Donald A Wollheim The Secret of the ninth Planet

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his feet was plastic.
"I'm all right, I think," said Burl. "Is that you, Russ? Sounds a little like you, but you must be far away."
"Yes, it's me, Russell Clyde," confirmed the voice. "You're coming in weak, too. Where are you?"
Burl described his surroundings. There was a silence for a moment, then Russ's voice again. "I kind of
suspected it, but what you say confirms it. We must be on the only planet we haven't visited... or rather,
not on it, but near it. I mean Neptune. I knew from the gravity I wasn't on Pluto any more. Judging from
our weight, and your description of the bluish planet in the sky, we must be on Triton, Neptune's bigger
moon."
Burl found that his dizziness was disappearing. "I feel light," he commented, as he got to his feet. "Should
Neptune look sort of like Uranus, only more bluish in color?" he asked.
"That's it," said Russ. "Neptune is pretty much of a twin for Uranus, only it's denser, a little bit smaller,
and perhaps more substantial than the other giant worlds in our system. It should have a second moon,
smaller and way out."
Burl walked around the little enclosed space. "I guess I'm a prisoner here," he said. "This dome is on the
surface. Most of the area is just a sort of rocky plain with patches of liquid gases, but there are a couple
of big buildings nearby. Funny sort of structures they have fancy tops with symbols on them that look
like the phases of the moon."
"I think I'm inside one of those buildings," Russ guessed. "I'm in a big hall with a lot of exhibits in glass
cases. And they've got the-strangest creatures I've ever seen in them. There are lunar markings here,
too they remind me of the ones we saw on Pluto. You know what I suspect?"
Burl paced around, regaining his senses as he walked. It was obvious that, after he'd been knocked out
by the Plutonians, he had been taken by them to this moon of Neptune. For what purpose?
Russ continued to murmur his thoughts, his voice ringing tinnily in Burl's earphones. "I think that Triton
was originally Pluto's moon. When Pluto wandered into the solar system, it crossed Neptune's orbit and
was held. Its moon came closer to Neptune and was captured completely. But Pluto, having a greater
mass, didn't stick. It established an eccentric orbit of its own . which took it far out from Neptune for
hundreds of years at a stretch and brought it back only rarely. Pluto lost its moon. And that moon was
the spiritual home of the Sun-tappers' religion."
Burl glanced across the landscape. There were some funny things growing nearby. They looked a little
like thin, glassy trees with big, blue coconuts on top.
"What happened to you and Haines after we got separated?" he asked, still talking through his helmet
phone.
"I don't know what happened to Haines," said Russ. "I hope he got away. But they trapped me. I was
taken aboard one of their dumbell ships, and brought here. The trip took days. I guess you were
unconscious for all that time. If it's any comfort to you, the Pluto building was destroyed. Our atomic
bomb went off. I saw the flare from a window in the ship. I think this moon is the last stronghold of the
Sun-tappers, and I think it is our final objective."
The strange crystalline vegetation seemed to be moving closer to Burl. He watched it carefully. It was
moving! There were living beings out there!
They glided oddly over the ground, and he saw that their bases were a mass of crystalline fringes, moving
feelers which crawled over the surface bearing the upper structures with them. They had thin, trunklike
bodies with two long, pencil-like branches that were used as arms. And the coconut objects were
heads!
They circled the dome now, and Burl could see that each round blue knob had a central black spot that
apparently served as an eye. There was no sign of nostrils or mouth Burl stared at the creatures in
wonder.
The beings were clearly gesturing to him, trying to signal with their odd arms. He waved back, wondering
how he could establish communication. As he did so, he described the creatures to Russ.
Russ's voice was excited. "Say! I think I've figured out what sort of place I'm in. This is a museum of
galactic life! Each of these glass cases contains a specimen of the highest form of life of its particular
world. In one of the cases, opposite me, there's one of the Martian creatures a big, antlike fellow. He's
standing there, looking perfectly alive, but absolutely motionless. Next to him is something else that looks
like an intelligent form. It's sort of a man, covered with short red hair. Around its waist it's got a belt, and
there are pouches on it, and something like a short sword. It must be a humanoid type from some world
out among the stars. Some of the others look like intelligent forms, too, because they are wearing
clothing.
"I think that collecting these specimens and setting them up here is part of the religion of the
Sun-tappers."
While Russ was talking, Burl thought of a way he might communicate with the stick-men. He wanted to
draw a diagram of the solar system on the floor of his enclosure. He gestured futilely with his hand, but
there was nothing with which to make a marking. The stick-men outside watched his hand, then one of
them reached around to something hanging across its back and withdrew a thin table and a wedge of red.
Holding the table up to that Burl could see, the creature quickly sketched a recognizable map of the Sun
and its planets!
Burl realized then that he was dealing with highly intelligent beings no savages, these, but the products
of a high civilization. He indicated the third world as his own. The stick-man drew back as if surprised,
then pointed upward.
They came from Neptune!
During the next few hours, a most curious three-way discussion went on Burl signaling to the
Neptunians outside and describing his discoveries to Russ over the phone of his space suit; Russ [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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