T2 Return To Mars

by Captain W E Johns

  Vargo answered that on the larger planetoids there was more air than on Mars, although it was gradually getting less.On some of the very small ones there was no air at all. On others, which were known, the air was lethal. Some planets were sterile, others fertile.

  One, reported by the Outer Survey Patrol, was a ball of glass, he averred, touching the lens of the Professor's telescope to illustrate his point. Such had been its heat, either at the time of the explosion or from having passed too close to the sun in its orbit, that the rock and sand had melted to make glass of many colours, wonderful to see. On others lived strange creatures. There was a world of mud which produced from its slime multi-tudes of creatures that no words could describe.

  Without heads, arms, legs or eyes, they were just bodies, flat shapes so soft that they lived by absorbing each other. When one of these monsters reached a certain size it broke into a number of small pieces and the process began all over again.

  When he went on to say that there was a world on which the trees fought each other Rex understood why Vargo had shown no surprise at what had happened on Mars. The form of life on every planet, declared Vargo, depended on the conditions in which it had been created - the soil, the liquids and the atmosphere.

  What's more important is what sort of reception are we likely to get when we land in your home town?' put in Toby.

  Vargo assured him that they had nothing to fear. The Council would be glad to meet men from Earth because then there could be an exchange of information.

  Then why have you never called on us?' inquired the Professor.

  'It was often considered,' returned Vargo, 'but every time our ships went near the crews could see explosions as weapons were turned on them.'

  The weapons,' put in the Professor drily, were being turned by the people on each other.'

  'Why?'

  They don't know. But if one man says they must kill each other they must do it. It is caused by an infectious disease called ambition.'

  'I think Rolto could be like that,' said Vargo pensively. 'There is something in him, some relic of the ancient times, that makes him want to take things that belong to other people.'

  By this time the Spacemaster was farther from Earth than it had ever been, and while Mars was still a big, gleaming orb, Earth, a mere pinpoint of light, looked so terribly far away that Rex felt a twinge of the fear that had gripped him on his first flight into space.

  But for the presence of his companions the awful feeling of remoteness would, he suspected, have been too much for him. Had it not been for the tragedy of his father he would have wished to turn back.

  Mina, their destination, was now appreciably nearer. So were Jupiter and Saturn. With the naked eye he could see the weaving clouds of ever-changing colours on Jupiter, and the girdle, which Vargo had said was meteoric dust, round Saturn, shining whitely. It was this dust, mixed with hydrogen crystals, said Vargo, that made Saturn uninhabitable.

  Without it the planet might become the best world of all within the Solar System. There was a plan for getting rid of the dust.

  'How would you do that?' inquired the Professor.

  By setting fire to the hydrogen by an explosion and burning it,'

  explained Vargo. But it was held to be too dangerous, for should nuclear fission occur the planet would either be shattered to fragments, like Kraka, or become another sun, with results just as fatal.

  'Your learned men seem to have more sense than ours,' remarked the Professor lugubriously, raising his spyglass and taking a sight of their destination. 'I think your Mino must be the planetoid which we have named Ceres,' he went on. 'It was the first to be spotted, in i8oi of our time, by Professor Piazzi. A year later Olbers discovered another, which we call Vesta. And so it has gone on until so many have been found that names have given out and the new ones are known by numbers. I believe there are now about two thousand, but from here I can see even that falls short of the total. The very small ones would not be seen from Earth, of course. Dear - dear. So many are there that we seem to be approaching what might well be called the Great Barrier Reef of the Solar Sea.'

  Rex paid little attention to this remark at the time, but when he awoke the next morning and drew himself carefully to where the others were standing at the navigation window, he understood. He also realized what Vargo had meant by finding the way'. For the Spacemaster, with Vargo at the control table, was passing through a cloud of spherical islands in space. It was not possible to judge their respective sizes without knowing how far away they were, but some of the nearer ones were obviously very small indeed. One, as smooth as a tennis ball and apparently, comparatively speaking, only a few miles distant, had a diameter of not more than half a mile. Its colour was pale green.

  Rex realized that he was looking at the fragments of the lost planet Kraka.

  He also perceived why Vargo had taken control to see them through this dangerous region. His eyes had a longer range than theirs, and good eyesight was necessary if collision was to be avoided, bearing in mind the velocity of the ship. For in such a swarm of bodies, lighted only by the sun, it was inevitable that some should be in partial, or even total, eclipse, as their shadows fell upon each other. Thus, not all appeared as a full globe, but as crescents, wide or narrow. The small ones, in full eclipse, against a background of indigo space, were not easy to see from such a distance as would permit a change of course.

  Rex was glad Vargo was in charge. Otherwise, apart from the risk of collision, they might well have become lost, particularly as Earth could no longer be picked out from the cloud of planetoids through which they had already passed. The horrible thought struck him that if anything happened to Vargo they might never find their way back. For Earth to be a distant spark of light was bad enough, but to have it out of sight brought a chill to the heart. He had no desire to spend the rest of his life on Ceres, or any other miniature world.

  Jupiter was now immense, an awe-inspiring spectacle.

  I'd like to have a closer look at that big fellow,' said the Professor enthusiastically.

  Not I, in this ship,' answered Vargo.

  'Why?'

  'Because once within the influence of its mighty gravity it might not be powerful enough to escape. It would drag you into its undying flames. Our Remote Exploration Fleet once lost a ship like that. Another was battered to pieces when Saturn sucked it into its ring of dust and meteors.'

  Oh,' said the Professor.

  Vargo, who had seen all these things before, was slightly amused by the excitement in the ship. He told them there were now fewer very small planetoids than there had been long ago; for by the law of attraction the small ones were being absorbed by the big ones; although fortunately this was a slow process. It happened more often in systems in outer space, where sometimes the planetoids were beyond count.

  The result of such collisions could be dangerous but only local in effect. They did not represent a danger to the spaceships because they could be forecast long in advance. By this process, although it would take many millions of sun cycles, the planetoids would eventually merge to reform the lost planet Kraka.

  The Professor wanted to land on a tiny planetoid no great distance away, but Vargo said no. It would be too dangerous. Gravity was so slight that the slightest movement would cause a man, practically weightless, to bounce about and break his bones. They would at first find it difficult to walk on the larger ones.

  Rex, remembering the sensation of walking on Phobos, knew exactly what he meant.

  He was watching the curious effects of light and shade on the islands floating in a space around them when across one, in full sunlight, he saw a shadow flash. Looking between it and the sun he saw a spaceship hurtling towards them. It became larger every instant.

  Then, as it crossed their front, a cry broke from his lips when he saw the band of blue stars that identified it as the one that had taken Tiger.

  Vargo had seen it. It is Rolto's craft,' he stated without emotion. I know it because
it is the one that landed me on Mars. But what I do not understand is what it is doing here. It should be home by now. It does not travel towards Mino. Can it be on another voyage already?'

  Rex's heart sank.

  Vargo's question was answered when the blue-starred ship swung round and took up station beside them.

  'What does the fool mean by buzzing us like that,' muttered Toby. He might have touched us - and then what?'

  He is telling us to go back,' said Vargo. 'Telling us! How?'

  'He is willing it. All the crew are willing it.'

  'Willing it?' cried the Professor. `By what sort of instrument?'

  `No machine is required for that. The brain is more powerful. I feel them willing it.'

  `Do you mean they are throwing their thoughts like a beam?' cried Toby incredulously.

  Yes. When so close together, their thoughts are strong. I must obey.'

  'You must be more receptive than I am, for I feel nothing,' asserted the Professor.

  'Nor I,' said Toby.

  'I shall not obey,' said the Professor tersely. 'He cannot give me orders. Stand aside, Vargo. I will take charge.'

  What's his object in telling us to go back, anyway,' queried Toby. I thought you people were friendly.'

  'Perhaps he has some plan for Tiger,' answered Vargo. 'We must obey.'

  'Why?'

  'Because his ship is much more powerful than this one.' 'You mean he can damage us?'

  If he destroys your energy you are lost.'

  'Can he do that?'

  'Yes.'

  'How?'

  'His own energy will overwhelm it. Then he can take us where he wills.'

  'Where's that likely to be?'

  'I don't know. We shall see. He is saying, go back, or I will destroy you.'

  'Very well,' muttered the Professor stubbornly. 'As you say, we shall see.'

  'We see already,' said Vargo, imperturbably. 'You are following him. He will take you where he wills as if you were fastened to him.'

  The Professor moved the controls several times. Then, looking bewildered, he said: '

  You are right, Vargo. I cannot break away. Where he goes, we must go.'

  There was silence for a little while. Then Toby said, 'Where do you suppose he is taking us?'

  'His plan is now plain,' answered Vargo. He pointed. 'Look! He is taking you within the gravity of Jupiter. There he will leave you, to go on, helpless, into the fires that will burn your ship to a grain of dust.'

  'But if he does that he'll be destroyed at the same time,' said Toby.

  No,' returned Vargo. 'His ship is more powerful than yours. He will go only to a point from which he can escape, but you, having less energy, will not.'

  'I cannot believe that he could take us to Jupiter,' said the Professor firmly. It is much too far away. I know it looks close, but that is on account of its size. By the reckoning of our astronomers its diameter is ten times greater than Earth.'

  The distance is short when you travel at the speed of light,' replied Vargo. That is Rolto's velocity, and as you are now in his power that is also yours. Nor will it be necessary for him to approach near to Jupiter to put you within its influence. It may be that you underestimate the range of effective gravity of the Master Planet of our system. Already this monster has swallowed every smaller body near it, for which reason it grows ever larger. Look, and you will see its latest victims being drawn into the inferno. The process is slow: but what is time to a planet? Those other little worlds are lost, as presently we shall be.'

  I understand,' said the Professor heavily. In that case we had better obey his orders.'

  It is too late,' averred Vargo. 'For Rolto knows that if, after this, what he has done was reported to the High Council, be would be relieved of his command, in disgrace.'

  Rex turned his eyes to the great planet, and what he saw drained the colour from his face.

  He had not realized they were so close to it, for he had been unaware of the velocity of the Martian ship, which must have been tremendous, even by space travel standards. But they were now close enough to see the fate that awaited them.

  II World of fire

  Strange though it may seem, staring at the gigantic globe that now filled more than half the space before his porthole, Rex lost all sense of fear.

  He knew he was lost. Nothing could be done. This was the end.

  The truth of the matter may have been that the thing was too big for his reeling faculties to grasp. The very magnitude of it all did something to his brain. If he felt anything at all it was that he was no longer in the world of reality but an infinitesimal speck in a scheme too vast for mortal understanding. He was no longer of the world. As a body he no longer existed. He was, as it were, seeing things from afar without being personally involved.

  In this state of detachment he saw, without emotion, the blue-starred ship abandon them, as a liner might cast off a dinghy, and rocket away into the navy-blue emptiness that was space: that eternity of absolute nothingness that went on and on for ever and ever. It was of course impossible to imagine that. The human brain is capable of much, but it has its limitations. Faced with infinity it fails.

  Jupiter, although still an astronomical distance away, now filled Rex's window with its stupendous mass; and as, inexorably, the Spacemaster was drawn towards it at mounting velocity the details began to emerge, as on Earth a landscape will materialize from a dawn-mist cleared by the sun.

  To say that it presented a dreadful spectacle would be to say little.

  Clearly, now, it could be seen that the colossal planet was literally on fire; not so much blazing as smouldering; and a burning world is not a thing to be imagined by puny mortals.

  From gaping cracks and craters, like bleeding wounds, poured streams of molten rock and metal to form pools which, undermining the tottering crags around, brought them down into the cauldron with a splash that for a moment hid the scene in a blaze of light that hurt the eyes. In a flash a million tons of rock became a cinder, to vanish in a wisp of gas.

  Everywhere rolled clouds of smoke on which were reflected the lurid colours of the fury beneath. Tongues of flame licked high, to die, writhing, and reappear elsewhere. Comets, born in the elemental holocaust, were fired into space by forces beyond human comprehension; some to mark their course with a blinding wake of meteors or incandescent nebulosity. One such horror passed within a few miles of the Spacemaster, causing it to spin and rock and filling the cabin with such heat that faces streamed perspiration which, condensing, fogged the windows.

  Outside the circumference of the great planet, held in the invisible but unbreakable embrace of gravity, swung its satellite moons, which Vargo had said were being slowly sucked into the relentless vortex. Not only those that had been seen from observatories on Earth, but scores of smaller ones. Those nearest were already glowing red with heat.

  The outer ones were smoking, leaving trails to mark their shrinking orbits.

  This, reflected Rex distantly, was what the Earth had been and soon might be again. Its heart was still a furnace, as its safety valves, the volcanoes, proved. Only the crust had cooled. And on that precarious foothold were men who in their madness strove to break it by exploding the atoms of which it was composed. He marvelled at the folly of it. But perhaps it didn't matter now that the fate they were inviting was on its way.

  The Professor spoke in a voice that was as steady as ever. 'I am sorry, my friends, to have brought you to this dismal pass. I am even more sorry that it should have been brought about by one from whom we might have expected better things. According to Vargo it was our misfortune to encounter the one man of his people who is actuated by those evil designs that have done so much mischief on Earth. But thus it was ordained, and nothing remains for us but to compose ourselves and with dignity await the end of our adventure.'

  'Well spoken, sir; but no apology is called for,' said Toby quietly. 'I for one have no regrets.'

  `Nor I, except that I would have
liked to see Tiger again.' Rex tried to speak in a normal voice.

  They settled down to await the doom that all knew must be inevitable.

  That is, all except the Professor, who with a caramel in his mouth continued working on the controls which were still operating although apparently without sufficient power to overcome the gravitational pull of the giant planet. 'With just a little more I believe we could pull clear,

  ' he said bitterly, and abandoned the controls in despair. But when, a minute later, the Spacemaster bounced slightly, as a ship might ride a wave, he spun round to the others. `

  Did you feel that?' he cried. If we have movement we must be in an atmosphere, probably a super-heated one flung off by the monster below.

  If we have atmosphere the rotors will have something to bite on. Why didn't I think of it before! But who could have imagined an atmosphere at this distance from a planet. Give us the rotors, Judkins.

  Quickly!'

  The double circle of interwoven blades, normally used only for landing and taking off -

  for they were of course useless in a vacuum - came on with their vibrant drone. Their effect was felt immediately. Rex found his feet pressing hard against the floor, as in the acceleration of a take-off. It meant that he had weight; and that, in turn, could only mean that the rotors were in an atmosphere. The mounting temperature in the cabin confirmed that it was a hot one - but that didn't matter.

  Hope returned; only to receive another shock when the Professor, after an incredulous stare at his instrument panel, announced that they were in air, or gas, of a density many times greater than that at sea level on Earth. 'Maximum pressure, Judkins; he ordered, or we may spring a leak from the weight on the outside walls.'

  The pressure pumps hummed. The valves hissed. Rex gasped as the weight on his body began to feel more like water than air. The heat was appalling.

  Perspiration ran in trickles down his body. He wiped his window clear with a handkerchief already soaking wet and stared through a filmy haze at the diabolical scene below. Seeing no difference he thought they were still falling. But this, after some minutes had passed, the Professor denied. And when, a little later, he announced that they were making headway, hopes soared.