The Ghost World
_By Sewell Peaslee Wright_
_My whole attention was focused upon the strangebeings._]
[Sidenote: Commander John Hanson records another of his thrillinginterplanetary adventures with the Special Patrol Service.]
I was asleep when our danger was discovered, but I knew the instantthe attention signal sounded that the situation was serious. Kincaide,my second officer, had a cool head, and he would not have called meexcept in a tremendous emergency.
"Hanson speaking!" I snapped into the microphone. "What's up, Mr.Kincaide?"
"A field of meteorites sweeping into our path, sir." Kincaide's voicewas tense. "I have altered our course as much as I dared and amreducing speed at emergency rate, but this is the largest swarm ofmeteorites I have ever seen. I am afraid that we must pass through atleast a section of it."
"With you in a moment, Mr. Kincaide!" I dropped the microphone andsnatched up my robe, knotting its cord about me as I hurried out of mystateroom. In those days, interplanetary ships did not have theirauras of repulsion rays to protect them from meteorites, it must beremembered. Two skins of metal were all that lay between the _Ertak_and all the dangers of space.
I took the companionway to the navigating room two steps at a time andfairly burst into the room.
Kincaide was crouched over the two charts that pictured the spacearound us, microphone pressed to his lips. Through the plate glasspartition I could see the men in the operating room tensed over theirwheels and levers and dials. Kincaide glanced up as I entered, andmotioned with his free hand towards the charts.
One glance convinced me that he had not overestimated our danger. Thespace to right and left, and above and below, was fairly peppered withtiny pricks of greenish light that moved slowly across the milky facesof the charts.
From the position of the ship, represented as a glowing red spark, andmeasuring the distances roughly by means of the fine black linesgraved in both directions upon the surface of the chart, it wasevident to any understanding observer that disaster of a most terriblekind was imminent.
* * * * *
Kincaide muttered into his microphone, and out of the tail of my eye Icould see his orders obeyed on the instant by the men in the operatingroom. I could feel the peculiar, sickening surge that told of speedbeing reduced, and the course being altered, but the cold, brutallyaccurate charts before me assured me that no action we dared takewould save us from the meteorites.
"We're in for it, Mr. Kincaide. Continue to reduce speed as much aspossible, and keep bearing away, as at present. I believe we can avoidthe thickest portion of the field, but we shall have to take ourchances with the fringe."
"Yes, sir!" said Kincaide, without lifting his eyes from the chart.His voice was calm and businesslike, now; with the responsibility onmy shoulders, as commander, he was the efficient, level-headedthinking machine that had endeared him to me as both fellow-officerand friend.
Leaving the charts to Kincaide, I sounded the general emergencysignal, calling every man and officer of the _Ertak's_ crew to hispost, and began giving orders through the microphone.
"Mr. Correy,"--Correy was my first officer--"please report at once tothe navigating room. Mr. Hendricks, make the rounds of all duty posts,please, and give special attention to the disintegrator ray operators.The ray generators are to be started at once, full speed." Hendricks,I might say, was a junior officer, and a very good one, althoughquick-tempered and excitable--failings of youth. He had only recentlyshipped with us to replace Anderson Croy, who--but that has alreadybeen recorded.[2]
[Footnote 2: "The Dark Side of Antri," in the January, 1931, issue ofAstounding Stories.]
These preparations made, I glanced at the twin charts again. Thepeppering of tiny green lights, each of which represented a meteoriticbody, had definitely shifted in relation to the position of thestrongly-glowing red spark that was the _Ertak_, but a quickcomparison of the two charts showed that we would be certain to passthrough--again I use land terms to make my meaning clear--the upperright fringe of the field.
The great cluster of meteorites was moving in the same direction asourselves now; Kincaide's change of course had settled that matternicely. Naturally, this was the logical course, since should we comein contact with any of them, the impact would bear a relation to onlythe _difference_ in our speeds, instead of the _sum_, as would be thecase if we struck at a wide angle.
* * * * *
It was difficult to stand without grasping a support of some kind, andwalking was almost impossible, for the reduction of our tremendousspeed, and even the slightest change of direction, placed terrificstrains upon the ship and everything in it. Space ships, at spacespeeds, must travel like the old-fashioned bullets if those within areto feel at ease.
"I believe, Mr. Kincaide, it might be well to slightly increase thepower in the gravity pads," I suggested. Kincaide nodded and spokebriefly into his microphone; an instant later I felt my weightincrease perhaps fifty per cent, and despite the inertia of my body,opposed to both the change in speed and direction of the _Ertak_, Icould now stand without support, and could walk without too muchdifficulty.
The door of the navigating room was flung open, and Correy entered,his face alight with curiosity and eagerness. An emergency meantdanger, and few beings in the universe have loved danger more thanCorrey.
"We're in for it, Mr. Correy," I said, with a nod towards the charts."Swarm of meteorites, and we can't avoid them."
"Well, we've dodged through them before, sir," smiled Correy. "We cando it again."
"I hope so, but this is the largest field of them I have ever seen.Look at the charts: they're thicker than flies."
* * * * *
Correy glanced at the charts, slapped Kincaide across his bowed, tenseshoulders, and laughed aloud.
"Trust the old _Ertak_ to worm her way through, sir," he said. "Theray crews are on duty, I presume?"
"Yes. But I doubt that the rays will be of much assistance to us.Particularly if these are stony meteorites--and as you know, the oddsare about ten to one against their being of ferrous composition. Therays, deducting the losses due to the utter lack of a conductingmedium, will be insufficient protection. They will help, of course.The iron meteorites they will take care of effectively, but theconglomerate nature of the stony meteorites does not make themparticularly susceptible to the disintegrating rays.
"We shall do what we can, but our success will depend largely upongood luck--or Divine Providence."
"At any rate, sir," replied Correy, and his voice had lost some of itslightness, "we are upon routine patrol and not upon special mission.If we do crack up, there is no emergency call that will remainunanswered."
"No," I said dryly. "There will be just another 'Lost in Space' reportin the records of the Service, and the _Ertak's_ name will go up onthe tablet of lost ships. In any case, we have done and shall do whatwe can. In ten minutes we shall know all there is to know. That aboutright, Mr. Kincaide?"
"Ten minutes?" Kincaide studied the charts with narrowed eyes,mentally balancing distance and speed. "We should be within the dangerarea in about that length of time, sir," he answered. "And out ofit--if we come out--three or four minutes later."
"We'll come out of it," said Correy positively.
I walked heavily across the room and studied the charts again. Spaceabove and below, to the right and the left of us, was powdered withthe green points of light.
* * * * *
Correy joined me, his feet thumping with the unaccustomed weight givenhim by the increase in gravity. As he bent over the charts, I heardhim draw in his breath sharply.
Kincaide looked up. Correy looked up. I looked up. The glance of eachman swept the faces, read the eyes, of the other two. Then, with oneaccord, we all three glanced up at the clocks--more properly, at thetwelve-figured dial of the Earth clock, for none of us had any
greatlove for the metric Universal system of time-keeping.
Ten minutes.... Less than that, now.
"Mr. Correy," I said, as calmly as I could, "you will relieve Mr.Kincaide as navigating officer. Mr. Kincaide, present my complimentsto Mr. Hendricks, and ask him to explain the situation to the crew.You will instruct the disintegrator ray operators in their duties, andtake charge of their activities. Start operation at your discretion;you understand the necessity."
"Yes, sir!" Kincaide saluted sharply, and I returned his salute. Wedid not shake hands, the Earth gesture of--strangely enough--bothgreeting and farewell, but we both realized that this might well be afinal parting. The door closed behind him, and Correy and I were lefttogether to watch the creeping hands of the Earth clock, the twincharts with their thick spatter of green lights, and the two fiery redsparks, one on each chart, that represented the _Ertak_ sweepingrecklessly towards the swarming danger ahead.
* * * * *
In other accounts of my experiences in the Special Patrol Service Ifeel that I have written too much about myself. After all, I have runmy race; a retired commander of the Service, and an old, old man, withthe century mark well behind me, my only use is to record, in thisfashion, some of those things the Service accomplished in the old dayswhen the worlds of the Universe were strange to each other, and spacetravel was still an adventure to many.
The Universe is not interested in old men; it is concerned only withyouth and action. It forgets that once we were young men, strong,impetuous, daring. It forgets what we did; but that has always beenso. It always will be so. John Hanson, retired Commander of theSpecial Patrol Service, is fit only to amuse the present generationwith his tales of bygone days.
Well, so be it. I am content. I have lived greatly; certainly I wouldnot exchange my memories of those bold, daring days even for youth andstrength again, had I to live that youth and waste that strength inthis softened, gilded age.
But no more of this; it is too easy for an old man to rumble on abouthimself. It is only the young John Hanson, Commander of the _Ertak_,who can interest those who may pick up and read what I am writinghere.
I did not waste the minutes measured by that clock, grouped with ourother instruments in the navigating room of the _Ertak_. I wrotehastily in the ship's log, stating the facts briefly and withoutfeeling. If we came through, the log would read better thus; if not,and by some strange chance it came to human eyes, then the Universewould know at least that the _Ertak's_ officers did not flinch fromeven such a danger.
* * * * *
As I finished the entry, Correy spoke:
"Kincaide's estimate was not far off, sir," he said, with a swiftglance at the clock. "Here we go!" It was less than half a minuteshort of the ten estimated by Kincaide.
I nodded and bent over the television disc--one of the huge, hoodedaffairs we used in those days. Widening the field to the greatestangle, and with low power, I inspected the space before us on allsides.
The charts, operated by super-radio reflexes, had not lied about thedanger into which we were passing--had passed. We were in the midst ofa veritable swarm of meteorites of all sizes.
They were not large; I believe the largest I saw had a mass of notmore than three or four times that of the _Ertak_ herself. Some of thesmaller bodies were only fifty or sixty feet in diameter.
They were jagged and irregular in shape, and they seemed to spin atvarying speeds, like tiny worlds.
As I watched, fixing my view now on the space directly in our path, Isaw that our disintegrator ray men were at work. Deep in the bowels ofthe _Ertak_, the moan of the ray generators had deepened in note; Icould even feel the slight vibration beneath my feet.
One of the meteorites slowly crumbled on top, the dust ofdisintegration hovering in a compact mass about the body. More andmore of it melted away. The spinning motion grew irregular, eccentric,as the center of gravity was changed by the action of the ray.
Another ray, two more, centered on the wobbling mass. It was directlyin our path, looming up larger and larger every second.
Faster and faster it melted, the rays eating into it from four sides.But it was perilously near now; I had to reduce power in order to keepall of it within the field of my disc. If--
The thing vanished before the very nose of the ship, not an instanttoo soon. I glanced up at the surface temperature indicator, and sawthe big black hand move slowly for a degree or two, and stop. It was avery sensitive instrument, and registered even the slight friction ofour passage through the disintegrated dust of the meteorite.
* * * * *
Our rays were working desperately, but disintegrator rays are notnearly so effective in space as in an atmosphere of some kind. Half adozen times it seemed that we must crash head on into one of theflying bodies, but our speed was reduced now to such an extent that wewere going but little faster than the meteorites, and this fact wasall that saved us. We had more time for utilizing our rays.
We nosed upward through the trailing fringe of the swarm in safety.The great field of meteorites was now below and ahead of us. We hadwon through! The _Ertak_ was safe, and--
"There seems to be another directly above us, sir," commented Correyquietly, speaking for the first time since we had entered the area ofdanger. "I believe your disc is not picking it up."
"Thank you, Mr. Correy," I said. While operating on an entirelydifferent principle, his two charts had certain very definiteadvantages: they showed the entire space around us, instead of but aportion.
I picked up the meteorite he had mentioned without difficulty. It wasa large body, about three times the mass of the _Ertak_, and somedistance above us--a laggard in the group we had just eluded.
"Will it coincide with our path at any point, Mr. Correy?" I askeddoubtfully. The television disc could not, of course, give me thisinformation.
"I believe so; yes," replied Correy, frowning over his charts. "Arethe rays on it, sir?"
"Yes. All of them, I judge, but they are making slow work of it." Ifell silent, bending lower over the great hooded disc.
There were a dozen, a score of rays playing upon the surface of themeteorite. A halo of dust hung around the rapidly diminishing body,but still the mass melted all too slowly.
* * * * *
Pressing the attention signal for Kincaide, I spoke sharply into themicrophone:
"Mr. Kincaide, is every ray on that large meteorite above us?"
"Yes, sir," he replied instantly.
"Full power?"
"Yes, sir."
"Very well; carry on, Mr. Kincaide." I turned to Correy; he had justglanced from his charts to the clock, with its jerking second hand,and back to his charts.
"They'll have to do it in the next ten seconds, sir," he said."Otherwise--" Correy shrugged, and his eyes fixed with a peculiar,fascinated stare on the charts. He was looking death squarely in theeyes.
Ten seconds! It was not enough. I had watched the rays working, and Iknew their power to disintegrate this death-dealing stone that washurtling along above us while we rose, helplessly, into its path.
I did not ask Correy if it was possible to alter the course enough,and quickly enough, to avoid that fateful path. Had it been possiblewithout tearing the _Ertak_ to pieces with the strain of it, Correywould have done it seconds ago.
I glanced up swiftly at the relentless, jerking second hand. Sevenseconds gone! Three seconds more.
The rays were doing all that could be expected of them. There was onlya tiny fragment of the meteorite left, and it was dwindling swiftly.But our time was passing even more rapidly.
The bit of rock loomed up at me from the disc. It seemed to fly upinto my face, to meet me.
"Got us, Correy!" I said hoarsely. "Good-by, old-man!"
I think he tried to reply. I saw his lips open; the flash of thebright light from the ethon tubes on his big white teeth.
The
n there was a crash that shook the whole ship. I shot into the air.I remember falling ... terribly.
A blinding flash of light that emanated from the very center of mybrain, a sickening sense of utter catastrophe, and ... blackness.
* * * * *
I think I was conscious several seconds before I finally opened myeyes. My mind was still wandering; my thoughts kept flying around inhuge circles that kept closing in.
We had hit the meteorite. I remembered the crash. I rememberedfalling. I remembered striking my head.
But I was still alive. There was air to breathe and there was firmmaterial under me. I opened my eyes.
For the first instant, it seemed I was in an utterly strange room.Nothing was familiar. Everything was--was _inverted_. Then I glancedupward, and I saw what had happened.
I was lying on the ceiling of the navigating room. Over my head werethe charts, still glowing, the chronometers in their gimballed beds,and the television disc. Beside me, sprawled out limply, was Correy, atrickle of dried blood on his cheek. A litter of papers, chairs,framed licenses and other movable objects were strewn on and aroundus.
My first instinctive, foolish thought was that the ship was upsidedown. Man has a ground-trained mind, no matter how many years he maytravel space. Then, of course, I realized that in the open void thereis not top nor bottom; the illusion is supplied, in space ships, bythe gravity pads. Somehow, the shock of impact had reversed thepolarity of the leads to the pads, and they had become repulsion pads.That was why I had dropped from the floor to the ceiling.
All this flashed through my mind in an instant as I dragged myselftoward Correy. Dragged myself because my head was throbbing so that Idared not stand up, and one shoulder, my left, was numb.
* * * * *
For an instant I thought that Correy was dead. Then, as I bent overhim, I saw a pulse leaping just under the angle of his jaw.
"Correy, old man!" I whispered. "Do you hear me?" All the formality ofthe Service was forgotten for the time. "Are you hurt badly?"
His eyelids flickered, and he sighed; then, suddenly, he looked up atme--and smiled!
"We're still here, sir?"
"After a fashion. Look around; see what's happened?"
He glanced about curiously, frowning. His wits were not all with himyet.
"We're in a mess, aren't we?" he grinned. "What's the matter?"
I told him what I thought, and he nodded slowly, feeling his headtenderly.
"How long ago did it happen?" he asked. "The blooming clock's upsidedown; can you read it?"
I could--with an effort.
"Over twenty minutes," I said. "I wonder how the rest of the men are?"
With an effort, I got to my feet and peered into the operating room.Several of the men were moving about, dazedly, and as I signalled tothem, reassuringly, a voice hailed us from the doorway:
"Any orders, sir?"
It was Kincaide. He was peering over what had been the top of thedoorway, and he was probably the most disreputable-looking officer whohad ever worn the blue-and-silver uniform of the Service. His nose wasbloody and swollen to twice its normal size. Both eyes were blackened,and his hair, matted with blood, was plastered in ragged swirls acrosshis forehead.
"Yes, Mr. Kincaide; plenty of them. Round up enough of the men tolocate the trouble with the gravity pads; there's a reversedconnection somewhere. But don't let them make the repairs until thesignal is given. Otherwise, we'll all fall on our heads again. Mr.Correy and I will take care of the injured."
* * * * *
The next half hour was a trying one. Two men had been killed outright,and another died before we could do anything to save him. Every man inthe crew was shaken up and bruised, but by the time the check wascompleted, we had a good half of our personnel on duty.
Returning at last to the navigating room, I pressed the attentionsignal for Kincaide, and got his answer immediately.
"Located the trouble yet, Mr. Kincaide?" I asked anxiously.
"Yes, sir! Mr. Hendricks has been working with a group of men and hasjust made his report. They are ready when you are."
"Good!" I drew a sigh of relief. It had been easier than I thought.Pressing the general attention signal, I broadcasted the warning,giving particular instructions to the men in charge of the injured.Then I issued orders to Hendricks:
"Reverse the current in five seconds, Mr. Hendricks, and stand by forfurther instructions."
Hastily, then, Correy and I followed the orders we had given the men.Briefly we stood on our heads against the wall, feeling very foolish,and dreading the fall we knew was coming.
It came. We slid down the wall and lit heavily on our feet, while thelitter that had been on the ceiling with us fell all around us.Miraculously, the ship seemed to have righted herself. Correy and Ipicked ourselves up and looked around.
"We're still operating smoothly," I commented with a sweeping glanceat the instruments over the operating table. "Everything seems inorder."
"Did you notice the speed indicator, sir?" asked Correy grimly. "Whenhe fell, one of the men in the operating room must have pulled thespeed lever all the way over. We're at maximum space speed, sir, andhave been for nearly an hour, with no one at the controls."
* * * * *
We stared at each other dully. Nearly an hour, at maximum spacespeed--a speed seldom used except in case of great emergency. With noone at the controls, and the ship set at maximum deflection from hercourse.
That meant that for nearly an hour we had been sweeping into infinitespace in a great arc, at a speed I disliked to think about.
"I'll work out our position at once," I said, "and in the meantime,reduce speed to normal as quickly as possible. We must get back on ourcourse at the earliest possible moment."
We hurried across to the charts that were our most important aides inproper navigation. By comparing the groups of stars there with ourspace charts of the universe, the working out of our position wasordinarily, a simple matter.
But now, instead of milky rectangles, ruled with fine black lines,with a fiery red speck in the center and the bodies of the universegrouped around in green points of light, there were only nearly blankrectangles, shot through with vague, flickering lights that revealednothing except the presence of disaster.
"The meteoric fragment wiped out some of our plates, I imagine," saidCorrey slowly. "The thing's useless."
I nodded, staring down at the crawling lights on the charts.
"We'll have to set down for repairs, Mr. Correy. If," I added, "we canfind a place."
Correy glanced up at the attraction meter.
"I'll take a look in the big disc," he suggested. "There's a sizeablebody off to port. Perhaps our luck's changed."
He bent his head under the big hood, adjusting the controls until helocated the source of the registered attraction.
"Right!" he said, after a moment's careful scrutiny. "She's as big asEarth, I'd venture, and I believe I can detect clouds, so there shouldbe atmosphere. Shall we try it, sir?"
"Yes. We're helpless until we make repairs. As big as Earth, you said?Is she familiar?"
Correy studied the image under the hood again, long and carefully.
"No, sir," he said, looking up and shaking his head. "She's a new oneon me."
* * * * *
Conning the ship first by means of the television disc, and navigatingvisually as we neared the strange sphere, we were soon close enough tomake out the physical characteristics of this unknown world.
Our spectroscopic tests had revealed the presence of atmospheresuitable for breathing, although strongly laden with mineral fumeswhich, while possibly objectionable, would probably not be dangerous.
So far as we could see, there was but one continent, somewhat north ofthe equator, roughly triangular in shape, with its northernmost pointreaching nearly to the Pol
e.
"It's an unexplored world, sir. I'm certain of that," said Correy. "Iam sure I would have remembered that single, triangular continent hadI seen it on any of our charts." In those days, of course, theUniverse was by no means so well mapped as it is today.
"If not unknown, it is at least uncharted," I replied. "Rough lookingcountry, isn't it? No sign of life, either, that the disc willreveal."
"That's as well, sir. Better no people than wild natives who mightinterfere with our work. Any choice in the matter of a spot on whichto set her down?"
I inspected the great, triangular continent carefully. Towards thenorth it was a mass of snow covered mountains, some of them, fromtheir craters, dead volcanoes. Long spurs of these ranges reachedsouthward, with green and apparently fertile valleys between. Thesouthern edge was covered with dense tropical vegetation; a veritablejungle.
"At the base of that central spur there seems to be a sort ofplateau," I suggested. "I believe that would be a likely spot."
"Very well, sir," replied Correy, and the old _Ertak_, reduced toatmospheric speed, swiftly swept toward the indicated position, whileCorrey kept a wary eye on the surface temperature gauge, and I sweptthe terrain for any sign of intelligent life.
* * * * *
I found a number of trails, particularly around the base of thefoothills, but they were evidently game trails, for there were nodwelling places of any kind; no cities, no villages, not even a singlehabitation of any kind that the searching eyes of the disc coulddetect.
Correy set her down as neatly and as softly as a rose petal drifts tothe ground. Roses, I may add, are a beautiful and delicate flower,with very soft petals, peculiar to my native Earth.
We opened the main exit immediately. I watched the huge, circular doorback slowly out of its threads, and finally swing aside, swiftly andsilently, in the grip of its mighty gimbals, with the weird,unearthly feeling I have always had when about to step foot on somestrange star where no man has trod before.
The air was sweet, and delightfully fresh after being cooped up forweeks in the _Ertak_, with her machine-made air. A little thinner, Ishould judge, than the air to which we were accustomed, but strangelyexhilarating, and laden with a faint scent of some unknownconstituent--undoubtedly the mineral element our spectroscope hadrevealed but not identified. Gravity, I found upon passing through theexit, was normal. Altogether an extremely satisfactory repair station.
Correy's guess as to what had happened proved absolutely accurate.Along the top of the _Ertak_, from amidships to within a few feet ofher pointed stem, was a jagged groove that had destroyed hundreds ofthe bright, coppery discs, set into the outer skin of the ship, thatoperated our super-radio reflex charts. The groove was so deep, inplaces, that it must have bent the outer skin of the _Ertak_ downagainst the inner skin. A foot or more--it was best not to think ofwhat would have happened then.
* * * * *
By the time we completed our inspection dusk was upon us--a long,lingering dusk, due, no doubt, to the afterglow resulting from themineral content of the air. I'm no white-skinned, stoop-shoulderedlaboratory man, so I'm not sure that was the real reason. It soundslogical, however.
"Mr. Correy, I think we shall break out our field equipment and giveall men not on watch an opportunity to sleep out in the fresh air," Isaid. "Will you give the orders, please?"
"Yes, sir. Mr. Hendricks will stand the eight to twelve watch asusual?"
I nodded.
"Mr. Kincaide will relieve him at midnight, and you will take over atfour."
"Very well, sir." Correy turned to give the orders, and in a fewminutes an orderly array of shelter tents made a single street infront of the fat, dully-gleaming side of the _Ertak_. Our tents wereat the head of this short company street, three of them in a littlerow.
After the evening meal, cooked over open fires, with the smoke of thevery resinous wood we had collected hanging comfortably in the stillair, the men gave themselves up to boisterous, noisy games, which, Iconfess, I should have liked very much to participate in. They racedand tumbled around the two big fires like schoolboys on a lark. Onlythose who have spent most of their days in the metal belly of a spaceship know the sheer joy of utter physical freedom.
Correy, Kincaide and I sat before our tents and watched them, chattingabout this and that--I have long since forgotten what. But I shallnever forget what occurred just before the watch changed that night.Nor will any man of the _Ertak's_ crew.
* * * * *
It was just a few minutes before midnight. The men had quieted downand were preparing to turn in. I had given orders that this firstnight they could suit themselves about retiring; a good officer, and Itried to be one, is never afraid to give good men a little rein, nowand then.
The fires had died down to great heaps of red coals, filmed withashes, and, aside from the brilliant galaxy of stars overhead, therewas no light from above. Either this world had no moons, not even asingle moon, like my native Earth, or it had not yet arisen.
Kincaide rose lazily, stretched himself, and glanced at his watch.
"Seven till twelve, sir," he said. "I believe I'll run along andrelieve--"
He never finished that sentence. From somewhere there came a rushingsound, and a damp, stringy net, a living, horrible, _something_,descended upon us out of the night.
In an instant, what had been an orderly encampment became a bedlam. Itried to fight against the stringy, animated, nearly intangible mass,or masses, that held me, but my arms, my legs, my whole body, wasbound as with strings and loops of elastic bands.
Strange whispering sounds filled the air, audible above the shoutingof the men. The net about me grew tighter; I felt myself being liftedfrom the ground. Others were being treated the same way; one of the_Ertak's_ crew shot straight up, not a dozen feet away, writhing andsquirming. Then, at an elevation of perhaps twice my height, he washurried away.
Hendrick's voice called out my name from the _Ertak's_ exit, and Ishouted a warning:
"Hendrick! Go back! Close the emergency--" Then a gluey mass cutacross my mouth, and, as though carried on huge soft springs, I washurried away, with the sibilant, whispering sounds louder and closerthan ever. With me, as nearly as I could judge, went every man who hadnot been on duty in the ship.
* * * * *
I ceased struggling, and immediately the rubbery network about meloosened. It seemed to me that the whisperings about me were suddenlyapproving. We were in the grip, then, of some sort of intelligentbeings, ghost-like and invisible though they were.
After a time, during which we were all, in a ragged group, being borneswiftly towards the mountains, all at a common level from the ground,I managed to turn my head so that I could see, against the star-litsky, something of the nature of the things that had made us captive.
As is not infrequently the case, in trying to describe things of anutterly different world, I find myself at a loss for words. I think ofjellyfish, such as inhabit the seas of most of the inhabited planets,and yet this is not a good description.
These creatures were pale, and almost completely transparent. Whattheir forms might be, I could not even guess. I could make outwrithing, tentacle-like arms, and wrinkled, flabby excrudescences andthat was all. That these creatures were huge, was evident from thefact that they, apparently walking, from the irregular, undulatingmotion, held us easily ten or a dozen feet from the ground.
With the release of the pressure about my body I was able to talkagain, and I called out to Correy, who was fighting his way along,muttering, angrily, just ahead of me.
"Correy! No use fighting them. Save your strength, man!"
"Then? What are they, in God's name? What spawn of hell--"
"The Commander is right, Correy," interrupted Kincaide, who was notfar from my first officer. "Let's get our breaths and try to figureout what's happened. I'm winded!" His voice gave plentiful evidence of
the struggle he had put up.
"I want to know where I'm going, and why!" growled Correy, ceasing hisstruggling, nevertheless. "What have us? Are they fish or flesh orfowl?"
"I think we shall know before very long, Correy," I replied. "Lookahead!"
* * * * *
The bearers of the men in the fore part of the group had apparentlystopped before a shadowy wall, like the face of a cliff. Rapidly, therest of us were brought up, until we were in a compact group, some insitting positions, some upside down, the majority reclining on back orside. The whispering sound now was intense and excited, as though ourstrange bearers awaited some momentous happening.
I took advantage of the opportunity to speak very briefly to mycompanions.
"Men, I'll admit frankly that I don't know what we're up against," Isaid. "But I do know this: we'll come out on top of the heap. Conserveyour strength, keep your eyes open, and be prepared to obey,instantly, any orders that may be issued: I know that last remark isnot needed. If any of you should see or learn something of interest orvalue, report at once to Mr. Correy, Mr. Kincaide or my--"
A simultaneous, involuntary exclamation from the men interrupted me,and it was not surprising that this was so, for the wall before us hadsuddenly opened, and there was a great burst of yellow light in ourfaces. A strong odor, like the faint scent we had first noticed in theair, but infinitely more powerful, struck our nostrils, but I was notconscious of the fact for several seconds. My whole attention, myevery startled thought, was focused upon the group of strange beings,silhouetted against the glowing light, that stood in the opening.
* * * * *
Imagine, if you can, a huge globe, perhaps eight feet in diameter,flattened slightly at the bottom, and supported on six short, hugestumps, like the feet of an elephant, and topped by an excrudescencelike a rounded coning tower, merging into the globular body. Frompoints slightly below this excrudescence, visualize six long, limptentacles, so long that they drop from the equators of these animatedspheres, and trail on the ground. Now you have some conception of thebeings that stood before us.
A sharp, sibilant whispering came from one of these figures, to beanswered in an eager chorus from our bearers. There was a reply like acommand, and the group in the doorway marched forward. One by onethese visible tentacles wrapped themselves around a member of the_Ertak's_ crew, each one of the globular creatures bearing one of us.
I heard a disappointed whisper go up from the outer darkness where,but a moment before, we had been. Then there was a grating sound, anda thud as the stone doorway was rolled back into place.
The entrance was sealed. We were prisoners indeed!
"All right, now what?" gritted Correy. "God! If I ever get a handloose!"
Swiftly, each of us held above the head-like excrudescence atop theglobular body of the thing that held us, we were carried down awidening rocky corridor, towards the source of the yellow light thatbeat about us.
* * * * *
The passage led to a great cavern, irregular in shape, and apparentlypossessed of numerous other outlets which converged here.
I am not certain as to the size of the cavern, save that it was great,and that the roof was so high in most sections that it was lost inshadow.
The great cavern was nearly filled with creatures similar to thosewhich were bearing us, and they fell back in orderly passage to permitour conductors to pass.
I could see, now, that the hump atop each rounded body was a travestyof a head, hairless, and without a neck. Their features wereparticularly hideous, and I shall pass over a description as rapidlyas possible.
The eyes were round, and apparently lidless; a pale drab or bluff incolor. Instead of a nose, as, we understand the term, they had aconvoluted rosette in the center of the face, not unlike the olfactoryorgan of a bat. Their ears were placed as are ours, but were of thin,pale parchment, and hugged the side of the head tightly. Instead of amouth, there was a slightly depressed oval of fluttering skin near thepoint where the head melted into the rounded body: the rapidfluttering or vibration of this skin produced the whispering sound Ihave already remarked.
The cavern, as I have said, was flooded with yellow light, which camefrom a great column of fire near the center of the clear space. I hadno opportunity to inspect the exact arrangements but from what I didsee, I judged that this flame was fed by some sort of highlyinflammable substance, not unlike crude oil, except that it burnedclearly and without smoke. This substance was conducted to the fontfrom which the flame leaped by means of a large pipe of hollow reed orwood.
At the far end of the cavern a procession entered from one of thepassages--nine figures similar to those which bore us, save that bythe greater darkness of their skin, and the wrinkles upon both faceand body, I judged these to be older than the rest. From the respectwith which they were treated, and the dignity of their movements, Igathered that these were persons of authority, a surmise which quicklyverified itself.
* * * * *
These nine elders arranged themselves, standing, in the form of asemicircle, the center creature standing a pace or two in front of theothers. At a whispered command, we were all dumped unceremoniously onthe floor of the cavern before this august council of nine.
Nine pairs of fish-like, unblinking eyes inspected us, whether withenmity or otherwise; I could not determine. One of the nine spokebriefly to one of our conductors, and received an even more briefreply.
I felt the gaze of the creature in the center fix on me. I had takenmy proper position in front of my men; he apparently recognized me asthe leader of the group.
In a sharp whisper, he addressed me; I gathered from the tone that heuttered a command, but I could only shake my head in response. Nowords could convey thought from his mind to mine--but we did have ameans of communication at hand.
"Mr. Correy," I said, "your menore, please!" I released my own fromthe belt which held it, along with the other expeditionary equipmentwhich we always wore when outside our ship, and placed it in positionupon my head, motioning for one of the nine to do likewise withCorrey's menore.
They watched me suspiciously, despite my attempt to convey, by gestures,that by means of these instruments we could convey thoughts to each other.The menores of those days were bulky, heavy things, and undoubtedly theylooked dangerous to these creatures: thought-transference instruments atthat time were complicated affairs.
* * * * *
However, I must have made myself partially understood, at least, forthe chief of the nine uttered a whispered command to one of the beingswho had borne us to the large cavern, and motioned with a writhinggesture of one tentacle that I was to place the menore upon thiscreature's head.
"The old boy's playing it safe, sir," muttered Correy, chuckling."Wants to try it out on the dog first."
"Right!" I nodded, and, not without difficulty, placed the othermenore upon the rounded dome of the individual selected for the trial.
Both instruments were adjusted to full power, and I concentrated mymental energy upon the simple pictures that I thought I could conveyto the limited mentality of which I suspected these creatures,watching his fishy eyes the while.
It was several seconds before he realized what was happening; then hebegan talking excitedly to the waiting nine. The words fairly burnedthemselves in my consciousness, but of course were utterlyunintelligible to me. Before the creature had finished, a lash-liketentacle shot out from the chief of the nine and removed the menore; amoment later it reposed, at a rather rakish slant, on the shining domeof its new possessor.
"Get anything, sir?" asked Correy in a low voice.
"Not yet. I'm trying to make him see how we came here, and that we'refriends. Then I'll see what I can get out of him; he'll have to getthe idea of coming back at me with pictures instead of words, and itmay take a long time to make him understand."
It di
d take a long time. I could feel the sweat trickling down my faceas I strove to make him understand. His eyes revealed wonderment and alittle fear, but an almost utter lack of understanding.
I pictured for him the heavens, and our ship sailing along throughspace. Then I showed him the _Ertak_ coming to rest on the plateau,and he made little impatient noises as though to convey that he knewall about that.
* * * * *
After a long time he got the idea. Crudely, dimly, he pictured the_Ertak_ leaving this strange world, and soaring off into vacant space.Then his scene faded out, and he pictured the same thing again, as onemight repeat a question not understood. He wanted to know where wewould go if we left this world of his.
I pictured for him other worlds, peopled with men more or less likemyself. I showed him the great cities, and the fleets of ships likethe _Ertak_ that plied between them. Then, as best I could, I askedhim about himself and his people.
It came to me jerkily and poorly pictured, but I managed to piece outthe story. Whether I guess correctly on all points, I am not sure, norwill I ever be sure. But this is the story as I got it.
These people at one time lived in the open, and all the people of thisworld were like those in the cavern, possessed of opaque bodies andgreat strength. There were none of the ghost-like creatures who hadcaptured us.
But after a long time, a ruling class arose. They tried to dominatethe masses, and the masses refused to be dominated. But the rulingclasses were wise, and versed in certain sciences; the masses wereignorant. So the ruling classes devised a plan.
These creatures did not eat. There was a tradition that at one timethey had had mouths, as I had, but that was not known. Their strength,their vitality, came from the powerful mineral vapor which came forthfrom the bowels of the earth. The ruling classes decided that if theycould control the supply of this vapor, they would have the whip hand,and they set about realizing this condition.
* * * * *
It was quickly done. All the sources of supply, save one, were sealed.This one source of supply was the cavern in which we stood. These weremembers of the ruling class, and outside was the rabble, starved andunhappy, living on the faint seepage of the vital fumes, without whichthey became almost bodiless, and the helpless slaves of those withinthe cavern.
These creatures, then, were boneless; as boneless as sponges, and,like sponges, capable of absorbing huge quantities of a foreignsubstance, which distended them and gave them weight. I could see,now, why the rotund bodies sagged and flattened at the base, and whysix short, stubby legs were needed to support that body. There wasonly tissue, unsupported by bone, to bear the weight!
This chief of the nine went on to show me how ruthlessly, how cruellythose within the cavern ruled those without. The substance that fedthe flame had to be gathered and a great reservoir on the side of themountain kept filled. Great masses of dry, sweet grass, often changed,must be harvested and brought to the entrance of the cavern, forbedding. A score of other tasks kept the outsiders busy always--andthe driving force was that, did the slaves become disobedient, theslight supply of mineral vapor available in the outside world would becut off utterly, and all outside would surely die, slowly and inagony.
Those within the cavern were the rulers. They would always remain therulers, and those outside would remain the slaves to wait upon them.And we--how strangely he pictured us, as he saw us!--were not toreturn to our queer worlds, that we might bring many other ships likethe _Ertak_ back to interfere. No.
The pupils of his eyes contracted, and the leafy structure of his nosefluttered as though with strong emotion.
No, we would not go back. He would give a signal to those of hiscreatures who stood behind us--a sort of soldiery, I gathered--and ourheads, our legs, our arms, would be torn from our bodies. Then wewould not go back to bring--
* * * * *
That was enough for me.
"Men!" I spoke softly, but with an intensity that gave me theirinstant attention, "it's going to be a fight for life. When I give thesignal, make a rush for the entrance by which we came in. I'll leadthe way. Use your pistols, and your bombs if necessary. Allright--forward!"
Correy's great shout rang out after mine, and I flung my menore in theface of the nearest guard. It bounced off as though it had struck arubber ball. Behind me, one of the men called out sharply; I heard asharp crunch of bone, and with a pang realized that the _Ertak's_ logwould have at least one death to record.
A dozen tentacles lashed out at me, and I sprayed their owners withpellets from my atomic pistol. The air was filled with the shouts ofmy men and the whispers of our enemies. All around me I could hear thescreaming of ricochets from our pistols. Twice atomic bombs explodednot far away, and the solid rock shook beneath my feet. Something shotby close to my face; an instant later a limp bundle in the blue andsilver uniform of our Service struck the rock wall of the cavern,thirty feet away. The strength in those rubbery tentacles wasterrible.
The pistols seemed to have but little effect. They wounded, but theydid not kill unless the pellet struck the head. Then the victimrolled over, rocking idiotically on its middle.
"In the head, men!" I shouted. "That downs them! And keep the bombs inaction. Throw them against the walls of the cavern. Take a chance!"
A ragged cheer went up, and I heard Correy's voice raised in angryconversation with the enemy:
"You will, eh? There!... Now!... Ah!--right--through--the--eye.That's--the place!"
* * * * *
A score of times I was grasped and held by the writhing arms of theangry horde whispering all around me. Each time I literally shot thetentacle away with my atomic pistol, leaving the severed end to unwrapitself and drop from my struggling body. The things had no blood inthem.
Steadily, we fought our way toward the doorway, out of the cavern,down the passageway, pressed into a compact, sweating mass by thepressure of the eager bodies around us. I have never heard any soundeven remotely like the babel of angry, sibilant whispering that beatagainst the walls and roof of that cavern.
I had saved my own bombs for a specific purpose, and now I unslungthem and managed to work them up above my shoulders, one in eitherhand.
"I'm going to try to blow the entrance clear, men," I shouted. "Theinstant I fling the bombs, drop! The fragments will be stopped by theenemy crowding around us. One ... two ... three ... _drop_!"
The two bombs exploded almost simultaneously. The ground shook, andall over the cavern masses of stone came crashing to the floor. Bitsof rock hummed and shrieked over our heads. And--yes! There was adraft of cooler, purer air on our faces. The bombs had done theirwork.
"One more effort and we're outside, men," I called. "The passage isopen, and there are only a few of the enemy before us. Ready?"
"Ready!" went up the hoarse shout.
"Then, forward!"
It was easy to give the command, but hard to execute it. We werepressed so hard that only the men on the outside of the group coulduse their weapons. And our captors were making a terrible, desperateeffort to hold us.
Two more of our men were literally torn to pieces before my eyes, butI had the satisfaction of ripping holes in the heads of the creatureswhose tentacles had done the beastly work. And in the meantime we wereworking our way slowly but surely to the entrance.
* * * * *
I glanced up as I dodged out into the open. That soft humming soundwas familiar, and properly so. There, at an elevation of less thanfifty feet, was the _Ertak_, with Hendricks standing in the exit,leaning forward at a perilous angle.
"Ahoy the _Ertak_!" I hailed. "Descend at once!"
"Right, sir!" Hendricks turned to relay the order, and, as the rest ofthe men burst forth from the cavern, the ship struck the ground beforeus.
"All hands board ship!" I ordered. "Lively, now." As many years as Ihave commanded men, I have ne
ver seen an order obeyed with morealacrity.
I was the last man to enter, and as I did so, I turned for a lastglance at the enemy.
They could not come through the small opening my bombs had driven inthe rock, although they were working desperately to enlarge it.Leaping back and forth between me and the entrance I could see thevague, shadowy figures of the outside slaves, eagerly seeping up thelife-giving fumes that escaped from the cavern.
"Your orders, sir?" asked Hendricks anxiously; he was a very youngofficer, and he had been through a very trying experience.
"Ascend five hundred feet, Mr. Hendricks," I said thoughtfully."Directly over this spot. Then I'll take over.
"It isn't often," I added, "that the Service concerns itself witheconomic conditions. This, however, is one of the exceptions."
"Yes, sir," said Hendricks, for the very good reason, I suppose, thatthat was about all a third officer could say to his commander, underthe circumstances.
* * * * *
"Five hundred feet, sir," said Hendricks.
"Very well," I nodded, and pressed the attention signal of thenon-commissioned officer in charge of the big forward ray projector.
"Ott? Commander Hanson speaking. I have special orders for you."
"Yes, sir!"
"Direct your ray, narrowed to normal beam and at full intensity, onthe spot directly below. Keep the ray motionless, and carry on untilfurther orders. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly, sir." The disintegrator ray generators deepened their purras I turned away.
"I trust, sir, that I did the right thing in following you with the_Ertak_?" asked Hendricks. "I was absolutely without precedent, andthe circumstances were so mysterious--"
"You handled the situation very well indeed," I told him. "Had you notbeen waiting when we fought our way into the open, the nearlyinvisible things on the outside might have--but you don't know aboutthem yet."
Picking up the microphone again, I ordered a pair of searchlights tofollow the disintegrator ray, and made my way forward, where I couldobserve activities through a port.
The ray was boring straight down into a shoulder of a rocky hill, andthe bright beams of the searchlights glowed redly with the dust ofdisintegration. Here and there I could see the shadowy, transparentforms of the creatures that the self-constituted rulers of this worldhad doomed to a demi-existence, and I smiled grimly to myself. Thetables would soon be turned.
* * * * *
For perhaps an hour the ray melted its way into the solid rock, whileI stood beside Ott and his crew, watching. Then, down below us, thingsbegan to happen.
Little fragments of rock flew up from the shaft the ray had drilled.Jets of black mud leaped into the air. There was a sudden blast frombelow that rocked the _Ertak_, and the shaft became a miniaturevolcano, throwing rocky fragments and mud high into the air.
"Very good, Ott," I said triumphantly. "Cease action." As I spoke, thefirst light of the dawn, unnoticed until now, spread itself over thescene, and we witnessed then one of the strangest scenes that theUniverse has ever beheld.
Up to the very edge of that life-giving blast of mineral-laden gas thetenuous creatures came crowding. There were hundreds of them,thousands of them. And they were still coming, crowding closer andcloser and closer, a mass of crawling, yellowish shadows against thesombre earth.
Slowly, they began to fill out and darken, as they drew in the fumesthat were more than bread and meat and water to us. Where there hadbeen formless shadows, rotund creatures such as we had met in thecavern stood and lashed their tentacles about in a sort of frenziedgladness, and fell back to make room for their brothers.
* * * * *
"It's a sight to make a man doubt his own eyes, sir," said Correy, whohad come to stand beside me. "Look at them! Thousands of them pouringfrom every direction. How did it happen?"
"It didn't happen. I used our disintegrator ray as a drill; we simplysunk a huge shaft down into the bowels of the earth until we struckthe source of the vapor which the self-appointed 'ruling class' hasbottled up. We have emancipated a whole people, Mr. Correy."
"I hate to think of what will happen to those in the cavern," repliedCorrey, smiling grimly. "Or rather, since you've told me of thepleasant little death they had arranged for us. I'm mighty glad of it.They'll receive rough treatment, I'm afraid!"
"They deserve it. It has been a great sight to watch, but I believewe've seen enough. It has been a good night's work, but it's daylight,now, and it will take hours to repair the damage to the _Ertak's_hull. Take over in the navigating room, if you will, and pick a likelyspot where we will not be disturbed. We should be on our course byto-night, Mr. Correy."
"Right, sir," said Correy, with a last wondering look at the strangemiracle we had brought to pass on the earth below us. "It will seemgood to be off in space again, away from the troubles of these littleworlds."
"There are troubles in space, too," I said dryly, thinking of theswarm of meteorites that had come so close to wiping the _Ertak_ offthe records of the Service. "You can't escape trouble even in space."
"No, sir," said Correy from the doorway. "But you can get your sleepregularly!"
And sleep is, when one comes to think of it, a very precious thing.
Particularly for an old man, whose eyelids are heavy with years.