Moura wanted to know more about the Dadans, their appearance, their habits, but this the brain segments could not tell him, for they admitted they had never had intercourse with them, directing only that the workers prepare the tribute and carry it to the designated spot with the coming of the raw wintry winds from the northward.
Moura conversed with the bees a little longer, learning more of their complicated home life, but little else. Then he saw his guests growing weary and nervous and he ushered them outdoors again to their steeds, reassuring them that their colonies had nothing more to fear from the Solarites.
When the party had gone Moura returned to his companions. “We have nothing more to accomplish here; our way leads over the mountains. In Dada, I believe, we will find the one we want.”
CHAPTER X
Across the Mountains
THE first sun of Kal was setting when the Yodverl left the clearing, rising as lightly as a feather from its berth. Moura was at the controls and headed the ship for the distant mountains, that seemed to be the dividing line between Yada and Dada. And in the saffron light from the newly risen second sun they gazed down at the strange world below with its garish reds, purples, blues, greens, yellows, violets and blacks of the jungle lands. To the group in the pilot room this trip seemed as mighty as that of crossing the Void, for they knew no more of what they were to face at its end, and leaving the familiar clearing in the jungle behind was as if they were leaving home once more.
As always, when in the confines of a planet, the Yodverl cruised no faster than two hundred miles per hour, and it consumed almost the whole hour to reach the mountains. Occasionally they saw numbers of the bee-“people” as they flew over Yada, and twice they sighted their hives, large hump-backed buildings that the bees erected from leaves and twigs and over which they spread their propolis.[3] These hives were of astounding size, rising some fifty or sixty feet above the ground, with several doorways at the foot of each, but nothing to break its roughly circular walls. In color they were a dirty brown.
Small dunes, then hills, began to form below, and shortly they were above a wild rolling country that continued to rise higher and higher until they became mountains, high, rough, irregular and rugged, filled with deep ravines cut by rough tumbling waters and repeating the clash of prismatic hues, raw, crude colors that cut and slashed the hills vehemently until the eye felt tortured by the utter wildness of its chromatic dispersion.
Steadily the Yodverl continued to rise with the mountains until its altimeter pointed to thirty thousand feet, and still they climbed upward. Then the last peak of the mountains was crossed and they were 40,410 feet high over seven miles and a half above the sea level! The descent on the other side was more abrupt than the ascent had been, the mountains dropping from heights of from a half a mile to a mile at one jump. Then they were moving over comparatively low hills until there were only the gentle rolling hills of a pretty countryside. Rivers and lakes were plentiful, and in the well-watered land were fine forests and great grassy plains. Rising again, the Yodverl was suspended high above the country and their eyes sought for signs of habitation, and far below and ahead they could make out what appeared to be cultivated fields and what was apparently a city.
SATISFIED that they were near their goal, Moura looked about for a landing field, for with his usual caution he did not want to startle the planet’s dwellers overmuch, content to bring the one he sought to him instead of seeking him.
Beside a broad lake, whose waters were a deep orange in color, they saw a likely place for their landing, a pretty glade that sloped toward the water, hemmed in with mighty giants of the forest, its red grass smooth as velvet and dotted with beds of many-hued flowers. Here they brought down the ship just as twilight fell upon them. Moura and Ubca sallied forth into the growing gloom to discover if any dangers lurked in the glade, but finding that nothing broke the silence they returned, closing the door behind them against any intruders. After dining and talking a while they settled down to sleep.
Morning found the clearing brightly yellowed by the sunlight; the gentle swish and sigh of the great tree ferns and the rippling of the lake in the morning breezes were the only sounds meeting their ears. The mitu were brought out and picketed in the center of the clearing in full view, and the Solarites settled for a quiet, pleasant day, Elsie bringing Ezra and his books outdoors for his morning lessons, Urto and Nancy going foraging for fruits and berries, while Ubca was away on a tour of inspection alone.
Moura stayed within doors in the seclusion of his work with the task of seeking the creature who was at present uppermost in his mind. For the next few days he scarcely appeared amongst the others, joining them only at meal times and for an occasional swim. Several days passed in this manner, and as each day went by without word from Moura they knew that his task was a difficult one. On the fourth day he joined Elsie in the clearing. She looked up at him with a query in her eyes.
Moura slowly shook his head. “I believe I have reached him, anyaka, but he is stubborn; he refuses to answer the summons I sent him. I think it best to let a few days elapse, then I shall force his coming here, though his mind also is very strong!
“In the meantime I have come to the conclusion that we need a less bulky means of transportation than the Yodverl itself. Where is Ubca? I would like to confer with him.”
Elsie nodded toward the forest, into which she had seen Ubca disappear earlier. She did not, however, mention to Moura the thoughts she had had concerning Ubca of late. She had noticed how distrait he had become in the few days that had elapsed, but she had guessed at what was passing through the Tor’s mind. He was jealous, jealous of this unknown creature upon whom Moura was concentrating his telepathic powers!
Ubca-tor had given up everything on his world for Moura. As a boy he had been attracted to the strange man who had been no more than a weit (baronet), while he himself was a prince, but he had put heart and mind into the keeping of the weit, who was his hero, had obeyed his word even against the prompting of his own reasoning; had given up his palace, his family, his ambitions for Moura. His life might have been vastly different except for Moura-weit’s influence. He might have become a man of great name and honor, mated with a fine woman and become the father of a son, but he had turned his back on it all that he might go into exile with the man he had given allegiance to.
Now, seeing Moura so anxiously seeking another, crossing Space itself to reach him, it was not to be wondered that the Tor felt a pang of jealousy. Only he was big enough of soul to realize that the relation of Moura and this strange being was of different ilk than their own friendship. The Tor walked in the forest thinking of all this, conquering his own emotion, and when Moura came to him there he could meet him again with a warm smile. Only if he could have foreseen what bitter enemies they were to become—Moura and this stranger—he would not have had that bad hour among the trees. Instead he might have been more ready to protect Moura-weit, and might even have averted the terrible tragedy that later took place in the Temple of the Pattern!
END OF PART II
[1] An albedo is the ratio which the light reflected from an unpolished surface bears to the total light falling upon it.
[2] Anyaka, the Abruian word of endearment.
[3] A brownish, resinous material, of waxy consistency, collected by bees from the buds of trees and used as a cement.
Across the Void
IT is more than likely that no matter how different the species, certain fundamental characteristics remain the same, wherever there is any degree of intelligence. In the concluding chapters of this story, the author adds a unique touch that makes for an unusual ending. The last instalment takes us across the void and introduces us intimately, in a most absorbing manner, to the butterfly inhabitants of Kal, with their customs, their rites and their tragedies.
Part III
WHAT WENT BEFORE
RICHARD DORR, who, with Dana Gleason, left the earth on a test voyage in the space rocket inve
nted 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 Gleason, 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 enthusiastic 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 from 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 it; how he gets lost there and contracts a serious cold which finally costs him his life.
After the death of her uncle, Elsie returns to the earth only to find that Moura has become a necessary part of her existence. On the appointed day Moura returns in the Yodverl to take Elsie back with him. After more traveling in space, they land on the planet Kal, where Moura “thinks” the ruling brains of Yadans to his side. From them he learns that the being he is in search of is a dadan on a near-by planet and they all set off once more in further search.
CHAPTER X
The Creature of Kal
THAT afternoon the three men commenced the work of assembling a small flyer for their use on the planet. They were, of course, using a model familiar to them, the the Abruian flyer. It was not an intricate machine, and they had enough of Moura’s synthetic metal and glass to cast it from. To drive it Moura quickly assembled one of the radium motors, using magnetic-vibratory impulses for its power, but it was several days before the new machine took shape outside in the grass beside the Yodverl.
Elsie had not found the days of Kal hanging heavily on her hands, for she had long since acquired the ability to adapt herself to any new changes, and there was Ezra-weit to hold all her interest. She had always delighted in that moment when Ezra opened his eyes in the morning, starry-eyed and fresh from his sleep, full of playful pranks that he performed while dressing. Although only seven years old, he was already up to Elsie’s shoulder, and he could, with a single squeeze, drive the breath from her body, but he was always a solicitous child and even when he played with his mother, he was fearful of doing her harm, going out of his way always to do things he knew would add to her comfort.
As soon as he was dressed in his short bathing trunks, they would go to the pool for a half hour’s swim before breakfast. He swam as his father and Ubca swam, moving hands and feet together and drawing his body forward in one great effort so that it carried him his whole length at each stroke, and usually left Elsie behind with her side stroke, for she never did master the Abruian swimming method. Then, with the contest over, they bathed, hurried to dress, eat breakfast and get ready for the morning’s lessons. Ezra always had his lessons, for under no circumstances would Elsie allow him to forego any of his studies, and they spent two hours at their books.
Once a week Moura would give Ezra an examination of all he had learned during the week and also teach him something of his own sciences. With the lessons finished, the two now went into the laboratory where the men were busy over a radium furnace and the several large molds into which they poured the flowing hot metal. The molds were then thrust into a refrigerator where they would be chilled rapidly and evenly and tempered by this quick cold process. Ezra, of course, wanted to know all about it, and later when the plane was being assembled, he helped (as he thought) to rivet the pieces together.
When the flyer was ready at last, Elsie had her first view of an Abruian flying ship with its long conical body, its two bat-like wings resembling those of the Abruian bird the oc, its transparent glass nose, and its simple mechanics. The wings were mounted on a band that girdled the ship, and were moved by the motor as the wings of the bird move; their continual beating the air was the means of keeping the ship aloft. The ship could perform exactly as the oc, soaring, diving, turning and twisting with the wind, or hover practically motionless in the air. And in alighting, it would fall lightly to the ground on its two broad props with circular flat pads fastened to them that gripped the ground with a suctionlike action. A lever in the ship would release the suction for the rise of the flyer again.
Inside the flyer were arranged comfortable chairs for six, but it had few of the comforts that the Abruians give their flying machines, the sleeping couches or the deep pile rugs and pillows. This was not to be a pleasure car; it would be necessary only as long as they remained on this planet. On Abrui one had only to set the controls of the machine, dial on a map the destination, lock the levers and wait until the flyer had arrived and was hovering over the designated spot the traveler had desired. This was accomplished by an intricate mechanism, but having no knowledge of the planet, such a procedure would have been useless to the Solarites. Instead, the machine would be manually driven.
A short trial trip was taken in the flyer that Moura called Elsie, and a few changes were made in its wings, but no flight in it was planned for the present, and with wings closed tightly against its body, the flyer awaited developments.
Moura now retired to the laboratory again, repeating the program of three days before. It was in the evening, when the saffron sun was painting the sky with weird colors, that he sought out Elsie and Ubca. “I have reached him again,” he told them, “and I think he will come soon.”
Years ago Elsie would have scoffed at the thought that one man could bring another to his side across many miles. Now she accepted it, as she accepted everything that was so strange about her husband. But at his words she felt a presentiment, a feeling that boded no good for any of them, and she became distressed with the thought.
Moura immediately recognized her fears and sought to calm her. She tried to shake them off, but could not. Ezra, who had been digging a hole in the sod, felt his mother’s fear, and left his play to creep to her side and look questioningly at his parents. Moura, unafraid of the future, proposed a race with his son, who childishly forgot his fears to run with him the length of the glade to the displeasure of the mitu who had been disturbed as they grazed or chewed their cud.
DAY by day a week slipped past and still they waited for the coming of the strangely invited guest. Apparently he was delaying his arrival. Moura continued to send out the vibrations of his mind, urging him to hurry. The others, however, did not find the time growing weary as yet. They had learned patience in the years crossing the void, and to them this small portion of the new planet was a paradise. Each day Elsie, Ubca and Ezra went afield, exploring the countryside, knowing now that there was nothing for them to fear in this part of the world. Sometimes they skirted the lake in which they had found water-plants growing, and a creature that looked at times like a fish, and at times like an insect. It was from three to four feet long and eluded their hooks, and never came to the surface. For the rest, the world seemed strangely devoid of animal life, and they could walk for miles without seeing anything but th
e queer floral life of the forest and glades.
Almost daily they found new kinds of fruits, beans and grains that proved edible, and greatly augmented their food supply. Nancy, however, did more in discovering the plants that were palatable, for she was thoroughly at home in the wilds—more so than her more civilized companions—and the others were interested to learn how much more readily her natural instincts taught her what was edible and non-poisonous than did their own science. One day she came into Urto’s kitchen with an armful of roots she had dug up. Urto angrily bid her take them away, but she had her way in preparing them by pounding them to a pulp and cooking the paste in a manner of her own. They were all astonished to find how good the cakes were, and thereafter she was free to bring in more. She also found a growth similar to mushrooms and another that was truffle-like and with her savage art prepared them so well that there was always a demand for more.
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