Menace of the Saucers

by Eando Binder

  He was drawn helplessly up into the lower hatchway of the craft and deposited on his feet, whereupon his paralysis abruptly departed.

  “All right, you win,” he said turning. “When you men-in-black pull superscience stuff like this, what chance have I…?”

  He choked. The three figures he faced were not the MIB’s.

  Two were men and one was a woman, all three dressed in everything but black. Their form-fitting garments were all colors of the rainbow. One man was dark-haired, the other blond. The girl had red hair.

  “Who are you?” Thane said, bewildered.

  “Your friends,” said the dark-haired man, extending a hand for a handshake. “My name is Thalkon.”

  “Friends?” grunted Thane. “Funny way to show it, yanking me out of my cabin.”

  “Yes, to keep the Morlians—men-in-black you call them—from capturing you. Look.”

  Thalkon waved his hand and a large screen hung on the wall swirled with patterns of color that suddenly solidified into a clear picture. The view showed the domed saucer landing near Thane’s cabin. Then the three men-in-black floated out; holding tubular weapons.

  “They had decided to use blasters on you,” informed Thalkon.

  Thane watched in horrified fascination as the MIB’s oozed through the side wall and dashed in, ready to gun down their quarry. He could not help grinning at the blank look on their faces when they saw the place empty.

  “They will think you somehow slipped away,” said Thalkon, “not realizing we rescued you.”

  “What’s this all about?” Thane pleaded, half-dizzily.

  “We are the enemies of the Morlians,” said Thalkon. “We are the Galactic Vigilantes, keeping law and order throughout space.”

  Thane stood more paralyzed than before. Paralyzed at this sudden overwhelming revelation, like something out of Alice in Wonderland. Finally, he recovered and asked: “You mean you sort of patrol all other worlds like a…a state trooper on our highways?”

  “That’s a good analogy,” smiled Thalkon. “Our mission is to guard earth and prevent the Morlians from accomplishing their long-planned coup.”

  “You mean they want to conquer earth or something like that?”

  “No,” denied Thalkon. “It is something far different. And more deadly.”

  “What could be more deadly?” returned Thane blankly. “Let me have it straight.”

  “That is all we are permitted to tell,” said Thalkon. He turned waving. “My companions are Kintor and Miribel.”

  The red-haired girl smiled warmly and took Thane’s hand. “We will make your enforced stay with us as pleasant as possible.” With her around, thought Thane, it would be more than pleasant.

  “Thank you,” she said with a little bow.

  Thane’s face turned crimson. “Good Lord, you read thoughts too,” he stammered, cutting off further thoughts he had about her. Kintor, the other man, put a peculiar skullcap on Thane’s head. “It is not fair for your private thoughts to be an open book. And you have not learned to shield your own mind. This psycho-shield will do it for you.”

  “Thanks,” said Thane, relieved. “But where are you taking me?”

  “To our mother-ship,” the girl replied. She waved her hand at the monitor screen with a brief word of explanation to Thane—‘thought control.’ The screen’s spangled patterns now solidified into the scene of earth’s curvature spinning away from them below.

  Thane clutched at a railing, utterly startled. “We’re flying in space,” he breathed, stunned.

  “Just like your astronauts,” Miribel nodded. “Our mothership is positioned at a height of 1000 of your earth miles.”

  She waved again and the scene abruptly switched upward, where a cigar-like object hung in the black sky. It rapidly enlarged as they drew closer until Thane could see its immense size.

  “1,000 feet long?” he guessed, knowing he was underestimating.

  “Times ten,” smiled the girl.

  “10,000 feet, two miles?” Thane looked at her disbelievingly. “But Echo I, the balloon satellite that came down in 1968, was only 100 feet wide and at an altitude of 1,000 miles could be seen with the naked eye from earth. Then your 2-mile ship should be easily visible…”

  “Only if we choose it to be,” said Miribel. “We have methods for bending light-rays, or radar pulses, so that nothing registers on the eyes or instruments of your people.”

  Now, on the screen, Thane could see a hatchway opening in the mother-ship. But it was not like a trapdoor or any conventional entrance. It was more like the lens opening of a camera, slowly and steadily enlarging into a round hole.

  Chapter 8

  As their craft shot into the entry port of the mothership, Thane was struck by something. “We left earth with enormous speed and now we decelerated at a rate that should have crushed us all with g-forces. Why do we feel nothing?”

  “We are isolated from all other gravity forces by an electromagnetic field,” spoke up Kintor, who was punching the button controls of their disk. “In this EM field, which simulates gravity, each of us—every atom of our bodies—is pulled along in unison, so that there is no wrenching or strain.”

  “What happened to the law of inertia?” Thane demanded. “It works independently of gravity.”

  “We suspend the law of inertia,” said Kintor blandly, “but I can’t explain how to an earth mind. There are certain things beyond the understanding of your science and for which you have no terms.”

  Their small craft now stopped, within the giant mother-ship. Through a porthole, Thane could see that they were parked along with a dozen other saucercraft in a row. Thalkon led the way as they stepped out in a huge chamber.

  Thalkon and Kintor started floating away. Miribel took Thane’s hand and suddenly he too was floating without visible support.

  “Mental levitation,” explained the girl briefly. Thane let it go at that. But there was one question he could ask.

  “What are your plans for me?”

  Thalkon turned his head to answer. “We will keep you here as our guest until the Morlians—the three men-in-black—give up waiting for your return to your cabin.”

  “But just why are they after me and my UFO evidence?”

  “Because they don’t want the world at large to suspect that they, being aliens, really exist. They want the situation to remain as confused as it is, with the authorities officially denying the existence of UFO’s and therefore, of any people from outer space.”

  “Then that’s why they intimidated Standish, Todd and Theda Ranslick, as well as myself,” mused Trane.

  “And many thousands of others,” added Thalkon. “Whenever anyone’s sighting carries some strong evidence with it—photos, movies, artifacts—the Morlians move in and hush it up.”

  “And my sighting was particularly damaging?”

  “Exactly, Thane Smith. You happened to witness—and photograph—a battle between two saucers. Namely, between a Vigilante craft and a Morlian ship. And you even obtained a piece of the destroyed Morlian craft.”

  “You know all that too, eh?” said Thane, uncomfortably. “I feel as if I’ve been a goldfish in a bowl with my every movement watched for the past four days.”

  “The hairy dwarfs are allies of the Morlians, from a different world. Now, what you didn’t hear from Jack Todd is one important part of his story. When he saw their saucer land and went there to investigate, he first spied them talking to Morlians who had landed nearby in their own saucer. That’s what the Morlians had to cover up when they intimidated Jack Todd, as well as the scratches from three-fingered hands.”

  Thane nodded. “Now what about the non-hairy little men?”

  “They were our allies,” responded Thalkon. “The instrument that sparkled, according to the wo
man observer, was a device for detecting any landed Morlian ship within twenty five miles. We keep constant vigilance against their landings for a certain reason. What they wanted from the woman was the instrument itself. The Morlians have none themselves. Their technology is behind ours.”

  Thane realized he was involved in a very complex game that might take hours or days to explain to an earthman. He couldn’t hope to encompass the vast scope of this outer space drama and intrigue with a few questions.

  “And the Standish sighting?” he asked, just to take care of that. “Whose ally was that, yours or theirs?”

  “Neither,” said Thalkon, really surprising Thane. “You see, besides the Vigilantes and Morlians, there are many other worlds whose exploration craft occasionally stop at earth. Their intentions are often just scientific observation. But since they inadvertently dropped exhaust fluid that stained some cordwood red, the Morlians felt obliged to cover up that sighting too.”

  “In other words,” summed up Thane, “the Morlians are fanatically determined to keep earth from realizing that UFO’s of any kind or origin are real, thus protecting their own secret doings on earth?”

  “Exactly,” nodded Thalkon. “Wherever strong evidence shows up, they make it their business to suppress it.”

  “But they’ve failed in my case, thanks to you Vigilantes,” said Thane.

  Thalkon eyed him. “We didn’t want the Morlians to get your evidence because—he paused before going on—“we want it ourselves.”

  “You…what?” choked Thane. “You mean you snatched me away from the Morlians only to get the evidence away from me?”

  “Yes, but we never use what you call strong-arm methods. Never force. We can only request that you turn it over to us, voluntarily.”

  “Why?”

  “We too wish to remain ‘myth’ to earth-people. And your evidence is too significant, revealing the struggle going on between the Galactic Vigilantes and the Morlians.”

  “Please.” Thane’s mind was whirling now. “I can see the reason for the Morlians wanting to hide their presence, assuming they’ve got some rotten design on earth. But if you’re on our side, as guardians of law and order as you claim, why should you conceal your presence?”

  Thalkon shook his head rather helplessly and Miribel answered.

  “It is not permitted, Thane Smith. We are bound under certain Galactic Laws regarding other civilized worlds. It is doubtful if we could ever really explain and make any sense to you. But we are just as anxious as the Morlians to keep the presence of our saucercraft on earth a secret.”

  “Maybe your plan is the rotten one,” countered Thane, confused and suspicious. “How do I know your motives are good?”

  “You don’t,” admitted Miribel.

  “All right, if the Morlians are so wicked, what is their sinister plot against earth?”

  “It is not permitted to tell.”

  Thane got up and threw his hands in the air. “It is not permitted! It is not permitted! So far you’ve left me completely in the dark and I don’t know who or what to believe.”

  “No matter,” spoke up Thalkon. “The question is, will you turn over to us the UFO evidence you carry?”

  “And if I refuse?”

  “That is your right, Thane Smith. I told you we do not use force. You see, it is not…well, not permitted.”

  “I’m glad for once to hear that phrase,” grinned Thane, without humor. “You mean then that if I choose to keep my evidence, you won’t do anything about it. What if I write up this whole experience?”

  “You won’t be believed,” smiled Miribel. “At least, not our rescuing you and hiding you up here in space.” She frowned. “However, the story of your sighting, backed up with three kinds of evidence, might stir up a furor and bring about scientific investigation of the saucer controversy on earth.”

  “Which is what you don’t want,” guessed Thane.

  “Which is what we don’t want,” agreed Thalkon. “Not yet,” he added. “Someday, earth will be told all, but that day has not yet come.”

  “Crazy,” said Thane, pacing the floor. “The whole deal’s mad, insane, incomprehensible. Two groups of aliens on earth, one struggling against the other. One with evil intentions, the other beneficent—presumably. And both groups striving to keep their existence unbelieved among earth-people. Wild…nonsensical….”

  “On one thing we can agree, though,” said Thalkon calmly. “That we keep you here until the Morlians—the MIB’s—leave your cabin.”

  Thane nodded. “I can’t argue with that. But let’s get things straight. While I’m here, I will not turn over my UFO evidence to you. And I firmly intend to try to prove that saucers exist, when I get back, using that evidence. Okay with you?”

  Thalkon sighed and rose. “It is not permitted to interfere with a free man’s decisions. Let us see now what is going on at your cabin…”

  He waved and a nearby monitor screen lit up, its chaotic colors blocking into a scene inside Thane’s cabin.

  The place was a turmoil with the three MIB’s ransacking the place, searching everywhere.

  “Blast them,” growled Thane. “Wrecking my place. They think maybe I hid the evidence somewhere.”

  A moment later, they gave up, staring at each other. Then they went out, floated into the woods, and took off in their domed saucer.

  “They’ve left,” said Thane. “But why didn’t you just blast their saucer before and free me of their unwelcome attentions?”

  “Another squad of three MIB’s would have been instantly assigned to go after you and your evidence. We would have gained nothing.”

  Thane had a curious thought. “Yet one of your saucers shot down a Morlian domed disk, during that aerial dogfight I saw. What was that all about?”

  “That Morlian craft,” said Thalkon, “was engaged in placing a certain installation in that area, which had to be prevented at all costs.”

  * * * *

  On the trip from the mother-ship back to earth, in the small saucer, Thane found himself staring at Miribel and admiring her. She looked like any girl on earth except for her alien clothing. She could be anyone’s sister, or wife…

  “Are you people…uh…perfectly human?” Thane asked. “A rather blunt question and I don’t mean to be impolite. Do you only look human or are you human through and through?”

  “We’re as human as you,” laughed the girl. “Evolution on similar worlds follows the same pattern with the same end result. That’s a biological rule your scientists have not yet discovered.”

  “You’ll have to tell me about your world sometime,” began Thane. “That is, if we ever meet again.”

  “Who knows?” said the girl noncommittally. “That is up to chance.”

  Thane hoped chance would deal the right cards, in the future, so that he might again see this lovely creature from…where? He didn’t even know where her home world was. But there was no time for more questions as the saucer landed outside his cabin. It was night now.

  “Wear your psycho-shield cap constantly,” said Thalkon, “And the Morlians will be unable to trace you by your thoughts.”

  Miribel waved from the underside hatchway as it slowly closed. Then the disk spun away at fantastic speed. Thane stood staring at the spot for a while. He turned to his cabin.

  Hands poised over the keys, he felt momentary guilt. He was, in a sense, betraying his alien rescuers, who hoped he would not write up his sighting or present his gold-plated evidence.

  Setting his lips firmly, he began typing. This was not his bare report but a full-blown article aimed at mass circulation. It would go in prestigious Pictorial magazine and come to the attention of authorities and scientists. All would know this could be no crackpot presentation.

  It might well blow the li
d off the UFO controversy and start off serious investigation. It might start the ball rolling to where the National Academy of Science, Congress, even the United Nations became interested and launched a worldwide search for UFO’s. Sometimes, it only took a spark like this to set a conflagration going, one that was already overdue according to John Sheel’s book.

  Thane typed half the night. He even forgot the loaded shotgun within easy reach. Once he heard a suspicious sound outside, but found it was an opossum grubbing through his garbage pail.

  The MIB’s, mystified by his complete disappearance, had been thrown off the track for now anyway, giving Thane the breathing spell he needed to finish his job. He wore his psycho-shield cap as Thalkon had suggested.

  Tomorrow he would deliver the completed manuscript. The title was—SAUCERMEN AMONG US.

  Chapter 9

  He was ushered into the sanctum of Pictorial magazine with his briefcase. Bill Eggerton, editor-in-chief, greeted him with a perfunctory smile but then barked: “Listen, Thane. You phone me at the beastly hour of 9:15 when you know no office gets going before 9:30. We’re all just waking up. Then you tell me you have a ‘hot’ thing about a UFO sighting, plus pictures, and that you want it read and okayed today.”

  “You won’t regret the rush treatment when you read this,” said Thane, tossing over his manuscript.

  “By God, it had better be sensational,” growled Eggerton. “You know, it’s only your reputation as a top writer that ever got me to shove aside all my other work. And as you know, we’ve kept shy of the UFO mishmash for fear of catering to contactee kooks. Who is this sighting by?”