The Three Planeteers

linked hands with his comrades, speaking to them by conduction of sound.

'The radiation kills our audios completely,” he said. “It's what deadened all our instruments as we approached Erebus.'

Sual Av nodded his black-helmeted head vigorously. “The gamma. radiation alone from this mass would do that.'

'How in hell's name does this whole world come to be radioactive?” Gunner muttered. “If it was thrown off the sun in a tidal disturbance like the other planets, it should consist of the same kind of matter.'

'I believe Erebus is the product of an older and deeper disturbance than that which produced the other planets,” Sual AV said keenly. “A disturbance so deep that it hurled out a mass of the heavier radioactive elements at the sun's heart, which formed a huge radioactive core for this world when it hardened.'

'But there must have been some non-radioactive elements here originally, even so,” objected Gunner.

'Yes, but they would inevitably be made radioactive also by the radiation from the core,” Sual Av replied. “You know, the familiar phenomenon of induced radioactivity, which was discovered by the old Earth scientists way back in the first third of the twentieth century. The phenomenon by which a sheet of aluminum or some other normally non-radioactive element will become itself radioactive if subjected to radiation from radioactive elements.'

'That must be what has happened,” Thorn agreed. “And any ship that landed here would instantly also become radioactive in every particle, from the same cause.'

They trudged on. Weird journey across a blue-hazed planet beneath the eternally nighted sky! On over the desert, crunching the feebly glowing sands beneath their feet, constantly aware that the failure of the asterium coating on their spacesuits would mean death.

They steered by the stars, for the black metal mountain had dropped from sight behind them. Infinitely strange it seemed, on this outermost world so far from the sun, to look up into the dusky sky and see there the familiar, glittering constellations!

Then they glimpsed the western mountains in the distance ahead, looming low, dark and barren-looking through the drifting blue mists. The Planeteers held toward those dreary peaks.

'I see someone ahead!” exclaimed Sual AV suddenly, stopping, “Someone coming toward us.'

'It must be Cheerly coming back'’ cried Gunner, his hand darting to the asterium-coated atom-pistol belted outside his spacesuit.

Thorn's heart went cold with fear. If Cheerly was coming back with the radite, it meant Lana was already dead.

'No!” Sual AV cried, stupefied. “It's not Cheerly and his men. Look, it's something shining!'

'Good God, can there be any truth in what those Saturnians told of having seen shining demons out here?” Thorn exclaimed hoarsely.

For the two creatures moving toward them through the blue mists were unbelievable! They were man-formed creatures, but they were glowing with soft blue light!

The two shining things came on, straight toward the Planeteers. And they stopped a few yards away from the three comrades. They wore no space-suits or protection of any kind.

'God!” came Sual Av's thick-voiced exclamation. “They're men — shining men — radioactive men!'

Thorn's brain reeled at the sight. He felt as though he was looking at some weird mirage born of the shining mists.

The two men before him were human in every respect. They wore the tattered remnants of leather clothing such as space-sailors had worn in the past. One of them was tall, rangy of body. The other was smaller, with Martian features.

But both of the two men were glowing. Every atom of their bodies and of their clothing shone with faint radiance. These men were living human beings whose bodies had become as radioactive in every particle as all else on this world!

CHAPTER XVIII Damned Souls of Erebus

Thorn could not believe his eyes. The sight of men, living men, whose bodies were composed of radioactive matter that glowed with its own spontaneous energy, was, brain-shattering. He and his comrades stood rigid, staring at the two glowing men.

The radioactive men returned their gaze with weirdly glowing eyes. And now Thorn saw that in their shining faces was a tragic sadness and deep despair. The radiant countenance of the taller man, the strong, thin face that seemed vaguely familiar to Thorn, was a shining mask of haunting horror.

'They're men like ourselves — but men made radioactive by the terrific radiation here!” Sual Av exclaimed hoarsely. “Induced, radioactivity, working somehow, upon living beings!'

The Venusian's words carried by vibration of his helmet through the hazy air to the two glowing men. For the taller, the one whose face seemed vaguely familiar, answered.

'You are right,” he said slowly, in a deep, strangely husked voice. “We are men like yourselves, who came to this hellish world in the past. And it made us into what you see.'

'How is it possible for you to live, when your body has been changed into radioactive matter?” Thorn asked wildly. “It has never been dreamed that there could be radioactive life!'

'Life,” said the tall glowing man heavily, “is dependent upon energy. Your bodies draw energy from their chemical processes. But my body needs now, no. chemical consumption of air and food to give it energy, for every atom of it now flames with the energy which itself radiates. Nothing can halt that spontaneous flow of energy from the atoms of my body. It will go on for ages until every atom has completely lost its energy and has been transmuted into elements lower in the atomic scale. I cannot die, until then.'

A sound of bitter laughter tore from his lips as his glowing eyes held the three horror-stricken Planeteers.

'I cannot die, do you hear? Though I were to cut my own limbs off, though I were to hack my body, it would still live, for each atom of each fragment would still emit ceaseless energy. My brain — my consciousness — would still remain living! And even if my brain were cut to bits, each bit of it would retain the flame of my life and consciousness.'

'God!” muttered Gunner Welk thickly. “Then this is what has befallen all the explorers of the past who came here to Erebus!'

The tall radioactive man nodded his glowing head somberly.

'Aye, it has befallen hundreds of others who came here, as it did me. I did not dream of the nature of this devil world when I came here. How could I? I thought the shining hazes a mere phosphorescence. I landed my ship, and at once my ship crumbled as certain of its metallic elements were swiftly disintegrated by the radiation. And then the radiation quickly changed my body — into this.

'And I have dwelt here ever since, as you see me now. A travesty of life, a mockery of a human being living on and on, unable to die, unable even to kill myself!'

'How long?” Thorn asked hoarsely. “How long have you two lived thus on this world?'

At this the tall radioactive man pointed to his companion. “This is Chan Gray, who came from Mars to explore Erebus five centuries ago—'

'Five centuries ago!” Thorn cried dazedly. “You mean that he's been living here, in that horrible state, for five hundred years?'

'The thing's not possible” exclaimed Gunner Welk thickly.

The taller radioactive man answered heavily. “He has been living thus five centuries, yes. I was here when he came. For I have dwelt, as you see me now on, Erebus for nine centuries. I landed on this devil world in two thousand and six.'

'That can't be!” objected John Thorn. “Why, in two thousand and six interplanetary travel was only a few years old! The only men who had made space-flights by that date were Robert Roth himself, the first of them all, and his lieutenant, Clymer Nison.'