“Can you imagine them?
“Even if you can, you will not see them as they are. You see I have only tried to tell what they are like—and they really are like nothing that I know.
“And their cities, their habitations, are vast cones of cold blue flame, in which they swim. They do not use machinery as we do. But they seem to have strange power over light—or they control strange forces that are accompanied by a display of light.
“For days I hung about, trying to study them. The green fire, the radiation of the core of the planet, was destroying my body. Then I ventured too near the cone of blue flame where they keep the catalyst I was after.
“An arm of purple fire—that is the best way I can say it—an arm of violet-red light reached out and snatched down the flier. It drew me into the cone of blue flame. I’ll never recover from the horror of what happened before I managed to jerk away, with all power on. And yet I can’t explain it!”
He nervously gulped down another glass of purple wine. With the others staring intently at the rugged, bronzed face, which now had a shadow of unutterable horror upon it, he sat in silence for a long minute.
Then suddenly, Don Galeen laughed uncertainly. He fumbled in a pocket of his soft, leathern garment, produced a tiny tube of heavy black wood, polished with much handling, and a little crystal vial, from which he shook a tiny green pellet. Carefully, he rolled the pellet into the end of the wooden tube, and covered it with a sort of metal stopper.
“I’m at my tian again,” he grinned. “I’d never have lived to get back, without it. It makes me forget.” He turned, grinning, at the lovely girl lying on the divan across the table. “You ought to try it, sometime, Thon. Wonderful dreams, it gives you!”
“Not me!” the girl cried. “I can’t even stand the scent of it. I’m like your old partner!” she smiled.
Don Galeen inhaled through the black wooden tube, several times. He sighed with deep satisfaction, and settled back on the couch. A faint streamer of greenish vapor curled from his nostrils. His eyes lost their recent horror, grew dreamy, closed. His head dropped to the couch. He slept, breathing slowly and regularly.
A strange look came over his rough, bronzed face. A smile of delight, of wonderful contentment. It was the look of a dreamer who visions golden lands, with fairy cities on purple hills, where he strives and loves and follows the old call of adventure.
Then Dick caught a whiff of the green vapor. It was acrid, pungent, but laden with a cloying sweetness that was almost sickening. He coughed and turned hurriedly away.
“The odor nauseates me,” Thon said, smiling at Dick. “I feel sorry for the partner he spoke of. Suppose we go for a walk in the wood below the hill. Come, Dad. He will sleep there for hours.”
“All right, Thon,” Midos Ken agreed. “We must talk over what he said. The catalyst is found at last, on this strange world. We must make our plans to go there and get it. Bargain with the things that guard it, if they will. Take it by force if we must. Humanity must have it!”
They left the room.
As they were going out, Dick thought he saw a shadow move before him. It was nothing that he could see, but more as if some invisible thing had come between his eye and the wall. But when he blinked to clear his eyes and looked again, he could see nothing amiss.
Then Thon took his hand, with the simple confidence of a child, and led him from the room. He decided that the trouble had been in his eyes, dismissed his fear in the joy of Thon’s sweet comradeship.
It was two hours later when they returned.
Don Galeen was gone!
On the table was a square of the white material used for writing. Upon it these words were hastily inscribed: To Thon Ahrora and Midos Ken:
Who is the greater in science now? Do you forget what I told you of invisibility? I hold your lives in my hand.
If you want this man, and the knowledge he has, come for him to the Dark Star.
Garo Nark, Lord of the Dark Star.
CHAPTER V
The Astounding Form
“I KNEW that Nark was still about here,” Midos Ken said when Thon had read the boasting message. “Several times I have heard a person moving about, whom you did not see. But I thought it protection enough to keep my weapons ready, and to set up in the laboratory an instrument which broadcasts interfering waves to keep El Rays from operating within a mile or so of it—that was to keep Mark from striking us down without warning.
“I was a fool. I thought my science equal to that of the Dark Star. Nark was invisible. But to me, all things are invisible, and I could tell by my sense of hearing when he was near. I was planning a trap for him.
“But now he has ruined us. In my excitement about his story, about the discovery of the catalyst, I forgot to listen for our enemy. We have lost Don Galeen—and with him everything!”
“Once I fancied that I heard something in the room,” Dick said. “And when we were going out, it seemed that I saw a sort of shadow on the wall. But when I looked again it was gone.”
“Nark does possess the secret of invisibility—or at least of semi-invisibility. He said he had a substance that reflected no light at all. That would make a space flier invisible in the darkness of space. But a man covered with it would show as a dark shadow against a light colored wall. Possibly his scientists have developed a pigment which changes its color and its brightness to match surrounding objects, like a chameleon. Anything covered with such a pigment would be almost invisible against the smooth green walls of this room, for example. To be truly invisible, an object must be perfectly transparent, and neither reflect nor refract light that strikes it or passes through it.
“But we haven’t lost everything, Dad,” Thon spoke up. “We are much better off, in fact, than we were before Don came. “We know that the catalyst exists, and we know approximately where, We must plan to carry on!”
“Come to the Dark Star, Nark said!” Dick broke in.
“Let’s do it! We can find Don Galeen, and take him on with us after the catalyst!”
“We shall do it!” Thon cried, her keen eyes flashing him a glance that made his heart leap faster. A wonderful girl! He could attempt a trip to the edge of the universe to please such a one as she!
“But Garo Nark took all the tokens,” Midos Ken objected. “We can do nothing without a space flier. And to build such a powerful ship as we require would be tremendously expensive.”
Dick’s heart swelled. He had kept his good news to himself, waiting to surprise them. This seemed the time. “No worry about that,” he said. “I was back to the publications department office yesterday evening. Our book is still selling, the royalties still pouring in. It will earn as much again as Garo Nark took, they told me.”
“Oh! You wonderful dear!” Thon cried.
She turned to him in delight, as if to throw her arms about him. Then, remembering his surprise at her previous impulsive embrace, she flushed, and stood still.
Dick rose to the occasion. Swiftly he put a strong arm about her slender shoulders, drew her lithe body to him, put his lips to hers. A curious intoxication of delight filled him at the thrill of contact with her warm, strong body. But he fought it back, released her quickly.
She stood there before him, breathless, her white shoulders trembling oddly, studying his face with deep blue eyes.
Dick flushed a little at his audacity. Probably he had kissed a few girls during his college days. But certainly never with such emotions as now surged through him.
Suddenly he recalled the powerful form of Don Galeen, the admiration that had filled his brown eyes as he looked at Thon. And the solicitude with which the girl had waited upon him. They were old friends, she had said.
With an effort, Dick grinned. “Turn about is fair play!” he said.
Deep pain came into Thon’s questioning eyes. “Then you were merely playing with me?” she demanded in a hurt voice.
“No, of course not,” Dick said. Other words, of confession and pleading
, rushed to his tongue. But thinking of Don Galeen, a prisoner in the hands of a pirate of space, he did not say them.
Thon, after a minute, dropped her eyes from his—sadly, Dick thought. He wondered if she thought of Don Galeen.
“Then there are two courses of action before us,” Midos Ken spoke abruptly, “if you can finance the building of a space flier. We can go to the Dark Star to attempt the rescue of Don. Or we can try to find the Green Star, and face its unknown perils without him.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to rescue Don—if it is possible?” Dick suggested. “We might not be able to find the Green Star without him. And even if we found it—those things he told about—— I don’t like to meet them without knowing more about them. Then I hate to see such a man abandoned to Garo Nark.”
Thon’s flashing eyes—with a hint of tears glittering in them—applauded him. And Dick, thinking of the rescue of Don, jumped at a conclusion for which he afterwards cursed himself.
Midos Ken and Thon set immediately about planning the new ship of space. It took several weeks. The tables of the apartment were littered with strange drawing instruments, and with sheets of the stiff, white, writing material, covered with designs and calculations. Thon, of course, made all the actual plans. But each feature of the new flier was decided upon only after careful discussion with her father. And many of the inventions of the blind scientist were to be incorporated in it Despite its small size, the machine was to be of the swiftest, and equipped with a formidable armament.
Dick was anxious about another pirate raid. Midos Ken said that the ships of Garo Nark were probably still hanging near. But his supernormal hearing, he thought, would detect any invisible man who tried to enter their rooms again. And he was certain that he could defeat any attack that might be made upon them.
The flier was to be built on the huge machine in the mountain valley, where they had tried in vain to synthesize the vital catalyst. The royalties for Dick’s history had come in as promised and funds were not lacking.
At last the plans were ready. Then Thon spent several days with works of reference, composing long columns of figures from the diagrams. These functions would be set up on the banks of keys that controlled the association of electronic energy into atoms in the field of force between the great disks.
On the day the plans were completely transformed into these columns of integers, the three of them flew out again to the range of mountains in the east. Again, Thon drove the little flier into the gigantic, shed-like building.
They climbed to the stage which overlooked the broad jet platform, with the disk of green metal at one end, and that of gleaming sapphire above the other. The deep, vibrant hum rose again from throbbing generators, and the blue disk shimmered with the pulsing energy that streamed across toward the green metal plate.
With the sheets of functions before her, Thon let her nimble fingers play furiously across the long rows of keys.
A glowing condensation of blue light came into being upon the jet table. And in it grew the ghostly outline of a slender, cigar-shaped ship. Steadily, it grew more real, more substantial, with part upon part growing upon it. The ship was formed as if it had crystallized from the throbbing mist of blue flame.
IN a few hours the hull was complete. It was cylindrical, tapering, ten feet through and fifty in length. It had a metallic gleam, yet it was red. Not the dull red of copper, but bright crimson.
“The red is an armor of neutronic matter,” Midos Ken told him. “Such as is found in the cores of some stars such as the dark companion of Sirius. We use only an impalpably thin film of it—a cubic inch weighs millions of tons. It is indestructible. No projectile of ordinary matter can penetrate it. And it does not conduct ordinary etheric energy. The temperature within will stay the same, whether we traverse the absolute cold of space, or venture into the flaming atmosphere of a sun. No ray or other weapon known to science will act upon it. A discovery of mine. It has never been used before.”
“And what of the propulsion?” Dick inquired. The blood-red hull was unbroken—no propellers or other means of moving it were in view.
“It is driven by the reaction of a K-ray generator,” Midos Ken explained. “The K-ray is a vibration set up by the particles that make up protons and electrons, as light is composed of waves set up by changes in electronic orbits. Gravitation is a force of the same order. It penetrates all substances, and traverses the known universe with instantaneous speed.
“Thon took you to see the space-port on the mountain. From the generators mounted there, K-rays are sent like rivers of force to stations on other planets. And the cars or ships are driven down these rivers of force, propelled by the resistless force of the K-ray. They can cross the Galaxy in a week.
“But a smaller ship, like ours, has no generator behind it, to drive it on a stream of force. We carry our generators on board. When the K-rays jet out in one direction, the ship is driven in the other by reaction. The same principle as the rocket—or as the recoil of a gun. “By a sort of reflection, the tremendous force of the ray is applied alike to every atom of matter in the flier. If it were not, the force of acceleration would kill the passengers.[*]
“These small fliers, carrying their own power plants, are slow in comparison with the huge liners that ride the beams between the space ports. It would take even this one months to cross the Galaxy. And our generators are the most powerful that have ever been installed on a ship—that is, unless Garo Nark has me bested in this particular: his invisible fliers seem very fast.”
“That all sounds good enough,” Dick agreed. “It ought to be some little ship! And if we happen into a scrap, say on the Dark Star, or with those things Don Galeen told about on the Green Star, can we take care of ourselves?”
“We are installing a powerful El Ray generator,” Midos Ken told him. “That would be useful to sweep down jungles, or armies with primitive equipment. It would clear a circle of ten miles radius about the ship in thirty seconds. We shall carry some of my bombs that make the cloud of darkness, you know—the ether-exhausting bombs. They are good for defense. And I have another scientific trick or two ready in case we meet Garo Nark!”
“Good! It’s lots of fun to sock him on the face, of course. But we really should have something more scientific. Wish I had a good automatic!”
“Automatic?” Midos Ken inquired.
“Automatic pistol. A weapon of my age. A sort of metal tube. Chemicals were burned in it to make expanding gases which forced metal slugs out at high speed. Deadly, at a few yards range.”
Midos Ken reflected. “You may need to fight,” he said presently. “You must have a weapon. And I have devised something that you could use that would be new to Garo Nark. It can be made in a form similar to your old weapon, so you can use it with the same instinctive acts. Can you make Thou a drawing of your old ‘automatic’ ?”
Dick sketched the familiar weapon. Midos Ken handed the drawing to his daughter, gave her a few instructions.
“I will condense the weapon for you in the ship,” she told Dick. “You will find it behind a sliding panel in your stateroom.”
“You will find it much like your familiar arm in appearance,” Midos Ken said, as Thon bent over the keys again. “You will use it in the same way—by pointing it and pulling the trigger. It will fire a little purple spark, a tiny pellet weighted with nutronium to carry it far and straight. When the pellet strikes any hard object it will be shattered. Then the substances in it will cause the sudden disintegration of any atoms near it, causing a sharp explosion.
“It is not very powerful—or the atomic explosions would make it dangerous to use. Better not shoot at anything closer than twenty yards, however. It is good for a range of about ten miles, without elevating the aim. A thousand pellets are carried in a magazine in the handle, and Thon will condense you a hundred extra magazines in the same compartment with the gun.”
“Gosh!” was all Dick said, struck again with the wonder of this age where th
ings men wanted were condensed from the electrons freed from atoms of hydrogen and oxygen—and turned back by the El Ray into water when men had used them.
“What are we going to call the ship?” he inquired presently.
“What would you suggest?” asked Midos Ken.
“Let’s name her the Ahrora,” Dick said. “After Thon.”
The girl objected laughingly, but Dick was firm. And the slender, bright-red vessel became the Ahrora.
“DO you hear anything unusual?” old Midos Ken asked Dick a few minutes later.
Dick listened. At first he could distinguish no unusual sound. Then he heard a low, muttering growl.
“Nothing but thunder,” he said. “Must be a storm coming.”
“We don’t have storms,” said Midos Ken. “The weather-control prevents such erratic disturbances. And it is not even time for the next rain—and the rains take place without electrical phenomena.”
“I’ll swear that’s thunder!” Dick cried.
He ran down the steps from the stage where Thon was still operating the great keyboard, and out through the wide door of the vast building. The peaceful, wooded valley lay quiet and green before him. Behind the huge, glistening buildings of white metal, the gleaming silvery veil of the fall plunged from a precipice, roaring down into a mist of fleecy spray. The valley was narrow—it was not half a mile to the steep, rocky slopes of its other side.
Another low, ominous mutter of thunder rumbled and pealed among the cliffs. It was difficult to locate its source; but, looking up the valley, Dick saw a peculiar cloud. Rather small, it was of a dirty, yellowish color where the light of the evening sun struck it. It was shaped oddly like a mushroom—it seemed to consist of a column of vapor rising, to spread at the top. Its motion seemed very swift. Little boiling vortexes were all along the edges.
The Stone From the Green Star Page 6
