The Jameson Satellite, Page 2

  CHAPTER I

  _40,000,000 Years After_

  Entering within the boundaries of the solar system, a long, dark,pointed craft sped across the realms of space towards the tiny point oflight which marked the dull red ball of the dying sun which would someday lie cold and dark forever. Like a huge meteor it flashed into thesolar system from another chain of planets far out in the illimitableUniverse of stars and worlds, heading towards the great red sun at aninconceivable speed.

  Within the interior of the space traveler, queer creatures of metallabored at the controls of the space flyer which juggernauted on its waytowards the far-off solar luminary. Rapidly it crossed the orbits ofNeptune and Uranus and headed sunward. The bodies of these queercreatures were square blocks of a metal closely resembling steel, whilefor appendages, the metal cube was upheld by four jointed legs capableof movement. A set of six tentacles, all metal, like the rest of thebody, curved outward from the upper half of the cubic body. Surmountingit was a queer-shaped head rising to a peak in the center and equippedwith a circle of eyes all the way around the head. The creatures, withtheir mechanical eyes equipped with metal shutters, could see in alldirections. A single eye pointed directly upward, being situated in thespace of the peaked head, resting in a slight depression of the cranium.

  These were the Zoromes of the planet Zor which rotated on its way arounda star millions of light years distant from our solar system. TheZoromes, several hundred thousand years before, had reached a stage inscience, where they searched for immortality and eternal relief frombodily ills and various deficiencies of flesh and blood anatomy. Theyhad sought freedom from death, and had found it, but at the same timethey had destroyed the propensities for birth. And for several hundredthousand years there had been no births and few deaths in the history ofthe Zoromes.

  This strange race of people had built their own mechanical bodies, andby operation upon one another had removed their brains to the metalheads from which they directed the functions and movements of theirinorganic anatomies. There had been no deaths due to worn-out bodies.When one part of the mechanical men wore out, it was replaced by a newpart, and so the Zoromes continued living their immortal lives which sawfew casualties. It was true that, since the innovation of the machines,there had been a few accidents which had seen the destruction of themetal heads with their brains. These were irreparable. Such cases hadbeen few, however, and the population of Zor had decreased but little.The machine men of Zor had no use for atmosphere, and had it not beenfor the terrible coldness of space, could have just as well existed inthe ether void as upon some planet. Their metal bodies, especially theirmetal-encased brains, did require a certain amount of heat even thoughthey were able to exist comfortably in temperatures which wouldinstantly have frozen to death a flesh-and-blood creature.

  The most popular pastime among the machine men of Zor was theexploration of the Universe. This afforded them a never ending source ofinterest in the discovery of the variegated inhabitants and conditionsof the various planets on which they came to rest. Hundreds of spaceships were sent out in all directions, many of them being upon theirexpeditions for hundreds of years before they returned once more to thehome planet of far-off Zor.

  This particular space craft of the Zoromes had entered the solar systemwhose planets were gradually circling in closer to the dull red ball ofthe declining sun. Several of the machine men of the space craft's crew,which numbered some fifty individuals, were examining the variousplanets of this particular planetary system carefully through telescopespossessing immense power.

  These machine men had no names and were indexed according to letters andnumbers. They conversed by means of thought impulses, and were neithercapable of making a sound vocally nor of hearing one uttered.

  "Where shall we go?" queried one of the men at the controls questioninganother who stood by his side examining a chart on the wall.

  "They all appear to be dead worlds, 4R-3579," replied the one addressed,"but the second planet from the sun appears to have an atmosphere whichmight sustain a few living creatures, and the third planet may alsoprove interesting for it has a satellite. We shall examine the innerplanets first of all, and explore the outer ones later if we decide itis worth the time."

  "Too much trouble for nothing," ventured 9G-721. "This system of planetsoffers us little but what we have seen many times before in our travels.The sun is so cooled that it cannot sustain the more common life on itsplanets, the type of life forms we usually find in our travels. Weshould have visited a planetary system with a brighter sun."

  "You speak of common life," remarked 25X-987. "What of the uncommonlife? Have we not found life existent on cold, dead planets with nosunlight and atmosphere at all?"

  "Yes, we have," admitted 9G-721, "but such occasions are exceedinglyrare."

  "The possibility exists, however, even in this case," reminded 4R-3579,"and what if we do spend a bit of unprofitable time in this oneplanetary system--haven't we all an endless lifetime before us? Eternityis ours."

  "We shall visit the second planet first of all," directed 25X-987, whowas in charge of this particular expedition of the Zoromes, "and on theway there we shall cruise along near the third planet to see what we canof the surface. We may be able to tell whether or not it holds anythingof interest to us. If it does, after visiting the second planet, weshall then return to the third. The first world is not worth botheringwith."

  * * * * *

  The space ship from Zor raced on in a direction which would take itseveral thousand miles above the earth and then on to the planet whichwe know as Venus. As the space ship rapidly neared the earth, itslackened its speed, so that the Zoromes might examine it closely withtheir glasses as the ship passed the third planet.

  Suddenly, one of the machine men ran excitedly into the room where25X-987 stood watching the topography of the world beneath him.

  "We have found something!" he exclaimed.

  "What?"

  "Another space ship!"

  "Where?"

  "But a short distance ahead of us on our course. Come into the foreportof the ship and you can pick it up with the glass."

  "Which is the way it's going?" asked 25X-987.

  "It is behaving queerly," replied the machine man of Zor. "It appears tobe in the act of circling the planet."

  "Do you suppose that there really is life on that deadworld--intelligent beings like ourselves, and that this is one of theirspace craft?"

  "Perhaps it is another exploration craft like our own from some otherworld," was the suggestion.

  "But not of ours," said 25X-987.

  Together, the two Zoromes now hastened into the observation room of thespace ship where more of the machine men were excitedly examining themysterious space craft, their thought impulses flying thick and fastlike bodiless bullets.

  "It is very small!"

  "Its speed is slow!"

  "The craft can hold but few men," observed one.

  "We do not yet know of what size the creatures are," reminded another."Perhaps there are thousands of them in that space craft out there. Theymay be of such a small size that it will be necessary to look twicebefore finding one of them. Such beings are not unknown."

  "We shall soon overtake it and see."

  "I wonder if they have seen us?"

  "Where do you suppose it came from?"

  "From the world beneath us," was the suggestion.

  "Perhaps."