Speaker 1: Chapter two of The Vortex Blaster Makes War by E. E. Smith.
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter two
Speaker 1: The bone Heads of de Hill. The planet de Hill
Speaker 1: and its enormous satellite called Loon in lieu of the
Speaker 1: utterly unpronounceable name its inhabitants gave it, are almost twin worlds,
Speaker 1: revolving about their common center of gravity and circling as
Speaker 1: one about their Sun in its second orbit. In the
Speaker 1: third orbit revolves oo Hal, a planet strikingly similar to
Speaker 1: de Hill in every respect of gravity, atmosphere, and climate. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: de Hillians and Uhalians are to while interests and purposes identical.
Speaker 1: In spite of these facts, however, the two peoples have
Speaker 1: been at war with each other most of the time
Speaker 1: for centuries. Practically all of the warfare has been waged
Speaker 1: upon luckless Loon. Each race was well advanced in science,
Speaker 1: and each had atomic power, offensive beams, defensive screens. Neither
Speaker 1: had even partial inertilessness, neither had ever driven a spaceship
Speaker 1: to any other solar system. Neither had ever heard of
Speaker 1: galactic civilization. At this particular time, peace of a sort existed.
Speaker 1: More precisely, it was a truce of exhaustion and preparation
Speaker 1: for further strife. It was a fragile thing, indeed, and
Speaker 1: existed only upon the surface. Beneath the conflict raged as
Speaker 1: bitterly as ever. The discovery by these scientists inventors our
Speaker 1: secret service of either world, of any superior artifice of
Speaker 1: destruction would kindle the conflagration anew without warning. Such was
Speaker 1: the condition obtaining when darjib of Ouhal lasted his little
Speaker 1: spaceship upward away from Lun, he was glowing with pride
Speaker 1: of accomplishment, suffused with self esteem. Not only had he
Speaker 1: touched off an inextinguishable atomic flame exactly where it would
Speaker 1: do the most good, but as a crowning achievement, he
Speaker 1: had taken and was now making off with no less
Speaker 1: a personage than Luda of the Hill herself, the coldest, hardest,
Speaker 1: most efficient minister of war that the planet the Hill
Speaker 1: had ever had. Now, as soon as they could extract
Speaker 1: certain facts from Luda's mind, they could take Lun in
Speaker 1: short order. Then, with Lun definitely theirs to use as
Speaker 1: a permanent base, the Hill could not possibly hold out
Speaker 1: for more than a couple of years or so. The
Speaker 1: goal of generations would have been reached. He Darjib would
Speaker 1: have wealth, fame, and best of all power. Gazing gloatingly
Speaker 1: at his furiously radiating captive with every eye he could
Speaker 1: bring to bear, Daijeb strolled over to inspect again. Her
Speaker 1: chains and manacles let her radiate. She could not touch
Speaker 1: his mind. No mentality in existence could break down his barriers,
Speaker 1: but physically she had to be watched. Those irons were strong,
Speaker 1: but so was Luda. If she could succeed in breaking free,
Speaker 1: he would very probably have to shoot her, which would
Speaker 1: be a very bad thing. Indeed, she had not caved
Speaker 1: in yet, but she would when he got her to Uhl,
Speaker 1: where the proper measures could be taken, she would give
Speaker 1: up every scrap of knowledge she had ever had. The
Speaker 1: chains were holding all eight of them, and Dharjib kept
Speaker 1: on gloating as he backed toward his control station. To him,
Speaker 1: Luda's shape was normal enough, since his zone was the same,
Speaker 1: but in the sight of a Telorian she would have
Speaker 1: appeared more than a little queer. The lower part of
Speaker 1: her resembled more or less closely a small elephant, one
Speaker 1: weighing perhaps three hundred and fifty pounds. There were, however, differences.
Speaker 1: The skin was clear and fine, delicately tanned, and there
Speaker 1: were no ears or tusks. The neck was longer, the
Speaker 1: trunk was sharp, divided at the tip to form a
Speaker 1: highly capable hand, and between the somewhat protuberate eyes of
Speaker 1: this feeding head there thrust out a boldly roman startlingly
Speaker 1: human nose. The brain in this head was very small,
Speaker 1: being concerned only in the matter of food. Above this
Speaker 1: not too unbelievable body, however, all resemblance to anything terrestrial, ceased.
Speaker 1: Instead of a back, there were two mighty shoulders fore
Speaker 1: and aft, from each of which sprang two tremendous arms,
Speaker 1: like the trunk, except longer and stronger. Between those massive
Speaker 1: shoulders there was an armored, slightly retractile neck, which carried
Speaker 1: the heavily armored thinking head. In this head, there were
Speaker 1: no mouths, no nostrils. The four equally spaced pairs of
Speaker 1: eyes were protected and shielded by heavy ridges and plates.
Speaker 1: The entire head, except for its juncture with the neck,
Speaker 1: was solidly sheathed with bare, hard, thick, tough bone. Darjib's
Speaker 1: amazing head shone a clean, scrubbed white but Ludas the
Speaker 1: eternal Feminine was really something to look at. It had
Speaker 1: been sanded, buffed, and polished. It had been inlaid with
Speaker 1: bars and strips and scrolls of variously colored noble metals
Speaker 1: and alloys, then decorated tastefully in red and green, and
Speaker 1: blue and black inn then to cap the climax lacquered.
Speaker 1: But that was old stuffed to Darjeeb. All that he
Speaker 1: cared about was the tightness of the chains immobilizing Ludah's
Speaker 1: every hand and foot. Seeing that they were all tight,
Speaker 1: he returned his attention to his plates, for he was
Speaker 1: not yet in the clear. Any number of enemies might
Speaker 1: be blasting off after him at any minute. A light
Speaker 1: flashed upon his panel, something within the ether behind him.
Speaker 1: Everything was clear. Nothing was coming from the hill Ah
Speaker 1: there it was coming in from open space. Nothing could
Speaker 1: move that fast. But this thing, whatever it might be,
Speaker 1: certainly was. It was a spacecraft of some kind, and
Speaker 1: gods of the ancients how it was coming. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, the lifeboat was coming in at less
Speaker 1: than one light. The mirrors crawl as space be go.
Speaker 1: Otherwise Dr Jib could not have seen it at all.
Speaker 1: Even that velocity however, was so utterly beyond anything known
Speaker 1: to his solar system that the usually phlegmatic Uhalian sat spellbound,
Speaker 1: appalled for a fraction of a second, then every organ
Speaker 1: leaping convulsively in the realization that that incredible thing was
Speaker 1: actually happening. He drove one hand toward a control too late.
Speaker 1: Before the hand had covered half the distance, the incomprehensibly
Speaker 1: fast ship had struck his own in direct central impact.
Speaker 1: In fact, before he even realized what was happening, it
Speaker 1: was all over. The strange vessel had struck and had
Speaker 1: stopped dead still, without a jar or shock, without even
Speaker 1: a vibration. Both ships should have been blasted to atoms,
Speaker 1: but there the stranger was poised motionless beside him. Then,
Speaker 1: under the urge of a ridiculously tiny jet of flame,
Speaker 1: she leaped away, covering a distance of miles in the
Speaker 1: twinkling of an eye. Then something else happened. She moved aside,
Speaker 1: drifting heavily backward against the stupendous force of her full
Speaker 1: driving blast. As soon as he recovered from his shock,
Speaker 1: Darjeeb's cold, keen brain began to function in its wonted fashion.
Speaker 1: Only one explanation was possible in ersulessness. What a weapon
Speaker 1: With that and Luda. Even without Luda, the Solar system
Speaker 1: was his. No longer was it a question of ooh
Speaker 1: Hal overcoming the hill with inertilessness. He himself would become
Speaker 1: the dictator, not only of ooh Hal and the hill
Speaker 1: and Loon, but also of all the worlds within reach.
Speaker 1: That vessel and its secrets must be his. He blasted, then,
Speaker 1: to match the inert velocity of the smaller craft. As
Speaker 1: his ship crept toward the other, he reached out both
Speaker 1: telepathically he could neither speak nor hear, and with a
Speaker 1: spy ray to determine the most feasible method of taking
Speaker 1: over this godsend. Bipeds peculiar little beasts, repulsive, only two
Speaker 1: arms and two eyes, only one head, Weak, soft, fragile.
Speaker 1: But they might have weapons. No, no weapons? Good? Couldn't
Speaker 1: any of them communicate? Ah? Yes, there was one, an
Speaker 1: unusually thin reed like specimen. Bundle up in layer after
Speaker 1: layer of fabric. I perceive that you are the survivors
Speaker 1: of some catastrophe in outer space. Tell your pilot to
Speaker 1: open up so that I may come aboard and guide
Speaker 1: you to safety. D'arjib began. He correlated instantly, if unsympathetically,
Speaker 1: the smashed panel and the pilot's bleeding head. If the
Speaker 1: creature had had a real head, it could have wrecked
Speaker 1: a dozen such things with it without getting a scratch. Harry,
Speaker 1: those may come at any moment who will destroy all
Speaker 1: of us without palaver. I am trying, sir, but I
Speaker 1: cannot get through to him direct. It will take a
Speaker 1: few moments, the strange telepathist replied. She began to wave
Speaker 1: rhythmically her peculiar arms, hands and fingers. Others of the
Speaker 1: outlanders brandished their members and made repulsive motions with their
Speaker 1: ridiculous mouths. Finally, he says that he would rather not,
Speaker 1: the interpreter reported, He asks you to go ahead. He
Speaker 1: will follow you down. Impossible. We cannot land upon this
Speaker 1: world or upon its primary to heal. Dhartjib argued, reasonably,
Speaker 1: these people are enemies, savages. I have just escaped from them.
Speaker 1: It is death to attempt to land anywhere in this
Speaker 1: system except upon my home planet. Ooh hal that bluish
Speaker 1: one very well. Then we'll see you over there. We
Speaker 1: are just about out of air, but it will take
Speaker 1: only a minute or so to reach ooh Hal. But
Speaker 1: that would not do either. Of course, argument took too
Speaker 1: much time. He would have to use force, and he
Speaker 1: had better call up reinforcements. D'harjib hurled mental orders to
Speaker 1: a henchman far below, threw out his magnetic grapples and
Speaker 1: turned on a broad, low powered beam. Open up or die,
Speaker 1: he ordered. I do not want to blast you open,
Speaker 1: but time says, and I will do so if I must.
Speaker 1: That treatment was effective, as the Uhalian had been pretty
Speaker 1: certain that it would be. Pure heat is hard to take.
Speaker 1: The outer portal opened, and Darjib, after dotting his armor
Speaker 1: and checking his ragun, picked Luda up and swung nonchalantly
Speaker 1: out into space. Luda was tough enough so that a
Speaker 1: little vacuum wouldn't hurt her much. Inside the lifeboat, he
Speaker 1: tossed his trust stop captive into an unoccupied corner and
Speaker 1: strode purposefully toward the control board. I want to know
Speaker 1: right now what it is that makes the ship to
Speaker 1: be without inertia, he radiated harshly. The Cichlodourian at the board,
Speaker 1: the only male aboard the lifeboat, was very plainly in
Speaker 1: bad shape. He had been fighting off unconsciousness for hours.
Speaker 1: The beaming had not done him a bit of good. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: he paid no attention to the invading monstrouss these relaid demand,
Speaker 1: but concentrated what was left of his intelligence upon his
Speaker 1: visi beam communicator. You'll have to hurry it up, he said, quietly,
Speaker 1: and spatial, the lingua franca of deep space, the apes
Speaker 1: aboard and means business. I'm blocking out. I'm afraid that
Speaker 1: I've left the lock open for you take over. Palell
Speaker 1: Darjib had been probing vainly at the pink biped's mind
Speaker 1: most peculiar. He a natural mind block of tremendous power.
Speaker 1: Tell him to give me what I want to know,
Speaker 1: or I will squeeze it out of his very brain,
Speaker 1: he directed the Monarch and girl. As the order was
Speaker 1: being translated, he slipped an arm out of his suit
Speaker 1: and clamped one huge hand around the pilot's head. But
Speaker 1: just as he made contact, before he had applied any
Speaker 1: pressure at all, the weakling fainted, went limp and useless. Simultaneously,
Speaker 1: he saw in the visiplate that another ship, neither Ohalian
Speaker 1: nor d'hillian, had arrived and had locked on He tautened
Speaker 1: as two of his senses registered disquieting tidings. He received
Speaker 1: as plainly as though it were intended for him, a
Speaker 1: welcome which the swaddled up Biped was radiating in the
Speaker 1: light at an unexpected visitor. He saw that that visitor,
Speaker 1: now entering the compartment, while a Biped, was in no
Speaker 1: sense on a par with the frightened, helpless, holdly innocuous
Speaker 1: creatures already cluttering up the room. Instead, it was armed
Speaker 1: and armored in complete readiness for strife. Even with dr
Speaker 1: jib of Huhl the Bone had swung his ready weapon
Speaker 1: with his built he had no need ever to turn
Speaker 1: a world to face danger, and pressed a stud A
Speaker 1: searing lance of flames stabbed out at the overbold intruder.
Speaker 1: Passengers screamed and fled into whatever places of safety were available.
Speaker 1: End of Chapter two