Science fiction; Space and time -- Fiction; Time travel -- Fiction
"You know it?" Tsoay asked Travis. "What is it?"
"That I do not know, but it is a thing left over from the star people's
time. And I have seen it on two other of their worlds."
"A man?" Tsoay surveyed the body critically. "It wears no clothes, has
no weapons, but it walks erect. It looks like an ape, a very big ape. It
is not a good thing, I think."
"If it runs with a pack--as they do elsewhere--this could be a very bad
thing." Travis, remembering how these creatures had attacked in force on
the other worlds, looked about him apprehensively. Even with the coyotes
on guard, they could not stand up to such a pack closing in through the
dark. They had better hole up in some defendable place and wait out the
rest of the night.
Naginlta brought them to a cliff overhang where they could set their
backs to the hard rock of the mountain, face outward to a space they
could cover with arrow flight if the need arose. And the coyotes, lying
before them with their noses resting on paws, would, Travis knew, alert
them long before the enemy could close in.
They huddled against the rock, Kaydessa between them, alert at first to
every sound of the night, their hearts beating faster at a small scrape
of gravel, the rustle of a bush. Slowly, they began to relax.
"It is well that two sleep while one guards," Travis observed. "By
morning we must push on, out of this country."
So the two Apaches shared the watch in turn, the Tatar girl at first
protesting, and then falling exhausted into a slumber which left her
breathing heavily.
Travis, on the dawn watch, began to speculate about the ape-thing they
had killed. The two previous times he had met this creature it had been
in ruins of the old empire. Were there ruins somewhere here? He wanted
to make sure about that. On the other hand, there was the problem of the
Tatar-Mongol settlement controlled by the Reds. There was no doubt in
his mind that, were the Reds to suspect the existence of the Apache
camp, they would make every attempt to hunt down and kill or capture the
survivors from the American ship. A warning must be carried to the
rancheria as quickly as they could make the return trip.
Beside him the girl stirred, raising her head. Travis glanced at her and
then watched with attention. She was looking straight ahead, her eyes as
fixed as if she were in a trance. Now she inched forward from the
mountain wall, wriggling out of its shelter.
"What--?" Tsoay had awakened again. But Travis was already moving. He
pushed on, rushing up to stand beside her, shoulder to shoulder.
"What is it? Where do you go?" he asked.
She made no answer, did not even seem aware of his voice. He caught at
her arm and she pulled to free herself. When he tightened his grip she
did not fight him actively as during their first encounter, but merely
pulled and twisted as if she were being compelled to go ahead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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