A Gift For Terra Read online

falling into our hands--andthey did. They do not always win. But they never lose."

  "But I--" Johnny's thoughts raced. The ship, gone. And Harrison andJanes, Lamson, and Fowler. They would be landing in a few days. They--

  "Yes," the thoughts of the true Martians before him answered. "And theywill be given a 'gift' for Terra as you were. If your friends returnsuccessfully to your planet with that 'gift'--then--"

  The thought was not completed. But it did not have to be.

  A beachhead was one thing. These scattered, struggling people who hadonce been masters of Mars might one day unseat it, for they were not yetbeaten people, and their will to survive was yet strong. But beyondthat--

  Earth taken, the System taken.

  There it was.

  There was a sudden coldness inside him now that the fact hadcrystallized, had become real. Here was no fantasy; no wild surmise.

  They left him in silence while he thought, their psibeam turned away,now.

  Harrison and Janes. Lamson, and Fowler. Had to stop them. Stop them, andthen somehow, get home. He ached for home.

  He thought about Ferris, who had given his life for this thing.

  No, Ferris would not be going home. Ferris was dead.

  He signalled for the psibeam to be turned toward him again.

  "You'd have to know their positions out there to make contact, wouldn'tyou?" They did not answer. He worked to get the words formed, and therewas a fleeting thought of a green, lush planet far away, its widestreets and rolling fields bathed in warm sunlight. "I can figure 'em,"he said. "I know blast-off schedules, speeds. I know the works! _Those_things they had in the books. Then you guys can do the rest with--thatthing. Right?"

  They answered him, then.

  "Thank you," they said. And that was all.

  * * * * *

  "Answer me!" the General barked again. "You, Janes! Lamson!Fowler--Harrison! For the last time, what happened out there?"

  The four stood silently before the nervous figure of their commander,and it was Fowler who finally spoke.

  "Plan III, sir, as we've already said. Condition Untenable--Return...."

  "That is all you can say?"

  "That is--all, sir."

  The General turned away. There was frustration and anger in his face,and it hid the fear beneath it like a mask. Plan III. It would be PlanIII for a long time yet.

  It was the thing he saw in the faces of the four men that told him that.There had been too many giant steps, too fast. He had seen this thing inthe faces of men before, but never so nakedly.

  One day, perhaps, men could think of Plan I again. One day, but not now.

  He turned back to the four, and looked once more into their faces.

  Plan III. Condition Untenable.

  "Dismissed!" the General said.