III

He came back to consciousness with a feeling of intolerable weight

pressing him down. It was his own weight, he discovered as he tried

lifting his head to look around. It was a terrific strain and he let

his head fall back.

None of the men were seriously injured. The bulging harness had saved

them. They called out to each other, but couldn't move except to roll

their heads from side to side.

"Professor, did you say a gravity equal to that of Jupiter?" Dethman

called out.

"That, or more. And yet this planet has a diameter of scarcely a few

hundred miles! Strange!"

"Strange, he says," came from Driscoll. "What do we do now, just lay

here for the rest of our lives?"

"Let's see you do anything else," Kaarj said drolly.

"Not me," Janus spoke. "You think I'll let this pee-wee world get me

down? If I can only get to that Tuner control."

"I'm afraid this is one kind of gravity it won't counteract," Brownell

admitted ruefully. "This world must be condensed as tightly as a white

dwarf star! A cubic inch of matter weighing hundreds of pounds!"

Mark twisted his head around, saw Janus' huge frame struggling to move.

He was a powerfully-built man, he'd be the one to do it if anyone did.

Slowly, minutes at a time, he managed to drag one leg under him and

then the other. He brought his hands into position. Sweat broke on

his brow as he rolled himself over on all fours. Then with a terrific

effort he hoisted himself erect!

He stood there, a straddle-legged, red-bearded giant. But only for

a second. His legs buckled. He managed to hurl himself toward the

starboard port, as he slid downward.

"At least I can see out now," he gasped. "We just did reach the

twilight strip. There's a whole forest of great big green things,

thirty feet high. Sort of like cactus, flat and spiny."

"They must have helped break our fall!"

"You said it! I can see a strip for over a mile, where we mowed 'em

down. Hey! Look! For the love of--" Janus' voice dwindled off in

amazement.

"Damn it, man, how can we look? What is it? What's out there?"

"People! Dozens of 'em! They're coming out of the forest. Oh--oh,

they've spotted us. But they're not coming over. They just stand there

jabbering and pointing."

"People on this world," Brownell muttered his amazement. "What are they

like, Janus? Describe them!"

"They look kind of savage to me. Squat and furry, but they stand erect.

Their legs are thick and heavy like an elephant's."

"Yes, that would be natural on this world. The terrific gravity."

"Gravity doesn't seem to bother them," Janus went on. "Let's see, now.

Yes, in all other ways they seem to be low-evolutionary humans,

except ... good Lord!"

"Except what? Damn it, Janus, go on!"

"They have knobs!"

"What?"

"Knobs! Growing right out of their foreheads. And they're lit up--the

knobs, I mean. Sort of a soft white light."

"Another logical development of nature," said the Professor. "They live

on the dark side, so their bodies manufacture the necessary light. Are

they armed?"

"They are. Just crude spears and clubs, though, so I guess we're safe

enough in here. Oh, oh, here they come. I think they see me!"

Twisting his head around, Mark could barely see a corner of the window

where Janus lay. In the twilight gray beyond he glimpsed the horde of

barbarians rushing at the ship. It seemed fantastic that they could

move in such gravity, fantastic that any creature could walk.

One of them hurled a spear with deadly accuracy. It struck the window

and glanced away. Others crowded around, pounding at the glass with

clubs, clamoring to get at Janus who lay just beyond.

"Professor," Janus said wryly, "this isn't very pleasant. Are you sure

that glass will hold?"

"Don't worry. It will take more than their pounding to crack four

inches of crystyte."

"Hope you're right." A moment later Janus exclaimed, "Hey, some

of these babies have electric rifles! Good Lord, I see--one, two,

three--at least half a dozen of 'em! Wait a minute, though--they're

only using them as clubs. The metal parts are corroded. Why, those are

the old-type electric rifles popular on Earth two hundred years ago!"

"You must be having delusions," came from Ferris.

"No, I'm not. I've seen that type of rifle in the museums. Now how do

you suppose they got 'way out here?"

For a few minutes there was silence, broken only by a faint ringing

sound as the clubs beat against the thick crystyte. Then Janus

announced:

"Here come more of 'em out of the forest. They're bringing up the

reserves. Hey, this might be serious! They have a new kind of weapon."

He peered for a moment into the grayness. "It's a huge thing, seems to

be a sort of combination catapult and cross-bow. I don't like the looks

of it."

A minute later the first shot came. It struck the spaceship very close

to the window. There was a muffled explosion, and a flashing blue flame.

"By all that's holy--explosives! Powerful stuff, too. These babies

aren't as barbarian as they look!"

"We've got to get away from here some way." Brownell was really worried

now. "Janus, do you think you could make it to the controls? Perhaps by

dragging yourself--"

"I'm sure gonna try it! Wait a minute, though--they're not going to

bother us any more. They're scared!"

"Scared of what?"

"Damned if I know. They're staring off to the right, jabbering and

pointing. Hah! There they go, they're running away!"

Driscoll said, "What did you do, Janus, make a face at 'em? That red

beard of yours is enough to scare anybody!"

"Something's coming." Janus was straining his neck now, his face

flat against the glass. "I think I can make it out ... yes ... holy

blazing comets! What kind of a world is this? Get away from there, you!

Hey--cut that out!"

Janus' voice had risen to an excited pitch. "Get set, men--I think

we're leaving here!" The ship gave a sudden lurch and Janus rolled

backward. His head hit the floor hard--enough to stun him a little.

And now their ship was moving! Not upward. It seemed to be dragging

forward over rough terrain. In this tremendous gravity, every slightest

jolt bruised them horribly. They could only lie there and take it.

After five minutes of this their muscles seemed pounded to a pulp,

despite the inflated suits still encasing them.

Then as suddenly as it had begun, the movement stopped. There was

ominous quiet.

Mark, on the brink of unconsciousness, thought he was dreaming when

he saw Professor Brownell leap to his feet! Now the other men were

stirring. They rose dazedly. Gravity was normal!

They crowded excitedly around the windows. Outside was bright daylight,

no longer the twilight haze. The barbarian horde wasn't to be seen, nor

was--that _other_. Whatever it was Janus had glimpsed.

Janus groaned a little and sat up, rubbing his head. They questioned

him eagerly.

"Maybe I didn't see it," he muttered. "You wouldn't believe me anyway.

Gravity's normal, so let's get out of here."

And when they pressed their questions, he only shook his head

stubbornly.

Heedless of their aching muscles, they zipped out of the bulging suits.

Mark's hand went instantly to an inside pocket near his heart, where

he'd placed his secret flat box with the lenses. He was relieved to

find that it, at least, was undamaged.

* * * * *

Janus was breaking out the weapons. He handed each of them an atomic

rifle and neutro pistol. Brownell had taken a sample of the atmosphere

and announced it was fit for them. They debarked onto a plain where

lush yellow grass sprang waist high.

"Strange," Brownell was muttering. He stared back the way they had

come. Only a few yards behind them was the twilight zone! It was

sharply defined, gray and misty, reaching sheerly up. Yet they stood

in bluish daylight which extended ahead of them to the sharp, downward

curve of the horizon.

Brownell walked slowly back to the twilight zone, gingerly testing the

gravity. He entered the zone--and fell flat to the ground! Janus leaped

to him, dragged him back.

"Did you ever see such a thing?" Brownell exclaimed as he rose. "Not

only is there a sharp division of light and dark, but half the planet

is terrifically heavy while the other half is normal. It defies all

laws as we have known them."

Janus was peering intently into that grayness--toward the edge of the

forest a hundred yards away. Suddenly he gripped the Professor's arm.

His voice came a little hysterically.

"I wasn't dreaming, then. I see it! There it is--the thing that grabbed

our ship! Don't move, you men, because I swear--it's watching us!"

Gradually they made it out, as they stared in the direction of Janus'

gaze. It was a huge bulking shape that towered above the tallest trees.

A roughly round, metallic body that rested on four jointed metal legs.

Metal arms, too, dangled at its side.

"A robot!" came in a whisper from Dethman's lips. "A metal robot, but

good Lord--look at the size of it!"

They were looking. Fifty feet above the ground they could make out its

head, semi-spherical--and there were two eyes glowing with a greenish

light, eyes that must have been large as dinner plates! It stood quite

motionless in the gloom near the forest, watching them.

"That's the thing that towed us here?" Brownell whispered.

"Yes! I just got a bare glimpse of it."

"Must be friendly, then. But I wouldn't want to shake hands with it!

The thing does seem to be watching us, doesn't it?"

"I'll fix it!" Ferris suddenly brought his rifle up, took aim at the

glowing eyes.

Janus whirled, knocked the rifle aside. "You fool! That's an

intelligent entity, I tell you! Want to get us killed?"

As though it had seen and comprehended the action, the robot's eyes

blinked once or twice. It was eerie. Then it raised one of its arms and

seemed to gesture--not at them, but beyond them. With that, it turned

and stalked away, crashing through the forest.

"I get it," Mark said thoughtfully. "It was warning us to stay on our

side of the fence!"

"And that's just what we will do. It's the only place where we can

stand up, much less move about."

They walked back to the prow of the ship. "Where does this daylight

come from?" Brownell was still puzzled. "There's no sun. Seems to me

this gravity has something to do with it, too. Say! Do you suppose this

light--"

He never finished, for at that moment they heard a shout ahead of

them, and saw a group of men approaching. They were tall and straight,

clean shaven, and dressed in trousers and tunics of rough texture

but undoubtedly of Earth pattern--the pattern which had been popular

hundreds of years ago! They carried weapons too, the old-type electric

rifles which were so devastating at close range but not very effective

at longer distances.

They came warily at first, but smiled when they saw the newcomers were

not going to cause trouble.

"Greetings!" their leader said in perfect English. "You're from Earth?

We thought we saw your ship crash, and came over to investigate."

Janus stepped forward and introduced himself, shook hands.

"My name is Donli," the other said. He pronounced it that way, crisply,

running the syllables together. Mark suddenly wondered if this could be

a contraction of "Donnolly".

* * * * *

Donli and his men were speechless for a moment, staring in turn at the

spaceship, the new-type weapons, and Ral Kaarj.

"You have never seen a Martian before?" Kaarj grinned at them in a

friendly manner.

"Pardon our staring," Donli replied. "We have never seen a Martian, nor

such a spaceship as this, nor any other world. We have waited long for

this! Long!"

"You've seen no other world. But you are Earthmen."

"We have been here always."

"I begin to understand," Brownell said. "There are others of you here?

Where do you stay?"

"Our city is only fifty miles from here. We shall be happy if you

accompany us there. We have good roads, and surface cars. Our leader,

Mari, will explain everything to you." Donli paused, glancing nervously

into the twilight strip. "You should be of great help to us against the

Perlacs, with your new weapons."

"Perlacs? Are those the furry creatures with the lights on their heads?"

"Yes. We call them that because Perlac is the name they give to the

world. They have warred on us for generations. We number a mere five

hundred, and they are thousands." Donli looked worried. "And now that

the robots are active again, we are in even more danger."

"We saw one of those metal giants," Janus exclaimed, "just a few

minutes ago!"

"Yes, we saw it too. We came up just as it was stalking away. It's the

first we've ever seen, but we have heard much about them; the stories

have been handed down. There is supposed to be a great temple on the

dark side, where the robots are housed."

"More of them?" Mark exclaimed. "I hope they stay over there, then!"

Donli shook his head. "This I know: if the robots are roaming again, as

they did many years ago, none of us will be safe."

"Then let us go to your city," Brownell put in. "We should be able to

lift gravs now, if the Tuner hasn't been damaged."

It hadn't been. In a few minutes they were winging low across the

plains to the horizon.

The city bore the unusual name of "Frell", and lay semi-circularly at

the foot of a sharply rising hill. People were seen, men and women

alike, working in the surrounding fields.

Donli led them through the main street. The buildings were of a dark

substance that might have been earth compressed to concrete hardness.

They entered the most imposing of these buildings, and thence to a huge

room which was almost the size of a theater on Earth.

"Make yourselves at ease," Donli said, "while I summon Mari. She will

probably be at the laboratories now."

"Mari," Driscoll said, when Donli had gone. "So their leader is a

woman! And they have laboratories!"

They gazed about them. The curious daylight came through windows

of glass or similar material. There were chairs and tables of

finely-wrought metal. Along one wall were bookcases filled with charts

and uniquely-bound volumes. There were other volumes too, which seemed

vaguely familiar.

Brownell walked over there.

"Look at this! A whole case full of books from Earth--scientific,

technical books, all of them!" He read a few of the titles on the faded

bindings. "These were all popular hundreds of years ago. And these

others," he waved, "are probably the entire recorded history of these

people. I'd give anything to look into them." He didn't touch the

volumes, but remained thoughtful.

Mark too was thoughtful. "Frell," he mused. "A strange name for this

city. Seems as though it ought to mean something, but I can't quite

place it."

* * * * *

Donli returned soon, accompanied by Mari. She was tall, lithesome, her

features classical and still beautiful despite smudges of sweat and

grime from the laboratory. Her golden hair was braided into a halo

which gave a queenly appearance, and her eyes were bluer than the

strange daylight of this world. Skirt and tight-fitting bodice were of

rough texture but dyed a rich golden color.

Involuntarily the men gasped, but Mari did not mind that or their

stares. She seated herself and bade them be seated opposite her. Then

she leaned forward, searching their faces. Not until then did they

notice that her eyes were cold, suspicious.

"You have come from Earth, of course. And Donli tells me this strange

one is Martian. Who is leader among you?"

"Why, I suppose I am," Janus said. "Either me or Professor Brownell,

here."

"Professor?" Her mind seemed to grope for the meaning. "Ah! That word

means a man of scientific learning, does it not?"

"In this case, yes," he answered.

Brownell spoke softly. "Madam, we come in peace. We want to be friends

and we want to help you, if we may. You need have no suspicion of us."

"No suspicion? You come from the dark side! From the Perlacs!" She spat

the last word venomously.

Donli, standing there, seemed troubled. He said:

"We only found them near the twilight zone. They were most friendly in

manner and speech! They seem--"

Man waved a hand, and he was silent. She said:

"Men of Earth, you wonder why I am suspicious? Know, then, that we

observed your ship five days ago, crossing our land with tremendous

speed and heading for the dark side! Why have you waited until now

to come here? It could be that you have allied yourselves with the

Perlacs! Have they sent you here?"

There was a moment of stupefied silence. They could scarcely believe

that she was serious, but her cold manner assured them of it. Then the

answer must have dawned on all of them at once.

"Ketrik!" Janus boomed, hoisting his big frame from the chair. "By all

that's holy, he did reach here! She must have seen Ketrik's ship!" Then

he sobered. "But--if it was streaking for the dark side, it was surely

out of control. Ketrik must be dead by now. To think I'd live to see

the day when that man blanked out."

Mari had drawn a strange looking pistol from a belt at her waist. She

gestured with it now and said:

"Be seated, please. We will talk yet a while. This Ketrik--he is

another one from Earth?"

"Yes, he came before us. Came alone. We only landed here today, a few

hours ago! Believe me, we want no part of those Perlacs. We had a

little trouble with them."

She seemed relieved, and satisfied at last. "Forgive my suspicion of

you. But where the safety of my people is concerned, I cannot be too

careful. We have had trouble with the Perlacs, always. The greatest

trouble is yet to come and it is brewing fast." She appeared to be

marshalling her thoughts, then she went on:

"We are the seventh generation of a party of Earth people who arrived

here hundreds of years ago. My direct ancestor, Wilm Frell, was leader

of that expedition. Our city is named in his honor!"

"I've got it!" Mark exclaimed. "She means William Farrell! The Farrell

expedition was one of the earliest and most ambitious interstellar

attempts. Men had already reached the moon and were trying for Mars.

Farrell set out with a hundred men and women aboard--"

"A hundred and forty," Mari corrected. "We have his log here. They

missed Mars, their compasses were wrecked in the asteroids and they

continued outward for months, finally crashing here. We still do not

know what planet this is!"

"You're beyond Pluto!" Brownell told her. "But how could they have

survived a crash on this heavy world?"

"It is one of the miracles. The records tell of it. They landed near

the light! The light at that time encompassed a very small area, only

a few miles. Gravity there was normal, but beyond, it was very heavy.

They investigated the center of light and found the Stone."

* * * * *

Brownell was excited. "I suspected something like this! The Stone? What

is it?"

"We still do not know, except that it supplies us with light and normal

gravity and a temperate zone very favorable to our crops. It defies our

science, and it certainly must have come from somewhere far beyond our

solar system! Our ancestors found it deeply buried and dug it out. The

moment they did--"

"Yes?"

"The light from it spread slowly, very slowly. In about ten years' time

it had encompassed this entire hemisphere, stopped only by the sharp

curvature of the planet."

"And as the light spread outward, the heavy gravity vanished?"

"That is true. We have the Stone now atop our hill, which is the

highest spot. Our ancestors, however, had to fight for it time and

again. The Perlacs at that time were really savages. They had known of

the buried light but were afraid to approach it. Later they tried to

get the Stone, but were always driven back into the darkness. They

have warred on us ever since--for generations!

"In the last few years they have become very strong. They are using

explosives now. I believe that ages ago, long before the first Earthmen

came, a civilization existed and died here. The present Perlacs must

have discovered remnants of an ancient science, and are slowly reviving

it!"

There was a moment of silence. Janus took advantage of it to hand his

atomic rifle to the girl, and his neutro-pistol as well.

"Have you ever seen weapons like these?"

She examined them excitedly, especially the neutro-pistol. "Donli, look

at this!" she pointed at the firing coils. "It seems to be the same

principle we're working on!"

"Do you mean to say you're trying to invent a neutro gun?" Janus was

amazed.

"Yes," Donli answered. "We've been working on it for the past several

years, but it's been slow and hard. Sometimes disastrous." He stepped

to a bookcase, brought out one of the ancient volumes. It was Spurlin's

_Evolution and Control of the Free Electron_.

"We've worked from the principles set forth here," Donli explained,

"and with some slight measure of success. But we feel that we're

treading on dangerous ground. Only a few months ago one of our

laboratories was blown up and four men killed."

Brownell nodded. "Even when Spurlin wrote that book there was no real

control of the electron. It came later. Anyway, we can help you now!

We have the real models here to work from. Would you like to see these

guns in operation?"

It was a needless question. They repaired outside, where Janus

demonstrated the atomic rifle first, aiming at a harmless clump of

bushes some fifty yards away. The atomic pellet struck and exploded,

leaving a miniature crater.

"That," Brownell said, "is an example of uncontrolled atomic explosion.

Rather crude, but it serves its purpose. Now let us observe a

refinement of it. _Controlled, electronic action._"

Janus aimed the pistol. A bluish, pencil-thin ray leaped forth. Where

it touched, substance vanished into a froth of flame. The ground

itself became incandescent glass. The ray remained constant so long as

his finger touched the firing stud.

Mari was excited. "Then you will help us perfect ours? The Perlacs are

becoming stronger than we have ever known them, and whenever they start

scouting the twilight zone, it means trouble. Donli tells me the robots

are active again, too!"

"We can and will help you," Brownell assured her. "I doubt if those

overgrown robots will stand up long under an electronic ray!"

The Professor was eager to see the Stone, and Mari graciously

accompanied him to the crest of the hill where it was housed. The

others, meanwhile, went with Donli on a tour of the shops and

laboratories.