by Jimmy Guieu
“The Denebians wrapped up their crimes!” Zimko growled. “After cutting the three cracks in the dome in order to empty the city of its air, some of the green monsters came into the base, killed the technician at the supply source and then shut off all the distribution valves and ventilation ducts.”
On saying this he increased the flow of oxygen and turned up full blast the air-purification control. A low hum rose in the city, echoing ominously under the transparent dome made of xoning.
“Three minutes from now,” Zimko announced, “all the carbon dioxide under the dome will be sucked up and spit outside. The over-oxidation will help us revive those who can still be saved.”
The crew went back to work as pretty much everywhere on the Venusian base the Wolfian, Centaurian and Polarian Space Commandos struggled to revive the suffocated by shooting them with a drug that would shorten the usual time needed to practice artificial respiration.
Gradually as Zimko and his friends approached the center of the base the number of corpses lying on the metal ground grew. All of them were stretched out in the direction of the central building.
“From the looks of the bodies,” Tim’hu remarked, “and the fact that we saw no corpses on the outskirts of the base it seems like the automatic alarm was sounded when the three cracks were opened.”
“Indeed,” Zimko agreed. “If the inhabitants had been knocked out right away we would have found the bodies all over the dome. But we didn’t. The Polarians, therefore, were warned of the disaster and everyone ran to the heart of the city where there was the airtight building that could hold everyone. When the automatic alarm closed the doors and windows, it’s likely that some survivors were still at home, unless they took the private evacuation tubes that end up in the central building. The unfortunate people in the streets, far from any shelter, were struck down. Maybe we can revive some of them if the blood vessels in their brains are not totally deprived of oxygen.”
Zimko went up to a panel that slid into the metal wall of a building and he consulted the three luminous screens on the back wall. “The barometers are showing normal air pressure coming back,” he spoke into his audiophone. “There’s only trace amounts of carbon dioxide and the flow of artificial air is back to normal. The indicators are positive. We can take off our helmets but keep your spacesuits on.”
The return to normal conditions made the doors and windows open after being closed by the automatic security system. Many Polarians, both men and women, came leaning out the windows or filling up the entrances. Their faces betrayed their intense emotions. Shaken up, they all joined the members of the Space Commandos to revive those who had not found shelter and were suffocated by Venus’ toxic atmosphere.
Two hours later Boïdo, the chief of the Venus base, broadcast a message calling on everyone to “check off” their presence so they could count the survivors.
In every house and every lab or research facility, the Polarian men and women entered their identification on the keyboard of the multiplex and sent them to the Demographic Counter. After ten minutes the central electronic brain had collated and classified all the numbers and with the total had calculated the number of missing. The results came up in the indicator that had just lit up in front of the Base Chief standing next to Zimko and his Space Commandos.
“1735 casualties out of a population of 7000 people!” Boïdo stormed. “That’s the first time in this solar system that we’ve seen such a massacre by the Denebians!”
“But didn’t your radar spot the approach of the enemy spaceships?” Zimko questioned.
“I checked all the observation posts. The radars were clear: nothing was spotted. No foreign ship entered the beam of detector waves. All they registered on the screens, and only right before the attack came, was a faint, blurry shadow, but it couldn’t have been the echo of a material object. It was obviously thought to be a magnetic perturbation, a pretty frequent phenomenon on Venus due to its relative nearness to the sun.”
Zimko shook his head, skeptical. “It had to be the Denebians—or the Procyonians. They must have developed a system like ours that makes them invisible to our screens. A device that absorbs radar waves instead of bouncing them back to their source. Even if their ships weren’t invisible—unlike our Fimn’has that can become so whenever they want—they could, thanks to this hypothetical absorption system, pass undetected in the upper atmosphere of Venus.
“Protected like this the Denebians could come out and with their jet packs it’d be easy for 10 or 15 of them to land in the forest around the base. Divided into three groups, shooting cracks in the dome was child’s play for them, no problem at all with their thermal rays. Once their sabotage was done, taking advantage of the confusion caused by the alarm, they sneaked into the dome, killed the technician in charge of the air circulation and blocked all the controls, which stopped the air purification but also shut down the supply of artificial air.
“Then they could leave calmly and use their jet packs to shoot back up to their ships, which flew back, without being spotted, to their astrobase somewhere in the solar system.”
Boïdo, thinking long and hard, completely agreed. “It could’ve happened like that. But in any case, we have to immediately reorganize our defenses throughout the solar system and revise our detection systems, which have just proved to be inadequate.”
“That’s the gist of the psycho-message I just sent to all the Chiefs of bases and commandos in this galactic zone,” Zimko said, gifted as he was with the strange psychic power of instant communication with anyone of his race and anywhere in the galaxy.
CHAPTER V
The 25 Fimn’has of Ruanoor—under the control of the Denebians—had just entered the orbits of Phobos and Deimos, the two tiny moons of Mars, and were slowing down as they neared the ground.
The surface of the planet came in view, rather flat with occasional vast red plains, the dominant color of the Martian crust due to a high level of iron oxide. Areas tending to light green with yellow halftones became clear just south of the northern polar cap that spread its whitish blue crown over a fairly large zone.
At 12 miles altitude the squadron veered off to the northwest, toward the Hellas Desert in the middle of which was a lighter area called Zea Locus by the T27 astronomers. Little by little as the spaceships got closer, this zone, located at the junction of four groups of huge, paired canals protected by tunnels of transparent matter, revealed its true nature: a gigantic base under a dome like those built on Venus and the Moon by the Polarians.
Huge terraced buildings forming a pyramid city were fitted with big windows twice as wide and tall as the other bases because of the weak sunlight on the planet Mars.
While the 25 spaceships dropped straight down, the rectangular panel of a giant access hatch opened on the ground in the dome. The Fimn’has closed ranks, leaving barely three feet of space between them, and formed two rows under the huge decompression hatch. The transparent, super-metal door closed behind them. Then the opposite door opened and the formation of “flying saucers” rolled on their landing gear made of three balls for 50 yards to come out under the dome on the airstrips surrounding the city.
The 50 Wolfians and Centaurians left their Fimn’has and crossed the astrodrome. In their squat, bulky spacesuits with cylindrical torsos and round helmets the small beings came hopping from right to left. The lookouts perched on top of the four control towers watched this weird hopping due to the weak gravity on the planet, which the Space Commandos were not used to. They must have forgotten to turn on the gravity control system and were playing around with their lightness. They never could have suspected that the crew was feeling the effect of the psychic annihilators controlled by the Denebians hiding in the Fimn’has.
Thanks to their clever attack the green monsters had succeeded in this amazing exploit: to overcome the crew of the Space Commandos and without facing any opposition entering the heart of one of the planetary bases of the Federated Worlds! Not only had the first p
hase of their plan worked but they could make the Centaurians and Wolfians under their control do whatever they wanted. Without leaving their hiding place in the spaceships on the edge of the city they would be able to manipulate the actions of those whose wills they had destroyed.
The 50 Wolfians and Centaurians took the central pathway of Rynka, the Martian Base, and after around 700 yards they entered the imposing building in the center of the city with a metal tower that rose up through the dome and was crowned with a transmitter that flashed a light at regular intervals. Taking a wide platform that worked by a gravito-magnetic field, the 50 astronauts were soon on the 237th floor.
Hudako, the Polarian Chief of the Rynka Base, welcomed them but with a wrinkled brow. “Greetings, Ruanoor. I’m happy to see you and your crew. To what do I owe this honor?”
Ruanoor stepped forward and bowed slightly. “We figured we should come out here and tell you about a recent disaster on Venus.”
“Zimko just sent me a psychic message, so I know all about it.”
Ruanoor stayed silent for a moment, apparently searching for what to say. Intrigued by this attitude and by this unusual visit, Hudako used his telepathic sense and searched the minds of all the Wolfians and Centaurians there in his control tower.
Surprisingly he ran up against a psychic resistance, a kind of unbreakable barrier obliterating their consciousness. Knowing full well that these creatures were incapable of putting up barriers to the mental probes of the Polarians, he sensed something wrong and without being able to explain this resistance he started sending out a psychic message to the surveillance posts. He did not have time to finish.
Ruanoor, acting on the orders of the Denebians, abruptly fired a paralyzing ray at him and his assistant.
M’nag, the Denebian Chief hiding in Ruanoor’s spaceship, watched the operation on a viewer. He immediately adjusted the controls on a small mechano-psychic transmitter and took control of Hudako and his assistant. The two Polarians were suddenly awake but under the influence of the green monsters.
Looking normal, Hudako sat before a big screen and pressed some buttons. The screen lit up. A circular control room appeared, the walls full of screens and dials, chrome levers and various colored buttons, where three Polarians, two Wolfians and five Centaurians were busy working in spacesuits.
“Call for a general assembly,” Hudako ordered. “Everyone on the base has to meet in the west zone of the astrodrome immediately. Evacuation drill. Inform me when everyone’s there and then you, too, leave your posts to join them. The electronic robots will replace you. Immediate orders. Over and out.”
In Ruanoor’s 25 spaceships the Denebians got busy. They readied their tiny mind annihilator devices and adjusted their mechano-psychic transmitters before putting the entire population under their mental control.
After half an hour the Polarians, Centaurians and Wolfians living on the Rynka Base started lining up in closed ranks on the astrodrome ring, less than 200 yards from the 25 Fimn’has where the green monsters were about to secretly bend them to their will.
In less than an hour the 9,000 members of the Martian base were gathered together by their chief, Hudako. Everyone had put on their spacesuits, including the Polarians who, however, were living in air adapted to their physiological functions.
Since evacuation drills were common in Rynka just like in the other bases of the solar system this call was not terribly surprising. But although the tedious exercise was no fun for anyone, it was enjoyable to the young Polarian boys and girls, as well as their Wolfian and Centaurian friends, because they all got along well with each other; the weird little hairy creatures just over one foot tall but endowed with incredible agility and the “giants” who were the children of spacemen to them. From the youngest age they were used to living together and despite their physical differences the three types of “thinking beings” formed a perfectly united “racial partnership”.
While the adults waited patiently for the orders from Chief Hudako—who was really making them wait, some of them thought—the children of the three races, instead of staying in obedient lines like their parents, were playing with each other, breaking ranks, switching lines and bumping into the adults who scolded them for their misbehavior knowing that when the chiefs arrived the excited little kids would calm down.
The last members of the population arrived and joined the others. The Denebians in the spaceships were only waiting for the technicians from the control tower to come to the astrodrome to act. Two groups of 20 and 25 Polarians, Centaurians and Wolfians children were huddled together a little behind the back row and holding a mysterious council—whispering even though using their microphones! Speaking aloud, of course, would have made no difference but it was much more fun to play the conspirators.
They cast frequent, sly glances at their parents who were lined up dutifully. Having agreed to play “Space Conquerors” they stole away from the adults, who were starting to get impatient, and one by one snuck over to a big transport ship parked at the end of the line of adults. Hiding behind the ship they whispered together again (through their mics again) and then ran as fast as they could to the deserted city. They imagined they were attacking the palace of the tyrant who lorded over this recently discovered planet. To reach it they would have to cross unknown, hostile regions.
For them the huge, empty streets were wild canyons inhabited by bloodthirsty monsters. The fragrant gardens and their tall plants swaying gently in the perfumed breeze were impenetrable, putrid jungles.
The pounding boots of a group of adults in spacesuits echoed in their helmet earphones. The technicians from the control tower, the last to evacuate the base, were joining the others in the astrodrome. The little rascals and their Wolfian and Centaurian friends dove into a bed of Tr’link, the tall, red plants with black flowers, carnivorous plants that “gobbled up” a huge amount tiny, harmless insects. Their big, velvety black petals would make a perfect screen for them.
The technicians ran by less than ten yards from the Tr’link but they did not see anything. The sound of their boots pounding the metal street faded away.
The “conquerors” in the grass came out of the “jungle” and all together they ran toward the Nuclear Center, a huge building with thick lead walls.
“Let’s attack the tyrant’s palace,” a young. 12-year old Polarian shouted, pointing his thumb at the formidable building protecting the atomic generators.
He grabbed the wrist of a tiny Centaurian, lifted her up and stuck her on his shoulders while yelling out a war cry that led the gang to attack the palace. Being much more agile than the Polarians, the Wolfians and Centaurians got ahead and reached the lead wall first. A few seconds later the Polarian kids caught up, everyone out of breath from their mad dash.
“Take a rest, Tink,” the tiny Centaurian girl patted the round helmet of her friend.
Tink did so, taking the girl in his big gloves and setting her on the ground.
“What are we going to do?” B’tna, the young Centaurian, asked.
“We’re going to have a war council before attacking the palace,” Tink pointed, still with his thumb, at the atomic factory.
The rascals sat in a circle around their “chief” and planned the second part of their game… without realizing that inside the thick iron walls, they would escape the annihilating rays shot at their parents and all over the base by the hideous green creatures from Deneb!
From astrobase 2 orbiting 600 miles off Earth, a squadron of Fimn’has came out of the middle section and shot off into space. The ten ships quickly veered off in different directions.
One of them, piloted by Hogounn and Injya, headed for France, which it flew over at high speed and no less than 6,500 feet altitude. It stopped over the Drôme department and came down diagonally after hovering over Chabeuil, a town southeast of Valence. The spaceship slowed down and landed very gently on the edge of a cornfield after snapping off a branch of an acacia tree. The sun was still shining high i
n the sky and flooding the countryside with its rays.
Injya stayed in the cockpit of the ship while her companion, Hogounn, left through the hatch. His transparent spacesuit hid nothing of his “human” features or of the light blue Space Commando uniform.
With his small size Hogounn easily hid behind the trunk of the acacia and watched the Earthling who was walking up from 500 yards away. Apparently he had not seen the Fimn’has land. A few feet in front of the Earthling was scampering one of the four-legged creatures that Fohag had called “Dog.”
Hogounn watched the primitive walking toward him for a long time and noticed that he was wearing a loose, brightly colored garment, very different from the tight-fitting clothes that hugged the legs of the Earthling he had seen in the north of this country during a previous mission. Then the Centaurian remembered the televised stereofilms and the comments of the instructor describing the fashions on T27. No, the being approaching him was not a primitive man but a primitive woman and her loose garment was called a “tress” or maybe “dress.”
The small spaceman backed away. While the Earthling, with her back turned, was examining some vegetation he went to stand in the middle of the cornfield and watch her. The four-legged creature spotted him and started screaming—the instructor had said “parking” or “barking”—a few feet away from him. It bared its fangs menacingly.
Hogounn turned on his sound sensor and waited.
The Earthling woman turned around, looked at the Centaurian and shrugged her shoulders, saying something to her four-legged companion.
Her unexpected behavior was completely astonishing to the dwarf. It was the first time that a primitive, on seeing him, showed no signs of fear.
All of a sudden the Earthling stopped talking to her dog and looked more closely at Hogounn, squinting her eyes. Then her eyes suddenly popped wide open. Her pink face turned red, then white and she shrieked before running away as fast as she could. She reached a patch of vegetation and dove in, lying flat on the ground and screaming even louder.