Then a figure came slowly into view from where it had been concealed bythe apparatus, and Blake forgot all thought of the strange mechanisms ashe watched the monstrous thing clamber stiffly from the platform andhalt squarely in front of the captives to stare at them through thetransparency of the intervening force sheet.
The thing was a curious blending of human and bestial features. It stoodbarely five feet in height, yet its great scale-armored skull was atleast three times as large as that of a grown man. There was colossalmental power and nameless evil glowing in the dark depths of the twoabnormally large eyes that stared fixedly out from under the heavyforehead. The thing had no nose. The mouth opening, surrounded by arosette of flabby gray skin, was a mere slit. The entire skull and facewere covered with small, closely overlapping scales of lusterless gray.
The head merged directly into a short black torso nearly as wide as theskull itself. From this trunk there writhed a score of long blacksnake-like tentacles, each terminating in a flexible three-fingered"hand." The trunk was supported by two short thick legs, armored withgray scales, and ending in broad three-toed feet.
"Greetings, Earthlings!" The voice that emanated from the grotesquemouth was surprisingly resonant in tone. "Allow me to present myself. Iam Zehru, imperial scientist of Xollar."
* * * * *
The monstrosity seemed amused at the expressions of blank surprise uponthe faces of his captives. "I learned your crude language from yourbrain cells while you slept under the red ray," he explained. "Also Ilearned many other things regarding your planet, Earth. I am glad tofind your world so well adapted to my purpose. Within a few years aftermy arrival there I shall be its unquestioned ruler."
Blake started to voice the many questions that were surging through hismind, but an imperious gesture of an outflung tentacle stopped him.
"Silence, Earthling!" There was tolerant contempt in Zehru's ringingvoice. "I will explain some of the things that puzzle you. There is noreason why I should trouble myself to do so, yet it may while away thetedium of the short wait yet remaining before my apparatus becomescharged to the required point. Listen carefully, Earthling, for at bestyou will find many of my thoughts beyond the feeble limits of the wordforms with which you have provided me.
"The world of Xollar, where you now are, is a planet in the islanduniverse known to your astronomers as the Great Nebula of Andromeda.Until a short time ago I was one of its ruling scientists. Then Isinned, and so grave was my sin according to the laws of this planetthat the Council of Three decreed my death. That death sentence uponXollar is irrevocable, and no man has yet escaped it no matter whereupon the planet he may be when the appointed time for his executioncomes. I was given the usual period of grace in which to put my affairsin order. Instead, I have labored unceasingly here in my laboratory, andmy labors have borne fruit. I am the first man in Xollarian history tofind a means of escaping the dread death penalty.
"Briefly, I discovered a way by which I can flee to your far-distantuniverse, where not even the powers of the Council of Three can followme. That way lies through the door of inter-dimensional Space. In Spaceas you know it, the almost unthinkable distance of a million light yearsseparates Xollar from the dwarf star you call your Sun. Yet, traveling_between_ Space, the two planets nearly touch each other. The samesituation of being near neighbors in inter-dimensional Space holds truewith Xollar and at least seven other planets located in widely separatedparts of your universe.
* * * * *
"Let me try to illustrate what I mean by traveling between Space. Wewill assume a nearly two-dimensional universe in the form of a circularpiece of paper three feet in diameter. There is a dot in the exactcenter of each side of this paper. To a two-dimensional creature, forcedto travel only on the surface of the paper, the distance between thetwo dots can never be less than thirty-six inches. Yet by cutting_between_ the two surfaces and going directly through the paper the dotsare less than one-hundredth of an inch apart.
"Such is the case with Xollar and the planets in your universe which areour immediate neighbors in inter-dimensional Space. In order to reachthose planets I had only to develop a method of using sufficient forceto cut _between_ the three dimensions of intervening Space. In solvingthis problem I developed both an inter-dimensional net to bring beingsfrom your universe to mine, and an inter-dimensional gate to permitbeings to pass from here back to worlds in your galaxy.
"You have already seen the workings of the net. It was the device ofgreen fire that brought you here. The use of the net was a vital part ofmy plans, for without the use of a physical body from some world in youruniverse I could not hope to live longer than a few minutes afterleaving Xollar via the inter-dimensional gate. The inherentcharacteristics and basic elements of your galaxy and the Andromedanuniverse are so different in every way that an inhabitant of eitherstar-group cannot exist in the other. Xollar's purple atmosphere ischaracteristic of Andromedan worlds. Your oxygen-saturated air istypical of worlds in your galaxy. Just as Xollar's purple mists would beimmediately fatal to you, so would your clear oxygen-tainted air bequickly fatal to me.
* * * * *
"Accordingly, my only chance of surviving in one of your worlds is tofirst transfer my Intelligence to the body of one of the dwellers uponthat planet. Of the seven planets within reach of my net I found onlytwo that promised to be at all suitable. One was your Earth, the othera minor planet circling the star you call Vega. I brought both you and anet-load of Vegans here to this oxygen-filled enclosure I had alreadyprepared.
"The Vegans were the headless things with the jelly nuclei. I watchedyour battle with them, and waited to choose as my vehicle the planetarytype that proved the stronger. You vanquished the Vegans, so it is inthe body of an Earthling that I shall leave Xollar, and it is to theplanet Earth that I shall be hurtled through the inter-dimensional gate.
"Aside from the slight difficulty caused by having to keep my body andyours each in its proper element during the operation, the matter oftransfer into one of your bodies is a simple one. It involves none ofthe clumsy brain surgery of your Earthly science. We of Xollar havefound that the real Intelligence of a being is an invisible force not atall dependent for existence upon the protoplasm through which itmanifests. My Intelligence can function quite as well in your braincells as in my own.
"I require no assistant in the transfer." Zehru indicated an intricatepiece of apparatus on the platform behind him. It was a massive cylinderof fluorescent metal, with two long metallic cables running from itscenter, each cable ending in a saucer-shaped disk.
* * * * *
"I have only to thrust one cable through the force-wall into yourenclosure and place its disk upon one of your heads, then place theother disk upon my own head. The apparatus is entirely automatic. Threeseconds after both disks are in place my Intelligence will course intothe Earthling brain, driving out his Intelligence and destroying it asmine enters.
"I will, of course, remove the selected body from under the paralyzingplate before I attach the disks. Then when I am safely transferred tothe Earthling body I will have only to walk on through the enclosure tothe silver arch at the far end and leave Xollar forever.
"That silver arch is the inter-dimensional gate to your Earth. Itsoperation is slightly different from that of the net. Where the net wascapable of reaching under the surface of your planet, a proceeding Itried when two attempts upon the surface proved fruitless, the gate isso adjusted that it will place its passenger exactly upon the surface ofyour world. It requires no cooperation from this end. When I step underthe arch I merely close a black lever there. Inter-dimensional forceimmediately catapults me to your Earth. Then the automatic mechanism ofthe gate will within half a minute of my departure release an explosionthat will shatter everything within a radius of a mile here, and soprevent the Council of Three from even guessing
the method of myescape."
"But what of the two of us whose bodies you do not need?" Blakeprotested. "Can you not at least take them through the arch-gate withyou back to their home world?"
"Why should I do anything so foolish as that?" Zehru answered callously."They might easily be a menace to my first attempts to establish myselfupon your planet. Far better to leave them here in their present stateof paralysis to be safely destroyed in the explosion of the gate."
* * * * *
Zehru now thrust three of his tentacles into a vat of milky fluid, andwithdrew them coated with a silver sheen on the black flesh. The silverglaze seemed to be an insulation against both the oxygen of theenclosure and the paralyzing force of the overhead disk, for theXollarian promptly thrust the three silver-coated arms through the walland began handling the bodies of Mapes and