The other passengers from the Poogai passed them, with hardly a glance at the thunder monster apparently lying on thin air only a few feet overhead.
“In the early days of maseni space travel,” Tesserax continued, peering into the vicious red eyes glaring down at them, “our people encountered a murderous alien race somewhat superior to our own. A galactic war ensued, and we were nearly defeated. The enemy, a race much like your mythical centaurs but far more violent, drove us to our home world and then landed here to claim complete victory and to exterminate our people. Strangely, however, none of these aliens could remain on the surface of our home world for more than a few minutes; they died in the most terrible agony. At first, it was thought that some bacterium or some trace gas in the home world atmosphere was extremely toxic to these invaders. But when they donned space suits and used special tanked air from their own world, they still crumpled up and died when they set foot on our soil. Only one of them lasted long at all, and he managed to hold on for eight long hours, raving about horrendous steel claws that were ripping up his insides—and great mad, red eyes staring relentlessly down at him, dark wings, many teeth…. Nothing more than the lunatic rantings of a creature driven mad by pain. However, over the thousands of years since then, the myth of the Protectors has grown and been nourished by the simpler people. Grown and nourished, in fact, until, now, we really have them.”
The Protector screamed and clawed the invisible shield more furiously than ever.
“But what was the real cause of those alien’s deaths?” Jessie asked.
“We never have learned that,” Tesserax said. “Currently, the most popular theory is that the solar and gravitational fields of our home world were in some way peculiarly deadly to this single alien race. As you’ve seen, many other races come and go, and are not bothered by the invisible killer. Something in the physiology of those centaurs made them highly susceptible to our geography, perhaps.”
“They lost the war, in the end?” Brutus asked.
“Of course,” Tesserax said. “We exterminated them.”
The Protector stood on its four powerful legs and began to jump up and down on the invisible shield, screaming, spitting, flailing at the air with its barbed tongue.
“Does he attack everyone who comes to your world?” the detective asked, watching for a crack in a barrier he couldn’t see to begin with.
“Well, it doesn’t have much choice,” Tesserax said. “It has to fulfill its mythical role, after all. It must attempt to destroy any alien which sets foot on maseni soil, since the myth doesn’t specify that it should attack only hostile aliens. There are three hundred Protectors, one in every spaceport on the planet, relentlessly bashing their brains out on these power shields that we’ve had to erect to contain them.”
“Don’t they ever learn that it’s no use? Don’t they understand that the barrier’s there all the time?” Helena asked.
“Oh, I suppose they learned that scores of years ago. But they can’t help themselves. The myth says attack: they attack.”
“Poor dears,” Helena said.
“Dumb sons of bitches,” Brutus said.
Tesserax said, “Oh, I wouldn’t feel any pity for them. The myth doesn’t specify any intelligence in a Protector, merely an ability to spot and destroy an alien. They really can’t think; they’re rather mindless constructs. No need to be sorry for their lot.” He looked away from the monster overhead and said, “Shall we go through customs and get out of here, so it can go back to its roost? It’s not harmful, but it does make a fearful screeching sound that gets on the nerves of the terminal employees.”
Five minutes later, having passed through customs without opening their luggage, they boarded a fluttercar limousine which was waiting for them outside the terminal. The passenger compartment of the car consisted of two extremely comfortable bench seats which faced each other across a good two yards of leg room. Tesserax and the hell hound sat at opposite ends of the front-facing bench, while Jessie and Helena sat close together on the rear-facing seat.