Chapter IV

Johnson stood without moving and stared at the empty circle of light.

His eyes insisted. "He is not there. We looked away for a moment and when we looked back he was gone."

The corners of his eyes said, "We caught a glimpse of something...."

"What was it you glimpsed?"

"We ... we are not certain ... we think...."

The human could not wait to get the message from the corners of his eyes. Steps were driving forward. He whirled in time to see Taldero lunging at him. A naked knife glittered in the Venusian's uplifted hand. Taldero's face was a gleaming mask of triumph. The Venusian was already relishing the good feeling he would get from sinking his knife up to the hilt in this human's throat. Men were interlopers on Venus, space creatures to be destroyed, vermin that no honest Venusian could accept.

Johnson dropped the zit gun. There was no time to use it. In this moment it was only in his way. One hand caught the uplifted arm. His body met Taldero's body. He was rocked backward by the fury of that charge. He caught himself. The other hand sought Taldero's body. The Venusian gasped with pain as the Karmer nerve block was forced home. He shuddered and went limp. The knife fell from his fingers. Johnson shoved him backward against another Venusian. From the floor he snatched the gun and the knife.

He could hear Caldwell's gun spitting. A semi-circle of Venusians were pressing toward the three humans. Caldwell was holding them back. Martin, unarmed, was clutching the recorder. Vee Vee stood in front of him like some amazon preparing to do battle for her mate.

"Vee Vee! Catch!" She turned startled eyes toward Johnson in time to snatch the gun he threw to her.

"But what will you do--"

"I've still got Taldero's knife. Back up against the back wall and try to hold them at bay. I think I know something."

Johnson dived through the spotlight. The wall behind the light was decorated with a mural, a spot on Venus where the sun was breaking through clouds and illumining a vast, rain-swept valley. On Venus, where they saw the sun but rarely, the sight of Sol was considered about the same as a glimpse of heaven. He felt along the mural. The corners of his eyes insisted, "He went this way." His searching fingers found a spot, pushed against it. A section of the wall slid soundlessly away.

Sitting in a soft chair in the hidden room revealed there, Unger looked calmly at him.

"You saw me go?" Unger said. "You are very, very seeing. No Venusian and up until now no human has ever seen an adept move. We have a rule about it...."

"A part of my eyes saw you move and recorded the impression," Johnson stepped into the room. In his hand, the knife blade glittered. "Life ticks away very rapidly here tonight." He gestured outward where the screams of the Venusians mingled with the throb of the guns. "Call off your wolves or life will stop ticking for you."

Unger seemed utterly unperturbed by the sight of the knife or the man behind it. "They are not my wolves," he said. "I do not know that I can call them off but perhaps I can hold them at bay for a while." He rose with the easy grace of an athlete and moved to the opening.

Out there three humans were backing against the wall. Johnson did not look at them. This time he would not take his eyes off Unger.

"Peace!" The Dreamer's voice was practically a roar.

The Venusians pressing close against the three humans hesitated. In the distance a voice screamed, "I saw you--"

"Inside here, you humans," Unger spoke quickly.

Vee Vee, Martin, and Caldwell slid through the opening. Unger slammed the door, dropped a bar across it. Looking at him, Johnson saw that the Venusian was sweating.

The humans were panting. Vee Vee looked at Johnson. Her eyes glowed. "Johnny! You did it!" Johnson looked away.

Martin stared around the room. "So this is the trick!" He spat out the words. "They distract your attention, then they jump into this hole. It's just a matter of moving very rapidly. Probably they spend years learning it and think they have something very important when they master it." Bitter disappointment sounded in Martin's voice. He seemed to have forgotten the death they had so narrowly missed outside. He lifted the recorder as if he intended to smash it on the floor.

Unger caught it, took it from the human. "I thought you wanted to see what went on inside the Room of the Dreaming."

"I did, but I didn't think it was fraud. I sensed that something important was here." Martin's voice was the voice of a man who has lost a dream.

"Why don't you look at the recording?"

"To hell with the recording. It will only show more fraud."

"But--"

"I say to hell with it too!" Caldwell interrupted. "Our necks come first. Let's get out of here. Johnny--"

"Just a moment," Johnson said. Sweat was now visible on Unger's face, glistening in heavy yellow drops.

"Why don't you see the recording?" Unger urged. From the angle in which his head was held, Johnson had the impression the Dreamer was listening. The human listened too. He could hear no sound unless it was a thin mumble of voices beyond the barred door.

"The recorder is also a projector on the sound and visual tracks, is it not?" Unger asked.

"Yes," Martin's voice was sullen.

"Then shall we take a few minutes and see what the recorder caught in the Room of the Dreaming?" Without waiting for an answer he snapped the switches that rewound the wires and began to set up the recorder to function as a projector. "We will project the visual part against the wall there and listen to the sound. The other radiations you have caught will need extensive laboratory equipment to interpret."

"You seem to know a lot about this!" Martin challenged.

"Do I? Ah...." Watching him handle the recorder Johnson had the impression that the Venusian had never seen one of these instruments but was swiftly grasping the meaning of the various dials and switches as he came to them. If this was true, it was a marvelous mental feat. Wonder rose in Johnson. But his eyes never left Unger and his hand did not relax its grip on Taldero's knife.

"Watch," Unger said.

* * * * *

A jet of light from the self-contained unit sprang out through the lens, flashing against the wall. Unger gestured toward it. "Watch," he repeated.

"I'm watching you," Johnson said.

"Suspicious?"

"Don't I have a right to be?"

The question went unanswered. Music from the sound track throbbed in the small room. The scene on the wall revealed Unger stretched flat on the mat.

"Damned fraud!" Martin muttered.

Vee Vee moved close to Johnson. Her whisper was very soft. "I wonder if we will see the dreams again?"

"I do not know. I am watching the Dreamer."

"Yes. I know." She moved closer still. Her voice was even softer. "Darling."

"Shut up!"

She shrank away from him. He was aware that her eyes were on him. Suddenly she laughed, softly. "Oh, good! You're jealous."

Had she read his mind? "I am not jealous. Shut up. This is no time for talk."

In spite of what he said she moved closer. Under his breath he swore at her.

In the distance he seemed to catch the mutter of shouted voices. "I tell you I saw him!" one voice screamed.

"Look!" Wild excitement was in Martin's tone. "Look! He _is_ floating."

Johnson felt his heart beat pick up.

The projected scene revealed that Unger was actually floating.

"If the recorder caught it like that it actually happened that way!" Martin screamed. "You can't hypnotize a recorder."

But was it real? Was the Dreamer really floating? Desperately Johnson wanted to see with all his eyes.

"We will watch Unger for you," the corners of his eyes whispered.

Johnson dared to look at the projected picture. There was no mistaking the evidence. The Dreamer was floating. No wires lifted him. The recorder would have caught wires.

"This floating is no fraud," Unger said softly. "We Dreamers know and manipulate and use forces--"

"Anti-gravity!" Martin screamed. "With anti-gravity comes ships to the stars!"

"We Dreamers know certain forces, certain energy states, which we manipulate--"

Crash!

The door went down. The bar was torn from its sockets by the sudden pressure applied against it. Through the opening a knife came, crashed against the wall. Then another and another.

In Vee Vee's and Caldwell's hands the zit guns throbbed. Venusians stumbled through the doorway.

"This way," Unger said, moving toward the farther wall.

Martin snatched the recorder from the table and turned the light beam on a Venusian trying to get through the door. He dodged backward. From the Room of the Dreaming a babble of angry voices arose.

"This way," Unger repeated. The door was open in the farther wall. The humans dived through it. Unger closed it and followed them.

They found themselves in darkness. Martin turned the recorder on it. The light from it revealed a tunnel. Unger moved forward. "Follow, please."

"These Dreamers do know something," Martin was babbling to Johnson. "They have latched on to vital secrets of nature. I don't know what else they've got but that secret of floating is...."

"There are many secrets," Unger said as he moved ahead of them. "In the last analysis perhaps there is only one secret, one energy, but this energy takes many forms."

"How do you do this dreaming?" Martin questioned.

"It is a very complex process," Unger answered. "The music and the perfume are part of it. But we, the Dreamers, are the heart and the core and the soul of it. What you call hypnosis is involved in part. We Dreamers reach the minds of our audience. We bring up to the level of awareness the most cherished dream of those who are in rapport with us. We Dreamers see, feel, and share in the dreaming of our audience. To some extent we direct their dreaming. They have no comprehension of what is involved. To them the Dreaming is a sacred thing. The Dreamers are minor gods."

"But how do you float?" Martin repeated.

"We take the force which you call gravity. It is an energy state. We tap this energy to reach the minds of our audience, to control and to come into rapport with them." The Venusian's breath was coming in gasps.

"Yes. Go on." Martin was the hound on the scent of prey, the eager scientist following the clue no matter where it lead, knowing there was an answer and determined to have that answer no matter the cost.

Unger stopped. A door was ahead. He fumbled with a catch. The door swung open.

Rain and the darkness of the night swept through the opening. In the far distance lightning walked across the sky. Outside was the streets of the city.

"Seek safety!" Unger's voice was hoarse. "It will perhaps be better if you leave Venus. I warn you fairly, my people are wolves. They hold the dreaming sacred. Sometimes they hold the Dreamers sacred. But if they think you have stolen the secrets of the dreaming--Well, it would be better for you for wolves to tear you to pieces than it would be for my people to catch you." He leaned against the open door.

"But the secret of the floating?" Martin insisted.

"You have it on your recorder." Unger answered. "It is a matter of frequency, of vibration and interwoven vibration. From the information on your recorder, you can develop the equations you will need. Go."

"Good!" Martin's voice was a shout of exultation rising in the dark night.

"My people will soon be searching the streets. Go."

Martin and Caldwell went quickly through the opening. Johnson hesitated. "Unger ... Dreamer...." He sought for words. "You ... you're a great guy."

The Venusian's hand came to his arm. Vee Vee stood very close, watching, waiting, though Martin had already gone.

"Thank you, my friend," Unger whispered. "I accept your words and the meaning that is behind them."

"I...." Johnson's voice choked into silence. Here was a great Venusian and he knew it, a Dreamer whose dream went beyond race, beyond space, perhaps beyond time.

"Come with us," Johnson said. "Come to Earth with us."

"No." Unger's voice was almost a sob. "I may not leave this planet."

"Why not? We will protect you. On Earth there will be great honor for you."

"There is honor here for me among the Dreamers. You do not know it, my friend, but all the Dreamers of Venus are with me now in this moment while my life drains away. They give me honor. More than I deserve."

Horror flooded through Johnson. "While your life drains away? I don't understand."

Unger leaned forward. "Look...."

* * * * *

From his back the hilt of a knife protruded. "One of the knives found a target."

"The hopeless fools! Come. We will help you."

"No human and no Venusian may help me now. The Dreamers are with me. My life is going. Believe me, my friend, I know." The Venusian straightened up and coughed blood.

"The fools were throwing at me and they hit you accidentally."

"It was no accident," Unger said. "And the knife was aimed at me."

"At you? Why? But the Dreamers are sacred."

"Not if they break the rules. And I broke one of them. Some Venusian saw me leave the spot of light, the trick that you saw."

"But it was only a trick."

"As I did it tonight it was a trick," Unger whispered. "But as the rules go, it is no more a trick than the floating. We go into the light by a path that none may see."

"Then you deliberately stepped out of the spot of light--"

"Yes, my friend."

"In heaven's name, why?" One mystery had been solved only to open a greater one.

"Perhaps because I wanted _you_ to see me go, and follow me. Some Venusian saw me go, the one that screamed, 'I saw him!' It was a chance I took. The rules of the Dreamers say that if any watcher sees one come or go, his life is forfeit."

"You wanted me to see you go. Unger, why?"

"Because I saw your vision, your dream." Unger's voice was very weak. "Tell me, my friend, was not your dream that of a space ship flying through far-off voids, the pathway to the stars?"

"Yes. Yes. That was what I saw. But...."

"That is my dream too." Unger gasped. "It is a dream which you humans can bring to fruition. But it is not only a dream, it is a prophecy. Some day you humans will sail such a ship to the far-off stars. Here, tonight a Dreamer helped that prophecy to fulfillment. When that ship sails to the stars, Venusians will sail with you because of what a Venusian did here tonight. Two dreams met tonight and will meet again in the far-off stars."

"Lord!" Johnson whispered. Here was magic beyond comprehension. But if it was magic now, in one time to come it would be the laws of science, of energy, of space, and of time, when the records of the recorder had been translated.

"Go now," the Venusian whispered. Johnson could have stayed, he would have lifted the 300 pound bulk in his arms. Unger forbade it. "And one other thing."

"What other thing?"

"The dream of the woman. I saw that, too."

Johnson suddenly realized that while Martin and Caldwell had vanished into the night, Vee Vee was still with him.

"What about my dream?" she spoke.

"Your dream was of the man with you." Unger whispered. "I saw it. I understood it. It was another factor in the web of dreams I was weaving."

"She was dreaming of me!" Johnson said. "But she is in love with Martin."

"Idiot!" Her voice had a cutting edge. "Of course I love him. He's my brother. I wanted to come with him here but he wouldn't let me. It was from him that I learned so much about you, including how to break the Karmer grip, from his talk before he left Earth, from his letters to me."

"Your dream was of a space ship to the far-off stars. Her dream was of love, and of you." Unger sighed.

"I can dream of space ships too," Vee Vee spoke. "I can do more than dream of them. I can fly there with them."

"Good," Unger whispered as if now all things were complete. "That is all that is needed. Go now. Go!"

His voice drove them.

Hand in hand they ran through the rainy night.

Ahead of them, in some far-off sky, like a vision seen in a dream, a space ship floated.