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At first he could not get a clear look at the man for Ato's broad shoulders. Then Ato turned aside, and Grim Hagen's head and shoulders filled the screen. Odin gasped in amazement. Grim Hagen was nearly twenty years older than when he had seen him last. The shoulders and arms were larger although there appeared to be little fat upon Grim Hagen. The dark hair was streaked with gray.
A thrown knife caught him in the chest. Gunnar took another step, and another knife caught him below the throat. He stood there, trying to go on, and a mace thudded against his temple. Gunnar reeled back into the flames. A deadening quiet fell over the huge room where Maya's and Ato's little armies were making their last stand. The flames were dying out in the tunnels and on the stairway.
Jack Odin sat there, looking long and long at the swarm of stars upon the screen, thinking of the unseen worlds about them the worlds that he had just renounced. Until finally he got up and went to bed. Ato's probing instruments still pointed the way to Aldebaran. In a surprisingly short time, the warning signals were flashing and jingling throughout The Nebula.
Then they plunged through the entrances in a flood, armed with only knives and clubs. Meanwhile, Ato's guns were going out. The last became a white torch when a magnesium blob struck it. The side-arms were all gone. They fought now with sword and knife. Jack Odin felt a heavy hand upon his arm. Gunnar was at his side. "It is even as I foretold you, Nors-King. The weapons are all gone.
And tell me where we are?" It was Ato's turn to talk. "I threw The Nebula into the Fourth Drive some time ago. That may have helped to save your lives too. We should check on that, Nea." "Will you please tell me where we are?" Gunnar demanded. "Give me time, little man," Ato retorted. "We are back in Trans-Einsteinian space, and Aldebaran and its worlds are far behind us.
Oh, but the valkyries will be busy tonight!" Ato and Odin led the rush down the stairs. There were only a dozen men below and they had already tired of warfare. Three fell and the others rushed off into the shadows. Ato's and Maya's fighters tumbled after them. There were only a few of the old people and children left.
He yelled at Ato's and Maya's wearying armies, urging them to go on and account themselves well. He stood by Odin's side, and the two hacked and thrust until the stairway was chocked with bodies and no one was left to assail them. He and Odin were splashed with blood. The tumult was deafening. The tiger-screams of the Kalis, the agonized torment of their prey.
"That is what will happen to you. Why don't you leave us? You are not wanted. Leave us." "Faith, he's a hospitable soul," Odin murmured. Ato's voice was shaking in wrath when he answered. "We can find a way to smash that curtain. We want Grim Hagen and his prisoners. When we have them we will depart." "Grim Hagen is our ally. We have already sworn our allegiance. I have no more words for you."
Gunnar leaned against him, suddenly weak and shaken. More widening circles of light swept out upon them. Ato's and Maya's troops fell back. Those who had been armed with explosive weapons had died. Odin was almost too weak to lift his sword. From the stairway below came a scrabbling sound, as men pulled the corpses away from the stairs. Nea's Kalis reeled back.
A shadow no, two shadows were growing within it, Odin tried to make them out. But they were dark and wavering. Still, they looked something like a high priest standing above a prone victim stretched out upon some sacrificial altar. Odin was working the screens like mad. Keeping their entire crew before his and Ato's eyes and at the same time watching the topaz bubble. The bubble cleared.
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