“Well, captain, what have you to say for yourself?” Dral demanded bitterly, using his own language. “You, the captain of the guard, allowed those three captives to escape! Why didn’t you order an immediate corps of space machines to pursue them?”
“Because it would have been useless,” Sefner Quorne replied calmly. “The Golden Amazon used every scrap of energy which her spaceship, the Ultra, possessed, and that meant they flew into the void at a speed infinitely greater than any pursuers could stand.”
“You seem to have forgotten,” Dral snapped, “how dangerous they can be now they’ve escaped. This secret territory of ours on this far-flung planet will be secret no longer.”
“Correct,” Quorne admitted. “Had I known those three people had arrived here, I might have been able to warn you against the impossibility of holding them. Their science and mental powers sets them in a class apart.”
“They are only Earth people.”
“You are mistaken, Dral. The Golden Amazon alone is Earth-born, and she became a superwoman both physically and mentally because of a scientist’s experiment when she was an infant. As for her husband Abna, he was formerly the ruler of Jupiter, and his strength and intelligence outclass even those of his wife. Viona, the younger woman, is the product of both of them, and she was not born in the normal material way. She is the product of unified intellects and pure scientific conception. There,” Quorne finished, “you face danger, Dral, as I have good reason to know.”
“You! A captain of my defence guard! Don’t be ridiculous.”
Quorne smiled coldly. “You believe I am that. You believe I am one of your own bacterial race who has taken on the pattern of an Earth being?”
“I know you are, because I was present in the laboratory when you assumed your present identity. We came here because our own world was too limiting. You know that by thought processes we absorbed the vibrations of people on Earth and thereby duplicated ourselves in their images, so that we could have physical bodies better suited to our needs. You know that basically we are bacteria people, the most indestructible and yet the most adaptable form of life—”
“I know, yes,” Quorne agreed, “but there is much more to the story than that. When one of your race absorbed my image from Earth without my knowledge, he became Captain of the Guard. But later, when I died, I took over his body from him.”
“What!” Dral stared blankly.
“I was killed on Earth when an invasion came from a planet called Zanji,” Quorne continued. “At that time a being named Kron was ruling the destiny of Earth, and it was by him that I was slain. But death does not bring oblivion of the mind. Upon the death of my body, my mind was free, of course. It had only one objective, to assume again a material form as nearly approaching the dead one as possible. Imagine my surprise when I found a body identical—here, on this world! I took it over, blasting out the weak mind of the creature ruling it, and I have used this body ever since. I can hardly believe that I ever died, so completely does this body duplicate the original the one I possessed.”
“You blasted the ‘weak’ mind of the original captain of the guard,” Dral said. “I would not call any of our race weak. We are masters of thought processes, otherwise we could not have duplicated the bodies of the far distant people of Earth.”
“I admit you understand the rudiments of thought processes, and that you are far ahead of natural Earth people in development,” Quorne responded, “but you are not ahead of me. I am more intelligent than you. Jupiter was my first home, my birthplace, and I was once adviser to Abna, himself a towering peak of intellect. So, ranged against Abna, the brilliant Golden Amazon, the adroit Viona—who was married to me when I had my own body on Earth—and myself, you stand little chance of succeeding in the plan of conquest you have devised.”
“But I have no plan of conquest!” Dral protested, and then looked away as the relentless heliotrope eyes pinned him.
“You lie,” Quorne stated flatly. “Long ago I read your mind, and I know exactly what you aim to do. You told the Amazon, Abna, and Viona that you only duplicated yourselves as Earth people so that you could have physical vestment instead of clumsy bacterial bodies. That was a lie. Your real aim is the bloodless conquest of every planet in the System by means of physical transposition. You plan first to conquer Earth by duplicating here among yourselves everybody who exists on Earth—then later you intend to put the counterfeit bodies on Earth and bring the originals here by scientific dissembly processes. The counterfeits would be your own people, obeying your orders, and on Earth nobody would know that the switch had been made.”
Dral was silent, plainly disturbed.
“Altogether,” Quorne commented, “a highly ingenious plan, with no Earthling guessing that his neighbor, or even a member of his family, might be an enemy in disguise.”
“Presumably you have read my thoughts,” Dral said. “That being so, I am glad that you approve. Tell me, though, who were you when on Earth?”
“My name is Sefner Quorne, and before the death of my former body, my ambition was nothing less than the ultimate conquest of the Universe—in which I was always balked by the Golden Amazon and her contemporaries. Now that I again have a body, my ambition remains unaltered, the only difference being that you have greatly simplified matters.”
“We shall operate as we see fit, Quorne,” Dral said.
“I think not.” Quorne smiled acidly. “The greater intelligence always dominates. I am greater than you, therefore you will do as I say. This scheme you have devised for bloodless conquest will be put into effect, certainly, but under my direction. You stand no chance against the Golden Amazon, Abna, Viona, and myself, but if you range yourself on my side, we can probably succeed in mastering the Universe.”
“By replacing Earthlings with counterfeits?”
“Exactly. Afterwards, when enough of your race have patterned themselves after the fashion of Earth people, we will transfer the original Earth people here and switch the counterfeits in their place. That is simple enough by atomic dissembly. The bodies are reduced to their atomic components, transmitted to wherever necessary, and there reassembled. The Amazon herself created that System, and a very brilliant one it is.”
“And if I refuse to work with you, Quorne?”
“You will go down to everlasting defeat. Since I am capable of reading your thoughts, you can never make a move without my knowing it. So, obviously, you had better come to terms.”
Dral was silent, realizing that he was beaten.
“It is also to our benefit,” Quorne continued, “that we have on this counterfeit world the duplicated images of the Amazon, Viona, and Abna. They will be extremely useful to us. The originals must be brought here at a later date and held captive by every known method. Once that is done, conquest will be simple.”
Dral gave a shrug. “Very well, Quorne, since I am powerless to defy you, I have no alternative but to work with you—”
CHAPTER TWO
PLAN IS EXPOSED
The young woman who made her way up the driveway of the huge modern residence in outer London was obviously nervous, behaving very much like a trespasser in forbidden territory. And with good reason. The London home
