The Metal Moon
Page 2
CHAPTER II
The Pleasure Bubble
After the first suspicions had worn off, the Earthmen felt that they hadbeen singularly fortunate. To be captured by these intelligent beingshad been about the most convenient thing that could happen to them. Theymight have found the human race entirely wiped out on the gloomy planet.Or they might have been struck by one of the still inconvenientlynumerous meteorites which would mean, at the very least, being marooned.Had they possessed the ability to look into the future they would nothave rested quite so complacently in the hammocks assigned to them inthe great patrol ship.
The big Jovian, they learned, was chief of the ship. He told them hisname was Musters, and introduced his officers. They were an intelligent,efficient lot. From them the Earthmen learned something of the socialorganization of the human race as it survived on Jupiter.
"The race followed its natural evolution," intelligent and handsomeyoung Lieutenant Reko explained to Sine as they leaned against a railingand gazed out of an unshuttered port at the somber splendors of Jupiteras it gradually swelled and covered the firmament.
"Like mated to like, and so the superior individuals became moresuperior, and the inferior ones more inferior. This resulted eventuallyin two races. Naturally we took steps to properly segregate the inferiorrace. Our efficiency experts have found ways to put them to work--tomake them quite useful in fact. Of course we could not trust them withour weapons, our ships, our really important central power plants----"
What were these inferior--these so-called _Mugs_--what were they like?Reko arched aristocratic eyebrows. Why, they were often quite human intheir appearance--though occupational diseases, and so forth----. Sinegained the impression that they were kept out of the way in order not todisturb the esthetic comfort of the superior race.
"There was a time when we had trouble with them," Lieutenant Reko said."There were trouble makers among them. They attacked the homes of theFirst race, seized power control stations. Not fifty years ago there wasan insurrection. But the Mugs lost. Thousands upon thousands of themwere driven into the swamps and caves on the edge of the Tenebrian Sea.They were never seen again, although we searched for them with our heatrays. Perished, no doubt."
None were left now, Reko said, except those actually and fully occupiedat certain labors for which they were found efficient. They were allowedto reproduce in sufficient numbers to fill the requirements--no more.
"What a rotten fate!" Sine exclaimed.
"They are quite a terrible people," Reko pointed out, closing adistasteful subject.
A few sleep periods later Musters called his terrestrial guests to hiscabin.
"I have a pleasant surprise for you," he told them in his musicalbaritone. "Our planetary conference would wish for me to give you a mostpleasant impression of Jupiter, so that interplanetary relations may beresumed under the best possible conditions. For that reason I am goingto land you on a satellite that I'll wager will be a revelation to you.It is the goal and object of every one of our people. But it is costlyand only a small portion of our population can be accommodated at atime. You may judge the kind of place it is by the name the public hasgiven it: 'The Pleasure Bubble.' Come to the astrogator's cabin now;I'll show it to you."
They followed Musters to a compartment in the rounded bow of the greatship, stared out of a quartz port between opened shutters.
They saw Jupiter, immense, formidable, a mass of turbulent vapors, adepressingly drab scene. Suddenly Lents exclaimed, incredulous;
"Look! A satellite! There is no satellite this close to Jupiter! It'smathematically impossible!"
Musters laughed jovially. "It's there, isn't it? That's Jupiter's tenthsatellite--The Bubble. It is less than 100,000 miles from the vaporenvelope and has to travel so fast that its period is less than 8 hours.It was built by the First Race and set on its orbit so that our peoplewould have a place where they could enjoy the sun, which is never seenfrom Jupiter's surface."
"It _is_ a bubble!" Kass remarked, after an absorbed study of thesatellite. It was racing just beneath them, at a dizzy speed, like abubble blown before the wind. The ship followed the satellite, drawingcloser, so that it grew in size and beauty.
* * * * *
Lents was mentally calculating the rupturing pressure exerted by theatmospheric pressure inside the crystalline ball. He stopped aghast atthe thought of the tremendous strain.
"That crystalline material stands the strain easily," Musters assuredthem. "It will resist anything but a direct hit by a very largemeteorite. As you can see now, the sphere, which is about a mile indiameter, is bi-sected by a plane surface, on which the city is built.In that little area you will see reproduced the choicest conditions ofEarth." He turned earnest, hungry eyes on them:
"You don't know how lucky you people of Earth are!"
The ship was now coming quite close to the vast curve of the crystal,and they could see glimpses of beautiful structures in fairylikecolorings, of small lakes like exquisite gems, of brilliant bursts oflight that they conjectured served as substitutes for the sun while itwas occulted by the enormous bulk of the planet.
Steadily the ship swept downward, to the level of the city, and theEarthmen became aware that the entire sphere was not transparentcrystal. The part below the city level was a dull, ugly black.
"That's where the machinery is," Musters answered their questions,somewhat shortly, it seemed. "Hydrogen integrators there--to generatethe power. Leakage of injurious rays down there--couldn't expect theFirst race to work there."
"Who _does_ run the machinery?" Sine asked curiously.
"The labor Mugs, of course!" And Musters changed the subject.
The chief left them to their own devices as he superintended the liningup of the big ship's airlocks with the lock gasket of The Bubble. Thiseffected, he bid his guests courteous farewell, assuring them that theirship would be conveyed to the Jovian capital city of Rubio, where theywould be given every facility for repairing their damaged motor.
Sine was awakened by the talking of Kass and Lents as they sat at theirbreakfast in their unimaginably luxurious apartment. They were near thetop of one of the fairylike towers they had glimpsed, and through thecrystalline roof they could see the blackness of star-studded space. Farabove was the glint of slanting sunlight on the outer covering of thesphere. This was the fourth morning on The Bubble, and the Earthmen werebeginning to become vaguely restless. Their hosts had entertained themroyally, but--
"I didn't see anything funny about the way they shoved that labor Mugout of the airlock," Lents was saying. "The poor devil! Stole a littleof the juice they call ambrosia. The way that elegant over-civilizedcrowd laughed!"
"They lined up and watched the body floating alongside," Kass addedsomberly. "And that Mug was as human as you or I."
Their words recalled the scene vividly to Sine's mind. The broad, greenfield between two crescent lakes. The beetling-browed wretch, with eyesfull of fear that darted from side to side, led to the center of thefield by two splendidly armed warriors, there to be left alone in anagony of uncertainty.
He saw again the half-hundred clean-limbed athletes, sons of rich Jovianfamilies. They were lined upon each side of the field. At the signalthey dashed in. The frightened labor Mug tried to escape. As one teamclosed in he doubled, ran directly toward the others, saw his mistaketoo late. There was a brief savage scrimmage, and the unfortunate victimwas stretched unconscious on the sward, while the victors and thevanquished in this curious game joined arms and made for the baths whereexquisite nymphs peered coquettishly from behind delicately proportionedcolumns. Sine reaped uncomprehending and resentful stares when hedeclined to join them.
"Too rich for my blood," Sine told his companions at breakfast as theydiscussed their experiences. "Hope they take us to Rubio soon. We'vedone our job, and as for me, I'm not cut out for high Society."
After they had completed their breakfast a girl came hesitatingly intotheir chamber. Sine s
tared at her curiously. She had none of theenameled beauty of the women he had seen until then, but in her youngface was a subdued comeliness that was attractive after the assertivepulchritude that was universal among the young women of the First Race.Unlike the shrewd display of their chiseled perfection, this girl'sslender, rounded body was wrapped in a thin, gray garment that concealedas it draped. It was caught by a cord around her waist. Her feet,smaller and more fragile than the sturdy Jovian standard, were encasedin neutral buskins. She stood submissively, waiting for them to speak.
"What does that girl want?" Kass murmured aside. "My stars, she can't bea labor Mug!"
"Come here, girl!" Lents rumbled kindly. "What can we do for you?"
The girl came forward hesitatingly. Her voice was soft, lacking thebrassy assurance of other Jovian women;
"I was sent here, masters, to guide you through hell."
Immediately after this startling statement her face turned a brilliantred, then a deathly white. She half turned as if to flee, but, as ifrealizing the uselessness of flight, she faced them again, defiantly;
"I don't care what happens to me!" she declared desperately. "I've toldthe truth at least once. Jovians call this place The Pleasure Bubble,but they don't have to live in the black half. Now tell them what I havesaid."
"We will not tell anyone what you said, child," Lents rumbledcomfortingly. "But tell us. You don't look like the Mugs we've seen sofar--nor like the poor fellow we saw put through the airlock. Theyseemed--a different race. But you--why--on Earth we could hardly tellyou from any other kid of your age."
A flash of spirit illuminated the girl's tragic, immature face.
"They call us a different race!" she exclaimed. "True--but not aninferior race! They are the inferior race, though the stronger. Theydepend on our knowledge, our labor, to live! My father told me so!"
* * * * *
Kass, who had been studying her silently, asked, "Your father?"
"Yes. The technic in charge of the machinery below. He was ordered toescort you around. But his scars from the rays make it hard for him tobreathe today. He is in his bunk. So he sent me in his place."
Sine wondered if life under such unnatural and destructive conditionswould some day reduce this graceful girl to a horrible parody ofhumanity. He asked;
"Do you work below?"
Her clear gray eyes fell on him.
"No. I was selected by the Committee to work in the Baths when I amsixteen. I am fifteen now."
"Holy twisted nebulae!" Sine swore under his breath. "The kid doesn'tknow what her work in the Baths is going to be! So the Committeeselected her for the Baths!" He felt suddenly a violent dislike for thevery rich Jovians, a feeling of fraternity with the Mugs.
"We will be very glad to have you guide us," he said formally. "What isyour name?"
"Proserpina. My father said it is fitting for one who lives where wedo."
Strange anachronism! That name from the mythology of Earth's youth. Likethat goddess of the underworld from misty antiquity, she led them down,down, until it seemed they must be near the bottom of the blackhemisphere. It was a world of dim distances, of shadows, of pipes andgirders, or grisly abysses from which came mysterious sounds; of lockedchambers in which ghastly fires flared.
Now and then they met the inhabitants of the place; misshapen Roboldsgoing about unknown tasks. They stumbled suddenly out of unnoticedpassages, carrying burdens, grotesque, apelike, weary. Most of them werehideously deformed.
Several times, when their journey led them into a certain part of thehemisphere where they felt strange tingling of their nerves, the girlled them away.
"We must not go there," she told them. "The integrators are there. Theremy father received the scars of his chest that keep him from breathing.Most of those who are blind worked there."
The Earthmen had already heard hints of the atomic integrators fromwhich the Jovians obtained endless power. They had no desire to get toonear those searing by-products of power.
"Do you mean to say," Lents asked, puffing a little from theirexertions, "that people down here live here all their lives?"
"I will show you our home," Proserpina said simply.
They came to it presently. A niche, a metal-laced nook, deep in thehull. Gigantic girders formed one side of it. On the other side enormousair conduits. It was clean, bare, not as depressing as they hadexpected. It was more like a gallery, long and narrow, sparselyfurnished.
Something rolled out of a bunk at the farther end. Something like agreat spider. A man, stooped over, his once powerful body doubled, sothat his knuckles almost dragged on the floor-plates. He came towardthem, fierce gray eyes looking out at them under bushy brows. Soformidable that Sine's muscles tensed.
"Are these the visitors, Proserpina?" His voice was husky, as though hisconstricted chest with difficulty performed its function. He looked atthem intensely.
"They tell me you are from Earth. Are you with us or against us?"
"Father, be careful!" She put her hand over his mouth, to be shaken offimpatiently. But the girl's warning had taken effect. The man--it wasimpossible to tell if he were old or young--looked at them broodingly.
"My mother died here," Proserpina said. "And I am afraid he will. Hismind is not as clear--"
Lents, distressed to the bottom of his generous soul, helped the victimof the Jovian pleasure moon back to his bunk. "This girl," he mutteredto Kass, "can't we get her out of here?"
He had not meant for her to hear, but her quick ears caught his words,and a ray of hope illuminated her features. She was standing besideSine, and her thin fingers gripped his hard bronzed arm;
"Oh, could you take me away? I will be your slave!"
Sine gently disengaged her fingers. He was strangely embarrassed.
"I'd like to. But I'm a bachelor man. No place for you, you know."
She did not persist. No doubt she realized that she could not leave thatgaunt parody of a man who was her father.
When they bid farewell to Proserpina they were steeped in profounddepression. Alone in their room, they talked over what they had seen,but they could think of no way to save Proserpina from her fate. Theywere still discussing their visit when the manager of this satellite ofdelights called on them and informed them that Governor Nikkia ofJupiter awaited them in the capital city, Rubio. A space ferry was eventhen clamped to the locks to take them to the mother planet.