The waxy heap along the edge of the ditch at first appeared to be a homogeneous mass. The men could barely breathe, the stench was so bad. Then they began to distinguish separate figures. Some creatures lay with their humps upward, others on their side; frail torsos with small upturned faces were wedged in between huge muscles, and massive trunks lay intermingled with tiny hands, knotty fingers, that dangled limply. The swollen bodies were covered with damp yellow patches. The Doctor gripped the men on either side of him so tightly that they would have cried out, had they been aware of him.
Slowly the men stepped forward, arms linked, eyes fixed on what filled the ditch. The ditch was big. Thick drops of fluid, glistening in the sunlight, trickled down waxy backs and sides, and collected in the sunken, eyeless faces. The men thought they could hear the sound of dripping.
An approaching whistle made them jump, and in a second they had rushed back to the thicket and dived through the vegetation to the ground, clutching their jectors. The stalks were still swaying when the whirling column appeared shining in the air between the trees opposite the men and entered the clearing.
It slowed when it was about a dozen feet from the ditch, but its whistle grew louder, and a strong wind blew around it. The craft circled the ditch. Suddenly clay exploded into the air, and a reddish cloud covered the luminous disk halfway up. A shower of fragments rained down on the thicket and on the men hugging the ground. They heard a ghastly sound, as though a gigantic spur were ripping wet canvas, and then the disk had reached the other end of the clearing and was returning. For a moment it halted, the whirling column shifting slightly to the right, to the left, as if taking aim, then suddenly accelerated, and the other side of the ditch was hidden in a cloud of exploding clay. The disk hummed, shuddered, appeared to be expanding. The men glimpsed mirrorlike bubbles on either side of it, which reflected the trees and scrub on a reduced scale, and inside something moved, shaped like a bear. The sharp vibrating sound grew fainter, and the column sped away along the same groove by which it had come.
A bulging ridge of fresh clay now rose above the clearing, and alongside it was a trench three feet deep.
The men got up slowly, brushing bits of plant filaments off their suits. Then, as if by agreement, they backtracked, leaving the hollow, the trees, and the rows of masts. They were halfway up the slope, in sight of the revolving mirror-dome, when the Engineer said, "Maybe they were only animals."
"And what are we?" asked the Doctor, like an echo, in the same tone of voice.
"No, I meant…"
"Did you all see what was sitting inside that disk?"
"I didn't see anything," said the Physicist.
"It was in the middle, sitting in something like the gondola of a balloon. Did you see it?" the Captain asked the Doctor.
"I did. But I'm not sure…"
"You mean, you'd rather not be sure?"
"Yes."
They climbed higher, passing the ridge in silence, and then the brook. When some luminous disks approached from the next copse, the men hit the ground.
"It's odd they haven't noticed us so far," remarked the Engineer, when they got up and moved on.
The Captain suddenly stopped. "The lower RA channel is undamaged, am I right, Henry?"
"Yes, it's intact. Why?"
"There's a reserve in the pile. We could draw off some of it."
"As much as five gallons!" said the Engineer, and a wicked smile spread on his face.
"I don't understand," the Doctor said.
"They want to load the gun," explained the Physicist.
"With uranium?" The Doctor went pale. "You can't be thinking of…"
"We're not thinking," the Captain snapped. "From the moment I saw that thing, I stopped thinking. Later we can think. But now…"
"Look out!" shouted the Chemist.
A luminous disk flew past, but then slowed and circled back toward them. Five jector barrels rose from the ground, looking like children's rifles against the colossus that filled half the sky with its flickering.
The disk hovered; the noise intensified, then died away; and the whirling slowed. They saw a broad azure polygon, which began to tilt, as though about to tumble, but two arms extended to support it. From the central gondola, which had lost its mirrorlike sheen, a thing emerged, small, dark, hairy, and with rapid movements of its limbs, which were connected by a loose membrane, it clambered down the slanting perforated edge, sprang to the ground, and in a half-crouch made straight for the men.
At the same time, the gondola unfolded on all sides at once, like a flower opening, and a large gleaming body floated down on a thick oval surface that immediately shrank and disappeared. The big creature then slowly straightened to its full height. They recognized it, though it was strangely altered—wrapped in a lustrous, silvery material that spiraled from bottom to top, where a small flat face appeared in a black-rimmed opening.
The furry thing that had leaped from the now-motionless disk came nimbly and quickly toward them, not losing contact with the ground. They saw that it dragged behind it a very large, flat, spatulate tail.
"I'm shooting," the Engineer said in a low voice. He pressed his face to the stock of his jector.
"No," cried the Doctor.
The Captain was about to say "Wait" when the Engineer shot at the crawling creature and missed. The electric beam was invisible; they could only hear a feeble hiss. The Engineer still had his finger on the trigger. The huge silvery creature had not budged. Suddenly it moved—and whistled—and the crawling creature sprang, covering something like fifteen feet in one leap. As it landed, it rolled itself into a ball, bristling and strangely swollen. Its spatulate tail stiffened, stood vertical, and spread, and from its surface, which was cupped like a clamshell, something flickered and drifted in the crew's direction, as though carried by the wind.
"Shoot!" yelled the Captain.
A ball of flame, no larger than a walnut, floated gently on the air, moving a little to one side, to the other, but approaching steadily. And it hissed, a sound like drops of water dancing on a hot plate. They all shot at once.
Hit several times, the small creature dropped to the ground and curled up with its fanned tail completely covering it. Almost simultaneously, the ball of flame veered, as if suddenly losing its direction. It passed them at a distance of a dozen feet and disappeared from sight.
The large silver creature drew itself up still higher. Something gossamer appeared above it, and the creature began to climb up that web toward the open gondola. The men could hear the smack of the shots hitting its body; then it folded and fell to the ground with a thud.
They got up and ran to it.
"Overhead!" shouted the Chemist.
Two gleaming disks emerged from the forest and flew toward the hills. The men dived into the hollow, ready for anything, but, strangely, the disks went by without slowing down and disappeared.
Then came a muffled boom. The men turned around: it was from the copse of breathing trees behind them. One of the trees had split in two and come crashing down, branches crackling, spewing a cloud of vapor.
"Hurry!" shouted the Captain. He rushed over to the small creature, whose paws protruded from under its hairless, fleshy tail; pointing his barrel at it, he fired continuously for fifteen seconds, then scattered its burned remains with his boot and stamped them into the ground. The Engineer touched its hump, which was bulging and appeared to be slowly expanding.
"Burn it!" shouted the Captain, running over to them. He was very pale.
"It's too big," muttered the Engineer.
"We'll see!" the Captain said through, clenched teeth and fired from a distance of two feet. The air around his jector barrel shimmered. Suddenly in the silver carcass there were patches of black, soot began whirling, an awful stench filled the air as the creature's flesh began to bubble. The Chemist watched for a while, then turned away. The Cyberneticist also withdrew. When the Captain was finished discharging his weapon, he reached for the Engin
eer's without a word.
The carcass, black, collapsed and flattened. Smoke circled above it, and pieces of ash rose into the air. The bubbling turned into a crackling, as of logs in a fireplace, but the Captain went on squeezing the trigger with a numb finger, until there was nothing before him but a pile of glowing cinders. Holding his jector high, he jumped on them and began to kick them apart.
"Give me a hand!" he cried hoarsely.
"I can't," groaned the Chemist. He was standing with his eyes shut, his forehead beaded with sweat, and clutching his throat with both hands, as if prepared to strangle himself.
But the Doctor joined the Captain in kicking the cinders apart. The two of them looked funny, jumping up and down. When they had stamped the burned lumps into the ground, they raked the soil over the spot, using the butts of their jectors, until no trace was left.
"How are we better than they?" asked the Doctor when they paused to rest, covered with sweat and panting.
"It attacked us first," snarled the Engineer, wiping the soot from his jector, both furious and revolted.
"All right, it's done!" the Captain called to the others. They approached slowly. There was a piercing smell in the air, and the plant cover was charred across a wide radius.
"And what about that?" asked the Cyberneticist, pointing to the azure craft, which towered over them at a height of four stories.
"Let's see if we can get it going," said the Captain.
The Engineer's eyes opened wide. "You think we can?"
"Watch out!" cried the Doctor.
Three disks appeared over the copse, one after another. The men ran and hit the ground. The Captain checked his battery charger and waited, elbows spread wide against coarse moss. The disks passed over and continued on.
"Are you coming with me?" the Captain asked the Engineer, nodding at the gondola that hung twelve feet above the ground.
Without a word, the Engineer ran to one of the arms supporting the craft and, putting his hands in the perforations, quickly climbed up. The Captain followed on his heels. Reaching the gondola ledge first, the Engineer moved something—whatever it was, the men could hear the sound of metal against metal. Then he pulled himself up and extended a hand to the Captain, who grabbed it; both men disappeared from view. For a long while nothing happened; then the five outspread sides of the gondola slowly closed without making the slightest sound. The men below shuddered and stepped back.
"What was that ball before?" the Doctor asked the Physicist as they looked up. Inside the gondola shadows were moving around.
"It looked like spherical lightning," said the Physicist after some hesitation.
"But it was the animal that emitted it!"
"Yes, I saw that. Maybe some local electrical effect—look!"
The azure polygon suddenly shook, clanged, and began revolving. It almost fell when the arms supporting it spread and twisted. At the last moment, as it teetered dangerously, there was another clang, and this time a high, piercing tone; the entire craft dissolved in a blur, and a breeze swept over the men below. The disk whirled, faster, slower, but stayed in place. It roared like the engine of a giant plane; the men moved back. One supporting arm, then the other, rose and disappeared into the luminous vortex. Like a shot, the disk sped along the groove, left the groove, and slowed down just as suddenly, kicking up soil. It made a dreadful noise, but little progress. When finally it returned to the groove, it flew off at a terrific speed, and in fifteen seconds diminished to a glimmer on the slope where the forest was.
On its way back, the disk left the groove again and slowed to a crawl, moving with apparent difficulty, and the cloud of dirt churned into the air enveloped it at its base.
There was a clang as the arms extended and the craft became visible. The gondola opened, and the Captain leaned out and shouted, "Everybody get in!"
"What!" cried the Chemist in amazement, but the Doctor grasped the situation.
"We're going for a ride."
"Will we all fit?" asked the Cyberneticist, clutching a metal support. But the Doctor was already on his way up.
Several disks flew past the copse, but none appeared to notice the men. In the gondola there was seating space for four, not six, so two had to lie on the concave floor. A familiar bitter smell assailed their nostrils, reminding them of everything that had happened, and their euphoria vanished.
The Doctor and the Chemist, on the floor, could see nothing. There were long panels under them, like the staves of a boat. Another shrill clang, and they could feel themselves moving. Almost immediately the panels on which they were lying became transparent, and they could see the plain below them, as though they were sailing over it in a balloon. There was a great noise around them. The Captain talked feverishly with the Engineer, both forced to assume unnatural and extremely tiring positions near the finlike object in the front of the gondola, which held the controls. Every few minutes one of them would spell the other, and that exchange required the Physicist and Cyberneticist to lie on top of the two men at the bottom.
"How does it work?" the Chemist asked the Engineer, who had inserted both hands into the deep openings in the fin and was keeping the craft on a straight course. They were moving rapidly, along a groove. In the gondola there was no sense of gyration—it was as if they were floating.
"I have no idea," groaned the Engineer. "A bad cramp—you take it now!" As he slid over and the Captain squeezed in, the disk shook, jumped off its groove, braked violently, and began making a sharp turn. The Captain put his hands into the control mechanism and a moment later steered the gigantic top out of its turn and back onto the groove. They sped along faster now.
"Why does it travel so slowly outside the groove?" asked the Chemist. He was propped against the Engineer's shoulders to keep his balance; between his outspread legs lay the Doctor.
"I told you, I have no idea," said the Engineer, massaging his wrists, which bore welts from the steering. "It may have something to do with a gyroscope. Who knows?"
They passed a second chain of hills. The terrain below appeared familiar—they had crossed it before, on foot. Around them was the barely visible outline of their disk. The groove suddenly changed direction: to return to the ship, they would have to leave it. Their speed fell to less than fifteen miles an hour.
"These craft are practically useless outside the grooves—we'll have to remember that!" the Engineer shouted over the noise.
"Take over!" cried the Captain.
This time the switch went smoothly. Then they were ascending a steep slope at little more than a walk. The Engineer found the canyon with the clay walls. When they reached the lung-trees, he got a cramp.
"Take it!"
As he pulled out his hands, the Captain rushed to replace him. The disk tilted and came dangerously close to the precipice. At that point there was a sharp crack; the rim of the whirring craft had hit a treetop. Broken branches flew, and the gondola crashed sideways with a hellish din. An uprooted tree swept the sky with its crown, and thousands of blister-leaves exploded with a hiss over the craft, as a landslide half-buried it. A cloud of white seeds filled the air; then there was silence. The gondola, dented, was embedded in the cliff.
"Crew?" said the Captain, shaking his head to clear it. His ears rang.
"One," groaned the Engineer, on the floor.
"Two," came the Physicist's weak voice.
"Three," said the Chemist, holding his bloody mouth.
"Four," said the Cyberneticist.
"Fi … ve." The Doctor was under everyone else, at the very bottom of the gondola.
They all laughed.
They were covered with a layer of fluffy, tickling seeds that had found their way inside through the apertures at the top of the gondola. The Engineer banged on the wall of the craft to make the door open. The others, whoever had the room to, pushed against the concave surface. The hull shuddered, a faint cracking could be heard, but the gondola would not open.
"Try again," said the Doctor in
a muffled voice. He was unable to move. "I'm getting tired of this. Oof, hey, don't step on me!"
Although the situation was hardly amusing, they laughed, and together pulled a comb-shaped frame off the front and used it like a battering ram against the ceiling. The ceiling bent, became covered with pits, but would not open.
"Enough is enough," growled the Doctor, and tried to get up. At that moment the bottom gave way, and everyone spilled out, rolling down the steep twenty-foot slope to the floor of the canyon.
"Anyone hurt?" asked the Captain, the first to get to his feet. He was covered with clay.
"No, but you're bleeding! Let me have a look," said the Doctor.
Indeed, the Captain had a deep cut on his head. The Doctor bandaged it as best as he could. The others were only bruised, but the Chemist spit blood—he had bitten his lip. They set out for the ship, without even glancing at the shattered craft.
V
The sun was touching the horizon when they reached the knoll. The ship cast a long shadow across the sands of the plain. Before they entered, they searched the vicinity thoroughly, but found no traces of any visitor in their absence. The pile was working perfectly. The cleaning robot had managed to clear the halls and the library before becoming hopelessly stuck in the thick layer of broken plastic and glass that covered the laboratory.
After supper, which they wolfed down, the Doctor had to sew up the Captain's wound, because it wouldn't stop bleeding. Meanwhile the Chemist analyzed the water samples from the brook and pronounced it drinkable, though it contained a lot of iron, which spoiled the taste.
"It's time to have a council of war," said the Captain. They were sitting on air cushions in the library, the Captain in the middle, his white bandage like a hat.
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