H. B. Hickey

“ Looking down, Ben saw that it descended into the bowels of Teris.
The others were pressing Ben for his explanation but he insisted that they tell their stories first. The same thing had happened to them as to him. Within some thousands of miles of Teris they had felt a force pull them toward it. Then they had passed out and awakened to find themselves prisoners.
“I know all that,” Ben said. “But in all the time you’ve been here you must have found out a good deal. What goes on here? Why are they taking prisoner every one who approaches the planet? ”

“ That alone would not have been enough, but as the ship roared out of the tube above the surface of Teris he cut sharply to the right. Had their ship been faster it might have worked. But it was not fast enough. Through the blackness of space the exhausts of their pursuers flamed closer. Ben’s teeth clamped down on his lips. ”

“ Why waste fuel? A tight smile froze on his lips as his speed dropped to twenty million miles then lifted again as the ship by-passed a planet. With calm deliberation Ben switched on the camera he had installed before the flight and let it record his course as shown on the radona chart. ”

“ Carson laughed bitterly and waved him to a chair, then went on talking.
“Precisely, Ben. The question is: How did this strange substance get into the tube of an Interplanetary rocket called the Astra? To answer that we checked on the ship. The Astra is one of the few ships which have ever gone beyond Ventura B!”
“I almost expected to hear that,” Sessions said.
“It adds up, all right, doesn’t it? A foreign substance, a foreign system. But this substance had been made into a plate. That means the work of intelligent beings.” ”

“ Ben hazarded a guess. “This project is part of their preparation?”
“The final part. Since the surface of Teris has a temperature of absolute zero it can only be reached from here through a series of locks. What they are building now are new locks big enough to handle their largest ships. As soon as that’s done they plan to attack.”
“Any idea when that will be?”
“About a week, Earth time.” Murchison’s shoulders sagged with despair. “We’ve been wracking our brains for a way to stop them, but it’s no use. They’re as clever as they are evil. ”

“ He and Carson had planned the trip. Carson had wanted to send a fighting fleet but Ben had opposed the idea. Wayne’s mistake had led them to the uncovering of a gigantic hoax, a hoax which could have only a sinister purpose. Somewhere in the void ahead were sentient beings. To send a fleet would be to let them know that their existence was suspected. ”

“ But the tubes and the locks are the only outlets to the surface and they watch them carefully.”
“What are our chances of getting to the tower?”
“Zero, I should say. Only the women are allowed to enter it, or a small crew under their supervision.”
“Willing to make a try?” Ben asked. He swung around to face them all. Until now he had not taken them into his confidence, given them no inkling of what was in his mind.
“We’ve talked about it before,” Murchison answered. “But there’s so little chance we gave up the idea. Better to stay alive and hope for a rescue.” ”

“ And if I’m not back in the time we allowed they’ll have our entire battle fleet out looking for me.”
“Very clever,” Arndis smiled. “But if you are trying to frighten us you are failing. The women of Teris had a high civilization before your Earth was born. We can do things you never dreamed of.”
At her command Ben’s arms were seized and bound behind him. He was carried swiftly into a room nearby, a room filled with a maze of scientific apparatus. On what appeared to be an operating table was a transparent shell, and beneath this Ben was strapped. ”

“ Ordinarily a ship was checked each thousand hours. He scratched his head but decided that if Operations wanted the Astra tuned it was none of his business. So he told Gomez not to ask useless questions and to get back in the tube.
Anyone else but Gomez would have obeyed orders and forgotten all about it. Ten minutes later Jacobs saw Armando’s head appear.
“Amigo!” Gomez shouted. “How many hours?”
“Two hundred!” Jacobs shouted back, knowing he would have no peace until Gomez was answered. “Now get to work! We ain’t got all year.” ”

“ Behind him and Davies and Sally there were shouts as the two men went into action. But they had their own job to do. The closest inspection ship was several hundred feet away and already women were running to cut them off. Ben cut loose with his cylinder before they had a chance to use theirs.
Then he and Davies were lifting Sally into the ship. While they covered the open door Ben ran for the controls. Somewhere an alarm was wailing and as he swung the ship about Ben saw other ships being boarded. But Bannon and Murchison had not failed. ”

“ He was hustling along to a point where a dirt spattered group struggled with a metallic lining for the half-mile hole it had excavated. At that point his escort turned him over to the woman who bossed that crew. ”