• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

'It's very complicated,' said Quinn, 'an enormous study. There are so many different countries, and thousands of millions of people.'

'Yes,' said Okdel, the green lids of his eyes closing for a moment's contemplation. 'The little furry animals have increased and multiplied.'

Quinn seized Okdel's momentary thoughtfulness to push forward his own claims for information. 'There is a lot of information which you promised to me,' he said. 'Particularly about those little furry animals, my ancestors.'

'You must meet our scientist, K'to,' said Okdel, 'but all in good time. Meantime, this is for you.' Okdel produced a small flat object with various controls, and offered it to Quinn.

'What is it?'

'One of our calling devices,' said Okdel. 'This is how you make it give sounds.' Okdel touched the controls in a pattern, and the flat object produced a fluting sound. 'Your soldiers wounded one of our people, and he had to flee to the surface. You must find him and bring him back to us.'

'That may be impossible!' said Quinn.

'When you have brought him back to us,' said Okdel, 'I may allow you to put your questions to our scientist.' The muscles of Okdel's face twitched three times, which Quinn had come to recognise as a reptile man's way of smiling—except that this time Quinn knew it was a false smile, and that behind it was a threat.

'What is it you really want, Quinn?'

Quinn said, 'Knowledge. To be a respected scientist.'

'We can make you much more important than that,' said Okdel.

'We may not require the return of all of our planet. There may be regions where humans will be allowed to continue to exist. To lead them, we need a man whom we can trust. You.' Without a further word, Okdel rose and went away through the inner door.

Quinn looked at the flat object in his hand. Possession of this alone made him the most important man in the world. But what Okdel had just promised sounded even more pleasing. With a little more hope in his heart he rose and went back into the caves.

8

Into an Alien World

Morka had been in the great cave to call back one of their fighting animals when he was shot. By using his third eye, which could see in almost complete darkness, he had clearly observed the strange creature at the far end of the cave. The creature looked to him exactly like the creature that visited old Okdel from time to time. It stood upright like himself, but it only had two eyes and on top of its head was a mop of fur. Its face was pink, almost red. It raised a kind of stick to its shoulder, looked along it, and then shouted something.

Then the stick seemed to explode, and Morka felt a terrible pain in his leg. The fighting animal that Morka had come to call into the shelter attacked the creature, and probably killed it—the fighting animals were trained to kill. But Morka wasn't very clear in his mind about that. The pain from his leg affected his brain. All he knew was that he must get out of the cave and that he must once again see the sun from which he, and his people, had been hidden for so long. He saw a patch of daylight somewhere above and pulled himself up rocks to get to it. After that he could not remember any more until he woke up.

He was lying in tall grass. As he opened his eyes he found himself looking directly at the sun, yet it did not blind him which seemed very strange. He remembered the sun as a fierce burning ball in the sky. Now it seemed weak, as though something in the atmosphere was filtering and reducing the power of the sun's rays.

He heard a droning sound, and looked towards the source of the sound in another part of the sky. It was an aeroplane. So, these primitive furry animals had discovered how to fly, just as the reptile people once flew in their machines long ago.

Morka slowly got to his feet to get a better view of the alien world around him. Open moorland stretched out on all sides. He had no idea how to find his way back into the cave, and once the weak sun had gone down he would need