The Star Kings

'Then come on!' he exclaimed.

The Dendra was still rocking wildly, and he steadied Lianna as he led the way hastily down the corridor.

The space-suited gunners in the gun-galleries they passed were too engrossed in the desperate battle to glimpse them.

They reached the hatch in whose wall was a closed valve leading to one of the space life-boats attached to the hull. Gordon fumbled frantically for a moment with the valve.

'Lianna, I don't know how to open this! Can you do it?'

She swiftly grasped the catches, pulled at them. But there was no response.

'Zarth, the automatic trips have locked! That means that the space-boat is wrecked and unusable!'

Gordon refused to let despair conquer him: 'There are other space-boats! On the other side-'

The Dendra was still rocking wildly, its parting girders cracking and screeching. Shells were still exploding blindingly outside.

But at that moment they heard a fiercely exultant cry from Durk Undis.

'Our weapon has disabled them! Now give them full broadsides!'

Almost instantly came a thin cheer. 'We got them!'

Through the porthole beside the hatch, Gordon glimpsed far out there in the void a sudden flare like that of a new nova. It was no pinpoint of light this time, but a blazing star that swiftly flared and vanished.

'They've destroyed the Empire cruiser somehow!' cried Lianna.

Gordon's heart sank. 'But we can still get away if we can get to one of the other space-boats!'

They turned to retrace their way. As they did so, two disheveled Cloud officers burst into the cross- corridor.

'Get them!' yelled one. They started to draw their atom-pistols from the holsters of their space-suits.

Gordon charged desperately, the heel of the staggering ship hurling him into the two men. He rolled with them on the corridor floor, fiercely trying to wrest a weapon from one.

Then more voices rang loud about him. He felt himself seized by many hands that tore him loose from his antagonists. Hauled to his feet, panting and breathless, Gordon found a half-dozen Cloud-men holding Lianna and himself.

Durk Undis' fierce, flushed face was recognizable inside the glassite helmet of the foremost man.

'You traitor!' he hissed at Gordon. 'I told Shorr Kan no spawn of the Empire could be depended on!'

'Kill them both now!' urged one of the raging Cloud-men. 'It was Zarth Arn who sabotaged the dark-out and got us into this fix!'

'No, they don't die yet!' snapped Durk Undis. 'Shorr Kan will deal with them when we get back to the Cloud.'

'If we get back to the Cloud,' corrected the other officer bitterly. 'The Dendra is crippled, its last two generators will barely run, the space-boats are wrecked. We couldn't make it halfway back.'

Durk Undis stiffened. 'Then we'll have to hide out until Shorr Kan can send a relief ship for us. We'll call him by secret wave and report what has happened.'

'Hide out where?' cried another Cloud-officer. 'This is Empire space! That patrol-cruiser undoubtedly got off a flash report before we finished it. This whole sector will be searched by Empire squadrons within twenty-four hours!'

Durk Undis bared his teeth. 'I know. We'll have to get out of here, And there's only one place to go.'

He pointed through a porthole to a brilliant coppery star that shone hotly just a little inside the glowing haze of huge Orion Nebula.

'That copper sun has a planet marked uninhabited on the charts. We can wait there for help. The cursed Empire cruisers won't look long for us if we jettison wreckage to make it appear we were destroyed.'

'But the charts showed that that sun and its planet are the center of a dust-whorl! We can't go there!' objected another Cloud-man.

'The whorl will drift us in, and a high-powered relief ship will be able to come in and get back out,' Durk Undis insisted. 'Head for it with all the speed you can get out of the generators. Don't draw power yet to message Thallarna. We can do that after we're safe on that world.'

He added, pointing to Gordon and Lianna, 'And tie these two up and keep a man with drawn gun over them every minute, Linn Kyle!'

Gordon and Lianna were hauled into one of the metal cabins whose walls were badly bulged by the damage of battle. They were dumped into two recoil-chairs mounted on rotating pedestals.

Plastic fetters were snapped to hold their arms and legs to the frame of the chairs. The officer Linn Kyle then left them, with a big Cloud-soldier with drawn atom-pistol remaining guard over them.

Gordon managed to rotate his chair by jerks of his body until he faced Lianna.

'Lianna, I thought we had a chance but I've just made things worse,' he said huskily.

Her face was unafraid as she smiled at him through her glassite helmet.

'You had to try it, Zarth. And at least you've thwarted Shorr Kan's scheme.'

Gordon knew better. He realized sinkingly that his attempt to get the Dendra captured by Empire forces had been a complete failure.

Whatever was the new, potent weapon the Cloud-men had used, it had been too much for the Empire cruiser. He had succeeded only in proving to the Cloud-men and Shorr Kan that he was their enemy.

He'd never have a chance now to warn Throon of Corbulo's treachery and the impending attack! He and Lianna would be dragged back to the Cloud and to Shorr Kan's retribution.

'By God, not that!' Gordon swore to himself. 'I'll make them kill us before I let Lianna be taken back there!'

The Dendra throbbed on for hours, limping on its last two generators. Then it cut off power and drifted. Soon the ship was entering the strange glow of the gigantic nebula.

At intervals came ominous cracklings and creakings from many parts of the ship. When a guard came to relieve their watchdog, Gordon learned from the brief talk of the two Cloud-men that only eighteen men remained alive of the officers and crew.

The staggering ship began some hours later to buck and lurch in the grip of strong currents. Gordon realized they must be entering the great dust-whorl in the nebula, to which Linn Kyle had referred.

More and more violent grew the bucking until the Dendra seemed shaking itself apart. Then came a loud crash, and a singing sound that lasted for minutes.

'The air has all leaked out from the ship now,' Lianna murmured. 'Without our space-suits, we'd all be dead.'

Death seemed close to John Gordon, in any case. The crippled ship was now in the full grip of the mighty nebula dust-current that was bearing it on toward a crash on the star-world ahead.

Hours passed. The Dendra was now using the scant power of its two remaining generators again, to keep from being drawn into the coppery sun they were nearing.

Gordon and Lianna could get only occasional glimpses of their destination, through the porthole. They glimpsed a planet revolving around that copper-colored star-a yellow, tawny world.

Durk Undis' voice rang in a final order. 'Strap in for crash-landing!'

The guard who watched Gordon and Lianna strapped himself into a recoil-chair beside them. Air began to scream through the wreck.

Gordon had a flashing glimpse of weird ocher forests rushing upward. The generators roared loud in a brief deceleration effort. Then came a crash that hurled Gordon into momentary darkness.

18: Monster Men

Gordon came to himself, dazed and shaken, to find that it was Lianna's anxious voice that had aroused