Menace Under Marswood

by Sterling E. Lanier

  Slater instantly ducked down until he was below the port. He hurried on until he was at the third and last of the openings, then carefully rose to one side. Looking around, he saw the colonel at the second opening and Thau Lang at the first. Muller smiled and clicked his fingers once. Then they all three bent to look carefully at the corners of the view.

  Slater saw at once that no one had used the port for a long time. The fine dust lay heavy over its surface. He gently began to stroke it away with one finger so that he could see. A side glance showed Muller and the konsel were doing the same at their's.

  As he smoothed away the dust, he saw something else. The instant he did, he spun and clicked to Muller. When Slater had his attention, he pointed to what he had seen. Muller looked down at his own port's edge and then looked up and nodded. He then turned and signaled to the konsel.

  Slater had found a small, corroded lever on the bottom of the port, a simple manual catch, inset but easy to grasp. Obviously it was a way to open the thing. Slater looked at it again and then made a mental estimate of the opening's size and shape. A horizontal oval, it was quite large enough for a man to get through, and he could see the floor on the other side was no farther down than on his. He bent again and peered through the now-clean corner.

  He had a plain view of the control room's central dais and its instrument board. There sat the tall alien in his metallic robe and he was speaking, for Slater could see the mouth purse open and shut. But as if that were not enough, there stood JayBee Pelham, Mohini Dutt-Medawar, and her father.

  Not only could they be seen, but they could be heard. The ancient view port allowed sound to come through plainly, if there was no other noise to interfere. During pauses in the conversation, Slater could even hear their footsteps. But now Satreel was speaking, the strange hissing tremolo coming over plainly.

  "You know nothing yet, JayBee! Nothing of me and mine or what I have in the way of power. This is not the only center on this forgotten world. I am under orders given by those neither you nor any of your new little world ever knew or guessed at. There are allies to be brought from ancient sleep, in ways and methods you know nothing of. And this is not the only world with installations left by the Le-ashimath. You who come from the third planet know little. The second planet has things you never knew and cannot know. Its heat and clouds cover much."

  "Lord Satreel, all is as you say. We are your ignorant servants. We only wish to help destroy all or any who threaten you. I urge you again to kill those who came last, especially their leader, the most dangerous Earth agent on Mars. Only thus can we be sure of complete safety while we plan to take over the planet and restore your rule." Jay Bee sounded sincere, but Slater wondered whether Satreel truly understood human treachery. His handling of the colonel's party certainly left a lot to be desired. Pelham wanted to rule Mars himself, not as anyone's deputy or servant.

  "I will destroy any who do not do as I wish. Make no mistake about it, JayBee. Anyone!" Pelham fell silent. The strange high, purring voice continued. "That man you fear is guarded and secure, as are the others with him. He is the one I must talk further with, for he alone has guessed what I really am and what I want. He may be able to help and I want his knowledge—all of it—so that I can plan to go to the ancient stars."

  Pelham made a short motion behind his back with one hand and his two allies went into action. Mohini drew a small lasgun and fired instantly. Her father whipped a small knife from a sheath at the back of his neck and threw it straight at the pale blue of Satreel's head. The thin beam of the pocket laser missed Satreel and hit the edge of his control board, but the knife buried itself to the hilt just below the alien neck, at the collar of the shimmering robe.

  Instantly Colonel Muller threw the catch on his port and slammed it open. He aimed the peculiar old thing they had found on the corridor shelf, and with both hands managed to grip and fire the piece.

  Warned by the noise of the port's being slammed aside, JayBee fell to the floor. A brilliant streak of violet light passed over him and struck Medawar in the side as he leaned forward and blasted a hole in him the size of a man's hand. Medawar fell as if hit by a steel fist, his mouth open and silent, a black hole burned in his side. From the distance, a faint roar, like that of a lion, came to their ears.

  Slater wrenched his port open. Ahead, JayBee had gotten to his feet and was moving away while Mohini was turning her lasgun in their direction.

  "Mohini! Look left, you fool," Slater yelled as he fell to the floor of the giant chamber. His diversion worked and her laser beam swung toward him, but well wide. Now she too moved and he saw her race after JayBee, who was almost at the far back wall where a door gaped open.

  As Slater rose and began to ran, Arta Burg flashed past him. Burg hurled something bright and metallic, but he was too late. The opening slid shut, and his projectile merely bounced from it.

  "Stand fast, everyone!" The colonel called. "We can't follow them now. Let's get weapons and stay ready for whatever is tried next."

  In the few seconds all the action had taken, they had all got through the three portholes in the wall. Danna ran over to Slater, squeezed his arm, gave him a grin, and turned with the rest of them to gather round the central platform.

  Colonel Muller and Thau Lang were kneeling by a long shape.

  "How in God's name does one give first aid to someone bred on a planet we couldn't see with a telescope?" Muller sounded as unsure of himself as anyone had ever heard him be. He was supporting Satreel's thin, wide shoulders in his arms and Thau Lang was examining the place where the knife hilt jutted from the pale-blue skin. The great eyes were open and flicked from one to the other, but the first member of an alien race any human had ever seen did not appear able to move.

  But the alien was not dead, and it seemed his brain or whatever he had to think with was still functioning. The great dark eyes turned up to Muller and the toothless mouth opened. "Use the board. Press the lever marked with"—he paused, trying to put it in human terms—"marked with three crooked marks, marks which point down." Something like a sigh came from the strange mouth. "They are marked with colors but your color sense is not mine." He rallied and kept speaking but his vocal apparatus was losing power. "Listen, they will go around and out through the corridors. They know them not and they must search. Press that lever. I have strange pets here, such as none of you ever saw, and yet some came from your own world long, long ago." The eyes like black opals sought the ceiling. "To be killed thus, by primitives with missile weapons! I have much to do and this is not the only base that the absent masters left on this world. There are others and things sleep in them, sleep until this whole world dies." Another pause. "Or unless they are awakened. I myself cannot read all of the codes left me but I think the masters may have left—some of themselves! I had hoped if that were so to awaken them some day. They understood these things, the mighty Le-ashimath. They could stay anywhere, sleep in vaults in any place, on almost any world. In my searching I have found hints of yet another hidden, well-protected place, on the second planet from your sun, where you have never been, you humans."

  Another brief silence followed. Then the strange mouth opened again. "Beware! When you press that lever, beware of leaving. It will release life-forms you must be wary of, release them into the outer and the under corridors. They are things bred from seeds preserved many cycles ago, both from your own world and from this one. Look for weapons such as you used on that dead human. They are hidden but they are about. You will need them, for JayBee may find them too. And those things of the ancient past which I bred back and you can release. For them, too."

  The voice from beyond rose in a last dying tremolo. "I go, who am alone, and so young too. Only a thousand cycles of your sun have I lived since wakened from the storage cells. I go, my work unfinished, I go to my ancestors beyond time, I, Satreel, the last of the Attendants."

  There was silence in the great, high-ceilinged chamber and Muller looked at his friends. "I guess he's
gone. The movement of his thorax has stopped." He rose to his feet and looked down sadly. "Poor devil. All alone and trying to do a job he thought sacred, with no help and incomplete knowledge. For all his power, he must have been the loneliest thing in all of space."

  Slater thought it a very decent epitaph for the first and the last of the entities from beyond the stars.

  Chapter Fifteen – Animals, Aliens, and Close Combat

  THEY LOOKED about them with interest and trepidation. The great domed room was empty save for themselves and the two dead. One had been an outright and familiar enemy, and he was human. The other, who lay at their feet, his great, gaunt arms spread out, the seven-fingered hands half curled, was more of a mystery dead than alive. It was the girl who first put it into words.

  "He is dead, poor thing. So strange, so alone. I saw him in a dream at first, and now it all seems like a dream, a terrible nightmare we are having, and it can't stop or end." Danna moved next to Slater and took his hand, looking forlornly down at the strange face of their former captor.

  "Yes, my dear, it may still be a bad dream—that is, if we don't do a thing or two and wake up!" The vibrant tones of the colonel broke into the strange hush like a bugle call in a sleeping barracks. They all stared at him, even the impassive Feng, as if they had just come on an alert.

  "Slater," Muller went on, "I think you heard what he said last. Let's find that control with the three marks. We're sealed in here and we must use any weapons we can find, and fast." He turned to Feng. "Captain, you look for a weapons store." He faced Thau Lang next. "Old friend, get everyone to looking at anything that might be a com set. We have to break the shroud of silence that hangs over this whole area, so we can get in touch with the outside world. No one touch anything, just look. We could probably explode this entire point or island or whatever it is simply by pushing the wrong button. Call me at once if you see anything promising, and, meanwhile, I'll prowl about. All clear? Then let's move!"

  And move they did, everyone fanning out but Slater, who went to the vast half-moon of the control board. The words of the dead creature raced through his mind. Three crooked or bent marks, which faced down ... Pull the lever! The search was not easy for many controls were marked with bright symbols, in red, blue, orange, green, and purple. He closed his mind to the colorful distractions and began to count marks and slashes. It seemed as if an hour passed before he made his choice. "Colonel!" he shouted. "Come quick, sir. I think I have it!"

  Muller was there instantly. "Are there any others that look like that?"

  "No," Slater said as they stood looking at the tiny coppery lever. Next to it, colored mauve, were three raised vertical symbols like lightning flashes.

  "I'll do it." Muller snapped the lever over as far as it would go. "Let's hope we understood Satreel." He smiled as he spoke.

  At first they heard nothing and when they did, it meant nothing. It was simply a humming sound that came from the panel in irregular beats. After a few minutes, the sound stopped. Once more the board was silent and might have been inert, save that here and there a few lights glowed.

  A shout came from far over on the right of the vast room. It was Feng. "Found a cabinet with three of those projectors like yours, Colonel!" The three short, bulky things he held out appeared identical to the one Muller had used on Medawar, but far cleaner and newer looking." Slater pointed at one of them.

  "This one has different colors on the butt, and the trademark or whatever is red instead of blue. Notice?"

  "Yes, I did," said Muller. "I'll give you mine, boy. We know what it does, at least so far. I'll take the odd one. Feng, the other dupe is yours. Give the last to, lessee—well, give it to Thau Lang. He saw what it could do. Now, let's—"

  His words were interrupted by another yell, this one from Milla Breen. It was a wild whooping yell, in which the only word clear was "door". As the three on the dais looked left, to where the young warman had been, nothing more was needed.

  A concealed door had slid silently open. It was a large door, big enough for three abreast and what was emerging from it was also large. Out of the dark opening had come an enormous head, coarsely furred in gray and brown and with pointed ears. The snout was massive and yellow tusks glinted in the light. Red eyes glared about in baffled anger and the great shoulders of the animal moved out into the open. They were as high as those on a horse, but this was no horse. It looked to Slater like a horrid cross between a large pig and an enormous wolf. Slowly it lurched on into the room and large hooves went clack-clack on the floor as it did. Its vast mouth opened and let out a raging grunt, deep and rasping at the same time. It had many great teeth as well as enormous tusks. The hooves were like those of some distorted deer. When the thing first appeared, Danna had raced toward Slater. She was peering around his left arm as he tried to sight the peculiar weapon, when Muller called, "No one else shoot while I try this thing of mine out!"

  The monster had made up its own mind by this time and gathered on its haunches. At the colonel's voice, it began a charge. Muller crouched, used one arm as a rest, and pulled the firing button. This time no violent heat ray shot out. Instead, a stream of silver needles flew from the muzzle. When they struck the foaming jaws of the great brute, they exploded.

  The great body collapsed on the spot where it had been hit, the head and much of its chest simply dripping shreds of meat. One instant it was alive and charging, the next its body had crashed to the floor, streaming blood in every direction. Everyone stood agape at both the creature itself and the amazing way it had been killed.

  "What do you think, Feng?"

  "Well, Colonel, hard to find a nicer device for an antipersonnel weapon." While he spoke, Feng had walked forward. He was kneeling by the dead hulk of the monster, his eyes gleaming. "Fantastic! Who would have thought Mars concealed such a thing as this?"

  Muller and the others had moved up to join him, and all were staring at the huge body in fascination. It was the size of a horse, though shorter in the legs. They had trouble avoiding the pools of blood and the animal's own stench was rank and sharp, as coarse to the nose as the thing itself was to the eye. Muller looked thoughtful as he studied the body. Then he turned to Slater. "I think we two have the only clue, young man. This thing could be from anywhere, but I think it's a neighbor of ours, from Earth. Look at the split hoof, like a cow's but narrower ...This is probably one of the creatures Satreel warned us about when he mentioned things from seeds, preserved in time, both from this planet and Earth. If I'm correct, this beastie is an extinct mammal from Earth."

  "No wonder that this new clan thought they were in the hands of a god," Thau Lang said. "If I understand you, Louis, these animals and many more have been preserved alive for many centuries, kept as even we, who are no scientists, keep food in the cold and see some of the fishes that Earth sent here stay alive frozen in ice, ready to go away when it melts or someone melts it."

  Muller broke the hush that had fallen after Thau Lang spoke. "Remember two things, both important. We want JayBee and we want out. Find the switch that frees this area from the communications blackout."

  He turned to Slater. "Have you considered what Prime Base must be at right now? JayBee gone, us gone, that traitor gone, and no word, no report, no nothing!" He wheeled on the others again. "Thau Lang and I will provide a roving guard. The rest of you study any controls you can find. Keep looking for more weapons, too."

  Slater spoke to the colonel as the others moved out again. "Sir, I do think Captain Feng ought to stay right here. He is I-Corps and they know lots we don't. Wouldn't that master control be likely to be on the control board?" He felt abashed for even vaguely correcting Muller but he had a strong feeling.

  Muller eyed Slater appraisingly. "Feng, check out the big board here. I think that the Wise Woman might need a special sort of guard, don't you?"

  Slater grinned. Then he and Danna joined the prowl, looking for anything that might be useful. But the next surprise found them. Danna was a few yards t
o one side of him and had begun to walk around a mass of metal higher than her head when she halted, stared for a second, then stepped back. As she did, she yelled, "Quick, Moe!"

  He spun and moved to her, beamer up and cradled. Around the corner of the machine she had been passing, well above their heads, a great limb reached down—an olive-green limb ending in a hooked claw. Along one side of the limb were huge spikes like the teeth of a tremendous saw, but thinner and longer.

  "Get behind me, Danna!" Slater shouted. "Look out, everyone! There's a great beast coming out over here!" Then he jumped back for the head of the beast was emerging from behind the unknown machine and was looking down at them from a height three times their own. It was roughly triangular, that head, mostly taken up by two great balls of shining almond eyes. Under the eyes, pointed mouthparts moved delicately. As it came slowly into the strong light, the great goggle eyes seemed to look everywhere and another giant arm also came into view. The towering almost neckless body, which supported the yard-wide head, was emerging steadily and a few of the tremendous, sticklike legs, set far back on the torso were also becoming visible. Utterly silent save for the faint scrape of its claws on the floor, the towering horror seemed, in some ghastly way, familiar. Puzzled, Slater backed slowly away, shielding Danna as he did.

  Then it swept forward with its great bony arms, and he pulled the firing button.