Читать книгу Dwellers in Darkness: The Golden Amazon Saga, Book Fourteen - John Russell Fearn - Страница 6

CHAPTER ONE

FLIGHT INTO DARKNESS

Darkness, utter and complete. A darkness so intense it was more than blackness: it was the utter absence of all light. In front, to the rear, on all sides, there was not a star, not a glimmer, not even a luminous smudge—and such a condition, in the midst of the Milky Way, was rather surprising.

The only light in the Universe at the moment was inside the huge spaceship Ultra, moving leisurely through the vacuity. The light, atomic-powered, speared back from polished facia and switches, from banks of instruments and the complicated mass of the power plant. Everywhere inside the ship was drenched in the soft radiance, but outside lay the brittle, deadly dark of the void of space without a single guiding star.

A lone observer, clothed entirely in close-fitting black, stirred at last from before of the giant outlook windows of non-reflective glass. She rose and stretched her arm languidly—a magnificent figure of a woman, perfect in physique, beautiful of face, ageless in years. The fabulous golden Amazon of Earth.

“No end to it yet, apparently,” she commented. “Maybe it’s time we had a meal, then we can look again.”

“Good idea,” replied the giant at the control board, and he put in the automatic pilot and then rose to his feet—a classic god of a man, standing seven feet tall and proportionately broad. Here was Abna, once lord of Jupiter, but now the husband of the Amazon and, with her, joint leader of the quartet known as the Cosmic Crusaders, At the moment the other two members of the quartet—Viona, daughter of Abna and the Amazon, and Mexone, husband of Viona, were in the sleeping quarters, waiting to be alerted if anything unusual showed itself.

But nothing did—or had. All four knew that the Ultra had accidentally wandered into the starless region known on Earth as the ‘Coal Sack’, and since then the great vessel had plunged onwards, and still onwards, into the unknown. It was the first time, in all the wanderings through space and dimensions, that any of the four had arrived in a space where light seemed nonexistent.

“Any ideas about this region we’re in?” Abna asked, striding to the nearest window and peering into the vacuum.

“A few, perhaps, but I don’t know how accurate they are.”

The Amazon crossed to her husband’s side and for a while they stood gazing together. Presently Abna’s great arm stole around the Amazon’s shoulder and he laughed a little.

“What?” the Amazon asked, surprise in her depthless violet eyes.

“Oh, I was only thinking. We travel countless light-centuries, visit all manner of worlds and get lost in all sorts of dimensions, yet now we don’t know where we are! A bit of a comedown for the great scientists, isn’t it? Maybe we should go back to Earth and live a quiet life.”

“A quiet life!” There was utter contempt in the Amazon’s voice. “You know how much use we’d have for that don’t you? Our purpose is to always keep going, to bring the benefits of science to—”

“To the worlds that need them,” Abna finished “Yes, Vi, I know—but we’re not doing that right now. We’ve been going for forty-eight hours at a speed about half that of light, and much though I hate to remind you, the power plant is not inexhaustible.”

The Amazon gave a little start and pulled free of Abna’s grip. With the lithe movements of a panther she hurried over to the power plant and surveyed it. Her brows knitted slightly.

“Not much left is there?” Abna asked, coming to her side.

The Amazon did not answer. She stared at the copper cube in the power plant’s matrix—the copper from the atomic energy of which all motive power and light for the ship was derived. It had originally been nearly two feet square. Now it was shrunken to a quarter of the size.

“I’d better cut the accelerative power to zero,” Abna said. “Then we’ll have just enough reserve to repel us from any foreign bodies that may show up.… We’ve got to have copper from somewhere, and quickly. When that’s gone, we haven’t a scrap.”

The Amazon was about to reply when Viona and Mexone came into the control room, both of them obviously refreshed after long sleep.

“So we’re still going!” Viona exclaimed, looking through the window.

“And only a thimbleful of power left,” the Amazon answered her, grimly. “If this dark space doesn’t present a copper-bearing planet pretty soon, we’re going to be in difficulties.”

The Amazon moved from the power plant, her face troubled. “If only we had a star, or something, on which to fix our attention!”

She turned to the windows again and stared out on the utter blackness. Then presently she looked around as Viona touched her on the shoulder.

“Maybe I’m wrong but—” Viona’s blue eyes were anxious. “Maybe I’m wrong, but are the lights in here getting dimmer? They seem more green than they were. Normally they’re blue-white.”

The Amazon, Abna, and Mexone all gazed around them, then after a moment they looked at each other. They were convinced of one thing: there was nothing wrong with Viona’s eyesight. The lights were changing color, altering even as they watched from green to a pale shade of yellow

“The light spectrum’s altering,” the Amazon said at last “If the next apparent color is orange, then we can be pretty sure that light is sliding down the scale to extinction! But—why?”

Nobody answered her, for the simple reason that there did not seem to be an answer—not yet. And sure enough, with the passage of moments, the lights became a dull orange glow.

“Something, somewhere, is producing a spatial warp,” Abna said deliberately. “That causes the normal wavelength of light to be either extended or contracted, to such an extent that light as such has no meaning to our eyes. And we’re steadily flying to the source of the trouble, which is why our lights are dying. If we keep on going, we may fly beyond the center of the disturbance and find light gradually resuming.…”

He stopped abruptly. The lights gradually dimmed, faded some more, and left the four in the control room like spectral presences. Then even this faded, and darkness came. Absolute. Complete. The overwhelming darkness of outer space.

Complete silence. None of the four moved, nor did they panic. Their nerves were too hardened to break down—but each one of them was sorely, desperately puzzled. They began to assess the position. Hurtling through utter blackness at half the speed of light, unable to read instruments, unable to produce light in any form, they had nothing left to rely on now but the utmost ingenuity and level-headedness.

“You there, Abna?” came the Amazon’s voice presently.

“Still here,” he responded. “Stay where you are and I’ll come to you.”

He moved, lunging into the utter darkness, and abruptly he found the Amazon next to him.

The Amazon felt Abna draw away from her, and for a while there was the sound of his movements and a sound like glass being tapped. After a while he came back to her side.

“Testing the thermometer,” he explained. “Fortunately the degree numbers are raised, so I’ve been able to feel their outlines, and the mercury level actuates a sliding pointer which I’ve also been able to feel.” Pause. “We were at sixty-five Fahrenheit: now we’re at sixty-three. So we’re already beginning to lose heat. Neither heat nor light is being conducted anywhere in the ship. From somewhere, something is being generated which causes space to fail in its function of carrying light and heat—and we’re in the midst of it.”

“We know the normal vibrations of light, and of space itself,” the Amazon mused. “Suppose we find out, if possible, what the present spatial vibration is?”

“Not so easy in this utter dark, but I’m willing.”

The Amazon moved, feeling her way around carefully. Abna did not attempt to help her: she was better left with unhampered movement. Out of the void the voices of Vionu and Mexone spoke occasionally, mainly to inquire as to what was being done.

“I’m finding out the vibration of the space outside the ship,” the Amazon replied, amidst a clinking of instruments. “I obviously can’t see these interior readings, so I’ll have to grope my way outside and take a reading on portable equipment. It works on the raised slide method and has raised figure readings, so I’ll be able to ‘feel’ the answer. That’s better; I was having a bit of struggle getting into my spacesuit.… Back soon,” she finished, and there was the sound of her shambling out of the control room to the emergency lock in the main corridor.

It seemed to the others, left in the dreadful darkness, that hours passed before the Amazon at length returned.

“I’ve taken a spatial reading, and judging by all normal standards it’s completely haywire. That bears out your theory, Abna, that something is causing a warp. But it also suggests something else: a warp can be straightened. We know the exact figure for normal space, the figure necessary for it to carry light, heat, and so forth. We have only two chances—one, to fly on in the hope that we’ll eventually draw away from this strange region: the other is to try and build the necessary equipment to straighten out the trouble, at least within the immediate vicinity of the Ultra.”

“The last suggestion is obviously impossible,” Viona remarked. “We can’t do a thing with this utter darkness.”

“We might feel our way to constructing some small, local neutralizer,” the Amazon mused. “If we could do that, we could see our way to making a bigger one. No doubt about being able to construct the thing: we’ve all the necessary knowledge and machine tools.”

“I think Viona is right,” came the voice of Abna. “It’s too complicated, Vi. Give it a while, and see what happens.”

“Look!” Mexone cried suddenly. “The lights! I believe they’re appearing again!”

Instantly Abna and the Amazon turned, looking upwards. They both felt a tremendous sense of relief, of gratitude even, at a dim vision of numberless dull red points glowing in the void. Without doubt they were the ceiling lights, and those of the switchboard.

Motionless, the four watched, and sure enough the colors began to reappear, in reverse order, merging from the red into orange, and then from orange into pale yellow, green, and finally the normal whiteness. At the same time gentle waves of warmth from the restored heaters began to make themselves felt.

“Well, thank heaven for that!” the Amazon exclaimed; she looked abruptly through the window. There was still nothing to be seen. Either there were no stars in the area, or else the spatial warp was still affecting them.

“Time we got some action on this,” Abna said, picking up the Amazon’s discarded space suit and putting it in the locker. “We shall have to go back through this dark area, evidently, so we’ll be prepared for it. We’d better get busy with that neutralizer you suggested, Vi.”

He turned to the control board and switched on the power, gradually increasing to maximum strength on the forward jets.

“What’s the idea?” the Amazon asked.

“Slowing us down to a standstill—which will take a considerable time. We want to see what really lies in the dark area we’ve passed. There may be something intriguing, particularly if the dark area has been created artificially.”

“While you two geniuses work out the details I’ll fix a meal,” Viona said. “Come on, Mexone—give me a hand.”

They hurried from the control room, and after a moment Abna came and joined the Amazon where she sat at the console bench.

“This neutralization business is the least of our troubles, Vi,” he said, glancing toward the power plant. “My main worry is fuel. If we don’t get copper soon, we’re done for. I haven’t advertised the fact too much to Viona and Mexone, but I can’t conceal it from you. I’m using up power with every moment we slow down, too.”

“I’m aware of it, Abna. That’s why I want to get the space warp sorted out. I refuse to believe that a space can exist where there are no planets or suns whatever. It isn’t natural law. So, if we can only get light, we might be able to spot something worth tackling—for copper, I mean.”

“I hadn’t thought of that angle,” Abna commented. “But surely, if there are planets anywhere around, us their gravitation would be obvious on our instruments?”

“Depends on their nearness. We may be too far away for them to affect us, but that wouldn’t prevent us seeing them.”

The logic was obvious, so Abna made no further comment. Instead he pooled his scientific knowledge with the Amazon’s in the creation of a machine calculated to restore exterior space to its normal condition. And it was a work that involved the most incredible intricacy, the use of computers, and hours of pondering over this or that detail. A meal came and went almost unnoticed, so absorbed were both of them in their cogitations.

Eight hours later they felt they had a reasonable instrument, which, theoretically at least, promised to do all they hoped.

“Definitely it should work,” the Amazon said, seating herself with a touch of weariness.

“Definitely,” Abna agreed, musing. “The one thing I foresee, however, is that the effect may he progressive, and that from the original 100-mile area there may spread an immense tide of neutralization throughout the whole area, much the same as throwing a stone into a small pond produces ripples right to the edge.”

“It’s possible,” the Amazon admitted. “If so, all the better. We will be able to see farther, and as long as our neutralizer remains in action the effect will be maintained. At the very least we’ll tie able to see 100 miles ahead of us.”

“Which is not much use for observing planets,” Viona remarked. “We’ll only know there is one when we’re 100 miles from it. And at our present velocity we’d never be able to pull up in time.”

Abna glanced at her. “That presents no problem. By the time we’ve got this machine finished, our velocity will have slowed to nearly zero. After that as long as power holds out, we can retrace our way at a crawl, and the only real speed we’ll gain is when we’re in the actual gravitational pull of a planet. Since the accumulation of speed will be very gradual—at least at first—we’ll have time to slow down before we actually sight the planet. But I’m gambling that the neutralization effect, once started, will expand way beyond the initial 100-mile radius. Right! Then that’s settled. The next thing to do is get the neutralizer constructed, and in that we can all lend a hand.”

Twelve hours…twenty-four…thirty-six. And in that time the Ultra had continued to lose speed. The neutralization machine was finished and required only linking to the power plant.

“I think we’re ready,” the Amazon said, giving the machine a final once-over. “Fortunately, it will operate through the insulation of the Ultra, so there’ll be no need to take it outside. All right, Abna, link it up.”

Abna nodded, made the necessary connections, and then stood back in satisfaction. Presently the Amazon crossed to the control board and took a grip of the special switch provided for the purpose.

“Here goes,” she said. “And let’s hope we get light on a dark subject!”

She closed the switch and a pilot light on the spatial machine lighted immediately, proving at least that power was flowing through as arranged. The quartet moved to the windows and gazed on to the all-too-familiar darkness. Seconds passed into minutes and there was no apparent change.

“Yet it’s working,” the Amazon said, frowning. “Why, then, do we not get a result?”

“Possibly because there’s nothing within 100 miles that can show light,” Abna responded. “I shouldn’t worry about it too much. Give it time.”

Turning, he crossed to the control board and with a final burst from the forward rockets he brought the vessel to a virtual standstill. He gave a troubled glance toward the power plant, then slowly eased the power into the rear rockets. When an infinitesimal but steady acceleration was registering he cut down to keep the thrust constant.

“We’re going back the way we came, nearly the same route,” he explained, as the others glanced at him. “We’ll inevitably come to that dark area in time, but let’s hope it won’t be dark on this occasion. Incidentally, everything is contingent on the copper holding out—even the neutralizer machine, since it’s powered from the plant. If the copper fails us, we’ll have no lights, power, or anything else. In fact, it will be the finish.”

The others glanced. There was little more than an orange-sized piece of copper left between the jaws of the power plant’s matrix.

The hours passed. Sleeping and eating periods went by. The copper still decreased, and the blank void remained—at least until Viona, returning from a rest period, went to the window and stared outside. She was expecting the all-familiar dark, but this time there was something different. There were luminous edges on the face of infinity.

“Mother! Father! Come and look!”

Immediately the Amazon and Abna hurried to her side. Mexone, also, who had just come in, drifted across to the non-reflective glass.

“Stars and nebulae beginning to appear,” the Amazon said tensely. “That can only mean one thing. Our neutralization of the spatial warp has had a progressive effect, just as you theorized, Abna. Definitely the view is becoming clearer with every moment.”

This was definitely correct. In a matter of minutes, further stars had merged into view, while those already in sight had brightened in intensity. The darkness of the whole area was rapidly being dispelled.

“At this rate, there ought to be something visible in front,” Abna said abruptly, and turned to the main front observation window. Then he gave a start. Directly in the path of the Ultra, lying some millions of miles away as yet, was the outermost planet of a six-planet system, lighted by an extremely distant green sun.

“From the look of things,” the Amazon said, as she and the others joined him, “we must have passed very close to that planet straight ahead. Quite possibly it could be the main cause of the darkness. Wonder why?”

“I don’t know. At the moment I’m interested in something far more vital. That green sun seems to suggest copper—and if it has a copper flame in its spectrum, then it’s logical to think its planets must have it, too. Soon find out.”

Glad of the chance for some activity at last, he swung the telescopic spectroscope into action and gazed at it intently. The Amazon watched also, and she caught her breath in satisfaction at the intense emerald flame that the spectroscope reproduced.

“That’s copper, by all the laws we know,” she said, her eyes bright. “In that case, we ought to land on that planet nearest us and see what we can find.”

Throughout the journey the Amazon was continually making tests, and finally she made an announcement.

“No air whatever on that planet, which probably explains why everything is so sharp and clear. Apparently no water either. Gravity seems about the same as Earth’s, which is an advantage. Sunlight, what there is of it, is about a tenth of that received on Earth. A desolate, twilight world, yet apparently rich in copper veins if my experiments are correct.”

Abna nodded briefly. His whole attention now was concentrated on bringing the vessel down without mishap, and this did not prove a difficult task with no hampering atmosphere or adverse conditions. The Ultra finally leveled out, swept between two mighty mountain peaks, and then coasted down to one of the innumerable plateaus. A slight jerk and the journey was over.

The Amazon, Viona, and Mexone moved to the nearest window and gazed outside. They were not particularly impressed. The scene reminded them of a lunar landscape, except that in this case the rocks and plateau were utterly black instead of covered with reflective pumice dust. The sky, due to the absence of air, was, of course, completely black, and powdered with myriads of glittering stars and unfamiliar constellations, backed by the distant green sun with its mighty bars of zodiacal light shafting into the void.

“Seems our machine has worked all right,” Abna remarked, glancing towards it. “We’ve certainly brought light back to this region, and from the look of things, it’s still spreading out to the farther stars. I can imagine several astronomers on Earth in the far future—when the light from here finally reaches the solar system—scratching their heads and trying to figure out why the famous Black Coal Sack has suddenly become star-strewn again.”

“The unexplained puzzle for us is why it was ever black in the first place,” the Amazon responded; then with sudden activity she turned from the window. “However, first things first. We’re here to find copper. Let’s go.”

It took them perhaps ten minutes to don their space suits, equip themselves with instruments, and then get the airlock open. The air rushed out of the Ultra in a singing hiss and left clogged masses of iron-hard frost around the rim of the airlock, where the vacuum of space held sway.

“Right?” came Abna’s question, through his audiophone.

Three heads nodded inside the grotesque transparent helmets. Abna clipped the safety line to all three belts, after his own, and then fastened the loose end to a projection on the airlock. By this means constant touch with the ship was possible. This done, Abna stepped out into the waste of rock and then stood surveying the merciless, star-dusted sky.

In a moment or two the Amazon had caught up with him, and his survey ceased. As usual, the Amazon was concentrated solely on one thing—in this case the finding of copper. The actual scenery—such as it was—presented no interest. With Abna at her side, and Viona and Mexone coming on behind, she went carefully forward over the plain, holding the long copper-detecting analyzer straight ahead of her and moving it from side to side with a fanlike movement. In practice, the instrument was not unlike a mine detector.

“Right!” she exclaimed suddenly in her audio-phone. “There’s copper here—and judging from the racket the instrument’s making, there’s more than we can ever handle.”

Abna checked her findings with his own instrument and then gave a nod. He motioned his enormous gloved hand to Mexone and Viona.

“We start drilling right here,” he explained. “Unless I miss my guess, these rocks are actually copper themselves. If so, we can load the Ultra to the limit.”

The four went to work immediately, a fantastic little group under the icy stars. And Abna’s guess that the rocks themselves were copper was substantiated a moment later as the shafting flame from their electronic drills reflected back from the gleaming metal, Copper in abundance, thousands of tons of it, ready for the picking up.

For nearly two hours the quartet were at work. While Abna and the Amazon dug the metal up in gleaming chunks—only the topside being dull in appearance—Viona and Mexone transported it back to the Ultra and set the shaping machine to work.

Automatically it shaved and modeled the rough chunks into gleaming cubes exactly the right size for the power plant’s matrix.

At the end of the two hours the storage hold was well stocked with copper blocks, and the Amazon and Abna relaxed a little in their efforts and paused to survey the bleak desolation of the landscape.

“A wealthy planet as far as copper is concerned,” Abna commented at length, “but absolutely useless for anything else. Wonder if life ever existed here?”

The Amazon did not answer. Abna glanced at her, and in the weak green sunlight he beheld her studying one of the instruments on her gold belt.

“Anything the matter?” he inquired.

“I don’t quite know.” The Amazon’s voice was hesitant. “We don’t feel it much through these suits of ours, Abna, but it may interest you to know that we’re surrounded by a tremendous concentration of radioactivity. I just thought I’d test out the Geiger counter—and look at what happens!”

The Amazon held forth the small Geiger counter instrument in her hand. It was clicking industriously, and continued to do so whichever way she moved it.

“Mmm, certainly pretty strong,” Abna agreed, looking about him. “Wonder what the cause is?”

Together they looked around them, but beheld nothing that might account for the phenomenon; then the Amazon said;

“This instrument is extremely sensitive, don’t forget. It would pick up radioactivity even if it were located on the other side of the planet. The impulses seem to be the strongest in.…” She tested the instrument carefully. “In that direction,” she said finally. “Due north.”

“Where there’s apparently nothing but flat plain. Only one thing we can do—use the Ultra and travel northwards to investigate. Let’s be going.”