We were leaving the great room as we had come. Walking? I can only
call it that, though the word is futile to describe our progress as we
made our way to the lighted esplanade, across its side and into what
might have been called a street. Globular houses, single, or one set
upon another, or half a dozen swaying on a stick, gardens of
vegetables and flowers. I saw what seemed to be a round patch of
hundred-foot tree-stalks, like a thick batch of bamboo. It was laced
and latticed thick with vines.
"A house," Snap murmured. "That's a house."
Another type of dwelling. This patch of vegetable growth, so flimsy it
was all stirring with the movement of the night breeze, was woven into
circular thatched rooms, birds' nests of little dwellings. Staring up,
I seemed to see a hundred of them. Rope-vine ladders; flimsy vine
platforms; tiny lights winking up there in the trees.
On a platform twenty feet above us a group of tiny infant brains sat
in a gruesome row, goggling down on us.
We passed the tree patch; again the city seemed all a thin, flexible
metal. The ground was like a smooth rock surface, alternating with
small patches of soil where things were growing.
We walked in a slow, unsteady line. Molo led. Behind Snap and me came
the girls, ignoring us; and at the rear, the brown-shelled giant guard
stalked after us.
Molo stopped at a large globe-dwelling. "We rest here. I will go see
that our rooms are ready." He gestured to his sister. "Meka, you come
with me. Wyk will guard them."
We stood at an oval doorway. A worker came out, stared at us, then
went back. On an upper balcony, a brain was gazing down at us.
I caught Molo's brawny arm. "Won't you tell us what's going on?"
"Rest here with Wyk."
"What are you going to do?" asked Snap.
"I am going to select my men for battle."
"When do you go?"
"In a few hours, Earth-time."
"And you're taking us on the ship, Molo? Where is your _Star-Streak_?"
"That I must find out." He, gazed at us with a slow, faint smile. "Not
far. Nothing is far on Wandl. I do not know if I will take you on my
ship. You might be of help, or you might be troublesome. The Great
Master wants prisoners, or I would have killed you long ago."
He took his sister and left us. There was a brief moment when Wyk,
standing aside incuriously, gave us opportunity for swift whispers.
Again Anita clutched me. "Gregg, we'll be separated now. But with Molo
gone, Venza and I can get away from Meka."
Venza whirled on us. "Gregg, listen! Snap, be quiet! If we're ever
going to escape, now is the time. You get away from Wyk. We'll handle
Meka."
"And do what?" Snap demanded.
"The control station! We'll find it!"
Anita whispered, "We've got to wreck it, Gregg. Stop those contacts.
It'll mean the end of Earth if we don't."
I protested. "Better try for Molo's vessel. We might be able to
navigate it, escape from this world."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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