Twin Worlds
Neil R. Jones
Table of Contents
TWIN WORLDS.............................................................................................. 2
ON THE PLANET FRAGMENT................... 58
THE MUSIC MONSTERS............................ 102
TWIN WORLDS
PROLOGUE
The professor’s earlier life and biography is more or less irrelevant to our story. Where we become interested in him and directly concerned with his career is in the October of his life. He dreamed of preserving his dead body against the inevitable law of nature much as had the Egyptians, yet his dream crept deeper into the realms of eternity than those of his predecessors.
Nearing the end of his life, he built a radium-propelled rocket to find an orbit around the Earth, where in its cosmic coffin his body would remain forever unchanged, free from bacteria and other Earthly effects. He left full instructions for his nephew to act upon subsequent to his death. Silent and glistening, ready for its strange career, the rocket rested against the eight tracks of its slanting tube, waiting. During this wait, the professor foresaw and forestalled the menace of meteors. Automatic radium repulsion rays, their source kept continually rejuvenated by a process of transformed sunlight, answered the problem.
The vigil came to an end; the professor died. He passed away on a December morning not long before a late risen sun burst forth to flood the countryside with the rare novelty of December sunshine. His nephew was stunned by the secret instructions left him, yet acted upon them nevertheless. There was the lonesome trek at midnight through the snow-mantled cemetery: the pilfering of the grave vault, the emplacement of the body in the rocket, the tripping of the radium release, the hurried run for shelter, and Douglas Jameson remained the only comprehending witness to the rocket’s plunge into space. The incendiary firing of the ejector building with its clustered laboratories followed as an aftermath, the roaring, devouring flames consuming all traces of the professor’s secret. For many long years, the secret was kept, but one day Douglas Jameson, still working in the interests of his deceased uncle, told the world. It was generally classified as a hoax, despite the empty grave vault in the Grenville cemetery, until the discovery by Clement years later. With his telescope, he discovered and charted the course of the Jameson satellite on its orbit sixty-five thousand miles distant from the Earth.
Years passed. Decades slowly rolled into centuries. Centuries passed by thousands―then ten thousands. History grew multifold. Mankind, life on Earth, rose and fell, finally disappearing off the face of the aging planet. Still the professor in his rocket satellite circled the Earth. More than forty million years fled by, the rocket circling Earth constantly like a tiny moon. Professor Jameson had accomplished his great ambition. Yet how true it is that men plan without taking into consideration the caprices of fate, that unmoved destiny which rules the courses of worlds apart.
It was one of fate’s caprices which brought a party of space wanderers, machine men from a distant corner of the universe, into the shadow of the dying world, a planet lifeless and untenanted, a pathetic semblance of past glory. They found the lonely rocket satellite revolving about the Earth on its endless orbit.
The machine men of Zor had achieved immortality by removal of their brains from organic bodies of flesh and blood to machines which knew replacement and repair rather than death. A cubed body, four metal legs, six metal tentacles and a metal, cone-shaped head enclosing the vital brain presented a weird but practical aspect. Conveniently encircling the metal head were shuttered eyes, working much on the same principle as television, a single eye in the apex of the coned head permitting upward vision. They communicated by means of mental telepathy.
No greater surprise can be imagined than that of Professor Jameson when he came to his senses and found himself a machine man. The Zoromes had transferred the brain from his perfectly preserved corpse to one of their machines and had recalled it to life. He found himself a machine man, a convert to the ranks of those scientific wanderers of the cosmos who journeyed from one planetary system to another, exploring the myriad wonders of an unending argosy.
Professor Jameson was given the numeric title 21MM392, and he became a seasoned mariner of the cosmos. He visited strange worlds and met with even stranger adventures. He found weird, unearthly forms of life living in environments where life would not have been suspected, and he encountered unusual forms of intelligence among the creatures the machine men discovered on their travels.
Chapter I
Swift and silent, like a wandering meteor, the spaceship of the Zoromes flitted into the swelling brilliance of what from a distance had been a glowing point against a jet background of vast, illimitable space, only a star among myriads of stars, but now, on closer proximity, a gigantic sun, a perpetual furnace of the cosmos.
Thirty-nine machine men gazed in eager anticipation as the various planets were picked out and classified. Delicate instruments supplemented the mechanical eyesight of the Zoromes.
“There are four planets,” Professor Jameson summarized after careful examinations had been made. “Two of them on the opposite side of the sun, one at right angles to our approach and another we will soon pass.”
The worlds on the other side of the sun, two in number, glowed as small, fixed orbs of light, duller and less scintillating than the fiery stars in the vastness beyond. One planet directly at opposition with the spaceship’s approach, appeared like a tiny full moon, while a companion world, further removed from the sun, appeared through the telescopes as a gibbous orb. The world at right angles was visible as a quarter sphere without the aid of magnifying instruments.
The world they were soon to pass lay directly ahead of them and was not visible since the side they were approaching was the night side.
“One thing seems certain,” was 744U-21’s opinion. “The world which we are soon to reach will be possessed of no atmosphere. Had it air, we should be able to see it even though we are coming toward its dark side. Suffusion of sunlight through the atmosphere often produces a circle of hazy light.”
20R-654 turned the course of the cosmic traveler to one side as they came within a quarter million miles of the nearest planet. Like a great arched silver light, the horned crescent of the visible world loomed large. Closely, the machine men examined what they could see of its surface.
“There is no air,” said 12W-62. “It is unlikely that the planet supports life.”
“Its surface is a vast, frozen desert.”
“The world rotates.”
More of the huge planet became visible as the spaceship passed to one side. One quarter of the entire surface now lay open to the examination of the machine men. They discovered from afar only a dead, barren and apparently uninhabited span of desolation.
“21MM392!”
The professor turned from his position at a telescope as 41C-98’s thought wave struck him, a thought wave tremulous with rising excitement. The professor believed that 41C-98 had possibly picked out some startling detail of the world they were passing, a detail which had so far escaped the examination of the others. To his surprise, he found that the machine man was not even looking at the world they were passing. He was staring off in another direction without the aid of a telescope. His mind vibrated to discovery.
“There are five worlds, 21MM392, not four!” he exclaimed.
“Is there one further out in space that we missed?” the professor queried.
“No! There is a world between the two we saw on the other side of the solar body! The nearer of the two eclipsed the one we failed to see!”
“A remarkable coincidence,” the professor observed.
All the machine men now stared across space at a
new planet seemingly not far removed from the nearer of the two worlds they had previously seen.
“The central one of the three planets must be very large,” said 119M-5, “for from this distance it appears nearly as large as the other one which is much closer.”
Glasses were leveled in the direction of the newly discovered world. The planet behind them, growing from gibbous to full, was nearly forgotten.
“That world is not far removed from the other, 119M-5,” 29G-75 stated from his position at a telescope. “They are very close.”
“Does it possess an orbit of its own around the sun?” queried 744U-21.
For a short time, the machine men observed the new world carefully.
“It seems to revolve about the other world.”
“A moon, a very large moon,” 6W-438 observed.
“Nearly as large as the planet itself.”
“I believe you will find on further examination that the two bodies revolve about each other on a common orbit about the sun,” the professor stated. “They are undoubtedly twin worlds. One is as much a moon to its companion as it is vice versa.
“They are third in line from the sun. There is but one outer world beyond their orbit.”
The professor now took the glass. Carefully, he estimated the distance between the two worlds as not much more than a hundred thousand miles, while their respective diameters he figured were five thousand miles and five thousand, five hundred miles.
“One of them is inhabited, I believe!” 744U-21 exclaimed. “I can see what appears to be a city on the smaller world!”
“Are there many of them?”
“It is rather hard to tell.”
The spaceship came closer to the objects of the machine men’s scrutiny. At the professor’s suggestion, the ship was driven between the twin worlds, giving the machine men a closer view of both planets. From a distance of fifty thousand miles, they examined both worlds.
“I am sure of the city I saw on the smaller world,” said 744U-21, “yet now that I look at the same spot where it should be, according to the speed of rotation, I can find nothing but a vast expanse of water.”
“It is strange,” 6W-438 agreed. “The same thing happened with me in the case of an island I was viewing.”
“Both worlds possess an abundant atmosphere, yet the smaller one seems to be all water.”
“Not like a hydrosphere?” 9ZQ-435 interposed.
“This cannot be entirely a world of water,” observed 56L-426, “for we have already seen land surfaces upon it.”
“Yet where is the large island on which I saw the city?” queried 744U-21.
“There must have been some mistake in the estimation of distances and rotation,” the professor offered.
“Wait!” cried 29G-75 in rising spirits. “A huge continent on the larger world is coming into view!”
From the watery wastes of the smaller world, the instruments of the Zoromes were now leveled at its slightly larger contemporary. Slowly, a great continent, dark and rugged in its shadows, bright and dazzling where the sun struck, swung into sight. The space ship clung to a restricted area between the two worlds as the machine men took their observations and gathered data. Fully forty degrees of the planet’s equator were visible from where the machine men had halted their spaceship, both worlds appearing as quarter-moons. Because of atmospheric aberration, poor seeing was prevalent upon the horizons.
If the machine men were excited merely by the appearances of several inhabited islands on the smaller world, what they saw on this larger planet now dwarfed into insignificance what they had seen upon its twin sphere. Large cities showed plainly, yet the spaceship lay too far distant for the machine men to pick out the inhabitants.
“If the original builders inhabit those cities, they must be possessed of an advanced intelligence,” the professor stated.
“Shall we land?” asked 20R-654.
A short consulation decided the issue. They circled both worlds several times, examining all sections before choosing a spot upon which to land.
The decision was finally reached to land upon the smaller world, on one of the many islands which dotted the continuous ocean.
A peculiarity of the smaller, water-bound world attracted them. On the isolated islands were small clusters of strange buildings not unlike those on the other world. A careful examination of the other planet had disclosed no spaceships, although in their observations, strange vehicles had been found for use on the sea, on the land and in the air. There appeared to be no spaceships, yet the scattered dwellings on the smaller world bore a distinct architectural relationship to those on the larger sphere.
Strangest of all was the solution to 744U-21’s enigma. With one of the telescopes, he had sighted an island on which was built a small city. Later, on closer approach of the spaceship between the two spheres, he fully believed that what he had previously glimpsed was but a mirage. For where the island and its buildings had previously been, there only tossed a restless expanse of unbroken water. 27E-24 had suggested the coincidence of a subterranean settling of the planet at that particular place and time. But such coincidences are to be proved before being accepted.
The coincidence was disproved. The disappearance of the island was caused by the heavy, sweeping tides over the lower land surfaces as the planet swung toward its neighboring world. These tides were very high, swelling to meet the attraction of the great globe rolling through space a hundred thousand miles distant. Only the higher portions of the various islands escaped this daily inundation.
“But how could anyone live in the city we saw buried beneath the waves?” queried 12W-62.
There are several explanations which might serve,” 41C-98 offered. “The inhabitants may be amphibious, possessing the adaptation for living in submersion for a passing period of time. Then, too, the buildings we saw engulfed by the rising tides may be on abandoned islands that have sunk beneath the flow tide level.”
The machine men picked out one of the islands on that side of the planet away from the other world. They had a half day in which to explore before that hemisphere swung about to face the companion world. Tides would then flood to the high water mark. Preliminary investigation had proved that this island was among those not entirely submerged at high tide. It was long, rising high at one end and sloping gradually into the sea at the other end. Fully half the island or more lay revealed at high tide. Buildings clustered and dotted the perpetually dry section of the island, while at the opposite end of the island only one building kept solitary vigil. Of all the buildings on the island, however, it was by far the largest. It was built much like a castle, yet without the turrets, towers and other straggling features characteristic of the castles the professor had known. This great building was built massive and compact.
It was at this lower end of the island that the machine men of Zor first decided to land. Coming down, they skimmed but a few miles above the more thickly settled portion of the islands highland. At the glasses, machine men uttered mental exclamations.
“There is life of some sort existent down there! Creatures move about among the buildings!”
“They possess vehicles of a sort, too!”
“What can that great wheel be for?” 744U-21 mused. “It is larger than the buildings around it.”
Professor Jameson directed his glass in the direction of a gigantic wheel mounted upright among the squat dwellings below them. At first, it appeared to be resting on the ground, yet closer inspection revealed the fact that it hung suspended on standards, its circumference well clear of the ground. Small buildings lay clustered below it, while various apparatus surrounded the spoked giant with its narrow rim.
“They must be industrialists who worship the wheel as a means of utilizing power,” 41C-98 ventured. “It may be an idol of theirs.”
“Industrialists are generally of a different psychological composite,” the professor stated. “That big wheel serves a purpose, perhaps of pumping something from the
ground.”
“Certainly not water,” 12W-62 reflected. “They have all of that they want.”
“Unless they pump fresh water,” 119M-5 added.
“There seem to be no walls or dikes erected, so it cannot be used to keep a part of the island dry during the period of submersion.”
“This part of the island is not submerged,” 119M-5 reminded 41C-98.
“We shall find out more about that wheel after we have investigated the lone castle to see what kind of life, if any, it harbors,” the professor promised.
The spaceship of Zor landed not far from the massive pile which possessed but very few apertures, and these appeared to be set with either transparent or translucent barriers of some substance yet indeterminable. Also, these windows were all located far above the ground level of the castle which latter was built of dark gray rock, somber and discolored through the endless action of the tides. To all outward appearances, the place was untenanted. Discussing the huge, silent structure and its possible hidden mysteries, the machine men approached it, as with metal feet they trod over damp mossy ground where here and there the last tide had left a puddle of water.
“Who are you things of metal who think and talk silently among yourselves?”
Crisp and clear came this mental utterance, halting the advance of the machine men as they stopped in momentary stupefaction. Someone other than themselves had spoken, presumably from the confines of the dark stone building. It was tenanted, evidently, and the machine men were being watched closely.
“Speak to me, that I may understand,” came the telepathic voice. “My mental faculties are not up to your standard. Where are you from? Are you robots from Dlasitap under remote control?”
“We are machine men from a far-off world of another planetary system,” 744U-21 replied. “Our brains are organic, such as yours is probably, too. Our bodies and appendages are mechanical.”
“We come with friendly intentions,” Professor Jameson added. “Will you not come out? We stopped here out of curiosity.”
[Title here] Page 1