A Princess of Mars (7 page)

Their foster mothers may not even have had an egg in the incubator,
as was the case with Sola, who had not commenced to lay, until
less than a year before she became the mother of another woman's
offspring. But this counts for little among the green Martians, as
parental and filial love is as unknown to them as it is common among
us. I believe this horrible system which has been carried on for
ages is the direct cause of the loss of all the finer feelings and
higher humanitarian instincts among these poor creatures. From
birth they know no father or mother love, they know not the meaning
of the word home; they are taught that they are only suffered to
live until they can demonstrate by their physique and ferocity that
they are fit to live. Should they prove deformed or defective in
any way they are promptly shot; nor do they see a tear shed for a
single one of the many cruel hardships they pass through from
earliest infancy.

I do not mean that the adult Martians are unnecessarily or
intentionally cruel to the young, but theirs is a hard and pitiless
struggle for existence upon a dying planet, the natural resources of
which have dwindled to a point where the support of each additional
life means an added tax upon the community into which it is thrown.

By careful selection they rear only the hardiest specimens of each
species, and with almost supernatural foresight they regulate the
birth rate to merely offset the loss by death.

Each adult Martian female brings forth about thirteen eggs each
year, and those which meet the size, weight, and specific gravity
tests are hidden in the recesses of some subterranean vault where
the temperature is too low for incubation. Every year these eggs
are carefully examined by a council of twenty chieftains, and all
but about one hundred of the most perfect are destroyed out of each
yearly supply. At the end of five years about five hundred almost
perfect eggs have been chosen from the thousands brought forth.
These are then placed in the almost air-tight incubators to be
hatched by the sun's rays after a period of another five years. The
hatching which we had witnessed today was a fairly representative
event of its kind, all but about one per cent of the eggs hatching
in two days. If the remaining eggs ever hatched we knew nothing of
the fate of the little Martians. They were not wanted, as their
offspring might inherit and transmit the tendency to prolonged
incubation, and thus upset the system which has maintained for ages
and which permits the adult Martians to figure the proper time for
return to the incubators, almost to an hour.

The incubators are built in remote fastnesses, where there is little
or no likelihood of their being discovered by other tribes. The
result of such a catastrophe would mean no children in the community
for another five years. I was later to witness the results of the
discovery of an alien incubator.

The community of which the green Martians with whom my lot was cast
formed a part was composed of some thirty thousand souls. They
roamed an enormous tract of arid and semi-arid land between forty
and eighty degrees south latitude, and bounded on the east and
west by two large fertile tracts. Their headquarters lay in the
southwest corner of this district, near the crossing of two of
the so-called Martian canals.

As the incubator had been placed far north of their own territory
in a supposedly uninhabited and unfrequented area, we had before us
a tremendous journey, concerning which I, of course, knew nothing.

After our return to the dead city I passed several days in
comparative idleness. On the day following our return all the
warriors had ridden forth early in the morning and had not returned
until just before darkness fell. As I later learned, they had been
to the subterranean vaults in which the eggs were kept and had
transported them to the incubator, which they had then walled up
for another five years, and which, in all probability, would not
be visited again during that period.

The vaults which hid the eggs until they were ready for the
incubator were located many miles south of the incubator, and would
be visited yearly by the council of twenty chieftains. Why they did
not arrange to build their vaults and incubators nearer home has
always been a mystery to me, and, like many other Martian mysteries,
unsolved and unsolvable by earthly reasoning and customs.

Sola's duties were now doubled, as she was compelled to care for the
young Martian as well as for me, but neither one of us required much
attention, and as we were both about equally advanced in Martian
education, Sola took it upon herself to train us together.

Her prize consisted in a male about four feet tall, very strong
and physically perfect; also, he learned quickly, and we had
considerable amusement, at least I did, over the keen rivalry we
displayed. The Martian language, as I have said, is extremely
simple, and in a week I could make all my wants known and understand
nearly everything that was said to me. Likewise, under Sola's
tutelage, I developed my telepathic powers so that I shortly could
sense practically everything that went on around me.

What surprised Sola most in me was that while I could catch
telepathic messages easily from others, and often when they were
not intended for me, no one could read a jot from my mind under any
circumstances. At first this vexed me, but later I was very glad
of it, as it gave me an undoubted advantage over the Martians.

The third day after the incubator ceremony we set forth toward home,
but scarcely had the head of the procession debouched into the open
ground before the city than orders were given for an immediate and
hasty return. As though trained for years in this particular
evolution, the green Martians melted like mist into the spacious
doorways of the nearby buildings, until, in less than three minutes,
the entire cavalcade of chariots, mastodons and mounted warriors
was nowhere to be seen.

Sola and I had entered a building upon the front of the city, in
fact, the same one in which I had had my encounter with the apes,
and, wishing to see what had caused the sudden retreat, I mounted
to an upper floor and peered from the window out over the valley
and the hills beyond; and there I saw the cause of their sudden
scurrying to cover. A huge craft, long, low, and gray-painted,
swung slowly over the crest of the nearest hill. Following it came
another, and another, and another, until twenty of them, swinging
low above the ground, sailed slowly and majestically toward us.

Each carried a strange banner swung from stem to stern above the
upper works, and upon the prow of each was painted some odd device
that gleamed in the sunlight and showed plainly even at the distance
at which we were from the vessels. I could see figures crowding
the forward decks and upper works of the air craft. Whether they
had discovered us or simply were looking at the deserted city I
could not say, but in any event they received a rude reception,
for suddenly and without warning the green Martian warriors fired a
terrific volley from the windows of the buildings facing the little
valley across which the great ships were so peacefully advancing.

Instantly the scene changed as by magic; the foremost vessel swung
broadside toward us, and bringing her guns into play returned our
fire, at the same time moving parallel to our front for a short
distance and then turning back with the evident intention of
completing a great circle which would bring her up to position once
more opposite our firing line; the other vessels followed in her
wake, each one opening upon us as she swung into position. Our own
fire never diminished, and I doubt if twenty-five per cent of our
shots went wild. It had never been given me to see such deadly
accuracy of aim, and it seemed as though a little figure on one of
the craft dropped at the explosion of each bullet, while the banners
and upper works dissolved in spurts of flame as the irresistible
projectiles of our warriors mowed through them.

The fire from the vessels was most ineffectual, owing, as I
afterward learned, to the unexpected suddenness of the first volley,
which caught the ship's crews entirely unprepared and the sighting
apparatus of the guns unprotected from the deadly aim of our
warriors.

It seems that each green warrior has certain objective points for
his fire under relatively identical circumstances of warfare. For
example, a proportion of them, always the best marksmen, direct
their fire entirely upon the wireless finding and sighting apparatus
of the big guns of an attacking naval force; another detail attends
to the smaller guns in the same way; others pick off the gunners;
still others the officers; while certain other quotas concentrate
their attention upon the other members of the crew, upon the upper
works, and upon the steering gear and propellers.

Twenty minutes after the first volley the great fleet swung trailing
off in the direction from which it had first appeared. Several of
the craft were limping perceptibly, and seemed but barely under the
control of their depleted crews. Their fire had ceased entirely
and all their energies seemed focused upon escape. Our warriors
then rushed up to the roofs of the buildings which we occupied and
followed the retreating armada with a continuous fusillade of deadly
fire.

One by one, however, the ships managed to dip below the crests of
the outlying hills until only one barely moving craft was in sight.
This had received the brunt of our fire and seemed to be entirely
unmanned, as not a moving figure was visible upon her decks. Slowly
she swung from her course, circling back toward us in an erratic and
pitiful manner. Instantly the warriors ceased firing, for it was
quite apparent that the vessel was entirely helpless, and, far from
being in a position to inflict harm upon us, she could not even
control herself sufficiently to escape.

As she neared the city the warriors rushed out upon the plain to
meet her, but it was evident that she still was too high for them
to hope to reach her decks. From my vantage point in the window I
could see the bodies of her crew strewn about, although I could not
make out what manner of creatures they might be. Not a sign of life
was manifest upon her as she drifted slowly with the light breeze
in a southeasterly direction.

She was drifting some fifty feet above the ground, followed by all
but some hundred of the warriors who had been ordered back to the
roofs to cover the possibility of a return of the fleet, or of
reinforcements. It soon became evident that she would strike the
face of the buildings about a mile south of our position, and as I
watched the progress of the chase I saw a number of warriors gallop
ahead, dismount and enter the building she seemed destined to touch.

As the craft neared the building, and just before she struck, the
Martian warriors swarmed upon her from the windows, and with their
great spears eased the shock of the collision, and in a few moments
they had thrown out grappling hooks and the big boat was being
hauled to ground by their fellows below.

After making her fast, they swarmed the sides and searched the
vessel from stem to stern. I could see them examining the dead
sailors, evidently for signs of life, and presently a party of
them appeared from below dragging a little figure among them.
The creature was considerably less than half as tall as the green
Martian warriors, and from my balcony I could see that it walked
erect upon two legs and surmised that it was some new and strange
Martian monstrosity with which I had not as yet become acquainted.

They removed their prisoner to the ground and then commenced a
systematic rifling of the vessel. This operation required several
hours, during which time a number of the chariots were requisitioned
to transport the loot, which consisted in arms, ammunition, silks,
furs, jewels, strangely carved stone vessels, and a quantity of
solid foods and liquids, including many casks of water, the first
I had seen since my advent upon Mars.

After the last load had been removed the warriors made lines fast to
the craft and towed her far out into the valley in a southwesterly
direction. A few of them then boarded her and were busily engaged
in what appeared, from my distant position, as the emptying of the
contents of various carboys upon the dead bodies of the sailors and
over the decks and works of the vessel.

This operation concluded, they hastily clambered over her sides,
sliding down the guy ropes to the ground. The last warrior to leave
the deck turned and threw something back upon the vessel, waiting an
instant to note the outcome of his act. As a faint spurt of flame
rose from the point where the missile struck he swung over the side
and was quickly upon the ground. Scarcely had he alighted than
the guy ropes were simultaneous released, and the great warship,
lightened by the removal of the loot, soared majestically into
the air, her decks and upper works a mass of roaring flames.

Slowly she drifted to the southeast, rising higher and higher as the
flames ate away her wooden parts and diminished the weight upon her.
Ascending to the roof of the building I watched her for hours, until
finally she was lost in the dim vistas of the distance. The sight
was awe-inspiring in the extreme as one contemplated this mighty
floating funeral pyre, drifting unguided and unmanned through
the lonely wastes of the Martian heavens; a derelict of death
and destruction, typifying the life story of these strange and
ferocious creatures into whose unfriendly hands fate had carried it.

Much depressed, and, to me, unaccountably so, I slowly descended to
the street. The scene I had witnessed seemed to mark the defeat
and annihilation of the forces of a kindred people, rather than
the routing by our green warriors of a horde of similar, though
unfriendly, creatures. I could not fathom the seeming
hallucination, nor could I free myself from it; but somewhere in
the innermost recesses of my soul I felt a strange yearning toward
these unknown foemen, and a mighty hope surged through me that the
fleet would return and demand a reckoning from the green warriors
who had so ruthlessly and wantonly attacked it.