“Take your arm away from me,” she said, “I can manage myself. I don’t need you for anything, Phillip Evans.” She struggled away from him and strode on ahead, her small shoulders squared defiantly.
In another ten minutes they were out of the basin of the valley and the air was clearer. Phillip found that he no longer had to fight against the queer sensation that seemed to be induced by the thick, heavy atmosphere.
Nada was still stumbling on ahead of him and he could tell from the straight, angry lines of her back that she was still seething.
He caught up with her.
“Nada,” he said, “I—”
“There’s nothing to say,” she said coolly, keeping her eyes fixed straight ahead and her small chin tilted stubbornly. “I suppose I should thank you,” she said, after a moment of silence. “I almost passed out, and, as you reminded me so clearly, I was definitely a liability. But,” she added icily, “I can’t work up much respect for a person who uses a time like that to start crowing, ‘I told you so.’ ”
“You silly little fool,” Phillip said disgustedly. “You don’t know the score and it looks as if you’ll never find out. I talked that way to snap you back to consciousness. If you can’t realize that, you’re hopeless.”
He strode on, glowering. Damn this girl! Why did they have to be at each other’s throats all the time? He realized that if he were tactful and diplomatic he could probably explain the necessity for what he had done but he had no intention of being tactful or diplomatic. If she couldn’t understand without having a drawing shoved in front of her eyes, she could just go right on thinking him a cad and a boor.
They were within sight of the Astra now and Nada went on ahead. When they reached the ship she turned in the hatch way and said, “Thank you for a very lovely trip,” and then disappeared into the interior of the great space craft.
Phillip was still glaring at the door when Captain Malcolm appeared.
“Hello, Phillip,” he said. “Did you find anything?”
Phillip shook his head.
“Not a trace.”
“I’ve sent four parties out,” the captain said, “but only two have reported so far. They’ve found nothing. Simar, however, has almost completed his machine. Would you like to take a look at it?”
“Very much,” said Phillip.
He followed the captain into the ship, wondering whether he should tell him of the powerful influences that seemed contained in the atmosphere in the basin of the valley.
For some reason he decided to wait.
CHAPTER V
SIMAR was alone in the Astra’s large, well equipped laboratory when Captain Malcolm and Phillip entered. He was working over a small delicate machine, hardly six inches square, constructed of gleaming metal and bristling with tiny filaments and rheostats. He looked from his work when he saw them and smiled his flat, expressionless smile.
“Come in, gentlemen,” he said affably. “I am almost done with my work. Would you care to inspect it at close range?”
Captain Malcolm moved forward eagerly and Phillip followed.
The machine had four handholds, one on each side, and from above a cone pointed down toward the top of the machine, bathing it with a powerful orange ray.
“Would you explain how it operates?” Captain Malcolm asked.
“With pleasure,” Simar replied.
He pointed to a band of rheostats on the front panel of the machine and began to explain the purpose of each, talking swiftly, surely. His explanations were thick with scientific phrases and many bewildering inconsistencies were apparent to Phillip as Simar talked on, pointing to various parts of the machine and discussing their operations at great length.
The conviction gradually grew in Phillip that the man was lying. That his explanations were simply meaningless phrases intended to bewilder rather than clarify. What purpose Simar could be serving, Phillip couldn’t fathom, but he was increasingly sure that Simar’s machine was not built to locate the missing city.
“What is the purpose of the ray?” he asked, when Simar paused for breath.
Simar glanced at him and smiled.
“I’m not sure you will be able to understand,” he said smoothly. “Not that I mean to belittle your scientific comprehension,” he added, with a slight deferential bow, “but the principle of this ray is based on theories which I, alone, have undertaken to examine.”
“Simar,” Phillip said, choosing his words deliberately, “I think you’re a fraud. I don’t think this machine will locate the city we’re looking for. Your explanations of its operations didn’t make a particle of sense. They were simply meaningless phrases thrown together in a sort of scientific mumbo-jumbo either to cloak the fact that your machine is useless, or to hide its real purpose.”
Captain Malcolm swung angrily on Phillip.
“I won’t have you insulting Simar this way,” he cried. “He’s doing his best to help us locate the city which is more than can be said for you.”
Phillip shrugged.
“If the machine works I am ready to apologize. But,” he said with a grim smile, “Simar knows it won’t work as well as I do.”
“I regret that you are so skeptical,” Simar said. “If a demonstration will convince you, I am only too happy to oblige. The machine is ready to operate now.”
HE an adjustment on the band of rheostats and a slow curving smile flattened his lips against his teeth.
“I am waiting to be shown,” Phillip said curtly.
Simar straightened from the machine.
“May I crave your indulgence for a few moments,” he asked quietly. “I promised Miss Connors’ that I would tell her when I was ready to demonstrate the machine. She seemed quite interested in its operation. If you will wait here for just a second I will go and get her.”
“Go right ahead,” Captain Malcolm said. “A few minutes won’t make any difference.”
“Is that agreeable to you, Mr. Evans?” Simar asked.
“Of course,” Phillip said.
Simar returned in a few minutes with Nada. Phillip glanced at her but she avoided his gaze. He noticed that she had changed into a short tunic and soft slippers that buckled about her slim, bare ankles.
“Will you please step to the machine?” Simar said. “It will be necessary that each of you hold one of the handholds on the sides.”
Phillip took a place between Simar and Captain Malcolm, facing Nada over the gleaming machine. The metal handhold was cold to the touch and Phillip sensed that it was throbbing faintly, as if an unfelt electric current were coursing through it.
“We are ready,” Simar announced.
He adjusted one of the rheostats and flicked a switch on the side of the machine.
“It will not take long,” he murmured. He was smiling softly as he watched the orange cone of light glow with greater strength on the gleaming surface of the machine.
Phillip felt nothing at first, but gradually he noticed that the room was growing darker. He glanced at Nada and he had trouble focusing his eyes on her white face. She was looking at Simar with worried eyes.
“Do not be alarmed,” Simar said gently. His flat expressionless face seemed to be glowing with an inner radiance against the growing darkness of the room.
Phillip tried to speak but he couldn’t. A sudden suspicion flashed into his mind. He tried to cry out but the words made no sound.
The darkness was almost complete.
With a savage wrench he tried to jerk his hand from the machine, but he couldn’t force his tightly clamped fingers to open.
Simar was grinning satanically and his face was the only thing visible in the darkness; and it shone strangely like something ghostly and unreal.
Phillip saw him stretch a hand to the machine and turned one of the rheostats with a slow, deliberate motion and, as he did so, he flung his blazing face back in a savage gesture of ecstatic triumph.
“I have not failed, O mighty Aganda!” he cried.
SWIRLING light suddenly
flashed about them, but it was not light from any of the beams of the Astra. It was blinding white light that might have come from the depths of space, where the black of the void faded and unborn worlds blazed defiantly against the illimitable darkness.
Phillip heard a roaring in his ears and felt the force of a mighty suction that grew steadily more powerful, more irresistible.
And then he was swept upward like a twig before a violent storm and he felt all of his senses leaving him as blackness, deep, vast and unending, closed like an inexorable pall over his consciousness.
CHAPTER VI
RETURNING to consciousness was like swimming upward through murky, impenetrable water toward a flicker of light miles above his head. His eyes opened slowly and the flicker of light suddenly grew from a pin-point to dazzling brilliance that struck his eyes painfully.
He blinked and opened his eyes again and this time he made out two dim figures standing over him, looking at him with speculative eyes.
When he opened his eyes the third time he identified the figures as Simar and Captain Malcolm. Simar’s flat face was expressionless as usual, but the captain’s features looked dazed and his eyes were dull and vacant.
Phillip was lying on smooth ground and the sky above his head was a bright, glaring blue. Turning slightly he saw that Nada was lying beside him, her eyes closed, breathing evenly.
He struggled to a sitting position and then he saw the things that surrounded him, and his heart began to thud desperately against his ribs.
The creatures that circled him were thin, greyish and their hideous bodies seemed composed of some pulpy material that visibly pulsated as they moved. They wore metallic garments that ended at their waists and left their long, tendril-like arms and legs free. Their faces were blank, smooth. One colorless eye gleamed in each forehead. And each of those terrible eyes was fixed in a dead stare on Phillip and the girl.
“You seem alarmed,” Simar murmured. “You needn’t be. My comrades will obey my slightest command and it is not my intention to have you killed.”
Phillip tore his fascinated gaze from the weird monstrosities and turned to Simar.
“What kind of a game are you playing?” he demanded.
Simar smiled and stepped to one side and gestured toward a deep valley surrounded on three sides by towering peaks. In the basin of the valley was a great city, sprawling for miles. Great buildings loomed high in the air, their white sides glistening under the harsh light of the sun.
“Perhaps this will aid in your orientation,” Simar smiled. “Do you recognize the place?”
Phillip climbed to his feet and he felt that his brain was reeling on its foundations. For this valley was the Lunar depression which he and Nada had explored. And this city was the one they had seen mirrored on the Astra’s visi-screen.
The thought of the Astra caused him to turn sharply toward the place where the great ship had landed. But his eyes met nothing but the smooth, unbroken terrain, stretching for miles.
The Astra was gone!
“Your ship is not here,” Simar said quietly.
“Where is it?” Phillip demanded. He felt dazed, breathless with shock. “Have they gone without us?”
“No,” Simar smiled, “the Astra is precisely where we left it, one hundred thousand years in the future”
PHILLIP felt the words of Simar crash into his brain with an almost physical impact.
“One hundred thousand years in the future!” he cried. “You’re mad!”
“You will find I am quite sane,” Simar murmured. “I will tell you everything when we reach our city and you will find much of your bewilderment erased.” He smiled pleasantly. “You must accept the situation whether you like it or not, so I’d advise you to be practical. Haven’t you noticed how adaptable our Captain Malcolm is?”
Phillip stared at the captain’s vacant face and dull eyes and a chill of horror swept through him.
“What have you done to him?” he said grimly. “If you’ve harmed him—”
“You are in no position to be threatening,” Simar said quietly. “You will come with us now, agreeably or otherwise.”
“I’ll be damned if I will,” Phillip said hotly.
Simar shook his head sadly.
“It is unfortunate that you are adopting such an uncooperative attitude,” he murmured. He turned slightly and faced the silent creatures who were watching Phillip with fixed, dead eyes.
He spoke no word, he made no movement, yet with one accord the creatures suddenly moved with bewildering speed toward Phillip. Before he could move a half dozen of their rope-like tentacles had whipped about his arms, pinioning him helplessly. Others snapped about his legs and he was lifted into the air, unable to move a muscle.
“You see how useless is resistance?” Simar asked.
Several of the creatures picked up the girl and started down the long slope toward the city. Phillip was borne along after them.
Simar chuckled.
“Your education will begin very shortly, my impetuous young friend,” he murmured.
Captain Malcolm followed behind them, his face expressionless, his feet dragging loosely on the smooth ground.
CHAPTER VII
WHEN they reached the city, the weird creatures carried Phillip and the unconscious girl along a broad avenue flanked on either side by the great white buildings that were characteristic of this metropolis.
They came to a stop at last before an immense domed building which was guarded by several ranks of the weird, tentacles-armed creatures.
Philip was lowered to the ground and the great metal door of the domed building swung ponderously open.
Simar came up to Phillip’s side.
“This is the palace of our ruler, Aganda,” he said. “When he has seen you I will take you to your quarters where you will be fed.”
Phillip glanced at Nada who was still held aloft in the tendril arms of the weird creatures. He prayed that she would stay unconscious.
“What about the girl?” he asked Simar.
“She will not be harmed.”
He strode ahead of Phillip through the great door and the strange captors secured Phillip’s arms with their ropy tentacles and led him through the door into a huge shadowy room that was completely bare except for the raised dais in the center of the floor and completely unoccupied except for the creature who sat silently there watching their approach with an unwinking, lifeless eye.
Simar prostrated himself before the dais and the enthroned creature, who was identical to the others Phillip had seen, except that, if possible, he was even more repulsive in appearance, stared at Simar’s prone figure with a glassy, expressionless eye.
Phillip sensed that the two were communicating and it was not hard to guess that the subject of their conversation was he and the girl, who had been brought in and stretched before the throne.
His guess was confirmed when the creature on the dais turned his eye slowly from Simar and fixed its dead stare on him. The creature’s inspection lasted for a full minute and then it swung slowly to the slim figure of the girl before the throne.
Again the inspection lasted a full minute, before the eye swung back to Simar who rose immediately to his feet and turned to Phillip.
“Come with me,” he said quietly.
Nada stirred slightly and a low moan passed her lips. She moved her head weakly from side to side and then her eyelids fluttered and opened. She stared for a blank, uncomprehending moment at the hideous creatures who stood over her and then a convulsive shudder passed through her slim body.
She pressed the back of her hand against her mouth to choke back the scream that tore at her throat. Her eyes were wide with a loathing fear.
PHILLIP dropped to his knees beside her and held her close in his arms.
“What are they?” she cried, her face pressed against his chest. “Take me away from here, please.”
“Get hold of yourself, honey,” he whispered. “We’re in for a bad time but we
can’t crack.”
Simar coughed meaningly.
“Are you ready? Or shall I have my comrades use a bit of forceful persuasion?”
Phillip turned to him, his face a mask of cold, white fury.
“If one of these slimy monstrosities tries to touch Nada I’ll kill her myself rather than let that happen.”
Simar shrugged.
“Then supposing you come along under your own power? I am trying to be gentle with both of you but your attitude may force me to change my tactics.”
Phillip helped Nada to her feet. She buried her head against his shoulder. “I can’t look at them,” she whispered. Her voice was choked with horror. “I just can’t.”
Phillip put his arm about her waist and held her close.
“You don’t have to,” he said. “Keep your eyes closed and I’ll lead you.”
Supporting Nada with his arm, Phillip followed Simar and several of the weird creatures across the great hall through a door that led them into a labyrinthine system of connecting corridors and finally brought them to a row of dungeon-like cells hundreds of feet below the surface of the ground.
Each cell was constructed of thick wire mesh and a door was its only opening. One of the creatures opened the door and Phillip and Nada were shoved into the cell.
Simar followed them in and closed the door behind him. The four creatures that had escorted them to the place moved a few dozen feet away and crouched in the corridor, watching the cell with sluggish eyes.
Phillip glanced about the small cell. There were cots facing each other from opposite walls and a tube of running water in one corner. That was all.
Simar noticed his inspection and smiled.
“True,” he murmured, “the quarters are not palatial, but if your attitude becomes more cooperative you will find that we are not completely without physical comforts here at Lunas.”
Phillip led Nada to one of the cots and sat down beside her, still holding his arm about her shoulders. She was sobbing, now, but the sound was muffled against his chest. He could feel her slim shoulders quivering under his hand.
Collected Fiction (1940-1963) Page 197