by Earl
It dropped almost silently, as if the motors, too, were of a new design that were superbly muffled for swift, silent work. It landed, with the shortest landing run I had ever heard of, not a hundred feet from where we crouched.
At the same time, amazingly, one whole section of the dome soundlessly raised, like the flap of a tent. The ship trundled in, with scarcely a whirr of its motors.
Two robots trundled in after it, with scarcely a whirr of their motors. It was the chance we had been waiting for. We were inside!
We scurried to a corner of the dim hangar, flattening against the wall like two motionless shadows.
I congratulated myself, but too soon.
Radiance burst through the room, as some central light clicked on. The glare revealed us plainly. Half-blinded, we noticed figures stepping from the plane. They were facing us.
They could not fail to see us, against the bare wall.
Worst of all, the pitiless lare would reveal the imperfections of our human disguise. And the blasting of the tank had knocked off bits of our plastic, further exposing us. The enemy would know us instantly for robots, and probably destroy us as dangerous. Our mission was nipped in the bud!
Hopelessly, I looked around the hangar. The huge sliding door had shut fast, sealing us in. No other door was open. We were caught. Yes, we could run around, kill those here if necessary, but the rest would know then with whom they dealt. They would besiege us in this room. A fairsized gun would blow us to bits with a direct hit.
Trapped! Our only hope had been to get in, and seek hiding before we were seen. Now, with this light on, and no egress from the chamber, we were caught.
My eyes suddenly ceased looking for escape.
They turned back to the figures, whom I had given but a glance. A picture was transmitted from my eye-mirrors to my brain that jolted me much more than the tank explosion had.
In fact, I refused to believe what I saw. I told myself that something had gone haywire with my mechanical optic center. Perhaps a wire loose, or a short-circuit throwing everything out of balance. For what I saw just didn’t make sense. It was a hopeless distortion.
Yes, it must be that. But then, why was Eve staring rigidly, as though she had seen a ghost of human superstition?
I clicked shut my eyes, looked again.
This time I knew it was no mistake.
Besides, Eve’s startled gasp came to me.
“Adam!” she said. “They aren’t—aren’t—”
“No, they aren’t,” I agreed dazedly. “They certainly aren’t!”
And they weren’t.
At this point, my chronicle goes into the sheerly unbelievable. I repeat you will find no record on Earth to back me up. You will cease to believe from here on, and take the rest as fantasy conjured up in the mind of Adam Link. You will, I know. I wish I could.
In short, they weren’t human!
HOW shall I describe them, in terms you can visualize? It it hard to describe any creature unknown before. Describe a tiger verbally to a child. Then take him to the zoo to see a tiger. I’ll warrant the child will see no connection with your description.
Well, imagine first a gorilla. Then an upright buffalo with its horns. Then a surrealistic statute representing a hunchback on whom a mountain has fallen. Blend the three together—long powerful arms, horns at the top, hooves at the bottom, a bulging torso with the head set forward, and the whole thing nine feet tall. Ugly, brutal, repulsive, horned Goliaths.
Oh yes, it was manlike. That is, it didn’t have extra arms, or two heads, or tentacles, or any other distortion of that kind. It had two legs, two arms, a body, one head with two eyes, two ears, and one mouth. I think evolution, being a blind force that obeys set laws, must clothe its intelligent beings anywhere in the universe with those general features, since they are the most effective.
But all the primates, and most mammals, are built in the same plan as man. Yet there is endless variety. These beings were as different from man, in a horrible fashion, as a gorilla. They walked upright, spoke and ate with their mouths, and used their hands for manipulation. From there on, their similarly to man ceased. They were alien—utterly, nightmarishly alien.
Even I, a robot who was no more than a grotesque parody of man in metal, felt closer to human than these monsters.
And suddenly, the whole aspect of this event changed to something appallingly ominous.
“They aren’t human!” Eve was still whispering. “Adam, what does it mean? Where are they from?”
“I don’t know,” I returned dazedly, still stunned by the shock of it. “I don’t know, Eve. They’re not of Earth, that’s certain.”
Eve abruptly gave a sigh.
“Weill It isn’t a European invader after all. Won’t they be surprised and relieved to hear that, outside?”
I think I felt like striking Eve, for the thoughtless words.
“Relieved?” I grunted. “Good Lord, Eve! Don’t you get the significance of this? This isn’t a mere European power invading the Western Hemisphere. No, nothing as simple as that. This is a race from another planet, come to take Earth from all humans!”
Eve digested that, trembling.
“What shall we do, Adam?” she breathed.
I stiffened.
Three of the aliens had stepped from the ship, turning toward us. They saw us, now. Their hands leaped to holsters, drawing out a mechanism not unlike a gun. They strode forward, covering us.
“Don’t move, Eve!” I warned. “We don’t know how powerful those guns are.”
They approached with a ponderous step, on their hooved feet. Heavy and solid they must be, far heavier than a human, and far stronger. Yet they walked with a certain mincing step that indicated Earth’s gravity was trifling to them. Their home-world must have a tremendous gravity, like Jupiter.
Were they from Jupiter?
I wanted to ask, but naturally they had an alien tongue.
The foremost horned giant eyed us with green-irised eyes. He towered three feet above us.
“Two more of the Earthlings, eh?” he said in perfect English. “How did you get in? Don’t be so startled. We tuned in your radio, upon arrival, analyzed your language and learned it. We have need to talk with you—what do you call yourselves?—oh yes, humans.”
HUMANS! He took us for humans.
To his inexperienced eyes, our half-messed human guise was as good as gold. He saw no difference between us and the previous captives. Humans were new to his eyes.
Instantly, I played that advantage up, giving Eve a quick glance.
I spoke, but I didn’t say—“yes, we’re humans.” That was taken for granted. In fact, it would have aroused their suspicions. I simply recounted how we had sneaked in after the plane.
“For what purpose?” the alien demanded, then answered himself. “To spy on us, of course. You hope to escape, with your information. No prisoner can escape. We will keep you alive. We will have use for you, either for vivisection or mental study.”
He turned. “Mog, take them to the prison.”
I pondered in lightning thought.
I could charge them, at this moment, and take their guns away before they could shoot. I need not fear their obvious strength, as a true human must. But to resist now, would expose us immediately. I would have little chance to find out more of them, the fort, and their plans. Better to remain prisoner for a while, and take my chances with them later.
I let my shoulders slump, for Eve’s benefit. She caught on quickly, making no move to resist. The being named Mog prodded us with his gun, toward the other end of the hangar.
Again it was almost humorous. Any human, poking us with his gun, and meeting unnatural hardness, would know us for a robot. But Mog, having poked few humans, did not know they should all be uniformly soft.
But humor left me as we strode along. No laughing matter, at all.
These non-terrestrial beings represented a stupendous threat to Earth. Their mighty fort, their superpowe
rful guns, their easy efficiency in learning English, added up to super-science.
Eve must be thinking the same as I. If only this was the European enemy, invading America! Better that than this—invasion from space!
And outside this dome lay the world—unknowing. Unaware that soon they would be battling for existence with a foe ten times more powerful and unsympathetic than any European aggressor.
CHAPTER III
Escape from Prison
OPPOSITE the dome-door, in the hangar, was another door that now opened. Several other aliens appeared from the interior. At their head was one who by his manner and dress must be a high official, perhaps chief of the whole dome.
I haven’t mentioned clothing. The aliens wore extremely light clothing, merely shorts and a belt with all else bare, as though to them Earth climate was tropical. Moreover, it occurred to me that the dome was air-conditioned to coolness. I could not feel it directly, like a human. But my compensating thermocouple, that allows for extreme temperatures which might tighten bearings, had swung to its low side. The temperature in the dome must be about freezing.
The chief wore a broad chest band with insignia on it, and the others saluted him by touching one hand to their horns.
Our guard, Mog, began to address the chief in their native tongue, but the chief interrupted.
“Use the English tongue, Mog, for practice. It is the Earthlings’ most important language. We will have much need for it later. Now, who are these two?”
“Two humans who sneaked in after our plane, to spy, Chief Thorg. I’m taking them to the prison.”
Chief Thorg gave us his attention. For a moment, at his sharp stare, I thought he had penetrated our disguise. Then he laughed—or what I took for a laugh. It was a sort of whistling wheeze.
“These little humans,” he said, “come in all assorted shapes and sizes, and disfigurements. Look, this one has no nose.”
He pointed at me, and I realized with horror that somewhere my plastic “nose” had been knocked off. Was he playing with me, knowing our deception?
“Where did you lose your nose?” he queried.
“In a war,” I improvised hastily. “It was shot off.”
And the Chief swallowed that! He was already shrugging. He addressed Mog again.
“Your report?”
“We sailed through the stratosphere of this planet, over what I believe are called Europe and Asia continents. A short flight on this pygmy planet. Dropping low at times, we saw their cities and centers. Very backward there, as everywhere else on this world. There was some kind of war going on, I believe. It was hard to tell, as they fight with such puny weapons.”
“Yes, they have puny weapons indeed,” the Chief agreed. “Their clumsy attack, the other day, with iron tubs in the water, slow little aircraft, and paper-thin metal carts on land. They are apparently in the Metal Age.” By his tone he said “Stone Age.”
“It seems they know nothing of plastic science and atomic hardening. Well, we will soon conquer them. Take the prisoners away, Mog.”
Mog prodded us through the door and down a long corridor. We passed various other aliens. The dome must be crammed with them. Had they all come in one space ship, or several? Were more space ships arriving regularly, augmenting their forces for the grand day of victory?
Those were things I had to find out. I felt a little crushed already. One lone pair of robots against a dome full of these invaders from the void. What hopeless odds faced me?
I tried to pump Mog.
“How many of you are there here on Earth?” I asked.
“Quiet!” he growled. “Speak only when you’re spoken to, prisoner.”
A SIDE corridor branched to the large prison room. The wide face of it was simply a series of open bars. Behind the bars were the human prisoners. A hundred or so of the soldiers who had been gassed in the battle I had seen, and taken within.
The jailer unlocked the door, and Mog shoved us in.
“Join your fellows,” he laughed. “And talk over the end of your race’s rule on this planet!”
Eve and I stumbled forward in the rather dimly lit prison. The men hardly glanced up, haggard and despondent. They sat or sprawled on the cold stone, shivering and suffering. We had stumbled over a corpse laid by the door. The jailer dragged it out without a word, locking the door again.
“Pneumonia, I guess,” chattered one man to us. “Died an hour ago. The tenth one already, that way. Welcome to hell, strangers!”
I inadvertently stepped on his toe, in the close-packed chamber.
“Ouch! Damn you—” He was suddenly a wild, enraged animal, his nerves broken by the cruel imprisonment. He cracked his fist against my face—or tried to. Eve caught him by the shoulders and held him as easily as a child.
His rage gusted out in stunned incredulity at Eve’s strength. And he was suddenly peering at us closely. All the men were. Humans could not be fooled.
“Why, you’re not—not humans!” he gasped.
Others had jumped up.
“It’s the damned aliens, in disguise! Tear them apart—”
“Stop, you fools,” hissed another voice. “Can’t you see the metal in spots? It’s Adam Link the ro—
“Shut up!” I snapped quickly, shaking my head violently for their benefit. “I’m Adam Link, the spy.”
They caught on, especially when the jailer appeared at the bars. “What’s the commotion in there?”
Silence greeted him and he left with a shrug. He hadn’t heard the near giveaway. It was my sole ace-in-the-hole, to be taken as a human by the enemy.
I made my way to the far corner of the prison, out of earshot of the jailer if we talked low. The men quietly moved around me.
“Adam Link the robot!” breathed the man whose toe I had crushed. “I’m Captain Taylor, chief officer of these men. Are you with us, Adam Link? Maybe with your help we can break out and do something!”
I was a little gratified that they had heard of me and my exploits. Most humans had ignored me, or passed me off as a freak or clever toy. These men accepted me as an equal, and sought my help. I cut off these personal ruminations.
“When the time comes,” I whispered. “Right now, I have some questions. You were gassed, before capture?”
“Couldn’t have been gas,” the captain returned, puzzled. “I had my men wear gas-masks. We saw, heard, or felt nothing. All our muscles just suddenly went limp, as if paralyzed. We didn’t lose consciousness. The effects wore off in a few hours, after we were locked up here.”
Induced paralysis! Perhaps by a projected, invisible ray! My heart sank. Another manifestation of their advanced science. Whole armies and cities rendered helpless, captured without a gunshot, if they wished!
CAPTAIN TAYLOR was suddenly moaning a little. He was, after all, a young man. Recent events had been soulshaking.
“God, the shock of it—seeing these inhuman beings. Horrible creatures from another world! And we thought it was only Hitler! Why, Hitler would be our ally, against them, if he knew. It’s a wonder we aren’t all insane. Poor Jones did go. I put him out of his misery myself. Adam Link, we’ve seen enough to know the whole world is threatened. We’ve got to do something if we can!”
“Easy,” I said at the hysterical edge in his voice. “We can’t go ahead blindly. What else do you know?”
“Mighty little,” Taylor muttered. “We’ve been locked up in this ice-box all the time. They feed us from the kit-rations they picked up among our dead, after the battle. Every day a few have been taken out. They don’t return.”
I knew what happened to them, but didn’t tell Taylor. Vivisection and mental study. Humans put under the knife and microscope, like interesting little bugs, so that the aliens would know every factor of the race whose world they wanted to wrest away.
Taylor knew nothing of the dome, or the number of aliens, or their guns—things I had to know. I pondered.
“You have a plan?” Captain Taylor asked hopefully. “S
omehow I feel glad you’re here, Adam Link. You’ve got to save the human race!”
All their eyes turned to me. I was already accepted as their leader, their champion. Champion of the world, of the human race! Within me, a wild elation surged. It was good to have humans accept me at last, place their trust in me.
But still, what could I do?
“For the present,” I began, “we will lay low and—”
INTERRUPTION came, as the door grated open and three aliens stepped in. One of them was Mog again.
“We want three of you—any three,” they announced.
They grasped the nearest three men by the arms, roughly, and began dragging them away. One shrieked, struggling to escape. He jabbed his fist in Mog’s face.
The giant jabbed back. His gorillalike arm delivered a blow that knocked the human cold. Then the alien bent the limp form across his broad chest and slowly began cracking its spine.
“I am strong,” Mog boasted. Watch, as I break this wretch in half. It will teach you others a lesson.”
The other men watched in helpless horror. Some turned to me, in appeal, but they knew I did not want to reveal my identity. It was more important to save Earth, than save this man. I told myself that, for about one second. Then I acted.
“Adam, don’t—” Eve hissed.
“Let go, Eve! There are some things—”
I was there in two strides. I caught the alien by the arm, wrenching him around so that he dropped his burden. Mog glared down at me, from his height of nine feet. I was David before Goliath, a little pygmy scarcely reaching to his chest.
“You must want a taste of my strength!” he roared, pounding his fist into my chest. The blow knocked me back a full inch. I was amazed, for never before had any creature short of another robot displayed such power.
He struck again, but this time I was braced. He gave a grunt of pain as his arm went numb.
I struck back, full in his ugly face, but only succeeded in staggering him a little. I was again astonished. The blow might have snapped the neck of a human. For my second blow, I used fully half my machine-power. My arm shot out like a steampiston. The alien flew back against the iron bars with a thud.
