Chapter V

He followed Zor Ala out of the central hut and across to a smaller one. At Zor Ala's knock, a voice called, "Come in."

As they entered, Gordo Lanson looked searchingly at the two men, then through the open door beyond them. His expression became concerned.

"What happened to your companions?" he asked. "You ran into trouble?"

Malherne laughed rather embarrassedly. "I don't know about the others," he said. "But I stupidly picked a fight with a whole army of Kralons, and ended up back here, right where I started."

The stocky physicist grimaced. "Well, I'm afraid your companions will have to look out for themselves," he said. "You certainly can't help them by doing something noble and frantic."

"That's what I've told him," said Zor Ala, "and I think he is reluctantly in agreement."

Then he continued, "Malherne is an engineer, Gordo, and I thought perhaps it might be wise to acquaint him with the rudiments of your theory on Time Flux, and to give him an idea of what we have in mind."

Lanson nodded, shuffling the heap of crude parchmentlike sheets in front of him into a stack on the edge of the desk. He motioned toward one of the rough benches. Zor Ala and Malherne seated themselves, then waited for Lanson to speak.

"As an introduction," the psysicist began, "are you familiar with the theory of Teleology?"

"Only that it has something to do with the future affecting the past," said Malherne.

"That is a broad statement of its general implication," Lanson agreed. "And this predicament in which we find ourselves makes it necessary for us to attempt a use of ramifications of that theory. Put it this way," he continued. "If you were positive through an esoteric source of knowledge that a certain event definitely was to happen in the future, would it not affect your reactions to existing environment? Would it not influence your actions in working toward a goal? Would it not thus aid in the fulfillment of that occurrence?"

"You mean that the knowledge would give me courage and confidence to accomplish what I knew would eventually come to pass?" asked Malherne.

"That is one way of putting it," said Lanson. "But it can be stated a trifle more scientifically. Let us say rather that the Teleomagnetic effect of such an occurrence induces a tendency in the past to evolve toward such an event."

"I think I have it so far," said Malherne, "but it's getting shaky!"

Lanson laughed. "I'll admit it's a little like the perplexity of the 'Flatlander,'" he said, "who was trying to find a way out of a circle which had been drawn around him. He proceeded to investigate his barrier through every dimensional direction known to Flatlanders, which of course were limited to two. He utilized movement through both of those as he followed around the interior of his barrier to the point where he had started.

"Being a very observant and discerning Flatlander, he finally realized he was getting exactly nowhere in his two-dimensional attempts to escape a three-dimensional barrier." Lanson paused, grinned.

"We humans are faced with a somewhat similar difficulty in trying to solve a multi-dimensional problem with three-dimensional thinking. However, there is some precedence for hoping that we can surmount the obstacle. Remember that mankind, without ever being able to see the interior of an atom, was able to divine the number and function of its component parts, and was finally successful in inducing both fission and fusion of unstable atoms."

Malherne nodded agreement. "But where does this lead us?" he asked rather impatiently. "How is this discussion of obscure theory going to help us escape from the world of the past, back into our own ages?"

Gordo Lanson nodded toward the stack of parchment sheets on the desk, covered with his meticulous figures. "That is an attempt," he said, "to formulate a method for determining the amount of Teleomagnetic energy or influence required to bring about a given distortion in the Time-flux."

Malherne considered this for a moment. "Oh. I think I'm beginning to see," he said. "You are attempting to compute the amount of energy required to return us to the various ages from which we were pulled by the Kralon's Time Trap."

"Something of that sort," nodded Gordo Lanson.

"To answer a question you are undoubtedly thinking," interjected Zor Ala. "We have found, by laboriously gleaning bits of knowledge from the Kralons, the location of the equipment which induces the Teleomagnetic or gravitic energy which powers the Time Trap."

"Where is it?" Malherne asked.

"In one of the laboratory rooms off the main corridor in the Hive," returned Zor Ala. "The Time Net itself is supported on pylons situated outside the Hive building immediately adjoining the Time-Trap generator room."

"What plan do you have in mind?" asked Malherne eagerly.

"Not a fully-formulated one at all," returned Zor Ala. "But each of us is doing whatever he can to further his knowledge of the Kralon's equipment, and all of us are trying to prepare to take advantage of any opportunity which may arise in the future."

"But," objected Malherne, "even the Kralons apparently can't control the Time sector from which they get their victims. By their own admission, they are trying to gain knowledge by picking humans from as far in the future as possible. But apparently they have been only partially successful, for some of the people they have obtained are from a Time preceding mine. It seems that Gordo Lanson and Dar Mikol and you are three of the few from a period further in the future than my time."

Gordo Lanson nodded. "That is the reason for all this," he said, gesturing toward the stack of sheets on the desk. "I am attempting to formulate a method of controlling the point from which or to which the Time Trap gleans or delivers its victims. Apparently the Kralons have never accomplished that, but I think we can succeed in doing what they could not."

"May the Lord grant that to be true!" said Malherne fervently.

"I regret," said Zor Ala, "that Randall felt it necessary to make his foolhardy attempt to invade the Hive, but of course I understand and sympathize with his reasons.

"He feels entirely responsible for the passengers of the Diamvator, and considers himself obliged to attempt their rescue. However, I am very much afraid that his attempt will be ill-fated."

Lanson nodded. "The Kralons are very intelligent," he said. "And they will have no scruples whatsoever in dealing with troublesome humans. They resent the fact that their own race is to vanish from the surface of the globe in one phase of the future, and that man has supplanted them as the intelligent, governing form of life. And they intend to do something about it!"

Malherne nodded impatiently. "Yes," he said, "but what can we do now? What can we do to help Randall and the rest of my companions? And how can we prepare to use Lanson's theories concerning the Time Trap?"

Both Zor Ala and Gordo Lanson regarded the engineer understandingly. They realized his fear concerning his companions, and sympathized with his frustration in being unable to help them.

The physicist nodded toward the pile of sheets on the desk. "If you remember your calculus," he said, "you could be of great help to us by checking my figures."

Malherne looked uncertainly toward the desk. "I'll do what I can," he said.

* * * * *

When Randall and McClellan threw their combined weights against the panel in the Hive corridor, they had no idea what lay beyond.

The metal sheet bulged, then popped from its guides, and Randall sprawled through the opening, with McClellan atop him.

They found themselves in a room which was shining white from ceiling to floor. In the middle of the room was a flat white table over which several Kralons were absorbed.

Gathered around the central figures were a dozen or more Kralons, apparently spectators. And on the table lay something which Randall knew, from its outlines, had once been human.

Randall looked around for a weapon. A neat stack in one corner of the room caught his eye. There were a dozen or more foot-long metal bus-bars or ingots, apparently spares for fusing electrical circuits.

McClellan followed his glance. Simultaneously both men dove for the bars, each arming himself with one of the twenty-pound metal ingots.

Meanwhile, the room was in a furor. The metallic clack of Kralon conversation sounded furiously, and huge insect figures were converging from all sides.

"Back to back," said Randall tersely, "and let 'em have it!"

The first Kralon who approached the Australian put up a protective foreleg, but the heavy ingot brushed it aside like a matchstick, and crushed the Kralon's head to a pulp. It went down twitching, and the next insect had to scramble over the body to reach McClellan.

Meanwhile, Randall was flailing at two Kralons which were trying to reach him with their vicious claws. Whenever one got in the way, the heavy bar cracked the chitinous shell like that of a crab, and both Kralons drew back, nursing their injuries.

Randall spoke tersely over his shoulder. "Edge over toward the stack of bus-bars," he told McClellan.

Back to back, still flailing with the heavy metal ingots, they worked their way to the corner of the room.

"Use them as missiles," said Randall briefly. "Whenever one of the things starts for us, let him have it with an ingot!"

McClellan did, and, with great effect. The heavy metal bars, flying end-over-end toward attacking Kralons, soon convinced the huge insects that another method of attack should be formulated, and the remaining able individuals withdrew to an adjoining room.

Seizing this opportunity, Randall made sure that there was no life left in the form on the operating table, then he and McClellan dashed from the room, back into the main corridor.

A panel at their left opened suddenly, and a Kralon stepped into the corridor.

Randall sent his ingot flying end-over-end toward the huge insect. It was a perfect hit, and the Kralon went down, limbs twitching feebly.

"In here!" said Randall tersely, and McClellan followed him through the opening. They found themselves in a high-domed room filled with huge generators and other elaborate electrical equipment. Massive four-inch conduits led from the generators to a main cable, which in turn left the building through a sleeved opening in the wall.

Through a large window across the room, Randall saw the Time Net on which they had first made their appearance into this strange world. It was stretched like an acrobats' net between four pylons just outside the building. The supporting pylons extended on above the net, forming four towers, between the crests of which was supported a complex skein of intermeshing heavy metallic strands with spherical nodules studding their length every few feet.

Randall nodded toward the massive equipment. "The mechanism for the Time Trap," he said.

McClellan raised his metal ingot suggestively.

Randall shook his head. "Not yet," he said. "We might have use for it." Then he noticed that the generators were operating, and what appeared to be a huge rectifier was humming with a deep vibrant moan, violet light flashing in a dozen huge tubes which reached almost from ceiling to floor.

He nudged McClellan. "It's running," he said. "The Kralons must leave it in operation all the time in their effort to catch victims from the future."