The Lost Pleiad

by Sesh Heri

  As soon as he recognized what was beyond the balcony, Tesla heard the laughter of men’s voices, then the voices speaking with great animation. One voice echoed and thundered with a harsh guttural sound that would slide into a frenzied soprano at intervals. It was a voice of power, an alien power, a purely inhuman power.

  Tesla continued to walk forward, first faster, and then slower as he recognized the language of the voice— it was German— High German spoken with an uncouth accent, the accent of Low German— of the gutter.

  Tesla had almost reached the edge of the balcony when the memory of his nightmare of a few minutes previous returned to him in a twisting, horrific flood. In the nightmare, Tesla had approached exactly this same balcony that was now before him in waking reality, and he had listened to exactly the same voice that he was hearing now— the same voice speaking High German with the same gutter accent. He remembered that the voice in the dream was saying: “die Schwarze Sonne!” (“The Black Sun!”) In a moment following this in the nightmare Tesla heard some unintelligible conversation, and then— from the guttural voice— an eruption of high-pitched, maniacal laughter. This, in the nightmare, urged Tesla to approach the balcony and look down. Now, in his waking state, Tesla could not remember what he saw when he looked down from the balcony in his nightmare, but only knew that it had awakened him in horror with his stomach twisting in nausea.

  Now, in a fully wakened state, Tesla forced himself to tip-toe forward and look down over the balcony, down below to where the saucer craft waited upon the immense floor of the main cavern.

  Tesla was at the balcony. He looked down. He saw Professor May standing down upon the cavern floor. A man in a gray overcoat and military officer’s cap stood in front of the Professor, the man’s back turned so that Tesla could not see his face. Then the man wearing the cap raised his hand upward, his fingers together, his arm extended, in the salute of Nazi Germany, and said in his shrill guttural voice: “Herr Miethe!”

  Professor May raised his hand in response, in the same Nazi salute, and said in a perfect High German accent: “Heil Hitler!”

  The man in the cap marched past Professor May and up upon the ramp of a saucer craft. A man in a Nazi officer’s uniform suddenly looked out of the open door of the saucer. On the ramp, the man in the cap turned around and lifted his chin, and the dim light of the main cavern fell upon his face.

  Nikola Tesla could see that the man in the cap was Adolph Hitler.

  Tesla stumbled backward from the balcony wall and collapsed upon the floor, his heart pounding, his stomach twisting into a knot. He remembered the rest of his nightmare: it was what he had just seen— Adolph Hitler entering an anti-gravity saucer.

  Tesla crawled and groped his way upright, and pulled himself up to the top edge of the balcony wall in time to see Hitler turn and enter the saucer craft. The ramp upon which Hitler had walked retracted back inside the saucer, and the saucer lifted off the floor of the cavern.

  Professor May waved his hand and from some unseen place the control switch for the overhead skylight of Site Y was thrown and the great sliding doors of the main cavern broke upon to reveal a night sky of stars.

  The saucer into which Hitler had entered now shot upward into the black void of the sky and out of sight.

  “You!” Tesla shouted in an involuntary rage. “Traitor! May! You are a traitor!”

  Professor May looked up at Tesla. The Professor’s face flashed with astonishment— then with a grin.

  “Not May,” the Professor said, “but Miethe! Professor Miethe, of the Third Reich! And you and Marconi are finished. Both of you are dead. In three minutes storm troopers will descend here and destroy you all! I have no further need of you! I have all your plans!”

  Professor Miethe turned and marched swiftly toward a saucer craft in the distance.

  Tesla turned, saw steps leading down to the floor of the cavern, and sped down them. He reached the cavern floor and set off running toward Professor Miethe.

  “You cannot reach me, old man!” Professor Miethe said. “You will drop in your tracks any second!”

  But Tesla kept running and shouting, “Alarm! Alarm! Call to alarm! Invaders at Site Y! Nazis! Nazis! Nazis! Alarm! Alarm! Marconi! Marconi!”

  One floor above the floor of the cavern Marconi slept lightly. He heard Tesla’s voice from the windows of his bedroom which gave way to a balcony of its own. When Marconi heard Tesla’s voice, he leapt to his feet and pushed a panic button next to his bed. This alerted a security force stationed directly off the main cavern.

  In another instant, Marconi was speeding down the steps of his balcony, wearing only his pajamas, and brandishing a pistol in his right hand. When he got to the floor of the cavern, he saw Tesla running toward the Professor who was now ascending the ramp of a saucer craft.

  “Stop him!” Tesla cried out. “Traitor! He is — a traitor!”

  Tesla collapsed on the floor of the cavern, his lungs and legs spent with exhaustion.

  “Halt!” Marconi shouted, running forward. “Halt— or I fire!”

  Professor Miethe gave Marconi the Nazi salute, and then turned and continued up the ramp of the saucer.

  Marconi stopped running, aimed, and fired his pistol. He hit the Professor’s left shoulder. Professor Miethe dropped down on one knee, and then crawled on into the door of the saucer.

  Tesla had regained his breath and now rose, and ran up the ramp of the saucer as it retracted back into the door’s threshold. The door began to close— but Tesla squeezed through it.

  Professor Miethe stood just inside the saucer, his right hand gripping his left shoulder that was now covered in blood. The Professor’s left hand was attempting to move a control switch that Tesla saw was controlling the retraction of the entry ramp.

  “You foolish old man,” Professor Miethe said.

  “Think old and you are old,” Tesla said.

  Tesla lunged forward and grabbed the Professor’s left hand. The Professor removed his right hand from his shoulder and used it to try to push Tesla back. Tesla pushed forward, his right hand upon the Professor’s left hand. Suddenly, in a burst of effort, the Professor pushed Tesla back across the interior cabin to the opposite bulkhead, and then reached upward to another switch and slapped it down. The saucer, with its door still open and its boarding ramp still partially extended, began rising off the floor of the cavern. The saucer rose in a wobbling trajectory that increased its speed as it went. Tesla looked through the open door and saw that the walls of the cavern were swinging wildly about. Inside the saucer, because of its artificial gravity field, Tesla and the Professor could feel none of these wild swings.

  Tesla leapt forward and grabbed Professor Miethe by the shoulders. The Professor was now weakening from loss of blood.

  The two men, locked in a struggle, reached the door of the saucer. The view beyond the door was a blur of earth and sky. The saucer was tumbling upward into the night sky out of control.

  Professor Miethe, with his hand upon Tesla’s throat, shouted, “Ten feet from the outer hull the gravity gradient drops off at a terrific rate! Then it’s only good ‘ol terra firma pullin’ ya down— as the Americans say! It’s your time, old man! I’d say you’ve hung on too long!”

  Professor Miethe applied pressure to Tesla’s throat and shoved him toward the door. Both men stood face to face at the door’s threshold. Tesla reached back with his left hand and pulled down on the switch controlling the outer boarding ramp and door. The door suddenly slid all the way open and the boarding ramp hummed into operation, extending out from the door’s threshold, and catching on the heel of the Professor’s shoe, dragging him along and out on to the ramp.

  Tesla reached up in a sudden slash with his forearms and broke the Professor’s grip upon his throat.

  In the next instant Professor Miethe stumbled back upon the extending ramp to catch his balance. The dizzying blur of earth and sky now all about him caused the Professor to raise his arms and flail them about in
the air.

  All the while the ramp kept rapidly extending— five feet— six feet— seven—

  Professor Miethe closed his eyes against the dizzying blur. He tried to step forward upon the ramp, to walk back into the saucer, but the ramp was still extending— eight feet— nine feet— ten—

  Tesla clung desperately to the edge of the door.

  Professor Miethe opened his eyes wide— opened his mouth wide— and flailed his arms against the sudden envelope of wind and gravity.

  Then Professor Miethe was flung out into space, instantly disappearing from his place on the ramp. To Tesla it seemed that the Professor had suddenly flashed into non-existence.

  But Professor Miethe, inventor of the deadly German Bell and the mysterious KA projector, now hurtled through the air to his inescapable destiny two thousand feet below upon the perpetual snow-covered slopes of the Andes Mountains— hurtled like a rocket of precise engineering— hurtled downward as an armada of Nazi saucer craft also descended upon the open crater leading to Site Y.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Escape from Site Y

  “Trust not him with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.”

  — Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Nikola Tesla clung to the open door of the saucer, looking down at the spinning earth. He had only seconds to decide what to do.

  First, his hand pushed forward the lever controlling the boarding ramp that only moments before Professor Miethe had stood upon. The ramp responded, and whirred back inside the saucer.

  Second, he pivoted his body all the way inside the saucer as the door slid shut and the boarding ramp disappeared into a slot in the threshold below.

  Now Tesla was inside the quiet, windless cabin of the saucer with no immediate view of the outside world. In this enclosed environment of artificial gravity there was nothing that could be felt or seen to indicate that the craft was tumbling in a violently chaotic trajectory through the night sky.

  Tesla saw four swivel chairs before him mounted upon the floor and arranged in a curve along the bulkhead interior. He sat down at one of the chairs and began flipping switches randomly and rapidly. Suddenly a television screen flashed on in front of him and a view of the exterior of the craft dimly appeared as streaks of light and shadow. Tesla saw what appeared to be an aircraft control yoke in front of him. He grasped it and lights flashed on in front of him. The image on the television screen froze, revealing the Moon and a field of stars. Tesla pushed the control yoke forward and the Moon and stars moved up and out of sight on the television screen. They were replaced by a jagged range of mountains glowing white with snow against the night sky. Tesla kept the yoke pushed forward and the mountains moved up on the screen, and at the bottom of the screen a circular opening appeared: the mouth of a volcano. Tesla pushed the yoke forward again. On the screen a circle of light appeared upon the floor of the volcano’s caldera— the opening to Site Y. An instant later, Tesla saw three glinting streaks of light move across the television screen at an angle and disappear into the circular opening on the floor of the caldera.

  Tesla kept the yoke pushed forward. The image of the circular opening enlarged on the television screen. In a moment, the circular opening engulfed the screen. Tesla knew he was steering the saucer back down into Site Y. Tesla watched the television screen, and used the images on it to steer the saucer back down on to the floor of the main cavern. Suddenly on the screen, the floor of the cavern appeared along with a number of saucers and crowds of people running.

  A red light flashed on the control panel in front of Tesla and the image on the television screen stopped moving.

  Tesla stood up and went to the door and pulled the lever for the boarding ramp. The door slid open and the boarding ramp began to extend out of the saucer. Beyond the door of the saucer Tesla could see that Nazi storm troopers were running toward the distant tunnels. The air was filled with the cracks and booms of gunfire.

  The boarding ramp had now extended to the floor of the cavern, and Tesla ran down in it and into the cavern. White-faced Martians ran past him to seek cover from gunfire in a nearby tunnel. A hand fell upon Tesla’s left shoulder. He turned and saw that the hand belonged to Fulcanelli.

  “With us,” Fulcanelli said evenly.

  Tesla moved with the motion of Fulcanelli’s hand. They plummeted through the crowd of rushing Martians and in a moment were in a tunnel that had been cut through volcanic rock. A massive granite slab stood to the side of a dark opening in the wall of the tunnel. Martians and Earthlings were now pouring through it in a rapid file.

  “I’ve already evacuated my fellow philosophers,” Fulcanelli said. “There are only the last of these left to take out. Many others have been killed by the Germans. We go below and this stone will seal off the passage.”

  “What’s below?” Tesla asked.

  “A tunnel with rail transport to the south near Cuzco,” Fulcanelli said.

  Marconi, Kel-Kar, and Alayna appeared at the end of the crowd.

  “We’re staying here,” Marconi said to Fulcanelli.

  “You’re impossibly outnumbered,” Fulcanelli replied.

  “Go ahead,” Marconi said. “Follow the others in and seal up the entrance.”

  “If you stay, you’ll die,” Fulcanelli said.

  “Perhaps,” Marconi said. “But I will take that chance. This is all part of a plan, years in the making. Every saucer of the Third Reich is on the floor of the cavern out there. I have only to press this button—“

  Marconi held up a small box in his hand.

  “And Site Y will be blown off the map of South America. I had hoped I would do this later rather than sooner. Now I must act. Go. Go with the others. I give you five minutes. Then— Site Y is no more! Go!”

  The last of the Martians rushed through the opening in the wall of the tunnel.

  “And Mr. Tesla?” Fulcanelli asked.

  “I stay here,” Tesla said.

  Fulcanelli gave a nod, turned and stepped into the opening in the side of the tunnel. He raised the palm of his hand and the massive granite stone slid across the opening and sealed it shut.

  “You must tell me how he does that someday,” Tesla said.

  “I was hoping you’d tell me,” Marconi said. “I saw you come out of the saucer out there.”

  “Yes,” Tesla said. “I just now threw Professor May out of it while we were in flight.”

  “Why did you do that?” Marconi asked.

  “He was trying to throw me out,” Tesla said.

  “I see that the door of the saucer you were in still stands open,” Marconi said, looking around the edge of the tunnel where it opened on to the main cavern. “That is our escape from here. Does anyone have a weapon?”

  Kel-Kar and Alayna shook their heads.

  “Mr. Tesla?” Marconi asked.

  “Nothing,” Tesla said.

  “Too bad,” Marconi said. “That means we only have this.” He held up his pistol. “And that means that it will have to be enough. To the door of the craft. We all run, not walk.”

  Marconi ran straight out into the main cavern with Kel-Kar directly behind him. Behind Kel-Kar, Alayna ran, pulling Tesla along by the arm.

  Marconi made it up the ramp of the saucer and up to the threshold of its door. There, he stopped and spun about, pointing his pistol upward, and shouted, “Quickly! Quickly! They’re behind you!”

  Storm troopers and a Martian raced toward the saucer, rapidly closing the gap between them and Alayna with Tesla. Marconi aimed his pistol and fired. The storm troopers dropped to the floor of the cavern and darted around the curve of a saucer.

  Kel-Kar rushed past Marconi and through the door behind him. A second later Alayna bounded up the ramp with Tesla by her side. The old man and the young female Martian went past Marconi and through the door as well. That same instant the Martian that had darted back now lunged forward and fired at Marconi, a bullet ricocheting off the saucer above Marconi’s head.
Marconi saw that the Martian who had fired at him was Lazlo. Marconi fired back and Lazlo fell to the floor of the cavern, dead.

  Marconi went into the saucer and its door slid shut.

  Inside, Marconi saw that Tesla had pulled the lever for the door and boarding ramp.

  “I see you’re familiar with the controls,” Marconi said.

  Tesla nodded.

  Marconi went to the pilot’s seat, sat down, and began flipping switches.

  “I see you are familiar with the controls as well,” Tesla said.

  “This is one of the Nazi’s standard test models,” Marconi said. “The Third Reich has built a number of them and is preparing to attack England and America. With the exception of the Bell, this is the most secret project of the Reich. I know these controls well. I have made it my business to know them.”

  Marconi watched the television screen closely and expertly piloted the saucer straight up through the opening of Site Y.

  “Hitler is in one of the saucers,” Tesla said. “I saw him. I’m certain it was he.”

  “I believe you,” Marconi said. “I’m not surprised. He has an intense hatred of me and no doubt wished to personally observe my defeat and demise. I have no doubt that Professor May— or Miethe— photographed the plans for your magnifying receiver and delivered them to Hitler. I would assume that Hitler has by now been safely deposited aboard a U-boat somewhere, if not flown directly back to Germany.”

  “So you knew that Professor May was really Professor Miethe,” Tesla said.

  “For a very long time,” Marconi said. “The Professor, Hitler, and I have been playing a very dangerous cat-and-mouse game for years.”

  “But who has been the cat and who the mouse?” Tesla asked.

  “At one time or another we have all played both parts,” Marconi said. “Hitler sent Miethe to spy on me in the role of Professor May. But I immediately recognized him as Miethe. I played along and taught him everything I knew about being a double-agent, except one thing: to never let the enemy know where your loyalties really lie. And I never let Miethe know for certain whether I was really for Hitler or against him.”