Loot of the Void
Page 3
shining, circular doors. Only here and there crouched ahuge, bristly warrior safe behind a jutting rock with his glitteringeight eyes fixed on the motionless black ship below.
Again the weary waiting. Penrun could only hope that it would not belong before those aboard the black ship gave him some hint of wherethe entrance to the Caves might be. Time and again he trained hisglasses on the ship only to drop them resignedly. But when noon hadpassed and the heat of the day was scorching the rock he did not drophis glasses when he looked through them once again. Instead he stooderect in horror and dismay.
A girl had dashed out of the air-lock of the ship. She seemed to befamiliar. Then he recognized her as the girl who had tried to rob himaboard the _Western Star_. Her face was drawn with agony in thestifling, overpowering heat. She had advanced but a few yards, butshe was already staggering uncertainly.
What in Heaven's name possessed her to try to venture out in thatkilling heat? She wasn't even dressed in a space-suit, which wouldhave protected her against heat as well as cold. There was the dangerof the monster spiders! Rescue would have to be quick!
Even as the thought flashed through his mind he knew she was pastsaving. Down from the nearest pinnacle of rock streaked a giganticspider. The girl saw it, screamed, clutched her throat and fell.Ray-guns of the ship crackled frenziedly. In vain! The insect sweptthe helpless girl up in its powerful mandibles, sprang clear over theship and was streaking back up among the rocks in a black blur ofspeed before the men inside the ship could train the guns on thatside, even if they had dared to.
* * * * *
Penrun watched with fascinated dread. To the cavern of the LivingDead! The monster carrying the limp girlish form was now running upthrough the city toward it, guarded by two other huge insects that hadappeared from nowhere. Through the entrance of the cavern they dartedand disappeared.
Surely those aboard the ship would make an effort to rescue her,thought Penrun, tense with horror. At least they would retaliate byraying the city with their heavy artillery. But no! The black shiponly continued to rest there wavering in the heat. Penrun sworevividly. The cowards! Still, perhaps they were afraid to unlimbertheir heavy artillery for fear of killing the girl. Or perhaps, whichwas more likely, they thought she was already dead and devoured. Fewpersons knew about the Living Death.
Ah, well, he'd forget about her. She was an enemy, she was one of thegroup that was trying to rob and perhaps kill him. Perhaps hercompanions knew that she wouldn't be killed for two or three days, andwould make an effort to rescue her. And perhaps they wouldn't.
But before an hour had passed Penrun knew that he was going to masterhis horror of that cavern and save her himself, or die in the attempt.He, and he alone, had been in the cavern of the Living Dead and knewwhat to expect--the fate that might be his as well as the girl's.
He wondered if that Englishman, that old man with the great beard whosaid he had known Shakespeare and Bacon personally, was still lying inhis silken hammock at the far end of the cave. Know Shakespearepersonally? Impossible! Yet was it more impossible than the cavernitself? The man's English was quaint and nearly unintelligible. Hisdescription of that comical old space-ship of brass and wood wasplausible. Perhaps he had known the Bard of Avon.
* * * * *
Night had descended when Penrun finally emerged from his little ship.The air was bitterly cold, and overhead the stars burned brilliantly.He paused to marvel a little that the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, and theother constellations appeared just the same out here hundreds ofmillions of miles from Earth as they did at home. It made one feelinfinitely small to realize the pinpoint size of the Solar Universe.He shivered for the temperature was nearly forty below zero, andsnapped on the current of his Ecklin electro-heater which wasconnected with his clothing and would keep him warm even in that cold.
Another suit of slip-on clothes with an Ecklin heater, and hislounging moccasins were in a pack on his back. If he succeeded inreleasing the girl, she would need them. The spider monsters didn'tleave their Living Dead victims any clothing usually; and little goodwould it have done the Living Dead if they had.
Swiftly he descended the peak, leaping easily from rock to rock,thanks to the small gravity of the planet, and presently entered theclouds above the insect city. Abruptly the storm broke in all its furywith the shrieking of the gale and driving snow. In the blackness thepencil of light from his tiny flash showed only a few yards throughthe swirling, driving flakes that bit and numbed his bare face. Withpistol ready he forged slowly ahead toward the cavern of the LivingDead.
He bumped into the snow-covered rock before he realized he was closeto the place. With every nerve alert and the shrieking, freezing galeforgotten he slipped the flashlight back into its holder and drewanother pistol. The door, he recalled, opened inward. It was notfastened, but just inside the entrance crouched a gigantic insect onguard.
Penrun was tense and ready. He kicked the door so viciously that itselastic, silken frame sagged inward under the impact of his foot.Against the glow of the green light inside the cavern he saw anightmarish monster rising to its feet. Both pistols stabbed viciouslyas the monster thrust forward a thick, bristly leg to shut the dooragain.
* * * * *
A ray bit off the leg at the second joint. The other ray ripped openthe soft, tumid abdomen. Penrun had barely time to throw himself asideas the convulsed, dying monster hurled itself tigerishly forwardthrough the doorway out into the driving storm in a final frenziedeffort to seize and rend his frail human enemy.
Penrun slipped into the cavern. The deathly cold outside would finishthe horrible insect. As he kicked the big door shut he was crouchedand tense, for the ancient gray attendant monster whose poisoned bitehad paralyzed thousands for this living hell was moving forwardcuriously.
Both pistols flamed to life. The fearsome head of the monster with itspoisoned mandible shriveled to nothing under the searing rays. Penrunsprang backward and jerked open the door. Then he closed it again. Theold spider was moving feebly. Instead of the galvanic death of theguard, the huge gray insect's legs buckled under it and it slumpeddown to the floor of the cave where it quivered a few seconds, thenrelaxed in death.
As Penrun stepped forward around the carcass the cave filled withhysterical screams and hoarse insane shouting of joy and terror. Helooked up at the high vaulted roof where the strange diamond-shapedcrystal diffused its green light along the shimmering silken web, thenturned his gaze downward to the rock floor beneath his feet. At lasthe gritted his teeth and forced himself to look at the walls.
Again he saw tier upon tier of hammocks, each holding a naked humanbeing, helpless and paralyzed from the poisoned bite of the attendantmonster spider. Some could weep, some could smile, some could talk,yet none could move either hand or foot. A few were mercifullyunconscious, but the rest were not. Many were insane. Yet they all layalike year after year, century after century, if need be, kept aliveby the rays of the strange green light in the roof. This was thecavern of the Living Dead!
* * * * *
Penrun knew the tragic future of these unfortunates. A few, perhaps,would go as food for the Queen in times of famine. The remainderwould become living incubators for the larvae of the Queen which wouldbe planted in their living bodies by the monster attendant to eat awaythe vitals until death mercifully ended the victim's life, and thegrowing spider emerged to feed on a new victim, or to go its way.
A thousand helpless human beings swung in their silken hammocksawaiting their fate. Penrun had learned about them during those twohorrible days he had been held prisoner here before he had succeededin raying the novice attendant and the monster guard with the pistolfrom his armpit holster that the spiders had overlooked when theycaptured him. He recalled again how he had dashed frantically fromhammock to hammock trying to rouse some of the Living Dead to escapewith him. Not one of them could respond.
Reports to t
he Interplanetary Council? He had made them, written andoral, and had only been laughed at for a half-crazy explorer. TheCouncil would not even investigate.
Now Penrun did not tarry. He strode swiftly back to the far end of thecavern.
"The girl who was just brought in, is she safe?" he asked hoarsely.
None seemed to know, but presently he knew she was still unhurt, forhe found her bound hand and foot to the rock wall with heavy silkenwebs. Nearly all her clothing had been torn off her. She looked uphopelessly. A great fear appeared in her eyes.
"You!" she gasped. "Are you responsible for this?"
"I have come for you," he replied in a matter-of-fact tone, swiftlyremoving the pack from his back.
She cowered against the wall.
"You--you inhuman beast!" Her face was white with horror.
He cut the silken bonds.
* * * * *
"Don't be a fool!" he said roughly. "I have no