By radio they were gradually informed as to what was intended: people were given a free choice as to whether they chose to start a new life on another world or stay behind and die, paradoxically enough, because of life. Scientists then added to the propaganda by their own descriptions of Saturn’s possibilities.
The idea caught the public fancy. Several times the girl herself spoke over the radio, was televized to the remote corners of the world. Other countries, desperately pushed for some means to relieve the rapidly growing population and perpetual increase of all living things, begged for her services, which she freely gave. She deputized international scientific experts to carry out her instructions, telling them every needful detail except certain vital secrets which she still kept to herself.
In the weeks of flurry and bustle during which mankind turned to the task of space ship building—for the inclusion of other countries entirely altered the girl’s original 100 machines plan—it became gradually obvious that nobody seemed of such importance in the world as Janice Milford. Already a great scientist, she became elevated to almost demi-godlike proportions as a great savior in time of distress. The people were willing to obey her every suggestion. Her quiet charm of manner, her beauty, the intangible air of mystery that hung around her, swayed the minds of both men and women.
* * * *
The whole world listened to her address a month later when, right on time, the first twenty-five space machines were ready to depart from New York into the void. She gave a speech on the possibilities of Saturn, reaffirmed her faith in the engineers who had been trained to control the vessels in their flight. Though Marden and Doone were beside her on the speaker’s platform at the departure grounds they seemed to have little significance in the proceedings. They sat on either side of her, backed by famous public officials, and watched her speaking into the microphone, faced by thousands of interested people and the already sealed space machines containing the first batch of 750 volunteers.
Doone’s gaze toward the girl’s slim back was one of complete admiration as she went on talking—but not so Marden’s. His brows were down, his cold gray eyes narrowed with impatience. This complete usurping of his authority, over the United States at least, anything but pleased him. Never in his whole life had he believed that a woman should take prior place over a man; it enraged his naturally arrogant spirit. Obviously he could take no action now, so he sat and glowered, drummed impatiently on his chair arms.
At last the girl finished, raised her arm over her head in a signal. A blasting roar boomed from the assembled twenty-five ovoids with their glittering windows. One by one they rose with the smooth ease of a bird, swept with effortless acceleration toward the clouded morning sky. One by one, guided by the perfectly trained pilots.
They were lost in the clouds. The last machine vanished from sight amidst the echoing shouts of the people—Seven hundred and fifty men and women, first pioneers of the earth, had gone out into the unknown. A solemn little hush fell on the crowd. The thing was over. There was a general movement toward departure.
Janice turned, smiled at the men on the platform, then with a little nod of farewell she descended to the grass and headed toward her waiting car, accompanied by the cheers of the milling throngs. Marden’s eyes followed her suspiciously, until at last he saw her car begin to move away through the press.
“I don’t like it!” he growled. “That woman is doing just what the devil she likes! I sometimes think we should have investigated her past history more closely before putting everything so completely in her hands.”
“What on earth for?” Doone demanded, staring in amazement. “Hasn’t she provided the only possible way out of our difficulties?”
“I suppose so…” Marden made the admission grudgingly. Turning suddenly he faced Doone squarely. “Frankly, Doone, I’m beginning to distrust her!” he snapped. “She’s definitely a scientific freak, and I don’t like the way she’s lifted power right out of our hands and captured the public imagination. Has it ever occurred to you how magically she derived an atomic force system of space driving from Brandon Hurst’s anything but lucid plans? I know far more of engineering than you, Doone, and I can’t even begin to fathom how the devil she did it! And successfully too!” He stared up at the cloudy, empty sky.
Doone gestured impatiently. “Distrust her all you like, Marden, but I admire her intensely. I’m prepared to do all she says—anytime and anywhere. I can understand the people feeling likewise. Dammit, man, haven’t you got any responsive feelings at all inside that armor of yours?”
“In love with her?” Marden’s rugged face was cynical.
“Supposing I am? What difference does it make?”
“Plenty! It might blind you to her real motives. I’ve more than a hunch that there’s something unnatural behind all this. The deathlessness, her extraordinary ingenuity in finding a way out of the difficulty, her choice of Saturn above all other planets and her ability to persuade other astronomers that her ideas were right.”
“Observations checked exactly!” Doone retorted hotly.
“I know. She worked very logically, convinced them of everything. They stated facts and she built up on them…But why Saturn?”
“Because it’s the best planet! Don’t start making a fool of yourself, Marden!”
Marden smiled rather twistedly. “I’m going to make it my business from now on to find out all I can about this young lady,” he stated calmly. “If she’s all she claims to be, all right. But if she isn’t…”
He turned away, his lips compressed, descended from the platform. Doone stared angrily after him. Not for a single instant would he have openly admitted he felt the same way. Janice Milford was extraordinary, and none but a fool could deny it. If indeed she did have an ulterior motive in all this, it was well hidden. So far she had apparently acted only for the good of all concerned.
Following the departure of the first twenty-five space ships there was an exodus of machines every week, not only from America but from other countries, all of them taking the long trail into infinity. Before very long the first space machines would return for a second load, together with the first full story of conditions in space and on the ringed planet.
In the interval, in a determined endeavor to make things more habitable on earth, international agreements were drawn up for concerted bombing raids on vegetation infested areas, the destruction of enormous carpets of choking weed smothering the bosoms of the seas. United mankind started on a war against Nature, knowing that upon his activities rested the only hope of maintaining Earth as a habitable planet. Unless the cosmic rays returned…
Weeks passed—weeks of incessant work on the part of every man and woman, with occasional encouraging radio talks by Janice Milford. The ships would soon return, she said; and finally the time limit had elapsed for the round trip. Mankind waited eagerly for the first sign of the returning vessels. Every telescope was at the ready. The girl herself even predicted the approximate hour at which they would appear. But they failed to arrive!
Anxious hours passed into days and no space machines put in an appearance. For the first time production on further space vessels was halted. Something had gone wrong somewhere. If space too only offered death—as was beginning to seem probable—there was no sense in making an effort to die. Inevitably that would happen on Earth in the long run. Death because of the cramping spread of perpetual life.
Frederick Marden was coldly malignant about the new situation. In the past weeks he had kept to his promise and had had the girl’s entire life and history investigated—nor did the results cheer Doone very much when he heard them.
“I tell you, Doone, this girl is playing a dangerous game, with human lives as pawns,” Marden breathed, pacing the huge office. “Janice Milford, eh? Would it interest you to know, my lovelorn friend that nowhere in all the birth records of the United States is there a record of her birth? Much less so in West Virginia, where she claims she was born. There are many Janice
Milfords, of course—but none that apply to her. Nor is there a record of family tree or possible ancestors.
“In fact, from every investigation I’ve made she only made herself really apparent about three years ago—two years or so before the civil war began. From that point onward there are records of her having bought great quantities of scientific machinery from various firms, and of the gradual build-up of Milford Industries Incorporated. That, I presume, is the normal business which she controls.”
Doone swung moodily to and fro in the swing chair. “I can’t understand it,” he muttered, brooding.
“No?” Marden came to a stop, rested with his knuckles on the desk and stared at Doone deliberately. “Well, I do!” he said bitterly. “Some five thousand people of different countries have been fired into space—and God alone knows where they’ve gone or what’s happened to them! Think, man, of the incredible way in which everything coincided! First the world went deathless and provided a perfectly sane reason for sending people from earth. Mysteriously enough, this girl had just the right ideas! She tells a cock and bull story about the first space machines returning—but they don’t! What’s the answer to that one?”
“Summon her here and find out.”
“I’ve already spoken to her over the visiphone but she seems entirely unmoved by the occurrence. All she’s done is to put a stop order on space machines until the first ones come back. If they don’t come back I suppose we’re expected to calmly accept the whole thing as a failure! But not with me, Doone! I’ve got the people’s interests at heart and this woman isn’t going to get away with it! It’s—it’s mass murder! Deliberately she has hurled five thousand men, women and children into space in those insane space machines of hers—just the same as Brandon Hurst threw himself, his wife and daughter away!”
“But maybe it really is misfortune!” Doone insisted quickly.
“Misfortune!” Marden smiled sourly. “That cuts no ice with me, Doone. Women like Janice Milford don’t make mistakes—or if they do they’re deliberate! I’m not saying yet that she’s deliberately killed five thousand people—but I do say she got rid of them for a reason…” He broke off, took a deep breath. “I believe,” he said slowly, “that Janice Milford doesn’t belong to this earth at all! I believe she’s a denizen of another world—and more likely than not that world is Saturn!”
“Bunk!” Doone snorted.
“No it isn’t. She has vast knowledge: she could easily make herself look like an Earth woman if she had a plan to work out. Saturn, for some reason, required five thousand Earth people and it was up to her to get them. She did— very effectually. That’s my guess.”
“And a damned rotten one!” Doone snapped, glaring. “I suppose she caused the deathlessness? Stopped the cosmic rays?”
“Possibly. A brilliant scientist could even do that.”
Doone stared incredulously, got to his feet. “But good Heavens, man, you can’t be serious?” he cried. “You just can’t be! Why, it would be even more logical to say that—that she’s Brandon Hurst’s daughter than a Saturnian!”
“I had considered that,” Marden nodded calmly. “Here—take a look at these pictures of Eva and Mrs. Hurst from the photographic Bureau…that isn’t the answer.”
Doone picked up the prints from the papers on the desk. They were in natural color, depicted a robust woman of middle age, the tall, handsome Brandon Hurst himself, and then a young girl of perhaps twenty, dark haired and brown eyed, round faced, inclined to be stoutish—as utterly unlike the slender, beautiful Janice Milford as it was possible to imagine.
Doone tossed the photographs impatiently away, his mind running back over all the recollections of the girl he had ever had. Most of them were pleasant. Despite the shadow cast over her possible identity he still believed in her—Then suddenly, unexpectedly, he remembered something. It had been trying to struggle to fruition in his mind for weeks—the memory of a statement she had once made, afterward changing the subject so suddenly she had obviously been aware she had made a mistake.
“Good—Lord!” he exclaimed abruptly.
“What is it?” Marden’s gray eyes were keen.
Doone stared at him wonderingly. “I—I just thought of something,” he whispered. “Recently, Janice demonstrated to me that although she looks normal—where everybody else is obviously coarsened—she is actually as tough as the rest of us. I remarked on that fact and her answer was ‘So Abel Dodd found out when he had me tortured…’ But, when she was tortured the deathless anabolism had not arrived! She saw the mistake immediately after, and I was left trying to figure out what she’d said that wasn’t right.”
“So!” Marden breathed exultantly. “That implies she was as impervious to injury before the anabolism as after it—and the fact got out by accident. No wonder she was so stoic under torture and gave nothing away. Though the torturers managed to tear her skin and burn off her nails, she probably hardly felt it. It’s the only possible explanation—normal flesh and blood could never have stood that—and a girl too—without some hint of breaking down. She’s inhuman—unnatural!”
Doone looked harassed, rubbed his dark hair anxiously. “I—I still can’t believe it, Marden. I—”
“There’s one certain way of proving all this, I think,” Marden said slowly, thinking. “If we assume that she is a masquerader from another world, it is distinctly unlikely that every one of her bones will be in the identical place of a normal earth woman, isn’t it?”
“I should say most unlikely. Different worlds must have different life. Why?”
“We’ll ask her to submit to an X-ray examination!” Marden cried triumphantly. “If she is a normal woman she’ll raise no objection, but if she is a Saturnian with a cleverly modeled earthly structure she’ll know the X-ray will give her away and she’ll refuse!”
Doone’s face cleared. “O.K.—that’s a swell idea. I’ve not the least doubt she’ll agree to—”
He broke off and turned as the main radio speaker suddenly came into action.
“World report! Cosmic rays are reported to be prevalent again in Europe! Flash! Cosmic rays reported returned to various parts of America…Astronomers and scientists, please verify!”
The two men stared at each other for a moment.
“They’ve returned!” Doone breathed at least, his eyes shining. “Good Heavens, Marden—that means the earth is saved! Normalcy will come back and—”
The door opened suddenly and a clerk entered.
“Miss Janice Milford,” he announced dispassionately.
Marden’s eyes narrowed again. “Show her in,” he ordered briefly, and stood with his hands clasped behind him regarding the girl as she quietly entered.
She gave Marden a puzzled glance, smiled at Doone as he held forth a chair for her.
“Probably you’ve heard the news,” she said presently. “The cosmic waves have returned almost simultaneously to all parts of the earth? I rather hoped I’d bring the good news first, but I hear the radio forestalled me. Not that it matters. The fact remains that at 10:12 this morning deathlessness passed from Earth and things will go back to normal. I thought a few personal observations might help, so I hurried along here.”
“Very interesting, I’m sure.” Marden took a chair opposite her and surveyed her coldly. “I suppose, then, that the five thousand or so people sent into space need never really have gone?” he asked icily.
“We could not have foreseen this.” Her own blue eyes were perfectly frank and steady as she stared back at him.
Marden drummed his fingers on the desk. “So normalcy now returns?” he murmured. “Very, very convenient, I’m sure! Almost as convenient as the cosmic ray blockade in the first instance! You sent five thousand people into space for a reason, Miss Milford—and we demand to know why! Where are the space ships that were to return?”
“Either they met with some accident, or have been delayed.”
“Damnably unconvincing, Miss Milford! Where did th
ose five thousand people go to? Why did you send them into space? I do not believe for a single instant that your reason was genuine, though it sounded logical enough at the time. What was your real motive?”
The girl got suddenly to her feet, clearly offended.
“I did what was my duty in a worldwide emergency!” she retorted. “You can place your own construction on that!”
“And by Heaven I do!” Marden roared, leaping up and gripping her arm. “You’re nothing better than an imposter—a scientific genius who by clever trickery took five thousand innocent souls from Earth into space, probably to Saturn, for some ghastly reason best known to yourself!”
Janice snatched her arm free, stared angrily.
“Whatever put that insane notion in your head, Marden?”
“Insane, is it? I’ll go further and say that you are really a Saturnian creature made to resemble an earthly woman.”
“Such ingenuity!” the girl observed icily.
“All right then, are you willing to prove your earthly origin?”
“Certainly I am. How?”
Marden smiled triumphantly. “If you are constructed exactly identical to a woman of earth, I’ll believe you belong to this planet and will try and find the motive for your actions in some other way—but if you’re not normally constructed your unearthly origin will be taken as a certainty and I can’t answer for what may happen to you!”
“We want you to stand for a complete X-ray,” Doone told her quietly. “You won’t mind, of course? Medical experts will soon know what the plates reveal—”
“X-ray!” the girl gasped; then suddenly she swung round on Marden savagely. “Say, what do you think I am?” she demanded furiously, her eyes blazing. “Do you think I’m a specimen to be examined at will? You’re both mad! Crazy! I won’t submit to an X-ray or anything else like it! Think what you like, but I won’t do it!”
Doone’s expression changed. Marden grinned maliciously.
John Russell Fearn Omnibus Page 75
