The Black Star Passes

J >> John W Campbell >> The Black Star Passes

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But soon they had passed beyond the sight of the crowd, which was held
in check by a handful of the deep blue uniformed men.

"Those fellows would never hold such a Terrestrial crowd back if
visitors from another planet landed!" remarked Morey wonderingly.

"How do they know we are visitors from another planet?" Arcot objected.
"We suddenly appeared out of nowhere--they don't even know our direction
of approach. We might be some strange race of Venerians as far as they
know."

They walked briskly up to the massive gold and black entrance, and
passed through the great doors that seemed made of solid copper, painted
with some clear coating that kept the metal lustrous, the rich color
shining magnificently. They stood open wide now, as indeed they always
were. Even the giant Venerians were dwarfed by these mighty doors as
they passed through into an equally vast hall, a tremendous room that
must have filled all the front half of the ground floor of the gigantic
building, a hall of graceful columns that hid the great supporting
members. The stone, they knew, must serve the Venerians as marble serves
us, but it was a far more handsome stone. It was a rich green, like the
green of thick, heavy grass in summer when the rain is plentiful. The
color was very pleasing to the eye, and restful too. There was a
checker-board floor of this green stone, alternated with another, a
stone of intense blue. They were hard, and the colors made a very
striking pattern, pleasingly different from what they had been
accustomed to, but common to Venus, as they later learned.

At last the party had crossed the great hall, and stopped beside a large
doorway. The officer halted for a moment, and gestured toward two of his
men, who remained, while the others walked quickly away. The diminished
party stepped through the doorway into a small room whose walls were
lined with copper, and an instant later, as the officer pushed a small
button, there was a low hiss of escaping air, and a copper grating
sprang quickly up across the opening of the elevator. He touched another
button, and there was the familiar sinking feeling as the car rose, a
low hum seeming to come from its base.

The elevator rose swiftly through a very considerable distance--up--up,
endlessly.

"They must have some wonderfully strong cables here on Venus!" Morey
exclaimed. "The engineers of Terrestrial buildings have been wondering
for some time how to get around the difficulty of shifting elevators.
The idea of changing cars doesn't appeal to me, either--but we must have
risen a long way!"

"I should say so--I wonder how they do it. We've been rising for a
minute and a half at a very fair clip--there we are; end of the line--I
want to look at this car!" Arcot stepped over to the control board,
looked at it closely, then stepped out and peered down between the car
and the shaft as the copper grating fell, simultaneously pulling down
with it the door that had blocked off the hallway.

"Come here, Morey--simple system at that! It would be so, of course.
Look--they have tracks, and a regular trolley system, with cog rails
alongside, and the car just winds itself up! They have a motor
underneath, I'll bet, and just run it up in that way. They have never
done that on Earth because of the cost of running the car up without too
much power. I think I see the solution--the car has electro-dynamical
brakes, and descending, just slows itself down by pumping power into the
line to haul some other car up. This is a mighty clever scheme!"

As Arcot straightened, the officer beckoned to him to follow, and
started down the long corridor which was lined on either side with large
doorways, much like a very exotic earthly office building. Passing
through a long series of branching corridors they at last reached one
that terminated in a large office, into which the young officer led
them. Snapping to attention, he spoke briefly and rapidly, saluted and
retired with his two men.

The man before whom the Terrestrians stood was a tall, kindly-faced old
gentleman. His straight black hair was tinged with bluish gray, and the
kindly face bore the lines of age, but the smiling eyes, and the air of
sincere interest gave his countenance an amazingly youthful air. It was
warm and friendly despite its disconcerting blueness. He looked
curiously, questioningly at the two men before him, looked at their
hands, his eyes widening in surprise; then he stepped quickly forward,
and extended his hand, at the same time looking toward Arcot.

Smiling, Arcot extended his own. The Venerian grasped it--then with an
exclamation on the part of each, they mutually released each other,
Arcot feeling an uncomfortable sensation of heat, just as the Venerian
felt a flash of intense cold! Each stared from his hand to the hand of
the other in surprise, then a smile curved the blue lips of the Venerian
as he very emphatically put his hand at his side. Arcot smiled in turn,
and said to Morey in an animated tone:

"They have a body temperature of at least 170 deg. Fahrenheit. It would
naturally be above room temperature, which is 150 deg. here, so that they
are most unpleasantly hot to us. Marvelous how nature adapts herself to
her surroundings!" He chuckled. "I hope these fellows don't have fevers.
They'd be apt to boil over!"

The Venerian had picked up a small rectangle of black material, smooth
and solid. He drew quickly upon it with what appeared to be a pencil of
copper. In a moment he handed the tablet to Arcot, who reached out for
it, then changed his mind, and motioned that he didn't want to burn his
fingers. The old Venerian held it where Arcot could see it.

"Why, Morey, look here--I didn't think they had developed astronomy to
any degree, because of the constant clouds, but look at this. He has a
nice little map of the solar system, with Mercury, Venus, Earth, the
Moon, Mars, and all the rest on it. He has drawn in several of the
satellites of Jupiter and of Saturn too."

The Venerian pointed to Mars and looked inquisitively at them. Arcot
shook his head and pointed quickly to Earth. The Venetian seemed a bit
surprised at this, then thought a moment and nodded in satisfaction. He
looked at Arcot intently. Then to the latter's amazement, there seemed
to form in his mind a thought--at first vague, then quickly taking
definite form.

"Man of Earth," it seemed to say, "we thank you--you have saved our
nation. We want to thank you for your quick response to our signals. We
had not thought that you could answer us so soon." The Venerian seemed
to relax as the message was finished. It obviously had required great
mental effort.

Arcot looked steadily into his eyes now, and tried to concentrate on a
message--on a series of ideas. To him, trained though he was in deep
concentration on one idea, the process of visualizing a series of ideas
was new, and very difficult. But he soon saw that he was making some
progress.

"We came in response to no signals--exploration only--we saw the
battle--and aided because your city seemed doomed, and because it seemed
too beautiful to be destroyed."

"What's it all about, Arcot?" asked Morey wonderingly, as he watched
them staring at each other.

"Mental telepathy," Arcot answered briefly. "I'm terribly thick from his
point of view, but I just learned that they sent signals to Earth--why,
I haven't learned--but I'm making progress. If I don't crack under the
strain, I'll find out sooner or later--so wait and see." He turned again
to the Venerian.

The latter was frowning at him rather dubiously. With sudden decision he
turned to his desk, and pulled down a small lever. Then again he looked
intently at Arcot.

"Come with me--the strain of this conversation is too great--I see you
do not have thought transference on your world."

"Come along, Morey--we're going somewhere. He says this thought
transference is too much for us. I wonder what he is going to do?"

Out into the maze of halls they went again, now led by the kindly
seven-foot Venerian. After walking through a long series of halls, they
reached a large auditorium, where already there had gathered in the
semi-circle of seats a hundred or so of the tall, blue-tinged Venerians.
Before them, on a low platform, were two large, deeply-cushioned chairs.
To these chairs the two Terrestrians were led.

"We will try to teach you our language telepathically. We can give you
the ideas--you must learn the pronunciation, but this will be very much
quicker. Seat yourselves in these chairs and relax."

The chairs had been designed for the seven-footers. These men were six
feet and six feet six, respectively, yet it seemed to them, as they sank
into the cushions, that never had they felt such comfortable chairs.
They were designed to put every muscle and every nerve at rest.
Luxuriously, almost in spite of themselves, they relaxed.

Dimly Arcot felt a wave of sleepiness sweep over him; he yawned
prodigiously. There was no conscious awareness of his sinking into a
deep slumber. It seemed that suddenly visions began to fill his
mind--visions that developed with a returning consciousness--up from the
dark, into a dream world. He saw a mighty fleet whose individual planes
were a mile long, with three-quarters of a mile wingspread--titanic
monoplanes, whose droning thunder seemed to roar through all space. Then
suddenly they were above him, and from each there spurted a great stream
of dazzling brilliance, an intense glow that reached down, and touched
the city. An awful concussion blasted his ears. All the world about him
erupted in unimaginable brilliance; then darkness fell.

Another vision filled his mind--a vision of the same fleet hanging over
a giant crater of molten rock, a crater that gaped angrily in a plain
beside low green hills--a crater that had been a city. The giants of the
air circled, turned, and sped over the horizon. Again he was with
them--and again he saw a great city fuse in a blazing flash of blinding
light--again and yet again--until around all that world he saw smoking
ruins of great cities, now blasted crimson craters in a world of fearful
desolation.

The destroyers rode up, up, up--out of the clouds--and he was with them.
Out beyond the swirling mists, where the cold of space seemed to reach
in at them, and the roaring of the mighty propellers was a thin
whine--then suddenly that was gone, and from the tail of each of the
titanic machines there burst a great stream of light, a blazing column
that roared back, and lit all space for miles around--rocket jets that
sent them swiftly across space!

He saw them approaching another world, a world that shone a dull red,
but he saw the markings and knew that it was Earth, not Mars. The great
planes began falling now--falling at an awful speed into the upper air
of the planet, and in an instant the rocket flares were gone, fading and
dying in the dense air. Again there came the roar of the mighty
propellers. Then swiftly the fleet of giants swooped down, lower and
lower. He became aware of its destination--a spot he knew must be New
York--but a strangely distorted New York--a Venerian city, where New
York should have been. And again, the bombs rained down. In an instant
the gigantic city was a smoking ruin.

The visions faded, and slowly he opened his eyes, looked about him. He
was still in the room of the circle of chairs--he was still on
Venus--then with sudden shock, understanding came. He knew the meaning
of these visions--the meaning of that strangely distorted New York, of
that red earth. It meant that this was what the Venerians believed was
to happen! They were trying to show him the plans of the owners and
builders of those gigantic ships! The New York he had seen was New York
as these men imagined it.

Startled, confused, his forehead furrowed, he rose unsteadily to his
feet. His head seemed whirling in the throes of a terrific headache. The
men about him were looking anxiously at him. He glanced toward Morey. He
was sleeping deeply in the seat, his features now and again reflecting
his sensations. It was his turn to learn this new language and see the
visions.

The old Venerian who had brought them there walked up to Arcot and spoke
to him in a softly musical language, a language that was sibilant and
predominated in liquid sounds; there were no gutturals, no nasals; it
was a more musical language than Earth men had ever before heard, and
now Arcot started in surprise, for he understood it perfectly; the
language was as familiar as English.

"We have taught you our language as quickly as possible--you may have a
headache, but you must know what we know as soon as possible. It may
well be that the fate of two worlds hangs on your actions. These men
have concentrated on you and taught you very rapidly with the massed
power of their minds, giving you visions of what we know to be in
preparation. You must get back to your wonderful ship as quickly as
possible; and yet you must know what has happened here on our world in
the last few years, as well as what happened twenty centuries ago.

"Come with me to my office, and we will talk. When your friend has also
learned, you may tell him."

Quickly Arcot followed the Venerian down the long corridors of the
building. The few people they met seemed intent on their own business,
paying little attention to them.

At last they seated themselves in the office where Arcot had first met
his escort; and there he listened to a new history--the history of
another planet.

"My name is Tonlos," the old man said. "I am a leader of my
people--though my title and position are unimportant. To explain would
entail a prolonged discussion of our social structure, and there is no
time for that. Later, perhaps--but now to our history.

"Twenty centuries ago," Tonlos continued, "there were two great rival
nations on this planet. The planet Turo is naturally divided so that
there would be a tendency toward such division. There are two enormous
belts of land around the globe, one running from about 20 degrees north
of the equator to about 80 degrees north. This is my country, Lanor. To
the south there is a similar great belt of land, of almost identical
size, Kaxor. These two nations have existed for many thousands of our
years.

"Two thousand years ago a great crisis arose in the affairs of the
world--a great war was in process of starting--but a Lanorian developed
a weapon that made it impossible for the Kaxorians to win--and war was
averted. The feeling was so strong, however, that laws were passed which
stopped all intercourse between the two nations for these thousands of
years. By devious ways we've learned that Kaxor has concentrated on the
study of physics, perhaps in hopes of finding a weapon with which they
could threaten us once more. Lanor has studied the secrets of the human
mind and body. We have no disease here any longer; we have no insanity.
We are students of chemistry, but physics has been neglected to a great
extent. Recently, however, we have again taken up this science, since it
alone of the main sciences had not received our study. Only twenty-five
years have been spent on these researches, and in that short time we
cannot hope to do what the Kaxorians have done in two thousand.

"The secret of the heat ray, the weapon that prevented the last war, had
been almost forgotten. It required diligent research to bring it to life
again, for it is a very inefficient machine--or was. Of late, however,
we have been able to improve it, and now it is used in commerce to smelt
our ores. It was this alone that allowed this city to put up the slight
resistance that we did. We were surely doomed. This is the capital of
Lanor, Sonor. We--and the nation--would have fallen but for you.

"We have had some warning that this was coming. We have spies in Kaxor
now, for we learned of their intentions when they flew the first of
their giant planes over one of our cities and dropped a bomb! We have
been trying, since we discovered the awful scope of their plans, to send
you a warning if you could not help us. That you should come here at
this particular time is almost beyond belief--a practically impossible
coincidence--but perhaps there is more than coincidence behind it? Who
knows?" He paused briefly; went on with a heavy sigh: "Since you drove
that plane away, we can expect a new raid at any moment, and we must be
prepared. Is there any way you can signal your planet?"

"Yes--we can signal easily," Arcot answered; he struggled with the newly
acquired language. "I do not know the word in your tongue--it may be
that you do not have it--radio we call it--it is akin to light, but of
vastly longer wavelength. Produced electrically, it can be directed like
light and sent in a beam by means of a reflection. It can penetrate all
substances except metals, and can leak around them, if it be not
directional. With it I can talk readily with the men of Earth, and this
very night I will."

Arcot paused, frowning thoughtfully, then continued, "I know there's
definite need for haste, but we can't do anything until Morey has
received the knowledge you've given me. While we're waiting here, I
might just as well learn all I can about your planet. The more I know,
the more intelligently I'll be able to plan for our defense."

In the conversation which followed, Arcot gained a general knowledge of
the physical makeup of Venus. He learned that iron was an exceedingly
rare element on the planet, while platinum was relatively plentiful.
Gold, though readily available, was considered a nuisance, since it was
of no practical value due to its softness, excessive weight and its
affinity for many catalysts. Most of the other metallic elements were
present in quantities approximating those of Earth, except for an
element called "morlus". When Tonlos mentioned this, Arcot said:

"Morlus--I have the word in your language--but I do not know the
element. What is it?"

"Why--here is some!"

Tonlos handed Arcot a small block of metal that had been used as a
weight on a table in one corner of the room. It seemed fairly dense,
about as heavy as iron, but it had a remarkably bluish tint. Obviously,
it was the element that composed the wings of the airplane they had
seen that afternoon. Arcot examined it carefully, handicapped somewhat
by its heat. He picked up a small copper rod and tried to scratch it but
there was no noticeable effect.

"You cannot scratch it with copper," said Tonlos. "It is the second
hardest metal we know--it is not as hard as chromium, but far less
brittle. It is malleable, ductile, very very strong, very tough,
especially when alloyed with iron, but those alloys are used only in
very particular work because of iron's rarity."

Indicating the bluish block, Arcot said, "I'd like to identify this
element. May I take it back to the ship and test it?"

"You may, by all means. You will have considerable difficulty getting it
into solution, however. It is attacked only by boiling selenic acid
which, as you must know, dissolves platinum readily. The usual test for
the element is to so dissolve it, oxidize it to an acid, then test with
radium selenate, when a brilliant greenish blue salt is--"

"Test with radium selenate!" Arcot exclaimed. "Why, we have no radium
salts whatever on Earth that we could use for that purpose. Radium is
exceedingly rare!"

"Radium is by no means plentiful here," Tonlos replied, "but we seldom
have to test for morlus, and we have plenty of radium salts for that
purpose. We have never found any other use for radium--it is so active
that it combines with water just as sodium does; it is very soft--a
useless metal, and dangerous to handle. Our chemists have never been
able to understand it--it is always in some kind of reaction no matter
what they do, and still it gives off that very light gas, helium, and a
heavy gas, niton, and an unaccountable amount of heat."

"Your world is vastly different from ours," Arcot commented. He told
Tonlos of the different metals of Earth, the non-metals, and their
occurrence. But try as he would, he could not place the metal Tonlos had
given him.

Morey's arrival interrupted their discussion. He looked very tired, and
very serious. His head ached from his unwonted mental strain, just as
Arcot's had. Briefly Arcot told him what he had learned, concluding with
a question as to why Morey thought the two planets, both members of the
same solar family, should be so different.

"I have an idea," said Morey slowly, "and it doesn't seem _too_ wacky.
As you know, by means of solar photography, astronomers have mapped the
sun, charting the location of the different elements. We've seen
hydrogen, oxygen, silicon and others, and as the sun aged, the elements
must have been mixed up more and more thoroughly. Yet we have seen the
vast areas of single elements. Some of those areas are so vast that they
could easily be the source of an entire world! I wonder if it is not
possible that Earth was thrown off from some deposit rich in iron,
aluminum and calcium, and poor in gold, radium and those other
metals--and particularly poor in one element. We have located in the sun
the spectrum of an element we have named coronium--and I think you have
a specimen of coronium in your hand there! I'd say Venus came from a
coronium-rich region!"

The discussion ended there, for already the light outside had deepened
to a murky twilight. The Terrestrians were led quickly down to the
elevator, which dropped them rapidly to the ground. There was still a
large crowd about the _Solarite_, but the way was quickly cleared for
them. As the men passed through the crowd, a peculiar sensation struck
them very forcibly. It seemed that everyone in the crowd was wishing
them the greatest success--the best of good things in every wish.

"The ultimate in applause! Morey, I'll swear we just received a silent
cheer!" exclaimed Arcot, as they stood inside the airlock of the ship
once more. It seemed home to them now! In a moment they had taken off
the uncomfortable ventilating suits and stepped once more into the room
where Wade and Fuller awaited them.

"Say--what were you fellows doing?" Wade demanded. "We were actually
getting ready to do some inquiring about your health!"

"I know we were gone a long time--but when you hear the reason you'll
agree it was worth it. See if you can raise Earth on the radio, Morey,
will you, while I tell these fellows what happened? If you succeed, tell
them to call in Dad and your father, and to have a couple of tape
recorders on the job. We'll want a record of what I have to send. Say
that we'll call back in an hour." Then, while Morey was busy down in the
power room sending the signals out across the forty million miles of
space that separated them from their home planet, Arcot told Wade and
Fuller what they had learned.

Morey finally succeeded in getting his message through, and returned to
say that they would be waiting in one hour. He had had to wait eight
minutes after sending his message to get any answer, however, due to
time required for radio waves to make the two-way trip.

"Fuller," Arcot said, "as chef, suppose you see what you can concoct
while Wade and I start on this piece of coronium and see what there is
to learn."

At the supper table Wade and Arcot reported to the others the curious
constants they had discovered for coronium. It was not attacked by any
acid except boiling selenic acid, since it formed a tremendous number of
insoluble salts. Even the nitrate violated the long-held rule that "all
nitrates are soluble"--it wouldn't dissolve. Yet it was chemically more
active than gold.

But its physical constants were the most surprising. It melted at 2800 deg.
centigrade, a very high melting point indeed. Very few metals are solid
at that temperature. But the tensile strength test made with a standard
bar they finally turned out by means of a carbaloy tool, gave a reading
of more than one million, three hundred thousand pounds per square inch!
It was far stronger than iron--stronger than tungsten, the strongest
metal heretofore known. It was twice as strong as the Earth's strongest
metal!

Fuller whistled in awe. "No wonder they can make a plane like that when
they have such a metal to work with." The designing engineer had visions
of a machine after his own heart--one in which half the weight was
_not_ employed in holding it together!

It was a little later that they got communication through to Earth, and
the men went to the power room. The television screen was struggling to
form a clear image despite the handicap of forty million miles of space.
In a moment it had cleared, though, and they saw the face of Dr. Arcot.
He showed plainly that he was worried about the startling news that had
reached him already, sketchy though it was. After brief though warm
greetings, his son rapidly outlined to him the full extent of their
discoveries, and the force that Earth would have to meet.

"Dad, these Kaxorians have planes capable of far more than a thousand
miles an hour in the air. For some reason the apparatus they use to
propel them in space is inoperative in air, but their propellers will
drive them forward faster than any plane Earth ever saw. You must start
at once on a fleet of these molecular motion planes--and a lot of the
gas Wade developed--you know how to make it--the animation suspending
gas. They don't have it--and I believe it will be useful. I'll try to
develop some new weapons here. If either of us makes any progress along
new lines--we'll report to the other. I must stop now--a Lanorian
delegation is coming." After a few words of farewell, Arcot severed
connections with the Earth and arose to await the arrival of the
visitors.

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