* * * * *
I have never liked to wear a breathing mask. I feel shut in, frustrated,
more or less helpless. The hiss of the air and the everlasting
_flap-flap_ of the exhaust-valve disturb me. But they are very handy
things when you walk abroad on a world which has no breathable
atmosphere.
You've probably seen, in the museums, the breathing masks of that
period. They were very new and modern then, although they certainly
appear cumbersome by comparison with the devices of to-day.
Our masks consisted of a huge shirt of air-tight, light material which
was belted in tightly around the waist, and bloused out like an ancient
balloon when inflated. The arm-holes were sealed by two heavy bands of
elastic, close to the shoulders, and the head-piece was of thin copper,
set with a broad, curved band of crystal which extended from one side to
the other, across the front, giving the wearer a clear view of
everything except that which was directly behind him. The balloon-like
blouse, of course, was designed to hold a small reserve supply of air,
for an emergency, should anything happen to the tank upon the shoulders,
or the valve which released the air from it.
They were cumbersome, uncomfortable things, but I donned mine and
adjusted the menore, built into the helmet, to full strength. I wanted
to be sure I kept in communication with both Hendricks and the sentries
at the air-lock exit, and of course, inside the helmets, verbal
communication was impossible.
I glanced at Hendricks, and saw that he was ready and waiting. We were
standing inside the air-lock, and the mighty door of the port had just
finished turning in its threads, and was swinging back slowly on its
massive gimbals.
"Let's go, Hendricks," I emanated. "Remember, take no chances, and keep
your eyes open."
"I'll remember, sir," replied Hendricks, and together we stepped out
onto the coarse gravel of the beach.
* * * * *
Before us, waves of an unhealthy, cloudy green rolled slowly, heavily
shoreward, but we had no eyes for this, nor for the amazing vegetation
of the place, plainly visible on the curving shores. We took a few
hurried steps away from the ship, and then turned to survey the monsters
which had attacked it.
They literally covered the ship; in several places their transparent,
glowing bodies overlapped. And the sides of the _Ertak_, ordinarily
polished and smooth as the surface of a mirror, were dull and deeply
eroded.
"Notice, sir," emanated Hendricks excitedly, "how much brighter the
things are! They _are_ feeding, and they are growing stronger and more
brilliant. They--look out, sir! They're attacking! Our copper
helmets--"
But I had seen it as quickly as he. Half a dozen of the glowing things,
sensing in some way the presence of a metal which they apparently
preferred to that of the _Ertak's_ hull, suddenly detached themselves
and came swarming directly down upon us.
I was standing closer to the ship than Hendricks, and they attacked me
first. Several of them dropped upon me, their glowing bodies covering
the vision-piece, and blinding me with their light. I waved my arms and
started to run blindly, incoherent warnings coming to me through the
menore from Hendricks and the sentries.
The things had no weight, but they emitted a strange, electric warmth
which seemed to penetrate my entire body instantly as I ran unseeingly,
trying to find the ship, tearing at the fastenings of my mask as I ran.
I could not, of course, enter the ship with these things clinging to my
garments.
Suddenly I felt water splash under my feet; felt its grateful coolness
upon my legs, and with a gasp I realized I had in my confusion been
running away from the ship, instead of toward it. I stopped, trying to
get a grip on myself.
The belt of the breathing mask came loose, and I tore the thing from me,
holding my breath and staring around wildly. The ship was only a few
yards away, and Hendricks, his mask already off, was running toward me.
* * * * *
"Back!" I shouted. "I'm all right now. Back!" He hesitated for an
instant until I caught up with him, and then, together, we gained the
safety of the air-lock. Without orders, the men swung shut the ponderous
door, and Hendricks and I stood there panting, and drawing in breaths
of the _Ertak's_ clean, reviving air.
"That possibility was one we overlooked, sir," said Hendricks. "Let's
see what's happening."
We opened the shutter of a port nearby and gazed out onto the beach we
had so hurriedly deserted. There were three or four of the glowing
things huddled shapelessly around our abandoned suits, and ragged holes
showed in several places in the thin copper helmets. Even as we looked,
they dissolved into nothingness, and after a few seconds of hesitation,
the things swarmed swiftly back to the ship.
"Well," I commented, trying to keep my voice reasonably free from the
feelings which gripped me, "I believe we're beaten, Hendricks. At least,
we're helpless against them. Our only chance is that they'll leave us
before they have eaten through the second skin; so long as we still have
that, we can live ... and perhaps be found."
"I doubt they'll leave us while there's a scrap of metal left, sir,"
said Hendricks slowly. "Something's brought them from their usual
haunts. There's no reason why they should leave a certainty for an
uncertainty. But we're not quite through trying. I saw something--have I
your permission to make another try at them? Alone, sir?"
"Any chance of success, lad?" I asked, searching his eyes.
"A chance, sir," he replied, his glance never wavering. "I can be ready
in a few minutes."
"Then, go ahead--on one condition: that you let me come with you."
"Very good, sir; as you wish. Have two other breathing masks ready. I'll
be back very soon."
And he left me hastily, taking the steps of the companionway two at a
time.
* * * * *
It was nearly an hour before Hendricks returned, bringing with him two
of the most amazing pieces of apparatus I have ever seen.
To make each of them, he had taken a flask of compressed air from our
emergency stores, and run a flexible tube from it into a cylindrical
drinking water container. Another tube, which I recognized as being a
part of our fire-extinguishers, and terminating in a metal nozzle,
sprouted from the water container. Both tubes were securely sealed into
the mouth of the metal cylinder, and lengths of hastily-knotted rope had
been bound around each contrivance so that the two heavy containers, the
air flask and the small water tank could be slung from the shoulders.
"Here, sir," he said hastily, "get into a breathing mask, and put on
these things as you see me do. No time to explain anything now, except
this: as soon as you're outside the ship, turn the valve that opens the
compressed air flask. Hold this hose, coming from the water container,
in your right hand. Don't touch the metal nozzle. Use the hose just as
you'd use a portable disintegrator-ray projector."
I nodded, and followed his instructions as swiftly as possible. The two
containers were heavy, but I adjusted their ropes across my shoulders so
that my left hand had easy access to the valve of the air flask, and the
water container was under my right arm where I could have the full use
of the hose.
"Let me go first, sir," breathed Hendricks as we stood again in the
air-lock, and the door turned out of its threaded seat and swung open.
"Keep your eyes on me, and do as I do!"
* * * * *
He ran heavily out of the ship, his burdens lurching. I saw him turn the
pet-cock of the air flask, and I did likewise. A fine, powerful spray
shot from the nozzle of the tube in my right hand, and I whirled around
to face the ship.
Several of the things were detaching themselves from the ship, and
instinctively, I turned the spray upon them. Hendricks, I could see out
of the corner of my eye, did likewise. And now a most amazing thing
happened.
The spray seemed to dissolve the crescent-shaped creatures; where it
hit, ragged holes appeared. A terrible hissing, crackling sound came to
my ears, even through the muffling mask I wore.
"It works! It works!" Hendricks was crying over and over, hardly aware,
in his excitement, that he was wearing a menore. "We're saved!"
I put down three of the things in as many seconds. The central nucleus,
in the thickest portion of the crescent, was always the last to go, and
it seemed to explode in a little shower of crackling sparks. Hendricks
accounted for four in the same length of time.
"Keep back, sir!" he ordered in a sort of happy delirium. "Let them come
to us! We'll get them as they come. And they'll come, all right! Look at
them! Look at them! Quick, sir!"
The things showed no fear, no intelligence. But one by one they sensed
the nearness of the copper helmets we wore, and detached themselves from
the ship. They moved like red tongues of flame upon the fat sides of the
_Ertak_; crawling, uneasy flames, releasing themselves swiftly, one
after the other.
* * * * *
Our sprays met them in mid-air, and they dissolved like mist, one after
the other.... I directed my death-dealing spray with a grim delight, and
as each glowing heart crackled and exploded, I chuckled to myself.
The sweat was running down my face; I was shaking with excitement One
side of the ship was already cleared of the things; they were slipping
over the top now, one or two at a time, and as rapidly as they came, we
wiped them out.
At last there came a period in which there were none of the things in
sight; none coming over the top of the sorely tried ship.
"Stay here and watch, Hendricks," I ordered. "I'll look on the other
side. I believe we've got them all!"
I hurried, as best I could, around to the other side of the _Ertak_. Her
hull was pitted and corroded, but there was no other evidence of the
crescent-shaped things which had so nearly brought about the ship's
untimely, ghastly end.
"Hendricks!" I emanated happily. "'Nothing Less Than Complete Success!'
And that's ours right now! They're gone--all of them!"
I slipped the contrivances from my shoulders and ran back to the other
side of the ship. Hendricks was executing some weird sort of dance,
patting the containers, swinging them wildly about his body, with an
understandable fondness.
"Come inside, you idiot," I suggested, "and tell us how you did it. And
see how it feels to be a hero!"
* * * * *
"It was just luck," Hendricks tried to make us believe, a few minutes
later, when Kincaide, Correy, and myself were through slapping his back
and shaking his hands. "When you, sir, splashed into the water, I had
just torn off my mask. I saw some of the water fall on one of the things
clustered upon your helmet, and I distinctly heard it hiss, as it fell.
And where it fell, it made a ragged hole, which very slowly closed up,
leaving a dim spot in the tentacle where the hole had been. As I figure
it, the water--to put it crudely--short-circuited the electrical energy
of the things. That, too, is just a guess, but I think it's a good one.
"Of course, it was a long chance, but it seemed like our only one. There
was nothing more or less than acidulated water in the containers; and
the air flasks, of course, were merely to supply the pressure to throw
the water out in a powerful spray. It happened to work, and there isn't
anybody any happier about it than I am. I'm young, and there're lots of
things I want to do before I bleach my bones on a little deserted world
like this, that isn't important enough to even have a name!"
That was typical of Hendricks. He was a practical scientist, willing and
eager to try out his own devices. A man of action first--as a man should
be.
* * * * *
None of us, I think, spent a really easy moment until the _Ertak_ was
back at Base. Our outer hull was weakened by at least half, and we were
obliged to increase the degree of vacuum there and thus place the major
portion of the load on the inner skin. It was a ticklish business, but
those old ships were solidly built, and we made it.
As soon as I had completed my report to the Chief, the _Ertak_ was sent
instantly to a secret field, under heavy guard, and a new outer hull put
in place.
"This can't be made public," the Chief warned me. "It would ruin the
whole future of space travel, as people are just learning to accept it
as a matter of course. You will swear your men to utter secrecy, and
pass me your word, in behalf of your officers and yourself, that you
will not divulge any details of this trip."
The scientists, of course, questioned me for days; they turned up their
noses at the crude apparatus Hendricks had made, and which had saved the
_Ertak_ and all her crew--but they kept it, I noticed, for future
reference.
All ships were immediately supplied with devices very similar, but more
compact, the use of which only chief officers knew. And the scientists,
to my knowledge, never did improve greatly on the model made for them by
my third officer.
Whether or not these devices were ever used, I do not know. The
silver-sleeves at Base are a close-mouthed crew. Hendricks always held
that the group of things which so nearly caused the deaths of all of us
had wandered into our portion of Universe from some part of space beyond
the fringe of our knowledge.
* * * * *
But the same source which supplied one brood may supply another.
Evidently, from young Clippen's report, this thing has happened. And
since starting this account, I have determined why the powers that be
are willing now to have the knowledge made public. The new silicide
coating with which all space ships have been covered, is proof against
all electrical action. That it is smoother and reduces friction, is, in
my opinion, no more than a rather halty explanation. It is, in reality,
the decidedly belated scientific answer to a question raised back in the
hey-day of the _Ertak_, and my own youth.
That was many, many years ago, as the crabbed, uncertain writing on
these pages proves.
And now, rather thankfully, I am about to place the last of these pages
under the curious weight which has held the others in place as I have
written. That irregular bit of metal from the hull of the _Ertak_, so
deeply pitted on the one side, where the hungry things had sapped our
precious strength.
"Electites," the scientists have dubbed these strange crescent-shaped
things, young Clippen said. "Electites!" Something new under the sun!
New to this generation, perhaps, but not to old John Hanson.