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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29190-h.zip b/29190-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..97df916 --- /dev/null +++ b/29190-h.zip diff --git a/29190-h/29190-h.htm b/29190-h/29190-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a1b14c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/29190-h/29190-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1524 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Great Dome on Mercury, by Arthur L. Zagat + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + +.img1 {border:solid 1px; } + +.f2 { font-size:x-large; font-weight:bold; } + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Dome on Mercury, by Arthur Leo Zagat + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Great Dome on Mercury + +Author: Arthur Leo Zagat + +Release Date: June 21, 2009 [EBook #29190] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT DOME ON MERCURY *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note: </p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Astounding Stories April 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. </p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/image_001.jpg" width="600" height="638" alt=""Once more! Will you give me the recognition +signal?"" /> +<span class="caption">"Once more! Will you give me the recognition +signal?"</span> +</div> +<p> </p> +<h1>The Great Dome on Mercury</h1> + +<h2>By Arthur L. Zagat</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="sidenote">Trapped in the great dome, Darl valiantly defends Earth's +outpost against the bird-man of Mars and his horde of pigmy henchmen.</div> + + +<p><span class="f2">D</span>arl Thomas mopped the streams of perspiration from his bronzed face +and lean-flanked, wiry body, nude save for clinging shorts and fiber +sandals. "By the whirling rings of Saturn," he growled as he gazed +disconsolately at his paper-strewn desk. "I'd like to have those +directors of ITA here on Mercury for just one Earth-month. I'll bet +they wouldn't be so particular about their quarterly reports after +they'd sweated a half-ton or so of fat off their greasy bellies. +'Fuel consumption per man-hour.': Now what in blazes does that mean? +Hey, Jim!" He swiveled his chair around to the serried bank of +gauge-dials that was Jim Holcomb's especial charge, then sprang to his +feet with a startled, "What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>The chunky, red-haired control-man was tugging at a lever, his muscles +bulging on arms and back, his face white-drawn and tense. "Look!" he +grunted, and jerked a grim jaw at one of the dials. The long needle +was moving rapidly to the right. "I can't hold the air pressure!"</p> + +<p>"Wow, what a leak!" Darl started forward. "How's it below, in the +mine?"</p> + +<p>"Normal. It's the Dome air that's going!"</p> + +<p>"Shoot on the smoke and I'll spot the hole. Quick, man!"</p> + +<p>"Okay!"</p> + +<p>Thomas' long legs shot him out of the headquarters tent. Just beyond +the entrance flap was one of the two gyrocopters used for flying +within the Dome. He leaped into the cockpit and drove home the +starter-piston. The flier buzzed straight up, shooting for the misted +roof.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he Earthman fought to steady his craft against the hurricane wind, +while his gray eyes swept the three-mile circle of the vault's base. +He paled as he noted the fierce speed with which the white smoke-jets +were being torn from the pipe provided for just such emergencies. His +glance followed the terrific rush of the vapor. Big as a man's head, a +hole glared high up on the Dome's inner surface. Feathered wisps of +tell-tale vapor whisked through it at blurring speed.</p> + +<p>"God, but the air's going fast," Darl groaned. The accident he had +feared through all the months he had captained Earth's outpost on +Mercury had come at last. The Dome's shell was pierced! A half-mile +high, a mile across its circling base, the great inverted bowl was all +that made it possible for man to defy the white hell of Mercury's +surface. Outside was an airless vacuum, a waste quivering under the +heat of a sun thrice the size it appears from Earth. The silvered +exterior of the hemisphere shot back the terrific blaze; its +quartz-covered network of latticed steel inclosed the air that all +beings need to sustain life.</p> + +<p>Darl tugged desperately at the control-stick, thrust the throttle over +full measure. A little more of this swift outrush and the precious air +would be gone. He caught a glimpse of the Dome floor beneath him and +the shaft-door that gave entrance to the mine below. Down there, in +underground tunnels whose steel-armored end-walls continued the Dome's +protection below the surface, a horde of friendly Venusians were +laboring. If the leak were not stopped in a few minutes that shaft +door would blow in, and the mine air would whisk through the hole in +its turn. Only the Dome would remain, a vast, rounded sepulcher, +hiding beneath its curve the dead bodies of three Earthmen and the +silent forms of their Venusian charges.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">D</span>arl's great chest labored as he strove to reach the danger spot. +Invisible fingers seemed to be clamped about his throat. His eyes +blurred. The gyrocopter was sluggish, dipped alarmingly when it should +have darted, arrow-like, to its mark. With clenched teeth, the +Terrestrian forced the whirling lifting vanes to the limit of their +power. They bit into the fast thinning air with a muffled whine, +raised the ship by feet that should have been yards.</p> + +<p>By sheer will he forced his oxygen-starved faculties to function, and +realized that he had reached the wall. He was drifting downward, the +hole draining the Dome's air was five feet above him, beyond his +reach. The driven vanes were powerless to stem the craft's fall.</p> + +<p>One wing-tip scraped interlaced steel, a horizontal girder, part of +the vault's mighty skeleton. Darl crawled along the wing, dragging +with him a sheet of flexible quartzite. The metal foil sagged under +him and slanted downward, trying like some animate thing to rid itself +of the unwonted burden. He clutched the beam, hung by one leg and one +arm as his craft slid out from beneath him. The void below dragged at +him. He put forth a last tremendous spurt of effort.</p> + +<p>Two thousand feet below, Jim Holcomb, dizzy and gasping, manipulated +the controls frenziedly, his eyes fastened on the dropping +pressure-gauge. From somewhere outside the tent a dull thud sounded. +"Crashed! Darl's crashed! It's all over!" Hope gone, only the instinct +of duty held him to his post. But the gauge needle quivered, ceased +its steady fall and began a slow rise. Jim stared uncomprehendingly at +the dial, then, as the fact seeped in, staggered to the entrance. +"That's better, a lot better," he exclaimed. "But, damn it, what was +that crash?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he headquarters tent was at one edge of the circular plain. Jim's +bleary eyes followed the springing arch of a vertical girder, up and +up, to where it curved inward to the space ship landing lock that hung +suspended from the center of the vaulted roof. Within that bulge, at +the very apex, was the little conning-tower, with its peri-telescope, +its arsenal of ray-guns and its huge beam-thrower that was the Dome's +only means of defense against an attack from space. Jim's gaze +flickered down again, wandered across the brown plain, past the long +rows of canvas barracks and the derrick-like shaft-head. Hard by the +further wall a crumpled white heap lay huddled.</p> + +<p>"My God! It was his plane!" The burly Earthman sobbed as his ten-foot +leaps carried him toward the wreck.</p> + +<p>Darl was his friend as well as Chief, and together they had served the +Interplanetary Trading Association, ITA, for years, working and +fighting together in the wilds of the outer worlds. A thought struck +him, even as he ran. "What in th' name o' Jupiter's nine moons stopped +th' leak?" He glanced up, halted, his mouth open in amazement. "Well, +I'm a four-tailed, horn-headed Plutonian if there ain't th' boy +himself!"</p> + +<p>Far up in the interlaced steel of the framework, so high that to his +staring comrade he seemed a naked doll, Darl stood outstretched on a +level beam, his tiny arms holding a minute square against the wall. +Lucky it was that he was so tall and his arms so long. For the saving +plate just lapped the upper rim of the hole, and stemmed the fierce +current by only a half-inch margin.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he throbbing atmosphere machine in the sub-surface engine-room was +replacing the lost air rapidly, and now the increasing pressure was +strong enough to hold the translucent sheet against the wall by its +own force. Jim saw the extended arms drop away. The manikin waved down +to him, then turned to the shell again, as if to examine the emergency +repair. For a moment Darl stood thus, then he was running along the +girder, was climbing, ape-like, along a latticed beam that curved up +and in, to swing down and merge with the bulge of the air-lock's +wall.</p> + +<p>"Like a bloomin' monkey! Can't he wait till I get him down with th' +spare plane?"</p> + +<p>But Darl wasn't thinking of coming down. Something he had seen through +the translucent repair sheet was sending him to the look-out tower +within the air-lock. Hand over hand he swung, tiny above that vast +immensity of space. In his forehead a pulse still jumped as his heart +hurried new oxygen to thirsty cells. He held his gaze steadily to the +roof. A moment's vertigo, a grip missed by the sixteenth of an inch, +the slightest failure in the perfect team-play of eye and brain, and +rippling muscle, and he would crash, a half mile beneath, against hard +rock.</p> + +<p>At last he reached the curving side of the landing lock. But the +platform at the manhole entrance jutted diagonally below him, fifteen +feet down and twelve along the bellying curve. Darl measured the angle +with a glance as he hung outstretched, then his body became a human +pendulum over the sheer void. Back and forth, back and forth he swung, +then, suddenly, his grasp loosened and a white arc flashed through the +air.</p> + +<p>Breathless, Jim saw the far-off figure flick across the chasm toward +the jutting platform. He saw Darl strike its edge, bit his lip as his +friend teetered on the rim and swayed slowly outward. Then Darl found +his balance. An imperative gesture sent the watcher back to his post, +his sorrel-topped head shaking slowly in wonderment.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">D</span>arl Thomas ran headlong up the staircase that spiralled through the +dim cavern. "No mistake about it," he muttered. "I saw something +moving outside that hole. Two little leaks before, and now this big +one. There's something a lot off-color going on around here."</p> + +<p>Quickly he reached the little room at the summit. He flung the canvas +cover from the peri-telescope screen. Tempered by filters as it was +the blaze of light from outside hit him like a physical blow. He +adjusted the aperture and beat eagerly over the view-table.</p> + +<p>Vacation jaunts and travel view-casts have made the moon's landscape +familiar to all. Very similar was the scene Darl scanned, save that +the barren expanse, pitted and scarred like Luna's, glowed almost +liquid under the beating flame of a giant sun that flared in a black +sky. Soundless, airless, lifeless, the tumbled plain stretched to a +jagged horizon.</p> + +<p>The Earthman depressed the instrument's eye, and the silvered outside +of the Dome, aflame with intolerable light, swept on to the screen +disk. The great mirror seemed alive with radiant heat as it shot back +the sun's withering darts. The torrid temperature of the oven within, +unendurable save to such veterans of the far planets as Darl and Jim +Holcomb, was conveyed to it through the ground itself. The direct rays +of the sun, nearer by fifty million miles than it is to Earth, would +have blasted them, unprotected, to flaked carbon in an eye-blink.</p> + +<p>An exclamation burst from Darl. A half-inch from the Dome's blazing +arc, a hundred yards in actuality, the screen showed a black fleck, +moving across the waste! Darl quickly threw in the full-power lens, +and the image leaped life-size across the table. The black fleck was +the shadow of a space-suited figure that lumbered slowly through the +viscous, clinging footing. How came this living form, clad in gleaming +silver, out there in that blast-furnace heat? In one of the space +suit's claw-like hands a tube flashed greenly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">D</span>arl's hand shot out to the trigger of the beam-thrower. Aimed by the +telescope's adjustment, the ray that could disintegrate a giant space +flier utterly flared out at his finger's pressure. Against the lambent +brown a spot glowed red where the beam struck. But, warned by some +uncanny prescience, the trespasser leaped aside in the instant between +Thomas' thought and act. Before Darl could aim and fire again the foe +had dodged back and was protected by the curve of the Dome itself.</p> + +<p>Two white spots showed on either side of Darl's nostrils. His mouth +was a thin white slit, his eyes gray marbles. Standing against the +wall beside him was a space suit, mirror-surfaced and double-walled +against the planet's heat. In a few moments he was encased within it, +had snatched a pocket ray-gun from the long rack, and was through the +door to the auxiliary air-lock. The air soughed out in response to his +swift thrust at a lever, a second door opened, and he was on the +outside, reeling from the blast of that inferno of light and heat.</p> + +<p>For a moment the Earthman was dazzled, despite the smoked quartz +eye-pieces in his helmet. Then, as his eyes grew used to the glare, he +saw, far below, the erect figure of the stranger. The man was standing +still, waiting. His immobility, the calm confidence with which he +stood there, was insolently challenging. Darl's rage flared higher at +the sight.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">S</span>corning the ladder that curved along the Dome to the ground, he threw +himself at the polished round side of the great hemisphere. With +increasing speed he slid downward, the gleaming surface breaking only +slightly the velocity of his fall. On Earth this would have been +suicidal. Even here, where the pull of gravity was so much less, the +feat was insanely reckless. But the heat-softened ground, the strength +of his metal suit, brought Darl safely through.</p> + +<p>He whirled to meet the expected onslaught of the interloper. The green +tube was aimed straight at him! The Earthman started to bring his own +weapon up when something exploded in his brain. There was a moment of +blackness; then he was again clear-minded. But he could not move—not +so much as the tiny twist of his wrist that would have brought his own +weapon into play.</p> + +<p>Frozen by this strange paralysis, Darl Thomas saw the giant figure +approach. The apparition bent and slung him to its shoulder. Glowing +walls rose about him, dimmed. The Terrestrian knew that he was being +carried down into one of the myriad openings that honeycombed the +terrain. The luminescence died; there was no longer light enough to +penetrate to his helmet's darkened goggles.</p> + +<p>Frantic questions surged through the captured Earthman's mind. Who was +his captor? From where, and how, had he come to Mercury? Jim, Angus +McDermott, and himself were the only Terrestrians on the planet; of +that he was certain. Only one or two of the reptile-skinned Venusian +laborers had sufficient intelligence to manipulate a space suit, and +they were unquestionably loyal.</p> + +<p>This individual was a giant who towered far above Darl's own six feet. +The Mercurian natives—he had seen them when ITA's expedition had +cleaned out the burrows beneath the Dome and sealed them up—were +midgets, the tallest not more than two feet in height. Whatever he +was, why was the stranger trying to destroy the Dome? Apparently +Thomas himself was not to be killed offhand: the jolting journey was +continuing interminably. With enforced patience the Earthman resigned +himself to wait for the next scene in this strange drama.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">I</span>n the headquarters tent Jim's usual grin was absent as he moved +restlessly among the switches and levers that concentrated control of +all the Dome's complex machinery. "Darl's been gone a devilish long +time," he muttered to himself. "Here it's almost time for shifts to +change and he's not back yet."</p> + +<p>A bell clanged, somewhere up in the mass of cables that rose from the +control board. For the next ten minutes Holcomb had no time for worry +as he rapidly manipulated the innumerable wheels and handles in accord +with the vari-colored lights that flickered on a huge ground-glass map +of the sub-Mercurian passages. On the plain outside there was a vast +rustling, a many-voiced twittering and squeaking that was not quite +bird-like in tone. Through the opened tent-flap one could see the +stream of Venusian workers, their work-period ended, pouring out of +the shaft-head and filing between the ordered ranks of others whose +labors were about to begin.</p> + +<p>They were queer-looking specimens, these gentle, willing allies of the +Earthmen. Their home planet is a place of ever-clouded skies and +constant torrential rains. And so the Venusians were amphibians, +web-footed, fish-faced, their skin a green covering of horny scales +that shed water and turned the sharp thorns of their native jungles. +When intrepid explorers discovered in the mazes of Mercury's spongy +interior the <i>surta</i> that was so badly needed as a base material for +synthetic food to supply Earth's famine-threatened population, it was +to these loyal and amiable beings that ITA's engineers turned for +workers who could endure the stifling heat of the underground +workings.</p> + +<p>The tent-flap was thrust aside, and a hawk-nosed Scot came sleepily +in, to be enthusiastically greeted by Jim.</p> + +<p>"Hello, you old Caledonian. 'Bout time you showed up."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he newcomer fixed the speaker with a dour gaze. "An' why should I +commence my tour o' dooty befair the time?"</p> + +<p>"Because your chief, Mr. Darl Thomas, decided that he's a filliloo +bird or somethin', flew to his little nest up top, an' forgot to come +down again."</p> + +<p>"Is this ain o' your jests, James Holcomb? I eenquire mairly that I +may ken when to laugh."</p> + +<p>"It's no joke, Mac. Last I see o' him he's skippin' around the roof +like he has a buzzin' propeller stuck to his shoulder blades. He +lights on th' air-lock platform, pops inside, an' goes dead for all I +know."</p> + +<p>From his bony legs to his scrawny neck the Scotchman's angular body, +as nearly nude as that of the others, radiated the doubt that was +expressed in every seam and wrinkle of his hatchet face.</p> + +<p>"That's straight, Angus, may I kiss a pink-eared <i>vanta</i> if it ain't. +Here's what happened." The bantering grin disappeared from Jim's +countenance as he detailed the events that had preceded Darl's +vanishing. "That was two hours ago," he concluded, "and I've been +getting pretty uneasy about him."</p> + +<p>"Why did na ye call me, so that ain o' us micht eenvestigate?"</p> + +<p>"Hell. Darl wasn't born yesterday, he can take care of himself. +Besides, your last shift was pretty strenuous, an' I thought I'd let +you sleep. No tellin' what might happen next; this forsaken place has +been givin' me the jim-jams lately."</p> + +<p>"Your conseederation is touching, but—" A scratching at the door, +accompanied by a high squeak, interrupted him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>o Jim's shouted "Come in," there entered a Venusian, whose red +rosette fastened to the green scales of his skin marked him an +overseer. In the thread-like fingers of his hand he held a time-sheet, +but the nervous pulsing of his gill-membranes caused Holcomb to +exclaim anxiously: "What's wrong, Ran-los? No accident, I hope?"</p> + +<p>The shrill combination of squeaks and twitterings that came from the +man-reptile's toothless mouth meant nothing to the Scot, but Jim's +last service had been on Venus and he had gained a working knowledge +of the language. Finally the interchange was ended, and Ran-los bowed +himself out. Jim turned to his companion.</p> + +<p>"There's some more queer stuff for you, Angie. Just before +shift-change, Ran-los heard odd sounds from the other side of the +barrier at the end of gallery M-39. Says they seemed like signals o' +some kind. He's a wise old bird and if he's worried about something +it's damn well worth lookin' into. I don't know whether to find out +first what's happened to Darl, or—"</p> + +<p>Again there was an interruption; this time from the usually silent +radio-communication set in the far corner. Jim leaped to the +instrument and snapped on the head-set. Angus leaned over him, +watching his intent face.</p> + +<p>Faintly, as from an immense distance, came the thin whistle of +space-radio. "S-W-A ... S-W-A ... S-W-A...." The general attention +signal for all Earth's far-flung outposts from Jupiter to Mercury! The +signal was coming from "M-I-T-A," the Earth company's home station on +the Moon, outside the Heaviside layer. "S-W-A ... S-W-A ... M-I-T-A ... +M-I-T-A." Again the signal rose and fell.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">J</span>im reached for the sending key and pounded out his acknowledgement: +"K; M-E-R ... K; M-E-R ... K; M-E-R." He listened again, heard Venus +answer, and Jupiter. Across five hundred million miles of space ITA +men were responding to the roll-call of Earth. A reminiscent smile +crossed Jim's face as he recognized the stuttering fist of Rade +Perrin, on Eros. Rade always sent as if he were afraid the instrument +would snap at his fingers.</p> + +<p>M-I-T-A was signalling again, and now came the message: "S-W-A. All +trading posts, mines and colonies are warned to prepare for possible +attack. The Earth Government has just announced the receipt of an +ultimatum from—" A raucous howl cut across the message and drowned it +out. The siren blast howled on and on, mocking Jim's straining ears. +"Well I'll be—Interference! Deliberate blanketing! The rats! The—" +He blazed into a torrent of profanity whose imaginativeness was +matched only by its virulence.</p> + +<p>Mac was clutching his shoulder, stirred for once out of his vaunted +"deegnity." "What is it, mon, what is it?"</p> + +<p>"War, you bloody Scotchman, war! That's what it is!"</p> + +<p>"War! Foosh, man, 'tis eempossible!"</p> + +<p>"The hell it's impossible! Damn, and Darl not here! Take over, Mac; +I've got to go up an' get him!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">I</span>n the meantime Thomas' helpless journey had come to an end. After an +interminable descent in what to him had been pitch darkness, the giant +who was carrying him halted. Darl had heard the whistling inrush of +air into some lock, then the clanging of a door. He felt himself +hurled to the ground. Fumbling hands tugged at him, drew off his space +suit.</p> + +<p>The dim light of the cavern, as the helmet was dragged from his head, +hurt Darl's eyes. Salt sweat stung them. It was hot, hotter than the +Dome, hot as it was in the surta mine, where only the nerveless +Venusians could work for any length of time.</p> + +<p>Darl struggled to focus his eyes on a blurred blue form that towered +above him. He felt sharp claws scratch at him and realized that cords +were being passed around his limp body. They cut tightly into his legs +and his arms. Then he was staring at a tube in the hand of his captor. +Its end glowed with a brilliant purple light, and he felt a flood of +reawakened energy warm him. His head jerked up, he strained against +the taut, strong fibers binding him. The paralysis was gone, but he +was still helpless.</p> + +<p>A husky, rumbling voice broke the silence. "I wouldn't struggle, +Earthman, if I were you. Even should you get free I still have my +ray-tube. And my little friends would ask nothing better than your +body to play with."</p> + +<p>Darl writhed to a sitting posture. Now he could see his mysterious +abductor clearly. This eight-foot, blue-feathered individual, with +curved beak and beady eyes glittering from his naked, repulsively +wrinkled head, was a Martian! Despite the human shape of his body, +despite his jointed limbs and thumbed hands, this denizen of the red +planet resembled a vulture far more than he did any other Earth +creature.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he Earthman's pride of race came to his rescue. "What's the game?" he +growled. "Looking for trouble?" There was nothing in Darl's voice to +show the fear that chilled him. Behind the Martian he could see +vaguely a group of little yellow Mercurians.</p> + +<p>"I'll ask all the questions here. And you'll answer them, too, if +you're wise. Even your dull mind should comprehend that you are in my +power."</p> + +<p>Darl decided to proceed more cautiously. "What do you want from me?" +he asked.</p> + +<p>"I want," the Martian answered, "the recognition signal of Earth's +space-ships."</p> + +<p>"What!" The ejaculation burst from Darl's throat. This alien wanted +the secret code, the watch-word that distinguished Earth's space +ships, that gained for them free admittance to ITA's armed posts on +the outer planets! This could mean only one thing, that the long +rivalry, the ancient dispute between Earth and Mars was about to flare +into open war. Any friendly visit from a foreign flier would be +heralded by word from M-I-T-A. Thomas' face became a stony mask, +covering the tumult of his mind.</p> + +<p>"You understood. I want the Earth recognition signal at once—and +after that, the surrender of the Dome." The very calmness of the husky +tones was a threat.</p> + +<p>"Never!"</p> + +<p>"I warn you, Darl Thomas. It would be the better part of wisdom for +you to yield willingly what I ask. You will give in eventually, and +the means of persuasion I shall use will not be exactly—pleasant."</p> + +<p>"You'll get nothing from me!"</p> + +<p>The outlander's lidless eyes were filmed with a gray membrane. His +head thrust forward, the feathered ruff beneath it bristled. Darl +braced himself to withstand the swooping pounce that seemed imminent, +the slash of the sharp beak. A burring rattle broke the momentary +hush. The Martian relaxed, turned to the Mercurian from whom the sound +had come and replied with staccato vibrance.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">A</span>s the cave filled with a whirring tumult Darl had a chance to examine +the Mercurian natives crowding around his prostrate body. They were +little yellow midgets, ranging from eighteen inches to two feet in +height. Half of their small stature was taken up by snouted heads, +with saucer-like, crimson eyes, and long white tusks jutting from +foam-flecked mouths. The trunks were globular. The spindling legs and +thin arms ended in sharp claws. There was an impression of animal +ferocity about these tiny beings that stamped them as utter savages.</p> + +<p>His captor was speaking to the Earthman again, his horny beak parted +in what might have been a grim smile. "My friends remind me that I +promised you to them. They have not forgotten how you and your fellows +drove them from their burrows."</p> + +<p>Darl was suddenly cold, though the sweat still streamed from his bound +body. An uncontrollable shudder took him as he saw what the diminutive +claws of the midgets held. While the Dome was still an unfinished +framework one of the Terrestrian artisans had somehow been isolated +from his fellows. Thomas had been of the party that found what was +left of him, and the memory was still a throbbing nightmare.</p> + +<p>"Once more! Will you give me the recognition signal?"</p> + +<p>Darl shook his head, and prayed for sudden death. The Martian spoke to +the dwarfs. They started forward, saliva drooling from their tusks. +Darl gritted his teeth. He would hold out as long as was humanly +possible.</p> + +<p>A shrill rhythmic whistle came from somewhere outside. The blue giant +started and snapped something to the Mercurians. Then he turned to +Darl. "I must leave you for a little while," he said. "You have till +I return to change your mind." With a parting admonition to the +savages he was gone through a side door that Thomas had not noticed +before.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">G</span>rateful for the postponement, however short, of the inescapable +ordeal, Darl took stock of his situation. He lay, firmly bound, on the +gritty rock floor of a low-ceiled cave about twelve feet square. In +one wall was a door of red metal. The portal through which the Martian +had vanished was next to it. Darl repressed an exclamation when he saw +the opposite wall. It was of solid metal, bluishly iridescent. That +was beryllium steel, the alloy from which the barriers at the +terminals of the surta mine were fashioned. He forced his head higher. +There were the marks of the jointures, the weldings that he himself +had made.</p> + +<p>The discovery seemed only to emphasize the helplessness of his +predicament. His faithful Venusians, Ran-los, Ta-ira, and the rest +were just on the other side of the three-inch plate of toughened +steel. Three inches—yet it might have been as many hundred miles for +all the help they could give him.</p> + +<p>The yellow pigmies were circling in a macabre dance, their crimson +eyes turned always toward him, hate glowing from their crawling +depths. The whistle beyond changed in character. Darl recognized it. +It was a Martian space-radio, the code of which Earth scientists had +never been able to decipher. The Mercurian circle tightened, the fetid +smell of the dwarfs was overpowering. Low at first, then louder and +louder came the rattling cacophony of their chant. It filled the +confined space with an overpowering clamor.</p> + +<p>Darl writhed again, rolling over and over till he had reached the +barrier. The pigmies gave way before him; evidently they had been +warned to keep their claws off. With his insteps Thomas could reach +the helmet of his space suit, where it had been dropped against the +wall. He drove it against the metal and the clangor of its striking +reverberated through the chamber. Darl managed to regulate the sound. +He was now hammering out double knocks, long and short, spaced in the +dots and dashes of the Morse code. "H-E-L-P D-A-R-L H-E-L-P D-A-R-L +H-E-L-P...."</p> + +<p>It was like some scene out of a madman's dream, this dim-lit cavern +with its circling, dancing pigmies, the human figure lying sidewise on +the ground, the rattling, savage chant and the metallic tattoo of +Darl's hopeless message. A diabolic orgy of weird sound and +crisscrossing shadows.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">I</span>t seemed hours that he pounded the helmet against the wall, hoping +that the sound of it would be audible above the clamor of the midgets. +His knees and hips were aching and numb, his leg ripped, almost to the +bone by the sharp edges of the jagged floor. A sudden thought struck +him. The fiber thongs that bound him were also rubbing against the +rock. His flesh was terribly torn. Perhaps the thongs, too, had been +frayed, weakened by the long continued friction.</p> + +<p>He stopped the pounding signals and began to force his knees apart +with all the power of his burly calves. The cords cut into his bulging +muscles, cut into and through his skin. The veins stood out on his +forehead, his neck was a corded pillar, his teeth bit through his lip +as he stifled a scream of pain. Then, startlingly, the fibers snapped. +His legs at least were free! He could fight, die fighting, and take +these others with him into oblivion!</p> + +<p>Darl leaped to his feet. Before the astounded natives realized what +was up he was charging into their circle. A well aimed kick sent one +crashing against the further wall. Another crunched against the rock. +Then they were on him, a frothing wave of tiny furies. A score or +more, they swarmed over him as a pack of African wild dogs swarms over +a huge water-buffalo marked for the kill. Their claws scratched and +tore, their sharp fangs stabbed into his flesh. His arms were still +tightly bound to his sides, and he lashed out with his sandaled feet, +swung his shoulders like battering rams, whirled in a dervish dance. +Their brittle bones cracked under his hammer blows. They dropped from +him like squashed flies. But, small as they were, he was terrifically +outnumbered. By sheer weight of numbers they dragged him down, and +piled on top of him as he lay, quivering and half-conscious, on the +blood-soaked floor.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hrough the blackness that welled and burst in his brain, one thought +held. He had fooled the Martian, for in another instant the enraged +savages, would kill him and the password to Earth's outposts would be +safe. Already, he felt their fangs at his throat.</p> + +<p>A whirring rattle cut through the turmoil like a whip-lash, and the +heap of pigmies swiftly scattered. The man-bird from Mars was in the +room. To Darl he was a blurred blueness from which glittered those two +jet beads of eyes. As from a distance he heard a rumble, its meaning +beating dully to him. "Not so easy, Thomas, not so easy. I want that +signal, and by Tana, I'm going to have it."</p> + +<p>The Earthman felt a current of cooler air. Instinctively he drew it +into his lungs. It swept him up from the blackness that was closing in +about him, brought him back to consciousness and despair. The +chattering Mercurians crowded round to commence their interrupted +orgy. "For the last time, Earthman, will you talk?"</p> + +<p>Darl shook his head weakly and closed his eyes. In a moment—</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a crash of metal on metal. Another! The clangor of +falling steel. Now someone was shouting, "Darl, Darl, are you alive?" +All about him were shrill twitterings, squeaking calls, squeals and +scutterings. Darl's nostrils stung with the odor of burned flesh. A +door slammed....</p> + +<p>He opened his eyes on a confused riot, saw Jim crouched, flashing +ray-gun in hand. There was a hole in the barrier, and a mob of +green-scaled Venusians were crowding through. Jim's ray caught the +last Mercurian and the dwarf vanished in a cloud of acrid, greasy +smoke.</p> + +<p>"Thank God you've come!" Darl managed to gasp. Then cool blackness +closed around him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">D</span>arl Thomas lay on a cot in the headquarters tent, swathed from head +to foot in an inch-thick wrapping of bandages. Jim's theory was that +if one bandage was good, two were better, and he had cleaned out the +post's slender stock. The red-haired Earthman was seated at the cot's +side, watching the taciturn Scot operating the control board. He was +telling Darl of the stirring message from M-I-T-A, and of the +blanketing interference that marred the completion of the message.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know what to do first," he continued, "whether to go down +below and find out what Ran-los was battin' about, or shoot up to you +in the connin' tower with the message. Like the thick-head I am, I +picked the wrong thing. I sure got the gimmicks when I found the +look-out empty, an' a space suit an' ray-gun gone." Jim grinned +mirthlessly. "I was runnin' around in circles. You were outside, God +alone knows how long. Believe me, I had you crossed off the list! That +left two of us. With a war on, somebody had to stand guard in the +look-out, the control board here had to be watched, an' somebody else +had to get below.</p> + +<p>"I was just tryin' to figure out a way o' cuttin' myself in half when +I thought o' Ran-los. For a Weenie he's got a heck of a lot of sense. +I zoomed down, hauled him out o' his bunk, scooted back up, showed him +how to work the peri-telescope an' the big beam-thrower, an' left him +there on guard."</p> + +<p>"Best thing you could have done." Darl's voice was muffled by the +bandages in which his head, as well as the rest of his body, was +swathed. "He's got a head on his shoulders, that bird."</p> + +<p>"Somethin' told me to take a ray-gun down in the mine with me. I was +just steppin' out o' the elevator when I caught your last signal; -L-P +D-A-R-L was all I got, but it was enough. How you ever got the other +side of the barrier had me wingin', but you were there right enough, +and yellin' for help. Ran-los had been doin' some repairs on a head +support an' his weldin' machine was still there. Takin' an awful +chance on there bein' air on the other side, I butted it up against +the wall, shot the flame against the steel, and when she was soft +enough had some of the Weenies smash her in with sledge-hammers. First +thing I see is you, stretched out in a pool o' blood, with a couple of +those yellow imps just gettin' to work on you. I clipped them +first—that gave the Martian a chance to get away. An' then—well, you +know the rest."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">"I</span> owe you one for that, Jim. Too bad, though, the big fellow escaped; +we'll hear from him again, or I don't know the breed. Wonder how he +got on the planet."</p> + +<p>"The sucker must 'a' stowed away on the last recruit ship from Venus, +slipped in a case o' tools or somethin'. Mars has labor agents there, +too, you know, for their farms on Ganymede."</p> + +<p>"Possibly. He knew my name, and that I was chief here. He's rigged up +an air-lock out there, though I can't figure out how he gets the air."</p> + +<p>"That's easy. While I was repairin' the barrier I found a pipe runnin' +through. He's been stealin' ours. Which, by the same token, is why he +was punchin' holes in the Dome rather than down below, where he would +have been safer from discovery."</p> + +<p>"So that's it. Get anything more on the space-radio?"</p> + +<p>"Nope. Angus has kept the ear-flaps on, but the ether is still jammed. +Hey, what're you up to?"</p> + +<p>Darl was swinging his bandaged body up from the cot that had been set +up in the headquarters tent at his insistence. "Can't lie on my back," +he panted, "with that devil loose on the planet. Lord knows what he's +up to now. We're short-handed enough as it is."</p> + +<p>He rose to his feet, staggering with weakness and loss of blood. But +his indomitable will drove him on. "I'll take over the control board. +Send Angus up to relieve Ran-los, and you get below and speed up +production. Earth will need double quantities of surta for food, now +that there's a war on."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">J</span>im turned to convey the order to the Scot, but he whirled to the +tent-flap instead as a riot of sound exploded outside. He tore aside +the canvas, and now there was a burst of shrill, frightened Venusian +cries, and a deeper, rattling chorus. Out on the Dome floor, pouring +from the shaft-head in a panic torrent, came the Venusians. And among +them, leaping, slashing, dragging them down, were countless little +yellow men, their fangs and tusks and curving claws crimson with the +blood of their victims.</p> + +<p>"Darl, Mac, they've broken through! The Mercs have broken through!" +The brown plain was a blood-spattered battlefield. Here and there +little groups of the green men, braver than the rest, fought with +spanner and hammer and whatever improvised weapon they may have found. +"Come on, give 'em hell!" The three Earthmen dashed out, weapons in +hand. But friend and foe were so intermingled that they could not use +the devastating ray of their hand-guns. The fighting Venusians were +vanishing under a tossing sea of yellow imps. And still the dwarfs +poured forth from the mine entrance.</p> + +<p>A blue form towered, far back, where all green had vanished, and only +Mercurians were left. The Martian's beak opened in a rattling call. A +group of hundreds of pigmies suddenly left the main fight, and came +forward with short, swift steps. They dashed straight for the Earth +trio and cut them off from the Venusians they were running to aid.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">S</span>ide by side the three fought. Their weapons grew hot in their hands +as the beams cut great swaths in the seething ranks. The attackers +halted, gave back, then surged forward again as the roar of their +alien commander lashed them on.</p> + +<p>The Earthmen faced the frenzied throng. A cleared circle was still +around them. Beyond, the Venusians were all down. The Mercurian mob +was closing in, the Terrestrians' rays had lost half their range. In +moments now the ray-guns would be exhausted.</p> + +<p>"The plane!" Darl shouted. "Back to the plane, it's our only chance."</p> + +<p>The gyrocopter that could carry them aloft, out of the rout, was fifty +feet away. They fought through to it and reached it just as the last +faint charge flashed from Mac's tube. Jim was at the controls, Darl +smashed his useless projector into the chattering face of a dwarf that +had leaped on the Scot's shoulders and dragged Angus into the cockpit.</p> + +<p>The overloaded flier zoomed to the landing at the lofty air-lock's +manhole and hovered as Darl and Angus slipped home the hooks that held +it to the platform. "The spy has the Dome," Jim grunted, "but by God, +he hasn't got us. We'll be safe in the lock up here, till help comes. +And then—"</p> + +<p>"Safe is it?" Angus broke in. "Mon, luik ye what those bairns fra hell +are up to the noo."</p> + +<p>A yellow tide was rising about the base of each of the latticed steel +arches that vaulted to the Earthmen's refuge. On every side the dwarfs +were climbing, were swarming up the walls in numbers so great that +they concealed the metal beneath. Up, up they came, slowly but surely. +And right in the center of the plain, ankle-deep in the torn fragments +of the murdered Venusians, was the Martian, directing the attack.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">J</span>im groaned. "I might've known he'd never let us get away. It's slow +bells for us, I guess. Hey, where's Darl?"</p> + +<p>"Gone weethin. No, guid losh, he's here!"</p> + +<p>Darl appeared, his features pale and drawn, carrying an armful of +ray-guns. "Grab these," he snapped. "We're not licked yet."</p> + +<p>"Licked, hell!" Jim's roar reverberated. "We've just begun to fight!" +The Scot was silent, but the battle light shone in his eyes. In +another moment the Terrestrians were kneeling, were raking the roof +girders as the mounting Mercurians came within range. Each had two +ray-guns in his hands, and a little pile of extra tubes beside him. +They fought silently, wasting not a single blast.</p> + +<p>Six white rays flamed through the misty, humid air, and striking the +teeming girders, swept them clean. A greasy, horrible smoke cloud +gathered along the shell and drifted slowly down, till the concrete +blocks from which the steel framework sprang were hidden in a black +pall. Fighters, these three, true ITA men who had left memories of +their battle-prowess on more than one wild planet! Gaunt-bodied +demi-gods of war, they hurled crackling bolts of destruction from +their perch at the Dome top. By hundreds, by thousands, the Mercurian +pigmies vanished in dark vapor, or plunged, blackened corpses, into +the fog that billowed below.</p> + +<p>One by one the tubes were discharged and tossed down at the seething +mob. The heaped weapons dwindled, and still the climbing hordes +renewed themselves, came on in endless mounting streams to sure +destruction. The open tunnel vomited forth a torrent of gibbering +dwarfs. From the uttermost burrows of the planet the pigmies were +flooding in at the call of the Martian who stood scatheless beneath +and lashed them on with the strange dominance he held over them. The +Earthmen fought on, endlessly, till they were sick of killing, +nauseated with slaughter. And still the snouted, red-eyed imps came +on.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">J</span>im snatched up his last two ray-guns. Out of the corner of his eye he +noted that Darl was using but one, the other, his last, was thrust +into the chief's belt. He wondered at this, but a new spurt of yellow +above the oily fog wiped the question from his lips. "Swallow that, +you filthy lice! Hope you like the way it tastes!" His guns spouted +death.</p> + +<p>"I'm through!" The call came at last from McDermott. "Me too!" Jim +Holcomb hurled his final, futile tubes down at the blue figure of the +Mars man. A moment's hush held the trio. Then Jim flexed his great +hands. "Well, these'll take care of a couple more o' them before I +check in."</p> + +<p>"No you don't," Darl barked, his face a graven image. "Inside with +you. The lock will hold 'em off."</p> + +<p>"Yeah? Look."</p> + +<p>Thomas swung in the direction Jim was pointing. Rising above the murk, +something glinted in the pale light. On the furthest upright a clumped +group of climbing savages were struggling to drag up one of the +welding machines, a long black hose snaking from its cylindrical bulk.</p> + +<p>"They'll cut through the steel in fifteen minutes with that. The +bloody bugger ain't missin' a trick."</p> + +<p>"Inside, I tell you." Darl's crisp tone of command brooked no denial. +The three crowded into the cool recesses of the manmade aerie. Angus +slammed the steel door shut. Even if by some miracle the Dome wall +should be pierced and the air in the main vault dissipated into outer +space, this air-tight compartment hung from the hemisphere's roof +would remain, a last refuge, till the atmosphere within had become +poisonous through the Earthmen's slow breathing. But the Martian had +anticipated Darl's final move. The oxy-hydrogen jet of the welding +machine the dwarfs were hoisting would make short work of their final +defense.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">F</span>rom the conning-tower above Ran-los called excitedly. Through all the +long battle the Venusian had remained steadfast at the peri-telescope, +scanning the vacant terrain outside, and the heavens. As Darl and Jim +dashed for the stairs Mac ran after them, crying out, "What did he say, +mon?"</p> + +<p>"Space ship in sight," Darl flung over his shoulder as he reached the +upper landing.</p> + +<p>"Praise be! Noo the haythan weel get his desairts!"</p> + +<p>"Yeah, maybe—if it's an Earth ship. But we won't be here to see it."</p> + +<p>Jim's red head was bending over the peri-telescope view-screen. "She's +still thirty thousand miles away. Give her a speed of fifteen per +second—she'll have to slow up to land, can't make it under forty-five +minutes. By then we'll be in little pieces. It took me ten minutes to +burn through the barrier when I rescued Darl, and it won't take the +Mercs any longer to get at us."</p> + +<p>Darl was very sober as he looked on with narrowed eyes. Against a +background of velvet black, gold spangled, the slim space-traveler +showed. The sun's rays caught her, and she was a tiny silver fish in +the boundless void.</p> + +<p>"Luik ye, mon, luik ye!" Angus, fairly dancing with excitement, +elbowed Darl aside. "She's from Airth, richt enow!" At the nose of the +oncoming flier a rapid succession of colored lights had flashed, the +recognition signal that should give her safe access to the Dome. Again +there was a coruscation of coded flashes. "She's a battle cruiser, +what's mair!" the Scot exclaimed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">D</span>arl sprang to the keyboard that manipulated the signal lights from +the Dome's roof. "No use," he said, after a short while. "The Martian +has cut off the current from the dynamos. I can't warn the ship." He +made a hopeless gesture.</p> + +<p>Jim looked at him wonderingly. "Warn 'em? What for? Even if we are all +dead when she reaches here, at least she'll clean up the Mercs, and +retake the Dome for Earth."</p> + +<p>"Don't you see it? When the Mars man has once blasted his way in here +and disposed of us, he'll be ready for the space ship. Her captain +can't suspect anything wrong. He must have left Earth at the time of +the ultimatum, and would easily get here before any ship could be sent +out from Mars. He'll come on till he's within range of the +beam-thrower, and the Martian will aim, press the trigger and the +Earth ship and her crew of a half a thousand brave lads will be +star-dust."</p> + +<p>"Oh God!" Jim was white-faced. "Isn't there anything we can do? Maybe +if he doesn't get our all-clear signal he'll sheer off." This was +clutching at straws.</p> + +<p>"Why should he? He must know how short-handed we are, and will simply +think we're not on watch, or that our signal lights are out of order. +Matter of fact, if he were at all suspicious he should be alternating +his course right now—and he hasn't. Look."</p> + +<p>Seemingly motionless, but really splitting the ether with terrific +speed, the warship was coming straight on to garrison the beleaguered +post. She had never wavered from her straight course for the Dome. The +little group was silent, watching the help that was coming at last, +coming too late.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">F</span>rom below there came a thunder of sound. Jim slid down the stairs. An +irregular disk on the wall was glowing cherry-red from the heat of the +blow-torch without, and the metal was quivering under the Mercurian's +sledge-hammer blows. "Darl's right," he almost sobbed as he gazed +helplessly. "They'll be through in no time. The Dome's gone, we're +gone, the space ship's gone!"</p> + +<p>"Let me pass, Jim." Thomas' quiet voice sounded behind him. Holcomb +turned. His leader was in a space suit, the helmet still unfastened.</p> + +<p>"Blazes! Where the devil are you going?"</p> + +<p>"Here, cover me with this till I reach the gyrocopter, then get back +quick, and seal the air-lock." Darl thrust into Jim's hand the ray-gun +he had previously reserved. "There's only one way to kill off the +Martian and his mob. I'm taking it."</p> + +<p>Suddenly Jim Holcomb understood. "No, Darl, no—you can't do it! Not +you! Let me go! I'm just a dumbhead. Let me go!"</p> + +<p>"Thanks, Jimmy, but it's my place." Darl's voice was low, and very +calm. "I was in charge, and I lost the Dome. If I can save the boys on +the ship, and you two, it's the least I can do. Good-by, old man. Give +my regards to Earth."</p> + +<p>Thomas' face was gray-white. The thick bandages that still swathed +him, Jim glimpsed them through the open neckpiece of the suit, gave +him the semblance of a mummy. The helmet clicked shut. Swallowing a +lump that rose in his throat, Jim pulled open the door. A wave of +Mercurians surged in, to be seared into nothingness by his weapon. He +was in the doorway, his ray sweeping the platform clear.</p> + +<p>Darl was out now, stepping into the flier that still hung by its +hooked moorings. Jim caught a flash of blue and looked up. The Martian +was hanging to a girder just above, his green tube pointing straight +at Darl. A white ray spurted from Jim's gun. The Martian's weapon and +the hand that held it vanished in the sizzling blast. The plane was +loose! Jim leaped inside the air-lock, slammed the steel door shut, +clamped it, and sprang for the quartz peer-hole.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">D</span>arl's gyrocopter was diving on a long slant for the Dome wall. Faster +and faster it went, till all Jim could see was a white streak in the +smoky dimness. And now he could see the vast interior, the teeming +plain, the dwarf-festooned girders and roof-beams. He stood rigid, +waiting breathlessly. Then the plane struck—fair in the center of a +great panel of quartz. The wall exploded in a burst of flying, +shattered splinters. A deafening crash rocked the Dome.</p> + +<p>Jim clung to his port-hole, tears rolling down his cheeks, unashamed. +The plane, and Darl, vanished. Jim saw the black smoke masses whirl +through the jagged hole in the Dome's wall as the air burst out in a +cyclonic gust. He saw the vast space filled with falling Mercurians, +saw a blue form plunge down and crash far below. He knew that in all +that huge hemisphere, and in the burrows beneath it, there was no life +save himself, and Angus, and the faithful Ran-los. For only in this +compartment that clung to the roof of the Dome was there left air to +breathe. And, from the void beyond, the silver space ship sped on +toward Mercury, sped on to a safe landing that, but for Darl Thomas's +sacrifice, would have been her doom....</p> + +<p>Guided by Jim and Angus, a party of men from the battle-flier, +equipped with oxygen respirators, went to the aid of Darl. They dug +him out from under his crumpled plane and the piled splinters of +quartz. His metal was dented and twisted, but unpierced. They carried +him tenderly to the space ship, and carefully set him down. The ship's +physician listened long with his stethoscope, then looked up and +smiled.</p> + +<p>"He's alive," the doctor said, "just barely alive. The thick padding +of bandages must have saved him from the full shock of the crash. +They're hard to kill, these ITA men. I'll be able to bring him around, +God willing."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Great Dome on Mercury, by Arthur Leo Zagat + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT DOME ON MERCURY *** + +***** This file should be named 29190-h.htm or 29190-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/1/9/29190/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Great Dome on Mercury + +Author: Arthur Leo Zagat + +Release Date: June 21, 2009 [EBook #29190] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT DOME ON MERCURY *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Astounding Stories April 1932. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the + U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + [Illustration: "_Once more! Will you give me the recognition + signal?"_] + + + + The Great Dome on Mercury + + By Arthur L. Zagat + + * * * * * + + + + +[Sidenote: Trapped in the great dome, Darl valiantly defends Earth's +outpost against the bird-man of Mars and his horde of pigmy henchmen.] + + +Darl Thomas mopped the streams of perspiration from his bronzed face +and lean-flanked, wiry body, nude save for clinging shorts and fiber +sandals. "By the whirling rings of Saturn," he growled as he gazed +disconsolately at his paper-strewn desk. "I'd like to have those +directors of ITA here on Mercury for just one Earth-month. I'll bet +they wouldn't be so particular about their quarterly reports after +they'd sweated a half-ton or so of fat off their greasy bellies. +'Fuel consumption per man-hour.': Now what in blazes does that mean? +Hey, Jim!" He swiveled his chair around to the serried bank of +gauge-dials that was Jim Holcomb's especial charge, then sprang to his +feet with a startled, "What's the matter?" + +The chunky, red-haired control-man was tugging at a lever, his muscles +bulging on arms and back, his face white-drawn and tense. "Look!" he +grunted, and jerked a grim jaw at one of the dials. The long needle +was moving rapidly to the right. "I can't hold the air pressure!" + +"Wow, what a leak!" Darl started forward. "How's it below, in the +mine?" + +"Normal. It's the Dome air that's going!" + +"Shoot on the smoke and I'll spot the hole. Quick, man!" + +"Okay!" + +Thomas' long legs shot him out of the headquarters tent. Just beyond +the entrance flap was one of the two gyrocopters used for flying +within the Dome. He leaped into the cockpit and drove home the +starter-piston. The flier buzzed straight up, shooting for the misted +roof. + + * * * * * + +The Earthman fought to steady his craft against the hurricane wind, +while his gray eyes swept the three-mile circle of the vault's base. +He paled as he noted the fierce speed with which the white smoke-jets +were being torn from the pipe provided for just such emergencies. His +glance followed the terrific rush of the vapor. Big as a man's head, a +hole glared high up on the Dome's inner surface. Feathered wisps of +tell-tale vapor whisked through it at blurring speed. + +"God, but the air's going fast," Darl groaned. The accident he had +feared through all the months he had captained Earth's outpost on +Mercury had come at last. The Dome's shell was pierced! A half-mile +high, a mile across its circling base, the great inverted bowl was all +that made it possible for man to defy the white hell of Mercury's +surface. Outside was an airless vacuum, a waste quivering under the +heat of a sun thrice the size it appears from Earth. The silvered +exterior of the hemisphere shot back the terrific blaze; its +quartz-covered network of latticed steel inclosed the air that all +beings need to sustain life. + +Darl tugged desperately at the control-stick, thrust the throttle over +full measure. A little more of this swift outrush and the precious air +would be gone. He caught a glimpse of the Dome floor beneath him and +the shaft-door that gave entrance to the mine below. Down there, in +underground tunnels whose steel-armored end-walls continued the Dome's +protection below the surface, a horde of friendly Venusians were +laboring. If the leak were not stopped in a few minutes that shaft +door would blow in, and the mine air would whisk through the hole in +its turn. Only the Dome would remain, a vast, rounded sepulcher, +hiding beneath its curve the dead bodies of three Earthmen and the +silent forms of their Venusian charges. + + * * * * * + +Darl's great chest labored as he strove to reach the danger spot. +Invisible fingers seemed to be clamped about his throat. His eyes +blurred. The gyrocopter was sluggish, dipped alarmingly when it should +have darted, arrow-like, to its mark. With clenched teeth, the +Terrestrian forced the whirling lifting vanes to the limit of their +power. They bit into the fast thinning air with a muffled whine, +raised the ship by feet that should have been yards. + +By sheer will he forced his oxygen-starved faculties to function, and +realized that he had reached the wall. He was drifting downward, the +hole draining the Dome's air was five feet above him, beyond his +reach. The driven vanes were powerless to stem the craft's fall. + +One wing-tip scraped interlaced steel, a horizontal girder, part of +the vault's mighty skeleton. Darl crawled along the wing, dragging +with him a sheet of flexible quartzite. The metal foil sagged under +him and slanted downward, trying like some animate thing to rid itself +of the unwonted burden. He clutched the beam, hung by one leg and one +arm as his craft slid out from beneath him. The void below dragged at +him. He put forth a last tremendous spurt of effort. + +Two thousand feet below, Jim Holcomb, dizzy and gasping, manipulated +the controls frenziedly, his eyes fastened on the dropping +pressure-gauge. From somewhere outside the tent a dull thud sounded. +"Crashed! Darl's crashed! It's all over!" Hope gone, only the instinct +of duty held him to his post. But the gauge needle quivered, ceased +its steady fall and began a slow rise. Jim stared uncomprehendingly at +the dial, then, as the fact seeped in, staggered to the entrance. +"That's better, a lot better," he exclaimed. "But, damn it, what was +that crash?" + + * * * * * + +The headquarters tent was at one edge of the circular plain. Jim's +bleary eyes followed the springing arch of a vertical girder, up and +up, to where it curved inward to the space ship landing lock that hung +suspended from the center of the vaulted roof. Within that bulge, at +the very apex, was the little conning-tower, with its peri-telescope, +its arsenal of ray-guns and its huge beam-thrower that was the Dome's +only means of defense against an attack from space. Jim's gaze +flickered down again, wandered across the brown plain, past the long +rows of canvas barracks and the derrick-like shaft-head. Hard by the +further wall a crumpled white heap lay huddled. + +"My God! It was his plane!" The burly Earthman sobbed as his ten-foot +leaps carried him toward the wreck. + +Darl was his friend as well as Chief, and together they had served the +Interplanetary Trading Association, ITA, for years, working and +fighting together in the wilds of the outer worlds. A thought struck +him, even as he ran. "What in th' name o' Jupiter's nine moons stopped +th' leak?" He glanced up, halted, his mouth open in amazement. "Well, +I'm a four-tailed, horn-headed Plutonian if there ain't th' boy +himself!" + +Far up in the interlaced steel of the framework, so high that to his +staring comrade he seemed a naked doll, Darl stood outstretched on a +level beam, his tiny arms holding a minute square against the wall. +Lucky it was that he was so tall and his arms so long. For the saving +plate just lapped the upper rim of the hole, and stemmed the fierce +current by only a half-inch margin. + + * * * * * + +The throbbing atmosphere machine in the sub-surface engine-room was +replacing the lost air rapidly, and now the increasing pressure was +strong enough to hold the translucent sheet against the wall by its +own force. Jim saw the extended arms drop away. The manikin waved down +to him, then turned to the shell again, as if to examine the emergency +repair. For a moment Darl stood thus, then he was running along the +girder, was climbing, ape-like, along a latticed beam that curved up +and in, to swing down and merge with the bulge of the air-lock's +wall. + +"Like a bloomin' monkey! Can't he wait till I get him down with th' +spare plane?" + +But Darl wasn't thinking of coming down. Something he had seen through +the translucent repair sheet was sending him to the look-out tower +within the air-lock. Hand over hand he swung, tiny above that vast +immensity of space. In his forehead a pulse still jumped as his heart +hurried new oxygen to thirsty cells. He held his gaze steadily to the +roof. A moment's vertigo, a grip missed by the sixteenth of an inch, +the slightest failure in the perfect team-play of eye and brain, and +rippling muscle, and he would crash, a half mile beneath, against hard +rock. + +At last he reached the curving side of the landing lock. But the +platform at the manhole entrance jutted diagonally below him, fifteen +feet down and twelve along the bellying curve. Darl measured the angle +with a glance as he hung outstretched, then his body became a human +pendulum over the sheer void. Back and forth, back and forth he swung, +then, suddenly, his grasp loosened and a white arc flashed through the +air. + +Breathless, Jim saw the far-off figure flick across the chasm toward +the jutting platform. He saw Darl strike its edge, bit his lip as his +friend teetered on the rim and swayed slowly outward. Then Darl found +his balance. An imperative gesture sent the watcher back to his post, +his sorrel-topped head shaking slowly in wonderment. + + * * * * * + +Darl Thomas ran headlong up the staircase that spiralled through the +dim cavern. "No mistake about it," he muttered. "I saw something +moving outside that hole. Two little leaks before, and now this big +one. There's something a lot off-color going on around here." + +Quickly he reached the little room at the summit. He flung the canvas +cover from the peri-telescope screen. Tempered by filters as it was +the blaze of light from outside hit him like a physical blow. He +adjusted the aperture and beat eagerly over the view-table. + +Vacation jaunts and travel view-casts have made the moon's landscape +familiar to all. Very similar was the scene Darl scanned, save that +the barren expanse, pitted and scarred like Luna's, glowed almost +liquid under the beating flame of a giant sun that flared in a black +sky. Soundless, airless, lifeless, the tumbled plain stretched to a +jagged horizon. + +The Earthman depressed the instrument's eye, and the silvered outside +of the Dome, aflame with intolerable light, swept on to the screen +disk. The great mirror seemed alive with radiant heat as it shot back +the sun's withering darts. The torrid temperature of the oven within, +unendurable save to such veterans of the far planets as Darl and Jim +Holcomb, was conveyed to it through the ground itself. The direct rays +of the sun, nearer by fifty million miles than it is to Earth, would +have blasted them, unprotected, to flaked carbon in an eye-blink. + +An exclamation burst from Darl. A half-inch from the Dome's blazing +arc, a hundred yards in actuality, the screen showed a black fleck, +moving across the waste! Darl quickly threw in the full-power lens, +and the image leaped life-size across the table. The black fleck was +the shadow of a space-suited figure that lumbered slowly through the +viscous, clinging footing. How came this living form, clad in gleaming +silver, out there in that blast-furnace heat? In one of the space +suit's claw-like hands a tube flashed greenly. + + * * * * * + +Darl's hand shot out to the trigger of the beam-thrower. Aimed by the +telescope's adjustment, the ray that could disintegrate a giant space +flier utterly flared out at his finger's pressure. Against the lambent +brown a spot glowed red where the beam struck. But, warned by some +uncanny prescience, the trespasser leaped aside in the instant between +Thomas' thought and act. Before Darl could aim and fire again the foe +had dodged back and was protected by the curve of the Dome itself. + +Two white spots showed on either side of Darl's nostrils. His mouth +was a thin white slit, his eyes gray marbles. Standing against the +wall beside him was a space suit, mirror-surfaced and double-walled +against the planet's heat. In a few moments he was encased within it, +had snatched a pocket ray-gun from the long rack, and was through the +door to the auxiliary air-lock. The air soughed out in response to his +swift thrust at a lever, a second door opened, and he was on the +outside, reeling from the blast of that inferno of light and heat. + +For a moment the Earthman was dazzled, despite the smoked quartz +eye-pieces in his helmet. Then, as his eyes grew used to the glare, he +saw, far below, the erect figure of the stranger. The man was standing +still, waiting. His immobility, the calm confidence with which he +stood there, was insolently challenging. Darl's rage flared higher at +the sight. + + * * * * * + +Scorning the ladder that curved along the Dome to the ground, he threw +himself at the polished round side of the great hemisphere. With +increasing speed he slid downward, the gleaming surface breaking only +slightly the velocity of his fall. On Earth this would have been +suicidal. Even here, where the pull of gravity was so much less, the +feat was insanely reckless. But the heat-softened ground, the strength +of his metal suit, brought Darl safely through. + +He whirled to meet the expected onslaught of the interloper. The green +tube was aimed straight at him! The Earthman started to bring his own +weapon up when something exploded in his brain. There was a moment of +blackness; then he was again clear-minded. But he could not move--not +so much as the tiny twist of his wrist that would have brought his own +weapon into play. + +Frozen by this strange paralysis, Darl Thomas saw the giant figure +approach. The apparition bent and slung him to its shoulder. Glowing +walls rose about him, dimmed. The Terrestrian knew that he was being +carried down into one of the myriad openings that honeycombed the +terrain. The luminescence died; there was no longer light enough to +penetrate to his helmet's darkened goggles. + +Frantic questions surged through the captured Earthman's mind. Who was +his captor? From where, and how, had he come to Mercury? Jim, Angus +McDermott, and himself were the only Terrestrians on the planet; of +that he was certain. Only one or two of the reptile-skinned Venusian +laborers had sufficient intelligence to manipulate a space suit, and +they were unquestionably loyal. + +This individual was a giant who towered far above Darl's own six feet. +The Mercurian natives--he had seen them when ITA's expedition had +cleaned out the burrows beneath the Dome and sealed them up--were +midgets, the tallest not more than two feet in height. Whatever he +was, why was the stranger trying to destroy the Dome? Apparently +Thomas himself was not to be killed offhand: the jolting journey was +continuing interminably. With enforced patience the Earthman resigned +himself to wait for the next scene in this strange drama. + + * * * * * + +In the headquarters tent Jim's usual grin was absent as he moved +restlessly among the switches and levers that concentrated control of +all the Dome's complex machinery. "Darl's been gone a devilish long +time," he muttered to himself. "Here it's almost time for shifts to +change and he's not back yet." + +A bell clanged, somewhere up in the mass of cables that rose from the +control board. For the next ten minutes Holcomb had no time for worry +as he rapidly manipulated the innumerable wheels and handles in accord +with the vari-colored lights that flickered on a huge ground-glass map +of the sub-Mercurian passages. On the plain outside there was a vast +rustling, a many-voiced twittering and squeaking that was not quite +bird-like in tone. Through the opened tent-flap one could see the +stream of Venusian workers, their work-period ended, pouring out of +the shaft-head and filing between the ordered ranks of others whose +labors were about to begin. + +They were queer-looking specimens, these gentle, willing allies of the +Earthmen. Their home planet is a place of ever-clouded skies and +constant torrential rains. And so the Venusians were amphibians, +web-footed, fish-faced, their skin a green covering of horny scales +that shed water and turned the sharp thorns of their native jungles. +When intrepid explorers discovered in the mazes of Mercury's spongy +interior the _surta_ that was so badly needed as a base material for +synthetic food to supply Earth's famine-threatened population, it was +to these loyal and amiable beings that ITA's engineers turned for +workers who could endure the stifling heat of the underground +workings. + +The tent-flap was thrust aside, and a hawk-nosed Scot came sleepily +in, to be enthusiastically greeted by Jim. + +"Hello, you old Caledonian. 'Bout time you showed up." + + * * * * * + +The newcomer fixed the speaker with a dour gaze. "An' why should I +commence my tour o' dooty befair the time?" + +"Because your chief, Mr. Darl Thomas, decided that he's a filliloo +bird or somethin', flew to his little nest up top, an' forgot to come +down again." + +"Is this ain o' your jests, James Holcomb? I eenquire mairly that I +may ken when to laugh." + +"It's no joke, Mac. Last I see o' him he's skippin' around the roof +like he has a buzzin' propeller stuck to his shoulder blades. He +lights on th' air-lock platform, pops inside, an' goes dead for all I +know." + +From his bony legs to his scrawny neck the Scotchman's angular body, +as nearly nude as that of the others, radiated the doubt that was +expressed in every seam and wrinkle of his hatchet face. + +"That's straight, Angus, may I kiss a pink-eared _vanta_ if it ain't. +Here's what happened." The bantering grin disappeared from Jim's +countenance as he detailed the events that had preceded Darl's +vanishing. "That was two hours ago," he concluded, "and I've been +getting pretty uneasy about him." + +"Why did na ye call me, so that ain o' us micht eenvestigate?" + +"Hell. Darl wasn't born yesterday, he can take care of himself. +Besides, your last shift was pretty strenuous, an' I thought I'd let +you sleep. No tellin' what might happen next; this forsaken place has +been givin' me the jim-jams lately." + +"Your conseederation is touching, but--" A scratching at the door, +accompanied by a high squeak, interrupted him. + + * * * * * + +To Jim's shouted "Come in," there entered a Venusian, whose red +rosette fastened to the green scales of his skin marked him an +overseer. In the thread-like fingers of his hand he held a time-sheet, +but the nervous pulsing of his gill-membranes caused Holcomb to +exclaim anxiously: "What's wrong, Ran-los? No accident, I hope?" + +The shrill combination of squeaks and twitterings that came from the +man-reptile's toothless mouth meant nothing to the Scot, but Jim's +last service had been on Venus and he had gained a working knowledge +of the language. Finally the interchange was ended, and Ran-los bowed +himself out. Jim turned to his companion. + +"There's some more queer stuff for you, Angie. Just before +shift-change, Ran-los heard odd sounds from the other side of the +barrier at the end of gallery M-39. Says they seemed like signals o' +some kind. He's a wise old bird and if he's worried about something +it's damn well worth lookin' into. I don't know whether to find out +first what's happened to Darl, or--" + +Again there was an interruption; this time from the usually silent +radio-communication set in the far corner. Jim leaped to the +instrument and snapped on the head-set. Angus leaned over him, +watching his intent face. + +Faintly, as from an immense distance, came the thin whistle of +space-radio. "S-W-A ... S-W-A ... S-W-A...." The general attention +signal for all Earth's far-flung outposts from Jupiter to Mercury! The +signal was coming from "M-I-T-A," the Earth company's home station on +the Moon, outside the Heaviside layer. "S-W-A ... S-W-A ... M-I-T-A ... +M-I-T-A." Again the signal rose and fell. + + * * * * * + +Jim reached for the sending key and pounded out his acknowledgement: +"K; M-E-R ... K; M-E-R ... K; M-E-R." He listened again, heard Venus +answer, and Jupiter. Across five hundred million miles of space ITA +men were responding to the roll-call of Earth. A reminiscent smile +crossed Jim's face as he recognized the stuttering fist of Rade +Perrin, on Eros. Rade always sent as if he were afraid the instrument +would snap at his fingers. + +M-I-T-A was signalling again, and now came the message: "S-W-A. All +trading posts, mines and colonies are warned to prepare for possible +attack. The Earth Government has just announced the receipt of an +ultimatum from--" A raucous howl cut across the message and drowned it +out. The siren blast howled on and on, mocking Jim's straining ears. +"Well I'll be--Interference! Deliberate blanketing! The rats! The--" +He blazed into a torrent of profanity whose imaginativeness was +matched only by its virulence. + +Mac was clutching his shoulder, stirred for once out of his vaunted +"deegnity." "What is it, mon, what is it?" + +"War, you bloody Scotchman, war! That's what it is!" + +"War! Foosh, man, 'tis eempossible!" + +"The hell it's impossible! Damn, and Darl not here! Take over, Mac; +I've got to go up an' get him!" + + * * * * * + +In the meantime Thomas' helpless journey had come to an end. After an +interminable descent in what to him had been pitch darkness, the giant +who was carrying him halted. Darl had heard the whistling inrush of +air into some lock, then the clanging of a door. He felt himself +hurled to the ground. Fumbling hands tugged at him, drew off his space +suit. + +The dim light of the cavern, as the helmet was dragged from his head, +hurt Darl's eyes. Salt sweat stung them. It was hot, hotter than the +Dome, hot as it was in the surta mine, where only the nerveless +Venusians could work for any length of time. + +Darl struggled to focus his eyes on a blurred blue form that towered +above him. He felt sharp claws scratch at him and realized that cords +were being passed around his limp body. They cut tightly into his legs +and his arms. Then he was staring at a tube in the hand of his captor. +Its end glowed with a brilliant purple light, and he felt a flood of +reawakened energy warm him. His head jerked up, he strained against +the taut, strong fibers binding him. The paralysis was gone, but he +was still helpless. + +A husky, rumbling voice broke the silence. "I wouldn't struggle, +Earthman, if I were you. Even should you get free I still have my +ray-tube. And my little friends would ask nothing better than your +body to play with." + +Darl writhed to a sitting posture. Now he could see his mysterious +abductor clearly. This eight-foot, blue-feathered individual, with +curved beak and beady eyes glittering from his naked, repulsively +wrinkled head, was a Martian! Despite the human shape of his body, +despite his jointed limbs and thumbed hands, this denizen of the red +planet resembled a vulture far more than he did any other Earth +creature. + + * * * * * + +The Earthman's pride of race came to his rescue. "What's the game?" he +growled. "Looking for trouble?" There was nothing in Darl's voice to +show the fear that chilled him. Behind the Martian he could see +vaguely a group of little yellow Mercurians. + +"I'll ask all the questions here. And you'll answer them, too, if +you're wise. Even your dull mind should comprehend that you are in my +power." + +Darl decided to proceed more cautiously. "What do you want from me?" +he asked. + +"I want," the Martian answered, "the recognition signal of Earth's +space-ships." + +"What!" The ejaculation burst from Darl's throat. This alien wanted +the secret code, the watch-word that distinguished Earth's space +ships, that gained for them free admittance to ITA's armed posts on +the outer planets! This could mean only one thing, that the long +rivalry, the ancient dispute between Earth and Mars was about to flare +into open war. Any friendly visit from a foreign flier would be +heralded by word from M-I-T-A. Thomas' face became a stony mask, +covering the tumult of his mind. + +"You understood. I want the Earth recognition signal at once--and +after that, the surrender of the Dome." The very calmness of the husky +tones was a threat. + +"Never!" + +"I warn you, Darl Thomas. It would be the better part of wisdom for +you to yield willingly what I ask. You will give in eventually, and +the means of persuasion I shall use will not be exactly--pleasant." + +"You'll get nothing from me!" + +The outlander's lidless eyes were filmed with a gray membrane. His +head thrust forward, the feathered ruff beneath it bristled. Darl +braced himself to withstand the swooping pounce that seemed imminent, +the slash of the sharp beak. A burring rattle broke the momentary +hush. The Martian relaxed, turned to the Mercurian from whom the sound +had come and replied with staccato vibrance. + + * * * * * + +As the cave filled with a whirring tumult Darl had a chance to examine +the Mercurian natives crowding around his prostrate body. They were +little yellow midgets, ranging from eighteen inches to two feet in +height. Half of their small stature was taken up by snouted heads, +with saucer-like, crimson eyes, and long white tusks jutting from +foam-flecked mouths. The trunks were globular. The spindling legs and +thin arms ended in sharp claws. There was an impression of animal +ferocity about these tiny beings that stamped them as utter savages. + +His captor was speaking to the Earthman again, his horny beak parted +in what might have been a grim smile. "My friends remind me that I +promised you to them. They have not forgotten how you and your fellows +drove them from their burrows." + +Darl was suddenly cold, though the sweat still streamed from his bound +body. An uncontrollable shudder took him as he saw what the diminutive +claws of the midgets held. While the Dome was still an unfinished +framework one of the Terrestrian artisans had somehow been isolated +from his fellows. Thomas had been of the party that found what was +left of him, and the memory was still a throbbing nightmare. + +"Once more! Will you give me the recognition signal?" + +Darl shook his head, and prayed for sudden death. The Martian spoke to +the dwarfs. They started forward, saliva drooling from their tusks. +Darl gritted his teeth. He would hold out as long as was humanly +possible. + +A shrill rhythmic whistle came from somewhere outside. The blue giant +started and snapped something to the Mercurians. Then he turned to +Darl. "I must leave you for a little while," he said. "You have till +I return to change your mind." With a parting admonition to the +savages he was gone through a side door that Thomas had not noticed +before. + + * * * * * + +Grateful for the postponement, however short, of the inescapable +ordeal, Darl took stock of his situation. He lay, firmly bound, on the +gritty rock floor of a low-ceiled cave about twelve feet square. In +one wall was a door of red metal. The portal through which the Martian +had vanished was next to it. Darl repressed an exclamation when he saw +the opposite wall. It was of solid metal, bluishly iridescent. That +was beryllium steel, the alloy from which the barriers at the +terminals of the surta mine were fashioned. He forced his head higher. +There were the marks of the jointures, the weldings that he himself +had made. + +The discovery seemed only to emphasize the helplessness of his +predicament. His faithful Venusians, Ran-los, Ta-ira, and the rest +were just on the other side of the three-inch plate of toughened +steel. Three inches--yet it might have been as many hundred miles for +all the help they could give him. + +The yellow pigmies were circling in a macabre dance, their crimson +eyes turned always toward him, hate glowing from their crawling +depths. The whistle beyond changed in character. Darl recognized it. +It was a Martian space-radio, the code of which Earth scientists had +never been able to decipher. The Mercurian circle tightened, the fetid +smell of the dwarfs was overpowering. Low at first, then louder and +louder came the rattling cacophony of their chant. It filled the +confined space with an overpowering clamor. + +Darl writhed again, rolling over and over till he had reached the +barrier. The pigmies gave way before him; evidently they had been +warned to keep their claws off. With his insteps Thomas could reach +the helmet of his space suit, where it had been dropped against the +wall. He drove it against the metal and the clangor of its striking +reverberated through the chamber. Darl managed to regulate the sound. +He was now hammering out double knocks, long and short, spaced in the +dots and dashes of the Morse code. "H-E-L-P D-A-R-L H-E-L-P D-A-R-L +H-E-L-P...." + +It was like some scene out of a madman's dream, this dim-lit cavern +with its circling, dancing pigmies, the human figure lying sidewise on +the ground, the rattling, savage chant and the metallic tattoo of +Darl's hopeless message. A diabolic orgy of weird sound and +crisscrossing shadows. + + * * * * * + +It seemed hours that he pounded the helmet against the wall, hoping +that the sound of it would be audible above the clamor of the midgets. +His knees and hips were aching and numb, his leg ripped, almost to the +bone by the sharp edges of the jagged floor. A sudden thought struck +him. The fiber thongs that bound him were also rubbing against the +rock. His flesh was terribly torn. Perhaps the thongs, too, had been +frayed, weakened by the long continued friction. + +He stopped the pounding signals and began to force his knees apart +with all the power of his burly calves. The cords cut into his bulging +muscles, cut into and through his skin. The veins stood out on his +forehead, his neck was a corded pillar, his teeth bit through his lip +as he stifled a scream of pain. Then, startlingly, the fibers snapped. +His legs at least were free! He could fight, die fighting, and take +these others with him into oblivion! + +Darl leaped to his feet. Before the astounded natives realized what +was up he was charging into their circle. A well aimed kick sent one +crashing against the further wall. Another crunched against the rock. +Then they were on him, a frothing wave of tiny furies. A score or +more, they swarmed over him as a pack of African wild dogs swarms over +a huge water-buffalo marked for the kill. Their claws scratched and +tore, their sharp fangs stabbed into his flesh. His arms were still +tightly bound to his sides, and he lashed out with his sandaled feet, +swung his shoulders like battering rams, whirled in a dervish dance. +Their brittle bones cracked under his hammer blows. They dropped from +him like squashed flies. But, small as they were, he was terrifically +outnumbered. By sheer weight of numbers they dragged him down, and +piled on top of him as he lay, quivering and half-conscious, on the +blood-soaked floor. + + * * * * * + +Through the blackness that welled and burst in his brain, one thought +held. He had fooled the Martian, for in another instant the enraged +savages, would kill him and the password to Earth's outposts would be +safe. Already, he felt their fangs at his throat. + +A whirring rattle cut through the turmoil like a whip-lash, and the +heap of pigmies swiftly scattered. The man-bird from Mars was in the +room. To Darl he was a blurred blueness from which glittered those two +jet beads of eyes. As from a distance he heard a rumble, its meaning +beating dully to him. "Not so easy, Thomas, not so easy. I want that +signal, and by Tana, I'm going to have it." + +The Earthman felt a current of cooler air. Instinctively he drew it +into his lungs. It swept him up from the blackness that was closing in +about him, brought him back to consciousness and despair. The +chattering Mercurians crowded round to commence their interrupted +orgy. "For the last time, Earthman, will you talk?" + +Darl shook his head weakly and closed his eyes. In a moment-- + +Suddenly there was a crash of metal on metal. Another! The clangor of +falling steel. Now someone was shouting, "Darl, Darl, are you alive?" +All about him were shrill twitterings, squeaking calls, squeals and +scutterings. Darl's nostrils stung with the odor of burned flesh. A +door slammed.... + +He opened his eyes on a confused riot, saw Jim crouched, flashing +ray-gun in hand. There was a hole in the barrier, and a mob of +green-scaled Venusians were crowding through. Jim's ray caught the +last Mercurian and the dwarf vanished in a cloud of acrid, greasy +smoke. + +"Thank God you've come!" Darl managed to gasp. Then cool blackness +closed around him. + + * * * * * + +Darl Thomas lay on a cot in the headquarters tent, swathed from head +to foot in an inch-thick wrapping of bandages. Jim's theory was that +if one bandage was good, two were better, and he had cleaned out the +post's slender stock. The red-haired Earthman was seated at the cot's +side, watching the taciturn Scot operating the control board. He was +telling Darl of the stirring message from M-I-T-A, and of the +blanketing interference that marred the completion of the message. + +"I didn't know what to do first," he continued, "whether to go down +below and find out what Ran-los was battin' about, or shoot up to you +in the connin' tower with the message. Like the thick-head I am, I +picked the wrong thing. I sure got the gimmicks when I found the +look-out empty, an' a space suit an' ray-gun gone." Jim grinned +mirthlessly. "I was runnin' around in circles. You were outside, God +alone knows how long. Believe me, I had you crossed off the list! That +left two of us. With a war on, somebody had to stand guard in the +look-out, the control board here had to be watched, an' somebody else +had to get below. + +"I was just tryin' to figure out a way o' cuttin' myself in half when +I thought o' Ran-los. For a Weenie he's got a heck of a lot of sense. +I zoomed down, hauled him out o' his bunk, scooted back up, showed him +how to work the peri-telescope an' the big beam-thrower, an' left him +there on guard." + +"Best thing you could have done." Darl's voice was muffled by the +bandages in which his head, as well as the rest of his body, was +swathed. "He's got a head on his shoulders, that bird." + +"Somethin' told me to take a ray-gun down in the mine with me. I was +just steppin' out o' the elevator when I caught your last signal; -L-P +D-A-R-L was all I got, but it was enough. How you ever got the other +side of the barrier had me wingin', but you were there right enough, +and yellin' for help. Ran-los had been doin' some repairs on a head +support an' his weldin' machine was still there. Takin' an awful +chance on there bein' air on the other side, I butted it up against +the wall, shot the flame against the steel, and when she was soft +enough had some of the Weenies smash her in with sledge-hammers. First +thing I see is you, stretched out in a pool o' blood, with a couple of +those yellow imps just gettin' to work on you. I clipped them +first--that gave the Martian a chance to get away. An' then--well, you +know the rest." + + * * * * * + +"I owe you one for that, Jim. Too bad, though, the big fellow escaped; +we'll hear from him again, or I don't know the breed. Wonder how he +got on the planet." + +"The sucker must 'a' stowed away on the last recruit ship from Venus, +slipped in a case o' tools or somethin'. Mars has labor agents there, +too, you know, for their farms on Ganymede." + +"Possibly. He knew my name, and that I was chief here. He's rigged up +an air-lock out there, though I can't figure out how he gets the air." + +"That's easy. While I was repairin' the barrier I found a pipe runnin' +through. He's been stealin' ours. Which, by the same token, is why he +was punchin' holes in the Dome rather than down below, where he would +have been safer from discovery." + +"So that's it. Get anything more on the space-radio?" + +"Nope. Angus has kept the ear-flaps on, but the ether is still jammed. +Hey, what're you up to?" + +Darl was swinging his bandaged body up from the cot that had been set +up in the headquarters tent at his insistence. "Can't lie on my back," +he panted, "with that devil loose on the planet. Lord knows what he's +up to now. We're short-handed enough as it is." + +He rose to his feet, staggering with weakness and loss of blood. But +his indomitable will drove him on. "I'll take over the control board. +Send Angus up to relieve Ran-los, and you get below and speed up +production. Earth will need double quantities of surta for food, now +that there's a war on." + + * * * * * + +Jim turned to convey the order to the Scot, but he whirled to the +tent-flap instead as a riot of sound exploded outside. He tore aside +the canvas, and now there was a burst of shrill, frightened Venusian +cries, and a deeper, rattling chorus. Out on the Dome floor, pouring +from the shaft-head in a panic torrent, came the Venusians. And among +them, leaping, slashing, dragging them down, were countless little +yellow men, their fangs and tusks and curving claws crimson with the +blood of their victims. + +"Darl, Mac, they've broken through! The Mercs have broken through!" +The brown plain was a blood-spattered battlefield. Here and there +little groups of the green men, braver than the rest, fought with +spanner and hammer and whatever improvised weapon they may have found. +"Come on, give 'em hell!" The three Earthmen dashed out, weapons in +hand. But friend and foe were so intermingled that they could not use +the devastating ray of their hand-guns. The fighting Venusians were +vanishing under a tossing sea of yellow imps. And still the dwarfs +poured forth from the mine entrance. + +A blue form towered, far back, where all green had vanished, and only +Mercurians were left. The Martian's beak opened in a rattling call. A +group of hundreds of pigmies suddenly left the main fight, and came +forward with short, swift steps. They dashed straight for the Earth +trio and cut them off from the Venusians they were running to aid. + + * * * * * + +Side by side the three fought. Their weapons grew hot in their hands +as the beams cut great swaths in the seething ranks. The attackers +halted, gave back, then surged forward again as the roar of their +alien commander lashed them on. + +The Earthmen faced the frenzied throng. A cleared circle was still +around them. Beyond, the Venusians were all down. The Mercurian mob +was closing in, the Terrestrians' rays had lost half their range. In +moments now the ray-guns would be exhausted. + +"The plane!" Darl shouted. "Back to the plane, it's our only chance." + +The gyrocopter that could carry them aloft, out of the rout, was fifty +feet away. They fought through to it and reached it just as the last +faint charge flashed from Mac's tube. Jim was at the controls, Darl +smashed his useless projector into the chattering face of a dwarf that +had leaped on the Scot's shoulders and dragged Angus into the cockpit. + +The overloaded flier zoomed to the landing at the lofty air-lock's +manhole and hovered as Darl and Angus slipped home the hooks that held +it to the platform. "The spy has the Dome," Jim grunted, "but by God, +he hasn't got us. We'll be safe in the lock up here, till help comes. +And then--" + +"Safe is it?" Angus broke in. "Mon, luik ye what those bairns fra hell +are up to the noo." + +A yellow tide was rising about the base of each of the latticed steel +arches that vaulted to the Earthmen's refuge. On every side the dwarfs +were climbing, were swarming up the walls in numbers so great that +they concealed the metal beneath. Up, up they came, slowly but surely. +And right in the center of the plain, ankle-deep in the torn fragments +of the murdered Venusians, was the Martian, directing the attack. + + * * * * * + +Jim groaned. "I might've known he'd never let us get away. It's slow +bells for us, I guess. Hey, where's Darl?" + +"Gone weethin. No, guid losh, he's here!" + +Darl appeared, his features pale and drawn, carrying an armful of +ray-guns. "Grab these," he snapped. "We're not licked yet." + +"Licked, hell!" Jim's roar reverberated. "We've just begun to fight!" +The Scot was silent, but the battle light shone in his eyes. In +another moment the Terrestrians were kneeling, were raking the roof +girders as the mounting Mercurians came within range. Each had two +ray-guns in his hands, and a little pile of extra tubes beside him. +They fought silently, wasting not a single blast. + +Six white rays flamed through the misty, humid air, and striking the +teeming girders, swept them clean. A greasy, horrible smoke cloud +gathered along the shell and drifted slowly down, till the concrete +blocks from which the steel framework sprang were hidden in a black +pall. Fighters, these three, true ITA men who had left memories of +their battle-prowess on more than one wild planet! Gaunt-bodied +demi-gods of war, they hurled crackling bolts of destruction from +their perch at the Dome top. By hundreds, by thousands, the Mercurian +pigmies vanished in dark vapor, or plunged, blackened corpses, into +the fog that billowed below. + +One by one the tubes were discharged and tossed down at the seething +mob. The heaped weapons dwindled, and still the climbing hordes +renewed themselves, came on in endless mounting streams to sure +destruction. The open tunnel vomited forth a torrent of gibbering +dwarfs. From the uttermost burrows of the planet the pigmies were +flooding in at the call of the Martian who stood scatheless beneath +and lashed them on with the strange dominance he held over them. The +Earthmen fought on, endlessly, till they were sick of killing, +nauseated with slaughter. And still the snouted, red-eyed imps came +on. + + * * * * * + +Jim snatched up his last two ray-guns. Out of the corner of his eye he +noted that Darl was using but one, the other, his last, was thrust +into the chief's belt. He wondered at this, but a new spurt of yellow +above the oily fog wiped the question from his lips. "Swallow that, +you filthy lice! Hope you like the way it tastes!" His guns spouted +death. + +"I'm through!" The call came at last from McDermott. "Me too!" Jim +Holcomb hurled his final, futile tubes down at the blue figure of the +Mars man. A moment's hush held the trio. Then Jim flexed his great +hands. "Well, these'll take care of a couple more o' them before I +check in." + +"No you don't," Darl barked, his face a graven image. "Inside with +you. The lock will hold 'em off." + +"Yeah? Look." + +Thomas swung in the direction Jim was pointing. Rising above the murk, +something glinted in the pale light. On the furthest upright a clumped +group of climbing savages were struggling to drag up one of the +welding machines, a long black hose snaking from its cylindrical bulk. + +"They'll cut through the steel in fifteen minutes with that. The +bloody bugger ain't missin' a trick." + +"Inside, I tell you." Darl's crisp tone of command brooked no denial. +The three crowded into the cool recesses of the manmade aerie. Angus +slammed the steel door shut. Even if by some miracle the Dome wall +should be pierced and the air in the main vault dissipated into outer +space, this air-tight compartment hung from the hemisphere's roof +would remain, a last refuge, till the atmosphere within had become +poisonous through the Earthmen's slow breathing. But the Martian had +anticipated Darl's final move. The oxy-hydrogen jet of the welding +machine the dwarfs were hoisting would make short work of their final +defense. + + * * * * * + +From the conning-tower above Ran-los called excitedly. Through all the +long battle the Venusian had remained steadfast at the peri-telescope, +scanning the vacant terrain outside, and the heavens. As Darl and Jim +dashed for the stairs Mac ran after them, crying out, "What did he say, +mon?" + +"Space ship in sight," Darl flung over his shoulder as he reached the +upper landing. + +"Praise be! Noo the haythan weel get his desairts!" + +"Yeah, maybe--if it's an Earth ship. But we won't be here to see it." + +Jim's red head was bending over the peri-telescope view-screen. "She's +still thirty thousand miles away. Give her a speed of fifteen per +second--she'll have to slow up to land, can't make it under forty-five +minutes. By then we'll be in little pieces. It took me ten minutes to +burn through the barrier when I rescued Darl, and it won't take the +Mercs any longer to get at us." + +Darl was very sober as he looked on with narrowed eyes. Against a +background of velvet black, gold spangled, the slim space-traveler +showed. The sun's rays caught her, and she was a tiny silver fish in +the boundless void. + +"Luik ye, mon, luik ye!" Angus, fairly dancing with excitement, +elbowed Darl aside. "She's from Airth, richt enow!" At the nose of the +oncoming flier a rapid succession of colored lights had flashed, the +recognition signal that should give her safe access to the Dome. Again +there was a coruscation of coded flashes. "She's a battle cruiser, +what's mair!" the Scot exclaimed. + + * * * * * + +Darl sprang to the keyboard that manipulated the signal lights from +the Dome's roof. "No use," he said, after a short while. "The Martian +has cut off the current from the dynamos. I can't warn the ship." He +made a hopeless gesture. + +Jim looked at him wonderingly. "Warn 'em? What for? Even if we are all +dead when she reaches here, at least she'll clean up the Mercs, and +retake the Dome for Earth." + +"Don't you see it? When the Mars man has once blasted his way in here +and disposed of us, he'll be ready for the space ship. Her captain +can't suspect anything wrong. He must have left Earth at the time of +the ultimatum, and would easily get here before any ship could be sent +out from Mars. He'll come on till he's within range of the +beam-thrower, and the Martian will aim, press the trigger and the +Earth ship and her crew of a half a thousand brave lads will be +star-dust." + +"Oh God!" Jim was white-faced. "Isn't there anything we can do? Maybe +if he doesn't get our all-clear signal he'll sheer off." This was +clutching at straws. + +"Why should he? He must know how short-handed we are, and will simply +think we're not on watch, or that our signal lights are out of order. +Matter of fact, if he were at all suspicious he should be alternating +his course right now--and he hasn't. Look." + +Seemingly motionless, but really splitting the ether with terrific +speed, the warship was coming straight on to garrison the beleaguered +post. She had never wavered from her straight course for the Dome. The +little group was silent, watching the help that was coming at last, +coming too late. + + * * * * * + +From below there came a thunder of sound. Jim slid down the stairs. An +irregular disk on the wall was glowing cherry-red from the heat of the +blow-torch without, and the metal was quivering under the Mercurian's +sledge-hammer blows. "Darl's right," he almost sobbed as he gazed +helplessly. "They'll be through in no time. The Dome's gone, we're +gone, the space ship's gone!" + +"Let me pass, Jim." Thomas' quiet voice sounded behind him. Holcomb +turned. His leader was in a space suit, the helmet still unfastened. + +"Blazes! Where the devil are you going?" + +"Here, cover me with this till I reach the gyrocopter, then get back +quick, and seal the air-lock." Darl thrust into Jim's hand the ray-gun +he had previously reserved. "There's only one way to kill off the +Martian and his mob. I'm taking it." + +Suddenly Jim Holcomb understood. "No, Darl, no--you can't do it! Not +you! Let me go! I'm just a dumbhead. Let me go!" + +"Thanks, Jimmy, but it's my place." Darl's voice was low, and very +calm. "I was in charge, and I lost the Dome. If I can save the boys on +the ship, and you two, it's the least I can do. Good-by, old man. Give +my regards to Earth." + +Thomas' face was gray-white. The thick bandages that still swathed +him, Jim glimpsed them through the open neckpiece of the suit, gave +him the semblance of a mummy. The helmet clicked shut. Swallowing a +lump that rose in his throat, Jim pulled open the door. A wave of +Mercurians surged in, to be seared into nothingness by his weapon. He +was in the doorway, his ray sweeping the platform clear. + +Darl was out now, stepping into the flier that still hung by its +hooked moorings. Jim caught a flash of blue and looked up. The Martian +was hanging to a girder just above, his green tube pointing straight +at Darl. A white ray spurted from Jim's gun. The Martian's weapon and +the hand that held it vanished in the sizzling blast. The plane was +loose! Jim leaped inside the air-lock, slammed the steel door shut, +clamped it, and sprang for the quartz peer-hole. + + * * * * * + +Darl's gyrocopter was diving on a long slant for the Dome wall. Faster +and faster it went, till all Jim could see was a white streak in the +smoky dimness. And now he could see the vast interior, the teeming +plain, the dwarf-festooned girders and roof-beams. He stood rigid, +waiting breathlessly. Then the plane struck--fair in the center of a +great panel of quartz. The wall exploded in a burst of flying, +shattered splinters. A deafening crash rocked the Dome. + +Jim clung to his port-hole, tears rolling down his cheeks, unashamed. +The plane, and Darl, vanished. Jim saw the black smoke masses whirl +through the jagged hole in the Dome's wall as the air burst out in a +cyclonic gust. He saw the vast space filled with falling Mercurians, +saw a blue form plunge down and crash far below. He knew that in all +that huge hemisphere, and in the burrows beneath it, there was no life +save himself, and Angus, and the faithful Ran-los. For only in this +compartment that clung to the roof of the Dome was there left air to +breathe. And, from the void beyond, the silver space ship sped on +toward Mercury, sped on to a safe landing that, but for Darl Thomas's +sacrifice, would have been her doom.... + +Guided by Jim and Angus, a party of men from the battle-flier, +equipped with oxygen respirators, went to the aid of Darl. They dug +him out from under his crumpled plane and the piled splinters of +quartz. His metal was dented and twisted, but unpierced. They carried +him tenderly to the space ship, and carefully set him down. The ship's +physician listened long with his stethoscope, then looked up and +smiled. + +"He's alive," the doctor said, "just barely alive. The thick padding +of bandages must have saved him from the full shock of the crash. +They're hard to kill, these ITA men. I'll be able to bring him around, +God willing." + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Great Dome on Mercury, by Arthur Leo Zagat + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT DOME ON MERCURY *** + +***** This file should be named 29190.txt or 29190.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/1/9/29190/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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