[Title here]

by Twin Worlds (epub)

  That organic creatures could survive this desolation and fiery menace for a minute seemed impossible. A missed step plunged a foot of the wanderer into a glowing hollow from which it was hastily withdrawn as a drifting pall of smoke once more enveloped the vicinity. What manner of creature was this who could venture so carelessly a lower limb into a red-hot cauldron, withdraw it apparently unharmed and stand placidly waiting for the smoke veil to rise or pass that he might see his way better?

  The smoke disappeared slowly, leaving the standing figure haloed in a hellish glare from which his appearance became more definite as the filmed veil drifted away. He was a machine man, a thing of metal. Apparently, unless his parts heated to the melting point, he had nothing to fear. This was not so, for despite the temperature equalizer which fitted so closely down over his metal-coned head, 6W-438 still lay in dangerous prospect of becoming a victim of the intense heat, the apparatus, though functioning to perfection by supplying the necessary heat in space, did not do quite so well in reverse as a cooling system, though even in this latter respect its performances were remarkable.

  The machine man of Zor made no move to continue as the smoke lifted, but stood there firmly upon his four metal feet, his six tentacles of the same material swinging aimlessly from the cube of his metal body. Telepathic thoughts groped through the hell behind him and communed with the unseen. Patiently he stood there as if waiting, and then, dimly at first, more machine men appeared and came to join him. Still more of them came, a few of them helpless and carried by their companions, their feet and legs strangely warped as if subjected suddenly to terrific heat. Others were unconscious, the heat having finally reached and overcome their brains. These latter had their heads detached from their metal bodies, the heads held high in curled tentacles by companions, that they might absorb no more heat and stand a better opportunity of losing that which they had already gathered.

  “10B-33 is dead!” 12W-62 exclaimed. “He fell into a lake of fire back aways! We could do nothing to help him, though 7H-88 melted part of a tentacle away reaching for him!”

  “777Y-46 nearly went in, too,” 41C-98 continued, “but we caught him in time.”

  “The ground was undermined at the lake’s edge,” 21MM-392 explained.

  The final stragglers appeared, and there were sixteen in all assembled on the cooled knoll where 6W-438 had waited.

  “If the spaceship would only land here we might be out of this place safely,” said 8L-404. “But 20R-654 does not dare bring it down in here.”

  “Nor do I blame him.”

  “Had it not been for the fire-dwellers, we should not have penetrated so deeply into this volcanic country.”

  “Have you seen them lately?” queried 6W-438.

  “No,” 119M-5 replied. “We must have shaken them off when we waded through the river of flaming lava. As adapted as they are to the conditions of this place in which they live, even then they dared not duplicate our feat. After all, beneath their thick, asbestos-hided skins, they are organic, and there is a limit to their invulnerability to fire.”

  “Whoever would have believed that we should have found organic life here in this fire country? We have found strange creatures and strange conditions on this planet fragment, but this has everything else beaten.”

  “How do these things live?”

  “How did the ohbs live?” countered 41C-98, referring to the denizens of another planet in a distant system recently visited by the machine men. “They were organic.”

  “They ate metal―but you don’t believe these things live by absorbing metal?”

  “What about fire?”

  “Not exactly,” said 6W-438. “But the reference to their sustenance on fire approaches a growing theory of mine quite closely. Do you know what I believe they utilize for food?”

  “What?”

  “From all we have witnessed, not one of us has been able to distinguish a mouth, yet a brief examination of one 21MM392 killed in combat showed an elaborate assortment of ventricles, or nostrils. I believe that they subsist on the sulphurous fumes of the smoke. We have often found them standing motionless and relaxed in dense clouds, and that was one reason we blundered upon them when we might have avoided them.”

  “We should have brought weapons,” advised 119M-5, too late.

  “But who expected we would need them here?” asked 92ZQ153. “Instead, we brought the more obvious articles we might use, the temperature equalizers.”

  “And they have served us well.”

  “21MM392 has the only weapon among us, his heat ray built into a foretentacle.”

  “If the spaceship comes low enough, we can order those aboard to drop us weapons.”

  “We may not need them. The fire-dwellers are behind us. They cannot cross the river of fire as we did―to the detriment of many of our metal legs. Besides, the heat rays seem to have little effect upon them unless we are able to concentrate long enough on one particular spot.”

  “They may find a way of getting to us again, and how do we know but what there may be some of them on this side of the river we crossed?”

  “Now that we have lost 10B-33, 744U-21 may find a way to lower a cable to us from the spaceship by which we might climb up or be hauled up,” suggested 21MM392. “He spoke of it when we were last in contact.”

  “That was before we escaped the fire-dwellers. Two nights and a day have passed since then.”

  “What savage brutes they are. They picked up red-hot rocks and threw them at us.”

  “They constitute more of a menace to us than did the Ooaurs, at least under these circumstances,” opined 27E-24. “It is more or less synonymous with their great strength that they should live upon the antipode of the Land of Exhaustion. Both sides are of equal gravity.”

  Standing together, there was nothing by which to distinguish them as the cosmopolitan crew they were. They were sixteen in number; now twenty-two of their companions, the remainder of the expedition under the joint leadership of 744U-21 and 21MM392, were with the spaceship.

  The expedition of the Zoromes had experienced several noteworthy adventures on the planet fragment. After exploring one side of the slab, they had turned their attentions to another of the sides and had found a region of fire country, fourteen thousand miles deep. That they had discovered the unexpected and were forced into an unforeseen dilemma is already apparent.

  “Are we certain we are traveling in the same general direction?” asked 6W-438. “Otherwise we may never find our way out of this wretched place.”

  “We have pursued pretty well the same direction, especially at night,” said the professor. “I have watched the stars from time to time, keeping one constellation in sight since our escape from the fire-dwellers. When detours around the lakes of fire have taken us on a tangent, we have always swung back again.”

  “Then we are bound to come out, for though this volcanic country is quite extensive it does not possess unreas-ably far boundaries.”

  “Let us push on again,” urged 41C-98. “When dawn comes, we may sight the spaceship again, and they can tell us where we are.”

  “The last time we contacted them, we were near the center of this fiery morass.”

  The machine men left the little dark knoll upon which they had stood crowded together, and plunged once more into lurid, apocalyptic nightmare, skirting the yawning, smoking crevices and the pools of molten lava. They often leaped gaping fissures in spite of dangerous, crumbling sides which threatened to precipitate them into the glowing residue at the bottoms. When veils of smoke enshrouded them, they halted, for a false step meant death. Their lower limbs grew intensely hot, creeping heat reaching slowly up to their metal, cubed bodies. It was often necessary for them to wade through shallow pools of glowing lava; there was no other way. When heat threatened to creep up through the metal bodies to the vulnerable brain in its protected cone and temperature equalizer, they were hoisted in strong tentacles above the head of a companion, who carried them while they p
artly cooled off in the absence of contact with the hot ground which they monotonously traveled.

  With a lightening on the horizon, the hellish glare of the waste lands became less. The machine men paused in the path of a dense cloud of yellowish, acrid smoke which rolled down upon them in a billowing cloud. They waited for it to roll onward, that they might be sure of where they walked. Near the center of the subdued conflagration, where they had found most of the fire-dwellers, the walking had been less hazardous, for the ground had been less hot and the fire cauldrons there more rare. They had kept on through blinding smoke, but here they dared not risk themselves to chance. The crevices were many and deep, and the reflected glare in the smoke camouflaged any appearances of a glowing trap, for in the smoke it always appeared as if they were in the center of a fiery pit or else near one. They could only be patient and wait upon the vagaries of the source of the smoke or the air currents which directed it.

  The smoke pall clung tenaciously, seemingly reluctant to clear away, and during this time the professor realized that with another day soon to break he would lose sight of his guiding star. The rotation of the planet fragment presented a strange solar aspect, and often it was difficult to diagnose directions from the position of the sun. Dawn and twilight were usually drawn-out affairs, for the elongated planet was of such a nature that the sun shone crosswise of the atmosphere on two or more facets all the time. The equator of the rotating fragment girdled it nearly diagonally, so that portions received varying amounts of sunlight. Added to this, the inclination of forty-seven degrees gave it a procession of seasons on its orbit. Being close to the sun, the great fragment revolved rapidly, so that the seasons passed quickly and afforded but little opportunity for the temperature contrast. From an Earthly standpoint, the climate was very hot as the professor knew, but compared to the place they were in now, the general climate of the misshapen planet was that of a veritable polar cap.

  The cloud of smoke thinned, and the professor saw his metal companions about him as in a dream haze of subconsciousness. And then he saw something else ahead of them, where the smoke was still dense. There was a scarcely perceptible movement in the depth of the dissipating smoke, but it set in action a vague, uneasy suspicion as the machine men grasped the flash of thought from that one keen observation of Professor Jameson. The smoke thickened. They saw nothing more for several minutes. Then, magically, the smoke cleared away. Before them more than a score of the fire-dwellers threw off their lassitude at sight of them. Mute, they made no sounds. Silent, they set about their grim impulses, with which the machine men were already quite well acquainted.

  Other than occasional resort to hurling chunks of rock at the machine men, the fire-dwellers were weaponless. They were nearly as large as the Ooaurs and as strong. The environment of superior gravity was responsible for this. In no way did they resemble the Ooaurs unless their four lower appendages could be likened to those of the antipodes’ inhabitants, but, as for the feet, even this slight resemblance became contrary in detail.

  The feet of the fire-dwellers were much like those of a horse, the professor had previously observed, the hoof built high into the leg and consisting of a hard, heat-resisting growth. That, too, bespoke adaptation to environment. The four legs supported a bulky, headless body, headless if a neck is necessary to constitute a distinction. Four deeply set eyes in diamond formation occupied the face. This number was necessary to afford sideward vision in the circumstances, for those two in vertical formation were, like the other two, too deeply set to afford other than a straight, limited vision, and all four of the optics were protected in emergency by hard, bony lids. The upper appendages were also four in number, two on each side of the huge, ovoid body, ending in crablike claws of the same substance as the hoof material. These claws were remarkably dextrous at seizing and hurling red-hot chunks of rock.

  In color, these veritable Lucifers of the fire country ranged from dark slate to pale green, their hide of a thick, tough substance impervious to any heat other than the brightly glowing lakes of fire from which the machine men had seen them stay clear. The things possessed no mouths, but their entire body, with the exceptions of their eight appendages, were set with some hundred or more perforations through which they evidently breathed, somewhat supporting the theory of 41C-98 and 6W-438 that the fire-dwellers gained sustenance from the acrid smoke of the volcanic terrain.

  The machine men already knew the battling tactics of the fire-dwellers; they snapped and tore with their claws and pushed their opponents into the nearest fissure or molten pond handy. They were evidently versed in the art of combat; but the machine men had yet to discover why, unless they battled with each other, for no other creatures occupied this desolate, binning expanse, and it had been argued unlikely that they ever left the fire country. Enabled by nature to stand the intense heat in which they lived, it was by general axiom that lower temperatures must prove fatal to them. On these latter points, the machine men were uncertain.

  Fearlessly and in silence, the fire-dwellers charged the metal invaders of their infernal domain, and equally as fearlessly and as silently the machine men resisted the attack of their towering adversaries. For once, the professor’s heat ray was more or less of a total loss. No brief sweep or limited concentration on the fire-dwellers had any effect, and the latter were far too active to permit a prolonged focus upon any one part of their anatomy.

  Now, in a vicious avalanche, they launched their ponderous bulk upon the lost machine men. Metal tentacles came to grips with rough-skinned arms that possessed an epidermis thicker and more callous than that of the pachyderms which Professor Jameson could recollect on his planet Earth.

  “Look for an opening to dash through!” cried 6W-438. “We must try to keep to our original direction!”

  “There are no openings! More of the things are coming!”

  “They are closing up!”

  “Here―this way!” 41C-98 discovered that the horde of the fire country was massing on one side of them and coming forward like a mighty, irresistible wall of brute strength. “Run this way! We may be able to wade another river of fire and elude them!”

  In truth, the fire-dwellers had lost any chances they might previously have had of surrounding the machine men, for they were massed to one side. 12W-62, standing nearest them, stood his ground and resisted them momentarily, swinging his lashing tentacles viciously into the approaching fire-dwellers, slashing and cutting obtuse wounds in their tough epidermis, but otherwise wreaking little havoc. One of them seized him and threw him far to one side, where he splashed in a little pool of red-hot lava. Quickly, 12W-62 extricated himself and caught up with his slowly-retreating metal brethren. The fire-dwellers did not seem anxious to catch up with the machine men. That they were the same band that had attacked them before, the machine men were positive, for their actions betokened experience. The fire-dwellers now appeared content to keep the machine men moving in one direction.

  Though according the creatures no great intelligence, the professor recognized in this a probably instinctive subtlety. Why were they being herded this way instead of being promptly attacked as before? Of course, the fire-dwellers had not fared so well themselves, for many of their number had been hurled into the lakes of fire where their tough, asbestos skin had availed them no protection whatever.

  Chapter II

  “Turn to the left when we reach this rise,” the professor told his companions. “Let us see what their intentions are. Run on in the direction they are pushing us, 33F-65, and see if there is any reason why they should herd us that way.”

  The crowd of menacing fire-dwellers was being constantly joined by more companions. Steadily they forced the machine men to retreat, all the time keeping a closely massed formation; none of them rushed forward alone. Reaching the knoll, the machine men commenced deploying along a ridge, at right angles to the direction of their retreat. 33F-65 had disappeared in the smoke. Thick veils rose and hid the oncoming fire-dwellers from time to t
ime, but always it lifted to reveal them once more. A wall of the monsters phalanxed the diverting column of machine men, descending upon 6W-438, who represented the extreme end. The machine man drew back with 9V-774 and 119M-5, and all three at once engaged the pushing, pressing fire-dwellers. There followed a scrimmage in which the fire-dwellers were thrown forcibly off the ridge, but more of the great brutes came, and the machine men were once more forced in their original direction of retreat.

  Out of the smoke came crashing a running metal form, vibrating a mental warning. It was 33F-65.

  “The ground drops away behind us to a broad pit of flaming lava!”

  The professor and many of the Zoromes had expected something like this. They were upon the brink of eternity, for 33F-65 had returned quickly.

  “We must retreat no further,” 6W-438 warned. “We must charge them and face out the issue.”

  “It is the only thing left to do,” said the professor. “Let us form a compact wedge and drive at them.”

  With orderly haste, the machine men massed themselves and, gathering speed, rammed the very midst of the living wall. Those of the fire-dwellers having the misfortune to be in the way were crushed between the hurtling metal bodies and their companions behind. In the rear of the flying wedge, 41C-98, feeling the force of their momentum checked and spent, hurled himself above his companions and upon the fire-dwellers. Viciously, he flailed with metal tentacles, thoughtfully regretful that these things possessed no necks to choke and strangle. Strong arms reached up and seized him. These in turn he entwined with his tentacles, and a locked struggle ensued. Those creatures behind the main, forward wall pressed forward, felling the struggling antagonists and marching over them irresistibly, driving back the remainder of the machine men in the direction of the flaming pit. Had darkness reigned, this pit might have betrayed its existence by an aura of greater brilliance, but now a murky dawn had succeeded the darkness.