Brain of Venus by John Russell Fearn Read online

  The Brain of Lu Sang

  denoted the late rocket man.

  “Well, anyhow, something’s got to be

  done. We must fire all tubes away from THE mysterious disappearance of Liner 762

  Venus—”

  was the one topic of conversation on both

  Mars and Earth for many a long day

  DESPERATION caused Mason to leave his

  afterward. The mystery vied in popularity with

  sentence unfinished. He floundered from the

  that of the old time sea vessel, Mary Celeste.

  cabin, pursued by the alarmed Benson. No thought of mutiny seemed to enter Together they entered the control cabin and

  anybody’s head; there had been no suspicion

  tried fiercely to calculate intricacies that it had of it upon departure. Communications of

  taken trained men many years to master. It

  sympathy were sent through the void from

  simply couldn’t be done.

  every tenanted planet, even from the strange

  Benson stared with a blanched face at

  denizens of distant Pluto, who sent, in their

  the growing face of Venus, world of mystery,

  own queer fashion, their deepest condolences.

  far ahead. Venus, the world unknown. A

  Scout machines tirelessly searched the

  strange icy terror crept the length of his spine.

  spaceways for some sign of the missing liner,

  Venus—so lovely, so radiant, yet hiding but no traces did they find. Venus was thought beneath her dense, watery atmosphere with its

  of as the possible solution—but only thought

  high light reflective capacity, the first forms of of. There had yet to be a man with nerve

  squirming, terrible life. Those who had dared

  enough to risk again the mysteries of that

  to descend on Venus’ surface had never awful world. So the mystery of 762 remained returned.

  a mystery.

  And with the seconds Venus was

  Perhaps the most interested of all in

  growing. Mars was far away now, retreating

  the disappearance was the lean, saturnine Roy

  with every second. The space ship, Jefferson, chief scientist and radio head of the uncontrolled, unmanageable, raced with ever

  New York space depot. Mysteries in space

  growing speed through infinity, chained by the

  were his hobby, tempting danger his only

  planet’s gravitation.

  delight in life. For a long time after the

  In the stateroom the passengers milled

  general hue and cry had died down the

  to and fro, battling to obtain a view through

  mystery of 762 continued to absorb his mind,

  the windows at the inevitable death speeding

  though even he could make no move toward

  through space toward them.

  solving it. Nevertheless, he was alive for the

  Faster—faster, through the growing faintest possible clue, and in a good position minutes, while two rocket men tried vainly to

  to receive any, for through him came all

  figure the right way.

  interstellar messages.

  Brain of Venus

  7

  And while he pondered through the

  healthy life that teemed about it, gathering

  passing months, something strange was strength, living, arising from the gulfs of occurring on Venus, within half a mile of the

  mental suspension into which an earthly

  wreckage of 762. At first sight the view was

  anaesthetic had originally plunged it.

  but that already familiar to the hapless

  Venus, the hell planet, receptive to life,

  explorers who had come from Earth—and in its early evolutionary stages. Its heavy never returned.

  atmosphere, permeated with a rich gaseous

  Gigantic trees, overburdened with content, and the raw chemicals abundant in dense, over-ripe foliage of a bilious green hue

  the protoplasmic soil all helped the alien brain towered upward from the steamy and to grow, expand and live. Cell tissue growth impassable undergrowth that rioted on the accelerated; and Nature, highly adaptive on spongy ground. Everywhere there was embryonic Venus, quickly created a protective steam—the dank and insufferable heat of a

  healing shell for the brain that would guard it

  very young and deadly world, twenty-six against harmful bacteria and unfavorable million miles nearer the sun than Earth, filled

  climatic conditions. Mental life had come to

  with gases mainly poisonous in their sheer,

  Venus, mental life destined to go on,

  undiluted potency. Occasionally clouds drifted

  unhindered.

  in the brilliantly blue sky, but in the main the sun blazed eternally on this, the day side, of

  FOR two years after the disappearance of 762

  Venus. Long since had Earthlings disproved

  events came and went uneventfully upon all

  clouds as the cause of Venus’ brilliance in the

  the populated planets—Earth, Mars, Saturn

  sky; water-vapor in enormous quantities was

  and Pluto. Then on the memorable night of

  the explanation.

  January 10th, 1999, there came the first hint of And, near the ruins of 762, there was

  something amiss—a desperate cry from the

  undoubtedly a change. Something grey and

  denizens of Pluto, flashed to Earth by ultra-

  indeterminable lay in the undergrowth, radio, and Jefferson, in charge, was the first to something veined and throbbing, nauseous in

  receive it.

  appearance—the brain of Lu Sang. Flung from

  “Mental changes affecting Pluto’s

  the table where it had been placed by Newton,

  inhabitants. Please investigate. Very urgent.”

  in the space ship’s crash it had rolled through

  That was all, like a cry in a storm, and

  a rent in the wall and dropped, practically

  all efforts to recommunicate with Pluto failed

  unharmed, into the midst of the loam and

  completely. Jefferson dutifully submitted the

  nutrition rife in the Venusian forest land. Life message to Headquarters. Scout machines

  stalked every corner of that weird vastness—

  went out to investigate, and found nothing.

  life in its first mysterious stages, chemical

  Jefferson, however, the mystery of 762 still

  change.

  hovering in his keen brain, pondered the cry

  The very ground was saturated with

  deeply, and as the days went on it became

  the elements of protoplasm—carbon, evident that the Plutonians had not sent their hydrogen, phosphorus, calcium—all along the

  warning without cause. Something was

  scale of chemicals. And into the midst of this,

  amiss—a strange and incredible thing,

  into the midst of an atmosphere plentifully

  affecting now the inhabitants of both Mars and

  supplied with carbon dioxide, had fallen a

  Earth, and in a lesser degree on account of

  brain that still lived, a brain independent of a their slow receptive powers, the Saturnians.

  body that would otherwise have killed it—a

  Men underwent inexplicable

  brain absorbing unto itself all the young and

  transformations. They varied between

  Thrilling Wonder Stories

  8

  supreme genius and profound idiocy, able to

  disappearance of Liner 762?”

  understand the entire cosmos in one moment,
r />   Jefferson smiled whimsically.

  and yet baffled by a simple addition sum the

  “I’ve never ceased to think of it, sir.”

  next. Man lost touch with himself; he began to

  “Aboard that liner was a criminal

  feel the influence of an immense and brain, alive; it belonged to Lu Sang, the overpowering mentality exerting its effect Chinese criminal. I wonder if 762 landed on upon him. From somewhere in space a Venus and the brain rooted itself there? Is it gigantic brain force was in action.

  entirely beyond possibility?”

  At the very first sign of the mental

  Jefferson stared at his superior blankly.

  disturbances Jefferson went direct to the “I think your guess is dead correct, sir. Venus commandant of the spaceways.

  must be visited right away. I’d like that

  “There seems to be danger about, sir.

  opportunity, sir; it is the kind of thing I’ve

  A menace is threatening us and we’ve got to

  been longing for for years.”

  find out where it is coming from. Where there

  The commandant nodded wearily. “I

  is danger, that is where I can be found. What

  have no time to haggle; the danger is very real

  are my orders, sir?”

  and imminent. You have my permission to

  Commandant Bradley pondered.

  leave the moment you are able. I’ll assign

  “I hardly know, Jefferson. The whole

  Andrews to take over. But for the love of

  thing is so sudden; we don’t know where to

  heaven, man, watch your step! Venus is no

  look. I have a report here from Grafol of Mars.

  child’s playground.”

  His etheric detectors place the disturbance as

  The lean radio chief nodded

  coming from or near Venus. The periods of

  composedly.

  mental perturbation are varied. They continue

  “If it were I wouldn’t be going!”

  for so long, stop suddenly, then go on again.

  The reason for the momentary stoppages WITH the sunset Jefferson departed from remains a mystery at the moment. But we do

  Earth in a small express space flier,

  know that the mental oppression is getting

  accompanied only by two of his closest

  worse. All of us have felt it. But the idea of

  comrades who, like himself, were never happy

  Venus being behind it is absurd! Venus is a

  unless endangering their lives in some way or

  young world, a world from which no man has

  other. Stanhope and Bragg were their names,

  ever come back alive.”

  the one small and heavy, the other tall and

  “Early pioneers without modern sinewy, and both of them loyal to the cause in equipment, sir,” Jefferson replied promptly.

  which they had spent their lives.

  Then, more seriously, “From my own

  With terrific speed the space machine

  observations it seems that this mentality is no

  shot from Earth into space. Out here in the

  ordinary one. It is gifted with finesse and

  void, the three adventurers felt the mental

  polish, able to exact its requirements no matter forces in all their intensity. Beating waves of

  what is incurred. A brain of high training, on

  mental compulsion that brought the sweat to

  Venus! But!— how? ”

  their faces in the effort of concentrating

  “Wait!” the commandant interrupted against them.

  suddenly, his expression changing. “A brain

  “Whatever it is it’s sure got a hell of a

  of high training—Good God, I wonder if it is

  kick,” breathed Stanhope, turning a strained

  possible!”

  face. “How do you figure on beating it, Jeff?”

  “What,

  sir?”

  “I don’t,” Jefferson answered grimly.

  “Do you remember the mysterious “I just want to locate it on this trip. How to

  Brain of Venus

  9

  beat it will come later. You’ve got to show me

  edge of a blinding crescent—the edge of

  the thing—even if it is a brain—that can Venus itself.

  defeat the science of nineteen ninety-nine.

  “A Venusian moon—amazingly tiny!”

  Now hang on—we’re going places!” So he gasped. “A small planetoid of some kind of saying he increased the acceleration. Never for

  metal. But still a moon. Too small almost for

  an instant did the unknown power of Venus

  observation from Earth.”

  relax. With the shortening distance its

  “And we’re caught in its tiny attractive

  intensity grew, until when at last the hurtling

  field,” commented Stanhope. “Well, it’s

  flier was within a few thousand miles of the

  interesting anyhow. What’s next?”

  white planet, it was almost more than the men

  “Have you noticed,” Jefferson said

  could do to concentrate on their tasks. The

  slowly, “that the mental compulsion had now

  mentality waves were forcing them to turn

  ceased?”

  back, to leave Venus to its own devices and,

  “Odd,” was Bragg’s comment.

  little by little, they began to submit. The ship

  “Odd nothing; it can mean only one

  gradually came to a near standstill over the

  thing. The metal of this satellite is of such an glittering atmosphere of the planet.

  order as to block mental waves. It probably

  Jefferson turned a rigid, ashen face to

  blocks all sorts of other electrical waves as

  his comrades.

  well. Mental waves are electrical basically,

  “We’ve—we’ve got to obey,” he must be. It’s obvious now why mental muttered mechanically. “Turn back.”

  compulsion on Earth stops periodically and

  He moved to the controls, then then resumes. It must coincide with the time suddenly—staggeringly so—the mental when this moon comes between the Venusian compulsion

  ceased.

  Something large and brain and Earth. All the other planets report dark, moving with considerable speed, blotted

  the same occurrence,” Jefferson informed him.

  out the vision of Venus’ glaring surface. The

  “And Venus itself?” Stanhope

  space ship swung around violently, snatched

  questioned. “What do we do? Explore?”

  by a sudden strong gravitational field.

  Jefferson shook his head.

  Instantly the three were hurled off their feet,

  “Too dangerous. We’d never stand it.

  crashed helplessly into the wall, and lapsed

  We can take it for granted that Lu Sang’s

  into insensibility.

  brain somehow took root in the chemicals of

  Jefferson returned to his senses aware

  Venus, which has given it overpowering and

  that the space ship was in the midst of the

  increasing mental force. No, the best course is

  blackest shadow, relieved only inside the to anchor a section of this satellite’s surface cabin by the faint light of the stars. Puzzled,

  and take it back to Earth as a protection

  aching, he revived his two comrades and they

  against mental attack. Thus shielded we can

  moved in bewilderment to the window. work out a plan to defeat this trouble—if it’s Instantly their eyes became fixed to a small
>
  humanly possible.”

  and desolate landscape, shining grey and

  metallic in the starlight. As the moments JEFFERSON paused and looked around as the passed they did not, as they expected, move

  radio contact to earth suddenly buzzed

  across the terrain; it kept steady pace with

  urgently. In an instant he had the receivers to

  them.

  his ears. The voice of Commandant Bradley

  Jefferson screwed his head around the

  came to him over the infinite distance.

  angle of the deeply sunk window and peered

  “That you, Jefferson? What have you

  above. Then and then only did he behold the

  found?” Then before Jefferson could reply the

  Thrilling Wonder Stories

  10

  urgent voice continued, “Something terrible is

  The rocket-tubes roared and under

  happening! We’ve received news from the their influence the ship began to pull away Saturnians that space itself is changing. from the tiny satellite’s weak gravitation, drew Distant nebulae and galaxies are disappearing,

  slowly out into the void away from Venus, the

  being swallowed up in void. The trouble is

  section of severed moon trailing at an

  also affecting our own solar system. Pluto has

  unvarying distance in the rear, weightless,

  gone; Neptune reveals signs of also vanishing.

  chained only by the space ship’s own small

  We’ve had to use a couple of power ray gravity and powerful magnetizers.

  machines to keep Earth steady because of the

  Little by little the immense bulk of

  shifting of the balance. We’ve got one trained

  Venus began to appear as the distance

  on the sun and the other on Alpha Centauri.

  increased and the satellite’s width

  That’ll keep us safe for the time being. But

  correspondingly lessened. And as it did so the

  that isn’t all. Some sort of protoplasm has

  mental compulsions returned.