there between the two peaks.
Filling the tremendous basin formed by the peaks, the "saddle"
between the twins, there was something that stood out clearly,
glistening dully in the pale light. And though it was much wider
than it was high, Charlie guessed that the strange ship must be at
least as high as a five-story building. Forgetting his own fears,
he gave a low whistle as he stared in admiration at the masterwork
of a science far beyond anything known on Earth. Then, as a dim
glow of lights went on somewhere far up in about the middle of the
big ship, Charlie saw the special kind of window or view-port it
had. It was a broad band of glass-like stuff, and it seemed to
circle entirely around the great circular ship. Then as they got
still closer, he could make out
other
bands, but these were not
lighted. Counting them, from the smallest band about the narrower
bottom bulge of the space ship, Charlie counted all the way up to
the bulge, or dome, on top. There were eleven bands, or rows of
windows! That would mean, Charlie figured, at least eleven
decks.
Navajo became more jittery now than ever as the
three figures led them under the giant space ship. Fearing the
horse might bolt and make the aliens show their hand, Charlie began
talking to Navajo and patting his neck, while he wondered just how
far under the ship they would have to go before reaching some port
or door, or whatever entrance the thing had. Then the three stopped
abruptly just ahead of Charlie and Navajo.
"It's okay, Nav, it's okay. We'll be all right,"
Charlie said, still stroking the horse, "so don't you go worryin'
none."
Charlie let his voice die away as
he became aware of the great circle of lights all about them,
slowly rising in glow, instead of going on suddenly. The lights
about them were at least several hundred feet across, and now they
seemed to be descending about them—or so it seemed! He had just
noticed this, when he was aware of a tiny jarring motion, almost
imperceptible. It was as though the desert floor beneath them had
suddenly stopped. It
had
stopped! Charlie found this out as the lights
glowed brilliantly now. The circle of light had not been a band of
lights lowered about them. Rather, they themselves had been hoisted
up smoothly on a great platform—the platform that was the bottom
deck of the space ship! They had risen so smoothly on the great
platform, that only now he knew it, when the lights were on
full.
Chemical
lighting
, came the informative impulse, as
Charlie momentarily wondered what type of power they used.
It is unlike your primitive and somewhat
dangerous electrical charges.
Startled back into concern about his own immediate
danger, Charlie looked closely at the three tall figures, trying to
understand which one had just spoken to him. It was hard to ask a
direct question of all three. But he was puzzled, for there was no
way he could tell one thought wave from another, or know whether or
not all three were speaking to him each time.
There is,
came the impulse, as they stared back at Charlie from under
the masking hoods,
but that will take
time. You
are not yet familiar enough with the interplanetary
tongue to note its finer delineations. But you shall learn
them.
Not too concerned as to whether or
not he would
ever
learn to distinguish between their mental impulses, Charlie
strongly felt the need to get out, to get away from this strange
space ship. He wondered just where he was on the ship.
This is the lower dome or base tier deck as your
world might call it. Or perhaps you may term it, the lower
deck.
"Your
world," Charlie thought, and as he thought it, he realized
they had unintentionally slipped, giving him the answer he was sure
of, yet had wanted to get from them. They
were
from another world.
Now as he watched them, the three figures began to
remove the mysterious black hoods, and the black coverall robes
they had worn out on the desert. Charlie's thoughts tumbled crazily
as he wondered just what kind of beings they would be—were they
human—what would they look like?
Remembering they had read his earlier thoughts, he
was suddenly paralyzed with fear, afraid they had read the terrible
question, the uncertainty in his mind about them. They had.
To the prime thought now frozen in your impulse
glands, came the impulse, you shall have the answer.
And as he waited, staring at them, they removed the
hoods, letting the black robes to which they were attached fall
away to the deck entirely. Charlie stood face to face with them—the
three aliens from another world.
CHAPTER FOUR
Nightmare
As the black hooded garments fell to the deck,
Charlie saw with a wave of relief that the aliens were human
beings. Their long, angular faces reminded him of the nickname
"horseface" back in school, except that the long faces of these
alien men were fairly good-looking. But most of all, he noticed
their large and very bright eyes, as they stared at him now. The
great eyes of the men had very bright center pupils of flashing
green, circled by a thin gold band around the eye ball that looked
a little like flashing gold sparks. The outer part around the thin
gold line was white like Earthmen, Charlie noted, and very clear.
Charlie thought they looked a little like the eyes of green-eyed
tigers.
Wondering just why they had put on the black-hooded
robes and boots over their more comfortable and better
looking uniform, Charlie received an immediate
answer.
These are 'protective clothing, necessary to
protect us against the radiated surface of your world sun blasted
by the Sun. We are not accustomed to the Sun's pure light and its
continued effect upon us, therefore this protection against your
gamma-rayed surface.
"Thank you," Charlie said, "for the
information."
Aware that they were not particularly curious about
him, he continued to watch them, noticing the way their hair grew
straight up instead of down like his own. All of them had yellow,
really gold-colored hair, and it was short-cut like a crew-cut but
still it looked a lot different. It grew in a mild spiral, up
toward the crowning back part of their head, just as many Earth
people's hair spirals from the crown, but in a downward direction.
Charlie finally decided that it didn't look too bad. He pulled up
the carefully-weighed thought, just as he noticed one of the alien
men smile a little. Charlie couldn't help wondering if all the
people of their world had that same natural duck-butt style hair
that grew up, curving away to the back of their heads. In a way, it
sort of streamlined them, and it reminded Charlie of the pictures
he had seen of Mercury.
Seeming to pay no attention to him at all, the
aliens went about changing clothes, swiftly communicating among
themselves. Charlie looked them over further, especially their
unusual clothing. Under the black robes they wore short shoulder
capes. Now that the hoods were off, they furled these capes back
over their shoulders. The capes were a brilliant cobalt blue with
square or blocked gold figures along
the broad band bordering them. The inside was a
silver color. Under his cape each man wore a skin-tight type of
shirt that looked like fish net, and through this showed very pale
pink skin. As he was puzzling about the fish net shirt instead of
solid cloth, Charlie got the impulse from one of the aliens who
glanced at him a moment.
For circulatory stimulation of the surface tissue,
so that the skin might breathe properly.
"Thanks, again," Charlie said.
He noticed they seemed fairly young, about as old
as his uncle. They were not half as old as they appeared in those
black robes which made them look like ancient monks. But all of
them were at least a foot or more taller than Charlie, in spite of
the fact that he was as tall as most Earthmen. Charlie wondered
what kind of sports they had on their own world, for they all
seemed pretty well built and they would be good at basketball or
whatever contests their world had. He almost asked them about their
sports—but checked himself. It might give them the idea that he
wanted to stay with them—and that was the last thing Charlie wanted
to happen.
They were paying him no attention at all, and
Charlie had a sudden angry thought. He wondered if they were
ignoring him now, telling him nothing of why they were holding him
either, just because of his age.
No, Primitive, came the casual impulse response, we
have no concern with your years. Nor are we concerned with the
problems of your small culture on this world. Neither interests
us.
Charlie didn't have time to open his mouth. They
were already walking toward the center of the deck. Hardly had they
reached the large cylinder-like pillar at the deck's center when a
panel slid open silently. All three alien men entered without a
backward glance at him. The panel closed.
He was still angry at their casual manner. He
couldn't get his mind off the mystery of where they came from, who
they were, and what they wanted.
Alone with Navajo, Charlie thought for a long time
about the strange aliens, their tallness and well-formed bodies,
and the familiar human qualities they had shown. • But in spite of
his relief at not finding the aliens to be some unbelievable
monster beings, he still couldn't forget the flashing green and
gold of their eyes, and the tiger look it gave them.
"Nav, I don't think I'd want to come across those
eyes in some dark place. So maybe it's a good thing they did wear
those doggone protective hoods, when we first saw them."
Navajo gave a low, brief whinny in reply and
bounced the head harness up and down as he showed his approval.
Charlie knew he didn't understand all his words, but he grinned
quickly and hugged the old horse about the neck. Whatever he said,
old Navajo always thought it was right.
Charlie went to where they had piled up their
protective clothing. It was made of something that looked like a
type of plastic material, very fine and light as feathers, and even
! the heavy looking boots surprised Charlie with their lightness.
But he still couldn't figure why they needed protective • clothing,
in spite of what they said. And most of all', they certainly
shouldn't need such clothes when the Sun had long
gone down. He wished he had asked them where they
came from.
Trying to locate the paneling in the big circular
pillar in the deck's center, he could find no crack at all or the
slightest trace of where a door might have been. The metal was
finely lined, grooved all over, and he was sure that one of those
hairline grooves must be the door crack—but which one, he didn't
know. Charlie pounded on it several times, but only the dull echo
of the hollow sound came back to him on the empty deck. The aliens
were now somewhere else in the great ship.
Going to the outer rim of the deck, Charlie circled
the entire tier, with Navajo clippety-clopping along behind him,
stopping when he did, as they both got nowhere. There was no
possible opening. He could dimly see the rusty iron-red surface of
Saddle Mountain outside, as he stared through the broad band of
window that circled the entire deck without a break. As he peered
out now the indirect lighting went out about the deck, its glow
fading down to nothing. There, far down, he could see the desert's
flat sandy floor, some fifty feet below the ship! He had no idea
that the platform, the floor of the lower deck, had risen that high
above the ground. There was no one in sight out there anywhere. No
one he could signal to, and maybe get them to warn the authorities.
Only blank desert, with the distant mountains across the lake to
the East, far beyond his own land around the Shack. He and Navajo
were completely alone.
He was aware suddenly that he was very tired from
being up all night. He sat down on the smooth deck of the
tier.
Perhaps, when morning came, someone passing far off
there on the roadway along Lake Havasu might see the big ship. At
any rate, he'd need what rest he could get right now, to make his
get-away later. Besides, Navajo was already lying down, resting
quietly, so there couldn't be any immediate danger from the aliens.
Navajo would know. Telling himself everything was all right for the
moment, Charlie stretched: out on the deck.
He was unable to sleep because of a soreness in his
throat, so he sat up again a few minutes later. The night was
almost gone, and the first gray light of morning was lighting the
desert, over to the East on the ridges far across the lake. Rubbing
his throat and wondering why it had to get so sore at a time like
this, Charlie tried again to sleep. Then he felt it. A gentle
probing— something prying into his mind, pushing aside his sleepy
thoughts and trying to get his attention! His thoughts about sleep
and the near morning were gone in a flash. Charlie knew now just
what that probing was.
It was another mind, an alien's thoughts, reaching
into his own mind! Startled, Charlie looked quickly about the great
empty deck. Even in the semi-darkness he could see there was no one
there. And as he continued to look about, Navajo pricked up his
ears. The old horse had noticed the impulse, too.
"Who—who are you?" Charlie asked aloud, hearing the
echo of his own words roll around the deck. "I want to get out of
here—" and Charlie jumped to his feet. "Why are you keeping me in
here?"
Charlie felt a little foolish,
since he might have only been
1
dreaming, and only answering
a thought in his own mind. He put out a hand to Navajo beside him,
as he told himself he had heard something, he was sure. It
was
an impulse. Just
like the ones from the aliens. Now, he got the same mild impulse
again, clearer, more definite than before.