The Blue Dwarfs Read online

  Once on shore, the alligator was measured and found to be 37½ feet long, a size its Earthly cousins never reached. Otherwise it resembled them exactly, even to the arrangement of the scales. Nature seemed to have gone by and large in the same direction on 'Grey Beast' as it had on Earth.

  Freddy began her examination immediately. She went to it with such fervor that when Mullon mentioned the fact the helicopter could no longer fly she answered: "Then we'll walk!"

  Pashen and Milligan were given the job of skinning the alligator without ruining the skin in doing so. It was a difficult task for two men who had previously seen alligators only in zoos.

  As Freddy looked closely into the alligator's mouth, she made an astounding discovery. Far back and half-swallowed she found something which looked like a piece of blue cloth. With Milligan's help she pulled it out and laid it out in the sun.

  It looked indeed like a cloth although a weave could not be seen. It had soaked up a considerable amount of water and was rather heavy.

  "Well, it looks like the crocodile ate somebody up but a piece of his clothes stuck on the croc's teeth on the way down," Mullon joked.

  Freddy, however, was not in a joking mood. "I wish there was a laboratory around here," she sighed. "I'd really like to know what sort of thing this is."

  Mullon picked it off the ground and looked at it closely. "A piece of cloth—what else?" he inquired.

  Freddy became irritated. "We're in the middle of nowhere—how could a piece of cloth get here?"

  "Maybe this river is the same one that flows past Greenwich?" Mullon said. "Then it would be quite possible someone in Greenwich threw an old shirt or something into the water and it floated until the alligator tried to eat it."

  That was a credible explanation. Its one disadvantage was that it stripped Freddy of all her illusions. She was so angry about that that she no longer paid any attention to the piece of 'cloth'.

  That was clearly an error. Two hours later it was suddenly realized that the blue cloth had vanished. Freddy believed that one of the men had taken it but neither Milligan nor Pashen nor Mullon knew anything about it.

  The entire island was searched step by step but the cloth remained unaccounted for.

  "Maybe the wind blew it away," offered Milligan.

  "Have you felt the slightest breeze since we landed here?" demanded Freddy, irritated.

  After an hour of searching, the only conclusion was that the blue cloth was no longer on the island. How it had disappeared, one could guess—and Freddy's guesses were marvels of fantasy and imagination—but as far as knowing went, no, one could not know.

  • • •

  The day gradually drew to a close. There had been hardly any rest stops, so much had the men been fascinated by Freddy's examination of the alligator.

  Freddy had made careful notes and did not hide her pride at having discovered, examined and classified a hitherto completely unknown animal.

  After the evening meal, Mullon assigned the watch periods. He explained to the others what was involved: "Assuming we do in fact have an enemy or just someone very curious on our hands, he can do nothing about us as long as he can't watch us from nearby. My guess is that he will take advantage of the darkness by coming across the river and getting a good look at us. So we must keep our eyes open. Our goal is to either deal with the unknown directly or take so many of his people captive that we can trade their freedom for recharging our batteries."

  Milligan nodded in approval.

  "And if he—or they—do show up, what should I say?" asked Pashen.

  Mullon returned his sarcastic look. "Well," he answered, "I do hope you'll be polite."

  • • •

  Mullon woke up with a start. Barely an hour had gone by, according to his calculation, since he had ended his watch and woke up Milligan.

  Why had he woken up?

  He crept quietly—so as not to wake Freddy—out of the tent. As he let the flap drop behind him, he heard someone moan by the river's edge in front of him. "Milligan!" he called lightly.

  A second moan came in answer.

  Mullon reached for his gun and moved quietly towards the place where Milligan had taken up his post. Mullon had hardly moved 10 feet when his attention was attracted by an apparition so astonishing he stopped dead in his tracks.

  Over the gently splashing water of the river floated a group of ghostly blue little flames. Their form resembled the St. Elmo's Fire the party had seen the day before. But these were blue and at least five times larger.

  The blue flames seemed to be coming over the river. The first had already reached the shore and floated over to where Milligan was standing watch.

  Milligan! What had happened to him?

  Mullon took a quick step forward but in that instant something soft but possessing irresistible force dropped on him from above. It checked his step and pressed him to the ground. He tried to get up again but the inexplicable strength holding him down proved to be insurmountable.

  Mullon was still able to see how the most forward of the flames came directly towards him. He heard a choking scream from Freddy's tent, then the pressure bearing down on him became so heavy that he lost consciousness.

  • • •

  As he came to once more, he found himself lying in a wide, half-lit room on a level, cold and solid floor. He noticed the vague outlines of strange objects in his vicinity.

  He tried to get up but hardly had he made the first movement then the same force he had felt earlier pressed down on him again and pressed him against the floor. Then the pressure eased and finally vanished altogether as he made no further movements.

  Taken prisoner, Mullon decided. But by whom?

  Where were his companions?

  He called their names and from somewhere in the half-light Milligan's voice answered.

  "Milligan, where are you?"

  "Here, Boss! I'm lying on the floor and can't move."

  "The same with me."

  "So where are we, anyway?"

  Mullon told him he had just as little idea as he—Milligan—himself. Then Milligan explained to him what had happened while he was on watch-duty. "I suddenly saw a few blue lights out over the water. They moved back and forth like a will-o'-the-wisp over a moor. When the things started moving towards the island, I wanted to get up and go wake you. But just as I got to my feet, something threw itself at me, pushed me to the ground and cut off my air. I couldn't get any sound out and a few moments later I must have blacked out."

  "Just like me," Mullon confirmed. "If only I had some idea of what's keeping me pinned down!"

  He tried to get up for a second time but the results were the same as before: something threw itself at him as soon as he moved, pressed him down and went away again once he lay motionless on the floor.

  In the half-light, Mullon should have been able to see what pressed him down... if there was anything to see. Whatever it was that pressed him was either naturally invisible or possessed the power of making itself invisible.

  Mullon remembered the St. Elmo's Fire. He was convinced that an electrical field had been set up over the island. Fields—no matter what sort—were invisible. Could something similar be at work here, like a gravity field, perhaps? Something whose field limit ran somewhere just above the floor and pushed him back whenever he tried to rise?

  A third voice called out from the half-light after some time: Freddy. She was spared the shock of finding herself alone in the darkness. Mullon and Milligan answered her timorous calls immediately.

  Pashen came to 15 minutes later. It developed that the strange attack had surprised all four inhabitants of the island in the same way: each, except for Milligan, had first heard moaning and throat-rattling, had crawled out of the tent, had seen the blue flames and had sunk to the ground under the powerful pressure of an inexplicable force, losing consciousness shortly thereafter.

  In any event, all four now found themselves in the same situation. None of them could get up. By t
he

  slightest upward movement the unknown forcefield or whatever it was pushed back down from above and made it impossible even to bend a finger.

  "We can do nothing except wait," said Mullon finally. "They wouldn't have brought us here just to let us starve. Someone will come sooner or later to look in on us... and then we'll have our chance to complain."

  • • •

  The 'sooner or later' stretched out into just 'later'. The prisoners conversed in the meantime and tried to guess what sort of room they were in. The vague outlines they saw were too alien to form any conclusions from them.

  After some long hours, just as the prisoners were exchanging ideas as to the size of the room, they heard chirping and humming noises from the background. The four were instantly quiet and listened as the noises gradually drew closer. Mullon thought he saw pale blue light somewhere in the distance but was not able to see any more as at that moment, harsh white lights flamed on and shone with glaring brilliance.

  Blinded, Mullon shut his eyes. As he opened them slowly and cautiously once more, he discovered above him and just off to the side one of the light sources: a glass globe more than a foot in diameter. In its center hung a glowing white filament.

  A light bulb! Good Lord—a light bulb on Grautier!

  At that moment, Freddy cried out: "There's our blue cloth!"

  Mullon turned to the side. Freddy lay only a few yards away and by her, just above the floor, floated such a piece of blue cloth as they had rescued from the jaws of the alligator. It was in constant trembling motion, changing its color from deep violet to bright turquoise and emitted the humming and chirping sounds that had been heard before the light came on.

  More of the blue cloths came out of the background. They all moved just above the floor, as though the laws of gravity did not apply to them, gathered in circles around their prisoners and hummed incessantly.

  Confused, Mullon sat up. He did not notice that there was no longer any force preventing him from doing so. He stared at the strange blue figures dancing around him.

  He cautiously stretched out his hand to one and tried to grasp it. It freely allowed itself to be grasped and slid over Mullon's hand. It remained there motionless for awhile, then resumed its place in the dance and began to hum again.

  Mullon looked around. Milligan, Pashen and Freddy were surrounded just as he was. They, too, had sat up and were trying to understand what was going on around them. To judge from their expressions, their success had been no greater than Mullon's.

  "What kind of things are these?" demanded Milligan in desperation. "What do they want?"

  What kind of things are these was also Mullon's question.

  The answer was obvious—it was on the tip of his tongue—but it was so unthinkable he could not pronounce it. And yet, these blue beings had attacked the island and taken four prisoners with the help of their mysterious field technology. They had somehow brought the prisoners to this room, which wag equipped with strange machinery and illuminated by old-fashioned light bulbs.

  In any case, the blue cloths were a form of life, although it was impossible to think of a more unlikely one. But they were without a doubt intelligent!

  Mullon stared at them but he could learn no more from them than he could earlier from the one they had pulled out of the alligator's mouth. There was no bodily structure, to say nothing of limbs or anything that could be compared with them. The bodies seemed to consist of a homogeneous mass and their shapes were irregular and rather arbitrary, if not elastic. No two of the blue beings looked alike and none of them looked now the way it did a second before. Everything was in flowing and gliding movement—the body as a whole just as much as its shapes and colors.

  It was a spectacle that at the same time disturbed and fascinated the viewer.

  "They won't do anything to us," said Freddy suddenly. "After all, we saved one of them from the alligator!"

  5/ INCREDIBLY ALIEN

  And in the end, Freddy was right.

  Strange as the behavior of the blue beings was, it was not at all hostile. One even often had the impression that the creatures danced only to make peace with their four captives and to help them recover from the fright they had suffered.

  The disappearance of the gravity field, which had earlier prevented the four from standing up, was a further proof that no danger threatened and that no one intended to hold the Terrans by force.

  Nevertheless, Mullon saw a difficult task in front of him. All his logic so far had seemed quite reasonable but he must not simply assume that the blue beings were bound to the premises of Earthly logic. While he, Mullon, regarded the disappearance of the gravity field as a friendly sign, it might be just the opposite for the dancing blue creatures.

  "Come here," Mullon said to his crew. "Who has any weapons?"

  Milligan had a pistol with him, as did Pashen. Milligan had dropped his rifle when the island was attacked and it probably was still there.

  "First," said Mullon, "we have to find out where we are, how we're to get out of here, what these blue fellows have in mind for us and if they can repair our helicopter or not. Anything else is secondary."

  As the former prisoners got up and congregated, the blue will-o'-the-wisp stopped dancing. Now they floated in a tightly packed group a finger's breadth above the floor. They quivered now only slightly; the humming and chirping had grown softer and the body colors changed less rapidly. It looked like a conference.

  "Yeah," sighed Milligan after hearing Mullon's priority list, "but how are we going to find all that out?"

  "We'll probably be able to find a way out of this room by ourselves," said Mullon. "We'll go outside and look around. I think we're in the middle of the jungle—we're certainly not on the island any longer. I... "

  "Look!" interrupted Freddy, excited. "They're flying ahead... no, now they've stopped!"

  The group of blue beings had set itself in motion and was about 30 feet away, having glided between two odd-shaped machines. Now they stopped again and two of the blue beings came back, as though asking the Terrans to follow them.

  "Alright, then," said Mullon, "onward! They want to show us something!"

  The blues moved much faster than people could. Regularly they glided a few yards ahead, then waited for the Terrans to catch up with them; and the game began again.

  In this way Mullon and his companions were led through the entire room—a huge rectangular chamber about 150 feet long and 90 feet wide. The ceiling was close to 12 feet above the floor. The room seemed to have no other purpose than to harbor some 20 of the strangely shaped machines, whose function the Terrans were unable to determine, even in the bright light from the bulbs.

  At the end of the room was a row of exits. They were doorless and led into hallways that were no less brilliantly lit than the great room. The blues chose the middle exit. Through it was reached a hall whose ceiling was just six feet high. Its floor was level at first but soon began to gently ascend.

  Mullon marched ahead. He was the first to see a grey fleck in the distance which seemed to be the end of the hallway. He then felt a touch of warm, damp air from ahead.

  In a few minutes it could be seen that the grey fleck was nothing less than the light of early morning, which could not yet compete with the radiant glow of the large light bulbs. It could also be seen that the hallway led out on the side of a hill rising from the middle of the jungle. The hill itself was only lightly covered with bushes.

  The hill was close to 150 feet high and the hall exit was about two-thirds of that distance up, allowing an overview of the jungle treetops. Mullon saw far to the east a dark stripe meandering through the midst of the forest: a river. Was it the same one in which their island lay?

  Looking about, Mullon discovered a number of other exits cut in the face of the hill. The blues had probably constructed an entire city beneath the hill.

  Mullon wanted to point the river out to his companions but just then other swarms of the blue beings gushed o
ut of the other exits and merged with the group that had led the Terrans out of the subterranean room. Altogether there must have now been 200 of them, floating just above the bushes. For a moment Mullon feared that if things were going to become violent, it would be now.

  But the blues remained calm. Unhindered, Mullon could turn to his companions and discuss with them the best way to get to the river flowing through the jungle in the distance.

  Then he suddenly felt himself lifted off his feet. He was frightened at first for he felt nothing but the sensation of free fall. He saw he was floating above the ground, held by some invisible force at a height of 15 feet.

  His friends stared at him in horror. "What is it?" cried Milligan. "Should I shoot, boss?"

  Mullon waved defensively. "No!" he called back. "Put that pistol away. I think that... " At that moment Freddy screamed in terror. She staggered, seemed about to fall over but in the same second she was drawn up into the air and presently came to a stop next to Mullon.

  "What's going on?" she cried fearfully to Mullon. "What are they doing with us?"

  "Be calm," Mullon laughed. "They probably want to take us to the river."

  "How? Over the trees?"

  "That's right," said Mullon. "They have amazing powers at their disposal. The same gravity field they used to hold us down now holds us suspended in the air. Now they have only to propel us over, the jungle and we'll be at the river. Look, here comes Milligan!" Now Milligan had lost touch with the ground and came floating by. Then at last Pashen was lifted into the air, too.

  "Now we're all together," said Milligan, laughing. "And it looks like the fun isn't over yet."

  The blues had started moving again. In closed formation they swept down the hillside and into the jungle. The thick underbrush seemed to offer no resistance to the small, slim figures. "They're going on in!" Milligan exclaimed. "And what's going to happen to us?" He had hardly pronounced the last word when Mullon had the feeling of being pushed. He glided through the air away from the hill and over the treetops. Looking around, he saw that his friends were