by Lee Sheldon
"What can we do, Jeff?" Sue whispered, clinging to his arm.
"Maybe they'll reach out with long tentacles and grab us," Woody whispered.
"They're men just like us," Jeff said.
The six strangers began to chatter among themselves.
"What language is that?" Woody asked. "That doesn't belong on Earth."
"There are hundreds of languages in the world that we've never heard," Jeff said. "They're built a little like the Australian bushmen."
"The bushmen don't have flying machines like that one."
Jeff couldn't argue that point. He knew they should be trying to get down off this mountain where they could get help in town; but somehow it seemed useless to try to get away from these men.
Suddenly the chattering of the six strangers stopped and the tall one stepped a little closer.
"You will come with us," he said in English.
Jeff was amazed that the man knew the language. His voice was a little harsh, and there was a peculiar burr in his words, but Jeff understood him.
"What do you want with us?" Jeff asked finally.
"We will make friends," the stranger said. "My name is Dood."
Jeff glanced at Woody and Sue; he could see in their faces that they didn't believe any more than he did that the stranger wanted to make friends. Perhaps his words were meant to be friendly, but the expression on his face could never be erased by friendly words.
"Where are you from?" Jeff asked.
Dood turned to his companions and for a moment they chattered in the strange language; then he turned back to Jeff. He shuffled forward and the other five came right behind him.
"We will make friends," he repeated as though it were a record.
"Tell us where you're from," Jeff insisted.
"We're from Earth, the same as you."
If Jeff needed further proof that they were not from Earth, that was it, nobody who belonged here would name the planet as his home. He'd say he was from some specific country and be proud of it.
Woody had backed against the car. Now he whispered to Jeff. "I've got that wrecking bar you had in the back seat. Let's rush them. They're not so big."
"There are too many of them," Jeff whispered back. "Wait for a break."
The strangers huddled together again and chattered in their strange language. Then the leader, Dood, turned and motioned to them, a fluid sweep of his long arm. "Come and we will show you our ship."
"I'm as close to that ship as I want to be," Woody said quickly.
The strangers moved forward easily. "Come," Dood said again.
"We'd better do it," Jeff said softly. "Just you and I. Maybe Sue can get away and bring help from town."
Jeff stepped forward, and Woody followed reluctantly. Dood looked past them to Sue. He motioned toward her. "Come, too."
"We'll come," Jeff said, "but she stays here."
"She comes," Dood replied, and the strangers moved forward quickly.
Almost before Jeff realized what they were doing, the men had closed in around them. Sue screamed. Jeff wheeled to try to protect Sue, and Woody leaped forward with the wrecking bar, swinging it at the nearest stranger.
The die was cast; it was a fight now. For a moment Jeff felt exhilarated. The uncertainty was gone; he was trying to do something about their situation.
But that exhilaration didn't last long. Jeff struck out at the nearest stranger and hit him. He rolled backward but another moved in quickly, wrapping his arms around Jeff like strong rubber bands. It was an eerie feeling.
Jeff fought desperately but the stranger was strong and Jeff couldn't break his hold. Those arms were unlike anything he had ever encountered. There didn't seem to be a bone in them; they were more like pliable plastic tubes, wrapping around him so snugly there was no place to get hold to break their grip. Where one arm crossed his neck, it felt to Jeff like warm rubber or plastic.
He twisted around and saw Woody entwined in long flexible arms, too; even Sue was wrapped up. He expected her to be in hysterics, but she was silent, although her face was blanched from fear.
As quickly as the fight had started, it was finished. The man Jeff had knocked down was on his feet, watching the three who were holding Jeff, Woody and Sue prisoners. Dood looked from one to the other and shook his head. "That is no way to make friends."
"I don't think much of your method, either!' Woody retorted. Now that he had been involved in some action, his fear seemed to have been pushed into the background.
Dood turned and chattered to his companions. They replied and Dood shook his head; then he stared up at the sky before turning back to Jeff. He spoke to his companions again and another man wrapped his arms around Jeff, holding him so he could barely move. Dood stepped forward and ran his rubbery hands slowly over Jeff's face, pressing against each bone and contour of his features.
"Measuring us for death masks?" Woody grunted.
The strangers ignored Woody and continued to press and pinch Jeff's face. Finally Dood shook his head and turned to Woody. Another one of the strangers wrapped his arms around Woody and he got the same treatment that Jeff had received.
Then they stepped back from the two, leaving only one man holding each. Dood moved up to Sue then and began the same process. Sue screamed. Jeff struggled to break free of the man holding him but he couldn't break the grip of the rubbery arms.
The strangers seemed to find something more to their liking in Sue's face. They gently rubbed their hands over her soft skin and chattered to each other. A new fear, deeper than any he'd felt so far, gripped Jeff; the strangers apparently had examined Woody and him and rejected them, but they seemed to like Sue.
He struggled harder than ever, but with no more success than before. Dood turned toward the ship and motioned for the others to follow him. As he shuffled along, Dood looked up again. Suddenly he stopped and everyone halted as though obeying a command.
For a moment, Jeff didn't understand the reason for the halt. Then he heard it, the thin whine that he'd heard just before this strange ship had landed. He looked up. He saw the dim blue glow in the sky and then another ship grew rapidly in size as it settled down beside the one already in the area beyond the parking lot.
For a while the ship just sat there as the first one had done, the blue glow gradually dimming. Then Dood moved forward again and Jeff was dragged after him; he saw Woody and Sue being brought along toward the ship, too.
The door of the ship that had just landed opened and more strangers, exact replicas of the ones already here, got out. They came forward to talk to Dood. It was obvious to Jeff that Dood was somebody important among these strangers; he gave the commands, even to the men of the ship that had just landed.
The strangers chattered among themselves in their own language. But Jeff knew that Dood, at least, could speak and understand English. Where could he have learned it if he didn't come from some place on Earth?
The newcomers took their turns examining the faces of Jeff and Woody. Then they, too, spent twice as much time running their slender fingers over Sue's features, mumbling and nodding their heads. Jeff didn't like it at all.
The strangers then turned toward the two ships. Dood barked out some orders and they moved forward. Jeff saw that he and Woody were being taken toward the first ship that had landed while Sue was being led toward the other one.
"What's going to happen to us?" Woody whispered, his voice a croak.
"I think we're going to find out where they came from," Jeff said softly.
Woody tried once more to break away, but Jeff saved his strength. He was convinced now that his strength was no match for these strangers. If he got out of this, he would have to use his brain, not his muscles.
They reached the ship and were pushed inside. The interior appeared to be just one big room. One side of the room was a solid bank of blinking lights. He supposed that was the instrument panel.
But he had small interest in the mechanism of the ship now; the ship would
lift off soon and he had to find some way to get out of it before that happened. He examined his surroundings. One of the first things he noticed was that many of the exterior panels of the ship were transparent, just as he had thought when he saw the ship land. The panels weren't glass; they appeared to be some very durable material resembling clear plastic. The hull of the ship was a network of these panels, most of them transparent.
Jeff was pushed into a seat and held there by the rubbery arms of his captor. Dood moved up to the panel and began touching the different lights.
Jeff realized almost instantly that something was wrong. Dood's grotesque mouth twisted even more and he wheeled to chatter at a companion standing before another section of the lighted panel. Others of the crew gathered around. Dood touched an orange light time and again, finally pressing it hard.
The strangers all stared at the door and Jeff realized that the door wouldn't close. It gave him some satisfaction to find that the strangers couldn't do everything perfectly like well-programmed machines. They had failures and troubles like ordinary people; if they were that near human, there surely must be some way to outwit them.
Suddenly Dood turned and barked something into a small hole in the panel that Jeff guessed was a microphone, then turned and went out the door. Jeff was lifted to his feet and shoved outside again.
They were pushed across the area to the other ship, which was glowing brightly. But as they crossed the space, the glow dimmed and the door opened just before they reached it. Three strangers came out and held a rapid discussion with Dood.
Jeff looked through the transparent panels of the ship and saw Sue. She saw him, too, but both were held by their captors and all Jeff could do was nod at her, hoping he could convey some courage and hope to her, although he had little of either to offer.
Then the strangers began going into the ship, Dood leading the way. But suddenly, just before Jeff and Woody were pushed inside, Dood stepped to the door and gave another order. All the strangers except the two holding Jeff and Woody went inside.
Then, without warning, Jeff and Woody were turned toward the observatory and given a shove. They sprawled on their faces and before they could get to their feet, Jeff heard the whining again.
Jeff jumped up and turned toward the ship. The door was closed but he could see Sue through the transparent panels. Stark terror was in her face and he understood why. She was on the ship with only the strangers as companions, and they were getting ready to lift off.
Jeff saw the blue glow of the ship increase until it was almost blinding. The ship lifted a foot off the ground and stopped there. Jeff could see that the passengers inside appeared almost weightless. He started running toward the ship but ten feet from it, he hit something that felt like an invisible wall. He tried to force his way forward but he was shoved off his feet.
Then as silently as a summer breeze except for the whine, the ship lifted up and rapidly dwindled to a speck of blue light; then it was gone.
Jeff stared at the sky as if he were awakening from a nightmare. Woody's sigh, almost a whimper, broke the spell.
"They took Sue. Now what do we do?"
"We've got to get her back," Jeff said hollowly.
"How?" Woody demanded.
The question jarred Jeff back to reality. Getting Sue back was of primary importance, but standing here and staring off into space wasn't going to accomplish anything. He thought of the radio, but that would do no good. That ship wouldn't return unless those strange men wanted to come back.
"We've got to tell Mr. Trillingham," Jeff said. "Maybe he can help."
Woody shook his head. "He'll never believe it. He doesn't have much imagination."
"I know, but Mr. Trillingham publishes a newspaper. Surely he'll remember those five robbers who were killed on the desert a few years ago. They looked just like those strangers. Maybe he can tell us something that wasn't printed in the papers. We've got to find out who they are and where they're from."
Jeff wasn't surprised when his car started with the first flick of the starter. He drove down the mountain and off the highway to John Trillingham's house. Woody went with him as they ran up the steps and rang the bell. John Trillingham opened the door.
"You're back early," he said. "Where's Sue?"
"That's what we came to see you about," Jeff said. He tried to think of some easy way to explain what had happened but there wasn't any easy way. In fact, there wasn't any way at all to make it sound logical. So he blurted out the whole story of what had happened since they left the house earlier this evening. John Trillingham's face showed the shock the news gave him but there wasn't the unbelief that Jeff had expected to see.
"My own daughter!" he moaned when Jeff stopped talking.
"You can't feel any worse than I do," Jeff said. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have taken her with me tonight."
"I'm not blaming you," Trillingham said. "I imagine that radio beam you were broadcasting did direct their ship to you, though. I have been expecting it to happen somewhere. But my own daughter!"
"You've been expecting it? Do you know who those strangers are?"
Trillingham sighed. "No. Nobody knows who they are, but we've seen some of them before. And we were sure they would come again. Remember those five robbers who were killed a few years ago in the desert?"
Jeff nodded. "I was going to ask if you knew anything about them that wasn't printed in the papers. These strangers looked exactly like them."
"Those five were killed by the sheriff's posse, you know. I heard the sheriff himself say that they had no good reason for killing them. It was just that the men panicked when they saw the faces of the robbers. We ran a big spread on that story with pictures of the five dead bandits. Then the authorities stepped in and made us squelch every item that even referred to the incident."
"Why?" Jeff prodded. "What did the authorities find out?"
"They didn't find out much. The five couldn't be identified. The authorities tried to take fingerprints, but they didn't have fingerprints. Laboratory tests were run on them but the only thing the tests proved was that the bandits didn't belong to the human race as we know it."
"Then they really are from another world!" Woody said in awe.
Chapter III
Jeff felt a chill run over him as he realized that there could be no doubt that the strangers who had dropped out of the sky were actually from another planet. In the back of his mind he had clung desperately to the faint hope that it was all just a bad mistake of some kind; but John Trillingham's words had squelched that hope.
"Where are they from?” he asked finally.
"We don't know," Trillingham said. "Maybe from some planet in our own solar system or some other solar system in our galaxy. Or maybe even from another galaxy."
"That's impossible," Jeff said. "Those other galaxies are too many light years away."
Trillingham shook his head as if still in shock. "It seems impossible that they could appear here at all, but they did. We don't know how many times they have appeared. We don't know what kind of ships they come in. We don't know what kind of drive those ships have. So why is it impossible for them to come from some astronomical distance?"
Jeff didn't have an answer for that, any more than he had an answer for anything else that had happened tonight. But he did want to know everything that John Trillingham could tell him about the strange visitors. Maybe somewhere in the story would be a clue that would help. Doing nothing while Sue was being taken away to another world was driving Jeff out of his mind.
"We don't know much about them," Trillingham continued, "and the authorities asked us to keep secret what little we do know. But we've got to drag out every clue now, although I don't see how anything will help. They have taken Sue and that will be the last we'll ever see of her."
Jeff thought for a moment that he was going to break down, but he pulled himself together and continued.
"The authorities made us stop printing anything because it was so fantas
tic. It could easily have caused a world-wide panic if we'd printed what we knew—that the strangers were really invaders from outer space. Their bodies didn't have bones as we know them. Their arms and legs were flexible, almost like plastic or rubber, and under each arm was definite evidence of there once having been another arm or appendage of some kind. Their heads gave evidence of a superior knowledge."
"Didn't they have guns or weapons of any kind?"
Mr. Trillingham shook his head. "None. With the intelligence they seemed to have, they surely controlled superior weapons. But they didn't have a weapon of any kind with them. Except for the horrible expressions on their faces, they could have passed for one of us. It was those expressions that caused the sheriff's posse to panic and shoot. The strangers didn't give them any reason."
"Didn't any others ever come to check on what happened to those first five?"
"So far as we can prove, they haven't—until tonight. But we've been expecting them. We have set up elaborate searching systems to watch for the approach of any unidentified space object. We have found none."
"I'll bet that Meredith Woodruff and Peter Ingram were ferreted away by these strangers," Jeff said. "Probably just as Sue was taken tonight."
Trillingham nodded. "I don't doubt it. But how did they get through our radio and radar network undetected?"
Jeff jumped up. "Maybe some other observatory in the area picked up their signals tonight. Let's check."
Trillingham nodded, but the despair didn't leave his face. "Good idea. Use my phone."
Jeff quickly put in long distant calls to Lick Observatory and Palomar. Lick reported no strange signals, but Palomar said they had picked up some faint, unidentified radio signals and were checking them out now. When Jeff explained guardedly that he had received the strange signals very clearly, the voice on the other end of the line broke in excitedly and said that a team of experts would be out to the Woodruff Observatory right away.
