_Vlor-urdin_
The time passed quickly in Pala-dar, city of the golden domes. Detis
spent many hours in the laboratory with his two visitors and the fair
Ora was usually at his side. She was an efficient helper to her father
and a gracious hostess to the guests.
The amazement of the visitors grew apace as the wonders of Europan
science were revealed to them. They sat by the hour at the illuminated
screen of the rulden, that remarkable astronomical instrument which
brought the surfaces of distant celestial bodies within a few feet of
their eyes, and the sounds of the streets and the jungles to their
ears. It was no longer a mystery how the language of Cos had become so
familiar to these people.
They learned of the origin of the races that inhabited Europa and
Ganymede. Ages before, it was necessary for the peoples of the then
thickly populated Jupiter to cast about for new homes due to the
cooling of the surface of that planet. Life was becoming unbearable.
In those days there were two dominant races on the mother body, a
gentle and peaceful people of great scientific accomplishment and a
race of savage brutes who, while very clever with their hands, were of
lesser mental strength and of a quarrelsome and fighting disposition.
Toward the last the population of both main countries was reduced to
but a few survivors, and the intelligent race had discovered a means
of traversing space and was prepared to leave the planet for the more
livable satellite--Europa. Learning of these plans, the others made a
treaty of perpetual peace as a price for their passage to another
satellite--Ganymede. The migration began and the two satellites were
settled by the separate bands of pioneers and their new lives begun.
* * * * *
The perpetual treaty had not been broken since, but the energies of
the warlike descendants of those first settlers of Ganymede were
expended in casting about for new fields to conquer. Through the ages
they cast increasingly covetous eyes on those inner planets, Mars,
Terra and Venus. Not having the advantage of the Rulden, they knew of
these bodies only what could be seen through their own crude optical
instruments and what they had learned by word of mouth from certain
renegade Europans they were able to bribe.
While their neighbors of the smaller satellite were engaged in
peaceful pursuits, tilling the soil and making excellent homes for
themselves, the dwellers on Ganymede were fashioning instruments of
warfare and building a fleet of space-ships to carry them to their
intended victims. It was a religion with them; they could think of
nothing else. An unscrupulous scientist of Europa sold himself to them
several generations previously and it was this scientist who had made
the plans for their space-fliers and had contrived the deadly weapons
with which they were armed. He likewise taught them the language of
Cos and it now was spoken universally throughout Ganymede in
anticipation of the glorious days of conquest.
"You honestly believe them able to do this?" asked Carr, still
skeptical after two days of discussion.
"I know it as a certainty," Detis replied solemnly. "It is only during
the past generation we have learned of the completeness and awfulness
of their preparations. Your people can not combat their sound-ray.
With it they can remain outside the vision of those on the surface and
set the tall buildings of your cities in harmonic vibrations that will
bring them down in ruins about the ears of the populace."
* * * * *
"There'll be nothing left for them to take if they destroy all our
cities: nowhere for them to live. I don't get it."
"Only a few will be destroyed completely, to terrify the rest of the
inhabitants of your worlds. Others will be depopulated by means of
vibrations that will kill off the citizens without harming the cities
themselves--vibrations which are capable of blanketing a large area
and raising the body temperature of all living things therein to a
point where death will ensue in a very few minutes. Other vibrations
will paralyze all electrical equipment on the planet and make it
impossible for your ships of the air to set out to give battle, even
were they properly armed."
"Looks bad, Carr," said Mado glumly.
"It does that. We've got to go back and carry the warning."
"I fear it is too late," said Detis. "Much time will be needed in
which to develop a defense and surely it can not be done within the
three isini before they set forth--about four of your days."
"They leave that soon?" Carr was taken aback.
"Yes, with their one hundred and twenty vessels; forty to each of your
three planets; seventeen hundred men to a vessel."
Carr jumped to his feet. "By the heat devils of Mercury!" he roared,
"well go to their lousy little satellite and find a way to prevent
it!"
* * * * *
Ora gazed at his flushed face with unconcealed admiration.
"You're crazy!" exploded Mado. "What can we do with the _Nomad_?"
"Her D-ray can do plenty of damage."
"Yes, but they'd have us down before we could account for five of
their vessels. It's no use, I tell you."
But Carr was stubborn. "We'll pay them a call anyway. I'll bet we can
dope out some way of putting it over on them. Are you game?"
"Of course I'm game. I'll go anywhere you will. But it's a fool idea
just the same."
"Maybe so. Maybe not. Anyway--let's go."
"Just a moment, gentlemen," Detis interposed. "How about me?"
Carr stared at him and saw that his eyes shone with excitement. "Why,
I believe you'd like to go with us!" he exclaimed admiringly.
"I would, indeed."
"Come on then. We're off." He was impatient to be gone.
Detis busied himself with a small apparatus that folded into a compact
case, explaining that it was one that might prove useful. Ora left the
room but quickly returned. She too carried a small case, and she had
donned a snug fitting leather garment that covered her from neck to
knees.
"What's this?" demanded Carr. "Surely Miss Ora does not intend to come
with us?"
"She never leaves my side," said Detis proudly.
"Nothing doing!" Carr stated emphatically. "There'll be plenty of
danger on this trip. Well have no woman along--least of all your
charming daughter."
* * * * *
Mado was leaving everything to his friend, but he grinned in
anticipation when he saw the look of anger on the girl's face.
She stamped her little foot and faced Carr valiantly. "See here, Mr.
Carr Parker!" she stormed. "I'm no weakling. I'm the daughter of my
father and where he goes I go. You'll take me or I'll never speak to
you again."
Carr flushed. He was accustomed to his own way in most things and
entirely unused to the ways of the gentler sex. He could have shaken
the little vixen! But now she was standing before him and there was
something in those great blue eyes besides anger; something that set
his heart pounding madly.
"All right!" he agreed desperately, "have your own way."
He turned on his heel and strode to the door. Giving in to this slip
of a girl! What a fool he was! But it would be great at that to have
her along in the _Nomad_.
They found the public square deserted, the gilded dwellings hung with
somber colors in mourning for Carli. Ora and Detis were very quiet and
preoccupied when they entered the _Nomad_. The five isini of
lamentation for the young prince had not yet passed.
The two Europans were delighted with the appointments and mechanisms
of the little vessel from Mars. They investigated every nook and
cranny of its interior during the journey and were voluble in their
praise of its inventor and builder. Neither had ever set foot in a
space-flier and each was seized with a longing to explore space with
these two strangers from the inner planets. They would make a couple
of good vagabonds along with Mado and himself, Carr thought as they
expressed their feelings. But there was more serious business at hand.
They were nearing Ganymede.
"Where'll we land, Detis?" Mado called from the control cabin.
"Vlor-urdin. That is their chief city. I'll guide you to the
location."
* * * * *
They took up their places at the ports and scanned the surface of the
satellite as Mado dropped the ship into its atmosphere. A far
different scene was presented than on Europa. The land was seamed and
scarred, the colors of the foliage somber. Grays and browns
predominated and the jungles seemed impenetrable. A river swung into
view and its waters were black as the deepest night, its flow
sluggish. A rank mist hung over the surface.
"The river of Charis!" exclaimed Detis. "Follow it, Mado. No, the
other direction. There! It leads directly to Vlor-urdin."
By good chance they had entered the atmosphere at a point not far from
their destination. In less than an hour by the _Nomad's_ chronometer
the towers of Vlor-urdin were sighted.
It was a larger city than Pala-dar and of vastly different appearance.
A hollow square of squat buildings enclosed the vast workshops and
storage space of the fleet of war vessels. Their huge spherical bulks
rose from their cradles in tier after tier that stretched as far as
the eye could reach when the _Nomad_ had dropped to a level but
slightly above the tips of the highest spires. The spires were
everywhere, decorative towers at the corners of the squat buildings.
Everything was black, the vessels of the fleet, the squat buildings
and the spires of Vlor-urdin. Death was in the air. Rank vapor drifted
in through the opened ports. There was silence in the city below them
and silence in the _Nomad_.
Ora shuddered and drew closer to him. Carr was aware of her nearness
and a lump rose in his throat. A horrible fear assailed him. Fear for
the safety of the dainty Europan at his side. He found her hand;
covered it protectingly with his own.