Doomed Planet

by Lee Sheldon

  Jeff began to understand what Lool meant when he said this planet would seethe and burn for centuries if it once exploded. Apparently many of its rocks were inflammable.

  "Won't the fire bring the animals down here?" Woody asked.

  "It's the heat that keeps them out," Lool said. "They won't bother us while we stay here."

  "Have you been sleeping here?"

  "Every night," Lool said. "I was coming back from getting my supper when I found you."

  "If water from the melting snow caps on the poles seeps under all the ground like they told us when we were in the complex, why isn't this cave wet?" Jeff asked.

  Lool pointed to the ceiling. "See that layer of rock? Water can't go through it. A layer of that rock is just below the surface all over the planet. That's what makes the water spread out and keep everything growing. We are below the water level here."

  Jeff nodded understandingly. "Do you know the other two Earthmen in the complex?"

  "I saw them once or twice. I had nothing to do with them."

  "They seem to be under some spell. They think the way Dood wants them to think."

  Lool nodded. "I am surprised that you don't. If you were in the complex more than a day, he should have put you under the control of the machine, too."

  "What machine?"

  "You would call it a thought control machine, I suppose," Lool said. "After the telecator has had time to erase all objectionable thoughts, it instills only thoughts compatible to the thinking for which it has been programmed."

  "Meredith and Peter seem to think that the invasion of Earth would be the best thing that could happen."

  "Of course. They are being sent back to Earth ahead of the main fleet of ships to prepare the way for their landing. If our scientists should discover the secret of facial expression before that, then the two Earthmen will be destroyed."

  "Because they are not needed?"

  "Certainly. Why else would Dood work with them? Dood will load his ships with only those who can best help him conquer Earth and plant our civilization there."

  "Do you mean that not all Illustrians are going?"

  "There isn't room on our ships for everybody," Lool said, "so perhaps I am fortunate to be turned out to die now. Many who are younger and stronger than I will be left behind.''

  "What would happen if Meredith and Peter should get away from that thought machine?" Jeff asked.

  "They would revert back to their normal thinking. But they won't get away. That machine can reach out for twenty miles and control them."

  "It can't reach across space," Woody said. "How will they keep them under control when they leave for Earth?"

  "They have a smaller version of the machine in the spaceship in which the two men will return to Earth. And they will be given instructions never to go too far from the ship after they land."

  "What will keep them from disobeying," Sue asked, "once they get back home?"

  "They won't disobey that machine because it controls their thoughts."

  "He's right," Jeff said. "Remember how certain they were that they were right and we were wrong? They'll do just what that machine tells them to."

  "Resting time," Lool said abruptly and went to one side of the cave and stretched out. Jeff couldn't tell whether he was asleep or not but he was quiet. If there was a time for sleep, this was it.

  Jeff tried to sleep but he couldn't get his mind off the things that had happened. The animals stayed just outside the cave most of the night, growling louder and louder as the night wore on. Jeff wondered if they might not get bold enough to come down into the cave. But Lool slept on as calmly as a baby in his crib, so Jeff tried not to worry.

  He thought of Meredith and Peter. If they got back to Earth, Meredith could do more damage to the defense of Earth than an entire army of Illustrians. His influence would lull a lot of people into a false sense of security.

  Jeff tried to think of a way to prevent the Illustrians from sending Meredith and Peter back to pave the way for their invasion. That thought machine had to be the answer; but how could he damage that machine?

  The machine was still uppermost in Jeff's mind when the animals outside went away as the light from the double sun began to filter into the cave. Lool suddenly rolled to his feet, as keenly alert as he had been before he went to sleep.

  "Let's go out and eat," he said.

  Lool left the cave and the others followed. The land looked beautiful to Jeff in the morning light. They had gone only a short distance from the cave when Jeff turned to look back. There was no sign of the cave and he wondered how Lool had found it in the dark last night.

  Ahead, just showing above the horizon, was the long wall of the complex. Sight of the complex revived Jeff's problem. Somehow he had to get back inside the complex and destroy that thought machine, if it was destructible.

  "Is it possible to put that thought control machine out of working order?" Jeff asked after Lool had pointed out some nonpoisonous berries and they were eating their fill.

  "It's possible, of course, if you could get to it. But you can't."

  "Where is it?"

  "Right in the center of the working end of the complex."

  "The working end?" Jeff asked, realizing that there was a lot about the complex that he didn't know.

  "Yes, the end closest to us. That is where all our work is done and where all our scientific machines are located. Three-fourths of the complex is for living quarters. Didn't you notice that there wasn't one woman in the part of the complex where you were?"

  "I just supposed I couldn't tell your women from the men," Jeff said.

  "Oh, you could tell if you saw them," Lool said. "The women are given strict orders never to come down into the working area. That is for men only. The thought control machine is one of the biggest machines we have. It is in a round dome set out by itself where none of the rest of our machinery can interfere with its wave patterns."

  "How would I get to it?" Jeff insisted.

  "I don't think you can." Lool looked straight at Jeff and Jeff saw admiration in his face. "But you think you can, don't you?"

  "I've got to try," Jeff said. "There are nearly three billion people on Earth who may die if I don't."

  "That's one way of looking at it," Lool said. Indecision twisted his face. "I don't owe Dood and the council any loyalty. To them I'm a dead man now. I can tell you how to get to that machine except for one thing. Dood's men will stop you."

  "You tell me the way," Jeff said. "I'll try to figure out how to get there."

  Lool pointed with an upper arm. "Go straight ahead and you'll come to a good road. That leads from the complex to one of our best farms. I've traveled it thousands of times to and from work. Follow that road to the gate of the complex. Inside the gate you'll be in a wide corridor. Stay on that until it joins a corridor that is even wider. That one will join one wider yet. Turn into it and it will take you right to the round dome."

  "How can the machine be destroyed?"

  "By shorting its power. That will burn out the relays. Before they can repair it, your two Earthmen will be out of its spell."

  "How can it be shorted?" Jeff asked.

  "By jamming a power thumb into the amber socket, which is the seat of its power source."

  Suddenly Lool broke off and wheeled around. Jeff was surprised at the quickness with which he moved. He had thought the Illustrians were rather slow-moving.

  Jeff spun around in time to see Lool run quickly to Woody and strike his arm just as he was bringing a handful of berries to his mouth. Woody wheeled and hit Lool but it seemed to have no effect on him.

  "Those were mine!" Woody screamed.

  Jeff ran toward them and caught Woody just as he was aiming a blow at Lool's tender thumb.

  "Was he after those berries again?" he asked.

  Lool nodded. "Once a man tastes those berries, he never gets over the urge to eat them again. You'll have to watch Woody every minute or he'll sneak away and eat more of th
em."

  "Look, Woody," Jeff said. "I need you to help me now. And I don't want you sick or seeing things."

  "All right," Woody said sullenly. "But I'll get more of those berries pretty soon. Just wait and see."

  "If you do, they'll kill you. Now come on. We're going back into the complex and short out that thought control machine."

  "All of us?" Woody asked.

  "I can never go back inside the complex," Lool said. "I would be tortured to death. That is the punishment for disobeying the orders to go out and die. At least, out here I can die happily."

  "Sue, you'd better stay here, too," Jeff said. "If they captured you again, you'd be put through more torture."

  "I would rather die out here than that," Sue said.

  "I'll take care of her," Lool said. "If you succeed in your mission, you will be back here before nightfall. If you are not here by then, Sue and I will begin eating the poison berries. We will have a pleasant death."

  "Don't get too anxious to start on those berries," Jeff said. "It might take us a little longer than we figure on."

  "If you are not back by the time the sun goes down," Lool repeated, "you will have failed."

  Jeff and Woody struck out at a fast walk. Jeff had plenty of reasons to hurry. He had no idea when Dood would send Meredith and Peter back to Earth; he had to destroy that machine and get the two men out of the complex before that happened. He wasn't at all sure that he and Woody could get the job done before nightfall, either. They had to get back before Lool started feeding Sue those poison berries.

  They came to the road. It wasn't paved but it was harder than most roads back on Earth. That was the result of no rain to soften it, Jeff supposed.

  "Don't see any guards," Woody said as he looked at the wall ahead of them. "Are we just going to walk right up to the gate and go in?"

  "I don't know of any other way," Jeff said.

  They came to the gate without a challenge being made. Now that Jeff thought about it, that wasn't so strange. Since all the people of Illus lived inside the walls of the complex, it would be a little foolish to have guards stationed on the walls; the Illustrians had nothing to guard against.

  Jeff and Woody paused at the gate. Jeff took a deep breath then stuck his power thumb into the depression on the gate. Nothing happened and Jeff repeated the maneuver, pushing the thumb harder. But still the gate didn't budge.

  "What's the matter?" Woody asked.

  "This thumb must have lost its power. Maybe they recharge their thumbs every night."

  "Great!" Woody exclaimed. "Where do we plug in to recharge?"

  "Lool said this was the road to the biggest farm," Jeff said. "Maybe somebody will come along here on the way out to the farm. We'll borrow a thumb from one of them."

  "Just walk up and ask for one like a neighbor asking for a cup of sugar, I suppose?"

  "We might have to tap a few tender thumbs to get the job done," Jeff said. "But I don't know any other way. Even Lool didn't have a power thumb."

  "They didn't want him to get back in."

  Jeff led the way out a short distance from the wall and back into the vegetation at the side of the road. There they crouched and waited. This was the hardest thing Jeff could imagine. Knowing how important time was, he had to waste it now, waiting for something that might not even happen.

  It wasn't long, however, until a vehicle came out on the road and moved slowly away from the complex. Jeff counted seven men in the vehicle and he shook his head at Woody. They wouldn't have a chance against that many.

  "We can't wait forever," Woody said after the vehicle had gone by.

  "I know. Maybe the next one will have fewer men. If not, we'll tackle it, anyway."

  "Does your gun still work?" Woody asked. "Or has it lost its charge, too?"

  "I hope it works," Jeff said. "Lool said it was dangerous to fire it outside the complex. I won't risk it unless I have to."

  "You may have to," Woody added grimly.

  The gate of the complex opened again and another vehicle came out. It was smaller than the first and Jeff nodded to Woody. As the vehicle came down the road, Jeff counted only two men inside. He gripped his gun and waited until the vehicle was almost to them. Then he stepped out in front of it, his gun lined on the two Illustrians. Fear showed on their faces as the driver brought the vehicle to a halt.

  "Get out," Jeff ordered in Illustrian.

  The two men climbed out. Jeff realized that their fear didn't stem so much from the paralyzing effects of the gun but from what would happen if he fired at them and missed.

  "Get their power thumbs and give them each a tap on the tender thumbs," Jeff said to Woody in English.

  Woody moved forward quickly. He tapped each man on his tender thumb and as the men wilted down in the road, he jerked the power thumbs free.

  "Now we've each got one," he said.

  "Let's hurry," Jeff said. "If another vehicle comes out here, the men will see this one stopped and know something is wrong."

  "They'll figure it out when these two come screaming back to the complex with news of what has happened, anyway," Woody said.

  "They can't get in," Jeff said. "We've got their power thumbs. Maybe nobody will hear them yelling out here."

  They hurried to the gate into the complex and Jeff jammed the mechanical thumb into the depression. The gate slid back immediately. Inside, they found themselves facing a long corridor with no one in it. That verified Jeff's conclusion that the Illustrians didn't keep any guards out here. They hadn't seen what had happened to the last vehicle that went through the gate.

  "We have to stay on these wide corridors," Jeff said as he led the way forward on the run.

  They had to duck back into a room which Jeff opened with his thumb as a vehicle carrying seven Illustrians glided down the corridor. When the vehicle was gone, Jeff led the way ahead again.

  "They'll see those two unconscious men," Woody said.

  "We've got to find that machine first."

  They came to the spot where a wider corridor cut into this one from the right. Jeff turned into it without hesitation. There would be one more turn to make, according to Lool's instructions, then they would be heading straight for the machine in the dome.

  Suddenly Jeff became aware of the high-pitched whine that he had heard yesterday when he and Woody and Sue were trying to get out of the complex.

  "They're on to us," Woody said.

  "They must have found those men outside," Jeff agreed. "Let's hurry. They don't know what we're here for."

  He began running faster than before, Woody only a step behind him. They reached another corridor that came in from their left. It was even wider than the one they were on and Jeff wheeled into it. Far ahead he saw a round dome. The corridor widened out as it approached the dome until there was an open space of fifty yards between the dome and the nearest wall.

  But now trouble began appearing. Two doors ahead, a man stepped out directly in their path. Jeff didn't wait for a battle. He aimed his paralyzer gun and squeezed the handle; the man dropped as if he had been melted.

  A half dozen men came out of the dome then and Jeff could see that they were all armed with the paralyzer guns. He knew that he and Woody could never get past them. Two of the men stayed close to the dome but the others came running toward Jeff and Woody.

  "I'm here," Jeff said and turned to a door. He pressed the thumb in the depression and the door slid back. They ducked inside and ran toward another door at the far side.

  Once through this door, Jeff found himself out in another corridor. He turned up it with Woody right behind him. He was sure that the four men who had come from the dome would follow them through that room. Jeff and Woody had to fight their way into that dome before those men caught up with them.

  Jeff turned to another door leading back the way they had come. Opening it, they went through the room and out into the main corridor again. The two guards were no longer standing in front of the dome. For a moment, Jef
f thought they were in luck; maybe all the guards had rushed after them and were now in the rooms behind them somewhere.

  Then suddenly the two guards leaped out at them from hidden nooks in the walls. Jeff tried to turn to face the man coming at him but he was too late. He went down hard, thinking that he was going to fail after coming this close to success.

  Chapter XIV

  Jeff hit the floor and tried to turn his gun toward the Illustrian who had knocked him down, but instead, one of the Illustrian's arms came around and struck the gun, sending it spinning out of Jeff's reach.

  The Illustrian, however, was still off balance and Jeff twisted away from him. He glanced around for the gun. Without it, he had no chance because both Illustrians had paralyzer guns. He couldn't find the gun, and he had no time to search because the Illustrian was coming at him again.

  The Illustrian brought his gun up in line with Jeff, but he didn't squeeze the handle. Jeff saw the indecision in his face and then he looked behind him at the big dome. He guessed that the Illustrian was afraid to fire the gun this close to the thought control machine.

  It gave Jeff added confidence and he circled the man warily, waiting for a break. The Illustrian, discarding the idea of using the gun, watched Jeff a moment then charged forward, all four arms reaching out to wrap Jeff in a smothering hug.

  Jeff ducked under the upper arms and slapped at the lower left hand. He missed on the first pass but not on the second; the Illustrian wilted, his arms sliding away.

  Jeff wheeled toward Woody, who was wrapped up tightly by the other Illustrian. As Jeff started forward, one hand of the Illustrian turned his gun toward Jeff. Jeff hesitated, thinking that this man might not be afraid to use his gun.

  He couldn't wait, however; those other four guards would be catching up soon. If the Illustrian had any fear of using his gun, it had to be because he was afraid of missing his target and damaging the machine.

  Jeff circled until he had his back to the machine then he ran toward the Illustrian again, weaving as he went. The Illustrian hesitated; if he fired and missed, the charge would hit the dome.