Henry Hasse

“ Curt watched the stranger, saw him grin as though secretly amused at Rikert's words.
"Later!" the man said. "Right now get this through your heads, all of you. Your lives were forfeit at the mines, and that isn't altered by your being here! I'll blast the first one who makes a wrong move." He gestured with the gun, surveyed them coldly. "Good. Now you will strip. Put your clothes over here."
He went carefully through their clothes, found nothing in Curt's or Kueelo's. But from a secret pocket in Rikert's leather suit he brought forth a deadly needle-gun. A smile creased his dark, thin face. ”

“ He knew the Zemmd had contacted them!
"Curt!" It was Lorine's whispered voice in the doorway behind him. He felt the grip of an electro pressed into his hand.
"We had a fighting chance, Tor," Curt grated, "but you've ruined that! The Zemmd has contacted us. He'll send his men down here. Yes, we'll die!" He brought the electro unobserved to his side. "And you'd leave the entire Federation prey to these things because of your damned stupid fanaticism about Mars!"
"Don't try to stop me!" With his free hand Tor brought the Martian scene sharper into focus. Nothing else mattered to him. ”

“ Rikert dropped to the floor, and Curt kicked the gun from his hand.
Zemmd's drifting bulk paused, as if surveying this scene with some inner faculty. Slowly the radiant anger died away. Rikert came up from the floor, muttering balefully, and Curt gripped his arm.
"Quiet, you fool! If you value your lives, don't move, any of you!"
But the entity seemed to have lost interest in them, for the moment at least. Its probing light resolved into a blanket of soft color that reached down to encompass Frane and the others. The men came to their feet. ”

“ One thing was clear: throughout the years Landreth gathered lawless men about him. More than one Corporation had gone to ruin under the incessant attacks of an enemy who had achieved a ruthlessness equal to their own! Then the attacks ceased. Landreth seemed to have disappeared.
Curt thrust these questions from his mind. At last the stabilizers and rocket-feeds were ready. Jeffers signalled the control-room, and a moment later they swept upward. Endless miles away, near the twilight-strip, Curt could see a faint pin-point glow of a Mercurian city. He turned to Jeffers. ”

“ Curt dived low, in a try for the radiant-rifle a few yards away. Again Tor blasted. A spray of molten froth from the floor sent Curt tumbling back. He poised for another try. To think of failure now was to think of death!
But he had failed. This was death!
He heard Lorine cry out, heard Jeffers cursing behind him, as a rush of feet came toward them down the corridor!
Jeffers was battling for his life. A score of men were converging upon them. Jovian, Martian, Earthmen alike, they had but one purpose as they rushed forward under Zemmd's mental command. ”

“ Landreth paced the room with great uneven strides, face still twisting, his voice coming with an effort.
"They call themselves Energons. Their life-principle is ionized protoplasm, that's as near as I can describe it! They subsist on the energy-source fields that originate within all planetary bodies. Electric, magnetic, gravitic, call it what you will. They left their System, far beyond Pluto, because it's in a state of disintegration for lack of the energy-magnetic source—" Landreth's features had gone pale and tight, as if some ghastly struggle were occurring within him. ”

“ Curt saw the ghastly pattern, then he saw Landreth collapse against the wall as if all strength were being drained from him. Lorine hurried to his side, but Landreth waved her away.
"No, child, don't worry about me now! Heaven knows I've hated Earth.... I've done some terrible things in my time ... but nothing so terrible as allowing these creatures to get foothold here...." He pulled himself erect. "Jeffers! Has the Federation plunged into war?"
It was Curt who answered. "They're on the verge of it!"
"That is their plan. Already they have the secret of all our weapons. ”

“ To be under the encompassing control of that entity they called the Zemmd! It was evident that every man here, Earthman or Martian or Jovian, was merely a controlled unit. But for what ultimate purpose? Curt felt a chill along his spine as he remembered the hundreds of alien forms waiting patiently, in suspended animation....
Tor's voice, bitter with hate, broke upon his tumult of thoughts. "Become a part of you—just as Jal Tagar did? A traitor to everything that we—"
"You have no choice," Frane replied in cold, unhuman tones. "Every man here is part and substance of the great Zemmd. ”

“ Suddenly the loom of jungle broke. They emerged into a downward sloping place that seemed all swamp; a vast circular area black and quiescent, with jungle rising on all sides. Descending toward it, they noticed a vague glistening shape protruding just above the area of muck.
"The spacer!" Tor Ekkov exclaimed. "Must be the one you saw, Emmons—it crashed here!"
Curt peered closer, then shook his head. He pointed out greenish swamp tendrils entwining over and about the hull, mute evidence of time. ”

“ She glanced up, saw him watching.
"Venus!" Curt exclaimed. "So that's where we're going!"
Her blue eyes surveyed him coolly. "So. You can read a robot-wheel, can you? What else can you do?"
"Around a spaceship, almost anything. Tubes, controls, magnibeams, calculations and differential, any weapon you care to mention—"
"That will do." Her narrow eyes narrowed. "I don't like men with me in space who know more about a ship than I do! Suppose you help Jeffers in the rocket-room." ”

“ If George Landreth had boarded this spacer, there was no evidence of it now! They walked on, staring around at the widening walls that sent back solemn echoes of their footsteps. The ship was a colossus! Curt was estimating that they'd come a good quarter of a mile already, when they reached a bulwark directly across the corridor.
The wall was massive, coppery, engraven with thousands of inter-twining figures. Rikert raised his electro to burn a way through, but Lorine stopped him.
"We'd best save our weapons! They're already weak." ”

“ A touch on the Magni-lens brought the blackness swimming into closer view, then they sighted the Guard. Six formidable spacers emblazoned with the Imperial Venus Emblem.
Curt glanced at the proximity dial. They seemed a comfortable distance away, but he knew what a tremendous area the network of "finder-beams" covered!
"Last warning," the voice razored. "Nullify your control immediately, or we blast!"
"They're bluffing," Lorine decided.
"They can't reach us yet. If we can get away from those finder-beams they'll never pick us up again. Jeffers, prepare for emergency blast!" ”

“ And let me assure you: when dark events are brewing, you'll find Jal Tagar's hand in it somewhere!"
Curt waved a hand wearily. "Man, don't you know we're going into the K'Yarthan Swamp? You'd better start thinking about that!"
"I believe your mission is greater than you pretend, Curt Emmons. You're no prison-board Investigator! Why did you stop me when we had control of this ship? We could have gone back to Earth—or Mars."
"Don't ask questions, Tor Ekkov."
Tor's eyes were steady on him. "We've got to trust each other," he urged. ”

“ Kueelo had recovered, and Rikert. And a fourth man was there. As Curt came to his feet he heard Rikert's voice, a little suspicious, addressing the stranger.
"You! You're not Landreth. I thought we were going to meet—"
"Disappointed? Get going then! Back where you came from!" The stranger's voice was like a whiplash. He held an electro in his hard-knuckled fist. Rikert became silent.
"So. You'd like to see Landreth, eh?"
Rikert grinned, wet his lips a little. "Sure would! Don't get me wrong, mister. There's one man I'd like to join up with, if he's operating again!" ”

“ Curt hurried forward, stayed close beside the girl.
"You mentioned something about a region where these—these Phibians wouldn't go. Did you ever find out why?"
Lorine nodded. "They claimed that far in the Swamp was a god that spoke to them! They were afraid of it."
"Spoke to them?"
"Yes. With the voice that has no sound. Warning them back."
Curt was startled. "The voice that has no sound. Telepathy! But it's strange we've felt nothing!"
There was no sight or sound of a living thing, but hot blasts of wind from above brought a miasmic swamp odor. It became almost an opiate to their senses. ”

“ Jeffers was taut with excitement. "It's the one Landreth boarded near Io, three years ago! By all that's holy, we've found it!" They could only make out the stern, but the very size of it indicated that the rest of the hull must be gigantic, far beneath the primordial ooze.
Lorine clutched at Curt's arm, pointing. The Swamp moved. The black surface was surging up in a horrible turgid mass. In one place and then another, dark tentacles broke the surface. A central body began to emerge, huge and bulbous beyond belief! ”

“ Curt's mind raced. He saw the rest. Landreth and his three men were only the beginning. Through them, completely Energon-dominated, the net had spread! Other men had been captured out of space and brought here. The Energon life-forms had been taken secretly to other planets, to seize upon bodies, and bring them into Energon control! The plan had taken two years, but they had selected well. Jal Tagar of Mars had been reached, and doubtless others among the highest officials and scientists in the Federation! ”

“ Rikert spied the weapons, apparently the same ones Frane had taken from them. These Energon-controlled men were so contemptuous of Earth weapons that these had been tossed aside! "What next? Try and get to that spacer?"
"Too many men about! We'll have to wait." Curt felt that was what Landreth had tried to tell him. Rikert grumbled; with an electro in his hand he felt he could overcome any obstacle. Remembering Lorine and the others, Curt thrust three electros in his belt and cradled the lensed radiant-gun. ”

“ Kraaj, the Jovian emissary, shifted his huge bulk nervously. "Pattern? Pattern for what? You speak in riddles, DeHarries!"
"A pattern so diabolic it's frightening. A pattern I'm convinced is weaving about us all. For example: Earth's complex civilization, atomic-powered industries and commerce, would be irreparably damaged if we were cut off from the Uranium isotope we receive from Mars. You can realize the seriousness when I point out that the annual shipment which should have arrived a month ago—did not arrive."
Jal Tagar of Mars was instantly on his feet, his heavy-lidded eyes blazing. ”

“ DeHarries turned a smiling countenance upon Jal Tagar which left the Martian Overlord abashed.
"No accusation has been made," DeHarries said softly, "and none is contemplated. I think we all agree that Mars is blameless."
Aladdian arose to her full height of four-feet-eleven.
"DeHarries is right. We have delayed too long. I have felt that there is a strange force at work among us. As you know, Venus has long held the secret of allotropic metal, which makes any space fleet invulnerable. ”

“ But he stopped abruptly at the next corridor. His heart leaped. Huddled against the angle of the wall was the body of a man.
Curt turned him over. It was the man he knew as Frane! Twisted tightly around his throat, cutting into the flesh, was a plasticoid belt that Curt recognized as Tor's.
Jeffers was right. Tor had gone fanatical crazy, determined that nothing would stop him from reaching the Tele-Magnum and getting his voice through to Mars! But now another thought sliced into Curt's mind. The Energon-form which had inhabited Frane's body! There were two alternatives. ”

“ Dozens of the strange light-spheres were appearing behind them now, dotting space for a thousand-mile radius, expanding, shoving back the darkness. Three more times Lorine used rockets, changing direction, before they were out of the danger zone. Then their ship was a silent black ghost speeding away.
"Fine thing!" Jeffers exploded as he watched the scene behind them. "Springing a new stunt like that. What a target we'd be if we got caught in one of those things!" He grinned at Curt. "What won't they think of next, eh?"
"Yeah," Curt said wryly. "A guy just ain't safe any more. ”

“ He turned his gaze upon Rikert. "Even this one, who sought to defy the Zemmd, will become a part."
"Yeah? We'll see about that!" Rikert laughed unpleasantly.
They were silent then, under the watchful guidance of Frane and his men. Once more they were taken below the level of the compound, then ushered into a plainly furnished room.
"You will not lack for comfort," Frane said, "but you must remain here until time for the transition. I promise it will be soon!" There was pride in his tone, as though conferring a great honor upon them. He employed a metal device in the arched doorway. ”

“ Tomorrow we trek into the Swamp, but we have to wait for the Phibians."
"Phibians!" Curt stared at her.
"Creatures who live deep in the Swamp," she explained. "We couldn't get to where we're going without them."
The station was stocked with food in plasti-sealed containers. They prepared their meal over a tiny atomic stove, and it was a welcome repast for the men from Mercury Prison! When they had finished, Lorine lost little time in explaining the set-up. "Now that we're here, you men have every right to know what to expect. Our task isn't easy! ”