The Asutra

The day passed; then another and another. Durdane daily showed a different pattern of clouds; otherwise the scene was static. Etzwane assured the Alula that the very lack of event was a good omen, but Karazan retorted, "I ca

Etzwane tried to explain Ifness' peculiar and perverse personality, but Karazan only made an impatient gesture. "He is a man, and nothing is certain."

At this moment a cry came from the lookouts, who stood night and day in the observation dome. "A spacecraft moves through the sky! "

Etzwane jumped up, heart in his mouth. The time was too early, far too early, to expect Ifness. He peered through the dome to where the lookout pointed… High above, a bronze disk-ship slid lazily across the sky, the suns' light reflecting from its skin.

It is an asutra ship," said Etzwane. Karazan said, somewhat heavily, "We have only one option, and that is to fight. Surprise is once again our ally, for they ca

Etzwane glanced at the console. Lights blinked and flickered, signifying what, he did not know. If the disk-ship were attempting to communicate and raised no response, it would approach with caution. Surprise was not so great an ally as Karazan had hoped.

The disk curved north, sank at a slant, and halted, to hang quietly a mile away. Then it flickered suddenly green and disappeared. The sky was empty.

From a dozen throats came the hiss of released breath. "Now why is that?'' Karazan demanded of the company in general. "I am not the man for this sort of business; I detest puzzlement."

Etzwane shook his head. "I can only say that I prefer the ship's absence to its company."

It realizes our presence and plans to catch us napping," Karazan grumbled. "We will be ready."

For the rest of the day all hands crowded the observation dome, save those sent forth to patrol the ship. The bronze disk did not reappear, and presently the group relaxed and conditions were as before.

Four days dragged past. The Alula lapsed into surly taciturnity and the patrols began to lack crispness.

Etzwane complained to Karazan, who gave back an inarticulate mutter. -,

"If discipline deteriorates, we're in trouble," Etzwane observed. "We must maintain morale. After all, everybody understood the circumstances before they left Durdane."

Karazan made no reply, but a short time later he called his men together and issued a set of instructions. "We are Alula," he said. "We are famed for our fortitude. We must demonstrate this quality now. After all, we are suffering nothing more serious than boredom and cramped quarters. The situation might be worse."

The Alula listened in somber silence and subsequently went about their routines with greater alertness.

Late in the afternoon an event occurred which drastically altered the situation. Etzwane, looking east over the great mulberry-gray expanse, noticed a black sphere hanging motionless in the sky, at a distance impossible to estimate. Etzwane watched for ten minutes while the black globe hung motionless. On sudden thought he looked down to the control panel, to notice lights blinking and altering color. Karazan entered the compartment; Etzwane pointed out the black globe. Karazan asked in a wistful voice, "Could it be the Earth ship, to carry us down to the soil?"

"Not yet. Ifness said two weeks at the earliest; the time is too soon."

"Then what ship floats yonder? Another asutra ship?"

"I told you of the battle at Thrie Orgai," said Etzwane. "I would suppose this to be a ship of the asutra's enemies, the people of mystery."

"As the ship is approaching," Karazan noted, "the mystery is about to be elucidated."

The black ship curved down at a slant, passing a mile south of the depot; it slowed and drifted to a halt. At precisely the point where it had disappeared, the bronze-copper disk-ship materialized with venomous stealth. For an instant it lay quiescent, then spurted forth a pair of projectiles. The black globe, as if by nervous reflex, discharged countermissiles; midway, between the ships a soundless dazzle blotted out the sky. Etzwane and Karazan would have been blinded except for the stuff of the dome which resisted the surge of light.

The bronze disk had focused four jets of energy on the black globe; which glowed red and burned open: apparently its protective system had failed. In retaliation it projected a gush of purple flame, which for an instant flared over the disk-ship like the blast of a torch; then the flame flickered and died. The black globe rolled over like a dead fish. The disk fired another projectile; it struck into the hole burnt by the converging beams. The globe exploded and Etzwane received an instantaneous image of black fragments flying away from a core of lambent material; among the stuff he thought to glimpse hurtling corpses, grotesquely sprawled and rotating. Fragments struck the depot ship, clanging, jarring, sending vibrations through the hull.

The sky was again clear and open. Of the black globe, not an element remained; the bronze disk had disappeared.

Etzwane said in a hollow voice, "The disk-ship lies in ambush. The depot is bait. The asutra know we are here; they believe us to be their enemies and they wait for our ships to arrive."

Etzwane and Karazan searched the sky with a new anxiety. The simple rescue of four girls from Hozman Sore-throat had expanded into a situation far past all their imaginings. Etzwane had not bargained for participation in a space war; Karazan and the Alula had not comprehended the psychological pressures which would be put upon them.

The sky remained clear of traffic; the suns sank at the back of a million magenta cloud-feathers. Night was instant; dusk showed only as a sad, subtle bloom upon the face of Durdane.

During the night the patrols were relaxed, to Etzwane's displeasure. He complained to Karazan, pointing out that conditions remained as before, but Karazan reacted with an irritable sweep of his great arm, consigning Etzwane and his peevish little fears to oblivion. Karazan and the Alula had become demoralized, Etzwane angrily told himself, to such an extent that they would have welcomed attack, captivity, slavery, anything which might have provided them with a palpable antagonist. Pointless to harangue them, Etzwane brooded; they no longer listened.

Night passed, and the day and other nights and days. The Alula sat huddled in the observation dome; they stared out at the sky, seeing nothing. The time had arrived when Ifness might be expected; but no one any longer believed in Ifness nor the Earth ship; the only reality was the sky cage and the empty panorama.

Etzwane had considered a dozen systems for warning Ifness, should he indeed arrive, arid had rejected them all, or, more properly, none was in any degree workable. Presently Etzwane himself lost count of the days. The presence of the other men had long since grown odious, but apathy was a stronger force than hostility, and the men suffered each other in a silent community of mutual detestation.

Then the quality of the waiting changed, and became a sense of imminence. The men muttered uneasily and watched from the observation dome, the whites of their eyes showing. Everyone knew that something was about to occur, and soon, and this was the case. The bronze disk-ship reappeared.

The men aboard the depot gave soft guttural groans of despair; Etzwane made a last wild inspection of the sky, willing the Earth ships into existence. Where was Ifness?

The sky was vacant except for the bronze disk-ship. It eased in a circle around the depot, then halted and slowly approached. It loomed enormous, blotting out the sky. The hulls touched; the depot jerked and quivered. From the location of the entry port came a throbbing sound. Karazan looked at Etzwane. "They are coming aboard. You have your energy weapon; will you fight?"