He was staring blankly at the wall, dry lips moving.
At first he was not aware of them; John Star heard the whispered words:
“Traitor!
Betrayer of mankind.”
“Adam Ulnar,” called John Star, torn between pity and scorn for the shaken creature who stared up at them with a kind of listless fear.
“Are you willing to help undo your crime?”
A little flicker of interest, of hope, came into the dull, tortured eyes. But the Commander of the Legion shook his head.
“I would help,” his voice was dully droning, lifeless,
“I’d do anything.
But it’s too late.
Too late, now.”
“No, man!” shouted John Star.
“It isn’t too late. Wake up!”
Adam Ulnar got uncertainly to his feet, his haggard face anxious.
“I’ll help.
But what can be done?”
“We’re going to find Aladoree, and set her free.
Then she can wipe out the Medusas with the power of AKKA.”
He sank back, and his voice was wearily bitter:
“You are fools.
You are lying in a wrecked ship on the bottom of an ocean.
Aladoree is guarded in a fortress that would be impregnable to all the fleets of the Legion—if the Medusae haven’t already tortured the secret from her and done away with her!
You are idle fools—though not such fools as I was———”
“Tell us what you know about the planet,” rapped Jay Kalam.
“The geography of its continents.
And about the Medusas.
Their weapons, their civilization, where they would be likely to imprison Aladoree.”
Adam Ulnar looked at them dully, out of his apathy of despair.
“I’ll tell you the little I know—though it will do no good.
I was never here, myself, you know.
I had only the reports that Eric’s expedition brought back.
“This planet is much larger than Earth.
About three times the diameter.
Its rotation is very slow, its day about fifteen of Earth’s.
The nights are fearful.
A week long, and bitterly cold—a type-M dwarf hasn’t much heat left, you know.”
His stare was drifting blankly past them; John Star urged him sharply:
“The continents?”
“There is just one large continent—about equal in area to all Earth.
There’s a strip of strange jungle along the shore, savage and deadly.
It grows, Eric said, with amazing rapidity in the long day, and it swarms with fierce, unearthly life.
“Along the east coast, beyond the jungle, is a towering mountain range, more rugged, Eric said, than any in the System.
West of the mountains is a vast, high plateau, lifeless, cut up by wild canyons.
Beyond is the valley of an immense river that drams almost the whole continent.
“The Medusas have only a single city left—life is hard on this dying planet, and the most of them have migrated to the other worlds they’ve conquered—as they mean to conquer ours.
That city is located somewhere near the river’s mouth—that’s as near as I can place it.”
“Aladoree?” prompted John Star anxiously.
“She would be hi the city, no doubt.
A quite amazing place, Eric said, huge by human standards.
All built of black metal. Surrounded with walls a full mile high, to keep back the dreadful jungle.