The Silver Age #8
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The Silver Age #8 |
"Descent Into Terror!"
The trackless expanse of the feared Bermuda Triangle covered 440,000 square miles between the island of Bermuda, the coast of southern Florida and Puerto Rico. It was avoided by ships and planes alike unless there was absolutely no other choice but to go through it. But the lone black submarine that cut through the smooth waters on this gorgeous sun splashed day was no stranger to these waters. The only identifying mark on the sub was the huge golden hourglass painted on both sides of the conning tower: The symbol of The Challengers of The Unknown. And for them, The Bermuda Triangle held no special fear. They traveled to the most dangerous and mysterious parts of the world as easily as the average Joe Punchclock went to McDonald’s for lunch.
Ace Morgan stood in the conning tower, scanning the ocean with a powerful pair of Zeiss binoculars. It had been a day since The Challengers had entered The Bermuda Triangle in their submarine, The Jules Verne and now it was just the beginning of Day Two of their search. Optimistic as he usually was, Ace had to admit to himself that it seemed almost hopeless that they would find Red Ryan’s brother in all this. And despite the hot early morning sun beaming down on him, he was cold inside as he contemplated what fate might as befallen his friend’s brother.
Someone was climbing through the hatch. Ace’s sensitive nose picked up the tang of tobacco smoke and a slight smile tugged at the corners of his thin lips as he said; "Good morning, Lois."
"Hey! How’d you know it was me?" Lois Lane, star reporter of The Daily Planet demanded as she thrust a thermos of piping hot coffee in Ace’s direction. A burning cigarette dangled from the corner of her mouth. "Here. Figured you could use a cup of joe. Give me the glasses and let me look for a while."
Ace traded the binoculars for the thermos and stepped to one side to let Lois take his place. The plucky reporter had invited herself along on this search mission and Ace had to admit, Lois was just as much as help as if she’d been a bona fide member of the team. She had some experience with submarines due to several stories she’d worked on in the past and even though The Jules Verne had been especially built for The Challengers, which meant that while could be run by four, it was still a blessing to have an extra pair of hands aboard.
Ace sipped the wonderfully hot Columbian brew and said; "Thought you’d be talking to your boss on the radio."
"Already done. Spoke to Perry and sent him another story. They’re eating this up back home. Perry tells me that the newsstands can’t sell papers fast enough...and The Planet’s website has been crashed twice. Jimmy Olsen’s going nuts trying to keep the server up and running." Lois lowered the binoculars and grinned at Ace. "Nothing like a lot of good healthy publicity."
Ace grinned back and as sipped more coffee. "You didn’t think we let you come along just for your good looks, did you? With you along transmitting stories twice a day, there will be a record of our search so if we happen to vanish, the next search party will know where to look."
"You expecting to vanish, Ace?"
He shrugged brawny shoulders. "I’m not expecting anything except to find Red’s brother. But I did take the precaution of giving our planned course to The Blackhawks and The Sea Devils and they’re standing by just in case something DOES happen."
"Seems to me that it would have been smart for you to bring them in on this right from the start."
Ace shrugged. "They’ve got their own affairs to look out after. And there’s a chance that we’ll find Tino and return home with no incident. And there are Navy ships and planes already looking for Tino’s plane. Sometimes too much help can be just as bad as having none."
"I suppose you’re right." Lois was quiet for perhaps a minute before speaking again; "Ace, you think I was out of line with Corinna, right?"
Ace gave her a wry look. "Let me give you some advice my mother gave me that I think you should take to heart, Lois. ‘Think twice and speak once’. That answer your question?"
"But how was I supposed to know she was a former Challenger?"
"You’re Lois Lane, star reporter. You know everything." Ace finished his coffee and screwed the top back on the thermos.
"Ace, who IS Corinna Stark?"
"She joined the team when Prof was shot and out of action for a while. There’s a lot about her background we don’t know, true. But what we do know is that she’s proven to be a true friend and able teammate. She’s also an expert in the occult and metaphysics and quite the martial artist. She could just have easily taken your head off with that slap."
Lois was intrigued by the tone in Ace’s voice. "Wow. You mean there’s somebody living who can actually impress the great and perfect Ace Morgan? She must really be something special."
"I respect Corinna and if you want my opinion, I suggest you patch things up with her. There’s no telling how long we’re going to be on this tin fish and I won’t tolerate a repeat of what happened back at Challenger Mountain."
"Just how long ARE we going to be out here, Ace?"
Ace took the binoculars from Lois and again took up his watch. "Until Red says it’s time for us to go home."
Inside the sub, the main control room was quiet, occupied by one man, Rocky Davis. The control room was an incredible display of controls and instrumentation that looked extremely complicated but was actually quite simple, thanks to the extensive computer system that had been built especially for The Jules Verne. The Challengers had went to Dane Dorrance, leader of the underwater adventurers called The Sea Devils and with assistance from him as well as Niles Caulder, Chief of The Doom Patrol, the submarine has been constructed to have the flexibility and power that the Challengers demanded but it also had to be run by four men. The control panel Rocky sat at was lit up like the bridge of the starship Enterprise because there were so many other functions that would have been handled by other crewman that now fell to whoever was piloting the vessel but Rocky found it fun to have such a powerful vessel at his command.
"Hello, Rocky."
Rocky turned in the high-backed chair to see Corinna Stark standing just behind him. Like Lois, she was dressed in the original purple Challenger uniform while Rocky wore the latest version: a steel blue jumpsuit with gold piping running along the outside of the leg, continuing up the torso and the insides of the arms as well as the shoulders and down the outside of the arms. In addition he wore a leather jacket with the Challenger hourglass symbol on the back. Due to the open hatch there was a chilly breeze constantly passing through the control room.
"Hey, Corinna. How’s it goin’?"
"Just fine. Red, June and I just completed checking the weapons and loading them. If anything attacks us, we’ll be ready. I thought that I might join you and learn something about this sub. You boys got this one after I left."
Rocky gestured at the co-pilot’s chair. "Sure. Matter of fact, Ace said he wants you an’ Lois to learn how to steer this fish. Says that since we’ve got so many hands on board we might as well take advantage of it. Usually we just let the autopilot drive."
Corinna slid into the seat and her black eyes glanced over the controls. "Looks simple enough."
"The dang thing practically runs itself. This sub has got maybe three times more computer systems than any other sub on earth. Of course that meant three times as much shieldin’ an’ stuff to protect it from EMP bursts an’ stuff like that. There’s even a bunch of pre-programmed courses that-"
"Rocky."
Rocky stopped, realized he was rattling and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, Corinna…forgot that you don’t need a lecture on computers an’ stuff…"
"Ever since you saw me back at Challenger Mountain, you’ve been avoiding me. I wish you wouldn’t. I care for you a great deal. You know that."
"Hell, Corinna…I know you came with Red and I figgered that you an’ him had hooked up down in South America. I’m not gonna make a scene or anythin’. What happened in the past is in the past and-"
Corinna laid a hand on Rocky’s thick forearm. "I was down in Brazil, yes. And I knew that Red was there, yes. But I had no plans on seeing or speaking to him. You have to believe that."
"Then what were you doin’ in Brazil?"
Corinna swiftly glanced around to make sure that they were alone before leaning closer to continued speaking. "I’ve been working with King Faraday on a special assignment. You know a man named Sarge Steel? Well he was-"
"Rocky!" Ace’s voice boomed down through the hatch. "Look alive, mister! Seven degrees to port! I think I see something!"
"Aye, aye, Cap’n!" Rocky boomed back and turned the huge wheel easily, while throwing a "we’ll finish this talk later" look at Corinna.
The ship intercom system chirped for attention and Corinna unclipped the microphone and pressed the button to talk. "Bridge."
Red’s voice came from the speaker. "What’s going on? Feels like the sub’s changing course."
"It is. Ace thinks he sees something. Maybe you’d better come on forward."
"Be right there. We’ll pick up Prof on the way."
Lois was hopping from one foot to another as if she had to desperately go to the bathroom. Actually, she was impatiently waiting for Ace to pass the binoculars to her so she could see whatever it was he was looking at so intently. "Ace-"
He irritably waved her to silence and turned back to look at the object that was fast approaching them. Whatever it was, it was skipping along the surface of the water like a flat stone that had been thrown by a kid across a lake. It would skim along the surface for some 8 to 10 feet, then drop to the water, kicking up a storm of foam and then leap back up into the air. It appeared to be circular and its skin was shiny, metallic. Ace couldn’t tell if it was something alive or mechanical. He was quite frankly stumped. He’d never seen anything like it.
Lois gave up trying to get Ace to pass her the binoculars and was rummaging around in the conning tower’s storage cases for another pair. "Selfish bastard" she muttered as she finally found another pair and went to stand next to Ace. The object was maybe 150 feet off to port and Ace still couldn’t tell what it was when it took to the air, heading right for the conning tower.
Ace shoved Lois, shouting, "DOWN!" and threw himself over her as the thing zoomed overhead and a metallic pinging filled the air as dozens of small objects hit the conning tower. The thing was gone, landing in the water on the other side of the sub. Excited questions were being shouted from inside the sub.
"Stay down there!" Ace ordered, reaching into one of the storage lockers for an M-16. He checked the clip and replaced it and scanned the sky, looking for the thing. "Make ready to dive!" Ace looked over at Lois. From somewhere she had produced a digital camera and was holding it as readily as Ace held his weapon. "You little fool! Get below! That’s an order!"
"Not until I get a picture of whatever the hell that was!" Lois snapped back. She thrust out a hand. "And look at what it was shooting at-"
The thing zoomed overhead again and Ace opened fire on it, twisting to avoid whatever it was shooting at him and they rattled around him as he stood up and finished emptying the clip into the circular shape that disappeared below the water. Lois was scrambling through the hatch and Ace followed, dropping the M-16 inside and dogging the hatch closed. He climbed down the ladder and leaned against it, wiping his sweaty forehead.
"What was it, Ace?" Prof asked. "A plane? It shot at you?"
"It shot at us all right but it wasn’t a plane," Lois said, sitting down at a console. "Damned if I know what it was. But this is what it was shooting at us." She held out her hand. Prof reached out and picked up several of the dozen objects in his hand. They were roughly triangular in shape and while they looked like bone, they felt like metal to Prof’s touch.
Prof looked up at Ace. "You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say these were teeth."
Ace nodded grimly. "You may be right. The second time that thing passed over me I saw something I didn’t expect to see. Threw my aim right off."
"What did you see, Ace?"
"Eyes. Two huge eyes in the center looking right at me. I don’t know what in God’s creation that thing was but it was alive."
"You can take my word for this: nothing like that has ever been found. It’s either an entirely new species or a bio-engineered one, artificially mutated from some existing ocean life form."
The Challengers were looking at a large plasma monitor screen on the bridge that was displaying Lois’s digital photo of the circular thing that had attacked them. Prof had examined the picture intently before giving his opinion and nobody doubted his word. There wasn’t much Prof didn’t know about Earth’s oceans and the creatures living in it.
The thing on the screen was perfectly round, with shiny, metallic looking skin. And directly in the center of the thing were two large round eyes that seemed to glare with angry menace.
"Where did those teeth come from?" Red wanted to know. "I don’t see a mouth. Just those freaky eyes."
Prof stepped closer to the monitor screen and pointed with his pinky along the outer edge of the thing. "I seem to see small regular openings all along the rim of the creature…here where it’s slightly darker. It could be that there’s a series of small mouths all along the rim."
"But spitting metal teeth?" Rocky said over his shoulder from the pilot’s seat. "Helluva defensive mechanism, Prof."
"And one that lends support to my theory about this being a product of genetic experimentation." Prof looked gravely at his teammates. "In searching for Red’s brother, we may have stumbled onto something a lot bigger that nobody was meant to find."
"Maybe it’s simply just some new form of marine life that’s never been seen before?" Lois offered. "The Atlantic Ocean’s a big place and deep. It’s impossible to know what’s down there."
"And you’re right, of course. But it’s my opinion that we’re dealing with an artificially created animal here with biomechanical qualities and that means that somebody created it and that somebody may know we’re here." Prof looked over at where Ace stood, running a hand along his crew cut as he stared intently at the screen. "What’s our next move, Ace?"
Ace jerked his chin in Red’s general direction. "Ask Red. This is his mission. It’s his call."
Everybody turned to look at Red, who was also staring at the screen. Slowly he said; "Nothing is more important to me than finding my brother so that remains our primary goal. But…" Red sighed. "We’ll keep our eyes open and if we see any more of those things or anything resembling it, I guess we’ll have to break off the search and investigate."
Lois pushed herself up from her chair. "And in the meantime I’ve got a new story to transmit!"
"I wish you’d hold off on that for a while, Lois." Red asked.
Lois frowned, her annoyance visible. "Now just hold on, mister. I’m a news reporter and this is NEWS! We’ve been attacked by a bio-engineered monster-"
"-that may have been created by the same person or persons who might be holding my brother or know what happened to him. You transmit that story and we’ll have all kinds of scientific expeditions charging down here and maybe scaring them off."
June laid a hand on Lois’s shoulder. "He’s right, Lois. You send that story now and it may interfere with our search. Surely you can hold off on sending it for a few more days. It’s not as if there’s another reporter here to scoop you."
Lois grinned ruefully and playfully punched June in the shoulder. To Red she said; "You’re right, Ryan. Sorry about that. It’s my reporter’s instinct to get a hot story out at soon as I can. Of course I’ll hold off."
"I hate like hell to interrupt you guys when everybody’s being so nicey-nicey but I got a blip." Rocky pointed to a small sonar screen on his console. "Check it out."
June dropped into a chair in front of the big sonar and keyed it into Rocky’s. The screen came alive and The Challengers crowded around the screen.
"What do you make of it, Prof?"
"Shit, but it’s big…" Prof muttered. "Can’t quite make out what it could be…it’s as if its form was shifting, changing." Prof looked over his shoulder at Rocky. "We set to dive, Rock?"
"Soon as Ace gave the order."
"Let’s go down and see if we can’t get a closer look at what that is." Prof turned to Red. "If that’s okay with you?"
Red nodded. "Sure. Take ‘er down, Rocky."
Ace walked over to the pilot’s chair. "I’ll take over for a while, Rocky."
Rocky grinned as he gave up the chair. "You just don’t like anybody else driving, that’s all."
The Jules Verne dropped easily into the pitch black depths and huge halogen searchlights on the conning tower and the nose came on, to provide illumination for the digital cameras that gave them a clear picture of the waters outside on the monitor screen. Lois nudged Prof and said; "got any statement for the press? Any idea of what that thing is?"
Prof shook his head. "None whatsoever. But we’ll find out soon enough. This sub can move pretty fast when it has to. June? How close are we to the-"
The entire sub suddenly jerked as if caught in a gigantic net and everybody grabbed onto something in order to keep his or her balance. The Jules Verne stopped its descent as Ace swiftly manipulated the controls. "Is everybody okay?" He yelled over his shoulder.
"We’re all fine, Ace." Corinna reported after a swift confirming look at the others. "How’s the sub?"
"Fine. All controls read normal. But SOMETHING hit us."
"Look at the screen!" Red shouted. They all turned to see something like grayish black transparent ooze that was covering the outside camera. "Something got us!"
As if to confirm this, the sub was jerked again, more violently this time. Ace snarled; "Time to put a stop to this." He flipped open a panel that covered the weapons console and activated the electric charge generator. They all heard a hum as the charge built up. Ace thumbed the CHARGE RELEASE button and the lights dimmed as 100,000 volts of electricity surged over the outer hull of the submarine. The sub was once more shaken as The Challengers held on for dear life. The lights came back on full strength and Red yelled, "Now that’s something you don’t see everyday!"
The object was cylindrical and in fact, greatly resembled a submarine itself. However, it was transparent and thanks to the high resolution of the digital cameras, they could all see organs sliding around inside of the thing. Several long tentacles protruded from the nose of the thing. Where the conning tower would have been was a tall knob of flesh with a dozen more tentacles with eyeballs, most of which were looking behind right at The Jules Verne as the thing sought the safety of the depths.
"Gonna tell us that you’ve never seen anything like that, either, right Prof?" Rocky demanded.
"That’s right. Don’t lose it, Ace!"
"I’m on it!" Ace said grimly as The Jules Verne resumed diving. The thing was fast, yes, but the Challenger sub was more than able to match its speed. As if realizing that it couldn’t outrun its pursuer, the thing abruptly changed direction, coming about and heading right for The Jules Verne.
"Y’know, I got me a sneaking suspicion that it’s gonna attack us," Rocky muttered. And he was correct. From the nose of the thing, two torpedo shaped objects streaked right at The Jules Verne.
"Hang on everybody, evasive maneuver coming up!" Ace turned the wheel as the two objects slid past the sub’s hull.
"Damn! I need to have a closer look at one of those torpedoes!" Prof headed out of the control room. "I’m going out in the mini sub and try and recover them!"
"I’ll go with you, Prof!" Red followed the taller man as Ace brought the sub back on course as the thing had taken advantage of the momentary distraction to escape pursuit. It was heading deeper into the ocean at a remarkable rate of descent. Ace banged on the wheel in frustration.
"Let it go, Ace. I’ve got a firm sonar lock on it. We can track it when Prof and Red get back."
Ace, June, Red and Rocky crowded around the table as Prof finished his examination. Lois was busy circling the object lying on the table and Corinna was at the helm. They had judged that the situation was too dangerous to leave the bridge unmanned so Corinna had volunteered to stay there. But she was kept in the loop by the simple means of leaving the intercom on so she could hear everything being said.
Characteristically, it was Rocky who had an appropriate comment: "THAT is one big honkin’ tooth."
The cylindrical object was the color of old bone and the surface was rough and nubbly to the touch. And while it looked metallic, it definitely felt like a tooth. And according to Prof, it WAS a tooth.
"Prof, it looks like a torpedo." Ace said patiently.
"So it does." Prof stripped off rubber gloves and dropped them in a wastebasket. "But I assure you that this object is made out of the same stuff as those pearly whites in your mouth. This is a tooth."
"But that thing fired it at us like it was a torpedo."
"It most certainly did. Whoever created that thing as well as the flying creature certainly knows his stuff. These creatures are masterpieces of bio-engineering."
Ace turned to Red. "I think we ought to radio The Sea Devils and consult with them on this. They may have run into something like this or at least give us some idea of who might be capable of creating things like these."
Red nodded. "Yeah…this is mad freaky…even for us. You think this could have anything to do with Tino’s disappearance?"
Ace said grimly, "You know me, Red. I’m not a believer in coincidence. I think if we find out where these creatures are coming from we’ll find your brother."
Corinna’s voice crackled from the intercom. "I think you’re about to get your wish, Ace! To the bridge, everybody! On the double!"
The Challengers charged from the laboratory, running through the narrow main corridor that ran the entire length of The Jules Verne until they were in the control room. Corinna was pointing at the monitor screen. "Our friends are back. And I think he brought his mother."
Indeed, the multi-eyed creature was back, along with a half dozen of the circular creatures. But the obscene behemoth accompanying them dwarfed them with its tremendous size. Roughly spherical in shape, its surface was scabbed and scaled with huge silvery-gray plates that glittered and reflected the harsh light from the submarine. The behemoth was easily three or four times the size of The Jules Verne as it came through the water right at the Challenger sub.
Ace’s voice reverberated through the submarine: "Corinna! Evasive maneuvers! The rest of you, battle stations!"
"What do you want me to do, Ace?" Lois said.
"Stay out of the way and pray we come out of this alive!"
NEXT ISSUE: What are these creatures attacking The Challengers? Where do they come from? And do they have anything to do with the disappearance of Tino Mannery? We’ll all find out together in "Voyage Into Fear!"