The cosmic cloud
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The Cosmic Cloud
By Edmond Hamilton
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Weird Tales, November 1930.]
We three stared at the Chief across the metal desk for a moment before
I broke the silence.
"But it's incredible!" I exclaimed. "You must be mistaken, sir--nothing
in the galaxy could cause a thing like that!"
Jhul Din and Korus Kan nodded in agreement beside me, but the Chief of
the Interstellar Patrol shook his head.
"Yet something in the galaxy _is_ causing it, Dur Nal," he said. "I
tell you that this thing has taken thousands of interstellar ships in
the last few days without giving us any clue to its cause!"
Slowly I shook my head. "I don't doubt what you say, sir," I told him,
"but it seems impossible."
The four of us were sitting in a small metal-walled room through whose
window came the red light of mighty Betelgeuse, the sun upon one of
whose planets we were. The room was part of the Betelgeuse headquarters
of the Interstellar Patrol, and to it but hours before from the great
central headquarters at Canopus had come Lacq Larus, Chief of the
Patrol. His first act had been to summon our cruiser, which had been
patrolling off Betelgeuse, and he sat considering us now, a great
plant-man of Capella whose strange green fibrous body was tense and
whose green-pupiled eyes were unmoving as he faced us.
Jhul Din and Korus Kan and I sat across the desk from him. Jhul Din
was of Spica, a big powerful crustacean-man, his strong body armored
in black shell, his quick eyes protruding. Korus Kan, of Antares, was
typical of that star's races, his upright man-like body being of metal,
with lens-like eyes, a tireless body-machine in which his living brain
was cased. I, earth-man, completed the trio, and though the members of
the Interstellar Patrol are from every peopled sun no stranger three in
appearance could have been found in it.
Lacq Larus had been looking thoughtfully out of the window across the
teeming world of Betelgeusans outside, but turned and again faced
us. "I will explain to you the whole situation," he said, "for it's
imperative that you three understand it.
"As you know, our galaxy is a great swarm of suns floating in the vast
gulf of space, each with its own worlds and peoples. All, of course,
are ruled by the Federation of Suns, and all are policed by our own
Interstellar Patrol. Back and forth between these suns has gone the
galaxy's interstellar commerce for ages, countless thousands of great
space-ships plying from sun to sun without hindrance. But now at last
this great commerce of the galaxy is threatened with disaster!
"That threat lies in what we have always known as the cosmic cloud, a
vast cloud of utter darkness that lies, as you know, near the galaxy's
center. It has always lain there, a tremendous area of utter blackness
billions of miles in extent, and of it our scientists have been able
to say with certainty only that it is a tremendous region where the
light-vibrations are simply non-existent.
"More than that none could say, for no ship can venture into that
region without plunging into absolute lightlessness, so that none knows
what may lie inside. It is true that some years ago one of the galaxy's
scientists, Zat Zanat by name, ventured into the cloud to explore it in
a ship with some assistants, having some new theory concerning it which
he wished to test. But this scientist, one of the scientists of the sun
of Deneb, never emerged from it and without doubt met death in it as
many luckless ships in the past have done.
"None other has ever desired to penetrate into the great cloud and the
galaxy's interstellar ships have always routed their course far around
it, to escape the danger. But suddenly, a few days ago, hundreds of
ships passing near the great cloud in space were drawn abruptly into it
by some titanic and irresistible force. Their calls for help came to
our distance-phones and a score of cruisers of the Patrol were rushed
to the cloud's edge to investigate. But they found that the unfortunate
swarms of ships had vanished inside it by then, their calls ceasing
soon after, and there was no trace of what force had whirled them in!
"Instantly warnings were broadcast to all interstellar ships to
avoid the neighborhood of the cloud. The cruisers of the Patrol then
reconnoitered completely around it for more than a day, finding
nothing unusual. At last we were convinced that it was some great
ether-disturbance that had whirled the luckless ships inside, and
orders were given that the space-lanes around the cloud were again
safe. Yet the interstellar traffic had been streaming around it for
no more than a few hours when the thing was repeated, and more than a
thousand other great ships were drawn with terrific power and swiftness
into the great blackness.
"Again all traffic around the cloud was suspended and again a squadron
of Interstellar Patrol cruisers flashed to the scene. But they found
nothing more this time, no sign of what had caused the great disaster.
For two days we waited, though, but the cruisers there reported all
as usual. So with some misgivings we yielded to the clamor from the
galaxy's suns and allowed the ships again to route their course around
the great blackness. A day passed without mishap and we began to
breathe easier. And then the thing struck again, and again, but hours
ago, more than a thousand ships with all inside them were whirled into
the great cloud's darkness.
"This third disaster has caused something like a panic across the
galaxy. All realize now that interstellar traffic around the cloud
must be suspended until the thing is cleared up, and since the cloud
lies almost at the galaxy's center that means the crippling of our
interstellar commerce. Always, in time of great peril, the galaxy's
peoples have turned to the Interstellar Patrol to save them. They are
turning to us now to bring an end to this great threat, and we of the
Patrol must not fail chem."
Lacq Larus halted for a moment and as he did so the three of us were on
our feet.
"When do we start for the cloud, sir?" asked Jhul Din quietly.
The Chief smiled. "You have guessed it," he said. "I have summoned you
here to Betelgeuse, have come here from Canopus to meet you because it
is on you three that I now rely. You, Dur Nal and Korus Kan and Jhul
Din, saved all this galaxy once, when you dared outside our universe to
other universes to thwart those who would have loosed death on us.
"I am asking you, therefore, to dare again for the galaxy, to endeavor
to find what force it is that has whirled those thousands of ships into
the blackness of the cosmic cloud. I dare not send a number of cruisers
there, for all may be lost like the others. I do not even give you an
order to go, for it means certain death if that force manifests itself
again and draws you into the cloud. But if you can explore around its
edges you may be able with your recording-instruments to find out what
great ether-disturbance or unknown force it is that has caused these
terrible calamities, may save the galaxy from greater ones. I say
again though that it is not an order. If you, Dur Nal, and your two
lieutenants wish to go in your cruiser it is well, but if you do not
wish to you need not. What say you?"
He was looking at me fixedly, but my eyes were on the time-dial on my
wrist.
"We should reach the cloud's edge within ten hours," was all I said.
* * * * *
Minutes later our cruiser was slanting up at mounting speed from that
swarming world of Betelgeusans, our crew rushing about its throbbing
generators and Korus Kan and Jhul Din and I in its pilot room. With
Korus Kan at the wheel the long ship rose through the glare of the
great crimson sun and threaded through the masses of interstellar
shipping until it was speeding through the black gloom of space, with
all about us the shining hosts of the galaxy's suns.
Far ahead there stood out against the farther stars what seemed a small
black spot in the galaxy's star-swarm. It was, we knew, the colossal
cosmic cloud of darkness absolute into which thousands of ships had
been drawn to some strange fate, and whose secret, if secret there
were, we must discover. With the cruiser's hull quivering slightly and
with the generators beneath talking louder we hurtled at thousands of
light-speeds across the galaxy toward that lightless region.
Hour upon hour our cruiser flew like a thing of thought through the
vast spaces toward the cloud. At the highest speed safe to use inside
the galaxy we were traveling, and as we drew nearer the cloud's edge
our space-chart showed that no other ships were in space about us now,
all avoiding the cloud's strange menace. But our own craft hurtled
steadily on, and steadily the vast region of blackness grew greater in
the firmament before us.
In the cruiser's instrument room Jhul Din and I prepared the intricate
recording-instruments on which the success of our venture depended.
These were mechanisms connected to various indicators outside the
hull, which recorded all ether-currents and drifts and disturbances
around the ship, all electrical or radioactive or other forces, and all
conditions of temperature and pressure.
If it was really some unheard-of and recurring force or some tremendous
ether-disturbance that had swept the luckless ships into the cloud, we
should be able to determine its nature and source with these aids.
From the instrument room's window Jhul Din and I watched the great
cloud largen as we neared it. It seemed soon like a colossal black
curtain across the universe, blotting half the galaxy's suns from
sight, stretching across billions of miles. What mysteries did that
vast and enigmatic region of lightlessness contain?
At last Korus Kan's voice came down through the order-phone from the
pilot room. "We're within two million miles of the cloud's edge," he
reported. "What orders?"
"Turn right and coast at a hundred light-speeds along its edge," I told
him. "Jhul Din and I will start our observations, and I'll let you know
when to change course or speed."
He assented briefly, and in the next moment we saw through the
window that the gigantic black curtain of the cloud was sliding
sidewise as our cruiser turned in space to coast along its edge. At
once Jhul Din and I began our work. Bending over the dials of the
recording-instruments, the Spican and I made quick readings as the ship
moved on.
All ether-conditions outside the cruiser seemed normal, however, with
no strong currents or maelstroms anywhere near us. Nor were our other
instruments more enlightening, for none registered any unusual force.
For more than an hour, while Korus Kan held the cruiser in a steady
course along the cloud's edge, we kept to our watch of the dials, but
with no greater result.
I turned from the instruments to the window, shaking my head. "I'm
afraid it's useless, Jhul Din," I said. "It never was but a slender
chance that we might find anything this way, and I'm afraid it has
failed."
He looked thoughtfully with me toward the vast black wall of darkness.
"Yet it's our one chance to learn anything," he said. "It may be that
on the cloud's other side we could discover something."
"We'll have to try it, but I don't place much faith in it," I told him.
"Whatever it is about the cloud has caused those----"
With stunning force I was hurled slant-wise across the instrument room
to strike in one of its corners, Jhul Din flung with me. The next
instant saw the room's walls spinning madly around us and rattling