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If one or two be yet living, they will probably be found on the West Coast, that yet unexplored region of forest which may contain sleeping princesses and gold in ton blocks, and all sorts of good things. A gentleman who lives at the Kiakoras possesses a moa's egg; it is ten inches by seven.
In the dim, blue lit glare it seemed unreal, crazy. A grotesque dream of men descending a plank. They reached the forest glade. Stood swaying, afraid at first to move. The purple night crowded them; they stood gazing at this strange world, their new prison. "Now the women." Miko was shoving the women to the head of the incline. I could feel Moa's gaze upon me.
We mounted at a forty degree angle, slowly circling, with a bank of clouds over us to the side and the shining little sea beneath. "Very good, Gregg." In the turret light Moa's eyes blazed at me. "I do not know what you meant by darkening the deck lights." Her fingers dug at my shoulders. "I will tell my brother it was an error." I said, "An error yes." "I didn't know what it was.
"Can you find landing space, Gregg?" Moa's question brought back my wandering fancies. I saw an upland glade, a level spread of ferns with the forest banked around it. A cliff height nearby, frowning down at the sea. "Yes. I can land us there." I showed her through the glasses. I rang the sirens, and we spiraled, descending further. The mountain tops were now close beneath us.
His voice, with the horrible gurgling rasp of death in it, rattled my ear-grids. "Not such a fool are you, Haljan " Moa's helmeted head was close over us. I saw that she had seized the knife, jerked it from her brother's throat. She leaped backward, waving it. I twisted from beneath Miko's lifeless, inert body. As I got to my feet, Anita flung herself to shield me.
In all the universe there could be no more dangerous an enemy. An incredible venom shot from her eyes. "That miserable mouselike creature! Well for her that my brother killed her." It struck me cold. If Anita were unmasked, beyond all the menace of Miko's wooing, I knew that the venom of Moa's jealousy was a greater danger. I said sharply, "Don't be simple, Moa!" I shook off her grip.
She moved! Get her helmet off! There's enough air here." My helmet pressure indicator was faintly buzzing to show that a safe pressure was in the room. I shut off Moa's Erentz motors, unfastened her helmet and raised it off. We gently turned her body. She lay with closed eyes, her pallid face blue. With our own helmets off, we knelt over her. "Oh, Gregg is she dead?" "No. Not quite but dying."
"Hahn seems to fear we will plunge into this asteroid like a wild comet gone suddenly tangent!" Anita moved aside to let him through the door. I caught a glimpse of her set white face as she followed him down the deck. Then Moa's bulk blocked the doorway. She faced me. "Sit where you are, Gregg." She turned and closed the door upon us. "I am not afraid of you. Should I be?" "No."
We will be rich, you and I. All the luxuries these worlds can offer all for us when this is over. Careful, Moa! This Haljan has no wit." Well could he say it. I, who had been so witless as to let this come upon us! Moa's weapon prodded me. Her voice hissed at me with all the venom of a reptile enraged. "So that was your game, Gregg Haljan! And I was so graceless as to admit love for you!"
Righted itself. Then swayed again, drunkenly. The watching men were stricken in horrified silence. The Planetara's image momentarily, horribly, grew larger. Swaying. Then turning completely over, rotating slowly end over end. The Planetara, out of control, was falling! On the Planetara, in the radio room, Snap and I stood with Moa's weapon upon us. Miko held Anita. Triumphant, possessive.
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