7
A GREAT VICTORY BUT TRAGEDY STRIKES
'Well, thanks for trying, John,' Jerry said wearily.
'Yeah,' Chuck added in the same gloom-ridden tone of voice. 'You did your best. But it was just too late. She is a hapless vegetable forever.'
'Vegetable, my foot,' Sally said angrily. 'What on earth are you talking about? And what happened to those loathsome Titanians that were here just a moment ago?'
'It worked!' they shouted in unison, and there was a great deal of hugging, backslapping and furtive knuckling of tears from eye corners. Once the hysterical moment was over they explained to Sally, in detail, what had happened. They had but one question, and Jerry phrased it for all of them.
'We have only one question. Why did you open the plane door and let the Titanians in?'
'They knocked three times, and you told me to open the door at three knocks. That's a foolish question,' she sniffed, and they dared not disagree with her. 'In any case it's nice that it all ended the way it did and all. And I'm really not sorry I missed most of. it. Frankly I'm rather glad I was frozen by the time the Titanian king was caressing my limbs with his tentacles because I should not have liked that at all. So – when do we go back to Earth?'
'As soon as we have destroyed all of the disgusting carnivorous Garnishee,' Jerry said stalwartly. 'We can do at least that for these fine people here. And I must align the cheddite projector, and to do that I must find out where we are.'
'This is the planet Domite which circles the star Proxima Centauri,' Steigen-Sterben said, entering the operating room. 'After dark you will be able to see the nearby double star of Alpha Centauri, the smaller companion of which is almost identical with the primary of your own solar system.'
'He speaks pretty good English for a bald guy with four arms,' Sally said, impressed.
'Steigen-Sterben at your service, dear Miss Sally. It is a pleasure to have you among us in revived form. Now, Mr. Jerry, if I could be so bold as to ask you about the weapon you had proposed constructing that would destroy once and for all our disgusting enemies. Is it ready?'
'It will be as soon as we have built a vacuum chamber. Sooner or later we will have to use the cheddite projector in an atmosphere, so it might as well be sooner. If we build it into a portable vacuum chamber, I will show you how this miracle of transportation can also be used as a humane weapon to end your millennia-old war once and for all.'
'All our facilities, needless to say, are completely at your disposal.'
While Sally went to make herself some new clothes to replace the torn summer frock she had been frozen in, the three companions brought the cheddite projector from the Pleasantville Eagle and labored to build it into a portable vacuum chamber. Or rather two of them did. Chuck stopped once to think and stood, deep in thought, for almost twenty minutes. He was in the way, so they stood him in the corner while they worked. Twenty minutes later, to the second, his eyes refocused, and he turned to them with grave tones.
'I hate to say it, but I think there is something slightly fishy about our four-armed friend Steigen- Sterben.'
'Other than some strange eating habits,' Jerry said, 'I don't think there is anything wrong with old S-S.'
'Then listen. If we are on a planet of the star Proxima Centauri – how far are we from Earth?'
'Four point three light-years,' Jerry snapped back instantly. 'Give or take a few miles.'
'Check. Now when was the Pleasantville General Hospital and Rest Home built?'
'Two years ago . . . but. . . of course! We've been tricked!'
'I don't dig you, man,' John said sourly.
'It's obvious. Steigen-Sterben said he heard about the hospital from a radio broadcast. Yet since radio waves disperse at the speed of light, the broadcast about the hospital will not arrive here for over two years more!'
'I admit to a slight deception, ha-ha, but it was only done in the name of friendship,' Steigen-Sterben said, slipping into the room and smiling his toothless grin at them. The grin faded when the three men closed in on him, fists clenched.
'You lied to us,' Jerry snapped out. 'You are a mind reader, aren't you?'
'Just a little,' he admitted, raising his four hands palms outward, while shrinking back at the same time. 'Please let me explain. I meant no harm. We have simple mental powers of perception, being able to read surface thoughts, but not deeply. I saw that a creature on the moon you just left knew your language from radio broadcasts, so foolishly, I said that, feeling you would not like to have your minds read. Yes, I read in your minds now that you do not like having your minds read. So I will stop. I lied only for the greater cause of freedom.'
'We can't beat up on him for that, I guess,' Jerry said, lowering his fist, as did the others. 'So I guess we'll have to go along with him.' He turned and shook his finger at Steigen-Sterben. 'But no mind reading without permission, do you hear? We like a bit of privacy.'
Steigen-Sterben looked at him in puzzlement. 'Why do you shake your finger at me?' he asked. 'I do not know what you say since I am not reading your mind.'
'You're an honest old coot,' Jerry said shaking his hand, and Chuck and John shook his hand too at the same time, which they could do and even have one left over. Jerry tapped his head and pointed at the puzzled Ormoloo, who finally understood and read his mind.
'Very happy that peace is restored,' he smiled toothlessly. 'From now on I shall only read your minds when you tap on the side of your head like that. In such manner will communication be established and privacy maintained. Now tell me – is this device you are constructing completed yet?'
'Just about to try it out.' Chuck waved. 'The tank is evacuated and the cheddite projector aligned. Now I set the controls on the outside of the tank.' He did so, squinting through the open window at the mountain range nearby. 'They're all ready. A push of the button will activate it and I leave that up to you, S-S, you four-armed, bald, toothless, friendly old coot.'
'I will be grateful for eternity. But what will happen?'
'Just look at the mountains and press.'
He did, and blinked quickly. 'Am I having eye trouble or did I just see a forty-five-thousand-foot snowcapped mountain peak vanish completely?'
'You're not just snapping your mouth bones!' Jerry chortled. 'The explanation is extremely simple. That mountain peak was enveloped by the kappa radiation and slipped into the lambda dimension and dropped out of the lambda dimension right over the middle of that big ocean back there. I'll bet the fish were surprised!'
'I'll bet the Garnishee will be surprised when they drop into that ocean.' He grinned, and they all laughed together, but suddenly Steigen-Sterben stopped laughing and rushed toward the door.
'What's up?' Chuck called after him.
'A surprise attack by the Garnishee! They approach in force.' And then he was gone.
'Well, there's something we can do about this, guys,' Jerry said. 'Let's load the cheddite projector onto this wagon and take it up to the walls.'
They jumped to it, and just in time too. When they reached the courtyard of the fort, Sally had just run through the gate, which was slammed behind her almost in the teeth of the attacking Garnishee.
'I saw them just in time,' she said breathlessly. 'I ran every foot of the way back from the plane. What do you think of my outfit?'
She was tastefully dressed in neat shorts and blouse of colorful fabric cut from the Pleasantville football uniforms. But she had to stamp her foot in annoyance – how like men! – as they did not even answer her but ran quickly away staggering under the weight of a big tank thing. Men! Always thinking of themselves and not even answering a civil question!
While the Earthmen set up their projector, the Ormoloo were fighting for their very lives, for this was an attack in force with hundreds of armored vehicles streaking down from the hills. On the parapet nearby a linear magnetic projector was hard at work. The slaving Ormoloo loaded tar ball after tar ball into the breech of the weapon, inserting a fuse just before firing. Iron filings were mixed with the tar, and these particles of iron were clutched inexorably by the powerful magnetic field and flashed through the rings of the barrel, faster and faster,
