Seven Against Mars. Martin Berman-Gorvine

an appalled Jack and an even more appalled Rachel could pull them apart Anya had suffered a bloody nose and was covered in rich Venusian mud.

      While the princess toweled off, Jack advanced on a sullen Katie, fists clenched at his side. “I never hit a girl, but I’ve got half a mind to leave you to fend for yourself in this jungle, seein’ as how you’re so tough and all.”

      “None of that please, Jack.” Anya held a handkerchief to her nose. “She was defending the honor of her country, which is only right. I was in the wrong. Kaitlyn Webb, I ask your forgiveness.” And she held out her hand.

      “Guess maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to use my fists,” Katie mumbled, accepting the outstretched hand. “That’s just how we do things, down Texas way.”

      “Seems to me we Martians could use some of that Texas spirit,” the princess said. “If you would help us in our struggle once we reach Aphrodite Port, instead of taking the first rocketship back to Texas, my world will be forever in your debt.”

      “The honor would be mine,” Katie said. “I’ve never had a real princess ask me for anything before.” Once they were under way again, she added in a whisper to Rachel, “Besides, I somehow doubt the Texas I would be returning to would be my Texas, if you know what I mean.”

      Rachel nodded. “How can there even be a Poland in this world, where the Martians speak Polish and have Polish names?” she whispered back. “I’m only sorry I marooned you here, Katie.”

      “Are you kidding? This is the adventure of a lifetime!” Katie grinned ear to ear, but then her face suddenly fell. “Except for my poor folks. I wish I could help them. Or at least find out what happened to them! But that was so long ago. Thirty years…or I guess.…”

      “It’s even worse than that,” Rachel said. “It seems like your parents and mine are not just stuck back in the past somewhere, and on another planet, but in a whole other universe!”

      “I guess maybe you’re right.” Katie’s eyes widened. “How on earth…uh, anyway, how are we supposed to help them?”

      Rachel shook her head slowly. “I think Einstein himself would have a tough time with this.”

      “Yeah! But my parents are prisoners of those rotten Dixies and yours,” Katie gulped, “of the Nazis! What are we gonna do?” They both fell silent for a long time.

      Rachel rubbed her eyes. I’m not going to cry, I am not. She had a sneaking suspicion that Katie felt the same.

      “Einstein,” Katie said suddenly.

      “Hmm? What about him?”

      “Didn’t he say that imagination is more important than knowledge?” Katie said. “I think if he were here, he would be tell us to keep on doing what we’re doing—trying to learn as much as possible. That’s the only way either of us is gonna be able to help our folks!”

      “Ýou’re right, Katie,” Rachel said, looking at her with newfound respect. But then she thought of warmongering Martian emperors and sadistic mayors who liked to “correct” people.

      What are we getting into?

      Chapter 3

      Aphrodite Port was a bedlam through which Jack led his companions confidently.

      Karolla had bid them goodbye at the edge of the city. “Afro-Port is a human town, I fear that Venusians they would hunt down,” he explained. Overhead, dark clouds billowed and grumbled.

      “Aw, c’mon, ya big furry lump, you know that the Treaty gives Venusians full guest status in town.”

      “Treaties humans make, treaties humans can break,” Karolla replied, blinking innocently.

      “Next thing you know, you’ll be asking how come you need ‘guest status’ on your own planet,” Jack sighed. “All right, friend, go in peace.” He spun around three times, ending with his back turned to Karolla, put his right hand against the small of his back and wiggled his fingers. The Venusian gravely bowed until his head was on a level with Jack’s hand, where a small fleshy comb atop his head, like a scaled-up version of a cock’s comb, wiggled in sync with Jack’s fingers. For a moment the hand and the comb touched, then the Venusian disappeared into the jungle with a single mighty bound.

      Katie and Rachel stared at Jack.

      “What? Haven’t you ever seen a Venusian handshake before?” Without waiting for an answer, Jack took Anya’s hand and strolled up to a white, human-size metal gate.

      “Who desires entry?” a mechanical voice demanded. Rachel and Katie jumped.

      “It is I, Zap-Gun Jack,” Jack proclaimed with a grand flourish of his weapon.

      “Negative. Not recognized. Admission denied,” said a red-eyed metal spider crouching atop the lintel.

      “Aw, come off it, you mechanical arthropod. You know very well who I am.”

      “You must identify yourself properly and surrender your weapon,” the robot insisted. Jack opened his mouth to argue.

      Searing heat struck Rachel from behind. She opened her mouth to scream, but the planet was apparently splitting open, leaving her deaf and blind. When she came to she was lying on her back in a patch of neatly trimmed grass, lights flickering overhead. Jack, Katie, Anya and a number of other strangers looked down at her with concerned expressions. Seeing that Rachel’s eyes were open, Jack grinned and reached down to help her up. “Attagirl, you’re a real Venusian now!” he cried, clapping her on the back.

      “Ow! That hurt!” Rachel gasped and tears came to her eyes. “What—what—”

      “What was that? You, my girl, were grazed by the first lightning strike of this monsoon season and lived to tell the tale! Which is good luck! Take a look up there.” Jack took her arm and pointed to the sky.

      Rachel looked up and gasped. She had thought the flickering light was from a concussion. But it was real, the result of continual lightning strikes on the surface of an invisible dome that stretched far above the town. The effect was mesmerizing, a writhing of white-hot branches against a velvety background, like a photographic negative of trees lashed by hurricane winds. “Why don’t I go blind?” Rachel whispered.

      “Ah,” Jack smiled, “thank our afro-bucky for that! It’s polarized, keeps out the harmful radiation as well as the rain. If you were standing outside right now, well, let’s just say you couldn’t be standing outside right now. People who’ve been exposed in the open say it’s like having a nice hot shower from a fire hose. Those who survive, that is.”

      “And you were going to leave me to fend for myself in that?” Katie gave Jack a shove that sent him staggering.

      “He was only kidding, he already told you that,” Anya caught Jack smoothly. “Come on, let’s go inside somewhere. This lightning could set off my epilepsy, and you wouldn’t want me frothing at your feet, would you, Jack darling?”

      “No, quite right, uh, Annie my love,” he said, catching her eye. “Let’s go back to my digs, girls! I’m almost caught up on my rent for once!” When they were clear of the crowd, Jack said out of the side of his mouth, “She doesn’t really have epilepsy. It’s just that you never know when one of Ares’ agents might be hiding in the crowd.”

      Katie gave him a withering look. “We’re from Earth, you pistol-waving goon, not the planet Dumbass.”

      “Yeah, okay, gotcha there,” Jack mumbled, leading them into a seedy alley.

      Rachel half-listened to the chatter as she glanced around. Things were much messier than she would have imagined. From all those pulps Abe had sent her, she had expected the future to be bright and gleaming, with hard, clean steel and plastic surfaces. Steel and plastic there were in plenty, but everything looked scratched or rusty or both, as if from long use. The poorer parts of Warsaw might look like this in two or three hundred years.