Collected Short Fiction, page 86
This was the throne room of Garo Nark, Lord of the Dark Star! And he had seen it before—on his first day in this world of the future, in the television view on the wall of the room at Bardon, when Nark had appeared to demand Thon Ahrora as his queen.
Dick looked about more closely. The walls were lined with guards. Magnificent men, tall and strong. They wore black, with girdles of red. Standing beside them were the long, thick tubes of black crystal, the El Ray projectors.
Then his roving eye found Garo Nark.
He sat on his purple throne, a hundred feet away, behind the center of the room. It was a marvelous throne. The purple crystal of which it was cut burned richly with intense inner fires.
Nark was a giant of a man, his nature wholly evil. Dick could well believe that he had murdered his father for the throne. He lounged back on black cushions. A sheer, sleeveless garment of crimson silk, dropping from left shoulder to knee, and held about his waist with a black girdle, was all he wore. His mighty body was revealed to the best advantage—bull neck—long limbs with huge, corded muscles and vast shoulders.
Dick was appalled as he looked at the face of the giant, with its broad, cruel mouth, huge jutting nose, and deep black eyes flaming with malice. Were they at his mercy?
Beside the throne stood Pelug, the thin, scrawny man, with scraggy yellow beard and glittering eyes, green and snake-like.
“Are we prisoners?” Dick asked Midos Ken, in a low tone. He could see no one near them. A couch had been placed near the center of the room. He lay upon it, the old blind man standing beside him.
“No,” Midos Ken said. “Not yet, at least. You defeated yourself in your battle by the ship, by shooting at a man so near that the force of the atomic explosion reached you. You killed three or four invisible men, however.
“The rest of our attackers wanted us to surrender. I refused. But I offered to come under a pledge of truce, to talk with Garo Nark and see if we can arrange terms. They tried to destroy you, me, and the flier. Not being able to see, I was at a disadvantage, of course. But I contrived to protect ourselves and beat off their attacks.
“Then they agreed to bring me down here, for a sort of peace conference. I have all my portable weapons with me, and Garo Nark has his fighting men ready for action, I suppose. We are going to talk things over. We have agreed not to start hostilities until we have returned to the flier.”
“Where is Thon?” Dick asked.
“I don’t know,” the old man said, “But I have been told that Garo Nark has her somewhere in his power.”
At a whisper from his master, the shriveled little man, Pelug, stepped forward from beside the purple throne, his green eyes glittering malignantly.
“Are you ready to talk with the Lord of the Dark Star?” he demanded rather uncivilly, pointedly failing to use any title in addressing Midos Ken.
“We are,” said Midos Ken. Dick was glad of the “we.” It made him feel that he had a greater share in the proceeding.
He got to his feet, feeling as good a man as ever after inhaling the stimulating vapor. He rejoiced to feel the weight of his atomic pistol in his pocket. It had been returned to him.
Taking Midos Ken’s arm, he walked forward, until they were about fifty feet from the purple throne. There the old man, with a low word, halted him.
“What is it you want of us, Garo Nark?” Midos Ken demanded boldly.
The giant on the crystal throne straightened, cold flame of evil burning in his black eyes.
“I wish Thon Ahrora to be one of my queens,” he said, in a harsh, leering tone. “An honor, that, which no reasonable woman can refuse!” He chuckled evilly. “And I demand that Don Galeen tell me the location of the Green Star! And that you help me find the catalyst of which my agents have heard you speak. And help me to use it, in order to give endless life to myself and to my friends.
“In return for this, I will give liberty to you, and to Don Galeen, and to this ape from the past.” He leered at Dick. “And if you refuse, I shall take all of you prisoners, despite the weapons you are so proud of. I shall deal with Thon as I like. I shall torture from you and Don the information that I want! And then the three of you shall die by the slowest and most painful means that the science of my empire can devise!”
“You are a fool,” Midos Ken said calmly.
Malevolent anger flamed high in the black eyes of Garo Nark.
“You mean that you refuse?” he demanded.
“I do!”
“You have spoken your doom! You shall die, if it takes every man I have to kill you!”
“Where is my daughter, Thon, and Don Galeen?” Midos Ken demanded.
Garo Nark burst into evil laughter, that somehow, to Dick, seemed forced and unnatural.
“They are in my power!” he cried, gloatingly, “where you will be soon!”
“If any harm comes to her,” the old man cried in a clear tone, level and menacing, “I will blot you out—you and your whole planet!”
“Count me in on that!” Dick challenged.
“Can’t you silence the chattering ape you caught in the jungles of the past?” Garo Nark jeered. “If you cannot control him, give him to me. I have excellent animal trainers!”
Dick could hardly hold himself still. He longed to send his fist crashing into that ugly, evil face, as he had done once before. But he kept his hands at his sides. Perhaps, he thought, Nark was merely trying to get him to make a physical attack, to break the truce.
End of Part I
[*] Since I finished this condensed narrative based upon the notes which Richard Smith sent me, covering his experiences in the world of distant futurity, a work has been published which throws new light upon the astounding force which Smith terms the K-ray—“The Dynamic Universe,” by James Mackaye (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York).
While Mackaye’s rather startling theory has perhaps not yet gained widespread acceptance, I am inclined to credit it, because it seems in full accord with what Smith writes of the “K-ray.”
Beginning with a new interpretation of Einstein’s relativity, Mackaye postulates that all matter is only a form of radiation or vibratory energy, and that gravitation is an effect of radiation. Incidentally, Mackaye’s idea of the structure of matter is quite in agreement with Smith’s accounts of “materializing” objects from pure energy, by condensation of protons and electrons.
Mackaye believes that the much-maligned “ether,” which was invented as a hypothetical medium to explain the transmission of electromagnetic and gravitational force through empty space, is a form of radiation, having a very short wave-length, and pervading all the universe. These snort vibrations exert a pressure upon all matter which they strike—and are partly absorbed as they do so.
Thus, the mass of the sun cuts off part of these radiations coming toward the earth from that direction. Consequently, the radiation-pressure on the earth is unbalanced, and the vibrations coming in full force from the opposite direction push the earth toward the sun.
Again, the matter in the earth absorbs some of these “gravity waves,” while those coming from above are not interfered with. We are then pushed against the earth harder than we are pushed away from it—and we call the effect the “pull” of gravity.
The action, of course, is mutual, since the earth cuts off a small part of the pressure-producing radiation from the sun, and each of us shields the earth from a tiny amount of it—causing the sun to be “attracted” by the earth, and the earth to be “attracted” by each human being, approximately as Newton’s law states the case.
The revolutionary part of the theory is that gravitation is a radiation, and that it is a “push” instead of a “pull,” a pressure instead of an attraction.
I have again examined the text of Richard Smith’s notes, in the advance copies of the complete work, “A Vision of Futurity,” which have just reached me from the publishers—the volume will probably be on sale very shortly after this is printed. And the examination in the light of the new theory put forward in “The Dynamic Universe,” assures me that Smith’s “K-ray” is merely an artificial beam of this gravity-producing radiation, or of a very similar vibration.
The gigantic “K-ray” generators at the “space-ports” are merely projectors of titanic rays of this pressure-exerting force, which focus their power upon the ships, to whisk them through the universe at velocities almost inconceivable. Since the pressure is applied equally to every atom of matter within the ships, and since there is practically no resistance save inertia, it is easy to see that the dangerous effects of acceleration by ordinary means are eliminated.
The working of the smaller “K-ray” projectors carried on the ships themselves must be slightly different. A well-known law of physics states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Consequently, when a pressure-producing ray is projected backward from a ship in space, there will be an equal thrust forward upon the generator. And, of course, if high velocities and accelerations are to be attained, means must be found, by the use of auxiliary “K-ray” apparatus, to transmit this forward thrust evenly to every particle of matter in the ship, to avoid the crushing effect of any change of speed or direction—this, we know, was accomplished in the Ahrora.
And this artificially generated “K-ray,” or pressure-radiation, is apparently the basis of the extraordinary television communication, with which the far-flung worlds of the future world kept—or should one say “will keep” ?—in touch. Given such a force, reaching instantaneously through the universe as it must—and I am sure that it is instantaneous, from Smith’s notes, if not from Mackaye’s work—and given that that force can be artificially generated and controlled, there is no apparent difficulty inherent in utilizing it for telegraphic or television communication, by the simple adaptation of means already known.
I must express deep gratitude to Mr. Mackaye for the timely appearance of his work, for it has served to strengthen the interpretation of Richard Smith’s narrative, in terms of the science of our own age, at a point at which it seemed almost to contradict the older theories which Mr. Mackaye’s magnificent hypothesis must soon supersede.
And I am confident that, with the passage of time, the slow realization of the civilization portrayed in “A Vision of Futurity” and briefly sketched in this condensed version, will win for Richard Smith’s narrative a general acceptance that cannot be hoped for it at present.—J.W.
The Stone from the Green Star
Part II
Concluding a remarkable two-part serial of unique life and adventure on a far-off star.
IT has been said often that we cannot conceive that which is outside of our experience. It might also be said, with equal truth, that everything that the mind can imagine is possible. But neither of these statements limits possibility, for things beyond our wildest conception may prevail outside our own sphere.
Is it, therefore, logical to assume that all forms of intelligence are housed in the type of bodies that we know? In the following chapters our lyrical-prose writer concludes for us a breath-taking story of unique life and adventure that will be remembered for a long time as an example of science fiction.
What Went Before:
IN a little box of some unknown material, which mysteriously appears on his library table, the relator of this tale finds several hundred sheets of a thin, stiff, flexible material, on which is written, in the unmistakable script of his missing friend, Richard Smith, the following amazing story of his disappearance:
When Smith starts down the raised bridge or walk over the waist of a tanker, heavily laden with oil, he sees a sudden streak of luminosity. As he stops to stare in wonder, this pillar of azure radiance begins to spin, steadily increasing in brilliance, until it becomes a wondrous vortex of fire, of color. Then it explodes. He finds himself next on a huge table or platform in a vast, six-sided room. Soon he hears a soft, interrogative voice behind him. Turning suddenly around, he sees two persons—Midos Ken, an old, blind man—a scientist—and his beautiful daughter and assistant, Thon Ahrora.
He is convinced, after several hours of conversation, that he was snatched from the present, two million years into the future, by means of a time machine, with which the scientist and his daughter hope to draw that substance which will rejuvenate the old and give to the young eternal youth.
Don Galeen, one of the many scouts sent in search of this substance, returns with the news that he has located it on the Green Star, but that it is apparently guarded by horrible creatures that almost defy conception by the human mind.
Caro Nark, fiendish Lord of the Dark Star, determined to get Thon Ahrora and the secret of this much sought after substance, overhears Don Galeen’s report, kidnaps Don Galeen and takes him to the Dark Star. The other three—Midos Ken, his daughter and Dick Smith—decide to engage passage to the Dark Star for themselves and for the smaller space ship Thon Ahrora, originally built for a trip to the Green Star. They stop en route and devote their efforts to rescue Don Galeen.
Thon goes to the castle of Garo Nark herself, disguised; she gains access to Don Galeen’s cell, but is betrayed by one of the guards, and is imprisoned too. Midos Ken and Dick Smith go to the throne room of Garo Nark to demand the release of the two captives.
CHAPTER VIII (Continued)
SUDDENLY he heard a low, humming note from the pocket of his garment. The signal to call him to the television device. A message from Thon, at last.
He snatched the little black disk from his pocket, and held it before his face.
It had lighted. There was a tiny picture upon it, a bright miniature. It showed a cramped little room, with gray metal walls. Low, metal ceiling. A poor bunk in a corner. A narrow window, high, heavily barred. Evidently a prison cell.
Thon was facing him, in the tiny vignette. Apparently unharmed, though she looked anxious and exhausted. Beside her was Don Galeen. Dick could see only part of the mighty body, still clad in the soft buff leather garment, ornamented with the blue shells. Don seemed to be holding some weapon in his hand, guarding them, though it was out of Dick’s range of vision.
“Hello, Dick, dear,” Thon’s voice came to him from the little disk. The volume of sound was small, but he could understand without difficulty holding the disk about a foot from his face.
“We have been besieged in this cell for hours. I did not call you up before, because your answer would have betrayed the location of the flier. But now, that you are here in the palace, it can do no harm. You see, my instrument has a directional device, so I can tell where yours is located. I called when I found you were here in the palace.”
Dick looked up quickly, glanced about the magnificent room.
Silence had fallen. All eyes were upon him, but no one else could see the disk. And the volume of the sound directed up toward hint was so slight that no one else—except Midos Ken, with his keen hearing—was able to distinguish the tones of Thon.
Pelug, scrawny and green-eyed, was standing up to whisper something to Garo Nark, who listened with head inclined, frowning malevolently.
“Where are you?” Dick whispered swiftly into the television disk. “And what can we do to help?”
“Don and I are together in a cell—a cell cut in the living rock beneath the palace. I came here to let him out. We were betrayed, and attacked. We are surrounded here. My weapons are deadly enough so that we have been able to stand them off. But we can’t escape!”
“Tell me how to get down there!” Dick cried, in low tones.
“There’s an open elevator shaft at the wall behind Nark’s purple throne—an air elevator like those on the liner. Get off at the level numbered 17. Go down the corridor. Take the second passage to the right; we are in the ninth cell.
“But don’t risk your life, Dick, dear. If you and father aren’t prisoners, go on and leave us! There is no chance that all of us can get away, out of the very palace! Father’s science, and his great discovery must not be lost, just in attempting to save us. Leave us to sell our lives as dearly——”
The crash of an explosion came through the disk, reduced to a sound no louder than the snapping of a twig. There was a flash of greenish light, so bright that it obscured the tiny picture. As it faded, Dick had a glimpse of Thon springing back in alarm.
Then the disk went black. He put it to his ear, but the humming stopped, and he heard no sound.
“Ape of the past,” Garo Nark addressed him jeeringly, “you will see no more, I think. My men have put a stop to that. You will see nothing more until the disk lights again, to show you what is happening to those two.
“No, you need not fear that they will fall into the hands of rough soldiers. My surgeons will take charge of them. Very skilful men, those surgeons of mine. They will be careful that the two do not die—too soon!”
An ugly laugh, gloating, mocking, rang from the purple throne. And scraggy, green-eyed Pelug echoed the laugh of his master with a ghastly, triumphant chuckle.
“Now!” Garo Nark’s order cracked like a whip.
Dick had not heard the invisible men gathering about them.
But, as the sharp order rang out, he heard footsteps all about him, rushing forward. He and Midos Ken were surrounded with a ring of Nark’s invisible men!
Throbbing violet rays blinded him. They were at the focus of a score of converging El Rays, thrown suddenly on them from all directions.
But they still wore the little metal devices upon their wrists, to charge their bodies with the protective electronic force. Though dazzling, painfully bright, the El Rays were harmless.
“So you are breaking the truce, Nark?” old Midos Ken asked in a calm voice, which carried an ironical note of pained surprise. “The ruler of a mighty planet cannot keep his word to an old blind man? Well, this releases me from my pledge. You must take the consequences!”
