Forrest waived aside his gratitude. “We did only that which we would have done for anyone in the same predicament. Who are you?” he demanded, but he amended that to: “What are you?”
“Have I not already spoken?” boomed the Saturnian. “Chen-Chak of Raxta, I am, of the world you name Saturn.”
“I know, I know, but what are you? Ordinary men do not die from the lack of light!”
“It is a long story, the story of my race, but it is true. I live on light. I am deathless as long as there is light, only this suit into which they thrust me refracts the rays beneficial to my being!”
“What?” breathed Forrest in wonder. Impressed though I was by this intelligence I wanted to know of things more tangible. “How is it?” I asked, “that you speak our tongue, you who have repeatedly refused intercourse with the peoples of the Federation?”
“My people are thoroughly familiar with all the tongues of the system, Bruce Warren. Long years have we watched your world develop, your people evolve from savagery to their present-day civilization. In the past we have made physical contact with yours and other worlds, but of late we prefer to study and watch you through our machines. I should say that we of Raxta are far more familiar with all the planets of this system than you are to-day. We have . . .”
Here I interrupted him. “You mean you have been to Tellus in the past?”
“Often. And I believe there are legends among you that refer to our rare visits. There was one Raxtau, a renegade deserving of death, who escaped us to Tellus. He took up abode on an island where he was discovered by one of your renowned sailors of the past. The sailor put the giant’s eye out with a pointed wooden bar. Later we came in the night and carried him off.”
“Cyclops, the one-eyed giant of the Odyssey! And it wasn’t a myth after all?”
“No, and there were others, but no matter now. Some other time you may question me about those . . .”
I was incredulous, unable to believe that this giant spoke the truth; but now I was more interested in the implication of his last words. “Some other time. But tomorrow we die, or rather we go to the laboratories . . .”
Chen-Chak shook his head slowly at that. “No more of your peoples will go to the laboratories of the Raxge (Mercurians), Bruce Warren!”
“You mean you can save our lives?”
“Ay, but it is your race I shall save, not you alone. Had I not lived, another would have come in my place. For the time has arrived when the Raxtau must teach the Raxgeu, who are the masters of the system. They would break their sacred word: but it must not be so. They caught me in their trap unawares; overpowered me before I could rally, and made me their prisoner. Thereupon, they attempted to murder me, but no poison they can contrive would kill me. Yet, had they only known it, they all but accomplished their purpose when they put me in this damnable suit, excluding me from the light . . .”
“HOW did you come from Saturn—Raxta? How did the Mercurians trap you?”
“My ship is outside. They captured me as they do the most amateur tyro, as they captured you—in their trap—what you call the Venerian Whirlpool!”
“The Whirlpool! You mean it is nothing less than a Mercurian trap, that they control it?” cried Forrest.
“Ay, and not only that, they brought it into being. But that is elementary science, my friends, on Saturn we—but no difference. You seem shocked by the news?” He added with his easy faculty of reading what lay in our minds. “Have you no idea why you were brought here? Why the whirlpool was produced in the first place?”
“But the spot has always been—er—at least since we have taken to space-travel,” protested Forrest.
“Ay,” agreed the giant laconically.
Forrest hesitated, then spoke again. “I begin to understand. They bring us here to pry into our anatomies, to discover how we differ structurally from themselves to learn about our worlds, but still . . .”
“Ay. You saw only the few in the laboratories, not the tens of billions inhabiting this small planet. They have sapped the vitality of their world; their population has swollen to uncontrollable proportions. And the time has come when they must go afield to survive! Hence the spider’s web to catch unwary specimens of life from the various worlds. In this manner they discover the conditions they are to face, for unlike my race they know little of the system; they must have first-hand information. The only way to obtain it is through the medium of the laboratory.
“It is in the power of this people to wipe all life from your worlds in one blow; but they do not wish to do that. They desire to preserve the best for their slaves. They hope to discover by what means they can live on your worlds without changing nature’s balance, also to enslave, not kill. It would have been possible for them to proceed immediately to Venus, to experiment with conditions there, but to do this would only warn the rest of the worlds, but they think thus to keep us of Raxta uninformed of their movements; only they give us little credit for our all-seeing powers!”
I listened to the long speech of the Saturnian in growing wonder. I thought I gathered its gist, but it seemed too impossible, too horrible to be true. Forrest was the first to cry against it.
“Solar conquest! That’s impossible. Something must be done. We’ve got to get out of here—we must warn the Federation. This is diabolical!”
“Diabolical, true. But what would your Federation do against the Mercurians? Your puny weapons against the Mercurians would be as a pin-prick to a mastodon. Long ere you could warn your Federation your enemy would have dealt with them. Nay, one does not send an infant to do a man’s work!”
“You?”
“Ay, I, Chen-Chak of Raxta. For that I am here.”
I stared at him unbelievingly. One man against the billions of Mercury, even though he a giant and they midgets? Impossible.
Chen-Chak read my thoughts. “You are wrong. It is not as you believe, one man against billions, but the science of one world against the science of another.
Have no qualms whatever on that score.”
“Then,” cried I impatiently, “let us start immediately. Why delay?”
“I must await the return of the light to this chamber. My vitality is far too low at present for me to move, and this thin beam is too weak . . .”
I wanted to sneer. I felt that the man was playing with us. “They bested you once, why can’t they do it again?” He was patient with me. “I was taken unawares. I came on a mission of peace. I came to offer the Mercurians another world in place of this. I was to offer them Neptune. There is the room they need for their race, uninhabited. The atmosphere is like that of this planet. It needs only a sun, but Raxta is ready to supply that emergency. They must accept my offer, else Raxta will deal with them immediately, and not to their liking! Have no qualms, my friend.”
IT was all a gigantic puzzle. Behind Chen-Chak’s queer words I felt that great issues were at stake. He spoke of the Mercurians too familiarly, as if they had clashed in the past, as if they were under the thrall of his planet. And yet, physically they were the same, different only in stature, form, color.
“What connection lies between the Mercurians and your race, Chen-Chak,” I asked of him.
“Ay, it is a long, long tale, Bruce Warren.”
“But it will be a while yet before the light comes back here. You have spoken of the ages in which your people watched ours grow from savagery. The Mercurians mentioned the same thing to us. What lies behind all these puzzles?”
“The story of Raxta and Raxge involves history long before your people had a beginning. Your world was still too warm for life, for any kind of life.
But as you say, I have the time, so I will tell it to you.”
Holding the light beam trained on his face the Saturnian or Raxtau, as he called himself, settled more comfortably on the floor beside us, and began his tale.
* * *
“THIS history,” he said, “begins I with a small wandering star called Rax. Its family consisted simply
of two planets, Raxge and Raxta. The star appeared to belong to no one group, traveled the void of itself, and it was a small star, smaller even than the yellow star you call Sol. The first of the two planets, Raxge lay quite close to the surface of the star, some sixty millions of miles near, while the further star Raxta lay another forty millions of miles away; but Raxta was populated whereas Raxge was barren.
“On Raxta were two races, a race of pale skinned people colored like yourselves, but as tall as I. The other race was a dark skinned race, almost black, physically comparable to the white race. Both were single-eyed and four-armed. And for ages the two peoples lived side by side, sometimes warring, sometimes peaceable, but for the most part maintaining a sort of armed truce. The white race counted itself superior to the black race. They were arrogant and quarrelsome. The black race was more good-humored, peaceable; but they did not take well to the airs of their neighbors. They were both evolved from the same lowly species; they occupied equal ground and they were both highly intelligent. They were equals, mentally and physically.
“Raxta was a largish world, surely large enough to foster both races, but it was not written so. The white race coveted all the world for themselves; they wanted to enslave their fellows who in turn chafed under the repeated taunts of the white race, and so wars came. Sometimes commerce existed between the two, sometimes it was at a standstill; and both peoples made a show of getting along without the others. The riches of the world seemed equally divided among them.
“Yet both races were prolific, soon it seemed the world would become over-populated. There came a time when there was not land enough to grow sufficient food. Naturally each race felt the other had the more land, and there was war again. This brought about a balance since hundreds of thousands were killed, with neither side winning or losing, and for a while there was peace once more. But this did not last and again they went to war, and yet again. Now after thousands of generations, not only were the lands used up, but the natural resources of the planet were dwindling. You would have thought the two races would capitulate now, join forces and regulate their population; look forward to a golden-age of scientific development. This the white race refused to do. They went on multiplying as before, using their remaining resources extravagantly, disregarding the future.
“The black race, on the other hand, was more sagacious. They limited the number of their offspring and devoted themselves to overcoming their handicap for future races. They had long been experimenting with synthetic foods; for they realized their farm-lands were thoroughly exhausted, and it would take many decades to revive the soil, whereas the use of chemical food would permit the population to spread over the farmlands.
“MANY generations passed and the race improved itself and prospered. With the food problem out of the way they turned to other sciences, particularly those of ray-forces, for they already foresaw the time when they should need to drive the white race off the globe. Before the enemy, they jealously watched what was happening, and considered themselves cheated in some way; that new resources had been discovered in which they wanted their share. Another war took place, and this time the dark race won unconditionally.
They may have enslaved the enemy, but that was not their way; they despised anything dealing with the usurpation of another’s inborn right. They simply proved their superiority and left the others severely alone. They had now discovered a means of space-travel. An expedition left for Raxge, and found it a resourceful world.
“The expedition returned and preparations for colonizing the new planet were in order, but therein the white race struck. They had managed to steal the plans of the space-ships of their neighbors, and as soon as the first expedition returned a dozen of their newly equipped ships set out for the inner world, and took Raxge in the name of their race. Forestalled the black race considered revenge, but one of their wise men countered with a better plan. He proposed giving the white race the whole of Raxge! Raxge was smaller than Raxta, but large enough to contain all the other race, whereas Raxta should belong to the dark race in its entirety. To them it was not a barren world, its mineral resources were sufficient to sustain the people for untold generations, and thus would they be free of the everlasting aggression of the white race. Some, naturally, cried against such a measure, but they were in the minority, and at last Raxge was ceded to the enemy. Loud was the rejoicing when that race gave up all right to the old world and departed as one man for their own planet. And there was peace.”
“In fact, as time went on the Raxgeu, which was the white race, were all but forgotten by the black race, the Raxtau. The Raxtau were intent upon developing their sciences to the nth degree. They spread over all their vast territory, and all lived in harmony. Their food came from the earth, air and water; their clothing was of the simplest design; their wants few.
“Now they discovered that whereas there had been a great amount of waste material in the bulky, natural foods of their planet, their chemical foods also contained much waste. They sought to lessen that percentage to a greater degree. They had been talking their synthetic food internally, but it was found in time that by emersing the body in a chemical bath the body was better fed through the pores of the skin; thus the food supply attacked each muscle and organ directly. It was far better than the old indirect process of taking food through the mouth and along the long, alimentary, digestive tract. Of a result there was no appreciable wastage at all. Naturally this meant a complete atrophy of the digestive organs, but this was to the advantage of the body, simplifying the body’s normal actions; thereupon lessening the chance of disease. It also brought about a lengthening of the life-span, since there was less to waste away, and the cells were renewed at their source.
“ALONG with these developments came the development of ray-forces. The first rays discovered on Raxta were the deadly, death-dealing rays, but with war at an end other uses were discovered for them. Lifting forces, gravity-repelling forces and various other forces were discovered. Radioactive ores led to the first discoveries of these energies, now it was found that there were many forces coming to the planet from the void itself, from the myrial stars. New experiments were taking place all the time, and one day a young obscure scientist found the means of solidifying a ray of light!
“That discovery had only been made when a new situation throust itself upon the black Raxtaus. The years had robbed the planet of its life. Only the dead flesh and bones remained; the mineral deposits were giving out, water was drying up, the very atmosphere was thinning. The granary was nigh exhausted. They had need of mineral, water and air that they might live, and there was nothing to replenish them. They were faced with the prospect of a dying, barren planet.
“One solution to the problem lay in the planet of the white Raxge; but it would mean a terrible devastating war before it could be conquered while in the end they would find themselves again faced with a problem like to their own, when that planet also became exhausted. Man needs food for fuel, air for his automatic stoker, water as a lubricant and replenisher. Release him from these outside requirements, and he would be deathless! Yet how? Not even a machine can toil forever; it needs replacements of its parts, it needs fuel, no matter of how low a grade it is. What fuel is there in the universe that is infinite, unchanging? Air? But no. Air is possessed in only small quantities by each small world, and could easily be dissipated. Water? No, again. Water is simply a by-product. What then is endless? What else but light itself?
“Light alone is everlasting, infinite, as long as a single star remains in the heavens, as long as there is one spark capable of being ignited. Light it must be. Light would be the food of the black Raxtau?”
CHAPTER XIII
War of Suns
“IT is impossible to go into detail I as to how this was accomplished.
Many years were consumed before man turned his body into a lightabsorbing entity, but proof of his success lies in the fact that the Raxtau exists to-day. Gradually the body of the Raxtau was remolded,
as once it had been remolded to accept chemical food through the pores. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions died ere the process was perfected; it was slow, painful, heart-breaking. And it was a great day when a small group of men found it possible to survive without recourse to ordinary food. Still he was yet incomplete. He still used water, he still breathed air.
“The human body consists of practically 98 parts of water, and a good third of his body is necessary to the consumption of air. More thousands died before the constituents of the body could be changed, dehydrated; even a wet-cell electrical battery requires water; more changes were necessary. And there came the day when man was freed of his bondage to water. Still he breathed air; he was not yet complete. Thereupon the fault with the new system was discovered. Man was not receiving full benefit of the light-waves coming to him out of space, the air-blanket of the world was refracting certain rays that made it impossible to do without fuel. Those who had gone through the test were now dying like flies because of a certain lack. One thing must be done. Raxta’s atmosphere must be reduced, if not completely dispersed. But before this could be done a radical change of the blood content of the body had to be made . . .” There was a pause.
An exclamation escaped my lips at this point of the story. This accounted for the fact that we had been unable to see Chen-Chak breathe. His respiratory organs had been dispensed with! The giant caught my thought and nodded affirmation, continuing his extraordinary tale.
“It was accomplished in time, and the man of Raxta became a perfect entity, freed from slavery, supported by the sustenance of his mundane sphere. The impossible was accomplished. The new man was the most perfect of man-made creations, a human machine incapable of running down. He could not die; for in giving himself life he rid himself of death!
Deathless, and yet not deathless, for life was his, only as long as he had light. Each creature was sufficient unto himself, needing neither food, air or water. Only light, and as long as there were great stars in the firmament to fill his reservoir, he was indeed deathless. If he so desired he might leave the surface of his world, exist in space itself, unprotected and without physical discomfiture. He was one with space itself!”
Collected Tales (Jerry eBooks) Page 82
