Castaways Upon Ganymede
UPON awakening, the man's was to the girl in the operation of the projectors, so that she keep the heavily-armored of their small section, which she had "The Forlorn Hope," them and the grinding, of wreckage, and thus, if it should necessary, protect the of their from damage.
"Keep an on for a while, Nadia," he instructed, as soon as she the controls, "and don't use any more power than is necessary. We'll need it all, and besides, they can anything we can use. There's from the to a little emission, but don't use much. I'm going to see what I can do about making this whole navigable."
"Why not just what's left of this lifeboat? It's space-worthy, isn't it?"
"Yes, but it's too small. Two or three of the big of the are on the of this piece-of-pie-shaped we're riding, I think. If so, and if of are left to give them nearly full power, we can an that will make a look sick. Those main dirigibles, you know, are able to the whole of the Arcturus, and what they'll do to this one of it—we've got only a thousand of in this piece—will be something pretty. Also, having the metal may save us months of time in it."
He the projectors, repaired or cut out the cells, and them through the of the lifeboat. He moved into the "engine-room" the airtanks, stores, and from all the other which, by means of a space-suit, he without too much difficulty. From the rooms of those fragments—open shelves, after being open by the ray—he helped himself to banks of from the of the ill-fated Arcturus, them and them until almost every of their was one of stored-up energy.
Days like hours, so were they in preparing their for a of duration. Stevens cut himself on sleep and his in passing; and Nadia, when not at her own of observing, housekeeping, and doing what little was required, was learning to most the and of the and electrician.
"I'm our time is short, Steve," she announced, after making an observation. "It looks as though we're it is we're going."
"Well, I've got only two more jobs to do, but they're the of the lot. It is Jupiter, or can you tell yet?"
"Jupiter or one of its satellites, I think, from the point where they their power. Here's the you told me to take."
"Looks like Jupiter," he agreed, after he had her figures. "We'll pass very close to one of those two satellites—probably Ganymede—which is for our scheme. All four of the major have water and atmosphere, but Ganymede, being largest, is best for our purposes. We've got a of days yet—just about time to up. Let's going—you know what to do."
"Steve, I'm of it. It's too dangerous—isn't there some other way?"
"None that I can see. The close watch they're on every of this makes it our only for a get-away. I'm sure I can do it—but if I should to nipped, just use power to let them know you're here, and you won't be any off than if I hadn't to off this stunt."
He a space-suit, a with tools, up a portable power-drill, and into the air-lock. Nadia their against one of the larger and it there with a gentle, pressure, while Stevens, a light paying out him, over the wreckage, his into play, and the wedge. In less than an hour he returned without and reported to the girl.
"Just like fish a well! Most of the were tight, and the wasn't a job at all. Believe me, girl, there'll be all the space here and Saturn when we touch them off!"
"Wonderful, Steve!" Nadia exclaimed. "It won't be so you go into the others, now that you have this one all up."
AROUND and around the of they crept, and in each of the larger Stevens up the or to were available through relays, all of which he close by means of one radio impulse. The long and done, he at the plate, studying the which had been the upper of the of the Arcturus and in thought. Nadia over his and off the plate.
"Nix on that second job, big fellow!" she declared. "They aren't necessary, and you're too to be killed trying to them. It's too ghastly—I won't for your trying it, so that ends it."
"We ought to have them, really," he protested. "With those special tools, torches, and all the stuff, we'd be pretty. We'll of time by not having them."
"We'll just have to it, then. You can't 'em, any more than a can the moon, so stop about it," she over the familiar for the time. "That up there is all together like of ice in a floe; the particular you want is in plain of is on watch; and those and are too to handle. You're a brute, I know, but you couldn't to them, if you had good going. I couldn't help you very much, if you'd let me try; and the that you so positively to let me come along how you know the attempt is to be. You'd up there alive, to say nothing of here. No, Steve, that's out like a light."
"I sure wish they'd left us for a while, sometime, if only for an hour or two," he mourned.
"But they didn't!" she retorted, practically. "So we're just out of luck to that extent. Our time is about up, too. It's time you us to the end of this procession—or rather, the end, since we're traveling 'down' now."
Stevens took the and slowly along the of the mass, toward its extremity. Nadia put one hand upon his and he around.
"Thanks, Steve. We have a perfectly as it is, and we've gone so with our together that it would be a not to be able to go through with it. I'd like to have to to them now, and that's all I do if anything should of you. Besides..." her voice died away into silence.
"Sure, you're right," he replied, the of that sentence. "I couldn't out anything that looked particularly anyway—that's why I didn't try it. We'll pass it up."
Soon they at their and a position well in the van, but not ahead of the to call a from their captors. Already by the of the of the satellite, many of the smaller of the wreck, not directly by the tractors, to from the main mass. As each left its place another out, until it that no more were available, and Stevens the girl and himself two plates.
"Now for it, Nadia!" he exclaimed, and on the power of his own and sent out the radio which closed the he had so set. They were against the and there by an weight as the their of the away from the which had been acting upon it, but they themselves and their in order to watch what was happening. As the in the closed, the power of the was across the and of being into them through the of the pilot, with a result to that of the of an dump. Most of the masses, were by cells, away with a acceleration. A of them, however, the of complete batteries. Those from their supports and through anything them like a huge, armor-piercing projectile. It was a to the imagination, and Stevens as he to the girl, who was in wide-eyed amazement.
"Well, ace, I think they're now so that it'll be safe to take that long-wanted look at their controls," and he the of his light out the upper of the Arcturus—only to see them stop in mid-space. Even the carrier-wave of Roeser's Rays not go through the out by the tiny, but powerful of space.
"No penetration?" Nadia asked.
"Flattened them out cold. 'However,' as the once about the grapes, 'I'll they're sour, anyway.' We'll have some of our own, one of these days. I sure the we started there keep those until we out of sight, if I use much more power on these we may not have juice left to stop with."
"You're using now to me—I'm so I can a finger!"
"You'd 'em! You must watch what's going on there while I around this moon."
"All x, chief.... They've got their hands full, apparently. Those are around all over the sky. It looks as though they were trying to four or five at once with each one."
"Good! Tell me when the moon them off."
AT the they were using, which the with which they had been traveling when they good their escape, it was not long until they had the them and the enemy; then Stevens cut and his power. Such was their speed, however, that a long was necessary in order to it to a safe landing rate. As soon as this be done, Stevens for the zone and the "Hope" toward the surface of that new, world. Details not be at of an all-enshrouding of cloud, but the sun the mist, and when they had to a thousand of the surface, their was unobstructed. Immediately them the was and wooded; while to the east the of a small, sun upon a of water. No of were visible as as the reach.
"Now to out a for our power-plant. We must have a for power, a good place to our ship from observation, and I'd like to have a little of coal. We can use if we have to, but I think we can some coal. This is all rock—it looks a like the country along the North Fork of the Flathead, in Montana. There are a of outcrops, usually, in such as this is."
"We want to in a hurry, though, don't we?"
"Not particularly, I think. If they had missed us at all, they would have had us long ago, and with all the we did with those they won't be at one piece being missing—I they a good many."
"But they'll know that somebody all that disturbance. Won't they for us?"
"Maybe, and maybe not—no telling what they'll do. However, by the time they can land and up and to for us, we'll be a small needle, well in a good big haystack."
For hours they over the region at high velocity, the best possible location, and they one that was almost ideal—a narrow with trees, opening into a wide, upon a level with its floor. A into the just above the canyon, and here and there be black which Stevens, after a close scrutiny, to be coal. He their of into the retreat, allowed it to settle to the ground, and off the power.
"Well, little fellow-conspirator against the peace and of the Jovians, I don't know just where we are, but it is, we're here. We got away clean, and as long as we don't use any high-tension or anything else that they can trace, I think we're as safe as money in a bank."
"I that I ought to be to death, Steve, but I'm not—I'm just too for words," Nadia answered, and the in her out her words. "Can we go out now? How about air? Shall we wear or go out as we are? Have you got a of any kind? Hurry up—let's do something!"
"Pipe down, ace! Remember that we don't know any more about anything around here than a pig about Sunday, and accordingly. Take it easy. I'm at the here. This is Ganymede, and it has a of only about fifty seven hundred kilometers. If I correctly, Damoiseau its at about three one-hundredths that of the Earth, which would make its surface about one-sixth. However, it is actually almost a half, as you see by this spring-balance here. Therefore it is a little more than has been...."
"What of it? Let's go places and do things!"
"Calm yourself, Ginger, you've got of time—we'll be here for a while, I'm afraid. We can't go out until we the air—we're sure lucky there's as much as there is. I'm not the world's chemist, but an air-analysis isn't much of a job with the we carry."
While Nadia her as best she could, Stevens the and of the apparatus.
"Pressure, fifty-two centimeters—more than I for—and analysis all x, I believe. Oxygen a little high, but not much."
"We won't have to wear the space-suits, then?"
"Not unless I missed something in the analysis. The pressure to our own at a of about three thousand meters, which we can used to without too much trouble. Good thing, too. I along all the air I of, but as I told you there, if we had to on it altogether, we might be out of luck. I'm going to pump some of our air into a to our pressure—don't want to waste any of it until we're sure the air us without treatment."
WHEN the pressure had been to that and they had to the medium, Stevens opened the and the doors, and for some time the of the satellite. He nothing or in it—it was the same as air—and he jubilant.
"All x, Nadia—luck is right on our banner. Freedom, air, water, power, and coal! Now as you suggested, we'll go places and do things!"
"Suppose it's safe?" Her to their had noticeably. "You aren't armed, are you?"
"No, and I don't that there was a gun of any the Arcturus. That of thing out a while ago, you know. We'll take a look, anyway—we've got to out about that we decide to settle here. Remember this half-gravity stuff, and your leg-muscles accordingly."
Leaping to the ground, they saw that the of fifty-inch armor, which was the of their conveyance, almost the entrance to the narrow which they had for their retreat. Upon one that of actually touched the almost or rock; upon the other there was left only a narrow passage. They through it, so that they see the and the gorge, and stopped silent. The sun, now high, was in no the familiar of day, but was a pale, thing, only one-fifth the of the sun to which they were accustomed, and which almost be with the eye. From their a a hundred wide to the river, from bank a for a thousand feet—merging into was of the of the moon. At their the of the was steep, but not precipitous, and was with and trees—some of which out over the little canyon, it, and among now and then be about. In that direction no were visible, that upon their of the river there was an or bench. To their right the river, the gorge, and the of for a mile or more, then away and were to sight. To their left, almost too close for comfort, was the cataract, above them to a terror-inspiring height. Nadia it with awe, which to puzzled wonder.
"What's the with it, Steve? It looks like a picture in slow motion, like the they take of your dives—or am I things?"
"No, it's slow, to what we're used to. Remember that one-half stuff!"
"Oh, that's right, but it look funny. It me the creeps."
"You'll used to it quick—just as you'll used to all the of the having only their weight and only as fast as they ought to when you them. Well, I don't see anything that looks yet—let's go up toward the a and that outcrop."
With a of an he the of and off of the black substance, with which they to the "Forlorn Hope."
"It's coal," Stevens after a series of tests. "I've better, but on the other hand, there's worse. It'll make good gas, and a of a coke. Not so hot, but it'll do. Now we'd old partner, for a long campaign."
"Go ahead and organize—I'm only the help in this enterprise."
"Cheap help! You're to be the life of the party. Can you make and shoot a and arrow?"
"I'll say I can—I've to an for five years."
"What did I tell you? You're a life saver! Here's the dope—we've got to save our own as much as possible until we know what we're up against, and to do that, we've got to live off the country. I'll up something to over some of those and small game, then we can make bow-strings and and I'll some arrow-heads while you're making a bow. We'd make me about a hundred-pound bow, too...."
"A hundred!" Nadia. "That's a of bow, big boy—think you can it?"
"You'd be surprised," he grinned. "I'm not like Robin Hood—I've been to miss a finger-thick at a hundred paces—but I'm not a beginner."
"Oh, of course—I should have by your language that you're an archer, otherwise you'd have used such an old-fashioned word as 'pounds.' I shoot a thirty-five-pound ordinarily, but for game I should have the one I can accurately—about a forty-five, probably."
"All x. And as soon as I can I'll make us a of of armor, so that we'll have protection if we should need it. You see, we don't know what we are to up against out here. Then, with that much done, it'll be up to you to provide, since I'll have to work tooth and at the forges. You'll have to home the bacon, do the cooking and so on, and see what you can along the line of roots, grains, fruits, and what-not. Sort of the Indian idea—you be the and I'll keep the home burning. Can do?"
"What it takes to do that, I've got," Nadia him, her sparkling. "Have you your job planned out as well and as as you have mine?"
"And then some. We've got just two methods of away from here—one is to in touch with Brandon, so that he'll come after us; the other is to our and try to make it under our own power. Either will need power and of it...."
"I of going in the 'Hope.' Suppose we could?"
"About as as the radio—I think that I a pair of matched-frequency auto-dirigible and units, such as are necessary for space-ships by power-plants, but after I got them built, they'd take us less than way there. Then we'd have only what power we can carry, and I to think of what would to us. We'd have to for months we close to any of our plants to radio for help, and we'd be taking chances. You see, we'd have to take a very orbit, and if we should miss the planets, what the sun would do to us at the point and where what's left of us would go on the back-swing, would be just too bad! Besides, if we can of the Sirius, they'll come for bear, and we may be able to do something about the of the out here."
"OH!" the girl. "Wouldn't it be if we could! I thought, of course, they'd all be...." her voice died away.
"Not necessarily—there's always a chance. That's why I'm trying the ultra-radio first. However, either will take of power, so the thing I've got to do is to a power plant. I'm going to a up those falls, and put in a turbine, a high-tension alternator. Then, while I'm trying to the ultra-radio, I'll be our accumulators, so that no time will be in case the radio fails. If it fail—and I'm not on its working—of I'll the and we start out to it."
"You say it easy, Steve, but how can you all those things, with nothing to work with?"
"It's going to be a job—I'm not try to kid you into it'll be either easy or quick. Here's the way will go. Before I can the length of the penstock, I've got to have the pipe—to make which I've got to have steel—to which I'll have to cut some of the out of this ship of ours—to do which I'll have to have a torch—to make which I'll have to out of metal and to which I'll have to have gas—to which I'll have to mine and a gas-plant—to do which...."
"Good heavens, Steve, are you going to the Stone Age? I of those things. Why, it's impossible!"
"Not quite, guy. Things be a worse—that's why I along the whole 'Forlorn Hope,' of just the lifeboat. As it is, we've got thousand of and of copper. We've got ordinary and a light motors, blowers, and such stuff. That me a great big start—I won't have to mine the and the metals, as would have been necessary otherwise. However, it'll be bad. I'll have to start out in a fashion, and for some of the I'll need I'll have to make, not only the machine that makes the part I want, but also the machine that makes the machine that makes the machine that makes it—and so on, just how the line, I haven't to think."
"You must be a regular jack-of-all-trades, to think you can away with such a program as that?"
"I am—nothing else but. You see, while most of my was in and mathematics, I my way through by and designing, and I've done a of truck-horse labor of besides. I can and design almost anything, and I can make a good at a design into material. I wouldn't wonder if Brandon's ultra-radio would stop me, since nobody had started to one when I saw him last—but I helped it, know the as well as he did at that time, and it so that I know more about the design of and of than I do about anything else. So I may be able to work it out eventually. It isn't going to be not how that will me up—it'll be the of something that I can't build."
"And that's where you will go and and back, as you said about the penstock?"
"Back and is right, if I can all the necessary materials—that's what's going to put a of monkey-wrenches into the machinery." And Stevens to work upon a of offense, a crude, but powerful from a of with wire.
"How about arrows? Shall I go see if I can a bird with a rock, for feathers, and see if I can something to make out of?"
"Not yet—anyway, I'd on the birds! I'm going to use pieces of this light brace-rod off the for arrows. They won't true, of course, but with their I can give them to kill any small animal they hit, no how they it."
After many misses, he a small animal, something like a and something like a kangaroo, and a of round-bodied, birds, almost as large as hens. These they dressed, with and a of skill.
"We'll used to it quick, Diana—also more expert," he said when the was done. "We now have material for bow-strings and clothes, as well as food."
"The word 'raw' being accented," Nadia declared, with a grimace. "But how do we know that they're good to eat?"
"We'll have to eat 'em and see," he grinned. "I don't that any is poisonous, and we'll have to arrive at the ones we like best by a of trial and error. Well, here's your job—I'll on mine. Don't go more than a hundred away and if you into a jam."
"There's a of questions I want to ask you. What makes it so warm here, when the sun's so away and Jupiter isn't to be any heat? And how about time? It's twelve hours by my watch since this morning, and it's still shining."
"As for heat, I've been about that. It must be to heat, though Jupiter may be warm, or hot, it isn't much, since it has a temperature of two hundred at the visible surface, which, of course, is the top of the atmosphere. Our here is by radioactivity—that's the most modern dope, I believe. As for time, it looks as though our days were something than thirty hours long, of twenty-four. Of I'll keep the going on I-P time, since we'll need it in out observations; but we might as well let our and work, eat, and sleep by the sun—not much in trying to keep Tellurian time here, as I see it. Check?"
"All x. I'll have supper for you at sunset. 'Bye!"
A later, when Stevens came in after his long day's work, he was to see Nadia in a of and high-laced moccasins.
"How do I look?" she asked, gayly.
"Neat, but not gaudy," he approved. "That's good mole-skin—smooth, soft, and tough. Where'd you make the raise? I didn't know we had anything like that on board. What did you do for thread? You look like a dollars—you sure did a good job of fitting."
"I had to have something—what with all the and brush, there was almost more of me than covered, and I was up something fierce. So I up one of the space-suits, and out that there's cloth, fur, and leather in one of them to make six ordinary suits, and by the kilometer. I was to see all that thread—I had an idea that I'd have to my or something, but I didn't. Your are tacky, too, and you're all with those and things. I'm going to you a out of leather for your activities."
"Fine business, ace! Then we can save what's left of our for the return trip. What do we eat?"
"The question of the man! I've got a bongo, a bird, and a for the meat dishes. For vegetables, and greens. Neocorn bread."
"Translate that, please, into terms of food."
"Translate it yourself, after you eat it. I the on you today. I've named all the things, so it'll be to keep of those we like and the ones we don't."
With sharp-set by long hours of hard labor they ate heartily; then, in the twilight, they sat and talked in fashion while Stevens one cigarette.
IT was not long until Nadia had her work well in hand. Game was plentiful, and the and the peculiar, but vegetable foods in and abundance; so that soon she was able to some time with Stevens, helping him as much as she could. Thus she came to the true of the he and the of their position.
As Stevens had the work was started, he had that he had set himself a task, but he had not permitted himself to follow, step by step, the that he him. Now, as the days into and on into months, he was to take every step, and it was in upon him just how nearly that Herculean labor was to prove—just how any activity is upon a number of others. Here he was alone—everything he needed must be by his own hands, from its original sources. He had that progress would be slow and he had been prepared for that; but he had not pictured, to himself, of the which time after time of the of the and he was to use. All too often a machine or part, the product of many hours of labor, would fail of the of some thing—some item so common as to be taken for in all shops, but of with the means at his disposal. At such times he would set his a harder, go one step toward the Stone Age, and all over again—to the necessary material or a possible substitute, and then to the and necessary to produce the part he required. Thus the heart-breaking progressed, and Nadia her co-laborer and and more day by day, unable in any way to his load.
In the period of a meal, Stevens upon the warm, the "Forlorn Hope," but it was to Nadia that he was not resting. His and hands were locked his head, his were closed too tightly, and every line of his was of a more than physical. She him for minutes, her clouded, then sat him and put her hand upon his shoulder.
"I want to talk to you a minute, Steve," she said gently.
"All x, little fellow—but it might be just as well if you didn't touch me. You see, I'm so that I can't trust myself."
"That's what I want to talk to you about." A through her tan, but her low, clear voice did not and her his unflinchingly. "I know you than you know yourself, as I've said before. You are killing yourself, but it isn't the work, hard and as it is, that is doing it—it's your for me and the of everything. You haven't been able to you have been and so at conditions—you have been facts. And it's all so useless, Steve, you and me—everything would check out on zero if we'd just come out into the open."
The man's to more rigidly.
"You've said too much or else only enough, Nadia. You know, of course, that I've loved you since I got to know you—and that didn't take long. You know that I love you and you know how I love you—with the love that a man can for only one woman and only once in his life; and you know what we're up against. Now that tear it—wide open!" he bitterly.
"No, it doesn't, at all," she replied, steadily. "Of I know that you love me, and I in it; and since you don't to that I love you in the same way, I'll tell you so. Love you! Good heavens, Steve, I that such a man as you are existed! But you're too many at once, and they're killing you. And they're mostly imaginary, at that. Can't you see that there's no need of you and me? That there is no need of you to on my account? Whatever must be is all x with me, Steve. If you can you need, all well and good. We'll be until then, and our love will be open and sweet. If comes to worst, so that we can neither with Brandon and Westfall here under our own power—even that is nothing to kill ourselves about. And yes, I do know what we are facing. I have been prepared for it since I saw what a perfectly thing you are attempting. You are trying to go from almost the Age of Bronze clear up to year-after-next in a month or two. Not one man in a have done as much in his lifetime as you have done in the last weeks, and I do not see how you, with what little you have to work with, can possibly such as power-plants, transmitters, and ultra-radio stations. But what of it? For the day that it clear that we are to here indefinitely; that day we will each other here, God. Look around at this country. Could there be a world upon which to a new race? When we to cut from the Arcturus I told you that I was with you all the way, and now I'll repeat it, with a more meaning. No what it's like, Steve, no where it leads to, I'm with you—to—the—end—of—the—road. Here or upon Earth or in the Universe. I am yours for life and for eternity."
WHILE she was speaking, the grim, lines upon Stevens' had disappeared, and as she he up and gently, tenderly, he took her into his arms.
"You're right, sweetheart—everything will check out on zero, to decimals." He was a man transfigured. "I've been and I've been sick—but how was I to think that a wonder-girl like you love a like me? You are the little partner a man had. You're the world's shooter, ace—you're a square if there was one. Your nerve in being to go the whole makes me love you more than ever, if such a thing can be possible, and it puts a new on the whole cock-eyed Universe for me. However, I don't it will come to that. After what you've just said, I sure will that job, of how many different it takes to make one armature—I'll that of scrap-iron what of trees make shingles!"
The girl still in his arms, he rose to his and her slowly, reluctantly, to let her go. Then he himself, as though an had been from his shoulders, and laughed happily.
"See this cigarette?" he on lightly. "The Last of the Mohicans. I'm going to it in of our engagement." He the into his and at her in seriousness.
"This would be a world to live on, of course, but the jobs here are too steady. It also to be in modern conveniences, such as steel-mills and machine tools. Then, too, it is just a too from the Royal and Ancient for you to here permanently, and besides, I can't my of cigarettes around here. Therefore, after deliberation, I don't we'll take the place—we'll go to Tellus. Kiss me just once more ace, and I'll make that job think a has it right on the center of impact. Like Samuel Weller, or it was, I'm clear full of 'wigor, wim, and witality'!"
The and others delivered he away, and the little with the of his as he with the great forging, white-hot from his soak-pit, which was to the of his turbo-alternator. Nadia him for a moment, her very in her eyes, then up her and after more steel, a long and tremulous, but happy sigh.
