The Five Gold Bands

There was their boat-the familiar little hull which had traversed so much emptiness, the observation dome through which they had seen so many stars.

"Inside," said Paddy. "Quick! Oh, there's a trap somewhere. I can smell it. They're trailing us to our boat and they've shorted out our drive." He ran to the controls, jerked the lift lever. "See? It's dead. No power."

"Of course not," said Fay. The port is still open."

She slammed it shut. Paddy threw power to the jets, the boat lofted into the bright sky of Loristan.

"It can't be this easy," said Paddy, wiping sweat from his forehead. There must be some catch, some trick."

"It can't be this easy." Fay agreed, watching from the side window. "But it is. No one is after us. No one even knows we've been here."

Paddy sank into a seat. "Phew!" he sighed. "It would be less strain on my poor tired nerves if we had a little trouble. Then I'd feel we had earned our loot."

Fay laughed, tossed the package to the desk, began to tear it open.

It was much like the other two. The first paragraph, like the one on the Pherasic sheet, dictated the spacing of the activation coils. The second paragraph detailed the time-sequences for each of the five banks of coils. Then, as on the other sheets, there were two columns of three numbers apiece.

"We're off to Delta Trianguli and Angry Dragon Peak," said Fay. "And then to Almach and we'll see how the Shauls treat us."

IX

Almach lay to the right and below. Ahead hung the lurid face of Shaul. Paddy turned away from the telescope, spat in disgust.

"The first Langtry Son was a maniac when he picked this planet. It's like the hell old Father O'Toole predicted for me. I believe I'd rather raise my cottage in the shadow of the Angry Dragon."

"Shaul's very beautiful," Fay said mildly, "in a frightening sort of way."

"It's a yelling Satan's kitchen of a planet. Now see there- those orange spots. Are they volcanic craters or are they not?"

"They are."

"And those lava flows and steaming cinder heaps and the dust storms. How can men live on a planet like this?"

"They grow flaps of skin to protect their necks and to shield their faces," said Fay. "They develop a tolerance for acid in the air and don't feel easy unless they're mining the marvelous ores and jewels of Shaul."

"I've no flap of skin," growled Paddy. "I don't like acid and I don't like tu

Fay said, " 'Corescens. The back wall. Irradiate with angstroms 685, 1444, 2590, 3001. Photograph!' "

Paddy looked up marvelling. "And you remembered all those numbers?"

She twisted her lips in a bashful crooked grin. "I've got a good memory. And we're trained to use it in the Agency. It's easy to memorize numbers, once you know how."

Paddy made a long face. "And now you'll be telling me how you do it. Six eight five-add six and eight. That's fourteen; the one and four make five, and that's the third number. Also the one and four in one four four four. As for the two last fours, they make eight, and since there's two of 'em, double it and that's sixteen. One from six is five, and there's your one four four four. Now as for two five nine aught-"

Fay said, "When you've done talking like an idiot, look up Corescens in the almanac."

Paddy thumbed through the Langtry Directory. "There's no Corescens listed."

"None?" asked Fay in a hurt voice.

"None. But we'll find it. And we'll need a camera and a means to deliver radiation at those frequencies."

"There's a good camera in that forward gear locker. Case Five, I think. We'll need respirators but we can get those at the space terminal and I suppose we can have a projector built for us at Aevelye."

"Correct. And now it's the hour's end. Let's hear the news."

Fay turned on the space-wave. A Shaul voice spoke from the mesh. "An official release from the capitol has confirmed the rumors circulating the system for several weeks.

"Kolcheyou, Shaul Son of Langtry, together with the Sons from Alpheratz A, Badau, Loristan and Koto, was killed by an Earther pirate at the yearly council.

"The Earther, a convict by the name of Patrick Blackthorn, escaped and is the quarry of the most intensive manhunt in history. Reward for his capture reached unprecedented heights. There are hints that Blackthorn escaped with valuable space-drive information.

"The new Shaul Son of Langtry, Cheyonkiv Dessa, has a

"Blackthorn has been reported in hundreds of localities and each report is being carefully checked by local police. His last authoritatively known position was at Spade-Ace, Thieves' Cluster, in the company of a young Earther woman, name unknown. However there are other clues which the authorities will not publicize."

Paddy slumped back in the seat. "Hah! We're wanted, we're wanted bad!"

Fay said, "There's all space to hide in, a lot of little planets, a lot of big ones. For all anyone knows we might have taken off on a line and be clear out of the cluster by now."

Paddy grimaced. "I keep seeing a picture of us hanging by our heels from a post or kicking inside a nerve-suit." He wiped his forehead, ran his hand through his blond bristles. "It gives a man the value of his existence, this life of the hare and the hound. And never a priest to help you into the blessed life to come."

"Pish," said Fay. "Confess to me if you want to."

"Very well and why not? It's the intent that swashes a man's soul free of guilt. Now then, sister," and Paddy studied the bulkhead, "there was a sin which occurred on the planet Maeve but it's to be supposed I was sorely tempted.

"Ah, there's a green garden there at Meran-a terrace where men sit under plane trees and drink the soft mouth-filling beer of the place. Then those soft-eyed girls come swinging by with their shoulders and their long brown legs bare.

"They wear pearls in their navels and emeralds in their ears and when they look those long slow looks there's honey in a river between you and all the will for a decent Christian life flits away like gulls down the Bloody Foreland. Now then-"

Fay's face twisted in rage and disgust. "A confession? Pah! You're boasting!" She marched across the cabin. "The Shauls are right. Earther savages think of nothing but their glands."

"Now, now, my dear-"

"I'm not your dear! I'm an Earth Agent, worse luck, and if this weren't the most important thing in my life I'd turn around and head for Earth and put you as far out of my sight and mind as I possibly could!"

"Now, now, now. You don't know how lovely you look with your little face all pink with rage."

Fay laughed bitterly. "Rage? Not on your life!" She strode to the galley and poured herself a bowl of soup, which she ate with crackers in moody silence.

Still turned away from Paddy she said, "We'll be landing in an hour or two."

Paddy interpreted the statement as an invitation to join her. Sitting down he chewed reflectively on one of her crackers.

"It's a sad responsibility for a pair of fallible humans… Now had we old Father O'Toole with us he'd go forth, take the data, hide all in his cassock, come back to the ship and none would dare to interfere."

"Father O'Toole is far away," Fay pointed out acidly. "We must cope with this problem ourselves. Though I wish he were here and you were back in Skibbereen… We've got a problem which you insist on ignoring. Shaul won't be like Loristan. They've got the brains of the system, the Shauls, and they're oversuspicious."