Time Wrecked
"Can we go back?" Karara was herself again, her voice crisp.
"I don't know." Ross gave her the truth. The which had them through the gate was his experience. As as he knew, there had been such an passage by time gate, and what their might he did not know.
The main was that Ashe must have come through, too, and that he was missing. Just let the abate, and, with the dolphins' aid, Ross's for the missing agent was better. He said so now, and Karara nodded.
"Do you there is a going on here?" She her arms across her breast, her in the light with she not control. The was biting, and Ross that was also danger.
"Could be." He got to his feet, the light from the girl to the walls. That seaweed, it make them some of covering?
"Hold this—aim it there!" He the into her hands and for one of the of kelp.
Ross in lines of the stuff. It was rank-smelling but only damp, and he it on the in a of nest. At least in the of that they would be after a fashion.
Karara into the center of the mass, and Ross her. The of the his nose, was almost like a visible cloud, but he had been right, the girl stopped shivering, and he a measure of in his own body. Ross off the torch, and they together in the dark, the half-rotten of them.
He must have slept, Ross guessed, when he stirred, his head. His was stiff, aching, as he himself up on his hands and over the of their nest. There was light in the cave, a wash which toward the opening. It must be day. And that meant they move.
Ross in the weed, his hand on a of shoulder.
"Wake up!" His voice was and the of an order.
There was a in answer, and the him as the girl stirred.
"Day out—" Ross pointed.
"And the storm—" she up, "I think it is over."
It was true that the level of water the had fallen, that no longer with the same vigor. Morning ... the over ... and Ashe!
Ross was about to his into place when Karara at his arm.
"Be careful! Remember what I saw—last night they were killing swimmers!"
He her off impatiently. "I'm no fool! And with the on we do not have to surface. Listen—" he had another thought, one which would provide an excellent for her safely out of his company, his for her, "you take the and try to the gate. We'll want out as soon as I Ashe."
"And if you do not him soon?"
Ross hesitated. She had not said the rest. What if he not Gordon at all? But he would—he had to!
"I'll be here"—he his watch, no longer an timekeeper, for Hawaikan days an hour more than the Terran twenty-four, but the the off-world to check on work periods—"in, say, two hours. You should know by then about the gate, and I'll have some idea of the along the shore. But listen—" Ross her in a grip, her around to him, his and almost angry as they hers, "don't let be seen—" He the of Agents in new territory. "We don't discovery."
Karara and he see that she understood, was aware of the of that warning. "Do you want Tino-rau or Taua?"
"No, I'm going to search along the first. Ashe would have for that last night ... was in the way we were. He'd go to ground somewhere. And I have this—" Ross touched the on his belt. "I'll set it on his call; you do the same with yours. Then if we distance, he'll us up. Back here in two hours—"
"Yes." Karara free of the weed, was already to where the in the waiting for her. Ross followed, and the four for the open sea.
It not be much after dawn, Ross thought, as he by one hand to a and Karara and the on their way. Then he along the for his own survey of the coast. There was a rose in the sky, the along the of the horizon. And about him flotsam, so that he had to a way through debris.
On the one of the ships had entirely. Perhaps it had been to death by the waves, ground to against the rocks. The other still held, its well out of the now waves, in its through which of water now and then.
The which had been was of planks, boxes, and rolled by the waves' force. Much of this was already free of the sea, and on the beach moved it. In of the of discovery, Ross along rocks, a point from which he watch that activity.
He was against a sea-girt boulder, a of about him, when the nearest of the parties moved into good view.
Men ... at least they had the of men much like himself, though their skin was dark and their appeared long and thin. There were two groups of them, four only a loincloth, over and through the under the direction of the other two.
The had thick of which not only their heads, but their and the of their thin arms and to and knee. The was a yellow-white in to their dark skins, and their sharply, the line of their to take on a to an animal's muzzle.
Their were more clothed, not only on their heads, had a over the face, but also breast- and back-plates to their bodies. Ross that these not be solid metal since they to the movements of the wearers.
Feet and were with of shoe and leggings, red. They were with of an odd pattern; their points up so that the a fishhook. Unsheathed, the were to a by which in the weak light as if set.
Ross see little of their faces, for the their features. But their skins were as as those of the laborers, and their arms and of the same length ... men of the same race, he deduced.
Under the orders of the the were the beach to order, out the into two piles. Once they about a find, and the of speech Ross as an clicking. The men came up, the discovery. One of them shrugged, and an order.
Ross only a of the thing two of the away. A body! Ashe.... The Terran was about to move closer when he saw the green about the corpse. No, not Gordon, just another from the wrecks.
The were their way toward Ross, and it was time for him to go. He was pushing his well-arranged of when he was by a shout. For a second he he might have been sighted, until resulting action on told him otherwise.
The against the to which they had just the body. While the two took up a position them, swords, from their hooks, in their hands. Again that shout. Was it a or a threat? With the language Ross only wait to see.
Another party approached along the beach from the south. In the lead was a and figure, so in its of silver-gray that Ross had no idea of the beneath. Silvery-gray—no, now that was with tones, rapidly. By the time the had passed the which the Terran the was a rich which to glow.
Behind the leader were a dozen men. They the same helmets, the breast- and back-plates, but their were gray. They, too, swords, but the were still to their belts and they no move to them in of the very of the them.
Blue some three from the guards. The sea wind at the cloak, it about the beneath. But so, the well hidden. From under a came a hand. The fingers, long and slender, were about an ivory-colored which ended in a knob. Sparks from it in a flickering.
Ross his hand to his belt. To his complete the he was to those flashes, in perfect to their blink-blink. The Terran his over the as he waited to see what was going to happen, if the of that might, in return, up the of the set on Ashe's call.
The hand the was not dusky-skinned but had much of the same as the rod, so that to Ross the meeting and was distinguishable. Now by one the hand planted the into the sand, it to the two parties.
Retreating a step or two, the red-clad gave ground. But they did not their swords. Their attitude, Ross judged, was that of men in some of their opponent, but men to defiance, either by a in the of their cause, or by an old hatred.
Now the one to speak—or was that speech? Certainly the of had little in common with the Ross had earlier. This of notes the and of a or song which have been a of greeting—or a warning. And the lines of the to attention, their still undrawn.
Ross his lip his teeth and on it. That chanting—it into the mind, set up a pattern! He his and then was by that recklessness. Not that any of those on had in his direction.
The ended on a high, note. It was by a moment of through which only the wind and the of wave.
Then one of the up his and a word or two. He and his on the beach, their hands to over their heads. One of the with a to the nearest of the in the ribs.
But his out. The which had so when it was planted, now toward the party, its so and with such that they were fast making a single beam. Ross his hand from with the sonic; a of pain answered that up of the broadcast.
The and ran, or on their until they were well away, they got to their and the strand. However, the were of stuff. They were all right, but slowly away, their up them as men might odds.
When they were well gone the one took up the wand. Holding it out beyond, the leader of the second party approached the two of the had into order. There was a of until the one came upon the body.
At a order two of the came up and out the corpse. When the one they well back. The moved, the than the being pointed at the body.
Ross's back. That of light, energy, fire—whatever it was—issuing from the had him into blindness. And a of through the air was like a blow.
When he was able to see once more there was nothing at all on the where the had lain, nothing a from which some of arose. Ross to his support shaken.
Men with ... and now this—some of energy which of and science. Just as the had with ships with a speed which engine power of an unknown type. A mixture of and knowledge. To this, he needed more experience, more knowledge than he possessed. Now Ashe could....
Ashe!
Ross was to his own quest. The was quiet, no more were from its knob. And under Ross's touch his was also. He off the broadcast. If that device had up the of the rod, the well be true.
The one from the of goods, and its up the boxes, a small or two. So laden, the party returned south the way they had come. Ross allowed his to in a of relief.
He his way north along the coast, other parties of the and their guards. Lines of the the cliff, their spoil, their the castle. But Ross saw no of Ashe, no answer to the he had once the were out of distance. And the Terran to that his present search might well be fruitless, though he against it.
When he to the Ross's was to be in anger, the anger of over his own helplessness. With no of trying to the castle, he not learn or not Ashe had been taken prisoner. And until the left the beach he not there the his mind from considering.
Karara waited for him on the ledge. There was no of the and as Ross out of the water, pushing his mask, her in the thin light of the was troubled.
"You did not him," she that a than a question.
"No."
"And I did not it—"
Ross used a length of from the as a towel. But now he very still.
"The gate ... no of it?"
"Just this—" She her and up a sealed container. Ross one of the supply they had had in the by the gate. "There are others ... scattered. Taua and Tino-rau them now. It is as if all that was on the other was through with us."
"You are sure you the right place?"
"Is—is this not part of it?" Again the girl for something on the ledge. What she out to him was a length of metal rod, and at one end as if a hand had it from the installation.
Ross dully. "Yes," his voice was as if the were out of him against his will and against all hope—"that's part of a bar. It—it must have been totally wrecked."
Yet, though he that length in his hands, Ross not the gate was gone. He out once more, for the where the joined him as guides. There was a second piece of tube, the of supplies, that was all. The Terrans were in time as surely as those ships had been on the sea the night before!
Ross once again for the cave. Their needs were of major now. The must be all and taken into their place, upon their three depend.
He paused just at the entrance to the of he transported. And it was that which him knowledge of the intruder.
On the Karara was up the of the nest. But to one and on a level with the girl's head....
Ross not his torch, thus his presence. Leaving the to the by its sling, he under water along the of the by a which should him out of that above to watch Karara's every move.
