Andre Norton - The Science Fiction anthology

He said nothing. He pleaded with them silently, using his great, dark, wet eyes, but Mrs. Bellowes shook her head and pointed to the control.

“Takeoff,” agreed Mr. Thirkell morosely, and pulled a switch.

Everybody fell. The rocket went up from the planet Mars in a great fiery glide, with the noise of an entire kitchen thrown down an elevator shaft, with a sound of pots and pans and kettles and fires boiling and stews bubbling, with a smell of burned incense and rubber and sulphur, with a color of yellow fire, and a ribbon of red stretching below them, and all the old women singing and holding to each other, and Mrs. Bellowes crawling upright in the sighing, straining, trembling ship.

“Head for space, Mr. Thirkell.”

“It can’t last,” said Mr. Thirkell, sadly. “This ship can’t last. It will—”

It did.

The rocket exploded.

Mrs. Bellowes felt herself lifted and thrown about dizzily, like a doll. She heard the great screamings and saw the flashes of bodies sailing by her in fragments of metal and powdery light.

“Help, help!” cried Mr. Thirkell, far away, on a small radio beam.

The ship disintegrated into a million parts, and the old ladies, all one hundred of them, were flung straight on ahead with the same velocity as the ship.

As for Mr. Thirkell, for some reason of trajectory, perhaps, he had been blown out the other side of the ship. Mrs. Bellowes saw him falling separate and away from them, screaming, screaming.

There goes Mr. Thirkell , thought Mrs. Bellowes.

And she knew where he was going. He was going to be burned and roasted and broiled good, but very good.

Mr. Thirkell was falling down into the Sun.

And here we are , thought Mrs. Bellowes. Here we are, going on out, and out, and out.

There was hardly a sense of motion at all, but she knew that she was traveling at fifty thousand miles an hour and would continue to travel at that speed for an eternity, until....

She saw the other women swinging all about her in their own trajectories, a few minutes of oxygen left to each of them in their helmets, and each was looking up to where they were going.

Of course , thought Mrs. Bellowes. Out into space. Out and out, and the darkness like a great church, and the stars like candles, and in spite of everything, Mr. Thirkell, the rocket, and the dishonesty, we are going toward the Lord.

And there, yes, there , as she fell on and on, coming toward her, she could almost discern the outline now, coming toward her was His mighty golden hand, reaching down to hold her and comfort her like a frightened sparrow....

“I’m Mrs. Amelia Bellowes,” she said quietly, in her best company voice. “I’m from the planet Earth.”

“We’re somewhat to the south, I think,” Ri said, bending over the crude field map. “That ridge,” he pointed, “on our left, is right here.” He drew a finger down the map. “It was over here,” he moved the finger, “over the ridge, north of here, that we sighted them.”

Extrone asked, “Is there a pass?”

Ri looked up, studying the terrain. He moved his shoulders. “I don’t know, but maybe they range this far. Maybe they’re on this side of the ridge, too.”

Delicately, Extrone raised a hand to his beard. “I’d hate to lose a day crossing the ridge,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” Ri said. Suddenly he threw back his head. “Listen!”

“Eh?” Extrone said.

“Hear it? That cough? I think that’s one, from over there. Right up ahead of us.”

Extrone raised his eyebrows.

This time, the coughing roar was more distant, but distinct.

“It is!” Ri said. “It’s a farn beast, all right!”

Extrone smiled, almost pointed teeth showing through the beard. “I’m glad we won’t have to cross the ridge.”

Ri wiped his forehead on the back of his sleeve. “Yes, sir.”

“We’ll pitch camp right here, then,” Extrone said. “We’ll go after it tomorrow.” He looked at the sky. “Have the bearers hurry.”

“Yes, sir.”

Ri moved away, his pulse gradually slowing. “You, there!” he called. “Pitch camp, here!”

He crossed to Mia, who, along with him, had been pressed into Extrone’s party as guides. Once more, Ri addressed the bearers, “Be quick, now!” And to Mia, “God almighty, he was getting mad.” He ran a hand under his collar. “It’s a good thing that farn beast sounded off when it did. I’d hate to think of making him climb that ridge.”

Mia glanced nervously over his shoulder. “It’s that damned pilot’s fault for setting us down on this side. I told him it was the other side. I told him so.”

Ri shrugged hopelessly.

Mia said, “I don’t think he even saw a blast area over here. I think he wanted to get us in trouble.”

“There shouldn’t be one. There shouldn’t be a blast area on this side of the ridge, too.”

“That’s what I mean. The pilot don’t like businessmen. He had it in for us.”

Ri cleared his throat nervously. “Maybe you’re right.”

“It’s the Hunting Club he don’t like.”

“I wish to God I’d never heard of a farn beast,” Ri said. “At least, then, I wouldn’t be one of his guides. Why didn’t he hire somebody else?”

Mia looked at his companion. He spat. “What hurts most, he pays us for it. I could buy half this planet, and he makes me his guide—at less than I pay my secretary.”

“Well, anyway, we won’t have to cross that ridge.”

“Hey, you!” Extrone called.

The two of them turned immediately.

“You two scout ahead,” Extrone said. “See if you can pick up some tracks.”

“Yes, sir,” Ri said, and instantly the two of them readjusted their shoulder straps and started off.

Shortly they were inside of the scrub forest, safe from sight. “Let’s wait here,” Mia said.

“No, we better go on. He may have sent a spy in.”

They pushed on, being careful to blaze the trees, because they were not professional guides.

“We don’t want to get too near,” Ri said after toiling through the forest for many minutes. “Without guns, we don’t want to get near enough for the farn beast to charge us.”

They stopped. The forest was dense, the vines clinging.

“He’ll want the bearers to hack a path for him,” Mia said. “But we go it alone. Damn him.”

Ri twisted his mouth into a sour frown. He wiped at his forehead. “Hot. By God, it’s hot. I didn’t think it was this hot, the first time we were here.”

Mia said, “The first time, we weren’t guides. We didn’t notice it so much then.”

They fought a few yards more into the forest.

Then it ended. Or, rather, there was a wide gap. Before them lay a blast area, unmistakable. The grass was beginning to grow again, but the tree stumps were roasted from the rocket breath.

“This isn’t ours!” Ri said. “This looks like it was made nearly a year ago!”

Mia’s eyes narrowed. “The military from Xnile?”

“No,” Ri said. “They don’t have any rockets this small. And I don’t think there’s another cargo rocket on this planet outside of the one we leased from the Club. Except the one he brought.”

“The ones who discovered the farn beasts in the first place?” Mia asked. “You think it’s their blast?”

“So?” Ri said. “But who are they?”

It was Mia’s turn to shrug. “Whoever they were, they couldn’t have been hunters. They’d have kept the secret better.”

“We didn’t do so damned well.”

“We didn’t have a chance,” Mia objected. “Everybody and his brother had heard the rumor that farn beasts were somewhere around here. It wasn’t our fault Extrone found out.”