Everett C. Smith

“ The Joy Bubble was becoming more and more disc-shaped, and it was slowly turning on a major axis as the contending forces became uncentered.
"Flopping like a flapjack," Lents commented as he watched the shifting vista. A moment later; "It's a close squeeze. See there, past the horizon—a prominence?"
It was like a white plume, this jet of vapor thrown far into space. ”

“ The big Jovian, they learned, was chief of the ship. He told them his name was Musters, and introduced his officers. They were an intelligent, efficient lot. From them the Earthmen learned something of the social organization of the human race as it survived on Jupiter.
"The race followed its natural evolution," intelligent and handsome young Lieutenant Reko explained to Sine as they leaned against a railing and gazed out of an unshuttered port at the somber splendors of Jupiter as it gradually swelled and covered the firmament. ”

“ In a few minutes the hull was getting uncomfortably warm.
Lents laid down his pad.
"They will crash!" he declared. "But they have an hour, the fools! Instead of trying to burn us why don't they get into their space suits and free themselves?"
Jan, resting on the bench, shook his shaggy head.
"They are a great people, stupid but great. They will try to punish us till they die."
The wreckage drifted closer and closer to Jupiter, and still the red beam played steadily on the fleeing prisoners' ship. ”

“ Sine exclaimed. His body glistened like wet bronze as he stood in the half darkness and strained to catch some sound over the steady patter of rain. "Lents, quit puffing!"
From high overhead, some sounds were coming to them. A steady, droning rush, like the sustained exhaust of rockets. That must be from the visitors, for the official ships were equipped with the gravity buttons. Now and again one of the glowing teardrops would be thrown violently from its course, evidently the effect of impingement of the gravity beam. But not one was disabled. The defense ships were not faring so well. ”

“ Setting the nose of their vessel against the gigantic metal satellite, they directed the stern gravity buttons against a distant star, and applied full force to slow the sphere in its orbit.
The forces liberated were terrific. The sphere's tough skin, three inches thick, buckled and bent inward until the ship was almost buried in a pit of its own creation. Jan stood hunched over the activator lever like a great spider, ready to throw it into neutral at the first sign of an actual rupture, which would send them crashing through the internal cells and girders of the sphere. ”

“ The space ship was tumbling end over end, lazily, bringing the thing into view first at one port—then another.
"No acceleration!" Kass reported, amazement mingling with hope. "Same speed—we may still hit—but no evidence of gravity. We're falling toward it on momentum alone!"
Lents' brown eyes twinkled with perplexity in their pits of fat.
"The force, whatever it is, doesn't seem like anything in nature. But if we're traveling on momentum alone we can pull away with our emergency rockets—though I hate to waste the fuel."
Sine leaped to the rocket controls. "Grab handholds!" ”

“ For some minutes there was no sound save the subdued thunder of the hull as it trembled under the tug of the rockets. Then a light flashed redly and a gong sounded. The signal that meant, "fuel half gone." Sine shut off the power, crawled out stiffly. His first glance out of a port showed that they were still falling toward the mysterious cylindrical space wanderer.
Kass wiped the sweat from his bald head.
"No use wasting any more effort," he said hoarsely. "That thing is a space ship, and there are men in it. ”

“ The Earthmen, weak and exhausted by their long exposure, resisted their desire to lie down on the floor. They stood before the governor, hemmed in by hostile fighting men, and tried to maintain the traditions and dignity of their planet.
"We were not in communication with your slaves," Sine declared. "You should know that. Your radio monitors would have picked up any messages, and your own patrol ships picked us up when we were far out in space. Our mission is one of peace. As for your quarrels, they do not concern us. We are strictly neutral." ”

“ The rays haven't made a freak out of her yet. I want to save her. Give me a ship and I'll take her out myself!"
"That we can not do. Individuals do not count. One, or a hundred, may die. We can not endanger our plan."
The counselors had drawn a little away from the Earthmen, unconsciously symbolizing their support to The Manager. Again he raised his bony arm.
"Up above there our ships are destroying every city of the First Race on the planet. Our power-beams for the glowing ships are encircling Jupiter in a network of red and death—death to the oppressors! The Pleasure Bubble's turn will come. ”

“ Kass and Lents looked at one another blankly. They started as Sine spoke up sonorously, beside them:
"Officially, we are supposed to be neutral. But if you attack The Bubble and rescue the poor devils in the dark hemisphere I'll help!"
But The Manager shook his enormous head slightly.
"That we can not do. That satellite is too far out in space. There is no concealment, and we can not yet fight their patrol ships in space."
"Listen!" Sine persisted. "There is a man there I know. He's about ready to die, unless he gets away. And he has a girl, a kid of fourteen or fifteen. ”

“ Sine nodded comprehension, his eyes hardening as he thought of the grotesque, distorted wreck of humanity who was Proserpina's father. A mere whim of fortune that he had not been condemned to that hell before she was born, or she might have been one of those unfortunate mutations—
Might yet become one! Not only could the rays deform the offspring. They could distort the full-grown, normal body. Sine felt increasingly dismayed as he thought of this immature, quiet-eyed girl, this waif of an alien world. ”

“ But when the Earthmen accompanied the girl to the secret workshop, directly next to the sphere's outer skin, they found she had spoken the truth in every respect. The men there, nearly all pathetic wrecks of the First Race's system, were at first a little doubtful about admitting the Earthmen, but one after another they were won over to the idea of seeking sanctuary on Earth rather than on some satellite of Jupiter where they would never be entirely safe. Besides, the Earthmen, though they had been stripped of all their weapons, represented additional fighting strength. ”

“ It is the goal and object of every one of our people. But it is costly and only a small portion of our population can be accommodated at a time. You may judge the kind of place it is by the name the public has given it: 'The Pleasure Bubble.' Come to the astrogator's cabin now; I'll show it to you."
They followed Musters to a compartment in the rounded bow of the great ship, stared out of a quartz port between opened shutters.
They saw Jupiter, immense, formidable, a mass of turbulent vapors, a depressingly drab scene. Suddenly Lents exclaimed, incredulous;
"Look! A satellite! ”

“ The force they have been using on us is some kind of gravity beam—probably it's also their means of space propulsion. They mean to capture us, no doubt——"
"And they've reversed the beam!" Lents puffed as he turned away from the ampliscope, pulling his sweat-soaked toga away from his fat body with thumb and forefinger. "We're decelerating fast, but we can't feel it because the force acts on every particle of our bodies exactly the same as on the ship——"
"Proving," added Sine, looking out of the port curiously, "that it's a true gravity beam!" ”

“ Even women of the Second Race had no desire to share the fate of a man condemned to a lifetime in the black half of the Bubble. Those few women who had accompanied their men to the metal satellite would, of course, be taken along, for the escape ship was commodious.
The next two weeks were filled with arduous labor, but at last the ship was ready, and observation through a small port which had been installed, showed that they were about to enter the shadow of Jupiter. Under cover of darkness they would leave the airlock. They would accelerate past The Bubble. ”

“ Kass said. "You designed and built her."
Sine made his way forward. It was no longer necessary to use the handholds, for the pull of the mysterious body was already so powerful that it entirely eliminated the free floating so familiar to space travelers. Sine looked through the grated outlook windows, past the gracefully curved bow of the ship. At the very tip was the ether screw of his invention, resembling the screws used for water propulsion in ancient times, except that the pitch was extremely sharp. ”

“ And if they had an idea of getting help from Earth, you shall be an object lesson on the uselessness of such hopes."
"Meaning?" But Sine and his companions knew that the meaning must be evil.
"Meaning," Nikkia snapped, "that from now on you three are Mugs, no better and no worse than the Jovian Mugs. Except that I shall instruct the labor office to put you to work at one of the power integrators—perhaps in The Bubble. We don't want to waste you" he added with grim humor—"and the gravity here on Jupiter might reduce your life of usefulness." ”

“ But the Earthmen, after several hours of swimming, doubted that this was more than a postponement of death. The long greasy swells were rising, presaging another of Jupiter's unimaginably violent storms.
"I see a light!" Sine strained his eyes to get another glimpse of it through the brown fog. "There it is again." Something was moving slowly through the air a short distance over the water, following the course of the rockets, which had ceased coming. A powerful searchlight was cutting through the murk. A war party of the First Race, looking for wreckage. ”

“ But the respect with which his counselors, ranged on either side of him, regarded him, ignored his appearance. They were all, without exception, victims of the strange and terrible mutations of type induced by the First Race's callous disregard to the dangers of the rays. All wore loose garments of drab material which concealed their deformities to some extent.
The Manager's large, intense eyes fastened on the Earthmen, and he addressed them:
"Men of Earth: We have captured you in battle, but we would be friends with the Old World. Why did you try to fight us?" ”

“ But the three scientists were to learn that the First Race were good fighting men, regardless of their short-comings in other lines.
The glowing "teardrops" appeared a little over a week later. They were so called because of their shape, but the Jovians knew as little about their nature as did their guests. They appeared early one murky morning, as Kass, Sine and Lents sat at breakfast with Governor Nikkia. The servants, comely, characterless specimens of the Second Race who held themselves snobbishly above their fellows, came panic-stricken ”

“ Sine said shortly. "It was not our fight, but we could not stand by and permit such a thing."
Something like amusement flashed up in The Manager's enormous eyes, so old, weary and wise.
"So you could not bear to think of an easy death for those of the First Race? What think you of their treatment of us?" He raised a scrawny arm—so thin it suggested a skeleton. "Hunted like beasts—imprisoned and tortured! Are we not human?"
"You see," Kass interposed diplomatically—"we were their guests. ”

“ Lents suggested.
Kass explained, with considerable scientific interest:
"The First Race was not so far wrong in calling them 'terrible people.' They are, a race of monstrosities. Men with four or six arms, men with hair like fur all over their bodies. With heads ten times too large. With boneless tentacles instead of limbs. With scales instead of skin. Quite horrible. And yet, most of them are highly intelligent, with normal human emotions, and painfully conscious of their deformities."
"I don't quite understand." Sine was flexing his muscles, sitting up with the support of one elbow. ”

“ He was working himself into a fury, evidently forgetting the original purpose of this conference with the prisoners. But one of the counselors now approached him, bowed respectfully so that his scaly face was hidden. The Manager cut short his tirade.
"What is it, Gnom?"
"Isn't The Manager digressing?" Gnom asked in a hollow voice. "These men of Earth are now our guests. They come at an opportune time—when we shall reap the fruits of our long planning. If we wrest power from the First Race, shall we not need the friendship of the Mother Planet? ”

“ They're getting lazier every day!" He shook his head regretfully.
"What do you expect?" Sine blurted. "You treat them like slaves, ruin their lives, and then you're surprised because they lack ambition!"
Nikkia looked at him in mild astonishment. "But they have to be kept in their place! If we gave them free hand they'd soon run us out. Why, not fifty years ago——"
He told again of that uprising that had resulted in the breaking of the Second Race's pretension. "We have to control 'em," he ended smugly.
The Earthmen were baffled by the bland indifference of the Jovians to their mother planet. ”

“ Kass and Sine made for the ship's manports. "I'll take care of the thermite."
In his hand he carried a small heat pistol that had long ago been stolen and hidden by a Mug. Quickly he made a circuit of the room, which was like an enormous sheet-metal blister on the inside of the metal satellite. After the thermite had cut out the ship free, that blister would prevent the escape of air, saving the lives of thousands of the First Race and also preventing discovery of their escape for a time. ”