"Are you able to see anything at all, Burt?" "Nothing, captain." "Only a surface of clouds." "This planet seems to be made of fog." "Not even infrared rays get through." "Well, keep trying." "I've got the laser on infrared, it may penetrate." "There, the strange signals are continuing." "Now the localization is sharper." "15 degrees, felcar coaxial alfa vacuum.." "Right." "This is our sixth orbit around this planet, and that signal always comes from the same point." "If a man-made transmitter does exist, that's the spot, all right." "2 more meteors." "Yes, sir." "I'll check on the total." "Eldon, Tiona, Kell, we just rejected 2 more meteors." "What's our total now?" "999,wess." "1moreandI'llbake you alittlebirthdaycake with1,000candles." "Without this rejector, we'dlooklikeapiece ofSwisscheese." "Ourshipwouldbedown  inlessthanaminute." "Let's prepare for a landing, Brad." "Okay." "Attention." "Attention, all crew members, prepare for landing." "In 60 fractions of megon, we'll start the landing maneuver." "Theintensityof the gravitationalfield willbemaintained atthewave momentofforceg7." "Synchronizethe meteorrejector ontheelectro-magnetic controldevice." "Applyneuro-vasculartension." "Suppresscortical areasx ,y ,z ." "Inserttheautomaticcontrols." "Wewillkeepadistance of2 parsecs fromoursister shipgalliot." "Respondwhencommandreceived." "Command received." "Sanya, get me the captain of the other ship." "Spaceship Argos calling spaceship galliot." "Spaceshipgalliot, we'rereceiving." "Captain Salas is wanted on the ionoscope, please." "All right, mark, he's standing by." "Youwereright,mark." "It'snotcosmicradiation." "It'sa reality, arealitythatwe'll seeatfirsthand." "Glad to hear you admit it, Salas." "It's never too late." "We were never as crazy as you seemed to think." "Youcertainlyhad usworried,though." "Oh,you'veputaspy onboard?" "Huh,huh ." "Anyway,you'llhavetoagree itwasjustluck." "Youcan'tchaseafterall thesoundsin theuniverse." "Allright,so it 'snot acosmiccloud." "Butwhataboutlife?" "Whocansayyet that there'sanylifeonaura ?" "Whocanassureusthat it's not anaturalsourceofemission?" "We'll find out soon enough." "Right now, get ready to land." "Synchronize on gravitational wave moment of force g 7." "ShallI putus on  theautomaticcontrol?" "Yes." "When you're 2 parsecs from us." "1minute." "Mark,wait." "Youryounger brotherishere andhehassomething elsetotellyou ." "Mark,I want towarnyou." "Thiswillbe the firstandonlytrip..." "We've lost it." "Sanya, the reserve channel." "Zinex impulse, quickly." "Hello." "Hello, galliot." "Hello, galliot?" "Hello!" "Contact's been broken, mark." "The zinex impulse channel, throw it on." "The signal's been interrupted, mark." "The planet stopped transmitting." "Galliot." "Sanya, what about the galliot?" "Galliot, hello!" "I'm not getting anything, mark." "The zinex impulse channel, try it again." "Hello, hello." "Hello!" "There's nothing, mark." "The radio communications are blocked." "Try it again, Sanya." "Hello." "Hello, galliot!" "The automatic alarm." "Emergency!" "Emergency!" "The gravitational force is increasing rapidly." "Wess, where are we at?" "Give me a reading." "20, mark. 20 g." "Seal bulkheads." "Got to activate them now." "Brad, the automatic control, disengage it." "I'm switching to manual." "What happened?" "Why did she attack you?" "Is she crazy?" "What happened?" "don't you remember?" "Wess!" "Mark." "Try to get hold of him." "Mark!" "Are you out of your minds?" "What's wrong with everyone?" "Where are you going?" "Mark!" "Tiona." "Tiona!" "Stop!" "Dr. karan!" "Stop!" "Carter." "Carter!" "Mark, what was I trying to do?" "Mark-- in here, mark!" "Mark, now karan's gone crazy." "I was just coming to when he attacked Brad." "I rushed him, but he escaped through there." "Burt, you stay here." "Wess, come with me." "He's activated the security lock." "There's nothing we can do." "They open only when the sensors touch the ground." "The helmets!" "We'd better get the helmets." "What happened?" "How did I get out of the ship?" "What are you looking at me like that for?" "We don't know what happened, Karan." "Only some of us have been behaving strangely with no memory of it afterward." "Do you feel all right now?" "I guess so." "You're sure?" "Yes, yes, I'm sure." "All right, go inside." "Some of the men seem to be hurt, doctor." "I want you to take a look at them." "He doesn't remember anything either." "What's happened?" "What's going on?" "I wish I knew." "I can't see anything." "Not a sign of the galliot." "Yet we don't seem to be damaged at all." "Come on, let's get in the ship." "I can't see a scratch on the radar guidance arms." "Let's check the underside." "There's no damage." "It's as if we made a practice landing at the space academy." "Come on let's get in." "All right, all right." "Quiet down." "Quiet down." "Stay calm." "Let's all try to stay calm and figure out what happened." "Now, the automatic controls went completely haywire." "Maybe we can find out why after wess has had a chance to check over his recordings." "Without warning, the force of gravity increased like mad." "And it went up to 40 g." "A force which only a planet with a mass 1,000 times superior to ours could've put out." "That's not all." "While you were all unconscious and I was expecting the ship to crash head-on, the force suddenly stopped and we set down gently." "And then..." "You all went crazy." "And if you hadn't held out," "I hate to think of what would've happened." "Yes, it is pretty puzzling." "What do you think, professor Karan?" "I don't know." "I don't know what to think." "I've always known that any force greater than 25 g's kills every living thing in a few seconds." "Urgent." "Urgent." "Emergency!" "Be quiet." "Emergency!" "Conditionsdesperate." "Littlechanceof  survival." "Helpus ." "Wecan'tholdout  muchlonger." "Repeat." "Conditionsdesperate." "Sounds like capt." "Salas." "They must be in trouble." "Sanya, keep trying." "Burt, take a look on the infra-ray, see if you can spot anything." "They must be fairly close." "Urgent." "Urgent." "Helpus." "Hello." "Hello." "Argos calling galliot." "Argos calling galliot." "We're receiving you." "Continue on this frequency." "We'll try to get a fix on you." "What is your position?" "Argos calling galliot." "Argos calling galliot!" "Mark, look!" "What have you got?" "The galliot." "The red's cut through." "Can't tell how far it is." "Get me a fix on this right now." "We'll do a low-altitude takeoff and search." "They can't be too far away." "Wess, Brad, control." "All our solar batteries have been short-circuited." "Any visible reason?" "Another mystery?" "Wess, what can we do about it?" "I checked the temperature." "Second lavic stage." "I'm not interested in the temperature." "Can we get across it or not?" "Well, it's pretty dangerous down there." "The rocks appear to be fused and they're solid enough." "If they continue across the marsh, and if we're lucky..." "Let's try it." "Clear." "It's obvious." "They fought." "They fought and killed each other off." "Just as we were about to do." "None of this--this madness that has touched some of us, none of this is coincidence." "This was planned." "By whom?" "By what?" "And what about the others?" "We can look for them." "Poor Toby, on his first trip..." "The chamber's locked from the inside." "We'll need a torch to break through." "I counted 4, what about the others?" "They don't seem to be inside." "Let's take a look around." "There isn't anybody in the upper chambers." "And what about the control room?" "It's empty." "Look in the dome's secondary corridors." "All right." "In the meantime, we'll look in the sections of the automatic circuits." "Now, in case of any emergency, we meet in the atomic generator room." "Find anything?" "No." "The energy section is deserted." "Let's continue." "The 3 that are missing can't disappear into thin air." "Shh." "Listen." "It's coming from the generator room." "Turrell." "And Salas, mark?" "The meteor rejector is out of commission." "It can't be repaired, either." "The galliot won't fly again." "Neither will her crew." "What about this bulkhead?" "We've got to get through." "I'll take care of it, mark." "I'll get the cutting torch from the Argos." "No, you'd never make it alone." "No." "We'll bury Derek and the others and then we'll leave you on guard, Eldon." "We'll go for the cutting torch and I promise you, we'll get back just as fast as we can." "Sanya, I know how you feel, but don't go to pieces now." "Just be thankful we were spared." "Come on." "We've got to keep moving." "We'll get back as fast as we can, Eldon." "Keep a sharp watch." "Eldon..." "Eldon..." "Eldon..." "Eldon..." "Eldon?" "Eldon, where are you?" "Eldon, where are you?" "Eldon?" "Eldon!" "Maybe he's inside the ship." "Tiona, you stay here." "If anything moves, shoot first, ask questions later." "It's weird." "There's no one here." "But we left 4 bodies here." "How could they have disappeared?" "Eldon?" "Eldon!" "Kir!" "Salas!" "Where are they?" "They're gone." "All of them." "Eldon, too." "I left him on guard." "Listen, mark, maybe you imagined it." "Maybe the bodies really weren't in here, you just thought you saw them." "Hallucination." "I don't suffer from hallucinations, Karan." "I saw the bodies." "Maybe our senses react in a strange way on this planet." "I saw the bodies." "I saw my brother, dead." "What happened to Eldon, then?" "He wasn't a ghost, a hallucination." "Let's take it easy." "There must be some logical explanation." "That's right, mark." "Mark." "What is it, wess?" "We weren't dreaming." "Those bodies really existed." "Look, blood!" "Aah!" "Aah!" "Aah!" "What happened?" "Tiona, what did you see?" "Tell us." "Come on, let's get out of here." "Hurry!" "There seems to be several things completely unexplainable." "For 2 years, we heard the electronic signals coming from this planet." "Now that we're here, nothing." "Yes, but we did hear voices." "A strange tongue, but voices." "There were intelligent beings here." "You could've fooled me." "I never felt so all alone." "Maybe we're not alone." "Somebody or something could be watching us here, right now." "If there are any intelligent creatures on this planet, they're our enemies." "Wess, you've been taking sightings and adding figures, what does it come out to?" "How long can we stay here?" "3 days, mark." "Another 3 days before this planet's orbit will have swept us so far away, we may not get back home at all." "What do you think?" "Can you boost the solar batteries by then?" "I'm trying to hook up some other way of starting us." "What are our chances?" "We have 3 chances in 10 to make it, or be blown to smithereens." "All right, wess, tomorrow morning, you get to work." "Take whoever you need to help you." "Right now, I think we should all get some sleep." "I think we need it." "A captain should not be afraid." "And I confess now, to whoever may hear this, that today, now," "I am experiencing fear." "I must not let my crew know this," "I must keep them busy." "I must not let them know that the situation appears more hopeless with each passing day." "Dictated by capt." "Mark Markary, of the spaceship Argos on the planet aura" "wess!" "Wess!" "More trouble?" "He was trying to disconnect the meteor rejector." "Disconnect the meteor rejector?" "I don't understand." "I assure you, I don't understand it either." "Wess, you knew what you were doing." "Yes, I knew." "I was fully aware, all the time." "What?" "I couldn't help myself." "I fought it with all my power." "But, it was no use." "I had to disconnect the meteor rejector." "But why, wess, why?" "I don't know!" "It was like..." "Like another will fighting my own, in my mind." "Trying to take over control." "Dr. Karan, have you got any thoughts on this?" "The only conclusion I can make is that each one of us is his own worst enemy." "But how?" "Why?" "I'm afraid I know." "Whatever unseen beings are out there, they apparently have the power to influence our minds when we're unconscious." "They tried it during the landing and just now when we were sleeping." "If what you say is true, Karan, we mustn't give them any more chances." "From now on, we'll put a guard on anyone who's sleeping." "Who's there?" "Burt!" "Burt!" "What's up?" "I..." "I don't know." "I thought I heard something." "Did you see anything?" "I don't know what I saw." "I don't even know if I saw anything at all." "Mark said to sing out if we saw anything not in the book." "If we saw any thing at all." "I'm going to report." "Emergency." "Guardpost3." "Emergency." "Wess, you come with me." "The rest of you, be careful." "What is it?" "I thought I saw something." "What?" "Out there." "Well, like luminous globes." "I saw them out of the corner of my eye." "But when I looked, they were gone." "Where's Burt?" "He's gone back to post number 2." "Keep your eyes open, but don't get carried away." "Who's out there?" "Hold it!" "Burt, what happened?" "Tell me, who did it?" "It was..." "Captain, captain Salas." "What's out there, mark?" "What's happening?" "That's what we have to find out before they kill us all." "Come on, let's get him into the ship." "Give me a hand." "1 entire crew lost and 2 of our own crewmen gone." "Burt dead, Eldon disappeared." "And this unknown enemy keeps getting closer." "The enemy is also becoming visible." "What do you mean by that?" "Well, you saw something." "Something not quite identifiable, out of the corner of your eye." "As if it were composed of little globes of light, something fleeting, nothing definite." "The minute I looked at the things directly, they were gone." "How can you explain it?" "I don't know." "It's possible they're an alien form of life." "That's true." "Their form here could be based on a different plane of vibrations." "Flesh-and-blood men can't see them, except obliquely, as you did, mark." "Those strange walls we heard could be their voices." "That's right." "Well, we'll bury Burt tomorrow." "Another tomb we have to leave on this dangerous planet." "Sanya?" "I'll be right with you, mark." "First, I want to remove Burt's nameplate." "Sanya." "Sanya, come on." "They need you." "Oh, I still have Burt's nameplate." "Give it to me." "I'll finish the records." "You've done enough today." "Thank you." "Aah!" "Rest well, Burt." "I'm sorry we weren't around to help you." "I promise we'll try to see that you didn't die in vain." "All right, let's not stand around, we've got work to do." "Feeling better, tiona?" "Better, mark." "I swear it, mark." "I didn't imagine it." "Wess?" "I think we'll make it, mark." "I'm beginning to get energy traces across the inductors." "How much longer?" "We might be ready by tonight." "Good." "We're making a little tour of inspection." "Carter says he saw something in the valley, something shining." "Let's go take a look." "Mark!" "Come here." "Look down there." "That's what I saw shining." "Finally, something tangible." "That doesn't disappear when I look straight at it." "Looks like it's been here for a long time." "Look how pitted and scarred the hull is." "Doesn't look like any ship I've ever seen." "Do you think it belongs to the aureans?" "I doubt they ever built any spaceships." "If they had, we would've..." "Look, mark." "It's 3 times the size of us, and judging by the deterioration of the calcium, it must've been here a long time." "Probably belonged to an ancient civilization." "Carter, you stay here." "Keep your eyes and ears open." "Right." "Sanya and I will take a look around inside this thing." "Oh, uh, if he moves, just call out." "Right." "Sanya, what is it?" "Oh, I..." "I got a shock." "How?" "Touching that." "Ouch!" "That must be over 200 volts." "I wonder what they used it for." "Possibly it's an electric torch." "They..." "Held it in their hands and it became luminous." "Beings as big as they seem to have been could have held it without feeling any kind of shock." "Carter." "Carter!" "Carter!" "Carter!" "Car..." "Ter!" "Mark, look what I found." "What is it?" "Looks like a tuning fork." "Why didn't we think of that before?" "Of what?" "The locking device could be a Sonic one, a lock designed to open only to a certain sound, to a certain frequency only." "Mark, it's strange in here." "I can't breathe." "Something's drawing the air out through this vent." "We've got to find a way to get out of here." "If only we could find the secret of that lock." "Ooh!" "Quick, get out!" "Carter!" "Carter, where are you?" "Maybe he's gone back to the Argos for help." "Yes, you could be right." "Come on." "Let's go." "Let's get back." "Carter?" "Yes." "No, mark." "He's not with us." "He was with you, wasn't he?" "Has he disappeared as well?" "I'll tell you what happened later." "Mark?" "Tiona, she's in shock." "What happened?" "She was standing guard and all of a sudden I heard her scream." "When I reached her, she could only point and whisper," ""Danny, Toby."" "There was nothing, mark." "Absolutely nothing." "She simply broke down." "We'd better talk to her." "I saw them, aah." "I saw them, aah..." "I saw them." "I looked right at them." "Who did you see, tiona?" "Who?" "They were there, in the fog." "All mutilated and bloody." "Who, tiona, who?" "Tell me." "I looked right at them." "They didn't go away." "They were humans, not ghosts." "Who, tiona, who?" "Tell me, who did you see, tiona?" "Empty faces." "Dead faces." "Post number 1." "Post number 1." "Reply to call." "Postnumber2,  postnumber2." "Post number 2." "Call received." "All ok." "Here'spost number3 ." "Postnumber3." "Postnumber3." "Everything fine here too." "I'mpassingback tonumber1." "Machinery room." "Machinery room." "This is post number 1." "Wess?" "I'manxiousto know howyou'redoing." "Standingguard heremakesone evenmoreimpatient fortheblast-off." "Istheremuch moretodo  beforethebatteries willbeready?" "Well?" "I understand." "You're worried." "ButI don'tthinkit'll betoomuchlonger." "We'repractically there,mark." "Another8 circuits togoandthen..." "Andthenwe either takeoffor we ..." "Orweblowup." "Right now, I'd welcome either one." "Postnumber3alarm!" "Who's there?" "Who's out there?" "No!" "don't fire." "Salas." "Kir." "Yes, mark." "It's us." "It's us." "We're so exhausted it's hard to concentrate." "We remember descending for a landing with all conditions perfect." "Then nothing." "Until we found ourselves fighting our way out of unconsciousness somewhere out there." "Well?" "That's about it, mark." "Go on." "We walked around some, looking for the galliot." "But we didn't find her." "It was a miracle that you found us." "All right." "I'm glad you made it." "I sure can use you." "Now, go and get some sleep." "Thanks, mark." "I forgot." "If one of you sleeps, the other must stand guard." "That's an order." "I'll explain it later." "Very well, mark." "What do you make of it?" "I don't know what to think, mark." "Shock?" "Temporary or partial amnesia?" "By now, nothing should surprise us." "Anyway, you can't argue with the fact that they're here." "And very much alive." "Or so it seems." "Mark." "You said "seems", mark." "How many strange things seem and then are ever since we got on this planet?" "I really saw them, the 3 we buried yesterday." "I know they're dead." "And I saw another one, mark." "Who, tiona?" "Burt." "Burt?" "Even though we buried him yesterday." "I saw him, mark." "I saw him." "I saw him, mark!" "If only I could be certain of what you're saying." "There's a way to be certain." "You see?" "It's intact." "Open it, mark." "Ah!" "Wess!" "Dr. Karan!" "Salas and Kir are not in their bunks." "Have you seen them?" "No." "Have you?" "Salas!" "Salas!" "Salas!" "No, it's not Salas." "Just his body." "I inhabit the body of your late captain." "And I'm just one of many beings on this planet." "Many beings who are desperate." "We've been in trouble many years now, and we're fighting to survive." "We arranged for several of you to kill each other so that we could take over your bodies." "You are our last chance." "It's imperative that our race continue to exist." "At our expense?" "If you were in our place, you would understand." "On your planet," "I know you humans have fought and killed for centuries." "Do you really expect us to be any different?" "We cannot be wiped out." "We'll stop at nothing." "We must fight, no matter how." "We are a race that exists on a vibratory plane different from yours." "Our limitations are entirely different." "Our technology, we cannot build anything, spaceships like this." "We need ships to get away." "Perhaps our survival is possible somewhere else." "Our sun's been dying, as you can see." "And that means the end of our species as well." "We have been attempting to summon you here for centuries." "Just as our sun had no more energy, you heard our message." "We never expected you to actually respond." "You mean, it was nothing but a lure." "You wanted us here." "That's why you sent that message." "Have you tried this trick before?" "Yes." "The strange ship from another system." "And I suppose you need our dead bodies?" "No." "They must be willing only to submit." "Lose their bodies as well as lose their will." "We'll never submit to a breed of parasites." "Our relationship would be symbiotic." "In effect, we would be 1 body." "It would in no sense be parasitical." "You've got no choice." "Either all of us go back together or none of you, nobody will go back." "You will never get there." "You'll see." "We will get there, mark." "A certain rejector, vital to you, has been taken away." "You can't leave without it." "We'll return it to you, only if you agree to take us back with you." "All right, you've heard all of the facts." "And you'll cooperate." "No, never." "We'll give up our lives to save our own race." "Quick, the generator room!" "Wess, you have the red key to the atomic detonators." "Here's the green one." "I want 3 pounds of plutonium." "What are you going to do, mark?" "The galliot's going to be blown up with its entire cargo of living dead." "But first, I've got to get back the meteor rejector." "Wess, how long will it take you to get ready?" "I have to finish the photonic ignition." "The rest is all set." "Good." "I want you to stay here." "You 2 come with me." "Wess, as soon as we're out, close the doors and the bulkheads, but keep the screens turned on." "As soon as you see us coming back, turn on the ignition." "We'll worry about replacing the rejector after we're out in space." "That's taking a terrible risk." "Yes." "I wish it were the only risk we'd have to run before taking off." "But there's no other solution." "Go on, get the detonators." "Tiona, you stay here." "Cover our retreat." "don't move for any reason." "And remember, the danger is not only in front of you." "15 seconds after the galliot explodes, if we haven't come back, you run to the Argos and take off, understand?" "Mark, I can't let-- that's an order, Karan." "Let's go." "There's nobody here." "Now, I want you 2 to stay right here." "No, mark." "You won't go alone." "Listen, Brad, I'm not trying to be a hero." "We each have 1 charge." "If I don't make it, it'll be your turn." "If he fails, you try it next." "You stay here, Brad." "Cover us." "My brother." "He's turned into 1 of them." "Take the count." "Ready?" "Now." "Go ahead." "1...2...3." "Quick, in the generator room." "Sanya, give me the countdown." "29...28...27... 26...25..." "All right, you can stop now." "20-- throw away your gun." "Leave the meteor rejector." "You'd better get used to the idea, mark." "You've reached the end." "You have lost." "Toby, if you have anything left in you of what you were, let me go on." "Fortunately, there's nothing of what I was left." "Only the body's the same and now..." "No use, mark." "You can't harm me with violence." "Sorry, Toby, but this is the only way I can prevent you from stopping me." "Ah!" "Time's running out." "Hurry." "Ah!" "Ah!" "There they are." "They're being followed." "We'd better help them." "Dead." "Dead?" "I'd better replace the meteor rejector right away." "Sanya, you take the controls until we come back." "It's sad, mark." "Out of 18 people, there are only 3 of us left." "I'm ashamed to be alive." "They died to save our planet." "Can you imagine?" "Our world invaded by those horrible creatures?" "Just thinking about it, seems a nightmare." "Mark." "Yes, it is sad, wess." "But it was only luck that brought us here." "Wess, you need some sleep." "You haven't slept for 2 nights." "Yes." "Sanya and I will keep watch." "I need some sleep." "Who's there?" "Mark, is it you?" "Sanya?" "If I wasn't so wide awake, I'd swear I was dreaming." "What happened, wess?" "I was about to fall asleep, when I heard footsteps out in the passageway." "They approached my cabin." "Then what happened?" "Then, the door opened, slowly." "As if someone were debating whether or not to come in." "And did they?" "No, Sanya." "Then you didn't see anything." "Yes, I did." "He was holding his field ray gun." "He was mirrored on the metal wall." "Are you sure you saw him?" "I know you won't believe me, Sanya." "I certainly wish I was wrong, myself." "But it was really him." "Mark!" "It was mark, Sanya." "Why did he come to me so..." "Furtively?" "Maybe he wanted to kill me." "Well, then what are your conclusions, wess?" "Unfortunately, there's only 1 conclusion." "Even mark is controlled by one of them." "Oh, it's impossible." "Let's go see." "Wess?" "Wait a minute." "Mark." "Wess has found out about us." "don't be afraid, wess." "Nobody wants to harm you." "Nobody wants to kill you." "You..." "You're one of them." "And you too, Sanya." "It's horrible." "You." "Both of you." "You must become one of us." "All you have to do is want it." "Just let one of us join you." "It'll give you this wonderful new complexity." "No." "No!" "Our world will never fall into your hands!" "Maybe not, but you won't be the one to stop us." "Yes, I will!" "Ah!" "Sanya, without the meteor rejector, we'll never be able to reach home." "What do we do?" "We'll have to land now, on that planet." "I've done an analysis with a special probe." "We can exist in the atmosphere." "It's the third planet of the star we call sol." "It's so small, it's not even marked on the astronavigation charts." "But will it be possible to live there, for us and those who follow us?" "It's most likely a young, primitive world." "But I think it'll be all right for us." "I'll activate the long-range telescopic lens." "Yes, I was right." "It is a puny civilization." "Their buildings are still made of stone and iron." "How will they accept us?" "I hope, well." "For them."