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PLANET OF THE GODS
By Robert Moore Williams
[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories December
1942. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.]
[Sidenote: Two planets circling Vega! But a more amazing discovery
waited the explorers when they landed!]
CHAPTER I
"What do you make of it?" Commander Jed Hargraves asked huskily.
Ron Val, busy at the telescope, was too excited to look up from the
eye-piece. "There are at least two planets circling Vega!" he said
quickly. "There may be other planets farther out, but I can see two
plainly. And Jed, the nearest planet, the one we are approaching, has an
atmosphere. The telescope reveals a blur that could only be caused by an
atmosphere. And--Jed, this may seem so impossible you won't believe
it--but I can see several large spots on the surface that are almost
certainly lakes. They are not big enough to be called oceans or seas.
But I am almost positive they are lakes!"
According to the preconceptions of astronomers, formed before they had a
chance to go see for themselves, solar systems were supposed to be rare
birds. Not every sun had a chance to give birth to planets. Not one sun
in a thousand, maybe not one in a million; maybe, with the exception of
Sol, not another one in the whole universe.
And here the first sun approached by the Third Interstellar Expedition
was circled by planets!
The sight was enough to drive an astronomer insane.
Ron Val tore his eyes away from the telescope long enough to stare at
Captain Hargraves. "Air and water on this planet!" he gasped. "Jed, do
you realize what this may mean?"
Jed Hargraves grinned. His face was lean and brown, and the grin,
spreading over it, relaxed a little from the tension that had been
present for months.
"Easy, old man," he said, clapping Ron Val on the shoulder. "There is
nothing to get so excited about."
"But a solar system--"
"We came from one."
"I know we did. But just the same, finding another will put our names in
all the books on astronomy. They aren't the commonest things in the
universe, you know. And to find one of the planets of this new system
with air and water--Jed, where there is air and water there may be
life!"
"There probably is. Life, in some form, seems to be everywhere. Remember
we found spores being kicked around by light waves in the deepest depths
of space. And Pluto, in our own system, has mosses and lichens that the
biologists insist are alive. It won't be surprising if we find life out
there." He gestured through the port at the world swimming through space
toward them.
"I mean intelligent life," Ron Val corrected.
"Don't bet on it. The old boys had the idea they would find intelligent
life on Mars, until they got there. Then they discovered that
intelligent creatures had once lived on the Red Planet. Cities, canals,
and stuff. But the people who had built the cities and canals had died
of starvation long before humans got to Mars. So it isn't a good bet
that we shall find intelligence here."
* * * * *
The astronomer's face drooped a little. But not for long. "That was true
of Mars," he said. "But it isn't necessarily true here. And even if Mars
was dead, Venus wasn't. Nor is Earth. If there is life on two of the
planets of our own solar system, there may be life on one of the planets
of Vega. Why not?" he challenged.
"Hey, wait a minute," Hargraves answered. "I'm not trying to start an
argument."
"Why not?"
"If you mean why not an argument--"
"I mean, why not life here?"
"I don't know why not," Hargraves shrugged. "For that matter, I don't
know _why_, either." He looked closely at Ron Val. "You ape! I believe
you're hoping we will find life here."
"Of course that's what I'm hoping," Ron Val answered quickly. "It would
mean a lot to find people here. We could exchange experiences, learn a
lot. I know it's probably too much to hope for." He broke off. "Jed, are
we going to land here?"
"Certainly we're going to land here!" Jed Hargraves said emphatically.
"Why in the hell do you think we've crossed thirty light years if we
don't land on a world when we find one? This is an exploring
expedition--"
Hargraves saw that he had no listener. Ron Val had listened only long
enough to learn what he wanted to know, then had dived back to his
beloved telescope to watch the world spiraling up through space toward
them. That world meant a lot to Ron Val, the thrill of discovery, of
exploring where a human foot had never trod in all the history of the
universe.
New lands in the sky! The Third Interstellar Expedition--third because
two others were winging out across space, one toward Sirius, the other
toward Cygnus--was approaching land! The fact also meant something to
Jed Hargraves, possibly a little less than it did to Ron Val because
Hargraves had more responsibilities. He was captain of the ship,
commander of the expedition. It was his duty to take the ship to Vega,
and to bring it safely home.
Half of his task was done. Vega was bright in the sky ahead and the
tough bubble of steel and quartz that was the ship was dropping down to
rest on one of Vega's planets. Hargraves started to leave the nook that
housed Ron Val and his telescope.
The ship's loudspeaker system shouted with sudden sound.
"Jed! Jed Hargraves! Come to the bridge at once."
That was Red Nielson's voice. He was speaking from the control room in
the nose of the ship. Nielson sounded excited.
Hargraves pushed a button under the loudspeaker. The system was two-way,
allowing for intercommunication.
"Hargraves speaking. What's wrong?"
"A ship is approaching. It is coming straight toward us."
"A ship! Are you out of your head? This is Vega."
"I don't give a damn if it's Brooklyn! I know a space ship when I see
one. And this is one. Either get up here and take command or tell me
what you want done."
Discipline among the personnel of this expedition was so nearly perfect
there was no need for it. Consequently there was none. Before leaving
earth, skilled mental analysts had aided in the selection of this crew,
and had welded it together so artfully that it thought, acted, and
functioned as a unit. Jed Hargraves was captain, but he had never heard
the word spoken, and never wanted to hear it. No one had ever put "sir"
after his name. Nor had anyone ever questioned an order, after it was
given. Violent argument there might be, before an order was given, with
Hargraves filtering the pros and cons through his rigidly logical mind,
but the instant he reached a decision the argument stopped. He was one
of the crew, and the crew knew it. The crew was one with him, and he
knew it.
He might question Nielson's facts, once, in surprise. But not twice. If
Nielson said a ship was approaching, a ship _was_ approaching.
* * * * *
"I'm coming," Hargraves rapped into the mike. "Turn full power into the
defense screen. Warn the engine room to be ready for an emergency. Sound
the call to stations. And Red, hold us away from this planet."
Almost before he had finished speaking, a siren was wailing through the
ship. Although he had used the microphone in the nook that housed the
telescope, Ron Val had been so interested in the world they were
approaching that he had not heard the captain's orders. He heard the
siren.
"What is it, Jed?"
Hargraves didn't have time to explain. He was diving out the door and
racing toward the bridge in the nose of the ship. "Come on," he flung
back over his shoulder at Ron Val. "Your post is at the fore negatron."
Ron Val took one despairing glance at his telescope, then followed the
commander.
As he ran toward the control room, Hargraves heard the ship begin to
radiate a new tempo of sound. The siren was dying into silence, its
warning task finished. Other sounds were taking its place. From the
engine room in the stern was coming a spiteful hiss, like steam escaping
under great pressure from a tiny vent valve. That was the twin atomics,
loading up, building up the inconceivable pressures they would feed to
the Kruchek drivers. A slight rumble went through the ship, a rumble
seemingly radiated from every molecule, from every atom, in the vessel.
It _was_ radiated from every molecule! That rumble came from the Kruchek
drivers warping the ship in response to the controls on the bridge. Bill
Kruchek's going-faster-than-hell engines, engineers called them. A
fellow by the name of Bill Kruchek had invented them. When Bill
Krucheck's going-faster-than-hell drivers dug their toes into the
lattice of space and put brawny shoulders behind every molecule within
the field they generated, a ship within that field went faster than
light. The Kruchek drivers, given the juice they needed in such
tremendous quantities, took you from hell to yonder in a mighty hurry.
They had been idling, drifting the ship slowly in toward the planet.
Now, in response to an impulse from Nielson on the bridge, they
grumbled, and hunching mighty shoulders for the load, prepared to hurl
the ship away from the planet. Hargraves could feel the vessel surge in
response to the speed. Then there was a distant thud, and he could feel
the surge no longer. The anti-accelerators had been cut in, neutralizing
the effect of inertia.
Shoving open a heavy door, Hargraves was in the control room. A glance
showed him Nielson on the bridge. Leaning over, his fingers on the bank
of buttons that controlled the ship, he was peering through the heavy
quartzite observation port at something approaching from the right.
Beside him, on his right, a man was standing ready at the radio panel.
And to the left of the bridge two men had already jerked the covers from
the negatron and were standing ready beside it.
* * * * *
Ron Val leaped past Hargraves, dived for a seat on the negatron. That
was his post. He had been chosen for it because of his familiarity with
optical instruments. Along the top of the negatron was a sighting
telescope. Ron Val looked once to see where the man on the bridge was
looking, then his fingers flew to the adjusting levers of the telescope.
The negatron swung around to the right, centered on something there.
"Ready," Ron Val said, not taking his eyes from the 'scope.
"Hold your fire," Hargraves ordered.
He was on the bridge, standing beside Red Nielson. Off to the right he
could see the enemy ship. Odd that he should think of it as an enemy. It
wasn't. It was merely a strange ship. But there were relics in his mind,
vague racial memories, of the days when stranger and enemy were
synonymous. The times when this was true were gone forever, but the
thoughts remained.
"Shall we run for it?" Nielson questioned, his hands on the controls
that would turn full power into the drivers.
"No. If we run, they will think we have some reason for running. That
might be all they would need to conclude we are up to no good. Is the
defense screen on full power?"
"Yes." Nielson pushed the lever again to be sure. "I'm giving it all it
will take."
Hargraves could barely see the screen out there a half mile from the
ship. It was twinkling dimly as it swept up cosmic dust.[1]
[Footnote 1: Originally devised as a protection against meteors, it was
a field of force that would disintegrate any solid particle that struck
it, always presuming it did not tangle with an asteroid or a meteor too
big for it to handle. A blood brother of the negatron, it made space
flight, if not a first-class insurance risk, at least fairly safe.--Ed.]
The oncoming ship had been a dot in the sky. Now it was a round ball.
"Try them on the radio," Hargraves said. "They probably won't understand
us but at least they will know we're trying to communicate with them."
There was a swirl of action at the radio panel.
"No answer," the radio operator said.
"Keep trying."
"Look!" Nielson shouted. "They've changed course. They're coming
straight toward us."
The ball had bobbled in its smooth flight. As though caught in the
attraction of a magnet it was coming straight toward them.
For an instant, Hargraves stared. Should he run or should he wait? He
didn't want to run and he didn't want to fight. On the other hand, he
did not want to take chances with the safety of the men under his
command.
His mission was peaceful. Entirely so. But the ball was driving straight
toward them. How big it was he could not estimate. It wasn't very big.
Oddly, it presented a completely blank surface. No ports. And, so far as
he could tell, there was no discharge from driving engines. The latter
meant nothing. Their own ship showed no discharge from the Kruchek
drivers. But no ports--
It came so fast he couldn't see it come. The flash of light! It came
from the ball. For the fractional part of a second, the defense screen
twinkled where the flash of light hit it. But--the defense screen was
not designed to turn light or any other form of radiation. The light
came through. It wasn't light. It carried a component of visible
radiation but it wasn't light. The beam struck the earth ship.
_Clang!_
* * * * *
From the stern came a sudden scream of tortured metal. The ship rocked,
careened, tried to spin on its axis. On the control panels, a dozen red
lights flashed, winked off, winked on again. Heavy thuds echoed through
the vessel. Emergency compartments closing.
Hargraves hesitated no longer.
"Full speed ahead!" he shouted at Red Nielson.
"Ron Val. Fire!"
This was an attack. This was a savage, vicious attack, delivered without
warning, with no attempt to parley. The ship had been hit. How badly it
had been damaged he did not know. But unless the damage was too heavy
they could outrun this ball, flash away from it faster than light,
disappear in the sky, vanish. The ship had legs to run. There was no
limit to her speed. She could go fast, then she could go faster.
"Full speed--"
Nielson looked up from the bank of buttons. His face was ashen. "She
doesn't respond, Jed. The drivers are off. The engine room is knocked
out."
There was no rumble from Bill Kruchek's going-faster-than-hell engines.
The hiss of the atomics was still faintly audible. Short of
annihilation, nothing could knock them out. Energy was being generated
but it wasn't getting to the drive. Leaping to the controls, Hargraves
tried them himself.
They didn't respond.
"Engine room!" he shouted into the communication system.
There was no answer.
The ship began to yaw, to drop away toward the planet below them. The
planet was far distant as yet, but the grasping fingers of its gravity
were reaching toward the vessel, pulling it down.
Voices shouted within the ship.
"Jed!"
"What happened?"
"Jed, we're falling!"
"That ball, Jed--"
Voices calling to Jed Hargraves, asking him what to do. He couldn't
answer. There was no answer. There was only--the ball! It was the
answer.
Through the observation port, he could see the circular ship. It was
getting ready to attack again. The sphere was moving leisurely toward
its already crippled prey, getting ready to deliver the final stroke. It
would answer all questions of this crew, answer them unmistakably. It
leered at them.
_Wham!_
The ship vibrated to a sudden gust of sound. Something lashed out from
the vessel. Hargraves did not see it go because it, too, went faster
than the eye could follow. But he knew what it was. The sound told him.
He saw the hole appear in the sphere. A round hole that opened inward.
Dust puffed outward.
_Wham, wham, wham!_
The negatron! The blood brother of the defense screen, its energies
concentrated into a pencil of radiation. Faster than anyone could see it
happen, three more holes appeared in the sphere, driving through its
outer shell, punching into the machinery at its heart.
The sphere shuddered under the impact. It turned. Light spewed out of
it, beaming viciously into this alien sky without direction. Smoke
boiled from the ball. Turning it seemed to roll along the sky. It looked
like a huge burning snowball rolling down some vast hill.
Ron Val lifted a white face from the sighting 'scope of the negatron.
"Did--did I get him?"
"I'll say you did!" Hargraves heard somebody shout exultantly. He was
surprised to discover his own voice was doing the shouting. The sphere
was finished, done for. It was out of the fight, rolling down the vast
hill of the sky, it would smash on the planet below.
They were following it.
There was still no answer from the engine room.
"Space suits!" Hargraves ordered. "Nielson, you stay here. Ron Val, you
others, come with me."