_Turgan's Plan_
Content with the Kildare's answer, Damis followed him down a corridor
and into a large room set around with benches. The Kildare did not pause
but moved to the far end of the room and manipulated a hidden switch. A
portion of the paneled wall swung inward and through the doorway thus
opened, Turgan led the way. The corridor in which they found themselves
was dimly lighted by radium bulbs which Damis shrewdly suspected had
been stolen from the palace of the Viceroy by Earthmen employed there.
It sloped steeply downward and Damis estimated that they were fifty feet
below the level of the ground before another door opened to Turgan's
manipulation of hidden catches and admitted them to a large room
equipped with tables and chairs and well lighted by other radium bulbs.
Damis turned to the Kildare.
"For years there have been rumors among the Sons of God of the existence
of this place," he exclaimed, "yet every effort to find it has been
futile. Glavour and his council have at last decided that it is merely a
myth and that the underground council chamber does not exist. You have
kept your secret well, for never has a breath of suspicion reached him
that Turgan was one of the conspirators who plotted to overthrow the
reign of the Sons of God."
"Let that, Damis, be a sample of the earnestness and loyalty of your new
brethren," said the Kildare. "There are hundreds of Earthmen who know
where this place is and what secrets it holds, yet none has ever
betrayed it. Scores have gone to torture and to the sacrifice of the
games without unsealing their lips. Would a Jovian have done likewise?"
"To give them due credit, I think they would have," replied Damis
thoughtfully, "yet their motive would not have been loyalty, but
stubbornness and a refusal to subordinate their will to another's. I
thought you said that Lura would join us here?"
* * * * *
As Damis spoke a door on the far side of the chamber opened and a half
dozen women entered. Lura was among them and with a cry of joy, she ran
lightly forward and threw herself into Damis' outstretched arms. Turgan
smiled paternally at them for a moment and then touched his daughter
lightly on the shoulder.
"I have freely and gladly given my blessing to your union with Damis,"
he said. "He is now one with us. His presence makes victory possible and
enables us to act at once instead of planning for years. Damis, you can
operate a space flyer, can you not?"
"Certainly. That is knowledge which all Nepthalim possess."
A suppressed cheer greeted his words and the Earthmen crowded around
him, vibrant with excitement.
"The time is at hand!" cried a stern-faced man in the crimson robe which
marked him an Akildare, an under-officer of the Earthmen.
"Before I can operate a space flyer, I will have to have one to
operate," objected Damis.
"That will be supplied," cried a dozen voices. Turgan's voice rose above
the hubbub of sound.
"Let us proceed in orderly fashion," he cried.
* * * * *
The noise died down to silence and at a gesture from their ruler, the
Earthmen took seats. Turgan stood beside Damis.
"For the enlightenment of our new-found brother, I will recite what has
happened and what we have done, although most of you know it and many of
you have done your part in bringing it about.
"Forty years ago, the Earth was prosperous, peopled with free men, and
happy. While we knew little of science and lived in mere huts, yet we
worshipped beauty and Him who ruled all and loved his children. It was
to such a world that the Jovians came.
"When the first space flyer with a load of these inhuman monsters
arrived on the earth, we foolishly took them for the angels whom we had
been taught to believe spent eternity in glorifying Him. We welcomed
them with our best and humbly obeyed when they spoke. This illusion was
fostered by the name the Jovians gave themselves, the 'Sons of God.'
Hortan, their leader and the father of our new brother, was a just and
kindly man and he ruled the earth wisely and well. We learned from them
and they learned from us. That was the golden age. And the Sons of God
saw that the Daughters of Man were fair, and they took of them wives,
such as they chose. And sons were born to them, the Nepthalim, the
mighty men of the Earth.
"In time other flyers came from the heavens above and brought more of
the Sons of God to rule over us. Then Hortan, the Viceroy, died, and
Damis, know you how he died? You were a babe at the time and you know
nothing. Your father and your mother, who was my distant kinswoman, died
under the knives of assassins. It was given out that they had gone to
Jupiter, yet there were some who knew the truth. You, the killers
sought, but one of the Earthmen whose heart bled for your dead mother,
spirited you away. When you had grown to boyhood, he announced your name
and lineage, although his life paid for his indiscretion. The same hand
which struck down your father and your mother struck at him and struck
not unavailingly. You, since all knew your name and lineage, he dared
not strike, lest those who love him not, would appeal to Tubain. Know
you the name of the monster, the traitor to his ruler and the murderer
of your parents?"
* * * * *
Damis' face had paled during the recital and when the old Kildare turned
to him, he silently shook his head.
"It was the monster who now rules over us as Viceroy and who profanes
the name of God by conferring it on his master and who would, if he
dared, assume the name for himself. It was Glavour, Viceroy of the
Earth."
The blood surged back into Damis' face and he raised a hand in a
dramatic gesture.
"Now I vow that I will never rest until he lies low in death and this be
the hand that brings him there!"
A murmur of applause greeted Damis' announcement and Turgan went on with
his tale.
"With the kind and just Hortan dead, Glavour assumed the throne of
power, for none dared oppose him. Once secure, he gave way to every
brutal lust and vice. Your mother was Hortan's only wife and he honored
her as such, and meant that the Nepthalim should in time rule the Earth,
but Glavour had no such ideas. To him, the Daughters of Man were
playthings to satisfy his brutal lusts. By dozens and by scores he swept
the fairest of them into his seraglio, heeding not the bonds of
matrimony nor the wishes of his victims. Only the fact that my daughter
has been kept from his sight until to-day has spared her.
"The Earthmen who had been content to live under Hortan's rule, rebelled
against Glavour but the rebellion was crushed in blood. Time and again
they rose, but each time the mighty weapons of the Jovians stamped out
resistance. At last we realized that craft and not force must win the
battle. This chamber had been built when Hortan erected his new capital
and none of the Jovians knew of its location, so it was chosen as our
meeting place. To-day, Damis, I have twenty thousand men sworn to do my
bidding and to rise when I give the word. Many thousands more will rise
when they see others in arms and know that again the Sons of Man stand
in arms against the Sons of God."
* * * * *
"There are less than a thousand Jovians and perhaps twice that number of
Nepthalim on the Earth, yet that handful would stand victorious against
all the Earthmen living," said Damis thoughtfully. "Even I, and I am a
Nepthalim, do not know the secret weapons in the arsenal of Glavour, but
I know that they are more powerful than anything we have ever seen.
Forget not, too, that a radio message to Jupiter will bring down ships
with hundreds, nay, thousands, of her fighting men with weapons to
overwhelm all opposition."
"Such was the case but it is so no longer since we number you among us,"
replied the Kildare. "Earthmen are employed in the communications net
which the Jovians have thrown around the Earth and it is but a step from
those machines to the huge one with which they talk to their mother
planet. My spies have been busy for years and our plans are all laid.
There is one planet which all the forces of Jupiter have never been able
to conquer; from which their ships have ever retreated in defeat."
"Mars!" exclaimed Damis.
"Exactly," replied Turgan. "The Martians are a peaceful and
justice-loving people, yet they know that peace is given only to those
who are ready and able to fight for it. Ages ago they perfected weapons
before which the Jovians fly, if they are not destroyed. I have
communicated with the Grand Mognac of Mars and laid our plight before
him. He has pledged his aid and has promised us enough of his weapons to
not only destroy the Jovians and the Nepthalim on the Earth, but also to
prevent other Jovian ships from ever landing. The only problem has been
how to get them here. The Martians, not desiring conquest and content
with their own planet, have never perfected space flyers. They have
promised us the weapons, but we must go to Mars and bring them here.
Enough can be transported on one of the Jovian ships."
"How will we get a ship?" asked Damis.
"That also has been solved. There are two Jovian ships kept on the
Earth, ready for instant flight to Jupiter. They are loosely guarded for
the Sons of God believe that we have no idea of how to operate them. We
can capture one of them whenever we desire, but so far such action would
have been useless. Little by little we have gathered bits of information
about the flyers, but we had expected to wait for years before our
venture would have a chance of success. We dared not try prematurely,
for one attempt will be all that we will ever get. Now we are ready to
strike. You can fly the ship to Mars and back and with the Martian
weapons, we can sweep the Jovians from the Earth."
* * * * *
Damis' eyes lighted as Turgan spoke.
"Your plans are good," he cried, "and I will fly the ship for you. In
return I ask but one thing: let mine be the hand which strikes Glavour
down."
"If it can be so done, yours shall be the hand, oh Nepthalim!" cried the
Akildare who had first spoken of the ship. Turgan bowed his head and a
murmur of assent came from the assembled council.
"And now for action!" cried Turgan. "There is no need to talk longer.
Years ago our plans were perfected for the capture of the space ship and
each knows the part assigned to him. Toness, the Akildare, will rule
during my absence, for I will command the ship, under Damis. Twelve of
our men who know all that we have been able to learn will make up the
crew. None of them will take any part in the capture of the ship for
many lives may be lost in that venture and we will need the instructed
men to operate the ship after we capture it. Damis, have you any
addition to make to our plans?"
"Only one, Turgan. Glavour will ransack the Earth rather than be cheated
of one he has marked for his prey. Lura will be safe nowhere on Earth.
Her capture by the Sons of God will discourage the timid who will say
that if Turgan cannot protect his own daughter, how can he free the
Earth? She must go with us."
"Your point is well taken, Damis," replied the Kildare. "She shall go.
Now to action! Monaill, are your men ready?"
"They will assemble at my signal, oh, Kildare."
"Give the signal, for nothing will be gained by delay. We will follow
behind while you capture the ship."
* * * * *
Monaill bowed before the Kildare and hastened from the council room. In
a few words Turgan gave to Toness the final orders for the conduct of
the conspiracy during his absence. Followed by Lura, Damis and three of
the council, he made his way to a hidden doorway. Along an underground
passage they made their way for a quarter of a mile. A group of figures
was seen dimly ahead of them and nine men joined the party. Turgan
identified them to Damis as the balance of the crew.
"Has Monaill passed this way?" he asked.
"He passed with his band a few moments ago, oh, Kildare," replied one of
the men. "See, there is the light which summons us to follow."
He pointed to a tiny light which had suddenly flashed into brilliance.
Turgan nodded and led the way forward. At another doorway which opened
to Turgan's touch on a hidden lever, the party paused. An instant later
there came from a few hundred yards ahead of them a hoarse cry of alarm
followed by the roar of a huge whistle.
"The battle has joined!" cried Turgan. The others crouched, tense and
motionless. From ahead came the sound of battle. Violet light showed in
short intense flashes. It was evident that the Jovian guard of the space
ship was fighting valiantly to protect it. Shaking aside Turgan's
restraining hand, Damis crept slowly forward.
Two hundred yards from the spot where he left Turgan he came to a bend
in the passage. The sound of battle came from just ahead. He crept
forward and peered around the corner. The passage emerged from the
ground and gave way to a huge open space which he recognized as part of
the grounds of the Viceregal palace. Standing on a launching platform
was a Jovian space ship around which a battle raged.
* * * * *
Five of the huge Jovians were battling furiously with a score of
Earthmen. Three dead Jovians and a dozen crushed forms of Terrestrials
testified to the bitterness of the fight. The terrible black tubes of
the Jovians were exhausted and the battle was now being waged hand to
hand, Jovian ax against Earthly sword. The Terrestrials were being
gradually pressed back.
A shout came from the distance and Damis could see a dozen Jovian guards
hastening toward the scene of the fight, brandishing in their hands the
terrible black tubes. He turned back and shouted to Turgan.
"Hasten!" he cried. "In a moment, Monaill and his men will be
overthrown!"
With a shout the crouching group of Terrestrials rushed toward him, but
Damis did not wait. The oncoming Jovians were several hundred yards away
when he threw himself into the fray. At his appearance, a cry of dismay
went up from the Earthmen which was changed to one of mingled wonder and
triumph as Damis seized the nearest Jovian and bore the fellow down
despite his struggles. It was a matter of seconds for him to break the
bull neck of the huge guard and he turned to grasp another. The four
remaining Jovians backed away but Damis was not to be denied. He rushed
in and grasped another about the waist, avoiding the swing of the
forty-pound ax, and dragged him back. The swords of the Terrestrials
pierced the struggling guard from the rear and Damis rushed toward the
three survivors.
Heartened by his aid, the remnants of Monaill's band charged with him.
Two of the Jovians fell before the swords of the Earthmen and the third
went down before a blow of Damis' fist. As he turned back to the ship,
Turgan, followed by the crew of the ship, dashed up.
"Into the ship!" cried Damis. A glance showed that the Jovian guards
were less than two hundred yards away and were coming on in huge leaps.
The door of the space ship was open and the band of Terrestrials
clambered in.
"Quick, Damis!" came Lura's voice.
The Nepthalim turned to enter but his gaze fell on the six survivors of
Monaill's band.
"In with you!" he cried sharply.
* * * * *
The Terrestrials hesitated but Damis grasped the nearest of them by the
belt and threw him bodily into the ship. The others hesitated no longer
but clambered in. The Jovians were less than fifty yards away and
already deep violet flashes began to come from the tubes they carried.
Damis stooped and grasped one of the dead Jovians. With an effort
possible to only two men on Earth, himself and Glavour, he raised the
body above his head and hurled it straight at the oncoming Jovians. His
aim was true and three of them were swept from their feet. With a mighty
bound, Damis sprang through the door of the space ship and the airlock
clanged shut behind him.
The crew of the ship were already in place, awaiting orders. There was
no time for instruction and Damis leaped to the control board. He pulled
a lever far down and in an instant the entire crew was flat on the floor
as though an enormous weight had pressed them down. With a superhuman
effort, Damis raised himself enough to cut off the power. The ship shot
on through the rapidly thinning air, its sides glowing a dull red. The
heat inside the ship was almost intolerable.
As the pressure of the enormous acceleration ceased, the bruised
Terrestrials struggled to their feet. Damis turned to another lever and
a breath of icy air swept through the ship.
"This will help for an instant," he gasped, "and the cold of space will
soon cool us down. I had to give the ship a tremendous start or the
tubes of the Sons of God would have reduced us to elemental atoms. Keep
away from the walls and don't exert yourselves. I can handle the ship
alone for the present."
* * * * *
For half an hour the ship charged on through space. Damis presently
pulled the control lever down and placed the ship under power. The walls
changed from dull red to black and the temperature in the ship grew
noticeably lower. Damis made his way to one of the walls and tested it
with a moistened finger.
"It's cool enough to touch," he announced. "Fortunately the insulating
vacuum between the inner and the outer skins was at its maximum,
otherwise we would have been roasted alive. The external wall was almost
at the fusing point. We can move around now."
He posted lookouts at the observing instruments with which the ship was
equipped and instructed them in their duties and the manipulation of the
instruments. He placed one man at the control lever of the stern
rocket-motors. As he turned away from the control board he saw Lura
standing quietly in a corner. He opened his arms and she ran to them
with a cry of joy.
"Oh, Damis, I was so afraid for you," she gasped, "and I wanted to hug
you when you jumped in and Father closed the lock behind you but I knew
that you had to take care of the ship. Were you hurt at all?"
"Not a bit, darling," he assured her, "but it was touch and go for a
moment. I didn't know whether the guards would dare to disintegrate the
ship without orders from Glavour. In any event, the blasts of the stern
motors must have hurled them half a mile. No strength could stand the
blast of gas to which they were subjected. Are you all right?"
"Perfectly," she replied; "I never was in any danger. I was the first
one in the ship and the only chance I had to be hurt was to have you
overcome and the ship recaptured. In that case, I had this."
She displayed a small dagger which she drew from the bosom of her robe.
Damis shuddered and took the weapon from her.
"Poisoned," he exclaimed as he glanced at its tip. "You had better let
me take care of it. You might fall and prick yourself with it."
She surrendered the weapon to him with a smile and Damis placed it in a
cabinet built against the wall of the flyer.
"Now go in and lie down," he told her. "I've got to start plotting a
course to Mars and teaching my crew how to operate the ship."
"Can't I learn, too?" she objected. "If anything should happen, it might
be quite a useful bit of knowledge. Besides, I already understand
celestial geography quite well and I may be able to help in the
navigation."
Damis looked at her in surprise.
"You a celestial geographer?" he asked in astonishment. "Where did you
learn it?"
"From my father. He was a famous heaven-master before the Jovians came
and he taught me."
"That's excellent!" cried Damis. "I didn't realize we had so much
knowledge at our command. Turgan, will you take charge of the navigating
after I plot a course? Lura can assist you. Now, the rest of you attend
to my words and I'll teach you how to operate the rocket motors."
* * * * *
The Jovian ship was built along very simple lines. Batteries of rocket
motors at the bow and stern and on each of the sides furnished both
motive and steering power. The Terrestrials were all chosen men and in
three hours Damis announced himself as satisfied with their ability to
operate the ship under any normal conditions. With Turgan and Lura
watching and checking his calculations, he plotted a course which would
intercept Mars on its orbit.
"Luckily, Mars is approaching us now," he said, "and we won't have a
stern chase, which is always a long one. We will be able to reach Mars,
spend several days on it and return to Earth before ships can reach the
Earth from Jupiter, even if they are already on the way, which is highly
probable. I'll turn the ship a little."
Under his direction, the crew turned the ship in its course until it was
headed for the point in space where Damis planned to intercept the red
planet. With the course set to his satisfaction, he gave orders for the
stern motors to be operated at such a power as to give the highest
acceleration consistent with comfort for the crew. There were no windows
in the ship but two observers seated at instruments kept the entire
heavens under constant observation. Damis motioned one of them to stand
aside and told Lura to take his place. She sat down before a box in
which were set two lenses, eye-distance apart. She looked through the
lenses and gave a cry of astonishment. Before her appeared the heavens
in miniature with the entire galaxy of stars displayed to her gaze. In
the center of the screen was a large disk thickly marked with pocks.
"The moon," explained Damis. "We are headed directly toward it now but
we'll shift and go around it. We'll pass only a few hundred miles from
its surface, but unfortunately it will be between us and the sun and
you'll be able to see nothing. Look in the other observer."
* * * * *
Lura turned to the second instrument. A large part of the hemisphere was
blotted out by the Earth which was still only a few thousand miles away.
The sun showed to one side of the Earth, but a movable disk was arranged
in the instrument by means of which it could be shut off from the gaze
of the observer. Despite the presence of the sun, the stars shone
brilliantly in the intense black of space.
"How fast are we traveling?" asked Lura.
"It is impossible to tell exactly," he replied. "I can approximate our
speed by a study of the power consumed in our stern motors and again I
can approximate it by a series of celestial observations, provided we do
not have to change our course while I am doing so."
"Isn't there some sort of an instrument which will tell you how fast we
are going?" she asked in astonishment.
"Unfortunately not. We are traveling through no medium which is dense
enough to register on an instrument. Our course is not straight, but is
necessarily an erratic one as we are subject to the gravimetric pull of
all of the celestial bodies. Just now the Earth supplies most of the
pull on us but as soon as we approach the moon, we will tend to fall on
it and frequent sideblasts will be needed to keep us away from it. Once
we get up some speed that is comparable with light, we can measure by
direct comparison, but our speed is too low for that now."
"I saw you lay out your course, but how are we steering?"
"The observer who works on the front instrument keeps a cross hair on a
fixed star. When the curving of the ship deviates us more than five
degrees from our course, a side motor is turned on until we straighten
out again. It is quite a simple matter and I'll take the ship myself
when we near Mars. There is no need to be frightened."
"I'm not frightened," said Lura quickly; "I was just curious. Is there
any danger of hitting a wandering body?"
* * * * *
"Not much in this zone and at this speed. When our speed picks up there
will be a slight danger because the higher our rate of speed, the more
crowded space becomes. If we were going to Jupiter we would have to use
much more caution. The asteroid belt lying between Mars and Jupiter is
really crowded with small bodies but comparatively few are in the zone
between Earth and Mars. That is one thing I figured on when I said that
we would have plenty of time to go to Mars and back before ships could
come from Jupiter. Ships from Jupiter would be able to develop a much
higher speed than we will attain were it not for the asteroid belt. They
will have to travel quite slowly through it, in portions, not over a few
thousand miles per minute, while we are not held down that way. Now that
we are really started, it will be best to set regular watches. I will
assign you as navigator for one watch if you wish."
"I certainly do want to do my share."
"All right, we'll let it go that way. Turgan and I will take the other
two watches until we get there."
"How soon will that be?"
"About seventeen days. Mars happens to be only about forty million
miles away just now. Now I'll set the watches and divide the crew."
A short examination showed Damis that his crew were intelligent and that
his instruction had been good. Every member knew his duties. Instead of
the two twelve-hour watches which were usual on space flyers, the
additional members of the crew who had been part of Monaill's band
enabled Damis to set only eight-hour shifts. Each member of the crew was
taught to operate the offensive ray projectors with which the flyer was
equipped.
* * * * *
Things soon settled down to routine. No wandering celestial bodies came
close enough to cause them any real alarm. Once the novelty of hurtling
through space had passed away, the trip became monotonous. The Earth,
which had at first filled the field of one of the observers, dwindled
until it became merely a brilliant green star. The red speck which was
Mars grew constantly more prominent as the hours went by and Damis gave
the word to turn on the bow motors and retard the speed of the flyer.
Several of the crew had worked in the communications net which Glavour
had thrown around the Earth and under orders from Turgan, they began to
call the red planet on the ship's communicator.
"It is well to let them know who we are," he said to Damis when he gave
the order. "We are flying a Jovian ship and since we have come so far
successfully, I have no desire to be blasted out of space by their
powerful weapons of defense."
Damis agreed heartily, and for twelve hours continual attempts were made
to communicate with their destination. At last their signals were
answered. Despite the differences in language, they had no trouble in
understanding the messages. A system of communication based not on words
or sound forms, but on thought forms, had been introduced to the Earth
by the Jovians and both Damis and Turgan were quite familiar with it.
The Martians informed them that the approaching ship had been sighted
and carefully watched for several days. As soon as he learned who the
occupants were, the Grand Mognac of Mars sent a message of welcome and
instructed them on what part of the planet to land. He promised that a
deputation would meet them with transportation to his capital city where
he would welcome them in person and supply them with the weapons they
sought.