EVIL EARTHS, page 30
The arrangement was logical enough, Mason realized.
Plant-food, absorbed through the roots--radiation from
the huge lights in the cavern's roof, a substitute for solar
radiation, waning with the inevitable cooling of the Solar
System. But such food was useless for human beings.
206
Mason said so. One of the Gorichen touched his arm
with a soft tentacle-tip.
"It does not matter."
"What?" A chill premonition shook Mason. He glanced
around swiftl3at the blankly shining heads of the plant-men.
"What d'you mean?"
"You are to be used in our experiments, that is all."
"Like Hell!" Mason snarled--and struck. His fist
crashed out, pulping the body of one of the Gorichen. Its
flesh was horribly soft and fungoid. Moist, soft stuff clung
to Mason's hand. The Gorichen, a gaping hole in its torso,
halted and then came forward again, apparently uninjured.
And the others pressed toward the man, tentacles
waving.
The battle was brief. Mason's muscles were toughened
with fury. and desperation, but he had no chance against
overwhelming, numbers. So at last he went down; was
bound tightly, .still struggling, with fle, xible metal ropes.
Then the plant-men retreated, and Mason saw something
that made his throat dry with horror.
A group of Gorichen were carrying a figure into the
cavern--the body of Alasa, bound and silent, bronze hair
hanging in disheveled ringlets about her pale face. She
saw Mason.
"Kentl They attacked us after you leftl They killed
Erech, I think. They "
"Are you all right?" Mason asked, trying to regain his
breath. "You're not hurt?"
She shook her head. "No. But Murdach escaped in the
ship."
The Gorichen waited silently.
"Murdach escaped!" A little flare of hope mounted
within Mason. Alasa seemed to read his thought.
"He can't help. We're under the ocean. These demons
took me underground just as a great wave came out of
the east .... "
Now Mason realized why the plant-men dwelt underground.
The Moon's nearness caused giant tides that
swept resistlessly over the surface of the planet. Now they
were far beneath the sea--and would be, until the tide
retreated.
Mason grimaced. He tugged unavailingly at his bonds.
207
One of the Gorichen came forward. His thought-message
was clear.
"We bear you no hatred. You say you are not of tho
Deathless Ones, our enemies. Yet you are v.ery like them.
For ages we have tried to find a way of defeating the
Deathless Ones, and never yet have we succeeded. They
cannot be captured. We cannot experiment on them. But
you--if we find how you are vulnerable, we may use that
knowledge on the Deathless Ones. Certain things we already
know. Steel is useless. So are poisonous gases. But
there are certain combinations of ray .... "
The creatures fell silent. His tentacles gestured, and
the two captives were lifted, borne toward a glass block
that towered near by. A door was opened in its side;
Mason was thrust into its hollow interior. Cursing, he
struggled with his bonds as the piant-men retreated with
Alasa. Rolling over on his side, he peered through the
transparent walls. And, watching, he went cold with horror.
To the Gorlchen the two humans were guinea-pigs,
valuable only as material for their experiments. They
dragged Alasa to an altar-like block of stone. Vainly she
fought.
The tentacles of the monsters reached out, deftly
moving the girl's clothing. In a moment she lay utterly
nude, chained to the stone block so that she could scarcely
move. A Gorichen wheeled a lens into position. From it
a pale ray-beam fingered out, enveloping Alasa's ivory
body in lambent moonglow.
She was unconscious, or seemed so. For a second the
ray was visible; then it snapped ou. Working hurriedly,
the plant-men unbound the girl, carried her to Mason's
prison, and thrust her within. They remained in little
knots outside the glass walls, their blankly glistening
heads inclined forward as though they stared attentively
at the results of their experiment.
Cursing, Mason struggled to free himself. Useless attempt!
The unyielding metal merely chafed and cut his
wrists, and presently he stopped to glance at the girl. She
was regaining consciousness.
She moaned, lifted a slim hand to brush bronze hair
from her face. Slowly she opened her eyes. In them was
208
a blind dreadful staring that made Mason catch his
breath, his thrQat dry.
The girl dragged herself to her hands and knees. Her
gaze moved questingly about the prison. She saw Mason.
Silently she crept forward. An angry flush was mount-lng
in her face and bossom, and the glaring eyes grew
wider.
"Alasa!" Mason called. "llasa!"
No answer. The nude girl crawled toward him--and
stopped. She arose.
Her breasts rose and fell more swiftly. A harsh cry
Came from her lips.
Then suddenly she sprang at him.
Mason was caught unawares. He felt soft flesh pressed
against his face, fever-hot, caught a glimpse of Alasa's
flashing t. eeth,bared in a snarl. What madness had the
Gorichen:s hellish ray worked?
Mason rolled away just in time as Alasa's teeth drove
at his throat. Finger-nails raked his face. Then Alasa
leaped again, eyes blazing.
"God Alrnighty!" Mason groaned. Would he have to
kill Alasa to escape being murdered? He drove the
thought from his mind; he knew that he could never harm
the girl even if she were insane. Yet, for her own sake,
he must subdue her somehow. And he had little chance of
doing that, bound as he was.
"Alasa!" he called again.
The girl did not heed. Her body glistening with perspiration,
she flung herself on Mason, fingers clawing,
teeth seeking his throat. He tried to roll over, but could
not.
A sharp pain lanced, through his neck. He felt the
warm stickiness of blood trickling across his skin.
Agonizingly the girl's teeth drove deeper ....
209
CHAPTER VIII
The Deathless Ones
Dimly, through a red haze, Mason realized that the glrl's
weight no longer bore him down. Two plant-men held her
writhing body in their tentacles, dragging her toward the
door. A trickle of blood wormed from her lips. In silence
she struggled, striving to break free.
The Gorichen pulled her outside. As Mason watched
he saw her body suddenly sag limply in unconsciousness.
A pang darted through him. Was Alasa---dead?
The same idea had come to the plant-men. Tentacles
were waved excitedly. They lowered the girl to the floor,
examining her carefully. A movement of Alasa's arm
assured Mason; the girl tried feebly to get to her feet.
The Gorichen dragged her back to Mason's prison.
They thrust her within it. Again the door was shut.
Alasa ran to the man.
"Kent! What happened?"
"You--" Mason hesitated. In the girl's eyes he read
the knowledge that she remembered nothing of her nightmare
atack on him. The madness of the plant-men had
passed from her brain. "Nothing much," he flushed. "Can
you untie me, Alasa?"
She bent forward, fumbled at the metal ropes. Wonld
the Gorichen permit her to free the man?
At last the task was finished. Mason got to his feet,
rubbing his legs to restore circulation. He went quickly to
the door, kicked it tentatively.
The plant-men outside seemed to watch undisturbed.
Again Mason kicked the glass, but it did not shatter.
He crashed his shoulder against it, but only bruised his
arm. The cell was empty, and there was nothing he could
txs as a weapou.
210
A cry from Alasa made him turn. She was pointing to
a corner of the cell, where walls joined ceiling. Greenish-white,
a plume of vapor was entering the prison, coiling
ominously in the still air.
Fear gripped Mason. He sprang forward, tried to reach
the valve. If he could manage to stuff it closed, ut it
was too high. Baffled, he retreated to the door and renewed
his onslaught on it.
But the substance, tougher than steel, would not yield.
Mason paused only when he could scarcely see the door
'through a thickening cloud of greenish mist. Alasa
touched his arvn.
"Kent? What is happening?"
uI don't know," he said slowly. "They're experimenting
on us. What they expect--well, I just don't know. Maybe
it'll .kill us. If it does, I hope it's a quick death."
With a ,soft little cry Alasa moved close to Mason, and
he. put protecting arms about her: She buried her face on
his shoulder, and for a while they stood there, while the
green mists thickened thickened
There came a time when Mason was completely
blinded. Oddly he had no trouble with his breathing.
There was a slight exhilaration, due, he thought, to oxygen
in the strange gas, but he was not discommoded. Perhaps
the vapor--admittedly experimental--would havo
no effect on human beings.
He dropped to the floor, cradling the girl in his arms.
In that blind emerald emptiness they waited, and Mason
soothed and calmed Alasa as best he could. In spite of
himself his pulses mounted at the nearness of the girl's
warm, satiny body. The weird gas, he knew, was exciting
him; yet the madness grew on him. And Alasa, too, felt
the intoxicating effect. Her hands crept up, touched Mason's
hair. She drew down his head, guiding his lips in
the green blindness till they touched her own. Flame of
dark passion blazed up within Mason ....
Desperately he fought it down. The girl's breathing
mingled with his own, hoarse and uneven. His fingers
touched the silken smoothness of rounded flesh, and the
touch was like fire. Suddenly his muscles were weak as
water.
"Alasa!" he whispered. "Alasat"
211
In a surge of newfound strength he pressed the girl's
form against him, sought her lips. Fantastic visions
flashed through his mind. Weird madness of the plant-men's
poisoned gas ....
Alasa seemed to slide away, to vanish in a green-lit
abyss. She was gone. Mason was alone. The clouds
whirled about him, and very faintly he heard a distant
throbbing, steadily growing louder. With the portion of
his brain that remained sane he knew that this was
real, a drug-bom hallucination, as the deep pounding
roared louder in his ears and dark shadows moved slowly
down the emerald distance. Clearer the shadows grew,
and clearer .... Bat-winged horrors that mocked and
tittered obscene laughter as they raced down on him . . .
and ever the drumming roar grew deeper, louder, crash-lng
like the tocsin of a demon in his ears ....
Faster the green mists swirled. They were a whirlwind
of chaotic, blinding brilliance. The devils danced a grotesque
saraband, screaming a mocking chant.
It swelled to frightful crescendo of sound and motion
that rocked Mason's giddy senses. He felt blackness
creeping up and overwhelming him.
And it was with gratitude that he sank down into deepest
unconsciousness!
Slowly Mason awoke, with a blinding headache and an
acrid, unpleasant taste in his mouth. He opened his eyes,
stared up at the transparent roof of his prison. He was
still imprisoned in the crystal cage, but the green gas had
been pumped out. Alasa's still body lay beside him. Head
swimming. Mason tried to revive her. He stripped off his
cloak, wrapped it about the girl.
A grating overhead made him look up. The roof of the
cage was sliding aside, leaving a gap four feet wide, running
the length of the prison. Plant-men were busy with
a kind of crane, swinging its burden, an enigmatic metal
block, into place so that it could be dropped into the two
human's prison. There came an interruption.
The Gorichen sprang into frenzied activity. Mason
could not interpret their thoughts, but he sensed sudden,
deadly danger. Frantically the plant-men went racing
ward the corridor that led into the upper world. A stray
thought-fragment flashed into Mason's mind.
212
"The Deathless O. nesl They have broken the gateway
"
In five minutes the cavern was deserted. Now, if ever
was a chance to escape. Mason looked up once more. The
smooth sides of the cell were unscalable. But above the
gap in the xoof hung the metallic block from the crane's
arm, too high to be reached--unless
A rope? Mason 'ore only the loincloth Erech had
given him in A1 Bekr, and neither that nor the cloak
would support his weight. His glance fell on the metal
ropes that had bound him, now discarded in a mound on
the floor, and Mason knew he had solved the problem. If
only they were long enoughl
Picking them up, he paused to examine Alasa. Already
assured of her safety, it was with relief that he saw the
girl's laShes flutter, and her golden eyes open. She saw
Mason..
"Oh, Kent! Help me up!" Sh.e .clutched his arm, got
unsteadily to her feet. "We're not dead, it seems. I
thought we were both slain and in the Pit of Abad-don.
"Maybe you're right about the last," Mason said
grimly. He told her what had happened. "If I can loop
the rope over that metal block, we can climb out, I
think."
"Can you do it?"
He shook his head doubtfully. ' can try .... "
But only after repeated attempts did Mason manage to
loop the doubled end of the metal cord over the suspended
block. Then a careless move undid his work, and
for another ten minutes he tried, a fury of apprehension
mounting within him, till at last the anxious work was
done. The two ends of the rope hung down within the
cell. Mason knotted them together.
"I'll go first. Then Iq.l pull you up "
