Chapter 6

"Loala, you understand what I am doing? It will be a long sleep. When you waken, I will be gone. But it is the only way—"

He stopped speaking. For the gray-green eyes had closed, and the Lady Loala lay unconscious in his arms. Stephen Duane bent tenderly. For the first, last, and only time in his life he touched his lips to the brow of the silver princess. And:

"Sleep well, my Lady Loala!" whispered Steve. "Sleep well and safely, O Mistress of a Thousand Charms...."

Thus went the Lady Loala, most beautiful and noblest of all Daan Overlords, to an age-long sleep. Nor was she the only Daan to seek the frozen slumber ofmethioprane. When centuries hence she wakened, it would be in a strangely new and—Stephen Duane hoped—a better world. But amidst its strangeness she would find herself surrounded by at least a handful of warriors, courtiers, and friends from this present era.

For not with complete complaisance did all the Daans accept defeat at the hands of their erstwhile slaves. Some there were, staunch fighting men, who—though they fought in the cause of decadent empire—utterly refused to surrender. Their stubborn resistance found humane ending beneath the breath of the new anesthetic weapon.

And even when all active opposition had been quelled, and a cringing Supreme Council had accepted every one of Stephen Duane's demands, there were a few proud nobles who preferred oblivion to the "ignominy and disgrace" of living under a new interplanetary order under which—as Duane's charter plainly set forth—henceforth Earth was to govern itself and pay no fealty to Daan, earthmen and Daans were to meet in future commerce and council not as Overlords and slaves, but as equals.

To those who could not swallow their pride for the betterment of both races, Duane granted the boon they asked, hoping that by the time they wakened from their slumbers, two brave new worlds would have proven the justice of Earth's liberation.

Other matters of state were arranged before the earthlings finally sought the ship which was to carry them back to their native planet.

All human slaves were freed; their owners pledged to compensate them for years spent in penniless toil. Promise of the Daan Scientific Council was exacted that this society would lend its aid to the renascent Earth empire, assisting the backward planet in rehabilitating its lost knowledge and culture.

Ambassadorships were arranged, and the groundwork for future trade treaties laid. Then, that Earth might have some measure of self defense whilst its citizens engaged in what must surely be decades—perhaps centuries—of reconstruction, the Daan armada was split into two parts.

One half of this magnificent fleet, manned by erstwhile slaves under Daan instructors, was henceforth to be Earth's property. But, fairly, Duane did not simply seize these ships ... though they would have been a small payment for the years of subjugation under which earthlings had labored. A fair valuation was set, and for the space-navy Earth's new government promised to pay in commercial products needed by the Venusians.

So finally were concluded all these negotiations immediately necessary. And because Duane's heart hungered for sight again of his sun-blessed native planet, its sweet, green hills and foam-lashed seas, at last came the day when Earth's new spacefleet was to take off for its home base.

Upon the bridge of the flagship stood those who had captained humanity to freedom. All preparations had been made; now but a word of command was needed to thrust these fifty-odd giants into the void on pillars of flame.

One last look cast Steve Duane at the mighty skyline of Daan's capital. Then he issued the word.

"Home!" he said simply.

And in more than four dozen vessels propelling studs were pressed, and the heavens shook with the thunder of roaring jets.

Chuck Lafferty made a strange, rinsing movement with his hands.

"So that," he sighed, "is that. Us and Caesar, eh, Steve? Now for good old Mother Earth, and a long nap."

Steve grinned at him.

"That's whatyouthink, chum. If a nap's what you want, you'd better take advantage of the ten-day trip through space. Because when we get back to Earth we're going to be the busiest guys alive.

"There's a big job facing us, Chuck. Us and all mankind. We have a wide world to reclaim, centuries of lost time to make up. And," he admitted frankly, "I don't know whatyouthink about it, but I'm looking forward to it eagerly.

"This is the chance of a thousand lifetimes. A chance to start all over, with a clean slate. Build the kind of civilization men have always dreamed of, but never before achieved. A civilization built on friendship, honor, and truth; mutual understanding and sympathy. If we make a go of it, even the Daans will fall in line; recognize our self-seized rights to be considered their equals."

The Mother Maatha said raptly, "Aye, even so, O Dwain. Thus, too, it was written in the Promise. That a new world should spring from the wakening of the Slumberers."

Steve turned to the dust-gold girl beside him, smiling.

"And what say you, my priestess Beth? What shall be your part in these new endeavors?"

The girl lifted eyes wide with question to his.

"But what else should I do," she asked, "than remain with you to council and advise you, O Dwain? Where else should I be than at the side of my mate?"

Chuck snorted amusement. "That's one thing you ain't going to change in the new world, Steve," he chuckled. "The men will still be doing the work, but the women will still be cracking the whip."

The shadow of an old misgiving clung to Stephen Duane. To Beth he said, "Andwhywould you stay with me, my Beth? Because I am one of the gods?"

And this time there was no awe, but something else, something finer and truer and more to Steve's heart's liking, in Beth's eyes as she answered him softly.

"Nay, my Steve, but because you are—a man."

Steve took her into his arms. It was a moment worth waiting for, a dream worth all he had experienced. For her nearness warmed him with a promise of happiness to come, even through the long and arduous days which lay before them.

He kissed her. "We've won, sweetheart, the flag shall fly over Earth again!"

The gentle voice of the Mother Maatha was like a benediction on their love.

"We could not fail," she said. "We could not ever fail. For thus it was promised us ages hence in the sacred song of the Ancient Ones.

"'And thus be it ever,' she quoted, 'when freemen shall stand'Between their lovedhoamsand the war's desolation;'Blessed with victory and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land'Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation....'"

"'And thus be it ever,' she quoted, 'when freemen shall stand

'Between their lovedhoamsand the war's desolation;

'Blessed with victory and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land

'Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation....'"

Stephen Duane picked up the old, familiar words, repeating them softly:

"'Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,'And this be our motto: "In God is Our Trust!"'And the Star-Spangled Banner....'"

"'Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

'And this be our motto: "In God is Our Trust!"

'And the Star-Spangled Banner....'"

"It will fly again, Steve," said Chuck, "now."

"'...forever shall wave'O'er the land of the free....'"

"'...forever shall wave

'O'er the land of the free....'"

"'And Thyhoam,'" finished Beth, her eyes worshipful upon her mate, "'O Thou Brave!'"

For a woman always has the last word. So, too, it was in the old days....

[1]Fort Knox, Kentucky, in addition to being an army post is, in 1942, a bastioned repository wherein is stored seventy-five percent of the entire world's gold.—Ed.

[2]The original "Trojan Horse" was a huge, hollow effigy of a horse, built at the command of Odysseus (Ulysses), and left outside the gates of seven-years-besieged Troy by the apparently retreating Greeks. The exuberant Trojans, unable to wheel this gigantic testimonial to their victory through the gates of their city, broke down a portion of the walls, though warned by the "mad prophetess", Cassandra, that this was a trick. That night a Greek "Fifth Column" crept from within the Trojan Horse and openedallgates of Troy to the returning Greek armies, who laid waste the city.—Ed.

[3]Linber: to kidnap. From "Lindbergh"?—Ed.

[4]Netherland Plaza: One of Cincinnati's finest hotels. It boasts the Queen City's tallest "sky-scraper", a structure known as the "Carew Tower".—Ed.

[5]A corollary to advancement in culture seems to be increase in various sensitivities, both mental and physical. Thus, as humans are more delicately evolved than their arboreal ancestors, they are correspondingly more prone to the ailments which accompany such evolution: deafness, blindness, loss of the sense of smell, etc.Similarly, the higher classes of Daans might be expected to have become more highly pigmented than their amphibious predecessors. Physical coloration would be a refinement of physique to a race which, under the cloud-blanketed skies of Venus, would in its elemental stages show no reaction to diffuse actinic rays.—Ed.

Similarly, the higher classes of Daans might be expected to have become more highly pigmented than their amphibious predecessors. Physical coloration would be a refinement of physique to a race which, under the cloud-blanketed skies of Venus, would in its elemental stages show no reaction to diffuse actinic rays.—Ed.

[6]Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Duane's era one of America's finest colleges of science and engineering.—Ed.

[7]Janus: Roman god with two faces, each looking in a different direction. After this god is named our month of "January", which looks back at the old year, forward to the new one.—Ed.

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