The White Invaders

by Ray Cummings

  CHAPTER VIII

  _The Flight through the Fourth Dimension_

  "This is the girl, Tolla," said Tako quietly. "She will take care ofyou, Jane, and make you comfortable on this trip."

  In the dull green sheen which enveloped the encampment, this girl ofthe Fourth Dimension stood before us. She had greeted Tako quietlyin their own language, but as she gazed up into his face it seemedthat the anxiety for his welfare turned to joy at having him safelyarrive. She was a small girl; as small as Jane, and probably noolder. Her slim figure stood revealed, garbed in the same whitewoven garments as those worn by the men. At a little distance shemight have been a boy of Earth, save that her silvery white hair waswound in a high conical pile on her head, and there were tasseledornaments on her legs and arms.

  Her small oval face, as it lighted with pleasure at seeing Tako, wasbeautiful. It was delicate of feature; the eyes pale blue; the lipscurving and red. Yet it was a curious face, by Earth standards. Itseemed that there was an Oriental slant to the eyes; the nose washigh-bridged; the eyebrows were thin pencil lines snow-white, andabove each of them was another thin line of black, which evidentlyshe had placed there to enhance her beauty.

  Strange little creature! She was the only girl of this world we weredestined to meet; she stood beside Jane, seemingly so different, andyet, we were to learn, so humanly very much the same. Her quiet gazebarely touched Don and me; but it clung to Jane and becameinscrutable.

  "We will travel together," Tako said. "You make her comfortable,Tolla."

  "I will do my best," she said; her voice was soft, curiously limpid."Shall I take her now to our carrier?"

  "Yes."

  It gave me a pang to see Jane leave with her; Don shot me a sharp,questioning glance but we thought it best to raise no objection.

  "Come," said Tako. "Stay close by me. We will be in the carrierpresently."

  * * * * *

  There was an area here in the bowl-like depression of at least halfa mile square upon which an assemblage of some five thousand or moremen were encamped. It was dark, though an expanse of shiftingshadows and dull green light mingled with the vague phosphorescentsheen from the rocks. The place when we arrived was a babble ofvoices, a confusion of activity. The encampment, which obviously wastemporary--perhaps a mobilization place--rang with the last minutepreparations for departure. Whatever habitations had been here nowwere packed and gone.

  Tako led us past groups of men who were busy assembling and carryingwhat seemed equipment of war toward a distant line of oblong objectsinto which men were now marching.

  "The carriers," said Tako. He greeted numbers of his friends,talking to them briefly, and then hurried us on. All these men weredressed similarly to Tako, but I saw none so tall, nor so commandingof aspect. They all stared at Don and me hostilely, and once ortwice a few of them gathered around us menacingly. But Tako wavedthem away. It brought me a shudder to think of Jane crossing thiscamp. But we had watched Tolla and Jane starting and Tolla hadpermitted none to approach them.

  "Keep your eyes open," Don whispered. "Learn what you can. We've gotto watch our chance--" We became aware that Tako was listening. Donquickly added, "I say, Bob, what does he mean--carriers?"

  I shrugged. "I don't know. Ask him."

  We would have to be more careful; it was obvious that Tako's hearingwas far keener than our own. He was fifteen feet away, but he turnedhis head at once.

  "A carrier you would call in Bermuda a tram. Or a train, let ussay." He was smiling ironically at our surprise that he hadoverheard us. He gestured to the distant oblong objects. "We travelin them. Come, there is really nothing for me to do; all is inreadiness here."

  * * * * *

  The vehicles stood on a level rocky space at the farther edge of thecamp. I think, of everything I had seen in this unknown realm, thesight of these vehicles brought the most surprise. The glimpse wehad had of Tako's feudal castle seemed to suggest primitiveness.

  But here was modernity--super-modernity. The vehicles--there wereperhaps two dozen of them--were all apparently of similar character,differing only in size.

  They were long, low oblongs. Some were much the size and shape of asingle railway car; others twice as long; and several were like avery long train, not of single joined cars, but all one structure.They lay like white serpents on the ground--dull aluminum in colorwith mound-shaped roofs slightly darker. Rows of windows in theirsides with the interior greenish lights, stared like round gogglingeyes into the night.

  When we approached closer I saw that the vehicles were not of solidstructure, but that the sides seemingly woven of wire-mesh--or wovenof thick fabric strands.[4]

  [4] The vehicles were constructed of a material allied in character to that used for garments by the people of this realm. It was not metal, but an organic vegetable substance.

  The army of white figures crowded around the vehicles. Boxes, whitewoven cases, projectors and a variety of disks and dials and wiremechanisms were being loaded aboard. And the men were marching in totake their places for the journey.

  Tako gestured. "There is our carrier."

  It was one of the smallest vehicles--low and streamlined, so that itsuggested a fat-bellied cigar, white-wrapped. It stood alone, alittle apart from the others, with no confusion around it. Thegreen-lighted windows in its sides goggled at us.

  * * * * *

  We entered a small porte at its forward pointed end. The controlroom was here, a small cubby of levers and banks of dial-faces.Three men, evidently the operators, sat within. They were dressedlike Tako save that they each had a great round lens like a monocleon the left eye, with dangling wires from it leading to dialsfastened to the belt.

  Tako greeted them with a gesture and a gruff word and pushed us pastthem into the car. We entered a low narrow white corridor with dimgreen lights in its vaulted room. Sliding doors to compartmentsopened from one side of it. Two were closed; one was partly open. Aswe passed, Tako called softly:

  "All is well with you, Tolla?"

  "Yes," came the girl's soft voice.

  I met Don's gaze. I stopped short and called:

  "Are you all right, Jane?"

  I was immensely relieved as she answered, "Yes, Bob."

  Tako shoved me roughly. "You presume too much."

  The corridor opened into one main room occupying the full ten-footwidth of the vehicle and its twenty-foot middle section. Low softcouch seats were here, and a small table with food and drink uponit; and on another table low to the floor, with a mat-seat besideit, a litter of small mechanical devices had been deposited. I sawamong them two or three of the green-light hand weapons.

  Tako followed my gaze and laughed. "You are transparent. If you knewhow to use those weapons, do you think I would leave them near you?"

  We were still garbed in the white garments, but the disks and wiresand helmet had been taken from us.

  "I say, you needn't be so suspicious," Don protested. "We're not soabsolutely foolish. But if you want any advice from us on how toattack New York, you've got to explain how your weapons are used."

  * * * * *

  Tako seated us. "All in good time. We shall have opportunity now totalk."

  "About the trip--" I said. "Are we going to New York City?"

  "Yes."

  "How long will it take?"

  "Long? That is difficult to say. Have you not noticed that time inmy world has little to do with yours?"

  "How long will it seem?" I persisted.

  He shrugged. "That is according to your mood. We shall eat once ortwice, and get a little sleep."

  One of the window openings was beside us with a loosely woven meshof wires across it. Outside I could see the shifting lights. Menwere embarking in the other vehicles; and the blended noise fromthem floated in to us.

  Questions flooded me. This strange journey, what would it be like? Icould envis
age the invisible little Bermuda in the void of darknessover us now; or here in this same space around us. No, we hadclimbed from where we landed in the space close under the Pagethilltop. And we had walked forward for perhaps an hour. The space ofBermuda would be behind us and lower down. This then was the openocean. I gazed at the solid rocky surface outside our window. Nearlyseven hundred miles away must be New York City. We were going there.How? Would it be called flying? Or following this rocky surface?

  As though to answer my thoughts Tako gestured to the window. "See.The first carrier starts away."

  The carrier lay like a stiff white reptile on the ground. Its doorswere closed, and watching men stood back from it.

  Don gasped, "Why--it's fading! A transition!"

  * * * * *

  It glowed along all its length and grew tenuous of aspect, until ina moment that solid thing which had been solidly resting there on arock was a wraith of vehicle. A great oblong apparition--the ghostof a reptile with round green spots on its sides. A fading wraith.But it did not quite disappear. Hovering just within visibility, itslowly, silently slid forward. It seemed, without changing itslevel, to pass partly through an upstanding crag which stood in itspath. Distance dimmed it, dwindled it; and in a moment it was goneinto the night.

  "We will start," said Tako abruptly. "Sit where you are. There willbe a little shock, much like the transition coming in from yourworld." He called, "Tolla, we start."

  A signal-dial was on the room wall near him. He rose and pressed itslever. There was a moment of silence. Then the current went on. Itpermeated every strand of the material of which the vehicle wasconstructed. It contacted with our bodies. I felt the tingle of it;felt it running like fire through my veins. The whole interior washumming. There was a shock to my senses, swiftly passing, followedby a sense of weightless freedom. But that lightness was anillusion, a comparison with externals only, for the seat to which Iclung remained solid, and my body pressed upon it with a feeling ofnormal weight.

  Outside the window, the dark scene of rocks and vehicles and men wasfading; turning ghostly, shadowy, spectral. But it did not quitevanish; it held its wraithlike outlines, and in a moment begansliding silently backward. It seemed that we also passed through alittle butte of rocks. Then we emerged again into the open; and, aswe gathered speed, the vague spectral outlines of a rocky landscapeslid past us in a bewildering panorama.

  We were away upon the journey.[5]

  [5] What we learned of the science of the invisible realm was perforce picked piecemeal by us from all that we saw, experienced, and what several different times Tako was willing to explain to us. And it was later studied by the scientists of our world, whose additional theories I can incorporate into my own knowledge. Yet much of it remains obscure. And it is so intricate a subject that even if I understood it fully I could do no more than summarize here its fundamental principles.

  The space-transition of these vehicles, Tako had already told us, was closely allied to the transition from his world to ours. And the weapons were of the same principles. The science of space-transition, limited to travel from one portion of the realm to another, quite evidently came first. The weapons, the forcible, abrupt transition of material objects out of the realm into other dimensions--into the Unknown--this principle was developed from the traveling. And from them both Tako himself evolved the safe and controlled transition from his world to ours.

  Concerning the operation of these vehicles: Motion, in our Earth-world or any other, is the progressive change of a material object in relation to its time and space. It is here now, but it _was there_. Both space and time undergo a simultaneous change; the object itself remains unaltered, save in its _position_.

  In the case of the vehicles, the current I have already mentioned (used in the mechanism for the transition from Earth to the other realm) that current, circulating in the organic material of which the vehicle was composed, altered the state of matter of the carrier and everything within the aura of the current's field. The vehicle and all its contents, with altered inherent vibratory rate of its molecules, atoms and electrons, was in effect projected into another world. A new dimension was added to it. It became an imponderable wraith, resting dimly visible in a sort of borderland upon the fringe of its own world.

  Yet it had not changed _position_. It still remained quiescent. Then the current was further altered, and the time and space co-ordinates set into new combinations. This change of the current was a _progressive_ change. Controlled and carefully calculated by what intricate theoretic principles and practical mechanisms no scientist of our world can yet say.

  It is clear, however, that as this progressive change in space-time characteristics began, the vehicle perforce must move slightly in space and time to reconcile itself to the change.

  There never has been a seemingly more abstruse subject for the human mind to grasp than the theories involving a true conception of space-time. Yet, doubtless, to those of Tako's realm, inheriting, let me say, the consciousness of its reality, there was nothing abstruse about it.

  An analogy may make it clearer. The vehicle, hovering in the borderland, might be called in a visible but gaseous state. A solid can be turned to gas merely by the alteration of the vibratory rate of its molecules.

  This unmoving (gaseous) vehicle, is now further altered in space-time characteristics. Suppose we say it is very slightly thrown out of tune with its _spatial_ surroundings at the time which is its _present_. Nature will allow no such disorganization. The vehicle, as a second of _time_ passes, is impelled by the force of nature to be in a _different place_. This involves motion. A small change in the first second. Then the current alters it progressively faster. The change, of necessity, is progressively greater, the motion more rapid.

  And this, controlled as to direction, became transportation. The determination of direction at first thought seems amazingly intricate. In effect, that was not so. With space-time factors set as a destination, i. e., the place where the vehicle must end its change at a certain time, all the intermediate changes become automatic. With every passing second it must be at a reconcilable place--the direction of its passage perforce being the shortest path between the two.

  With this in mind, the transition from one world to another becomes more readily understandable. No _natural_ change of space is involved, merely the change of the state of matter. It was the same change as that which carried the vehicles into a shadowy borderland, and then pushed further into new dimensional realms.

  The green light-beam weapons were merely another application of the same principle. The characteristics of the green light current, touching organic matter, altered the vibratory rate of what was struck to coincide with the light. A solid cake of ice under a blow-torch becomes steam by the same principle. The light-beams were swift and violent in their action. The change in them was progressive also--but it was so swiftly violent a change that nothing living could survive the shock of the enforced transition.

  * * * * *

  There was little to see during this strange flight. Outside ourwindows gray shadows drifted swiftly past--a shadowy, ghostlylandscape of gray rocks. Sometimes it was below us, so that weseemed in an airship winging above it. Then abruptly it would riseover us and we plunged into it as though it were a mere light-image,a mirage.

  Hours passed. For the most part the shadowy void seemed a jaggedmountainous terrain, a barren waste. There were great plateauuplands, one of which rose seemingly thousands of feet over us. Andthere was perhaps an hour of time when the surface of the world haddropped far away, so far down that it was gone in the distance. Likea projectile we sped level, unswerving. And at last the shadows ofthe landscape came up
again. And occasionally we saw shadowyinhabited domains--enclosing walls around water and vegetation, witha frowning castle and its brood of mound-shaped little houses likebaby chicks clustered around the mother hen.

  Tako served us with a meal; it was strange food, but our hunger madeit palatable. Jane and Tolla remained in their nearby cabin. We didnot see them, but occasionally Don or I, ignoring Tako's frown,called out to Jane, and received her ready answer.

  Occasionally also, we had an opportunity to question Tako. He hadbegun tell us the general outline of his plans. The important factwas that the army would mobilize just within visibility of New York.

  "Nothing can touch us then," Tako said. "You will have to explainwhat weapons will be used against me. Particularly the long-rangeweapons are interesting. But you have no weapons which couldpenetrate into the shadows of the borderland, have you?"

  "No," said Don. "But your weapons--" He tried not to seem toointent. "Look here, Tako, I don't just understand how you intend toconquer New York."

  "Devastate it," Tako interrupted. "Smash it up, and then we canmaterialize and take possession of it. My object is to capture agreat number of young women--beautiful young women."

  "How?" I demanded. "By smashing up New York? There are thousands ofyoung women there, but you would kill them in the process. Now ifyou would try some other locality. For instance, I could direct youto open country--"

  * * * * *

  He understood my motive. "I ask not that kind of advice. I willcapture New York; devastate it. I think then your rulers will bewilling voluntarily to yield all the captives I demand. Or, if not,then we will plan to seize them out of other localities."

  Don said, "Suppose you tell us more clearly just how you expect tosmash New York, as you call it. First, you will gather, notmaterialized, but only visible to the city."

  "Exactly. That will cause much excitement, will it not?Panics--terror. And if we are only wraiths, no weapons of your worldcan attack us."

  "Nor can yours attack the city. Can they?"

  He did not at first answer that; and then he smiled. "Our handlight-projectors could not penetrate out from the borderland withoutlosing their force. But we have bombs. You shall see.[6] The bombsalone will devastate New York, if we choose to use them. I have alsoa long-range projector of the green light-beam. It is my idea, whenthe city is abandoned by the enemy that we can take possession ofsome prominent point of vantage. A tall building, perhaps." Hesmiled again his quiet grim smile. "We will select one and becareful to leave it standing. I will materialize with our giantprojector, dominate all the region and then we can barter with yourauthorities. It is your long-range guns I most fear. When theprojector is materialized--and we are ready to bargain--then yourairplanes, warships lying far away perhaps, might attack. Supposenow you explain those weapons to me."

  [6] Materialization bombs, we afterward called them; they played a diabolical part in the coming events. They were of many sizes and shapes, but most of them were small in size and shape, like a foot-long wedged-shaped brick, or the head of an ax. They were constructed of organic material, with a wire mesh of the transition mechanism encasing them, and an automatic operating device like the firing fuse of a bomb.

  * * * * *

  For an hour or more he questioned us. He was no fool, this fellow;he knew far more of the conditions ahead of him than we realized. Irecall that once I said:

  "You have never been in New York?"

  "No. Not materialized. But I have observed it very carefully."

  As a lurking ghost!

  "We have calculated," he went on, "the space co-ordinates with greatprecision. That is how we have been able to select the destinationfor this carrier now. You cannot travel upon impulse by this method.Our engineers, as you might call them, must go in advance withrecording apparatus. Nothing can be done blindly."

  It brought to my mind the three pilots now operating our vehicle. Imentioned the lens on their left eyes like a monocle.

  "With that they can see ahead of us a great distance. It flings thevision--like gazing along a beam of light--to space-time factors inadvance of our present position. In effect, a telescope."

  * * * * *

  There were a few hours of the journey when Don and I slept,exhausted by what we had been through. Tako was with us when wedozed off, and I recall that he was there when we awakened. How muchtime passed we could not tell.

  "You are refreshed?" he said smilingly. "And hungry again, no doubt.We will eat and drink--and soon we will arrive at the predestinedtime and place."

  We were indeed hungry again. And while we were eating Tako gesturedto the window. "Look there. Your world seems visible a little."

  Just before we slept it had seemed that mingled with the shadows ofTako's world was the gray outline of an ocean surface beneath us. Igazed out at the dim void now. Our flight was far slower thanbefore. We were slackening speed for the coming halt. And I saw nowthat the shadows outside were the mingled wraiths of two spectralworlds, with us drifting forward between and among them. The terrainof Tako's world was bleaker, more desolate and more steeplymountainous than ever. There were pits and ravines and gullies withjagged mountain spires, cliffs and towering gray masses of rock.

  And mingled with it, in a general way coincidental with it in theplane of the same space, we could see now the tenuous shapes of ourown world. Vague, but familiar outlines! We had passed Sandy Hook!The ocean lay behind us. A hundred feet or so beneath us was thelevel water of the Lower Bay.

  "Don!" I murmured. "Look there! Long Island off there! And that'sStaten Island ahead of us!"

  "Almost at our destination," Tako observed. And in a moment hegestured again. "There is your city. Have a good look at your dearNew York."

  * * * * *

  Diagonally ahead through the window we saw the spectres of the greatpile of masonry on lower and mid-Manhattan. Spectres of the giantbuildings; the familiar skyline, and mingled with it the ghostlygray outlines of the mountains and valley depths of Tako's world.All intermingled! The mountain peaks rose far higher than thetallest of New York's skyscrapers; and the pits and ravines werelower than the waters of the harbor and rivers, lower than thesubways and the tubes and the tunnels.

  "Another carrier!" Don said abruptly. "See it off there!"

  It showed like a great gray projectile coming in level with us. Andthen we saw two others in the distance behind us. Fantastic, ghostlyarrival of the enemy! Weird mobilization here within the space ofthe doomed New York.

  "Can they see us?" I murmured. "Tako, the people down there onStaten Island--can they see us?"

  "Yes," he smiled. "Don't you think so? Look! Are not those ships ofwar? Hah! Gathered already--awaiting our coming!"

  I have already given a brief summary of the events of the days andnights just past here in New York. The terror at the influx ofapparitions. The panic of the city's teeming millions struggling tooeagerly to escape.

  It was night now--the night of May 19th. The city was in chaos, butnone of the details were apparent to us as we arrived. But we couldsee, as we drifted with slow motion above the waters of the harbor,that there were warships anchored here, and in the Hudson River.They showed as little spectral dots of gray. And in the air, levelwith us at times, the wraiths of encircling airplanes were visible.

  "They see us," Tako repeated.

  They did indeed. A puff of light and up-rolling smoke came from oneof the ships. A silent shot. Perhaps it screamed through us, but wewere not aware of it.

  Tako chuckled. "They get excited, do they not? We strike terror--arethey going to fight like excited children?"

  * * * * *

  We were under sudden bombardment. Fort Wadsworth was firing; puffsshowed from several of the warships; and abruptly a group of ghostlymonoplanes dove at us like birds. They went through us, emerged andsped away
. And in a moment the shots were discontinued.

  "That is better," said Tako. "What a waste of ammunition."

  Our direction was carrying us from mid-Manhattan. The bridges toBrooklyn were visible. Beyond them, over New York, mingled withteeming buildings was a mountain slope of Tako's realm. I saw one ofour carriers lying on a ledge of it.

  A sudden commotion in our car brought our attention from the sceneoutside. The voices of girls raised in anger. Tolla's voice andJane's! Then came the sound of a scuffle!

  "By what gods!" Tako exclaimed.

  We all leaped to our feet. Tako rushed for the door of thecompartment with us after him. We burst in upon the girls. They werestanding in the center of the little room. One of the chairs wasoverturned. Jane stood gripping Tolla by the wrists, and withgreater strength was forcibly holding her.

  As we appeared, Jane abruptly released her, and Tolla sank to thefloor and burst into wild sobs. Jane faced us, red and white offace, and herself almost in tears.

  "What's the matter?" Don demanded. "What is it?"

  But against all our questionings both girls held to a stubbornsilence.