Author: Kirk Straughen
Synopsis: A mysterious object crashes to earth, and two men are lured into the presence of weird and alien beings. These intelligences need their help to recover a strange device of immense power stolen by their enemies. But can they be believed? Who is the real foe, and how can our troubled heroes decide? Read the story if you wish to discover the astounding answer.
Edit history: minor changes were made to this story on 30 June 2021.
Chapter 1: The Coming of the Meteor
The world slowly drew night’s cloak upon her shoulders, shrouding in gathering folds of dusk the rustic log cabin, and the two men who sat in companionable silence upon its broad veranda. Harrison, the youngest of the pair, gazed concernedly at Professor Van Eck who, at eighty, was twice his age. The wan lantern light painted the old scientist’s profile in a portrait of light and shadow, silvering his sparse hair with its glow, and for the first time in a long while Harrison thought he looked at peace with himself and the world.
Though firm friends, each man was a sharp contrast to the other, both in appearance and temperament. Julian Van Eck was a physicist - a tall angular man, whimsical and pale of countenance, who often gave the impression that his mind drifted between mundane reality, and some other realm beyond the perception of ordinary mortals.
David Harrison, on the other hand, was eminently practical. Dark, stocky, and of rugged features, he was a mechanical engineer by vocation. Naturally, he had a firm grasp of physics, but his knowledge was of practical application, not at all like the ethereal realm of abstruse equations Van Eck dealt with. Indeed, to Harrison’s no-nonsense mind his friend’s profession bordered on the esoteric, the mystical.
No wonder he nearly had a nervous breakdown, thought Harrison, glumly. Trying to prove that numbers are not just abstract symbols, but are things-in-themselves, Platonic entities that impose form upon the material world, that numbers are the only things that are truly real, and that all else is a mere shadow of their eternal forms. Utter rubbish! This fishing trip will do him good; will put him back in touch with reality.
The younger man shifted his gaze to the lake. The placid waters stretched out before him, a dark mirror to the rising moon and herald stars of coming night. Tall pines lined its shore. The trees, rocked by a gentle breeze, swayed against a backdrop of mountains whose peaks were gilded with the fading rays of sunset.
They had arrived at the isolated cabin late in the afternoon, too late to do any fishing, but tomorrow held the promise of a bountiful …
Suddenly, a glowing speck in the heavens broke Harrison’s train of thought, and drew his eye. The thing rapidly swelled, became a ball of blazing flame that streaked towards the cabin. Both men leapt up, alarmed.
“Meteor,” gasped Van Eck
It roared above the building, bathing them in its lurid incandescence; then struck the earth in a thunder of sound that shook both lodge and occupants with its crashing impact. The booming echoes faded to utter quite; then slowly timid life began to stir - the chirr of Insects and voices of other creatures, including that of Man.
“It landed in the forest behind the cabin,” observed Van Eck, excited now that danger had clearly passed them by.
“We’ll have to wait until morning,” replied Harrison, who knew his friend was all for searching for it now. “We’ll never find it in the dark.”
**********
Harrison awoke with a start. The luminous clock by his bunk ticked quietly, showing the midnight hour. He knew it could not have been this faint sound that had roused him from the depths of dreamless slumber. Slowly, he sat up and looked carefully about, sensing that something was amiss, but not quite knowing what it was.
A ray of moonlight slanted through the room’s single window, and fell upon Van Eck’s bed opposite his own. It was empty. Harrison bit back a curse. Impractical twit, he thought. Couldn’t wait until morning. He’ll break his leg, stumbling around in the dark looking for that lump of rock.
With a muttered oath the engineer rose and hastily donned his clothes. Then, grabbing a torch from the bedside table, set out in pursuit of his wayward companion, somewhat annoyed at having his sleep thus disturbed.
Harrison hurriedly left the cabin, jogged to its rear, and in the glade behind it spotted the professor’s dimly moonlit form. He was about to shout his name when sudden fear choked off the angry cry, and raised the hairs upon his nape.
Van Eck was barefoot, still dressed in his pajamas. His movements were slow, stilted - like a bad actor playing the role of a zombie in some B-grade horror film.
The unnaturalness of it struck Harrison like a blow - this was no movie, nor Van Eck a thespian. The surreal scene spoke of unknown forces that would have seemed ludicrous to his rational mind mere seconds ago. But the grim reality confronting him dashed away all logic, and for a moment primal fears - those dark terrors that lie hidden in the minds of even civilized men, threatened to overwhelm him with preternatural dread.
“Somnambulance,” gasped Harrison, clutching at this mundane explanation with desperate certainty. “That’s it! He’s sleepwalking.”
Quickly, he approached Van Eck and shone his light upon him. The man’s eyes were open, staring, his expression blank, corpse white. Harrison chewed his lip in indecision. He’d heard that to wake a sleepwalker was dangerous, and knew his friend’s mental health wasn’t the best. Perhaps it was just an old wife’s tale, but he dared not take the risk.
They entered the fringes of the forest. Harrison, a mass of gnawing worry, walked by his companion’s side, torch lighting the way. The only thing he felt he could do for Van Eck was to follow him and gently guide him away from possible danger. Hopefully, he would either turn around and head back to the cabin, or come out of his trance-like state before disaster struck.
Onward they went, the professor’s feet remarkably sure in their direction. It was as if he was being drawn to some specific destination. Again, unsettling fear came upon Harrison.
“Irrational nonsense,” muttered the man, angrily suppressing the disturbing thought.
Suddenly, they came upon the thing. It lay half buried by the force of impact. Several trees lay scattered about, felled like skittles by its blistering passage as it plunged to the loamy soil.
The engineer’s light fell upon it, and a chill wave of fear washed over him. Even to his eye, untrained in astronomy, it was clear that this was no meteor. The thing was an ebon sphere whose diameter was at least forty feet in span. To the startled man the visitor appeared to be a huge globe of polished obsidian, and upon its surface, merging and dividing in an endless phantasmagoria of kaleidoscopic patterns, were swirling crimson vortices that confounded all attempts at explanation.
Harrison’s hand trembled as he traced its dusky outlines with the torch. His mouth went dry as the overwhelming physical presence of the alien was thrust upon him - this was not a natural object: it was too smooth, too regular in appearance. Behind its perfect sphericity and the moving patterns stood intelligence, unknown, inhuman.
“A voice … calling ... Can’t you hear it?”
The engineer jerked around. Van Eck had spoken. It was a whisper - the ghost of sound, yet his words were imbued with a strange and terrible ecstasy despite their quietness.
“What?” gasped the engineer in breathless disbelief and terror.
“I must go … to the voice.”
Van Eck stepped forward, extended his hand to touch the sphere. Harrison shouted, leapt to stop him. He tripped upon a fallen branch and collided with the professor. Both fell against the orb. Then reality dissolved into a swirling chaos of darkness shot through with leaping arcs of crimson flame.
Harrison fell. He plunged into the heart of a seething vortex - a spinning tunnel of boiling ebon clouds shot through with stabbing shafts of ruby light. Fear was upon him. It clawed him with terror as he plummeted through illimitable depths. His mind gibbered. All rational thought was strangled by coiling dread. He screamed one single wild cry; then merciful unconsciousness blotted out the horrid stimuli.
Chapter 2: World of Night
Harrison awoke. He was lying face down on… sand? For a moment he looked at the gritty substance absently rubbing it between his fingers, his mind still dazed and disorientated from the strange transition to otherness. Sand? No, sand didn’t glow with a pale purple radiance… didn’t consist of regular octahedrons.
His eyes suddenly widened with shocking realization. Harrison staggered up, an inarticulate cry torn from his throat by the unexpectedness of his weird surroundings. Above was utter blackness, unrelieved by sun, moon or stars. Dizzily, he stumbled in a half circle. The glowing pseudo-sand stretched in all directions, it curved upwards into the stygian sky, and was swallowed by impenetrable blackness.
It was as if he was within a vast, hollow sphere. The sphere! Memory of it crashed upon him. Harrison sank to his knees, pale and trembling at the logic defying conclusion. The universe, so comfortingly sensible, had vanished, had been replaced by the impossible - either he had been shrunk to almost microscopic size, or the globe’s interior was somehow vastly larger than its exterior belied.
Harrison felt as if he was going insane, and who can blame him, for what man would not react this way under such circumstances? But when the impossible is the only explanation, then it becomes probable, no matter how strange it may seem. It was this thought that saved him from madness, and Van Eck’s soft moan, which brought the engineer out of his own concerns.
Quickly, Harrison glanced about, and spotted the professor lying only a few yards away. Dashing to his side, he gently helped the savant rise to a sitting position, and looked him over with a worried eye. Van Eck seemed uninjured. No longer in a trance-like state, he looked curiously around, and the engineer silently fretted about how he’d react to the startling predicament they were in.
“Ah, I see we’re within the sphere. Sorry I got you involved, old chum. But the voice … It called to me - hypnotic, irresistible; can’t hear it now, though. Bit of a puzzle, that.“
Harrison gazed open mouthed at Van Eck, amazed at his understatement of their situation. His calm acceptance of their predicament, and admission to hearing things was as bizarre as their surroundings. Again, Harrison felt that commonsense reality had betrayed him.
Van Eck gripped his arm. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “How can all this be possible? I don’t know. All I know is that we’re in the grip of some alien power whose science is so far in advance of our own that it seems like magic.”
Again, the Professor looked around the weirdly glowing pseudo-sands, this time in a different direction; then pointed triumphantly. Harrison followed his stabbing finger, and saw in the distance a towering cone - a building of some kind - whose white form was tinged with the odd effulgence of the lambent desert, and surrounded by a strange, scintillating haze.
“Perhaps we’ll find our answers there,” suggested Van Eck as he stood and brushed the growing crystals from his apparel.
Harrison fell in step beside his friend. He didn’t like it - entering the lair of some unknown force, but realized they had no choice. The surrounding desert, if it could be called that, was inhospitable to human life. Their only chance of getting home, if that were possible, lay in contacting the intelligence that had brought them here.
“This voice,” prompted Harrison. “What was it like, what did it say? Perhaps it holds some clue as to the nature of what we must confront.”
“I don’t know how to describe it, really.” replied Van Eck, puzzled. “Like strange music - unearthly music. Alluring; feminine, perhaps. I don’t know. You’d have to experience it to understand what I mean. And as for what it said; well, everything seems so dreamlike now. All I can recall are vague memories of being drawn to the sphere and touching it.”
The engineer shuddered. “A siren,” he muttered. “The Siren of the Black Sphere.”
Harrison glanced sideways at his companion. The man’s matter of fact reaction to everything that had befallen him was completely unnatural, so much so that the only explanation Harrison could think of was that the voice had somehow primed the professor for the experience. The engineer’s expression became grim as he wondered what other things this unknown power had done to Van Eck’s mind.
They marched onward in silence, the unnatural and forbidding grimness of their surroundings pressing in upon them. They were like ants crawling on the inner surface of a globe, trapped, weighed down with the claustrophobic oppressiveness of this world of night. Even Van Eck, despite his earlier robustness, began to show signs of strain.
“Damn weird, this place,” he muttered uneasily. “It’s impossible to judge distance properly here. That cone … It’s further than it looks. Let’s stop and rest awhile.”
Harrison nodded and they halted. As both relaxed, Van Eck spotted something twenty yards to the left of their line of march. The object was difficult to see clearly in the poor light - a glimmering mass that thrust up from the flat monotony of the faintly glowing desert. Curiosity aroused, the professor, despite his tiredness, wandered off to investigate, ignoring Harrison’s pleas for him to sit and rest.
Slowly, the thing grew in clarity as Van Eck approached - it was a mass of golden, angular crystals, dendritic in form. The mineral growth rose seven feet from the sand, its crystal spars bifurcating like the skeletal limbs of a leaf denuded bush - beautiful, yet strangely sinister.
Suddenly, six glassy spars curved down to touch the glowing sand. Van Eck gasped, halted as the thing stood and advanced towards him upon tinkling legs. The professor turned, ran. The creature scuttled in pursuit, snapping discharges arcing from its branches.
Harrison cried a warning, raced to aid the savant. Too late - the thing let loose a jagged bolt. Van Eck screamed, collapsed. The creature loomed above him. He tried to crawl away, but to his horror found he couldn’t move. The thing reached for him, crystal limbs wreathed in leaping sparks. He screamed in fearful expectation of its searing touch.
The engineer hurled one of his hiking boots. It smashed against the creature and shattered several glassy spars. The monster staggered back from its intended victim. It cast another bolt at Harrison and struck him down as it charged. Through a haze of pain the man glimpsed its hurtling form. He ripped off his other boot and flung it at the thing with all his strength.
Crystal shattered, an actinic flare of azure light erupted. The thing exploded in whirling fragments that were hurled in all directions by the fearsome blast. Harrison swore as one jagged piece sliced across his arm while others peppered the sand around him in narrow misses.
Harrison lay for a moment, breathing deeply to steady his shaken nerves. A quick examination of his wound showed it to be superficial, so he stood and made his way towards Van Eck. Shoeless, his approach was impeded by having to carefully pick a path through the hazardous shards of the monster’s splintered remains, and he fretted in a lather of anxiety at the delay, wondering how seriously his friend was injured. He was considerably relieved when he saw the professor rise to an elbow at his approach.
“God,” gasped Van Eck. “For a moment there I thought that thing was going to do you in. It gave me one heck of a zap. Only now can I just begin to move.”
“My first throw damaged it and probably depleted its electrical capacity,” conjectured Harrison. “That‘s why I wasn’t paralyzed and could get in a second go at it. What the hell do you think it was, anyway?”
“Don’t know,” replied Van Eck as he carefully stood. “A silicon life-form, perhaps. Still, this place is so outside normality that any assumptions we make are probably wrong.”
After resting for a time, both resumed their march towards the enigmatic cone. There was nothing else they could do. After an indeterminate age - neither man was wearing a watch - the pair arrived at their destination, and gazed upon the towering structure in silent awe.
Its base was perhaps two hundred yards in diameter, and its stupendous height at least a thousand. And about the soaring cone, whose surface was akin to finest china, was a swirling cloud of myriad polyhedra in all their platonic forms - flashing gems of crystallized light in all its wondrous spectra. They spoke, these jewels - strange ringing harmonies - an alien symphony that played icy fingers upon the spines of the mutely watching men.
Suddenly, a door melted open at the base of the fantastic cone, and the swirling gems arched up forming a tunnel through which the men could pass. Both friends looked at each other, uncertain. Fear of the unknown touched them and twitched their nerves with dread.
Harrison cleared his throat. “Well, there is nothing to be gained by standing here.”
They passed within. All was blackness, impenetrable. A bar of pearly light sprang up from the floor - a glowing footpath they trod upon. The men followed it into the stygian darkness. All about them Harrison could sense things - minds, cold and alien; brooding, unseen. He shivered, his imagination conjuring up images of monstrous forms; nightmarish with demonic hideousness.
Suddenly, the glowing path expanded to form a circle, and a mighty fountain of jade mist erupted from its centre, the jetting gas shot through with flashes of diamond light. Slowly, the spiraling vapor fell in upon itself, condensed, took form. The men halted, stood stock still in disbelief at the strange thing their wondering eyes beheld.
Chapter 3: Resurrection in Emerald
A woman stood before them. Her skin was emerald, dusted with glittering specks of silver; her waist length hair - a darker shade of green with argent highlights. Her shapely form was bereft of all apparel, and in her amber eyes was neither shame nor lasciviousness at this nudity.
Harrison was at a loss for words. He had expected many things - drooling horrors, mostly. But the juxtaposition of this creature’s almost human beauty, set against the backdrop of a nightmare world, caused his mind to spin in mad confusion.
Van Eck’s reaction was also one of complete surprise, but for entirely different reasons. He stared open mouthed at the smiling girl, swayed slightly as if about to faint. Then, stumbling forward he embraced the woman with trembling arms, and began to weep shameless tears of joy. Finally, overcome, he slowly sank upon his knees and pressed his tear stained face against the soft roundness of her belly.
Harrison stared at Van Eck in utter disbelief. Of all the reactions the professor could have displayed, this was the last thing he had expected. Was Van Eck mad? Was he, Harrison, mad; trapped in some bizarre dream spawned of incubi?
“Julian,” he cried. “What the hell are you doing?” Get away from that … that creature.”
Van Eck turned to look at him. “Don’t you see?” he gasped. “Don’t you recognize …” The rest was lost amid his sobbing cries.
What was the man on about? Harrison stared carefully at the woman’s face, his eyes widening in amazement as the shocking truth slowly dawned upon him. It was Jane - Van Eck’s late wife who had passed away several months ago. But it was not the Jane he knew - not old and sick, but one of youth and beauty as she appeared in the wedding photo above their fireplace.
Harrison shivered. His eyes darted here and there. Beyond was darkness, brimming with unseen things - cool and inhuman, whose vast intellects observed the scene with dispassionate quietude. He wanted to scream, to flee in mindless terror from the unknown - the unknowable power which had snared them in its web of terror.
Again, his eyes fell upon Van Eck, kneeling before the emerald being as it gently stroked his hair, gazing at it with a lover’s adoration. The sight kindled the flame of anger in him - a rage that burnt away all caution. Stepping forward, he pushed the pseudo-girl aside.
“Get away from him,” he cried.
Instantly, Van Eck was upon him. “Leave my wife alone,” he snarled as he flung an arm about Harrison’s throat in a crushing stranglehold.
Harrison staggered, shocked by the unexpectedness and ferocity of Van Eck’s attack. The man seemed suddenly possessed of maniacal strength. The engineer stumbled. He fell to his knees, the professor riding him down.
“Listen,” gasped Harrison, as he desperately tugged at Van Eck’s constricting arm. “That thing … isn’t Jane. How could it be?” Then, brutally: “She’s dead, damn it.
“Lies,” growled Van Eck as they rolled across the glowing floor. “You want her for yourself.”
Van Eck’s grip tightened with fury. Harrison choked. He didn’t want to hurt his friend - the man clearly wasn’t himself. But he didn’t want to die, either. In desperation he slammed an elbow into the Van Eck’s ribs. The man grunted and his crushing hold weakened. Harrison jerked away the professor’s constricting arm and pinned his writhing, cursing form to the floor.
“Listen to me Julian, damn it,” he cried. “We’re hostage to an alien force that’s messing with our minds. Show yourselves,” he shouted to the darkness. “Show yourselves, you treacherous bastards.”
“We need your help,” spoke the pseudo-girl. Her voice was a harmony of dulcet tones - hypnotic and alluring, filled with languid sensuality that broke the tension between the struggling men. “Our vessel crashed upon your world. I called to you for help, and you came.”
This was directed at Van Eck, who slowly stood and slipped his arm about the woman, much to Harrison’s evident distress.
“Oh Jane, of course I’ll help you,” cried Van Eck as he lovingly stroked her cheek. Then, to Harrison: “I know what you’re thinking, old friend. But this really is Jane. For your own sake, don’t threaten her or try and come between us.”
Harrison bit his lip in consternation. Van Eck was once again his placid self, but nonetheless his final words contained a hint of menace. Clearly, his friend had been bewitched by this creature, no doubt reconstructed from the memories of his dear, departed wife. There seemed nothing else to do but play along for now, and hope he could find a way of freeing him from the Siren’s malevolent influence.
“Very well,” he said. “For the sake of friendship I’ll help you … and Jane. But I need to know what this is all about.”
“This craft, for a million of your years, has journeyed across the universe,” explained the Siren. “And my masters, those beings who dwell in yonder darkness, have lost themselves in meditation upon the nature of reality. But our ship is more than just a vessel - it is a world with an entire ecosystem.
“Other intelligences have evolved within this craft since its construction; have stolen the Lens with which my Masters draw their power from the Infinite. This theft caused our craft to crash upon your world, and now my Masters look to you for their salvation.”
“Why can’t they save themselves?” queried Harrison, skeptically. “How can we, who are so primitive by comparison, be of aid?”
“My Masters minds have expanded with the eon’s passing. But their bodies have degenerated through lack of use. They cannot move, and without the Lens are virtually helpless, their powers considerably diminished. It took a mighty effort to find you, to bring you here, one that fused many of their mechanisms. You must retrieve the Lens, not just for my Masters sake, but for your world as well - if the Crystalloids, as I shall call our enemies, learn the secret of the Lens they will have the power to conquer Earth.”
“Of course we’ll help,” enthused Van Eck. “Won’t we, David?”
Harrison hid his doubts. Things were progressing far too rapidly for his liking, and there were many questions left unanswered - could they be sure the Crystalloids were the enemy, and not these beings? No, he didn’t like the Masters methods - the Siren was seductive bait to get Van Eck to do their bidding. Still, if Earth really was in danger they had to help.
The engineer forced a smile. He‘d play their game for now. “With our world being threatened, naturally, we’ll give you all the aid we can. Where is the Lens, and can you describe it so we know what to look for?”
The girl held out her hand, palm up, and from it sprang a fan of light in which a three dimensional image formed - an orb in whose lucid depths were golden spheres orbiting a silver rod that transfixed the mechanism.
“The Lens,” breathed the Siren. “Mark well its wondrous form, for many lives depend upon you retrieving it; and now for your transportation to the stronghold of the enemy.”
Both men started when another fountain of emerald mist erupted from the centre of the glowing circle. Again, the sparkling vapors condensed to solidity, and before them stood the strangest creature they had ever seen. It resembled a camel in general form, but four times the size of earthly dromedaries. The thing lacked head and neck. Its skin was smooth and hard - like polished jade, but flexible. And upon its back was a howdah that seemed an extension of its body. To human eyes it seemed a thing of stone imbued with pseudo-life.
“Your conveyance,” explained the Siren as the creature sank upon its knees. “It will take you to the Citadel of the Crystalloids. Aboard are weapons and other needful things for your journey. Now go, for speed is of the essence.”
Seeing there was nothing else to do, Harrison boarded via a ladder that grew from the creature’s side while Van Eck embraced the being he thought to be his resurrected wife. “I shall come back for you, my love,” he said with feeling.
“You must hurry,” replied the Siren. “For with every passing moment my Masters strength does fade, and with its end I shall cease to be. That is why I cannot come - at a distance it takes much energy to maintain a conscious being. But with the power of the Lens my Masters shall make me fully real as your reward.”
Then, she placed her palm upon his forehead for a moment. The professor’s eyes widened, then he nodded slightly and turned away.
Harrison pretended to have noticed nothing of this intimacy as Van Eck boarded their conveyance and sat beside to him. The machine-creature stood of its own accord and lumbered out towards the glowing desert sands. The professor’s backward glance disclosed a heart wrenching sight, at least to him - the forlorn and silent figure of the Siren, blotted out by contracting darkness closing in upon her.
**********
Several hours had passed, and Harrison now gazed with wonder at the sight of the strange phenomena towards which their weird conveyance marched. It was an ocean, but not one of water, or any substance familiar to the eyes of men. It was an ocean of spectral flame. The silent men watched in awe the waves of cold, ethereal fire rolling in upon the purple shore. The unearthly combers foamed with burning bubbles of rosy light, then retreating with hissing sighs to the ghostly blaze of the phantom sea’s glowing depths.
“Don’t ask me,” said Van Eck in reply to his friend’s enquiring gaze. “It might be something akin to St Elmo’s fire. Whatever it is, it looks like we’re going to cross it.”
Harrison was tense with apprehension as the machine-beast ambled towards the fiery waves. There was no heat, so he knew there was no danger of being burnt, but once they sank within the sea… He shuddered at the thought of being enveloped in suffocating ethereal fire.
Should he jump? They were high above the ground and although he might survive the fall, it would surely break the age brittle bones of his companion. No, he couldn’t abandon Van Eck. He glanced at the professor. The man seemed more excited than concerned.
Like a child discovering something new, thought Harrison. How I envy him at this moment.
The engineer tensed as their conveyance stepped upon the weird phenomena. Stepped upon it? Harrison looked down, amazed. The machine-beast’s feet now glowed with halos of amber light that seemed to congeal the ghostly fire of the spectral waves, and left shining footprints upon them as it strode across the bosom of the phantom sea.
He relaxed as they moved out upon the waves; then, at two hundred yards, gasped in sudden fear as a dreadful thing of living flame reared up directly in their path.
Chapter 4: Across the Sea of Fire
Tentacles of living flame spiraled up from the glowing depths, their sinuous forms studded with burning, compound eyes of topaz fire, their tips armed with vicious mandibles. Van Eck gasped. The monstrous shapes shot heavenward. They towered above the men. Harrison swore as the things whipped down upon them like a scourge of burning light.
Their conveyance darted aside. Lashing limbs, jaws agape, struck the phantom sea. A spray of glowing mist exploded. The burning ocean boiled with foaming light as the ghostly monster’s mass writhed beneath it, throwing up massive waves of angry light.
Spectral swells swamped the sprinting steed and shocked both men with crawling traceries of phantom fire. Van Eck screamed. Harrison echoed his jarring cry of pain and utter fear as they were nearly swept overboard. The machine-beast staggered up from the heaving ethereal sea, shedding dripping pseudo-fire. Behind them the burning ocean erupted in a misty spray of pyrotechnic flares as the outlandish monster surged forward in swift pursuit.
Harrison, white knuckled, clung to the howdah’s rail, fear wide eyes darting all about. Van Eck had collapsed, head lolling at his feet – unconscious, dead? He didn’t know. Below, the legs of their weird conveyance were a blur of speed. Behind, the vicious beast grew ever nearer.
The man’s frantic gaze fell upon the rack of guns. Seizing one he spun about, and to his horror saw the beast gain upon them in a sudden rush, one tentacle swinging in a lashing blow. He fired.
A silver ray of sizzling light sprang from the weapon and struck the whipping limb. The darting member froze, shattered like hammered glass. The creature’s scream split the air - as if sheet metal were being torn apart. Then the ghostly sea exploded in burning spray as the thing dived beneath its churning bosom of ethereal fire, retreating to the luminous depths from whence it came.
**********
Harrison stood while Van Eck dozed fitfully upon the howdah’s seat. The engineer gazed worriedly upon the haggard features of the older man - the strain of their ordeals was beginning to show. Silently, he cursed his helplessness. It seemed they were mere pawns in a game played by uncaring god-like beings.
His grip tightened upon the weapon, one of two, that had never left his hand since their confrontation with the monster, which seemed an age ago. In general form the armament resembled the nozzle of a fire hose with a pistol grip at its wider end. It was seemingly cast in a single piece, bereft of moving parts and as smooth as ebon glass. Clearly, though, any resemblance to earthly firearms was purely incidental, as the deadly beam it projected obviously showed.
Shifting his eyes, Harrison, for the umpteenth time scanned the upward curving vista of the glowing sea. It was a barren waste of spectral pseudo-fire, soul destroying with its empty loneliness. How far had they come? How far would they need to go? Depression, like a black and heavy weight, settled upon him for he didn’t know the answer.
Suddenly, his squinting gaze discerned a distant form rising majestically from the expanse of restless flame, and towards this flashing point their strange conveyance did seem to race. He shook Van Eck awake as they rapidly neared the thing, the professor protesting grumpily until his eyes alighted upon the startling sight displayed before him.
To Van Eck the thing conjured up images of cyclopean building blocks stacked by the child of some unearthly Titan - a massive mountain of crystal cubes, irregularly fused, that strained the eye with the impressiveness of its soaring height. It had a presence, this crag, rising defiantly from the flatness of the sea - a rough pyramid, coldly beautiful, in whose lucid depths burnt flickering streamers of opalescent auroral fire.
The machine-beast slowed as it neared the cliff girded shore, and sank into the burning sea until only its howdah stood above the glowing waves of light. Onward it swam; its structure changing color to match the pseudo-ocean’s glow. Clearly, they were approaching the enemy’s stronghold, and Harrison correctly guessed that stealth and the element of surprise were crucial for their success.
Towering cliffs loomed, seemingly impassable. Both men looked questioningly at each other as their conveyance fought through breakers of spraying light. How could they scale this soaring barrier? It seemed impossible.
“Dear God,” gasped Harrison as the machine-creature began its ascent by walking up the cliff like a fly upon a wall. “For Christ’s sake, hang on for all your worth.”
Van Eck looked down, horrified. He had no head for heights. Their conveyance increased its pace. The burning sea fell away with sickening speed as they rapidly gained dizzy altitude.
The professor’s arms began to tremble from the strain. His hands began to slip. He screamed in utter fear as his fingers slid away. Harrison caught his wrist, held fast. Van Eck’s heart madly raced as he dangled precariously and gazed in horror at the chasm of space beneath his madly kicking feet.
“Quick,” cried Harrison, who felt he might lose his grip at any moment. “Brace your feet against the howdah’s sides like I’m doing and hook your elbows about the rail. I can’t hang on any longer.”
Van Eck complied. He looked up to thank his friend then swore as he saw another danger. Harrison followed his gaze and also cursed. Above them was something like a pyramid of violet crystal studded with smaller structures of a similar shape. The creature, twelve feet in height, clung to the cliff using a lucid, circular gelatinous mass oozing from its base - a disc whose circumference was ringed by waving serpentine tentacles ending in either gaping maws or staring faceted eyes.
The thing slid towards them, its jelly-like disc pulsing vibrantly with hellish light. Suddenly, jagged lightning leapt from a gleaming eye. The crackling bolt flashed by the startled men in a narrow miss as the machine-beast dodged this swift attack.
Harrison swore, drew the weapon from his belt and fired. He missed. Unperturbed, the machine-creature continued its zigzag advance. The thing spat another bolt which hit their weird conveyance. It shuddered. One foot lost its hold as Harrison loosed another shot.
His aim was true. The thing exploded. Heavy fragments rained all about their tottering vehicle. Van Eck saw one falling piece plunging at them and was stabbed by icy terror. A hit from that would end their conveyance’s precarious hold upon the cliff.
The tumbling fragment swelled. Both men closed their eyes against the end. It struck with shuddering force, bounced away. Harrison tensed, expecting at any moment to feel the sickening fall.
Nothing happened. Van Eck slowly opened his eyes, and saw the machine-creature had regained its footing just in time, and was once again continuing its vertiginous ascent. He took a breath, not realizing he’d been holding it.
“God,” gasped Harrison. “I thought we were done for.”
Van Eck didn’t reply. He was too busy clinging for dear life to the rail.
Up they went, high and higher, an endless climb it seemed. But at last they reached the cliff top’s edge, and their vehicle was soon walking upon its level ground. Both men relaxed their aching limbs, and collapsed upon the howdah’s floor in blessed rest.
As if in imitation of its exhausted occupants their conveyance, too, slowed its pace until it stood in quiet and camouflaged repose. Harrison stirred himself to discern the reason for their halt. The engineer levered himself up upon the seat, and stared in wonder at the vista that fell away before him.
The machine-beast stood on the edge of a steep acclivity that fell away to a crystal plane on whose gleaming expanse stood a tower of frozen golden light. It was a shimmering quartz-like crystal, this Citadel of the Crystalloids. Skyscraper tall, the thing grew out of the glassy earth - a column of congealed fire glowing against the sable sky, with smaller crystals angling out from around the prodigious thickness of its base.
“It seems an outgrowth of the mountain,” observed Van Eck, who had joined his companion on the seat. “Is it natural, or a product of intelligence?”
Harrison shrugged. “Who knows? But the answer we really need is this: how to get in undetected?”
Both men started as a fan of light suddenly shot up from a small sphere on the howdah’s rail. In it slowly formed a three dimensional image of the Siren. The girl’s wavering form spoke urgently as it hung suspended in the air before them.
“My Masters shall create a kind of storm that will paralyze the Crystalloids. It won’t last long, and will drain our energy to the dregs.“ Then, turning to Van Eck, she looked pleadingly upon him. “My very life rests in your hands, beloved. Please hurry and do not fail me.“
The image flickered; the light began to die away. Van Eck reached out to caress the fading girl. His fingers passed through dismal emptiness.
“I won’t,“ he cried with passion. “I won’t fail you.“
“Forget her,” snapped Harrison, whose gaze was upon the tower. “We’ve been spotted by the enemy.”
Van Eck looked out across the plain and gasped when he saw the hoard of Crystalloids rushing at them from the citadel. The things were discus-shaped, and rolled across the ground like enormous wheels of azure glass. Cone shaped hubs projected either side of each Crystalloid, and were studded with faceted eyes of crimson. Long, flexible tentacles of linked spheres extended from the stationary hubs, and bifurcated at their tips into dexterous appendages that glowed with deadly energy.
Harrison looked up, anxiously scanned the heavens. Only empty blackness, untroubled by any turbulence, met his worried gaze. Of the storm there was no sign, and in but moments the speeding creatures would be upon them.
Chapter 5: Citadel of the Crystalloids
The rushing hoard of crystalline monsters was perhaps one hundred yards away when rays of burning light struck out from their serried ranks. The machine-beast dropped. Harrison flinched as the searing beams passed above his head. He fired.
His weapon spat silver flame. It raked the foe, shattered them with argent light. But on they came - waves of spinning discs, rolling heedlessly over their ruined comrades, hissing rays striking all about the men’s madly dancing steed.
“God,” gasped Van Eck as his own gun vomited destruction upon the enemy. “There are too many, and they‘ll soon have our range.“
A ray struck the machine-creature. It collapsed to its knees, fell sideways and spilt the cursing men upon the ground as the monsters raced up the acclivity in a whirling rush.
Suddenly, tiny flecks of pulsing light appeared in the inky heavens. They swelled to whirlpools of emerald radiance, and from these shining vortices fell a rain of viridian sparks that shone like miniature suns.
Too late thought Harrison as one Crystalloid spun over the cliff top’s edge and came at him like a lightning bolt. The man lunged for his weapon. Van Eck saw he’d never reach it. In a panic the professor fired, missed. The thing swung its tentacles at the men, prepared to launch its killing ray as others crowded up behind it. Then the drifting sparks fell upon the foe.
They froze as ripples of light spread across their forms. All movement ceased, as if each one had turned to stone. The men slowly rose, as did their strange conveyance.
“Paralyzed,” murmured Harrison.
“We’ve got to …” Van Eck gasped, clutched his chest. Harrison caught the staggering man.
The professor pushed him away. “I’m all right,” he weakly said.
“The hell you are.”
Van Eck gave him a sickly grin. “Even if I wasn’t we’ve got to find the Lens. There isn’t time for any other thing. Now, help me mount.”
Harrison silently cursed as he retrieved his weapon and assisted the swaying man. He feared this would happen - the strain on Van Eck’s heart was starting to show, and he knew his friend might die at any moment from cardiac arrest.
“Damn Masters. Damn Crystalloids,” he muttered. “Damn the lot of them to Hell.”
Quickly, the machine-beast advanced, bulldozing a path through the ranks of frozen Crystalloids upon which the emerald sparks still fell. Soon, they gained the freedom of the plane across whose surface their strange steed began to race.
The citadel loomed through a tingling rain of light and rose majestically above them as they passed beneath the jutting crystals about its base. Harrison glanced at Van Eck. He grimaced at the sight of his pale, haggard features. The professor looked no worse than before, but no better, either.
Van Eck brightened. “Look,” he said, pointing. “There is a Crystalloid growing out of the wall like a bud. It seems to confirm my hypothesis - this citadel is an outgrowth of the mountain, and the Crystalloids are outgrowths of the citadel. It’s remarkable - this strange evolution of mineral life.”
Harrison nodded. He made no verbal comment - there seemed no need to do so. The men passed through a hexagonal portal, and entered the towering structure. To Van Eck it was as if they were passing within a waterfall of light.
An aureate radiance fell upon them, condensing in places to form internal structures within the mighty crystal. A ramp spiraled upwards around the walls, vanishing into the distance of golden light. There were many levels, dimly seen - like distant objects immersed in a sea, or glimpsed through pouring rain. They were strange ethereal forms of translucent shadow.
They mounted the ramp, ascended its sloping length to the tower’s utmost height, and debouched upon the single room at its dizzy apex. The hexagonal chamber was expansive, and protruding from its walls were many geometric solids of glittering multihued crystal - cones, pyramids, spheres, cubes and a multitude of other shapes whose depths glowed with pastel flames of wavering light.
It was a strange sight - these enigmatic mechanisms. But their mystery had no hold upon Van Eck, for his eyes were focused upon the centre of the room from which a column rose; a pedestal cradling the object of their quest - the Lens: that wondrous mechanism by which the Masters drew their power from the Infinite.
Their conveyance approached the column, knelt beside it. The men dismounted, Harrison assisting his companion to the floor and to the Lens. The engineer watched silently as Van Eck caressed the orb with trembling hands.
“At last,” the savant breathed. “With this my heart’s desire can be fulfilled.”
Harrison knew the moment of decision was upon him. He felt terribly sorry for Van Eck, but knew far more was at stake than the desires of a single man. Stepping back, he drew his weapon and pointed it at his friend.
“Step away from the Lens, Julian,” he quietly ordered.
Van Eck looked at him, paled. “God,” he gasped in sudden realization. “You’re going to destroy it, aren’t you?”
Harrison nodded. “We don’t know enough about the Masters or the Crystalloids to trust either one. Better to destroy the Lens - that way neither will have the power to harm our Earth.”
“But Jane,” pleaded the professor. “She’ll die again.”
“I’m truly sorry, Julian. But the danger to humanity overrules all other personal considerations.”
Van Eck gasped, clutched his chest and fell upon his knees.
The engineer swore, stepped forward to render aid. Van Eck’s fist swung up. The cunning blow struck Harrison in the groin. He dropped his weapon and collapsed with a groaning cry upon the floor.
“I warned you,” snarled Van Eck. “Not to threaten Jane, but you wouldn’t listen.” Then he drew his weapon and with it struck the helpless man a vicious blow upon the head - a blow that drove the engineer into the depths of black unconsciousness.
**********
Awareness grew, and Harrison found himself floating in a blue void. The sensation was without precedent - a disembodied perception of his own existence, his being suspended in an azure gulf of measureless extent.
Am I dead? he pondered, strangely calm.
No, came another thought not his own. I am all around you, it continued before he could frame the question within his mind. I am the Intelligence of the Citadel, and my Crystalloids are the equivalent of your limbs. You were badly injured, and it has taken me considerable time to analyze your body and repair the damage.
Sudden memories of Van Eck’s treachery crashed through the unreality of Harrison’s condition.
Yes, responded the Intelligence. Your friend has the Lens, and by now would be very near the Masters stronghold. My Crystalloids are still paralyzed. That is why I healed you - so you can save your world by stealing the device as I attempted.
Harrison’s mind was in a whirl. He didn’t know what to think, or who to believe. The Crystalloids’ paralysis was supposed to have been temporary. Why had the Siren lied? To make things seem urgent so he’d rush in without having time to think? Possibly, but was the Intelligence of the Citadel any better?
I sense your doubts, observed the entity. Therefore, look upon me so you may judge the inner nature of my being.
Somehow, Harrison grew more aware of the presence surrounding him. It was a mind - vast and deep, like some mighty ocean of placid thought. There was nothing of human emotion - neither love nor lust, neither fear nor hate or the desire for revenge, only an immutable sense of all-pervading calmness. It had no need of Earth. It had no need of anything. It was complete in itself.
Why are you helping us? Queried Harrison, what do the Masters want with Earth?
The balance must be maintained, was its enigmatic reply. And behind this was an alien feeling of great force that the engineer couldn’t fathom. As for your second question - there isn’t time to answer it, continued the being. I will now return your mind to your body. You will awaken beside a vehicle I have grown, one immune to the paralyzing influence of the Masters. Board it and do what must be done to save your world.
Solid reality emerged from the blueness, and Harrison found himself lying on the tower’s floor. He turned his head and saw a crystal mechanism next to him. The thing was a long, narrow cylinder, with the ends swelling seamlessly to form large discs at bow and stern - discs in which swirled streamers of actinic light. In the centre of the craft was a cockpit covered by a dome that swung open invitingly at his approach.
Harrison paused, irresolute; then decided there was nothing to be gained by paralyzing indecision. Retrieving his weapon, he then entered the vehicle. Implanted knowledge enabled him to activate its mechanisms. The dome closed, the vessel whirred to life. It lifted, its discs glowing with repulsive force, and shot through a hexagonal portal that dilated open in the chamber’s wall.
Crushing acceleration made Harrison gasp. He ignored the pain, pushed the speed control up a notch. Dimly, he perceived the blurred vista that rushed beneath his feet. Perhaps an hour passed, and with its going - the Sea of Fire, its distant shore, then the barren desert of glowing crystals flowed beneath his winging craft. Shortly, and in the further distance - perhaps a mile - loomed the Masters’ towering stronghold.
In mere minutes Harrison spotted their weird conveyance racing towards the cone, its swirling polyhedra opening to permit ingress. Cold fear pricked the grimly determined man. He had to stop Van Eck no matter what. Harrison touched the controls. For the sake of Earth he sent his craft plunged with the fury of a kamikaze upon his prey.
Van Eck looked up, alerted by the whistling passage of the craft’s swift descent. He gasped when he saw the ship’s suicidal dive. He raised his weapon, fired. The lancing ray struck the vessel. It exploded into whirling fragments, and Van Eck exhaled in vast relief at the complete destruction of this unknown threat.
Chapter 6: The Fate of Earth
The burning wreckage fell. One smoking piece plunged directly at Van Eck. The frightening sight pierced him through with wild fear. His conveyance tried to dodge the hurtling fragment. It failed.
In the escape capsule high above Harrison saw his craft’s remains explode against the howdah’s roof. The machine-beast shuddered. Van Eck was flung violently upon the ground. The capsule continued its descent by parachute, touched the earth. In an instant the engineer was out and running towards the stricken man.
Harrison knelt beside Van Eck. The engineer wasn’t a doctor, but he didn’t need to be to see the case was hopeless. The unconscious professor was bleeding profusely from numerous gaping shrapnel wounds. He’d be dead in but a moment. Harrison felt like weeping, but knew this wasn’t the time to grieve - he had to find the Lens and destroy it.
Quickly, he stood, looked about and then froze when his eyes alighted on the Siren. She stood quietly some yards away, the Lens cradled in her hands. Harrison’s hand darted for his weapon. Crimson rays sprang from the Siren’s eyes and struck the man. He collapsed in writhing agony.
Helplessly, Harrison watched as the pseudo-woman approached. She knelt by Van Eck, and placed her palm upon his forehead for a moment, then slung Harrison across her shoulder as if he were a babe.
Harrison descended into a pit of black despair as he was carried within the Stronghold of the Masters. His friend of many years was dead, the Masters would soon be in possession of the Lens, and the fate of Earth seemed a dark and unknown terror.
All about him he sensed the unseen Masters. They were stronger now in the presence of the Lens, touching him with their alien minds. Harrison shuddered, felt defiled by their mental probing. In a wordless way he sensed their terrible intent, what they planned for all humanity.
The things were like vampires, but it was not mere blood they hungered for. No, it was the knowledge locked in every human brain that they desired. With machines, vast and intricate, the Masters planned to drain all information from every human mind, leaving nothing but drooling vegetables to populate the Earth.
Harrison was overcome by the horror of it - cities peopled by mindless, shambling creatures, lower than the beasts. With imagination’s eye he saw one lumbering imbecile wander within a vast museum, its staring, vacant eyes seeing yet uncomprehending all those wondrous artifacts that are testimony to the glory of Mankind. It was like the death of a child, of a life cut short, of all that could have been, but never will.
The engineer struggled to move, his mind swirling with desperate plans. But it was hopeless - his body was completely paralyzed. If he could have, he would have wept with grief and rage.
As they moved deeper within the stupendous cone, the glowing path the Siren walked upon expanded to form a shining circle. The pseudo-woman stopped within its centre. She lowered Harrison to the floor and raised the Lens like a priestess offering sacrament to some unholy god. Harrison sensed the things in the surrounding darkness, eager expectant, like a man awaiting his paramour.
The air brimmed with power as the Lens began to glow. Harrison groaned in anguish as he sensed the Masters growing strength. He had to stop the Siren. The engineer found he could move a little. With sobbing oaths he crawled towards the pseudo-girl. As his trembling hand closed upon her ankle all reality was suddenly drenched with blazing light.
Everything went white. He seemed to be in the eye of a vast storm. Across immeasurable distances came the echoes of titan thunderbolts. He heard the Masters scream - a rage that mounted to terrifying heights. What the hell was going on?
Slowly, the vortex contracted, forced inwards by opposing and relentless energy. Fear gripped Harrison as he saw whirling walls of seething blackness fall in upon him. He steeled himself in preparation for the end. Then an unseen power seemed to rally. It thrust out spinning blades of light that pierced the darkness, tearing it to shreds of flying shadow.
Again, the Masters screamed, and to Harrison it seemed the cry held more of pain and fear than rage. Their desperate minds rewove the shreds of shadow. Shields of darkness formed. From behind these screens they spat ebon bolts of destroying force. Mirrors of silver flame materialized, reflected this dark attack and then were transformed to radiant spears of striking energy that pierced the Masters sable shields.
Howling death cries rent the air. The darkness faded, driven back by pearly light. The light condensed, took form and color, and Harrison found himself lying beneath a shady tree upon a hill that overlooked a landscape of restful beauty. The upward curve of the horizon, though, made it clear he was still within the sphere, and not on Earth.
Harrison staggered up, a look of utter confusion and disbelief upon his face. His eyes widened further when he saw the Siren some yards away, and the man who stood beside her. It was Van Eck - not old, but full of youth and strength. Yes, it was Van Eck, but not entirely human, for his skin was emerald, dusted with glittering specks of silver; and his hair - a darker shade of green with argent highlights.
“I … I don’t understand,” gasped Harrison.
“I was reconstructed from Julian’s memories of his wife, designed to act as both lure and intermediator,” explained the Siren. “Although the Masters were beings of vast intelligence, in their weakened state they made a fatal error when creating me - I am all that Jane was, and more. I would never aid the destruction of humanity, so I bided my time, planning to turn against my creators when I had the Lens. Fortunately, they were caught completely by surprise.”
“It’s true,” said Van Eck, slipping his arm affectionately about the pseudo-girl. “When Jane placed her hand upon my dying body, she drew my mental essence within herself and recreated me. I’m sorry I had to hit you, but I knew you’d never believe the truth - that Jane was truly on our side. Her plan, which she conveyed to me mentally before we left, was the only one that could succeed.”
Harrison sat heavily upon the ground. Once again, the world had been turned upon its head, and all his certainties had fled away. He sat quietly for several minutes, mentally digesting this startling information. At last he looked up and gazed questioningly upon the couple.
“I’ve repaired Julian’s old body,” explained the Siren. “And have left it on the bed in your cabin. The autopsy will show he died of natural causes whilst asleep. I suggest you stick to this prosaic story.”
The engineer gasped, for he realized this could only mean one thing. His gaze shifted to Van Eck for conformation.
Van Eck nodded. “Yes,” he said. “Jane and I are leaving Earth. We have no choice, really, considering what we’ve become. Not that either one of us regrets it, for you see we have each other, and Jane has made this area of the Sphere more homely with the power of the Lens. Who could ask for more than that?”
“Indeed,” said Harrison, slowly rising, seeing that all Van Eck had said was true. “Well,” he continued, a lump in his throat. “I suppose this is goodbye.”
“Cheer up,” replied Van Eck as they shook hands. “We’ll pass this way again. Take the time to find yourself a good woman. Then perhaps both of you can come with us to explore the vastness of the universe, and peer behind reality to gaze upon those eternal forms which underpin creation.”
Harrison grinned as a strange radiance enveloped him. Reality shifted, and he found himself on Earth. The rays of early morning touched the Sphere. It began to rise - slowly at first, then with increasing acceleration. The engineer watched it vanish into the azure sky and, as he did, dwelt upon Van Eck’s parting words.
THE END