_THE MONSTERS ON THE ASTEROID_
A day or two after leaving the moon, we had another adventure with a
wandering inhabitant of space which brought us into far greater peril
than had our encounter with the meteor.
The airships had been partitioned off so that a portion of the interior
could be darkened in order to serve as a sleeping chamber, wherein,
according to the regulations prescribed by the commander of the squadron
each member of the expedition in his turn passed eight out of every
twenty-four hours--sleeping if he could, if not, meditating in a more or
less dazed way, upon the wonderful things that he was seeing and
doing--things far more incredible than the creations of a dream.
One morning, if I may call by the name morning the time of my periodical
emergence from the darkened chamber, glancing from one of the windows, I
was startled to see in the black sky a brilliant comet.
No periodical comet, as I knew, was at this time approaching the
neighborhood of the sun, and no stranger of that kind had been detected
from the observatories making its way sunward before we left the earth.
Here, however, was unmistakably a comet rushing toward the sun, flinging
out a great gleaming tail behind it and so close to us that I wondered
to see it remaining almost motionless in the sky. This phenomenon was
soon explained to me, and the explanation was of a most disquieting
character.
The stranger had already been perceived, not only from the flagship, but
from the other members of the squadron, and, as I now learned, efforts
had been made to get out of the neighborhood, but for some reason the
electrical apparatus did not work perfectly--some mysterious disturbing
force acting upon it--and so it had been found impossible to avoid an
encounter with the comet, not an actual coming into contact with it, but
a falling into the sphere of its influence.
In fact, I was informed that for several hours the squadron had been
dragging along in the wake of a comet, very much as boats are sometimes
towed off by a wounded whale. Every effort had been made to so adjust
the electric charge upon the ships that they would be repelled from the
cometic mass, but, owing apparently to electric changes affecting the
clashing mass of meteoric bodies which constituted the head of the
comet, we found it impossible to escape from its influence.
At one instant the ships would be repelled; immediately afterward they
would be attracted again, and thus they were dragged hither and thither,
but never able to break from the invisible leash which the comet had
cast upon them. The latter was moving with enormous velocity toward the
sun, and, consequently, we were being carried back again, away from the
object of our expedition, with a fair prospect of being dissipated in
blazing vapors when the comet had dragged us, unwilling prisoners, into
the immediate neighborhood of the solar furnace.
Even the most cool-headed lost his self control in this terrible
emergency. Every kind of devise that experience or the imagination could
suggest was tried, but nothing would do. Still on we rushed with the
electrified atoms composing the tail of the comet swinging to and fro
over the members of the squadron, as they shifted their position, like
the plume of smoke from a gigantic steamer, drifting over the sea birds
that follow in its course.
Was this to end it all, then? Was this the fate that Providence had in
store for us? Were the hopes of the earth thus to perish? Was the
expedition to be wrecked and its fate to remain for ever unknown to the
planet from which it had set forth? And was our beloved globe, which had
seemed so fair to us when we last looked upon it nearby, and in whose
defense we had resolved to spend our last breath, to be left helpless
and at the mercy of its implacable foe in the sky?
At length we gave ourselves up for lost. There seemed to be no possible
way to free ourselves from the baleful grip of this terrible and
unlooked for enemy.
As the comet approached the sun its electrical energy rapidly increased,
and watching it with telescopes, for we could not withdraw our
fascinated eyes from it, we could clearly behold the fearful things that
went on in its nucleus.
This consisted of an immense number of separate meteors of no very great
size individually, but which were in constant motion among one another,
darting to and fro, clashing and smashing together, while fountains of
blazing metallic particles and hot mineral vapours poured out in every
direction.
As I watched it, unable to withdraw my eyes, I saw imaginary forms
revealing themselves amid the flaming meteors. They seemed like
creatures in agony, tossing their arms, bewailing in their attitudes the
awful fate that had overtaken them, and fairly chilling my blood with
the pantomime of torture which they exhibited. I thought of an old
superstition which I had often heard about the earth, and exclaimed:
"Yes, surely, this is a flying hell!"
As the electric activity of the comet increased, its continued changes
of potential and polarity became more frequent, and the electrical ships
darted about with even greater confusion than before. Occasionally one
of them, seized with a sudden impulse, would spring forward toward the
nucleus of the comet with a sudden access of velocity that would fling
every one of its crew from his feet, and all would lie sprawling on the
floor of the car while it rushed, as it seemed, to inevitable and
instant destruction.
Then, either through the frantic efforts of the electrician struggling
with the controller or through another change in the polarity of the
comet, the ship would be saved on the very brink of ruin and stagger
away out of immediate danger.
Thus the captured squadron was swept, swaying and darting hither and
thither, but never able to get sufficiently far from the comet to break
the bond of its fatal attraction.
So great was our excitement and so complete our absorption in the
fearful peril that we had not noticed the precise direction in which the
comet was carrying us. It was enough to know that the goal of the
journey was the furnace of the sun. But presently someone in the
flagship recalled us to a more accurate sense of our situation in space
by exclaiming:
"Why, there is the earth!"
And there, indeed, it was, its great globe rolling under our eyes, with
the contrasted colors of the continents and clouds and the watery gleam
of the oceans spread beneath us.
"We're going to strike it!" exclaimed somebody. "The comet is going to
dash us into the earth."
Such a collision at first seemed inevitable, but presently it was
noticed that the direction of the comet's motion was such that while it
might graze the earth it would not actually strike it.
And so, like a swarm of giant insects circling about an electric light
from whose magic influence they could not escape, our ships went on, to
be whipped against the earth in passing and then to continue their swift
journey to destruction.
"Thank God, this saves us," suddenly cried Mr. Edison.
"What-what?"
"Why, the earth, of course. Do you not see that as the comet sweeps
close to the great planet the superior attraction of the latter will
snatch us from its grasp, and that thus we shall be able to escape."
And it was indeed as Mr. Edison had predicted. In a blaze of falling
meteors the comet swept the outer limits of the earth's atmosphere and
passed on, while the swaying ships, having been instructed by signals
what to do, desperately applied their electrical machinery to reverse
the attraction and threw themselves into the arms of their mother earth.
In another instant we were all free, settling down through the quiet
atmosphere with the Atlantic Ocean sparkling in the morning sun far
below.
We looked at one another in amazement. So this was the end of our
voyage! This was the completion of our warlike enterprise. We had
started out to conquer a world, and we had come back ignominiously
dragged in the train of a comet.
The earth which we were going to defend and protect had herself turned
protector, and reaching out her strong arm had snatched her foolish
children from the destruction which they had invited.
It would be impossible to describe the chagrin of every member of the
expedition.
The electric ships rapidly assembled and hovered high in the air, while
their commanders consulted about what should be done. A universal
feeling of shame almost drove them to a decision not to land upon the
surface of the planet, and if possible not to let its inhabitants know
what had occurred.
But it was too late for that. Looking carefully beneath us, we saw that
fate had brought us back to our very starting point, and signals
displayed in the neighborhood of New York indicated that we had already
been recognized. There was nothing for us then but to drop down and
explain the situation.
I shall not delay my narrative by undertaking to describe the
astonishment and the disappointment of the inhabitants of the earth
when, within a fortnight from our departure, they saw us back again,
with no laurels of victory crowning our brows.
At first they had hoped that we were returning in triumph, and we were
overwhelmed with questions the moment we had dropped within speaking
distance.
"Have you whipped them?"
"How many are lost?"
"Is there any more danger?"
"Faix, have ye got one of thim men from Mars?"
But their rejoicing and their facetiousness were turned into wailing
when the truth was imparted.
We made a short story of it, for we had not the heart to go into
details. We told of our unfortunate comrades whom we had buried upon the
moon, and there was one gleam of satisfaction when we exhibited the
wonderful crystals we had collected in the crater of Aristarchus.
Mr. Edison determined to stop only long enough to test the electrical
machinery of the cars, which had been more or less seriously deranged
during our wild chase after the comet, and then to start straight back
for Mars--this time on a through trip.
The astronomers, who had been watching Mars, since our departure, with
their telescopes, reported that mysterious lights continued to be
visible, but that nothing indicating the starting of another expedition
for the earth had been seen.
Within twenty-four hours we were ready for our second start.
The moon was now no longer in a position to help us on our way. It had
moved out of line between Mars and the earth.
High above us, in the center of the heavens, glowed the red planet which
was the goal of our journey.
The needed computations of velocity and direction of flight having been
repeated, and the ships being all in readiness, we started direct for
Mars.
An enormous charge of electricity was imparted to each member of the
squadron, in order that as soon as we had reached the upper limits of
the atmosphere, where the ships could move swiftly, without danger of
being consumed by the heat developed by the friction of their passage
through the air, a very great initial velocity could be imparted.
Once started off by this tremendous electrical kick, and with no
atmosphere to resist our motion, we should be able to retain the same
velocity, baring incidental encounters, until we arrived near the
surface of Mars.
When we were free of the atmosphere, and the ships were moving away from
the earth, with the highest velocity which we were able to impart to
them, observations on the stars were made in order to determine the rate
of our speed.
This was found to be ten miles in a second, or 864,000 miles in a day, a
very much greater speed than that with which we had travelled on
starting to touch at the moon. Supposing this velocity to remain
uniform, and, with no known resistance, it might reasonably be expected
to do so, we should arrive at Mars in a little less than forty-two days,
the distance of the planet from the earth being at this time, about
thirty-six million miles.
Nothing occurred for many days to interrupt our journey. We became
accustomed to our strange surroundings, and many entertainments were
provided to while away the time. The astronomers in the expedition found
plenty of occupation in studying the aspects of the stars and the other
heavenly bodies from their new point of view.
At the expiration of about thirty-five days we had drawn so near to Mars
that with our telescopes, which, though small, were of immense power, we
could discern upon its surface features and details which no one had
been able to glimpse from the earth.
As the surface of this world, that we were approaching as a tiger hunter
draws near the jungle, gradually unfolded itself to our inspection,
there was hardly one of us willing to devote to sleep or idleness the
prescribed eight hours that had been fixed as the time during which each
member of the expedition must remain in the darkened chamber. We were
too eager to watch for every new revelation upon Mars.
But something was in store that we had not expected. We were to meet the
Martians before arriving at the world in which they dwelt.
Among the stars which shone in that quarter of the heavens where Mars
appeared as the master orb, there was one, lying directly in our path,
which, to our astonishment, as we continued on, altered from the aspect
of a star, underwent a gradual magnification, and soon presented itself
in the form of a little planet.
"It is an asteroid," said somebody.
"Yes, evidently; but how does it come inside the orbit of Mars?"
"Oh, there are several asteroids," said one of the astronomers, "which
travel inside the orbit of Mars, along a part of their course, and, for
aught we can tell, there may be many which have not yet been caught
sight of from the earth, that are nearer to the sun than Mars is."
"This must be one of them."
"Manifestly so."
As we drew nearer the mysterious little planet revealed itself to us as
a perfectly formed globe not more than five miles in diameter.
"What is that upon it?" asked Lord Kelvin, squinting intently at the
little world through his glass. "As I live, it moves."
"Yes, yes!" exclaimed several others, "there are inhabitants upon it,
but what giants!"
"What monsters!"
"Don't you see?" exclaimed an excited savant. "They are the Martians!"
The startling truth burst upon the minds of all. Here upon this little
planetoid were several of the gigantic inhabitants of the world that we
were going to attack. There was more than one man in the flagship who
recognized them well, and who shuddered at the recognition,
instinctively recalling the recent terrible experience of the earth.
Was this an outpost of the warlike Mars?
Around these monstrous enemies we saw several of their engines of war.
Some of these appeared to have been wrecked, but at least one, as far as
we could see, was still in a proper condition for use.
How had these creatures got there?
"Why, that is easy enough to account for," I said, as a sudden
recollection flashed into my mind. "Don't you remember the report of the
astronomers more than six months ago, at the end of the conference in
Washington, that something would seem to indicate the departure of a new
expedition from Mars had been noticed by them? We have heard nothing of
that expedition since. We know that it did not reach the earth. It must
have fallen foul of this asteroid, run upon this rock in the ocean of
space and been wrecked here."
"We've got 'em, then," shouted our electric steersman, who had been a
workman in Mr. Edison's laboratory and had unlimited confidence in his
chief.
The electrical ships were immediately instructed by signal to slow down,
an operation that was easily affected through the electrical repulsion
of the asteroid.
The nearer we got the more terrifying was the appearance of the gigantic
creatures who were riding upon the little world before us like castaway
sailors upon a block of ice. Like men, and yet not like men, combining
the human and the beast in their appearance, it required a steady nerve
to look at them. If we had not known their malignity and their power to
work evil, it would have been different, but in our eyes their moral
character shone through their physical aspect and thus rendered them
more terrible than they would otherwise have been.
When we first saw them their appearance was most forlorn, and their
attitudes indicated only despair and desperation, but as they caught
sight of us their malign power of intellect instantly penetrated the
mystery, and they recognized us for what we were.
Their despair immediately gave place to reawakened malevolence. On the
instant they were astir, with such heart-chilling movements as those
that characterize a venomous serpent preparing to strike.
Not imagining that they would be in a position to make serious
resistance, we had been somewhat incautious in approaching.
Suddenly there was a quicker movement than usual among the Martians, a
swift adjustment of that one of their engines of war which, as already
noticed, seemed to be practically uninjured, then there darted from it
and alighted upon one of the foremost ships, a dazzling lightning stroke
a mile in length, at whose touch the metallic sides of the car curled
and withered and, licked for a moment by what seemed lambent flames,
collapsed into a mere cinder.
For an instant not a word was spoken, so sudden and unexpected was the
blow.
We knew that every soul in the stricken car had perished.
"Back! Back!" was the signal instantly flashed from the flagship, and
reversing their polarities the members of the squadron sprang away from
the little planet as rapidly as the electrical impulse could drive them.
But before we were out of reach a second flaming tongue of death shot
from the fearful engine, and another of our ships, with all its crew,
was destroyed.
[Illustration: _"Back! Back!" was the signal instantaneously flashed
from the flag ship, and the members of the squadron sprang away from the
little planet. But before we were out of reach a second tongue of death
shot from the fearful engine, and another of our ships, with all its
crew, was destroyed._]
It was an inauspicious beginning for us. Two of our electrical ships,
with their entire crews, had been wiped out of existence, and this
appalling blow had been dealt by a few stranded and disabled enemies
floating on an asteroid.
What hope would there be for us when we came to encounter the millions
of Mars itself on their own ground and prepared for war?
However, it would not do to despond. We had been incautious, and we
should take good care not to commit the same fault again.
The first thing to do was to avenge the death of our comrades. The
question whether we were able to meet these Martians and overcome them
might as well be settled right here and now. They had proved what they
could do, even when disabled and at a disadvantage. Now it was our turn.