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16 - Star of Panadur · Outer Space Adventures in Sci-Fi

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Star of Ponadur by Albert Pina and Henry Hassa.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by the Atomic Dragons of
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Mars The Star of Ponadur by Albert Appina and Henry Hasse.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: On the barren wastes of Europa, two marooned men fought
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  Speaker 1: battling over an animal whose life one had saved. There
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  Speaker 1: was no fear in the animal's eyes, only the gleam
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  Speaker 1: of a weird, unearthly knowledge that foretold the way the
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  Speaker 1: fight would end. You, Hew, there's life here. Look look
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  Speaker 1: at this. Found it in a cavern. The shrill voice
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  Speaker 1: was exultant in gleeful. Hugh Bettencourt quickly rose from the
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  Speaker 1: fire he tended and turned startled eyes on the furry
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  Speaker 1: bundle Jim Brannigan grasped firmly by the scruff of its neck.
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  Speaker 1: At first, nothing was visible but the liquid sheen of
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  Speaker 1: the thing's silvery fur. But as Jim roughly thrust it out,
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  Speaker 1: Hugh gave an involuntary gasp of surprise. The creature's small,
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  Speaker 1: triangular face was nothing less than beautiful. Its eyes were
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  Speaker 1: soft and large and luminous, like barrels. Set wide apart.
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  Speaker 1: Above its broad forehead was a short mane of silver fur,
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  Speaker 1: beginning in a widow's peak, fell back cloud soft and shimmering.
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  Speaker 1: It was about three feet tall, slim furred to the
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  Speaker 1: throat line, a strange biped with slender arms and six
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  Speaker 1: fingered hands. Damn it, Jim, go easy, but strangled it here.
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  Speaker 1: Give it to me, Hugh extended his arms. Don't let
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  Speaker 1: it get away from you. It's faster than a jack rabbit.
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  Speaker 1: Jim cautioned, extending the ham sized hand in which he
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  Speaker 1: held the creature. Luckily, I surprised it in a sort
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  Speaker 1: of cave like gully where it couldn't escape. It means food, you,
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  Speaker 1: lots of food if we can find more of these animals.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: For a moment, the incipient madness of many days on
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  Speaker 1: this hellish satellite engulfed Hue in a wave of nausea.
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  Speaker 1: He remembered the gravity screen tearing from its pivots, and
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the spaceship caught in the tremendous pole of Jupiter. The
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  Speaker 1: last desperate try at the controls, and then the tiny
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  Speaker 1: dark bulk of Europa curving up to meet them headlong.
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  Speaker 1: There had been cheerless days of biting cold when the
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  Speaker 1: tiny satellite faced the distant, pallid sun. There had been
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  Speaker 1: nights that were like a conto out of Dante as
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  Speaker 1: they were bathed in Jupiter's red cold glow. More recently,
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  Speaker 1: and for more reason, Hugh remembered the dwindling food supply,
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  Speaker 1: which had now quite vanished. Yes, food, Hugh echoed Jim's
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  Speaker 1: words in a hoarse whisper. He grasped the soft, warm
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  Speaker 1: body in his hands with gentle firmness. The creature did
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  Speaker 1: not try to escape. It lay limp and inert with
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  Speaker 1: its eyes closed. But but food doesn't quite solve our
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  Speaker 1: problem unless we can find some oxide. Crystal to alloy
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  Speaker 1: and the portable smelter were sunk, Jim, That jagged hole
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  Speaker 1: in the prow isn't gonna repair itself. Jim's ordinarily red
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: face grew redder with anger, until there was no distinguishing
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  Speaker 1: between the color of his hair and that of his face.
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  Speaker 1: All right, he snarled, So we need the oxide. For days,
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  Speaker 1: We've been searching all over this cold hell for some
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  Speaker 1: and where are we? I still maintain our immediate problem
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  Speaker 1: is food, Yes, yes, food, Hugh murmured. Why, he wondered
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  Speaker 1: vaguely was he so reluctant to talk about it? While
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  Speaker 1: he held this limp warm creature in his arms. He
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  Speaker 1: looked down at it again and was startled to find
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  Speaker 1: himself staring into its extraordinary eyes, limpid, brilliant, full of
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  Speaker 1: a semi human intelligence. Now they were scarcely afoot from
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  Speaker 1: Hugh's own eyes, and for a single instant, Hugh had
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  Speaker 1: the crazy idea that they were filled with the strange
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  Speaker 1: fixity of purpose, almost as if they were trying to
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  Speaker 1: convey something to him. There in the appalling silence of Europa.
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  Speaker 1: A sudden cold came up over Hue that was not
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  Speaker 1: the cold of Europa. It took quite an effort for
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  Speaker 1: him to tear his own eyes away. Then he laughed
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  Speaker 1: and whispered inquiringly of himself. Am I going crazy? Maybe
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  Speaker 1: this place is beginning to get me at last? For
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  Speaker 1: a moment, I thought, He shrugged uneasily. Why are you mumbling?
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  Speaker 1: Jim demanded irritably, his huge form bulking against the bizarre,
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  Speaker 1: jagged landscape. I'd have slit that thing's throat and skinned
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  Speaker 1: it already here give it, wait, you fool. Hugh's ordinarily
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  Speaker 1: thoughtful hazel eyes were bright now and hard as he
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  Speaker 1: drew back from Jim's grasping hand. We're the first to
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  Speaker 1: find life on Europa, the only ones to see what
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  Speaker 1: inhabits it, and all you think about is your damn stomach.
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  Speaker 1: You can't be starved. You ate this morning? Yes, and
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  Speaker 1: that was the last of it, Jim snarled. His face
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  Speaker 1: was ugly now and purposeful. Well, I'm hungry again, and
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  Speaker 1: now that I've found these European kangaroos, I aim to
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  Speaker 1: be fed and kept warm. Notice how fine that pelt
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  Speaker 1: is Hugh had noticed, Indeed, he had noticed even more
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  Speaker 1: the peculiar sheen and a liveness of it, as if
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  Speaker 1: it were surcharged with a definite energy. As he held
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  Speaker 1: the creature close, a warm feeling of well being slowly
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  Speaker 1: diffused through him, and something something like a faint echo
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  Speaker 1: in his brain was like a shadowy background to his thoughts. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: he knew here was food, and here was warm fur
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  Speaker 1: against the eternal cold of the satellite. But their spacesuits
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: protected them in a measure against the cold, and if necessary,
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  Speaker 1: they could subsist a few more days without eating. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: by then they would find some of the rare crystal
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  Speaker 1: oxide enough to repair the ship and leave. Perhaps it
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  Speaker 1: was a long chance, almost an impossibility, and Hugh knew it.
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  Speaker 1: But now also he knew what he must do. He
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  Speaker 1: did it with a distasteful glance that his now openly
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  Speaker 1: belligerent partner. He stepped forward, Then with unexpected suddenness, he lurched,
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  Speaker 1: as if he'd lost his footing on the rough terrain.
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  Speaker 1: He stumbled sideways, He twisted and fell deliberately to the ground.
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  Speaker 1: He opened his arms wide. It was rather clumsily done.
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  Speaker 1: Hugh realized that instantly, for an infinitesimal moment, the furry
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  Speaker 1: creature sprawled too immobile where Hugh's momentum had flung it.
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  Speaker 1: It gazed with an uncanny intensity into the earth man's eyes. Then,
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  Speaker 1: in a single graceful leap of incredible speed, it was
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  Speaker 1: gone into the growing red haze as night came on
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  Speaker 1: and Jupiter's macab glow shattered the surrounding crags. You fool,
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  Speaker 1: you utter damned fool, Jim Brannigan screamed, livid with rage,
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  Speaker 1: you did that deliberately. Then his huge body was launching
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  Speaker 1: at Hugh the great heavy fists, lashing out with the
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  Speaker 1: force of pistons. Hugh lighter but more Lithe had only
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  Speaker 1: time to roll to one side and regain his feet.
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  Speaker 1: Then he was ducking the barrage of blows, evading the
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  Speaker 1: murderous rushes, allowing Jim to tire out his frantic rage.
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  Speaker 1: Only once did Hugh strike a blow, a terrific lashing
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  Speaker 1: left into the other's solar plexus that doubled the red
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  Speaker 1: giant into helpless nausea. That's all we need now, Hugh said,
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  Speaker 1: with the measure of calm to maim or cripple each other.
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  Speaker 1: Never get back that way, come out of What we've
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  Speaker 1: got to do is get that oxide. What we've got
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  Speaker 1: to get is food. You let the only food go
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  Speaker 1: that we had. Jim Brannigan began to weep in great
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: racking sobs, merely nerves temporary hysterical reaction. Hugh decided Jim
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  Speaker 1: wasn't really hungry yet, he was only anticipating the event.
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  Speaker 1: When he got over this, he would sulk. When he
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: got over that, he would start scheming with that unpredictable
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  Speaker 1: mind of his knowing the man, Hugh decided to watch
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  Speaker 1: him carefully from now on. He took Jim's arm and
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  Speaker 1: they walked over to the crippled spacer, lying like a
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  Speaker 1: great silver bug with its nose smashed in the stark
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  Speaker 1: hollow of this ravine they entered. He walked forward and
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  Speaker 1: examined the thin sheet of beryllium that patched the ship's
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  Speaker 1: wounded hull for the night. He went astern and turned
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  Speaker 1: on the generators quarter speed to provide a miserly warmth.
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  Speaker 1: On his way back to the inner cabin, he stopped
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  Speaker 1: and peered out of a porthole at a now familiar scene,
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  Speaker 1: Europa's dark, mad terrain becoming swiftly suffused with Jupiter's red.
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  Speaker 1: He entered the cabin, glanced at Jim and saw that
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  Speaker 1: he was now in the sulking stage. The hunger problem
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  Speaker 1: pressed insistently upon Hugh's own mind, that little furry creature.
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  Speaker 1: In spite of hunger. He was still glad he had
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  Speaker 1: let it escape, But damn it, he wished he knew
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  Speaker 1: why Hugh thrust the problem from him, and glanced again
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  Speaker 1: at Jim. Soon, Jim's mind, ordering upon necessity, would begin scheming,
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  Speaker 1: Hugh knew the man. Despite an utter weariness, Hugh didn't
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  Speaker 1: sleep through the rest of that short night, his mind
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  Speaker 1: alert and hunger clear, wrestled with the problem of survival
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  Speaker 1: and this mad world of snow and silence. In the
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  Speaker 1: opposite beryllium mesh bunk Jim snored fitfully, as though rehearsing
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  Speaker 1: in his sleep some violence in his mind. Hugh arose
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  Speaker 1: slowly and dawned with caution, the stiff, heavy spacesuit as
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  Speaker 1: protection against the cold. Adjusting the helmet and oxygen tank,
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  Speaker 1: he opened the airlock and ventured out into the dantesque
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  Speaker 1: magnificence of Europa's night. The red opaline haze had the
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  Speaker 1: quality of a waking nightmare. The great snow crystals were
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  Speaker 1: drifting lazily again, appearing now like livid blotches of ruby.
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  Speaker 1: Jupiter loomed like a great, gloating nemesis across the entire
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  Speaker 1: ragged horizon. Hugh didn't know where he was going. No
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  Speaker 1: predetermined plan guided his footsie. There was only a great
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  Speaker 1: urgency to leave the spacer and go somewhere and seek.
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  Speaker 1: Hugh stock brushed the brittle red snow from his face
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  Speaker 1: plate and wished he could wipe the sweat from his brow,
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  Speaker 1: go where and seek what? Seek? Oxide crystals, of course,
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  Speaker 1: he told himself. But there was something else now, something
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  Speaker 1: strange and powerful, that gripped part of his mind and
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  Speaker 1: urged him on like the fear of madness. He stumbled
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  Speaker 1: on for hours, it seemed, until he was in the
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  Speaker 1: fearsome cavern country. Here, the stark heaven rearing cliffs were
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  Speaker 1: honeycombed with tortuous caves and gullies and immense grottos. He
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  Speaker 1: entered a low gallery like cave that wound in and
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  Speaker 1: downward into the mass of a gigantic cliff. Now, an
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  Speaker 1: unshakable inner dread plucked at his mind and gripped his
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  Speaker 1: throat as he tried to check his precipitate descent, but couldn't.
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  Speaker 1: He no longer seemed to possessed of any volition of
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  Speaker 1: his own. He shrugged fatalistically. Then he felt a thrill
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  Speaker 1: of excitement as he noticed a faint luminescence of the
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  Speaker 1: surrounding walls. This light increased as he descended deeper and
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  Speaker 1: deeper through widening passages. Then, at last, at the end
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  Speaker 1: of a turn, a burst of radiance met his eyes.
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  Speaker 1: He was in a grotto of titanic proportions. The substance
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  Speaker 1: of its walls and distant ceiling gave it the gentle
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  Speaker 1: radiance of a sunless day. But it was a glaucous radiance,
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  Speaker 1: ineffably green as the light beneath the waters of a
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  Speaker 1: shallow sea. Wholly roaring comets. Hugh swore aloud as he
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  Speaker 1: stood there, quite still, staring by all the red tails
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  Speaker 1: on venus, its oxide, all of it. His voice echoed
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  Speaker 1: inside his helmet and beat against his ear drums. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it was beryllium oxide, gleaming at his feet, crystalline and powdery,
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  Speaker 1: just as men had found it for the first time
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  Speaker 1: a century before in the desert wastes of Arizona. The
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  Speaker 1: entire floor of the grotto was covered with it, as
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  Speaker 1: far as his widening eyes could see. He bent in
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  Speaker 1: a frenzy of joy and scooped up whole handfuls. He
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  Speaker 1: half babbled over it like a delirious king Midas he
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  Speaker 1: let it trickle fondly through his fingers in a little
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  Speaker 1: glittering flood. Saved. Now they could repair the ship and
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  Speaker 1: return return to Earth, and tell of this. Not until
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  Speaker 1: several minutes later did Hugh begin to wor under how
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  Speaker 1: he had come here. With a rush of apprehension, he
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  Speaker 1: remembered a cold and tenacious something that had seized a
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  Speaker 1: part of his mind, but now it was gone, and
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  Speaker 1: he felt strangely limp and tired. He leaped to his feet,
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  Speaker 1: staring around. He wondered if he could retrace his steps
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  Speaker 1: back to the spaceship, and in that precise moment, he
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  Speaker 1: felt his mind seized again with a sort of frantic suddenness.
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  Speaker 1: There was no mistaking that very clear warning of danger. Danger,
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  Speaker 1: but he could not have acted in time. Even as
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  Speaker 1: he spun around, he was unaware of the shadow that
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: lengthened behind him until it loomed very near and a
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  Speaker 1: part of it lashed out. Not until the last split
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  Speaker 1: second did Hugh glimpse wild and red streaked eyes in
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  Speaker 1: vivid contrast to the grim and purposeful face behind a
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: helmet plate. Then the part of the shadow that was
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Jim Brannigan's arm holding something massive like a rock, completed
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  Speaker 1: the swift dark and struck A sun exploded within Hugh's head.
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  Speaker 1: Livid flames engulfed him, consumed him. He tried to cry out,
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  Speaker 1: but couldn't. Then the sun fragments cruelly withdrew, leaving him
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  Speaker 1: helpless in a cold blackness, through which he fell like
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: a plummet to ultimate extinction. Jim Brannigan stood there tensely
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  Speaker 1: for a moment, looking at the man he had struck down,
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  Speaker 1: but only for a moment. His lips quirked into a
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  Speaker 1: tight smile, and his exulting, keen eyes took in the
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  Speaker 1: cave's glittering expanse A fortune in oxide crystals, he murmured,
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  Speaker 1: an inexhaustible mind, and he thought he could cheat me
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  Speaker 1: out of it, keep it from me. Good thing I've
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: followed him, serves him right if I've killed him. He
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: didn't seem too worried about it, and he didn't look
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: at Hugh's body again as he started gathering in the
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  Speaker 1: rare crystals Europa's uncharted. I can claim deeed this whole region,
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  Speaker 1: And probably there's another fortune in furs, he added, as
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  Speaker 1: he suddenly remembered the creature he had captured. Already in
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  Speaker 1: his greedy mind's eye, he saw himself a tycoon, the
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  Speaker 1: oxide king, with a corner on furs finer than anything
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  Speaker 1: ever seen on Earth. Venus or Mars. This he saw,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: But what he didn't see were the myriad pairs of
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: burning beryl eyes peering at him from concealed openings in
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the opaline walls. He was not aware of the increasing
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: energy potential being generated by a growing legion of furred
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: bodies in surrounding caverns. As more and more ponadors pressed
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: forward to peer out at him. Around Jimbrannigan, now the
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: frigid atmosphere began to rise. At first it was pleasantly cool,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: then warm and warmer, until it became suffocating still. The
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: silvery furred panadurs, in utter silence, generated heat as their
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  Speaker 1: mental forces grew and deliberately united into a single increasing potential.
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  Speaker 1: There fur stood erect, an angry violet silver, now crackling
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: a little with the intensity of the effort. As a
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: single unit, they waited, each furry panaduur now touching the other,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: and a living, livid chain of cumulative power. Jim Brannigan
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: ceased his gloating, and it woke at last to an
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  Speaker 1: indefinable danger. Swiftly he arose and whirled towards the entrance,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: peering back over his shoulder at the danger he could
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: feel that he knew was there, but he could not see.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: But already it was too late. Now that increasing energy potential,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: grown and united into a single purposeful weapon was being aimed.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Jim Brannigan hadn't taken three steps toward the entrance when suddenly,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: silently intangible as thought, but infinitely more devastating it was released.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: As the devastating both struck him, Brannigan collapsed into a
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: crumpled heap, shattered, silent, inert for hours that lengthened into days.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Hugh Bettancourt lay unconscious. His blanched features were lifeless and cold,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: there in the same cavern where Brannigan's treacherous blow had
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: toppled him into oblivion. Then, as a hint of color
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  Speaker 1: returned to his cheeks and a slow strength began to
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: course through his limbs, he regained moments of lucidness, but
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: they were brief, and he always lapsed back into delirium
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: with the wavering unreality of a mirage. Vague memories of
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: those strange, furred creatures encircling him surged into his mind.
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  Speaker 1: They seemed to have pressed close to him, holding hands.
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  Speaker 1: Strange They were joined by a line of their feloponetters
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  Speaker 1: to a similar circle surrounding a huddled figure a short
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: distance away. But that was crazy, and Hugh's mind would
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: slide back into the darkness again. Once he thought, one
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: of the ponadors came and placed its exquisite face against
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: his chest and held it there for a long time,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: as if he were testing the earth man's metabolism. This
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: seemed so very real. Hugh was aware of an almost
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: crackling silence and the cave ceiling's unchanging luminescence. Still a
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: third time, he imagined that a silver gray ponadur, almost
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: stately in his measured movements, came over to him with
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: a gleaming jewel in his hand. It was an inch
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: in diameter and the same color as the creature's eyes,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: a pale lucent green. Majestically, despite his diminutive size, he
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: placed the stone over Hugh's heart. Instantly, the gem flamed
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: with the effulgence of a glowing star. The ponadure seemed satisfied,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: when at last Hugh Bettencourt regained full consciousness and was
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: able to sit up and stare around him. He realized
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: that he had not been a prey to delusions. Although
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: he still felt weak, his mind was crystal clear. Here
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: was the circle of Ponador still enclosing him, but the
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: circle had grown, as if a great many more creatures
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: had joined the uncanny circle in an ecstasy to be
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: in close proximity to the tall earthman. Their furry, vibrating
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: bodies pressed close to him, and their strange, fragile hands
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: touched his wrists and throat and face as they seemed
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: to caress him with infinite gentleness. Waves of sheer energies
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: seemed to envelop him and penetrate to the deepest recesses
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: of his being, as if, by some strange alchemy, these
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: alien creatures of stark Europa were transmitting to him the
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: elemental life force itself. But strangely enough, that other circle
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of Panadors enclosing that huddled figure over there in the
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: semi gloom, was contracting as it grew smaller and smaller.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Day by day, Hugh ceased to wonder about all this.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: As he lay back to gather his strength, he fell
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: into a peaceful sleep. This time when he awoke, it
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: was to a profound sense of well being, far beyond
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: anything he'd ever known. It permeated his body with the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: exhilarating glow of a rare Venusian wine. One thing, however,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: still eluded him. He sat up and felt his head
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: where the blow had fallen. He remembered only the excruciating pain,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the microscopic instant before the rushing darkness came. There was
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: nothing there now, not even a scar. A rock from
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the ceiling must have fallen, He thought, my luck to
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: be standing right under it. It was not a rock.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: The thought came into his mind, clear and unmistakable. Then
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Hugh found himself staring into the barrel green eyes of
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the stately keeper of the jewel. Like a flash, the
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: scene he had not witnessed of Brannigan stalking him from
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the spaceship, the murderous blow, and the vision of himself
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: lying in a pool of blood on the glittering expanse
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: of oxide crystals was etched into his mind by the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: telepathic power of the Ponadur. We know you would have
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: spared us, came the uncanny stream of thought. Your companion
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: captured me when I, as the Chosen Leader, went to
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: investigate your but you deliberately let me go when it
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: meant your own life. But he whose fur was like
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the angry spot of the greater world, would have destroyed us.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: We read his thoughts telepathy by Mercury's molten heart. Hugh
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: exclaimed in awe, dimly sensing the prodigious mental power of
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the being, and we were gonna eat one of em.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: He stared around the cave, remembering Jim Brannigan, and it
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: was apparent that Hugh still didn't realize all that had occurred.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I suppose that murdering mercenary scums left long ago with
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: the ship, and here I'm stranded. If I ever get
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: my hands on him, that you will never do. Hugh
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: was aware of the Punador again, and he saw the
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: shadowy copy of a smile flit over its features. We
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: gave of you our energy, shimmering silver being transmitted, and
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: we gave of you another life that you might have
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: yours again. It was but justice, What what a other life?
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: And then Hugh tottered where he stood, swayed sickeningly as
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the entire meaning burst upon them. He remembered the scenes
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: in his delirium when two circles, one of which enclosed
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: him and another that enclosed a huddled figure had been
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: formed by ponadors, while a living chain of the brooding
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: creatures joined the two circles together. He shuddered as he
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: remembered that his own circle seemed to expand as the
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: other inexorably contracted. There was no choice. The limpid thought
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: message from the ponador impinged upon Hugh's mind. We know
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the secret of the release of electronic energy. By the
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: disassociation of electronic and neutron balance in the atomic scale,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: we reversed the vibration of matter, and through magnetic means,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: draw a steady stream of energy, pure energy from matter
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: in whatever state. In your case, we simply transmitted the
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: energy content of the Redford one to you. Hugh hardly
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: dared to glance in the direction where the huddled figure
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: had been, but with an effort of will, he steeled
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: himself against the growing nausea and resolutely walked over to
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: the thing he felt his sanity reeling. He was brought
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: back to sanity by the Panadur, who all along had
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: communicated with him. Its fragile, six fingered hand was extended,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: palm upwards, and lying on it was a gleaming jewel.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Take it and go. The message came with majestic power,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: yet there was a world of kindness in it. Go
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: back to your ship, you will find find its damage repaired.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: We have done that for you with the Star of Panadeure.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: You will be guided back as my thoughts center upon it.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: On the day when you return to our world, gaze
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: upon the star, and you will be helped to find
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: again and gather the crystals you seek. But none from
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: your planet must ever see us again or even hear
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: of us. I promise, Hugh exclaimed, fervently, remembering Jim Brannigan's
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: intent and that there were many men like Brannigan. Slowly
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Hugh left the cave, clutching the dazzling gem, through which
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: he could feel a directed flow of thought. He was
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: still a little dazed at this miracle. He wanted to
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: laugh and to cry, but the flooding realization that his
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: ship repaired and ready awaited him. That he was free
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: to leave this craggy hell of crimson shadows and arctic
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: knights left only a vast, singing quiet in his soul,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: too deep for tears. And that is the end of
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: the Star of Panadur by Albert Tuppina and Henry Hasse