The Invincible

ROHAN’S GROUP

The column Rohan led consisted of two big energo-robots, four caterpillar-track vehicles and one small amphibious car. The latter was occupied by Rohan, the driver Jarg, and Terner, the mate. They followed the order prescribed by alarm procedure three: an unmanned robot rolled at the head of the column, followed by Rohan’s amphibian scouter; then came the four crosscountry vehicles, with a crew of two men each. The second energo-robot brought up the rear. Both energo-robots extended a protective force field over the entire column.

Rohan had decided to take this side trip when he discovered traces of Regnar’s group. “Electro-hounds” — as the olfactometers were commonly called — had picked up the track of the four lost men. Unless they were found soon, they would doubtlessly wander through the rocky labyrinth like helpless children and die of hunger and thirst.

The group drove the first few miles along the track sniffed out by the electro-hounds. At the entrance of one of the many wide canyons that they passed in their search, the men discovered footprints in the mud of a small, almost dried-up riverbed. Three footprints could be clearly made out; they had been excellently preserved in the soft ground that had lost very little moisture that day. There was another imprint, but its outlines had grown quite indistinct: it had been nearly erased by the water that trickled gently around and over the stones. These tracks were unmistakable. They were made by the heavy shoes of Regnar’s crew. The trail led into the ravine. They followed it for a short distance, but it disappeared as soon as the ground became rocky again. Rohan did not feel discouraged, for he noticed that the canyon walls sloped steeper and steeper as they advanced. It was most unlikely that Regnar’s men, who were paralyzed by amnesia, would have tried to climb up this sharp incline. Rohan was confident he would find the lost men very shortly. He comforted himself with the thought that only the winding road had prevented him from spotting them so far. After a short consultation, the group continued on its way until they came upon an area characterized by strange dense metal bushes that grew on both sides of the steep canyon walls. The odd-looking “plants” resembled compact brushes, reaching a height of nearly five feet. They sprouted out of narrow rocky crevices filled with black oozing clay. At first they were scattered singly here and there, then became a dense brush that covered both slopes of the ravine almost down to the bottom of the valley with a rusty, bristling matting. Far below an invisible water vein trickled between huge boulders.

Occasionally, the black mouths of dark caverns gaped from between the “bushes.” Narrow rivulets were dribbling from some, while others seemed dry. Rohan’s men tried to glance inside several of the caves that were located fairly close to the ground. They used searchlights to illuminate the black holes. In one of the grottoes they found a considerable amount of tiny triangular crystals, partially submerged in the water that had dripped down off the rocky vault. Rohan gathered up a handful and put them in his pocket. They drove about half a mile into the gorge; the terrain ascended at an ever-sharpening angle. So far the caterpillar chains of the vehicles had done an excellent job in climbing, and when the search party once more found footprints in two places in the dried mud of the brook, they were convinced they were on the right track. As they rounded another bend in the road, radio contact with the supercopter began to fade, but Rohan ascribed this to the screening effect of the metal bushes. On either side of the gorge, which measured twelve yards wide at the base and about twenty at the upper rim, sheer rocky precipices jutted out, covered by the black wiry tangle of bushes. The plants were so numerous that they now formed one uninterrupted thicket that stretched all the way up to the top of the mountain ridge.

The vehicles passed through two wide rocky gateways. This took quite some time, for the technicians had to be very precise when they diminished the radius of the force field. They wanted to avoid touching those rocks that appeared weatherworn and crumbly. Any contact between the force field and one of the pillars of rock might result in a landslide. The men were less concerned about their own safety than that of the missing colleagues, who could be injured or killed by falling stones and boulders.

About an hour had passed since radio contact had broken off, when suddenly bolts of lightning flashed on the videoscreen of the magnetometers. The direction finder apparently was out of order, for when they tried to locate the origin of these impulses they got simultaneous readings from all points of the compass. Only with the help of ampere meters and polarizers did they discover that the growth on the slopes was causing the fluctuation of the magnetic field. Now the men became aware that the thicket looked different in this part of the ravine: no longer did it glisten in a rusty red; and the bushes were taller, bigger and somehow more intensely black, because of strange nodules that adhered to their wiry branches. Rohan did not allow them to be examined more closely; he did not wish to risk opening the protective field.

They drove on faster now, and the magnetometers and peak volt meters indicated constantly changing activity. Whenever the men glanced up, they noticed the air trembling above the black thicket as if it had been heated up tremendously. Beyond the second rocky gate, thin clouds rose from the black metallic tangle like drifting smoke. However, all this was too far away and even binoculars did not reveal the consistency of the cloud. Jarg, who had the eyes of an eagle, maintained that the cloud of smoke looked like a swarm of tiny insects.

Rohan was growing restless. The trip had already lasted longer than he had intended, and the end of the canyon labyrinth was not yet in sight. They were making better time now; the stone rubble in their path gradually disappeared. The stream itself was hidden deep under the rocks; its soft gurgling could be heard only when the vehicles stopped for a moment.

Behind the next turn loomed up a gorge much narrower than the previous ones. On the basis of their measurements, the technicians declared it would be impossible to pass through with the force field switched on. They explained that the variety of shapes a force field could assume was limited to variants of a revolving body such as a sphere, an ellipsoid’or an hyperboloid. Up to this point they had managed to squeeze through the narrow straits of the ravine by deforming their force field to a flattened-out stratostat, which was, of course, invisible.

Such maneuvering would be impossible now. Rohan consulted with Tomman, the physicist, and two field engineers. They decided to risk a short partial suspension of the force field. The first to pass the straits would be the unmanned robot with its energy field temporarily out of action. Once on the other side of the rocky gate, it would switch on immediately its emitter and so create once more a reliable shield in front. The men in the four big vehicles and Rohan’s small scouter would only lack overhead protection during their passage through the gorge. The energo-robot at the rear was to connect its shield with its counterpart in front the instant it emerged from the gate, thus reestablishing the uninterrupted force field.

Everything went according to plan, and the last big truck was just passing between the two rock pillars when a strange shock rent the air — not a sound but a vibration, as if somewhere nearby a huge boulder had fallen to the ground. The stubbly walls of the gully began to steam; a black cloud emerged from them, slowly creeping at first, but then rushing with unbelievable speed toward the column.

Rohan had let the trucks pass first and he was waiting his turn in his amphibian scouter; suddenly he saw black swaths break from the slopes of the gully, and a gigantic fiery glow appeared at the head of the column, where the front robot (which had already emerged from the rocky gate) had activated the force field. Wherever the attacking cloud masses touched the field they burned brightly. But many of them managed to rise above the flames and fell upon the vehicles.

Rohan screamed at Jarg to switch on the rear energo-robot’s field and connect it with the front, for the potential danger of a landslide was immaterial now. Jarg tried, but he could not switch on the force field. As the chief engineer stated later, the electronic tubes of the apparatus were probably overheated. Had Jarg continued sending current impulses for a few more seconds, the field would undoubtedly have ‘turned on.’ Instead, Jarg lost his head and jumped out of the vehicle. Rohan had barely managed to grab his sleeve when Jarg tore himself away and, mad with fear, fled down the ravine. Rohan rushed over to the vehicle, but it was too late.

The men who had been taken by surprise inside their vehicles jumped out and ran off in all directions, their figures barely recognizable behind the seething clouds. This sight was so incredible that Rohan froze on the spot. At this point it was senseless to reestablish the force field, for he would have killed the whole crew: the men were even climbing up the slopes, as if trying to find refuge in the metal thicket. Rohan remained standing, motionless in the deserted vehicle, waiting for the same fate to befall him.

Behind Rohan, Terner fired away, leaning out of the turret hatch of his tank. He shot off compression lasers — a useless gesture, since the largest part of the clouds was already quite near. Not more than sixty yards separated Rohan from the others. The victims threw themselves on the ground and rolled around, engulfed by the black flames. They must have been screaming, but the constant roar of the cloud drowned out their voices along with all other sounds — including the noise of the front energo-robot. Myriads of tiny attacking particles sparked off endlessly wherever they hit the robot’s energy field.

Rohan remained motionless, leaning halfway over the side of his scouter vehicle. He made no attempt to seek cover. This was no courage born of desperation, as he told them later on; it simply did not occur to him. He had no thoughts at all.

The unforgettable scene — his men under the black avalanche — changed abruptly. The victims stopped rolling on the ground, trying to escape or to crawl into the wiry growth. They stood still or sat down. The cloud had divided into funnels to form a kind of localized whirlpool above each of the men, swirling around the entire body or just the head. Then, brushing against each man briefly, the cloud, now churning and raging, fled upward, surging higher and higher along the canyon walls until the light of the evening sky was blotted out. Finally the black seething mass crept into crevices among the rocks, while the roaring turmilt gradually subsided. Soon everything submerged into the black jungle. Nothing remained of the cloud except for some tiny black dots sprinkled here and there around the motionless bodies, bearing witness to the catastrophe that had unfolded but a few instants earlier.

Rohan still could not believe that he had escaped unscathed. He did not understand to what circumstances he owed his good fortune. He glanced over in Terner’s direction, but the turret hatch was empty. The mate must have jumped out — there was no telling why and when. Then he saw him lying on the ground nearby, still clutching at the butt-ends of the laser guns. His dead eyes stared up at the sky.

Rohan got out of his car and ran from one man to the next. They did not recognize him. No one said a word. Most appeared to be calm; they were either lying down or sitting on the boulders. Several men got up, walked over to the vehicles, and ran their fingers over the surfaces slowly and clumsily, Like blind men.

Rohan saw Jarg’s friend Genlis, an excellent radio man, standing and gaping at the trucks as if he were seeing them for the first time in his life. His mouth was half open as he tried to move one of the door handles.

Suddenly Rohan realized the significance of the round scorched hole in one of the partition walls of the Condor’s command center. He knelt next to Dr. Ballmin, grabbing his shoulders, trying desperately to shake him back to consciousness, knowing full well that this would be in vain. Suddenly he heard a sharp report and a violet flame flared up directly by his head. One of the men who were sitting over to one side had removed his Weyr mortar from his holster, and accidentally pushed the trigger. Rohan called out to him but the man paid not the slightest attention. The bright flash of light seemed to delight him, like a child watching fireworks, for now he began shooting wildly in all directions. He used up the entire nuclear-powered magazine of the mortar. The air hissed in the intense heat. Rohan instinctively dropped to the ground, trying to seek protection behind some large boulders. He heard heavy steps coming nearer and saw Jarg appearing from behind a bend, his face bathed in perspiration, and running breathlessly. He stormed straight toward the madman, who amused himself by firing his Weyr weapon. “Stop! Take cover! Take cover, Jarg!” shouted Rohan at the top of his voice. But before the confused Jarg could come to a complete standstill, a horrible explosion hit his left arm. Rohan caught a glimpse of his face as the torn-off shoulder was hurled up into the air, the blood gushing wildly from the frightful wound. The insane marksman did not seem to notice anything, while Jarg gazed in astonished disbelief first at the bloody stamp, then at his mangled arm. Jarg staggered; his knees began to sag; finally he crumpled down on the ground.

The man with the Weyr mortar got up. Rohan could see the incessant stream of fire from the heated weapon striking sparks wherever it hit stones and rocks. The air began to smell of silicious earth. The man stumbled forwards, his arms describing random movements like a baby playing with a rattle. The flame whizzed through the narrow air space between two men sitting next to each other. They made no attempt to shield their eyes from the blinding light; another moment and they would get the full load right in their faces. In a purely reflex action, Rohan drew his own Weyr gun and fired once. The man hit his chest violently with both arms; his weapon clattered onto the rocks, and he fell face downward to the ground.

Rohan came to his senses. Dusk was falling. The men had to be transported out of this place as quickly as possible. All he could use was his small amphibian car. He tried to get one of the cross-country vehicles ready to start, but it turned out that two of them had collided at the narrowest part of the gulch. A crane would be needed to pull them apart. That left only the rear robot, which could carry five men at best. But he had nine on his hands, and all nine had lost their senses. He decided to gather them together and tie them up, so that they would be unable to escape and harm themselves. For the time being and for their own protection, he would place them inside the energy dome between the two energo-robots.

It was already pitch dark when he finished his ghastly task. The men offered no resistance when he bound them with ropes. He backed out the rear robot to make a gangway for his small vehicle, then placed both emitters in position, switched on the protective field by remote control, left all the helpless men safely herded inside the energy dome, and started back.

On the twenty-seventh day after landing on Regis III, almost half of the Invincible’s crew had been put out of action.