Omega, the Man
Page 7
horribly it swung Alpha high in the air and with a fling dashedhim down upon the rocks. Then with a hoarse bellow it turned upon Omega.With its first forward lunge it seemed about to crush Thalma, who wasbetween it and its intended victim. But the sight of her mangled childand the danger to her lord roused all the latent fury and courage in hersoul and made of her a fighting demon. Like Omega she grabbed the firstweapon at hand--a stone the size of a man's fist--and with the hotbreath of the monster in her face she hurled the stone with all herstrength straight into the red, gaping mouth.
With a blood-curdling scream the brute halted, reared backward, then ranits head back and forth over the rocks. Its loathsome body threshedabout in the lake, throwing water far up on the beach. Then in itscontortions it wallowed up out of the lake as it swung its terrible headabout in agony, all the while hissing its challenge.
Terror-stricken, unable to move, Omega and Thalma watched it and couldnot understand its writhings. But as it continued to writhe and groanthey understood at last--the stone had lodged firmly in its throat andwas choking it to death.
Then they sprang to Alpha's side. Omega gathered him up in his arms, buthe saw with one agonized glance that he was dead. His skull was crushedand it appeared that every bone in his body was broken.
Omega's heart was bursting, but he did not cry out. Holding the crushedbody of his son, he raised his eyes to that God who throughout the ageshad hidden His face from man, and smiled a brave smile of humility andresignation. While Thalma, understanding all, looked on dumb anddry-eyed.
Leaving the monster floundering about in its death agony, they tooktheir beloved son to the cottage and there injected those chemicalswhich would forever arrest decay. Then they placed him on his cot thathe might be with them to the end of life. It was then that Thalma,broken in spirit, found refuge and relief in tears which have alwaysbeen woman's solace and savior.
And Omega, gazing out toward the lake, saw that the monster lay still.They had won their long battle, but at an awful cost. Omega realizedthat the gigantic creature, probably deep in a water cavern, had beenonly stunned by the electric charges.
* * * * *
Thalma refused to be comforted. Day after day she wept above thelifeless form of her boy. All Omega's words of consolation, all hisreasoning and faith in the wisdom and justice of all things, failed tosoothe her torn heart. Nor did the promise of another child, rouse herfrom her sorrow. She steadfastly refused to consider another child. Lifehad lost its last hold on her soul, and now she was ready to surrenderto that cruel fate which had given them mirages of promise and mockedtheir misery. In vain Omega explained that it was their duty to fighton; that they, the last of a once noble race, must not show the whitefeather of cowardice. He mentioned the great consolation they had ofhaving their beloved son ever near them, though lifeless. But Thalmalonged for the presence of the soul, for those words of endearment andlove that had thrilled her mother heart.
Before the embalmment it would have been possible for Omega to restorelife to his boy. Man had mastered all the secrets of biology and life.He could have mended the broken bones and tissues, revitalized the heartand lungs and cleared the brain. Alpha would have walked with themagain. But his personality would not have been there. That mysterioussomething, men call the soul, had fled forever, and so far mankind hadnot been able to create its counterpart. To have brought life again toAlpha would have been a travesty on the brilliant mind they had known.Omega recalled many pathetic examples of such resuscitation where theliving had walked in death.
Omega foresaw the end, but he smiled in the face of it all. He was thesame kind and loving companion Thalma had always known, her every wanthis command and law. But no more she realized its inspiration and love.He seldom left her side any more, but sometimes overcome with sorrow hewould soar up above the peaks and commune alone with the past.
So to-day he had risen higher than usual. The red sun beat upon his bodyas he hovered in the hot air, his eyes fixed on the distant sky line. Hegazed like a famished animal, for it seemed to him that at last a cloudmust appear above that hopeless shore of land and sky and bring renewedlife to him and his. Yet he fully realized the impossibility of such athing. Slowly his great, dark eyes roved around the horizon. He loathedits dreary monotony, and still it fascinated him. Beyond that dead lineof land and sky lay nothing but ghastly death. His many voyages in theairship and the reflecting Mirror told him that, but still he hoped on.
When at last he glided down to the cottage the sun was low. Havingregistered the time in his mind when he left Thalma--for countlessgenerations man had dispensed with time-keeping devices--he realizedthat he had been gone just three hours. Reproaching himself for hisnegligence he entered the doorway, then stared aghast.
Upon Thalma's wide couch facing a painting of the ancient, green world,she had placed the body of Alpha, then lain down by his side. Her glazedeyes were fixed upon the picture, and for the first time in many weeksthere was a smile about her lips.
Omega knelt by her side, took her cold hands in his and feverishlykissed her brow. With a grief too deep for tears he smiled at death,thankful for the love she had borne him. Nor did he censure the Plan ofthe Creator, the Plan that had led him, Omega, scion of the world'sgreat, up to the zenith of life and now left him alone, the solerepresentative of its power. Thalma had passed on, and in the firstcrushing moments of his agony Omega was tempted to join her. Withouteffort and without fear or pain, his was the power to check themachinery of life.
* * * * *
Crushed and broken, Omega sat by his dead, while the shadows of nightentered the valley and wrapped all in their soft embrace. When would hisown hour strike? He might retard or hasten that time, but the realanswer lay in that little lake out there under the stars, dailyshrinking despite the cloud curtain. There was nothing more to live for,yet he determined to live, to go down fighting like a valiant knight ofold, to set an example for the sons of other worlds.
But despite his brave resolution his grief for a while seemed likely tomaster him. Heart-broken he finally went out into the cold dusk andgazed up at the heavens appealingly.
"Alone!" he whispered as an overwhelming sense of his isolation tore hisspirit. "Alone in a dead world--the sole survivor of its vanished life!"
He slumped to the ground and buried his face in the cold dust. Histhoughts were jumbled in a maze of pain and sorrow. He could neitherpray nor think. Gasping, dying a thousand deaths, he lay there grovelingin the dust. But at last he rose, dashed the dust from his eyes andagain faced the sky. He would accept the cruel mandate of nature. Hewould live on and try to conquer all--even death.
He cast his eyes along the shore of the lake, and there in the starlightloomed the form of the dead monster which, but for Thalma's unerringaim, would have been the last of earth's creatures. Omega sighed andturned back to his dead.
But despite his resolution to live the loneliness was sapping Omega'sspirit. During the following weeks in a mood of recklessness and despairhe allowed the cloud curtain to dissolve above the lake. Once more thesun's hot rays poured down unhindered and the lake receded rapidly.
As time went on Omega grew more restless. Only by taking many voyagesaround the world was he able to endure the appalling silence. He was thelast traveler to visit the ancient marts of man, he was the last hopeand despair of life. Sometimes he talked aloud to himself, but his wordssounded hollow and ghostly in that deep silence, which only added to hismisery.
And then one day in a fit of desperation he rebelled. He cursed the fatethat had selected him to drink the last bitter dregs of life. In thisdesperate frame of mind he evolved a daring plan. He would not drinkthose dregs alone!
* * * * *
In the chemical laboratory of the ship were all the elements of creativeforce and life known to man. From the four corners of the earth they hadbeen garnered, and some had come from sister planets. Here were theingredients of creation.
For thousands of years man had been able tocreate various forms of life. He had evolved many pulsing, squirmingthings. He had even made man-like apes possessing the instinct ofobedience, and which he used for servants, and much of his animal foodalso had been created in this manner.
Being skilled in all branches of biology and chemistry Omega wouldcreate a comrade to share his long wait for death. So he set to work andthe task eased the pain in his heart. He placed his chemicals in thetest tube and watched the cell evolve until it pulsated with life.Carefully nursing the frail embryo he added other plasms, thenfertilized the whole with warm spermatozoa and placed it in theincubator over which glowed a violet, radio-active light.
The young life developed quickly and soon began to take form within theglass walls. In a month it half-filled the incubator, and at the end ofsix weeks he released it, but it still grew amazingly.
At first Omega was appalled by the monstrosity he had created, for itwas a loathsome, repulsive