The Devil's Asteroid Page 4

faced Parr again. "You," he said. "You got on--" And he steppedclose, tapping the plates on Parr's chest.

  "It's armor," said Parr.

  "Huh! Ah--ar--" The word was too much for the creature, whose brain andmouth alike had forgotten most language. "Well," said Ling, "I want. Iwear."

  He fumbled at the fastenings.

  Parr jumped clear of him. He had accepted authority a moment ago, butthis armor was his insurance against becoming a beast. "It's mine," heobjected.

  Solemnly Ling shook his great browless head, as big as a coal-scuttleand fringed with bristly beard. "Mine," he said roughly. "I boss. You--"

  He caught Parr by the arm and dragged him close. So quick and powerfulwas the clutch that it almost dislocated Parr's shoulder. By sheerinstinct, Parr struck with his free fist.

  Square and solid on that coarse-bearded chin landed Parr's knuckles,with their covering of armor plate. And Ling, confident to the point ofinnocence because of his strength and authority, had neither guarded norprepared. His great head jerked back as though it would fly from hisshoulders. And Parr, wrenching loose, followed up the advantage becausea second's hesitation would be his downfall.

  He hit Ling on the lower end of the breastbone, where his belly would besoftest. Above him he heard the beast-giant grunt in pain, and thenParr swung roundabout to score on the jaw again. Ling actually gaveback, dropping his immense bludgeon. A body less firmly pedestalled uponpowerful legs and scoop-shovel feet would have gone down. It took amoment for him to recover.

  "Aaaah!" he roared. "I kill you!"

  Parr had stooped and caught up his own discarded club. Now he threw itfull at the distorted face of his enemy. Ling's hands flashed up like ashortstop's, snatched the stick in midair, and broke it in two like acarrot. Another roar, and Ling charged, head down and arms outflung fora pulverizing grapple.

  Parr sprang sidewise. Ling blundered past. His stooping head crashedagainst a tree, his whole body bounded back from the impact, and down hewent in a quivering, moaning heap. He did not get up.

  Parr backed away, gazing at the others. They stood silent in a score ofattitudes, like children playing at moving statues. Then:

  "Huh!" cried one. "New boss!"

  A chorus of cries and howls greeted this. They gathered around Parr withfawning faces. "You boss! You fight Ling--beat 'im. Huh, you boss!"

  At the racket, Ling recovered a little, and managed to squirm into asitting posture. "Yes," he said, "you boss."

  With one hand holding his half-smashed skull, he lifted the other insalute to Parr.

  * * * * *

  It took time--several days--but Parr got over his first revulsion at thebestial traits of his new companions. After all, in shedding the wit andgrace of man, they were recovering the honest simplicity of animals. Forinstance, Ling was not malicious about being displaced, as Shanklin hadbeen. Too, there was much more real mutual helpfulness, if not so muchtalk about it. When one of the horde found a new crop of berries orroots or nuts, he set up a yell for his friends to come and share. Acouple of oldsters, doddering and incompetent gargoyles, were fed andcared for by the younger beast-men. And all stood ready to obey Parr'sslightest word or gesture.

  Thus, though it was a new thought to them, several went exploring withhim to the north pole of their world. The journey was no more thanfifteen miles, but took them across grassy, foodless plains which hadnever been worth negotiation. Parr chose Ling and another comparativelyintelligent specimen who called himself Ruba. Izak, the mild-manneredone who had first met and guided Parr on the night of his banishmentfrom the human village, also pleaded to go. Several others would havejoined the party, but the deterioration of legs and feet made them poorwalkers. The four went single file--Parr, then big Ling, then Ruba, thenIzak. Each carried, on a vine sling, a leaf-package of fruit and a melonfor quenching thirst. They also carried clubs.

  The plain was well-grassed, as high as Ling's knuckled knee.Occasionally small creatures hopped or scuttled away. The beast-menthrew stones until Parr told them to stop--he could not help but wonderif those scurriers had once been men. The hot sun made him sweat underhis plate-armor, but not for all the Solar System would he have laid itaside.

  They paused for noonday lunch in a grove of ferny trees beyond theplain, then scaled some rough lava-like rocks. In the early afternoonthey came to what must be the asteroid's northern pole.

  Like most of the asteroids, this was originally jagged and irregular.Martian engineers in fitting it artificially to support life, had roughedit into a sphere and pulverized quantities of the rock into soil. Here,at the apex, was a ring of rough naked hills enclosing a pit into whichthe sun could not look. Ling, catching up with Parr on the brow of thecircular range, pointed with his great club.

  "Look like mouth of world," he hazarded. "Dark. Maybe world hungry--eatus."

  "Maybe," agreed Parr. The pit, about a hundred yards across and full ofshadow, looked forbidding enough to be a savage maw. Izak also camealongside.

  "Mouth?" he repeated after Ling. "Mmm! Look down. Men in there."

  There was a movement, sure enough, and a flare of something--a torch ofpunky wood. Izak was right. Men were inside this polar depression.

  "Come on," said Parr at once, and began to scramble down the steep,gloomy inner slope. Ling grimaced, but followed lest his companionsthink him afraid. Ruba and Izak, who feared to be left behind, stayedclose to his heels.

  The light of the torch flared more brightly. Parr could make out figuresin its glow--two of them. The torch itself was wedged in a crack of therock, and beneath its flame the couple seemed to tug and wrench atsomething that gleamed darkly, like a great metal toadstool at thebottom of the depression. So engrossed were the workers that they didnot notice Parr and his companions, and Parr, drawing near, had time torecognize both.

  One was Sadau, who would have remained his friend. The other was VarinaPemberton. In the torchlight she looked browner and more vigorous thanwhen he had seen her last.

  "What are you doing?" he called to them.

  Abruptly they both snapped erect and looked toward him. Sadau seized thetorch and whirled it on high, shedding light. Varina Pemberton peered atthe newcomers.

  "Oh," she said, "it's you. Parr. Well, get out of here."

  Parr stood his ground, studying the toadstool-thing they had beenlaboring over. It was a wheel-like disk of metal, set upon an axle thatsprouted from the floor of rock. By turning it, they could finishopening a great rock-faced panel near by....

  "Get out," repeated the girl, with a hard edge on her voice.

  Parr felt himself grow angry. "Take it easy," he said. "Your crowdbooted me out, and I'm not under your rule any more. Neither can this besaid to be your country. We've as much right here as you."

  "Four of us," added Ruba with threatening logic. "Two of you. Fight,uh?"

  "Parr," said Sadau, "do as Miss Pemberton tells you. Leave here."

  "And if I don't?" temporized Parr, who felt the eagerness of hisbeast-men for some sort of a skirmish.

  Varina Pemberton took something from her belt and pointed it. A brittlereport resounded--_whick_! And an electro-automatic pellet explodedalmost between Parr's feet, digging a hole in the rock. He jumped back.So did his three comrades, from whose memories had not faded theknowledge of firearms.

  "The next shot," she warned, "will be a little higher and more carefullyplaced. Get out, and don't come back."

  "They win," said Parr. "Come on, boys."

  They retired to the upper combing of rock, with the sun at their backs.There Parr motioned them into hiding behind jagged boulders. Timepassed, several hours of it. Finally they saw Sadau and Varina Pembertondepart on the other side of the hole.

  "Good," rumbled Ling. "We follow. Sneak up. Grab. Kill."

  "Not us," Parr ruled. "No war against women, Ling. But we'll go downwhere they were working, and see what it's all about."

  They groped their way down again. At the bottom of the pit-valley t
heyfound the metal projection, so like a mighty steering wheel. Sadau'storch lay there, extinguished, and Parr still carried a radium lighterin the pocket of his shabby shorts. He made a light, and looked.

  The big panel or rock, that had been half-open, was closed. As for thewheel, it had been bent and jammed, by powerful blows with a rock. Hecould not budge it, nor could the mighty Ling, nor could all of themtogether.

  "They were inside this asteroid," decided Parr, half to himself. "Downwhere the Martians planted the artificial gravity-machinery. Having beenthere, they fixed things so nobody will follow them. Only blasting rayscould open up a way, and those would probably wreck the mechanism andsend air,