Author: Kirk Straughen
Synopsis: Lucifer, an alien world, has drifted into the solar system from the depths of space and taken up orbit around Earth. The gravitational influences of the new body have triggered a series of cataclysms that have destroyed civilization across the globe. Only scattered pockets of humanity remain, clinging to the remnants of technology they have salvaged from the ruins. And if this wasn't bad enough a cold and ruthless intelligence on Earth's new moon coverts our world. Only one man stands between humanity and this alien menace. Perils abound. Monsters menace. How will our intrepid hero save the day? If you want to know you'll have to read the story.
Edit history: Minor changes were made to this story on the 7 July 2021.
Chapter 1: Kidnapped
Thomas Blade wiped the sweat from his brow and paused to rest. It was the height of summer, and even in the shade of the forest he could feel the heat of the noon day sun. He leaned his tall muscular frame against the trunk of a towering conifer as he cradled his Winchester, model 70 rifle. His body was relaxed, but his eyes were alert as they constantly scanned the woods, watchful for the tiger that had been ravaging the livestock of the surrounding farms that abutted the untamed wilderness he was now within.
His eyes flicked heavenward, and through a break in the forest canopy he caught a glimpse of Lucifer, Earth’s new and second moon. The alien world hung in the sky, pale and ghost-like. Blade shuddered at the sight of the mysterious orb. Five years ago it had come hurtling into the solar system – a piece of cosmic flotsam torn from some unknown sun by a passing star, and set adrift from its primary to wander through the illimitable void; a lost world roving aimlessly through the bleak depths of limitless space.
The pale orb seemed to stare at Blade like a vast and malevolent eye, and a chill passed through him despite the heat. It had brought evil to humanity, this cosmic wanderer. It had come in towards the sun from the icy reaches of Pluto, had become caught in Earth’s gravitational field and established an orbit about the world. But in so doing its own gravitational influences had perturbed Earth’s axis and plunged the world into a cataclysm of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions that had brought civilization to its knees.
All the world’s cities lay in ruins, with numberless dead buried beneath once mighty skyscrapers. Plague and famine had quickly followed, and the global population was now a fraction of what it once had been. Only remote farmsteads like those of the surrounding area had weathered the storm. But even so life was almost at the level of the Stone Age, for all the factories were destroyed and what advanced technology that remained was slowly breaking down.
Blade tore his eyes from the baneful orb of Lucifer, and his knuckles whitened as he gripped his precious rifle. Somewhere in the forest tigers lurked. They’d escaped from a travelling circus when the disaster struck, and were now breeding in the woods. He couldn’t afford to lose more sheep to the ravenous predators, and the ammunition for his gun was irreplaceable. Each shot had to score a fatal hit.
He set off determinedly, looking for spoor, acutely aware that the hunter could so easily become the hunted. Another half hour of fruitless searching brought him to a small stream, and as he emerged from the underbrush in preparation to wade across he nearly dropped his weapon from the shock of what he saw.
Floating in the air above him was something that looked like an enormous frangipani blossom. Each transparent indigo petal was easily two hundred feet in length. The stem of the strange bloom terminated in a large sphere with a sphincter-like opening in its underside, and from this descended a long thin tentacle by which the creature had moored itself to a nearby tree.
Blade stared open mouthed at the thing, his mind blank with disbelief, his limbs paralyzed with shock. The creature, however, was far from immobile. Another tentacle darted from its orifice and whipped about the man’s waist before he could react to the sudden menace.
He uttered a ragged cry of fear mingled with surprise as he was hauled aloft and pulled within the beast. The creature released its hold upon the tree and retracted its other tentacle. The sphincter closed as did the petals to form a bud, then the weird organism arrowed skyward with the silence of a balloon and the speed of a rocket.
Blade lay stunned within the body of the beast. Events had been so quick and unexpected that his mind hadn’t quite caught up to what had happened to him. In a daze he looked down through the transparent jellyfish-like flesh of the creature and saw the Earth rapidly shrinking. The normal world and its comforting familiarity was vanishing before his eyes as he was catapulted into the terror of the unknown. Sudden realization of his plight struck him, and he was seized by wild dread.
The rifle was still clutched in his hand. It was only his fear tensed grip on the gun that had prevented him from dropping it when he’d been captured. He flung it to his shoulder, aimed upwards into the body of his nightmare captor, then hesitated. If he killed the beast he’d doom himself as well. Blade wanted to scream in mindless terror. He was trapped. There was no escape.
His heart pounded with terror. The sweat of unbridled fear drenched him as wild thoughts ran about his brain like rats trapped in a burning cage. He closed his eyes to shut out the terrible sight and curled up into a ball as he struggled to maintain his sanity in the face of this otherworldly horror.
How long he struggled with the demons of insanity he never knew. But slowly, the spark of reason that remained within his whirling mind grew in strength and became a light that banished the roaring darkness of madness. He breathed deeply to further steady his nerves and took stock of his situation.
That he was in the grip of an alien power was indisputable, and he felt certain there was only one place the bizarre creature that had captured him could have come from. He looked in the direction of his captor’s flight and saw the orb of Lucifer swelling before him in conformation of his suspicions. But the fact that he appeared to be correct in his deductions brought little comfort to him.
When Lucifer had first established itself as Earth’s second moon it, too, had been a barren desolation of rugged and airless rock. But as the years had passed a blue tinge of vegetation had crept across its surface, for the warmth of a new sun had thawed its frozen atmosphere and seas, and from the warm soil had sprung long dormant life to cloak the world in strange verdure as blue as sapphire.
As Blade mulled over these facts, the orb of Lucifer grew enormous before his eyes, and he realized the speed of this strange celestial steed must be immense – far faster than any spacecraft man had possessed before the cataclysm had brought an end to progress.
Blade went cold at the thought of the technology involved. The thing that had captured him was, he felt certain, alive in some strange way. But it wasn’t the natural spawn of evolution. No, it had surely been designed, probably grown using advanced genetic engineering.
The terrible truth came to him in a flash – this was an organic version of a NASA space probe, no doubt sent to Earth by intelligences on Lucifer. Chill fear came upon Blade. Humanity was fragmented and disorganized. Civilization had largely collapsed. The world was in no position to resist an alien invasion should these beings prove hostile.
Blade’s dark musings were interrupted by the probe’s entry into Lucifer’s atmosphere. There had been no sensation of acceleration or deceleration throughout the flight. Whatever propulsion system the creature employed was completely beyond his understanding.
He was now skimming above a blue jungle that was comprised of growths resembling enormous bamboo that jutted skyward for hundreds of feet in seemingly impenetrable masses. A shadow fell upon him with unexpected suddenness. Blade looked up and glimpsed something plummeting towards him – a thing of mighty bat-like wings, claws and writhing tentacles.
It crashed against the probe and the world exploded into a dizzy whirl of earth and sky as the creatures, locked in mortal combat, tumbled towards the ground. The probe’s sphincter had opened and its tentacles, which had been retracted within the stem, whipped out and began to flail its assailant with mighty blows.
Blade clung to the base of one whipping limb. His white knuckled grip was the only thing saving him from tumbling out the probe and to his death. He grunted as he was flung painfully against the sides of his fleshy captor. The man cursed as the rifle, which he’d slung across his shoulder, thudded painfully against the back of his head and nearly caused him to lose his hold. Then he glimpsed the jungle rushing up to smash against him and his eyes went wide with naked fear.
Chapter 2: World of Monsters
Blade tensed and felt the jarring impact as the probe’s body struck the alien trees. Timber cracked like a pistol shot. The creature sagged, and then caught on the surrounding growth. Its tentacles twitched for a moment before stilling in death.
Looking up, Blade saw the vast and shadowy form of the victor. An ivory claw as long as his forearm rent his womb-like enclosure. It came within inches of slicing through his throat. The Earthman swore. If he stayed where he was he’d die. But to leave would expose him to the monster. It seemed a choice of death in one form or another.
Throwing caution to the wind he shinned down the flaccid tentacle as if it were a hawser. The trees trembled as he slid towards the earth – the monster was feeding upon his former captor’s corpse, tearing great chunks of flesh from the body with its terrible crocodilian jaws.
Blade hit the ground and slipped behind a tree. An eye tipped tentacle swung down. He froze in rigid immobility. The yellow reptilian orb swung about, searching. The Earthman sweated. His rapid descent must have drawn its gaze. Had it seen him clearly? Blade held his breath as the frightening fist sized eye swung in his direction.
He sensed it hovering a mere foot from his hiding place. All it had to do was peer behind the tree. Then, just as he thought all hope was lost, the tentacle swung up and the beast recommenced its gory feast.
Blade slowly exhaled and wiped the sweat of terror from his face. Although armed, he could not be sure that his weapons would prove effective against Lucifer’s strange life forms, and had no inclination to test them except as a last resort. And so he quietly slunk away with as much speed as he dared with the aim of putting a considerable distance between himself and the feeding horror.
As the Earthman forced his way through the blue tangle of fern-like undergrowth, he began to formulate a plan of action. He knew he couldn’t wander aimlessly about this world, which was only slightly smaller than Earth. No, that was pointless. Instead, he must locate the intelligences that lay behind the probe’s seizing of him. If they proved friendly, then all was well. But if they planned invasion then he must stop them if he could.
Firming his resolve against the burden of the task that lay ahead, he pressed on; resolutely forcing a path through the jungle in the direction the probe had been conveying him. After an hour of solid marching Blade came upon the ruins of an ancient city, which lay in tumbled and broken heaps at the base of a mighty escarpment. It would have been a forlorn sight, but the jagged edges of its shattered buildings were softened by clinging vines whose flowers glinted in the wan light like myriad rubies.
But even so the verdure could not completely conceal the tragic tale, and Blade could well envisage the cataclysmic destruction wrought upon this globe when it had been torn from the warm embrace of its parent sun. What had its creators been like, he wondered. What forms had they possessed and what thoughts had passed through their minds when doom came inexorably upon them?
His unvoiced questions were answered by a sudden and very human scream.
Blade started and looked wildly about, amazed by the completely unexpected sound. He glimpsed a flash of movement through the undergrowth and darted in its direction. Bursting through the verdure he came upon a frightening scene – a creature the size of a horse, but beetle-like in appearance was snapping at something beneath a slab of fallen masonry.
What it was hunting Blade could not tell, for the monster’s bulk obscured its prey. Instinctively, he threw his rifle to his shoulder and fired at the horror. The Earthman’s aim was true, but to his amazement he heard the bullet ricochet harmlessly from the black exoskeleton of the beast.
The thing spun about with incredible rapidity. Its three eyes seemed to blaze with insane fury as they locked upon the Earthman. The creature uttered a frightful hiss and then rushed at him like a charging tiger. Its savage mandibles clashed like enormous bolt cutters, and Blade knew with frightening certainty they would shear him in two with ease.
Blade snapped off a second shot and hurled himself aside as the thundering behemoth hurtled towards him. The Earthman hit the ground hard as the beast tore past and came about with agility surprising for its size.
The Winchester kicked Blade’s shoulder as he fired at the lunging monster. The central eye exploded into spurting gore. The thing stumbled. The Earthman rolled aside and the creature flattened the ground where he had lain.
Hastily, Blade scrambled clear of the cloud of dust its churning legs flung up, and from a safe distance watched its death throes subside to a final end. He looked upon the carcass and shuddered in revulsion. Although the monster resembled a beetle he knew it wasn’t an insect, for such creatures have no lungs, but breathe by conveying air directly to their vital organs by means of diffusion through tracheal tubes, an arrangement that severely limits the size they can attain.
Whatever it was, it was dead, and so he turned his attention to its prey. Something moved beneath the slab. Eyes, wide and afraid, gleamed warily from the depths of shadow. Blade reloaded his rifle and approached with slow caution. Whatever was under there looked like it might bolt at any moment and he knew a cornered beast was a most dangerous animal.
The thing suddenly exploded from concealment and made a mad dash for freedom. Its foot caught in a tree root and it crashed to the soil. Blade’s eyes went wide with amazement. The creature was a girl, almost human in appearance. Her skin was as white as an albino’s and was the same color as the short fur upon her head. Her eyes, set in a face that was alien but not unattractive, were pale lilac and filled with terror.
She tried to struggle to her feet, but cried in pain and clasped her injured ankle. Blade stood still in disbelief. This was the last thing he expected to find. The girl tore a rock form the soil and hurled it at him. Fortunately, fear spoiled her aim and the stone missed him by an inch. He raised both hands in what he hoped would be a universal gesture of peace.
The girl calmed a little when she realized he wasn’t about to respond aggressively to her attack. Blade touched his chest and uttered his name, then pointed at the girl. She seemed to understand for she placed her hand upon her breast and spoke a word which, as near as he could pronounce it, it sounded like Metchatheri.
They stared at each other for a while, both uncertain as to how to proceed further. Then Blade decided to make a move. The girl eyed him warily as he approached and made known to her by sign language he wished to examine her injury. She seemed on the verge of trying to flee, then mastering her fear, allowed him to tend her sprain, which fortunately wasn't as bad as he'd first thought.
As he strapped her ankle with a heavy bandage taken from the first aid kit attached to his belt, Blade pondered on how she could have survived the cataclysm, for there was nothing about the girl that suggested she was from an advanced culture capable of manufacturing the alien probe that had conveyed him to this world.
Her only item of clothing was a brief loincloth of coarsely woven grey material. Her feet were bare and the golden ornament upon her brow was crudely made. How could this savage girl, or at least her ancestors, have lived through the disaster that had befallen Lucifer? He could envisage how the creatures that attacked him had survived – as eggs preserved by the freezing void which hatched in the beneficent warmth of Sol. But the girl was clearly a placental mammal, and so this explanation could not be true for her. It was a mystery he hoped to elucidate with her aid.
Blade fastened the bandage and was about to help her rise when Metchatheri’s eyes went wide with sudden fear. The Earthman spun about and saw six men similar in appearance to the girl burst from the undergrowth and rush towards him. He raised his Winchester, but a well cast club struck his shoulder and sent him spinning to the earth. The girl screamed as the leading savage who had struck him down drew his knife and leapt towards the helpless man.
Chapter 3: Into the Bowles of Lucifer
As the warrior launched his swift attack Metchatheri acted. Fighting through the pain of her injury she leapt to Blade’s defense and flung herself upon the savage. Both crashed to the ground, the girl trying to claw the cursing warrior’s eyes.
The Earthman lurched to his feet, teeth gritted against knifing agony. Both shoulder and arm were paralyzed from his foeman's blow. In mere seconds the howling mob of hurtling warriors would be upon him like a pack of wolves, and he couldn’t operate his bolt action rifle with a single hand.
Metchatheri was still wrestling furiously with her adversary. He couldn’t expect her aid. Then Blade saw the warrior’s club that had struck him lying near the wildly struggling pair. He snatched it up, brained the girl’s assailant and turned to face his own snarling adversaries.
Blade ducked a whirling club and rammed his weapon into the savage’s groin. The man collapsed with a whimpering cry. The girl grabbed his mace and joined the fray. A howling warrior tried to grab her. Hampered by her injury she barely sidestepped his attack; then slammed her club against his ribs. Bones cracked. The man fell in a groaning heap.
The remaining warriors hesitated on seeing half their number dispatched with such alarming swiftness. One savage barked commands and the remainder of his troop quickly surrounded the couple who faced the foe back to back.
Blade cursed. The encirclement had been so swift it had taken him by surprise. He quickly glanced at the girl. She was breathing hard as was he, and by the look of grim determination on her face he deduced surrender wasn’t an option. His eyes darted to the Winchester as he flexed his arm. The numbness was almost gone. If only he could break through the circling warriors and reach his rifle.
A wild shout rang out before he could make a move. The savages leapt forward. They hurled their clubs. The whirling weapons struck the shins of man and girl. Blade fell with a cry of pain. Two warriors flung themselves upon him. Hammering fists thudded against his flesh.
The Earthman fought back with equal fury. One warrior fell, blood streaming from a broken nose. The other he dispatched with an elbow to the jaw. Blade then flung himself upon the third who wrestled with the girl.
But the warrior with the bloody nose wasn’t as incapacitated as the Earthman had surmised. He struck Blade from behind and stretched him dazed upon the ground. The Earthman was unable to resist as the victor bound his hands behind his back with cord taken from his loincloth’s pouch.
Still half dazed, the Earthman was hauled to his feet and saw that Metchatheri had also been subdued and bound, and by the bites and scratches upon her cursing captor it was clear she had put up a terrific fight.
The girl regarded her enemies with a dignified and contemptuous gaze. Her eyes touched Blade and a faint smile of encouragement curved her lips. The Earthman did his best to emulate Metchatheri’s show of bravery, for he expected to be killed at any moment.
The savages, however, appeared to have changed their minds. The survivors of the wild fray gathered around him, speaking animatedly among themselves as they felt his clothes and body. Blade endured their touch with a stony expression as he listened to their liquid-toned conversation. He heard the word Vishish repeated many times and glimpsed the girl tense at the mention of this name. What it might portend, like many other things about this place, remained obscure.
A decision seemed to have been reached by his captors. Two savages grabbed hold of Blade and forced him towards the point in the undergrowth from which they had emerged. The third warrior retrieved his Winchester and compelled the girl to follow him. The Earthman’s shin ached abominably from the impact of the club as he limped along. His hands were bound behind his back and he knew, like Metchatheri, that he was in no condition to resist.
Within twenty minutes the party reached the imposing cliff, and as they pushed through the remaining undergrowth that barred the way, Blade started in amazement at what he saw. Before him was a flight of stone steps that rose to a mighty metal portal in the soaring rock face. It was like the door of a tremendous vault – a huge disc of impressive thickness that swung out on a massive hinge.
They mounted the steps and Blade glanced sideways at the silent limping girl. She seemed to take the sight for granted, and the Earthman could not help but wonder at the contrast between his primitive captors and the sophistication of the engineering marvel before him. It was a puzzle, but one he felt would eventually be answered, although perhaps in a manner not to his liking.
Stepping across the threshold of the entrance they entered a tunnel whose symmetry and smoothness Blade knew could only have been achieved by a mighty boring machine. The way sloped downwards at an angle of about thirty degrees, and was illuminated by discs of luminous ceramic-like material set in the tunnel roof at intervals of about fifty feet. Another huge portal lay ahead - one similar to the outer valve, and also open. The group passed through it and commenced their descent into the bowls of Lucifer.
It was a long and arduous trek of several hours, but eventually they debouched into a huge dome-shaped cavern whose roof seemed to be lined with the same luminous ceramic that comprised the tunnel discs.
The floor of the cavern consisted of a loamy soil, and was planted out in a patchwork of man high vegetation. The plants resembled small palms in appearance except their fronds were black in color, which the Earthman surmised was an adaptation designed to absorb as much of the feeble light as possible.
Blade saw groups of men and women harvesting berries from the plants. Other laborers uprooted older growths, cut off their large edible tubers with flint knives and then placed the produce in baskets woven from fronds. There was no evidence of anything resembling advanced technology. It seemed the closer he got to the heart of things the more puzzling they became.
The laborers closest to Blade stopped working and stared open mouthed at him. They were of the same humanoid type as his captors and the girl, but they were completely nude and of a rather timid disposition, or so the Earthman deduced by the nervous way they bore themselves. His surmise was soon confirmed when one of his captors raised his club and shouted at them. Blade’s lips thinned as the workers cringed in fear and hastily resumed their tasks.
He felt he had the measure of this society now. The nude laborers were at the bottom of the heap. The warriors were higher up and the golden headband of Metchatheri seemed to indicate she was higher still, for although a prisoner his savage captors seemed reluctant to inflict unnecessary injury upon her.
The journey through the gardens lasted for perhaps half an hour, and with its passing they arrived at the further side of the cavern. Here, Blade saw hundreds of circular portals in the curving wall of the mighty cave and correctly deduced they were entrances to the living quarters of the inhabitance of this underground world.
They moved along the wall and passed these Spartan rooms, many of which appeared to have been untenanted for long ages, if the thick layer of dust the Earthman glimpsed upon their floors was any indication, and the only conclusion he could reach was that these people were in slow but sure decline.
His melancholy musings were interrupted as they came to a larger doorway about two hundred yards further on, and entered the spacious chamber that lay behind the portal. Blade immediately tensed. He felt the hairs rise upon his nape. Something was here, some weird and sinister menace that pricked his mind with terror.
A whimpering cry made him glance at Metchatheri. Although the girl had remained silent throughout their journey, he’d noticed her growing distress with every passing hour. It seemed to have reached a climax the moment they passed within the room. Her eyes were wide with horror. She flung her body to and fro in a desperate bid to break the savages’ hold upon her. She was convulsed by wild sobs. Her lips trembled and tears ran down her cheeks in salty streams.
Blade couldn’t stand it any longer. Despite the danger he had to aid the girl. He lunged forward, but the warrior holding him grabbed the Earthman by the hair and pressed a knife to his throat. A rush of fear went through Blade as he felt the stinging blade begin to slice.
Chapter 4: The Power of Vishish
The sudden sweat of fear stained Blade’s brow. Instantly, he stilled his struggles and swallowed hard. The knife cut no deeper and his trembling limbs relaxed. For the moment he was helpless in the face of danger.
But what exactly was the danger? It wasn’t the knife pressed to his throat or the ancient greybeard towards which his captors forced him and the girl. The old man’s face was as harsh as a vulture’s and his eyes held the dangerous gleam of a fanatic. But his captors were a human threat Blade could comprehend. No, something else lurked unseen – a hidden power that lay its unclean presence upon him and Metchatheri like a blanket of writhing maggots.
The Earthman knew he had to find the real peril in order to have any hope of saving the girl and himself. His eyes darted about the chamber searching for the source of the malefic emanation. The walls of the room were frescoed with cave paintings that seemed to tell a story. His eyes quickly passed over these and fell upon another doorway behind the waiting ancient.
Blade’s blood turned to ice as they drew level with the greybeard. An evil aura seemed to surround the black portal he stood before, and the Earthman knew with inexplicable certainty that within the darkness of that room lurked the source of the horror that gnawed upon his mind.
Metchatheri and the Earthman were forced to their knees before the bony ancient who raked the girl with a scowling glance.
“Why did you run away Metchatheri?” rasped Kobu, high priest of Vishish. “You insult the god by refusing to become his bride.”
The girl looked at him and shook her head in mute horror. Only a fanatic such as Kobu would consider this abomination an honor. The mere thought was enough to make her sick and she retched uncontrollably for a moment. The high priest shook his head and muttered something in disgust. Then his gaze fell upon the Earthman and his myopic eyes widened in surprise when he peered close and discerned the strangeness of the other captive.
“What is this?’ he cried.
“We think it’s a man,” answered one warrior.
“We found it in the outer world,” added another. “We were going to kill it, but then thought Vishish should see it first.”
“You did well,” replied Kobu. “Vishish the all knowing shall examine the thing and its possessions. All praise Vishish, for none is wiser than he.”
The high priest turned towards the dark portal and began a chant that grated upon the Earthman’s nerves like fingernails across a blackboard. Grim faced, he observed the girl as she sobbed hysterically. He wished there was something he could do to aid her.
The weird presence in the room intensified. Chill fingers of thought probed Blade’s mind. He stiffened. He tried to scream in fear but found to his horror he was completely paralyzed. He felt his bonds being cut away. A warrior slung the Winchester across his back. From the corner of his frozen eyes he saw that Metchatheri was similarly affected. The girl rose stiffly. He followed suit and they began to walk like jerking puppets towards the black doorway.
Blade fought to regain control of his limbs. His fear was like a wild beast imprisoned within his helpless body. He wanted to scream in terror, to run from the thing that lurked within the shadows of the room he approached. It was hopeless. He was in the grip of a force beyond his comprehension, a power that drew him irresistibly to it like a fleck of iron to a magnet.
He saw Metchatheri disappear into the shadows. Fear for the girl pushed aside all concern for himself. What menace awaited her in that dread room? What horror was about to spring upon them? Formless terror settled on him as he stepped across the threshold and entered the darkness.
A wan greenish glow was up ahead. It was a glassy dome about ten feet in diameter that rested on a circular black pedestal three feet in height and approximately fifteen feet across. The dome was filled with a glowing liquid that provided the pallid illumination. Streams of bubbles rose up from the base of the dome and through the silver curtain of these wobbling spheres Blade saw something that made his heart race and his mind recoil in dread from the shocking sight.
In the dome was a giant brain, grey and pulsing with unclean and malefic life. Metchatheri stood before the thing. She was a rigid as a statue, her body locked in the grip of its controlling mental emanations. Terror threatened to overwhelm Blade. He wanted to grab the girl and flee, to run in wild fright from the nightmare thing before him. But he, too, was helpless – a living robot controlled by a monster.
He moved to stand by the girl. Her pale skin was slick with the sweat of fear and tinged with the awful color of the sickly light. Even in the rigidity of paralysis her terror was evident in the wideness of her staring eyes. The Earthman silently cursed and with a mighty effort clamped down savagely on his screaming emotions. Only rational thought, not unreasoning fear could aid him now.
Ports in the black pedestal spiraled open. Long sinuous tentacles slithered out and arched like cobras about to strike. Blade was hard pressed to control his terror as one limb shot towards him and fastened leech-like upon his forehead.
The tentacle’s clammy touch sent spears of nausea through blade’s vitals. He wanted to scream but his jaws were locked. Something touched his mind – a cold and alien presence. Sweat stood out on the Earthman’s brow. It dripped into his eyes. An alien intelligence flowed into his brain like a dark tide and began to ransack his mind with the brute force of a pillaging barbarian.
Blade’s mental shrieks echoed in the confines of his skull as terrifying darkness crashed upon him. He would have fallen to the floor but for his cataleptic state. Slowly, after an indeterminable period of time consciousness returned, and Blade found that the alien presence had withdrawn from his mind.
He saw that the brain had removed the rifle from his back and had placed it on the floor before him. The being’s tentacles, which were equipped with an array of sensory organs, carefully explored the weapon. The sight of the Winchester steadied Blade’s reeling mind. If only he could reach the gun.
He tested the invisible shackles of force that bound him. They seemed weaker and he guessed that the monster, absorbed in the complex task of analyzing the rifle, couldn’t devote all its mental powers to restraining him. He waited tensely for the creature to complete its examination. Its tentacles were too close to the Winchester. If he tried to break free now it could easily snatch the gun away.
The minutes passed in an agony of slowness for the watching man. At last the tentacles moved away. Blade strained and found he could move his fingers a fraction of an inch. Hope flared within him – a hope that quickly turned to fear for he saw the horrid brain had turned its attention to Metchatheri.
Mechanically, the girl undid her loincloth. The garment slithered down her legs and to the floor. The monster forced her to her knees with its mental powers, and then stretched the girl out upon her back. It compelled her thighs to spread obscenely wide. One tentacle, revolting and sinister, hovered above her womanhood like a monstrous pallid worm.
Metchatheri’s body quivered as she fought with all her might against the imprisoning power, for a terror that only women can truly know now consumed every fiber of her being. Her breath came in panting gasps. The tentacle inched closer to the girl. A low moan of wild fear welled up in her throat and bubbled out.
The Earthman’s heart hammered in his chest. He strained with every ounce of strength to reach the gun. His limbs trembled from the effort. It felt as if he was trying to wade through a sea of wet cement. The tentacle touched the girl. She shrieked and arched her body. The monster was forced to exert additional mental force to hold her down, such was the power of her terror.
Blade broke free of the creature’s weakened hold. He crashed upon the floor and grabbed the rifle. The Winchester’s roar in the confines of the room was deafening. The bullet struck the tentacle and blasted it in two. The brain uttered a mental scream that lashed Blade’s mind with agony. The Earthman ignored the pain. He pumped another round into the chamber and fired directly at the monster.
The slug whined harmlessly off the crystal dome which was far harder than ordinary glass. A ray exploded from the ceiling of the chamber and struck the Winchester. Flying sparks scorched the Earthman. Metchatheri heard him howl in pain and watched in horror as he tumbled to the ground.
Chapter 5: Tyranny’s End
Blade hit the floor and rolled. Another spear of blazing light stabbed the spot where he had been. He scrabbled madly from the fountain of erupting sparks. The Earthman swore. His gun was useless against the brain’s protective shell. The rifle’s barrel had been sliced in half by the deadly beam and he was certain he’d be next. A third shaft of sizzling energy missed him by an inch as he scrambled to a crouch.
The Earthman guessed the brain’s aim was being spoiled by the agony of the injury he had inflicted upon the thing. But he knew it wouldn’t miss his scuttling form indefinitely. His luck would soon run out. But what could he do? The only weapon he possessed might as well have been a boy’s peashooter.
His thoughts raced like a rocket. An idea blossomed in his mind. Metchatheri glimpsed a savage grin spread across his face. He grabbed his gun and leapt towards the dome. The wide-eyed girl saw Blade leap upon the pedestal’s rim and commence to frantically hammer the glassy hemisphere with his weapon.
The sight of his valiant efforts to destroy her god gave her courage. The thing could be injured. She stumbled to her feet and ran to aid the Earthman, uncertain of what she could accomplish, but determined to help him fight the horrid monster. The second uninjured tentacle whipped about her waist before she could reach his side. Metchatheri screamed. She fought it as its tip slithered down her belly and strove to penetrate her.
Blade cursed profusely. He glimpsed the girl wrestling with the writhing limb as he laid a rain of frantic blows upon the dome. But he couldn’t leave his post to aid her. The fate of two worlds depended on his success. The Earthman sensed the energy weapon zeroing in on him. At any moment he expected to lance between his shoulder blades.
The girl whimpered as the tentacle about her waist constricted. The pain caused her to loosen her grip upon the thing. It wriggled eagerly between her thighs.
A sixth sense warned Blade. He flung himself aside. The ray struck the dome as he had planned. It pierced the glassy hemisphere and blasted the brain with its flaming energy. Before, the creature’s mental scream of agony had been like thunder exploding in Blade’s mind. But now it was as if all the demons of deepest Hell had shrieked as one.
The Earthman fell to his knees. He covered his ears, but the horrid noise was in his skull. He screamed. His eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed. For a time he lay unconscious. A gentle hand upon his brow brought him round, and he looked up into the eyes of the worried girl who now smiled at him.
“For a moment,” she said “I feared that you were dead.”
“So did I,” he grinned, then gasped in amazement when he realized he could understand and speak her tongue.
“Vishish takes knowledge, but also gives it on occasion,” explained the girl. “No doubt he had further use for you, and thus the need for you to speak our language fluently.”
Blade’s eyes darted to the brain as he sat up. It was a lifeless husk. No bubbles filled the dome and the luminous fluid, stained crimson with its blood, spurted from the hole the ray had drilled in its protective hemisphere as it was about to violate the girl. The machinery that had kept it alive had ceased to operate. It was truly dead.
By now Blade had come to realize that the creature was an organic version of the super computers of Earth’s pre-disaster era. But what could the monstrosity have wanted with the girl? He was reluctant to question her considering what she had just endured, but felt it was vital that he know.
“Vishish was master of our world,” explained Metchatheri in answer to his query. “He desired to be lord of yours as well, but couldn’t be in two places at once. He needed to produce another self, one he could send to conquer the planet you are from. Vishish examined all the women of my people and chose me as being most suitable for the task. The examination was bad enough, but the thought of carrying his horrid offspring …”
Metchatheri shuddered. She began to weep again. Blade held the trembling girl in his arms and comforted her. He now felt he had a broad picture of the history of her people. This underground world, no doubt, had been built as a refuge so a remnant of Lucifer’s population would survive the cataclysm that had torn the globe from her parent sun.
The ancestors of these people appeared to have had a technology based on genetic engineering and the brain was probably a repository of vital knowledge as well as a problem solving instrument. Even though the refuge was well planned, the limitations of time and urgency constrained what could actually be accomplished. Not everything could be provided. Machines break down and without the vast industrial complex to make replacement parts, each generation of Lucifer’s inhabitance would have sunk to a more primitive existence.
The monster must, at one stage, have had an artificial womb in which it grew such things as the probe that had captured him. That this device had ceased to function he could not doubt. Why else would the brain choose a human surrogate to bear its clone?
Lucifer may have been drifting through the void for tens of thousands of years. It was time enough in which the brain could have evolved beyond the purpose of its creators and developed its extraordinary mental abilities. By this time the survivors had probably been reduced to a prehistoric level, and the brain saw them as slaves rather than masters which it must serve. It could have easily gained the upper hand by playing on their superstitious fears.
Well, its reign of tyranny was over. But blade knew they were not out of danger yet. His thoughts turned to Metchatheri. Her head lay pillowed on his shoulder as he gently rubbed her back. She had ceased to cry and seemed much calmer now.
“How will your people react to Vishish’s death?” he gently asked.
“I … I don’t know,” replied the girl. “With disbelief I imagine. The god has always ruled us. It was so in my father’s time, and in my grandfather’s time, and before that.”
Metchatheri looked at Blade. “What shall we do?” she asked. Oh, what will become of us? We could not live with Vishish – he was a monster. But I do not know if we can live without him either, for we looked to him for guidance in all things.”
“Your ancestors made Vishish, Metchatheri,” replied the Earthman. “But your people have forgotten this. I will help them remember that they are men and women who can govern themselves, not lowly slaves created to serve a monster.”
“Can this be true?” asked the wide eyed girl.
“It’s about as near to the truth as I can deduce,” replied Blade as he helped her to stand. “Come, we must confront your people with the facts.”
They approached the exit to the room and peered cautiously without. A vast crowd had gathered in the antechamber, no doubt drawn by the mental death screams of Vishish. Kobu stood before the agitated throng.
“Return to your homes,” he shrieked. “Vishish is God. Nothing is mightier than Vishish. He is immortal, indestructible.”
Blade seized the moment. He stepped from the darkness into the light with more boldness than he actually felt.
“Vishish is dead,” he shouted. “I have slain Vishish.”
Complete silence settled on the crowd. They stared at him with a mixture of alarm and disbelief.
Well, thought the Earthman as Metchatheri moved to stand beside him, I’ve certainly got their attention.
Kobu was the first to recover from the shock of Blade’s outrageous claim.
“Lies,” he screamed. “No one is mightier than Vishish. Guards,” he cried. “Seize that blaspheming fool and beat him until he dies.”
“Why so hasty in passing judgment, Kobu?” challenged Metchatheri, insolently. “Are you afraid to go and see least this man speak the truth?”
The high priest laughed contemptuously. “If the stranger is so powerful that he can kill a god, then why doesn’t he strike me dead as well? No, both of you are nothing more than blaspheming liars.”
“Maybe I will strike you dead,” replied Blade, calmly. “Now, go and see if I speak the truth. Your people demand it. If I am lying as you say, then you have nothing to fear.”
The high priest glanced at the murmuring throng. Blade had effectively cornered him. If he didn’t go the people would begin to doubt. Kobu looked pure hatred at The Earthman. He would make the stranger pay dearly for forcing him to do his bidding.
Pushing aside his own gnawing fears, Kobu stiffened his bony frame. Brows knitted in an ominous scowl, he marched towards the door and disappeared within the darkness of the brain’s inner sanctum.
Long minutes passed. The crowd grew restless and the watching guards fingered their clubs as they stared at the couple with hard eyes that boded ill. Blade was a worried man beneath his façade of calm. Was the cunning priest formulating some lie with which to discredit him? Perhaps he had made a fatal error. The Earthman was on the verge of investigating Kobu’s disappearance when he staggered out.
The throng grew silent and breathlessly expectant. The high priest paused and stared at them. His mouth opened and closed like a gasping fish; then he stumbled forward towards the Earthman. The greybeard stopped again. His body swayed as he stared at Blade in utter terror and raised a trembling hand to point at him. Then Kobu gasped, clutched his chest and crashed in a lifeless heap upon the floor. It was a better announcement of Vishish’s death than any words could ever be.
Of course the ancient had died from a heart attack brought on by the shock of what he had seen within the chamber. But to the awestruck crowd it was a manifestation of the supernatural. As one the throng fell to their knees and prostrated themselves in complete submission before the slayer of their god and his high priest.
Metchatheri, too, would have knelt, but Blade stopped her.
“Stand by my side as my equal,” he said.
She looked at him, amazed.
“Your people need to be free,” he explained. “I have no intention of replacing Vishish’s tyranny with my own. This underground existence is a prison in which your people are slowly dying. Men and women can only thrive in the open air and light of the surface world. Will you help me convince them of this need?”
Metchatheri smiled at him. “How could I possibly refuse?”
Blade grinned. He knew the task ahead would be fraught with difficulties, but with Metchatheri at his side he was confident they would bring about the genesis of a new and better world.
THE END