxy. The oaths of allegiance he and Raske had taken were as nullified as if both had been killed over Ploesti.

This, of course, did not mean that he trusted Raske. The man was an opportunist. Once he found Two Hawks no longer useful, he would get rid of him. But that attitude could work two ways. Raske could be used by Two Hawks.

“I can be of great value to Perkunisha,” Raske said, “because I am an aeronautical engineer. I also know something of chemistry and electronics. But I do not know what your academic background is.”

Two Hawks said, “My field isn’t going to be of much help, I’m afraid. I have a Master’s in Indo- European Linguistics. But I did take a number of courses in mathematics and electronics because I knew that linguistics was eventually going to use these as tools in language analysis. I have a first- class radio operator’s license, and I know a lot about automobiles. I worked part-time as a mechanic to put myself through school.”

“That’s not so bad,” Raske said. “I need somebody qualified to be my assistant in developing our radio equipment and airplanes. I’ve been drawing up plans for a fighter plane; it’ll be equipped with radio and machineguns. However, it won’t be very advanced. It’ll be about the same as a late World War I plane. But it will sweep the skies, send every Blodland lyftship flaming to the ground, and it’ll be tremendously useful for observation and for strafing ground-troops.’

Two Hawks was not surprised that Perkunisha was not building a modern aircraft. After all, they were of materials that derived from an advanced technology. To make superior steel and aluminium (not even known here), to build the factories which could manufacture such metals and machine them, could be done. But it would take a very long time, and the Perkunishan government would not want such a delay. It desired something that could be used in the near future, not after the war was over.

So Raske would have offered them a craft which would seem obsolete and very inefficient to him, but would be daring, even futuristic, to this world.

Raske continued to talk. He was overburdened with work; he was getting very little sleep. His schedule interfered with his other activities, namely, entrenching himself socially and politically and wooing the daughter of the Kassandras. Fortunately, he needed little sleep and had managed to operate effectively. But he could use a man who would take over the burden of overseeing all the little details and making the daily scores of decisions. Yes, Two Hawks would be a great help.

He pointed at the two-headed wolf symbol of silver on his left breast. “I have a military title which is the equivalent of Colonel in the Luftwaffe. I can arrange to make you a Major as soon as we can get you a special citizenship. Normally, that would take weeks, but we’ll get it done by tomorrow. Then you become a full-fledged Perkunishan, by grace of the Kassandras. You couldn’t do any better. This country is destined to become the ruler of all Europe and probably of Africa and much of Asia, too.”