Doomed Planet

by Lee Sheldon

  "It's possible," Lool said. "This vaporizes all matter, animate and inanimate.''

  Angry yells came from below them where the other men were recovering from their shock. Jeff saw paralyzer guns hissing their charges up at them, but he felt nothing.

  "Keep the door closed," Lool warned. "These machines were built to repel all small weapons such as that. Turn this machine toward them."

  Jeff started touching the buttons and watching the response of the machine as it began turning toward the people crowded around the mouth of the cave.

  The anger in the Illustrians' faces turned to fear as they saw the machine swinging slowly their way; with one accord, they rushed toward the cave, shoving each other in their haste to get inside.

  "Now what?" Woody asked.

  "We've got to get Sue and Meredith and Peter in here," Jeff said.

  "Those men at the mouth of the cave will use their paralyzer guns on them if they try to climb into this machine," Woody argued.

  Jeff considered that for a moment, then he turned to the panel of lights. He had discovered the lights that made the machine move. Now he touched the one that sent the machine in reverse, backing away but keeping the muzzle end of the vaporizer aimed directly at the cave.

  When he had backed far enough to be out of range of the small paralyzer guns, he stopped and opened the door of the cab.

  "Circle around and come over here," Jeff called to Sue and the scientists. "Keep out of sight of the cave mouth."

  He saw the two men and Sue leave their hiding places and hurry along the slope above the cave. None of the Illustrians moved out to bother them. Jeff had his finger close to the big blue light in case they did.

  It was a tight squeeze to fit three more persons into the cab that had been meant for only two small Illustrians, but they all got in and closed the door.

  "What are we going to do now?" Meredith asked as soon as the door was closed.

  "We're going to the spaceport and destroy those ships," Jeff said.

  He pressed the forward light and the big machine began lumbering slowly toward the complex. Jeff wasn't sure just where the spaceport was, but he knew it was somewhere just outside the walls of the complex. Once he reached the wall, he would travel along it until he came to the port.

  Lool sat staring ahead glumly for a short time after they left the cave. Then he looked up at Jeff and Woody and Sue as though he had just reached a major decision.

  "You deserve to live," he said. "If you are a sample of the people on your planet, they deserve to live, too."

  Jeff turned to look at Lool. "What do you mean by that?"

  "It's not easy for me to destroy my own people," Lool said, "even after what they've done to me. But I've seen nothing bad in you. Vaporizing the spaceships will keep Dood and his selected few from getting to Earth, but it will also mean your own destruction. Maybe I can send you home."

  "How?" Woody and Sue chorused.

  "Every spaceship at the port is programmed for Earth. That is the next scheduled trip for all of them. If you can get in one of them and take off, it will take you home."

  "Never thought of that," Woody said.

  "First we have to get to the spaceport and then we have to get in one of the ships," Jeff said. "Then we have to touch the right buttons to make it take off. What do you think these Illustrians are going to be doing all that time?"

  Woody's elation faded. "Look," he said, pointing behind them. "Here they come."

  The Illustrians had come out of the cave and were following them from a safe distance.

  "They can't touch us with the weapons they've got," Jeff said.

  Lool pointed ahead and to the right. "Go this way. It will get you to the spaceport quicker."

  Jeff made the adjustments in direction, glancing back once in a while to watch the crowd following the big lumbering machine.

  "We're safe in here," Woody said thoughtfully. "But how do we get from this machine into one of the spaceships?"

  Jeff didn't answer; he wasn't sure there was an answer. Ahead he had spotted the spaceport; even at this distance, he could see the big crowd already out there. Apparently, word had reached the Illustrians in the complex of the happenings out at the cave of the dead, probably through some means of com¬munication with the men at the cave.

  Jeff looked for another vaporizer machine. If they had one and kept it inside the complex until Jeff had this one close enough then suddenly brought it out, very likely it could vaporize them before they could turn their gun muzzles toward it.

  The crowd of Illustrians rushed out to meet the vaporizer machine, waving at it to halt; but Jeff didn't slow down. Seeing that it was coming on, the Illustrians turned and fled back to the spaceport.

  "I don't see any other machine like this," Jeff said.

  "I think they had only three that would work," Lool said. "If so, we have the upper hand. Nothing can destroy one of these except another vaporizer, or one of the big weapons they have, and they don't dare fire one of those on the planet."

  In spite of Lool's reassurance, Jeff kept scanning the wall for a big gate that might open to let out an¬other of these huge machines. There were several spaceships on the field, but nothing that looked dan¬gerous to Jeff.

  Suddenly Lool pointed to a small ship sitting at one end of the port. It was giving off a soft blue glow. "That one is activated," he said. "Head for it."

  "How come it's ready to go?" Jeff asked as he wheeled the big machine toward the little ship.

  "Probably it is the one they intended to use to send your two scientists to Earth in case they recaptured them."

  "Is that the only one ready to go?" Jeff asked, look¬ing over the field.

  ''That big warship over there is just being started. It is equipped to carry a thousand people. But it's primarily a battleship."

  Jeff saw the huge ship Lool pointed out. A very dim blue glow was showing around its base. Jeff wasn't interested in it; the small ship would easily carry all the passengers Jeff wanted to take back to Earth with him.

  The crowd of Illustrians, joined now by the peo¬ple who had been out at the cave, gathered in a huge mob on the field well behind the vaporizer. They were following the machine, getting closer all the time; Jeff was sure that they had guessed what the Earth people had in mind.

  "Can they stop us?" Jeff asked Lool.

  "I think we can make it if we time it right," Lool said. "When we get as close to the ship as we can go, stop and turn this machine around so it's facing that mob. Then we'll get out and go to the ship. One of us will stay here. As long as there is the threat that the vaporizer beam will be used, they'll have to stay back."

  "How about the last one across?" Woody asked.

  "That will be a race," Lool admitted. "See this panel? Whoever leaves last must jerk this panel out and bring it along."

  "What is it?" Jeff asked.

  "That is the activator. Without it, this machine will go dead. If we leave this thing activated, they'll use it to vaporize the spaceship before we can lift off."

  "Pleasant thought," Woody said. "Who stays?"

  "I will," Jeff said. "Lool will have to go to the spaceship to make sure everything there is ready for lift-off. We wouldn't know what to do. He will."

  The only argument was from Sue, and she soon saw the necessity of doing it this way.

  Jeff pulled the big machine up close to the spaceship, then touched the lighted button that turned it around. As it was turning to face the mob, the people beat a wild retreat toward the complex wall. Lool opened the door and led the way down the ladder and over to the spaceship. Jeff saw the Illustrians running to either side, and he realized that they were spreading out where the vaporizer's beam could not reach them all. They would charge at him once they were in position, Jeff realized. He could vaporize everyone in front of him, but the machine turned so slowly that some of them would get to him. Everything depended on getting across to that spaceship before the Illustrians had time to spread out a
nd charge him.

  Jeff watched impatiently as the others scrambled down the ladder and over into the spaceship. Lool had gone ahead to check the readiness of the ship; now, as Peter, the last one, climbed aboard, Lool reappeared at the door, motioning for Jeff to come.

  Jeff looked at the Illustrians getting ready to charge him; they would be coming any minute now. Grabbing the panel that Lool had indicated, he gave a jerk. The panel came out in his hand. The blue glow faded in the ship and the faint hum died.

  The Illustrians, seeing the light go out, sent up a shout that echoed over the field and charged forward. Jeff lunged for the door and went down the ladder so fast that he half fell the last few steps.Turning, he sprinted for the spaceship. He reached it and leaped through the door.

  Lool touched a button and the door started to close, moving with agonizing slowness, it seemed to Jeff. Lool was pressing other lights at the same time. The second the door was sealed shut, a whine filled the cabin and the intensity of the blue light began increasing.

  "Well soon be lifting off," Woody said, speaking like a veteran space traveler.

  "None too soon," Lool said, watching the onrushing mob. "That many people could beat in the sides of this ship."

  "They could?" Jeff said in amazement. But remembering the terrific strength in their arms, he didn't doubt it; there were a lot of people out there.

  However, when the first Illustrians came within a few yards of the ship, they were thrown back. Jeff sighed with relief; the force field that had knocked him down back on Earth had been built up around them now. The mob couldn't get close to the ship.

  As those inside the spaceship began to get weightless and the craft lifted a few inches off the ground, Jeff noticed the big warship increasing the brightness of the glow around it.

  "Is it taking off, too?" Jeff asked.

  Lool nodded in alarm. "Looks like it. Apparently they plan to follow us and shoot us to pieces once we get out of the gravitational pull of the planet."

  "I suppose that ship has some of those big weapons," Jeff said in despair.

  "Big enough to blast this ship apart," Lool admitted. "There won't be a piece left as big as your hand."

  "Do we have any weapons on this ship?"

  "We've got some small ones," Lool said. "All space vehicles are equipped with weapons to protect themselves on long journeys. But the weapons we have compare with the weapons that warship has the way those paralyzer guns compare with the vaporizer machines."

  "So near and yet so far," Meredith said despairingly. "We almost made it. I suppose that big ship is more maneuverable, too."

  "Very much so," Lool said. "It is also much faster within the limited range. All space vehicles have the same speed once they go into space drive."

  "Maybe we can get up our full speed before they can overtake us," Woody said hopefully as the ship began its climb.

  Lool shook his head. "Not much chance. If we could, of course, we could escape because we would be traveling much faster than their missiles can. But they will strike long before we can accelerate to our maximum speed."

  Lool motioned Jeff over and explained the controls to him. He showed him which lever to touch so that the ship could be maneuvered by manual control. Once the lever was released, the ship would automatically revert to its present course, a direct path to Earth.

  They were moving up very rapidly when Jeff saw the warship begin to rise, too. They were far in front of it but he saw within seconds that the race wasn't going to be equal. The warship closed the distance between the two ships as effortlessly as a child moving two blocks together on a table.

  The big warship came within half a mile and there it held its position, matching its speed with that of the little ship. Jeff saw the portholes in the lower part of the big ship slide open.

  "What's that?" he asked Lool.

  "The gun ports," Lool said. "But they won't fire yet. We're still too close to Illus."

  "How many missiles do we have?" Jeff asked.

  "Four," Lool said. He pointed to the four buttons. "These are the firing buttons. These yellow lights next to them open the portholes. This one at the end is our biggest missile. However, it is pretty small compared to the ones that warship has."

  "Any chance of dodging their missiles?"

  Lool shook his head. "They all have detectors in their noses to locate their targets and latch onto them."

  "When will they fire?" Jeff asked next, an idea coming into his mind.

  "Not until we are out of the gravitational pull of Illus."

  Jeff touched the button that opened the porthole over the biggest missile the little ship had. When Lool looked questioningly at him, he said, "We want to be ready. They are."

  Lool nodded. Jeff looked at the sighting device that had come up out of the panel when he pressed the button opening the porthole. Peering closely into the sighter, he saw that it was something like the finder on a camera. It showed a picture of what the missile would hit if fired.

  "Maybe we ought to get them in our sights, too," Jeff suggested.

  Lool touched a couple of buttons and the big warship came into the center of the finder Jeff was watching. Before Lool could object, Jeff reached up and touched the fire button. The ship shuddered as the missile left it.

  "It's our only chance," Jeff explained to Lool. "Hit them before they have a chance to hit us."

  Jeff looked out. The missile was much larger than he had expected. He could trace it easily as it knifed through the half mile toward the big warship. The big ship saw it coming and took immediate evasive action, but the homing device on the missile caused it to alter its course and keep after its target.

  "They're firing at us!" Woody suddenly yelled.

  Jeff saw the huge missile launch out from the big ship, but the missile from their own ship had struck the warship at just that instant. The big warship wasn't destroyed by the explosion, but it began spinning, completely out of control.

  Jeff wasn't watching the ship, however. His eyes were latched onto the missile the big ship had launched just as it was hit. The missile was not on course because the big ship had been jarred off target, but it was still coming in their direction.

  "Its homing device will latch onto us," Jeff yelled.

  Lool pressed several buttons while holding down the manual control lever. The little ship shot forward so fast that even its gravity balancing mechanism couldn't counteract the sudden pull. The passengers were all thrown down except Lool, who stayed at the control panel.

  Jeff scrambled to his feet and looked back. The missile was streaking along, but not changing direction to follow them. It had been too far off course to latch its homing device onto its target before Lool shot their little ship out of the area with a burst of speed.

  "It's going to miss us." Sue said in a whisper.

  "Look at their ship," Woody said. "It's spinning like a top. What will happen to it?"

  "It will eventually crash on the planet," Lool said. "They're still within the pull of Illus."

  Jeff switched his attention to the missile. "And so will the missile," he said. "What then?"

  Lool shrugged and spread his hands. "That will make a bigger explosion than the comet would have."

  Lool released the lever and the ship returned to its preset course and speed, slowing rapidly. Jeff watched the missile streak across the sky over Illus while the big warship tumbled helplessly after it.

  Lool touched another button and a telescope came out. Jeff glued an eye to it, then yielded it to the others.

  "Destroyed by their own hands," Sue said in awe as Jeff explained to her what would happen.

  It was twenty minutes later that Jeff saw the explosion when the missile struck the planet. Within seconds there were fiery eruptions in all directions.

  "I didn't believe an explosion could do that to any planet," he said, yielding the telescope to Meredith.

  "Nothing will be alive on Illus ten minutes from now," Meredith predicted as he turn
ed the telescope over to Peter.

  "The whole planet is building up to one terrific explosion," Peter said as he looked.

  Jeff and Sue and Woody stood with their faces glued to the transparent panels, looking back at the increasing light caused by the eruptions on Illus.

  Suddenly Jeff felt a jolt as the ship yawed for an instant, then righted itself. There was an audible click inside the ship.

  "What was that?" Woody asked.

  "Maybe we hit a meteor," Meredith said.

  Jeff had the answer as he looked around; the controls were on their preset course but no one was by them.

  "It's Lool," Jeff said. "He's slipped into the outer compartment and let himself out."

  "He'll be killed!" Sue exclaimed.

  Jeff nodded. "That's what he wanted. His own people had turned him out to die. Now they are all dead and his home planet is destroyed. He didn't want to go to a strange world to live, so he chose his own method of dying."

  "He saved us in doing it," Sue said.

  "He saved Earth from invasion, too," Meredith added.

  Sue shuddered, and Jeff reached over to comfort her. "It's the way he wanted it, Sue," he said. "Before we know it now, we'll be home. We'll try to forget the Illustrians the way we saw them that first night. When we think of them, we'll think of Lool with his kind face. I think he'd like it that way.”

  About the Author and This Edition

  Doomed Planet is a book that's near and dear to our hearts. When we first began this rather ambitious project, well before we knew how large it would grow, and how quickly, Doomed Planet was one of the very first books we came across. From the start it seemed like the perfect example of the type of work we wanted to save.

  We started with a title and a name, and thanks to the magic of the internet, it didn't take long to discover that Lee Sheldon, writer of a single obscure sci fi novel in the 1960s, was in fact a pseudonym of Cyril Wayne Lee, who wrote most often as Wayne C. Lee, and was a prolific writer indeed. Remembered on the occasion of his passing in 2011 as an "author, rural mail carrier and musician," Lee was perhaps best known for his westerns (and in fact Lee served as the president of the Western Writers of America for a spell), many of which remain in print to this day. During a writing career spanning nearly four decades, Lee wrote 55 books, over 700 stories, plays and other short works, and he also wrote over 400 songs.