The Secret of the Ninth Planet | Page 7

called out, but there was no answer. They advanced cautiously, fearing a trap. The
place did not have the look of living things about it. "An automatic station," said Mark
under his breath. "I think it's strictly automatic."
It gradually became evident that Mark was right. Everything was automatic. Whoever
had built this structure to divert the rays of the Sun had simply set it down, put it in
motion, and left. There was no evidence of any provisions for a garrison or a director.
They studied the machines but could make nothing of them. They found what looked like
controls, but although they pushed and pulled the levers and knobs, the humming did not
cease. It seemed as if the controls were either dummies or had to be specially motivated.
"What do we do now?" asked Burl, after they had tried pulling all the levers on one
particular switchboard without any results. "Do you have enough powder left to blow up
the machinery?"
His father shook his head. "I had only those two cans with me. We could try shooting into
the machinery." Leveling his rifle, he fired at a glassy globe perched upon the central
sphere. The bullet pinged off it, and they saw that it had failed even to dent the glistening
surface.
"It won't work," said the elder Denning, after several more shots had produced the same
result and the concussion reverberating from the enclosed walls had nearly deafened
them.
They continued to hunt for a clue, but found none. Dejected, Burl kicked a loose pebble
and watched it rattle against a column near the main control board. A small metallic ball
rested on top of the column, apparently unattached. A replacement part, he thought to
himself, wandering over to it. It was about the level of his head.
With the thought that if he examined it he might learn something of the nature of the
working machines, he reached out with both hands to pick it up.
As his hands touched the metallic ball, there was a sudden terrible flash of power. He felt
himself grasped by forces beyond his control, paralyzed momentarily like one who has
laid hold of an electrically charged wire. He opened his mouth to scream in agony, but he
could say nothing. A great force surged through his body, radiating, charging every cell

and atom of his being. He felt as if he were being lifted from the floor. Then the globe
seemed to dissolve in his hands. It became a glare of light, grew misty, and then
vanished.
For a moment he stood there on tiptoe, arced with the potent violence of the force,
glowing from within with energies, and then he felt as if the supercharge were dissolving
itself, slipping into him, sliding into the ground, then disappearing.
He stood before the column, swaying, but still conscious and alive. His hands were still
raised, but there was no ball between them, neither of metal nor of power.
He let them fall to his side and took a step. He was whole, he was sound, he was
unharmed. He heard his father's footsteps running to him, and murmured weakly, "I'm all
right."
And he was. He could see no sign of damage. "I must have absorbed an awful lot of that
energy or whatever it was," he said.
After resting a moment, he decided to try the useless controls again. Going over to one
small board, he idly shoved a lever. This time he felt resistance. The lever was activated.
There was a slight change in the radiance of one globe.
"Dad!" Burl shouted. "It works! It works for me now!"
Mark Denning watched as Burl turned dials and levers and got responses. "You must
have been charged in a special way," he said excitedly. "That's how they lock their
devices. They will only respond to a person carrying that special energy charge, whatever
it was. Come on, let's get to the main control, before the effect goes away if it does."
The two dashed to the panel which, they guessed, activated the main Sun transmitter.
Burl grabbed the instruments and threw them back to what seemed to be the zero
positions.
The humming rose in intensity, then quieted down and finally stopped. There was a series
of clicks, and one by one, the various globes, condensers and glowing machines died out.
Above them came a whirring noise, and Burl looked up to see the masts withdrawing into
the building, their discs presumably left flat and directionless.
It felt different. Suddenly they knew that the vibrations which had been so heavy in the
air about them were gone. There was silence everywhere, the natural silence of an empty,
lifeless building in an uninhabited valley.
Burl and his father made their