He looked around. Several other ants were approaching from the distance. He turned and ran in the direction of the ruins.
Looking back, he saw that the ants had stopped beside the dead body of their comrade and were pulling it to pieces. He ran on, trying to reach the ruins as soon as he could.
Once it had been a very large house. Now there were only half broken walls with no ceilings and remains of columns.
Christian was running from room to room, with the insects hurrying after him. He came into a large hall and ran across it to the opposite wall. When he reached it, the first ants appeared in the doorway through which he had entered. He could not climb over the wall because it was too high. Rather high over the floor there were some niches in the wall big enough for him to get in. With a great difficulty, using cracks in the wall as steps, he managed to climb into one of these niches. The ants came up to the wall and were trying to climb to him. Every minute more and more insects gathered at the wall.
His situation was desperate. Then he had an idea - to try to burn a hole in the wall with his decapitator. Of course, he did not know how thick the wall was and how much energy was remaining in the decapitator. He did not know what he would find of the other side of the wall if he managed to burn a hole through it. But it was the only way to try to get away from the terrible insects.
He turned his decapitator to the wall and pressed the energy button. A narrow hot beam touched the wall, and it slowly began to melt.
It took him a long time to make the hole large enough to get through. Then he had to wait for the wall to cool. At last he jumped out on the other side.
There were no ants… but he saw far on the horison moving lights. What was it? The Watchers who were coming to save him? Or some new enemies?
The moving lights were quickly approaching. He saw two machines. They were round, the size of small cars, and they were moving on caterpillars, like tractors.
Christian was running towards the moving machines, because the ants had already found their way around the wall and were running after him. When the insects noticed the moving machines, some of them turned and started running away, other, tried to hide into the sand. Both machines put out metal discs which were quickly turning, and attacked the insects with them, cutting them to pieces. Soon all the ants which had not run away were killed.
Both machines pulled back their discs, moved to the place where Christian was standing and stopped.
Five minutes passed, and nothing happened. Christian walked round each machine. There were no doors or windows in them. He knocked on the side of one of the machines and shouted: "Is there anyone inside?"
There was no answer. He understood that the machines were robots.
Robots! Robots directed by remote control - from where? And by whom?
Evidently they were controlled by the Watchers…
He climbed on the top of one of the machines hoping that it would carry him to the people who operated them. The machine did not move. Then he climbed down and began walking in the direction from which the machines had come.
Immediately the machines started moving in the same direction, too. He stopped, and the robots stopped, too. He went on, and they followed him again.
At least he was safe from the danger from insects. But he walked more and more slowly. He was tired, hungry and thirsty. Every new step was more difficult.
Finally he could walk no more. In despair he fell down on the sand. The two robots stopped beside him.
Suddenly it became much darker. He looked up and saw something big which was falling from the sky…
- 33 -
Waldo and other Brains were standing at the door of the lift.
"We must follow him," said one of the Brains.
"No! He cannot live on the surface. It is too cold there, and then there are giant mutated insects. He will certainly die," said Waldo.
"But what if he gets to the Watchers?" said another Brain. "What will happen then?"
Waldo hesitated. He wanted to take revenge on the captain, but was afraid of the Watchers.
"If the Watchers find out what we are doing in the past," he said, "they will try to stop us. We must try to complete our work before it is too late."
"Yes, we must hurry," the others agreed.
They went back. Soon all the Brains gathered in the hall of the transmitter with crystals.
"Captain Christian has run away to the surface," said Waldo. "He may meet the Watchers. We must act immediately. As you know, our purpose is to throw off the yoke of the Watchers. We can do it if we change the course of history from the past. We must concentrate our efforts on the scientists of the past who are working on the problems of space travel. If we stop all experiments with space travel, that are going on in the twentieth century, people will never fly into space - and we shall be masters of Earth."
Waldo was speaking louder and louder and finished with the words:
"Our plan is clear. We must go into the year nineteen hundred and sixty-six and completely destroy the satellite bases and everything that is connected with them!"
The Brains were very excited. Someone shouted: "To the past - destroy the satellites!"
They took their crystals from the transmitter and fastened them to their belts. Each Brain was armed with his decapitator.
Waldo gave a command:
"Follow me - into the past!"
He touched the crystal on his belt, the other Brains did the same - and one by one they disappeared.
- 34 -
Active work was going on in the United States Rocket Research Centre in New Mexico. Under the hot sun ten red and silver rockets stood in the large field ready to fly up. Somewhere a man counted loudly:
"Ten… Nine… eight… seven…»
The rockets were part of the artificial satellite project. In a few minutes they would fly up into space, orbit Earth and send information back to the Earth base. They were the first steps of man to other planets and stars.
The sky was bright blue and completely cloudless. There was no wind.
The man had his finger on the starting button. He continued to count:
"Four… Three… Two…»
Suddenly a great explosion shook the field. Great columns of flame and smoke covered the rockets.
The next moment a lot of Brains appeared in the field. They sent bright hot beams of fire from their energy weapons. In a few minutes all the laboratories were destroyed and all the people were killed. The Brains left nobody alive.
Telephones rang in the United Nations. The same thing happened in all the rocket bases of the world. The rocket research centres in Russia, Australia, China, and everywhere else were completely destroyed.
"For the first time in history the nations of the world are united, and we can do nothing," complained the Secretary-General.
He was standing at a high window and looking at the sky and stars. He could not see any way out of the situation. Nothing could stop the Brains… except, perhaps, Captain Christian. He was the only man who really knew about the Brains…
- 35 -
Christian opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a bed in a room with white walls. Through a round window he could see the desert covered with black sand. The huge red sun hung in the black sky.
A door opened, and a man walked in.
"I am Paul, one of the Watchers," he said. "And you are, I think, from the twentieth century?"
"Captain Arthur Christian."