“Then what is it?” persisted Jet.
“You will know soon enough. But now it’s time for you to come outside and meet us, or what is left of us.”
“Eh?” said Lemmy.
“And don’t be too surprised by what you see. We are very unlike you. We are not of this Earth. Life on our own planet was different and we have developed differently. You can have no idea of how we look.”
“Er--now wait a minute“ Lemmy turned to Jet.
“Can’t he give us some idea of what he looks like first?”
“It might be as well,” I said.
“Call him,” said Lemmy. “Ask him to show himself on the televiewer at least.”
Jet called but could get no reply. For fully five minutes we tried to raise the Voice, but to no avail.
“He should be hearing us,” said Jet, “there’s no music on. Perhaps he doesn’t intend to answer.”
“Maybe,” said Lemmy, “he’s probably afraid the sight of him will horrify us so much we’ll want to go back.”
“Then why bring us here in the first place?” queried Mitch.
“That’s what’s bothering me,” said Lemmy. “For all we know the minute we step outside we’ll be pounced on and locked up in a cage.”
“Why in a cage?” asked Jet.
“Because we’re different from him, that’s why. We interest him. I expect his local zoo will make a lot of money with us shut up in it, like a lot of apes. Can’t you see them, gathering round and poking us with sticks?”
“We don’t know if they realise what a zoo is, Lemmy, least of all money,” I said.
“All right, as scientific specimens then. What would our scientists say if they found some kind of animal they had never seen before? They wouldn’t give it a banana and send it home, would they? They’d have it all nicely locked up in no time. It wouldn’t matter what the animal felt about it.”
“Well,” suggested Jet, “we could at least go as far as the door and see if we fancy going any further.” And with that, he began to climb the ladder to the upper cabin.
What we saw when we reached the opening was no horrible monster. In fact we saw no living creature of any kind, except a flight of birds flapping its way across the sky. Stretched out before us as far as the eye could see was the great array of domes. If each were a complete sphere then exactly half of it was below the ground.
“The place certainly seems deserted,” said Jet.
“They’re probably keeping out of sight,” said Lemmy, “waiting to grab us when it’s too late for us to go back.”
“If they intended to be violent, they could have come into the ship. Now let’s get down to ground level.”
“If only we had a gun or something,” said Lemmy, as he descended the ladder.
“You don’t need guns to explore a lifeless world,” said Mitch.
“This is no lifeless world.”
“No, but the Moon is and it was the Moon we set out to explore.”
“Now,” said Jet, “keep close together and we’ll go over to that town or whatever it is. And keep your radios on all the time in case the Voice calls us.”
Ten minutes later we were wandering through the strange city. There were no streets or pavements. The domes rose straight out of the ground, which was still in its natural state.
Suddenly our tour was brought to a stop by a frightening roar. The shock was so great, I stood rooted to the spot-- petrified. It had come from behind us. We turned, and there, not thirty yards away, its head down and tail lashing, was a horrifying creature. It looked rather like a lioness, it was the same tawny colour, perhaps a little darker. It had short, pointed ears, its eyes were set well forward in its face, and from its upper jaws protruded two long fangs. It was a giant cat; the sabre-toothed tiger, in person. It, too, had obviously been wandering through the domes when it caught sight of us and, very likely, was just as frightened to see us as we were to hear it roar. “Don’t move,” said Jet, “don’t anybody move.”
The animal seemed to regard us with some curiosity. It stood still, emitting an occasional low purr from its throat, its tail lashing incessantly. It didn’t come any closer, but remained half crouching, and staring. After a while it slunk to one side and then, with a bound, disappeared behind a dome.
Lemmy breathed an audible sigh of relief. “I thought we’d had our chips then,” he said.
“I think he was scared of us at first,” I said, “until he knew we didn’t intend to harm him.”
“If he’d chosen to attack us,” said Mitch, “we wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
“Well, that just about establishes what period of time we are in,” said Jet. “That thing couldn’t possibly be in the future.”
“And it also establishes,” said Lemmy, “that we’re not safe out here. We’ve got to get back into the ship and quick.” “Yes, I think we’d better. Come on.” Jet took a few paces forward, then stopped. There, in the city of domes, every one identical and equidistant from the next, it was impossible for us to have any sense of direction. We were lost.
“Now wait a minute,” said Mitch, “which was the last building we looked at?”
“The one directly behind us,” said Jet.
“No it wasn’t,” protested Lemmy, “it was that one over there.”
“I’m sure it’s this way,” said Mitch.
“And I know you’re wrong; it’s this way.” Lemmy pointed in the opposite direction.
“Now hold on,” said Jet. “We’d better face it, none of us knows which is the right way.”
“We shouldn’t have come in tar so,” I said, “not without taking our bearings first.”
“Well, there’s no point in going any farther,” said Jet. “Now, when we came out of the ship, did any of you notice which way the sun lay?”
None of us had. We didn’t even know at which point of the compass the ship was standing in relation to the city we were in.
“Maybe if we could climb to the top of one of these domes we could get high enough to see the ship,” said Lemmy, “before it gets too dark.”
“And what do we use for footholds?” asked Mitch. “It would be like trying to climb a wall of glass.”
“Then what are we going to do? Stay out here all night with them tigers and heaven knows what else walking around and licking their chops?”
“Unless we find a way out of this maze, that’s just what we’ll have to do.”
“Then how about calling up his nibs again? Maybe he’ll reply to us this time and perhaps he can help us.”
Jet switched on his radio but didn’t even have to make the preliminary call, for out of his ear-piece we could all faintly hear the Voice: “Hullo--hullo, Luna.” We all hastily switched on our sets and listened intently.
“Hullo,” said Jet, “we can hear you.”
“Why didn’t you answer before?
“We did call you, before we left the ship, but you never replied.”
“No. We were too busy watching you.”
“Watching us--do what?”
“Exploring our city.”
“Then it
is
a city.”
“Does that surprise you? Many forms of life all over the Universe live in communities.”
“But what’s the idea of watching us?” asked Lemmy.
“Just curiosity. See how you would react to what you saw.”
“All we did was get lost,” said Jet in disgust.
“And meet a tiger,” added Lemmy indignantly. “Do you know those things are hanging around here?”
“Of course, many other animals, too.”
“You mean you let them?”
“Why not? They do us no harm, and we certainly do them none.”
“But one normally expects a wild animal to attack you.”
“Attack?”
“Yes, attack,” repeated Jet. “Fly at you--kill you, maybe.”
“Unless you kill him first, of course,” said Mitch.
“The thought never occurred to me.”
“Then how do you protect yourself from such creatures?” said Lemmy.
“They never bother us, nor we them.”
“Oh, I see.” Lemmy turned to Jet and spoke in a whisper. “They must look more horrible than we thought--even a sabre-toothed tiger is scared to go near them.”
“Have you seen enough of the outside of our city?” asked the Voice.
“More than enough,” said Lemmy. “We want to get back to the ship, where we feel safe.” “You are afraid?”
“Wouldn’t you be in our place?”
“I don’t think so. Animals are timid but you have no reason to be, because, unlike animals, you can reason.”
“I don’t see that that follows at all,” said Lemmy. “It’s just because I can reason that I know when to be scared.”
“You must be more primitive, more backward than we thought.”
“Now look, mate, there’s no need to get personal,” argued Lemmy. “You told us yourself we were in great danger. That’s how you persuaded us to come here.”
“To be in danger is not necessarily to be afraid.”
“Look,” said Jet determinedly, “whether we’re scared or not we have no desire to remain here all night. Can you guide us back to the ship? At least we can stay there until morning.”
“If you really wish it. But I was about to guide you somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“To me.”
“Oh,” said Jet. “Is that far?”
“No.”
“What do you say, Mitch--and you, Doc?”
“If we’re going to end up with the Voice anyway,” said Mitch, “we might as well go now.” “Yes, Jet,” I agreed.
“All right,” said our captain, addressing the Voice. “What do we have to do? Where do we go?” “You see the dome in front of you?” “Yes.”
“Walk round to the other side.” “Just that--nothing else?” asked Jet.
“No, nothing else.”
“All right, gentlemen,” said Jet, “let’s go.”
I was convinced we’d walked round this same dome before; however, when we got round to the opposite side this time, we found a door.
It was the entrance to a tunnel which sloped steeply down and was lit up for about twenty yards. There the light stopped and it was too dark for us to see what lay beyond.
The moment we entered the door closed behind us. There was no turning back now. We walked slowly down the slope. As we did so, lights came on further ahead and those behind us went out so that only part of the tunnel immediately before and behind us was illuminated. It was an ingenious device, and once we understood it we continued on our way with more confidence.
We must have walked for an hour, our footsteps echoing round us as we made our way deeper and deeper into the earth.
“I don’t think we’re ever coming to the end of this tunnel,” said Lemmy, wearily. “If it’s like everything else in this place --built on a circular pattern--all we’ll do is end up where we started.”
“Hey, wait--stop a minute. See--there.” Jet pointed directly ahead. Before us in the darkness was a pinpoint of bluish light. “It looks just like an eye. Well, doesn’t it?” he went on when none of us replied.
Lemmy gulped. “Now you mention it,” he said, “it does.”
“And it’s as though it’s watching us,” I said, “staring at us.”
“Here,” said Lemmy, “do me a favour, will you, Doc?” Then, “Hey! That couldn’t be the Voice, could it?”
“How can an eye be a voice?” asked Mitch. “I mean
his
eye.”
“Only one?” said Jet.
“Why not? If he’s as different from us as he says he is, maybe he’s only got one. Maybe that’s all he is--an eye.”
“How could an eye stay up in the air like that, with no support?” said Mitch disparagingly.
Jet switched on his radio. “Hullo--hullo,” he said anxiously. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” came back the Voice.
“We can see a light, a bluish light--very small and directly ahead. We don’t quite know what to make of it.”
“Keep walking until you reach it, and you will pass through it.”
“What do you think we are,” said Lemmy, “mice?”
“It will grow as you approach it.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Then we’ll keep going,” said Jet, “and thank you.”
“It’s a pleasure,” the Voice replied.
“That’s more than it is for me,” said Lemmy. Jet switched off the radio and we continued our walk in silence, each of us wondering what lay at the end of it.
We caught our first glimpse of what lay beyond before we actually reached the outlet and we all broke into an involuntary run to get closer to the unbelievable sight before the vision faded. But it was real enough.
There, a hundred feet or more below us, lay a vast plain. Like most things with which we’d been concerned lately, it was circular. It was an immense garden, filled with flowering trees, but of shapes and sizes I had never seen before. They appeared to be akin to the cacti family but their blooms, while just as brilliant, were far more profuse. Gorgeous reds, blues, yellows, pinks, whites and purples were to be seen everywhere; it was as though the multi-coloured clouds of a brilliant sunset had been snatched from the sky and laid on the earth. The trunks and boughs of the trees were the colour of red cabbage. Most of them were covered in scales like a pineapple and from each scale there projected a thin, pointed leaf, about two feet along and perfectly straight.
But the most fantastic thing was the sky. It was a delicate, pale blue and although it was impossible to tell where the light came from, its soft rays shone down to bathe the whole scene in a delicate warmth.
“It’s all a dream,” said Mitch, almost in a whisper. “It must be.”
“Or a nightmare,” said Lemmy. “A beautiful nightmare.”
“It’s daylight,” exlaimed Jet. “How can you have daylight underground, at night? And the sky is. . .” He paused and looked again. “It’s not the sky,” he said, “it’s a roof. This whole thing is artificial--an artificial world laid out under the largest dome one could ever conceive.”
“How does it keep up there,” asked Mitch, his engineering instincts coming to the fore, “with nothing to support it? There must be millions of tons of earth above it; the pressure must be fantastic.”
We stood silent for a while, enthralled by the majestic scene.
“Whoever built it,” I said at last, “must have a great love of beauty.”
Our reveries were finally interrupted by the Voice. “How do you like our home?” it said.
“Is this where you live, is this your city?” “What is left of it.”
“We’d hardly call this a ruin,” said Jet, a trace of humour his voice.
“No, not a ruin, but a city is not alive without inhabitants, and they are all gone, or very nearly.”