Johnny was pale under his headglobe, but clicked, "Friend-pets, come to your friend."
The flying lizards slowly quieted, squeaking among themselves. Their wings humming, they hovered closer and closer. There were five of them. Finally their heads snapped out of arrow position. One of them hovered in very close.
"Come to me, friend-pet," Johnny clicked to it, and held out his hand.
The creature, watching him carefully with its little purple eyes, floated even nearer, its wings humming. Very gingerly it came to a perch on his hand. Its claws were cold and it smelled faintly of meat fruit.
Johnny breathed deep. He was the only human being who had ever made friends with an arrow-bird.
Slowly, while the other birds hovered in the air about him, Johnny drew in his hand and stroked the bird on its folded wings. It shivered under his touch. But, as he did it no harm, the other birds came closer and lit on his arms and his shoulders. One peered into his face. Another poked the air slits of Johnny's headglobe with its sharp bill.
"Baba! Baba!" Johnny cried out. "Do you see this? Do you think I could sneak one home with us?"
"Your people would kill him, Johnny," Baba clicked. "Go away, friend-pet," he clicked to the arrow-bird.
The bird looked at Johnny.
"Go, friend-pets," Johnny clicked regretfully to the five birds about him. With a flash of wings they were gone.
"Gosh," said Johnny. "Gosh!" He unzipped and wriggled out of his armor. "Baba, I don'thaveto wear armor ever any more. Do you understand? I can just walk around like you do!" The words fairly bubbled out of him. Baba was quiet for a moment, frowning.
"Johnny," he clicked, "I've done something wrong. Something very bad. I'm not sure why, but I just know it's wrong. Those are my friend-pets, not yours. Ifyouuse the word 'friend-pet' to them, that means you can never hurt them. You must always help them. But they will always try to kill your mother and father. It is all mixed up."
"Gee, Baba," Johnny was frowning now, too. "C'mon, let's try the climb and forget it." From one of the armor straps he unhooked a flashlight he always brought along for exploring caves. He fastened it to his belt.
A few moments later the two friends were looking up at the bare rock face that extended three hundred feet straight up.
"Golly, Baba, do you really think you can take us upthere?" Johnny asked.
"If you can hold on, I can take you," Baba said from Johnny's shoulder.
"Start up!" Johnny yelled. Baba leaped up onto the wall of rock, his claws cutting into it. Johnny grasped the harness and hooked his toes into a crack in the stone.
By the time Baba and Johnny had gone fifty feet up the cliff, Johnny felt as if his arms were about to be pulled from his shoulders. The boy helped push with his feet, but that took only a little weight from his arms. Below him there was nothing but boulders and sharp jagged rocks. In spite of that danger, he felt that he could hardly keep hold of the harness. Sweat poured down into his eyes.
"Hurry, Baba," he said through clenched teeth.
"Ledge soon," the little bear clicked. As he speeded up his climb he slapped his claws deep into the rock, making sharp clapping noises that echoed among the boulders below. He stopped short and Johnny saw a place where the rock jutted out a few inches. Gratefully he felt something solid beneath his feet. He couldn't put his whole foot down, but he could rest his arms a little.
"Whew," Johnny said, "doesn't the ledge get wider?"
"In a minute," Baba answered. Crabwise, with Johnny still hanging on, Baba worked along the ledge, which slowly widened until Johnny could stand alone. They were now on the jungle side of the rock.
A few feet farther on, there was a narrow slit in the rock face that widened into a small cave. Deep in the cave's darkness Johnny heard the squeaking of young arrow-birds. As he crept inside he whipped his flashlight from his belt. Purple eyes glittered at him in the circle of its light. There was a flutter of wings. Johnny and Baba started to click at the same time. The fluttering stopped and the birds' heads disappeared into their nests. The cave ended in a pile of large stones. Johnny sat down.
"Boy, do my arms ache!" Johnny said. "How about you, Baba?"
"I can climb," Baba answered. "But can you hold on? We have far to go."
"Aren't there any more ledges?" Johnny asked.
"Small ones," Baba answered. "None are wide like this one. Do you still want to go up?"
"Maybe we could tie me on some way," Johnny said. "Mountain climbers do it that way."
In a moment the boy and the bear were trying to see what they could work out. Finally Johnny had Baba use the razor sharp point of one of his claws to cut a pair of long thin straps from the wide ones on the harness. These they tied to Johnny's belt and then to Baba's harness again.
When the straps were finished, Johnny felt rested and they started out of the cave. They were stopped by the sight below them.
At the foot of the rock there was a wide space of cleared ground, and then the jungle stretched out. About a half mile away some large greyish beasts were breaking out of the undergrowth.
"Rhinosaurs!" Johnny shouted, pointing. "Golly, a whole herd of them!" There were more than thirty of the huge grey-blue saurians. Even at that distance they could hear the low thunder of the gigantic hooves. The beasts stayed close to the brush, knocking down small trees as they came. Johnny knew that heavy ato-tubes were trained on the rhinosaurs from the guard towers. The guards in the gate towers would have a full view of them. Johnny also knew that unless the beasts began to charge the walls, the guards would not fire. If they did, the whole herd might charge. Topped as they were with electric wires, the heavy fifty-foot high walls would be hard to breach. But rhinosaurs had smashed those walls once—before they were thickened and electrified.
"Remember when they attacked and killed a lot of colonists?"
"I remember," Baba clicked. "Your people killed them, too. These straps...."
Johnny nodded. Because it was made of the skin of an animal the colonists had killed, he had had a hard time getting Baba to wear that harness.
"Let's go!" Johnny said.
This time the going was not so hard for Johnny, though they climbed much farther before he and Baba could rest. The next ledge they reached was not large enough to let them sit. Baba had to hang to the rock, but it didn't seem to tire him.
Three more rests, and slowly but surely they were reaching the top. At the last rest Baba clicked to Johnny in warning.
"The rock is getting softer. If my claws tear away from the rock, just relax and fall with me. I'll grab again further down."
"All right," he said.
Johnny didn't dare look down. He had been climbing with Baba since he was three, but never this high before.
They had gone up only a few more feet when Baba's claws began to slip. Johnny let himself go limp just in case anything happened. Very slowly Baba's claws slipped down the rock. Then they caught hold again.
"We will have to move to the side," Baba clicked.
Johnny didn't answer. It was up to Baba. The little bear scuttled crabwise along the side until he found rock that didn't scale off. Then up they went again. Finally there was a ledge. The two scrambled onto it. Above the ledge was a gap in the rock, some boulders—and they were on the top!
A faint wind was blowing, and Johnny could hear it sing through the top of the stunted diamond-wood tree growing on the summit.
The top of New Plymouth Rock was flat, a hundred feet or more wide, but with many jutting boulders. Here and there grew small bushes and patches of grass. The diamond-wood tree sprang directly from the bare rock.
With shaking fingers Johnny untied the straps and threw himself down on a patch of green. As he lay there, his breath rustling the grass, he heard Baba pattering about and wondered how the little bear had so much energy left.
"Johnny," Baba clicked, "do you want some berries?" Johnny looked up to see the little bear holding some clear, almost transparent red berries in his paw. The colonists called them antelope berries because they grew mainly in antelope country. At that moment Johnny realized he was very thirsty.
"Thanks, Baba!" He crushed the berries with his teeth and felt the sour-sweet juice trickle down his throat. He suddenly felt thrilled with triumph. He was now where no other human had ever been before!
Johnny was just raising his head to look around when he heard the patter of tiny hooves behind him.
"Look, Johnny!" Baba clicked.
Johnny turned. Running toward them was a herd of the tiniest antelope he had ever seen. They were barely six inches high, their curled horns almost as tiny as needles. Head down, they charged directly at him. Johnny jumped to his feet.
"Friend-pets," Baba clicked gently, "bother us not." The tiny creatures wheeled about and started back in the direction from which they had come.
"Oh, Baba, don't send them away," Johnny said. Then, remembering his success with the arrow-birds, he himself clicked in a low tone, "Come here, friend-pets. Come here."
The antelope with the longest curled blue horns stopped, turned slowly around and pawed the ground, his long neck arched. It was just seven inches high. Johnny laughed. The regular antelope were sevenfeethigh, but otherwise looked exactly the same as these.
Johnny squatted down and, as he moved, the herd turned and ran, making little whinnying noises. Then they wheeled and returned. The leader pranced closer and closer and came to a halt within a foot of Johnny. It was soft blue all over, marked with spots of deeper purple. Its tiny hooves were blue black, and its eyes glistened with deep purple highlights. Johnny reached out both his hands and laid them before the little creature.
"Come," Johnny clicked. Trembling, the little antelope pawed the grass. Then with mincing steps he came forward and placed his forefeet on one hand, his hind feet on the other. Very slowly Johnny raised him from the ground. The small hooves were sharp and dug into the palms of his hands. The little animal's eyes widened and it snorted in fear. Johnny, afraid it might fall, set his hands back on the ground.
"Go, friend-pet," he clicked. With a bound the creature returned to his herd. Together the antelope leaped high over a small boulder and were gone behind a clump of bushes.
Johnny looked up to see Baba watching him steadily. The little bear looked at Johnny the same way as when he had spoken to the arrow-birds.
"Friend-pet-brother Johnny," Baba clicked, "I am sure I am doing wrong. First the arrow-birds and now the antelopes are your friends. But they are your people's enemies."
"Not the antelopes!" Johnny said. "They fight us some, but we don't ever bother them except for meat."
"Your people kill them," Baba said, as if that settled matters. "Now you can't. You've said they were your friends."
"Is that some kind of rule?" Johnny asked.
"You said they were your friends," Baba repeated. "You help your friends and your friends help you. That is the law and will be the law as the trees stand. Between friend and friend there is no parting more than the fingers of a hand." Baba said this in a sort of sing-song of clicks, like the song of a bird. It was something like a poem.
"Baba," Johnny asked, "how do you know all this? You've never talked this way before." Johnny squatted down before the little bear, whose face was screwed up into a puzzled frown.
"I guess I've always known it," Baba clicked. "But it just came back to me. I don't remember much before I came to live with you, Johnny. But I do remember being in a high tree. There was one like me whom I loved very much, and she sang the song I just sang to you. I remember going to sleep while she sang it. It is a true song, too."
"Would you sing it again?" Johnny asked.
The little bear began again:
"You help your friends and your friends help you.It is the law,And will be the law as the trees stand.Between friend and friend there is no partingMore than the fingers of a hand."
"You help your friends and your friends help you.It is the law,And will be the law as the trees stand.Between friend and friend there is no partingMore than the fingers of a hand."
"You help your friends and your friends help you.
It is the law,
And will be the law as the trees stand.
Between friend and friend there is no parting
More than the fingers of a hand."
This time the little bear really sang, trilling the clicks to a tune like the roll of a mockingbird's song. Johnny felt very strange. He patted Baba on the head and then stood up.
"I think I understand," he said, and looked out over the surrounding countryside, thinking about the little antelope he had just held in his hands.
"I'm hungry," the little bear clicked. With a jump and a bounce he started for the stunted diamond-wood tree.
"Baba," Johnny called. The little bear bounced back. "Aren't there plenty of those nuts here for you to live on? I mean, enough to feed you regularly if you lived here all the time?"
The little bear nodded yes, but frowned.
"I want to live with you, Johnny," he clicked.
"I know, Baba. But you're in danger. I hoped that if I could show you I'd be able to visit you, maybe you'd stay."
At the unhappiness on the little bear's face, Johnny hurried on. "Look, Baba, I can't make you stay here. But somebody's going to find out about your nails if you stay with me. If you live here, I could come up and visit you when the nights come, and if we were lucky, I could see you most every wake-time down by the rocks...." Johnny's voice trailed off. Baba was looking unhappier and unhappier.
"I want to live with you," Baba repeated. "Remember what the song says about parting. You stay here with me."
It was Johnny's turn to look unhappy. He didn't want to leave his father and mother, any more than Baba wanted to leave him. The hard climb was all for nothing.
"I can't, Baba. You know that," he said sadly.
"I can't either," Baba said.
Johnny continued arguing for a long time but it did no good. Baba wanted to be with Johnny: there wasn't anything more to say.
"I'm still hungry!" clicked the little bear, plaintively. Then, with a bounce, Baba was up and away. The little bear was crazier about fresh diamond-wood nuts than anything else, even chocolate.
Johnny felt sad and confused. He got up. Below him stretched the sweet green lands of Venus. The hard angles of the walls and the squat grey buildings of the settlements were somehow out of keeping with the rest of the land.
There was an almost park-like look about the jungle from this height. In the distance the towering groves of diamond-wood trees, where the marva lived, shone blue green against the light green clouds that were the skies of Venus. Between the blue groves of diamond-wood were the meadow lands, soft and rolling. At the edges of the meadows were the lower and darker green meat trees, where the saber-tooth leopards stalked. The land was laced with rivers that shone in the green light.
It was all so beautiful, and so deadly. In a few hours evening would begin—almost three Earth days of twilight. Venus turned so slowly that there was a whole Earth week each of daylight and dark. But of course people had to sleep and work by Earth days. The thick permanent clouds surrounding Venus glowed with light hours after sundown, making the twilight last and last.
Beyond the marshes was the sea—filled, too, with savage life, flying crocodiles who made nests of the bones of their prey, great dinosaur-like monsters and shark-snakes. But none of these dared come onto the land, for the land animals fought them as fiercely as they fought man.
Except for Baba, all the animals on Venus were determined to kill Johnny's people. And he had just been making friends with some of those enemies. He felt strange, as if he were being a traitor to his own kind. Johnny didn't like that feeling. Suddenly he thought of Baba living among people and wondered if the little bear felt the same way.
Johnny turned away from the edge of the cliff and kicked a stone. He began to wander over the top of New Plymouth Rock, peering into bushes and piles of boulders. He passed near the antelopes grazing on some grass. They lifted their heads and whinnied, but went on grazing. Johnny liked that. Beside a pile of small boulders, he found some arrow-bird nests. He spoke to the birds and all was well.
"That's an odd pile of boulders," Johnny muttered to himself. It didn't look just right, somehow. He pushed one of the stones and it rolled down almost to his foot. There was a dark empty space beyond it. He took his flashlight from his belt and shined it down into the opening.
He almost dropped the flashlight.
The light revealed the shape of a bouncing bear, a marva, just like Baba!
"Baba!" Johnny turned and yelled, "Come here, quick!"
When he looked back, the bear in the opening had not moved. It was not blue, but the color of the rock. Johnny stopped shaking. The opening was the entrance into a cave, and on the wall of the cave was carved the figure of a bear he had thought was alive.
But he was sure that the bear had been blue!
Johnny and Baba excitedly started clearing away the pile of boulders and stones from the mouth of the mysterious cave. Immediately the arrow-birds began flying around, their heads snapping into striking position.
"They don't like us doing this," Baba clicked. "They don't like it at all." He turned to the fluttering birds. "Bother us not! Bother us not!" he repeated. The birds retreated, but hovered in the air not far off.
"Go away!" Johnny clicked. The birds squeaked among themselves and went a little farther away. "I don't understand," Johnny said. "We aren't bothering their nests." He and Baba each picked up a stone and carried it away from the cave opening. Johnny watched the arrow-birds from the corners of his eyes. They dived in closer.
"Go away," came a firm, deep click. The birds stopped in mid-air and then were gone.
"Gosh," Johnny said to Baba, "you sure made them go that time."
Baba's eyes opened wide.
"I didn't say anything," he clicked.
The bear and the boy looked at one another, puzzled, and then into the opening. The bear cut in the stone was all they could see.
"Come on, Baba!" Johnny rushed to the opening and knocked down a few more stones. Baba pushed them farther away. In a few minutes of hard work the opening was big enough for Johnny to squeeze through. Around the edge of the cave, the rock was carved with the shapes of many animals. The floor slanted sharply downward.
"Hurry, Johnny," Baba clicked anxiously. "He may have gone away." The little bear's eyes were shining with eagerness.
Johnny's heart sank. Baba had not seen another live jewel bear since he had been captured. He had never seemed interested. But now he was quivering with excitement. If they found marva, maybe Baba would want to stay with them! Johnny wanted Baba to be safe, but he didn't want to lose him for always.
The little bear was already scurrying down the steep slope. Without stopping to think of danger ahead, Johnny plunged after him. The ceiling was just high enough for him to stand upright. Flashing his light into the darkness, Johnny saw that the cave was a long passageway that curved down into the heart of the great rock.
Soon they were too deep inside for any light to reach them from the mouth of the cave. Except for the beam of Johnny's flashlight, they were surrounded by complete darkness. The air was musty and cool and their footfalls echoed, making scarey hollow noises.
"Stop!" Johnny said. He held his fingers to his lips. His words echoed and re-echoed in front of them. Then there was almost silence. A soft padding and clicking sound came from far in the distance. It was the same kind of noise Baba's feet and claws made on stone.
The two started out again at a half run. The slope was almost too steep, and Johnny had to slide to a halt to keep from falling. Baba went bouncing along ahead and out of sight. As the slope became steeper yet, Johnny had to slide forward carefully. He stumbled and went down on his back. His flashlight slipped from his hand and went rolling on down the passage and out of sight.
In a second it was pitch black.
"Baba," Johnny yelled at the top of his lungs. His only answer was his own voice echoing down the long corridor. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and slid on forward on the seat of his pants, his heart beating rapidly.
A few very long minutes later, he saw a light shining in the distance. It was Baba, the flashlight in his paw.
"Hurry, Johnny!" he clicked. "Hurry."
With the way lighted for him, Johnny got to his feet and could move faster. As he reached Baba, the passage began to widen and the slope became less steep.
"I saw him," Baba clicked excitedly. "He was big. I'm sure if we could catch him he'd be a friend! I tried to talk to him but he went on ahead just when you called. Oh, Johnny, I do want to find him."
Johnny had never seen Baba so excited.
Suddenly, the passageway ended and they were in a great underground room. Johnny flashed his light around the walls. They, too, were carved with scenes of life on Venus. Beneath each carving was a small doorway leading into a side room. There was one large doorway opposite the one through which they had entered.
"It looks like a meeting house," Johnny said. "With seats and everything." He flashed the light on one of the carvings. He had heard of carvings like these and had seen one once. His father said that they must have been made by an intelligent life form that had visited Venus from the stars. This cave must have been where they had hidden from the animals, just as men now hid from them behind the settlement's great walls. Johnny was awed.
"Johnny, don't just stand here," Baba clicked. "We've got to find him!"
Johnny looked from opening to opening.
"Which way, Baba?"
The little bear sniffed the air. "I can't tell," he said. "I can't tell." Hurriedly they made a circle about the great room. When they came to the large opening, Baba sniffed carefully.
"Maybe here," he clicked, and plunged through.
Down they went as before. This time Johnny grabbed Baba's harness and they were able to move faster. This corridor was just as steep and curving as the first one.
In a few minutes they emerged into another room. It was smaller than the room above and had three small doorways and one large opening.
"Let's try them all," Baba said. Through each of the three small doorways they entered similar rooms. The fourth opening was another corridor. Again Baba thought he smelled the path of the marva.
Down that corridor they went, down and down. Finally it ended in hundreds of the rooms, large and small, the rock was like a honeycomb. Johnny's flashlight was already growing dim, and they didn't dare try to search much longer.
Trying to follow the scent they took a side corridor that led from one small room to another, and came out into a narrow passageway. A faint light glimmered at the end of it. Baba bounded on ahead, Johnny running to keep up with him.
The light seeped through a pile of rocks. Johnny flashed his light through one of the cracks. Behind the pile of rocks the tunnel continued for several feet. In the light of his flashlight Johnny could see bits of leather on the floor of the outer part of the cave. Just beyond them on the other side of the rocks was the cave Johnny and Baba had rested in while climbing up, the cave in which they had cut the long straps they had used to tie themselves together for the long climb upward. The bits of leather on the floor were scraps that had been left over.
"Why, we're almost to the bottom," Johnny said.
"Yes," Baba clicked. "I guess we can't find him. I don't smell anything now but arrow-birds," he ended sadly.
"We gotta try," Johnny said firmly. He felt hollow inside when he thought Baba might go away for good, but he was convinced now that this was the only way to keep him safe.
"Let's try farther down." Johnny turned around and a few minutes later they were going down one of the curving main corridors again.
This corridor gradually straightened out. Soon it hardly slanted down at all. It finally turned into what seemed to be a long underground tunnel. Johnny had to stoop over to keep from hitting his head on the ceiling.
The passageway was no longer going through solid rock, and its walls and floor were a sticky clay. Johnny's and Baba's feet made squishing noises as they walked. It seemed as if the tunnel would never end. They walked on and on.
"I think we're going away from New Plymouth Rock," Baba clicked.
"I think so, too," Johnny answered. "We must've already gone 'most a mile."
The walls had narrowed until Johnny and Baba had to walk single file. Suddenly the passageway slanted upward and a faint glow of light could be seen far away. As they began to climb toward the light the ceiling became so low Johnny had to crawl on his hands and knees. It was a long, sticky climb.
As they approached within a few yards of the light, Baba stopped, blocking Johnny's way.
"This cave must end up in the jungle outside the colony wall," the little bear clicked. "Maybe we ought to stop." He sounded worried.
But Johnny was not going to let this chance pass.
"Go on," he urged.
"But the rhinosaurs...."
"Who's afraid of an old rhinosaur?" Johnny demanded.
"You are," Baba clicked. But he scrambled on.
They emerged into the blinding light in the center of a tangle of thick, high brush. They were out in the jungle, far away from the rock!
The boy and his bear were covered with mud from head to foot. They peered carefully around, listening. In the distance they could hear the rumble of moving rhinosaurs.
As they crept away from the cave, their view continued to be blocked by large bushes and trees. They couldn't even see New Plymouth Rock. Stepping quietly and carefully they finally came to an opening in the brush. Far to the right was the Rock—and, farther in the distance, a guard tower.
"Get back," Johnny shouted. "The guard will see us." The two jumped back.
There was a grunt behind them. They turned. Behind a screen of brush, a great blue-scaled rhinosaur was waking up. It was between them and the opening to the cave. It snorted with the sound of a deep bass drum, and heaved up on its feet.
Ahead, at the edge of the clearing, was a tall meat tree. They had two chances. They could turn quietly and creep away into the brush, hoping the big beast would not see or hear them. Or, they could make a run for the meat tree—in full view of the guard tower.
The decision was made for them by the rhinosaur. The great scaled beast began to turn around, crashing down brush as he moved. In a few seconds he would be facing directly toward them.
"Tree," Baba clicked very softly. Johnny nodded. The two slinked like hunting cats toward the tree. They didn't dare look back.
"I think the guard saw us," Baba clicked. "He was waving his arms." The jewel bear had already climbed part way up the trunk. He motioned for Johnny to grab the harness.
Not making a sound Johnny took hold of the harness, and the two of them started up the tree. When they reached the first branch, Johnny let go the harness and clambered up as quickly and quietly as he could. Only when they were screened from view by the fleshy leaves of the meat tree did he dare to look down.
Through little openings between the leaves he could see the rhinosaur. It was shaking its ugly horned head. Its little black-blue eyes peered about under blue scaled eyelids. It trumpeted. The deep blasting sound echoed against the settlement walls. For some minutes it moved around in the brush, snorting. It paused, snuffing in air in great gulps. Then it headed straight for the tree and began to trot back and forth under it.
It had smelled Johnny!
Its hoofbeats on the ground made the limb Johnny sat on tremble. If the rhinosaur sensed that Johnny was in the tree it was the end. The tree was easily four feet thick at the base, but a rhinosaur could knock it down with one rush. Johnny and Baba were on the highest and smallest branch, but they were barely twenty feet above its head.
The rhinosaur's shoulder brushed against the lowest branch and the whole tree swayed back and forth as if hit by a hurricane.
Johnny was struck by an idea. "Baba," he whispered, "do you think it might obey you—just like the arrow-birds?"
"I don't know, Johnny," Baba clicked softly. "I'll try."
Baba started to climb down. By the slow careful way Baba moved, Johnny knew the little bear was afraid, too. It was an awful chance to take. Johnny was about to call him back, but as he opened his lips, the little bear looked up and grinned.
Down Baba went. He was now halfway down the tree, thirty feet from the ground and level with the eyes of the rhinosaur. It caught sight of him, snorted, and pawed the ground, digging up shovelfuls of dirt with each movement.
"Friend-pet! Friend-pet!" Baba clicked and Johnny suddenly wanted to giggle. Imagine having something that size for a pet!
"Friend-pet!" Baba clicked again, "Go away! Go away! Bother us not!"
The big creature stopped still. Muscles rolled and bunched under the heavy blue-grey scales. Was he going to charge or leave?
They never found out.
There was a roar of motors behind the beast, the clank of metal, the deafening blast of an ato-tube gun. The ground shook; leaves showered down on Johnny.
The guards had sent a tank to rescue them!
Things began to happen too fast for Johnny to keep track. The rhinosaur roared with pain and wheeled. It had been hit! It charged toward the oncoming tank—one of the colony's light duty tanks, built for speed and quick turns. The driver jockied for position. The tank shot down the clearing, turned and stopped. Its guns were too light to kill the huge beast, so the gunner did not bother to fire again. They were trying to draw the rhinosaur away from the tree.
The rhinosaur's hooves thundered, echoing against the walls and the rocks as it gathered speed. It was almost on top of the tank. With a roar of the motors the tank shot forward. The rhinosaur was going too fast to stop or turn. It plunged on past the tank, bellowing its rage.
Almost immediately the tank screeched to a stop beneath the tree. Its manhole swung open. Rick Saunders' red head emerged.
"Get in here! Quick!" he shouted over the noise of the motor.
Johnny needed no invitation. He was already halfway down the trunk of the tree. Baba jumped from his perch into the open manhole. As soon as Johnny was low enough, he grasped a branch, swung on to the top of the tank, and started down the steel ladder. The tank jumped forward with a lurch.
The rhinosaur was bearing down on them. Their guns roared, but the rhinosaur did not stop. As a hand grabbed him, pulling him inside, Johnny saw the tree topple over as the rhinosaur crashed into it.
"Fire the gate rocket!" someone's shout echoed in the tank. Johnny recognized Captain Thompson's deep voice.
"Check!" Johnny heard Rick answer. Rick was up in the gun turret.
After the outside light, it seemed very dark in the tank. It smelled of grease and the burnt air of cannon fire. There was the swish of a rocket. Johnny knew this rocket was a signal for the guard on duty at the steel gateways to be ready to open up.
The motors were roaring with a high whining sound which meant they were going at full speed. The tank bounced and jolted, shaking Johnny from side to side.
"Get ready for the gate!" warned Captain Thompson from the driver's seat. The tank seemed to be almost flying now. Johnny set himself for a violent turn. Like the doors of the houses, the wall gates were double. Each was a heavy steel portcullis, a great sliding door that could be raised and lowered. When a tank came in the outer gate its weight tripped a switch. That switched turned on motors that made the first gate fall and the second rise. Otherwise fast moving tanks would have smashed into the second gate.
Johnny slid over to an observation slit. To his left he could see that the heavy steel gate was rising. His heart raced. When being chased by rhinosaurs a driver sped straight along the wall and then turned sharply through the open gate. If he timed it right the rhinosaurs plunged on and the tank was safe. It took split second timing.
They were right by the gate. Johnny grabbed a brace. With a scream of the treads, the tank started into a turn.
"Rhinos on the side!" shouted Rick. His guns blasted.
Captain Thompson fought to straighten the tank out of the turn. Baba was sitting with his paws over his ears, his claws glowing.
There was a bone-shattering crash.
Then Johnny felt himself flying through the air. Everything went topsy-turvy. He banged his shoulder against the side of the tank. Then he felt Baba's furry body against his. Rick's feet seemed to come from nowhere and dig into his back. Johnny grabbed on to something solid and wedged himself in tight.
The tank was rolling over and over. Something crashed against it again and again. There was a heavy thud and the sound of breaking metal. Then everything was still. The motors had stopped. From outside came the roar of guns and the bellowing of rhinosaurs.
Johnny found himself sprawled on top of Rick Saunders. He was terribly shaken. Baba was hanging onto one of the rungs of the steel ladder. It was almost pitch dark. Rick struggled to his feet as Johnny scrambled from on top of him.
"We're upside down," Baba clicked softly to Johnny.
"What happened, Saunders?" Captain Thompson's heavy voice demanded from the driver's compartment. "Didn't Harkness teach you to shoot?"
"Four of them rushed us right at the gate," Rick answered. "Did we make it inside?"
"Think so. Anybody hurt?" Thompson asked.
"Just scratched a little," Johnny answered.
"Good," Captain Thompson grunted. "Is the righting jack O.K.?"
Rick tested a lever.
"O.K."
"Let her rip!"
"Hang on, Johnny," Rick said. "We're going to right her."
Johnny knew just what was going to happen. A tank turned turtle had meant a dead crew until the righting jack had been attached to each of the tanks. Compressed air pushed out two rods fore and aft and flipped the tank right side up.
Johnny braced himself. There was a rush of air. Johnny felt the tank tip slowly under him. Then it went over with a crash. The tank was right side up.
"The gate!" Rick exclaimed.
Just above his head Johnny saw light from the observation slit. He looked out. Then he knew what Rick meant. They and the four rhinosaurs had reached the gate at the same time. The rhinosaurs were inside. They had knocked the tank through the outer gateway and had smashed into the steel door before it was halfway down.
The inner door must have met the same fate for Johnny could see that the sliding steel plates were bent and jammed open. The rhinosaurs had kept after the tank until now it lay fifty yards inside the settlement. Even as Johnny watched, another rhinosaur charged through the opening and headed into the settlement.
Captain Thompson was grinding on the starter and Rick was working up in the gun turret.
"The rhinosaurs got through," Johnny clicked to Baba.
"And the tank is broken?" Baba clicked back.
"Yes."
"I have to get out," Baba said. "Maybe I can get the rhinosaurs to...."
"No, Baba," Johnny said. "They're just plain crazy now."
Captain Thompson climbed down out of the driver's compartment.
"The motor's gone. How are the guns?"
"Out of action," Rick answered. "Must be filled with dirt. We can't do any good here."
"O.K.," Captain Thompson said. "Let's get moving. I'm needed out there!"
Rick undid the wing nuts on the manhole and pushed. Metal squeaked, but the door stayed in place.
"Jammed!" Rick said. "Get me a crow bar out of the box."
Johnny dived for the tool box and came up with a pry bar. He handed it to Rick.
"Hurry, man," Captain Thompson said as Rick went to work. His black angry eyes fixed themselves on Johnny.
"We should have left you out there."
"I'm sorry," Johnny said.
In answer the man cuffed Johnny with the back of his hand. Johnny couldn't be angry. He knew what a rhinosaur raid was like, and this one was his fault.
"Oh, leave the kid alone," Rick said from above.
"Leave him alone!" Thompson snorted, and glared first at Johnny and then at Baba. "The kid and that bear have caused more trouble...."
Captain Thompson stopped talking and stared at Baba. He reached out suddenly and grabbed the little bear by the paw.
"Well, look at this!" he said in a hushed tone.
In the steamy darkness of the tank Baba's nails shone clear and blue. The climbing and running had worn off all the paint.
Thompson held up Baba's paws into the light of an observation slit. He scraped with one of his finger nails.
"Nail polish!" he exclaimed.
The manhole came open with a clang.
"She's open!" Rick called.
Captain Thompson paused only a fraction of a second over Baba and climbed the ladder.
"Lock the kid and bear in the tank," Thompson ordered. "There's less danger here for the boy than there would be in the trip to the wall. You, Rick, go back to the gate. I'll run for headquarters. Make it fast!" Without another word he was up the ladder and gone.
Rick Saunders reached down and patted Johnny on the shoulder.
"Tough luck about your bear, son," he said, and then he, too, was gone. The manhole door clanged and Johnny heard a lock click into place. He hugged Baba to him.
"Gosh, Baba," Johnny said, "what are we going to do now?"
Baba, for once, had nothing to say. Johnny hugged the warm, furry creature closer to him. Tears began to streak down his cheeks. Baba didn't like this. He cocked a blue eye at the boy.
"Don't cry, Johnny!" he clicked. "Come on, stop it!" he pleaded. "Why don't we go up in the turret and see what's happening."
Johnny wiped his tears away and the two climbed into the gun turret. His stomach tightened. Through the four-inch thick bubble of marvite plastic he could see the destruction he and Baba had let loose. The whole settlement lay within view. A half dozen of the giant lizard beasts had turned, the colony into a dusty hell. Even within the tank the bellows of the beasts and the roar of guns was almost deafening. Most of the marshberry fields had already been trampled in the mud. One of the concrete houses lay crushed into rubble. Johnny was grateful that almost everyone was at the rocket field.
He gave thanks, too, for Captain Thompson. He could see the big man marshaling tanks into an organized row. They were going to try to herd the great beasts out the open gates.
Johnny turned his eyes toward the gates. Someone had manhandled one of the big ato-tube cannons into the opening, pointing it into the jungle. His friend, Rick Saunders, ran up to help. A dying rhinosaur lay not far from the muzzle of the gun. Evidently the other rhinosaurs were too sensible or too frightened to try the power of that cannon.
Baba was pulling at Johnny's sleeve.
"Look, Johnny, look!" Baba clicked.
Johnny turned and looked toward the settlement again. A heavy duty hunting tank stood before the settlement stockade and store house. Its heavy cannon spoke once and the door dissolved. Four men leaped from the tank and ran inside.
"They're stealing our claws!" Johnny cried out.
Weighed down by the colony's strong box, the four men came out of the building. Inside that strong box were the colony's precious marva claws!
The four hunters heaved the safe into the tank's carrier and climbed inside. With a spurt of dust, the tank rolled on.
A few minutes later it had fought its way through the rhinosaurs and was passing the place where Johnny and Baba stared out of the turret. As it came up to the gate the hunting tank's manhole opened and a man emerged. He waved to Rick, standing beside the cannon. The redhaired ex-bodyguard waved back. Then he climbed up on the tank and down inside. The tank rolled on out into the jungle.
Johnny stood, shocked and silent. Out that gate went the last valuable thing the colony owned!
"I don't understand," Baba clicked. "I thought Rick was the colony's friend."
"I did, too," Johnny said sadly.
It was now early evening and the Venus skies were a deep clear green. It was over an hour since the last rhinosaur had been killed or driven out. The gates had been temporarily repaired. Here and there a small building had been trodden into rubble.
Johnny and Baba were still locked inside the tank which had been dragged away from the dangerous fighting. From the turret they were watching a group of men gathered outside the administration building. Johnny wished someone would come and let them out.
Finally the crowd broke up. One group of men hopped on to the back of a tank and headed toward Johnny and Baba. The rest of the crowd followed on foot.
"I wonder what's up," Johnny said.
Baba shook his head.
"I don't like the looks of it," Johnny went on. "We're in an awful pickle." He looked down at the little bear's paws. He had painted the nails again with the nail polish, but he didn't think it would do any good.
The tank came rumbling to a halt beside them. The two crawled down from the turret. Johnny heard the men working on the lock. The manhole door was opened.
"Come on out, Johnny." It was his father's voice. Baba jumped on his shoulder and Johnny climbed slowly out. Johnny's father and Captain Thompson were standing on top of the tank, surrounded by a crowd of grave-faced Venus pioneers. It was odd. None of the men looked angry. Johnny knew they should be very angry with him. He tried to shape words to say he'd try to make up for the trouble he'd caused, but the words would not come.
Mr. Watson reached out and picked Baba from Johnny's shoulder. He lifted up one of the little bear's paws and looked at it carefully.
"The claws still look black to me," he said. Disappointment, mixed with relief, came over the faces of the men.
"Let me show you." Captain Thompson, not ungently, took Baba from Johnny's father.
The little bear looked straight at Johnny, an odd expression in his deep blue eyes. But he didn't struggle.
Captain Thompson set Baba down on the top of the tank and took one of the paws in his hands. With his fingernail he scraped at one of the claws, then another and another. He held the paw up for the men to see. The claws glowed clear blue in the evening light.
"You see," he said, triumphantly, "it is just as I said. The boy has been covering them up." The crowd sighed with wonder.
Captain Thompson turned back to Johnny's father. "You'd better tell the boy right away. It will be easier." Many of the crowd nodded their agreement. For the first time Johnny made out the object that Captain Thompson had been carrying. It was a small cage made of diamond-wood.
Johnny's father reached out and touched him on the shoulder.
"You know what happened here today, don't you, Johnny?" he asked in a grave tone.
"Yes, sir," Johnny answered in a low, shamed voice. "The crop's been ruined, and those hunters stole our claws."
"That's right," his father said. "And I think you also understand that if it hadn't been for you, this needn't have happened."
"Yes, sir." The words were almost a whisper. Johnny felt the tears coming up into his eyes.
"You can understand, then, it's up to you and us to make amends to the colony."
"Yes, sir." Johnny's whisper was even lower.
"Well, son, I'm sorry to do this, but I have to. I know Baba has been your pet for a long time, but you are going to have to give him up. I've just given him back to the colony. Now, get him into the cage, so we can get this over with."
"But you'll kill him!" Johnny cried out. He reached down and swept the little bear into his arms.
"No, son, not right away," his father answered. "The rocket captain says the colony could make some money by showing him alive on Earth before they—put him to sleep."
"But you know that he'll die. Oh, Daddy, please don't!" Johnny looked up, pleading, at his father.
Frederick Watson's eyes met Johnny's. They were kind but stern. He shook his head firmly.
Johnny looked around him through his tears. Baba was warm and furry in his arms. The men stood about; their faces were grave and determined. Most still held ato-tubes in their hands. Even at that, Baba had a chance. Johnny began to click in the ear of the little bear.
"Baba," he clicked very softly, "you can get away, over the wall by the rock. It isn't very far. I'll throw you as far as I can. If you bounce like crazy they could never hit you."
But the little bear jumped to the steel tank top.
"No, Johnny," he clicked. "You are my friend-pet-brother, no matter what happens."
Then, just as if he had been told to go by Johnny, the little bear walked over to the cage. Captain Thompson was holding a sliding door open. Baba climbed in. He squatted there and made a little whimpering noise that was the only sound he could make beside his clicks. He waved a paw at Johnny.
"The little devil acts almost human," the old guard, Jeb, said from the crowd.
Only Johnny knew how true that was.
"Better hustle that kid inside a tank," someone shouted. "He hasn't got any armor on."
Frederick Watson's head jerked around. His eyes widened. In one motion he took Johnny into his arms and jumped to the ground. Seconds later Johnny was in a big hunting tank headed for home, a home for the first time in ten years empty of a little bouncing bear.
Johnny had some tall explaining to do about his lack of armor. He was in a tight spot, for the less he let anyone know, the more chance he had to find some way of rescuing Baba.
Johnny was very careful about his explanation. There might still be a way. The fact that he had been seen on top of New Plymouth Rock made his explanation easier. He simply said that he had been looking for a place to hide the little bear and, in order for Baba to help take him up the rock, he had had to chance taking off his armor. He said nothing about Baba and the arrow-birds.
Being found in the jungle was harder to explain without telling a lie—but he managed it. He said that he and Baba had taken a route down that had made them land on the jungle side of the rock. It didn't explain why they were beyond the clearing, but his parents seemed to assume that he had been trying to get among the brush where he could hide from the animals. He said nothing at all about the caves in the rock. It was a pretty thin story, but his family was too relieved that he had come home alive to worry much about it.
It was long past supper time when the explaining was over and his mother began to prepare a meal.
Ordinarily Johnny's father would not have been home even for supper. Rocket day was a busy time for the leader of the colony. But with all the confusion, the business of the day had to be put aside.
It was a strangely sad and silent house. Johnny himself was so good his parents could hardly recognize him. He had showered without being asked and changed into clean clothes. His hands were perfectly clean at the table. His mother had hidden Baba's high chair away; the little bear had always sat with them at table. It was a quiet meal.
Often after the before-sleep meal Johnny and his father worked on model rockets, but this evening models were forgotten. Johnny got a book and his father busied himself with papers. But Johnny didn't read. He kept thinking of Baba, all alone in the settlement storage house, surrounded by guards. The whole area was lit up in case hunters should try to steal the little bear just as they had stolen the marva claws.
The family sat in silence. Once Johnny saw his mother wipe a tear away from her eyes. He knew she liked Baba, too. But she liked him only as a pet.
"Dad," he said suddenly. His father looked up from his work. "Would you—?" Johnny didn't know how to put the question he had to ask. "I mean ... well, the colony's in pretty bad shape, isn't it?"
"Yes, son," his father said gravely, "it is."
"The million dollars we get for Baba will help out a lot, won't it?" Johnny was very serious. "But, without it, would everybody starve to death?"
"A million dollars will help the colony out," his father answered. "But even without it, nobody would starve. There are the meat fruit and berries to gather and the animals to hunt. But everyone would have a very hard time. It isn't a simple thing to keep a colony going. It is very difficult and very important. Mankind is reaching out, son, and some day we may inhabit planets of all the stars in the heavens. But only if Venus colony succeeds. It is a big thing, Johnny." Mr. Watson's voice was serious, as if he were talking to another man. Johnny was quiet a minute.
"Dad," he said slowly, "in order to get that million dollars would you have mother or me"—he paused—"put to sleep?"
"Johnny!" Johnny's mother broke in in a horrified voice. "That's no question to ask your father."
"I've got to know, Mother. I've just got to," Johnny said earnestly, his brow wrinkled.
Johnny's father looked at him strangely.
"Did you really think," he asked in a tight, hurt voice, "I would do a thing like that?"
"Not even Uncle Nathan?" Johnny persisted. Nathan was his mother's brother.
"All right, Johnny," his father said in a firm voice. "I'll answer you. No, I wouldn't have you, your mother,oryour Uncle Nathan 'put to sleep' for any amount of money—for the colony or for myself. But you must understand, Johnny, you aren't the same as a little bouncing bear."
"But Baba—" Johnny began.
"Baba is an animal," Johnny's mother broke in. "I know how you love him. But you have to understand that your father could not do differently from what he did." She came over to Johnny and put her arm around him. "We love Baba, too, and it hurts us to give him up. Still we must. You do understand, don't you?"
Johnny looked up into his mother's face and smiled. It was a very small and very weak smile, but a smile none the less.
"I understand," he said, and turned back to his father. "Thanks for answering my question, Dad." Johnny felt better for the first time since Baba had been put in the cage. Now he knew just what he had to do. It was right to do it. Baba was as close to him asanybrother.
"Do you think I could go see Baba before sleep time, Dad? You know he won't eat if I'm not there."
Johnny's father looked at his mother.
"It couldn't do any harm, Fred," she said. "Let the boy go. But he must be in bed soon."
"All right, son," his father answered. "But remember, the whole thing is out of our hands now. You'll just have to accept what is going to happen."
"O.K., Dad," Johnny said. Everything was going to be all right, but he'd need every ounce of courage he had.
A few minutes later Jeb, the old guard, let Johnny and his father into the store house.
The little bear sat quietly in his cage. There were a dozen uncracked nuts on the floor. An untouched bar of chocolate lay beside him.
"I'm sure glad to see you!" said old Jeb. "Ever since he got here the little critter's been sitting just like that, kind of crying to himself. He wouldn't pay attention even when I gave him the chocolate."
"He'll be all right now," Johnny's father said.
"It probably oughtn't to bother me so much." Jeb closed the door and stood there with them. He took off his headglobe and scratched his head. "But my partner'n me caught one of the little ones once. We watched it just waste away, crying like that all the time. I always figured we should have let it go. But then there was always the chance it'd grow up and be worth a million." He glanced down at Johnny, who was removing his armor, and came to a stumbling halt. "Sorry, kid," he said. He put his headglobe back on and went out.
As soon as he saw Johnny, the little bear's ears perked up.
"Hi!" he clicked.
Johnny winked.
Johnny's father stood there and watched them.
"Remember, Johnny," he cautioned, "this is just a visit. What the colony decides in this matter goes."
"I know, Dad," Johnny answered.
"I'll be back in half an hour," his father said. "Get him to eat, if you can. Night will be here in a few hours and he'll sleep then." With this he opened the door and left.
Johnny rushed to the cage. His hand was on the latch when the door opened again. It was old Jeb.
"Sorry, son, but I got orders not to leave you alone with the critter. If he ever got out he'd be mighty hard to catch." Jeb walked over and seated himself on a box.