traveling.'
'Weare here,' Slug-Togath announced, coming into the plane with fifty other Garnishee right behind him.
'Who are we?' Jerry queried surprisedly.
'Myself and fifty volunteers. I have taken a leave of absence from my work as prime minister and will accompany you with these bravest of the brave. Though every able-bodied Garnishee is needed to rebuild the wreckage of our ruined world, we also have a responsibility to the intelligent life in the universe. You have relieved us of the burden of the Lortonoi and ended the millennia-old war, and we feel that we can do no less for the other races of the galaxy who are oppressed by that bloodthirsty and despicable race of mental leeches.'
'Well and nobly said,' John concurred.
'Not only that,' Slug-Togath continued. 'We also hate the bastards with a hatred beyond understanding and would greatly like to be in on the kill when they are smeared, bombed, and destroyed.'
'Even better reason.' Jerry nodded. 'They deserve no mercy. We welcome you and your intrepid followers aboard, please tell them to come well armed and bring plenty of ammo, and it will be a pleasure to fight side by side with them in this just war to save the galaxy.'
'Let's drink to that,' Sally said smilingly as she came down the aisle pushing the bar cart. 'To an alliance for victory. Death to the Lortonoi!'
'Death to the Lortonoi!' they cried with one voice and raised their glasses and downed them. That is, the humans drained their glasses. The Garnishee emptied their miniatures of booze into the plastic glasses which they discarded, then ate the bottles since glass acts like an intoxicant with this ancient race.
The engines thundered to life, and the magnificent crusade began.
11
ENCOUNTER IN DEEP SPACE
Like an arrow hurled from the strongest bow, the refurbished Pleasantville Eagle shot into the air, tearing a crackling hole through the atmosphere at twice the speed of sound. The two Earthmen were at the controls while the tentacled, trunklike forms of the Garnishee were at the other stations. Slug-Togath stood behind the pilots where he could coordinate the operation. Sally, very much the hostess in her cheerleader's uniform, was in the aft cabin serving steak sandwiches and drinks to the rows of Garnishee seated there, at the same time complaining bitterly over this menial task. The mighty Garnishee warriors sat unmoving in rapt fascination, listening to the taped jazz program over the headphones at each seat and watching the movie. There was no main feature, but they did not seem to mind, for they took an immense interest in the football training films which they thought were depicting a weird pagan ritual, which perhaps they were.
Once they were on top of the atmosphere and the stars above burned with a cold unffickering light like moth holes in a blanket, Slug-Togath leaned forward and pointed at one of them, a blue point in the eternal darkness.
'There,' he said, 'is the star to which we have tracked the fleeing Lortonoi spaceship with our omicron radar which detects the action of a space warper. They fled in that direction, but whether they stayed in the vicinity of that star, known to us as Krshtenvlemntu-krm, we do not know.'
'Well, we can find out when we get there,' said Jerry, adjusting the cheddite projector controls. 'And unless I'm wrong, I believe that is the star we call Spica, so let's call it Spica, huh, because it is a lot easier to say.' Since Jerry was the commander, Slug-Togath begrudgingly agreed – but deep down inside he knew it would always be Krshtenvlemntu-krm to him.
'Until we get the bugs worked out of the new cheddite projector, I'm going to take it real easy,' Jerry said, adjusting the controls with total absorption. 'We'll just jump ahead a teeny bit, maybe just ten light-years and see how we make out.'
Everything twitched, and they were ten light-years nearer to Spica, which shone much more brightly now. Corrections were made, and they jumped again. And again. Each time closer, until, after careful and exacting measurements, a final jump was made that would bring them just outside the orbit of the outermost planet that circled this brilliant sun. The jump was made, and instantly every alarm, buzzer, bell, and siren went wild inside the Pleasantville Eagle.
They had emerged at the edge of a furious space battle. While Jerry took evasion maneuvers and zipped out of range, the others looked on wide-eyed – and that is a lot of wide eyes since the Garnishee had about twenty- three each – at the fierce engagement that was being played out against the backdrop of stars for their edification. It was an unequal battle, three to one, but the pilot of the single black ship was a master of his craft. No matter how hard they tried, the three pursuing white spacers could not manage to nail the black one which twisted, darted, and dodged with incredible dexterity. Torpedoes flashed out and missed, while snarling, ravening rays of destruction flicked close – but never close enough to touch the pursued.
'I take my hat off to that pilot,' John said with admiration, 'he really is a crackerjack.'
'But,' Jerry inquired, 'which side is which?'
'That is a good question,' Slug-Togath intoned. 'Undoubtedly one side or the other are allies of the Lortonoi who fled this way. Let us contact them on the radio and ask.'
This was attempted, but with very little success. There was the hiss and crackle of solar static from the great blue sun and some distant, incomprehensible chatter on the communication bands, nothing else.
'No dice there' – Jerry shrugged – 'but I have a better idea. If the Lortonoi are at all involved in that bruhaha out there then there will be some mind reading, mind control, that sort of thing going on because we know they are big for that stuff. So here's what. John, you take the controls. Slug-Togath get behind me and give me a good wrapping with your tentacles, so I can't do any harm. Then take off my mind shield, and I'll try to contact those ships and see who is who so we can come to the aid of the good guys, if there are any. If I get too raunchy or like that, you can put the mind shield back on me and snap me out of it.'
'You are a brave man indeed, comrade,' Slug-Togath rapped out as he enwrapped Jerry in his unbreakable embrace. 'Now prepare yourself, for I remove the mind shield.' And he did so, dexterously, with a quick flip of his last tentacle.
'Nothing yet,' Jerry said grimly. 'I'll just send out a message and see what happens. Hello, warring spaceships, can you read me? I am enemy of the Lortonoi and ready to aid all enemies of those evil-minded leeches. Are any of you there on the same side?'
Suddenly Jerry twitched all over and writhed a bit, then became calm. When he spoke again, it was in a completely different voice, an alien one in fact.
'Very pleased to meet you all, I'm sure. You might say you chaps have come in the old nick of time. Bit of a job keeping these rascals at bay – ooops! – touch of the death ray there bit a chunk out of my tail. If you would like to lend a hand, you could shoot up the three bandits back there who are giving me a hard time.'
'Who are you?' John asked.
'Sorry, should have introduced myself. I am Lord Prrsi of the Hagg-Inder, and look, chaps, could we save the rest of the intros for later? There just went one of my stern tubes.' They could see the space battle becoming fiercer with every passing instant.
'That's OK,' John told him. 'But we have to have something other than your word that you are on our side. We want to contact the three ships that are attacking you.'
'Perfectly reasonable request under the circumstances. Look, I'll switch this call to one of the Hagg-Loos in the bandits on my tail. You chat with them and let me know what they say. Over and out.' Instantly a dreadful change came over Jerry. He writhed in the implacable embrace of the Garnishee while his face twisted with incredible fury and from his lips burst a filthy torrent of abuse.
'Tentacled soft-limbed scum of the universe, how dare you invade holy space of Hagg-Loos, filthy democratic republican perverts, we allies of peace-loving Lortonoi will destroy-'
'Enough of that,' Slug-Togath said, slapping the mind shield back on Jerry's skull. 'Seems pretty obvious.'
'Seems even more obvious if you have one of those repulsive creatures stamping through your gray matter,' Jerry grated, aligning the cheddite projector in its weapon mode and quickly pressing the activator button three
