Triplanetary - E. E. Smith (phonics reader TXT) 📗

“I am not accustomed to repeating instructions,” the man at the desk continued; voice still low and level, but instinct with deadly menace. “You may choose between removing those suits and dying in them, here and now.”

Costigan moved over to Clio and slowly took off her armor. Then, after a flashing exchange of glances and a muttered word, the two officers threw off their suits simultaneously and fired at the same instant; Bradley with his Lewiston, Costigan with a heavy automatic pistol whose bullets were explosive shells of tremendous power. But the man in gray, surrounded by an impenetrable wall of force, only smiled at the fusillade, tolerantly and maddeningly. Costigan leaped fiercely, only to be hurled backward as he struck that unyielding, invisible wall. A vicious beam snapped him back into place, the weapons were snatched away, and all three captives were held to their former positions.

“I permitted that, as a demonstration of futility,” the gray man said, his hard voice becoming harder, “but I will permit no more foolishness. Now I will introduce myself. I am known as Roger. You probably have heard nothing of me: very few Tellurians have, or ever will. Whether or not you two live depends solely upon yourselves. Being something of a student of men, I fear that you will both die shortly. Able and resourceful as you have just shown yourselves to be, you could be valuable to me, but you probably will not⁠—in which case you shall, of course, cease to exist. That, however, in its proper time⁠—you shall be of some slight service to me in the process of being eliminated. In your case, Miss Marsden, I find myself undecided between two courses of action; each highly desirable, but unfortunately mutually exclusive. Your father will be glad to ransom you at an exceedingly high figure, but in spite of that fact I may decide to use you in a research upon sex.”

“Yes?” Clio rose magnificently to the occasion. Fear forgotten, her courageous spirit flashed from her clear young eyes and emanated from her taut young body, erect in defiance. “You may think that you can do anything with me that you please, but you can’t!”

“Peculiar⁠—highly perplexing⁠—why should that one stimulus, in the case of young females, produce such an entirely disproportionate reaction?” Roger’s eyes bored into Clio’s; the girl shivered and looked away. “But sex itself, primal and basic, the most widespread concomitant of life in this continuum, is completely illogical and paradoxical. Most baffling⁠—decidedly, this research on sex must go on.”

Roger pressed a button and a tall, comely woman appeared⁠—a woman of indefinite age and of uncertain nationality.

“Show Miss Marsden to her apartment,” he directed, and as the two women went out a man came in.

“The cargo is unloaded, sir,” the newcomer reported. “The two men and the five women indicated have been taken to the hospital.”

“Very well, dispose of the others in the usual fashion.” The minion went out, and Roger continued, emotionlessly:

“Collectively, the other passengers may be worth a million or so, but it would not be worthwhile to waste time upon them.”

“What are you, anyway?” blazed Costigan, helpless but enraged beyond caution. “I have heard of mad scientists who tried to destroy the Earth, and of equally mad geniuses who thought themselves Napoleons capable of conquering even the Solar System. Whichever you are, you should know that you can’t get away with it.”

“I am neither. I am, however, a scientist, and I direct many other scientists. I am not mad. You have undoubtedly noticed several peculiar features of this place?”

“Yes, particularly the artificial gravity and those screens. An ordinary ether-wall is opaque in one direction, and doesn’t bar matter⁠—yours are transparent both ways and something more than impenetrable to matter. How do you do it?”

“You could not understand them if I explained them to you, and they are merely two of our smaller developments. I do not intend to destroy your planet Earth; I have no desire to rule over masses of futile and brainless men. I have, however, certain ends of my own in view. To accomplish my plans I require hundreds of millions in gold and other hundreds of millions in uranium, thorium, and radium; all of which I shall take from the planets of this Solar System before I leave it. I shall take them in spite of the puerile efforts of the fleets of your Triplanetary League.

“This structure was designed by me and built under my direction. It is protected from meteorites by forces of my devising. It is indetectable and invisible⁠—ether waves are bent around it without loss or distortion. I am discussing these points at such length so that you may realize exactly your position. As I have intimated, you can be of assistance to me if you will.”

“Now just what could you offer any man to make him join your outfit?” demanded Costigan, venomously.

“Many things,” Roger’s cold tone betrayed no emotion, no recognition of Costigan’s open and bitter contempt. “I have under me many men, bound to me by many ties. Needs, wants, longings, and desires differ from man to man, and I can satisfy practically any of them. Many men take delight in the society of young and beautiful women, but there are other urges which I have found quite efficient. Greed, thirst for fame, longing for power, and so on, including many qualities usually regarded as ‘noble.’ And what I promise, I deliver. I demand only loyalty to me, and that only in certain things and for a relatively short period. In all else, my men do as they please. In conclusion, I can use you two conveniently, but I do not need you. Therefore you may choose now between my service and⁠—the alternative.”

“Exactly what is the alternative?”

“We will not go into that. Suffice it to say that it has to do with a minor research, which is not progressing satisfactorily. It will result in your extinction, and perhaps I should mention that that