Chapter IV

Part of Gene's hunch proved correct. The Beast People were camped just outside the valley, this being verified by scouts sent out from the city late that evening. It was logical to suppose that the suspected attack would also become reality in the near future. There was little sleep for him that night. He lay with eyes open, thinking--but little did he solve.

Kac personally brought Gene's breakfast to him the following morning. The sad face of the chief's son was even sadder this day.

"Many of my people shall no longer know the hardships of life," he told the explorer. "One hundred of them fell before the onslaught of the Beast People. And--sorrow floods my heart--women and children account for more than half of the dead.

"Gene, my friend, my tribe is grateful for your succor in its hour of peril. But for you, the caves would now be in the filthy hands of our most despised enemies. Yea, you have proved yourself a warrior, and we belatedly welcome you as a brother."

Gene was already engrossed in the food, and an unintelligible grunt was the best he could do in the way of a reply. Kac sat on the floor, watching him with wonder--and more than a touch of pity. His brow was furrowed with thought, and suddenly he spoke:

"You are not like those, those _others_, Gene. The legends tell us _they_ were cruel, merciless. But you are kind, just, and your mind knows no deceit. Spawn of the _others_ you may well be, yet their inhuman traits dwell not in you."

Gene looked up puzzledly. "Hey! What in Deimos' Dungeons are you talking about? Who are these _others_, and what makes you think I'm in cahoots with them? Listen, Kac, I'm an Earthman--flesh and blood, bone and hair, every single atom. Before Man, there were no intelligent creatures on Earth; and as for Man himself doing you some great wrong, it could not possibly have happened. Your planet is unknown to my world; I myself discovered it only by the most unusual circumstances. You've got me dizzy with all this talk about supposed wrongs, so how about putting our cards on the table?"

Kac rose, nodding gravely. "Thus was it foretold. Time has erased all memory of the evil deed of your race. But our remembrance of it is as a flame that grows not weaker, but stronger, with the years. Come now, Gene Drummond, and learn of your sin."

Gene followed the tall barbarian from the cavern, excited and more than a little apprehensive. As they walked, he noted that many warriors were on guard throughout the community. That was good. Looking up, he noticed for the first time that a naked, black mountain reared into the sky but a half-mile or so back from the valley wall wherein the caves were situated. That, too, was good. The Beast People would be forced to come at them from the fore.

The trail led to the Cave of Talkers. Down the broad steps, across the flat stone floor, they went wordless and in awe. The giant machines loomed before them, throbbing and pounding with such a clamor as to bring Gene's hands to his ears.

He soon grew accustomed to the noise, however, and went on with Kac to a small niche carved in a wall of the chamber. A vault rested in the recess, and from it Kac took a long metal tube; from this, a musty skin scroll.

The towering tribesman turned and looked deep into Gene's eyes. "Now," he said, "now shall I read to you from this ancient record, written by those long dead for all Wronged Ones to study and learn therefrom of the terrible injustice done to their ancestors. It is not pleasant, Gene. Will you hear it?"

The biologist nodded, a tight feeling around his heart. What unhappy, haunting knowledge was about to come to his mind?

"It is short," Kac murmured. "Those who wrote it knew so little of what actually happened. Too, the language in which it is written is all but lost to us. But it is my fancy that when you have hearkened to these few words, little space will remain in your mind for other thoughts."

"Go ahead, read it," Gene said hoarsely. "I don't run from the truth, even though it may cut to the quick."

* * * * *

Kac began; reading swiftly, yet comprehensively: "Long were we, the Wronged Ones, happy on our beautiful world. Like a green jewel in space it was; a treasure lost from the bosom of the Mother Sun in some careless moment.

"True it is that we were of simple minds; even so, great things were destined for our race. As evolution worked its miracles the ignorance that was born with us dropped away, and in its place came a high order of intelligence.

"We built, tilled the soil, and forever sought new knowledge to enrich our hungry minds. Our civilization was rising, forging ahead. The fertile soil gave abundantly of its treasure; power for our machines came from the Mother Sun itself.

"Then, disaster fell upon our world. Through space, with a far greater speed than light, stabbed an insidious ray--stealing our minds, our egos. Our bodies remained, but the egos that controlled them were drained away and hurled through the void.

"Great was our consternation to find ourselves on an alien world, inhabiting alien bodies; and bitter were we when we realized the egos that had formerly possessed these organic vehicles were now dwelling in _our_ bodies, on our own fair world. A planet of deadness was this upon which our intellects had been cast, but we were determined to live on and someday know vengeance.

"In a word: in one horrible second, and much against our will, we had traded worlds with a desperate, dying race--our sphere of abundance for theirs of desolation.

"The machine with which the usurpers had accomplished this was beyond our comprehension, though our scientists worked long and feverishly to solve its secret. Long after, we came to the conclusion the machine had been captured from the Beast People and one of their number forced to operate it.

"Truly, we found a dying half-man in this cavern. He had been poisoned, so we could not force him to operate the machine for us and take back the planet and organisms that were rightfully ours. Not until many years after did we succeed in capturing a number of the Beast People, only to find they had lost the knowledge of the ego-transposer's working. They were devolving at a rapid pace, and soon we, too, began to know the ravages of degeneration, though it did not act with such speed on us--perhaps only for the reason that we were determined to stave it off and one day return to our much-mourned world.

"Here were we, a rising race, now doomed to extinction by a treacherous people too weak to face the destiny ordained for them. It is true these people were intelligent, after a fashion, but there is little knowledge to be had on this rock-world and when the limit is reached, the mind must retrogress.

"There will be mutations on our lost world, for our planet was possessed of a much larger population than this of the transgressors. Thus when the hellish ego-transposer effected the change, many on our world were left mindless, with only the instincts of the beast remaining. Inter-breeding will greatly reduce the intelligence of the entire population for a time--though they will without doubt arise once more to a new greatness, for the means are there for them.

"There can only be sorrow, despair, and untold misery for us. Before the gods, there can be no greater trespass than this."

Kac's voice trailed away.

Sick dread was on Gene's face. "Kac," he whispered, "What was the name of this world that was stolen from you?"

"Ours was the third world nearest the sun," the tall warrior answered with true regret. "The planet you call Earth...."

Gene's torment of mind knew no bounds in the following hours. Kac had left him in the cavern, warning him not to destroy the Talkers or the tribe would surely slay him. The biologist had given his word and even if he had wished, he could not have violated it; for nothing short of an atomic-cannon could rend the metal of which the titanic machines were built.

He had an atomic-cannon mounted on his ship, _New Frontiers_, but what good was it? He could not get to it--the Beast People surrounded the valley and would nail him the moment he appeared over the rim.

A small platform extended from the ego-transposer, midway up, and to this he climbed via a ladder depending from it. A bucket seat was anchored to the flooring. He dropped in it and began studying the instruments before him.

Outside of two silver-beaded screens, the fixtures were simple ones and quite easy to understand. Yet, his manipulations brought no results.

Long after night fell, he worked with the machine, and when done, he left with the knowledge that he was its master. The troublemaker turned out to be a broken wire; simple, yet it had stumped the Wronged Ones. The plainest things are often the hardest to see.

The other machine defied solution. Kac had told him that it, too, had been captured from the Beast People, who avowed that it generated rays beneficial to vegetable and animal life.

Gene learned definitely, though, that it was the cause of Earth's plight. The working of it was beyond him, but this much he knew. This, then, was the traitorous Beast People's way of exacting vengeance--by deliberately misinforming their captors as to the machine's purpose. Too, they had tampered with some vital part, making it impossible to shut off the power.

There was no guessing how long it had been sending that deadly ray through space, slowly disintegrating all metallic matter in its path. In a few years, maybe months, metal molecules would be drawn so far apart that every structure on Earth would collapse under its own weight.

He thought his brain would burst, so many troubles did it hold. To add to them, Kac brought word that the Beast People were massing for another attack. This would be the final battle, with no surcease till one or the other of the clashing forces fell in decisive defeat--and Gene knew with dread that it could only be the Wrong Ones who would go down.