CHAPTER XI
_Ordeal_
Five bodies lay on the operating tables in Eliot Leithgow'slaboratory. The air, hushed and heavy, was pervaded by the variousodors of antiseptics and etheloid. The breathing cones had beenapplied to each of the bodies, and they were now locked fast incontrolled unconsciousness.
On the first table lay the body of the robot-coolie, a man of mediumsize, sturdy, well-muscled, with the smooth round yellow face and stubnose of his kind. His short-cropped, bristly black hair had beenshaved off; the head was now bald. That head was destined to hold themighty brain of Master Scientist Raymond Cram.
On the second table lay a twisted, distorted thing, an apelike bodywith which fate had played grotesque pranks. It was hairy, of middleheight, and its dark skin all over was wizened and coarse, almost likethe bark of a tree. The legs were short and bowed, the hands stubbyclaws; the face, puckered even in unconsciousness, was that of agargoyle in pain. The long matted hair had been shaved away; the largepate washed with antiseptics. Soon, were the operation successful,that head would hold the brain of Professor Edgar Estapp, world-famouschemist and bio-chemist.
On the third table lay a shape skeletonlike in appearance, soemaciated was it, so closely did the bones press into the dry,fever-yellowed skin. Of one leg, only the stump was left; thiscreature had been forced to hop or crawl his way through the isuanswamps. The head, too, was no more than a skull, with great sunkendark-rimmed eyes, discolored fangs and loose, leathery lips. There hadbeen no hair on this death's head; it had long been bald, and now,washed, clean for the first time in months or even years, it was tohold the brain of Dr. Ralph Swanson, Earth's one-time leader in thescience of psychology.
On the fourth table lay a giant's body--but a hollow giant, a giantmade thin and pitiful by the ravages of his destroyer, isuan. Aroistering, free-booting space-ship sailor, this man may once havebeen, but, from the drug, the mighty arms had been twisted andshrivelled, the strong legs wasted away. One ear had been torn fromthe skull in an old brawl, and what was left was naked and ugly to theeye. Behind that bitter, drug-coarsened face would be the new home ofthe brain of Sir Charles Esme Norman, wizard of mathematics and once apolished, charming Englishman.
On the fifth table lay a dwarf. Its ridiculous body was not over fourand a half feet long, though the head was larger than that of a normalman. In the old dark ages on Earth this body would have served for thejester of a lord, the comic butt of a king; in more recent times asthe prize of a circus side-show. The huge, weighty head with its uglybrooding mask of a face, the child's body below--this was for thebrain of Professor Erich Geinst, the solitary German who had stoodpreeminent on Earth in astronomy.
* * * * *
These creatures were the result of Hawk Carse's desperate search. Theyhad composed, with one other, the band of isuanacs that had beenrooting in the swamp at the end of the lake when the asteroid hadfirst arrived. The Hawk had remembered them, and had quickly seen thatthey were the only answer to the problem. And so, with Ban Wilson, hehad gone out for them, his mind steeled to the ghastly thought of thegreat scientists' brains in such bodies. In space-suits they had sweptdown on them. There had been no time for considerate measures: thefour isuanacs had been abruptly knocked out by the impact of the greatsuits swooping against them, and carried back to the laboratory.
Eliot Leithgow had been shocked at the idea of a scientist's brain inthe head of the robot-coolie; how much greater, then, was his horrorwhen confronted by the need of using these appalling remnants of men!But he could not protest. What else was there? Ku Sui, under the V-27,had spoken the truth: the operations would be impossible without theaid of his four assistants. The brains even now were dying. The choicewas: bodies of isuanacs or death for the brains. The scientist and theadventurer had chosen.
Circumstances had required their use. Ku Sui's attempt to kill thebrains, thus inflicting a time limit: the presence of the band ofisuanacs near the laboratory; each circumstance with a long train ofother, minor ones behind it. Chance or Fate--whatever it is--whetherpredetermined or accidental--men must wonder at its working, and knowawe from its patterns and results. Seldom, certainly, was there apattern more strange than this now being worked out in the laboratoryof Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow.
The bodies lay there, washed, shaved and swathed in customary looseoperating garments: globules of etheloid dropped steadily down intothe breathing cones, of hunchback, living skeleton, twisted giant,dwarf and robot-coolie. One by one the isuanacs dropped with thefalling of the etheloid into unconsciousness--and that was theirfarewell to the brains, each one debauched either by isuan-drug orskill of genius, that they had known.
And movement began in the laboratory. White-clothed figures, maskedand capped, used gleaming instruments in their gloved hands; and allthe figures were mute--mute from their great concentration on thedelicate work in progress--or mute from horror that would not die....
* * * * *
So began the ordeal.
Of its details, Hawk Carse knew little. They were not of his world.Only for the first half-hour could he follow intelligently what wasbeing done. He too had put on a white robe, as had Ban Wilson andFriday; and he stood at one side of the room, a silent, intentlywatching figure, with the two other men of action, Ban and the Negro,while the rest moved in a kind of rhythm. The center-piece was theblack-garbed Ku Sui, moving from this table to that, slim gloved handsflying, pausing, flying again, steadying, concentrating on a detail,once more sweeping forward. No more than single words came from him;he and his assistants worked almost as a whole, in perfect sympathyand coordination, and a constant stream of instruments flowed to himand then away, their task done.
The first table, and then to the second, with one white figure stayingbehind at the first, finishing off details of the work, left by themaster. The third table; the fourth; the fifth; and then back to thefirst, while two white figures detached themselves from the main groupand went to the nearby case of coordinated brains. An object held in aspecially formed type of pan was lifted out and carried to the firsttable; and Carse sensed a crisis in the attitudes of the working men.This, he knew, was the first great, step. A brain was being re-born.The fingers of men, and one man in particular, were fashioning amiracle.
How could he hope to understand? He could only hang on the movementsof that group of figures, and feel relief as he saw them settle intosmoothness again. Evidently the first crisis was past. A few minutesmore were spent at the first table; then once more Dr. Ku Sui went tothe second, and another object was carried from the coldly gleamingcase.
And in a long, deep pan standing on short legs beside the case,something gray and shapeless and warm was placed.
The first phase came to an end when there were five similar things inthe open pan, and nothing, except the liquid and a multitude ofspidery, disconnected wires, in the case that but shortly before hadharbored the brains of five scientists....
* * * * *
A pause. Relaxation. Tests. The black-clad figure spoke to one inyellow in a tone of pleased relief.
"Successful so far, Master Leithgow! We may congratulate ourselves onthe consummation of the first step. It has been done, I believe, wellwithin the time limit."
"Yes, Dr. Ku; yes. And now--how long will be needed to finish?"
"That is up to you. Normally, I would require a month. In that timeall could be done safely, with small chance--"
"Too long!" said Leithgow.
Carse intervened:
"Why too long, Eliot?"
The old scientist went over close to him, and, in a lowered voice,explained:
"Ku Sui would develop immunity to the V-27 in a month. Two weeks of itwould give him part immunity. Even ten days might. He has to bere-gassed four times a day."
"But, letting him come out of it every night and resting normally?"the Hawk objected.
"I have allowed for that. The gas wo
uld still be in his system.No--nine or ten days is the limit." He raised his voice again to reachthe Eurasian. "Can you complete the work within nine days, Dr. Ku?"
Ku Sui considered it. At last he said:
"That is a lot to ask, Master Leithgow. But--it might be possible.However, it would mean prodigies of sustained, concentrated labor;work and skill never-ceasing. We'll have to work in shifts,naturally."
So it was arranged. All the assistants, both Ku Sui's and Leithgow's,were portioned off into shifts of four hours' sleep and eight hours'work: Carse, Ban Wilson and Friday, too, for now every one of them wasneeded.
Nine days for the work of a month--and work as delicate and vital ascould possibly be! Small wonder that in the minds of all of them, theHawk and the old scientist, and Ban and the Negro, that period, whenremembered later, seemed no more than a confused, unreal, hazy dream;rather, a nightmare connected imperishably with the odors of anoperating room, antiseptics, etheloid, and the glint of small, sharpinstruments.
It was a titanic task, an ordeal that stretched to the limit thepowers of the men working in that confined space. Normal life for themceased; the operating room became a new universe. Swiftly they lostconsciousness of time, even with the routine of the changing shiftsand the food which was brought in at regular hours. Antiseptics,etheloid, the never-ceasing flow of the instruments, the five bodieslying still and deathlike on the tables, the hard white glare of thelight beating down on them--all this and nothing more--all sealed awayunderground from the life of the forgotten world above. On and on andon....
* * * * *
It is impossible even to conjecture how the mind of Ku Sui saw thecolossal work that he was doing to aid his most bitter enemies. Evenwhen he was normal there are only moments when, through some recordedspeech or action of his, we can peer past the man's personality intohis brain; how great a sealed mystery must his thoughts remain to uswhen held in that abnormal state by Eliot Leithgow's V-27! Envisionit: this arch-foe of Hawk Carse and Leithgow helping their designs,lending all his intellect, his great skill, to their purposes, aidingthem in everything! Certainly, afterwards, the memory of what he hadbeen forced to do must have occasioned Dr. Ku many bitter moments.Regularly, every four waking hours, he was led to the metal chair andgassed afresh with the V-27; and his expression remained pleasant; hiseyes were always friendly. But the artificial state in which he waskept showed soon on his face. It lost its clearness and became ajaundiced yellow in color: and also it grew peaked and drawn.
But the other faces around him were peaked and drawn, too. Theterrific strain told in definite terms on all, no matter whatstimulants they took to keep going. Many a man would have been drivento insanity by their sustained, terrible concentration, and theknowledge that five lives hung on every action, however minute....
On and on and on, science made into a marathon. Four hours ofexhausted, deathlike sleep; eight hours more of the smells, and theglaring light, and the moving instruments. Days of this, sealing thebrains permanently into their new homes, into their hideous newbodies....
But finally came the climax, and the last exhausted spurt of work. Forthe concluding twelve hours there was no sleep or rest for anyone; andat the end a breathless, haggard tension held them as Dr. Ku Sui, ashell of his former self, reviewed the results of the nine days'ordeal. His verdict was:
"Four have come through, I think, safe. The fifth--I do not know. Hisbody was near death when he was brought here. He may live or die; itis impossible to tell now. But it is finished."
Then the men slept. Some slipped to the floor and slept where theywere. In nine days, the work of a month had been done, and a miraclewrought. The brains had been born again.