Red Shards on Ceres by Raymond Z. Gallun

Author:Raymond Z. Gallun [Gallun, Raymond Z.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci Fi Short Story
Publisher: Thrilling Wonder Stories
Published: 1937-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

THE Cereans allowed the Earthmen to advance along the road which led across the cavern floor. Then they fell in behind them, like a military escort.

Finally the huge cave was crossed. A short tunnel was traversed. Now the humans found themselves in a second cavern, smaller than the first. The air throbbed with the smooth vibration of colossal, gleaming engines. Molten metal hissed and cascaded from vast retorts. Cereans were everywhere, engaged in intricate work which only a high order of intelligence could have directed. Each of them wore a harness richly decorated with the mysterious Red Shards.

They glanced briefly at the Earthmen. Their curiosity seemed small; but in their cold, lidless eyes there was a promise of death, or worse.

Ronnie and Dave Iverness walked behind Professor Farnsworth, who was close to the head of the column. Like the rest of the group, they could not converse, they could not even turn their eyes to look at each other. Their muscles could only do what the guiding force that held them prisoner directed.

But their minds worked unhampered. Dave Iverness was still trying to devise some plan for escape, though he could see how hopeless their position was. Even if the spell which had enslaved them could be broken, there were still the Cereans.

Ronnie was scared. What had happened was his fault, he was sure. If he had not found the shards, all would have been well. But this feeling of responsibility must have sharpened his wits. The kid was made of that kind of stuff.

Professor Farnsworth felt weak and faint after the exertion of the long descent. Specks of color flitted before his gaze. But the scientist in him persisted in trying to understand the inexplicable. He was still observing keenly everything that passed within his line of vision.

The party traversed the cave of machines, and entered a third cavern, smaller than the others, but still of gigantic size. It was thronged with hundreds of Cereans facing its center in ranks arranged like the spokes of a wheel. There was no artificial light here—only a sullen, reddish glow originating from something in an open space at the center of the packed ranks of monsters.

Slowly, down an open lane, the Terrestrials were forced to approach the thing. Then they saw what it was—some hellish form of life. It grew in a bowl-like hollow in the floor. It seemed at first glance to be only a semiliquid mass of phosphorescent pulp. But then one saw the countless fine, nerve like filaments that traversed it in every direction, and the glowing nuclei of the myriad, oversized cells that composed it. The effect of a close scrutiny was disturbing. Presently and inevitably one realized that here in this mass of alien protoplasm resided deific wisdom, and an intellect that never wearied.

The ghoulish pulp heaved and moved suggestively, thrusting up hungry pseudopods. From the latter, translucent, reddish flakes broke away and dropped to the floor around the pit. These were the Red Shards. They were

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.