Red Shards on Ceres by Raymond Z Read online

  Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1937

  HAT it was Ronnie Iverness who the landing on the asteroid, he was kicked found the devilish Red Shards was a

  around by the whole outfit.

  T trick of chance. He was not even a Then fortune seemed to smile on the legitimate member of the Farnsworth youthful culprit.

  Expedition to airless Ceres. He was just a

  “He’s a game little imp,” Professor

  freckle faced twelve-year-old with nerve Farnsworth said to Dave Iverness, when the enough to stow away on their ship, the two were alone in the specimen room. “Maybe Antares. Dave Iverness, the pilot, happened to it would be the right thing to ease up on the

  be his brother.

  hazing, and to give him a bit of freedom, eh?

  Ronnie was dragged out of his hiding

  So far he hasn’t even been out of the ship.”

  place two days after the Antares left Earth. For Dave, big and bronzed, chuckled

  the balance of the trip, and for a while after

  softly.

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  2

  “Sure,” he replied. “Ronnie’s taken his

  cleft in the rusty ground. The other members

  medicine like a man, and he’s regular. Not a

  of the party were straggled out ahead of him

  troublemaker, either. He’s just so doggoned

  now; for he hadn’t been able to move quite as

  interested in space ships and other worlds that

  fast as they in his ill-fitting space armor.

  he can’t help himself sometimes!”

  Master Iverness was called from the

  THE cleft offered no unusual promise. The

  rocket compartment where Hansen, the men had ignored it. Nevertheless, youthful engineer, was keeping him needlessly busy

  whim sent Ronnie hopping to its brink. Thick

  polishing metal. Presently, though he was gloom enveloped its depths. But close to the expecting anything but favors, he found torn lip of the cleft there were curious, broken himself provided with a regulation space suit.

  fragments lying in the dust. They were flat and

  When his good fortune was explained to him,

  flaky, like pieces of shattered, red glass. As

  he was too flabbergasted to say much, but his

  any adult would have done, Ronnie stooped

  eyes became very large, indeed.

  and picked one of them up. Inside the thin,

  “G-gosh! Thanks!” was about all he

  translucent texture of the shard, there

  could stammer just then.

  slumbered a deep, bloody glow.

  The space suit was many sizes too big

  Ronnie wanted to yell out about his

  for him. The vast, bloated legs of the find to his brother up ahead; but something contraption made walking, and even standing,

  unfathomable restrained him. No physical

  somewhat difficult for the boy, for he found it

  circumstance should have prevented him from

  necessary to keep his feet spread wide apart.

  doing this, for his oxygen helmet, and the

  But Ronnie was quite willing to undergo oxygen helmets of all the other space suits physical discomfort for the thrills of belonging to the expedition, were equipped exploration.

  with radio receivers and transmitters.

  With Farnsworth’s full permission, he

  Nevertheless, for some eerie and

  left the ship, along with six men, Dave unknown reason, Ronnie held his tongue. It Iverness among them. The group moved off

  was as though, somewhere, beyond and yet

  toward the near horizon, and presently entered

  within himself, a hidden entity was

  a jagged gorge that looked like the burrow of

  considering the situation cautiously, in an

  an angry Titan. Their purpose now, and in fact

  effort to determine the very best way to cope

  the entire purpose of the Farnsworth with it, with the least chance of making a Expedition, was to collect mineral samples for

  mistake.

  the Smithsonian Institute.

  Master Iverness did not quite realize

  For five hours the kid was in his glory,

  this at once, however. His own feelings were

  while he and his companions bounded and

  strange. He stood for a long moment, the red

  clambered over the rough, mysterious shard clutched in his gloved hand, his brows, landscape, where shadows were as sharp and

  his lips, and his freckled nose puckered in

  black as the fangs of fiends. The massiveness

  vague puzzlement. During that moment a

  and clumsiness of Ronnie’s attire was largely

  subtle web of intangible but very real power

  made up for by the fact that the gravity of tiny

  ensnared his faculties. Ancient Ceres, barren,

  Ceres was very slight.

  burnt out, and seemingly lifeless, still

  Nothing special happened until the harbored magic of which man had no inkling.

  sallying band had almost completed their

  Presently Ronnie felt a peculiar

  circuitous return to the Antares. Then Ronnie tingling sensation in the hand which held the

  noticed something off to his right. It was a

  glassy fragment. The sensation warned him

  Red Shards on Ceres

  3

  that the piece of red mineral was probably not

  Perhaps this was just a coincidence; but then

  entirely safe to hold onto. But when he again, perhaps, it was not, for there were decided to drop the thing, he was surprised

  fourteen men in the Farnsworth Expedition.

  and frightened to discover that his fingers did

  Now he proceeded toward the ridge,

  not respond to his will!

  his movements entirely beyond his control. He

  Just then he heard his brother’s voice

  crossed the ridge and descended into the little

  shouting in his earphones: “Hurry up, Ronnie!

  valley where the Antares rested. With a

  Where are you anyway?”

  cunning not his own he scanned the group of

  The kid really wanted to answer his

  men beside the ship. The entire company—

  brother this time, for he was badly scared. He

  fourteen—was in sight. Those who had not

  wanted to forget everything that had just gone afield were busy excavating a shallow pit happened, and go bounding over the ridge

  in the hard crust of Ceres, their purpose being

  which now hid his companions and the space

  to obtain samples of the minerals beneath the

  ship from view. Words formed in his mind

  surface.

  automatically, but there they stayed! They

  Ronnie’s actions, now that he had an

  couldn’t get past his tongue and vocal cords!

  audience, were deceptively normal.

  It was the same with his sturdy legs.

  “Hey!” he shouted. “Everybody! I

  They refused to obey the commands of his

  found something!”

  brain! It was as though somebody else had

  The men turned to look at him as he

  suddenly taken possession of his entire body!

  bounded clumsily into their midst.

  And Ronnie, with a youngster’s quick
/>   “What’s the matter?” Dave Iverness

  intuition, knew that the wicked red shard he

  questioned.

  clutched and couldn’t let go of was somehow

  “I’ve got some red stuff, like pieces of

  responsible.

  glass!” Ronnie’s voice piped. “I found ’em

  This knowledge did him no good, over the ridge. Look!”

  however.

  He held up the fragment which his

  Now he spoke, and though the words

  right hand clutched in a viselike grip.

  were undoubtedly copied from his memory in

  Dave Iverness scrutinized his kid

  some manner, still he had no wilful part in

  brother closely. He saw that the youngster’s

  their utterance. Their tone was cunningly face was pale behind the glass front of his calm.

  oxygen helmet; but this might only be the

  “Be with you in a minute, Dave,” he

  natural result of excitement.

  said into his microphone. “Just wait up for

  “Let’s have a look at the thing,” Dave

  me.”

  Iverness invited, extending his hand.

  Then, impelled once more by a weird

  “No!” Ronnie’s guiding entity replied.

  and irresistible impulse which seemed to “This one’s mine! But I’ve got a lot of other originate in the substanceless ether pieces in my pouch. One for everybody.

  surrounding Ceres, he selected more of the

  Wait!”

  shards from the ground about him with his

  It was a bad moment for Ronnie

  free hand, and stuffed them into the pouch that

  Iverness. He alone had an idea of what was

  was part of his equipment.

  about to happen; but in spite of his

  tremendous inner struggle, he could not so

  THOUGH he did not realize it, he now had

  much as give a tiny squeak of warning. His

  fourteen of the mysterious fragments, besides

  will was an impotent nothing imprisoned in a

  the one which he held tightly in his right hand.

  body not his own.

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  4

  As though he were watching the human marionette to respond to the silent actions of another person, he saw himself commands of the hidden unknown. While the remove the baleful shards from his pouch, and

  others waited stiffly, he entered the Antares

  pass them around, one to each of his and proceeded to the radio room. There he companions, Dave and Professor Farnsworth

  sent out a call to Earth in code:

  among them.

  What followed was as strange as the

  Marvelous discovery on Ceres. Organize large

  dark wisdom that produced it. A subtle spell

  expedition and dispatch to Ceres at once. Arnold

  Farnsworth.

  of unearthly wizardry conquered the men as

  easily as it had conquered the boy. By the time

  He learned then that not only his body,

  that each individual knew that all was not

  but his memory as well, was a slave to the

  well, it was too late. Fingers clutched the

  unknown. The glassy red fragment he held

  shards in grips that no human will could was not merely a receiver of commands. It break. The channels between brain and muscle

  could be used to probe his mentality as well.

  were seemingly severed, and something Else the message in English could never have invisible and intangible assumed complete been composed.

  control.

  He could guess, too, the sinister

  Nevertheless, the activity of each purpose of the radiogram. More human beings human brain went on unhampered. Thoughts

  were wanted here on Ceres. As slaves? For

  of fear and dread and wonder were not food? Only time would tell.

  checked. The men were scientists; this being

  Unable to resist the guiding

  so, each of them tried to construct a theory

  compulsion that gripped him, he left the

  which might explain the weird miracle. All of

  Antares and joined his company. Then the trek them must have arrived at approximately the

  toward some cryptic destination began. In

  same conclusions.

  single file the fifteen members of the

  The shards were composed of a expedition marched back over the ridge. No material which acted as the receiver for some

  one spoke. No one could speak. Minds still

  eerie neuronic control, perhaps propagated could function; but they were as impotent as if through space by a form of etheric impulse.

  sealed in blocks of metal.

  These impulses, when received, acted upon

  The party reached the cleft that Ronnie

  nerve tissue, probably first contacting the had discovered. They clambered down into its nerves of the fingers that held the shards, and

  gloomy shadows. There was a rough-cut

  traveling thence to the spinal cords and brains

  tunnel there, leading steeply down toward the

  of each individual. The strength of the bowels of Ceres. They began their descent.

  impulses was sufficient to dominate

  In a matter of minutes complete

  completely the normal neuronic messages by

  darkness enveloped them. But presently this

  which a man guides the movements of his

  was relieved a little by light which luminous

  body.

  lumps of radioactive ore in the walls of the

  passage emitted.

  CLEARLY, what had happened was the work

  For weary hours the descent continued.

  of an intelligent agent with a definite purpose.

  Slight though the gravity of the asteroid was,

  The red fragments must have been planted

  still the task of clambering down a passage in

  beside the cleft in the hope that they would

  many places almost vertical, made serious

  trap unsuspecting space wanderers.

  inroads on the energies of the adventurers.

  Professor Farnsworth was now the first

  Red Shards on Ceres

  5

  Professor Farnsworth felt the effect most, for

  than the first. The air throbbed with the

  he was old. Yet he could not stop to rest. The

  smooth vibration of colossal, gleaming

  insidious power that had mastered him forced

  engines. Molten metal hissed and cascaded

  him on as no lash could ever have done.

  from vast retorts. Cereans were everywhere,

  At last a huge metal door was reached.

  engaged in intricate work which only a high

  Ponderously it opened to admit the men. They

  order of intelligence could have directed. Each

  entered a narrow chamber which must have

  of them wore a harness richly decorated with

  had the function of an airlock, for in its the mysterious Red Shards.

  opposite wall there was a second door, similar

  They glanced briefly at the Earthmen.

  to the first, which had now closed.

  Their curiosity seemed small; but in their cold,

  The second portal swung inward. lidless eyes there was a promise of death, or Brilliant light, like that of the sun, stabbed by

  worse.

  as it moved. Automatically the members of

  Ronnie and Dave Iverness walked

  the Farnsworth Expedition entered the behind Professor Farnsworth, who was close tremendous cavern beyond it.

  to the head of the column. Like the r
est of the

  Far up toward its roof an incandescent

  group, they could not converse, they could not

  sphere shone brilliantly, giving abundant even turn their eyes to look at each other.

  artificial light to this strange place. The floor

  Their muscles could only do what the guiding

  of the cavern was covered with odd, luxuriant

  force that held them prisoner directed.

  vegetation, planted in orderly plots. This was

  But their minds worked unhampered.

  farm land, then, buried within the heart of

  Dave Iverness was still trying to devise some

  dead Ceres.

  plan for escape, though he could see how

  And now the men saw what manner of

  hopeless their position was. Even if the spell

  creatures inhabited this artificial world. From

  which had enslaved them could be broken,

  out of the shadows of spidery, grotesque trees,

  there were still the Cereans.

  loaded with green fruit, came a group of furry,

  Ronnie was scared. What had

  spheroidal monsters with thick legs and happened was his fault, he was sure. If he had delicate, tentacular arms. Their mouths were

  not found the shards, all would have been

  toothless orifices in their globular bodies. well. But this feeling of responsibility must Their eyes, set close to their mouths, were

  have sharpened his wits. The kid was made of

  cruel and keen. That intelligence looked out

  that kind of stuff.

  through those orbs could not be questioned.

  Professor Farnsworth felt weak and

  Each creature wore a harness faint after the exertion of the long descent.

  decorated with fragments of the red substance

  Specks of color flitted before his gaze. But the

  which had been the undoing of the Earthmen,