“Ah, I see your imagination tells you the soup is not so good.” Oomlag
grinned horribly, his yellow lips baring his sharp teeth. “Strange how
you creatures allow your imagination to dictate your likes and dislikes.
If I had not told you the ingredients of that soup, you would have
enjoyed it thoroughly. Now, having told you, you find it disagreeable,
though you just finished saying it was good. You might as well learn to
like it, for you will have it every day. The vegetables are--but I must
begin at the beginning. Not such bad bread, is it?”
“TO begin with, we are, as I told you before, from Venus. Our scientists
have spent centuries in perfecting a machine for interplanetary flight.
We have long had the necessary power. The problem was to determine the
relative position of the two planets, the pull of gravity of the sun,
Venus and your earth, the time necessary to make the flight, the
provisioning and ventilating of the projectile, the perfecting of a
device to detect and repel meteorites, and countless other problems, all
vitally important. The data for all this was handed down from generation
to generation, and finally everything had been thought of.
“No doubt you have been curious to know why the Field General
interrogated you about bismuth and radium. He has had too much to do
supervising things here, so has only a smattering of your languages; but
that question he felt he should ask you personally. The reason is, we
have an element about half-way in the atomic scale between bismuth and
radium which gives us unlimited power by the breaking up of its atoms.
We know that this element does exist on this earth, and the Field
General thought perhaps you knew of its discovery. That, however, is
only incidental, and not the reason for bringing you here.
“Having found out how to harness this element, we were well supplied
with light and power on our planet. These lights you see are run by
radio current from several plants in our workings, each dynamo, if I may
call it that, generating a powerful radio wave which is caught and
utilized by each of these crystals. The crystals are considerably larger
the further away they are from the source of power, for distance demands
more filament to catch the power waves.
“A fortunate discovery, though with tragic consequences to the
discoverer, revealed the possibility of utilizing this element with
another in such proportions as to repel anything in front of the wave
generated by their intermixing. That was the beginning of our centuries
of work on an interplanetary machine. It is obvious that if the ray
generated by these two elements will repel anything in its path, then by
proper control, intensifying and reducing it at will, enough force could
be made to repel us away from Venus and toward the earth, using
auxiliary rays to repel any stray meteorites. And there are plenty of
those. But the exhaustive calculations! Nothing could be left to chance.
The best brains of our people worked ceaselessly on the problem until
everything was figured out.
“I do not think it is of much use to try to explain to you the workings
of the interplanetary machine, since you are unfamiliar with the element
responsible for its success. All I can say is, each of the two combining
elements are kept in finely powdered form in separate containers
negative to their power as lead is to your X-ray. The proper amount of
each to be combined is let carefully into a tubular apparatus, separated
by a thin sheet of negative metal which is then withdrawn by a special
device. The power wave produced by the resulting combination is
carefully calculated, and the charge is renewed in another tube at just
the right moment. A battery of auxiliary tubes is always kept here for
any unexpected occurrence which might take place at any moment.
“My parents told me that the take-off was most exciting. Countless
thousands of my fellow Venusians were crowded as close as they could get
to obtain a last glimpse of the travelers. At exactly the right moment,
the big projectile soared slowly into the sky, gradually gaining
momentum as it left the stratosphere and entered outer space. Faster and
faster it went, with its meteorite detector busily at work spotting and
repelling these menaces, and its tubes taking larger and larger
quantities of the precious elements. You can judge for yourself the
speed they attained when I tell you it took exactly six of your months
for my people to get here.”
“Pardon the interruption,” I said, munching a piece of the bread that
tasted exactly like a dry waffle, “but how did you know where you were
going to land? Suppose you had dropped into the ocean, or even in the
midst of a populated district? How and why did you hit this part of New
Mexico?”
“That is explained by the atomic telescope, an invention of my
great-great-grandfather’s. Using the element similar to radium as a
base, we wash a sensitive plate with this certain mixture containing a
large proportion of that element. In order to save time, let us call
this element ‘Venusite’ which, though not the name we have for it, is
more descriptive and makes it easier for you to understand. This
telescope is tremendously long, and contains a series of condensing
reflectors of such accuracy and delicacy that when it is trained on a
certain spot, an image on your earth, 30,000,000 miles away, is recorded
on an inconceivably small part of the sensitive plate. This plate is
then treated by an agent which causes the atoms in the ‘Venusite’ to
start breaking up, and as they do so, an enlarged image is thrown on a
screen. By exposing various parts of the sensitive plate in rapid
succession, a series of images is obtained. We thus succeeded in
exploring the surface of your earth thoroughly, proving to our own
satisfaction that we could not only live on your planet, but live better
than on our own. We saw that this region was practically uninhabited,
and had the advantage of possessing enormous caverns suitable for
housing us. It remained only to calculate the proper time for leaving in
order to hit this spot. A slight error put my people several hundred
miles west of here, but by a skillful handling of the ‘Venusite’ they
managed to bring their machine down by the entrance of a huge limestone
cave. The rest was easy.”
DURING the latter part of this conversation I noticed that Oomlag
reached under his jacket several times and made the funny rustling
sounds I had heard before. I asked him what he was doing.
“Oh, yes, our portable wireless, by means of which we can communicate
with anyone else in the workings.”
He unbuttoned his jacket, exposing a contrivance about 18 inches square
at the base, with a dome-like top, suspended from his shoulders and held
in place by a strap around his waist. This explained the pouter-pigeon
appearance of these people. Several slits about half an inch wide
radiated from the center of the dome, and from these slits little
flashes of light darted with bewildering rapidity. Several little knobs
or buttons protruded from all sides of the square base, and these Oomlag
was manipulating with his long, tapering, yellow fingers. As each button
was pressed, it gave out a slight, crackling sound.
“This wireless apparatus,” continued Oomlag, pressing a button which
caused the little flashes to cease, “is extremely simple. The case is
constructed of a metal much lighter than your aluminum, and in it is
housed a certain proportion of our indispensable ‘Venusite,’ in
containers unaffected by its action. These buttons on the right release
certain proportions of ‘Venusite,’ which send out a power wave depending
in intensity on the mixture. Other buttons cut off the wave, so that
messages can readily be sent in code. The buttons on the left are used
to tune in on incoming messages. Important messages are assigned to a
certain wavelength, controlled by one button which is always plugged in;
others merely vibrate, and as each individual has his own code call, no
attention is paid to other messages unless the individual gets his code
call. The vibration of the apparatus against our chest is all we need to
understand incoming messages. You would be surprised at the lightness of
these vibrations. If you had the thing on, you would probably not notice
them at all.”
By this time I had finished my meal, and I must confess that I enjoyed
it exceedingly. I had not dared to ask Oomlag what the vegetables were,
after learning the composition of the soup. They tasted like cauliflower
and artichoke.
Oomlag, seeing that I had finished, manipulated a button on his wireless
set, and in a moment the girl appeared to remove the dishes.
I regarded her closely. She had been crying bitterly, for her eyes were
red and swollen. As she leaned past me to pick up the soup dish, one of
her soft dark braids brushed my cheek and fell into my lap. She reached
swiftly down to toss the offending braid over her shoulder, and as her
little hand hovered for an instant over mine, I felt a small pellet of
paper drop into my open palm. Taking advantage of the fact that she was
momentarily between me and Oomlag, I slipped the paper into my trousers
pocket. Silently she placed the empty dishes on her tray and, without
looking at me, turned and walked swiftly out of the room through the
rock-panel door.
Oomlag had buttoned up his jacket and was regarding me with an
expression, as it seemed, of amused contempt.
“You people think you are wonderfully civilized!” he rasped, rolling his
loose, ochre lips back into a revolting grimace. “Yet you are at the
mercy of any number of tiny germs. You kill each other, at the slightest
provocation. What forces you know about, you do not yet know how to
handle adequately. What wonderful, dumb slaves you will make for us!”
HE leaned forward, his cold, glittering, pupil-less eyes close to mine.
“August 21, 1931! Remember that date. Our system of underground tunnels
will then be perfected, our power bases established, the charges of
‘Venusite’ in place and ready to be set off. Under each of your largest
cities even now work is being carried on. On that date the ‘Venusite’
under these cities will send its destructive wave rolling upward, and
the centers of the cities will be ground into dust. In the midst of this
confusion our lieutenants will emerge and assume command. Anyone
resisting will be instantly destroyed by ‘Venusite’ guns. Nothing in the
world can withstand us, and the way will be paved for our complete
mastery of your earth. Slaves you will be, among other things preparing
for us a certain alloy of metals common here, scarce on Venus. In a
little while we shall have sent enough of this back to Venus to bring
thousands here. It is only a matter of time before your race will be
entirely supplanted by ours. It is the law of Nature.”
He stopped and looked at me with an expression of fiendish, smug
self-satisfaction. His horrible words made me quail inwardly, but I
determined to show a disinterested calmness, a scientific detachment
suitable to one in my profession.
“If you are so smart and powerful,” I said, boldly, “why did you find it
necessary to live all these years underground? Why didn’t you simply
stay on the surface and sweep all opposition before you without
bothering about these tunnels and charges you mention? I’m rather
inclined to think it is all a big bluff, and your ‘Venusite’ not what it
is cracked up to be. You’ve proved it is powerful, all right, but there
wouldn’t be enough of it to do all the things you say. You couldn’t
possibly make such a series of tunnels in such a few years.”
I paused for breath. Oomlag was busy manipulating his wireless
contraption. He grinned at me sardonically.
“Show me!” I continued, vehemently. “There is one thing we humans pride
ourselves on, and that is our sense of logic. It isn’t logical that you
could do all these things. You are here, fighting for a toe-hold on our
planet, afraid to come out in the open and fight. Why? Because you have
just barely managed to get here, and now find yourselves isolated with
no means of retreat, and unable to advance. You are . . .”
I stopped, caught by the malevolent expression in Oomlag’s eyes. He had
ceased to handle his wireless and his devilish grin had changed to a
look of cold hatred. He leaned forward, and for a moment I feared it was
his intention to throttle me. I realized that I had gone too far with my
bold talk; but just as I was steeling myself for the feel of his
terrible fingers around my throat, his ochre lips revealed his pointed
teeth and he threw back his head with a guttural laugh.
“Your sense of logic! It is well that the humor of your remarks struck
me, for I might otherwise have choked you into insensibility.” His
fingers drummed lightly on the table as he continued.
“Let me warn you, my friend, never again to talk that way to me or any
other of us. We lose our tempers easily, especially when a slave
addresses his master as you have done. But you are new here and I shall
overlook it this time.
“A fine sense of logic you must have! Seeing what you have, knowing what
you do, to think that we would be at the end of our rope! Do you think
for an instant that we would come here, and then be unable to return to
Venus or defend ourselves? Why, we have sufficient ‘Venusite’ to do our
work here for twenty years more, destroy any feeble resistance you might
offer, and send the projectile back to Venus with the alloy needed to
construct hundreds more. What a fool you are, you poor earth creature!
And among your fellows you are accounted wise!”
I WAS too elated that his change of mood had saved me from the
consequences of my foolish remarks to feel any resentment at his
description of my mental prowess. I grinned a sickly grin, and said
nothing.
Oomlag rose to his feet.
“Come!” he said, shortly. “We have wasted enough time. I had intended to
take you elsewhere first, but now I shall give you a glimpse of our
space projectile. There is also another thing I wish to demonstrate to
you, after which you will be assigned to quarters. Your duties will be
explained later.”
Again the doors slid back and we were once more in the large hallway. We
proceeded down this perhaps a half mile, passing many of the Venusians
hurrying back and forth, emerging from and disappearing behind the
hangings on each side. They all regarded me curiously, but without
hostility. I was surprised at the lack of conversation. Many had their
wireless sets crackling, but none spoke to each other or to Oomlag. I
surmised that this hallway was the main residence section, and that the
creatures we passed were temporarily off duty.
We stopped before a large curtain covering an enormous section of the
left wall. Oomlag gave a short signal with his wireless, the curtain
parted, the usual stone doors slid silently open, and we entered a
tremendous, brilliantly lighted room. In fact, this room was so much
more brightly illuminated than the hallway, that it took me several
seconds to adjust my eyes to the glare. As I stood there, blinking,
Oomlag spoke a few low words to a huge Venusian who, I noticed, held in
each hand a long, cylindrical object like that which the Field General
had been toying with.
As I grew accustomed to the unusual brilliance, I took in the details of
this astounding cavernous chamber. It must have been at least five
hundred feet across, perfectly circular, and evidently hewn from a
natural cave, for hundreds of feet above me gleamed the points of scores
of large stalactites. Around the sides of the room, placed at intervals
of about ten feet, were round objects about the size of basketballs. In
the exact center of this mammoth cavern rested a huge, octagonal
contraption with a rounded top that I knew must be the interplanetary
projectile itself.
Oomlag tapped me on the shoulder.
“Stan-lee,” he said, grinning horribly, “you are now privileged to
inspect the masterpiece of our civilization--the space flyer in which we
came from Venus to your earth. Much of what I will show you will baffle
your intelligence, but it will give you an idea of how powerful we are.
This machine serves now as our central power plant. See those tubes
projecting from the sides? Half of them are supplying power to those
round transformers you see, which in turn transmit the invisible energy
to the lights in the various rooms and hallways nearby. Other power
stations are scattered through the workings, supplying the laborers with
the light which increases their efficiency and the power to drill the
tunnels. You would be surprised at the number of your big cities which
are already undermined and ready for the day in which we strike. I told
you when that would be: August 21, 1931. On that day our kinsmen on
Venus will carefully observe your earth, and will witness the well-timed
explosions. They will see us emerge; they will see--but enough of that!
Come! I will show you the inside of the machine.”
AS we approached this huge contrivance, I marveled at the smoothness and
symmetry of its surface. It must have been at least eighty feet in
height by thirty in width, a perfect octagon to within about fifteen
feet of the top, which was dome-shaped. It was constructed of something
that looked like highly polished gun metal. At regular intervals from
the sides projected short tubes arranged in clusters of eight, which
Oomlag had said were the power tubes; these, however, were the only
visible break in the shining surface of the machine. I wondered how we
were to enter the thing.
That question was soon answered. The big Venusian who had admitted us to
the room, and who apparently was the sole guardian of this valuable
chamber with its vital apparatus, stepped ahead of us and pointed one of
the round objects he carried at the side of the flyer. Instantly two
doors flew out, making an opening about four feet wide and six feet high
into the projectile. Stooping, Oomlag entered, and I followed close
behind him. Without a sound, the doors shut behind us. At last I was
actually inside the wonderful space flyer that had brought this vanguard
of horrible, super-intelligent beings to conquer our helpless earth!
With hardly controlled excitement and curiosity I gazed around.
We were standing in a brilliantly lighted octagonal chamber some
twenty-five feet across, with a metallic ceiling about twelve feet from
the floor. In the center of this ceiling was a circular opening about
six feet in diameter through which extended a round, perpendicular shaft
like the slide pole in a fire station. On each side, opposite the walls
of the chamber, were tall metal devices, for all the world like
elongated hour glasses, extending from floor to ceiling. On the neck of
each was an intricate series of valves and pipes, and from the base of
each “hour glass” innumerable small tubes led to the walls. Although I
couldn’t hear a sound, I seemed to be conscious of a sort of vibration
that made me sense the powerful forces that were at work. At the base of
the pole in the center was a round platform which, as I looked, slid
noiselessly out of sight up the pole, descending in a few seconds with a
couple of Venusians. These, after a curious glance at me, busied
themselves inspecting the machinery, reading dials, and moving various
handles on the different valves.
Oomlag had been watching me with smug satisfaction, evidently deriving
much amusement from my open-mouthed expression of amazement.
“Yes, I thought you would be entertained by this little visit,” he
chuckled. “Gaze upon the highest development of our genius. Simply by
making a change in the amount of ‘Venusite’ introduced into what you
might call the condensing tubes, the power generated is controlled. You
already know the power of ‘Venusite’ when you realize that it brought us
from our planet to yours; you can imagine, then, what very minute
quantities are needed to supply power.
“These tubes leading from the base of these generators carry the
concentrated power impulses to the tubes you saw on the outside of the
flyer. These in turn bombard the round objects you saw placed near the
walls of the room, which operate to diffuse the power beam in various
directions through the workings.
“The wall of this chamber is an inner partition, giving a vacuum
protection against the cold of outer space. Before I go any further, it
is necessary to show you the upper compartments of the flyer, where we
store the reserve supply of ‘Venusite’ and have the living quarters of
the travelers. We have a very clever arrangement for preparing
concentrated foods. The capacity of the flyer----”
OOMLAG stopped. The door of the projectile had opened, and the big
Venusian guard had entered and broken in abruptly on Oomlag’s talk. He
spoke a few rapid, guttural words to my guide, while the door meantime
remained open.
Oomlag scowled, and seemed to be considering what he had just heard. He
cast a glowering, sidelong glance in my direction, and I guessed that I
must be concerned in some way. Finally, he said something curtly to the
guard, and faced me. I was relieved to see his face light up into a grin
which, though evil and hideous, was a grin nevertheless.
“We shall step outside a moment, Stan-lee,” he said. “I have some
important news for you which should make you feel pretty good.”
Wondering what he could possibly mean by this, I followed Oomlag and the
guard out of the flyer into the intense light of the large cavern. As
soon as the doors had swung shut behind us, Oomlag spoke.
“The Field General has commanded that you be released!”
I gasped with amazement. Surely, there must be some mistake! Released,
knowing what I did about their plans, free to take steps to stamp out
this menace, to----
“Stan-lee, I see you are incredulous. Nevertheless, you are to be
released, immediately.” Oomlag came closer, leering into my face. “The
Field General has a sense of humor, just as we all have. It is really
our one weakness. He feels your presence here is undesirable, and your
services are not needed after all. That leaves two alternatives--either
kill you, or let you go. He has decided on the latter. Myself, I am
sorry, for I have taken a liking to you.”