ny more," said Ave Mar gloomily, and he put his arm round Mada's shoulders. "To be more precise, the former inhabited Faena doesn't exist any more," corrected Mada. "A star has lit up in its place, but not for long." Toni Fae looked at Mada and Ave with frightened eyes. He took off his spectacles and methodically wiped the lenses. "So Faena doesn't exist? And what about Mother?" The young astronomer looked with childlike eyes at Mada, as if she ought to dispel a terrible dream. "Why hasn't it lit up for long? No! Isn't it just that they've found a way of signalling to us?" "My dear Toni Fae, it really is a signal to us..." "Just as I said!" exclaimed the young Faetian happily. Ave stood with bowed head. "It's a signal that there is nowhere for us to return to," he said with an effort. "What's going on here?" came Gor Terr's rolling bass voice. Ave Mar took a deep breath. "The disintegration war, which we have all been so afraid of, has evidently taken place on our unhappy Faena. And its civilisation has committed suicide." "What utter r-rubbish!" yelled Gor Terr. "Leave our civilisation in peace. It gave us all we have here." "That's not enough for us to carry on living here." "That's the last thing I'm aiming to do!" Toni Fae rushed to his friend as he had done that time in the cave... "They're saying that..." he whimpered like a child, "that life has perished on Faena, that the planet has flared up for a time like a star." "That's impossible," objected the engineer calmly. "There's been some kind of observation error here. A disintegration war can wipe out a planet's inhabitants, I'm not disputing that. But it can't annihilate a planet as a heavenly body. Mass is mass, it can't just disappear. And what does 'has flared up for a time' mean?" Mada looked inquiringly at Ave. "We must go down to Um Sat," he said. "Back on Faena, he told me about one of the secrets of the disintegration of matter. If a superviolent explosion should take place in the depths of the sea and if the heat level should reach the critical limit, then all the water in the oceans would instantly split into oxygen and hydrogen, and the hydrogen would become helium, in this way releasing so much energy that the planet would flare up like a star during the reaction." "Damnation!" whispered the engineer. "Um Sat warned both Dobr Mar and Yar Jupi of this. They wouldn't listen to him." "If all the oceans blow up at the same time, then the planet shouldn't just flare up," said the engineer. "Under the impact of shock from all directions, it should be broken up into pieces..." "To be scattered later," confirmed Ave Mar. "And countless cycles later, its fragments, colliding and breaking up, would spread out along Faena's former orbit." "How can you say all that?" shouted Toni Fae, clenching his fists. "My mother was there, and my little sisters..." "My mother was there too," replied Ave Mar sadly. Toni Fae began sobbing. Gor Terr drew him towards himself, patting him on the shoulder. Ave and Mada exchanged glances and said more by doing so than could ever have been conveyed in words. Then they held hands. "So that's why there were no electromagnetic communications," said Toni Fae, still sobbing. "War had started up there." "And on the Mar stations?" boomed Gor Terr. "Perhaps on them too," confirmed Ave Mar sadly. "No, no!" protested Toni Fae, looking in terror at Ave with eyes full of tears. "It can't be possible out there too!" Ave shrugged his shoulders. "There are Faetians on them as well." "Ala Veg is there!" shouted Toni Fae. "She's not one of them!" "Calm yourself, Toni Fae," said Mada gently. "I think we should still tell Dm Sat about the end of Faena." "Wretched carr-rion-eaters! Why couldn't they value what they had? They've destroyed thousands of millions of lives! How much higher and more humane the local Faetoids are!" As he shouted this, Gor Terr charged round the cabin in a frenzy. "Calm down, friend Gor Terr," said Ave. "It's hard for us to bear the horror that's come down on all of us when we've not only lost our dear ones, but..." "Towns, fields, r-rivers, forests, seas, oceans!" wailed Gor Terr. "Yes. And oceans," confirmed Ave Mar sadly. Gor Terr glared at him almost with hatred. Then he sighed and said very quietly this time: "Yes, it's easier for you. There are two of you." "There are five of us," said Mada. "If the Elder survives the shock." "He has been readying himself for it too long," replied Mada. "He saw it all coming." "I was the one who didn't see anything coming. I was dreaming about new spaceships, about wonderful cities on new planets, about incredible machines that I was inventing in my mind." "It will all have to be done on Terr," said Mada softly. Gor Terr burst into a roar of forced laughter. "Forget about civilisation once and for all, forget about technology. Make clubs and stone axes. If you have children, you won't be able to teach them anything that the unhappy Faetians knew. Civilisation means workshops and Faetians toiling in them. Civilisation means writings that preserve the treasures of thought. All that is gone, gone, gone! And it cannot exist here either!" Gor Terr was shouting in a frenzy. Toni Fae was frightened by this fit of fury, but his attention was distracted by a signal from the electromagnetic apparatus. The indicator lamp was winking on and off. The astronomer rushed to the set. "At last! Now the nightmare is over! You see, they're worried about us, they want to tell us that it was a supernova, not Faena at all. How could we have assumed such a thing?" The Faetians watched Ton! Fae, each trying to retain at least a glimmer of hope. Finally the chesty voice of a Faetess was heard in the cabin. Toni recognised it as Ala Veg's. "Quest! Quest! Quest! Can you hear me? There has been a dreadful catastrophe! We shall never have a homeland again. Faena has blown up for some unaccountable reason, although it was recently intact, in spite of a disintegration war that broke out on it. Quest! Quest! Quest! Hostilities between Deimo and Phobo have ceased. If you too have been fighting amongst yourselves, stop the conflict. There aren't any more Gutturals and there aren't any more Superiors. There are only three small groups of unhappy Faetians who have lost their homeland. Are you alive? If only you are still alive! Can we live on Terr?" Ave Mar put out the light in the observation cabin. The starry sky was now clearer than ever, and so was the new star blazing in it, the malignant Star of Hatred. End of Part Two ________________________________________________________ Did an exploded planet actually exist in the Solar System? In 1596, when he was investigating the laws governing the structure of the Solar System, Kepler suspected there might be a planet missing between Mars and Jupiter. At the end of the 18th century, the scientists Titius and Bode gave a series of numbers: 0.4-0.7-1.0-1.6-2.8-5.2... It reflected the distance of the planets from the Sun. The distance of the Earth from the Sun was taken as unit. But there was no fifth planet with an Earth-Sun distance of 2.8. The astronomers searched and began discovering, one after another, the "minor planets" and even smaller bodies, or asteroids, which were moving on a common orbit. They were fragmentary in shape and seemed to have formed during the DISINTEGRATION of a destroyed planet. The German astronomer Hermann Oberth 150 years ago expressed the hypothesis that such a planet had once existed. In our own times, Professor Sergei Orlov, analysing this hypothesis, gave the planet the romantic name of Phaeton. His work was continued by Academicians Alexander Zavaritsky and Leonid Kvasha. Soviet research, notably that of Yekaterina Gusakova, has shown that the residual magnetism of the meteorites could be explained only by their magnetisation as parts of a big mother planet. Felix Zigel (1963) determined its size as approaching that of the Earth. However, neither the advocates nor the opponents of this hypothesis have successfully accounted for the destruction of the planet. If Phaeton blew up like a high-explosive bomb, its fragments would have flown apart in elongated elliptical orbits round the Sun, but they have remained in their old circular orbit... If two cosmic bodies had collided in space, then their fragments would also have flown in elliptical orbits and would not have formed a ring on the former orbit of the planet. It is suggested that meteorite swarms form in at least ten places on the ring of asteroids. It is possible that they are created by the collision and disintegration of the former planet's fragments. Meteorites are falling on Earth to this day, but they include so-called tektites which, perhaps, fell on Earth only once as a consequence of a colossal nuclear explosion in space. All the more so that the form, composition and dehydration of the tektites are identical with nuclear slag. Thus, a supposition about the cause of its destruction has been added to the hypothesis of a Phaeton that existed in the past. PART THREE Fragments Where be these enemies?- Capulet! Montague! See what a scourge is laid upon your hate... W. Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet Chapter One TWILIGHT The new star shone ominously in Quest's porthole. The Faetians maintained a shocked silence. Suddenly, Gor Terr jumped to his feet. "Technology! Damned technology! It's to blame for everything. I, Gor Terr, the last of Faena's engineers, am the first to r-renounce civilisation! To the forests! To the forests! To the caves! Wild Faetians on a wild Terr!" he boomed, foaming at the mouth. ."If anyone r-refuses to leave the r-rocket. I'll wring his neck. Let not a single metal part r-remind wretched people that they were once cultured. Beasts are much higher and nobler!" His friends tried to calm the engineer down, still unwilling to admit to themselves that his mind had become clouded. "Please try to understand, Gor Terr," said Ave reassuringly, "that the five Faetians left on Terr can only have one purpose-not just to survive, but to preserve civilisation, to hand down the heritage of reason to future generations..." "R-really?" roared Gor Terr with a glare at Mada. Embarrassed, Mada turned away. "There must be cultured Faetians after us," confirmed Ave Mar, "and our duty is to preserve for them the knowledge we possess." "High-flown r-rubbish!" bellowed Gor Terr. "I hate those words and I hate all those instruments. Even touching the damned metal drives me frantic." "Gor Terr will have to pull himself together," said Ave Mar, raising his voice. "He's an engineer, and he'll stay an engineer to the end of his days." Gor Terr roared with laughter. "So that your sons can learn how to make r-rockets out of wall partitions? So that they can learn to slaughter animals, and then their own kind?" "Never shall the Faetians on Terr learn how to kill their own kind!" exclaimed the outraged Ave Mar. "It will be the most terrible thing if we bow down in our grief. No! Only energy, faith in ourselves and resourcefulness will save what is left of the Faetian race." "For what?" asked Gor Terr gloomily. "For the triumph of reason!" "High-flown words again! What d'you want?" "I want you to think about what kind of building the Faetians are going to use when they're in the forest, what apparatus and parts will have to be taken from here to the new house, and how we can gradually dismantle the rocket: it's the only source of metal on Terr." "Dismantle?" echoed Toni Fae in fright. "Yes," confirmed Ave Mar. "We won't need a spaceship any more. The Faetians will use its walls for axes, knives, spear-points and arrows. We have enough metal to last us several generations for that purpose. By that time, Gor Terr's pupils and their descendants will have learned to prospect for ore here and to smelt it. Civilisation must be preserved!" Mada looked at her husband with rapture. How many times had he presented himself to her in a new aspect, stronger, firmer, as one who knew which course to adopt! "Filthy despot!" roared Gor Terr. "He wants to make us serve his unborn offspring! I've had enough of blind obedience to a Dictator who aimed for a disintegration war and achieved it! No! I won't tolerate any authority over me! I don't want to obey anybody's orders, least of all those of an offspring of Danjab's R-ruler!" "Gor Terr, my dear," intervened Mada gently, putting her hand on his massive hairy arm. "Think what you are saying. We have no dictators here, or rulers, or their children. There are only Faetians, united by common grief and a common fate. Weren't you the one who dreamed of workshops on Terr? You shall have workshops here in which we, your comrades, shall work for you, and then..." She looked into his eyes and added, "I shall raise helpers for you." Gor Terr scowled, glaring malevolently from under his beetling brows. Mada's maternal tone soothed him a little. But not for long. He soon relapsed into his former fury and, without listening to anyone, began smashing up the spaceship's control levers, bending them, trying to wrench them out of their sockets. To save the Faetians, the madman himself and keep the ship's equipment intact, Mada ordered Gor Terr to be confined to the airlock which was used for going out into space. The noisy struggle with the Faetian strong man distracted the Faetians from their common misfortune. The immediate blotted out what was far away. And only after the hatch had been fastened down behind Gor Terr did Ave Mar and Toni Fae, exhausted and shattered, collapsed into the armchairs at the control panel. They stared dismally in front of them, panting for breath. Mada was busy near the dispensary. She had decided to give Gor Terr an injection and administer a shock that would bring him to his senses. All attempts to go into the airlock, however, merely provoked further attacks of frenzy. They could not even serve him his food. Such was the unhappy way in which the Faetians spent the first days of their permanent exile. Below, in the common cabin, Faena's most distinguished scientist lay dying; above, in the airlock, the last surviving engineer had gone raving mad. Toni Fae was deeply depressed. He heard Ala Veg's voice again during a routine session of electromagnetic communication with Deimo. It was remote and sad. She talked about the meaninglessness of existence, about her husband's serious illness, about the total lack of change and how the station chief, as before, hated the roundhead couple. She said that she despised life. She was terrified at the thought of the distance that separated her from Toni Fae. Was life worth living? She suggested that Toni Fae and she should both put an end to their own lives during the next communications session. Toni Fae could not hold out against this and agreed. He stole from Mada's dispensary an ampoule of stupefying gas, a large dose of which could be fatal. After he had inhaled a little of it, he felt blissfully happy, could not stay on his feet, swayed and sang a silly song about a lizard which ate its own tail. He then collapsed and went to sleep. Mada guessed what had happened, found the ampoule hidden on his person and confiscated it. When he came round, he made the discovery that Mada's language could be far from endearing. Toni Fae succumbed to apathy. Everything around him seemed dismal and wretched. Even the world of nature had changed. There were no more colourful sunsets on Terr. Night gave way to dull daylight. It never stopped drizzling, and a patchy grey pall of mist clung to the tree-tops level with the portholes of the control cabin. There were no golden apples left in the forest. When twilight descended on Terr, it reminded them of their own gloomy planet. Misery and homesickness seemed capable of destroying the will to live in all the other Faetians, as had happened with Toni Fae. Mada, however, in whom nature had stirred a sense of responsibility for all, sick and well alike, could not give in to despair. She had to look after Um Sat, feed everybody, keep an eye on Toni Fae and encourage Ave with an affectionate glance from time to time. Ave Mar was conducting himself with dignity. He had obligations which none but he could fulfil: it was necessary to go hunting in the forest. Gor Terr couldn't help him now. Ave would go out of the ship, leaving Mada in a state of permanent anxiety, but he always returned before dark, and with his kill. By the will of circumstances, Ave, a passionate believer in the preservation of the lost Faena's civilisation, was having to lead a very primitive mode of life. He had stopped using firearms, saving the ammunition for more urgent occasions. He had made a bow and he practised archery. Using his natural strength, he could draw a bowstring so that the arrow with its hand-made head could pierce a stout tree-branch right through. Once, Ave Mar brought back a big fat bird hit by one of his arrows. Careful not to disturb Dm Sat, the astronauts assembled in the control cabin, talking quietly amongst themselves. Mada began inexpertly plucking the hunting trophy, pleased that it would make a good bouillon for the sick man. Toni Fae was adjusting the electromagnetic communications set, hoping for a session with Ala Veg. Mada warned him that if he made a fool of himself again, she would ban communications with Deimo. Toni sheepishly bowed his head. Ave Mar was relaxing after his hard day in the rain while hunting in the forest. Mada looked round at the porthole and screamed. The snarling face of a Faetoid was staring into the cabin. His shoulders and chest were matted with curly hair, his skin showing through underneath. No thought was readable in the crazy eyes. Only Ave Mar realised that this was Gor Terr lowering himself by rope, not a wild beast that had made its way to them. The madman had evidently torn his clothes into strips and knotted them together to make a rope. He had opened the outer airlock hatch, climbed outside and was now descending the ship's fuselage. In an attempt to head him off, Ave Mar rushed to the transition hatch, tore through the common cabin and disappeared into the lower airlock. He shinned down the vertical ladder, hardly touching the rungs on the way. But however agile Ave Mar may have been, Gor Terr had time on his side. Ave Mar was only just getting out of the lower airlock when the escapee was already clinging to the end of the home-made rope. No rational Faetian would ever have risked jumping from such a height. But Gor Terr was not being rational. He dropped to the ground in front of Ave Mar, jumped up below him, as if on springs, and made a dash for the forest. Without realising what he was doing, Gor Terr ran into the forest straight on to the path beaten by the animals on their way to the watering place. It was sodden after the rain and his feet slipped and slithered apart. But he was conscious of only one thing: he was being pursued. He leaped aside into a small glade, unrecognisable after the rain, since it was covered with muddy puddles that disappeared into the mist. Gor Terr never suspected that there was a bog hidden underneath the wet green surface. He dived into a cloud of mist hanging over the grass and disappeared. Ave Mar, who had been following on his heels, stopped dead. Then he immediately dashed forward. His feet sloshed through the slime. He took several careful, squelching steps and suddenly saw Gor Terr in the mist. He looked as if he was sitting down on the green grass. Only his head and torso were visible above it. It took Ave Mar a moment to realise that Gor Terr had sunk waist-deep into a quagmire. Until recently, Ave Mar, used to dwelling in the civilised cities of Faena and to driving a steamcar along magnificent highways, had never suspected that it might be possible to sink up to the waist in the soil like that. Ave had wandered into this bog a few days back when the rain had started pouring down. But his instinctive caution, aroused by the foul, stinking mud that was squelching underfoot, had saved him, making him skirt the deceptive glade with its murky puddles. This time, however, he could not back away; he rushed to Gor Terr's assistance. He immediately sank knee-deep into the quagmire. He made a movement to extricate himself and realised that he was sinking into the mire himself. Fortunately, he was not as heavy as Gor Terr; moreover, he was nearer to the edge of the bog. Avoiding sudden movements, he lay down and began to extricate himself by crawling, as if swimming over a shallow surface covered with wet grass. Once he felt himself on firmer ground, Ave stood up, glanced over his shoulder and saw Gor Terr. Now only his head was showing above the grass and his outstretched hands, with which he was clutching at some roots. Gor managed to turn his head and look at Ave Mar, his bulging, glazed eyes staring out of the mist. Every movement he made sucked him down still further. Ave Mar felt his horror physically and stopped in spite of himself, but read such reproach in the doomed man's eyes that he shuddered. Ave abruptly turned back, crawled out a little way and, although he hardly felt himself on firm ground, jumped to his feet, ran to the nearest tree and tore off a dangling liana. When he returned to the cloud of mist hanging over the grass, he had some difficulty in making out the shaggy head and the outstretched hands. At the sight of Ave Mar, Gor Terr's rounded eyes came to life again and shone with entreaty, hope and even joy. Ave Mar threw the end of the liana to the sinking man. Understanding glimmered in Gor Terr's eyes and he grabbed at the line. Ave Mar was now faced with the impossible-to drag the gigantic Gor Terr out of the quagmire. Ave Mar had nothing like the strength to do such a thing. But with the liana he had brought a crooked branch which he had broken off a tree. He drove it into a firm mound and began winding the liana onto it as if onto a windlass. Turn by turn, he gradually pulled Gor Terr out so that the latter finally managed to lie flat and crawl along, as Ave had done before him. At last, a mud-plastered Gor Terr rose to his full height in front of Ave. "You're not bad as an engineer, Ave Mar," he said. "Thank you." These words meant more to Ave Mar than any diagnosis. He now realised that the deadly danger to which Gor Terr had been subjected in the bog had administered the nervous shock needed to save him from insanity. Gor Terr had come back to his senses. "What happened? How did I end up here? Weren't we out hunting together? Who undressed me? Your wife will take me for a Faetoid." "She'll be happy! You've been seriously ill." "R-really?" Gor Terr was astonished. "But I've certainly been having nightmares. I dreamt the Dictator had thrown me into prison." "That's all over. Don't think about it any more. There are more important things to be done. We can't live in the rocket any longer. We have to deliver food and water to the top. The Elder can't go outside." "Then we'll have to build a house in the forest." "I must admit I don't know how to do that. I'm only a theoretician." "But the theoretician figured out how to rig up a windlass quickly enough. With a helper like you, it would be easy to knock up a house in the forest. I can already see how to set about it." Mada couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Ave Mar and the recently crazed Gor Terr chatting amiably together on the way back. "I don't understand this at all," whispered Toni Fae. "Oughtn't we to help Ave Mar tie him up?" "No, certainly not!" exclaimed Mada. With the instinct of a Sister of Health, she had grasped that years of training and care couldn't have given as good a result as what had happened in the forest. ...The unfamiliar thudding of axes was heard in the forest. The enormous, round-shouldered Dzin, wringing out her wet ginger hair with her long hands, crept up to the spot where the mighty stranger, who had put paid to a Spotted Horror and to many of Dzin's fellow tribesmen, was now slaying trees. And yet he wasn't eating them. Hidden in a thicket, squatting on her haunches and holding her heels with her forepaws, she was watching as he and another, who had hair only on his head, were hitting the trees with strange sticks that had what looked like wet, glittering ends. Their strength was so great that the tree fell down like a slain beast. Then the strangers skinned the trees with their clubs, breaking off all the branches, and the tree became straight and smooth. They shortened the tree with a screaming stick, then dragged it over to the other slain trees and forced them to fit together. In this way, they helped to raise from the ground a huge tree that was empty inside. It looked like a cave. Almost as soon as the strangers had finished banging their sticks, Dzin would hide in a thicket so as to come to the summons of the thudding noise on the next day. Ave Mar and Gor Terr never suspected that their work was being watched. They knocked together a frame thought up by Gor Terr without any metal fixings. The work was nearing its end. Many instruments and much equipment had to be transferred to the house into which the astronauts had to move. Gor Terr and Ave Mar went to the ship to fetch all these things. So as not to disturb Dm Sat by hammering in the common cabin, they went straight up to the control cabin. Assisted by Ave Mar, Gor Terr began breaking off the levers and rods on which the electromagnetic communications apparatus was secured. At this point, the always quiet and tactful Toni Fae flew off the handle. "Gor Terr and Ave Mar can kill me first," he screamed hysterically, "but I won't let anything in the spaceship be damaged." Gor Terr bellowed with laughter, as during his recent crazy spell. "D'you want me to pay you off, kid, tie your hands together and dump you in an empty airlock? I feel sorry for you. Just get this into your head: no one needs my Quest any more. I shall be the first to break it up. So out of the way, my dear Toni Fae." "Kill your old friend first!" Ave Mar turned to Mada in his astonishment. Her face was troubled and her eyes were sad. "Get out of the way!" roared Gor Terr. "Stop," came a feeble voice from the hatch. Overcoming his weakness, Um Sat climbed up into the control cabin. (Gor Terr involuntarily froze in front of Toni Fae, not thrusting him aside after all.) "Stop," repeated Um Sat. "The spaceship Quest is inviolable. Everything is changing in the life of the Faetians. They must choose a new way." Again Ave Mar looked at the alarmed, saddened Mada. Gor Terr stood still in bewilderment. Toni Fae rushed to the electromagnetic communications apparatus. Chapter Two MUTINY IN SPACE Ala Veg realised that her husband was going to die. When she made the mutual suicide pact with Toni Fae, she prepared for the forthcoming electromagnetic communications session by stealing from Mrak Luton a pistol loaded with a poisoned bullet. Tycho Veg was fading away. Completely bald, without even eyebrows and beard, he was lying on the bed in the Vegs' common cabin and was staring intently at his wife as if from somewhere far way. Ala Veg could not stand that anguished stare and fled into the observatory. She went over to the electromagnetic communications apparatus and looked for a long time at the bullet with the brown prickles which she had hidden on the control panel among the instruments. She was afraid that she might not be able to squeeze it in her fist, although somewhere out there, on faraway Terr, young Toni Fae, who loved her, must depart this life at the same time. She was afraid of inflicting this last blow on her dying husband. Ala Veg was torn by contradictory feelings. She could not recover from the knowledge that her children had perished. The starry distance that separated her from them, however, was dulling her despair. And yet the starry distance to Terr, which brought her the young man's voice after a long delay, had not prevented her from turning his head and even persuading him to commit suicide with her. But Tycho Veg was here, close to her, was suffering, and was looking at her out of non-existence with huge sad eyes. Ala Veg wept a great deal and stopped observing the stars altogether. What was the point of all that now? Engineer Tycho Veg died at dinner-time as quietly as he had lived. His wife remained at his side, unable to do anything to help. His naked head with the shadows of the sunken eyes, the taut skin of the face and the grin of the sagging lower jaw were indeed reminiscent of a skull. When Ala Veg realised that her husband was no more, she was seized by a fit of rage. Flinging the door wide open, she burst noisily into the common cabin where the Lutons and Brat Lua were having their dinner. Lada Lua was waiting on them at table. Mrak Luton, flabby, pot-bellied and pompous, was presiding at the table. "I accuse you, Mrak Luton!" screamed Ala Veg from the threshold. "You murdered my husband Tycho Veg! You made him charge a torpedo with a warhead that wasn't even screened against radiation!" Mrak Luton went purple in the face. His pendulous cheeks bulged, his small eyes darted about frantically. "Is this mutiny?" he wheezed. "I won't stand for it! Silence! Who incited you, a longhead, to this insubordination?" "My husband Tycho Veg is dead. Stand up, all of you. Honour his memory and curse his murderer, who is sitting at the head of this table." Brat Lua and Lada rose to their feet. Nega Luton played for time, pretending that she had difficulty in rising from the table, but she stood up nevertheless. Mrak Luton remained seated, frenziedly rolling his eyes and fingering the pistol which he was holding in his hand under the table. "There is no insubordination here, deep-thinking Mrak Luton," said Brat Lua in a conciliatory tone of voice. "There is only the grief and despair of a Faetess, and that cannot but be respected. We all share your grief. Ala Veg. Engineer Tycho Veg was a good Faetian and of his own accord he would never have begun sending torpedoes to Station Phobo." "What? Is this treachery? Have you forgotten that all the power in space belongs to me, the heir of Dictator Yar Jupi? Don't forget that the ship Quest is also subordinate to me. Only I, in the name of the Blood Council, can command it to return here in order to deliver us all to Terr, where we can enjoy a life of ease." "You are mistaken, deep-thinking Mrak Luton," objected Brat Lua. "There isn't enough fuel on board the ship to ferry us all to Terr. There isn't enough on the station either. And there is even less fuel on Phobo." "What happened to all the fuel? You and engineer Tycho Veg were answerable for it with your lives!" "Deep-thinking Mrak Luton has forgotten that on his orders Engineer Tycho Veg fuelled the two torpedo-ships sent to Phobo. A similar madness was also committed on Station Phobo." "Madness? Silence! How dare you, as a roundhead, condemn the Dictator's successor? I, a Supreme Officer of the Blood Guard, remain so in space! You are under arrest! I am going to shoot you like a crazed lizard!" "Wise husband, I implore you," intervened Nega Luton. "Why use a pistol? After the death of our beloved engineer, the roundhead will be the only one left on the station who can handle the machinery. It's his duty to provide us with the facilities." "You are right, Nega! Thank the gentle lady, roundhead! You will simply get away with imprisonment in my office. Quick march!" Brat Lua meekly went ahead of the station chief, who kept prodding him in the back with his pistol. When both Faetians had left the common cabin, Ala Veg turned to the remaining Faetesses. "Isn't it enough that Faena has perished? Why must its satellite go the same fatal way? Power, dictatorship, murder?" "What d'you want, you poor wretch? To rise up against my husband?" demanded Nega Luton angrily. "You stopped him yourself. If he kills Brat Lua, then we won't have anyone left who can understand the station's machinery, and Lada Lua might well refuse to feed us. Then we'll all perish because of that crazy old man of yours." "Aren't you trying to talk me into mutiny?" sneered Nega Luton. "Let it be mutiny, then!" confirmed Ala Veg hysterically. "If mutiny will save us, we'll go that far." "How can there be any talk of salvation if there aren't any spare ships at the stations?" insisted Nega. "There's Quest. It could fly here." "Why? To add to our starving mouths? Or because there happens to be a certain young man among the astronauts who has finally taken widow Veg's fancy?" "Shut up, you viper! Get it into your tiny lizard's brain that Brat Lua planned an underground settlement on the surface of Mar. In such a shelter, on Mar, the Faetian survivors could go on living." "That's not living, that's vegetating." "I've been wanting to say for some time," interposed Lada Lua, "that there aren't enough fruits in the greenhouse. But my husband wanted to grow a great many nutritive greens on the surface of Mar. There would be enough not only for us, but for our children." "What children do you mean?" asked Nega Luton, stamping her foot. "Have you forgotten, you pug-nosed fattie, about the law forbidding you to have children in space?" "My husband said the old laws are invalid now. We're going to have a child!" "Criminals!" hissed Nega Luton. "They want to ruin us! There's food and oxygen for only six here, and no more!" "Tycho Veg is dead," said Ala Veg sadly. "Even if a tiny Lua is born to follow him, the station will survive. But we have to think about the future. We shall have to go down onto the surface of Mar." "Well, of course, you'll be given a ship the way a big proprietor gets a steamcar," jeered Nega Luton. "I'll take the responsibility for that," announced Ala Veg. "But first we must strip Mrak Luton of his powers." "What?" Nega Luton nearly choked with fury. "You must understand yourself, as a one-time lady of importance, that you won't survive without the Luas, even if your husband starts firing poisoned bullets in all directions. The two of you know nothing about technology or astronavigation. We Faetesses are the ones who have got to decide." "Decide what?" "Who's going to be in charge of the station." "I will not betray my husband." "Then you will betray yourself." "But he won't give up his power, not for anything. And he's armed." "The Faetesses can do anything if they act together." "I fully support the gentle Ala Veg," declared Lada. "Make up your mind, Nega Luton. You will be fed and looked after as before only if you take our side." "But I..." Nega Luton was still vacillating, glaring inimically at the inflexible Ala Veg. The door was flung wide open and Mrak Luton burst in like a conqueror. He pushed out his huge belly and puffed up his cheeks to hide their flabbiness. "Mrak Luton!" announced Ala Veg. "You have been removed by us from your post as chief of the station!" Mrak Luton collapsed into an armchair, his little sunken eyes goggling at Ala Veg. "What did you say, madwoman?" "I am speaking for all the Faetesses on the station. You have got to submit to us and go into your office until your fate has been decided. Brat Lua will run the station machinery, since we have to breathe and use up energy. If you kill any of us now, then you will thereby bring about your own destruction." Nega Luton nodded in agreement. "What? You too, Nega?" was all that Mrak Luton could manage to say, his eyes riveted on his hook-nosed wife. "Mrak, I'm concerned solely for the two of us. I have obtained their agreement to take care of us and supply us with everything necessary. We shall be in the position of proprietors." "I refuse!" roared Mrak Luton, drawing his pistol. However, he didn't go so far as to use it. Ala Veg and Lada Lua advanced on him, whereas Nega held back. Mrak Luton rose reluctantly to his feet and, still brandishing his pistol, began backing away. In this manner, they all went out into the corridor. Enraged and distraught, Mrak Luton was backing towards his office door, and the two Faetesses were crowding him. Nega Luton timidly brought up the rear. "I'll still settle the score with you! I'm giving way out of mercy. I'll release that mangy roundhead purely so that he can do the dirty jobs. But I'm not relinquishing my power! You'll never get me to do that!" "We'll talk to you, Mrak Luton, tomorrow. But today, just think it all over carefully in your office." "But I didn't get all my dinner. Let them bring the other courses here." "We'll postpone your dinner until tomorrow. Thinking works better on an empty stomach. We may also cut down on the oxygen supply to your office. But not immediately, because FOR THE TIME BEING your brain cells must work normally so that you can become reconciled." "You're not a Faetess, Ala Veg, you're a monster." "My husband, whom you murdered, wouldn't agree with you, Mrak Luton." "I have never committed murder. I served the Dictator faithfully and honestly, and I carried out his instructions. I had a secret order from him in the event of a disintegration war. I am in no way to blame. I can show you the inscribed tablet." "You can do that when we put you on trial. Meanwhile, you are simply relieved of your post." Ala Veg opened the chief's office and let out the bewildered Brat Lua. With a businesslike air, as if nothing had happened, Mrak Luton went inside and sat down at his desk with dignity, pretending that he had urgent matters to deal with. Ala Veg locked the door from outside and invited Brat Lua into the common cabin. "We have to elect a new station chief," she announced. "Why?" protested Nega Luton. "I've helped you to release Brat Lua. I hope he will support me. I have risked losing my family happiness. You Faetesses ought to appreciate this." "Your husband is the criminal who murdered my husband to violate the Agreement on Peace in Outer Space and unleash a disintegration war between the space stations of Mar." "They sent torpedoes against us from Phobo too," said Mrak Luton's wife, in self-justification on her husband's behalf. "We could have defended ourselves without attacking. And then Tycho Veg would still have been alive." "You have been blinded by your grief. Ala Veg. I understand you with the heart of a Faetess. But can we talk about one death, when thousands of millions of Faetians have perished? Remember, we need Mrak Luton as chief of the station. We've got to survive. Smel Ven, as commander of the ship, will obey only his orders to fly to us." "Have you forgotten Ton! Fae's message that Smel Ven had been killed? Besides, Um Sat w