Vlasta Sirus cringed at his words as if she were being whipped.
It was hard to tell from the faces of the judges what was in store for the accused.
Unlike Vlasta Sirus, Nega Luton was completely crushed at being judged by Ala Veg, of all people!…
Lada Lua came up to the judges’ table. She was embarrassed and didn’t know what to do with her red hands.
“The gentle lady Nega Luton is in no way to blame. When the station chief had to be removed, she sided with us Faetesses on Deimo.”
“Will Ala Veg confirm that?” asked Vydum Polar.
“I confirm it,” said Ala Veg to her rival’s great astonishment. “Mrak Luton went mad with fury when his wife refused to obey him. She is only to blame for wanting to become first lady of the station.”
Nega Luton flushed. Better she had been condemned than made to hear such words. She could have incinerated her judges with a single glance.
Ala Veg sat with lowered eyes, and Ton! Fae, standing behind all the Faetians, watched her admiringly. How beautiful she was, and how fair-minded!
The great Elder read out the court’s sentence.
Dovol Sirus, Vlasta Sirus and Mrak Luton were guilty of launching disintegration torpedoes with the intention of destroying space stations and were sentenced to imprisonment on Station Phobo. They would not be taken to Mar. They would provide their own services for the rest of their days: they would be left the necessary machinery and the greenhouse.
Nega Luton was acquitted and would be taken to Mar.
Mrak Luton stamped his foot when he heard the sentence.
“This is violence! This is lawlessness! This is a crime!” He began foaming at the mouth. He clutched at his heart and collapsed into his chair.
Dovol Sirus watched him in fright. “I implore you,” he whined, “don’t leave a maniac with us. Send him back to Deimo… He is a Supreme Officer of the Blood Guard, after all. His hands are steeped in blood.”
“Certain Faetians claim to be fair-minded, but they want to destroy us without mercy!” shrieked Vlasta Sirus. “So let them fly away! We’re banishing them from our station! We’re sending them into exile on barren deserts! Exile! Exile! Exile!”
The Faetians gradually dispersed, trying not to look at the condemned.
Nega Luton went up to the judges.
“Thank you for acquitting me. But please leave me with the condemned.”
Vydum Polar eyed Nega Luton closely and with distaste. He didn’t believe that she wanted to stay behind with that flabby, corpulent Faetian who was choking with rage. This was more likely a matter of calculated self-interest: there would be less work to do on the station than on inhospitable Mar, where they would be compelled to build underground refuges for the Faetians and their descendants.
Vydum Polar was right, but he still hadn’t reckoned with Nega Luton’s obsessive hatred for Ala Veg at the time.
It took a considerable time to complete Brat Lua’s project, augmented, as it was, with many of Vydum Polar’s own technical ideas.
It was possible to build an underground settlement with an artificial atmosphere, constantly purified and enriched with oxygen.
Quest was preparing for its last trip.
Station Phobo would forever be an artificial satellite of the planet Mar.
Since only nine instead of thirteen Faetians were landing on the planet, this meant that they could take with them considerably more cargo, technical appliances, instruments and inscribed tablets for study by future Marians.
Vydum Polar envisaged an acute shortage of the metal necessary to build underground shelters with an artificial air supply, and so he suggested dropping part of Station Phobo onto the planet’s surface. This would entail dismantling a third of the station’s structure and fitting it with one of the remaining defence rockets.
Station Phobo was much bigger than Station Deimo. A reduction in its accommodation space would not affect the future life of the condemned.
Needless to say, they themselves refused point-blank to take part in this operation, leaving it to the future Marians.
Some of the metal pipes used as corridors and the premises of the disused laboratories were detached from the station. Braked by the reactive force of the defence rocket, they were to leave the station’s orbit and, reducing speed relative to the Marian orbital velocity, were to begin their descent onto the planet. Because of its thinness and low oxygen content, Mar’s atmosphere should add to the braking effect on the falling metal without causing re-entry burn-up.
The whole of Vydum Polar’s operation took a considerable time, during which all the Faetians lived together. The condemned, however, kept apart from the rest and their attitude to them was hostile.
The leave-taking of the Marians and the condemned was consequently not a particularly sad occasion. On the contrary, both sides had a feeling of relief.
Dm Sat and Toni Fae were the first to cross over into Quest. Both were thinking about Ave, Mada and Gor Terr who had self-sacrificingly given up their places on the ship to the Faetians from the space stations. How were the other three finding it on Terr? Would they hold out in the battle with the Faetoids?
Then all the other Faetians who were leaving went into the ship through the airlock of the station’s central section.
Ala Veg went up to Toni Fae.
“We’re going to a new world together,” she said, putting her hand on his shoulder.
The young Faetian nearly choked with emotion. Incredible trials and tribulations lay ahead of them, but he was happy.
Toni Fae had to determine the exact landing place for the reserve metal to be used by future generations of Marians.
Um Sat ordered that Quest should land as near as possible to the metal dropped onto Mar. Initially, they would have to dig the first deep shelter themselves. Afterwards, perhaps, they would be able to find natural caves into which future generations would move.
Remembering the lessons taught to him by his friends on Terr, Toni Fae began the gradual undocking of the ship from the central section of Station Phobo.
“Will some other spaceship ever come close to this station?” he wondered. “And when will it be?”
None of those remaining behind was in the central section.
Nega Luton and Vlasta Sirus locked themselves in their cabins.
Mrak Luton, his arms thrust behind his back, was pacing up and down the ring corridor onto which the lifts opened. He was considering how to seize power on Station Phobo. It was Vlasta Sirus whom he regarded as his main opponent, not the bloated Dovol Sirus.
He mentally assigned them all to the various sections leaving the sole leadership to himself. They had many, many cycles to live yet!
The Faetians may not have known about the behaviour of spiders in a jar and how they devour one another. Consequently, the court in space, when leaving the condemned on Phobo, was not influenced by this example. However…
Dovol Sirus became the chronicler on Phobo. He solemnly wrote memoirs which, in his view, would tell the truth about the tragedy of Faena and its space colonies.
A long, long time afterwards, they did indeed, in certain respects, help to establish the fate of the condemned.
Chapter Five
THE NAKED LEADER
When the wail of a newborn child was heard in the Faetians’ house, Dzin was in the forest nearby. She crept up to the window, squatted down and, gripping her heels with her forepaws, began listening. Sensing that the hunters were returning, she leapt for cover into the undergrowth and from there she looked round at the stake-barred window.