The Sun Smasher

creature not to touch me again.'

'Someone is coming,” Banning said. “Someone strong enough to help.'

Sohmsei said quietly, “Her mind leapt. That is the truth her tongue did not speak.'

Quite irrationally, but understandably, Banning became furious. He caught Tharanya by the shoulders.

'Who is coming?'

'Wait and see!'

Jommor said warningly, “Tharanya!” and Sohmsei chuckled. “They are thinking of a ship.'

Rolf swore. “Of course, they'd send for others in the Empire council to confer about us. And unless the custom has changed, that means a Class-A heavy cruiser with a bloody admiral in charge.” He turned on Jommor. “How long?'

'Five minutes, an hour — I can't tell you exactly.'

'We'll still have you for hostages,” Rolf said grimly. Jommor nodded. “It should make an interesting situation.'

'But not a good one,” Banning said. “Rolf, we're getting out of here.'

Rolf stared at him. “Not until Jommor returns your memory!'

'Jommor,” said Banning decisively, “can do that in our ship, can't he? We're going!” He swung around. “Keesh, go tell Horek and the others to get ready to move. And bring back some men here, fast. There'll be equipment to carry. Jommor! You designate all the apparatus you need. You won't forget anything — not if you care for your Empress.'

The lines around Jommor's mouth got very deep, and for the first time there was a weakening of his iron control. He glanced first of all at Sohmsei, who was watching him with intent interest, and then at Rolf and Banning, such a glittering look of pure hatred that Banning almost flinched from it. Last of all he looked at Tharanya.

'Don't take her too,” he said. “I beg of you.'

'No harm will come to her,” Banning told him, “that doesn't come to all of us.'

To Tharanya he said, “I'm sorry. I didn't plan it this way.'

Tharanya whispered, “I don't think that I would mind dying at all, if only I could watch you go first.” She sounded as though she meant it.

A sudden doubt, a feeling of guilt, swept over Banning. He had let himself go with the rush of events, not thinking much about ethics. To an Earthman, star empires and empresses, Valkars and Hammers and intrigues that went back ninety thousand years, seemed after all no more than words, and the stuff of dreams. It didn't much matter what you did about them.

But they had stopped being words. They were people, and realities. They were Tharanya and Jommor, and he himself was a living force — the Valkar, or the, shadow of him. He was about to do a thing that could have undreamed-of consequences, affecting the lives of billions of people on worlds he had never even heard of.

He was appalled at the magnitude of his responsibility.

And he knew now, at the last minute, that he could not go through with it.

'Rolf,” he said. “I—'

The doors swung open and Keesh burst in. “A message, Lord Sunfire's radar has seen another ship approaching, and Behrent says we must come aboard at once!'

Banning looked helplessly at Tharanya. He had no choice now. He needed her, to buy his own life and the lives of his men, to buy safe passage through the space patrols. Later on he might have time to think again of ethics.

'All right,” he snapped. “Pass the word on to the captains, and get those men—'

'They are here, Lord.'

'Good.” He turned to Jommor. “Hurry up, and don't try to be clever. Sohmsei is watching.'

He took off his cloak and put it around Tharanya's shoulders. “I'll take you to the ship now.'

She was through looking at him now, through speaking. When he set his hand on her arm and led her forward, she walked beside him, straight and proud, but she paid him no more heed than if he had not been there at all — except that he could feel a quiver and vibration in her flesh when he touched it that almost burned him.

The lower halls of the palace and the grounds outside hummed with a tense and ordered haste. Men were returning to the cruiser in long files at the double, the disarmed and helpless palace guards herded sullenly aside. They showed signs of fight when they saw Tharanya, in spite of the guns that menaced them, but Horek threw a heavy guard around her and Banning, and they went through with no trouble.

The fresh night air struck cold on Banning's cheeks.

The dark sky showed him nothing, and yet he knew that out of it, swifter than starlight, danger was rushing toward him. He hurried Tharanya on. The trees and fountains fell behind, and they were out on the landing field with Sunfire before them, paths of bright streaming from her open ports. He wondered whether Rolf had started yet, whether he had all the equipment. He kept a tight grip on Tharanya, and wondered how close that other ship had come, how many minutes they had left.

Schrann was on duty in the airlock room, hurrying the men on, keeping them in order so as not to jam the narrow lock. When he saw Banning he said, “Captain would like to see you on the bridge, sir.” His voice was taut, and he did not look happy. Banning hustled Tharanya roughly inside, not bothering to apologize. He shoved her without ceremony into an unoccupied cabin and locked the door, and set a guard on it. Then he hurried on to the bridge.

Behrent was striding up and down, looking grimmer than Banning had ever seen him. Orderlies were running in and out with messages. The technicians fidgeted at the control panels, and nobody was saying anything. Banning asked, “What's the situation?'

Behrent made a gesture with his two hands, the upper one dropping fast onto the lower and pinning it there. “Even now,” be said, “we'd be going up right under her guns.” He turned to glare out the port, at the men running far below. “What's holding them up?” he demanded. “What are they doing out there, playing games? By God, I'll clap hatches and leave ‘em—'

A pink-faced young orderly, pop-eyed with nervous excitement, clattered up to Banning and panted, “Rolf just came aboard, sir, he says to tell you all secure, and he's seeing to the prisoner.'

'Good,” said Banning. He, too, looked out the port. “Go down and tell ‘em to hurry it up. Take-off in two —'

Another orderly arrived with a message from the radar man. Behrent took it. A look of great weariness came over him, draining the color from his face.

'Don't bother,” he said to the orderly. He handed the message to Banning, “If you look up at the sky now, you'll see her coming down.'

'Let her come,” said Banning, savagely.

Behrent looked at him. “But two minutes after they land, they'll know what we've been up to and they'll —'

'Two minutes,” Banning said, “can be time enough. If we move fast.'

He spoke what was in his mind and Behrent's face lit with a bleak light. “You're still the Valkar! It ought to work — but the patrols will all be alerted before we can slip clear.'

'We'll take the patrols,” said Banning, “when we come to them.'

Behrent started yelling into the annunciator system. “Gun crews to stations at light batteries! Snap to it or by God—'

You're still the Valkar! Banning thought that was ironic. He was still Neil Banning. He had postponed facing the ultimate issue of his own identity — but it was a postponement only.

Rolf shouldered into the bridge, his massive face grim. “So we're going to fight?'

'We're going to pin that cruiser, not fight it,” Banning said. “At least, we're going to try. Jommor?'

'I locked him with Tharanya, under guard,” said the big man. “His apparatus is also under guard separately.'

Sohmsei, who had slipped in after Rolf, said to Banning, “It is the right machine, Lord. That I could sense from his mind.'

'I hope we live long enough to have him use it,” Banning said, between his teeth. He was looking up through the view-plates, at the starry sky.

Behrent too was looking up. There was, suddenly, a silence in the ship. Every man was at take-off station