The Best of E E 'Doc' Smith

by E E 'Doc' Smith

  "I permitted that, as a demonstration of futility," the grey man said, his hard voice becoming harder, "but I will permit no more foolishness. Now I will introduce myself. I am known as Roger. You probably have heard nothing of me: very few Tellurians have, or ever will. Whether or not you two live depends solely upon yourselves. Being something of a student of men, I fear that you will both die shortly. Able and resourceful as you have just shown yourselves to be, you could be valuable to me, but you probably will not-in which case you shall, of course" cease to exist. That, however, in its proper time--you shall be of some slight service to me in the process of being eliminated. In your case, Miss Marsden, I find myself undecided between two courses of action; each highly desirable, but unfortunately mutually exclusive. Your father will be glad to ransom you at an exceedingly high figure" but in spite of that fact I may decide to use you in a research upon sex."

  "Yes?" Clio rose magnificently to the occasion. Fear forgotten, her courageous spirit flashed from her clear young eyes and emanated from her taut young body, erect in defiance. "You may think that you can do anything with me that you please, but you can't!"

  "Peculiar-highly perplexing-why should that one stimulus, in the case of young females" produce such an entirely disproportionate reaction?" Roger's eyes bored into Clio's; the girl shivered and looked away. "But sex itself" primal and basic, the most widespread concomitant of life in this continuum" is completely illogical and paradoxical. Most baffling-decidedly, this research on sex must go on."

  Roger pressed a button and a tall, comely woman appeared-a woman of indefinite age and of uncertain nationality.

  "Show Miss Marsden to her apartment," he directed, and as the two women went out a man came in.

  "The cargo is unloaded, sir," the newcomer reported. "The two men and the five women indicated have been taken to the hospital."

  "Very well, dispose of the others in the usual fashion" The minion went out, and Roger continued, emotionlessly:

  "Collectively, the other passengers may be worth a million or so, but it would not be worthwhile to waste time upon them."

  "What are you, anyway?" blazed Costigan, helpless but enraged beyond caution. "I have heard of mad scientists who tried to destroy the Earth, and of equally mad geniuses who thought themselves Napoleons capable of conquering even the Solar System. Whichever you are" you should know that you can't get away with it."

  "I am neither. I am, however, a scientist, and I direct many other scientists. I am not mad. You have undoubtedly noticed several peculiar features of this place?"

  "Yes, particularly the artificial gravity and those screens. An ordinary ether-wall is opaque in one direction, and doesn't bar matter-yours are transparent both ways and something more than impenetrable to matter. How do you do it?"

  "You could not understand them if I explained them to you, and they are merely two of our smaller developments. I do not intend to destroy your planet Earth; I have no desire to rule over masses of futile and brainless men. I have, however, certain ends of my own in view. To accomplish my plans I require hundreds of millions in gold and other hundreds of millions in uranium, thorium, and radium; all of which I shall take from the planets of this Solar System before I leave it. I shall take them in spite of the puerile efforts of the fleets of your Triplanetary League.

  "This structure was designed by me and built under my direction. It is protected from meteorites by forces of my devising. It is indetectable and invisible-ether waves are bent around it without loss or distortion. I am discussing these points at such length so that you may realize exactly your position. As I have intimated, you can be of assistance to me if you will."

  "Now just what could you offer any man to make him join your outfit?" demanded Costigan, venomously. "Many things," Roger's cold tone betrayed no emotion, no recognition of Costigan's open and bitter contempt. "I have under me many men, bound to me by many ties. Needs, wants, longings, and desires differ from man to man, and I can satisfy practically any of them. Many men take delight in the society of young and beautiful women, but there are other urges which I have found quite efficient. Greed, thirst for fame, longing for power" and so on" including many qualities usually regarded as `noble.' And what I promise" I deliver. I demand only loyalty to me" and that only in certain things and for a relatively short period. In all else, my men do as they please. In conclusion" I can use you two conveniently, but I do not need you. Therefore you may choose now between my service and the alternative."

  "Exactly what is the alternative?"

  "We will not go into that. Suffice it to say that it has to do with a minor research, which is not progressing satisfactorily. It will result in your extinction, and perhaps I should mention that that extinction will not be particularly pleasant."

  "I say NO, you . . :' Bradley roared. He intended to give an unexpurgated classification, but was rudely interrupted.

  "Hold on a minute!" snapped Costigan. "How about Miss Marsden?"

  "She has nothing to do with this discussion," returned Roger" icily. "I do not bargain-in fact" I believe that I shall keep her for a time. She has it in mind to destroy herself if I do not allow her to be ransomed" but she will find that door closed to her until I permit it to open."

  "In that case" I string along with the Chief-take what be started to say about you and run it clear across the board for me!" barked Costigan.

  "Very well. That decision was to be expected from men of your type." The grey man touched two buttons and two of his creatures entered the room. "Put these men into two separate cells on the second level," he ordered. "Search them; all their weapons may not have been in their armor. Seal the doors and mount special guards" tuned to me here."

  Imprisoned they were, and carefully searched; but they bore no arms, and nothing bad been said concerning communicators. Even if such instruments could be concealed" Roger would detect their use instantly. At least, so ran his thought. But Roger's men had no inkling of the possibility of Costigan's "Service Special" phones" detectors, and spy ray-instruments of minute size and of infinitesimal power, but yet instruments which, working as they were below the level of the ether, were effective at great distances and caused no vibrations in the ether by which their use could be detected. And what could be more innocent than the regulation personal equipment of every officer of space? The heavy goggles, the wrist-watch and its supplementary pocket chronometer, the flash-lamp, the automatic lighter, the sender, the money-belt?

  All these items of equipment were examined with due care; but the cleverest minds of the Triplanetary Service had designed those communicators to pass any ordinary search, however careful" and when Costigan and Bradley were finally locked into the designated cells they still possessed their ultra-instruments. In Roger's Planetoid

  In the hall Clio glanced around her wildly, seeking even the narrowest avenue of escape. Before she could act, however, her body was clamped as though in a vise, and she struggled, motionless.

  "It is useless to attempt to escape, or to do anything except what Roger wishes," the guide informed her somberly, snapping off the instrument in her hand and thus restoring to the thoroughly cowed girl her freedom of motion.

  "His lightest wish is law," she continued as they walked down a long corridor. "The sooner you realize that you must do exactly as he pleases, in all things, the easier your life will be."

  "But I wouldn't want to keep on living!" Clio declared" with a flash of spirit. "And I can always die, you know."

  "You will find that you cannot," the passionless creature returned, monotonously. "If you do not yield, you will long and pray for death, but you will not die unless Roger wills it. Look at me: I cannot die. Here is your apartment. You will stay here until Roger gives further orders concerning you."

  The living automaton opened a door and stood silent and impassive while Clio, staring at her in horror" shrank past her and into the sumptuously furnished suite. The door closed soundlessly and utter silence descended as a pall. Not an
ordinary silence, but the indescribable perfection of the absolute silence, complete absence of all sound. In that silence Clio stood motionless. Tense and rigid, hopeless, despairing, she stood there in that magnificent room, fighting an almost overwhelming impulse to scream. Suddenly she heard the cold voice of Roger" speaking from the empty air.

  "You are over-wrought, Miss Marsden. You can be of no use to yourself or to me in that condition. I command you to rest; and, to insure that rest, you may pull that cord" which will establish about this room an ether wall: a wall to cut off even this my voice ..."

  The voice ceased as she pulled the cord savagely and threw herself upon a divan in a torrent of gasping" strangling, but rebellious sobs. Then again came a voice, but not to her ears. Deep within her, pervading every bone and muscle, it made itself felt rather than heard.

  "Clio?" it asked. "Don't talk yet ..."

  "Conway!" she gasped in relief, every fiber of her being thrilled into new hope at the deep" well-remembered voice of Conway Costigan.

  "Keep still!" he snapped. "Don't act so happy! He may have a spy-ray on you. He can't hear me, but he may be able to hear you. When he was talking to you you must have noticed a sort of rough, sandpapery feeling under that necklace I gave you? Since he's got an ether-wall around you the beads are dead now. If you feel anything like that under the wrist-watch, breathe deeply, twice. If you don't feel anything there, it's safe for you to talk" as loud as you please."

  "I don't feel anything, Conway!" she rejoiced. Tears forgotten, she was her old, buoyant self again. "So that wall is real, after all? I only about half believed it."

  "Don't trust it too much, because he can cut it off from the outside any time he wants to. Remember what I told you: that necklace will warn you of any spy-ray in the ether, and the watch will detect anything below the level of the ether. It's dead now, of course, since our three phones are direct-connected; I'm in touch with Bradley, too. Don't be too scared; we've got a lot better chance than I thought we had."

  "What? You don't mean it!"

  "Absolutely. I'm beginning to think that maybe we've got something he doesn't know exists-our ultra-wave. Of course I wasn't surprised when his searchers failed to find our instruments, but it never occurred to me that I might have a clear field to use them in! I can't quite believe it yet, but I haven't been able to find any indication that he can even detect the bands we are using. I'm going to look around over there with my spy-ray ... I'm looking at you now-feel it?"

  "Yes, the watch feels that way, now."

  "Fine! Not a sign of interference over here, either. I can't find a trace of ultra-wave-anything below ether level, you know-anywhere in the whole place. He's got so much stuff that we've never heard of that I supposed of course he'd have ultra-wave, too; but if he hasn't, that gives us the edge. Well, Bradley and I've got a lot of work to do ... Wait a minute, I just had a thought. I'll be back in about a second."

  There was a brief pause, then the soundless" but clear voice went on:

  "Good bunting! That woman that gave you the blue willies isn't alive-she's full of the prettiest machinery and circuits you ever saw!"

  "Oh, Conway!" and the girl's voice broke in an engulfing wave of thanksgiving and relief. "It was so unutterably horrible, thinking of what must have happened to her and to others like her!"

  "He's running a colossal bluff, I think. He's good, all right, but he lacks quite a lot of being omnipotent. But don't get too cocky, either. Plenty has happened to women here, and men too-and plenty may happen to us unless we put out a few jets. Keep a stiff upper lip, and if you want us, yell. 'Bye!"

  The silent voice ceased, the watch upon Clio's wrist again became an unobtrusive timepiece, and Costigan, in his solitary cell far below her tower room, turned his peculiarly goggled eyes towards other scenes. His hands, apparently idle in his pockets, manipulated tiny controls; his keen, highly-trained eyes studied every concealed detail of mechanism of the great globe. Finally, he took off the goggles and spoke in a low voice to Bradley, confined in another windowless room across the hall.

  "I think I've got enough dope, Captain. I've found out where he put our armor and guns, and I've located all the main leads, controls, and generators. There are no ether-walls around us here, but every door is shielded, and there are guards outside our doors-one to each of us. They're robots, not men. That makes it harder, since they're undoubtedly connected direct to Roger's desk and will give an alarm at the first hint of abnormal performance. We can't do a thing until he leaves his desk. See that black panel, a little below the cord-switch to the right of your door? That's the conduit cover. When I give you the word" tear that off and you'll see one red wire in the cable. It feeds the shield-generator of your door. Break that wire and join me out in the hall. Sorry I had only one of these ultra-wave spies, but once we're together it won't be so bad. Here's what I thought we could do," and he went over in detail the only course of action which his survey had shown to be possible.

  "There, he's left his desk!" Costigan exclaimed after the conversation had continued for almost an hour. "Now as soon as we find out where he's going, we'll start something ... he's going to see Clio, the swine! This changes things, Bradley!" His hard voice was a curse.

  "Somewhat!" blazed the captain. "I know how you two have been getting on all during the cruise. I'm with you, but what can we do?"

  "We'll do something," Costigan declared grimly. "If he makes a pass at her I'll get him if I have to blow this whole sphere out of space, with us in it!"

  "Don't do that, Conway," Clio's low voice, trembling but determined, was felt by both men. "If there's a chance for you to get away and do anything about fighting him, don't mind me. Maybe he only wants to talk about the ransom, anyway."

  "He wouldn't talk ransom to you-he's going to talk something else entirely," Costigan gritted, then his voice changed suddenly. "But say, maybe it's just as well this way. They didn't find our specials when they searched us, you know, and we're going to do plenty of damage right soon now. Roger probably isn't a fast worker-more the cat-and-mouse type" I'd say-and after we get started he'll have something on his mind besides you. Think you can stall him off and keep him interested for about fifteen minutes?"

  "I'm sure I can-I'll do anything to help us, or you, get away from this horrible ..." Her voice ceased as Roger broke the ether-wall of her apartment and walked towards the divan, upon which she crouched in wide-eyed, helpless, trembling terror.

  "Get ready, Bradley!" Costigan directed tersely. "He left Clio's ether-wall off, so that any abnormal signals would be relayed to him from his desk-he knows that there's no chance of anyone disturbing him in that room. But I'm holding a beam on that switch, so that the wall is on, full strength. No matter what we do now, he can't get a roaming. I'll have to hold the beam exactly in place, though, so you'll have to do the dirty work. Tear out that red wire and kill those two guards. You know how to kill a robot" don't you?"

  "Yes-break his eye-lenses and his ear-drums and he'll stop whatever he's doing and send out distress calls ... Got 'em both. Now what?"

  "Open my door-the shield switch is to the right." Costigan's door flew open and the Triplanetary captain leaped into the room.

  "Now for our armor!" he cried.

  "Not yet!" snapped Costigan. He was standing rigid, goggled eyes staring immovably at a spot on the ceiling. "I can't move a millimeter until you've closed Clio's ether wall switch. If I take this ray off it for a second we're sunk. Five floors up, straight ahead down a corridor fourth door on right. When you're at the switch you'll feel my ray on your watch. Snap it up!"

  "Right," and the captain leaped away at a pace to be equaled by few men of half his years.

  Soon he was hack, and after Costigan had tested the ether-wall of the "bridal suite" to make sure that no warning signal from his desk or his servants could reach Roger within it, the two officers hurried away towards the room in which their space-armor was.

  "Too bad they don't wear uniforms," pan
ted Bradley"

  short of breath from the many flights of stairs. "Might have helped some as disguise."

  "I doubt it-with so many robots around, they've probably got signals that we couldn't understand anyway. If we meet anybody it'll mean a battle. Hold it!" Peering through walls with his spy-ray, Costigan had seen two men approaching, blocking an intersecting corridor into which they must turn. "Two of 'em, a man and a robot-the robot's on your side. We'll wait here, right at the corner when they round it take 'em!' and Costigan put away his goggles in readiness for strife.

  All unsuspecting, the two pirates came into view, and as they appeared the two officers struck. Costigan, on the inside, drove a short, hard right blow into the human pirate's abdomen. The fiercely-driven fist sank to the wrist into the soft tissues and the stricken man collapsed. But even as the blow landed Costigan had seen that there was a third enemy, following close behind the two he had been watching, a pirate who was even then training a ray projector upon him. Reacting automatically, Costigan swung his unconscious opponent around in front of him" so that it was into an enemy's body that the vicious ray tore, and not into his own. Crouching down into the smallest possible compass, he straightened out with the lashing force of a mighty steel spring, hurling the corpse straight at the flaming mouth of the projector. The weapon crashed to the floor and dead pirate and living went down in a heap. Upon that heap Costigan hurled himself, feeling for the pirate's throat. But the fellow had wriggled clear, and countered with a gouging thrust that would have torn out the eyes of a slower man, following it up instantly with a savage kick for the groin. No automaton this, geared and set to perform certain fixed duties with mechanical precision, but a lithe, strong man in hard training, fighting with every foul trick known to his murderous ilk.