Books: The Emancipatrix
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Homer Eon Flint >> The Emancipatrix
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Meanwhile his agent continued to stare into the sky. Shortly something
arrived in the field of vision; a blurred speck, far to one side. It
approached leisurely, with the unknown agent watching steadfastly. It
still remained blurred, however; for a long time the engineer knew as
little about its actual form as he knew about his mysterious agent.
Then, like a flash, the vision cleared. All the blurring disappeared
instantly, and the form of a buzzard was disclosed. It was almost
directly overhead, about a quarter of a mile distant, and soaring in a
wide spiral. No sound whatever came from it. Smith's agent made no move
of any kind, but continued to watch.
Shortly the buzzard "banked" for a sharper turn; and the engineer saw,
by the perspective of its apparent speed, that the aircraft whose use he
was enjoying was likewise on the move. Apparently it was flying in a
straight line, keeping the sun--an object vastly too brilliant to
examine--on the right.
The buzzard went out of sight. Once more the clear sky was all that
could be seen; that, and the continual roar of the engine, were all that
Smith actually knew. He became impatient for his agent to look
elsewhere; it might be that the craft contained other specimens of the
unknown creatures. But there was no change in the vigilant watch which
was being kept upon the sky.
Suddenly the engineer became exceedingly alert. He had noticed something
new--something so highly different from anything he had expected to
learn that it was some minutes before he could believe it true.
His borrowed eyes had no eyelids! At least, if they did, they were never
used. Not once did they flicker in the slightest; not once did they
blink or wink, much less close themselves for a momentary rest from the
sun's glare. They remained as stonily staring as the eyes of a marble
statue.
Then something startling happened. With the most sickening suddenness
the aircraft came to an abrupt halt. Smith's senses swam with the jolt
of it. All about him was a confused jumble of blurred figures and forms;
it was infinitely worse than his first ride in a hoist. In a moment,
however, he was able to examine things fairly well.
The aircraft had come to a stop in the middle of what looked like a cane
brake. On all sides rose yellowish-green shafts, bearing leaves
characteristic of the maize family. Smith knew little about cane, yet
felt sure that these specimens were a trifle large. "Possibly due to
difference in gravitation," he thought.
However, he could not tell much about the spot on which the machine had
landed. For a moment it was motionless; the engine had been stopped, and
all was silent except for the gentle rustling of the cane in the field.
The unknown operator did not change his position in the slightest. Then
the craft began to move over the surface, in a jerky lurching fashion
which indicated a very rough piece of ground. At the same time a queer,
leathery squeaking came to the engineer's borrowed ears; he concluded
that the machine was being sorely strained by the motion. At the time he
was puzzled to account for the motion itself. Either there was another
occupant of the craft, who had climbed out and was now pushing the thing
along the ground, or else some form of silent mechanism was operating
the wheels upon which, presumably, the craft was mounted. Shortly the
motion stopped altogether.
It was then that Smith noticed something he had so far ignored because
he knew his own dinner hour was approaching. His agent was hungry, like
himself. He noticed it because, just then, he received a very definite
impression of the opposite feeling; the agent was eating lunch of some
sort, and enjoying it. There was no doubt about this. All that Smith
could do was to wish, for the hundredth time, that he could look around
a little and see what was being eaten, and how.
The meal occupied several minutes. Not once did the strange occupant of
that machine relax his stony stare at the sky, and Smith tried to forget
how hungry he was by estimating the extent of his vision. He decided
that the angle subtended about a hundred and sixty degrees, or almost
half a circle; and he further concluded that if his agent possessed a
nose, it was a pretty trifling affair, too small to be noticed. It was
obvious, too, that the fellow's mouth was located much lower in the face
than normal. He ate without showing a single particle of food, and did
it very quietly.
At length hunger was satisfied. There was complete stillness and silence
for a moment, then another short lurching journey through the cane; and
next, with an abruptness that made the engineer's senses swim again, the
fellow once more took to the air. The speed with which he "got away" was
enough to make a motorcyclist, doing his best, seem to stand still.
It took time for Smith to regain his balance. When he did, the same
unbroken expanse of sky once more met his gaze; but it was not long
until, out of the corners of those unblinking eyes, he could make out
bleary forms which shortly resolved themselves into mountain tops. It
was odd, the way things suddenly flashed into full view. One second they
would be blurred and unrecognizable; the next, sharply outlined and
distinct as anything the engineer had ever seen. Yet, there seemed to be
no change in the focus of those eyes. It wasn't as though they were
telescopic, either. Not until long afterward did Smith understand the
meaning of this.
The mountains grew higher and nearer. Before long it seemed as though
the aircraft was entering some sort of a canon. Its sides were only
sparsely covered with vegetation, and all of it was quite brown, as
though the season were autumn. For the most part the surface was of
broken rock and boulders.
Within a space of three or four minutes the engineer counted not less
than ten buzzards. The unknown operator of the machine, however, paid no
attention to them, but continued his extraordinary watch of the heavens.
Smith began to wonder if the chap were not seated in an air-tight,
sound-proof chamber, deep in the hull of some great aerial cruiser, with
his eyes glued fast to a periscope. "Maybe a sky patrol," thought the
man of the earth; "a cop on the lookout for aerial smugglers, like as
not."
And then came another of those terrifying stops. This time, as soon as
he could collect his senses, the engineer saw that the machine had
landed approximately in the middle of the canon, and presumably among
the boulders in its bottom. For all about it were the tops of gigantic
rocks, most of them worn smooth from water action. And, as soon as the
engine stopped, Smith plainly heard the roar of water right at hand. He
could not see it, however. Why in the name of wonder didn't the fellow
look down, for a change?
The craft began to move. This time its motion was smoother arguing an
even surface. However, it had not gone far before, to the engineer's
astonishment, it began to move straight down a slope so steep that no
mechanism with which Smith was familiar could possibly have clung to it.
As this happened, his adopted eyes told him that the craft was located
upon one of those enormous boulders, in the center of a stream of such
absolute immensity that he fairly gasped. The thing was--colossal!
And yet it was true. The unseen machine deliberately moved along until
it was actually clinging, not to the top, but to the side of the rock.
The water appeared to be about five yards beneath, to the right. To the
left was the sky, while the center of that strange vision was now upon a
similar boulder seemingly a quarter of a mile distant, farther out in
the stream. But the fellow at the periscope didn't change position one
whit!
It was so unreal. Smith deliberately ignored everything else and watched
again for indications of eyelids. He saw not one flicker, but noticed a
certain tiny come-and-go, the merest sort of vibration, which indicated
the agent's heart-action. Apparently it beat more than twice as fast as
Smith's.
But it relieved him to know that his agent was at least a genuine living
being. For a moment he had fancied something utterly repellent to him.
Suppose this Sanusian were not any form of natural creature at all, but
some sort of supermachine, capable of functioning like an organism? The
thought made the engineer shudder as no morgue could.
Presently the queer craft approached the water closely enough, and at
such an angle, that Smith looked eagerly for a reflection. However, the
water was exceedingly rough, and only a confused brownish blur could be
made out. Once he caught a queer sound above the noise of the water; a
shrill hiss, with a harsh whine at the end. "Just like some kind of
suction apparatus," as he later described it.
And then, with that peculiar sound fresh in his ears, came the crowning
shock of the whole experience. Floating toward the boulder, but some
distance away, was what looked like a black seed. Next moment the vision
flashed clear, as usual, and the engineer saw that the object was really
a beetle; and in a second it was so near that Smith's own body, back on
the earth, involuntarily shrank back into the recesses of his chair.
For that beetle was an enormity in the most unlimited sense of the word.
It was infinitely larger than any beetle the engineer had ever seen--
infinitely! It was as large as a good-sized horse!
But before Smith could get over his amazement there was a rush and a
swirl in the water behind the insect. Spray was dashed over the rock, a
huge form showed itself indistinctly beneath the waves, and next instant
the borrowed eyes were showing the engineer, so clearly as to be
undeniable, the most astounding sight he had ever seen.
A fish of mountainous size leaped from the water, snapped the beetle
into its mouth, and disappeared from sight. In a flash it had come and
gone, leaving the engineer fairly gasping and likewise wondering how he
could possibly expect anybody to believe him if he told the bald truth
of what he had seen.
For he simply could not have invented anything half as incredible. The
fish simply could not be described with ordinary language. IT WAS AS
LARGE AS THE LARGEST LOCOMOTIVE.
IV
THE GOLD-MINER
As for Van Emmon, his experience will have to be classed with Smith's.
That is to say, he soon came to feel that his agent was not what is
commonly called human. It was all too different. However, he found
himself enjoying a field of view which was a decided improvement upon
Smith's. Instead of a range which began and ended just above the
horizon, his agent possessed the power of looking almost straight ahead.
This told the geologist that his unsuspecting Sanusian was located in an
aircraft much like the other. The same tremendous noise of the engine,
the same inexplicable wing action, together with the same total lack of
the usual indications of human occupancy, all argued that the two men
had hit upon the same type of agent. In Van Emmon's case, however, he
could occasionally glimpse two loose parts of the machine, flapping and
swaying oddly from time to time within the range of the observer, and at
the front. Nothing was done about it. Van Emmon came to the same
conclusion as Smith; the operator was looking into something like a
periscope. Perhaps he himself did not do the driving.
From what the geologist could see of the country below, it was quite
certainly cultivated. In no other way could the even rows and uniform
growth be explained; even though Van Emmon could not say whether the
vegetation were tree, shrub, or plant, it was certainly the work of man
--or something mightily like man.
Shortly he experienced an abrupt downward dive, such as upset his senses
somewhat. When he recovered, he had time for only the swiftest glance at
what, he thought rather vaguely, was a great green-clad mountain. Then
his agent brought the craft to one of those nerve-racking stops; once
more came a swimming of the brain, and then the geologist saw something
that challenged his understanding.
The craft had landed on the rim of a deep pit, or what would have been
called a pit if it had not been so extraordinary. Mainly the strangeness
was a matter of color; the slope was of a brilliant orange, and
seemingly covered with frost, for it sparkled so brightly in the sun as
to actually hurt the eyes. In fact, the geologist's first thought was "A
glacier," although he could not conceive of ice or snow of that tint.
Running down the sides of the pit were a number of dark-brown streaks,
about a yard wide; Van Emmon could make them out, more or less clearly,
on the other side of the pit as well. From the irregular way in which
the walls were formed, he quickly decided that the pit was a natural
one. The streaks, he thought, might have been due to lava flow.
His agent proceeded to drive straight over the rim and down the slope
into the pit. His engine was quite stopped; like Smith, the geologist
wondered just how the craft's wheels were operated. Next he was holding
his breath as the machine reached so steep a point in the slope that,
most surely, no brakes could hold it. Simultaneously he heard the hiss
and whine which seemed to indicate the suction device.
"It was a whole lot like going down into a placer mine," the geologist
afterward said; and in view of what next met his eyes, he was justified
in his guess.
Down crept the machine until it was "standing on its nose." The sun was
shining almost straight down into the slope, and Van Emmon forgot his
uneasiness about the craft in his interest in what he saw.
The bottom of the pit was perhaps twenty feet in diameter, and roughly
hemispherical. Standing up from its bottom were half a dozen slim
formations, like idealized stalagmites; they were made of some
semitransparent rock, apparently, the tint being a reddish yellow.
Finally, perched on the top of each of these was a stone; and
surrounding these six "landmarks," as Van Emmon called them, was the
most prodigious display of wealth imaginable.
For the whole queer place was simply sprinkled with gold. Gold--gold
everywhere; large nuggets of it, as big as one's fist! Not embedded in
rock, not scattered through sand, but lying LOOSE upon the surface of
that unbelievable orange snow! It was overwhelming.
The mysterious Sanusian lost no time. Operating some unseen machinery,
he caused three shovel-like devices to project from the front of his
machine; and these instantly proceeded, so swiftly that Van Emmon could
not possibly watch their action, to pick up nuggets and stow them away
out of sight in what must have been compartments in the hull. All this
was done without any sound beyond the occasional thud of a nugget
dropped in the scramble.
Suddenly the Sanusian wheeled his machine about and started hurriedly up
the slope. Van Emmon judged that the chap had been frightened by
something, for he took flight as soon as he reached the top of the pit.
And--he left half a million in gold behind him!
This new flight had not lasted two minutes before the geologist began to
note other objects in the air. There were birds, so distant that he
could not identify them; one came near enough, however, for him to
conclude that it was a hawk. But he did not hold to this conclusion very
long.
The thing that changed his mind was another aircraft. It approached from
behind, making even more noise than the other, and proceeded to draw
abreast of it. From time to time Van Emmon's agent turned his mysterious
periscope so as to take it all in, and the geologist was able to watch
his fill. Whereupon he became converted to a new idea:
The birds that Smith and he had seen had not been birds at all, but
aircraft built in imitation of them.
For this new arrival had been made in almost perfect imitation of a bee!
It was very close to an exact reproduction. For one exception, it did
not have the hairy appearance so characteristic of bees; the body and
"legs" were smooth, and shiny. (Later, Van Emmon saw machines which went
so far as even to imitate the hairs.) Also, instead of trying to
duplicate the two compound eyes which are found, one on each side of a
bee's head, a perfectly round representation of a single eye was built,
like a conning tower, toward the front of the bow. Presumably, the
observer sat or stood within this "head."
But otherwise it was wonderfully like a drone bee. Van Emmon was
strongly reminded of what he had once viewed under a powerful lens. The
fragile semitransparent wings, the misshapen legs, and even the jointed
body with its scale-like segments, all were carefully duplicated on a
large scale. Imagine a bee thirty feet long!
At first the geologist was puzzled to find that it carried a pair of
many-jointed antennae. He could not see how any intelligent being would
make use of them; they were continually waving about, much as bees wave
theirs. Evidently these were the loose objects he had already noted.
"Now," he wondered, "why in thunder did the builders go to so much
trouble for the sake of mere realism?"
Then he saw that the antennae served a very real purpose. There was no
doubt about it; they were wireless antennae!
For presently the newcomer, who so far had not shown himself at any
point on his machine, sent out a message which was read as quickly as it
was received by Van Emmon's agent, and as unconsciously translated:
"Number Eight Hundred Four, you are wanted on Plot Seventeen."
Whereupon Van Emmon's unknown assistant replied at once:
"Very well, Superior."
It was done by means of an extremely faint humming device, reminding the
geologist of certain wireless apparata he had heard. Not a word was
actually spoken by either Sanusian.
Van Emmon kept a close watch upon the conning tower on the other
machine. The sun was shining upon it in such a fashion that its gleam
made inspection very difficult. Once he fancied that he could make out a
short, compact figure within the "eye"; but he could not be sure. The
glass, or whatever it was, reflected everything within range.
Was the airman a quadruped? Did he sit or stand upright, like a man? Or
did he use all four limbs, animal-fashion? Van Emmon had to admit that
he could not tell; no wonder he didn't guess the truth.
Shortly after receiving the summons, the geologist's agent changed his
direction slightly; and within ten minutes the machine was passing over
a large grain field. On the far edge was a row of trees, and it was
toward this that the Sanusian proceeded to volplane, presently coming to
another nausea-producing stop. Once more Van Emmon was temporarily
helpless.
When he could look again, he saw that the machine had landed upon a
steep slope, this time with its nose pointing upward. Far above was what
looked like a cave, with a growth of some queer, black grass on its
upper rim. The craft commenced to move upward, over a smooth, dark tan
surface.
In half a minute the machine had reached the top of the slope, and the
geologist looked eagerly for what might lie within the cave. He was
disappointed; it was not a cave at all. Instead, another brown slope, or
rather a bulging precipice, occupied this depression.
Van Emmon looked closer. At the bottom of this bulge was a queer fringe
of the same kind of grass that showed on top of it. Van Emmon looked
from one to the other, and all of a sudden the thing dawned upon him.
This stupendous affair was no mountainside; it was neither more nor less
than the head of a colossal statue! A mammoth edition of the Goddess of
Liberty; and the aircraft had presumed to alight upon its cheek!
The machine clung there, motionless, for some time, quite as though the
airman knew that Van Emmon would like to look a long while. He gazed
from side to side as far as he could see, making out a small section of
the nose, also the huge curves of a dust-covered ear. It was wonderfully
life-like.
Next second came the earthquake. The whole statue rocked and swayed; Van
Emmon looked to see the machine thrown off. From the base of the
monument came a single terrific sound, a veritable roar, as though the
thing was being wrenched from the heart of the earth. From somewhere on
top came a spurt of water that splashed just beside the craft.
Then came the most terrible thing. Without the slightest warning the
statue's great eye opened! Opened wide, revealing a prodigious pupil
which simply blazed with wrath!
The statue was alive!
Next second the Sanusian shot into the air. A moment and Van Emmon was
able to look again, and as it happened, the craft was now circling the
amazing thing it had just quit, so that the geologist could truthfully
say that he was dead sure of what he saw.
He was justified in wanting to be absolutely sure. Resting on the solid
earth was a human head, about fifty yards wide and proportionately as
tall. It was alive; but IT WAS ONLY THE HEAD, NOTHING MORE.
V
THE SUPER-RACE
It will be remembered that Billie wanted to get in touch with a creature
having the characteristic which she had said she admired: supremacy--"A
worker who is the boss!" Bearing this in mind, her experience will
explain itself, dumfounding though it was.
Her first sight of the Sanusian world was from the front of a large
building. The former architect was not able to inspect it minutely; but
she afterwards said that it impressed her as being entirely plain, and
almost a perfect cube. Its walls were white and quite without ornament;
there was only one entrance, an extremely low and broad, flat archway,
extending across one whole side. The structure was about a hundred yards
each way. In front was a terrace, seemingly paved with enormous slabs of
stone; it covered a good many acres.
Presumably Billie's agent had just brought her machine from the
building, for, within a few seconds, she took flight in the same abrupt
fashion which had so badly upset Smith and Van Emmon. When Billie was
able to look closely, she found herself gazing down upon a Sanusian
city.
It was a tremendous affair. As the flying-machine mounted higher, Billie
continually revised her guesses; finally she concluded that London
itself was not as large. Nevertheless her astonishment was mainly
directed at the character, not the number of the buildings.
They were all alike! Every one was a duplicate of that she had first
seen: cube-shaped, plain finished, flat of wall and roof. Even in color
they were alike; in time the four came to call the place the "White
City." However, the buildings were arranged quite without any visible
system. And they were vastly puzzled, later on in their studies, to find
every other Sanusian city precisely the same as this one.
However, there was one thing which distinguished each building from the
rest. It was located on the roof; a large black hieroglyphic, set in a
square black border, which Billie first thought to be all alike. Whether
it meant a name or a number, there was no way to tell.[Footnote: Since
writing the above, further investigations have proved that these
Sanusian house-labels are all numbers.]
Billie turned her attention to her agent. She seemed to belong to the
same type as Smith's and Van Emmon's; otherwise she was certainly much
more active, much more interested in her surroundings, and possessed of
a far more powerful machine. She was continually changing her direction;
and Billie soon congratulated herself upon her luck. Beyond a doubt,
this party was no mere slave to orders; it was she who gave the orders.
Before one minute had passed she was approached by a Sanusian in a big,
clumsy looking machine. Although built on the bee plan, it possessed an
observation tower right on top of its "head." (The four afterward
established that this was the sort of a machine that Smith's agent had
operated.) The occupant approached to within a respectful distance from
Billie's borrowed eyes, and proceeded to hum the following through his
antennae:
"Supreme, I have been ordered to report for Number Four."
"Proceed."
"The case of insubordinancy which occurred in Section Eighty-five has
been disposed of."
"Number Four made an example of her?"
"Yes, Supreme."
"Whereupon the operator flew away, having not only kept his body totally
out of sight all the while, but having failed by the slightest token to
indicate, by his manner of communicating that he had the slightest
particle of personal interest in his report. For that matter, neither
did Supreme."
Scarcely had this colloquy ended than another subordinate approached.
This one used a large and very fine machine. She reported:
"If Supreme will come with me to the spot, it will be easier to decide
upon this case."
Immediately the two set off without another word; and after perhaps four
minutes of the speediest travel Billie had known outside the doctor's
sky-car, they descended to within a somewhat short distance from the
ground. Here they hovered, and Billie saw that they were stopped above
some bills at the foot of a low mountain range.
Next moment she made out the figures of four humans on top of a knoll
just below. A little nearer, and the architect was looking, from the
air, down upon the same scene which the doctor was then witnessing
through the eyes of Rolla, the older of the two Sanusian women. Billie
could make out the powerful physique of Corrus, the slighter figure of
Dulnop, the small but vigorous form of Cunora, and Rolla's slender,
graceful, capable body. But at that moment the other flier began to say
to Supreme:
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