Golden Age Science Fiction Classics (2011) Page 20

  Weathering did not permit this. He knew that the Martians' source of existence was the gray vegetation of the oases. This vegetation was mostly a sage shrub which bore pod-like fruits about the time the polar snow-caps reappeared. Weathering sent parties forth,

  Lieutenant Jimmy Crane heading one, to devastate the oases for a hundred miles around the earth-post.

  They carried out orders though the Martians in those cases made fierce resistance, and there were mad combats of brown-clad earthmen and furry Martians in brilliant sunlight of day or black, freezing night. But Crane's and the other parties went stubbornly ahead, destroying the vegetation with atom-blasts. And in the end, with the vegetation that yielded their food-supply destroyed, the Martians in that hundred-mile circle had to retire across the red desert to other oases.

  Weathering then split his forces into three divisions using his rockets to transport two of these divisions to points equidistant around Mars' equator. At each point a post like Weathering's own was established, with dirtworks in a square around it and atom-blast batteries mounted. Jimmy Crane, who had shown aptitude thus far in Martian campaigning, was made commander of one of these posts and a Lieutenant Lanson commander of the other. Halkett and Burnham stayed in Weathering's own post.

  Eighty of the ninety-seven rockets that had landed safely. Weathering now sent back to earth for more men and supplies. Word came from earth that fifty new rockets had been constructed and were on their way with men and materials. Weathering distributed them equally among his three posts when they came and sent them also back to earth for more. Crane and Lanson, under his orders, had devastated the oases around their posts to drive the Martians back from them.

  2

  The Conquest Of Mars

  Weathering’s men were becoming acclimated to Martian conditions. The oxygenation treatments eliminated most of the Martian fever, and as the earthmen's muscles attuned themselves gradually to the new gravitation their movements became more sure. It is worthy of note that some of those first venturers who went back from Mars to earth after a year on the red planet were stricken by a sort of earth-sickness due to earth's different conditions.

  As reinforcements came in. Weathering continued to distribute them among the three posts of Crane and Lanson and himself. He wanted to establish the three forts firmly before an overwhelming Martian attack swept them out of existence. There were signs that that could be expected from the Martians.

  The Martian attacks were growing fiercer. The Martians could see plainly enough the course Weathering was following, and that each week brought more rockets from earth with more men, more supplies and more atom-blasts and atomic bombs. They determined upon a concerted attack to wipe out the earthmen's three forts before they became too strong.

  The attack broke against the three forts, so widely separated, at the same time. It did not catch Weathering and Crane and Lanson by surprise—their atom-blasts were ready. But even so, the Martian attack was almost irresistible in sheer weight. From far across the reddish desert surged the furry Martian masses toward the three little forts, coming on despite the atom-blasts that took toll of them by tens of thousands.

  Weathering's post and that of Crane withstood the attack by only the utmost endeavor. Halkett had charge of one of the atom-blast batteries at Weathering's fort, on the side that the Martians attacked most determinedly. It was Halkett's battery that wrought the deadliest destruction amid the furry hordes.

  The third post, that of Lanson, fell. The Martians got inside with their chemical weapons despite the atom-blasts and bombs of the earthmen. Lanson and his garrison were massacred to the last man by the Martians. Only one of the three rockets stationed at Lanson's post escaped, a little before the fort fell, and got to Weathering with the news.

  Weathering acted at once, despite his own precarious situation. He assembled sixteen rockets from his fort and Crane's, loaded them with men and weapons, and sent them under the command of Mart Halkett to reestablish the third fort. They did so, taking the Martians there by surprise, and managed to hold the place in the face of the Martian attacks that followed.

  There followed a lull in the fighting, with Weathering, Crane and Halkett holding grimly on in the three forts. The Martians had lost tremendous numbers without dislodging the earthmen, and were in no mood for further attacks in force. Yet they did not retire but continued to encircle the forts.

  But steadily the earthmen's strength grew as more rockets came in. Earth was aflame over the situation, cheering Weathering as the upholder of terrestrial honor. The gallant fight of earth's lonely outposts there amid the Martian hordes had appealed to the popular imagination and there were insistent demands that the Interplanetary Council use all its powers to reinforce them.

  It meant to do so. It sent Weathering a message stating as much, advancing him from colonel to general, promoting Jimmy Crane to colonel, and Halkett and Bumham and a number of others to captaincies. The enlistment bureaus of the Council on earth could not handle the flood of recruits.

  Rockets were now pouring from the factories in a steadily increasing stream. Atomic weapons were also being produced in quantity and every few days saw rockets laden with supplies and men taking off for Mars. Many perished still in the dangers of the void but most arrived safely. Weathering continued to distribute the men and supplies they brought among his three posts.

  When the three forts were strong enough to be impregnable to any Martian attack. Weathering began the establishment of new posts. He proceeded methodically to dot Mars with small but strong forts, each covering a certain portion of the planet's surface. Hall Bumham was made commander of one of the first of these. Crane and Halkett retaining command of their posts.

  Within a year Weathering had a network of fifty forts stretched over Mars' surface from the north polar snow-cap to the southern one. He had in them strong garrisons of bronzed earthmen thoroughly acclimated to the Martian gravitation and atmosphere, and well seasoned in fighting with the stilt-limbed Martians. By then Halkett and Bumham were commanding two of the fifty forts, while Jimmy Crane was now Weathering's second in command. The two worked together distributing, according to their plan, among the fifty . posts, the streams of men and materials arriving from earth.

  With the next melting of the polar snow-caps. Weathering was ready to begin the final subjugation of Mars. From a circle of six of his forts he sent out strong forces to attack and drive together the Martians in that circular territory. This was the plan evolved by Weathering and Crane, to concentrate forces upon one section of the planet at a time, using the forts around that section as bases, mopping up the Martians in that section thoroughly and then proceeding to another.

  * * * * *

  Crane had charge of the first operation and it worked perfectly. The Interplanetary Council had directed Weathering to offer the Martians peace if they promised to obey the Government's authority. But Crane's men had no chance even to make the offer, so utterly fierce was the Martian resistance.

  The Martians had never expected what happened. The furry, stilt-limbed men had ceased their attacks on the earthmen's forts some time before, save for occasional raids, and had retired to take up existence in the vegetation oases remoter from the forts. There they had lived as they had for ages, moving in nomadic fashion through the oases gathering the fruits upon which they subsisted, digging as ages of experience had made them skillful in doing for the underground springs. Now the earthmen were attacking them! The Martians rose madly to the fight.

  But Crane's forces were strongly armed and with atom-blasts and atom bombs against their crude weapons the Martians had no chance. Those in that section were mostly killed in the fighting and the few remaining were herded into prison camps. Crane went on under Weathering's order to another section and repeated the maneuver. Halkett's fort was one of the posts around that section, but Halkett and Crane had small opportunity of seeing each other in the midst of the grim business of rounding up the Martians. With that section subdued
like the first, the forces of Crane concentrated on another.

  Within another year Weathering could send word back to the Council that the plan had succeeded and that except for a few remote wastes near the snow-caps, Mars was entirely subjugated. In that year approximately three-fourths of the Martian race had perished, for in almost every case their forces had resisted to the last. Those who remained could constitute no danger to the earthmen's system of forts. The Council flashed Weathering congratulations and gave Crane command of the expedition then fitting out on earth for the exploration of Jupiter.

  Crane went back to earth to take charge of it, first taking warm leave of Mart Halkett and Hall Bumham at the posts they commanded. Crane spent a half year on earth preparing his expedition of two hundred rockets to meet conditions on Jupiter. For Jupiter presented a greater problem to earth explorers than had Mars, and biologists and chemists had been working to overcome the obstacles.

  The greatest difficulty, Crane saw, was Jupiter's gravitation, almost twice that of earth despite the swift-spinning planet's counteracting centrifugal force. Gillen's visit to Jupiter on his epochal flight had been terminated by sickness brought on by that greater gravitation and the heavy damp atmosphere. Crane's men must be strengthened to withstand these influences.

  Earth's scientists solved the problem to some extent by devising rigid metallic clothing not unlike armor which would support the interior human structure against Jupiter's pull. Crane's men were also administered compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone to strengthen the skeleton structure, while respirators which absorbed a percentage of the water vapor in air would solve for Crane's men the problem of the heavy wet atmosphere.

  So equipped. Crane's expedition sailed in its two hundred rockets for Jupiter, choosing a time when the asteroid zone between earth and Jupiter was comparatively clear. Even so, sixteen of the two hundred rockets never reached their destination. The others landed safely in the fern forests of the southern half of Jupiter, and Crane began there establishment of the first earth-post.

  He found himself with troubles enough. For though the metal armor and other protections safeguarded the earthmen fairly effectively from the greater gravitation, they found it still difficult to make the simplest motions. It took weeks for Crane's men, against the drag of the Jovian gravity, to clear the fern forest around them and turn up dirtworks of the oozy black Jovian soil.

  Sickness was rife among them, for the respirators did not work as well as the safeguards against gravitation. The heavy wet air worked havoc with the earthmen's lungs and the so-called Jovian croup became soon as well-known and much more feared than Martian fever. Men toiling in the thin sunlight were stricken by it. Crane's forces were decimated by it. The fern forests, too, held weird forms of life that proved a problem, some of them disk-shaped things of flesh that enveloped anything living in their bodies and ingested it directly. There were also strange huge worm-like things existing in the oozy soil, and others stranger still. Crane's men had to work with atom- blasts constantly ready to repel these strange predatory forms of life.

  * * * * *

  Out of the fern forests, too, came to watch the earthmen hosts of the big, soft-bodied creatures Gillen had called the Jovians. These had bodies eight feet high and six feet around, like big cylinders of hairless brown flesh supported on thick flipper-like limbs, with similar flipper-like arms. Their small round heads had dark mild eyes and mouths from which came their deep bass speech. Crane found they were perhaps as intelligent as the Martians but were rather more peaceful, their only weapons spears with which they fought off the things in the fern forests that attacked them.

  They were quite friendly toward the earthmen and watched their operations with child-like interest. Crane intended to avoid Drake's mistake and not clash with the Jovians in any way while his men toiled to establish first one post and then others over southern Jupiter. He reported to the Council that he would only operate in South Jupiter for the time being. And while earth followed Crane's work on South Jupiter with intense interest, a host of changes were occurring on Mars.

  Mart Halkett, still commanding his equatorial Martian post, saw a new kind of migration now going on from earth to Mars. Hitherto the rockets had carried hardly anything but the reinforcements of the Council and their supplies. But now Halkett saw crowds of civilians pouring into the newly subjugated planet. They were magnates, speculators, engineers, mechanics, for the Council was now granting concessions in the great Martian mineral and chemical deposits.

  Halkett saw those forts nearest the deposits, including his own, grow rapidly into raw mine towns packed with earthmen of all kinds. Martian fever had been completely conquered by earth's scientists and some of these crude new towns contained thousands of earthmen. There could be seen among them occasional stilt-limbed, huge- chested Martians moving about as though bewildered by the activity about them, but most of the remaining Martians were on certain oases set aside for them as reservations. Refining and extracting plants were set up as mining operations grew, and Halkett saw the rocket fleets that arrived with men and machinery going back to earth laden with metals and chemicals.

  Halkett went up to Burnham's post in northern Mars sick at heart. He told Burnham he had secured a transfer to Jupiter to serve there in Jimmy Crane's expanding system of forts.

  "I can't stand this any longer. Burn," he said. "I mean what we've done to this world—the Martians, its people, almost wiped out and those left treated the way they are."

  Burnham looked keenly at him. "You're taking it too hard, Halkett," he said. "It's been a tough time, I admit, but that's all over now the Martians are conquered."

  "Conquered—wiped out, I say again," Halkett said bitterly. "Burnham, I dream about it sometimes—those waves of furry stilt-men coming on and on toward certain death, and my atom-blasts mowing them down like grass."

  "They had to be conquered," Bumham argued. "Isn't it worth it? Look at all this planet's resources thrown open to real use now instead of lying unused."

  "Thrown open to a lot of speculators and financiers to extract a profit from," Halkett amended. "The Martians are killed off and we do the dirty work of killing them and all for what? So this bunch swarming into Mars now can enrich themselves."

  "That's too narrow a view," Bumham told him. "It's inevitable that there'll be certain evils in the course of an expansion like this."

  "Why expand, then?" asked Halkett. "Why not stay on our own planet and leave these poor devils of Martians and Jovians keep theirs?"

  Bumham shook his head. "Expansion is as inevitable as a full tank overflowing into an empty one. Anyway, Halk, the fighting's over here now so why go on to Jupiter?"

  "Because I feel like a murderer haunting the scene of his crime," Halkett told him. "When I see some of these degraded Martians hanging around our towns, begging for food and getting cuffed and kicked out of the way by earthmen, I want to get out of here to I don't care where."

  Halkett went on to Jupiter. He found by then Crane had established a dozen posts over the southern half of the vast planet, following Weathering's Martian system. Jovian croup was giving Crane more trouble than anything else and the dreaded disease was often fatal, the death list sometimes appalling while the earth scientists worked frantically to control the disease. They finally succeeded in evolving a serum which was an effective preventive. Halkett was inoculated with this immediately on reaching Jupiter.

  Halkett found that Crane was, despite the difficulties, strengthening his system of posts as reinforcements arrived constantly from I earth. He had been successful in avoiding trouble with the Jovians so far—the strange forms of life that came out from the steamy fern forests to attack the earthmen were of more concern than the numberless but peaceful hosts of the Jovians

  Crane commented on the Jovians to Halkett the night after the latter's arrival. The two had been outside the post and Halkett had met the Jovians for the first time, the big, soft-eyed flipper-men cluste
ring around him like interested children. Now he and Crane sat in Crane's lamp-lit office, whose windows looked out across the post to the mighty wall of the surrounding fern forest. Halkett could hear the calls and screams of the forest's various weird tenants, and could see its steamy mists rising into the light of the two moons then in the sky, Callisto and Europa.

  "These Jovians aren't a bad bunch, Halk," Colonel Jimmy Crane told his friend. "They seem too mild to give us any real trouble, though God knows how many millions of them there are."

  He was enthusiastic about Jupiter's possibilities. "I tell you, this is the planet of the future. Stick a seed in the ground and in a week you've a tree—this planet will be supporting trillions of humans some day when earth and Mars are overcrowded."

  "Where will the Jovians be when that day arrives?" Halkett asked him. Crane looked at him.

  "Still holding to that viewpoint? Halkett, we have to let some things take care of themselves. Be sure we'll not harm the Jovians if they don't try banning us."

  "Well, we may be able to get along with them," Halkett said thoughtfully. "They seem rather more peaceful than the Martians."

  3

  Jupiter Next!

  But trouble came soon after Halkett's arrival, with the Jovians. Crane had been engaged in strengthening his dozen posts scattered over the southern half of Jupiter. He had not tried to establish any forts in North Jupiter, realizing the insufficiency of his resources, for even the dozen on the huge planet's southern half were separated by tremendous distances. Rocket communication between them was fairly quick but Crane preferred to strengthen the twelve forts before establishing more.

  Then came the trouble. It began as on Mars—a bad-tempered earthman at one of the forts beat a flipper-man for some reason and in a brawl that ensued one earthman and five Jovians were killed. Word must have spread somehow in the fern forests for the Jovians retired from the forts of the earthmen. Jimmy Crane cursed in private but acted, punishing the earthmen concerned and sending Halkett to the Jovian communities to patch up matters.