Human-alien encounters -- Fiction; Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction
"Follow me," a voice said in guttural Disan through the opening of
a rear window. The speaker was lost in the crowd before they could
turn. Aware now, Brion saw a native move away from the edge of the
crowd and turn to look in their direction. It was Ulv.
"Turn the car--that way!" He punched Telt's arm and pointed. "Do it
slowly and don't draw any attention to us." For a moment there was
hope, which he kept himself from considering. The building was gone,
and the people in it all dead. That fact had to be faced.
"What's going on?" Telt asked. "Who was that talked in the window?"
"A native--that one up ahead. He saved my life in the desert, and
I think he is on our side. Even though he's a native Disan, he can
understand facts that the magter can't. He knows what will happen
to this planet." Brion was talking to fill his brain with words so
he wouldn't begin to have hope. There was no hope possible.
Ulv moved slowly and naturally through the streets, never looking
back. They followed, as far behind as they dared, yet still keeping
him in sight. Fewer people were about here among the deserted
offworld storehouses. Ulv vanished into one of these; LIGHT METALS
TRUST LTD., the sign read above the door. Telt slowed the car.
"Don't stop here," Brion said. "Drive around the corner, and pull up."
Brion climbed out of the car with an ease he did not feel. No one
was in sight now, in either direction. Walking slowly back to the
corner, he checked the street they had just left. Hot, silent and
empty.
A sudden blackness appeared where the door of the warehouse had
been, and the sudden flickering motion of a hand. Brion signaled
Telt to start, and jumped into the already moving sand car.
"Into that open door--quickly, before anyone sees us!" The car
rumbled down a ramp into the dark interior and the door slid shut
behind them.
"Ulv! What is it? Where are you?" Brion called, blinking in the
murky interior. A grey form appeared beside him.
"I am here."
"Did you--" There was no way to finish the sentence.
"I heard of the raid. The magter called together all of us they
could to help them carry explosive. I went along. I could not stop
them, and there was no time to warn anyone in the building."
"Then they are all dead?"
"Yes," Ulv nodded. "All except one. I knew I could perhaps save one;
I was not sure who. So I took the woman you were with in the
desert--she is here now. She was hurt, but not badly, when I brought
her out."
Guilty relief flooded through Brion. He shouldn't exult, not with
the death of everyone in the Foundation still fresh in his mind.
But at that instant he was happy.
"Let me see her," he said to Ulv. He was seized by the sudden fear
that there might be a mistake. Perhaps Ulv had saved a different
woman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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