Collected Tales (Jerry eBooks)

by Leslie F Stone

  “Arrangements have already been made for the quartering of your men within the houses that face the square, which have been vacated for that purpose. There they will be looked after by the women. However, it will be quite agreeable to her majesty if you prefer to leave a number of your men to guard your machines, although that precaution is entirely unnecessary.

  “As for yourself and your party, the Matriarch will be pleased to have you accompany her to the palace where we can discuss the present situation in comfort.”

  Ware nodded and gave directions to his officers for the care of the men; then with Professor D’Arcy and San Tu Ackwa and Yoto Murca he followed the queen and her retinue to the white transparent palace. The doorway was a circular opening with a crystal of tremendous size suspended in lieu of a door. It was cut with exquisite care and its facets caught and reflected the half-lights that filtered through the ever-present cloud banks.

  The building itself was a great rectangle measuring fully a thousand by two thousand feet, and was three levels high. Coming through the doorway they found themselves in a room of large proportions, with no furnishings other than an immense throne chair set on a dais at the opposite side of the room. It was of a deep emerald green color, and appeared to have been cut from a single stone. Through the walls of the room they could plainly see the square beyond, with the spheres and men now maneuvering in answer to their officer’s commands. They did not pause in this chamber, but went directly through to a second room. Here at the doorways were stationed women who stood at attention as the company came through. In the third room, which was furnished simply with a dozen large chairs with the backs cut low to provide room for the wings to dangle to the ground behind, the queen halted. All but one of her followers went on through the next doorway, and were seen to arrange themselves upon chairs in the adjoining room. Turning to her guests, Waltia motioned for them to be seated. The Earthly interpreter took his position at her chair. Later he gave his name as Jack Kiter. He had been a metallurgist on a holiday at Miami at the coming of the Zoldan flyer to Earth, and had had the misfortune to be captured by the winged women. Only he did not appear to consider it a misfortune, as the others were presently to discover!

  IMMEDIATELY after they had seated themselves comfortably, a half dozen women who, unlike the others, wore no girdles, came in bearing small tables upon each of which was set a single yellow bowl and beside it a long pencil-shaped wand with prongs at one end. A table was set before each man. Happening to glance behind him, Ware was surprised that he could see out into the square almost as clearly as if three walls did not intervene. There he could see hundreds of flying women moving among his men, bearing trays of yellow bowls! The bowl set before him he found to contain a thick greenish liquid in which were floating a number of bits of what looked like boiled flesh. The flesh was a vivid red.

  “The Zoldans,” observed Kiter from his post beside the queen, “live entirely upon water-life—fish, squids, sea serpents and other forms of life which I am unable to name. Sea-weeds of different varieties are ground into a sort of flour and baked, though one or two varieties are eaten in their raw state. You will find this dish tasty.”

  The Earthlings stared at the food a little questioningly, but when they saw the queen spearing the flesh lumps with her strange fork they did likewise and were surprised that the food was rather good, although the fish flavor was strong. When the solid food was gone they looked up to see what their hostess would do next, and saw that she had already put the bowl to her lips to drink the liquid. It was stinging hot, but it had an aromatic flavor that was refreshing. With the food consumed the dishes and tables were removed and the visitors waited for what was to come next.

  CHAPTER X

  A Strange Race

  THE queen had turned to Kiter and for several moments her humming tones persisted. Then the interpreter began to speak to his fellow-men. “Queen Waltia wishes me to tell you something about her world, which is called by her people Zolda. It is a world composed mostly of water, and what land there is lies grouped loosely together in islands. There are still a great many of these islands that have never been visited. To the Earthly eye it is a strange world with its ochre yellow seas, its orange sand, its purple, red and blue foliage. Much of the ocean bed is very shallow, although there are regions in which the bottom has never been reached, but on the whole it is no more than from six to seven fathoms in depth.

  “It is natural, therefore, that the Zoldans should have had their beginnings in the water. Their scientists, like those of Earth, still seek for the missing links in their history in fossils found for the most part in the silt on the bottom of the oceans. At first the life of the Zoldans was spent under the surface. But, in water so shallow, it is not strange that they should have lifted themselves out of that element by their wings, which were developed from finny appendages along the backbone.

  “In the beginning they merely skimmed the water for a distance of eight to ten feet before they dropped back into it, much as do the flying-fish of our own oceans. Then gradually the fins changed to wings that could lift them a little higher and to a greater distance. At the same time they were developing their lungs until they could, if they wished, live almost entirely out of the water in the heavy moist atmosphere of their world. You can see the small gill slits, that you perhaps have taken for ears, by which they breath the oxygen in the water when they are swimming under the surface. Now they can no longer stay below the water more than half an hour to an hour at a time, for, gradually through the ages, as their lungs have developed at the expense of their gills, they have been losing their ability to live as amphibians.

  “It may astonish you also to learn that they have no organ of hearing. Instead, the voice sets up a series of vibrations in the very sensitive nerves of the skin surface, and these register upon the brain. Loud noises are vastly disturbing to their delicate nervous system for this reason. We have discovered that music and singing are very pleasant to them, and they have looked forward to our perfection of the radio, upon which a number of our people have been working.

  “NOW, the Zoldans live entirely upon the sea coast and rarely go inland except to mine the various metals with which they have learned to work. It is from the water that they obtain their food, and it is upon the water that they breed their young, for the Zoldans are an egg-bearing race, and their eggs have to be incubated in the water. It takes three months for the young to hatch, and much care is given them in specially built vats in sheltered coves along the seashores.

  “The strangest feature of the Zoldans is that from the very beginning of time the female has always been the dominent sex, the male being accepted by them only as a biological necessity. As an intelligent being he is practically nil. He is physically a weakling, so that all labor falls upon the shoulders of the women. And now for many ages man has been slowly dying out, for although the women have done all they could to save the sex, there seems nothing to save him, and his birth-rate is very low—only one male to every SO females born. There is also a disease that attacks the grown males, for which there seems no cure. The Zoldans, therefore, are faced with a problem that equals that of our own planet, and the raid they made upon us was simply a means to save their race. They had visited Mercury for this purpose before they tried the Earth, but there was no life upon that little planet. Of course, they were elated on discovering not only that Earth was inhabitated, but also that its peoples were winged like themselves.

  “We captives have had a difficult time in striving to prove to them that Man can be the equal of Woman, and they are now grudgingly admitting that this is so. Your feat today in besting them has proved to them that they are not superior to us.

  “When their ships met you out in the void they were astounded to learn that you had succeeded in conquering space, but they believed that once you arrived on their planet they could paralyze all your ships and capture you easily. They themselves were bound for Earth to make a second and larger capture, for they h
ad now completed their experiments and discovered that they could successfully breed with us. Naturally enough, when they found that you were arriving with thousands of men, they were content that you were bringing yourselves to them and saving them the journey to Earth! Consequently they were wholly unprepared for your attack on them.

  “But since you have proved yourselves worthy of their mettle, and since you, like themselves, have a scarcity of the opposite sex, they are willing to capitulate and make a fair exchange with you—to send to Earth just as many of their women as Earth will give of men!

  The Truce

  “WE, who have been captured, have agreed that this is a solution to our problems. Zolda, or Venus as we call her, has much to give to Earth besides her women, and Earth can fairly exchange with her. The planet has wonderful resources, many of which still remain untapped. There are metals and jewels that will be invaluable to Earth, metals of such hardness and lightness that they would indeed be of a value that now seems incredible! And in return Earth has much to offer Venus. In several branches of science the Zoldans have been backward because they lack some of the necessary equipment. But if our peoples would be willing to make exchanges, the inhabitants of both planets could progress along lines that in the past would have seemed like miracles!

  “You will find the women of Venus a happy, pleasant populace who for all their science are almost childlike in some matters. They are anxious now for our two worlds to become friends, and they will do all they can to bring this about. And they plead that the Earthlings forgive their temerity in having dared to capture what Earthlings they did, for it was done through sheer ignorance upon their part. They believed the men of our world to be the same weak creatures that men are on their world, and did not dream to find them as intelligent and as advanced as themselves!”

  When Kiter had concluded his narrative, the Earthlings were silent. The story they had heard was indeed a strange one. They knew not what to answer Queen Waltia. True, here was a solution to their own problem ready to hand, but would the people of Earth be willing to accept these strange amphibians in their midst? And would the intermingling of these bloods be practical? Would not such an interchange cause a strange race to come into being upon their own fair globe? Would it not mean that the habits of the Earthlings must be changed? Would it not affect their whole manner of living? Would they continue to be the great fair-minded race that they were at the present time? It was indeed a momentous decision that the Earthlings were called upon to make!

  Quietly the four men discussed these questions among themselves. Kiter had explained that the Matriarch would not object to their conversing together apart. He was listening quietly himself, but after a few minutes he addressed a question to Waltia. She nodded at what he had to say, and gave an order to one of the attendants standing in the doorway. A minute later the woman came back carrying what turned out to be a young Zoldan, or rather a child that was of both Zoldan and Earthly parentage.

  IT was a child of about two months but it had the appearance of a year-old youngster. Its face was that of an Earthly child with fair skin, but its eyes were abnormally large while its body was covered with the tiny fish scales that caught the light and reflected it like a prism. Its hands had no webs, but its wings resembled those of its maternal race, shorter and slenderer with none of the power of the Earthling wings. The wings were almost wholly covered with scales, except where they joined the body, where there was a suggestion of soft down that would grow into feathers as it grew older.

  The four men examined the child carefully. It was a pleasant baby, and showed great interest in the strange men. They examined the wings which they thought were poor substitutes for their own wings, but D’Arcy was certain that were they developed properly they could be made to grow stronger. Perhaps the Earth’s scientists could increase them with their glands and formulas, as Mentor had first evolved wings upon a wingless people. Still, to the Earthlings, the baby was a queer little thing and its appearance was somewhat distasteful to their fastidious minds. The queen, who had been watching their deception of the child and their examination, turned again to her attendant, who went away to do her bidding. She returned with a second child. They saw that this one was entirely free from scales on the trunk and limbs, but that his round head was capped with them instead of hair, and that the wings, though larger than the first baby’s, were completely covered with them.

  “This child,” explained Kiter, “is born of an Earth mother and a Zoldan father, for you know that there were a number of our women in our midst when we were captured. The mother died when the baby was born, for unlike the other child he was born from the mother instead of from an egg.”

  “H’m . . .” meditated D’Arcy. “It would be more interesting to see what several generations of these offspring would bring!” Kiter spoke several moments to the queen and then addressed his fellow-men. “Her majesty can not quite understand your hesitancy in accepting these children, but she agrees that it would be well first for the matter to be brought up before the planet ruler. She would suggest, therefore, that you return to Earth with a dozen or so of her women and their offspring to be taken before the Mentor. In the meantime, however, she insists that she keep on Zolda the men she has captured. If the Earthlings decide against the importation of the Zoldan women, she will return all the Earthlings who wish to return to their own planet! The decision will rest with you who are the victors, and if you do not wish to breed with her people she still hopes that the Earthlings will be willing to accept her people as friends and allow commerce to be carried on between the two worlds! She has learned already that her people need us, and above all the Zoldans are fair-minded. They do not begrudge you your victory, but admit that you have beaten them fairly.” The four men conferred together for several moments and agreed that the terms were more than fair. But first they had to learn whether their people were content upon the strange world, until the planet ruler could come to a decision. Kiter smiled at that. Very few of the captured Earthlings, it seemed, were rebelling against their lot! There was so much here to interest them that they had scarcely had time to feel any pangs of homesickness. And they were finding that the amphibians were congenial mates!

  CHAPTER XI

  A Night on Venus

  WHILE they had been speaking, the night had been descending upon the planet, although a shaded light still lingered in the heavens. There had been a magnificent sunset as the rays of the sun were reflected upon the upper cloud banks, painting them in gorgeous colors that ranged from vermilion reds to dark violets. The men had only to lift their eyes above and see it all through the transparent ceilings of the room and the roof two levels above them.

  For many centuries Earthlings had questioned whether or not Venus rotates upon her axis, or whether, like Mercury, it has but a single rotation during its solar year.

  Now with the coming of night the Matriarch spoke again through her interpreter. “The Zoldans retire with the setting of the sun, gentlemen,” the latter explained. “Although they do have artificial light, they seldom utilize it, preferring to sleep with the sun’s setting and awake with its rising. I am directed to escort you to your sleeping chamber.”

  They saw that the queen was rising from her chair and with a nod of her head she was gone, followed by her attendants, who had been waiting in the adjoining room. Ware was first anxious to learn whether his men had been cared for, and Kiter pointed to the square which, with the exception of the spheres and the few men left to guard them, was deserted. He assured the Commander that he had no need to worry about his battalions, but that the women had their care at heart. Then he led them down a corridor to an inclined ramp that took them to the second floor of the palace to a large room, wherein were half a dozen couches for their use. All around them through the walls they could see the rooms filled with couches upon which women were already sleeping. Beyond the walls they could see the square black blocks of houses whose walls were less transparent.

  “I b
elieve,” conjectured D’Arcy, “that there is an old proverb that tells us, ‘people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones!’ ”

  KITER grinned. “Only, professor, these houses are not of glass . . . but of metal! Almost all Zoldan metals are transparent. The black metal that is called ceiluta is only semiopaque, and is used as the general rule for building. The space-flyers are built of it, but since their early history the palaces of their rulers have always been built of tielnta, for the simple reason that all the world can watch their movements and there can be no treachery! And one simply becomes accustomed to having every movement seen by his fellow-man. He is then not so apt to break the laws or to hold secrets!”

  “Not a half bad idea at that!”

  “How is it that they use no lights?” demanded San Tu Ackwa.

  “They have, in the first place, little use for lighting, and, strange as it may seem, they have never developed their natural resources to a very great extent. Fire is rarely used by them, and electricity is an unknown quantity. In cooking, as well as for generating power, they use atomic heat, having a means of disintegrating the atoms through a cosmic ray whose base I have not as yet been able to learn. With it they drive their engines and motors, but they have not as yet learned how to produce light. When they need light they use a strange phosphorescent stone that sends off a small glow. By a unique array of mirrors and lenses they are able to focus this glow and so to obtain a tremendous amount of light which they are enabled to direct in any direction they desire. It takes great care and fine workmanship to grind the proper lenses, so one can readily see why light is not generally used in their homes.”

  “And what type of ray was it that they used for paralyzing you when you were captured? And in the radio and power plants?”