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Venus Enslaved-Manly Wade Wellman · Captives of the Thieve-Star

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  Speaker 1: Part one of Venus Enslaved. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit librevox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Phil Cheevert Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Venus Enslaved by Manly
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  Speaker 1: Wade Wellman, Part one. This story was first published in
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  Speaker 1: Planets Stories Summer nineteen forty two. Black velvet infinity all around,
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  Speaker 1: punctured and patterned with the many hued jewels of space,
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  Speaker 1: comforting somehow because they made the same constellation patterns you
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  Speaker 1: used to see on Earth. There was the Dipper there,
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  Speaker 1: Scorpio there, orion, but the twinkle was shut off, as
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  Speaker 1: though every star had turned cold and silently watchful toward
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  Speaker 1: your impudent invasion of emptiness. So big was the universe
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  Speaker 1: that the little recess which did duty for control room
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  Speaker 1: observation point in living cabin, seemed even smaller than it was,
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  Speaker 1: which was very small. Indeed, Planter forgot the dizzy lightness
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  Speaker 1: of head and body here beyond gravity, and turned his
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  Speaker 1: wondering eyes outward from where he lay strapped in his
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  Speaker 1: spring jointed hammock, toward the firmament and decided that there
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  Speaker 1: was nothing in all his past life that he would
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  Speaker 1: change if he could check blast tempo. Came the voice
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  Speaker 1: of Dispro just beyond his head, a high, harsh, commanding voice.
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  Speaker 1: Check lubrication loss and check sun direction. Then brace yourself.
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  Speaker 1: We may land quicker than we thought. Planter leaned toward
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  Speaker 1: the instrument panel that covered most of the bulkhead to
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  Speaker 1: the right of his hammock. The pale glow from the
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  Speaker 1: dials highlighted his face, young, bony intent, Blast tempo adequate.
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  Speaker 1: He called back to Dispro lubrication loss about seven point
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  Speaker 1: two three point nine six degrees off sunward air loss Nil,
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  Speaker 1: who asked for air loss snubbed Dispro from his hammock forward.
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  Speaker 1: He was leaner than Planter, taller, older, even in his
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  Speaker 1: insulated coveralls, bulking against whatever temperature or pressure danger might
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  Speaker 1: be threatened by the outer space. He was of a
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  Speaker 1: dangerous elegance of figure and attitude. His face, framed in
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  Speaker 1: tight cushioned helmet, was so narrow that it seemed compressed. Sidewise,
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  Speaker 1: dark eyes crowded together with only a disdainful blade of
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  Speaker 1: nose between them, A mouth short but strong, a chin
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  Speaker 1: like the pointed toe of a stylish boot, a cropped blackmstile.
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  Speaker 1: Back on lost Earth, Dispro had frightened men and fascinated women.
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  Speaker 1: His cunning crime administration had been almost too neat for
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  Speaker 1: the police, but not quite, or he would not have
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  Speaker 1: been here, with his life barely held in his elegant fingertips.
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  Speaker 1: Venus plum center ahead, he told Planter, have a look
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  Speaker 1: that last, as if he were granting a favor. Planter
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: twisted in the hammock. He saw the taut, slung cocoon
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  Speaker 1: that would be Dispro's netted body. The control board like
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  Speaker 1: a bigger, more complex typewriter, where Dispro could reach and
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  Speaker 1: strike key combinations to steer speed or other wise maneuver
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  Speaker 1: the ship beyond a great round port at its middle,
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  Speaker 1: a disc the size of a tabletop against the black,
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  Speaker 1: airless sky. Most of that disc looked as blue as
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  Speaker 1: the thinnest of milk. Smooth edge was brightened to cream
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  Speaker 1: the sunward limb of Venus, But even the dimmer expanse
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  Speaker 1: showed fluffy and gently rippling, a swaddling of opaque cloud
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  Speaker 1: that said, Dispro is our little gray home in the west.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder what's underneath the clouds? Mused Planter for the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: millionth time. All those science pots sitting home on the
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  Speaker 1: seat of their expensive striped pants, wonder that, snarled Dispro.
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  Speaker 1: That's why they sent eight rockets before us smack into
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  Speaker 1: the cloud. That's why, with eight silences out of a
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  Speaker 1: possible eight, they rigged this knight. That's why, when nobody
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  Speaker 1: was fool enough to volunteer, they dug up three convicts
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  Speaker 1: who were all neatly earmarked to be killed anyway, and
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  Speaker 1: gave them a bang at the job. Three convicts, Planter,
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  Speaker 1: Dispro and Max. Planter had forgotten Max, as everyone was
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  Speaker 1: apt to, including Max himself. For Max had been a
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  Speaker 1: sturdy athlete, a coming heavyweight champion, until too many gaily
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  Speaker 1: accepted blows had done something to his mind. Doctors said
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  Speaker 1: some concussion unbalanced him, but not far enough so that
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  Speaker 1: he didn't know right and wrong, apart when he killed
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  Speaker 1: his manager for cheating on certain gate receipts, and so
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  Speaker 1: prison and a sentence to the chair with the reprieve
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  Speaker 1: that came by recommendation of the Rocket Foundation on March thirty,
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  Speaker 1: twenty eighty two. Now Max was in the compartment aft
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  Speaker 1: keeping the lever's kicking that ran the rocket engines. Show
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  Speaker 1: Max how to do a thing, and he keep right
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  Speaker 1: on doing it until you pulled him away, or until
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  Speaker 1: he dropped. What would Max's last name be, wondered Planter.
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  Speaker 1: The face of Venus, he sang to himself softly, Oh
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  Speaker 1: thou sublime, sweet evening star, softly but not too softly
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  Speaker 1: for Dispro's excellent ears. Dispro chuckled, hmmm, you know, Opera, Planter.
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  Speaker 1: Pretty fancy for an ex cohan. I know that piece,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: said Planter, sharply. Wolfram's Hymn to Venus from Tannhauser. It
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: had started him thinking again. Gwynn had played it so
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: often on her violin, played it and sung it. Those
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: were the days he had known she was married. Down
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  Speaker 1: in her red and gold apartment at the Artist's Quarters,
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  Speaker 1: he'd been sculpting her. She had the second best figure
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: he ever saw. Then he found out about her husband,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: for the husband burst in upon them. The husband had
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  Speaker 1: tried to kill Planter, but Planter had killed husband, and
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Gwynn had sworn his life away. Check elapsed time disperrobeate
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  Speaker 1: him fifty eight days, nine hours, and fifty four minutes
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  Speaker 1: zero point seven, rejoined Planter at once, prompt, aren't you
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  Speaker 1: We'll be on Venus before the sixty fourth day. Planter
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: saw Dispro shift over in his hammock. I'm going to shave,
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  Speaker 1: then eat. Dispro turned a stud in the wall. His
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: electric razor began to hum. Planter opened a locker valve
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  Speaker 1: and brought forth his own rations, a pack of concentrated
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  Speaker 1: solid compounded of chocolate, meat, extract several vitamin agents. It
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  Speaker 1: would sustain him for hours, but was anything but a
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  Speaker 1: fill to his hunger. He chewed it slowly to make
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  Speaker 1: it last longer, and sipped from a snipe nosed container
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  Speaker 1: of water, slightly effervescent and acidulated. A few drops escaped
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  Speaker 1: between snout and lip and swam lazily in the gravityless
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  Speaker 1: air of the cabin, like shiny little bubbles. Planter said,
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  Speaker 1: dispbro suddenly pleasant, We're going to Fulham. He shut off
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  Speaker 1: his razor. Planter took another nibble. Yes, Dispro, we'll land
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  Speaker 1: at the north pole. Planter shook his head.
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  Speaker 2: We can't.
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  Speaker 1: This rocket is set at midpoint on the Venusian disc.
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  Speaker 1: We can I've tinkered with the controls. A break for us,
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  Speaker 1: no break for the foundationeers at home. They're watching us
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  Speaker 1: through telescopes. What they want is our crash on Venus
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  Speaker 1: with a great upflare of the exploding fuel. Then they'll
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  Speaker 1: know that we landed and can shake hands all round
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  Speaker 1: on a successful advancement. But we're curving away. Then I've
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  Speaker 1: fixed that will not blow off and make any signal.
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  Speaker 2: But we'll live.
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  Speaker 1: North Pole, mused Planter pensively. No spend to Venus. Up there,
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  Speaker 1: we'll land solidly. We'll land where it's coolest, and none
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  Speaker 1: too cool. Her equator must be two degrees hotter than
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  Speaker 1: Satan's reception hall. The pole may be endurable. What, then,
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  Speaker 1: asked Planter, we'll live? I say, don't you want to live?
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  Speaker 1: Planter hadn't thought about it lately, but suddenly he knew
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  Speaker 1: that he did want to live. His was a family
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  Speaker 1: of considerable longevity. His grandfather had attained the age of
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and seven and had claimed to remember the
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  Speaker 1: end of the Second World War six days to study
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  Speaker 1: it over. Desper was saying, then we'll have a tribe.
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  Speaker 1: If we land alive, we'll laugh if we die trying,
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  Speaker 1: we'll have nothing to worry about.
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  Speaker 2: Float up here, will you take over?
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to have a little sleep through choking steam,
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  Speaker 1: white and ever swirling drove the silvery cigar that was
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  Speaker 1: the ninth rocket ship to attempt to voyage across space.
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  Speaker 1: From its snout blossomed sudden flame blue and red and
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  Speaker 1: blue again, rocket counterblasts that were designed to act as brakes.
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  Speaker 1: They worked somewhat. The speed cut from bullet rate to
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  Speaker 1: falling rate, from falling rate to flying rate. Then of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden partial clarity around it within an upper envelope
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  Speaker 1: of blinding vapors, Venus had a thinner atmosphere, partially transparent.
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  Speaker 1: Below showed a surface of fluffy greens, all sorts of greens, lettuce, apple, olive, emerald, spinach, seacres, vegetation,
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  Speaker 1: plainly and lots of it. The ship, steadying in its
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  Speaker 1: plunge like a skilled diver, nosed across toward a wet
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  Speaker 1: slate dark patch that must be open ground. From the stern,
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  Speaker 1: where rocket tubes that ceased blasting broke out, a massive
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  Speaker 1: expanse of fabric, A parachute, another and another down floated
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  Speaker 1: the craft, thudding at last upon its resting place, Planter
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  Speaker 1: felt a cramping pain. He realized that to feel pain.
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  Speaker 1: One must be alive. Then his head throbbed, it hung
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  Speaker 1: head downward. Gravity was back. He groped for his hammock fastenings,
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  Speaker 1: loosened them, and lowered himself to a standing position beneath
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  Speaker 1: on the round port that had been forward. Desprorow hung
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  Speaker 1: in his hammock, motionless but moaning faintly. Planter hurriedly freed
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  Speaker 1: him and laid him flat on his back. He fumbled
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  Speaker 1: a locker open, brought out.
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  Speaker 2: A water pot.
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  Speaker 1: A little spurt between Dispro's short, scornful lips brought him
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  Speaker 1: back to consciousness. We made it was Dispro's first comet,
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  Speaker 1: full of triumph and savagery. Help me up, Thanks who
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  Speaker 1: we seemed.
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  Speaker 2: To have socked in somewhere nose first. He was right.
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  Speaker 1: No sign of light or open air showed through the
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  Speaker 1: forward port, nor the side ports from which Planter had
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  Speaker 1: been wont to study the reaches of space. Dispro looked
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  Speaker 1: up the after bulkhead. Now their ceiling had a hatchway.
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  Speaker 1: Haist me, he said to Planter, who made a stirrup
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  Speaker 1: of his hands and obliged. The slightly less gravitational pull
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  Speaker 1: of Venus made Disprow more active than on earth. He
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  Speaker 1: he caught Planter's hammock, got his foot on a side
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  Speaker 1: bracket for steadiness, and climbed up to the hatch. A
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  Speaker 1: tug at the clamps opened it and he wriggled through.
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  Speaker 1: Wake up, you big buffalo, Planter heard him, snarling. Max
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  Speaker 1: was evidently unconscious up there. Planter, without a help or
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  Speaker 1: to lift him, made shift by climbing Dispro's hammock, then
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  Speaker 1: his own to gain the compartment above. He'd have died
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  Speaker 1: if he had an out of brains, commented Disperro, pointing.
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  Speaker 1: Max lay crumpled against the bulkhead, close to the great
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  Speaker 1: bank of levers he had been working in. His hands
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  Speaker 1: were grasped broken pieces of network from his hammock. He
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  Speaker 1: was out of the lashings when we landed. Dispro went
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  Speaker 1: on We were about to hit, and he grabbed hold.
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  Speaker 1: He must have passed out, but the big lump single
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  Speaker 1: minded abnormally, so he hung on without knowing, and the
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  Speaker 1: breaking of those strands kept him from crashing full force.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Planter knelt and pulled Max straight. Max was tremendous, a
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  Speaker 1: burly troll. In his coveralls, his shoulders were almost a
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  Speaker 1: yard wide, his hands like oversized gloves. His big face,
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  Speaker 1: with its broad jaw, heavy dark brows, and ruddy cheeks,
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  Speaker 1: might have been handsome, was not the nose smashed in
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  Speaker 1: by a blow taking in some old ring battle. Don't
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  Speaker 1: waste water, cautioned Disparrow. As Planter hunted for the food locker.
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  Speaker 1: I'll bring him out of it. He knelt and slapped
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  Speaker 1: the inert face sharply. Max's mouth opened, showing a gap
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  Speaker 1: where his front teeth had been beaten out. He gave
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  Speaker 1: a grumbling yell, then sprang erect so suddenly that Dispro
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  Speaker 1: starting away, almost fell through the hatchway. Max saw Planter
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  Speaker 1: scowled and snarted, then fell into a boxing stance. He
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  Speaker 1: inched forward, his mighty fists fiddling hypnotically. Time yelled Planter
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  Speaker 1: at once, this isn't a fight, Max. We've landed safe
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  Speaker 1: and alive on venus. Max's eyes widened a little. He
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  Speaker 1: grinned loosely and pulled off his helmet. His skull was
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  Speaker 1: thatched with bushy black hair. Oh, he said, in a
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  Speaker 1: deep chiding tone. I forgot, ah forgot, echoed Despro scornfully.
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  Speaker 1: He sounds as if he had the ability to remember.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Planter studied the ports in this compartment, They too were
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: obscured by wet looking grayal soil. The ship must be
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: well buried in the crust of Venus. What if it
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: was completely submerged? A tomb for them. He glanced upward
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to another hatchway, one that would lead past the rocket engines.
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  Speaker 1: Don't go up, Max cautioned him, throltily. Hot up there,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: brilliant was Dispro's ill humored rejoinder. Max actually knows that
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: the engines will be hot, Planter clapped Max on the
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: big shoulder. It'll be all right, he reassured the giant.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Get me a wrench, will you, that long shanked one
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: for tightening tube housings will do? He scrambled up along
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  Speaker 1: the levers, which made a ladder of sorts. The hatch
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: to the injuns had to be loosened with the wrench. Beyond,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: as Max had sagely warned him, it was stifling hot.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: He avoided gleaming, sweltering tubes and housings, scrambling to where
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: a four foot circle of nuts showed in the bulkheading.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: This would be the plate that closed the central stem
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: among the rear rocket jets. He began to loosen one.
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  Speaker 1: Stop that you full. It was Dispro who had climbed
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  Speaker 1: after him and was watching. Who knows about this lower
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: atmosphere of venus. I'm going to find out about it,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: replied Planter, a little roughly, for he did not like
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  Speaker 1: Dispro's matter. He gave the nut another turn. Wait, wait,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: cautioned Dispro. He climbed all the way into view, holding
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: up a glass flask with a neck attachment of gages
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: and pipings. I got a sample through the lock panel.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Plenty of air bubbles were carried down with us. Let
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: me work it out before you do anything, heroic dispbro
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: was right. He was usually right about technologies. Planter mopped
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: his brow on the sleeve of his coverall and waited. Yes,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Dispro was commenting. Oxygen, nice article of that, and plenty
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: nitrogen two, just like Earth. Quite a bit of carbon dioxide.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: It'll be from all that vegetation certified. Breathe go on
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and unship that plate.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Planter did so.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: He loosed the last nut and pushed against the plate.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: It stirred easily. The after part of the ship would
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: still be in the open. Dispro, climbing after him, caught
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: his elbow. I go out first, he announced. They marked
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: me down as senior of the expedition one side. Planter
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: stared quizzically and once again did his Dispro told him.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: The lean man thrust up the plate like a trapdoor
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and crept out. At last he yelled back, men on Venus,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: come on, planter. Planter called back to Max, who was
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: bringing up a bundle of articles Dispro had chosen for
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the venture outside, two repeating rifles, two pistols, several tools,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: and tins of food, carls of rope. Planter helped him
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: with the load, and they got outside with it. Dispro
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: led down the steep bulge of the hull. He clung
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: to a grab iron, his feet just above the gray
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: muck into which they had plunged. He stared up, first
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: man to set foot on Venus. He was saying, who
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: is second of you?
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Two?
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: We didn't stop to bother. Planter replied, what now? He
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: stared around to answer his own question. Venus was dull,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: like a very cloudy day at home. The air was
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: moist but fresh, and little wreaths and veils of mist
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: kept one from seeing far. But he made out that
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: they had found lodgement and a sterile looking clearing with
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: a muddy floor that might or might not sustain a
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: man's weight. All around was a crowded wall of vegetation,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: towering high above the range of his vision into upper fog,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: tight grown as a hedge and vigorously fat of twiggered leaf.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Planter no botanists, yet was aware at once a streke
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: angeness beyond his power to describe. He knew that specimens
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: would be gathered and preserved to take home, to take
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: home home to Earth, but the ship was almost buried
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: in its mud. He remember Dispro's stry commet our little
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: gray home in the west. They were on Venus, undoubtedly
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: to stay. Max beside him gave a sort of gurgling
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: bellow of surprise and fear. Oh something's got mister Disbro.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: For once Max was being articulate, for once Dispro was
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: being silent. Glassing down, Planter saw the slender, elegant figure
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: writhe close against the metal hull, Clutching with both hands
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the grab iron. Dispro stared groundwoods, and what could be
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: seen of his face was as white as a wood
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: boring grub. His legs was drawn up knee bracing against
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the plates. The other stretched out grotesquely as if to
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: point a toe with something in the muck. It took
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: a second staring study to realize that a whiplike strand
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: of something that gleamed and tightened was snapped around Dispro's ankle.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Rope max snapped Plinter. He made a quick hitch around
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: a rocket tube and lowered himself in a rush. His
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: free hand grasped the heavy automatic pistol. He paused and
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: his descent just above Disppro. Studying the black, shiny tether
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: it protruded from the semi glutinous mud, which stirred and
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: quivered around the protrusion. A sense was there of rigid
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: grasp and slowly contracting pressure. It was squeezing the captured ankle.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: It was sharpening itself to pull Dispro down. Dispro said nothing,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: because he had caught his breath for an effort at
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: wrenching free.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: But he could not do that. His strong, lean.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Fingers were beginning to slip on the grab iarn. He
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: turned horror widened eyes toward Planter. Hang On, muttered Planter
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and aimed his pistol, no sure shot. He nevertheless was
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: close to his target. He fired a fifty caliber slug,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: another and another two of them hit the tail tentacle
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: or probiscus at once. It let go of dispro gesticulating wildly.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Blood sprang forth on its shiny intcrement. Venusian blood was red,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: mused Planter, even as Venusian herbage was green, dispro gave
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: a choking gurgle that might have been thanks relief or effort.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: A moment later he was swarming up Planter's rope like
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: a monkey, but Planter did not follow. The appendage he
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: had wounded was drawing out of sight like a worm
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: into its hole. But two more, just like it, had
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: fastened upon his foot and knee. He lost his grip
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: and fell into the mud. There was like a dip
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: into thick gravy. The stuff lapped and closed over his head,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: and he let go of the pistol to try to swim.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: A couple of laborious strokes brought him back to the surface,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: gasping and blowing away thick lumps from nose and mouth.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: A moment later, two more tentacles were groping and seizing
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: at his shoulder and waist. Four bonds now tightened upon
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: him like lariats. Planter seemed to be thinking in two compartments.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: One set of thoughts dictated his floundering, desperate struggle. The
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: other considered the situation with a curiosity, dispassionate, and almost mild.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: The creature that snared him was just what he might
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: have expected, something on the octopus order. How many science
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: fiction stories had dealt with such monsters on strange worlds.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: The creepy writhings of tentacles appealed to fantasy writers. The neat, simple,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: active structure of the brute was logical to the great
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: mechanic who devised nature. The thing had him in any case.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: If he could not kick, or struggle or cut free,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: cut free, that was it. He had a knife in
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the side pocket of his coveralls. He duck for it,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: almost dropped it from his muddy fingers, then yanked open
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: the biggest blade. He slashed at the nearest tentacle, the
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: one around his waist. It parted like a cane stalk
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: before a machete. The other arms quivered and slackened, Plainly
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: shocked by pain, Planter rolled out of their grip started
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: to swim away anywhere. He looked over his shoulder and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: saw his enemy as it humped itself.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Part interview.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Not such an octopus, after all, The dispassionate part of
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Planter's brain called the thing an animated tall tree. The
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: slender tentacles sprouted from a thicker trunk that could curve
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: and writhe and wallow, but not so readily. It was
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: of a rubbery gray brown, and at the upper end,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: nestled among the tentacle roots was what must be its mouth.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: That mouth opened and shut in almost wistful hunger, Planter
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: swam furiously. He wanted to reach and climb the stem
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: of the rocket ship, but the thing knew his wish
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and moved to head him off. He kicked and fought
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: his way toward the far mass of leaves that bordered
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: this mudpit. From among those leaves glowed for an instant
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: a sort of splinter of yellow light. A small object
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: sang over Planter's helmet, but it had like a bee,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and struck behind him with a little chuck. It must
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: have found lodgment against the hull tree thing, which paused
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: in its pursuit to flop and spatter the mud with
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: its tentacles. Planter blessed the diversion, whatever it was, and
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: strove nearer to the shore. The forest was alive. He
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: suddenly decided out of its misty tangle, a great leafy
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: branch swung knowingly toward him. He clutched at it, brought
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: away a fat, moist handful of strange shaped leaves. His
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: other hand made good its hold on the branch itself,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: and with the last of his strength, he dragged himself
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: to where roots hummocked above the mud. Then he saw
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: where the branch had come from. A slim, active figure
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: stood among the stems, pressing with both hands upon the
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: base of the branch to make it move into the open.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: As Planter scrambled to safety, the figure relaxed its helpful shoving,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: and the branch moved back toward the perpendicular. Planter gazed
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: in utter lost unbelief at this stranger. It was a woman, young, fair,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: fine limbed. She wore the briefest of garments, belted around
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: with strange weapons, and her feet were shot in cross
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: gartered buskins. Upon her tumble of golden curls rode a
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: metal helmet that reminded him of Grecian antiquity. Her bare arms,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: round but strong, cradled something with a stock and butt
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: of a musket, but with a short, tight strung bow
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: at its muzzle, surely the pattern of a medieval crossbow.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Her face was of a flawless pink and white beauty,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: just now stamped with utter disdain. Its short rosy mouth
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: opened it formed words words that Planter understood. You fool,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: said the girl with the crossbow, You scurvy fool. End
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: of Part one, Part two of Venus enslaved by Manly
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Wade Wellman. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Part two.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Dispro, barely able to stir for shock and weariness, climbed
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: only a few hens breaths out of danger before he
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: must stop and wheeze for breath. At last he could
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: make himself heard. Max, you pighead, help me, Oh, came
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: the grunt of a scent from above, as the big
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: fellow slid down. In turn, he slipped a thick arm
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: around Dispro, hoisting the tall, slender body as if it
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: were a bundle of old clothes, and slid it across
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: a shoulder like the jut of a craig. Then Max
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: scaled the rope once again to the safetop of the
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: nose over rocket ship. Dispro found his own feet and
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: shakily wiped his clear cut face, still pale from exertion
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: and terror. That was close, say ventured Max, Mister Planter,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: he's gone, dispro looked around the mud expanse around them
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: was stirred up, as if by boiling struggles. But there
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: was no sign of Planter or the thing with tentacles.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: That thing got him, decided Dispro. But Max shook his
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: heavy head. Uh uh, he demurred, No, the girl, she
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: got him. Girl echoed Dispro and scowled. What girl, Max
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: pointed with a finger like the heft of a hammer.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: She was in the trees got him him. Dispro peered
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: at the trees. Then it Max, This scal deepened. What
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: are you driveling about? The girl said Max. Dispro snorted
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: and skinned his teeth in scorn. How he demanded, of
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: the misty skies. Do I get mixed up with minus
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: quantities like this?
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: A girl?
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: The man says, here on venus a girl, repeated Max
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: firmly Dispro wheeled upon him. Come off of that, he commanded, sharply.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Planter's gone dead. You're all I have to associate with.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: You'll act, saying whether you are or not. Max's big,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: pained eyes faltered before the glittering accusation of Disbro's gaze.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: All right, he conceded, there wasn't any girl there, you idiot,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Max nodded, I saw shut up, Despro cut him off.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: No girl, I said, No girl, repeated Max obediently. Rain
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: began to fall, fat drops the size of marbles. Back inside,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: commanded Dispro. There will be lots of this kind of weather.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: We'll have something to eat, then study another way to
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: reach the trees yonder. No girl, said Max.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: But I saw.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: The rain that drove Despro and Max back into their shelter,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: filtered through layers of leafage, beginning to wash the mud
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: from Planter's clothing. He stared again at his rescuer. I
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: seem to have understood what you said, he managed at last.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Isn't so strange that she flung back in words, somehow
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: run together, even though you are maden now to sport
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: with you under muckworm, and her wide, bright blue eyes
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: flickered toward the danger he had lately avoided. You'll have
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: the tongue of mankind. Are no men man enough? Young woman,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: replied Planter, a little nettled. I Suppose it's like the fantasies,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: we can read each other's minds or something something. She echoed,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: as if humoring a child.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: And I owe you.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Thanks for saving my life. Oh twas no great matter.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: She shouldered the crossbow. Come for the sky girds will
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: be about our heels. She picked her way rapidly among
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: the stream, with the surest and cleverest of feet. Women
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: on earth were never so graceful, are sure? Decided planter,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: hurrying after, he was aware that he did not step
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: on the muddy surface of Venus, but upon a matted
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: overfloor of roots, fallen stems, ground vines, sometimes great sturdy
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: leaves like lily pads, grown to the sigh of double mattresses. Wait,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: young lady, he called, Who are the sky goers you mentioned?
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: And why should they be after us? She halted again,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: swung and studied him with more of that disdainful curiosity.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Tis a gruel brained idiot, she decided, as if to herself,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: for that they cast him out. Methought twas strange that
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: a man should flee of himself from sure shelter and vitual.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: It was raining harder the great roof of vegetation only
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: partially broke that downpour. It sluiced away the coating of
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: mud from Planter and soaked his stout garments through. He
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: felt miserable in the dampness, but his girl guide throve
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: if anything, in the drops that struck and rolled down
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: her bare arms and shoulders.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: He saw too that she followed.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Something of a trail among the stalks and stems. It
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: was barely wider than his own stalwood shoulders could pass
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: and wound crazily here and there, but one must stick
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: to it, for to right and left the jungle grew
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: thicker than a basket. He called out again, Miss a
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: young lady. She turned as before. What now.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: This path? What is it? Did you make it? Tell
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: me things?
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: He made a gesture of appeal, for she was putting
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: on that look of contempt once more. You see, I'm
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: no more than an hour old on this planet. Odd,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: so your brain is younger than that.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Leave me.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: I have no time for idiots. Abruptly, she stiffened, widened
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: her eyes, lifted a finger to her red lips for silence.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: The two of them stood close together in the misty rain,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: their ears sharpened. Planter heard what she had heard a rustling,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: crunching approach along some other angle of the jungle path.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: The girl wrenched apart two sappy lengths of viney, and
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: with a jerk of her head bade Planter slip through
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: into the great thicket. He did so, and she followed,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: turning her live body close against his. She brought her
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: crossbow to the ready danger, whispered Planter, and she nodded, blinkling.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: The approach was coming near. Planter judged that whatever threatened
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: them was two legged, weighty and great. Lunged many yards
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: off it wheezed like a faulty engine. His companion's ears
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: were better than his, or more experienced. She gaged the
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: nearness of the stranger, and the crossbow went to her
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: shoulder like a rifle. Planter saw that it operated on
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: a spring trigger that would trip a latch and release
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: the string. The bow, violently recovering from its bending, would
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: force the missile along a groove in the top of
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: the stalk. All parts stock bow and string, or of
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: some massive dark metal, apparently treated with grease to save
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: it from the constant dampness. The missile itself was not
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: an arrow, but seemed the size and shape of a
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: silvery fountain pin. Planter burned to ask questions about it,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: but the enemy was in sight by now, something of
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: mottled green and black that shouldered upright along the way
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: between the thickets. Planter felt his companion's body grow tense
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: against his shoulder. Her finger touched the trigger lightly. The
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: metal string twanged, and with a waspy hum, the missile
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: leaped toward its target. At the same time, a little
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: burst of flame showed from it, bright yellow chuck. The
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: shot went home, as that other shot against the thing
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: called a muckworm down floundered the green spotted form. At once.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: The girl was out of hiding and stooping above her quarry. Planter,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: following peered with wonder and caution. He saw a body
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: larger than himself and grotesquely of the same build a
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: don't be torso on, massive back, bent legs like a cricket's,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: wide flapper feet, a round, low head with a monstrous
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: slash of mouth, big eyes, now filming with death, no
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: nose at all. The creature was very like a nightmare frog,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: but this frog wore garments of linked in plated metal
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: wire and rubbery looking fabric. It had a silver belt
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: with pouches and holsters. These pouchers and holsters.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: The girl was.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Now plundering quick She snapped at Planter over her rosy shoulder.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Take the spoil. He will have friends and they must
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: not find us. Her tone was still reminiscent of dispro
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: speaking to Max. Planter's ravenous curiosity was at last completely overridden,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: young lady, he said, flatly, I'm not prepared to endure
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: any more. She suddenly screamed, not like a warrior, but
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: like a girl who is martially frightened. Planter had the
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: time to realize that she saw something just beyond him.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: He pivoted and set himself as another of the froggy
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: beings charged more sky goers. He heard a cry behind him,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: and he knew that it was sky goers he faced.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Planter was a boxer of sorts, strong if not brilliant,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: and his unthinking reflex was to plant his feet, bend
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: his knees, and crouch for attack or defense. That reflex
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: shortened his height by several inches and saved his life.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: The sky goers that rushed him had pointed a pistol
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: form weapon from which came yellow flame, as from the crossbow.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: A silvery object meant to shatter his brains, only sang
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: above his head with millimeters despair. Before the pistol like
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: weapon could aim and spit again, Planter had charged in.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: It was all he could do, but it was enough.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: He jabbed viciously with his left fist, followed with his
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: right to the abdomen. The left knuckle slashed soft flesh
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: about the wide mouth. His right hand almost broke on
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: a hard belt buckle. Both blows were staggering to the
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: wheezing adversary, who dropped its pistol and yelled with a
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: voice like a steam whistle. It made words, each of
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: them almost deafening to Planter. To silence it more than
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: anything else, Planter drove in closer still and lifted an
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: uppercut as though it were a shovel full of gravel.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: It found the point where a terrestrial man would have
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: a chin down. Floundered the clumsy body, and Planter, with
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: no thought of referees or rules, set his heavy boot
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: on the face and bashed it in. He stepped across
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: the subsiding farm in time to encounter another. This one
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: got great floppy hands upon him. Their grip was knowing
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: powerful wicked. The skygirer plucked him close. Its mouth grinned
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: into a gape. It had teeth, it was going to bite.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: He was held by the shoulders and doubted if he
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: could break away. Instead of trying, he put his own
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: hands to the thing's elbows, drew his right knee tight
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: to his chest, and planted a toe in a metal
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: clad midriff. Then, even as the open paws sought to
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: seize his face, he threw himself backward, landing flat on
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: his shoulder blades. He drew down with his hands and
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: hoisted with his feet. His opponent somersaulted in air and
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: fell with a heavy squashing thump upon the root tangled
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: floor of the trail. In a flash, Planter was up.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: He jumped with both feet, bones broke under the impact.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: A second sky goer was down, dead or dying aside.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: The girl was calling, and he obeyed. Flattening against a
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: cross weaving of einstems. She was risen upon one knee,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: crossbow to shoulder. It twanged, flashed, and once again its
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: successful charge sounded its chuck. Planter glanced down the trail
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: in time to see a fourth and last sky goer
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: drop down, he found that he was gasping for air
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: and trembling, as though the danger was still to come.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Instead of past. The girl rose came to him and
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: touched his arm. She smiled, her eyes shone. Gone was
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: the contempt, the superiority. She only admired completely and frankly.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: Sink me.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: You're a fighter, she said, a cod I saw only
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: the flight of fists, and a skyger went down, and another.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: You saved my life, and we have four sky goers
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: to strip with none to boom about where we went
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: from here? Your name, friend Planter, he said, David Planter,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: David Planter. She repeated her a was very broad, so
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: that she made the name almost divid.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: Again.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: She smiled, A king's name ist not I am called Mara.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Come help me take what is valuable from this carrion.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Planter's heart warmed to her. Thanks for your kind words,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: he smiled back. But I did what any man would do.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: All men are slaves. She surprised him by saying, you
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: will amaze the other girl warriors when I bring you
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: to the nest dispro standing on the glass port pane
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: that was now floor of the control room, labored and
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: cursed at his keyboard. He pressed one two in octave.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: The nosed overships stirred but did not rise. Max Bald
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: dispro to the upper hatch pressure, giving you all there is,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Max informed him. Timidly, Dispro turned from his controls, shrugging
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: in disgust. Those bow tubes are jammed and displaced, he cursed.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: We can't clear off until we get her up and
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: clean them. And we can't get her up and clean
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: them until they work. Huh. Max's big diffident face framed
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: itself in the hatchway, registering a small hoope. We're floating,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: he volunteered. Close to those trees and things. Dispro showed interest.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Then we'll get our feet on solid ground or nearly solid.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: That tentacle thing won't be sloshing around, he beckoned, come down.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: Max obeyed. From a locker, disp Ro took a pressureous
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: squirt of waterproofing liquid. He sprayed Max's clothes. Then his
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: own batt'll shed rain, he said. Buckle on a pistol,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: if you're smart enough to use one, and give me
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: two once more. The hammocks in the lower chamber and
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: the levers in the higher gave them a lot of
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: way up Dispro, emerging first into the damp, warm mist,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: saw at once that they had visitors. The ship, as
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Max said, floated close to the mat of growth that
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: fringed the muddy pool. Here the jungle consisted of meaty stems, straight,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: thick and close, set with tangled, firmiform foliage a little
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: above mud level. Gnarled roots wove into a firm footing
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: and upon it. Seeing from the thickets toward the ship
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: were huge biped creatures in gleaming metal harness. They had
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: chopped down spongy trunks and branches on which to venture
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: over the mud surface. As on rafts. Coming near the ship,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: they had passed cables of grease clotted metal wire around it,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: mooring it fast to thicker trunks. As Dispro stared down,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: several of them began to converse in tones that rang
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: and boomed like great gongs. Half deafened, Dispro still could
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: perceive that their voices had inflection and sense horness, concerted
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: action tools a language. Here was a master race comparable
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: to terrestrial humanity. One of them turned a bulging black
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: eye upward and saw dispro its flat face split across
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: and a mouth like an open gladstone bag shouted its discovery.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: One green paw, webbed but prehensile, snatched a weapon from
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: a metal length waist belt and aimed it at the terrestrial.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: But Dispro, too, was quicker on the draw. His gang
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: rule on Earth had necessitated shooting skill as well as leadership.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: His own automatic sprang into his hand. No you don't,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: he snapped, and shot the weapon out of the Venusian's flipper.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: It screamed in a voice that vibrated the steamy air,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: and its companion started and shrank back and startled wonder.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Dispro drew a second pistol, leveling it at them. I'll
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: shoot the first one that moves, he promised, as if
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: they could understand. And understand they did up with shaky
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: flipper hands. No, no, they boomed in thunderous humility.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: Don't don't.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: He had not the time to wonder that they spoke
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: words he knew. He swung his weapons in swift arcs,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: covering them all max behind that sense enough to level
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: the long barrel of a repeating rifle. Please, roared a
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Venusian who seemed to be a leader. We do not
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: to you better not, cautioned Disparo loftily. We are more
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: profitable as friends that as enemies. Friends, agreed the leader. Friends,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: if you try any funny business, went on, Dispro, well,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: watch he snapped his right hand gun up and fired.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: The bullet snipped away a leaf the size of an
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: open umbrella. As the great green blob drifted down, Disparo
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: fired again and again until ripped to rags. The leaf
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: fell limply. Among the Venusians. They moaned like awe struck foghorns. Understand,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: taunted Dispro savvy, I could kill you all as easy
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: as look at you, friends, promised the leader. Again, Max muttered, Dispro,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: these birds quit very easily without a fight, But keep
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: me covered from up here. Planter's rope still dangled along
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: the hull, Dispro slid down, coming to his feet on
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: the raft heap below. The Venusians gave back. In weary confusion,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Dispro allowed himself to smile upward. See what an ape
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: you are, Max, he chuckled, You gotta look at one
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: of these and thought it was a girl. You're not
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: much of a picker.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: Max.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: To the Venusian chief, he said, I think I'll muscle
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: in on your territory. Mara, the crossbow girl brought planters
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: to the place she called the nest.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: It was hollowed out.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: In the thickest part of the towering jungle, as a
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: rabbit's form is hollowed among tall grasses. The floor was
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: of platted and pressed wythes, supported on stumps and roots
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: of many tall growths. Rounding upward and outward from this
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: were walls, also of wooden poles and twigs woven into
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: the growing tangle. The roof was similarly made, but strengthened
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: and waterproofed with earth dried and baked by some sort
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: of intense heat. The space, thus blocked off was shaped
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: like the rough inside of a hollow pumpkin, and its
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: size was comparable to the auditorium of a large theater.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: Within it were set up smaller hut than bowers. There
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: were common cooking fires in ovens of stone and mud brick,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: and a great common light suspended from the ceiling by
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: a lawn heavy chained. This was a metal lamp fed
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: by oily sap from some sort of tree. Finding the
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: nest was difficult. Mara had picked a careful way through
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: maces of thick vegetation, paying special attention to the rearranging
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: of leaves and branches behind them. Sagely, she explained that
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: the sky goers, when hunting her kind, were thus completely lost.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Even at the very doorstep of the nest, the tangle vines, branches,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: and leaf sprays obscured any hint of such a place
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: at hand. The dwellers in the nest were all women.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: They came cautiously forward twenty or so as Mara ushered
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: planter inside. They were active specimens, dress scantily and attractively
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: like Mara. Most of them were young, several combling. All
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: were fair of skin and hair, a logical condition in
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: the cloud, the air of venus. They wore daggers, hatchets,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: ammunition pouches. Even at home they all carried crossbows. What
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: does this man here, demanded a lean, harsh faced woman
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: of middle age. Is he not content with servitude? Mara
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: shook her head. He's like none we know. He fights
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: more fiercely than we be caught.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: It should have.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: Seen him bare handed. He overcame two skygars, I slew
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: two more.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: Look at our trove.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: She opened a parcel of great leaves and showed dozens
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: of the silver pins that were ammunition for both the
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: sky gore pistols, and the human crossbows. Planter also showed
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: what he had brought from the battlefield, several belts, numerous
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: harness fastenings, and two of the guns.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: These latter made the.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: Crossbow girls nervous. We stand by these, Mara said, tapping
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: her crossbow. Planter fiddled with a pistol. Its mechanism was
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: strange but understandable, and he flattered himself that he could
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: learn to use it. As for the pin missiles, they
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: seemed to contain a charge that burned violently on exposure
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: to air. The trigger mechanism, whether pistol or crossbow, punctured it,
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: set it afire, and the vehemence of combustion not only
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: propelled it but destroyed the target completely. The older woman,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: whose name was Mantha, nodded her head over a decision.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Let the man have the dag, she granted, with an
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: air of authority. If he fights, as Mara says, he
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: may be of aid. Yet he is unlike those we
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: know in hue and aspect true enough, Planter was dark
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: of complexion, with black curls and ruddy tan jaws. He
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: spoke to Mantha respectfully for the others called her mother
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: and treated her as a commander. I'm not of your people,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: he said, I come from another planet, Earth, Earth, She repeated,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: you come from there?
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: Why so do we all.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: Down a trail went a patrol of Skygars among them,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: not much under them in size, tramped Max. His broad
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: shoulders bore a great burden of supplies from the ship.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: At the head of the procession. Next to the chief
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: walked Dispro, as someone else was saying to plant her.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: At almost the same moment, the Chief Skygar boomed to dispro,
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: you are not like men we know naturally not agreed,
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: dispro Your race is more like a bunch of freak reptiles.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Not my race, demurred the Chief skygore men slaves. Disprow
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: understood only part and took exception to that. I'm no
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: slave of yours, he warned, No equal. We have long
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: needed equal men to kill off the wild girls. You see,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: mister Disbrow, chimed in Max from behind. Dave Planter was embarrassed.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: Inside the nest. He sat on a crew chair opposite
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: Mantha the mother. The overhead light burned dim and damp,
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: vanishing fires in the ovens mingled red clothes. Planter asked questions,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: but was distracted by the crossbow girls, who watched him
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: with round eyes, whispering and giggling. Mara, near by scowled
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: at the noisemaker's This venus world has much that's unknown.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Mantha said, Here in the north, can we dwell? Not
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: many days off? The steam is thick, the heat horrid,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: the jungle dreadful. None go there and return, mother. If
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: you are called that, enlighten me, begged Planter. You say
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: you come from earth. Our fathers came lifetimes agone. Planter's
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: good looking face showed his amazement. Interworld flight was new,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: he had thought, but some unknown expedition might have tried it, succeeded,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: and then never returned to report. Twas for fear of
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: Black Bromwell. Mantha enlarged Bromwell, echoed Planter, the Puritan leader
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: who fought and wiped out the English cavaliers. Matha seized
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: on one word, cavaliers. Yes, our lives were forfeit. We
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: flew hither. It explained everything. Human beings in a world
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: never meant for anything but amphibians, their fair complexions, their
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: quaint but understandable speech, the crossbows that would be familiar
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: weapons to Shakespeare, Drake or Captain John Smith. Yes, it
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: explained everything except how pre machine age Britishers could succeed
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: on a voyage where eight spaceships before planters had failed.
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: How did you fly?
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: Demanded Planter. Amazed, Mantha shook her graying locks. Nay, I
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: know not twas long ago, and all records are held
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: in the sky goer fastness. They stole from you. After
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: our fathers made landfall, there was war, Mantha said, her
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: voice bitter. The skygers were many and would have slain all,
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: but thought to hold slaves, and as slaves, our fathers
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: dwelt and died, and their children after them. But you
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: aren't slaves, protested Planter. Tis sky gore fashion to keep
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: all men, and such women as are hail enow for toil.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: Others who seem weak they cast forth to die, like us,
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: who did not die. Chimed in Mara, plucking her bowstring.
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: We found fruits, meat, shelter and joined. Now we slay
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: sky goers for their metals and shot. Lately they slay
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: weaklings lest they join us. Planter whistled. This was the
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: harsh proof of human tenacity. The sky goers discarding unprofitable
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: servants and finding them a menace. None of you were weaklings,
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: he said, Freedom brings health, replied Mantha stintously. Yet they
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: are many more than we, well fortified, and have a
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: strange spell to whelm those who attack. She grimaced in distaste.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: We but lurk and linger, fighting when we must, then
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: fleeing when we may.
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: As the last of.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: Us dies, things began to happen. A tall, robust girl,
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: very handsome, had been hitching her woven chair close to Planter.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: With a pert boldness. She touched his hand. I've seen
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: no man since I was driven forth a child, she
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: informed him. I like you, I am Sollah. Mara rose
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: from her own seat, swore a rather Elisa beethan oath,
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: and slept Sola's face resoundingly. Sola, too, sprang up larger
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: than Mara. She clutched her assailants shoulders and tripped her
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: over a neatly extended foot. Mara spun sidewise and falling
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: broke Solla's hold came to her feet with.
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: A drawn dagger.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: This happened silently and swiftly, with none of the screaming
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: and fumbling that marks the rare battles between terrestrial women.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: Planter stared, half aghast and half admiring. Another girl whispered
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: behind him, Let them fight, send them ill, dazed, Look
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: at me, I am not ugly. Perhaps to flee this
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: new admirer, Planter threw himself between the two fighters. As
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: Mara attempted to stab Solla, Planter caught her weapon wrists
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: and wrenched the knife from her. Meanwhile, Sallah snatched up
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: a crossbow, leaving Mara. Planter struck the thing out of
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: aiming line just in time. The pin missile tore through
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: the basketry wall of the nest, and Planter gained possession
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: of the crossbow. Not without trouble. Are you girls fighting
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: over me? He demanded? Begad, what else, challenged Mantha, who
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: had also sprung forward, art a man of height and
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: presence for any man, these my manless girls would contend?
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: Ay, would we?
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Agreed one of the bevy with frightening candor, He's mine,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: snapped Mara, holding her own crossbow with the revy step forth,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: who will? And I speak true? I'm nobody's exploded, Planter. Anyway,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going I've two friends near here that I've got
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: to find, and soon more men ejaculated Salah forgetting her anger.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: Fighters with weapons, said Planter, ignoring her. They'll help you
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: smoke out these sky goers and set free your kinsmen.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: Happy cries greeted his words, I'll guide you home, David,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: Planter offered, and Mantha gestured approval. Mara and Planter left
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: the nest on a new jungle trail. Mara explained that
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: these tunnels were made by great floundering beasts and served
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: as runways for smaller land life. The girl trod the green,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: fog filled labyrinths with assurance. Within minutes they reached the
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: pool where Dispro had landed the ship. At the edge
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: floated the limp dead thing that Mara had killed to
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: save Planter. Small flutterers, like gross winged flies, but as
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: large as gulls, swarmed to dig out morsels. Mara called
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: the creature.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: A craw ou.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: The flying scavenger's grolls Cigo words for ugly beasts. She commented,
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: neither was good for food. Planter picked his way from
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: root to root toward the ship Dispro. He called Max.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: There was no answers. He scrambled up an inside, then
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: out again. Something's happened, he said, gravely. Mara studied the
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: massed logs that made a rough raft skyger work, and
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: eke the rope of wires about your ship. They've been
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: captured by skygers for slaves. Planter had climbed down again,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: his hands sought the sky goor pistol at his belt.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: His face was tense and pale. I'll get them back.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: Where's this swamp city, you mention? She pointed? Not far,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: but the way is perilous. The trails throng with sky goers,
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: and there is the spell that sounds like some old superstition,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: snorted Planter. I'm not afraid of sky goers.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: I killed two today.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: Hi, she smiled. They are not great fighters in these parts,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: but there are more than two at the city. Come along,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: you can go back to the nest, she smiled more broadly.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: How else will you find the way? My David, for
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: you are my David. Don't start that again, he bade her,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: more roughly than he felt.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: Lead the way.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: Mara took a nearby jungle trail. After some time, she
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: paused and studied the matted footing tracks. She pronounced certain
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: skygores and two pairs of feet shot like yours, Planter
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: looked at the muddied marks thus diagnosed by the skilled
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: trail eye of Mara. My friends and their captors aye
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: that they went this way.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: Come.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: She slipped aside through the close set stems.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: Planter did. Likewise.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: Mara slung her crossbow behind her and climbed a trunk
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: as a beetle scales a flower stalk. To safer from
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: skygors up here, she told him over her shoulder, follow
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: me carefully. Planter did so with difficulty. He was a
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: vigorous climber, and the lesser gravity of Venus made him
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: more agile. But Mara, some forty feet overhead, swung through
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: the crisp cross of limbs and vines like a squirrel. Wait,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: he called, striving to catch up. She paused, finger to lips.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: As he came near, she said, softly, not so loud.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: We come close. Feel you the spell hanging quietly. Planter
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: did feel it. Uneasiness came, chilling his back despite the
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: steamy warmth, His hair stirred on his head, his teeth gritted,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: and he could not reason himself out of the mood.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: Mara moved ahead, and he followed. Growing accustomed to the climbing,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: He made progress, but the uncomfortable sense of peril grew
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: rather than diminished. Once in their strange journey, Mara paused
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: and from a belt pouch produced food. It consisted of
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: fire dried fruits, strange to Planter, but tasty and substantial.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: Also two meat dumplings, made by wrapping a nut flavored
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: dough around marsels of flesh. For drink, she plucked long
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: spear like leaves from a vine, and Planter found them
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: full of punge and juice. While they munched, he heard
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: boomings in the distance, which Mara identified as sky gore speech.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: We are almost there, she whispered, Look well. She rose,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: and again they took up the journey. After a time,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: she paused again and pointed. Just beyond them, the branches
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: thinned out over a great open space in the jungle.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: Under a far flung canopy of white vapor lay the
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: swamp city of the Skygeses. Planter, gazing in wonder at
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: the strange city, thought of old venice, or of a
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: beaver colony in a dyke pond. Before and beneath him
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: was a quiet, greeny clear body of water. Around its
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: rim grow shrubs, bushes, and huge reeds. Their roots, clasping
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: the great facing of white rock, which apparently paved the
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: banks in bottom of the pool. In the water itself,
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: poking above the surface in little pointed clusters, and plainly
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: visible where they extended beneath, were the houses of the skyges.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: They were of some kind of soil or clay that
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: had been processed to a concrete hardness, and were tinted
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: in various colors. Some of the smaller dwellings were roughly
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: spherical and crowned with cone shaped roofs. Others larger, protruded
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: well above the water in cylindrical form. Here and there
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: travel ways connected the clustered groups. But it was beneath
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: the surface that the town was complex and great. It
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: seemed to lie tier above tier, closely built and grouped
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: with here and there protruding arms or wings of building,
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: like coral budded from the same mass. In those depths
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: swang myriads of skygoers, plainly at home underwater. More of
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: them at the window holes of the upper towers are
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: paddling on the surface, boomed and roared at each other
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: in their deafening language. From on high, Planter saw them
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: as smaller and less to be dreaded. They might have
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: been slight fantasy things. Water elves are super intelligent frogs.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: Look you, David, Planter prompted Mara at his elbow. From
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: a tunnel like hole in the jungle, a group of
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: skygers emerged. Among them were two human figures, clad like
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: Planter in loose overalls and helmets. Your friends, Mara questioned, right,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: snapped Planter grimly. He drew the pistol weapon and glared
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: Dispro and Max, the latter, stooping under a great bale
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: of goods from the ship, had paused on the brink
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: of the water. A sky goer was thundering to them
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: in words of English, which Planter, across the water found
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: hard to catch. Other sky goers motioned at the pool,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: and one or two jumped in and struck out for
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: nearby buildings. They want your friends to dive, Mara informed him.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: See the slim one shakes his head. Planter rested the
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: pistol on his forearm and sighted on the sky goer,
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: who harangued Dispro. Meanwhile, other sky goers were bringing up
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: what appeared to be a small inflated boat that operated
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: with a paddle wheel arrangement. Behind Mara, saw what Planter
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: was doing. No, she gasped, don't, David, I'm going to
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: He told her, we'll be next. Nonsense, those flapper footed
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: devils can't climb. They're too heavy, too clumsy. She caught
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: at his weapon wrist, but he had fired. The Skygirl
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: weapon was a wondrous one. Even an indifferent shot like
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: Planter could not miss with it. The Skyger beside Disbrow
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: seemed to burst into flames around his flat bushel maulted face,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: and then he collapsed and lay still. His companions swarmed
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: to his side, rending the air with their horrid yells.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: Planter chuckled and Mara moaned. The man moved forward among
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: the branches to a place where he could be seen.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: Hi desbro he trumpeted, as loudly as any skygro Max.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: It's David Planter. Run while you have the chance. I'll
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: pick those toads off. But neither of his friends offered
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: to escape. They only stood engaged at him. You idiots,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: blazed Planter, and then saw that two of the Skygoers
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: on the inflated boat were aiming weapons at him. He
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: sent a silver pin at their craft, and it melted
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: abruptly as its air escaped from the puncture. A third
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: shot took one of the skygoers splashing in the water.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: Run you two, Planter bade his companions once more. He
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: felt a grip on his ankle and glanced down. Mara,
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: had crouched low, was trying to pull him back from view.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: As soon as she had his eye, she let him
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: go and thrust both fingers into her ears in some
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: sort of a sign he did not comprehend. Understanding downed
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: suddenly and too late. The mist trembled and swirled. At
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: a sudden outburst of sound, louder than even a sky
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: gore chorus. Planter dropped his weapon began to lift his
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: hands to his ears in imitation of Mara, but he
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: could not. The noise possessed him as a rush of
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: electric current might course through a body, paralyzing and agonizing it.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: He swayed and floundered among the branches. His hair bristled,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: his ears rang, his blood coursed, Every fiber of him vibrated.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: Yet something about it was vaguely familiar, as though it
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: was something he had experienced, or a magnification of such
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: a something. Yes, of course, the uneasiness that Mara called
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: the spell. Some device made a noise, vibration normally subaudible,
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: but unpleasant enough to warn aliens away. In a time
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: like this, when attack came, it could be intensified to
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: the point of striking the enemy stupid. Meanwhile, he was
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: falling through branches and leafage to splash clumsily into the
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: water of the pool. Abruptly the noise ceased. The skygoers
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: were around him, their flipper hands fastening upon him, and
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: he was too wrung out, too grateful for silence to resist.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: End of Part two, Part three of Venus Enslaved by
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: Manly Wade Wellman. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: Part three. He may have fainted later on.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: He could not be sure, but his next clear mist
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: was of lying in one of the inflated paddle boats,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: in which sat sky goers with weapons. They're also sat
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: dispro watching him intently, dispro muttered planter, they got you two. No,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: they didn't get me too, mimicked, dispro I'm in the
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: racket with them, understand, Planter sat up, and two sky
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: goers have drew their weapons to warn him.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: I thought you were captured, he mumbled, not me.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: I do things neatly showed I could be an enemy,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: but would rather be a friend. You butted in killing
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: two of them. Someone says you got two others earlier.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: Today they're holding you a prisoner, and probably you'll be killed.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: Planter studied, dispro Easy, does it, he said softly. Better
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: not act as if you know me. You might get
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: mixed up in No chance, snarled dispro I told him
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: you were an enemy of mine. I'm not mixed up
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: in anything, Planter subsided, plainly. Dispro was able to take
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: care of himself. Plainly. Planter must do the same with
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: no help from any one. He wondered about Mara with
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: a sudden, chilled pang. The brave girl had guided him
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: here despite her knowledge that sky Gore Country was dangerous.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: She had done it to please him, because she liked him.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: He wondered what had happened to her. He lounged under
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: the Skygore guns, thinking of Mara.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: In his mind.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: He saw the light of her steady blue eyes, felt
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: the touch of her slim, strong hand. His heart quickened.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: Hang it, he told himself, you aren't in love with her.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: She's a savage and you only met her a few
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: hours ago. You're only worried because you feel responsibility. But
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: he knew he lied. The boat brought them to an
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: entrance hold at water level in a large cylindrical structure.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: Dispro swaggered inside with his new friends. A guard prodded
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: Planter with his pistol barrel to follow. As Planter obeyed,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: he saw behind him another boat, in which rowed Max
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: with all the baggage he had been carrying. Sky Gores
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: sat with Max plainly on good terms. Max saw Planter too,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: and his face twitched and scowled, as in an effort
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: to rationalize. Inside, he found himself in a large, bare
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: room with dry, rough cast walls. Dispro waited there with
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: a sky gore whose elaborate chain mail suggested that he
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: was an officer. Despro boomed this individual cordially. You say
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: this is your enemy, What shall be done to him?
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: I leave that to Youvra, answered Disbro, with a grand
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: manner of bestowing gifts. You have your own ways of
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: handling such problems. I am content. Another sky gore approached,
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: and the officer discussed the case in deafening sky Gore language. Then,
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: facing Planter, he resumed English. Your life is forfeit, but
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: you look strong. Perhaps you can prove yourself worth keeping
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: join the slaves. He struck his webbed hands together. A
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: human man ran in. Like Mara and the other crossbow girls.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: This man was blonde, but the resemblance ended there. He
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: wore loose brief garments of elastic fabric, no weapons, and
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: his face was mild and servile. Fra pointed at Planter.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 2: Below with him put him in the spring mill.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: The slave beckoned and led Planter away, studying him curiously,
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: spoke at once, you have many friends here in slavery.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: Perhaps I can get you out of this.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: Out of this.
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: The echo was horrified to starve in the jungle. Marry, sir,
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: or too mad or sick to say such a thing.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: Come down these stairs. Planter obeyed his new companion. They
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: went down a dim stone stairway lighted with green bulbs.
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: From below came sounds of mechanical action. What's your name,
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: Planter asked the slave. Glonfield, and you, David Planter, how
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: many slaves are here? Human slaves? Two hundred be like
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: half as many as the sky gos. That was a
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: new thought to Planter. On Earth races numbered in the millions.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: Here by the scores. Of course, this might not be
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: the only sky goer city. Mara had mentioned the difficult
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: of exploring any distance from this habitable pole. For a
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: moment he felt the thirst for knowledge. Wasn't this world,
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: as large as his own planet might, did not have continents, oceans,
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: mountain ranges hold genera of strange species, perhaps other civilizations
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: and climates. Then he remembered he was a slave, and
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: a booming voice drove the memory home.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: Below.
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: Men thundered a skycreguard, you are not fed, and lodged
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: to be idle pardon, mumbled Glonfille, and quickened his descent.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: Planter followed, beating down a rage of battle. At the
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: rough shouting of the guard, the underwater levels were not flooded,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: though the walls were gloomily damp. Planter found himself in
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: a great rambling chamber, bordered and encumbered with machines at
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: which men toiled. Glonfill was presenting him to a skygore
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: who made notes with a crayon like instrument on a board. No,
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: he questioned in his earth dulling roar. Whence came he
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: never stop to answer. Show him how to work your machine?
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: Glonfield led him to a cylindrical appliance against a wall.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: It had a multitude of levers and push buttons, and
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: lights shone in its glass to forefront. Most of these
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: were green, but one turned red as they approached. Glon
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: Phil pushed a button and turned a lever. The light
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: switched to green again. The red means a faulty rhythm
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: somewhere in the light system, explained Glonfhil. Fix it by
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: manipulating the buttons and levers near the red lights. Yes,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: so it takes not skill. But weary watching Planter took over.
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: He found time to observe the rest of the slave
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: teamed basement. Some operated a treadmill, others wound that keys
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: or turn cranks. The machines were strange, but not mysterious.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: He judged that they pumped, elevated, and modeled. Golon Phil
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: answered his questions, tis the Skygore method?
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: We supply power by our.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: Labors, springs, levers. Such things are worked, springs and levers,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: repeated Planter, Is this a clockwork town? Why not fuel steam?
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: Golon Phil shook his head. We men make small fires,
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: but the Skygors knot. Their nature is moist. They want
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: such things. Not as you say, clockwork is the use
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: of this place. If you refuse to do this slave
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: work within Golonfield shrugged and shuddered. Oh, if the sin
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: is not too great, you go to a level below this.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: Men drag upon a capstan to wind the mightiest of
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: springs for town works, like rowing in a galley. Planter
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: summed up wrathfully. But if the sin is pretty sinful,
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: a sky goer overseer came close, saw that Planter had
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: learned the simple machine, and called Glonville to some other task.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: Planter worked until such time as a raucous voice bade
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: another shift take over. Marshaled with twenty or more slaves,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: he was led away to a musty vault, one side
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: of which was lined with cell like sleeping quarters. Here
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: was the brick oven. Perhaps those in the nests were
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: designed from it, over which two sturdy women toiled at cookery.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: As the slaves entered, these women quickly passed out stone
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: plates and metal spoons. Into these were poured generous portions
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: of hot, appetizing stew.
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 2: They feed you well.
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: These skygers compacted Planter to Glonfille as he finished his
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: plateful tis their fashion. They seek to make us happy.
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: Planter went to the kettles for another helping of stew
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: and ate more slowly. I'd rather eat in freedom, he
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: commented half to himself. Freedom, echoed Glonfil. As if scornful
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: we hear of what freedom can be, scant commons, rough beds,
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: danger and damp. Better to toil honestly in farewell, I said,
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: a bigger slave with a spade beard of reddish tinge.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: Did not the skygoers help our first father's stranger as
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: now they help you? I've heard otherwise? Planter rejoined. It
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: seemed there was a fight. The men were licked, the
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: survivors made captive and put to work. That's what happened
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: to me. Best be silent, murmured Glonfield, Bending close. That
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: talk makes few friends. Planter changed the subject, asking various
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: questions about Venus. His companions eyed him strangely as he
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: displayed his ignorance, but made cheerful answer. The noise that
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: had overwhelmed him was a vibrating metal instrument, they said.
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: Their description made it sound like an organ of sorts.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: As he had surmised, it was always in some sort
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: of operation, and could be turned on full force if
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: need be. The sky goers, with senses meant to endure
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: great noises, were not hurt by such a din, but
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: human ears would be tortured if not quickly closed. Our
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: laborers give the instrument power, informed Glonfield rather proudly. Planter
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: thought over his experiences of the day. These sky goers
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: have many human devices, he ventured. Aye, that agreed, the
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: big bearded one. In the first days, our fathers wrought
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: many articles which the sky goers developed and used. That's
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: what I'm driving at. Planter broke in forgetting Glonfield's counsel
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: to be cautious. They not only enslaved you, they took
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: your ideas and improved themselves. I'll wager they were savages
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: to begin with, and you're actually grateful for the chance
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: to crawl at their big webbed feet. This world belongs
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: to the skygars, spoke up one of the women as
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: she washed dishes. Without them, we would be shelterless and foodless,
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: like the weaklings they drove forth. Planter refrained to tell
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: what he knew of the Crossbow girls. Plainly, he was
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: up against an attitude of content from which he would be.
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 2: Hard to free.
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: His new companions harder than to free them from guards
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: and prison walls. He slept that night in a hammock
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: like bed, and next day worked at the machine. His
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: toil was long, but not sapping, and food was good.
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: Once a sky gore came to take his clothing, shoes,
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: and possessions, giving him a sleeveless shirt and shorts instead.
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: Otherwise he was not bothered by the masters of the city.
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: For days, perhaps ten, He followed this routine, masking his
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: feeling of revolt. Then came a skyger messenger to lead
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: him away along underwater corridors to some one who had
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: sent At the end of the journey, he entered an office.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: There sat the person he least expected to see, Dispro you,
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: Rat Planter began, but Dispro waved the insult aside. Don't
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: be a bigger rape than usual, he sniffed. I've been
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: able to do you a favor. You didn't do me
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: much of one when I was captured. Reminded Planter, how
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: could I argued Dispro in the charming fashion he could
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: sometimes achieve, I was only on probation. If I'd tried
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: to help you, then we'd both be dead instead of
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: both on top of this Turkish bath.
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 2: World sit down.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: They took stools on opposite sides of a heavy wooden table. Planter,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: how would you like to help me run venus? You're
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: going to get away from these skygores again, disbro waved
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: the words away. Why should I? I'll run them too. Look,
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: we landed safely, didn't we. Observations on Earth will show that,
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: won't they?
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 2: Right? Agreed?
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: Planter mystified, There'll be more ships coming to look for
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: us and maybe set up a colony.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: We'll ambush those ships. Ambush, repeated Planter, sharply losing your
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: mind at Despro, No, I'm only thinking.
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 2: For all of us.
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: Ships will come, I say, loaded with supplies, valuables, all
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: sorts of things. We can overwhelm them as they land.
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: Some of their crews will join us, the others can
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: be rubbed out, and the law aw can't touch Usplanter.
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: Not for a minute. What are you driving at, Planter demanded,
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: I'm the law said Dispro, tapping his chest. Just now,
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: I string with the sky gorris. Later I may knock
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: him off, but anyway, I'm the commander of the first
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: expedition to land on venus. I have a right to
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: take possession in my own name, he got up, his
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: voice rising clear and proud, possession like Columbus, not of
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: a continent, of a whole world. Planter, leaning forward on
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: his stool, clutched the edge of the table so strongly
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: that his knuckles whitened. And what he asked, slowly and quietly,
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: do you want me to do? I'm coming to that,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: said dispro smiling with superior craftiness. You are going to
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: help me solidify these loud mouthed skygers. They hold me
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: for a slave, reminded Planter hoarsely, for he did not
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: like the life as well as Glonfiel and the others
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: who toiled among the clockwork. But Disproo brushed the complaint aside.
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: That's because they don't know what I know. Your lady friends,
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, Planter glanced up sharply.
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 2: Dispro chuckled.
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: I talk a lot with these Skygors. Not bad fellows
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: if you muffle your ears anyway. They tell me about
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: a herd of wild girls that bush wax them constantly,
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: and which they hope I'll find and destroy. Lately, some
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: of the girls have been scouting around, yelling for something.
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: The Skygers have the best English and don't know what
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: the words mean, but I do. Those girls are calling
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: your name, David Planter. Mara had come back for him,
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: then she brave the terrors of the Skygorer fortress trying
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: to get him back. Planter felt warmth around his heart.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: He faced dispro and shook his head. I don't know
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: what you're talking about, he said. You must be getting
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: drunk with your Skyger friends. They don't have any kind
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: of liquor, only some sort of sniff powder I wouldn't touch.
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 2: And you're a cheerful liar.
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: Planter. You know all about those girls, and you're probably
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: good friends with them. Don't be a fool. I'm offering
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: you a slice of my empire. Empire, echoed Planter, honestly scornful.
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: You really think you'll go through with this idea of
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: grabbing Venus for yourself. I know all the angles back
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: on Earth.
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 2: I was boss of.
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: Quite an organization and ended up in jail, buying your
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: way out by gambling your life on this voyage. Plan
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: to rush those words into speech, but made them clear,
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: biting and passionate. You're a case for brain doctors, not
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: jail Warden's I don't know why I listen to you.
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: I know why hurled back, dispro because I'm already quite
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: a pet among these sky gorris. I could kill you
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: or save you. Meanwhile, we're changing the subject. I want
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: you to lead me to these wild girls, and after
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: we're solid with them, a bunch of sky goers will
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: come nothing doing. In other words, you now admit that
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: there is such a group, and you'll take Orcer's Planters.
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: I'm still chief of the expedition. Planter shook his head.
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: I can give you arguments on that you've betrayed the
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: trust of the foundation back home that lets you out.
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: You don't have authority over me, he rose, abruptly, send
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: me back to the basement, dispro. Dispro too jumped up.
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: He held something in his hand. It was a gun,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: not a Skyger Curiosity, but a terrestrial made automatic. You
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: don't get off that easy, Planter. I need you badly,
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: and you kneed your insides badly. Knuckled down before I
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: blow them out, Planter smiled broadly and rather sunnily. Suddenly
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: he lifted a toe he kicked over the table against
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: and a pawn Dispro down went the elegant, lean figure,
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: and a bullet sang over Planter's head as he dived
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: in to grapple and fight Dispro. The lighter of the
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: two was wondrously agile. Almost before he struck the concrete floor,
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: he was wriggling clear of the table. Planter's weight threw
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: him flat again, but he struck savage choppy blows with
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: the pistol he still held half dazed, Planter could not
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: get a tight grip, and Dispro got away in up. Planter,
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: shaking the mist from his battered head, staggered after him,
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: caught the weapon wrist and wrung the gun away. It
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: clang down.
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 2: At their feet.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: All right, Planter, if you want it that way, muttered
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: Dispro savagely, and took a long stride backward. He got
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: time to fall on guard, like the accomplished boxer he was.
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: Planter sprang after him. Dispro met him with a neat
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: left jab, followed it with a hook that bobbed Planter's
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: head back, and easily slid away from a powerful but
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: clumsy return. When Planter faced him again, he stood out
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: of danger, smiling and lifting a little on his toes.
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: How do you like it? He laughed, didn't know I
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: was a fancy dad, eh. Planter charged again. Dispro slipped
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: right and left tries at his jaw, returned a smart
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: peg to Planter's belly, and then let the bigger man
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: blunder past and fetch up against a wall. Planter was
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: forced to lean there a nauseous moment, and Dispro hooked
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: him hard under the ear. A moment later, Planter was
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: crouching and backing away, sheltering his bruised head with cross storms.
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: He heard Dispro laugh again. This is fun, pronounced Despero.
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: I've been taught by professionals, Planter good ones, not washouts
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: like poor Max. Planter clenched at last, but Disbro's wiry
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: body spun loose.
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 2: The two faced each.
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: Other, and Planter felt some of his strength and wit
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: come back. He realized that he was being beaten. He
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: must change tactics. He remembered what he could have fist science,
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: and abruptly crouched again. He had advanced, but not in
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: a rush. Inch by inch. He shuffled in, head sunk
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: between his shoulders, hands lifted to strike or defend. You
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: look like a turtle, mocked Dispro.
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 2: And tried a left.
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: It glanced off Planter's forehead, and Planter sidled to his left,
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: away from Dispro's more dangerous right, bobbing and weaving lower Still,
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: he baffled more efforts to stain him. A moment later,
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: Dispro was backing, and Planter had him in a corner.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: Close in.
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: He struck not for dispros adroid head, but for his body.
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: His left found the pit of the stomach, just within
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: the apex of the shallow inverted V, where ribs sloped
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: down from breastbone. Dispro grunted in pain, and Planter put
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: all his shoulders behind a sharp, heavy peg under the heart,
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: again in the belly twice thrice he felt dispro sag
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: A hook glanced from Planter's jowl, but it was weak
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: and shaky. Dispro managed to slip out of the corner,
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: but Planter was now the stronger and surer.
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 2: Across the room.
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: He followed his enemy, playing ever for the body, kidneys, abdomen, heart.
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: Disproow was hanging on his breath, came in choking grunts.
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: Planters struggled loose and sank one clean, hard right uppercut.
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: Dispro spun off his feet, fell across the overturned table
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: and lay moaning and gasping. Had enough, Planter challenged. Dispro
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: was crawling on the floor, trying to grab the pistol.
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: Planter sprang in stamped on Dispro's knuckles. Dispro had only
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: the strength and breath for one scream, and collapsed abruptly.
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: Sky gors entered sky goers with hard eyes and leveled weapons.
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: What demanded one is this? Dispro, helped to his shaky feet,
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: pointed at Planter. He he refused. He managed to wheeze out.
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: Dispro nodded, and Planter felt a sudden rush of joy.
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: They would drive him forth as they used to drive
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: forth unprofitable female slaves, and he would find the nest
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: again and Mara. He was being herded along a passage upstairs.
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: The sky goers who guarded him kept their weapons close
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: against his ribs. No escape, they promised him bilfully. He
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: wondered at that, but only a little. Now They had
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: brought him out upon an open railed ridge between two buildings.
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: Below was water above the thick Venusian mist. Jomp a
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: sky goer obeyed him.
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 2: I need no.
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: Second chance, Planter replied breezily, and dived in. He still
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: wore the scanty costume of a slave, and it allowed
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: him to strike out easily for the edge of the pool.
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: Behind him, the skygoers were discussing him, but in their
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: own guttural tongue, which he could not understand. As he swam,
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: he studied the city beneath the water. He meant to
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: come back and assail that city sometime, and there must
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: be worthwhile secrets to note. For instance, he was now
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: aware that this pool was artificial. He made out the
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: sluices and gates of a large dam. To one side
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: was a spacious submarine chamber. That must be the clockwork
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: jam cellar, where his erstwhile companions, the slaves worked. But
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: something else was under the water, something that moved darkly
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: but had arms and legs. Though it was as vast
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: as an elephant, it was approaching him swiftly. Knowingly, now
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: he knew why he had been told with such a
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: voice of doom to jump into the water. End of
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: Part three, Part four of Venus Enslaved by Manly Wade Wellman.
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 2: Part four.
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: Planter's blood was still up because of that brisk battle
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: with dispro He was young, strong in gilt edge condition.
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: His new impulse was to keep on fighting against the
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: thing which had the size, the intention, and apparently the
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: appetite to engulf him. The huge swimmer was a skygore
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: of tremendous eize. Logic in the back of Planter's head
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: bade him not to be amazed. On this damp, facund world.
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: Monsters of such sort were not too unthinkable. As it
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: broke surface, he heard a hubbub like many steel sirens.
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: The smaller skygoers on housetops and bridges were all chanting
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: some sort of ear bursting littany, waving their flippers in unison. Plainly,
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: they worshiped this giant of their race. He Planter was
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: a gift, a sacrifice. He swam speedily, but his pursuer
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: was speedier still. With ponderous overhand strokes, it overhauled him
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: an arm as long as his body, with a flipper
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: hand like a tremendous scoop shovel extended to clutch at him.
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: A mouth like an open trunk, gaped large enough to
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: gulpe him bodily. Only one thing to do he did.
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: It dived at once, turning under water and darting below
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: and in an opposite direction from the great swimmer. By
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: pure happy chance, his kicking feet struck the soft cushion
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: of its mighty belly, and he heard the thrumbing gasp
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: of the wind, and he knocked out of it. Coming
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: up beyond, he swam desperately toward a nearby building if
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: he could climb up away from this huge, hungry being.
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 2: No, not here.
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: That was a sky gore poking its ugly, smirking face
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: from a window hole. He tried to seize the sill
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: to draw himself out of the water, and it lifted
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: a dagger to slash at his knuckles, But then it gasped, wriggled,
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: the paw opened, the knife fell. Planter managed to catch
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: it as it struck the water. A moment later he
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: saw what had happened. Big human hands were fastened on
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: the slimy throat. From behind the sky gore struggling was
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: pulled back out of sight. In its place showed the flat,
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: simple features of Max. Hugh gurgled, Max, You in trouble,
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: mister Planter. He put out a hand to help. At
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: the same moment, a monster slipper struck at Planter driving
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: him deep underwater. He filled his lungs with air. With
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: the last moment, spun and tried to kick away. His
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: enemy had its hooked claws in his clothing and was
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: drawing him toward the dark cavern of its mouth. Planter
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: struck with the knife he had snatched, and buried the
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: blade in the slimy green lower lip of the creature.
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: It let go, and a cloud of blood red as
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: the blood of Earth's creatures, suddenly obscured the water, so
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: that Planter could attempt another escape. He reached the top
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: once again. The giant held itself half out of the water,
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: big and grotesque as some barbaric sculpture, one webbed hand
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: held against its wounded mouth. As Planter came into view,
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: its big, bitter eyes caught sight of him, dropping its hand,
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: it howled at him.
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 2: All the sky goers at.
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: Their watchposts echoed that howl and began to repeat their
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: uncouth litity. Once again, the monster pursued as before, but
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: from his watchtower, Max threw his burly pugilist's body. Coarsely built.
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: Max might have been stupid, He undoubtedly was cowardly and clumsy.
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: He was not, as he flung himself into space. He
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: shifted so that his feet were down. He drove them
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: hard between the shoulders of the huge skygar demon, and
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: the impact of his flying weight drove it under water.
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: Get out of here, yelled Max at Planter.
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 2: Get out.
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: He had time for no more, for he too submerged.
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: Planter clasped his knife in his teeth and turned in
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: the water. He could not desert that plucky rescuer, writing itself.
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: The big skygar grimaced under the troubled, gory surface. It
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: was having trouble, more trouble than ever before, and its
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: freakish idle over stuffed life as deity and champion of
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: the community. Two alien dwarfs of a species it had
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: looked on hitherto his only enticing meat, were viciously attacking
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: and wounding it. Hunger was overlaid by a stern lust
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: for vengeance. It spied one of the enemy very close.
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: Swimming away, Max was not as much home in the
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: water as Planter, and he could not dodge its grasping talons.
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: Treading water, the thing hoisted him clear as a child
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: might lift a kitten. Its other parts struck him with
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: open webbed palm, hard as a mule's kick. Max went
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: limp once again. That awful mouth opened to its full extent.
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: No you don't, cried Planter, battling his way close for
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: a second time. He drove with the knife, sheathing it
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: to the hilt in a slate colored chest close to
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: an armpit. A fountain of blood sprang forth, drenching his
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: face in weapon hand. He dragged strongly downward, felt his
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: weapon point grating on bone, then coming free. That was
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: a terrible wound, but not a disabling one. In a
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: frenzy of pain and rage, the skygre giant threw Max
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: far into the water and whirled to look at its
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: other tormentor. But Planter had dived yet again. The fresh
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: blood obscured his passage as before. He came up, panted
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: for air, and seized the limp wrist of Max. As
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: he kicked away for shore, he heard the wine and.
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 2: Splat of a missile.
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: The Skygors were shooting at him. He bobbed under, bringing
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: Max with him.
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 2: As he through the water.
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: He felt his friend quiver and beat with his hands.
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: He felt fierce joy Max was alive. He too would escape.
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: He had to come up. Duck down Planter, Max told
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: him at once, they're going to give us another volley.
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: His voice was suddenly intelligent, his words sensible and articulate.
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: Planter took the advice swam forward again. Sure is that way,
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: said Max. When they came up, Can you make it?
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: Give me your hand. The ex pugilist was climbing over
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: a tangle of roots to solid ground. At last, Planter
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: made shift to follow him. What happened? Planter barely whispered.
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: Max laughed very cheerfully. What a wallop that se elephant has.
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: I guess it knocked my senses back into me. Another
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: belt dizzied me back on earth. So it's logical that yeah,
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: es logical. Max was no longer a dim, stupid child
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: in a big man's body. Planter felt himself weakening. He
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: had fought himself out. Even as he turned toward the jungle,
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: he stumbled and fell rolled.
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 2: Over on his back.
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: He could see the whole surface of the water city.
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: Skygors were coming in throngs to recapture him. Crowded aboard
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: their inflated boats or swimming for ahead of them, something
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: like an awful goblin was scrambling out the mighty freak
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: key in Max had dodged up to now. It stood
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: erect on powerful, awkward legs, its eyes probing here and
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: there to pick up the trail of its prey. Planter
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: tried to tell Max to run, but his strength and
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: breath were spent. He could only lie and watch. Max
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: had torn up a kind of sapling, whirled it aloft
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: like a club. The tottering colossus approached them heavily and grimly.
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: It grinned relentlessly. Its bloody muzzle opened and slavered. Out
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: of the jungle moved another figure, a smaller skygir no moral.
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: She sprang across the prostrate form of Planter. He managed
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: to rise to an elbow just as she planted herself
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: in the wave of the oncoming destruction.
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 2: It loomed high.
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: Above her, paws lifted to seize and crushed her. But
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: she had lifted her crossbow.
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 2: Pale fire flashed.
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: The string hummed At a scant five feet of distance,
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: she slammed a pin missile full into the thing's immense chest.
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: It staggered back from her, its face gone into a terrible,
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: oversized mask of awful pain. Those great legs, like dark
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: gnarled stumps, bowed and bent. It fell uncouthly supported itself
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: on spread hands. Planter could see the whole Mara had
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: burned in it a great red raw pit the size
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: of a bushel basket. Then it was down, motionless, dead.
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: Max had helped Planter up. Can you run, he was demanding. No, no,
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: Mara interposed, hurrying back to them. Not run, fight, fight,
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: Planter echoed, rather idiotically. Fight the sky goers see your
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: friends have come through the jungle to the water's edge,
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: pressed other human figures in terrestrial overalls and helmets. A slim,
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: square faced man in the neatest of overall costumes had
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: grabbed Planter's elbow. It was beginning to rain again. Thunder
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: sounded like sky goers grumbling high in the mist. Quick
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: said the square faced man, your Planter. Aren't you an
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: that other man? But where's thispro? Planter pointed toward the
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: water city.
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 2: Who were you?
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: He demanded, as if they had all day. Doctor Hammerson
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: commanding this new expedition. Ten of us in the big
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: new ship started. When they reported you landed safely, we
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: cracked up not far from where your ship bogged down.
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: This girl found us said whatever she said was true.
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: Cut in Planter, quick, defend yourself against those sky goers.
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: They'll defend themselves against us, rejoined doctor Homerson, Blakely. If
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: they're smart, and if they're lucky. His companions had formed
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: a sort of skirmish line among the thickest stems at
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: the water's edge. With a variety of weapons, force rifles,
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: machine guns, one or two portable grenade throwers, they had
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: opened up on the sky goers. The Amphibian dwellers in
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: the water city had started to chase Planter and Max,
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: but the destruction of their giant kinsman had daunted and
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: immobilized them. Now they had something else to shake their courage,
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: which was never too great. Well aimed shots were picking
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: them off in the boats, in the water, on the
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: housetops and bridges. Don't show yourselves more than is necessary,
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: doctor Homerson was barking. If they know there's only a
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: handful of us, they might. He unlimbered a patent pistol,
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: one with a long barrel, a magazine of fourteen rounds
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: in the stock, and a wooden holster that could fit
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: into a slot and form a makeshift butt like that
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: of a rifle. Lifting this to his shoulder, he began
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: to shoot at such of the sky Goers as still
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: showed themselves. Mara had rushed to plant aside. They're retreating,
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: she cried, the spell, Remember the spell. True enough, he
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: forgotten that wild, unmanning storm of noise that defended its
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: sky gore country, that had knocked him into their webbed
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: fingers as a captive and slave might begin at any moment.
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: Even now, the skygoers were retiring inside their buildings, but
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: with a certain purposeful arderliness. As Planter watched, Max ran
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: up to his other side. She's telling the truth. I
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: know all about the thing. They sound off, he said
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: breathlessly in his new knowing voice. When I was with
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: dispro working for him, I had a look at it.
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: Stop your ears. Marrow was bidding quick, a rag from
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: your garment will do. She ripped away part of Atlanter's shirt,
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: tore the piece into and thrust wads into his ears
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: with her forefinger. Max was plugging his own ears. Then
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: the sound began. When it began, nobody could say suddenly.
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: It was there, filling space with it self as though
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: it were a crushing solid thing. Planter, even with his
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: ears partially muffled, almost collapsed his body vibrated as before
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: in every fiber, only not unendurably. He saw Max reel
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: but stale on his feet. Doctor Hummerson's men a moment ago,
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: almost in the victor's position, were down, floundering, and half
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: crazy agony. Planter understood, in that rear compartment of his
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: mind that was always diagnosing strange things, even in the
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: moment of worst danger. The skygoers were ill cultured, poor
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: of spirit, prospered chiefly by ideas stolen from the human beings.
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: They enslaved, but they understood sound waves, could use them
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: roughly as an electrician might use electric vibrations. They were
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: all the tales he had heard of a cord on
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: the organ that shattered window panes, of certain orators who
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: could employ voice frequencies to belbine and impassion their audiences.
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: This was something like that, only more so. Then he
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: saw that Mara, who had thought of saving his ears,
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: was down at his feet. Mara, he cried, though nobody
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: could have hurt him. He knelt, Ripping away more rags
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: of his shirt. He crammed them furiously into her ears.
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: She stirred, got to her knees. She too, could endure
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: it now and she smiled at him drownly.
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 2: I knew you would come back.
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: Her lips formed the words David Planter, My, David Planter.
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: Then she was up crossbow with the ready because back
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: came the sky goers, a wave of them in boats
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: and s swimmers. Sure of their victory through sound, they
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: were going to mop up the attackers. Max had a rifle.
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: He lifted it, but on inspiration Planter leaped at him
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: and gestured for him to hold fire. From beside one
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: of the fallen terrestrials, he caught a grenade thrower. It
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: was a simple amplification of an ordinary rifle. Upon the
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: muzzle fitted a metal device like a bottomless bottle. The neck,
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: clamping tight to the barrel into the spread body of
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: the bottle, could be slit a cylindrical grenade the size
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: and shape of a condensed milk tin. The grenade was
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: pierced with a hole, and the gun, if fired, would
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: send its bullet through that hole, while the gases of
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: the exploding power operated to hurl the grenade far and
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: forcibly and accurately. Planter had never used one, but he
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: had seen him used. A quick check showed him that
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: the rifle's magazine was full from the belt of the
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: fallen man. He twitched a grenade, slipped it into place.
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: He knelt, placed the rifle butt on the soggy mass
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: of rotting vegetation that made up the sure side jungle
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 1: floor my guests. He slanted his weapon about forty five
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: degrees forward. The foremost press of sky goers approached. Bang.
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: At Planter's trigger touch, the grenade rose upward. For a moment,
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: the three conscious watchers could see it outlined against the
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: upper mists at the hesitating apex of its flight. Then
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: it fell too far to demoralize the first ranks of
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: sky goers, but smashing two inflated boats in its explosion
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: and tossing several slimy green forms like chips through the air.
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: Planter slid in another grenade, worked the rifle bolt, and
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: raised the weapon.
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 2: To his shoulder.
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: It spoke again, louder even than the din of the
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: noise maker Mara called the spell. This time it struck
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: water among the leading sky goers and exploded on contact.
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: Three or four sank abruptly, several more thrashed the water
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: into pinky red foam In the pane of bad wounds.
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: The rest wavered. Now Max opened fire with his rifle
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: and Marl with her crossbow. Both scored hits, and the
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: sky goers gave back. Something was going wrong. They were
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: realizing the destroying sound was not paralyzing their enemy. Meanwhile,
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: it was best to take cover. Some ducked under the waters,
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: others fell back toward the buildings. Dynamitem cried Planter forgetting
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: that he could not be heard. Stooping, he stripped away
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: the whole beltful of grenades from its helpless owner. He
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: whirled it around his head as though he were throwing
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: a hammer on an athletic field, and sent it flying
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: out over the water. The shock of its fall into
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: the depths set it off all grenades at once. Sky
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: Goers came bounding to the top, twitching feebly. The explosion
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: had destroyed them, as fish are destroyed by the shock
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 1: of detonating dynamite in nearby waters. Then the paralyzing noise stopped.
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 1: Homerson was the first man up. He was dazed and groggy,
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: but fight was the first impulse that woke in him. Mara,
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: Max and Planter dragged others to their feet, shook and
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: shouted their senses back into them. They're retreating, Planter yelled,
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: let's counterattack close into the shore, drifted one of the
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: abandoned boats. Max had run into the water, dragging it closer.
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: The terrestrials tumbled aboard, and one of them got the
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: paddlewheel running. Planter at the bow, directing fire at any
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: skygoers who showed their heads, saw that Mara had not
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: come along. He worried a moment, then worried no more.
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: She was shouting in the jungle, and other voices, feminine
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: voices answered her. More of the crossbow girls were coming
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: to help. The boat made a landing at the bill
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: where Planter had first been dragged to slavery. It was
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: not made for defense, and the invaders split into small parties,
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: ranging the corridors and outer bridges. Planter, hurrying downstairs, heard
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: the splat of the skygore pin missiles with a replying
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: crackle of gunfire. After a while, Mara and other girls
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 1: began to shout and chatter. They had also found a
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: boat and had come over on the floor above the
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: basement where the slaves worked. He came face to face
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: with a skygoer who lifted his arms appealingly in the
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: surrendered gesture. That must be universal among all creatures who
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 1: have arms. I want no fight, begged this one. You
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: are master, Then come downstairs, snapped Planter. He clattered down
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: among the slaves. Stop work, he bawled, almost as loudly
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: as the sky goer, and the men bred to obey.
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 2: Big voices did so.
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: Outside was Planter's next command. One or two moved to obey,
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: others hung back outside. The surrendered sky goer, echoed Planter,
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: and they came obediently. Planter hurried them to their quarters,
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: then slammed the.
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 2: Door to the big workshop.
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: That closes down your power plants. He commented to the
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: sky goer, Now quick, which way to the controls of
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: the dam damn? The skygirer repeated, stupidly. Planter caught the
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: green shoulders and shook the creature roughly. It was larger
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: than he, But coward, I will show it, yielded and
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: let him away. In a nearby corridor were huge handles,
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: three of them, like pivoted clinker bars. Planter seized one,
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: pulled it down. He heard waters roaring. He pulled another.
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: You will drain the pool, protested the sky goer. I
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: want to drain the pool Planter said. Then the sky
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: goork caught the third lever and pulled it down. Planter
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 1: hurried upstairs again. His prisoner kept at his heels. Why
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: did you help me, he asked it because you conquer,
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: was the booming reply. The conquered must obey. I think
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: you believe that's stuff like the slaves. Planter sniffed. Of course,
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: I believe, responded the sky gor from the upper levels,
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: came Homerson's voice, Planter, These frock folks are giving up.
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: They haven't any fight left in them. But Planter paused
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: on a landing. He looked into a small office where
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: two human figures stood close together. One was Max, the
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: other was Dispro. Max had Dispro by the throat, not
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: shaking or rustling him, only squeezing. Max called Planter, Why
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: why not? Countered Max plausibly, Planter, I think maybe you
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: were the thick headed one. You always tried to get
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: along with Dispro as if he was honest. I was
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: a crazy house case. But from the first I knew
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: he was wrong. It took the return of sense to
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: understand that the only thing to do was this. He
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: let go and Dispro fell on the floor like an
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: empty suit.
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 2: Of clothes.
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: Max brushed his hands together as if to clear them
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: of dust. I wonder how long I wanted to do that,
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: he said. Let's go and watch the final mop up
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: out of the mudpool, where once a snake armed cru
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: had pursued Planter. The combined strength of many arms was
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: hoisting the bogged ship. Cables had been woven through pulley
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: blocks at the tops of the biggest and strongest pool
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: side stems. Free men of Venus want slaves hauled on
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: these cables in brief, concerted rhythms. Here and there in
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: the rope, gangs toiled a sky gore, accepting defeat and
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: companionship with the same mild grace. Women free women laughed
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: and encouraged and now and then threw themselves into the
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: tugging labor that was a game. Max oversaw everything.
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 2: Nearby.
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: Machete had hewn a little clearing. Here, a waterproof tent
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: over a beehive framework sheltered Planter and doctor Homerson. They
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: watched as the ship, its bow rockets, toiling to help
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: the tugging cables, finally stirred out of its bed. Homerson
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: smiled time to hold a sort of recapitulation, isn't it
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: as in old fashioned mystery ORNs, when the case is
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: solved and the danger done away with. Of course it
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: all happened suddenly, But we can say this much. The
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: sky Gore mistake was that of every softened master set up,
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 1: they had a half rigged defense against mild dangers and
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: never looked for real trouble. They beat that seventeenth century
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: space expedition simply because terrestrials of that day hadn't the
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: proper weapons, Otherwise Man might have been ruling here for
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: four hundred years and more. These skygers did have one
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: tremendous device, observed Planter, that super siren that deadens you
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: by sound waves, Hammerson laughed, and which providentially did what
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: all clockwork mechanisms are apt to do.
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 2: Ran down.
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: It's dismantled now. Anyway, We're a fuel engine civilization, and
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: the skygoers will have to wonder and admire a while
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: before they steal our new tricks. Planter fingered another trophy
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 1: of the battle, a great brass bound log book, old
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 1: and yellowed, but still readable. This answers more riddles. He
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: put in the record of those ancient fugitives from Cromwell.
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: Who would have thought that their times could produce a
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: successful flight from planet to planet. It was a great century,
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: reminded Homerson. Don't forget that they also invented the microscope,
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: the balloon, the principle of maneuverable armies. Their sentry began
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 1: with Francis Bacon and ended with Sir Isaac Newton. That
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: rocket fuel, which the skygoers only half understood and used
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: for ammunition, doctor broke in Planter, do you remember the
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: old Puritan tales of witches flying on what seemed like broomsticks?
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: And Cyrino de Bergerac in France about sixteen forty writing
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: a tale of a rocket to the moon. We simply
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: forgot that they had something. Then the real complete knowledge
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: flew here to Venus and waited for our age to
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: develop it again from the beginning. It was so, Planter pondered, awhile,
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: and while he pondered, one of the expeditions came in
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: to make a report. We can send back three in
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: this ship when it's set, He said to Hummerson, who
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: are you taking, sir? These two who survived the earlier flight,
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: Planter and his big tough friend. The rest of you
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: can wait and develop a landingfield. Planter spoke, Did you
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: see the girl called Mara out there? She was watching us,
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 1: said the man. Finally she went into the jungle with
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: no message for me, no message for anybody, Doctor Hummerson,
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: said Planter, pick someone else instead of me.
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 2: Here, I stay.
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: Homerson looked up sharply, until the next ship comes Here,
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: I stay, repeated Planter, from now on. He sought a
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: certain jungle trail. When he had traversed before Mara, he
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: called down it. She was not hard to catch up with,
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: for she was not walking fast. As he came alongside,
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: she looked at him with eyes too bright to be dry.
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 1: You came to bid goodbye.
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 2: She suggested. He shook his head.
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: The mist seemed less than ever before on Venus.
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 2: No, never goodbye. Isn't the ship leaving? Leaving?
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: All right? But not with me in it? This is
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: home now. She looked down at her sandal feet, and
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: one hand played with the dagger in her belt. Methought
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: you would be glad to regain earth.
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 2: Earth.
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: Other people gained it long ago. He pulled her hand
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: away from the dagger hilt. Stop fiddling with that stabbing ron.
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: There's no fighting to be done.
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 2: Just now.
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: You said I was yours, he told her furiously. You
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: said it just as if you'd won me in a
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: game of some sort, and you brushed it aside without
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: answering me. You had none of it. Hang it, Mara.
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: A man decides those things, and I've been deciding them.
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: You're the bravest creature I ever knew, the most graceful,
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: the most honest. You did love me once. Have you stopped?
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: I have not stopped, she said, But why have you
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: waited to say these words? I haven't had time, and
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: I'm going to have little time for a while, what
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: with organization and building and food hunting and colonizing. But
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: her mouth close at hand was too delectable. He kissed
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: her fiercely. She jumped away, startled, then utter that little
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: breathless laugh. Ah that likes me well, she told him.
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: Let us do it again into part four in The
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: Venus Enslaved by Manly Wade Wellman, already performed by Phil
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: Schinemer