Wonder of the Worlds

by Sesh Heri

  Tesla went down and landed feet first on the stone platform, and the others came behind him and slowly landed in the same way. “Put your f light control switch in the first position,” Tesla said.

  They approached the stone door. It appeared to be a single, massive stone some thirty feet high by about twenty feet wide. Inscriptions were carved upon the door in an unknown language. Thousands of years of wind-blown sand had nearly eroded these carvings into a smooth surface. Tesla studied the inscriptions for a moment, and then said: “It is a memorial to the dead—and a warning to the living—to us.”

  Tesla approached the seam where the edge of the stone door fitted into its stone casing set into the volcanic rock. The seam was so precise a knife blade could not be inserted into it. “Now how are we going to get that opened?” George Ade asked. “That,” Houdini said, “is going to take some doing.” “Indeed it is,” Tesla said. “Look up there, and down here.”

  Tesla pointed to two recesses cut into the top of the door and two others cut exactly the same way about four feet up from the door’s bottom edge. “What are those?” Ade asked.

  “Drawer handles,” Lillie said. “They’re drawer handles!” “Couldn’t be,” Ade said. “Not on a thing that size.” “I think Miss West is correct,” Tesla said.

  “Sure,” Houdini said. “I can see it. Those slots are designed for pulling that rock straight out. But we’d need a crane to pull it.” “Perhaps not,” Tesla said, and he took hold of the bottom slot with his gloved hands. “Yes,” he said, “these slots were designed as handles for hu- man hands.” “How could a human being move a thing that size?” Ade asked.

  275

  “I will show you,” Tesla said, and he turned on his anti-gravity machine and flew up to one of the top slots in the door. “Mr. Ade,” Tesla said, “come up here to the other slot. Miss West, you take the slot below me. Houdini, you take the slot below Mr. Ade.” They all followed Tesla’s instructions: George Ade f lew up to the slot next to Tesla; Lillie and Houdini reached out and slipped their hands into the slots on the stone door in front of them. “Now,” Tesla said, “with your left hand on your anti-gravity switch and your right hand grasping the slotted handle, turn your anti-gravity switch to the fourth position and lean back away from the door as you do so.” They all followed Tesla’s instructions and they all felt a force tugging them away from the door, but nothing else.

  “Keep your right hand firmly grasping the slot,” Tesla said. “Don’t lose your grip. Now turn your anti-gravity switch to the sixth position—and hang on.” Once again they all did as Tesla instructed, and once again they felt a slight tugging force, but still nothing else. “I don’t think this is going to work,” Ade said. “Just a moment, Mr. Ade,” Tesla said. “Hold your position and watch.” Several more seconds passed and then— “Hey!” Houdini said, “We’re moving! The door’s moving!”

  “Hold your position, all of you,” Tesla said. “Our combined anti-gravity fields have permeated the stone door and now its mass is equivalent to ours. We will carefully draw the door all the way out as far as we can. I believe it is fitted on a sliding track.” The four aeronauts held tight to the stone door as it slid straight out from the wall of rock. The door came out of the rock like a gigantic filing cabinet. As it slid out, another door opening was revealed on the side of the massive block of stone. “Stop,” Tesla said. “Turn your f light switch back to the first position.”

  Tesla descended and Ade followed him down. They all looked at this second, smaller door on the side of the larger block of stone. The smaller door was recessed into the stone and affixed to it was a kind of wheel also made of stone. “Mr. Ade,” Tesla said, “help me turn the wheel.”

  The two of them grasped the stone wheel and tugged at it. The wheel gave way and began to slowly turn. Tesla and Ade had got the wheel to turn about a half revolution when the door to which it was attached slid open, revealing a dark interior. Tesla drew his electric ray gun from his holster, turned on the electric torch mounted atop his helmet, and went through the opening in the stone. From inside the stone block, Tesla said: “The rest of you come on in.”

  276

  Lillie, Houdini, and Ade went through the opening in the stone. Inside, all four of them stood in a small stone chamber, its walls, ceilings, and floor perfectly cut and polished. They all turned on the electric torches mounted atop their helmets. There was nothing in the chamber but a single stone lever protruding from a slot in the wall. Tesla slid the door of the chamber back to its closed position, and then turned a second wheel which was mounted on the door’s interior surface. “We are in an air lock chamber,” Tesla said, “and this lever will either open the way to the interior for us or kill us all where we stand. Shall I pull it?” “Pull it,” Lillie said. “Pull it,” Houdini said.

  “Go ahead,” Ade said. “Pull it.”

  Tesla took hold of the stone lever and pulled it all the way down along its slot in the wall. When the lever reached the end of the slot, a sliding, grinding sound began, and the f loor of the chamber began to vibrate. “What’s happening?” Houdini asked.

  “I think the entire stone is automatically retracting back into the wall of the volcano,” Tesla said. The grinding and vibrating ceased and was immediately followed by the sound of rushing air. Then another door, which no one had noticed up until then, slid open. Beyond this door was a black void. “Draw your guns and follow me,” Tesla said, and he drew his own gun and went through the open door, the electric torch on his helmet lighting his way ahead. Lillie, Ade, and Houdini followed Tesla through the door which led into a long tunnel cut into the volcanic rock. They all walked along, their electric torches on their helmets lighting the stone passage with the white glare of electric light. The shadows on the rough cut stone walls drew toward them as they moved along the passageway. The floor of the tunnel was smooth, but covered with a thick layer of fine powdered dust. They continued down the tunnel for several hundred feet and then came out into a large room cut into the rock; it was about one hundred feet high, fifty feet wide and seventy-five or one hundred feet long. In the center of the room stood a fifty foot tall stone statue of a woman seated in a cross-legged position. She was wearing an elabo- rate headdress and had three faces and six arms. One face looked to the right, another to the left, and the third straight ahead. The statue’s six arms were poised in various positions, the hands shaped into gestures suggesting some kind of sign language. “Get a load of her,” Houdini said. “She can’t decide what to do.”

  They circled about the statue and came to a fork in the tunnel. Tesla pointed the tracking machine’s steel rod ahead and the light bulb on the top of the tin box f lashed rapidly in the direction of the tunnel on the left.

  277

  “This way,” Tesla said, going forward and into the left tunnel.

  Now they moved along this other long tunnel which was also cut into the stone. This tunnel twisted and turned. After going about a hundred feet, they came upon three more forking tunnels and they all realized they were in the midst of a labyrinth. “We follow the signal,” Tesla said, and he continued forward, taking the tunnel going off to the left. They kept walking down this tunnel for about a hundred yards, and then it opened out to a large lava tube with an underground stream. The beam of Tesla’s electric torch swept the streambed and something moved in it; a white shape broke the water’s surface and a pair of wicked yellow eyes shined back up at them. “It’s a crocodile,” Tesla said, “a white crocodile.”

  The beast opened its jaws and showed a pale pink tongue and a line of needle sharp teeth. “Looks hungry,” Houdini said.

  “Flight switches in the second position,” Tesla said, floating out over the stream. The other three aeronauts followed Tesla in mid-air.

  “No dinner today,” Houdini said, passing over the jaws of the crocodile, the beast’s white snout snapping shut. They all landed on the opposite side of the stream and went into yet an- other tunnel. This tunnel began leading d
ownwards at an angle, and then, after only a few feet, abruptly turned left. The tunnel narrowed, and then opened up into another, larger chamber of rock. The beam of Tesla’s electric torch fell upon a big heap of brown fur. The heap rose up to a height of seven feet and turned around; it was a bear-like animal, perhaps some kind of sloth. It had a tiny head, glittering black eyes, a long snout, a thick neck corded with muscle, and powerful forepaws with long, sharp claws.

  The animal let out a high-pitched scream and charged forward. Tesla fired upon the beast with his electric ray gun and the beast’s forward motion was instantly arrested as it was enveloped in a blaze of fire and lightning bolts. The beast dropped to the f loor, quivered for a moment, and then lay still as smoke rose in a thin column from its blackened fur. Tesla slowly approached the dead animal and looked about the cavern. “Keep your ray guns drawn,” he said. “We are in a wilderness.” Beyond the beast, the cavern opened up further, and, as they proceeded on into it, the beam of their electric torches only dimly reached the opposite wall of rock. Above them, from the ceiling of the cavern, hung a great number of stalactites, glittering like chandeliers in the beams of their electric torches. In front of them, stalagmites rose up from the floor of the cavern like the columns

  278

  of a gothic cathedral. Beyond the columns lay an underground lake. Along the edge of the lake they saw large white rats skittering away from the beams of their electric torches. They all walked along the edge of the lake and saw finger-sized fish swimming in thick schools and leaping up above the surface of the water. A creature that looked like some kind of crab crawled along the rocky edge of the lake.

  They continued on along the shore. Looking down, they noticed that the sandy surface over which they walked had given way to a f loor of paving stones set in a tessellated pattern of black and gray rock. The paving stones led up to a wall of rock and another door with a wheel. Tesla took hold of the wheel and tried to turn it.

  “Mr. Ade,” Tesla said, and Ade came up beside Tesla and tried to help him turn the wheel. “It won’t budge,” Ade said.

  Tesla and Ade stepped back and looked at the door. “If only we didn’t have to wear these clumsy gloves,” Ade said. “Mr. Tesla,” Houdini said, “let me try it.” “All right,” Tesla said, waving Houdini toward the door. “Have a go.” Houdini approached the door and grasped the wheel with both of his hands. He stood there for a moment and did not seem to be making any progress. “That’s enough,” Tesla said.

  Houdini didn’t budge. Then slowly, the wheel moved a fraction of an inch— then another fraction.

  “He’s turning it,” Ade said.

  The wheel in Houdini’s hands slowly began turning an inch at a time, then, suddenly, Houdini yanked it all the way around in a single motion, and the door slid back, and a gust of air came through it, blowing dust and sand all around them. “Very good,” Tesla said, “very good—Houdini.” Tesla stepped through the open door.

  The others followed Tesla through the door: Houdini, Lillie, and Ade who slid the door closed behind them. They had come out upon a stone platform with a low wall; it was a sort of balcony, and as they looked down over this balcony they saw before them a cavern of gigantic proportions—and ‘gigantic’ can hardly convey the scale of that place. The f loor of the cavern lay below them by perhaps as much as a mile! It was as if they stood on the ledge of a mountaintop and looked down upon a valley thousands of feet below, a valley slumbering in the night and dimly lit by moon glow. But there was no moon here. Rather, it seemed that some of the upper walls of this underground world were encrusted with what appeared to be a kind of phosphorescent rock. Or perhaps the Martians had devised some way to electrify portions of the cavern walls to render them incandescent. Whatever the method, cause, or

  279

  mechanism, this whole vast Plutonia glowed with a faint, blue light, and, far below on the crater f loor, points of lights blazed up in patterns of rectangles and circles which suggested the blocks and streets of a city!

  Crossing level upon level thousands of feet above the city, numerous bridges spanned a space that was nearly a mile wide in places, connecting the distant walls of the cavern to those near at hand. And far below the bridges, rising up from the floor of the cavern city was a slender tower; it was perhaps a thou- sand feet high and its summit was crowned by a dome. Atop the dome was a pinnacle tower, and surmounting the pinnacle tower was set yet another, smaller dome. Coming out of and leading away from this smaller, uppermost dome were four bridges, each of the bridges leading off in a cardinal direction to- ward the cavern’s walls. Tesla held out the tracking machine and slowly swept its steel rod across his view of the underground city. When the tip of the steel rod pointed directly at the domed tower, the tracking machine’s light bulb increased the tempo of its flashes. “Follow me,” Tesla said.

  Tesla f lipped the anti-gravity switch on his belt and rose up over the wall and out into the space of the giant cavern. Lillie, Ade, and Houdini each rose up into the air and followed Tesla in his f light. Tesla f lew down toward the domed tower, and the others followed behind. As they descended, they passed over several foot bridges, but saw no one. They reached one of the four foot bridges leading to the tower. Tesla de- scended to the surface of the bridge and landed on it feet first. Lillie landed beside him, then Houdini, and then Ade.

  Tesla held up the tracking machine and pointed its steel rod at the tower’s door that lay straight ahead of them about a hundred yards away. The light bulb on the tracking machine f lickered rapidly. Tesla turned the tracking ma- chine off, retracted its steel rod, and slid the little tin box into a pocket on the leg of his air pressure suit. “Keep your guns aimed straight ahead,” Tesla said.

  “No guards. No one in sight. They appear to be expecting us and laying a trap.” Tesla began walking with his gun aimed ahead at the closed door. Lillie, Houdini, and Ade walked behind him with their guns drawn. When they got within one hundred feet of the door to the domed tower, the door slid open, and from inside the tower a flashing rainbow of light flooded out toward them. Tesla did not break his stride, but kept moving toward the door. He reached the door and went through it, and the other aeronauts came in behind him. Tesla stopped inside the threshold of the door and looked up. “My crystal,” Tesla said.

  In front of them was a circular room with an upper, circular balcony and domed ceiling. In the center of the room was a round three foot high metallic

  280

  platform. At the center of the platform was a pedestal about five feet in height. Mounted atop the pedestal was Tesla’s crystal—the “Master Crystal”—f lashing out brilliant rays of light in a rainbow of colors. The light played upon the walls and upon the domed ceiling, pulsing, shifting—yellow, red, purple, green… . “What are you waiting for?” Ade asked Tesla. “Take it!”

  “And be electrocuted?” Tesla asked. “Look at the platform. Do you see the glow? It’s surging with thousands of volts of electricity, with probably very high amperage. We have to find a way to cut its power source.” “That will not be necessary, Mr. Tesla.”

  The voice that spoke those words was deep and resonating with an accent of Yankee America mixed with a sound that was foreign even to Tesla’s ears. Tesla turned about and looked up to the balcony railing. A large man stood there looking down with a faint smile of amusement on his lips. The man was completely bald, his skin was pale, almost white, and his eyes—his eyes were as pink as a rabbit’s. He wore a simple long white robe and therefore looked like a marble statue of a Roman emperor, except that this was a statue that moved and breathed. The man stood leaning on the railing, looking di- rectly at Tesla as if Tesla were the only person in the room, and Tesla looked back up at the man and did not glance away from him for even a second. “Have we met before?” Tesla asked.

  “Let’s say we haven’t been formally introduced,” the man said, and he began to walk the circuit of the upper balcony. “You speak English very well,” Tesla said. “So do you,�
� the man said. “You come from Croatia originally, don’t you?” “You know a great deal about me.” “No, I know everything about you.”

  “This interest you have in me—should I be f lattered?”

  “Oh, definitely,” the man said, stopping and looking down again. “Of all the people of your world, I have found you the most worthy of my interest.” Houdini stepped forward with his electric ray gun aimed upward.

  The man at the balcony smiled, and said to Tesla, “Please ask your associ- ates to lower their weapons. They are unnecessary. I have no intention of harming anyone.” Tesla motioned for Houdini and the others to holster their guns, and Tesla holstered his as well. “So much better,” the man said. “So much more civilized.”

  The man on the balcony had circled around to an elevator platform. He stepped upon it and descended to the lower level. Stepping forward off the platform, the man said, “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Kel, High Priest and King of Khahera—this planet which you know by the name of Mars. Come. Come with me and I will show you my world— the world of Khahera.”

  281

  Kel turned and strolled through one of the four doors leading out of the domed tower. Tesla turned to the others, nodded slightly, and then turned and followed Kel. Lillie, Ade, and Houdini looked at each other, and then followed behind Tesla. They all came out upon one of the bridges spanning the gigantic cavern. The bridge stretched five hundred feet ahead of them and terminated under a great arch of stone set into the cavern wall. Tesla looked at the railing of the bridge as they walked along and Kel took notice.