Hell's Gate

eventual fate of vacii experimental animals. Two things might happen. One: the vacii might allow the test animal to live a natural lifespan if only to determine exactly what it could accomplish in that time. Two: they might terminate the experiment and perform an autopsy. This was enough to decide Moog's future for him. He could not stay in the starship. In addition to the constant fear he might be slated for dissection, there was the increasingly harsh nature of the regular vacii tests. “Survival experiments,” the vacii called them. They consisted of placing Moog in a particularly hostile position and then observing him saving himself. Although the aliens were undoubtedly obtaining much valuable data on the survival abilities of his species, Moog decided the pain he was enduring wasn't worth it. Since no experimental animal had tried to escape before, his plans met with little hitch. He broke free, along with two cohorts, and had remained free ever since.
        He and his companions had not been idle in their freedom. They managed, in two raids on the vacii complex, to free forty-six other intelligent Earthmen of their hairy breed. However, they were never inside the ship, for that was now beyond their reach. The third raid was anticipated, and the vacii killed eleven of their number, while they were unable to free any more of their brethren. With their thirty-eight, they went into the deepest caves in the mountain and hid from the lizardmen. Slowly, they established contact with the half-men above them- the naked, savage type-and began rescuing children of their own breed before the vacii got to them, rewarding the half-men with trinkets for not slaughtering them. A great number of the half-men's pregnant women were secreted away until it could be learned whether their child was savage or intelligent. If intelligent, Moog's group kept it and raised it. They began breeding some of their own. Now, in six years, their number stood at eighty-nine and was climbing faster and faster every month.
        Yet the vacii remained a thorn in their side. Fully half a dozen babies a month were abducted into the vacii ship for experimental purposes. Moog and the others were anxious to free them, anxious to somehow defeat and drive off the vacii. But, of course, the vacii had guns. The Earthmen here had bows and arrows. Moog knew how metal could be smelted, how machinery of limited complexity could be built. But, having to live in utter secrecy, unable to go out of the caves in daylight, the Earthmen were restricted from achieving the level of social order they knew they could create.
        “But you have a gun,” Moog said.
        “Be careful!” Victor shouted as the hairy man picked up his gas pellet pistol.
        “Do not worry. We are not as stupid as those whose hands you first fell into. I've heard what the gun does from the half-men. And I can figure it out, almost. But would you mind explaining?”
        Salsbury didn't mind.
        “May I fire it at that rock?” Moog asked.
        Salsbury shrugged. “Go on.”
        He fired. The pellet sank only an inch into the boulder before exploding. Chips of stone flew in all directions, and a fine gray powder hung in the air. “Would this work on metal?” Moog asked.
        “Yes. Only it will take more shots. If the metal is thick, that is. The pellet will only sink a fraction of an inch into dense material before exploding.”
        “It can require as many shots as you have,” Moog said. “Just so we get inside.”
        “Inside?” Salsbury thought he was beginning to lose track of the conversation.
        “Inside the vacii ship,” Moog said, smiling, his wide mouth full of glittering teeth.
        “But what good will that do us?” Victor wanted to know, suddenly coming forward on his chair. It sounded foolish, half-baked, unrealistic. The vacii outnumbered them. The aliens had weapons far superior to anything the men here could possess or hope to obtain. Yet, somehow, he had the feeling that Moog already considered these things and was speaking rationally, with something definite and workable in mind.
        “I know the inside of the vacii starship by heart,” Moog said. “I lived in it for twenty-four years, except when they took me on field experiments. I used that time to memorize every foot of the place in the event such information would ever come in handy. It has. I know, for instance, exactly where the ship armory