Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction
Page 103
Grant saw, and the cold sweat burst out on his forehead. His brain raced desperately in a vain effort to find some way out, some method of foiling this beast.
“You sure talk big, Miro,” he said in bored fashion, feigning indifference; “but it means nothing to me. The point is, what do you intend doing with us?”
* * * *
The Ganymedan’s lips writhed. “Nothing at all to your pretty friend,” he leered. “I have plans for her. But as for you—see these creatures all about?”
“Well?”
“You are going to be one of them. They are passengers and crews who had the misfortune to be alive when the captured ships were sprayed with our gas. It does not kill. Oh, no! It just numbs their faculties, paralyzes them. Then our surgeons get busy. They know how to remove the memory and reasoning areas of the brain and leave just machines, automata, to do our bidding. Clever, aren’t they? When Earth is captured, I intend subjecting all your damned breed to the operation. They make very willing slaves, I’ve found. Two blasts on this toy”—he raised the whistle to his lips—”and an Earth-Doora comes for you.”
Nona sprang forward. “No, no, Miro. Please do not touch Mr. Pemberton. I’ll—I’ll—”
“What will you?” The Ganymedan’s pig-eyes devoured her.
“I’ll—” Then, to Grant’s eternal horror, she sank into Miro’s arms. The surprised look on Miro’s face changed slowly to one of passion, as he held her close to him with his great hairy arm.
“Nona!” Grant gasped and saw red. Heedless of the unwavering weapon at his breast, he sprang. Miro snarled as he saw him coming. His finger pressed down. But at that instant the Earth girl struck out with all the power of her slender arm. It was not much of a blow, but it managed to jar the weapon aside. The blue flame leaped hissing through the air.
Miro roared with rage, and flung her yards away, to lie, an unmoving pathetic bundle. Then he swung his ray back into play.
But he never had a chance to use it. All the strength and fury of Grant’s lithe, steel sinews and bone were behind the solid smash that landed squarely on the Ganymedan’s chin. He went down in a slump, completely out.
* * * *
Grant stooped to pick up the fallen pencil-ray, thrust it in the side flap, then hurried over to the limp figure of Nona.
“Darling,” he cried, “if anything’s happened to you, I’ll—”
The still form stirred, sat up.
“Say that again.” She was smiling weakly, but happily.
Grant flushed. “As many times later as you’ll want,” he said, “but now that you’re not hurt, we can’t waste any time in trying to get out of here.”
He walked over to Miro, who was just coming to.
“Listen, you rat,” he told the Ganymedan, who was rubbing his chin and groaning: “you do exactly as I say, if you know what’s good for you.” He shook the pencil-ray significantly.
“You can’t get away with it,” Miro snarled, muttering a string of curses. There was baffled rage in his red pig-eyes.
Grant surveyed him coldly.
“We’ll see about that,” he snapped. “Get up.” He reinforced his demand with a well-placed kick. The huge Ganymedan came quickly to his feet.
“Walk to the wall,” was the next order, “and open the trick door.”
With a glance of savage hate, Miro obeyed. Grant followed him with his pistol in readiness. The poor mindless creatures paid no heed to what was going on, but dully continued their appointed tasks.
Pemberton hid himself behind the wall to one side. Nona did likewise, having picked up the electro-gun meanwhile. Only Miro stood before the opening.
“Now tell your cutthroat friends out there we want one of the liners brought directly over the Gorm, you understand. Not the Althea, though—that’s still full of holes. And only one Ganymedan to guide her over the wall. Be very explicit, and not a false move out of you, or it’ll be your last.”
With the knowledge that two deadly weapons were pointing squarely at him, Miro shouted unwillingly the necessary instructions to his subordinates outside. Then Grant leaned over and kicked the slide shut.
* * * *
There followed tense moments of waiting. Would the workers beyond obey their leader? Had they become suspicious, and were even now massing for a surprise attack? Grant had no means of telling.
Then to his ears came the most welcome soft roar of muted rockets. A huge shape swept over the high wall, soared directly over the Gorm, and nestled down in little jets of flame until the stern rested on the solid rock, and the bow swung idly over the brilliant pool.
“Keep your gun trained on this bird,” Grant told Nona swiftly. She nodded. The air-lock door on the ship was already sliding open. A Ganymedan, space-suited, was coming through. He saw them, tried to spring back into the shelter of the ship. But a blue ray stabbed out and caught him in mid-flight. There was a spatter of dust, and the hapless creature disintegrated into thin air.
“Sorry I had to do it, but I couldn’t afford to let him give the alarm. Now for the dirty work, Nona. You hustle this big bully into the ship, and keep him covered. I’ll be right along.”
The girl cast him a look of anxiety. “What do you intend doing?”
“Don’t worry,” he assured her; “I won’t get hurt.”
After he had seen them within the liner, he got to work. First he brought out from the ship coils of wiring and jumbles of instruments. He took them over to the edge of the Gorm, to the place where he had seen Miro pull the switch, and for the next ten minutes was busy connecting wires, attaching batteries, putting his instruments in place. Then, when he was satisfied that everything was ready, he reversed the switch. The great space-ship, some fifty feet away, was already trembling in every line.
Just as he was rising to sprint for the slowly moving liner, he heard a smooth rushing noise. He whirled. The slide was opening in the wall. A mob of Ganymedans were pouring through. They paused uncertainly a moment, then, as they spied him, there was a concerted rush forward.
Grant acted quickly. Already the space-ship was off the ground, soaring upward. He had not an instant to spare. He dove toward it. The mob yelled, and raced forward to cut him off. His pencil-ray was useless—the distance was too great for its limited range. But then, that applied equally to the weapons of the Ganymedans.
* * * *
The blue rays snapped forward at him angrily, but fell short. The ship was moving faster now. It was already several feet off the ground. Grant’s heavy space-suit impeded his progress. The charging Ganymedans were dangerously close now. That last beam had missed him by inches. The ship was gathering speed. He was five feet away from the open air-lock when they got the range. A sharp searing pain right across his shoulder. The creatoid material of his suit was cut away as with a knife. A layer of flesh lay exposed. The skin had been whiffed into nothingness.
But that very instant he was leaping off the ground with a mighty effort. The ship was going upward with a rush now. His fingers clawed desperately at the edge of the air-lock. For one breathless instant he clung; then, to his horror, the smooth creatoid covering refused to hold. Slowly he slipped, in spite of every effort, as the surface of the hull refused purchase to his bleeding hands, then down he went with a thud.
A cry of triumph arose from the onrushing Ganymedans as Grant scrambled to his feet, bruised and shaken. He cast a swift, despairing glance upward. The huge liner was a hundred feet up now, gathering speed swiftly. To one side was the Gorm, a place of dread and menace. The gloating enemy were almost upon him. Even the comfort of a weapon, the grim satisfaction of taking some of his foes to death with him, was denied him.
The pencil-ray had been jarred out of his hand by the impact and had doubtless fallen into the Gorm.
Grant felt that he had come to the end of the rope. There was no tremor of fear in him, only regret that he had met the girl and lost her so soon. What would she do, out in space, alone with Miro? No time to think of that n
ow, though. The foremost of the Ganymedans were almost upon him. They intended taking him alive, did they? He braced himself for the attack, ready to go down fighting.
* * * *
Then a brilliant plan beat suddenly upon his dazzled mind. It was breath-taking, so simple, yet so desperate did it appear. If it worked—he would win through. If not—but Grant dismissed that thought quickly; one form of death was no worse than another.
Without an instant’s hesitation, he whirled and jumped as high as he could—directly over the Gorm! There was a yell of astonishment from the Ganymedans —one had already clutched at his intended victim—as they fell back in horror from the edge. This Earthling was mad to brave the terrors of the Gorm!
But Grant heard nothing. He was instantly conscious of a searing, racking pain that penetrated his every fiber. He forced his eyes upward, anywhere but beneath him. Was his theory correct, or was he destined to drop into the fiery lake. For a single interminable instant, he suffered untold agonies.
Then his body quivered, and he felt an unmistakable push against him. He was moving upward, just as he had hoped. The Gorm was repelling him, even as it had the ship.
Faster and faster he shot up, chasing the liner. Would he catch up with it? He strained his eyes. Exultation flooded through him as he realized that the distance was rapidly lessening between them. The added impetus of his leap over the Gorm had given him the required extra fillip of speed. By now, rays were streaking by him.
Soon he was directly underneath. For an instant he had a quick fear that he might overshoot his mark. But no—he was sliding past the open air-lock. He threw himself sideways and caught at it. This time his fingers held.
As he squirmed and wriggled into the lock, they were already careening into the orange tube through the red swirling clouds. There was no longer any air. Choking, he managed with numbed fingers to screw his helmet on. Then, closing the lock, he proceeded into the ship.
Nona was guarding her prisoner vigilantly. Miro sat there, sullen, defiant. Her glad, welcoming cry filled Grant with a new strange warmth.
“I was so afraid for you when the ship started and you didn’t show up,” she said, “but I didn’t dare leave him alone.” She indicated Miro.
“Good girl,” he said admiringly. “We’ll bind him now and then I want to show you something.”
* * * *
They stood a little later at the bow quartz port-hole. Down the long shaft through which they had risen they saw the glaring flame of the Gorm. As they looked, its regular pulsations turned irregular: it leaped and splashed as though it was a stormy, choppy sea. Then it gave one final mighty heave, and the universe seemed to shatter beneath them. The “walls” of the shaft collapsed about them and they were enswathed in a raging storm of red clouds.
Nona turned to Grant. “Now, will you explain?”
“Certainly,” he grinned boyishly. “I simply reversed the switch that changes the current of the Gorm. I knew that it would then repel the liner out into space, as Miro was incautious enough to inform me.
“Then I figured that if instead of direct current, an alternating flow could be induced, so as to attract and repel in quick succession, enough of a disturbance would be raised in that highly unstable mixture to start fireworks. So I rigged up an automatic break in the circuit, timed it to permit us to get up enough speed from the repulsion to be safely on our way before it would start. The circuit-breaker worked and the alternating current did the rest. That island is wiped out, and so is the Gorm. There’ll be no further threat of danger to the solar system from that.”
“And Miro, what are we going to do with him?”
“Turn him over to the Service. They’ll take care of him. And now, young lady, if you have no further questions, shall I say it again?”
She smiled up at him tenderly, answering:
“If you wish.”
* * * *
Copyright © 1932 by by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.
CLARK ASHTON SMITH
(1893–1961)
A major contributor to Weird Tales’ early success and a key member of the Lovecract Circle, Clark Ashton Smith was known primarily as a poet, but he also wrote more than a hundred stories in one intense burst. Most of those stories were too erotic to be published in their original form, however—at least in the 1930s.
Born in Long Valley, California, Smith was a frail child (as a result of a bout of scarlet fever) but a voracious reader. Although admitted to Auburn High School, Smith did not attend and was thereafter completely self-educated, including reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and Webster’s Unabridged English Dictionary. Smith’s family struggled financially (his father farmed and mined for gold without much success at either and his mother sold wild fruit she picked and magazine subscriptions) but his literary talents earned him early recognition. Smith began writing stories at eleven, poetry at thirteen, and a short adventure novel at fourteen. At age seventeen, he sold stories to The Black Cat and The Overland Monthly.
An introduction to George Sterling, then a well-known poet in Northern California, helped Smith to get his first book, The Star-Treader and Other Poems, published in 1912. The book was a huge literary success, though less successful for Smith commercially: He only earned about $50 for the 1,000 copies the book sold. Moreover, declining health meant it was years before he could complete a follow-up, by which time he was no longer seen as a nineteen-year-old literary wonder. Nevertheless, Smith published three more books of poetry by 1925, then started writing stories for Weird Tales at the encouragement of H. P. Lovecraft, with whom he corresponded.
He remained incredibly prolific until 1937, when a series of personal tragedies shook him badly. Many of his closest friends and family died, including poet Vachel Lindsay, Robert E. Howard, Lovecraft, and both his parents. From 1937 to his death in 1961, Smith wrote only about a dozen more stories, focusing instead on paintings and sculpture.
Smith had many mistresses (some of them married), but did not marry until 1954, when he was in his sixties. He had suffered a heart attack the year before, and had several strokes in 1961, before dying in his sleep.
AFTERWARDS, by Clark Ashton Smith
first published in Auburn Journal V23 #44, (16 Aug 1923)
There is a silence in the world
Since we have said farewell;
And beauty with an alien speech
An alien tale would tell.
There is a silence in the world,
Which is not peace nor quiet:
Ever I seek to flee therefrom,
And walk the ways of riot.
But when I hear the music moan
In rooms of thronging laughter,
A tongueless demon drives me forth,
And silence follows after.
THE STAR-TREADER, by Clark Ashton Smith
first published in The Star-Treader and Other Poems, 1912
A voice cried to me in a dawn of dreams,
Saying, “Make haste: the webs of death and birth
Are brushed away, and all the threads of earth
Wear to the breaking; spaceward gleams
Thine ancient pathway of the suns,
Whose flame is part of thee;
And the deep gulfs abide coevally
Whose darkness runs
Through all thy spirit’s mystery.
Go forth, and tread unharmed the blaze
Of stars wherethrough thou camest in old days;
Pierce without fear each vast
Whose hugeness crushed thee not within the past.
A hand strikes off the chains of Time,
A hand swings back the door of years;
Now fall earth’s bonds of gladness and of tears,
And opens the strait dream to space sublime”
II
Who rides a dream, what hand shall stay !
What eye shall note or measure mete
His passage on a purpose fleet,
The thread and weaving o
f his way !
It caught me from the clasping world,
And swept beyond the brink of Sense,
My soul was flung, and poised, and whirled
Like to a planet chained and hurled
With solar lightning strong and tense.
Swift as communicated rays
That leap from severed suns a gloom
Within whose waste no suns illume,
The winged dream fulfilled its ways.
Through years reversed and lit again
I followed that unending chain
Wherein the suns are links of light;
Retraced through lineal, ordered spheres
The twisting of the threads of years
In weavings wrought of noon and night;