by Lee Sheldon
Jeff pressed another red light and the picture switched to a different room. This turned out to be the actual room where they had been questioned. Jeff saw some of the men who had been there during the questioning. They were talking about the two strangers from Earth and their words came clearly into the room where Jeff and Woody were.
"Suppose they can hear us?" Woody whispered.
"Let's find out," Jeff said loudly. The men in the picture didn't change their attitude. "One way street," Jeff said. "Let's see what they think of us."
For a few minutes they watched the men in the other room. They seemed to be debating whether they could make use of the two strangers. All agreed that they could use the younger one but they had doubts about the older one.
"They mean they can use me?" Woody said. "How do they figure that?"
"Evidently they think they can twist you around their fingers.”
"I’ll show them they can't," Woody snorted. "Let's look at another picture."
Jeff reached up and touched another red light. The picture changed immediately, and Jeff caught his breath when he saw a picture of Sue. It was the first evidence that he'd had that they had come to the same place where Sue had been taken.
His anger soared as he saw what was going on. Two Illustrians were wrapping something around her head, apparently measuring it carefully. Jeff could see how miserable she was. He was glad, however, that she was alive and appeared to be unhurt. Judging from the conversation they had just overheard from the questioning room, these pictures were of things that were actually happening at the moment, not something that had been filmed for showing at the press of a button.
"What are they doing to her?" Woody demanded.
"I don't know, but we've got to find where she is and help her."
"How do you figure on doing that?" Woody exclaimed. "We can't even get out of this room, and no telling where she is in all this maze of rooms and corridors."
"I know," Jeff admitted, "but I can't just stand here and do nothing while they torture her."
He turned away from the screen and ran to the door, pounding and pushing on it; but the door didn't budge. He had the feeling he'd have more luck pounding on the walls. They might break down; the door was made of solider stuff.
Suddenly the picture on the screen changed and a voice boomed into the room in English.
"Stop trying to escape," it said, and Jeff wheeled back to look at the screen.
Dood was there, anger showing plainly in his face. Jeff realized that every movement they made here in this room must be under observation.
"He sees right through the walls," Woody said.
"Maybe there are hidden cameras somewhere."
"If you want to say something to me, push the blue button on the end," Dood said.
Jeff hurried over to the panel. The red button on the end of the row was glowing brighter than the others now. He pushed the blue button directly below it but he couldn't see any change; the picture of Dood remained the same.
"Why didn't you tune him out while you were doing it?" Woody asked.
"You can't tune me out of your room," Dood said.
"Hey, he can hear us, too," Woody exclaimed.
"You pushed the blue button so you can communicate with me," Dood said.
"What are you doing with Sue?" Jeff demanded, realizing that Dood could hear what they were saying now.
"We are experimenting with her."
"Let her alone," Jeff demanded.
Anger flashed across Dood's face. "You are in no position to tell me what to do."
Jeff sighed. "I guess that's right."
"It is not a guess. Behave yourself and you will get along well here with us."
"And what if we don't?" Woody asked.
"Ill leave that to your imagination."
The picture suddenly went out. Woody stared at the blank screen for a moment. "I wish he'd told me," he said finally. ''My imagination is worse than anything he can dream up."
"It probably is," Jeff agreed.
He couldn't afford to have Woody get the jitters; he had to do something to help Sue and he'd need Woody's help. Just what he could do, though, had him stymied.
"Seems that these blue buttons open up two-way conversations," Jeff said as he puzzled over the panel. "The red ones just let us see and not be seen."
"That suits me," Woody said. "I just wish we could make that arrangement with Dood."
That reminded Jeff to look for the cameras that must be projecting their images on screens in other rooms in the complex. Maybe they had a way of showing the activities in a room without cameras, but until proven otherwise Jeff would work on the assumption that cameras were sending the pictures.
He stood in the center of the room and slowly turned around, scanning the walls and ceiling. A feeling of reality came to him when he spotted the nose of a camera aimed at the center of the room from a hole in one corner close to the ceiling. Without pointing to it, he whispered to Woody of his discovery.
Woody soon located another camera in the opposite corner. Although Jeff searched carefully, he was sure that those two cameras were the only ones in the room. They would be enough, he thought, to reveal every movement he and Woody made.
"Let's try some of these blue buttons,” he suggested.
"Not the one on this end again," Woody said. "I've seen enough of Dood."
Jeff pushed the second button and it showed the room where they had been questioned earlier; it was empty now. The third button brought in Sue's room. He got just a glimpse of her being escorted through a door by two Illustrians. He shouted, and he saw Sue start and try to turn around, but the two men pushed her on through.
"Wonder where they're taking her," Woody said.
"Wish we could get her away from them. I've learned one thing for sure about these buttons. The red ones give us one-way connections with certain rooms, and the blue buttons directly underneath them show the same rooms, only on two-way hookups."
"Which one hooks up to California?"
"Afraid that one is out of order."
He reached over and pushed the next blue button. He hadn't tried the red one above it so he had no idea what room this would throw them into. He caught his breath when he turned to look at the screen.
There, sitting on two small chairs at a table eating some strange looking food, were two Earth-people that he recognized in spite of their beards and strange clothing: Meredith Woodruff and Peter Ingram.
"Uncle Meredith!" Woody gasped.
The two men turned sharply and looked at their screen, which made it appear they were looking directly at Jeff and Woody.
"Would you look at that, Peter?" Meredith exclaimed. "They told us you two were coming."
"Who told you?" Jeff asked.
"Dood and Foof," Meredith said. "We're glad you're here."
"I'm not!" Woody shouted. "We didn't aim to come."
"Well, we didn't aim to come, either," Peter replied, "but now that we're here, we're glad it worked out this way. This will be a wonderful thing for all concerned."
"You think it's wonderful being stuck here on this strange planet light years away from home?" Jeff demanded.
"We're not stuck here," Meredith said. "We're going home. These are fine people and they're going back with us."
Jeff was silent for a moment. "Fine people?" he said finally. "Didn't you see their faces?"
"Oh, of course," Meredith said. "I was frightened at first. But I didn't know them then."
"If they're such fine people," Woody asked, "why don't they let us go home?"
"With your attitude?" Meredith said in amazement. "You're my nephew but I'd kill you myself before I'd let you go back to Earth with the attitude you have now."
Jeff looked at the shock on Woody's face. "They're not themselves,” he whispered.
"Who is around here?"
"How do we get out of here?" Jeff asked.
"You don't," Meredith said. "Nobody escapes from here until he
has learned the true facts of life."
"What about Sue? Will they hurt her?"
"Who knows?" Meredith said easily. "It isn't important."
Jeff knew then that the real Meredith Woodruff was gone. This was just a shell he was seeing now, a shell that would be a hindrance rather than a help in any attempt he made to rescue Sue.
Jeff was sure that Meredith was right about one thing, however: Nobody could escape from these Illustrians.
Chapter VII
After the screen had gone blank, Jeff sat on one of the undersized chairs in his room and tried to pick out one ray of hope in the bleak outlook; he found nothing.
If Meredith Woodruff and Peter Ingram were in their right minds, they could help find Sue then maybe all of them could escape. Having been here for a while, Meredith and Peter should have learned how the Illustrians operated, and perhaps they could program one of those spaceships for a return to Earth.
There was no chance of that now; somehow the Illustrians had brought Meredith and Peter under their control. The fact that they had accomplished this gave Jeff a severe shock; he had considered Meredith Woodruff a man with a mind that was unshakable. Woodruff had been Jeff's ideal.
"Uncle Meredith has lost his mind," Woody said after a long silence.
"They've taken over his mind somehow," Jeff admitted.
"He did say they were going to take him back to Earth. Suppose well get to go, too?"
"I don't want to go the way Meredith says he's going."
"You mean taking the Illustrians with him?"
Jeff nodded. "You know what that means. These Illustrians must plan to take over Earth, the way they took over Meredith and Peter."
"Why do you suppose they want to leave this place?"
"Maybe there are more people here than the planet can support. Every planet will face that problem if it becomes civilized and stays that way long enough."
"You call these Illustrians civilized?"
"Highly civilized, I imagine," Jeff said. "No people gains as much technical knowledge as they have without a highly developed civilization. But that's not our problem now."
"I used to think Algebra had some tough problems," Woody grumbled.
The door of their room slid open silently and two Illustrians came in. Jeff and Woody stood up and faced them.
"Do you wish to visit with your friends?" one of them asked.
"Sue?" Jeff asked quickly.
"The ones who call themselves Meredith and Peter."
Jeff shot a glance at Woody then nodded. Maybe if they could get into the same room with them, they would discover what was wrong. "We would like to talk with them,” he said.
"Come."
The two men turned. One went out the door; the other waited until Jeff and Woody had gone out, then fell in behind them. Jeff and Woody moved out like prisoners being transferred from one cell to another.
A new hope was rising in Jeff now. Perhaps Meredith and Peter were only playing a game to deceive the Illustrian. Knowing that everything they said on the screen was carefully monitored by the Illustrians, they would have played a part to the hilt. If that was the case, Jeff would find some way during this visit to give Meredith a chance to let him know that it was all a fake.
Jeff studied each door as they passed it, trying V figure out a method of telling where he was; but each corridor looked just like every other one, and the doors all looked alike. There was a figure on each door that Jeff assumed corresponded to numbers at home. They all seemed to be slightly different, but how could he learn to read them? He particularly wanted to be able to pick out Meredith's room again if the need arose.
Then the leading Illustrian stopped. Jeff studied the little mark on the door as a man jammed a thumb into a slot and the door slid back. Jeff followed the man inside.
Meredith and Peter were still seated at the table where they had been when Jeff had seen them on the screen. They watched their visitors come in, obviously pleased. One of the Illustrians spoke to Meredith in the Illustrian tongue, asking him if he and Peter could handle the situation; Meredith assured him they could. The two Illustrians went out and the door closed behind them.
Jeff looked around the room. This was a much more comfortable room than the one he and Woody had. A soft blue light spread over everything, giving no glare yet lighting the room with a brilliance that exceeded the best artificial light back home. There were two extra-long couches, several chairs, and a table.
"They've fixed you up in comfort,” Jeff said.
"They have," Meredith agreed. "It's good to see you, Jeff. Peter and I were getting a little tired of our own company."
"Have you seen Sue?" Jeff asked.
"On the screen. She got here just a matter of hours before you did."
"She left just ahead of us," Woody said. "Are they figuring on bringing everybody out here from Earth?"
"Quite the contrary. We're all going back there."
"You mean we'll get to go home?" Woody asked eagerly.
"Of course," Peter replied. "These people wouldn't hurt a fly."
"Sue looked pretty miserable when I saw her," Jeff said.
"She is undergoing experiments," Meredith said.
"But they may hurt her."
Meredith shrugged. "They have things to learn. Sometimes injuries can't be avoided."
Jeff stared at Meredith. "What have they done to you?"
"They have treated us marvelously. Look around for yourself. See how comfortable we are?"
"You talk as if you prefer these Illustrians to people from Earth."
"They are much smarter," Meredith said. "Just ask Peter."
"There can hardly be any doubt about that," Peter said.
"I suppose not," Jeff admitted. "But just being smarter doesn't make them better people."
"Think about it, Jeff," Meredith said patronizingly. "Wouldn't their intelligence be a great boon to Earth?"
"How are you going to get that intelligence without getting them, too?"
"That's the whole point," Meredith replied. "We take them with us. There aren't many of them, and they can pass for natives of Earth if we are willing to accept their rather unusual facial expressions. With their knowledge, we could be the leaders of the Universe."
Jeff studied Meredith and Peter and decided that this was no act; they were firmly won over to the Illustrian way of thinking. Meredith sounded as sincere in recommending that the Illustrians be taken into Earth's society as he had back home when expounding his pet theories on astronomy and space travel.
"They'd never pass for human beings as we know them on Earth," Jeff said.
"They would if the people were educated to it," Peter said. "You know they can change to look like almost anything they want to."
"I never saw anything as scary as their faces when I first saw them," Woody said. "Everybody is going to feel the same way."
"Perhaps," Meredith said. "Perhaps not. They can change everything about their appearance except their expressions. Whatever they think shows in their faces. Now you've got to admit that is a redeeming feature—certainly a lot better than people on Earth."
"I don't know about that," Woody argued.
"An Earthman can smile like a saint while he's lying in his teeth," Meredith said. "An Illustrian can't do that. Whatever he is thinking shows in his face. I say that is a wonderful thing. We'd have a different world back home if people were made that way."
Jeff nodded. "It would certainly be different, all right. But if it is a fact that the Illustrians show their true thoughts in their faces, then they weren't thinking pure, lily-white thoughts when they landed at your observatory. I never saw meaner expressions on any faces anywhere."
"They were just frightened. You'd be frightened of the unknown yourself. They didn't know how they would be received."
"They could make a good guess how they'd be received if they looked like that," Woody said. "Nobody would accept them with open arms, that's sure."
Jeff re
called something Meredith had said a minute before. "You say there aren't many Illustrians on this planet?"
"Not according to our reckoning of numbers. All the living Illustrians, the way I understand it, are right here in this complex."
"How big is that?" Woody asked.
"I have no real idea," Meredith said. "Perhaps four or five Earth miles wide and maybe ten long."
"Then they're not over-crowded on this planet," Jeff said.
"Far from it," Peter said.
"Why do they want to get away?"
"This planet is doomed," Meredith said. "A few months from now it will be in pieces. At least, all life on it will be destroyed."
"Oh, fine!" Woody said. "We go visiting just in time for a big explosion."
"Only we won't be here," Meredith said. "We'll be on our way back to Earth."
"What's going to destroy all life on this planet?" Jeff asked, thinking that the Illustrians had planted some fantastic ideas in Meredith's mind.
"Illus is due to pass through the orbit of a large comet in a little over six months," Meredith explained. "According to the astronomers, the comet is being drawn out of its natural orbit by the gravitational influence of other astronomical bodies and when it gets close to Illus the next time around, the gravity of the planet is going to pull it into a collision course."
"I suppose such a thing could be possible," Jeff conceded. "But even if it is, a comet is hardly going to cause an explosion that will destroy everything on a planet this size."
"This planet may be almost a duplicate of Earth in many ways," Merdith explained, "but in one way it is not. It has a very thin crust and an extremely hot interior. Any big explosion here causes earthquakes and terrible eruptions. The Illustrians know that from bitter experience. An explosion like that caused by a collision with a comet with the density of the one coming at them now will virtually blow up the planet!"
Chapter VIII
Jeff frowned as he tried to picture the catastrophe Meredith was predicting. It was entirely too fantastic to believe, yet he could see that Meredith and Peter believed it. Probably that was what the Illustrians wanted them to believe so they would be willing to see the Illustrians move to Earth.