<h2>14</h2>
<p>Travis' back was braced against blanketed packs as he steadied a piece
of light-yellow bark against one bent knee scowling at the lines drawn
on it in faint green.</p>
<p>"We are here then ... and the ship there—" His thumb was set on one
point of the crude map, forefinger on the other. Buck nodded.</p>
<p>"That is so. Tsoay, Eskelta, Kawaykle, they watch the trails. There is
the pass, two other ways men can come on foot. But who can watch the
air?"</p>
<p>"The Tatars say the Reds dare not bring the 'copter into the mountains.
After they first landed they lost a flyer in a tricky air-current flow
up there. They have only one left and won't risk it. If only they aren't
reinforced before we can move!" There it was again, that constant
gnawing fear of time, time shortening into a rope to strangle them all.</p>
<p>"You think that the knowledge of our ship will bring them into the
open?"</p>
<p>"That—or information about the towers would be the only things
important enough to pull out their experts. They could send a controlled
Tatar party to explore<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></SPAN></span> the ship, sure. But that wouldn't give them the
technical reports they need. No, I think if they knew a wrecked Western
Confederation ship was here, it would bring them—or enough of them to
lessen the odds. We have to catch them in the open. Otherwise, they can
hole up forever in that ship-fort of theirs."</p>
<p>"And just how do we let them know our ship is here? Send out another
scouting party and let them be trailed back?"</p>
<p>"That's our last resource." Travis continued to frown at the map. Yes,
it would be possible to let the Reds sight and trail an Apache party.
But there was none in the clan who were expendable. Surely there was
some other way of laying the trap with the wrecked ship for bait.
Capture one of the Reds, let him escape again, having seen what they
wanted him to see? Again a time-wasting business. And how long would
they have to wait and what risks would they take to pick up a Red
prisoner?</p>
<p>"If the Tatars were dependable...." Buck was thinking aloud.</p>
<p>But that "if" was far too big. They could not trust the Tatars. No
matter how much the Mongols wanted to aid in pulling down the Reds, as
long as they could be controlled by the caller they were useless. Or
were they?</p>
<p>"Thought of something?" Buck must have caught Travis' change of
expression.</p>
<p>"Suppose a Tatar saw our ship and then was picked up by a Red hunting
patrol and they got the information out of him?"</p>
<p>"Do you think any outlaw would volunteer to let him<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></SPAN></span>self be picked up
again? And if he did, wouldn't the Reds also be able to learn that he
had been set up for the trap?"</p>
<p>"An escaped prisoner?" Travis suggested.</p>
<p>Now Buck was plainly considering the possibilities of such a scheme. And
Travis' own spirits rose a little. The idea was full of holes, but it
could be worked out. Suppose they capture, say, Menlik, bring him here
as a prisoner, let him think they were about to kill him because of that
attack back in the foothills. Then let him escape, pursue him northward
to a point where he could be driven into the hands of the Reds? Very
chancy, but it just might work. Travis was favoring a gamble now, since
his desperate one with the duel had paid off.</p>
<p>The risk he had accepted then had cost him two deep wounds, one of which
might have been serious if Jil-Lee's project-sponsored medical training
had not been to hand. But it had also made Travis one of the clan again,
with his people willing to listen to his warning concerning the tower
treasury.</p>
<p>"The girl—the Tatar girl!"</p>
<p>At first Travis did not understand Buck's ejaculation.</p>
<p>"We get the girl," the other elaborated, "let her escape, then hunt her
to where they'll pick her up. Might even imprison her in the ship to
begin with."</p>
<p>Kaydessa? Though something within him rebelled at that selection for the
leading role in their drama, Travis could see the advantage of Buck's
choice. Woman-stealing was an ancient pastime among primitive cultures.
The Tatars themselves had found wives that way in the past, just as the
Apache raiders of old had taken captive women into their wickiups. Yes,
for raiders to<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></SPAN></span> steal a woman would be a natural act, accepted as such
by the Reds. For the same woman to endeavor to escape and be hunted by
her captors also was reasonable. And for such a woman, cut off from her
outlaw kin, to eventually head back toward the Red settlement as the
only hope of evading her enemies—logical all the way!</p>
<p>"She would have to be well frightened," Travis observed with reluctance.</p>
<p>"That can be done for us—"</p>
<p>Travis glanced at Buck with sharp annoyance. He would not allow certain
games out of their common past to be played with Kaydessa. But Buck had
something very different from old-time brutality in mind.</p>
<p>"Three days ago, while you were still flat on your back, Deklay and I
went back to the ship—"</p>
<p>"Deklay?"</p>
<p>"You beat him openly, so he must restore his honor in his own sight. And
the council has forbidden another duel or challenge," Buck replied.
"Therefore he will continue to push for recognition in another way. And
now that he has heard your story and knows we must face the Reds, not
run from them, he is eager to take the war trail—too eager. So we
returned to the ship to make another search for weapons——"</p>
<p>"There were none there before except those we had...."</p>
<p>"Nor now either. But we discovered something else." Buck paused and
Travis was shaken out of his absorption with the problem at hand by a
note in the other's voice. It was as if Buck had come upon something he
could not summon the right words to describe.</p>
<p>"First," Buck continued, "there was this dead thing<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></SPAN></span> there, near where
we found Dr. Ruthven. It was something like a man ... but all silvery
hair——"</p>
<p>"The ape-things! The ape-things from the other worlds! What else did you
see?" Travis had dropped the map. His side gave him a painful twinge as
he caught at Buck's sleeve. The bald space rovers—did they still exist
here somewhere? Had they come to explore the ship built on the pattern
of their own but manned by Terrans?</p>
<p>"Nothing except tracks, a lot of them, in every open cabin and hole. I
think there must have been a sizable pack of the things."</p>
<p>"What killed the dead one?"</p>
<p>Buck wet his lips. "I think—fear...." His voice dropped a little,
almost apologetically, and Travis stared.</p>
<p>"The ship is changed. Inside, there is something wrong. When you walk
the corridors your skin crawls, you think there is something behind you.
You hear things, see things from the corners of your eyes.... When you
turn, there's nothing, nothing at all! And the higher you climb into the
ship, the worse it is. I tell you, Travis, never have I felt anything
like it before!"</p>
<p>"It was a ship of many dead," Travis reminded him. Had the age-old
Apache fear of the dead been activated by the Redax into an acute
phobia—to strike down such a level-headed man as Buck?</p>
<p>"No, at first that, too, was my thought. Then I discovered that it was
worst not near that chamber where we lay our dead, but higher, in the
Redax cabin. I think perhaps the machine is still running, but running
in a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></SPAN></span> wrong way—so that it does not awaken old memories of our
ancestors now, but brings into being all the fears which have ever
haunted us through the dark of the ages. I tell you, Travis, when I came
out of that place Deklay was leading me by the hand as if I were a
child. And he was shivering as a man who will never be warm again. There
is an evil there beyond our understanding. I think that this Tatar girl,
were she only to stay there a very short time, would be well
frightened—so frightened that any trained scientist examining her later
would know there was a mystery to be explored."</p>
<p>"The ape-things—could they have tried to run the Redax?" Travis
wondered. To associate machines with the creatures was outwardly pure
folly. But they had been discovered on two of the planets of the old
civilization, and Ashe had thought that they might represent the
degenerate remnants of a once intelligent species.</p>
<p>"That is possible. If so, they raised a storm which drove them out and
killed one of them. The ship is a haunted place now."</p>
<p>"But for us to use the girl...." Travis had seen the logic in Buck's
first suggestion, but now he differed. If the atmosphere of the ship was
as terrifying as Buck said, to imprison Kaydessa there, even
temporarily, was still wrong.</p>
<p>"She need not remain long. Suppose we should do this: We shall enter
with her and then allow the disturbance we would feel to overcome us. We
could run, leave her alone. When she left the ship, we could then take
up the chase, shepherding her back to the country she knows. Within the
ship we would be with her and could see she did not remain too long."<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>Travis could see a good prospect in that plan. There was one thing he
would insist on—if Kaydessa was to be in that ship, he himself would be
one of the "captors." He said as much, and Buck accepted his
determination as final.</p>
<p>They dispatched a scouting party to infiltrate the territory to the
north, to watch and wait their chance of capture. Travis strove to
regain his feet, to be ready to move when the moment came.</p>
<p>Five days later he was able to reach the ridge beyond which lay the
wrecked ship. With him were Jil-Lee, Lupe, and Manulito. They satisfied
themselves that the globe had had no visitors since Buck and Deklay;
there was no sign that the ape-things had returned.</p>
<p>"From here," Travis said, "the ship doesn't look too bad, almost as if
it might be able to take off again."</p>
<p>"It might lift," Jil-Lee gestured to the mountaintop behind the curve of
the globe—"about that far. The tubes on this side are intact."</p>
<p>"What would happen were the Reds to get inside and try to fly again?"
Manulito wondered aloud.</p>
<p>Travis was struck by a sudden idea, one perhaps just as wild as the
other inspirations he had had since landing on Topaz, but one to be
studied and explored—not dismissed without consideration. Suppose
enough power remained to lift the ship partially and then blow it up?
With the Red technicians on board at the time.... But he was no
engineer, he had no idea whether any part of the globe might or might
not work again.</p>
<p>"They are not fools; a close look would tell them it is a wreck,"
Jil-Lee countered.</p>
<p>Travis walked on. Not too far ahead a yellow-brown<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></SPAN></span> shape moved out of
the brush, stood stiff-legged in his path, facing the ship and growling
in a harsh rumble of sound. Whatever moved or operated in that wreck was
picked up by the acute sense of the coyote, even at this distance.</p>
<p>"On!" Travis edged around the snarling animal. With one halting step and
then another, it followed him. There was a sharp warning yelp from the
brush, and a second coyote head appeared. Naginlta followed Travis, but
Nalik'ideyu refused to approach the grounded globe.</p>
<p>Travis surveyed the ship closely, trying to remember the layout of its
interior. To turn the whole sphere into a trap—was it possible? How had
Ashe said the Redax worked? Something about high-frequency waves
stimulating certain brain and nerve centers.</p>
<p>What if one were shielded from those rays? That tear in the side—he
himself must have climbed through that the night they crashed. And the
break was not too far from the space lock. Near the lock was a storage
compartment. And if it had not been jammed, or its contents crushed,
they might have something. He beckoned to Jil-Lee.</p>
<p>"Give me a hand—up there."</p>
<p>"Why?"</p>
<p>"I want to see if the space suits are intact."</p>
<p>Jil-Lee regarded Travis with open bewilderment, but Manulito pushed
forward. "We do not need those suits to walk here, Travis. This air we
can breathe—"</p>
<p>"Not for the air, and not in the open." Travis advanced at a deliberate
pace. "Those suits may be insulated in more ways than one——"</p>
<p>"Against a mixed-up Redax broadcast, you mean!"<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></SPAN></span> Jil-Lee exclaimed.
"Yes, but you stay here, younger brother. This is a risky climb, and you
are not yet strong."</p>
<p>Travis was forced to accede to that, waiting as Manulito and Lupe
climbed up to the tear and entered. At least Buck and Deklay's
experience had forewarned them and they would be prepared for the weird
ghosts haunting the interior.</p>
<p>But when they returned, pulling between them the limp space suit, both
men were pale, the shiny sheen of sweat on their foreheads, their hands
shaking. Lupe sat down on the ground before Travis.</p>
<p>"Evil spirits," he said, giving to this modern phenomenon the old name.
"Truly ghosts and witches walk in there."</p>
<p>Manulito had spread the suit on the ground and was examining it with a
care which spoke of familiarity.</p>
<p>"This is unharmed," he reported. "Ready to wear."</p>
<p>The suits were all tailored for size, Travis knew. And this fitted a
slender, medium-sized man. It would fit him, Travis Fox. But Manulito
was already unbuckling the fastenings with practiced ease.</p>
<p>"I shall try it out," he announced. And Travis, seeing the awkward climb
to the entrance of the ship, had to agree that the first test should be
carried out by someone more agile at the moment.</p>
<p>Sealed into the suit, with the bubble helmet locked in place, the Apache
climbed back into the globe. The only form of communication with him was
the rope he had tied about him, and if he went above the first level, he
would have to leave that behind.</p>
<p>In the first few moments they saw no twitch of alarm<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></SPAN></span> running along the
rope. After counting fifty slowly, Travis gave it a tentative jerk, to
find it firmly fastened within. So Manulito had tied it there and was
climbing to the control cabin.</p>
<p>They continued to wait with what patience they could muster. Naginlta,
pacing up and down a good distance from the ship, whined at intervals,
the warning echoed each time by his mate upslope.</p>
<p>"I don't like it—" Travis broke off when the helmeted figure appeared
again at the break. Moving slowly in his cumbersome clothing, Manulito
reached the ground, fumbled with the catch of his head covering and then
stood, taking deep, lung-filling gulps of air.</p>
<p>"Well?" Travis demanded.</p>
<p>"I see no ghosts," Manulito said, grinning. "This is ghost-proof!" He
slapped his gloved hand against the covering over his chest. "There is
also this—from what I know of these ships—some of the relays still
work. I think this could be made into a trap. We could entice the Reds
in and then...." His hand moved in a quick upward flip.</p>
<p>"But we don't know anything about the engines," Travis replied.</p>
<p>"No? Listen—you, Fox, are not the only one to remember useful
knowledge." Manulito had lost his cheerful grin. "Do you think we are
just the savages those big brains back at the project wished us to be?
They have played a trick on us with their Redax. So, we can play a few
tricks, too. Me—? I went to M.I.T., or is that one of the things you no
longer remember, Fox?"</p>
<p>Travis swallowed hastily. He really had forgotten that fact until this
very minute. From the beginning, the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></SPAN></span> Apache team had been carefully
selected and screened, not only for survival potential, which was their
basic value to the project, but also for certain individual skills. Just
as Travis' grounding in archaeology had been one advantage, so had
Manulito's technical training made a valuable, though different,
contribution. If at first the Redax, used without warning, had smothered
that training, perhaps the effects were now fading.</p>
<p>"You can do something, then?" he asked eagerly.</p>
<p>"I can try. There is a chance to booby trap the control cabin at least.
And that is where they would poke and pry. Working in this suit will be
tough. How about my trying to smash up the Redax first?"</p>
<p>"Not until after we use it on our captive," Jil-Lee decided. "Then there
would be some time before the Reds come——"</p>
<p>"You talk as if they <i>will</i> come," cut in Lupe. "How can you be sure?"</p>
<p>"We can't," Travis agreed. "But we can count on this much, judging from
the past. Once they know that there is a wrecked ship here, they will be
forced to explore it. They cannot afford an enemy settlement on this
side of the mountains. That would be, according to their way of
thinking, an eternal threat."</p>
<p>Jil-Lee nodded. "That is true. This is a complicated plan, yes, and one
in which many things may go wrong. But it is also one which covers all
the loopholes we know of."</p>
<p>With Lupe's aid Manulito crawled out of the suit. As he leaned it
carefully against a supporting rock he said:</p>
<p>"I have been thinking of this treasure house in the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></SPAN></span> towers. Suppose we
could find new weapons there...."</p>
<p>Travis hesitated. He still shrank from the thought of opening the secret
places behind those glowing walls, to loose a new peril.</p>
<p>"If we took weapons from there and lost the fight...." He advanced his
first objection and was glad to see the expression of comprehension on
Jil-Lee's face.</p>
<p>"It would be putting the weapons straight into Red hands," the other
agreed.</p>
<p>"We may have to chance it before we're through," Manulito warned.
"Suppose we do get some of their technicians into this trap. That isn't
going to open up their main defense for us. We may need a bigger
nutcracker than we've ever seen."</p>
<p>With a return of that queasy feeling he had known in the tower, Travis
knew Manulito was speaking sense. They might have to open Pandora's box
before the end of this campaign.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></SPAN></span></p>
<hr />
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