The Time Annihilator by Edgar A, Manley and Walter Thode Read online

  all. And then I recalled that as far as I knew

  “You have solved the problem of time

  the year 1945 still existed somewhere in

  and space,” he said at last. “I know you are

  eternity.

  Wonder Stories

  14

  I became strangely baffled as I rebelliously, but quailed when I caught his pondered over this anomaly. An overpowering

  eyes. “You’ve stirred up enough trouble,” I

  melancholy struck my heart as I recalled that

  growled.

  Clay and I were so wonderfully alive in the

  “I guess I have.”

  year 2418 against all the harsh logic of nature

  The floor of the throne room was

  that kills every being that breathes.

  embossed with diamonds and huge emeralds.

  Reaching the portal of the flying Here was wealth undreamed of in our time.

  palace we entered a courtyard and then passed

  Even the mansions of the wealthiest of our era

  through a richly curtained door. Heavy were never such lavish splendor. I glanced incense greeted our nostrils, sickeningly upward at the khan, an impassive, regal figure sweet. I felt crushed by the power that had

  on his throne. The huge head was erect,

  woven itself about Clay and me. A corridor

  surveying the humbled courtiers. He seemed

  spread before us, unbroken for at least 100

  like an Oriental monarch of unlimited power.

  yards, upon the walls of which hung precious

  The courtiers, followed by Clay,

  tapestries, depicting what appeared to be myself and our guard, moved swiftly toward historical events in the lives of the gigantic

  the throne. Never in my life had I gazed upon

  race with the domed-heads.

  such magnificence. Soft light melted through

  windows of gorgeous colors despite the fact

  AS I walked down the hall I studied the that the sun had long since vanished below the tapestries with great curiosity. The vivid story

  horizon. The richest of tapestries hung on

  of the destruction of the human race was jeweled walls. They depicted, like those in the depicted. A graphic tale of overwhelmed cities

  hall, the crimson history of the breed of Pei.

  and crushed nations was emblazoned on the

  “I will question you creatures of the

  tapestries. At the end of the hallway Slan Cho

  past,” said the khan as we reached the foot of

  halted us with upraised hands.

  the throne of eighteen steps.

  “You will fall on your faces when you

  An ominous hush fell on the

  enter,” ordered Slan Cho. “That is the way all

  assemblage and I felt a premonition of

  approach the mighty khan, viceroy of the ruler

  unleashed cruelty. Somehow I could not help

  of the Eastern World.”

  but view Clay and myself as two little mice in

  We stood at the threshold of the throne

  the claws of a multitude of great cats. A

  room and I stared through the portal, with eyes

  strange fancy.

  wide and startled. The khan sat on a peacock-

  The khan’s eyes gleamed like the

  hued throne, garbed in his gleaming robe of

  jeweled optics of a cobra, venomously

  jewels. A crown adorned his huge head. implacable. His mouth jutted forward like that Below him, on the golden floor, were the

  of a serpent. He seemed far less human than

  prostrated forms of his courtiers, their arms

  any of his courtiers as his great arms waved

  clumsily spread at their sides. They resembled

  rhythmically in the cold air of the palace. The

  obscene beetles in this posture. The khan’s

  chill grew intense and I realized that we were

  voice rose and five of the courtiers crawled,

  high in the air, floating toward an unguessed

  like water-bugs, toward the door.

  destination.

  The waiting warriors who formed our

  “You came into our midst from out of

  guard motioned to Clay and me, then flung

  the long dead past,” the khan pursued

  themselves in humble prostrate postures. I bit

  thoughtfully, “through a means we never

  my lip tightly, humiliated but curious to see

  considered possible for you human beings.

  what lay before us. Clay muttered Perhaps we underestimated your intelligence.

  The Time Annihilator

  15

  You created a time machine which carried

  sought.”

  your bodies invisibly through time and space.

  “And you know of the construction of

  We realized that when you appeared so the time machine?”

  unexpectedly in our sacred tomb.”

  “I know nothing of its mechanical

  “Yes, but the spell was broken there,” I

  nature.”

  remarked. “And where is the time machine?”

  As the khan went on to question us

  “It has vanished. Strangely enough we

  about how we got here, I pondered. Stenson

  were unable to find a trace of it in the tomb.”

  could not have been the man who had plunged

  “It vanished!” I exclaimed. “Surely into the time machine. He was not of middle it—”

  age and was of sturdy build. Besides I could

  “It was taken while you were being

  not picture Stenson in a flowing purple robe.

  made captives,” the khan remarked slowly. “A

  Some interloper had seized the machine. The

  human being was seen to dart across the dim recesses of the cavern had hidden a man cavern toward the machine. He vanished into

  of mind scientific enough to realize that a time

  nothingness. I know now that he was machine had carried us into the tomb; and swallowed up in the time machine. When my

  courageous enough to have seized the

  subjects closed in on the space where the time

  chamber to effect an escape. But the question

  machine had stood they were unable to touch

  was— Did the man who entered it leave our

  this man. He had ceased to exist as far as they

  time with it or was he still in the cavern

  were concerned.”

  invisible and impalpable?

  Who was this third man? I wracked my

  THE interrogation of my activities by the khan

  brains over this problem. How did he come to

  I perceived was in the nature of leading enter into the calculations? The problem was questions. There was a profound shrewdness

  beyond my power to solve. If Stenson had

  in this method of attack. He merely played his

  hidden in the tomb, and seized the time

  hand with sublime cleverness, informing me

  machine, we might hope for escape. But as far

  of events that had taken place and waiting for

  as I knew Stenson might have been lost in the

  me to entrap myself. And, after all, there was

  year 5000. I wondered for a time how the time

  little of which I could inform him. He should

  machine, after his disappearance, could have

  have known that the machine was non-existent

  swept back to 1945. There was only one

  both to sight and touch of everything outside

  plausible solution for this. The year 1945

  of it. He had spoken of a man vanishing into

  represented
a “deadline” for the machine.

  the time machine. My thoughts swept back to

  Released of its own accord it would follow the

  the journey of Larry Stenson and his startling

  physical law that probably governed such

  disappearance. There was little doubt in my

  matters and returned to its original

  mind that Stenson was the man who had condition—back in Stenson’s laboratory.

  leaped into the time machine in the tomb of

  Finally the khan ceased to question us

  Chang Hsu.

  and stared at us, his jeweled robe aflame with

  “The man—was he your companion?”

  light reflected from the walls, a means of

  the khan asked.

  illumination that surpassed the crude electric

  “I cannot tell,” I replied. “What did he

  system of our own time. The khan spoke at

  look like?”

  last:

  “He was a man of middle age,

  “I can learn nothing from you,” he said

  extremely thin and wearing a purple robe.”

  indifferently. “It is my order that you both be

  “He was not the companion we had

  destroyed. Only death can disperse you to

  Wonder Stories

  16

  your proper condition!”

  time travel machine into a substantial reality

  for the man of 2418 who had obtained

  possession of it.

  CHAPTER V

  Whoever the time interloper was, he

  A Timely Interloper

  had attempted to rescue us. He had stuck his

  head and right arm through the door, striving

  to attract our attention. The fact that the time

  A FACE and shoulders, apparently machine had been in action at the time disembodied, appeared suddenly before me;

  resulted in the rest of his body being invisible.

  and an arm motioned beckoningly. The And now, I was convinced, the time machine apparition was startling, causing goose-flesh

  had swept away. Again; we were lost!

  to rise on my body. Again the arm motioned

  “Kill them at once,” the khan ordered.

  impatiently and I leaped to my feet, shouting

  “They must not escape.”

  to Clay. The realization that the time machine,

  The philosophic ruler, who had so

  operated by the strange interloper, was in the

  suavely discussed time travel with me only a

  throne room of the floating palace, dawned on

  few moments before, had become a cruel

  me like a flash of lightning.

  despot. There was no use in pleading for him

  “Clay, come on!” I yelled.

  to spare us. I knew that nothing could move

  My companion darted toward the him. Possibly fear of ruin, through the agency spectral head and arms, shouting defiantly as a

  of the strange time machine, impelled him to

  group of the domed-headed monsters leaped

  have us destroyed without delay.

  to detain us. There was no doubt in my mind

  Then I recalled the pitiful human

  that they had glanced up and seen the head.

  slaves of these monsters of the future. A

  I did not take two steps toward the

  vision of the struggling men in humble black,

  invisible time machine, with its beckoning

  panting under the weight of the golden throne

  pilot, before detaining hands seized me. The

  that bore the khan to the tomb of Chang Hsu,

  arm vanished within the time machine and the

  burned into my brain. It would be better to

  face of the stranger, a gray-haired man, was

  die—a thousand times preferable—than to be

  clouded with a very evident look of horror.

  a slave under these tyrannical monsters.

  Then the face vanished too.

  A group of human serfs, guarded by

  A horde of the khan’s courtiers closed

  warriors, wheeled a strange looking altar into

  about the spot where the time machine had

  the throne room. Two of the men were white

  stood, their heavy bodies surging about the

  and the other six were evidently Orientals. But

  golden floor, but they met absolutely none of

  all wore the look of crushed dogs. I thought

  the resistance that would have been for a time of appealing to them to join Clay encountered if a solid had occupied the space.

  and me in a struggle. If we could kill the khan

  A shout of disappointment burst from

  and start a revolt there might be a faint chance

  my lips at the realization that Clay and I had

  of ultimate victory. It was a mad thought.

  missed rescue by a fraction of a second. The

  There could not have been a chance in a

  events of the late afternoon and evening million, I realize now, of winning against such surged rapidly through my mind. I was certain

  overwhelming odds. And the slaves were too

  that through some mishap Clay had shut off

  terrified of their masters to revolt.

  the motivating power of the time machine just

  before his mad dash through the door. And I

  THE altar was circular, its platform standing

  knew that this very fact had converted the

  about six feet from the floor. Near the edge we

  The Time Annihilator

  17

  saw a circle of small tube-like objects, each

  I raised my fists toward that merciless figure,

  resting on a groove that ran radially to the

  shouting, screaming, raging. A buzzing was

  center of the altar. What strange death did they

  filling my head, the desire to throw myself

  have in store for us now? We knew that into the flame was becoming overwhelming, whatever it might be, it would be in keeping

  and by the increasing pressure of Clay’s arm

  with the cruelty depicted on the faces of these

  on mine, I knew he was giving way too. It was

  beings. It would be some slow lingering a matter of minutes, perhaps seconds...

  torturous death.

  Then suddenly just beyond the wall of

  Roughly we were lifted to the altar and

  narrowing flame, I saw the face of that old

  placed in the center surrounded by the circle

  man again. His torso was projected toward us

  of strange tubes.

  out of nothingness. He motioned to us, and

  All eyes were turned toward the Khan.

  then slowly approached us.

  With an imperial gesture he raised a hand and

  Consternation broke out among the

  then dropped it swiftly. At once from the tubes

  dome-shaped creatures. At a command from

  there issued strange sheets of flame-like vapor

  the Khan they rushed toward us. The old man

  that reaching out hungrily toward each other

  reached us not a moment too soon. We felt his

  formed gradually a wall about five feet high

  helping arm about us, I saw the familiar walls

  and surrounding us. Strange to say, there was

  of the time machine.

  little heat from the wall of flame. Instead I

  Clay at my side was in a state of

  was conscious of a slight drowsiness and a

  collapse. His clothing was half burned from

  prickly feeling over my body.

  his body and his hands and f
ace scorched. I

  I am no scientist, yet I felt at this

  knew that I was equally as marked. The

  moment that here was some ultra-modern stranger, gray-haired and blue-eyed, laid his torture device, that could provide for the hand reassuringly on my arm. He wore a spectators a scene of the utmost agony in his

  purple tunic, badly ripped.

  victim.

  “It is all right,” he said in English.

  I looked at Clay. On his face too there

  “You are safe now.”

  was depicted a look of mingled amazement,

  The forms of the domed-headed men

  horror and weariness (as though he were moved upon us, but the stranger laughed. He trying to fight off some terrifying power over

  pressed down the controls of the time machine

  his brain.) Now I saw what was in store for us.

  and we felt ourselves being swept resistlessly

  Slowly the tubes were moving on the grooves

  into the current of time. The indicator started

  toward us, the circle of flame slowly to drop rapidly and we curved along the contracting. A new impulse was entering my

  parabolic course, back toward our own era.

  brain a desire to throw myself into the flames.

  Many minutes passed in silence.

  I looked at Clay and gripped his arm. “Is it

  “And who the devil are you?”

  getting you too?” I whispered huskily.

  demanded Clay finally.

  “Yes.” his voice was low, horrified. He

  “A perfectly reasonable question,” the

  had hardly control of it.

  other laughed, “coming especially from a

  “Hold on to me,” I whispered. We