Collected Tales (Jerry eBooks)

by Leslie F Stone

  “But Chen-Chak. you were near death a few hours ago,” I interposed.

  He nodded. “True, but that is merely proof of what I have already told you. The force-suit into which my captors shoved me was such that it refracted all light from my body. It is possible for me to live twenty hours without an applicataion of light, but those twenty hours of incarceration were nearly up when you came to my rescue. The Mercurians had placed me in the force envelope to protect themselves against the chill of my body which has the temperature of space itself.”

  “That bluish light emitted by your body, Chen-Chak? What is that?” Forrest wished to know.

  THE giant smiled. “It is what you have already surmised, Morton Forrest, perspiration. Not perspiration as you know it, since there is no water in my system. It is fluorescent particles exuded by the body when under duress, just as you perspire moisture when the body is likewise uncomfortable.”

  “Gad! How long it must have taken your people to reorganize the physical as you have done! A deathless race! What marvels of science a man can perform when he is a timeless entity. It is beyond comprehension.”

  Forrest might rave about such things, but a shudder fled down my spine at the thought of infinite life. I was appalled by it. I did not want to think along those lines.

  “There are still a few hours until the light comes back, Mort,” I put in. “Why not let Chen-Chak finish his story. I want to know how Mercury and Saturn became part of our solar system, for I take it that Raxge and Raxta are no less than these two worlds.

  Chen-Chak nodded his head. “You are right, so they are.”

  “Yes, do go on with your story,” agreed Forrest.

  The man of light only paused to exchange Forrest’s light torch for mine, for the other was almost completely used up, while mine was still fresh. He swept its beam once or twice along the length of his body, then settled himself anew with the light on his face as he spoke.

  “Now while all these changes had been taking place on Raxta other events were taking place around us. For one thing Rax was getting old. Never a large star its life-period was comparatively short. It had shrunk in size and was slipping down the scale to old age. Each succeeding generation had seen less light and heat being received on the planet, but so concentrated had efforts been upon the metamorphosis of the race, every other science had suffered; in fact, man had all but forgotten everything outside his own need. And among the neglected sciences was astronomy; it had been long years since man had last considered the telescope.

  “There was consternation on Raxta when it was learned that our star was waning. With everything else failing was the sun also to fail? But what of it? Were there not thousands of stars to which they might migrate? Thereupon men sought the various astronomical observatories left on the planet. They were to find a star in which the black Raxtau might hope to take up life anew.

  “The science of space-navigation had likewise been neglected, and the people were astounded to find how inadequate their old ships were now. It would be impossible to make the journey to a new star in them; hence men were immediately plunged into the task of designing ships to use the latest principle known to the Raxtau. Word was received from the observatories. Word of dire purport!

  “I have spoken of the fact that Rax was in transit. All stars, naturally, are constantly in motion; some follow the great star streams of the Milky Way; some move in small groups together; more rarely a runaway star travels the void alone. And Rax was such a star. A runaway. What had started it on its solitary migration can never be told, but the fact remained, that Rax was going alone whither it wished. Had our small sun been disdained by its fellows? Had it been goaded into seeking another more hospitable neighborhood? None could answer the puzzle.

  “But it was not the aloneness of our star that appalled our people so; it was the fact that Rax was headed directly for a star with which it was believed it should indubitably collide, a star that was the brightest object in our firmament, a great yellow star, almost twice the size of Rax, although itself comparatively small in regard to the other stars around. Hourly that star grew larger and larger!

  “And computation of the velocity of Rax and that of the danger star advised us that in a very short passage of time the stars must clash!

  “For a moment panic seized Raxta. Death faced us, and we were unprepared. There was not sufficient time to build enough ships to contain all our race, even those of the old antiquated type were inadequate. But there was a solution. Raxta must free itself of Rax, and run for shelter to one of the other stars not too distant.

  “FEVERISHLY men toiled to turn the big unwieldy planet into a space-ship, and Raxta was larger in those days than it is to-day. It was a race against time as those in the observatories reported hourly the progress Rax made toward the new star. At last Raxta was ready to depart her age-old berth. He back was dotted with huge propulsion stations. At a signal the power was switched on. The world held its breath. A moment, a minute, an hour—nothing happened. Two, three hours, and still Raxta remained stationary. She could not move!

  “We had forgotten Raxge, but Raxge had not forgotten Raxta. During the millenniums the Raxgau had developed their sciences even as we. Somewhat backward though they were they had made progress with forces like our own.

  Possibly they had spies among us to report what discoveries we had made, and so were able to duplicate them. They may have developed them without our conscious aid, but it was to be proven their knowledge of the forces hardly equalled our own. Yet like us they realized almost too late that Rax was carrying us all to ruin. Unable to duplicate our machines for throwing Raxta out of its orbit, the Raxgau decided, nevertheless that they were not to be left behind. We were to drag their planet along with our own in the migration to another star! But something had gone wrong.

  “They had failed to evolve the directional-beam control for their force-rays, and instead of their beams falling only upon Raxta they had spread outward in a great fan shape, one side of which fell upon Rax!

  “Thus they defeated their purpose. Raxta may have managed to carry Raxge with it to another star, but with the force-rays lying against the side of Rax, they acted as a powerful leash on both our worlds. Of a consequence we were more securely locked than ever before to our parent. And all the while Rax was falling toward the point in space where the two stars were to meet.

  “A group of Raxtau engineers were hurriedly dispatched to Raxge to find some means of releasing us. They found the controls of the Raxge ray horribly jammed, for in their excitement the inadept scientists of that planet had made a worse mess of them than ever. Even with the controls blasted away the rays held. Our engineers returned with the bitter news that the only possibility left to us was to blast Raxge out of being; and that may not even save us in time!”

  “Now from the observatories came fresh reports. Our astronomers had not been infallible in their calculations, else something had occurred to turn Rax aside, and instead of colliding with the new star it should pass at an angle of a billion or more miles. Stars have been known to pass each other many times in the past. These passings raise great tidal waves upon the respective stars, and, naturally, a like effect is felt upon their planetary systems if they happen to possess a family. And we feared the consequences upon Raxta of such a passing. Could our planet survive the buffeting?

  “It was decided to carry out our original plan of moving Raxta out of its orbit to another star. We were already rigging up great machines to blast us free of Rax and Raxge when Rax came into conjunction with the danger star. Had the new star, Sol, seen and coveted us? Rax’s proximity was raising terrific tides upon that sun; it boiled in maniacal temper over the passing of the stranger. It would have preferred to devour it. It gnashed its teeth, and writhed its mighty tentacles in chagrin. Rax was not without feelings; the two stars indulged in a soundless, wordless battle, tormenting each other in pantomine across the sea of space. The ferment of the pair was awful to behold as each hating
the other flung all their forces at each other in an insane race, as both considered they were being wronged, the native star despising the stranger, poor runaway Rax, upset by the fact that he could not even find peace here. Rax appeared intent upon tearing himself asunder. And it was his rage that produced the iron that struck at the shackles holding Raxge and Raxta to his girdle. We were freed . . .

  “I cannot begin to describe all that titanic struggle of the passing stars. Both stars seemed intent upon burying themselves in one glorious flame. Sol, in his youth had his fresh fires to draw upon, old Rax had to dig into his vitals for his ammunition. Raxge and Raxta were buffeted about as upon an angry sea; and had not our engineers remained cool and collected we would never have lived to repeat the tale. Like fishermen playing with a monster, they took advantage of each lull, edging closer and closer to the star of our destiny, for it was apparent that Sol was to be our salvation after all.

  “Rax might be torn in two, but his children were to survive him, for to Raxta clung poor terrified Raxge, depending upon us to draw her out of her dilemma.

  “Details of how Sol accepted the additions to his family circle are unnecessary. Apparently he hated us as much as he despised Rax, for he tried to suck us into his maw; but we were strong, and we felt our way carefully along the rough path. As it was we could not save all our planet, part of it was pared away, and for many years to come our globe was lopsided. Time, however, repairs all wounds and since then the world had righted itself. However, Raxge was torn from our side. We saw it plunging toward the new sun. Though we had contemplated blasting our enemy to nothingness to save ourselves, now, that we were refugees together, our engineers sought to prevent that fall.

  “It is impossible to say with certainty that our forces actually saved Raxge, or whether Sol relented on the eve of its fall into the fiery furnace, but, like us, Raxge was destined for a new place in the new system. Months passed before we could ascertain if we were safe, and not until then did we begin to glance about and discover who our neighbors were. How many worlds Sol originally possessed is only to be guessed at, but by our count there were now nine counting Raxge and Raxta. There was also that area lying beyond Mars where thousands of fragments follow the path of what had once been another world which was disrupted by our coming. These you call asteroids—you know nearly a thousand of them. And around our globe drifted hundreds of particles that may have been the remains of another planet, whose place we had taken. You know them as the rings of Saturn, for, in fear that they might bring damage to us, our scientists carefully fitted them into the pattern that is now part and parcel of our world.

  “WE found further our world had captured a number of small planets of Sol which now have their orbits as satellites of Saturn. But our greatest surprise of all came when we found, at a distance of no more than 400,000,000 miles, none other than our erstwhile sun Rax! Sol had won that immortal battle, and though he had failed to engulf Rax, he had captured him. That small sun had likewise taken residence in the system. The fight had burned the heart out of Rax, and though still in a gaseous state it could no longer be likened to a sun. In settling to its new orbit it had commandeered a number of small planets henceforth to be its moons. You call that ex-sun, Jupiter!

  “Oddly enough Rax was but half its original size, and perhaps that accounted for the two largish worlds lying athwart Raxta, which your ancients named Uranus and Neptune. Both were in the gaseous state, slightly incandescent, and the mass of these three worlds combined to make up the total mass of Rax. Uranus we found possessed four Satellites and Neptune but one, the natural solar planets they have evidently displaced.

  “A survey of all the natural worlds of Sol showed us that they were all of small size, none exceeding a diameter of 9,000 miles. That alone in itself is proof that Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter, as well as Raxge (Mercury) and Raxta (Saturn) were intruders. Incidentally later we found that Raxge had been robbed of more than half its bulk with which Sol had appeased his hunger after his great battle.

  “Raxta was well situated. The new sun was young, and not too far from greater suns, younger still, to which we might go when our new luminary burned itself out. We went about the business of reestablishing our world, for most of our cities were in ruin. As soon as we were settled, expeditions were sent to visit our neighbors. Some of the planets were a shambles, life gone. On Mars man was still low in the scale of evolutionary development. On Tellus man had not yet made his appearance; on Venus life had not left the waters as yet. And Raxge was in a bad way. Its drop through space had deranged its axis, halted its rotation. Because of the terrific heat of the near-by sun and the bitter cold of night the surface was impossible to the Raxgeu. The atmosphere was almost gone, oceans and lakes were dried up, and the few millions, that had survived the conflagration, were huddled below the surface in natural caves, living on mosses and lichens, and a few fresh water springs.

  “Our hearts went out to our erstwhile enemies, and we of Raxta saw it was our task to save the pitiful remnants of that once great, arrogant race. We went about the business of making their caves more habitable, of enlarging them, establishing laboratories to regulate the atmosphere and temperature. For generations we watched over them, improving their lot; were as a father to them, and all enmity was gone.

  “From the first level they dug deeper into their planet until the time came when the entire world was honeycombed and people filled level after level. Time came when they were overflowing the small globe. They looked with longing to their nearest neighbors, but migration was out of the question. They could not live in the air of these worlds.

  And Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune were still far too new. They considered other tactics.

  “You remember I said that once the Raxgeu were as tall as the Raxtau. Their solution to their problem came in the reduction of the body. If they could halve their stature, two men could dwell in the space formerly given to one. A smaller body, likewise, would not consume as much food, nor need as much cloth to cover it. So, as the Raxtau had done before them, they set about to revolutionize their bodies. The result you see in these midgets of today. Not satisfied with cutting their height in two, they continued the practice until they were no more than a foot in height.

  “NOW they declared themselves free of Raxta. Their old natures reasserted themselves. They ordered our scientists from their world, declared they had no more need of our friendship; that they were content to be sufficient unto themselves. We agreed to leave them alone, only we foresaw what was to come about; that in the future they would again outgrow their world; that they would seek new territories, and our scientists left them with the warning that it was not their right to take that which did not belong to them. That should they make an attack on their sister-worlds we, the Raxtau, their superiors, would make them answer to ourselves. Live and let live.

  “And that time has come when their world is overpopulated again. Food grows ever scarcer; they have gutted the planet of all its minerals and ores, and, regardless of the fact that the atmospheres of their fellow worlds differ from their own, they have decided to migrate. Again they covet which is not theirs to obtain and possess. Their nature does not permit them to share; they wish complete subjugation. Raxta has offered them Uranus and Neptune. There we can construct artificial suns for their heat and light; but their very natures rebel against accepting anything from our race. They want only to conquer, to but take what they will. But it is not written so. Raxta has spoken!”

  * * *

  With that the Saturnian, or Raxtau, as he preferred to call himself, ended his strange tale. And was there ever a stranger tale to be heard by the ears of man? I wanted to doubt the veracity of the story-teller, but who was I to question him?

  He spoke again in answer to my unspoken thought. “It is the prerogative of every being to doubt what he hears, but consider, my friend. Of all the peoples of this system only the Mercurians and Saturnians resemble each other in physical structure, whereas all other men of thes
e worlds are like unto yourself, except for some small changes due to the different climatic and geographical conditions. Take samples of the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and you find them identical. Consider the apparent age of these named planets against the comparative youthfulness of the remaining worlds. Consider how greatly the satellites of the last four named planets differ from the structure of the worlds themselves.

  “Our studies on Raxta have revealed the fact that the family of each star consists of the same constituents. Nature is consistent. She uses the materials nearest at hand; and thus, you will discover, that each star-system is closely related in structure, in atmosphere and in its elementary combinations. When a foreign body is discovered among others, you may be certain it is unrelated, a new-comer! But look . . .

  “The light returns—I live again!”

  CHAPTER IX

  The Strange Ship

  CHEN-CHAK referred to the fact that day was breaking in the inner world of Mercury. The light was flowing back into our chamber. It was well, for the flash-light the Saturnian held before his face all this while was used up. I found myself stiff and sore from holding one position too long. Forrest was hunched in his chair. Slowly he turned his head in our direction, blinking his eyes as if just awakening. I knew differently; he was just returning to reality.

  The Saturnian still crouched on the floor, resting on an elbow, but with the return of the light he started to stretch his huge body, and I watched, fascinated, as he raised his four mighty arms above his head, arching his monstrous back to relieve stiffened muscles. I asked a question of him suddenly. “Chen-Chak, how old are you?”