Doomed Planet

by Lee Sheldon

  "Look how many there are," Woody whispered. "And there's more coming. Since we don't dare shoot our guns, they'll swarm over us."

  "If they capture us here," Lool said, "they'll simply kill us and put us on the shelves."

  Chapter XV

  "They won't kill us without a fight," Jeff said grimly.

  He pulled the paralyzer gun out of his pocket. The Illustrians stopped when they saw it, their faces reflecting wild alarm. Jeff realized that they didn't know that he was aware of the danger of firing the gun in here, so he ran the bluff for all it was worth.

  Holding the gun in front of him, he moved toward the men; the Illustrians almost ran over each other in their haste to get out of the cave.

  Seeing the panic that had gripped them, Jeff stopped and let the Illustrians scramble up out of the cave then he turned and caught up with Lool and the others. He doubted that the Illustrians would come back into the cave.

  "They will stand guard at the mouth of the cave," Lool said, "until we either die here or get so hungry we are willing to be captured in return for getting out."

  "They can't stay there forever," Woody said.

  "They can if they have to and they will," Lool predicted positively.

  "This is a horrible place to be trapped," Sue said.

  "But we are safe for the moment," Meredith said. "Maybe we can think of something to do."

  Jeff looked sharply at Meredith; that was the first really rational thing he had said. Meredith seemed to be himself again, and Peter was rapidly acquiring a rational expression, too.

  "The effect of the thought control machine is wearing off," Lool explained. "Dood will have to get these men back under control of the machine before morning, or he may never gain control again."

  "Then you think they'll try to capture us tonight somehow?"

  "I expect it," Lool said simply.

  The attempt came about the middle of the night. Jeff was on guard, not having any idea what to expect; but even he was astounded at what developed.

  He first heard a faint slithering sound. When it became louder, he went over and nudged Lool. He found that Lool was very hard to waken but when the man did rouse, he was fully alert instantly. He listened to the sound for a moment then his face showed the wildest fear Jeff had ever seen on the face of an Illustrian.

  "It must be the worms," he said. "It couldn't be anything else."

  "What are the worms?" Jeff asked.

  The others were awake now and they gathered around Lool, all looking toward the mouth of the cave, the direction from which the sound was coming. Then Jeff saw something; he leaned forward to get a better view in the dim light from the burning rock.

  "What's that?" Sue exclaimed, pointing.

  "It is the worms," Lool replied almost in panic.

  Jeff saw the lead one then. It looked very much like a caterpillar in Jeff's back yard at home, except it was taller than his head and stretched out into the darkness farther than Jeff could see.

  "There's another one just a little behind that one," Woody whispered in awe. "Each one is as big as a freight train."

  "What are they?" Jeff asked Lool.

  "They are a species that are almost extinct on the planet," Lool explained, controlling his fear. "There are a few in the zoo in the complex. These two must have come from that zoo. They once were a plague on the planet. Only their slow movements allowed anything to escape them. They are flesh eaters and heat doesn't affect them. That's why they will come down here."

  "And I'll bet they're hungry," Woody said.

  "They're always hungry. The worms were sent down here to drive us out of the cave. If we don't go we'll be eaten."

  "I'm ready to go if we can get out," Sue said, shivering.

  "Wait a minute," Jeff said. "They are moving very slow. Maybe we can build a barricade of these rocks that will stop them."

  "They'll tear it down," Lool predicted. "But we can try."

  Meredith and Peter were themselves again, and now they helped the others pile up a huge barrier of rocks. It reached almost to the ceiling before the worms got to it. Jeff and the others retreated from the barrier as they heard the worms striking at the other side. Jeff could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the ease with which the worms tore down the barricade and crawled over the rocks.

  There were six people in the cave, counting Lool. They retreated, easily keeping ahead of the worms. But Lool warned that so far as he knew there was only one way out of this cave, the way they had come in. If they continued to retreat, they would eventually be trapped.

  "Maybe we'd better get around them while we can and go outside," Sue suggested.

  Jeff considered the possibilities if they did work their way around the worms and go outside the cave and surrender. He didn't like the conclusions he reached.

  "All but Meredith and Peter will be killed if we surrender to the Illustrians," he said. "Also, all the people of Earth will die if they get control of Meredith and Peter again. Maybe this paralyzer gun will stop the worms."

  "It will blow up the cave and all of us with it," Lool said.

  "That would be better than being eaten by those worms," Peter said.

  Jeff had the gun in his hand, but he hesitated to use it. In the first place, he wasn't at all sure the charge in the gun would be strong enough to stop a worm as big as that. And if Lool was right, it could blow everything to bits.

  Lool continued to lead the way farther back into the cave. Already he was deeper into the cave than any Illustrian had ever been, so far as he knew; but the worms came on relentlessly.

  Suddenly Lool stopped in his retreat and the others came to a halt as they reached him.

  "Either this is the end of the cave or I turned into a side tunnel," Lool said. "We're at a dead end."

  Jeff looked back. The mouth of this side tunnel, if that was what it was, was already blocked by the two worms.

  "I'll have to use this gun now," he said.

  Lool came up beside him. "Make sure none of the energy misses the worm. Maybe if it is all absorbed by the worm, there will be no damage to the planet crust."

  While the others crowded back against the far wall, Jeff stood his ground against the advancing worms. One was still just a little ahead of the other. It seemed to Jeff that he could see triumph in the worm's eyes, which were as big around as Jeff's fists.

  Still Jeff waited until it seemed the worm was almost towering over him. Then he squeezed the handle of the gun hard. He was sure it would take all the power the gun had to paralyze the worm.

  The worm didn't wilt as the Illustrians had when they had been hit by the beam from the gun. Jeff hadn't expected any sound, because the worms hadn't made any until now; but a low scream echoed over the cave as the worm slowly turned, rolling over and over, knocking rocks in all directions. Jeff waited until he was sure he couldn't miss then fired again. The worm threshed around harder than ever for a minute, then became still.

  "Get the other one!" Woody called.

  But the other worm had stopped advancing; it crawled over to the one that Jeff had shot and began tearing at it.

  "It's going to eat the dead worm," Meredith said. "Good. While it is occupied with that, we can escape."

  Lool agreed and led the way past the feasting worm. Jeff wondered if the worm he had shot was dead or just paralyzed. It made little difference; before the paralysis wore off, the first worm would be dead and half eaten.

  Running back the way they had come, Lool soon stopped and motioned to those behind him. "This was a side pocket. The main cave goes on back this way."

  "Won't that worm fill up on the other one?" Woody asked. "Surely he won't bother us any more."

  "Nothing can appease their appetites," Lool said. "We'll have to devise some defense or risk another explosion by killing this worm, too."

  Suddenly Jeff saw a strange light ahead. He motioned to it. "What's that?"

  Lool studied it a moment. "That has to be another opening," he said. "That is
moonlight we see."

  "Do you suppose they will be guarding this opening?" Peter asked.

  "Impossible. They don't know anything about it. We have always thought there was only one opening to this cave."

  Jeff led the way now as Lool put out the burning rock, so he wouldn't have a light when he went outside that would indicate an escape from the cave. Once outside, Jeff looked around quickly; there was no sign of life except some grazing animals nearby, none of them meat eaters.

  The others came out into the light from the three moons overhead. Lool held up one of his hands for quiet. As they listened, Jeff heard a murmur that Lool identified as the voices and shouts of the IIlustrians waiting at the mouth of the cave.

  "We aren't as far from the mouth of the cave as I expected to be," he said. "We'll have to be quiet."

  "What do we do now?" Meredith asked. "The minute we try to go across that moonlit plain, they'll see us."

  "It will be hard to go anywhere undetected," Lool admitted. "But we mustn't stay here."

  "I have an idea," Jeff said. "If we could capture one of those vaporizer machines, we could be in control ourselves."

  "Just how do you figure on capturing one of them?" Meredith asked.

  "I suggest we sneak back over this knoll to the mouth of the cave. They won't be looking for us to come that way."

  Jeff knew that this plan meant taking a tremendous risk, but he couldn't see anything to be gained by running away. According to Lool, there was no other inhabited place to go; and if the astronomers were right, this entire planet was doomed in a few months, anyway. What was the point in wandering over the wasteland, living off the berries and fighting off the meat-eating beasts?

  Jeff let Lool lead the way over the knoll toward the mouth of the cave. As soon as they topped the knoll, they saw a big pool of light. It seemed to Jeff that the Illustrians were making a carnival out of their watch. He saw a lot of people and three of the huge vaporizer machines close to the mouth of the cave.

  "They're expecting us to come out of the cave," Lool explained as they looked. "They don't think we'll let the worms eat us and they want the two scientists alive. They would probably be happy to see the rest of us dead—especially me, since they know I am helping you."

  "Just why are you helping us?" Meredith asked, and Jeff realized that he'd had no explanation about Lool's position since he came to himself.

  "Maybe it's because they turned me out to die when I wasn't ready," Lool said slowly as if he didn't quite understand himself. "Maybe it's because they wouldn't listen when I tried to get them to choose an uninhabited planet to flee to. I don't think it is right that an entire planet's population should be wiped out for the sake of so few. I'm not sure exactly why I am helping you but I know I will help as long as you have a chance to win."

  Meredith turned to Jeff. "Just how do you think you can help people back home by capturing one of the vaporizer machines?"

  "One of those vaporizers will solve the problem," Jeff said, suddenly seeing the answer clearly. "If we can get one of them and knock out the other two, we can go to the spaceport and destroy the spaceships. Without their ships, they cannot invade Earth."

  Meredith nodded approvingly. "That makes the risk we're taking worth while. Let's go."

  Jeff and Lool moved forward cautiously. As they got close to the crowd around the mouth of the cave, the light was so strong that Jeff was sure someone would look up and see them. The vegetation was thick here, but it didn't offer enough protection to satisfy Jeff.

  When they were within a few yards of the edge of the crowd, Lool motioned for a halt. Jeff was aware that Meredith and Peter and Woody were close behind him and Sue was just behind Woody.

  He looked out at the crowd. He estimated that there were over a hundred Illustrians here waiting for the excitement when the Earthpeople were driven out of the cave by the worms. The three vaporizer machines towered over the scene like giant battleships; all three machines gave off a soft blue glow. Lool verified Jeff's belief that the glow meant that they were activated, ready for immediate use.

  Two of the vaporizers had Illustrians sitting at the controls which were in the cab on the top. The other machine, closest to Jeff and Lool, was unmanned but two armed men were standing at the foot of the ladder leading up to the cab.

  Jeff turned and motioned to Woody, then hastily outlined his plan to Lool. Jeff and Woody crept forward to the edge of the vegetation surrounding the machines, leaving Lool behind. The vegetation here had been broken over and trampled under by the Illustrians waiting around the cave mouth.

  "How will we do it?" Woody whispered.

  "We'll have to jump those guards and hit their thumbs before they can sound an alarm," Jeff whispered back. "Once we get in the machine, we should be able to control things. Everybody seems interested in the cave and they're not looking this way."

  "They must hear that worm eating," Woody said. "He didn't have good table manners, you remember. But what happens if anybody sees us jump out of these weeds?''

  "That will be the end of the story for us."

  "Will we know how to run that machine if we get in the cab?" Woody asked.

  "Lool will. The second we knock out the guards, he'll run for the machine, too."

  Jeff recognized the long odds against the success of his plan, but he could think of nothing better. He considered using the paralyzer gun on the guards. But that gun gave off a peculiar hiss when it was fired; someone would be sure to hear it. On the other hand, if they could get close enough to hit those guards on the thumbs before they could voice an alarm, there would be no sound at all.

  Jeff had to wait until all attention was centered on the cave before trying to jump the guards. If even one man caught their movement when they sprang out of this vegetation, their plan would be foiled.

  Suddenly an argument arose close to the mouth of the cave. Jeff crouched lower, for now the men were almost in a circle and some of them were actually facing toward him and Woody. From the words Jeff caught, he realized that they had been listening to this grinding in the cave for so long that they had decided they must know what it was. Some were suggesting that a couple of men go down and see.

  Jeff understood everyone's reluctance to go down where the worms were. But the argument was waxing hot now, and he could see that each man who was asked was pushing the job off on somebody else.

  Eventually two men were picked who apparently were the bottom of the totem pole.

  The men selected a rock and lighted it then slowly started down the path into the cave. Jeff waited until they were out of sight and every man was straining his eyes after them.

  "This is our chance," he whispered to Woody. "Let's go."

  Rising in a crouch, Jeff sprang forward. The guard he had selected didn't realize he was in danger until Jeff was within three feet of him. As the man wheeled toward him, Jeff struck his thumb. The guard wilted like a rag. Turning, Jeff saw that Woody had had equally good luck in knocking out the other guard.

  Jeff leaped for the ladder and started climbing. Woody was only a step behind him. Jeff caught a glimpse of Lool dashing for the ladder, too.

  Then suddenly an Illustrian in the cab of one of the other vaporizers saw the movement and sounded a shrill whistle. Jeff guessed that was a warning signal.

  Whatever it was, Jeff realized that they had been sighted too soon; they weren't even in the cab of the machine yet.

  Chapter XVI

  Jeff saw the men below turn away from the cave and stare at him as he reached the top of the ladder and tumbled into the cab of the vaporizer machine. Woody was just behind him, and Lool was coming up the ladder with a speed Jeff wouldn't have believed possible of an Illustrian, especially an old man like Lool.

  But the thing that almost petrified Jeff with fear was the movement of the nearest vaporizer machine; it was turning slowly to face theirs.

  "Can one of these machines vaporize another?" Jeff asked as Lool leaped into the cab.

&
nbsp; "Of course," Lool said. "It can vaporize anything."

  "What do we do?" Jeff asked, looking at the panel of lights in front of him. It was not unlike the panel of lights in the spaceship except there were not so many here.

  "Hit that button," Lool said, pointing.

  Jeff touched the button and a whine ran through the cab. Ahead of him, he saw the two big machines were swinging more in line with them. Apparently the machines could shoot in only one direction but Jeff hadn't located any barrel to indicate where the rays came from. The machines moved so ponderously slow that it was like watching a drama in slow motion.

  "We've got to turn a little, too," Lool said.

  "They're both turning now," Woody exclaimed.

  Suddenly Lool moved up beside Jeff. Jeff stared as he saw Lool develop two hands on the end of each of his four arms. Buttons were being pushed and levers pulled simultaneously. The big machine seemed to leap alive.

  It turned slowly until the front of the cab was facing directly toward the other two machines, but those machines were facing them almost squarely now.

  "Hit the big button," Lool said excitedly, while still pulling levers and touching buttons himself.

  Jeff scanned the board and saw a large blue light. He brushed his finger over it. A blinding blue light leaped out from the machine, and dust and smoke billowed up ahead of them.

  "Again," Lool called.

  Jeff touched the light again and another blinding flash shot out, followed by even heavier smoke and dust.

  "Wow!" Woody breathed. "You sure did something, but I can't see what."

  "We vaporized the other two machines," Lool said quietly.

  Jeff saw the sadness on his face and he realized it must have been a hard decision for Lool to make, destroying his own people to save these captives from Earth.

  The cloud of smoke and vapor gradually lifted, leaving only a blank area of hard, empty ground.

  "Suppose there was anybody in line with that blast except the ones handling those machines?” Woody said.