50 in 50 by Harry Harrison

Author:Harry Harrison [Harrison, Harry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, General, Short Stories, Science Fiction; American
ISBN: 0312877900
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2002-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

He kicked at one of the bent discs, not unlike a microwave aerial. "That was the first clue. They have ultrasonic projectors in the forest, broadcasting on a wavelength that is inaudible, but causes a feeling of tension and uneasiness in most animals. That was the ghostly aura that kept people away from this plateau most of the time." He whistled a signal for the herd to assemble. "Animals, as well as men, will move away from the source, and they used it to chase some of the nastier wildlife towards us. When it didn't work and we came back, they sent in the more powerful stuff. Look at your shoes—and at this lantern."

Haydin gasped. The eyelets had vanished from his boots, and ragged pieces of lace hung from the torn openings. The lantern, like the metal equipment of the lost expedition, was squeezed and bent out of shape.

"Magnostriction," Bron said. "They were projecting a contracting and expanding magnetic field of an incredible number of gauss. The technique is used in factories for shaping metal, and it works just as well in the field. That, and these ultrasonic projectors to finish the job. Even a normal scan radar will give you a burn if you stand too close to it, and some ultrasonic wavelengths can turn water to vapor and explode organic material. That's what they did to your people who camped here. Swept in suddenly and caught them in the tents surrounded by their own equipment, which exploded and crunched and helped to wipe them out. Now let's get going."

"I doTi't understand what this means. I—"

"Later. We have to catch the one that got away."

On the side of the clearing where the machine had disappeared, they found a ragged length of blapk plastic. "Part of the skirt from the hovercraft.” Bron said. "Confines the air and gives more lift. We'll follow them with this." He held out the fabric to Queeny and Jasmine and the other pigs that pressed up. "As you know, dogs track by odor that hangs in the air, and pigs have just as good noses—or better. In fact, hunting pigs were used in England for years, and pigs are also trained to smell out truffles. There they go!"

Grunting and squealing, the leaders started away into the darkness. The two men stumbled after them, the rest of the pigs following. After a few yards, Haydin had to stop and bind his shoes together with strips from his handkerchief before he could go on. He held Bron's belt, and Bron had his fingers hooked into the thick bristles that formed a crest on Curly's spine, and in this way they pushed through the forest. The hovercraft had to go through open country, or their nightmare run would have been impossible.

When a darker mass of mountains loomed ahead, Bron whistled the herd to him. "Stay," he ordered. "Stay with Queeny. Curly, Moe, and Jasmine—with me."

They went more slowly now, until the grassland died away in a broken scree of rock at the foot of a nearly vertical cliff.

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