Maza of the Moon (1929)
Page 3
The appearance of the girl had created a stir in the room, but when these grotesque creatures became plainly visible on the disc, animated whispers turned to an uproar, and Ted was forced to call for silence.
Scarcely had the confusion abated, ere an aged Chinese doctor arose and came up beside Ted.
"What is it, Dr. Wu?" asked the young scientist, his hands busy with the dials. "Can you understand him?"
"A word, here and there, seems intelligible--something like the language of my revered ancestors."
At sight of Dr. Wu, the speaker in the disc paused and nodded. It was as if he had recognized someone racially akin to him. The doctor bowed and smiled in return, and said something in a monosyllabic tongue. Its phonetic similarity to that which had come from the globular being was striking, as was the fact that there was a slight facial resemblance between Dr. Wu and the lunar speaker.
The Lunite pursed his lips and knit his brows as if endeavoring to understand. He turned to the semicircle of men behind him. They all appeared puzzled. Then he dispatched one of them, who disappeared from the disc, and facing Dr. Wu once more, uttered a short sentence.
It was the doctor's turn to knit his brows and shake his head. Again he essayed speech with the armored man. Apparently he was not understood. The process was repeated several more times with the same result. It seemed that the two were on the verge of understanding each other, yet could not quite make themselves intelligible.
Then the man who had disappeared from the disc a few minutes before reappeared with another, a bent figure who hung on his arm for support. His face was wrinkled and toothless, his sparse moustache was gray, and his limbs were more spindly than those of the others. Instead of armor he wore a garment of quilted black cloth over his emaciated form.
The man in the gold armor looked at Dr. Wu, then pointed to the old man and uttered a few words. The doctor nodded, and addressed him. The old fellow pondered for a moment, then shook his head. Again Dr. Wu spoke to him. He shook his head once more, and reaching beneath his robe, drew forth a scroll and writing brush. After rapidly tracing a number of characters on the scroll, he held it up. The writing bore a striking resemblance to Chinese.
Seizing Ted's sleeve, the doctor spoke excitedly.
"Is the photo-recorder on?"
"Yes."
"Good. I believe I can translate that writing, given time."
Facing the old man in the disc, Dr. Wu again nodded and smiled. Then he pointed skyward and said:
"T'ien."
The old man nodded, smiled, and repeated excitedly: "T'ien! T'ien!" then bowed as if in devotion.
The doctor also made the devotional obeisance and said:
"Shang Ti."
The old man shook his head, signifying that he could not understand. Then he pointed to the man in the golden armor, and said:
"Pan-ku."
"Pan-ku!" repeated the doctor with a look of astonishment on his face, and made obeisance to the golden one.
That individual, with a look of annoyance, suddenly turned on the old man and released a volley of monosyllables. The old fellow groveled before him and shook his head.
Then he of the golden armor made a sign with his hand, whereupon the disc suddenly became blank.
"Guess the interview is over," said Ted, shutting off the radio. "Now how can we find out what it was all about?"
"I can explain the last three words," said Dr. Wu. "'T'ien,' is the oldest word in our language which has the meaning of 'The Heavens' or 'God.' This word was understood. 'Shang Ti,' a later word for 'God' was unintelligible. The old man pointed to the one who was evidently the ruler, and said: 'Pan-ku.' According to our traditions, 'Pan-ku was the first human being, corresponding to the 'Adam' of your Bible."
"From which one might deduce," said Ted, "that the people we have just interviewed are remotely related to your earliest ancestors." "So it seems. If you will let me have the phonetic and written records, and a fast electroplane, I believe that by consulting our ancient writings I may be able to render a translation in a few days." "Splendid!" replied Ted. "Both will be ready within an hour."
V. ULTIMATUM OF P'AN-KU
THREE DAYS later Ted received a radiogram from Peiping, reading as follows:
Honorable Sir: I avail myself of the privilege of submitting below the result of my poor efforts at deciphering the written characters of the Moon People. The spoken language was, with the exception of a few scattered words which cannot be put together to make sense, wholly unintelligible to me.
Here follows my sorry translation: Why have you destroyed Ur? You, the people of Du Gong have thrown to us, the Imperial Government of P'an-ku, mightiest emperor of Ma Gong, the tcha-tsi (meaning unknown to translator) of war. We are greater and wiser than you, and can crush you with ease.
You have demonstrated that you are not fit to govern yourselves-that you are a menace to the people of the great Lord Sun, his eight apostles and their children. The Imperial Government of P'an-ku will send a viceroy to rule over you. Submit, and you will live happily, the subjects of P'an-ku. Resist, and you will be destroyed.
In my humble and unworthy opinion, the word, "tcha-tsi," means either some instrument of war or perhaps a challenge to war, and has the same symbolical significance as does the gauntlet in English.
DR. WU.
The contents of this message were immediately transmitted to the President of the United States, and he lost no time in calling a council of the Associated Governments of the Earth by radiovisiphone. Ted Dustin was a party to the conference, and assisted in drafting a placatory note to P'an-ku. The note, which was sent to Dr. Wu for translation into the Lunite language, was as follows:
To the Imperial Government of P'an-ku: Greeting: The Associated Governments of the Earth regret the destruction of Ur, and are willing to do all in their power to make amends.
The destruction was unintentional, as the Associated Governments of the Earth were unaware that Ma Gong was inhabited.
The Associated Governments of the Earth make full apology for having wronged the people of Ur, and stand willing to pay a reasonable indemnity in treasure, food, raw materials, or manufactured products, but are united in the purpose to resist and retaliate for any attempt at conquest.
After the note had been drafted and dispatched it was unanimously decided at the meeting that Ted was entitled to the million dollar reward, there being now no longer any doubt that his projectile had struck the moon. The treasurer of the association was, accordingly, ordered to pay him that amount.
It was late in the evening when Ted called Roger into his private office.
"Get that translation from Dr. Wu, yet?" he asked.
"Yes. I had it painted in large white letters on a black placard and mounted on an easel in front of the big disc."
"Good. We'll go up now. Everything will be ordered off the air in five minutes, and we'll try to get it through."
They took the elevator to the tower room, where the linguists, scientists, and representatives of the associated powers were assembled as before. President Whitmore was not present, however, because of urgent business in Washington. His place was taken by the Secretary of State. Dr. Wu, who was also unable to be present, was represented by Dr. Fang, a Chinese scholar of almost equal repute.
At ten o'clock, the zero hour, Ted promptly pressed the button and began manipulating the dials.
This time he was instantly rewarded by the appearance of the dazzlingly beautiful girl who had faded from his vision on the occasion of his last attempt at communication. She was attended by two armed guards as before, and in addition by a bent, graybearded man who wore a richly embroidered robe of dark blue, and sandals.
Both glanced at the writing on the placard which Ted held up. Eagerly watching their faces, he saw that they registered amazement and horror. Wondering what there could be about this pacific message to cause such a reaction, he called Dr. Fang and asked him to write the query: "What is wrong?"
The doctor, a thin, rat-faced Manchu, came forward, but said he did not know the symbols for the words.
The girl, meanwhile, had a scroll and writing brush brought forward by a female attendant. The latter held the scroll aloft so its surface was fully visible, and the girl began rapidly writing two sets of characters thereon. One set was similar to those which had been used in the previous communication. The other was totally unlike it and bore no resemblance to any known earthly characters. Her purpose, however, was quite evident. The two sets of characters were written in alternating perpendicular line side by side, in order that the former language might be used as a key to the latter.
Quick to grasp her idea, Ted called for the photo-record of the message from the Imperial Government of P'an-ku. Beside it, he wrote the English translation, using Roman capital letters for the sake of simplicity. Then beside the placarded note to the Government of P'an-ku, he wrote the original of that note, also in Roman capitals. In addition, he pointed out and distinctly pronounced the English words, one by one.
The girl nodded, smiled, and pointed questioningly at him.
"Ted Dustin," he said.
She pointed to herself and said:
"Maza an Ma Gong."
He repeated the name after her, and pointed to the scroll she had written. She was pronouncing and pointing out each word when she was suddenly crowded out as before by the appearance of P'an-ku and his attendants.
The rotund and imperious P'an-ku read the message on the placard, then turned to the old man who stood beside him and smiled. Ted thought there was a trace of a sneer in his smile. He ordered the old fellow to write his reply, then turned and stalked majestically out of the range of vision. The old man held his message aloft for a few moments as if fully aware that it was being recorded. Then he let his arm fall to his side, and the disc became blank.
After supplying Dr. Fang with a set of photo-records of the messages, and dispatching another to Dr. Wu, Ted and Roger went to the private office of the former for a conference.
"It seems to me," said Ted, after he had his briar going, "that there's something putrid in Denmark. Did you notice the expression of horror on the faces of the girl and the graybearded man when they read our messages?"
"Queer, wasn't it?" replied Roger. "Must have been something in that message that was quite a shock to them. Wonder what it could have been."
"That's precisely what I've been wondering--and it has led to a rather unpleasant thought. I wouldn't mention it to anyone in the world but you--not at present, anyhow but it looks to me as if Dr. Wu may have double crossed us."
"How?"
"By writing a message of his own in the place of the one we asked him to translate for us."
"But what message of his own could he possibly have written?"
"That," said Ted, "is what I propose to try to find out just as soon as I possibly can. Just before we came up here I sent Bevans to Peiping in the 800. He has orders to bring Professor Ederson back with him. We can bank on the professor to shoot square, and it's quite possible that he can check up on Wu's message. At any rate, he's probably the best versed white man in the world on the ancient writings of China and Tibet. Has made a life-time study of them, I'm told."
"What about the learned Manchu, Dr. Fang?"
"I think he was bluffing. If there's mischief afoot, you can safely bet he's in on it, and knows how to play his part. He's not so ignorant as he pretends to be. Did you notice the expression on the face of the man in the golden armor? He smiled when he read our message, but the smile was half a sneer."
"It was a mean smile, all right," agreed Roger. "More like the snarl of an animal than the smile of a human being."
"I'd rather have a person frown at me than smile that way," said Ted.
Shortly after midnight a radiogram from Professor Fowler of the Yerkes Observatory arrived. He stated that he had seen five flashes on the moon, coming from the region of the lunar crater, Stadius.
In the wee, small hours of the morning, Chicago was shaken by a terrific detonation.
VI. TREACHERY
IT was after five o'clock when all the reports were in. Five projectiles, larger than the former, and each destructive over a fifty mile radius, had struck the earth. The one which had so shaken Chicago had struck at Rochelle, Illinois, completely destroying that city and spreading death and destruction up to the very suburbs of Chicago on one side and across the Mississippi into Iowa on the other.
The second projectile had demolished Cincinnati, Covington and surrounding cities and hamlets with terrific loss of life. The third had struck squarely in the center of Birmingham, England, destroying, killing and maiming as far as Stafford, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Worcester and Rugby. The fourth, alighting in the harbor of Tunis, had sunk and destroyed shipping, and created a tidal wave which had drowned many people on shore. The fifth had laid waste to Quito, Ecuador and the surrounding territory.
At five thirty, a report from Peiping stated that Khobr and nearby towns had been destroyed or suffered terrific casualties from a sixth projectile.
Leaving Roger in charge, Ted promptly took a super-electroplane to Washington. While he was closeted that morning in conference with the President, fifty aerial fleets of army engineers left the Capital, flying in various directions, but with their destinations kept secret.
During the day, representatives of various nations were called into the conference. Each representative, as he left the President's office, was seen to speed away in a fast electroplane. Not one representative of a Mongoloid Asiatic nation was asked into conference.
After a busy day, Ted rushed back to his office where he found Roger up to his eyebrows in work, endeavoring to placate his wife for his tardiness to dinner, over his wrist radiophone.
"Listen, Leah," he was saying. "I simply can't get away now. I'm trying to manage things alone, you know, and hello! Ted's here now. Be home, toot sweet, honey. Bye bye."
"You married men--" began Ted.
"Have got it all over you single ones in many ways," interrupted Roger. "Get things going in Washington?"
"Pretty well. I've organized our defense force, and have warned every nation that we have reason to believe is friendly. Before the moon gets into favorable firing position again we'll have enough powerful magnetic poles set up to take care of the United States, and if the other countries keep on their toes they'll be ready, too."
"How do you know the poles will work?"
"Fragments of the lunar projectiles show that they contain large quantities of steel. We've divided the country into fifty zones, in each of which a powerful electro-magnet will be erected. Having erected these in the least populated districts of each zone, and warned the inhabitants to leave the danger area, our sole remaining problem is to make them powerful enough to attract the projectiles, which we can easily do with the resources at our command. Our power plants will be far enough from the magnetic poles to keep them from injury, and as soon as one pole is destroyed another can be quickly erected."
"You sure have some head on you, Ted. What about the Mongoloid Asiatics? Find out anything?"
"Nothing definite. For the present we're sitting tight and saying nothing. Professor Ederson will, no doubt, be able to check up on them. If they haven't double crossed us there will still be plenty of time to explain my plan of defense to them."
Professor Ederson did not arrive until late the following afternoon. Roger met him on the roof, and immediately escorted him to Ted's private office. He was a little, wizened man, with a grizzled Van Dyke, a thin, aquiline nose, and huge, thick-Tensed glasses which gave him an owl-like expression.
"I've been studying the translation of Dr. Wu while Bevans, your admirable pilot, conducted me here," said the professor when greetings were over. "It seems to me to be quite accurate."
"What about the message he wrote for me?" asked Ted.
"I cannot, for the life of me, understand why you sent so belligerent a message," replied the professor.
Ted quickly produced an English copy of the message which he has asked Dr. Wu to translate into the Lunite language for him.
"Why," said the professor, scanning it in surprise, "this is nothing like the message I have translated."
"Let me have your translation," requested Ted.
The professor produced a sheaf of papers from his inside coat pocket, selected one, and handed it to Ted.
The latter read it aloud:
To the Imperial Government of P'an-ku: Greeting:
The Associated Governments of the Earth have found cause for much mirth in the note of the Imperial Government of P'an-ku.
It is the intention of the Associated Governments of the Earth to quickly and completely destroy Ma Gong (The Moon) if its inhabitants refuse to submit to the viceroys which the Associated Governments of the Earth are preparing to send to rule over them.
The Imperial Government of P'an-ku has complained of the destruction of Ur. This is only a minute sample of the destruction which will be wrought on Ma Gong if there are any further acts of hostility on the part of the Imperial Government of P'an-ku.
"Whew!" exclaimed Roger. "No wonder the girl and the old man looked horrified."
"And it's no wonder the imperious and belligerent P'an-ku sneered," said Ted. "Looks as if we're in for it, sure enough, now."
"What about having Professor Ederson fix up a new note, right away, explaining everything and trying to patch things up?" asked Roger.
"We'll try it," replied Ted, "but I can't bring myself to feel very sanguine as to the result."