Heritage of the Lizard People Read online

  One of the lower priests came to inform him that an ominous seething mass of visitors had surrounded the walls of the temple, demanding to see the miracle flower.

  Kalal did not have the slightest idea what miraculous flower he was talking about. But at the same time as he received the message, he heard the raucous laughter again. Enraged and frustrated, Kalal was forced to assume that the persons convulsed by the weird laughter knew something about the miracle flower that had been kept from him.

  • • •

  At this moment a telecom message was sent from Terrania to a certain agent on Utik with the request to return to Terra with the first convenient ship. The message was coded. Although it contained about 50 words, the impulse signals of the code were transmitted in 132 microseconds. The receiver of the message did not require the usual deciphering device to unscramble the message. He understood its meaning as it was sent and without conversion.

  Half an hour later the robot Meech Hannigan booked a nonstop flight to Terra at the spaceport of Massennock which was now cleared of the frenzied crowds that had besieged it earlier. He signed the ticket with his proper name: Mitchell Hannigan. He was called ‘Meech’ only because his vocal chords had a faulty timer which caused the vowel "i" to be pronounced long "e" instead of short "i". This minor speech defect was then considered an inconspicuous asset in his type of work and it was therefore decided not to go to the trouble of changing the timer.

  2/ DANGEROUS OPPONENTS

  IT: The activators are not exactly what the opposing side expected from them.

  Homunk: This means.

  IT: This means that they do not accomplish the purpose which activators are designed to fulfill.

  Homunk: Do they achieve anything at all?

  IT: Yes, of course...!

  • • •

  Ron Landry’s first thought after landing on Utik was that the old man could have done better than sending him here.

  The same thought had already occurred to him several times during the preceding 38 hours. This job simply held no attraction whatsoever for Ron. Colonel Quinto had prepared him with the aid of hypnotic machines for the task that awaited him on Utik. Although he enjoyed the privilege of having specialists assigned to his mission, he would have preferred to be sent somewhere other than Utik, which seemed to be infested with elusive individuals who commanded incomprehensible ESP powers. Moreover, Ron’s task had not been succinctly outlined. He was supposed to gather information. This was rather vague and it could involve him in too many situations from which he might find it difficult to extricate himself if left to his own resources.

  It was small comfort to him that Capt. Larry Randall and the new agent Lofty Patterson had already arrived on Utik to assist him in his investigation. He simply was not carried away with enthusiasm for his mission and that was that.

  Sgt. Hannigan knew his way around the city. He hailed an automated taxi and took his superior to a hotel in the center of the city. Then Ron Landry sent him out again to collect information about the Baalol Temple. Six days had elapsed since the robot sergeant had left Utik and it was necessary to check the current state of events.

  Meech returned an hour later with a stack of newspapers, microfilm cassettes and newsreels. The reports revealed that the government officials of Massennock had become concerned with the strange spectacle around the Baalol Temple. None of the observers that were dispatched had been able to find his way back. They had questioned the priests of the temple about the reason for the constant commotion but they seemed to have no explanation. The enchanted masses continued to besiege the gates of the temple, which had to be locked for the first time since the temple existed. The priests had the greatest difficulties leaving the temple by air because the deluded citizens tried to reach the goal of their desires by air as well. Only a protective screen, which the priests had erected around the temple complex, prevented the buildings from being invaded in a few minutes.

  The police of Massennock had been called in to disperse the crowd. But instead of following orders they had thrown away their weapons and joined the siege of the temple. The surroundings of the temple for a radius of 25 km resembled a field of fervent pilgrims. Since all regular channels of communication of Massennock had broken down, nobody knew what the insane hubbub was all about. The result was a state of helplessness and vacillation. Rumors had been heard of a miracle flower hidden in the Temple of Truth but nobody was willing to believe such gossip.

  Ron’s hope to use the information for devising a plan was disappointed. He became resigned to the fact that he had to conduct a personal investigation on the spot. After a thorough study of the available information he lost no more time in starting his inquiry.

  • • •

  The authorities of Massennock had at last taken steps to draw a line one-kilometer behind the outer fringe of the people in the thrall of the temple’s occupant. Nobody was allowed to cross the barricades without a special permit.

  Although Ron Landry did not have this permit he expected to encounter little trouble. In one of the streets where curious onlookers, stood around and talked in groups, Meech Hannigan approached the police cordon. Five policemen guarded the street crossing, at a distance, from an incredible mass of people all trying to get into the temple.

  Ron and Meech walked past the chattering groups. One of the policemen stepped forward from the line of guards and announced in his native Arkon dialect: "You can’t go any farther. The street is blocked."

  "I can pass," Ron replied tersely. "Where is your superior?"

  The policeman was awed by Ron’s firm attitude. "Lt. Nazdek!" he called out in a loud voice so that the officer turned around and looked questioningly at Ron.

  "My name is Landry," Ron stated. "Major of the Terranian Fleet. Here is my identification!"

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small shiny badge. The lieutenant had only to glance at it to know who the visitor was. Everybody in the Galaxy, whether a citizen of the Solar Imperium or Arkon, was familiar with the purple P-Badge and knew that he was asking for trouble if he refused to grant its possessor what the P stood for: Priority.

  "Of course you may pass, Major," the lieutenant replied with a snappy salute.

  "I trust you keep this confidential," Ron smiled.

  He motioned to Meech and they crossed the intersection. Ron turned left. The idea of entering the danger zone did not appeal very much to him. The high walls of the buildings offered little cover. From what—Ron was unable to say at the moment.

  In contrast to the street on the other side of the intersection, the windows of the buildings were closed and empty. The houses appeared to be deserted. The general excitement seemed to have lured everybody to the street and the temple.

  Meech suddenly stopped. Ron missed the sound of his steps and turned around, puzzled.

  "There is somebody—" Meech said quietly.

  Ron knew that Meech didn’t mean just anybody when he said there is somebody. He looked around. "Where?" he asked.

  "In the next house or the one adjacent to it," Meech replied. "Between the 10th and the 15th floor."

  Ron avoided looking in the indicated direction. He had to make a quick decision. He knew that there were no native mutants on Utik... persons whose paranormal abilities could manifest themselves in mental emissions which could be perceived by Meech. Whoever emitted such vibrations on Utik was not of local origin.

  Arkonide mutants were rare and terrestrial mutants were not present on Utik. Thus it had to be a total stranger or an Anti, a priest of the Baalol cult. It suddenly dawned on Ron that there was more to this mission than he had assumed so rashly.

  They were waiting for him! It took him only a second to make a plan. "Let’s keep walking while you watch that fellow," he decided.

  The two men pretended to walk leisurely down the street. It would have appeared to an observer that the pair was engaged in a casual conversation. Once in awhile one or the other feigned a smile when he said
something but the conversation appeared to be rather boring.

  "He doesn’t move," Meech said, shaking his head as if he disagreed with something.

  There was some noise from the end of the street.

  "I would like to know what he’s up to," Ron inquired in a louder voice, raising his eyebrows.

  "I can’t read his thoughts," Meech grinned. "I would guess he’s simply watching us."

  He was about to add something but at this moment he received again the same emanations of the mysterious brain he had registered for the first time six days earlier when he was at the spaceport of Massennock. Meech determined that the emissions originated from the northeast direction where the Temple of Truth was situated. He wanted to point it out to Ron Landry but something interfered.

  • • •

  The scent permeated the street like a cloud of indescribable sweetness and insatiable desire. Ron stood still, deeply enthralled, raising his head and sniffing the air. The fragrance evoked visions of an exquisite flower, beautiful beyond belief, which grew somewhere, almost within his reach. From the very first moment Ron was convinced that his life would never be happy unless he could behold the flower. He knew how delicate and fragile it was. It could perish at any time.

  What a horrible thought! Yet the flower could be preserved and it was worth preserving. If they all joined their efforts to care for it, it could be kept from withering away.

  That was what he had to do! He must see the flower and do his share to nurse and protect it!

  He spun around and slapped Meech on the shoulder, full of enthusiasm. "We want to see the flower, Meech!" he exclaimed in a loud voice.

  Something clicked in Meech’s brain. As a robot Meech was capable of overcoming the worst shock of surprise in an infinitesimal fraction of a second. He nodded impassively and agreed. "Yes. That’s a good idea. Let’s go!"

  Ron walked ahead. Suddenly he was in a big hurry. They soon approached the dark wall of agitated people but Meech paid little attention to it. It was easy for him to keep up with Ron and concentrate his mind at the same time on the brain of the alien who lurked in one of the buildings of the street. Now it began to move. Meech noticed clearly that it followed them.

  The apartment buildings were connected by long corridors which ran from one street to the next, enabling a person inside the building to follow a man walking in the street across a whole block.

  Meech had quickly adjusted himself to Ron’s changed behavior. His fleeting surprise was mainly due to the fact that Ron had fallen under the influence of the obsession so far behind the wall of people. The susceptible zone of radiation from the uncanny brain extended almost to the line of policemen at the intersection.

  He had already taken into consideration the fact that Ron Landry would lose his power of reasoning like everyone else as soon as he entered the threshold of the interference zone. He was fully prepared to rescue Ron from the dangerous region, by force if necessary, if the situation called for a retreat. No human being could resist the strength of a robot.

  Matters were complicated by the presence in one of the empty houses of the person under whose surveillance they had come. As far as he was concerned Meech had no prearranged program and he had to react to the best of his ability at the spur of the moment.

  Ron reached the conglomeration of single-minded people who choked the streets in a solid mass by the tens of thousands so that nobody could move another step. Ron had no intention of letting this deter him. He seized the first two baldheaded men by the shoulders and pushed them aside. "Let me through men!" he clamored in a loud voice. "We have to see the flower and tend it."

  One of the men he had shoved out of his way was too perplexed to say anything but the other one gabbed Ron by the neck and tried to pull him back. "Hey, you!" he shouted angrily. "You can’t do that! We have all been waiting here for hours to get a little closer."

  Approving noises could be heard from all sides and Meech got ready to fight, fearing that Ron’s brash ways would get him into trouble. Meanwhile Ron had whirled around and shaken off the hand of the hotly protesting Utik citizen. "If you can’t figure out a way to get in, my friend," he grinned, "that doesn’t mean that I’m that foolish."

  With these words he gave the baldheaded man a hard push and sent him reeling back into the crowd that had supported his challenge in unison. Now they screamed in a general confusion and before the disturbed mass of people realized what happened Ron slipped through between the spectators with Meech closely following on his heels.

  From now on Ron had hardly any trouble. The news of the incident had spread fast and everybody preferred to squeeze together just a little more to make room for him rather than provoke his ire.

  In this manner Meech followed his boss till they reached the next street intersection. The block of apartments on the left ended at the intersection and whoever had followed them through its corridors would have to decide what to do next.

  Meech decided to give him an opportunity. The street to the left of the intersection seemed to be less crowded than the one straight ahead. Meech took Ron by the arm. "Over there," he whispered. "It will be easier to get through."

  Ron obligingly turned left and Meech guided him along the facade of the apartment block. The throngs thinned out a bit and 20 meters beyond the intersection the street was fairly empty.

  Ron hastened forward in long strides but Meech knew that he wouldn’t get very far. The unknown brain was now very close and judging from the intensity of its emanations it must have conceived a plan. Meech was ready to take defensive action although he did not think he would have to intervene in the imminent incident.

  Ron approached the luminescent escalator steps leading from the street up to the portal of the house without diverting his eyes from his path. Only when he heard a sharp voice did he stop and turn around.

  "Don’t move, you two!" said the voice.

  The man who stood at the open portal looked quite normal to Meech. He was dressed in the unimaginative fashion of Utik and the only thing that made him look different from the other Utik citizens was his bushy hair—and of course the short-barreled raygun he held in his hand.

  Meech did not know how Ron would react. He had to watch for two things, namely what Ron would do and that the stranger would not get a chance to shoot. He stood so that he could see both Ron and the stranger from an angle and slowly raised his arms. To his relief he noticed that Ron followed his example after hesitating a little.

  "Come up here!" the stranger ordered, waving his weapon.

  Meech stepped on the escalator moving up to the portal. He did not have to look back as he felt that Ron was close behind him.

  The stranger stepped aside and allowed Meech to pass through the portal. Since he had to take his eyes off Meech it was clear to the robot that somebody else was behind the portal to give him a reception. Thus he was not the least bit surprised when he was hit on the head with some kind of a club as soon as he entered the semi-dark lobby. Meech was totally impervious to such old-fashioned tactics but he knew what was expected of him. He groaned painfully, fell to his knees and slowly toppled over so that the impact of his heavy body would not shake the hall too much.

  As he lay on the floor he watched through the slits of his eyes as Ron received the same treatment. There was only one difference: Ron was really knocked unconscious.

  Four men appeared from the depths of the lobby. Two of them carried thin rods of plastic metal which they had used to knock out Meech and Ron. As they came closer Meech became aware that their brains also had the special power to emit frequencies to which his sensory equipment was attuned. However their emissions were considerably weaker than those of the brain of the man brandishing the raygun and Meech took it to be the reason that he had not noticed them sooner.

  "Take them upstairs!" the man with the weapon instructed them.

  Meech was unable to see him because he lay with his back to the portal. But he realized that the time had come to tak
e some action. If they tried to lift him they would notice how heavy he was and probably draw the right conclusion—which would not be helpful at all.

  He observed that two of the strangers picked up Ron and carried him to one of the grav-shafts in the back. Meanwhile the other two tried to tackle him. Meech felt how they seized by his head and legs and heard one of them groan and exclaim, appalled: "I swear by the Sign of Truth! This guy is as heavy as if he were made of stone!"

  The other two men at the shaft and the man at the portal were startled and came closer out of curiosity. Ron was left behind, lying on the floor, and this was what Meech had waited for. He wanted to have Ron out of the way if it came to a fight.

  Meech jumped up in a sudden move. As he flung his massive body against the two men who had tried to lift him up, he swept them off their feet and hurled them to the floor. Even as he leaped to his feet and whirled around, he saw that he had guessed right. The stranger with the raygun had reacted with lightning speed. He had swung his weapon around and Meech could look down the ugly black hole of the short barrel. But the 1/100th of a second which the finger of an organic being requires to pull a trigger are an eternity for a robot. Faster than anyone could perceive, Meech drew up his right hand and discharged the shock-beamer whose muzzle was under the tip of his index finger. The body of the stranger shook violently; then he uttered a cry, stiffened and slumped to the side, dropping his gun which clanged on the smooth stone floor.

  Meech flung his outstretched arms back again and turned toward the last two fighters, who had grasped the situation and lunged toward him with their rods as he had correctly anticipated. Meech parried their blows and struck their foreheads. Without a sound they fell flat on their backs and remained motionless. Then he whacked the two porters who wanted to carry him away again, to make sure that they wouldn’t get up too soon. Thus the quick fray was over and Meech cautiously looked around to see if any other dangerous opponent lurked in the vicinity.