Keeper of the Deathless Sleep

by Albert De Pina

Nardon, the Correlator, had banded together the greatest brains of the Solar System to battle the menace spawned by Saturn—was leading them into the stronghold of the Energasts themselves.

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Winter 1944. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

"We cannot fight," Antaran said. "Not now.... We must be patient a while longer. Venus still holds the secret of Vulcan base and without allotropic metal our fleet would be so much papier mache!" He fell silent.

In the soft, smoky-blue twilight of the great subterranean room beneath the Universarium, Bill Nardon gazed expressionlessly at the angular austerity of the Council Leader's face, and remained silent.

"Three more spacers today!" Antaran sank slowly into the yielding firmness of a priceless crysto-plast chair. "Disappeared...." He paused. "Must you have this hellish blue fog, Bill?" He frowned in distaste. Bill Nardon smiled slowly from where he lay on a great couch of alabastrine, utterly relaxed. "Would you rather have a mountain night, a summer twilight, or dawn?" His great shoulders shook a little with silent laughter until the mane of dark red hair that hung to his shoulders seemed to twinkle with pinpoints of light. He pressed a series of selectors on the back of the couch, and slowly a rosy light like a tardy dawn diffused through the room together with the smell of the sea. "Don't look so outraged, Antaran; that Spartan conditioning of yours is a tragedy!" The aged Council leader shrugged his shoulders.

"Listen to me!" Antaran said brusquely. "Half a hundred thousand men and women from six planets cannot be hidden away like so much plunder. Sooner or later someone is bound to escape and give away the mystery. Yet months have passed and no trace of them has been found. Correlate that!"

He sniffed at the marvelously fresh odor of the sea and blinked at the rose-gold light of the static dawn as if it weren't a scientific and artistic miracle, but something not quite decent.

"The loss in terms of life and treasure is negligible. It's what it purports in the long run that's serious. Already Venus has clamped down on shipments of radio-actives and Mars has declared limited martial law. No trade 

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