by Basil Copper
Masters had decided to detail four people for each post, which would leave twelve for K4, an adequate margin. Each post had two radio links and they were to report at regular intervals. The heavy radiation-units commanded the main doors and if necessary the parties could escape mounted on the tractor vehicles. Needless to say, each party member was heavily armed. Two flash-guns at least were to be mounted on the outer platforms of the towers to repel any attempt at invasion by the things, and powerful floodlights encircled the buildings.
The damaged equipment was repaired and after a while Masters expressed himself satisfied that everything possible had been done to ensure the safety of the personnel and the success of the arrangements. McIver's people were keeping watch near the cave entrance in daylight hours, but they had reported nothing. This did not mean that the things were not at large on the island; if they could swim - and there was no reason to believe they could not -they might well make their way to and from their lair unobserved at high tide, when most of the cave area was submerged.
Lockspeiser was to command No. 2 and Karla had volunteered for No. 1, much to my surprise; this in turn had changed to astonishment when Masters had agreed without demur. But then I thought things over and saw the sense of the arrangements; Karla was as expert as a man with flash-gun or radiation-unit and was quite without fear; these were the things which would count at the forward posts, whereas those with high scientific qualifications would be needed for the more exacting work at K4 and as post commanders.
The week passed quickly, in a feverish chaos of work, calculations, and hard physical labour. Masters inspected both posts and expressed himself satisfied; the radio links were tested. Early on a grey afternoon of wind-scoured sky the two groups marched out in opposite directions; it was a brave little show, though pitiful enough under the circumstances, and one or two of the hardier spirits raised a ragged cheer to encourage them on their way.
Rort and I sat in the main instrument chamber of K4 at the power telescopes and saw No. 2 party out of sight. Then we changed round to the other side. Fritzjof's small expedition were but faint dots on the high uplands now, Karla walking behind. Then a dip hid them from view. Rort and I did not know that we had seen our colleagues for the last time.
XII
I woke out of a dreamless sleep to find alarm bells ringing through the corridors of K4. The lights in the room where Rort and I were sleeping had come on automatically and it was only a moment or two before we had drawn on our night-duty overalls and were on our way to the main Control Room. Though there were only a dozen people left in the headquarters building it felt like a fort manned by thousands of men, as footsteps echoed, magnified, and distorted along the metal corridors.
Masters was already at the infrared periscope in the Control Dome, with Fitzwilliams operating the scanner. Rort and I sat in front of our own instrument panels and switched on.
"No. 2 Post reports Condition Normal," said Rort after a moment or two.
"McIver reports Condition Normal," I called out to Masters.
The night air was heavy with static and distorted human voices as technician after technician made his Condition Normal report. The operators of the heavy radiation-units, on the galleries above, overlooking the outer air; the men at the radar and other instrument panels; even those on visual lookout with flash-guns, all had their individual reports to make. A red light flashed on a control panel the other side of the Control Dome, indicating an abnormal state of affairs. Someone had failed to answer.
"No. 1 Post not replying," said the operator.
Rort and I exchanged tense glances.
"Radio failure?" someone conjectured aloud, hopefully. "Both sets?" replied Masters succinctly, his voice muffled from the Dome. No one replied. The uneasy silence was broken by the faint hum of the instruments.
The man at the No. 1 Post panel consulted a time capsule. "Nearly half an hour overdue in reporting," he said.
Nothing happened throughout the long night. Negative reports from stations operating; silence from No. 1 Post. It continued like this until dawn.
When daylight broke, misty and sulphurous, Masters had already made his plans. He personally led the four-man party, which included Rort and myself, out of K4. He had concluded, after some thought, that there was little danger during daylight as the creatures which had attacked No. 1 on the previous occasion had never been seen during the light hours. And if they inhabited the cave area on the shore by the village, their irruption into the world of men may have been governed in some way by the tides. But the overmastering desire of everyone at the moment was to discover the reason for the radio silence at No. 1.
We had not long to wait. No. 1 Post was a deserted shell. The remains of the door hung askew on its hinges as Rort and I had left it; the radiation-unit had been overturned but not damaged. The instruments and equipment of the post had been left intact. But of our colleagues there was no sign. Masters sniffed the air with distasteful curiosity. Once again that sickly sweet pungency polluted the atmosphere. Footsteps clattered on the metal stairs as the party searched the building. All they found was the clothing of our companions; it was soaked in the jelly-substance.
I walked over to the window at the top of the tower and looked out at the grey, sullen sea; of all the places in the world this was one for which I would always feel a high priority of hatred. As I moved to come away my foot kicked against something. I bent down and using the tongs supplied picked up something small and black. It was Fritzjof's official logbook.
Back at K4 that evening Masters buzzed for me at about half-past seven. I had sterilized the logbook in accordance with standing instructions and I took it in to his office with me. Matters rested as they had the previous night; K4 was at emergency and hourly reports came through from No. 2 and from McIver normally.
The book made curious reading but Fritzjof's devotion to the cause of science combined with his iron nerve did much to explain the nature of the phenomena with which we were faced. The first entries for the previous night were normal and dealt merely with technical matters. For reasons which later became obvious there was a long blank and then Fritzjof's next entry in the journal was timed 11:50 pm.
It read: "We have been under attack. At 10:02 precisely Fitz-williams reported unusual disturbances around the tower. I at once activated the floodlights and rocket flares. At the same moment the main door of the post came under attack from some beings I shall attempt to describe later. Mazel immediately brought the radiation-unit into play, with some success. As soon as I saw that things were under control on the ground floor I hurried to the radio console but before I could establish contact with K4 was called at once to the tower, where Fitzwilliams and Karla were engaged with flare guns. There appeared to be dozens of invertebrate creatures of the octopus family attacking the post.
"They are immensely tall and armed with three long antennae equipped with suckers, on each side of what I will call the body, for want of a better word. Eyes or centres of intelligence, I can see none. But a hit at the top of the body where a man's head would normally be seems to affect the brain area. I am alarmed at our position for still more of them are gathering round the tower. Morale good.
"12:15. Another attack has been beaten off but I cannot get back to the radio console. There is a strange perfume coming up the stairs. The radiation-unit has ceased firing. Mazel cried out once but we have not been able to see what has happened. I have to stay here to defend the staircase. The tower has been under attack again. Fitzwilliams and Karla are handling themselves well.
"Later - 01:00 I think. The incredible has happened. I am now alone. I am not afraid but I wish K4 to know the truth. At about half-past twelve I detected a nauseous odour coming from the top of the tower and then my two colleagues called out. I was able to distinguish that the creatures had squirted something over them. I looked from the window and saw one of the great masses eject some form of dark ink from a sac at the top of the body, much as a squid does when dist
urbed. I could not believe what I next saw. Karla and Fitzwilliams, who had dropped their ray-guns, were forced to divest themselves of their clothes. The creature's sac then discharged again; the perfume had an incredible effect on my two companions. I was not able, myself, to detect it on this occasion.
"Its function was apparently to attract them. Both walked to the edge of the railing and were absorbed in the jelly like substance of the creature's body. Their faces were happy!
"01:56. I may be mad but I do not think so. My colleagues have not died but have been swallowed, for want of a better word, as still-living organisms! On the evidence of tonight and of what we have discussed earlier at K4, I believe them eventually to become similar organisms themselves… Warn Masters. The cave area must be destroyed… the only way.
"Later. I am not sure of the time. Great Future help me. The things are at the window again… I must go… there is a nauseous stench.
"02:05. Not long now… back again… masks the only ans [a passage was then illegible]… Imperative… tell Masters…"
The logbook ended there. The Commander turned a tight-lipped face to me.
He voiced the thought finally. "This hardly seems possible."
"I agree," I said. "But Fritzjof's report seems incontrovertible. And there is this further evidence."
I passed over to him something which I had picked up from the floor of No. 1 Post. It had been embedded in congealed jelly and after the labs had carried out the usual cleansing tests it had been turned over to me.
It was a piece of circular discoloured metal, pitted and marked with green and yellow stains. It was my opinion that it formed part of an old-fashioned wristwatch, such as people used in the last century to denote the passing of time.
An inscription on the back read: Charles Evinrude. 1995.
"You really believe what you have written in your report?" said Masters. He was neither disbelieving nor believing, merely sifting facts.
I nodded. "It would explain the reappearance of the face of the missing girl from the village at the post window. It's my belief that people are 'digested' by these creatures, as Fritzjof described, and themselves become similar living organisms, revolting as this idea may seem to us. This wristwatch was worn by one of the creatures killed by the radiation-unit. After death the whole thing dissolved away."
Masters looked out of the port at the writhing green sky beyond.
"And Fritzjof and his colleagues are somewhere alive out there," he said simply, but with great weight. "It barely seems possible that in three generations, human beings should degenerate to that."
"The effect of radiation on humans long exposed to it, is largely unknown, sir," I said. "With long inbreeding and…"
Masters cut me short. His face was still pale.
"Fritzjof is right," he said crisply, his old manner returning. "We must make preparations at once to destroy these creatures in their lair."
He smiled in a strained manner. "And we shall take advantage of Fritzjof s forethought. What he was trying to tell us at the end of the log was, 'Masks the only answer.' A sensible precaution against the perfume ejected by these beings. See to it at once."
XIII
The box-shaped, square bowed boat thundered in the surf, sending a shower of greenish, phosphorescent spray cascading down the metal decking. I found it difficult to breathe in the ponderous mask, and clutched the flash-gun to my side while I steadied myself with my other hand. The cave entrance before us grew ominously large, danced in mocking circles with the movement of the boat, receded briefly with the surge of the tide, and then grew again as the motor urged the unwieldy craft onwards.
Rort, unfamiliar in the black rubber suit which fitted him like a sheath, nodded reassuringly. One hand tapped lightly on the transparency of my face piece as though to impart confidence. I glanced to left and right. There were six boats in our small invasion fleet; dawn burnt smokily across the green-yellow surge of water, bathed the black sand. I could see Masters in the bows of the nearest vessel; somewhere a radio speaker crackled unintelligibly. The canvas-sheathed stub of a radiation-unit poked from the bow of the nearest craft on my left, like the horn of a cow I had once seen depicted in a book.
Upwards, on the slopes of cliff were the minute figures of McIver's men; they were waiting for the rocket-flare which was to signal the part they had been assigned. There were more than eighty people engaged in this all-out assault effort, almost every person on the island; even the women had been pressed into service, though few except the most able bodied had been assigned the boats. Most made up the cliff force where they would be of the greatest use, with little danger to themselves.
Mclver himself was assisting Masters; his must be the bulky figure I could see just behind the Commander. He wore some strange rig-out of his own, but topped by the mask and special equipment supplied by K4, looked just as individual as he always did. The strength of the current was very fierce here and the helmsman had anxious moments as we passed a belt of ragged rocks closing the entrance. Masters had deliberately chosen dawn and high tide for the assault. The tide had in fact turned and had been an hour on the ebb.
This way the assault party could be delivered to the very cave entrance, dawn affording the element of surprise. Masters had also argued that in the event of things going wrong it would be quicker and easier for the force to withdraw on the ebb. Later, if it became necessary we could stand off in good order across the sand at low tide. The radiation-units were to be debarked on the wings of the landing area to command the cave entrance, in case the creatures surprised the first wave before they were properly ashore.
Rort and myself were among those detailed to cover the landing of the heavy units by going ashore first to hold the beach. The sea slapped heavily on the sides of the big fishing boat and spume whipped by a needle-sharp wind blew over the fleet as we came inshore. Fortunately the prevailing wind was blowing off the beach which would mask the sound of the engines. We had no means of knowing whether these mollusc-like beings were able to hear in the human sense, but Masters, with his usual tactical reasoning, had decided not to take any unnecessary risk.
Rort's hand was on my shoulder and the helmsman's shout came a split second later as the boat bottom grated on the harsh black sand. The outlines of the beach and cliffs loomed more clearly out of the faint morning mist. Then Rort and I were over the side. The coldness of the water met us with a shock, but it was not more than three feet deep and we splashed wildly ashore, followed by two of the villagers. The small party went flat on the sand, flash-guns at the ready and pointed towards the cave. All along the beach the unwieldy fishing boats were splashing heavily through the shallows, minute figures, black against the green shimmer of the surf, detaching themselves from the craft and merging into the blackness of the sand.
We fanned out in a semicircle to protect the radiation-unit on our left which was just coming ashore, the tractor inching it down the ramp. The beach seemed alive with figures though we were in reality a modest task-force for the situation with which we were faced. I glanced from the cave back to our right and could see the other big weapons coming off the ramps. So far all had gone well and we were excellently placed to deliver attacks. The scheme was that once the radiation-units were well established, the advance parties would rendezvous near the cave entrance in order to pen up whatever creatures were within; this would ensure maximum slaughter with a minimum of danger to those on foot.
The big units would deal with any creatures which broke through the cordon and then, when they had been moved forward, would liquidate everything within the cavern. Or at least that was the scheme. I saw Masters in the middle of the groups on the beach and then his hand went up. I hurried along the shore towards him and the unit leaders from the six boats debouched from their groups at the same time. Masters drew everyone off to the right, where we were concealed by a hump of sea-drenched rock, while he held his briefing.
His instructions were, as always, succinct and to the p
oint. Each of us knew what to do; everything within the cavern was to be destroyed, no matter what we might feel about the semihuman aspect of these creatures. Under no circumstances were face masks to be removed. Masters waved us off peremptorily and we all thudded back along the beach to take up position. The radiation-units were now ashore and in situ, the gunners hunched over the control panels on the heavy metal-railed platforms. They waved to Masters as a check. Rort and the other two men with us scrambled to their feet as I approached. I looked back. The cave entrance was menacing and blank in the cold light of dawn. Then the electric klaxon on one of the fishing boats sounded off. Masters waved us forward and twenty-four pairs of feet were gritting up the sand into the unknown.
XIV
There was a silence after the klaxon sounded and then a confused murmur down at the beach. One of the radiation-units shot pink flame and the sea boiled at our backs. Something mewed with a heart-chilling intensity we had experienced before. Rort spun on his heel. We were almost at the cave entrance now and vast shapes were stirring on the black sand. Down on the beach a huge form which had emerged from the sea was staining the green water in its death agonies. This was something no one could have foreseen. The things were returning to their lair after a night spent on land.
I saw the radiation-units swivel to cover the seaward side of the landing area, and Masters gesticulate as he mustered a force to repel this menace at our rear. The sea boiled again and several monstrous humps began to emerge, but we had no time to watch them. There were about a dozen of us within reach of the cave and it was obvious that we should have to deal with the things until such time as the main force could be deployed.
Rort's flash-gun erupted, and sand and gravel at the cave entrance glowed with heat; we were almost within the arch now. I was thankful for the mask when I saw the abominations which were stirring within. A humped form reared in the dying light and then others and yet others beyond. Rort fired again and again and then we were within the cave; our companions followed and jets of flame turned the vast cavern into which the advance was penetrating, into a lurid scene from hell.