The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

why? And those pylons, what were they for? How much later was that last picture?”
    “Five hundred years.”
    “The pylons were gone, too, then,” Ross commented. “But why—?” he echoed Karara’s question.
    Ashe had taken up his notebook, but he did not open it. “I think”—there was a sharp, grim note in his voice—“we had better find out.”
    “Put up a gate?”
    Ashe broke all the previous rules of their service with his answer:
    “Yes, a gate.”
    CHAPTER 4
    Storm Menace
    “We have to know.” Ashe leaned back against the crate theyhad just emptied. “Something was done here—in two hundred years—and then, an empty world.”
    “Pandora’s box.” Ross drew a hand across his forehead, smearing sweat and fine sand into a brand.
    Ashe nodded. “Maybe we run that risk, loosing all the devils of the aliens. But what if the Reds open the box first on one of their settlement worlds?”
    There it was again, the old thorn which prodded them into risks and recklessness. Danger ahead on both paths. Don’t risk trying to learn galactic secrets, but don’t risk your enemy’s learning them either. You held a white-hot iron in both hands in this business. And Ashe was right, they had stumbled on something here which hinted that a whole world had been altered to suit some plan. Suppose the secret of that alteration was discovered by their enemies?
    “Were the ship and castle people natives?” Ross wondered aloud.
    “Just at a guess they were, or at least settlers who had been established here so long they had developed a local form of civilization which was about on the level of a feudal society.”
    “You mean because of the castle and the rock bombardment. But what about the ships?”
    “Two separate phases of a society at war, perhaps a more progressive against a less technically advanced. American warships paying a visit to the Shogun’s Japan, for example.”
    Ross grinned. “Those warships didn’t seem to fancy their welcome. They steered out to sea fast enough when the rocks began to fall.”
    “Yes, but the ships could exist in the castle pattern; the pylons could not!”
    “Which period are you aiming for first—the castle or the pylons?”
    “Castle first, I think. Then if we can’t pick up any hints, we’ll take some jumps forward until we do connect. Only we’ll be under severe handicaps. If we could only plant an analyzer somewhere in the castle as a beginning.”
    Ross did not show his surprise. If Ashe was talking on those terms, then he was intending to do more than just lurk around a little beyond the gate; he was really planning to pick up alien speech patterns, eventually assume an alien agent identity!
    “Gordon!” Karara appeared between two of the lace trees. She came so hastily that the contents of the two cups she carried slopped over. “You must hear what Hori has to say—”
    The tall Samoan who trailed her spoke quickly. For the first time since Ross had known him he was very serious, a frown line between his eyes. “There is a bad storm coming. Our instruments register it.”
    “How long away?” Ashe was on his feet.
    “A day…maybe two.…”
    Ross could see no change in the sky, islands, or sea. They had had idyllic weather for the six weeks since their planeting, no sign of any such trouble in the Hawaikan paradise.
    “It’s coming,” Hori repeated.
    “The gate is half up,” Ashe thought aloud, “too much of it set to be dismantled again in a hurry.”
    “If it’s completed,” Hori wanted to know, “would it ride out a storm?”
    “It might, behind that reef where we have it based. To finish it would be a fast job.”
    Hori flexed his hands. “We’re more brawn than brain in these matters, Gordon, but you’ve all our help, for what it’s worth. What about the ship, does it lift on schedule?”
    “Check with Rimbault about that. This storm, how will it compare to a Pacific typhoon?”
    The Samoan shook his head. “How do we know? We have not yet had to face the local variety.”
    “The islands are low,” Karara commented. “Winds and water could—”
    “Yes! We’d better see Rimbault about a shelter if needed.”
    If the settlement had drowsed, now its inhabitants were busy. It was decided that they could shelter in the spaceship should the storm reach hurricane proportions, but before its coming the gate must be finished. The final fitting was left to Ashe and Ross, and the older agent fastened the last bolt when the