The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

here—a compulsion triggered to make the original intentions of the outpost obeyed, a last drag from the sleepers. This place had been set up with a single purpose: to protect and pre serve the ancient rulers of Topaz. And perhaps the very presence here of the intruding Terrans had released a force, started an unseen installation.
    Now Travis answered simply: “They want out.…”
    Jil-Lee glanced back at the slit door, but Buck still watched Travis.
    “They call?” he asked.
    “In a way,” Travis admitted. But the compulsion had already ebbed; he was free. “It is gone now.”
    “This is not a good place,” Buck observed somberly. “We touch that which should not be held by men of our earth.” He held out the weapon.
    “Did not the People take up the rifles of the Pinda-lick-o-yi for their defense when it was necessary?” Jil-Lee demanded. “We do what we must. After seeing that,” his chin indicated the slit and what lay behind it—“do you wish the Reds to forage here?”
    “Still,” Buck’s words came slowly, “this is a choice between two evils, rather than between an evil and a good—”
    “Then let us see how powerful this evil is!” Jil-Lee headed for the corridor leading to the pillar.
    * * * *
    It was late afternoon when they made their way through the swirling mists of the valley under the archway giving on the former site of the outlaw Tatar camp. Travis sighted the long barrel of the weapon at a small bush backed by a boulder, and he pressed the firing button. There was no way of knowing whether the weapon was loaded except to try it.
    The result of his action was quick—quick and terrifying. There was no sound, no sign of any projectile…ray-gas…or whatever might have issued in answer to his finger movement. But the bush—the bush was no more!
    A black smear made a ragged outline of the extinguished branches and leaves on the rock which had stood behind. The earth might still enclose roots under a thin coating of ash, but the bush was gone!
    “The breath of Naye’nezyani—powerful beyond belief!” Buck broke their horrified silence first. “In truth evil is here!”
    Jil-Lee raised his gun—if gun it could be called—aimed at the rock with the bush silhouette plain to see and fired.
    This time they were able to witness disintegration in progress, the crumble of the stone as if its substance was no more than sand lapped by river water. A pile of blackened rubble remained—nothing more.
    “To use this on a living thing?” Buck protested, horror basing the doubt in his voice.
    “We do not use it against living things,” Travis promised, “but against the ship of the Reds—to cut that to pieces. This will open the shell of the turtle and let us at its meat.”
    Jil-Lee nodded. “Those are true words. But now I agree with your fears of this place, Travis. This is a devil thing and must not be allowed to fall into the hands of those who—”
    “Will use it more freely than we plan to?” Buck wanted to know. “We reserve to ourselves that right because we hold our motives higher? To think that way is also a crooked trail. We will use this means because we must, but afterward.…”
    Afterward that warehouse must be closed, the tapes giving the entrance clue destroyed. One part of Travis fought that decision, right though he knew it to be. The towers were the menace he had believed. And what was more discouraging than the risk they now ran, was the belief that the treasure was a poison which could not be destroyed but which might spread from Topaz to Terra.
    Suppose the Western Conference had discovered that storehouse and explored its riches, would they have been any less eager to exploit them? As Buck had pointed out, one’s own ideals could well supply reasons for violence. In the past Terra had been racked by wars of religion, one fanatically held opinion opposed to another. There was no righteousness in such struggles, only fatal ends. The Reds had no right to this new knowledge—but neither did they. It must be locked against the meddling of fools and zealots.
    “Taboo—” Buck spoke that word with an emphasis they could appreciate. Knowledge must be set behind the invisible barriers of taboo, and that could work.
    “These three—no more—we found no other weapons!” Jil-Lee added a warning suggestion.
    “No others,” Buck agreed and Travis echoed, adding:
    “We found tombs of the space people, and these were left with them. Because of our great