The Little Monsters Come by Ray Cummings

Author:Ray Cummings [Cummings, Ray]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction
Published: 1948-11-01T08:00:00+00:00

V

A dozen or more of the Orana days and nights went by. Nona often came to talk with the giant. Then she brought a young Orite with her named Loto. He seemed about her own age. He spoke English. He was, Nona said, studying to be a scientist. From him and Nona, Nixon now learned many details of the little asteroid world. The rotation of Orana on its axis gave an alternate daylight and darkness of about six hours each. There was about the same gravity as Earth, because the asteroid was so extremely dense. And the moon here was a smaller twin of Orana, one revolving around the other.

The days were mostly sunlit, sometimes with swirls of orange and purple clouds. There was no rain; the rain fell only during the infrequent storms. The nights were opalescent moonlight; then with a period when the moon-twin had moved into the hours of the day, and showed only as a dull crescent in the sunlight.

Through the glowing purple bars, Nixon could see the miniature Orite world busy with its routine of life. The cairn-mound of Frane’s laboratory was only a few yards distant along the cliff. Day and night its tiny oval windows gleamed with the violet radiance.

Still Nixon had no idea of why he had been brought here. He had demanded it of Nona and Loto, but always they avoided it. Nona looked frightened, and the youthful Loto was gravely solemn. To say the least, their look was anything but reassuring. Then one day, they told him.

“You are a giant,” Nona said. “Originally my father wanted to study the growth-factors of larger creatures. On our first visit to your Earth, several of them were brought here. They were very young, not too terribly big then to be caught and brought here. But they grew so fast.”

Again that queer look was on her face as she added, “They are all dead now, except one. It is, I think, what you call a panther. It is caged in a cave—” She gestured. “Out there in a nearby valley—a cave, with the purple barrage like this across the entrance.”

“Studying the growth of larger creatures,” Nixon echoed. “And now these animals are all dead but one! What you’re trying to tell me—your father and Tork experimented on them. Is that it?”

“In the interest of science,” Loto said hastily. “That is done on your Earth, isn’t it?”

And then they had realized that, if the growth-drug Frane was after was to be effective on the human Orites, a human giant from Earth would be the best on which to experiment. So Tork had been sent to get one.

Nixon stared. “Keep me here, telling me I’ll not be harmed until you’re ready to vivisect me!”

“No! No—” the Orite girl cried vehemently. “Not that! Never! Father has promised it!”

“He has found that his work does not need it,” Loto said earnestly. “Believe us, that is true. The panther has not yet been used. Perhaps it never will be. And Frane does not need you.

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