"Bear off to port a point. Something shining over there."
The battleship pivoted on an invisible axis and moved westward. Rocky humps, jumbled canyon, passed under the anxious eyes of the searchers. Nile Vanz stood hunched before the glass, binoculars to his eyes. A murmured oath came from his lips.
"Dammit! Just a chunk of volcanic glass. . . . As you were, Kris—"
Margo's fingers tensed on Dane's. "Wait! Dane—Kris— a flare!"
FROM the far rim of the planet it was arching, like a green-and-white meteor. Each man's eyes had picked it up before it gained its zenith and exploded into a dozen smaller flares. While Kris was still staring at it, the warlord's hands came down on the controls, yanking back the accelerator. The Valiant hurled itself forward with a surge of power that had every passenger scrambling for support.
In five minutes they were sinking swiftly upon the city, shadowy in the dim light of Io's brief dusk. The changes a week and a half had wrought upon it were far-reaching. The entire eastern part of the city was buried. The tall mountains on that side had fallen, and the broken rubble of the plains was sweeping in like a crushing flood. But still the Intensifier stood high above the colony, and the densely-populated west side was almost untouched.
Crowds milled beneath the fleet as the ships glided into the square. Darkness came before they touched ground. Police thrust back the mob. They opened up an aisle with brandished night-sticks. The returning crews wasted no time in greetings as they jumped to the ground, for the bitterly cold air bit savagely at their exposed hands and faces. In single file, they hurried into the nearest building, a lofty dormitory for Io's homeless.
Margo had only one thought when they were inside. She turned to the swarthy, excited official who had been in charge during their absence.
"How many, Luji? How many have died?"
"Only a few hundred, Princess," he told her. "But there have been terrible rumblings and shocks for twenty hours. I'm afraid the city won't last another day."
Margo took a deep breath of relief.
"Start loading them immediately," she told Luji. "Each ship will leave as soon as it is ready."
Luji bowed hurriedly and ran out. Margo watched him go. Her hand passed wearily across her forehead. Dane could barely hear her whispered words.
"I think—I'll lie down—for a while—"
In the next moment he was darting forward to catch her as she slumped. He and Kris reached the girl at the same moment. They laid her on a couch. Dane bent over and heard the soft, regular breathing. All the strain had left her features, and her lips were slightly parted like those of a sleeping child.
"She's all right," he told the worried Ionian. "Better off than she's been in weeks. Let's carry her into the ship so we won't have to wake her before we leave. She'll probably sleep for twenty-four hours solid."
They found heavy night clothing and threw several blankets over the girl. Picking up the couch, they carried her into the Valiant. After that, Kris grunted:
"I'm going up to the Intensifier. If somebody doesn't stir the boys up on these last loads of concentrate there'll be a lot we have to leave behind. Care
