Disappeared!
WHEN the Venusian ship settled upon the sands, on an island that lay between the ocean and Biscayne Bay, there was a small group of flying men there to witness it. They were six guards whose duty it was to keep the great beacon light on the beach trimmed to guide night flyers out at sea, and also to patrol that part of the shores and sky in the event that a flyer who had overtaxed himself could not come down without aid. They had been listening intently to the broadcast from the observatories, and had kept a lookout for the space-flyer. It was they who told the world of its descent. And no sooner had they submitted their report than they deserted their posts, flying swiftly the mile and a half to where they had seen the stranger drop.
They were greatly astounded by its size, for it was fully two thousand feet in length. It lay on the golden sands without a sign of movement, its black polished body a blot of shadow. In wonder they stared down upon it, not knowing what course to take. Had they waited longer at their station they would have received the Mentor’s command not to draw near, but now, after a moment’s parley, they drew closer, alighting upon the sands. They stalked about the black cylinder at a safe distance and were surprised at not finding a visible entrance, for although its black exterior appeared to be of glass, it was so thick that the figures within could be seen only as through a haze. So engrossed was one fellow by this phenomenon, he approached the smooth wall and sought to see through it by shading his eyes with his hands. The others saw him suddenly turn and run, but he had not taken more than a dozen steps before he had thrown up his arms and dropped to the sands lifeless! Immediately the others took to wing, but not one escaped the invisible attack, for one by one they all dropped to the ground. The Venusians had spoken! It was War! In twenty minutes or so a number of the winged people from Miami had arrived. They congratulated themselves that they were first upon the scene, for the sands surrounding the long black cylinder with its needle-sharp nose were empty of life.
CHAFING at the command of the Mentor not to approach closer than the two thousand feet, the dozen or so men flew about trying to discover what they could of the intruder. Still, for all its quietness, there was a feeling among the winged people that they were being stared at, and a malevolent spirit seemed to pervade the very air about the ship. More and more people were arriving on the scene and officials appeared, bringing men to police the circle, so that none would approach the Venusian ship at close hand. Occasionally a fellow or two would fly too near and be severely reprimanded by the government officials among them. Had they known of the “shooting” and subsequent disappearance of the Beacon guards there might have been demonstrations of violence from the crowds, but there was no sign of the six bodies. The crowds could only stare and gape at the dark shape with impatience. Why did it show no life? Why did not the travelers show themselves? What did they fear? Many opinions were passed as to what should be done. Some believed that a party should descend to the sands and signal to the Venusians. Others thought that attempts should be made to break into it. Something should be done! But they knew they were waiting for the planet ruler to arrive. Still why did not the Venusians themselves act? Did they really fear violence from the milling crowd?
Word was next received that President Trent of North America was on his way with a party of officials from Washington, and shortly after that report came a corps of radiomen from the broadcasting systems to set up apparatus to inform the world of what happened.
The crowds in the sky were continually increasing as the flying people came from miles around. The difficulty of the officials to keep them in place grew. The sand dunes of the cay were becoming literally covered by the people, who alighted for a few minutes before taking to the air again. The excitement that prevailed grew until the air was loud with the sound of the thousands of voices and the whirr of the powerful wings. Then, as the radio-corps had their apparatus ready, they commenced broadcasting, estimating that over fifteen thousand were gathered round about. The Tele-Visual shortly thereafter took the scene and the world saw the long cylinder crouching on the sands like a half-sleeping monster. Half the world had aroused itself from sleep to see that strange picture, and listened avidly to the words of the announcer as he conjectured about the people who were in the ship, who had crossed 26,000,000 miles of space, and yet seemed fearful of facing the crowds of their sister planet Earth.
Then, with a suddenness that was inexplicable, the voice ceased speaking and the scene was blotted simultaneously from the Visual screens all over the world. The broadcasting stations were besieged with queries demanding to know what was wrong. Station NN2 in Miami, which had been receiving the reports from the beach, frantically attempted to discover the cause for the cessation of the program, and announced that the trouble came not from them but from the apparatus on the cay. Flyers were being dispatched immediately from Miami to discover what had occurred.
CHAPTER V
Shadows in the Night
ALMOST an hour passed before the world received news again. It came from a reporter at Miami who had been the first to reach the interplanetary ship and return. He averred that although he had found the spaceflyer in its place, exactly as it had been seen through the Visual screens, not a single soul of the fifteen thousand spectators who had gathered there could be found! It was as though they had disappeared completely from the face of the Earth! An examination of the radio-lay-out proved that it was completely dead, and the power-machines of the beacon station as well!
Consternation reigned upon the globe! Cries were coming in from all sides that an attack be made upon the visitor. Fear crept into many hearts.
The Mentor and his party flew faster and President Trent and his retinue also rushed to the scene. Several thousand other men hurried there too, but dared not approach within a mile of the now evidently sinister cylinder, but soared high above. From Jacksonville a contingent of men put out from the old arsenal with bundles of electro-thunderbolts, the ancient fire-arm that had not been used since the Third War, but which had been preserved merely as relics. These weapons were small cylindrical tubes about six inches in length and each contained six electric charges that sent a powerful charge of electricity a thousand feet. It was these thunderbolts that the Mentorites had used in 1945 to defeat the combined armies of the world. It was to be doubted that these simple little weapons could be of any use against the science of the Venusians.
The question was now: What had happened to those fifteen thousands? Had the Venusians murdered them and carried them thence into their ship? Or had they merely used a weapon that completely disintegrated flesh and bone? If the latter was the case, why should the Venusians seek to murder so wantonly? Surely they did not believe that in that way they could hope to conquer the globe? Facts pointed rather to their having used either a gas or an invisible ray that paralyzed the muscles, after which it had been a simple matter for them to carry their captives into their ship. That the motors of the radio and beacon station had been paralyzed also pointed to such a possibility. And fifteen thousand men could easily have been stored away in that great hulk. But why? What was the motive behind the act?
AN hour before sundown the American President and his party arrived on the scene, but he did not approach the space-machine. He ordered the electro-thunderbolts distributed among all those gathered, with directions to shoot down any of the invaders who might make any signs of violence. But he also realized the ineffectualness of those ancient arms against the black bulk of the cylinder. Then from Tampa arrived a dozen flyers carrying a number of heavy explosive bombs that they had pilfered from the museum in their city. They thought to drop the explosives upon the Venusian ship, but the officials forbade it. They were not sure that their brethren were not imprisoned in the ship, and to demolish it would mean the murdering of thousands of their own people. It was agreed that a decision was a matter for the Mentor, and they must await his arrival.
Night was descending, and with its coming bonfires were lighted upon the dunes, as
the Earthlings continued their watch of the stranger in their midst. Experiment proved that the power station of the Beacon was again in working order, and the great beam was turned upon the huge, black, silent mass on the sands. Some of the watchers decided to return to their homes, but a thousand or so stayed to guard the ship during the night, although they were not certain as to what their watchfulness amounted to.
All went well until a little after midnight, when suddenly without warning the beacon light snapped off! Nor did a soul move upon the dunes. One or two men who had been in the air dropped to the ground and lay where they had fallen, not far from the black hulk. All were as quiet as the gravel It was then that a curious sight could have been seen. From the Venusian ship dark shadows crept forth. There were perhaps a hundred of these shadows, and it was toward the water that they moved. One of their number leaned forward and lifted a bit of the salty brine to its lips, then gathered with its fellows in conference. Others tasted the water, then in one concerted rush they took to the air, arose with a little difficulty a hundred yards, hovered a minute or so, and then made a plunge into the darkened waters. What a pity the moon was not shining! Only the presence of the minute phosphorescent particles that are present in great numbers in Floridian waters traced their course where they hit the water and their passage as they moved below the surface. Then they were rising again on their wings, to plunge once more into the depths. For an hour or so this performance continued, the creatures remaining under the water as long as fifteen minutes at a time. Then at last they rose into the air and turned to the land and their machine. Half an hour later, the long length of the great vessel climbed skyward with a low moaning hum. It showed no light as it climbed, and then it was gone into the darkness!
What Did It Mean?
WHEN the Mentor and his company wearily dropped upon the sands close to the spot where the Venusian craft had lain they were shocked to find nothing but the long depression in the sand to show where it had rested! And not far away was the mute witness to the scene that had passed, the radio outfit. Yet on either side for a mile in both directions lay sprawled in sleep a great number of the Earthlings. The blackened ashes of what had been bonfires occasionally sent up a curl of smoke, while not five hundred yards from the depression where the strange ship had lain was the figure of a man curled with one wing under him.
The new arrivals eyed one another, seeking an explanation in each other’s faces. But none of them had any to offer. Alvin Page approached the figure on the sand and shook it. With a wide yawn the fellow awakened, and appeared astonished that he had been sleeping. Then he saw the Mentor’s son, and looked about in wonder. He saw the depression and realized that the Venusian ship was gone. Sheepishly he got to his feet and found that his one wing was crippled, and as he approached the Mentor he was limping painfully. Trying to recollect what had befallen him he told simply all that he could remember . . . the splash of the light beam on the long machine, the bivouac of his fellows, the lighting of the fires and the preparations for night. He recalled that he had climbed high into the sky for a last look at the cylinder before settling for the night. Then a feeling of drowsiness had come over him, the terrible sensation of dropping and an inability to save himself. He was awakened only by Alvin’s touch.
The others listened in silence.
D’Arcy was first to speak. “They have some damnable contrivance that paralyzes anything within its range. Strange that they should have captured the first fifteen thousand and leave another thousand or so sleeping. No doubt they were filled to capacity on the first haul!”
Page went to arouse President Trent whom the man with the crippled wing had remembered seeing on the left hand side of the clearing. One of the scientists of the Mentor’s party examined the radio and found that it responded to his touch. At the planet ruler’s direction the new discovery was broadcast while all observatories were directed to search the skies for the interplanetary machine. The Mentor feared that it might have gone to another more secluded spot on the globe, there to continue its damage, but an hour later reports came that the Venusian machine had been discovered out in the void headed for Venus!
PRESIDENT TRENT joined the Mentor. He was downcast over the fact that he had been found napping. He also told a story of a wave of drowsiness that had come over him. He was crestfallen that the Venusians had slipped away without any attempt on the part of the Americans to punish them. He was consoled by the thought that nothing could have been done, anyway.
For many minutes the men stood on the sands conjecturing as to what this visit of the people from their sister planet had meant. Why had they come at all? What was their purpose in capturing thousands of our people? For now it was regarded as certain that the ship had purposely borne away fifteen thousand captives.
“Can it mean,” queried Trent, “that they are faced with starvation . . . or that they were in need of slaves . . .?”
D’Arcy shook his head. “People who are advanced in science as the Venusians appear to be would be able, to provide themselves with synthetic food, and slaves are not necessary when people have a working knowledge of mechanics!”
“What is your opinion, then?” asked the Mentor.
“Perhaps they are faced with the same problem as we . . . the dying of our women!” replied D’Arcy.
“Yet the party was mostly men. I doubt there were a hundred women in the lot,” said Trent.
The Professor nodded. “Perhaps they want to study our species, in order to see whether they can come to live here.”
“You believe that a race of scientists accomplished this thing?”
“Why not?”
The Mentor nodded. “I have been drawing the same conclusions. But it is horrible! We can not allow it. Why, they may even return for more!”
“And President Chang would have it that we were to do the same thing, to abduct women from another world!” observed President Trent with a light in his eyes.
“Last night, sir,” said D’Arcy, “you were telling us of an interplanetary machine now in construction. Is it not possible now for us to follow the Venusians and force them to return our own to us? Ethics no longer counts. And we need women!”
The Coming of The Mentor
THE Mentor’s face lighted up. “Ah, you are right, Professor, but we must hurry. As it stands now, it will take many months to finish the machine. And to war upon Venus we will need more than one machine! That will delay us still longer, for I will not order the construction of more flyers until the first proves its worth! It will take many months before we go to Venus to reclaim our own!” He sighed and turned to join the others, but as he did so he reeled and would have fallen had not D’Arcy caught his arm. He saw then how grey and weary all were who had flown from Lick, and with a wan smile he noted that they needed sleep. President Trent pointed to the Beacon station and advised that they retire there for several hours. In the meantime he would attend to such affairs as required the planet ruler’s attention.
It was necessary for the Mentor and his son to be supported as they made their way to the haven. There they found a dozen or so recumbent forms stretched in different positions just as they had been when the light of the beam had been extinguished by the Venusians. No one had thought to arouse them sooner. They were astonished to learn what had happened. They helped to make the Mentor and his party comfortable in the dormitory on the second level of the building. But before dropping to sleep, the Mentor directed that the corps of men at work upon the interplanetary machine be doubled. Then in a moment he was asleep. A few hours of sleep sufficed him, however, and again he took to the air, this time headed for Cuba.
The following day Professor D’Arcy’s views concerning the Venusian expedition were broadcast, together with the news that the Earthlings would shortly proceed to Venus to aid their kidnapped brethren. The thought that the fifteen thousand were alive heartened all and in the days that followed there came thousands of applications from over all the world asking permission
to take part in the expedition to Venus. The laboratories reported that they needed at least three more months before the space-flyer could be finished, although work was being rushed day and night.
OTHER preparations were also being made, and from the long closed files of formulas and blueprints of past inventions, weapons of warfare were being carefully studied by a group of engineers who were to decide what means would prove most effective against the vandals of Venus. So long had the planet been at peace that little thought had been given to defensive or offensive armament. With her thunderbolts and her aero-electrovoid machines which had created a vacuum in the atmosphere and thus drawn down the planes of the enemy, America had centuries before conquered the world. But these things had been so long forgotten that the Mentor was surprised to learn that so many infernal weapons had been conceived by man, that such blood-thirsty strains had existed in previous generations.
The day came when the first interplanetary flyer was completed and the world rejoiced. With its launching, the machine was duly christened The Mentor. San Tu Ackwa and Yoto Murca, the inventors, were to command the ship, and at least thirty mechanical engineers, astronomers and scientists were to accompany it upon its maiden trip. Wistfully the planet ruler watched The Mentor as it took to the air after its great helio-generators had absorbed great quantities of the sun’s rays. As he had told D’Arcy at the Lick Observatory, he had intended to be a passenger on the initial trip of the machine, but the peoples of the world had cried out against the risking of his life in the undertaking.
Collected Tales (Jerry eBooks) Page 26
