They were still a long way off but fast, the sky. Price make out about a dozen against the blue. Sawyer said,
"We'd for it!"
They fled, along the path through the ruins. All around them, ahead and behind, other men were running, away like wild into the of the walls.
And this was once their city, Price thought. A place of and homes and and churches, a good place, with long and striving. What right did the Vurna have to it?
He looked up at the fliers. They were larger now, moving above that white in the sun. He looked down, and there was desolation. He ran in it, and over the of a city, like the rest.
Sawyer a arm out in a gesture. "Take cover!"
They into the of an with and rank grass. The old and to as they pressed past them. They and to the Vurna go over.
"They've formation," Price said. He had to before. "Spread out. They'll and forth—"
A of collapsed, close by them, with a and a great of white dust. They back, and Sawyer said, "That makes a for them. Well, come on."
They ran out, low, along the where their had walked in peace. Price see the green in the distance, but the air was full of the power-scream of the aerodynes, and he did not think that they would make it. He was right.
One of the ships to three off the ground ahead of them, and another behind. Sawyer to the right. A third ship came down. He to the left. A fourth one him. He stopped where he was, too proud to look for where he there was none. Burr and Twist with him. All three their and prepared to die.
Price had nothing in his hands. The ships him, their noise him, the wind of their air-blasts at him with force. He them. He had anything so much in his life, not the enemy he had in Korea. He among the around his feet, half-blinded by and a red that was of his own making.
A very loud voice spoke to them from one of the ships. "Put your and together with your hands high. You will not be harmed." Sawyer laughed. He the to his and fired. The splat! on the skin of the aerodyne, and dropped.
"Put your and together. We will count six. At that time we will fire. Six. Five. Four."
Sawyer his into the at his and straightened, his arms. Twist and Burr did the same. Tears in Burr's eyes, of anger.
And this was their city, Price thought. My city. Ours.
Men now to jump out of the aerodynes, Vurna with hair. They of dark green. This was not their city, it was not their world. Price's closed over the end of an iron in the rubbish.
He forward, the iron bar.
A of cold light, visible in the sunshine, out from the nearest ship. Price was running, and then he was not running, he was on the ground with the white in his hair. The out of his hand and with a clatter.
The Vurna closed in. They Sawyer and Burr and Twist each into one of the ships. Two of the green-clad soldiers and up Price and him to the fourth. They in, and the rose into the air.
Over the place from which the Earthmen had fled, in the center of the city, of the ships were gathered. They slowly, but nothing moved in the streets. At length all but one of them rose up, and that one from its underbelly. Down a erupted, thundered, burned, and died, into and dust. That gathering-place would not be used again, and any store of arms or in it would not be used either.
The ships of the Vurna away toward the east. Behind them the was full of men and horses, moving out.
After a while a and returned to Price. He opened his and saw a of red and and tones. A little later he opened them again, and the had a woman with and a of dark crimson.
The woman.
She said, "You will be normal again in an hour or so. The shock-ray no permanent damage."
He looked at her, not very much about how he would an hour from now. He languid, of his cares. Her were a color, not like Earth at all. They were like little of sky and and the far-off of stars, and and lovely. He said,
"They're not cruel, after all."
"What are you talking about?"
"Your eyes. They're beautiful. Like you."
A touched her cheeks. But she only said, "How are you called?"
He told her, and she it down. He saw now that she a of on her knee. Just her was a window. Streamers of cloud by it so fast that he was startled. Then other to on his senses, air-scream, a of speed. He sat up.
The man the pilot abruptly, his hand for a at his belt. The woman spoke to him in her own tongue, and then said to Price,
"We do not wish to you again. You will not make it necessary."
"No," said Price. He forward, in at the of the aerodyne, the pilot's movements.
"You are interested? As a pilot?"
"Yes." The simple. These the of the air-flow, those the of the blast—"It's so much more than a jet, and so much more powerful than any 'copter. I—"
He his mouth, that he had a slip. But the woman did not to have noticed it. He asked her hastily, the subject, "What's your name?"
"Linna," she said. "Of Vrain Four. That's the of a star you of, in the Hercules Cluster. I have some other words, a much like yours and a set of code-numbers such as have been used on this world also."
"You to know a about us, for a girl from—uh—Vrain Four."
"That's my business. I'm a in Earth cultures. Section 7-Y, Social Technics. Where is your home?"
She was friendly, almost too much so. Price was now, his mind off the of the shock.
"Nevada."
She on the clipboard, some of shorthand. "I have not been that west. What is Nevada like?"
He told her, out any mention of cities. The forward, and he the avidly. So simple. So beautifully, simple. His with eagerness.
"You have a great deal?"
"My father me." Careful, Price thought. These people are no or than my own, but they're able to and check on things. "Tell me, what's it like on Vrain Four?"
"We eat and sleep, make love and die," she said, "very much like you. The sky is very at night. The are close and burning, not cold and far-away like yours." She paused.
"Where did your father learn to fly?"
"From his father. It's a family tradition."
"And the plane had to your family since the Ei the of your Earth-year 1979?"
"Since the Vurna it—yes."
She did not argue the point. "How old was the plane then?"
Sneaky little question, asked. What was she at? Price to that he was in a trap, but he not see the shape of it. Then, he was into an answer that might very well be the one, he saw something that gave him the perfect to it.
The thing he saw was a starship.
He had a in his life, but he this not be anything else. He that they must be across the river now and well the Forbidden Belt. The ship like a tower of white metal, enormous, slim, delicate, a thing of power that the with and wonder. There were no trees near it, and the earth was and to a more than iron or concrete.
Linna said, "That is one we do not want men in the Belt. There is of being in a take-off or a landing."
The past, and Price looked as long as he at the shape, but in the middle of nowhere.
"I would have you'd have a port, close in. By the Citadel, I mean."
Linna her head. "Dispersal is much safer. That is why the Belt is so wide. We have a number of ships."
The man the pilot spoke, and Linna touched Price's shoulder, pointing ahead. "In a minute you will see the Citadel."
What he saw was that iron in the low air that he had from the plane. It with speed, taking shape, and substance. Price had been prepared for something tremendous. In of that, he was wide-eyed and as any tribesman.
The Citadel rose from a level barren, clear of every thing. It was round, a flat-topped tower in its hugeness. It did not fit on Earth at all. This monstrous, man-made metal to another world.
Around it as as he see were launching-pads for a of that looked more than any of the ICBM'S they had been up in his own day. Atop the Citadel, on the plain of metal that was its roof, there were that looked like radar, and others he only at—something in the radio-telescope line, perhaps, with grids. Set around the of the roof, and looking out across the Belt, were that Price think of Arrin's warning: We will make of the Belt a barren, where not a can survive....
"You see how helpless," Linna said, his own thoughts. "Men with and little guns—they would be their away."
The old anger came to Price, and he said sullenly, "The Siegfried Line was to be impregnable, too."
But he she was right, and he looked with a as the in for a landing on the roof. How Earthmen to this power from their backs?
He to the iron deck, still a little slow and when he moved. Other were one by one. He looked around for Sawyer and Burr and Twist, but he did not see them. Vurna in on either and Linna said,
"I think your friends have already landed, and are with Arrin below. Come on."
The was pure rhetoric. He had no choice. The took him toward a circle painted red for the of pilots, and about eight across. He asked, "Is Arrin the big boss?"
"The Supreme Commander of this base. You see how you are to us—you and your plane?"
They on the red circle, and it with them a metal shaft. It did not too far. They from it into a corridor, by into the low ceiling. There were many doors on either side, and Vurna in of colors passed and forth.
The office of the Supreme Commander was as and as else Price had seen. Narrow with of looked out across the Belt. One was a of screens and dials, devices, and another had of tube-mouths with vari-colored tabs. Arrin Sawyer, with Burr and Twist their chief. There were guards. As Price came in with Linna, Sawyer was saying,
"I told you I wouldn't give the man up, the plane. As for the meeting, your paid can tell you all about it. And now you can go ahead and kill me."
Arrin said impatiently, "It isn't your life I want from you, but only a little cooperation." He looked up at Price, his narrowing. "This is the man?"
Linna spoke to him in the Vurna tongue. A look of for an on Arrin's face. He questioned Linna. Sawyer, meantime, said to Price,
"We they'd killed you."
Price his head. He was about what Linna was saying to the Commander. Once more he had the of a he not see.
Arrin curtly, and gave some order to Price's guards. Linna said in English, "You are to come with me."
Price said, "I'd with my friends."
"Perhaps later."
There was no use arguing. Price where he was told. On another and much level, which might have been for all he knew, he was into a small, neat, with no window and with a lock on the of the door. Obviously, a cell.
Linna said, "I would like your shirt, please."
He at her. "What?"
"Give me your shirt."
Again there was no use with her. He took it off and it to her.
"Food and drink will be provided," she said. "You will be comfortable."
She away, with the guards. Securely locked in the cubicle, Price sat and brooded. Food and water came, packaged, through a device in the wall. He ate and drank, and again.
Finally, Linna came back. She him his shirt and him while he put it on. And then she her bomb.
"You have been to me," she said quietly. "I know now where you came from."
