Chapter 2. _The Valley of Stolen Sunlight_

For a moment all three were silent with amazement. "From California--and

Moon Base--for _us_?" gasped Burl, finally. "But why? What can they want

of us?"

His father frowned. "Only way to find out is to open it and see." He

squatted down to study the cylinder closer. Burl pointed a finger at the

nose.

"Looks like a crack there. Maybe it unscrews. Let's lift it."

It was not as heavy as it had appeared, for, like all rocket missiles,

it was made of the light but tough alloys that were necessary to

conserve weight-lift costs and fuel reserves. They stood it upright and

tried to turn the top. After a little resistance, it unscrewed slowly.

Inside, they found a rolled document bearing the seal of the United

States Air Force.

Burl took it out, and unfolded it with unsteady hands. His father read

over his shoulder.

Gonzales poked at the empty cylinder, impatiently. Finally, he burst

out, "What does it say? What do they want?"

Burl turned to him. "It's unbelievable! It's--it's just so darned

surprising! The dimness of the days, the drop in temperature--it wasn't

just around here! It was all over the world!"

Quickly, he went on to tell the Peruvian what they had just learned. The

communication was from the U.S. Space Commission and it had been

directed on its flight from California by the Moon Base, because only

from the satellite could the exact location of the Dennings be spotted.

It seemed that the Dennings were the only scientifically trained

personnel close to the point on Earth where the disturbance originated.

This also accounted for the blanketing of radio waves in their vicinity.

Several airplanes had tried to locate them, but strange disturbances in

the ether and atmosphere had made it impossible to establish contact.

Also, the back reaches of the Andes were poorly mapped and treacherous

in air currents, even in normal times.

"During the last week, a certain fraction of the Sun's light and energy

reaching the Earth has been diverted. It has been bent or focused in

much the same way that a lens bends light rays--and the point to which

it has been directed is a spot only seven miles from here! Over that

last mountain range," said Burl, pointing.

Gonzales followed his finger. "Just over the mountains lies the source

of the trouble," said Burl excitedly. "And we're the nearest to it. They

want us to go over there, see what it is, stop it, or report back. It

took the telescopes in Moon Base to locate us and to track the center of

the trouble!"

Mark Denning pursed his lips. "We'll have to start tomorrow, and we'll

have to go fast. A loss of light and heat, however slight, could have

very serious effects on life if continued too long. We can make it by

tomorrow night, if we start early and leave the Indians and pack animals

behind."

The other two nodded. Mark looked at them in the half-light of the Moon.

"You'll have to stay with the equipment, Pedro, otherwise the Indians

might abandon it. Burl and I will start out at dawn."

Gonzales agreed and the three made their way back to the camp. At the

first sign of light breaking in the morning horizon, Burl and his father

started off. They carried only enough equipment for survival, plus the

additional items that might be needed for the emergency ahead.

The trek over the mountains was a hard one, the path narrow, steep,

sometimes nonexistent. There were few signs of Indians or animals, and

it was plain that few ever traveled over this range. The air was cold

and thin, vegetation sparse and hardy. All around them was the cold

blue of the sky--a shade darker than usual--and the gaunt peaks of

ancient mountains. The Inca kings may have claimed the land here, but

even their hardy legions had never conquered these lonely and hostile

sky domains.

Panting and weary with hours of climbing, Burl and his father made a

quick lunch in a sheltered jumble of rock near the top. Then,

shouldering their packs again, they trudged on. At last they reached a

point where the view of the other side spread out before them--a

breathtakingly clear vision of the little valley below.

As they looked down, the air seemed to shimmer and vibrate. Burl rubbed

his eyes. "It hurts," he said.

His father squinted. "There's a powerful vibrational effect. It may be a

very dangerous concentration of the invisible rays of the Sun as well as

of light."

Once Burl had gotten used to the odd visual effect, which was like

gazing into the twisting heat rays rising from an overheated oven, he

saw that there was a small flat region between the mountains. And in the

center of this valley was a large black structure of some sort. The

twisting effect of the light around it made it impossible to tell more.

"That's it," said Burl. His father nodded, shifted the pack to ease his

shoulders, unstrapped the hunting rifle slung over his back, and

carefully checked its loads.

Burl saw what his father was doing and suddenly understood the danger.

What could be doing a thing like this? What but something not of this

Earth? Something of distant space, of a science beyond that of man--and

_unfriendly_ besides. Now, for the first time, Burl realized what he had

not had time to before--this was an enemy he and his father were

facing--an enemy of all mankind--and utterly unknown.

He gulped, gripped his rifle, and followed his father down the sliding

rocky trail.

As they drew nearer the base of the mountain, the effects of the strange

vibrations grew more pronounced. Burl avoided looking directly ahead,

keeping his eyes on the ground before his feet, yet even so, he could

not help noticing how the stones around them seemed to shimmer in the

invisible waves. From the base of the valley the sky now seemed streaked

with black and gray rings, as if they were reaching the center of some

atmospheric whirlpool. Out of the mountains, after hours of arduous

scrambling, they started across the barren rocky plain.

Before them rose a vast circular structure several stories high,

ominously black and without any sign of windows or doors. Above the

building protruded two great projections ending in huge, shining discs.

One of the monstrous cuplike discs was facing the Sun, the other pointed

in the opposite direction.

As the two men came nearer and nearer, the strangeness in the air

increased. They felt they were being penetrated through and through with

invisible lances, with tiny prickles of heat. "Radiation?" queried Burl

softly, afraid of the answer. His father trudged grimly on for a

moment, and then put down his pack. He took out a Geiger counter and

activated it.

He shook his head. "No radioactivity," he said. "Whatever this is, it

isn't that."

They reached the wall of the building. Oddly, here they seemed sheltered

from the unusual vibrations. Burl realized that the source was above

them, probably the two mighty discs raised high in the sky.

The Dennings surveyed the building, but found no entrance. It must have

been a quarter of a mile around its walls, but there was no sign of a

door or entry. The wall was of a rocklike substance, but it was not like

any rock or plastic Burl had ever seen.

"We've got to get in," said Burl as they returned to the starting point,

"but how?"

His father smiled. "This way." He opened his pack and took two cans of

blasting powder from it. "I thought these would come in handy. Lucky we

had some left over from the blasting we did last week."

He set both cans at the base of the high wall, wired them together, and

ran the wire as far as it reached. When the two men were a safe distance

away, Mark sparked off the explosive.

There was a thunderous roar: rocks and dirt showered around them, and

bits of black powdery stuff. When the smoke cleared, Burl and his father

leaped to their feet, rifles in hand.

There was a crack in the side of the wall where the explosive had gone

off. And the rip was large enough to get through!

Without a word, they charged across the ground, still smoking from the

concussion, and squeezed through the mysterious walls of the enigmatic

building.

The walls were thin, thin but hard, as befit masters of atomic

engineering. Inside, they found a roomless building--one single chamber

within the frame of the outer walls.

A dim, bluish light emanated from the curving ceiling. On the uncleared

rocky ground which was the floor of the building were a number of huge

machines.

They were spherical glassy inventions, many times the height of a man,

connected by strings of thick metal bars and rows of smaller globes,

none of which was familiar. There was a steady humming noise, and above,

the two giant, metal masts penetrating the ceiling rotated slowly.

Doubtless, the great Sun-trapping discs were affixed to the top of these

masts.

There was no living thing in sight.

Burl and his father stood silently, half crouched, with rifles at the

ready, but nothing moved to challenge them. There was only the humming

of the Sun transmitters.

Burl 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 way to the break in the wall and climbed

through it.

Outside, the Sun shone down brighter than it had before. The sky was

the calm serene blue of a cloudless day. Burl knew that at that same

moment, all over the world, the sky was clearer and the Sun warmer.

But for how long? Behind them the building still stood--and its

inventors were still to be found.