by Jimmy Guieu
What you have to keep in mind and communicate later, Earth Friends, is that your planet is threatened on two sides: first by the invaders from space, then by man himself playing mindlessly with the forces imprisoned in matter. But the Polarians are watching over you now with me. Our mission is to deter the Denebian threat.
I’m glad to have seen you, Earthlings, and I wish you a peaceful stay in Agharti with your Polarian brothers and sisters.
The inner voice went quiet in each of their heads. The visitors bowed and left, shaken up by this Android King who secretly controlled the thoughts of the leading Earthlings and played an important role for mankind.
Leaning on the guardrail of a spiral path they contemplated the base of Agharti, dreamily, savoring the extraordinary peace of mind.
“The whole city is washed in an atmosphere and in patches of regenerative radiation,” the Polarian explained. “That’s why those who come here feel a physical and mental euphoria making them more relaxed than ever. Agharti, contrary to what you might believe, is not a strategic base. It’s a place of rest and distractions or of everything that a man or woman from the Space Legion could ask for. Of course there’s this squadron of flying saucers that we saw parked on the edge of the city, but they’re only reconnaissance ships. Most of the Polarian force is stationed off Earth.
“We come here especially to spend a nice and completely safe break, or as you would say ‘a leave’. You must have noticed that the aerial paths and roads on the ground are not generally taken except by couples. After successive separations on space or planetary missions, the Polarian couples who are romantically involved meet here in Agharti or in another base on Mars, Venus or the Moon, or even in another solar system if they want.”
Imperceptibly the bright blue light of the dome darkened into an electric blue of night. Like a giant planetarium with stars twinkling and forming constellations. They could even see there on a phosphorescent band going from one side of the horizon to the other the powdery stretch of the eternal Milky Way.
After strolling through the wide streets of Agharti for a while, Zimko and his companions stopped in front of an octagonal building, very tall with hundreds of big windows of different colors.
“We’re here in the Iltung block,” he said, entering a lighted porch. “This building is exclusively dedicated to rooms with Dream Synthesizers.”
The Polarian stepped up to a sliding door and put his hand flat against a chrome plate embedded in the wall. The door slid open silently. Zimko and Tlyka went in, followed by Yuln, Kariven and the other Earthlings. Lighted metal walls formed a cube. Automatically on entering the cube they lowered their heads to avoid hitting a staircase and looked down… which made them cry out in terror. Kariven felt a horrendous fear twist his guts. Under their feet was empty space, bottomless space and yet without any support they were standing up and not falling! Zimko turned on the lifting gravito-magnetic field. In a few seconds this shocking “floorless elevator” took them up to the 97th floor.
Kn’toog and his friend Vrin’ha welcomed them into their sumptuous apartment—oh, how different it was from the beautiful terrestrial apartments! Pictures in relief whose figures moved and acted naturally were hung on the walls. In one frame was a splendid, 3D, Polarian “Eve,” lascivious and smiling her animated smile. The realism of these bio-dioramas was striking. Movements, 3D, sounds and colors, everything was a startling reflection of life! The furniture, although very similar to the ultra-modern furniture of Earthlings, changed color and form constantly depending on what angle it was seen from.
While the young hostess in a ravishing, multi-colored two-piece bikini was chatting with Yuln and her friends, Kn’toog circulated among the guests with a rectangular box full of small, colorful cylinders. The explorers took one each and like a cigarette put it to their lips, imitating Zimko.
Angelvin was about to offer Jenny a light when the Polarian stopped him. “You don’t smoke it, Robert! It’s solid liquid. You tasted it a little while ago…”
Rather disappointed the ethnographer put away his lighter. But he cheered up right away when the solid liqueur melted very slowly between his lips—it was exquisite.
Kn’toog went over to a small control panel on the wall and pushed a red button. Without knowing what happened our Earthling friends along with the Polarians found themselves in a jungle, standing in the middle of a clearing! Heady odors and the humid heat of the green forest mingled with the cries of monkeys, the warbling of birds and, in the distance, the muffled rhythm of a tom-tom.
“Oh no, dear!” Vrin’ha complained, “Not the Earth jungle, we were just there.”
Kn’toog shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and kept enjoying the liqueur stick. Vrin’ha went to a huge, perfumed flower, parted the foliage and found the keypad of the geo-stereogenic selector, where she firmly pressed the blue button. Before the Earthlings could get over their first surprise, still as if by magic, they were transported to a sandy beach on the Pacific Ocean! Palm trees swayed on the shore, gently caressed by an evening breeze. Soft music and Hawaiian chanting floated through the scented air.
“Oh, Vrin’ha! The Pacific Islands again!” Nylak teased. “I think our friends will prefer the Dream Synthesizer.”
That said, he pressed another button on the keypad that was hidden behind a rock this time, being washed by the iridescent waves. The charming landscape disappeared, covered by thick darkness. As if born out nothingness the still blurry walls of a phosphorescent grotto took shape.
“Yuln, have you thought this through?” Zimko put his hand on his sister’s shoulder.
Thought through what? Kariven thought, intrigued.
“Yes, Zim,” she whispered, nodding her head twice.
“Be happy, little sister,” he smiled and tapped her cheek.
“What’s with all this mystery?” Kariven asked, looking around.
His friends had just melted into the darkness. Holding the Earth girls in their arms. The Polarian couples of Zimko and Tlyka, Kn’toog and Vrin’ha also faded into the expanding darkness of the phosphorescent cave.
“It’s only a mystery to you and your compatriots, Kariven. The Dream Synthesizer, as it name implies, has the ability to materialize dreams, all thought-dreams. If you and I go farther into the Enchanted Grotto—that’s the poetic name of the Dream Synthesizer—our dreams will become real.”
“But,” he pulled her to him, “isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that what we both desire… without having admitted it?”
“Yes, I desire it as much as you… But for both of us to enter the Synthesizer means… a kind of pyscho-physical union…”
“You mean a marriage?”
“Not a marriage, not as you Earthlings understand it, but something more solid than a scrap of paper with administrative scribbles written on it. For us Polarians to enter the Dream Synthesizer means that we are forever bound to each other by ‘emotional ties’.”
“That’s what I said,” Kariven kissed the girl. “It’s wonderful!”
And hugging each other, inflamed by delight in a torrent of subtle radiations, they walked into the magical maze of the Enchanted Grotto. Forgetting the world and the Universe they advanced toward the Dream, which tenaciously took hold of their minds, of their hearts, of their bodies…
Kariven, wake up! The Denebians have started the psychological war!
It was hard for Kariven to open his eyes. He closed and opened them again several times wondering where he was. Something silky was caressing his cheek. He looked to his side, without moving his head, and all the memories came flooding back to him. Yuln’s sleeping face was lying in the hollow of his arm. They were in a golden room, unbelievably luxurious, where wisps of evanescent gas, multi-colored and delightfully scented, were floating in the air. How did they get here? Was this the “end” of the Enchanted Grotto? Of the Dream Synthesizer grotto where he and the adorable Girl from Space had spent unforgettable moments?
Kariven, we’re taking off in 15
minutes, the telepathic voice of Zimko rang out his head for a second time.
The other Earthlings were as astonished as the anthropologist. One after another, they woke up in an unfamiliar place with their partners next to them. Each floundered in semi-consciousness, drowsy from the ineffable delight that, thanks to the Dream Synthesizer, would never leave them for the rest of their life.
Still, Zimko’s psychic call brought them promptly back to reality. The Denebians have started the psychological war! Departure in 15 minutes!
When they were all together in the “transformation room” of their hosts, Zimko said, “I just received a message from the King of the World. The Denebian monsters have shot down a few airplanes over the United States and Russia.”
“That’s no psychological war!” Kariven fumed.
“It is, and you’ll find out why. These wretches managed to intercept and capture a squadron of Polarian saucers between Mars and Jupiter! Then they used a diabolical trick. When the Air Force jet fighters were in sight, they sent one of these flying saucers, with its pilots paralyzed, after them. Guided by remote control the disc disintegrated one of the planes. The green monsters have obviously perfected a new technology to accomplish this exploit.
“Seeing that they were under attack the fighters shot back at the saucer, which was just drifting now, and downed it. Of course the Denebians were cruising quietly at a very high altitude and were practically undetectable. The fighter pilots, therefore, thought they had shot down a hostile saucer. In the wreckage of the ship they found the mangled bodies of the Polarians and logically concluded that they had finally unmasked the real enemies of Earth!
“This Machiavellian set-up was also orchestrated in Russia. The fact that two hostile nations, Eastern and Western, are both convinced that a common enemy attacked them, will end the cold war. They’ll even end up joining forces, without misgivings, and fall into the hands of the Denebians, whom they will take for allies come to their rescue from a distant planet! The situation is serious. We have to act quickly. Come…”
They hurried to the first aerial road and jumped on the gravito-magnetic pathway. Five seconds later they were running full speed across the underground airfield. Some Polarians, alerted by the Android who watched over the security of the world, were also running to the flying saucers parked in the base. One after another, the spaceships took off, shooting up the huge chimney out of Agharti. The squadron flew out of the giant pit and soared into the sky at terrifying speeds. The pilots had their instructions and steered their ships to specific destinations.
“We’ve been played!” Zimko raged, pacing the floor of the cockpit. “The King of the World found the location of the new Denebian base on Earth. If we had time for 20 questions, I’d let you guess… The giant disc Number 2 landed in exactly the same place as the enemy base we captured. It was so simple! While our probes and detectors were searching other continents, the new base, after being informed by the saucer that was destroyed by our giant cigar, just strolled into Australia and landed in Victoria Desert.”
General Morgan was again with his special agents called to an emergency meeting in the basements of the Pentagon. He was reviewing the situation before organizing the defense.
“Ted Sullivan was right!” he announced, pale and haggard. “Our jet fighters just shot down a flying saucer that had attacked them. Our technicians found three mangled corpse in the wreckage of the disc. Three corpses of beings that are physically identical to us but whose skin is copper or bronze. Your fears were well founded, Sullivan. There really are beings other than the reptilian pseudo-men on Earth. But contrary to what we feared, it wasn’t the green monsters who attacked us, it was the… the others, the bronze men! We have to act quickly and strike back with every weapon we have at our disposal. We have to track down these bronze men…”
“But, General,” an agent broke in, “we can’t arrest every person on the street who is really tan.”
“No, but I’m going to order a general mobilization with the support of all the police and armed forces. We’re going to put the entire territory under surveillance so that not even a doghouse will escape our search. We have to find these men from space at any cost since they must be hiding somewhere in the United States or elsewhere. With the cooperation of other countries we’ll find them and destroy them!”
Zimko’s flying saucer along with Kn’toog’s was flying over the Australian continent at 300 miles altitude. Yuln adjusted her viewer and got a close-up of the site of the Denebian base. In the heart of the desert a dot, made bright by the tele-projector, appeared on the screen. The young Polarian pressed three keys on the electronic keyboard. On the screen of a ballistic calculator a parabola of bright points lit up: the dot marking the enemy base was exactly under the curve of this parabola. Yuln pressed a button and waited.
The two flying saucers, at 30,000 miles an hour, dove toward the ground and in a fraction of a second followed the parabola drawn by the electronic calculator. Just as they were speeding like lightning over the spaceship camouflaged in the sand dune, a ghastly, purple flash lit up the desert. The Denebian base with its 500 occupants had been disintegrated. In its place was nothing but a huge crate with walls of vitrified sand.
At pretty much the same time in Alaska, France, Russia, the USA, China and Argentina, the Polarian flying saucers tracked down and disintegrated the spaceships of the green monsters that were chasing military aircraft so they could shoot them down and crash one of their captured Polarian discs.
The spaceships of the Polarians were able to save their brothers paralyzed in their own ships and freefalling after the destruction of the enemy. Grabbed by the gravito-magnetic beams they were brought back to Agharti, the permanent Polarian base under the Tibetan mountains.
Zimko stood staring, breathing calmly, and concentrating for a moment in the middle of the cockpit. After 30 seconds his face came alive again.
“All the Denebian flying saucers have been disintegrated. The Polarian pilots engaged over the various continents just sent me their reports.”
“The nightmare is over,” Doniatchka sighed, wrapping her arms around Dormoy’s neck. “We’re finally going to be able to live happily.”
“Don’t kid yourself,” the Polarian burst her bubble. “We’ve simply won the first round. It’s a fact: there are no more Denebians on Earth… at least I hope not. But in the distant galactic zone of Deneb, 400 light years away from this solar system, they still exist and are a constant threat to your planet. If their saucers were able to capture some of our ships, we can be sure that the green monsters have recently perfected some secret weapons that we know nothing about. Faced with this new factor I sent a message to the King of the World. Within an hour the Earth will be protected at 32,000 feet altitude by a neutralizing field, a protective envelope, that the Denebian flying saucers won’t be able to break through.”
Kariven took Yuln’s hands and exclaimed, “But then the world is saved! We can go back to France and, like Doniatchka said, live in peace and quiet.”
Zimko hesitated, looking at all his Earthling companions, his faithful friends who had risked their lives so many times at his side. He smiled warmly at his sister Yuln, glad to see her happy with his friend Kariven. He also watched Dormoy and Doniatchka, Angelvin and Jenny, standing together, waiting, hoping for some hopeful words from him that would seal their happiness.
Zimko took Tlyka in his arms, kissed her tenderly and turned to his companions, “Yes, Friends, we can live happily. We’re heading for France and we can set up there and hope that Fate will smile on us.”
While he was saying this, expressing a certainty that he was far from truly feeling, the Man from Outer Space sent a psychic message to General Morgan and all his special agents in the Pentagon.
Kariven and the others had not even noticed Zimko’s subtle movement to press the button of the psychophonic tele-projector. However, the message was not sent only to the US. General Gorochenko with his general staff
in the Kremlin also received it, to the great astonishment of all of them.
“No, General Morgan! No, General Gorochenko!” Zimko’s voice shouted, echoing strangely in Washington and Moscow in the ears of the highest leaders of the two hostile nations.
“The bronze men are not the enemies of the Earth. My previous order remains valid. Don’t shoot at the flying saucers. The bronze men whose corpses you recovered from the disc wreckage and examined, these men, I guarantee you, are your friends. Don’t trust the green monsters. The Earth, by a miracle, barely escaped their attacks aimed at throwing your minds into confusion. We won the first stage of this interplanetary war, but God alone knows the twists and turns of Fate.
“Peace has returned… Forget your quarrels and your hatred between nations. Love each other and be united. The threat is gone for the time being, but the Earth is not permanently safe from an invasion from outer space… Don’t ever forget this, Generals. All men are brothers and should be united.
“One day you will understand why you should be…”
Notes
1 Kaiser Motors (formerly Kaiser-Frazer) Corporation made automobiles at Willow Run, Michigan, United States, from 1945 to 1953. In 1953, Kaiser merged with Willys-Overland to form Willys Motors Incorporated, moving its production operations to the Willys plant at Toledo, Ohio. The company changed its name to Kaiser Jeep Corporation in 1963.
2 SeeThe Forgotten World, q.v. (Author’s Note).
3 Famous nightclub located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. (Author’s Note) 8588 sunset Blvd; it opened in 1941 and closed in 1958.
4 The first convention was organized by the group Flying Saucers International and took place at he Hollywood Hotel on August 16-18, 1953. (Author’s Note)
5 Air Technical Intelligence Center, an American governmental organization headquartered at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, whose purpose is to investigate all phenomena related to flying saucers. (Author’s Note). The ATIC was created in May 1951, under the direct command of the Air Materiel Control Department. In 1961 ATIC became the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) which was reassigned to Air Force Systems Command (AFSC). In October 1993, FTD became the National Air Intelligence Center as a component of the Air Intelligence Agency, and was recently renamed the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) in 2003.
