His eyes adjusted to the bright light. There were -beings-in the compartment. Three of them, and they were not human.
2
They were shaped like humans. They had two arms and two legs and two eyes, but the proportions were wrong. The shoulders were too high, almost as if they didn't have necks, and their heads rose from too-thick bodies. They wore clothing, coveralls of a shining metallic appearance, one dull grey, the other two in brighter colors that shimmered when they moved.
Their hands had only three fingers, but there were two thumbs-one on each side of a thick palm. They had no hair that Rick could see. Their lips were thin-far too thin to be human-and their mouths were too high on their strangely flat faces. Mouth too high, eyes too low, nose-not really a nose at all, Rick decided. Instead there was a fleshy snout-slit like a vertical second mouth. It rose until it almost reached the line joining the eyes.
It took an effort to look away from them and inspect the compartment. The room was nearly bare. All around the upper parts of the compartment there were screens, like TV sets but very thin. Some showed images: Rick's troops standing outside, Lieutenant Parsons and Sergeant Elliot talking and pointing, the machine-gun emplacements. The aliens seemed to have most of his defenses spotted, and their TV gave bright images although outside it was nearly pitch-dark.
The creatures sat at a long table placed crosswise to the door he had entered. It was too high-at least a foot higher than a table for humans would have been-and was transparent, but without the shimmer of glass, so that it was almost invisible. A small box with lights and colored squares rested on the table.
Rick had the impression of controls below some of the screens; at least there were flat plates about an inch square, some lit in bright colors, and others colored but dark. They might have been pushbuttons or touch-sensitive plates, but they might have been anything else. The room was as alien as the creatures.
Despite a strong desire to curl up in a corner and gibber, Rick studied the room carefully, trying to categorize and file the new information. He kept trying to convince himself this was a dream, but he knew better. Finally he was able to speak. "Hello." When the aliens spoke, both the mouth and nose slits moved. "You have very little time, Captain Galloway," the grey-clad alien said. The voice was very matter-of-fact. It sounded masculine, but Rick reminded himself that he didn't know the creature's sex. Or, he thought, if they even had sexes. "Perhaps too little. We may have waited too long. We are here to rescue you and your men."
"Who the hell-"
"Later. There is no time."
Sure, Rick thought. Later. But the alien was right. The Cubans were approaching rapidly. He tried to organize his thoughts, but it was difficult to accept what he was doing, that he was talking with- things. The spokesman-man? No. Not a man. Not a spokesman, either, his mind gibbered. He had no concepts to use. Finally he found his voice. "What do you want with us?"
"For you to get your men aboard. Quickly, before you have none left." The alien spread its hands, palm down, in a gesture that meant nothing to Rick. The tone of his voice had not changed, but it was not difficult to guess that the alien was impatient. "As we have said before and doubtless must say many times again, if we wished you harm, you would be dead. What can we do to you that the Cubans will not accomplish within a few hours?" The alien was obviously right, but that didn't make Rick feel much better. The "rescue" was not very appealing. "How do you know my name?" he demanded.
"From your radio. You have no more time for questions." This came from one of the creatures in bright coveralls. "You must act. Now."
"What about our weapons?"
"Bring them. Bring all of your equipment," Grey-coveralls said. "But quickly. When the Cubans are close enough to see us clearly, we must be gone. With or without you and your men."
"That's no choice at all, Cap'n," Corporal Mason said. "Better them than the Cubans." The trooper's voice was flat and without emotion.
"I'd thought of that," Rick said. He stood another moment in indecision, but he had made up his mind. "All right."
"Quickly," the alien urged.
"Sure. Come on, Mason-"
"You will leave him here," Grey-coveralls said. "As an earnest of your good intentions."
"Now, wait just a damned minute-"
"It's okay, Captain," Mason said. "I'm as safe here as out there."
"All right." Rick went back to the doorway. It opened for him. When he reached the entry chamber, another door opened on the side opposite the entrance to the chamber where the aliens sat. He saw a large empty compartment, more than fifty feet long and perhaps fifteen wide.
"Have the men go in there with their weapons," a voice said. It seemed to speak from the walls, but there was no sign of a speaker grille.
Rick jumped out of the ship and ran to his command post. Half the troops-perhaps more-had gathered there to stare at the ship. They stood clutching rifles and grenades for what comfort weapons could give.
"I did not entirely expect to see you again," Lieutenant Parsons said. "Welcome back."
"Thanks. We've got no time at all. Get the men aboard. Men, weapons; food, equipment, everything. Fast."
"But-" Sergeant Elliot was stammering. Rick had never seen the big sergeant confused before.
"That's a CIA ship," Rick said. He spoke loudly so that many of the troops could hear him. "Secret stuff. They've come to get us out, but they don't want the Cubans to see the ship, so we've got to load up quickly. Now move it."
"Sir!" Elliot ran over to the mortar emplacement, and some of the other troops gathered their gear and headed for the ship. Rick didn't know if he had fooled them or not, but the "CIA ship" explanation seemed the easiest and fastest way to handle the situation.
Parsons looked at him with raised eyebrows. His expression said clearly that he knew Rick was a liar. Then he shrugged and began urging the men onto the ship. Sergeant Elliot rounded up more.
Good troops, Rick thought. And each one had probably made the same decision: they knew what the Cubans could do. This was at least a chance.
The mortar team ran by with their tube, followed by others with the base and packs of mortar bombs. Men grabbed boxes and bandoliers of ammunition, stuffed their pockets with grenades. They were going aboard well armed.
Not, Rick thought, that it will do a hell of a lot of good. Weapons won't make us safer. But they do make us feel safer, and that's important.
"What is this nonsense?" Parsons demanded in a low voice. "You know that is not-"
"Can it. Hold onto the questions." Rick held up his hand and gestured toward the south. There was sporadic firing down there, some of it much closer than Hendrix could possibly be. The Cubans were mopping up the last pockets of resistance before coming up the hill. "Hendrix has had it," Rick said. "His last orders were to get as many men out as we could. Got a better way?"
"No. But-"
"But nothing. That ship won't wait, and we can't do anything for Hendrix and his people." Fear and a sense of guilt at abandoning their wounded made Rick speak more sharply than he had intended. "Shut up and get the men aboard. There's no time for talk."