THE OHBS (1936)

SOURCES: "Labyrinth" (Amazing Stories, April 1936)

DESCRIPTION: “The animal, if it could be called such, appeared like a gigantic slug, fully half as large as one of the metal cubes comprising the body of a zorome. As the Queegs hauled it out of the depression, the machine men saw that the underside of the ohb was possessed of the same concentric rings that governed the movements of snakes and worms. From allappearance, the ohb was an invertebrate, presenting a pulpy, unprotected mass of sluggish motion...The machine men noticed that from time to time the smooth skins of the ohbs became overspread with a network of capillary brilliance, like wet punkwood in the dark. At such times, their antennae shivered perceptibly, and others of the creatures came close and gathered around, all intent upon a particular section of ground.” (“Labyrinth” by Neil R. Jones)

NOTES: The Ohbs are slug-like creatures on the planet of the Queegs who eat metal. They have stripped vast areas of the globe, creating deserts. They have also tunneled great labyrinths beneath the ground in their search for metal-rich ore. It is one of these tunnel systems the Zoromes get lost in in this story. The Queegs are the Ohbs only known predators, taking very few of the slugs in their hunts. The Ohbs possess no bones but have a cartiledge skeleton inside. Their skin lights up whenever they eat metal. Their two little antennae send out silent messages to all surrounding Ohbs when they find large caches of food. They have no intelligence, only a driving hunger for metal.

HISTORY: The Ohbs are like the metal-destroying ray guns of earlier stories, an attempt on the authors part to create new "dangers" for robots who are impervious to most physical harm. This story suffers from no real emotional point but there is a great scene where the Zoromes are trapped up a wall and the room is filled with slugs. A great bottleneck tale with no real purpose besides watching Zoromes get eaten by slugs.