The Death Rays of Ardilla

by WE Johns

Genres: Science Fiction; Sci-fi Action & Adventure; Alien Contact; Space Exploration

Synopsis

Tiger, Rex and the Professor return in book six of Captain W.E. John's classic space adventure series!

In their previous adventures, they encountered the planet Ardilla and its strange rays, which caused its inhabitants to develop thick skin in resistance. But reports are, the rays are getting stronger, and more deadly, and a mission to survey the planet has gone missing. The crew of the Tavona join the rescue mission - but what will they find?

Meanwhile, a plucky young stowaway has hidden away on the ship, and finds himself seeing far more than he bargained for.

It's up to Tiger to get everyone home safely!

Release date: December 13, 2022

Publisher: Orion

Print pages: 320

Sample

The time was nearly midnight.

The silence that had persisted for some time in the library of Glensalich Castle, the remote Highland home of the wealthy and eccentric scientist-inventor Professor Lucius Brane, was broken by a tap on the door, which opened to admit the Professor’s confidential butler.

The Professor looked up. ‘Yes, Judkins? What is it?’

‘There are two gentlemen to see you, sir.’

‘Indeed? At this hour! Who are they?’

‘One is Mr Vargo, of Mars, who assures me that the gentleman with him, a Mr Multavo of the planet Terromagna, is well known to you,’ stated Judkins imperturbably.

The Professor dropped the book he had been reading. ‘Bless my soul! Vargo, yes; but what could have brought Multavo all the way from Terromagna? Please show them in at once.’

As the butler retired, the Professor, lowered his chin and looked over his glasses at his companions, Group-Captain ‘Tiger’ Clinton, his son Rex, and Doctor ‘Toby’ Paul.

‘I am always happy to see our good friends from beyond the – er – horizon, but I have an uncomfortable feeling that such a call as this, without warning, can only mean disturbing news. However, we shall soon know.’ The Professor stood up to receive his guests.

Judkins returned with the visitors from space, and having shown them into the room, withdrew.

‘Come in, my dear fellows,’ greeted the Professor, warmly. ‘This is an unexpected pleasure. Be seated and make yourselves at home.’

The Martian, Vargo Lentos, advanced and shook hands all round – a trifle awkwardly – smiling at this display of his knowledge of the Earthly custom. He was dressed in the uniform of the Minoan Remote Survey Fleet, close fitting jacket with short skirt, and cross-laced sandals. Multavo, clad in the official red and white habit of a scientist-doctor on Terromagna, followed his example.

‘Where have you just come from?’ inquired the Professor.

Vargo answered in his clear, thin, precise voice, ‘From Mino, but we called at Mars on the way.’

‘And what brings you here? We did not show the signal lights to bring you down.’

‘Excuse me a moment while I get my breath,’ requested Vargo. ‘I still find your atmosphere heavy and your gravity tiring.’ He breathed deeply and slowly.

‘Not bad news, I hope?’ questioned the Professor, anxiously.

‘I dropped in to see if you could let me have one or two packets of tea,’ answered Vargo.

‘Tea!’ exclaimed Rex, incredulously. ‘Have you come all the way from Mars for some tea?’

‘That was one of the reasons.’ The visitor smiled apologetically. ‘Your refreshing beverage has I fear the insidious quality of being habit-forming. Now, deprived of it when you are not with us, I miss it. As you know, we have no substitute.’

‘We left you all we had with us at the conclusion of our last voyage,’ said the Professor.

‘You did, but I regret to say it has all gone,’ informed Vargo sadly. ‘Borron, Gator, and the rest of my crew, demanded their share, for they also have become addicts. Now Multavo has acquired a taste for what is, if I may say so without offence, one of the best things you have introduced to us from Earth.’

‘Where are the others now?’

‘They are with the ship, on the hill.’ Vargo’s luminous eyes glowed mischievously. ‘We didn’t want you to think there had been an invasion so I brought only Multavo to the house. He was most anxious to see you again.’

The Professor touched a bell at his elbow.

Judkins appeared.

‘Please make a large pot of tea,’ requested the Professor. ‘And bring in all the packets of tea we have in store. Remember to order more.’

‘It shall be as you say, sir.’ Judkins went out.

‘Had I realized that our tea had become such a necessity for you I would have signalled you down to collect a supply,’ the Professor told Vargo. ‘I see no reason why we shouldn’t introduce the living plant to your home planetoid, although it is not unlikely that in different conditions it will change its character somewhat. No matter. The next time we visit we will bring an ample supply of the dried leaf in case the plants fail to thrive.’

‘Thank you,’ acknowledged Vargo.

‘When you leave I’ll take a large jug to the ship so that all on board can have a cup,’ promised Rex. ‘I’d like to see the others, anyway, while they’re here.’

Judkins brought in the tray, and when everyone had been served Vargo said: ‘We mustn’t stay long. I know you always have a little fear that someone may see the ship.’

‘That is true,’ admitted the Professor.

‘Why do you have that fear?’ inquired Multavo, curiously.

The Professor’s eyebrows went up. ‘So you have learned to speak our language.’

‘Yes. From Vargo, and the book of English grammar you lent him. I found it a very simple language to learn although some of the vowel sounds are a little difficult to pronounce. But you haven’t answered my question.’

‘I would rather our world did not know the truth – yet,’ stated the Professor. ‘You see, by a singular weakness in popular intelligence it is customary here to call anyone who thinks on original lines a crank, a liar or a lunatic. Believe it or not, there are still people who are unable to grasp the fact that Earth is round. Proof that Earth is not the only man-occupied planet could have far-reaching results. We are not ready for that.’

‘But I understood that some of your people are beginning to suspect it.’

‘True, but suspicion and positive fact are not the same thing. Confirmation that there are older worlds than ours, further advanced in science, culture and philosophy, might well throw everything here into a state of confusion. Our mental hospitals are full already.’

‘I understand your scientists have already succeeded in splitting the – what do you call it – atom?’

‘Yes, but they have not yet learned how to use this knowledge properly. They think they are clever, and so in some respects they are; but I fear it is a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing, for now they are divided in their opinions as to what should be the next step, and people are alarmed that should they make a mistake they might blow the world to pieces.’

‘It could happen,’ said Multavo, seriously. ‘Indeed, it has happened elsewhere.’

‘The latest marvel is the launching of artificial satellites which will orbit the earth at what is thought to be a staggering speed of eighteen thousand miles an hour.’

Multavo smiled tolerantly. ‘It would take me a long time to get back to Terromagna at that snail’s pace.’

‘Even so, the ordinary people cannot grasp such a figure, so how could I hope to convey to them the velocity of the ships in which we have travelled? By the way, what ship brought you here?’

‘The Tavona. Gator still commands her,’ answered Vargo. ‘But now we must be going.’

‘Before we go, tell me this, Professor, for I am rather puzzled,’ said Multavo. ‘Surely you have people here with sufficient imagination to project your own scientific development a few years?’

‘A few years, perhaps, but not ten thousand, still less a hundred thousand.’

‘I doubt if anyone could visualize interstellar television such as we saw on Terromagna,’ put in Rex.

‘You will come to that in time, for it is no more than a continuation of the knowledge you already hold,’ asserted Multavo. ‘To you, inventions like television, are still wonderful, but to more highly developed planets they would be commonplace. The danger of progress lies in trying to do too much at once. So it is with these bombs you are always making. Too much of your energy is being expended on engines of destruction. What you are doing can only shorten human life, if it does not end it abruptly. You are not alone in this, of course. Ardilla is behaving in much the same way, although in a different direction. Actually, that is why I happen to be here tonight.’

Vargo explained. ‘Multavo wanted a holiday. He decided to take it at his old home, on Mino. Knowing the danger of approaching too near that sinister planet Ardilla he made a wide detour, but even so, the ship in which he was travelling nearly fell a victim to one of the red interceptors. Having got to Mino, where of course he met me, he is now faced with the problem of getting back to Terromagna.’

Multavo took up the story. ‘I was aware of the risks. Ardilla is putting out a veritable barrage of rays. A stranger from beyond the Third Region who called on us told us that all ships in their section of the Universe have been warned to keep well clear of Ardilla. One of their ships, after sending out a signal that it was being tracked by a red stranger, failed to return to its base.’

‘That nearly happened to us,’ said the Professor, seriously.

‘So Vargo has told me. This is causing Terromagna considerable anxiety. We are not exactly helpless, but we have no wish to be involved in an interplanetary war,’ explained Multavo.

The Professor shook his head. ‘It is a melancholy thought that even in the Outer Universe a civilized people can be destroyed by an unscrupulous aggressor. Thus has it been on Earth, and doubtless on other planets. Now it seems that even worlds threaten war on each other. Is it to be the fate of planets, that have learned to abhor war, to be exterminated by others who covet their land? Has anyone ever been to Ardilla – I mean, landed there?’

‘Not to my knowledge,’ answered Multavo.

‘Has anyone offered to help you overcome this peril?’

‘Who can help? What sort of help could anyone offer? The unfortunate thing is that almost everyone travelling in the Third Region must pass through the orbit of Ardilla; and that, as we now know, is to court disaster. To attack Ardilla might precipitate the enemy into our own constellation, perhaps even into your Solar System.’

‘Someone should face up to this problem,’ declared the Professor. ‘As you all know, I am a man of peace; but to ignore a friend in need is common behaviour in the lower orders of animals, which are concerned only in their own survival regardless of what may happen to others of their kind. Civilized beings should rise above that.’

‘Now wait a minute, Professor,’ put in Toby, suspiciously. ‘I hope you’re not getting any funny notions about going to the rescue of Terromagna.’

The Professor looked at Multavo. ‘What are you, personally, doing about this?’

‘Frankly, nothing. Naturally, I would like to get back to Terromagna, but I hesitate to risk the lives of the men in the ship that took me to Mino. We were debating the problem with Vargo, Gator his captain and his old navigator, Borron, when word came through from the Mino High Council that Vargo could make this dangerous mission if he wished. That is, if nothing was heard of the missing ship within a short time.’

The Professor frowned. ‘What mission? What missing ship?’ He looked at Vargo, ‘You told me you came here for some tea,’ he accused.

‘That was true. At least, it was one of the reasons. But it is also true that I wanted to see you, perhaps for the last time, before making a voyage from which I may not return. Multavo, being with me expressed a wish to see Earth and how you lived here, so I brought him along.’

‘Ah!’ breathed the Professor. ‘Now we are getting nearer to the root of this little jaunt. Why didn’t you tell me about this proposed trip of yours at once, Vargo?’

‘I had not intended to tell you and would not have done so had not Multavo – what is your expression? – let the cats out of the bags.’

‘Why didn’t you want me to know?’ challenged the Professor, reproachfully.

‘Because I was afraid you would want to come with me.’

‘Well, and what was wrong with that? Don’t you like us anymore?’

‘You know better than that. I did not see why you should risk your lives trying to help someone you do not even know. Now we had better return to the Tavona, to—’

‘Sit still,’ interrupted the Professor, sternly. ‘You are not going off like that. Now we know so much we must know the rest. We might even have to come to look for you. There is no hurry. It won’t be daylight for a long time yet. Have another cup of tea and tell us what you intend to do, and why.’

‘Very well,’ agreed Vargo, in a resigned voice. ‘But please don’t feel under any obligation to—’

‘We shall make our own decisions,’ stated the Professor, firmly. ‘Proceed.’

‘The facts, which are simple, are these,’ said Vargo. ‘They concern a planet which we call Petroconda. It is fairly large in size, nearly as large as Mars, and although we have known of it for a long time it remains something of a mystery.’

‘Where is this planet?’ asked the Professor.

‘In terms of space travel it is no great distance away, lying in the direction of, but beyond, Arcadia – which you have visited.’

‘What’s the mystery about it?’

‘If I knew that, it wouldn’t be a mystery. As far as climate and atmosphere are concerned it would appear to be an attractive place. The air is similar to our own so spacesuits would not be required for a landing. The climate is warm. Even the nights are temperate. Ther. . .