Progress became more difficult as progress always is through a denser medium such as water. The machine men had known only too well that this would be so.
The rising tide swept over their metal heads and about the middles of Kamunioleten and the Vosquentebs.
“We’ll never make it!” cried the Emite who, now that the machine men were unable to perceive their destination, guided them mentally. “We must swim for it, and I am a poor swimmer!”
Kamunioleten might better have said that he felt in poor condition for such an arduous task. 5ZQ-35 felt the Emite rise to his full height above him as he strove to keep his head above the water. Dlasitap had not yet reached its zenith, and the waters were still rising, but now more languidly. Soon, Kamunioleten reported that he must let go and swim or else be drowned. He had risen to where he stood on the four square corners of the machine man’s metal body, 5ZQ-35 curling his tentacles about the Emite’s legs.
The three Vosquentebs had already abandoned their submerged retainers and were being followed by the three machine men who looked upward through the mechanical eye in the apex of their metal heads at the swirling, thrashing limbs of the creatures. Kamunioleten reported that the high tide mark now lay less than half a borg away. In his mind, the Zoromes detected a note of helpless desperation. He was not doing as well as the Vosquentebs who were, from hereditary environment, more accustomed to the art and peculiar stamina required for swimming.
Without a warning, the Emite gave a sudden, convulsive struggle and sank into the water among the machine men, a trail of bubbles marking his short descent from the surface. 6W-438 seized him and gave him an upward shove which bobbed him to the surface once more where he was seized upon by two of the Vosquentebs who supported him and swam in the water. Their progress became slowed and their exertions redoubled. There was nothing that the machine men could do other than hope that they made it.
That final half borg was made at a tremendous cost of effort and length of time. Worn out by the trial of air compression and jogging ride on the machine men, all four of the creatures were physically worn out. Kamunioleten was practically helpless, and although the three Vosquentebs relieved each other in supporting him in the water, they were all worn and fatigued. One of them, he who had suffered the worst from the too rapid air decompression, would likely have drowned despite anything the machine men might have done, had it not been for an opportune occurrence.
Dlasitap had reached its zenith and was falling toward the horizon opposite to the one from which it had risen, and the high tide had commenced to ebb. The sun, too, was lower, and this aided the recession of the water. The weary Vosquenteb finally gave out and sank helplessly into the light green depths. The professor seized him and pushed him back up again, finding that by holding the Vosquenteb’s feet over his metal head he could keep the other’s head above water. The machine men now held all three of the Vosquentebs once more. Kamunioleten, having lost consciousness, was upheld and kept up by the machine men. It was decided that no more progress would be made, and here they waited for the ebbing of the tide.
The recession of the waters was surprisingly rapid as both Dlasitap and the sun simultaneously eased their attraction. When the machine men’s heads broke the surface of the water, they were surprised to find themselves less than two hundred yards from the high water mark which stood out damp and clear against a rising hill in the foreground. It was nearing sunset as they climbed the hill where it was decided that they rest until morning came. Rest was a superfluous requisite to the machine men, yet they were well aware that their organic allies would require recuperation.
Against the subdued brilliance of sunset’s glow they saw from their low eminence a gigantic wheel upraised above the ground, dwarfed in perspective of several borgs’ distance. Kamunioleten, who had just revived from the second and most alarming of his recent ordeals, told them that it was one of the great wheels used to hurl the passenger projectiles off into space toward Dlasitap.
All that night, the machine men waited beside their four organic friends who rested upon the hill overlooking the high tide mark. The sun gone, Dlasitap shone brightly for only a short part of the earlier evening, a hanging crescent surrounded by the glittering stars, a few of which shone dimly through the twin world’s atmospheric halo. Dlasitap disappeared, leaving in its place more stars which shone the brighter because of its absence.
Looking up into the night at the far-off stars, the machine men could only wonder where the spaceship was with their metal companions. Were they at that moment returning across space, or was something detaining them?
A suggestive lessening of darkness, followed by a weak flash of light, announced the coming dawn. Knowing that Kamunioleten and his three servitors could well do with all the rest they might obtain, the machine men let them slumber on undisturbed until after the sun was well into the sky. It was then that one of the Vosquentebs awoke, and, shortly after, Kamunioleten opened his eyes. The two sleeping Vosquentebs were aroused, and the nine fugitives from the fearsome tide started for the village where the wheel held towering dominance above the rows of houses around its base. As the machine men came nearer, they saw that these houses were built mostly of stone, a few of the poorer ones made of an adobe mixture which they learned was obtained from a peculiar section of the seashore at low tide.
Several Vosquentebs first discovered the party and fled in alarm at the strange apparitions of the Zoromes in company with three of their kind and the Emite. Straight into the village walked the nine from the flooded castle. Now several Emites came to meet them, a bit falteringly, summoned by the excited Vosquentebs. They recognized Kamunioleten and their apprehensions regarding the metal monsters beside him were partly vanished.
“What do you do here, Kamunioleten?” he was asked. “And what are those machine things with you?”
“I am come from the castle,” replied Kamunioleten, evasive of the query concerning his metal alies.
“You have no right up at this island’s end. Where did you get a boat?”
Again the exile answered only the leading question.
“The castle has sprung a leak and is flooded at high tide.”
The crowd of Vosquentebs and Emites increased until nearly the entire village was assembled. There were no more than forty Emites to the Vosquenteb population of two hundred, yet it was apparent that the Emites were the accepted masters. The five machine men were regarded with suspicion, even after Kamunioleten had explained that they were creatures from another world and would harm no one who did not attempt to harm them. It was apparent to the minds of the machine men that these Emites disliked the exile and bore him ill favor. What they might have done with Kamunioleten, had the machine men not been with him, remained largely problematical, yet it would be supposed that they would have imprisoned him until word was transmitted to Bemencanla, as these Emites were his minions.
The machine men of Zor put such plans beyond their temptation by casual feats of strength, stamina and invincibility which cultivated a passive respect and fear in the days that followed, though underneath lurked currents of hate, fear and suspicion, all too plainly visible to the machine men and faintly perceived by the less receptive faculties of Kamunioleten. Here, on the upper end of the island, the machine men took up quarters and once more waited for the return of the spaceship, knowing well that as soon as it landed by the castle the three Zoromes left behind would inform 744U-21 of their whereabouts.
During the interim, the machine men examined the catapult wheel with avid interest. It was nothing more than a gigantic flywheel, geared up and fitted with a drive shaft and run by steam power. An enormous firepit yawned like a cavern underneath the huge, metal boiler whose square walls were of surprising thickness, Kamunioleten explained, to stand the terrific strain.
“We fear the bursting of the steam chamber more than we fear the breaking up of the wheel from being whirled too rapidly. The wheel is of very light metal in order to lessen the strain of centrif
ugal force and avoid the accidents of earlier experiments with heavier metals.”
Professor Jameson found the diameter of this particular wheel to be slightly less than two hundred and ten feet. To gain the necessary speed of considerably more than two thousand miles per hour, this would call for more than five revolutions a second before the affixed projectile might be released.
The wheel was made of several large sections running diametrically, strengthened here and there quite cleverly. The latter ability the Emites had learned through bitter experience rather than by genius, for actual experience had made a mock of many of their painstaking figures. The huge sections of the wheel, the machine men learned, were made upon a distant island of Selimemigre where the best metals were found to form the strong alloy. The massive, though surprisingly light, sections were towed to their destinations on huge floats fastened behind ships.
The wheel on this island was rarely used, as was evidenced by the condition of the firepit beneath the boiler, which was cleaned and oiled to prevent deterioration. The professor suggested to Kamunioleten that their alloy be made rustproof, to which he replied that many of the wheels were coated with a rustproof preparation of metal which was applied in the molten state. He professed to know little concerning this phase of the construction other than to assert that a rustproof alloy had been made once, but was found on practical experiment to be too weak.
“Still in a rather crude state,” 6W-438 said, referring to the wheel, “yet give them time.”
The machine men hungered for a demonstration of the wheel, yet their curiosity remained unappeased, for there arose no occasion for its use. As they had discovered, this wheel was rarely used for its purpose of hurling miniature spacecraft between the twin worlds.
More time passed. Still the spaceship did not arrive from Dlasitap. The machine men were growing restless in the absence of their companions, especially in the face of the ever present uncertainty. Finally, Professor Jameson made an electrifying statement, a statement fraught with stirring possibilities.
“We are going to Dlasitap.”
“The wheel?” cried 6W-438, rapidly divining his thoughts.
“The wheel,” the professor replied.
The professor made known to Kamunioleten his intentions, and the latter not only expressed surprise, but fear and anxiety as well, anxiety for the machine men as well as for himself.
“I would not trust these fellows of mine if I were you,” he warned the Zoromes. “They may send your projectile on a fatal course even as was the common fate of my Administrators.”
“You will be here to superintend,” the professor added, “and besides, two more of the machine men will be left here on the island with you, for not only must the wheel be well attended on our parting, but you could well fear for yourself if left alone here with the hirelings of Bemencanla.”
Professor Jameson assigned 5ZQ-35 and 8L-404 to stay with Kamunioleten and help in the operation of the wheel. The Emite knew something of the wheel’s operation, especially the estimation which must necessarily be accurate to insure a safe arrival on Dlasitap. This estimation called for a choice of certain portions of Dlasitap to face Selimemigre at the time the projectile was released from the wheel. Also, the gross weight of the projectile and its occupants must be considered in connection with the speed of the revolving wheel, for the projectile might fare disastrously should it reach the other world ahead of or behind its planned schedule. A return trip did not offer so many dangers, for Selimemigre offered several more times the area of water for allowance of mistakes than did Dlasitap.
None of this would Kamunioleten and his five metal allies dare to leave to the trust, even jointly, of the Emites on the island, so Professor Jameson sent back to the castle for two of the machine men who, after the projectile had left for Dlasitap, might return to their solitary companion awaiting them at the lower end of the island.
In this manner, the three machine men who were preparing for the novel crossing of space to Dlasitap in search of the spaceship’s whereabouts, now had Kamunioleten, four of their metal brethren and the three Vosquentebs to aid them in their takeoff.
Professor Jameson, 6W-438 and 19K-59 closely examined . the four metal projectiles grouped in one of the smaller buildings about the base of the great wheel. With interest, they tested them, and with the Emite’s suggestions made their selection. Rapidly, they learned the few requirements necessary for what little operation the projectile would need as they fell upon Dlasitap.
The fanwise atmosphere brakes were found to be in excellent working order, ready to be unfolded from the miniature spaceship at the proper moment, while the light metal parachute was also found to be in easy working order. A test was given the heating system of the projectile, and as a preliminary to starting, the projectile was well fueled, this latter requisite also being essential to the steamdriving power, readily attached when the projectile bobbed to the surface of one of Dlasitap’s larger bodies of water.
Timid and distrustful of this pioneering, crude travel of the Emites, Kamunioleten expressed his fears at the same time he was wishing the three Zoromes a successful trip.
“You made the trip once without mishap,” the professor reminded him.
Kamunioleten’s pessimism remained undaunted.
“But I was making the trip the safer way―to Selimemigre, not to Dlasitap. If I recollect right, the actual destination of our projectile failed by some seventy borgs or more the position our senders had selected for us to come down, but the nearest land lay a good hundred and ninety borgs away―one of the larger islands―and so the mistake amounted to naught.” And here the Emite added a bit of possible cheer to what was otherwise a revelation of dismal possibilities. “It may be that our senders estimated roughly and without due care because they knew of our comparative safety in the vast expanse of water for which we were headed.”
Chapter VI
The trip mechanism for releasing the projectile from its straining hold on the rim of the giant wheel was located at the outer end of a long arm extending from the gear-housing of the massive axle. From below, a towering drive shaft loomed gigantically out of the lesser compartments attached to the squat steam compressor. Like the light yet amazingly strong alloy comprising the wheel itself, this drive shaft’s composition was constituted similarly, though with a varying regard for friction in parts where friction ensued, despite lubrication.
The Emite and the machine men carefully made their calculations; then they waited for the day to come when the position and surface of Dlasitap would be most opportunely situated. They had but little more than two days to wait, when at high tide the time for the crossing was at hand. Kamunioleten, wishing the three metal adventurers well, expressed his relief that he was not going with them, in spite of his strong desire to return again to the home from which he had been exiled.
With something akin to excitement, Professor Jameson, 6W-438 and 19K-59 watched the three Vosquentebs fueling the fire pit beneath the steam compressor, which held just the right amount of water. The Emite, giving them his final farewell and best wishes, bade them enter the projectile and screw down the hatch. From several transparent facings, the three Zoromes looked out upon the further proceedings, or what could be seen of them through the blurred window composition, its defective condition caused by inner and outer hulls of the projectile to retain the heat of the craft and restrict the effects of unveiled sunlight. These transparent facings could be covered from within at will.
Smoke arose from the firepit, around which the Vosquentebs scampered excitedly in the gathering glow like rejoicing imps before an inferno. Kamunioleten with two of the machine men were out of sight in the nearby building where steam pressure was regulated. There was an interval of waiting.
A cloud of steam burst suddenly from around the base of the towering drive shaft, its loud hiss unheard by the three machine men inside the projectile at the bottom of the motionless wheel. High above, on the roof of the gear-housing, st
ood 8L-404, his tentacles ready at the trip, prepared to release the whirling projectile at the precise moment when he was signaled from below. All about the wheel, standing at a respectful distance, stood the inhabitants of the island, Emites and Vosquentebs.
“Soon, the wheel will start turning.” 777Y-46’s mental note penetrated the metal projectile. “Be sure you have the straps secure about yourselves.”
The three Zoromes glanced quickly at each other across the narrow confines of the projectile. It was shaped like a short hallway of their own space ship. A tiny compartment operating the mechanism lay in the rear, while up in the prow was stored fuel and supplies, including the navigation facilities for making the projectile into a steam-driven boat when they reached Dlasitap. They had no use for the air rejuvenator, and they would have had no need for the heating equipment if they had possessed their headgear for temperature equalizing, but, as it was, this latter equipment lay aboard the missing spaceship, and so a small amount of heat would be necessary later on when their present supply of natural heat waned.
As they had calculated, Dlasitap would rotate completely some three times or more before they crossed the hundred thousand miles of space separating the twin worlds. They would leave for Dlasitap traveling close to twenty-five hundred miles per hour, according to the professor’s condensation of Kamunioleten’s borgs and whegs. They would slow to nearly zero halfway to Dlasitap; then the speed would once more accelerate as they dropped toward it, giving them somewhat of a two thousand mile per hour average for the entire trip.
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