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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15a0801 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62416 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62416) diff --git a/old/62416-h.zip b/old/62416-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3ecf91f..0000000 --- a/old/62416-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62416-h/62416-h.htm b/old/62416-h/62416-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 5f056a6..0000000 --- a/old/62416-h/62416-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2556 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Juggernaut of Space, by Ray Cummings. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph1 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Juggernaut of Space, by Ray Cummings - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Juggernaut of Space - -Author: Ray Cummings - -Release Date: June 17, 2020 [EBook #62416] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUGGERNAUT OF SPACE *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Canadian Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="350" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>Juggernaut of Space</h1> - -<h2>Ray Cummings</h2> - -<p>Never had the mind of man conceived so horrible a<br /> -doom as was reaching for Earth. Never had a greater<br /> -need for Earth's valiant champions been needed.<br /> -And yet the only ones who could fight the menace—were<br /> -five futile humans, prisoners on another world.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Fall 1945.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>My name is Robert Rance. You've heard of me, of course—through the -recent weird affair of the Crimson Comet, if for nothing else. It seems -to me rather ironic: for five years I have been reporting popular -science items on the split-wave band of non-visual broadcasting. -Station WANA-NYC—the main outlet of <i>Amalgamated Newscasters' -Association</i>, for whom I work. I struggled for personal publicity. -Then I was plunged—certainly entirely against my will—into the -blood-chilling, gruesome adventure which is now popularly known as "The -Death of the Crimson Comet." Out of it has come publicity beyond my -wildest dreams. And now that I've got it, I don't want it. I'm not a -hero, of dauntless, fearless courage. I'm not a scientific genius, who -has made possible to Earth the New Era of Interplanetary Travel. But -I've been called all that by broadcasting asses who are my friends.</p> - -<p>I'm just a plain American, who, when his life is in danger gets -frightened as the devil, fighting to get himself out of a jam, and with -not much thought of anything else. I didn't relish that Crimson Comet -business, and I don't want ever to experience anything like it again. -I'm not alone in this. There were four others in it with me. They don't -like all this public fuss being made over them any more than I do. They -weren't heroic. They just tried their best not to get killed. So on -their behalf, and my own, I'm writing this narrative of exactly what -happened to us. Not the professionally glamorized version which you've -heard so many times. Just the facts.</p> - -<p>The thing must have been brewing, under cover, for many months. Like a -smouldering, unnoticed fire. No one knows; we can only guess at what -happened. But looking back on it now, there were incidents, seemingly -unrelated at the time, which now I can see were significant. The first -of them was in August, 1985—about a year ago. I had just finished a -broadcast on some trivial, popular science subject, which I had tried -to make sound important to my listeners. And Dr. Johns of the White -Mountains Observatory telephoned me. I knew him quite well; he had -often steered me into little subjects for my broadcasts, but this, I -could see at once, was something different The tel-grid showed his -thin face without its usual smile. His grey hair was rumpled; his eyes -bloodshot. He looked as though he hadn't slept for much too long.</p> - -<p>"I thought you might want to come up and see me, Bob," he suggested.</p> - -<p>"Sure I will. I always appreciate your tips, Dr. Johns."</p> - -<p>His smile was queer. "I haven't got anything—not that you can use," -he said. "Certainly not yet. I guess I just figure I'll feel better, -talking about it. When can you arrive?"</p> - -<p>"I'll come right away," I told him. "Not busy tonight. I'll be there by -midnight."</p> - -<p>We disconnected. I was just about to leave when Shorty Dirk walked -in on me. Shorty was—and still is—connected with the <i>American -Newsprint Publishers</i>—a reporter in the Crime Division, specializing -in reporting the work of the Bureau of Missing Persons. He and I were -good friends, perhaps because we are so different. I'm big and rangy, -slow-going and easy-tempered. In college I was a good athlete, but now -this radio work was putting quite a bit of soft poundage on me which -didn't belong—poundage which, I do assure you, the Crimson Comet -business got rid of in a hurry. Like all of us five, I was something -like an undernourished greyhound when we got back.</p> - -<p>Shorty isn't much over five and a half feet, thin and wiry and alert—a -sort of little human dynamo; a freckle-faced fellow with a shock of -bristly red hair and a good-natured grin.</p> - -<p>"Where you going?" he asked.</p> - -<p>I told him. "I'll go with you," he said. He grinned. "I'm only here, -Bob, because I haven't got anything better to do."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>We took my small flyer from the roof stage and headed north. It was -a handsome night, warm and almost cloudless with the upper air so -clear that the stars were packed solid on the purple-blue vault of the -heavens. Shorty and I didn't theorize, during the brief trip up to the -White Mountains, on what Dr. Johns might have to say. Shorty wasn't -much interested in astronomy, anyway—to him, as he often said, it was -an uninteresting enigma. He mentioned that tonight.</p> - -<p>"Good," I said. "Then, how is crime coming? Many people missing lately?"</p> - -<p>Things were dull, he assured me. Nothing but the usual run of stuff -that you couldn't write up or broadcast because nobody but a few -relatives were interested. As it happened, the Crimson Comet affair -caused five mysterious disappearances, Shorty, myself and three others. -I think I can understand now why it happened that I knew them all. I -must have been marked, through my widely broadcast popular science. -That involved Shorty, because he was so much with me. And as for -the other three—looking back on it now I realize that each of them -vanished soon after having been with me. I was being trailed and was -seized last.</p> - -<p>We landed on the private stage of the big Observatory about midnight -and presently were with Dr. Johns in his study. What he had to tell us -didn't seem very startling at the time. But in the light of what was -to happen, looking back on it now I can see its deadly significance. -Like a great pattern of evil, to involve disaster and death to all -the world! Grim, stealthy events creeping upon us—little things here -on Earth just involving me and those few others; and with them, giant -events mysteriously taking place out in the great vault of the stars.</p> - -<p>"Here at the Observatory," Dr. Johns was saying, "we thought that -somehow we must be making miscalculations. A fraction of a second in -the axial and orbital movements of the Earth, which involved the visual -movement of all the starfield. But we checked and rechecked. And then -other observatories reported it."</p> - -<p>The Earth's axial rotation, and its movement around the Sun apparently -were changing infinitesimally.</p> - -<p>"Too bad," Shorty commented. "I'm sure sorry."</p> - -<p>But Dr. Johns didn't smile. "There seem to be many unrelated things," -he said. "You can shrug any of them off. But then, if it once occurs to -you that they might be connected—"</p> - -<p>"What other things?" I asked.</p> - -<p>Meteorologists were admitting that the weather was peculiar. Nothing -which had not occurred before, of course—unusual, freakish storms in -many parts of the Earth.</p> - -<p>"And for a month now," Dr. Johns went on, "there has been noticeable a -peculiar purple radiance in the air at night."</p> - -<p>"Purple radiance?" Shorty echoed. "Hadn't noticed it."</p> - -<p>"Because it isn't visible to the naked eye," Dr. Johns retorted. "But -it has disturbed the exposure time of our photographic work. Slowed it -down. And our spectrograms show it, or at least they show its effects -so that we know if we could see it—it would be a purplish glow."</p> - -<p>And there was a new comet which several of the observatories recently -had located. I had heard that much—had mentioned it in one of my -broadcasts.</p> - -<p>"We call it a comet," Dr. Johns explained, "because there's a crimson -radiance streaming back from it as it comes in toward the Sun. But -its nucleus seems sizable—five hundred miles in diameter possibly. A -planetoid, with a radiance. You might just possibly call it that."</p> - -<p>"And it's just about now crossing the orbit of Mars," I said. "That was -the last report made public, wasn't it?"</p> - -<p>Dr. Johns nodded. "Our calculations of its orbit—made a month -ago—showed it would pass within about twenty million miles of Earth. -But that's all changed now. It's erratic."</p> - -<p>I was beginning to see why he was startled. This new Crimson Comet -wasn't obeying the normal laws of Celestial Mechanics. It was swimming -erratically in Space. Could it be a solid body as big as five hundred -miles in diameter? Solid enough to be the cause, by its proximity, of -the Earth's axial and orbital disturbances?</p> - -<p>"And this purple radiance," Dr. Johns said soberly, "we've just been -wondering if that could be coming from the comet."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I need not specify all the weird theories that Dr. Johns and I talked -of that evening. With me, a broadcaster of popular science as lurid -always as I could make it, weird, gruesome theories came natural. But -with him, a man of cold logic and careful science—well, it must have -been a premonition. Was this Crimson Comet hurling a lethal radiance at -us, attacking the Earth? A tiny, inhabited world of diabolic science -enabling it to direct its own course through Space, peopled with weird -enemies coming at us now, bent on destroying us?</p> - -<p>You couldn't make such speculations public. People would laugh. But -some wouldn't. Some would believe you, and go into a wild panic. And -Dr. Johns had sent for me—a sort of kindred spirit in the concocting -of wild tales.</p> - -<p>"You two, say nothing of this," he warned us. "And if it goes on, -you can announce it, Bob." He shrugged again, and tried to laugh -lugubriously. "I feel like an idiot, talking about the end of the world -with a couple of news-hounds. And yet, somehow, I also feel that maybe -everyone of us on Earth is in more deadly danger than he ever was -before!"</p> - -<p>And we certainly were!</p> - -<p>That was the general gist of our talk that night with Dr. Johns. I -never found out more from him—I had no time. The thing struck at me -four days later. During those four days, it happened that quite by -chance I met the three other people who were destined to be plunged -with Shorty and myself into adventure. The first was Peter Mack. I -was walking at night in Washington Square, in New York City—small -remaining tradition of little old New York. To me it's like a Monks' -Garden, flowered, tree-lined rectangle enclosed by the massive building -walls with the canyon of Fifth Avenue running into it.</p> - -<p>The night was hot and clear. The little tent of blue over the Square -was star-filled. I chanced to sit down for a moment on a bench.</p> - -<p>"Got a light?" There was a young fellow on the bench with me. He -shifted toward me. He was a thin, lanky fellow about my own age, -hatless, with the starlight on his sparse, rumpled sandy hair. A -slack-jawed fellow, with shabby clothes. He had a grimy cigarette butt -between his fingers.</p> - -<p>"I can do better than that," I smiled. I gave him a cigarette and -lighted it for him.</p> - -<p>"Thanks." He would have turned away, but I stopped him. I don't know -why, but there seemed something about him that was likable. He needed -a shave badly; his clothes were torn. I had a look at his eyes, -red-rimmed, bloodshot. Just a down-and-outer on a park bench. But you -don't see many of them these days.</p> - -<p>"Maybe you haven't got a job," I said. "I can tell you a dozen -places—easy work too—in case you're a stranger in town."</p> - -<p>"I'm not," he said. "Thanks for the cigarette. I'm just minding my own -business."</p> - -<p>I shrugged; and as he gave me a resentful look and shifted back to his -own end of the bench, I let him alone.</p> - -<p>I know now a lot of things that were the matter with Peter Mack, but -he has asked me not to go into details. It isn't important anyway; -resentfulness at a girl; the escape mechanism of too much drink; -trouble with the authorities in a lot of minor ways. And then a sort -of sullen resentment at everything and everybody. A derelict who could -salvage himself but he didn't want to.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Anyway, that was Peter Mack. And then there was Vivian La Marr. I met -her back stage at the <i>Gayety</i> with Shorty who was there to see the -stage manager who was to be a witness in some trivial crime-affair that -Shorty was reporting. This Vivian La Marr was the main reason why the -<i>Gayety</i> was having trouble with the Anti-Vice League and was about -to lose its license. She came up to me back stage—a lush, artificial -blonde, heavy with makeup; with an amazing expanse of flesh smooth as -satin, and a negligible tinseled costume that the Anti-Vice League did -not like at all but which pleased the <i>Gayety's</i> customers very much.</p> - -<p>"You're Robert Rance," she said. "I saw your picture an' wasn't you -televized a few times."</p> - -<p>I agreed that was so.</p> - -<p>"I also heard one of your astronomy lectures," she added with a wry -grimace. "I was wonderin' how a guy like that could live with himself." -She looked me up and down. "Now I see you ain't so bad," she said. She -was grinning.</p> - -<p>"Much obliged," I said. "Maybe I can teach you astronomy some time!"</p> - -<p>"From you I would be glad to learn anything," she retorted, mockingly. -We were standing by the stage door where it was cooler, and a moment -later she was called back on the stage.</p> - -<p>That was Vivian La Marr. The other person who was destined to be -involved with us was J. Walter Blaine, the International Financier. I -interviewed him at his Fifth Avenue Club. He tells me now that I may -say what I like concerning my impression of him that first time I met -him. So I will be absolutely frank.</p> - -<p>A man of multi-millions and international importance makes many -friends, and inevitably many enemies. Seldom can he know what people -really think of him. His enemies exaggerate the worst, and his friends -mostly fawn. Blaine's personal reputation, by hearsay, had reached me, -of course. I had no expectation of liking him, and, very frankly, I -didn't. I found him a big man, as tall as myself, heavy, portly from -easy living. But I must say his appearance was impressive—a big mane -of shaggy hair, a rather handsome, large-featured face, keen dark eyes -under heavy brows, a jutting chin.</p> - -<p>He was playing chess with a fellow club member and I sat down to -watch. I know something about chess and I think his playing very well -displayed his character. He won, with skill of aggressive attack. But -there was about it something you didn't like. His incisive moving of -his men, as though there could be no doubt that it was the correct -move; and his whole attitude made you hope it wasn't. It was a quite -informal game. Once Blaine made an obvious, rather silly mistake, -exposing a piece. His opponent offered to have him take it back. He -didn't; he pretended it was what he wanted to do, taking the loss -rather than admit his error.</p> - -<p>Then he was finished and turned to me. I was there to interview him -for the Editor of a booklet being issued by the Royal Astronomical -Society of London. It seems that the Society was issuing a booklet with -little character sketches of the people from whom they had obtained -donations—sort of a tribute of thanks. I was commissioned to write the -one on Blaine.</p> - -<p>"Did they tell you how much I gave them?" he demanded of me now.</p> - -<p>I shook my head.</p> - -<p>"No," I said.</p> - -<p>His smile was ironic. "I gave them a hundred pounds. What they wanted, -and expected, was ten thousand. So now you'll write something very nice -about me which they hope will flatter me so I'll give them more. Don't -bother, young man."</p> - -<p>Blaine was a bachelor. My first impression of him was that he was doing -some woman a favor by keeping himself in that category.</p> - -<p>So much for J. Walter Blaine.</p> - -<p>It was the next night that the weird thing struck at me. I was walking -along the edge of the park, alone on my way to the mid-town office of -Amalgamated Newscasters. The street was fairly brightly lighted. I -recall that there chanced to be no pedestrians near me, just an empty -length of grey-white stone pavement in front of me, with the park on -one side. And quite suddenly it was as though I had stepped through -a black door into nothingness! I could have been stricken blind, yet -it was not that, for in another split-second I could see a dim, red -radiance and hear voices. Then I could see the shapes of people—three -men and a woman—stumbling like myself on a strange earthy ground here -in the red darkness.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="310" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Look! Here comes another one of us!" It was a terrified man's voice, -vaguely familiar.</p> - -<p>"My Gawd, it's the handsome astronomer! <i>I</i> know him!" The voice of -Vivian La Marr.</p> - -<p>And then there was Shorty's voice! "Bob! Bob Rance!" I could feel him -gripping me and there was the vague outline of his frightened white -face at my shoulder. "Bob! Tell us—what's happened to all of us?"</p> - -<p>And Vivian cried: "Hang onto him! There he goes!" I was trying to speak -but my tongue was thick, my throat dry and congested.</p> - -<p>Things were dim and hazy in my mind; and I could feel the cool -blankness stealing through my muscles. The touch of hands on my arms -faded, until at last there was no more sensation. I made one last great -effort to bring myself out of the fog.</p> - -<p>Then I felt myself falling into a soundless blackness.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>I think I did not quite lose consciousness. I was aware that I had -fallen to the earthy ground, with Shorty and Vivian bending over me. -My head was roaring; I was bathed in cold sweat. Then I began to feel -better, trying to sit up, with Shorty's arm holding me.</p> - -<p>"You're all right now, Bob? Can't you speak?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. I—guess so."</p> - -<p>Whatever had happened which had brought me here when an instant ago, it -seemed, I was walking alone by the park, none of us could imagine. The -identical experience had happened to Shorty, to Vivian La Marr; and to -Peter Mack, and J. Walter Blaine.</p> - -<p>"But—where are we?" I demanded, when in another moment I was strong -enough to struggle upright in the crimson glowing darkness.</p> - -<p>"Damned if we know," Shorty said. It seemed a sort of underground -grotto. I could begin to make out its rocky walls and ceiling now, with -that glow like a crimson phosphorescence streaming from them. One by -one my companions had found themselves here. Blaine was the first. Then -at intervals it seemed as though the wall across the grotto had opened -and Shorty, Vivian and Mack came stumbling in, standing an instant, -dazed, and then falling, as I had fallen, almost in a normal faint.</p> - -<p>"No way of getting out of this damned place," Shorty was saying. "The -rock-wall over there moves like a door, but we haven't been able to -open it."</p> - -<p>How much time had passed since we were stricken with this weird thing, -none of us could guess. Suddenly I was startled. My clothes were too -big for me. My body felt thin; I had lost twenty or thirty pounds. And -in the dim crimson glow now I could see Mack, Vivian and Blaine fairly -well. All of them thinner than I remembered them, with faces drawn and -haggard and big glowing smouldering eyes. And we men had a growth of -beard.</p> - -<p>Weeks could have passed! Vivian laughed lugubriously as she met my -startled stare. "De-glamorized," she said. "I feel like a lost alley -cat." She was clad in a thin, summer street dress. Her lush lissome -curves were gone so that it hung drably on her. The vivid artificial -blonde hair was darkish at the roots; it fell in a tangled mass to -her shoulders. Her makeup was gone; her lips pallid. "We're all about -starved to death, if you ask me," she added.</p> - -<p>"He brought us food a while ago," Blaine put in.</p> - -<p>"Try to eat it," Mack said. "There's some of it over by the wall. If -that's what we've been living on, no wonder we're starved."</p> - -<p>"He? Food?" I stammered.</p> - -<p>Since Blaine had found himself here, what seemed like perhaps twelve -hours had passed. Our captor had come twice. They had only seen him -dimly.</p> - -<p>"But he's human—semi-human, anyway," Shorty said. "And he seems to -talk English a little."</p> - -<p>"Look!" Vivian suddenly murmured. "Here he comes again."</p> - -<p>The red glow across the cave for an instant brightened. It seemed as -though a rock had slid aside and closed again. A dim upright shape -moved toward us; stopped and stood regarding us with eyes that gleamed -green, smouldering in the dimness.</p> - -<p>"The Great Mind—ready—see you soon," the figure's weird, guttural -voice said.</p> - -<p>I moved forward, unsteadily on my feet. "I want to talk to you," I -said. I could see him now, quite plainly. A man? I suppose you could -call him that. He was about five feet tall, squat and square, with -high square shoulders, a rectangular torso and two legs which seemed -encased in a flexible metal grey fabric. His head was round, set upon a -triangular neck with its apex under his chin—a bullet head, hairless, -with a weird, box-like face, square-chinned and broad square nose. His -two arms, long and powerful-looking, dangled at his sides.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>This, we were soon to learn, was a Radak. I recall my first clear -impression that there was about him a queer sense of power. And -something else, mysterious, yet even more apparent. An automaton-like -quality. It was as though here were an individual who was only acting -his role as a tiny part of some great, organized thing. A cog in a -machine. The German Nazis of my father's boyhood, must have been -like that. And here with these Radaks of the Crimson Comet it seemed -intensified to be almost gruesome. You could not tell why, but you -could sense it. Human individuals who lived only to do what they were -told. A great mental force dominating them from birth to death, so that -they thought what they were told to think; only did what they were told -to do.</p> - -<p>This Radak answered our questions now; he seemed willing enough to -talk, though in many ways his knowledge of our language, newly absorbed -by his weird brain, was inadequate. I think it best to summarize -briefly here, the total of what we learned and saw of the strange -little world and its people. In actuality we were destined to see very -little. Doomed little world! And since its death now, as you all know, -most of its secrets will forever remain a mystery.</p> - -<p>It was some five hundred Earth-miles in diameter, doubtless of immense -density because we were not aware of much change of gravitational -force. Of its past history, no one knows much. Somewhere out in -Interplanetary Space it must once have had a normal orbit. I shall -explain more of that later.</p> - -<p>Two human races were here now. The Radaks—there were perhaps something -like a thousand or two of them—were the rulers. The others were the -Lei—a primitive, gentle people, no more than slaves to the dominating -Radaks. Nature always had been cruel, uncompromising, here on Zelos. -(Which was the word their native language seemed to call their world.) -Both Radaks and Lei lived always in great underground caverns with -which this section of the surface was honeycombed. Above them, on the -outer surface, weird storms and erratic extremes of heat and cold were -prevalent. And out there strange monsters roamed—the Deathless Things, -as they were called, since it was impossible to kill them. Creatures -of indescribable horrible quality who seemed unwilling to come into -the confines of the underground corridors and grottos, so that all -the humans were of necessity driven here, eking out a drab and grim -existence.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus4.jpg" width="650" height="331" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>How the strange science of the Radaks developed will forever remain -a mystery. Perhaps it was brought here from some other planet. -Despite the science, life here was primitive—a struggle for the bare -necessities. Queerly enough, the Radak science seemed not concerned -with better living. They had a few small space-fliers—the secret of -interplanetary travel was known to them. Perhaps only recently—that -seems rather certain. Beyond that, there was nothing save the weird, -mysterious mechanisms by which at last they had been able to control -the space-movements of their tiny world. It was all here, in what they -called the "Great Cavern of Machines." Shorty and I were there for a -brief time—an unforgettable time of horror.</p> - -<p>"The Great Mind will see us soon?" I was saying now to this Radak who -stood stiff and stolid beside me. "Who—what is that?"</p> - -<p>We were soon to see. Another Radak appeared, motioning us imperiously -to follow him. Neither of these fellows seemed to have any weapons on -them, though of course there was no way of telling. Shorty nudged me, -muttering something about starting a fight.</p> - -<p>"You're crazy," I whispered. "We'd be killed."</p> - -<p>"The Great Mind—want see you now," one of the Radaks said. He led us, -and we followed him, with the other Radak behind us, out into a dim -rock-corridor gleaming with that same crimson phosphorescence.</p> - -<p>The banker, Blaine, pushed past me. "I'll attend to this," he said. -"This Ruler, whoever he is, he can be bought. I'll get him to take us -back to Earth—promise him riches—"</p> - -<p>The ragged, cadaverous Mack gave Blaine a glance of contempt. "I guess -it's strange to you, not being able to buy everything with your money, -isn't it?" he commented.</p> - -<p>A distant murmur of voices sounded ahead of us now, and we could see -where the light-glow widened as the corridor emerged into another -grotto. More Radaks were around us now, herding us with their stiff, -jerky movements, jabbering with their strange guttural voices. The -murmur ahead of us grew louder; then we emerged from the tunnel.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was at first almost like being above ground—a huge grotto with -red-glowing ceiling high up, dim in the crimson haze. To the sides the -precipitous rock-walls widened rapidly out. Ahead of us, down a ragged, -undulating slope, there was only a red haze of distance. There seemed -to be distant fields, with things growing in them. There was a spindly -blue and red stalk-like vegetation growing like trees perhaps to a -height of a hundred feet. And off to the left, under the trees, there -were mound-shaped little buildings.</p> - -<p>We were on a broad level space at the top of the slope. A hundred or -more Radaks were here, some crowding at us, but most standing stiff, -gazing at us with gleaming, animal-like eyes. And now I saw Radak women -and children among them—the women broader-hipped, narrower shouldered. -But they were all cast in the same mold—even the children stood at -attention, like rows of little statues waiting for something to move -them, with only their eyes in motion.</p> - -<p>Most of the murmuring voices were further down the slope. A crowd of -figures milled about, down there, trying to see us better. A thousand -perhaps. The Lei, the slaves of this little world. Certainly they -seemed far more human than the Radaks—slim and slight, and some of -them as tall as Shorty. They were dressed in simple flowing fabric -garments. A bronzed-skinned people, the women with long-flowing hair.</p> - -<p>"You come—this way," the Radak said. "Now—you stand still—the Great -Mind speak to you."</p> - -<p>Ruler of the Crimson Comet. He sat on a sort of stone throne with a -leafy canopy over him. Our captors shoved us forward until we stood -in a wavering line, all of us staring blankly at this Being whose -mentality encompassed and dominated every living human on his tiny -world. He looked as though once he had had the aspect of a Radak. But -that perhaps was a hundred or two hundred Earth-years ago. He sat -now with his shriveled, wrinkled grey body small as a child, encased -in a single garment of woven fabric. His round head, devoid of hair, -wobbled on a spindly neck. Skin like shriveled grey parchment covered -his shrunken bony face giving him a mummy-like appearance of immense -age. His shiny, smooth-grey skull seemed bloated by the pulsating -brain-tissue within it. It bulged in places, with worm-like knots under -the scalp, dilating, quivering, as his huge green-glowing eyes regarded -us.</p> - -<p>Then he spoke, slowly with a measured, sonorous voice of weird -sepulchral tone. And what he said—it was as though here we faced -a mental power too great to resist; as though there could be no -question but that his thoughts must be our thoughts. I felt it with -a sudden strange shudder—a radiance of thought from him, beating -down, destroying whatever was within me of independent individualism. -And the realization swept me; if I yielded to this radiance—these -thought-waves, whatever they might be, then all that was Robert Rance -would be gone. I would be nothing but an automaton.</p> - -<p>He was saying, "You will listen. There are things I shall explain to -you Earthmen. I have sent to Earth and brought you here—because each -of you has a knowledge of many things on Earth that I wish to know."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I listened, numbed, somewhat perhaps as though hypnotized. In this -Radak ruler's judgment, Blaine the banker, Mack the derelict, Shorty, -myself and Vivian—the sum total of the myriad things that were stacked -in our brains—were what now must go into his. Certainly a varied, -representative strata of Earth-knowledge.</p> - -<p>"You want to learn everything we know?" Blaine suddenly said. "How can -you do that? Suppose we don't want to teach you? And why do you want to -learn it? What are your plans? What I want to know is—do you realize -who and what I am, on Earth?"</p> - -<p>Of us all, undoubtedly the dominating nature of J. Walter Blaine made -him best able to resist that weird mental force that was engulfing us. -Yet his manner, his querulous, arrogant questions under these strange, -unearthly conditions here on the Crimson Comet certainly were fatuous, -childish. Mack gave a short, disagreeable laugh.</p> - -<p>"On Earth, okay," Mack muttered. "But you don't amount to much here."</p> - -<p>"Money of course, won't mean anything to you," Blaine was saying. "But -I have other things on Earth—things you would want. Look here, if -you'll send all these people away, I'll have a talk with you. I'll—"</p> - -<p>He got no further. It seemed that a look of wonderment was upon the -shriveled, ancient grey face. The eyes were darting little green fires. -The measured voice said, "I shall attend to you later—" And then -droned into the Radak tongue. Four of the squat little men marched upon -Blaine, seizing him.</p> - -<p>"What in the devil—stop that!" Blaine remonstrated. There was a -scuffle beginning. I recall that I shouted,</p> - -<p>"Blaine! Take it easy! You'll be killed!"</p> - -<p>Amazing power of these squat little men! A claw-like hand was clapped -over Blaine's mouth; his flailing arms and kicking legs were pinned by -the Radak's clutches; and then they picked him up and carted him away.</p> - -<p>"I shall begin with you, Peter Mack," the Radak ruler said quietly. -"Come forward, bend before me."</p> - -<p>For a second Mack hesitated, flinging Shorty and me a questioning -glance. But we had nothing to offer. Then the shabby, lanky figure of -the bearded Mack shambled forward, guided by two Radaks until he was -standing with head bent before the Ruler. Down the slope the murmurs of -the crowd of Lei rose into a babble. The milling throng of slave-people -a hundred yards or so from us crowded curiously forward to see Mack -better. There was a sudden, low-voiced command from the Radak Ruler. A -dozen or more of the squat, grey Radaks ran at the Lei, cuffing them, -knocking them back ... I saw a young Lei girl, slim, with flowing -white and tawny hair framing her face. The little automaton Radak ran -at her, struck her in the mouth so that the blood spurted out.</p> - -<p>And through it all, near me a row of Radak children stood stiffly -at attention, motionless, with only their round green eyes turning -sidewise to watch the scene.</p> - -<p>Then the ancient Radak Ruler's smouldering gaze was upon Mack's head. -An awed silence fell over the scene as Mack stood motionless. Who shall -say by what weird and gruesome process Mack was now being sapped! No -one on Earth knows what a thought is. No one can say what is within our -brain cells to constitute knowledge. But something is there, something -in our conscious and subconscious minds upon which our memory can draw. -And we do know that thought is a wave of vibration—an infinitely -tiny, infinitely rapid vibration. A thing that at least has a tangible -entity. And this Radak's mind now was drawing, sapping from Mack.</p> - -<p>A minute. Five minutes. In the tense silence, I felt Shorty clutch at -me, heard him mutter: "God, it's weird!"</p> - -<p>Mack now was drooping. A mental agony, rasping his nerves now, drawing -vitality from him so that he drooped, swayed, and suddenly let out -a groan. Mental anguish, with screaming nerves translating it into -physical pain.</p> - -<p>"It's torture!" Vivian murmured. "Look at him—stop it! Stop it!"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="293" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Mack had fallen to the ground, writhing now, mumbling with futile hands -clawing at his face and head as though to pluck away that damnable, -torturing gaze. But still, calmly, inexorably the green-eyed, monstrous -little Radak held him—this shriveled Radak Ruler, avidly, greedily -drawing in the knowledge of Mack's past life—those myriad little -things of Earth-life stored within Mack's brain. Surely it must have -been a torture most horrible.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Shorty and I were starting to leap forward in protest. But Vivian was -ahead of us, raging, rushing heedlessly at the old Radak. She almost -reached him. She was screaming, "You—you rotten damn Thing—you—"</p> - -<p>Her hand went up to strike him. It was all a sudden chaos, just a few -seconds. Radaks caught Shorty and me; with almost machine-like strength -their arms pinned us. I think I yelled at Shorty not to struggle. In -that same second, I saw Vivian's arm with clenched fist trying to hit -the Radak Ruler, but a little squat grey figure standing guard there, -jumped and seized her. It was an amazing tableau. At the threatened -blow, the Ruler shrank back. His whole little body quivered, pulsated; -and on the weird, almost unhuman face, there was a look, not of fear, -but of strange revulsion—as though the threat of that physical blow -were something too horrible to contemplate.</p> - -<p>"Vivian! Vivian—you—they'll kill you! Run—Vivian, run—"</p> - -<p>Mack was staggering to his feet, stumbling, half falling. But he -reached Vivian, clutched her. Both of them were confused, dazed so that -all they could do was stand there, holding onto each other. I saw Mack -gazing defiantly at the oncoming Radaks—Mack who on Earth probably -wouldn't have lifted a hand to help anyone, ready now to fight to -protect this girl.</p> - -<p>"You will all—stand—away from them." It was the Ruler's quiet, -measured voice. And abruptly I saw that his shriveled hand had gone -to his belt. A weapon was hanging there—a little pot-bellied black -cylinder. His fingers shifted it, seemed aiming it at Vivian and Mack. -Shorty and I were struggling, but the Radaks held us. And we were both -shouting. Then there was a soundless, almost invisible flash, just a -vague spitting glow of light from the little cylinder. It leaped and -for a second clung upon Mack and the girl. They seemed to stiffen. Just -that; nothing else. Still clutching each other they stood transfixed, -and on their faces there was a blankness, a strange emptiness.</p> - -<p>"You will walk together, hand in hand," the Ruler's soft voice was -droning. "One of my Radaks will lead you to the upper exit. And then -you will walk together alone—out into the Realm of the Deathless -Things."</p> - -<p>He added something in his own language. A little Radak moved in front -of Mack and Vivian now. Hand in hand they were standing docile, and -then they were following the Radak—following him with slow measured -steps, their faces blank, their eyes staring straight ahead of them. -Like somnambulists, walking in their sleep.</p> - -<p>"Good Lord," Shorty murmured. "That could be the way we were abducted -on Earth! Do you suppose—"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>His words were cut off. The Ruler had given another command. The -Radaks gripping us were pulling us away—shoving us back into the dim -crimson tunnel from which they had brought us. I turned to look behind -me. The stiff figures of Mack and Vivian still were visible, walking -in a trance, following the square, box-like little Radak who marched -silently ahead of them. For a moment they wound along the edge of the -slope; then the crimson murk of radiance enveloped them and they were -gone.</p> - -<p>Roughly Shorty and I were shoved along the tunnel by our captors. Then -a rock panel slid aside. We were shoved in, and the panel slid closed.</p> - -<p>"Well," Shorty murmured. "That's that. We're in a jam, Bob—a damn -weird jam."</p> - -<p>It was soundless in here, and darker than out in the main open grotto. -But still there was that dim crimson glow. We were in a small cave-cell -now. The air was hot, fetid, earthy. Presently we could see a little -better. There was nothing but black, spongy ground, glowing red rock -walls and a rock ceiling close over us. In the dimness I fumbled, -feeling the wall, trying to find the crevice of the sliding door panel; -but could not.</p> - -<p>Time passed. Shorty and I both realized now that we were weak and faint -from hunger—not altogether the hunger from missing a meal or so, but -the depletion of long under-nourishment. Together we lay down on the -fibrous ground. I think at that moment I was more despairing than ever -before in my life. I seemed unable to cope with even the thought of -what we might possibly plan. I closed my eyes. I seemed just to want to -drift into the blessed relief of sleep.</p> - -<p>"This is one jam we might not get out of, Bob," Shorty murmured -presently.</p> - -<p>"Yes, looks so."</p> - -<p>Then suddenly both of us were galvanized into alertness. The door-panel -was sliding open with a little rasp and an influx of brighter red glow. -Outside in the corridor we saw a group of Radaks on guard. But none of -them came in. They moved aside and a figure came past them—a Lei girl. -Her slim body was draped in a bluish garment of thatch. Her long tawny -hair flowed down over her shoulders. She was carrying a slab on which -there was food and drink for us.</p> - -<p>Then she set the slab on the ground near us. She was between us and the -door, almost a silhouette but I could see that her hand was at her lips -and her glowing eyes seemed warning us to be silent.</p> - -<p>For an instant she leaned close toward me. "I am Tahn—the wife of -Taro, the Lei." Her voice barely whispered it. "You say nothing. I -come again—with Taro's plan to help you! We would save you and your -Earth—if we can!"</p> - -<p>Silent, Shorty and I just stared. Then she had turned and was gone. The -rock panel slid closed upon us.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>I must explain now what was happening to Mack and Vivian as they -afterward told it to me. Mack recalls quite clearly that moment of -dazed, numbed anguish when he writhed on the ground with the horrible -sapping gaze of the Radak Ruler upon him. Then he heard Vivian scream, -saw her rushing at the shriveled old Radak.</p> - -<p>He called, "Vivian! Run—they'll kill you—"</p> - -<p>He found himself staggering to his feet, stumbling until he was -by her side. He felt her clutch him, both of them standing there, -numbed and dazed, terrified, with the feeling that the rushing Radaks -would instantly kill them. He remembers that the girl and himself -took a stumbling step forward. To Mack it was like stumbling through -a suddenly appearing black curtain of emptiness. Just an abyss of -soundless nothingness, except that there seemed still to be Vivian's -clutch on his arm. No, it was her hand holding his as they stood -peering at a distant blur of red radiance.</p> - -<p>"Viv—where are we? What happened?"</p> - -<p>"Pete—I'm frightened—can't—see anything—"</p> - -<p>But the red radiance was growing, spreading to dispel the blank empty -darkness so that in a moment he could see the drab, disheveled form -of the girl beside him, her moist, cold hand convulsively clutching -his, and the red light on her pallid, terrified face. And in the -distance now there were outlines—a sort of red line that looked like a -shimmering cliff with jagged spires upstanding in a row.</p> - -<p>"Vivian—everything's gone—the Radaks—we're not where we were—Bob -and Shorty—gone—"</p> - -<p>The red glow in a moment had brightened to be far more luminous than -they remembered it in the caverns. Obviously there was a sky overhead -now—a lurid, murky, blood-red haze of infinite distance. This was -the outer surface of the little planetoid. The Realm of the Deathless -Monsters! Mack realized it with a shudder of terror. He and Vivian -now could see that they were standing upon a little rise of ground, -in what could have been called a forest. Everywhere great stalks of -spindly blue and grey vegetation towered into the air. Growing things -of fantastic shape, woven in places to be a solid jungle. Or again -there were open glades of rocky ground—buttes and little spires, small -ravines and crevices. All of it bathed in crimson, as though here were -a bloody landscape of unutterable horror. The horror of things not yet -seen ... things lurking—</p> - -<p>"Oh Pete, what can we do?" Hungry and faint she swayed against him. But -in the blood-red light she was trying to smile. "You tell us what we -ought to do—I will help us do it, Pete. I'm not—not afraid."</p> - -<p>But the terror of despair was clutching at both of them. Mack tried to -gather his wits. Alone here on an alien world. Could they find food and -drink? Wander here, until some ghastly monster engulfed them? Or should -they try to get back underground? Why? To have the murderous Radaks -fall upon them and kill them?</p> - -<p>But the will to live in every human is very strong. No one will lie -down and just hopelessly wait for death.</p> - -<p>"Viv—those cliffs over there—cliffs with the spires—there ought to -be tunnels maybe at the bottom of them. If we could get back—maybe get -to Bob and Shorty—" His voice trailed away. It all seemed so hopeless.</p> - -<p>Then he felt the girl clutch at his arm. "Look! Maybe that's water? I'm -so thirsty—"</p> - -<p>"I see it. Maybe it is. Come on."</p> - -<p>In a nearby open glade, surrounded by stalks of the towering fibrous -vegetation, what could have been a shallow pool of water was spread on -the open rocks. A little pool, twenty feet or so in diameter. Rivulets -extended off to the sides of it in crevices of the rock-surfaces. It -was quite shallow, seemingly only a few inches deep. The red radiant -glow that suffused everything stained it like blood, but it was -translucent so that the rocks showed through it.</p> - -<p>Was it water? As they approached, Vivian stepped over one of the -branching rivulet arms. The translucent red stuff suddenly lifted from -the rocks, the little tentacle arm of it wrapping itself around her -ankle!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The girl screamed. In a panic Mack reached down, plucking at the red -mass. Ghastly horror! It was like quivering, sticky glue. Frantically -he tore at it. Warm, pulsating, protoplasm. It stuck to his fingers, -greedily fastening upon his flesh until he wiped it away. Vivian, -too, was frantically flailing at the stuff. And in that second Mack -was aware that the whole twenty-foot spread of it on the rocks was in -motion now—rolling itself up from the rocks, congealing, gathering -itself into a great circular mass. Huge, eight-foot ball of blood-red, -pulsating protoplasm. Yet now it seemed there was a nucleus, a little -central part, more solid than the rest, suddenly growing to look almost -like a head and face in the center of the mass. Red-gleaming eyes; a -sucking mouth, yawning.</p> - -<p>All this Mack saw in a horrified second or two while still he was -flailing to cast away the broken, pulpy arm of the monster. And he saw -now that the great ball of it was rocking. Then it started to roll and -bump toward them!</p> - -<p>"Vivian! Run—good Lord, here it comes!"</p> - -<p>They fled. But behind them it was coming, gathering speed, bumping and -squishing over the rocks. Mack tried to keep his wits. The monstrous -thing was only twenty feet behind them now. And as it rolled, it was -expanding. A lashing ball twice as high as their heads. Then ahead of -them Mack saw a narrow pass between two huge rocks—a space some three -feet wide. He shoved Vivian into it—a space too small for the monster -to follow. It was a crevice only some ten feet long. They dashed -through it.</p> - -<p>Mack turned to see what the crimson Deathless Thing would do. It had -hit the rocks, and now it was oozing through the narrow space—thin red -streamer of protoplasm feeding itself through the crevice. Mack and -Vivian had fled to one side, and as the jet of red pulp came through, -out on the other side it rolled itself again into a ball—ghastly -thing that kept on going down the slope! In a moment it was a hundred -feet away. Panting, Mack clutched his companion and they stared. The -bumping, rolling circular mass had reached a patch of forest. It -slowed; stopped.</p> - -<p>"Pete, look!" The girl's terrified, awed voice murmured it. "Look at it -now!"</p> - -<p>There in the forest glade the monstrous crimson ball was sagging, -flattening, spreading itself out into a thin, translucent layer on the -rocky ground. Then it was motionless, quiescent, waiting.</p> - -<p>"Well!" Mack breathed. "At least we know now what to avoid! We—"</p> - -<p>But again Vivian gripped him. "What's that over there?" Her shaking -hand gestured to one side. It was an upright blob moving in a patch of -trees. A tree hid it; then it showed again. It stopped, seemed to turn -upon itself. Still upright. Then again it moved.</p> - -<p>Suddenly Mack gasped, "A man! Look—see it now—a man—why—why it's -Blaine!"</p> - -<p>Startled relief was in his voice. The figure came to another open -space, where the crimson glow in the air showed it plainly. It was -Blaine. He was moving along, gazing around as though searching.</p> - -<p>"Blaine! Blaine!" Mack called.</p> - -<p>The banker turned at the voice; saw Mack and Vivian who now were -running toward him. "You Mack—Vivian—you're safe—"</p> - -<p>"Yes, sure!" It was a blessed relief to Mack.</p> - -<p>"I've been looking for you," Blaine called. He was running to meet -them. "And I've got something—something important! A weapon—"</p> - -<p>The three reached each other. Blaine and Mack gripped hands. Then -suddenly Vivian gasped: "Another! Another of those Things—"</p> - -<p>Out among the trees beyond where Blaine had been a moment before, a -slithering red shape was visible. Another of the Deathless Things which -soundlessly had been stalking Blaine. Like a huge thirty-foot crimson -python it was sliding through the vegetation. Its neck and head came -up, reared up as for a second it stopped, peering with red-green eyes -seeking its prey. Then it lowered its head and came slithering rapidly -forward!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I must go back now for just a moment to recount what had happened to -Blaine, from that moment when the Radak guards hustled him away from -their shriveled ancient ruler. Ignoring his protests, he was shoved -along a corridor, thrown into a cave-cell and its door-slide closed -upon him. But he wasn't alone there for long. Presently the slide -opened again and a figure came in. It was obviously a Radak, but of -somewhat a different type. The same square, powerful look. But this one -was taller, almost as tall as Blaine. Grey-skinned, lean and muscular. -He seemed fairly young, thirty Earth-years perhaps.</p> - -<p>"I have come for to talk to you," the visitor announced. He sat stiffly -on a rock by a wall of the cave. His grey-black woven garment swished -as he motioned Blaine to sit on the ground before him. "You are very -interesting to me. Sit down."</p> - -<p>"Thanks. I'll stand," Blaine said. "You speak my language very well."</p> - -<p>"That I should." The Radak's smile made his strange face wrinkle into -a grimace. "I am Ratan. Our Great Mind sent me to your Earth. I picked -you Earthmen, and ordered you seized. I will tell you about that. You -can be very helpful to us, I am thinking. Perhaps especially so. I am -commanded to tell you our plans."</p> - -<p>Carefully Blaine listened to the strange things this Ratan quite calmly -was telling him. With their weird mechanisms, the Radaks now were -directing their tiny world through Space, toward our Earth. Already -they were bathing Earth with a radiance which was disturbing the -Earth's axial and orbital rotations—that vague, dim purple haze which -Dr. Johns had described to Shorty and me. Then when Zelos was closer to -Earth, the vibratory beam would be intensified.</p> - -<p>The Earth would be drawn from its orbit. Engulfed in this weird -gravitational force, it would follow Zelos back from the Sun—out into -Interplanetary Space.... The abduction of the Earth! Blaine knew -little of science, but enough to realize what soon would happen on -Earth....</p> - -<p>"Storms—the disturbance of all your atmospheric pressures—" Ratan -was saying with his ironic smile, "that will very soon kill many of -your people. And then will come the congealing cold. Certain it is that -human life on your Earth will not withstand it."</p> - -<p>Our atmosphere, not adapted to insulate the cold of Space—</p> - -<p>There was no need for this Ratan to picture for Blaine the wild -devastation of Earth. "Perhaps even before we have drawn you out to the -orbit of Saturn," Ratan was saying, "then there will be no Earthman -still living."</p> - -<p>The end of human Earth-life. It might take another Earth-year, -or many. But it was coming. Inevitable. A thing that the Radak -Great-Mind had long planned, and that already was being successfully -accomplished.... There are on Earth now as I write this brief -narrative, many scientists working to understand the theories of -the strange, diabolic mechanisms of the bandit Crimson Comet. The -projection of some new application of gravitational force. The purple -ray was something of that nature, of course. A link between Zelos -and Earth, like a chain binding them together—a powerful little tug -pulling a great ocean liner. And the same force unquestionably was what -made Zelos itself mobile in Space. That much we know definitely because -in miniature, but doubtless of the same approximate nature, the purple -gravitational ray is the motive power for the Radak Space-ship which we -now have intact.</p> - -<p>"So you are planning to kill everyone on Earth," Blaine said. His heart -was pounding, but he tried to hold his voice calm. He stood with folded -arms, gazing at Ratan. "And what will that gain you?"</p> - -<p>"Our little planet here we do not like," Ratan retorted. "Many -space-ships we will build, and when your Earth-people are gone, then we -will migrate to your much better world. The Lei, and the Radaks to rule -them. The Great Mind has planned it all. We have been secretly to your -Earth, we have studied life there. It will be much better for us than -this. The Great Mind will rule your whole world for a while—until he -dies. And then—do you not see something unusual in me?"</p> - -<p>"What?" Blaine demanded.</p> - -<p>"I am the appointed one to be the next Great Mind. When I was born it -was decided. I have been trained for that. Just for that, nothing else."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Blaine could see it in him now. That air of quiet, confident dominance. -"I see what you mean," Blaine agreed. "I am like that, on Earth. You -realize it?"</p> - -<p>"It is why I chose to bring you here," Ratan said.</p> - -<p>"I can be very helpful to you," Blaine added. "My companions—they -are just captives. But I would like to be more than that." The banker -shrugged. "I bow to the inevitable. If you are to seize my world, then -I would like to do the best for myself. That's good sense, isn't it?"</p> - -<p>Was he gaining this fellow's confidence? The big Radak smiled also. -"What do you mean?"</p> - -<p>"On Earth I am very powerful. I have money, property."</p> - -<p>"Of what good could that be to me?" Ratan smiled. "And when I get -there—I have it all anyway."</p> - -<p>"What I mean," Blaine persisted, "I am an organizer. I know the -resources of Earth—"</p> - -<p>"And to that I agree," Ratan interrupted. "You mean, you would join us, -as a friend."</p> - -<p>"For a position of power among you Radaks, yes. You will find I can -handle the Lei." He smiled cannily. "On Earth they called me ruthless. -I could bend men to my will—and always to my own profit."</p> - -<p>Blaine's keen, appraising gaze was watching the Radak. Ratan was -smiling; he could understand talk like this, and it was obvious that -he liked it.... Blaine's heart was pounding. At Ratan's broad grey -belt a little pot-bellied metal cylinder was hanging. He gestured to it -casually.</p> - -<p>"What is that, Ratan?"</p> - -<p>"That? It is a weapon of ours. Very important. There are only very few -of us who may carry it. A Rak-gun, perhaps your language would term it."</p> - -<p>"Let me see it. How does it work?"</p> - -<p>But Ratan was only fingering it lovingly. He made no move to detach it -from his belt. He was smiling. "It is what brought you from Earth."</p> - -<p>He seemed willing enough to describe it. The projection of a -vibration akin to thought-waves, but infinitely more intense. In -effect it paralyzed the conscious mind, yet left the motor area -intact. The victim, to all intents and purposes was a somnambulist. -The subconscious mind, with will power numbed, then was open to -any suggestive stimulus which it received. The victim's muscles -instinctively obeyed commands. And the memory areas recorded nothing. -Shorty and I had seen it happen to Vivian and Mack. Blaine did not know -of that. But it had happened to him, on Earth, as it had to all of us.</p> - -<p>"And, then, after a time it wears off?"</p> - -<p>"Exactly. An hour—what you would call an hour on Earth, perhaps. But -another shock of it can be given. You were under its influence for -about three weeks—the time it took for our Space-ship to bring us -here."</p> - -<p>"And you fed me very badly," Blaine commented. He was taut inside now. -He took a casual step forward so that he was almost within reach of the -seated Radak. "Is that thing easy to operate?"</p> - -<p>Blaine's heart leaped as Ratan unclipped the little cylinder from his -belt. "Very simple," the Radak said. "Just a pressure on this little -lever. But it will be years before the Great Mind or myself would let -you handle one of these."</p> - -<p>"I was thinking," Blaine said, "when we get to Earth you yourself will -not be the Great Ruler. But if, perhaps, the Great Mind should suddenly -die? Then it would be only the great Ratan, with me to help him—" -Blaine had leaned forward confidentially and lowered his voice. "Did -you ever think of that?"</p> - -<p>Surely at least the idea of murdering his commander was startling to -Ratan, and for that instant he was off his guard. Just a second, but -it was enough for Blaine. The banker abruptly reached, snatched the -cylinder and leaped backward.</p> - -<p>"Now you damned villain—"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Blaine raised the cylinder level. With a roar, Ratan was on his feet. -There was a soundless, vague little flash. Ratan, tensing his muscles -for a leap abruptly relaxed, wavered.</p> - -<p>"Quiet now! Stand still!" Blaine ordered sharply.</p> - -<p>He stood listening, with the quiescent, blankly staring Ratan before -him. Had Ratan's roar of startled anger aroused any guards out in the -corridor? It seemed not. There was only silence.</p> - -<p>"Now we will go out of here," Blaine said softly. "We will go out. You -know where Robert Rance is now. You will lead me to him."</p> - -<p>With hands outstretched, the big Radak moved to the door, slid it open. -At this moment Shorty and I were confined in another cave-cell not far -away. Ratan knew it; he was leading Blaine there. But suddenly, at a -corridor intersection, voices sounded! Radaks were coming.</p> - -<p>"Crouch down!" Blaine commanded. "Be quiet! Not a sound from you!"</p> - -<p>There was a wall recess. Blaine shoved his numbed captive into it. -Together they crouched. And now Blaine saw that in a sheath at Ratan's -belt, there was a knife. He drew it out; held it in his other hand and -kept the cylinder ready. Two Radaks were coming. They were talking -together in their own language. They stopped nearby, evidently with the -intention of parting here at the intersection.</p> - -<p>Blaine listened. Then he whispered to Ratan: "Answer me softly. What -are they saying? Tell me in English."</p> - -<p>"Those Earth-people banished—into the Realm -of—Deathless—Monsters—and they will die—of course." Ratan's words -were mumbled, queerly mouthed, like one who talks in his sleep. Blaine -assumed that all of us were out there on the upper surface, not just -Vivian and Mack. Swiftly he changed his plans.</p> - -<p>"In a moment when I command you," he whispered, "you will lead me -there. You know where the Earth-people would probably be now? Out which -exit they went? Answer me—softly."</p> - -<p>"By the—big cliff with the—rock spires.... The exit is—down this -left corridor."</p> - -<p>Tensely Blaine waited. The nearby Radaks parted and moved away. "Now, -lead me," he whispered.</p> - -<p>Again they moved forward, down the left-hand corridor-branch now. -And suddenly behind Blaine there was a shout. He whirled. One of the -Radaks had changed his mind and was coming back, calling something to -his fellow. Blaine had no time to get himself and Ratan out of sight. -The Radak saw them—saw the stiffly walking Ratan, and Blaine with the -cylinder in his hand.</p> - -<p>With a startled shout, the little Radak leaped at Blaine. The flash -met him; he stopped in his tracks, stood stiff. But from the other -direction, his companion was coming. And now the commotion was bringing -others. Blaine could hear several of the guttural voices and the thuds -of their oncoming footsteps.</p> - -<p>With a leap Blaine went past Ratan. The squat little shape of the -other Radak came charging down the center of the narrow corridor. -His greenish eye-beams were weird in the crimson gloom. Again Blaine -fired his cylinder. But this time evidently he missed and in another -second the Radak was on him. The shock of the impact flung them both -to the ground. The cylinder was knocked from Blaine's hand. He felt -his adversary's arms clutching him, squeezing him with machine-like -strength. In another moment Blaine's ribs would have smashed. But his -left hand still gripped the knife. With despairing effort he drove it -into the Radak's side.</p> - -<p>Ghastly knife-thrust! It went in with a crunch, a rasp as it severed -the strange flesh. There was a hiss as hot fluid spurted. The Radak's -scream was horrible. His arms fell away. Blaine disentangled himself. -On the ground near him he saw the cylinder, snatched it, dropped it -into his pocket. A commotion was all around him now. Oncoming Radaks in -several of the branching corridors. But ahead of Blaine there seemed no -one.</p> - -<p>He ran. Behind him he could dimly see the squat little figures gazing -at their dead fellow, and surrounding the stricken Ratan. No one seemed -to notice the fleeing Blaine as he ran the length of the winding -corridor until at last he was out upon the crimson upper surface.</p> - -<p>For a time he wandered. He did not see any of the crimson monsters, or -at least did not recognize them for what they were. Then he heard Mack -shouting at him; saw Mack and Vivian running toward him.</p> - -<p>"I've got something important—a weapon," he called to Mack.</p> - -<p>Then abruptly the three of them saw that huge, python-like crimson -Thing which had been silently stalking Blaine.</p> - -<p>"Look!" Vivian gasped. "Another of them!"</p> - -<p>It was slithering rapidly at them now, no more than fifty feet away. -Its green-swaying eye-beams clung to them. For that instant they were -standing stricken with terror. To one side of them there was the brink -of an abyss a few yards away, and to the other, and behind them, a -ragged little cliff.</p> - -<p>"Got to try and climb those rocks!" Mack gasped. "Can't get past that -snake thing—we're trapped—"</p> - -<p>But Blaine swept him aside. The cylinder was in Blaine's hand now. -"This will stop it!" he muttered. "You two—get behind me!"</p> - -<p>The monstrous thirty-foot thing was only half its own length away from -them now. Then, as its head reared over a projection of the uneven, -rocky ground, Blaine carefully aimed the cylinder and fired. But the -monster didn't stop! There was no conscious, thinking brain in that -ghastly, pulsating crimson head! Just motor-ganglia reacting to the -impulses of instinct!</p> - -<p>Blaine fired again. But the monster kept on coming and in another -second was upon them!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>Back in our cave-cell, Shorty and I stared blankly after the figure of -the Lei woman, Tahn, as she motioned to the Radak guards who slid our -door-panel closed. Again we were alone.</p> - -<p>"Well," Shorty murmured. "What do you make of that? The wife of some -Lei named Taro, she said."</p> - -<p>And that she would come back and try to get us out of here. That her -husband had some plan—</p> - -<p>Eagerly, Shorty and I waited. Would it be an hour, or a day? Both of -us were thinking of Blaine, locked somewhere around here, perhaps in -a cell like ours. Or had the Radaks killed him by now? And Vivian and -Mack, wandering out there in the Realm of the Things you couldn't kill.</p> - -<p>"Guess they're done for," Shorty said, when I mentioned them.</p> - -<p>"Unless we can get out there to them—"</p> - -<p>Shorty's smile was ironic. "That would fix everything, of course. Don't -be an ass, Bob. If we were out there, we'd all be trying to get back. -For what? So the Radaks would jump on us and kill us."</p> - -<p>It was all so utterly hopeless. But it was queer, that instinct all -five of us had, to try and keep together.</p> - -<p>The young Lei woman had brought us food and drink. Shorty and I slumped -on the earthern floor now and sampled the food. Nauseous stuff, -indescribable.</p> - -<p>"If it's been weeks since we left the Earth," Shorty said, "no wonder -we're nearly starved to death."</p> - -<p>But we managed to eat and drink some of it, and then exhausted by the -nerve tension of what we had been through, we drifted off into an -uneasy slumber.</p> - -<p>The rasp of the sliding door-panel jerked us into alertness. I had the -feeling that only a little time had passed. The panel slid open just a -foot or two, and a figure came in. It was Tahn.</p> - -<p>Both Shorty and I were on our feet. "You came as you hoped," I said -softly. "We're ready. Just tell us what you want us to do."</p> - -<p>She barely whispered, "The Radak guards just now are changing. There is -no one outside. We go, quickly."</p> - -<p>"Go where?" Shorty demanded.</p> - -<p>"To my husband, Taro. He is in a corridor near here. Come now, quickly."</p> - -<p>The faintly red corridor outside was empty. Swiftly Tahn led us along -it, around several sharp bends, past a cross-corridor intersection. -I was tense, expecting every moment that Radaks would leap upon us -from the shadows. But so far we had escaped notice, though obviously -there were many Radaks near here. Several times we passed the dim oval -openings of little grottos, and often there were guttural, chattering -voices from within them.</p> - -<p>"Won't the guards discover we're gone?" Shorty murmured.</p> - -<p>"Perhaps not for maybe much time. I am in charge of you, I bring you -food and drink. The guards stay outside, should you try to break out."</p> - -<p>Our tunnel was descending now. And suddenly from the dimness to one -side, there came a murmur: "Tahn! Tahn—"</p> - -<p>A young Lei man was crouching in a shadowed recess. It was Tahn's -husband, Taro.</p> - -<p>"She has brought you, Earthmen. That is good."</p> - -<p>We crouched down with him. He was a youngish fellow, tall, slim -and powerfully built. His single draped garment exposed one bronze -shoulder. His grey-black hair was chopped at the base of his neck, with -a narrow band of bright-colored fabric tied around his forehead. With -his high-cheek bones, hawk-like nose and gleaming dark eyes he could -have been a stalwart young savage of Earth.</p> - -<p>"I want to help you," he was saying. "Your coming here fits my plans, -and believe me I have worked on them a long time. Tahn and I, making -the Radaks trust us."</p> - -<p>"Say," Shorty murmured, "you certainly are fluent with English."</p> - -<p>The young Lei's face wrinkled into a smile. "Why should I not, my wife -and I? We Lei learn things quickly. Perhaps a different mind-quality -from yours, almost at once to absorb what we hear. Ratan—he is next to -the Great Mind as leader of the Radaks—he chose Tahn and me to go on -the expedition to Earth. We were carefully watched, or we would have -escaped to warn you. It was Tahn who took care of you on the way here."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He told us then of the weird Radak-gun, with its flash of -mind-current—the weapon which probably just at this exact moment no -more than half a mile away in this maze of subterranean corridors, -Blaine was snatching from Ratan.... And Tahn told us, too, of the -Radak plot to devastate Earth.</p> - -<p>"You have some plan?" Shorty murmured.</p> - -<p>He told us then that he knew how to get into the Cavern of Machines—a -huge, guarded grotto where all the diabolic, giant mechanisms of the -Radaks were housed. The power plant of little Zelos, and the source of -the purple radiance which was bathing Earth.</p> - -<p>"If we can kill the guards and get into the Cavern—only the Great Mind -himself—or Ratan—will be there. No one else but those two are allowed -there. No one else knows the secrets of the mechanisms to operate them."</p> - -<p>"So we just get in and overcome the Great Mind himself," Shorty -commented. He gave a mock shudder with an attempt to be humorous. "All -right. Figure that's done. Then what?"</p> - -<p>Taro's plan was certainly desperate, but at least it promised the -possibility of success. "Do you know where the Earthman Blaine is?" I -demanded.</p> - -<p>Tahn said, "He is in a cave-cell. I am ordered to take him food and -drink very soon."</p> - -<p>"What weapons have you got?" Shorty asked. "Say, if you could get one -of those brain-paralyzing guns—"</p> - -<p>Taro shook his head. "Never could I even get near one. The Great Mind -always carries one—and so does Ratan. But there is no chance—"</p> - -<p>"We must get to Blaine," I said. "And then try and find Vivian and -Mack. We've all got to be together—"</p> - -<p>We planned it for a few moments more. Then cautiously Taro and Tahn led -us to a corridor intersection. "We will hide here," he said, gesturing -to another shadowed recess where the ragged rocks of the wall jutted -out in an overhang. "Tahn can go best." The young Lei turned to his -wife. "Tahn, listen. You get food and drink. You take it to Blaine's -cell. There are not always guards perhaps. You watch your chance—"</p> - -<p>"Listen!" Shorty suddenly interjected. "Maybe I'm crazy, but there's -some kind of commotion around here."</p> - -<p>We could all hear it now—a distant murmur of turmoil down one of the -side corridors. Taro nodded. "Something is wrong. And Blaine's cell is -down that way. You Earthmen wait here! I will go with Tahn. Then we -come back to you."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They were gone only a few moments. From a little distance they had -stood unnoticed, watching and listening. Blaine had escaped! He had -seized Ratan's thought-gun; turned it upon Ratan and one of the guards; -had stricken them. And had knifed another guard, and vanished.</p> - -<p>"Well! Good for Blaine," Shorty murmured. "He's smarter than all the -rest of us put together! And he's got one of those guns! Where'd he -go—"</p> - -<p>"They think perhaps out to the outer surface," Taro said. "He ran that -way."</p> - -<p>"To find Mack and Vivian!" I exclaimed. "Well, that's what we want to -do. Show us that exit, Taro."</p> - -<p>"I will go with you," the young Lei said quietly. But there was no -mistaking his shudder and the grim look on his face. "Tahn, you stay -here."</p> - -<p>"I will go with my husband," she retorted. "Taro, please—"</p> - -<p>We took her. It seemed that the commotion at Blaine's cell must have -drawn all the Radaks from these other passages. We were not discovered -as we threaded our way back, until presently we were ascending a -winding tunnel which ended at the crimson upper surface. How long it -took us to sight Mack, Vivian and Blaine I do not know. It seemed an -eternity of apprehension, as Taro and Tahn cautiously led us along -winding rocky defiles and past patches of that weird, fantastic forest. -Shorty and I saw none of the monsters. But there were many times when -suddenly, without explanation, Taro turned us from where we would have -wandered.</p> - -<p>Then we were far enough from the tunnel entrances so that we dared talk -without possibility that the Radaks would hear us.</p> - -<p>"Blaine! Blaine—where are you?"</p> - -<p>"Mack! Vivian—are you here?"</p> - -<p>It was Tahn who first saw them. We were in a cluster of rocks with a -brink ahead of us. I could see lower ground perhaps fifty feet down—a -precipitous descent close ahead of us. It chanced that Tahn was -leading, and suddenly she turned, gave a cry, and then pointed over the -brink.</p> - -<p>"There they are! Down there! Look—look at them—"</p> - -<p>We crowded to the brink. Fifty feet down this ragged wall, Blaine, -Vivian and Mack stood backed against it. An abyss was near them. And in -front of them a great crimson, python-like thing was slithering, almost -upon them now, with Blaine futilely firing his gun at it!</p> - -<p>There was nothing we could do; and for those seconds all four of us -stood staring, mute, numbed with horror. The scene on the ledge below -us was clear as though on a little stage. The monster in another second -would be upon its victims. I saw Blaine throw down his gun in despair. -His voice floated up to us.</p> - -<p>"Damn thing won't work! Got to—try to run—"</p> - -<p>Then, suddenly we saw Mack leap forward, not toward where he might -have a wild chance of climbing up our ragged little cliff-wall, but -the other way—toward the brink that dropped down to another terrace, -between the brink and the monster's slithering length. His intention -was obvious—to lead the monster over that other brink after him.... -To sacrifice himself so that his companions might escape.</p> - -<p>In the chaos of that second we saw Mack get past the monster's head and -neck. Its head turned. And then, before Mack could hurl himself down -the hundred-foot drop, a loop of the great crimson body lashed out. It -seemed that a tentacle whipped separate from the undulating snake-like -body—a tentacle that seized Mack, looped around him and flung him into -the air.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus6.jpg" width="650" height="427" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Just a ghastly second or two as Mack's whirling body came up diagonally -toward us in the air, and then fell back, into a ragged cluster of -rocks beyond the monster's tail. Horribly we could hear the thud as it -struck. For another second the great crimson head of the monster seemed -to rear, with swaying eye-beams searching. But Mack's body was hidden -by the rock-cluster.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Then, suddenly the gruesome python shape, head down, began oozing over -the brink beside it. Flowing mass of protoplasm. It thinned out as -it sagged down the hundred-foot drop—thinned until it was a narrow -ribbon—a blood-red rivulet of waterfall. Then it was all on the lower -level, gathering itself together until in a moment it was a great -congealed, quivering crimson ball with the head in the center. For -another instant it pulsated; then it bumped and rolled down a ragged -slope, reached a little patch of distant vegetation where we could -dimly see it spreading itself thinly out.... Spread like a blood-red -pool, quiescent, waiting.</p> - -<p>With Taro and Tahn, Shorty and I climbed down the ragged little -descent, joined Vivian and Blaine.</p> - -<p>"He tried to save us," the white-faced Vivian murmured.</p> - -<p>"Yes," I agreed. "We saw it."</p> - -<p>We found his broken body in the cluster of rocks fifty feet away. He -was still conscious but we thought he was dying. One of his arms hung -limp. Blood was coming from a head wound. But his pallid face was -trying to smile.</p> - -<p>"My leg and arm," he mumbled. "Can't move them."</p> - -<p>One of his legs undoubtedly was broken. As we told him that the monster -had gone his gaze seemed only on Vivian.</p> - -<p>"Thought it would kill you, Viv," he muttered. "Didn't want that." Then -he fainted. He had been trying to get up on one elbow as Vivian knelt -with an arm under his head. Then his eyes closed, and he sagged, went -limp.</p> - -<p>"We must stop that blood from his head," Tahn murmured. "And then try -and get him into one of the tunnels."</p> - -<p>Vivian jumped up. "Here's what we need—bandages." She flashed us a -little twisted smile as she tore off her waist and skirt and ripped -them into strips. "Here—bandages." She handed the strips of fabric to -Tahn. Then she grinned at me. "This underdress—not too becoming, is -it?" She gestured at the brief undergarment that now partly covered -her, and her whimsical smile broadened. "Well this time, anyway, I had -a good motive, didn't I?"</p> - -<p>Shorty and I carried the still unconscious Mack back to one of the -tunnel entrances. And Taro led us to a shadowed, cave-like little place -where we laid him down. Good luck seemed with us. We had encountered, -so far, no Radaks.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus5.jpg" width="650" height="427" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"You and Tahn will stay with him," I told Vivian. And Shorty and I -had decided that Blaine had best stay also. For once Blaine had to do -something against his will.</p> - -<p>"Think I'm too old to help you young fellows now?" he said. "All right, -maybe I am."</p> - -<p>Certainly he was in no physical condition to be much help in the -desperate venture we were planning. He handed me the Radak-gun, showed -me how to use it. I dropped it in my pocket.</p> - -<p>"Good luck to you," Blaine said.</p> - -<p>"Thanks. We'll need it," I acknowledged.</p> - -<p>Then Shorty, Taro and I left them. Taro had hidden the only weapons he -could get, near here. We found them—sheathed knives that the Lei used -in the underground fields. They were odd-shaped knives; they seemed -made of a highly polished, metallic stone. I thumbed one. It was sharp.</p> - -<p>"Very handy," Shorty commented. "Come on, Taro, let's go. Where is this -Cavern of Machines?"</p> - -<p>It was perhaps half an Earth-mile, low down in the maze of underground -passages. Shorty clutched his knife; I held the Radak-gun as we -followed Taro down the dim, descending crimson tunnel.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">V</p> - -<p>"There's one of the guards!" Shorty whispered. "See him?"</p> - -<p>I pushed Shorty back. "No, two of them! The other one's sitting down. -You and Taro keep behind me. I'll tackle them with the Radak-gun."</p> - -<p>We could see the square grey figures of two Radaks down the little -length of tunnel ahead of us. They were by an opening that seemed to -lead sharply downward, with a glow of radiance streaming up. And now in -the heavy underground silence we could hear the faint muffled thrum and -whine of mechanisms.</p> - -<p>My hand silently gripped Taro. All three of us crouched. "That's the -entrance to the Cavern of Machines?" I whispered.</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"Two guards. Are there liable to be more of them around?"</p> - -<p>Taro shook his head. "I think not. Though I cannot surely say."</p> - -<p>"The machines are operating," Shorty said. "Hear them? That means only -the Great Mind, or Ratan will be down there in the Cavern?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," the young Lei agreed.</p> - -<p>"It's most likely not Ratan," I said. "Blaine got him—struck him -insensible. Or would he be recovered by now?"</p> - -<p>Taro had no way of guessing. With an ordinary Radak the shock -would have lasted longer than this. "But Ratan's mind is -trained—developed—more powerful as you would say. He could recover -more quickly."</p> - -<p>"Are there other entrances?" Shorty asked. "They'd have guards at them. -If we make any commotion down there, and a bunch of Radaks come rushing -us—"</p> - -<p>"This is the only entrance."</p> - -<p>"Right," Shorty chuckled. "Come on then, let's finish off these -fellows." He fingered his knife. "You tackle 'em with that gun, Bob. -But if you miss, trust me—I'll slip this knife into them—"</p> - -<p>With Taro and Shorty behind me I crept soundlessly forward. In my hand -the pot bellied little Radak gun, so unfamiliar, gave me an uneasy -feeling. Suppose I should miss. An uproar from these guards might bring -dozens of others.</p> - -<p>"How close do I have to get?" I whispered to Taro.</p> - -<p>"This now—close enough."</p> - -<p>One of the Radaks was standing up, lounging with his back to the wall. -The other was lying down. To send my flash clinging to the heads of -both of them, I would have to shift my aim, and fire twice. My hand -trembled a little. Then I pressed the lever.</p> - -<p>There was that vaguely visible flash. The gun-hilt in my grip vibrated, -and at the muzzle of it there was a faint little hiss. A hit! The Radak -on the ground seemed to stiffen. He raised his head, staring blankly. -The Radak who was standing noticed it. He started, whirled around -toward us. It took all my will power to withhold my second flash for -that instant. But I did; and then as the standing figure steadied, I -fired again.</p> - -<p>"Got him!" Shorty murmured. "Good work, Bob! Come on!"</p> - -<p>We ran forward. The standing Radak was motionless, gazing with vacant -stare. Shorty dashed up to him. "Lie down, you're asleep! If you're -not, you ought to be."</p> - -<p>But the Radak did not move, just turned his empty gaze toward the sound -of Shorty's voice. I got it. "They don't speak English! Tell them, -Taro."</p> - -<p>The Lei murmured commandingly in his own language, and in a moment the -two guards were lying inert with closed eyes.</p> - -<p>"Mighty neat," Shorty whispered. "Come on—here we go."</p> - -<p>Beyond the guards an earthen ramp led sleepily downward, winding to a -circular spiral. Then presently we emerged upon a little ledge with the -great Cavern of Machines spread out before us.</p> - -<p>"Crouch down! We will see who is here," Taro whispered. There was awe -in his voice. "We must not be seen until we attack."</p> - -<p>It was a huge, vault-like cavern, with glowing roof high over our -heads, and we were about twenty feet above its lower level, with a -narrow, steep ramp leading down from near us. I saw that it was a -weird, dim grotto, lurid with swaying, prismatic glows of colored -radiance, and throbbing, humming with a myriad mechanical voices. -Distant railed terraces held frameworks of metal, where opalescent -tubes were glowing. Beams of light-radiance seemed to carry the power -from one strange mechanism to the next, like wires connecting them -in series. No Lei, no ordinary Radak, and certainly least of all us -Earthmen, could by any chance have understood the scientific details of -what we were seeing.</p> - -<p>I recall there was a convergence of beams, high up in mid-air at -the center of the cavern, where a shower of tiny electrolyte sparks -glittered like a fountain of pyrotechnics. And out of it a narrow -concentrated beam of violet-purple glow shot upward to a grid in the -ceiling—the gravitational force, doubtless, which from there was -conducted to some point above where it was hurled into Space.</p> - -<p>How long I stared, awed, I have no idea. Then I was aware of Taro -beside me, whispering, "It is the Great Mind who is down there. He has -just come into sight—down by that yellow glow."</p> - -<p>The floor of the cavern held a dozen or more of the huge mechanisms, -and in the center of them there was a throbbing space that seemed -to hold the controls of all these intricate machines. Down there in -the weird glow we could now see the lone figure of the ancient Radak -leader—shriveled and bent, he moved around, occasionally reaching to -shift some lever or make some adjustment.</p> - -<p>"He must not see us coming!" Taro whispered. His voice was tense. -And on his face now as the multi-colored glow bathed it, there was -unmistakable terror. This young Lei, like all his people, born and bred -to fear the dominance of the Great Mind—to attack that little figure, -to Taro was almost unthinkable. Taro had planned this; dreamed of it. -But faced with it now, there was only terror sweeping him, so that had -he been here alone, easily he could have turned and fled.</p> - -<p>Shorty and I had no such inhibitions.</p> - -<p>"What in the devil," Shorty murmured. "He's got a Radak-gun—sure, I've -no doubt of it. We've got to duck that. But once I get close to him—" -Shorty's gesture with his knife was significant.</p> - -<p>For minutes more we tensely waited. Then we got down the ramp without -being seen, and on the lower floor we crouched between two of the giant -whining machines.</p> - -<p>"Easy now!" I whispered. "You two—keep behind me—"</p> - -<p>I held the Radak-gun in my hand. We waited another moment; then ducked -forward and crouched again, behind a great glowing mechanism through -which two beams of colored light were passing. We were only some -twenty feet from the leader now. Close enough for my shot, or for us -to rush him. He was bending down over a glowing dial. Green light -from it streamed upward, bathed his weird mummy-like countenance so -that suddenly he seemed like some horrible ghoul intent upon a task -diabolic, gruesome.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="650" height="490" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Let him have it!" Shorty whispered. "Now's your chance!"</p> - -<p>I must confess my heart was racing, with a sudden nameless premonition -of terror. Thoughts are instant things. I tried to tell myself that -this was just a weazened old man. Helpless, with three of us about to -leap on him. Of course he was helpless! With sudden relief I saw that -he had discarded his belt. It hung on the peg of a rack, several feet -away from him—his belt, with his Radak-gun! Shorty saw it at the same -instant.</p> - -<p>"There's his gun, Bob! He can't reach it! We've got him!"</p> - -<p>Of course ... I leveled my weapon. I was sighting it ... I shall -always wonder if my racing thoughts were projected then to warn the -Radak leader. Or did he sense us in some other way? I was standing a -little out into an aisle between two big mechanisms when suddenly he -lifted his head, turned and saw me. The movement, and my own startled -reaction, spoiled my aim ... Mustn't fire until I was sure....</p> - -<p>I recall that in that split-second I was aware that the old Radak had -not moved. He was just staring at me with glittering eyes and his -shrunken grey face horrible with the intensity of his menace. He knew -of course that he couldn't reach his weapon. He didn't try....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Just a helpless, weazened old man. But as I sighted my gun I was aware -of the power radiating from him. The power of his mind, pitted now -against mine; his will commanding me to drop my weapon and my own brain -demanding my muscles to sight it, to fire it. Conflict most horrible. -It was as though every fibre of me was being outraged, seared and torn. -My nerves screaming.... And my mind was screaming—kill him! Got to -kill him now!... Don't drop the gun! Hold your fingers tight!</p> - -<p>But I could feel my fingers loosening their grip. The muzzle was -swaying. Everything seemed blurring before me, swimming into a -phantasmagoria of horror.... It was all in a second or two. I heard -Shorty mutter a startled oath beside me. But it was Taro, despite that -he must have been unutterably frightened, who kept his wits. He uttered -a grim shout, jumped to his feet, sidewise away from me.</p> - -<p>It did what Taro had hoped. For just an instant that baleful gaze left -me, fastened on Taro. Then it swung back—but in that instant I had -recovered myself, leveled the gun and fired.</p> - -<p>New horror! The Radak leader's gaze, again on me, seemed to meet the -flash of my gun in mid-air between us. I could imagine there must have -been a conflict there—a little almost soundless, almost invisible -puff of deranged vibrations. And the derangement must have been forced -backward to me. All in the flash of a thought. To my conscious mind -there was only my pressing the gun-lever, and then a bursting explosion -at my hand as the Radak-gun flew into fragments! One of them struck my -forehead; I staggered back, went down. But I was aware that Shorty, -with Taro close after him, had leaped—Shorty, with knife upraised, his -catapulting body hitting the crouching, ghoul-like figure.</p> - -<p>Shorty thinks now his knife never reached its mark. There was just the -impact of his body, knocking the weazened figure backward. The Radak -screamed a shrill, weirdly horrible cry. But it ended in a gurgle—just -for an instant, a gruesome, liquid gurgle. Then there was only Shorty's -gasp of horror.</p> - -<p>I was scrambling to my feet. I crouched, stricken, staring. Shorty had -drawn back, standing staring. And Taro too had checked his rush. All -three of us, frozen with revulsion. On the floor, weird in a green-red -glow from a nearby machine, the weazened, mummy body of the Radak lay -huddled. A thing which had been nearly all of mental quality. And now -it had encountered a physical blow, to which every atom of its weird -makeup was foreign.</p> - -<p>And what a second before had been living, solid substance now was -dissolving! The clothes sagged, deflated. A bubbling ooze was where -the face had been. Just a brief moment, and then before us the -Radak's garments lay crumpled and flat in a little pool of stenching -putrescence!</p> - -<p>I turned away, sickened. Then Shorty recovered himself. "It—that -damned thing screamed! Others will come—"</p> - -<p>"Hurry now! Smash the machines! It is what we came for—" Taro gasped.</p> - -<p>I made a leap for the control panels; then stopped, whirled around. -There was a cry from behind and above me. On a narrow, railed little -balcony which connected with the ramp down which we had come, the -figure of a Radak was standing! A tall grey shape! It was Ratan, though -I did not know who it was then. He had a knife in his hand, and he was -in the act of leaping over the rail to land upon me! I had no time to -avoid him. His body came sprawling, landed on my shoulders, bore me -down.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Simultaneously I was aware that Shorty and Taro were smashing at the -control apparatus. It crackled, tinkled like breaking glass, with -a huge flash of colored light and sparks that sent Shorty and Taro -reeling backward, dazed so that they did not see what was happening -to me. Then they were up, at it again, hurling broken fragments of -the controls at the nearby grids, tubes and prisms. And in that same -second, the multi-colored flash spread—deranged—weird current. Like -burning powder-trains it leaped everywhere around the grotto. Puffs, -sparks of fountain-glare, the hissing, whining, screeching of breaking -machines....</p> - -<p>On the floor I struggled with Ratan on top of me. He had no gun—just -a long, thin knife with polished blade that glittered as he tried to -thrust it into my throat. My own knife was gone. I reached, clutched at -the grey wrist, turning the knife so that it went past my throat. Then -I heaved upward. In the struggle Ratan dropped his knife and neither of -us could reach it. Locked together we rolled, pummeling, scrambling. -Then I knew that I had him. My fist landed on his hawk-nosed grey -face—a solid blow that made him scream with revulsion and pain.</p> - -<p>Then I had heaved him off, staggered to my feet. I seemed to be in a -cloud of yellow-green, choking, acrid vapour through which only dimly I -could see Ratan struggling erect. And there was Shorty's voice:</p> - -<p>"Bob! Bob, where are you? Got to get out of here! Taro—Taro—"</p> - -<p>It seemed that somewhere near me, Taro was coughing, choking. Then I -realized that the shape of Ratan was plunging at me through the heavy -chemical smoke. I was swaying, but I squared off, hit him solidly in -the face again. He went down, and I leaped on him, lifting his head -and shoulders, then banging his head back against the corner of a -mechanism-frame—pounding it again and again until suddenly I was aware -that it had smashed and was dripping upon me.</p> - -<p>With a shudder I cast the inert body away and leaped to my feet.</p> - -<p>"Bob! Got to get out of here! Taro—" Shorty was still shouting.</p> - -<p>Green-yellow vapour was swirling around me. Electrolyte flashes seemed -everywhere—the whole grotto, an inferno of pyrotechnics. Then I saw -the figure of Shorty staggering to help Taro from where he had fallen. -I swayed and joined them.</p> - -<p>"That ramp," I gasped. "Behind us! Come on—"</p> - -<p>We tried to hold our breath as we staggered up the ramp. Then there -seemed a little puff of breathable air. As we plunged into the exit -tunnel, for an instant I turned. The big grotto was alive with swirling -turgid smoke and flames and leaping, bursting light-fire. And a bedlam -of weird bursting sounds. The death of the monstrous Radak science, -screaming with its agony of dissolution.</p> - -<p>Coughing and choking, we ran up the tunnel, with the sounds and the -glare fading behind us; and the pure air reviving us.</p> - -<p>"All the Radaks will be after us," Shorty panted. "Faster, Taro!"</p> - -<p>Distant cries were all around us in the maze of tunnels. The alarm was -spreading everywhere. We saw a few plunging Radak shapes, but were able -to avoid them.</p> - -<p>Taro was leading us; I gripped him as we ran. "You say you know where -they keep their space-flyer?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Not far from Blaine and the others."</p> - -<p>Then we reached the girls and Blaine, who were crouching in that tunnel -recess with the still unconscious Mack. Vivian and Tahn just stared at -us white-faced, with little cries of relief.</p> - -<p>Blaine gasped, "You did it!"</p> - -<p>"We sure did," Shorty agreed. "Come on—the space-ship—"</p> - -<p>"You and I—we'll carry Mack—" I said. Shorty nodded, and we lifted -him.</p> - -<p>Carrying Mack slowed us. But his emaciated body was light. In a moment -I slung him over my shoulders, and with Shorty steadying him, we made -better speed. It wasn't far, but there were Radak figures everywhere -now. Weirdly, only one of them came near us. Shorty and Taro were -ready to attack him. The squat little shape came plunging along a side -tunnel, apparently heading for us. He seemed to be gibbering, mouthing, -then screaming. But he ignored us, running, knife in hand, until he -bashed himself into a rock....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>We ran on, and then suddenly I realized that we had emerged into that -huge underground space where first we had met the Great Mind. Taro -ran toward a wall, found some hidden mechanism. I saw, in the crimson -radiance, that by the wall a hundred yards or so away, a big slide had -opened. A small, gleaming, pot-bellied cylinder was standing there. It -came automatically out on rollers, and stopped in the open—a little -thirty foot Space-flyer. And over it, high up, the ceiling of the vast -cavern seemed to have opened; the murky purple-red of the sky was up -there.</p> - -<p>All this I saw in those few seconds. But there was far more here. -A turmoil of sounds and moving, milling figures. A scene of weird, -ghastly horror so that for a moment I stood swaying with the limp body -of Mack slung over my shoulders and my companions clustered around -me. Down the slope where the little Lei village stood under the trees -in the red gloom, a crowd of Lei were struggling. And everywhere -among them, squat grey shapes of Radaks were plunging.... Radaks -with knives and scimitar-like swords, and some with rock-chunks and -bludgeons ... Radaks screaming, running amok. I saw one lunge with -a knife at a Lei woman. The knife went into her and she fell; and the -Radak kept on going until he crashed into a tree.</p> - -<p>The Great Mind was dead. Ratan, who might have taken his place, was -dead. The Mental Force of all this little Radak world was gone. The Lei -themselves had not been under its control. For generations they had -been cowed, terrified into sullen obedience, but that was all. With -the Radaks it was different. They were born, bred and trained to be -automatons. To think what they were told to think. Mentally dominated, -controlled so that the very essence of their mind was shaped and held -together by their leader.</p> - -<p>And now they had no leader! For them, there was nothing left but mental -chaos, so that gibbering with the insanity of minds unhinged, they were -plunging here in wild, unreasoning chaos, obeying their instinct to -kill.</p> - -<p>"My people—I must help them!" Taro's unutterable horror at last found -voice. He would have plunged down the slope with his young wife after -him. But Vivian seized Tahn, clung to her. I shouted at Shorty,</p> - -<p>"Hold him! Don't let him go!"</p> - -<p>Shorty hung on to him. "No, you don't!"</p> - -<p>"You can't help them!" I protested. "And we can't operate the -space-ship! You want Earth-people to help your world—got to get back -there, we—"</p> - -<p>The words died in my throat. We all saw that none of us could get to -the Lei now, even if we had tried. A group of a hundred or more of the -screaming, gibbering Radaks had swept between us and the Lei village. -But the way to the space-ship still seemed open. We ran for it. One of -the Radaks, by chance perhaps, turned toward us; and all the ones near -him, like sheep followed him. A horde of grey, maniac Things charging -us....</p> - -<p>We got to the gleaming little cylinder with only an instant to -spare—reached it, tumbled through its doorway. I laid Mack on the -white grid of its floor. Shorty banged the door-slide, hanged it as the -bodies of the Radaks thudded against it. Taro ran for the controls and -in another instant the little ship quivered and lifted.</p> - -<p>There was a transparent bulls-eye window panel near me. For a second -I had a glimpse of horrible, snarling, maniac faces pressed against -it. Then they fell away; and in a moment we were out through the upper -opening, slanting upward with the crimson surface of little Zelos -dropping down. Then we were in space, with the brilliant, beautiful -miracle of the Universe glittering around us....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I think there is little more I need add. You have all heard and -read, of course, of the events of this past year. The secret of -space-flying! We have it now. Earth-scientists, studying the Radak -ship, had no difficulty in constructing others far larger. Fortunately -our Earth-materials proved adaptable; there was nothing vital that we -lacked. Many large ships were swiftly built, and an armed force went to -Zelos. Haste was necessary, as you will recall, for when the mechanisms -of the Radaks were smashed, it was soon found that the Crimson Comet -was plunging directly toward our Sun.</p> - -<p>J. Walter Blaine wanted no publicity when he freely gave the millions -necessary for the scientific research and the myriad activities which -went into the building of the space-ships. You all offered your own -donations, and they were refused only because Blaine felt he had earned -the privilege of financing the enterprise. He wants me now to extend -his thanks to you.</p> - -<p>Our first expedition to Zelos was when, in its Sunward plunge, it had -crossed our Earth-orbit and was at its closest point to us. And the -expedition found that no more than a thousand of the Lei had been -killed by the maniac Radaks, who in those terrible hours after our -departure, plunged around, screaming until they bashed themselves to -destruction, or were killed by the Lei.</p> - -<p>Taro and Tahn were with our first expedition to the doomed little -world, and they stayed there throughout all the several trips of the -many big ships which evacuated the Lei.</p> - -<p>I am glad that it was finally decided not to bring the Lei here to -Earth. They would have been just curiosities here; and then lost, -whirled away into the maelstrom of our huge world. Surely it was the -best of good fortune for them when our exploring ships found that Venus -was uninhabited, and with conditions for life so propitious.</p> - -<p>And now the Lei, with Taro and Tahn to lead them, are masters of a -great world of their own. With the friendly world of Earth nearest to -them. Surely we will prove a helpful, friendly, neighboring world, with -no greedy thought of anything more than that.</p> - -<p>Zelos is gone now. I was one of those who saw it go—that night about -a month ago. It was a little dot in the sky, with a great flaming -streamer of the Sun licking upward as though eager to meet it. And then -it was gone.</p> - -<p>I recall the earnest solicitations of so many of you who prayed that -Mack would get well. He wants me to thank you all again. I saw him -only last week, in the little mountain home where he and Vivian went -after their wedding trip. That astoundingly pretentious wedding they -had—well, that was because Blaine insisted on doing it. He may insist -again, if and when a layette is needed. I don't know about that. -But Mack, who now has an executive position in one of Blaine's many -industries, got their little house himself. He and Vivian remained firm -on that.</p> - -<p>And as I said at the beginning, you must see now that none of us are -glamorous heroes. We're all at our regular jobs, with the Crimson Comet -just a gruesome memory.</p> - -<p>So now, kind friends—please forget us. Except me. I'm certainly no -hero, but, well, I won't mind if you'll remember that I broadcast twice -a week on subjects of Popular Astronomy—Station WANA-NYC.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Juggernaut of Space, by Ray Cummings - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUGGERNAUT OF SPACE *** - -***** This file should be named 62416-h.htm or 62416-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/4/1/62416/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Canadian Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Juggernaut of Space - -Author: Ray Cummings - -Release Date: June 17, 2020 [EBook #62416] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUGGERNAUT OF SPACE *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Canadian Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net - - - - - - - - - - Juggernaut of Space - - Ray Cummings - - Never had the mind of man conceived so horrible a - doom as was reaching for Earth. Never had a greater - need for Earth's valiant champions been needed. - And yet the only ones who could fight the menace--were - five futile humans, prisoners on another world. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Fall 1945. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -My name is Robert Rance. You've heard of me, of course--through the -recent weird affair of the Crimson Comet, if for nothing else. It seems -to me rather ironic: for five years I have been reporting popular -science items on the split-wave band of non-visual broadcasting. -Station WANA-NYC--the main outlet of _Amalgamated Newscasters' -Association_, for whom I work. I struggled for personal publicity. -Then I was plunged--certainly entirely against my will--into the -blood-chilling, gruesome adventure which is now popularly known as "The -Death of the Crimson Comet." Out of it has come publicity beyond my -wildest dreams. And now that I've got it, I don't want it. I'm not a -hero, of dauntless, fearless courage. I'm not a scientific genius, who -has made possible to Earth the New Era of Interplanetary Travel. But -I've been called all that by broadcasting asses who are my friends. - -I'm just a plain American, who, when his life is in danger gets -frightened as the devil, fighting to get himself out of a jam, and with -not much thought of anything else. I didn't relish that Crimson Comet -business, and I don't want ever to experience anything like it again. -I'm not alone in this. There were four others in it with me. They don't -like all this public fuss being made over them any more than I do. They -weren't heroic. They just tried their best not to get killed. So on -their behalf, and my own, I'm writing this narrative of exactly what -happened to us. Not the professionally glamorized version which you've -heard so many times. Just the facts. - -The thing must have been brewing, under cover, for many months. Like a -smouldering, unnoticed fire. No one knows; we can only guess at what -happened. But looking back on it now, there were incidents, seemingly -unrelated at the time, which now I can see were significant. The first -of them was in August, 1985--about a year ago. I had just finished a -broadcast on some trivial, popular science subject, which I had tried -to make sound important to my listeners. And Dr. Johns of the White -Mountains Observatory telephoned me. I knew him quite well; he had -often steered me into little subjects for my broadcasts, but this, I -could see at once, was something different The tel-grid showed his -thin face without its usual smile. His grey hair was rumpled; his eyes -bloodshot. He looked as though he hadn't slept for much too long. - -"I thought you might want to come up and see me, Bob," he suggested. - -"Sure I will. I always appreciate your tips, Dr. Johns." - -His smile was queer. "I haven't got anything--not that you can use," -he said. "Certainly not yet. I guess I just figure I'll feel better, -talking about it. When can you arrive?" - -"I'll come right away," I told him. "Not busy tonight. I'll be there by -midnight." - -We disconnected. I was just about to leave when Shorty Dirk walked -in on me. Shorty was--and still is--connected with the _American -Newsprint Publishers_--a reporter in the Crime Division, specializing -in reporting the work of the Bureau of Missing Persons. He and I were -good friends, perhaps because we are so different. I'm big and rangy, -slow-going and easy-tempered. In college I was a good athlete, but now -this radio work was putting quite a bit of soft poundage on me which -didn't belong--poundage which, I do assure you, the Crimson Comet -business got rid of in a hurry. Like all of us five, I was something -like an undernourished greyhound when we got back. - -Shorty isn't much over five and a half feet, thin and wiry and alert--a -sort of little human dynamo; a freckle-faced fellow with a shock of -bristly red hair and a good-natured grin. - -"Where you going?" he asked. - -I told him. "I'll go with you," he said. He grinned. "I'm only here, -Bob, because I haven't got anything better to do." - - * * * * * - -We took my small flyer from the roof stage and headed north. It was -a handsome night, warm and almost cloudless with the upper air so -clear that the stars were packed solid on the purple-blue vault of the -heavens. Shorty and I didn't theorize, during the brief trip up to the -White Mountains, on what Dr. Johns might have to say. Shorty wasn't -much interested in astronomy, anyway--to him, as he often said, it was -an uninteresting enigma. He mentioned that tonight. - -"Good," I said. "Then, how is crime coming? Many people missing lately?" - -Things were dull, he assured me. Nothing but the usual run of stuff -that you couldn't write up or broadcast because nobody but a few -relatives were interested. As it happened, the Crimson Comet affair -caused five mysterious disappearances, Shorty, myself and three others. -I think I can understand now why it happened that I knew them all. I -must have been marked, through my widely broadcast popular science. -That involved Shorty, because he was so much with me. And as for -the other three--looking back on it now I realize that each of them -vanished soon after having been with me. I was being trailed and was -seized last. - -We landed on the private stage of the big Observatory about midnight -and presently were with Dr. Johns in his study. What he had to tell us -didn't seem very startling at the time. But in the light of what was -to happen, looking back on it now I can see its deadly significance. -Like a great pattern of evil, to involve disaster and death to all -the world! Grim, stealthy events creeping upon us--little things here -on Earth just involving me and those few others; and with them, giant -events mysteriously taking place out in the great vault of the stars. - -"Here at the Observatory," Dr. Johns was saying, "we thought that -somehow we must be making miscalculations. A fraction of a second in -the axial and orbital movements of the Earth, which involved the visual -movement of all the starfield. But we checked and rechecked. And then -other observatories reported it." - -The Earth's axial rotation, and its movement around the Sun apparently -were changing infinitesimally. - -"Too bad," Shorty commented. "I'm sure sorry." - -But Dr. Johns didn't smile. "There seem to be many unrelated things," -he said. "You can shrug any of them off. But then, if it once occurs to -you that they might be connected--" - -"What other things?" I asked. - -Meteorologists were admitting that the weather was peculiar. Nothing -which had not occurred before, of course--unusual, freakish storms in -many parts of the Earth. - -"And for a month now," Dr. Johns went on, "there has been noticeable a -peculiar purple radiance in the air at night." - -"Purple radiance?" Shorty echoed. "Hadn't noticed it." - -"Because it isn't visible to the naked eye," Dr. Johns retorted. "But -it has disturbed the exposure time of our photographic work. Slowed it -down. And our spectrograms show it, or at least they show its effects -so that we know if we could see it--it would be a purplish glow." - -And there was a new comet which several of the observatories recently -had located. I had heard that much--had mentioned it in one of my -broadcasts. - -"We call it a comet," Dr. Johns explained, "because there's a crimson -radiance streaming back from it as it comes in toward the Sun. But -its nucleus seems sizable--five hundred miles in diameter possibly. A -planetoid, with a radiance. You might just possibly call it that." - -"And it's just about now crossing the orbit of Mars," I said. "That was -the last report made public, wasn't it?" - -Dr. Johns nodded. "Our calculations of its orbit--made a month -ago--showed it would pass within about twenty million miles of Earth. -But that's all changed now. It's erratic." - -I was beginning to see why he was startled. This new Crimson Comet -wasn't obeying the normal laws of Celestial Mechanics. It was swimming -erratically in Space. Could it be a solid body as big as five hundred -miles in diameter? Solid enough to be the cause, by its proximity, of -the Earth's axial and orbital disturbances? - -"And this purple radiance," Dr. Johns said soberly, "we've just been -wondering if that could be coming from the comet." - - * * * * * - -I need not specify all the weird theories that Dr. Johns and I talked -of that evening. With me, a broadcaster of popular science as lurid -always as I could make it, weird, gruesome theories came natural. But -with him, a man of cold logic and careful science--well, it must have -been a premonition. Was this Crimson Comet hurling a lethal radiance at -us, attacking the Earth? A tiny, inhabited world of diabolic science -enabling it to direct its own course through Space, peopled with weird -enemies coming at us now, bent on destroying us? - -You couldn't make such speculations public. People would laugh. But -some wouldn't. Some would believe you, and go into a wild panic. And -Dr. Johns had sent for me--a sort of kindred spirit in the concocting -of wild tales. - -"You two, say nothing of this," he warned us. "And if it goes on, -you can announce it, Bob." He shrugged again, and tried to laugh -lugubriously. "I feel like an idiot, talking about the end of the world -with a couple of news-hounds. And yet, somehow, I also feel that maybe -everyone of us on Earth is in more deadly danger than he ever was -before!" - -And we certainly were! - -That was the general gist of our talk that night with Dr. Johns. I -never found out more from him--I had no time. The thing struck at me -four days later. During those four days, it happened that quite by -chance I met the three other people who were destined to be plunged -with Shorty and myself into adventure. The first was Peter Mack. I -was walking at night in Washington Square, in New York City--small -remaining tradition of little old New York. To me it's like a Monks' -Garden, flowered, tree-lined rectangle enclosed by the massive building -walls with the canyon of Fifth Avenue running into it. - -The night was hot and clear. The little tent of blue over the Square -was star-filled. I chanced to sit down for a moment on a bench. - -"Got a light?" There was a young fellow on the bench with me. He -shifted toward me. He was a thin, lanky fellow about my own age, -hatless, with the starlight on his sparse, rumpled sandy hair. A -slack-jawed fellow, with shabby clothes. He had a grimy cigarette butt -between his fingers. - -"I can do better than that," I smiled. I gave him a cigarette and -lighted it for him. - -"Thanks." He would have turned away, but I stopped him. I don't know -why, but there seemed something about him that was likable. He needed -a shave badly; his clothes were torn. I had a look at his eyes, -red-rimmed, bloodshot. Just a down-and-outer on a park bench. But you -don't see many of them these days. - -"Maybe you haven't got a job," I said. "I can tell you a dozen -places--easy work too--in case you're a stranger in town." - -"I'm not," he said. "Thanks for the cigarette. I'm just minding my own -business." - -I shrugged; and as he gave me a resentful look and shifted back to his -own end of the bench, I let him alone. - -I know now a lot of things that were the matter with Peter Mack, but -he has asked me not to go into details. It isn't important anyway; -resentfulness at a girl; the escape mechanism of too much drink; -trouble with the authorities in a lot of minor ways. And then a sort -of sullen resentment at everything and everybody. A derelict who could -salvage himself but he didn't want to. - - * * * * * - -Anyway, that was Peter Mack. And then there was Vivian La Marr. I met -her back stage at the _Gayety_ with Shorty who was there to see the -stage manager who was to be a witness in some trivial crime-affair that -Shorty was reporting. This Vivian La Marr was the main reason why the -_Gayety_ was having trouble with the Anti-Vice League and was about -to lose its license. She came up to me back stage--a lush, artificial -blonde, heavy with makeup; with an amazing expanse of flesh smooth as -satin, and a negligible tinseled costume that the Anti-Vice League did -not like at all but which pleased the _Gayety's_ customers very much. - -"You're Robert Rance," she said. "I saw your picture an' wasn't you -televized a few times." - -I agreed that was so. - -"I also heard one of your astronomy lectures," she added with a wry -grimace. "I was wonderin' how a guy like that could live with himself." -She looked me up and down. "Now I see you ain't so bad," she said. She -was grinning. - -"Much obliged," I said. "Maybe I can teach you astronomy some time!" - -"From you I would be glad to learn anything," she retorted, mockingly. -We were standing by the stage door where it was cooler, and a moment -later she was called back on the stage. - -That was Vivian La Marr. The other person who was destined to be -involved with us was J. Walter Blaine, the International Financier. I -interviewed him at his Fifth Avenue Club. He tells me now that I may -say what I like concerning my impression of him that first time I met -him. So I will be absolutely frank. - -A man of multi-millions and international importance makes many -friends, and inevitably many enemies. Seldom can he know what people -really think of him. His enemies exaggerate the worst, and his friends -mostly fawn. Blaine's personal reputation, by hearsay, had reached me, -of course. I had no expectation of liking him, and, very frankly, I -didn't. I found him a big man, as tall as myself, heavy, portly from -easy living. But I must say his appearance was impressive--a big mane -of shaggy hair, a rather handsome, large-featured face, keen dark eyes -under heavy brows, a jutting chin. - -He was playing chess with a fellow club member and I sat down to -watch. I know something about chess and I think his playing very well -displayed his character. He won, with skill of aggressive attack. But -there was about it something you didn't like. His incisive moving of -his men, as though there could be no doubt that it was the correct -move; and his whole attitude made you hope it wasn't. It was a quite -informal game. Once Blaine made an obvious, rather silly mistake, -exposing a piece. His opponent offered to have him take it back. He -didn't; he pretended it was what he wanted to do, taking the loss -rather than admit his error. - -Then he was finished and turned to me. I was there to interview him -for the Editor of a booklet being issued by the Royal Astronomical -Society of London. It seems that the Society was issuing a booklet with -little character sketches of the people from whom they had obtained -donations--sort of a tribute of thanks. I was commissioned to write the -one on Blaine. - -"Did they tell you how much I gave them?" he demanded of me now. - -I shook my head. - -"No," I said. - -His smile was ironic. "I gave them a hundred pounds. What they wanted, -and expected, was ten thousand. So now you'll write something very nice -about me which they hope will flatter me so I'll give them more. Don't -bother, young man." - -Blaine was a bachelor. My first impression of him was that he was doing -some woman a favor by keeping himself in that category. - -So much for J. Walter Blaine. - -It was the next night that the weird thing struck at me. I was walking -along the edge of the park, alone on my way to the mid-town office of -Amalgamated Newscasters. The street was fairly brightly lighted. I -recall that there chanced to be no pedestrians near me, just an empty -length of grey-white stone pavement in front of me, with the park on -one side. And quite suddenly it was as though I had stepped through -a black door into nothingness! I could have been stricken blind, yet -it was not that, for in another split-second I could see a dim, red -radiance and hear voices. Then I could see the shapes of people--three -men and a woman--stumbling like myself on a strange earthy ground here -in the red darkness. - -"Look! Here comes another one of us!" It was a terrified man's voice, -vaguely familiar. - -"My Gawd, it's the handsome astronomer! _I_ know him!" The voice of -Vivian La Marr. - -And then there was Shorty's voice! "Bob! Bob Rance!" I could feel him -gripping me and there was the vague outline of his frightened white -face at my shoulder. "Bob! Tell us--what's happened to all of us?" - -And Vivian cried: "Hang onto him! There he goes!" I was trying to speak -but my tongue was thick, my throat dry and congested. - -Things were dim and hazy in my mind; and I could feel the cool -blankness stealing through my muscles. The touch of hands on my arms -faded, until at last there was no more sensation. I made one last great -effort to bring myself out of the fog. - -Then I felt myself falling into a soundless blackness. - - - II - -I think I did not quite lose consciousness. I was aware that I had -fallen to the earthy ground, with Shorty and Vivian bending over me. -My head was roaring; I was bathed in cold sweat. Then I began to feel -better, trying to sit up, with Shorty's arm holding me. - -"You're all right now, Bob? Can't you speak?" - -"Yes. I--guess so." - -Whatever had happened which had brought me here when an instant ago, it -seemed, I was walking alone by the park, none of us could imagine. The -identical experience had happened to Shorty, to Vivian La Marr; and to -Peter Mack, and J. Walter Blaine. - -"But--where are we?" I demanded, when in another moment I was strong -enough to struggle upright in the crimson glowing darkness. - -"Damned if we know," Shorty said. It seemed a sort of underground -grotto. I could begin to make out its rocky walls and ceiling now, with -that glow like a crimson phosphorescence streaming from them. One by -one my companions had found themselves here. Blaine was the first. Then -at intervals it seemed as though the wall across the grotto had opened -and Shorty, Vivian and Mack came stumbling in, standing an instant, -dazed, and then falling, as I had fallen, almost in a normal faint. - -"No way of getting out of this damned place," Shorty was saying. "The -rock-wall over there moves like a door, but we haven't been able to -open it." - -How much time had passed since we were stricken with this weird thing, -none of us could guess. Suddenly I was startled. My clothes were too -big for me. My body felt thin; I had lost twenty or thirty pounds. And -in the dim crimson glow now I could see Mack, Vivian and Blaine fairly -well. All of them thinner than I remembered them, with faces drawn and -haggard and big glowing smouldering eyes. And we men had a growth of -beard. - -Weeks could have passed! Vivian laughed lugubriously as she met my -startled stare. "De-glamorized," she said. "I feel like a lost alley -cat." She was clad in a thin, summer street dress. Her lush lissome -curves were gone so that it hung drably on her. The vivid artificial -blonde hair was darkish at the roots; it fell in a tangled mass to -her shoulders. Her makeup was gone; her lips pallid. "We're all about -starved to death, if you ask me," she added. - -"He brought us food a while ago," Blaine put in. - -"Try to eat it," Mack said. "There's some of it over by the wall. If -that's what we've been living on, no wonder we're starved." - -"He? Food?" I stammered. - -Since Blaine had found himself here, what seemed like perhaps twelve -hours had passed. Our captor had come twice. They had only seen him -dimly. - -"But he's human--semi-human, anyway," Shorty said. "And he seems to -talk English a little." - -"Look!" Vivian suddenly murmured. "Here he comes again." - -The red glow across the cave for an instant brightened. It seemed as -though a rock had slid aside and closed again. A dim upright shape -moved toward us; stopped and stood regarding us with eyes that gleamed -green, smouldering in the dimness. - -"The Great Mind--ready--see you soon," the figure's weird, guttural -voice said. - -I moved forward, unsteadily on my feet. "I want to talk to you," I -said. I could see him now, quite plainly. A man? I suppose you could -call him that. He was about five feet tall, squat and square, with -high square shoulders, a rectangular torso and two legs which seemed -encased in a flexible metal grey fabric. His head was round, set upon a -triangular neck with its apex under his chin--a bullet head, hairless, -with a weird, box-like face, square-chinned and broad square nose. His -two arms, long and powerful-looking, dangled at his sides. - - * * * * * - -This, we were soon to learn, was a Radak. I recall my first clear -impression that there was about him a queer sense of power. And -something else, mysterious, yet even more apparent. An automaton-like -quality. It was as though here were an individual who was only acting -his role as a tiny part of some great, organized thing. A cog in a -machine. The German Nazis of my father's boyhood, must have been -like that. And here with these Radaks of the Crimson Comet it seemed -intensified to be almost gruesome. You could not tell why, but you -could sense it. Human individuals who lived only to do what they were -told. A great mental force dominating them from birth to death, so that -they thought what they were told to think; only did what they were told -to do. - -This Radak answered our questions now; he seemed willing enough to -talk, though in many ways his knowledge of our language, newly absorbed -by his weird brain, was inadequate. I think it best to summarize -briefly here, the total of what we learned and saw of the strange -little world and its people. In actuality we were destined to see very -little. Doomed little world! And since its death now, as you all know, -most of its secrets will forever remain a mystery. - -It was some five hundred Earth-miles in diameter, doubtless of immense -density because we were not aware of much change of gravitational -force. Of its past history, no one knows much. Somewhere out in -Interplanetary Space it must once have had a normal orbit. I shall -explain more of that later. - -Two human races were here now. The Radaks--there were perhaps something -like a thousand or two of them--were the rulers. The others were the -Lei--a primitive, gentle people, no more than slaves to the dominating -Radaks. Nature always had been cruel, uncompromising, here on Zelos. -(Which was the word their native language seemed to call their world.) -Both Radaks and Lei lived always in great underground caverns with -which this section of the surface was honeycombed. Above them, on the -outer surface, weird storms and erratic extremes of heat and cold were -prevalent. And out there strange monsters roamed--the Deathless Things, -as they were called, since it was impossible to kill them. Creatures -of indescribable horrible quality who seemed unwilling to come into -the confines of the underground corridors and grottos, so that all -the humans were of necessity driven here, eking out a drab and grim -existence. - -How the strange science of the Radaks developed will forever remain -a mystery. Perhaps it was brought here from some other planet. -Despite the science, life here was primitive--a struggle for the bare -necessities. Queerly enough, the Radak science seemed not concerned -with better living. They had a few small space-fliers--the secret of -interplanetary travel was known to them. Perhaps only recently--that -seems rather certain. Beyond that, there was nothing save the weird, -mysterious mechanisms by which at last they had been able to control -the space-movements of their tiny world. It was all here, in what they -called the "Great Cavern of Machines." Shorty and I were there for a -brief time--an unforgettable time of horror. - -"The Great Mind will see us soon?" I was saying now to this Radak who -stood stiff and stolid beside me. "Who--what is that?" - -We were soon to see. Another Radak appeared, motioning us imperiously -to follow him. Neither of these fellows seemed to have any weapons on -them, though of course there was no way of telling. Shorty nudged me, -muttering something about starting a fight. - -"You're crazy," I whispered. "We'd be killed." - -"The Great Mind--want see you now," one of the Radaks said. He led us, -and we followed him, with the other Radak behind us, out into a dim -rock-corridor gleaming with that same crimson phosphorescence. - -The banker, Blaine, pushed past me. "I'll attend to this," he said. -"This Ruler, whoever he is, he can be bought. I'll get him to take us -back to Earth--promise him riches--" - -The ragged, cadaverous Mack gave Blaine a glance of contempt. "I guess -it's strange to you, not being able to buy everything with your money, -isn't it?" he commented. - -A distant murmur of voices sounded ahead of us now, and we could see -where the light-glow widened as the corridor emerged into another -grotto. More Radaks were around us now, herding us with their stiff, -jerky movements, jabbering with their strange guttural voices. The -murmur ahead of us grew louder; then we emerged from the tunnel. - - * * * * * - -It was at first almost like being above ground--a huge grotto with -red-glowing ceiling high up, dim in the crimson haze. To the sides the -precipitous rock-walls widened rapidly out. Ahead of us, down a ragged, -undulating slope, there was only a red haze of distance. There seemed -to be distant fields, with things growing in them. There was a spindly -blue and red stalk-like vegetation growing like trees perhaps to a -height of a hundred feet. And off to the left, under the trees, there -were mound-shaped little buildings. - -We were on a broad level space at the top of the slope. A hundred or -more Radaks were here, some crowding at us, but most standing stiff, -gazing at us with gleaming, animal-like eyes. And now I saw Radak women -and children among them--the women broader-hipped, narrower shouldered. -But they were all cast in the same mold--even the children stood at -attention, like rows of little statues waiting for something to move -them, with only their eyes in motion. - -Most of the murmuring voices were further down the slope. A crowd of -figures milled about, down there, trying to see us better. A thousand -perhaps. The Lei, the slaves of this little world. Certainly they -seemed far more human than the Radaks--slim and slight, and some of -them as tall as Shorty. They were dressed in simple flowing fabric -garments. A bronzed-skinned people, the women with long-flowing hair. - -"You come--this way," the Radak said. "Now--you stand still--the Great -Mind speak to you." - -Ruler of the Crimson Comet. He sat on a sort of stone throne with a -leafy canopy over him. Our captors shoved us forward until we stood -in a wavering line, all of us staring blankly at this Being whose -mentality encompassed and dominated every living human on his tiny -world. He looked as though once he had had the aspect of a Radak. But -that perhaps was a hundred or two hundred Earth-years ago. He sat -now with his shriveled, wrinkled grey body small as a child, encased -in a single garment of woven fabric. His round head, devoid of hair, -wobbled on a spindly neck. Skin like shriveled grey parchment covered -his shrunken bony face giving him a mummy-like appearance of immense -age. His shiny, smooth-grey skull seemed bloated by the pulsating -brain-tissue within it. It bulged in places, with worm-like knots under -the scalp, dilating, quivering, as his huge green-glowing eyes regarded -us. - -Then he spoke, slowly with a measured, sonorous voice of weird -sepulchral tone. And what he said--it was as though here we faced -a mental power too great to resist; as though there could be no -question but that his thoughts must be our thoughts. I felt it with -a sudden strange shudder--a radiance of thought from him, beating -down, destroying whatever was within me of independent individualism. -And the realization swept me; if I yielded to this radiance--these -thought-waves, whatever they might be, then all that was Robert Rance -would be gone. I would be nothing but an automaton. - -He was saying, "You will listen. There are things I shall explain to -you Earthmen. I have sent to Earth and brought you here--because each -of you has a knowledge of many things on Earth that I wish to know." - - * * * * * - -I listened, numbed, somewhat perhaps as though hypnotized. In this -Radak ruler's judgment, Blaine the banker, Mack the derelict, Shorty, -myself and Vivian--the sum total of the myriad things that were stacked -in our brains--were what now must go into his. Certainly a varied, -representative strata of Earth-knowledge. - -"You want to learn everything we know?" Blaine suddenly said. "How can -you do that? Suppose we don't want to teach you? And why do you want to -learn it? What are your plans? What I want to know is--do you realize -who and what I am, on Earth?" - -Of us all, undoubtedly the dominating nature of J. Walter Blaine made -him best able to resist that weird mental force that was engulfing us. -Yet his manner, his querulous, arrogant questions under these strange, -unearthly conditions here on the Crimson Comet certainly were fatuous, -childish. Mack gave a short, disagreeable laugh. - -"On Earth, okay," Mack muttered. "But you don't amount to much here." - -"Money of course, won't mean anything to you," Blaine was saying. "But -I have other things on Earth--things you would want. Look here, if -you'll send all these people away, I'll have a talk with you. I'll--" - -He got no further. It seemed that a look of wonderment was upon the -shriveled, ancient grey face. The eyes were darting little green fires. -The measured voice said, "I shall attend to you later--" And then -droned into the Radak tongue. Four of the squat little men marched upon -Blaine, seizing him. - -"What in the devil--stop that!" Blaine remonstrated. There was a -scuffle beginning. I recall that I shouted, - -"Blaine! Take it easy! You'll be killed!" - -Amazing power of these squat little men! A claw-like hand was clapped -over Blaine's mouth; his flailing arms and kicking legs were pinned by -the Radak's clutches; and then they picked him up and carted him away. - -"I shall begin with you, Peter Mack," the Radak ruler said quietly. -"Come forward, bend before me." - -For a second Mack hesitated, flinging Shorty and me a questioning -glance. But we had nothing to offer. Then the shabby, lanky figure of -the bearded Mack shambled forward, guided by two Radaks until he was -standing with head bent before the Ruler. Down the slope the murmurs of -the crowd of Lei rose into a babble. The milling throng of slave-people -a hundred yards or so from us crowded curiously forward to see Mack -better. There was a sudden, low-voiced command from the Radak Ruler. A -dozen or more of the squat, grey Radaks ran at the Lei, cuffing them, -knocking them back ... I saw a young Lei girl, slim, with flowing -white and tawny hair framing her face. The little automaton Radak ran -at her, struck her in the mouth so that the blood spurted out. - -And through it all, near me a row of Radak children stood stiffly -at attention, motionless, with only their round green eyes turning -sidewise to watch the scene. - -Then the ancient Radak Ruler's smouldering gaze was upon Mack's head. -An awed silence fell over the scene as Mack stood motionless. Who shall -say by what weird and gruesome process Mack was now being sapped! No -one on Earth knows what a thought is. No one can say what is within our -brain cells to constitute knowledge. But something is there, something -in our conscious and subconscious minds upon which our memory can draw. -And we do know that thought is a wave of vibration--an infinitely -tiny, infinitely rapid vibration. A thing that at least has a tangible -entity. And this Radak's mind now was drawing, sapping from Mack. - -A minute. Five minutes. In the tense silence, I felt Shorty clutch at -me, heard him mutter: "God, it's weird!" - -Mack now was drooping. A mental agony, rasping his nerves now, drawing -vitality from him so that he drooped, swayed, and suddenly let out -a groan. Mental anguish, with screaming nerves translating it into -physical pain. - -"It's torture!" Vivian murmured. "Look at him--stop it! Stop it!" - -Mack had fallen to the ground, writhing now, mumbling with futile hands -clawing at his face and head as though to pluck away that damnable, -torturing gaze. But still, calmly, inexorably the green-eyed, monstrous -little Radak held him--this shriveled Radak Ruler, avidly, greedily -drawing in the knowledge of Mack's past life--those myriad little -things of Earth-life stored within Mack's brain. Surely it must have -been a torture most horrible. - - * * * * * - -Shorty and I were starting to leap forward in protest. But Vivian was -ahead of us, raging, rushing heedlessly at the old Radak. She almost -reached him. She was screaming, "You--you rotten damn Thing--you--" - -Her hand went up to strike him. It was all a sudden chaos, just a few -seconds. Radaks caught Shorty and me; with almost machine-like strength -their arms pinned us. I think I yelled at Shorty not to struggle. In -that same second, I saw Vivian's arm with clenched fist trying to hit -the Radak Ruler, but a little squat grey figure standing guard there, -jumped and seized her. It was an amazing tableau. At the threatened -blow, the Ruler shrank back. His whole little body quivered, pulsated; -and on the weird, almost unhuman face, there was a look, not of fear, -but of strange revulsion--as though the threat of that physical blow -were something too horrible to contemplate. - -"Vivian! Vivian--you--they'll kill you! Run--Vivian, run--" - -Mack was staggering to his feet, stumbling, half falling. But he -reached Vivian, clutched her. Both of them were confused, dazed so that -all they could do was stand there, holding onto each other. I saw Mack -gazing defiantly at the oncoming Radaks--Mack who on Earth probably -wouldn't have lifted a hand to help anyone, ready now to fight to -protect this girl. - -"You will all--stand--away from them." It was the Ruler's quiet, -measured voice. And abruptly I saw that his shriveled hand had gone -to his belt. A weapon was hanging there--a little pot-bellied black -cylinder. His fingers shifted it, seemed aiming it at Vivian and Mack. -Shorty and I were struggling, but the Radaks held us. And we were both -shouting. Then there was a soundless, almost invisible flash, just a -vague spitting glow of light from the little cylinder. It leaped and -for a second clung upon Mack and the girl. They seemed to stiffen. Just -that; nothing else. Still clutching each other they stood transfixed, -and on their faces there was a blankness, a strange emptiness. - -"You will walk together, hand in hand," the Ruler's soft voice was -droning. "One of my Radaks will lead you to the upper exit. And then -you will walk together alone--out into the Realm of the Deathless -Things." - -He added something in his own language. A little Radak moved in front -of Mack and Vivian now. Hand in hand they were standing docile, and -then they were following the Radak--following him with slow measured -steps, their faces blank, their eyes staring straight ahead of them. -Like somnambulists, walking in their sleep. - -"Good Lord," Shorty murmured. "That could be the way we were abducted -on Earth! Do you suppose--" - - * * * * * - -His words were cut off. The Ruler had given another command. The -Radaks gripping us were pulling us away--shoving us back into the dim -crimson tunnel from which they had brought us. I turned to look behind -me. The stiff figures of Mack and Vivian still were visible, walking -in a trance, following the square, box-like little Radak who marched -silently ahead of them. For a moment they wound along the edge of the -slope; then the crimson murk of radiance enveloped them and they were -gone. - -Roughly Shorty and I were shoved along the tunnel by our captors. Then -a rock panel slid aside. We were shoved in, and the panel slid closed. - -"Well," Shorty murmured. "That's that. We're in a jam, Bob--a damn -weird jam." - -It was soundless in here, and darker than out in the main open grotto. -But still there was that dim crimson glow. We were in a small cave-cell -now. The air was hot, fetid, earthy. Presently we could see a little -better. There was nothing but black, spongy ground, glowing red rock -walls and a rock ceiling close over us. In the dimness I fumbled, -feeling the wall, trying to find the crevice of the sliding door panel; -but could not. - -Time passed. Shorty and I both realized now that we were weak and faint -from hunger--not altogether the hunger from missing a meal or so, but -the depletion of long under-nourishment. Together we lay down on the -fibrous ground. I think at that moment I was more despairing than ever -before in my life. I seemed unable to cope with even the thought of -what we might possibly plan. I closed my eyes. I seemed just to want to -drift into the blessed relief of sleep. - -"This is one jam we might not get out of, Bob," Shorty murmured -presently. - -"Yes, looks so." - -Then suddenly both of us were galvanized into alertness. The door-panel -was sliding open with a little rasp and an influx of brighter red glow. -Outside in the corridor we saw a group of Radaks on guard. But none of -them came in. They moved aside and a figure came past them--a Lei girl. -Her slim body was draped in a bluish garment of thatch. Her long tawny -hair flowed down over her shoulders. She was carrying a slab on which -there was food and drink for us. - -Then she set the slab on the ground near us. She was between us and the -door, almost a silhouette but I could see that her hand was at her lips -and her glowing eyes seemed warning us to be silent. - -For an instant she leaned close toward me. "I am Tahn--the wife of -Taro, the Lei." Her voice barely whispered it. "You say nothing. I -come again--with Taro's plan to help you! We would save you and your -Earth--if we can!" - -Silent, Shorty and I just stared. Then she had turned and was gone. The -rock panel slid closed upon us. - - - III - -I must explain now what was happening to Mack and Vivian as they -afterward told it to me. Mack recalls quite clearly that moment of -dazed, numbed anguish when he writhed on the ground with the horrible -sapping gaze of the Radak Ruler upon him. Then he heard Vivian scream, -saw her rushing at the shriveled old Radak. - -He called, "Vivian! Run--they'll kill you--" - -He found himself staggering to his feet, stumbling until he was -by her side. He felt her clutch him, both of them standing there, -numbed and dazed, terrified, with the feeling that the rushing Radaks -would instantly kill them. He remembers that the girl and himself -took a stumbling step forward. To Mack it was like stumbling through -a suddenly appearing black curtain of emptiness. Just an abyss of -soundless nothingness, except that there seemed still to be Vivian's -clutch on his arm. No, it was her hand holding his as they stood -peering at a distant blur of red radiance. - -"Viv--where are we? What happened?" - -"Pete--I'm frightened--can't--see anything--" - -But the red radiance was growing, spreading to dispel the blank empty -darkness so that in a moment he could see the drab, disheveled form -of the girl beside him, her moist, cold hand convulsively clutching -his, and the red light on her pallid, terrified face. And in the -distance now there were outlines--a sort of red line that looked like a -shimmering cliff with jagged spires upstanding in a row. - -"Vivian--everything's gone--the Radaks--we're not where we were--Bob -and Shorty--gone--" - -The red glow in a moment had brightened to be far more luminous than -they remembered it in the caverns. Obviously there was a sky overhead -now--a lurid, murky, blood-red haze of infinite distance. This was -the outer surface of the little planetoid. The Realm of the Deathless -Monsters! Mack realized it with a shudder of terror. He and Vivian -now could see that they were standing upon a little rise of ground, -in what could have been called a forest. Everywhere great stalks of -spindly blue and grey vegetation towered into the air. Growing things -of fantastic shape, woven in places to be a solid jungle. Or again -there were open glades of rocky ground--buttes and little spires, small -ravines and crevices. All of it bathed in crimson, as though here were -a bloody landscape of unutterable horror. The horror of things not yet -seen ... things lurking-- - -"Oh Pete, what can we do?" Hungry and faint she swayed against him. But -in the blood-red light she was trying to smile. "You tell us what we -ought to do--I will help us do it, Pete. I'm not--not afraid." - -But the terror of despair was clutching at both of them. Mack tried to -gather his wits. Alone here on an alien world. Could they find food and -drink? Wander here, until some ghastly monster engulfed them? Or should -they try to get back underground? Why? To have the murderous Radaks -fall upon them and kill them? - -But the will to live in every human is very strong. No one will lie -down and just hopelessly wait for death. - -"Viv--those cliffs over there--cliffs with the spires--there ought to -be tunnels maybe at the bottom of them. If we could get back--maybe get -to Bob and Shorty--" His voice trailed away. It all seemed so hopeless. - -Then he felt the girl clutch at his arm. "Look! Maybe that's water? I'm -so thirsty--" - -"I see it. Maybe it is. Come on." - -In a nearby open glade, surrounded by stalks of the towering fibrous -vegetation, what could have been a shallow pool of water was spread on -the open rocks. A little pool, twenty feet or so in diameter. Rivulets -extended off to the sides of it in crevices of the rock-surfaces. It -was quite shallow, seemingly only a few inches deep. The red radiant -glow that suffused everything stained it like blood, but it was -translucent so that the rocks showed through it. - -Was it water? As they approached, Vivian stepped over one of the -branching rivulet arms. The translucent red stuff suddenly lifted from -the rocks, the little tentacle arm of it wrapping itself around her -ankle! - - * * * * * - -The girl screamed. In a panic Mack reached down, plucking at the red -mass. Ghastly horror! It was like quivering, sticky glue. Frantically -he tore at it. Warm, pulsating, protoplasm. It stuck to his fingers, -greedily fastening upon his flesh until he wiped it away. Vivian, -too, was frantically flailing at the stuff. And in that second Mack -was aware that the whole twenty-foot spread of it on the rocks was in -motion now--rolling itself up from the rocks, congealing, gathering -itself into a great circular mass. Huge, eight-foot ball of blood-red, -pulsating protoplasm. Yet now it seemed there was a nucleus, a little -central part, more solid than the rest, suddenly growing to look almost -like a head and face in the center of the mass. Red-gleaming eyes; a -sucking mouth, yawning. - -All this Mack saw in a horrified second or two while still he was -flailing to cast away the broken, pulpy arm of the monster. And he saw -now that the great ball of it was rocking. Then it started to roll and -bump toward them! - -"Vivian! Run--good Lord, here it comes!" - -They fled. But behind them it was coming, gathering speed, bumping and -squishing over the rocks. Mack tried to keep his wits. The monstrous -thing was only twenty feet behind them now. And as it rolled, it was -expanding. A lashing ball twice as high as their heads. Then ahead of -them Mack saw a narrow pass between two huge rocks--a space some three -feet wide. He shoved Vivian into it--a space too small for the monster -to follow. It was a crevice only some ten feet long. They dashed -through it. - -Mack turned to see what the crimson Deathless Thing would do. It had -hit the rocks, and now it was oozing through the narrow space--thin red -streamer of protoplasm feeding itself through the crevice. Mack and -Vivian had fled to one side, and as the jet of red pulp came through, -out on the other side it rolled itself again into a ball--ghastly -thing that kept on going down the slope! In a moment it was a hundred -feet away. Panting, Mack clutched his companion and they stared. The -bumping, rolling circular mass had reached a patch of forest. It -slowed; stopped. - -"Pete, look!" The girl's terrified, awed voice murmured it. "Look at it -now!" - -There in the forest glade the monstrous crimson ball was sagging, -flattening, spreading itself out into a thin, translucent layer on the -rocky ground. Then it was motionless, quiescent, waiting. - -"Well!" Mack breathed. "At least we know now what to avoid! We--" - -But again Vivian gripped him. "What's that over there?" Her shaking -hand gestured to one side. It was an upright blob moving in a patch of -trees. A tree hid it; then it showed again. It stopped, seemed to turn -upon itself. Still upright. Then again it moved. - -Suddenly Mack gasped, "A man! Look--see it now--a man--why--why it's -Blaine!" - -Startled relief was in his voice. The figure came to another open -space, where the crimson glow in the air showed it plainly. It was -Blaine. He was moving along, gazing around as though searching. - -"Blaine! Blaine!" Mack called. - -The banker turned at the voice; saw Mack and Vivian who now were -running toward him. "You Mack--Vivian--you're safe--" - -"Yes, sure!" It was a blessed relief to Mack. - -"I've been looking for you," Blaine called. He was running to meet -them. "And I've got something--something important! A weapon--" - -The three reached each other. Blaine and Mack gripped hands. Then -suddenly Vivian gasped: "Another! Another of those Things--" - -Out among the trees beyond where Blaine had been a moment before, a -slithering red shape was visible. Another of the Deathless Things which -soundlessly had been stalking Blaine. Like a huge thirty-foot crimson -python it was sliding through the vegetation. Its neck and head came -up, reared up as for a second it stopped, peering with red-green eyes -seeking its prey. Then it lowered its head and came slithering rapidly -forward! - - * * * * * - -I must go back now for just a moment to recount what had happened to -Blaine, from that moment when the Radak guards hustled him away from -their shriveled ancient ruler. Ignoring his protests, he was shoved -along a corridor, thrown into a cave-cell and its door-slide closed -upon him. But he wasn't alone there for long. Presently the slide -opened again and a figure came in. It was obviously a Radak, but of -somewhat a different type. The same square, powerful look. But this one -was taller, almost as tall as Blaine. Grey-skinned, lean and muscular. -He seemed fairly young, thirty Earth-years perhaps. - -"I have come for to talk to you," the visitor announced. He sat stiffly -on a rock by a wall of the cave. His grey-black woven garment swished -as he motioned Blaine to sit on the ground before him. "You are very -interesting to me. Sit down." - -"Thanks. I'll stand," Blaine said. "You speak my language very well." - -"That I should." The Radak's smile made his strange face wrinkle into -a grimace. "I am Ratan. Our Great Mind sent me to your Earth. I picked -you Earthmen, and ordered you seized. I will tell you about that. You -can be very helpful to us, I am thinking. Perhaps especially so. I am -commanded to tell you our plans." - -Carefully Blaine listened to the strange things this Ratan quite calmly -was telling him. With their weird mechanisms, the Radaks now were -directing their tiny world through Space, toward our Earth. Already -they were bathing Earth with a radiance which was disturbing the -Earth's axial and orbital rotations--that vague, dim purple haze which -Dr. Johns had described to Shorty and me. Then when Zelos was closer to -Earth, the vibratory beam would be intensified. - -The Earth would be drawn from its orbit. Engulfed in this weird -gravitational force, it would follow Zelos back from the Sun--out into -Interplanetary Space.... The abduction of the Earth! Blaine knew -little of science, but enough to realize what soon would happen on -Earth.... - -"Storms--the disturbance of all your atmospheric pressures--" Ratan -was saying with his ironic smile, "that will very soon kill many of -your people. And then will come the congealing cold. Certain it is that -human life on your Earth will not withstand it." - -Our atmosphere, not adapted to insulate the cold of Space-- - -There was no need for this Ratan to picture for Blaine the wild -devastation of Earth. "Perhaps even before we have drawn you out to the -orbit of Saturn," Ratan was saying, "then there will be no Earthman -still living." - -The end of human Earth-life. It might take another Earth-year, -or many. But it was coming. Inevitable. A thing that the Radak -Great-Mind had long planned, and that already was being successfully -accomplished.... There are on Earth now as I write this brief -narrative, many scientists working to understand the theories of -the strange, diabolic mechanisms of the bandit Crimson Comet. The -projection of some new application of gravitational force. The purple -ray was something of that nature, of course. A link between Zelos -and Earth, like a chain binding them together--a powerful little tug -pulling a great ocean liner. And the same force unquestionably was what -made Zelos itself mobile in Space. That much we know definitely because -in miniature, but doubtless of the same approximate nature, the purple -gravitational ray is the motive power for the Radak Space-ship which we -now have intact. - -"So you are planning to kill everyone on Earth," Blaine said. His heart -was pounding, but he tried to hold his voice calm. He stood with folded -arms, gazing at Ratan. "And what will that gain you?" - -"Our little planet here we do not like," Ratan retorted. "Many -space-ships we will build, and when your Earth-people are gone, then we -will migrate to your much better world. The Lei, and the Radaks to rule -them. The Great Mind has planned it all. We have been secretly to your -Earth, we have studied life there. It will be much better for us than -this. The Great Mind will rule your whole world for a while--until he -dies. And then--do you not see something unusual in me?" - -"What?" Blaine demanded. - -"I am the appointed one to be the next Great Mind. When I was born it -was decided. I have been trained for that. Just for that, nothing else." - - * * * * * - -Blaine could see it in him now. That air of quiet, confident dominance. -"I see what you mean," Blaine agreed. "I am like that, on Earth. You -realize it?" - -"It is why I chose to bring you here," Ratan said. - -"I can be very helpful to you," Blaine added. "My companions--they -are just captives. But I would like to be more than that." The banker -shrugged. "I bow to the inevitable. If you are to seize my world, then -I would like to do the best for myself. That's good sense, isn't it?" - -Was he gaining this fellow's confidence? The big Radak smiled also. -"What do you mean?" - -"On Earth I am very powerful. I have money, property." - -"Of what good could that be to me?" Ratan smiled. "And when I get -there--I have it all anyway." - -"What I mean," Blaine persisted, "I am an organizer. I know the -resources of Earth--" - -"And to that I agree," Ratan interrupted. "You mean, you would join us, -as a friend." - -"For a position of power among you Radaks, yes. You will find I can -handle the Lei." He smiled cannily. "On Earth they called me ruthless. -I could bend men to my will--and always to my own profit." - -Blaine's keen, appraising gaze was watching the Radak. Ratan was -smiling; he could understand talk like this, and it was obvious that -he liked it.... Blaine's heart was pounding. At Ratan's broad grey -belt a little pot-bellied metal cylinder was hanging. He gestured to it -casually. - -"What is that, Ratan?" - -"That? It is a weapon of ours. Very important. There are only very few -of us who may carry it. A Rak-gun, perhaps your language would term it." - -"Let me see it. How does it work?" - -But Ratan was only fingering it lovingly. He made no move to detach it -from his belt. He was smiling. "It is what brought you from Earth." - -He seemed willing enough to describe it. The projection of a -vibration akin to thought-waves, but infinitely more intense. In -effect it paralyzed the conscious mind, yet left the motor area -intact. The victim, to all intents and purposes was a somnambulist. -The subconscious mind, with will power numbed, then was open to -any suggestive stimulus which it received. The victim's muscles -instinctively obeyed commands. And the memory areas recorded nothing. -Shorty and I had seen it happen to Vivian and Mack. Blaine did not know -of that. But it had happened to him, on Earth, as it had to all of us. - -"And, then, after a time it wears off?" - -"Exactly. An hour--what you would call an hour on Earth, perhaps. But -another shock of it can be given. You were under its influence for -about three weeks--the time it took for our Space-ship to bring us -here." - -"And you fed me very badly," Blaine commented. He was taut inside now. -He took a casual step forward so that he was almost within reach of the -seated Radak. "Is that thing easy to operate?" - -Blaine's heart leaped as Ratan unclipped the little cylinder from his -belt. "Very simple," the Radak said. "Just a pressure on this little -lever. But it will be years before the Great Mind or myself would let -you handle one of these." - -"I was thinking," Blaine said, "when we get to Earth you yourself will -not be the Great Ruler. But if, perhaps, the Great Mind should suddenly -die? Then it would be only the great Ratan, with me to help him--" -Blaine had leaned forward confidentially and lowered his voice. "Did -you ever think of that?" - -Surely at least the idea of murdering his commander was startling to -Ratan, and for that instant he was off his guard. Just a second, but -it was enough for Blaine. The banker abruptly reached, snatched the -cylinder and leaped backward. - -"Now you damned villain--" - - * * * * * - -Blaine raised the cylinder level. With a roar, Ratan was on his feet. -There was a soundless, vague little flash. Ratan, tensing his muscles -for a leap abruptly relaxed, wavered. - -"Quiet now! Stand still!" Blaine ordered sharply. - -He stood listening, with the quiescent, blankly staring Ratan before -him. Had Ratan's roar of startled anger aroused any guards out in the -corridor? It seemed not. There was only silence. - -"Now we will go out of here," Blaine said softly. "We will go out. You -know where Robert Rance is now. You will lead me to him." - -With hands outstretched, the big Radak moved to the door, slid it open. -At this moment Shorty and I were confined in another cave-cell not far -away. Ratan knew it; he was leading Blaine there. But suddenly, at a -corridor intersection, voices sounded! Radaks were coming. - -"Crouch down!" Blaine commanded. "Be quiet! Not a sound from you!" - -There was a wall recess. Blaine shoved his numbed captive into it. -Together they crouched. And now Blaine saw that in a sheath at Ratan's -belt, there was a knife. He drew it out; held it in his other hand and -kept the cylinder ready. Two Radaks were coming. They were talking -together in their own language. They stopped nearby, evidently with the -intention of parting here at the intersection. - -Blaine listened. Then he whispered to Ratan: "Answer me softly. What -are they saying? Tell me in English." - -"Those Earth-people banished--into the Realm -of--Deathless--Monsters--and they will die--of course." Ratan's words -were mumbled, queerly mouthed, like one who talks in his sleep. Blaine -assumed that all of us were out there on the upper surface, not just -Vivian and Mack. Swiftly he changed his plans. - -"In a moment when I command you," he whispered, "you will lead me -there. You know where the Earth-people would probably be now? Out which -exit they went? Answer me--softly." - -"By the--big cliff with the--rock spires.... The exit is--down this -left corridor." - -Tensely Blaine waited. The nearby Radaks parted and moved away. "Now, -lead me," he whispered. - -Again they moved forward, down the left-hand corridor-branch now. -And suddenly behind Blaine there was a shout. He whirled. One of the -Radaks had changed his mind and was coming back, calling something to -his fellow. Blaine had no time to get himself and Ratan out of sight. -The Radak saw them--saw the stiffly walking Ratan, and Blaine with the -cylinder in his hand. - -With a startled shout, the little Radak leaped at Blaine. The flash -met him; he stopped in his tracks, stood stiff. But from the other -direction, his companion was coming. And now the commotion was bringing -others. Blaine could hear several of the guttural voices and the thuds -of their oncoming footsteps. - -With a leap Blaine went past Ratan. The squat little shape of the -other Radak came charging down the center of the narrow corridor. -His greenish eye-beams were weird in the crimson gloom. Again Blaine -fired his cylinder. But this time evidently he missed and in another -second the Radak was on him. The shock of the impact flung them both -to the ground. The cylinder was knocked from Blaine's hand. He felt -his adversary's arms clutching him, squeezing him with machine-like -strength. In another moment Blaine's ribs would have smashed. But his -left hand still gripped the knife. With despairing effort he drove it -into the Radak's side. - -Ghastly knife-thrust! It went in with a crunch, a rasp as it severed -the strange flesh. There was a hiss as hot fluid spurted. The Radak's -scream was horrible. His arms fell away. Blaine disentangled himself. -On the ground near him he saw the cylinder, snatched it, dropped it -into his pocket. A commotion was all around him now. Oncoming Radaks in -several of the branching corridors. But ahead of Blaine there seemed no -one. - -He ran. Behind him he could dimly see the squat little figures gazing -at their dead fellow, and surrounding the stricken Ratan. No one seemed -to notice the fleeing Blaine as he ran the length of the winding -corridor until at last he was out upon the crimson upper surface. - -For a time he wandered. He did not see any of the crimson monsters, or -at least did not recognize them for what they were. Then he heard Mack -shouting at him; saw Mack and Vivian running toward him. - -"I've got something important--a weapon," he called to Mack. - -Then abruptly the three of them saw that huge, python-like crimson -Thing which had been silently stalking Blaine. - -"Look!" Vivian gasped. "Another of them!" - -It was slithering rapidly at them now, no more than fifty feet away. -Its green-swaying eye-beams clung to them. For that instant they were -standing stricken with terror. To one side of them there was the brink -of an abyss a few yards away, and to the other, and behind them, a -ragged little cliff. - -"Got to try and climb those rocks!" Mack gasped. "Can't get past that -snake thing--we're trapped--" - -But Blaine swept him aside. The cylinder was in Blaine's hand now. -"This will stop it!" he muttered. "You two--get behind me!" - -The monstrous thirty-foot thing was only half its own length away from -them now. Then, as its head reared over a projection of the uneven, -rocky ground, Blaine carefully aimed the cylinder and fired. But the -monster didn't stop! There was no conscious, thinking brain in that -ghastly, pulsating crimson head! Just motor-ganglia reacting to the -impulses of instinct! - -Blaine fired again. But the monster kept on coming and in another -second was upon them! - - - IV - -Back in our cave-cell, Shorty and I stared blankly after the figure of -the Lei woman, Tahn, as she motioned to the Radak guards who slid our -door-panel closed. Again we were alone. - -"Well," Shorty murmured. "What do you make of that? The wife of some -Lei named Taro, she said." - -And that she would come back and try to get us out of here. That her -husband had some plan-- - -Eagerly, Shorty and I waited. Would it be an hour, or a day? Both of -us were thinking of Blaine, locked somewhere around here, perhaps in -a cell like ours. Or had the Radaks killed him by now? And Vivian and -Mack, wandering out there in the Realm of the Things you couldn't kill. - -"Guess they're done for," Shorty said, when I mentioned them. - -"Unless we can get out there to them--" - -Shorty's smile was ironic. "That would fix everything, of course. Don't -be an ass, Bob. If we were out there, we'd all be trying to get back. -For what? So the Radaks would jump on us and kill us." - -It was all so utterly hopeless. But it was queer, that instinct all -five of us had, to try and keep together. - -The young Lei woman had brought us food and drink. Shorty and I slumped -on the earthern floor now and sampled the food. Nauseous stuff, -indescribable. - -"If it's been weeks since we left the Earth," Shorty said, "no wonder -we're nearly starved to death." - -But we managed to eat and drink some of it, and then exhausted by the -nerve tension of what we had been through, we drifted off into an -uneasy slumber. - -The rasp of the sliding door-panel jerked us into alertness. I had the -feeling that only a little time had passed. The panel slid open just a -foot or two, and a figure came in. It was Tahn. - -Both Shorty and I were on our feet. "You came as you hoped," I said -softly. "We're ready. Just tell us what you want us to do." - -She barely whispered, "The Radak guards just now are changing. There is -no one outside. We go, quickly." - -"Go where?" Shorty demanded. - -"To my husband, Taro. He is in a corridor near here. Come now, quickly." - -The faintly red corridor outside was empty. Swiftly Tahn led us along -it, around several sharp bends, past a cross-corridor intersection. -I was tense, expecting every moment that Radaks would leap upon us -from the shadows. But so far we had escaped notice, though obviously -there were many Radaks near here. Several times we passed the dim oval -openings of little grottos, and often there were guttural, chattering -voices from within them. - -"Won't the guards discover we're gone?" Shorty murmured. - -"Perhaps not for maybe much time. I am in charge of you, I bring you -food and drink. The guards stay outside, should you try to break out." - -Our tunnel was descending now. And suddenly from the dimness to one -side, there came a murmur: "Tahn! Tahn--" - -A young Lei man was crouching in a shadowed recess. It was Tahn's -husband, Taro. - -"She has brought you, Earthmen. That is good." - -We crouched down with him. He was a youngish fellow, tall, slim -and powerfully built. His single draped garment exposed one bronze -shoulder. His grey-black hair was chopped at the base of his neck, with -a narrow band of bright-colored fabric tied around his forehead. With -his high-cheek bones, hawk-like nose and gleaming dark eyes he could -have been a stalwart young savage of Earth. - -"I want to help you," he was saying. "Your coming here fits my plans, -and believe me I have worked on them a long time. Tahn and I, making -the Radaks trust us." - -"Say," Shorty murmured, "you certainly are fluent with English." - -The young Lei's face wrinkled into a smile. "Why should I not, my wife -and I? We Lei learn things quickly. Perhaps a different mind-quality -from yours, almost at once to absorb what we hear. Ratan--he is next to -the Great Mind as leader of the Radaks--he chose Tahn and me to go on -the expedition to Earth. We were carefully watched, or we would have -escaped to warn you. It was Tahn who took care of you on the way here." - - * * * * * - -He told us then of the weird Radak-gun, with its flash of -mind-current--the weapon which probably just at this exact moment no -more than half a mile away in this maze of subterranean corridors, -Blaine was snatching from Ratan.... And Tahn told us, too, of the -Radak plot to devastate Earth. - -"You have some plan?" Shorty murmured. - -He told us then that he knew how to get into the Cavern of Machines--a -huge, guarded grotto where all the diabolic, giant mechanisms of the -Radaks were housed. The power plant of little Zelos, and the source of -the purple radiance which was bathing Earth. - -"If we can kill the guards and get into the Cavern--only the Great Mind -himself--or Ratan--will be there. No one else but those two are allowed -there. No one else knows the secrets of the mechanisms to operate them." - -"So we just get in and overcome the Great Mind himself," Shorty -commented. He gave a mock shudder with an attempt to be humorous. "All -right. Figure that's done. Then what?" - -Taro's plan was certainly desperate, but at least it promised the -possibility of success. "Do you know where the Earthman Blaine is?" I -demanded. - -Tahn said, "He is in a cave-cell. I am ordered to take him food and -drink very soon." - -"What weapons have you got?" Shorty asked. "Say, if you could get one -of those brain-paralyzing guns--" - -Taro shook his head. "Never could I even get near one. The Great Mind -always carries one--and so does Ratan. But there is no chance--" - -"We must get to Blaine," I said. "And then try and find Vivian and -Mack. We've all got to be together--" - -We planned it for a few moments more. Then cautiously Taro and Tahn led -us to a corridor intersection. "We will hide here," he said, gesturing -to another shadowed recess where the ragged rocks of the wall jutted -out in an overhang. "Tahn can go best." The young Lei turned to his -wife. "Tahn, listen. You get food and drink. You take it to Blaine's -cell. There are not always guards perhaps. You watch your chance--" - -"Listen!" Shorty suddenly interjected. "Maybe I'm crazy, but there's -some kind of commotion around here." - -We could all hear it now--a distant murmur of turmoil down one of the -side corridors. Taro nodded. "Something is wrong. And Blaine's cell is -down that way. You Earthmen wait here! I will go with Tahn. Then we -come back to you." - - * * * * * - -They were gone only a few moments. From a little distance they had -stood unnoticed, watching and listening. Blaine had escaped! He had -seized Ratan's thought-gun; turned it upon Ratan and one of the guards; -had stricken them. And had knifed another guard, and vanished. - -"Well! Good for Blaine," Shorty murmured. "He's smarter than all the -rest of us put together! And he's got one of those guns! Where'd he -go--" - -"They think perhaps out to the outer surface," Taro said. "He ran that -way." - -"To find Mack and Vivian!" I exclaimed. "Well, that's what we want to -do. Show us that exit, Taro." - -"I will go with you," the young Lei said quietly. But there was no -mistaking his shudder and the grim look on his face. "Tahn, you stay -here." - -"I will go with my husband," she retorted. "Taro, please--" - -We took her. It seemed that the commotion at Blaine's cell must have -drawn all the Radaks from these other passages. We were not discovered -as we threaded our way back, until presently we were ascending a -winding tunnel which ended at the crimson upper surface. How long it -took us to sight Mack, Vivian and Blaine I do not know. It seemed an -eternity of apprehension, as Taro and Tahn cautiously led us along -winding rocky defiles and past patches of that weird, fantastic forest. -Shorty and I saw none of the monsters. But there were many times when -suddenly, without explanation, Taro turned us from where we would have -wandered. - -Then we were far enough from the tunnel entrances so that we dared talk -without possibility that the Radaks would hear us. - -"Blaine! Blaine--where are you?" - -"Mack! Vivian--are you here?" - -It was Tahn who first saw them. We were in a cluster of rocks with a -brink ahead of us. I could see lower ground perhaps fifty feet down--a -precipitous descent close ahead of us. It chanced that Tahn was -leading, and suddenly she turned, gave a cry, and then pointed over the -brink. - -"There they are! Down there! Look--look at them--" - -We crowded to the brink. Fifty feet down this ragged wall, Blaine, -Vivian and Mack stood backed against it. An abyss was near them. And in -front of them a great crimson, python-like thing was slithering, almost -upon them now, with Blaine futilely firing his gun at it! - -There was nothing we could do; and for those seconds all four of us -stood staring, mute, numbed with horror. The scene on the ledge below -us was clear as though on a little stage. The monster in another second -would be upon its victims. I saw Blaine throw down his gun in despair. -His voice floated up to us. - -"Damn thing won't work! Got to--try to run--" - -Then, suddenly we saw Mack leap forward, not toward where he might -have a wild chance of climbing up our ragged little cliff-wall, but -the other way--toward the brink that dropped down to another terrace, -between the brink and the monster's slithering length. His intention -was obvious--to lead the monster over that other brink after him.... -To sacrifice himself so that his companions might escape. - -In the chaos of that second we saw Mack get past the monster's head and -neck. Its head turned. And then, before Mack could hurl himself down -the hundred-foot drop, a loop of the great crimson body lashed out. It -seemed that a tentacle whipped separate from the undulating snake-like -body--a tentacle that seized Mack, looped around him and flung him into -the air. - -Just a ghastly second or two as Mack's whirling body came up diagonally -toward us in the air, and then fell back, into a ragged cluster of -rocks beyond the monster's tail. Horribly we could hear the thud as it -struck. For another second the great crimson head of the monster seemed -to rear, with swaying eye-beams searching. But Mack's body was hidden -by the rock-cluster. - - * * * * * - -Then, suddenly the gruesome python shape, head down, began oozing over -the brink beside it. Flowing mass of protoplasm. It thinned out as -it sagged down the hundred-foot drop--thinned until it was a narrow -ribbon--a blood-red rivulet of waterfall. Then it was all on the lower -level, gathering itself together until in a moment it was a great -congealed, quivering crimson ball with the head in the center. For -another instant it pulsated; then it bumped and rolled down a ragged -slope, reached a little patch of distant vegetation where we could -dimly see it spreading itself thinly out.... Spread like a blood-red -pool, quiescent, waiting. - -With Taro and Tahn, Shorty and I climbed down the ragged little -descent, joined Vivian and Blaine. - -"He tried to save us," the white-faced Vivian murmured. - -"Yes," I agreed. "We saw it." - -We found his broken body in the cluster of rocks fifty feet away. He -was still conscious but we thought he was dying. One of his arms hung -limp. Blood was coming from a head wound. But his pallid face was -trying to smile. - -"My leg and arm," he mumbled. "Can't move them." - -One of his legs undoubtedly was broken. As we told him that the monster -had gone his gaze seemed only on Vivian. - -"Thought it would kill you, Viv," he muttered. "Didn't want that." Then -he fainted. He had been trying to get up on one elbow as Vivian knelt -with an arm under his head. Then his eyes closed, and he sagged, went -limp. - -"We must stop that blood from his head," Tahn murmured. "And then try -and get him into one of the tunnels." - -Vivian jumped up. "Here's what we need--bandages." She flashed us a -little twisted smile as she tore off her waist and skirt and ripped -them into strips. "Here--bandages." She handed the strips of fabric to -Tahn. Then she grinned at me. "This underdress--not too becoming, is -it?" She gestured at the brief undergarment that now partly covered -her, and her whimsical smile broadened. "Well this time, anyway, I had -a good motive, didn't I?" - -Shorty and I carried the still unconscious Mack back to one of the -tunnel entrances. And Taro led us to a shadowed, cave-like little place -where we laid him down. Good luck seemed with us. We had encountered, -so far, no Radaks. - -"You and Tahn will stay with him," I told Vivian. And Shorty and I -had decided that Blaine had best stay also. For once Blaine had to do -something against his will. - -"Think I'm too old to help you young fellows now?" he said. "All right, -maybe I am." - -Certainly he was in no physical condition to be much help in the -desperate venture we were planning. He handed me the Radak-gun, showed -me how to use it. I dropped it in my pocket. - -"Good luck to you," Blaine said. - -"Thanks. We'll need it," I acknowledged. - -Then Shorty, Taro and I left them. Taro had hidden the only weapons he -could get, near here. We found them--sheathed knives that the Lei used -in the underground fields. They were odd-shaped knives; they seemed -made of a highly polished, metallic stone. I thumbed one. It was sharp. - -"Very handy," Shorty commented. "Come on, Taro, let's go. Where is this -Cavern of Machines?" - -It was perhaps half an Earth-mile, low down in the maze of underground -passages. Shorty clutched his knife; I held the Radak-gun as we -followed Taro down the dim, descending crimson tunnel. - - - V - -"There's one of the guards!" Shorty whispered. "See him?" - -I pushed Shorty back. "No, two of them! The other one's sitting down. -You and Taro keep behind me. I'll tackle them with the Radak-gun." - -We could see the square grey figures of two Radaks down the little -length of tunnel ahead of us. They were by an opening that seemed to -lead sharply downward, with a glow of radiance streaming up. And now in -the heavy underground silence we could hear the faint muffled thrum and -whine of mechanisms. - -My hand silently gripped Taro. All three of us crouched. "That's the -entrance to the Cavern of Machines?" I whispered. - -"Yes." - -"Two guards. Are there liable to be more of them around?" - -Taro shook his head. "I think not. Though I cannot surely say." - -"The machines are operating," Shorty said. "Hear them? That means only -the Great Mind, or Ratan will be down there in the Cavern?" - -"Yes," the young Lei agreed. - -"It's most likely not Ratan," I said. "Blaine got him--struck him -insensible. Or would he be recovered by now?" - -Taro had no way of guessing. With an ordinary Radak the shock -would have lasted longer than this. "But Ratan's mind is -trained--developed--more powerful as you would say. He could recover -more quickly." - -"Are there other entrances?" Shorty asked. "They'd have guards at them. -If we make any commotion down there, and a bunch of Radaks come rushing -us--" - -"This is the only entrance." - -"Right," Shorty chuckled. "Come on then, let's finish off these -fellows." He fingered his knife. "You tackle 'em with that gun, Bob. -But if you miss, trust me--I'll slip this knife into them--" - -With Taro and Shorty behind me I crept soundlessly forward. In my hand -the pot bellied little Radak gun, so unfamiliar, gave me an uneasy -feeling. Suppose I should miss. An uproar from these guards might bring -dozens of others. - -"How close do I have to get?" I whispered to Taro. - -"This now--close enough." - -One of the Radaks was standing up, lounging with his back to the wall. -The other was lying down. To send my flash clinging to the heads of -both of them, I would have to shift my aim, and fire twice. My hand -trembled a little. Then I pressed the lever. - -There was that vaguely visible flash. The gun-hilt in my grip vibrated, -and at the muzzle of it there was a faint little hiss. A hit! The Radak -on the ground seemed to stiffen. He raised his head, staring blankly. -The Radak who was standing noticed it. He started, whirled around -toward us. It took all my will power to withhold my second flash for -that instant. But I did; and then as the standing figure steadied, I -fired again. - -"Got him!" Shorty murmured. "Good work, Bob! Come on!" - -We ran forward. The standing Radak was motionless, gazing with vacant -stare. Shorty dashed up to him. "Lie down, you're asleep! If you're -not, you ought to be." - -But the Radak did not move, just turned his empty gaze toward the sound -of Shorty's voice. I got it. "They don't speak English! Tell them, -Taro." - -The Lei murmured commandingly in his own language, and in a moment the -two guards were lying inert with closed eyes. - -"Mighty neat," Shorty whispered. "Come on--here we go." - -Beyond the guards an earthen ramp led sleepily downward, winding to a -circular spiral. Then presently we emerged upon a little ledge with the -great Cavern of Machines spread out before us. - -"Crouch down! We will see who is here," Taro whispered. There was awe -in his voice. "We must not be seen until we attack." - -It was a huge, vault-like cavern, with glowing roof high over our -heads, and we were about twenty feet above its lower level, with a -narrow, steep ramp leading down from near us. I saw that it was a -weird, dim grotto, lurid with swaying, prismatic glows of colored -radiance, and throbbing, humming with a myriad mechanical voices. -Distant railed terraces held frameworks of metal, where opalescent -tubes were glowing. Beams of light-radiance seemed to carry the power -from one strange mechanism to the next, like wires connecting them -in series. No Lei, no ordinary Radak, and certainly least of all us -Earthmen, could by any chance have understood the scientific details of -what we were seeing. - -I recall there was a convergence of beams, high up in mid-air at -the center of the cavern, where a shower of tiny electrolyte sparks -glittered like a fountain of pyrotechnics. And out of it a narrow -concentrated beam of violet-purple glow shot upward to a grid in the -ceiling--the gravitational force, doubtless, which from there was -conducted to some point above where it was hurled into Space. - -How long I stared, awed, I have no idea. Then I was aware of Taro -beside me, whispering, "It is the Great Mind who is down there. He has -just come into sight--down by that yellow glow." - -The floor of the cavern held a dozen or more of the huge mechanisms, -and in the center of them there was a throbbing space that seemed -to hold the controls of all these intricate machines. Down there in -the weird glow we could now see the lone figure of the ancient Radak -leader--shriveled and bent, he moved around, occasionally reaching to -shift some lever or make some adjustment. - -"He must not see us coming!" Taro whispered. His voice was tense. -And on his face now as the multi-colored glow bathed it, there was -unmistakable terror. This young Lei, like all his people, born and bred -to fear the dominance of the Great Mind--to attack that little figure, -to Taro was almost unthinkable. Taro had planned this; dreamed of it. -But faced with it now, there was only terror sweeping him, so that had -he been here alone, easily he could have turned and fled. - -Shorty and I had no such inhibitions. - -"What in the devil," Shorty murmured. "He's got a Radak-gun--sure, I've -no doubt of it. We've got to duck that. But once I get close to him--" -Shorty's gesture with his knife was significant. - -For minutes more we tensely waited. Then we got down the ramp without -being seen, and on the lower floor we crouched between two of the giant -whining machines. - -"Easy now!" I whispered. "You two--keep behind me--" - -I held the Radak-gun in my hand. We waited another moment; then ducked -forward and crouched again, behind a great glowing mechanism through -which two beams of colored light were passing. We were only some -twenty feet from the leader now. Close enough for my shot, or for us -to rush him. He was bending down over a glowing dial. Green light -from it streamed upward, bathed his weird mummy-like countenance so -that suddenly he seemed like some horrible ghoul intent upon a task -diabolic, gruesome. - -"Let him have it!" Shorty whispered. "Now's your chance!" - -I must confess my heart was racing, with a sudden nameless premonition -of terror. Thoughts are instant things. I tried to tell myself that -this was just a weazened old man. Helpless, with three of us about to -leap on him. Of course he was helpless! With sudden relief I saw that -he had discarded his belt. It hung on the peg of a rack, several feet -away from him--his belt, with his Radak-gun! Shorty saw it at the same -instant. - -"There's his gun, Bob! He can't reach it! We've got him!" - -Of course ... I leveled my weapon. I was sighting it ... I shall -always wonder if my racing thoughts were projected then to warn the -Radak leader. Or did he sense us in some other way? I was standing a -little out into an aisle between two big mechanisms when suddenly he -lifted his head, turned and saw me. The movement, and my own startled -reaction, spoiled my aim ... Mustn't fire until I was sure.... - -I recall that in that split-second I was aware that the old Radak had -not moved. He was just staring at me with glittering eyes and his -shrunken grey face horrible with the intensity of his menace. He knew -of course that he couldn't reach his weapon. He didn't try.... - - * * * * * - -Just a helpless, weazened old man. But as I sighted my gun I was aware -of the power radiating from him. The power of his mind, pitted now -against mine; his will commanding me to drop my weapon and my own brain -demanding my muscles to sight it, to fire it. Conflict most horrible. -It was as though every fibre of me was being outraged, seared and torn. -My nerves screaming.... And my mind was screaming--kill him! Got to -kill him now!... Don't drop the gun! Hold your fingers tight! - -But I could feel my fingers loosening their grip. The muzzle was -swaying. Everything seemed blurring before me, swimming into a -phantasmagoria of horror.... It was all in a second or two. I heard -Shorty mutter a startled oath beside me. But it was Taro, despite that -he must have been unutterably frightened, who kept his wits. He uttered -a grim shout, jumped to his feet, sidewise away from me. - -It did what Taro had hoped. For just an instant that baleful gaze left -me, fastened on Taro. Then it swung back--but in that instant I had -recovered myself, leveled the gun and fired. - -New horror! The Radak leader's gaze, again on me, seemed to meet the -flash of my gun in mid-air between us. I could imagine there must have -been a conflict there--a little almost soundless, almost invisible -puff of deranged vibrations. And the derangement must have been forced -backward to me. All in the flash of a thought. To my conscious mind -there was only my pressing the gun-lever, and then a bursting explosion -at my hand as the Radak-gun flew into fragments! One of them struck my -forehead; I staggered back, went down. But I was aware that Shorty, -with Taro close after him, had leaped--Shorty, with knife upraised, his -catapulting body hitting the crouching, ghoul-like figure. - -Shorty thinks now his knife never reached its mark. There was just the -impact of his body, knocking the weazened figure backward. The Radak -screamed a shrill, weirdly horrible cry. But it ended in a gurgle--just -for an instant, a gruesome, liquid gurgle. Then there was only Shorty's -gasp of horror. - -I was scrambling to my feet. I crouched, stricken, staring. Shorty had -drawn back, standing staring. And Taro too had checked his rush. All -three of us, frozen with revulsion. On the floor, weird in a green-red -glow from a nearby machine, the weazened, mummy body of the Radak lay -huddled. A thing which had been nearly all of mental quality. And now -it had encountered a physical blow, to which every atom of its weird -makeup was foreign. - -And what a second before had been living, solid substance now was -dissolving! The clothes sagged, deflated. A bubbling ooze was where -the face had been. Just a brief moment, and then before us the -Radak's garments lay crumpled and flat in a little pool of stenching -putrescence! - -I turned away, sickened. Then Shorty recovered himself. "It--that -damned thing screamed! Others will come--" - -"Hurry now! Smash the machines! It is what we came for--" Taro gasped. - -I made a leap for the control panels; then stopped, whirled around. -There was a cry from behind and above me. On a narrow, railed little -balcony which connected with the ramp down which we had come, the -figure of a Radak was standing! A tall grey shape! It was Ratan, though -I did not know who it was then. He had a knife in his hand, and he was -in the act of leaping over the rail to land upon me! I had no time to -avoid him. His body came sprawling, landed on my shoulders, bore me -down. - - * * * * * - -Simultaneously I was aware that Shorty and Taro were smashing at the -control apparatus. It crackled, tinkled like breaking glass, with -a huge flash of colored light and sparks that sent Shorty and Taro -reeling backward, dazed so that they did not see what was happening -to me. Then they were up, at it again, hurling broken fragments of -the controls at the nearby grids, tubes and prisms. And in that same -second, the multi-colored flash spread--deranged--weird current. Like -burning powder-trains it leaped everywhere around the grotto. Puffs, -sparks of fountain-glare, the hissing, whining, screeching of breaking -machines.... - -On the floor I struggled with Ratan on top of me. He had no gun--just -a long, thin knife with polished blade that glittered as he tried to -thrust it into my throat. My own knife was gone. I reached, clutched at -the grey wrist, turning the knife so that it went past my throat. Then -I heaved upward. In the struggle Ratan dropped his knife and neither of -us could reach it. Locked together we rolled, pummeling, scrambling. -Then I knew that I had him. My fist landed on his hawk-nosed grey -face--a solid blow that made him scream with revulsion and pain. - -Then I had heaved him off, staggered to my feet. I seemed to be in a -cloud of yellow-green, choking, acrid vapour through which only dimly I -could see Ratan struggling erect. And there was Shorty's voice: - -"Bob! Bob, where are you? Got to get out of here! Taro--Taro--" - -It seemed that somewhere near me, Taro was coughing, choking. Then I -realized that the shape of Ratan was plunging at me through the heavy -chemical smoke. I was swaying, but I squared off, hit him solidly in -the face again. He went down, and I leaped on him, lifting his head -and shoulders, then banging his head back against the corner of a -mechanism-frame--pounding it again and again until suddenly I was aware -that it had smashed and was dripping upon me. - -With a shudder I cast the inert body away and leaped to my feet. - -"Bob! Got to get out of here! Taro--" Shorty was still shouting. - -Green-yellow vapour was swirling around me. Electrolyte flashes seemed -everywhere--the whole grotto, an inferno of pyrotechnics. Then I saw -the figure of Shorty staggering to help Taro from where he had fallen. -I swayed and joined them. - -"That ramp," I gasped. "Behind us! Come on--" - -We tried to hold our breath as we staggered up the ramp. Then there -seemed a little puff of breathable air. As we plunged into the exit -tunnel, for an instant I turned. The big grotto was alive with swirling -turgid smoke and flames and leaping, bursting light-fire. And a bedlam -of weird bursting sounds. The death of the monstrous Radak science, -screaming with its agony of dissolution. - -Coughing and choking, we ran up the tunnel, with the sounds and the -glare fading behind us; and the pure air reviving us. - -"All the Radaks will be after us," Shorty panted. "Faster, Taro!" - -Distant cries were all around us in the maze of tunnels. The alarm was -spreading everywhere. We saw a few plunging Radak shapes, but were able -to avoid them. - -Taro was leading us; I gripped him as we ran. "You say you know where -they keep their space-flyer?" - -"Yes. Not far from Blaine and the others." - -Then we reached the girls and Blaine, who were crouching in that tunnel -recess with the still unconscious Mack. Vivian and Tahn just stared at -us white-faced, with little cries of relief. - -Blaine gasped, "You did it!" - -"We sure did," Shorty agreed. "Come on--the space-ship--" - -"You and I--we'll carry Mack--" I said. Shorty nodded, and we lifted -him. - -Carrying Mack slowed us. But his emaciated body was light. In a moment -I slung him over my shoulders, and with Shorty steadying him, we made -better speed. It wasn't far, but there were Radak figures everywhere -now. Weirdly, only one of them came near us. Shorty and Taro were -ready to attack him. The squat little shape came plunging along a side -tunnel, apparently heading for us. He seemed to be gibbering, mouthing, -then screaming. But he ignored us, running, knife in hand, until he -bashed himself into a rock.... - - * * * * * - -We ran on, and then suddenly I realized that we had emerged into that -huge underground space where first we had met the Great Mind. Taro -ran toward a wall, found some hidden mechanism. I saw, in the crimson -radiance, that by the wall a hundred yards or so away, a big slide had -opened. A small, gleaming, pot-bellied cylinder was standing there. It -came automatically out on rollers, and stopped in the open--a little -thirty foot Space-flyer. And over it, high up, the ceiling of the vast -cavern seemed to have opened; the murky purple-red of the sky was up -there. - -All this I saw in those few seconds. But there was far more here. -A turmoil of sounds and moving, milling figures. A scene of weird, -ghastly horror so that for a moment I stood swaying with the limp body -of Mack slung over my shoulders and my companions clustered around -me. Down the slope where the little Lei village stood under the trees -in the red gloom, a crowd of Lei were struggling. And everywhere -among them, squat grey shapes of Radaks were plunging.... Radaks -with knives and scimitar-like swords, and some with rock-chunks and -bludgeons ... Radaks screaming, running amok. I saw one lunge with -a knife at a Lei woman. The knife went into her and she fell; and the -Radak kept on going until he crashed into a tree. - -The Great Mind was dead. Ratan, who might have taken his place, was -dead. The Mental Force of all this little Radak world was gone. The Lei -themselves had not been under its control. For generations they had -been cowed, terrified into sullen obedience, but that was all. With -the Radaks it was different. They were born, bred and trained to be -automatons. To think what they were told to think. Mentally dominated, -controlled so that the very essence of their mind was shaped and held -together by their leader. - -And now they had no leader! For them, there was nothing left but mental -chaos, so that gibbering with the insanity of minds unhinged, they were -plunging here in wild, unreasoning chaos, obeying their instinct to -kill. - -"My people--I must help them!" Taro's unutterable horror at last found -voice. He would have plunged down the slope with his young wife after -him. But Vivian seized Tahn, clung to her. I shouted at Shorty, - -"Hold him! Don't let him go!" - -Shorty hung on to him. "No, you don't!" - -"You can't help them!" I protested. "And we can't operate the -space-ship! You want Earth-people to help your world--got to get back -there, we--" - -The words died in my throat. We all saw that none of us could get to -the Lei now, even if we had tried. A group of a hundred or more of the -screaming, gibbering Radaks had swept between us and the Lei village. -But the way to the space-ship still seemed open. We ran for it. One of -the Radaks, by chance perhaps, turned toward us; and all the ones near -him, like sheep followed him. A horde of grey, maniac Things charging -us.... - -We got to the gleaming little cylinder with only an instant to -spare--reached it, tumbled through its doorway. I laid Mack on the -white grid of its floor. Shorty banged the door-slide, hanged it as the -bodies of the Radaks thudded against it. Taro ran for the controls and -in another instant the little ship quivered and lifted. - -There was a transparent bulls-eye window panel near me. For a second -I had a glimpse of horrible, snarling, maniac faces pressed against -it. Then they fell away; and in a moment we were out through the upper -opening, slanting upward with the crimson surface of little Zelos -dropping down. Then we were in space, with the brilliant, beautiful -miracle of the Universe glittering around us.... - - * * * * * - -I think there is little more I need add. You have all heard and -read, of course, of the events of this past year. The secret of -space-flying! We have it now. Earth-scientists, studying the Radak -ship, had no difficulty in constructing others far larger. Fortunately -our Earth-materials proved adaptable; there was nothing vital that we -lacked. Many large ships were swiftly built, and an armed force went to -Zelos. Haste was necessary, as you will recall, for when the mechanisms -of the Radaks were smashed, it was soon found that the Crimson Comet -was plunging directly toward our Sun. - -J. Walter Blaine wanted no publicity when he freely gave the millions -necessary for the scientific research and the myriad activities which -went into the building of the space-ships. You all offered your own -donations, and they were refused only because Blaine felt he had earned -the privilege of financing the enterprise. He wants me now to extend -his thanks to you. - -Our first expedition to Zelos was when, in its Sunward plunge, it had -crossed our Earth-orbit and was at its closest point to us. And the -expedition found that no more than a thousand of the Lei had been -killed by the maniac Radaks, who in those terrible hours after our -departure, plunged around, screaming until they bashed themselves to -destruction, or were killed by the Lei. - -Taro and Tahn were with our first expedition to the doomed little -world, and they stayed there throughout all the several trips of the -many big ships which evacuated the Lei. - -I am glad that it was finally decided not to bring the Lei here to -Earth. They would have been just curiosities here; and then lost, -whirled away into the maelstrom of our huge world. Surely it was the -best of good fortune for them when our exploring ships found that Venus -was uninhabited, and with conditions for life so propitious. - -And now the Lei, with Taro and Tahn to lead them, are masters of a -great world of their own. With the friendly world of Earth nearest to -them. Surely we will prove a helpful, friendly, neighboring world, with -no greedy thought of anything more than that. - -Zelos is gone now. I was one of those who saw it go--that night about -a month ago. It was a little dot in the sky, with a great flaming -streamer of the Sun licking upward as though eager to meet it. And then -it was gone. - -I recall the earnest solicitations of so many of you who prayed that -Mack would get well. He wants me to thank you all again. I saw him -only last week, in the little mountain home where he and Vivian went -after their wedding trip. That astoundingly pretentious wedding they -had--well, that was because Blaine insisted on doing it. He may insist -again, if and when a layette is needed. I don't know about that. -But Mack, who now has an executive position in one of Blaine's many -industries, got their little house himself. He and Vivian remained firm -on that. - -And as I said at the beginning, you must see now that none of us are -glamorous heroes. We're all at our regular jobs, with the Crimson Comet -just a gruesome memory. - -So now, kind friends--please forget us. Except me. I'm certainly no -hero, but, well, I won't mind if you'll remember that I broadcast twice -a week on subjects of Popular Astronomy--Station WANA-NYC. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Juggernaut of Space, by Ray Cummings - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUGGERNAUT OF SPACE *** - -***** This file should be named 62416.txt or 62416.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/4/1/62416/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Canadian Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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