Emperor of Mars: Clayton Drew Book 1 by John Russell Fearn

Author:John Russell Fearn [Fearn, John Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781473209732
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2015-06-30T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

THE OPERATION

Clay, returned to consciousness to the sound of clinking instruments and the glow of overhead lamps which cast no shadow. He moved stiffly, unaccustomedly, since he was completely unused to the body his brain was occupying. With the help of one of the surgeons he sat up. The man—and his colleague—were both looking anxious.

“Your Excellency feels little the worse?” asked the man supporting Clay.

“Just woozy,” he answered. “I sort of expected I’d be laid out for weeks whilst I recovered from the effects.”

“Our surgery is instantaneous,” the specialist answered. “Special restoratives make good all the loss of the operation. There is no reason why you cannot walk out of here in almost perfect health.”

“Almost,” Clay repeated, in a vocal organs so deep he did not recognise them.

“Assimilation takes times,” the surgeon explained. “You now have the body of Lexas: it will be some little while before we—and you—are able to judge the results. We have connected the various ganglia of your brain to Lexas’ nervous system. It is too early to predict the result.”

“I’m not doing this just out of fun,” Clay said. “I only want this body long enough to finish the job I have in mind—then I’m going back to my own flesh and blood. Incidentally, what became of ‘me’?” he asked, looking about him.

“Your body, without the brain, has been safely put away in suspended animation,” the surgeon answered. “In a tube approximating absolute zero, at which no molecular activity—and consequently decay—can exist.”

“And Lexas’ brain?”

The surgeon nodded towards a huge sealed globe nearby. Clay gave a little shudder at the vision of the perfect brain floating in deep blue preservative.

“I don’t suppose he likes the situation a bit,” he commented; then as the straps were unbuckled from him he slid from the operating table and tested his enormous limbs and body. They felt heavy, because they were natural to the gravity of the planet, but otherwise he was in no way incommoded.

Moving experimentally he looked across to where Thalia was seated. She looked tired and anxious, jar in one hand and guns in the other. Near to her, their faces grim, were the two guards who had not dared in the interval to make a move. They looked at Clay fixedly as he approached, obviously trying to fathom whether he was really Clay or their leader.

When he got close to the girl and met the look in her green eyes Clay hesitated. He was conscious for the first time of something wrong. It took him a moment or two to realise what it was: then he knew. She no longer had any attraction for him!

“It’s ridiculous!” he whispered, half to himself, puzzled.

“Clay, is it you?” Thalia rose to her feet and stood gazing up into his eight feet of height. “Though I watched the operation performed I can’t believe it somehow.”

“Yes—it’s me—Clay. At least I think so …”

Clay stopped again, frowning with muscles which felt taut and uncomfortable. This girl, who before the operation had

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