The Chessmen of Mars
upturned furrows caught her feet--again she stumbled and this time went
down, and as she scrambled to rise again a heavy body fell upon her and
seized her arms. A moment later she was surrounded and dragged to her
feet and as she looked around she saw Ghek crawling to his prostrate
rykor. A moment later he advanced to her side.
The hideous face, incapable of registering emotion, gave no clue to
what was passing in the enormous brain. Was he nursing thoughts of
anger, of hate, of revenge? Tara of Helium could not guess, nor did she
care. The worst had happened. She had tried to escape and she had
failed. There would never be another opportunity.
"Come!" said Ghek. "We will return to the tower." The deadly monotone
of his voice was unbroken. It was worse than anger, for it revealed
nothing of his intentions. It but increased her horror of these great
brains that were beyond the possibility of human emotions.
And so she was dragged back to her prison in the tower and Ghek took up
his vigil again, squatting by the doorway, but now he carried a naked
sword in his hand and did not quit his rykor, only to change to another
that he had brought to him when the first gave indications of
weariness. The girl sat looking at him. He had not been unkind to her,
but she felt no sense of gratitude, nor, on the other hand, any sense
of hatred. The brains, incapable themselves of any of the finer
sentiments, awoke none in her. She could not feel gratitude, or
affection, or hatred of them. There was only the same unceasing sense
of horror in their presence. She had heard great scientists discuss the
future of the red race and she recalled that some had maintained that
eventually the brain would entirely dominate the man. There would be no
more instinctive acts or emotions, nothing would be done on impulse;
but on the contrary reason would direct our every act. The propounder
of the theory regretted that he might never enjoy the blessings of such
a state, which, he argued, would result in the ideal life for mankind.
Tara of Helium wished with all her heart that this learned scientist
might be here to experience to the full the practical results of the
fulfillment of his prophecy. Between the purely physical rykor and the
purely mental kaldane there was little choice; but in the happy medium
of normal, and imperfect man, as she knew him, lay the most desirable
state of existence. It would have been a splendid object lesson, she
thought, to all those idealists who seek mass perfection in any phase
of human endeavor, since here they might discover the truth that
absolute perfection is as little to be desired as is its antithesis.
Gloomy were the thoughts that filled the mind of Tara of Helium as she
awaited the summons from Luud--the summons that could mean for her but
one thing; death. She guessed why he had sent for her and she knew that
she must find the means for self-destruction before the night was over;
but still she clung to hope and to life. She would not give up until
there was no other way. She startled Ghek once by exclaiming aloud,
almost fiercely: "I still live!"
"What do you mean?" asked the kaldane.
"I mean just what I say," she replied. "I still live and while I live I
may still find a way. Dead, there is no hope."
"Find a way to what?" he asked.
"To life and liberty and mine own people," she responded.
"None who enters Bantoom ever leaves," he droned.
She did not reply and after a time he spoke again. "Sing to me," he
said.
It was while she was singing that four warriors came to take her to
Luud. They told Ghek that he was to remain where he was.
"Why?" asked Ghek.
"You have displeased Luud," replied one of the warriors.
"How?" demanded Ghek.
"You have demonstrated a lack of uncontaminated reasoning power. You
have permitted sentiment to influence you, thus demonstrating that you
are a defective. You know the fate of defectives."
"I know the fate of defectives, but I am no defective," insisted Ghek.
"You permitted the strange noises which issue from her throat to please
and soothe you, knowing well that their origin and purpose had nothing
whatever to do with logic or the powers of reason. This in itself
constitutes an unimpeachable indictment of weakness. Then, influenced
doubtless by an illogical feeling of sentiment, you permitted her to
walk abroad in the fields to a place where she was able to make an
almost successful attempt to escape. Your own reasoning power, were it
not defective, would convince you that you are unfit. The natural, and
reasonable, consequence is destruction. Therefore you will be destroyed
in such a way that the example will be beneficial to all other kaldanes
of the swarm of Luud. In the meantime you will remain where you are."
"You are right," said Ghek. "I will remain here until Luud sees fit to
destroy me in the most reasonable manner."
Tara of Helium shot a look of amazement at him as they led her from the
chamber. Over her shoulder she called back to him: "Remember, Ghek, you
still live!" Then they led her along the interminable tunnels to where
Luud awaited her.
When she was conducted into his presence he was squatting in a corner
of the chamber upon his six spidery legs. Near the opposite wall lay
his rykor, its beautiful form trapped in gorgeous harness--a dead thing
without a guiding kaldane. Luud dismissed the warriors who had
accompanied the prisoner. Then he sat with his terrible eyes fixed upon
her and without speaking for some time. Tara of Helium could but wait.
What was to come she could only guess. When it came would be
sufficiently the time to meet it. There was no necessity for
anticipating the end. Presently Luud spoke.
"You think to escape," he said, in the deadly, expressionless monotone
of his kind--the only possible result of orally expressing reason
uninfluenced by sentiment. "You will not escape. You are merely the
embodiment of two imperfect things--an imperfect brain and an imperfect
body. The two cannot exist together in perfection. There you see a
perfect body." He pointed toward the rykor. "It has no brain. Here,"
and he raised one of his chelae to his head, "is the perfect brain. It
needs no body to function perfectly and properly as a brain. You would
pit your feeble intellect against mine! Even now you are planning to
slay me. If you are thwarted in that you expect to slay yourself. You
will learn the power of mind over matter. I am the mind. You are the
matter. What brain you have is too weak and ill-developed to deserve
the name of brain. You have permitted it to be weakened by impulsive
acts dictated by sentiment. It has no value. It has practically no
control over your existence. You will not kill me. You will not kill
yourself. When I am through with you you shall be killed if it seems
the logical thing to do. You have no conception of the possibilities
for power which lie in a perfectly developed brain. Look at that rykor.
He has no brain. He can move but slightly of his own volition. An
inherent mechanical instinct that we have permitted to remain in him
allows him to carry food to his mouth; but he could not find food for
himself. We have to place it within his reach and always in the same
place. Should we put food at his feet and leave him alone he would
starve to death. But now watch what a real brain may accomplish."
He turned his eyes upon the rykor and squatted there glaring at the
insensate thing. Presently, to the girl's horror, the headless body
moved. It rose slowly to its feet and crossed the room to Luud; it
stooped and took the hideous head in its hands; it raised the head and
set it on its shoulders.
"What chance have you against such power?" asked Luud. "As I did with
the rykor so can I do with you."
Tara of Helium made no reply. Evidently no vocal reply was necessary.
"You doubt my ability!" stated Luud, which was precisely the fact,
though the girl had only thought it--she had not said it.
Luud crossed the room and lay down. Then he detached himself from the
body and crawled across the floor until he stood directly in front of
the circular opening through which she had seen him emerge the day that
she had first been brought to his presence. He stopped there and
fastened his terrible eyes upon her. He did not speak, but his eyes
seemed to be boring straight to the center of her brain. She felt an
almost irresistible force urging her toward the kaldane. She fought to
resist it; she tried to turn away her eyes, but she could not. They
were held as in horrid fascination upon the glittering, lidless orbs of
the great brain that faced her. Slowly, every step a painful struggle
of resistance, she moved toward the horrific monster. She tried to cry
aloud in an effort to awaken her numbing faculties, but no sound passed
her lips. If those eyes would but turn away, just for an instant, she
felt that she might regain the power to control her steps; but the eyes
never left hers. They seemed but to burn deeper and deeper, gathering
up every vestige of control of her entire nervous system.
As she approached the thing it backed slowly away upon its spider legs.
She noticed that its chelae waved slowly to and fro before it as it
backed, backed, backed, through the round aperture in the wall. Must
she follow it there, too? What new and nameless horror lay concealed in
that hidden chamber? No! she would not do it. Yet before she reached
the wall she found herself down and crawling upon her hands and knees
straight toward the hole from which the two eyes still clung to hers.
At the very threshold of the opening she made a last, heroic stand,
battling against the force that drew her on; but in the end she
succumbed. With a gasp that ended in a sob Tara of Helium passed
through the aperture into the chamber beyond.
The opening was but barely large enough to admit her. Upon the opposite
side she found herself in a small chamber. Before her squatted Luud.
Against the opposite wall lay a large and beautiful male rykor. He was
without harness or other trappings.
"You see now," said Luud, "the futility of revolt."
The words seemed to release her momentarily from the spell. Quickly she
turned away her eyes.
"Look at me!" commanded Luud.
Tara of Helium kept her eyes averted. She felt a new strength, or at
least a diminution of the creature's power over her. Had she stumbled
upon the secret of its uncanny domination over her will? She dared not
hope. With eyes averted she turned toward the aperture through which
those baleful eyes had drawn her. Again Luud commanded her to stop, but
the voice alone lacked all authority to influence her. It was not like
the eyes. She heard the creature whistle and knew that it was summoning
assistance, but because she did not dare look toward it she did not see
it turn and concentrate its gaze upon the great, headless body lying by
the further wall.
The girl was still slightly under the spell of the creature's
influence--she had not regained full and independent domination of her
powers. She moved as one in the throes of some hideous
nightmare--slowly, painfully, as though each limb was hampered by a
great weight, or as she were dragging her body through a viscous fluid.
The aperture was close, ah, so close, yet, struggle as she would, she
seemed to be making no appreciable progress toward it.
Behind her, urged on by the malevolent power of the great brain, the
headless body crawled upon all-fours toward her. At last she had
reached the aperture. Something seemed to tell her that once beyond it
the domination of the kaldane would be broken. She was almost through
into the adjoining chamber when she felt a heavy hand close upon her
ankle. The rykor had reached forth and seized her, and though she