Star of Ill-Omen

by Dennis Wheatley

  ‘It’s Mars!’ exclaimed Escobar excitedly.

  ‘Are you sure? Do you know for certain?’ Kem cried with equal excitement.

  ‘Yes; by its markings. The reddish parts are deserts, the white spot is one of the polar caps, and the blue areas are its so-called seas. All of them are well known to astronomers and have long been named. Look! Those two dark patches near its centre, but some way apart: they are easily recognisable, when seen in relation to the ice-cap and other features, as Mare Cimmerium and Mare Sirenum.’

  Fascinated, they stared down the chute for several minutes without speaking. As the planet remained in the centre of the pipe’s orifice it was clear beyond doubt that they were heading for it, although in that short time it did not appear to grow appreciably larger. At length, Kem said to Escobar:

  ‘Do tell us about it. Tell us all you know.’

  The scientist stroked the pointed beard he had grown which, in conjuction with the upturned moustache that he had always had, now gave him something of a look of a French financier. ‘Well,’ he said rather thoughtfully, ‘although I have devoted a lot of my time to astronomy, I have never specialised in Mars; so I can give you only the main facts that I remember. You had better have the figures first. The mean distance of Mars from the Sun is about 142 million miles. The nearest it ever gets to Earth is about 35 million. In many respects it is more like Earth than any other planet in our system, as it spins on an axis less than two degrees greater and has a day only thirty-seven minutes longer.’

  ‘That makes it more certain that this is a Martian aircraft, then,’ Carmen put in, ‘as rations are issued in it every twelve hours and nineteen minutes.’

  He gave her an unsmiling nod. ‘Yes; I ought to have considered that as a possible indication of our destination, but it never occurred to me.’

  ‘As Mars is spinning on much the same axis as Earth, I take it that the seasonal changes there are similar, too?’ Kem suggested.

  ‘Yes; but they last nearly double the length of ours, because Mars takes much longer to complete a journey round the sun. Her year has 687 days, or reckoned by her own slightly longer revolutions, 668. Her seasons also vary in relative length from Earth’s, owing to her path round the Sun being more elliptical in shape. In her northern hemisphere summer lasts about a month longer than winter, and in her southern hemisphere the reverse applies. But to whichever hemisphere they take us, for most of the year I’m afraid we shall find it a good bit colder than the Argentine.’

  Carmen shivered. ‘If the temperature in this thing is their idea of comfortable central heating, we certainly shall.’

  ‘It may not be too bad in the day-time, but the nights in winter will be bitter. Mars is half as far again as Earth from the Sun, and it has been worked out that she gets only four-ninths of the warmth Earth gets. That means that, were the two planets the same in all other respects, Mars would be so cold that in the open we should be certain to freeze to death there. But, fortunately for us, they are not. On average, 50 per cent of Earth’s surface is always sheltered from the Sun’s rays by cloud, which makes it much cooler than it would otherwise be. Mars, on the other hand, has practically no cloud at all, except a narrow fringe of water vapour round the edge of the ice-caps when they melt in their respective springs. In consequence, practically the whole of her surface gets the full benefit of the Sun’s heat; in fact 99 per cent of the possible maximum. That goes a long way towards evening things up; and calculations have shown that the mean temperature on her surface is 48 degrees Fahrenheit compared with Earth’s mean surface temperature of 60 degrees.’

  ‘In what other ways does Mars resemble Earth?’ Kem asked.

  ‘As far as I know, in very few. Everywhere except in the desert areas her landscapes will present an appearance having little similarity to those of our World. She has no seas, no rivers, no mountains, and I find it difficult to believe that she has any forests in the sense that we use the word. But if you like desert scenery…’ Escobar paused and pointed downward.

  ‘Look how large a proportion of her shows a reddish tint. Look at that deep belt of red along her equator and for hundreds of miles to the north of it. That runs unbroken right round her and, as you can see, in places great triangles of it run up nearly to her poles. The whole of that is desert. Five-eighths of her total surface is an arid waste. The deserts of Arizona and the Sahara are tiny by comparison; but, of course, unlike them the deserts on Mars do not shimmer with heat. The probability is that, although their altitude is negligible, they are very like the cold, windswept uplands of Tibet. That they are swept by terrific winds we know, as we can see through our more powerful telescopes the dust-storms that these tornados churn up. We can measure them, too, and know that they are often several miles high; so they must be infinitely more terrible than any we experience on Earth.’

  ‘You are giving us a pretty grim picture,’ said Kem glumly. ‘Can’t you suggest some more cheerful possibilities?’

  Escobar shrugged. ‘To do so would be only guessing; but if we are lucky we may find a civilisation there far in advance of anything we can yet even conceive.’

  ‘If this Saucer is a fair example of it, I’d rather be taken to a place where primitive man is still running wild in the woods.’

  ‘The Saucer may represent only the degree of scientific and technical advancement they have achieved. The development of culture and the arts often runs parallel with more material truimphs. If it has done so on Mars we can look forward to many wonderful experiences. In fact we may be privileged to see a state of life which, unless the Martians bring it to Earth, our World cannot hope to reach for many thousands of years to come.’

  Escobar paused for a moment, then went on: ‘Until comparatively recently Percival Lowell, for many years the Director of Flagstaff Observatory, Arizona, was regarded as the greatest authority on Mars. He made the study of the planet his life work, and even today most of what is known about it we owe to him. He used to say that Mars is the prophet of Earth, as everything that has taken place on one must inevitably take place in due course on the other. He was not, of course, referring to the evolution of man, although he always maintained that there was every reason to suppose that some form of intelligent life existed on Mars. But as far as the physical life of the two planets is concerned he was undoubtedly right.

  ‘I think I mentioned once before that water is the life-blood of all planets. At one time Earth’s oceans were much more extensive than they are today and nearly the whole of such land as existed was covered with vast forests. As the oceans have gradually shrunk through evaporation, the forest areas have also lessened until many of them are deserts uninhabitable by man. Mars, being a much smaller planet than Earth, and having a lesser gravity, has less power than Earth to hang on to her water; so the process of absorption is much further advanced with her than with us. Through lack of water the whole of what were once her continents have become deserts, and even her ocean beds are now dry land. They are the last refuge of life on Mars, and when they too dry out completely all life on the planet must cease to exist.

  ‘However, that inevitable annihilation will not take place for a long time yet; because Mars still has a final, but dwindling, reserve in her ice-caps. They are no longer permanent, like Earth’s, and are not believed to consist of much more than a few feet of snow. In the course of each Martian year both of them melt completely, then re-form during the winters of the two hemispheres. Their melting enables the lowlands of Mars to be irrigated twice annually, and it is by that means only that vegetation can continue to flourish in them. But the subtle, silent enemy, evaporation, never ceases to take his annual toll of water; so year by year the ice-caps are gradually becoming smaller. When there is no longer enough water to form them Mars must die. And that is the way in which Earth will die, too.’

  ‘No wonder Gog and Magog are so stingy with the water,’ Carmen remarked.

  ‘And as Mars is so much smaller than Earth that would account for their
being giants,’ Kem added.

  ‘Yes,’ Escobar agreed. ‘The gravity of Mars is only .38 that of Earth; so one would expect any species resembling a human being there to be about three times our size. But I was about to add that as Mars has aged physically much more rapidly than Earth, there is good hope that its inhabitants will be much older mentally than we are; so wise, tolerant and benign.’

  Kem made a comical grimace. ‘I only hope you are right; but we’ve no evidence of that as yet. In fact all the evidence we have to date points the other way; except as far as their scientific achievements are concerned. Incidentally, now we have some data to go on, it would be interesting to know at what speed this thing is flying. We know roughly how long the journey has taken, and you said just now that Mars is 35 million miles from Earth, so it should be possible to work it out.’

  ‘Ah, but the figure I gave you is the distance between the two planets at their closest opposition. That occurs only once every seventeen years; at the other end of the scale there is a gap of 65 million miles between them when they pass. Besides, they come into opposition only at intervals of two years and two months. For all the rest of the time they are hurtling away from each other at tremendous speeds. As it is a long time since I have given any thought to Mars, I can’t remember what her position in relation to the Earth is now; so it is impossible for me to even attempt the calculation you suggest.’

  After a moment the scientist added, ‘In any case, as the Saucers have visited Earth frequently during the past few years, they obviously do not have to wait for oppositions, but are capable of covering the big distances that separate the two planets while they swing round the greater part of their orbits.’

  Later, Kem worked out the sum for himself, taking the minimum distance as a base, and found that had Mars and Earth being at their closest opposition the Saucer would have been travelling at about eleven miles a second. But in view of what Escobar had said it seemed certain that it was doing several times that speed.

  In the meantime, although it seemed unlikely that their landing would take place for many hours yet, they could hardly bear to drag themselves away from the viewpoint of their destination. The sphere of Mars did not appear to increase much in size, although its rotation from west to east was easily detectable from the gradual movement of the dark patches on its surface. When they had temporarily gazed their fill at it, they attempted to settle to their ordinary occupations, but every few moments they could not resist the urge to break off what they were doing to have another look. At last, tired out from staying awake much longer than usual to watch developments, they settled down under their bedding screens; but even then they were still so excited that it was quite a time before sleep would come to them.

  When, several hours later, they woke, their first thought was to make certain that they were still heading for Mars. One glance down the pipe was enough. There was the brilliant-hued planet, and the circle had increased in size so considerably that only a narrow rim of daylight now seemed to separate it from the pipe’s sides. The markings on it were much clearer and Escobar named several of them, which led Kem to suggest that the scientist should draw them a map of the planet, so that they could get a better idea of the principle features on both sides of it.

  He agreed to do the best he could from memory, and the other two followed him with immense interest as he sketched on one of the precious pieces of paper the great deserts and dead seas. The name he wrote across them—Elysium, Ophir, Atlantis, Propontis, Lemuria, Ausonia, Fons Junentae, Utopia, and others with similar associations—suggested white palaces set among hanging gardens and palm-fringed lakes, rather than barren uplands, so tended to lessen their forebodings and made them more eager to arrive. Yet, in spite of the fact that by the time Escobar had finished the orb of Mars appeared to block the outlet of the pipe entirely, so it seemed that they must now be approaching it very fast, he said that the plane was still relatively far away and they would have to control their impatience to learn its secrets.

  As the hours passed the major markings became still clearer and new ones were constantly appearing in the gaps between them. When they first woke, lines joining many of the seas and oases had just been perceptible; these became darker and as sharp as if they had been drawn with a ruler, while a whole network of fainter lines showed criss-crossing both the dead oceans and the deserts.

  Like the majority of people Kem and Carmen had both heard that some astronomers believed there were canals on Mars, but neither had seriously considered the implications of such a possibility. Now they were looking down on them, while Escobar explained the theory that had been advanced regarding their origin and purpose.

  ‘Lowell suggested,’ he said, ‘that long before the last seas of Mars dried up the Martians must have realised that drought would eventually bring all life on their planet to an end; so they took such steps as they could to conserve the water that remained. When the polar ice melted each spring, instead of letting most of the water it made run to waste in the bottoms of the old sea-beds, they canalised some of it and brought it to their most fertile areas. Now, the odds are that every single gallon of it is controlled and automatically directed into smaller channels that irrigate their fields. The colour changes that have been observed to occur seasonally in the bluish regions goes far to prove that. They wax and wane from a greenish hue in summer to a yellowish tinge in winter. It is that which has caused it to be now generally accepted that they are vegetation. But without the canals to feed them they too would become arid deserts.’

  ‘I find it amazing,’ Kem remarked, ‘that anything so narrow as a canal should ever have been seen from Earth, even through the most powerful telescope.’

  ‘That is partly due to the fact that dead-straight lines are always easier for the eye to detect than irregular ones, as you must have noticed in the case of roads when flying in an aircraft. But, of course, it is not the canals themselves we see; they are indicated only by the parallel belts of verdure that grow on their banks; and they are estimated to average ten miles in width. Between four and five hundred of them have been detected to date and some of the main ones are two or three thousand miles in length. As you see, many of the most prominent are doubles. So far no satisfactory theory has been advanced to account for that; but there is another thing about them that you will not notice at first sight, for which there is an interesting explanation. In the northern hemisphere the majority of them show a westward trend towards the equator, and in the southern hemisphere an eastward trend; so the people who planned them must have made due allowance for the fact that the planet rotates more swiftly at its equator than it does near the poles, and oriented them in such a way as to ensure the minimum resistance to the water they were designed to carry during its transit and, in consequence, a minimum cost in unavoidable loss.’

  ‘To create such a system,’ Kem said, a little awed, ‘must have been a gigantic undertaking, when one thinks of the labour entailed in cutting through little bits of land like those at Suez or Panama.’

  ‘Yes. It would have taken us thousands of years to do such a job, and it probably took the Martians many generations to complete it. But they had one thing in their favour: the fact that the lower gravity on Mars must make any physical work very much easier. A sack of these beastly beans that would weigh 100 pounds on Earth weighs only 38 pounds on Mars, so there you could lift it without effort. In view of their size that must make an enormous difference in their capacity for labour.’

  At intervals the captives tried to make the hours of waiting until they could hope for liberty, or at least a change of prison, pass swiftly by endeavouring to think of other things. But their efforts were in vain; they could not keep their minds for more than a few moments from speculation on what sort of reception they would meet on the unknown world they were approaching.

  As they rushed towards it their field of vision down the pipe gradually decreased, until they could see only a circular area that included a great blue-green p
romontory shaped somewhat like India, which was called Syrtis Major, and a number of canals radiating from it. Then, with startling suddenness, the map below them disappeared, to be replaced by blank dark blue space.

  Apprehensively they looked at one another. It was Kem who was first to realise the significance of the change, and reassure the others. ‘It’s all right,’ he said. The odds would naturally be against the Saucer’s base being situated on the part of Mars that happens to be under it at the moment. It must have turned on its edge to partially circumnavigate the planet until it gets over its landing-ground.’

  His companions agreed, but they all continued to stare down the pipe a little anxiously. Half an hour later he was proved correct; as with a suddenness nearly as swift as the first change the daylight faded, then the aperture grew dark. Simultaneously the glow through the Saucer’s roof dimmed, lights appeared inside the control tower and, within a few moments, the chamber was lit only by the soft radiance emanating from its central pillar. It was clear that the Saucer had traversed more than a quarter of the planet’s circumference, and that it had now entered the cone of shadow that every twenty-four hours and thirty-seven minutes brought night to the inhabitants of Mars.

  Still they looked down the chute, but nothing now broke the blackness of the circle below them. They had thought that the oases might contain cities with great populations, and that linking them together there might be flood-lit autobahns along the canals; but not a glimmer of light was to be seen.

  Almost imperceptibly at first, then with increasing strength, they began to feel the pull of gravity. Recalling accounts of what his companions had suffered from the same cause when leaving Earth, Escobar called out:

  ‘Don’t be alarmed! The pressure won’t be anything like as great as that you had to endure before.’

  But they were given little time to think about it. Their feet had hardly registered an unaccustomed firmness on the deck when two of the tanks sprang open; and Gog and Magog, who for the past seven weeks had either slept or squatted for hours on end almost unmoving, suddenly displayed an unwonted activity.