Collected Tales (Jerry eBooks)

by Leslie F Stone

  Later I was to grow angry when I thought of that expression of his, for his eyes filled with pity, pity for me! But pity did not stay, instead he grinned and the next instant he was binding me down to my couch with strong rope. Geble, I learned later, had been treated as I, as were the members of the council and every other woman in Gola!

  THAT was what came of allowing our men to meet on common ground with the creatures from Detaxal, for a weak mind is open to seeds of rebellion and the Detaxalans had sown it well, promising dominance to the lesser creatures of Gola.

  That, however, was only part of the plot on the part of the Detaxalans. They were determined not only to revenge those we had murdered, but also to gain mastery of our planet. Unnoticed by us they had constructed a machine which transmits sound as we transmit thought and by its means had communicated with their own world, advising them of the very hour to strike when all of Gola was slumbering. It was a masterful stroke, only they did not know the power of the mind of Gola—so much more ancient than theirs.

  Lying there bound on my couch I was able to see out the window and trembling with terror I watched a half dozen Detaxalan flyers descend into Tubia, guessing that the same was happening in our other cities. I was truly frightened, for I did not have the brain of a Geble. I was young yet, and in fear I watched the hordes march out of their machines, saw the thousands of our men join them.

  Free from restraint, the shut-ins were having their holiday and how they cavorted out in the open, most the time getting in the way of the freakish Detaxalans who were certainly taking over our city.

  A half ous passed while I lay there watching, waiting in fear at what the Detaxalans planned to do with us. I remembered the pleasant, happy life we had led up to the present and trembled over what the future might be when the Detaxalans had infested us with commerce and trade, business propositions, tourists and all of their evil practices. It was then that I received the message from Geble, clear and definite, just as all the women of the globe received it, and hope returned to my heart.

  There began that titanic struggle, the fight for supremacy, the fight that won us victory over the simple-minded weaklings below who had presumptuously dared to conquer us. The first indications that the power of our combined mental concentration at Geble’s orders was taking effect was when we saw the first of our males halt in their wild dance of freedom. They tried to shake us off, but we knew we could bring them back to us.

  At first the Detaxalans paid them no heed. They knew not what was happening until there came the wholesale retreat of the Golan men back to the buildings, back to the chambers from which they had escaped. Then grasping something of what was happening the already defeated invaders sought to retain their hold on our little people. Our erstwhile captives sought to hold them with oratorical gestures, but of course we won. We saw our creatures return to us and unbind us.

  Only the Detaxalans did not guess the significance of that, did not realize that inasmuch as we had conquered our own men, we could conquer them also. As they went about their work of making our city their own, establishing already their autocratic bureaus wherever they pleased, we began to concentrate upon them, hypnotizing them to the flyers that had disgorged them.

  And soon they began to feel of our power, the weakest ones first, feeling the mental bewilderment creeping upon them. Their leaders, stronger in mind, knew nothing of this at first, but soon our terrible combined mental power was forced upon them also and they realized that their men were deserting them, crawling back to their ships! The leaders began to exhort them into new action, driving them physically. But our power gained on them and now we began to concentrate upon the leaders themselves. They were strong of will and they defied us, fought us, mind against mind, but of course it was useless. Their minds were not suited to the test they put themselves too, and after almost three ous of struggle, we of Gola were able to see victory ahead.

  At last the leaders succumbed. Not a single Detaxalan was abroad in the avenues. They were within their flyers, held there by our combined wills, unable to act for themselves. It was then as easy for us to switch the zones of force upon them, subjugate them more securely and with the annihilator beam to disintegrate completely every ship and man into nothingness! Thousands upon thousands died that day and Gola was indeed revenged.

  Thus, my daughters, ended the second invasion of Gola.

  Oh yes, more came from their planet to discover what had happened to their ships and their men, but we of Gola no longer hesitated, and they no sooner appeared beneath the mists than they too were annihilated until at last Detaxal gave up the thought of conquering our cloud-laden world. Perhaps in the future they will attempt it again, but we are always in readiness for them now, and our men—well they are still the same ineffectual weaklings, my daughters . . .

  THE END

  [*] Since there is no means of translating the Golan measurements of either length or time we can but guess at these things. However, since the Detaxalan ships each carried a thousand men it can be seen that the ships were between five hundred and a thousand feet in length.

  Across the Void

  Part II

  LIFE would be very much simpler if all the peoples of all the worlds learned t a means to let their minds “speak” for them—that is, if we also learned how to close our minds against outside intrusion. There are those who are playing with the idea of telepathy quite seriously, and it certainly is not beyond the realm of possibility that it will some day be established as a science. Thought transmission and reception certainly simplifies matters for our space-travelers beyond description. The second instalment of Leslie F. Stone’s sequel to “Out of the Void” is a thrilling tale of Moura-weit’s experiences with the variously civilized beings of the other planets.

  WHAT WENT BEFORE

  RICHARD DORR, who, with Dana Gleason, left the earth on a test voyage in the space rocket invented by Professor Rollins, returns to the earth more than twenty-five years later and visits Walter Kington. He brings with him, on this visit, three Abruians, one of each of the three races—golden, bronze and silver. With them also comes Elsie Rollins, niece of Professor Ezra Rollins, and her son Ezra-weit.

  After the preliminaries are over, Richard Dorr tells Kington, what seems to him at first, a fantastic Story of his trip to Mars, which landed him on Abrui instead; of his experiences on Abrui, in conjunction with Dana, whom he marries, and about their struggle to defeat the self-appointed tyrant of that world, and a return of these people to their rightful places.

  But Richard Dorr and his companions have come to convince Walter Kington, and through him the entire world, of the marvelous commercial possibilities of space travel and particularly of the advantageous exchanges of minerals between earth and Abrui. Walter Kington becomes enthused over the idea, and summons some of the most eminent and influential people in the world to hold conference with these people who have conquered space.

  As a result of the conference, the Yodverl, the Abruian space ship, is taken out of its hiding place and the members of the conference are taken out on a test flight, to be further convinced of the verity of Richard Dorr’s statements. Final arrangements are made and contracts are signed for the first commercial interplanetary line, then Kington and five ambassadors with their families set out for Abrui.

  Several weeks later they land on Abrui and soon Elsie Rollins-weit tells the story of how Moura-weit came from this distant planet to deliver Dana Gleason’s message and how she and her uncle, the old professor, started back with them and landed first on Venus, because the professor wished; then how he gets lost there.

  CHAPTER VII

  Three Bad Days Pass

  UBCA, I knew, could see better in the dark than I, since the Abruians have that faculty of seeing almost as well by day as by night. I never did become wholly accustomed to the fact that their eyes glow like those of a cat’s in the darkness, but now I was thankful for it.

  I was imagining all sorts of things that might happen t
o Uncle Ezra. He may have wandered beyond the city and become wholly lost in the grasslands or he might have met one of those terrible Venerians who had either killed him or taken him prisoner, or else one of them may have stepped on him in the dark, maimed him and left him there unable to call for help. Had I known then that the creatures never stepped out of their buildings with the coming of night, I would have been saved these fears. We found the air was very cold and damp, for a heavy mist had dropped from the clouds above and left the skin feeling clammy and chilled. That added to my fears, for Uncle might contract a cold even though he escaped other dangers.

  Had I been alone, I would have run wildly across the square, possibly missing him altogether, or else lost myself in the maze of buildings, but Ubca took charge of the search. He did not believe Uncle had gone far. He suggested we circle the square, beginning close to the Yodverl, and widening it until we had searched the entire plot and then the city. It was a wise plan, for we found him in our second circle after we reached the first of the buildings. And there he was kneeling on the cold, damp ground chipping away with a little hammer and chisel at the side of a great edifice.

  In a bag at his side Uncle had a number of specimens he had obtained in this manner. He began to remonstrate when we tried to draw him away. “I want only half a dozen more samples,” he cried peevishly as we brought him to his feet. “See, it is as I figured—these buildings are of sand compressed so closely together they are harder than duralium! Once this world was entirely covered with water and its action wore the surface rock to sand so it would necessitate digging deeply to reach the bedrock itself. These creatures, therefore, use the sand by compressing it under terrific pressure for their bricks. Look, here a piece of sand has crystallized. I must analyze these particles and discover their bases!”

  Again he insisted that he must gather more, but we could not allow him to do it. Even so he was shivering from the cold. Ubca took his cape from his shoulders to wind about the old man. At last we prevailed upon him to return to the ship with us, but before he had taken half a dozen steps he became too weak to walk. Ubca picked him up as easily as though he were a child and carried him to the Yodverl. Urto saw us coming and went indoors to prepare a hot bath for Uncle, having known what to expect, and in a short time Uncle Ezra was in it. Then he was put to bed between warmed covers with hot pads and a hot medicinal drink that was administered after he had been rubbed down with a salve.

  He was already commencing to sniffle and by morning, despite all our precautions, he had developed a bad cold. Even the wonderful medicines of Abrui could do little to help him. I had not realized it, but the excitement of this trip had already made its inroads upon the professor’s health, and now his resistance was low. I brought out my own medicines from my emergency kit, but it was all of two weeks before we could break the influenza that set in. It was an anxious time for us all and I was fearful of losing him. Once it had appeared, his old frame would never be able to recover. That sickness was really the beginning of the end, but I did not want to think it then. It was really the application of the radio-active particles in the salve that saved him from dying at that time.

  After the scare that night, there was little rest for any of us. I spent half the night beside Uncle and several times Ubca and Urto had come to see how he fared. They were also worried over the fact that Moura had not yet returned and were in a quandary whether the door of the ship should be closed or not. It was several hours after we had found Uncle that we received messages from Moura. Never before had he given me a message through the medium of the brain, but now suddenly I felt a comforting glow sweep through me that told me all was well with us. Looking at Ubca, I saw that he too had gotten the message. He smiled down upon me and then went to close the Yodverl’s door.

  In the morning we found Uncle Ezra in a bad fever and I forgot everything else in my worry for him. Occasionally I went to the doorway of the ship for a breath of air. Moura had not yet returned. It was three days before he came back to us. Looking out into the square, I could see an occasional passer-by, one of the twenty-foot monstrosities going about his business, paying no attention to the strange machine in the square. It was hard to understand their lack of curiosity about us, but later, when Moura returned, we were to learn that we were not entirely strangers to them, since with their marvelous telescopes they had been able to inspect the entire universe and knew all there was for them to know about us. Had they had the desire, they could have gone into space, but they knew no need because their instruments gave them all the details they required, and they could send their minds into the wide expanses more easily than they could their unwieldy bodies.

  When Moura returned, he told us something of these wonderful telescopes, and he had not only been able to look into any world he wished to see, but he could also peer into the minds of all the creatures that inhabited these worlds. It was there that he had looked across the wide sea of the outer void upon the planets that encircled the great binary star, Alpha Centauri. There he had glimpsed the creature, who was a counterpart of the man he had been in the past in all but appearance, whose mind was exactly attuned to his own, and now he longed to go to him, to aid him by teaching him the error in which he was living!

  How slowly these few days passed. There was no change at all to be seen in the sickroom, Uncle either tossed and turned or lay in a strange state of coma. There was nothing we could do but attend him, but he did not know one of us from the other. On the third day Ubca suggested that I take a walk outside. Uncle Ezra was sleeping fitfully, and Ubca said that I needed a change. There was nothing I could do for the sick man that Urto could not do, and I did need the exercise. Protesting at first I went out in the end. I felt timid about doing so, but Ubca pointed out the fact that our hosts meant us no harm, and since Sa Dak did not return he said that we would also be safe in the city.

  CHAPTER VIII

  The Venerians

  VENUS, although smaller than Earth and with a surface gravity of .20 less than that of Earth, caused small difference in our corresponding weights except that we felt better for it, as though we had been relieved of a few surplus pounds. The thick vaporish atmosphere reacted pleasantly upon us. In the three days on the planet I found my skin had improved; there was fresh color in my cheeks, something I had never had in the hot, dry African climate.

  Slowly Ubca and I crossed the square. We passed two Venerians who paid us no heed except that they appeared to go out of their way to avoid us, possibly fearing they might unwittingly trample us down if they came too close. We arrived at the foot of the great building into which Moura had been led but we did not seek entrance, walking around it instead. A wide avenue, grass-covered as the square was grass-covered, ran the length of the building, and beyond another square opened up, surrounded by buildings on all sides. Here we saw a number of young Venerians in a group with a single adult in charge of them. They were of varying sizes—from three to fifteen feet in height. They were playing a game, for two of them ran about in a small circle and all were shrieking in various pitches. They stopped their game when they saw us, but like the adults made no move to draw near; they watched quietly with their saucer eyes as we passed through the square.

  We had noticed that all the creatures seemed of a single sex, and Moura informed us later that such was the case, that each of the beasts, like life of a lower order, possessed both the male and female regenerative organs so that all were capable of reproducing their young. However, they had devised means for keeping the imputation of their cities stable. The four cities of the globe had been built originally to house a certain number of beings, and never was the populace allowed to increase beyond that number, one birth being permitted for one death. Thus only at the death of one member of the community was another to be conceived, and since they knew death only through the medium of old age, having no disease or accident, it pointed out the fact that one individual gave birth to one single offspring during a lifetime.

  As we continu
ed forward we were both astounded and amazed at the loveliness of the tremendous buildings, so ponderous and yet so graceful. From the air we had not been able to see the full wonder of them, and it made us question that such atrocities as the Venerians were, could erect buildings of such delicacy and beauty. Nowhere did we see any activity except the appearance now and then of one of the inhabitants bound in a leisurely fashion for some other edifice than the one he quitted. Nor did we find any section in which commerce might have been conducted—no shops, no dispensaries of any type. And we found later that there was no commerce, simply because there was no need for it.

  What land there is on Venus is comparatively small in proportion to its water area, consisting of two islands of modest size, upon which were the four great cities. No ships connected the islands, which were far distant from each other because there was no inter-exchange of trade, each city communicating with the other by means of the mind. Each city was complete in itself.

  Once ships had plied the oceans, but that was early in Venerian development and there had been trade between the two island continents then. Now each city produced all its own simple needs, for in the millions of years of their civilization—and Venerian history is old—they had done away with all their wants excepting the simplest. Wearing no clothing, needing no ornaments, with furniture as substantial as their buildings, each city required but a single factory to produce their foods that were compounded chemically from the ocean water, sand and elements of the air. And so perfected was the machinery that extracted the food that it needed but a single attendant to control and replace its simple parts that the machine, itself, manufactured.

  The lives of the Venerians followed a simple pattern, the day spent in gleaning all the knowledge of the past and adding to it their own great discoveries, eating once daily and sleeping through the night was the program. Having no passions, no hates, no fears, no desires, they knew no tack of these emotions. Contentment, happiness, sadness or sorrow was likewise not for them, since they knew not its meaning, being simply a phlegmatic people, who took each day’s events for granted.